Labour Party MARXISTS labourpartymarxists.org.uk September 2015 Extraordinary tmes require extraordinary measures ur party must be reorganised constituents would turf them out at the him their vote. After that, however, from top to bottom. A special frst opportunity if they switched to the Corbyn owes everything to the mass Oconference - say in the spring Tories. Instead of the glories of high membership. Those already in and of 2016 - should be called by the ofce it would be the musty corridors those coming in. National Executive Committee with of the Lords. So expect them to wage That gives us the possibility of a view to overhauling the constitution a prolonged, sophisticated and utterly attacking the rightwing domination and rules and undertaking an across- ruthless fghtback. of the middle - the councillors, the the-board political reorientation. We must respond by constitutionally apparatus, the PLP - from below and As is well known, Labour members reversing the domination of the above. No wonder the more astute loathe the undemocratic rules and party by the PLP. Tory collaborators, minds of the bourgeois commentariat structures put in place by Blair. The saboteurs, the plain corrupt, must can be found expressing genuine joint policy committee, the national be hauled up before the NEC and concern about what will happen to policy forums, the whole sorry threatened with expulsion. If they their neoliberal consensus. rigmarole should be junked. The NEC refuse to abide by party discipline the Of course, there is the danger that must be unambiguously responsible whip must be withdrawn. We should will be drawn into for drafting manifestos. And, of course, democratically select and promote a series of rotten compromises. After the NEC needs to be fully accountable trustworthy replacement candidates. all, many advisors will argue that he to a sovereign conference. Keep all your powers ... temporarily If that results in a smaller PLP in the cannot form a shadow cabinet that The chances are that in the short term that is a price well worth mainly draws on the Campaign Group immediate aftermath of Jeremy the moment that strategy goes under Because of history, because of paying. and keep the PLP right wing on board. Corbyn’s victory there will be another the name, ‘Operation Corbyn’. Of numerical weight, because of fnancial Another potent weapon against the We say, do not try to stop the huge upsurge in membership. At course, today both the Rail, Maritime contributions, transforming the hard right is the demand that all our right if it wants to make a suicide the very least 100,000 more can and Transport union and the FBU are Labour Party is inseparably linked elected representatives should take jump. Corbyn should appoint a small, be expected. But in order to reach backing him … from outside Labour. with the fght to democratise the only the average wage of a skilled politically tight shadow cabinet. The out to the millions who are angry, Moreover, there are unions which have trade unions. All ofce-holders in worker. Here is a principle upheld by right should be kept out. Certainly the millions disgusted by corrupt never had an organised relationship the trade unions ought to be subject the Paris Commune and the Bolshevik the generous ofer by Labour’s “most career politicians, the millions who with us. Regrettably, Mark Serwotka, to regular election and be recallable. revolution. When it comes to existing senior MPs” to make Corbyn into believe that somehow a better world Public and Commercial Services No regional organiser, no president, salaries, the balance should be given their prisoner ought to be rejected is possible, the Labour Party ought union general secretary, was one of no general secretary should receive to the party. On current fgures, that outright. The idea of the “most senior to establish its own mass media. those turned away. But, instead of a salary higher than the average means around £40,000 from each MP MPs” is to declare an 18-month truce; Nowadays that must include internet- impotently complaining about it on wage of their membership. Frankly, (at present they are only obliged to pay that is, if Corbyn agrees that the PLP based TV and radio stations. Relying Twitter, he should turn the tables on Len McCluskey’s £140,000 pay the £82 parliamentarians’ subscription should elect the shadow cabinet. They on the favours of the bourgeois press the Blairites by bringing in his entire and pension package is totally rate). That would put a break on then want everything put through and media worked splendidly for Tony membership. Mark, fght to get PCS to unacceptable. Rules which serve to careerism and give a substantial fllip the shadow cabinet, so as to prevent Blair. But we will get nothing but lies, afliate. blunt, restrict or outlaw criticism of to our fnances. It ought to be a basic Corbyn from pursuing “loony left distortion and implacable opposition. the trade union bureaucracy must be principle that our representatives live policies” (Daily Mirror August 29 The dull-as-ditchwater publications Trade Unions rescinded. Put another way, no more like workers, not pampered members 2015). Shadow cabinet collective of the trade union bureaucracy and the For our part, we should commit the ‘monkey trials’. of the upper middle class. responsibility would gag him. confessional sects are a model of what Labour Party to reviving the trade Then there is the trade union While we Marxists want to see to avoid. They turn people of. But a union movement. The drop from 12 vote at conference. It should not Reclaiming the Bonapartist position of leader media which strives to tell the truth, million members in the late 1970s be cast by general secretaries, but Real Marxists, not fake Marxists, have abolished, it is crystal-clear that which encourages debate, which deals to some seven million today can be proportionately, in accordance with never talked of reclaiming Labour. today’s situation is extraordinary with difcult questions, is another reversed. Labour members should take the agreed political make-up of each It has never been ours in the sense and therefore requires extraordinary matter. We can surely do better than the lead in recruiting masses of new delegation. We have no wish to go of being a “political weapon for the measures. the BBC, Al Jazeera and Sky. trade unionists and restoring union back to the days when conference was workers’ movement”. No, despite the Corbyn should be urged in the Branding people as ‘infltrators’ strength