[p. 51]
A struggle in the British Labor Party over the democratic right of the rank and file to advocate opinions at variance with those of the top leadership may seem somewhat remote to American workers still faced with the problem of creating a labor party of their own.
The issue involved, however, is not a narrow one of concern only to members of the Labor Party. It happens to be under active discussion in the radical movement in America. It faces every trade unionist who sees what organized labor could gain by breaking from the Democrats and Republicans and taking the road of independent political action. It will strike a sympathetic response in every militant bucking dictatorial bureaucratic practices in the American trade-union movement.
The issue is the relation between democracy and socialism.
The British Labor Party presumably stands for socialism. Many of its members, however, have become convinced that the current leadership has given up the struggle for socialism and that this collapse weakens the appeal of the party. In fact, it can lead to the defeat of the party in the coming election.
A militant current, which had formed around the weekly Newsletter edited by Peter Fryer, sought to bring this viewpoint forward for consideration by the membership. To facilitate this, they organized the "Socialist Labor League" last February.
This was no violation of British Labor Party statutes. Groupings representing other viewpoints, such as the F'abian Society, Victory for Socialism, and Socialist Union, are accepted as part of the democratic internal life of the British Labor Party.
The Socialist Labor League advocates a five-point program:
(1) In opposition to layoffs, the Labor Party and the Trades Union Congress ought to open up a struggle to spread available work among all workers.
(2) Basic industries should be nationalized without compensation to former owners.
(3) Shop stewards under attack from the bosses should receive maximum support.
(4) To win the next election, and put the Tories out of business once and for all, the Labor Party should campaign for an end to capitalism.
(5) To advance the struggle for peace, British troops should be withdrawn from colonies and semicolonies, manufacture of nuclear weapons and construction of rocket bases should be ended, and the next Labor government should make an international appeal to the working class to "end production of H-bombs everywhere and go forward to world socialism."
The last point in the program seems to have particularly crossed the policies of the top bureaucrats of the Labor Party, for the desire to block a nuclear war is very strong among British working people, while the Labor Party heads are quite anxious to demonstrate to Washington that they will do nothing to upset the preparations for such a war.
This, coupled with the astonishingly rapid growth of the League and its influence, appears to have alarmed the right-wing leaders of the Labor Party, who dominate the National Executive Board, to such an extent that they decided in March to crack down. That this violated the democratic tenets of the party was, of course, of small concern to them—if they could get away with it.
They ruled that membership in the Socialist Labor League or support of the Newsletter were grounds for expulsion. Thus they began a witch-hunt in the Labor Party.
They calculated, perhaps, that a swift purge would behead the revolutionary-socialist current and at the same time isolate it. Under threat of massive retaliation, what section of the Labor Party would dare come to the defense of the victims designated for punishment at the stake?
The calculation, however, appears to have misjudged the temper of the rank and file. Militants throughout the ranks resented the dictatorial decree proscribing members for holding socialist views unpleasing to the bureaucrats. Local organizations, who knew followers of the Newsletter to be among the most devoted and hardworking members, indignantly refused to expel them.
The strength of this feeling of solidarity can be gauged from the latest issue of the Tribune to reach New York. The Tribune, an independent voice of opinion, enjoys wide circulation among Labor Party ranks. The weekly has opened its columns to letters on the witch-hunt, and the June 12 issue contains almost a page, including correspondence from some of the victims.
Doreen T. Jarkowska writes to the editor: "I have studied the correspondence on the expulsions within the Leeds, Midlothian and Birmingham Labor Parties with very uneasy interest.
"It may be that justice has been done but no one but the blindest man could claim that it has been seen to be done. In short, the situation stinks."
JFR asked a sharp question: "Last night I was reading Isaac Deutscher's biography of Trotsky. Is this a proscribed activity, and will the party expel me for it?"
[p. 52]
Lance Lake, denouncing the witch-hunt at Leeds, says: "Councillor Dennis Matthews asserts that the Right-Wing majority in the Leeds Labor Party believe in democratic Socialism. . . . Now it only needs Councillor Matthews to explain how the action of the Leeds Labor Party executive in expelling nine members without a hearing or without notification of the charges was either Socialist or democratic. It was only after legal proceedings had actually commenced that the decision was rescinded. . . .
"The Right-wing are whipped up to attend party meetings. They shout and clap and stamp their feet. They enthusiastically support bans, proscriptions and expulsions. All in the name of preserving official party policy from any kind of taint.
"When there is the need to attend public meetings—to go out on the streets—to knock on doors to propagate that same policy, a strange lethargy overcomes them; they become so shy, so coy. . . .
David R. Smith declares: "It is typical of the group that dominates the Midlothian constituency Labor Party that every challenge to answer the basic points is evaded by a fresh outburst of erratic vituperation against the expelled members. It would be simple to reply to Mr. Tweedie's completely false account by a series of counter-charges, but that would be to deviate from the main issue, i.e., elementary, let alone socialist, democracy."
Smith then sets the record straight, detailing the dictatorial procedure used against the witch-hunt victims. Following his presentation of the facts, he says: "Members of the executive committee have been challenged to meet Moffat and me on a public platform, but they have chosen to conduct their operations from behind the scenes, indulging in character assassination and deliberate falsification. . . .
"Yet these people and their conduct are upheld by the National Executive. A leadership which will not tolerate democracy within its own ranks cannot be expected to guarantee ordinary civil rights when it gains political power."
