Socialist Press no. 18

FRANCO KILLS FOR

CAPITALISM

The murder by firing squad of the young Spanish militants last Saturday is Franco's response; on behalf of international capitalism's massive investment in Spain, to the strength and forward movement of the working class on a European and world scale. The enormous wave of protests fascist and revulsion internationally at these murders, together with the development of opposition within Spain, threaten the very existence of the Franco fascist regime and represent a major point in the resurgence of the Spanish working class and an important stage in the development of the European ber 17th. revolution. As the struggle has gone ahead over the past few days two distinct tendencies have emerged in the protest movements. In the forefront of the demonstrat- ions, riots strikes and blackings has been the class response of workers throughout Europe both to the courage of Franco's victims and to the open barbarism of the Spanish fascist regime. Franco regime.

FEAR

But there are also noises of protest being made by figures who have the greatest fear of the revolutionary.

mobilisation of the working class to overthrow Franco. This is what underlies the recalling of ambass- adors, the ministerial pronounce- ments, and the calls for "clemency" from 'respectable' sections of the European bourgeoisie. Even the Pope, mainstay of the Franco regime since its foundation, has attempted to dissociate the Church from the shootings, not to lose control of Spanish workers incensed at Franco's rep- ressions. For the European bourgeois- le the main preoccupation is to foster the lie that Franco's regime • alone rests on brute force, while they themselves maintain their huge standing armies and police forces to the British Labour leaders hypocrit- ically denounce Franco while pres- iding over internment, torture, assassination squads and military.

repression in Northern Ireland. The real feelings of the British ruling class are shown by Tory MP John Page, who called on Britain to follow Franco's example, and the Sunday Telegraph's defence of the shootings.

EMBARASSED

bassy Whijc the capitalist class and its embarrassed spokesmen try to separate ihemselves from Franco, the leaders of the working class movement are themselves fright- ened by the strength of working class reaction to these latest killings.

working class. This reaction is certainly increased by the blatant manner in which the rive were convicted. They were guilty of nothing, but condemned

SOCIALIST

PRESS

during prolonged torture by the 'security' services. They showed exemplary courage as thev stood up in court to den ounce the torture they had under- gone - in the face of judges who ruled such evidence 'out of order', and who expelled the defence lawyers of those tried on Septem-

COURAGE

Their courage continued right up to the executions, as one young Basaue went to his death giving a 'victory' salute and singing the Basque liberation hymn. No revolution. amount of police terror will defeat such a movement - only treachery sides of Franco's regime such as within the working class movement itself can mislead the heroism of its the executions will go away and best fighters and preserve the a regime that allows a few demo- cratic reforms. The working class has shown clearly it is willing to fight to end Spanish fascism, In Spain itself

NO CONCESSIONS

thousands have risked arrest, beatings and police bullets in demonstrations and toher campaigns against the see this differently - they see the executions. In San Sebastian - danger of anything which can be centre of the Basque country - the families of two of the victims led : 5,000 strong protest march it kind of explosive momentum of a defiance of Franco's state of em- ergency, followed by a march of in Portugal. This is why they are 30,000 on Sunday night. taking a hard line.

GENERAL STRIKE

no answer. The social democrats, with their all-out support for the capitalist Common Market fear In the small town of Algorta near the break down of attempts to Bilbao 1,000 marched through the bring fascist Spain closer into the sureets - to contront tae ne re of the fascist Guardia Civil. A

BEL.

48-hour general strike has been called in the Basque country where and file might feel their strength already banks and shipyards are at in action, hold back from official also taken place in other areas of action Spain. Nor is the resistance confined this is the cynical, empty rhetoric to this issue alone - this year has seen a huge wave of illegal strikes of Jack Jones speech on Spain to the Labour Party Conference.

over wages and jobs throughout Spanish industry. Both his proposals were a fraud.

Internationally the workers movement has shown its solidarity holidays - while knowing full well with the struggles in Spain. Huge that a number of trade unions, demonstrations throughout Europe in the weeks before the shootings offices in Transport House - the gave wav over the weekend to al- out riots in Geneva and the burning to the ground of the Spanish em- f'all the major unions blacke taneous" actions to harass" Spanish trade, while him- sups co ana hol spall. Uvel!

leadership, this movement could self having the powerammediately impose an economic blockade on to impose an official black which the Franco distatorship, and massively could being Spanish goods to a strengthen the fight of the Spanish standstill throughout the country - through T&GWU action on the But this leadership is withheld by docks, in road haulage, warehouses nd factories. leaders who want at all costs to Alongside Jones' cynicism goes avoid the revolutionary overthrow the international treacherv of Police hold back demonstrators outside Spanish embassy in London These people hope that the "nasty" that he will peacefully hand over to But Franco and his fascist friends seen as a concession to the movement Last week Harold Wilson of the working class. They fear the and Denis Healey a two-pronged attack design- movement developing such as that ed to ensure that this week's Labour Party Conference en- In the face of this reformism has dorses their policy of using deliberately-created mass un- employment as a drive down the living stan- dards of the working class.

The trade union leaders, Last Thursday refusing to give any focus for work- Minister ing class struggle, fearing their rank Antony voted with Wilson and Healey the key itnemployment the meeting of the Committee of the Labour Party.

In Britain the clearest example of This resolution gives the lative to the right wing of the conference and virtually that Wilson's policies will be en- dorsed. It has He called for a boycott of Spanish the being garnished with 'left'-sound- ing phrases, making a call for including ASTMS, run package tours the reactionary policy of select- ive import controls. to Spain through an operator with

THREAT

T&GWU's own national headquart- This policy resolution, forced He then called emptily for "spon- Wilson's arrogant through "delay and threat that the Cabinet on the NEC would reruse lo sign any resolution government policy, the Executive. Wilson's tactics of gaining the support of the 'lefts' at NEC level and the using them as a cover against any opposition at the conference means that oppo

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

NO 18 * 1st OCTOBER 1975 * 10p

BENN AIDS

WILSON'S

JOBS FRAUD

had announced the other prong the attack - a rag-bag of s'r of launched called measures against unemploy ment. The £170 million package was entirely aimed at the conference and calculated to give the right wing something to argue and the left wing somewhere to hide. weapon to It is clear that as measures against unemployment the prop- osals are worthless - they not even significantly alter the ex-left, Energy but they Wedgewood Benn rate of increase - do raise important questions of on principle. resolution Executive

PUBLIC WORKS

init- Wilson conciously avoids financing the necessary programme of public ensures works - schools, hospitals, council housing, etc., to create new em advantage of ployment at full union rates. Such a programme must be under the management of the workers and contained completely within the nationalised sectors. Instead, the E:70 millio: whih: made available is to be handed out not to the nationalised in- the social services austries or to but paid straight into the bank Ministers accounts of private employers the form of cash bonuses if red. critical of undancies are avoided. thus splitting This shows the wholly react- ionary nature of the Wilson leadership, who act entirely for capitalism. Social services are cut and the money cynically handed to private industry as a manoeu vre to ensure that the lohai

PORTUGAL

Workers' power or Chilean- the 0I style reaction? These are the stark choices now facing the and working class of Portugal after capitalism. last week of events a series in which rank and file soldiers showed their increasing indep- officer from the endence corps, increasing identification The and with the working class and strength increasing confidence. pected. Group whose establishment was an Intervention nounced on 26th. September is a

ARGENTINA

4th evening of On the i September five members of ertied zada the Argentine Trotskyist group paper of the Partide Socialista de les Trab- (Socialist Workers jadores reported Party, sympathising section of Secretariat") the Unitied disappeared on their way to the Petroquimica Sudamericana factory in the region of La Spring after Plata. Their bodies, full of bullet holes to this and mutilated by torture, were and economic discovered in a car the following of their comrades Three morning. were kidnapped that afternoon as they left local party headquarters: they, too, were found murdered.

the country. Such killings - not to mention and assorted kidnappings, beatings commonplace are connected in Argentina. where bands of fascist with the the streets thugs roam

ZIMBABWE

The failure of the Confer- ence between Smith and the tively) is National Council bourgeois African (ANC) at Victoria Falls last ism', has led to an open month split in the ANC. basis. right-wing elements Some around the old ZAPU leader Joshua political break the between Nkome are trying •to 'united front' and conclude a peace participating deal more acceptable to Smith, and so betraying the national liberation struggle. Nkome has attempted this by (notably hold deliberately going ahead to in Salisbury

ANC

conference the that the full knowledge in the

ZANU

elements around militant will not be able to leader Sithole attend for lear of arrest by Smith.

the unexpected It is not altogether and that such a split would come to the The surface at the present time solution as ZAPU and split between original ZANU (Zimbabwe African Peoples

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

talking of alliances with NATO and the EEC. It new organisation was set up in the barracks called Soldiers United Will Win. (SUV) This body did not meet approval with the Commander had two on 19th. of leaflets in support of it.

