THEY SAY STOP PAY THE CONFERENCES and activities of the Socialist Workers Party-inspired Rank and File groupings have been fuelled by the loss of prestige of the Liaison Committee In sharp contrast to the LCDTU, Rank and File has stood for a real fightback against the Labour Government'sattacks.
The Right to Work conference in November 1976 attracted some 750 labour movement delegates. The Kank and Pile Co ordinating Committee conference last November was rather smaller, with just over 500 delegates.
But Rank and File with its - We are the left' stance, has been unable to make any real headway from the crisis in the Liaison Committee. Both Rank and File and the Right to Work Campaign have consistently claimed to be far more powerful than they actually are; in reality, neither represent more than a small minority of even those who have been previously mobilised by the Liaison Committee.
What is required is a real struggle to unite with militants who have traditionally supported the LCDTU fraudulent claims and posturing. Instead their claisus have been increasingly absurd. When the Rack and File conference called a one-day strike in support of the firelighters, Socialise Worker declared: We are the rank and file'; that noching could be further from the truth was demonstrated when nobody at all hooded the strike call.
The increasing isolation brought upon Rank and File b such claims and the consequent Join us or be damneo ultimatums has made the SWP chink again. The "front' Image of the Runk and File groupings must he "weakcoed" Such calls are woefully inadequate leaders. To believe.
cuckon land.
socialist policies. doing so. they have declared. This is certainly a step in the right direction. But to provide a vehicle for a genuine broad unity in action, their 'front" character would have to be buried rather than weakened and their structures democratised to permit open debate on the pollcies that are required. Rank and File has never developed a clear set of policies by which the working class could make lasting gains from its struggles. It has limited itself to calls for more militancy It is not the working class's lack of militancy which har been the main problem, It has been the lack of clear alternative policies to those of the trade union and labour ASON BEETLE November's Rank and File conference, that "1f you look after the licle things, the big things will look after themselves"; that all is well if milicancy is maintained in day-to-day strugeles in the workplace — is to live in cloud Otber groups, such as the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Movement backed by the Workers Socialist Lengue share with Socialist Challenge a commitment to clear The CLM, unfortunately, does not understand the need to fight for bese policies through unity in action with supporters of the Liaison Committee and Rank and File What is needed is not yet anorber tendency to counterpose itself to these bodies, but one committed to fighting within them for their unification on a democratic hasis. Only on these conditions will its fight for socialist policies in the trade unions make a real contribution to building a class struggle left wing rather than a sectarian excuse for bot
Denny Fitzpatrick SOCIALIST CHALLENGE supplement 30 March 1978 page 4 Dick Hall