Sir, - Dick Walsh's appeal for the "new" Labour Party to "insist on the primacy of politics' '(Opinion, December 12th) is well intentioned, but too optimistic. As a long-term member of the Workers' Party, I vividly recall the events and debates leading up to the creation of Democratic Left. The one point that was endlessly emphasised by those who went on to form DL was that they were not going to join or merge with the Labour Party.
P. De Rossa was emphatic in his condemnation of the British and Irish Labour parties, and of "the dull, managerial approach of Spring and Kinnock". Promises were also made that party members in Northern Ireland would not be abandoned. Will this "new" party organise in Northern Ireland? Hardly.
The "new" party will merely be a slightly enlarged Labour party, as was the case after Jim Kemmy "merged" with Labour. The deepening social divisions in the Republic and the challenges posed by EMU demonstrate the need for a strong socialist party. New Labour is not that party. It seeks to gain power by promising that once power is gained it will not be used to change anything - so what is the point? Based on the history of its component parts, new Labour will represent not the primacy of politics, but the primacy of pragmatism. - Yours, etc., Sean Swan
Goteborg, Sweden.