TASKS Adopted by the Central Committee This tasks document should be read in conjunction with the perspectives document "New Government, New tasks, Build on the Gains of the Euromarch" adopted by the CC in July and "Building the Organisation" adopted in October.
Introduction The overriding issue in the immediate period will be the extent that the working class, or at least significant sections of it, move into conflict with the Labour government. Our prime task is to argue for such opposition, to encourage its development, to promote and build on those struggles which do break out and to recruit to our organisation in the process. The purpose of this tasks document is to identify the key areas for intervention by the organisation. Of crucial importance is our ability to participate in and promote high profile campaigning and to turn the organisation, at all levels, around important events.
The key issues for us in the coming period are: * Responding to struggles which break out - whether industrial action, students, anti-racism/anti-fascism or others. Developing the fightback against the Labour government means we have to prioritise work around those which do break out, through active involvement, solidarity work, propaganda, meetings and attempting to recruit from this work. * Defence of the Welfare State in all its aspects. The continuing attacks by the labour government on the NHS, education, benefits etc constitute the single largest breach of faith with its supporters. While we will prioritise the attacks on young people, the unemployed and women, our propaganda will take up all areas of this attack. Building on the success of the Euromarch, both here and elsewhere in Europe means drawing out the connection between the attacks on the welfare state and the moves to monetary union, building a movement in solidarity with the unemployed and socially excluded, and linking this with the internationalist campaign for a no vote in the referendum.
Cardiff will be an important focus of this. * The shaping of the labour movement in response to the attacks of the Labour government. Struggle by itself is not enough, we have to promote open debate among all sections of the labour movement and beyond about the necessary political response to the Labour government’s attacks, and promote our view of how the movement should respond. this involves fighting for unity in action, the formation of new leaderships, and debating the question of a new party.
We also give conscious priority to the need to recruit youth and women, paying particular attention to highlighting attacks on women, @.g. as part of the attack on the welfare state in
general.
However, we also have to bear in mind that events, such as wars, could break out which require us to concentrate our resources around them to the temporary neglect of other issues.
An Integrated Approach We have to distinguish between the main political issues of the day - on which we must develop a line and make propaganda and agitation, and those issues which we prioritise for the campaigning work of the organisation, which are decided upon by weighing up a combination of factors such as objective political importance, our own experience and implantation (numbers and resources) and party building requirements (need to recruit youth, implant ourselves in certain TU sectors etc).
We also have to distinguish between the issues we fight around and the areas of work in which we raise them. In a group of our size it is especially important that all comrades feel confident and able to argue our line around issues where they are not involved directly in the campaign. Work around abortion is not an issue just for women comrades, any more than work around the environment is just for comrades who might be involved in environmental campaigns or Labour Party issues are only taken up by those involved in the structures of the Labour Party.
This also puts a high premium on the content of the paper as carrying our views on the whole range of issues. Issues around which we decide to campaign must be taken up wherever possible, thus for instance, the single currency and its effects is not ‘Simply a matter for the Euromarch campaign, but something we have to take up consistently in our TU and MO work. Rather than compartmentalise our work it has to be integrated in its different aspects. Thus, for instance, taking up issues concerning women, black people and lesbians and gays is not solely a matter for comrades specifically involved in campaigns involving those sectors, but something which has to be given thought to in every aspect of our work.
Campaigns are not simply a matter of our input into some national body. Unless we are doing the basic work of raising the issues, winning affiliations, circulating material, organising protests etc, that national participation is built on sand. Comrades not necessarily involved in the structures of the campaign can nevertheless play a valuable role in winning support in various bodies and mobilising for particular focal events. We need to revive the use of model resolutions that comrades can use in their work, circulating them in the paper and/or internally.
Campaigning round an issue is not simply a matter of passing a resolution at some body or other. To have an effect, a campaign needs to consist of much more - of basic written material on the issue, demonstrations, lobbies, pickets, strikes, meetings etc.
Our aim is never simply (!) to get a policy adopted, but to draw more people into activity around it and to see the adopting body following it through. The Euromarch showed that high profile public campaigning not only has a greater impact as far as the issue at hand is concerned, but also increases our attractiveness, widening our periphery and potential recruits.