in workplaces and society at dominated by four or fve men in suits. electoral and trade union base, our strongest terms to temporarily because, mainly out of frustration, they large. In line with this, strikes must Obviously the Parliamentary party has been dominated throughout maintain the leader’s power to supported the Greens, Tusc or Left be unashamedly supported. There Labour Party has to be brought into its entire history by professional appoint the shadow cabinet. A civil Unity in the last general election, does ought to be a binding commitment on line. No-one knows exactly what politicians and trade union bureaucrats. war is about to erupt and the left nothing to advance the socialist cause. councillors, MPs and MEPs to back will happen after the September 12 A distinct social stratum which in the needs every weapon it can get its Such a snarling response is worryingly workers in their struggle to protect special conference. But we should last analysis serves not the interests of hands on. So Corbyn should appoint reminiscent of the cold war bans and jobs, pensions and conditions. Those expect a campaign of manoeuvring, the working class, but the nation, ie, a shadow cabinet and - once again as proscriptions. New recruits ought to who refuse ought to be subject to resistance, non-cooperation and if that British capitalism. a temporary measure - maybe seek a be welcomed, not cold-shouldered. deselection. fails outright war. In fact the frst shots Labour is still a “bourgeois workers’ mandate for his choice from the NEC We are proud of being a federal The opt-in proposals contained in have already been fred. Blair’s ‘Alice party”. With Corbyn’s victory things or the annual conference. party. Therefore securing new Sajid Javid’s Trade Union Bill are part in Wonderland’ opinion piece in The have become rather more complex. Corbyn is still talking in a way one afliates ought to be at the top of our of a crude attempt to starve us of funds. Observer had nothing to do with a fnal Labour will become a chimera. would expect from a left reformist, agenda. Indeed we should actively But adversity can be transformed into plea in the leadership campaign. We Instead of a twofold contradiction we His team have been sending emollient seek to bring every leftwing group or opportunity. Necessity will oblige us all knew what the result was going to have a threefold contradiction. The left messages about party unity and taking party under our banner. Labour needs to campaign for hearts and minds if be. No, its purpose is perfectly clear. dominate both the top and bottom of on the Tory government together. But to become the common home of every the bill passes into law. Nevertheless, Rally the Blairites and their corporate, the party. have no doubt: the right will resort to socialist organisation, cooperative and the principle we fght for is perfectly state and international allies. Comrade Corbyn is not the unconstitutional methods in an attempt trade union - the agreed goal of our clear. All trade unionists should Given present circumstances, it is equivalent of to undermine, discredit, isolate and founders. In that same spirit, unions be obliged to pay the political levy. unlikely that the hard right will go for a or . It would be an then fnally oust him. In this it will be which have either disafliated or been Worryingly, we have met opposition to breakaway. Another Social Democratic elementary mistake to assume he was. aided and abetted not only by the City, expelled must be brought back into the this within the Labour Representation Party is an outside possibility. But They were promoted by the labour and the military-industrial complex and fold. Committee and the Campaign for at the last general election the Lib trade union bureaucracy after a severe the capitalist press and media. Special At the last Fire Brigades Union Labour Party Democracy. But the Dems were hammered. The centre crisis: namely Ramsay MacDonald’s branch, MI5 and their American national conference, general secretary obligation pay the political levy was ground has virtually disappeared treachery and ’s cousins will provide information, Matt Wrack asked those proposing agreed practice from 1900 till 1909 as a parliamentary force. Hence the winter of discontent. Corbyn’s advisors and coordination. If he is reafliation “what their strategy” of and, more importantly, fows directly Blairites have nowhere to go except leadership is, in the frst instance, going to succeed, comrade Corbyn changing Labour was, “because he from the basic requirements of the government benches. But, being the result of an historic accident. The will have to resort to revolutionary had never heard it”. Well, Matt, for working class collectivism. dedicated careerists, they know their ‘morons’ from the Burnham camp lent methods l ii LPM September 2015 Hoist by its own petard The right has given us a gift and we have used it. Charles Gradnitzer looks back and reminds us how it all came about his article attempts to explain the Bassetlaw constituency, the outcome of for 11 new members, which was actually the membership and the unions. This previous left challenges to the which would go on to drastically alter against the party rules, whereas the report is the result of NEC interference in Tleadership position and why they the course of Labour Party history. exonerated Unite of any wrongdoing. constituency selections and the fact that failed; the old electoral system and the Mann, convinced that there was a In spite of the report and the the Labour right has been well organised manufactured scandal that changed need to “widen democracy” and open police investigation, former Labour for years. There is very little organisation it; the current state of the Labour left; up the leadership election to the public, Party general secretary Ray Collins of the ‘’ or even ‘’. and the opportunities a Corbyn victory identified Labour supporters in his was asked to head a review to make There is no leftwing membership presents to the left and the grassroots constituency and conducted a ‘primary’ recommendations for party reform. organisation that regularly meets, holds membership of the Labour Party. to determine who he should vote for Collins, who had been assistant general press conferences, tries to win important As most people are aware, in the leadership election. At a cost of secretary of the Transport and General internal and parliamentary selections, won the leadership election in 1994. several thousand pounds he