THE CONFERENCE British section of the Fourth International took place on 18-21 December in Delegates decided to put all their efforts into mass action unemployment and unilateral disarmament as the best way of securing a Labour victory and kicking out the Thatcher government. ference also decided change the name organisation from the international Marxist Group Socialist League.
Present at the conference over 400 delegates and guests the British and international labour movement. Delegates heard greetings Swedish, American, and Hong Kong supporters of the Fourth International as well as the leadership of the International United Secretariat.
months of discussion had preceded the conference. organisation is proud of its reputation for democratic internal functioning and sees the formation of tendencies organised around different points of view in this period as a natural and healthy development.
Contrast Fourth Internationalists contrast this method of functioning with that of the bureaucratised communist and social democratic parties who refuse to allow the right of tendency. Instead these parties conduct expulsions or witch-hunts such as that being carried out against supporters of the Militant newspaper the Party.
The principle of democratic centralism entails freedom of GISCUSSOR dIse demands that once have been taken by majority vote that they are carried out by all members.
Hence for the British section of the Fourth International its national conference is sovereign, subject only to decisions taken by the world congress of the Fourth International.
conference major points of policy; London.
backing against for perialist intervention America and the Caribbean Conto * to build of the to the were progressive policies abour Party Young Socialists junked by the right wing leaders Mexican choose 3 ПО League * to Irish Democracy.
following way:
Labour complete however It decisions 1968 to bourgeois rule and Stalinism.
By a small overall majority the adopted the following * to campaign against the war-drive of Reagan and Thatcher; in particular through building the present movement for unilateral disarmament and supporting those fighting against imCentral * to campaign for the release of all the heroic Polish fighters imprisoned by mass action around the slogan "jobs not bombs' as the best way to kick out the Tories and gain a * to work in the labour movement to oppose witch-hunts and defend the the and Labour Party congresses being * to support the fight of women in the davour movement for an chicouve say at all levels of the labour movement and for policies like affirmative action for jobs and a woman's right to * to help build Revolution Youth, the youth organisation in solidarity with the Fourth International in Britain * to be in favour of unity with other far left organisations in Britain which have broadly the same approach as our own, such the Workers Socialist strengthen our links with the Fourth International and particularly SCELON Peoples The reporter speaking for the majority of the outgoing Central Committee summed up the political situation faced by the organisation in the "The world today is dominated by the rise of world revolution and the workers struggles on the one side and the unleashing of a brutal imperialist counter-offensive against that strug gle on the other. The economic crisis of capitalism is assuming catastrophic proportions and combines with the world revolution a deep-going crisis of *The most advanced points of this sharpening class struggle have been the revolutionary struggles in Central America and Poland. These combine EXIT jobs and nuclear disarmament. with the rise of the mass anti-nuclear weapons movements in the imperialist Socialist League conference decided to campaign for a Labour election victory through mass action on tionary Marxists is to shake off all sectarian prejudices and participate in the coming political battles that will shape the future of the British working class movement.
necessary. Workers and youth today increasingly look to the Labour Party and its left wing for political solutions working to the crisis of British society. For this and being revolutionary newspaper is needed Labour political direction to their struggles.' The attitude League towards the Labour Party is that it would like to be able to affiliate operative Party and Fabian Society can. But it believes that in the current climate of the witch-hunt against bureaucracy socialists that this would be rejected deepest by the Labour Party.
The Socialist organises seperately from the Labour Party; membership is open to all who accept the objectives and organisational principles 'For this new methods of work are ment.
socialist of within the decisive Party to give a voice and of the Socialist NUPE the Co.
the League therefore Socialist League and who are prepared to actively realise them.
While the Labour Party today dominates all questions of working class politics the conference recognised that decisive political issues in the party would be resolved in the trade unions through the block vote. The trade unions remain the fundamental organisations of the working class despite the toll wrought by unemployThe conference was therefore happy to record a rise in the propormembership in such unions as transport, rail, electrical and telecommunications. Over 26 percent of its members are in the industrial unions, five percent in manual unions such as and COSE and 15 percent are looking for industrial jobs.
Within the unions the Socialist League works to support the day-to-day fights against the employers and Tories while at the same time building reform currents within the unions to introduce the type of principles of workers democracy espoused by the militants of Solidarnose in the building of their mass trade union.