The next conference of Irish Labour, to be held in Dublin in mid-October, will he the most important assembly in that Party's 55 years. Since the death of James Connolly it has been a "bookless" party, with contempt for theory. It pushes ahead blindly, attempting to take a "decent line" on each issue as it comes ups lLabouT missed the boat in the War of Independence accepting De Valera's dictat that "Labour: must wait" (until the first stage of the revolution was finished), Labour waited for forty-five years, It has acted through all these years as a workers lobby in a bosses parliament. In 1948 it entered a coalition with Fine Geel and other parties at a time of general left swing in Ireland, when a determined party with socialist policies could have won power or at least reached the situation where they would have been the main opposition party opposing a bourgeois coalition. In the event, the coalition infused new life into the semi-fascist Fine Gael party. In 1956,having learned nothing, and forgotten nothing, Labour partnered Fine Gael in applying the British credit sqeeze. In the general election of the following year Labour was masacred at the polls, After this the Party promised no more coalitions. This coupled with the open emergence of Fianna Fail as a Tory Party, set the background for the return of working class support to Labour, This was reflected in the decision of the I.T.G.W.U. to affiliate to the L.P, and in Dublin Labour's vote went up from 14% to 29% making them three seats short of becoming the largest party on the Dublin Corporation, Labour is thus the most rapidly growing party in Ireland with 400 branches agd about 15,000 individual members « Twenty-two Labour members sit in the Dail and six Labour representatives in the Seanad. The Party today is predominantly a working class party but with a small and influential bourgeois element. 14 trade unions are at present affiliated with a total membership of 63,000. The decision taken in May this year of the I.T.GoWeUe to affiliate, will double this number. At last year's conference, the vast majority of the delegates were what would be called in this country, Tribunites. However, nobody realised this, least of all the delegates themselves - with the result that the conference returned a right wing policy and leadership. This year the left have learned some, if not all, of their lessons, Already Deputy Jum Tully, the Party right wing chairman for about eleven years, has decided not to go forward for re-election, while Dr. Noel Browne, Ireland's Nye Bevan - who was hounded out of the Office of Minister of Health by the Church, will be returned unopposed as the Party's vice Chairman, two centrists will contest for the chair manship, while for the Party Treasureship there is a contest between a "Tribunite" and an avoiwed Marxist. The preliminary agenda for next months conference, reflects the new leftward swing, several motions demand the re-writing of the Party's Constitution to show clearly that. the Party aims for a socialist Ireland. There are several resolutions condemning any kind of coalition, Four resolutions are tables on the Party's Constitution and their working reflects the new mood, one reaffirms, the Party's dedication to the achievement of a united Ireland "but believe that such a goal can be achieved only by the united action of the working people against the Tories, North and South. This unity can only be forged under demands which stress that the united Ireland aimed at is one in the interests of the working people of all parts of the country", The resolution soncludes with:
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a ~o "hecordingly, Workers! Republic Labour Party". a
ive resolutions on Vietnam all condemn America's aggression an poe pe caugness solidarity with the National Liberation Front. iy al els the position of the North Ireland L.P. whose conference policy is Victory for the National Liberation Front.