munist Party.
motion.
speak in student unions.
reversing the decision.
so jealously guarded by these ac ademics any means necessary' cisco is a non-starter, its own organisations to drive the fascists off the streets.
from the CP-dominated NUS execative on this issue. Did the NUS send out mailings und material on what the fascists stood for? Did counts the answer is un emphatic no. It was hardly surpring that oppose "no platiorm'.
CALL call from Middlesex Polytechnic for socialists in the NUS to meet to discuss the no platform position is a welcome one, coming as it does just before the Margate NUS. conference where many students are hoping to roopen the debate.
then the left must be clearer on the political basis for supporting the 'no platform, by any means pusilion. In a period of social and economic crisis with the effects of that crisis creating instability inside the Tory Party, and to an extent inside the Labour Party, racist organisations like the National Front can pain a wider audience than normally.
Fascism is not just round the corner; the fascists receive no real support from big business at the moment. The ruling class At the NUS Liverpool conference last Easter the most demagogie speaker in favour of the amendment banning fascists and racists from students unions was by NUS executive member Steve Parry.
Parry is also a member of the Com Asking the conference did reasoned argument stop Hitler in the thirlies? he hammered home the need to implement the ban on fas cists and racists "by any nicans necessary: The conference passed he It was the most controversial decision the NUS has ever taken.
The press tore the NUS apart. Ber nard Levin throw fits about "totalitananisen. Alan Watkins refused to TREMBLE The Communist Party began to worry. Had they moved too far left? Some student unions were The Party began to tremble at the thought that they were losing support in side the NUS. The cosy chats theyhad with the Department of Educ ation and Science and academics became strained because the deeision directly challenged the liberal freedoms of bourgeois society The Party cracked under the strain. By the emerpency conference, on 15 June, they had changed their position. Parry was still demagowic, but he found difficulty in concealing the dropping of by The sell out was theorised, In their motion they explicitly stated: anyone whe was in favour of democracy was an too much.
The Communist Party's motion drew no distinction between warkers democracy and bourgeois dem ocracy It implied that there should be no separation hetween the actions taken in Cable Street and the liberal outrage in Britain and France at the surprising wrowth of fascism in Germany, But a popular front against fas The working class can only rely on the unity of Nor was there any leadership they mobilise in defence of the Inperial Typewriters strike? On both a considerable number of night wingers got elected to the conference to In the lace of such betrayals the of the working class.
If the dehate is to be re-opened ly political issues, the Irish and blacks.
A further saccessful picket of this racist Mile End pub-which refuses to serve blacks-was orginised fast Friday by local anti-fascist militants prefers to try and extend the rep ressive apparatus of the state to deal witli discontent from the workers movement. This involves no just more repressive laws and the extension of police powers, but also more freedom in the use of these measures against the working class without purliament interfering It is possible if the Labour Par ty proves totally incapahle of pol icing the trade unions with its soctal contract and the Tory Party remains in disarray, then sections of the ruling class will start look ing for strong leaders and strong governments, like PowelL Rally.
ROLE
To have a strong guvernment in Britain would require the acceptance of Powellite ideas by sections Support for Powell's position on the EEC, on Ireland, and on racism is not small inside the British working class While the bosses have been unable to defeat and split the trade union movement in the economic battles. they could well do so on more overtThe National Front tries to cash in on this. It takes up these issues, but by using tactics that traditionally have belonged to the workers movement-strikes, pickets and demonstrations against Thus the no platform position bas an irmediate importance in Teems of the moves cowards a stroas government in Britain The work ing class cannot permit its unity to be split by these political issues, nor Can they ailow the fascists to use tra ditional working class methods. A positive light must be launched inside the labour and student move ments on racism; for sell determinalien of the irish peopie and the immediate withdrawal of troops from Ireland; and opposition to the EEC on an internationalist hasis. Such campaigns must be begun to con ter the threat of not just the NatJonal Front, but also of the more "respectable right wingers like Powell.
The Middlesex Polytechnic con ference offers the opportunity to launch such a campuign inside the NUS- on a basis that understands the relevance of the National Front and how we can tight them politic There must he a large turnout at the conference at Middlesex Polytechnic on 9 November.
VAL COULTAS Over a Hundred delegates and observers attended a conference on Sunduy, 27 October convened by the Hackney Committee Aginst Racialison and hacked by the Hackney Trades CounciL Many local union brancher were represented, as were the CP, IMG, LPYS. Chartists and tenants' ocpanisations. The conference itself was divided up into workshaps to discuss "The Nature of Fascism", Kactant in the trade unions', Youth" and "Racisan in Edention"
The conference passed a resolution calling for a united front of all working [class organisations to strupple against fasciam and racismi and chere was genceal agreement that attempts should be made to ser up an all-London Anti-Racist Committee it was also agreed that a delegation be seat to the Warwick Confo fence on 22/23 November.
While the cooteresos lapsed at times into a mere talking shop, there were nonetheless important contacts established, and there is little doubt that the antirocist work in Hackney (where the NF got a very high vote) has received a tremendous boost.
Hay Booth
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Boost for Hackney anti-fascists