British socialist leader speaks in Melbourne

By Ben Reid

MELBOURNE -- Peter Taaffe, general secretary of the British Socialist Party (formerly Militant Labour), spoke at a public forum here on February 24. More than 90 people filled the meeting room of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union offices.

Taaffe spoke on the "future for the British working class; lessons for Australia" and alluded to many of the political parallels between the two countries. He stated: "In Australia you now have a vicious conservative government as we have had for 17 years. Before that there was a right-wing Labor government, as we are sure to face when Tony Blair's New Labour is elected later this year."

Taaffe outlined the dreadful impact of Tory rule on the working class in Britain and predicted that there would be a wave of industrial and political action as the new Labour government was set to frustrate the expectations of its base.

"The British Labour Party had always been a bourgeois workers' party. Now it has lost its dual class character; it is now a purely capitalist party."

Taaffe explained that Militant Labour was preparing for the new period by changing its name to the Socialist Party and working to build a larger revolutionary Marxist organisation. At the same time, the group is encouraging and supporting the development of broader working-class political formations such as Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party and the Scottish Socialist Alliance.

Taaffe latter spoke to a meeting of the Melbourne branch of the Democratic Socialist Party and outlined further the ideas of his party.

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