By Phil Hearse of the International AT ITS recent conference, attended people, the Socialist Alliance decided to shut up the shop and form two caucuses. One of these would discuss fusion with Big and other International Marxist Group.
i ne ISA was born out of regroupment of former members of Socialists - (now SWP) most of whom had left or been expelled in 19745. These included La hundred supporters of the Workers| League, a group included of founder members of IS and some important trade union cadres.
the first ISA conference, attended by 150 people, Martin Shaw argued for participating in Socialist Challenge and ultimate regroupment with the IMG. This proposal was considerably modified. that the ISA would become a talking shop unless it had a clear political project.
The fact that its funeral assembly WaN attended reflected its inability to exist as an independent force. And now Martin Shaw, one of the founding members of the ISA, has decided that life is politically easier in the Labour Party the under the Tories.
The ISA had conclusion that broader regroupment involving Flame and ultimately the SWP backed out of any regroupment with the IMO. In our opinion this is not unrelated to a refusal to come to grips with the question Leninist party in the conditions of late capitalism.
The ISA, too, lost its nerve. The . SWP had set its face against any short-term regroupment.
Since the ISA was never a properly structured organisation with its own programme but only a network of militants working towards regroupment, there was never any structured political activity on a national basis:
As disappointed.
Vullic as only people Martin come to the would join always Bi . BF of building at the moment.
in this democratic debate February, Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
THE 1977 Labour Party conference overwhelmingly supported the abolition of the House of Lords, Not one NEC or Cabinet member spoke. against it. Yet the 1979 election manifesto merely contained a promise to reform' the Lords. How did this happen?
Almost everyone knows that this is oniv one case reoresentative of the general attitude of the party leadership. Callaghan was simply not having it.
Indeed he even threatened to resign if this policy was incorporated in the manifesto. He preferred pre-election chaos to bowing to the democratically decided views of conference.
Of course, having got his way on this and other policy issues the election was still lost — something which we should not let him or the Labour right forget.
So if the party is not to accept the status of a rather weak pressure group then the leader must be elected by an electoral college.
Despite the severe limitations of any constitutional changes, I would argue that no other reform is individually more important than attempting to make the leader more responsive to the party as a whole.
In tue coming penod luis "constitutional wrangle' remains of fundamental importance. In the long run the Labour left must produce a new leadership. In the short term we have to do all we can to stop the rot.
The fight for party democracy must not stop at this conference. The basis of our democratic socialist perspective rests on accountability to the rank and file by all those who hold RMAC can in themselves never guarantee a leadership that is responșiveto the party's socialist aspirations. They may stop the rot in the short term, but in the longer term, the left has to grow stronger and create an alternative leadership.
Reforms of the party structure need to conform to the perspective of creating a powerful Labour left with a desponsive leadersmo commited to socialism. In short, automatic reselection is not automatic socialism. GARY KENT, Brighton ILP A number of errors THERE WERE a number of errors in my article on the Ford pay claim as it appeared in Socialist Challenge 25 Firstly no 'B' shift shop meeting took place at Dagenham on 27 September. If it had, around 10,000 night shift workers would have been present and unanimous v endorsed the Ford Workers Group proposals BLAIK TEACH WAS MURDERED JIMMY KELLY WAS MURDERET democracy, discussion and preparation for a fight in drawing up the claim which makes a Vauxhall type deal possible -the inadequacy of the individual demands in the claim.
workers 'found out' what the claim was four days before it was submitted on Friday 26 October. In fact a steward at Langley who supports the FWG hassled his convenor till he spilt the beans. A few hundred of us were the wiser hourly paid workers may have found out in the news on Friday night.
The main points of my original article were the difficulty of confronting the bureaucracy even in a well-organised place like Ford, the centrality of trade union democracy and of mass participation in deciding even the smallest economic demands - aproblem your Leyland correspondent is also painfully aware of. This was not ciear in the article as it appeared. •Ford Dagenham correspondent AND HAS ANYONE BEEN CHARGED WITH THESE CRIMES? - not necessarily for Israel.
Finally the article said that Ford anti-semites? - something like 57,000
J DON'T BE
RIDICULOUS WORM BESIDES THAT IS NOT THE POINT! group. Ialso remember Mrs bench'. Zimmerman (Dylan's mother) being interviewed on Galei Zahal (Israel Army radio) about her son's support So as Socialist Challenge is openly anti-Zionist why does Dave consider that stating the fact of Dylan's Zionism is anti-semitic? If Dave really believes that all anti-Zionism is veiled anti-semitism, why bother to write to a paper staffed and read mostly by I hope it's because Dave believes he is a socialist, but is deeply worried by the fact that so many other socialists feel this is incompatible with PAUL SAMUELS, Surbiton Our watchword IT IS clear that the growing offensive of the working class against hatcher sattacks will mean gicale.
[SO MUCH ENERGYL EXPENDED AND ONLY TWO MEN DEAD! S LESSONS FROM WOULD HELP THEM TO ACHIEVE A COUNTRY Accompanying the article was a photograph of posters reading 'Public Enquiry Now' — a slogan which was also mentioned many times in the reports of the Blair Peach pickets.
Both of these demands go against our principle of class independence. What does it mean to call for a public enquiry? Is it like the one Lord Widgery headed which whitewashed the Paratroop Regiment's murder of 14 unarmed people in Derry in 1972? Or Lord Scarman's enquiry into the police-murder of Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square, which blamed the IMG for his death?
Or does it mean Tariq Ali, Len Murray, Home Secretary Willi Whitelaw and John Methven of the CBI, heading a jury elected from the so-called 'general public'?
Revolutionary socialists call for none of these. We call for a trade union/labour movement enquiry.
----- pull-quotes -----
Constitutional wrangles?