Campaigning on Palestine

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70p (plus 16p p&p) from WSL, PO Box THE recall First National Conference of the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine unanimousıy approved plans Ior jeveloping the campaign's work.

Advertisement Special issue on struggle in the unions: also contains articles on workers' politics and national liberation. and the Stalinist state 'unions' 135, London N1 ODD After listening- to Palestinian and Lebanese speakers, a slightly amended platform was adopted with an organisational structure designed to give maximum UK. WL AM 1 fr Wires i involvement to branches.

The (re-elected) chairperson, Tony Greenstein, gave an account of the development of the campaign over the preceding year. It had been founded in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the failure of the labour movement to respond to this.

Strenuous activity last summer had given rise to the Labour Committee on Palestine. The invasion of Lebanon by Israel, the heroism of the Palestinian people in their struggle, side by side with the Lebanese national movement, against the Zionists and the Lebanese right, and finally the massacres of Sabra and Chatilla created a significant shift in popular sympathy away from Israel and towards the Palestinlans.

The success of the LCPsponsored emergency resolution at Labour Party conference marked the highpoint of this mood.

Within a short time however the campaign suffered severe setIts first conference, in November, was taken over by followers of the WRP, marshalled by Ted Knight and other Labour Herald supporters. Those who walked out of the conference in protest established the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine.

But if attacks came from within the pro-Palestinian movement, they also came from outside it. The Histadrut, the Israeli state 'trade union' movement sent delegates to lobby trade union leaders here to try to turn the tide of working class sympathy for the Palestinians.

Attacks from Zionism in the trade union movement were accompanied by others in the women's movement. And more recently,: the pro-Palestinian movement has been disorientated by the struggles within the PLO.

Against the background of this much less favourable situation -compounded by post-electoral pessimism here - the Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine agreed to continue its work in the trade unions, the Labour Party and amongst students.

Immediate plans were drawn up for backing up Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine supporters in the Transport and General Workers Union whose Biennial Delegate Conference will soon debato the question of Palestine.

A draft model resolution for Labour Party conference was also approved. hitting the Protestants especially hard. Thus the Orange resolutions.

THE referendum about whether the existing ban on abortion in the 26 Counties should be written into the constitution of the Catholic state will probably be held in the autumn. However, the SPUC campaign which pressurised the two big parties into committing themselves to a referendum seems to be running out of steam.

55% of respondents in a recent poll now think it should not be held at all: last November, a similar poll showed that 54% wanted the referendum.

Southern Ireland exports its abortions. A recent analysis showed that in 1981 3603 Irish women had abortions in Britain - 8.5% higher than the figures for 1980.

ANOTHER sign of the times: 55% of those polled recently want the 26 Counties to allow divorce despite the Catholic Church's rigid doctrinal opposition to it. This is a remarkable figure when you remember that over 80% of the people still go to church every Sunday.

The Labour Party has now been encouraged to advocate the right to divorce, and 'Liberal' prime minister Garret Fitzgerald has publicly criticised his coaliup in the House of Lords.

A THIRD sign of the times: A Market Research Bureau of Ireland poll showed that only 41% of its 1000 respondents considered the people of Northern Ireland to be Irish. 39% thought of them as both British and Irish. 13% said they. were. British. 5% thought they were neither British nor Irish.

In the age group 18-34 only 34.5% thought the Northern Irish were Trish', compared with 45% in the age group 50-64. This must reflect the softening since the '60s of the level of nationalist propaganda in the schools, which used to be very intense.

Three quarters thought that a united Ireland was something to be hoped for, but 39% believed it would never. happen, and 15% were against it.

These figures express in a different way the political experience of the last 15 years. Except Jor brief spasms (after the 13 civilians were shot down in Derry on Bloody Sunday in 1972, and during the recent hunger strikes), and a couple of lethal explosions in Dublin, the South has remained almost a foreign country to the North and its troubles.

34% of the respondents defined the Irish nation as the 26 counties, as against 63% who thought it 32.

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Socialist Organiser no.138 June 30 1983 Page 7 Picket line at Goodyear: workers' struggles have continued despite the repression by Pinochet (below) ar political manoeuvres (top: soldiers outside polling honths durine the constitutional reforendum!

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