worked with Workers Union until 2008, recommended and produces economic policy He was standing against the Bassetlaw CLP and other volunteers most of the policies had tried documents. In short the left has nothing and self-professed “moron” Margaret to conduct a postal ballot of over 10,000 to push through in 2011: the abolition of analogous to Progress. A leftwing proto- Beckett, so it is safe to say that there was people who were said to be Labour the electoral college, the introduction of Progress exists in the sense that the left no left candidate. In 2006, anticipating supporters. Omov, mandatory opt-in afliation of does some of these activities, but it is not that Blair would be stepping down Writing for Progress magazine in Wanted to placate the right union members, new rights for registered organised into one organisation. the following year, John McDonnell July 2010, - who was, of supporters, including the right to vote Luke Akehurst, the secretary of announced that he intended to stand as course, standing as a leadership candidate that registered supporters “could be in the leadership election. In order , produced an interesting the leftwing candidate in order to ensure - praised John Mann’s primary. In his given votes in leadership elections as to appease the Parliamentary Labour article on what he calls the “hard left” there would be a debate within the party article he stated that membership fees if they were afliated members”.1 This Party, Collins recommending raising for his blog. The situation he describes and not simply a ‘coronation’ of Gordon were a barrier to participation, that he prediction was not entirely hard to make, the threshold for leadership nominations is basically right: the ephemeral left Brown as Blair’s successor. wanted to create an afliate membership given that Progress had been pushing from 12.5% to 15% of Labour MPs. organises through “networks” of In 2007, a few months before Blair (ie, ‘registered supporters’), and that as for primaries, using Mann’s Bassetlaw The Collins review was put to a special Facebook groups, email lists, phone set a formal date for his resignation, leader of the Labour Party he would look experiment as a case study on widening conference, to which I was delegated calls, and meetings of various established announced his to include registered supporters in future political engagement with the party. in 2014. The Labour left vociferously groups. However, his claim that these intention to stand. Meacher had been internal elections and selections. (To opposed the recommendations, while “networks” are an “experienced and in the Socialist Campaign Group with Burnham’s dismay Labour supporters Falkirk and Collins they were supported by the centre and highly motivated machine” is grossly McDonnell until 1983, when he was in Bassetlaw voted for With Progress gunning for opt-in the right. In the run-up to conference exaggerated. expelled after he joined the shadow in the primary and John Mann cast his affiliation and Omov to reduce the delegates received numerous letters The Labour Representation cabinet. He was a minister for 20 years ballot accordingly.) “power of the unions” in the Labour from urging them to vote Committee, set up in 2004, is not (and even voted for the invasion of Iraq) Stephen Twigg, the chair of the Party, the executive committee of the for the reforms. One such letter told the capable of organising anything on the until he fell out with Blair and returned rightwing Progress group from 2005 Unite union adopted a new political story of Paul, a lifelong trade unionist scale that is needed. It has its conferences to the backbenches in 2003. After this he to 2010 and its current honorary strategy in 2011 to “reclaim Labour”. and fgment of Miliband’s imagination, and some of its comrades sell Labour began to move back to the left and attack president, wrote a contribution to The The strategy consisted of three major who finally joined the Labour Party Briefng at meetings, but beyond that Blair over Iraq. purple book, published by Progress in goals: maintaining the union link; after the reforms were announced - on it does not really do a great deal. It is So in 2007 we arrived at a situation 2011. In his chapter, entitled ‘Letting the increasing the number of trade union the basis that “until now the party never haemorrhaging members and looks like where the left was felding two candidates people decide: redistributing power and or “trade union-friendly” prospective felt democratic. It never felt like one I it is on the verge of collapse. in a leadership election - presumably to renewing democracy’, he stated: parliamentary candidates; and could join.” Andrew Fisher, who was joint make up for the failure to stand anyone increasing the number of trade unionists The event itself was a stage-managed secretary of the LRC with Pete Firmin, at all in 1994. But with two days to go In 2005 only 1.3% of the electorate in constituency Labour Parties in order stitch-up. The frst sign of this was that it started the Left Economics Advisory before the close of nominations Meacher was a member of a political party, to secure the success of the first two turned out there had been no conference Panel, which, as the name suggests, stepped down and asked his supporters a fall from 4% in 1983 … The goals. arrangements committee and therefore produces ‘leftwing’ (ie, neo-Keynesian) to back John McDonnell, who was fall in membership has resulted Though Progress had failed to no CAC report. A number of CLPs had economic policy documents and press relying on nominations from Meacher’s in fewer people being involved in get primaries, opt-in affiliation and submitted emergency motions which releases. Fisher has also written a book supporters and those of the centre- selecting Labour’s MPs. The average Omov into the Refounding Labour were not on the agenda and, when this called Austerity: the failed experiment. left deputy leadership candidate, Jon constituency Labour Party has around recommendations, its opportunity fnally was pointed out to conference, Angela The Campaign for Labour Party Cruddas. However, much of Meacher’s 300 members. This equates to a arrived in 2013, when Unite’s political Eagle assured delegates from the chair Democracy tends to concentrate on support came from MPs who did not see very small percentage of the local strategy blew up in its face. In July that that the CAC had met in January. But internal party matters: electing people to McDonnell, a rebellious