Preparing CLPs to fight the expulsions

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We either hang together or we will hang separately, "Now it is vital that the warned Ernie Roberts from the chair at the CLPs meeting. first conference for Labour women tions and launched the demands for major refwomen against the Tories, and represent women's intarace.

November 27th, will be looking at. Register Now!

Contenemce • THIS is a practical meeting, to show that we as members are determined to fight back against each and every expulsion, and fight back united"

Thus Jeremy Corbyn (PPC Islington North) announced the purpose of the 150-strong fringe meeting, 'CLPs Against the Witchhunt' ', which met in the aftermath of the decisions on the register and the right turn on the NEC.

Unfortunately the meeting as a whole tended to lurch into general denunciatory speeches against the right wing rather than focusing on the task in hand: offering a concrete line of action for CLPs who could rapidly be in the firing line of a full-scale witch-hunt.

Platform speakers included Martin Flannery MP and the meeting was chaired by Ernie Roberts - which further underlined the link between the fight against the witch-hunt and the launching of a new grouping of 22 left wing MPs pledged to fight the register.

John Gardner, a member of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and Luton East CLP, declared categorically that:

•There can be no expulsions from this Party on political grounds of people who work for the election of a Labour government on socialist policies"

The next year, he argued, must see a three point campaign for:

• No expulsions, • A left NEC, both in the CLP and trade sections, • Women's conference to control the women's From the floor, speakers were equally clear. Rachel Lever pointed out that the 'left wing' LCC had put forward its own plan for a register, while CLPD itself had sought a softer line on this issue.

'We should all get into these left organisations and stiffen them up" • she argued.

1 Liverpool PPC pointed ›ut that the NAC woul face opposition 'across the board' if they tried to expel people like Tony Mulhearn and Terry Harrison.

'CLPs are realising that they need to be organising, and even calling their own annual conference. CLPs are the only part of the Party which does not meet together"

The October 30 conference of CLPs is also open to affiliated unions, YS bran- we didn't do that work ches and women's sections, stressed another comrade. campaign against the witch And local conferences of hunt is taken up in the these bodies could also be trade union rank and file. held to ensure solid support This means beginning now against the witch-hunt. to put down resolutions in One delegate from Vaux- branches for next year's hall pointed out that they union conferences" have already not only Ernie Roberts from the decided not to expel any- platform promised that the one, but written a lengthy October 30 conference will explanation of this to all offer detailed discussion on affiliated bodies, and will the campaign. be visiting them in person This is plainly needed if after the conference to the right-wing NEC is not build a solid base of to be enabled to pick off support. CLPs one by one in the John Bloxam drew atten- witch-hunting of socialists, tion to the fact that "last" and if the fight is to be year we said we've won it carried into the camp in the CLPs, we now have of the unions in the year to work in the unions. But ahead.

- •06315 A STRONG call for a united campaign in solidarity with the Turkish working class was made from the platform of a fringe meeting of the Turkey Solidarity Campaign by Reg Race MP. • Over 60 delegates and visitors attended the meeting, which was chaired by Gavin Strang MP....

Race, who is treasurer of the rival Campaign for Defence of Democratic Rights in Turkey, was vocally critical of the CDDRT's refusal to join the TSC in a united campaign, despite repeated TSC initiatives.

He went on to call for the withdrawal of British and NATO bases from Cyprus, Greece and Turkey.

"Why did Britain and the USA Back the generals in Greece? Why do they back today's junta in Turkey? Because they want stable watchdogs in the area. The key is the link to NATO", insisted Race.

And he stressed the sheer scale of the repression in Turkey.

Exiled Turkish militant Dogan Tarkan, saved from deportation by an intensive campaign by the TSC last year, spoke detailing the elaborate fraud of the junta's new 'constitution' and pointing again to the NATO link.

The meeting also heard Baz from the General Union of Palestinian Students, who pointed out that he was the first Palestinian speaker in any of the fringe meetings this year:

Welcoming the conference resolution of support for the Palestinians and for recognition of the PLO, he focused on the reactionary nature of Zionist ideology, painted up as some kind of 'socialism' by Labour leaders like lan Mikardo.

From the campaign as a whole there was a renewed appeal to delegates to go back to CLPs and union branches and press for affiliation to the TSC and to support initiatives to unite the present four campaigns on Turkey and Kurdistan into one.

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