Discussion on 2 August 2007 introduced by DP, who tabled a handout, and next day posted an amended version of this, saying:

Hi Comrades

Below is an amended version of the notes I used for the meeting. I have highlighted [in orange] … some changes and bits that I have added after people’s comments from the meeting . Thanks to all for interesting contributions and an interesting meeting.

DP’s amended paper follows. See also write-up of group discussion.

I wish to look at the Labour Party from a materialist perspective – what are the class forces in British society and internationally that gave birth to and then shaped the history of the Labour Party. In what way have those forces changed and how are they reflected in the Labour Party today. What attitude should the Left have to the Labour Party today?

The project of New Realism and later New Labour was to get Labour in power at any cost. The Left were warned that even the smallest gains could not be achieved if Labour remained in opposition. According to a report published last month (July 2007) the gap between rich and poor is now the “widest in 40 years”. So on the most basic level of a bit of redistribution of wealth the current Labour administration has completely failed. Labour in power is now purely about providing a more profitable environment for business than the Tories can provide – nothing more.

Below is an outline of some points and ideas I would like to briefly develop.

A potted Labour Party History

1. 1900. Labour Party formed as a fudge – a compromise between marxist socialist and liberal forces (ILP, Fabian Society, Social Democratic Federation). The social & political conditions that gave rise to Labour Party.

a. Rise of 19th century trade unions. LRC returns 2 MPs in 1900. Keir Hardy.

b. The struggle for universal suffrage. LRC wins 29 MPs in 1906.

c. First World War – Labour joins war coalition.

d. 1918. Adoption of Clause 4.

e. 1918. Electoral Reform Act. Voting extended to men over 21 years old who own no property and to property owning women over 30. The electorate is extended as a consequence form 7.7 million to 21.4 million. The extension of the vote to a substantial section of the working class and the demand for improved social conditions post-war is the context in which the Labour Party eclipses the Liberal Party.

f. 1922. Election - Labour becomes main opposition with 142 seats. MacDonald leader.

2. Labour in Power before and during Second World War.

a. 1924. First Labour government for 9 months.

b. 1926. General Strike – Labour leaders notable by their absence.

c. 1929. Second Labour Government, Ramsay MacDonald and the National Government. 1931 election Labour reduced to 46 MPs.

d. Opposition then part of Churchill’s war cabinet.

3. 1920s/30s. The newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain fight for affiliation to the Labour Party – the Right purge CP supporters from the party.

4. 1936. Trotsky announces the “French turn” advocating entry of Trotskyists into Social Democratic Parties – this is the beginning of a long history of various Trotskyist groups working inside the Labour Party.

5. 1945. Labour Landslide – builder of the NHS and the welfare state or saviour of capitalism?

6. 1951-1964. Years of opposition – Bevanite Left battle with Right over future.

7. 1951. Communist Party of Great Britain publish the reformist “British Road to Socialism” – socialism is to be achieved via influencing Labour policy and gradual reform. This is an influential document especially amongst the many CPers who hold office in affiliated trade unions.

8. 1959: Labour loses election, Gaitskill announces intention to ditch Clause 4 – he fails.

9. 1964, 1966. Wilson wins in 1964 and 1966.

10. The 1970s – union militancy removes the Tories and collides with Labour Right.

a. 1972 and 1974 miners strike. Heath “who governs?”

b. 1974. Labour back in power – the deal with the IMF to keep down inflation.

c. 1978-79. Callaghan and the Winter of Discontent.

d. 1981. The rise and fall of the Bennite Left. Benn fails by less than 1% to win the Deputy Leader election.

e. 1981. SDP formed by Gang of Four – NATO’s militant tendency. SDP-Liberal alliance formed – merge to create Lib-Dems in 1988.

