OUR CONFERENCE, OUR CRITICS AND OUR STRUGGLE

DELEGATES representing 37,752 organized workers were among the participants in the national industrial .rank-and-file Conference called by the Editorial Board of Tre NEWSLETTER.

And among the 500 to 600 workers who attended, many were vistors elected by their union branches, but unable to come as delegates because of the witch-hunt.

There is no doubt that the Conference, though only a beginning, was one the most important workers’ gatherings for many years.

Twenty-two speakers took part in the discussion, the objects of which were to thrash out a common programme for halting unemployment and the employers’ attac’s, and to begin to develop the idea that workers should try to combine political and industrial action.

Socialists and workers’ struggles There have been many rank-and-file conferences since the war. The significance of this one was that it was not restricted to any one industry; nor did it confine itself to purely industrial questions. , On the other hand it did not adopt a purely political propagandist approach.

It established the right of socialists to participate in the workers’ struggles; it ended any idea that socialists must disguise themsclves or their aims and .keep the struggle a purely industrial one. By BRIAN. BEHAN -’ The Conference was violently attacked by the ruling class. The Press tried to smash it.by calling it a ‘plot’. The leaders of the Amalgamated Union of Building Workers branded it -a crime even to handle a leaflet about the Conference, Iet alone to attend it.

But the witch-hunt failed, because a conference of this kind corresponded to the workers’ urgent need, in the present industrial and political situation, to prepare for struggle.

‘The witch-hunt failed so miserably that one of the biggest contingents came from the union that has carried out the greatest witch-hunt, including now the expulsion of the two more militants, Brothers M. Maguire and D. Nolan.

Attitude of the ‘Left’

What is much more serious than these attacks, from the point of view of socialists, is the attitude of the so-called ‘Left? to the Corference, ranging from the leaders of the Communist Party to another small group, the Socialist Review supporters. All displayed venom and hostility towards the Conference and The Newsletter.

‘The only group to support the holding of the Conference while dissociating themselves from the political standpoint of The Newsletter were the comrades around the publication Advance. All others, without exception, did their best. to smear or strangle the Conference.

The Communist Party leaders, who call for the ending of bans and proscriptions,. supported whole-heartedly the proscriptions of the Right wing. This did not prevent some thirty members of the Communist Party from attending the ‘Conference, of whom three spoke as delegates.

For readers of Socialist Review, as for readers of the Daily Worker, the Conference did not exist until it happened. ’’ Then Socialist Review came out with a two-page article, ‘coyly disguised as a contribution to its Forum, which slandered The Newsletter in pretty well the same words as those used by the AUBTW Right wing.

In common with the News Chronicle, the Communist Party leaders and the Right wing, Socialist Review believes that the South Bank men have no! been victorious because sup—LONDON BUSMAN porters of The Newsletter were present; that socialists have no right to take part in the struggle of working men; that a rank-and-file movement must restrict itself, not only in policy, but by fighting within the trade union machine.

Farce of disputes machinery Now whatever the merits of Socialist Review on other matters, we of The Newsletter disagree most sharply on these cuestions.

‘The trade union machine in Britain, during the years after the General Strike, developed a form of class collaboration machinery which found its ultimate expression in the building industry’s ‘green book’ procedure.

The rank-and-file Conference was a step forward in achieving ‘unity in action’ of workers in all industries