Labour Youth has stiffened its opposition to a coalition with Fine Gael after the next general election, urging its members not to distribute any election literature that mentions Fine Gael.
The motion was passed by a substantial margin at the organisation's annual conference, which heard much criticism of Labour leader Pat Rabbitte's decision to ally with Fine Gael.
"Labour Youth asks members not to co-operate with the distribution of any material, including leaflets and posters, which calls for a transfer to the Fine Gael party," the motion from Dublin South West Labour Youth read.
"It is a clear statement that we feel that the slippage in the opinion polls comes down to the strategy put forward by Pat Rabbitte and that it has caused a weakening of the party's identity," Labour Youth's vice-chairman Neil Ward told The Irish Times.
Meanwhile, Mr Rabbitte told the conference that the Labour Party should not commit as a general election pledge to barring American flights from Shannon until it was first certain that there was evidence that some of the aircraft may be illegally carrying prisoners.
Instead, Mr Rabbitte said American flights should be inspected at Shannon by gardaí and immigration officers, and then banned if evidence emerged that flights had been used to ferry prisoners.
In his main speech, Mr Rabbitte said the expected defeat for US Republicans in forthcoming senate and congressional elections would be a verdict on president George Bush.
"It now looks likely that the Republican Party will meet with a serious reverse at the ballot box next Tuesday. Let us hope so.
"Let us hope so, because such a reverse would deal a significant blow to the neo-conservative ideologues, whose influence over US foreign policy under the Bush administration has had such a profoundly negative impact on world affairs.
"Next Tuesday will not simply be a verdict on President Bush, or on the war on Iraq, but also on the perverse neo-conservative ideology that made the Iraq adventure possible," Mr Rabbitte added.
Journalists concentrate on the US military's 100 a month losses, he said, but "few mentioned the loss of 1,170 Iraqi civilians in the same month.
"That is not to lessen, in any way, the suffering of American families, but it does remind us of the ongoing human toll both for Americans and Iraqis, in a war that should never have been," Mr Rabbitte said.
