Socialist Press no. 28

FIGHT CUTS

FORCE

The purpose of the Labour savage and sweeping cuts in public spending could not be more plain: the gains made by the working class in social services provided through the state should be sacrificed in the interests of capitalist profits. nothing essentially different from the Tory Party pamphlet published a day earlier. The only difference is that, industry, Tories the talk about WATe increasing profits, Healey talks of the an effort to maintain or improve our industrial capability and give at a time us a better chance of success as the economy picks up'. The document is an exact increased fulfilment the works OI made the United to States- dominated International Monetary Fund in November in £1 billion exchange for In 1931. Ramsey Macdonald and Philip Snowden, the Labour Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, were expelled the Labour Party trom after splitting the party through their insistence on implementing public inose cuts were relatively much smaller than the ones the Labour leadership now proposes. But MacDonald's expulsion did the problems of the

SLEE

solve class working in the capitalist crisis, the lefts' in the Labour movement and Labour Party offered no alternative leadership.

The

ALTERNATIVE

cut workers' The issues are now the same.

The complete class collaboration of the Labour Party leadership poses the stark alternative for the reduction in working class: the pious laments services, and snivelling compromises of the deteriorating lefts' or a real fight against the present labour Basement and those policies, them; revolutionary programme. The extent of Healey's proposed devastating.

CUTS

Comparing planned spending 1978-79 with previous plans unemployment, (which already implied reductions in many programmes), the sectors most hit would be education (cut nousing subsidies. 9%) health (cut 3%) roads and almost transport (cut 21%) and housing raise the (cut 8%). Spending trade and on

SOCIALIST

PRESS

TALK IS NOT ENOUGH

'LEFTS TO

government's proposals for These three eroding living combined with the Healey's White Paper says rapid inflation. The the last year alone have largely and grants subsidies to capitalists, would on other hand 30%! go pay by something like 8% The total cut would be 6% when the needs of the working class can only be met by the opposite - a programme of spending public to end unemployment. real earnings there is no history 1857! new On introduced a supposedly unemployment. involve, he government the White Healey reductions in spending a decrease. would, if they were implemented, Again on living standards in three different ways: * the cuts in spending on the social services (health, education accept another and welfare) would cause a major restriction. the quality of these which have already been for years and so damage the living standards of all who now benefit from * the social services cuts along with all the other reductions in real government spending would huge boost already or printing approaching 1 million; Paper the reduction in food and as rapidly which are to be balanced budget. totally abolished, would of living cost by something like £1 a week for the worring 10m 1 MacDonald - expelled in 1931 methods of standards slashing jobs would, of course, be continuation of rigid legal control of wages and government's figures published last week prove that in those • two unines of • une erect The Labour Government reducing real earnings before tax has plans in hand for British and real take-home troops to go to the aid of lan Smith's racist 1930s Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) wage war on the liberation forces of African nationalists Not even in the 1930s were of those in their homeland. who still had jobs cut by so much. In fact These plans have been prepared parallel in recorded in the closest collaboration with Britain, the previous Henry Kissinger and the American largest reduction in one year being Department, military and political means cuts also ot the revolutionary

TOBA

agents in Angola. 12th

OFFICIAL LINE

he The official line reduce These would Secretary Callaghan and the Wilson extra Cabinet has been that they are of about using the sharpening Rhodesian struggle to put pressure on Smith to step down, withdraw that this declaration independence' and make way for a front-man who would open the 13th 'long-term' was no way Ior a to the 95 granting political rights gradually percent of blacks in Rhodesia's population of wage On these conditions, Foreign Office Minister of State David Ennals in a policy speech at

BURDEN

the end of last week, could become involved in policing operations, after a But it is made quite explicit in legality (i.e. the token withdrawal the White Paper that, in spite of of

UDI)

while the cuts in spending, the burden and of taxes will continue to rise. At settlement was effect. present a good deal of government spending is financed by borrowing This statement was the cover fortnight for White money; clandestine dealings. contains a pledge to move confirm as possible towards a that the joint war plans of the Labour government and US imperialism are only the extension The spending cuts alone cannot their diplomacy *by means'. continued on back page, column 1 formiche

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

NO 28 * February 25th 1976 * 10p Wilson - bigger cuts

TROOPS TO

BACK RACISTS ?

clear that the US-backed fronts

FNLA

and UNITA opposin, the

MPLA

Angola wer high-ranking Britisl doomed, regime in Foreign office official (late and Duff named as Sir Anthony travelled secretly to negotiati with the Smith regime and wit South Africa's Vorster in Cap Town (the FO denied only that h had actually entered Rhodesia since it is still, in the theories o law,

STITS

now colony, the Smith regime's only for the diplomatic missior of abroad is in Cape Town). threat of From South Africa the (stil Sir anonymous) Anthony of their returned to London briel Callaghan, then flew immediately Washington for discussion with the State Department later that was confirmed he discussed with Mr. of Foreign Cisco Kissinger's chief advisor.

Washington 'Passing through' at about the same moment there zane also happened representatives of the two African regimes which gave direct support of the US-backed Angola to war on Mobutu's new Foreign Minister Zaire, Mr. of Nguza, and the process of continued on back page, column 4 said 'Britain return to being put into STRICTer They richly other Callaghan - backing Smith

* 2

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

REPRESSION SINCE

ORTUGAL

NOVEMBER

the Alentejo. properties with helicopters tural Bejia, they said, Elsewhere the const the at attacks Mirandella aditions and democratic nts. 3rd out on All illusion onces oI Tne the Forces office of burning and furniture. 25th fortnight since eks dislodged by through bombs, one shouting year old girl. last kiers always on were injured. have been This counter- throughout revolutionary of the the mmittees they up to by which the range and shops atrol which almost to i supported them. Provisional The editors have Socialist and to the has However inst the all of the ependence and king crass Thus early which was under scenca, the of 25th control workers, has repress raiding Catholic the to the rember been were Church. Stalinist Foreign Policy - Mao with Kissinger

CHINA

CP SPLITS

capitalist road". "The Central Committee is A real attack on China's foreign tit in two" declared the would entail criticising the policy. pinese Party Communist of peaceful Stalinist policy 'Red Flag'. Once more sper which in the existence no-one of te delicate balancing between intention leadership has any rious factions of the leader- doing. ip is breaking up under the The first signs of tension were in year when March and April last essure of the working class articles radies cared a the so-called home and internationally.

Chun-chiao and Chang Xao Wen-yuan from the Shanghai The appointment of Hua Kuo- Minister Prime group of the Party leadership who as interim' "pragmatism" brought the split out into the began the attack especially in the field of education arch mediator and com- en. Whe where pre-cultural omiser Chou En-lai is really being to selection and elitism revolution issed now

COHETOVOLSY

was in progress. the Now there is an open campaign Hua has been picked by against Teng, once a close associate "litical Committee the least as of Liu Shao-chi and his "rightist" impromised with the factions Cultural supporters. The extent the the indemned has recently broadened to Frolution. He is not regarded as a attack include education, science, culture, aftist' and and the the Cultural Revol- lack during agriculie. army. and again in the summer of "the Chinese Teng, second 14. Khrushchev" is accused of trying to He was made Minister of Public minimise the role of the Party and 1975. January How scurity of the class struggle in favour of keeps his present job he specialisation in technical the factional more pends how fields, stability, ruggie develops. unry ana acyciop- foI obvious candidate ou's job was Teng Xioa-ping who Within its Stalinist limits, the been carrying out Chou's Chinese bureaucracy is incapable of the restrictions of especially Miness. regard to Chinese foreign policy.

the politics coexist- peacetu is the main archi- and • leng wno the ludicrous spectacle of country' ct of Sections of the leadership may *President Nixon's

SHOW

king place and of Chinese support feel the workers of Shanghai or the * the pro-imperialist FNLA toIces militant youth of Peking breathing Angola. down their necks, but it is only However, it is for his views on when these groups are mobilised of the bernal politics that Teng is now independently bureaucracy The Republica which paper reflected the views. of commissions and various left wing political organisations, has been handed back to its former masters, class Socialist the anti working Party leadership. Portugal The capitalist class in and its agents in the military and the Sixth Provisional Government carefully preparing have been ground so that political parties and ideological currents on the leit no longer receive the same hearing that they did at the time of the fraud- Constituent ulent Assembly elections in 1975. Thus the pro-capitalist PPD, the only bourgeois to obtain party substantial support in that election has been claiming that the military has now agreed to repudiate the political power it demanded last year and to hand over the right to rule to the political parties.

