Working to co-ordinate the hard left
By JENNY FISHER IT's not all gloom and doom. While the casual reader of the bourgeois press might think that all the left is doing is splitting apart and clogging up the bookstalls with yet more new magazines, one initiative aimed at uniting the left - at least in action - has quietly been plugging away at what could seem an impossible task for the last few months.
After an initial meeting earlier this year, Labour Lelt Co-ordination was ormed to bring together the sup porters of various newspapers, magazines, campaigns and pressure groups on the leff of the labour move ment. Our first "outing" was at Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth; and was the fruit of weeks oft the careful planning necessary to mount such a joint initiative.
In Bournemouth, Labour Left Coordination produced a broadsheet handed out to delegates at the beginning of the Conference. It contained articles from the various campaigns Involved, and showed delegates and visitors the issues which the left felt it was important to fight for.
Given that LEC brings together such different kind of groups, it is virtually impossible to present a com mon detailed programme which all -the participants can endorse. The international campaigns (Labour Movement Campaign for Palestine, Labour Committee Treiand, Labour Women for Ireland), for example, tend not to have policy on Economic strategy British nembership of NATO. But we wer able to include in the broadsheet, arld in advance publicity, appeals for resistance to the witch-hunt and any watering down of mandatory reselection; and in favour of positive discrimination, and the demands put forward by the campaigns for Black Sections, Lesbian and Gay rights. and Women's rights.
Labour Left Co-ordination ended the week with a fringe meeting. Like most others in Bournemouth, it was not easily accessible, but over 100 visitors and delegates came. For many. it was the first real chance they'd had to discuss the need to organise the left, and begin to debate
HAL Eric Heffer joined the LLC platform after Kinnock's speech. tactics. Platform speakers were Dianne Abbott, and Eric Heffer, and over twenty people spoke from the floor, which must have been a record at a Conference where fringe meeting platforms seemed even fuller than usual.
Labour Left Co-ordination was also able to co-operate in the publication of a joint daily bulletin at Conference. This was a very successful venture: as well as being a breakthrough in terms of left cooperation, and in terms of cutting down the amount of paper handed out to bemused delegates, it managed to act as the tocal point tor many campaigns to report on events during Conference, as well as providing guidance for delegates.
After Bournemouth, Labour Left Co-ordination faces the task of consolidating its activities, and not falling Into the trap of being nothing but a leit talking shop in between Labour Party Conferences.
A start has been made to turn out towards workers fighting the Tories by supportino the National Miners' Amnesty Campaign, and by inviting the Socialist Teachers Alliance to talk to our next meeting with a view to working out some possible future cooperation.
LLC is taking seriously the task of co-ordinating a serious fightback on Labour Party policies. A major discussion on economic policy is being held at the next meeting, in the hope that we can agree on at least some broad principles to fight for in the Labour Party. Positive Socialist Viewpoint No. 9 December 1985p40 discrimination and the specially oppressed have not been forgotten, with plans being made for a major discussion, led by the campaigns concerned, early in the New Year. LLC has, in the meantime, written to the press about racist attacks, and also to the London Region Labour Party (as the Labour Party Region where some of the most serious recent attacks have taken place) urging action.
On the witch-hunt, LLC has set up a sub-committee to co-ordinate information on all kinds of witch-hunts and campaigns against them.
Another major task is getting out of London, Into the Regions, and promoting discussion on organising the left. As well as giving the chance to debate tactics, etc., this is very important to cut down the isolation that is still felt by the left in some areas. Plans are being made for meetings af Hegional Labour Party Conferences: and left caucuses, etc. ed to ask for speakers from LLC to attend their meetings.
As delegates left Bournemouth in* October, there was a definite mood that in the face of the Labour Party leadership onslaught from the platform, local left caucuses must be organised. These can be local "Labour Lefts" local "Campaign Groups", local "Briefing Groups", or whatever: the main need is to get meeting, discussing and organised to face the tasks ahead.
Contact Labour Left Co-ordination at 57, Lofting Road, London N1.
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