conferences in the past. Militant remains the major force with an effective stranglehold on the organisation. Seventy-seven per cent of delegates voted for a Militant supporter in the elections tor a represen lative on the Labour Party Nationa Executive Committee. But the twenty strong National Committee LPYS is 100% pro-Militant: other left groups or independents represented on it. Militant supporters slavishly vote for all the NC recommendations and throughout ference not one recommendation was overturned; making it hard to understand why they bother having votes at all. Because of this domination, the politics of Militant need analysing when looking at LPYS Conference.
Undoubtedly the miners' strike has been the most important struggle in the recent period (and probably in the last 50 years), and must stand or fall by their record during that period.
Militant had not learnt any lessons from the strike. Conference lacked any analysis and was just selfcongratulatory speeches about the practical work LPYS branches had done through the strike.
While organising marches raising money was vital, it cannot be seen as the be-all and end-all of a supposedly Marxist group. One of the most important things for Labour Party activists to do at the moment is to build a socialist campaign Kinnock and Hattersley who did their bit to scupper the miners' strike. While many of us have been fighting for this tooth and nail in the CLPs, Militant effectively defended the scab Labour leadership by recommending that a resolution calling didates to stand against Kinnock and Hattersley should not debated. This scandalous cowardly recommendation, sabotaging the struggle against Kinnock, was passed with Militant and the rightwing Labour Co-ordinating Commit-
-LPYS Conference '85= tee (LCC) youth voting together. of the not con- told of the YTS. Then, in May, Both welcome try. left groups the media-hyped attack debate and against on can- be even and
By NICK de MARCO 'hat evening, when Militant gur NUPE's ed Grant claimed that one of th crucial mistakes made by the NUM leadership was not calling for a ballot, it became apparent that they had learned nothing from one of the most important working class strug- defended gles e Your Training - Scheme, and The Youth Training Scheme, anc the likely government conscription of youth onto it, was seen as the most im- Militant portant area of campaigning ior the LPYS. It must be said that Militant through the LPYS's sister body, the Youth Trade Union Rights Campaign (YTURC), has done some good work over the YTS. At Conference we were 20,000 strong school students strike in Glasgow against the become there was 200,000 school strike across the coun- events were organised, almost solely, by YTURC. Apart from David Steel attacking the tant LPYS as "hooligans" the main part of on school "Workers in uniform" in the Six Counties: discussing the politics of Militant? Ireland, women. Socialist Viewpoint, No. 6, June 1985. Page 13
rikes came from Neil Kinnock (wh
escribed the organisers, YTUR "dafties") and an NEC resolution con-
moved by one-time deputy general secretary lom Sawyer
Since then YTURC have beer • thrown out of their Walworth Road headquarters and a fresh witch-hunt starended Armust he contable
from Labour bureaucrats who are not known for their support of any type of strike. However, the rest of the approach by
Wto the YTS is sectarian through and through.
At conference there was no serious discussion of tactics or unionisation of YTS schemes. Apart from a speech about how YTSers will either become revolutionaries or "take drugs and
involved in Brixton-type riots" (!), the basis of their approach is "join LPYS — join Militant'
At LPYS Conference, Gay rights has been a hot issue, although Mili-
have previously refused to lebate it. Lett-wing groups and in lependents have opposed Militant:
FUERA PiNOCHETE
T/P\ LAS neo-Stalinist homophobia (gays have been physcially attacked at ferences in the past). Militant sup porters' replies about "personal problems" (!) not beina "political" their contempt for gay people who want to fight their oppression made them look more dogmatically reactionary than even the Communist Party.
It isn't entirely therefore, that due to the patient work of the Lesbian and Gay Socialists and the recent organisation of gay people in Militant, the great monolith has at last gradually moved to make gestures in the right direction. Resolutions condemning attacks on gay people and even pledging action were overwhelmingly passed
It was clear, however, that many rank and file Militant supporters still hold reactionary positions bably due to the lack of discussion on gay politics in Militant. But at least nobody got beaten up this year...
