Tory victory in British elections strikes a blow against embattled working class

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SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1992 13 LONDON-The victory of the Tories over the Labour Party in the British general election in April is a disaster for the British working class and a setback for the left on a European-wide scale.

The hated Tory Government-which has smashed up the trade unions, created poverty amongst wide sections of society, attacked the health and education services, deepened the economic crisis, and created millions of unemployed—is back in office.

The Tories won under the corrupt "winner takes all" system, which has given them 20 years in office without ever winning more than 42 percent of the votes cast.

(The Tories' victory is based on a plurality of votes between themselves, the Labour Party and the Liberals.)

Although the Tories' majority in Parliament dropped from 101 to 21—representing a 2.5 percent swing to Labour-this majority is more than enough to keep them in office for a full five-year term.

No one predicted Labour's defeat—-neither the Labour Party leadership, the Tories—or the opinion polls, which continued to put Labour in the lead right up to the last day.

So what went wrong? It was first and foremost the politics of Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock's campaign. After trying for years to look as much like the Tory Party as possible, Labour had no distinct policies on which to win the election, and what they did try to offer looked contradictory.

There was a huge turnout of voters. But the Tories succeeded, with the help of the right-wing press, in bringing about a reactionary mobilization of sections of the middle class and better-off sections of the working class.

Prime Minister Major's Conservatives succeeded, through their campaign against the "dangers" of a Labour government, in massively mobilizing their social base. Labour promised that it would rebuild the National Health Service (NHS), public services, education, and industry. But no explanation was given of where the funds for this process would come from. Their argument that these things would be financed by "growth" was not convincing.

Indeed, the election was not just won or lost during the campaign. It is the outcome of the whole decade-long process of imposing the policies of "new realism" in the labour movement.

The "new realist" Labour and trade-union leaders by failing to back working-class struggles such as the historic miners' strike of 1985, by conceding the political debate on the market economy to the Tories, by undermining working-class confidence and combativity everywhere-totally undermined any project for radical social change.

The result of "new realism" has been a fall in tradeunion membership by one third since 1979, and the departure of tens of thousands of activists from the Labour Party.

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Unions) has come out in support of those organizations rejecting CODESA but has not lent its weight to advance any mass campaign for an alternative.

Tensions also emerged between COSATU and its allies over the referendum. While COSATU rejected the referendum as racist, the ANC and the SACP called on their white supporters to vote "yes." Amongst the rank and file there was substantial rejection of this position.

For many worker activists who had joined the SACP looking for a radical anticapitalist organization this was one of the first indications of a contradiction between the rhetoric and the practice of the SACP leadership.

O: Is the demand for a constituent assembly still on the agenda? How can an alternative to the short-term likelihood of a coalition National Party-ANC government be presented?

A: The demand for a constituent assembly represents the expression of the demand for full and equal democratic rights which has been central to our national liberation struggle.

Since we believe that the negotiations at CODESA will compromise this, the demand for a constituent assembly remains relevant.

It also helps us to expose the regime's actual commitment to democracy. It is very clear now that the government is doing everything possible to circumvent this demand and is placing great pressure on the ANC to move away from it.

This is the thrust of its proposal around (Top) Labour's Kinnock; (Bottom) Tories' Major. the Interim government. Initially, the government wanted CODESA to be the constitution-making body but are now proposing that the interim government be the constitution-making body.

However, in the unions there is growing support for a general strike for a constituent assembly if the goverment resists this demand. Our real problem is translating the demand for a constituent assembly into a mass campaign.

So long as the demand remains at the level of propaganda it remains very abstract as it is possible for the government to give any agreement they reach at CODESA the tag of constituent assembly and thus confuse the masses on the content of the demand.

The mainstream of ANC, SACP, and COSATU, are content to promote this demand at CODESA through negotiations and shy away from a mass campaign.

At the same time inter-organizational rivalry between the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) and the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) has prevented the forces outside of CODESA from initiating any serious campaign around the demand for a constituent assembly.

In WOSA we are attempting to link the call for a constitutional alternative to a program of fundamental social reforms around which the working class can be mobilized-demands for a living wage, against retrenchments, for mass electrification and housing.

Q: A new period has now opened up. An organization like WOSA has a long term project of struggling for national liberation and socialism. What will now be the central axis of your work?

A : In WOSA we are aware that with the The swing to Labour in the election was biggest in areas that have been hardest hit by the impact of the recession and specific Tory attacks. Areas where the Tories had marginal support in the past fell to Labour in the North West, the Midlands, and London-all areas hard hit by recession, unemployment, poverty, and cutbacks. In most areas where there were strong left-wing campaigns, Labour candidates did even better.

