Everything Has Gone Green: The Consequences of Googling Murray Bookchin

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    “I believe in change, I believe in the Environment, I believe in Community, I believe in Human Rights and I believe in Freedom. Generally those are all things that the Left could and should believe in”
    -Dave Cook, 1983

    “We have gone far away from the Vulgar Marxism that started us off”
    -Nina Temple, 1989

    “We live in a time when all elites, whether on the left or the right, believe in rigid rules that say there is no alternative to the present political and economic system. We seek to change that.”
    -Adam Curtis, 1993

    ---

    The Washington Post - 16 March 1978

    Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro escaped a kidnapping plot by the far-left Red Brigades. An anonymous tipster relayed the information to law enforcement, who swiftly apprehended the terrorists in Via Fani. The attack came after the murder of German industrialist Hans Martin Schleyer by the Red Army Faction.

    In spite of the attempt on his life, Moro was able to attend the Chamber of Deputies as a vote of confidence took place against the government of Giulio Andreotti. The Communists withdrew their “vote of non-no confidence” and guaranteed the fall of the third Andreotti cabinet. Extending a hand in cooperation, the PCI backed the return of Moro, allowing him to form his sixth cabinet. The Historic Compromise, a political dream between Moro and Enrico Berlinguer, had finally been actualized.

    --//--

    Berlinguer was a communist, yet one who realized the realities of the Cold War. Ever since their defeat in 1948, the Communists were frozen out of national power by the catch-all nature of Christian Democracy. Like any communist, Berlinguer saw the news about the juntas in Greece and Chile and knew that the Americans would never tolerate a leftist government in Italy. All the PCI could do was ensure Italy maintained a stable democracy by sharing power with the establishment. With a Marxist revolution out of the question, a social democratic government was far preferable to an Italian Pinochet.

    Holding this position in a time of American containment and the Soviet Brezhnev Doctrine wasn’t easy. On a trip to Bulgaria, Berlinguer cheated death in what was likely an accident staged by the KGB. He walked away as one of the few survivors, deeply scared. Aldo Moro was just as frightened. Who wouldn’t be when Henry Kissinger’s deep, monotonous voice told him he would “pay dearly” for compromise with the Communists? In March of 1979, suspicions deepened when journalist Carmine Pecorelli was killed after publishing a report of ties between Operation Gladio and Moro’s attempted kidnapping. It wouldn't be too long after until General Dalla Chiesa and his wife laid limp in the seats of a Fiat Ritmo. Once a close friend, Giulio Andreotti now failed to maintain eye contact when Moro spoke to him. The poker face of Il Divo hid the dark truths of a nation built on secrets.

    --//--

    The reaction across the Communist World was mixed, to put it mildly. From Moscow, a rather pickled looking Leonid Brezhnev denouncing the move of ‘bourgeoises social democrats who have taken over the proud Italian Communist Party.’ Other pro-Moscow parties like the French Communist Party and Irish Workers’ Party took this line, often with the addition of denouncing the Italian Communists as ‘Trotskyist Wreckers’ which inevitably angered Proletarian Democracy, who as the main Italian Trotskyists were rather shocked and disgusted by the deal.

    However, in the burgeoning EuroCommunist movement, parties in places ranging from Spain to Finland offered support to Berlinguer’s decision (often with the cavity that Berlinguer should have joined up with fellow progressives in social democratic parties instead of allying with the Christian Democrats).

    The one place that didn’t offer any support, condolences, or white hot rage was the Communist Party of Great Britain. Far removed from it’s heights in the Mid 40s, the party had atrophied over time, as numerous other Far Left movements managed to outpace the sluggish CPGB. Unlike many other Communist Parties in Europe which slavishly followed one form of thought or the other (Moscow or Milan), due to the peculiarities of First Past the Post, the CPGB had contained both strains of Communist thought.

