The LRC combines a growing part of the Labour left as well as a few groups outside of the party who don’t stand in elections against it. Most significantly it has affiliations from a number of national unions (including the RMT and FBU) and branches and a good third of the 203 accredited delegates who voted in the National Committee elections were from affiliated organisations. Total attendance was around 270. 

The LRC is developing local and regional groups in a number of regions including the North East, West Yorkshire, Nottingham, Leeds, and Merseyside as well as London and now has 300 affiliated organisations and a paid up membership of around a thousand. 

The conference was very open and the level of debate was high. Apart from the Socialist Appeal sponsored resolution, Conference adopted a motion from Lambeth LRC which echoed the sentiments of our resolution while even advocating nationalising “what’s left of industry”. 

In this respect the conference illustrated a distinct swing to the left, which is clearly linked to the financial crisis. Tony Benn pointed out however, in his opening remarks that it’s wrong to assume that the crisis automatically means a shift to the left. 

This year’s conference was marked by an enthusiastic mood and it was noticeable that there was a good smattering of younger delegates at the meeting. Socialist Appeal has pointed out over the last year or so that despite the long quiet period that the British labour movement has been through, there will be big shifts in opinion and a “catching up” as workers begin to draw political conclusions from the capitalist crisis. 

This perspective is beginning to be borne out. It’s likely that the LRC will form part of a much bigger shift to the left firstly within the unions and then in the Labour Party at a certain stage. It’s well placed to begin the struggle for a socialist alternative within the movement, provided that the ideas and policies that were agreed are taken back into the movement as part of a fighting socialist programme. 

Well over 50 copies of Socialist Appeal were sold at the conference, including a couple of copies sold to the Icelandic and Norwegian fraternal speakers, representing the Icelandic Green left and the Norwegian Left Party.

Here is the Socialist Appeal resolution passed at LRC Conference

In the face of the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the inevitable attempt to make the working class pay for this mess, this LRC conference believes the Labour movement must rearm itself with an action programme that can provide a real way forward.  

The attempts to bail-out the banks by using billions of pounds of public cash must be met with the demand to nationalise the entire banking system, including the insurance companies. The actions by the government to nationalise the losses and privatise the profits must be opposed. 

The crisis in the housing market must be met by the nationalisation of the building industry and land to allow us to build the houses we need. The industry should then be placed under democratic workers’ control and management. There must be no house repossessions by banks as workers are forced into arrears. All empty properties should be taken over and used for social housing. 

Where work is scarce, there should be work-sharing with no loss of pay. Companies should be forced to open their books for inspection to see where they have squandered their profits. Where workers are threatened with redundancy, the company should be nationalised, with compensation based on proven need. 

The energy companies, together with the privatised public utilities should be brought back into public ownership with no compensation for the fat cats. Again these should be placed under workers’ control and management as part of a programme to take over the commanding heights of the economy and the institution of a socialist plan of production. 

Accordingly, in light of the economic crisis, this LRC conference calls for an immediate recall of the TUC to work out a plan of action which can unite the whole trade union and labour movement to fight for measures such as those listed above to defend jobs and conditions in the face of the current recession.