backbencher, as population. When candidates were year, Eric Joyce, the disgraced former if it met in January it would not have the conference arrangements committee, a credible candidate and the Brownites selected by large memberships 50 Labour MP for Falkirk, accused Unite been able to consider submitted motions the NEC, the ; subsequently pressured 14 of Meacher’s years ago, it was easier to see how of rigging the selection process. or actually do any arranging, because submitting soft-left contemporary supporters not to nominate McDonnell. they refected the wishes of the local The Unite convenor at Grangemouth the Collins review was not published motions to conference and rule changes Cruddas supporters also failed to back population. oil refnery, Stephen Deans, had become till February. aimed at making the Labour Party more him and in the end he fell 16 nominations How, then, could Labour seek to the chair of Falkirk West CLP shortly The conference went on as planned. democratic and accountable to the short of the 45-MP threshold. This meant increase the infuence of ordinary after Joyce had resigned after nutting General secretary after general secretary membership. that , with a total of 313 people over the decision of who a Tory MP in the House of Commons stood up to denounce the reforms, but in A group not mentioned by Luke nominations, was elected unopposed and represents them? One way would be bar. Deans began to implement Unite’s the end it was all hot air. When it came Akehurst is Socialist Action. Few people the leadership conference was reduced to to introduce closed primaries … political strategy in Falkirk, recruiting to the vote, 96% of the unions (with know who is in SA because when it split the coronation McDonnell had predicted union members from Grangemouth into the honourable exception of the Bakers from the International Marxist Group it in 2006. He went on to advocate ending the the CLP. While Deans was chair the size Union) and 74% of the CLPs voted for began to pursue a ‘deep entryist’ strategy. When Brown resigned as both automatic afliation of union members of the CLP doubled from fewer than 100 the reforms, giving a total of 86.29% It is so secretive I would wager there will prime minister and leader of the Labour in favour of an opt-in system; and members to over 200. in favour and 13.71% against. The be members of Socialist Action who do Party after the 2010 general election, abolishing the electoral college in favour Falkirk West had agreed to have an all- experiment conducted by John Mann not know each other. It does not organise which resulted in a hung parliament, of ‘one member, one vote’ (Omov) women shortlist, which would exclude in 2010 had borne fruit. openly. You can sometimes guess who the Miliband brothers and - “opening up access to the Labour the Progress candidate, Gregor Poynton. is in it - if they once worked as advisors declared their intention to stand, while Party and how it operates should be an However, when it was discovered that Labour left for when he was comrade McDonnell also announced important organisational goal”, he said. the trade union-friendly Katie Myler was In 2015 the Labour Party suffered a London mayor, for example, or today that he would stand again. But once When Ed Miliband became leader in Unite’s preferred candidate, Progress crushing defeat under Ed Miliband. In they talk about defcit reduction through again there was a second left candidate 2010, he immediately set about reviewing went apeshit, with Scotland the party was all but wiped investment rather than public-sector cuts. - , a fellow member of the the party structure - as Blair had done in warning Miliband at the 2013 Progress out. This defeat had major ramifcations Membership of these groups tend Socialist Campaign Group - and this 1997 - through a bogus “consultation” conference that the unions were trying for the political composition of the PLP. to overlap and they mostly stand for time McDonnell dropped out, asking known as Refounding Labour. Party to “take over” the party. Seven sitting Campaign Group and various positions under the banner of the his supporters to back Abbott. However, units and individual members were In March 2013 the Labour NEC Left Platform MPs were wiped out by Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance. A fact she went out in the frst round, having asked to make submissions to this created a subcommittee to investigate the Scottish National Party, and five that did not go unnoticed by Akehurst, received the lowest vote of any candidate review, but when the recommendations claims that Unite had signed up and paid Campaign Group MPs stood down and who points out how undemocratic this from the parliamentary and constituency were published it was clear that the party for members without their knowledge were replaced by candidates that are not arrangement is. He notes that the name is sections of the electoral college (though had, at best, cherry-picked submissions and the report was published in June that leftwing. ironic, given that one of the main groups she did head Andy Burnham and Ed Balls - in all likelihood the recommendations year. As a result both Katie Myler and The 11 left ex-MPs would have been in the CLGA is the Campaign for Labour in the union and afliate section). So it were a foregone conclusion and the Stephen Deans were suspended from enough to put Corbyn on the ballot Party Democracy. The CLGA also has was ‘Red Ed’ who won the leadership submissions were mostly ignored. the party and Falkirk was placed under without any nominations from MPs a website that carries reports from the election in 2010, narrowly beating his The end result of this review was the “special measures”. The report was who later regretted it. In addition to this CLPD about NEC and NPF meetings, brother, David Miliband, thanks to introduction of ‘registered supporters’. handed to the police in the hope that 18 Left Platform PPCs were stood in conference, and other Labour Party the “pernicious infuence” of the trade These did not have to pay a fee, but were Unite would be charged with fraud, but Conservative strongholds, continuing a internal afairs. unions - a truly bizarre claim, given that largely election fodder. They were not Police Scotland concluded that “there are tradition of parachuting centrist and right The Centre for Labour and Social the vote of a union member was worth involved in internal party selections - if insufcient grounds to support a criminal wing candidates