[p. 58]
Gerry Healy, London, England
Dear Gerry:
If I understand the situation in England correctly, the death of Bevan will shake up the Labour Party as it has never been shaken since the MacDonald fiasco. In any case, the crisis of the Labour Party is bound to be enormously aggravated, and almost anything can happen.
Gaitskell may now push for a quick split to get rid of the left wing before it is prepared to put up a real battle to win the majority. The left wing should not play his game by walking out. On the contrary, they should make Gaitskell's split program another count in the indictment against him in the struggle to win a majority for the socialist program.
The League's most pressing task is to identify itself as a part of the broad left wing in the Labour Party, and to establish close working relations with the other tendencies in the coalition; stand for the unity of the left wing in the fight against Gaitskell; and convince everybody that you mean it.
In the event the right wing forces things to a split, we must make sure that this does not bring about another split between the revolutionary Marxists and the broad left wing. We must take a firm stand against fragmentation of the Labour Party in a number of unprepared splits. The most important thing is to hold the left wing coalition together in opposition to Gaitskell and Co., in preparation for all possible eventualities.
[p. 59]
In the present conjuncture, when everything is up in the air, if the League's policy appears to be clear and reasonable, definite and firm, its influence should rapidly expand.
The League is fortunate that its recent Conference rejected the proposal to launch a separate independent party on paper. The British Trotskyists would certainly be in a sad position today if they had decided to turn away from the Labour Party at the moment when the greatest opportunities for revolutionary work within it are opening up.
But their position would scarcely be any better if they had accepted the Pabloite revelation and agreed to give up their own press and liquidate their organization at the command of the Right Wing gang. Genuine Trotskyists join the political mass movement of the workers, not to play dead there but to popularize their ideas, to establish contact and working relations with other left-moving tendencies, and to build and educate revolutionary cadres in the process.
For this they require their own tendency organization and their own press. Only in the most exceptional circumstances can these rights be suspended; and then only temporarily. This costly and risky experiment is already behind you. It's a good thing that you don't have to start from the beginning now; that the preliminary work along these lines has already been done.
These lessons should be hammered home in the post-Conference internal discussion to solidify the ranks for the new opportunities and new tasks.
* * *
I think an exchange of opinions on the new developments between your national leadership and the comrades in New York would be most timely now. Everything depends on thinking out the policy and getting it right. I am sending a copy of this letter to New York with the suggestion that the comrades there send on their comments to you.
Fraternally,
James P. Cannon
JPC:jh