On the Eve of the General Election

[p006] On the Eve of the General Election THe FourTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the Young Socialists, the youth section of the British Labour Party, will meet in Brighton at Easter 1964 almost on the eve of a general election. The agenda of the conference contains resolutions which if taken in a group would provide a clear socialist programme for the taking of power by the working class. The contrast between the youth and the leadership of the parent body is striking. Harold Wilson and the right wing are moving further to the right and away even from the most moderate reformism and the Young Socialists are moving steadily to. the left, presenting full-scale socialist demands. The caucus which leads the British Labour Party rests mainly upon the most extreme right-wing bureaucracies within the trade union movement. Neither they, nor the Parliamen- tary Labour Party have any real contact with the working class. They prepare for the general election in much the same way as the Tories. Each side tries to out-do the other by taking advice from professional publicity experts and in concentrating on the technical background of television broadcasts. The overwhelming majority of Labour voters support the Labour Party because it is against the Tories. On the majority of policy matters there is little to choose between the two parties. The Young Socialists, on the other hand, have turned their attention over the past three years to serious work amongst young people, many of whom have had no experience of politics. They have been in the forefront of the campaign against unemploy- ment. Local and national demonstrations have been organised to rouse the labour movement on this most serious threat facing young people, particularly in industrial areas. As British monopoly capital FOURTH INTERNATIONAL SPRING 1964 has gone over more and more to automated pro- cesses it has struck more savagely at the youth and in providing them with leadership the Young Socialists has been in the forefront of the campaign against big business. This has produced an experi- enced youth leadership, which although not imme- diately a threat to the right wing, may well become so when the bankrupt policy of a Labour government stands exposed before the working class. The right wing live in fear of the youth movement. Hence on all occasions they do everything possible to witch-hunt and expel its leading members. The Easter Conference will be no exception to this rule. Efforts will be made to remove from the agenda the resolutions which stand for socialist policies. Indeed, it appears that the right wing are only waiting until after the election before they try to disband this most promising movement, This threat should not dismay the Young Socialists. They should now profit from their experience in the unemployment campaigns to turn their attention towards serious work within the trade union movement. Time and youth is on their side. They should refuse to bow to threats and intimidation of the right wing by continuing to recruit widely into the youth movement and at the same time train their members to carry the struggle from the trade unions into the Labour Party, so that they are ready to provide an alternative leadership when the betrayal comes. Despite all their organisers and apparatus, the right-wing Labour leaders have lost the youth movement. This is in itself a mortal blow to the ageing social-democracy. This youth movement may well prove to be the main source of supplying revolutionary youth leaders for the coming struggles in Britain.

[p007] NTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF