Anopen letter to the Militant

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At the recent YS summer camp and in Labour Parties throughout the country Militant supporters have accused supporters of Socialist Organiser in Coventry SE, whose MP is Militant supporter Dave Nellist, of witch-hunting Militant there. Richard Paine, 'Nick Lawrence and Judith Bonner reply to this libel in an Let us take the example of the comrades spent a good deal of Left in St. Michaels Ward. This our time during the campaign is the most solid Labour Ward in persuading disillusioned Ward Coventry SE. There were no and Constituency members to Militant supporters in the Ward, stay in the campaign.

Socialist Organiser supporters prove our point let us who had been central in building tell you that in St. Michaels a Left up to 80 strong over the Ward during and since the eleclast few years. This had led to a tion, the Left (not supporters of tremendous ' battle with the Militant), despite the way the Right, involving Annual General campaign was organised, have Meetings of more than 120. The recruited 38 new socialist Right are holding on by the skin members to the Ward. Hardly a Comrades, you have accused fellow socialists - in particular supporters • of Socialist Organiser — of witch-hunting you in Coventry South East This accusation stems from resolutions passed at the GMC of that constituency on July 20. These resolutions were critical of the role of Militant supporters in the recent successful General Election campaign in Coventry SE, in which Dave Nellist, a supporter of Militant, was elected MP.

Comrades, you have made a very serious allegation, one which requires a serious and detailed answer. Let us examine what actually happened before, during and after that campaign.

Comrade Nellist had been selected as Parliamentary candidate a good 18 months before the election. The whole of the Left in the constituency (the right-wing is very marginalised, primarily in one Ward -St. Michaels) rallied firmly round him as candidate.

Fuel

Of course the local and national press witch-hunted Nellist: The witch-hunt in the Labour Party was also gaining momentum.

What you did during the election campaign could only help fuel that witch-hunt.

Constituency activists, even some who were politically sympathetic to Militant, were cut out of decision-making and even out of many aspects of the campaign itself! And this was not accidental. Constituency officers were deliberately misted by the candidate and his Agent, Tom Smith (also one of your supporters). Party activists were lied to. They were often denied access to canvassing. They were denied an input into the content of the election leaflets. The list could go on. All non-Militant activists in the Constituency have their own horror stories.

Ward

but there are a number of of their teeth.

The socialists in the Ward wanted a local Committee Room. Many of our members are unemployed and ery few have transport. But our request was initially resisted by Comrade Smith as Agent. He had unilaterally decided that canvassing of St Michaels Ward should be done from the Coventry Labour Party offices two miles away. The evidence indicates this decision was taken for two interconnected reasons:

Priority a) to allow Militant supporters from all over the country priority access to canvassing, etc.

b) to artificially keep control of the campaign in the hands of your supporters, excluding the activists in the Ward itself.

The problems did not end when Comrade Smith finally did agree; under pressure, to allow a Committee Room in the Ward. Your comrades alleged that no local Ward members were willing to canvass. Led by Socialist Organiser supporters, St Michaels Ward members then gave a commitment to organise a daily contingent from our Committee Rooms. We more than' honoured this commitment. Between ten and twenty Ward members were available each night, but canvass cards were still withheld, or issued in inadequate numbers.

Comrades were on occasions told that no canvass cards were available, only to leave the Committee Rooms and see carloads of Militant supporters from outside the Ward canvassing nearby streets.

Full-timers

Full-time Militant supporters, many from outside Coventry, took an arrogant 'we know best' attitude, treating Ward members with contempt. They ignored local advice in dealing with sensitive areas, language difficulties for example.

Even if your accusation that local Labour Party members were unwilling to canvass were true (and it isn't!) would that in the circumstances be surprising?

As it was, Socialist Organiser If we need to further sign of inactivity on our part! open letter:

Such experiences were not limited to St Michaels Ward. Nor did the methods of your supporters go unchallenged elsewhere. Complaints were initially ignored. There was growing antagonism towards the handling of the campaign from the vast majority of Constituency activists. But Party members, despite this, continued to unite, in whatever they were allowed to do, behind the campaign.

