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The hopes of thousands of workers and Labour Party activists no doubt rose substantially last week as what appeared to be a major struggle against Callaghan broke out on Labour's National Executive Committee.

Resolutions were carried proposing that the drafting of the election manifesto be taken out of the hands of the Party leader and given to the NEC, and depriving Callaghan of personal control over the spending of €165,000 a year of state subsidies.

The extreme right wing went beserk. As pressmen and the media dreamed up stories of a 'Red Revolution' at Transport House, 90 reactionary Labour MPs signed a Manifesto Group letter explicitly attacking any attempt to make them answerable to the Labour Party that secured their election to Parliment.

Lapdogs

Defending to the last their right' to act as the servile lapdogs of the International Monetary Fund and British capitalism, these social democratic MPs complained that the NEC's proposals would 'reduce' the PLP to "the role of poodle of the party conference."

These budding Reg Prentices went on to warn darkly that:

"There is a real danger that men and women of principle [!] would no longer be prepared to serve the party and Parliament if Labour MPs are to be mere cyphers given no say in policy making...

The frenzied hostility of the PLP to implementing decisions of the Party conference is matched by that of trade union leaders.

Led by GMWU General Secretary Basnett, they value the ambiguity of the present setThe Ethiopian Derg has met with a new and crushing defeat in its war against the struggle of the Eritrean people for self-determination and independence.

In last year's offensive, the armies of the Ethiopian military dictatorship suffered huge losses and serious setbacks in battles with the Eritrean Popular Liberation Front.

But the EPLF was forced to retreat from the towns which it Last autumn the EPLF which is their traditional base. mate.

Now Ethiopian dictator up, whereby union block votes can be used to prop up Labour's right wing leaders on crucial questions while at the same time not directly accepting responsibility for the reactionary policies adopted by Labour in Parliament or in Government.

Manoeuvre

This gives maximum room for manoeuvre and for occasional token gestures of militancy to let off steam at the Labour conference.

It is with a view to strengthening this combined grip of the Labour and trade union bureaucracy on the Party machine and stamping out any emerging socialist opposition within the Ethiopian troops.

Although provided with highly sophisticated equipment including MiG fighter-bombers, these forces are poorly trained -mostly the latest victims of the Derg's violent conscription of peasants.

The EPLF has been able to consolidate its forces, and has claimed a decisive victory on one front, in an ambush on an Ethiopian column, with some 1,500 of the Derg's soldiers put out ul delon.

The international workers' against the Eritrean people, In assisting the Derg's vicious rank and file that Basnett and other TUC chiefs have been pressing for a full-scale inquiry into the finance and administration of the party.

Certainly the heated exchanges on the NEC in recent weeks are an indication that acute pressures are now building up within the Labour Party as workers seek an answer to the devastating attacks launched by the Tories.

But rather, than offer any political alternatives to Callaghan's reactionary package of anti-working class policieswage controls, spending cuts and speed-up-NEC 'lefts' like Benn and Heffer put forward only half-baked constitutional reforms and vague talk of the 1945 election manifesto.

And as Callaghan throws down the gauntlet and makes it plain that he will manoeuvre with TUC bureaucrats to squash any hint of party democracy or socialist policies, Benn has made it clear he is launching no campaign for Callaghan's removal.

Indeed Benn has even declared his opposition to the election of the Party leader by the Labour conference.

No policies He has denied that any real split is on the cards. And to ensure that this remains the case Benn has put forw ard no policies whatever for a against the Tories' wild attacks Local government finance the working class.

Callaghan of course has made his stance absolutely clear. He is opposed to any struggles at all that would prevent the Tories carrying out their policies for the next five years.

Inflation

But there is little sign that the working class, threatened with indefinite mass unemployinent, runaway inflation, vicious speed-up and the total devastation of education and social services, will pay much attention to Callaghan's advice.

There will be massive struggles in defence of jobs, wages and public servicesstruggles in which the fight must be taken up for concerted action to bring down the Thatcher government.

This is why the fight against both the open right wing Labour leadership and the fake 'lefts' who refuse to campaign for their removal takes on a new urgency in this period.

Open fight

-Rather than running for cover from the Tory press, the Manifesto Group and the TUC bureaucracy, workers must demand that the 'left'-talking opponents of Callaghan struggle openly to kick him out of the Party leadership and for a programme of socialist policies capable of defending jobs, wages and working conditions.

The Tory victory in the May election showed beyond doubt the electoral fruits of Labour's "party unity" around Callaghan's policies: only a clear socialist programme that rejects all forms of collaboration with the interests of the employers can offer a rallying point against the Tories.

Aiding Thatcher Those Labourites-whether right wingers or left' fakerswho oppose such a programme are in practice assisting Thatcher in her attacks.

But the reality of the pp6-7 Callaghan situation is that no amount of Parliamentary 'reforms' can offer a socialist solution to the crisis: the road to socialism requires the construction of a revolutionary party in the workers' movement that will fight to:

*Defend living standards! Protect pay agreements against inflation through cost-of-living clauses linked to a workers" price index.

*Defend all jobs! Share the available work between the whole workforce without loss of pay! Occupy to prevent closures!

*Stop the cuts! For all out strike action and occupations to defend health, education and social services!

Open the books of industry! Reveal the profiteering! Prove the case for nationalisation of industry and banks without compensation under workers management.

The Workers Socialist League fights for precisely such a programme.

PHOTO: Chris Davies, Report Benn

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