United front o mediaeval bigots!

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For a supposed socialist there could scarcely be a more naked statement of conservatism and ideological bankruptcy than engaging in a last-ditch campaign for the continued use of a 1662 Church of England prayer book.

But for Michael Foot, the extreme right wing voice of the Tribune Group, adding his signature to a campaign list incorporating William Whitelaw, Lord Carrington, the heads of all three armed forces and a bevy of High Court judges was simply the latest step in his hell-for-leather rush to join the rightwing "establishment"

Foot is merely following the time-worn trail left by Labour traitors over the decades.

Trotsky

And while no doubt few workers now cherish • the slightest illusion in the once fire-breathing Foot as a "revolutionary" leader, it is worth pointing to the way Trotsky in 1926 analysed this type of religious reformist.

Writing in Pravda, he pointed Carrington Foot out the distinction between the religious ideas that linger amongst sections of workers and those consciously detended their bureaucratic leaders:

"It is completely indisputable that the revolution will find a good share of the Welsh miners still in the grip of religious prejudices.

"It cannot be doubted that despite this the miners will do their job. From some prejudices they will free themselves in the heat of the struggle, while from others only after victory.

"But we categorically deny that the Welsh miners and the British proletariat in general can be shown the correct path by people who have not separated themselves from infantile nonsense, do not understand the structure of human society, do not grasp its dynamics, do not understand the role of religion in it and to one degree or another are ready to subordinate their actions to the precepts of ecclesiastical morality which unites oppressors with oppressed.

"Such leaders are unreliable. From them the working class can expect capitulation or direct treachery-justified by the Sermon on the Mount-at the most crucial hour."

Writings on Britain, vol. pp.1678. February 5 be adopted by the TUC for a one-day strike as its much-promised "Day of Action" against the cuts, and that this incorporate a massive lobby of Parliament against the Corrie Bill.

At the same time preparations must be made to defend women's rights in the event of the Bill becoming law.

Vaughan NHS unions, and doctorswho have almost universally condemned the Corrie Billmust be called upon to adopt a policy of safeguarding existing abortion facilities, and disregarding the barbaric restrictions of the Corrie Bill whether or not it is passed in Parliament.

They must declare themselves ready to take all-out strike action in defence of anyone penalised by the state for carrying out an abortion-or to defend existing charitable abortion institutions threatened with legal attack.