Socialist Press no. 15

TUC'S REACTIONARY DIVERSION

IMPORT CONTROLS:

DANGEROUS POLICY

TUC leaders, meeting last week, adopted two reactionary planks of policy to attempt to hold back their members from struggle to defend jobs and wages The first was the decision by the economic committee to recomm- end the TUC inonitor wage settle- ments to ensure that they do not go beyond the government's state imposed £6 limit. The collaboration of the TUC in this way covers up the vicious usé of the lew-by the Wilson government to cut real wages, and violates every principle of trade unionism. The second decision, taken at the same meeting, was to press the government for quick measures to restrict imports. The idea, as always with the TUC, was to throw a smoke-screen around their betray- als, butäs completely different.

from the left talk of earlier periods.

NATIONALIST

There must be no mistake. To call for import controls is a react- ionary diversion from the struggle in every factory to defend all jobs and defend living standards. It suggests to workers that they should ally with "their" employer against foreign capitalists. In doing so, it seeks to whip up nationalist feelings which will be used to isol- ate and weaken British workers as sharper struggles emerge.

It leads a way from the all-out struggle against the employers necessary to defend jobs.

This can be seen from the effect of the demand in recent working class struggles. In Imperial Type- writers in Hull, where workers occupied for nineteen weeks in defence of jobs, the demand for import controls, coupled with the "Yanks out" nationalist slogan of put forward by the local leadership was linked to utopian schemes for a cooperative. The struggle was defeated, with no political lessons learned.

"DUMPING"

In the textile industry, where jobs are being lost faster than in almost any other industry, the trade union and Labour leaders have for a long period simply cam- paigned for embargoes and restric- tions against alleged "dumping" of imports, rather than fight for nat- ionalisation and work-sharing.

Now, in the struggle at Norton Villiers Triumph, three demands have been passed by Wolverhamp- ton shop stewards: for nationalis- ation of the company; for no red- andancies; and for import controls.

Ominously, the only demand being discussed by the T&GWU

SOCIALIST

PRESS

fighting NVT management. The danger is that this could be accepted by the shop stewards. As a spokesman for the occupation committee said in an interview with Socialist Press: The Japanese are importing bikes to such an extent they put the working people of this nation on the dole. The opposite is the case. Jobs are being taken away by British employ- ers, not "the Japanese". The fight must direct at the main enemy.

LEFT-TALKERS

The import control policy is not restricted simply to right wing trade union leaders. Left talkers such as Clive Jenkins of ASTMS and 'left' MPs of the Tribune group have it as a centre-piece of their reformist ponces, une latest econome doc ument put forward to the NEC by the Labour 'lefts' centred on a strengthening of import controls.

Eric Heffer, talking of a "radical approach to Britain's problems" has called in the New Statesman for Wilson to "mobilise Britain's , and to "include overseas assets' selective import controls" - followed by a call for what he calls "volunt- wage control". This shows that for Heffer, like the TUC, there is no separation between these policies.

In the call for import controls both 'lefts' and rights have the full support of the Communist Party. The Morning Star greeted TUC's first adoption of the the policy earlier this year, saying: "Its call for the temporary impos- ition of import controls is also a measure which is long overdue, and is now a matter of urgency in view of the serious crisis shown by the huge deficit in the balance of payments.. T'he word "temporary", like the current word "selective" used by the TUC, What is here is a cover. being applauded by the Stalinists is a fraudulent policy which attempts to avoid the struggle for jobs - at the expense of the jobs of workers in the countries hit by import rest- rictions.

REJECTED

In fact, the treacherous nature of the whole campaign being whipped up (and noticeably spearheaded by right-winger Jack Jones, who has called for a total ban on Japanese imports of motorcycles in order nte mollust onoos, Dul u "stopping British currency going So on the one hand we see react- ionary union leaders clamour for the govern ment to stop importing Japanese cars, so as to prop up British Leyland (where they are assisting the company to impose redundancies through the Ryder plan.) The latest of these is the leadership of the white-collar union APEX, which is launching a "Buy British Cars" campaign, and called for restrictions on Japanese and Continental cars. On the other hand the Sunday Times Business News devoted a major article to exposing how small is the loss to British capitalism on trade with Japan, and how im- practical import controls against Japan would be for other British car manufacturers. These union leaders know their policies are a fraud to cover their own betrayals.

The policy of restricting imports is doubly dangerous for the work- ing class because it also ties work- ers to attempting to preserve a particular industry and leads away from the defence of jobs: It is in this way that it links with the TUC acceptance of speed-up and wage cutting, because only through such measures can the industry be main- tained under capitalism.

POLICY

A socialist policy to defend jobs must begin not from the imagined need to defend one capitalist against another, but from the real need of workers to preserve their right to a job. It must begin then to challenge the power and the 'rights' of the employer and to develop organs of workers' control - factory comm- ittees - to lead the fight.

Such factory committees must start out with one goal in view, the defence of the workforce: not one job lost, not one penny less.

This is of course inseparable from the fight for work sharing on full pay to divide available work among the whole workforce. This in turn demands in the case of bankrupt firms their nationalisation, under committees of workers' management Such socialist nationalisations - with a centralised economic plan of state contracts and a state mon- poly of toreign trade - are the opposite of the "nationalisation" carried out under capitalism.

Capitalist nationalisations are aimed at equipping national capitalist states to compete better in the world market, and better exploit the working class. They are subject to the law of value and the drive for profits. For this reason workers in 'nationalised' industries are often among the first to be threatened with the sack. Within every industry where jobs are threatened, workers must org-

FORTNIGHTLY PAPER OF THE

WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE

No.15 * 20th AUGUST 1975 * 10k

UNITE TO DEFEAT

REACTIONARIES

IN PORTUGAL!

Badly beaten Communist Party member protected from reactionary mob by soldier In every corner of the newspapereeditor, every friend of world all eyes are turned each poverty ånd oppression have beet behind these reactionary move day now on the unfolding ments. Their initiators have beer drama of the Portuguese the reformists of the Portuguese Socialist Party, their cheer-leader Revolution. the rotten social democrats of Eu Every class conscious worker.

ope, with Harold Wilson at their every treacherous labour bureau- head. crat, every capitalist afraid for his The leader of them all of cours position and every CIA agent lab- is US Secretary of State, Henry ouring to preserve the system of Kissinger. Addressing the racialis imperialist exploitation, each in faithful on Wednesday last, 14th his own way sees Portugal as the August, in Birmingham, Alabama fulcrum of the post-war break-up he expressed himself opposed to of capitalist boom under the ham- 'the efforts of a minorit ' aimed mer blows of the international at 'subverting the revolution'.

offensive of the working class.

As though such hypocrisy was As the forces of counter-revolution not enough, he then went on to have gathered in recent weeks to attack "the involvement of exter attack every gain that the revolu- nal powers' in Portugal, a form o tion has made so far, the decisive activity in which one assumes he factor has been and still remains has expert knowledge. As Presid the independent mobilisation of ent Ford put it in a US News & the power of the working class, World Report interview, the US not just in Portugal itself.

was being 'prevented from acting The book-burnings, the beatings by the recent 'bad press' obtaines and attacks on trade union offices, by the CIA. led or cheered on by nuns, priests Still, hope was at hand 'We and archbishops, have been splash- know that the Western Europea ari oroco the morai nraco anr tele

INTERNATIONAL

IS.

CRISIS

IVES ON

The much talked of econ- "recovery" continues to nder, before it even begins, of mounting the rocks ation. Interest rates con- to rocket, major price eases have been announced big steel ntly by the panies, and in all the whole price in annuat rate of annual rate of Hoffa, teamsters Wallace Even though there are abundant

U.S.A.

are competing for buyers, and movement." are wide open markets firms that have survived the increasing inflation even answer the fuses In the largest capitalist country candidate. shown Humphrey ing approaching the off the capitalist production can be ago.

