Date: Tue, 26 Nov 96 23:44:42    
Subject: M-G: Stop the Blairite modernisers


Stop the Blairite modernisers

Blair's plans for the Labour Party are clear. His New Labour, New Life for 
Britain manifesto has been pushed through with absolute contempt for party 
democracy. It was put together by Blair's team without any consultation. 
Conference was not even allowed to amend the document, only to vote on it. 
The National Executive Committee (NEC) was prevented from seeing it until an 
hour before its vote. Though Blair can claim 95% support this was on a 61% 
turnout on what was presented to members as a referendum
 on whether they wanted a Labour Government!
Instead of democracy we have blackmail. Each vote is turned into a loyalty 
statement. Those who are unhappy are vilified and accused of rocking the 
boat and disrupting Labour's election chances. Labour's new media centre at 
Millbank Tower disseminates New Labour propaganda, whilst party hacks at 
Labour conference observe the way delegates are voting and behaving. As 
Blair's post-Modernisers churn out empty rhetoric to the middle classes, the 
party apparatus assumes the role of Big Brother. 
The events at the TUC and Labour Party conferences have highlighted the huge 
significance of the coming months for the labour movement. The frontbench 
Labour MP Steven Byers was sent to the TUC conference by Tony Blair. He told 
journalists what the left
 has been warning for some time - that the Blairites plan to smash up the 
Labour Party once it comes to office by breaking the link with the trade 
unions. The plan is for Blair to introduce state funding for political 
parties and then to cut the unions
out of all decision making. 
The Labour Co-ordinating Committee has spelled out its proposals for radical 
constitutional change to the Labour Party in its pamphlet: New Labour, a 
Stakeholders' Party and the left MP Ken Livingstone believes that they will 
attempt to push these through the Labour Party Conference after winning the 
election and that in this euphoria the left may be caught napping. He says 
in an article in the Morning Star:
'The proposals include abolishing GCs (General Committees - constituency 
wide committees with delegates from wards and local TUs) (and replacing 
them) with local council leaders and 'key' workers leading local policy 
forums. Coupled with the elimination of a TU role from CLPs (Constituency 
Labour Parties) and the widespread use of internal referendum ballots this 
will destroy the only real mechanism by which the working class can organise 
for policy change. The proposals, if carried through, would remove any 
remaining function of the Labour Party Conference. ... This is the biggest 
threat to the trade union movement we have seen in our lifetime. In one 
sense it is more damaging than the anti-union laws because these proposals 
seek to prevent the trade union movement from having a political wing from 
which it can organise and help to defeat those laws.' 
 Combined with the proposal to abolish the policy-making function of the NEC 
(National Executive Committee - elected from Conference contains many TU 
bureaucrats) and pre-selection vetting of all candidates these proposals in 
fact break the trade union
link without the necessity for open conflict on the issue because there 
would then be no way the TUs could directly influence party policy. 
If these proposals go through it will be a massive defeat for the working 
class. This raises a number of speculations about what will happen to the 
labour movement in terms of splits and re-compositions. But whatever 
happens, our loyalties lie not with
the Labour Party but with the working class who still look to it to defend 
it from the worst ravages of capitalism when it is elected. The Labour Party 
is already well on the way to being transformed into a US style Democratic 
Party, merged with the Liberal Democrats into a glossy, sound-bitten, 
socially conservative, jamboree based monstrosity. 
Blair's 'New Labour' government will be a Tory one in its political 
intentions. It will build on the destruction unleashed by the hated Tories, 
encouraging the selfish values and cynicism of Middle England, attacking the 
working class through state legislation and the hated anti-union laws.
Arch-moderniser Peter Mandelson has stated in his book that the first thing 
a Labour government will do is attack the public sector trade unions. And 
Blunkett and Blair have already scabbed on the postal workers and tube 
drivers by ordering them to re-ballot and by threatening to make public 
sector strikes illegal.
And because of their support for the Maastricht convergence criteria, 
further attacks on the working class, public services and the NHS will be 
necessary. This is one reason why Blair will not set a minimum wage without 
the agreement of the bosses. 
 Blair's sickening new moral crusade goes hand in hand with this. Whilst the 
fabric of society crumbles, those who will be scape-goated are the poor, the 
unemployed, immigrants and young people.
In fact poor young people will be left with three options - either get a 
McJob with a fast food chain on a zero hours contract for 3 hours a day, be 
forced onto a workfare slave labour scheme, or turn to crime and suffer 
'fast-track' punishment. 
It is little wonder that labour movement activists are having enough. There 
is a developing suspicion, even hatred, of Blair and his evil friends who, 
Clare Short says, 'live in the dark'. These people don't come from the 
labour movement. Blair has said himself that he wasn't born Labour. Many of 
his advisors are still not even members of the party. They have contempt for 
the working class. Even right wing bureaucrats like ASLEF boss Lew Adams are 
now accusing Labour of 'pandering to fair weather friends'.
The TUC conference marked a significant turn in the relation between Labour 
and the union movement. We need to build on this shift of feeling. But we 
should do so not by pandering to the bureaucrats but by organising the 
rank-and-file and by placing demands on a Labour government. The fight to 
defend the union link should be combined with a fight against the kind of 
policies that the modernisers represent. 
This should combine the fight against the anti-union laws with a fight 
against the Immigration Act, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Job 
Seekers Allowance, for full employment and a decent minimum wage, for the 
defence of education and the NHS and for the renationalisation of the 
privatised industries and utilities.
The anger felt by many trade unionists must be mobilised now if the Labour 
Party is to survive. 
The initiative taken by the Socialist Campaign Group (Supporters Network) to 
launch a campaign around minimum socialist demands was  scuppered because of 
the abject cowardice of the MPs. Alan Simpson MP declared:
'The Group will not be putting out an alternative manifesto to the one put 
out by the Party. Nor would we be intending to launch campaigns with anyone 
who might be opposing the Party in this or other election'. 
Furthermore, centrists like the AWL go along with this line on the basis 
that they don't want the MPs to damage their chances of getting elected. So 
it seems that the left has also adopted the 'don't rock the boat' arguement. 
Meanwhile we are all being
cut adrift! 
At stake is how we view the Campaign Group Supporters Network. For the likes 
of the AWL, Labour Briefing and Socialist Action, it plays the role of 
uncritical cheerleader for left MPs. We have always argued that it should be 
a fighting activist body that can draw on the MPs' support.
Ultimately the modernisers will be defeated, not by parliamentary speaches, 
but by class action. To this end we support building the Campaign Group as 
an activists' network, raising radical demands, and fighting to defend the 
trade union link. Then, on
 day, we might just find that the working class has an important role to 
play after all! The SCG (SN) is at c/o 3 Blades House, Kennington Oval, 
London SE11 5TW. p




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