GAINS cause it is directly associated with the time when , thus brings together forces which are ies. It provides a dividing line between the openthose - however confused who want a more was seen by many on the 'left' as the last axed from what the 'left saw as the key job. eassure the ruling class that the Manifesto had et in Transport House and unemployment.
fusion of But the paralysing crisis which now grips the entire economy has blown apart the idea that factory militaney and pure trade union strength are sufficient to defend or extend living standards. By common consent, any economic upturn is a long way off at best — if, indeed it ever returns.
The £6 pay limit contronts workers with a struggle not simply against an employer but against This situation is creating a mood inside the trade unions for a return to 'politics", which coincides with the emergence of the 'left' inside the Labour Party.
Essentially this current yearns for a return to the 'economie normality' which provided the basis for Labour's reforms and the success of trade union militancy. But the nature of the world capitalist crisis in general and the British crisis in particular rules out such a perspective. Living standards and jobs cannot be defended - never mind extended - in the 'mixed economy". For British capitalism to survive, the working class has to pay the price with cuts in real wages The formation of the 'Manifesto' groups is a step forward, and represents the sections inside the labour movement. But unless they completely reject the Social Contract - the cornerstone of the Manifesto - and organise to fight for the removal of tre Wilson leadership, they will remain impotent. Furthermore, they will also need an alternative economic programme -but one that provides a socialist plan as opposed to the utopian theories of the mixed economy not just to that of the Government,
•Plums for the picking' kelly interview strong audience at Hulme Labour Club in Manchester last Thursday.
triey will take us. It's a fight. It's not a clean fight - because they don't fight clean. He pointed out that in the Newham fight Prentice's support came only from the 'right-wing media' and a pack of 'Gaitskellite hacks'.
conference, and that all socialist organisations should be free to affiliate to the Labour Party.
ship.
state and its replacement by a workers' state. But by taking action against the right wing, the militants in Newham North-East Labour Party have provided a popular focus for opposition within the labour movement to the pro-capitalist Wilson Government.
Q. How did the Newham campaign egin?
A. It was largely because of Reg Prentice he's our worst enemy. He constantly enlarged his own personal position using any means at his disposal. We don't deny him that right, but what we do demand is our night to question him politically. Having done so, and having produced an overwhelming majority in the constituency party opposing im, we have the right to choose someone else.
Q. What has been the effect of the witch-hunt set up by the press?
A. I'd imagine, judging by Reg Prentice's own behaviour, that he's very disappointed with it. Any person who was waging an argument on political lines would obviously have stated that they were opposed to it, that it had no political significance whatsoever.
In what I regard as a very gloating manner, Reg Prentice kept significantly quiet, hoping it would preserve his careerist ambitions. It didn't. It served no useful purpose whatsoever, because political arguments carried the weight and not the personal smears.
Q. What do you think will be the effects inside the Labour Party of your success in getting rid of Prentice?
A. I would hope that the effect will be that everyone within any constituency party who is committed to socialism will start to look at who is representing them and whether they are the best people - - be they Harold Wilson, Callaghan, Jenkins, Williams, Silkin. You name them, they've got to be looked at.
Q. What do you think of Arthur Scargill's views when he said that any MP sponsored by a union who went against union policies should have their funds cut off by the union?
A. I cannot see any point in unions financing MPs who oppose the political convictions of those unions.
Q. Do you think that the extreme right wingers in the Labour Party like Prentice should be actually expelled from the Labour Party, or just removed from their positions of influence? "Many people joined the Labour Party seventy years ago expecting it to introduce socialism. Many of them died inside the Labour Party without seeing socialism. I intend to see it.' Those were the words with which Tony Kelly, a leading figure in the fight to oust Reg Prentice as MP for Newham North-East, greeted the 200Speaking on 'After Newham - What Next for the Labour Left', Kelly went on to serve notice that: 'Wilson can go the way of Prentice and he knows it. There are plums that are ripe for the taking all over the country. If we don't take them, Warming to his attack on Prentice, Kelly declared: 'He has called me a thief. I am. I have thieved his seat from him and I am proud of it.' He went on to argue that the Parliamentary Labour Party should be bound by the decisions of annua.
The commendable struggle in ivewham ivorth-East against the coalitionist Prentice is an example of what needs to be done throughout the labour movement. For a start, all Labour MPs and trade union bureaucrats who support the Healey measures must be replaced. Tony Benn should resign from the. cabinet and organise a fight against the present leadership. The difference between the militants in Newham and the fake lefts in Parliament is that they have realised that verbal opposition is not enough to smash Wilson's Tory policies and remove the Wilson leaderAfter the Manchester meeting, Red Weekly talked in more detail to Tony Kelly. Obviously we do not agree that the Labour Party can be transformed into a party that can lead the working class to socialism and we are absolutely insistent that the socialist revolution can only be achieved through the overthrow of the capitalist A. This is a very, very important question, actually. If people like Reg Prentice feel that Clause Four and Clause Five of the Labour Party constitution are obsolete and invalid then one must ask why they are in the Labour Party at all. I agree with Clauses Four and Five, as do vast numbers of members of the Labour Party throughout the country.If there are extremists within the Labour Party, if there has been infiltration, it must be by people like Reg Prentice and his supporters.
