Socialist Press no. 8

LABOUR ATTACKS

PAY AND JOBS

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

As Pound Collapses The massive drop in the value of the pound - to more than 25% below its October 1971 rate - against the ten major currencies, marks a turning point in the economic crisis.

It shows a lack of confidence by world capitalism, including now predominantly the Arab oil sheikhs, as to the ability of the British capitalist class to deal with the forward movement of the working class. The drop in value has been almost 2% in five working days, which, since the end of Sterling guarantees, now means that the huge fortunes held in pounds have just had 2% lopped off them.

speculators ana bankers tarougn- out the world must now be questioning the advisability of keeping holdings of such a rapidly declining currency. If they were to pull out now it would mean.

the bankruptcy of British capital- ism.

PRICES UP

Alongside these implications of the slide of the pound goes the immediate impacton industry and the'standard of living of the working class, by forcing up the price of imports and raw mater- ials which further increases the cost of living. This comes on top of the mount- from the ing problems flowing annual inflation rate of 25%, which is continuing to increase, while industrial production goes steadily downwards. The huge government Wilson spending posed by the establishment of the National Enterprise Board services will of course combine (some t2,000m) and the implem- with the recession in industry entation of the Ryder Report, in producing further large rises both of which are vital to Labour in unemployment. The meeting of international pians to re coup ana re-mvest as a means of propping up antiquated bankers in Basle, on 12th May, sectors of British capitalism, means is believed to have agreed to the raising of further huge loans by support sterling for a "limited the government issuing still further period". The question is, under these conditions, what guarantees e curren morno no tela on to the extraction of profit.

did the Labour leaders give them in return? What are the terms?

This plus the mounting bills in- The Labour leaders are volved in other forms of public spending, is worrying sectors of the rapidly moving to show their determination to defend the capitalist class, who feel that part- the investment programme fortunes of the speculators and icularly the profits of the bankers. In in BLMC must be tied down much more to concrete results in the response to the forward move- ment of the working class they form of speed up and redundancies, move rapidly to the right, threate- together with plant closures, in ning Chrysler and Dunlop workers order directly to increase explol- with the stick of unemployment tation and profitability Leading Tories are further stat- it they press ahead with their legitimate wage demands. The ing that much of the capital should come not from increased borrowing Wilson cabinet have already given an idea of their determination to by the State, but by cuts in public attack wages struggles by the spending - which can only mean education, the National Health recent use ol troops to break the council workers' strike in Glasgow.

Service and the other social Now the crisis intensifies the need for such treachery if capitalism is to be detended. Indeed there are signs emerg- ing that the capitalist class could pressure the government into introduction of some kind of "leaked" story in the Evening Standard has stated that an International Monetary Fund team 1s in Britain discussing Special Drawing Rights of £500m without many conditions except a cut in public spending and "a policy for inflation in their wages and prices policy" as a condition This links with ot such tinance. the statement by Sir Fred Catherwood, Chairman of the British Institute of Management, who told a conference in London: "Overseas holders of sterling are now beginning to put on the pressure as the sliding rate of sterling shows - and that pressure is almost certain to result in a deal within the month. of that deal they will insist that wage negotiations will no longer be allowed to treat the pound as if it were so much waste paper These statements in any event harmonise with the efforts of the Labourites to defend capitalism.

Environment Secretary Crosland (having consumed a share of a €1,400 dinner paid for out of public funds) has stated that all council spending must be frozen - the boom is finished, or in his "the party's over", own words: and the working class must beat Chancellor Healey, the brunt. following his unemployment- boosting, wage-cutting budget with proposals for further cuts in government spending, for import controls and deflationary measures, said: "Our economic survival (ie.

of British Capitalism) depends on wage settlements staying within the TUC guidelines. We are pro- ducing far too many things that other people do not want and at prices they cannot afford.

And we are getting far less efficient use out of our new investment than are Germans. The carefully orchestrated press attacks on Benn and Ryder (after the Tories and the press had spent 2½ weeks making up their minds) are designed to ensure that the from this path of confrontation and attack on the working class.

NEB

Wilson lines up with this, expli citly defending Healy's speech: He is absolutely right, and I agree something has to be done" making it clear also, as we showed In te irst edition of Press (6.2.75) that he personally, controls the N.E.B. and not Benn He exposed clearly the bogus nature of the attacks on Benn when he said: of Benn's "left' policies: But the policy is decided quite clearly by the Cabinet, and on all Enterprise Board, about public ownership and these other things, the Cabinet has decided and we should stick quite clearly to the Cabinet's decisions." wilson went on to describe the NEB as the biggest new instrument tor modernisation, in which I profound- ly believe," which is " providing the capital to make us [ ie British capitalism) competitive in world markets." The reality of the "modernisation' is revealed by Monty Finniston, Steel Corporation, who says that 20,000 redundancies are required in the next few months, and more after that, and by Heseltine, Opp- osition spokesman on Industry, who continued on back page col 4

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

NO 8 * 15th MAY 1975 * 10p

THUGS

In

OXFORD

Bitter fighting took place last Monday in Oxford as National Front members attempted to attend a public meeting in the Town Hall - hired to them by the Labour controlled council. 1500 counter demonstrators confronted a large force of police as the fascists and their supporters attempted to enter the Hall to hear the racialist and anti-working class diatribe of Webster and Tyndall. Fighting started with the arrival of the fascist 'honour guard' a coach load of armed thugs trained in street violence and taken to National Front demonstrations in various parts of the country.

Faced with a wall of demon- sudors across tre approach Tod they formed up and rushed the cordon, putting the boot into the front line and beating demonstra.

tors - caught with their arms still linked - with sticks. The fascists were eventually driven off as the demonstration rearouned At the meeting later in St Giles the WSL speaker, Alan Thornett, was alone in stressing the link between the development of the economic crisis. the reiusa of the trade union leaders to defend the Living standards and jobs against the attacks of the Labour govern- ment and the emergence of the National Front on the streets.

He said that the type of action carried out was correct and important but not enough. The only force which could defeat fascism was the organised working class and the trade union leaders bore a heavy responsibility for refusing to call for mobilisation.

He went on to say that, faced with this absence of leadership the frustration of the middle class becomes a point of develop.

ment for the National Front.

BLMC share holders, at their meeting last week, screaming for workers to be sacked and the umaale class mounting tne barner.

at Newmarket to beat up stable lads are symptoms of this The IMG speaker not only ignored the role of the trade union leaders but blamed the working class for their "back and "chauvinism' and directed towards the Troops continued on back page col 4

VIETNAM VICTORY

After The Defeat Page 2

NOW FOR POLITICAL REVOLUTION !

30 years of After war, during which the most barbaric immediate sustained bombardment and The by the world's most advanced weaponry had failed to extin- witle guish the spirit of revolution- Vietnamese ary struggle, the workers and peasants have defeated the puppet forces of of ger Vietnam and US South imp- This erialism. astounding The greatest blow has been Workers struck against capitalism since the 1949, and Chinese Revolution a lasting biow also at the treacher- ous Stalinist conception of "peace- " and "detente" put forward by the Moscow and Peking bureaucracies. (see pp 4&5).

Taken with the revolutionary since they victory of the Khmer Rouge forces Cambodia and the rapidly app- of the Presumably roaching complete collapse government in Laos, the Vietnam- consistent ese victory must be seen as part of Trotskyists, the world movement of the working masses now taking place against the attacks and oppression of capitalism and linked completely with the overthrow of fascism in Portugal, the mass strikes in Europe and the huge demonstrations against unem- ployment in the USA itself.

INTERNATIONAL

Flowing from this must come an understanding of the continuing international obligations of the new of. Vietnam. The dan- united state that the Hanoi are gers which has held bureaucratic control of the economic and political life, turn away from these respon- will The statement by Mme sibilities. Minh at Heathrow Airport last week when, amidst general statements on supporting struggle in other count- ries, she said: "But having suffered so much from foreign intervention it is not our intention to interfere the affairs of other countries" shows the dangerous tendencies to- nationalism gaining a hold wards Trotskyists.

USA

0f The abandonment Indo-China has only brought fresh problems President for ernment Ford and US foreign policy.

Ford's decision to bring at least 135,000 South Vietnamese refugee; into the US (a decision forced on him by the cold response on other nines, ailand nd Thailand and Hong Kong to the refugees), and This still cut proved request to i support ta Congress fe the tune of $: 00c per head, has US met considerable hostility.

Opinion nolls show that 54% of eign the refu- Americans would rather of the US "allies" were kept (among the reasons given are the bring fear that the lefugees them communism with and Florida, California east.). i where refugee camps have been set request up, the problem is seen differently.

