awestonnaire which cari members will a".ar, have been :e0a300; the Deero ClauselY =a selection Were. For a ontact the APRIL 29 1995. That is day labour movement activists must focus on after they wake up bleary eyed after their New Year's Eve parties.
Last month's Labour Party NEC decided by 20 votes to 3 to organise a special conference on that date, to overturn 1994 conference policy and steamroller the leadership's proposals for a rewrite of Clause IV through the movement.
A rigged questionnaire will be circulated to party members in January with questions framed in such a way as to make it difficult for people to indicate their support for common ownership. At the NEC Dennis Skinner proposed that members be allowed to indicate whether they wanted to retain the Clause. This was defeated.
The April conference is clearly designed to exclude democratic discussion as most trade unions have their conferences in the summer. The reason is clear. Blair is worried that any such discussion would lead to a victory for those of us who want to retain Clause IV.
All the evidence points to a groundswell of support for the Defend Clause IV Campaign. A sample survey of CLP's shows that 59 out of the 61 surveyed have already voted to defend Clause IV. Peckham, Dunfermline East and Blackburn CLPs are among those who are in favour of retention to the considerable embarrassment of their MPs - Harriet Harman, Gordon Brown and Jack Straw.
Support
The majority of Labour MEPs have also come out in support of the Clause. ASLEF, NUM, BECTU, GPMU, FBU, EPIU have also committed themselves to the current constitutional position.
The RMT seem likely to support and NCU President Bill Fry has spoken publicly in favour of defending Clause IV.
Significantly the Tribune editorial of 16 December argues "Surely, the best advice available to the Labour leader is for him to quietly drop opposition to Clause Four, while persuading the party of the merits of an added aims and values docuBickerstaffe: UNISON's a tough nut to crack Tony Blair: signing up for Tory policies Key to winning the fight will be the Regional Labour Party conferences set for the first three months of 1995 and the National Labour Women's conference in At every regional conference the left must ensure that delegations are mandated to support resolutions which support Clause IV and common ownership. Fringe meetings need to be organised now. The centre-left unions MSF, TGWU and UNISON are vital and must be persuaded to support Clause IV.
Unhappy
London Region MSF have already voted in favour of the campaign and the T&G reps on the Labour Party NEC, Dan Duffy and Diane Holland are known to be unhappy with Bill Morris' compromise with Blair.
In Scotland there are more than twenty resolutions defending Clause IV for Scottish Labour Conference in March. The Scottish committees of FBU, UCATT and MSF are set against any change in Labour's constitution.
UNISON will be a tough nut to crack as the majority of the organised left are ex-NALGO and consequently will not have a vote on the question.
The next two or three months will be crucial. If we organise we can win, and ensure that Labour enters the pre election period with its commitment to common ownership intact. Tony Blair Breakfast With Frost transcript, June 12 1994. FROST: "If there was in fact a sort of campaign or move to get rid of Clause Four would you actively oppose that?" Blair: "I think the most important thing is for the Labour Party to state what its economic priorities are, and there has been discussion about Clause 4 over the past couple of years, and I understand why that is, but / think the most important thing at the present time, and I think where everybody in the party wants to see the Labour Party go, is to construct its policies for the next general election and make those clear before the British people." Frost: "Do you have your own on Clause 4, I mean would you oppose its being dropped?" Blair: "Well, I don't think anyone actually wants that LABOUR PARTY to be the priority of the Labour Party at the
It's the way he tells them...