Pch Tba Gt Broad Left Stumbles at Nipsa Conference Amendment

The 1983 Annual Conference of the Northern Ireland (NIPSA) witnessed several major policy gains for the left. The first of these gains came at the divisional conference of the CSPOA (which organises professional staff in the Civil Service) where on a card vote it was decided to affiliate to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. This decision was a significant rejection of loyalist sectarianism in the union which up to now has kept the CSPOA out of line with the other 3 divisions which make up NIPSA.

Equally important was the decision of the main NIPSA conference.to support the extension of the 1976 Abortion act to the North. This followed a lengthy debate in which the anti-ref ormers dredged up every horror story and demagogic trick in an effort to stampede the conference into rejecting the resolution.

While many delegates were personally opposed to abortion the large majority were convinced that it would be wrong to use the law to enforce a personal view on others. There was wide acceptance.that the denial of abortion rights was a class issue - the wealthy already having the means to obtain an abortion privately.

The left’s dominance on policy issues was reflected in a host of resolutions debated from pay policy to nuclear disarmament, from oppositio1 to British Tories anti-union laws to the incorperation of an amendment in the unions constitution outlawing discrimination on grounds of ‘sexual orientation’.

Unfortunately, the left’s dominance on policy did not carry through to the election of the unions officers and executive, where the rightwing secured a confortable majority. Responsibility for the electoral defeat of the left rests with the Communist rar te in the NIPSA ‘Broad Party and ‘Militant’ supportOn the eve of conference the Communist Party announced that it had withdrawn from the ‘Broad Left’ and went on to condemn the ‘Militant ’ for dominating the Broad left ang for its “sectarian” _ attitude towards supposedly “progressive” individuals within the union.

Undoubtedly ‘Militant’ is guilty of an organisational sectarianism in its operations within the ‘Broad Left’ to gain total control of leadership position but its attract’ ion to activists is based on the work of their member: in the branches of the union where they have consistently sided with the rank and file.

The major responsibility for the breakup of the Broad Left at conference however, clearly rests with the Communist Party whose own political sectarianism preferred to see the control of the union shift to the rightwing rather than allow “Militant ’ supporters an important place in the union leadership.

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Workers Averted i Se SSCA