Delig US force Florida's unemployment rate is now 14%, California's not much less, March 1976. in these and and social seryices already heavily other states are Here over-taxed. with or without justification - that further unemployment and econ- be caused by the the omic strain will introduction of thousands of refu- communist gees. ation Americans closer links In many addition, who have shared widespread anti-war sentiment in the US during INTERNATIONAL nEWS on the bureaucracy now that the of imperialism TOTeRS have been dispelled. Workers Socialist League has heen the only tendency which, wholeheartedly supporting struggles of the the revolutionary Vietnamese masses, has stressed the vital need for organs of workers and peasants power to combat the dan bureaucratic degeneration within the now united country.

opposition to the in line of the Pabloite Revolutionary Party, which now declares unconditional and uncritical support for the Hano regime. In Workers Press (12.5.75) Royston Bull wrote: 'This continues the consistent rev- olutionary line pursued by the NLF first took up arms in 1941 after the French abandonment to Japanese military invasion."

WRP consider the line incl revolutionary War and who led workers militia in udes the murder of the Vietnamese Vietnam in South who led the struggles statement is scandalous in a paper against the French and Japanese in the 1930's and the Second World to these killings in their press.

quire a Trotskyist leadership against Stalinism. It is clearly im- possible to construct socialism (un- der which the level wealth and of production must be raised that above confines Communist Manifesto: forces if means that all revive." to the wrokers state, Ho Chi Minh - murdered Vietnamese the last 5-6 years are not pleased at in the the prospect of lavishing money and increased instability hospitality on a collection of gov- Korean officials, officers, informers and black market profit- review eers wno nave nea vietnam will ana levision. substantial quantities of gold and strategy is taking place.

US dollars in their suitcases.

of Defence

FOREIGN POLICY

W. wence East, Japan While this controversy goes on, with military force. politicians must turn to Tone exactly Just tricky task of tailoring a new for- be foisted which can policy both the US "public" and US implies around the world. Follow- the Preside: not clear, a i out of this ing the defeat of US imperialism Indo-China. Thailand and the Philippines have revised their relat- bcal ionships with the US. At Thailand's Kennedy US soldiers already are and withdrawn; the entire of 23,000 troops and 200 combat aircraft will be out by The Philippines gov- ernment is hinting at a renegotiat- we 10n 01 rie Us Icase On all dila daval bases there, and President Marcos - The desire to whose motive seems to be fear of his threat to regime by The US liber. cannot and nationalist declared that forces has right with the Communist

INSULY.

states are the onlv wayne culc Wallace his colony's security and survival.

US helicopter being dumped into the sea as rout of imperialist forces reaches its climax.

agement, directing towards an over- 1945. Such a all national plan together with the fullest active support for revolution- claiming to be Trotskyist. Even the throughout Asia and ary struggle Pabloite IMG have drawn attention the imperialist world. Moscow and Peking bureaucracies The problems now clearly re- have restricted the supplies of arms with the struggles in of the historical fight Cambodia as aprt of their separate pushing for deals and detente with the US imperialists of material Vietnamese masses as a bargaining possible under assistance forthcoming to Vietnam capitalism) within the narrow nat- wilbe • much conditioned bi very of Vietnam • itself. the political manoeuvres As Marx wrote two years before the •Stalinist bureaucracies. omy will thus remain inadequate to "A development of the productive eliminate the inequalities on which the absolute necessary bureaucracv testers and future soc premise [of communism] ial contradictions can store up.

because without it want is general- The way forward is therefore ised, and with want the struggle for through the establishment in the and that towns and villages of soviets through the old crap must which the power of the liberated workers, peasants and soldiers For the overthrow of capitalism Vietnam oan be consolidated in Vietnam to go forward therefore challenging the bureaucracy, establishment of a socialist bringing about the political there must be both ution. the expansion of industry under the control of organs of warkers man- "I wish we'd been With a considerably weakened on the same side as Japan in World Pacific the ana War II of being of the South instead same side China and regime jeopardising as I wish the Soviet Union had been 40,000 US troops there, a hurried contained somewhat". ot Americar Secretar Schlesinger has come closest to defining what this will be:

DIVERSION

a) limiting of US security interest and commitments to guarding the the Middle Europe, These political fantasies reflect and Korea; allu US capitalism's central place in the b) backing US diplomatic pressure world economic crisis. US politic- ians are desperate to turn attention how this will be away from the significance of the accomplished and what relationship gains of the proletariat in Vietnam.

if tween Congress and Cambodia and Portugal in recent • administration re months, in Wallace's case by whip- fascist sentiments among tainty come statements like that of ping up the sections of US society already Rusk (secretary of State un- inclined towards racism. and Johnson), who says "I think both the Republicans All such moves must be fought by the US working class which is and the Democrats should sus; and already energetically resisting pol- politics for the rest of this yuai icies of unemployment and inflation.

We've got to put our heads together Central to this and quietly debate the direction ir building of a revolutionary Trotsky- wish to proceed, as we did immediately after World War II!

ist party. "suspend politics" is stranglehold of the US a pipedream, like the wish to return 200 years after the American bour to the boom period atter the war of the opt out party firmly based on the independ- economic crisis. Nor can it rewrite winger Alabama ent interests of the working class can offer a way forward for the governor and Presidential candidate labour movement. attempts to do SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975

ITALY

New Police Powers The new law on "public order" adopted by the Italian Parliament week, last was voted in with the support of virtually all except the • Communist Party. Despite the fact that it has been widely described as aimed numerous dealing with the at episodes of violence and provo- cation by the extreme right wing Bill got the support of the main fascist party, and the only one with seats in Parliament, the

MSI.

The the new aw police much wider powers of arrest and investigation and in particular "widens' the circumstances under which they are officially to their firearms. permitted use As greatly strengthening well as powers of state repression; the law also forms part of a strategy of anti-communist manoeuvre • part of the right wing of the Party (the Democratic Usual main capitalist party) and, in par- Just as the ticular, party Secretary F'antani, •a former apologist for Mussolinis corporate state. Vietnam and intends to strengthen Fantani the Christian Democrats' parliamen- "law and tary order sampaign in the the campaign in the run up to the regional elections next month.

The futility of attempts to deal the threat of fascism through with tne capitalist stare and its bodies of the of armed men was underlined at econ- the beginning of May by the release of Vito Miceli bail General former chief of the military Miceli intelligence services (SID) was arrested in October 1974 or . charges of conspiracy with an illegal right Later, wing sloup he was also accused of complicity the plans d'etat • 11 тої а соир of fascist Prince hatched by the in Borghese On the same day police and granted ball revol against the left wing moved called Avanguardia organisatiol Operaia (Workers' Vanguard) in Milan, accusing them of publishing subversive pamphlets on resisting police attackes on demonstrations. spokesman for the organisation said that the leaflets in question the were forgeries, planted by to justify a drive to ban police them during the election campaign.

IRANIAN

STUDENTS

on the Russia.. Iranian students, arrested for demonstrating at the Iranian embassy in London on April 29th, were kept in jail for over a week, and have been released only on condition they report daily to police The demonstration was against the death of a number of political prisoners held in states of the most states reactionary Middle East. According to Amnesty International, 9 political prisoners died under torture in Iranian jails April alone, and the total during over the last 4 years is believed to be over 300. The British Labour Government preserves the most friendly relations with the butcher Shah of lran, fight will be the and clearly this is one of the reasons for the vicious treatment of these break the student demonstrators. main

LWU

call in Socialist We repeat our politics No. 4 (20.3.75) for the Press Labour government to break off

OILY

with Iran and call airenon addition for the dropping of action against these victimise all students.

SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 Steel workers of the USINOR compiex al bunkirk last week voted and occu- the plant. pation sections Their struggle manace. cut lay-off pay ment attempls and make drastic reductions in the working was abruptly week sharpened at the beginning of May when a large force ot armed rot police invaded the steel works and took over kev points The strikers are demanding just £20 per month increase cover cost of living rises, and 100% including time lost, pay auring strikes. The main unions involved the Communist Party-led CGT and the reformist CFDT - have appealed for from the rest of the support French steel but only muustry, the form of token stoppages.

CUT ORDERS

What lies behind the attack on the USINOR workers is the same world-wide fall in the demand for steel that threatens the jobs 20,000 British Steel Corporation workers: Orders to the Dunkirk flar moe tas, m30 serioushe hast months, more serious than any fall in European steel markets since the 1930s. The USINOR struggle is only one of many in French industry and services during this month, which has brought many sections battle against unemployment JaLO and to the erosion of wages by inflation. At Brest, in NW France 'Transocean" workers at the clothing factory have demanded call an occu- unnon orcials pation against management plans

IRELAND

The results of the election held Day for the on May Northern Ireland 'Convention' herald another set-back yel for the British ruling class in increasingly desperate their eiforts to set up a stable method of rule in their six The purpose of the Convention was to provide the plan for 'power sharing' between the Protestant and Catholic communities of Northern seats nave won by the most bitter opponents of any such arrangement, the Con- vention will inevitably be stillborn.

