Sir, - You report (April 6th) that "Mr Bleakley dismissed as theological a dispute among Labour supporters over their representation at the talks" in Stormont. David Bleakley himself ceased to be a Labour politician many, many years ago, and he stood against Labour in the Forum Election in 1996.
The party selected by the Secretary of State to stand as Labour in that election was the Labour Co-ordinating Committee, which was then, as now, the only actual Labour electoral body functioning across the North and represented in local government. At their request, the LCC added to its party list Malachi Curran and Hugh Casey MBE, who had won Council seats as members of the SDLP but had left that party, and others who turned out to be members of the Militant Tendency.
When Councillor Mark Langhammer, President of the LCC and its designated party leader under the Election Act, informed the Secretary of State that he was replacing Malachi Curran with himself as Talks delegate, the Government informed him that it had replaced him with Curran as party leader and no longer recognised his authority. The LCC then informed the Government that it did not agree to the change and that it was withdrawing from any involvement with the Talks and with the "Labour" entity concocted by the British Government at Stormont, consisting of the Militant Tendency and defectors from the SDLP. - Yours, etc., Pat Muldowney, Secretary,
Labour Co-ordinating Committee, Derry.