The

PPDR

been combining has "democratic' such hypocritically sentiments with attacks on the "third world military dictatorship' foreign minister of the richt-wing the 'social Marxism' of the and on Socialist Party.

RIGHT WING

Another indication of this trend is the emergence of new right wing parties such as the PDC, (Party of Christians) which held weekend of 1 ih-15th February.

conference Lisbon over the is also increased activity There of the CDS, a party on Pall consisting of various ex-fascists and British Tories, associates In a hard-hitting speech at candidate Edmund out his solving the programme "Don't country's of US imaginary proud of chauvinism. your country" methods" New "law and The the identical class character of two main parties, aim former heights. profits to Their arise mostly problem important electoral finding a in attacking which base on class. differences approach are represented Reagan and bid largely disorientated to middle poses an of government" opponent from federal to state level, appeals to under- those layers without standing control. times of which in 'law and order' and industrial depression unrest means violent on union rights. direct Rockefeller, most capital, would still seek class trade keeping the control workers'

WORKHS

ever so

USA NEED FOR LABOUR PARTY

survival, has adapted to the extreme ngnt al every lull That is the meaning of his veto of the bill to expand the rights of building pickets (5 January) and of "domestic squabble" with his the (3 wite over the abortion Issue February).

MIRE

But each wriggle has sunk him deeperin to the meriticism from all abortion brought criticism from sides, and incompetence of an dealing with the bribery case ex-Senator has placed his Florida primary campaign (where delegates the party nominating convention are selected) in serious trouble. is waiting in the Rockefeller Having stated that he would wings. not be a candidate for re-election as Vice-President, he now admits that, would consider trying for the Presidential nomination Reagan were to defeat Ford. Court Supreme decision to weaken federal controls spending. and to campaign limit what a the candidate might spend in his own added room for gives the super-rich manoeuvre Rockefeller. With the approach of the first New Hampshire (24th 1n the sparring between February) Ford and Reagan, though still polite, has intensified. The American capitalist press expect them to split the vote about New equaliy. The Hampshire contest and that Florida will probably decide Ford's fate with a struggle between Rockefeller and Reagan a likely outcome.

CONFUSED

Among the Democrats things are yet more confused, with a rough stumbling dozen colone airer each others' feet in a race to find a path the petty bourgeoisie and gains of the Portuguese wo that it time theat the Portuguese "populist" candidates The George Wallace and Fred Harris of represent the extremes afte Wallace, whose political spectrum. racialist record as governor of him strong following among Southern whites, shares many of Reagan's attitudes.

Harris, ex-senator from the farm state of Oklahoma, makes an appeal "left' talk "exploitation" and "class struggle", poor disconnected from any programme of real struggle. In between are such figures as Carter, a "civilised" Jimmy version Wallace whose success in the Maine (what precinct hold instead of some states primary elections) Ital strong runner, and Birch Bayh, who is particularly concerned to.court the union bureaucracy. Trade union bureaucrats sat out but will play a the last election, in the Democrats' major tole campaign this time. They will seek who can help them candidate consolidate thier own power base. who at the same time has a reasonable chance of winning.

The fact that the aristocracy of national labour returning to offers electoral politics no satisfaction to the mass of workers whose jobs are threatened or who the When dole of the

AFL-CIO

(nearest leaders equivalent to the British TUC) can support such a capitalist stooge as Lloyd Bentsen, (wealthiest of the Democratic contenders), who actually voted against the building They must one elseworere for a turn elsewhere for a must solution to their problems.

But where? There is no party of United the working class in the States, construction, and socialist policies, is an urgent task..

high degree of confusion and disillusionment which the "public opinion" polls now show, the prognosis of mass abstentionism the elections, point to coming workers to the need for American SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1976

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday, 25th February 1976

ZIMBABWE

REPERCUSSIONS OF ANGOLA

only Nkomo, but also Bishop The impact of the MPLA Muzorewa and the Rev. Sithole the victory in Angola continues to Nkomo split raulcas lom waom ripple across the continent of in October have also been excluded Africa. Nowhere is this more from the new military organisation.

clearly shown than in As emphasised in Socialist Press last October, Nkomo's split Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where with the Nationalist rest oi the leader of the right Nkomo, leadership in Zimbabwe was aimed wing faction that broke away purely and simply at pulling oif a body of the Smith. By the from the main compromise with middle of this month Nkomo had nationalist movement last travelled considerable distance October to do a deal with conceding down road, that key Smith, has been forced to pull back. Nkomo was prepared to see the Rhodesian Civil Service remain Nkomo now desparately trying to rescue what credibility he still foreseeable future; workers has with and the He gave considerable ground peasants of Zimbabwe and Zambia.

on the question of land tenure. This

ENCOURAGED

economic basis of his settler regime is White control of the land and the events. Encouraged by the victory the rich agricultural land at present that of Smith's gang of guerrilla warfare to destroy Smith's But most important, Nkomo has reneged on the basic Nationalist from he me hys de Guerba war only if all else fails" forced on it by states (notably president Kaunda of moves with South Africa. Tie Vorster has in any case had little noticeable effect in putting pressure Nkomo's scheme Blacks would have the Parliament this a majority

WIEN

would only be the case if the Black guerrilla movement has now did vote not split on any issue. Zimbabwe Military High Command Such situation would autotomatically the increase political power of the conservative Mugabe and that 1t 11UL SUBSCRIBE to Socialist Press

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THE WORKERS

SOCIALIST LEAGUE

The Workers Socialist League was formed in December for the continuity 1974 to struggle of the principles of Trotskyism in Britain and towards the rebuilding of the Fourth International. In the daily struggle to take the demands and principles of Trotsky's Transitional Programme into the trade unions the WSL has been at the forefront of the fight for the sliding scale of wages, and work sharing on full pay • demands which at the T&GWU Conference were the only alternative to Jones' treacherous £6 pay plan and the wholesale accept- ance of redundancies by the bureaucracy.

Service, In the Health WSL comrades have led the struggle for the sliding scale of NHS spending and for trade union committees to open Authorities, the books of the with the fight to end all private practice - policies adopted by ASTMS National Conference.

WSI comrades have tested and developed the In local disputes aiso, demands of the Transitional Programme, putting forward in every case, the only real opposition to the Stalinists and the right-wing. Our struggle for the "open the books" demand in the motor industry has won a mass response. At the same time we have put forward a policy to fight unemploy calling for unity of employed and unemployed through the fight ment, to mobilise the trade union movement.

