by Nick Jones

The Socialist Youth Network (SYN), the Labour Representation Committee’s (LRC) youth organisation, met at the University of London Union on the 29th March for its annual conference.

It has been over a year since the last SYN conference. Readers may remember that Owen Jones, Co-Chair of SYN conference last year, had perused a policy of blacklisting Communist Students members who were also part of Respect, and originally, those who had signed the Campaign for a New Workers Party declaration. These comrades were deemed inadmissible for the conference and membership of SYN, despite often including members of the Labour Party and LRC. Owen Jones would also ensure a motion to support Hands Off the People of Iran was amended in a way that negated its originally purpose, successfully moving to delete all references to Hopi on the basis that it was a “CPGB front”.

Owen Jones has since embroiled himself in other controversies, subsequently resigning as Co-Chair as a result. This has meant that many of the obstacles to participation faced by members of ‘blacklisted’ organizations have been subsequently removed. The resignation of Owen Jones occurred alongside the resignation of three other executive members, leaving a number of vacant posts on the executive body. These resignations reflect the withdrawal of the remaining Stalinioid Socialist Action group members from the organization.

The conference remained rather poorly attended with only around 30 comrades present through-out; despite high expectations the vast majority of the chairs in the large conference room remain unfilled for the duration of the event.

The clear decrease in numbers from previous events remained clearly evident, with a number of apologies from those unable to attend. The decrease in numbers provided the most immediate indication of the effect of John McDonnell’s failed leadership bid, a campaign that had to some extent served as a focus for the attentions of SYN.

While recognizing the limited turn out Chair Marsha-Jane Thompson noted the organization has grown, citing a number of 150 members in total. Although impressive it would seem that the majority of these remain paper-members signed up at last years conference and other events during the John4leader campaign.

The conference started with an opening speech from an RMT representative, who replaced Bob Crow as the proposed speaker at the last minute.

The reasons for this absence related to the first of the motions proposed, outlining issues of casulisation, safety and staffing. The motion noted the use of agency staff, including poorly paid un-unionized workers. The comrade asked conference to pledge its support to a campaign currently run by both the TSSA and the RMT around the issues outlined, before asking the conference to support industrial action should this arise. The motion passed unanimously.

MOTIONS

Next on the agenda was an executive report provided by comrade Thompson noting the election of members of the executive; including Communist Students members Ben Lewis for one of the male Executive positions and Nick Jones as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered (LGBT) executive officer.

Having passed the first motion conference progressed on to the remainder of the 14 motions and discussions, the first six of which were passed without a great deal of controversy. Both motions two and four identified the increasing role of privatization in the provision of the public services including “private sector prisons, treatment of NHS patients and administration of benefits”, while the latter noted opposition to “the role of the private sector in the delivery of housing services” [3].

Communist Students member Ben Lewis highlighted the need to move beyond the limitations of the motion and instead think more broadly about how we should relate to the issues raised. Noting a successful amendment to a Socialist Appeal motion during last year’s SYN conference, that had called solely for the nationalisation of public services; comrade Lewis noted the inadequacy of simply calling for key services to not be privatized, with a preference towards the statification of public services and public housing. It is instead necessary to stress the importance of the socialisation of such services.

Following the easy passage of these motions John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, opened a discussion on the way forward for SYN in the coming year. Having passed a motion at the 2007 conference, SYN had pledged its support to McDonnell’s leadership bid, including an unopposed commitment to help build the campaign. Following this conference McDonnell had attempted to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party but failed to reach a sufficient number of nominations and as such had been unable able to get on the ballot paper.

This has had clear implications for SYN as a political project, reflected by the depleted number of comrades involved and the lack of focus about its future direction. These remain issues to which McDonnell would turn his attention, arguing that it was now time to “learn the lessons” of that failed leadership bid.

Concluding McDonnell stressed the importance of understanding where we go from here. Noting a suggested “climate of change” on a range of single-issue campaigns, he argued individual events such as the climate change camp had succeeded in creating a “climate of opinion” around individual topics. Suggesting that these provided an example of “another way of working”, involving those both inside and outside of the Labour Party within a “broad united front”.

