nose the following resolution to socialists and militants, meeting to (the initial months of the Labour of the struggle of the Clay Cross ad on the burning issues of the day. s is the problem of workers' democracy. of the working class are not in fact ask. Trade Unions which were it under the Labour Government. In its of clection of union officials exist. nt of a party based on the organisations tes of working peonle - is not responout decisions of the workers moverking class. the workers' movement must take for the Government to be sube ending of bans and proscriptionst be based on the struggle of the ce through the trade unions, on the Torics' Phase 3 incomes policy. the form of a wages freeze. This have gone up by more than 8% in the es this conference should commit siled in the Shrewsbury frame-up cted in these trials. of legal guarantees of the right to AS. orkers' struggle-including industrial nik-norm" threshold to cover all workon the trade unions, and in the Labour g and maximum estension of workers mediately necewary are: workers' movement-trade unions, ch and organise the fight for the to organise and conduct workers' smittees, mass meetings, etc. of recall of all Labour Party and I bans and proscriptions in the Labour eruption in the labour movement. at the forthconing Labour Party tigation into the Clay Cross Lahour I other penalties imposed on the ousing Finance Act.* ency resolutions on the current ту тогетен.
Dennis Warren were released on bail on r the hearing. But the fight must conthese trials. the Labour Party can serve to open up a debate on some of these decisive questions.
In our view Comrade Skinner gives a wrong emphasis in concentrating almost exclusively on developments within the Labour Party -and in particular on the constituency section of the Party. This is natural, of course, if you come from a fighting part of the Labour Party such as Clay Cross. But on a national scale if leads to wrong ileas and policies.
The Labour Party is the only truly mass party of the British working class. But this must not blind usto Important changes that have taken place in recent years.
TRADE UNIONS At one time almost all those active in the trade union and socialist move ment, apart from a small number in the Conmunist Party, were active in the Labour Party But in recent years this situation has changed drastically. Over the past 20 years individual membership of the Labour Party has declined by 200,000 on paper, and far more in practice. The decline of its youth wing-the future of any political organisation -B even more dramatic.
Meanwhile forces active outside the constituency Labour Parties have shown a real ability lo take action. Tens of thousands of trade stituency Labour Parties have played • leading role in strikes. Big political demonstrations have been led by the revolutionary left on Vietnam, Chile and Ireland Nonc of this means that the Labour Party has ceased to be of central political importance for the development of the working class movemissing of important opportunities.
Chile is a good example. The Clay Cross comrades have correctly put this on the agenda of the conference. Chile has provoked a big row in the Labour Party. But where has the action on Chile come from so far?
One of the most important actions has been the blacking of Chilean goods. This was not organised by the Labour Party, hut by the trade unions,and involved important inititives by many people not in the Labour Party The demonstration of 8,000 peolargely (at least two thirds) of militants from revolutionary left organisations. The Labour Party presence was very small.
It is vital that sections of the Labour Party take up Chile. But of action by the Labour Party they would have missed the opportunity to get the ball rolling.
This lesson must be applied in deGovernment. This is useful. But it is not sufficient. A massive demonstration must be held in September IES on the anniversary of the coup. The blacking campaign must be stepped up. These tasks can best be carried effectively will mean grouping together not just forces in the Labour Party, but also the Communist Party, the International Marxist Group, the International Socialists and many others.
where forces outside the Labour Party are decisive. The Women's sion of women, the revolutionary left and black organisations in the struggle against racism and fascism.
British troops from Ireland.
of tremendous opportunities for socialist struggle will be missed.
WORKERS DEMOCRACY of the Labour Party also leads comrade Skinner to miss out some very important points connected with the struggle for workers democracy. He makes some very important demands about demo cracy in the Labour Party: the demand that the Parliamentary Party We should add further demands, such as the ending of all bans and is not the only front on which the must be fought. Just as important is the fight for democracy in the trade unions and for the democratic organisation of workers struggles. This involves demands for clection of all union officials with as demands for democracy in the Labour Party yond the fight in the Labour Party becones ail the more important in view of the enormous development in the trade union movement over the last few years.
of the Labour Party has been declining, the trade unions have been recruiting massively. Even more important than the membership increase has been the role pluyed by the unions in the class struggle. The miners strikes, Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, the strikes against the Industrial Relations Act, the freeing of the Pentonville Five, theso are the the great pages of the working class struggle of the last five years. ple held on 5 May was composed very trade unionist is an afflated member of the Labour Party. But this fact should not mislead us into thinking considered togetber with members of constituency parlies as 'Labour Party members', This would blind if people had thought, as for example, us to the fact that whereas ten years the Mulisant curent did, solely in tems ago many thousands of militants engaged in socialist struggle through local Labour Parties, und instead enpipe in the struggle through the trade unions. It is here, in the unions, that Skinner says resolutions wil be taken, the massive forces for socialist struggle now lie.
