wy Brian Gormley The seventeenth annual conference of the National Association of Labour ~tudent Organizations in Manchester on April 3-6th lived up to all its expectations of being the liveliest in its history. It was the scene of a sharp political struggle between several tendencies over what attitude NALSO should take to the attacks on it by Transport House and how should it relate itself to the developing radicalism among university students as typified by the Radical Student Alliance. H
Readers of the Newsletter, organ of the Socialist Labour League, may have guessed in recent months that the S.L.L. had developed a more than casual interest in NALSO affairs, From previous articles, readers of the Week will be acquainted with the previous conference of NALSO, held in January, where the SLL managed to obtain a majority of places on the national executive, and were obviously hell bent on taking NALSO through the experience of their particular brand of sectarian politics, Transport House quickly cut-off the NALSO subsidy, which fitted into the S.L.L's plans. while they may not agree on most things, there seems to be common agreement between Clapham High Street and the Labour party ringht wing that it is better that left wingers be ineffectively outside the party, rather than fighting inside. The Socialist Labour League misjudged the situation in NALSO, ‘Students may be opposed to the Labour leadership, but they are certainly in no mind to be absorbed into the S.L.L. This became the central question for the conference. The SLL approach was at first cautious, They submitted minimum policy resolutions. Their main task was to burn all bridges to the Labour Party, but under the pressure of the Save NALSO Caucus, they were forced to reveal their full positions: that is, the making of NALSO into "the revolutionary alternative" and in opposition to the Labour Party. The conference, by a hefty majority, rejected a statement by the SLL majority on the NALSO executive on the reasons for the break with the Labour Party, referring it back to the incoming executive. It also passed by solid majority, over SLL opposition, the Cambridge resolution which stated: "This conference deplores the hasty actions of the NEC of the Labour Party in repudiating its bi-lateral agreement with NALSO but also believes that the student socialist movement must retain links in some form with the Labour Party ate national level, It therefore instructs the. EC to seek immediately affiliation or some form of association with the Labour Party, preferably one which will give NALSO speaking and voting rights at the Labour Party Conference." The incentive to struggle with the SLL came from the SLL itself which became trapped in its own ultra-leftism, It immediately posed to the delegates that all who did not agree with the SLL line would not have a place in the organization. It would cease to be a broadly based student socialist youth movement, representative of several tendencies on the left, The SLL moved in hard in a determined bid to consolidate its hold, running a full slate for all positions on the E.C. This was in contrast to the Save NALSO Caucus which left several positions open