from Unitas .A meeting was held last week of representatives of all sections of the labour movement concerned at the decline of democracy in the Labour Party. 42 delegates attended. It was agreed that’ 'Democratic Control! was now a key issue ~ ranking in importance with common ownership. Control of industry by workers, of trade unions by their rank and file, of the Labour Party by its members, of M.P.s by their constituencies, of the Executive by M.P.s ' = these are the immediate tasks before us. A number of decisions were taken, In foreign policy first priority is to end American intervention in Vietnam - and an immediate stop to the bombing fhe Labour Party must step up its pressure on the Government to abandon its East of Suetpolicy. Resolutions should be sent to the Parliamentary Party, and also to M.P.s who should be asked to call for a debate in the Parliament= ary Party, (First step towards democratising Parliament $) Study groups were ' set up on "Nationalisation and workers! control"; "Sterling and the Balance of Payments"; "Incomes Policy"; and "Foreign Policy". The first three will report back within a fortnight on proposed resolutions and future campaigns. There was considerable discussion about this year's elections to the N.E.C. following a similar meeting held at Blackpool, It was finally decided that the following sitting members deserved support:
Tom Driberg;
Ian Mikardo. It was also decided to support only the two runners-up from last year to avoid splitting the votes
Sidney Silverman;
Support for further sitting members will be reviewed in two weeks’ time.