Move to smash Beirut fascists

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of the Lebanese fascists and rightists in Beirut by the forces of the Syrian army.

On the one: side are the forces which the capitalist press insists on calling 'Christian militias' They are in fact right-wing private armies-the largest of which are run by Pierre Gemayel's Phalange Party, which takes its name and political inspiration from the organisation of Spanish fascists.

They also include the rather smaller forces under the control of the National Liberal Party of Camille Chamoun, veteran reactionary politician.

The Syrian army intervened two years ago to save these groups from defeat by the combined military forces of Palestinians and Lebanese socialists.

Since that time the rightwing forces have occupied an Protestants).

The main supporters of the fascists have consistently been the Zionist regime of Israel, who have continued to supply them with heavy military equipment and many other supplies.

This helps to account for the importance of a number of small naval encounters during the fighting including the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian refugee camps on the night of 6 October.

The Zionists at the moment are so concerned with their bilateral agreement with Egypt that they are prepared to do little for the protection of their fascist allies.

Defeat The Syrians, on the other hand, though prepared to defeat socialists and Palestinian nationalists, are not willing to allow the fascists and their allies to threaten their hold over Lebanon.

Distorted

They have taken the opportunity of the Camp David accords to begin their bombardment of the fascist-hold areas, in order to crush resistance with as little loss as possible to themselves.

The smallest and weakest force in Lebanon now is that of the Lebanese state of President Elias Sarkis, which probably has as few as 7,000 troops at its command as against 10,000 Palestinians, 5,000 Phalange, 1,000 other rightists and around 30,000 Syrians.

The aim of the Syrians is to retain control over Lebanon which they regard as part of their empire.

The Israelis, for strategic reasons, do not want a stronger Syrian State, just as they are in the process of weakening the Egyptians on their other flank.

The imperialist powers, particularly the Americans and the French, would prefer to set up a strong, Lebanese state, and have prepared various diplomatic initiatives to do so.

Their efforts seem doomed however, and The Times last week felt it would be just as good to allow The Christians to maintain order in their own area', ', thus accepting the UDI.

The crumbling of the state structure set up by the imperialists and the national bourgeoisie in the Middle East shows more and more the need for revolutionary policies to mobilise the Arab and . Jewish masses in a way to establish a socialist united states in the area. restraint for civil servants.

Working class opposition to these austerity measures has been registered in series of by-election defeats for the ruling coalition, with the Communist Party and more particularly, the Socialist Party winning a number of new seats.

The by-elections arise out of irregularities at the time of the general election and the most prominent person to be unseated so far is Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, leader of the who suffered a crushing defeat on 24 September.

Time and again however the union leaders demonstrate their inability to defend the interests of their members.

In the steel industry their sole response was to call a one-day strike. This gained broad support from other sections of workers and even from shop-keepers, indicating the possibilities of a serious fight-but was treated as no more than a one-off protest gesture.

More timid still were union bureaucrats in the la Ciotat shipyard, who called CP leader Marchais And trade union militancy is flowing over, particularly among the youth, into political activity.

At the last Communist Party fete 8,000 people7,500 of them youth joined the party.

These new members will find not a shred of political analysis or leadership from this Stalinist party, however.

The task in France remains the construction of a Trotskyist party to expose and confront the existing leadership and mobilise the independent strength of the demangs of the Transitional working class

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rage 4 Last year's TUC conference i unanimously endorsed a resolution in support of the marathon union recognition strike at Grunwicks.

It pledged general support and heard news of Len Murray's 'Secret Plan' to win the strike.

It was to be the last public discussion by the senior trade union leaders mass picket last November the strike committee or the union bureaucracy and that the diversion of the mass Mrs. Desai The strike committee was