harsh monetarism of the Tories. at election time.
socialist society.
demonstrated this fact.
direct control of workers. necessary.
society in Britain today. ON SATURDAY 31 May the Labour Party has called a special conference to discuss what programme it should adopt as an alternative to the With Labour's electoral defeat still fresh in party members' minds, the left wing of the party has the initiative. Despite Jim Callaghan's attempts to turn the conference into a rally, it seems likely that the National Executive's programme 'Peace, Jobs, Freedom' will go through without opposition. (There will be no chance for amendment either from the left or the right!)
The Labour Party, despite a decline in the active participation of rank and file workers, re mains the mass political party of the working class. No other party has the affiliations of millions of trade unionists, nor can any other party count on receiving mass working class support Socialist Challenge has no confidence in the Labour Party. It is not a fighting political party that organises its members in struggle to take over the running of the country and build a It is a party of reform, not revolution, whose overriding aim is to win concessions within the capitalist system rather than overthrowing that system. The last Labour government graphically Socialist Challenge does not believe it is possi ble to reform the Labour Party. We believe that a new workers party must be built that is under the But we will still support all those Labour Party members who are fighting to democratise the Labour Party today, all those who are trying to commit the Labour Party to building a socialist society, all those who are arguing that the party should break with electoralism and begin to use its influence to mobilise workers to actively op pose the Tory government today. The more attive and aware Labour Party members become the more ob vious it will be that a new party is Here we print two articles. One from Tony Banks, a member of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee (a newly formed group in the Labour Party) and General Secretary of the Association of Broadcasting Staffs, who puts the case for a radical reform of the Labour Party. The second is from Alan Freeman who argues that while the new programme of the Labour Party is a step in the right direction it does not go far enough in elaborating a strategy for building a socialist handed down from the top, and least of all should they be made by ministers. or shadow spokes persons, sitting their backsides.
However, the formulation of and economic for the next election will not wait upon the setting up of workplace branches.
The extension. of public ownership, renationalisation and industrial democracy now under consideration within the party must involve the workers in those industries most concerned.
But the party has no machinery for consulting directly with shop stewards and combine committees and while policy discussions at national union alc vital they no substitute for shop-floor involveDespite all the obvious difficulties, the Labour Party must find a way round. The unions themselves could organising factory meetings and encouraging detailed discussions on Labour's emerging policies in their branches.
Political action groups like that set up by AUEW-TASS party members in the British Aircraft Corporation offer another • useful forum for consideration of industrial policies. , Rank-and-File The Labour Co-ordinating Committee intends to play its nart bi orgalising meetings of Labour Party rank-and-file trade unionists SOCHIIN policies for industry. The Labour Party cannot simply rely on a three-week election campaign to gain support for its policies, particularly working people most affected.
At that stage it is too late, and the best we can hope to do is win by default. This can never be a substitute for the commitment to socialist policies that can be expected from trade unionists who are actively involved in their formulation.
It must be Labour's aim to achieve such involvement because without it we seem likely to repeat past mistakes against a background of declining support among working people.
The above is an extract from Tony Banks' article which appears in the May 1980 issue of Labour Activist, the organ of he Labour Co-ordinating Commit-