A LEAP of faith?

One interesting side effect of the cataclysmic collapse of support for the Government and the Labour Party is that the always weak argument of those trade union leaders who think that we should be cautious in opposing the Government because we want to secure its re-election is now exposed as utterly daft.

We obviously have to get ready for a Tory Government and in the mean time we might as well try to get one or two more decent gains out of the Government while it can cling on to office. Council housing maybe? Trade union rights??

Longer term we need to address our minds afresh to the political representation of the working class and to the policies which the left and the trade unions should be proposing – to this end I think the Conference of the Left Economic Advisory Panel, coming up in London on 24 May, looks interesting, as an opportunity to have the sort of debates which are needed.

As well as policies we need to think more about forms of political organisation. The failure of New Labour to achieve significant change sets us up for a reactionary onslaught from the real Tories and our movement needs to find a better way to “do politics” than we have had for the past eleven years…