At a public meeting in
London on 13th March a couple of hecklers were attacking John
McDonnell for being a member of the Labour Party at a meeting. Veteran trade
union activist Harry Whittaker answered them in his typically forthright
Scottish manner. He said the following:
“The Labour Party was
built by the toil, sweat and sacrifice of generations of working-class
political activists. Almost from its very inception it has been bedevilled by
so-called ‘moderates’ whose only motivation was to divert the Party from its
leftward path. Nevertheless, no one can deny that it has done a great deal
throughout its history to improve the lives of the British working-class.
“Now we are faced with an
intolerable situation: the great House of Labour has been overrun by rats –
right-wing rats! This has taken place to such a shameful extent that some of
its policies are now to the right of the Lib-Dems. In fact it is no
exaggeration to say that there is no essential difference between Labour and
Tory. These self-interested political careerists who now command the Labour
Party throw a few crumbs to the working-class and bend over backwards to
promote the interests of capitalism and big business.
“So what is the working-class
political activist to do? Well, what would a working man do if he had spent
years building himself a house only to find it had become infested by rats?
Would he give up his home and move elsewhere, leaving the house completely in
the control of the rats? Of course not! He would never give in to the rats; he
would fight them and he would not rest until he had rid his house of the last
vestige of this verminous infestation. And this is exactly the same course of
action which the true socialist must take with the House of Labour.
“ ‘It can’t be done’, the misguided cynic will tell
you. ‘It’s too late, the Labour Party is finished, it’s a lost cause’. It
certainly would be if we all adopted that attitude. And wouldn’t the rats be
happy if we did! But that is never going to happen. The true socialist
knows that capitalism is facing crisis after ever deepening crisis, now on a
truly global scale. And he knows the working people are no longer going to
tolerate attacks on their living conditions; they are no longer going to
tolerate enforced unemployment and impoverishment, and they are certainly not
going to settle for simply marching from Jarrow to London to express their
anger and discontent.
“The day will come when the
working-class will demand of the Labour Party that it fights for a more just
society, a socialist society. When that happens – and it will happen – the
grass-roots membership will campaign to de-select any MP who continues to
kowtow to the bourgeoisie. It will be a tremendous struggle to regain the
Labour Party; no one is under any illusions about that. But it is the moral
duty of every true socialist to join in that fight, and to fight relentlessly
until the battle for the Labour Party is won. That is why John McDonnell and
others like him are still in the Party.”
This is the authentic voice
of the working class of Britain. It is a fitting answer to all the sects who
are constantly fiddling and fussing on the fringes of the Labour Movement,
constantly announcing the formation of mass revolutionary parties of three men
and a dog.
The sects all imagined that
when the working class had passed through the school of Blair and Brown (which
is the same thing), they would turn against the Labour Party and flock to the
banner of the “independent revolutionary party”. Well, the proof of the pudding
is in the eating. Ten years later, what has happened to all the heroic
endeavours of the sects?
First we had the Socialist
Alliance, which was supposed to unite all the Left in an irresistible electoral
challenge to Labour. What happened to this glorious example of Left Unity?
Having ignominiously failed to win in election after election, it split into
pieces, with the usual bout of bitter recriminations. As Ted Grant used to say
about the sects: “unlucky at fusions and lucky at splits!”
Once the SA had been hastily
buried, a new irresistible Left force appeared on the horizon: Respect. With
Gorgeous George at its head and the SWP pulling the strings from behind the
scenes, this surely was a winner! But no, it all ended in tears. Now there are
two Respects, each one showing very little respect for the other. Who said you
cannot have too much of a good thing?
Then there was the SSP
(remember them?). North of the Border, they were going to break the mould of
Scottish Politics. The sects internationally got very excited about this
entirely new and unique phenomenon, which unfortunately soon self destructed,
splitting into two hostile wings and with the former SSP leader facing a prison
sentence.
Nobody takes these people
seriously any more – if they ever did. The sects in Britain and internationally
have been exposed as utterly bankrupt. The working class ignores them and
therefore they have nothing left but to spend all their time attacking each
other and, of course, the Labour Party.
They are organically
incapable of understanding the fact that the working class, having historically
created mass political and trade union organizations, will not easily abandon
these organizations. Ted Grant explained the historical law that when the
workers begin to move, they must express themselves through the existing mass
organizations of the class.
In Britain it is true that
many workers are disgusted with the Blair-Brown leadership. But they see no
alternative. If they wish to register their discontent at election time, they
just stay at home. They do not look to the fifty-seven varieties of ultra-left
sects.
When the class begins to
move – and there are indications that this is already beginning – it will
express itself as it has always done in the past: first through the trade
unions, no matter how bureaucratic and right wing the leaders are. But in
Britain the trade unions are organically linked to the Labour Party. Therefore,
any movement of the class must sooner or later find an expression within the
Labour Party.
Genuine Marxists do not
preach to the working class from the sidelines. They participate shoulder to
shoulder with the workers, fighting for each and every advance, wage increase
or reform that can strengthen the Labour Movement and raise the self-confidence
of the class as a whole.
Genuine Marxists set out
from the working class and its organizations as they are in reality, not as we
would like them to be. We do not try to jump over the heads of the working
class, but to advance together with the class, step by step, while always
linking the day-to-day struggle for advance under capitalism to the perspective
of the socialist transformation of society. Our slogan is that of Lenin:
“patiently explain”.
We have long ago turned our
backs on the sects and their ultra-left childishness that completely cuts them
off from the real movement of the workers – now or in the future. Our
perspectives, methods and traditions have been shown to be correct time after
time. That is what permits us to advance steadily while others are constantly
splitting and in decline.
What is the reason for the
success of the IMT? Only this: that by standing firmly on Marxist principles
while always orienting towards the mass organizations of the working class we
can get an echo among the working class, starting with the activists who are
looking for a way forward. The words of comrade Harry Whittaker accurately
express the aspirations of the advanced workers of Britain. They point the way
forward: a merciless struggle against the Labour right wing, a struggle to
purge the Labour Movement of bureaucrats, opportunists and careerists, a fight
for socialist ideas and policies.
Is this difficult? Of course, it is! But any
worker knows that life itself is difficult and any serious cause involves a
serious struggle. And one thing is equally certain, the empty-headed hecklers
and sectarian loudmouths have never proposed anything better. The working class
has more important tasks to tackle than to waste time on them. Let the dead
bury their dead! Let us build the Marxist tendency in the Labour Movement. It
is time to get down to work!
