A Socialist Worker pamphlet by Charlie Kimber , Labour and the fight for Third edition Contents

Introduction...... 3

The earthquake...... 5

Labour’s MPs...... 9

A brief history of Labour...... 11

The golden years?...... 18

Thatcher’s assault...... 25

What was ?...... 29

The problems with Labour...... 34

Can we change society through parliament?...... 38

The revolutionary alternative...... 44

Further reading...... 51

First published: November 2015 Reprinted: July 2016 and September 2017 The fight for socialism 3

Corbyn’s election rallies drew crowds (and enthusiasm) that other leaders only dream of Photo: Guy Smallman Introduction Labour won Canterbury and Portsmouth South—seats it has not won he British general election on 8 June since they were created in 1918. T2017 was a shattering setback for Labour won a higher percentage share the Tories. It was also a vindication of than in the two elections of 1974, 1979, the radical message from Labour leader 1983, 1987, 1992, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2015. Jeremy Corbyn. The Copeland defeat was the result of The results showed that Britain was years of erosion of the Labour vote under not, in general, a right wing country and the right leadership of , Gordon that the left can win. Brown and . Before the vote media pundits The bosses’ magazine and right wing Labour MPs all gave lamented that, “Chronic instability has apocalyptic warnings of a landslide defeat taken hold of British politics,”’ and it “will caused by Corbyn’s leadership. be hard to suppress”. They said Corbyn’s left wing politics The political tumult, and the put Labour out of touch with most possibility of fundamental change, that working class people who, they insisted, has swept so many other parts of the would support only right wing policies. world has now come to Britain. Instead Labour gained 30 seats and ten The ’ star columnist percentage points on its vote share. It was Janan Ganesh wrote on the day after the biggest increase in popular support the general election, “The stablest of during a campaign in British electoral democracies has become the Western history. world’s box of surprises.” 4 The fight for socialism

The Grenfell Tower fire crystallised much of what is wrong with capitalist Britain Photo: Ben Windsor All the pro-capitalist certainties about John Sweeney, a BBC the unchallenged rule of the market reporter, who was among the and the impossibility of breaking from demonstrators, was unnerved by the austerity have gone. And substantial mood. “Politics has left parliament and sections of the population have given gone into the streets,” he said. politicians, commentators and the media Labour did well at the election because a profound kick up the arse. its manifesto offered hope, and an end to Such developments are the result the remorselessly pro-business policies of a long process. They are rooted, for that are instinctive for most politicians. example, in the bitterness against both the And, crucially, Corbyn’s campaign Tories and New Labour, year after year was not confined to TV studios and press of austerity, the anger at the political and releases. The programme of mass rallies economic elites, and the loss of deference recruited an army of supporters who took towards all the main “pillars of society”. out the message to others. Corbyn did not create the basis for this It was politics as a mass event, not mood, but he has helped to focus it. separated off from ordinary people. The Grenfell Tower fire also Three days before the election around crystallised so much of what is wrong 10,000 people turned out in the pouring with capitalist Britain. It was about rain to see Corbyn speak at a rally in rampant inequality, racism, austerity Gateshead in north east England. and an alien political elite who live on a Corbyn made fun of commentators different planet to ordinary people. who sneered at the rallies, and who say A few days after the Grenfell fire a people at them “don’t understand” politics. furious demonstration of thousands swept “We do understand,” he said—and through Kensington and another of a called on people to use the final days similar size went through central . of campaigning to build the “popular The fight for socialism 5 movement” after the election. supporters of the party. “It isn’t just about getting people They did not just sit passively as elected to office,” he said, “It’s what we all spectators of events. They came to do to take these ideas forward. large and enthusiastic meetings and In the surge for Labour was demonstrated in the streets. much more limited. The average increase A rally of up to 10,000 people in in the Labour vote across Britain was Parliament Square as the movement 5,883 per constituency, but in Scotland, it to dump Corbyn gathered pace was was only 550. particularly significant. This reflected the unappealing politics Secondly, the union leaders almost all of the right wing leadership of the Scottish backed Corbyn. Labour Party, and the long-term effects of Corbyn then faced an election, against Labour’s alliance with the Tories during the hitherto unknown . He the 2014 independence referendum. was re-elected as leader with 62 percent Of course, had it been up to the of the vote, an increase on the 59.5 Parliamentary Labour Party, Corbyn percent he won in 2015. would not have led the party into the A historically unique situation has election. been created inside Labour. The pattern The rudderless Conservatives lurched has generally been that the party’s from crisis to crisis after the ordinary members have been curbed and referendum in 2016. disciplined by the union leaders and the It was the ideal moment for the Labour MPs, headed by the . Party to redouble its opposition and to But now the members are supported seek to sweep them out of office. not only by most union leaders (on Instead the large majority of its MPs however temporary a basis) but also by turned on Corbyn and directed all their the party leader. energy to securing his resignation. It has encouraged Corbyn and In the vanguard was shadow foreign his supporters to turn outwards and secretary , who had opposed embrace sources of support in the party Corbyn over the bombing of Syria. Benn outside parliament—because they have became a darling of the media, the Tories so little in the Commons. and the Labour right for his strident Everyone who hates racism, austerity support for air strikes. and the Tories must support Corbyn A contemptible manoeuvre saw against the right. We want to see him in a carefully-orchestrated series of 10 Downing Street as soon as possible. resignations from the But a series of examples also show that and other ministerial posts. Then 172 no serious strategy to change society can MPs supported a vote of no confidence be centred on parliament. A ferocious in Corbyn’s leadership. revolt against Corbyn has taken place Yet despite the most intense pressure even before he is prime minister. Corbyn did not stand down. He was Imagine what it would be like if he sustained by two crucial bases of were in office and seeking to implement support. Most central was the surge of reforms. The crucial arenas of struggle backing from the ordinary members and are in the workplaces and the streets. 6 The fight for socialism The earthquake n 12 September 20151 Corbyn was Oelected Labour Party leader with almost 60 percent of the vote. This was a higher percentage than when Tony Blair took over Labour in 1994. Corbyn won 251,000 votes—twice the total number of Tory party members. The detailed breakdown demonstrated Corbyn’s broad appeal inside the party. He won the votes of half the full party members, 84 percent of those who had Jeremy Corbyn at a meeting in Coventry during the paid £3 to be a supporter, and 58 percent leadership campaign Photo: Ciaran Norris of trade unionists and other affiliates. On the day of Corbyn’s election he Throughout the summer he spoke came to the Refugees Are Welcome Here to meetings of hundreds of people, demonstration in London. generating mass enthusiasm for his It was a clear statement of support programme of opposition to austerity, for the campaigns and the movement war and racism. He inspired 17,000 that had swept him into the Labour volunteers to work on the campaign. leadership—and it won media attention The crusty and cramped processes for the protest. that we’re told are democracy suddenly And Corbyn took the decision to were infused with questioning and life. appoint John McDonnell as shadow And that hasn’t stopped since. chancellor, ignoring the pressure from Corbyn’s extraordinary success has the Labour right and unions such given hope to socialists, and a renewed as Unite to choose someone more sense of confidence. For everyone on the “moderate”. left it said, wake up! Act differently and At a Labour conference fringe think creatively how to build on this! meeting, McDonnell made the following And above everything—quite pledge: “ tell you this: when workers unexpected change can happen. want to take action, we will support Corbyn’s victory is unprecedented for them automatically. Labour. After a huge campaign in the “Our movement should not be 1980s the great left-winger divided. We need to take industrial nearly won the post of deputy leader. But action and we need to take direct action, he lost. on the streets and in occupations. We Corbyn became leader with an are campaigning to close the detention overwhelming mandate. centres, we are in solidarity with the people in them.”2

1 This pamphlet was revised on 8 September 2017. Thanks to comrades who commented on the earlier two 2) My notes from the Labour Representation Committee editions, and helped with proof reading and production. fringe meeting, 28 September 2015 The fight for socialism 7

It is simply inconceivable that any The feeling today against austerity has other shadow chancellor in modern times now found a political home. It is not (at could have made such a speech. least for now) a new party like Podemos How can we explain these welcome but within the very well-established developments? After all, in the gloom Labour Party. following the general election on 7 May Corbyn’s message of opposition to 2015 Labour looked washed-out. austerity, war and racism, his obvious Every commentator expected the next estrangement from the stuffy conventions party leader to be even more right wing of established politics, and his record of than the defeated Ed Miliband. The SNP, a campaigning proved hugely popular. party that spoke to the left of Labour, had He cut through the obstacles in the been awesomely successful, scooping up Labour Party rules to appear on the ballot all but three of Scotland’s 59 MPs. paper, and once on there he soared away But, said the pundits, England was from the grey trinity of , glued to right wing ideas and therefore no and . Labour leader could dare to put forward The Blairite Kendall, so right wing that radical ideas. If she or he did, they would at times she seemed to be running for the be very unpopular. Tory party leadership, was eventually to Such analysis was rubbish. Just as in receive just 4.5 percent of the vote. many other parts of the world there is Even establishment commentators bitter anger across Britain against endless recognise that Corbyn is an expression of austerity and the unaccountable elites who this insurgent feeling. dominate politics. In an article attacking Corbyn, Sometimes such feeling can be partly the Financial Times’ chief political captured by the right—the fascist Front commentator Philip Stephens wrote, “In National in France for example. But it another age, the 2008 crash might have has also fueled the left—Syriza in Greece, triggered a revolution. Instead, Mr Corbyn Podemos in the Spanish state, Sinn and his fellow travellers are now capturing Fein, and the Anti- the seething popular resentment.”3 Austerity Alliance in Ireland. It was never meant to be like this. There were echoes of it in the Bernie When, in 2014, the Labour Party Sanders campaign in the United States implemented the Collins Review into how and the rise of the Economic Freedom to elect its leader the whole purpose was Fighters in South Africa. to slash influence, block a left This mood exploded on to the streets challenge, and seek to cover up the class of London on 20 June when 250,000 questions in politics. took part in the People’s Assembly The review said it wanted to achieve “a demonstration against austerity. simpler and more democratic process of And that followed a series of semi- selection”4 but in truth it hoped to make spontaneous marches called mainly another shift towards a party more like by young people immediately after the Conservative victory which saw 3) Financial Times 10 September 2015 thousands express their fury at the idea of 4) http://action.labour.org.uk/page/-/Collins_Report_ another five years of rotten Tory rule. Party_Reform.pdf page 27 8 The fight for socialism

The ruling class are deeply worried by what Corbyn represents, and attack him at every opportunity the US Democrats. It was Corbyn’s achievement to The Collins Review authors had campaign as if he were founding a new forgotten some of their party’s history. party while actually standing for the Blairites might bemoan the class leadership of an existing one. identification which goes with trade His vision of change seemed, to union influence in Labour, but at crucial many people, not only a total political moments in the past the unions have been break from all the Blairite drivel that has used to break the challenge of the left. preceded it but also an organisational Weakening the union link made one—a fresh start. possible both a victory for more right All of this worries the ruling class. wing forces inside Labour but also They want safe parties that support big created the possibility of a hectic surge of business, back nuclear weapons and backing for left-wing candidates. defend an alliance with US imperialism. This was reinforced by allowing a vote New possibilities have opened up for in the leadership contest to non-members the left. Arguments about alternatives to who paid £3 to register as Labour austerity and nuclear weapons, and the supporters. relevance of socialist solutions are much This was a gift to a candidate who more open for discussion. could appeal to radical people who There is a brilliant feeling of excitement. didn’t particularly want to join the party Hundreds of thousands are ready to act but who were happy to spend £3 on against the big lie that we must all now expressing their desire for an alternative pay for the bankers’ and bosses’ crisis. And to the sterile mainstream politics. people are talking about socialism. The fight for socialism 9

