Eight pointers to Benn's reformist 'alternative

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PRESS weigh their options Workers who look to Labour's left wing as a socialist alternative to the discredited policies of the Callaghan leadership would do well to look closely at the kind of policies endorsed recently by Tony Benn.

Benn, of course, as an obedient cabinet minister under both Wilson and Callaghan, played a crucial role in shaping and implementing their programme of class collaboration, wage-cutting and public spending cuts.

But detecting the groundswell of militant opposition to such policies within the broader workers' movement and its reflection in the Labour Party, Benn has shrewdly attempted to separate himself from the Callaghan leadership, 'and to establish himself as a pillar of 'left opposition.

Yet despite the odd radical turn of phrase, Bean remains -as much as root or Callaghan -committed to the notion of reforming and transforming capitalism piecemeal, through Parliamentary measures, into a "socialist democracy"

Such reformist politics mean that time and again Benn and his fellow lefts' must seek to direct the working class, not towards the strengthening of its independent struggles-the formation of strike committees, occupation committees, councils of action, and the struggle for a General Strike to bring down the Tories-but towards dreams of eventually legislating sweeping reforms.

Thus in the midst of the steelworkers' strike, Benn stood up at a Newspaper Press Fund annual dinner and put forward what he called a "constructive reform programme"

"The present decline of Britain (ie. British capitalism] is not inevitable," he added, spelling out eight points which he thought were central to reversing it.

*Full employment: this is no more than a utopian pipe dream while the world crisis of the capitalist system continues to force through av break-neck process of rationalisation and increaséd exploitation the mauraril sualaitatino in thr drive to raise the rate of profit.

While the press and mass media rumble on in their efforts to blow the smouldering witch-hunt against the Militant group into • the flames of a public heretical burning, the question most taxing Labour's right wing, is who can replace Callaghan?' He has already clearly hinted that he will duck out of the firing line lat the end of this Parliamentary session.

And if he is to be replaced under existing Labour Party rules, and run no risk of his successor being elected by any other than the right wing-led Parliamentary Labour Party, then indeed he must go in the next 18 months.

Lack-lustre

But his potential successois are all such lack-lustre performers that there appears Capitalism is an anarchic system of production which now acts as a fetter on the further development of the productive forces in Britain and on a world scale.

For Benn to talk of "reforms" that could create full employment is to sow the most wild illusions.

The only answer to unemployment is the mobilisation of the working class in defence of all jobs and to struggle for a system of work-sharing on full pay to divide the work available amongst the whole workforce.

Such a solution can only be attained in the overthrow. of capitalism and the establishment of a planned, socialist *Re-equipment: Benn calls for North Sea Oil money to be manufacturing industry.

But such "modernisation" is taking place now in whole sections of industry: it replaces workers by modern machinery Callaghan no obvious candidate who could impose the necessary authoritarian grip on the Party in order to crush the mounting swell of socialist opposition from the ranks.

Particularly worrying for the right wing must be the fact that the Party is undergoing an influx of thousands of new members, radicalised by the attacks of the Tory government, and looking to Labour as a means to fight back.

Benn and drives up unemployment and the rate of exploitation.

And the expansion of industry is held in check by the world capitalist slump and the low level of profitability in a system that produces goods not to satisfy social needs but simply to accumulate capital.

*Planned trade: Benn calls for measures to "protect our industries while they are being re-equipped"

This is simply a disguised version of the Labour 'lefts' old nationalist policy of import controis which seek i to protect" jobs' in British industry at the expense of jobs overseas.

As some of the most reactionary elements of the employers in Britain and steel bosses in the USA clamour more loudly for the self-same policy the left wing' defenders . o import controls find themselves resurrection of the attempts to suck trade union bureaucrats and shop stewards into management that were spearheaded by Benn while he was Industry Secretary during the first years of the Wilson government./ Among the bitter fruits of this policy were the "workers' participation" set-up brought into British Leyland under the Ryder Plan, and the "worker directors" who have helped ram home successive closures in the steel and shipbuilding industries.

Socialists fight not for a hand in implementing management decisions, but for the development of independent working class bodies to impose control over management, and ensure that basic rights, conditions and jobs are defended.

*Expansion in the public services: another Benn-style fantasy if separated from the struggle for the overthrow of the Tory government and the crisis-ridden capitalist system, which requires a frontal attack on the living standards of the working class.

Benn includes here not even a reference to the nationalisation of the profitable suppliers, contractors and bankers that feed off the public services: he merely looks forward to an expansion in these industries creating new jobs!

*A return to self-government: Benn here calls for at least a partial break from the EEC, but focusses not on the international struggle to smash this anti-working class bloc of European capitalists, but simply on the patriotic issues of British sovereignty, the power of the House of Commons, and the right to levy taxes.

*A fairer society: ignoring the record of the Labour government of which he was a leading member, which increased the gap between rich and poor in Britain, and slashed workers' living standards, Benn calls vaguely for a "more open, more democratic and more tolerant society"

But equality and genuine democracy for the mass of the population can only come on the basis of a material change in class society-the expropriation of the wealth and means of production at present monopo-, lised by a tiny few, and the development of a socialist society under the management of the working class.

*The right to be heard: Benn's old populist moan about the Tory press is transformed into an abstract call for "better ways of communicating with each other".

Yet such a change requires a struggle against the absolute power of the press barons, for workers' control over the press and mass media and, of course, for the expropriation of this key section of industry.

Only through such policies can the working class achieve any meaningful "right to be heard".

In consistently, on every point, directing away from the necessary fight and towards Parliamentary reforms within capitalism, Benn, like his fellow 'lefts, shows his inability to offer the- necessary consistent political alternative to the Callaghan-Healey leadership.

Socialist Press readers and Labour Party activists might be interested to probe the exploits of Jim Tinn, MP for Redcar, and Arthur Bottomley, Middlesbrough Teeside MP.

Tinn's non-appearance in the steel strike has caused many workers to ask where is this union-sponsored MP?

He has certainly not been found on any of the numerous picket lines in Cleveland.

His party branch has remained remarkably quiet over this, in contrast to Guisborough, where Socialist Press supporters and hand over he local premises won a vote to support ue suine te minnnot tha strilo to the steelworkers to coordinate activity.

Perhaps Mr Tinn might be asked about the allegations about Bottomley being a stockhokler in Redman's a Teeside steel firm who aren't on strike as yet, but where seven ISTC members have been arrested trying to stop private steel getting in or out.

Whatever else happens, there must be an investigation into Mr Tinn and Mr Bottomley's non-activity with their striking electorate..

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