Demand recognition of the PLO!
Palestine: another
Conference policy bites
- PART
unionists holding the balance of power. He promised that he would withhold his vote from any Labour government cooperation with the Unionists.
Martin Collins, Editor of the magazine New Labour and Ireland, said since Kinnock is working for good ligures in the opinion polls, he would earn electoral popularity by advocating withdrawal from Ireland as the majority (58%) of the British electorate want it. If the Labour government Is to fight unemployment there is 80% of that among the people of Balymurphy in West Belfast under British Rule.
Collins also used this meeting to launch his newly published book Ireland Affer the dust
IT was no surprise that the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict was once again swept under the carpet at this year's Labour
Conference, and the Party kept an embarrassing silence.
MAIRE
O'SHEA IS
:INNOCENT/
Brifain: another good guide for wide- ranging debate, he said
The Labour unites party members to campaign for an LCI end to bloodshed and barriers to progress towards a socialist Ireland. This is a vital part of the struggle for socialism in Britain.
1 country never itself be free or socialist.
The LCi calls for unconditional British military and political withdrawal trom
Ireland and self-determination for the Irish people as a whole. In the interim we call for an end to abuses of human rights and for the Party to act on its positions of op position to the use of piastic bullets, non
Jury Diplock courts, the PTA and the use of
East has been imperialist struggle in the world today
Drop the charges!
Demonstrate: Birmingham Nov 9 11 am, Sparkhill Park. Rally 2pm, Digbeth Hall.
counter silence
Committee on Ireland over Britain.
that oppresses another can tivists
Ireland and Britain.
WCIN 3XX.
condemning
While throughout the year the Middle opening momentous shaken by question.
events — perhaps the most important anti-
Conference for the third year running failpredated declaration;
been
• •
Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986. Page 8 paid informers (supergrasses).
The ICI organises press conferences to and censorship and organises conferences and campaigns all
Labour Women for Ireland particularly campaigns against the degrading and sexist strip searching of women in Armagh jail and promotes contact between women acagainst British Imperialism in
Join the LCI: we ignore Ireland at our
Perite to LC1. BM Box 5355, London
ed to put it on its agenda for debate.
An emergency resolution by the FBU Israel's raid on the PLO headquarters in Tunis (which took place on the second day of the Conference) was manoeuvred off the agenda for fear of
La debate on the Palestinian This evasion is not new: the leadership has consistently proved its determination not only to dodge any debate on the question but also to bury once and for all any past conference resolution.
Most significantly. The Conference resolution passed in 1982, recognising the
PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people and pledging
Party support for Palestinian sell determination has scarcely seen the light of day 1982 it was widely recognised as an important breakthrough. Previously, the
Labour Party has been an unstinting supporter of Zionism and the state of Israel.
The 1917 War Aims Memorandum by
Arthur Henderson and Sydney Webb the Tory/Liberal Balfour the 1945 Labour Party
Manifesto outbid even the Zionists in its call for the Arabs to be expelled in order to make way for Zionist settlements.
Since then, support for Zionism has the strongest in Labour's top echelons - Foot, Bevan, Wilson, Healey,
Callaghan — who have clung to the myth that Israel's founders "espoused the ideals of socialism, justice and community.
It was not until the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that the tide began turning in favour of the Palestinians. Then the horrors of Israel's genocide in Lebanon trig gered a wave of sympathy for the Palestinians, and the Conference that year carried a motion - initiated by the Labour
Movement Campaign for Palestine — supporting the right of Palestinians to sell