into Labour strongholds Studies is also worth mentioning because 0.13% of that of an MP. they were involved in the party at all. investigation at this time”. while sticking socialists in unwinnable when it was launched it was described The Labour left saw straight through In one of the most infuriating seats. in as a “leftwing antidote Experiment Refounding Labour: it was a step examples of the pot calling the kettle One of the most striking things about to Blairite pressure group Progress”. What was interesting about the 2010 towards achieving the rule changes black, the report revealed that the Blairite the Corbyn campaign has been that it Owen Jones describes it in similar, election was a little noticed experiment Progress wanted to make. Writing in candidate backed by Progress, Gregor reveals how badly the parliamentary though less hostile terms, as the left’s conducted by John Mann in his Left Futures, Jon Lansman predicted Poynton, had paid party subscriptions party refects the views and wishes of answer to Progress. Considering it has LPM September 2015 iii

Sally Hunt from the University and The first sign that Corbyn was complete, a ‘Clause V’ meeting is College Union and Sir Paul Kenny on reaching out to people beyond the held, where various delegates from the its national advisory panel, I would notoriously insular world of online cabinet, the unions, the backbenches, question whether this think-tank could leftism was at the Newsnight Labour the NEC and the NPF select which bits really be considered leftwing. The Party leadership hustings on June 17. of the programme will go into the party Our aims advisory panel also includes the former During the hustings Corbyn had the manifesto. It is widely know that much leader of Respect, Salma Yaqoob, so it is most audible support, even though he of the FYP documents and almost all of not really even part of the Labour Party. did not capitulate, as the other candidates the contemporary resolutions are left out In addition to this there is the did, to one particular chauvinist in the or, if they are included, they are often and Socialist Campaign Group of MPs audience. reworded. This has yet to be quantifed, of which Corbyn is a member. It was In July YouGov dropped a polling but the CLPD has commissioned a report set up in 1982 as a split from the bombshell: Corbyn would win in the in order to identify all the diferences Tribune group after Kinnock and other fnal round with 53%. At frst this poll between the party programme and last principles members of Tribune abstained in the was dismissed, but to the terror of the year’s manifesto. deputy leadership election in 1981, centre and the right such fndings kept This process was supposed to widen costing the job. Amusingly, on coming in. Poll after poll was putting participation in drafting the manifesto, 1. The central aim of La- achieved in Britain in iso- Corbyn’s refrain that his candidacy Corbyn in first place. In addition to but in reality it has shut members bour Party Marxists is to lation from Europe and the is “not about personalities, but about this the supporting nominations from out of that process even more. Most transform the Labour Party rest of the world. policies” is exactly what Benn said unions and constituency parties were delegates to conference do not know into an instrument for work- 8. Socialism is the rule of in 1981 when he stood against Denis also rolling in. In the end Corbyn had the what is going on, and this lack of ing class advance and inter- the working class over the Healey for deputy leader. support of 36 MPs, two MEPs, six major knowledge is compounded by the fact national socialism. Towards global economy created Two other ‘groups’ worth trade unions, 152 constituencies, and that the speeches in favour of the FYP that end we will join with by capitalism and as such mentioning are the Left Platform, two afliated socialist societies, putting document usually do not correspond others and seek the closest is antithetical to all forms which was actually the name used for him ahead of the other three candidates. to the contents of the document. And, unity of the left inside and of British nationalism. De- a statement put out before the general The campaign has exceeded the even if delegates do understand what outside the party. mands for a British road to election, signed by sitting Labour MPs wildest expectations of many comrades. is happening, I would wager that only 2. Capitalism is synony- socialism and a withdrawal and PPCs. The second consists of the He has been speaking to packed-out a tiny minority have actually read the mous with war, pollution, from the European Union 10 newly elected Labour MPs who, meetings across the country and the FYP document. In the unlikely case that waste and production for its are therefore to be opposed. after winning the election, wrote an party has doubled in size. 160,000 they have and they disagree with it, the own sake. Attempts to rescue 9. Political principles and open letter committing themselves to people registered as members, afliates, only option they have is to vote for or the system through Keynesi- organisational forms go anti-austerity politics. Among the list or supporters in the last 24 hours before against it: it cannot be amended or taken an remedies are diversion- hand-in-hand. The Labour of signatories are Corbyn supporters the registration closed. in parts at annual conference. ary and doomed to fail. The Party must become the such as , Neither is the national policy forum democratic and social gains umbrella organisation for and . Opportunities itself transparent or accountable. of the working class must all trade unions, socialist There are, as I see it, two opportunities Nobody knows what goes on at the be tenaciously defended, but groups and pro-working Nomination here for the left: the frst is democratic NPF: it is not live-streamed or minuted, capitalism must be supersed- class partisans. Hence all The Left Platform is worth mentioning reform of the Labour Party to undo the and delegates do not give report-backs, ed by socialism. the undemocratic bans and because its post-election meeting put damage Tony Blair did. The second is a so you cannot know how your delegates 3. The only viable alterna- proscriptions must be done the dire state of the Labour left into serious regroupment of the left within have voted. You do not know which tive is organising the work- away with. perspective. On May 12, it met in the party. amendments were even considered