Labour movement must answer abo fascist violence

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Aly Mir and Piyushi Kotecha report on moves towards a national anti-racist/ anti-fascist labour movement campaign

Socialist Organiser will be supporting the model resolution arnose of all property con- working class movement, fiscated by the military including blacking of trade junta, with Poland, in pursuit of 5. The reinstatement of the above five demands. THE LABOUR movement conference on racism organised by Coventry Trades Council on May 8 gave a clear call for the building of an organised working-class fightback against racism and fascism.

The main speakers told of where the leadership of both the unions and the Labour Party had failed to answer the call of black workers in their struggle against racist bosses, state dișcrimination and harassment, racist legislation and fascist violence.

The failure during last year's wave of fascist violence of Coventry's massively powerful labour movement to offer any response beyond polite gestures or outright betrayals shows the necessity for trade union militants to take up the political struggle inside the organisations of the working class.

Alterations

The conference was well attended by local trade unionists, and a large proportion were black workers and youth. Local Labour Party wards and delegates from several Midlands Trades Councils were also there.

Predictably, the so-called leaders elected or paid by all workers to represent their interests did not feel the need to attend.

Trudi de Heney (a black GMWU official from Nottingham) outlined the TUC Charter for Black Workers. She interpreted it as a step forward for the whole trade AT the May Socialist Organiser Alliance Delegate Meeting, held last Sunday 9th, and attended by delegates om 13 SO Groups, the following decisions were taken:

*To support and argue for a united left slate in this year's elections to the Labour Party NEC, and to accept the proposed list that was reported from the Labour Liaison 82 meeting on Saturday, May 8 with one exception.

It was agreed that the delegate from SO should continue to argue against the inclusion of Judith Hart on a left slate, and instead that rao of the places in the women's section slate should be chosen by those women's campaigns supporting Labour Liaison 82 -Women's Fightback; CLPD Women's Action Committee; and the Labour Abortion Rights Campaign.

*To open discussion in ine paper (through signed articles) and in the groups ron the tactical advisability of the Alliance campaigning for a challenge against Foot (preferably by Tony Benn) in this year's leadership ejections.

*Manchester SO group felt there had been inadequate discussion in the delegate meetings of the paper and its emphasis. The delegate meeting agreed and called for more regular and union movement, but emphasised that it has remained paper policy and that local trade unionists must force the leadership to implement it.

Gulam Mayet of the Black Trade Unionists' Solidarity Campaign spoke of the racism in the unions themselves, as well as the failure of the unions to take up a strong position on racism in society. This played into the hands of the racist bosses on the shop floor.

He posed to the audience the need for positive action in the whole of the trade union movement. He also spoke of the necessity for black officials, and this provoked some sharp discussion later on.

Another speaker better prepared meetings, held in different parts of the country.

*To circulate the following model resolutions for this year's Labour Party Conference:

«This conference deplores the declaration of martial law in Poland and the attempt to crush the free trade union Solidarnose. It calls upon the NEC to adopt the following demands:

1. The lifting of martial law in Poland 2. The freeing of all internees and political prisoners, 3. The restoration of all trade union and democratic rights won since August 1980, 4. The return to soldthe Labour Party's history of first bringing in immigrants as cheap labour in the '40s and the '50s, then joining in with the Tories in passing and enforcing racist immigration legislation.

She argued that the reformism and the betrayals of the labour movement leadership had allowed the bosses and the capitalist media to get away with blaming blacks for the failure of the economy to provide jobs and decent living conditions.

In the afternoon session, these questions were taken up by contributions and motions from the floor. The theme was soon established of the need for a labour movement programme and organisation against racism and fascism, in order to all those sacked for refusing to take the oath of loyalty' renouncing membership of Solidarnosc.

This conference also calls upon the NEC and all other sections of the British labour movement to break all links with the official trade unions' and the ruling Communist Parties of the Warsaw Pact countries, all of whom support the Polish military junta.

We believe that the British labour movement should instead give full support to Solidarnosc as the authentic movement of the Polish working class, struggling against the Stalinist bureaucracy for workers' power and socialist democracy.

Conference also calls on the NEC to campaign for dinant natinn i he tha Rritich make the unions and Labour Party the vanguard against racist attacks, whether by the state, bosses, or fascists.

Among the attempts to give a practical content to the Trades Council statement on racism was a motion from Leicester Trades Council which called for direct links to be established with black workers in struggle in South Africa, and for support in particular struggles like those at Dunlop and Wilson Rowntree.

Various other local trade unionists spoke of their practical experiences in the TGWU, in the AUEW, and at Massey Ferguson. A Socialist Organiser supporter said that in several wards in Coventry the local Labour Parties were in a position to THE ECONOMY:

«This conference considers that the Party publications "Labour's Plan for Jobs" and "Britain on the Dole" were seriously inadequate.