The allocation of comrades to a particular area of work is a
collective decision by the branches, CC and commissions in the light of the overall priorities set by the organisation and local circumstances.
It is therefore necessary for branches and TU fractions to produce perspectives and tasks documents for their work shortly after conference, in the case of branches assigning comrades to areas of work. The incoming CC will assign areas of responsibility at its first meeting.
The Issues Monetary Union Entry into the single currency is going to overshadow most other issues in Britain for at least a period of several years, the decision to wait until after the next election before entry notwithstanding.
We will campaign against the single currency as such and the effects of the stability pact.
We have to push ahead with the coordination of the left antisingle currency campaigns, with the aim of achieving a united internationalist ‘no’ campaign well in advance of the referendum.
We must ensure opposition to the single currency is campaigned for in the run up to every union conference, the TUC and LP conference next year. The propaganda battle is already beginning, and we cannot wait until a date is announced for a referendum - Blair & Brown will want to have won the argument before then.
We will continue, through the Euromarch campaign, to mobilise for demonstrations at European Heads of government meetings. Cardiff in June ‘98 is of particular importance, the onus being on the British campaign to produce a sizeable demonstration, which international delegations will then support. While this will not present anything like the same logistical problems as the march on Amsterdam, if it is to be a success, it will require considerable local and national resources.
In the run up to this year’s Cardiff summit there is the opportunity to focus more on welfare state issues and involve more women than was the case in the run up to Amsterdam. we should place some focus on questions of women and poverty. We should organise meetings under the umbrella of the campaign across the country to buiid for Cardiff which either focus on or have speakers on the welfare state. We should be targeting all local forces involved in welfare state work - whether as trade unionists, as activists around single issue campaigns such as health or education or in terms of the welfare state generally and seeking to get them to Cardiff.
Defence of the Welfare State Opposition to the single currency overlaps considerably with defence of the welfare state in general. We should take seriously the agreement for close cooperation between the Welfare State network and the Euromarch. The Labour government will use the pretext of convergence to push ahead with cuts which have already hit student grants, lone parent benefit, welfare to work, ‘best value’ for council services (CCT by another name) etc etc.
Through involvement in the Euromarch, we have played some part in the campaign against the various cuts in benefits and work 3
schemes such as welfare to work. While we will continue to support initiatives against the various other cuts in benefit, we are not in a position to play a leading part.
While our work on unemployment is currently focused on one or two regions, it needs to become an issue that we are taking up everywhere, linking up with existing campaigns against JSA, Project Work and any activity against the ‘New Deal’, and linking these campaigns with CPSA activists. This is also an area around which we have drawn some youth close to us, and we need to build on this if we are to rebuild our youth work.
While we should continue to support affiliation of bodies and campaigns to both the Committee to Defend the Welfare State and the Welfare State Network, and urge unity between the two, the latter is our priority, given the lack of democracy and any campaigning by the CDWS. While being aware of the problems in the relationship between the WSN and the AWL, not just in the way the AWL has from time to time tried to make Action more of an all-encompassing party paper, but also in the way that this is often de facto the case, given their overwhelming domination of the committees, the importance of the issues involved mean that we have to find ways of participating and making the WSN more of an open single issue campaign. Winning affiliations, encouraging bodies to take bulk orders of Action for distribution, and writing articles for it both about local and national issues, should be seen as a way of developing both the fightback and of rectifying the faults in the nature of the WSN. We do not take all our work on defence of the welfare state through the WSN, but encourage local campaigns to see it as a coordinator of work around the different aspects of the attacks.
The cental impetus for a fightback against cuts in education and local government services has to come from a combination of workers and users and developing such a fightback is a central element of our work in the public sector unions.
Over the next year the WSN has prioritised three main areas of work: education, health and welfare to work. Activity around welfare to work will continue to remain a priority and will link into our work around the Euromarch and Cardiff. Attention needs to be given to ensuring that the events that are organised do address the particular effect of welfare to work on women and take up associated issues such as the cut in single parent benefit.
On education the project is to develop an Education Alliance that can bring together students, school students, teachers and other education workers and parents. Our NUT comrades and those working around students, should play a role in this. This will be crucial if we are to have any chance of recruiting young women. AWL have a more than head start with the Campaign for Free Education. The development of the Alliance, if successful, will allow us to play a more balanced role, using the weight of our implantation in the NUT and STA to compensate for our current weakness among students and youth.