    On one side you had the EuroCommunists, lead mainly by Dave Cook, a Rock Climber, a childhood friend of Shakin Stevens, feminist, and CPGB’s National Organiser since 1975. He was up against the Anti-Revisionists lead by Sid French, who had been musing just a year before about starting his own Communist Party due to his belief that the EuroCommunists had taken over the Party and were taking the revolutionary aspects out, but had decided to secretly organize inside the party instead (his efforts supported by Moscow after the Historic Compromise).

    The middle of the gaggle was the General Secretary Gordon McLennan, who whilst siding more with the EuroCommunists on matters, had to present the illusion of a functioning party. It was this broken shambles of a party that was to enter the 1978 Congress and create history. Sid French had spent much of time organizing amongst the Old Guard and Members who whilst supporting Gordon McLennan thought that the EuroCommunists were a step too far. When the matter came of what line the Party should take on the PCI, Sid French launched his offensive. The Party overwhelmingly voted to support Moscow’s line.

    Gordon McLennan’s reaction was to resign, fearing French’s influence in the party. Immediately afterward it was decided to oust any EuroCommunists, with Dave Cook being one of the many forced to resign and leave the party.

    And so EuroCommunism in Britain would have vanished into the ether if Dave Cook wasn’t visited by John Peck. Despite being a long time member of the CPGB and having contested numerous elections under their name, Peck’s eccentricities and Pro-EuroCommunist outlook had led to him being ousted by his local party. However, instead of joining Labour (a party in the throes of its own chaotic battles and too right-wing for Peck’s taste), he decided that the Left needed another party and enquired with Dave Cook about forming one with him.

    “The Party will be one enshrined in the beliefs of Democratic Socialism, Feminism, Environmentalism, and Freedom” Cook would later say as the pair set out about getting members, funding and support.

    By the end of 1978, as Britain lurched into the Winter of Discontent (which would mark to many as the beginning of the Long ‘80s), Democratic Left was born.
     
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    Oppo said:
    The Washington Post - 16 March 1978

    Former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro escaped a kidnapping plot by the far-left Red Brigades. An anonymous tipster relayed the information to law enforcement, who swiftly apprehended the terrorists in Via Fani. The attack came after the murder of German industrialist Hans Martin Schleyer by the Red Army Faction.
    Click to expand...
    Oppo said:
    This is a little timeline that me and @Time Enough have been working on for a while - hopefully you guys enjoy it!
    Click to expand...
    Hope folks enjoy this 2018 @Oppo esque extravaganza with extra Adam Curtis.
     
    Neoteros

    Neoteros

    Berlinguer and Moro actually did it, fuck.

    Here's hoping the corrupt system people like Andreotti set up will be set on fire, sooner or later.
     
    PNWKing

    PNWKing

    Banned
    I had to look up who Murray Bookchin was. Let's say that after watching a YouTube video with minutes of weird, atonal music, that was a relief that it was less bizarre then I expected.
     
    Post II - Everything’s Gone Green
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    Everything Has Gone Green

    Labour wasn’t doing well in 1979. The Winter of Discontent hit hard, which whilst not as bad as some of the previous strikes that had occurred, had a deep impact upon Britain. Some in Democratic Left hoped Labour could limp for at least another few months into 1979 to help expand their base of support amongst the disaffected Left. Callaghan’s Government collapsing in March 1979 put a damper on their plans of preparing for an election and it was decided that Democratic Left would sit out of the General Election and focus their energy on Council Elections instead.

    The General Election Campaigns on all sides would get off on a rocky start, particularly in the Conservative Camp as Airey Neave narrowly managed to miss a terrorist attack by the Irish National Liberation Army within two days of the No-Confidence Vote. Whilst the election would mainly focus on the economy, discussions over Ireland loomed, with some predicting apocalyptic visions of what Neave could do…

    In the end it all came to nought, focusing on the economy and power of the trade unions worked the best for Thatcher who gained 339 Seats in the new Parliament, enough for an overall majority.