DEMOCRATS

These reveal leanwhile, the Democratic Party as the painful process of finding both idential candidate for 1976. At the campaign has begun within the the right large extreme to

COLOU

3 racist candidate George Wallace could win

USSR: SOVIET

Da beng acople. Tine

LIC

Zaradov's purpose however, is tirely up to date. It is to give at verbal support to the policies CP and the Portuguese to re- and other Communist Parties notably the Western Europe overdoing their lians - who are thusiasm for parliamentary "dem- marks an attempt to bend rod of Stalinist policy in West- Europe slightly to the left of For Trotskyists Trotskyists, the march of European working class - led by events in Portugal - make all the re urgent a careful study of the and its king: class Soares i

NEWS

Reports from Peking last indicated week Narodom bodia's titular head would not be welcomed back by the leadership of the Khmer Rouge liberation forces. Sihanouk, Korea after spending the last five years in China, Will not be allowed to bring his large retinue of hangers on back his immediate family and one aide.

Wallace on anti-union and racist ticket

"CHAOS"

former president of the "if union said recently. became President of the would the first thing he do would be to destroy the labour Despite reports and chaos inside Cambodia which have been enthusiastically retailed Hoffa has recently himself dis- few mocapitaline pesement set appeared under mysterious circum- stances. In the mean time the only Party Khmer Democratic ma- up able to act with increasing indep chine can produce to Wallace is the ageing Hubert Humphrey -who Ie- to see himself, far, as a so islands occupied by the south vier- American workers have already what they think the acute food crisis in Cambodia when they shouted him the government is demanding that platform at the massive the Provisional Revolutionary 300 000 strong anti-unemployment ernment in Saigon release Tally in Washington three months stocks of American rice there, iginally destined for the Lon political developments for sharply the need working class party independent of newal of diplomatic relations with Republican and Democratic Parties a Labour Party in the USA.

frontier arrangements on the long same time they. snow luc common border of the two coun support such a party American amongst workers in the class battles ahead.

DISTORTS

ofothe proletariat" on the path to socialist revolution: to ine "Lenin showed first of all that the p917, bye rich lessons offered in hegemony of the proletariat trans- strategy towards autocratic regimes working class intervenes on behalf of the whole people, at the head of discussing Iwo Tactics is not the theoretical strengthening of the rev- democratic forms of struggle. Lenin is concerned to defend the bureau- move towards socialism by a route reactionary conclusions" words are a crushing condemnation of those on the right who slander the communists by presenting them the Italian CP, who responded de- and of making a "false anal- tist slogans of 'immediate socialism'.

Russia in 1905 and that of Europe Even the loyal George Marchais head of the French CP, insisted that contain and control G in close colla- independent struggles of the work- could be a step forward for revolut- reason for dipping into Two Tactics, above. George Marchais meant it, but in order to sweeten relations with the French socialists which had been soured by Stalinist criticism of Mitterand's support for

CAMBODIA

KHMER ROUGE

BEGINS TO REBUILD

government in • eration ability to act independ- and their that. Prince of Sihanouk, ently aoes not oly Sihanouk, the internal situation. Cam depend on of state, five After years devastation, economic even the guaranteeing of basic rice cannot be achieved over- supplies night and in isolation from Cambodian presently North But the government is strengthened by the revolutionary struggles in the other South East countries Thailand, into Cambodia, but only In the Pramoj gov- ernment faced a wave of demon strations strikes. against assassinations, dozens, of peasant and trade union leaders. And in the north of the coun Communist liberation are regaining ground; ten days ago of massacres they took a heavily guarded police post in the province of Nakhan.

THREAT

months the government set Rouge appears It is the threat posed by that makes the rection. and not on institutions o Thai regime unable to the rightist Cambodian To of

SOLIC

would be eager, with the backing US imperialism, to of into armed And it is equally Thailand itself that forces the in regime there to negotiate with the Phnom Penh Cambodian government. What the struggle of the Thai revolutionaries demonstrates is that extension of the the only the rest of South East ution into in the long run, Asia can, the gains made in Cambodia, The strengthening of the lib nam and Laos.

THEORIST

LEnIN democratic revolution to complet- ion, allying to itself the mass of the autocracy's resistance by force and paralyse the bourgeoisie's instability.

The proletariat must accomplish the socialist revolution, allying to itsel the mass elements of the population, so as to by force and paralyse the instabilit [Lenin Collected Works Volume 9 Zaradov uses Lenin's stress on the necessity for the proletariat to struggle for democracy to underline the politics of detent oranges Portuguese warn the against pursuing too aggressive a line). He doubtless! found some com mon characteristics of Russia 1905 1975 and Portugal In 1905 there had been argument. a long history of autocratic rule, a large, peasantry and a larger poor area of capitalist development which occupation of factories in relation to that back ward was in surrounding countries.

cratic straightjacket on actions which

DIFFERENCES

But the differences, even leaving the general out world working class are Whereas the striking. hand still held Russia in its grasp in sought to establish a correct relation- 1905 the Portuguese fascists today ship between bourgeois democratic have been booted out 1905 still Russia was of the proletariat of. capitalism for the freedom develop, today in Portugal - thanks In this he argues against the Men- the pressure to and for the conception which shared class - nationalisation of the means are on the order of of production SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975

USA

Report from John Lister in New York. from the Minutes away Cambodia dollar banking houses billion of the skyscrapers in Manhattan stand the crumb- of war and ling blocks of tenements and recovery, shops and derelict seedy buildings that make up much other of New York. The city, now sweating in the stifling summer heat and humidity warning to the effects is a glaring of long-term hard-core mass and the impact of unemployment weight of capitalist crisis the the on the working class.

ILLU

CUTS

forces this whom begin Thailand. the struggle revol-

RUBBISH

protect Viet- Piles of stinking, rott-barub ist, back streets, a centre of vermin and disease. Local residents are learning that the only way to get the rubbish collected is to throw it in the road Whole sections of the subway dug to build a new subway line, lie unfilled, untouched was not built. Buildings crumble for existing from day to semi-proletarian

TENSIONS

The tensions in such a situation reflected the enormous are alcoholism (including figures for child alcoholism), drug addiction, denies democratic rights to force bourgeoisie. the Rather the bour Beoisie itself is intervening (wherever can) to resist the onward thrust of the working class towards the socialist revolution on bourgeois Lenin's remarks simply do not apply. democracy In that, though in nothing else, the Italian Stalinists are right.

, is not content Zaradov's article useful to his merely to misapply Lenin he revises him as well. Listen to the apologist for detente: shown thinking Experience • has Chile? that the struggle for of socialism] does not necessarily have to be armed insurrection. The peace possible and ful road equally Marxists consider it preferable".

INSURRECTION

situation of the less no Yet Lenin speaks repeatedly in Tsar's iror Two Tactics of the inevitability of absolute need insurrection, of the Whereas in to arm the working class understood struggling barest essentials of the class the struggle, a victory over docu be precisely a dictatorship; i.e.

will working it must rely on military force, arming of the masses and the insur-

WHAT IS THE WORKERS SOCIALIST LEAGUE ?

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975 New York Shows Real Face of Crisis The conscious agitation by the Willed a large proportion of workers and unemployed are immigrants, comes on top of the material pressures on the Jod msecurity. stormy question of "bussing' - the already so deficient that now many a proposal to cut 17,000 teaching emotions run high

TO DO

CITY WORKERS

organised sections of city workers, rallying point to working class strug gly bureaucrats determined to pre- the backing of the big city banks, paying millions of dollars in interest on bonds issued by the so-called destroy their bar- because union leaders such as Victor Gotbaum of the Federation of State, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Albert Shanker of the American Federation of Teach-

CID.

call strike action and stop the city.

