Labour Party conference was the only clear victory over the Policy Review of the whole week On an issue where the leadership, has consistently shown itself either terrified at 'what it sees as the electoral implications of supporting full equality for lesbians and gay men. or else is simply prejudiced, a majority was *won against Kinnock and Hattersley.
Lesbian and gay liberation is an amportant component of socialist programme, It represents
a challenge both to the ideology and the organisation of capitalist Page 2
UPDATE by the media, and the atmosphere which it creates, which will be used as an excuse by the police officers due to be charged with 'over zealous' collection of evidence in the Guildford case. These officers, who are being set up to be the scapegoats for very senior members of the police force and the judiciary, will probably cite media coverage as evidence of the pressure they were under to get a conviction for the bombings.
Given all this, however, it was the height of irony that October 19, the day the Guildford Four won their appeal against their convictions for the Guildford and Woolwich pub bombings, was also the first anniversary of the introduction of the broadcasting restrictions on Sinn Fein and ten other organisations. This ban, which has led to a marked reducits survival and reproduction. The struggle for lesbian and gay liberations requires the autonomous organisation of lesbians and gay men, and support of the labour movement.
¿Today, that struggle necessarily takes the form of campaigning for democratic rights for lesbians and gay men through the demand for full equality in law, and the ending of all discrimination. Fixe years ago LCLGR determined to *focus its campaigning on winning a frm policy commitment from the Labour Party,
In 1985, the first ever debate was held and won, with the NEC narrowly opposing on the issue of an equal age of consent. The policy was reaffirmed in 1986
LIFT LIFT THE THE BAN BAN IFT THE 2,000 joined the NUJ's October 19 demonstration and rally to mark the first anniversary of the Tory broadcasting ban on Sinn Fein and other groups tion in serious coverage of Ireland and its 'British problem', will do nothing to prevent a repeat of the hysterical and irresponsible coverage of the Guildford and Birmingham cases. In fact, it makes it more likely.
The link between the broadcasting ban and the Guildford case is highlighted most effectively by the decision of a local radio station in Guildford, which refused to broadcast an interview with Errol Smalley, an uncle of Paul Hill and a campaigner on his behalf. Presumably this decision was made on the grounds that as a supporter of the Four, Smalley was therefore a supporter of the IRA. On this line of reasoning, the number of people who could society, which requires the com, and then in 1988, in the year of won the support of 84% of the