You'se mentioned that the Labour Party has soid you down the river. Why do you think this happened?
The trouble with the Labour Party is that there's really two parties. There's one in the privileged positions of Parliament, those who can afford to sit back nicely with a nice Parliamentary salary, and who also, may 1 add, dictate the policy of the purty.
The Cabinet and the Parliamentary Labour Party, and some of the trade union leaders we mustn't forget them- control the party. They think that their collective decisions override the decisions of the Annual Conference. Well, it's been on the cards for a number of years that the tank and file are gradually becoming more politically aware. They're beginning to see that decisions are unt being flouted left, right and We must never forget what the ompositionhof the National Execative Committee is. It's just a sop to the Parliamentarians. They control it long with the right wing leadership of the trade union movement. We've * 12 trade union leaders on there, S six "constituency' MPs. Now these the so-called left, reflect very te of what the rank and file want. What these MPs want of the NEC, is to make their own policy and carve a career out of it.
We have now taken the line that the NEC should be restructured. OK. you can have your 12 trade union naders, because they represent some 415 million affiliated members, but when it comes down to the representatives of the constituencies, then It's a different thing. Nowhere in the whole structure of the NEC are there any rank and file voices, apart from those like Joan Maynard, just breaking through the Women's Section. So what we would like to see is the NEC become the broad-based voice of all the movement. We would scrap all these sections, so that the constituency representatives wouldn't be MPs but rank and file members.
What conclution do you drew from these lestons you've learnt about the structure of the Labour Paris now thur laboursin coperament You've got those who support and ally themselves to the Labour Party, who take part in a political struggle like the Pentonville S, and who ger the mass backing of the movement. But when Labour's in and we Te confronting a Labour Government, you find that those people who supported us under the Tories are still there, but whereas it was waves to rock the boat under the Tories, it's j'ast ripples We've got this atmosphere we've got a Labour Government, now let's not try to embarrass it too much, let's not wash our dirty linen in public, Jet's not expose the wrongs of the Labour Government. When you start like that you're quickly on the slippery road back to 1964-70.
You can see the strategy of the Labour Government: they give one or two carecrists within the Tribune group posts in the GovernmentVarley, Heffer, Orme, etc-who are all prepared to relinquish their principles to save their Parliamentary career and the salary that goes with it.
You've got this disgraceful attitude relating to Chile, when a minister can say to Eric Heffer "Shut up or resign' and he doesn't resign because he's getting the money. And you've got people like Judith Hart, Chairman of the Chile Solidarity Campaign, and she remains in the Labour Party Cabinet-that same body that has made a decision that the warship sales should go on. There should have been at least half a dozen resignetions from the Government.
Don't let anyone tell me 'if that had happened then they would have been replaced by right-wingers, proMarketeers etc, at least in that situation, we'd know what we're fighting What difference do you think the return of Labour Government has made to the working ciass struggle?
You see you've got that mysterous organisation called the TUC. IF the Tories had been in, they'd have done something about the NIRC because the engineers would have pushed the TUC into it: some time or another, after all the money had been seized, the trade union movement would have had to stand by their brothers in the AUEW. Stage 3 would have been broken, it would have been smashed because the ordinary rank-and-file members in the trade unions would push it.
A call will be made from our conference regarding the four items on the agenda. You've got to have more than just two parties with different names-Labour and Tory. But you've got this attitude We've got a Labour Government, let's keep it in and build up a larger majority*. The only problem is, and Id like to see a Labour Government with a larger majority, that then they'll shove us even further into the dirt. It would pursue the most rightwing policy it could, the Lelt would splinter in all directions as it usually does, because it's full of careerists. What will happen then, of course is that the Labour Government could never got re-clected.
That's why the rank and file have got to be taught. We in Clay Cross lave been doine it for the last ten yean, and now everyone in Clay Cross is politically aware-when they read their Sur and Daily Mirrors they read between the lines, and this is what's got to happen within the the Shrewshury 6. changed. hers. got to be on the floor of the scenes there. cles present. what democracy is all about. the conference?
Labour Party Conference.