This year's Labour Party 'conference' has come and gone. It began with a strong plea for unity and ended with the singing of the 'Red Flag', In between we had two major speeches by Wilson and Brown but very little of the polemic and discussion which have been the feature of every recent Labour Party conference. Does this mean that we have a united party and no outstanding questions of policy? Were the standing ovations given in support of the Government's policies to date? Unfortunately, the answer to both these questions must be an emphatic "NO!".
What this conference revealed more than anything else is the _ profound anti-Tory sentiments of the ordinary Labour Party activist. This, compounded with the extreme fear of doing anything which will prevent “Labour from having a chance to show what it can do", is why the rank and file allowed the leadership to get away with so much, ‘ho would have thought they would allow the Labour Government to delay old age pension increases at the whim of the 'snomes of Zurich'? Who would have thought that Labour's activists would have allowed its leaders to pursue a policy in colonial affairs all over the world absolutely indistiguishable from that of the Tories? and yet it happened!
The left is in a dilemma in this situation. These events do not mean amass shift to the right - witness that the greatest applause for Vilson was when he refuted the ‘secret pledzge', But then it is'clear that the mass of Labour supporters do not yet realise that one cannot carry out Tory policies in Aden, Guiana, Malaysia, etc. and at the same time carry out bold reforms in Britain, The job of the left is to hdp them realise this. This means avoiding the ‘unity for unity's . sake' trap, and at the same time not going on a sectarian binge. The former involves losing contact with the great progressive movements which are changing the world today and the latter means destroying one's links with the mass of Labour's supporters. The correct way is to pose all criticisms in a positive manner and in terms of assisting the Government in carrying out its programme of reforms. This is both correct in principle and wise in practice.
Fortunately the present state of affairs promises to be very temporary: either the Government will turn left or continue along its present rightward evolution even faster. In the former case, a large part of programme will involve swimming with the stream; dcepening and intensifying existing tendencies until a polarisetion on the right takes place. The latter eventuality will inevitably (and with our assistance!) lead to cracks et the top, in which case the possibility exists (one which we must. make a reality) of a left wing emerging which will in the eves of the mass of Labour supporters amount to an alternative leadership to ‘ilson and Co. This left wing (which must have its sharp edge turned towards the Tories) would help to drastically change the political set-up in Britein because it * combine the deepgoing hatred of Toryism, show at Brighton, with policies whichwould destrcy the political and economic base of Toryism.