But how can we make the most of this situation? We can’t just wait for the Tories Labour’s MPs to implode or fall out with one another. ’s deal with the DUP bigots he Labour Party ultimately believes showed how grimly they will try to stay Tthat change comes through in office. parliament. This gives a special and Every day they remain the Tories will hugely enhanced status to the MPs—the lay waste to the welfare state, hold down Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). pay, sell off vast chunks of the NHS, and Labour conferences may vote to drive thousands more people on benefits renationalise rail or get rid of nuclear to poverty and despair. weapons. But this has no binding effect They will do virtually nothing to on the MPs. reduce the emissions that will cause When he was first elected leader, catastrophic . They will Corbyn was very isolated among the strengthen state powers, whip up racism PLP. As the Financial Times noted and seek to turn the anger in society when he was first elected, “ Mr Corbyn against Muslims and migrants. We can’t has the overwhelming support of grass give them time to do this. roots members—inspired by his radical, We can’t wait until the next election uncompromising rhetoric—but his close before real change takes place. The allies within Parliament could fit in a immediate question is to march, protest, minibus.”5 occupy and strike together against the After the 2017 general election there Tories. was much wailing from MPs of how Groups such as the McDonald’s workers they had underestimated Corbyn. They who struck against their site managers’ admitted—through gritted teeth—that behaviour, for a £10 an hour minimum to describe him as “unelectable” was wage and for union rights have the right perhaps a mistake. approach. It’s very helpful to have Corbyn’s But the critics have not gone away. The support, but the battle is here and now, not Labour right have stopped talking about in some distant future. removing Corbyn, but they will keep And the more resistance there is now trying to undermine him. the more likely it is that working class Together with key union leaders people will seen an improvement in their such as Len McCluskey of Unite, they lives, and the more likely that we will see managed to stop opposition to Trident the Tories ejected and Corbyn in office. nuclear weapons appearing in Labour’s The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) has 2017 manifesto. worked and wants to continue working They have tried to use the debates with Corbyn and his supporters against around Brexit to separate Corbyn from the right—the Tories, the media and Labour supporters who voted Remain. some in the labour movement. In the summer of 2017 there was But we also want to discuss how intense pressure on Corbyn to agree that we can make sure that this movement reaches its fullest potential—and whether 5) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f8951442-84aa-11e5-8095- Labour is the instrument for real change. ed1a37d1e096.html#axzz3qnpQT7N6 10 The fight for socialism

Labour supported staying in the EU single market or the customs union for a long period, if not indefinitely. This might have been argued as a basis for maintaining the free movement of workers into Britain. But Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary said the only reason to leave the single market would be if free movement continued! The single market is not some neutral mechanism for trade. Its rules instruct member states to run economies based on “free” competition—which benefits big business. The single market opens up all industries for privatisation and rules out A willingness to initiate nuclear war has become a nationalisation. It could make it much key test for the leader of the Labour Party harder for Corbyn to implement parts of the 2017 election programme, let alone The present situation is not a stable bring really fundamental change. one. It cannot go on indefinitely with the Regrettably Corbyn bent to the leader being bitterly attacked by many pressure, agreeing with Starmer’s plan. of his own MPs. Either the right will The Labour right know they can’t get hobble, constrict or break Corbyn or the rid of Corbyn before another general right will be marginalised. election. Instead they will pressure him There is no way that the large majority to compromise and to tack rightwards of MPs are simply going to come over to in the name of “party unity” and in Corbyn and act as his loyal supporters, the hope that he will win over his especially if the pressure increases when opponents in time. Such a strategy will Labour is in office. be disastrous. It is up to all of us on the left— Corbyn won the Labour leadership, whether in the Labour Party or not—to and inspired people on the campaign build the movement against nuclear trail, precisely because he broke from weapons, war, austerity, racism and the norm, and inspired people by his climate change and in doing so to back radicalism. Corbyn against the right. If he is seen as “just another That’s why SWP members have politician” then he will lose the enthusiastically taken part in momentum from such movements. meetings—not as some sinister plot Corbyn and his supporters have to to “take over” the party, but as part of go on the attack against the right, not strengthening the left everywhere. accommodate them. And they must Mobilising in the workplaces and the appeal to everyone, inside and outside streets matters more than manoeuvres the party, to do that. inside Labour, both in general terms of The fight for socialism 11 for working class people and progressive reforms, Labour does so in the specific of sustaining Corbyn’s within a very particular framework set policies. by the trade union leaders and the state. Though Corbyn is exceptional, the While the impetus for radical change whole history of Labour shows that when has tended to come from outside Labour, the party moves to the left it is because of it has tended to run into the sands once development in the working class outside channelled into parliament. the party. Corbynism is just the latest Struggle matters most. But putting manifestation of this. struggle first means breaking with When male workers first gained the methods that Labour leaders have the vote in the 1860s Britain was the followed for a century. “workshop of the world” and they voted for an openly bosses’ party—the Liberals. During the ‘Great Depression’ (1873- 96) some workers began to look for an A brief history alternative, and this led to the formation of Labour Party in 1893 of Labour and contributed to the foundation of Labour in 1900. he great Labour left-winger Tony Benn The early party was anaemic and had Tfamously said, “The Labour Party has policies barely distinguished from the never been a socialist party, although there Liberal Party but mass radicalisation have always been socialists in it.” And its as a result of the First World War and whole history bears out that view. Russian revolution of 1917 led to a It is a party that, despite sometimes sharp move to the left, which included declaring its belief in a different sort of the setting up of a proper membership society, has in practice acted to manage structure and adoption of the socialist and defend capitalism and the British state. Clause IV. Labour has presided over significant The impetus to the left petered reform, but it has never challenged the out after Labour took office and then system itself. collapsed in the face of the 1929 Wall However, it would be a mistake to Street Crash. But a new shift in the Party think that Labour has always been as came in 1945. openly right wing as it became under After the Second World War millions Tony Blair and his successors. of ordinary people were determined that Hard though it may be for anyone there would be no return to the misery under 40 to know from their direct adult of poverty and unemployment seen in experience, Labour leaders have often the Slump. This gave Labour its first pronounced themselves as socialists. The parliamentary majority and assisted the Labour conference has often called for formation of the welfare state. radical measures. There is, however, another side At the 1980 conference delegates had to Labour’s history. While it has to a a real chance to debate. Shadow cabinet certain extent articulated the demands ministers were forced to wait their turn of millions of working class people for to speak. 12 The fight for socialism

Future chancellor Philip Snowden opens a Labour club in Honley, in 1907 Photo: E. Exley In the 1990s delegates became little We know that Blair made Labour into more than observers, presented with an avowedly pro-capitalist party. We policy statements which could not be know that famously amended and treated to lengthy orations regarded New Labour as her greatest from a series of leadership figures. achievement. 6 In 1980 the main economic But the problems with how Labour resolution, moved by the far from sets out to change the world did not begin revolutionary David Basnett, leader of in 1994 when Blair became Labour leader. the GMB, demanded restrictions on the The history of the Labour Party before flight of capital, an “extension of public Blair is part of a broader debate that ownership with industrial democracy”, links to the modern experience of Syriza “reflation of public service spending”, and the Socialist Party government of “a substantial cut in arms spending”, a Francois Hollande in France. “wealth tax”, a 35 hour week without loss Labour was once a party that spoke of pay and recognition that “Britain’s about socialism. It still failed working class social and economic problems can only people because it sought change within the be resolved by socialist planning”. very limited confines of the system. It was passed overwhelmingly with The Labour Party was the creation of the leadership’s support. This makes the trade union leaders. At the end of the Corbyn’s policies seem pallid by 19th century the top figures in the trade comparison. unions increasingly came to believe that Of course the leadership (and many the Liberal Party would not deliver the of the members) did not think that was how Labour would actually govern. But 6) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ the rhetoric was a million miles from margaret-thatchers-legacy-spilt-milk-new-labour-and-the- what it would become within 15 years. big-bang-she-changed-everything-8564541.html The fight for socialism 13 legal and social changes they demanded. members are workers. However, whether British imperialism was no longer or not a party is really a political party of unchallenged and the bosses were the workers does not depend solely upon tougher on their workers. Unions a membership of workers but also upon frequently conflicted with employers the men that lead it, and the content of who supported the Liberal Party but were its actions and its political tactics. totally hostile to organised workers. “Only this latter determines whether Individual socialists had already we really have before us a political prepared the ground for a new party. party of the proletariat. Regarded from Pioneers such as , a Scottish this, the only correct, point of view, the miners’ union leader, tried to reform the Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois Liberals, but found it impossible. party, because, although made up Hardie set up the of workers, it is led by reactionaries, Party and then was part of the formation and the worst kind of reactionaries of the (ILP) at that, who act quite in the spirit of in 1893. the bourgeoisie. It is an organisation The year before the Trade Union of the bourgeoisie, which exists to Congress had passed a motion calling for systematically dupe the workers.” independent political representation for Since that era Labour has changed— workers. for the worse. The affiliation available to Eventually in 1900 the Labour some groups that were sharply critical Representation Committee (LRC) of the leadership is no longer possible. brought together trade union leaders Revolutionary socialists still face expulsion breaking from the Liberals and the ILP. and, even under Corbyn’s leadership, The LRC agreed to set up “a distinct revolutionary groups cannot join. Labour group in Parliament, who shall From the beginning Labour was based have their own whips, and agree upon on a disastrous separation between their policy, which must embrace a economics and politics. readiness to cooperate with any party The union leaders would deal with the which for the time being may be engaged workplace issues, the MPs would take in promoting legislation in the direct on the political battles. It was ruled out interests of labour.” to use workers’ economic power to win In its early days Labour allowed political change. socialist organisations to affiliate to The LRC was backed by less than a the party, and retain some of their fifth of the unions. But it received a huge independence. It was a party that had boost when in 1901 a railway union was a mass membership of millions of successfully sued for damages by an trade unionists and other working class employer. people, but a leadership that acted in the The infamous Taff Vale judgment interests of the bosses. meant that unions were liable for This is why Lenin described Labour as employers’ losses during strikes. Strikes a “bourgeois workers party”. would be virtually illegal, and the union In 1920 Lenin made a speech where leaders were determined to overturn the he said that “most of the Labour Party’s verdict. 14 The fight for socialism

At the 1906 election, 29 Labour MPs were returned. The decisive shift had been the decision by the trade union leaders to back the new party. In 1935 trade union leader Ernest Bevin was to state proudly, “It was not Keir Hardie who formed the political movement. It grew out of the bowels of the Trades Union Congress”. The Labour MPs worked closely with the Liberals, and together they passed a law overturning the Taff Vale judgment, a key victory for the trade union leaders. The creation of a Labour Party was double-edged. It was a real improvement The Russian revolution shifted Labour to the left towards class identification and a shift away from relying on the Liberals for Clause IV was capable of many political representation. But it also meant interpretations, and was certainly seen as a rejection of revolutionary methods. purely symbolic by most Labour leaders. Labour was a moderate and timid party It was not an open call to take power from focused solely on parliament. the rich and to smash capitalism. But it did During the upsurge in workers’ set out a challenge to the existing set-up. strikes of 1910-14, known as the Great It enabled Labour to grow from the Unrest, Labour remained firmly rooted in radicalisation that swept most of the parliament—and opposed to the mainly world after 1917. At the 1923 general unofficial strikes which were transforming election Labour won 191 seats. The Tories the trade union movement for the better had 258, but the Liberals (who had 158 The Russian revolution of 1917 forced seats) said they would not keep the Tories Labour to shift leftwards. British workers in office. Labour became the government reacted with immense enthusiasm to news for the first time. of the overthrow of the Russian Tsar and Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald the victory for workers’ power. went to Buckingham Palace to be asked A new Clause IV of the Labour to become prime minister by King constitution passed in 1918 said the George V. His majesty complained about party aimed, “To secure for the workers the singing of the Red Flag and the by hand or by brain the full fruits of Marseillaise at a Labour election rally, their industry and the most equitable seeing such songs as an assault upon his distribution thereof that may be royal personage. possible upon the basis of the common McDonald apologised, explaining he ownership of the means of production, had halted the singing of the Red Flag in distribution and exchange, and the parliament and hoped that he would be best obtainable system of popular able to “break down this habit”. administration and control of each Not for the last time, participation in industry or service.” obscure and class-ridden ceremony was The fight for socialism 15 demanded to test the credentials of left- states of emergency during strikes on the wing politicians. London trams and in the docks. George V expected his ministers The Liberals and Conservatives to wear ancient court dress on certain joined to remove it in October 1924 after occasions and, although some refused, MacDonald was accused of endangering MacDonald himself eagerly embraced British security by withdrawing the such rituals. He said, “the spirit of prosecution of a Communist accused of ceremony” enriched them as “pioneers of sedition. a new world”. Electoral defeat followed, intensified by At a select party for top Labour the British state forging (and then leaking figures, MacDonald and his friends to the Conservative Party) a document “laughed over [the Labour left-winger which purported to be instructions from and cabinet minister John] Wheatley— the Bolsheviks to Labour. the revolutionary—going down on both Four days before the election, the knees and actually kissing the King’s splashed headlines across its Han d .” 7 front page claiming: “Civil War Plot by Minister of war, Stephen Walsh, was Socialists’ Masters: Moscow Orders To supposed to have told the generals, “I Our Reds; Great Plot Disclosed.” Labour know my place. You have commanded lost by a landslide. 9 armies in the field when I was nothing In opposition Labour might have been but a private in the ranks”. expected to back strikes. Not at all—it put Another account has it that he opened first the interests of the state. the first meeting of the Army Council The General Strike of 1926 pitched with the words, “Gentlemen, always millions of trade unionists against bosses remember that we must all be loyal to backed by the Tory government. the king”. It was the crucial class battle focusing J H Thomas, the new colonial secretary, years of previous stormy struggles. was said to have introduced himself to Labour was on the wrong side. the heads of departments at the Colonial “I don’t like general strikes”, stated Office with the statement, “I am here to Ramsay MacDonald. “I haven’t changed see that there is no such mucking about my opinion. I have said so in the House with the British Empire”. 8 of Commons. I don’t like it: honestly I A sign of how little respect the don’t like it: but honestly, what can be unelected state has for democracy done?” came when the secret service denied The strike was called off by the TUC MacDonald access to his own security file. after nine days—even though there was In hock to the Liberals, and no sign of it weakening. Indeed, more determined to appear responsible, the workers in key industries had just joined first Labour government achieved little. it. If it had been maintained and extended But it did use anti-union laws to declare it could have defeated the government and unleashed an even higher level of struggle.

