rocked!
Many trade unionists however have little faith in the Labour leadership. They must be all right to vote for in an election but are certainly not people to be relied on in a crunch. It is necessary to organise apart from them to settle anything. This partly is the line taken by the C.P. at their last Liaison Committee conference, and is a step forward. There is no doubt that the network of militants built up by the CP is an important factor in developing solidarity with threatened trade unionists. The question however is to what end this organisation is to be used. At present the LCDTU has no programme of clear political measures which it fights for. In this situation confusion can be created in which the "loud-talk and no action" approach of the Labour leaders can flourish. At the moment the CP controls the Liaison Committee and the confusion of the LCDTU is only a reflection of the confusion of the CP. Nevertheless the lesson of the dockers' victory is not simply that only organisation pays but also that this organisation has to be directed against the real base of power if it is not to be undermined in the long run. It is this fundamental idea that must be fought for not simply in the LCDTU and in defence of future victims of the Act but in every single struggle in which the working class is engaged in the coming months. paign, having discussed the current situation in Ireland, the effects of this on the building of a solidarity movement in Britain, and the relationship of forces between the various organisations active on the Irish question in Britain, wishes to make the following points clear:1. Despite the lessening in intensity of the struggle in the North, and the growing support for peace, which represents the fear of the people rather than the war of the peopic, te struggle is not over. In the short term there is grave danger of a civil war, and in the long term the grip of British imperialism will grow ever tighter on Ireland's throat. The need for an ongoing solidarity movement in Britain has not receded. indeed it becomes more vital than ever. 2. The Anti-Internment League has adopted two slogans which place that organisation on a more advanced political level than its previous positions, its adoption of 'Self-determination for the Irish People is particularly important. However the rejection by the AlL of a slogan expressing explicit solidarity with the military struggle of the IRA leads us to believe that not all of the forces within the AlL are completely consistent in their attitude to self-determination. 3. However in the coming period the maximum principled unity of all forces in Britain supporting the Irish struggle is of prime necessity; the new slogans of the All give it a position which is formally that the AlL has still to demonstrate in practice that it is capable of consistently adhering to these principles, we consider that the differences are insufficient to justify the long term existence of two separate organisations, and that the ISC shoukl merge with the AIL. We do not see this as an admin istrative step, but as a process of. unity in action, which has been facilitated by the acceptance by the AIL of a summer campaign proposed by the ISC. We therefore are taking the following steps to facilitate the merger: -(a) We ask all ISC branches to make the main focus of their work over the summer the AlL's campaign on Free Derry, and against Unionist and Vanguard propaganda in Britain. We urge also that systematic work in solidarity with political prisoners and detainees iscarried out, with the AlL and other local forces (b) The ISC will call a delegate conference in the Autumn, before the AlL conference, to assess the experience of this work, the situation in Ireland, and the current situation in the solidarity movement. This conference would take the final decision on the dissolving of the ISC and the integration of its members into the AlL. 4. In the meanwhile the EC asks all branches to ensure the closest possible liaison with the AlL and to make every effort to assist that organisation in carrying out its summer campaign. In most cases this should mean that all of the political activity of the ISC will be carried out through the All, and only where there is scope for independent activity which does not cut across the AIL summer campaign, should this be engaged in.
rarely be agreed to by any employers and never negotiating which fostered unofficial leaderships