    In local elections, Democratic Left had also focused on the economy and whilst they didn’t get a landslide, they had managed to gain 6 council seats alongside the 5 seats gained from defections overall, which for a newly formed party was a good start. In particular John Peck gained the Bulwell East seat in the Nottingham City Council election, an event that lead Peck to proclaim “My victory is not just a victory for me or my party, but for the future of this nation”.

    --//--

    Much to the anger of Washington, the popular excitement around the Historic Compromise gave Moro’s faction a clear mandate in the 1979 snap election. President Carter, conscious of a post-Church Committee world, urged his CIA to back off of Moro’s government. That wasn’t to say that those within the Italian government weren’t interested in its downfall. The Propaganda Due masonic lodge practically served as a shadow government, keeping its secrecy through continued threats and intimidation.

    Cracks began to form amongst the left, too. Marx’s theories about class were quickly discredited by the actions of the middle class Fiat workers marching for their right to return to work during a strike (the marcia dei quarantamila). Berlinguer had already expended a lot of political capital convincing Moro to work with the unions only for his move to backfire spectacularly. The growing pacifist movement were outraged at the Historic Compromise’s staunch support for NATO, with Berlinguer arguably being to the right of the British Labour and German Social Democratic parties. The arch-Communist town of Comiso, with streets named after Karl Marx and Ho Chi Minh, became host to NATO’s nuclear missiles. The avowed Marxists of the city found themselves much more welcoming of American soldiers than the city’s pacifist movement, disregarded as hippies from an alien culture. While half of the city was once opposed to the missiles, after a few years, even accusations that the mafia brought the Americans over to invest in their businesses were disregarded by the locals.

    The economic stagnation of the 1970s continued into the new decade, as inflation and unemployment remained difficult beasts to handle. Moro’s chief economist Beniamino Andreatta reluctantly applied austerity measures to control the economy, quickly earning the Communists the titles of sellouts. The strategy of tension returned under Reagan, allowing for the right-wing of Christian Democracy to schold Moro for his inability to keep law and order. It wasn’t just NATO destabilizing Italy; quite a few Škorpions ended up in the hands of the Red Brigades with the help of the StB. The last straw for the Historic Compromise was the death of Enrico Berlinguer of a brain haemorrhage. A great funeral took place, but those in attendance knew that their leader’s death marked the end of a viable Communist force in Italy. Without Berlinguer, the PCI couldn’t rally around Moro’s budget (not that many in Christian Democracy were happy about it either).

    In the 1982 elections, Andreotti’s right-wing faction returned to power, with behind the scenes support from Gladio and P2. Giancarlo Pajetta, past his political prime by 1982, limped the Communists into survival; but it was clear the next party congress was going to be a catastrophe. The old hardliners, led by Nilde Iotti and Alessandro Natta, wished to reverse some of Berlinguer’s revisionist moves, though they were not as radical as the Marxist-Leninist Armando Cossutta. Natta’s choice to make a party visit to the Soviet Union certainly raised eyebrows from the modernizing “Bologna faction” of the party.

    The Communists weren’t the only leftist party going through a shift in ideology. In light of the PCI’s “betrayal,” the insurgent Proletarian Democracy party made a clear breakthrough in 1982. The Trotskyist part was led by Mario Capanna, a key figure in the 1968 student movement who narrowly escaped being lynched by neo-fascists. Unlike the socially rigid PCI, DP affiliated itself with environmentalist, anti-war, and social liberation movements. Taken aback by his party’s newfound success, Capanna knew that affiliating with a man who died in 1940 was impractical for a modern left-wing movement...someone else should be found to help guide there party.
     
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    Sceonn said:
    Interesting, I have very little knowledge of the Italian political landscape.
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    i’m warning you if you learn you’ll be like me and try to connect a children’s movie to operation gladio

    thanks for reminding me on the threadmarks!

