Militant preaches eace with the police

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Biggest ever left-wing opposition a LPYS Summer Camp THE PEACEFUL roads of the Forest of Dean resounded with calls for a peaceful road to socialism from the much feared Militant tendency in the LPYS last week.

LPYS Summer Camp was bigger and better than ever before las they say every year). But so was the opposition. 600 people attended, among whom were a 50 strong contingent of Class Fighter and Socialist Organiser supporters. Last year there were only 12 Barricade supporters and there was no one from Red Youth (these two youth papers are the ones which came together to form Class Fighter).

Riots The LPYS is at the moment controlled by the Militant grouping Summer Camp is run as a Militant event.

But this year. Class Fighter emerged as a major opposition in the YS. We organised four large and successful meetings during the week.

Amazingly, for a youth organisation like the YS, there was no meeting officially organised on the riots, so Class Fighter held one, attended by over 100.

A raging debate all week centred round the role of the police and the army, particularly relevant because of the riots. The Militant have the unique position that the forces of the state - the army and the police - are workers in uniform' and all they're doing is just another job.

They want the British police and army to be unionised and become part of the TUC.

We pointed out that in the light of the riots that would mean supporting the police calls for better equipment to beat us over the head with, more pay for doing so. and admitting proven scabs (in the dustmen and firemen's strikes) to the organisations that are supposed to represent the interests of the working class.

(Secretary, Rank and File Mobilising Committee for Labour Democracy, in a personal capacity)

JANEY Buchan is not one of the Labour Solidarity supporters who claim that intolerance came into the Labour Party when demands for democracy first raised their heads.

She has had the knifebetween-the ribs treatment from the intolerant Right over many years"

and she knows that the Labour Party has become more open, more democratic and more tolerant of political variety, as the rank and file asserted itself.

Intolerance has developed only towards entrenched elites and towards leaders who use Certainly socialists should support democratic rights for soldiers and police - the right to free speech, the right to organise politically, the right to elect their officers and the right to form unions.

We oppose the laws that forbid the police to unionise.

Under some conditions these democratic rights can destabilise the state. But they do not turn cops into workers, or make police unions (like in France, for example genuine workers' Militant dreams about a future democratic, unionised benevolent police force. But where does it stand now, when the real present-day cops are maiming and murdering working class youth on the streets? On which side? their position to flout the wishes of the movement.

So how can Janey Buchan say that she "cannot support" Tony Benn - which means she can support Denis Healey or John Silkin?

Janey Buchan claims it's the first step to the Gulag when Arthur Scargill says that refusal to back Benn will be regarded as tacit support for the policies of the Right".

But support for Denis Healey is quite clear support for the Right. And John Silkin is just a "stop Benn" candidate.

Janey Buchan says the deputy leadership Might is not about policies. The policies are agreed and "'ensured by the democratic changes we have fought for" • so Tony 1 his argument was closely linked to the argument about how we, world achieve socialism. At the beginning of the week, Tony Saunois, the Militant NEC member declared there was a "peaceful road" to socialism. The implication of this was that we were going to get socialism through Parliament.

When this was pointed out by Class Fighter supporters in the debate, Saunois bellowed out from the platform "These people are out of touch with the working class."

But we are very aware of the illusions that many workers have in change through Parliament. We think for this reason it is particularly dangerous to put the emphasis on Parliament instead of the independent activity of the working class. Benn's candidacy must be just about personalities.

One of the major democratic changes we have fought for is the Party's right to elect the Leader and the Deputy Leader. Tony Benn's campaign is Party to choose a deputy leader who supports the Party's policies.

The policies will only be words on paper as long as we still have leaders who openly defy those policies — like Denis Healey. Healey will never fight for unilateral nuclear disarmament, and it is only a few months since Tony Benn was publicly denounced for standing by Party policies on defence while the majority of the Shadow Cabinet were flouting those policies.

= ra Peter Taaffe, the editor of Militant put the same emphasis on the peaceful road when he debated with David Ennals from Labour Solidarity.

Class lighter was not allowed to speak in the debate, but Taaffe obviously thought our arguments were pretty convincing as he challenged us to a debate afterwards - but when they turned the disco on, he mysteriously disappeared!

Yet in the seminar on Chile, when we discussed Popular Unity and the tall of Allende, everyone agreed that the mistake in Chile had been Allende's refusal to arm the working class and his belief that socialism could be won through Parliament.

do Militant insist would be different Britain?

Janey Buchan quotes a local Party member as saying:

"He could have left it alone - just left Healey and the right wing like & school of beached whales to whom no-one paid any attention". As if the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party is a position of no influence!

No: the cry leave it alone' - motivated by fear, naive goodwill, or whatever — can only echo the slogan of the undemocratic, intolerant, bureaucratic right-wing: "pass what resolutions you like, but leave our power and privileges alone"

And if we do •leave it alone", then our fight for Labour democracy stops short of a fight to win. by JO THWAITE Class Fighter, following the absence of debate on gay liberation at national YS conference, had asked that the YS National Committee have a seminar on the subject at the Summer Camp.

