On April 29th the Labour Party convened in London to repeal Clause IV of the party constitution and replace it with a statement of "aims and values" drafted by Tony Blair and John Prescott. During the course of the ensuing debate a delegate representing "Labour Students" stood at the rostrum and declared, "I know what I want and I want it now!" Judging by her effusive praise for the uniquely verbose and ill-conceived amendment which the party leadership was proposing, it was quite clear that - like most Labour Club hacks up and down this country - what she wanted was a job as a research assistant.

Those who, for whatever motive, voted to accept the leadership's proposal should realise that, in so doing, they have divested Labour of any claim to be a socialist party and have sent a clear message to those who have suffered most as a result of the past sixteen years of Tory Government, that all they should expect of an incoming Labour administration is further betrayal.

Junior Blairite amongst the Turtle's readership will no doubt object to both these propositions. It is true that Tony Blair describes himself describes himself as a socialist - but then so did Adolph Hitler. The claims made by Blair that the new "aims and values" statement represents not a turning-away from socialism, but a modernisation of the ideology is the is the sort of pernicious lie which only the fetid soil of post-modernism could nurture. Only if one were to accept that the word socialism is no more than "an acoustic form" to be invested with whatever meaning those engaged in the "discourse" choose could one agree with Blair. To those of us who do not whittle away our hours wearing black polo-necks, smoking gitânes and reading Penguin Modern Classics in Islington cafés, the inanity of the revisionist position should be evident.

Socialism and the historical tradition of protest from which it emerged is and always has been about the abolition of class society - as John Ball, the preacher and agitator in the peasants' revolt of 1381 put it, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" Socialism aims, through the abolition of class society, to create the sort of "equality of fundamental circumstance" (to use G. A. Cohen's formulation) which is the necessary prerequisite for the realisation of mankind's creative potential. The abolition of class society requires the removal of the basis of class power - that is the private ownership of the means of production which forces those who do not own to toil for those who do. Only when the means of production are owned by all will they be put to the service of all. Socialism is about ownership or it is about nothing. Contrary to Blair's protestations, such a definition does not represent a Marxist hi-jacking of the concept of socialism - common ownership has been the vision of social reformers from classical antiquity, through the Acts of the Apostles to the Diggers of seventeenth century England precisely because it represents the only alternative to private ownership and a class-based society.

In ditching common ownership, Labour has thus seriously weakened its commitment to equality. As, over the coming months, Labour begins to formulate concrete policies, the implications of this will become evident in terms of those policy areas which are most significant to the advancement of equality. We have already seen Labour back-track on full employment and prioritise inflation instead. Blair is desperate to avoid implementation of a minimum wage and has already signalled that many Tory health reforms are likely to stay in place. As for educationw, Blair's decision to send his eldest child to a selective school says it all. The only genuine policy difference between the leadership of the Labour Party and John Major is that Labour is committed to European integration and constitutional reform. Neither of these are policy areas which should elict much enthusiasm amongst socialists. Whilst British workers would benefit from adoption of the social chapter, any gains would probably be off-set by moves towards a single European currency. As for the constitution, the leadership's continued failure to promise the abolition of the House of Lords should be a cause of dismay, and, just as in the 1970s, the administrative implications of Scottish and Welsh devolution threaten to paralyse the workings of government and for that reason would render impossible the introduction of any measures of far-reaching social reform, even if Blair could be bullied into supporting them.

On November 27th 1993, on the eve of the closure of the Hatfield Main colliery, the pit's NUM branch held a mass meeting and produced a statement which, unlike Blair and Prescott's "Aims and Values" will long be remembered by socialist historians for its clarity of vision and emotional power. At the end of the statement, the miners declared; "Exhausted and demoralised, the present has been taken from us. The past and the future, however, belong to us and we shall guard them jealously... John Major, Margaret Thatcher and the rich folk you represent - this moment is yours, but you shall never take from us our dignity as workers who have fought for justice and a better world. You may disperse us from this spot, this moment in time, but our conviction shall remain wherever we go and in the generations... who follow us". The ambition for a socialist society existed before the Labour Party. To the horror of Labour Party modernisers, it existed even before pesto. It is not for the likes of Tony Blair to sign its death warrant. Wherever and whenever men and women come face to face with the reality of exploitation and ask themselves why, the vision of a society in which "all things are held in common" will re-emerge.

Note: I am very grateful to G. A. Cohen for allowing me to see a draft of his forthcoming paper "Is Socialism inseparable from common ownership?" on which my analysis relies. I am also grately to Charles Webster for his insights into the effect of devolution policy on the civil service in the last Labour Government. I am very sorry for Bruno Currie.