Workers' Liberty

The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty has been discussing the question of the troops in Iraq since the end of the last year. The debate will continue at our conference on 19-20 May. Here, two contributions to the debate (note: the second is not a reply to the first).

Paul Hampton reports on the AWL 2007 annual conference

Anyone wondering why AWL members are combative with those we disagree with in the left and the labour movement might be surprised at the way we argue with each other — it’s even sharper.

Open debate

Details of elections to AWL National Committee, Control Commission, and Standing Orders Committee.

AWL CONFERENCE 19-20 MAY 2007: SUMMARY OF DECISIONS

1. The assessment we made in our long document last year on "Building a Marxist presence in the unions" remains cruelly true.

1. In 2005, long before the public sector unions formal retreat on retirement age, we identified the need, within our very limited resources, to propagandise and agitate for a cross public sector rank and file movement in counter-position to the likely Alliance of Bureaucrats for a Deal with New Labour.

1. The growth of the BNP is largely a result of three factors:

In Scotland our work is fatally hampered by the paper's name being shared by the Sheridan-SWP-CWI bloc. The incoming EC and NC are therefore instructed to come up with a new name for the paper before the summer school, and to use the summer school to 'launch' the renamed paper.

1. The fundamental long-term task of a Marxist organisation is to help the working class educate itself.

A large part of our whole effort is about organising ourselves to be at the right place at the right time - at the right meetings and demonstrations, in the right places for public agitation and paper sales, on the right doorsteps to talk with contacts.

Amendments 6.1 and 6.2 to the Inside Organising document

Preamble for amendments 6.1 and 6.3

Delete paragraphs 6, 25, 27, 28 and 30 of the Inside Organising document and insert: "The group needs a proper debate on union organising". (The conference voted to insert "The group needs a proper debate on union organising", but not to make the deletions. For the preamble to this amendment and to amendment 6.1, click here).

Since US and UK troops conquered Iraq in April 2003, the country has slipped further and further into gangster chaos, and, since early 2006, into outright civil war.

To replace all of the part of the existing document between the words "A victory for the Sunni-sectarian resistance..." and "...Iraq can be a democratic and secular country"

1. We will undertake a programme of education in the group around the history, theory and politics of socialism and feminism/socialism-feminism over the next year.

A. 1. John McDonnell's campaign for Labour leader is the first attempt since the Benn-Heffer campaign of 1988 to propose, on a wide, public, national level, a working-class political alternative to the Blair-Brown policies of anti-union laws, privatisation, marketisation, warmongering, and squeeze on civil liberties which have stifled the labour movement in politics for over a decade now. We support the campaign. The question is, how can we "build on" it?

1.This resolution calls for a change in orientation by our organisation.

AWL PRE-CONFERENCE DISCUSSION, LONDON 17/05/07

"VIRTUAL" PRE-CONFERENCE DISCUSSION, 15/05/07

AWL GLASGOW PRE-CONFERENCE MEETING 12/05/07

Outline notes from AWL Sheffield pre-conference meeting 13/05/07

Amendment 1.3 (on changing name of the paper) from Stan C
Amendment 5.2 (on general election) from Maria and Tom R

Standing orders

Discussion contributions:
* Working with the LP as it is, not as we wish it to be, by Tom U
* Iraq again, by Clive
* Three letters, by Martin T (on LP; on Iraq; on "Inside Organising")
* Restarting our women's work (background document by various others, edited by Cathy)

AWL PRE-CONFERENCE MEETING, NOTTINGHAM 08/05/07

AWL PRE-CONFERENCE MEETING, LONDON 06/05/07