Fighting for Our Conference

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Discussing positive discriminat on for women AST weekend 21st/22nd *per 100 youth came to London for the founding conirence of the National eft Wing Youth Moveent. The conference came a time when youth. ne under tremendous att*ks from the Tory governent from all angles. : The aim of the conferace was to launch a movebent that will involve workclass youth from the de queue, from work, and om the schools to in build& a movement capable of allenging Thatcher and • bosses' system.

As Jo Inwaites, Joint ditor of our paper 'Clas Ighter', explained, we are ghting to turn the existing bour movement youth rganisation, the Labour arty Young Socialists, into fighting revolutionary puth movement. "We are part of the PYS, the biggest youth tovement in Britain and roognised as such by the bour movement. At this ...: 1 94 conference we are setting ourselves the task of challenging the existing leadership of the YS, the 'Militant' group.

•'This is a serious business. And that's why this conference is so important. We're working out through discussions and our experiences the policies which will guide our work and win youth to the banner of revolutionary socialism.

"Everyone here has something to contribute to this through the workshops, amendments to the policy documents and resolutions. Let's get on with the job.' For the rest of the weekend we thrashed out the policies that would take us through the next year guiding us in our struggles. The policies were finally incorporated into a document which when produced in its pamphiet form will be both a guide to action and also a statement and explanation of where we stand.

THROUGHOUT the world youth have played a major part in struggles such as Vietnam, El Salvador and Nicaragua, with the liberation armies made up mainly of youth.

The conference passed the section in the document on internationalism which was presented by a young comrade who comes from Chile. The document outlined the need to organise international solidarity as well as making links with youth in struggle around the world.

A workshop All through the conference we heard of the attacks on the basic rights of youth - the right to a decent job, the right to live without the threat of being blown up at the push of a button, the rights of young women to live as equals and the rights of our brothers and sisters in other countries to live without the oppression of imperialism -all these rights are denied us by the rotten capitalist system, the bosses' system.

The mood right the way through the conference was that the only way we can gain all these basic rights is by smashing the system and replacing it by socialism.

•The massive mobilisations of youth on the CND demonstration and the riots showed that we are prepared to fight back. The conference recognised that the fightback has to have a correct leadership. That's what we're tryinr to build and the conference on the discussed the latest developments with lan Paisley and his bigots trying to stir up hatred against the Catholic minority in the North, as well as emphasising the need to defend the Republicans against British imperialism unconditionally whilst having criticisms of their methods. The role of the Labour government and the Labour 'opposition' on Northern Ireland was emphasised strongly in the document as well as in the workshop.

The whole represented a step towards achieving that.

In his summing up of the conference, Mick Liggins, secretary of the movement, emphasised the need to go out and organise.

•The conference has shown we are serious about taking the leadership of the YS. We won't achieve that simply by arguing that we're right.

'What we've got to do is go back to our areas and build. That means leading struggles to win, and bringing youth from those struggles into the YS and behind the banner of the National Left Wing Youth Movement"

The conference succeeded in winning a lot of new youth to the movement. The attitude of the youth that had come to their first political event was summed up by one of the comrades who had travelled through the night from Glasgow, "Don't forget to tell me when your next conference is. I'll be there"