Comments on: Labour, take the power! A look at Red Ken and the 1980′s

By: David Semple

David Semple — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:07:48 +0000

Tom, why do you disagree with my points about Trotskyism, out of curiosity? I don’t think anything I’ve said is particularly controversial. I mean, I’m a little biased because I moved amongst Trotskyists before I moved about Labour. Even still, these people are honest and hard working – and in the final analysis may be necessary as a catalyst to change our society.

Jonesy, for the sake of honesty, let me try and lay out some of what I can claim I “know.”

I have second-hand knowledge of the period. Some of it comes from Ted Grant’s former comrades in Militant, who went on to join the Socialist Party, which I was a member of a few years before I joined Labour. I also have read a lot of material – both of Ted Grant’s books, for example, but also AWL material on the struggle in Liverpool.

On the other side of the debate, I’ve read the book “Hammer of the Left” which is probably the most scurrilous attack on the left of Labour ever written by a Party member. Finally I have read bits and pieces of different news articles from the time.

I think that the efforts of people during this time period were heroic. A certain layer of people may have been drifting away from Labour, but on the other hand, the early 1980′s was a period of intense interest in the Leftist project. It mobilised many people from layers whose political engagement we take for granted.

That movement could have been more – that it wasn’t more is not about heroic defeats or inward betrayals (though there were some of those too) but about tactical mistakes as I’ve tried to outline. For example, since you bring up Ted Grant, the Militant Tendency had Thatcher’s government scared – but in Liverpool it failed to follow through and set an illegal rate in defiance of Thatcher’s new weapon against the left, the Rates Act.

I’m happy to try and answer questions if that’s not what you were driving at.

By: Jonesy

Jonesy — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:14:30 +0000

Wow, I found this quite fascinating. My experiences with people who were actually involved with Labour during that time period are negligible, to say the least, and confined only to members of the Ted Grant sect. From them, it sounds as if their efforts were heroic and of great magnitude? I would be interested in hearing more about this from someone outside their camp. Please enlighten me, good sir!

By: Miller 2.0

Miller 2.0 — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:03:30 +0000

Dave, I agree with almost everything you say here, save for your attitudes on Trotskyism.

I’ve just read a fabian tract entitled ‘the Labour Party and the new left’, which is the most confused piece of writing I have read for some time; it really doesn’t get trotskyism, it seems only to understand half shades of reality.

Some of the stuff you’ve talked about it this post I have also mentioned in my most recent.

I especially agree with your points about why Labour itself needs a left. Take a look at Wendy Alexander floundering away, as she is constantly out-lefted by the SNP…