7) J. Ramsay MacDonald by Austen Morgan page 100 8) Tony Cliff, The Labour Party in Perspective https://www. 9) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/feb/04/ marxists.org/archive/cliff/eworks/1962/xx/labour.htm uk.politicalnews6 16 The fight for socialism

But the union leaders panicked at depression and the chaos and ruin that such prospects—and Labour encouraged would face us.” 10 them not to go beyond the confines of the MacDonald, facing opposition from capitalist state. within the party and from the trade Although Labour did not build the unions, visited King George V to explain resistance, it did gather the fruits of the problem. defeat. With the general strike beaten, and MacDonald wrote in his diary, “King betrayed by both MacDonald and their most friendly and expressed thanks and own trade union leaders, many workers confidence. I then reported situation were open to the idea that parliament was and at end I told him that after tonight I the best way to win change. might be of no further use, and should Labour’s slogan at the election was “The resign with the whole Cabinet.... He said pits are closed... but the ballot box is open”. that he believed I was the only person At the 1929 general election Labour won who could carry the country through.” 298 seats, and was the largest party. It wasn’t just the king who wanted It took office just as capitalism MacDonald. The Tories were insistent plunged into momentous crisis. Here that MacDonald must head up a national was a serious test. Was Labour’s role to government composed of all parties. confront and seek to replace capitalism or Only a Labour figure, they believed, could to nurse it back to health? carry through the scale of cuts demanded. The moment was urgent. The 1930s MacDonald’s initial intention was to depression wrecked people’s lives and resign and let some other party take over. unemployment in Britain doubled to But, bolstered by support from the Tories 2.7 million within two years of Labour and the Liberals as well as the monarchy, prime minister Ramsay MacDonald he broke from Labour and made an taking office. alliance with the Tories to form a national Just like Labour-style governments government of all parties. This act has since the outbreak of crisis in 2008, gone down in Labour history as a great MacDonald meekly implemented betrayal. the bosses’ and bankers’ demands for At the subsequent general election austerity, including a proposal for a 10 in October 1931 Labour suffered near percent cut in unemployment benefit. wipeout. Its vote fell from 8.4 million in This meant people already on the verge 1929 to 6.6 million. But the first past the of utter desperation being pushed over post electoral system meant this led to a the edge. huge fall in seats. Labour went from 289 The chancellor Philip Snowden was MPs to just 46. clear that capital’s interests must come The shattering experience of Labour’s first. He argued that huge cuts were utter failure to protect working class needed and that the only alternative was people from the ravages of the crisis—let the collapse of the currency. alone to fight for socialism—triggered a He added “that if sterling went the big internal debate. whole international financial structure would collapse, and there would be 10) British Capitalism at the Crossroads, 1919-1932: A no comparison between the present Study in Politics by Robert W. D. Boyce p351 The fight for socialism 17

in east London. Poplar had defied the government by refusing to cut back on payments to the unemployed, and Lansbury and several other councillors had been jailed for their fight. In the end they won substantial reforms and became heroes of the working class movement. Lansbury was a pacifist who had quite openly told voters “I would close every recruiting station, disband the Army and disarm the Air Force. I would abolish the whole dreadful equipment of war and say The 1926 general strike put Labour to the test to the world: ‘Do your worst’”. He wrote Many Labour supporters, seeing the that the next Labour government would power of the rich, to bend and break even abolish the Royal Navy and use the ships mildly reforming governments, began to for educational cruises for children. rethink a strategy for change. Such ideas were electorally quite The influential Labour thinker and popular to a generation scarred by the activist writer R H Tawney concluded, experience of the First World War, and “Onions can be eaten leaf by leaf, but determined to avoid a repeat. you cannot skin a live tiger paw by paw But for all the left words, the Labour – vivisection is its trade and it does the Party continued to stress parliament skinning first.” The Independent Labour as the only way forward instead of Party, one of the bastions of the party’s strengthening the anti-fascist, trade left wing, voted to leave the party. union and other struggles at the time. Sir Stafford Cripps, previously on the Labour spurned the fight against right of the party, moved left and helped to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists found the Socialist League in 1932 to push and a solidarity movement with the for radical policies in the Labour Party. Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. The League won votes at party The Communist Party led many of these conferences on nationalisation of the movements, often supported by the ILP banks and even acceptance that the and individual Labour Party members. working class would have to discuss The trade union leaders were a general strike in the event of an beginning a battle to return Labour to imperialist war. being a safe party of government. In the aftermath of MacDonald’s This meant a determined assault on betrayal, the Labour leadership of the Lansbury, and the rise of fascism gave the party passed to one of the few senior union leaders their chance. backbenchers who had survived the After the Italian fascist Benito electoral annihilation—left winger Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia), . the League of Nations (the forerunner Lansbury was famed for his role in of the UN) proposed to apply sanctions leading the rebellion by Poplar council on Italy backed by the threat of military 18 The fight for socialism

Other left wingers, including Nye Bevan, were also expelled. The outbreak of the Second World War saw the return of the left rebels to the Labour Party’s fold, and a joint “national unity” government of the Tories and Labour. The war also saw an immense radicalisation as working people demanded a return for the sacrifices they had made—and no return to the hunger, George Lansbury visits some of his constituents unemployment and inequality of the 1930s. intervention. Lansbury refused to accept A new mood of fundamental social this as it seemed to be a path to war. change penetrated deep into society—as At the 1935 Labour conference, the even the Tories recognised. matter came to a head. Ernest Bevin, Quintin Hogg, a Tory MP later to the leader of the giant Transport and become Tory cabinet minister Lord General Workers Union, strode to the Hailsham, warned parliament in 1943, “If podium to support a motion backing the you don’t give the people social reform, sanctions. He proceeded to beat up the they will give you social revolution.” left and torpedo Lansbury. First, he mocked Stafford Cripps, the left-wing lawyer, “People have been on this platform today talking about the The golden destruction of capitalism. Lawyers and members of the professions have not years? done too badly… the thing that is being wiped out is the trade union movement. lement Attlee led Labour to a It is we who are being wiped out and who Clandslide win in 1945 and set about will be wiped out if fascism comes here,” major reforms. said Bevin. Labour nationalised about a fifth of Then he destroyed Lansbury, the economy—although with structures declaring, “It is placing the Executive and that reflected the hierarchies of capitalist the Movement in an absolutely wrong corporations. position to be hawking your conscience It created the National Health around from body to body asking to be Service, guaranteeing free healthcare for told what to do with it.” everyone in Britain. Union support ensured that the For a couple of years after the Second sanctions resolution was carried by a World War it seemed great strides huge majority. Lansbury, realising that towards equality and improving workers’ a pacifist could no longer lead the party, lives could go hand in hand with a resigned a few days later. Cripps was Labour government running a capitalist forced out of the party in 1939. economy. The fight for socialism 19

In truth, much of this reform cut out against during his leadership election with the grain of major capitalist campaign). reconstruction. Bosses were anxious When the Korean War broke out in to see speedy rationalisation of certain 1950 Britain immediately sent troops to major industries that could create a support the US intervention. British forces better environment for profit-making. played a major role in defeating popular During the war, Tory Winston risings in Greece, Malaya and Vietnam. Churchill had said that, “There is a John Newsinger writes that, “the broadening field for State ownership Labour government was determined and enterprise, especially in relation to to increase the exploitation of Malaya. monopolies of all kinds”. Malayan rubber was the British Empire’s Churchill also spoke of housing, biggest dollar earner, bringing in 200 education and the expansion of the health million dollars. By 1950 Malayan tin and services. “There is no finer investment rubber were earning 350 million dollars. than putting milk into babies,” he “The British launched a wave of said.11 For a time a reforming Labour repression against the left. By the end of government could march in step with—at August 1948 well over 4,000 men and least some—capitalist priorities. women had been detained. In June 1950 Then in 1947 a crisis hit the economy. a massive resettlement programme was This signalled a turning point, where launched. By the beginning of 1952 over capitalists began clawing back the 400,000 Chinese had been resettled in concessions they had made. new villages, surrounded by barbed wire, Attlee’s government responded by heavily policed, and effectively deprived ending the radical programme. No of all civil rights.” 13 serious reforms followed—but attacks on A huge movement for independence workers did. Between 1945 and 1951 the forced the Labour government to give cabinet ordered troops across picket lines up India. But it did so in a way that 18 times. It retained Order 1305, wartime guaranteed partition into two states. The legislation that could be used to make resulting bloodshed saw the deaths of strikes illegal. up to a million people. Attlee ordered As Geoff Ellen wrote, “Attlee’s Cabinet the building of a British atomic bomb did what all Labour governments have without even telling most of the cabinet, done – it managed capitalism while using let alone Labour MPs, the wider party— the rhetoric in a way that made reforms or British workers. both possible and even desirable. But In 1948 Labour’s left-wing once the post-war boom petered out, the chancellor Sir Stafford Cripps bottom fell out of this strategy.” 12 echoed the arguments of the Tories Ernest Bevin, now , as he introduced an austerity budget helped create Nato (which Corbyn spoke including a wage freeze.

11) The Road To 1945: British Politics and the Second 13) https://thebloodneverdried.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/ World War, By Paul Addison Page excerpts-from-john-newsingers-the-blood-never-dried-a- 12) Geoff Ellen: Labour and strike-breaking 1945–1951: peoples-history-of-the-british-empire/ John Newsinger’s International Socialism, Summer 1984 www.marxists.org/ book The Blood Never Dried: A People’s History of the history/etol/newspape/isj2/1984/isj2-024/ellen.html British Empire is devastating on Malaya 20 The fight for socialism

He told the TUC congress, “There is only a certain sized cake. If a lot of people want a larger slice they can only get it by taking it from others”—and he didn’t mean he was going to tax the rich. Instead he made workers pay more, increasing the rate of a forerunner of today’s VAT which hit the poor harder than the rich. The Tories rejoiced, saying that this budget represented “the end of an era of socialist policy and socialist p r o p a g a n d a”. Big business had accepted limited nationalisation due to the radicalisation of the working class during the war, and the need for rationalisation of shattered capitalist economic structures afterwards. For example, the railways were inefficient and required vast investment to make them work for the rest of industry. No private firm was willing to do this. On the basis of compensation Labour posters for the 1945 election for the railway owners, nationalisation (without any hint of workers’ or users’ working class struggle on the decline, control) was acceptable. the nationalisation programme ground As the TUC’s history of the time says, to a halt. “only decaying and unprofitable sectors The bosses’ pressure had exerted were taken into state control in order, itself on even the most radical Labour as put it, to ‘make government. Labour won the 1950 possible the organisation of a more election, although with a smaller efficient industry’ in the interests of the majority. Having promised there nation as a whole. would be no NHS charges, Labour “This and the fact that astronomical now imposed prescription, dental and sums in compensation payments were spectacle charges. given to the former owners (many of In the 1951 election it won almost 14 whom became leading figures on the million votes (about 4.5 million more than Boards of Directors of their respective in 2015) and more than the Tories, but still public corporation), helps explain why lost because of the electoral system. there was so little opposition”. 14 In the boom years of the 1950s and But having reached the limits of what 1960s the Tories did not dismantle was acceptable to business, and with the welfare state and were careful to maintain good relations with the trade 14) http://www.unionhistory.info/timeline/1945_1960.php union leaders. The fight for socialism 21

An era of sustained capitalist these small-scale reforms were too much expansion encouraged the illusion that for the bankers and the rich. the system could deliver progress. In Lord Cromer, the governor of the fact workers soon had to strike to get , demanded “immediate improvements. There was a national cuts in government expenditure” engineering strike in 1953 and major and threatened that the international strikes by railway workers, dockers financial speculators would orchestrate and bus workers soon after. A series of a massive fall in the value of the pound unofficial strikes followed in 1957-62. if their wishes were not met. Wilson But it was when the boom ended in refused to buckle immediately. the 1960s that both Labour and Tory After all, in 1964 Wilson had said, governments tried to make the working “You cannot go cap in hand to the class pay for the fall in profits central bankers as they (the Tories) have was elected Labour done and maintain your freedom of leader in 1963. His victory was seen as a action, whether on policies maintaining boost for the left as George Brown, the full employment here in Britain or even candidate of the right, was defeated. In on social policies. fact Wilson tried to ingratiate himself “The central bankers will before with all sections of the party. And he long be demanding that Britain puts presented to the bosses a “classless” her house in order and this ideal of vision of a thrusting, energetic Labour an orderly house usually comes to which could bring about much-needed mean vicious inroads into the Welfare economic change, sweeping away the State and a one-sided pay pause. The cobwebs of 13 years of Tory rule. government would then launch into He argued Britain needed to “harness savage cuts. The brunt will again fall socialism to science, and science to on wages, on salaries, on the ordinary socialism”. A “new Britain” would need family struggling to make ends meet.”16 to be forged in the “white heat” of this He told Cromer he would call an “scientific revolution”. election on the basis that the old-school Wilson later wrote that his aspiration bankers were threatening Britain’s had been to “replace the cloth cap [with] manufacturers. Cromer backed off. But the white laboratory coat as the symbol Wilson had been warned. He began four of British labour”.15 Wilson won the 1964 years of cuts and wage curbs. election, but despite the rhetoric the In short, the Labour government reality was relentless attacks on workers. of 1964-70 responded to the crisis of His government’s first budget did British capitalism with incomes policy, include a 20 percent rise in pensions (at wage controls, a government-sponsored a time when inflation was 4 percent), drive to ‘shake-up’ labour and increase although it was paid for by a big rise in productivity, cuts in welfare services, tax that workers had to fork out. But even increased health charges and a doubling of council rents.

