Take up 'troops out' fight

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PRESS It was ironic that the Labour Party conference which voted for measures to increase Party democracy wound up by voting to support the continued denial of basic democratic rights to the Irish people.

A show of hands produced a majority against a motion calling for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from the occupied six counties, despite the fact that heavy and consistent lobbying by delegates had forced the topic onto the conference agenda against the recommendation of the NEC.

Collaboration

But many of those voting for a continuation of British military repression were trade union delegates expressing not the official policy of their organisations, but their own individual commitment to collaboration with British imperialism.

Only a tiny handful of union conferences have discussed Ireland at all in the last few years. In some unions, such as the TGWU, the issue is bundled bureaucratically off the agenda every two years without discussion.

The British labour movement has an obligation to support the historic liberation struggle by the Irish people.

This obligation can only be fulfilled if militants in every union branch and CLP take up the fight for the war in Ireland to be discussed at every level of their organisation, and a policy of immediate withdrawal of British troops adopted:

A useful starting point for such a struggle in the Labour Party is the fact that three NEC members-Dennis Skinner, Joan Maynard and Les Huckfield-voted for the troops out' motion in the NEC.

These 'lefts' must be called upon to translate this correct stand into a serious struggle for the troops out policy throughout the labour and trade union movement and for the removal of the openly pro-imperialist Callaghan-Healey-Mason leadership.

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STROOPS OUT NOW!