"All British troops should be immediately withdrawn from Afghanistan," said Tony Hunt, a leader of the Communist League, which together with the Young Socialists sponsored the gathering. Hunt, one of a panel of speakers, said the decision of the Labour government of Anthony Blair to send 1,700 combat troops to join the continuing war effort led by U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan involves "the largest deployment of British combat troops since the Gulf War.

"Along with Washington, the Blair government is threatening Iraq with military action," Hunt said. Geoffrey Hoon, minister of defense, recently stated that the government would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a conflict with Iraq. London directly associated itself with U.S. president George Bush's threats against the people of Iran, Iraq, and north Korea.

"Such moves have a long pedigree in the United Kingdom," Hunt said. Today they are part of the British imperialist rulers' desperate attempt to make up for London's decline as a world power by wielding their armed forces and grabbing hold of Washington's coattails. "Twenty years ago the government of Margaret Thatcher, with bipartisan support, launched the Malvinas-Falklands war," an act of aggression across the Atlantic that was only possible because of Washington's massive logistical support, Hunt said. He noted London's bloody record over the decades of wars of conquest and colonial subjugation from the Indian subcontinent, to the Mideast, to Korea.  
 
Royal's death and war moves
The death of the mother of the queen of England, said Hunt, would be used by the capitalist class as an occasion to try to "unite the nation" behind their war moves. "They will talk up World War II and other historical events, and try to persuade us that she was 'one of us,'" he said. "In fact, she was one of 'them'--a member of the ruling class. Communist workers have a special responsibility and opportunity to not only set the historical record straight but also to explain the connection of this history to the present war moves of the Labour government."

The conference was the first held by the Communist League and YS since last August, when they moved to become more integrated in the emerging vanguard of workers and working farmers by organizing to get jobs in the meatpacking and garment industries and by expanding their geographic spread through the establishment of a new organizing committee of the League in Dundee, Scotland. The CL and YS have also worked to establish a base in a workers district close to the Pathfinder Bookshop by setting up regular tables of revolutionary literature and building Militant Labour Forums.

Participants in the conference came from London, Manchester, and Dundee in the United Kingdom; and from Paris, Brussels, and New York. For seven participants the socialist conference was their first such event. They took advantage of the opportunity for many hours of informal discussion to learn more about the program and activities of the two communist organizations. Over the weekend socialists employed in the meat industry organized their first national meeting to discuss their work.

"The government's foreign policy is an extension of its domestic policy" said Julie Crawford, another panelist. Crawford is the Communist League candidate in the East Walworth Ward in the London borough of Southwark for the May 2 elections. Like Hunt, Crawford is a meat processing worker. "My campaign is part of the resistance to the offensive being waged against workers and working farmers. It gives a voice to struggles, such as those by rail and postal workers currently engaged in industrial action."

Crawford recently joined postal workers in a demonstration against moves by the bosses to cut up to 40,000 jobs, an assault that goes hand in hand with the government's announcement of plans to sell off the industry to capitalist investors. The candidate recently traveled to Derry, Northern Ireland, to participate in the annual demonstration to commemorate the Bloody Sunday massacre of 14 Irish civil rights marchers by the British army. This year's march, which marked the 30th anniversary of the massacre, attracted thousands of protesters.

"For years the British rulers used the war in Ireland as a pretext to curtail workers' rights in both Ireland and Britain," Crawford said. "Now they are using the so-called war on terrorism, along with a major campaign against 'crime,' to make further inroads into workers' rights."  
 
Defending right to distribute literature
One attack, said Crawford, has involved moves by the cops to shut down literature tables set up by Communist League and Young Socialists members in a shopping center near the Pathfinder Bookshop and the election campaign offices. "We are campaigning for the right of the Communist League and YS to get out revolutionary literature and of working people in Southwark to get access to the books and pamphlets they want," she said. "Such literature will be a feature of my campaign."

Conference participants watched a two-minute clip of a TV program called "Crimefighters" in which the cop who shut down the stall on two consecutive Saturdays said that he was taking action against "the Militant mob" who have "some very, very anti-British posters."