In the long run, however, there the eclipse of the more moderate Tne Haulknerite Unionists.

with a system of Proportional Re- as much as possible of their dimi- nishing strength, nevertheless could the Behind the inability of the British ruling class to discover a political solution lies a rapid under- economic mining of the position Northern une They are no Ireland bourgeoisie. longer able to provide those crumbs of privilege the Protestant to king class that establised the basis of their position in the past.

The traditional populist alliance between Protestant and their WorKers held together by the of cement reactionary Orange

FRANCE STRENUAVE

than 1n ot demands Ior

IOI

PICKETS

In Besancon on May 6th two strikers at the Unimel bakery were injured on the picket line when management brought in blacklegs.

And at Revin in Eastern France, workers at the Porscher Ceramics and Sanitary ware plant entered their fourth week of strike action against management cuts in working hours the result of a sharp drop in house construction over the last few months. At the same time in Bordeaux, on the West coast, city buses have been stopped since April by a drivers' strike in ideology, has begun to break up.

The roots oi these developments lie the deepening crisis of a in British capitalism facing problems of own far too acute to allow its it to continue to provide the pro- tected markets and large subsidies kept the old statelet existence. This will inevitably re- flect itself in an onslaught on the jobs and conditions of Irish workers both Protestant and Catholic.

NATIONALISATION

One example of this is provided proposals for the nationalisation of shipbuilding.

This industry has been the largest in the area, labour and offered some of the best pay and conditions for Protestant wor- However, the nationalisation kers. of the industry under a reformist government will lead inevitably to the cut-backs in jobs and same conditions as are being threatened in steel industry Britain. the What price then spectai privileges of the Protestant workers?

In themselves these problems will not cause the Protestant wor- kers to turn from their away They will have to see another road. Protestant workers can une hardly be blamed for not wanting to have anything to do with the bourgeois 'Free State' of the South.

The immediate problems facing workers there, will unemployment and restricted wel- fare benefits, at least as great alc Yet there can be no lasting solution to any of these problems without of Ireland under the re-unitication the leadership of the working class This situation has been allowed to develop by a republican move- ment which has only seen matters

CONTINUES

support of a wage claim. France only one of the Common Market countries where workers are facing sharper struggles and wages. Over

TOOS

Brussels a week ago about a dozen riet opstice stacked a mat police attacked march of striking_local government workers.

About 5,000 employees of the city administration were on strike over 2,000 attempted to a pay Cratio demonstrate and the police were Legal and canca In officials in Belgium also took action over.pay.

OCCUPATION

In West Germany at the Seibel cement works near Dusseldorf wor- kers ended almost two months of plant last week. occupation of the The occupation - the first in recent Germany years in response management threats TO of immediate sackings. The occu- pation was called off when the courts ruled that immediate sackings were illegal, but strike action picketing continue while the unions with the owners on the negotiate future of the plant. The fight to defend jobs and wages thus emerges an inter- as national question for the working class posing the questions of pro- gramme and leadership which only be answered by the building of Trotskyist parties.

CONVENTION

NO ANSWER

in terms of the national question, and a working class movement that queston arogelner differend wings of the republican the class solutions to the national oppression of the Irish people.

the reformist leaders of the working it has been simply a matter of finding new ways of entering into Protestant bourgeoisie. of power sharing is already being carried dout by the Irish Labour collaboration can offer no solution

WITHDRAW TROOPS

Ireland must be sought through many bitter lessons to those who have atre mint Britain she vital task der squadstro lee Biritsth a my.

for the indiate and unconemonal withdrawal of the British troops This campaign must the reformist leadership of the wor- and for the building programme of the Fourth Inter- Pagi:

WHAT IS THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST

LEAGUE?

The Workers Socialist League was formed on December 22nd Workers Revolutionary Party.

that time a Central Committee member of the WRP, set out to bring abou discussion within that party on the wrong positions being taken by the Healy leadership and the Workers Press committee agreed to circulate a document written by comrade Thorneti containing a statement of his differences.

discussion within the party prior to the first annual conference.

rapid development of the economic crisis and the forward movement o the working class all over the world, which has since escalated to an even

MOTE

in al its areas ot work other facto Alan As the split emerged, the sectarianism of the WRP, its departure from the the WRP from the working class became clear.

To understand the response to comrade Thornett's document in the it is necessary the challenging of the employer preparation of the struggle Io1 power bv the fight to open the books and for nationalisation under workers (management; are now called for in this situation in the form of a programme between consciousness and struggles of the working class to the need to take power Yet the WRP right up to the opening of Thornett had never seriously fought for any of these demands.

"nationalise the economy restricted itself to the sterile maximum demand without compensation under workers control".

The impossibility of any kind of opposition within the WRP forced us to found the Workers Socialist League as an independent organisation which wil malltall but most important to us now are the new developments in trace

WOTK

Cane em We are now turning to recruit and train the new forces thrown forward into struggle in this period not only trade unionists, but also - in the fight to professional workers. housewives, students and youth construct the new party. shown already that we continue to fight against all forms of We have whether the state capitalist theories of IS or the Pabloite revisions revisions of the IMG, and against Stalinism and reformism.

Already it is clear that our struggles for Trotskyism in Britain take place under conditions must create similar splits and discussions throughout the world witch. Hor this reason the Wl is now engaging in a process of internal discussio] prior to a full founding conference, a vital part of which is to hammer out and adopt perspectives for the building of the Trotskyist Fourth International, development of revolutionary and the parties based on the Trotskyist Programme in every country in the struggle to end capitalism We were able to assemble the necessary political, editorial and material publication of Socialist Press just five resources to begin regular weeks after provisionally constituting the Workers Socialist League paper is winning important new contacts and establishing a firm base in the workers movement as the organiser of a Trotskyist party of considerable political strength. I would like more information about the

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LETTERS

ROOTS OF STALINI

Page 4 Day 1975, while On May millions of workers and peas- the Soviet Union, ants internationally celebrated the outstanding victory of the Vietnamese liberation forces who after more than 30 years of many have finally defeated imperial- Bolsheviks ism and expelled the last rem- nants of US domination, the the Stalinist bureaucracy in door tne Kremlin was subdued On the huge May Day procession lishment in through Moscow only four banners hailed this great blow at imperialism. This is an indication of the extent which the Stalinists have aban- doned even a formal pretence of working class internationalism.

It is not the first time this has happened. Both: the Yugoslavian and the Chinese revolutions took place not just against the wishes of the Kremlin bureaucrats, but in spite of their every maneouvre to of prop up the crumbling bourgeois (most regimes and extend them

ICCOZIL

ition. forces that had

HOSTILITY

of them, This hostility to international revolutionary developments is fund- •amental to the political orientation Party in the Kremlin, and likewise to the Maoists retary, who glorify the name of in Peking, ing them and his hostility to Trotsky- Stalin understand it we have to To ism. the years following back look the Russian Revolution of 1917.

party brought That

TOO IRON

about under the leadership of the cadres: Bolshevik Party • Lenir and Trotsky. The decisive point in the development of that Party had been Lenin's split at the beginning political of the First World War with social-democrats of the Second Int- ernational, as a result of the support ependence, given by the partners of that Inter- national to their "own" ruling class orities. in the war. words Lenin finally orner split from social democracy on the of internationalism, and question was only from this standpoint it of Lenin". that the revolutionary slogans of the October Revolution - Bread, Peace, advanced could be and Land against the capitalist Provisional turn the imperialist Government to and social war into a wal ed industry

PRIORITY

Lenin's priority following the establishment revolution the was ning, of a new international, a Commun- prejudice, of world party

TAYL

This was constituted in revolution. In its call for the International was the following passag". "The International, which sub- ordinates so-called national inter- ests to the interests of the inter- national world revolution, will embody the mutual aid of the the proletariat of different countries, political for without economic and other the proletariat will mutual aid not be in a posinon to organise the new society. "[emph added] Platform [March 4th 1919 of Communist International] the This basic principle of internation- alism was reinforced by Lenin in 1920: July "Proletarian Internationalism... ...demands 1. Subordination of the interests of the proletarian struggle in one country to the struggle interests world scale; 2. That the nation which achieves victory over the bourgeoisie shall display the cap- acity and readiness to make the sacrifices in greatest order to overthrow international Strike capitalism". on the National and heses ning Colonial Question: emphasis added national construction of "socialism Yet by 1924 singular material in one country": conditions and contradictions within combined with the blow suffered to the Commun- ist Party's leadership following the sèvere illness and death of Lenin, and in conjunction with the death that Incall of cadres of victory of best died who war in ne defending the Revolution against capitalist intervention, had opened (despite the political struggle carried out by Trotsky and a group of supporters) to the estab- leading political and administrative positions of a bureau- cratic stratum nostile to the inter- national revolution.

