Jobs not Bombs Marchers hit Blackpool con- therefore, attended in in the party. the field of Party policy read The and elected an NEC majority against it.
about fight. they voted for.
recovered from Michael Foot, Party Democracy clectoral means alone.
day evening reserved for goodbyes meeting called by against the witch-hunt' The delegates in their and Labour to resist this the register being brought into Sunday "reality by kindly trade Delegates, saw and uncertain can only be 2.000-strong year's postponement 'democratic TESTICUTS ARO ference instead of the NEC They had, alternative. As Johm Gardiner only one choice: to take away, on the field of political power what they surrendered on They gave in on unilateralism -They delivered demagogic speeches in support of the health workers — and threw out the only motion committing Labour to action which could help win their They voted for women's rights — and rejected every motion seeking an increase in women's political power in build for the Party. Most important of all, they meeting. launched a divisive and destructive witch-hunt against those in the Party who championed the very policies And the left fought back. Slowly, inch by inch and day by day, they the disorientation fostered by Tony Benn's support for by the failure of the Monday majority of the Campaign for Labour resistance to the witch-hunt, and by to organise their own hopes of quick success by By the end of the conference the tant this basis for resistance had emerged. Two hundred and fifty delegates on Thursthe one normally drinking and sayıng resolution, came to the fringe around Labour Parties EVICTELS They heard hands.
Phil Holt of the POEU, Ray Hill o the ISTC; Martin Flannery MP, Ernie Koberts MP. Joan Maynard MP, and Jeremy Corbyn, a parliamentary can didate, support a fight back against SOOn How did the fight develop?
mood of tion, Several hundred delegates turned up to the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy meeting, many dispirited perhaps encouraged by the enthusiastic Jobs not Bombs youth contingent at the morning's CND demo. meeting two lines were put forward for dealing with the witch-hunt. From the CLPD platform came a recommendation to fight for a 'fallback ICe resolution on the register calling for a and for register milder controlled by conBut from the floor came a clearer Luton East, and a member of the CLPD executive explained, whatever the outcome of the discussion on the fallback amendment, delegates had to begin now to prepare to resist expulsions, and they had to take the issuc to the rank and file of the unions to call their executives to account for their support of the register Bridget Elton of Hackney North Labour Party then explained that fifteen Constituency Labour Parties had organised a conference against the witch-hunt and urged delegates i to Thursday night's fringe A caucus of all those in terested in preparing the meeting had been called that night: over twenty delegates and visitors attended, cluding a handful of trade unionists, to begin the week-long struggle for sponsorship and support.
CAE Monday soon showed how impor initiative was be Delegates got their first inkling that the right wing were not to have it all their own way when an emergency insisting Onl debate CLPD's fallback amend passed on a show of •I'm sorry, but 1 didn't hear any call for a card vote, Judith Hart calmly assured furious bureaucrats. It was a symbolic reversal.
CLPD's hopes for a reversal were dashed when fallback amendments fell that afternoon by a majority larger than the main com posite against the register. But the conterence WIS already changing. Moving the NEC's posi Mortimer assured con ference that only Militant's inner circle would go and that the register was not a political witch-hunt.
But his attack on Militant was consciousiy political, and delegate: were shocked to the core by the ran ring speeches from Roy Grantham of and John Spellar of the BET the case on clear political grounds.
Michaci Foot's summary cut little when he repeated Mortimer's assurances and claimed that Militant were under attack, not for their views but for breach of Clause II. Wha about Clause IV?*, Ray Apps aske delegates to thunderous applause But it was a speech from Martin Flannery MP that brought delegates to their feet in an ovation twice as large and long as Michael Foot's *This is the first step in an attack on all the policies we have won in the last three years,' he said. "It was not the Militant that lost us the last clection but the Cabinet Monday and Tuesday were both days of preparations, set against the background of the electrifying debate on the health service. Playing to the group of uniformed health workers in the gallery, even COHE's Albert spanswick promised what sounde like near-insurrection against That cher. The main resolutions on health wete resoundingly passed but the most militant and composite number 32, was defeated On Inc NEC's recommendation. Did NEC really want a socialist alternative? Apparently not The feelings to which Martin Flannery had given voice came out at the eight-hundred strong Labour Herald mecting that same night. Not only did Livingstone and Maynard call for a rejection of the witch-hunt, but Arthur Scargill, NUM and John Aitker of the EETPU Broad Left, called for all out struggle against the Tory government No, it's not Mussolini. It's Callaghan
the
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PU. Both called for the expulsion of Militant's 'paid sellers" and argued