Carworkers Conference
Socialist Press1979 1979-01-03Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 4 →
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"HE CRISIS IN THE MOTOR INDUSTR) Called by the Campaign for Democracy ails from CDLM, c/o 37, Birchfield C violent repression meted out by the same capitalist state machinery that is at work in the six counties.
Addressing the "English people" it says:
"For 10 years our people have suffered under your Army"
This deliberately ignores the fact that "our" army has become a standard strikebreaking tool used by Labour traitors against the British working class.
The IRA statement exhibits its confusion most clearly when it asks:
"Who are we to hold responsible for British murder in The answer is simple: the culprits are the British capitalist class, its state machine, and its servile lackeys in the Labour and trade union movement.
in the Labour Movement January 20, 1979 in Birmingham Blackbird Leys, Oxford his dying hours and sought ways to prolong his valuable life.
'Mercy' team
When even these methods brought no improvement, no less a friend than President Carter sent out a high-powered team of medical experts on a 'mercy' flight to the Maghreb.
All in vain. The 'Revolutionary Council' which heads the Algerian bureaucracy was forced to lock itself up to decide on a successor to their widelylamented leader.
This whole enterprise was an ironic parallel to the history of the Algerian revolution itself. After the victory of the FLN and the winning of independence from French imperialism in 1962, the petty-bourgeois nationalists who came to power Boumedienne proclaimed their devotion to socialism and turned for support to the Stalinist bureaucracy of the Soviet Union.
Necessary response
But the spate of nationalisations and collectivisations which took place in this early period was largely a necessary response to the problems caused by the long and bitter war and by the exodus of French capital and colonial managers.
Geared to capitalism Under Boumedienne's direction, the political positions and economic structure of Algeria were geared more and more to the requirements of capitalism, often in violent contrast to the colourful rhetoric brandished by the very same leader.
Today, it is the United States which stands as the major trading partner of 'socialist' Algeria.
In thirteen years, Boumedienne proved his worth to Stalinism and imperialism alike.
The task for socialists is to expose that role once and for all to the masses of Algeria who stili preserve some desperate hopes of their bureaucratic rulers.