CONTENTS
1. What Is SALEP And What Work Has It Done?
2. The NEC’s “Charges” Against SALEP’s Educational Work
3. The NEC’s “Political Charges” Against SALEP
4. The Struggle for Direct Links
5. SALEP and Direct Links: The NEC’s “Charges”
6. The NEC’s Other “Charges” Against SALEP
7. The Tasks for the Labour Party
Appendix: From the NATSOPA Journal and Graphic Review (October 1980)
© Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020).
“The South African Labour Education Project has established itself with strong support from the Labour Movement in Britain to bring together the experience in lessons of Socialist Trade Unionism in Britain and in South Africa to assist in the struggles there.”
“I hope it is strongly supported in this country where we have a lot of experience that we could put at the disposal of the South African working class as well as giving strong political support to help them in their liberation struggle.”
Tony Benn, MP, and British Labour Party NEC member, 10 September 1982
“SALEP’s interpretation of events puts it completely outside the spectrum of mainstream progressive opinion both within and outside South Africa… Relations with the black and non-racial trade unions in South Africa would be put in jeopardy if the Party gave any encouragement to SALEP.”
British Labour Party National Executive Committee, 27 March 1985
As members of the Labour Party NEC, we wish to register our strong opposition to the NEC’s decision of 27 March to advise CLPs[1] and affiliates to give no assistance to, and have no contact with, the Southern African Labour Education Project.
This is an unprecedented attempt to police the decisions of CLPs and affiliates. Not only does it re-introduce the “proscribed lists” back into the Labour Party, it is an attempt to instruct CLPs and affiliates on how to conduct their solidarity with the liberation struggle in South Africa, and how to give assistance to socialist education in the South African workers’ movement.
We also protest strongly at the way in which the debate on this issue was handled on the International Committee and the NEC.
Firstly, neither the Labour Party Women’s Organisation nor the Labour Party Young Socialists (both of whom support SALEP) nor SALEP itself were given the opportunity to see or comment on the 21-page report prepared by the International Department.
Secondly, the decision was pushed through the International Committee and the NEC with totally inadequate debate. Those who raised questions about, or objection to, the arguments and conclusions of the report were cut short and silenced by curtailing the discussion. A request by one committee member to prepare an alternative report was refused.
At the very least, representatives of SALEP should have had the opportunity to present their case to the committees in person.
The Labour Party has the duty to support the democratic trade unions and the African National Congress in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. Without committing ourselves to every position that SALEP stands for, we believe that SALEP (which supports the democratic trade unions and the ANC) has made a contribution to socialist workers’ education in Southern Africa, and that support for it deserves the serious consideration of all British labour movement activists.
Tony Benn, Frances Curran, Eric Heffer, Joan Maynard, Jo Richardson, Dennis Skinner, Letter of Protest from Left-Wing Members of the British Labour Party NEC, 28 May 1985
[1] Constituency Labour Parties – MWP, 2020
