Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 09:37:30 +0200 (MET DST)
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: The Labor Party and Trotskyists!





I have been away and missed a good part of this debate on the labor party. 
However this discussion is fairly important because we are facing the same 
situation here in the Scandinavian countries. The trend is towards the Blair 
solution and in fact Tony has been on TV here offering his ideas to the 
Social Democracy in Sweden in order to solve the problems facing the party.

What is quite clear is that there is still a big difference between the tops 
and the party apparatus and the trade union bureaucracy in the Social 
Democracy. One sees it everyday in the newspapers, on the radio and tv. 
There are two explicit tendencies at this point who are battling for control 
of the direction of the party.

The one is the open pro capitalist road which derives its support from the 
middle class which is becoming more conservative and moving quickly to the 
right and drawing the party tops with it. The other is the workers movement 
that is moving to the left because of the cuts of the pro capitalist right 
wing and mass unemployment. The labor bureacracy is to the right of this 
movement and is trying desperately to show the leadership of the party that 
its policies are destroying its working class base and threatening the union 
bureaucracy that loyallly held the party up through all the years of 
reformist politics. 

However this is no longer a viable alternative for the dominant right wing 
fraction of the party who has turned to the "Center" Party (a bougeois 
party) based on the farmers of Sweden in order to drive through its 
policies. Although not a coalition government it is as near as one can get 
to a coalition government.

However, i think that the debate here is top down based on what the tops and 
union bureaucrats are doing instead of looking at the class and what is 
happening their. Crys of despair and desperation along with massive 
resentment to the present cuts all along the line makes the workers movement 
a pressure cooker awaiting to explode.

Thus i think at this point a bold iniative of a new workers party based on 
both defensive and offensive demands including the popular slogan of a real 
workers government certainly should be seen as a viable alternative to the 
present jockying around the twists and turns of the labor tops of the trade 
union bureaucracy. Also the possilbility of and independant list of trade 
union candidates on a clear program could also deserve support at this 
particular point. However with the downfall of Stalinism and the lurch by 
the Social Democracy into the capitalist camp i think the first alternative 
is the best.

Trotskyist parties and independant candidates as Trotskyists on a clear 
program is an opening at this point that we should not miss. For the first 
time in history for a long time this can be the rallying cry for tens of 
thousands of workers in motion.

Hopefully the years of trecking out in the wilderness and the blantant 
opportunism of some of the "Trotskyists" groups in all kinds of circus acts 
will now come to a halt and we can mobilise our forces around the TP and 
move forward.

To miss this chance would be the end of the Trotskyist current in 
revolutionary politics. Because the workers will turn there backs to those 
who are not prepared to go all the way and they are right!

Forward to a reforged Fourth International.

For Mass Trotskyist Parties throughout Europe..

malecki




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