Youth say jobs not bombs'

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LEFT and Right clashed throughout last weekend's YCND conference in London, which was probably the biggest YCND conference ever. Ninety local youth groups attended.

The conference came at the end of a very difficult period for YCND. The July 1983 YCND conference was declared invalid and the NC elected from it was disbanded. In its place CND set up an interim committee charged with organising the activities of YCND, with working out a structure for the campaign and organising a recall conference.

Joan Ruddock, chair of CND, opened the conference with a speech knocking down a paper doll caricature of Trotskyism. Then conference discussed two reports on the workings of the interim committee.

The first, from Andrew McIntyre and the right wing majority on the committee praised its work. It got the support of Annajoy David, former vice-chair of CND.

It was full of empty assertions and told some quite obvious lies. Thus, for example: "the last conference we had attempted to create new CND policy on Central America."

This is simply not true. The July conference passed an emergency resolution which committed Youth CND to supporting a demonstration against US intervention in Central and Latin America. This demonstration was held at a time when there were two US Fleets sailing off the coasts of Central America - both included nuclear weapons in their armoury. Therefore YCND acted completely within CND policy.

The main argument behind Melntyre's report was that what the CND executive had done had been necessary and YCND should be grateful to the CND Executive for Gerry Bates reports from the Youth CND conference in London last weekend (February 18-19)

stepping in.

With arguments like: "We've got to get away from this ideology of there being a big bad CND executive out there."

But the majority of YCND activists were unconvinced by Melntyre. By a margin of 130-87 the conference voted to back the other report on the interim committee's activities. This came from Socialist Organiser supporter Tom Rigby.

The main argument of Tom's report was that the CND executive didn't need to act as they had done and that the results of their actions had been bad. They had hampered the task of building YCND through campaigning and mass action and had imposed a structure onto the youth campaign without sufficient consultation and involvement from YCND activists themselves.

Coming at the start of the conference, this vote was a major victory for the left-wing within YCND, and for Class Fighter and Socialist Organiser supporters in particular, who have been the most uncompromising opponents of the political witch-hunts within the campaign.

Unfortunately, this victory did not completely set the tone for the rest of the conference. The grouping around Andrew McIntyre and Annajoy David managed to hold on to their considerable influence within the campaign.

But the left won votes on action. In particular, YCND is committed to supporting a major demonstration in June against Reagan's visit to Britain. There will be a week of action around the theme "jobs not bombs". A long march to London by way of the

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Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, Nick Nolte Socialist Organiser no.167 Coming up Sunday 26th, 10.05pm, BBCI:

'Everyman' presents 'the making of a torturer' - Michalis Petrou, who worked for the colonels' regime in Greece. Sunday 26th, 10.20pm, BBCZ:

'My Brilliant Careex', film based on a famous novel of 1901 about a young woman's life in Australia.

Sunday 26th, 7.15pm, Channel 4:

"The World at War' covers the Warsaw rising of 1944.

Monday, 27th, 7.40pm, BBCZ:

Third of a series on 'The Stateless Nations' (national minori ties in continental Western Europe) - this one is on a French-speaking pocket in Italy.

Monday 27th, 11pm, Channel 4:

'Pictures of Women - Sexual ity'.

Tuesday 28th, 10pm, BBC2: The Theatre of Dario Fo' - about the author of 'Can't Pay?

Won't Pay' and "The Accidental Death of an Anarchist. Wednesday 29th, 6.30pm, Channel 4: "Flashback: on the means test in the 1930s'. Wednesday 29th, 10.55pm, Channel 4: "Artificial intelligence' - can machines think in the same sense as humans, or can't they?