LEADER

Their base of was old together with the of "safe' pos- repeatedly under the apparatus This escalated with all in order to assured. socialist society. [Stalin Works, ities of Lenin's thrown aside. Alongside this revisio- nism, the Stalinists began to develop the linked theory of éxistence" between 97-981 imperialism on a world scale - which of the the mass ic method of supposedly Thrust towns. and national with ID They used their positions within party increasingly to stifle all Defeats opposition. and setbacks to the working class inter- nationally served only to strengthen the hold of the bureaucracy: "The international situation was mighty pushing torces Will The Soviet the same direction. bureaucracy became more self- confident, the heavier the blows dealt to the world working class.

Between facts there these wo chronological was not only a Lenin - Internationalism but a causal connection, and one a priority which worked in two directions: The leaders of the bureaucrac promoted the proletariat's det• the eats; the defeats promoted These deals, the or the Beared: links Thus it was that in 1924 (only two years before the British General predominate in and the great struggles China of 1926-7) that Stalin, begin- bureaucrats to assess that capitalism had They started instead from "stabilised", started to speak open- ly not of internationalism but the "mediating" between the stratum nationalised property "But the overthrow of the power the Soviet Union and the internat- of the bourgeoisie and the est- ional forces of imperialism.

ablishment of the power of the used the apparatus of Lenin's Com- proletariat in one country does munist International to assist them the complete in their bargaining and to transmit socialism has been their counter-revolutionary Peaceful Co-existence in practice: Stalin and Churchill meet in 1945 After consolidating its theories into the world workers' power and leading the peasantry Their movement. preoccupation in its wake the proletariat of the turned from Lenin's willingness to victorious country must build a sacrifice national interests for the international revolution Volume 6, p 110] first abandoning, and then in Ger- 1933 Then the internationalist prior- many in through conception were ultra-left sectarian policies betray- ing the international revolution in the interests of their own national "peaceful co- bureaucratic caste. and socialism

NEW PARTY

then opened the way to diplomatic deals and co-operation with imper- ialist governments as the bureaucrat* was from this "defend- 1933 that Trotsky took the decision that no longer could he just contin- had done to attack and ue as he expose Stalinism from point of a faction of the Third International, but that the national was dead for the purposes of revolution, and that it was nec- essary to prepare for a new, Fourth, International to continue the fight for Marxist internationalism.

Since 1933 however Stalinism has maintained its nationalist positions, fluence and prestige it has usurped from the successful Revolution of 1917 in order to mislead and betray of the most militant some determined struggles of workers, in the interests of "peaceful coexis- tence". This statement from Programme of the CPSU, (1961) is typical Soviet experience has show that socialism and inseparable [emphasis The Soviet state nal) champions which implements the Leninist ciple !! of peaceful tence of states social systems, barrier to imperialism. This is comparatively recent and shows that the fundamental nature Stalinism has onch stain gardess of thi duth.

ing" the gains of the revolution.

Stalin with and them and unprincipled blocs with Stalinism is the political outlook of a particular social grouping counter-revolutionary working class tendencies came more and more to the degenerated, of the of a workers' state the minds dership over the international not at all the whim or peculiarity requirements of the working class.

of any one man. thread thus links the re- common betrayals of Germany quirements of their own, priveleged the SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 with that of Spain in 1931-1938; relations of with signing in 1939 of the the Stalin-Hitler (peaceful coexistence') They Pact; with the full-scale support given to the so-called "anti-fascist" bourgeois governments in the war against Germany (following Hitler's invasion of Russia in attempted 1941); with the cynical division of the Olene wind he Teheran egita an in the Teheran Yalta and Potsdam Three Power conferences towards between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill; with the collaboration criminal of Communist Parties in bourgeois coalitions in post-war Europe pre- serving capitalism from revolutio- working class struggles; with nary crushing of the Greek by imperialist troops revolution stood back silently the hostility of the Kremlir with Yugoslav and unnese and, to bring us up to date, tions; betrayal. in with the counter revolutionary policies of the French Communist Party which preserved de Gaulle and French capitalism in May-June the stand and reactionary 1968 the road" pursued by "parliamentary Inter- Stalinists which gave the all the necessary cover to Allende and assisted in physically disarming the working class, while the fascists and the generals prepared to impose That com- crushing dictatorship. thread the out and out mon reactionary of counter-revolutionary using the in Stalinism internationally which stands in dread of revolution, and one of these betrayals has every the Trotskyist been opposed by alternative and and

ICYO

lutionary policies fought for.

the

HOLDS BACK

are peace The Stalinists fear revolution , in origi that because they the and class. working moves peace action, can defeat imperialism, the main enemy. But then the nature coexis- bureaucracy would be the with different exposed That bureaucracy there mighty still holds back the struggle tore of workers internationally in order to preserve its own base of privilege within the distorted workers' state remained of the USSR thrives on passi- individual. Bureaucracv vity, backwardness, class collabo.

Every one ration and nationalism. of these is attacked by the mass bureaucratic lea revolutionary movement of the wor.

- and It is no accident that king class. 1968 brought simultaneously revolutionary 1933 the of the and movement

SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 SM demanding democratic rights in Czechoslovakia. There doubt that the example of 1s no Vietnamese the revolution, while strengthens worker and every peasant under imperialist rule, will strengthen opposition to Stalinist bureaucracy also, in tne degenerate workers states.

OVERTHROW

Trotskyists therefore start out not simply from the need to expose and fight the counter revolutionary policies of the Stalinists of the Communist Parties internationally, but also from the need to advance the political revolution of workers in these degenerated workers' states in the overthrow of their bureau- cratic leadership. Trotsky's Transitional As Programme shows this must begin (as shown in Socialist Press on the question of Vietnam after the revolution) with the re-establish- the organs of workers' OI power and of workers' parties: "The bureaucracy replaced the with Soviets class organs the fiction of universal electoral rights - in the style Hitler-Goebbels. It of the to return to 1c coal y their free Soviets democratic form but also their class content. As once une bourgeois and kulaks [prospe- were not peasants

TOUR

permitted to enter the Soviets. it is necessary to drive SO noW the bureaucracy and the new out of the Soviets. astonaly In the Soviets there is room onlv for representatives of the workers, rank and file collec- peasants and Red tive farmers, Army men. Democratisation of the Soviets legalisarion of Soviet partie, the impossible without (p. 51, emphasis added)

DEFENCE

This programme for the political revolution means any in no way attack on the nationalised property relations which remain the great of the Russian Revolution. gain On the contrary, the temoval of and the parasitic reactionary bureaucracy is the only way firmly safeguard these gains from the dangers of imperialist attack.

The Third International was wound up by Stalin in 1943, (though the reactionary policies of the Kremlin are still followed by most Communist Parties). Only the Fourth International (despite the capitulation of the 1953 Pabloite faction to the illusion that the Stalinist bureau- cracy could become a revolutionary force) carries forward today the fight internationalism and The WSL is against bureaucracy. at the forefront of that fight.

Stalin "Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolise all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt of the working class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organised by of capitalist production itself. Tae the very mechanism of the process monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production flourished along with, and under it.

Central- nas sprung up and the means of production and socialisation of labour at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist inteate property sounds. The exis prisoner red capitalist interument. This integument is burst asunder.

