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FEATURE

By William Pomeroy

Britain today is floundering in its gravest economic
and political crisis in 50 years. Its repercussions are

ing felt in every corner of British society, and
nowhere with more riveting effect that in the coun-

-try’s political parties.

Early autumn is the traditional time for British
Parties to hold their annual conferences, at which
Policies for the period ahead are discussed and
adopted. This year the party conferences were per-
vaded by more than a feeling of seasonal change: they
Were racked by stormy debates and rang with de-
Mands for serious changes in the nation’s course.

For British capitalism a point has been reached
Where the necessity for a change has been felt in all
quarters. The role of the Conservative (Tory) Party,
the party of finance capital and big business, has
failed to solve or ease the effects of the crisis, produc-
ing a revolt in Tory ranks against a continuation of
present policies. In the opposition Labor Party, which
is based on the trade unions, _a strong left-wing up-
heaval has occurred :for a change to a more radical
Program and leadership that would pose a genuine
left alternative to Tory or past Labor governments.

As the prospect develops of discredited ruling
class Tories being challenged by surging left-wing
Laborites with mass appeal, another alternative for
Change is being pushed into the breach. A Social
Democratic Party has been whipped up out of thin air,
to siphon away the danger of a shift to the left. .

Behind these trends is a national course marked by
grim statistics and grimmer events. Unemployment,
by official figures, stands at over three million, but
this ignores unregistered jobless groups that put the
true total above four million, about 16% of the labor
force. Economic surveys point to the adding of
another million to the welfare lines in 1982.

One-fifth of the manufacturing industry has been
destroyed so far, and more is expected to fold up in the
Coming year. Growthrates have literally become de-
Cline rates, with production dropping by 2-3% a year.
Inflation remains double digit and has resumed
climbing after a period when the Thatcher Tory gov-
ernment claimed to“have it in control. ~

Living standards have steadily declined. One as-
pect of this has been the destruction of social services
and welfare state institutions by a Thatcher govern-
ment rigidly clinging to monetarist policies. Under
this policy, “control of the money supply is pre-
Sumed to be the magic solution of crisis, with one
feature being massive public spending cuts. But all
evidence points to these monetarist policies as worse-
ning the crisis. One consequence of all this has been,
On top of mass youth unemployment, the unpre-
Cedented series of riots in the deprived districts of the
Major British cities.

Over the past couple of years, as the prolonged
Crisis has deepened, Britain has become increasingly
4 nation in motion, a nation of marching men and
Women. Cross-country marches against unemploy-
Ment, regional marches from city to city for jobs,
Marches by the elderly and disabled against the cuts
IN services, marches against racism and against the
fascist groups that have been nurtured by reaction to
divide the people, student marches against cuts in
education: and grant aid, and, especially, peace
Marches everywhere against nuclear weapons and

he arms budget in which no Tory cuts are made. The
Crisis has been bringing people into the streets in
growing numbers, providing the background of a rest-
€ss nation for this year’s party conferences.

As a rule, the Tory Party has tried more or less
Successfully to keep its internal differences off the
Conference floor, to present an image of respectable
unity. That image was cracked wide open at the par-
ty’s recent conference. Dissension in the present Tory
regime—in the party, in its parliamentary group, and
Within the cabinet itself of Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher—foamed onto the conference floor.

A deep fear has therefore grown In the Tory Party
that the Thatcher policies and the arrogant, unbend-
Ing Thatcher style of leadership are alienating voters ,

such an extent that the party will suffer an an-
hihilating defeat in the next election. This fear conte:
buted to the astonishing phenomenon of one Tory

William Pomeroyisa foreign correspondent for the Dally World.

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Political
CriSiIS
in England

leader after another taking the microphone to call for
alternative policies. One rebel trend was headed by
former prime minister Edward Heath, others by
members of Mrs. Thatcher’s own cabinet.

In the wake of the Tory conference doubts have
been raised about the survivability of Margaret
Thatcher as prime minister.

