Quadrophenia: attempt to escape routine

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19 November death of Keith Moon is that London The lesson of the tragic unemployment used to attack conditions Mandel Castro within the rump XIth Congress relevance to Trotskyists in -or the outcome of that Cong- today's class struggle? ress-we have no information on Until they abandon this reacwhich to base a judgement. tionary view and cease their But the Workers Socialist efforts to block vital political League has consistently argued discussion, the rump USFI, now that the USFI is not, and was dominated by the arch-Castroite «the" Fourth International, SWP, will remain an obstacle to but merely one of the fragments clarification of Trotskyist of a post war Trotskyist move- forces on a world scale. ment confused and divided by For this reason any reconrepeated crises. struction of the FI must at Our attempts to initiate present take place 'outside the discussion with the USFI on the ranks of the Fourth Internationpolitical and programmatic al itself" , if by 'the Fourth issues involved in these crises- International" comrade Hearse in order to create a political intends to signify the USFI. basis for a principled recon- The future political evolustruction of the FI-have them- tion of the OCRFI, BF and LTT selves been successively blocked is for us a question for which by the USFI leadership which there is as yet no final answer. earlier this year pulled back They do not hide the fact from an agreement to circulate that major political issues divide and discuss the WSL document them. The conference is The Poisoned Well. convened to give them and Is it therefore surprising to other militants the chance to comrade Hearse and the USFI assess the level of agreement leadership that, the Workers that does exist. Socialist League should The WSL intends to particiwelcome the calling by the BF, pate in this, and to argue, as LTT and OCRFI of an open stated, for our programmatic: conference in 1980. the positions and historical analysis declared task of which is to in that open conference, withoppose the liquidationist out in any way solidarising with politics of the USFI majority the politics of the three convenwhich we have always opposed ing organisations or retreating and which specifically refers. in on our fight for the reconstrucits initial documents, back to tion of a democratic centralist the lessons of the split of 1951- Fourth International. 53? And if the USFi were really When will the USFI show contident of its political posiitself ready seriously to discuss tions and opposed to sectar-l such issues? ianism" it would take up the How long can comrade invitation of the BF, LTT and Hearse and the IMG maintain OCRFI to participate in that their discredited argument that conference, rather than castigathe historical lessons of the ting us, and the USFI's own ill-prepared splits and opportun- erstwhile political allies and ist fusions in the post-wai partners for taking part. Fourth International have no Dear Editor, I wish to make a number of critical points on the article by P. Tickell (SP 175) on Quadrophenia.

The modern revival' of the mod scene means many youth will be divided among the various musical trends.

On some streets it is battles of the two, both exploited and used by capitalism via the music rags to divide our class.

What the movie is about is the attempt to escape the stereotyped, boring, dull routinism which dominates the majority of youth.

The hum-drum life is exposed for its destructive and demoralising effect. The youth turn to their music to find independence from bourgeois control. This process is ignored or left as a side issue.

The high level of unemployment now prevailing in the West of Scotland provides the conditions for employers to intensify exploitation of their workforce through the imposition of vicious agreements on wages and working conditions.

An example of this is the agreement concluded between the Ayrshire Marine Constructors and the Chicago Bridge Constructors on the one hand, and on the other hand the trade union officials supposedly representing the interests of the men employed in building an oil rig at Hunterston, Ayrshire.

Blackmail

The extent to which the officials from the unions involved (including the Boilermakers) will capitulate and concede to the employers is spelled out in clause after clause.

Demarcation-essential

to the maintenance of skills, differentials and jobs is thrown out of the window:

"As far as possible, skilled men will do the work for which they are most qualified by training and experience but all must carry on with semi-skilled or unskilled work, if there is The Who recognise the inab:

ility of youth to find anyway forward in cult followings.

As a group whose base rested generally on a "political (in the narrowest sense) analysis" of the situation, they need to have their finger on the pulse of today's generation.

The reviewer's attitude is supposed to represent an understanding of the world.

But in reality it becomes a cruel slamming of a good film. Descriptions of Ken Russell as simply a 'crackpot' give no real view of the impression, and meaning of Russell's work.

The 'intermittent' reality is rubbish. The job, home mates and whole routine of Jimmy (Phil Daniels) is real.

Many youth face and suffer such oppression. no craft work for them to do."

To try to blackmail men into abandoning industrial action to defend themselves an "allowance" of £250 will be paid twice a year to employees who have "no lost time at Hunterston due to industrial action within the six months period prior to payment"

As for wages, night work is to be paid at time and a quarter for the first ten hours and only after that has been accrued on each shift is payment increased as Trotsky would see them.

(Incidentally the court scene is funny, although not very realistic).

The two camps of people do exist. The older sections of workers weren't particularly apathetic, but many could not understand their sons and daughters.

This created a division which .. exists in the family unit' today.

It is part of the diction in the family.

An important factor to the film is the concluding scene.

Many-including cde.

Tickell-believe that Jimmy, the confused ultra-Mod, kills himself.

However, the shot shows only the bike going over the top of the cliff.

I feel it was the disgust and rejection of a commercialised disillusioned young worker to the shod scene.

We are left at the beginning of the film-a Mod walking on the beach, alone and disillusioned (further evidence of the film's time and a half.

On top of all this, there is a list of jobs which must continue to be done outside 'in adverse weather conditions"

For this, there is no extra payment specified!

Indeed, the agreement as remarkable for what omits as what it includes.

As well as there being no conditions money, no travelling money is allowed -despite the site being at some distance from any major centre of population.

to satisfy our needs.

The Socialist Youth League, political supporters of the WSL, should be cde.

Tickell's alternative.

Only through the channelling of aggression, anno.

yance and hatred of 'control' into a revolutionary youth movement can this repressive apparatus and reactionary society be crushed.

Yours fraternally, NJ P.S. In cde. Tickell's view the area and scenery were "lacking... authenticity'.

The film was however shot in the Shepherds Bush area of London.

The White City housing estate-where the streets are shot-is reputed to be the GLC's worst housing estate.

The Nazi Graffitti, is unhappily, also very real.

The question of blues' barbiturate pills, is also left aside in the article. Many youth feel they need'drugs to co-exist with capitalist pressures. This question should be examined.

Nor is there any money specified for working at heights-although the rig will go as high as 300 feet.

As the site builds up and more men are employed, the bitterness at such terms must surely increase both against the management who have imposed this agreement and against the servile trade union officials who have so abjectly accepted such terrible conditions for their membership.

Such workers are not alone. Throughout the country, reformist union leaders • readily accepting employers' arguments that the membership • must "sacrifice" in order to preserve profits-and therefore "defend jobs". • are busily agreeing to speedup, closures, and a massive erosion of real wages.

It is vital that the bitterness against these officials is not allowed to turn into cynicism towards the trade unions themselves, demoralisation.

Rather the fight must be taken up in every industry for the construction of a principled, revolutionary leadership, prepared and able to fight tooth and nail for the independent interests of the working class, against the betrayals of the bureaucracy and the blackmail of the employers.

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ROSSTRIAL REMIS 1979