Fight NOLS
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-04-14Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 15 →
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THE National Organisation of Labour Students conference last week took 2½ sessions and a suspension of proceedings to get through the credentials report from Labour Party student organiser John Dennis.
What lay behind the fracas was who controls Labour's student wing, students or the NEC - and, more immediately, who was going to have a majority, Clause 4 or More than 20 delegates were ruled out of order, and the absolute majority for the Clause 4 faction was only about 17.
To understand the whole saga ot disbarr ed clubs requires fairly intimate knowledge of the constitution, but two examples should illustrate.
Birmingham University Labour club elected four delegates. Two were Socialist Students in NOLS (SSIN) supporters. Clause 4 supporter Dave Mason - a runner-up, and therefore 'reserve' if those delegates were ruled out) -volunteered to send the NOLS membership card stubs to Labour Party HQ at Walworth Road.
This he did - but he did not include the two SSIN delegates' cards. Abdul Sheir and Phil Davidson were therefore not members of NOLS and not delegates.
Then their cards were produced = but Abdul's NUS number, a necessary detail, was missing, so he was still out of order.
Only the returned stub did not match Abdul's own card. Dave Mason admitted forgery and went home.
The membership cards for SSIN delegates from Manchester University simply disappeared -but only after John Mann (the Clause 4 new chair of NOLS) said he'd seen them and John Dennis had offered to send us a photocopy proving they were all incomplete. Finally, a lot of red faces voted these comrades into membership at an emergency NC.
There was little time left for policy debate. Only Poland, Ireland, and the economy were discussed. There was a slight shift to the left: the Polish state student union was de-recognised, and a republican position was adopted on Ireland.
Even though Clause 4 retained control of the NC - with the same opposition as last year, one SSIN and one Militant - the story has not ended. A dossier is being produced and the matter is being taken to the NEC. SSIN (together with Militant, we hope) will be circulating the evidence to Labour clubs. JOHN HARRIS