conference. The same NEC which had twice unanimously supported the policy, dropped the commitment to full equality - in particular on the age of consent -in the Policy Review.
LCLR's campaign success fully turned found a majority, which by definition included a majority of centre and centre-right untons and delegates, at the ference of the decade. Yeats of campaigning in thes Labour movement had finally made the issue of democratic rights for les bians and gay men part of the movement sagenda and the argument for full equality -unanswerable.
BAN eventually be refused access to radio and television, constitutes a sizeable section of the population.
One final point. Amidst all the understandable jubilation at the release of Hill, Richardson, Conlon and Armstrong, and the renewed hope their case gives to the Birmingham Six, let us not forget the Winchester Three. Spurred on by the success of the
Guildford appeal, let's renew our efforts to make sure that these three young Irish people, jailed for alleged conspiracy to murder Tom King, don't have to spend fifteen years in jail before their obvious innocence is admitted by the British state.
Jean Reilly
The campaign had been waged throughout by a united front approach to the leadership i of the labour movement on the "issue of equality, and the mobilisation of support at rank and file level A powerful con
stituency of backing had been won, reaching from the far left.
through them soft left Labour
Coordinating Committee to the
centre of the movement.
The victory provides the basis for future campaigning. There is most right wing Labour con little chance that this small blot
on the Kinnock leadership's
otherwise clean sheet will be al lowed an easy, passage into the
Party's manifesto. Yet that has to be the next target. The long term
must bea programme of legisla Stion by the next Labour gover
ment directed at eliminating all SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
how long? Sandwiched between two economic disasters - the interest rate hike to 15% and the mini crash on the world's stock markets on the anniversary of October 1987 - the Tory Party Conference in Blackpool failed miserably to rally popular support for Thatcher.
The clear indications of a precarious economy gave Labour a ten point lead in the opinion polls by the Thursday of the Conference!
Lawson's "keynote' speech gave little cheer either to the Tories in Blackpool, many of them fearful for their seats in the Commons, or the country •as a whole. Nor did it stop the Stock Market falling over 200 points on the Monday of the following week, in response to the falls on Wall Street. Along with the increasing unpopularity of their policies, on privatisation of water and electricity, on the NHS, on the Poll tax, these economic indicators leave the Tories very exposed.
In such a context the Conference also saw some very definite signs of the ambitions of away a strong prop of prejudice. The other strand would need to be ther implementation of positive images of lesbians and gay men andiof our sexualily in education and the media. This will be a harder struggle sill. The frst goal remains to preserve the policy LCLGR has powerful allies at all levels of the Habour movement torassist in this battle it is possible now that there is even a majority on the NEC for it. *
LCLGR will therefore be stepping up its effort to keep the pressure on the leadership. I vill do so through work with allies at the top and through a public campaign, directed through the labour movement and towards lesbians and gay men, to mobilise support for those fighting at leadership level and pressure one those SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
UP DATE Thatcher still in charge - for future Tory leaders. Thatcher no longer looks so invincible: the question of the surell was being openly discussed. And if anyone was in any doubt, the Conference and fringe speeches of Baker and Heseltine dispelled it immediately.
Kenneth Baker, fresh from his years in charge of Education, quoted Shakespeare, just to prove he had not wasted his time there. Michael Heseltine, with the more problematic image of Tarzan to throw off, adopted the sonorous tones of Churchill, to prove his leadership qualities. Even the woolly Geoffrey Howe, only just recovered from his demotion from the Foreign Office, sug gested that Thatcher might need to soften her tone a bit, and the Party might need to emulate the Labour Party's 'listening' image!
However by Friday afternoon it was still clear that none of these contenders in the wings have the guts of the weight of support to mount a setious challenge to Thatcher unless she were to stand aside or lose the next election.
As for policies, there seemed to be few new ones. The 'Green Agenda' won't be ready for a year; the Tories have dropped, for discrimination. This would knocke wavering under the weight of Kinnock and Hattersley,
A critical element in this cam *paige will be the trade unions. While the work of lesbian and
activists has led tol many unions now having their own equality policies the latest being the TGWU, there are many where policy does not exist, of where it is weak and undefended.
* Here and everywhere else in the struggle, we must look to the supportzof the left. Lesbian and gay rights has occupied its smal causes of the left, without ever receiving much real support when it matters. Well, it matters now, and socialists will be asked to educate themselves on the issues, and to campaign vigorously for equal rights in their unions, their parties and their communities.
Of all the agenda of the left,
the time being, their onslaught on the National Union of Students' 'closed shop' (they've enough problems imposing student loans); and there were over £l bil lion-worth of concessions made on providing the Poll Tax 'safety net'.
