BRITAIN
"ammunity charos"
W ITHIN no more than few hours of the election results being declared, it was clear that Thatcher was heading for another victory. Predictions — or hopes - of at least a hung parliament or a greatly reduced Tory majority were quickly dispelled.
The Tories vote in percentage terms hardly changed from the election of 1983, and although they lost 22 members of parliament (MPs), they still retain a majority of 102 seats. The Labour Party (LP) made a gain of 20 seats, pushing up their share of the vote from 27.5% in 1983 to 30.8% -
Tory "landslide"
with only 42 per cent of the vote
BRITAIN'S LABOUR movement was dealt a severe blow with the re-election of the Tory government for a third term in the June general election. While very few people were predicting that the Labour Party would make a comeback in this election, the size of the Tory majority will undoubtedly increase demoralization and the no-hope atmosphere inside the workers' movement, still reeling from the defeats suffered by the miners and printers in the last few years.
"community charge" — every adult will be liable to pay the same amount. If implemented, this poll tax will hit the poor, unemployed, young adults and pensioners the hardest. People who cannot afford to pay the tax will lose their right to vote?
This vicious piece of legislation, which the Tories intend to extend to England and Wales, will reinforce the "dual society" policies of Thatcher, increasing the gap between the haves and the have nots. This is just one reason for the Tories electoral debacle in Scotland, where demands for an indepenwinning one and a half
Willllng One dild a lau million additional voters (see table). Al-
HILARY ELEANOR dent Scottish Assembly gaining are ground.
sounding victory in West Belfast (see the following article). In Scotland, the Tories were decimated, with only 24% of the vote and their seats slashed from 21 to 10. Here, Labour won 50 of the 72 Scottish parliamentary seats. The Scottish National Party gained three seats from the Tories, but lost two to Labour.
But these particular results must be seen in the context of the specific regional political conditions, and the devastating impact of the Tories' economic policies on unemployment and poverty there.!
The fight for self-determination and national liberation is absolutely central if the working class and oppressed are to make any headway.
Scotland, for example, is to be the testing ground for a new piece of legislation that the Tories rushed through parliament in the week before the election, the Abolition of Domestic Rates (Scotland) Bill. This intends to replace local authority rates This intends to renlace local authoritv rates in Scotland in 1989 with a flat-rate
Wales also saw the Tory vote slump, with swings to Labour of over 10% in many seats since 1983. Labour won three South Wales constituencies, and the Welsh nationalist party — Plaid Cymru — won a seat in north Wales from the Tories. Tremendous divergences in voting
The national averages of the seats won in the election, while discouraging, are very misleading. There were tremendous divergences in voting in different areas of the country. The "north-south" divide corre1. For a detailed look at the Tories' economic policies and their effects on the working class and impoverished, see the article by Hilary Eleanor, "After eight years of the 'Thatcher revolution'", IV 121, June 1, 1987.
Thanks are due for help in preparing this article to comrades supporting the British journals Socialist Action and Socialist Outlook. 2. From Labour Research, June 1987, Vol. 76, No. 6.
Number of seats won 1987/1983
(percentage of the vote in italics)
Change
1983
1987
397
375
-22
Tory
42.3%
42.4%
-0.1%
209
229
+20
Labour
+3.3%
30.8%
27.5%
23
22
-1
Alliance
25.4%
22.6%
-2.8%
6
4
+2
Nationalist
1.6%
+0.1%
1.7%
3
-1
17
18
Other
2.6%
3.2%
0.6%
July 13, 1987 • International Viewpoint though Labour's vote still remains below the 1979 level of 36.9%, it is the first increase in their vote since 1964.
The disparity between the overall increase in the Labour vote and the small number of additional seats the party won reflects the fact that these votes were won in the most deprived areas, where Labour's vote is already strong. (The bizarre electoral system of electing the first-past-the-post in each constituency means that such votes are literally "lost" in terms of seats.)
The third major force on the political scene, the SDP/Liberal Alliance were expecting to make major gains in this election and hoping to take over from Labour as the main opposition. In fact, their vote decreased. They lost one seat, although in general their vote held up in the commuterbelts and the gentrified country areas in the south of England.
Massive defeat for the Alliance
It was a massive defeat for this coalition, and has caused an almighty political crisis, with public rows exploding almost before the results were announced around whether the two Alliance parties should fuse. This proposal could mean the Alliance simply becoming a bigger version of the Liberal Party, losing its role as an electoral force that can block Labour coming to power. But, for now, the Alliance still performs this important function, with the additional plus of helping to push Labour's leaders rightwards in the competition for votes.
In spite of the overall election result, there were some glimmers of hope for the left in the north of Ireland and Scotland. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams won a re-
BRITAIN sponds largely to a geographical concentration of votes, which is based on social and class differences. Labour increased its vote in this election massively in the north of England, as well as Scotland and Wales, with the Tory vote increasing particularly in London and the south.
