Lpys Conference Report Militant Offer Anything - Except Action

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Angry youth march against the Tories, but need concrete policies The Labour Party is growing in size and now has its highest individual membership since the war.

Growing too is the Labour Party Young Socialists. This year's annual LPYS conference was attended by 2,300 delegates and visitors and there are now over 300 active YS branches. Infact it was the biggest Young Socialist Conference since 1964 when the organisation was very different from that of today.

Then the Socialist Labour League (forerunner of the WRP) held a majority in the organisation which claimed a membership of 25,000 at its peak.

After the bureaucratic closing down of the YS and the witch-hunting of the SLL out of the Labour Party the membership slumped.

In 1970, when the Militant tendency first gained a majority on the National Committee it had a pitiful 800 members.

This has now grown to an estimated 8,000 members today-but of course not all of them are supporters of the Militant group.

The 20th Annual Conference of the LPYS held over the Easter weekend in Bridlington saw no significant change in the policies of the Young Socialists.

Outraged

But as one delegate said, "in the labour movement actions speak louder than words", One of the things which outraged many of those present at the conference was the fact that a debate on gay rights was bureaucratically ruled off the agenda.

Six resolutions had been submitted on this subject after some deplorable incidents of gay baiting at last year's LPYS summer camp.

But the Standing Orders Committee nevertheless ruled it off the conference agenda while other subjects on which fewer resolutions had been • submitted were discussed.

The LPYS has yet to vote on a position on homosexuality. But when this was sharply taken up, it was met by the most vile gay-baiting imaginable at a labour movement conference. (Comments like "don't support the opposition they're just a bunch of queers" were uttered by one Militant supporter).

So a petition was organised which was signed by over 50 delegates and 200 visitors and presented to the new LPYS National Committee, calling for a proper discussion on gay rights at this year's LPYS summer camp.

This campaign quite obviously needs to be supported in the Young Socialists alongside a challenge to the Militant's backward and puritanical views on drugs and sexuality, which are quite alien to a revolutionary youth movement.

A composite resolution put forward al the demands Ior equal rights for women, maternity leave, nurseries, abortion and equal pay-but left out any mention of special means of organising women who are doubly oppressed as both wage slaves' and 'slaves of slaves'.

Supporters of the Women's Fightback campaign argued that the LPYS should organise an LPYS women's conference to discuss these questions-but this was defeated.

Again, this is evidently the norm in the LPYS, because YS members were selling 'plunderwoman' plastic bags-which carry cartoon of Thatcher with exaggerated bosoms and bottom on it and attack Thatcher purely on sexual grounds.

Quite rightly many young women took physical exception to this, and tore them up!

Typing At previous LPYS conferences, calls to affiliate to CND have been voted down.

The same looked likely this year until a miraculously produced National Committee statement (which said "nuclear war is not posed as an immediate threat?" revealed a last minute typing error (to hoots of derision) and the proposal that the LPYS should affiliate to CND was rapidly inserted!

Many delegates were still unhappy at the LPYS leadership's half hearted attitude to the anti-war mn.. and supported an tive composite motion ing for: no Cruise in Britan, no successor to Polaris; unilateral nuclear disarmament; British withdrawal from NATO and opposition to arms spending.

But a National Committee member spent her 20 minutes from the platform arguing against the composite on very dubious grounds.

In particular she argued that Britain should not withdraw from NATO (claiming it wouldn't make any difference).

The recent events in Brixton were centrally brought up at the conference and there was a unanimous view that the rioting was not a race riot but a riot against the state authority which in its most direct form in South London is the police force.

It was agreed that there should be a labour movement inquiry into the events and not Scarman's proposed one-man whitewash job. And there was a call for the local labour movement to begin organising street committees and defence squads to prevent the massive police harassment in the area.

Supporters of the Militant tendency remained firmly in control and did not even come close to losing a single vote.

Even so, despite the Militant's overwhelming, bureaucratic and monolithic majority a significant revolutionary opposition emerged in the shape of supporțers of Barricade and Red Youth.

Their limited number of delegates didn't prevent them from making a substantial impact on the conference sessions, being the only consistent opposition apart from the unprincipled, right wing, anti-Trotskyist alliance _"Clause 4"

Fringe meeting

A fringe meeting on Saturday evening organised by Barricade (youth paper in sympathy with Socialist Organiser) which had a fraternal speaker from Red Youth, (paper of the Socialist Youth League, in sympathy with Socialist Press), attracted about 100 delegates and visitors and a Labour CND meeting attracted the combined opposition of about 200 people the following evening.

