What kind of government do workers need

Scan page 8

Control over currency specu- would need to take steps÷ There is no way in which the state machinery created as a weapon to defend the private property of the capitalist class can be transformed into a weapon in workers' struggle for socialism.

The charade of Parliamentary democracy must be exposed, and the mass of the working class mobilised to destroy and • dismantle the state apparatus,: and in particular its bodies of armed men, the army and the police.

In their place a workers' state apparatus must be established to protect the gains of the revolution through the dictatorship of the proletariat.

What farm nuid this rictatorship take?

First and foremost it would be a dictatorship exercised by the masses over the tiny minority of former capitalist exploiters and their agents.

As such, it would have an entirely different class character from dictatorships exercised by right wing capitalist or fascist regimes.

A centrdi redlure wuviu ut A bunt featurera •ale lan the dissolution of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the abolition of the monarchy, in favour of the power of workers' councils.

The mass struggles prior to the revolution will provide the basis for the formation of such bodies, initially as councils of action to organise workers' struggles independently of the union bureaucracy, posing a direct challenge to the power of the capitalist state.

SOVIETS After the revolution, these councils, similar to the soviets that emerged in the Russian Revolution, would; develop in power and scope, and would draw delegates from all workplaces and working class organi. sations.

As such they would be class organisations that would exclude the old exploiters, but directly reflect the feelings of workers in the factories, mines, yeards, shops, banks and transport.

Nolanatoe unuild he electer Vołty eo vem vu vvy from factory committees and subject recall by their membership at any time they deviated from their mandate.

And they would receive no financial privileges-being paid no more than the average working wage..

Local level workers' councils in each town would elect delegates to regional and national level bodies. " which would become the voice of the mass of the population, the highest level of workers' democracy.

Workers' councils would oversee the : expropriation, of major industry, the banks and transport facilities, while sate guarding the livelihoods of'small farmers, shopkeepers; petty businesses and smati savers.

While capitalist dictators SPAK АППИН "НІ to atomise, atomica repress and to crush the working class and any political opposition, the proletarian dictatorship fought for by revolutionaries must rest on the active mobilisation of the masses,. their direct involvement in decision making, and in the defence of the workers' state from enemies within and outside its own borders.

This demands a thoroughly internationalist foreign policybeginning with immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and every other country, the breaking off of diplomatic links with right wing dictatorships and the offer of material aid to anti-imperialist and anticapitalist : struggles in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

A workers' government would pull out of NATO; other imperialist pacts, and the capitalist Common Market, calling on the workers movement throughout Europe to force similar action on their governments and to fight for a Socialist United States of Europe.

MILITIAS It would .. oversee the disbanding of the standing army and the police, and in "their place the institution of widespread military training for youth and workers to enable the formation of armed workers' militia answerable to workers' councils at local and national level. lation, internationa trading links and over the possible reemergence of pockets of capitalism would be asserted by the closing down of the stock exchange, the imposition of a state monopoly of foreign trade, and the expropriation of the banks and major trusts-with protection for smal! deposit holders.

Within Britain itself, other aspects of the state apparatus would also need to be dismantled. The judiciary and the courts,: through which the capitalist class protect their private property against the working class would be scrapped, and replaced by a system of jury trials before WO KAIS COUrTS VUTI The civil service bureaucracy, which in reality takes the vast majority of day-to-day decisions on the administration of British capitalism, is not entirely the same, however...

Within the civil service are • many administrators • with detailed technical knowledge. necessary for the reorganisation of industry and the economy.

A workers' government with the aid of civil service unions-to make this knowledge available to the workers' movement, and to bring the civil service firmly under its control.

Within such a framework, the task of fully opening the books of capitalist society as a whole and mapping out a five year. plan for the socialist expansion of production and provision of social needs could begin.

Trotsky

Scan page 9

IST PRESS, Wednesday