Reid slams Benn's

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14th, the executive of the say, "It is quite clear from Scottish Council of the Lab- the results of the deputy our Party issued a state- leadership election that Mr ment backing Tony Benn, Benn commands broad and stating that "a Shadow significant support in the Cabinet which does not labour movement. Thereinclude Mr Benn would not fore the executive expressbe wholly representative es the hope that the Parlcampaign taking on all these issues?

Yes, if we could. But we also wanted to fight for the trade unions and the Labour Party to make women's rights a priority. We saw that this would mean big changes in the way that women were organised in the Labour movement, and big changes in the structures and attitudes which at the moment at best, only pay lip-service to women.

Do you think the Women's Organisation is able to do this?

The Women's Organisation is changing very fast. There's a new generation that wants to make it work Lilal but, if I can put it this way, they don't feel that it is actually on their side.

There was a lot of bewilderment at the last conference, and many women were very alienated by the way it was run, and angry that they had to fight against a platform that they hadn't even elected. They also felt that the 'old-timers' knew what it was all about and had it all sewn up, which I'm not sure is true: for instance I spoke to one older woman who had come to conference for the first time on her own, and didn't even know that she could get up and speak in the debates if she wasn't down to move a resolution' Fightback has been identified with very distinet calls for changes in the Women's Organisation. What are they?

needs MEETING on Saturday of the Labour Party"

Reid: The virus contr by lan McCalman The motion went on to iamentary Labour Party ed in the CP lives on will take cognisance of clearly expressed feelings of the party in the country when casting their votes in the election"

Attack

But in the Glasgow Herald on the same day, James Reid, erstwhile 'hero' of the UCS shipyard closure struggle in 1971, launched an attack on Benn's defence of conference policy, denouncing his statement on the renationalisation without compensation of North Sea Oil assets sold by the Tories as leading a future Labour government to the position where it would (Reid recoils in horror) actually 'confiscate property.

Concentrated

Of course socialists might sometimes favour compensation for small investors, but that is not what we are concerned with here. Most of the shares in North Sea Oil offered on the market by the Tories will be snapped up by the maor oil companies and the big financial institutions. or be concentrated in C= hands of the richest 6:= cent of company shares.

The anti-Benn forces in the Party are not anxiously defending the savings of 'indigent gentlefolk' ', but the sanctity of the wealth and power of monopoly capitalism.

Credentials

Reid has recently contributed to a work entitled 'Manifesto' , in the company of several supporters of Tony Benn. There he paraded his credentials as a staunch antagonist of monopoly capitalism. Now when the chips are down in the Labour Party, Reid rushes to the defence of the right wing.

The virus of accommodation to the needs of capitalism that Reid contracted in the Communist Party lives on to pollute his present political environment.

Perhaps he is not unmindful of the fact tha: the day on which to esappeared Mats! ? u0 6za DIE RE = E: It : c/o 28 Middle Lane. London N8.

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