Labour Party, Communist Party, and the revolutionary left is very important. But the way to involve really massive numbers in struggle is through the fight for political action out hy building branches of the Chile by trade union organisations. DIRECT ACTION The struggle to win the uniors to political action is vital in two ways. First, it affects the way socialists take up the key issues of the dayOther similar cases could be given Liberation Movement and the struggle for equal pay and against the oppresthe revolutionary left and Irish organisations in the struggle to withdraw If you do not think in wider termis than the Labour Party a whole series such actions Seeing things too much in teams could be brought under the control of the conference, that the composition of the NEC should be altered, and so on.
proscriptions. But the Labour Party struggle for working class democracy right of immediate recall, election of strike committees, and so on, as well bodies as well.
The question of extending the struggle for workers' democracy heWhile the individual membership StrugHies.
Of curse, practically every active that trade union militants can simpiy be constituency Labour Parties, now they refuse to do so. They do not join their United action by members of the MASS UPSURGE that forces outside the Labour Party have played a crucial role in launching inflation, unemployment, Chile, pensions and so on. Resolutions for the Labour Party Conference can be valuable but it is even more important to win the unions to direct action on these questions. United industrial of it. action, if necessary a general strike, can impose key demands on a recalcitrant Labour Government, or even a. Tory one, in a way resolutions to the Labour Party Conference never Second, the key importance of the trade unions determines what organisations the struggle must be organised through. Struggle after struggle show that it is trade union involvement and support which is vital for the movement against troops in Ireland, on Chile, in the local conTerences which have taken place on the a national level. Tory Government, on the struggle for the liberation of wonen, and so on This was implicitly recognised by the Clay Cross comrades when they opened up their conference not just This fight to win the unions to socialist political action is crucial for struggle both inside and outside the Labour Party. Within the Labour Party, given its constitution, it is ampossible to getanything done without winning the unions. Outside, the unions can take direct action even where Labour refuses to act. It is the unions which have the heavy battalions necessary to win toe decis Every major mass upsurge of the working class has given rise to organnations which go well beyond the Labour Party, Usually the trade unions become the core of the organisations needed. For example, the National Council of Action which prevented a British invasion of Russia in 1920 by its threat of industrial action, had less than one third of its delegates elected from Labour Party constituencies. The Councils of Action which orginised the 1926 General Strike in the Jocalities included Labour Party branches, but mostly grew out of the Trades cabinet.
Councils. Even the big demonstrations against Suez in 1956 were not organised simply by the Labour Party but by the National Council of Labour, which included the TUC The best example of ail is the Leeds Congreas of Workers and Soldiers Delegites probubly the highest organisational forn yet produced by the British working class. This body. which met in 1917, included delegates from the Labour Party, but delegates were also there from the British Socialist Party (which later merged societies, and small socialist organ isations. The largest group of delegates based on the organisations of the came from the trade union bodies.
The struggle has not yet reached the level of the 1920s. But these historical examples, and the facts about the present struggles, show the working class will extend far wider than just the Labour Party, and the trade unions will form the core The development of local organisations which involve not only the Labour Party but also other political groups, and which include major participation from the unions, is not only important for the immediate struggles, but is also the way forward in the struggle for socialism. The Clay Cross conference itself, which includes not only Labour Parties, but also the revolutionary left, the Communist Party and, most important of all, the trade unions, also shows what we can hope to see in the future on No matter what organisations the struggle of the working class will throw up as it develops, none of them will be any use unless the workers themselves control the leadership of these organisations. The same must apply to any Government that claims to represent workers interests.
The Labour Party is a party of the working class based on the organisations of the working class. As long as no other party of the working class has the support of a majority of workers, militants must support Labour forming the Govern mont. But as David Skinner points out, when Labour is in government it denies all responsibility to the organisations of the working class Instead it bases itself on the civil service, on the pseudo democracy of Parliament, and on its 'governmental rights.
It is in the interests of all mili tants to end this situation: the Labour Government must be responsible to the organisations of the working cias and nor to Parliament and the capitalit State. This means that the Government must be under the control of the organisations of the working class. They should decide on its policies, and not the Parlia mentary Labour Party or the Policies should be carried out through the orginisations of the working class, not through the burea ucratic and treacherous machinery of the civil service, army, courts and police. Prices should be controlled by workers' organisations, property should be taken over by workers direct action, the control of nationalised and private firms should be put under the control of the workers, and so on.
All this will involve a tremendous struggle for working class democracy. This will include democracy in the Lahour Party but will go fur beyond it. A Government responsible to and working class, and not the capitalist State and Parliament, must be the ultimate aim of the workers" movement It is in this context that comrade Skinner's points about democracy in the workers movement can lake on a real meaning
owns Los of the entire econamy). The
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ment. But to think solely in terms of the Labour Party will lead to the
Clay Cross conference, Comrade Coversited and sent to the Labour
JONES puts the position of the IMG
STERNA IMG contingent on 5 May Chile demo - Clay Cross conference must recognise
to form the Communist Party) women's organisations, Co-operative
clearly that in periods of mass up- surge the political organisation of