Plastic bullets: labour movement must act!

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Patrick Murphy reports got a standing ovation for his denunciation of the British Army from Brent East CLP who we can campaign for in the hope to select Ken Living- labour movement immedstone and want support iately.

left. press, aided and abetted A gay delegate from the by some Labour figures in TGWU South London the North West, failed to unfortunately had to make affect the success of the a protest about the insult- conference - which was ing attitude of some dele- in fact in support of Labour gates to gay comrades Party policy. Owen Carron during the break. The fact was well-received and the that they face violence and need to oppose all forms of intimidation daily, he poin- repression in Ireland, ted out, helped many gay above all British rule and people to understand the partition, was effectively DELEGATES and observers to the 'Ban Plastic Bullets' conference in Manchester last Saturday were welcomed by a prospective Labour parliamentary candidate and his friends, who distributed leaflets condemning the conference, particularly the decision to invite Owen Carron. • Sean Rodgers, PPC for Hale, had spent the previous week attacking the conference and pleading with prominent sponsors to pull out.

His limited success, with the withdrawal of Doug Hoyle; Alf Dubs and others, led to some anxiety among the organisers. But the conference itself proved all these worries to be unfounded.

300 labour movement activists attended. About 200 were delegates and the rest observers. Of the delegates, some 124 were from CLPs and Labour Party branches, while 82 were from trade unions.

After the hrst session there was a feeling in the conference that this success was not being exploited, that the conference was limited too narrowly to the plastic bullets issue.

The interest of the delegates in broadening the discussion was indicated by the large attendance at a fringe meeting at lunchtime to discuss the need for a socialist solution to the Irish question. he meeting addressed John McAnulty, People's Democracy councillor in Belfast, and. was sponsored by Socialist Challenge, Socialist Organiser and Revolution Youth.

John McAnulty outlined the problems of orientating the anti-imperialist movement in Ireland towards the struggle of workers North and South for better conditions and against the austerity which has accompanied the crisis in the Irish economy. Godfrey Webster of Socialist Organiser catalogued some of our Irish work and welcomed the recent debates on Ireland in the paper.

There was considerable interest in these debates from the meeting. John McAnulty suggested that the debate on the role of the Protestant working class should involve the Irish left who have experienced the problem at first hand.

In the afternoon the Conference livened up considerably.

Speakers included an ex-soldier, C. Desmond Greaves of the Connolly Association, Rosemary Sales of Hackney North CLP and the Labour Committee on Ireland and Richard Balfe, Labour European MP.

A message was read from Clive Soley, Labour deputy spokesperson on Northern Ireland. He said that he opposed the use of plastic bullets in Northern Ireland, but he recognised that they would have to be replaced by more humane methods of repression. Soley supported Irish unity but only by consent, by which he meant a majority in the Northern Ireland unit.

There was obvious anger around the hall when this message was read.

The main speaker, Owen Carron, Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh-South Tyrone, received standing ovation.

He guaranteed that the Republican struggle would continue for as long as British imperialism retained presence in Ireland. He explained the developments within Sinn Fein in recent years, the move to the left and the growth of working class support and he stressed that this class approach had to be carried much further and that there were many arguments still to be 'hammered out' within the Republican movement.

The British labour movement, he said, needed to build a broad-based solidarity •movement with limited demands. These demands should be 'troops out and self determination for the Irish people' Carron stressed that they need a solidarity movement, not a faction of the left or a purist sect.

The first delegate to speak, from Vauxhall CLP, expanded on this last theme and attacked the sectarian and destrucIreland tive intervention of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who had attacked the conference each time they spoke and had stood against Peter Tatchell who had actually spoken out on Ireland.

He was the first of many delegates to congratulate the Labour Committee on Ireland initiative and support the call for a broad-based Irish solidarity movement.

A utiegave trom iroups A dolaranta fana Munnas Out reported that they were continuing to request funds from the GLC for a survey of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They asked for support and claimed to have the backing of two London Labour MPs. . Anna Lunts (NUPE) reported that her union branch had submitted a comprehensive resolution on Ireland to NUPE conference for the second successive year, and called on NUPb activists to canvass support for it.

It was hoped that a LCI Sinn Fein MP Owen Carron (rig, fringe meeting would be arranged for the conference.

Peter Conlan from the National Executive of the Communist Party welcomed the conference, but stressed his party's belief that the struggle for democratic rights within the Northern Ireland framework would be the basis for workers' unity.

He opposed the republican struggle which, he claimar nalamcar the саники, polarised communities and alienated the working class.

Other delegates argued that democratic rights were impossible to achieve in Northern Ireland, a state which is inherently antidemocratic and sustained only by severe repression and coercion. The union leadership had to throw off the idea that an 'agreed' solution could be built on the Northern Ireland trade unions, which are dominated I by Loyalist workers.

The conference heard from the pro-Republican angry resistance of the nationalist community to British oppression.

If the conference was as successful as it seemed to be, then many trade union and Labour Party branches should be receiving detailed reports and the LCI should follow up with practical solidarity campaigns. The repeal fo the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the banning of plastic hullete and a rammitment to a' united Ireland and British withdrawal are all practical meąsures which The witch-hunt in the drawn out by speakers and delegates.

At a time when every leading labour movement figure speaking out on Ireland is attacked from within as well as outside of the movement, this conference was a reminder that solidarity can be built on a large scale throughout the movement, if the work is consistently done.

The LCI and the local aroonicare haro chnum tho VIBAIMOEIO MAYO DIUNI VIC way. Hopefully it won't end there.

PATRICK MURPHY