Islington left sees light at the end of the tunnel

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Important developments have been recorded in the long and complicated story of the Islington North Labour Party over recent weeks.

The battle of over ten years against a right wing group which has been accused of almost every form of sharp practice from packing meetings to completely illegal expulsions-and much else besides.

Occasional reference to these events has been made in Socialist Press over the years, particuiarly during the period in 1978 when the right wing majority on the GMC refused to follow the National Executive and to reinstate Keith Vaness.

Comrade Vaness, who spoke on the issue at a conference of the Campaign for Democracy in the Labour • Movement, was expelled by the right wing for the 'crime' of criticising the right wing MP, Michael O 'Halloran.

Readers of Socialist Press might perhaps be excused for some confusion about what has happened since that tune.

Dustbins

If they have seen London's New Standard they will have emerged with the view that the campaign consisted of searches through the dustbins of right wingers, photographing them going into meetings, and sending poison pen letters, threatening the spastic child of Michael O 'Halloran.

Those who find these fantasies difficult to believe will have been able to see a more sophisticated version of the same story in a recent issue of the New Statesman.

Here they could have read an article by the editor Bruce Page to explain that a small group of ultra-right wingers had broken away recently to set themselves up as 'Social Democrats'. This, he tried to explain as part of the 'grass roots' of the Wilhiams/ Jenkins/Owen gang'.

In some ways the New Statesman analysis is even more fanciful than the routine witch-hunts of the ordinary capitalist press.

The account appeared to be unaware of the character of these 'grass roots' One of their leaders is Jim Evans, current Mayor of the borough, who tried to lead a walk out from a recent GMC (at which he had lost the vote) by squaring up to a delegate who moved next business.

Another of the group is Pat Shearan, former bouncer and now manager of the Gresham ballroom on the Holloway Road and described in the New Statesman as 'chunky' and approachable".

Boycotted He is now posing as the detender of "traditional Labour values' in advertisements bought in the local Islington Gazette, a paper being boycotted by trade unionists at the moment because the proprietors are involved in the dispute at the Camden Journal.

These people are . quite different from the claret-swigging Euro-worshippers of the newly formed Social Democratic Party.

They have not got their base in the merchant banks and the EEC gravy trains. The tiny group of: ultra-right wingers in Islington is more into much tinier gravy trains, the mayoral chains of office and the fame' of getting their grinning visages into the local paper.

The events over recent months within the Islington North Labour Party are of such Byzantine complexity that it is almost impossible to give a brief summary.

However, the main developments have amounted to the fact that the group opposed to O 'Halloran and his cronies, after years of effort, recruited more and more people into the Party and into affiliated bodies like the Cooperative Party.

One ward at least, now has a membership of over 400, greater than the entire constituency party of South Islington.

As a result of this, they have finally defeated the proO 'Halloran group.

The tactic of the proO Halloran-ites was at first to retuse to accept new members.

When this failed they tried other means. When they had control of membership books they have then produced their own very doubtful people as members, for example in the women's section.

They have secured affiliations as from some TGWU branches which have not been clearly agreed by the branches themselves.

When they still lose, as in recent meetings of the GMC, they have tried to prevent meetings from taking decisions.

When it seemed certain that they would lose, they have boycotted meetings as happened at the St. George's ward AGM, and at the recalled AGM of the GMC.

Then they have cried 'foul' gone to the capitalist media pleading "infiltration' , alleging poison pen letters and any other fanciful inventions that occur to them.

Owen: recruits in Islington In the summer of 1980 during the selection of the GLC candidate, the majority of the Executive attempted to impose a short list of five-at least two of whom soon afterwards joined the Social Democrats, while the rest were all extreme right wingers.

When this list was rejected in its entirety at a GMC meeting. they tried to prevent any further selection by beginning a round of challenges to their opponents on the GMC.

Since no decision could be made locally the matter went to the London Regional Council of the Labour Party. There it was agreed eventually to select Steve Bundred as the prospective GMC candidate.

Comrade Bundred, though not on the original right wing short list. was actually nominated by every ward and has the strong support of the current GMC majority.