This provoked the biggest mil- itary demonstration yet in central 25th. over 20,000 soldiers, supported by workers committees organisations Portugal will not be another Chile' When the demonstrators met at the end, it was proposed to have a further meeting the next day at the prison at Trafaria, away, were held. Then the proposal came.

'why not go there now?' The demonstrators went to a nearby the agreement got workers that they should drive their

ARMY

pension bridge to the island fort ress of Trafaria. barricades

SPLITS

mediate release of their comrades.

The commander summoned parachute regiments and marines to do so. clear response to the independence power of the working class in and men, and an attempt to hold back the revolutionary process of uniform out. the de ence Workers from the nearby Almada got out of their beds and the increasing move T.O bridge blocked right of the Armed Forces Move- island. ment, particularly as shown in the policies of the new sixth Provision- any case fused to obey àl Government has caused disquiet commanding officers. among the ordinary soldiers.

Faced with this new government includes commander prison those who have continually insisted release the two imprisoned soldiers.

that army discipline must he res- who came out and addressed the 'Soldiers slogan old crowd. always on the side of the people' began to wear somewhat thin when such events as these are enormous.

some of the superior officers were

TROTSKYISTS

MURDERED

obvious acquiescence of the prop- classes. According to Avan- the weekly news- Socialista, PST, about twenty other victims of murder gangs were during July and several persons, including of their some own comrades, had vanished with- Government-sponsored terror by the right began in Argentina in the of 1974, less than a year Murdered: Pressure took office. Peron from the working class in response Anticommunist killings to the desperate to such led Peronist trade union leaders to call a general uea. The 8th September strike earlier this year, which forced Social Welfare Minister Lopez Rega out of office and ultimately out of the change oI 1974, since May With the exile of this govern- wave of protest: ment official who was so closely with most active government] murder gang, the AAA (Argentine to let Sithole and

ZAPU BETRAYS

a press conference

STRUGGLE

Union and National Union respec- generally attributed commentators to reflection of the as backwardness the Atrican gol in masses rather than having a political intentions quite clear. In fact, at that time there was a emphasis difference Nkome who, although guerilla move- in the ment after UDI until 1970, wante to place more reliance on bringing international governmental pressure concludes: that of Britain), to bear on Smithe, as the main 'weapon' in the Nationalist arsenal. majority It was Kaunda of Zambia who forced the two movements to come together again under the umbrella we can devise orse to code Are

CONT

South Africa Vorster the status that he seeks' be a quick thought was going to In other quid pro quo to Vorsters putting pressure on Smith he where Kaunda has They show clearly the beginnings and a break rank of the working soldiers and from the Armed Forces Movement, officer corps who the real reins of power, and from the treacherous leaders of the Comm unist Party and Socialist Party who follow behind their coat tails.

the time for is was in this situation that a Now, surely, in Lisbon to fight revolutionaries setting up of a city-wide for the of workers, organisation fike soldiers who of the Army and rank and alone can safeguard the future of in Chief Fabiao, who and who will strug of its members arrested the revolution, actions of September for possession against the new military security force.

developments con These new September, with firm the correctness of the policies the WSL put forward by and left-wing on demonstration London chanting September in solidarity Only Portuguese revolution. WSL clearly called for a break from Forces Movement and the Armed the defeat of the new provisional a few miles government. where the soldier prisoners Although the demonstration was popular front domies of the Stalinists dominated the at once and ultra-left dangerous, bus station and class slogans of the Inter- workin‹ of the bus it was essential Socialists, nationa bring out these Tagus sus- Workers Press who in their issue of On arrival, the soldiers erected and demanded the im perspective seem not the fortress enforce his refusal to This was a situation where the came to the fore their issue of town of the over The marines never came in said clearly: PORTUGUESE WOR- because they simply

KERS MUST BREAK FROM THE

the orders of their

ARMED FORCES MOVEMENT

situation, the was forced to remains urgent and recent events have will continue to put them iorwara The possibilities opened up by Adriana Zaldua end Alliance), Lidia Agostini an Murdered: hoped for. was at that time feared that the brutal But the assassinations have contin- methods of wing of the gov. be turned against of issue Avanzada Socialista commented on condone violence against climate political and the labour movement" when a similar [This should serve as a lesson for massacre was followed by a massive of Popular Front "For one thing, opposition |to the • also claim that advent- the bosses, government, sending waves of panic stands on the ANC split by refusing among the settler Muzorewa (the official president of the ANC) hold Front party, of his Rhodesia 'about turn' has to be seen in the Zambia an- context of the split in the nation- alists and the fact that the ment is making every Smith not unnaturally has ex- nationalism foster tribal ploited the growing divisions in the division among the different ethnic that make up the African groups population within the makes Smith's Rhodesia. For the African masses the real issue is not that in the long run He seeks to divide and rule, by Smith will not find some formula exploiting the differences between for compromise, the nationalist groups while at the Nkomo's willingness to sellout.

same time trying to foster a right- wing pro-government 'voice among the meat stooges. The doormely

NO FORMULA

notoriously is that there can be The issue not fall into the 'acceptable formula no with a racist regime promise all the fertile agricultura controls land in the area and maintains the our actions we clearly indicate that industrial resources under capital- we have no intention provided of ist private ownership which in the word of granting him (the African) context the

COT

derelop cannot

CISIS

when Smith way for the benefit of the mass o the popriation 'erentual"

U.S.A.

file Gas. hold the

THE CRISIS - FROM

THE HORSE'S MOUTH

The obstacle to renewed capital accumulation in the tenants "are formid- United States insuperable" able, perhaps of a That is the conclusion the "Capita detailed supplement on crisis" 22nd the September issue of the influential American Week. weekly magazine Business foresees that The supplement the "prolonged business upswings [will 20th prolonged but bel impossible "social with the recessions easy" and that the would conflict unrest and class endemic because income become gains will be thin to non-existent".

Week attributes this Business accumulation to crisis for capital the dramatically falling rate of pro around 16% , from collapsing Ilt - 5% and the 1965 to little more than in anti- borrowed 50 cents for

OWI

profits; today the ratio is $1.50 of outside finance to every $l of int- slump are making it more difficult to supplement declining pratits in this way. Industry by industry, the supplement tells the same story of "underinvestment bose rom sate spend nations "universal nature ans savings", achieved by spending, higher total taxe but lower taxes on capital (ie much bland language lies message: capitalism's need to launch merciless attacks

CASS

urist acts by guerrillas in the name of the left have led to confusion in wide sections of the population and try to disinis merely sectarian violence "Finally, reactionaries have createc threatening the life of a socialist Sudamericana and spreading third about batch" of murder victims" point up the pressing need for arm- ed workers' defence squads to prot trusted. 11 at of what could occur, even here, if strength of the ork colas.

who gave their lives in the struggle for socialism, and call to take up internationally the con- Vorster meanwhile continues backwoodsmen pressure on Smith his to keep up his to work towards a settlement with The fall the nationalists. Africa's of gold, South govern- price principal export, makes it vital fo effort to and Sure Black Anica ataa market ap African capitalism to South its manufactured goods. basis behind Vor borgers of This is the of detente towards ster's policy Black African states As part he is prepared to remove of this some of the more superficial aspect of apartheid in South Atrica itset aided same time pressure and at the Smith. withdrawal The Portuguese Mozambique from Angola and of white makes the whole notion 'buffers' between as racist states of com South Africa and the north now that no longer outdated. Thus Vorster need of Smith and his regime that

SCOTE.

more Col make diplomatic cerned to over- tures to the FRELIMO government economic the con in Mozambique to secure them in any tinuation of the supply of migran labour to the South African mines

