Socialist Press no. 10

FROM JOINT PLATFORMS WITH TORIES

WILSON CONFRONTS

The world economic crisis now forces Wilson, acting for capitalism, to confront the working class in order to drive down wages and increase the rate of exploitation. To do this he must take on big, organised sections of workers and acical tnem m balue It is in this context that the im- portance of the decision of the NUR to call a national rail strike from June 23rd can be seen. That decision is now central to the def- ence of the living standards of the whole working class. If Wilson def- eats the NUR, an all-out offensive will begin against every section of workers. The British Rail Board met the NUR decision with a statement threatening that if the strike went ahead, 10,000 more rail jobs would be lost. Yet the railwaymen are not making an extravagant claim.

The 27.5% offer made by the Board would, if accepted, repres- ent a substantial reduction in real wages when translated into take- home pay at today's rocketing prices. A third of the Board's offer is simply consolidating previous threshold payments. Yet, speaking on behalt of the Government, Gerald Barrett, chief secretary to the Treasury.

said last Monday that British Rail would not get cash assistance to cover unnec- essary" wage rises. He too threat- ened rail jobs, saying: "Limited resources cannot be used to subsidise overmanning and inefficient use of labour.'

He went on: "There can be no question of simply paying for a high wage settlement and being in hope of improved productivity; we have been doing that for too Barrett says this under conditions

SOCIALIST

PRESS *

RAILMEN

where British Rail reduced its man- power by 20% last year (with full collaboration from union leaders), and has cut it by two thirds since the war. The policy he is advocat- ing is clear: break the NUR in order to attempt to cut inflation, and make workers pay for the crisis of capitalism. The same strategy underlies the vigorous campaign by Wilson and the Labour right wing to remain in the capitalist Common Market.

They succeeded in winning a "yes" vote in the referendum.

UNDEFEATED

The importance of this decision for Wilson is that it creates the best terrain on which to fight the coming battles with the working class. How complete is Wilson's victory, however, is yet to be dec- ided. It is one thing to create fav- ourable conditions, but the battles still have to be fought against an undefeated working class.

Even as the Labour leaders were sitting on pro-Market platforms with Tories, and Prentice was making his 'national unity' speech, the strength of the working class was emerging through the 20 - 3 vote for strike action on the NUR Executive. Under the pressure of this move- ment of the class even extreme right wingers like Tom Jackson of the postal workers union are forced to pledge support to the NUR. Demands must now be put that the other rail unions, ASLEF and TSSA join the action.

Weighell has done everything in his power to avoid the strike (including fighting for and using a reactionary vote at the NUR branch secretaries' conference).

Yet he is now forced to lead the action. He will of course sell the action out, given half a chance. The NUR Executive, despite the correct call for action, itself has no programme to detend railwaymen's living standards against raging inflation.

At no time have they put forward the demand for the new wage agreements to include a sliding scale of wages tied to a cost-of- Living index worked out by trade union committees - which is the only answer to inflation.

acabour coveruments determined. If the strike goes ahead it will be a battle in the traditions of the last two miners strikes. It will have a profound effect on the struggles of the whole working class. This means that the whole trade union movement must nledge support for the railwaymen now.

If Wilson declares a state of em- ergency he must be opposed throughout the whole labour movement.

'LEFTS'

Vital in such a fight is the role of the 'lefts' in the Labour Party.

They must declare where they stana on unes question. In une 1966 seamen's strike not a sin- gle 'left voted against Wilson's state of emergency lich was used against the strikers. The eyes of every trade unionist will be on their actions in 1975.

These latest developments - the NUR strike vote and the refer- endum - bring sharply forward therefore the question of working class leadership. T • politics of the referendum campaign cannot be separated from the struggles emerging atter it. The role of the "lefts' was dec- isive in the referendum battle.

continued on back page column 4

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

NO 10 * 12th June 1975 * 10p

BEHIND THE

REFERENDUM

If you are threatened with pressed within the working class movement, and joined in open losing a game played accord- alliance with Tories and Liberals ing to one set of rules, the in a sickening betrayal of every- best way to avoid further thing Labour voters support the defeat is to force your opp- party tor In the face of this, the bleat- onent to play another game ings of the lefts about "sover- with the rules that you in- eignity" and "British interests" vent yourself. could only serve to obscure the basic class issues that lie behind This was the method of the British capitalist class in the ref- the consolidation of the EEC.

erendum when it rallied and bam- They simply allowed the mass media to mount the favourite boozled 16 million voters into supporting the decision to stay game against "extremists".

with the reactionary, anti-working Even Powell and Du Cann, class Common Market. whose semi-racialist and anti- The Parliamentary election game working class rantings are often is always played with regulations reported with approva, were developed by the ruling class with cast out of the 'moderate" the help of their allies in the mass sunshine in which the rest of us media and their agents in the were invited to bask. labour movement. The clear lesson from the ex- The sharpening of the economic and social crisis during the 1970's that it has been an important step towards dictatorial methods Las weakcace ic torce o ada amentary majorities especially of rule. By going beyond th since the decisive struggle of the "democratic Parliamentary miners overturned the Tory gov- methods, it allowed the capital- ernment early in 1974. ist-directed media to direct the Nevertheless, the ruling class outcome on behalf of the ruling needed to put a bogus 'seal of class. approval on its policies of "rat-

ILLUSION

ionalisation" and international monopoly. What better method of doing this than to take up the The referendum is the classic suggestion of 'left' cabinet mini- method for right-wing dictator- ship to create the illusion of ster Benn and hold a referendum?

A referendum is in no sense a mass support for their policies.

It certainly could become that democratic method of arriving at in Britain too. political decisions. It is not the In view of the massive press- case, as Benn claimed in Hyde Park on May Day, that the edit- ures placed on the electorate before June 5th, and the con- or of the Times and the ordinary fusion sown by Labour leaders elector have the same influence on the outcome. All the cards both right and left, it is a con- siderable achievement that are stacked on the side of the nearly 8½ million people voted millionaire controllers of the mass against the capitalist EEC.

media. There is little doubt that only

QUESTION

a small section of these votes came from extreme nationalists.

The vast majority constitute the The questions to be voted on can always be posed in a way that solid irreducible working class makes it easier for the views of Labour vote. Desnite the enor.

the ruling class to succeed. The mous pressure on them, working June 5th referendum asked whe- class electors stood firm, much ther British Capitalism should more than, for example, in 1931.

stay in the EEC on terms "re.

This 8½ million represents the negotiated" by the Labour gov- organised working class, the force ernment. How different might that, given clear and decisive the answer have been if the leadership, can win around it- self all those shifting and un- question posed had been whether Britain should join in the first certain social layers who were place. deceived into rallying behind the Tories and their friends on A decisive role in the campaign June 5th. It is on the solid was waveo wen mme leaders o the Labour Party endorsed the basis of these 8 million "extre- plans of the Tories and the mists" that a revolutionary monopolists. leadership can be built to take They turned a blind eye tow- the steps necessary for the ards virtually every opinion ex- struggie for socialismn.

Page 2 Just over twenty million the rule oberatern nopets in the states south and west jof China lives a population of mous majority of them as poor and oppressed as the people of Indochina were. exploited by almost every type of lenders; capitalist and feudal land- lords; national military cliques shel- shadow cast by imperialism.

alcas

LAOS

This whole region - from the Chinese border to the islands north of Australia - received an enormous the politica shock with fall and Saigon. Most Penh Phnon immediately affected was the king- dom of Laos, divided since 1973 by left an uneasy truce which the Communist Pathet Lao forces in control in many of the northern areas, but the southern towns and of the rural areas in pro-unmnese Illally China Thailand " Vietnam Cambodia i Ho Chi Minh City Malayasia teudal hands of rightist generals, warlords and KA-nacked „merce naries. During May their power drive crumbled. Following anti-American April student demonstrations. Pathet Lac still forces took Savannaket, Over control. Pakse, the and Illal. centres in the south. une clearly Nothing could more country-side, show the combined and neve character of the struggle in Indo- China, the working through of the permanent revolution, than Laos. The impact the Vietnam has been Cambodia and immediate. With the ten years the value of the Laotian Saigon. currency plunged, and planes and boats to Thailand filled with fleeing US imperialism has right-wingers. been unable to use military bowel and in to 'stabilise' the situation, of the political vacuum left the local over The Prime "democrats evanorated. Minister, Prince Souvanna Thouma - ship one of the professional 'neutralists' of Aisa to whom the terrible blows struck at the revolution have given CoUp appearance of an independent Ine political role - has simply handed imperialist the Vientiane government over into the area. of the athet Lao. witnesses described how Eve Pathet Lao columns, headed by Soviet tanks with garlands flowers round their gun-barrels, opposition. INTERNATIOnAL NEWS

A I SHOCK WAVE

SPREAD

comed by the whole population, including government officials and the high-school heads who a few guerrilla forces throughout the area, and an increasingly radical Muslim days before were held prisoner by liberation movement in the south.

some meet thricipation f neutra driven the government to threaten withdrawal of the huge in instead of their own representatives.

the bitter fighting for Phnom Penh the former governments in guerrillof ones here Chattall, Wife OI corrupt Pramoj government to re- better relations with Vietnam.

responsiblity for the 1965 massacre

BURMA

Burma, again, the military regime has lost large areas of the pooth in selit communise Party.