New York in this sense is a test run onslaught against trade union organ-

CHRONIC UNEMPLOYMENT

chronic unemployed - youth who have never had the chance to work, workers with families dependent on paylicals " shows what lies ahead for the whole Politically the union leaders are tied hand and foot to the capitalist The Workers Socialist League was formed on December 22nd 1974 as art of the fight to carry forward the method and principles of Trotsky's Programme, the founding document of the Fourth Internat- The WSL now represents the continuity of the struggle for these ional. principles in the workers movement. The formation of the League followed the expulsion of over 200 members from the Workers Revolutionary Party, ically by the WRP leadership in order to prevent discussion of their own abandonment of the mass expulsions showed that there could be no hope of correcting the WRP - an independent organisation had to be founded to maintain fight for Trotskyism. Such a split came out of particular conditions. The rapid development of the economic crisis of capitalism and the forward movement of the world working class, which has now overthrown imperialism in and Cambodia, parties internationally. At such a point the importance of a fight for the method and princepts of the Transitionad Programme, against both sectarianism and opportunism is paramount in the preparation of revolutionary leadership.

period. of isolation from the mass movement. as the only tendency with a programme and a history of struggie to lead the working class in the taking of power The defence of jobs through the fight for work sharing on full pay, run trade union committees; the defence of living standards through the fight for all wage agreements to include a sliding all increases in the cost of living "rights" the challenging of the of the struggle for preparation books.of industry, and workers. as the vital priority. the Republican or Democratic Party.

Gotbaum has just "negotiated" away alternative but to a 6s as of nuly ls. The increase- not be bureaucrats claim it will still be the are negotiated! On the basis of such would undoubtedly concede any fig- we went out [on strike] the bond would take place, and there would be many payless days ahead. So we had a strong interest in an agreement that would restore confidence in the and hold the power of life or death over New York City's budget,

KEY QUESTIONS

The whole economic and social crisis in New York poses key polit- working class - both the organised pressured by bank Democrat. ne 1s parties represent the

HEELCHICOLS

and build a Labour Party in the povolly, and the Zambian government.

unemployment, cuts in services and and fought in a way which develops political independence of the nationalisation to win these demands, level of political consciousness method. For carried out bureaucrat- Programme both in theory and in practice.

These party. Vietnam expose 2i began to produce the conditions to build revolutionary TEx zad fle disc ite 205215 ary tendencies, Trotskyis™ emerges Trotskyist, particularly programme. scale to compensate for as determined by trade union prices hammer out and adopt of the power through the fight to open the for control the fight capitalism.

ZIMBABWE: A.N.C. DRIVEN

TOWARDS ARMED STRUGGL

Over the last two months ly announced military stamp out terrorism". the Rhodes general mobilisation of whites, in- the African National Council by Muzorewa, who place the for Muzorewa's about turn on the main emphasis on a constitut- massive increase in the number of on the subject of "Black Maj- armed struggle to the category of 'If all else fails"; and the militant elements such as ZANU who see the contin- uation of the guerrilla struggle reluctantly conclusion that indeed all else has Tine fection the stepping up repression, consciously exploiting the weakness in the nat- WaS Iron Bridge over Victoria Falls where talks will take place.

giving Smith until October to come ional liberation movement stemming from its divisions. Arrests of known forward with some concrete pro nationalists continue at a high rate on a variety of trumped up charges transpired that Ed- while at a military base in Salisbury ssure from waiting to be fhown to Zambia. The African Prime Minister, obligingly would die in Zambia and the incid- came forward with just ent could have been used to play antagonisms between the ANC awaited constitutional conference even to lengths to meet the ANC's demand that the conference be held outside paring for a renewed drive against the guerrilla movement. In an open- management: all these policies undér workers' called for in this situation. As they are fought for and workers are mobilised they be oin workers and the need for the reking workers and the need for the working elass to take the puwer. Yet the WRP refused to take up a fight for this this reason the most important developments in our work have centred on a break from WRP sectarianism and propagandism, bringing important gains in trade union work and opening up completely new areas.

We are beginning to recruit and train from the new forces thrown into struggles in this period - not only but also professional trade unionists, workers, housewives, students and youth - in the fight to construct the Our record stres ita: te continue to fight uncompromisingly - not only the WRP but hose ato attack and revise Marxism policies of the IS group who refuse to defend the soniet Lion as a morkers state, and the IMG, who liquidate the revolut- more ment into unprincipled blocs and liaisons with anti-revolution- as well as against Stalinism and reformism.

Already it is clear that throughout the world the movement of the working class poses similar questions for those groups calling themselves sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, producing similar splits and offering a rich possibility truly international programme. For this reason the WL is new engaged in a process of inter movement based on the rotskyl nal discussion prior to a full founding conference, a vital part of which is to perspectives for the building of the Trotskyist Fourth International, and the development of revolutionary parties baser the Trotskyist programme in every country in the struggle to en will take place in a railw ence campaign to However an examination of t mechanics of the • conference is i outline their differences and the Guardiai "'Mi acceptable committees wh could constitute a peasants of Zimbabwe on the oth could be possible, it should also that exclu participation by people under thr Allel IC liberation movement which has ce sistently argued the priority of t Al for C÷nI

HECKSUC

stage remains set for sell outs li attempt while being under advice in disguising victory for wl absolut Zimbabwe. Any 'national liberati Smi without the repossession of all 1 heberate the guest start n Therefore the question of coloniali of 1 programme of nationa

SOCIALIST

PRESS

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TROTSKYISTS FOUGHT

GREEK JUNTA

Page 4 underground during the dictatorship, agitation and a clandestine Trotskyist press.

the Fourth International.

IC), who formed an alternative Greek section.

whom were in London during the dictatorship - as the official section.

Why did capitalism impose military mule in Greece? In 1967 Greek capitatism was forced to take power in form Army the dictatorship in order to defeat the movement of the class. Capitalism was yorking with conflict between aced the bourgeois parties and the them. interests behind Conflict between the two nain classes was increased after of the revolutionary events when the well- July 1967 Metront let-as killed by student, the retroulas, was police. The dictatorship was of the ruling international action The emergence of dictator- class. ship in this hot-point of the S.E.

Mediterranean was connected with the big the antagonism Delici European capitalism and on the one hand and the

U.S.A.

the the Russian bureaucracy on Capitalism fought to other. maintain and increase its military bases and the green light was given to NATO and the CIA to establish their own servants in power.

Did the Trotskyist movement fight so mobilise the working class before the dictatorship came! The highest point of the mass working class movement This was headed 1965-66. was in the continuous betrayal by off by the betrayal Stalinists and by the 1965. In of the general strike in Workers Vanguard events line, many the front was 1n comrades were persecuted both by capitalist and the Stalinists the state. the also mention We must the Internat- given by leadership Cliff Slaughter Committee. ional came to Greece as Secretary of the we were still 1966 (whilst IC in official section) to of the part discuss the situation. The situation close to dictatorship. was clearly rest in Parliament, Power did not strikes were illegal, demonstrations everyday. trials forbidden and situation Comrade Slaughter this argued that everything was moving first This was forward. the difference between our group and the later A few the mollis dictatorship took Papadopoulos power under conditions where the The by were paralysed working their leadership. when did the split take place with Europe, the IC? We The Workers Vanguard group have an extremely principled record of struggle. They were the only group of Trotskyists who maintained the majority of their members in Greece and fought enduring considerable persecution and maintaining an We may not necessarily agree with every political with the secretary of Workers Vanguard who has himself a long and principled record.

The Workers Vanguard has fought as a Trotskyist organisation in Greece since the early position they put, but our respect for this record of struggle compels us to publish this intervie They affiliated to the International Committee of the Fourth Inter- national in 1960. In 1967 they were expelled from the IC for questioning the political line of the leadership. They attempted to maintain themselves as part of the IC but this was made impossible 1920's. Their history is one of a fight against Stalinism and against Pablo's attempts to liquidat Workers Vanguard were then barred from the International Conference of the IC in 1972 with Healy recognising his new group - almost all of Maoists - first remove the junta and movement was split apart by the see wnere opposed this replying to it in our minority members of the article their supporters, they took all our an papers in Death Agony of an Ex-Trotskyist.

