CND leaders stamp down on youth

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support by the YS for CND: Photo: John Whitton. ss Fighter national secretary Judith Bonner, with Satvinder Singh airing) at the Class Fighter fringe meeting. Photo: John Whitton.

ELSALVADOR THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) executive, ander the leadership of Bruce Kent, has moved to try to close lown the Youth CND National committee, elected at the YCND poaference on July 2/3.

This follows measures against Labour CND, which has had LND exécutive members put into its committee with right of beto.

Several members of the Youth CND National Committee have pat out a statement in response the CND executive's move ad to a report in the London magazine 'City Limits' «We see the changes proposed in YCND", they say, "as a political move, aiming to effeclively silence any possible apposition to certain changes in the public face of CND.

• *The first printing of leaflets for (the big CND demonstration forthcoming on) October 22, for betance, leant heavily on the theme, 'Freeze the nuclear arms race' , mentioning neither uniInteralism nor NATO.

"YCND and Labour CND have been the first victims of His new, heavy-banded policy" • The rest of the statement reads:

AS MEMBERS. of the YCND National Committee that was elected at the recent conference i Manchester but has since been dissolved, we reject the idea that YCND has been "temEl Salvador Solidarity Campaign: affiliation £5 for individual and £10 for organisations, from 29 Istington Park St., London N (01-359 2270 porarily wound up after allegations of entryism by Trotskyist groups" (as City Limits put it).

CND has denied that spokesperson for CND made the comments attributed to CND in the (City Limits) article, and as far as we are concerned the only reasons that were given for the dissolution of the committee were that membership cards and ages were inadequately checked.

Cards

Many YCND members do not in fact possess membership cards, due to administrative difficulties... However, we do not see how this means the conference was invalid - delegates were registered in advance and their names were checked against a computer print-out of members before delegate cards were issued...

(But now) the YCND National Committee, consisting of ten officers elected by conference and regional representatives from all over the country, has been dissolved, and a ! CND Youth Committee set up in its place, with regional representation drastically cut and several regions not being recognised The six democratically elected Ordinary Officers are excluded.

At the first meeting of this committee CND staff put forward proposals involving the absorption of YCND into CND, supposedly to free young people "from most of the administrative and bureaucratic side of the campaign" - a move that would effectively remove both our democratic rights within the campaign and our ability to organise independently where necessary.

Despite previous assurances that a recall conference for YCND is the eventual aim of the committee, the proposals since put forward seem to be far less liberal. 'The idea of a 'recall conference'' (according to a document presented at the committee meeting) "seems to go against the concept of YCND as an integral part oi the campaign, and its purpose is obscure. We therefore recommend to the Executive that there be no recall conference"

In view of the unwarranted and undemocratic manner in which YCND lost its National Committee, seven young people present at the meeting of the new 'CND Youth Committee' refused to recognise the Committee, registering instead several no-votes and putting forward a statement to the minutes explaining our reasons for doing SO.

For the sake of unity within the campaign we called upon YCND groups and individuals to carry out proposals decided by the committee for action, but at the same time we feel it is important that an informed debate is carried out in the campaign, culminating in a final decision as to YČND's status through an emergency resolution to CND conference in December...

Tom Rigby, Tracey Doyle, John Green, Satvinder Singh, Melissa Oliver, YCND National Committee members LPYS summer camp, arguing for more active