Communist Terence Pacific Ocean face relationships to US international of military al Revolutionary South East Asia South Vietnam. Although leading Communists were killed, and some territory regained, govenrment lorces maat into the Pegu mountains in have the their large area government also Malaya faces a guerrilla movement in the done since has despite the the second world war, British most brutal repression The city-state for sen in tre, Under the police rate of Lee Kuan Yew, has held oppo- sition leaders in gaol for the without trial, and sup pressed independent trade unions.

INDONESIA

Indonesia, with a population 120 millions, has been ruled by Suharto's military dictator- since hundreds when of thousands of Communist Party supporters were murdered following With production totalling $5,600 million last year, Indonesia represents the focus of economic interests But large demonstrations against Japanese imperialism in 1974 Djakarta, showed capital, that the regime is unable completely underground the suppress The instability of the tas- cist Franco regime in Spain is shown clearly in the mass arr- ests of workers, students and youth in Madrid last week for participating general strike. repressions follow hard These continuing series of arrests protege Marcos placed under martial including university professors and law in 1972, faces both Communist well known lawyers. In Madrid on May 27th for instance police arrest- ed a group of 14 which included four professors, five lecturers and five students, meeting in the univ- ersity Law racuy. Anorner group of 21 people including lawyers and workers was arrested in Valladolid.

The Madrid strike, ship of Park in South Korea reacted the illegal Communist Party to the American rout in Indochina Socialist Partv as a "dav of struggle' with a wave of repression, including affected a wide range of industries OI including metal working, and much greater intrinsic stability than the bloodiest defeats and repressions the direct and indirect support of which bears a heavy in tne in the area as a counterweight to Soviet Union is a 'social fascist' state.

regime to introduce legislation which ASEAN states (Association of South, to strike for the first time Franco took power in the 1930s.

the Philippines, Malayasia, Singapore, yet the legislation would still leave the overwhelming proportion of strikes sort of common policy the revolutionary Vic- tories in Indochina, or on any sort of collective re-arrangement of their But right after the conference ended Nhan Dan (expressing government Vietnamese people and that of the Cambodian people, several govern- ments have spoken of a new policy (Zimbabwe) showed again last sovereignty, their intention of re-examining their alliances with the United the police, of 13 Africans and States, and have declared their in- the wounding of a further 28, tention of recognising the Provision- following violence after a mee- Government of There are so many positive signs which go in the direct- Council (ANC). ion of the national interests of these countries, and which reflect in some major weaknesses in the ANC and measure the will of the people to eliminate the pressure of American imperialism, in order to follow the road of independence and of demo- The beginnings of a factional orientated ZANU reflects the fact that these organisations were forced into a merger under the umbrella ACa. Zimbabwe in order to smooth out a path for detente between South Africa and the Black African states has into the hands of Smith and the of Sithole (the leader March Smith has been playing for time, trying to exploit the weakness to preserve for as long as possible openly at the end of April "there is never going to be any handover SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975

SPAIN ARRESTS

strikes and solidarity strikes are US imperialism is clearly con- a one day for the NATO summit conference.

Just as American support for the boistelle the drawing closer of Spain is seer by the US bourgeoisie as the military preparation to defeat the revolutio called by and leading Spanish military figures to side Spain itself is reflected in the move to de-colonise the Well winnable struggle to Mallall partics withdrawal, timed to precede Ford's renewal of the bases agreemen would be valid without the "coI sent" of the Spanish people, which the guarantee would presuppose of personal liberty, universal sut the recognition of political frage, parties, democratic Parliament and trade union rights The state- ment's signatories included the Socialists, Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Every action of the Spanish of the dictatorship speaks loudly The Madrid fears of revolution strike, as a part of increased working in the growing class militancy rights struggles democrati

TOT

suggest that the downfall of fascism might even precede the rapidly death of the ailing approaching Franco ZIMBABWE sMITH

SHOOTS WORKERS

Three days after the shootings ne comes forward with previous prerequisite of a total end to guerilla activity meanwhile in- sisting the ANC drop its demand "negotiations" armed weakened so-called 'Organisation of Africas after negotiations enforeed by Wilson and the Right of Paci Conference in Jamaica flatly refused for Zimbabwe can only be carried reformist bourgeois politics can be forged on expropriation of the land held by the white settlers, and of capitalist the mass support which can bring

Vietnamese Trotskyists

WHAT IS THE WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE?

SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975 Great victories for the workers' movement bring the greatest disorientation to political centrists and confusionists.

more sharply illustrates this rule than the treatment of Vietnam by the leadership of the Workers Revolutionary Party and its paper Workers Press in the last weeks.

The last thirty years of war in Vietnam, the monumental sacrifices Vietnamese masses to drive ot the out imperialism, have been the pol- ¡itical responsibility of world Stalin- and to reach its attempts equilibrium' with imperialism.

French lost Indochina The World Japan during the War. They only reoccupied it as a result of the attempts at comprom- ise pushed through by Stalin's main representative, Ho Chi Minh. Hrench to

BICLURE

Stalinists had to destroy the Trots- kyist organisations, which held mass support in south Vietnam by August 1945. As we show below, these events did not just happen to coincide.

The Trotskyists were winning mass backing for policies to: Arm the workers and peasants expropriate French property inscribed in Establish full national independence Give power workess peasants' committees already set up.

Trotsky- fists, Stalin could not have carried but imperialism Will Yalta and Potsdam confer- al tne ences, which involved returning In- dochina to France.

STALIN'S BARGAIN

this out To is not 'factional' question. The enormous price paid for the liberation through Vietnam colossal betrayal of the Stalin's ana detents international workers' movement at the end of the war. At key points scribed' City the cynically used his influence on Workers Press, the Communist Parties to carry this out. This lesson is a bitter part of the experience of today's workers' movement. But how do the WRP leadership China. explain to their members and supp- orters this political responsibility Stalinism? general and unequivocal for the politics of the NLF In Workers Press on May lOtt the Provisional Revolutionary Gov- ernment's foreign policy cribed criticism - as revolutionary internat- ionalism'. of 'the consistent revolutionary line pursued by first took up arms in 1941'.

Only after Socialist Press on May 15th naol consistent cluded Vietnamese The Workers Socialist League was formed on December 22nd 1974 as part of the fight to carry forward the method and principles of Trotsky's Transitional Programme, the founding document of the Fourth internat- The WSL now represents the continuity of the struggle for these Workers Revolutionary Party, members trom ically by the WRP leadership in order to prevent discussion of their abandonment of the Programme both in theory and in mass expulsions showed that there could be no hope of correcting the WRP - an independent organisation had to be founded to Such a split came out of particular conditions. The rapid development of the economic crisis of capitalism and the forward movement of the world working class, which has now overthrown imperialism in Vietnam began to produce the conditions to build revolutionary parties internationally. At such a point the importance of a fight for the method and principles of the Transitional Programme, against both sectarianism and opportunism is paramount in the preparation' of revolutionary leadership. After a hard as the only tendency with a programme and a history of struggle to lead the working class in the taking of power.

Whe defence of jobs through the fight for work sharing on full pay, run trade union committees; the defence of living standards through the all increases in te challenging of the "rights" books • of industry, and to Nothing Vietnam in 1945 did the WRP lessons of the Vietnamese struggle.