(Marx, Capital Vol 1 p 715)

WAGES AND

INFLATION

by JOHN LEA As the rate of increase in For example over the per man). period 1962-72 the average annual the retail price index soars 3.8 productivity growill was upwards from 9% in 1973, per cent and that of real incomes through 16% last year to 21% The after tax only working class therefore over that the last twelve months, over period contributed more to the campaign is stepped up to capitalist profits in the form of blame for lay the inflation productivity increases than it took squarely on the shoulders of in form wage

TRA

the working class. It cannot be argued therefore that that the cause of the increasing rate of inflation during this period The report of the government's Price Commission the end from 3.5 per cent year over "The primary 1962-9 to per cent a year over April stated bluntly: factor causing prices to rise is - and 1969-71 wages eating into was rising labour costs". can only profits. be - accepted by the the Productivity increases are Such arguments. ruling class and labour leadership main method available to capitalism inevitable tendency, offset the alike leave ¿he face of the worsening economie discovered by Mar They for the rate fall. increase depression. It is vital to understand

DONU

that inflation is an expression of the profits by reducing the portion the day which developing capitalist crisis and not of the working working class spends producing the simply the result of wage increases with being the commodities it will purchase The working class, its wages and increasing the portion capitalist society that only class in carries out the process of labour, is producing profit for the spent is the source of all value. No comm- capitalist. Hese a prodest etective ses odity value that does no: contains effective also hours of are contain necessary they involve This is achieving since internationally in the present further automation, mechanisation why of new tech- introduction inflationary crisis paper currency (which churned out in which all e ratio e, split- niques, are in the ratio seconds on printing presses, con- and an increase taining no value) but which, until fixed capital (machinery) to The problem for 1971, tied directly labour power. was to is that with (which he cannot relationship gold Caolas. the form of money derive profit from machinery but only under the exploitation of the capitalism which actually embodies only from As a machine runs ¡eal value) is declining rapidly working class. purchasing power against manufac- it produces commodities, but wears finished commodity tured commodities which do con- out. Each Currencies includes in its price tain labour. therefore noW chaotically proportionate part of the of "float" up and down

• COSI

(Under inflation of machine. olnel,. assively in the crisis. 21% annually course this worsening oI a dilemma itself the argument wage

TOT

of capitalist, who must continuously increases the main cause find extra capital to simply main- inflation totally ignores the the same machinery.) Mean- of productivity (output tain time his workforce is paid a wage which is only a part of the value during their 40 created hours of labour in his factory sufficient only to ensure that the capitalist labour force The maintains a created (or remainder of the value 'surplus' value) forms the basis of the employer's profit. Thus machinery does not make oroti for the employer - only workers do.

SPEED-UP

Therefore as labour diminishes of portion total capital, increases in its productivity have proportionally less effect in counter- acting the falling tendency of the rate of profit. Greater speed up is needed to make any real differ- ence. In the face of a strong and well organised class, working the capitalist class has, since the end forced to last been of the war, commit itself to a policy of full employment. As rises in produc tivity have increasingly less effect in maintaining profits a continuous expansion of government spending in the form of loans and subsidies companies on verge bankruptcy has become necessary to prevent slump. Government spending is now 60% of the gross national product, an increasing por- from tion of which comes not taxes but from credit created out of thin air on the printing presses in the form of paper currency by the state representing no value in commodities of real con- taining labour. This is issed to which from finance production capitalist point of view is unprofi- table.

PRICES

In a desperate attempt to restore distorted profits in an economy this kind of inflationary by government finance, firms raise Price rises in one sector prices. are cost increases in another, thus provoking further price rises throughout the economy. This root of inflation. It is is a phenomenon of the unplanned nature of the capitalist system and its world-wide crisis value. Wage rises are largely a response to this, an attempt by the working class to preserve its living standards.

profitability As the deepens, so inflation mounts higher, and at an annual rate of 25 per cent threatens to disrupt world trade and destroy the value At such a rate of the pound. of inflation further inflationary spending to maintain full employ- ment is out of the question, the slump, capitalism's own method the of profit, restoring any longer. cannot be postponed Thus unemployment now climbs towards a million alongside a high rate of inflation. The restoration of profitability to capitalist production demands the elimination unprofitable OI and lines of production, firms leading to massive increases in un- further increases in employment, the productivity of labour through speed up for those stil in at the same time, and, wage cuts Yet the antiquated in massive British industry a re-equipment is needed to compete the internationally growing This requires investment slump. which cannot be easily obtained The ob- on the money markets. liging Labour leaders however have National Enterprise the Board to provide pool of to back up government finance capitalism. objective require- кетоте тпе ments of the operation of the law reformist of value the itself leadership prostrates com When Healey demands that pletely. bargaining unions return in wage limits of the TUC guide. the No lines, he means a wage cut. be taken in trade unionist should Len Murray's assertion that the by guidelines, by specifying that wage should equal price increase increases, defend workers living Murray is talking about cancates Because of direct money wages and indirect monty wage increase considerably in excess of price rises is necessary to defend living standards Püge i However even massive wage increases by themselves di C inadequate to defend workers living standards. Healey has announced that if inflation doesn't come down the autumn - and as we have by in living standards th then he wil that means through intensify his strategy, begun in the last budget, of "clawing back" wage through in income rises increases

VAT.

tax and Against these manoeuvres workers must seek to protect their wage increases through taking up the struggle for a sliding scale of wages. scale involves sliding an automatic compensation for all in- creases in the cost of living. What is vital is that it be recognised by workers only they and not that the state can determine the cost of living index for the working class This necessitates local cost of living based the committees on trade unions and trades councils.

Besides monitoring the cost of living such committees would form a basis for beginning a direct struggle price increases. They would also be a basis for drawing into the fight against inflation whole new layers of the working class Housewives for example would play a vital part in any such' committees.

MIDDLE CLASS

participation in such Finally, committees by small shopkeepers would of power. end the sense lessness that this stratum feels the big monopolies. It against would show them that they have everything to gain by following the leadership of the working class, it would destroy the antagonism which often follows when the lower middle class compare their own weakness of inflation in the face the strength of the working class, and which Thatcher, Joseph, the right wing of the Tory party, and now the fascist National Front, now seek to exploit to the full to drive the lower middle class politically to the right. That sections of the working class are already realising the need for be seen Call from the recent motion calling for of threshold agree- the conversion ments into sliding scale agreements Scottish TUC con- passed by the month. Threshold last terence to defuse tactic by the agreements the class employers struggle by giving compensation for some inflation. The sliding scale compensation for all in- demands creases in the cost of living as determined by the working class itself.

POWER

Such a strategy comes into di- the need of rect collision with capitalism to restore profitability on the backs of the working. class through wage cuts achieved by forcing real wages to lag behind increases. Because of this prce

STUC

motion is just the be- the The fight for the sliding ginning. scale poses the question of power how be run? is the economy t Che struggle to defend living star dards put this question of thi There must be no agenda now. the forces mistake productive exist for a defence and an improve.

ment of living standards.

The only of barrier is the capitalist system production which will not develo these productive forces because it cannot do so profitably. This is why a decisive element in the struggle to defend jobs and wages is for factory committees to be estab- lished to exercise control over the on behalf of the workers employer in each plant. These factory commi- ttees: have the task not only struggling against all forms of speed up, but also of forcing the employer to reveal the account ledgers and the actual workings of the industry, to accumulate the thus beginning basic knowledge needed to run a socialist economy industry once nationalised under has been wor- kers management. The struggle for the sliding scale and factory committees therefore poses the question of breaking with the Murrays and Healeys agents of capital in the ranks of working the class and building a new leadership under the banner of the Fourth International to fight for power

TRANSITIONAL PROGRAMME

Page 6 Workers Diary Hog Tied Written as the founding document of the Fourth Inter- national, after it had become clear, that split from the A short break at the begin- counter-revolutionary politics of May for the Rt. Hon. of the Stalinist Third Internat- Thatcher MP from Margaret ional must be carried through, addressing the permed savages Trotsky's Transitional Prog- of suburban Conservative embodies ramme the basic ladies' associations the on method necessary for the con- virtues of British democracy struction of revolutionary the benefits of and the leadership and the mobilisation Common Market. of the working class to rev- of Her Majesty's The leader olutionary struggles. was on a flying loyal opposition When it became clear that the visit to the Grand Duchy of of the Workers home not of sectarian position only LuxCHOuld. Emperor Roscoe but also of the Revolutionary Party then the of 'Parliament'.

FOI

British section the Trotskyist European the of the assembled 'demo- movement, was isolating it from the benefit crats' she repeated her opinion of struggles oicthe working class and abandoning that programme, it led the Common Market referendum - sections of the Party could not be con- those which that its result Workers have since formed the sidered binding on MPs at Westminster. Socialist League to question the WRP leadership. In particular the Or to put it more plainly of the maximum programme put forward if result referendum the

WRP

'No', the Tories their "nationalise reserve basic industries, banks land with right the right and up in the Cabinet and the wing control"), which is the Parliamentary Labour Party to keep Workers the EEC. So programme Britain that's o1 tne socialst revol- 1n ution, was seen to be inadequate to how a referendum works: on vital matter' today's conditions since it in no way invite 'the you prepared the working class to under- people' to speak directly (with the take the necessary struggle. As the media end the Tory pressie str Transitional Programme states: media and the press). "Only a general revolutionary 'Yes' up- the people say - three cheers of the proletariat can surge place they for democracv! t. however. the complete expropriation of the should be misguided as to So say bourgeoisie on the order of the day" IP 24] Parliamentary 'sove- question. reignty' and the tender consciences of MP's then at risk. 'The are

METHOD

people' can therefore ruddy well shut and leave the citizenry up, of Westminster to with In turning to examine the Prog- get business as usual. ramme it is clear that its method is Harold Wilson has far different. SO It draws distinction noticeably failed to between the methods of revolution- declare that aries and he will have nothing to do with the maximum programme the Tories' plans to hog-tie the of Social Democracy "which pro- referendum. mised substitution of socialism for capitalism in the indefinite future' and states: 2,000...... "It is necessary to help the masses in the process of the daily struggle to find the bridge between present demands and SOCKSLOOd and one? of the revolution. This ramme bridge Include a system Print Jobs Found in a local Skelmersdale following anti-EEC paper, the letter: "In reply A. Clayton's to N. Under OVer the

EEC

issue: He letter put the case for . could not have getting out more clearly in stating that we will have not power over the European Commission. The acute problems facing "Decisions affecting out nation The will be outside our control.

workers in printing, publishing European Court can overrule or and broadcasting will be high- For 2000 and our lighted at a conference called we have been independent. years for 17th May at the London What could not be done bv aris has been done by the treacherous College of Printing. politicians. The conference sponsored To quote Shakespeare: the London Suburban Council of the NUJ, together with 'This England that never has or never shall lie at the proud fort the Stratford Express Chapel and of a conqueror with inky blots the Penguin Books London Joint and dusty Chapels, and it is supported by other bodies of the

NUJ

parchment bound and ASTMS in the industry.

