Trotskyism and the Mass Movement

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Eight days of lectures and discussion on basic questions of Marxism and the fight to reconstruct the "TROTSKYISM AND THE TRADE UNIONS: USA in the 1930s. France in the 1930s. The postwar struggle to build "TROTSKY ISM, STALINISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY. The struggle for the Fl against Stalinism in the 1930s. Lessons for the period of entry into social democracy in *TROTSKYISM AND THE FIGHT AGAINST WOMEN' *TROTSKYISM AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION "TROTSKYISM AND PETTY BOURGEOIS NATIONALIST "THE FIGHT FOR A TROTSKYIST YOUTH MOVEMENT "RECONSTRUCT THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL The school will be attended by delegations from the organisations affiliated to the TILC and members of the WSL. A special invitation is being extended to supporters of the WSL to take part in the discussion and learn more about Dotails are available from any WSL branch or from: WSL;

Costi £12 including accomodation for the eight days. A cheap mad will be provided at lunch time and there will be Fourth International.

Trotskyist parties in the working class.

France and the USA.

OPPRESSION.

MOVEMENTS Evaning moatings wents.

the WSL and the TIL C.

BM Box 5277, London WC1V 6XX.

a pooled fare arrangement. Creche facilities. JULY 20-27 1980 no meetings on additional topics, films and But the Trotskyists have no organised base in the labour movement, unlike the Maoists -who control the country's largest union, the militant teachers' organisation SUTEPor the Stalinists who, although small, control the important CGTP union confederation.

The PRT's lack of a base is problem shared by the Morenists (PST), the Lambertists (POMR) and the small Fourth Internationalist Tendency group (POR) who comprise the other Trotskyist tendencies in Peru.

The General Strike of July 1977 forced the calling of elections by the dictatorship of General Morales Bermudez, who stipulated that 'the first step back to democracy' would be the calling of a Constituent Assembly in July 1978.

Minimum programme At that stage the Trotskyists were affiliated to FOCEP, an alliance with small leftist groupings and independents based on a minimum programme which stipulated that no agreements should be made with bourgeois In 1978 FOCEP gained the bulk of the substantial left vote but was incapable of providing a political leadership.

Waves of strikes continued without any direction, only to be betrayed by the refusal of the Stalinists and the inability of the Trotskyists to call a general strike for the overthrow of the dictatorship.

The Assembly was dissolved in July 1979 after completing the squalid business of agreeing a bourgeois constitution.

Since then, repression, unemployment and inflation have all increased and the state of the working class has worsened appreciably.

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cola snowe Pag The Court of Criminal Appeal in Dublin last week ordered the release of Osgar Breathnach and Bernard Mcnally after they had spent 17 months in jail following their conviction for the Sallins Mail Train Robbery.

As we outlined in a previous issue of Socialist Press the convictions followed a terror campaign launched by the forces of the so-called Free State against the Irish Republican Socialist Party.

Farce

Breathnach, (editor of the IRSP paper 'Starry Plough') and Monally were found guilty of the robbery after a farce of a trial in the Special Criminal Court, where three judges sit without a jury.

At the time of writing it is not clear on what basis the appeal court reversed the convictions, as this is to be announced later.

But the defendants had prepared their appeal on more than 20 grounds-the most important Last week's CBI annual dinner witnessed the unseemly spectacle of CBI President Sir John Greenborough virtually begging the Tory government to cut interest rates.

With many of the country's most vicious and grasping industrialists weeping into their soup as they face the prospect of economic ruin in the gathering recession, it must have taken an iron will on the part of Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe to brush aside this heartelt plea.

Moral speech

But he held firm, sticking to his prepared text and delivering an uplifting moral speech on the need for Tory leaders and employers "to give to each of which related to illegal a est, forced confessions and r usal to arrange for a solicitor . be present when Breatnach was being questioned.

Public eye

It seems that the campaign to free the IRSP members had so clearly established the facts of the case in the public eye, and the behaviour of the police and the treatment the case got in court was so well known, that the Appeal Court felt obliged to release them.

Certainly the appearance in the Appeal Court of numerous representatives of civil rights organisations from several countries-including Amnesty International-left the judges less room for manoeuvre.