The WSL is the 'only movement that fights consistently for transition- al demands, going beyond mere trade union militancy to pose the pol- itical issues to workers.

While these practical interventions have developed the League's grasp of Trotsky's Programme, there has been a consistent drive to deopen and enrich the movement's understanding of the history and the bresent crisis of the Fourth International, as an essential part of any serous initiative towards its reconstruction.

We urge all readers who agree on the need for revolutionary

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

African elements; the tribal chiefs, with whom Smith has been going out of his way over the last few months to secure an alliance against 'the menace of communism' The regime of Kenneth Kaunda Zambia has given to Nkomo in devising this betrayal African Zimbabwe. Kaunda has supplied all legal advisers and negotiators. More important Kaunda silenced the 'left' elêments in the Zimbabwe Smith Muzorewa nationalist leadership: 'Zambia from Sithole, refugees 1n Smith's police, refusing to even let them hold press conferences.

This is all part of Kaunda's deal Vorster South African with the Vorster has 1974 regime. since African cultivated relations with leaders like Kaunda to capture their countries as export markets for African in the South capitalism world capitalist crisis. worsening South Africa over the last year, it is reported, has arranged up £71 million in export credit for rumored that Zambia. It is even South Africa is paying direct to the Shah of Persia to cover Zambia's oil deficit! But Vorster felt that it was only matter of time before other western powers were forced to

SPAIN

Spanish Interior Minister policy of limited Fraga's concessions is being met not, as he hoped, with a deferential of thanks from the yote Spanish workers but with the it rejection contemptuous deserves. did trike beeeen wer has an in Madrid December spread throughout Spain. Virtually no town or city has been free from protest strike activity demonstrations in the last two Weeks But the centre of events in the weeks has undoubtedly Barcelona, second been Spain's largest city and the birthplace of On at Spain's workers' movement.

least three occasions in the last three weeks the centre of the city of the has been completely out control of the authorities for 100,000 severa hours as up to demonstrators, demanding political complete autonomy for Catalonia, have taken over the streets. King Juan Carlos, the new face smiling of Spanish fascism, spent last week touring Barcelona and the rest of Catalonia.

He was met not with oral welcare bas Barcelona's general strike municipal workers, including the Vorater intervene against the MPLA.

What he ignored was the totally different balance of class forces on a world scale. The forward movement of the working class, and not least in the

USA

itself made it impossible for US imperialism to risk anything resembling Vietnam and the US had to restrict itself to undercover arms

FNLA

through supplies to A tie Zaire. Vorster was caught on a limb in Angola and has now been forced to pull back. This considerably weakens his ability to intervene on the side of Smith in the coming liberation war for Zimbabwe.

WEAKER

But Vorster is in a much weaker position than he was a year When he first started talking to Kaunda at the end of 1974, Angola was hardly mentioned Voreter thought that if he could force Smith to a compromise then South with Africa could get on the of cultivating good business relations with regimes like those in Zambia, Botswana Malawi. and did Mozambique, Vorster felt, much of a problem not provide The

FRELIMO

regime, he calculated, would have to come to with South Africa because its heavy dependence on the South African gold mines to solve Mozambique's through unemployment problem migrant labour. Now things have changed. Vorster made the disastrous of involved getting This was originally at the Angola. of Kaunda instigation who had thrown his support behind UNITA of the latter's control of because vital Benguela the railway, Zambian route to the coast.

SLUMP

At a meeting of the Zambian state owned conglomerate 'Indeco' last October, government officials told managers that South African definitely imports were to be encouraged. With a world slump in

BRITISH BUREAUCRATS

OBSTRUCT STRUGGLE

(which attempted by the was national police) but demonstrating theit in support own wage demands and occupying the City Hall!. government's The reaction to this situation is an expression of its desperation. As in the case of the month Madrid postal workers earlier it drafted the striking police and firemen into the army which that anyone continuing the strike is liable court martial. The difficulty of maintaining the rigid fascist wage policy has been increased by an 11 per cent devaluation of the peseta forced on the regime by the worsening balance of payments situation.

The devaluation will cause an immediate rise in the cost of living and can only provoke stronger resistance to the wage laws.

BRUTALITY

Fraga and Arias' only answers to the growing political crisis are police brutality, the militarisation of strikers recently, and, most sending the army to break up strikes. They can only be overthrown by revolutionary methods - a lesson of a trade which the organisers delegate conference union London on 14th February were - for whicl the price of copper Zambia is dependent for over 909 Kaunda i ot its export earnings literally driven into the arms of th South African bankers. At Vorster' time pressure on Smith has not met witl success. Smith is miles away ever from Hi Nkomo's proposals. current position would dela! African majority rule in Zimbabw for twenty years at least.

VORSTER

is not simply becaus Vorster burnt his fingers militaril (though hawk Angola in some Genera among the South African Staff arguing for decisiv battle with the Cuban/MPLA force on the Angola/Namibia border boost th the flagging morale of Mor South African Atmy). important, the situation is now tha Worster bas to make peace not jus Mozambique; but now with If one Dong fugold does not come to a settlement wit!

the MPLA then of course lose the battle in Namibia clatter of dominoes can almost b heard Angola natural base for

SWAPI

fighting for Namibia guerrillas from South Africa independence The MPLA is willing, it seems, t come to a compromise with Vorste _in return South Africa of the

MPLI

recognition government. the drives wedg ting between Smith and Vorster deepe and deeper. It is inevitable that th South African bourgeoisie become less and less preoccupied with th 'kith kin" north alla Limpopo river and more concerne with the vital investmen opportunities that lie in Angol th one of the richest states in African continent. While the

MPLA

victor destroys Smith's ability to look t South Africa for support, it at th same time weakens the position Kaunda in Zambia and his stoog Nkomo. Over the last few weeks th working class in Zambia has bee demonstrating and striking again not only twenty five per сег inflation, and massiv the unemployment industry but also against FNLA of th UNITA and in support

MPLA.

The success of the MPLA as military victory has in the contex of Nkomo's antics in Salisbur th (Rhodesia) vastly increased support of the Zambian massess fo the Zimbabwe guerilla struggle an has forced Kaunda and his fello petty bourgeois leaders Organisation for African Unity admit the inevitability of the liberation i war for Zimbabwe. Councils stewar heard collaborationi committees) Spain's two class dominate CP fronts (the Democratic Junta and Sociali Democrat Party dominated for Platform) call th implementation of a programme ‹ bourgeois democratic rights.

