LABOUR MEs Usuo w epoc LABOUR PARTY BOOS greeted Denis Healey's ultimatum to Conference that support for the Government in its fight against the run on the pound meant support for all the Government's policies.
This came only two days after Conference had passed Composite 26, moved by the National Union of Public Employees, which rejected the 'reactionary view that public spending on houses, schools, hospitals and health centres has to be cut back in order to finance-higher profits in the public sector'.
The Composite went on to support "those Labour Councils which have refused to implement the cuts, and calls on other Labour Groups to follow suit, and ended liament. Double standards were the rule. by urging the Labour Party to conduct an active campaign against cuts in public expenditure, and calls on the Executive Committee to support trade unions opposing the cuts."
Barbara Castle was hauled over the coals at the meeting organised by the Socialist Medical Association by speaker after speaker for the role she had played in the Government in betraying every aspect of last year's Composite 30 on the health service. The 80-strong meeting, organised jointly by the SMA, Labour Against Cuts and the National Cordinating Committee Against Cuts in the NHS discussed a militant campaign against the cuts both in the Labour Party itself and throughout the aDour movencn But the strong anti-cuts sentiment was double-edged. Healey was able to withstand the booing and heckling and come out tops. The NEC emergency statement on the pound asked Conference to give its wholehearted support to the Government in resisting the present attack on the pound". The statement, drafted by Judith Hart, was overwne minal bassee The cracks between Healey and the anti-cuts opposition were papered over by a paragraph which drew attention to the crucial importance of the positive cooperation between the Government and the trade union movement, which has resulted in the voluntary wage policies of the Socia Contract in tne past and forthcomin, years'.
The left-wing leaders' commitment to the social contract is the strongest feather in the Government's cap. There can be more expenditure on health, the Trico women cal have equal pay, the seamen can have wage rises — just as long as the settlements don't go beyond the limits of the social contract In other words, they can have nothing.
A militant campaign for the implementa tion of the NUPE Composite on the cuts can only be successful if the class-collaborationist social contract is rejected. This means rejecting loyalty to the wage-cutting policies of the present Government as s solution to the problems of the working class. Above all, it means building campaign of mass action against the Gorerment's policies.
The day of action called by NUPE NALGO and the CPSA for 17 November can become a real launching pad for such a campaign. But to be such a launching pad, it must not be restricted to a day of protest to exert pressure on the Government not to introduce further cuts. It must be turned into a day of national strike action against the social contract and for the restoratior of all cuts