LONDON — While the Tory press was bemoaning the biggest British loss in the South Atlantic war — the destroyer Sheffield — Labour was suffering its own first major casualty. The results of the local council election held May 6 revealed that the Tories had done exceptionally well against all predictions.
A government that has presided over 4 million unemployed, a dramatic cut in the standard of living of British workers, and that has attacked the strength of the trade union movement, managed to gain in relation to its performance while out of office four years ago.
Labour fell back. They called it the Falkland effect.
Thatcher's government had previously reached an all-time low in popularity. The last Gallup poll before the crisis broke put the Tories in third place behind Labour and the alliance of Social Democrats and Liberals, with only 31.5 percent of the vote. Now the Tories have leapt 10 points to over 40 percent of the vote.
Default of Labour leaders
Responsibility for this disastrous state of affairs lies solely with the front bench leadership of the Labour Party. Labour Party leader Michael Foot, the so-called pacifist, in spite of his much vaunted "refusal to give the government a blank check," has supported every single military action so far undertaken. Indeed, in the early days of the crisis, the Labour leaders exceeded the Tories in their jingoistic demands for bloody action against the Argentines.
Peter Heathfield, the general secretary of the Derbyshire miners, spoke on May 6 with Socialist Challenge, the weekly newspaper sponsored by the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Fourth International. "It is unfortunate that many Labour leaders have identified with the Tories," Heathfield said. "Accordingly, many working people are getting the wrong impression. This is reinforced by the torrent of warmongering hysteria from the Tory press - especially the tabloids. If there was a positive lead, then there would be a totally different attitude."
Despite the abject default by the Labour leadership, support for Thatcher's war is clearly skin-deep. A poll conducted for the television news program "Weekend World" for Sunday, May 9, found that although 70 percent of those questioned supported the retaking of the Malvinas-Falklands, only 55 percent supported such an effort if the loss of British lives was involved. This is a decline of 10 percent since before the sinking of the Sheffield and is astonishing in the context of the unrelenting jingoism of the Tory press. Undoubtedly the tide is turning.
Opposition inside Labour Party
From the start, a small group of Labour members of Parliament and trade union leaders have opposed the war. Tony Benn, the leader of the left wing in the Labour Party, has consistently demanded the return of the fleet, and this call has been backed by about 20 other MPs, including Judith Hart, the incumbent chairperson of the Labour Party.
Only a small number of these MPs have repudiated Britain's claim to sovereignty. Nonetheless, their stance has aided the mobilization of working class opinion against the war.
On May 5, a resolution was proposed to the Labour Party National Executive by Benn and Hart. It called for "an immediate halt to all British military action in the region of the Falkland Islands," and declared that "the Labour Party will not support the government in a war with Argentina which could spread; would put innocent lives at risk; and isolate Britain in the eyes of the world."* The resolution was defeated by a 15-8 vote.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which was able to mobilize a quarter-million people last year against the siting of U.S. Cruise missiles in Britain, has taken the initiative in setting up an umbrella organization grouping all those against the war. It has been organizing weekly demonstrations in London. The most recent demonstration, held May 9, attracted over 3,000 people. CND has called a major national demonstration and rally for May 23.
These demonstrations have centered on the demand for the recall of the fleet. It is for this reason that Socialist Challenge has backed these actions despite the fact that they also call for negotiations through the United Nations over the sovereignty issue.
Speaking at the May 9 demonstration, Tony Benn pointed out that it was the Thatcher government that for years had been arming the Argentine junta against its own people. He accused her of talking about negotiations as "a smokescreen. She has been determined to fight to the finish."
Benn also pointed out that there cannot "be any permanent military victory when these islands depend on Argentina for food, health, education, and transport."
Price of British imperialism
While Benn supports UN Resolution 502, which calls for negotiations over sovereignty between Argentina and Britain on the basis of Argentine withdrawal from the islands, other figures on the left have been more forthright.
Arthur Scargill, the newly elected left-wing leader of the all-important National Union of Miners, made no bones about it. "Britain has no right to start talking about sovereignty over islands that are 8,000 miles away," Scargill declared May 6. "We are being used as cannon-fodder in an international conflict which can only be resolved by negotiation and diplomacy.
"There should have been no task force sent and it should be recalled. The matter should be resolved through the United Nations. We should take account of what the islanders want and recognise the dangers that will arise if we continue with this madness.
"The Tories are generating jingoism on an unprecedented scale, aided and abetted by the capitalist press — who are beside themselves in attacking Argentinians - and this sickens me.
"Tragically it may only come home to people when thousands of young men are killed. We have seen the price of British imperialism over the years. I thought we had learned a lesson in the labour and trade union movements.
"I want to see every trade union leader come out and condemn this Tory madness, which could lead us into a nuclear holocaust."
Of the small number of MPs who have reflected this view of the conflict, Ron Brown, MP for Leith in Edinburgh, Scotland, has been working with Socialist Challenge to put out an appeal to the Argentinian General Confederation of Labor (CGT) to send a delegation to Britain. Quite early on in the conflict, a CGT delegation was in Europe and requested to meet the British trade union federation and the international labor movement "to act in unison to achieve a peaceful settlement."
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) denies any knowledge of this approach, but is presently being contacted by Ron Brown to lend their support to this appeal.
But these moves and the antiwar movement on this issue are still at an early stage. So the situation inside the ranks of the working class is still confused. The main difficulty workers generally encounter is dealing with the political character of the Argentine regime. There is a mortal hatred of these butchers in the British trade union movement.
But finding themselves on the side of the Tories introduces contradictions which have opened up major possibilities for a dialog. These opportunities can only increase as Britain's casualties mount and the time scale for the military operation increases. Already many trade union bodies and trade union branches have begun to adopt positions against the war and to denounce the jingoistic support for the Tories of the Labour leadership.
A resolution passed by the Scottish TUC at its congress in the beginning of May demanded "The removal of Argentinian troops and the recall of the British naval task force and the removal of the 200-mile war zone."
Bernard Connelly, a trade union leader at British Steel in South Yorkshire, told Socialist Challenge May 6. "Thatcher launched this Falkland adventure in order to get her reputation back here at home. . . .
"In a Tory political party broadcast last week, they claimed that waiting lists for hospitals had declined. If this is true it is because of thousands dying of hypothermia and other illnesses as a consequence of Tory cuts.
"So too with this Falkland crisis. If it's her answer to the unemployment problem, she's onto a loser. Most of the kids joined up either to get a trade or get off the dole — or both. No one joined up to get killed.
"We have a few lads still training as apprentices. We're probably the only people in the whole of British Steel that still has them - and we are fighting management's attempts to chop them. They say there is no money. Well, just put a bit of the cash from this Falklands adventure our way.
"You've got a few armchair warriors, but most people see the thing as a tragedy rather than a call to arms."