-solidarity oru After listening of expressions Jack Jones and Michael Foot (wh Franco was represented at funeral by a fellow member of th Labour cabinet), delegates wel tooseness esolutions calling for a with two presented and union an amnesty democratic rights. When amendments calling for a black on all Spani were and a fight to force trade Labour to brea government diplomatic with Spain links chaised Raw one AS them refused allow discussed. Jack Jones and Ray Buckton a in as strong a position as possible 1 put flesh on even the flimsy bon resolutions conference by calling for a ban Spanish goods by dock, transpo and rail workers. Tal momento do so at sach Spanis crucial moment political struggle shows them to l as treacherous to the workers

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

1914: War Splits The International osa Luxemburg - German internationalist, addressing mass meeting years from 1910 saw out despite the he might the International, the slow but sustained rebirth efforts of of 1907 went Stuttgart Resolution the revolutionary call on the parties of the of Russian vement the working class: king class. Revolutionary intervene in favow of its be speedy termination and with all began to spapers their powers to utilise the economic blished within Russia; broad created by the and political crisis agitation itical was the masses and war Iouse the strike downfall of cloped; thereby the steadily drew in capitalist class rule". ement the weeks and sections of workers; by Though months following the assassination the leadership of many Ferdinand the Archduke working class bodies had Sarajevo, and meetings the Bolsheviks. won to demonstrations against war wee Democracy of geld by Social This whole process throughout Europe, as soon as war mobilisation was, dationary ver, cut short in August 1914 resolution was broke out the opening of the First World brushed aside. The principled revolutionary guard the working the Bolsheviks

WAR CREDITS

swamped by the 'war fever and gripped notism which On August 4th 1914, two days we will look our next article working class massive the of the different response demonstration against the Wal II ses in Russia to the war and at Social the German Bolsheviks Berlin, struggle of the fraction in the inst chauvinism in Democratic the workers Reichstag voted for the war credits vement. In this article we must German militarism. So * at the origins of the war and needed by of profound was this betrayal impact on the and that when newspaper of the working class principle dership reports reached Lenin in Galicia he mationally. refused to believe that they could anything other than a forgery be produced by the Prussian police to

OCTOBER

disorient the working class.

In the first days of August 1914, in country after country, the Social For the October revolution did grow from purely Russian soil, Democratic leaders voted almost to a man for support for their "own' was a first product of the sociai asse reached by capitalișm in all in the war. In many bourgeoisie declared major imperialist countries industrial truce for the duration of COWERNeS this international context dy in the true significance of the the war. of the Bolshevik party be justifications were iggie produced for this desertion to the sovered. itself side of the ruling class - that their The wat dealt an blow to the workers' inediate sar The in country, In "defensive", smat in defence at was war ovements. every belligerent countries, Tsarism", against democracy". The Social Democrats whipped ruling class up of each warring country vied with actionary mood of patriotism and mid nationalism and mounted an the invention of each otner in magnificent phrases to cover their lensive against the economic casting the blame for ins and political liberties won by tracks.

OWI

working class. the imperialist holocaust onto the policies aggressive bourgeoisie of some other nation.

To the cynical sophistries of the

"OWN" BOURGEOISIE

social-chauvinists, Lenin replied as early as September 1914: "The struggle for markets and for plundering foreign lands, the But far greater was the blow off the to head of alt to the international unity.

of the movement working class by the leadership proletariat and to crush democracy the Second International who the urge to each lined with the and crwhelmingly deceive, divide crush the of their "own" all to policies of countries, proretarlank urgeois governments. incite the wage slaves of one nation At International Congresses, in of another wage slaves against the solutions and nation for the profits of the acond International had affirmed bourgeoisie - that is the real content opposition to war and pledged and meaning of the war" not the result of elf "to eJert every effort in order waI was ine the aggressive policies of one nation rent the outbreak of war by they consider alone. nor even of the policies of all most of the inevitable outcome capitalism in its develooment ol final phase, imperialism.

of concentration Rapid larger production into ever the one characteristic features of capitalism.

In this way by the early twentieth the European century major competition had countries free definitely transformed into been monopoly. In place of a variety of with stall enterprises competing the market, there each otner on were a handful of great cartels and branches of • the major the which divided up industry market between themselves.

ADVANCE

This development indicates the the socialisation great advance and organisation of production had been achieved by capitalism. But at the same time, as Lenin points out, is full of this development contradictions: "Production becomes social, but appropriation remains private.

The social means of production remain the few. of the private property The general framework of formally competition recognised free of few and the yoke remains, the rest the of monopolists on hundred population becomes burdensome and intolerable elected heavier, Works page 184),

MONOPOLY

Moreover, the monopoly created in certain branches of industry, far from stable and leading to development rational in fact, increases and intensifies the anarchy inherent in as a whole. capitalist production Competition within national disappears to be largely replaced by an even sharper struggle between monopolist for domination of the world the Parallel to the economic division of the world between the capitalist trusts who each demand their share of the super-profits to be obtained territorial monopoly

ITO!

division of the world between states colonies, possessing its own each "spheres of influence", etc., was created. of the the beginning of this division twentieth century the world between the imperialist completed. By powers was largely France, Russia and 1914, Britain, ruled over territories of Germany over 64 million square kilometres, themselves only they 6.7 square million occupied kilometres. Plekhanov - defencist. of the But completion world 'does not division of the end to the struggle for imply an but that future struggles Corones, be for the re-division of would these conquests. whose capitalist Thus Germany that of but more vigorously than Britain and France was driven the simultaneously domination of British goods on the market and Britain's international position in the size and privileged wealth of its colonies. for The only these wal antagonisms to resolved was through war It would be pure deception to place the label of aggressor on any one of the warring camps.

"For decades' wrote Lenin, Lenin- internationalist "three bandits (the bourgeoisie and Russia England, governments and France) armed themselves to despoil Germany. that the two bandits (Germany and Austria-Hungary) attack before the three bandits had succeeded in obtaining the new knives they had ordered?"

indicated The the war ampossible developments one peaceful development capitalism; the time that the historical showed usefulness of capitalism as an agent for developing the was entirely exhausted, that forces its final phase of it had entered stagnation and decline. "Monopoly" argued "is Lenin the transition from capitalism to a higher system". When the growth monopoly has organised and production and planned distribution of goods on a vast scale evident that we "then it becomes have socialisation of production..

that private economic and private property relations constitute a shell which no longer fits its contents, a shell which may remain in a state of decay for a fairly long period (if, at worst, the cure of the opportunist is protracted), but which will inevitably be removed." (Selected Works, p262) This 'opportunist abscess' on the labour movement of the reactionary leadership Second International, which praised wors, but defended socialism in imperialism by deeds. of betrayal internationalism 1914 did not fall from the skies, but was an inevitable continuation adaptation reformist ta capitalism.

DOCTRINE

Though the International had doctrine, it had in practice limited Marxism doctrine, itself and adapted to a struggle for reforms within bourgeois society.

tendency had This opportunist been strengthened in the period of capitalist our tri to a rote labour aristocracy super-profits earned by the plunder made it colonies

STANT

for economically possible capitalism to bribe an upper strata minority such crumss tas red t thin of the working class, identify their interests with to imperialism. It was in this labour and union aristocracy bureaucracy that opportunism SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1976 Three Internationalists - Trotsky, M But the conclusions Lenin drew from his analysis of the labour pessimistic aristocracy were not ones. The war had confirmed that further prograssive decidentu under capitalism was excluded; just surely increased the irreconcilability between the upper layer of the opportunist working class and the vital interests of the masses.

WHOLE LEADERSHIP

With the whole leadership of the working class treacherously allying with its "own" bourgeoisie no mass response could be expected at once; gradually month by month disillusionment with the war the old leaders began to be spread, discredited and the ranks of the form working class began up leaders. again, now under new Troops fraternise at the Front The war in this respect proved of enormous educational significance.

