[Last Saturday's conference of the Stalinist-run Liaison Committee…]

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Last Saturday's conference of the Stalinist-run Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions marked the end of that organisation as we have known it.

Its afternoon session at the Friends Meeting House was broken up by the refusal of the chairman-veteran Communist Party member Kevin Halpin-to recognise any form of demo cratic procedures or rules of debate within the conference.

Matters came to a head after the morning session had seen a parade of hand-picked speakers endorse the resolution which, the chairman, stressed, would be the only business in front of the conference.

No amendments or alternative resolutions or proposals could be allowed, he insisted.

With the steel strike in full swing and legal action underway to destroy union rights, the CPAlan Thornett drafted resolution avoided-not surprisingly-the main question of the hour: the fight for an indefinite general strike to bring down the Tory government.

Instead it merely called for support for the South Wales day of action on January 28, for more extended action on March 10, and for a one-day strike of "General Strike proportions" on the TUC day of action on May 14 -in four months' time!

But it was ciear that the resolution had been drafted to take account of the position of the Socialist Workers Party, whose supporters turned out to constitute a majority of the conference delegates.

The SWP agreed with the CP in making no call for indefinite General Strike action. Instead a leaflet put out at the door by their front 'Rank and File' organisation called on delegates to support and press for a vote on the following nonpolitical resolution.

"This Conference calls on the LCDTU and the Rank and File Defend Our Unions Committee to unite their efforts to campaign for defiance of the Employment Bill and other associated anti-union legislation. We also call on the two organisations to jointly campaign for the TUC to call a one day general stoppage against the anti-union laws.

«We further call upon the LCDTU and the Rank and File Defend Our Unions Committee to jointly convene a national delegate conference of bona fide trade union delegates as soon after the Employment Bill becomes law as is practicable.

«We call on the LCDTU and Rank and File Defend Our Unions Committee to organise this conference in order to plan a campaign of protest and defiance against the new laws."

After the lunch break, Alan Thornett, a delegate from the TGWU 5/293 Branch, attempted to raise a point of order on the issue of speaking rights at the conference.

Lost vote

He was obstructed by the chair, and refused access to the microphone. Amid widespread protests, Halpin put to the vote a proposal "that we take the next speaker"-only to lose by 21 nespite this defeat for the chair, Thornett was still not allowed access to the microphone, but was allowed to raise the question of whether the chair intended to allow time for any speaker-such as himself-who was critical of the resolution. He pointed out that every speaker so far had fully backed the resolution.

Halpin declared he had no intention of hearing such speakers, and ruled against the point of order, calling at once on AUEW Assistant General Secretary Ken Brett to deliver a dreary 25-minute speech.

As Brett came to a halt, leading SWP spokesman John Deason raised a point of order. In contrast to Thornett he was immediately given the microphone.

But Deason was not interested in pressing for political discussion. He demanded only that the part of the Rank and File resolution calling for a joint Rank and FileLCDTU conference be put to the vote.

Even this was too much for Halpin, who ruled him out of order, and stated again that only the platform resolution would be voted on.

When Deason called for this ruling to be put to a vote he was 'strongly backed by a clear majority of the conference.

But Halpin was adamant. As scuffles broke out, he decided that the conference had got out of hand, moved to a hasty vote on the platform's resolution, and promptly closed the conference at 3.00 p.m. -just one hour after the lunch break!

The break-up of the conference was plainly the responsib ility of the Stalinists' insistence on bureaucratic suppression of any political opposition, under conditions where the CP's influence in the unions has declined to such an extent that they can no longer as on countless occasions in the past guarantee themseives a majority in a conference of the LCDTU-their main front organisation.

But the role of the SWPrefusing to politically challenge the Stalinists, and intervening simply on the apolitical basis of "unity"-indicates that they are set to step politically and organisationally into the gap left by the decline of the CP in the unions.

As the forces they mobilised for the conference indicated it is now the SWP as much as the CP that is primarily peddling the line of militant protest politics, in which the readiness • of workers to fight is channelled away from the necessary political struggle against the trade union and Labour bureauA full political debate on the way forward is necessary. A recall of the abortive LCDTU conference, this time on a democratic and open basis, could create conditions for such a debate.

An organising committee should be set up from among the political: organisations represented at Saturday's con ference, together with the independent forces that oppose Stalinist methods.

That committee should organise a recall conference that would not be controlled by any one movement but would give the opportunity to each movement and the independent forces to present what they see as the way forward for the working class in the present crisis. The WSL would fully and actively participate in such a conference.

The steel strike in Scotland is now a month old and so far over 1,000 ISTC workers out of the 4,500 workforce at Ravenscraig have volunteered for picketing duties.

The picketing has been extended to manufacturing industry in the Motherwell and Glasgow area, much of which has virtually no steel stocks, and the picketed plants have trailerloads of finished material lying blacked in the plant.

Flying pickets have been ranging as far as Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen in an attempt to prevent steel moving and stop the oil rigs from operating.

However, despite the fact that the NCCC representing engineers, boilermakers, etc., has taken over the picketing of Ravenscraig, the strike committee continues to refuse help in picketing from other groups of workers.

For instance, ISTC pickets outside GKN in South Street, Glasgow, refused to allow workers from Albion and Yarrow shipyards to join them.

Yet these workers correctly see that the winning of the steel strike is vital to their interests.

If the strike is lost not only will shipbuilding have virtually no chance of winning their 25% claim, but the Scottish shipbuilding, mining and truck manfacturing industries (all nationalised) will be totally decimated.

The strike committee must combine with delegates from other sections of workers such as water workers, dockers and shipyard workers to build councils of action to coordinate the building of a general strike to bring down the Tories.

The strike committee has also made a number of deals with steel stockholders whereby the stockholder shuts down for

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PHOTO: John Sturrock, Report • Renom

steel Ou