The unions represent the working class incompletely, unsatisfactorily, binding the class to capitalism. Yet they remain the major organisations of the working class, the major vehicles of class struggle. There is no short-term prospect of them being replaced by new organisations. We must develop the unions, transform them, reinvigorate them with socialist purpose. To do that, the radical activist minority must organise itself and equip itself with clear ideas.
Class is the decisive test.
The capture of the commanding heights of the Labour Party by the Blairites threatens to throw back the development of the labour movement in Britain by a century. The Labour Party was founded to provide the organised workers' movement with political representation. It has never been a socialist party. It was never going to evolve smoothly into a socialist party. Now the Blairites want to destroy the remaining links between the Labour Party and the unions, and to shut down all inner-Party mechanisms which allow for some degree of accountability over the elected representatives.