Tribunite blocks troops out call

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"The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all British troops from Ireland: self-determimation for the Irish people as a whole; PO:V status and release for all political prisoners .. "

... so read a resolution from the Richmond Town ward of the Barnes and Richmond Constituency Labour Party submitted to its General Management Committee on June 18 for discussion for the Labour Party's Annual Conference.

The resolution had the unanimous support of the Ward, which had held such a position for over the previous year. However its first attempt to win the General Committee to TGWU bureaucrat Todd: behind sell-outs at Garners and Sandersons. conference had been sent out so late that many delegates-and perhaps mosthad at best received it on the day before the conference.

Yet while the resolution had not been voted on by branches, amendments were only acceptable if they had. Two which arrived on the day of the conference were ruled out of order.

So was a third from the USDAW Manchester packing branch of the Co-op put forward by ICL supporters, which had arrived in time, but was said by the chairman Dick North, to be too complicated to discuss.

This position was decisively overturned by the conference in the only sharp vote taken.

When two points of policy from the resolution (which was never read out) were put, the conference overwhelmingly carried a position against import What became clear was that the Rank and File these policies had fallen heavily and predictably the second discussion was heated.

However the final voting revealed a split vote of ten votes for and ten against.

But Tribunite vice-chairman Walter Wolfgang refused to make a casting vote and so the resolution fell.

However, the Richmond Town Ward will not be deterred and will prepare for the next fight on this crucial question.

Its ordinary motion calling for a demonstration demanding the disbanding of the Special Patrol Group and a workers' inquiry into the death of Blair Peach was not taken as an emergency item at the GMC meeting and will be a subject for discussion at the next. organisers, presumably making deals with Stalinists or Tribunites, were prepared to manoeuvre to prevent that vote being taken.

A call for the opening of the books of companies to rank and file committees was . lost clearly but not heavily.

It is no surprise, of course, that the conterence was led so firmly away from politics. That is the politics of the SWP through and through.

The working class does not need more rank and file 'old fashioned trade unionism'. It needs revolutionary politics which are not limited to anti-Tory tirades and which put forward a consistent struggle against the labour traitors in the trade unions and in the Militancy without politics offer no way forward for workers.

What makes this conference different is that it is clear that the leftward turning layers within the working class are in severe danger of being kidnapped by the SWP who will inhibit and divert their development.

When one delegate launched a tirade against Lenin, Marx and Trotsky he was greeted with indulgent laughter from the SWP leadership. In reality he caught the spirit of the conference.

If the IMG seek unity with such an organisation then those of their members who are serious about building a revolutionary party should be aware that this unity is the opposite of revolutionary politics.