Workers' Liberty day school: Marxists and the Labour Party
The Bohemian Cafe, 53 Chesterfield Rd, Sheffield S8 (short taxi ride from Sheffield train station)
Session 1: The fundamentals
Small-group discussions round the following points:
a) Why did Marxists support the setting-up of the Labour Party as a broad, federal working-class party? Why have Marxists participated in or oriented to the Labour Party almost all the time since then?
b) What is the difference between a "bourgeois workers' party" (in Marxist terms) and a straight bourgeois party (like the US Democratic Party) which lots of workers vote for, which unions look to as probably less uncongenial than the major alternatives, and in which union leaders function as a political lobby group?
c) What has been special about the Labour Party as a "bourgeois workers' party", as compared with other "bouergeois workers' parties" in Europe?
Session 2: Our history, and the Labour Party's history
Small-group discussions around the following points:
a) In what ways is the Labour Party different today from what it was at previous points in its history?
b) Were we wrong in 1970 to advocate that revolutionary socialists run a "flagship" candidate in a selected safe Labour constituency in the general election?
c) Were we wrong in 1979 to shun the "Socialist Unity" election effort (organised by revolutionary socialists, of a sort) and to organise a "Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory" (a campaign to get CLPs and candidates to electioneer on the basis of working-class politics and a criticism of the 1974-9 government)?
Session 3: Assessment and orientation now
Plenary debate
Reading: the collection of articles attached here, plus The Trade Unions, New Labour, and Working-Class Representation. Details of venue: www.thebohemian.co.uk/
| Attachment | Size |
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| lp_290907.pdf | 245.22 KB |