Nec Touts Its Begging Bowl to Callaghan

Scan page 5

ernment. health service and democracy and on animal limit. welfare. Newly elected NEC better than workers! Skinner 4 limit.

PRESS GLI Many Labour's of 'left' dominated National Executive will probably have been sewing patches onto the knees of their trousers over the weekend in preparation for a visit to Callaghan on Monday October 23.

They will crawl in, carryine between them the most puny begging bowl imaginable, in the desperate hope that Callaghan will offer them some pretext to continue arguing for the maintenance of this reactina marr lonary, wage culung guvAmong the pathetic proposals to be pressed on Callaghan are for him to publish major new bills on a wemocracy, and in austial In view of Callaghan's well-known reluctance to tax the rich, and the class the industrial democracy" collaboration enshrined in fraud, the likelihood is that animals would come out of such a programme much A gang of National Front thugs emerged from their headquarters at 8.10 last Friday night and savagely attacked five or six people outside.

The range of weapons used by the fascists included an iron bar and a pick-axe handle inscribed with instructions on which parts of the body to strike for maximum effect.

One of the victims needed 65 stitches in a head wound; another had a broken arm.

But the Tory press-so anxious to report the slightest incident by "football hooligans"-relegated the incident to small insidepage articles.

• This attack is Workers now among the 1½ million unemployed will no doubt also be overjoyed at the prospect that Labour NEC pleadings may bring about a democratisation of the Arts Council-thus opening up a couple of jobs.

But the NEC, according to Labour's house journal Labour Weekly:

•.. want to avoid the •a mounting series of violent attacks by the fascists, which are now more and more aimed at white antifascist forces as well as the black and immigrant communitv.

The previous Saturday, 15 ANL petitioners leaving Hoxton market were brutally attacked by fascists who included trained boxers and other weapon-wielding thugs. One of the ANL members was seriously injured.

The same weekend 30 British Movement thugs broke up a dance at Thames Polytechnic.

There then followed a tamilar pattern of police behaviour as the fascists attacked a group of Asian youths in a car.

As one of the Asians got out to defend himself with a situation where the opposition has a chance to combine together to defeat the government on a major plank of policy and possibly precipitate an election."

But of course nowhere amongst all this talk is there the slightest reference to socialist policies of nationalisation of the banks and major industry without compensation under workers management; of programmes of public works under the control of elected trade union committees to create new jobs at union rates of pay; or of restoranon or me cuts -d.-.. 4 ta 1 he m the other social services.

Nor will there be any serious attempt by the NEC to reverse the government's position on the 5% pay lefts' Neil Kinnock and Dennis Skinner have joined most of their Tribunite colleagues in tactful silence on the wages issue since the conference, thus avoiding their mandate to lead a campaign against the Phase spanner in his hand, he promptly arrested.

This was followed up by the arrest of two antifascist students, who are being charged 1 under the Race Relations Act.

This police behaviour will surprise only those such as the leadership of the Anti Nazi League who continue to believe that the aid of this state force can be relied upon to assist the fight against the fascists.

In reality the NF and BM attacks come under conditions of a developing class movement against the 5% pay policy.

And this strengthening movement offers a real basis for fighting fascism, because as it moves into struggles, the working class begins to break down the artificial divisions within its ranks and to act as a class against the common capitalist enemy.

Under these conditions the fight must be stepped up wherever the fascists show their heads for the construction of trade unionbased workers defence squads capable of sweeping these scum off the streets.

An important example of the kind of support that can be mobilised through the unions was shown recently when Hull Trades Council brought upwards of 60 trade unionists onto the streets to protect a Socialist Workers Party bookshop from reneated fascist attack as Sheffield MP Martin Flannery, who last week correctly declared that "People are sick to death of the government's pay policy."

But what must concern NEC and Tribunites alike is the prospect of people becoming sick to death of empty left rhetoric from Parliamentary windbags