officials. eddie milne nade bl far figure in the tabo one mans Labour Party; Watergate' -sive, solitary, DREAMS inelr Republican Spain, 65 av. But he rejoined the as a blueprint for a new Jerusalem ahead', the days of neglect were over. bovhood dream It the -T. Dan Smith Cunningham, organising tect friend TUC, iences in No Shining Armour, a book whose very confusion demonstrates that the only way corruption can be eliminated from the workers movement is through a struggle for socialist polinos and figur or recall over an elected CUNNINGHAM bizarre as unis Led by attempting to LIes Unis recent Telease For this book isn't an account of a arrest. person ugnung tor socialst porcies in the Labour Party. It isn't an account of why corruption is allowed to exist in the It doesn't recommend any strategy for activists fighting right-wing policies or corruption in the labour movement. It is an account of disillusionment an exposé of 'Britain's the police, • the Poulson affair; and a description of one man's almost obsesunsuccessful fight agstrategy The early part of the book is hopeful and optimistic: Milne left the Labour Party in 1937 because it supported the Government's refusal to send arms to and joined the ILP Labour Party in convictions only as 1945, for he saw the Labour manifesto севсто.
the Britain of our dreams lay just The rest of the book is permeated From the of Milne's attempt to build a new Jerusalem after he was elected as MP the local for Blyth - sponsored by the shopworkers' union USDAW - in 1960, 'his come true'. His pes- Labour candidate. simism stems not from an awareness of the Labour Party's political bankruptcy, but from the corruption existing within ADVERT the party, particularly in the North East.
Milne's account of the corruption in the North East centres on the activities and Andrew imprisoned Canel bankruptcy proceedings of their archiJohn Poulson in 1973 by all Smith, who introduced Cunningham to Poulson, first attracted Milne's attention in 1964 when he was given £35,000 by the Labour Party NEC for PR work to *improve Labour's image in the North East and Scotland'. This was somewhat Was anas OTIC of Labour's strongholds; and Milne reactmove a Private Member's Bill to register clients of PR companies engaged in political activichanges Cunningham, who three weeks after Was and sipping tea with Prime Minister Callagplatform. han, was a more formidable character. He was a General & Municipal Workers Union official, chairman of the Northern Labour Party, chairman of the Northumberland River Authority, chairman of and a Ine bumam ronce Humonty member of the Labour Party NEC until October 1973, a few months after his HOSTILITY Cunningham is one of the end products of the Labour Party's refusal to challenge ine state and its macnine etc. It prefers to work with it instead, arguing that the party can preserve the interests of the working class within the framework or capitalism, seeing me stale de a benevolent ally. Not only does this work class, but it also creates the opportunity for sections of the Labour Party -out of the control of the labour movement - to use the state which they administer to line their own pockets.
Milne vigorously argued many times for an inquiry into party organisation in the Northern region, for he saw their Ttip OT an they were found out only because Poulson went bankrupt, and many details were covered up in cour because both men pleaded guilty.
start -OTTAIS campaign Milne met with hostility from members MILNE of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Mortakis, his local DarLY. secretary and agent, led a successful campaign to nave nim rejected do the Great resources were poured into the Labour Party election campaign in February 1974. An advert was placed in the local press attacking Milne and signed members of the NEC. Dave Cotterill, a leading member of the Blyth Executive Committee, and a supporter of the Militant, campaigned strenuously for the official candidate, stating that By now Milne was disillusioned with the Labour Party bureaucracy and stated that an inquity could be undertaken newner by ine omicials or une party nor members of the NEC nor the parlamentary leaders shown they don't care and aren't up to the job'. But his alternative was not a grass roots Labour or trade union inquiry - the activists in the movement but one led by the Lord Chancello and Vic Feather!
Milne was finally defeated as MP in October election, polling 20,000 votes and losing by just 78 He describes last minute polling booth lost postal votes, and vast sums of money spent by the Labour Party as contributory factors, but again no OF TS • portica Unfortunately it seems. from postscript that Mr Milne has learnt little: "I hope this book will help others to think again. especially those who see socialism as an ideal and a Means to a bener eora me state that one's job is to serve, not to rule: " am still serving (he is an Independent Labour councillor) in order to make it more difficult for those who seek only to rule to do so, because they are a real threat to democracy in Britain.' Milne's main error is that he sees democracy in the abstract divorced from politics. To lead the working class forward and to prevent some members of the party from gaining office for their own interests, socialist policies in the interests of the working class and under its control are needed. Full accountability of elected officials of the labour movements necoce While one has sympathy for Milne's honest stand in exposing corruption in the Labour Party and thereby making labour movement aware of undemocratic practices, we must still be critical of the framework within which ne deserves coruso Hilda Kean
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