During that majority of the youth the alliance with rolling in and the dictatorship was Salonica. dangerous Was would not listen and they were all Two of the three leading supporters who were CC members, signed police declarations that they Hour got me selleuce tree. 2 - 20 years. They were accused as to work with Healy. A few months after the start of we held a national conference.

At this conference we had to establish a principled position and Pabloites when they were released.

years later, after the fall of the dictatorship, as the official section Greece to fight for a united front of the International Committee of the Fourth International.

dictatorship and establish a workers' dictatorship of the proletariat.

said that the front would probably not be clearly anti-capitalist but front. One Pabloite tendency broke through committees of resistance. They also student movement in Salonica. We tendency argued that the only way to bring about progressive, transit- not abolish deade thwie tou in

STALINISTS

of some of the trade unions before The Greek wracked with of the roots we had the leadership was abolished.

of the crisis dictatorship was very difficult. We USSR and over the members of our of the Stalinist sections.

the the headquarters of police security 1973 the dum in - they were tortured and questioned.

no" along carried forward illegally in the NC King Constantine. give' Was with powers constitution defeated by the police and this was beginning of the worst attack on our organisation; it came at the conditions a end of 1968. liberal vote of the Salonica section brought a platform into our organisation, arguing that the Greek democracy revolution was neither a proletarian One of the Because nor a bourgeois revolution.

Parties was between Asia and - the out country then our revolution would the supported openly called be decided by this. supported Constantine. enlit they and we go from there. We called "The period they had ar Maoists We warned them that it They policy. did the class What form take during the dictatorship?

class could not The working conduct mass strikes were not able to make the dictatorship, but despite the terror- there were various ism strikes taking place. also other forms There were Taking advantags of pressure the full employment workers mover factory en-mass from factory to attempt to force up wages.

the During this period demand of the Healyites was for a general strike to bring to power a CP government. peasants and workers Where did Workers Vanguard stand on the Cyprus question? The Pabloite tendency at first We have done a lot of work on this question and we must of course from a class position. start sections of the ruling class are put- ting forward the nationalist position an independent of Makarios - tor The ruling class also suppor- Cyprus. ted the 7 day Sampson dictatorship suppression of the based on the Some bourgeois Turkish minority. tendencies such as Grivas, favoured Enosis - or union with Greece 1974 policy Our stood out against all other tenden- cies. We were the only tendency in for Greece who called determination of the Cypriot people against US and British Stalinists and the Greek and Turkish dictator- problems, internal ships. We fought to show the work- lay in the which ing class the necessity of the unity - the bureaucracy of Greek and Turkish workers and differences between China and the peasants against Imperialism.

Czechoslovakia in Healyites outside Greece

SELF DETERMINATION

called for the reunification Papadopoulos referen- We stood for the right of self- Healyites voted determination of the everyone who ority if they so wished. We fought opposed the junta, Papandreou and referendum for self With method of the class struggle and we junta the attacked. all those tendencies who corporatist Makarios. supported abolishing legal trade front in the soldiers in unions and levelled against the wor turn against their own invasion king class at all levels. Under these capitalist government and to divert "NO" was a bourgeois the war into the socialist revolution, against Papadopoulos. which there would be for We put forward a position rejecting essity for Trotskysst parties in both all capitalist constitutions and called countries. for a soviet constitution of socialist We fought for self determination and against federation because fed- Communist two minorites. eration represses which interior one final question, for Cyprus was and Italian Stalinists still is the United Socialist Soviet of the return Cyprus, They put this States crotoc in the Middle SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975 An interview with the Secretary of Workers Vanguard, a Greek Trotskyist group, by Tony Richardson in Athens.

Prtakos, Papadopoulos and Makaresos, three leaders of the military coup.

Where did other tendencies stand struggle on Cyprus? The Pabloites of the USFI had against the a leaflet with the same position as us at the beginning, but after they of changed their minds, and during the invasion they supported the masses the Turks. The Cyprus against of Healyites before the invasion were and not the Makarios, calling on out Grivas from masses, to throw During the invasion, with Cyprus. all Stalinists and opportunists, the main Hellyites supported the bourgeois . of the island. slogan - no division This meant to continue in the old - Greeks under Turks and Most statement self Imperialism Polytechnic student events Turks under Greeks. Turkish To the explain: division Turkish min- bourgeoisie wanted the the Greek bourgeoisie island, for socialist did not. We were revolution in Cyprus, with the right self-determination Turkish minorities if they wanted it.

We were for 1955 Grivas Sampson in the and 1963 had slaughtered whole and All opportunists villages of Turks. cried about the Turkish atrocities.

but not about the Greek. the nec- Greek dictatorship How the was brought down? The November events were th result ion the the ich inflation crisis result of the very as part of the

THE RED ORCHESTRA

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975 Sotiris Petroulas: murdered by police, July 1965 The hatred of the masses developed during of the the sevell years dictatorship. The movement started with the students, but this reflected the deep crisis of capitalism only and the problems of the working class. This very clear when after two days' struggle thousands of workers and professional people gave full support to the students with money, food and medical supplies. The movement went over the heads of the opportunists who were out of Greece. The movement had very deep revolutionary teeling.

wanted to take over not just the polytechnic and the university, but then whole Athens and take the weit to over main ministries.

SOCIALIST PATH

The capitalist class could only look on. The Trotskyists inside and outside the Polytechnic demanded must openly that the novell take a socialist path. The Stalinists wanted only the overthrow of the and its replacement dictatorship with a national unity government.

had the slogan of The Healyites CP government, making,

ICVCI

which CP they clear were rada? After our criticism they with- to. drew the slogan, but they never explained their previous position. The Pabloites did see the

• HOL

significance of the movement and therefore did not put forward the demand for a general. strike.

We put forward a socialist programme through the building of workers' councils as embryo future We advanced the slogan for soviets. a workers' and peasants' government - the dictatorship of the ptoletariat - and through this struggle fought to build a mass Trotskyist movement.

Pouliopoulos (leading Greek Trotskyist theoretician who shot by the Nazis) over 30 years ago called for the overthrow of the dictatorship Metaxas capitalist of and the establishment of the dictat- of orship the proletariat through Trotsky's Transitional Programme. The Healyistes betrayed both Poulio- Trotsky's programme souls ala y their policy. The main resolution the IC of the FI ignored these demands as they ignored the Tran- sitional Programme the 1968 In events in France. How do you see the Karamanlis governments that the still say, We said, and government of Karamanlis is a semi- The collapse of the dictatorship came out of the deepening crisis of world capitalism, the division between Europe and the USA and the strength and forward movement of the working class. The November the biggest factor in evens were the collapse but the prospect of between Greece and Turkey war over Cyprus brought the dictator- ship to a dilemma. They intended a mobilisation general OVel Cyprus confrontation, but they could not put guns into the hands of the working class. They colansed because of the that war with near certainty led to Turkey would have This rebellion. working class resulted in the Junta calling on the who was in Karamanlis Paris, to form national unity government of the right and centre.

They did this in order to maintain possible the power of as mallas the bourgeoisie.

VICTORY

was a victory for the working class, workergoff the movement towards power. This was possible because it had the support of the Stalinists and the reformists who opposed to social revolution.

Karamanlis government was an open Junta, and then without explaining their previous position they called left for reforms, but same time a distinction drawn between Karamanlis and the front of the strength of the working How did the collapse of the Junta affect the work of Workers Van- guard in Greece? The semi-legal has given us the opportunity to use every possibility of mass work.

