All money collested for International Workers Aid and its projests should be sent to: IWA, PO Box 30, London SE15 5EP. Telephone 081 694 8848. Slovenia and Croatia and in other parts of Europe.
Three vehicles, with 40 tonnes of aid from Denmark and Belgium, continue to try to reach Tuzla; they are currently on the southern route through Split.
Other lorries have unloaded in refugee camps and returned to Britain.
These political successes are threatened by the WRP highjack of the campaign.
The Saturday conference of the British campaign was a sectarian jamboree from the start.
Dot Gibson from the WRP, who gave the opening convoy report, abused her position by immediately stressing that she was speaking a member of the WRP's 'Workers International'.
She used her report, 57-minutes long, to attack sections of the campaign not controlled by the WRP - especially those parts of Europe in which the Fourth International has been involved.
Her practical proposal for the future of the campaign was a 'massive campaign to open the northern route into Bosnia'.
There would be a 'massive convoy' - some WRP speakers said 1.000 lorries would arrive in ex-Yugoslavia in March.
Gibson slandered the convoy still on the road (which has no WRP members on it) as 'only interested in humanitarian aid and not in the political campaign'. Steve Myers (left) addresses Workers' Aid conference Steve Myers, the elected international coordinator of the campaign, presented a very different report, effectively coun terposed to Dot Gibson'sreport.
He supported the call for a big convoy in March but argued that everything should not be left until then.
He proposed a number of smaller convoys between now and then given the overwhelming need which now exists.
It does not make sense, he argued, to hold back lorries, like those in Scandinavia, which are ready to go. There are lorries in London not being used and aid which can be taken.
Union links
He called for continuing to build the links with the trade unions in Croatia and Slovenia, and projects around education, women's groups, refugees, and a campaign around asylum laws which prevent Bosnian refugees entering other European countries.
The one-dimensional concentration of the WRP on the northern route was supported by the speaker from the Tuzla centre in Zagreb, who addressed the conference.
It is, however, extremely controversial. It is militarily the most dangerous route (it is only 70 kilometres but it runs through hostile Bosnian Serb territory with irregular armed militia and two active front lines) and it was not clear how it could be 'forced open by the working class of Europe'.
Catherine Samary from France pointed to the contradiction in the position of the WRP in relation to the UN.
The slogan of the campaign is for 'UN out of ex-Yugoslavia', but the WRP were actually calling for it to open the northern route. I ne answer was given who actually called for the UN to open the route by force of arms. tantamount to a cal for western intervention!
Samary also called for all routes to be opened but stressed the importance of a campaign for the opening of Tuzla airport, which she said was actually the most important single decision which could be taken to get aid into Bosnia.
The other crucial issue was the democracy of the campaign. Up until now the campaign has been dogged by the lack of elected structures The ad-hoc committee which has run the campaign has been a bear-garden with a different composition from week to week and decisions disregarded by the WRP.
To get away from this anarchy Socialist Outlook proposed to the conference the election of a steering committee - 12 from the floor of the conference plus
'Tribal warfare' is the term SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 52, November 13 1993, Page 3 Socialist forces and the loyalist