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday October Ist, 1975

ISRAEL:

HUGE ARMS DEAL

Israel's Dayan on the Golan Heights The full scale of Egypt- The for the ian President Sadat's betrayal forces joint of the Palestinian masses only five tons began to surface last week. As news leaked out of the US-Israeli agreements secret Kissinger offered which to compensate the Zionists for place the withdrawing from a small strip the guided of Egyptian territory were an it became Sinai peninsula, last wal. US clear that imperialism go WIll intends to protect its position in the Middle East by supply- Sadat's ing Israel with a terrifying arsenal of weapons - on such a scale that it will cramp sup- plies to the US armed forces nounced, themselves. Top of the list for Israeli def- come minister Shimon Peres as arrived in Washington with his build shopping list were Pershing ground- to-ground missiles - highly accurate wing in designed to deliver a nuclear and warhead over 450 miles. US pleas and that they will only include 'con- fluence warheads means little, ventional' now since Israel has a nuclear reactor for bombs, producing plutonium Tession. and are thought to have already Syrian built ten of the power that des- troyed Hiroshima. Though heavy, these could robably already be used with thei 1-4 bombers and it is well within policy Israeli technical capacities to scale seriously, fitting them down

1OHI

This within Pershings. brings nuclear range all the main Arab population centres - the Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Cairo, Said - and even the Aswan Port leaders High Dam. Pershings are only the palerinan The start. Among the weapons promised Zionism. or already being shipped to Israel 25 F-15 BEne are interceptor aircrait, carrying eight missiles and with a for a few of 2,000 speed mph, and requested 700 F-16 fighter bombers policies. The Workers Socialist League was formed on December 22nd 1974 a part of the fight to carry forward the method and principles of Trotsky's Transitional Programme, The WSL now represents the continuity of the struggle for these national. principles in the workers' movement.

The formation of the MR polin shored That there could be an independent organisation had to be founded to maintain the fight for Trotskyism. Such a split came out of particular conditions. The rapid development of the economic crisis of capitalism and the forward movement of the world working class, which has row overthrown imperialism in Vietnam and Cambodia, began to produce the conditions to build revolutionary parties internationally. At such a point the importance of a fight for the method and principles of the Transitional Programme, against both sectarianism and opportunism paramount in the preparation of revolutionary leadership eriod of isolation from the mass movement, as the only tendency with a programme and a history of struggle to lead the working class in the taking of power.

The defence of jobs through the fight for work sharing on full pay, run by trade union committees; the defence of living standards through the fil increal inge ag cost of ting lude a elimined by to de union prices cost of living as determined by trade union price increases in the challenging of the "rights" of th committees; the of the struggie for power through the fight to open preparation of industry. and to establish workers The intolerable and divisions to the even fascism. reactionary Newsweek, General Secretary would future "government union" had no hesitation in support to as head of state F-16, the US candidate will systematically Western European air of social unrest contract - vali of bombs. The Israeli the monarchy, order is for a hundred more than on the side of the people.

the US forces themselves are ex- pected to acquire.

PCE

They will also get large numbers for of M60 A3 tanks, largely to re- added his many knocked out by the switchover accurately Arab rockets Juan Carlos. wires or lasers - which by would a the important factor in prefer a peaceful transition.

Together with all this it's my very supplies of replacement various types of short-range missiles and laser-guided bombs. makes a break claim is that he was imprint. unaware when he signed Kissinger's 'accord' of what the secret proto- moment cols with Israel involved. But, after the weapons arrangements were an- were beine twingred, the main obstacle Spanish Kissinger and Ford's plans seemed threat of many from US Congressmen. They fear an accelerated arms in the Middle East, Palestinian support for the left- of he a feat the civi war now raging terrible round the fragile Lebanese coalition working class generally increasing Soviet in- Revolution and Civil War itself.

the Arab states left to face the brunt of

SEMI-LEGAL

Israle's reinforced capacity for ag President Hafez Assad They made it clear that Sadat had reneged even on his pledge at the "Democratic Arab summit to consult co- alla also includes former Franco ordinate with other Arab states on isters and representatives towards Israel, and, more that Egypt is likely to mitted a semi-legal existence stand aside in the event of a future the Franco regime. Israeli attack on Dyla ol Jordan. Stalinism Sadat's open treachery component compromises splits and continuation and the leadership of the "transition" after Franco nationalist Carrillo's answers make clear: that hamstring the struggle against Q. In possibility for the US to Carrillo. rearm Israel to the teeth in return Spanish square with the politicians quered land are the fruits of these called for in this situation.

the founding document of the Fourth Inter- working class to take the power.

carried out correcting the Trotskyism now emerges the employer and the the for control in

SPAIN CP TO UNITE

WITH FASCISTS?

pressures within the European Stalinist movement are driving certain Communist parties to hold out their hands of supporters In a recent interview with the American magazine Carrillo, Santiago of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) has stated neiling t to join national with politicians of Franco's Questioned on the attitude of the PCE to the future of Spain when Franco dies, Carrillo pledging his Prince Carlos, Franco's nominee to succeed him 'We are not adventurists who wave the flag We will accept whatever the majority decides. But to survive, must be Underlining the. fact the the opposed to preparations revolutionary struggle Carrillo "critical" support fo from Franco te thousand times But personal deep conviction that Prince Juan Carlos only has a future in Spain if he Carillo with the Franco union. If the army is involved in Carrillo's words - spoken at the Q. when death a provisional sentences of "the Franco imprint" overtment. this bid to mean extreme right? prepared against 1l Carrillo. I don't think so. Some with the of Spain's younger more levelled at - and the generals dozens held in the Fascist prisons - radical views confirm the utterly cynical attitude iste becoming al of the Stalinists towards the lessons Portugal possibility of order will be to bring and the inflicted on the about peaceful change opposition politicians, they will do the Spanish so. Would your party be pre- pared to support a government of national union without being a part of it? far to explain why

TRANSITION

the PCE and its front organisation Junta (which Carrillo. The transition period min- will inevitably be a difficult time of the for Spain, and if Spanish Catholic hierarchy) is per- of a government of national union by couldn't be blamed essential unpopular measures or decisions.

is an Indeed, we would prefer to go to of the plans of the general elections without a prior Spanish ruling class to insure the of their rule in the spell in government. the "Democratic Junta" has come as goes, into being and we have practical terms, how do part of it, we have a moral duty to take part in such a government.

you see the transition taking place!

don't, My feeling is that the . we tear be instability military will join together more right-wing coup. form Commenting on the situation in provisional government of national, management: all these policies are now As they are fought for and'workers are mobi- begin to form a bridge between the present level of political consciousness of workers and the need for the Yet the WRP refused to take up a fight For this reason the most important developments in our work have centred on a break from WRP sectarianism and propagandism, bringing important gains in trade union work and opening up completely new areas new forces thrown into We are beginning to recruit and train from struggles in this period - not only trade unionists, but also professional workers, housewives, students and youth - in the fight to construct the parlour record showe that we conse Mate sin not ony the singly to expose all those who attack and revise so the 'rank and file' policies of the IS group who refuse to defend th oviet Union as a workers' state, and the IMG who liquidate the revol Already it is clear that throughout the world the movement of th working class poses similar questions for particularly sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, producing similar split and offed on rich prosskyist of developing a truly international movement based on the For this reason the WSL is now engaged in a process of inter- nal discussion prior to a full founding conferenee, a vital part of which is tr building of the Trotskyis!

out and adopt perspectives for the Fourth International, and the development of revolutionary parties baseo Trotskyist programme in every country in the struggle to end Page j Portugal, Carrillo made it clear no only that there is a deepening rif won't within Western European Stalinism bolster the but that the leadership Communist Party is quite Spanish on its guard to dea consciously with any workers in its own rank officers have wish to make seros who Billy preparations a revolutionar struggle against fascism he admitted, th possibility of a "Cunhalist factio There. with the "but only in the within the PCE, disorde of violence and event witi be factions Where the Cunhalist tendencies within PCE, but I can say that so far, I an in control of the situation.

"MODERATE"

moderate" "If we we stayed clear a, it is because tha cynically added, way for Spain today for is the only any There is to be no storming of th Winter Palace, no long march, n Castro-mounted guerrillas.