It is on the question of Health that there are the greatest Opportunities for us. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the NHS - at the very time when Labour is continuing the Tory plans to destroy the service which is at the heart of what working class people hold most dear about the Welfare State. 4
We have the advantage of the experience of cde Sharpe in this area - we should be organising meetings across the country with him on the platform as well as local activists to build this campaign from the New Year. The plan is to have a WSN conference on Health in late March followed by a lobby of Parliament or even a National demonstration in July. We should also ensure that the issues of abortion and contraception facilities are fully integrated into this project. Again we want to project ourselves as the people who are taking up this issue both in the labour movement and in the localities.
Finally the WSN is planning a repeat of last years Foundations for Freedom conference organised jointly with the NUS women’s campaign. We should have a serious intervention into this event which will give us a audience of 150-200 predominantly young women. We should take up the issues set out above at this event and strengthen our profile to this critical audience.
Students - the Latest Target Attacks on student welfare have become one of the initial points of radicalisation against the Labour government. Given the resistance of the NUS leadership to building any serious campaign of opposition to the introduction of tuition fees and the abolition of grants, the opening is there to build a strong campaign in the colleges and schools. We support the Campaign for Free Education as the most active, broad and democratic of the campaigns which have arisen (while recognising the predominance of the AWL in it) and we should attempt to get groups set up where they do not exist, and participate in those that do. While the CFE is (and will remain) a student campaign, the issue is one which has a resonance with other layers of the class, and we should be raising it in our TU and LP work, winning affiliations to the campaign, getting delegations on demonstrations, building links with student unions etc.
Solidarity with Struggles which Break Out ‘Flexibility’ has become the watchword for the attempt to continue to drive down wages, conditions and increase job insecurity. ‘New management techniques’ are a central part of this. Defence of pay, jobs and conditions will be the basics of our trade union work, opposing the ideology of ‘partnership’ and arguing a strategy of industrial action against the ongoing attacks.
We need to strengthen our work in solidarity with disputes that break out, through support groups, trades councils, union branches, MO and other bodies. Where disputes (either national or local) break out, we must immediately become involved in solidarity work, but also offer tactical advice on taking disputes forward.
Of key importance is situations where our own comrades are involved in industrial action or suffer victimisation. In these circumstances it is important for the branch and national organisation to provide whatever material and political support necessary.
Union Rights, Minimum Wage There is little likelihood that the government will deliver anything of substance on union rights or the national minimum wage, preferring to give the bourgeoisie a virtual veto over both. This means that any breakthrough on unionisation is going to have to come through struggle (even, or especially, if an inadequate law is passed) from the workforce. Through our union branches and trades councils, we should support unionisation and recognition campaigns and struggles which break out over these issues.
We must continue to press for the unions to campaign for the starting rate for a national minimum wage for all workers to be at least half median male earnings and to oppose any move to different rates for different regions, exclusion of young workers etc. Through the Trade Union Lefts Alliance and other forces we should look to build a strong campaign for a national minimum wage without exemptions at at least half male median earnings, with a national demonstration at an appropriate time.
The anti-union laws are still the biggest obstacle to a fight back, and we must campaign both for their repeal and for unions to defy them when necessary in order to defend their members. We should give full support to the Free Trade Unions Campaign, arguing for it to be a free-standing, single issue campaign around the scrapping of the laws, supported by TULA and other appropriate bodies. This means participation in its leading bodies, but it also means pushing for resolutions for the scrapping of the anti-union laws for every union conference, winning affiliations at every level and arguing for solidarity with disputes which defy the law. We also have to continue to encourage the campaign emerging from the SLP (‘Reclaim Our Rights’) and the FTUC to become one broad democratic campaign.
Such a campaign would have a very wide resonance in the movement and a real impact on the policy of individual unions and the TUC.