or ing class into powerful and 10. The fght to democratise London to discuss the prospects of To grasp the frst opportunity, we must on what basis they were accepted or thoroughly democratic trade the Labour Party cannot be standing an anti-austerity candidate. frst understand what is undemocratic rejected; nor do you know who voted unions, co-ops, and other separated from the fght to John McDonnell, having failed to get about the Labour Party. In 1997 the for or against them. Even if you did, the schools for socialism, and democratise the trade un- enough nominations in the last two annual conference adopted Tony Blair’s Clause V meeting which determines the crucially into a political par- ions. Trade union votes at leadership elections, immediately ruled changes to the way the party programme manifesto renders the entire exercise of ty which aims to replace the Labour Party conferences himself out. Comrade McDonnell and and manifesto were developed. This was creating a party programme redundant rule of the capitalist class should be cast not by general other MPs thought that they could get known as Partnership into Power and it - the participants are appointed, not with the rule of the working secretaries but proportion- at most 16 nominations, due to the 2015 remains in place to this day. The changes delegated, and the meeting is not exactly class. ately according to the polit- wipe-out of the Campaign Group and introduced six policy commissions, the transparent. 4. The fght for trade union ical balance in each delega- the lack of new socialist MPs. NPF and the joint policy committee, This entire process has to be changed freedom, anti-fascism, wom- tion. At frst there was a campaign to get and used these new bodies, along with and Corbyn must commit himself to en’s rights, sexual freedom, 11. All trade unions should to stand. There was even ‘contemporary resolutions’, to reduce doing this. As previous leaders have republican democracy and be encouraged to afliate, all a change.org petition to put pressure the role of conference in determining done, he could organise a review - similar opposition to all imperialist members of the trade unions on him, but once it became obvious the party programme. to Partnership into Power or Refounding wars are inextricably linked encouraged to pay the politi- he was not going to put his name The policy commissions - which Labour, only less reactionary - in order to working class political in- cal levy and join the Labour forward, the left started searching for comprise 16-20 members representing to simplify the process, as well as dependence and the fght for Party as individual members. an alternative. Some wanted Michael the government, the NEC and the making it democratic and transparent. I socialism. 12. The party must be reor- Meacher to stand as the anti-austerity NPF - produce policy documents for am not sure that going back to cobbling 5. Ideas of reclaiming the ganised from top to bottom. candidate, given that he was one of the the national policy forum and the joint together often contradictory policy from Labour Party and the return Bring the Parliamentary La- initiators of the Left Platform, but he had policy committee (JPC) to discuss. The party conferences at a Clause V meeting of the old clause four are bour Party under democratic already indicated that he was going to JPC acts as a steering group for the NPF, is the best approach, but a simplifed, totally misplaced. From the control. The position of La- back Andy Burnham. It was then that and is made up of representatives from accountable, transparent, representative beginning the party has been bour leader should be abol- comrade Corbyn took up the mantle. the cabinet, the NEC and the NPF itself. body - with recallable delegates - that dominated by the labour bu- ished along with the nation- The best anybody on the Labour left It determines what policy the NPF will is responsible for drafting the party reaucracy and the ideas of al policy forum. The NEC was hoping for at that point was that debate and when. The NPF is made up programme and manifesto would reformism. The party must should be unambiguously Corbyn would get enough airtime to of 194 representatives from all sections be a good start; the role of the party be refounded on the basis responsible for drafting La- put forward an anti-austerity position of the party - CLP members and trade conference should be to debate, amend, of a genuinely socialist pro- bour Party manifestos. before the nominations closed, but union delegates have the greatest insert and delete sections of the party gramme as opposed to social 13. The NEC should be after his Facebook page exploded a representation, but it also includes the programme and manifesto. democratic gradualism or elected and accountable campaign was mounted to secure him entire NEC. There is a whole raft of other bureaucratic statism. to the annual conference, enough nominations to get on the Each year the NPF produces a report measures that I would like to see: the 6. The aim of the party which must be the supreme ballot paper. The campaign argued that and presents it to the annual conference. abolition of trigger ballots, the ability should not be a Labour gov- body in the party. Instead of the inclusion of Corbyn would widen Conference votes on the document as a of constituency parties to recall sitting ernment for its own sake. a tame rally there must be the debate and enfranchise thousands whole, which is several hundred pages MPs and councillors, the end of NEC History shows that Labour democratic debate and bind- of members who would otherwise not long. Each report represents one of interference in parliamentary selections, governments committed to ing votes. engage with the leadership election. three stages of the policy development a serious campaign to get all trade managing the capitalist sys- 14. Our elected represent- Elements of the centre and the right - process: stage one is a single document unions and other socialist groups to tem and loyal to the existing atives must be recallable including Luke Akehurst - supported that considers the “big challenges” of the afliate to the party, and an end to bans constitutional order create by the constituency or oth- his inclusion on the ballot in the hopes day; stage two outlines specifc policies and proscriptions of socialist groups. disillusionment in the work- er body that selected them. that Corbyn would be humiliated during to tackle them; stage three produces the