BRITISH COMMUNIST YOUTH EXPEL "TROTSKYISTS"
By Alan Adair a
LONDON, May 7 -- In addition to participating in the annual marches held through the country, the Young Communist League [yc], celebrated May Day in an orthodox Stalinist -- or Khrushchevist -~ way by expelling. a number of active and leading members from their ranks.
While no statement has appeared in the official YCL press, expulsions and suspensions have occurred in at least four areas of London. It is reported that further disciplinary action is underway in Scotland, Sheffield and the Midlands,
From the London area four members of Lambeth YCL have been expelled and one suspended, From Paddington, two expelled and one suspended, From St. Pancras, one suspended, From Ealing, five expelled.
-A circular put out by two of the expelled youth indicates the bureaucratic nature of the expulsions, The leaflet reads: “On the evidence of one girl without hearing the case of the expelled members, the L.D.C. [London District Committee] recommended the expulsion and suspensions at a special DC [District Committee] meeting on Saturday 25th of April and we received the notification the following Tuesday by letter, The only charges made in the letter were that we had been expelled for 'tactions harmful to the League.!. This was the first we officially knew about the matter, and thus we had. no chance: to dispute the matter with the District [Committee] before the decision was taken, Even on the Tuesday we still did not know
the official charges laid against us although ‘we had heard various contradictory rumours, ...
"This was a gross violation of the pules as they state that me members have the right to appeal within 14 days to the National Com~ mittee against the decision of the DC yet our expulsion notes came. through even before we had time to find out the charges!
"Comrades, the DC recommendations were communicated to us on Tuesday -- the National Committee expulsion on Wednesday -- could the NC have met in this time? ... This is. simply absurd, a series of telegrams and telephone calls can in no sense be calied a '!meeting! and obviously any real discussion on the issue is ruled out,"
Drawing the. political conclusions, the leaflet states, "The accumulating tension of the national scene is paralleled by the growing tension of the international: situation, In particular we refer to the dispute in the international communist movement which is going from bad to worse, In our opinion the Soviet CP is desert~ ing the militant stand being taken by the Chinese CP in its opposition to U.S. imperialism, in the completely unrealistic hope that she can come to some sort of peaceful compromise with imperialism in order to disarm and relieve the Soviet economy from the exhausting armaments burden that the arms race imposes upon her, ¢.g., the Soviet CP's virtual neutrality in the Sino-Indian war which was even stretched to the point of the USSR supplying Mig 21 fighters to India.
A further leaflet issued by the expelled members from Ealing states: “We five have been expelled from Ealing YCL on the grounds that we have formed a Trotskyist-led faction that has campaigned against certain policies of the movement and against the authority of our DC. We deny this and have refuted the tevidence! which has been brought against us. —
"We feel that these charges are symptomatic of the bureaucra-~ tic nature of the CP and YCL leadership. We intend to expose the nature of this bureaucracy by fighting ina principled way for reinstatement,
"Tt is significant that we were accused, tried, found guilty and expelled -- all in our absence, We were never confronted with our accusers, . . «
"Our real crime was to question certain aspects of Party policy in relation to peaceful transition to socialism and control of Challenge [YCL paper], etc., in a theoretical manner. ...
"The activities which we have carried out in our branch, and the demands which we have made are those which we considered neces-~ sary to develop the YCL into a socialist leadership for workingclass youth, We believe that such a leadership is necessary, if capitalism is to be overthrown,
"Why then has.the.leadership, instead of meeting our political demands politically, resorted to the most reactionary form of _ bureaus cratic arbitrariness?"
The Khrushchevist leadership of the British Communist party seem intent on a purge ‘in the party in order to counteract the sympathy which is feit among the ranks for the Peking position in the Sino-Soviet dispute and to show Khrushchev that they are right . behind him, [See World out Look May 1.]
_Today!s Times carries an article claiming that some Oxford ‘University undergraduate members of the Communist party have been asked to see the secretary of the south Midland district because of alleged "Trotskyite activities,"
It is also evident that the hardened old bureaucrats heading the CP are trying to stifle potential opposition to a possible move in the direction of the Labour party leadership (almost certain to be elected as the government in the coming elections),
Despite the fact that the CP's policy is to run as many candi-~ dates as they possibly can against the Labour party, even in "marginal" seats, -they would no doubt be only too happy to reach some kind of bureaucratic understanding with the heads of the Labour party, The CP!s policy is a living example of sectarianism and. opportunism -- the very same politics for which Lenin condemned the British CP leadership some 44 years ago in his pamphlet. Left Wing Communism - otal An Infantile Disorder.
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