11. Thatcher years – class war against the labour movement.

a. 1982. Falklands War.

b. 1983. Tatchell and the Bermondsey by-election – Michael Foot denounces Labour candidate.

c. 1983 election disaster – myth that the Left were to blame. Alliance get 25.4% of the vote Labour vote fell by 3 million from 1979.

d. 1981-1985. Municipal socialism. GLC and local Labour Left-run authorities in cities such as Sheffield and Liverpool introduce radical policies on housing and transport – for example the “fares fair” policy of subsidised cheap public transport in London and Sheffield. These Left policies, despite being denounced as loony left policies, are extremely popular. Thatcher introduces “rate capping” to tame these local authorities and moves to abolish the GLC. Resistance is led by the GLC, Liverpool and Lambeth councils – Liverpool and Lambeth refuse to set a rate and are sequestered for their resistance.

e. 1984-5 miners strike. The defeat of the miners led to a “re-alignment” of the Labour Left. Prior to the strike the Left in the Party consisted of the “hard” and “soft” Left who were united in opposition to the Right. After the strike the “soft left” united with the Right in opposition to the now isolated hard left.

f. 1983-1992. Kinnock, New Realism – Labour lurches to the Right, rules changed that prevent constituencies from using Conference to change policy. Policy is decided by appointed “Policy Review” bodies that “consult” the party membership – this replaces the old method of constituencies and affiliated bodies putting motions to Annual Conference to decide policy. In essence the democratic structures have had their ability to determine policy terminated. Witch hunt against Militant and the Left.

g. 1988. Benn-Heffer challenge to Kinnock-Hattersley leadership. The degree to which the Left had been isolated was shown in the result around 12% for the Left.

h. 1989-1990. Collapse of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc.

i. 1990. Poll Tax revolt. Labour has massive lead in polls and Thatcher forced out of office. Despite this Labour somehow managed to lose the 1992 general election. Kinnock resigns.

12. Rise of New Labour and 10 years of Power.

a. 1992-1994. Smith takes over as leader and continues the modernisation program of Kinnock, changes voting to OMOV at conference. Dies suddenly 1994. Blair elected leader.

b. 1994. Blair announces the end of Clause 4 – removed at special conference in 1995. Blair’s New Labour, logical conclusion of Kinnock’s New Realism retreat.

c. 1997-2007. New Labour Government, Blair resigns after 10 years.

d. 2007. Gordon Brown “elected leader. Left can’t even get a candidate to challenge Brown – and all candidates for the Deputy Leadership had backed the war on Iraq. Brown’s first cabinet includes Digby Jones, former head of the CBI, who isn’t even a Labour Party member.

The Labour Party Today and the Left

1. Background – trade union membership and social composition of the working class in Britain today. Union membership and militancy peaked in the late 1970s. The strength of the trade union movement, of the shop stewards movement and the general class struggle was a major factor in moulding the politics of the 70s until the defeat of the miners in 1984-85. With the Thatcher monetarist onslaught, mass unemployment, the destruction of much of British industry, for example coal and steel, there is a shift in union membership from the old industrial sectors to the service sector.

2. Labour Party Membership decline and trade union affiliation declines – RMT are expelled and FBU disaffiliate. NB. 400,000 members in 1997, less than 200,000 today. Membership was much greater in earlier decades. Social composition of the Party also shifts – once typical members were manual working class, now professional classes are far more predominant than they were.

3. Labour Party finance. The rise of the millionaire party donor and the cash for peerages scandal. A large proportion of Labour finance no longer comes from “working class members” and the trade unions – it comes from big business backers.

4. Labour Party Democracy. Policy can’t be changed from below.

5. Is the Labour Party still a “bourgeois workers party” (as in Lenin) and does it matter?

6. The Left and Labour – inside and out.

7. Are the changes to New Labour national or international in character – are the other bourgeois parties also in crisis?

Some More Observations

1. The role of Labour in imperialist policies towards the colonies is a subject of great interest.

2. The organised Right in the Labour Party have always been there and have been highly organised – sometimes in groupings with CIA connections. For instance groups like Catholic Action and the Trade Union Committee on European and Transatlantic Understanding (TUCETU) (see: Backing Barry: The NATO Publisher and the PCS Coup http://www.labournet.net/ukunion/0207/pcs2.html).

3. Groups such as the Socialist Party of Great Britain (the SPGB formed in 1904) have always denounced the Labour Party as a “capitalist party” who by definition will prop up capitalism and sell out the working class. The continual betrayals of Labour would seem to support this view but it neglects to take into account the contradictory nature of working class organisations, the trade unions and the Labour Party – the nature of which are determined by the class struggle and not by pigeon holing into the right box.

See also CM's write-up of the group discussion which followed.

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