Some of th le Militant tendency's politic appear to offer formally correct Marxist positions ith which we would agree. But these within overall political perspective which is reformist.

Thus the first morning of discussion on unemployment and general economic policy saw many correct points made about the attacks of capitalism on working class living standards.

But when it came to the sharp, point on tree rejected a call for ".. out General Strike to kick out the Tories" and adopted instead a call for a "24-hour general strike":

Again on the debates on the Tory cuts in public spending the conference voted for a composite resolution calling for "opposition to the cuts by all possible means" and no rent or rate increases.

But the majority voted against a resolution which would • have committed the LPYS to supporting the Lambeth conferences against the cuts and the present wave of rent strikes actually taking place.

Whenever a delegate urged some form of direct action Militant supporters would counterpose it with their cure-all -the nationalisation of the top 200 monopolicies and the return of a Labour government committed socialist policies.

But the view was expressed by Militant supporters and platform speakers that the LPYS should advance demands for the democratisation of the police. They argued that only the massive police presence in the area should be withdrawn.

And they are also in favour of unionisation of the police and armed forces.

The conference voted for re sed these positions and against an emergency resolution from Weymouth LPYS and a resolution from Coventry NE calling respectively for complete police withdrawal and support to black defence groups.

The debate on Ireland saw a long list of Militant supporters (ending up with leading member Tony Saunois, the LIYS representative on the Labour Party NEC) vigourously and scurrilously denourice any support whatsoever to the republican movement and in particular Bobby Sands MP.

They argued the reactionary line (which they share with the Stalinists of the Communist Party) of equating the Republicans and Unionists as "twin evils".

The election of Bobby Sands as MP took the wind completely out of their sails as they tried to argue the republicans (especially the Provisionals) had "no working class support".

Pro-imperialist

Their objectively pro-imperialist policies were challenged by another emergency resolution congratulaand calling for POW status for republican prisoners.

As one conference delegate speaking in favour of the emergency resolution pointed out:

"When Arthur Scargill spoke this morning las fraternal speaker] and said he is prepared to go to jail to defy the Tories Employment Act, the conference quite rightly gave him a huge cheer.

But when Bobby Sands MP says he is prepared to die fighting British neperialism, denounces him and implies he is a murderer!"

So despite Militant's anticapitalist rhetoric on Ireland they stand on the same side as Thatcher and Labour's right wing leadership, pursuing their bi-partisan policies of cringing support for Britain's military repression.

And the Militant's own Irish newspaper Militant Irish Monthly' had only one tiny article on the hunger strikes in 12 pages!

The Labour Committee on Ireland, the only body in the Labour Party fighting for Troops Out Now held a fringe meeting during one of the lunch breaks, but the conference voted against affiliating to this committee.

Militant's utter sectarianism was demonstrated when the National Committee recommended opposition to a resolution urging support for the Rank and File Mobilising Committee which has played a leading role in defending and extending democratic reforms in the Labour Party during 1980/ 81.

Even while the LPYS will maintain its nominal affiliation to the Committee, the grounds on which the LPYS NC recommended opposition was that it gave too much credibility to it!

Later on, though, the conference passed a resolution increasing the LPYS policies Socialist Press pamphlet outining programme of actior against the Tory offensive. trom WSL, BM * 3291. Price 45p including postag Lonuan WCIN 3XX.

S-SWe2

age limit from 25 to a laughable 30 years old.

As one delegate, speaking against it sarcastically commented, "why not 40, 50 or 60? Why bother to have a youth organisation at all?"

In the final afternoon session many visitors' patience with the bureaucratic handling of the conference finally ran-out after an emergency resolution on El Salvador was not taken, despite repeated attempts to have it put on the agenda.

They came down to the platform where the NC were sitting and • peacefully attempted to stick up El Salvador posters beneath them.

This was met with strong arm treatment from stewards and rabid denunciations from the platform: but it only showed once again that many YS members are unhappy with the way YS is run.

Now the task is to build an opposition and work for a majority that will take a stand • for socialist internationalism, class struggle action and democracy in the labour movement.

•THIS WINTER

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