Without wishing to overwork the questlon of Angell Ward by-election, we would uketo make alew oints.
We don't agree with last week's letter from Chris O'Brien who rejected the idea nat Mane Monaut ine abour candi. date] was in any way a class candidate. Her candidacy was adopted as pan or a real struggie in ine area waged by the left inside and outside Labour Party on such crucial issues as racism, curs and women's oopression. and the candidate was part un war sense, and basine our ooinions on the individual candidate's record of struggle in the local labour movement under rives campaion. mmittee, and Labour Party].
november mat wis cancicac nao me most potential for reaching the broadest of workers given the specifics of the situation the IS candidate did not have. only received 34 votes Pany an nacation or us However, we do feel that there are certain problems posed for revolutionaries which were not brought out in the Red Weekly interview.
The impact of the Labour candidate's election campaign was certainly not all it might have been. In fact it was difficult to gauge what the impact was, because the candicate cio nor orcanise any meetinos. events, etc. The pressure from the right wing in the Labour Party meant that she was prevented tom speakine to a quu strong picket of a National Front election meeting, thus losing an opportunity to place herself in the forefront of an active vanguard campaigning on the issue of As a member of the local anti-racist committee [from her union] and the cuts committee the candidate based her campaign on these and other aDour movement organisations were really prepared to fight the policies of the Labour Government. By organising meetinos inrouon inese bodies ine elec. tion campaign would have been much more outgoing and drawn out of the struggle within ine Labour PartyThis is what accountability to the class really means. As It largely took canvassing and was ПОТ accordance with the expectations of a supposedly "class struggle' programme. The influence that this only inis candidate could nave nad in furthering the struggles in the area was not realised.
Whilst we would have no illusions in the potential of a candidate to do this fully [the inadequacies of her programme were clear we co mink inat it revolutionaries [including IS] had intervened struggles such as those emerging Lamoeln Derore ane curine me electior both inside and outside the Labour Party - they would have had an opportunity to present awemauves and to make the candidate accountable.
Unfortunately this did not occur, and all the revolutionaries in the area bear responsibility for this.
BAKER (South West London IMG).
Hence dodges quite simply slanderous, from the IMG by that sort of attack.
On the whole struggle disappointed IMG to provide a theoretical. of that practical a ternative nearly all of their *anu-racist cowe agree Weekly (18 a potential which The fact that IS in the election is Hient to work conter was and I wonder now many memoers oro and socials Worker supporters have been repelled subponed Ine IMos at the small number branches that had seriously built for the march. This lack of active participation, though, has resulted in the failure of the Her alone ine direction to the Meanwhile, IS have corrected worst summer excesses, and this should be acknowledged.
The call to the LCDTU and the Assembly, for instance, was not ultimatistic because it did not say 'join our organisaand time again!
It IS good to see that Red making question groupment one its priorities. But it is ludicrous to be moan ine tact that the International Communist League, for instance uvel the Cularactersalon or nema and Fl from "left-reformist' to the Trotskyist mainstream', whilst at the same time the IMG fails to present a clear position most important group on the left IS. Any project of regroupment that does not prioritise an orientation to IS is academic, a mere shuffling around that will in any case produce probably more splits than fusions It does seem to me that the IS and IMG could, by building an opposition to the out...
launching one can be prepared.
Weekly re- As far as I know, IS also do not expect of to be able to proclaim a mass party in the Hear future, une man cancer seems to de their tendency to equate the political waver problem of breaking layers from reformtom with une merely practical one or pro viding an alternative organisation That brings us on to the programmatic differences, which is a problem. Here again, it is a problem which no-one car claim to have surmounted. The annoying thing is that many comrades in IS anc IMa seem to have disagreement over the sliding scale is an insurmountable obstacle to any project OT TUSion.
Personally I side with the IMG on the - Durham IS Secretary the projection does concluded that a Three we're and have even criticised them for not raising it strongly enouch ai certain times. But an action programme abstracted from the way in which it can be tought for is a non-starter. There are many problems invoived in demands such as sliding scale and open and neither are automaticall assured or generalised vancity whole action programme can only hav meaning when it is developed from and struggle opposition to the Social ConDimuitaneous witn ine develooment o an adequate programme is that of ap propriate forms of organisation prior to the moment when a party can be defini tively formed. Understandably the IMG shies away from the task of building the SWP. but this is not necessarily a sec tarian project so long as it is developed in accordance with the concrete needs of me ciass strucert One of the most important of these is to large layers of the vangudio or a morougncoine anemadve to the Labour Party, though of course rejecting fronts with the Labour lefts. Organising this layer will most probably not take the form of a linear expansion of any of the current left groups; I think the IMC recognises this, and all the signs are that the majority of IS will also be capable of recognition. But unless the meatate probiems racing us in inis ap proach are dealt with more openly erecting barriers groups, and by dissoiving all program matic and organisational fetishes, ther for a rough ride - PHIL DAVENPORT (Coventry]
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