The second opportunity is a serious ing class. That includes MPs, MEPs, the leadership debate and the “hard left” draft ‘fnal year policy’ document. Once regroupment of the left. Hundreds of 7. Labour should only- MSPs, AMs, councillors, would be crushed and demoralised. the draft FYP document is passed by thousands of people have fooded into consider forming a gov- etc.Without exception elect- Tens of thousands of Labour conference, the party is then asked to the party since the general election. ernment when it has the ed representatives should members and supporters bombarded submit amendments to it. These are As many as two thirds of these people active support of a clear ma- take only the average wage MPs via email and social media in order taken to the fnal NPF, where they are have joined in order to support Jeremy jority of the population and of a skilled worker, the bal- to get him on the ballot. It was clear debated, and the fnal version is agreed Corbyn. Currently a small proportion has a realistic prospect of ance being donated to fur- from some of the responses that this by consensus. This document is taken are meeting at phone banks in order to implementing a full socialist thering the interests of the pressure from the grassroots accounted to the annual conference, and once it canvass for him. They are also gathering programme. This cannot be labour movement l for at least some of the support. Other is rubber-stamped it becomes the party at meetings of local Red Labour groups, MPs clearly nominated Corbyn in order programme. which were recently established and to shield Burnham from claims that he At the annual conference the unions largely existed on social media until was too leftwing and in the pocket of and constituency parties are able to they branched out into the real world. If you agree with LPM’s aims and the unions. submit contemporary resolutions, which It would be an absolute disaster if the principles or want to contact us, The morning that the nominations can only address matters that the NPF left failed to turn the waves of Corbyn closed it did not look as though he was could not discuss in its reports, so they supporters fooding into the party from write to: going to make it onto the ballot - in spite have to pertain to events that have an amorphous mass into something BCM Box 8932, London WC1N 3XX. of the optimistic editorial in the Morning occurred in the three months between more concrete l Star and assurances from his campaign the last NPF meeting and the conference team that they had enough support from (hence the name ‘contemporary Notes Or email MPs. But that morning there was a last- resolution’). They are only added to the 1. www.leftfutures.org/2011/07/refounding-la- minute surge of nominations and as the programme if they receive two-thirds bour-attacks-union-infuence-and-will-disap- [email protected] clock struck 12 he had made it onto the majority support. point-members. ballot. Once this bureaucratic process is 2. The Guardian August 16 2012. iv LPM September 2015 A new clause four James Marshall calls for the adoption of new principles and objectives

review of our constitution is surely on the cards. AUnderstandably, clause four - agreed in 1918 and then rewritten under Tony Blair in 1995 - has been singled out. It carries totemic status for partisans both of the right and left. But should the left seek to raise the 1918 Lazarus? Or should we audaciously reach out for another future? Asked if he wanted to bring back the old clause four, said this: “I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that’s restoring clause four as it was originally written or it’s a diferent one. But we shouldn’t shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways.”1 Very moderate. Nonetheless very welcome. True, the 1918 clause four (part four) committed us to “secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service”. Moment Mistakenly, this is often fondly We must look to refound our party remembered as a defining socialist moment. But when it was first for the Russian Revolution into safe, capitalists. The mass of the population, association of producers creates the the commitment to comprehensive drafted - amidst the slaughter of inter- peaceful and exclusively constitutional meanwhile, remain exploited wage- benign conditions which allow for the education, out went the commitment imperialist war - the calculated aim of channels. That did not stop prime slaves. They would be subject to the full development of each and every to full employment, out went the Sidney Webb, its Fabian author, was minister David Lloyd George from same hierarchal chain of command, the individual. commitment to repeal the Tories’ threefold. declaring, in his closing speech of the same lack of control, the same mind- Admittedly, the old clause four anti-trade union laws, out went Firstly, clause four socialism must 1918 general election campaign, that numbing routine. resulted from a far-reaching cultural the commitment to “the common be implicitly anti-Marxist. Webb the “Labour Party is being run by the Marxism, by contrast, is based on shift - the Russian Revolution has ownership of the means of production, well knew the history of the workers’ extreme pacifst Bolshevik group”.3 an altogether diferent perspective. If already been mentioned. But there distribution and exchange”. movement in Germany. Karl Marx Almost needless to say, clause it is to win its freedom, the working is also the 1867 Reform Act and By sacrifcing the old clause four famously mocked various passages in four was mainly for show. A red class must overthrow the existing the extension of the franchise, the in the full glare of publicity Blair the Gotha programme (1875), not least ribbon around what was the standing state. But - and this is crucial - in so considerable popularity of socialist and his clique sought to those which declared that every worker programme of social liberalism. Yet, doing the proletariat “abolishes itself propaganda, the growth of trade appease the establishment, the City, the should receive a “fair distribution even if it had been put into efect, clause as a proletariat, abolishes all class unions, the formation of the Labour Murdoch empire, the global plutocracy. of their proceeds of labour” and four socialism would remain statist, distinctions and antagonisms, abolishes Party and the horrors of World War Capitalism would be absolutely safe in that “the proceeds of labour belong elitist and antithetical to working