Plo Did Deal with U.n

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I wish to add to remarks made in the article Shootouts hamper fight against Zinniem' in Socialist Press L1111 No: 111 and to elaborate a point which, if left unelaborated, seriously weakens the article.

The article quite rightly points out that the Palestinian workers and peasants will gain nothing from an alliance with the Ba'athists at this or any other time but fails to spell out why the "Rejectionists" seem to have adobted this approach.

The crumbling collapse of morale of the racist regime of Ian Smith in Rhodesia has its chroniclers-even unwilling ones.

Socialist Press reported last week the depths to which the media would stoop to boost the most transparent lies and propaganda of the regime (Smith's Frame Up: SP 112, This week those who push a pen in the service of imperialism have been preparing the road for a tactical turn by Smith-a turn which could involve the ditching of the discredited 'internal settlement" in favour of a new broader sell-out embracing Nkomo and possibly Mugabe.

For the first time, the Daily Telegraph was prepared to admit that there were problems in persuading black Africans that the pampered Uncle Toms at Smith's side represented their interests.

A report from Christopher Munnion in Salishury spotlighted the fiasco of Government Ministers travelling around rural areas trying to gain "Sparse attendances, barracking, and the presence of unarmed guerrillas among the audiences are being blamed for the failure of ministerial tours so far.

'Only seven people turned up at the Wankie colliery stadium in NorthWestern Rhodesia on The article that this has quence of inability workers drive IN in fact implies been a conse. the military of , Palestinian and peasants to troops out of the Lebanon.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Whilst there is no doubt that the Zionists were able to inflict a military defeat on the Palestinians when they invaded the Lebanon, there can be equally no doubt that the Zionist stooges, UNIFIL, have had no need to inflict further defeats precisely because the petty bourgeois leaders of the PLO quickly did a deal with the UN "peacekeeping" force.

It was partly as a result of this deal that the Zionist troops withdrew. It is not a military defeat sustained at the hands of the UN which ship which has arrested and even executed Palestinians who have tried to carry on the armed struggle.

To go even further, it is doubtful that UNIFIL could contain the armed struggle if the Palestinian people were given a leadership committed to fighting the Zionist State rather than doing a deal with it, and it would be in the course of this struggle that masses of other Arab workers and peasants could be won to the side of their Palestinian brothers and sisters.

Examples of this have already been seen in embryo form in both Jordan and more recently,. in a more advanced form, in the Lebanon.

It is this struggle to oust the present petty bourgeois PLO leadership and replace it with one that rejects compromise which is now being fought out in part, "on embassy steps around the world"

On a plate The great danger is that one petty-bourgeois leader¡ship will be replaced by another; Arafat will be replaced by those who would be prepared to hand The only solution for the Palestinian people is, of course, a socialist solution, which in turn demands a Trotskyist leadership for the Palestinian masses.

Such a leadership will have to be built through the continual exposure of the petty-bourgeois leaders and would-be leaders of the Palestinian masses by Trotskyists worldwide as we carry • out our solidarity work with the Palestinian workers and peasants.

Integral part

In the meantime we cannot escape the fact that, for the Palestinian people, the selection and dismissal of leaders takes a slightly different form from that prevailing in Britain at the present time, and must acknowledge that this is an integral part of the struggle for a leadership which will defend their interests.

To this extent, we can support the rejectionists.

As the article quite rightly points out, however, the struggle will not be won on the steps of foreign embassies nor will it be ultimately won with the aid of the Ba'athists; and to this extent we must be critical of the rejectionists.

Yours fraternally, T.E. Brown Leeds leadership's role as errand runners for the State.

Mason It is however a further quantitative development which will encourage for example police chief McNee to press further his demands for unlimited police powers.

In the Defence Ministry, for example, plans have been drawn up for submission to the Cabinet, permitting the Ministry's own 5,000 strong police force to operate outside defence establishments.

Unlimited powers

Proposals, which include powers to search and arrest anyone in the vicinity of places under its control and control temporary' defence buildings (Heathrow perhaps?) would give it virtually unlimited powers.

The force would be reorganised on national lines.

• It already possesses the power to control all Crown property (including for example, " Social Security offices) within 15 miles of a defence establishment.

Virtually the whole population would fall under powers of 'stop and search' and 'hot pursuit' Discrete support The Daily Mirror last week became the first British capitalist paper ever to call for the withdrawal of British troops in Northern homes lie empty for years. discrete support in the Sunday Times, which reported that a massively strengthened RUC wanted the opportunity to flex its muscles alone.

The increase in defence forces appears to rule out this tactical possibility facing the bourgeoisie.

• Airey Neave, in the same speech (almost the same breath) in which he praised Mason and the Labour traitors, made the view of the imperialists crystal clear.

Claiming first that the role of the troops was to prevent. "conflict between armed men" ; he added revealingly:

NATO «Nor do the advocates of retreat appear to notice the implications for our defences. Britain's role in NATO depends in part on having ports and bases in Northern Ireland ...

"Of two things Northern Ireland can be certain: the Conservative Party like the Labour Party; will have no amnesty for 'terrorists or restore so-called political status for prisoners-for which some silly people in high places are presently campaigning.

"And we shall not consider any plans which could result in the weakening of the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

The struggle in Ireland for the throwing out of the troops must be taken up by the British working class.

A struggle against the bourgeoisie must involve struggle to remove Mason, Mulley, Callaghan and all the other traitors in the labour movement who faithfully carry out their policy.

The role of the army in Germany, Ireland and Britain is one and the same -to uphold the power of the bourgeoisie against the working class internationally.

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the Palestinian masses, on a plate, to the Ba'athists.

PHOTO: Derek Speirs, PHOTO: