Shirley Williams and David Owen led split from Labour Party.
THE "gang of twelve" has finally split.
On March 2, Shirley Williams and her cronies announced that they were renouncing the Labour whip and sitting in Parliament as "Social Democrats".
So concerned with democracy are they that they are not even going to resuommit themselves tor election. much for the thousands of Labour voters wno put them into office in the first place and who, with consumate hypocrisy, they claim to represent.
But how have the Labour leaders reacted to their desertion? Have they denounced their attempts to split the Labour vote?
un une contav. comments or tael leaving seem more tinged with regret tal neste This is, of course, no accident. While many MPs are not willing to join Williams and her allies in the "wilderness", they share the same hostility as them to the step forward in democracy achieved at the last party conference.
The clearest sign of this was last month when, under an initiative from Roy Hattersley, a new grouping was set Backed by over 100 MPs from Neil Kinnock to Denis Healey, the "Laahead to build the struggle against une lores.
Thanks to our readers and suphas been achieved and last month Centre in South London. A larger and better equipped Centre repreAction, since it provides us with a much more solid base on which to of our expansion - a fortnightly Socialist Action.
offices and production rooms, we hope to be able, in the near future, to fully equip a photographic room as well as a reference library.
IN-DEFIH ANALYSIS in a more frequent production of the paper. Just as important, it will enable us to improve the quality of Socialist Action. far wider reporting of issues and events in the class struggie, we hope to bring our readers greater in-depth coverage and analysis of the main Tories. focussing more deeply on the union front to provide our readers in the unions and CLPs with a sharper tool Continued on Page 5.
MARCH 1981 By TERRY VINEY (Ravensbourne CLP)
1980 was the year CND jumped out of the history books and became Britain's fastest growing campaign. By Christmas, CND had emerged out of nothing to a membership of 20,000.
Government intentions to import US-controlled Cruise missiles and to spend £7 billion on Trident led to protest on a massive scale. Last October, 80,000 people demonstrated against nuclear missiles. Included in that demonstration was a large percentage of Labour activists and many young people.
The campaign swept swiftly into the heart of the Labour Party. At its annual conference in the autumn a clear majority voted for unilateral nuclear disarmament. Unlike the right-wing Gaitskell in the early NUCLEAR off.
working people.
4,000 houses. just doesn't add up.
STRATEGY pean theatre" in which the US can play out - and hope to win - its nuclear war. By having the largest Stoke. number of nuclear warheads per head of population, Britain is the number one target in such a play.
In any case, at a time of cuts in living standards and jobs, an arms expansionist policy is suicidal for At a time when three-quarters of all current social spending cuts will go in housing, one Trident will cost For workers, it Allowing the warmongers themselves to sit round a table and plot out our future is not likely to get us very far. After 15 years of detente, the world's arsenal of nuclear-free zone as has already been adopted in Manchester and Meanwhile, union delegates can begin to develop support for CND among the ranks of the union movement. Such a task is essential. Without the muscle of industrial trade unions CND will be incapable of stopping Cruise missiles from getting into Britain. Once won to unilateralism, trade unionists can boycott work on missiles or stop their entry into the country.
Stoke CND By MIKE HOPKINS (Stoke-onTrent CLP)
STOKE CND is an excellent