    Also you guys should all vote for Time Enough’s timeline for the turtledove!
     
    Post III - Do Nothing
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    Do Nothing: Fighting The IRA and the Establishment

    Airey Neave is often considered to be the man who destroyed Thatcherism, an impressive feat given how he was probably Thatcher’s most committed ally. But between 1979 and 1981, much of his actions would lead to the slow unraveling of the Thatcher Government.

    As Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Neave decided that instead of working with the Irish Government and taking part in ‘Ulsterisation’ of containing the violence to the North, Neave decided that it was better to expand the idea and to take the fight to the enemy as it were. First he would attempt to appease the UUP and Sinn Fein as a way to go after the PIRA and INLA but they refused to go deal with Neave. This didn’t go the best for stability in the long run.

    In the short term, the use of the SAS, the RUC, and the UDR disrupted many PIRA and INLA activities in 1979, with attacks for a few months quieting down. But controversy would be rampant, particularly of so-called extrajudicial killings committed by both the Ulster Police Forces and the SAS in the wake of the new efforts by Neave. For much of 1979, these were ignored, domestic troubles involving strikes and unemployment were considered more important.

    On the 27th of August, the Warrenpoint Ambush and the Assassination of Lord Mountbatten changed things. This would be followed on the death after by a bombing of British Army Barracks in Brussels which would leave 2 dead and 24 injured, a few weeks later a series of bombings would occur in numerous pubs across various British Cities similar to the ones that had occurred in Birmingham 1974. The so-called ‘Red 79’ would begin as attacks ramped up massively in the wake of PIRA/INLA crackdowns.

    It seemed that instead of reducing attacks or stopping PIRA/INLA attacks, the mixture of false arrests, increased killings, and generally a sense of Anti-British feel meant that Neave’s ideas had a radicalizing effect on not only the terrorist organizations but also people who were sympathetic to the cause. Much of the leadership of the various organizations would be driven underground, with the military leader of the INLA Ronnie Bunting only seen via videotapes and the occasional hazy picture.

    This would reach a head in 1980 when Airey Neave put a bill forward that would bring back the Death Penalty to be used against Terrorists. Despite the C0nseravtive majority, the bill wouldn’t pass, with Foot’s Labour, most Liberals, and some One Nation Tories balking at the idea of bringing back the Death Penalty, even to deal with Terrorists. People were increasingly seeing Airey Neave as becoming more and more draconian and his effects on Thatcher were seen as disastrous to many (a common cartoon at the time was to depict Airey Neave as the Lady Macbeth to Thatcher’s Macbeth). 1980 would see a brief reprieve as the INLA and PIRA took stock of their funds and weaponry with only a few attacks occurring in the Summer that year.

    In late 1980/early 1981, various IRA and INLA prisoners went on a mixture of a Dirty Protest and Hunger Strike for Political Prisoner status. But Neave wouldn’t budge and intensified his Crackdowns and his reaction to the Hunger Strikes being “If these IRA and INLA thugs want to commit suicide, then they can go ahead”.

    Early 1981 wasn’t good, the economy was flagging, unemployment was still massive, there were riots across Britain's cities over racist treatment by the British police and there were rumors that the ‘Wet’ Tories would oust Thatcher over her budget. Airey Neave persuaded Thatcher to go to the nation in a snap election and to help with that, Neave would ensure that Ireland was dealt with once and for all…

    Gerry Adams, Martin McGuiness, Thomas ‘Ta’ Power, and Hugh Torney were some of the major names killed on the ‘Bloody May 1st’. Despite most of the killings being blamed and claimed by the UVF, there was a suspicion that they were killed in coordinated attacks by British Secret Services (suspicions were increased when it was found that the car-bomb which killed Gerry Adams was achieved using a British Army Detonator).