His words make a mockery o But now that the left-winge thre "defence left-wingers threatened become Franco's executioners. And, as th American journalist commented, Spanish communism he shance measure o there could Spanish communism leading to a Madrid of being draped slim."

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LABOUR

LEFTS

MUST KICK

OUT WILSON-

As the need for new leader- in the working class IS ship every day, shown clearer the world grips CrISIS now Trotskyist movement. split the opportunist This has bloc of the Unified Secretariat into warring factions, and it is reflected in the International Committee by the mass expulsions from its leading section, the British Workers Revolut- with the Party, together ionary complete disruption of its subsidiary USA and Australia. sections in the begin an objective study We must of these tendencies of the history and of the International, it any is to be found on the way clarity forward. We therefore intend to examine of in this and coming Socialist Press some questions which lead us nearer a grasp of the can problems as they developed in the world Trotskyist movement. Init- ially we will examine the degener- ation of the Workers Revolutionary approach some Party, in order to central questions on in further articles will go to look more specifically of the theoretical problems which world divided and split the have movement. The mass expulsions from the 1974 marked

WRP

in December the determination of the leadership of that party - at the centre of which is General Secretary G. Healy - to defend to the utmost the sectarian which continues method liquidate the WRP and all the gains it has made.

DOCUMENT

It is significant to note that days the expulsions began after Comrade Thornett had been by Healy authority al produce aggregate meeting second opposition document.

This deal with the historical, was to philosophical and class content of the degeneration of the WRP into show the starting sectarianism; degeneration in of the point which contained the core of part! Irosalim: and examine in this perspect- sodex: iD= international International Commit- == oi being

LEFT MPS MUST

SHT WILSON

EMPLOYMEN

NOL PREETS ON

SLL on Lambeth Trades Council lobby of Parliament against Wilson's pay laws, 1966.

LESSONS OF OUR

HISTORY

prompted the expulsions in order until suppress the document Comrade Thornett was out of the partWhat, then, was Healy so afraid in a party which contin- of! Why, ually spoke of the importance of "principle" and "the record", could no discussion be permitted on the history of that party? Clearly because the WRP mem- bership had been given a version of slanted to project that history leadership the in the Healy and best possible light, even as infallible who had always stood un- reservedly on the right side in every issue. If an objective study was begun one comrade if only by (even opposition) it could lead to other members reading and assessing that and detecting the inade- material of the Healy leadership. quacies This was begun in Thornett's Second Document which, though suppress- he produced and distributed ed, of Conference the

WRP.

But further work on the history of the WRP (which was founded in 1973 out of the old Socialist Labour Healy is League) has shown concealing important deliberately past struggles of the movement in order to protect the WRP's present sectarian course. «Make Their current demand Resign" Labour Government Lane is a clear example of this.

showed in our last edition, such a demand turns away from the nec- expose the fake essary struggle to. MPs to their by left supporters pressing them to fight Wilson and conditions wing under where they refuse to lift a finger.

"Make the 'lefts slogan Our fight Wilson". It has a long history from the SLL. The demand was central to

SLL,

its run by the campaigns organisation Young Socialists they has been witch hunted (alter out of the Labour Party), and the The weekly newspaper League s Newsletter: This carried such banner headlines as:

"CHANGE WILSON POLICY"

(May 21st 1966) "Left MPs Must Learn LESSONS of Say NO to Wilson" (December 31st. 1966) October "lefts'. late as

HAUS

as 1970 Cliff Slaughter

WTOLC

polemic: with the paperiv essential/Paper in accordance fiVe The set Course political pre • a cadres ears we for this paration won from with trade umons on ever. youta. working class orientation was Al unt campaign to prices deteat unt

SOCIET

support No other Downcar ever was able to camapign in every one of them ing the in of her considered it

SAKE THE LETS FIGHT

a capitalist governmbout an ea laborated with the Stalinists to denounce initiatives in 1965 and 1966 against and mcome: Bill, agalls legislation, ano to mant fight, as premature and sect- (Reform or Revolution? 1970 PO. The 'initiatives' Slaughter relers to here were not simple sloganeer- but real struggles carried into ing, the workers movement by the SLL.

1965 and 1966, around the In Lambeth Trades made Powerful of banner the interventions Council, the SLL by were laws, which res- Witedn's first pay law ulted the suspending Council. In the Lambeth Trades anti-union Wilson's

SLL

spearheaded the aws. fight, itself calling for a strike on which eventually 1969 May Day forced the Stalinists to support and resulted in nearly 900,000 workers stopping work Young Socialists and Both the the SLL were able on several occas- ions in this period to carry out 1,000 lobbies ranging from Their 3,000 working days. influence could be seen to extend to directly political campaigns when on May ist 1970, as a direct result of SLL-YS initiative, Liverpool together with numbers of

COCKS.

building and engineering with the work in solidarity struck struggle of the workers and peasants in Indochina. None of the revisionists (partic- ularly the IS and IMG) who have By JOHN LISTER as 'sectarian' have any com- and the correct, if rather uncritical, headline: IS and IMG opportunism in practice.

"LEFTS MUST FIGHT-WILSON"

is that the WRP now (April 22nd, 1967) This policy had been carried

SLL

1965 forward from the League alone is able to assess these Manifesto which read: "Wilson and the hereas ed and a socialist policy.

strength from them. ПРІЄШ must It was not only on the question no nestratiol of demands on the lefts' and inter- the workers themselves to

HOW AS

ventions in the unions that the old Defeat the owes for G enforce Tories for Good, SLL had a more correct approach September 11th, 1965] It is conspicuous that the Healy

IMPACT

SUTUALIC

rade Thornett's call for a return to The campaign on this orient- the Transitional Programme centred in the had impact great much on devaluing the trans- unions and among the youth, and bold and decisive was along ant concealing their relation to the initiatives including these slogans that the SLL won a considerable periphery of trade unionists in the mid and late 1960's. the discussion referred to only this, but the SLL Not earlier programme put forward for correctly slammed into their opp a long period by the SLL, in which onents who refused to expase the The vast majority of the rank and file want to fight and change Wilson's policies, and they can do this whilst still retaining a Labour government in Parliament. Ther have The constitution of the Parliamen- tary Labour Party allows left MPs the opportunity to present their opposition against the leadership of the present govern.

ment. If this were done, then the rank and file would immie- diately be rallied in a struggle to change the leadership and policy of the Labour Party and replace it with people pledged to fight for socialist policies.

The demand of the Socialist Labour League for making the left MPs fight Wilson for socialist policies is the only realistic policy to rally the mass movement for alternative leadership and expose those inside the Parliamentary Labour Party who talk left but do not want to fight.

At the same time, if on a single issue the Labour govern- ment had fought Toryism, we would have given it our critical support insofar as it did this. If the left MPs now break from Wilson and challenge him in the Parliamestar Later Pr they will also have our critical support. We are ascered 2e: with taking the working class through ai Lie experies seces sary in order io expose the bankrup:: Labour leaders and the fake left MPs thus prepare i= for the building of revolutionary leadership From 'The Alternative to Wilson' by G. Hess. Seg:. !?!"

of the transitional demands many advocated, often along wett same lines as proposed by Comrade •Thornett. The contrast between the 1974 sectarian bankruptcy of programme within the WRP, and the surprising

SLL

concreteness of the 1965 must have Manifesto for example, been too painful for Healy to face As an example, in October 1974 the Election Manifesto of the WRI had only this to say on defence of living standards: Nationalise

"HALT

RISING

PRICES.

1 the supermarket the food monopolies and under Chains Abolish the speculative workers contro commodity markets "policy", which raises This questions as almost as man! and which can only alls Wels proposal regarded as a utopian divorced from any means of achiev- ing it (who is to do the nationalis.

answered by the ing?) is sharply SLL's 1965 Manifesto : ensure that Inis polic question onli sowve une oricco of the . the interests along with Committees or consumers, must be responsible the for deciding of living

COSI

index" remonass added. Funnily enough, the SLL in 1965 saw protection against rising prices without mentioning nationalisation!! But the 1965 pol icy is certainly far more relevant and tangible to the working class than 1974's abstract demagogy. ** 1964 YS Conference, SLI suppor Indeed the very call for nation alisation is carefully prepared in th moves from document. wages to call for the demands of secrets, ending

DUSTICS.

demand expands on the from this for demand

• WOLKOS

and control of business".

