This conference can be a turning point Reg

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suggests a 'civilised' The proposed register has gained somı purge apparently surprising allies or semiallies on the Left - including the reputedly hard-left Communist Party.

JOHN O'MAHONY investigates. bather than helping the left organise against Foot's purge, forning Star advises Foot on how best to organise against THE Blackpool conference will no doubt be dominated by the discussion of the proposed register of organisations. It is in the interests of the right-wing leadership to make it the predominant issue, as expulsions and witch-hunts are the only way of recreating a policy-forming majority for the Right.

For the Left, however, the conference can be a turning-point. The fightback against the right, for unity in the Party, and for a Labour victory on a socialist programme at the General Election can best be achieved by the following actions: •First, we must win back control of the NEC. This means electing Michael Meacher as Treasurer, and supporting the left slates for each section of the NEC. In the constituency section, this means supporting Allaun, Atkinson, Benn, Heffer, Richardson, Skinner and Wise.

In the trade union section, support should go to Clarke, Fields, Hoyle, Kelly, Kitson, McCluskie, O'Neill and Sawyer.

In the Women's Section, support should be given to Beckett, Hart, Maynard, ar, while the Parliament- Morrell and Switzer. inference even debate the 'Star the the fr. •Second, strong support should be given to the aim of obtaining a two-thirds majority at conference for unilateral nuclear disarmament, in order to ensure that this commitment must be included in the election manifesto. •Third, to support the demands of health service workers - and to do this in a concrete way by endorsing the composite resolution which will, no doubt, be moved by NUPE, committing the next Labour Government to introduce a statutory national minimum wage to eradicate low pay. •Fourth, to defeat the endorsement , of wages policy, or the National Economic Assessment, THE COMMUNIST Party's attitude to Michael Foot's witch-bunt and planned purge of Militant and others will have astonished those who think of that party as part of the hard left.

Editorials in the Morning Star have opposed purges and witch-hunts in general while mainly concerning themselves with offering advice to Michael Foot on how to carry through the purge now being set up against Militant in the most effective and least messy way!

The editorial on Monday Contamhar 1f ia the latpat. and perhaps most scandal ous example. Linking Militant with the old right wing of the Labour Party as twin problems facing Labour leader Michael Foot, the Morning Star suggests that the best way to fight Militant is for Foot to lead a serious fight against the Tories.

«These [Labour Party 'ultra-left'| groupings have not developed in a political varium' artely cautions the Morning Star. They are TOLUMLI a result of years of disillusionment and frustration with the past performance of the Labour Party, just like Thatcher's government is. Foot and co. must recognise this and "not SIMPLY hope to forge unity through administrative contained in Labour's Programme 82 and the TUC/Labour Party Liaison Committee Document. doing so, conference would be supporting the views of the Trades Union Congress at Brighton.

•Fifth, to defeat the antidemocratic proposals for a witch-hunt of socialists in the Party. Nothing could be more diversionary twelve months before a General Election; and it can't be delivered as CLP's won't expel individual members, and the NEC will find it impossible to replace 'sacked' Parliamentary candidates. •Sixth, proposals by the UCW to change the elecmeasures" (emphasis added).

Not simply? But nevertheless a purge of Militant is legitimate as part of a package?

Combatting the 'ultraleft' ', the Morning Star says, is best done by Foot mobilising the labour movement flat out to fight for "the progressive policies" of the Labour Party conference and TUC. 'Campaigns of the sort which bring unity of a broad nature against the Tories will also help to overcome the problem of Militant within Labour's own This problem ranks This nanklam will, however, only be exacerbated by resort to SIMPLE administrative action" (emphasis added Thus the Morning Star gives Foot faint-hearted support for the purge, while dressing it up in proposals that he should do other things as well.

For months they have argued against the register on the grounds that it is too sweeping a measure: Mili- wa. tant can be dealt with under the existing rules if it is proved to have broken them.