We have been able to participate in tne struggles of the working class and to tight raise the consciousness of class to the highest the working level. We fight, as a principle, against the so-called socialists of PASSOK who say the situation is not yet ready for socialism. We fight at all levels against the notion that the state democratised nas been that the state prescist was fully in of support doodlatus the Junta. We fought against the Karaman- lis bourgeois constitution, rehashed from the Papadopoulos one. we support every democratic right of the masses and we set out to fight for these rights the highest leve throuch the ransit- We fight against ional Programme. the attacks by the Karamanlis gov- ernment on the trade unions and the control of the students union by the state. Above all we direct our work crucial life and death towards the question of the building of the

A REVIEW

Espionage is the boom Poland from the 1920's. Driven out "industry' the Pilsudski dictatorship in of the by post-war 1926, he went to Palestine and in period. There is a story that 1930 arrived in France, where he shortly before the Japanese acted as a minor agent for Soviet intelligence distinguishing

SUUL.

himself by unravelling a complica brought the United States into ted case of treachery which led to arrest of most of the members the American intelligence officials of his 'circuit. But the Stalinist succeeded in intercepting and to put much purges Were

SOCI

deciphering Japanese messages greater responsibilities his In 1937 and 1938 the shoulders. GPU executioners "liquidated" attack. But when they passed majority of the senior officers in the Red Army, including many officers of the US Navy, they veterans of the revolution and the of intervention, such walls Marshall Tukhachevsky. The blood- letting followed hard on the heels Whether or not the anecdote of the Moscow purge trials whose there is no doubt aim was above all to consondalt that during and since the war Stalin's grip by slandering and des troying the Trotskyist movement.

spying and intelligence gather- The purges also decimated the ing has revolutionised itself, Soviet intelligence services in West- edged, professionalised arm of stems from the continuous threat relations cop the forkers states.

And central to this is intelligence on the military capacities and plans of the rival powers. Germany and transmitted by BBC2) Western Europe during the Second Conno has Woopold Trepper of secret ern Europe. recently testified to the principled ordered back to and correct struggle carried out by Moscow, movement against

DEFENCE

with the organisations the GPU hunted in 1939, the needing networks faced Trep- major battle wit What was at stake was the unconditional defence the Germany, the Low against imperialism. In Countries. of the last major political struggle he was assassinated (on orders) two he had effective Trotsky led the in the espionage Am gium and with sources of (the which ency). capitalist public and reli of the first and France ation workers' state. 1940 the to By June this basic operate under noses of the pri Gestano. whole of the with Moscow enciphered messages. dro tine radio was a "pianist 'Red Orch Russia. came as a dis éstra'.) policy. Only beforehand had British Am

ANTI-FASCISM

cati war impending And had been for months What distinguished Trepper's similarly the reports networks from the traditional spy- of rings of capitalist powers was that Russia from his they were almost entirely composed Trepper's HICl of men and women acting from groups in France and conviction. Not all were Commun- Czech Belgium, reporting would have described ists, mas themselves just as 'anti-fascists. central Europe, and Richard in one form or another, their Sor willingness to work and risk their embassy in Tokyo. testified to the inspiration of lives Revolution and the October the

STRUGGLE

knowledge that - despite the crimes blunders of Stalinism and - the against fascism was insep struggle But despite Stalin's hamstring of the arable from the defence ing of the defence of the Soviet Union. In Berlin itself a Soviet Union, the and women large headed by Harro men group Trepper's organisation (nicknamed Schulze-Boysen collected and relay- 'Red Orchestra' Nazi inormation from officials in can claim the several ministries and many sections credit for an enormous contribu- In Paris of the military command. tion to the military struggle against Trepper commercial firm ran Many of paid with Hitler. them specialising in the supply of black- their lives at the hands of the the German market materials to Page 5 By A. Westoby firm in Brussels had a simula function. The West German TV serie concentrates on the way that Ger man counter-espionage managed.

break 'Red Orchestra'. link weak was communications the few radio sets were overloader with traffic and transmitted hours on end from the same place This made them vulnerable to radic direction-finding equipment. December 1941 one of the Belgiar with its transmitter, groups, taken, and from there the trail le to the Berlin group most of whon the Summe Were arrested 1942.

BROKEN UP

French The organisation largely broken up in the autumn Nonetheless, in that crucial firs period of the war, the 'Red Orch transmitted a huge amoun estra of information on German militar and economic supplies, new type of equipment, and some of thei intended military strategy.

In the last few years the 'Res Orchestra' has become a target fo the right-wing and th anti-communism of the police ser vices in France and Germany.

Th main source for the TV series, bourgeois journalis book by the Heinz Hohne, tries to argue that th Berlin group - 46 of whom wer executed - were guilty of treason And the French counter-espionag accuse (the

DST)

has service Trepper of collaborating (after b capture in November 1942) up the hilt in order to save his neck fact Trepper pretended to co In but only in order to war operate his superiors and regain the ground lost In Septembe escaped and stayed fre 1943 he in France until the end of the But when he returned to the Sor Union he disappeared for years. Only in 1973 as an ol did the Stalinists allow hin man, to leave Poland for medical treat ment and to revisit his family.

PERSECUTION

Trepper recently gave an inter the French Trotskyis view weekly paper Informations Our rieres. In it he reassesses, from th point of view of a communist th Trotsky its wa Test it, bed th rotskvists who were accused possible to understand: because of all the factions within the party its degeneration, what the Stalinis "At the time when Trotsky analyse what was happening in the USSR militants did not believe i be a Trotskyist to understand tha socialis country, not as a delegate from can know nothing) but to live one two or three years in any one o On you can pinion It is not a class, that is m sprint and almost a quarter of a centur television producers and journalist not, of course, refer Bu only

SPANISH CIVIL WAR

PART TWO

first article we In our ced some of the develop ents and the balance of class ces which forced Franco's against the rebellion cist democratic govern- purgeois ent in Spain on July 17th 936. We showed how the mass move- working class, going ents of the eyond their reformist, Stalinist and impossible archist leaders made coexistence any longer between capital and an independently rganised workers movement.

The initial reaction to Franco's -bellion meant that some 'demo sections of the bourgeoisie ratic' * first opposed his onslaught, and who set aside speared, to those Maixist method of analysis, to re a common ground of struggle which movement ith the workers. I course faced annihilation if Fran- o were to conquer.

"LIBERALS"

This was one of the reasons why e conception of a 'Popular Front, inging together reformists, Stalin- anarchists and centrists from working class parties and unions "Liberal" sections of the bour- became established as the is of the resistance to Franco.

But of course the participation Front' 'Popular ithin such a Communist Party reflected also change the foreign marked Kremlin under olicy of the inection of Stalin. After the disas- rous defeat of the German working lass by Hitler in 1933 had been the criminal rought about by of the tra left sectarian policies which had denounced social "social fascists" emocrats as plit the working class in the face Stalin had moved to- fascism accomodation wards seeking an with Hitler and with the reactionary heads of state throughout Europe, in the pursuit of "socialism in one meant which of course country" real terms capitalism in every other country. As a part of Stalin's move to the right therefore the Spanish working held back from class had to be whole of the and the Stalinised of the wholy energies Communist Party, which Spanish was built rapidly almost from noth- purpose, for the very diverted towards tying the working class to the bourgeois parties and subordinating it to the bourgeois

WORKERS CONTROL

As the civil was began, we effective showed in the last article dual power was established through- out Spain, with local workers org- anisations seizing control of factor- barracks army ies transport, all the resources needed to defend against the fascist armies.

a national level the But kadership was paralysed. The bour- government democratic all news of Azana had suppressed contin- rebellion and the coming. sously attacked the working class.

question posed to these min- The isters was - what is more important, Demo- capitalism? democracy could only be defended by стасу mobilisation the revolutionary which would class, the working of the power away sweep bourgeoisie.