Chile
Internationalism has never been Militant's strong point and this has not changed. There were debates on South Africa and Chile where they have supporters. In Chile, for exam"Socialist Party as the main priority. Militant backs work in The important lessons of Chile for Marxists — the need tor opposition to cross-class "popular front' and the type of parliamentary refor mism that created the conditions for Pinochet's army thugs to step in have clearly not been learned by Militant, or the Chilean comrades.
Within "liberal" sounding resolutions on Ireland plastic bullets, strip supergrasses, Diplock courts and the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Militant managed to get in the
On Chile, Militant draw no lessons from fatal cross class "Popular Unity" of 1970-73. demagogy about "green Tories" and "terrorists" Con- Irish republican movement. For Mili- tant even to take up the issue of civil , and rights in Ireland (though in a way that looks at the symptoms and not the cause: British Imperialism) is certain- has ly a step forward trom their past at- titude: but it was the well-established crude denunciations republican movement and its sup- surprising porters that brought the euphoric ap- Young plause of Militant supporters. self- Still seeing the main the Six Counties as the setting up of a "non-sectarian" Labour Party based on "bread and butter issues" the centuries old Irish struggle tor in- dependence, delegates to a long speech by one of their supporters "Young Socialists". Ireland work: collecting for the miners, cam- pro- paigning against trade union/economic organising a demonstration against the National Front. another speaker, pathiser from "Labour Youth" — part ot the Irish (republic's) Labour Party there was border, troops British Imperialism — and little men- tion of civil rights in Ireland. Reactionary politics (overwhelmingly unions in the Six Counties would be just as reactionary as groups like the by Militant, let alone by Kinnock, the condemning riaht-wing of the Party or Paisleyites. searches, against positive discrimination/action and the debate on racism was used to regular.
and other slurs on the comrades. of the Grant sit up objective in , and not subjected Militant from the Northern She outlined the main areas of their YTS, and other and issues Along with a Militant sym- "suffered Militant no mention of the out, or the role of where the The speakers proved beyond doubt "Labour Party" based on the "Northern Ireland Labour even if they were dominated The "women's debate" was just us- the Socialist Viewpoint, No. 6, June 1985. Page 14
A VEERA I A LUMAR slag off black sections
'Working-class" Militant black youth got up one after the other, crudely slandering black sections, to the enthusiastic support of their white
One particular speaker said that black sections were simply a tool for "petty bourgeois black careerists" a statement that even made old Ted
Tin his chair and shout "Hear! Hear!". (I was sitting next to him at the time and it was the only thing that stirred him.)
Police
I had fondly imagined that following the experiences of the miners' strike, Militant might have changed their peculiar position on the police - whom they regard as "workers in uniform". But despite speeches about how bad some police were during the strike, the main emphasis of the Militant speches and resolutions was their usual call for the unionisation fo the police. Pushed as the priority, one speaker claimed that the police
just as much under capitalism as the rest of us"! Perhaps
Tought to look to France, vicious riot police are unionised, before coming out with this dogmatic, irrelevant line and believing that unionisation of these "workers in riot gear" would make the tasks of socialists easier.
For those who have been to LPYS Conferences in the past this article might seem boring - as the Conference was mainly a repetition of previous ones. But it is precisely the oring and sterile politics of Militant that in the midst of mass unemployment and social crisis makes Britain's LPYS one of the smallest in Europe, and necessitates a left opposition in
LPYS to challenge Militant's blindfold over Labour's youth.
Nicaragua: Senate swings back behind Reagan's blockade'
It should come as little surprise that the US Senate should vote $38 million to fund the brutal CIA-run contra gunmen in Nicaragua, only weeks after Ronald Reagan failed to secure $14 million funding.
While sections capitalist establishment Democrats and Republicans disagree with Reagan's tactics in handling the Nicaraguan situation, none of them disagree with the principle of seeking to reinforce US imperialist domination
the American general and Central America in vulnerable to manipulation by the various military and agencies of US imperialism, who Soviet silences on Nicaragua President Reagan's decision to impose a US economic