Already it is being argued that sociological changes make it impossible for Labour ever to win again, and that the working class is too small a base to build a popular majority. This is untrue. Britain remains an overwhelmingly working-class country. More than that, recent surveys show that at least 80 percent regard themselves as working class.

In some inner-city constituencies, there have been social changes that have brought in more "yuppified" middle-class voters, while high housing prices have pushed out the traditional working class. But these changes have a marginal effect on the election outcome nationwide.

What will now be the outcome of "Kinnockism's" debacle? For British capitalism, it creates more stable political conditions but solves none of its underlying major changes that have taken place internationally, the collapse of Stalinism, the increased belligerence of imperialism, and the South African government's opening up of negotiations from a very strong position, the struggle for national liberation and socialism has been put on the defensive.

The mass movement is in a much weaker position than it was, say, in 1985-86.

This has been compounded by the confusion created by the ANC's turn to negotiations.

Our strategic approach in WOSA is to promote campaigns around radical social reforms. We believe that as the struggle against legal apartheid ends, the more fundamental aspect of that struggle continues for fundamental social reforms aimed at overcoming the impoverishment of our people.

This approach requires fighting for the political leadership of the mass movement.

At this moment we see that it is terribly urgent to build a broad-based pro-class struggle current inside the trade unions, civic organizations, and so on, on a united front basis.

It is possible in a few years, on the basis of initiatives of this type and with a new wave of struggles—after it becomes clear that the political settlement has not resolved the social questions-that the building of a mass working class party will be on the agenda again.

Q: Is there still a threat of violence from the far right? What role is Inkatha playing now?

A: The far right will be under two contradictory pressures. The more moderate section will now be pulled more to entering negotiations and advancing their Northern Irish Republican (Sinn Fein) leader Gerry Adams lost the seat in the British Parliament that he had held from the time of the mass campaign in defense of the H-Block prisoners (1980-81). His status as an MP had been a gain for the Irish struggle, although he refused to attend the imperialist parliament. Nonetheless, despite the suggestions of the capitalist press, his electoral loss did not reflect loss of support.

Gerry Adams' defeat in West Belfast at the hands of the SLP (Social Democratic and Labor Party, the pro-capitalist Catholic party) was the result almost entirely of a tactical shift by Loyalist voters away from the official Unionists (pro-British)

toward the SLP. In fact, Gerry Adams's share of the vote actually went up from 41.2 percent to 42.1 percent. The 7.8 percent increase in the SLP vote was accounted for by the nearly 7 percent drop in the Unionist vote.

While the name "West Belfast" conjures up an image of a Republican stronghold, in fact, sections of the Loyalist Shankill Road area are in Adams's constituency, Gerry Adams was the victim of a big media campaign suggesting that thousands of Loyalists were "expected" to shift from their traditional Unionist party and to vote tactically to defeat him.

problems. The slump will continue. This will be translated into more sustained attacks on the working class—in a situation where there is a stable Tory majority.

Inside the labour movement as a whole, especially in the "new-realist" dominated trade unions, the immediate reaction is likely to be one of skepticism and demoralization.

Workers under attack will most likely feel that the balance of forces in society has moved against them once more. How this will pan out in the longer term is more problematic. Against the immediate demoralization, there is the fact that the argument of waiting for the Labour Party is no longer credible. Those under attack will have to fight back or go under.

The left must now be prepared to support struggles wherever and whenever they break out. The long-term task of rebuilding confidence in struggle will probably start around small strikes and low-key campaigns. But generalizing and popularizing any struggles that do break out will pay immense dividends in the long term.

Three days after the election, Neil Kinnock resigned as leader of the Labour Party, and an election process has begun for his replacement. New rules make it very difficult for the left to run in the election. But the new leader will be almost certainly to the right of Kinnock-probably John Smith.

This article was given to us by the editors of Socialist Outlook, a newspaper published by Fourth Internationalists in Britain.

demand for self-determination CODESA.

The more radical neo-fascist element may consider a kind of urban terrorism aimed at destabilizing negotiations.

The right wing base remains potentially very big, with close to a million voting "no" and with a large section of those that voted "yes" still very sympathetic to their cause. These people have a ready access to arms and very good contacts in the security establishment.

Although Inkatha has denied signing a non-aggression pact with the AWB (a far right group there is clear evidence of growing contact between the right and those bantustan leaders opposed to the ANC line. Inkatha is finding itself in a weaker position as the ANC and the government move closer together in the negotiations and is moving towards a separatist position for the so-called Zulu nation.

This is drawing them closer to the far right, and helps explain the sudden upsurge of terror attacks in the townships, on trains, and so on.

Now Socialist Action readers can look forward Our July issue will feature exclusive interviews and stories from one of our editors, who will be traveling there in June. Don't miss it!

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Irish republican leader loses seat but gets higher vote

to an on-the-spot report from South Africa.