It calls on the NEC to include in all future statements on the economy:

*Unequivocal opposition to all "incomes policy' under capitalism.

*Commitment to the implementation by the next Labour government of Clause IV part 4 - without compensation for the big shareholders.

*Work sharing without loss of pay, linked to workers' alternative plans like the Lucas Aerospace Benn organise against racists and fascists, and that while this was not to be counterposed to the right of black workers to organise their own defence, it was a step towards building a labour movement organisation in Coventry that could confront the fascists and lead the political fight against An organisation of black youth and workers, the Coventry Asian Labour Alliance, made a powerful intervention into the conference with two motions that called upon the Trades Council (along with other labour movement organisations) to build a local and a national organisation in order to fight for an anti racist and an anti-fascist programme in the labour movement and coordinate anti-fascist and anti-racist mobilisation. (See inset).

Beside these motions, the Coventry Asian Labour Alliance proposed several amendments to the Trades Council document Con racism. These added:

1. A ban on union positions being held by racists, 2. A ban on 3. No platform for fascists and racists, 4. Pull material practical support for anti fascist struggles, S. Take up the struggle in the workplaces for the workers themselves to organise their own defence against racist violence, and to force the employers to foot the bill.

Plan; to for all.

*Commitment to women's equal right to a job, and to measures necessary to guarantee this right, like adequate nursery/child-care facilities and positive discrimination in employment.

*Automatic monthly cost-of-living increases in all wage agreements linked to a working class price index.

This conference declares that a Labour Government seriously committed to the socialist reconstruction of society must cut through the vested interests of the British ruling class and, as necessary, defy and repudiate the rules, dictates and constraints of the IMF and EEC.

Yet the programme of import controls and an isolated 'independent' Britain is delusory. The Labour Party should appeal to the workers of Europe over the heads of their rulers for a common programme and EEC.

Our alternative to the EEC must be not an 'independent' Britain, but the Socialist United States of Euroe by way of building on the post-war integration of the West European economy, seizing control of it extending it rather than seeking to unscramble it."

6. Total opposition immigration controls.

All the above motions were accepted in principle, and referred to the Trades Council, the platform arguing , that the conference could not bind the Trades Council. However the resolution calling for a local coordinating committee was accepted there and then.

The task facing working class militants now is to fight for the practical implementation at every level in the local labour movement of these decisions. The fight is only beginning nationally to build an anti-racist campThis conference calls on the Coventry Trades Council to convene a conference with the cosponsorship of other labour movement organisations, and delegates from labour movement organisations in England, Wales and Scotland, to discuss the founding of a nationai labour movement anti-racist and anti-fascist organisation. Such a body would have the aim of fighting for anti-racist and anti-fascist policies inside all the org. anisations of the labour movement, and coordinating anti-fascist and anti racist mobilisations nationally.

IN CIFI ERMINA IRISH PE from the Labour Committee on Ireland In addition, also to support the model . resolutions circulated by Women's Fightback, Labour Committee on Ireland and the CLPD on the democratic issues.

*To pass the following addition to the statement Women and the Socialist Organiser Alliance', , moved by the Edinburgh SO group:

"When women members of SO become pregnant it is to be expected that at stages of their pregnancy they will not be expected to attend SO meetings. Therefore comrades should be appointed by the SO Organiser/Group aign the ment.

While representatives of the last Labour Government like Roy Hattersley - coresponsible for laying down milestones in the betrayal of black workers - remain the unchallenged spokesmen on immigration for the labour Party and unions, black workers have everything still to fear.

The conference has yet to be made into a first and decisive step towards putting the organisations of the working class in the vanguard of the struggle against racism and fascism.

This conference calls upon the Coventry Trades Council to initiate moves within the Coventry labour movement for a joint labour movement coordinating committee against fascism and racism. Such a body would have the aim of fighting for anti-racist/ anti-fascist policies inside all the organisations of! the Coventry labour movement, coordinating anti-racist/ anti-fascist action locally, and building links with similar bodies that exist nationally. to visit women comrades so that they are still able to play a part in the decisions of the SO Group".

*The Socialist Organiser Annual General Meeting would be held over the weekend of June 26 and 27 in Coventry, with the following deadline for resolutions and amendments: resolutions, June 8; Amendments, June 22.

*A short delegate meeting would be held in London on the morning of Sunday June 6 before the CND demonstration.

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Socialist Organiser no. 84 May 13. 198: Page 3 NEC's rejection of the 9% sell-out claim and refused to support

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Socialist Organiser plans for Labour Conference

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