One of the most encouraging developments for Heath & Co. in the present crisis has been the open capitulation of the right-wing of the Labour Party before the Tory offensive and the confused, indeed often non-existent, response of the Labour left.
To make an accurate assessment of Labour's crisis, it is necessary to examine the social forces represented by the contestants among the party's executive. But the first point to be established is that no section of the Labour Party at present represents in a direct sense the interests of the working class.
No one, with the extremely confused exception of the "Militant' group, is openly saying that what is at stake is an attempt by the bourgeoisie to solve an inextricable economic crisis at the expense of the working class by the use of all the power and manoeuvres of the bourgeois state, and that this process can only culminate and be defeated in a direct working class struggle for power. The only approach to a real working class response in action is the heroic struggle at Clay Cross-a struggle which has been stabbed in the back by most sections of the Labour leadership and greeted lukewarmly by even the most radical of the rest. JENKINS-PRENTICE AXIS If there is no strong element within the Labour Party which fully represents the interests of the working class there is, however, a very delinite wing which represents the immediate interests of the bourgeoisie. This is the JenkinsPrentice section of the Labour Party. These elements reflect the effects of one of the most important social processes which has been taking place in the Labour Party since 1945 the increasing weight of layers which are not based on the organisations of the working class but on the capitalist state, the nationalised industries, and even private capitalism.
A whole host of people first reflected the Interests of these social groups and then departed for them. Woodrow Wyatt, George Brown, and Ray Gunter all reflected in an immediate sense the interests of private Labour parties. In 1965-69 alone a sixth of the membership of the Labour party left and in the biggest and generally most working class localities the fall was nearly a third. The rightwing swing this produced has continued and at the last Labour Party conference the votes for every left candidate elected to the NEC fell while those for the right wingers increased.
The constituency left, despite the visions of a few Tribunites and the Militant group - no longor a base for a mass opposition to the extreme right wing. This has meant an end to the old style leftist demagogue of the Fool-Bevan type, The Tribune group duly came out with its statement on 30th November declaring: "We want to make it absolutely clear that we fully support the miners and other sections of workers in their struggles for higher wages and better conditions. But hardly anyone. noticed.
But if the constituency left has declined, a new bastion -the "left" trade union bureaucracyhas been created for those who wish to contest for the leadership of Labour in opposition to an openly class collaborationist stance. In the old style 1930s-50s line-up in the Labour Party, it was the trade union bureaucrats who were the absolute bastion of the right. In 1935 every single one of the amendments of the lettist 'Socialist League was defeated by the trade union bureaucrats. It was the trade union bloc vote which was used to defeat Bevan in the early 1950s. Now, however, it is the trade union vote which has been the core of the left against the Labour leadership.
BENN-A NEW TYPE OF LEFT LEADER But the trade union leadership is not directly represented within the Labour Party leadership. The result has been the emergence of a new type of left leader, of which Benn is the most obvious example, who is not based on the constituency Labour parties, as was Bevan, but who represents within the Labour Party the interests of the left trade union bureaucracy and WILSON'S DILEMMA their attempts to direct the working class from the state struggle to clections. This is the meaning of Bean's rhetoric on workers" control, in reality workers" participation. It is also why, at almost exactly the same time as Prentice was denouncing militancy, Benn could stand up and say: The Labour party will be giving full support to the trade union mosement which is under direct attack by the Government, Since then Benn has move on to further demagogy. At his public meeting in Deptford on 9 January he was moved to declare: "The miners campaign is a symbol of the struggle of working people throughout Britain who, faced with rising prices and rents and mortgage payments, samply cannot manage on the wages the Government is prepared to allow, and bitterly resent the attacks on the unions which are their first line of defence.' He also quite accurately described the 3-day weck as a wage cut designed to cause hardship.
Of course, Benn's politics are far from real socialist ones. He never poses the real questions of power and avoids a firm commitment to breaking Phuse 3, but nevertheless his is a rhetoric and line which, following that of the trade union bureaucracy, is opposed to the immediate interests of the bourgeoisie.
The crisis that faces the Labour leadership is how to situate itself in relation to the forces we have just analysed. As far as their subjective desires are concerned the answer is obvious. Wilson would like to go back to the good old days of the 1960s when the dominant line-up was the Labour leadership in alliance with the extreme right of the Party, The trouble is that what the burcaucracy can do is determined not 40 years. by ils desires but by the objective fotoes in society. The open right, despite valiant efforts, has no hope of convincing any section of the ruling class, outside of a severe capitalist defeat in the industrial strugele, to support the Labour party in the way that they did in 1964. For this reason the road to office for Wilson in policy trap alliance with the extreme right of the party is almost entirely closed. But Wilson fears any allianoe with the Labour left. This might open up a dynamic of working class struggle which would get completely out of the control of Labour. For this reason be is desperately attempting both to straddle the tide of the Bennite" left and avoid a complete break with the right. Which of the two he emphasises changes from day to day and audience to audience. It was for this reason that he engaged in enormous leftist rhetoric at the Labour Party conference but got the 25 companies issue shelved. It is why, in an interview he give to the Sur on 28 November, he stoutly defended the right of the miners to have an overtime ban but at the same time said 'I do not support and will not support any action against the law" and 1 have not supported any particular pay claim." And of course he totally refuses to support the smashing of Phase 3.
The trouble with this tactic, even from the point of view of the Labour bureaucracy, is that it is completely untenable. At present no section of the ruling class supports Labour abd no gains are to be made by an open right-wing pusition. At the same time the failure of Wilson to break with the open right and fully embrace even the demagogic and timid leftism" of Benn prevents the Labour party launching a mass appeal for working class votes. The end result is a situation where Labour support falls because of abstention or goes to demagogic nationalist elements, If Labour, with or without Wilson, does not complete the process of adopting more radical left" positions which it has started, by the leadership openly taking it up. Labour faces the prospect of the worst electoral defeat for JOHN MARSHALL P.IO - Lefts cover up for Labour incomes Movement. Availabin prios 12p plus p & p trom RED BOOKS, 24 Boundary Road, London NW8. STUDENT FORUM: "Students againer the Tories", Monday 21 January, St Clements Building, LSE (near Holbom tube), Speakers: Robin Blackburn, Steve Potter, Organised by London IMG studants, OXFORD & DISTRICT Trades Council conferenio on the crisis facing working people. Monday 21 January, 7 pm in Buxton Hall, Ruskin College, Walton St. Open to all trades unionists.
FIGHT THE 3 DAY WEEK: Meeting called by Crisis Action Committee (Kensington). Speakers include Jack Dunn (NUMi, Jack Henry IUCATTI., member of ASLEF executive, John Tilley (Labour Party L Chair: Mick Martin (Hammersmith & Kensington Trades Councill, Monday 21 Januery 8 pm in Westway Lunch Club (next to Ladbroke TRADE UNIONISTS AGAINST PHASE 3: public meeting Organised by Battersea LPYS Jack Collins (Kent aree member, NUM executive), Peul Smith (Industrial Editor, Red Weekly) Friday 25 Januery, 7,30 pm in "Cornet of Horse: Lavender Gerdens. SW11,