Their 'International Committee a whole this is a superficial resume of world politics, in language which sounds ferocious but is prudently 1930 of the Indo-Chinese workers and in murdered by Ho Chi Minh's agents -- occupation wave. vain and their policies are indelibly struggles and victories to the example of these Trotskyist pioneers in the coming period.'

uccat. only martyred, they were physically tOT and politically defeated by Stalinism in 1945, and with their "martyrdom' came a historical set-back for the Vietnamese revolution whose price The NLF and Hanoi leaderships learned of a series compromises The policies of revolu- tionary internationalism are not 'in- in hanol or ho uni Minn - nor anvwhere in the pages ol which has written miliTary on the precisely nothing ponuca struggles within the liberation and in Indo- anti-imperialist movement Marxists for It is a aut form provisional Trotskyists in south

HADO

nationalisation under League followed the expulsion of over 200 carried out bureaucrat- Trotskyism now emerges agreements to include a sliding scale to compensate for cost of living as determined by trade union prices of the employer and the Gollan, ex- CPGB Secretary, meets Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi re-occupation Communists lead peasants perty, no and land to defend strike hv Ho Huu luang. and Many Iears invasion decares Hally other anti-imperialist forces Ho Chi Mint spreads in south; Vietminh control holds 'People's Congress' near Hano north. govertilleil. demand: October 9, 1945 propriation of French colonial pro- British Labour Foreign Minister, management: all these policies are called for in this situation. As they are fought for and workers are mobilised they begin to form a bridge between the present level of political consciousness of workers and the need for the working elass to take the puwer. Yet the WRP refused to take up & fight for this For this reason the most important developments in our work have on a break from WRP sectarianism and propagandism, important gains in trade union work and opening up completely new areas We are beginning to recruit and train from the new forces thrown into struggles in this period - not only trade unionists, but also professional workers, housewives, students and youth - in the fight to construct the expose all those who attack and revise Marxism - not only the WRP but alsą the 'rank and file' policies of the IS group who refuse to defend the , who liquidate the revolut- Soviet Union as a workers' state, and the IMG, ionary movement into unprincipled blocs and liaisons with anti-revolution- ary tendencies, as well as against Stalinism and reformism.

Already it is clear that throughout the working class poses similar questions for those groups calling themselves particularly sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, producing similar solement based on tie Trotskyist of developing a truly international programme. For this reason the WS is now engaged in a process of inter nal discussion prior to a full founding conference, a vital part of which is to out and adopt perspectives for the building of the Trotskyis Fourth International, and the development of revolutionary the Trotskyist programme in every country in the struggle to end Page 3 recognises French administration in south. Ho Chi Minh March 1946 6. signs 'independence' agreement with Vietnam France: remain "French Union'; 25,000 troops to be stationed in the country.

March-November 1946' Freńch man- while preparing war plans oeuvre against Vietminh. November 23, 1946 French forces attack Vietminh in Haiphong With- in days Ho Chi Minh and other from Hanoi leaders to countryside. March 1947 Communist Party ministers in French cabinet vote They funds for Indochina war remain in the government till May.

Crushing defeat of French 1954 army by Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu.

partition Geneva Vietnam at 17th parallel.

Washington January 1955 starts Diem in aid to regime military South Vietnam. 1965 US planes begin 'February bombing North isystematic vietnam militias Over half a million US troops 1968 in South Vietnam. April 1975 Liberation of Saigon by NLF. but move vill. effort to defend themselves against imperialism.

MUCI

of imperialism and their proteges.

movement was based on an under- will not be 'in vain' only today's revolutio Such prices must not be Ernest Bevin,

I PRESS

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MARXISM ON TI

WRP

PUTS

The Workers Socialist League was founded on December 22nd, 1974.

It was formed after bureaucratic expulsions and the suppression of discuss- ion within the Workers Revolutionary Party had made it impossible to carry forward within that party the fight for a return to the principles Trotsky's Transitional Programme, the fundamental aid method document of the Fourth International.

The main target of the WRP. leadership was the comrades supporting put forward by Cde Alan Thornett, in defence of the the positions Transitional Programme, These formed in two WR" interna documents point for the work of the WSL and our paper, Socialist Press.

the starting Since the WSL was founded, the WRP leadership has attempted just two responses in public to the political and theoretical questions we have posed '(Workers Press, 8th April 1975), Cliff Slaughter's "Thornett's Philosopher" "Whither Thornett" (Workers Press, May 5th- and Michael Banda's series 20th, 1975). Both of these, and especially Banda's unreadably evasive series, are an attempt to justify after the event the conduct of the WRP leadership, and divert from the fundamental questions at issue in the split - and the WRP lost its main working class base. in the course Wales since which it continues to lose members to the Workers Socialist League.

We do not yet possess the space for a point-by-point reply to the in- numerable red herrings and falsifications of which Banda's series mainly We concentrate here, therefore, on some of the most central consists. theoretical questions. a mere half-page later he is accusing us of nothing less than... silence - ma on the capitalist state! Le Such methods of polemic are utionary nothing better than dragging Marx- into two those as the following the mud. - more central - examples will show.

wh The series begins with an att- ad over the empt by Banda to pape! fraudul- whose cracks exposed in the WRP's versio declares the ence on "Marxist by Cde philosophy surface. The types have, notell s second opposion Do ument and by an article in Socialist however, a political Press |no. 4] * taking up the reply to content. this document debased a guide sentence to which Banda, like Healy to a collection misquoted bill notedge begin snippets to as a fact- begins from the knowiedge st the form of the classure fe ional weapon oppon- class struggle form en the contlict of revolutionary theory of the form of the Party In 'science'. ( in the form of the spontaneity class These taken me to an a stirst numerous Thornett taken Banda's first Iourteen- and is deliberately isolated alicic. in order to tear it from its context.

reply from whole section comes

WRP'S

mented the way in which the dealing with the WRP substituted interminable ab stract and academic though heated and nett's del tes atsoever for programme and on philosophy WRP School poi party's practice une Class Volume of the WRP's Trotsky- specifically its orientation Revisionism: docu- towards the working class and the

LS/IU

mentary Slaughter

ASTORY

simply invents a leading role for the British headed by Gerry section, of

DIFFERENCE

the WRP in the soruggle against the Secretari revisionist grouping of Michel Pabl 1951-3. This was a fundamental differ- Far from attempting to refute the ence that emerged the between chare, Ba Banda quotes our question: WSL, for whom cades now in the Cliff Slaughter's does o action and the i lead i commentary disțort and invert the it hook ast it the im and make WRP leadership to action' became (dur- for whom philosophy played a leading role, when in fact added) political word? ing a period of political degenerat it produced within the movement) a rational 11100 ion (emphasis WRP's separation the 1981101 And then Banda continues: from the class, and its inability to "Leaving. aside the lie contained in penetrate the unions To theory are and rigid separamon Thornett's asserton JaTer contempt (much later - Banda's ten following return to it!) what instalments never when he rom. Practice 1s most important is unal ne citvalc the struggle for

WILLES

the word (the idea) above the deed.

dialectic the struggle to deliberately and develop programme and perspective" ignore fight in practice against al aclud forms of revisionism for which the oped in abstract lebate on philo SLL, is so WRP, and before it the than philosophical ophy, rather rightly hated in the discussion cir- understanding tested and developed cles of our opponents. For Thornett at each point fight only rogramme in the daily str activity is theoretical ggles c real Ideas for Band activity divorced from the material are worked out in the head and then social life.' (Workers Press, presented to the class in the form May 8th 1975, p9) oI ultimatums. YeT Inis ls tne lacals philosophical position of the

WRF

"LOGIC"

leadership they have to dress befuddl Such 'logic' has a charm all its Philosophical Notebooks).

lenin's Collecter Works the own. Even to refer to what others have said (or not.said) brings the On the basis quotations charge of 'idealist philosophy' from snatched from this volumé the WRP Banda. Perhaps he thinks that pol- tigers an aura of authority. Test itical struggles can be conducted tiger an aura of authority. without benefit of words?

But no- this in itself is a degeneration from he himself is the author of fourteen the days this cally instalments against us, stud- Cliff Slaughter [WRP CC member] ded paragraphs beginning 1962, for instance, wrote Lenin on Dialectics: (quite accurately) 'Risking repetit- "Anyone undertaking a systematic and 'In other words..?. And 10.... G. Healy and actress Vanessa Redgrave: WRP becoming a sect of middle class radicals study of Lenin's Notebooks will have to have beside him NB, emph- Hegel's Logic; only in asis added this way can one see the continuity between separate notes and extracts.

