Setbacks in NEC elections

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AFTER their pyrrhic vic tory in the deputy leadership elections, the block votes of right wing union leaders have produced some real setbacks for the Left.

A switch oi votes by ine AUEW ousted • five left wingers on the NEC and handed a built-in majority to the Healey-Foot-Kinnock right wing coalition.

Installed

Eric Varley was installed •as Party treasurer in place of left winger Norman Atkinson; in the women's section, Renee Short and Margaret Beckett were removed and replaced by right wingers Shirley Summerskill and Gwynneth Dunwoody.

And in the trade union section, left wingers Bernard Dix and Charles Kelly went out, their places taken by COHSE's David Williams and Roy Evans (ISTC).

The right wing was cocka-hoop - and quick to spell out to drooling r wsmen their latest plans for a purge of left wing opponents in the party's leading committees.

The popular press was of course over the moon at these victories by opponents of conference policies.

All of a sudden the allegedly "extreme" • redrevolutionary Labour Party which they had pilloried for the past six months was reinstated as a possible acceptable government quoted as 13-8 favourites to win the next election!

Jubilant

The Tory commentators jubilantly hailed the first 'achievements' of this right THE Labour Party is now committed to the immed¡ate repeal of the Tories' Nationality Act and the 1968 and 1971 Immigration Acts.

The NEC was also instructed to launch a campaign of demonstrations, meetings, etc., in cooperation with the TUC.

Socialist Organiser supporter Simon Temple who moved one of the successful: resolutions, on behalf of Handsworth CLP told us:

"The commitment to repeal the 1968 and 1971 Acts is an important one and we must make sure that it is carried out. But the Conference also backed a call for non-racist immigration controls. We still have a major job to convince the party that immigration control is by definition racist and in practice is bound to discriminate against workers, women and above all, black people.

Action

The fight against racism and about immigration control are not just matters for polite discussion in Labour Party wards. It has to be carried into the rank and file of the trade unions, on to the shop floor and the dole queues.

In some the ways wing bloc - the now routine conference rejection of motions calling for troops out of Ireland and nationalisation of the banks, and the entirely predictable applause for Michael Foot's first speech as Party leader.

But this is because they have scented the hope of blood to come.

NUR leader Sid Weighell who has led a call for proscription of left wingers, immediately declared his optimism that the new rightleaning NEC will endorse his witch-hunting proposals.

REG RACE MP:

NEC and this must be a major setback. They will now attempt to derail the policy of Conference and the constitutional changes that have been agreed. The next crucial step for the left is to organise effectively SO this cannot happen important part of our resolution was the call for a campaign. This should not just be an excuse for windy speeches from Roy Hattersley and assorted trade union bureaucrats.

The Labour Party, at ward and constituency level, should make a defence of the Tories' victims a major THE DRASTIC upheavals in the Labour Party nationally have at last penetrated Glasgow, the bastion of safe Labour seats, where, as they say, the votes for Labour are weighed not counted, and right wing MPs and councillors have maintained their grip in many parts of the City, bolstered by family and religious ties. The virus of democratisation. and accountability has now hit the City, and North and South of the Clyde right wing MPs face the threat of rejection at reselection conferences.

In the North lies Springburn where Michael Martin, a Healey devotee, faces a challenge from Benn supporter John Chatham, nominIndeed Neil Kinnock among others has long declared his view that Trotskyists and even supporters of the harmless Militant tendency should be expelled from the Labour Party.

Grandiose

But while union bureaucrats spell out grandiose plans, they cannot act with a completely free hand. Benn's campaign won over 80% of the support in the constituencies of the Party indeed his vote in the NEC elections went up still further this year, to an astonishing 530,000 out of a possible 631,000 votes.

To confront and crush the movement behind Benn, the bureaucrats would need to virtually dismantle the active party apparatus in many areas.

The right wing, even bolstered by the fake 'left' is not invincible. The fight must be redoubled to build a mass base of organised socialist opposition to their manoeuvres, both in the unions and the Labour Party. priority for their work.

Declamations against the Nationality Act aren't worth much if we aren't prepared to defend women like Anwar Ditta and Jaswinder Kaur. This is also the only way we can overcome the bitter disillusion that the black com munity feels about the ated to run against Martin by the Robroyston ward. In the South anti-abortionist and political non-event, James White, MP for Pollok, faces a more formidable challenge in Davie Dick, CLP Secretary and Militant supporter.

Already, before the contests are barely underway, the right wing are shouting "foul" and slinging mud in all directions. They are claiming that the meeting in Robroyston was invalid on the grounds that some people say that they were unaware that it was taking place and so were unable to be present.

In Pollok a well orchestrated witch-hunt is underway with an article in the Daily Express on Saturday *RENCE/mao 198

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'The right now have a clear majority on the