Not only did it thrust a gun into the workers hand, but through the war the. course of the mask of hypocrisy with which the bourgeoisie disguised its class rule Trotsky, in a began to fall away. illegally in pamphlet distributed this Germany in 1915, sums up process: "Even though the vanguard of the working class knew in theory that Might is mother of Rights, still political was completely permeated by the spiri of opportunism, of adaptation Now are bourgeois legalism. they learning from the teaching of facts to despise this legalism and tear it Monarchs walk about in public places calling each other liars in the language of market women; their repudiate

LOVENCIL

solemnly acknowledged obligations and the national church ties it God national like cannon criminal condemned to hard labour.

that all these Is it not clear circumstances must bring about a change in the mental profound attitude of the working class, curing them radically of the hypnosis of period of legality in which political stagnation expresses (War and the International itself"

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1976 zhring and Liebknecht The Zimmerwald difficulties of their own imperialist Conference held in Switzerland in September governments to turn the imperialist 1915 was the first clear sign of the war into a civit wor flinch from the of working class Lenin did not Though only 38 of this policy. consequences delegates Zimmerwald might well mean the military defeat of that country:

POLEL OI CIC

"from the point of view of the forces who rejected working class and of the toiling questions facing the people in Russia, ot 91 the how the defeat of the Tsarist monarchy nal unity and its armies would be the least of evil". the class and what policy to the struggle

'REVOLUTIONARY

From the war, taken by Lenin and

DEFEATISM'

the Bolsheviks had been Second On this policy of 'revolutionary Interne side had enti bourgeeisie.

defeatism' and on the need for a of the bourgeoisie. complete break from the Second There could be no unity of any sort International, the Bolsheviks at this with the social chauvinists. A Third minority. The International had be created centrists, wavering between reform unsullied by the betrayals of the and revolution, who had been Second. forced by the pressure of the opposition to the The basis for reconstituting the masses to voice only in a pacifist way did so international unity of 'the working Wal. and hoped for reconciiation with class had to be a principled position the social-chauvinists. brand Lenin's They tried principled position as an 'anarchist' unsuitable the mass Olte, organisations of the working class.

But behind their pacificist illusions of a democratic in the possibility without the overthrow of peaco imperialism lay a refusal to mobilise class independent working the bourgeoisie and independent of the social-chauvinists. remained Though the Leit within the Zimmerwald minority movement, the October revolution Russia

BIUYE

correctness of Lenin's policies and lay the basis re establishment of the unity of the working class through the Third International. Kautsky - defencist. Only the uncompromising on the. struggle against the war. The struggle by the Bolsheviks for a war had been an inevitable product break from complete of imperialism. There could be no social chauvinism and centrism was hope of a lasting peace established to make this possible. anv of the imperialist powers.

such could only be an peace interlude between one war and the the revolutionary mass next. Only action of the working class overthrow imperialism could bring by Steve Murray a democratic peace. The internationalists SenalE that The announcement publication of 'Workers Press with no political is to cease, perspective for a publication future is the latest in in series of savage blows struck at the struggle for a Trotskyist party in Britain. The leadership of the Workers Party, in a complete- Revolutionary non-political "explanation, ly Workers blame the problems of failing Press on circulation and rising costs. But neither of these are 'technical' problems - they go right political to heart relationship between the party and the organised working class.

The production and distribution.

of a revolutionary paper cannot be based on gimmicks - they require a politically prepared to root CacIc them in the life of the working class When the daily Workers Press was launched in September 1969, it brought together all the political and material strengths built by the movement over years of previous five years work. For the before of 1969 the main energies the Socialist Labour League (fore- runner of the Workers Revolution- Party) were directed to laying the oen dat oit soathed aiith por.

it started with pages, five editions a week, was for us a proud-victory. As the chiel instrument of our party work, Workers Press immediately became a vital weapon in the struggles of the workers movement, giving the trade leadership unions, 111 struggle, defending workers in replying every day to the lies of the capitalist challenging and press, Stalinists answering the and the showing right-wing, the centrists and revisionists that it is possible to build parties of the Fourth Inter- national to lead the struggle toI power.

YEARS OF WORK

Out of years of work came a prepared and inte- grated into the development of the party cadre. For the first time since the Third International international

WOIKEIS

possessed a voice which spoke every day for the politics of revolutionary the gods wish to destroy they first revolutionary politics this means - that the physical liquidation of rev- olutionary parties begins when they the workers movement, when they the struggle continuously defend the body of knowledge of Marxism and its programme, and passed in November 1974 when the Alan cratically expelled Comrade Thornett and over 200 members on First the eve of the Annual Conference. which The two documents Comrade Thornett put forward fot discussion both sought to internal correct the positions of the party.

the that the to convince party method and demands of the Trans- itional Programme had to be fought for, day-to-day in the spontaneous struggles of the working class.

They showed how the Healy

A BLOW TO

TROTSKYISM

THE COLLAPSE OF WORKERS PRESS

STATEMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUĘ worners press

SECOND ATTACK

ON THE WRP'S

EDUCATIONAL

CENTRE IN

DERBYSHIRE

WE EXPOSE PRES

"recruitment' which cadre by agreement with the involved no programme or even know- party's ledge of it The true history of the Trotsky- ist the struggle movement, against Pablo's drive to liquidate the small cadres into the Stalinist falsified and apparatus, submerged in the WRP leadership's fraudulent 'history' Trotskyism Revisionism. The WRP cadres in the unions and in the factories were all- panose formuthe macionaln, maximum, formula purpose means of production without com- pensation under workers' control".

The leadership held them back central from fighting the demands of the Transitional Programme - for a sliding scale of wages; to open the books of the employers to elected committees of wotkers; for work sharing on full administered by elected com- pay and nationalisation mittees of under workers management bankrupt firms. The WRP opposition raised these questions out of living experience, out of the need for a programme on can fight which the working which will be a bridge from today's consciousness to the tasks of social revolution Healy bureaucratically and un- constitutionally gagged and expelled them. Whilst the leading working class cadres were driven out of the party "reformists", less than a year Committee later a WRP Central member - Tom White - was sitting Ryder committee in British on Cowley, Leyland whose sole is class collaboration, purpose speed-up and sacking! With his expulsions, Healy cut off the roots that had been Witk such difficulty sunk in the workers roots that promised, movement with the aid of a regular daily press and a tested party cadre, to give leadership as the working

ARAS

forward on the offensive bressed driven by the economic crisis and of the class-collaboration craven their leaders.

HAMMER BLOW

Healy In cutting these off, placed the daily press and the party in danger and dealt a hammer blow at the working class itself. As we warned, the obverse of sectarianism was opportunism and liquidation.

face set-backs and parlics defeats. They be overcome - provided ate leamed But the WRP leadership treat the closing of Workers Press without a word of politics! They blame cost and circulation problems and simply cease publishing, giving noi atom of perspective for the an future of the party press, not even v non| Page 5 For the WRP members who have fought to build the party and raise needed for a daily the huge sums paper - this is betrayal, a step in the liquidation of the party itself. This is what allows the capitalist press to gloat. The struggle for Workers Press our history. is part of The WRP expulsions and the loss of Workers Press is a blow to the workers But internationally. movement defeat in a battle is not the end of the war. We do not intend to capitulate.

The Workers Socialist League takes up the strugale for a revolutionary party to lead the British working class to power, and to rebuild the International Fourth shall build principled basis. We Socialist Press, with the perspective of establishing a firmly based daily revolutionary paper. We members and appeal to of the WRP to read supporters Press and to study and Socialist

WRP

discuss the nol the ile not the opposition and the falsified and slanderous accounts put out by the WRP leadership. Th record of the WSL is there for all to of the It is the continuity struggle for Trotskyism in Britain.

Liquidating WRP -Healy (top) and accomplice Banda.