In London, Labour lost three seats despite increasing its overall vote there very slightly. On the other hand, the Tories were wiped out in major cities like Manchester, Newcastle, Liverpool and Leicester. There are now no Tory MPs at all in these cities, or in Glasgow in Scotland. At the same time the Conservatives consolidated their votes in some important sectors of the working class in the south-east, south-west and East Anglia.
Labour's result in Liverpool, in particular, was striking. After years of witch-hunts by both the media and the Labour leadership against the left-wing Militant tendency that dominates the Liverpool Labour Party, MP Terry Fields substantially increased his majority. Another MP supporting Militant, Pat Wall, won a previously Tory-held seat. Campaign Group MP Eric Heffer also did well in Liverpool, taking 65% of the vote — a swing of 9% to Labour.
In the mining areas, the Labour majorities were substantially increased. Alan Meale even won in the Nottinghamshire constituency of Mansfield, where the scab Union of Democratic Mineworkers (a right-wing split from the National Union of Mineworkers) had called for a vote against Labour.
Above all else, this election was an expression of the deepening process of class polarization in Britain today, with the "middle-of-the-road" Alliance being squeezed between Labour and Tory. But how is it that the Tories were able to win such a resounding victory in the face of
CRAC PLANTE International Viewpoint • July 13, 1987 generally unpopular policies of mass unemployment, nuclear re-armament, cuts in social services and so on?
The answer is that they were able to convince a section of employed workers in areas of relative prosperity that they could increase their standard of living under the Conservatives. Tax reductions and incentives have been popular among some groups of workers. And by and large, the Tories have won the political argument on the economy. During the election, they managed to successfully portray Labour as a party that would increase taxes and inflation. Labour's campaign was unable to reverse the Tory strategy of creating and deepening divisions inside the workers' movement.
An enormous reactionary offensive
In addition, the ruling class whipped up an enormous reactionary offensive before the election, and put all its resources into securing a Conservative victory at any cost. Despite the Labour leadership's rightward policy shift, and its attempts to present itself as a "respectable" alternative government, there was no section of the bourgeoisie favouring the election of a Labour government.
Vital sections of the capitalist class, especially those in finance and banking, have been doing very well under the Tories. Industrial productivity has increased; the rate of exploitation of the workers has risen. The Labour Party, in the eyes of the bourgeoisie, is still tainted by "Bennism" -the heterogeneous left current around Tony Benn that challenged the rightwing labour leadership's policies. Although the composition and focus of this left opposition has changed since the early 1980s, it still remains a significant minority current and represents a potential danger to the ruling class.
The determination of the bosses' to secure a Tory victory and the intensity of the media pro-Tory campaign meant that a substantial part of the Alliance vote went to the Tories. This election disproved the theses that the Alliance vote was basically an "anti-Tory" or "left of centre" vote, as expounded by the protagonists of tactical voting to get the Tories out.
Social differentiations in the voting patterns were marked. Young people between the ages of 18 and 25 were the only age group in which Labour beat the Tories. Overall, Labour won about 39% of the youth vote, as opposed to 36% for the Tories. The gender gap among young voters was interesting. While more young men voted Tory than Labour (42% to 31%), among young women the Labour lead was astonishing: 42% for Labour and only 31% for the Tories. This result seems to reflect a specific radicalization of young women around a wide range of social issues.
Labour's overall gain among women was 4.5%, as opposed to 2% among men. Despite this, the Labour campaign fell down badly in attracting women's votes. In fact, the Alliance made the theme of women's rights more prominent in its campaign than Labour did. They had more women candidates than Labour (although, of course, a lot less were elected).
One of the Alliance proposals, for example, was that all public bodies should have a 50% female composition within ten years. The lack of campaigning on issues facing women by the Labour leadership undoubtedly cost the party many votes.
The election of four Black Labour MPs in June was a major breakthrough for Black people and for the working class. It was also an historic event - there have previously been only two Black MPs elected in parliamentary history. Dianne Abbott will be the first Black woman MP to take a seat in Westminster.
This success was due to the selforganization of Black people in the LP -in national and local Black Sections -which have been banned and witch-hunted by the party's leaders. The victory for Bernie Grant in London's Tottenham constituency was a particular boost. He had been subject to a national media campaign against him when he was the local council leader, after Black youth in the area rebelled against police harassment and he spoke out on their behalf. This victory will aid the fight to link workers' struggles and the struggle against state racism and racism in the labour movement itself.
Nationally, the election campaign that the Labour Party waged was one of the slickest and most "professional" waged for decades. Concentrating on TV presentation, and the presidential-style build up of Labour leader Neil Kinnock, it owed its inspiration not to socialism, but to American-style packaged politics. One thing it
was not was radical. And although Labour would have won a vote for the glossiest campaign, the fact of the four previous years of internal witch-hunting against the left in the party, and the shift of policies to the right took their toll.
