EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL VIETNAM SCLIDARITY CONFERENCE IN SCOTLAND. The Vietnam Solidarity Conference, sponsored by the Scottish Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and the Edinburgh Council for Peace in Vietnam, was a great success. Held on Saturday, November 26th, in Leith Town Hall, it was attended by over 110 delegates and some observers (see appendix for details).
The Conference was opened by Willy Boyle of the Scottish D.A.T.A. Council, who took the chair. He was a last minute replacement for William Lamb, Scottish Miners' Union(Group 2) President, who was engaged in sorting out a strike. Ralph Schoenman of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was the first speaker; he described the terrible nature of the war in Vietnam, illustrating his remarks with details of personal interviews he had with victims of bombing in the north. He explained the purposes, scope and aims of the International War Crimes Tribunal. In the discussion that followed many points were made about the type of campaign that should be fought in Scotland and the political base of such a campaign. Pat Jordan, secretary of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, answered some of the points about the VSC's role and oo with other bodies fighting against the war in ietnam. The Second session opened with a fraternal greeting from Setsure Tsurishima, who spoke of the campaign in Japan against the war in Vietnam. There was warm applause when it was mentioned that Japanese trade unionists were collecting funds for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and that over 4 million had participated in stoppages of work in protest against the war. This campaign is sponsored by the Japanese Socialist Party and SOHYO, the Japanese TUC. He was followed by Malcolm Caldwell, Vice Chairman of CND and lecturer on South East Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies. He gave a highly informed talk on the attitude of people in the west towards imperialism, and the economic reasons for the behaviour of American imperialism. In the following discussion many points were made about the nature of U.S. imperialism and its role in the world today. The final discussion was on future campaigning and the role of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. It was opened by Lawrence Daly, General Secretary of the Scottish Area of the National Union of Mineworkers. He explained in detail why he as a trade unionist opposed the war in Vietnam. Mr. Daly went on to explain that he supported both the British Council for Peace in Vietnam and the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and explained why. During this discussion