He has since said in an interview in Socialist Organiser that he sees the challenge to the Tories as a major task for the Labour GLC and stated the necessity to be prepared to dety the law in order to do this.

The weeks following the selection of Steve Bundred in the autumn of 1980 were cicarly desperate for the old guard supporters of O'Halloran.

When it came to the branch AGMs in January, it gradually became clear that they would have great difficulty retaining control.

In Junction Ward they locked the doors as part of their desperate effort to hold on.

In St. George's Ward they did not turn up.

In Hillmarton, which they unexpectedly lost, they got through a motion of no confidence in the GMC delegates before they had even got to attend any meetings!

Lost election

Meanwhile they rapidly increased their trade union delegates.

The Constituency Secretary Morgan Lear suddenly became an acredited delegate from the TGWU, though his membership of this union was not previously Known.

He had long been known to be in NALGO, as an architect for the Islington Council.

Despite all their best efforts, however, the O'Halloran group did not get a majority in the AGM of the GMC.

They lost the election for President by one or two votes and community activist and left winger Maureen Leigh was elected.

At the initial meeting, once it had been established that by this vote they were in a minority, they prevented the meeting from taking any further decisions.

When the GMC was reconvened, with the agreement of the Labour Party national agent, the O'Halloran group realised they would not win. Their opponents were clected to all the positions since all but two or three O'Halloran-ites failed to turn up.

These developments are of considerable significance for the labour movement in Islington, quite independent of the national political situation.

The old gang which has run the council has suffered considerable defeat.

Thus council leader Gerry Southgate has been voted off the GMC.

Bill Bayliss, his lieutenant and former leader, has failed in his efforts to retain control in the Cooperative Party, temporarily closed down in the course of the battle.

Social Services chairperson Audrey Bayliss has been faced with mass demonstrations and strikes in her department not just against cuts but also against the dictatorial methods of carrying them out.

The crisis has caused the group to break up.

The extreme right, led by Evans, Shearan and o 'ers, has defected altogether, and used the Social Democratic Party as a desperate and almost certainly unsuccessful attempt to retain some political support.

Shamefaced

They have gained the support of former secretary Morgan Lear, who is agent for the Social Democrats in both South and North Islington for the GLO elections.

Other parts of the O 'Halloran group have in a shamefaced way begun to turn up to some election meetings Strikers protest at O 'Halloran no s: upporters of Militant on the GM( in North Islington, the anti- O 'Halloran group is not in any way politically homogeneOus.

The real political fight will now begin within the Party.

This will no doubt take a number of forms.

the candidature of Steve Bundred in the Greater London Council to the point of developing the struggle to bring down the Tories.

It will be necessary to be completely principled in the forthcoming battles, despite a virtually inevitable witch-hunt start.

But this minute did not appear on the circulated written minutes which were sent out to GMC delegates and approved at the next GMC meeting.

Efforts that were made to stop this rotten procedure proved unsuccessful.

Clearly the right wing concluded that hostility to Fauld's politics within the local labour movement have reached a stage where only bureaucratic manoeuvres could maintain his seat.

In an area devastated by the capitalist crisis with derelict factories, the highest infant mortality in Britain and the lowest percentage of pupils reaching higher education, the struggle for a representative who will defend the interests ot the people of Smethwick raises centrally the question of leadership and policy within the workers' movement.

Though many in the local party are aware that Faulds has nothing to offer, the stumbling block remained the lack of any clear agreement on what 's political positions in 1977 when efforts are made to reselect a prospective parliamentary candidate to replace O 'Halloran.

There is also an opportunity now to fight not simply for the defeat of the Southgate-Bayliss group on islington Council, but for alternative policies.

This must include close identification with tenants' organisations and trade unionists locally, the development of socialist policies for the forthcoming local council elections, and the selection of candidates prepared to fight to the end against the right wing locally and the Tories nationally. individuals or policies are needed to replace him.

Lack of time prevented any serious campaign to win nominations for the four potential alternative candidates.

As we go to press it seems almost certain that the stampeded reselection procedure will result in a vote by the GMC to endorse Faulds' name on a "short-list of one" for the selection conference on April 11.

WOMAN WORKER

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For one thing, the GMC will need to continue its support for

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