Racism and Fascism While the Labour government may have taken a slightly softer line on the grosser aspects of state racism, such as the primary purpose law, it has clearly no intention of touching either the immigration laws in general or the asylum law in particular. We have to continue our work around the detention centres, not just in their locality, but raising it as an issue nationally. The anti-racist movement is still very much localised, despite - or even because of - the existence of the National Assembly Against Racism. We will continue to raise the argument for a mass, democratic, campaigning national anti-racist movement.
There may be a growth in fascist activity as Labour is seen not to solve economic and social problems. The fascists will be attempting to exploit this, as with their recent demonstration against travellers in Dover. Xenophobia around the single currency will no doubt assist them in this. We have to be ready to respond to fascist mobilisations, raising the no platform position and arguing for a united anti-fascist movement.
Defend Abortion Rights The election of a Labour government will not lead to an
improvement in women’s abortion rights unless it is possible to build a huge mass campaign around the issue. Unfortunately the National Abortion Campaign is weaker today than it has been for a very long time and not at all geared up for this task. While NAC was correct to celebrate the anniversary of the Act by placing an advert in The Guardian in support of abortion on request it was a disgrace that this was not accompanied by full “support for the demonstration called by the NUS Women’s Campaign.
This counterposition of what should have been complementary initiatives seems to have the dead weight of *A behind it. It is a tragedy that NAC is turning away from a mass action orientation at this time.
Branches should discuss whether there are openings anywhere else other than Birmingham where NAC groups can be set up. Comrades in colleges or doing work around them should look at the possibility of setting up groups or at the minimum organising meetings around the subject. We should be putting resolutions on this issue through MOs and trade unions, encouraging them to be active around the issue, and should see this as an issue we are recognised as pushing.
At the same time the actual availability of abortion, which has always been extremely difficult in some parts of the country because of the power and prejudice of many consultants has become even worse with the cuts. Given that Labour’s recent cash injections into the NHS will not avert developing crises over funding or bed shortages during the winter period, the pressure on supposedly ‘non-essential services’ will grow. We need to be taking up the issue of abortion facilities as well as contraception through campaigns around the NHS and the Welfare State generally.
Lesbians and Gay Men While Blair may eventually allow a free vote on the equalisation of the age of consent for gay men, the Labour government has little intention of moving to repeal section 28 or to remove the legal discrimination which persists against lesbians and gay men (except under pressure from the European Court). Although we will not be in a position to devote major resources to this work, we support the continued work of LCLGR and encourage the participation of a limited number of cdes. We should support initiatives through our labour movement work to demand rapid repeal of all legislation repressive of Lesbians and Gay men, and for positive anti-discrimination measures. The incoming leadership should organise a survey of the membership for those who are prepared to be active on the question. We must also ensure that our press and web page should regularly cover these issues, both with the occasional commissioned centre spread type article, and by covering news items such as developments on the Pride committee, European court decisions etc. This is particularly important when major events such as Pride occur.
Obviously, all this is dependant upon the availability and willingness of cdes to write the material, but we should be willing to call upon others who are currently outside the organisation to contribute.
Defence of the Environment This is a major issue whose importance is going to grow rather than disappear. The environmentalist movement (motorway and airport protests, ‘Reclaim the Streets’) is, by nature, ephemeral and politically amorphous, heterogenous and prone to anarchism.
While we support such protests, they will not in general be a priority for us. However, the links that have been built and should be built on between environmental protesters and trade unionists (dockers, tube workers) provide an opening for a dialogue.
Particularly in our youth work, we need to develop our propaganda around the relationship between environmental destruction and capitalism, and the nature of the movement necessary to fight that destruction.
The incoming CC should commission a document and discussion on our approach to questions of the environment and what practical work we can do.
Scotland and Wales Despite the people of Scotland and Wales having voted for a measure of national control over their futures, the labour government’s intention is clear - to treat the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly as little more than regional talking shops with all power retained at Westminster. For Blair, devolution is to be used to strengthen the United Kingdom, not weaken it.
In this situation we will continue to argue for increased powers to the Parliament and Assembly, while arguing for them to use those they already have.
Internationalism While international issues and solidarity must continue to be a major part of our press coverage, our resources do not allow us to devote much to the initiation and leadership of international solidarity campaigns, although we should take them up in our areas of work, and support such things as pickets of embassies, demonstrations etc when particular events occur. We should continue to use our contacts through the WM for all aspects of this work. Our analysis of international events and contacts through the WM are particularly important in relating to Students, and should be the topic of forums organised in and around colleges.