Even without this, Marxist students will brief find many stimulating and worth notes very detailed study...But these notes and extracts are part of a single project, and are therefore best taken as a whole, read through and reworked several times by the student in the light of his own knowledge of Marx- of Lenin's own writings and actions" Ip7) and This insistence on seeine the necessity to enrich theory through practice is correct, and is the pósit- ion of the WSL. Banda however, to defend Healy's "phil- desperate osophical" jungle of snippets and distortions, has to throw this aside.

Thus we read (part 3): "Before one can understand Lenin, says Westoby wagging his finger at the Oxford 'uneducated' WRP, one must have read Hegel's Science 01 Logic. Indeed one can only read Lenin's Philosophical Notebooks in "parallel' with Hegel's Logic, accord- ing to this arrogant and politically shaliow man. Quite the opposite is the case[!]" [emphasis added] Where does Slaughter stand on this question now?

WILDS

Lenin) Banda, your follow therefore, into the wilds of phil- osophy and such gems of clarity as this: the universal As this takes moment of place actuality explains that unfolding of the sum total of of moments Actuality of (Lenin, dialectical Collected Vol 38, p158). the cancels ality itself into effect (abstract Likewise ess). This is the only On which such passage • in Healvs irank. gobbledygook. It has nothing to do wild gasping ine alaectical relal ionship between man and nature or with the struggle for an under- standing of Marxism within the revolutionary party. simply SunnA lose without use shenr est explanation - a series of categor- several hundred pages of Hegel's Science of Logic. Being culled from a piecemeal and oppor- tunist reading of Lenin's Philosoph- ical Notebooks it gets them nope- lessly confused. If Banda - or Healy, who has so far made no public writing - think they reply can explain with reasonable clarity (and brevity) what they mean by, for 'the cause (essence) can exampie, celling itself into the effect (abstract thought already posited in us)', our columns are open to them. In our of view the only purpose such passages is to establish on a bogus theoretical basis the authority of the WRP leadership which, in the field of programme and practice in the national and international wor kers movement, is now completely bankrupt. continuously retreats Banda into ane abstract realm questilos.

"philos into the abstract realm ophy" Thus man's development in unity and conflict with nature production is separated

TATOUCI

Banda from present-day rigidly by class society, ana taken by man's struggle with nature.

Man's unity with nature remains what it always was - that man (like the material world itself is a mat- erial being and a part of the univer- This movement of matter. Sall hil... which we do elementary Matris not need Banda to tell us. But clear- that = needs reminding Banda barud with nature goes man's struggle through a historical development, at the centre of which is the devel opment of the means of production which in turn force changes in the relations of production - different forms of society. this struggle which has It is developed man and his knowledge of the world, whilst at the same time changing the world he lives in.

animals, Indeed rocks, pialis the oceans and the air all share the "unity" with nature as Man. same Yet all material bodies. only Man has developed tools, pro knowledge and duction If the class struggle. material "philosophy" is not to descend to meaningless and the genera the therefore it must advance beyond general conditions the aiscussing for man's development of know- SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975 developmen which through that takes place. Banda pulls back from this step and indignantly protests: "Westoby wants to 'prove', usin the authority of Lenin, that th struggle of opposites is more fund amental, 'more essential' than thei unity" This is a crass one-sided distort ion of our article on Healy's revis ions of Marxism. But even gave this, has Banda stopped to consid the content of what he is saying How does he reconcile his presen with Lenin's extensiv position quotation from Hegel in the Not this ke books which includes passage (stressed and restressed a previous SLL/WRP cadre school summer camps)? been a fundament "But it has are die of hate mention of ordinary imagination idealism] Contradiction that [ie conflict] is a determinatio having less essence and immanenc than Identity [ie 'unity']; but ir deed, if there were any question o rank, and the two determination had to fixed separat‹ as Contradiction woula nave more profound an taken as the more essential. [emphasis added For as opposed to it Îdentity is oni the determination of simple immer iacy, or dead Being, while Contri diction is the root of all movemer and vitality, and it is only insota as it contains a contradiction tha any thing moves and has impulse and activity." [C.W. p139] Banda and Healy want to leav us then with 'unity *Identity 'dead Being' cut off from the livin struggle of opposites.

REVISION

revision of Healy central Slaughter and Banda is that the make man merely a part of an ot jective natural process, eliminatin therefore the need for a leadershi rooted in the working class, exerci ing leadership over real sections the class. The ending of capitalist is thus viewed by the WRP in similar way to the erosion of a cli by the sea or the sprouting of a be of daffodils, as a natural proces within which conscious preparatio becomes irrelevent. This is done b sophistry. Banda writes: "Ât one point Westoby makes t astonishing remark that 'Healy thi reduces the class struggle to a me Now if the cla 'natural process. not a 'natural process struggle what is it? Tell us, Mr Westoby; supra-natural process?..His serves 'merel of the word 'mere to cover his tracks". No, Mr Banda the struggle classes is a natural process with which Marxists fight for leadershi Healy belittles this tight allu exposed his But position. Banda assures us that the road the dictatorship of the proletari is just a natural process, and tr role of the

WRP

is merely observe and correctly identify th while throwing process, ültimatums at the working class Trotsky began the Transitiona Programme: "The world political situation as whole is chiefly characterised by crisis of leadership of tr historical proletariat"

"NATURAL"

For Banda and Healy howev the situation is now simply a sta the 'natural process socialism, the "universal moveme of matter" towards the dictatorsh of the proletariat, which will pres irresistably drive worke mably towards the WRP (despite its refu to put forward or fight for polici to develop and train new layers workers). The Transitional amme is thus reduced by the WE few handy phrases to a and

SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975

HE RACK

Marxist method and starting point point where the full programme of abandoned. revolution can win mass support.

Thus there is no reckoning in the Marxist method; Banda's articles with the but contemptuously thrown aside Colla charge made Philosophy by Banda. Why do workers need to section of the Second Document - order to learn these that the WRP leadership separates lessons when they can read all the from practice and thereby theory right slogans in Workers Press? Why litelessly counterposes its dostraci bother with programme if you have schema of demands "philosophy »? He ridicules the con- (nationalisation without compen- cept of fighting Ior a programme sation under workers control of all including transitora aemands in industry, banks and land) to the the mass movement, stating: "Thus the party becomes transfor- mass movement ol lne working class.

in such a way that workers are cut med from an opposite to an adjunct oft from political Tne means of of the spontaneous movement. The struggling for these demands.

crisis of leadership becomes reduced Thornett through the method of

NO DISCUSSION

mto a cuss or sell-modusanion or the working class - and Marxism is flung unceremoniously out of the window". [Part 8] But, on the contrary the ques- tion taken up by the WSL is the ression of discussion on Cde Thor- nett's original document (not one mobilisation working class ot aggregate or meeting was held for (ignored by the WRP) through the struggle for demands which go.

coe yond reforms, posing the questions the Westerr Region) this separation continues.

"It is easier to overthrów capitalism clearly taken up than to realise this demand [sliding scale ot hours ramme - a document which comes in for sustained attack by Banda in four parts of the fourteen part why we are calling them transitional series. This begins most significantly demands. It creates a bridge to the mentality of the workers and then method of the Programme, in par- a material bridge to the socialist [Trotsky's Writings 1938.

between the sciousness of the working class and one day by the mass of WOrKCIS to lake unis slang must be nationalised without com- point, and so tinds itselt a dwindling workers control, and that therefore they their millions join the WRP.

WORKERS

[in WSL's analysis of the WRP] do silvill are the 41 c ottered no Marxist training and no Workers are not turned by the WRP to the fight for leadership in Banda the unions and so learn little of the poser of the Marxist method and This idea is termed by Healy and Banda a "leap" and is supposed- continues to degenerate into a sect ly brought about not by any prin- of middle class radicals mouthing cipled and continuous intervention in workers daily struggles, but by paper sales, iccrulent alives ana more paper sales. Meanwhile work- (and this is not answered by Barda ers supposedly wait for the WRP to knock on their door. Trotskyists, however take their "Marxism has built a scientific.

starting point from the Transitional Programme: govern the movement of capitalist "It is necessary to help the masses society and which were discovered in the process of the daily struggle to find the bridge between present However it is not enough to create demands and the socialist program- me of the revolution. This bridge class accept ul should include a system of transit- ional demands, stemming from to- in the nature of things, comes to a day's conditions and today's con- stop upon the first half of the task.

sciousness of wide layers ACTIve working class and unalterably lead- actual struggle is supplanted for one tina conclusion: the him by an abstract propaganda for 'onquest of power by the prolet- ariat". This seems pretty clear to most readers. It is the founding document sectarianism. of the Fourth International. While omises the WRP leadership, emerges the details of some of the demands when Banda (Part 13) attempts to might well have changed since 1938 answer Cde Thornett's exposure of the task and the method expressed is put latward prograe inatic and it is this more illne the national Committee to recruit the rejectea by Reformists and Stalinists reject the need for a 'bridge' because they do not intend to overthrow capital- abstract, ism. But Trotskyists do need to orced from any concrete perspective bring workers, in struggle, to the for Bengeli workers, put forward in 1972 by the IC. Banda is certain on the other hand that the IC was not wrong - it was the Bengalis' fault : they were too backward and rel- igious to repond to the IC!! He waltes. "But if we did not recruit a sizeable group it was not for want of trying..

