Issue 226 of SOCIALIST REVIEW Published January 1999 Copyright © Socialist Review
As a former Labour Party member, I applaud Michael Knowles' decision to leave the party (December SR). Only someone who has already taken the same step can appreciate just how painful that decision can be. What I find worrying is that the crisis being experienced by Labour Party members is casting a retrospective rosy glow over 'Old Labour' and its claimed position as the defender of the working class. Without doubt, Blair's betrayal of those who put him into power has been stunning in its speed and blatancy but I had growing doubts for a long time about Labour's attitude to the working class.
I was recruited to the Labour Party in 1972 as a student nurse. I had a passionate belief in socialism as the only way to a better society. This did not come from a family tradition, but against a background of working class Tory voters.
In 1983 I was active at a high level in the general election campaign and discovered the reality of Labour's attitude to the working class. Locally there were two long running strikes and I wanted all visitors to the campaign office to sign messages of support to both sets of workers. I was told in no uncertain terms by the full time party agent to stop this practice.
During the miners' strike I was disgusted at the lack of support from Labour for workers' action. In 1988 I heard Kinnock's closing speech to the Labour Party conference and tore up my party card.
Like millions of people, Michael Knowles is angry at the failure of the free market. The condition of the working class is deteriorating rapidly as capitalists seek to solve the crisis. A socialist alternative to the market has to be built quickly to prevent us from lurching towards barbarism.
Liz White
Bradford
Like Michael Knowles (December SR), I too was roaring with triumph that unforgettable night in May last year. We had worked so hard campaigning for a Labour victory, that night was full of joy and elation. Little did I know then it would soon go very flat.
We campaigned for a Labour government that would finally nail the Thatcherism coffin shut. I believed a New Labour government would bring about a real improvement to our quality of life.
I think my love affair with Labour started to fall apart over student fees. It was certainly welfare reforms that made the divorce absolute. I could not support a party hell bent on destroying the lives of people by depriving them of the help they had a right to. Since then we have had a minimum wage that suits the bosses rather than the working people it was supposed to help, our trade union rights still not restored, and a government that shrugs its shoulders as the market system it loves so much continues to bring devastation to working people.
Michael says in his article, 'The Blairite Labour Party is gradually disengaging itself from the trade unions.' and he is right. The trouble is our union leaders still believe they have influence, whereas they have none. Blairism means partnership with business, not with trade unions, and certainly not with the thousands of people who elected them.
So I congratulate Michael on his decision to leave the Labour Party, but I urge him and all other disenchanted party members and supporters, don't just leave but join the party fighting for the masses-- the Socialist Workers Party-- and all those changes we all cried out for may not be far away.
Pete Thorpe
Nottingham
The fact that Pinochet was arrested is an overwhelmingly important fact and a truly positive one, no matter what the press, the professional politicians, and the like say.
Of course, you and my friends must be interested in what is going on here. First and foremost, there will not be a military coup. Obviously, there is a lot of sabre rattling, and there is not a single day in which the military don't meet, discuss, and give their bloody opinions. But they are now radically incapable of doing what they did back in 1973 or what they could do in the 1980s for that matter. Now they don't have the support and the encouragement of the bourgeoisie which is happier than ever under the Concertación government.
If a military coup cannot be envisaged, I don't see a new right wing government taking place because this is in fact a very right wing government, one which rules with the consent and the participation of the bourgeoisie and the investors. But it is still too early to come to conclusions. In truth, nobody can guess what is going to happen in the foreseeable future, though I am very optimistic about it.
I shall try to explain to you why I feel so exhilarated. The so called Chilean transition has been since its very inception in 1989-90 a total failure. The coalition that now rules this country has abandoned all pretence of bringing more formal democracy, or of carrying out even cosmetic reforms which at least would mean changing the military constitution that hangs over us, and give us completely free elections, free and independent press, an independent judiciary, decent public health and education, and so forth.
Quite a lot of people now think that the Pinochet affair has had an enormously healthy effect. It has cleaned the atmosphere around us, it has unmasked everybody, it has allowed us to see whose side you are on and what you are going to do now. No one can pretend now that there are 'democratic' right wing parties in this country any more because all of them have shown their innermost loyalty to the general. And all the things I have just told you about the government were somehow concealed under the official rhetoric which uses such disgusting words as 'the Chilean democracy', 'the most perfect transition in the world', 'this country where law and order prevail'.
Angel,
Santiago, Chile
This letter was sent to a socialist in London in November
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