BRITISH YOUNG SOCIALISTS SCORE U.S. AGGRESSION IN VIETNAM
By Patrick Brain
London
The 1967 annual Labour Party Young Socialists conference in Llandudno, Wales, over the Easter week-end showed that the youth may again become a problem for the party brass.
In the past few years, the youth affiliate has suffered grievous blows from the Labour leadership because of its rebellious attitude. Bureaucratic actions, such as bans and proscriptions led to the dominant section of the movement being expelled. Under these pressures and under the influence of the ultraleft Socialist Labour League, many of the Young Socialists regrouped around Keep Left, pulled out of the Labour party and abandoned a fight against the right wing. This enabled the Transport House bureaucrats to impose a hand-picked National Committee on the YS.
Representation at this year's conference was down to 200 delegates (clubs were only allowed one delegate per club) but there were more than 400 visitors, many of whom were relatively new to the movement. There are officially 514 YS branches.
From the beginning, it became apparent that there was an unbridgeable gulf between the hand-picked National Committee and the overwhelming bulk of the rank-and-file delegates. The cold indifference of the careerists on the platform stood in stark contrast to the enthusiasm and aspirations of the delegates, the great majority of whom spoke vehemently about the fight for socialism, who were internationalist, and who spoke about the necessity of identifying with the struggles against the wage freeze.
On the first day, the major discussion was on a resolution on the Labour party's policy towards the European Common Market. Here was posed British patriotism versus working-class internationalism. It revealed a right-wing minority of 70 delegates. The resolution called for "the Labour Party to take the lead in organizing the labour movement in the struggle for a Socialist United States of Europe, and, as a first step, to convene a congress of European Labour. organizations. "
It was. passed by a large majority, as was a resolution that attacked Wilson's Incomes Policy as being in the interest of the capitalists and not the _ working class.
On the second day, the National
Committee's arrogant and contemptuous at-
titude to the delegates, its paternalisn,
its indifference to the feeling of the
delegates, had to be seen to be believed.
It reflected the situation which youth
finds in society at large. It was not
without significance that the conference
gave big support to an emergency resolu-
tion expressing solidarity with the stu-
dents at the London School of Economics
who are battling the bureaucratic estab-
lishment.
A highlight of the conference was
the debate on Vietnam. A resolution
calling for the victory of the National
Liberation Front was moved by Roger Rose-
will (Esher). He asked: "What right: have
the Americans to demand that they should
be able to negotiate the future of Viet-
nam?
"My branch believes that they have
no right whatsoever," he continued. "The
only people who have the right to discuss
the future of Vietnam are the Vietnamese
people." This received an ovation that
lasted several minutes. The conference
pledged full support to the NLF.
A resolution was adopted stating
that the Labour Party Young Socialists
"declares its belief in internationalism
and pledges its full support to the
victory of the Vietnamese revolution and
the National Liberation Front.
"It believes that the American
Government has no right to negotiate the
future of Vietnam and declares only the
people have the right to decide the
future of Vietnam."
The conference agreed to send a
telegram informing the NLF of its deci-
sion.
Two left groups played dominant
roles in the conference, one grouped
around Rebel, a youth paper considerably
under the influence of the journal Inter-
national Socialism, which holds a state-—
capitalist position on the USSR, and the
other under the influence of The Militant
a tendency claiming adherence to Trotsky-
isn.
In alj the debates both these ten-
dencies took the initiative. They held
their separate meetings between sessions
with the attendance sometimes being over
a hundred.
-The conference showed again the
bankruptcy of the Labour right wing, es-
pecially in its relationship to the
youth. But it also showed the fighting
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spirit of the youth as they stated their socialist convictions in the debates.
They understood the necessary prerequisite for building a mass youth movement. The youth must be able to elect their own leadership and determine their own programme.
CUBAN EMBASSY