Irish Solidarity Work The main exception is over Ireland, where British revolutionaries have a particular duty to support the struggle for self-determination.
While this will be mainly at the level of propaganda at the current time, given the consciousness of the British labour movement on the question of Ireland, we should use every opportunity to raise not only the demands for British withdrawal now and self-determination for the Irish people as a whole, but also partial issues, such as around the Prevention of Terrorism Act, prisoners etc.
There needs to be clearer coordination by the Irish commission, 8
or CC member responsible for Irish solidarity work, of both our work in the Troops Out Movement, and the pursuit of campaigns through the labour movement.
Part of our propaganda around Ireland must continue to be around the nature of the ‘peace process’ and the possibility of it leading to a sell-out. on the national question. How much the developing split in SF/IRA will be reflected among Irish solidarity activists in Britain cannot be foreseen. However, this increases the need for us to open up and maintain a dialogue with these activists, pointing out that a renewed turn to militarism is not the way out of the impasse.
We need to continue to strengthen our links with the Irish comrades, using their material where appropriate, inviting them to speak at public meetings, day schools etc and providing them with what assistance we can.
Recomposition The extent to which struggles break out will determine whether the question of a new party becomes an issue for wider layers of militants. Our task in the short term is to both promote open debate around the question of what the nature of such a party ought to be, and through building the fightback, build up the forces which might contribute to it becoming a reality.
The debate around the question of a new party needs to be encouraged in different forums ~- within the unions, the MO and campaigns. While addressing the concrete tasks within these different arenas we will also seek to raise the debate beyond this.
We will continue the proposal to organise a national forum of the Left early in ‘98, involving as wide a spectrum of activists as possible, not as a meeting which takes decisions on a new party (apart from anything else, this would immediately severely limit participation) but to bring the debate about the meaning, implications and response to Blairism out into the open.
Our approach to this debate is spelt out in the perspectives document and the addendum to it. We should ensure we tackle this debate, from its various angles, in every issue of the paper, inviting contributions to the debate from others.
Branches can further this debate by approaching others on the Left locally to hold similar debates, using appropriate bodies like a Trades Council to host them.
Areas of Work Trade Union work The most important single area of work, done properly our trade union work can lay the groundwork for us to have significant influence in the coming conflicts between the working class and the Labour Government.
This means our individual trade union fractions must be well organised, intervening not only at their union conference and any special or sectional conferences, but also where possible at regional and educational events.
We have to pay more attention to the women’s, lesbian and gay and black workers’ structures that exist in the different unions.
Over the years these have become more common and so it is
difficult to present an overall view given the lack of pooling of knowledge. We should attempt to develop a better picture of what is going on. We have a comrade on the women’s advisory of the CWU, who is also a regular attender at Women’s TUC. We should aim to have a more planned intervention into these bodies but we need all comrades active in their unions to think about and feed through to us the opportunities that exist elsewhere.
A premium has to be put on building up left organisation within each union, as open, democratic bodies which campaign on the issues among the membership. While these bodies should challenge for leadership positions within the unions, this is very much secondary to, and a part of, fighting on policies.
Against the union leaderships’ continual backtracking and compromises with the employers, and of isolating those sections of the membership which do fight back, we argue for campaigns of national industrial action.
The Trade Union Left Alliance can only be built as a pole of alternative leadership within the TUC to the extent that it rests on strong bodies within each union, and each of these is motivated to strengthen this link. ‘Public’ campaigning initiatives, such as lobbies of parliament, demonstrations etc (generally in conjunction with other campaigns, depending on the issue, such as the campaigns against the anti-union laws, the Welfare State Network etc) are not only necessary, but also essential if TULA is to be seen as more than once or twice a year conferences and small committee meetings. Consideration should be given to TULA launching a bulletin (along similar lines to Trade Union News) which could carry material promoting disputes, argumentation around key issues and discussion material about tactics in the unions and the type of left organisation that is needed.
