In the middle of the road?

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The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy meets over the coming weekend for its three-part Annual General Meeting: January 21 in London, January 28 in Birmingham, and February 4 in Glasgow. John O'Mahony looks at the I fighting in the Labour movement for lesbian ¡ To join or affiliate, write to Chris Richardson, 21 ¡ Devonshire Promenade, Lenton, Nottingham NG7 2DS. £5 for individuals, or for affiliated organi ¡ tions, per 1,000 members. £2 for low-waged indivi- "A favourable opportunity has occurred Seize it and the whole ¿duals. El for unwaged. Add 50p if you want the world will belong to the workers. If you let it pass, there may not be issues.

THE CHOICE before the left wing of the Labour Party now is this.

Either to continue the fight for a Labour Party which has really broken with its recent past — with the record and politics of Wilson, Healey, Callaghan and Or, in response to setbacks like the June election, to run scared and settle for a Labour Party which has 'credibility' in the polls under 'Nice Mr Kinnock' It is claimed for the second course that it can bring unity. But it would be unity on the basis of Kinnock's fudging, in essence around right-wing politics. It would mean a Labour Party which remains politically hollow, and therefore carries with its 'unity' and 'credibility' the certainty that the next Labour government will be like the last.

Most of the Left has chosen to run scared, advocating the abandonment of attempts to reform the Labour Party, or even abandoning the attempt to work the reforms decided by Labour Party conference in 1980-1.

The Labour millennium has come, and Kinnock is riding on a cloud of glory towards Downing Street in four years time!

The Labour Coordinating Committee, which was formed to spearhead the Left in 1979, has turned itself into a self-appointed NCO corps for Kinnock and Kinnockism.

The CLPD, whose 1984 AGM takes place over three weekends from January 21 to Februat 4. occupies an ambiguous aL ambivalent position.

Or the one hand is leadership is suerly pessimisuc and defeatit They thick they view reality =it oldered. unsentimental zais isome of them Fould a!. Marris realism i.

E fact they exaggerate and Irify everything negative EG regressive in the labour movement now. After their vicsorT over the CLPD left at last rear's AGM, they have gone a fair way towards equipping the CLPD with much of the psychology and many of the structures of the 'ultra-left sects' which Vladimir Derer insistently denounces.

On the other hand the leaders of the CLPD are not fools. They fought a long fight for democratie reform, and they know very well that that fight is not finished yet. They know that the gains of 1980-1 can be reversed or co-opted to serve the present Kinnock-faced version of Lab000000 Neil Kinnock our's 'Old Corruption' against which they fought for so long.

They know that we have not gained even our immediate goal in the fight that convulsed the Labour Party after the 1979 election - rank and file control over the ner Labour government. so that 'never again' will we have to stomach a Wilson/Callaghan style Labour government disgracing the name of the labour movement.

Unlike the student-broad-lefttrained small-souled lads and lasses of the Labour Coordinating Committee, they are not pixilated by personal hopes and fantasies about the career prospects which could reward fervent Kinnockism.

The result is that the CLPD leaders stand in the middle of the road. For example, the LCC says: Make peace in the Labour Party under Kinnock and on Kinnock's terms.

The CLPD executive says:

make peace, compromise, retreat. They now have relations of friendly cooperation unknown since the LCC broke from the united-left Rank and File Mobilising Committee in 1981. Yet the agreement is only apparent.

The LCC has settled for the Kinnockite status quo as their ultimate objective - it is the immediate annexe to their Nirvana, whose doors will open. they think, after the nex:

The CLPD leaders, in contrast. sincerely think that they are maxing clever and tactical in the interests of finally making it possible to go beyond Kinnockism.

Formally cordial, the CLPDLCC relationship is theretore uneasy. The 'Draft Executive statement to the AGM' contains the following, wrapped up in the Executive's pessimism and willingness (they think 'for now' only) to retreat and preach unity under Kinnock.

'Whilst the Party is in opposition, priorities must shift to make the defeat of the present government our prime objective. Nevertheless a continuation of efforts to make accountability a reality, albeit under new and more difficult conditions, remains as important as ever.

There are some who claim that 'many of CLPD's original aims have been won'. This is not only factually wrong because mandatory reselection and the electora college have yet to become part of the Party's routine procedure, but it also fails to recognise how precarious are these gains.

Were the struggle for accoun tability to be now abandoned, what has so far been achieved would overnight be turned into another meaningless 'democratic' ornament with which the Labour Party from time to time a second for a century"

(Gregory Zinoviev, adorns itself. The consequence of such a course for the future of the Party would be catastrophic...

CLPD faces an uphill struggle. Nearly all its sometime allies have abandoned the efforts to ensure the commitment of future Labour governments to Party policies.

They argue that the Party should turn its attention solely to (the magic formula) 'campaigning'. The various reasons given for this — that the much-needed constitutional reforms have now been achieved, that policies are more important, that Party Unity is possible only if constitutional reforms are given up -these reasons among to little more than an attempt to justify a virtual capitulation to the status quo.

