The Awkward Squad: New Labour and the Rank and File
a Socialist Worker pamphlet by Martin Smith This pamphlet is a propaganda exercise. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. However, it also claims to provide an analysis of the Labour Party, the trade union bureaucracy, the Broad Lefts and members of the "awkward squad." It does not do any of that very well, relying on crass comments such as "bright flashes of a new mood" and "the gaps between the explosions are becoming shorter". On, for example, why the trade unions did not challenge Blair on the war at Labour Party conference, no real answer is given. There is no attempt to relate...