We demand the unions hold Labour accountable for its pledges, such as around the minimum wage and class size. Part of the fight within the unions is to demand that they press their policy with the Labour government, through action but also, particularly in the case of affiliated unions through their input into Party policy. A key part of the fight for democracy in the unions is the demand for the leadership to be accountable for their actions at the TUC, Labour Party conference, on the LP NEC etc. While we support demands from trade unionists that monies given to the Labour Party must be used for campaigns that benefit union members rather than to undermine their policies, we oppose any proposals to disaffiliate at the current time as this would actually weaken the fight against the Labour government.
Similarly, we fight against any further weakening of the TU-LP link and support moves to overturn the restrictions Partnership in Power has placed on union input into policy-making.
Tasks in our trade union work: * Opposing partnership, arguing for national campaigns of industrial action; * solidarity with those in struggle, including arguing a way forward for disputes - Trades Councils especially can play an important part in this work; * Demanding union leaderships press union policy with the labour government; * Fighting to force union leaderships to actively oppose entry 10
to the single currency as part of the attack on the welfare state; * Taking up the ‘non-economic’ issues of the specially oppressed, Ireland etc; * Building left organisation in every union as open, democratic campaigning bodies, and building TULA as a _ cross-union coordination of these; Labour Party Within the Labour Party we should continue our orientation of attempting to build local Socialist Campaign Groups, and through them, our participation in the Network of Socialist Campaign Groups, its steering committee and conferences. Our argument that these should not simply be caucuses for GCs etc needs to be put even more strongly now that Partnership in Power is downgrading the role of internal party democracy. Campaign groups need to be encouraged not only to press the most important issues through the party structures, to push for local parties to campaign publicly around these issues and to support other campaigns doing so, but to do so independently of the official Party where necessary. We should argue for local parties to link up with the relevant unions to organise public meetings and campaigns around such issues as student welfare, education, cuts in the NHS, transport etc. We argue for support from local parties to struggles such as the dockers. Of particular importance is raising the issue of local government cuts and the need for party members to link up with trades unionists and users resisting them.
Our argument that participation in the structures without linking up with struggles outside will only lead to further marginalisation needs to be put increasingly strongly in the current situation.
Of course, as in the unions, participation in left bodies is of no use if not founded on practice in the official structures. The main issues we raise in the Labour Party are those outlined above, with the addition of issues of party democracy - clear opposition to the growing centralisation.
Within the Campaign Groups and Network the ongoing tensions between primarily *A and the rest may be coming to a head around their (and Livingstone’s) project of a new ‘democratic socialist alliance’ encompassing Labour Reform, CLPD, Tribune and =the Campaign group, but implicitly excluding the far left (ourselves, the AWL and possibly LLB). Although such alliances have been mooted before and come to nothing, conditions are rather different now with Labour in government carrying out neo-liberal policies. Against such an alliance we argue for democratic structures, clear policies and support for struggles. It may be that we will need to organise some kind of ‘left caucus’ within the network or other body if the new alliance does take off.
While it is not appropriate to debate the question of ‘when a new party?’ in the Labour Party’s official structures, and care has to be taken about public statements by those prominent in the .. Party, we have to .draw.the Labour Left, -includs and» ~ : a ing t question within Labour Left. fora and encouraging ‘the Labour Left 11
to participate in such discussion with those outside the Party.
Encouraging work around campaigns between LP members and nonmembers is a key part of this.
Tasks in the Labour Party: * Challenging the Labour government’s capitalist policies, whether it is entry into the single currency, abolition of lone parent benefit or retention of the anti-union laws; * Campaigning for support for those in struggle and participation by the Labour party in campaigns; * Building Socialist campaign groups as part of the network of Socialist campaign groups around these key issues and linking them with other forces on the Left campaigning around similar issues.
Liaison with Other Left Groups We should continue the practice, begun seriously around the Euromarch, of having direct talks with other Left groups around particular areas of work. Such talks in no way presume a wider convergence, but are directed at building particular initiatives where we agree (or appear to agree), clearing up misunderstandings and clarifying disagreements. Informally, they go on all the time at both local and national level, formalising the approach can improve coordination.
In addition to attempting to hold such meetings with most groups around the Euromarch (specifically, building the Cardiff demonstration), we could usefully approach the SP about building TULA and the AWL about TULA and LP work. Other examples should be pursued as and when issues arise.