15) http://www.theguardian.com/science/political- science/2013/sep/19/harold-wilson-white-heat- 16) http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/31st-july-1971/16/ technology-speech harold-wilson-2-paul-foot 22 The fight for socialism

Pre-election opposition to if Labour had been in power they would immigration controls was forgotten as have settled the miners’ wage claim for racist legislation was rushed through the less than the Tories. House of Commons and pre-election Despite this, Labour’s 1974 manifesto talk of ‘peace’ gave way to support for the pledged, “It is our intention to bring bombing of North Vietnam. about a fundamental and irreversible When seafarers struck in 1966 Wilson shift in the balance of power and wealth denounced their leaders as a “tightly knit in favour of working people and their group of politically motivated men”, and families.” his smears helped to isolate and defeat Shadow chancellor had the action. told the 1973 Labour conference that Finally, when even these measures there would be “howls of anguish” from would not make the crisis go away, people who were rich enough to pay the Wilson attempted to push through top rate of tax. The following year he said a measure which even the Tory he would “squeeze property speculators governments of 1951 to 1964 had not until the pips squeak”. 17 dared introduce—a law to put legal fetters Any such move would have required on the unions. Wilson failed because of a serious challenge to capitalist priorities the scale of the opposition. But he began and the rich. And when Labour was the a process that would eventually be carried largest party (but not in a majority) after through by the Tories. the February 1974 election it introduced Labour’s pandering to the rich some reforms— higher pensions, demoralised working people. The turnout subsides on rents, the repeal of Heath’s at the 1970 election was the lowest for incomes policy and the anti-strike laws. over three decades, and the Labour vote There was some extra tax on the very fell by 5 percentage points, allowing the richest. Tories under to win. These moves enabled the government Heath’s attempts to attack workers’ to gain a majority at the October 1974 living standards and to shackle the unions election. But it was a time of a new provoked an avalanche of resistance. world economic crisis, the first major In 1972 alone there were 24 million one for 30 years. “industrial” strike days plus another four Over the next five years Labour would million due to “political action”. A miners’ ram through cuts on a scale unseen since strike in 1972 broke the government and the Great Depression of the 1930s. a further one in 1974 saw Heath forced to Unemployment trebled to over call a general election—which he lost. 1.5 million within two years of the The scale of workers’ struggle had an government being elected. Real wages fell. effect inside Labour—not that the party’s Living standards, which had risen under leaders hurled themselves into supporting Heath because of the scale of workers’ the fight. resistance, plummeted under Labour. The During the crucial 1972 miners’ strike government built fewer council houses the shadow minister for fuel and power, than in any year since 1945. Harold Lever, attacked the Tories for mismanaging the dispute, declaring that 17) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8411984.stm The fight for socialism 23

While workers At the end of 1976 Labour lost two suffered, the bosses by-elections in seats that it normally extracted major won by a landslide. In 1977 Labour lost concessions from Ashfield to the Tories. This was a mining Labour. constituency where Labour had a 23,000 In an effort majority. to woo big Meanwhile the union leaders’ loyalty business to Labour meant they did their best Chancellor to stop strikes. They agreed a “social Denis Healey contract” with Labour that was supposed cut tax for to deliver protection for working people large companies and public services in return for limits on within a year of wage rises. The wages fell, but there was the government no let-up in attacks on key services. coming to office. Workers soon dubbed the deal the But the bosses “social con-trick”. Wedded to Labour, the wanted more. union leaders could offer no way out. Throughout 1975 Jack Jones, the left-wing leader of the and 1976 they TGWU union told his union conference, engineered “We simply must help to keep this Labour currency panics government in office and stand by it and investment strikes. during this terrible economic crisis.” The government retreated from any But workers’ patience was stretched shred of radicalism and imposed strict beyond limits. Many rightly saw no wage curbs, but it still wasn’t enough for reason to be loyal to a government that the bosses. was fiercely disloyal to them. CBI director-general Campbell The first ever national firefighters’ Adamson admitted in a television strike broke out in 1977. The TUC voted interview, “we certainly discussed an narrowly not to back them, and the investment strike. We also discussed government sent in troops. Three major various things about not paying various strikes by groups of skilled workers in taxes, and a list of things which in 1977 collapsed after trade union leaders themselves would not have been legal.” instructed other workers to cross their In the autumn of 1976 Healey went to picket lines. 18 the International Monetary Fund for a This was the background to “The loan to prop up the value of the pound. ”, a revolt by The IMF demanded deep cuts in return. low-paid workers against years of The neoliberalism and total harsh austerity policed by a Labour submission to the capitalist markets government that served the rich. associated with Margaret Thatcher have Workers in local government, the their roots in the polices that Healey NHS, the water industry, ambulance adopted. The result was deep disillusion inside 18) http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/35605/ the working class. Did+strikes+pave+way+for+the+Tories%3F 24 The fight for socialism workers and others struck for something closer to a . At the height some 1.5 million workers were out together—to the horror of the right wing press and Tory opposition leader Margaret Thatcher. The Labour left criticised the government, but would not break with it and they influenced the Communist Party (then still a substantial and influential organisation) which also worked mainly in an effort to influence Labour and trade union figures. The far left was too small to influence Tony Benn, minister of energy, talks to Rolls Royce masses of workers. workers outside Labour’s 1976 conference So the right, the Tories and, to a lesser extent, the Nazis of the National Front nothing to motivate workers disillusioned built from the despair. by Labour’s attacks. The Tories gained The confident working class activists 3 million votes compared with 1974, who had brought down the Tories five largely at the expense of the Liberals, and years previously were disorientated and Thatcher was in Number 10. fragmented. The rotten record of the Labour This is how Margaret Thatcher came government sparked a bitter battle inside to office. A Labour government that had the party. Ordinary members demanded promised a “fundamental and irreversible greater accountability of the leadership shift in the balance of power and wealth so that left-wing polices could actually be in favour of working people and their carried out, and those who made repeated families” actually saw the share of British concessions to the rich could be removed. wealth owned by the poorest 50 percent What was the point of a Labour fall from 7.1 percent to 5.6 percent, and government that repeatedly let down the share owned by the richest 1 percent those who elected them, reacted to rise from 22.5 percent to 24.9 percent economic crisis by demanding sacrifice from 1974 to 1976. after sacrifice in order to restore capitalist The result was that Labour could not profitability, and that opposed workers mobilise enough people to keep Thatcher who fought back? out. Labour members pressured the Labour stood on a right wing leadership to call resistance to Thatcher, manifesto. A famous cartoon from the and the party held a demonstration Sunday Mirror has Callaghan (who of 150,000 in against had replaced Wilson as prime minster) unemployment in November 1980. appearing at a Thatcher election rally and But much of the left’s energy was saying, “If you must have a Conservative directed towards change inside the party prime minister, I’m your man.” rather than building the struggles outside. Unsurprisingly such tactics did A great movement, headed by Tony The fight for socialism 25

Benn, sought to move the party to the But Thatcher did not carry left, and to entrench party rules and all before her. By 1981 she was practices that would prevent another extremely unpopular as the cuts and government of betrayal. unemployment caused bitter resentment. The system whereby the party’s leader A series of opinion polls showed Labour and deputy leader were elected just by the well ahead—sometimes by well over 10 MPs was replaced by one that gave the percentage points. unions 40 per cent of the votes, and the Thatcher was saved by two constituency parties and the PLP 30 per developments. The first was the cent each. formation of the Social Democratic Even before this system came into Party, a right-wing split from Labour. operation, left-winger was Led by and Shirley elected as leader by the MPs. Williams, a group of Labour MPs The deputy leader election, held under appalled by the rise of the left broke these new rules, saw Tony Benn defeated away in 1981. In the end 28 Labour MPs by the right’s Denis Healey—but only and one Tory joined up. Their real role by a margin of less than 1 percent—and was to split the anti-Tory vote and allow after a campaign of enthusiastic “Benn Thatcher to rule. for deputy” meetings involving tens of And then in 1982 Argentina took thousands of people. back the Falkland Islands from British But while all this was happening control. The Falklands, a relic of British Thatcher was making war on working imperialism, had never concerned any class people, and our side was losing. modern British government. But Thatcher saw an opportunity to parade her bellicose values and create an atmosphere of patriotic unity. Foot Thatcher’s played a crucial role. Instead of opposing the dispatch of British troops and ships, assault Foot demanded military action. He was a veteran CND member and hatcher had seen the power of the described himself as a “inveterate and Tunions during the previous decade, incurable peacemonger”, but as the and she resolved to push up profits Commons was recalled for a special by breaking the strength of organised debate, Foot rose to say that the Falkland workers. Islanders “have been betrayed. The Huge sections of industry closed responsibility for the betrayal rests with and unemployment soared as the Government. The Government must the government implemented its now prove by deeds—they will never be programme of cuts and market-driven able to do it by words—that they are not policies. The Tories began a careful responsible for the betrayal and cannot plan to isolate weaker sections of the be faced with that charge.” 19 working class, defeat them and then move on only gradually to the strongest 19) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1982/ sections—above all the miners. apr/03/falkland-islands 26 The fight for socialism

The Labour leadership refused to back the miners Photo: John Sturrock The Labour MP Peter Hardy told the Labour politicians talk of the Commons, “One of two governments “national interest” as often as Tory ones. are at risk—either the government They do not say there never was and here or that in Buenos Aires….in the never can be unity of interests between national interest….one hopes that the those who rule and those they rule over. Buenos Aires government collapses There is no “national unity” in a before ours”. 20 class-scarred and class-divided society. In this Foot and Hardy were Labour’s leaders have played a crucial reflecting Labour’s immersion in British role in backing or instigating imperialist nationalism. wars. In protecting “the nation” Labour If the media and the ruling class sanctions the slaughter of workers by whip up a tide of patriotic fervour then workers. Labour swims with the tide in case it The Falklands war could have gone loses votes. disastrously wrong for Thatcher but she It refuses to accept the temporary was able to claim a victory. unpopularity and isolation which can The SDP, Foot’s backing for come with puncturing the lies peddled her Falklands adventure, soaring by our rulers. unemployment and a series of defeat for But in many cases wars are not even workers which demoralised them, saw popular. Breaking from the Tories and Thatcher win the 1983 election. their allies could actually win support. Foot resigned and , a However, Labour’s leaders care more left-winger turned “moderate”, took over. for ruling class opinion than the interests Labour and the union leaders learned all of workers. They scramble to maintain the wrong lessons from Thatcher’s first “British unity” while murdering workers’ four years. unity. The TUC leaders announced a policy of “new realism” which meant 20) http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1982/ acceptance of many of Thatcher’s basic apr/14/falkland-islands#S6CV0021P0_19820414_HOC_54 beliefs about the need for profits, the The fight for socialism 27 impossibility of socialism, the slavish Labour’s leaders had no intention of adherence to the market, partnership turning words into action. with bosses, a “constructive” engagement Kinnock could not afford to simply with the Tories and so on. criticise the miners—he would have lost In tandem Kinnock accelerated a too much support inside his own party. witch hunt against left-wingers inside Instead he tried to remain “neutral”, and Labour, and drew back from any support thereby helped Thatcher to win. for workers in struggle. Kinnock was shifting the party Thatcher now launched the key rightwards. Lining up clearly alongside attack—against the miners. workers engaged in a bitter class battle The strike involved 165,000 workers did not fit his model of a “modernising” and lasted a whole year. It saw people Labour Party which could make itself killed on picket lines and others die acceptable to the right-wing press and scavenging for coal to keep warm. sections of big business. Over 11,000 miners and their The miners faced the full might of supporters were arrested, 5,650 dragged the state and were the target of relentless to trial, 200 held in prison and 960 police violence. If they defended miners sacked. themselves, Kinnock condemned them. It was also a time of working class Throughout the strike he condemned heroism, solidarity and initiative. The “violence” by pickets. He also attacked strike showed how ordinary people could miners for “playing Maggie’s game” by take on those who control the world and their violence. how they can change in the process. Sometimes, in an effort to pretend he Women and men discovered new was even-handed, he also questioned possibilities in their lives, new ideas and police behaviour. But this did nothing new horizons. to change the perception that miners Tragically their spirit was never were predominantly responsible for matched for a moment by the leaders of unacceptable violence. And when the the Labour Party and the trade unions, Police Federation complained at his so the story of the miners’ strike is also words he immediately said they were one of betrayal. The strike was a turning “the finest in the world”. point in Britain—and Labour was on the When in July 1984 the High Court wrong side. fined the South Wales NUM miners’ Many Labour members offered union £50,000 under anti-union laws solidarity from the first day of the strike Kinnock simply said, “The courts will to the last. have their way.” Indeed the struggle revitalised many In November he refused to join a Labour members, gave then renewed series of rallies with NUM hope and confidence, and temporarily leader . strengthened the left inside the party. The miners lost because The conference in October 1984 they did not receive the passed a series of left-wing motions support they deserved supporting the miners, condemning from the trade union the police and calling for solidarity. But and Labour leaders. 28 The fight for socialism