We collected 250 signatures, 55 of them delegates to conference, asking for this, yet there was no official seminar organised.

Gay rights

So Class Fighter organised its own, attended by over 70 people. For the first time ever a serious discussion on gàys at work, how to win gays to the labour movement and on sexuality was held in YS.

Class Fighter supporters urged YS's to affiliate to the Labour Gay Rights Campaign and get the Labour Party NEC discussion document on the Rights of Gay Men and Women brought up and even Jim Newlands, a Militant ex-member of the LPYS, NC called for YS's to arrange speakers on gay rights. A major step forward for the YS!

The Class Fighter meeting on Ireland reflected the discussion that had been going on all week. Again the Militant had refused to let Class Fighter comrades speak at their Irish meeting - we got one speaker and Kevin Ramage then had the cheek to say there had been a very good 'discussion' Many Militant comrades spoke at our meeting. We argued that socialists in Britain had a duty to support those forces - the republicans fighting British imperialism in the six counties and to fight for British troops out of Ireland.

Women On women, there had been planned a debate between the Militant and a speaker from NOLS (National Organisation of Labour Students). The NOLS speaker didn't turn up. so Class Fighter offered to debate instead. Eventually they agreed to let us have a long contribution from the floor and no summing up.

It was clear that the work of Women's Fightback had a major ımpact on the Militant. Much of their contribution was spent attacking the idea of positive discrimination in favour of women.

We argued that in order to attempt to redress the inequalities between men and women in the labour movement it is important to get a recognition of the fact that women are oppressed and that the labour movement has to do something about it - that's what positive discrimination sets out to do.

All Militant could come up with was the same programme as they have for everything else - nationalise the top 200 monopolies, 35 hour week and socialism ...please!

By the end of the week, Class Fighter had established itself as the only serious opposition in the YS. At the meeting What is the National Left Wing Youth Movement' (which the Militant tried unsuccessfully to wreck), we consolidated gains we'd made throughout the week, which included a whole YS branch coming up to us asking how to join the NLWYM and many other groups of youth and individuals.

We stated that we art serious about not just remaining in opposition in the YS but we are aiming to take the YS away from the monolithic control of the Militant and turn the YS into a real revolutionary youth movement which relates to and reflects the political needs and concerns of youth.

The NLWY is holding a conference in London at the end of October to build on the strength of the first conference we held in June and develop our work over the next year.

Details in the next Class Fighter.

It was clear that the Militant got a fright this Summer Camp and were impressed by the youth and vitality of the Class Fighter supporters. We aim to keep them frightened and win working class youth to the LPYS.

Riots Special 1AS5 NOT Movement, fight for a revolutionary policy in the LPYS. Riot Specia 5p plus post from PO Box 135, London N1 by DAVE SPENCER [councillor, West Midlands County, Coventry District no. 1] COVENTRY Labour Group has responded to bleseltine' s challenge to local Councils by a really cynical manoeuvre a referendum. "Cuts or rate rises, it's your choice", they are saying to the electors.

Not that they are going to take any notice of the result anyway, says Arthur Waugh Junior, leader of these wriggling reformists. 'It's consultation exercise".

Mind you they have already "consulted" the local Council unions and told them, 'There will be cuts". Indeed, in the case of the schools, cuts were actually implemented before the end of term in early July - this is before the Education Committee, the Council or the District Labour Party had even discussed the issue.

Complained

Cllr Charlie Ward, chairperson of the Education Committee, was very cutting towards those of us who complained at this — accusing us of only being in the movement for five minutes and not realising the importance of management efficiency and the need to make cuts in education before the schools broke up for the holidays.

So what price a referendum? Well, the price is £88,000, apparently - the cruellest cut of all.

The Labour Group are making no recommendation themselves, they are giving no lead, they are taking no responsibility. They are deliberately avoiding the Coventry District Labour Party's policy, passed at the July 1981 meeting, which is quite ciear - no cuts, no rate rises, build a campaign against Heseltine.

Pessimism The whole exercise is an attempt to mobilise the backwardness and confusion of the electorate, to use the Tory press and media to break the District Party's policy, and to wallow in defeatism and pessimism before the first shot is fired.

The date of the referendum is set for August 27th, before the schools go back and before the Labour Group meets on September 3rd with the Labour NEC representatives and the twelve expelled Labour rebel councillors. The whole business is clearly a shabby trick.

An emergency resolution from the Coventry South West GC will be before next Thursday's District Party meeting - condemning the referendum and calling for a boycott.

Coventry Labour Left will be producing a leaflet calling for a boycott of the referendum and a campaign against any cuts. It is hoped to hold a meeting before August 27th with a Lothian councillor to show the difference between class fighters and class traitors.

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using that democratic change to enable the

JAIL CAMPS Paper of the National Left Wing Youth