'We have joined a motley arms to maintain is whose aim main the multi-national profits.

Its theme is announced as the "The 'Cold War' is to be given The fight against redundancies'.

a new lease of life and the detente difficulties these workers face are with the USSR held at with bav publicity trade and the consequent loss the conference. The capitalist to work for our people." crisis is forcing particularly sharp Up to the last paragraph it attacks on wages and jobs in an could have been written by any industry where employers rely on The author? borrowing at inflated rates heavy Roy Deegan, Branch Secretary, The strong feeling of interest. Skelmersdale Communist Party!

among workers about the need to fight for every single job is shown the recent strike at the Time by Out magazine centred around the granting of just one position to somebody who already held another job.

OUR FIGHT FOR THE

transitional demands stemming from today's conditions and from today's consciousness of wide layers of the working class and unalterably lead.

one finali conclusion: the ing to by the prolet- conquest powel pp 14-15 ariat. Trotsky therefore the task For was in struggle within the workers movement to raise the level of political consciousness from a trade union level to that of the socialist The bridge between programme. these levels is the fight for transit- ional demands.

SECTARIAN

In the course of the fight inside the WRP it became clear that a whole number of their wrong pos itions were derived from a sectarian standpoint. Central to this was end- ing the maximum demand of nation- alisation with the call for "workers control". In a socialist society of course workers would exercise no over any other form of 'control management, but directly manage the industries themselves through factory and industry committees. Lenin in the struggle to prepare the Russian Revolution continuously for workers control even though this was under capitalism. This is the tradition of Bolshevism.

In answer to the bourgeois prepar- ations for the military control of the working class, the Bolshevik declaration read out at a session of Defence reads Conterence *the inevitable result of this situ- ation is the complete absence of the class; its rights for the working deprivation of the right to strike, etc. The working class must counter this plan with workers control over production, regulating it not in the interests of finance capital but in the interests of the working masses and the rural poor, not in the inter- ests of an imperialist war but in the unteress orvene. 8th 1917: weeks before [August the revolution] The Bolsheviks were only able put forward this perspective prepared the ther had Decause groundwork with demands for open- ing the books of the employers to Attack The policies which are being discussed by the conference organising committee already con- tain many proposals which shoul be supported. it nas Decl surcesie for instance, that all change be manning arrangements should subject to veto by the workforce.

Furthermore, it has been put for- ward that all enterprises faced with closure should be compelled to grant work-sharing without loss of books of all such pay, while the firms should be opened to inspection by committees of trade These pulicies must all be supported and fought for amongst the workers in the The industry. struggle to carry. them out must be left until the Clovels are able to split and weaken workforce through partial redun- dancies. It must be taken up and linked to the demand for the full nationalisation communi- TAe cations industry, without compen- sation to the former owners.

the organised movement Workers and workers' control in other forms.

essential in preparing it Is demand for a factory meeting or trade union branch that it is not seen just as a resolution but part of this preparation, a part of mobilising The demand of "open the masses the books" must therefore include an elected committee of trade union- ists: the sliding scale of wages must be determined by trade union based prices committees, and work sharing on full pay must likewise be under trade union control. These necessary struggles show precisely how simply "workers' control" formula on the end of nationalisat- ion emerges as the social democratic position of socialism in the distant future. The leadership of the WRP has, since the split, adapted to some of these positions and includes trans- itional demands now regularly their daily Workers Press. Yet this adaptation leaves out the conteni of the Transitional Programme which is that the demands are a part of the bridge over which the working class develop to acceptance of the revolutionary programme. The WRP leadership's inability to break from their sectarian position was-proved by their expulsion of our comrades merely for fighting for this turn and for asking for an accounting of how the

WRP

had reached its wrong positions.

INTERNATIONAL

The Transitional Programme is essentially an international docu- The ment. event which decided Trotsky on the need for the Fourth International was the defeat and crushing of the German workers movement by Hitler as a result of the ultra-left sectarian position of the Communist Party (who called social-democrats worse than fascists) which split the German working class at the point of greatest danger.

There was no reaction to this other than that of Trotsky and the Left Opposition who had fought contin- uously against Stalin's bureaucratic policies, who immediately began preparations for a new International.

The Programme

CONFERENCE DEFENDS

NHS

A conference of about 50 shop and stewards trade unionists from NALGO, NUPE

NUT,

T&GWU

and ASTMS, as well as tenants associations called E was in London by NUPE last Saturday to discuss cuts in local health services.

Approximately 10 hospitals in the area have been closed or are threatened with closure. Mean- hospital has single not one The one im- even been started. mediately under the axe at present is Poplar Hospital where there has campaign to save it for been a about The campaign has included threatened strike action by dockers worried about of loss nearby accident service facilities. Speakers referred to the failure of many forms of protest to halt the rundown of Poplar which now has only 20 beds in use. WSL members at the meeting put forward a policy for defence of

NH$R

the which drew Several NHS enthusiastic support. snop stewaras spoke in lavour.

delegated shop committee of ste- wards from all the unions (including Ford Dagenham steward) plus tenants representatives, was set up and the following resolution passed SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 The world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterised by a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat". it goes on to show the ation of the Second (social- i Intercational and democrane the Third International perverted a fighta to in the masses in orang Stalinism. putting forward ition these movements, Programme contin- estastes uity of the fight for a Marxist for the leadership revolutionaly working class. essential to the prog ramme. It is in no way a recipe book of good demands merely to be handed out passively to the working class. It is a guide to action for the building of parties of the Trotskyist Fourth International. If it is separ- way from the fight for ated in anv principled leadership in the workers movement, the Programme loses all That is why although sections of tre Pabloite IMG put some des forward of these demands some their position is determined not by the phrases they mouth now but by the political position which they act.

REVISIONS

Their movement broke from Trotskyism in 1953 when forces.

the Fourth International arose in saying that Stalinism could be basic Trotskelst pond on in the basic Trotskyist position need for political revoltion Eastern Europe and in Russia.

• Thus while verbally adhering to the "pop- ular" Transitional section _oi the Programme the IMG's position abandons the basic principles the Programme carries forward Despite the attacks of all kinds of tendencies who attempt to revise Merxism, there is a continuity of the struggle for the Transitional Programme since Trotsky's assass ination by a Stalinist agent in 1940 This continuity now flows through Workers Socialist League the and its struggle to mobilise workers around the demands and the prin ciples of the Fourth International's founding document. with only 2 against. "Local trade union branches stewards and trades committees councils should send delegates to if already this committee not represented. The committee must make the following demands 1. Access to hospitals' accounts and plans from the Area Health Authority relating also to drug costs, waiting lists and social need. 2. Completion of enough new hospitals in areas convenient local people, before tor any old ones closed. 3. Automatic increases in govern- ment spending to match rising cost of running the NHS. This be as the must seen beginning of trade union control the

NHS.

of Investigation hospital accounts must show the of drug nationalisation need lot and medical supply industries, and for the Labour government to start hospital crash building programme." To go forward from this con ference, demands must be these acted upon, and the whole labour movement mobilised in defence the right to free health This care fight important must carried through London by the committee, and similar committee established in every area.

SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 After twelve weeks in dispute, the parity claim by EEPTU local authority workers has been sold out by the union leadership. Amidst accusations from delegates of manoeuvr.

officials, ing by union meeting of shop stewards and delegates in London on 2nd May voted by 104 to 40 for a return to work, acceptance of the local authorities offer and the setting up of arbitration tribunal to consider the remainder of the electri- cians claim. A work to rule will continue while the tri- bunal is sitting. The claim is for parity of earn- ings with outside contractors who at present earn up to £20 a week more than local authority workers doing the same work. The local authorities offered increase an to but part of this is already being threshold agreements paid in allu London weighting. London workers under such a settlement would only get an increase of £3.60.

