Reflections and sycophancy: Kinnock versus the socialist Liverpool council

Tony Mulhearn, Former Liverpool 47 councillor

Liverpool city council's struggle in 1983-87 for more funding from the Thatcher government was an inspriation to workers, photo Dave Sinclair (Click to enlarge)

Present day Labour councillors who are carrying out Tory government cuts are still haunted by calls to emulate the example of the Liverpool 47 councillors who refused to carry out Margaret Thatcher's cuts in the 1980s.

This was further evidenced in a recent BBC Today programme when Baron Jenkin, Minister of the Environment during the Liverpool 47's tenure, was asked to comment on the content of cabinet papers which had been made public.

He said the biggest problem he had ever faced was the Militant Tendency's control of Liverpool. He was urged to send commissioners in to take control of the city.

His response was: "How do you get commissioners past half a million people, and how do you get them out again?" Recognising the potency of a mass campaign, his trepidation persuaded him to reject the idea.

This was followed by the first of a series of 'Reflections', in which Baron Hennessy of Nympsfield, FBA and an English historian of government, asks senior politicians to reflect on their life and times.

His first interview was with 'ex-socialist firebrand', ex-Labour leader Lord Kinnock. The interview was a model of sycophancy, leavened with dollops of cloying flattery.

Naturally Hennessy's big question was practically preceded by a blast of trumpets and a roll of drums.

It went something like: 'Now Neil, we come to what some people consider was the best conference speech in the history of the world - your attack on the Liverpool Militants, what gave you such courage and fortitude to make such a brilliant demolition of Liverpool?'

Bloated toad

Although it was a radio show, you could sense his Lordship swelling up like a bloated toad as Kinnock entered into a fantasy world in which he carried out his historic role of saving the Labour Party from destruction and delivering a knock-out blow to brave councillors he described as 'clowns'.

He conveniently ignored the fact that the result of his carrying out the edicts of Rupert Murdoch and then Daily Mirror owner, pension thief Robert Maxwell, was the two worst Labour defeats since 1931 while, by contrast, Liverpool's Labour votes were the highest in the history of the city.

Hennessy of course did not ask why, since Kinnock's speech, Labour has been reduced to a hollowed-out scarecrow whose idea of opposition is to ape the policies of the ruling party.

One was reminded of socialist writer Upton Sinclair's quote: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

Liverpool: A City That Dared To Fight

By Peter Taaffe and Tony Mulhearn £11.99

The Rise Of Militant

By Peter Taaffe £11.99

Marxism in Today's World

By Peter Taaffe £8

Special offer: Free P&P to all readers of the Socialist

PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD

020 8988 8789

www.socialistbooks.org.uk

[email protected]

Please make cheques payable to Socialist Books

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.