OFFICIA DISPIL •We support democracy in the Labour Party, just as we do in our unions. Each year I have to stand for re-election as shop steward in my section, and then as convenor by a vote of all the stewards. Why should any Labour MP be worried by such accountability?
'Benn and the other left leaders in the party ought to openly declare their support for the and shorter hours which they're supposed to be in favour of.
*And they should also support an all-out strike, because the engineering unions are presently leading this claim with their backsides.?
convenor, Rolls Royce Bristol, and chairperson Rolls Royce National Combine Committee.
UNITY IS OSTRENOTH TONY BENN has emerged the undisputed leader of Labour's left after this week's proceedings in Brighton.
And that is not all. The votes cast by constituency delegates Executive showed that Benn's popularity is far and away above that of any single member of the Labour Party as far as the rank and file are concerned. He topped the poll, increasing his vote from last year.
In short, Benn has now all the support he needs for a frontal challenge to the Callaghan leadership and its policies. The question is: will he now launch such an assault?
The evidence is not very Throughout the brighton conference Benn stressed that he does not see the issue of the Callaghan leadership as particularly relevant. At a fringe meeting on Tuesday evening, Ernie Roberts MP Callaghan. In reply Benn insisted: 'What I say is not about who leads the Labour Party, that is not the question we are discussing.?
But the urgency of that question was never more evident than during Callaghan's address to the conference on Tuesday. It was fitting that he should end his speech by quoting Hubert should Tony Benn.
for the national encouraging. went outside the law!
argued for Benn to replace started organising the Tory government.
And to socialism'. Hubert Humphrey was Johnson's second-in-command in pursuing the Vietnam war. By Callaghan's idols do we know him. So Speaking on Tuesday, Benn said: I am a left talking reformer.' That may explain why Benn in Brighton has largely confined his views of socialism to words. He has not for instance called for a campaign to support the striking engineers. He has not for instance demanded that the Labour conference organise support demonstration anti-abortion Bill on 28 October. He stayed Silent on the platform as Ron Hayward told conference that no campaign against the cuts would be supported by the Labour Party if it Tony Benn should be silent no longer. He stands as the left-wing heir apparent to the leadership of the Labour Party. It's time he — not just for the leadership of the party, but for a campaign to bring down do that it's time he started organising not just in the labour Party but in the entire working class movement.
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engineers' strike, because we're doing battle on pay