BREAK

Only the Trotskyists were able to show that in such consistently a situation the defence of the work- des Just be through a break prog maries Darties from a socialist peasants of Spain onl programme. Spain in 1936, as in every In period of dual power, the bourgeois government was only able to contin- workers organisations who thereby ever the socialist leaders dared not Despite this, the workers' state the various committees which were not brought together into national led the socialists, the anarchists and the centrists of the POUM to ev- entually join in governmental coll- aboration with the bourgeois repub- licans. To refuse to build soviets in recognise the right of i.e. to dictate its social and political independent class organs could the working class have determined the social and political content of the conceded the right to govern the situation of dual power. not only joined the Popular Front wing reformists, two Stalinists and bourgeois ministers, the leading role as Prime Minister.

way. government was constituted, 0I principles and particular tendencies Ine on her struggle against fascism".

Carillo: present CP leader, alternative programme for the wor: Gemocavy. to nationalise the land, only giving to the peasants the land of known peasants who feared that the land might be taken back at a future date nationalised for all time.

one chance of sowing this the do

LESSONS OF THE

POPULAR FRONT SHACKLES FIGHT AGAINST FRANCO

the factories. Caballero put govern- directors into the factories ment who limited the workers commit- Among the WOrK. tees to routine strongest opponents of dual power and the independent organisations Catalonia could not proceed at the same speed as it had done in other parts of Spain. In the aftermath of headed by the bourgeois republican, were just as preapred to enter this as they had been enter the bourgeois government in not so ready to give up workers' factories and the collectivisation of land. Catalonian capital had led the first fascist homes for concealed weap- ons, and brought

POLITICAL WEAPONS

WOIKCIS

Revolution and Counțer Revolution here political weapons more Linek to call don tard learn why they were shooting down their fellow toilers. They fell under there a soldier began shooting wide.

positions and surged forward.

Goded was captured that atternoon workers cleaned up Barcelona. With- in a few days, all Catalonia was in cities of Spain. The Asturian miners outfitted à column of five thousand dynamiters who marched to Madrid fascism while its enders organising the workers committees ceeded to do nothing about it. By October, the first great advance of the counter revolution in Catalonia was marked by the decree dissolving all the workers committees, what-

A ICW

Gays anarchists, and the POUM voted for ers as to their real coalition introduced "workers' con-

WULATIO

distributed to fascist sympathisers, the further whittling away of work- ing class control over the economy.

its control of SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975 time in the history books. Felix then the Madrid government and Morrow tells us: Barcelona government in Catalan and

CNT

member 'Rodriguez, workers control were able to end Commissioner of Prisons, Special refusing to the factories by charged Jose April formally extend or threatening to withdraw Cazorla, Stalinist Central Committee credits to factories run by workers member and Chief of Police under Santiago Madrid Junta, Carillo, another Central Committee of Supply and dissolved of illegally seizing workers member, Cazorla but acquitted arrested by popular tribunals and "tak.

ing said acquitted parties to secret jails or sending them into commun militia battalions in advanced 'fortific- to be used as positions ations"". [Morrow, pp129 - 30]

PROVEN

STALINIST

replaced who later Carillo, Cazorla as Chief of Police, is now the General Secretary of the illegal This is Spanish Communist Party how he politically "proved himself" and made his as a Stalinist leader, 'contribution" to the fight against fascism. they because The anarchists, had always rejected the idea of the now completely dis state were by distinguish orientated. Failing to state and workers between bourgeois state they had, now that the state was population fed while they produced their oppostion to dropped, joined a bourgeois govern- ment which was forcing them more and more to the right. class organisations by the coalition

ANARCHIST SPLIT

leading press and radio suffered the worst This was between the CNT leadership and

• POUM

mass following. The could have stepped into the breach ting lost" between the cities and the fought for the leadership •O] the CNT masses. Instead it contin- ued to proclaim that the Stalinists established if the organisation of the were leading the counter-revolution the govern- remaining armed struggle against the fascists Whereas alongside them.. was taken out of the hands of the ment call for a congress of POUM did and combatants peasant Stalinists very quickly handed their itself delegates, the congress militias over to government control could not solve the basic political of the POUM: to wrest trom the Stalinists and anarchists tane political leadership of a majority of the working class. By demanding that the government call the con- ference instead of starting to elect delegates itself, the whole idea was still born From these centrist positions it was but a short step to atives in the government neverthe- renunciation of Leninism The voted for decrees setting POUM left wing were expelled and the first regular regiments ruled by a section constituted themselves as the Spanish Trotskyist movement, were too small to win they The real issue was not as the of large sections of the leadership the working class. 'centralised command' over loosely

CENTRISM

class or the bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie won on this quest because the UGT-POUM-CNT The betrayals which resulted of made the error of seeking a prolet- these centrist from the POUM leadership are illustrated controlled army by Morrow: we The POUM had a wonderful opp ortunity to demonstrate the efficacy force could only have been prevent- of this method [for working class On the daily political life through a nationa control of army]. had for eight front it council of soldiers delegates and Aragon months direct organisational control some 9,000 militiamen. was precisely this method that had over opportunity unparalleled to educate them politically, to elect militia to lead the social conquest them soldiers' committees of Aragon. But because the POUM an example to the rest of the and the anarchists had no concrete militias, then to demand amalgam slogan of workers committees not which its trained forces programme for replacing the ation in would have been a powerful leaven.

bourgeois state, their opposition to bourgeois domination of the army Nothing was done... conomete sees n of The simple, soldiers' committees elected the only road for securing prolet- against the POUM and the anarchists This arian control of the army.

was enthusiastically supported by moreover, could only be a slogan, worker- transitional step. controlled army could not exist in set up a number of 'preventoriums.

side with the side by star definitely bourgeois bourgeois state. Stalinists' own private prisons and state continued to exist, it would inevitably destroy workers' control of anarchists and social- of the army"- [Revolution and Counter Revolution In this context we find a famil

SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975

OPEN THE BOOKS

AT NORTON VILLERS

As we go to press, speed up and rationalisation British Villiers workers in Norton capitalism as a whole will survive.

Triumph Wolverhampton at socialists, we are not As determined to carry are this that concerned whether through the almost unanimous viable or The : industry not. principle is to ensure decision of their mass meeting class do not bear the working to occupy in defence of jobs brunt of the capitalists' probloms. while workers at

NVT

witO vali Small Heath have yet to be defended by making the only decide what action to take industry profitable pave way tane for wage cutting and speed up.

against being put on a three- The result of linking the day week. defence of jobs with the defence The workers at Norton Villiers of the industry's viability is clear fight from utopian workers' cooperative have the determination and are bitterly disillusioned by the Govern- betrayals of the Labour ment and in Benn's promises.

But the this outcome struggle will depend on strategy is adopted to answer the Labour Government's attack on Whether a leadership can be crousallas jobs. built to put the defence of jobs before the of a "viable' creation capitalist industry. against the The closure is a direct result of the Government adoptine Tory policy of withholding the grants from NVT and other "lame ducks". The government has now made a clear stand that unviable industiies will be neither national- ised not any longer propped up by government grants. SU-

JOBS DESTROYED

This that the jobs of means of in firms thousands workers which longer competitive are 110 market will be on the international trom by the Labour Govern- destroyed ment in the hope that through

BUCKS FIREMEN

CENSURE UnIOn The settlement of the firmen's claim on August was complete sell-out by the leadership of the union. The joint statement with the employers said: 'We will enter into agreement for a settlement payable in Nov- maximum allowable in the terms of the Gov- ernment's White Paper."

