'Come back into the LCP!' A letter from Socialis

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SOCIALIST Challenge makes two accusations against Andrew Hornung and Socialist Organiser. First that they irresponsibly split the Labour Committee on Palestine at its founding conference, thus creating a disastrous situation where there are now two labour movement campaigns on this question. Second that they then proceeded to engage in a muck-raking, irresponsible and scandalous campaign in the bourgeois press which in addition to making it extremely difficult now to build any labour movement campaign on Palestine, bordered on red baiting ; against Ted Knight and Labour Herald journalist Penny Coles.

Lousy Andrew Hornung, who would have made a good solicitor but makes a lousy revolutionary politician, responds by logic-chopping and point scoring, but nowhere confronts the issue of the damage which has been done to the task of building labour movement support to the Palestinian cause.

At the Labour Committee on Palestine founding conference there were undoubtedly problems with the credentials. Socialist Challenge supporters are not in possession of all the relevant documents and are not in a position to give an accurate account of all the problems.

Ted Knight alleges that on the door Andrew Hornung 'waved through' Socialist Organiser supporters. Andrew Hornung alleges that the conference was 'packed' with WRP supporters. if Hornung's allegation is true, and our considered judgement is that Knight probably did mobilise Labour Herald and WRP supporters in some strength, then this of course was incorrect and a breach of workers' democracy which we condemn.

But the essential question is this: do you fight sectarian stupidity with sectarianism, and breaches of workers' democracy by walking out? This has to be judged concretely, and not with ritualistic formulae and lawyer's arguments.

Andrew Hornung and Socialist Organiser have to answer: what would have been changed, what was at stake, by accepting the existing delegations to the conterence, even under protest? As far as we could see, and Andrew Hornung does nothing to dispel our assumptions on were but two.

First, what would be the political platform of the LCP. Second, who would be the officers of the LCP. On the first, Hornung believes we exaggerate the differences between the platform proposed by him and the one adopted - in other words that the passage on the reactionary Arab states was just a passing reference' : Even if he is right, then in effect his argument is that there was not a substantive political difference.

Decisive

Second, and we think this is the question which Hornung, Greenstein and SO thought was decisive: Should Homung and Greenstein be the secretary and chairperson of the LCP?

In our view the question of the officers was not a crucial question for a smail labour movement campaign Just getting going. We in any case would have backed Ted Knight for one of the leading posts because he is the person with credibility and support in the labour movement who has done most to raise the issue of Palestine.

There was no question of preventing Hornung and Greenstein being on the steering committee. In the event, not a single member of the WRP was proposed for or accepted on to the steering committee of the LCP.

But Hornung and Greenstein were not satisfied with that; they wanted to ensure that they were the officers, and split the committee when it looked as if they would not be. They should have stayed in the campaign and accepted nomination to the steering committee, rather than splitting and throwing the campaign into disarray.

Subsequently there have been gleeful articles in the Guardian and New Statesman. The Guardian obviously got their information from Hornung and devoted their whole Diary column to it - which started 'And now an everyday story of Labour Party folk This gutter press campaign was at best a grave error of judgement. At worst it was a deliberate attempt to discredit the LCP, using whatever weapons came to hand. It gave the bourgeois press not only an opportunity to discredit any Labour campaign on Palestine, but an opportunity to discredit the far left in the Labour Party

at the height of a witchhunt. How stupid can you get?

Socialist Challenge is in no way allied with the WRP, and does not cover up for its activities.

particular we defend Socialist Organiser unconditionally against attmepts to use the courts to prevent fair political comment. 36131 what Socialist Organisel did at the LCP conference and subsequently is inexcusable.

The way out of this mess is for Socialist Organiser and Tony Greenstein to come back into the LCP. A refusal to do this is to continue to fight sectarianism with sectarianism.

Dear S.0, FOR some time now there has been a growing opinion that Constituency Labour Parties have the need for some kind of forum in which they can exchange opinions and discuss how to tackle the different problems which they face. Other sectors of the movement benefit from such discussions between themselves, and have various means of co-ordinating their activities.

At a time of mass unemployment, a major problem for the entire Labour movement is how to improve trade union participation in Party organisation, and many Constituencies are experimenting with different ways of extending their base within the trade union moveWe invite readers to send us their • letters, up to a usual maximum length of 400 words. Send to Socialist Organiser. c/o 28, Middle Lane. London N8. ment. In this connection, attempts to organise workplace branches are interesting and important, but there exists no convenient focus for discussion of the lessons of such initiatives.

Preliminary talks between representatives of a number of Sheffield and Nottingham Constituencies lead us to believe that a conference of Constituency Parties would be widely supported.

We would propose that such a conference would weet take the form ta Vilt udy.

number of workshops on specific problems, aimed sharing experiences which can help us in the task of winning the next Election. The workshops would consider how to organise and campaign