The nationalised industries are exam ined first: railways the liner on thi and schemes modernisation control th introcucce worker committees.

WILL

, unemployment retraining on wul ay will represent These • committee: graces or rauwa who, understand alas into 'all relation immeonatel enou between mausery and the nationalised industry' Here despite the inadequat formulation (not calling for trad union committees, and not stressin that they must emerge from belon and not be imposed from abor management by unions or the SLL attempted to concretis demand for workers contr the and come to grips with the task taking the management out of th hands of the bourgeois nomine who run state industry.

SUPERVISION

specific call for The "worke supervision and control" shows th this a fight to supervise 1S existin management, ation for workers management a later stage Today's version of this pIo the

WRP

is the gl ramme in workers control" attach phrase to anything and everything. In t October Manifesto, demands included: planned e Nation Nationa the fuel monopolies, North Sea Oil a

ORALININA UNIO

i the railways, avi * Dis service. Natio ** =E: ion point the struggle si industry = stepment of consciousness = 00:30 nation isbon separated tom generally workine To in lne

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday October 1st, 1975 WuLheIs Cunao pavlovit

EXPAND

THE

SOCIAL

SERVICES.

olivace телеше ana public schools. Nanonalise une

OLU!

industry W1400u WIdeL workers concol . Presumably then, to follow the WRP's forward logic, putting "programme" is just a question of stringing together a long enough list of monopolies to be nation- alised at a stroke from above by a while Labour government the workers sit back and wait.

In this they are effectively at with the Militant of group O e within the Labour opportunists Party, who even specify they want the 250 (not 249, 1968: SLL demonstration calling for political revolution in Czechoslovakia.

but 250) firms nationalised. Both maintain a verbal "programme of nationalisation"; but neither group 'left' to fight, attempts to mobilise the working along successes with along the lines of the Trans- class the

SLL.

by itional Programme to force such Increasingly. nationalisation.

"FIRST STEP"

the The SLL 1965 programme did, from workers Wilson's attacks however, put forward such an The of the 1964, the anti- pay all the union ws today in

WRP

propaganda, government than was any working class as a pall of movement, old leadership unIOns. about to Socialist Labour League after of year ution, to step defeat right-wing. less and less pro- attempt: and more depth of 'In »vace the general question to nationalisation. repre- build the of the 'need

SLL'.

sympathetic emranves Iom growing unions mus all accounts order acurao access such chemicals and as ln process at This is work. the 1965 SLL to establish control of Manifesto® production, there transitional were been demands Trade the Unions: «*Independence then the trom which stud ane scale. Scalt appeared. which the mausties

WRP

leadership gone back- workers . aoUKS. The for youth years. As Thornett's out: pomica "ВУ correct use the 'workers' slogan, projeCts. in fact. walby the roao to establishment he and a single ateap a singe On 10th. 1967, while the Manifesto still called: stages on dy passing through each of which "Through the "Make SuaRes must be wel as oed mass Leescooes thesi essential le catch allga side This „movement states LOr out) "Nationalise can and must USIng catcha banks and ano without under worters control' working class for Repeal Prices eventua seizure 01 owe aor uine why developed the Tensor the "Tonsitional 4. industries, basic adopted it as it: Here, steps the programme: revo unonary isation rather than a the can place upsuge O1 struggle from force of the to comolere nationalisation, day. same bourgeoisie oI the al une TaSK time, the solve this repare problem." (emphasis added) factories. By posing demands Why then did the SLL move except the

SLL

the attempt from away to carry itself: transitional demands into the working class in the 1960's? The answer be that the SLL must increasingly became

ICONIO

swayed by surface impressions of the developing situation, and in particular the treachery of the Wilson government. counled with

LLECHOSLOTAKIA

NO RETURN TO CAPITALISM

WITHORAW ALL SOVIET TROOPS

ARM THE CZECH WORKERS

recognise is si needed upon all oo terr i it the task reflects passage akin to the wave opened possibilities of Trotskyist leadership. the British is supposedly going which was betrayed when leadership workers from emerged spontaneity. Based view. which on on the British labour movement, the spontaneous impressions the who supposedly nise' the •need mass SLL to join. 1971: SLL mass anti-Tory rally at Alexandra Palace.

The of the Tory as result of the Cv alle betrayals of Wilson 1966 The of Slogan "nationalise the economy could of anti- Tory betrayed but undefeated between 1970 - "bring down which the ap- inability working be cadres to concealed which örante last twelve increasingly

WRP,

dropped by the real of weaknesses impressionist sahemes, no Healy and its leaders can degener- Tne divorced from real come any involvement or intervention in the struggles of the working class.

method of fight for the the now undertaken Workers Socialist League, is for us the very of the fight build an Collie independent revolutionary party to lead the struggle for the taking of power by the working class.

and for an movement in the defence of It was appearance in world 1953 which Stalinism in pro- voking the which •a spill emerged as defenders of "Orthodox Trotskyism" But, the problems Trotskyism with imper- and less Calical! In the 1960's the

SWP

American as a result suc- cumbed to and drifted off "natural Marxists" in form Fidel n of Castro revolutions, defence of and left ations. historic gains of the

SLL -

work of building the and into the for rebuil ding the Trotskyist At the centre that we to help the masse the daily struggle process of This bridge should oi transitiona emanas tom today's con .Cascousies of and work: claa final unalterabi] • CO of the _DOwer DA

FOOTNOTES

Many of the points from the histonea secon omnar documen were incorporated into the article "The Socialist Press

WRP

School of Falsification" So embarrassed are the WRP leadership at their complete lack of programme prior to the critique raised by Alan Thornett that they feel they have to resort to ilU.W the most barefaced lies in order to suggest they were right all along.

Thus we find S. Johns claiming in Workers Press of Tuesday 16th September: n the two Gener wechoos tre wk.

stated unequivocally that the working class had no alternative but to fight for socialist polcie. aelena

MOSE

minimal gains. This required controlling prices by the food mono- under • compensatio winon workers COnTO

O OS

occupations; starting the fight for work- ers control with the demand to open the

HOORS

campaign for nationalisation without compensation trade union eveLy branc ano mousta emonasis ao0ed We challenge S. Johns to prod- uce evidence of any WRP campaign in union branches for the demand 'open the books. any mention of this demand in either the February or October Election Manifestoes. Page 5 TU

REVIEW

STRANGER THAN FICTION

doing last Friday of Sandhurst and "patriots, the across the new series same name. 'Th In last episode , Quiller was western to SoElal monopolies. As the sabotage plan -.which and affair satisiying shoot-out on an intrigue, wrangles the mercenaries wicked foreign What's about such plot based on a real after episode ist officers supporte hin of Libya grown o1 revenues speculation, dictator ship

INVASION

And an armed invasion to oust Gaddaffi, financed by one of Idris' chief lietenants exiled in Geneva led by 'retired' British intelligence officials, and using mainly French planned over ictdi nico WaN „1 0g several was beyond the yea to form "Greal 'assist hi Great would be force, the hook aanee he put his clear talents to planning full Naturally, since 'Quiller' is : fictional the BBC's tam aspects. named, plot and booby. actual role of the was reversed to make Arat government its luck!

PORTUGAL MOVES

ON TO REVOLUTION

On every available inch of but to say something about what has, been learnt from a number of all space in Lisbon at the Portugal visits to by IcCClll oment can be read the pol- of the

WSL,

and in members cal views of just about every particular to indicate some of the shade of opinion ssible main forces that are vying there ithin the working class and cialist movement. The post- leaflets, the the news- and the impassioned pers, -bates that surround them, al with issues of daily con- for the Portuguese orking class. the Portuguese workers As for the re opened breaci pelopment of a new stage in the revolution, an under- ropean of their problems and anding of fundamental hievements march ¡tainly soon follow them.

STRENGTH

else alt ine aule been

BUSEL VINY

JUOIN

atiod

BIOV

CCCEOns. on HOUs estates in ine soutn aisplay o lilt ex amoe. TeNAs covers aunle

•VCHICIL

by John Docherty border. of get back what to be their thev property ed has been the first the farm- Wiule. commander not least by 17th. September the ing However this the story. continued progress of the is not of the course to deny that possibility of In

IOT

SUCI

from the former hang Co0e street corners, stand in attention River of Angola, that their worthless currency be Leaflets passers-by these events these, there ions by back the clock.

