MP, chair of Party, spoke John Bloxam about the situ

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budget, are all part of a Militant master-plan for 'Marxist-Trotskyist" revolution.

In actual fact, the Militant Tendency are less than 14% of Labour councillors in Liverpool, and are by no means the most ardent oppositionists to the government's strategy, or to Kinnock's Pontius Pilate actions.

It reflects badly on some so-called left-wingers other Labour-controlled councils that they have swallowed. hook-linead-sinker. the media myth that the council is motiated by a desire for self-aggrandicement on de part of Militant and Derek Harton.

If the media sere meht. then de sEll aould not have esen Ee apport it has now gor. On the line Fat-ar unillors would not * 2L-TE ber future and that é Des Lies. on the line. The Aim: Sce Sterards Committee I I r cames small " • =* nave come ==n of the ZLNi : * = ::a Commun*7 - 4 * smarting 1 7: *** : decline in the greater numbers than before and give them a clear mandate to carry out the "illegal" budget strategy in defence of jobs and services.

It is up to the rest of the labour movement to clearly defend this mandate against the Tory government and Tory laws - and against those Labour leaders who are trying to undermine the heroic fight of Liverpool's labour movement.

Control of the council by Militant labore: editor Peter Taaff is a media myth. Only 14% of Labour councillors are Militant supporters.

ment now realise that there is no room for accommodation.

The only way we can defeat this Tory anti-union legislation, the only way we can force the government to retreat, is by positive united struggle on the part of the trade union movement.

I think the forces of the movement have gathered a bit more strength recently. Despite people resigning from their unions at GCHQ. the fact is that the rest of the movement suddenly woke up.

I think there should have been a more postive response. and an initiate immediately the government mad: ls arnouncement. There was :o0 much talking. and =: enough acton at the word go.

Should the action have included the workers at GCHQ itself?

• It's not for me to tell trade union leaders what to do, but let me put it this way. Had I been a trade union leader with my workers in that situation, I would have immediately urged strike action. I don't think anything else could have been done.

How do you see the situation inside the Labour Party?

The mood in the Party, clearly, is one of wanting unity. I think it's a mood of wanting to rally behind agreed policies. I don't think people want any and so on; and as far as the EEC is concerned, still a policy of saying let's get more Members of the European Parliament, let's ao what we can to get a bigger representation, let's do something about trying to change the Treaty of Rome from inside - and if we don't get that, in the last analysis. then we should come out.

Don't you think the feeling for unity in the movement can sometimes stifle debates and the fight for account- necessary ability?

When I say that there is a great mood for unity. what I mean is that people don't want to see the leaders of the Party doing as was done during the General Election. and conducting a campaign against the decisions of the movement.

But open discussion within the Party is absolutely fundamental.

I think it was Nye Bevan who once said that you can have unity but it can be the unity of a graveyard. If we got to that stage, then we'd have a monolithic type of organisation as they have in the Soviet Union, and there would be nothing democratic about it and nothing socialist about it.

Of course you continue to have the discussions inside the Party about policy, about greater democracy, and so on and so forth. But I think that the overriding thing at the moment is that the Party members say: 'For God's sake, don't let's hand things to the media so that they can seize on every argument we have and then use it against us as a But if we ever came to the stage where in the name of unity policies were distorted or changed or altered. that would not be a genuine unity. It would be a phony unity.

Do you think mandatory ection is under threat?

Well, I've read about in the newspapers, but I haven't had anybody come to me as chairman of the Party. Al! I can say is that at the Organisation Sub-Committee of the Labour Party National Executive| recently it was not raised, and at the end of the meeting the chairman of the Organisation Committee, Sam McCluskie, said: 'If anybody has got any idcas about wanting to change reselection, forget it' I'm assuming that Sam was just saying what he thought was the mood of the movement.

On the positive side, are nere any particular democratic ref ims that you think ought tr be pushed?

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ation in the labour move- ment