    If Airey Neave thought this would solve the Irish Problem, he was wrong. The combination of Hunger Striker deaths, the death of prominent figures in the Nationalist movement, and false arrests lead to May becoming one of the worse months in the history of the Troubles, with riots, bombings, and shootings killing nearly a hundred people.

    A number of prominent figures in the Unionist cause would be killed and Sean Garland, leader of the Irish Workers Party and the Official IRA would be killed on the orders of Ronnie Bunting, not wanting the OIRA to be able to claim on the chaos. Unlike his previous assassination attempts against him, this would succeed and Garland would be brutally shotgunned in his car, similar to the death of Seamus Costello. This wouldn’t stop the OIRA or the Workers Party in Northern Ireland and over the years, it would gain a firm grip on Northern Irish society.

    Neave’s belief that taking a heavy hand against the Irish Republican Movements would fail and be seen as being part of the reason why Thatcher failed in the 1981 election...

    --//--

    It felt unusual being this close to the dispatch box for Labour’s deputy leader. For a couple of years, he had been relegated to the backbenches, where he was able to catch Dennis Skinner telling Roy Jenkins that his fly was undone. Benn was still looking at Jenkins, this time from across the aisle. He’d always had a problem with the new Prime Minister, dating back to their time in the cabinet together. His Labour colleagues had always called him a demagogue for saying there was no difference between him and the Tories; now Woy was entering government with them. Maybe his distaste cut deeper than that. After all, Benn was a third-generation MP who renounced his peerage and his aristocratic name; Jenkins was a strike leader’s son who dined on oysters and played tennis with the European elite. At least the Deputy Leader was a lot happier than the Deputy PM. Ever since Margaret Thatcher became Tory leader, Francis Pym felt secure that after she messed things up, he’d be a safe bet to lead the party. Few thought things could get bleaker than Foot’s Labour having a double digit polling lead, but as the Gang of Four made their move, the Conservatives’ numbers immediately dipped into third place. Arthur Balfour might have won fewer seats, but never could the Tories imagine falling to 27.5% of the popular vote. And so, the deal was made to sign the keys to Number Ten over. ‘They’d sell the fate of their party out to protect their class interest.” Benn scoffed at the move as a Marxist and as a politician. The world thought that it had been thoroughly discredited, but the tattered ideology of Butskellism rose again. Benn wasn’t upset, though. The knives would be out as soon as Owen and Steel saw Jenkins slip. This SDP experiment couldn’t last. After all, there were 10 and a half million votes for socialism, weren’t there?

    X6Zd5xW.png


    --//--

    If Murray Bookchin was one of the young tankies he despised, he might fancy a comparison of himself to Che Guevera. Arguably swinging the mayoralty of a city with less than 40,000 people was less impressive than liberating Cuba, but the point stood. Bookchin never let Mayor Sanders forget that he only won with 10 anarchist votes. Bernie was certainly someone who knew the pressure of keeping the left together. His former Liberty Union Party, a coalition of New York-born hippies and New York-born proletarians included figures such as Peter Diamondstone (a Vermont secessionist who wanted to abolish the voting age) and academic Michael Parenti, who liked to remind people of when Bookchin said “I don’t care about the ‘poor little children’ that were fed under communism.”

    As he left Milan Malpensa Airport for his meeting with Mario Capanna, Bookchin certainly did not hesitate to compare Sanders to Enrico Berlinguer. Much as Berlinguer supported Aldo Moro, Sanders urged Vermonters to vote for Walter Mondale (though Bernie would remind people that claiming Mondale would be a great president made you a liar and a hypocrite). Much as the Historic Compromise sold out environmental interests, Sanders only rejected big business’ plan to develop Burlington’s waterfront after mass pressure from the Bookchinites. There was one move they couldn’t overcome; Sanders famously stood back and watched as police arrested protesters blocking the gate of a General Electric factory. Burlington’s marcia dei quarantamila encapsulated the divide amongst socialists. As Sanders scolded activists for demonizing workers with no other source of employment, the anarchists called him a hypocrite for manufacturing weapons for the Latin American wars Sanders rallied opposition against.

