Editorial

EDITORIAL

Throughout the 'sixties and much of the "seventies the far left in Europe was an active and visible force. In March 1977, when Revolutionary Communist Papers began publication, the left still spoke optimistically about its potential for growth. And yet today many of the organisations of the 'seventies have disappeared, stagnated or have become virtually indistinguishable from the left wing of reformism.

In Britain the Labour Party has become the host for a variety of radical left factions. And significant sections of the Communist Party are talking about closing shop and joining the Labour Party. In France the Mitterand Government has managed to assimilate most of its left critics.

The decline of the radical left is symptomatic of the power that bourgeois labour parties still hold over the working class. It is also indicative of the amorphous, pragmatic character of radical left politics. No matter how revolutionary the rhetoric of the radical left it was simply no match for the reformists when the going began to get The convergence of the radical left and reformism best illustrated by the "Tony Benn for deputy' campaign was made possible by the theoretical poverty of the radica left. The radical left has never critically examined its past record to strengthen its ideological coherence. Nor has it ever undertaken a materialist analysis of the politics of the official labour movement.

The British radical left's lack of a conscious assessment of its relationship with the Labour Party has had two negative consequences. First, the left's orientation to the Labour Party has come to be defined almost entirely by tactical considerations. Debates about the Labour Party are debates about whether or not to enter it and whether or not to vote for it. Recently the debates have become narrower still: how to work inside it and how to influence its internal structures and choice of leaders. Second, the radical left's understanding of reformism has become a caricature of Marxism. The standard diet of the radical left is exposés of the life-style of trade union bureaucrats and denunciations of betrayals perpetrated by small cabals of class traitors. This approach could just about handle a Frank Chapple or a Harold Wilson, But when it comes to an austere Ken Livingstone or a man of the people like Arthur Scargill the radical left is lost for words.

The decline of the radical left does not imply the decline of its politics. Inside and outside the Labour Party radical petit-bourgeois politics continues to flourish. The politics of the class struggle has been reinterpreted to mean the defence of the lesser evil: democrats versus fascists, Labour versus the Tories, Labour left versus Labour right.

In the ideological and theoretical spheres the class struggle is treated either as a matter of history or is reduced to populist ramblings about community politics, democratising the state or the Labour Party.

This issue of Revolutionary Communist Papers aims to set the record straight. Frank Richards' article on reformism and social democracy establishes the historical basis for the reconstitution of social democracy today. It explains the resilience of reformist politics and provides the theoretical basis for the tactics and strategy necessary to combat the labour bureaucracy. Bob Radcliffe's study of British than a historical Trotskyism in the 'thirties has more significance. Fifty years later the radical left repeats and improves upon the errors of the Trotskyist movement in the 'thirties. Not only have the lessons from this period not been learned, but the errors of the past have come to define the politics of the radical left today.

Three months ago a national conference of revolutionary communists decided to launch the Revolutionar Communist Party. To declare a party requires only headed note paper. To build a revolutionary party requires giving the closest attention to ideological and theoretical matters For the RCP the state of the radical left serves as a vivid reminder of the terrible price exacted by ideological confusion and theoretical myopia. Revolutionary Communist Papers has only one objective - to arm the workers' move ment with the most developed theoretical expression of its historical task. Frank Richards

the next step review of the Revolutionary Communist Party Two forces are growing on the left in Britain today. One is the Labour Party. The other is the Revolutionary Communist Party. the next step is the voice of the alternative to Labourism. In 18 months it has become the biggest selling monthly in the British labour movement.

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CURRENT ISSUE #9 (1981)

Michael Burawoy. "State and Revolution in Sourh Africa: Reflections on the Comparari: e Perspecies of Greenberg and Skocpot" James O'Connor, "The Fiscal Crists of the State Revisited: Economic Crests and Reagan's Budgetary Policy Colin Sumner, "The Rile of Law and Civil Rights in Contemporary Marxist Theory' Patricia A. Morgan, "From Buttered Wife lo Progrum Clieni: The State's Shaping of Social Problems tomas Pontuse, Alectra Mili in saer mer as Cinations, and udley Burton, The l'olitical Fconomy of Environmentalism: Reflecti • Ecology As Polines by Andre Go kapitalistate P.O. Box 5138, Berkeley, Ca. 94705 U.S.A.

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