Page 6 The

ITV

documentary Death of an Informer' which appeared on February 17h.

with the career Kenneth Lennon - a police informer and provocateur in a Republican It raised group.. essential issues for the labour movement. Lennon was threatened by Special Branch officer his

OVEI

fighting in alleged involvement in Belfast. Under pressure, then in return for monto his Later statement do participated, according to The National Council foI Liberties, Review of: in planning robbery and jail-break with Reluctant Judas: Republican supporters in Luton.

Those whom he encouraged in these plans were arrested on his information, and got heavy entences. thought to be at least 1000 strong.

When Lennon appeared in court Nobody can say tor is 'cover' was biown. A few days Tory Home Secretary Henry Brook exposing the pressure observed "The Security service is, put on him by the Special Branch - after pfit of its essence service That is was found shot Surrey ditch. Who shot him remains to Robertson quotes an article be explained. which appeared in the TV Times in Viewers who stayed to watch 1969 Britain's Secret Police: police public relations job "There are thousands of files on which followed the documentary fascists, the IRA and соцІків, drama may have been expecting a protest organisations right down to crious discussion of the questions tenants associations. Any of the aised in the film. people named in these files would startled if he could see the Special Branch files. They give detailed picture of him his favourite pub, where he takes his holidays and wife's family history." than enthusiastic). exist on suspect individuals, whom of have never criminal offence". agreed to end fraction of the to before the of Branch expansion activities British Another of aspect connection come corres- to plant false which the then 'scoops' as For example, imprisonment men who of agement Lennon, Lennon Detective Chief Superintendant Grant the Daily Express: edgemoor why the pecial Branch nurses' bound the lives of a common a larce. secret police to at there threaten to titian. This for them. Robertson's the him that he (111 ritish trial farce, and was that film had He writes: would never The former without the OneI Police rule of law. It olice behaviour "secret Under plice" English But way it is. didn't they the secret blice! The

EXAMPLES

ould (he an't say down of foI the In fact, the promotion of crime ecial Branch. by the police well docu- Is 10W Some recent examples mented make the context of the Lennon ants the 1969, for example, affair clear. In the of agents they assisted in the robbery of a povocateurs. post office to such an extent that the legal the postmaster himself was part of pects of the the police set-up! The three who were convicted appealed when they discovered that Even so, he the fourth member of their gang was a police provocateur.

the former Com- The case of Kenneth Littlejohn is well-known. Apart from bank robberies, he let off bombs in Dublin • The

PUT POLICE

ON TRIAL

The Life and Death of the Special Branch Lennon - by Geoff Robertson (Maurice Temple Smith Ltd, 1976, £2.25.)

All the time, he was working for the British secret police The Branch extent files, and crime, lilus- trated again by Hackney arms trial was stopped, mid-way, by persons" The person" was to by the The defending • a Special counsel Officer: from against Information Special other

ITOMO

police records. officer) Your Patty!.... to objection politics? "object" with politics. that put these jurors activities and their criminal Officer: I was take these steps, sir. three pistols The which the They defendants was to the Branch! Parker, way, had been paid £500 by the police.

Of course, official investig- Two policemen ation held it in the report was mended should be against the that they this claim, of Lennon's Special Branch "Lennon's contacts) for the police offer to are purely selfish. He is and needs money to take hospital...." fares and for his Lennon than mere money. Robertson's documents The police that Lennon provocateur sounds very hollow. AS points out: the police on What greater Provide police were to help the people they The that Lennon aalk encouraged Informer, Kenneth There can a youth they Three". Robertson other The of police Lennon involvement Starrit. James exonerated by enquiry into Harry regularly was manufacturing false exercise. It is, Lord Carrington - Tory Minister responsible for backing Littlejohn None of the individuals con- cerned in the Lennon case, outside the senior ranks of the police, was seen by Starrit. The report was commissioned by Home Secretary Roy Jenkins. The worthlessness of such reports is well known - but this is investigation the only into the Special Branch's role in this case which has been made.

"INACCURACIES"

It is riddled with "inaccuracies".

At point Robertson exclaims indignantly, after quoting part of "That makes four incorrect assertions in the space of seven lines of report to PrESCHICO Parliament and the public as an accurate account of the Lennon. affair!" is forced conclude: to "Lennon remains a mystery, and it would be idle to pretend that this book offers a definitive insight into his life or his death." would be quite wrong, however, to imagine that the part of the secret police force originally called the 'Special Irish Branch of the Metropolitan Police' is concern- ed only with Irish affairs.

The of Plaid Cymru chairman SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1976 Branch agent provocateurs were infiltrating party branches and offering young members a supply of guns and explosives. In early 1974 a Bristol Trades Council inquiry heard evidence that a Special Branch agent provocateur had inflitrated demonstration the crumbling Portuguese regime and had urged demonstrators to knock down police barricades. There have been allegations that the Special Branch has prepared a blacklist 'political dissidents' for construction industry there is evidence, employers, and uncovered by the Sunday Times News Business in 1974, that a Special Branch officer had been "infiltrated' into Strachans (a Ford engineering contractor, in the guise of a commercial traveller, to collect information on leaders of a 'sit-in' that had the factory picvented from closing down.

FORDS

Apparently, Robertson notes, the Special Branch was operating to Ford's management cope with their own internal problems. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. How many other cases are there? Robertson's the concern with reform of English law overshadows the political questions which arise from the operations of the Special Branch. It is however, that the Clear. labour movement cannot tolerate the existence of a secret political police. Yet in the Lennon affair we see a Labour government presiding over.

cover-up of of the most •ite blatant operations of the Special Branch. This in line with the consistently reactionary position of the Wilson government on "law and order" - strengthening at each point the powers and the repressions of imperialism and the state both in the North of Ireland and in Britain. with the so-called 'Prevention of Terrorism Act", the continued jail- Littlejohn ng of the Shrewsbury Two pickets the trial of 21 and a the Iranian host of similar cases. The armed ponce force is an body of men representing directly the requirements of capitalism to the workers' repress movement. The Special Branch is one of its most insidious wings. The movement must prepare a full workers inquiry into the Special Branch, alongside demands for the removal of Home Secretary Jenkins and Special Branch supporters from the Labour leadership. In the struggle to take power and establish socialism the police force entire and its corrupt apparatus must be disbanded and replaced by detachments of

CHRYSLER FIGHT BACK NOW

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1976

CHRYSLER

UNITED

OM Stoke Plant these The Select Committee of bankrupt conceptions "leaders" had unable been to House of the Commons challenge a single move on the part looking into public spending of and Labour in Chrysler International held government: a public hearing at the Stoke The union leaders went to great pains to emphasise that "given the plant in Coventry money" they would make viable in other company again — In the course of the hearing both words Ie-establish the flow of management and union leaders had Chrysler shareholders. profits to to answer the questions of the MPs their This when, on own on the running of the plant.

admittance, they don't know the The management. for their part, full details of the rescue' plan and were greatly embarassed when they have yet to be consulted!

Workers

"FUTURE"

Answer produced by shop stewards at the Whitley plant. They repeatedly assured the committee representatives that they would do

TANE

document and he had failed to pass their everything to it on to his colleagues. industrial relations and maintain This document raises numerous work to the government- gIve questions about the running of the backed private company a future.

Chrysler plant since the This can mean only one thing For example, in seven years like

TGWU

that trade unionists Chrysler invested only £802,000 in Eddie McClusky (a member of the Communist Party) Stoke plant which also lost 509,963 hours out of a total of Duncan

AUEW

GUN CHUL

3,843,100 through break-down of Simpson will lead the attack on the the archaic machinery. workers at the Stoke plant.

