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Labour leadership:

Foot, Silkin Healey Shore cut out PLP!

The shock waves generated by the moves towards democratic reforms within the Labour Party are still rocking the Labour Party.

The resignation of Callaghan has rightly been seen by thousands of Labour activists throughout the country as nothing more than a shabby manoeuvre by the right wing PLP leadership to cling on to control of the Party and frustrate the decisions of the Blackpool conference.

Callaghan hopes by his resignation to foist Denis Healey, co-author of all the reactionary policies of recent Labour governments, onto the Labour Party and the working class.

The plan is that Healey, closely identified with the military establishment, the Treasury and the IMF, be set up as leader of the PLP in a bid, with the aid of a few right wing union leaders, to railroad him through any future electoral college.

Every enemy of the labour movement, the unions and the working class, every Fleet Street hack and witch-hunter is cheering wildly for Healey.

This is not only because they support Healey's policies, but because they fear that the Blackpool reforms could throw up a leader who will no longer as in the past obediently take orders from the Treasury, NATO and Fleet Street.

The capitalist class have their overt faction now at work within the Labour Party. One symptom is the letter concocted by 62 right wing MPs who declared that:

"the system of election for the Party leader in Parliament is a matter of clear principle"

These MPs are part of a large reactionary caucus who oppose any rank and file voice in the policies or leadership of the They must be forced by their GMCs to repudiate this position or stand down.

On the other hand some left MPs and GMCs have already correctly called for suspension of the standing orders of the PLP and opposed moves to go ahead with the election.

It is these forces who represent the voice of the Party rank and file and the decisions of the Blackpool conference.

Arthur Scargill is right to point out that:

"It is my belief that constituents will not easily forgive any MP who goes against the wishes of the General Management Committee"

And it is in the GMCs, and in the trade union movement that Labour activists must raise with one voice the demand that this phony election be halted and the results it produces rejected by the whole labour movement.

The supposed 'choice of candidates in the PLP elections is a sick joke. All the spurious efforts of the press to award left' credentials to Shore and Silkin can easily be discarded.

Nor does the candidacy of Michael Foot alter this position. Foot long ago ensconced himself as the resident apologist for every rotten Callaghan policyfrom wage controls to the Lib-Lab pact. He cannot be regarded as in any sense a 'left' candidate.

Foot could only take over in his capacity as Deputy leader until such time as the reforms initiated at Blackpool have been Scargill clarified.

This is why Socialist Press stands firmly against the planned PLP elections. We urge Labour activists to call on every MP who claims to support the Blackpool reforms-and in particular the 17 who signed the letter calling for a suspension of PLP standing orders-to boycott any leadership election within the PLP.

London Labour moves left-back page.

The issue of just how an electoral college should be set up has begun to be discussed by Labour activists.

A meeting of the Rank and File Mobilising Committee on October 16, attended by delegates from the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement, put forward the following basic conditions for an electoral college:

1) Annual elections.

2) Voting at annual conference, with representation through direct votes for every organisation and MP. 3) At least two thirds of the total vote to go to CLPs and trade unions, with the PLP vote not to exceed that of CLPs. 4) Recorded voting, details to be available to every affiliated organisation, without which accountability is impossible.

5) Full provision for casual vacancies.

Such policies represent a step towards democracy, but they can only be agreed if they are linked to a number of further policies.

The first of these must be abolition of all rights for the No Cruise Assemble Speakers Corner 12 am. Sunday 26 October No to imperialist war drive! Defend the Soviet Union!

PLP. Although it is not possible to alter the votes of the PLP on the leadership issue from 100% to zero at one step, it is essential that this should remain at the centre of any future campaign.

It is also essential that the writing of the manifesto be taken away from the leader, and placed under the control of the NEC. The 3-year rule on constitutional changes must again be challenged.

But in addition the setting up of an electoral college can only be seen as a step towards election by the Party conference.

This in turn calls for moves to democratise the processes whereby trade union delegations arrive at policy decisions.

Meetings and conferences of political fund paying members should mandate delegations on key issues.

Only in this way can the union block vote system be brought under democratic control.

Such moves must be linked to the fight for policies of strike action against Tory cuts, defiance of the anti-union laws and full-scale mobilisation in defence of jobs and living standards.

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