British Election

The Conservative landslide in the British General Election is more than just another round in the parliamentary game between Labour and Conservative. It marks a basic shift in the British class struggle - and one that could have a dramatic effect on Irish workers.

While the media have highlighted the battles inside the Labour Party an even more dramatic change has Met Rete Ream totem VOTE taken place in the Tory party. With a few whimpers of protest, the old leadership of monopoly capital and the landed aristocracy has been replaced by the small capitalists and entrepreneurs of the Thatcherite right, better able to wage an unremitting class war and bring the British ruling class out of its difficulties. In the past four years they have managed to push down the living standards of workers. The new Governeee ele emt oe Hee one ment will try to break the traditional mould of British politics and inflict a qualitative defeat on the working class. Central to the offensive is the attempt to muzzle the unions and break the Labour Party by ending the political levy.

Also planned are attacks on welfare rights and womens rights. In the background lies a massive strengthening of police powers and the ‘reform’ of the “Prevention of Terrorism’ Act to make its central elements permanently part of the legal structure.

The new repressive laws would effect nationalist workers in the North directly but the indirect effects of further Tory victories are even more important. Its clear for example that a Labour Government would have had to adjust its policy on Ireland to take account of the Sinn Fein electoral victories but Thatcher will only do so if she is humbled by a major defeat. One of the constraints on Thatcher taking action in Ireland has been her unwillingness to risk bringing the issue to the centre of the British class struggle. A major defeat of British workers would leave her with a much freer hand.

Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to move a Labour Party wedded to capitalism and imperialism to the left than it is to move the Tories to the right. The election demonstrated clearly that name Sinn Fein and allowed Griffith to remain as Vice President of the new expanded organisation, The new Sinn Fein were more radical than the old. It stood openly for the Irish Republic. But its economic programme remain ed vague. Griffith’s proposals continued at base, along with demands fora minimum wage and denunciations of English based unions(a less conservative aspect than it would be: the most extreme working class body at this time was the Irish Transport and General workers Union). Griffith moderated his own ranti working class line while he educated the new He was in a strong position to do this because any consistent Labour intervention to achieve Irish Independance died with James Connolly. His successors paid lip service and organised isolated industrial actions against specific undemocratic moves of British Imperialism. At the same time, they the Labour right still have organisational control of the party, and they were able to use this to ditch a number of left-wing MPs by preventing their nomination or ensuring their fighting a marginal seat and also to effectively ditch the party’s manifesto at the beginning of the election. The success at the polls by the SDP, even though it led to only a handful of seats, shows how badly demoralised British workers are and that there arc many who, in the absence of a strong left alteratcher or the old right wing labour policies of the Liberal-SDP alliance.

A fightback is possible. Thatcher’s vote actually fell overall and only the divisions of the opposition made the massive parliamentary majority possible. Now she has to face the left consistent opposition to Britain to Sinn Fein and the Volunteers. Labour aim ed to build its own numerical stength as the Industri al republic within the shell of the political state. To take too definite a political line on the vexed issue of Irish self-determination might cause a split and postpone the day when the Industrial republic broke that shell. In the December 1918 general election, Labour refused to run candidates in or out of alliance with Sinn fein.

The latter won 73 out of 105 Irish seats,and establish ed its Constituent Assembly Dail Eireann. It did so alone. The Unionists naturally attended Westminister So did the rump of the Home Rulers. Outside, the Irish Volunteers began a military struggle against Britain.

Yet in the country of the blind the one eyed person is king. Griffith was in the Cabinet elected by the Dail. He had no opposition to interpreting its economic policies as conservatively as problems involved in actually implementing a program rather than declaring it at a time when British political structures are unstable and polarising rapidly - its significant that Labour won an overwhelming vote from the black communities. The struggle within the Labour Party will grow more intense at a time when the battle is moving into the factories and into the streets.

In the North the main outcome of the election was voted Sinn Fein in the face of a massive campaign by the the British, the Unionists the Southern Government, and the Catholic Church, Shows that a real combativity remains. Probably this was one factor that influenced Thatcher to leave any new policy on the North on the long finger. The election did nothing to heal the rift in the Unionist camp. Tactical voting among the loyalists to win seats left the Official Unionists _ out in front of the DUP and with Il seats against the DUP’s three seats. The Official Unionists were also helped by the reactionary and sectarian campaign which they mounted.

This shows the fallacy of the Workers Party programme in arguing for class unity within a sectarian statelet -and they polled badly. But its major importance lies in the fact that without Unionist unity the British face one more objective difficulty in their struggle to make the Assembly a firm bulwark for partition.

The other major factor in the Northern election is the way in which the SDLP held its vote. Sinn Fein have mobilised a massive vote, and presented the SDLP with a serious challenge but they have not defeated them. However, the SDLP remain ir trouble. Sinn Fein are crowding on their heels and they are faced with the collapse of their policy of negotiation with Britain. But Sinn Fein are mistaken if they believe that a step by step advance based on local issues can defeat them. The fact that Hume is attending Westminster and will in practice be operating there as voice of the Southern capitalists means that a deal with Britain remains possible and a policy of collaboration can still be made to work. Sinn Fein have still to develop a genuine alternative policy and its lack was shown in the poll for Gerry Fitt.

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