What next for the ' left'?

MEETING lishing socialism?

We are convinced that they are not, because their conception that the crisis today assumes the form of a 'debate' means that they have not yet broken from reformist, capitalist methods of rule.

Here is the reason why they are hostile to the Marxist conception of leadership.

Marxism begins first of all with a study of the working class through its participation in the class struggle. We see the Labour Party as a bureaucratic reformist party which predominantly reflects not the strength of the working class, but its weakness.

The trade unions, on the other hand, reflect more accurately the immediate reactions of the working class to the problems of wages and working conditions, but their role is purely defensive.

They stand and fight for reforms under capitalism and this leads them towards support of the reformist Labour Party leaders.

No matter how 'left' he may talk, Cousins is a reformist who has no basic differences with Wilson on the long-term role of reformism.

Those who delude themselves that it is possible to change the Labour Party into a revolutionary party are dangerous political imbeciles.

Those who likewise dream that all they have to do is hide out inside the Labour Party, talking about what Trotsky said, until the time comes when Cousins or someone else will lead a split from the right wing, likewise, live in a fools' paradise. by G. Healy History teaches us over and over again that people who have not rejected reformism for Marxism can never organise a successful break from the reformists.

This, we repeat, is a class question, which can only be undertaken by those who not only study the development of the class struggle, but who directly participate in it through the building of a revolutionary party:

We cannot, at this stage, build a revolutionary party through complete immersion inside the Labour Party.

The dominant political atmosphere within this party is opportunist to the core. All the sO-called "Trotskyists' and 'Marxists' who have buried themselves inside this swamp and who sneer at the so-called isolation of the Socialist Labour League have, in fact, placed themselves at the disposal of the reformists in the fight against revolutionary Marxism.

The fake 'left' It is they who are really isolated from the working-class and not the Socialist Labour League, whose members fight with and within the labour movement on all the ma or issues.

Thus we read in the duplicated conference handouts from "The Week', a fake 'left' paper edited by Mr. Ken Coates of Nottingham, that 'we (i.e. Coates) support Labour government—anything else would be far worse (at least we think so)-but can it be that it is pursuing the wrong policies?' How nice and naive all this is, coming at a time when the Tories