By Reg Race
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-06-30Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 4
Join LABOUR AGAINST THE WITCHHUN' owner-occupation during the past decade have fragmented the Labour vote and eroded the solidarity of the working class.
In addition to these critical factors, the ineffectiveness of the Party leadership in the general election campaign itself was important.
Michael Foot did not express the Party's policies clearly enough on television; and it is certainly true that the leadership factor persuaded a very large number of people not to vote Labour.
James Callaghan's intervention on nuclear weapons was also a devastating blow, coming as it did after a relatively successful opening to the campaign; its psychological impact on Labour supporters cannot be overestimated, giving as it did the impression to the electorate that the Party leadership was again divided and that our policies were yet again being denigrated in public.
And this was the collective leadership that boasted winning a million votes for Labour by expelling socialists from the Party!
The direct appeal of Thatcher and the values she stood for obviously had a major impact on working class voters. The appeal of populist authoritarianism — the genteel British version of the "Fuhrer prinzip" — was enormous amongst the 25% of the electorate who now read the Sun newspaper.
That simple Thatcher message of blaming the blacks, the trade unions, women and the world recession, was enormously successful - and can only be countered by a Labour Party that campaigns for a clear șet of socialist values.
What should we do now? First, socialists must build the Party - with the objective of winning a million new party members in a year.
Second ., Labour must take the media seriously. The drip, drip effect of a hostile Fleet Street on the attitudes and allegiances of working class voters can no longer be ignored. The movement should start a development fund to prepare the publication of a national daily newspaper.
Third, we must win a socialist leadership that will support the Party's policies and articulate them clearly.