[TONY Benn's return to Parliament will give the…]

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TONY Benn's return to Parliament will give the Left profile and open opportunities to reverse its retreat.

Since June 1983 much of the Left has back-pedalled and decayed. At last year's Labour Party annual conference lots of left-wing activists were trying desperately hard to forget all they knew about Neil Kinnock and to believe in Their vision narrowed down to preserving the Labour status quo and stopping the right wing doing anything too Benn can and should change that. He Campaign Group of left Labour MPs a farce, linked up with constituency Labour Bat at the moment Benn is singing hymns from the new religion of faith in the existing leadership. Speaking shortly before the Chesterfield result was declared, he talked bad Labour winning the next election and putting Neil Gaock into no. 10 Downing St, Roy Hattersley (with his per, ior incomes policy?) into no.11, and Denis Healey " bis sapport for nuclear weapons?) into the Foreign He bas also harked back to Clement Attlee -Was Benn's fight against Healey for the deputy leaderdip of the Labour Party all a mistake, then? Or Eric Heter's fight against Kinnock for the leadership?

Unity in action against the Tories is one thing. Rallying polically to the banner of Kinnock and Hattersley is him as a left-wing leader.

bad.

could make the real organising Party and trade Son activists.

Tompromise leader — as a model.

der.

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TONY Benn, according to the Liberal who fought against him, "stands at the head of screaming mobs of Trotskyists. Let the people of Chesterfield beware"

But despite the Liberals' sub-political campaign against him, Benn polled more votes than his right-wing predecessor Eric Varley, a local man of Chesterfield.

As Benn said, his victory was "an important trigger in the build-up of confidence in the Labour The media did all they could to make Chesterfield another Bermondsey. From day one they emphasised Labour voters switching because of Benn.

'Militant' canvassers, Peter Tatchell coming to help, Benn speaking at the Broad Lefts conferen ce in Sheffield on March 24 - they tried to make a scandal from every opportunity.

But Chesterfield was different from Bermondsey for several reasons.

First, the Labour right wing did not dare knife Benn as they had knifed Peter Tatchell. It must have caused Roy Hattersley agonies to sit beaming on a platform beside Tony Benn, but he had to do it.

Chesterfield was proof that witch-hunts lose elections - laying off the inner-party witch-hunts wins them.

Second, as Benn said, Chesterfield showed that "the passionate advocacy UNEMPLOYED Chestenhild ANUA 1158 4 HARRIS:

JO of socialism and the policies of our party is a way of winning" • Benn's eloquence and energy; and his campaign asking working class people to join an ongoing historic struggle rather than just to put crosses on a ballot paper, won votes.

The third factor in Chesterfield was the commitment and enthusiasm of hundreds of Labour activists who came to the town to help.

The whole campaign was a ringing practical answer to all the tedious, tortuous arguments from Eric Hobsbawm and his sort. They say that Labour can never win elections without shifting its IN HIS first speech after returning to Parliament on March 6, Tony Benn said:

"The Chancellor cannot convince people that we are a poor country. What people want and what they are entitled to expect from any government is the meeting of their minimum requirements — for jobs, for homes, for proper health care, for proper education and for dignity in retirement.

This is a Government backed by capital helping capital to hammer labour. It is a government supported by the wealthy to tax the poor.

Every pensioner in Chesterfield who buys 10 cigarettes is helping to finance the public schools through the assisted places scheme.

Government policy is carried through deliberately by the use of fear. Does the House imagine that people at work are not terrified that the unemployed will be used to replace them if they seek to maintain their own living standards or working conditions?

no.169 policies to the centre and/or allying with the Alliance.

Chesterfield showed how they can be prover wrong.

Time and again the naked use of fear by employers is being used to hold people down. That is the policy.

The Government says it is rolling back the frontiers of the state. It is advancing the frontiers of the state, crushing local democracy and the trade union movement.

Britain needs a fresh start, to plan the resources to rebuild its industrial base, to extend the public sector and the public services.

In 1945 the British people turned their backs on the brutality and divisiveness of mass unemployment that had been implemented by a government just like this one in the 1930s.

Under Clement Attlee they made a start in turning away from those policies. It will not be long before the present Leader of the Opposition resumes the tasks that Attlee began, and the present Government will be swept into the dustbin of history"

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•Youth: fighting againsti RACISM, CUTS, THE COURTS, CHEAP LABOUR No racists here RANEES opS Court threat to student union Socialist Organiser no. 169 March 8 1984 Page 4 Halifax:

BLACK and white youth in Halifax joined together last Wednesday to disrupt a council meeting, in protest over a racialist outburst by a Tory councillor.

At the previous meeting, during a discussion about aid to an Asian community advice centre, Tory councillor Ron Thrower, had shouted "Send 'em back". • He refused to apologise or withdraw the remark and the Tory group of councillors and both Tory MPs in Calderdale would not condemn Councillor Thrower.

A week later, Thrower stated he was quoting Enoch Powell.

Halifax LPYS decided to picket the next council meeting in protest, calling for Councillor Thrower's resig nation from the council. Unfortunately he managed to By lan McCondach managed to get into the public gallery and sent a delegation to the Labour mayor asking for the matter of the racist councillor to be raised. However, he refused this, saying it was not on the agenda.

The demonstrators were by now extremely angry and had started chanting and jeering, as the meeting progressed. The mayor again refused to discuss the matter and threatened to have us thrown out. By now the public gallery was in uproar and were directing their abuse at Councillor Thrower himself, who by then was looking more than a little frightened and agitated.

The Labour mayor then adjourned the meeting and went to fetch the police. We continued chanting for about Before leaving, though, we made it clear in no uncertain terms to Councillor Thrower

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