Callaghan wants expulsion of socialists-not Militant

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Speakers from the WSL and TILC sections onway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1 Inner London has witnessed an impressive series of meetings called under the banner of the South East Region TUC to develop a campaign against Tory proposals to dismantle the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).

Massive attendances by trade unionists. and parents have testified to the determination of the working class in London to defend the education service which must be seen as a historical gain for the labour movement.

The significance of the ILEA to the workers of London is that it exerts authority and power to raise money across borough boundaries, and can therefore force the Tory boroughs like Westminster who receive enormous rates income from West End office blocks, to contribute to the cost of providing education in the poorer working class boroughs such as Tower Hamlets.

Break up

Ever since Labour established a firm hold over the old London County Council the Tories have struggled to break up the unified municipality of London precisely to avoid this economic redistribution in favour of the working class areas.

In the early 1960s they hoped that local reorganisation would give them back control over London.

They were unpleasantly surprised when Labour took control in the first Greater London Council and proceeded to build council housing in the middle of the Tory suburban heartlands and then to make them pay for the privilege.

Under Labour control, ILEA was built up into one of the best education authorities in the rountry with much Inwer nunil. wunny, win mucu lowe pupuTory GLC leader Horace Cutler Tickets wuge vuuglas buel sEIYEu last week as a guide to the way Callaghan and the Labour right wing are now hoping to carry through the expulsion of socialists.

Eden-a leading member of the crypto-Tory Social Democratic Alliance-had been correctly expelled by Hornsey Labour Party. He had appealed to the NEC hoping that, as in the case of his SDA colleagues Stenhen Hacoler and Roder Far the expulsion would be set aside in a gesture towards Tony Benn's "broad church" view of the Labour Party.

Benn indeed did argue against endorsing the expulsion. The same position was argued scale authorities cannot afford to provide, and which contribute considerably to the welfare of London as a whole.

If the Tories succeed in splitting up the ILEA and forcing the Inner London boroughs to operate the education service at the level of individual boroughs, there is no doubt that there will be a savage reduction in the quality of schooling in London.

Thare will alen inaritohirr disu mevitabiy Committee and its chairman, Eric Heffer.

But it was Callaghan-echoing recent statements by shadow minister Neil Kinnockwho insisted that the expulsion of this right winger should go through.

Lines should be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable forms of opposition within the party, he argued.

People who were "so disruptive that they would tear the party apart" should not be in the Labour Party, he said.

The NEC voted 13-10 for Callaghan's position.

Challenged as to whether he meant to include the Militant tendency, under this heading Callaghan insisted that he did inner boroughs.

But the main aim of the Tories in breaking up ILEA is to force cuts in London's education spending. The ILEA raises its money by passing on a demand (technically called a precept) to the GLC and the boroughs which they must raise.

These powers make the ILEA independent of Heseltine's controls over the individual local councils, and this is what most irks them.

The campaign to defend ILEA is now supported by NALGO, NUT, NUS/AWT, NUPE, TGWU, GMWU, and the GLC Staff Association, and is coordinated through the SERTUC.

Long serving bureaucrats and wheeler dealers are rushing to get onto the platforms of the defence campaign.

The notorious Jack Dromey has been appointed by SERTUC to run the whole campaign.

It may well be that the deadening hand or the bureaucracy will find itself incapable of holding the campaign back from confrontation with the Few of those present at the first round of mass meetings have been prepared to take seriously Dromey's proposal to seek allies among "progressive' Tories.

Most of the applause was reserved for speakers from the floor correctly demanding industrial action and occupation of ILEA facilities to prevent the break-up.

Heseltine "I have never said that have never said that Militants should be expelled, and I would be grateful if you would not put words in my mouth".

Kinnock, however-a leading Tribunite-does not seem so convinced that even the toothless Militant group should be tolerated in the Labour Party.

And he, like Callaghan, is openly committed to the expulsion of those left wingersincluding supporters of Socialist Press-who reject the Militant strategy of tail-ending 'left' MPs and bureaucrats and insist on fighting for principled socialist policies of nationalisation without compensation under workers' management and the removal of Labour's right wing But the right wing is in an extremely uncomfortable position to launch a root and branch purge of socialists.

