The International Marxist Group, British section of the Fourth International, held its conference in London April 15-18. The conference, which is the highest decision-making body of the IMG, followed a three-month preconference discussion carried on both internally and in three special supplements to Socialist Challenge, the weekly newspaper sponsored by the IMG. The conference adopted documents on the political situation, on women's liberation, on tactics, on trade-union tactics, on norms of democratic centralism, and on women's caucuses within the IMG.
The general political debate before and during the conference resulted in the putting forward of two positions for the line of the organisation. The position of the outgoing National Committee received 71% of the delegates' votes and that of the chief minority 23%. A new Central Committee was elected reflecting support for these different positions.
The voting on the other political documents at the conference revealed 94% of delegates for the document on women's liberation, 2% against, and 4% abstaining. On the document spelling out trade-union tactics, the vote was 68% for, 5% against, and 27% abstaining.
On the question of women's caucuses within the IMG, three positions were put forward. One opposed the formation of women's caucuses. Two supported the formation of women's caucuses but differed on the framework within which they should operate. The position opposing the formation of women's caucuses received 14% for, 85% against, 1% abstaining. The position advocating the formation of women's caucuses that was passed received 61% for, 25% against, and 13% abstaining.
For a Class-Struggle Left Wing
The line adopted by the conference on political perspectives and tactics centres on five points:
• The building of a class-struggle left wing in the mass organisations. This above all means building oppositions within the trade unions. But in addition it involves work in the antiracist and antifascist struggle, in the women's movement, and in the student field. Where appropriate it also involves the work of supporters of our politics inside the Labour Party. Such a class-struggle left wing has to be based on the fight for an action programme embodying the key objective demands flowing from the needs of the present political, economic, and social situation.
• In the present situation the key fields of work are the trade unions, the antiracist and antifascist struggle, the women's movement, the students, and taking steps towards the creation of a youth organisation. Work directed at gaining supporters in the Labour Party has a lower priority.
• The present political situation of a Labour government pursuing an openly anti-working-class political line calls for a maximum effort to put up candidates in elections who present a class-struggle alternative to the policies of the Labour bureaucracy. The conference reaffirmed that it was principled, and tactically correet, to enter into a bloc with other individuals and organisations who support the most important demands of our programme for the present political situation.
It therefore reaffirmed support for the building of the Socialist Unity electoral alliance. In constituencies where it is standing, and Socialist Unity is not, the conference called for a vote for the candidates of the Socialist Workers Party (formerly International Socialists). In all other constituencies, it called for a vote for the Labour Party.
• The conference reaffirmed the necessity for posing unification of revolutionary forces on the basis of fundamental agreement on programme and rejected the concept of requiring agreement on tactics as a condition for unity. This question is particularly important in Britain where the immense sectarian pressures created by its society lead to totally wrong conceptions of justifying organisational division on the basis of tactical differences.
• The conference voted to continue to sponsor Socialist Challenge and to seek to involve in its editorial board organisations agreeing with, or moving towards, a revolutionary programme.
Organizational Gains
In addition to the political debate, the conference also registered important changes in the size and social composition of the IMG.
The organisation had grown by approximately 20% since the last conference two years ago. In addition, an important geographical expansion had occurred with the establishment of IMG branches, or supporters of Socialist Challenge, in almost twice as many towns as at the previous conference.
Of the delegates to the conference 18% were industrial workers and 56% whitecollar workers, making a total of 74% of delegates in the labour force. Ten percent of the delegates were students, 8% were unemployed, and 8% fell into other categories.
A total of 79% of delegates were in trade unions, of whom 74% were currently in work and 5% unemployed. By comparison, in the organisation as a whole 55% were members of trade unions.
These figures show a major shift from the situation of the IMG as it emerged out of the student movement. The organisation is now overwhelmingly based inside the labour force. The next task in this field is to build on the individual recruitment of industrial workers achieved in the last period to shift the proportion between white-collar and industrial workers. The conference voted to consolidate and extend existing union fractions and to give increased attention to winning industrial workers to the organisation.
The second shift revealed by the conference was in the fact that 43% of the delegates were women. In addition, 32% of the new Central Committee are women. While it would be totally wrong to believe that all problems have been overcome (the proportion of women delegates is higher than the proportion of women comrades in the organisation, for example), nevertheless these figures do show that some initial very modest progress has been made in this field.
The decisive question now is whether all members of the organisation, male and female, are able to build on this initial step forward. The proportion of women in the organisation, the proportion of women delegates, the proportion of women on the Central Committee and Political Committee, the number of women working full time for the organisation and leading all fields of work through commissions and other posts will be key facts at the next conference.
Other trends revealed at the conference were a modest increase in the number of Black members (around 3% of the organisation is now Black) and evident gains in consolidating a more experienced local cadre (the average length of membership of the delegates was four years and three months). However, the increase in Black membership does not reflect as yet a real implantation in the Black communities and work force. And the increased layer of more experienced comrades in the organisation has occurred at the expense of somewhat decreased recruitment of young people.
Delegates voted to correct these weaknesses by stepping up work in schools and colleges of Further Education (which in Britain are chiefly composed of persons sixteen to nineteen years of age), by moving towards establishing a youth organisation, and by taking steps to better integrate Black comrades in the activities of the organisation and to increase work in the Black communities.
Put in a nutshell the conference confirmed the political turn made by the IMG
in the last two years. This involved a sharp struggle against economist and sec. tarian concepts that dominate the left in Britain. This fight is embodied strategically in the IMG's perspective of building a class-struggle left wing in the labour movement and in its support for the women's movement, Black selfliberation organisation, independence for Ireland and self-determination for Scotland and Wales, and the building of a united antifascist and antiracist movement. It is embodied in the struggle for constructing a revolutionary organisation united on programme and with democratic internal discussion within that framework. Tactically, this line is also applied in support for Socialist Challenge and Socialist
Unity.
On the basis of this orientation, the IMG has already significantly shifted its social composition-with a much larger number of union members, a modest increase in the weight and numbers of women comrades at every level of the organisation, and the recruitment of a number of Black members. Consolidating and extending these gains through greater practical attention to all fields of work, ensuring a continuing shift in the social composition of the organisation, and above all consolidating and extending our forces in the trade unions, women's movement, Black communities, and youth-these were the decisive decisions of the 1978 IMG conference.