Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press, Trotskyism Today and the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1975–1984

Sack Callaghan to Defeat Tories

Socialist Press no. 107, 5 July 1978 · scan pp. 1–2 · about 1,606 words

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the pretence of a demo- lists of candidates.

Stop torture of Irish POWs! March July 9 See back page the Labour leaders.

The lefts' have demonstrated their refusal to take such a stand at any pointand in doing so they have contributed to demoralisation and cynicism among Labour supporters who want to fight the capitalist offensive.

Callaghan and the right wing feed off such weakness.

They are counting on the traditionally low level of Labour Party activity during the summer period and the likely cancellation of this year's Party conference, in order to force through a thoroughly reactionary manifesto with rank and file members being denied even cratic voice.

This strategy for betrayal must be fought throughout the workers' movement.

Every trade union branch, Labour Party ward and GMC must discuss these latest developments and pass resolutions demanding a full Labour Party conference be called prior to the General Election, at which delegates will have the opportunity to throw out Callaghan's proposed manifesto and the entire Lib-Lab cabinet.

Local MPs must be forced to state their positions, and Callaghan's supporters removed from It is on this issue and the fight in practice for a socialist programme based on abolition of wage controls, restoration of spending cuts, a programme of public works. to create new jobs and nationalisation of the banks and major industries without compensation under workers' management that the Labour 'lefts' can be put to the test.

As they are proved unable to challenge the right wing, the best layers of workers will recognise the necessity for a break from social democracy and the construction of a revolutionary leadership to take the working class to power. all the reasons in the world are tion panicipating in participa, he declared.

This is certainly not true of Scanlon himself, who openly declared his complete dedication to Leyland management when, jointly with former TGWU leader Jones, he went on to the front page of the Leyland Mirror to call on his members to "keep working" and accept management attacks.

—In line with this, Scanlon and the Confed leaders gave their backing last Spring to a management ultimatum to 3,000 striking AUEW toolmakers, demanding they return to work or face the sack.

He is clearly eager that other union officials follow this line, and make similar threats to their members.

"We must work together on the problems that face the workforce" , he said. "At times we have to say unpleasant things to our members"

Echoing every employer in the current crisis, Scanlon linked his call for continuous production to the threat of withdrawal of investment and closure if stoppages continued:

"What does one do when disputes of the nature of some which have developed in BL take place, and you are asked to bring money forward and there is no money available because it has gone on lost The answer to Scanlon's question is straighforward: you get rid of the class collaborationist 'participation' set-up and its defenders; you set up elected trade union committees to open BL's books and expose the huge profits accruing to component firms, suppliers and the banks; and you step up the fight throughout the workers movement for the nationalisation of these private sectors, without compensation, under workers' management.

Any answer which stops short of such a solution serves only to tie the working class and its unions in with BL management which, under Michael Edwardes and the Callaghan government, is hell-bent on slashing 12,500 jobs and imposing drastic speed-up throughout the combine.

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liberation fight David Whitfield traces the history of the struggle of the Eritrean people for self- David Whitfield traces the history of the struggle of tl determination against both imperialist powers and a succ Matarmination against hoth imnerialist powers and a succession of repressive regimes When the British forces invaded Eritrea in 1941, they came, of course, not to liberate an oppressed people but to advance one campaign in the second imperialist World War.

Yet the eleven years of British colonial rule gave rise to major political developments among the Eritrean people.

In this phase of imperialist domination, Eritrea was radically transformed economically and socially, both by the policies of the administration and even more by the operation of forces completely beyond the control of the British rulers.

In the first period of Italian rule after 1889, Eritrea had been exploited as a market for Italian goods, as a settler colony and as a military base for further colonial expansion into north-east Africa.

But with the consolidation of fascist power, Mussolini's dictatorship began a limited but rapid industrialisation of the territory.

A considerable communications infrastructure had already been developed, but this was expanded along with military projects and the growth of light industry.

