The
LRC combines a growing part of the Labour left as well as a few groups outside
of the party who don’t stand in elections against it. Most significantly it has
affiliations from a number of national unions (including the RMT and FBU) and
branches and a good third of the 203 accredited delegates who voted in the
National Committee elections were from affiliated organisations. Total
attendance was around 270.
The
LRC is developing local and regional groups in a number of regions including
the North East, West Yorkshire, Nottingham, Leeds, and Merseyside as well as London and now has 300
affiliated organisations and a paid up membership of around a thousand.
The
conference was very open and the level of debate was high. Apart from the
Socialist Appeal sponsored resolution, Conference adopted a motion from Lambeth
LRC which echoed the sentiments of our resolution while even advocating
nationalising “what’s left of industry”.
In
this respect the conference illustrated a distinct swing to the left, which is
clearly linked to the financial crisis. Tony Benn pointed out however, in his
opening remarks that it’s wrong to assume that the crisis automatically means a
shift to the left.
This
year’s conference was marked by an enthusiastic mood and it was noticeable that
there was a good smattering of younger delegates at the meeting. Socialist
Appeal has pointed out over the last year or so that despite the long quiet
period that the British labour movement has been through, there will be big
shifts in opinion and a “catching up” as workers begin to draw political
conclusions from the capitalist crisis.
This
perspective is beginning to be borne out. It’s likely that the LRC will form
part of a much bigger shift to the left firstly within the unions and then in
the Labour Party at a certain stage. It’s well placed to begin the struggle for
a socialist alternative within the movement, provided that the ideas and
policies that were agreed are taken back into the movement as part of a
fighting socialist programme.
Well
over 50 copies of Socialist Appeal were sold at the conference, including a
couple of copies sold to the Icelandic and Norwegian fraternal speakers,
representing the Icelandic Green left and the Norwegian Left Party.
Here is the Socialist Appeal resolution passed at LRC Conference
In the face of the biggest financial crisis
since the Great Depression and the inevitable attempt to make the working class
pay for this mess, this LRC conference believes the Labour movement must rearm
itself with an action programme that can provide a real way forward.
The attempts to bail-out the banks by using
billions of pounds of public cash must be met with the demand to nationalise
the entire banking system, including the insurance companies. The actions by
the government to nationalise the losses and privatise the profits must be
opposed.
The crisis in the housing market must be
met by the nationalisation of the building industry and land to allow us to
build the houses we need. The industry should then be placed under democratic
workers’ control and management. There must be no house repossessions by banks
as workers are forced into arrears. All empty properties should be taken over
and used for social housing.
Where work is scarce, there should be
work-sharing with no loss of pay. Companies should be forced to open their
books for inspection to see where they have squandered their profits. Where
workers are threatened with redundancy, the company should be nationalised,
with compensation based on proven need.
The energy companies, together with the
privatised public utilities should be brought back into public ownership with
no compensation for the fat cats. Again these should be placed under workers’
control and management as part of a programme to take over the commanding
heights of the economy and the institution of a socialist plan of production.
Accordingly, in light of the economic
crisis, this LRC conference calls for an immediate recall of the TUC to work
out a plan of action which can unite the whole trade union and labour movement
to fight for measures such as those listed above to defend jobs and conditions
in the face of the current recession.
