Brighton '83: what they thought ERIC HEFFER My result was not so bad

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'Casting 1¼ million votes just one direction doesn't really reflect the views of the union membership' have got to have majority and but what we have to do is make the same time being there putting minority votes cast on real basic certain the issues are there all the our own point of view.

Sometimes you have to go sharpen, the situation could really reflect the views of the with the mood and at other times change almost overnight in certain it is possible to move things in our circumstances and we have to direction. Al the moment I think make sure that we are there and we've got to accept the fact that we know what we are doing.

Devonshire Promenade, Lenton, Nottingham NG7 2DS. £5 for individuals, or for affiliated organisations, per 1000 members. £2 for low-waged individuals. £1 for unwaged. Add 50p if you want the I think there is a great mood amongst the delegates that they mant a unified fight now against the Tories. But they also do not mant any backsliding on basic policy. I think they feel that they have now got to give the new leadership every support, providing, of course, that they are carrying out those policies.

There is a general feeling that having been really battered at the polls, that there has got to be a fightback.

I would have thought too that there is a certain mood of uneasiness in the Party and that may develop but summing up I'd say this has been a week where the Labour Party has tried to regroup itself.

We on the left of the Party have to admit that things haven't gone entirely the way we wanted them to go otherwise I would now be leader, and other things would have happened, but we now must ourselves take stock.

We should avoid rushing into making quick statements but really take stock, think about what is the way for us on left to proceed in the future.

We have to start from a recognition that the left has been pushed back at this conference, and many of the things that the left wanted to do have certainly been overwhelmingly defeated.

If however we proceed on the project we have in mind for a mass campaigning party, we would have to take up the themes which were there in Neil Kinnock's speech, other speeches, in my own speech, in which I said we need to be carrying out both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary action in fighting for our policies on defence, the NHS, against the cuts, supporting workers' struggles, against the witch-hunt in industry and so on.

We need to look very carefully at the best way we can do that without appearing to be in conflict with the Party, but being the sharp edge of the campaign.

The Executive has moved slightly to the left and I would think that the mood amongst the new Executive is that it is time we stopped this witch-hunting business. I don't think there's going to be any great demand for a further extension of the witch-hunt.

If there is, then without any shadow of a doubt we have to oppose it, and we have to find ways and means over the next period of trying to get back into the Party those who have been expelled, and those who have not been allowed in.

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The NEC knows that if they were to attempt further expulsions we would be back into the old arguments instead of fighting the Tories and they would be responsible for it.

My result in the leadership contest was not as bad as Michael Meacher's because it was quite clear from the word go that I wasn't going to win and so some people who had all the sympathy in the world for the policies that I and my colleagues were putting forward, were tempted by the arguments over the age gap and the need to step over a generation. The result was not as bad as some people are saying. In the constituencies there was more support reflected in the actual votes.

Meacher result

The Meacher result was a bit more serious because he was actually defeated in the constituencies by Hattersley. I think that is something we have to take on board. We must have more serious educational programmes of a socialist kind, so that when candidates supporting socialist policies are standing they almost automatically get the support of the constituencies.

It was clear in the course of the campaign that Michael Meacher was not coming out for me and was tending to distance himself and give the impression that he was really the running mate of Neil Kinnock. That probably did have some effect on the campaign.

Some people also felt that he wasn't being totally forthright. If you say where you stand and are defeated, people will still respect you.

We have to be careful not to give the impression that because the left has been pushed back at this conference we are suffering sour grapes and that we are now going to turn our venom onto the new leadership.

Whether we like it or not they are the leadership and we now have to play our full part in the defining of policy and make sure that the policy is moving in the direction that we want it to go, and that there is no backsliding.

We have to play a very positive and constructive role at the present time, while clearly stating where we stand and the principles on which we stand.

Sooner or later there have got to be discussions within the trade unions about the actual views of the members being reflected more accurately at conference than they actually are. That is why we issues. Casting. 1¼ million votes time. just in. one direction doesn't membership.

I think the mood in will be rather similar to that in the constituencies for a period, we have to go with that mood, at As the political situation does Audrey Wise

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