Nationalist feeling and is ex- tremely and the support intense for Bhashani and Rahman was very intense. There were no:developed groups in Britain and wade union little or no socialist consciousness of a rudimentary kind... When even the Pakistan army capitulated and Bangladesh was proclaimed, the Bengali workers - almost to a man • lost interest in the socialist struggle" ]Part 13] It is scandalous that such words appear in a calling itself paper Trotskyist. Blaming the working class and Bengali peasantry for not correctly rallying round the IC ban- ner is the lowest level of opportun- ism, worthy of any right winger.

The harsh fact is that the IC offered Bengali workers no prog ramme, nothing to draw them to- wards socialsim. It did not call in a way for land antionalisat- ion, workers and peasants councils, workers militia or workers control.

It did not put forward any way in which Trotskyism could become a living force in the working and peasant masses of Bengal, and aban doned these millions to the tender mercies of reformism, Stalinism and We must take up briefly one

SCLICS.

were Lenin, and the WRP were itself the Bolshevik Party.

which has done besmirch the name of Trotskyism and Bolshevism in the British ans international Labour movement by its bureaucratic expulsion of its first 'The following extract from Trot- opportunist equivocation Healy's [!) life-long struggle for a democratic-centralist revolutionary Marxist party is based entirely on the precedent created by Lenin:' [emphasis added, part 11 Nor indeed is it possible to see any S.Torrance's bureaucratic att

TO TO

slander the WRP and you slander the prevailing methods - distortion things not said, fraudulent swagger- ing in the use of quotes supposedly founding programme of the Fourth Interantional, preparatory to blam- ing the masses for not joining the again by Banda is the degeneration the WRP, its inability reckon with its own past and prac tice, and the necessity of construct- ing the WS to fight this wholesale revision of Marxism, Footnotes: *The article was prepared by the Socialist Press editorial board. Banda - and Slaughter - chose to attribute it to Cde A. Westoby, a university WRP Internal Document. and 'All Good Men' Trevor Griffiths has made a name for himself writing "didact- ic", "political" plays. One might well describe him political • as a peeping-Tom. His play The Party, commissioned by the National The- atre and performed there in 1973- 74, deals with the idea of the Revolutionary Party and has as its central figure (acted by Sir Laur- ence Olivier) a barely-disguised Gerry Healy! Griffith's acquaintance with rev- olutionary theory and left groups and personalities in Britain in 1968 would seem to date from his atten- dance designed to woo to the party those bourgeois intellectuals showing an interest in left politics. (Some of the his observations on these classes - one successful play and a reputation for an intimate knowledge left and left politics - all without spending tedious long years fighting in the revolutionary movement. He Sums The intellectual's problem is not vision, it's commitment. You enjoy biting the hand that feeds you but you'll never bite it off". (J. Tagg- G. Healy, end of Act 1). huge posters of Marx, battles in Paris, long passages quot- orthodoxy. This ends, interestingly enough - in the light of the recent this: "There is only one slogan worth mouthing at this particular histor- other slogan that can possibly take parade of degenerate intellectuals: the impotent TV producer, growing distance from his working class roots; the drunken playwrighi himself as successful in a society he longs to destroy", but who knows the reasons wow revolutionar politics isn't necessary or possible.

And the melodrama of the Revol right just once", fighting to build masturbation, infidelity, drugs, drun- ken violence, a Czech au-pair girl who wears a track suit and sings folk songs, and a guinea pig named titillate the bourgeois it to audience the National Theatre exists while at the same time "showing ween the private and public man" This linking up of political "truth" Page 5

REVIEW

THE PARTY

A Review of Trevor Griffiths plays 'The Party' by Ann Baye. Another of his plays, All Good Men (could the title be a tip-off?)

is ending a lunchtime run at the Young Vic in a good production with excellent performances by the four actors involved. This play was for the 'Play for Today written BBC-TV series and shown on 31st January 1974. Griffiths having pro gressed from revolutionary politics to the Labour Party, this play deals William Waite with a LP leader, (Waite - wait, get it?) about to be given a peerage. • (Some suspect a parallel is intended here with Lord at here opus advable many gave more than he took", champ- Class unrough reformism, who believes that "real- with Beatrice Webb that the 1926 strike was a "proletarian distemper son Edward, wild-eyed, uncomprom- ising revolutionary who is a lecturer in politics at Manchester University; the daughter Maria, embittered by her lifelong contact with politics.

and her broken family and marriage, background and hates privilege; and to expose to the TV-viewing world the class betrayal of a working class politician tempted by power and Once again "truth is liberally smeared about the stage - truth' importance of Labour reforms since 1924, and on the compromise nec commitment to "truth" by the son Edward who, having in the course records which show that his father voted by secret against the 1926 strike and ended up sitting on the committee of owners to deal out discipline to the strikers.

He accuses the old Waite of being goes on to turn over photocopies of the relevant documents to the hatchet job on the old Waite in his There is "truth" also in the family and class loyalty of the For Griffiths all is the "truth", not follow Edward Waite's advice to the unscrupulous TV producer and "declare an interest", but rath- line of "I present, others judge" clear position and work to win the audience over to his point of view.

How will not declare an interest? Has there ever been a good teacher who exude his own subject? Who says a trendy parade ot a variety of "truths" is political?

A Marxist playwright would att- empt to comprehend human pract- ice by examining and asking why they do it. He/she would then in this way try to teach us to know what we do - to help us of self-cognition. ysis which could enable him to do this, and so he leaves us every time knowing no more about the object- ive world or about ourselves than

historical lessons Page 6

FASCISM

bourgeoisie National Front to intervene Fascism 1934) CaSs Britain) violent sing NF thugs VICe attacks by raises question of and the standing competed other 30's in and Italy and ale with the This, bankruptcy. and speed ment, wage could working class with the defence of working dent class itself. force reprisals, letting Hitler Fascism governmental or proletarlan bourgeois democracy society. The essence the class leadership movement, to slump In Germany the working the the trial collapse. fascist was Since the very destroyed. Were existence working cracy itself. in "Trade It demands of the reformist bureau- transformed into its political police if that is not labour bureaucracy is deiven away and replaced by the fascists.

(Marxism and TUs the Class Collaboration dèspite the abject class Thus collaboration of the reformists they function as

COMMOT SUITO

that of fascism with its state-run corporate unions set up trolled by fascists. Trotsky stresses.

this point: "Incidentally, all the efforts of the labour aristocracy in the of imperialism cannot bourgeoisie service from them an Tine Save destruction." (Ibid, emph. added) The possibility of the crushing of working class organisation rested on the possibility of fascism deve- loping a mass movement as a which the ruling class could force employ to carry through this task.; The mass movement of the fascists, such as the Nazi Party in Germany, though it drew in certain sections o: demoralised workers, found its mair strength in the petty bourgeoisie i of small farmers and businessmen starting diverse rabble of declassed and middle ex-soldiers, unemployed + class youth and professionals and the petty officials, who of the uniformed Hot ranks armed hrownshirt thugs which constituted Hitler's power on the streets.

