LCI fights for emergency motion on Ireland

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SO sunnorters backed LCI lobby of Labour NEU'in support uf nurger serereen HE issue of Ireland will be at the centre of the stage at this year's Labour Party conference. As well as the fifty or more Constituency Labour Parties who have submitted resolutions oppos ing bi-partisanship, Owen Carron, successor to Bobby Sands as MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone will be there to challenge Foot and Concannon directly over the hungarson has asked to hunger strike. attend the debate on Ireland as an observer and will also be speaking at the Labour Committee on Ireland fringe meeting on the Tuesday of the conference.

There are no signs that the Labour Party leadership will respond to his pleas for support for the hunger strikers. Last week official Labour spokesman Don Concannon again attacked them and the long-awaited report of the NEC working party on Ireland has come out against the prisoners demands.

It states "the privileges which are available to conforming prisoners go way beyond what is available to prisoners in Great Britain • we believe the original decision to introduce [special category status! was wrong and consequently we do not believe we should return to the kind of prison regime which then existed.

Little better

"We do not support political status: However we would welcome further improvements in prison conditions in Northern Ireland and Great Britain as a CITY important maximum brought on it.

that the pressure is them to accept The LCI will be holding a meeting for delegates on Saturday morning Brighton to discuss tactics for compositing and approaching the Standing Orders Committee. Further information from Labour Committee on Ireland, c/o 4 Burnhill House, Norman Street, London EC1.

The text of the resolution is as follows:

"Conference notes the publication of the NEC's report on Northern Ireland policy. It welcomes the statement of support for progress towards the ending of partition and the establishment of a united Ireland. Conference strongly affirms that the central thrust of Labour Party policy on Ireland should be these two ends.

Conference however expresses its deep reservations with those parts of the NEC report which imply that British withdrawal should be conditional on winning the support of ine Unionist community for this line of action.

It believes that formulations of this sort can serve as an excuse for perpetuating the Unionist veto on the achievement of a democratic national solution to the Irish question.

Conference also regrets that urgent action to resolve article, from LCI vicechairperson Bruce Robinson, reports on the LCI's plans for the Labour Party conference.

the H-Block crisis is not given the highest priority in the report. The events of recent months have demonstrated the overwhelming support for the demands of the hunger strikers amongst the oppressed nationalist community. Conference therefore calls on the NEC and the PLP to ensure that immediate pressure is brought to bear on the Conservative Government to ensure that the five demands of the hunger strikers are conceded in full.

Conference believes that the implementation of the objectives outlined in the report require that the Labour Party now give a statement of irrevocable intent to commence the process of withdrawal from Ireland immediately on the assumption of governmental office. Only in this way can the Unionist veto be effectively ended and a productive dialogue on ways of establishing a relationship with the rest of Ireland be commenced.

In the light of the above criticism of the report, Conference calls on the NEC to prepare a comprehensive policy statement which translates the present support in principle for Irish unity and British withdrawal into a series of practical policies aimed at achieving these ends. We call on the NEC and the PLY to cooperate with the trade union movement and all progressive forces in Ireland to ensure that such policies have the broadest possible popular support."