THE manifesto of the Labour Party and threatens a walkout from the party. It is an event of great importance British politics.
The capitalist crisis has inevitably put immense pressures on the traditional right-wing Labour solutions.
More and more of the party's rank and file see the need for bold socialist policies, and understand that to get these policies adopted and put into practice by a Labour government means a complete democratisation of the party, The combination of the demand for socialist policies and democratic reform is what worries the ahom right. They fear that the party might adopt a radical manifesto, change the rules for electing the leader, and endorse mandatory reselection.
combination of measures would be an immense threat, to the stranglehold which the Labour right has kept on the parliamentary party, which has enabled it, year after year, to ignore policies formulated at the party conference.
Hence the anguished hence the systematic use bourgeois press to attack Tony Benn (as if the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror were not sufficient in regard); hence the wild denunciations taking Labour Party; hence the resign and form a new party.
That these are real worries for the right is beyond chances of a clean sweep for the left in October appears somewhat remote at the present time.
The real powers to decide rest in the hands of the trade bureaucrats. The block vote of the unions will determine the future of the Labour Party. It is true that the growth of the public sector unions has won the left some new allies, but the T&GWU and the AUEW will still decide the crucial questions.
Callaghan, on his part, is confident that the unions will back some shoddy compromise by which he will defeat attempts to drastically alter the process of electing a new leader. In Britain: 12 months £12.50;
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Cheques. Pos and money oraers snould be maci Williams, in these three squeals;
of the this OYCL threat to but the successor. union place indicates prevent democratic reforms changes seats in Parliament.
party.
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Comolete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328 Upper Street, London N1 Photo: LAURIE SPARRAM such an eventuality he may well resign and try and get Healey elected as his All this is speculative, but the very fact that such discussions are taking hysteria engendered by the right is designed to within the party, because they fear that such ultimately lose them their Secondly, they are utterly opposed to any radical re-orientation of the The main inspiration of the trio is the former deputy leader of the party, -An open letter to their fellow members of the Labour Party From David Owen, William Rodgers and Shirley Williams me workonces capitalism. the '50s and '60s.
They front benches, Today put in crisis.
Answer programme measures.
the past.
the game. they and simple. their careers leaderships.
The most revealing aspect of the 'Gang of 3' manifesto, which shows the utter political bankruptcy of the Labour right, is its attack on the view that there is a crisis of welfare Rogers-Williams-Owen still live in world of Butsekellism. They believe that a solution to Britain's problems can be found by moderate solutions, which were appropriate to the period of economic boom in the yearn for the period relative consensus between the two without 'extremist' solutions of either left or right.
these views totally anachronistic. Thatcher's Tories were power by the bourgeoisie precisely because they have a bold programme of anti-working class measures to start to deal with the The cuts, unemployment, and the rest are all part of that programme The only answer to this Tory offensive is for Labour to adopt its own of radical socialist the 'realistic answer. The "Gang of 3' are living in Labour Party led by Healey/Peter Shore will not defeat Thatcher, either on the streets or at the polls. A left victory would undoubtedly shake the ruling class and even provoke it to change the rules of That would not be a bad thing for it would stress the fundamental primacy of politics and class struggle in the years that lie ahead.
The threat of Williams, Kdgers, and Owen to walk out of the party more than anything shows their true colours. When it comes down to it, are bourgeois politicians pure In the past they have been relatively at home in the Labour Party; but they would be equally at home in the Democratic Party or in some of the European liberal parties.
If the Labour Party ceases to be a useful tool for their policies - or they will have no qualms about following the example of Ramsey MacDonald - out of the Labour Party to greener pastures. Such a development could only help to clarify the reality of their politics.
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Owen and Rodgers, published in the Guardian and the Daily Mir- ror, attacks the move to the left in