Tasks in Building the Organisation Building struggles, building campaigns we lead or are involved in are all essential, but we must never lose sight of the need to build our organisation through the work we are involved in.
This means using our own propaganda, verbal and written, to argue our politics which goes further than that of the single issue campaign or whatever that we are involved in.
Our ability to build the organisation in the coming period will depend primarily on whether we can draw on the lessons of the Euromarch - we will only grow if the whole organisation can focus on particular issues and campaigns and make these of sufficiently high profile to attract new forces. Special attention has to be given within this to recruiting women and black people.
All parts of the organisation have to prioritise constant conscious efforts to recruit and retain new members.
We have to continue to improve the quality of our propaganda and ensure we are promoting it as widely as possible. Paper sales and sales of IV must be built up by pushing them at every opportunity - every demonstration comrades attend, every political meeting, workplace sales etc etc.
Where we have student comrades in a branch they should be given every possible assistance (help with writing and distributing _leaflets, speakers for meetings etc) to help build a presence. ... “Where we do not have student ‘comrades, we should look at other |” ways of linking up with students (e.g. through Trades Councils) and drawing them around us. 12
Youth work in general is not reducible to student work. We have recently recruited some youth out of the work around the Euromarch who are involved in campaigning around unemployment and work schemes. We should build on that, producing leaflets and bulletins which can be used by the youth comrades involved in that work. We should produce some simple pamphlets around our politics for use by young comrades.
We should start building immediately for the ‘98 youth camp, advertising for it and fundraising in order to be able to send a larger group of youth.
Over the next period we have to make conscious attempts to recruit more women. To achieve this we need to devote the resources of the whole group, not just the women, to the areas above. We also need to develop a higher profile on the question.
We should aim to organise forums in every branch on some aspect of women’s liberation. Following the CC discussion in the New Year we should investigate the possibility of producing a pamphlet on women’s liberation.
We should continue to consciously look at the proportion of articles in our press written by women and also those on issues of women’s liberation. Our paper is the most regular public profile we have so we must not lose the opportunity both to demonstrate our commitment to women’s liberation and to develop our ideas in dialogue with our audience.
The question of positive action needs to be discussed very concretely. We want to have leadership bodies with a higher percentage of women than in the group as a whole. However how much higher must be looked at carefully. If we attempt to go too far we may end up pressurising women who don’t feel ready or who have too many other commitments, including around child care, to be effectively able to play a role. In these situations we can end up burning people out and losing them completely ~ not at all what is needed.
We also have to pay close attention to the need to recruit black people to the organisation, and ensure that where appropriate our propaganda addresses issues of special concern to them.
We are still not in a position to produce a regular theoretical journal, but we have been able to produce well-received pamphlets around particular issues, and we should look to continue this, with a possibility being one on the issue of ‘recomposition’. We also need to look seriously at producing cheap pamphlets on basic issues accessible to youth and other contacts who are not schooled in political jargon. We have to learn to promote our pamphlets better, through public meetings, more assertive selling etc.
We must produce leaflets for particular demonstrations, disputes, major conferences etc, as a way of getting ourselves known to an audience which does not yet read the paper.
We should resume the habit of circulating model resolutions around particular issues and campaigns we support. Not only would this assist our comrades, but give a further point of contact with those who might agree on a particular issue.
Recruitment has to be on the agenda of every branch. MeetANge.; Ate. -only .to make comrades think aboutour contact ‘work. ‘In drawing up their branch perspectives after conference, branches need to look at what they can do around our priority 13
issues, but also a programme of either public meetings or at least forums to which contacts can be invited, around such issues as Alan Thornett’s second book, the single currency and the Cardiff demonstration, recomposition, etc.
The National Office has to have the ability to devote resources to assisting the branches, particularly the weaker ones, with speakers, leaflets and advice.
The incoming CC should draw up a plan of activity for the organisation, mapping out major events around which we will mobilise, but as importantly, a plan for our events, including at least a summer school and a major national public event, as well as exploring the possibility of day schools, both on particular political issues and on practical skills.
Where appropriate these events need to be organised well in advance, well advertised, with tickets to sell and comrades in the areas approaching contacts well in advance with arrangements for travel. 14