UDO

Whaterer efforts the extreme right to emerge from mobilising ex-col- shadows by uSCCulC the North, jobs will only be found people and a struggle for a government of the working class and peasantry based workers' power The beginnings of such develop- workers' ments of independent organisations can be seen on every hand in the big cities in the and agricultural regions of the South. their form and such

(OUDONO

bodies vary a great deal. In some cases their function is to set up a system of workers' management in an enterprise that has been taken an employer who has trom fled. Elsewhere, workers commit- including tees organise tenants, who. have occupied empty those smashed or they could become the SOWel. bourgeois state and its instruments We spoke to the director of one was a workers committee in consulted about management dec- sions already exercised more power than it way on depisise nin iterice weat always a decisive influence.

of such opment them from organs 1s Fiehth t to the class, who will strengthening independent If the position of the social democrats and they show just to divert and much closely. in the which ment of part. Stalinist heavily on been, and support he from frequent see his counter- and elsewhere. Nor of only

CIA,

but the charges Spinola. not the hypocritical of the SP the fourth leadership provoked the government of July reactionary and August? In any case Soares to such class leaders bitterly and LICSu with the

"SOCIALIST"

despite all Yet how is it that, this, Soares is compelled to make about the need for a статетеля socialist trans- thoroughgoing Portugal formation in and that he is opposed to maintain social democracy? The answer in dis- made obvious was cussions we had with Socialist Party members in Lisbon on the night of the formation of the sixth govern- ment. of rank and file The politics members of the SP was miles from of everything the pro-capitalism done by Soares. SP members were not happy about the undemocratic

PCP,

they practices of the but nevertheless considered themselves Marxists, and wanted the national- isation of the foreign monooorce and the remaining sections of big domestic industry. The statements of Soares have to take account of feelings of this kind to outflank the only openly pro-capitalist party left in Portugal

PPD

now, the .who are busy proclaiming their adherence to what they call "social democracy'. The practice of the SP leadership however, clearly belies any of their 'revolutionary pretentions The way which the leader- ship of the SP is closely tied to of capitalist the defence private property comes out clearly in their the Republica altair

DO ICIES

It is certainly the duty of every socialist support the rights of SUCIALISI PRESS, Wednesday Uctober Ist, 1975 Soares embraces Labour Party Secretary Ron Hayward different sections of the workers' movement to express their point view. However it was not ir defence of such a principle that ran his campaigr against the Republica workers, nor on such a basis did he win the support of all the other capitalist papers Western Europe. His was a defence 008L0 AO NR0ITo his workers, of a fake 'democracy and a so-called pluralism in which capitalist rule could continue predominate. There were many deliberate false impressions created by the hypocrisy of Soares and his assoc- this on issue. For instance, Tales the parallel take-over of the reactionary pro-clerical tadio station Renascenca, the of workers' democracy did not arise So the workers' take-over was completely justified The workers at Republica dic not demand complete control of editorial policy of the paper.

the but at first simply a statement to the effect that the paper supported the line of the Socialist Party with which those who printed it were not in agreement.

CENTRISTS

Their take-over was not part of a "Communist plot" as it was portrayed both by Spares and by sections of the left. It was under the leadership of centrists of the PRP and UDP whose general view be found in the editorial can columns of the paper that now appears. The greatest danger of all in the perhaps was the illusions workers involved that the Armed Forces Movement would necessarily be on their side. These issues have largely been by-passed by are still plenty of the Socialist Party leadership, and week on the streets of Lisbon or Oporto for Republica itself, it is now in financial difficulties with the withdrawal of a govermlleh subsidy. In recent weeks the paper has been appealing for people to come to work on it for nothing. The collapse of the paper now might win the applause of the hypocrites in the leadership of the It would certainly in no way victory for workers democracy. The real basis of the "demo- cratic' pretentions ot coarer revealed with the formation of the govern ment 19th. Sept-

LICW

After continual attacks ettabel Vasco Goncalves and his fifth government on the grounds that it was elected by nobody and respon- sible only to a clique of officers the Socialist Party has now joined league with the a government, in pro-capitalist PPD • openly which been elected by nobody has again and which rests simply on different faction of the ÅFM This arrangement has inevitably produced dissention within of the SP and also within ranks CP where the the claim to have taken a minor portfolio simply to make the government slightly • less reactionary than it actually is, rings very hollow indeed the next article we will deal with the role of Stalinism in Port- ugal and with those groups provide an alternative to _Grtuis lo

TRADES COUNCIL LEADS FIGHT

AGAINST UnEmPLOYmENT

OPPOSE WITCH - HUNT

SOCIALIST PP ESS, Wednesday October Ist 1975 of the At the initiative

T&GWU

branch at Export Packing Services - a factory which packs cars for export - Banbury and District Trades Council passed a resolution to take action on unemployment and organise a public meeting September in the town on 18th. To begin the campaign a leaflet distributed which called for Was the fight sackings and against instead for work sharing on full pay:

PROGRAMME

"To answer the situation a prog ramme must be put forward, the a demand starting pomt must be sackings are abolished and that instead a policy of work sharing on full fought for where jobs pay are threatened. Where the employ- ers refuse this demand, the threat- ened factory must be occupied and demand committee elected to access to the company's books and back to workers the report the state of the company's finances.

This is the only way that a com- pany's bankruptcy or otherwise be revealed". "Private practice must go was the decision of the NALGO and Executive last weekend, splashed across the papers last Monday. It was announced that the union would at last campaign for the practice both of private outside the National inside and Health Service. militant words were of These course backed by no proposals for carry them out. Instead the NALGO Executive decided to be held support a Come to the Medical Committee Against by Private Practice - a 'rank and file' organisation of health workers hitherto dominated by the IMG.

Why then the sudden decision?

Because the NALGO leaders, having voted to support the £6 state im- posed limit on wage increases, still want to present a 'militant' stance conditions of work in the NHS go rapidly downhill. When to they

CONCCLY

say Castle that the Minister Barbara total abolition of private practice is "essential to the continuance of of state and the system care ending of abuses by the private diverting from sector", they are the equally vital fight defend to spending cuts the

NHS

against carried out by this Labour govern- ment.

NHS

workers remember will how the nurses struggle for throughout the of 1974 sullel 'left' all of provoked mannel statements by the leaders union against private practice while they TV Review continued from page 5 the Foreign Office. Ironicauy, the programme swas broadcast scarcely a week after sanctimonious protests capitalist Libyan intrusions into the northern territory of Chad! Among many real aspects which the reflected waste involvement of Stalinism. Omnipol, the Czechoslovak cheerfully agency, provided $50,000 worth of automatic guns, ammunition and explosives, delivered through a Yugoslav port for within week purposes which were obviously fraudulent.

But in the event the boat in which the was planned Banyanot was arrested by the Italian police in Trieste most likely explana tion being the

CIA

thought the escapade too liable to backfire, and decided to scotch it. The finale was programme's thus pure fiction - underlining the moral that the BBC's job •18 to tell only SO much of the truth as The importance of the unity of unemployed employed alle workers was stressed, and the issues wnich unlty •must oc toughl for were set out: there are other key issues on must be fought for which unity. between employed and unemployed must workers while workers fight for a sliding scale of wages to provide increases linked to the cost of living as assessed by trade union committees, these committees must also include unemployed workers to lead the fight and Densioners to ensure that state benefits keep pace with inflation.. In addition specialist commit- tees should be set up from the the trades counci to organise unemployed on this programme, represent them on their problems, for the trade and to campaign unions to provide facilities: for the recruitment of unemployed work- ers.

WELL ATTENDED

The public meeting was attend- 70 by trade unionists. The speakers included Young Socialists the Labour Party and a Labour 'left', both members of the Militant group, unem- strike consciously prevented united action demand. The same double talk is again coming for- predicted that ward. can be NUPE and COHSE will soon make blood-curdling statements, similar while studiously avoiding any act- ion. Indeed if forms of words were abolish private sufficient to prac tice, would have gone that even The problem aLO. forced a correct policy •the bureaucracy uses every loophole to avoid action to carry it out.

