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mechunians that will allow maximum participation and politicisation - through the organisation of 'retum to sender' days for example. Through mass burning of forms, or the collective querying of the questions heing asked, we should use non-registration activity to orgunise on estates and in specific communities, building up close networks able to support each other. Even if at the end of the day councils get the information they need, the obstruction and civil disobedience, if properly handled, can be un important mobiliser, laying the ground work for non-payment.
Reckless adventurism', playing with other people's lives have been the phrases used by the Labour leadership to altack the idea of non-payment. Despite this, some MP's and others have been encouraging the building of Committees of 100 pledged not to pay the poll tax. In some hands this has been an attempt to sidetrack other strategics now, and to limit non-payment itself to a few martyrs: but as part of an overall strategy of dehance such Commitlees can play a part. We must rejoct Kinnock's view of non-payment; but we can only do so if we are able to build a collective approach which does not leave individuals isolated.
The Newcastle Conference cannot in itself call into being a national coordination of poll tax campaigns. But it must set itself the target of providing a framework for discussion with other groups to pull together such coordination.
In that way we can properly pace the campaign. Timing will be of the utmost importance. We need to use the issuing of poll tax demands in Scotland, and the non-payment which results - whether from deliberate non-payment or inability to pay, to build the non-registration and non-implementation campaigns south of the
Getting campaigns off the ground south of the border - where many local groups exist in name only - must be used to give a shot in the um to the Scottish campaigns.
A successful conference In Newcastle will give the movement the boost it needs in order to combat the poll tax, one of Thatcher's most vicious attacks on the working class.
Greg Tucker.
Socialism is already off Labour's conference agenda It is Thatcher's stated aim to remove socialism from the map. All potential outposts of resistance have come under attack: local government, strong unions, progressive social policies.
Unemployment, privatisation redistribution of wealth from poor to rch by a strengtisened state have heen accompanied by a strong ideological offensive reasserting the values of the market, the family, patriotism and individualism. The socialist left has been marginalised, especially within the Labour Party-
But there is still a strong socialist current -in the party, the unions, in numerous campaigns and amongst seclions of the intelligentsia, The value of the Socialist Conference movement is that it draws all these different components together, multiplying their strength in a way which the Labour left on its own could not do.
Since the June national conference of 2000 people in Chesterfield there has been a flowering of local activity and organisation. Regional conferences in South London and Newcastle attracted 200 people, and one in Taunton pulled in 100. Large organising meetings have been held in Scotland, Wales and the North West to plan activities, and regional conferences are planned for both the East and West Midlands and in Fast Anglia.
'The Socialist Conference has also begun to take a lead on the key issues facing the labour movement. It hascalled the national conference against the Poll Tax in Newcastle on Decemher 10, and has been instrumental in establishing many local campaigns and actions against the Pall Tax. It has also linked up with the Solidarity Network to build support for workers in struggle, and is discussing a major conference next autumn on developing the left in the trade unions.
At least three other major conferences are
Keeping socialism
on the agenda
scheduled over the next six months. An international conference on Gorbachev and the European left in April will debate the policy issues raised by the impact of Gorbachevism on both east and west Europe. A conference on democratic rights is also being organised to bring together thosc in the black and Irish communities with civil libertarians, trade unionists and lesbians and gay activists: the aim is to discuss a charter on democratic rights. A further green and socialist conference is also planned.
At the same time as taking the initiative on these campaigning issues, the Socialist conference is also linking up with the Campaign group of Labour MPs, with its "Campaign for Socialism' specifically geared to providing a left alternative to the official Labour policy
There will be a series of public meetings around the country stressing key socialist policies such as public ownership and unilateralism. Unlike the official policy review, these will be aimed at involving trade unionists, women and black organisations in a real discus-
On top of this there are plans for a serics of Socialist Conference pamphlete to combat the official new realist drivel in the glossy Walworth Road productions.
The hand left in the Labour Party has been on the defensive for the past few years as Kinnock has succeeded in driving the party to the right. The Socialist Conference providesa valuable opportunity to link the best forces of the labour left - the Campaien group, Black SecLions, Lahour Briefing and independent forces - to those socialists outside the party who are active in their unions, campaigns and struggles. As such, it could play a key role in projecting a serious socialist altemative into the 1990g.