In the days leading up to the appeal, the Provisional IRA announced that Breathnach and Mcnally were innocent and that they had carried out the robbery. It is impossible to assess at this stage what impact this had on the verdict.

Perhaps the forces of the Irish state will now feel it incumbent on them to explain to the taxpayers why was other the benefit of Meanwhile figures show that manufacturers have been registering their real level of confidfinished goods, and by continuing to cut back on capital spending.

Plummet

The drop in stocks in the last quarter was the biggest since records began in 1955. It indicates both plumeting morale among manufacturing capitalists and the level of Tory destruction of basic industry.

Indeed after one year of Tory policies-supposedly designed to spur on free enterprise and profitability at the expense of social servicesredundancies are now running necessary to spend over £1 million on two trials lasting 65 and 43 days to convict people who are then released on appeal 17 months later.

A third defendant Edward Kelly disappeared during the trial, was sentenced in his absence and a warrant has been issued for him.

The IRSP claim that he too should now be considered to be cleared Socialist Pres will report on this as developments take place.

Following the Appeal Courts decision the IRSP held a press conference in Dublin at which Breathnach announced his intention to take civil action against the state. The IRSP will be running a campaign for the abolition of the Special Criminal Court, whose constitutionality will be tested by legal action.

Opportunity

Last week's victory should not be underestimated.

It opens up a real opportunity to highlight the repressive state apparatus of the Republic. It opens up to re-examination the conviction of numerous other class war victims. at an average rate of nearly 1,000 per day (330,000 per year), and unemployment is certain to reach new post-war record levels in the next few months.

For the 712,000 school leavers who will shortly be in search of jobs, the outlook is bleak, with only 163,000 notified vacant jobs-a fall of over 5,000 on a month ago.

As Breathnach also pointed out at the press conference, the verdict must also re-open the questions surrounding the assassination of IRSP founder Seamus Costello. "Was it coincidence that he was assassinated during the course of this case?" he asked.

Congratulations

Socialist Press extends its warm congratulations to the released militants and calls on the British labour movement to support the campaign against the Republic's repressive state machinery.

Such a campaign, linked to the building of opposition to the continued occupation of the north by imperialist troops and the fight for their immediate withdrawal, can play a vital role in unifying the struggle north and south for an Irish workers' republic.

Furthermore, the linking of struggles in Ireland with those against the Tories in Britain demonstrates the independent interests of the British working class as distinct from the interests of the 'British nation' which are in reality the interests of the British employers.

Howe For unemployed workers and youth, the squabbles over tactics between the CBI and the Tories are of no immediate interest: only mass action to drive out this government of bankers and employers can open the possibility of a planned socialist economy that will provide full employment.

Not satisfied with the effective "licence to kill" extended to the Special Patrol Group and the SAS, the Police Federation last week underlined its demand for the restoration of capital punishment for all convicted murderers.

And, flying in the face of a growing body of opinion embracing even Tory MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee, the Federation nailed its reactionary colours to the discredited mast of the 'Sus' Meeting symbolically in Scarborough-the conference centre blacked by most unions because of local hoteliers' refusal to recognise the GMWU -the Federation heard chairman James Jardine declare that:

"The repeal of the 'Sus' law will be seen as a major reduction in the ability of the patrolling police officer to act as a crime prevention officer on the But the Home Affairs Committee made it quite clear that its proposal for the abolition of the 'Sus' law is designed purely as a cosmetic measure to defuse the highly effective campaigns that have been waged against police harrassment of young Wednesday ira' blacks.

As the Tories and Labourites put it in their joint report:

"It is to be expected that the repeal of 'Sus' will be a contribution to the further development of cooperation (with the It can be expected that the vast armoury of alternative laws -already used by most police forces outside London-will now be brought more into use in the harassment of black and white youth currently clobbered under "Sus"

For the Police Federation however any hint of a curtailment of their rights is immediately seized upon as a grievance.

But with the sting taken out of previous years' Federation conferences by the huge pay increases handed out by the Tories, the anticipation of using the savage anti-union laws in the pipeline and the steady escalation of police powers, the Federation's attention has shifted slightly-to voicing complaints about the impact of spending cuts.

No... you've guessed it! They do not care about the ciosures of schools, hospitais and social services. The Police Federation is worried about. the impact of cash limits on police recruitment and training!

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ence in their stocks of fuel, raw materials, work in progress and