The Split: the first item on the agenda?

THE SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY, through a clerical error (if Noel Browne will forgive the pun), holds its connference on the same week-end as the Fine Gael Ard Fheis. And, though an estimated one-tenth of the Fine Gael attendance will turn out, the omens are that Ireland's newest and smallest political party with Dail representation will reveal significant divergences of view on key issues. By MARY MORRISON.

The most noteworthy of these is on the issue which has bedevilled left wing politics in Ireland since the turn of the century: the national question.

A document prepared by a working party expresses unanimous agreement on the point that the Northern state is intrinsically sectarian, that democracy is incompatible with partition, that the Irish bourgeoisie is incapable of carrying out a national democratic revolution and that the Provisionals arose to defend the Catholic working class communities and to fight British immperialism - this latter point marks a new departure for socialists in the Irish social-democratic tradition who hitherto regarded the Provisionals as reactionary.

However, a major difference emerges on the way in which a socialist Ireland will be achieved. The majority of the policy committee characterise the fight for a United Ireland as a progressive one. Other members feel that it is essential from the outset to emphasise that the only United Ireland the SLP is in terested in is a united So cia list Ireland.

This difference appears to be borne out in a tactical way when the nitty gritty of how campaigns should be organised is discussed. Some members feel that campaigns should include any persons or organisations who oppose repression (including the SDLP and the Irish Independence Party in the North), while others feel that such fronts should be open to working class and antiiimperialist organisations only. The document concludes by stressing the importance of building SLP branches in the North, where at present only one branch exists (in Derry) with the prospect of a branch being established in Belfast.

There is even a third SLP position on the national question. This is Matt Merrigan's own proposal for an inndependent Northern State under United Nations jurisdiction, as an interim measure to be ended at some indeterrminable time in the future. Although proposed at the initial SLP conference this position is clearly a minority one since it negates any call for a United Ireland.

Other working parties have drafted papers on agriculture, economic affairs and women's rights.

Perhaps naturally, the disagreements on trade union and economic affairs are not so striking. Unemployment and attacks on workers' living standards are denounced. It is likely that a call for the re-introduction of the Wealth Tax and the stiffening of the Capital Gains tax will be unanimously ratified. Regarding longer term aims, a commprehensive National Economic Plan is deemed essential, as is the nationallisation of all major industries and banks, without compensation to former owners.

But emphasis does appear to differ where the trade union leadership is concerned. The more militant members of the party, who had a large say in the economic policy document, regard trade union officials with suspicion. They feel that these should be subject to decisions of democratic union conferences, and should be paid only the average wage of an industrial worker. They advocate concentrating on building support among trade unionists on the ground. SLP members who have a more intimate relationship with trade union leaders (or who are such themmselves) do not exhibit the same susspicion or hostility, and tend to feel that the only way to win support in the unions is to take over such top and middle ranking positions and use these to influence workers. Others fall someewhat between these two positions and feel that radical trade union leaders, while suspect, must be' forced into opposing National Wage Agreements etc.

The document on women's rights covers issues such as the right of women to work, nursery facilities, state finannced birth control clinics, the reservation of 50% of places in all university faciliities for women and the equalisation of women's positions in law and social welfare. If any contention arises it will centre on whether women should be allowed to meet separately within the party, a right which they were given in clause 16 of the Party's Constitution. The women's committee has reecommended that it be allowed to open an internal discussion on abortion, a somewhat vexed question among party members.

The Labour Party has tended to concentrate its' political efforts in towns and cities, thus leaving Fianna Fail the uncontested support of small farmers. The SLP hopes to challenge this support by proposing an upper limit of 150 acres for individual holdings, and a ban on purchase of land by non-farmers. The long-term aim would appear to be group or collective ownership, with guaranteed permanent employment as security for farmers.

The party has established 30 branches throughout the country, 14 of these being in Dublin. There are about 500 members enrolled and most of these, it is claimed, were not previously members of any political party. About a third of the membership are Labour Party members, mainly of the now disbanded Liaison of the Left, there are a few ex-Official Sinn Fein members and about 15% of the members, are, or were, members of small Trotskyist organisations, notably the Socialist Workers Movement, which disbanded in order to form a "tendency" within the SLP. Another such organisation, now significantly represented within the SLP, is the newely fused Movement for a Socialist Republic/Peoples Democracy.

The party has not yet decided whether to contest the European Parliament elections, nor, being a 32 county party, to contest the forthhcoming Westminster elections in the North. Much will depend on the outtcome of this conference.

If the party' successfully and unnequivocally tackles the national quesstion, then it could not only pose a future serious threat to the Labour Party, but offer a real choice to those lengthening dole queues and that exploding youth .•