Vivienne Mendelson, appealing for financial support in organizing and defending the witch-hunt victims, reported how the National Executive had suspended the entire membership of the Norwood Labor Party "because we had refused to expel from our party members who are alleged to be members of the Socialist Labor League, or to be associated with the Newsletter.
"An emergency meeting of the Norwood General Management Committee on June 4 decided by 26 votes to nil to fight against the reorganization and to continue as the Norwood Labor Party.
"We are now beginning a campaign among the 2,000 members of the Norwood party to win their support.
"We are also proposing to circularise the rest of the constituency Labor parties asking them to protest to the NEC against the 'reorganization' and to contribute to the fund which we have set up to help us carry on the fight."
League's Viewpoint
The Socialist Labor League itself seems to have thrived under this heavy fire from the reactionary right-wing bureaucrats. The grouping has not budged from its five-point program and has done remarkably well in bringing the attention of the party membership to the basic issue in dispute—the democratic right to advocate socialist views in the Labor Party.
In the June 13 Newsletter, Brian Behan reports the latest developments in the internal struggle and what the Socialist Labor League thinks about them.
"The decision of the Labor Party national executive to reorganize the Streatham and Norwood Labor Parties," he begins, "is a blow against every member of the Labor movement who wants to fight for socialist policies in the Labor Party.
"But the decision of the Norwood general management committee to reject the reorganization of the local party is no less powerful a blow against the Right, and a foretaste of the new and formidable Left-wing movement that can emerge in the Labor Party.
"The NEC is trying to destroy two active local Labor Parties because they have struggled consistently for socialist policies.
"It has selected the Socialist Labor League as its principal target because the League has been foremost in the fight against the Right-wing policies that are shackling the Labor Party."
Basically, says Behan, the Labor Party is composed of rank-and-file trade unionists, who want to organize for socialism, and a bureaucracy that in its upper reaches wants to preserve capitalism. The middle-class careerists and reactionary trade-union leaders belong to various factions and write for the capitalist press.
The Labor leaders' real objection to the Socialist Labor League and the Newsletter is not that the League is a separate organization, but that it does its best to organize the fight for socialism within the party and challenge the grip of the Right.
'The Right wing dare not allow the Left to become as well organized as the Right and will use any methods to retain its grip."
In the past, Behan continues, the right wing has succeeded in similar situations. It did this in two ways:
(1) It has forced the Left to go outside the party. This happened with the Communist Party and the Independent Labor Party. These organizations correctly fought for their rights but went wrong when they turned their backs on the Labor Party in sectarian fashion.
(2) The Right wing has bought off the Left with offers of prominent posts.
"The Socialist Labor League," Behan declares, 'is determined to avoid both these traps. We have not the slightest intention of abandoning our right to be in the Labor Party. Our policy has more in common with the views of the ordinary Labor Party member than Gaitskell's policy has."
Election Danger
The author cites the League's five-point program as evidence and turns to the problem of the coming election:
"Unless there is a radical change in policy, the danger exists that the Tories will go back into power at the next election.
"We are absolutely opposed to the working class repeating the experience of the hungry thirties. To prevent this the Socialist Labor League intends to continue and intensify its campaign for a socialist alternative.
"There are people who say we should keep our mouths shut about these embarrassing questions until after the election. We are not going to take this advice."
[p. 53]
The current election platform of the Labor Party, this spokesman of the Socialist Labor League insists, cannot solve the growing problems facing the British workers. It is the duty of socialists to say this. It is their duty to seek organization of a Left wing in the Labor Party dedicated to the advancement of the socialist solution.
In the National Executive Committee, pseudo-lefts like Bevan have made common cause with rightists like Gaitskell against the socialist wing. "Bevan says he wants to defend nationalization. But he unites with Gaitskell to throw out of the party members of an organization which has the extension of nationalization as one of its main aims."
Behan voices a strong appeal for solidarity against the witch-hunters:
"We appeal to the whole of the Left to fight against this alliance of Right-wing careerists and pseudo-Lefts at the top of the Labor Party.
"We appeal to the Left to fight against the reorganization of local parties and for their maintenance as Left-wing parties campaigning for socialist policies.
"In some areas this will mean a fight against rump organizations set up by the Right. This is a fight against leaders who have no scruples about splitting the move ment.
"To give way to these leaders for the sake of 'unity' means abandoning the party to the Right wing.
"Unlike other Left-wing movements in the Labor Party, the Left we now must build will have a Marxist leadership.
"It is being born, not out of the defeat of the working class, but at a time of rising working-class militancy, when there is a real basis for challenging the Right wing's domination."
"Stay In and Fight"
Behan closes his article by urging any who feel like turning from the Labor Party in disgust to "stay in and fight."
'Unlike the Communist Party, the Socialist Labor League does not seek to pull the Left out of the Labor Party into a small sectarian organization. We answer the reformists' attacks by remaining inside the party and carrying forward the fight against the reformists and for a socialist program.
"The Socialist Labor League is able to unite with the Left in the Labor Party because it has no separate interests from the Left. Around our program can be forged the widest possible unity.
"The first serious resistance to Right-wing policy is being waged. Every trade unionist and Labor Party member who joins the Socialist Labor League can make an immense contribution in his local Labor Party towards the adoption of a fighting socialist policy."