ENQUIRY ON CLAIM

This means that the Union's claim for £6 a week rise would but the claim for a forty Firemen's leaders leaving Glasgow meeting be mel hour week, which would have taken police doing firemen's work and the settlement over the maximum the threat of troops. allowable, is be une off the calling of the Government enquiry subject of a work-to-rule it is clear that the and the "retained firemen' employers will now try to press is discussed further. going. to be their advantage by attempting to The union leadership prepared introduce speed-up. the sell-out by first watering down Firemen must oppose the settle- the money claim and then expelling the example to the others. ment of the Strathclyde Committee Strathclyde District Committee as part the struggle to build who were balloting their members the F.B.U. a new leadership about this. The fire The leaders then backed down Buckinghamshire those leaders who are carrying out the attacks the working class. did they offer no Not only programme to fight on, but their from platform Con mencio tour en men them relusulg machinery fight Japs". Militant capitulated reactionary, illușions, nationalist themselves that British arguing "refused to invest" capitalists llave "squandered and have their profits" further maintained on the argument absolute silence on import controls.

NATIONALISATION

Despite the evasions . 210 opportunism of the Militant the only strategy Lo save the jobs fight for the to of „abonascon industry without compensation under workers' management. As part of the campaien for national the real isation state of affairs must be exposed. The government holds 50.1% of the shares of NVT, but has allowed Poore, the managing director, systematically close down parts of the motor cycle empire while transferring funds elsewhere.

Poore claims that Wolverhamp- ton has £2 million debts - yet most of this is owed the holding to

NVT.

What financial company fiddles have gone to transfer funds elsewhere? What has happened to the £18 million given government loans and grants?

According to

NVT

workers six ago Poore's auditors months sacked for asking to see the books of Manganese Bronze holdings as well as NVT itself. The books of Manganese Bronze and NVT both must be opened for inspection by trade union committees.

STATE CONTRACTS

On the basis of such informa- maintain jobs after nationalisation and the previously futolicy committees until production can be concern to must take up this programme August 13th: Brigade committee The Executive Council's censures the action aimed at Strathclyde Union demands the threat officials and of withdrawing union or act members' member- ship shall by the 1OT de used Executive Council against members This exercising their functions. Brigade Committee remind the Council that it is not adecuave their job to police F.B.U.members Leadership Vital months For eight Swindon has awaited the town meeting proposed by the Committee of No.9 District Ship- the Confederation of and Engineering Building instigated following an occupation Tane meellig Wednesday 13th August after over 500 registered unemployed youth fight for jobs in Swindon. In 1974 call for nationalisation Blunsdon factories where the first wave of redundancies had started.

Following this abstract demand which was separated from any call to occupy and force nationalisation Renn and Hetter ministers and trade union officials Stoddart for the Plessey combine to be placed on a "priority list' for period became isolated while the quesnol (especially when the recession in electronics had already necessitated Interconnect to Northampton since than Swindon) was never answered.

willing to occupy in defence of its jobs from a realisable programme broke down any real attempt to answer the fundamental beloved by the sectarian Workers several Swindon WRP members at the end of 1974, began their fight as correct programme of transitional The demands for a fight to open the books of firms pleading state of affairs; for work-sharing on full pay to defend jobs, and nation at a local branch which urged the AUEW district committee to accept them as the only programme for the town. But although the policies were passed. the district committee members, conditions at last seemed extremely favourable to change the Danny Lee, told the long- changed when the platform refused to accept any resolution from the floor, yet did not offer a shred of programme itself. The chairman of considered Page 7 in Swindon Jobs Fight date. Why people should more attend to discuss abstract questions while the unemployment fight in leadership takes up factories test policy or programme, remains a mystery.

NO FIGHT

a programme of socialist policies - "Basic industries should be nationalised under workers contro Govert the WSL then rushed in to defend the bureau- craCin fact, the WSL had rushed to Trotsky's Transitional Programme, demands Swindon had actually moved and criticised *Force the La ul Coverment to ultra-left demand programme which can defend jobs the the LI for the should hold back in struggle even out the meeting, an Interconnect worker linking the leadership as well as a programme, platform reported their desire meeting meeting take

PROTECT JOBS

protect jobs by dividing the work available amongst the whole work force without of course any loss of scale where regular adjustments can be made to the elected committees of trade unionists and workers' wives capable of assessing the real drop cannot working hide instead behind a blanket of the books to an elected committee assesseu the firm is going broke then th drawn up and fought for through factory occupation. Nationalisation the management with no compensation to the old owners programme of useful public works programme in Swindon is the ins istence that resolutions be accepted for a programme against unemploy • to De

FORCED PARTICIPATION'

After 'rejecting' the Ryder month ago and port a manding improvements in yder's workers' participa- on proposals, a füll meet- g of convenors on lednesday August 6th acc- ated it in full, following anagement's contemptuous ejection of their proposals.

It is becoming increasingly ear that Ryder, commissioned Wedgwood Benn, has two ain elements - with so-called orkers' participation committees * the main thrust to force this Under these conditions the dec- son of the convenor's meeting ans that the crucial struggle ow opens in Leyland against with the right bese committees, ring fighting to foist them on to orkers as instruments of mana- ement. Lord Ryder, as head of the lational Enterprise Board, will ave ultimate control over Brit- ah Leyland policy. He intends o act through the participation ommittees at all levels and has continued from front page and that the books be opened elected trade union committees, I the fight for nationalisation.

ly in this way can jobs be def- The peddlers of import trols are desperate to avoid h a fight. he fight back against their pol- es must begin now. It is the ensibility of every mulitant to one the reactionary drive to- import controls and nation- at every level in the trade ion and Labour movement. must demand their delegates the TUC conference throw out collaboration with Wilson's ate pay laws and begin the fight defend jobs and living standards inst the onslaught of British italism. They must demand in addition it the left take up the fight to rove Wilson and the right wing om the Labour leadership at the ming Labour Party conference.

WSL PUBLIC MEETINGS

LIVERPOOL

Sunday 24th August, 7.30 pm The Mitre, Dale St "The Fight Against Unemployment"

NUNEATON

Tuesday, 9th September, 7.30.

Public Library, Church St.

"A Programme to fight Intlation and Unemployment." : 500 monthly development fund From the first edition of socialist Press, whére we analysed Benn's" Industry Bill, under the headline 'Jail For Opening the Books?, , our aper has exposed the betrayals of he reformists, while fighting in movementh mactice in the workers' for the demands and principles of he Transitional Programme.

Our paper is already winning a very favourable response from many new readers. To improve it and move towards weekly public- ation we need your support.

Send donations to our £500 per month development fund to: labour force in Britain is now

AT BLMC

160,000 and is to be reduced to 120,000 by this time next year.

Another Commons committee - on expenditure - recently said that "realistic' manning levels would require a labout force of 120,000.

Manning reductions of this scale implemented through Ryder means made it clear that the job of the which will emerge that the battles this winter in Leyland over jobs, committees is to implement the recommendations of his report manning agreements and speed-up, and establish the viability of the will not be fought against manage- ment but against the 'workers' company - an argument univers- ally accepted by the trade union participation' committees of the Ryder report. One of the sections of the Ryd- It is essential therefore that the battle is fought now factory by er report kept secret concerned factory for shop stewards and reductions in manning levels. It workers to refuse to participate in is understood that this section these bodies and adopt policies contains a series of targets for for the defence of their wages, manning reductions - detailed conditions and jobs against these factory by factory. committees. The question which must be asked

REDUNDANCIES

of those who are proposing to co- operate with the Ryder committees is whose side will you be on? Will The scale of this can be seen by the reply to the Commons you be on the side of the workers Select Committee and the motor fighting to defend their jobs or the industry, which has criticised side of the employers and the state fighting to take them away Ryder for not publishing exact in order to 'solve' the crisis of the redundancy figures and dates.

