June massive unempioyment nigures, and also the effects the crisis is having on workers living standards as prices race ahead of wages.
It would be an important matter for the Labour Party Conference to be recalled for the purpose of considering its policies, the election Manifesto which was carried at a previous conference, and the election or a new leader for the labour Tony Benn has announced that he is standing. What do you think of his candidature?
I believe that of the candidates, Benn Has snown museur to be more m couch with the probiems that lace une working class; and the proposals which he has put forward to solve those immediate problems show this. His insistence on operating the policies of the annual Labour Party Conference is of considerable importance, as he shows himself to He has also insisted on open government there should be no secrets when dealing with the problems facing the working class, and no secrets when either the Parliamentary Labour Party or the NEC makes decisions. After all, tey are meeung as tne representanves of Labour Party members, and their accisions should be made known.
Benn's manifesto makes no mention of ending wage controls. Shouldn't he at least have stood on a platform of opposition to the £6 limit and for measures which car Hugh Scanlon, President of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, told the union's youth conference last week that the executive committee nad decided not to make any representation to its sponsored MPs concerning whom they should vote for in the Labour leadersHip Correst.
Scanlon attacked the notion that the broad workers movement should have any say in the election on me oasis unar this would constitute 'interference' with the rights or the parliamentary Labour Party. He justified this position by draw ing a completely false parallel - since the AUEW opposed outside (bourgeois) interference in its own elections, the union should equally refrain from trying to affect the outcome of elections in the Parliamentary Labour Party.
birmingnam delecate Jonn Granam. an IMG member, sharply attacked this view at me conterence ano saie tatt threw serious doubt on the sincerity of the AUEW leadership when they made noises doout opposing unemoroyment Passing resolutions calling on the Government to chance its policies oniy made sense if it was linked to a clear fight for icies.
Party would be prepared to implement return to full emplovment. In fact the policies of the right wing are actually causing unemployment.
should immediately approach its sponsored MPs with a view to trying to commit candidates to support policies that would guarantee the right to work.
no surprise after his Glasgow speech expressing support for the Government's plans to cut social expenditure - a theme to which he returned at the AUEW youth conference. Scanlon has clearly moved to the right; the AUEW Executive's position of abstention on the Labour leadership elections is actuaIly an expression of full support for the porcies tollowed by wilson. The task now is to organise opposition to these bureaucrats, not to play footsie with them.
weekend a new leadership to implement such polIt was inconceivable said Graham. that the present leadership of the Labour the measures necessary to bring about a in the following:
Graham demanded that the AUEW Scanion's position should come as policies. to support a vote for Benn.
***************** The following resolution on the Labour leadership election was passed by a National Committee meeting of the International Marxist Group last The main considerations determining our intervention should be (1) Our whole intervention in the election debate within the working class should be centred on the policies necessary for the working class, and the need to build a class struggle tendency in the mass organisations fighting for class struggle solutions, in the absence of any candidate in the election championing such a course. In line with this, we should put out no 'calls' on Labour MPs to vote for this or that candidate, but rather should explain our overall attitude to the different candidates in the context of our central political axis.
(i) Our thrust against the lefts should therefore not lie in the way they vote but (a) No-one in the Parliamentary Labour Party has come forward in this election and stood on a programme which will mobilise the class in defence of its interests.
(b) We demand that the lefts fight for democratic leadership elections by the Labour Party Conference.
(c) In explaining our policies we stress the central task in our action programme the necessity for mass mobilisation of the class for objectives along the road to workers control and nationalisation. This must be combined with calling for the lefts to organise a class struggle tendency in the mass organisations against the policies of the Labour Government.
(d) While we explain that the result of the leadership election is secondary, we must be clear on our line and the method we use to reach that line. To the extent that the issue has any impact on militants (that is, mainly within the Labour Party) the main question involved is that of opposition or support for the Government's poncies. benn s candidature and mis punc campaign win be scen as bong m oppo sition to the policies and record of this Government. Our main emphasis will be to criticise Benn's programme and his failure to organise forces in opposition to the Government's policies. But given that we do not have the influence or support to ensure that an MP stands on an adequate programme to meet the crisis, where the issue is raised in the CLPs we should support a vote for Benn.
After Benn is defeated, we favour an abstention on the grounds that the election of any of the remaining candidates will signify only a continuation of the same
4 NHS Cuts/Students Red Weekly 25 March 1976 health libraries