thus characterised "a specific ~ lism 'fascism of HIcalls interests The geoisie. than (more of the caught same On the hand its idy Nazis: for the big wno oul of the with it for the diminish- ting analysis of working hand lay even stronger "unity portrays on the verge of bour- him; property and Cass in na turt large triumph forced to defend big business and from capitalism would have to concede the eventual liquidation of small Hitler's firms in the interests of rationalisa- logical shadow bourgeoisie delirium of constituted their Reich. National Socialism) of organisation and their ideology Terror, violence and gangs of armed 'Blackshirts' Iorms ol the political and economic movement. CISt gain a base were defeated by working class. British to abandon demonstrate its independent trade unions to shrough the contrololitical of 1926 brought about by violence and terror. betrayals of the Out of human working class scattered masses. politically weakened. detach- ‚dust it organises combat This paved the thus gives petty MacDonald betrayal of 1931 illusion of being the the National independent force. It begins will really commandi the stat it imagine that (p.19) inflicting National This why 1S то TRe the crisis ty Front the ability to march openly and to hold public meetings openly Trotsky commented: vital to its growth and that is "The present is a necessary part of reve streese why mobilisation to the struggle from 'the against the NF. growth of for fascism Furthermore tO form a political party in the usual the government sense it would need a programme.

of path But any programme that takes its parliamentary as the preservation point will without doubt of capitalism, must, in a period of but at the general economic crisis dictate the is not so. liquidation of the petty bourgeoisie, this mistake reason it 1S plane to expect a coherent political pro Even from gramme from the NF The extreme economic nationa- doubt of the Front has absolutely capitalis immigrants for Britain. the ecor The key that Trotsky petty The racism and nationalism from came for the ind pli oisie in class is strong: pressu class in Britain The by substitu- the actual it is for thi of society, a concept of that cannot conceived out the N The astonica ois is host alcany lopment over Benn. The immutably unleash smash has progress nothing except , National rejects not only inism. The beca LISIn discipline the signified having capital over alternative sections small ... The petty bourgeoiste Police drag off anti-fascist demonstrator in Glasgow : workers. needs a higher authority which Trotsky saw clearly stands above matter and above history and which is safeguarded inflation, competition, the of crisis, and the auction block 1S11 leadership as nation is the mytho petty ot the workers or_to itself, a pathetic thousand year (Trotsky What is fascists certainly not Wilson are In Britain during the nineteen thirties Mosley's Blackshirts did not main rely become the basis for a mass fas- His attempts bourgeoisie the Furthermore, the be fought now. ruling class had no need and the parliament deal for this with the working class. The defeat and by the reformists and lack of alternative leadership from the CP, meant that the British oration, National Front. entered the slump the way for the and Government. So runnet proved sufficient for ruling chies as a vehicle for with in the measures to deal in the working class. Writing about me 1931 government, government • has received unheard of support nation'. Only Workers the revolutionary movement in Britain can force as of the tread the ultra- naked violence. This This that rights. take place present time this To place today the trade union question of fascism on the first is not here motivated. the standpoint of distant perspective conserve Call it: is what measure SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975 gle organisations, the press, etc. Fascism threatens meetings all of that directly and immed: iately... [pp 24-25] is of course talking The con- Trotsky • about a situation where large, armed bands of fascists were in action on the streets against French working organisations in 1935-6. As class the National Front is only yet assemble these kinds beginning to of forces, and has not grown to the level of Moselev's movement in the 1930's. But the struggle by workers defence of iobs and wages wil grow more intense and as Trotsky out "Should the resistance of the IC the says. will not evaD Anne the of the day. To close our eyes to this is to walk toward.

In these conditions the import ance of the Transitional Program- brought home sharply: struggle - and ends in the street.

army. Strike pickets are the basic proletarian army. nuce of the expression to the valid hatred of workers towards of a workers militia meetings, and press" [Transitional Programme, pp27-8] how in Leadership reformist failed majority of clas: NF is completely the working class in leadership the for a tra through allow the still the middle capitalists bring under the class and bourgeoisie intimidation the EEC and who clearly does the class and the ot the Wilson of the ing 1930 in which the hope em- proletarian the braces of the police class) of the Turn the [Trotsky in defend their part working the of the struggle for class part as programme and leadership. It must workers made absolutely clear from this be that only this struggle in the work.

class movement can combat ing Tascism.

IS OPPORTUnISTS EXPOSED SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th, 1975 Workers Diary of Socialist International

DIPLOMATIC GESTURE

isation The reputation for diplomatic finesse developed by the represent- atives câf British imperialism over Munich football match in Paris was decision of the referee to disallow

YAK-DOOR SALESMAN

trade shown in a competition called "In the first prize to a 002 L Arabs, ice lollies to Iceland, Chow Italy and one firm was selling snow- ploughs to Bubai! ket was selling prefabricated Yak crisis hit BLMC could cash in on prefabricated Yaks? Healey,

U.S. SUPREME COURT

Speke How

ATTACKS UNIONS

ition, In a decision which the Assoc- Speke? iation of General Contractors America, a leading employers fed- eration, called a significant recovery of the "right to manage", the nine- member Supreme Court, America's highest legal authority, ruled that where Inal dare unionised sub- ments only use contractors they are violating the laws by creating a anti-monopoly "sheltered market". executive director of the An Ashe ation could eery ouse nade.

vision ruling could very wan name Referendum wide implications in the field of construction and in American ind- ustry as a whole" The response of the AFL/CIO union leaders to this attack on trade ate, union organisation, against not only the defence of unionised sub-cont- alongside ractors but also those who have by been banning the use of pre-fabric- Judith Hart. the building ind- ated materials in because of the loss of jobs, ustry been to say: "We don't think has impact the industrial 1LS ali use spectrum will be all that great".

campaign places

CUBAN GOVERNMENT

HANDS BACK

SKYJACKERS TO U.S.

wind up osition, has The Cuban government handed three skyjackers, who had by the sought asylum in Cuba, back to the This move is US been a focal governient. gesture to the US government in the order get embargo „Tne Trade against Cuba lifted and shows the level of Castro's internationalism.

NF MEMBER FINED

of National Front the unne "honour guard" who participated in the charge on the anti-fascist have been demonstration on May 12th in Ox- ford was fined £100 and bound ing them. 2 years by Oxford over for an magistrate. An example of how well pre- pared Hart's: the NF were can be seen by the fact that he was carrying a wisdome in built up bicycle chain his neck which he said he "going and was to if he had to": her He was USe wearing a gum shield and a cricket this issue". box. A letter in the May 31st edition Worker, paper of the would Worker Socialists, Socialist snows une opportunist relationship this organ- print the above letter and reported has with workers and its the activity of complete lack of principle. The full Union Committee, letter reads as follows: appearance oI redundancy, while at the same time sanctioning it for a leading member.

Will Jock sible now be expelled from IS discussed are the requirements for trade union membership of IS itself? •resent a tie scroo

RECORD

no worker accepting Should ever plant has been throughout one of a non-political militant, with taced understand to nave davone acceole volun Stalinists. In We hope trade unionists in paragraph of this strike. The that they the list for expulsion would be jock of ht, Nato chaired the last mank who chaired the last 'Rank and File Conference'! He was one of give them his carried out ame sto ake voluntary ancy from the BLMC The local IS branch say Wight was given clearance to do this by the IS National Committee. On him, hands of of the is chairman Trade Union Committee! did Healey witch-hunt had reconcile wignls him by position with the principled oppos against to voluntary redundancy and when they 1n

NATIONALISM

MARKET DEBATE

On Monday 2nd June at 9.10 pm the TV programme boat policy, "State of the Nation, a debate" was typical of the many tele- ion the programmes on peoples. campaign with "whether ereignty, one exception. One of those scheduled to app- only given was ear in the Parliamentary-style deb- Wedgewood Benn, refused to appear because it meant him sitting could Powell "Hear, hear!" Tories. He was replaced another 'left' cabinet minister, Although his action was an entirelv correct stand. and the EEC than with his refusal to sit with Powell at an anti-market press comerence was one of the major points of the against Market, it Tne a question mark over the whole of the rest of the campaign and Communists including the programme itself Boitt interrupted and in Benn was originally willing to point opp- charged led by Enoch Powell. This scare about only added to the confusion sown 'lefts' who sat with the completely Tories. The programme could have Heath, point around which MP John Davies. whole issue of sitting with Tories could have been fought and OCCaSIOnS the campaign for the expulsion of mean by what we the right wing carried forward.

Programmes the had refused to leTTS appear it would have left Jenkins and Hattersley in their rightful place, alongside Heath and Maudling, and problem the nationalist position of Powell, Neil Marten, Henderson - a Scottish Nationalist, and others, would not tion like the given credibility by hav- MPs sitting alongside for not Instead these people were back- Market bodies with Tories.

ed up by statements such as Juditl "Britain has a very special international attaiEs, fight the 'lefts', over hundreds of years' "I do not want Britain to lose international affairs, vioce in native revolutionary party the single most important working class will be built.