    Capanna’s interest in Bookchin came from their similar background; to oversimplify, both were Trots who abandoned their ideology after coming across the environmentalist movement. In a nation tangled with levels of hierarchies involving the CIA, the Vatican, the mafia, and Christian Democracy itself, Bookchin’s anarchist lens could break down the barriers towards economic and social liberation. Yet unlike most anarchists, Bookchin saw the power in electoralism; much as the PCI achieved a great deal in their regional strongholds without ever achieving national power.

    With the split in the Italian Communist Party fully materializing and the struggling Socialists stuck between 5% and 10%, Capanna formally pushed his rebranding past the congress of the DP. While a small minority left to join Armando Cossutta’s faction in the PCI, his pro-Soviet followers did not enjoy dealing with dirty revisionists. Any loss in support to the PCI was immediately counteracted with the formation of an alliance with Marco Pannella’s Radicals, who had successfully used Italy’s system of direct democracy to win referendums on divorce and abortion, repeatedly overcoming the influence of the Catholic Church.

    After kicking the padrones out, the peasants of 1945 were once the future, but now, they were old and stubborn in their ways. The men and women of 1968 may have fallen into terrorism or sold out upon accumulating capital, but ideas were far harder to kill than the lives or effort of revolutionaries.
     
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    • Part IV - Keep On, Keeping On
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    i promise everyone that time enough wrote this chapter before plus debris came out 😳

    Keep On, Keeping On: The New Faces of the Left

    Within about a year of the 1981 election, the two left-wing parties of Britain held leadership elections determining the direction and character of the parties' futures.

    Democratic Left:

    Dave Cook of Democratic Left had overseen a slow but steady sense of growth within the local government, often aiming their efforts against corruption or Right Wing Labour councils in contrast to their Local CLP’s. Whilst not the size of Militant, Democratic Left had managed to gain a few thousand members (which for a party competing with Michael Foot’s Labour was impressive). Its largest bases were London and oddly Nottingham as John Peck managed to attract a mixture of students, Labour Left Wingers, and the City’s Minority community to Democratic Left’s Local Party.

    Dave Cook stepped down in 1982 (citing he wanted to spend more time focusing on local activism and the Party’s Democracy) leading to a leadership election. Though it would be pretty obvious that John Peck would win when he entered the contest, his main competitor was Beatrix Campbell who was seen as embodying a number of some of the key components of Democratic Left’s ideals (Marxism, Feminism, a slight Ecological bent etc.) but didn’t have the personal popularity of John Peck with her intellectualism.

    Meanwhile, the Deputy Leadership election would be more chaotic, as J0hn Peck resigned from the post to fulfill the requirement to run for the leadership. Beatrix Campbell ran for the position and her only opponent was the creepy writer Tom O’Carroll. The inevitable occurred when O’Carroll was arrested for taking part in PIE in late 1981 as Dave Cook called for an ‘investigation of certain members’ over their relations with O’Carroll. Though some called the investigation a ‘Purge’ or a ‘Witch-Hunt’, it would rapidly lead to a cleaning out of Democratic Left and a change in the Party’s rules and regulations for the better.

    In the end, the Leadership Elections ended exactly how people expected it would;
    2nd of June 1982 Democratic Left Convention:

    Democratic Left Leadership Election
    John Peck- 88%
    Beatrix Campbell- 12%

    Democratic Left Deputy Leadership Election
    Beatrix Campbell- 98%
    Tom O’Carroll (Write In)- 2%

    John Peck would say that the elections showcased ‘a victory of the kind of politics that Democratic Left believes in’. Of course, there was a lot of talk about what exactly Democratic Left believed in; technically it was a Marxist party, but that was rapidly being discarded in much of their literature given the connotations it gave. Its aims seemed to be Democratic Socialism, feminism, and minority rights, but that was vague and often contradictory. At one point a writer for Left Today (the Democratic Left rebranding of Marxism Today) would proclaim support for Thatcherism. John Peck decided to hammer out a framework in which the party could make itself distinctive from other Left Wing parties.