NOT SERIOUS

The record of the union leader- ship in this dispute shows that they intended fight SerIously for the parity claim. Whilst their members were on strike in various parts of the country, union officials

DONS' DAY

OF ACTION

The economic crisis has even provoked a response from university teachers. Refusal by the government to submit to arbitration the paltry in- crease of 18 per cent which the Association of University Teachers has claimed for its members brought many tea- chers out on strike in support of the National Day of Action' on 6th May. About 1000 marched Manchester, and in cities such as London and Leeds calls drew tremendous response. who hoped that the Those meetings would put forward a pro- gramme of action were disappointed.

AUT

general Laurie societal y Sapper entertained a packed audi- ot l700 london by poking harmless fun at govern- ment 'stupidity' and dwelling on the AUT negotiating team's per- sistent moderation.

PRENTICE R

The next day Reg Prentice, right-wing Secretary State for Education, condemned direct action by university teachers irrelevant and unhelpful. The next step is not clear; most likely Prentice and Sapper will reach compromise of no rise now and a bigger increase next year (which meanwhile have been will in tne eaten up by inflation). The Workers Socialist League; London meeting, in leafleting the the only group was to make political intervention. We criticised the inadequacy of the AUT salary claim and the lack of a programme to achieve it and fought the notion of teachers as "gentlemen scholars" cut off from the labour movement.

Many teachers have begun to see the need for trade-unionism and for conesive, united and militant action.

SPARKS SOLD OUT

argued against all out strike action on lne grounds that they ala not have enough money to provide strike This weakened the pay. position of those workers alcady out on strike. It was clear to them and to the rest of the membership that a half hearted fight could not successful. Nevertheless, the be leadership limited support for the strikers to overtime the el a week levy of the meresul- work to rule. As a result ship became more and more difficult collect, tinancial support from the strikers diminished allu demoralisation set in.

HARDENED

At the same time the attitude of the local authorities negotiators hardened when it was realised that the struggle was being undermined by the union officials. This emerged the national meeting letter from the local authorities read out. it was claimea by was the employers that parity could not owing the acute financial crisis facing local authori- ties and the pressure being exerted on them by the government and to cut down public spending. It is rumoured that the local authorities may even withdraw their original offer. This, then was the background to a meeting where it is alleged the delegates were divided before the meeting in to those supporting "The crisis of capitalism threatens every aspect of the salades. them detend their own standard the cost of cuucanon acadentic statt. a return to work and those Swindon is fast becoming pro- posing a further escalation.

an unemployment blackspot.

supporting a stepping up of strike Redundancies at a number of action were then seated the at factories in the Swindon area back of the hall, presumably in an in recent weeks have sharply to isolate them. The attempt meeting resulted vote for a increased the already large return to work, amidst vocal pro- number of workers unemploy- tests from a number of delegates ed. will it 18 clear that arbitration not give the electrical workers the In the period since the war full parity they are demanding and the employment has been industrial influx of of end action the by steady medium claim only be sized light engineering companies temporary wall Except for a brief inflation eats more deeply in to the into the town. of these workers. The period in 1971-2, , the number of wages Workers Socialist League supports workers on the dole has remained claim of local authority below the national average. But the parity workers and their struggle to defend the latest figures from the Depart ment of Employment show that their standard of living against in- flation. We demand that the union 4.1% working population are unemployed and a further 1.4% leadership fight for the parity claim in full. We further propose that are on short time. annual pay when the next claim submitted for November nex'

•SACKINGS

EEPTU

should demand members that their leadership fights for sliding scale of wages, linked to the Three small companies have sacked 250 workers in the last two of living cost determined We committees of trade unionists.

weeks, and they have been joined say that the social contract must be on the dole by at least 200 men from British Leyland's Pressed Stee rejected by all trade unionists as an attempt by the Labour government factory who have accepted volunt- ary redundancy. At Square D, an the crisishe wore leaders pay The leaders the electrical components manufacturer, crisis. are determined to avoid employing 1,100 workers,

EEPTU

• ате fight on these issues, as shown to be made redundant in the near any by the decision they got at the future. on 8th May. The prospects of finding jobs Douglas EEPTU members must organise with when there is such a rapidly in- local creasing pool of permanent unem- other unions representing on a full No sizeable authority workers pro- ployed are very slim. for the defence of jobs employer is recruiting labour in a gramme situation where each in turn is and wages. astms

ANNUAL

DELEGATES

CONFERENCE

no real proposals or policies for concrete action in the struggle for emergency motion oppos ing the Abortion (amendment) Bill WRP delegates. The WRP argument esth the motion did not ap all the WRP motions were lost or referred to the NEC, not present- government's Ed-

TOO CIS

Cored. programmatic calls of: 1. Occup- ation of all work places threatened the Labour government revokes all Jenkins - appears on anti-market hanks platforms with known racists.

NO COMMITMENTS

The Conference was open- ed by Len Wells-whose address was much more left wing than get it referred to them, committing the actions of the NEC during coulse gave 10 social contract were referred to the avoid discussion on the EEC so the The motions on womens' rights Jenkins to stop campaigning with also which means ASTMS still has no "reactionary elements and known MP was a guest speaker and spoke against the EEC but by cutting out the motions on the agenda and the

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

MPs would not fight Wilson or 'left womens' guest rights speaker Marie Patterson - chairman of the TUC. She made very correct statements on womens' rights with Page 7

SWINDON

UNIONS MUST DEFEND JOBS

forced into short time working or sackings.

PROGRAMME

both the AUEW District Committee and the local CSEU committee have adopted a programme of transitional demands fight for the defence includes the demands for a sliding books and an end to defeat of an occupation struggle at bodies ahve also agreed to hold a meeting of all the town's working class bodies to discuss the unem- plovment meeting has been put off apparent- because Labour government and the AUEW have declined to attend.

Trades Council set up a sub-comm- ittee to "tackle the unemployment with the local council" in closely "attracting alternative employment" to the town, but do not put forward a single point of programme for The AUEW District Committee has such a programme to jobs - and this should be acted on.

The right wing dominated Trades committee to avoid mobilising the delay. A motion was put calling for other things, secure the immediate release of Tomlinson and Warren This was re-emphasised to the NEC MPs' or ASTMS legal advisors draw ing up new proposals for the con immediate releas removed from the agenda, but the two main contained transitional demands for the defence of the NHS. The first called for a black on private patients the abolition of private practice in- NHS and the setting up of comm- ittees of trade unionists of health service workers o examine the books and the running of the Health Authorities. The NEC opposed the motion and called for its rejection but it was carried over- whelmingly. (This was the only vote that went against the NEC recomm endation). This was clearly due to for the defence of the NHS. The second NHS motion, carried unan- imously, called for a sliding scale of and defend it against inflation.

clear role of the trade union bur- eaucracy in defending the Labour Budget. It did not attack Wilson or call for the ASTMS Parliamentary Committee to fight for the removal of the Labour right wing.

adopt a programme for the defence NHS, a call for immediate Bill and support for the workers sit-in at Imperial Type

Page 8 Members of the three main rail unions are still being held at bay by their leaders follow ing the rejection of the Brit- ish Rail Board's pay offer on May 5th. Sidney Weighell, general secretary of the NUR stated 'unequivocally' that "the union does not accept that the Board's 'ability to pay' is a valid reason for denying railwaymen adequate basic rates of pay.

RESISTANCE

Trapped by the resistance of his membership to cuts in their living standards, Wheighell makes his reluctance to fight very obvious in every statement. He pointed out sadly that: "The messages coming to NUR headquarters from all over the country make it abundantly clear that even if the union leaders had been prepared to accept an offer anywhere near the 21.2% suggested the union's grass roots member-

CHRYSLER

Chrysler management at the Stoke plant in Coventry attempted un- successfully to split the wage strike now in progress by an offer of bogus workers' participation in the style of Wedgewood Benn.

This manoeuvre was rejected by a mass meeting and the strike con- tinues. The Chrysler proposals however had another side to them - they were an overture to Benn prep- aratory to appealing to the Labour government for a similar scheme to Ryder for Chrysler. This, along with Stokes' defence of the Ryder Report at the BLMC shareholders meeting and Hesel- tine's calculation that its implem- entation would mean 33,000 redundancies, should end all spec- ulation that the Kyder Report 1s anything other than a direct attack on the working class. It is to the credit of Chrysler workers that the left diversion of "workers participation" Benn fraud was rejected. This same strength is reflected in the strike of office workers in Dunlop which has shut down almost the whole of BLMC. These struggles show that given leadership and programme the working class will resist the attacks being launched upon them and are not easily misled by left talk.

