Bitter lessons of Oxford witch

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establishment machine against us.

Ray Davies ONE LESSON we should learn is that despite the fact the right wing organised as never before, they couldn't defeat the mass political support for unilateral disarmament.

I think this is a lesson to young activists who might think of leaving the Party after the conference. It shows what can be done if we build an organisation to which the Left in the Party can turn.

That is the importance of the conference of CLPs against the witch-hunt on October 30.

We need to campaign for major reforms in the steel and rail unions - for the democratic election of officials.

For those who see the quest for union democracy as something of a lost GirE the most autocratic union in the world.

After the 1980 strike we raised three demands: a revamping of the method of election of the Executive; for conference to be policy-making; and for the election of all ful-time oihcials handline negotiations.

In only two years we won a new method of electing the Executive. And the Executive has voted to make conference policymaking. If we can do all of that in two years, it shows what can be done with organisation.

I think it's very important that the new group of MPs was formed on the day that the register was passed. I see it as offering leadership against the right wing moves to destroy the party.

But we must link the new group to the CLPs and the trade unions, otherwise it could itself become an irrelevance.

The register is like a wild elephant running amok. The answer is not to submit meekly, but to learn the lessons and to organise.

They rammed through the vote for the register. But conference did not vote for a witch-hunt or expulsions. We must not comply with any call for expulsions.

Clinton MANY conference delegates felt depressed by the ease with which the right wing got their witch-hunt, by the shift of the NEC to the right, and by the list of socialist resolutions defeated by four million odd to one million odd, especially those on women's rights within the Party.

However, my abiding impression, sitting in the midst of the constituency delegates, was by no means all gloomy.

The very mood and attitude of the constituency delegates during the debates on the witch-hunt, IT would be foolhardy to pretend that some decisions taken at Blackpool were not a defeat for the left.

The vote in support of the Register, while apparently overwhelming is less so when an examination of the voting is carried out.

• Mandated In the CLP section, where delegates were mandated by the GMCs, they voted overwhelmingly against the Register. The grass root opposition to bans and proscriptions is not in any doubt.

In the trade union section, too, rank and file opinion, as expressed by the 1982 conference decisions made in the GMWU and in USDAW reflect a mood firmly opposed to a witch-hunt.

Yet, because of the block vote system, this view was disregarded by the union delegations.

There is no doubt that the attack on the Militant stems from a panic within the right wing. on women's issues, and others, showed clearly that the Left has by no means been defeated, but strengthened and consolidated. The constituency delegates have, if anything, moved to the Left, as the right wing has rallied the block vote.

The number of constituency delégates supporting the witch-hunt could quite literally be counted on the fingers of one hand (though Judith Hart skilfully managed to find one of this handful to speak in the debate). The constituency delegates were also almost During the debate on the Register on Monday afternoon at Conference, John Spellar, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Birmingham Northfield, (and a member of the EETPU), made a telling remark.

There is a witch-hunt in the party, he said. "It's a witch-hunt against Members of Parliament"

Such a view exposes clearly the centrality of the issue of democracy within the Party.

What price are the gains made on policy, the long awaited two-thirds majority vote on unilateral nuclear disarmament, the passing of worthy resolutions on women's rights, immigration policy, reforms in the social security system, the banning of plastic bullets and so forth?

Accountable

Until the leadership in the party is accountable to carrying out those policies the goods simply will not be delivered.

The heavy defeat of the four resolutions on Women's e move unanimous in their support for policies on the socialist agenda like nationalisation of the banks, British withdrawal from NATO, and many others.

Real political strength thus remains in the constituencies. It is also by no means absent from the union delegations. In almost every delegation, with even the most right wing general secretary, there were dissenting voices.

Finally, it is possible to build right now , and without qualificatio 1, on other conference deci ions, some Organisation in the party reflect, I believe, less a disregard for the rights of women to organise distinctly than the "conservatism" within the trade union leadership and the NEC.

The Oxford CLP has a particular interest in standing firm against expulsions of committed socialists, having had a two-year long internal wrangle over Ted Heslin who was expelled by the local GC but reinstated by the (then left) NEC.

The protracted struggle resulted in many months of bitterness within the local party and gave the media a field day.

I am convinced few delegates to the Oxford GC would welcome a repeat performance of • that scenario.

KATHY TURNER Oxford CLP delegate to Conference of which seem to quite historic.

The unilateralist resolution passed by a majority of well over two thirds made all that marching and campaigning twenty years ago seem worthwhile.

A small step was also taken in the vote against plastic bullets, despite the support for this barbarity party's pro-repression spokesperson. Again, this gives the Left a springboard for further campaigns against Britain's war on Ireland.

Perhaps most

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 7 October 1982 Page 11 Call for unity on Turkey

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cause, they should learn our lesson in ISTC, which is