Trotskyism and the Labour Part

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COHSE delegates at the Labour Party conference in the Socialist Press of February 14 Jeff Harris wrote about what he described as the anti-working class nature of the Labour Party. If this is indeed an accurate description of that party clearly there would be little point in being inside it. But is this accurate?

In fact trade unions cast the overwhelming majority of votes at the Annual Conference. The majority of the Executive's 29 members are elected by trade union votes: 12 members by the unions alone, five women and the treasurer by the whole conference, in which union votes predominate.

Moreover, the constituency parties, which have 7 members, are themselves composed of delegates from branches of trade unions, co-op organisations, etc., as well as individual members. A large part of the party's income comes from the unions.

More accountable At this year's annual conference the votes of unions, including the transport and engineering workers' , ensured that steps were taken towards changing the constitution to make Labour Members of Parliament more accountable to the party.

The votes of the unions decide the policy of the party and whether it. is transformed into a more effective instrument to achieve socialism.

Trotsky saw clearly the working class nature of the Labour Party and its relationship with the trade unions:

. In 1925 in Where is Britain Going? he wrote about the "numerically powerful Labour Party based on the trade unions", and how "the Labour Party grew out of the parliamentary representation of the trade unions, in other words, out fo the purely class organisations of employed labour." And: "If one reflects on the history of the origins of the Labour Party, it becomes clear that from the trade union aspect the party is as it were its political section." The Labour Party had grown up "as the direct extension of the trade unions."

Controlling position What then is the correct attitude of socialists, of a revolutionary socialist party, to the Labour Party?

Also in Where is Britain Going? Trotsky wrote that: 'The Communist Party will take that place in relation to the Labour Party which at present is occupied by the Independent What was that position? "As the absolute majority on the Executive Committee and in the other more important institutions of the British Labour Party belongs to the Independent Labour Party; the latter forms a governing faction in the Labour Party." The ILP occupied the "directing role" in the Labour Party. The ILP, "numbering 30,000 members, obtains a controlling position in an organisation based through the •trade unions on millions of members."

However, unlike the ILP, the Communist Party "can only come to the head of the working class in the measure that the latter comes into irreconcilable antagonism with the conservative bureaucracy in the trade unions and in the Labour Party."

The revolutionary socialist party comes into irreconcilable antagonism with the present leaders of the industrial and political wings of the trade unions by being active inside both wings of the movement.

4504 Trotsky wrote that: "A revolutionary Labour Party, - based on the trade unions, will together with them become a mighty instrument for their restoration to health and their uplift."

He foresaw that "only under the pressure" of the trade unions "will the Labour Party, after radically renewing its leadership, be transformed into a revolutionary force."

Peter Molntyre should therefore have spoken in the Socialist Press of June, 6 about the betrayals, not of the TUC and the Labour Party, but of their present leaders. The difference is vital. Marxists are not at all opposed to either the industrial or political wings of the trade unions. On the contrary they are their best defenders.

The revolutionary socialist party does not stand in opposition to either wing of the trade unions but comes to the head of both wings.

In various writings in the 1930s Trotsky argued in favour of membership of the Labour For instance in 1935 he wrote (Writings, 1935-36, p.142): "The policy of the opposition in the Labour Party is unspeakably bad. But -this only means that it is necessary to counterpose to it inside the Labour Party another, a correct Marxist policy." Yes, inside the A number of other quotations, not directiy related the Labour Party or Britain, illustrate the essential point.

In 1936 Trotsky wrote (ibid. p.289): "You need the independent party not to compete in a small way with the mass organisations, but to win them from inside. That is the only way." And (ibid., p.290):

"The great lesson of Bolshevism is the intransigence of the party toward reformism and centrism and the greatest flexibility towards the mass organisations. Without the first quality. the party inevitably becomes the instrument of capital, without the second, the party remains a sterile sect forever. It is the synthesis of iron hardness and extreme flexibility that assures success.

Further (ibid., p.321):

"We need the greatest ideological steadfastness and the sharpest and clearest revolutionary thinking not in order to isolate ourselves from the existing mass organisations in a sectarian manner, but rather in order to work effectively in their midst without losing our perspective.

Of course all those who are opposed to Britain being transformed into a socialist democracy do not want socialists to act effectively.

They would like socialists to stay out of the mass organisations.

However a tendency which aspires to become the revolutionary socialist party capable of leading the working class to victory cannot allow itself to be diverted away from working in the mass movement, including the political wing of the trade unions. David Harris, 30 October, 1979 Sussex Many of the points made by comrade Harris are evidently correct. But we would stress that, while Socialist Press argues for socialists to fight for a principled programme within both the unions and the Labour Party we do not enviseage the Labour Party being transformed into an effective instrument to achieve socialism or a "revolutionary force". Rather we fight to build a Marxist party to serve the purpose-which will of course eventually include elements that break from the Labour Party.

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DUSTRIAL NEWS The vote by the Royal College of Nursing not to affiliate to the TUC was, on the surface, a narrow one. proposed at the AGM.

Howard Hoare, President of the RCN Birmingham Centre, (according to the RCN paper Nursing Standard):

The total vote on this major question by postal ballot (for and against) • was 6,591-or about 4% of the total claimed membership of 150,000.

The elections for the ruling