By the time of the British invasion, 20% of the Eritrean population lived in the mushrooming towns and cities, and a substantial proletariat had been born.

in Ethiopia. Part Two.

The new administration regarded Eritrea in a very different light. For the British state, Eritrea did not have the same unique strategic value it held for the Italian colonialists.

Britain already dominated or directly controlled most of the Middle East, and by now all of northeast Africa.

Not long term The British had no intention of extending their rule beyond the end of the war, and so very little incentive to develop the country's resources with any long-term plan.

In their mass propaganda, successfully used to incite the Eritreans to revolt and to desert from the conscript Italian armies, the British declared "we give you our word you shall be allowed to choose what government you desire!"

In practice, the British aimed at this stage to hand over Eritrea to Haile Selassie, the puppet emperor whom they had restored to autocratic despotism in Ethiopia.

Later, atter the defeat if fascism in Italy, they were consider returning the colony its former masters-but never concede independence.

During the remainder of the war, Eritrea was used as a source of supplies for the Allied forces in the Middle East.

Boosted by American capital, light industry flourished in a short lived boom, with 300 new factories established.

The military installations were easily adapted and expanded, but other . aspects of the Italian legacy were less easy to dispose of.

Huge numbers of Italian settlers were deported interned outside Eritrea, but a large number still remained.

The British sought at once to win their allegiance and to increase agricultural produce by granting them extensive tracts of the most fertile land owned by Eritreans.

Despite replacements at the top, the Italian bureaucratic apparatus was largely co-opted lock, stock and barrel.

But in other ways, the forms of British rule were very different from those that had preceded them.

With far greater experience of colonial rule, the British bourgeoisie had arelatively more sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of colonial development than the Italians.

Rigid repression

Particularly in the period of fascism, the Italian adminstration had exercised rigid repression over any signs of independence from the Eritreans.

The Eritreans had been held back at the lowest possible level of development, educated only in the glories and triumphs of Italian civilisation.

While the British state had by now uncomfortably realised that such a colonial policy was, in the long term, suicidal, in Eritrea it faced the problem of controlling a country with the potential of massive resistance not only from the Eritreans but also from the Italian settlers.

And all this at a time when the British government was severely strained by the demands of the war, and could ill afford great expenses in The direct appeasement of the Italian settlers had to be accompanied by some form of political reliance on the Eritreans themselves.

Education

The British greatly expanded and completely transformed the education systyem, hoping to win the loyalty of a new petty-bourgeois elite of intellectuals and technicians. A process of 'Eritreanisation' began in the civil service.

The new colonial rulers also turned their attention to the rural areas, which still contained 80% of the population.

Here the Italian adminstration had done little but attempt to gain the support of the feudal chiefs by not interfering with their powers.

The British followed the pattern they had established in other colonies by seeking to create a new system where the chiefs would become the local representatives and administrators of the colonial power, MASSAWA ASMARA.

DAN BEGEMDIR GAJAM ARRAR ETH KENYA NAIROBI dependent for their authority 'on the strength of their new employers rather than their dominant position in the feudal society.

But all these initiatives actually contributed to the acceleration of hostility and open opposition to imperialist oppression.

With the ending of the war, British policy took a new turn. The industrial 'boom' immediately collapsed as imperialists withdrew their capital, and many factories were closed.

The administration acted to dismantle the factories and other installations, transferring and selling off the machinery, scrap and even the floating dock of Massawa to other British colonies. ERed Sea: • SAUDI ARABIA NORTH YEMEN SOUTH YEMEN OGADEN t 250m Greater Somalia Already the British had prevented the development of cotton plantations and goldmining which had begun to develop in the last years of Italian rule (India, Egypt and South Africa provided British imperialism with these com.modities in abundance).

Many of the infrastructural schemes started by the Italians had been halted, and large areas of the communications network allowed to fall in disrepair and neglect.

Now the post-war Labour government presided over the rundown and cynical, systematic plundering of the whole

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← Contents of Socialist Press no. 107, 5 July 1978