Back in London, however, Norman Fowler, the (Un)employment Secretary, was revealing some more vicious attacks on the unions. Contained in the new Green Paper, which he hopes to incorporate into legislation in the autumn, are proposals to allow employers to selectively sack unofficial strikers and to take away their right to go to a tribunal to claim unfair dismissal.
The proposals also demand that unions take more unequivo cal action to repudiate unofficial action, with the threat of se questration if this is not carried out. Fowler has for now backed off trying to ban strikes in essential services, though this may come later.
Perhaps this retreat was be cause Thatcher was also trying to portray the Tory revolution as the -pstein Lobbying their way to victory - LCLGR In Brighton lesbian and gay rights is likely to be one of the few which stands a chance in the running battle on policy up to the next election. The time has long gone when the left
Picking up litter - but not votes! inspiration for Gorbachevism! Following in his footsteps in banning strikes in essential services would not have had quite the right ring to it in her keynote speech before the predictable record-breaking standing ovation, where Thatcher proclaimed:
"The message on our banners in 1979 - freedom, opportunity, family, enterprise, ownership -are now inscribed on the banners in Leipzig, Warsaw, Budapest and even Moscow'
Even in its decline Thatcherism still makes claim to sweeping socialism from the whole world. Well, we'li see!
Jane Kelly should have begun to take up this issue senously. There is no better time than now to make a start. We might even win.
Peter Purton Page 3
Poll Tax Crunch period both sides of the border Six months into Poll Tax im- plementation in Scotland and six months away from its in- troduction in England and Wales the need to build a united democratic movement against the tax could not be greater. The task facing the anti-poll tax movement is enormous - but not impossible. The Poll Tax is a central element in the Tory offen- sive against the working class, bringing together a number of strands of Tory policy. It is the culmination of a ten year attack on local govemment and local democracy; it makes a further shift in the burden of taxation from rich to poor, it undermines a basic gain of the working class in a bourgeois democracy - the right to vote - as people attempt avoid the tax through not to registering to vote. The massive unpopularity of the tax - especially in urban areas - is clear. At one recent ward- based meeting in Tottenham over 100 working class people white, Conference 'Which Way for Socialists in the Unions? Sheffield Polytechnic Student Union, Pond St Sheffield (opposite BR station) November 11 & 12 11am-5pm Saturday; 10am-4pm Sunday Workshops include: Defiance not Compliance - anti union laws Private Vices, Public virtues - fighting privatisation Positive Action and Organising for Change - women! and black people in the unions and much more Delegates £10, individuals £6/£4. Credentials from The Socialist Conference (TU), PO Box 118, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Page 4
UP DATE black, young, old turned out to express their anger and commitment to refuse to pay. However this anger still has to be organised into a genuinely mass campaign of non-compliance. Even in Scotland, with nearly 1,000,000 non-payers, only a fraction of this number are active in local canpaigns.
If the movement is to succeed the maximum unity in action has
Tbe developed, with an authoritative leadership that can coordinate action. the national conference for all anti-poll tax groups called for November 25th (initiated by Terry Fields MP) at Manchester Free Trade Hall provides the opportunity to build such unity and leadership.
Unfortunately, events leading up to Nov 25th could undermine the success of the conference as supporters of Militant at a local and national level have behaved in a sectarian manner, counterposing themselves to already existing anti-poll tax groups and seeking to organisationally control and dominate moves towards
MILLER NOT BAYES Gordon Morgan
Scotlish demonstrators: now the warrant sales begin a national federation of anti-poll tax groups.
Whilst there is general desire in the movement for unity, Socialist Outlook would argue that the movement's structures have to be built up from grass roots level, reflecting the political plurality and diversity of the forces involved, which we recognise as a strength, not imposing a schema for organisational structures from above which has been Militant's approach.
Those forces within the anti-poll tax movement committed to building a campaign based on non-payment, non-collection and non-implementation came together in a national meeting on September 3 originally called by the Socialist Movement. Sup porters of Militant who had already set in motion the Nov 25th conference were present and and whilst the Sept 3rd meeting (characterised by the numbers of non-aligned activists present) voted to support the Nov 25th conference, there was a heated debate between Militant supporters and the rest around ques tions of democracy and seatarianism.
The Sept 3 meeting also illustrated the diversity of the currents and groups which are within a non-payment framework. This diversity can and does strengthen the movement, contributing to its dynamism and creativity. It has also provided a positive experience of socialists, anarchists ansd libertarians working together.
