Moving On

Abstract

Twenty years after 1956, the main problem for the socialist left in Britain is still that of its own organisation into an effective political formation, able to attract a substantial measure of support and to hold out a genuine promise of further growth. A lot has happened in the labour movement in these twenty years, and much of this has been positive. But in organisational and programmatic terms, there has been no real advance. For different reasons, none of the organisations, old and new, which have occupied the stage in this period-the Labour Party, the Communist Party, the International Socialists, the Workers' Revolutionary Party, the International Marxist Group, etc.-constitutes an effective socialist formation or is in the least likely to become one. Such an organisation remains to be created. The present article discusses the reasons why existing organisations cannot fill the gap.