The CLPD Executive accepts that unity must be the Labour Party's first priority. It recognises the important of Labour going to the country with a programme of economic reconstruction which will break with the past policies which amounted to little more than managing the capitalist status quo, but CLPD Executive also recognises that a programme embodying a radical alternative economic strategy will remain a dead letter so long as the Party is not in a position to ensure that it is carried out' Most of this is true and should be central in determining the attitude of socialists right now.

What is lacking is an understanding that the real logic of accepting unity under Kinnock serves, and must serve, the purpose of the LCC. It cannot serve the purpose Vladimir Derer thinks he serves.

It took the bitter experience of the Labour governments of the 1960s and '70s to generate the anger, disillusionment and determination which exploded after the 1979 general election. If a refurbished (Kinnockite) version of the old WilsonCallaghan Labour Party establishment - armed now with more abundant left phrases and possessing a formally more democratic set of rules - consolidates itself now, then the situation may not 'open' again for a very long time.

Perhaps not until after the bitter experience of another Labour government like those of the past.

Knuckle It is not necessary for the serious Left to knuckle under to the new Labour status quo in the interests of fighting the Tories. On the contrary: to knuckle under is the worst way of mobilising the labour movement to fight the Tories.

Kinnock and his supporters are as incapable of starting a serious fight against the Tories as they would be of providing a serious governmental alternative to the Tories. Yet the CLPD executive goes along with the LCC's unity propaganda.

Of course we need unity against the Tories and we should, when appropriate, seek it even with Dennis Healey. But more than that, we need a regenerated labour movement able to offer a real alternative to the Tories - and we can't hope to get that in 'unity' with KinIndustrial Workers of the World [USA] in January 1919] nock any more than we could get it in unity with Dennis Healey.

We must fight on two fronts - against the Tories, even under the leadership of Neil Kinnock; and against the right and Kinnockites, in unity with all serious socialists in the Labour Party and trade unions.

The logic of defeatism and pessimism pushes Derer and his friends towards the dishonest unity-mongering of the Labour delegates from 13 local Socialist Organiser groups attended last Saturday's delegate meeting.

It was the first meeting since last October's AGM decided to schedule delegate meetings on a three-monthly basis to ensure better attendance and preparation through the local groups, and it was an improvement on past meetings.

The main discussions dealt with items first introduced at the AGM, especially the Tory attack on local government and Socialist Organiser supporters' council work.

Martin Thomas's paper (serialised in Socialist Organiser last December) provided the focus for the councils discussion. All comrades agreed with his basic analysis, but differences emerged about the conclusions to be drawn about the work of revolutionary socialists on councils.

Yes, Socialist Organiser supporters need to be cautious and aware of the need for a political base and integration into a SO group. But many comrades felt that Martin Thomas's document was too negative and sectarian.

Each area of work still had to be dealt with specifically. Council positions had to be recognised as very important for our work to remove the right wing - and could also be of tremendous help in mobilising local workers against the Tory government.

The meeting agreed at the end to continue the discussion at the next delegate meeting and to circulate papers written by Arthur. Bough and Garth Frankland. A meeting for Socialist Organiser councillors will Campaign Labour Pa Democrac secretary Vladimir Derer Coordinating Committee.

The logic of their commitment to the goal of a better Labour Party pushes them into disguised polemic with everything the LCC and Kinnock now stand for.

As a result they stagger about in the middle of the road, with their face to the right, where the LCC is now rooted.

The CLPD should return to its proper place - on the left hand side of the road. be organised.

The other discussion was on the Middle East. A slightly amended version of the resolution submitted to the AGM by the Stockport group was agreed unanimously. An addition underlined the importance of working with the Palestine Solidarity Committee, as well as building the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine.

That socialists need a programme to unite Jewish and Arab workers was accepted by everyone. The central problem for such a programme — how? - came up in a discussion about whether we should use the name 'Israel' or talk only about 'occupied Palestine' An amendment supporting the latter view fell on a tied vote. It was agreed that discussion should continue in the groups.

The meeting heard reports on the paper and on SO's campaign to recall the TUC. There were also disturbing reports of witch-hunts against SÓ in both the Union of Communication Workers and Stoke-on-Trent Labour One of the most important items on the agenda was SO finance. Delegates agreed that an immediate stepping-up of efforts to raise funds for SO was a life-or-death matter for the paper and its activities. The making of T-shirts in Basingstoke was reported as an example of what could be done.

One comrade raised the possibility of increasing the price of Socialist Organiser and/or raising supporters' contributions. It was agreed that any such proposals should be put to local groups first.

The next meeting will be on Saturday April 14, in Nottingham.

Published by Socialist Forum for Southern Africa Solidarity.

Available fat 90p plus 20p post) c/o SO, 28 Middle Lane, London N8. 90p Bob Fine

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Socialist Organiser no.162 January 19 1984 Page 5 = Women workers in Sri Li ACROSS the world, and especially in South Last Asia, there are about 350 to 400 'free tradę zones'. These zones are areas, usually physically fenced off, near docks and airports, where multinationals can use local cheap labour to produce for export free from taxes, duties, and restrictions on imports, on foreign ownership of enterprise, or on remittance of profits.

They began in the mid-'60s, and boomed in the '70s. Now the Tories plan to set up free trade zones in Britain, and the Stalinist rulers of Hungary plan a FTZ there.

Throughout South East Asia, 70% or more of the work-

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