TONY BENN FOR DEPUTY HYSTERIA has accompanied the closing stages the contest Labour's deputy leader. Hysteria in the bosses' press and on the right wing of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
Day day the media has spewed out an endless stream of indignation at the prospect of a Benn victory.
Every demagogic argument in the book has been used, from Healey's mudslinging slanders about Jon Lansman, the hypocritical accusations of breaching demo. cracy levelled at the Transport Union's vote for Benn.
this hysteria?
After all, Benn being elected deputy leader won't break the right wing's grip on the PLP or the shadow cabinet. What the press and the right wing fear is the symbolic impact of Benn victory.
It would mark the determination of the rank and file of the labour movement to impose their will on the leadership to elect the leaders that they choose and to impose policies for radical change.
Whether Benn wins or the fight for left advance will go on. Contrary to all those who say to that this fight is sive', it is in fact the best way to pursue the against the Tories.
To win a government which can make a real break Toryism every variety and push forward socialist vance, it is necessary to sweep away all the old rubbish of the Callaghan-Healey years. A victory for Benn will be a a clear signal that this is the path that the Labour rank and file has embarked upon.
The deputy leadership fight has shown how far the majority of Labour leaders oppose ad- wishes of the rank and file.
The campaign to imWilson- pose the will labour movement these leaders, by removng them it necessary a vital component of the struggle the government to socialist victory for of the mark an important stage on in the fight to the Tories IS variety.
for a Labour Benn on LSE picket line committed policies. A Benn will kick out of INSIDE THIS WEEK Towards a Socialist Britain - a plan to beat the crisis pp 8-9 Ken Livingstone on key issues facing Labour pp 12-13 Solidarnosc -time for Labour to act p11 How to ensure a pp 2-3 Ireland - how the Labour Party report was rigged p7 Laurence Scott fight on: p4 BENN TONY FOR:
-ORGANISE FORA LAST WEEK Thatcher 'wets' from the Liberals formed an alliance with the Social Democratic Party, deputy leadership battle in the Labour Party reached fever pitch. All three events marked dramatic changes in British politics.
The Tories, according to lan Gilmour, are 'moving on to the rocks!' Thatcher's hard-line politics are not working. And the SDP and Liberals are sitting in the wings waiting for Thatcher's collapse, hoping to wickes.
The fact that the SDP are taking more votes June Tories than demonstrates the continued resilience of the workers' movement. But nobody can be blind to the fears that Labour's internal battle might provoke a Labour collapse at the next election.
How real is that danger? How can the left defeat it?
Disease First, it is crucial to recognise that the battle inside the Labour sacked the Tory Cabinet, the and the pick up LICI Labour Party Party is, and always has When the SMASH A * mcialist Challenge NO replaced by those who will.
daily, The reason is simple SOCauSt SOCICLy Resources enthusiastic support ing in the unions.
two important principles.
Eighty thousand people have joined the Labour Party in the last two years. Hundreds of thousands have turned out on the unemployment marches, and in the factories and workplace interest in the Labour Party is growing The fight for new leaders in the Labour Party opens the door to the fight for a different sort of society - a If that support can be won at the outset of the left's campaign it can be multiplied tenfold if it is carried through to the end. Three basic policies are needed to make sure that happens.
First, there is a huge base that can be won to for Labour and for socialist policies inside the unions. The Labour Party should throw its resources into organis.
But such a perspective needs to be linked to First we need a democratic union movement which elects its of ficers and puts its decisions into action. Second we need a policy of joint Labour Party/trade union action to finish off the Tories.
And that means all-out support for those