sect THE ELECTION of the Tory government was a political setback for the working class. But engineers and steelworkers have shown that Thatcher's offensive will be met with major resistance. Likewise the liberation struggles of the Irish and Zimbabwean people will ensure a difficult passage for the Tories' resolutely policies.
But what is the political future for the labour movement? It's immediate past has been unhappy. The experience of the Labour government was drops in living standards and, massive increases in unemployment laboration of the leaders of the labour movement. The need for a socialist alternative inside the working class has never been felt so urgently.
Today, two currents are growing inside the labour movement. One is explicitly reformist. tac olier Is revoramonany. rent, which is infinitely stronger in its mass support, is led by Tony Benn. current, which is extremely weak numerically, is strong in providing a political alternative to the crisis of British society. It is chiefly led and organised by the Socialist Workers Party and the International Marxist Group.
Two other currents have declined in support and influence. — albeit gradually. The right wing of the Labour Party have temporarily lost credit as a result of the election defeat. But more immediate in its impact on the left is the siow decline of the Communist Party. which played a key role in catalysing the mass anti-Tory the 1969-74 appears unlikely to be able to repeat the performance today.
Debate It is no coincidence that the first major public debate of the Labour Party (on 17 March in London) is with the revolutionaries rather than the Communist Party.
The IMG conference has to provide an answer on the direction of the labour movement today: We believe that its tasks are the followSocialist Challenge 24 January 1980 class struggie rathet Minority Movement ment of the same period.
pro-imperialist all with the col tionary youth Unity The revolutionary internal democracy.
SWP This party next years.
years the Communist an organisation, however small.
new left wing inside the building the ference.
tag a party ar a sects: • Through this fight for united action to begin to build a new leadership for the labour movement; a new left wing based on the policies of than class collaboration.
Our model for the trade unions is similar to the 1920s; Labour. Party the National Left Wing Move• The building of such movements and leaderships depends on the simultaneous fight for a powerful vanguard revolutionary organisation rooted in the working class. Three fundamental steps are necessary to achieve this: the majonty of IMG members should be in the centres of industry; the charice to build a united revoluorganisation should be energetically taken and we must aim for a fusion with the Socialist Workers Party.
Much, though by no means, all the discussion in the IMG has centred on our attitude to We believe that this question is even more important in the battle against the Tories and is not a tactic to be dropped with the fall of the Labour government.
For these reasons we would withdraw the letter gent to the SWP from the IMG in October 1978 and instead propose fusion on the basis of We will propose that the join the Fourth International, since a revolutionary party can only really be developed as part of a revolutionary international.
Major opportunities lie within the grasp of the revolutionary left in this country over the Many sincere militants can be won Party Labour Party to our ranks. But this can only be achieved if the correct conception of a revolutionary party is defended and is reflected in the building of For our part we believe that all those who defend the historic interests of the working class should unite in a single democratic centralist party, whatever their disagreements on secondary questions. Without this conception there is no possibility of taking any major steps towards party:
This conception is under attack at our conThat's why me have no hesitation in saylig that the choice for the IMG is between