    Hearing about Murray’s Bookchin’s visit to Italy, Peck would enquire more about the man’s ideas. Meanwhile, Beatrix Campbell in London spent time meeting up with the new leader of the Greater London Council...Ken Livingstone.

    Labour Party:
    Michael Foot stepped down as Leader at the 1981 Labour Party conference, citing how he was dealt with by the Press and believing that he wouldn’t be the one who would be able to secure a victory for Labour in the future.

    Immediately the various Labour Party factions would get into motion and put forward their candidates. The ‘Hard’ Left went with Tony Benn (with only Gavin Strang offering himself forward as a possible non-Benn candidate) and the various forces that had allowed Benn to win the Deputy Leadership were brought forward once again to battle for the leadership.

    The Soft Left would be consumed by infighting and chaos the minute they tried to decide on their candidate. John Silken and Peter Shore both put themselves forward when the obvious front runner Neil Kinnock got caught in a car crash that put himself out of commission for the election. The hustling for votes would be chaotic with Peter Shore infamously telling John Silken “You already had your fucking chance, let me have this John” at a hustings. In the end, though, Peter Shore gained more support than John Silken and Silken would concede to Peter.

    Meanwhile the Right there were discussions about who to put forward. At one point it was thought that a ‘Dream Ticket’ with Hattersley and Kinnock could be a thing but Kinnock’s car crash would put that to rest. It was decided to avoid another Healey by picking someone who wasn’t an awkward or aggressive character, ruling out Hattersley, Dewar, and Cunningham. John Smith was seen as the best option, whilst certainly, to the Right of the Lab0ur Party, John’s personal charm and wit seemed the most able at convincing the less committed Soft Left members (Robin Cook would join the Smith camp after a frank chat about the future of the Labour Party for example).

    So the battle lines had been drawn…

    But John Smith was more savvy than Denis Healey had ever been. As the leadership election got started Smith met up with Peter Shore and his campaign manager Bryan Gould. The pair would form a unity pact (mainly under Cook and Gould’s advisement), with Peter Shore running for Leader and Deputy whilst John would aim for Leader. Shore supporters would vote for Smith on Second Ballot, the Trade Unions would often endorse Smith and Shore in different ways.

    The leadership election would be a fraught affair, with Smith and Shore spending most of their time attacking Tony Benn. Benn was nonplussed, for the most part, believing that he would win the leadership like he won the Deputy.

    Whilst this was happening, the Deputy Leadership seemed trivial in comparison, Shore was battling Michael Meacher as the ‘Bennite’ Candidate but also bizarrely Denzil Davies (whose platform seemed to be ‘I’m not Peter Shore and a Moderate’) and Edmund Marshall, who ran against the advice of his comrades in Labour Solidarity. Shore and Davies spent most of their time fighting each other whilst Edmund Marshall criticized Shore’s Economic policies. Meanwhile, Meacher was his usual ‘Robin Hood in Glasses’ self.

    And so when the results came at the 1982 Labour Party Convention the inevitable occurred;

    Labour Leadership Election 27th of September 1982;

    First Ballot:
    Tony Benn- 42%
    John Smith-34%
    Peter Shore-24%

    Second Ballot:
    Tony Benn-46%
    John Smith: 54%

    John Smith would win the leadership on a comfortable majority despite accusations of a fix. The Deputy Leadership Election would be even more awkward;

    Michael Meacher-57%
    Peter Shore- 30%
    Denzil Davies- 10%
    Edmund Marshall- 3%

    Suddenly Labour found itself with a Right Wing leader and a Left Wing Deputy which would probably be the best example of the schizophrenic nature of Labour in the years to come…
     
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