Labour's election manifesto was even less radical than in 1974, when they promised a "fundamental shift in power and wealth to working people and their families." It was also a campaign controlled very tightly from the top, with left-wingers like Arthur Scargill and Campaign Group MP Dennis Skinner being "warned off" from speaking on public platforms during the four weeks of campaigning.
The "moderate" and rightwing character of the campaign disarmed Labour in the face of the Tories attacks. The debate on the issue of defence is a good example. Kinnock adopted the strategy of saying as little about the question as possible, while the Tories hammered the theme that Labour's defence policies would "leave Britain defenceless".
Labour's pledge to get rid of all US-run nuclear bases cut little ice, accompanied as it is with the Labour leadership's support for NATO and for the strengthening of conventional armed forces.
There was no Labour attack around the £15,000 million the Tories wasted on the Trident nuclear submarine system. Or against the thousands of millions still being poured into the "defence" of the Malvinas islands. We can expect that one of the Labour right's main objectives now will be to reverse Labour's non-nuclear defence policy, which they consider to be a major vote-loser.
But despite the lack of any references to socialism, or any real anti-capitalist proposals, there is no doubt that the campaign strengthened the authority of Kinnock as leader of the LP. The conclusion that many people in the Labour Party will draw is that the campaign worked and was credible. It won votes and seats. It will be fairly easy for the Labour leaders to present the outcome as a "first step" to defeating the Tories.
Increased difficulties for the left
Labour's rightwingers will draw the conclusion that the campaign was along the right lines, but that Labour's defeat was due to the "loony left", especially in London where Labour did badly in terms of seats. In the capital the LP left controls a number of local councils, which have implemented wide-ranging anti-sexist, antiracist policies as well as initiatives for wider community control over local affairs.
This is going to increase the difficulties for militants in the labour movement, and lead to new attempts to shift policies rightwards and further marginalize the left. This campaign has already got off the ground,
BRITAIN with proposals going to the Labour and trade-union conferences in the coming months to reverse the constitutional gains that improved the democratic functioning of the LP. Selection of parliamentary candidates by a postal ballot of all members, rather than by local LP management committees, seems likely to be the first move.
One paradox of the whole situation is that there are now more leftwing Labour MPs in parliament. The election of Ken Livingstone, the former leader of the Greater London Council, and other leaders of the fight for popular, democratic local government — plus the new group of Black MPs — will be important factors affecting the composition and politics of the parliamentary left.
Crucial task now is to organize the fightback
Thatcher's election victory and the detailed results of the poll in many ways sum up the political situation facing Britain's workers, unemployed, poor and oppressed today. The defeat of the 1984-85 miners' strike laid a certain basis for the Tories' victory, as well as the subsequent defeats suffered by organized labour in its fight to defend jobs and communities. These setbacks have strengthened the grip of the right wing in the trade-union movement and the Labour bureaucracy as a whole.
However, with the election just out of the way, it is hardly credible for the rightwing trade-union and Labour leaders to argue for workers "not to rock the boat" and to wait for the return of a Labour government. Renewed attacks on the working class — whether they be privatization, closures and redundancies or attacks on the living standards of the wageless — will have to be fought now. There will be no alternative but defeat.
Although the working people of Britain have taken some extremely hard knocks in the past few years, they have not been crushed. Workers' organizations, though weakened, battered and bruised, are still intact.
The crucial task now is to organize a fightback against the third Thatcher govemment.
İNTERNATiCNAL
MARXISTREVEI
Vol 2. Mo.)
Summer 1987
E2 sass
The legacy of
Antonio Gramsci
THE SUMMER 1987 issue of the English language theoretical review of the Fourth International, International Marxist Review, is now available.
IN THIS ISSUE • Much has recently been written, particularly by the Italian PCI, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Antonio Gramsci's death, In his article Gramsci's Marxism Livio Maitan argues that, as the PCI's project pushes further and further to the right, they find their claimed continuity with Gramsci Increasingly embarassing. Maitan provides a comprehensively critical review of the man's life and ideas while insisting on the completely revolutionary core of Gramsci s work • Rosa Luxemburg Is another figure whose work has often been used to attack the Ideas of Revolutionary Marxism. In his article Luxemburg and Lenin Paul Leblanc refutes many of the misconceptions that have dogged Luxemburg's work and explores more deeply the perceptiveness of her views on the revolutionary organization and consciousness of the vanguard. Alsos • Lessons of Grenada - Laurent Beaulieu • Liberation theology challenges Marxism - Michael Lowy • Resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism — Salah Jaber
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July 13, 1987 • International Viewpoint