Right sition in Lab quiry

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PRESS There are clear signs that Labour's right wing are beginning to regain the upper hand in the early stages of the inquiry into the Party's administration.

As the momentum of the media witch-hunt against Trotskyists and socialists in the Party's ranks begins to slacken, the left wingers who were récently • forced into unaccustomed resistance to Callaghan and Healey have begun to give ground in a number of directions.

The inquiry has set up three subsidiary panels-designed. to enable the right wing to draw in hardened anti-communists and hacks from the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Party officialdom.

wingers Iro of the three rotating chaimen of the inqury - Dand Basacti and Michaei Foot-are sasoned right wingers: and Callaghan's efforts between nos d. his retirement are directed clusively at consondating his coactionary alliance with the union leaders on the inquiry •panel in the hopes of dealing a lethal parting shot at socialists in the Party.

This method of working is best designed to allow Callaghan fo break down the nominal left wing majority on the inquiry team itself, and push ahead with the various right wing proposals to draw the teeth of the rank and file and reassert the control or ine bureaucracy.

As evidence builds up to support the view that the British economy is already stagnant and teetering on the verge of a Tory-fuelled inflation, the inflation and balance of payments figures last week must have made APEX, for instance, has already submitted a document calling for a witch-hunt against Militant supporters and proposing changes in the composition of the NEC designed to gerrymander an inbuilt right wing majority.

New section The laughably misnamed "Campaign for Labour Victory" is also about to table proposals including the replacement of GMCs by meetings of the whole membership when major decisions are taken, and the abolition of the (left-wing) women's section of the NEC.

Both APEX and the CLV propose a new section of the NEC to include MPs elected by the right wing PLP.

Meanwhile the NEC's Organisation Committee has voted to recommend the reinstatement Foot .uu. with high interest rates taking their toll, companies face growing pressure on their profit margins.

Meanwhile the downturn in British industry is also reflected in the trade figures, in which the colossal revenues for North Sea Oil have proved insufficient of Oxford member Ted Heslin, expelled a year ago for supporting. the policies of Socialist Press.

This was not surprising, since an earlier proposal from this same committee that the NEC uphold Heslin's expulsion was voted down last month by 15-8 on the NEC.

But at the same time the Organisation Committee voted tentrism in the Labour Party -both by socialists. and-to appear impartial-by "bankers industrialists and the CIA".

It was agreed that veteran witch-hunter Lord Underhill be invited by this inquiry to publish his stale and tawdry collection of documents purporting to be written by Militant supporters-but that, since there remain doubts on the authenticity of the documents, they would go out in Underhill's name alone.

As sorkers in struggle against the Tories increasingly look to Labour for a political alternative, the Party's right wing leaders will redouble their efforts to stamp out the sightest hint of socialism in the rank and-file.

This means that the Party's 'left' wing, themselves confused as to the way forward, now face the most serious political challenge for many years.

If they do not now spearhead a struggle against the witch-hunters they face the danger of exposure in the eyes of a leftward moving rank and file, who can increasingly recognise the inability of reformist Basnett politics to resolve * their problems, and look for a principled, revolutionary leadership.

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our PHOTO: Laurie Sparham, IFL