Red Sea Girls

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Ethiopia One of the many important effects of the international oil crisis has been on the political and social developments in the oil producing areas of the Middle East.

Although the oil industry itself reeds few workers, its expansion has an enormous effect on the national economies of the region, and has done much in recent mon ths to sharpen the national liberation struggles going on at the fringe of the oil producing world The politics and economies of the area are now dominated by the efforts of the internationa. _ monopolies and their imperials: backers to hold their positio: i= the quicksands of the internationa payments crisis, and in the face of an aggressive Arab capitalism.

The capitalist press sets out consciously to obscure the fact that the Arab countries and their neigh bours are not simply inhabited by 'sheikhs' and 'terrorists' but reflect in their own way the same class contradictions to be found in the richer capitalist countries.

In many different parts of the area, bloody and bitter struggles are going on whose fate is intimately linked with the struggles of workers in Britain and elsewhere in the Western world.

The Palestinian struggle, and the . threat it has posed not only to the Zionists but also to pro-imperialist regimes throughout the Arab world has provided inspiration for the 'development of many other national liberation movements throughout the area.

Like the Palestinian struggle itself, none of these national liberation movements can be confined to the borders of one country, not least because they quickly come into conflict with the strategic interests of imperialism.

While Kissinger tours Arab capitals in an effort to get them to come into line politically, he and others make it plain that the United States is again prepared to consider intervention in the area, as they did through the CIA in establishing the present regime in Iran in 1953, and in 195/ by sending the marines to the Lebanon to end threats to the oil companies.

Any war plans of the US imperialists i the area would need the part. pation of the British government. The United States now are not only demanding the joint use of the island of Masiri, which is an RAF base, but also of the Omaniheld Messendam Peninsula, which commands the entry to the Arabian Gulf, and is passed by the tankers containing a large proportion of the world's oil supply. The state of Oman, which contains a small but significant amou of oil, was ruled until 1970 by the slave-owning Sultan bin Taimur, one of the most reactionary and backward rulers in the world. In 1966 a guerrilla struggle against " im began in the Western province of Dhofar under the United Arab • Mosendam Emirates ‹Peninsular Oman Masira Island S. Yemen Dhofar Indian Ocean 500 mls leadership of what came to be known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Occupied Arab Gulf.

The growing success of this movement led to the overthrow of the Sultan and his replacement by his Sandhurst-trained son Qabu The state of Oman is a British colony. Members of the Cabinet are also supposed to be officers in the British army.

British companies, notably such well-known anti-trade union firms as George Wimpey and Tailor Woodrow have been at the centre of the capitalist development of the courtry since 1970. mostiv Betting miltary irstallatiors ard =330es The army has toes ur is otters who are either s members of the British army; or ex-members fighting as mercenaries.

Despite continual claims to the contrary, the bombing of herds and water holes by RAF planes did not defeat the Dhofari guerriIlas, who began to extend a whole system of schools and hospitals in the liberated areas of the country, (insitations which had never been seen there before).

By 28th January 1974 The Time: said Oman was unable to continue to fight the war, at the same time as doing anything else with its national budget.

This statement in fact appeared within a month of the invasion of Dhofar by the armed forces of the Shah of Iran, who had recently concluded the largest arms deal in history with the United States. The significance of this invasion was two-fold.

It indicated the failure of the British officers to hold back the rebels; and it showed that the United States, albeit at one remove, was taking on the policing activities in the Gulf. The Shah saw his invasion as defending the general interests of imperialism in the area.

The liberation fighters during the course of 1974 pur up a bitter struggle against a new group of foreign invaders of Dhofar. According to Le Monde of 4th February they have killed up to 50 a month of the 3000 odd Iranian soldiers sent against them.

The question of how successful the Iranians have been is difficult to assess. The Times of 18th November, said of the Iranians that 'they have now all returned home' This was a lie. A communique from the liberation forces of 28th January admitted serious losses including important lines of communication. However, their strug gle goes on despite claims of the capitalist press of the West that it is over.

Whatever set backs are suffered by those in the Middle Fast who are fighting for national freedom and independence. th growth of a working class brought about by the industrial development of the area following on oil revenues will undoubtedly in the end pose the biggest threat of all to imperialism. mittee.

As the march entered Daventry on Saturday its numbers had dwind. led to 30, with few building workers in evidence and the numbers clearly boosted by WRP delegations The party leadership, which clearly hoped that jumping on the bandwagon of working class anger at the ailing of the pickets would pull round some much needed trade union contacts, is discovering that this is not a magic key to a working class base.

"Socialist Press" in its last issue stated that it would have been prepared to give conditional support to the march even though disagree. ing with the politics of the WRP -if it were genuinely a campaign to unite opposition to the jailing of trade unionists.

We stated also that since trade unionists were being banned from "public" meetings on the march this clearly was not the case. We challenged the Wigan Committee to anwer why this took place. There has been no response.

REVISIONIST SUPPORT

Only the revisionist IS and IMG now give the march a veneer of credibility, devoting substantial coverage to it in their press despit the obstacles put in their way by *: WRP The IMG for example states in 'Red Weekly":

... all the forces of the revolutionary left have to give all-out support to the march." though they do recognise that:

"The force behind the march are not going to welcome such action In Oxford, it was IS members who called for support for the march from the Trades Council (there being no WRP delegates). Yet the 'Workers Press' maintains firmly the position that the revisi nists are really opposed to the march!

CHANGED POLICY

But it is on the basic question of policy that the WRP has performed the most blatant manoeuvre, so rapidly as to leave its own members confused. (see 'Workers Diary' p.6, On the January 14th TUC Parliamentary lobby the WRP distributed only one leaflet, in the name of the 'Wigan Builders' Action Committee' ', which did not even call for a General Strike, but demanded solely: "Free the Shrewsbury 2! Defen Democratic rights!"

The Workers Socialist League alone on the march leafletted and shouted slogans calling on the left MPs to fight to remove Jenkins as Home Secretary, and led the call for a General Strike.

The WRP maintained its position of not putting any demands on the left MPs until last Saturday (8th Feb) when they adopted, without a work of explanation of the switch our slogan.

Worse, however, they combined it with a fanfare of welcome for Sidney Bidwell, opportunist 'Tribuneite' fake left, who voted for Jenkins' so-called anti-terrorism Act, onto the Wigan-London protest march! Thus the slogan 'make the left fight' is printed in the paper but in a way which makes it meaningless.

This resolution was passed at the Charing Cross Branch of ASTMS on Wednesday February 12th: "Branch supports the march of the Wigan Builders Action ComSOCIALIST Thui 20th ebruars 19"5

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