ASTMS

ASTMS, for example passed at its last conference a composite resolution stating opposition to all forms of private practice. It called ent a Committee to the Parliam- Committee urge the entary end all private governel Pras it the minimum delaye inside outside The witch-hunt against the 'Militant' group in the capital- particularly ist press, the 'Observer' and 'Daily Tele- graph' is not just aimed at this group but against all op- position to the Wilson leader- ship. The WSL is for the un- conditional defence of their right to fight for their views inside the Labour Party. The political record of the itself, group however, of 1S They at opportunism. no point fight for removal of Wilson and the right wing - arguing that it is a question of 'policies' and 'personalities' Though they not have the support of the majority of the National Committee of the Labour Party Young Socialists, this worried the leadership of the Labour Party one bit.

'MARXIST'

de. Rather, it has been useful to provide people like Benn who is speaking at the LPYS conference Blacknool this weer. сомів with a "Marxist' coloration. They this at local level wherever they have branches.

The leadership of the Labour Party has taken little or no action against Militant in the past. which Charlie Boyd, and ployed worker, the convenor of EPS, Colin Carty The entire meeting revolved around a discussion of the transit- ional demands put forward in the leaflet, and the importance of this discussion by 70 trade unionists All must not be underestimated.

the talked about the speakers of importance the transitional but both the Militant demands speakers - who had anyway opport- unistically taken their programme from the leaflet, having straight none of their own to put - spoke 'defensive these wrongly demands. They claimed that the only solution lay in the "national- isation of the top 250 monopolies under workers control and manage- ment"!

FUTURE

The Militant speakers concept- ion seemed to be that a sliding scale of hours wasta correct demand to defend workers jobs now, but socialism was something in the misty future - they had no method by which this would be achieved.

This point was emphasised in the discussion which followed speeches, and the importance of the fight for transitional demands by workers in providing the bridge and went on to demand poration of all private facilities into the NHS and an immediate inject- ion of £1,000m for NHS spending on a sliding scale to keep pace with inflation. These motions won an enth- from the con- usiastic respons but the NEC, consciousl ference, "ref- blocking any action, simply to the Parlaimentary erred them Committee" and washed its hands fight. When it is seen that of any Harold Wilson and David Owen, minister responsible for the NHS, both

ASTMS

members and actually directing the programme of cuts in the service, we can see "Parliamentary what effect the Committee» will have if no ta union action is taken. Perhaps more blatant still, the ASTMS resolution composite on private practice (passed against the of

NEC)

recommendations the called for the union to fight to establish of workers Measure control of the health service: "call for elected committees of

OF LABOUR LEFT

res in de the Keeps in the part.

Left support- inside 1960's which was one of uous restriction and expulsions by the bureaucracy to prevent their fight. We will be featuring an article 'Militant' on the history of the group in a future issue of Socialist Press. In the latest issue of Militant (26.9.75) the lead article, by editor Peter Taafe, is headlined "Labou Party Conference

IMPLEMENT

MANIFESTO'

with a small sub- 'Nationalise heading the 250 monopolies. Here opportunism at its height. Instead of fighting Wilson's reformist programme these so- called Trotskyists simply call for a return to it. They know full well that there is no mention of nation- alising the 250 monopolies in the manifesto. Indeed it was precisely Wilson's reformist policies - set out Manifesto - to the attack the working class at time when capitalism in crisis, from allowing darn The mani estos is needs cuts living standards. its centre the "fight against inflation' which Wilson has inter- preted as the need to cut workers' living standards, slash the services and create unemployment Here would be the opportunity Page between today's struggles on wages and carried unanimously. overthrow The fight and jobs and the now be working class the Banbury and District Trac capitalism by the Council to adopt this resolution a was clearly brought out. act on it, challenging in practi

UNAVAILABLE

the trade union leaders who in a epting the state pay laws Colin Carty,

EPS

Convenol accepting unemployment. (speaking in a personal capacity) This resolution pass described the present situation in by the 10/76A T&GWU brar his factory, where the jobs of over 200 workers being axed by were in Hull and circulated by H management the following day. He Trades Council as part of t emphasised the complete absence discussion on unemployme of any leadership from the T&GWU policy: in the struggle to defend the jobs he had tried to phone the T&G "That this 10/76A T&GH Regional Officers and every full- branch calls on Trades Council time official in the Midlands area wherever possible request th and not one was available to visit affiliated union branch the factory. anemployed workers a Charlie Boyd, an unemployed that anv member of a trade unu trade unionist, after speaking on the either made redundant or sack points of programme outlined in in any way be allowed to rema the leatlet, moved that the meeting a full member with f branch call upon the Banbury and District trade union rights. Trades Council to set up a sub- We consider this important committee to look into the prob- pecially as unemployment is rapid lems of the unemployed, with.. a increasing and workers who m view to recruiting them into the well become demoralised throu unions and this way fighting being unemployed may become p to unite employed and unemployed unic to tascist workers defence of jobs and organisations and their propagand living standards. Unemployment, as can be seen After a strong discussion the Ireland, can be used Northern split and divide the working class" was put to the meeting,

HOLIOT

to defend NHS trade unionists composed of NHS which has lift workers and consumers to examine not a finger to fight spending cu the day to day running of Health and the onset of mass unemplo Authorities and to super- Service ment vise, control and deploy resources The time for talking is or to alatisfy the health requirements The NHS is in danger of collap if the unions do not act. All NI The ASTMS Executive did not workers wishing to defend the even refer this policy to a trade vice must now demand unel union body, but to management in leaders act by calling national stri the form of the DHSS! action demanding the Labo government carry out these polici

SUPPORI

* Abolish The WSL has fought since its all private biLe Nationalise private health fai foundation for the complete abol- ition of ities without compensation e , defence of the NHS, and for the defence er workers managment. Immediate injection of £1,000

NALGO

tra tun begins to carry out such a fight we workers. seriously slidi restoration of all cuts, scale or expendicure to rise w.

will support them at every prog inflation. ressive step. But until such action does begin we can only question how the fight * Programme of hospital buildi for private practice to be abolished under workers managemen carried union jobs and expand Coll create leadership which has allowed Wilson to smash free collective * Trade union Committees Area Health Autho supervise ities, and prepare full worker management.

STEEL: STRIK

the impossibility of achieving

SOLD OUT

socialism through •the reformist Labour But Party. instead, Militant diverts from this course, saying that it is possible to achieve On Friday 19th Septemt reforms. This the path of • all «Defence of the the opportunists. the leaders of the blastfurna Manifesto" is an entirely reformist men's union hastily called ‹ campaign and presents no danger to the decision to lead their m to Wilson - who himself voted for official strike from the Manifesto along with the right- on Sunday. By then, even bef wing the call, more than half

DANGER

the union's membership h already gone on strike What does present the danger The decision to call the str to Wilson is the fight for policies off on the basis of reinstating that do pose the struggle to end suspended operator and carry It is in order to out an "enquiry" capitalism. stop was a compl The British Steel Corp this that the press bill the Militant sell-out. as 'Marxist' and "Trotskyist' in or- ation and the government will n ler to confuse and divert any o use the enquiry to cut manpor osition onto this reformist pat and stop steel workers' wages ris with the improved technolog *A part of the same sustained the industry press campaign is the vicious attack But in line with their pol the Workers Revolutionary to stop Party printed in Sunday's Observer Labour Government the Morn like the attacks on Militant, This, Star, paper of the British Commi is designed to discredit Trotskyists mentationy lyingly called the sett "extremists" and strengthen ment a Wilson's position against So the spontaneous struggle any While political dif position. our the working class against the ferences with the WRP are well in this way known, we defend their right to their reformist leaders and Stalin freely supporters into an attack workers vall are

Pige 8 BENN, continued from page 1 Government's offensive against working class is endorsed by Labour Party Conference. the All this takes place without a word of from protest of ally the 'lefts'. Along with the trade union leaders they have accepted rigid state control of wages and the creation of 1¼ million un- emploved without a murmur.

It is therefore doubly clear taken in the inal acton must trade union movement and in the Labour Party to force these cringing 'lefts' to begin to act the interests of the working class and for the Wilson. At the present time the wor- king class face these frontal attacks leaderless. bur tne work- ing class have not accepted the Dav wws. or the unemplovment.