£ 500 monthly development fund From the first edition of Socialist Press, where we analysed Benn's Industry Bill, under the headline 'Jail For Opening the Books?', paper has exposed the betrayals of the reformists, while fighting in practice in the workers' movementi for the demands and principles of the Transitional Programme.

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RAIL WELL HINDER

WHEICHELL' S DEALING

economies." ship would have rejected the deal".

The contrast between the pull Pressure must be intensified back of the leaders and the move- therefore on Wheighall, who in this inflationary period must lead ment of the membership is not often so openly admitted. Weigh- a fight not just for the full claim, but also for a sliding scale of all went on: "There is no way in which the wages clause to defend that settle- ment against inflation, compensat- union could sell a 21.2% settle- ing for the rising cost of living as ment, or any other settlement in that area to railwaymen at the assessed by railway trade union present time". committees.

OFFER

MANAGEMENT

The Board's offer, which includes consolidation of existing thresh- The drive to attack railway jobs hold payments, would only bring must also raise the demand for the the basic rate for railwaymen to abolition of the Rail Board. As £31.10 - far short of the basic part of the fight for this, local rates in other nationalised indus- regional and national committees tries. The Board's justification or lalway trade unionists must centres on the claim that its fin- demand access to all accounts and ancial state is "disastrous". Their information available to BR man- intention is to recoup as much as agement, and the right to super- vise its actions. This is the necessary further exploitation of railway.

beginning to full workers' manage- 1lC1l ment of the railways as part of an H. Farrimond, head of BR ind- integrated planned transport system ustrial relations stated this openly nationalised under workers' man- saying that "with such a labour agement. This is the only way to intensive industry, manpower defend rail jobs. costs must be the prime area 101 Letter: WRP Meeting The local branch of the WRP held what they called an ATUA meeting on Sunday May 4th in Winsford Civic Hall. In the leaflet, uted advertising it, it was described as a "public meeting' We attended this meeting and had no sooner occupied a seat when the local WRP secretary ordered us out, accusing us of being WSL members (which we are not) and emphasising that it was an ATUA meeting. We weretold - NO WL at WRP meetings.

We then posed the following questions: Would they turn out of their public' meetings trade unionists who belong to IS - IMG - CP or the abour Party? If the answer is yes then at least their sectarianism is constant, if it is no then why the discrimination against those they What is it the leaders of the WRF allege to be members of the WSL.

That the WSL should be treated in this fashion is unprecedented in this town and for us is an indication of the further degeneration of the Let it be recorded that we are opposed to such discrimination.

L. Dudley, Winsford, A. Dudley. 'TWO': No Parole on trade unionism carried out by The continued refusal of a Labour minister. The 'left', who the TUC leaders ot fight for have sat silently through the the release of the Shrewsbury continued imprisonment of the Two has paved the way for Two - and failed even to mobilise the forces of the Tribune group to campaign for their release, and the unions from the who passively allowed the use of rightward-moving Labour troops in Glasgow to break a The TUC had government. appeared too cowed wages strin by their past retreats to launch pinned its hopes on an early any attacks. parole for the pickets who The whole trade union movement would then have completely must now begin to use its weight carried the can for the refus- to remove the right wing treach- al of the reformist leaders to erous leadership of the Labour Party, which has nothing in challenge Tory courts and common with the working class.

capitalist laws. But the central question is still But last week in Parliament, to force the release of the pickets.

Roy Jenkins, the Labour Party's The issue must be fought for at Tory Home Secretary, told delight- everv trade union branch meet- ed and cheering Conservative ing and the resolutions demand- benches that parole would not ing national action must be rushed be granted to the pickets and that to the TUC and the national he had 'no power' to influence leadership of all unions. Only or direct the parole board. The general strike action will prevent enthusiasm from the extreme the impris: iment of the Two right wing for Jenkins statement remainin i precedent on the appears to have been unmatched statute b is for the British by any class hostility from the bourgeoi ow preparing new Labour ranks to the blatant attack the working class.

WSL. PUBLIC MEETINGS

BIRMINGHAM

HULL

Digbeth Civic Hall, Hull Central Library Committee Rm 4 WEDNESDAY 28th MAY 7.30 WEDNESDAY 28th MAY 7.30 Speaker: A.Thornett Speaker: John Nolan NF Thugs.....cont from page 1 Out Movement as a way forward trom the demonstration The IS mentioned not a word of politics, their speaker simply saying that the National Front must be smashed. From the demonstration it- self one very clear lesson must be drawn. The rront are pre- pared to mount brutal unprovoked One attacks by trained groups hour after the demonstration had dispersed a group of students who had been on the demonstra- tion were caught in an isolated position by this gang and heater!

up. Part of the Anti-fascist demonstration in Oxford, May 12th.

Labour attacks....continued from page1 speaks of the necessity , from Ryder creating 33,000 redundancies Benn's much-publicised

BLMC.

blown up attack on Finniston is but is only a cover by the press, for the fact that Finniston is carrying out policies dictated by the Labour budget which Benn voted for, which ended subsidies to nationalised industries, and accelerated the recession and unemployment in the British Finniston is thus por- economy. trayed as the one leading the when in reality it is the attack, entire Labour leadership carrying out a common policy of defending Benn himself then goes capitalism. on to state that there is in fact no division within the Cabinet Bill. the Industry Nor is the collaborative attempt to maintain capitalism confined to the Labour leadership. The TUC is discussing economic committee "tightening up" the social contract, blaming wages for inflation and the aid of Wilson, thus coming to who is forced to unleash the whole result of the crisis onto the working class In this situation the 'left' MPs begin to cry out and make blus- tering speeches. Their main anger should be first directed at them- Tribune Group of The MPs took a decision not to opp ose Healey's budget. Not a single "left defended Eric Heffer, leading sacked by Wilson for opposing The "left' Common Market entry. refusing to use the machinery are of the Labour Partv NEC (or which they have a complete maj- . ority) to fight Wilson's flagrant violation of Party policy on the EEC question, while allowing him to use the authority of govern- ment office to put the pro-Mark.

. Still more openly refus- CLas ing to challenge Wilson, the two Tribuneites who had attacked Wilson at the weekend, Sidney Bidwell and Norman Atkinson were reprimanded by a Tribune Group meeting on Monday night.

Bidwell correctly called for a clear out of the Labour complete Party leadership, but was immed- iately attacked by fellow-Tribun- Benn, who says Wilson is eites "a good democrat" of all things, (having just flouted the LP special conference vote on the EEC), and Leslie Huckfield who said anyone attacking the leader ship is "helping the right wing The reality of it is that while SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday May 15th, 1975 When action is mobilised against the National Front this must include organised workers defence squads ready at any moment to defend against this type of attack.

The Oxford demonstration was a protest with a defensive posture and was caught by surprise by the fascist attack. As Trotsky wrote in the Transitional Programme: " t is necessarv to give organi sed expression to the valid hatred of the workers toward scabs and bands of gangsters and fascists.

It is necessary to advance the slogan of a workers' militia as the one serious guarantee for the inviola- bility of workers organisations, meetings and press. the Labour leaders are forced to the right in defence of capitalism, there is not yet one 'left voice LP challen- in the Parliamentary from the ging the right wing of the working class, rather than simply saving face through left talk. The start of such a fight must be the strug gle against the Budget, of which Ian Mikardo has correctly said: "When (men) are put out of work of policy it The need to is an obscenity. defend jobs and the value ol wages against capitalism's offensive is pressing. The first requirement in this is the defence of living standards against inflation through the fight for agreements to include a slid- ing scale of wages compensating in full for the increase in the cost of living as assessed by elected trade union committees.

This is the only way the value of of even large percentage increases can be maintained. As closures are threatened or redundancies announced by man- agement, the plants concerned must be occupied on the demand for work-sharing on full pay. Every job lost today adds to the 1 million unemployed as the recession grows The firmest fight is necessary on this question. At the same time trade unions must actively begin to organise the unemployed in fighting for these demands.

In every case of jobs and wages under attack the books of the employer must be opened to elect- ed committees of trade unionists.

This will establish clearly the basis for nationalisation of firms without compensation, establishing workers' management in opposition to the direct state management as seen in British Steel and British Rail.

The campaign to reject the capit- alist EEC must be linked with the struggle for the Socialist United States of Europe, , and all national- ist conceptions of "sovereignty' and of import controls administr- ated by the capitalist state must be opposed. This programme requires a rev- olutionary leadership to be carried into practice. It is the only pro- gramme which can answer the escalating economic crisis.

We call leits who now talk against • nose Wilson to carry through a fight to remove him and the right wing from office, and carry these pol- icies into the ranks of the Labour and trade union movement..