A lead for Labour youth

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Over the Easter weekend, April 9-12, around 3,000 young people will meet in Bridlington for the annual conference of the Labour Party Young Socialists.

The LPYS is the official labour movement organisation for youth. It is led by the Militant tendency, but by no means all the youth attending the conference are Militant supporters or even sympathisers. there are huge debates and discussions - albeit mostly off the conference floor, as- the conference speeches themselves tend to be somewhat stage-managed.

The National Left Wing Youth Movement was set up from last year's YS conference. Supporters of the revolutionary youth papers Barricade and Red Youth decided to unify to build a strong group in the YS and transform the YS from its present state into a mass revolutionary youth organisation reflecting the real concerns of youth.

To do this we need to bring young people into the YS from the dole queues, the YOPs schemes, the schools and the factories. Youth from the YCND and the women's movement, young people who are fighting fascists and racists all need to be won to the YS -not by telling them they're doing it all wrong and that the only way we'll achieve true liberation is with the ending of capitalism sometime in the future, but by showing that the YS is as concerned about fighting in these campaigns youth now.

We say thạt youth who are looking for a way forward in the fight against the Tories should not shy away or dismiss the LPYS conference simply because we disagree with the leadership. If we all took that attitude, we'd be busy Uninis instead of fightide the fakers who lead the unions now ... This year's conference is a very important one foi the NLWYM. Since last year we have been busy building the YS around the country, going round YS branches, getting them to sponsor our paper, Class Fighter and debating with, Militant about the way forward for the YS.

The NLWYM candidate for the YS place on the Labour Party NEC is Dave Curtis, an ex-YOPster from Wallasey YS - get him to come to your YS before conference to speak on why your delegate should vote for him.

If your YS has not got a delegate yet, send off to Labour Party HQ, 150 Walworth Road, London SE15, quickly, as delegates can still be registered.

We are helping to organise several fringe meetings at conference with: Turkey Solidarity Campaign, Labour Committee on Ireland, Women's Fightback, and the Action Committee for a Woman's Right to Work. The National Left Wing Youth Movemert Rally with a speaker from Socialist Organiser is un Sunday night.

There is also an important YCND meeting, and we're hoping to help organise a workshop with the Labour Campaign on Gay Rights.

Since the Reagan visit on June 6 has come up after the deadline for resolutions to conterence, we should push for the adoption of the emergency resolution printed below in as many YS's as possible so that the YS has a clear commitment to supporting the activities of CND and the Reagan Reception Committee during the visit.

If you haven't booked accommodation, yet, our places cost £8.50 (selfcatering) for three nights. Book now - we haven't got many left. Ring Jo on 01-609 3071 or 01 354 1050. New issue of Class Fighter paper of the National Left Wing Youth Movement. 10p plus postage from Conference agrees to: 1] Call for Labour MPs to boycott Parliament if Reagan addresses it. 2] Instruct the LPYS National Committee to organise a huge YS conPut this t Conference notes:

The Reagan visit to in early June. tingent on the CND-called march on June 6. 3] Instructs the LPYS National Committee . to sponsor the • Reagan Reception Committee and organise a huge YS contingent on the lobby of the American embassy in London on June 7 [the day Reagan arrives].

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Socialist Organiser no. 78 March 25 1982 Page 11 Benn: Labour without Marxism would be like astronomy without Copernicus IN HIS Marx Memorial Lecture last week, Tony Benn explained why he believes that Marxists have an important place in the Labour Party, and he орровев апу witch-hunt against Trotskyists.

He also argued in defence of extra-parliamentary action, and the possible use of force by the labour movement to prevent the overthrow of an elected government.

He explained his objections to Marxism, and his view of "a reconciliation of Marxism and political democracy"

Over recent months, Socialist Organiser has carried several articles explaining our views on Marxism and political democracy. We continue the discussion with extracte Irom benn's lecture.

The full text of the lecture is to appear exclusively in the May issue of the Communist Party magazine Marxism Today.

•The attacks upon the so-called hard left of the Labour Party by its opponents in the Conservative, Liberal and Social Democratic Parties and by the establishment, are not motivated by fear of the influence of Marxists alone.

These attacks are really directed at all Socialists. They derive from the knowledge that democratic socialism in all its aspects does reflect the true interest of a majority of people in this country, and that what democratic socialists are saying is getting through to more and more people, despite the roundthe clock efforts of the media to fill the newspapers and the airwaves with a cacophony of distortion the Labour Party could tion.

If the Labour Party could be bullied or persuaded to 2082 PHOTO: JOHN HARRIS It would be as unthinkable Marx seemed to identif all social and personal morality as being a product of economic forces, thus denying to that morality any objective existence over and above the interrelationship of social and economic forces at that moment in history. I cannot accept that analysis.

Of course the laws, customs, administration, armed forces and received wisdom in any society will tend to reflect the interests and values of the dominant class, and if class relationships change by technology, evolution or revolution, this will be reflected in a change of the social and cultural superstructure.

But to go beyond that and deny the inherent rights of men and women to live, to think, to act, to argue, or to obey or resist in pursuit of some inner call of conscience - as pacifists do - or to codify their relationships with each other in terms of moral responsibility, seems to me to be throwing away the child of moral teaching with the dirty bath water of feudalism, capitalism or clericalism.

In saying this I am consciously seeking to теestablish the relevance and legitimacy of the moral teachings of Jesus, whilst accepting that many manifestations of episcopal authority and ritualistic escapism have blanked out that essential message of human brotherhood and sisterhood."

"I believe a reconciliation of Marxism and political democracy is possible, necessary and urgent, if humanity is to solve the pressing problems which confront it and avoid the risk of war.

But if we are to achieve that synthesis, there is much that needs to be done, and I suggest a draft agenda that we might use to guide us.

KrAL. ine accentance un VAAN dha annantanan in the West of the importance of the socialist analysis of