This was made most clear in the decision of the

LIMITED

Chrysler to buy 300,000 engines engines that from Volkswagon As a result of these questions it could be made at Stoke. and that power McClusky said that . if they got influence of the managers at plant from Parliament the they level is so severely limited that they could make the engines as cheaply weren't the even consulted as Germany, opening the door for negotiations for the rescue plan!

lay-offs, speed-up and every forn There were also several searching of attack on the workforce the value to productivity and make it questions on given increae machinery when moved from plant pay for the crisis. to plant within the company, What else can this mean, except which the answers were confused.

these trade unionists will that The answers given by the trade collaborate with the unionists present on the other hand streamline production to an Not the Stoke plant were clear and unambiguous. attempt to keep one of them could see the problem 'Left" like local reformists open. capitalist Wise in anything than MP. Audrey (who on The cause of the present take terms. the hearing) must also the was in their eyes simply problem blame for the savage attacks now 'lack of investment" on the part of taking place against the workers at Chrysler International. There were Chrysler. repeated references to the "change" that came over the company when

NOTHING

Rootes was taken over. from The changed company For all there fine words being a "family business", where and the speeches have apparently vou knew where vou nothing to defend jobs. stood" to the large corporation Within the plant itself, the night now in crisis. Small wonder with these shift is being given only two nights To Be Published Mid March

THE BATTLE FOR

TROTSKYISM

As the first of a series of publications to be produced by the WSL over the next few months The Battle For Trotskyism represents an important development for our movement. This 170 pare book contains the two documents - Correct the Wrong Positions of the Party: Return to the Transitional Programme, and the Second Document on Party Policy Perspective submitted by Alan Thornett for discussion the

WRP

his in prior to expulsion, along with 200 other comrades, by the Healy leadership. The book also contains, published for the first time, a detailed political account of the struggle within the WRP. It sets out to draw the political conclusions from neal s sectanamsm and suoccave melbod, paructany as applied in the Cowley factories and his trade union work. In addition, carried as appendices, are all the relevant documents and letters relating to the struggle and the expulsions including the

WRP

Control Commission Report through which the expulsions were carried out.

The price will be £1.00 plus 20p postage. Advance orders can be placed for delivery on publication. Urders should be sent to WSL, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, AUEW Convenor Simpson . week, while the wotk other every day shift is forced to spend most of the time sweeping the floors and keeping the machines clean The "Job Centre" set up inside the plant is offering workers Jobs that pay from £14 to £30 a week!

This, when as everyone knows in of next round redundancies will be compulsory. It is within this context that the fight to defend jobs in Chryster must be seen. As the recent successful strike at Linwood shows, management will not respect existing agreements but it is far more concerned to prevent of the shop floor the tea strength from the plan. rejecting *TESCuE Audrey Wise that fights under which the books an committee. of of Chrysier in Britain, and how profits Chrysler It would draw for then real plan Chrysler that would include state contracts to ensure no while nationalised car industry.

News has reached us of the organised by Gerry expulsion, Healy General Secretary of the Workers Revolutionary Party, of the majority of the Workers Internationalist League Healy's Greek section of International Committee of the Fourth International. The include the

WIL

expulsions Toubanis Dimitris secretary and were carried out under conditions similar to the mass expulsions the WRP in from • December 1974. Socialist Press will carry more details of this development in later editions when information of the involved become political issues available. already clear that the availainue see nost of the hresh unl Press a of the detailed Regional elections Committee, National General Committee of the Executive Midlands of the Transport General • Workers We were and convinced are that serious be what to

WELC

"impossibly stepped by walu They that the new there was but "technical because of slight infringement". the right the branch British concerned Leyland have first time. been those subject to ballot previous questIon (while the Officers adamantly allow the plant 67% poll. is Jack The clearest example first poll he claimed to have was received 6,134 votes.

FEW HUNDRED

Yet it conclusively was established that only a few hundred in the Body workers took part Plant vote. The bureaucracy argued that. his from the rest of the votes came Region, which seemed very unlikely since he was completely unknown.

In the second ballot Adams "polled" 2,798 in the Body Plant a seemingly impossibly high figure. But this meant that since his was 3.198 he had oniy

LOW OR

received 400 from the rest of the region! This result clearly shows that between the two ballots there are 5,000 completely unaccountable votes. matter doesn't end the Healys Greek Expulsions crisis in the WRP and the collapse of Workers Press. struggle in the WRP, stressed we as opposition that the consistently sectarian politics and maximum programme would not only liquidate of Healy

WRP

the itself but that threatened the very existence of the International Committee an international movement.

SAME FORCES

We argued that the forces which had brought the crisis in the WRP to a head (the developments in the crisis of capitalism internationally coupled with the powerful forward movement of the working class on a world scale, which made possible of Trotskyist the development parties based deep in the working class) would affect every section of the IC. This crisis was intensified the decline in the WRP in this Page 7 nO ANSWER TO

BALLOT

COmPLAINTS there. After the Body Plant resul was announced the T&GWU 5/293 Assembly Plant branch representin 3,500 members sent an urgent resolution the Regiona again for scrutineers asking inquiry into the impossibly high votes. support of this request the In • branch pointed out very questionable aspects of ballotting in the Body Plant. Firstly the officials had refused in tresuced to check the stember ol system requests people voting. Secondly 5/293 branch the complained that for the 2 days which elapsed between the ballo! and the the uncounted count, ballot papers together with the unused ballot papers were locked in the private office of the candidate Bill Roche - while Roche himsel held the key! Not was this only resolution ignored by the Regional scrutineer who went ahead with the count and declared the result. The resolution and individual by members have not to this day beer acknowledged. We say that a full inquiry must be initiated by the Nationa Executive of the TGWU into both these ballots into the of and handling of the issue by the Regional Committee.

USED

int louwu is Delig used D Jones as the main lever, throug wage control, for attacks by the Labour Government the upon Whilst working class. vague speeches are being made against unemployment the reality is tha T&GWU leadership acquiesces with it. None of these attacks can be fought the strength of the TGWU used to defend the working class without a constant fight to break the grip of the non-elected bureaucracy and the manipulation End by the ful For time

MODELIE

show hands at branch by candidates meetings have speak equal and for figures and fol be procedures open New rules automatic HITe all office of any removal scrutineer in & corrup throughout past 18 mont] the the IC involving Workers League of the USA, League and the

LCPR

Australia in Portugal. The WIL is a section which h grown rapidly since the ending the dictatorship in 1974, and w of the strongest remainit sections of the IC. The purge of the WIL majorit to have been carrie appears through in the style now identifie with Healy expulsions. Indeed th Socialist

WIL

newspaper Chang which is clearly still in the hatr of the Healyite minority, repor Healy quite openly

LOW

supporters against a meating of the majori called tendency. together with the This, Healyite routine insinuations "police agent' against those expelle is a remarkable parallel with Healy use of the nolice against the WR

VICTORY AT BLACKWELLS!

Healey's taxes on wages is a compete fraud. This all the included in the the

MILE EST

pays national debt. the three

OYOT

years, reflecting the of volume the planned government the burden of taxes have to rise pay out verbal cuts leader last ditch' them. The Tribune the White Paper document of shame'. At 3,000 strong demonstration by the Midlands area on February "The cuts, to go through, country" him and other MPs and to go through? Will the leaderships against the cuts who a the same threat? Will they organise demonstrations to oppose the cuts? the cuts in House of Lestor who from the

LONDON HOUSING CUTS

The London Borough of slington has been told that it cannot continue its programme of rehabilitating bum housing beyond April Ist. As part of the Government's осіл] spending cuts, the amount money available for councils to chabilitate both their own decrepit sousing, and that acquired from private landlords, has been slashed.

