Mist over Chesterfield?
Socialist Organiser1984 1984-03-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 11 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 11
Victory day for Benn: a "tame return to Parliament"? NOW the Chesterfield by-election is safely won, perhaps it's time to consider how Socialist Organiser covered Benn's performance.
I personally felt we didn't adequatel! cover what the campaign showed about the Labour left. It was as it a red mist descended over people's eyes at the mention of the name Tony Benn, including ours perhaps.
We published, without remark, pictures of Benn holding hands with the Welsh windbag himself, in a gesture of "unity" . We published uncritically, Tony Benn's election addresses in two different editions.
The highpoint of all this 'parliamentary cretinism" was seeing lony Benn singing 'My Old Man" in a pub with Denis Healy, on the TV, in a desperate attempt to garner votes.
We have a duy to tell the tru h to workers: can we honestly say that in terms of concrete gains, this by-election was a triumph for the left?
Of course we'll go on fighting, but when elements of the left desert the fight, we should say so.
Perhaps Benn's tame return to Parliament can allow us to say that "Bennism" if not dead, is a declining force for left wing struggles within the RICHARD BAYLEY, York. 28 Middle Lane, London N8. No longer than 400 words please: