Sonal Denis "tom' Popular Froni

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report from the conference organised by the TROOPS OUT MOVEMENT Ford and Kissinger's whistle stop tours of European capitals are an attempt to gai a breathing space on a series of acute problems facing US foreign policy. Top of the list at the Brussels NATO summit meeting is the problem of Portugal is still in NATO despite the fact that Communist Party chiefs are at the very centre of the state administration. Portugal's failure to withdraw from NATO undoubtedly has the approval of the military policy makers in the Kremlin.

Ford, still trying to pick up the pieces after Indo-China, is applying strong unofficial pressure on other NATO states to remove Portugal and admit Spain.

Greece's membership of NATO is now more or less token. And the extreme right wing Demirel government in Turkey is threatening the withdrawal of US military facilities there. Kissinger's commuting between Athens and Ankara a week ago failed to heal this breach, while Congress still has not restored the military aid to Turkey, cut off by the pro-Greek lobby following the Cyprus invasion.

Kissinger was also unable to promise Gromyko, Soviet foreign minister, when they met last week any speedy calling of a "Europear Security Conference" intended to review and re-establish the division of Europe after World Wat II.

The demonstration a week ago in Lisbon included both the farces between which the military - Communist Party regime in Portugal maintains its delicate balance.

The 'democratic' - and effectively right-wing - policies of the Socialist Party leadership have provided an umbrella which spreads over both class-conscious workers who are opposed to the Stalinist alliance with the officers of the Armed Forces Movement, and many thoroughly reactionary and anticommunist elements, who no longer dare show their faces under banners. to the right of social democracy.

These forces - fundamentally opposed - were temporarily brought on a parallel course by the cynical The right to self-determination for the Irish people is a principle for all socialists. An essential part of the struggle for this principle must be the The National Labour Movement Delegate Conference on Ireland, which assembled more than 300 delegates, might therefore have been an important step forward in this fight in the British working class. conference must contain many ditt however. such erent views on Ireland, and it is of the utmost importance for such a conference (and indeed its sole practical purpose) that these political differences should be fought out. Otherwise it can turn into a self-congratulatory jamboree. Previous protest movements were constituted on a limited and opportunist basis, and consequently failed to make any penetration into the working class. When simple protest consequently proved ineffective questions of policy and perspectives arose and spit the bogus unity down the middle.

It was into precisely this trap that the TOM conference fell. Instead of a discussion by delegates of the policies to meet the needs of the Irish people, and of the most effective way of fighting for withdrawal of the troops the conference was dominated by platform speakers, including a catholic priest and the reactionary Labour MP Leo Abse. The latter's contribution contained such remarks as "the internment camps must be abolished as they are the staff colleges of the IRA" • Protests at Abse's and reactionary policies of the Portuguese Stalinist leadership. On Thursday night a demonstration of tens of thousands marched from the Rossio Square, in the centre of Lisbon, protesting against the government's decision to close a newspaper ('Republica') whose editorial line ran in support of Soares and the Socialist Party leadership. The government had stepped in after industrial action by Communist Party printworkers - demanding a change of editership - had shut the paper. The Socialist Party leadership - strengthened by the 38% of the ballot they got in the elections to the Constituent Assembly on April 25th - responded by boycotting the cabinet and calling the demonstratinn of May 22nd.

The speakers and official slogans.

British troops patrol in N.Jreland. speech were met with threats from TOM representative Gerry Lawless, and such hecklers were later denounced as ultralefts by an IMG speaker.

The only discussion of the day arose from a motion presented to the conference from Hackney Trades Council, which had the support of the TOM organising committee. This motion welcomed all "progressive" activity inside and outside the labour movement which sought a solution based on the right of the whole Irish people to national self determination. It also called for an end to Labour's bipartisan approach to Ireland, and demanded that the PLP adopt a programme based on the right of the Irish people to "unimpeded democratic majority rule". • A mass rally and a lobby of Labour MPs' surgeries were proposed as well as a broad united campaign on the use of Trafalgar Square for demonstrations on Ireland, and on the right to campaign amongst serving soldiers. Finally it asserted that the Troops Out Movement was the "essential organising core on any effective Bampa any thirelandion of the British . army in Such a wide ranging motion necessarily contained many sources of dissent, as was shown by the large number of amendments put forward. These were largely dismissed however by the organising comm. ittee who, with the support of the IS and IMG, threw out amendments which sought to restrict the activities of TOM to the labour movement and which condemned Labour MPs who fight for "Troops Out" on the basis of "let the Irish kill each other" • Clearly unity, with anyone, takes priority over taking a principled position.

As stated in previous issues of Socialist Press, the starting point of the WSL in the struggle against British imperialism is the need for the independent-mobilisation of the Irish working class. By currying ideas of unity with reactionary Labour MPs, and establishing a popular front with catholic priests, the Troops Out Movement, backed by IS and IMG , is doing no service either to the Irish people, or to the British working class. A successful struggle for the policies of TOM -"self determination for the Irish people" and "immediate withdrawal of British troops" - can only be undertaken by those who take up the fight for leadership in the working class against all who have conspired to fasten on the British and Irish workers the chains of slavery, ana these include the very MPs and priests that TOM is so eager to welcome onto its platform.

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fight for the withdrawal of British troops from Ireland.