The following is an open letter to members and supporters of the Labour Party which we are printing on behalf of the Executive Committee of N.A.L.5.0. It is already six months since the National Executive of the Labour Party arbitrarily severed all relations with the National Association of Labour Students, At the time this was explained by Reg Underhill on behalf of the National Executive Committee, as the result of "recent developments within the Association." They complained about the militant policy statements adopted by the N.A.L.S.0. January interim conference of this year, particularly those in relation to the Government's Incomes Policy and "Wage Freeze", and Wilson's shameful support of the American aggression against the people of Vietnam, It was also alleged that N.A.L.S.0. had passed under the control of the Socialist Labour League, an allegation which the leadership at no time substantiated. The January 26th decision of the N,E.C. to break with N.A.L.S.0. - without advancing any reason whatsoever for the action - showed clearly that the organisational complaints made by the N.E,C. were nothing but a cover to push out of the Party those people who had been critical of the continuing rightward drift of the Wilson leadership, For our part, we could not justify our claim to be socialists were we not to raise our protests about wide-scale attacks upon trade unions, Nor were we alone, Thousands of trade unionists throughout the country swung into opposition to the Government, and as the recent council elections have shown, Labour supporters in every major city in Britain have registered a warning to the Government to abandon what are nothing less than anti-working class measures, Because we are essentially a student organisation, we were the first to feel the intolerance of the party leadership towards those who are fighting for socialist policies, We believe that this undemocratic action against N.A.L.S.0. represents a threat to the democratic tradition of the movement as a whole, to the rights of all organisations within the Party to express their criticisms and, as is the right of any members, to work loyally to change the direction of party policy, Coming on top of three years of betrayal and capitulation to Toryism, and the attacks upon students! conditions - with the threat against grants - such actions can only further discredit the Labour Party in the eyes of students, It is even more urgent that at this time the Party be informed of the Manoeuvers being carried out by the leadership, Having cut off all organisational aid to N.A.L.S.0., they are now enlisting the support of handpicked clubs, who are prepared, at least at the present time, to be uncritical of the leadership. By providing them with the resources taken from N.A.L.S.0., they are damaging the possibility of a broadly-based student socialist organisation emerging from the present growth of radicalism among students, N.A.L.S.0,, since its inception in 1946, has always been connected organisationally with the Labour Party and has been considered its student wing, During that time it has provided a vehicle for the recruitment of student
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