Train to ence of the ever ony Blair must be well pleased
Party conference. He got a seven and a half minute standing ovation for a speech in which he rammed the whole of his right-wing programme down the throats of the delegates, strongly defended his role in the war, and launched a whole new tirade against asylum seekers.
True he lost the vote on foundation hospitals (his third conference defeat since he became leader of the Labour Party), but he had made it clear in advance that the vote would make absolutely no difference whatever to government policy. In fact the policy
as vigorously as Before. see as fra, party managers managed to block any real debate or vote. The RMT emergency resolution - which denounced the war as unjust - was ruled out of order.
Brown's speech, with its multiple references to "Labour" and "Labour values" was presented by the media as a nascent challenge for the leadership. But whatever his leadership pretensions might be, stripped of its rhetoric, his speech was on exactly the same neo-liberal line as Blair's. Like the return of the 'Red Flag' at the end of the conference it was a cosmetic gesture to Labour Party members increasingly worried about where new Labour is going.
Ranged against the platform on most issues were the trade unions in the form of the new generation of awkward squad leaders - an important new development this year, reflecting developments in the unions themselves. Most loyal to the platform were the constituency delegates, 50 per cent of whom even supported them on foundation hospitals. Constituency delegates at conference clearly do not represent the views of the majority of Party members.
On the most important issue facing the conference, however, Britain's role in the war, some of the awkward squad did not perform so well. The four big unions -Amicus, the GMB, UNISON and the T&G (who hold 40 per cent of the vote at the conference) - lined up to determine the four contemporary debates of the conference (in line with the conference's ridiculous rules), and decided that these would be: employment policy, foundation hospitals, pensions and manufacturing.
This decision sidelined the issue of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. There was media speculation that this could be changed if, as they did last year, more than 50 per cent of the constituency delegates voted to prioritise Iraq and thus gain a fifth
tonice this had been lost, the RMT degaton was let noton on get
their emergency motion on the agenda, but by then the conference organisers had all the cards in their hands. While at the beginning of the week the big four were claiming they would support this challenge, when it came to the crucial reference back of the standing orders committee report they sat on their hands.
The consequence of this was that Blair escaped his most damaging prospect - a defeat by the conference over the war.
The overall political implications from the conference are two-fold.
Any illusion that the best place to fight the Blairites is inside the party with the perspective of 'reclaiming Labour has hit the buffers at its first challenge. Alice Mahon MP had been one of those most committed to this approach. She told anti-war activists at the People's Assembly in late August to "watch our conference". We were promised walkouts and people sitting stonily in their seats to receive war-monger Blair. Instead there was rapturous applause.
If Blair is able to hold the line following the invasion of Iraq with all its horrors, a mass movement against the war, and the exposure that the war was launched on a tissue of lies, then when can a fight-back be launched inside the Labour Party?
Secondly, although Blair had a good conference, the crisis of New Labour remains in full force; in fact it continues to deepen. New Labour strategists are totally consistent on this one point: if you get in a hole, keep on digging.
This is the message spelled out loud and clear by Blair and Brown at both the TUC and the Labour party conference.
A 'labour representation committee was formed from the 'reclaim Labour' fringe meeting by some of the 'awkward squad -to be chaired by Mick Rix; but it faces a bleak task indeed.
The conference did nothing to win back support from the Labour heartlands; in fact they are more alienated than ever as the neo-liberal agenda goes forward. It did nothing to win back those who opposed the war - the refusal to have a proper vote on the war will alienate them even more.
As Labour support shrinks, and a traditional Labour stronghold is lost to the Lib Dems in Brent East, the message is clear: there will be no retreat or compromise on the neo-liberal agenda, in fact it will be going faster and further.
Britain and the US are now bogged down in Iraq, facing a war of resistance, in a worsening situation with no obvious way out. The failure to find the weapons of mass destruction on which the war was justified has been further highlighted by the failure of the International Survey Group to find any such weapons.
The Hutton inquiry - which discased him do tient ad of
that word in a document all of which turned out to be a complete pack of lies from start to finish - has compounded the problem for Blair.
A majority of the population in Britain now think the war was unjustified and that Blair and his supporters were lying in order to justify it.
This represents a very serious loss of credibility for a government which came to office claiming honesty and transparency.
Of course Bush and Blair always knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Had they believed they existed, they would have been panic stricken after the fall of Baghdad to know where they had gone,
End the - of troo ПАРЛОМ RATE PRIC or which 'terrorist groups had taken the away. As Robin Cook put it: "if they thoug there really had been weapons of ma destruction in Iraq they would not now b able to sleep at night for wondering whe they had gone."
The continuing strength of the Stop th War movement - particularly in Britain has contributed to this and compound the crisis of Blairism.
The 100,000 people who marched c September 27 are the force that keeps th war at the front of the agenda and keeps th Blairites on the political hook. It is th movement that points the way forward f socialists
The vast majority of the activists of th mass movement are not about to join th Labour Party - the party that waged th wal
But many, especially in the aftermath the Bournemouth events - will be open a socialist alternative outside of the Labo Party, providing it is broad and inclusi This is the kind of alternative that tr Socialist Alliance is pledged to create.