When Jack Straw tells you that the bulk of crime is committed by people who’ve just been chilling out with a spliff or two you know that it’s time to start looking for that last remaining NHS psychiatric bed. When the majority of the Conference clap him you know it’s time to book yourself into it. The 1997 Party Conference was never going to be an easy one for the left in terms of securing our policy objectives and so it proved.
With a thumping majority stacked up behind the first Labour Government in nearly 20 years an easy ride for the leadership was always on the cards. Even Banksy’s Reg Varney impressions failed to derail the machine. The one chance of victory was on the motion calling for the decommissioning of Trident but that was scuppered when the UNISON delegation, despite some resistance, decided to ignore a clear conference mandate and throw its weight behind Blair.
Depressing as the parade of remittals and platform victories may have been it’s by no means all doom and gloom. Livingstone’s victory over Mandelson and the overall success of the Campaign Group slate proved that the left is still alive and kicking and was a vindication of those of us who’ve argued long and hard that socialists should stay inside the Party and fight our corner. I do not think that there is any doubt that the majority of Party members, including the recent recruits, believe in wealth redistribution through progressive taxation and the expansion of public services. I also think that the majority of Labour voters thought that was exactly what they were signing up for on 1st May.
In one year the political landscape is likely to look very different. A de facto pay cut in the public sector now looks inevitable, cuts in the NHS and local government are cast in stone and the talk is of a minimum wage between £3 and £3.50 for over 25’s only. The reality of Brown’s austerity programme will be starting to bite deep into Labour’s natural support by October 1998.
During the debate on Partnership in Power one platform plant suggested that the internal Party reforms were designed to prevent a re-run of the winter of discontent. It’s difficult to imagine anyone being further off beam. The hard truth is that the disputes in the public sector in 1978/79 were a clear reflection of what happens when a Labour government allows itself to be blown off course through pressure from international bankers and chooses to make low paid public sector workers pay the price for its economic failure. With Gordon Brown’s likely, but now confused, support of the single currency and his adherence to old-fashioned Tory monetarism he appears to be doomed to repeat the failure of the past.
When our members get angry over the relentless grind of low pay, underfunding and low morale they won’t be sitting around in the hospitals and the town halls wondering how to feed that anger into Labour’s rolling programme. They’ll be out on the streets. The 5,000 or so on the SWP-led demonstration on the eve of Conference proved that there are already plenty of willing takers and there will be more to come. The challenge for the Labour left inside the unions is to offer a clear political and industrial alternative to the dead end of Socialist Worker. If we fail we will create a political vacuum that they will readily fill. That means pressure to ensure that in the future there are official demonstrations and lobbies for us to build behind and it means a concerted campaign calling for increased public spending, progressive taxation, a decent pay rise and an end to privatisation.
One of the few bright spots at Conference was the renewed success of the fringe. Many delegates were only too willing to break out of the internment camp of the conference compound and to get involved in some real politics. With Conference now reduced to a cross between Stalag 15 and a Mormon convention this trend is set to continue.
Meanwhile, in an effort to improve the co-ordination of left activists inside UNISON the Unison Labour Left has organised a bit of a do. Any UNISON Labour lefties who fancy getting it together should join us on Saturday 25th October at The Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheath Street, Sheffield between 11am and 4pm.