has to adopt policies that meet the situation here. This means a totally new economic strategy. I would suggest the following measures are needed:
• A series of selective import controls. - Measures to be taken that ensure a rigid control over the outflow of capital. - The taking over of the portfolio of firms' foreign assets by the Government.
• The taking into public ownership of the banks, insurance companies and the finance houses as soon as possible - and in the meantime an Act for control of them.
This latter step would provide the means to extend public ownership and enable us to plan the economy We would also need a crash programme to deal with unemployment. This would mean extending and increasing expenditure in the public sector, in construction, and in other fields, rather than cutting expenditure.
A socialist policy now, not in 20 years time, is the only way to deal with the crisis.
•What is your attitude to any incomes policy and to the Jack Jones proposals to the TUC?
I take the view that workers fighting for higher wages to defend and improve their living standards under capitalism have every right to do so. The Jack Jones proposal is one of many under discussion in the TUC.
I would not presume to tell trade unionists to stop fighting for higher wages. If I was still on the shop floor I would be helping in that fight.
• What is your attitude to the Social Contract?
I believe in a Socialist Contract, not just a Social Contract. Until we have really extended public ownership, introduced higher taxes for the rich, and made society much more egalitarian - in other words, until we have changed the class nature of our society - you cannot talk seriously about planning wages.
• What do you think will happen at the Labour Party conference this year?
The rank and file of the Labour Party will have There is a deep feeling of having been cheated and even cuts in public expenditure then the bitterness of the rank and file will have grown even more.
So 1 think that this could be both a momentous and possibly a very stormy conference.
• Do you think that the left could stay in the Government in view of its policies?
I personally could not stay in the Government - although that is a decision for each individMy disillusionment started on the question of Chile. I realised some people spoke one way in Opposition but it was another matter altogether to have those policies in Government.
I have absolutely no regrets about being sacked from the Government. Inside the Government if you are a left-wing member you are muted and become little else but an office boy.
• Do you think the left should organise, and if so how?
The campaign for socialist policies has to be taken up not just as Tribune does in Parliament but also throughout the entire country We need a series of great meetings in the cities and the towns and in all the constituencies.
It means that we in the Tribune Group have to strengthen our ties with the trade union members at national, local, district and at shop floor level.
As MPs we are only as strong as the mass movement outside, and we need their support and backing.
I think that the Tribune Group must not simply react to issues - important as that may be - but it also has to develop policies which can win wide support. That is why the Tribune Group has now issued its second policy statement on the measures which it believes are necessary to deal with the economic situation.
•What do you think Marxists outside the Labour Party should do?
They should join the Labour Party without hesitation. I have always paid the political levy to the Labour Party, but at one time I worked outside the Labour Party and tried to build a new revolutionary socialist party. Ibelieve this was wrong. Groups cannot join the Labour Party as such, but individuals can WEEKLY The views of Eric Heffer are important in showing both how far, and within what limits, at least some members of the Tribune group are prepared to go in opposition to Wilson's policies. On the question of pubne expenarture cuts and mcomes poncy, Enoun does now more or less say that it would vote against any such legislation. Naturally any such vote would be a step forward for the workers' movement - although the fact that the Tribune members voted for a Budget which already contained swingeing public expenditure euts makes us sceptical that when it comes to the crunch Tribune will match their words with votes But if we assume for the moment that Tribune will actually vote against such moves, would that constitute an adequate reply to the crisis? The answer to this is obviously NO. Firstly the Labour left is placed on the opposite side to the interests of the working class by its refusal to condemn the Social Contract and the Jack Jones wage cutting plan. Without a campaign against this, which is just as dangerous as any social expenditure cuts, the Labour left is not merely paralysed in the struggle against Wilson but is actually refusing to oppose a policy which means drastic cuts in the standard of living of the working class.
Secondly, the economic proposals Tribune itself puts torward are not an answer to the problems con fronting the working class.
NO PLAN Thirdly, Tribune has no adequate plan for defeating the moves Wilson is preparing. On the basis even of simple arithmetic we can see that while all 80 members of the Tribune group may vote against Wilsoil in me rouse or commons, ne can sal pass any thing on the basis of the Tory votes which Thatcher has already promised. A purely Parliamentary strategy is completely doomed to defeat But if a Parliamentary strategy cannot defeat Wilson's policies it is quite clear that an extra-Parliamentary struggle sunported of course hu votes in ParliaWHAT cing the withdrawal of Wilson's In Place of Strife by the two big political strikes in 1969. It is to building this mass extra-Parliamentary struggle that anyone really interested in fighting Wilson's policies should be orienting. The potential for such struggle is shown in the victory gained by even the threat of industrial action by the NUR and in the 25,000 who marched on the abortion demonstration.
Eric Heffer does take a small step in this direction by calling for a campaign of big public meetings and a shop floor struggle. But the real question is what is going to be said to these meetings and what organ isation is to come out of the shop floor struggle. Without such organisation it is quite impossible to organise the campaign of industrial action and mass demonstrations which is necessary. Without this, and no matter what intentions it might have, the Tribune left is forced back into a totally utopian strategy based on Parliament. It cannot even enforce the decisions of the labour movement against Wilson's sabotage - let alone fight for a socialist solution.
This is the real choice facing the Labour left. If they do not organise openly outside Parliament against Wilson, then they will not play a real role in the most crucial fight against Wilson's policies. If, on the other hand, the Tribune left started to organise outside Parliament against Wilson's policies it would be playing a real role in the class struggle -but it can do so only by clea opposition to the icies, and struggling to remove the Wilson leadership of the Labour Party.
Unfortunately nothing in Tribune's record to date shows a willingness to undertake such a policy. A clear resignation from the Government, from any support for Wilson's policies or leadership, and a call for organising mass action by the workers' movement is what is required by the present situation. We are for united action with the Tribune left on all ques.
red weekly july 3 1975 N solution to mass action.
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