"The posters he was referring to called for equal rights for immigrants, British troops out of Ireland, and defense of Cuba's socialist revolution," Crawford said. "Along with the books, they help us explain that what is needed here is a socialist revolution to establish a government of workers and farmers that can join the worldwide fight for socialism."  
 
Land question in Scotland
Anne Harte, the organizer of the Dundee organizing committee, described how the move to Scotland has put the League in a stronger position to connect with resistance by working farmers. Throughout the United Kingdom working farmers face the deepest crisis since the 1930s, she said. The income of dairy and cattle farmers fell 75 percent during the 1990s and pig farmers are operating at a loss. "In Scotland, the situation is sharper, with the net income of dairy farmers collapsing by 95 percent," Harte said.

Protests against these conditions by farmers in Scotland, and the pressure building on the government to address the issue of land reform, have put these questions at the center of politics in the country. "All such issues and struggles of working people in Scotland inevitably intertwine with the growing sentiment for Scottish independence," Harte said. "The national question adds a broader social dynamic to such struggles."

In the discussion period a number of participants raised questions about the class struggle in Scotland. A participant from Belgium asked about the treatment received by workers who are Scottish when they move to England. Another participant asked about the structure of land ownership in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Harte described the vanguard role of Scottish workers in the labor movement in Britain and said it is a result of the relatively abrupt and brutal development of capitalism, which provoked a sharp political response from the toilers. "The establishment of the Dundee organizing committee is helping the communist movement as a whole get a better understanding of politics in Britain and to integrate us into the vanguard emerging out of today's battles," she noted.

Coming out of the conference three participants volunteered to participate in a weeklong sales and reporting team that will reach out to meatpacking workers and farmers in Scotland. The team will also visit North Wales, where members of the Transport and General Workers' Union at Friction Dynamics have maintained a 24-hour picket line in defense of their union for nearly one year. They also plan to visit workers in the Yorkshire coalfield where a few months ago miners at Rossington colliery concluded a strike--the first official all-out strike action since the end of the 1984–85 national miners' strike.  
 
Cuban Revolution
The other speakers on the panel were Martín Koppel, a leader of the Socialist Workers Party in the United States, and Yonatan Mosquera, a leader of the Young Socialists in London. Both participated in the recent international book fair in Havana, Cuba.

Following the fair, Koppel took part in a number of meetings to present the recently published Pathfinder title by Víctor Dreke, From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution. While on tour, Koppel said, he had the opportunity to learn more about how working people in Cuba made their revolution in 1959 and defended their country against imperialist attack, and how today they are being led to bring their weight to bear as the revolution confronts the challenges of the 21st century. He spoke on the lessons of all this for building a revolutionary leadership in the United States and around the world.

Many conference participants took the opportunity of breaks in the formal discussion to view the attractive display on the Havana International Book Fair and post–book fair tour. They responded generously to an appeal for the Havana Book Fair Fund established by the London Pathfinder Bookshop by contributing £1,000, helping to meet the Pathfinder supporters' goal of £1,500 (£1 = US$1.44).

Mosquera reported on a series of discussions he had with a book fair participant who daily visited the Pathfinder stand. "He told me the Cubans have shown they have the ability to withstand imperialist aggression for over 40 years. What they need is for us to make a revolution here," he said. "That's what the Young Socialists is about." The YS leader encouraged others to join the communist youth organization.

Other young socialists were eager buyers of Pathfinder books and pamphlets. Two bought a number of titles on Palestine after discussion at the opening panel presentations on the deepening struggle of the Palestinian people. Two first-time participants picked up copies of Cuba and the Coming American Revolution by Jack Barnes, the topic of a Sunday morning conference class.

Altogether Pathfinder titles worth some £400 were sold over the weekend, bringing the sales of the Pathfinder Bookshop in London to £1,267 for March and £2,716 for the year. During the weekend socialist workers set up literature tables in the workers district and at a demonstration against the Labour government's war moves.  
 
 
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