L.L.
S. POLLY supporter of the way ents. is entirely independent of Kinnock and pursues the demands of women and Black people as well as defending party democracy and opposing witch hunts whether Kinnock likes it or not. That is why the LLL, together with the Campaign Group, commands majority suport in the constituency section of the Labour Party.
Policy Neither can the policy of the LCC Democratic Left of subordinating demands of students, black people and the Irish to Kinnock be justified even on grounds electoral expediency. right-wing policies and attacks on party Slave OCCI electoral disaster. They have allowed the Tories to set le ponucal agenda respondingly disasterous results at the polls. Similarly, the democratic Left's subordination of politics and student living standards to what is acceptable to Kinnock will lose, no Will, votes for Labour.
To move on, evidently Socialist Action utterly rejects the politics of SSiN - which is increasingly clashing with the Black Section and WAC. Its positions on issues such as Ireland and Palestine are brutally against the interests of the Irish and Palestinian people — and bluntly we regard the position of women, black people, the lives of the people of Ireland, million Arab people threatened by the Zionist state of Ísrael as fundamental issues for the student movement. For that reason Socialist Action will not be calling for a vote for the SSiN slate in the elections in NOLS — although we can vote for individual candidates supported by SSiN who do not share their views on such questions Ireland or Palestine. views of SSiN and Militant, with whom SSiN are in a bloc, as reactionary on these issues.
Instinctive But equally obviously we are not going to call for a vote Democratic Left. Its politics witch hunt alone, issues we have outlined, rule that out. Again we can support individual candidates who publicly reject the politics of the Democratic Left on issues such as the witch hunt and issues we have outlined could be sup. ported. And, to make it clear, given the record of the LCC we regard every person on the Democratic Left slate as in favour of the witch hunt unless they publicly reject it — which naturally we call for candidtes to do.
The truth is that both the Democratic Left and SSiN represent a dead end for students - the first trying to cover over policies such as, support for witch hunts, and a failure to fight on grants, by tokenistic women and black people which are in practice not acted upon - and the latover rotten politics women, black people, tional politics by a souped up rhetoric on grants. Neither defends the interests of students as a whole or, most imporlalilly. of the working class and oppressed as a whole.
We think that these twin dead ends are being exposed and politics represented Liaison (LLL) and Labour's campaign left are gaining support.
Attempt Rob and the Democratic Left attempt the impossible task of trying to marry support for women and black people and the demands of the left with support for Kinnock. This is the key to the crisis of the Democratic Left because as the two are incompatible their combination produces paralysis. Finally since Kinnock's refusal recently to give a committment to restore grants to their 1979 real value, it has become apparent that you can't even marry support for SLicents demands with support for Kinnock!
NOLS has to make its alliance with the campaign left of the Labour Party if it wants to defend the interests of the working class, of the oppressed, and of students in this country. The first step that is for NOLS to affiliate to student Labour Left Liason. That, not the excuses for Kinnock provided by Minshull, is the way forward to create a real new leadership for NOLS and the NUS.
Socialist Action 6 Feb 1987 LUL Y