Of course, this is the voice Ad be the Editorial Board se to suspend him for two weeks and transfer him on to day-shift (thus losing his stewards who deccee re the night-shift in the the Speke Trade came out immediately, the Stalinist nights convenor called an immediate thus giving the fighting voluntary mass meeting which rejected supp ort. This was used by the day-shif stewards, who refused to seip orein toadion, and Wight him- Wight and those respon- shit tony more to work to nant then told the press shop OI Losinge experimen ga more demanding and principled than membership experience gained in by victimisation was used management in the Cowley bly Plant in the victimisation, of Alan later, mOntOs then T&GWU deputy senior steward He too had pressure put upon him relinquish his steward's The record of Jock Wight in the but unlike wight retused to do so and still remains a steward on the when Transport section. who The IS in Oxford said that could never 11200 Wight had made "a mistake" when he helped to get the day-shift in the press shop back to sork, but less than a year later he was chairing the 'Rank and File' conference!

Voluntary redundancy is now a major weapon in the hands of the used to weaken trade employers, the union organisation Wight's wanted conflict occupations allu compulsory redundancy. It has been a decisive factor in the present level of unemployment. whilst they Wight

PRINCIPLE

Opposition to voluntary red- undancy is a principle, though hard Those who accept it A massive to tight ior. are helping to create unemployment been developed instrumental in forcing speed up on management, they leave behind those go on to take other people's jobs.

of British imperialism with its gun A system which forces a participation woman to endure 9 months of world wars fought for markets, and to produce an un pregnancy the murder, torture and concentrat- camps for millions of colonial wanted child, or forces her to risk the dangers of the 'back- all Powell's talk about sov- abortionist, street Cremons ato co the to exist" House defended be by reactionary right-wingers.

credibility, much that at one point when 'left' The responsibility OI Peter Shore was talking about VAT a child is one which remains with heard be shouting the woman, drastically altering her life, for many years to come. She The resolution "that Britain's therefore must have complete free- the BEC wand be stas mered side dom to decide whether or not to moved by go through with a pregnancy, and safe abortion facilities must be pro- course enthusiasticolly supported by vided by the National Neil Marten who ihroughout the Service. campaign has been concentrating on Steel's Abortion Act the danger of European socialists limited gain in this field and must for legislating be defended against the attacks of fact was at one James White's reactionary amend- by Heath and which attempts,

MACHL

by him with "creating a whipping up middle class and relig communists". On the ious hysteria over the 'rights of the other side, Roy Jenkins adopted a foetus' to severely unified position with conditions under which the NHS Maudling and business man can carry out abortions. He For instance a victim severa took it upon himself to would have to carry through a res talk for them: "We on this side, ulting pregnancy to full term unless sovereignty.... evidence of abnormality like this have foetus is produced. shown very much that the political time it seeks to turn sympathetic situation in this country will never doctors away from be the same since the referendum.

abortions by the threat of assum isn't just the right ing them guilty and putting wing sitting with Tories - they vote onus on them to prove themselves with them anyway over major ques- innocent. Common Market. James White is a Labour MP - The problem is that the 'left' covers sent to Parliament by the Glasgow they themselves sit they wn TV but also on anti- working class. Yet he links up with most reactionary ruling class to maintain the role of The question is fighting for the woman as permanent child-bearer expulsion of the right wing. In this and to further increase the burdens the Communist of working class families Party and others who cover up for fight against the attacks on them will be exposed and the alter- standard of living and jobs by the for the employers. This move must be fought Page It leading militants take volunt- redundancy then this weakens ary card), though the fight against unemployment and shop gives credibility to the press right wing who are accepting it all over the country order in avola con frontation'. fight for

IMG

BLMC

A leadin has me of thed Mor Assem- Cowley also voluntary redundanc What action Thornett, do the IS and IMG intendto tak against these people? From the history of these groups the answer card, is clear: they will with continue their same old opportunist relation- ships. Since this article was written the Socialist Worker has published a report of the IS annual conference.

The resolution dealing with redun- and lay-offs reads: dances Opposition to voluntary redundan- cles - or those accepting voluntary redundancies to take the end of the job queue, for union registration of jobs, maintenance of 100 per cent closed shops, control of hiring.

ana lo avoid One delegate from against Liverpool argued that in one factory they had "agreed that anyone • wno loot voluntary redundancy would lose union cards" and another their argued "that workers who took should redundancy be voluntary denied work 1n theit factories, and should be branched by their union (have their cards taken away)" He saw the ditti- culties in enforcing the policy but 'you have do something and there's nothing left you can do.'

if anything is see W91T done about Jock White inside IS and then and those who cleared his voluntary redundancy. Fight White's Bill through the organisations of the working class - the trade unions, and through the Labour Party Demands on the must take up a trade union leaders to real fight on this issue and not just leave it on the level of abstract only can talk - Clive Jenkins says he believes the most in the individual's right to full Colo over he leading a fight for NHS abortions bearing on demand? Cam- The National paign is campaigning against White's amendment by holding public meet- ings and fund-raising garden parties around the country and urging women to petition their MPs 'prominent people'. convince Health campaign is strictly defensive - to was a defend the status quo of existing legislation. We say that this is in no way an issue simply for women but that the whole of the working class through would be affected by this reaction- ary measure The class nature of this attack the must be clearly identified - it is not restrict as seen by the Women's Liberation Movement and the

NAC,

simply of men restricting the of rape a matter rights of women but the bourgeois state maintaining the of working in the in the family unit. The privileged bour At the same geoisie will of course continue to be able to purchase their abortions, performing as they did before 1967 and as they do now in Italy where abortion is a the crime elements of the as they their the the working class against capitalist state

MODERATION MEANS WAGECUTS

Page 8 to impoverish his member- ship in the name of "moder- and "social justice" was announced with delight by the Tory press last week- end. Jones is calling for flat rate wage increases below the increase in the cost of living, and a deal bet- ween the TUC and the CBI in "fight inflation' This, like the document for discussion at Wednesday's econ- omic committee of the TUC, (calling for autumn's pay inc- reases to be "negotiated' lower than the current rate of price increases) ignores completely the fact that inflation in relation to wages and prices is now acting in the interests of the employers.

PRICES

Soaring prices slash the value of all wage settlements as soon as AFM Must Free Maoists Maoists are still being held in gaol without trial or proper charges in Portugal. While the capitalist press throughout the West blows up the issue of 'Republica' - the newspaper supporting the right-wing reformist policies of the Socialist Party leader- ship - they remain silent on the much more serious attacks by the military -Stalinist government against the revo utionary leit. Republica was closed under government pressure, Iollowing action by Communist Party sup- porters among the print-workers.

After intricate negotiations bet- ween the military chiets and Soares, leader of the Socialist Party, it got official permission publication. Meanwhile, however, members of the Maoist MRPP (Movement for the Reconstruction of the Proletarian Party) remained in gaol. tney are neia In caxias prison on the outskirts of Lisbon. This is the gao! in which victims of the fascist regime were locked up and tortured by Salazar's PIDE (Sec- Tence elo cover ow of fascism in April last year.

Most of the reactionaries held there since then, and following Spinola's attempted coup on March 11th, have been freed. But last week the armed forces move- ment confirmed reports that MRPP members had been beaten with truncheons - claiming that the violence had been used when they attacked the warders.

These shameful facts demon- strate the thoroughly reactionary character of the policies now being pursued by the leadership of the AFM and the Portuguese Communist Party. The only government which can he interests of Port- gualanilee uguese workers is one based on the elected committees of wor- kers, soldiers and peasants, unit- ing these to form the fre nework state. of a worker! These policies cannot be fought for without the fullest freedom of discussion and political strug- gle among working-class political For this reason the WSL - despite our fundamental polit- ical differences with all forms of Maoism - calls on the labour movement in Britain to demand the immediate release of the MRPP members.

CORRECTION

In issue 9 of Socialist Press, page 2, the article on TOM should bf course have called for the independent mobilisation of the British and Irish working class and not simply the Irish working class. Jack Jones they are won, and erode the value of even the largest settle- ments. Far from wishing to prevent this the employers have clamoured continuously for an end to all price controls " lo give them free rein to raise the cost of living through the roof.