A great opportunity to drive out who did not pay the poll tax. Thatcher and her neoliberalism was Labour lost to Tory despite thrown away. being 20 percent ahead in the polls at The wholly unnecessary defeat of the time of the poll tax riot and being 16 the miners accelerated the stampede percent in front during the ambulance rightwards in the Labour Party. workers’ dispute in 1989–90. It also increased a sense of despair in Labour managed to lose four elections the wider working class at the power of in a row at a time when there was Thatcher. immense bitterness and frustration at the The Labour leaders’ betrayal of Tories and also to alienate many of its the miners rebounded on the party traditional supporters. and enabled Thatcher to win the 1987 In 1992, exit polls indicated that election, leading to commentators and Labour underperformed among three even some inside Labour wondering crucial groups: older women, young whether the party would ever win again. men and, most telling of all, its own In fact Thatcher’s continual assaults “core vote”. on working class people produced real Labour won a smaller proportion of resistance that, if built upon, could have the votes of the unemployed than in 1987. swept Labour into Downing Street. It also lost support among council tenants The focus became the poll tax, a new and people on low incomes. system of local government finance The basic truth is that in the end where everyone paid the same. Labour’s electoral support depends on Nicholas Ridley, Conservative the radicalism generated by workers’ secretary of state for the Environment, struggles. rejoiced that, “A duke would pay the But the whole history of Labour same as a dustman”. in the 1980s and 1990s was a twofold Millions of people, outraged by the attempt both to prevent struggles taking inequality of low paid workers being place or, if that were not possible, to asked to pay as much as the obscenely distance the party from those who were rich, revolted against the tax. Around 15 fighting back. million refused to pay. This built on a key area of Labour The highpoint was an anti poll tax belief from the beginning that struggle march of 250,000 in London which ended was not the focus for socialists and that it in the biggest riot for a century. Thatcher was in fact a barrier to real change. resigned in tears a few months later. But As Ramsay MacDonald said about Labour did not seize its opportunity. the Great Unrest, a massive upsurge Labour councils faithfully in working class action, “whilst the implemented the tax and harassed and heroics outside are being indulged sometimes jailed those who did not pay. in, parliamentary action of a general Labour’s deputy leader character is being paralysed and demanded “exemplary sentences” for prejudiced”. 21 those arrested on poll tax protests. The result was that Labour’s vote in 1992 was 21) http://socialistreview.org.uk/363/why-wont-labour- over three million fewer than the number back-strikes The fight for socialism 29

Reagan and Thatcher left their mark wholesale retreat by most union leaders. What was He won the leadership election decisively (although not as clearly as New Labour? Corbyn in 2015) and almost immediately announced he would fight to remove the his was the history that led to the era party’s Clause IV. Tof Tony Blair and New Labour. Blair, This signalled a determination to pointing at decades of defeat, persuaded weaken elements of class politics from enough of the party that it was necessary Labour. Shadow chancellor Gordon to move decisively rightwards towards Brown wrote after Clause IV was an acceptance of a huge swathe of Tory removed, “The Labour Party is now the views. party of modern business and industry in He was replaying a process from the Britain... For the first time... the Labour 1950s when, after Labour’s third defeat Party has set down its commitment of a decade in 1959, party leader Hugh to a market economy, to living with Gaitskell tried to repudiate completely the rigours of competition, and to the image of Labour as a “party devoted nurture enterprise... now with our clear to nationalisation” by radically altering statement of aims, no-one can ever again Clause IV of the party’s constitution question our commitment to a healthy which called for public ownership of key and successful private sector, or to industries. competition and enterprise.” He wanted to drop all mention of class Blair’s New Labour was a disaster. It conflict and to project Labour as a British rammed through privatisation in areas party rather than one reflecting class where it had never previously been organisation and class feeling. Gaitskell considered, even by Tories. failed. Blair succeeded. Blair set his face against trade union He was elected leader in 1994, after the influence in politics and remorselessly sudden death of John Smith, in the wake stressed that class was irrelevant in of despair among Labour members, and modern societies. 30 The fight for socialism

Labour did nothing to reverse it. Indeed after a decade of New Labour the gap between the very richest and the poorest in British society was the greatest ever. The pro-Labour commentator James Bloodworth wrote, “During the New Labour years, famously said that the Labour government was ‘intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich’….from the very beginning of New Labour’s first term in 1997 Tony Blair shied away from policies associated Firefighters striking in 2002 Photo: Charlie Kimber with reducing the gap between rich The roots of many present Tory and poor, such as higher taxes on top polices—sky-high tuition fees for earners….during his tenure as prime students, wave after wave of welfare minister Blair did not allow the income “reform”, and mass redundancies in tax rate to rise above 40 per cent while his the public sector—are rooted in New chancellor, , cut Capital Labour’s rule. Gains Tax to just 18 per cent. When, during the 1997 election “In 1998 the average FTSE 100 director campaign, claimed Labour earned about £1 million a year – 50 or 60 was going to do the unions’ bidding he times the average UK worker. Today they responded by saying that after whatever receive around £4.7 million, roughly 174 changes Labour made “we will still have times the average worker.” 23 the most restrictive union laws in the New Labour said it had delivered Western world”. This was one promise economic success and abolished he kept. boom and bust. Alex Callinicos wrote Ten years after his election as prime perceptively in 2007, “Brown is stressing minister the Financial Times wrote, “New with increasing desperation the fact that Labour has—across health, education, there has been no significant economic welfare to work and housing—introduced crisis and that unemployment has fallen sweeping changes that are at least as as he prepares to take over from Blair. extensive, and arguably more so, than “But the two have continued Thatcher’s those of the Thatcher years. Shifts in policy of closely aligning the British the way services are provided that are economy to the US and mimicking its closer to Conservative than Old Labour free market policies. This has meant the ideology have proved far easier for a continued decline of manufacturing Labour government to make than a industry, and growing dependence on Conservative one.” 22 financial markets. This makes the entire Faced with an explosion of inequality British economy highly vulnerable to under Thatcher and then Major. New a serious financial crash, which many

22) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5219932e-f938-11db-9b6b- 23) http://leftfootforward.org/2014/10/inequality-where- 000b5df10621.html#axzz3paG3Abak labour-really-did-crash-the-car/ The fight for socialism 31

Gordon Brown made a particularly nauseating hymn of praise to the Lehman Brothers bankers. “I would like to pay tribute to the contribution you and your company make to the prosperity of Britain. “During its one hundred and fifty year history, Lehman Brothers has always been an innovator, financing new ideas and inventions before many others even began to realise their potential. “And it is part of the greatness not just of Lehman Brothers but of the City of London, that as the world economy has opened up, you have succeeded not by sheltering your share of a small protected The , and opposition to it, defined Tony national market but always by striving for Blair’s reign Photo: Angela Stapleford a greater and greater share of the growing commentators think can’t be far off”. 24 global market.” 26 A year later that crisis broke in all its In 1997 Labour won the election fury and Labour under Blair’s successor with 13.5 million votes. It wasn’t Blair’s Gordon Brown made the poor pay for the brilliance that secured this success. crimes of the bankers. Instead it was because the Tories were Labour’s answer to the crisis was the rightly seen as corrupt and interested same as the solution put forward by right- only in a tiny (rich) section of society. wing parties across Europe—bail out the At the next election in 2001, Labour’s banks using unlimited funds, and then vote fell by nearly 3 million. Another 1.1 cut the living standards of the majority million departed by 2005, and another and the public services to fill the gap. million by 2010. The Tories have built on this, Over the same period its membership inspired by a particularly zealous class slumped from 405,000 to around 180,000. determination, but they are essentially This is all appalling enough. But on following where Labour led. Blair’s gravestone should be chiselled the As the trade union leader Dave word “Iraq”. Prentis said in 2011, “In truth, Labour His determination to attack Iraq built the bridge over which the Tories was a crucial factor in encouraging and now march.”25 sustaining the US and President George New Labour prostrated itself before Bush. The war caused a million deaths. the rich. In April 2004 chancellor In addition, four million Iraqis were

24) https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/11133/ 26) Gordon Brown, speech at the opening of Lehman Tony+Blair%3A+down+and+out Brothers EU headquarters, April 2004: http://www. 25) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jun/21/ telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9376534/Regulating-the- -public-sector-pensions-cuts banks-what-politicians-used-to-say-about-the-City.htm 32 The fight for socialism forced to flee their homes and a majority primarily by a desire for change and of Iraqi children have descended into rejection of austerity Britain, left lasting malnutrition and trauma. networks of activists. They were enraged Cancer rates, linked to the use of by Labour playing the key role in saving depleted uranium weaponry, near the the British state. cities of Fallujah, Najaf and Basra are When Cameron called for a No vote, now revealed as higher than those at it helped the Yes campaign. Only Labour Hiroshima. could (just) persuade enough workers to The war was based on lies, deliberate vote against independence. distortions in order to prepare the ground Jigging around with Tories in defence for “humanitarian invasion”. Blair’s of the Union Jack, Labour shipped contention that Iraq had weapons of mass swathes of votes to the SNP. destruction that could be deployed 45 In addition the SNP was able to minutes after an order to use them was portray itself as to the left of Labour in only one of the big lies. policy terms. Its leaders spoke out against War-criminal Blair will never be free austerity, Trident nuclear missiles, war from the stain. As Shakespeare’s Much and much else. Ado About Nothing has it, Blair has Ed Miliband saw his poll ratings rise “fall’n into a pit of ink, that the wide sea when he offered some hope of change— hath drops too few to wash him clean an end to the non-dom status that enables again. And salt too little which may billionaires to avoid tax, a higher income season give to his foul tainted flesh!”27 tax rate for those grabbing over £150,000 The Tory-Liberal coalition of 2010 a year and a . profited from the dismay with Blair and But the glimmers of progress and Brown. Cameron and Clegg’s assaults class politics were battered aside by the should have delivered victory for Labour clunking fist of financial “iron discipline”, in 2015. “not a penny more” of After all, nearly every other borrowing, and “cuts government across Europe that imposed in the deficit every austerity was chucked out at the first y e a r ”. opportunity by the electors. It’s not surprising Labour lost because it was too right that people were wing, not because it was too left wing. not inspired by Look at Scotland. Labour has been the a programme of biggest party since 1959. But it was all but more attacks on eradicated in a political earthquake. The public services, more SNP went from six seats to 56 seats. wage curbs, more jobs This wholly unprecedented shift lost and a squeeze on happened partly as a reflection of the Yes health and education. to independence referendum campaign. Labour’s leaders blamed This deep social movement, marked Miliband was migrants for falling anxious to distance living standards. himself from strikes 27) I have changed the gender of Leonato’s disgusting Photo: Geoff Dexter attack on Hero! Ludicrously, they The fight for socialism 33 ended up attacking Cameron for “Had he been asked his favourite “unfunded promises” to spend more on colour or whether he is enjoying married the NHS. life, his response would have been a Miliband and his circle betrayed monotonous: ‘These strikes are wrong’.” 28 people with their right wing campaign. At the TUC conference in September But it wasn’t just the campaign that failed. he repeated: “I do believe it was a It is also the years in opposition where mistake for strikes to happen. I continue Labour held back struggle. to believe that.”29 This led to shouts of The student revolt of 2010 and the “Shame” and further heckling from the mass strikes and marches of 2011 gave audience—an extraordinary thing to momentum to an anti-Tory mood in happen among the generally loyalist Britain. Workers’ sense of solidarity and ranks of TUC delegates when a Labour confidence grew. leader is addressing them. But the choking off of the strikes by Labour’s failures have now given trade union and Labour leaders eroded Cameron, Osborne, May and the rest of the feeling of collective revolt. this toxic crew the chance to tear into us Union leader such as Dave Prentis of for five years. But they have also opened Unison and Len McCluskey of Unite were up the era of Corbyn and McDonnell. critical of aspects of Labour’s approach. Reading the history of Labour over But they sowed the illusion that all will be the last century, many of those who have well under a Miliband government and joined Labour will say that it may be ran away from sustained struggle. pretty rotten, but that Corbyn will learn Without the unifying power of from it and be different. a united fightback, the pressures of They believe it’s inconceivable to think individualism strengthened—and so did Corbyn would launch a war like the hesitation about following a Labour Party one in Iraq or that he will privatise state that seemed scared of any real change. assets. It’s not enough to just put forward left Certainly Corbyn is very different to policies. There needs to be the wellspring recent Labour leaders. But we should not of resistance and revolt to change people’s underestimate the structural elements of ideas. Instead Miliband and his followers reformism’s problems. opposed struggle. During the large-scale It’s not just because of rotten strikes of 2011 Miliband appeared on the individuals like Blair that Labour acted BBC robotically to distance himself from as it has. Far better people than him have the action. been involved in Labour’s betrayals. The reported, And even if Corbyn does try serious “No matter what question the interviewer reform, he will face opposition that could asked, Miliband began his answer with: break him. ‘These strikes are wrong.’ “He doesn’t seem to have just learnt his brief, he appears to have swallowed it whole. His first answer is delivered with 28) www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/06/ all the spontaneity of a six-year-old in a strikes-miliband-wrong school play. 29) www..co.uk/news/uk-politics-14890680 34 The fight for socialism