They confused and held are the treachery of their back Dy The fight tor a programme lo meet the crisis is the preparation by the WSL for the struggles against the Labour government that must undoubtedly emerge.

W.S.L.

Public Meetings The WSL is carrying a campaign into the labour movement against the Ryder "participation" proposals.

We will be holding public meetings 3LMC plants, and mass distribut- "Leyland: ing our policy statement: Stewards movement thretened" explaining the dangers of ""particip ation", and tirging British Ley and workers to mobilise against the Ryder committees. The main forces on the BLMC Combine Committee, right wing and Communist Party alike, are fully behind patticipation and are involved up to their necks in the ad hoc organising committee.

We are the only movement which is carrying out such a campaign, and it is at Cowley where we are influential in the trade union movement, that the only fight is aking place against Ryder.

BIRMINGH AM

"Fight Ryder, defend jobs" Thursday 16th October, 7.45 pm Labour Club, Bristol Street, Birmingham.

COVENTRY

"No Participation in Management" Tuesday October 7th, 8.00 pm Old Dyers Arms, Butts, Near Coventry Technical College:

WARLEY

"A Policy to Fight Unemployment" Thursday 2nd October, 8.00 pm Bear Hotel Bearwood Road, Warley.

OXFORD

"A Policy to Fight Unemployment" Thursday 2nd October, 8.00 pm Clarendon Press Institute,

JOBS FIGHT

CENSURED

Two members of the T&GWU Executive Comm- ittee, Brian Nicholson and Bill Powell, have been repri- manded and censured by a union enquiry initiated by Jones following a five weeks strike in defence of jobs last February and March. They were accused of failing to carry out the instructions of the Executive Committee, which were to recommend a return to work. During the strike the London dockers stood firm despite a treacherous instruction from Jones to return to work, given over the heads of their o wi.

democratic decisions and stride leaders, under conditions in which the run dow of dock labour and the very existence of the Dock Labour Scheme was threatened.

The dispute was a test case of the dockers ability to resist employers attempts to undermine the scheme - which forces emplov- ers to employ men made redundant.

A consequence of the strength

A.U.E.W

Terry Duffy, the extreme right- winger who is running in the elect- ion for the AUEW National Exec- utive position in Division Four, has proved his credentials as a repres- entative of the employers by taking the union to court. In the High Court he was success- fui last week in obtaining an interim injunction preventing the union from postponing the election. FOr the right wing it is of course only natural that the capitalist state and not the labour movement should should have the final say in the running of the union But the weakness already shown Dy ine Avew lelt mn ano wing te courts to decide delegates to Nation- al Conference has encouraged creatures such as Duffy to go to law.

The ruling must be fought,and the independence of the unions defended.

DEFEND THE 14

The trial has opened at the Old Bailey of 14 pacificists supporters of the British Withdrawal from Northern Ireland Campaign (BWNIC), who are charged with consp iracy to contravene the Incite- ment to Disaffection Act of 1934. Their "crime" was to distribute a leatlet, entitled Some Information for Discontented Soldiers to members of the armed forces. The method of attack by the state - the use of a catch-all "conspiracy" prosecution from bringing hard evidence. (as in the conviction of the Shrewsbury pickets) - is becom- £ 500 monthly development fund The campaigns begun by the wSL on unemployment and against the implementation of the Ryder report in BLMC are a new develop- ment for our movement. It is not an accident that no other grour on the left is campaigning on these questions. All of them shrink from the fight tor principled leadership in the working class. Such a leadership must be built.

For this reason we ask you to send a conauon cowaras our montaly £500 development fund. Send to: Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London,

NWS 1HP

SELL-OUT

of this agreement was the continuous move by employers to areas out- side the Dock Labour Scheme; To the apparent fury of to non-registered ports and inland the Tory press, local auth- Previously dockers have fought this by picketing container depots to a week pay in- and by strike action. As a result creases for 1 million of the major struggles of 1972 manual workers. the Jones/Aldington proposals gained an extra 500 jobs for dock.

ers. But this was uselesss as long ceded after weeks of crippl- as the employers were free to move geographically outside the Scheme.

The failure of the Jones/ Aldington' forced the employers to scheme was the basis of the strike which from Jones' point of view had to be stamped out because his personal invovlement and reputation as one who can deliver the goods to the employer was the form of the al stane The strike was broken under direct pressure from Jones who offer and accepting it. made public statements instructing the men back to work and spoke of a "very bleak future indeed wage-cutting legislation for the ports" if the strike cont was conceded as a inued. There was a close vote at a mass meeting as a result of this could have been and Nicholson was witch hunted by the press for "manipulation" The disciplinary measures now taken by the Executive are part of une crackdowa trouanoma une T&GWU against any group of shop Coules stewards who set out to fight against

CONFERENCE

Nicholson in the past has protected of the NUPE rep forwarded from the London docks recent conterence ' ea oul by these concessions. and has forced which he knows will seriously dam- age Powell and Nicholson's chances of re-election to the FRANCO, continued from page 1 Stalinism. While Communist Parties defence of one of the best agree- ikroughout Europe denounce the ments which has been achieved by backing given to Spanish fascism by trade with the degenerated workers states of Eastern Europe....

*Poland, Rumania, Czechoslavakia, Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and Albania all carry out increasing volumes of bilateral trade with imported by Franco which enabled prove any offence was committed The British CP then and now re- international strikebreaking role of Stalinism. Nor does the Spanish CP government which has ruthlessly cracy with fascism. Rather, CP leader Carillo himself sees a peace- The lessons of the break-up of discipline in the US army in Viet- 11alll (see report, page. 3). uese army after years of colonial signed away half Europe to capit- to keep this agreement, even at the They intend to keep Britain's the Spanish working class.

state, and prevent the growth within it of any left wing political It is for this reason that only the breaking in Glasgow, as required ies are supporting the campaign can point a way forwand in the to defend the accused 14. Outside fight to remove the Franco regime.

with ageing Young Liberal Peter the issue is an important one in government. Only a campaign whether the national rights of the Basques and the Catalans, trampled Home Secretary and breaking the rights of assembly, free speech leadership can effectively secure ana trade union orgamisation - can be resolved while the fascist power The alliances being made by the SOCIÁLIST PRESS, Wednesday October Ist, 1975

50 MINUTE

bureaucrats, who live off the backs of trade unionists, consci- ously settled for wage without even consulting the mem- bership. Their show of weakness on wages will only strengthen the employers drive to impose This is cuts in manning. what the press barrage on the : all about, with Select was the continual reference to "£205 building up million on the rates" middle class hostility to , the council workers and seeking to working class itself, divide the in preparation for redundancies.

The union leaders blandiy ig this danger. Jack May, HOTe

NUPE

assistant general secretary, "We will now expect the said Government to take action to protect our membership's jobs prices". and to halt the rise 1n As if the Wilson government has shown any inclination to protect 1,300,000 unemployed jobs - with hold down prices, rising at 20%

REMOVED

These bankrupt union bureau- who will not fight the crats em- be removed The for these be taken nght must TUC major- unions to reject of state pay ity s acceptance laws: and unemployment. To de fend wages against inflation a sliding clause scale of wages must be forced into all wage agreements which must not start •out from bogus demands for "the full £6" but from the much needed to larger mcicasco bring wages up to the increased cost of living. Juan Manot: sang ETA hymn to firing squad general strike struggle waged to bring Franco down and establish a workers' government. In prepar- ation for this, factory committees ana local comcus or acuon musi be established, and these must arrange the arming of detachments of workers in self-defence squads to hold off military intervention.

POWERLESS

If Spanish workers through such a fight could inflict a defeat on the fascist regime, the European bour- geoisie would be almost powerless openly to intervene. But the way would be open for the working class of Burope to act in support.

These policies must at once be fought for to attack the Franco regime. * A complete black on Spanish imports and exports. Jones must call official T&GWU action, and fight for full TUC mobilisation All unions must cancel scab holiday programmes in spair * The Labour government must break off all diplomatic and trade relations with the fascist regime.

*The labour movement must demand an immediate end to trade and diplomacy between the workers states and Spain. Demand where the British CP stands. End Stalinist support for Franco! * Full financial support to Spanish workers in struggle. , Open the books of Ruitich mannonlie