This was revealed by the fact that the NEC was forced to bow to rank and file militancy on the cuts issue and restore the Labour whip to left wing councillors in Bristol and Manchester who voted against spending cuts proposed by right wing Labour The Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh (RSS) is a vicious fascist organisation in India.

The threat it poses to the Indian working class is growing, in the light of the capitalist economic and political crisis and lack of revolutionary leadership of the Indian working class.

Acting as a spearhead to smash the organisations of the working. class through the medium of religion, caste and chavinism, the RSS (the so-called "cultural' front of the parliamentary, party, the Jan Sangh) practices a full fascist Drawing its support from high caste landlords and the urban petty-bourgeoisie (especially the trading castes), the RSS has been responsible for countless incidents of communal violence and agitation against minority groups, militants and the workers' parties.

Whipping up propaganda against' other religious minorities and the lower castes it ultimately seeks to combine the perservation of the exploitative caste system (which is itself utilised by the bourgeoisie, the landlords and the state to impose their own class rule with national chauvinism.

A clear class response based on the strength of the independent organisations of the Indian masses and which points to the need for workers self defence to crush the fascist menace remains an urgent task in India.

This month after a long struggle by militants in the Brent Labour Party, clear evidence has emerged to show the penetration of the Hindu Swayemsevak Sangh (HSS), the fraternal organisation of the RSS in Britain, into the British labour movement.

An inquiry into the activities of the HSS, set up by concerned militants, reveals that the HSS shares the same constitution as the RSS.

It also provided an audience to two leading fascists in the Indian parliament, Nanaji Deshmukh and S. Bhandari, and And it was underlined by the NEC's rejection of a plea by Oxford CLP for the reopening of the case of Ted Heslin, the Socialist Press supporter whose expulsion from the Party has been finally overruled after 18 months of appeals.

Accordingly Callaghan appears to be shifting his tactics slightly. Hoping that as an outcome of the party inquiry trade union bureaucrats at local and national level will draft additional right wing forces onto GMCs, last week he' stressed that it was up to constituency parties to "safeguard the constitution of the party" and take action against those they consider to be "disruptors"

If this had been the case in Oxford, Heslin would long ago have been successfully expelled.

The expulsion of right winger Douglas Eden can thus be seen as a sprat to catch a mackerel: it is an ostentatious display of "even-handed" justice by a Callaghan leadership aching to get its hands on the windpipe of the left. upholds identical RSS.

In the struggle to oppose such an organisation, militants were obstructed at every step by the right wing social democrats of the Labour Party.

The chairman of Brent South CLP, Len Snow has not only expressed solidarity with, and defended the HSS, but also sharply condemned militants for highlighting the issue.

Recently, in the face of a growing outery at the existence of such an organisation as the HSS, Len Snow has somewhat retreated to adopt a "neutral"

"We in the Labour Party should be wary of getting involved in Indian politics, just as we should avoid West Indian affairs, Israeli politics or those of any other foreign country."

The Labour MP for Brent South, Laurie Pavitt, has stated:

"I refuse to divide my comrades (!) into "left wing". "right wing" or any other label-socialism means unity in diversity."!

In their refusal to pursue politics that are in the interests of the immigrant working class in Britain, these class collaborationist misleaders instead surround themselves with the most reactionary elements of the immigrant petty bourgeoisie.

Meanwhile, the leadership of the Brent Labour Party is shielding A. Sharma, one of the leaders of the Wembley HSS who is also a member of the Militants in Brent • Labour movement must contront such rank opportunists as Snow and Pavitt and the left talkers in the Labour Party.

They must enlist the aid of the organisations of Indian workers and the trade union movement in this task.

The fight must be taken up for the expulsion of HSS scum from the labour movement.

But as this case makes clear, that fight is inextricably bound with the struggle to expose and remove present misleaders in the labour movement who refuse to take up a fight in the interests of the working class.

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