Two priorities

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WHERE: Lanchester Poly, Priory St, Coventry. WHEN: Saturday March 6, 11 to 4.30 INITIAL SPONSORS: Socialist Organiser Alliance, London Labour Briefing, Oxford Trades Council, Nottingham Labour Briefing, Manchester Labour Left, CPSA British Library Branch, Kings Cross ASLEF, Oxford CATC.

DELEGATES: and observers invited from all labour movement organisations. Individuals also welcome. Credentials £2. -WRITE TO: Democracy Conference, c/o Socialist siinar ever seen ajuage on a bus? L THERE SOME people believe that the meeting at Bishop Stortford heralded a new commitment to consensus politics by the. Left in the Labour Party. It did nothing of the kind.

No permanent deal was entered into at Bishop Stortford. There was no commitment to abstain from a leadership or deputy leadership contest in 1982. There was no agreement to fudge the policy of the party as agreed by Conference.

But there was something.

It was a realisation that tactical questions are important -that we have to decide when we campaign to win the leadership of the party, and when this will have the best chance of success.

Also, there was the clear realisation that only the Left could campaign for the policies of the Party amongst the working class, and that this process could not be . trusted to the Right-whose awar SOUTHWARK Party has refused to make itself a sacrificial lamb on the altar of the Bishop's Stortford deal.

In December the NEC told Southwark's Local Government Committee (LGC: the joint committee of the three constituencies which is responsible for borough-wide affairs) that it must drop its veto on eight sitting councillors. These eight had been excluded by the IGC from the list from which wards can choose their candidates for the May local elections. Southwark - sore after the NEC's refusal to accept Peter Tatchell as parliamentary candidate for the Bermondsey part of the borough - refused. So the matter came back to the REG RACE, MP, continues the discussion on where the Labour Left stands after Bishop's Stortford differences with the SDP were, in some cases, mårginWinning the next General Election is important because it would be entirely wrong to abandon the working class to another five years of Thatcher or the SDP.

The right wing of the nise three clear truths. First, they must stop the absurd witch-hunt of Peter Tatchell.

Second, they must realise that they cannot have a witch-hunt and a truce at the same time-and, therefore, that any attempt to expel Southwark with a mandate to insist on the reinstatement of the eight. Then the heat was on Southwark to concede in the interests of unity.

The Southwark IGC, on Friday 29th, refused.

They had followed the set procedures properly, 4s Hart had to admit. And their objection to the eight was not their political views, but their practical record.

Some had refused to support the Labour candidate in last May's GLC election. Some flatly refused to give any promise to carry out Labour Party policy.

The point of electing Labour councillors is to get Labour policies carried out, reasoned the LGC - so how could these eight be endorsed?

The meeting on Friday 29th agreed to. endorse four who had won appeals to the Regional LP Executive - but drew the line at tour, including present counci leader John O' Militant supporters or other 'undesirables' from the Party will be met with a ferocious and united response from the Left which will make the Deputy Leadership contest look like the Chelsea Flower Show.

And third, any concerted attempt by them to fudge conference policy and construct an election manifesto as trivial as that of 1979 will be opposed fiercely.

What should be our objectives for 1982? Two key issues predominate.

First, the recapture of a clear Left 1 majority on the NEC, which even now the Right are planning to neutralise as a support of Party policy.

Second, we must mount a public campaign amongst the trade unions and the working class in support of unilateral nuclear disarmament, the Alternative Economic Strategy and withdrawal from the EEC.

WHEN the moves for a witch hunt began in the Labour Party, many on the left argued that they were aimed to clear the way for the next government to be an SDPLabour coalition.

Now the Labour Right is coming out openly with the coalition proposal.

ISTC leader Bill Sirs. writing in his union journal. congratulates Shirles Williams on her victory in the Crosby by-election. And he says: "We cannot write off the SDP, who could well be part of a coalition with This comes shortly after William Rodgers denounced ASLEF and SDP economist James Meade called for a system of compulsory arbitration, making practically all strikes unlawful.

The labour movementstarting with ISTC rank-and-file members-should see that this • coalition is scotched now!

Grady, who had lost those appeals. • The NEC has not said yet what sanctions against Southwark it proposes. Between now and the February meeting, local Labour Parties need to flood Walworth Road with resolutions saying, 'Hands off Southwark!'

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CONFERENCE mocratise thé" labour movement!