ABSTRACT
The policies endorsed by the Liaison Committee, enshrined in Labour’s Programme 1982 and offered to the electorate in 1983, were according to Benn 'based upon [the] experience of those of us who, as ministers or trade unionists, have worked together in Labour governments since 1964'. Campaign for Labour Victory (CLV) attacked the left on three grounds; that Labour’s defeat was due to not being sufficiently socialist, that the Commission of Enquiry was a right-wing plot and that the left was responsible for the fragmentation of the movement. CLV unions were prepared to pull the party along a populist-socialist path away from what it regarded as dogmatic, authoritarian socialism. Trade Unions for a Labour Victory was launched in the autumn of 1978 to co-ordinate trade union help for the party and, initially, finance the building of a new party headquarters. Despite the Campaign For Labour Party Democracy’s image as a CLP body it enjoyed considerable support in the unions.
