Ken Loach Don't be beguiled!

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ONE industrial journalist at Brighton said mid-way through the Conference that it was a single issue event. The issue was the leadership election, and that was over by Sunday night. In the sense that what followed was an attempt to present an image, with little political content, he was right.

It was easy to be beguiled by the comparative friendliness of the Press. ^ The danger is that the Left forgets what it demands of its leadership: analysis, strategic aims, immediate demands and a programme for translating the potential strength of the labour movement into a force that can achieve real change.

It's not surprising that the new leadership shows no sign of this. The Tribune meeting was indicative of what we might expect. There was a large audience of active party members, looking for a political perspective on the current situation.

What they did not need was the rambling rhetoric they got from Kinnock. His attempt to define socialism bore no relation to the class forces that might establish it. His 'definition' was to think of something that sounded pleasant and call it socialism.

It was simply of no use. It said nothing to men and women facing redundancy or cuts in the social securities, to those already unemployed, or to those generally feeling the strains of our economic system nearing collapse, whether upwardly or downwardly mobile. The idea that the Labour movement is engaged in a battle here and now was quite absent.

Faced with this predictable failure, there was a sense of passivity in the hall, a feeling that it was necessary to accommodate to the new leadership and its pursuit of an image acceptable to the Press. There was a mixture of relief, fear and exhaustion, based, a8 always, on a failure of political theory.

The weakness of the left candidates for the Party leadership, particularly for deputy, further weakened any possibility for resistance.

But the politics of image building will be exposed even more quickly than the last time the Labour Party tried it with Wilson. Massive unemployment just will not go away this time, the system cannot create the jobs, nor maintain the social services, nor avert the drive to war. The hard reality of daily experience will force socialism back on the agenda.

That seemed to me the real issue of the Conference. The journalist was right _ it was a one-issue event. He just picked the wrong one.

The saddest sight at the Tribune Rally was to see David Blunkett rise to give Neil Kinnock a standing ovation. David Blunkett's dog had more sense.

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Socialist Organiser no. 1 October Page 11 51