A British Leyland spokesman capitalist system? said "We have been slimming at In the Cowley Assembly Plant the rate of 1,000 employees per the right wing failed to get the month and we will continue to report accepted when an over- whelming majority of T&GWU do so" Already the worldwide labour shop stewards voted to further force of British Leyland has been examine and discuss the report reduced from 211,000 to 185,000 and to meet again to make a dec- since 1973. Management say the

PORTUGAL

Fight Press Continued from front page social democratic friends in Sackings Portugal'. There is nothing like getting somebody else to do your own dirty work! In Portugal itself, the 'moder- ates' are now lined up in detence The deepening world economic of democracy' and revolution' crisis is drastically hitting newspaper against the interests of the Port- circulation. Hence all the attempts uguese working class. by the gutter press to boost circul- ation, such as the revival of the

VIOLENCE

gossip columns and the change by various popular newspapers to a The reactionary campaign of tabloid formula. These attempts violence and intimidation initi ated by the Socialist Party leader have been accompanied by various cuts in manning levels, union org Soares has extended in many anisation and also sackings.

small towns in Portugal to the The dismissal of more than 200 beating of Communist Party journalists in Birmingham working members, burning down the for the Post, Mail, Sunday Mercury offices of left-wing parties, and and Sports. Argus was manoeuvred attacks on every workers organ- after they had to turn down a der- isation. isory pay offer of fl a week.

In the Northern cathedral town After more than nine months of Braga, the archbishop, a for- negotiations since then, 10 journ- mer close friend of fascist Sala- alists, all members of the NUJ, on zar, expressed himself opposed a picket line outside the Birming- to 'dictatorship', and called to ham Post & Mail, have been arrest- the "forces of love' to triumph.

ed after attempting to prevent a This they did by attempting un- lorry carrying blacked newspapers successfully to burn down th fromileaving its premises. Police offices of the local CP with most and plain-clothes members: of the of its officials in it. serious crime squad assaulted the After contenting themselves pickets and several journalists were with giving severe beatings to roughed up. the Stalinists and razing their The determination of the news- offices to the ground, the mob paper employers to force through went on to burn down the local large-scale redundancies has also trade union offices. been highlighted at The Observer From this campaign of extreme reaction the Socialist Party lead- sack a third of the printers.

As in ership has now been forced to the Post & Mail dispute in Birm- hold back somewhat. Soares ingham workers have resisted has attacked the 'excesses' of strongly. As we go to press, however, the counter-revolution and spo printing union officials have agreed ken of his opposition to Stalin- to a large number of voluntary He has ism' and 'dictatorship. redundancies - in the region of even borrowed one of the tired 200. Any such agreement must be est of phrases from the stalin ists' own phrase book by calling fought. the CP 'social fascist'.

TUC

NO WORKERS

Socialist Party flags were still to be seen mingled with those

LOBBY

of the extreme right in the phy- sical attacks on CP leader Cunhal in Alcobaca (north of Lisbon) on 16th August. There is no We call on all our members and sign of significant support, how- supporters to support the lobby of ever, from workers' organisations the TUC called on September 2nd, for such actions, nor will there and organised be the Liaison Comm- be. ittee for the Defence of Trade Unions The advance of the Portuguese The lobby is demanding a rejection Revolution has naturally pro- of wage restraint and a fight against voked a crisis within the ranks unemployment. of the Stalinists themselves.

We support this lobby even though Speaking to an American deleg the record of the LCDTU has always ation within hours of Kissinger's been to come to the defence of the warning (appropriately enough trade union bureaucracy. at Yalta where Stalin arranged We consider it necessary to pose the post-second world war div- our alternative demands to the TUC ision of Europe with his imper- Already trade union officials are declaring their position by readily agreeing to manning reductions and speed-up as soon as they become involved, quoting Ryder and arguing that the company must be made viable. Whilst the trade union leaders push participation in management for all they are worth, they are fighting equally strongly against workers' participation in any of the decisions being made by the trade unions.

BULLDOZED

Workers are being bulldozed into participation without a single vote by the threat that their jobs depend on it - that if Ryder is not accepted Leyland will collapse.

This is the argument of capitalism through state participation designed to increase the exploitation of Job security can only be provided through the socialist nationalisation of Leyland under workers' management. Participa- tion precisely threatens jobs.

The case against these committee: is clear. Their terms of reference are the more efficient production of motor cars. Management have an absolute right to make the final decisions. The Chrysler corp- oration recently paid £100 lump sum bonus to every worker emp loyed - a total of £2,700,000 - on the acceptance of 'worker partici- pation' - they didn't do that for nal affairs. A workers' revolution would be the worst thing that could happen for the Kremlin bureaucracy. Meanwhile, other sections of the Soviet Communist Party have been issuing statements (see this page) calling on Stalinist forces through- out the world to avoid alliance with the most reactionary forces.

Leaders of the Communist Par- ties of Western Europe, looking nervously over their shoulders at the advance of the workers in Portugal, do not agree. In Italy, Stalinist leader, Enrico Berlinger, issued a joint atatement with social democrat, Martino; on 15th August, expressing deep concern' with the developing sit- uation, and calling for an alliance of CP, SP and Armed Forces Movement.

STALINISTS

In Portugal itself, the Stalinists, who are the butt of every form of reactionary violence, propose only solutions that can play into Their des- the hands of reaction. perate efforts to make themselves part of the capitalist state machine have been in part responsible for the hostility against them in the north of the country. To save themselves now, they Cunhal call for support from the Armed Forces Movement, the so-called " democratic forces', indeed from anywhere that does not involve the independent mobilisation of the working class. Within the Armed Forces Move- ment, the deepening crisis reflects SOCIALIST PRESS, Wednesday August 20th 1975 the benefit of the labour force Despite what Ryder and the TU leaders say now, they intend that the set-up will have a role in the This is likely to future on wages. start with the joint committees making recommendations for acc- eptance of wage deals and end up with the Ryder committees form- ing the basis of corporate wage bargaining, once they have comp- leted their immediate task of forc ing in the full effects of Measured Day Work - speed-ups and redund- The nature of these committees and the role they will play makes it a matter of principle that they are rejected by class-conscious workers and the fight started for a programme to defend wages, jobs and conditions The demand must be put for a sliding scale of wages to protect against inflation and for work- sharing on full pay to defend jobs.

TU COMMITTEES

Committees must be set up to demand that the books of Leyland and component firms are opened and the case established for nat- ionalisation under workers' manage- ment with state contracts to ensure that the factories remain in prod- It is only in this way, and not by unprincipled participation in man- agement, that jobs can be defended.

ing class to the darkest face of reaction The petty bourgeois leadership of the AFM attempts to balance between these competing elem- faction led ents. The 'moderate Antunes who planned by Melo the original coup with Spinola, long for a return to the situation where the masses are not an act- ive force. Meanwhile COPCON commander Carvalho, constantly portrayed as the most left of the ruling military troika, talks of 'popular assemblies' and the "Cuban model', which aim to tie the working class to the bourgeois regime.

Vasco Goncalves, against whom particular reactionary fury has been directed, looks desperately to his allies in the Communist Party.

LEADERSHIP

As the class forces in Portugal line up each day, the need of the hour is for the development of a revolutionary leadership in the Portuguese working class. In Lisbon on August 15th, when the Stalinists and social democrats were running rival demonstrations elsewhere in the city, a sizeable demonstration of LCI Pabloites together with Maoists and other groups came together, apparently simply called in opposition tr 'US intervention'. This is hardly the crucial issue in this situation, but for a Pabloite 'mass vanguard' separate from the working class and its organisations, it provided the only basis for unity.

PROGRAMME

The need for a programme to defend the Portuguese Revolution is urgent. Armed defence guards must be set up through the trade unions to defend all workers' org- anisations against the attacks of Joint committees of workers and soldiers must prepare the defence of their revolution without refer- ence to the Armed Forces Move- ment. Unity between CP and Socialist Party workers must be established through joint struggles for workers committees in every factory and town, and national meetings of their representatives planned.

There must be a campaign for a workers' and small farmers' gov- ernment based on their organisa-