Most striking in the Morning Star's attitude is its exhortation to Foot to lead a serious campaign. Foot might well repeat toral college to give MP's 50% of the votes must be strongly resisted. So must the NUR resolution to change the arrangements for electing the NEC, which would give MP's seats for the first time and still further reduce the inadequate representation of women. •Seventh, conference must endorse the changes proposed by the CLPD Women's Action Committee to introduce a positive action programme inside the Party. Resolutions demanding the inclusion of a woman on Parliamentary short-lists must therefore be supported, as must the call for the Women's section of the NEC to be elected by Women's Conference, and for five resolutions to be submitted by women's conference to annual conference.

This conference can go down in history as the conference which opted for tolerance, dialogue and debate, and which endorsed a radical socialist programme for the next election. It can also be the conference at which the Left recovers its vision of the future and begins the process of finally winning the Party. something like the mass demonstration unemployment he led through Liverpool 18 months ago, or the vague support (against tremendous pressure) he gave ASLEF three months ago.

It is perfectly plain, however, that he will not lead a serious fight against the Tories, that he is increasingly identified with the Right in the campaign to roll back the gains made during the crusade for labour movement democracy, that he has no intention of using Labour Party policy for anything other than demagogy, and that a Foot Labour government woula .a..ld be like the Wilson and Callaghan governments.

The point is that the witch-hunt, which for now targets Militant, is against those very 'ultra-left' Labour Party members who are the only people in the Lab- dhan amlemnanle in tha Tah. our Party seriously .concerned to ngnt tne tones and win socialist policies.

The Star's attitude to Foot is the proof that the proliferation of left groupings is also a product of the senile decay of the CP.

The problem however is that the Morning Star is not just a sectarian rag standing on the sidelines outside the struggle in the Labour Party, watching with glee as the Labour Party establishment prepares to try to garrotte left-wing rivals of the CP. The Morning Star and the CP have a real and substantial influence inside the Labour Party. Many people in the Labour Party look to the CP as a stable pillar of militant socialist policies and attitudes.

This means that the Morning Star's comments on the witch-hunt are not just impotent sectarian spite, but a serious act of back-stabbing against the hard left in the Labour There are many who will be influenced by the Star against fighting to defend Militant - the grouping that is facing the brunt of the attack now. And many will oppose the register in words - as the Star does - and also join the attack on Militant.

The Scottish LCC leadership is a scandalous example of this. It put out a statement which opposed the register - but called on Militant to come clean and admit that it was an unsavoury 'conspiracy'!

Weight

1hus ine morning star throws its weight into the scales on the side or the soit left and on the side of Foot - who should, they advise, do things with a little more finesse. Such an attitude links up with those who are trying to sell the register to the Labour Party membership on the grounds that it will not be used widely but only against the Militant 'conspirators' and others like them.

If Michael Foot - the hoarv old rebel who has made his peace with the MANTAS like Dennis Healey.

Chop Militant and things will be all right, they say. The Star too says Militant should be chopped, and urges restrained and 'civilised' methods of doing it.

In fact the new rules offer the establishment control and regulation over everything that moves, thinks, and organises in and around the Labour Party. Healey and Shore -Michael Foot's favourite to succeed him as leader -are known to want to use it for a full-scale purge and thereafter politically to sterilise the party.

The CP's line on the witnh-hant io all of a niero with its politics: like Foot it thinks socialism is a good idea but not immediately practical politics. Like Foot it believes that the best that can be got now is a Labour government of the type we have had hefnre like the NOT ADIT ATTA DUTT SIATAN elitist Parliamentarian Dant' tha Cholinict aliticto roul, wilt ovaluuse eubists of the Morning Star -about one third of whose print run is sold to the police-state 'Communist Parties' in Eastern Europe — is not really very keen on democracy.

And of course the CP and those it influences in the Labour Party are in factional competition with Militant and with those whom they (like Militant!) call the ultra-left.

if the CP were allowed to support it can manage.

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Socialist Organiser no. 101 September 23 1982 Page 10 lackpool' Pushing policies on Gay Rights AS HEEDON ACKPOOL 1980