As Johnson goes... now many

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'Exposed!' was the banner headline of the latest issue of the Newham Recorder. Three pages were devoted to the subject of infiltration into. Newham NorthEast Labour Party.

But this time the left was not the victim. The Recorder had suddenly "discovered" the sinister role played in the party by Mr. Julian Lewis-sent to carty out a right-wing coup by the use of court actions against Labour Party members.

Prentice Revealed were Lewis former membership of the Tory Party, his regular liaison with a state security agency while studying at Oxford University, and his methods of manoeuvre in general.

Why has the Recorder apparently broken from its usual stock-in-trade redbaiting?

The clue to answering this question can be found in the articles themselves if the reader can dig his way through the proliferation of High Court writs, accusations and counter-accusations.

An open struggle has now erupted between Lewis and other right wingers-supporters of the right of anti-union Reg Prentice to remain a Labour Party candidate.

Lewis' bogus Campaign for Representative Democracy' has one stated aim-to 'hammer the left' TRADITIONAL Councillor Jack Hart and Co-Newham's 'traditional' right-wing Labour bureaucrats are a little nervous at their erstwhile partners' zeal in pursuing this task.

Hart and his cronies have only ever been concerned with defence of Prentice and their own positions.

Lewis is moved by a 'higher ideal'. His backers are out to destroy the Labour Party from within altogether.

In the long term he has no need for Labour Councillors or even a Labour election machine.

The Recorder reveals that Lewis told Hart that if he stood in the way, "I'll hammer you too."

Thus Lewis' methods pose too much of a threat to the blood pressure, and potentially even the wallets of "near-geriatric Labour Councillors.

Needless to say, the articles in Recorder can be explained by the fact that the editor, Tom Duncan is a tried and tested supporter of the whole • Newham Labour bureaucracy in times of dire need-having even given Prentice his own weekly column to defend himself against attacks.

(The Recorder has recently been in the national news over action by the National Union of Journalists against its open incitement of race hatred).

Nevertheless the question asked in a previous issue of Socialist Press 'Who is Mr. Julian Lewis?' now has a widely accepted answer.

He Is the representative of ultra-right conspiracy which would be over-courteous describe as "Tory'.

Will the so-called 'lefts' in the Party leadership now change their position and take up the fight to expel this scum from the ranks of the workers movement once and for all ?

LEAGUE

LOBBY THE CONFERENCE Brighton, Tuesday Oct Take up the fight for a new leadership in the movement.

* BREAK THE LI COALITION!

* REMOVE THE CALLAGHAN - HEALEY LEADERSHIP!

* REJECT TUC AND PAY LIMITS!

*END UNEMPLOYMENT!

DEMAND A PROGRAMME OF USEFUL PUBLIC WORKS!

SUPPORT ALL ACTION TO STOP THE PUBLIC SPENDING CUTS !

* NO DEAL WITH IAN SMITH ! ARM THE AFRICAN WORKERS an it to Amid reams of sympathetic verbiage in the Tory press long-time Tory Paul Johnson-a former editor of the right wing Labourite New Statesman-has finally taken the plunge and resigned from the To the bewilderment of workers everywhere, Johnson is being universally portrayed as "one of the Labour Party's most brilliant and influential crusaders"-though of course no evidence of this "brilliance" or crusading quality is produced.

Johnson, in fact, has merely taken the anti-working class coalition line of the right wing Labour leaders to a more honest and open conclusion than Healey and Callaghan.

Powell-Colquhoun says he is "not a racialist"

While these ministers feel able with TUC backing to carry through Tory policy in harness with the Liberals and under the guise of Labour leaders, Johnson clearly feels impatient at the slower and more measured pace of the Lib-Lab coalition government's attacks on the rights and living standards of PHOTO: Chris Davies. Report the working class, compared with the direct confrontation politics offered by the Thatcher-Joseph wing of the Tory Party.

Unfortunately many elements within the Labour Party hierarchy who secretly share all of Johnson's hostility to the organised labour movement and vicious anti-communism insist on remaining within the Labour Party and act as the backbone of right wing support for Healey and Callaghan.

And while these forces stand tim, the 'left' talkers within the Parliamentary Labour farty, and the self-proclaimed "Trotskyists' of the Militant Group cringe and capitulate, refusing to mobilise any serious political offensive to drive them out.

Labour Party members now have the opportunity to use the Johnson episode to flush out the cryptoTories and crypto-Liberals in their ranks, and sharpen the fight for demands to regain and defend living standards.

Already the struggle for a clear line against racism has exposed the fake left positions of Tribunite MP for Northampton North, Maureen Colguhoun-whose support for Enoch Powell has led the local GMC to institute moves to replace her as candidate in the next election.

The popular demand put forward by the Labour Party ginger group "Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Party" for this year's conference simply centres on the call for reselection of all MPs between elections. More than 60 CLPs have backed this call.

The demand should be supported but must be combined with a political fight to expose and remove the advocates of coalition politics from the Labour Party, and for a class alternative political leadership to be built.