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134 Erin Delaney ment (MEPs) took advantage of the opportunities presented, and began to pursue socialist aims. Michael Stewart became a vice-chairman of the Socialist Group, the largest political grouping in the EP, and John Evans pushed to expand the Regional Fund. 65 These efforts, and some successes, notwithstanding, the Labour Left refused to see the European Community as a route to broader socialism. Only the implementation of radical reforms (outlined in the 1979 general election manifesto) could reconcile the Labour Left to the EC. Even a newly-elected MEP, Alf Lomas, spoke at the Conference in negative overtones on the subject: “If we do not achieve these fundamental changes within a reasonable period of time, then we should reconsider the whole issue. A reasonable period of time, in my opinion, is no longer than one term of the Assembly, and if we do not get these changes then we should recommend withdrawal”. 66 Labour's goodwill and effort towards achieving these demanded reforms were limited, as only one year later the Conference decided that the demands were incapable of being fulfilled. The Conference “urged the Labour Party to include the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EEC as a priority in the next general election manifesto”. 67 Ideological opposition still ran deep within the party: John Shelmerdine stated at the 1980 Conference: “Let us face it, the Common Market is a club for capitalism. The only way we need to trade is through an international socialism. Our fight is not just with one country or another; it is with capitalism”. 68 Labour did indeed continue to fight against capitalism, as expressed through the EEC, until ideology compatible with the Labour ideals of socialism became a viable option within the EEC institutions. In 1981, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party agreed to a policy, Withdrawal from the EEC, which was passed with 6,213,000 votes for, and only 782,000 against. The statement clearly articulated the view held by most on the Labour Left, and echoed the earliest criticisms of the EEC of the 1950s: “[EEC membership] has seriously hindered, and could prevent altogether, Britain adopting a coherent socialist strategy for industrial and economic regeneration. Withdrawal is thus not a substitute for Labour’s alternative economic, industrial and social strategy. It is a necessary condition for its success”. 69 The hard-line approach to European affairs drove the pragmatists and the pro-Marketeers from the party. In 1981, Roy Jenkins, and other MPs, mostly revisionists and pro-Europeans, formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP) which entered into an ‘Alliance’ with 65. C. JACKSON, The First British MEPs: Styles and Strategies, in: Contemporary European History, vol.2, no.2(1993), p.186. 66. 78th Annual Conference of the Labour Party (Brighton: 1979), p.324. 67. 79th Annual Conference of the Labour Party (Blackpool: 1980), p.126. This quotation is an excerpt of Composite 15 at that Conference, which was carried by a vote of 2 to 1. 68. 79th Annual Conference …, op.cit., p.127. 69. M. NEWMAN, Socialism and European Unity, op.cit., p.247.
The Labour Party's Changing Relationship to Europe 135 the Liberal Party. 70 The Alliance attracted membership away from the Labour Party, and showed itself in by-elections to be capable of contesting both Conservative and Labour 'safe seats'. 71 Ignoring the Alliance threat, and with the most articulate pro-Europeans out of the Party, the Labour Party held fast to its strong anti-European rhetoric for the 1983 campaign. In 1982 there was not a single discussion concerning Europe at the Labour Annual Conference, except a casual remark by Michael Foot reaffirming the Party's commitment to withdrawal. On election day, 9 June 1983, Labour lost further 31 seats on top of its 1979 loss, leaving the Party with 209 seats, and the Conservatives with 397. Labour was decimated. Confronted with such failure, and faced with a round of elections for the European Parliament, the Labour Party decided to accept the Community and Britain’s membership for the duration of the upcoming European Parliamentary session, 1984-1989, and retain merely the ‘option’ to withdraw. 72 However, during the 1986 and 1987 Labour Party Conferences there was no debate or even comment on the state of European affairs. After the third straight loss to the Conservatives in 1987, the Labour Party was officially unelectable. The Final Transformation: Labour Reunifies as the Party for Europe – 1987-1994 Labour’s failures in the 1983 and 1987 elections demanded a radical change in policy – and in the late 1980s the Party launched a thorough Policy Review. Not only a result of electoral failure, the Policy Review was also designed to confront the perceived inefficacy of traditional Labour economic policies. The President of France, François Mitterrand had attempted to create a socialist state in France during the years 1981-1984. His experiment failed badly and forced a reversal of policy. “From this experience, European socialists generally drew the conclusion that a new strategy had to be devised which would operate on a European scale.” 73 As these events overtook them, anti-Marketeers began to re-evaluate their positions; the Policy Review was not, however, as some claim, merely a response to Thatcherism. It also coincided with changes on the European stage which promoted European policies that more closely mirrored Labour’s traditional domestic aims. 70. Although the Liberal Party had been consistently pro-Europe since the 1950's, until the SDP-Liberal Alliance, they had never provided enough of electoral threat to force the major parties to consider seriously their impact in a campaign. 71. In November 1981, Shirley Williams won a by-election victory for the SDP in the Conservative seat of Crosby. In February of 1983 the Liberals won the traditional Labour seat of Bermondsey. 72. In 1979 European Parliamentary elections amounted to a “deep-dilemma – how [could] a profoundly anti-EEC party go out and ask for Votes to send its representatives to the European Parliament”? Ph. WEBSTER, The Campaign in the UK, in: D. WOOD (ed.), The Times Guide to the 1979 European Parliament, Times Books, London, 1979, p.42. 73. S. GEORGE and B. ROSAMOND, The European Community, in: M. SMITH and J. SPEAR (eds.), The Changing Labour Party, Routledge, London, 1992, p.178.
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