[AT ITS first meeting follow- and file membership…]

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AT ITS first meeting follow- and file membership. General Meeting last port the Hendon South month, the new Campaign resolution to the London for Labour Party Democra- Regional Labour Party cy Executive Committee Annual Meeting which blatantly overturned deci- embodies the principles sions made by its own rank in the 'Manchester_Withing the campaign's Annual TEAChas flouted AGM decisions The EC agreed to supington Amendment' • and calls for a sanitised register of affiliated organisations. 'Manchester Withington' was twice rejected by the CLPD AGM only weeks ago, yet the EC refuses to accept the clarity of the AGM position and says that the decision was 'ambiguous' How ambiguous can be seen in the words of the resolution carried by the AGM: 'It would be mistaken and dangerous to incorporate into the Labour Party constitution the restrictions and requirements placed upon groups contained in the Manchester Withington Amendment. Accordingly, this AGM believes that CLPD should not support such proposals, but instead should campaign for and support only those proposals which seek to completely reverse the 1982 decision or which seek to establish and safeguard the positive rights of groups .. le.g. the Greenwich Amendment)"

Nonetheless, the CLPD EC will campaign in support of Hendon South at the London Region Meeting.

But worse still, the whole strategy of CLPD for. An1 a so se .-.. nual Conference as decided by the EC flies in the face of AGM decisions. It was agreed to have a 'twopronged attack' based first on support for the Greenwich Amendment and secondly on a revamped 'fallback position' (which was what Manchester Withington was called last year!) • But what did the AGM decide?

The AGM rejected a resolution which stated:

•This AGM therefore considers that in the coming year CLPD should campaign for two alternative proposals, both of which would replace the NEC's register. One of these to be on the lines of the amendment incorporated into the Manchester Withington resolution put to the 1982 Labour Party conference, the other being the constitutional amendment submitted by Greenwich CLP to the 1982 Conference"

Pronged

Yet the CLPD EC voted to implement "twopronged attack' based first on Greenwich and secondly on a yet unwritten fall-back position = both of which would "replace the register"

It was obvious that such problems would occur when the results of the elections to the EC were known. So many of those elected had consistently opposed policies which were then carried by this year's AGM. However, it is now clear that they just mean to ride roughshod over the democratically decided policies of CLPD.

Co-options

To ensure that this can be done, six co-option to the EC were made on Saturday; all those co-opted have full voting rights and all of them, although on the "pro-register' slate, were defeated in the elections for the EC at the AGM.

On top of that, the EC also appointed 28 Key Persons - all of whom again have full voting rights on the EC. Now the total of appointed EC members, at 34, exceeds those elected by the AGM.

CLPD is about democracy in the Labour Party -what the hell has happened to the democracy in CLPD?

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200 Islington council workers marched last Thursday from the Town Hall to New Ri iver Head, where Dennis Skinner MP spoke at a rally in support of the water strikers.

Lobbying ACAS ANDREW WIARD (REPORT)

Oxford strikers

OXFORD

SAYS NO SELL OUT strong contingent to TORY Minister Norman Terbit told a Parliainentary committee last Wenesday that he was considering legislation to ban strikes in public services.

He said that he was influenced towards this conclusion by the water strike.

An alternative, or supplementary, proposal was to withdraw legal immunities from strikers if they had not followed procedure agreements.

Such moves would transform millions of workers into slaves of the state. But they could become part of the STRIKER See Workers FOR JUST FAIR PAY WATER TER STRIKE RKERF FOR Organiser no.121 February WATER WORKERS FAIR PI ANDREW WIARD (REPORT)