"Foot back in charge as Benn is routed", ran the frontpage headline in the Guardian, when it was announced that Healey had just sneaked the deputy leadership.
Such jubilation in the capitalist press mounted, the next day, when leading left-wingers were ousted from the NEC in favour of right-wing candidates, giving Foot an overall majority there.
Such events were clearly seen as the first steps in an attempt to stop the leftward drift in the party which has led it to adopt policies increasingly at odds with the traditional pro-capitalist ones of its misleaders.
REALITY The reality of the conference is somewhat different. Although Benn narrowly missed the deputy leadership, the 49.5 per cent of the vote chalked up for him represented a major step forward in the struggle for socialist policies in the party.
The achievement is even more significant if one considers the campaign of lies, slander and backstage manoeuvering mounted against him in the previous months.
Not only had Foot served notice that it would be impossible to work with Benn as deputy leader. Others, portraying his supporters as "bully boys", had threatened to form an independent PLP if he was elected and yet others had hinted that they would join the renegades in the SDP Even sections of the spineless Tribunite left, such as Joan Lester and Neil Kinnock joined in the chorus against Benn. Promoting Silkin to split the left vote, they finally abstained in the second ballot to ensure the right-wing candidate, Healey, sneaked past the post.
SLANDER The manoeuvres and intimidation by Labour's right-wing bureaucrats were backed to the hilt by their friends in the Tory press who unanimously swung in behind Healey.
Not only did they open their pages to the Labour right - giving them unlimited space to present their case launched an unprecedented personal campaign of lies and slander against Tony Benn.
As the latter pointed out, rarely has a Labour politician had to withstand such a barrage of abuse directed against him from papers from the Sun to the Guardian. This reached its climax with reports that Bennite supporters were deliberately mounting a campaign to prevent Healey's right to free speech.
RADICALISATION Despite all these pressures, however, the fact that Benn was able to chalk up almost 50 per cent of the vote was a major step forward for the left. It showed that there is growing support, in the grassroots of the unions and CLPs, for radical policies to confront the Thatcher attacks.
This was reflected, above all, in the policy decisions taken at Brighton. Despite the jubilation in the capitalist press, the fact is that the radical policies on which Benn partially stood - unilateral disarmament, withdrawal from the EEC, opposition to all forms of wage restraint etc - were passed by an overwhelming majority.
More than that, there are signs that - but they the radicalisation is deepening. The de- FEAR bate on Northern Ireland is a case in point. Despite its limited nature, for the first time in over 50 years, a Labour conference has broken its bi-partisan approach with the Tories and come out, however, meekly, in favour of a united Ireland.
Price 15 p It is the mass support behind the policies Benn supports - and for democratic procedures to ensure they are implemented - which clearly worries big business continued on page 3
The explosion of young workers Socialist Action
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Action For a Class Struggle Left Wing in the Labour Movement
CUBA Vol.4 No. 6 October 198l