Q. The right wing inside the Labour Party and also inside the unions say the working class must accept their policies because the only alternative is a Tory Government. What do you say to that?
A. It is an abdication from the responsibility of political leadership. If one's going to stand to gain office at any cost, any party can do The responsibility of people committed to socialism, as laid down by the constitution of the Labour Party, is to stand up and say exactly what sort of society they wish to establish and how they wish to establish it. If you gain election on that programme, you're quite entitled by the mandate implied by election to go immediately ahead and implement it.
Q. What do you think that 'lefts" inside the Government such as Benn should do?
A. I do not regard Wedgwood Benn as a left-winger. He's a manifestation of populist politics. He's got no identification with the working classes.....
Q. Do you think the Wilson leadership of the Labour Party should be replaced and if so, by whom?
A. I think this is again going back to a previous question the problem that the activists within the Labour Party haven't serlously considered. It's all right to confront and oppose, it's all right to demand that people follow the example of Clay Cross, but it's not sufficient to demand that.
If one's going to demand that people follow a programme, and you are committed personally to that programme, you've got to place yourself in a position where you are prepared to take responsibility. red weekly 25 september 1975 Q. At present the leader of the Labour Party is elected by the Parliamentary Labour Party. Do you think that's right, or do you think that should be changed?
A. The leadership of the party should be based on the selection of people who represent the demands of the party at any moment in time. To my mind those demands are exemplified by annual conference. The leadership of the party should be elected at annual conference and the Parliamentary Labour Party should be bound by the decisions of annual conterence. The manifesto placed before the electorate at a General Election is a gross misrepresentation of what the Labour Party really thinks.
Q. What about the bans and proscriptions inside the Labour Party? Recently there's been a lot of witch-hunting of the supporters of the Militant newspaper.
A. I think this is a manifestation of the fright which is felt by the right wing, and an attempt to sectionalise the socialists within the Labour Party. If one examines the various statements which have been made they're all empty, they're all cliches, there is no factual evidence whatsoever to suggest that an outside organisation of any sort has infiltrated, manoeuvred or manipulated the Labour Party.
Q. What sort of policies do you think socialists should be fighting for as alternatives to those of the Wilson Government?
A. There is only one answer to the present situation. That is a total confrontation with the capitalists. A programme is needed put forward by everybody committed to socialism, demanding the gearing of the whole of the economy at once and irreversibly to meet the needs of the people without compensation for any type of capitalist.
If we do it step by step we fall back into the old Fabianist trap that it's got to be done by gradual degrees - those are the people who really know the revolutionary potential of the country and are frightened of it.
Q. Do you think socialists should rely simply on the Labour Party left-wingers as you describe them. What about the left wing forces outside the Labour Party? Do you think that there's a need for the unity of all those forces?
A. I think there's a need for unity. I also regard the Labour Party at this moment in time as being a political manifestation of the aspirations of the labour movement. I feel that if all these forces could draw together with a domination of left-wingers, Jenkins, Wilson, and Callaghan could be totally confronted and replaced.
We could immediately sweep forward with a complete socialist programme and be totally prepared for the opposition of whatever kind which would obviously come from the rightwingers. This opposition would not just be in terms of parliamentary opposition. They will hit the working class with every means at their disposal. They will probably abdicate parliamentary democracy - that's an historical probability forecast by many people and there's no reason to presume that this country will be any different from others.
Q. Do you actually believe that socialism can be achieved through parliament?
A. I'm a member of the Labour Party because I believe that within a state that's had a parliamentary democracy for a considerable period of time there's every reason to assume that the possibility can be achieved...
However the incidents in Newham raise very, very serious questions for me. They appear to be striving to their utmost to prove the teachings of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, that in any situation where the working people attempt to take their destiny into their own tional rule to stop it.
Q. So therefore you are doubtful whether the Labour Party can be changed given your experience of Newham?
A. No, the experience of Newham has renewed my optimism. We were confronted not only with the combined efforts of television, radio, the national press and the local press but with the right-wing elements in the Parlia mentary Labour Party, the Cabinet, Harold Wilson himself and the Social Democratic Alliance. We still went ahead and we still achieved a victory. I think there is hope if committed socialists rejoin the ranks of the Labour Party and fight for socialism
red weekly 25 september 1975 FREE SPEECH DEFEND ori dropthe charges
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'If there are extremists within the Labour Party, if there has been infiltration, it must be by people like Reg Prentice and his supporters.'
'They will hit the working class with every means iamentary democracy.'
nt a better deal? TH US! TABOUR FAR HeSICAL
at their disposal. They will probably abdicate parl- hands they will break every known constitu-