AWL members will be attending the 2008 conference of the Socialist Youth Network (youth section of the Labour Representation Committee) and proposing the following motions. For more information, to come with us to the event or to support one or more of our motions, email chrisjmarks@hotmail.com
The conference is at University of London Union, 10-4pm, Saturday 29 March.
Fight to restore and extend working-class political representation
SYN recognises that the decisions taken at the 2007 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth have disenfranchised the affiliated trade unions and CLPs, robbing the organised working class of even the highly limited political representation it enjoyed previously.
Unless the major unions can be turned round, and forced to push through a reversal of Bournemouth and a restoration of Labour Party democracy, this marks a historic turning point in the process of regression that has taken place in the Labour and trade union movement over the last decade. This crisis of working-class political representation demands urgent action.
The LRC can play an important role in addressing this crisis, and become an axis for bringing about re-composition in the socialist and labour movement. This requires a re-launch of the LRC in order to rebuild representation for the politically disenfranchised working class. The LRC must start to work as a broader workers' representation committee - an open, democratic organisation committed to the promotion of an independent workers' voice in politics. Its goal should be the creation of a working-class political force capable of leading all the exploited and oppressed to overthrow capitalism and create a workers' government which can reorganise society on the basis of social ownership and democratic control of the means of production.
Our immediate aim is to achieve the widest possible representation of labour in opposition to the representatives of capital. The tactics we adopt in pursuing this goal will necessarily be flexible. With the space for a working-class voice within the Labour Party growing smaller and smaller, we cannot and should not rule out the tactic of promoting independent working-class socialist candidates in opposition to Labour.
We need
- A rearguard fighting in the Labour-affiliated unions over the coming months for them to repudiate the Brown plan and table proposals in the Labour Party to restore their political rights;
- A fight in unions affiliated to the LRC to commit them to the cause of unity for working-class representation, and where possible, to initiatives like the proposal agreed by the London Transport Regional Council of the RMT (though eventually vetoed by the RMT executive) to initiate a broadly-backed independent working-class slate in the May 2008 London elections.
- A fight to create the underpinnings of such a movement in each city and district by rebuilding Trades Councils and fighting within them for the politics of independent working-class representation;
- In all this, a constant battle to promote fully independent working-class politics, ie socialism.
Proposed: David Broder
Seconded: Sofie Buckland
Feminist Fightback
SYN believes
1. In socialist feminism. No women's liberation without socialism, no socialism without women's liberation.
2. That the classical socialist theorists and activists of women's liberation (eg Clara Zetkin, Alexandra Kollontai) did not call themselves feminists. However, following the massive regression in political culture which Stalinism and social democracy brought about on this issue, as on so many others, and the emergence in the 1960s and 70s of socialist feminist currents which challenged this, it would be/is sectarian for socialists today not to do so.
3. That we should call ourselves feminist in the same way that we call ourselves democrats, anti-racists, anti-imperialists etc etc.
4. That our socialist feminism is an anti-capitalist feminism based on class struggle.
SYN notes
1. The ongoing revival of feminist activism, particularly among young women.
2. That last year we voted to support the 2007 Feminist Fightback conference.
3. That the conference was a success, attended by over 300, mostly young activists, characterised by lively debate and launching a number of campaigning initiatives.
4. That Feminist Fightback has developed into a broad socialist feminist campaign which in 18 months has:
- Organised two large conferences;
- Organised a 300-strong torch-lit protest for abortion rights;
- Picketed the Tories "Shoes, shopping and politics" event and the Christian Medical Foundation;
- Worked with other organisations including the Left Women's Network to organise an anti-capitalist contingent on the Million Women's Rise march, followed by a picket of Serco (the owners of Yarl's Wood) and a fundraising social for jailed Iranian students;
- Actively supported the International Union of Sex Workers and their x-talk project to teach English to migrant sex workers;
- Held discussions on issues including women in the Middle East, sex work, pornography and the relationship between women's liberation and class struggle;
- Held regular, open steering committees in London;
- Begun organising for a dayschool on reproductive freedoms at the London School of Economics on Saturday 12 April.
SYN further believes
1. That Feminist Fightback is a good initiative, which we should continue to support.
SYN resolves
1. To support Feminist Fightback and donate £100.
2. To sponsor the next Feminist Fightback conference.
3. To try to send a representative to Fightback steering committees.
4. To advertise the 12 April dayschool on reproductive freedoms and encourage SYN members to attend.
Proposed: Sofie Buckland
Seconded: Rebecca Galbraith
Defend Orlando Chirino!
Conference notes
- The dismissal of UNT union activist Orlando Chirino from his job at Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA.
- That Chirino has a long history as a socialist and militant trade unionist; he was active in the resistance to the right-wing coup in 2002, before calling for an abstention in the referendum on the government's constitutional reforms in December last year.
Conference believes
- The fact of Chirino's call for abstention in the referendum, as well his activity as a trouble-making trade union militant, are no doubt the reasons for this dismissal.
Conference resolves
- To support the campaign for the reinstatement of Orlando Chirino
- To make solidarity with the Venezuelan labour movement in its fight over pay, conditions and workers' control, supporting campaigns to defend worker activists and protect workers' organisations and their independence from the state.
Proposed: Chris Marks
Seconded: Stephen Wood
Solidarity without borders
Conference notes
1. The Trade Union and Community Conference Against Immigration Controls happening today at the SOAS that seeks to bring together activists to campaign politically against all immigration controls and develop practical strategies for resistance in communities and in workplaces.
Conference believes
1. That solidarity has no borders and that workers have the right to live and work as equals around the world.
2. That immigration controls are a powerful tool in the capitalist state management of labour, creating division among workers or the world.
3. That immigration controls criminalise workers and force them underground and into super-exploitative work with no rights, at the hands of unscrupulous gangmasters and bosses.
4. That campaigning against immigration controls should go hand in hand with our campaigns for the public-ownership and democratic control of housing, health, education and other public services.
5. That fighting immigration controls is an immediate task in solidarity with those who face the impacts of imperialist war, third-world exploitation and climate change - primarily caused by the capitalists of the richest countries in the world.
6. That the SYN should be actively involved in making the case against immigration controls in the labour and trade union movement and in working-class communities.
Conference resolves
1. To send a message of solidarity and support to the conference and donate £50 to the campaign.
2. To mandate two members of the SYN executive, including the representative for Black members, to actively participate in the work of this campaign on behalf of the SYN.
3. To target migrant workers as part of our COFUP campaign.
4. To support and develop work in the unions to organise migrant workers.
Proposed: Robin Sivapalan
Seconded: Becky Crocker
