in support - a genuine Well, you can't be right all of the time. Following his run of unsuccessful predictions on the economy, Denis Healey ventured into the realm of political analysis with the statement that the left wing of the Labour Party were bringing the Government down. The next week saw two right-wing MPs, Brian 'the bookies' friend' Walden and John Mackintosh, abstain to thwart the passing of the Dock Work Regulation Bill. In doing so they knocked the final nail into the coffin of the legislation already mangled by the Tory peers in the House of Lords.
This latest farce in the life of the Labour Government demonstrates once again that the Social Contract contains nothing of benefit to the working class. Jack Jones first of all said that it would safeguard living standards against inflation. Now workers' earnings have dropped in real line laid down by vones, will continue to placate and orrer conces Then the trade union leaders said that it would maintain the social wage and defend the social services. Yet another round of massive IMFinspired cuts are on the way.
Finally the trade union leaders were forced to concede in desperation that the Social Contract would protect neither wages nor services, but would usher in a bright new dawn of parliamentary legislation in the interests of the working class. It is all a sham!
The sacrifices which the working class have made through their leaders' support for the Social Contract have achieved nothing. This is the clearest proof possible that workers have no responsibility for this crisis.
The roots of the Labour Government's móst recent defeat in the House of Commons lie at the door of the right-wing policies pushed and promoted by the TUC leaders. The right-wing Manifesto Group in the party feels that its star is in the ascendant. Apparently Denis Healey's cuts policy is not drastic enough for them, as they showed when they launched their 'Bring back Roy Jenkins' campaign last week.
The temporary defection of Mackintosh and Walden to the Tories will be just the first incident of many. They were treated like conquering heroes by the Tory press. contrasted to the 'sheep' driven through the Labour lobbies. Yet when the left MPs, in a spasmodic attempt to abide by Labour Conference policy, defeated a motion approving the cuts earlier this year they were denounced as the 'lunatic left'.
Demands that Callaghan should discipline or expel the right-wing MPs from the Parliamentary Labour Party are so much whistling in the wind. The Labour Government, knowing that it can rely on the lefts to toe the bureaucrats hate and fear the reselection campaion. not mereiv becau the right wing - even if that means them voting down 'crucial' parts of the Government's programme.
The answer is not to be found in the maze of parliamentary procedure. A recent survey of London CLPs showed that over half of them are in favour of the right to re-select MPs. This could be the basis for a fight for workers democracy in the labour movement as a whole. The threatens to deprive them of their parliamentary meal ticket and privileges, but because it opens the door for the representatives of the working class to be made accountable to organisations of the working class instead of Parliament. These 'men of reason and brinciple were