Is there room fol socialists in the

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expun eu du vigamsa- tionary worker-presi aLEl tional matter, the political Chairman of the TGWU character of the moves 5/60 branch in British LeyThESE PREMISES At its January meeting the General Committee of the Oxford City Labour Party voted by the narrowest possible margin (37-35) to expel Ted Heslin, an Executive Committee member and delegate from Blackwells TGWU/ ACTSS branch, from the Labour Party.

The charge against Heslin was that he was a supporter of the WSL and that he sold Socialist Press.

Ambiguous The right wing, ur der the leadership of arch witchhunter John Power (President of Oxford Trades Council and City Labour Party Trade Union Liaison Officer), brought the charges under an ambiguous clause in Labour Party standing orders which is designed to exclude political organisations with seperate branches and programme from affiliating to the For all the right wing's attempts to reduce the aronnicaPHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report More Labour Party rebels: Southwark march of about 250 in protest against On 22 January six Labour Councillors were disciplined by the Labour Group on Newham against Ted Heslin were clearly spelt out by his supporters on the GC.

The bureaucracy in the Oxford trade union movement and the Labour Party has taken a hammering recently and a witch-hunt is always the final recourse of the isolated bureaucrats.

Socialist Press has reported last year's TGWU moves against the Cowley 9; the situation in the Oxford Labour Party is closely bound up with the victimisations within the TGWU and Trades Council.

Last October and November the GC voted to refuse membership applications from Dr. Ken Williamson and Peter McIntyre on the grounds that they were supporters of the WSL.

The initial objections were made by John Power and Tony Williamson a reactinnarer mortarinrioct and LABOUR OUR REDEE Councillors Bob Smith and a planned new Town Hall. gramme publicised in Socialist Press, which contained a clear call for driving the right wing land's Cowley Body Plant.

Despite the fact that more than one third of the G.C. voted against the witch-hunters to accept Ken Williamson and Peter McIntyre into membership, Power pursued the charges against Heslin, and has now split the Oxford Labour Party down the middle.

Power WILL DIE Jim Greening As a Labour Party member, Ted Heslin has a 2½ year record of fighting for the kind of consistent socialist policies advocated by Socialist Press.

He has been a delegate to the G.C., a member of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the AntiRacism Committee:

Recently a resolution from his union branch calling for an end to wage control and the removal of the Callaghan/Healey leadership provoked a bitter debate and drew a clear line between those who perceive the crisis of leadership in the labour movement and those fakers and talkers who are not prepared to carry out any fight for a socialist programme.

The fight against Ted Heslin's expulsion, and for the admission of socialists into the Labour Party, raises. the dilemma now confronting all Labour Party members.

The very right wingers who are now driving militant socialists out of the party are at the same time the most outspoken and vigorous defenders of the Callaghan leadership's catastrophic course of scabbing, strike breaking, wage controls and other Tory policies which if not challenged are certain to cost Labour a defeat at the next General Election.

Why is it only the opponents of these right wing leaders who are hounded, witch-hunted and expelled from the Labour In Oxford, for instance, the Labour GC includes Lady McCarthy, right wing • 23 Excluded -Peter McIntyre chairman of the Area Health Authority which is currently carrying through a savage programme of cuts in the health service.

Yet it is not McCarthy, but Dr. Ken Williamson, well-known as an active opponent of the cuts, who is excluded from the Labour Under these conditions no left winger or socialistwhether or not he/she at present supports the policies of Socialist Press-can consider himself safe from the threat of bureaucratic expulsion.

witch-hunts Power and his cronies have already served notice that the witch-hunts will continue.

Meanwhile Ken Williamson, Peter McIntyre and Ted Heslin are to pursue their rights of appeal to the NEC.

It is time that all Labour Party militants turned their attentions to the real divisions within their party and took a firm stand on the right of socialists to negotiations and the Labour Councils had a responsibility to support this demand, which reflects the drive to the breaking argue for their policies within its ranks.

The Party's National Executive holds a majority of Tribunite MPs and delegates who proclaim themselves left wing socialists.

From their past record, these people have proved themselves unwilling to fight for the removal of their Party's scab leaders.

Where will they stand now on this move by the right wing to oust socialists and deny them the right to belong to the Labour Party?

It is no accident that the witch-hunt comes at a time of deepening crisis for the Labour Party as it moves ever further out of step with the recent developments within the working-class.

PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report Only Socialist Press, paper of the Workers Socialist League has put forward a principled policy on which socialists within the Labour Party can struggle against the betrayals of their leadership.

It is for this reason that while the tame cats of the Militant group and other self-styled "opponents" of Callaghan are welcomed inside the Labour Party, Socialist Press supporters have come under repeated witch-hunting attacks.

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