Renationalisation call in place of anti-Tory action

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In a decision that outgoing Party chairman Frank Allaun singled out for particular attention in his summing up speech, the Labour Conference called on a future Labour government to renationalise without compensation sections of publicly owned state assets sold off by the Tories.

The motion, moved by Clive Jenkins on behalf of ASTMS, was openly intended as a means of frightening off potential City investors.

Boardrooms

As Labour NEC member and ASTMS chairman Doug Hoyle declared:

"I want this to be the talking point over lunch in the City boardrooms for the next few days.

"It would be a very imprudent and foolish investment manager who used insurance or pension funds to buy these stocks."

There is indeed little doubt the conference policy will form a talking point, and will no doubt be the butt of a few urbane jokes in stockbrokers' cocktail parties-as speculators and bankers weigh up the slim •chances of a Labour leadership enacting such a policy while in Allaun With or without a few constitutional defeats for the Callaghan-Healey leadership, there is no way a ritualistic conference decision is going to turn these leaders and a parliamentary party steeped in class 'collaboration and gradual ¡reform ihto a revolutionary socialist leadership prepared to confiscate capitalist property. :

Even the successful motion instructing a future government to put all conference motions into practice "at the opportune time" cannot alter this factsince for a reformist leader there is never an "opportune time" to expropriate the capitalist class!

Reality

The resolution's only opponent indeed hastened to point out the harsh reality that the policy would bring a Labour government into:

''A massive confrontation of unparallelled ferocity with the entire British and international business sactor* There is of course no way that any of the existing Labour eaders would engage in such a confrontation.

Indeed Callaghan has not yet been criticised by even a single one of Labour's 'left' for his brazen statement of ' Party opposition to mass working class action designed to bring down the reactionary Tory And of course neither Clive bring down Thatcher. policy.

Yet it is only on the basis of A prolonged standing ovation and extensive press