class also the state as state”.5 Capitalist I. Because of all this, and more, their hands. A New Labour government undiminished with equal right to all self-liberation. Capitalism without relations of production and the whole capitalism was widely considered could be relied upon not even to pay members of society”.2 Contradictory capitalists does not count amongst bureaucratic state apparatus are swept abhorrent, outmoded and doomed. lip service to a British version of state and vacuous, concluded Marx. What our goals. Railways, mines, land, away. Every sphere of social life sees As a concomitant, socialism became capitalism. Leftwingers such as Tony is fair? What about replacement electricity, etc, passes into the hands control exercised from below. All the common sense of the organised Benn, , Diane Abbott means of production? What about of the British empire state.4 Capitalist positions of command are elected or working class. and Ken Livingstone protested, trade the expansion of production? What owners are bought out. Eased into a chosen by lot and are regularly rotated. Of course, what the Fabians meant union leaders grumbled, but the April about those unable to work? More comfortable retirement. But, as they Hierarchy is fattened. Alienation is by socialism was a self-proclaimed 1995 special conference voted by 65% than that, Marx put these and other vacate the feld of production, a new overcome. What is produced and extension of social liberalism. The in favour of Blair’s new clause four. such woolly formulations down to an class of state-appointed managers how it is produced radically alters Fabians would gradually expand social Needless to say, his version is unneeded concession to the followers enters the fray. In terms of the division too. Need, not exchange, is the welfare provision and harness the stuffed full of managerial guff and of Ferdinand Lassalle. His Workers’ of labour, they substitute for the ruling principle. And alone such an commanding heights of the economy classless nonsense. Just what one programme (1862) called for “an equal with a view to promoting the national would expect from the architect of right to the undiminished proceeds of interest. New Labour. After all, one of Blair’s labour”. Obviously Webb wanted to In other words, the big ideas was to replace ‘socialism’ give clause four a distinct Lassallean Alternatve Fabians consciously sought to with ‘social-ism’. Another was coloration not out of admiration for ameliorate the mounting contradictions communitarianism. But, of course, the Lassalle, but because he wanted between labour and capital and thus media glowed with admiration. to distance the Labour Party from proposed by LPM put of socialism. As Fredrick Engels Demands for a return of the Marxism. Objectives damningly noted, “fear of revolution old clause four are perfectly Secondly, by adopting clause four 1. Labour is the federal party of every individual fully realising is their guiding principle”.6 And, understandable. But why go back to socialism, the Labour Party could both of the working class. We their innate potentialities. needless to say, the years 1918-20 a Fabian past? l distinguish itself from the exhausted, strive to bring all trade unions, 3. Towards that end Labour witnessed army mutinies, colonial divided and rapidly declining Liberal cooperatives, socialist societies commits itself to achieving uprisings, a massive strike wave and Notes Party and please the trade union and leftwing groups and parties a democratic republic. The brutal Black and Tan oppression meted 1. The Independent August 21 2015. bureaucracy. Since the 1890s the TUC under our banner. We believe that standing army, the monarchy, out in Ireland. 2. K Marx and F Engels CW Vol 24, London had been drawing up various wish lists unity brings strength. the House of Lords and the state 1989, p83. 3. Quoted in R Miliband Parliamentary social- of what ought to be nationalised; eg, 2. Labour is committed to sponsorship of the Church of Blairisaton ism London 1973, p64n. rails, mines, electricity, liquor and land. replacing the rule of capital England must go. We support Nevertheless, the Blairisation of 4. The Fabians supported the British government Clause four socialism also usefully with the rule of the working a single chamber parliament, clause four in 1995 was hugely in the 1899-1902 Boer War. They justifed their went along with the grain of Britain’s class. Socialism introduces a proportional representation and symbolic, the ground being laid by the stand in a pamphlet, edited by Bernard Shaw, Fa- bianism and the empire (1900). They did not want wartime experience. There was democratically planned economy, annual elections. Eurocommunists and their Marxism Britain to lose out when it came to the division of steadily expanding state intervention ends the ecologically ruinous 4. Labour seeks to win the active Today journal. Socialism was declared the world by the great imperial powers. As might in the economy. Nationalisation cycle of production for the sake backing of the majority of people dead and buried, the working class a be expected, the Fabians wanted a civilising Brit- was, as a result, widely identified of production and moves towards and forming a government on this shrinking minority. Only if Labour ish empire. The white dominions should be given self-government. However, “for the lower breeds” with efficiency, modernisation and a stateless, classless, moneyless basis. accepted capitalism and reached there should be a “benevolent bureaucracy” of beating the foreign enemy. It therefore society that embodies the 5. We shall work with others, in out to the middle classes would British civil servants and military ofcials guiding appealed to technocratically minded principle “from each according to particular in the European Union, it have a future. , them to “adulthood” (G Foote The Labour Party’s elements amongst the middle classes. their abilities, to each according in pursuit of the aim of replacing John Smith and finally Tony Blair political thought London 1985, p29-30). 5. K Marx and F Engels CW Vol 25, London 1987, Thirdly, clause four socialism could to their needs”. Alone such benign capitalism with working class rule dragged the party ever further to the p267. be used to divert the considerable conditions create the possibility and socialism l right. Out went the commitment to 6. K Marx and F Engels CW Vol 50, New York rank-and-fle sympathy that existed unilateral disarmament, out went 2004, p83.