elections. The MPs may be numerically The problems small, but they are at the sharp end of delivery and therefore can safely ignore with Labour the party’s conference decisions or the views of the party’s rank and file. he Labour government of 1945 which Corbyn’s triumph was possible only Tfounded the NHS was very different because the normal operation of the to the one formed under Blair in 1997. party machinery which favours the But they have all had certain features in MPs was temporarily reversed through common. the leadership election process, with Labour MPs and leaders may or may supporters, members and individual not back campaigns and strikes, but they trade unionists having a say. In normal all insist that in the end the crucial arena times the following applies: of change is parliament. 1) Labour voters have the least effect on Other factors may be given a greater the party policy or leadership. Their only or lesser role depending on the sort role is to vote the MPs into power and of Labour politician they are. But all then wait five years to see the result. Their agree that the final aim is winning a only power is withholding or threatening parliamentary majority and then using it to withhold their vote. In the leadership to pass positive legislation. election however, any Labour voter , the father of Ed willing to pay £3 could have a say. and David, wrote, “Of political parties claiming socialism to be their aim, the 2) Labour membership was set up to Labour Party has always been one of the provide canvassers and a pool from which most dogmatic – not about socialism but to draw candidates. In the past they were about the parliamentary system. more ideologically committed to the “Empirical and flexible about all else, goals of reformism, and often moved left- its leaders have always made devotion to wing resolutions at Party conference etc. that system their fixed point of reference This is why Blair moved against them and and the conditioning factor of their the influence of conference was broken. political behaviour.” 30 However, the Blairites believed their own He adds that Labour plays “an rhetoric of everyone being right-wing so important role in the maintenance of the Collins Review made the mistake of capitalist society. Social democracy for allowing them back in for the leadership most of its existence has been primarily election. To their immense chagrin, the engaged in political brokerage between right discovered that Corbyn was far labour and the established order. This is more popular than they were. a function which is of crucial importance 3) Trade union leaders are essential to modern capitalism.” 31 paymasters to the party and a link to The focus on parliament privileges the mass of the working class. The link the MPs, the key actors in change, and to ordinary trade unionists exists, but is tenuous, since the outlook of the 30) R. Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism (Merlin, 1972) p13. bureaucracy comes first. 31) R. Miliband, in New Reasoner, No. 5, p. 46. The fight for socialism 35

In doing so they have created a climate where it is harder to stand up against the right. Instead of contesting backward ideas, Labour leaders have gone along with them, and thereby strengthened them. In addition, by placing all the emphasis on parliament, Labour obscures the real source of power—the ownership and control of the means of economic production in society. The bosses and bankers who control the offices, factories, banks, call centres, finance houses and other institutions It’s no accident that successive Labour leaders have pandered to racism are almost entirely free from democratic control or accountability. Yet even the trade union leaders were They contemptuously dismiss the view effectively frozen out under New Labour. that mere votes can decide what happens: However, they would not have backed the markets, the ability to undermine Corbyn without mass pressure from currencies or withhold investment are below. Unison’s consultation found “a used to discipline . clear majority”32 for Corbyn, scuppering Some Labour left-wingers have, at the leaders’ preference for Cooper. times, recognized this. , one of the heroes of the Labour left (until 4) The Parliamentary Labour Party, the he backed nuclear weapons), told the MPs, have historically played a dominant House of Commons in 1943: role. But they were marginalised by the “I started my career in public affairs 2015 election process. in a small colliery town in South Wales. But MPs and winning elections still When I was quite a young boy my matter most to Labour because winning father showed me one or two portly and them is imperative to control parliament. complacent looking gentlemen, and, If a strike or radical policy is deemed pointing to one, he said, ‘Very important to be unpopular, it has to go—even if the man. That’s Councillor Jackson. He’s a party members support it. very important man in this town.’ I said, This is the flawed logic that has seen ‘What’s the Council?’ ‘Oh, that’s the place successive Labour leaders pander to that governs the affairs of this town,’ said racism against migrants and refugees. my father. ‘Very important place indeed, Believing that many people are hostile and they are very powerful men.’ to immigration, Labour leaders have “When I got older I said to myself, ‘The accepted greater controls and more state place to get to is the council. That’s where repression. the power is.’ So I worked very hard, and I got on to the council. I discovered when 32) www.unison.org.uk/about/our-organisation/political- affiliations-and-support/labour-link/labour-leadership- I got there that the power had been there, elections-2015/ but it had just gone. So I made some 36 The fight for socialism inquiries, being an earnest student of social affairs, and I learned that the power had slipped down to the county council. That was was where it was, and where it had gone to. So I worked very hard again, and I got there—and it had gone from there too. “Then I found out that it had come up here. So I followed it, and sure enough I found that it had been here, but I just saw its coat tails round the corner. …… We were convinced by our institutions and representative democracy that the House of Commons itself was that instrument, and that seat of power; but these debates convinced me that the House of Commons is becoming almost irrelevant.” 33 The coat tails of power always Most union bureaucrats are nervous of genuine disappearing round the door. A beautiful democracy within their organisations metaphor for the powerlessness of enthusiast and irresponsible agitator to parliament. a class of permanent salaried officers Every Labour government that expressly chosen from out of the rank and attempted even meagre change beyond file unionists for their superior business the boundaries laid down by the rich capacity.” has faced pressure from big business. In They argued how this led to a situation every case it has buckled to it because where “the actual government of the challenging it would involve confronting trade union world rests exclusively in capitalist logic. the hands of a class apart, the salaried Moreover, Labour was the creation of officers.” the union leaders, and this social layer The bureaucrats’ instinct is always has its own social interests. to seek a settlement where “both sides As unions grow, they set up groups come halfway”. In some disputes such a of full-time officials whose job is to bureaucratic approach can get results. negotiate with employers. If the bosses have a bit of slack and Early Labour Party members Sidney don’t see the dispute as very significant, and Beatrice Webb described how this concessions can be won without major process first happened in Britain during battles. But it all goes wrong when the the late 19th century. other side gets serious. They talked of “a shifting of leadership A century ago the German in the trade union world from the casual revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg wrote of how for the bureaucrat the trade union 33) House of Commons debate 15 December 1943 http:// organisation, “from being a means, has www..com/debates/?id=1943-12-15a.1616.1 gradually changed into an end in itself - a The fight for socialism 37 precious thing, to which the interests the right of the Labour leadership. It was of the struggle should be subordinated. Unite, a “left” union, which tried to block From this also comes the openly John McDonnell as chancellor. Unite, admitted need for peace that shrinks GMB, Usdaw and others threatened to from great risks and presumed dangers defeat Corbyn over Trident. to the stability of the trade unions.” They share the view that to win Trade union leaders—left and right— Labour must accept that most people are do sometimes encourage a fightback. wedded to quite right-wing views and And the difference between left and that therefore Labour must bend towards right wing leaders matters. them. But at key moments officials believe Trade union leaders will not allow militancy has to be kept within strict Labour to become a party like the limits in case it brings the union into Tories—it would mean they no longer direct clashes with the law or the had a political voice. But nor will they government. allow Labour to become “too left wing”. We can see it in 2015 with the Throughout Labour’s history the trade reluctance of many trade union leaders union link has given a voice to a version to consider radical action, or defiance of of class politics, however weak. But it also the law, even against new laws designed implies constraints. to make it virtually impossible to hold Finally, and most fundamentally, legal major strikes and to hobble the Labour’s focus on parliament is an unions in a dozen other ways. aspect of the belief that change (however The trade union leaders bring to limited) will come through the existing Labour their general social approach. state system. They speak about inequality and poverty Genuine socialists inside Labour and bad treatment, they sometimes believe that the party’s parliamentary organise action, but they limit majority will enable it to command the themselves to working inside the system army, navy and air force, the police, as it is—and organise to stop those who the spies and the secret squads, the want to go further. bureaucracies of the civil service and the For most of the last three decades the ministries. union leaders have been on the left of They believe that the bosses and Labour. They often clashed with Blair the bankers will, in the end, accept the as he sought to remove working class democratic will of the people and have no identification from the party. choice but to buckle to the popular will. This was a step too far for those Of course there will be ferocious battles whose whole role was based on class and determined opposition, but in the organisation. end the present state can deliver. The union leaders sometimes found themselves opposing Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband—Labour leaders who made massive concessions to big business and the markets. But now most union leaders are to 38 The fight for socialism

its power is based on two threats. Can we change “The first is intervention from the sky by the most heavily armed state in society through the world. One could call it Threat B52. The second is of ruthless indebtment, bankruptcy, and hence, given the present parliament? productive relations in the world, he state is not a neutral playing starvation. One could call it Threat Zero.”34 Tfield where classes contend under If socialists seek to use the state to mutually accepted rules—and where make really fundamental change, the victory for socialists will be met by a ruling class will abandon any pretence handshake and respect from the ruling of democratic methods and use its classes. financial, economic, and—if necessary— The capitalist state is not a mechanism its military power to secure its ends. to facilitate change, it is a mechanism In 1970 the Chilean social democrat to prevent it, to stifle more than very Salvador Allende was elected president. limited change. Chile was a stable, rooted capitalist The state is a mechanism by which democracy. It had a long tradition of one class oppresses and exploits parliamentary elections. another—and the capitalist state is Allende implemented some hugely an instrument of class rule for the popular reforms such as wage rises, capitalists. redistribution to poor peasants of some It cannot be used for the opposite of the land owned by the elite, and purpose—to dispossess the capitalists partial nationalisation of some of the and allow the overwhelming majority economy. Allende proceeded carefully. to democratically rule society in the He promised not to encroach on the interests of the overwhelming majority. rights of the Catholic Church or the This is why the Russian revolutionary media bosses, and constantly sought to Lenin wrote, “Bourgeois democracy, reassure the military of his appreciation although a great historical advance in for their role. comparison with medievalism, always None of this placated the rich. They remains, and under capitalism cannot stored up their grudges and waited for but remain, restricted, truncated, false their chance. and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich Allende’s reforms were popular. They and a snare and a deception for the not only led to big electoral success exploited, for the poor.” in local elections in 1971, they also The author and critic John Berger encouraged workers and the poor to wrote that the present power structure take their own actions, taking land and we live under is “interlocking but challenging managers in the factories. diffuse, ranging from the 200 largest At this point the right determined to multinational corporations to the remove Allende. They could envisage Pentagon. allowing a social democrat to be in office It is “dictatorial yet anonymous, ubiquitous yet placeless. Ideology apart, 34) www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27a/113.html The fight for socialism 39

