On 3 April the Labour NEC voted to suspend 13 Lambeth councillors from Lambeth Labour Group, and to bar them from holding office in the party.
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Local anti-poll tax activists Steve Nally and Kevin Fernandez were barred from holding office. None of the 15 had any notice of the charges and have no opportunity to gham. By suspended councillor Steve French present a defence. A fur- council leader Joan Twelther 'investigation' will lay ves and two of her supcharges, which could easi- porters, who of course have ly result in expulsions. The followed the whip - even same NEC made further at- when the left wing has tacks on councillors in broken ranks. Liverpool and Nottincomes as a result of the At the NEC meeting en- stand which many left vironment spokesperson councillors have taken Bryan Gould was angry at against the poll tax, and our the move and said he opposition to the Gulf war. hadn't been briefed. His Kinnock aims to install a confused TV performance right wing majority in the afterwards showed the council chamber, even if NEC didn't know what it that means losing Labour was doing. Gould claimed control - as has happened that the 13 had been in Liverpool. suspended because of repeated defiance of the move spoke of the NEC's Labour Group whip. This need to 'minimise political came as a shock to the embarrassment'. The real Chief Whip, who was one embarassment is that the of those suspended, and Labour humiliatingly served the Tories' war effort and refused to fight the poll tax. Just as there was crossparty agreement on the Gulf, so there seems to be The attack on Lambeth on Lambeth too.
MPs cheered Michael Heseltine's attacks on Lambeth, and one front bencher said that Lambeth was 'not really a Labour council'. Lambeth Against the Witch Hunt has been formed to fight these attacks - all of them. while some argue uncritiPress reports on the cally in defence of the Joan Twelves council leadership, neither I nor some other councillors do. While we defend her against Walleadership worth Road attacks, we cannot be uncritical. Her leadership capitulated on the poll tax, cuts and privatisation. It alienated many of those who should have been the heart of this Labour defence campaign - in the party and among the local community.
Lambeth councillors think we should be building a national campaign against all these attacks on councillors. To this end Lambeth Against the Witch Hunt is calling a naBut tional meeting to co-ordinate the defence.
National meeting against the witch hunt. Saturday 27 April, 4pm, University of London Student Union, Malet St., London WCI:
the Third This summer the leaders of the seven richest capitalist countries meet in London to discuss the world economic situation. Campaigners against the mountain of debt which is suffocating the third world are preparing to greet them. The newly-established Cancel the Debt Campaign is organising a mass demonstration of Saturday 13 July, and further activities while the capitalist leaders are here. WILL MACMAHON reports. The annual summit of the Group of Seven(G7) is this year in London. Bush, Mitterrand, Major and the rest will be meeting in the aftermath of their Gulf In addition to papering over their own differences on who gains from the new world order, they will, as usual being discussing how to continue their organised robbery of the thousands of millions of workers and peasants who live in the South' - the semi-colonial and dependent countries.
It is six years since Live Aid, which led to an immense outpouring of concern for the desperately poor and hungry in the 'third world'. In that time, while Eastern Europe has been the centre of media attention, the South has been sliding towards an abyss which has ses in been little reported.
There have been no miracles in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In these six The years the debt burden has was in relentlessly increased, bringing in its wake the inevitable IMF-sponsored austerity programmes and unimaginable suffering.
outlets, There is no shortage of statistics about the volume of the debt. One simple Keeping the cash: Britain's Major day 40,000 children die of malnutrition or preventable diseases - a yearly holocaust of more than 12 million to cover inchildren literally murdered terest payby the economic system im- ments. But posed by the powerful im- as economic perialist states - with the recession hit collusion of the ruling clas- the West the the South. loans were thousand million people live not rolled on less than $300 a year - over; repaymost of them on half that. ment on inorigins of the debt terest and the flood of capital was petrodollars' which demanded. flooded Western banks after The massive the 1973-4 hike in oil prices. transfer of Desperate to find profitable resources Western govern- the ments and banks searched poor to the the third world for people to lend the money to. the last decade began.
Mostly this tor- for markets, especially third rent of lending did world 'free trade zones' not benefit the or- under the domination of one dinary people. It or other of the major imwas frittered away perialist economic blocs. by the ruling clas- In the context of a worses in the third sening world recession, world countries. militarisation and free trade Much of it zones will be used to sysreturned to Swiss tematically force the South or US banks ac- into deeper despair. counts as multi- Campaigning against the million dollar nest third world debt is not a mateggs for third ter of charity world rulers. A lot solidarity. From the very wasted on first attempts at colonisation 'prestige build- the workers and peasants of ings and other the third world have shown forms of con- extraordinary determination spicuous con- to prevent the transformasumption. tion of their lands into cheap At first the debt was labour colonies and dump'rolled over' with new loans ing grounds for imperialism.
'M HUNGRY!! Now, of all times, there is rich which has characterised the need for the broadest Starvation stalks the Third World as the imperialist bankers grow fat on interest payments • Third for a new and just economic order. demands can win an immense response in the labour movement, among students and all those concerned with third world and ecological issues.
Take action now. Raise in your trade union, Labour Party or other organisation the issue of sponsoring the Cancel the Debt campaign. but of Get the Campaign to send a speaker - or set up a public meeting. Get pledges of support for the 13 July demonstration and the other activities while the G7 leaders are here!
Cancel the Debt Campaign is supported by: Campaign for Non-AlignMY GOD!! A COMMUNIST!!!
EALLY! Socialist Outlook April 9th 1991 Page 3 ment, El Salvador Solidarity. These Campaign, Environmental Network for Nicaragua, FLMN, Institute for. African Allernatives, Labour Party Black Sections, London Rainforest Action Group, Namibia Support Committee, National Womens Network for International Solidarity, National Organisation of Labour Students, Red-Green Network, Socialist Campaign. Group of Labour MPs, Socialist Movement, Socialist Outlook, Socialist Society; Third World First, Working. People's Alliance (Guyana), Women for Socialism, World Development Movement.