However, the movement has to be more than democratic and non-sectarian - it needs to have a clear labour movement orientation at all levels of the campaign. There has been a tendency for
TOLE THE MILLION CREE MILLION PAIN NOT NOB PAYERS SONY COITECT
RONT PAY | local anti-poll tax groups to con-
centrate on building up com-
munity resistance and not making
a high enough priority of making
links with workplaces and
unions.
There are exciting develop-
ments in some of the unions.
Inner London CPSA is taking one
day strike action (as we go to
press) in support of workers
refusing to cooperate with pass-
ing on information about
claimants to CCROs. The disnip
tion caused to the registration
process by the national NALGO
pay strike shows the potential of
workplace action.
Within the anti-poll tax move-
ment socialists need to highlight
the importance of such workplace
action in defeating the tax. Our
slogan isn't one of simply Don't
pay' - but the three 'd's' - "don't
pay: don't collect; don't
implement'. In many ways, non-
collection and non-implementa-
tion will be much harder to build
than non-payment. The full
weight of the labour bureaucracy.
who continue their violent op
position to the non-compliance
strategy, and the employers will
come down on workers who do
take action against the tax. The
stronger the non-payment move-
ment, the more confident workers
will be in taking on their own
misleaders and bosses. But the
anti-poll tax movement has to be
working now at rank and file
level in the unions as well as
making demands and putting
pressure on Labour local
authorities, local and national
trade union leaderships, and the
Labour Party to actively oppose
the tax, not the movement against
it.
Jane Connor SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
As European bureaucrats prepare to tone down their proposals to placate Margaret Thatcher, 10,0000 trade unionists have demonstrated in Brussels to show their support for a Social Charter to Include among other things, pension rights: here the rally is addressed by British pensioners' leader The Socialist Outlook for
NUN: DE Graeme Cookson Jack Jones. Outlook for Socialism, the weekend of debate and discussion organised by this journal, is now taking shape, with many speakers from across Europe confirmed, providing a full programme of socialist discussion on many of the key questions facing the working class in Europe, East and
The Great Debate -
Socialists and
the Stalinist
States.
A debate between
Socialist Organiser
and Socialist Outook on the nature of!
the Stalinist States. November 6th 7pm.
Room S13, Institute of Education Students Union Bed• ford Way, London WCI SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 19, November 1989
SEN ENDS AS SECORITE SOCIAL West.
The weekend of rallies, plenary sessions and workshops will be based around five main themes - The crisis of stalinism; Socialists and 1992; Lesbian and gay struggles in Europe; Women's struggles in Europe; and Is Socialism in Crisis?
Opening the event with a rally on the Friday evening, marxist economist and writer Emest Mandel; Zbigniew Kowalewski, exSolidarnoso organiser and marxist writer, Branka Magas, a contributor to New Left Review on Eastern Europe, and Ai Meun Lim, a leader of the Chinese Solidarity Campaign, will speak on the Crisis of Stalinism in Eastern Europe and China.
The Saturday morning begins with a plenary on Socialists and 1992, where the European editor of The Guardian, John Palmer, will be joined by Oliver MacDonald, editor of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.
Later on, there will be two sessions of workshops, giving
UPDATE Europe participants a chance to air their views on numerous questions facing socialists in Europe:
On Easter Europe, for example, Peter Tatchell will address the question of lesbian and gay liberation; Barbara Holland, author of Soviet Sisterhood, has been invited to look at the position of women in the USSR; Gunter Minnerup, author of Citizens and Comrades -Socialism in a World of Nation States, will address the questions posed by the national movements in Eastern Europe; Zbigniew Kowalewski, along with a speaker from the Polish Socialist Party, will explain recent developments in Poland.
On Western Europe and 1992, Patrick Camiller of New Left Review will discuss the workers' parties across Europe with Dave Packer of Socialist Outlook; and Penny Kemp of the Association of Socialist Greens will survey the evolution of the Green movements across the continent; Joy Hurcombe, of Labour
CND, will look at recent develop ments in NATO; and a roundtable discussion will take place on the student movement, involving representatives of the Greens, the Communist Party, and Socialist Outlook.
in the evening, representatives of the Spanish, Dutch and British lesbian and gay movements will lead a plenary session on Lesbian and Gay Struggles in Europe. This will be followed by a social with a disco and licensed bar.
The Sunday sessions will begin with a plenary on Women's Struggles in Europe, with Irene Breugel, of the Socialist Society; and we have invited Alice Mahon MP of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs to join her, in addition, a leading representative of the Fourth International will be on the platform.
This will be followed by another session of workshops, and a final session entitled Is Socialism in Crisis?, with Ken Livingstone MP and marxist writer, Tariq Ali, among others.
Page 5
Labour conference: Time for a post