Pollok: battle for James White's seat

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meal charges to be frozen, fo: an improvement in the quality of the meals and fo: publicity to place the blame for this broken piedge where it belonged -with the District Audisor and the Government.

When it came to the vote •osi of the left abstained.

Frances Morrell later Fored for the price cut in the full ILEA meetingbat by then the policy was clearly lost.

None of the delegates asked the obvious question, why was the problem of intervention by the District Auditor not exambed and considered when the manifesto was being written? As the local SocialOrganiser bulletin bier pointed out, legal assice was sought as long azo as January, and the same legal opinion was giTED then.

GLC candidates Fought that they would be arable to implement the =aalesto they had the opportunity to say so at It= ime.

Clearly the movement _eeds strategies for con1:3002 the Auditor, i oising the Party in full = eport of its councillors. THE reselection contest being waged in the Pollok CLP on the south side of Glasgow has taken a new turn with the decision of Mike Connarty, prominent figure in Stirling District Council and Secretary of the LCC in Scotland to This makes it now a three cornered fight with two left wing potential candidates, Davie Dick, Secretary of the CLP and prominent 'Militant' supporter, and Connarty as against James White, the right wing MP for Pollok.

In an interview recently in the Glasgow Herald, Connarty said that he had been asked to stand by "some people in the constituency" and that his aim was to express the opinion of the "traditional left" as against the "pie in the sky" policies of the 'Militant' tendency.

It is unfortunate that Connarty should be so coy about the credentials of the "some people" he reters to.

It is a fact that he was nominated at a meeting of the Socialist Educational Association in Glasgow where a number of teachers and lecturers from the Pollok CLP were present.

But it is difficult to conceive of these people as representing the "traditional left" within the Party. On the contrary, at a recent meeting of the Pollokshaws-Camphill ward two of these same people voted for a resolution calling for a ban on factions within the Labour If these are among the "some people" Connarty reters to, and we suspect that they are, then he has indeed gained some dubious allies.

On the other hand, Davie Dick has a long record of principled struggle within the Labour Party in the area. He has built up a sizeable support. over that time and bids fair to oust White in the reselection process.

Connarty must ask himself what are the motives of those people who have ersuaded him to stand. Surely it can be none other than to split the left wing vote, thus allowing White to regain the candidacy.

Tactical voting by some of the right wing could possibly lead to the elimination of Dick in the first round and then open the way for a switch of support back to White in the final run off.

Wr do not support 'Militant' . But the clear indication is that Connarty is being used by the right wing to split the left vote.

The only honourable course for Connarty is to recognise this, and stand down.

MeCALMAN conferences, accountability will not be effective while the PLP itself avoid. London SE18