Once again the Left is faced with the task of orienting itself to the Labour Party In an election period. This is a task which for very fundamental reasons the revolutionary left has never adequately coped with. Those fundamental reasons spring from the same root as the cause of the strength of the reformist party in relation to the revolutionary left:
namely the continuing strength of British imperialism. This is a situation which is now changing, however. British imperialism Is.
undergoing a long-term crisis. All its structures are in a state of flux. Even since 1966 the political scene is a different one: the radicalisation of youth has taken place on a large scale. We can begin to expect now that as revolutionary action rather than revolutionary propiginda becomes possible, some more atisfactory relationship to the mass reformist party will emerge. The Red Mole has been organising a debate of late to attempt to assist this process WHAT TO DO IN THIS ELECTION? What, however, should we do now in this dection? In the absence of a large organisation, the role of the rerolutionary left will still be a largely propagandistic one. This makes it all the mote important that that propaganda be correct.
It is a time when the political consciousness of masses of British people is heightened: when They are more receptive to political ideas It is a period which more than any other offers a chance to revolutionaries to explain the real nature of the Labour Party and the needs of the British working class. This is why it is of paramount importance that we do not liquidate our independent nerolutionary presence in this period. To talk of the Tory Bonapartist threat is to mystify, since it directs attention away not the Labour Party. It implicitly covers ug or the Labour Party over the last six years. 11 encourages the type of illusions in the Labour Party as being somehow "progressive" which have plagued the Left for the last forty years. Most important of all, it fetichises the Parliamentary struggle and does not make the esential political point that it is not in elections bat in mass struggle that the bourgeoile will see how far or how little it can push things. THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS We can see that throughout the world, wherever the interests of British Imperialism have been at stake, the Labour Government as have previous Labour Governments acted as the stooges of the bourgeoisie: they have acted as the enemy of the working There are many people on the left in Britain. even revolutionaries, who categorise strikes into two types: economic and political. There are others who more correctly but rather dogmatically say that all strikes are political. The Pilkington strike, as did the Fords strike of 1965, and the dockers strike of 1966, has shown yet again that a strike about wages asumes conscious political proportions when it clearly demarcates class alliances and antagonisms, sometimes, as in this case, throughout the country-Le. when the press picks up the scent of outside agitators" and does everything possible to pour dirt on the independent action of workers, when everyone from Barbara Castle (with her official enquiry headed by John Wood, an active Conservative who bossed the Standard Triumph enquiry which came down-naturally-against ihe worken demands) to the police at the picket line and to the val Union the men belong to, all line up, lap dog style, behind Pilkington & Co. Lid.
And on the other side we saw workers' dolidarity from Fords, Leylands, Kraft Foods. Vauxhalls, ete., and expedilly from the 1,500 men at Ellesmere Port who promised El cash a week till the strike was over.
Bul'this is no time for complacency: the majority of workers stayed with the strike committee until the end, but 2,500 went back to work before. How was the unity broken? and unsuccessful fight against a National Liberation struggle in Aden and the Gulf states where British imperialism has not yet given up the struggle. In the Caribbean, repression has taken place in Trinidad and Anguilla. In Ireland, British troops stand by ready to shoot fighters for an independent and socialist Ireland. In Blish jalls there are Irish political prisoners now (see elsewhere in this issue). Diplomatic and material support has been given to the American war of aggression against Indochina. In South Africa, the Labour Goverment props up the regime despite hypocritical gestures to the contrary. In Rhodesia, it capitulates to racism without much protest: had that been a black liberation struggle, their reaction would have been very different. We can see that throughout the world wherever imperialism has been waging its backward reactionary fight, the Labour Government has been in the vanguard of the struggle. These are not faets that we should allow to be swept under the carpet in the interest of Unity for a Labour Victory, We should harry the Labour Government and supporters at every possible opportunity, No proce for the enemies of the intemational working class In 1966 there existed a so-called Labour Left, which liked to pose as a progressive force within the Party. I only they could take over the Labour Parly, how different things would be, they would tell us. Their record is famillar so most people on the Left. It has been a totally miserable abject role. They have completely Called to put up any consistent fight against Wilson and his policies. Had they been rolutionaries they could have provided a po attraction within the Party which could ha won over a large section of the working clas Their milure to do this has demogstrated the utter bankruptey of their claims to be fighting for socialism, and has contributed to a depoliticisation of militant sectors of the British working class We should lastly say a word about the role of the Labour Government internally. They should be reminded that the reforms they have introduced have been very few and very timid. Not only, however, have they abandoned what little claims to being progressive that they ever did have. They have moreover capitulated to all that is most base and reactionary in our society with the introduction of racist legislation to restrict immigration.
By rejecting the struggle for socialism, they have had no other alternative but to carry out the wishes of the capitalist class, They have attacked the British working class over a whole range of issues. The resistance of that class from the lessons of this one? We must concentrate on a very dangerous weapon in the arsenai of strike-breakers (in this case the crawling GMWU)-the Secrer Ballot That ballot should never have been permitted. Formally so democratic, die secret ballot plays exactly the same role as do general elections. In each case the effect is to atomise the working class. Instead of the 8,800 Pilkington workers practising workers democracy among themselves, we see 8,800 individuals cut off from each other's corporate solidarity, fallen prey to the witch-hunting rumours of the news. papers, the echoes of "solid advice" from stooge T.U. representatives, that signed letter from "the Lord of the Manor" himself, the understandable nagging of the wife. And he snaps. And afterwards he regrets it but it's too late.
And one other tbing this strike has shown. though the lesson must be learat. If workers democracy means anything at all within those organs crealed by the class to defend it-the Trades Unions-then every worker must go out of his way to practice it. Bureaucrats exist und concentrate power in their hands on the hasis of apathy on the part of the rank and file. A representative clectod by the entire membership of a workers organisation and subject to their control must reflect the real interests and views of those workers. To put one's faith in bureauof the Trade Union Bill. However, their support has not only been lacking from the militant. struggles of the class. They have militated against these struggles. Throughout their years in office they have pandered to and peddled the most obnoxious bourgeois propaganda: all the Camiliar lies about the National Interest, letting Brilain down by striking, ete. We should lose no opportunity during the election campaign to bring home the fundamentally anti-working class nature of the Party's activities and why it necessarily must act in a way contrary to the interests of the class.
STRUGGLE NOT VOTING IS DECISIVE To support such a party in the hope of social change is of course a complete illusion. Il could well be that the return of Labour to government will assist in the land of breaking militants from illusions about the Party. We should recognise. however, that the rerolutionary left is sufficiently small not to be able to decisively influence the way the masses vote. The real significance of our activities orer the chection period then lies not in our advice about voting but in the type of propaganda we make. We are talking at best to a smail politically conscious layer of the class, feeling its way out of the social democratic embrace. The important propaganda point is to attempt to break che working class from the false idea that soting ever determined anything very much. The thing for resolutionaries to stress is that that class is going to have to struggle against whichever Government gets in. It is in this context that we can explain why it is that reformism begins lo fail, and that leade directly to an explanation of Ibe relationship between the Labour Government and the international working class.