"We have to put socialism back on the agenda"

Scan page 10

Left in the Labour Party? to do it. and file antivict level the There was What are the main issues confronting the left labour movement in the aftermath of the Election?

BENN discusses his view of the situation with Thomas and John Bloxam of Socialist Organiser extended interview. A further discussion - on the "FRIENDS and Husbands" is Margarethe von Trotta's third feature film, being preceded by "The German Sisters" and 'Sisters" (or 'The Balance of Happiness").

The titles alone give a clue to von Trotta's central concern: the investigation of personal relationships - particularly those between women — from a feminist standpoint. But here feminism lies not only in the evident sympathy with which the women are treated and conversely the distance and lack of sympathy with which the men are treated, but in the reduction of the narrative elements to the advantage of psychological study.

In "Friends and Husbands" Olga (Hanna Schygulla) meets Ruth (Angela Winkler), a morbidly withdrawn woman teetering on the edge of suicide. Olga, apparently strongly indehusband and, together with her ', 18 estranged irom nei son, lives with her lover.

As their friendship becomes stronger, Ruth's self confidence re-establishes itself. But it the contract with a female friend gives her strength, the traditional sources of support - parental family (mother) and marriage partner (husband) - conspire to keep her dependent. They want to save her from suicide because, in any case, they couldn't bear the guilt. But they need her dependence too.

The three men of the film -Olga's lover, her ex-husband a way that some German feminist films, like 'The All-round reduced Personality" (''Redupers"), have not been because of its relatively conventional cinematic style.

German feminist cinema found its first organisational expression when, in November 1973, Helke Sander and Claudia Alemann organised the First International Women's Film Workshop in West Berlin. The following year saw the establishment of the journal "frau und film" (woman and film) and not long after West Berlin women involved in film began a series of monthly gatherings at the "Arsenal" theatre.

While these women were a part of the "new film' movement in Germany, they saw that movement as dominated by males, male themes and imagery: The self-proclaimed Marxist film-makers not only ignored the home-and-family situation, but even ignored women in the workplace. The women turned their attention to the everyday life of women and to the tensions of the family.

The films of Fassbinder, Herzog and Syberberg - lionised as the leading figures of an important German film - absorbed some of the political influences of the radical German student movement, and the resurgence in Germany of Marxist theory, but they largely ignored women. Peter Handke's "A Left-handed Woman" and some films made by malefemale teams, including 'The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum" directed jointly by von Trotta and Volker Schlondorff, provided some of the few excepMT: What's your view of the state lat's your view of the state of the Left in the Labour Party? At rank and file activist level, the Left seems to be as strong as ever; but in terms of organisation we're much weaker than we were at the time of the Rank and File Mobilising Committee.

TB: The campaigns that took place during the last Labour government, came to the surface and led to victory on policy and on the democratic changes after 1979. I don't believe they can be reversed.

So in that sense the argument was carried by what is loosely called the Left.

There was the deputy leadership election, and then there were various attempts to bring people together which weren't entirely successful for a variety of reasons.

And then, of course, there was the common feeling, which I certainly shared, that we should put the election victory very high. From Bishops Stortford, 18 months ago, to the election, the Left - however you define it -threw itself very strongly into the campaign for victory.

We had the counter-attack on the Executive, over the expulsions and so on, but the Left did not allow itself to be diverted from campaigning.

The manifesto broadly reflected the policies that were in Labour's Programme, so from that point of view it was successful.

Now we come to a post-election period when people are reassessing where they stand.

What are the issues?

First: to defend the basic items in the programme. On that score there's not likely to be much of a change.

: Then, to consolidate the democratic changes. I think those cannot be reversed.

And then, having done that -and through the leadership election, of course, all these arguments come to the surface in some shape or form - to build for the future.

If you say, "Are there little will appear in a later issue.

basic difficulty.

But I think there is a much stronger foundation to build on than anyone would have dreamed possible four years ago, or maybe even two years ago. MT: As regards your own role in the election - of course you had to focus your' efforts on Bristol. But I think a lot of activists were disappointed that, for example, on unilateralism, everyone could hear what Jim Callaghan was saying, or Dennis Healey, or Michael Foot, or Neil Kinnock - but not what Tony Benn was saying...

TB: Oh yes they could. I was on Question Time the following night, and heard by six million people.

I said however important Mr Callaghan may be, the Labour policy is crystal clear - that we will have no Trident, no Polaris, and we will close American nuclear bases.

If you ask, was I used by the Party machine, the answer is that I wasn't. But in terms of clarity of exposition of the policy - I could not have been clearer, and it was said to the largest possible audience at very great length.

I think what you're maybe scratching at is the idea that I should have attacked Jim Callaghan during the election. But I don't believe in, that. The situation would not have been assisted by diverting ourselves from the main question, which was to get across the policy and reveal what the government was doing.

in the TONY Martin in this EEC -Callaghan across with such clarity as you could what we were saying - and that it was a minimum programme, which is what I put in my election address.

Of course, the media do determine, in a sense, who plays a prominent part. If they don't report what someone says, then that person is alleged not to have played a prominent part.

MT: On one aspect of policy = on economic policy, the policy for jobs - a very wide range of opinion, irom Roy Hattersley. through Neil Kinnock, to Ken Livingstone and to ourseives, has said that the policy did not convince voters. we're not even we're not to do it.

There a huge credibility problem.

Looking at it more broadly, from 1959, when the last Tory landslide occurred, right up to 1979 - and maybe you could argue, in terms of the Parliamentary leadership, right up to the election in June - there had been major economic concessions to monetarism, political concessions in terms of revisionism generally and putting the blame on the trade unions, defence and foreign policy concessions including the fact that we supported the Government during the Falklands War, and a total failure to resolve the relationship between the PLP and the Party.

These four weaknesses exposed us during the election.

I think the support for the Falklands War in 1982 by the Opposition and the majority of the National. Executive Committee struck a fatal blow at our credibility as peacemakers and people who didn't believe in using force to settle international disputes.

But I'm not anxious to find individual scapegoats, because my opinion is that we have got to build on the policy, and develop it, not run away from it. If you run away from it, no-one will ever believe you in a future election.

MT: How, then, do you think the economic policy should be developed?

TB: We've got to look forward and see what is going to happen over the next four years.

If we leave aside the overhanging world banking crisis, and look simply at the rise of unemployment, the sense of hopelessness, the reduction of the dole, the cuts in public services, and privatisation, we can see what the battles are going to be. And I think the first task of the Labour Party and the labour movement is to protect our own people as best they can - extra-parliamentary activity, raising it in the House, trade union activity, political education,