and non-compliance than on any other subject this year and it is quite clearly going to be a central debate.
The NEC is doing all in its power to head off militant action against the Bill, while presenting a public face of opposition. As several delegates from Liverpool pointed out, UNISON has just spent iwo years and an estimated £500,000 trying to witch-hunt four shop stewards after they led a strike against racism. The hypocrisy of the UNISON leadership's "anti-racism" is already quite apparent to a wide layer of union activists.
The conference ended with a discussion on the forthcoming CFDU pamphlet on the Bill, and with moving speeches from Lola Onibiyo and Margaret Ilin about their struggles against Britain's racist immigration laws.
While the fight around national policy is going to be crucial at conference, resisting the implementation of this racist legislation is going to be take a lot more.
How the Bill is implemented will vary from one workplace to the next. To make this anthing more than paper polic! will require discussions at branch level on the implications of the bill and what workers can do to oppose it collectively.
Ultimately, success or failure depends on convincing workers of their collective strength, and that UNISON members do not stand alone but are supported by much wider sections of the communitv NO ONE in the ruling class really believes the Prevention of Terrorism Act has any effect on the activities of the IRA. Its main purpose is to stifle political opposition to British rule in Ireland.
Spurred on by Jack Straw, the Labour Party abstained on the renewal of the PTA and helped the government rush through emergency amendments with almost no debate.
The Tories' stated purpose for adding to the PTA was to prevent an IRA Livingstone: part of the principled opposition to Blair's backing of PTA martial laws powers spectacular around the 80th anniversary of the Easter Rising. More likely it was to clamp down on any opposition to the peace process.
Labour does not want to be seen as soft on terrorism. As with other policy areas, the leadership is determined to smash the merest sniff of political opposition from within the party before Blair comes to power Take, for example, the Blairites' recent antics in Jeremy Corbyns Islington North constituency.
Photo• Mark Salmon The local party has been has been threatened with suspension after its General Committee passed a motion in support of Corbyn's vote against the renewal of the PTA. A leader of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee, maddened by this refusal to swear undying allegiance to Blair, went public and virtually accused Corbyn of supporting the IRA.
Like everyone else Irish people want to be shut of the Tories. But they will not be cowed into silence on the British presence in the Six Counties. Likewise, a significant number of Labour Party and trade union members continue to oppose the threat to civil liberties represented by the PTA and its extension for use against other groups.
It is also becoming clear to many people that the real aim of the peace process is the strengthening of partition. Getting the Labour Party at its next conference to restate its commitment to the repeal of the PTA is an important step in opposing this division and fighting for democratic rights in Ireland and Britain.
David Coen Model resolution: Conference regrets the decision of the Labour front bench to abstain in the vote on renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and thereby break with its long standing policy of opposition to the Act. Conference resolves to restate its opposition to the PTA; calls on the Party leadership to declare its opposition to the PTA and to commit the next Labour Government to repeal the PTA. We should also demand that repeal of the PTA and opposition to partition should be included in the programme of the other parties and organisation such as the Socialist Labour Party.
Socialist Outlook 102 • May 25, 1996.