We will not know until the next N.3.C. meeting until how much of the recommendations of the Organisation Committee of the Labour Party will be put into operation. Their recommendations, as reported in the Guardian of May 16th, amount to a full scale witch-hunt of very considerable dimensions. As such they will lead a full scale fight inside the Labour Party which will paralyse it for some considerable period. As we are approaching the time of prepration for a general election, one is lead to speculate why the right wing, from their point of view, should launch a full scale attack, But of course we are not dealing with completely rational people - anyone who has seen Gaitskell and Brown at close quarters will tostify their insane hatred of the left. Gaitskeli'ts romarks at Glasgow on the occasion of the May Day disturbances seen to support those who believe that these people are acting out of vindictiveness rather than out of a fully worked out strategy. It may be that cooler heads on the N.u.C., despite their equal hatred of the left,might modify the extent of the purge.
Vhatever the exact form of the purge, we must see the whole affair in its general political context. The witch-hunt and the fight against it amount to avery sharp expression of the class struggle, all the more because the two extremes in the Labour movement Slogging it out. On the on side we have the complete representatives of capitalism in the Labour movement,the right wing,and on the other,we have the revolutionaries representing the conscience and the future of the movement. Both sides are looking for*fight; Gaitskell and co. feel confident after reversing the Scarborough decisions, heartened by the way the Union conferences are going this year, and cocky after their successes in 'disciplinin:! the Parlianontary Labour Party, would like to settle accounts with the left once and for all; the left is angry, and to a considerable extent frustrated, Gaitskell's absolute contempt for conference decisions by his attitude towards the resumption of tests by the West, the fight around the implementation of conference decision on Polaris, the failure of the leadership to really oppose Tory policies have all made for this feeling. The recent success of the Liberal Party strengthen those in the right wing camp who say that the best way of winning the pey:t election is through a big Liberal vote. The left seos its strength in the Young Socialists and the huge Aldermaston demonstration, and is profoundly influenced by the indus= trial struzls
The strategy of the left mst be to turn this attack by the right wing into an offensive by the left. We must defend all positions and avoid the fight being diverted into organisational forms, we must at all stages politicalise the struggle. We must use this affair to unite the left,and all those who want to koep the Labour Party a workers party,around. an alteynative leadership to the present right wing clique. We mst establish in everyone's mind the simple fact that it those people who are trying to carry out the decisions of the conferences of the Labour Party and Young Socialists who are being purged by precis.ely the people who have consistently opposed conference desisions., ‘e must point out the the outcome of this struggle: if Gaitskell succeeds in driving out the left for a long period there will be nothing to bar his way in his endeavours to refashion the Labour Party a la the Democratic Party. This declared aim of Gaitskell very clearly reflects the attitude of the bourgeoisie who in a period of crisis inside the Tory Party do not like the prospect of the return of Labour Government with a large left wing,, especially when it looks at the evolution of the Transport and General Workers Union. We must demonstrate who is disrupting unity, who is infil trating the movement (with Tory methods and ideas) and who is against democracy.
The fight will be bitter, and there may be many casualties (especially those who will want to 'contract out' of the Labour Party) but we have vast reserves - if only a few per cent of the 150,000 Hyde Park demonstrators were .to be active in the Labour Party, Gaitskell would be beaten easily - and the fight will take place in a very different context from others when the right have launched a witch-hunt. This time the fight will take place with a back ground of industrial struggle at all levels, and sometimes on a very high political . plane e.g., the anti test strike and the mrses solidarity movement, moreover the capitalist class has a crisis of policy and is divided. Victory in this fight can and must be won amd can give us the means of unit*ng a firm left wing in the Labour Party which would mark a big step forward ir * political evolution of the British working cla“ Class. We will return to thir t+ mest week,