This is not some outdated event. The Egyptian revolution of 2011, where strikes and street protests threw out the dictator Hosni Mubarak, has faced the fierce forces of counter-revolution. In July 2013 Egypt’s General al-Sisi destroyed any pretence of democracy, took over at the head of reaction and began to drown opposition in blood. The bosses’ newspaper the Wall Street Journal cheered such measures, saying, “Egyptians would be lucky if their new ruling generals turn out to be in the The figurehead may have changed, but the mould of Chile’s Augusto Pinochet.” 35 old ruling class still clings to power in Egypt, And Sisi has tried to deliver on that contemptuous of democracy Photo: Gigi Ibrahim hope, murdering thousands, imprisoning so long as he acted to blunt spontaneous tens of thousands and sweeping away working class revolt. rights. If he was acting, however unwillingly, None of this worried the bosses and as a catalyst to go beyond mild reform the bankers. The Egyptian stock market then he had to be removed—whatever saw the biggest rise in the world in 2014. the voters thought. Most clearly in recent times, the US national security adviser Henry experience of Greece has shown the Kissinger infamously said, “I don’t limitations of parliamentary change. see why we have to let a country go At the start of 2015 the radical Syriza Marxist just because its people are party won elections, a victory that saw irresponsible.” celebrations across Europe. Allende made concession after Alexis Tsipras came to office concession to the bosses and the promising to roll back austerity military. He opposed strikes that measures imposed by the troika of went beyond his own limited vision. international lenders—the European And he refused to back the workers’ Commission, International Monetary organisations that could have opposed Fund and European Central Bank. the right’s manoeuvres. This austerity programme had On 11 September 1973 the military wrecked millions of lives. The economy took over, sweeping away all the has declined by a quarter since 2008. On democratic reforms. average people’s incomes have fallen by Allende died and the military killed over a third, hurling many back to the 30,000 left-wingers and workers in living standards of their grandparents. the repression that followed. Tens of Nearly 40 percent of the population is thousands more faced imprisonment officially poor, a quarter has no job and and torture and General Pinochet instituted a paradise for free-market 35) http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324399 “r e f o r m s”. 404578583932317286550 40 The fight for socialism

Mass strikes prepared the ground for Syriza’s rise to power. But when pressured by the Troika, they turned against their own supporters half of young people are unemployed. in 2010 and 2012, was “consistent Millions no longer have access to health throughout”. “His view was ‘I’m not care. discussing the programme – this was The election result reflected this accepted by the previous [Greek] carnage and the confidence from a very government and we can’t possibly high level of resistance—general strikes, allow an election to change anything. student movements, occupations of So at that point I said, ‘Well perhaps public squares and more. we should simply not hold elections But the bankers and the EU anymore for indebted countries’, institutions had no interest in the views and there was no answer. The only of an electorate. interpretation I can give [of their view] Instead the only negotiations they is, ‘Yes, that would be a good idea, but it were prepared to have with Syriza were would be difficult. So you either sign on on continuing the policies of cuts. the dotted line or you are out.’” They began a policy of financial When Varoufakis put forward careful waterboarding to torture Greece into counter-proposals he says, “There submission and to prevent the message was point blank refusal to engage in running across the world that if you economic arguments. Point blank. vote against austerity you can escape the “You put forward an argument that bankers’ regime. you’ve really worked on, to make sure Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance it’s logically coherent, and you’re just minister at the time, has given an insight faced with blank stares. It is as if you into how the talks went. haven’t spoken. He said that Wolfgang Schäuble, “What you say is independent of Germany’s finance minister and the what they say. You might as well have architect of the deals Greece signed sung the Swedish national anthem – The fight for socialism 41 you’d have got the same reply.” 36 implement this—and facing struggles This intransigence left Syriza with a from workers in the firing line. massive problem. Eventually it put to the Electing a leader and a party with left Greek people the demands of the troika. wing policies was not enough to stop the And the Greek people responded with bosses’ blackmail. It could only have been a great Oxi (No) to these measures. The different if Syriza had based itself on mass referendum in July saw 61 percent reject mobilisation. austerity. This was 25 percentage points It would have had to advance measures higher than the vote for Syriza in January. such as nationalising banks under But Syriza had no plan to continue workers’ control, seizing the wealth of the resistance. In fact it had already the oligarchs, imposing controls on the surrendered. bosses’ ability to move money and assets Varoufakis reflects, “By the end of and so on. June my colleagues had already decided This would have required an immense to give in, and in a sense the referendum movement from the base of society and a was called to be lost. It was an escape deepening of democracy in the workplace route. The hope was that the Greek and communities. people would vote yes. And the Greek In other words, to secure anti-austerity people voted no. The Greek people were policies required genuine socialist not subdued. I was surprised. I had policies and a socialist movement. This expected a whole week of closed banks was possible, as the Oxi referendum would bend the Greek people to the showed. But Tsipras ran away from it. troika’s will. I was elated that night. It After the 2012 elections, when it was was one of the happiest moments of my clear Syriza could win the next election, life. Unfortunately my side, the Greek the encouragement for struggle outside government, collapsed and surrendered.” parliament stopped. There was no attempt Syriza could not have moved forward to bring anti-austerity and anti-racist without being more radical, and also mobilisations into the centre of any plan breaking from the EU. for government. Instead, fixated on parliament, And after Syriza came to office in 2015 negotiations with the powerful, and any sniff of resistance from below was staying in the EU it utterly crumbled. regarded as at best a distraction and at Within a week Tsipras declared he worst disloyal. would implement a worse round of Greece is not the only example. austerity than those imposed by his Tory In France the presidency of the predecessors. Socialist Party’s Francis Hollande from As part of the bailout deal, Tsipras 2012 saw continued implementation of agreed to cut pensions, increase taxes for austerity and racism, clearing the way for the majority, and a major privatisation the growth of the fascist National Front programme. He is now seeking to and the electoral collapse of the Socialists. In an era of deep crisis reversing austerity and attacking racism and 36) http://www.newstatesman.com/world-affairs/2015/07/ exclusive-yanis-varoufakis-opens-about-his-five-month- war requires far more than winning an battle-save-greece election. 42 The fight for socialism

To achieve real reforms today we “The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. need revolutionary methods—measures The general staff would not allow a prime based on action in the workplaces and minister to jeopardise the security of this the streets, stressing self-activity rather country and I think people would use than waiting for a call from above, whatever means possible, fair or foul to linking together the different strands of prevent that.” campaigning, uniting against everything The Sunday Times added that that divides us and recognisng that a “intelligence chiefs” had also stated, successful movement cannot neglect “The intelligence services will refuse the fight against racism, Islamophobia, to let Corbyn see information on live women’s oppression, homophobia and all operations because of his sympathy oppression. towards some terrorists.” Perhaps Britain would be different? And then the paper quoted a senior Just before the 2015 Labour leadership intelligence source stating, “None of the election I wrote, “A Corbyn-led Labour intelligence community—whether we’re government… will face the hostility of talking about the security services or the bosses and the forces they marshal. the counter-terrorism police bosses— If it’s serious about fundamental change would give Corbyn, or any of his cabinet, it will provoke the fury of undemocratic information that they don’t want to give. and unaccountable state structures. And any information that they do decide “They won’t just sit back if someone to give will be restricted and tailored to is elected who says he can’t conceive of a general stuff and provided against the situation where British troops should be clear backdrop of Corbyn’s detestation of deployed abroad.” 37 Britain’s security services.” 38 Speedy confirmation of the mindset of Action by the military may seem parts of the ruling class came in just over far-fetched. But we shouldn’t rule it out a week. if a Corbyn government saw a mass A senior serving British Army general rise in workers’ struggle. And there told the Sunday Times that if Corbyn would certainly be a battery of financial became prime minister, “There would measures similar to those launched be mass resignations at all levels and against Syriza. you would face the very real prospect The experience of reformism, in of an event which would effectively be a Britain and internationally over the last mutiny… century, is why the SWP has not joined “You would see a major break in Labour, and continues to push for a convention with senior generals directly revolutionary party. and publicly challenging Corbyn over We need a movement independent of vital important policy decisions such as Labour that is centred on struggle, not Trident, pulling out of NATO and any elections. We don’t abstain from elections, plans to emasculate and shrink the size of but they cannot be at the heart of our the armed forces. activity.

37) http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/41267/ 38) www.rt.com/uk/316039-british-army-coup-corbyn/ Letter+to+a+Jeremy+Corbyn+supporter gives free access to the Sunday Times quotes The fight for socialism 43

The idea that a left wing leader will into believing that they had scored a real solve our problems is an illusion. victory!” 39 It’s an attractive illusion because it Yet we know that none of these leaders seems so much simpler than the hard delivered the changes we need. grind of struggle and the problems of Corbyn cannot be understood without building a revolutionary alternative to reference to Blair’s New Labour. Labour. In one way New Labour was the logical Yet the hopes in left leaders have outcome of Labour’s entire evolution. If always been dashed. Quite often the you try to advance reforms within the Labour left thought it had won real profit-making system, then these reforms victories by electing the best possible will be put on hold if profit-making runs candidate as leader. into trouble. In the 1920s the left celebrated The decline of British capitalism, when Ramsay MacDonald defeated J R the ideological onslaught of the Clynes, the candidate of the right. “The neoliberals, disappointment with pattern was repeated in 1935 when the Labour’s performance and consequently left successfully backed Attlee (against falling vote share, meant that Blair could Morrison, the candidate of the right); in convince many that genuine reforms and 1963 when the left successfully backed improvements for ordinary people must Wilson (against Brown, the candidate be put on indefinite hold since there was of the right); in 1980 when the lefts no alternative to Tory policies. successfully backed Foot (against Healey, However, Corbyn is also the product the candidate of the right) and, of course, of Labour’s evolution. The party can in 1983 when the lefts successfully only exist as a credible electoral force backed Kinnock (against Hattersley, the candidate of the right). In each of these 39) www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/works/1981/02/ contests the lefts deluded themselves labour.html 44 The fight for socialism

Labour councils have been making Tory cuts. This is the logical outcome of playing by the establishment’s rules Photo: Guy Smallman if, however imperfectly, it expresses the percent held 88 percent of it. aspirations of the ordinary women and Mark Goldring from Oxfam said, men suffering under capitalism and this “This is the latest evidence that extreme is what the hundreds of thousands who inequality is out of control. Are we really voted for Corbyn were insisting upon. happy to live in a world where the top While Corbyn’s election has 1 percent own half the wealth and the reasserted that argument, it does not poorest half own just 1 percent? mean that the trends that produced New “Eyebrows were raised when earlier Labourism have gone away. this year Oxfam predicted that the richest 1 percent would own more than the rest of us by 2016. The fact it has happened a year early—just weeks The revolutionary after world leaders agreed a global goal to reduce inequality—shows just how alternative urgently world leaders need to tackle this problem.” 41 few weeks after Corbyn became The political and economic elite that Labour leader, a shocking report was A control society will not be removed issued that showed the top 1 percent of without immense struggle. the global population now holds half its They sit atop a system which is wealth. The Credit Suisse Global Wealth 40 hurtling towards the abyss due to climate Report found that the bottom half change—and yet they do nothing of adults owned less than 1 percent of effective because it would interfere world’s total wealth while the richest 10

41) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/worlds- 40) www.credit-suisse.com/uk/en/about-us/research/ richest-one-per-cent-owns-more-than-half-the-worlds- research-institute/global-wealth-report.html wealth-according-to-report-a6693226.html The fight for socialism 45 with their profits and reduce their of profit, comes to a halt. When a few tens competitive edge. of thousands of London Tube workers In 1938 Leon Trotsky wrote that, strike then bosses across the capital are “The bourgeoisie itself sees no way out. screaming. In countries where it has already been When the teachers strike they forced to stake its last upon the card of can create a political crisis for the fascism, it now toboggans with closed government, and other companies eyes toward an economic and military complain that workers don’t come in catastrophe. because their children aren’t at school. “In the historically privileged countries, It is not just obvious groups such as i.e. in those where the bourgeoisie can still rail workers, telecoms workers or car for a certain period permit itself the luxury workers who have power. of democracy at the expense of national In 2015 National Gallery workers accumulations all of capital’s traditional struck for 111 days and won a real victory parties are in a state of perplexity against their managers. bordering on a paralysis of will.” They closed half the gallery by It feels very much like the entire their action, focused the anger against capitalist class now “toboggans with privatisation and austerity, and were a closed eyes” towards environmental symbol of the need for resistance. That’s catastrophe. Capitalism brings crisis, why they won immense solidarity. poverty and war. At SOAS, University of London, In order to stop people who will unofficial strikes by Unison and UCU stop at nothing, we need an immense union members won the reinstatement power. Revolutionaries believe that is the of union rep Sandy Nicoll within a few working class, the people who do not own days. In 2017 cleaning, catering and and control the means of production. security staff finally won their 11-year There are many fewer manufacturing battle to finally end outsourcing at the workers in Britain today than there were London university. 30 years ago (although there are many They faced down some of the most more in countries such as China) but aggressive and exploitative outsourcing other forms of work have expanded. companies in Britain. There are growing numbers of Bosses were prepared to use a transport workers, distribution workers, variety of tactics from victimisation to routine administrative and clerical deportations to break their organisation. workers, call centre workers, teachers, But the workers won. health workers and care workers. The Tories’ 2015 Trade Union Bill Their conditions are poor, they are was a back-handed compliment to the low paid and insecure, they face stress organised working class. and bullying, and they certainly do not The level of strikes in Britain did not control how their work takes place. They seem to require more anti-union laws. should be seen as a central part of the But the Tories know that if they are to modern working class. push through their austerity plans they These workers have power. When they must try to weaken their most formidable stop work parts of society, and the source potential opponents—organised workers. 46 The fight for socialism

