[ORGANISER Labour Victory, 28 Middle Lane, London N8…]

Scan page 3

ORGANISER Labour Victory, 28 Middle Lane, London N8.

to Martin Thomas What should socialists be doing in the election?

Campaigning for Labour - but also for our own policies. For socialists politics can't begin with the announcement of the election and close down on polling day for the next five years. AS Thatcher's campaign task force sets sail for the TV screens and the constituencies, a major element in its public image of 'resolute government' is its record in the Falklands/Malvinas war.

Yet the whole war, which cost rundreds of lives and hundreds of millions of pounds on both sides, was deliberately triggered off by Thatcher just as a possible peace treaty had been finalised. The fateful decision was to order the sinking of the Argentine Cruiser General Belgrano on May 2, 1982.

The Tory warmongers obtained immediate and lasting support from the Labour leadership -with Peter Shore outstripping march for jobs Socialist Organiser has argued constantly that we need to organise the Left, rally the rank and file against the entrenched Labour Establishment, and fight to transform the whole labour movement. We need to continue that struggle through the election campaign - to conduct the campaign in such a way as best to organise and prepare for a fight to beat back a re-elected Tury government, or to resist pro-capitalist policies by a new Labour government.

The slogan: "The left must organise' , remains as true now as ever. It can't be shelved for the duration of the election. How can we organise this even extreme right wing Tory Julian Amery in his advocacy of full-scale invasion of the Malvinas.

Only a handful of forces in the labour movement (some defending Argentina's claim to the Malvinas• nthers annnsino the imnerialist war effort; still more simply against the human and economic cost of the war and its political repercussions) stood firm against the tide of jingoism and war fever.

It is only since the seizure of the Malvinas, as the enormity of the expenditure required to implement Thatcher's 'Fortress Falklands' policy has come home to yesterday's pink patriots, that it has been possible to get much of a particular the persistent one-man writes: campaign by Labour MP Tam sinking of the Belgrano, which has Why? now won support from 169 MPs. campaigning? 'Socialists for a Labour Victory' is aiming to produce six draft leaflets — on incomes policy, jobs, women's rights, nationality and immigration, the Bomb, and youth - by the end of this week. SLV will prepare artwork ready for Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) to print from, and there will be a mailing to CLPs this week.

SLV will also circulate a speakers' list; and it has undertaken to circulate good model leaflets produced by individual CLPs. The Labour Committee on Ireland and the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights are planning to put out model leaflets. been painstakingly hammered out, typed up and bound in red leather awaiting signatures from each side when Thatcher gave the instruction to the captain of the submarine Conqueror to sink the Belgrano.

Interceded

He interviewed former Peruvian Foreign Secretary Dr. Javier Arias Stella, who, jointly with Peruvian President Belaunde and US Secretary of State Alexander Haig argued out a 7-point peace paln. Haig interceded with British Foreign Secretary Francis Pym;

Dr. Arias Stella told me: "We «Because we believed that the 1C • SOUTH ONDON How much time is there?

Not very much. The national Labour manifesto will have been decided by the time this SO reaches readers, and probably the right wing will take the opportunity to sweep out many radical policies.

We must make sure that the same thing does not happen at local level. First of all make sure your election address is decided by the CLP, not just done by the candidate alone or the candidate and agent.

Get a campaign committee elected, or failing that make assumed because Haig had agreed the plan that Pym had agreed it too.'' The deal provided for an immediate ceasefire, a withdrawal of all forces from the Malvinas, a period of international control of the islands, excluding both Britain and Argentína, and a negotiated settlement to be concluded by April 30, 1983. It was both a climbdown and a sort of victory for both sides.

But Thatcher, having goaded the Tory backwoodsmen into full cry, would accept nothing that smacked of compromise. Hence the cold-blooded decision to sink the aging, lumbering old Argentine cruiser, which was outside the British exclusion zone and headed away from it towards its home port.

*Then suddenly, at shortly after 6pm, a phone call came for President Belaunde. It was from the American State Department. It was followed almost at once by another from President Galtieri. Terrible news had just come in.

"The Argentine Cruiser General Belgrano had been sunk by British torpedoes with dreadful loss sure that the CLP executive takes the decisions.

Whatever you do, don't waste time. If necessary, write your own leaflets locally and then get them 'syndicated' nationally through SLV or SO.

What about the 'Anti-Tory League' idea?

Try to get representation for trade union bodies, unemployed groups-and community organisations on your local Labour campaign committee.

We should also push for LPYSs and women's sections to have the right to run their own campaigns for youth and women - to do their own leaflets, to have their own sub-budgets, and to have speakers on each platform. They in turn may be able to draw other youth or women's groups into their campaigns.

Labour election platforms should also have black speakers. And in areas with sizeable should insist on leatets in their own languages.

But the central drive of a abour campaign must be for.

lass vote against the Tories We should argue for CLPs to approach local shop stewards' committees - and make the initial contacts ourselves to ensure what no bine slost In 1974, I know, Ford Hale. wood stewards brought candidates in , shop stewards' committee, and they helped organise canvas. "teams. Labour Parties can also organise factory gate meetings, and special leaners sponsored by the stewards. Take the initiative in your own workplace!

This should be linked with setting up Labour Party workplace branches. Where these branches already exist, make sure they swing into action. Where they Labour Party members in the workplace, get them . together now.

Get them campaignin - and recruiting - through the elec tion period, when interest in politics is higher than usual. I'hen the formalities of getting the workplace branch recognised can be sorted out after. the What if your CLP is right wing dominated and won't accept any SLV or left-wing material?

›cialists for a What you can do is limited. By law all election leaflets, posters, etc. have to be put on a candidate's expenses, so there is no scope for freelance material.

Newspapers don't come under that law, so you can certainly sell Socialist Organiser. A right wing CLP is likely to object to you selling Socialist Organiser door to door on a canvass - but there's nothing to stop you selling to other canvassers (who oftoutnumber the regular attenders at ward meetings), or coming back later to sell door to door.

The real point in a right wing CLP is that active participation in the canvassing - getting to know other activists, recruiting new members during and after the canvass - is a precondition for changing that CLP in the future. And even in a right-wing CLP some SLV-type ideas - like joint work with local shop stewards' committees - may win wide support.

What other ways can we link the election campaign to ongoing work?

Make sure every election leaflet has a 'join the Labour Party' slot on it. When you are canvassing and a voter tells you that they will vote Labour, don't just mark your card and move on. Ask them if they will take a Labour poster, join the Labour Party, or help canvass.

If a voter says that s/he normally votes Labour but is fed up with the Labour leaders. record - again, don't just mark your card and move on. Explain how socialists in the Labour Party are fighting to transform the party — ask him or her to join.

If your local Labour Party has been doing its work properly, then you won't have voters saying: "All the Labour Party ever does is ask us for votes. Between election times we never see you". But if voters do say that - then make sure your local Labour Party is different in future. For a start, follow up the election with a recruiting campaign.

• Labour Committee on Ireland, BM Box 5355, London WCIN 3XX. • Labour Campaign for Gay Rights, 61A Bloom St, Manchester 1.

to ose.

----- pull-quotes -----

secretary of the Socialist Organiser Alliance, spoke

IGWU TOP TONY UTE

TOM UN AL LELO-

ITTEE ST: ENG