In the end, even some of your own comrades accepted the criticisms, Comrade Smith in particular.

Nellist Both he and Comrade Nellist ended up arguing that other Party members should forget the problems during the campaign and then take them up after the election. Members took this suggestion in good faith.

As your own supporters hac agreed, after the election it was up to the entire Left in the Constituency to decide what it wanted to say and do about the appalling manner in which the Campaign had been run.

We all thought it would be dealt with within the Constituency Broad Left (BL), rather than allow the small right wing the chance to use the occasion for their own witch-hunting purposes and thus risk fuelling the press witch-hunt of Militant.

A Broad Left meeting was called to discuss the election campaign:

Militant supporters were informed well in advance and asked to be there. They agreed. In the event none of your supporters turned up. In commenting later, they said that if Party activists wanted to discuss the handling of the campaign, then they should do it at the Constituency GMC. It was your choice.

The resolution passed almost unanimously by the very large Broad Left meeting thus became - in effect at your comrades" suggestion — a model resolution from three of the four wards to the GMC.

These resolutions specifically reaffirmed CLP policy against witch-hunts!

In the fourth Ward, rightwing dominated St Michaels, Socialist Organiser supporters persuaded some others on the Left that a similar resolution should not be put because it would create a witch-hunting opportunity for the right wing majority in that Ward.

We also felt the other resolutions as they stood were in some respects wrong. In talking about "outside unaccountable organisations" , they could be construed moved amendments (reprinted elsewhere). Our amendments to two of the resolutions were passed. To the third they ‹weren't and our comrades accordingly didn't vote for the resolution.

When some individual(s) (as yet unidentified) later leaked the original resolutions to the press, the witch-hunting scribes picked out (as we had feared) the very phrases whose deletion we had moved.

Your comrades have , since accused us of putting the amendments to ease our consciences. We think it is downright arrogant of you to imagine that our motives are modelled on your own methods of operating. Our political reasons are explained above.

You have also accused us of lining up with the right wing. In fact it was your own comrades who lined up with the right-wing in voting against the amendments on the GMC! What extraordinary behaviour!

We, and the large majority of Constituency activists, were simply not prepared to let the matter rest. Why should we? Socialists have been struggling for democracy and accountability in the labour movement over the years. To suggest that we should then turn a blind eye to the plainly anti-democratic behaviour of your supporters in a General Election campaign is an insult to those socialists and their struggle.

If you believe that shouting "Witch-hunt!' will let you off the hook every time your tactics are criticised, then you are wrong. Dave Nellist clear - total opposition.

Only at the CLP EC meeting last Wednesday (10 August) this was illustrated once again. The letter from the NEC instructing Party organisations to refuse facilities to Militant was read out. A Socialist Organiser supporter on the EC moved that the EC recommend to the GMC that the secretary reply, stating the CLP notes the comments and refuses to comply with them.

Accusation

This was passed by the EC with only one dissenter, and only because he felt the NEC letter should be put in the bin and just ignored! And yet. according to you we are witchhunters! Comrades, you know your accusations are without foundation.

Your accusations can only be a scurrilous muckraking attack on Socialist Organiser. We demand an unreserved apology from you and a withdrawal of your unfounded accusations.

Finally let us say that in our opinion there are deeper issues that lie behind these events issues that fundamentally question your paper's politics.

What is it about the politics of Militant which makes you unable to work as a minority tendency within a broad campaign? Are you afraid of political defeat? Your unwillingness to take part in political discussion in the Coventry SE CLP over the past 18 months has been plain.

When we have had political discussion - our attitude to Palestine and affiliation „to Labour Against the Witch-hunt spring to mind - your point of view has been defeated. Are you trying to avoid further political defeats by riding roughshod ‚over your fellow socialists? We believe.so.

Ask yourselves, too, what your actions during the campaign say about Militant's view of workers' democracy.

Comrades, you are fond of avoiding debate by saying that your conception of socialism is different from that of Socialist Organiser. We think you are right. For you, workers' democracy is okay, as long as your views are accepted.

We believe that the relationship of revolutionaries to the working class is very different to that. The recent events in Coventry SE illustrate that only too well.