Our rulers have long memories. that most workers have “contradictory Perhaps at Eton they have a class on consciousness”. “How the miners beat the Tories—and Their views and actions are shaped how we must stop such things happening partly by the fact that they live in again”. Unfortunately our side often a capitalist society and have been forgets Marx’s stirring description bombarded from the day of their birth that, “What the bourgeoisie therefore with the idea that this is the only possible produces, above all, are its own grave- form of society. diggers.” 42 The education system, the dominant Other forms of struggle than media, official politics and much of strikes are crucial—demonstrations, culture rams home the same notion. occupations, direct action of all kinds, The experience of everyday life often propaganda, meetings. But our strongest confirms a sense of powerlessness and weapon is the strike. Only workers can individualism. deliver it. However, our lives are also shaped by The second reason why socialists look the fact of collective experience. to workers is that this class, unlike other We might work with dozens, or exploited groups, has to act collectively to hundreds or thousands of others in achieve change. a common enterprise that, however Of course there is always someone subsumed by the boss, is still indicative of who will try to stab their mates in the humans creating together. back and ingratiate themselves with the The building worker who labours on boss to get a pay rise or promotion. But the new luxury apartments knows her not everyone can be successful through wages come from work that will produce such methods. homes for the super-wealthy. If workers are to get more money from But she also knows that this wonder the company or the government, they was produced by ten thousand people have to act together. If they are to stop job working together on the site and to make losses, they have to act as one. If they are its elements. to take over the running of their factory The nurse knows he is overworked and or office, they have to do it in unity. surrounded by commercial pressures, Workers cannot divide up the factory but he also knows that the cooperation of and each use their bit for themselves. hundreds can save lives and bring human They must take over the factory happiness. collectively and run it collectively. This is There are also moments and glimpses why workers’ struggles have historically of how collective endeavour can change been the most democratic ever seen. the world for the better. This might be the But how can we overcome the hold direct experience of taking part in a strike of capitalist ideas on people? Antonio or a campaign, or seeing somebody else Gramsci, a key figure in the history of do it. revolutionary socialism in Italy, explained In the course of struggle you grasp who your friends and allies are. They 42) https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/ aren’t the Tories and their media, and communist-manifesto/ch01.htm sometimes they’re not the union leaders. The fight for socialism 47

At key moments in history the reformists play the role of stabilising capitalism and the parliamentary system, even if it means workers’ blood is shed. Revolutionaries seek to build on the moments where people can see the possibilities of much more fundamental change. In the course of mass struggles people can change the world and also change themselves. This is why Karl Marx wrote, “Revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.” 44 In revolutions people discover new We are not simply receptacles for our rulers’ lies strengths and new ways of organising. They are the workers who support On the basis of the transformation of you and collect money or offer other economic and political life, the whole of solidarity, and the campaigners who society can change. spend their time to spread your case. The socialist historian Harold Isaacs Those who struggle alongside you, and described the impact of revolution in those who back you will be women and China in 1925-27: “The accumulated men, black and white, gay and straight— oppression of centuries had laid charges and thus some of the received prejudices deep in the soil. The upsurge of 1927 about the world can be broken down. only touched the torch to the fuses Reformism, the idea that change which meshed through the whole social comes about through the existing structure like veins in the human body. system and nothing else is possible, is “Revolution brought a thundering “the organised political expression of series of explosions which left not a contradictory consciousness”.43 limb of the old society intact. Shaken It freezes people at the point where asunder and trampled upon, all that was they want change, but can’t see beyond old, corrupt, degenerate, and decadent, the present set up. dissolved in the ‘inspired frenzy of That is why even the most left-wing history.’ Bandages were torn from the Labour Party can be the expression of a bound feet of women. Young girls, with radical mood, but also a brake upon it, bobbed hair and an air of defiant energy, stifling its fullest development. streamed into the country-side to awaken

43) http://www.scribd.com/doc/50357313/Revolution-in- 44) https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/ the-21st-Century-Chris-Harman p63 german-ideology/ch01d.htm 48 The fight for socialism their sex and free it of chains that bore the rust of generations”. 45 The workers’ councils of the Russian revolutions in 1905 came from the direct experience of workers who had broken one system of rule but needed to find their own way of running society. The councils (or Soviets) did not spring from some pre-planned scheme. The 1905 revolution was eventually defeated, and for years struggle was at a low ebb. It revived from 1911 and the Soviets reappeared after the Tsar was driven out in 1917. But Soviet rule could not have been victorious against the old order in 1917 Sometimes the most oppressed groups in society without the existence of a revolutionary take a leading role in revolutions. Here disabled party rooted in the working class. people lead a march during Tunisia’s Spring At the end of the First World War Photo: Nasser Nouri workers’ councils appeared across “In ordinary times the state, be it Germany—but the revolution was monarchical or democratic, elevates itself physically smashed by armed force above the nation, and history is made by mobilized by social democrats, and the specialists in that line of business - kings, capitalists stayed in charge. ministers, bureaucrats, parliamentarians, The Spanish revolution of 1936, journalists. Hungary in 1956, Iran in 1979, Egypt “But at those crucial moments in 2011 and many more all saw workers when the old order becomes no longer and the poor rise up against the old endurable to the masses, they break regimes. over the barriers excluding them from Revolutions usually begin as “half- the political arena, sweep aside their revolutions” where aspects of the old traditional representatives, and create system are torn away but the essential by their own interference the initial power structure remains. groundwork for a new régime... Either the revolution must deepen “The history of a revolution is for and develop to confront the real source us first of all a history of the forcible of power, or it will be thrown back— entrance of the masses into the realm of with disastrous results. rulership over their own destiny”. 46 Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky Such a process is a world away from wrote, “The most indubitable feature of the very limited change possible through a revolution is the direct interference of parliament. the masses in historical events. Of course supporters of Corbyn often say that they recognise the importance 45) www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/isaacs/1938/tcr/ ch13.htm 46) www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch00.htm The fight for socialism 49 of struggle outside parliament as well But it is not only at the high points of as inside. They call for a “twin track” struggle that revolutionary methods are strategy. But the question is which relevant. disciplines which. In all campaigns and strikes there is The German revolution of 1918- a tension between relying mainly on the 23 failed because all the forces of initiative from below, mobilising support reaction gathered around the banner of in the workplaces and on the streets, or parliamentary democracy. hoping for change from above. Although it was necessary to stand Of course it’s possible to use an in elections and try to win MPs, it election campaign to boost a struggle, was crucial for revolutionaries to win and it’s useful to win elections on clear over the majority of workers to an socialist policies. But the central issue understanding that parliament was an is struggle. Struggle must discipline obstacle, a route back to rule by an elite. winning and using elected positions, not Therefore, while employing every the other way round. possible means of struggle, it was We want to do away with capitalism possible for workers to conquer only in its entirety, not just some of its worst by supplanting parliament with the symptoms. far richer democracy of the workers’ A world of competing capitalist councils. nation states will always throw up racist At such moments there is a clear immigration controls to divide the choice to be made, not a twin-track. working class and manage labour flows The great Polish-German for profit. revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg wrote, Only a socialist revolution can sweep “That is why people who pronounce away the borders, barbed wire, detention themselves in favour of the method centres and laws that produce bitter of legislative reform in place and in suffering and death. contradistinction to the conquest of Only a socialist revolution can stop political power and social revolution, the environmental catastrophe that do not really choose a more tranquil, means climate change but has many other calmer and slower road to the same goal, aspects as well. but a different goal. The “responsible” and “ethical” “Instead of taking a stand for the corporations cannot be regulated into establishment of a new society they take thinking that the future of humanity a stand for surface modifications of the and the planet matters more than their old society… Legislative reform and individual profits. revolution are not different methods of Capitalism is the system that sees news historic development that can be picked of arctic ice melting as an opportunity for out at the pleasure from the counter of extended oil drilling.48 history, just as one chooses hot or cold The giant car firms that have lied sausages”. 47 and cheated systematically about their

47) https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/ 48) http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng- reform-revolution/ch08.htm interactive/2015/jun/16/drilling-oil-gas-arctic-alaska 50 The fight for socialism emissions tests will never be our allies We need such an organisation now. for a sustainable society.49 Join us—to work to support Corbyn’s We can have a society of democracy policies against the right, to fight and equality, where people decide austerity in every form, to demand the collectively how to use the resources government opens the border to refugees and talents and energy available in the and migrants, to combat all forms of interest of the great majority. oppression, to battle for real action We can do away with the vast gulf against climate change, to strengthen between rich and poor and the horror workers’ organisation and to defy the and waste of military spending. anti-union laws, to fight against nuclear We can tear out the roots of weapons and imperialist war—and racism and women’s oppression and to fight for socialism, a world where homophobia. people come before profit and genuine But this requires a revolution, not democracy rules. just reforms. A revolutionary party seeks to organise those workers who have broken with the mainstream ideas of capitalist society. It seeks to be a party of leaders—not a party of leaders and followers. Each and every member must try to give a direction to the struggles around them. It cannot be an organisation that is hermetically sealed off from the world outside because it needs to be in constant dialogue with workers who have not yet broken with mainstream ideas. It must be involved in strikes, protests, campaigning movements and community struggles—and learn from those struggles. Only through such battles can large numbers of non-revolutionary workers begin to change their way of thinking, while revolutionary workers can show that they have the sharpest understanding of the world and the best methods of fighting to change it.

49) https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/41373/ Cash+and+burn+-+the+truth+behind+the+Volkswagen +scandal The fight for socialism 51 FURTHER READING

Labourism and the Trade Unions Parliamentary Socialism The SWP’s Education for Socialists by Ralph Miliband pamphlet on this topic. A searching analysis of the politics of www.swp.org.uk/education/7-labourism- Labour. and-the-trade-unions The Vote by Paul Foot The Labour Party: A Marxist History The story of how the vote was won, and by Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckstein how it was undermined A hundred years of Labour brilliantly Revolutionaries and the Labour Party analysed. by Duncan Hallas Reform or Revolution A look at different approaches that by Rosa Luxemburg revolutionaries have had towards Labour. Luxemburg’s classic polemic against www.marxists.org/archive/hallas/ “revisionism”—an early form of works/1982/revlp/index.htm reformism that developed in the German socialist movement. www.marxists.org/archive/ luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/ index.htm The Economic Roots of Reformism by Tony Cliff A brief article explaining why workers often look to reformism rather than revolutionary politics. www.marxists.org/archive/cliff/ works/1957/06/rootsref.htm The Workers’ Government by Chris Harman and Tim Potter Bookmarks bookshop This article considers the different uses of To order any of these books, contact the term “workers’ government” and the Bookmarks, the socialist bookshop. We are the largest socialist bookshop problems it presents for revolutionaries. in Britain and we stock books about www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1977/ politics, trade unionism, labour history, xx/workersgov.htm the environment, women’s liberation, black struggle, culture, fiction, radical From Bernstein to Blair: 100 Years of kids’ books and much more. Revisionism by Chris Harman Harman charts the history of reformism 1 Bloomsbury St, London WC1B 3QE bookmarksbookshop.co.uk on the left. [email protected] www.marxists.org/archive/harman/1995/ 020 7637 1848 xx/revision.htm 52 The fight for socialism

Join the Socialist Workers Party If you agree with what you have just read, we’d like you to join us. The SWP offers you a chance to fight back against the system that brings us economic crisis, poverty, war, racism and injustice – and to help bring about a socialist future. We have branches around Britain which meet regularly and get involved in all the strikes, campaigns and protests in their area. There is most likely a branch near you. If you would like to join us, or if you would simply like to know more about what we do, please get in touch: Email: [email protected] Phone: 020 7840 5602 Web: www.swp.org.uk

This pamphlet was produced by Socialist Worker, written by Charlie Kimber and designed by Ben Windsor. First published November 2015. Reprinted July 2016 and September 2017.

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