The Labor Party, conferring on September 27-
October 2, also presented a spectacle of serious inter-
nal division and struggle. For labor, the crisis in
British society has accentuated and brought to the
fore more dramatically than ever the policy fight be-
tween the right and left wings of the party that has
been going on for decades. It is currently featured by
a leftwing upheaval to wrest control from the right

wing that has always headed Labor governments and

had a grip en party organization. The left, headed
mainly by Tony Benn, wants to shape a party and
program that are a genuine radical alternative not
only to present Tory rule but to past rightwing Labor

governments. °
At the Labor conference a bitter battle took place,

centering on the contest for deputy leadership of the
party between Tony Benn and rightwinger Denis
Healey, and on key policy issues. Although Healey
won the deputy post; it was by a paper-thin margin,
while Benn’s left adherents have forced through im-
portant changes in the way leaders are elected and
candidates of the party are selected—changes that
weaken the right by enabling a greater exercise of
democracy in the party.

If the right wing retained essential but shaken con-
trol of the Labor Party organization, the left carried
all the main party policy decisions by overwhelming
majorities. These include a decison for unilateral nuc-
lear disarmament by the next Labor government and
the removal of U.S. military bases from Britain, a
decision for withdrawal from the European

Economic Community without bothering to submit

the question to a referendum, a decision against any
future income (wage restraint) policy, and decisions
for a radical economic alternative for dealing with the

crisis.
The leftward shift in the Labor Party reflects the

widespread trend of militancy in the trade unions, in.

the peace and disarmament movement, in opposition
to Tory public spending cuts, in campaigns against
racism and apartheid, and:in the movement to get out

rotest mass

of the monopoly-dominated European Economic
Community. : :

In this situation, the British ruling class, whose
reputation for clever political maneuvering is not an
empty one, has come up with a third force to blur the
polarization that has been sharpening. It has encour-
aged the formation of a new Social Democratic Party,
designed to take votes from labor.

The SDP was formed by a quartet of rightwing
defectors from the Labor Party, all one-time cabinet
ministers in rightwing Labor governments—Roy
Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William
Rodgers. Since its formation the SDP has drawn up to
20 other MPs and several Tory MPs to itself.

Although massive media coverage has been given
to the SDP, including polls arranged to-“‘show’”’ that it
would win the next election, the most remarkable
feature of the new party is that it has no program to
date. Its first ‘‘conference,”’ held October 6-9, was a
series of gatherings held in cities from Scotland to
London, with principal leaders journeying from one to
the next in a chartered train. The ‘‘conference’’ had
virtually nothing to say about policies, had no resolu-
tions or motions, and no votes. Its ‘‘delegates’’ were
overwhelmingly middle class or professional types.

It would appear that what the political string-
pullers of the Establishment would like to create is an
amorphous party of the ‘‘center’’ in British politics,
which would attract the right wing of the Labor Party
and the ‘‘moderates’’ of the Tory Party. This would
presumably leave a Labor left wing isolated. How-
ever, the SDP has neither the mass base nor the party
organization to stand by itself, at least at present.
Therefore the move has been made to form an al-
liance of the SDP and the Liberal Party, Britain’s
established third party that peddles a kind of liberal
junior Toryism.

The Liberal-SDP alliance is riddled with differ-
ences. For example, the SDP supports nuclear
weapons and Cruise missile bases but the Liberal
Party conference in September overrode its own
leaders and adopted a resolution for unilateral nuc-
lear disarmament, like the Labor Party. Also, there is
dissension over the choice of candidates, LP or SDP,
in the various parliamentary constituencies. It is

’ doubtful if such an- alliance can endure for long. Be-

sides, it could well win more adherents from the To-
ries than from Labor in a national election.

It is evident that the SDP, and the Liberal-SDP
alliance, is a stop-gap device to thwart a victory for a
left-moving Labor Party in the next election. The te-
nure of the present Tory regime runs out by May of
1984, but it may be forced into an election before then.

-By all indications, Britain’s present economic crisis

will be prolonged until then, in worsening conditions,
and the next election will take place in circumstances
in which the factors that produce militancy today
would be aggravated. The recent British party
conferences—the upheaval in the Tory Party against
Thatcherism, the left-right struggle in the Labor
Party, and the creation of a fake third-force savior of
the capitalist system—have been preparations for the
coming struggle of crisis politics in Britain.

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