NEC determined to carry its witch-hunt

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"very 'member' of Militant, not just prominent figures like LAST Wednesday, 24th, the Labour Party's new right wing National Executive Committee met to consider how to deal with the legal hitches in their purge of Militant.

Their decisions may well mean an attempt at a more sweeping purge than originally planned.

Initially the right wing's plan was to establish their "register of unaffiliated groups', declare Militant ineligible for it, and on that basis expel selected leading Militant supporters.

It ran into several problems:

• Resistance to the register. Some 16 groups have now been registered; general secretary Jim Mortimer's report for the NEC lists 48 that had refused to register or had not applied, and there are many more.

Mortimer reports: 'there are some Labour supporters and probably the majority of Labour activists who welcome the policy and constitutional changes of recent years and who are suspicious of any move against the 'far left' because they see it as the prelude to other changes.

"It is a factor in the situation that a large majority of constituency Labour Parties are not sympathetic to the exclusion of Militant... Labour cannot afford to alienate large numbers of its activists or to come into collision with a significant number of constituency Labour Parties in the approach to the General Election", • The unfairness of the system was blatant. Labour Friends of Israel and the Labour Movement for Europe had to be declared ineligible for the register because of finance from outside the British labour movement, but no action against them is suggested.

• Constitutionally ineligibility for registration is no grounds for expulsion. And so Militant were able convincingly to threaten the NEC with legal action against expulsion.

The threat of legal action was a wrong tactic in principle - the capitalist courts should not be used to decide the affairs of the labour movement. It now seems that if it has gained time (as Militant say it has), it has done so at the cost of broadening The NEC now proposes to proceed as follows. The moves against Militant will be nothing to do with the register. At the December or January NEC Militant will be declared ineligible for affiliation.

This procedure has two implications. First, "all members of the Militant Terdency will become ineligible for individual membership of the Labour Party". It will not be a matter of expelling five, or 50, or 200 selected organisers, but the lot.

Secondly, the grounds tor action against Militant are now plainly political. It is not a matter of the way Militant organises: Militant has said it is willing to consider any changes the NEC may propose on that score, and the NEC has proposed none.

The case, put in a draft motion for the December or January NEC, is that "the Militant Tendency, as a Trotskyist 'entrist' group, is a political organisation with its own programme, principles and policy for distinctive and separate propaganda"

Since plenty of Labour Party members have in the past belonged to other left groups, and some of those up for expulsion have never belonged to any group outside the Labour Party, the 'entrist' reference is irrelevant. Militant is to be purged for being Trotskyist.

And the precedent is that any group held to subscribe to Trotskyism, or another ideology of which the NEC disapproves, will be purged too. - for thought-crime. (The deadline for other groups to register looks like being the end of January. Any group which does not register, or is found ineligible, will probably be subject to scrutiny. The NEC did not have time for definite decisions on this point).

Nervous about the havoc all this could wreak in the Labour Party, Jim Mortimer tries to limit the purge. He offers a definition: "A member of Militant Tendency is one who is significantly involved in giving financial support, in its organisation or in its regular activities" Just selling, buying or reading an odd copy of Militant, or supporting some Militant policies, would not brand someone as a member.

Mortimer also urges the NEC *to concentrate attention on the central organising group and then to win other sympathisers of Militant by the strength of óur arguments"

He suggests proceeding by BERMONDSEY, Peckham and Dulwich Labour Parties: rally, 'Defend Socialist Policies, Oppose Expulsions' Saturday December 11, 2pm to 5pm; Walworth Town Hall, Walworth Rd, London.

Speakers: Reg Race, Peter Tatchell, Teresa Wrack, Richard Balfe, Jeremy Corby!, speaker fron EETPU Broad Left. JOHN HARRIS Now the NEC may try to purge Pat Wall (above) stages. Members of the Militant editorial board will be expelled first.

Militant's paid sales organisers will be dealt with later. Eight prospective parliamentary candidates will be questioned about their possible present or past associations with Militant, and asked to promise that "they will not promote the Militant Tendency"

Leading members of the Militant-influenced Labour Party Young Socialists will be asked to give the same promise, and stricter control will be imposed on the LPYS.

The right-wing NEC may not take Mortimer's advice on all points. Anyway, Mortimer's definition means that even a small phalanx of determined right-wingers can start purging literally thousands of Labour Party members.

The relevant parts of the Labour Party constitution are vague. Clause II(3) disqualifies from affiliation organisations 'having their own programme, principles and policy for distinctive and separate propaganda, or possessing branches in the constituencies or engaged in the promotion of Parliamentary or Local Government candidatures, or owing allegiance to any political organisation situated abroad"

Almost any worthwhile group has some " distinctive policy, and some local organisation - and so, stretching a point, could be outlawed.

Clause II(4) then disqualifies from membership people who belong to "political parties or organisations ancillary or subsidiary thereSocialist Organiser no. I11, December 2, 1982. Page 4

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