Part of this must, McDonnell argued, involve the building of a movement of opposition, should there arise a space within which to fight back against the diminishing arena of representation and control allotted to individual members within the Labour Party. This is a process that should work alongside organizational forms such as the ‘Convention of the Left’, a broad coalition of leftist organizations, including Communist Students comrades, gathering together to share ideas and differences of opinion in a “non sectarian way”.

Within the discussion that followed CS member Ben Lewis returned to the point that what was needed is a comprehensive understanding of both where we are going and what our project is. In this instance it is necessary to have the fight where and when it comes, in whatever form it comes. While it remains the case that SYN is reeling from the implications of the failure of the John McDonnell leadership campaign this should be used as an opportunity to clarify our politics and have a debate, while drawing in others.

Following on from this discussion, a motion proposed by representatives of Communist Students called for recognition of the need for a frank and open discussion of the current situation of working class representation, reflecting the breadth of opinion held by those currently within SYN. The motion highlighted the need to debate and clarify the opinions of those different organizations involved, utilizing written contributions in the form of individual discussion documents to be published and then discussed. The motion passed successfully.

The next motion, proposed by Alliance for Workers Liberty member David Broder, proposed “broadly-backed independent working class slates in the May 2008 London elections” alongside the formation of Trades Councils within which the “politics of independent working class representation” could be sought. In proposing the motion Comrade Broder noted that this remained a tactical question about supporting independent working class candidates where and when they arise, arguing that where and when such candidates do exist, they should be supported. In response fellow AWL member Sofie Buckland substantiated this argument by asking: “would we support a Blarite candidates against the RMT?”

The motion itself remained effectively a rehash of an argument first put to the LRC conference of November of last year by AWL comrades. Then the AWL proposed a motion advancing a ‘Workers Representation Committee’ in which activists from a range of political parties could be supported. This motion would have resulted in the LRC embarking on a direct confrontation of the New Labour bureaucracy, following the support of non-Labour electoral candidates, the most probable outcome of which would be the expulsion of the LRC from the Labour Party. Repeating this approach the SYN motion advanced calls for support for non-Labour candidates where and when deemed appropriate.

While the motion correctly identified the need for “a working-class political force capable of … overthrowing capitalism and creating a workers’ government” how the motion would serve to further that aim remained less than clear. Comrade Lewis asked to what independent working class forces the AWL comrades suggest that SYN should orientate itself towards at this particular moment in time. Further arguing that If successful the motion would not serve to foster the kind of representation sought by the AWL comrades, but rather the expulsion of SYN from the Labour Party, and the further isolation of the forces involved. In response to Sofie Buckland’s rhetorical question Lewis noted that during the 2005 election campaign, AWL comrades had indeed called for support for a Blarite candidate, in the shape of the pro-war Oona King who was standing against George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow.

The next motion proposed by members of the Hands Off the People of Iran (Hopi) campaign noted the fact that we have seen an escalation of a continued US war-drive against Iran, expressed by the imposition of sanctions as a continuation of this act, with clearly disastrous implications for the majority of the people of Iran. The motion also notes movements of opposition, expressed most recently by a series of student demonstrations last year. These have been movements opposed to the threat of war and the regimes continued attacks. The comrade proposing the motion noted the need for a principled anti-war campaign recognizing that US imperialism has no-interest in freedom and democracy in Iran, while progressive change can only come from those struggles of women, workers and students within Iran. Calling for SYN to affiliate to Hopi and to build its meetings and actions, alongside a mandate to encourage the executive to organize a meeting on Iran, the motion passed with a clear majority.

Socialist Youth Network is clearly not at the same organizational height as last year, having made relatively limited inroads in terms of influence within the Labour Party, its focus and direction now remains the subject of discussion. Despite this fact the SYN conference highlighted the need to continue a debate about which is the way forward for a viable principled political project of working class representation. SYN remains a space within which it is possible to have this discussion. The fight for this form of representation must utilize all and every avenue available to it, seeking to openly argue out our differences of opinion as the only way to build a viable principled political alternative.

[1] http://grayee.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

[2] http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/544/tatchell.htm

[3] motions and ammendments