Workers Socialist League

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

[Whichever way you look at the struggles and…]

Socialist Press no. 139, 28 February 1979 · scan pp. 10–11 · about 571 words

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Whichever way you look at the struggles and problems now facing the working class throughout the world, one thing stands out above all: the necessity for a principled leadership capable of leading the struggle for state power and the establishment of a socialist society.

The massive revolutionary upheaval that has now toppled the seemingly impregnable might of the Shah of Iran and which is now already coming into conflict with the restrictions placed upon it by its Islamic "leaders" serves as a vivid reminder that socialist revolution is not only possible, but essential if the apparatus of capitalist repression and exploitation is to be destroyed once and But such a revolution requires a conscious Marxist leadership. And the fight to construct such a leadership is inseparable from the fight in the day-to-day struggles of the working class internationally for the principles. method and demands of the Trotskyist Transitional Programme. The Workers Socialist League has time and again proved to be the only movement in Britain that fights patiently and relentlessly on such a perspective.

We alone are the movement that does not even head-on battles with the existing leaders of the - whether these 'leaders' be open right wingers, Labourites or Stalinists of the Communist Party.

Of course this policy has made us no friends in the trade union, and Labour bureaucracy, or amongst the opportunists and centrists of the British, 'left'. But it has meant that the WSL has consistently offered the most powerful lead to workers in struggle.

In each struggle we set out to prove to workers both in theory and in practice the necessity of a new, revolutionary leadership and for a programme of transitional demands which, staring t the working class, lead workers in struggle to grasp the need for starting from today's problems and today's consciousness within This is why the WSL has featured at the forefront of pay struggles in British Leyland and the public sector, in the fight against redundancies and closures, in struggles against the cuts, unionisation fights, and the fight for democracy in the labour This method of approach - rejecting any descent to simple trade union militancy or concession to the labour bureaucracy - is Trotskyism of course essential not only in Britain but internationally.

In taking up international issues in the labour movement the WL stresses not only the obligation of British workers to support the Irish liberation struggle and revolutionary struggles such as those in Iran and Southern Africa, but also the necessity for the reconstruction of the Trotskyist Fourth International as the organising centre of the world party of socialist revolution.

The WSL is not the biggest movement on the left in Britain; but its approach to both theory and practice make it the only Fill in the form below for more details, or approach your local branch, who will gladly supply more information about our MORE DETAILS Price 45p plus 15 p p&p from WSL, 31,. 10 ISSUES POST FREE!

take advantage of this oday 4 Contents include *Mandel's Dance with *The Significance of the *The US SWP Forty Years On Dartmouth Park Hill, London N5 1HR Transitional for all. movement. Please Name Addre Send socialist revolution. really serious revolutionary movement.

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← Contents of Socialist Press no. 139, 28 February 1979