Social democrats used to knife Labour

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Like a grotesque Frankenstein monster, cobbled together from the left-overs of previous reactionary pressure groups and campaigns, the new social democratic party to be launched this week is an artificial creation.

It has been laboriously pieced together with the aid of a deluge of free publicity in the mass media that has subtly shifted the Council for Social Democracy's image from the unsavoury connotations of the "Gang of Three" to the apparently respectable notion of responsible politicians of the "Centre" who reject "extremes" of both left and right.

Only through huge transfusions of synthetic public interest could four defeated and ostracised pro-capitalist dropouts from the Labour Party have been reconditioned and put back into service as a new party within the space of a mere two months.

But of course the social democrats themselves are not taken in by their own propaganda, or by the reppeatea, ridiculous opinion poll forecasts of their possible electoral That is why none of the Labour MPs or the renegade Tory Brocklebank-Fowler has any intention of putting their supposed support to the test by standing for re-election as a social democrat.

Weakest

They know full well that even the opinion polls have confirmed that their electoral standing is weakest in the constituencies they actually hold at present-where the issues are most openly posed.

They know that even the hundreds of cheques and letters they have received from middle class and capitalist sponsors around the country mean little in terms of actual, practical mass support.

Certainly they have as yet taken few supporters with them out of the Labour Party. Trounced at the last three Party conferences and shunned by the thousands of new members turning to the Labour Party as a way of fighting the Thatcher government, they have next to no support from the rank and file.

Their only hope is to utilise the media to the full in a coordinated attempt to win a base of support from confused layers of the middle class who oppose both Thatcher and socialist policies.

It is in part the existence of such layers that has persuaded sections of the capitalist class to lend their material backing to the new party-in the form of uncritical press coverage com bined with an intensified attacks on the supposed ultra-left policies of the Labour Party.

Unpopularity

The ruling class is plainly concerned at the massive unpopularity of the Thatcher government, which is now resulting in a growing crisis within both the Cabinet and the Tory Party in Parliament.

Particularly in the wake of the defeat inflicted on the government by the miners, the capitalist class now sees a real And while even the Liberals contain unilateralist, anti-war elements who can on occasion embarrass David Steel's leadership, the social democrats in a fusion with the Liberals would bring in a firm commitment to the hard-line pro-NATO, pro-nuclear missiles policies advocated by William Rodgers.

The new party thus fills an important role for the imperialists in Britain and on a world scale.

But while the bosses Tub their hands in glee, and churn out reams and hours of sycophantic news coverage to promote their new creation, workers should look to their mass political party.

For if the social democrats fit the needs of capital, the Healey/Foot leadership and the politics of the Labour Party in no way fit the needs of the working class.

In fact it is increasingly clear that Healey, Foot, Shore and Hattersley are acting as the Fifth Column left behind in the Labour Partv to carrv on the work of the Gang of Three.

They are fighting tooth and nail to reverse the democratic reforms of Blackpool and Wembley; they are looking for the means to witch-hunt socialists who oppose their right wing policies; and they are totally opposed to any fight for action to remove the Thatcher government before the next election in 1984.

As the new Frankenstein Party croaks its first reactionary sentences and embarks on its attacks on the working class, Tahour Partv memhers must Key to this is the building of