At the same time as the TUC The first meeting of the new Motor and Ancillary Workers Joint Shop Stewards Comm- ittee was held in Birmingham on June 9th. The committee had been set up following a meeting of stewards from the whole industry convened by the Leyland Stewards Comm ittee. Only 45 delegates turned up and the organisers proposed that the meeting be abandoned as "un- representative". Leading stewards, including IS supporters from Tractors and Transmissions, fail- ed to show up. The decision to abandon the meeting was wrong. It should have gone dr can dougit co become established. The decision was a blow to the struggles in the motor industry.

With such a committee it would have been possible to fight for a programme to unite the whole industry in opposition to the bur- eaucracy who keep each plant isolated. The resolutions passed at this conference, held in Scar- borough, made it clear that UCATT members will not pay for the economic crisis by accepting wage-cutting and unemployment. Central to this of course is the question of leadership. A motion was passed declaring no confid ence in the Exective for their past handling of their wage claims as well as a motion 'deprecating' the attitude of the Another motion rejecting the idea put about by the employers and their newspapers- that wage increases are the main cause of inflation - and condemning the social contract as a "subtle form of wage-cutting' as was also a motion calling for a campaign throughout the area against the 'lump'. The bureaucracy made its pos- ition clear on the question of the Shrewsbury 2. They refused to allow an emergency resolution to be put calling for the mobilis- ation of the working class to free the Shrewsbury 2 - one of whom is a UCATT member. Delegates from the Hemsworth branch stated that they had sent in such a resolution which had not got on to the printed agenda.

An important resolution put forward a programme to fight unemployment and wage-cutting on which the union's national leadership has no policy. This Printed and Published by the Workers Socialist League, 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR and Jones move in this way openly against workers living standards, they find support from the right wing of the Lab- land, Environment Secretary, called at the weekend for an "incomes policy" and talked of "Britain's [ie British capital- ism's] suicide course" speech which centred on threat- ening unemployment to those workers who refuse to settle for cuts in living standards.

"EXTREMISTS"

Yet if we listened to the Tory Press, we might think all these leaders are not right-wingers but "moderates" , and all those "extre- who oppose them were mists". [As if 400,000 NALGO the NUR were all workers, or "extremists"! Education Minister Reg Pren- tice, with the encouragement of the press, and Tories Mar- garet Thatcher and Sir Geof-

CAR INDUSTRY

Only a week before this a meet- ing of BLMC convenors voted to accept the Ryder report. The im- plications of such a decision go tar beyond the motor industry.

The committee elected to meet Ryder were unanimous in recom- mending acceptance. They includ- ed leading Stalinists such as Rob- inson from Austin's at Longbridge and right-wingers such as McGarry from Standard Triumph. The only reservation they could find was on the details of the "worker participation" section.

They are seeing Ryder again about this and will call a further meeting.

In contrast to this a principled position has been taken at Chrys- ler's Linwood plant where a meet- ing of shop stewards has rejected the same deal which was accepted at Stoke and are instead demanding £15.00 per week with no strings.

This challenges the attempts of Chrysler to implement the deal on a corporate basis and is there- fore a crucial demand. At Ford's Dagenham plant the door hangers' strike goes on and

YORKS UCATT

BEGINS FIGHT

motion was passed unamimously.

The delegate from the Castleford branch spelt out exactly what the resolutic entailed. The resolut- ion called ic: a) A sliding scale of wages - this means that agreements would assure an automatic rise in wages i: relation to the increase in the price of consumer goods - this rate to be determined by trade union committees. b) Sliding scale of hours where redundancies are threatened - all th ivork on hand would be shared ou., within each trade (obviously bricklayers should not do joinery and vice versa) with average wages not being lower than in the old working week. This work sharing would be run by elected trade union committees. c) Programme of public works - this would finance works to en- sure full employment, and to guarantce wontial services such as hospitas and schools. This should be linked with national- isation of the building industry and land so that private fitms do not drain off this finance in profit.

£ 500 fund Please send donations to our £500 monthly fund to: 31, Dartmouth Park Hill, London NW5 1HR. SOCIALIST PRESS, Thursday June 12th 1975 profit, while those who chall- frey Howe, is now emerging "moder- enge the employers' right to as the High Priest of ation", but other claimed create unemployment and "moderates" include such ex- cut living standards are branded treme right wingers as Roy 'extreme Jenkins and Shirley Williams, The TUC proposals must be and, in the unions, John Boyd thrown out with contempt and new AUEW General Secretary.

the interests of the working class defended through the

JAILING

struggle for full compensation for the rising cost of living What is remarkable about through a sliding scale of wages these "moderates" is the extreme to be incorporated in all agree.

and by no means anti-working class measures ments on top they favour. Prentice actively instead of big pay increases.

supports the jailing of pickets The only answer to inflation is (dockers in 1972, and now the not wage control under capit- alism, but a planned socialist Shrewsbury Two), surcharges on the Clay Cross councillors, economy based on the nation- The public spending cuts which are alisation of basic industry.

extreme right wing must be ex- throwing thousands more on to the dole, and cuts in the Health posed and replaced by a leader- ship prepared to fight for these Service and Education which threaten the lives and future policies, and to defend the development of workers and •basic class interests of workers their families. All this against the employer. "moder ation" goes on for the sole

W.S.L.

purpose of defending private

PUBLIC

has stopped all production. After

MEETINGS

8 weeks it still gets hardly a men- tion in the capitalist press.

In Halewood it is reported that

HULL

the shop stewards have recomm- ended a strike against short-time Wednesday June 25th 7.30 pm.

working and support for the Central Library, Albion Street.

Dagenham workers. "Who controls the Labour In Cowley several strikes of Government?" assembly workers have taken Speakers: A. Thornett, J. Nolan.

place over the past week in defence of the movement of labour agree- ment. This is the latest of a series

BRADFORD

of agreements which have been Friday June 20th 7.30 pm.

broken by management since the Central Library, Princes Way.

right wing leadership was installed by the T&G regional bureaucracy "Programme to Fight Unemployment" just over a year ago. As we go to print, a stewards' Speakers J. Nolan. meeting has decided to recommend continued strike action to a mass

LEEDS

Sunday June 22nd 7.30 pm meeting tomorrow A motion to turn the strike into Leeds Trade Council Club an occupation, because Leyland are "Policies of the Workers unable to continue selling their Socialist League" Nock was ceredeo ov only onc vote. The only WRP member in the

LONDON

plant argued and voted against the Thursday June 26th 7.30 pm occupation motion. (Workers Press Newington Small Hall, Manor Place is continually calling for occupa- London SE 17 (Elephant and Castle, tions and correctly calls for sit-ins in the event of labour pools being off Walworth Road) "After the referendum: created). The struggle for wages and jobs" It is in the Tories' interests for continued from front page a Labour Government to fight Their refusal to fight handed the out the wages issue against the advantage to Wilson. They would working class. On the basis of the not turn the 2 - 1 "no" decision at the Labour Party Special Con confusion this will create there could arise then the chance for ference into a national campaign and neutralised the Labour Party a right-wing Tory Government apparatus, while Wilson spoke as to bid for power. These are the dangers. In these the government conditions the 'left' and Benn To the extent the 'left' fought have a responsibility to fight the EEC they put forward a cap- Wilson and the right wing. Benn italist position - that remaining should not be saying he accepts in the Market would be bad for "Britain" the referendum vote or agree= [ie British capitalism ], ing to work within the EEC but bringing in the nationalist conception of "sovereignity be demanding the removal of refusing to raise the class quest- Wilson. ions or socialist alternative By putting forward this position

RESOLUTIONS

they were unable to break through the massive confusion - probably the biggest factor in the refere dum - created by Wilson's frat For this reason any attempt to ulent claim to speak for the Lah- remove Benn as Industry Sec- our Party. retary must be resisted. Wilson

'UNITY'

would seek to do this only to appease the Tories, and streng- then the grip of the right wing within the Cabinet This betrayal creates dangers Resolutions must be put in the for the working class The Labour Labout Party and in the trade leadership has shifted decisively unions both for full support for to the right. "National unity" the railwaymen and for the rem- means Wilson carrying out Tory oval of those MPs who supported policies in practice the Common Market against Wilson now rests on a Tory Labour Party policy. They must vote in the Commons. This is be replaced by people prepared to opening the road for Tory prep carry out policies in defence of aration. While Thatcher and the working class Joseph will vote with Wilson * Full support tor the railwayinen.

against the working class, they * Smash the social contract.

are only waiting in the wings for the right moment to challenge * Remove pro-Market MPs and Ministers. for power. Printed by Trade Union Labour.