This means that tenants still ving in these conditions now have hopes of getting bathrooms or aside lavatories, nor of having their ailing ceilings and damp wall -paired. And since Islington in articular relies on rehabilitation to rovide a substantial proportion of housing, 1,600 families pecting to be rehoused this year, ill now be homeless. At a meeting called jointly by Trades Council, the Federation Tenants Associations, and abour Councillots, a packed hall, overflow meeting heard the mairman of the Housing Watson, ommittee, Margaret say hoped that by the simple pedient of inviting the housing mister to see some of the worst the 1103, could be government aded to provide at least some val - women queueing for a single job Labour Party? We take these they are totally class leadership where this. says bring down the is a complete lefts' government totally alternative the working class. One step "lefts' to fight Yet Eric Heffer. rushes defend the continuation We the call for a now being party. and the test the Labour government's But also Wilson, Healey and all Lite positions and expelled from - on the same grounds that

WALLY

expelled 45 years ago. movement bodies for a National Assembly against unemployment.

conterence or an assembly will be useless if they are restricted to the debates and discussions which the of demands capable of answering the problems of the working class more cash for rehabilitation.

Secretary Tenants' "the oI the Associations and the Secretary of the Trades Council, both members of the Communist Party, felt that the answer to the cuts lay in the ending of delegations one to the Department of he Environment and one to Len Murray. All these suggestions, especially the last, were received sceptically the working class audience the Islington Campaign Against the Cuts stressed that opposition to the cuts lay in a mass mobilisation of workers of Islington, not in sending delegations to lobby trade bureaucrats, union civil

DOLVETE

and MPs. If the Councillors' opposition to the cuts was serious they would start by voting against the proposed budget meetings of Labour Group and the full Council

£500 MONTHLY FUND

Please send all donations to: 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR. On January 27th a strike began when Ted Heslin was sacked by Blackwells booksellers in Oxford, major anti-union employer in town, for demanding trade union representation on a job change. Yesterday he walked back in, not only reinstated but as an elected shop steward after management conceded union recognition. This near, unprecedented achievement is a great tribute to the 70 young workers who fought through three of bitter weeks dispute. The strike as soon as it began was faced with the withdrawal of This means not the divisive and bankrupt nationalism of import advocated Communist Party and the Tribune Group; nor the 1974 Labour manifesto Heffer and 'left' MPs pin their hopes.

CAPITALISM

against the cuts, let alone a fight for further reforms, depends on attacks the working class; through The necessary demands remain

WINKLEAN

in labour movement, …Irom * Force left MPs to oppose cuts!

• For a sliding scale of wages and General Management Committees to demand a recall Labour Party conference to discuss and adopt

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE

PUBLIC MEETING

OXFORD

Wednesday, March 3rd, 8.0 Lake St. Community Centre "Defend Education!" Programme to fight the cuts.

COVENTRY

"CHRYSLER - ORGANISE

THE FIGHT BACK NOW"

THE SIR COLIN

CAMPBELL,

GOSFORD ST

THURSDAY FEB 26th, 8pm

WSL EDUCATION

CLASSES

LIVERPOOL

Wednesday, March 3rd, AUEW Hall, Mount Pleasant, 8.00.

"IMPERIALISM"

OXFORD

Every Sunday, 8.00pm. Lake St Community Centre Next topies: "War-Time Trotskyism" and: "Post-War Reconstruction" SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday February 25th, 1$ official union support, with the The strike, once made official,

T&GWU

officials with agreeing rapidly resulted in the employer the employer to take the sacking conceding the strikers' to an industrial tribunal.

demands - reinstatement of Ted Heslin, the of signing

SUB-ZERO

acceptable procedure agreement and the establishment of shop stewards. Fighting betrayal this in wonting a poor the 15 o sub-zero temperatures Support, particularly from the university and Polytechnic, Ruskin College and from Dillons members on strike, only a clear Bookshop London, together and determined leadership could carry the struggle union branches, was great forward. importance. The struggle directed both at a In the next edition of Socialist solid picket and right into the Press we will carry a more detailed local labour movement. The drawing the political response was so widespread that conclusions from this important the officials. eventually

WEIC

struggle. forced to give support.

MINERS BAN

The decision of the NUM Exec- fight for work-sharing through- utive to call off the overtime ban out the industry in cases where against the closure of Langwith coal seams run out. Colliery (previously initiated by majority of miners an 11 - 10 majority) is another perspective clear example of capitalist for the overtime ban. This then press interference in the internal affairs the door to the press of trade unions. intervention - which played also The right wing have again used on the abstention in the first vote the press where they failed to get Vice-President their way through the democratic procedures of the union. The question is not the closure The role of the press in this dis- of this one pit, but the decimation pute must strengthen of the mining industry by pit campaign militant workers to closures, all of which have been defend trade union democracy.

allowed by the NUM leadership.

the same time the crisis of lead- And in the of case ership exposed in the NUM dem Langwith, the "left' in the NUM the fight within the union Thrus leadership are not arguing for for the programme outlined in our defence of all jobs through the lead article. Publication Fund 14 months after our formation the Workers Socialist League has reached a crucial stage of its development.

Government through the public spending cuts and with At the same time, with the crisis of leadership raised to new heights, the Workers Press goes out of production The WSL, in our view has developed the political which opens the possibility of considerable To facilitate this we are launching time with our first book -The Battle For Trotskyism.

But in the short history of our movement we have not accumulated all the resources we need to do this.

We are therefore appealing urgently to our members, readers and supporters to raise a £500 publication fund This would give us the initial cash required to begin publication of a series of theoretical books and TROOPS... contd from page 1 of President that the government cease their Kaunda, Mr. Chona. secret negotiations to intervene in And last week, as these details in Smith's support, and recognise Тогу MP's in Londor emerged, the African the full rights: began demanding British troops to nationalist organisations of be sent to Rhodesia, Zaire and Zimbabwe to govern their own Zambia, •Soviet to counter country. imperialism' problem of and the Trades unionists and socialists Cuban troops in Mozambique. must recognise that what is being Thus, at the end of last week, prepared by British imperialism in ine contours the conspiracy southern Africa is a savage wat of became clear. Ford and Kissinger repression against the black especially in view of mun alone along the suppurating the fines internal crisis of brutal of the operations administration, and bribery the Malayan "emergency" and the revelations putting the skids under suppression the Kenyan capitalist politicians from nationalists in the 1950s, but this Amsterdam Tokyo "stabilise time on an even larger scale, and intervene directly to directed against liberation forces in half a continent. But they must at all costs try The events unrolling in Africa Africa and thesia al of South underline the reality of the and Rhodesia as the direct revolution. The bulwarks of imperialist rule on the perildish! struggles which leapt forward with sub-continent. British imperialism collapse of Portuguese retains a 'legal' claim on Rhodesia, imperialism, and the defeat of the so what more suitable than for the US Labour Government to In ANgO A Car longer be as held within individual states, Kissinger's agent, and all in or the limited name of applying 'pressures' purely "democratic' for demands. democratic rights of " Behind the Africans? nationalist of the

MPLA

programme The British labour and trade , or of both the factions of Angola, movement has direct the African National Congress on internationalist responsibility in borders Rhodesia are situation in southern Africa. of African peasants and Trade union bodies must demand workers on the move