Callaghan gang

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Unemployment in Wales is in some areas near 20%. And, according to a Tory-led Commons Select Committee, this could lead to 'public disorder' if nó action is taken.

The Committee condemned a series of Tory government policies, including the scrapping of development areas status for mid-Wales, the cutbacks in temporary employment programmes, and the huge closures in steel and coal.

It unanimously recommended government grants and aid to relieve the worst symptoms of this Torysponsored unemployment.

, UNEM PLOYMENT IS GETTING N HA E NO MEMBERS LEFT CONTROL IS WHAT WE NÈED...

CONTROL OF IMPORTS... CONTROL OF WAGES! election of the Party leader (at present chosen only by the right wing dominated PLP); it means opposition to any moves to give the Party control over the election manifesto.

"Representative democracy" therefore means opposition to every proposed democratic reform: " instead the Gang proposes to leave reactionary Labour MPs a free hand to do what they will; to gerrymander the NEC in order to drive out its present left-wing majority; and to give the choice of parliamentary candidates not to active party supporters but to "every member" • in a system that would in reality give the main say to the Tory press and mass media.

Threat

Along with this call for "representative democracy" comes the final threat: if the Party conference does not toe the line drawn by the Gang of Three they will do their level best to split the Party sooner than submit to the will of the majority.

At the same time the Gang slam into those Labour 'lefts' -in particular Tony Bennwho have opposed witch-hunting moves against socialists and Trotskyists within the party denouncing:

"the willingness of some leading NEC members to flirt with extremists who openly regard democracy as a sham. Parties of the autocratic left cannot be our allies, and the Labour Party should repudiate them".

The response from the left' has been varied. Eric Heffer has limply complained that the open letter seeks to divide the party instead of uniting it against the Tories.

But Frank Allaun suggested the Gang of Three should resign at once, and the kank and rile Mobilising Committee, which made its appearance at this year's Special Conference, declared:

"If the Gang of Three would only stop threatening to leave the party and actually do it, they would Ispare us all a great deal of trouble. They are out of place in the Labour Party for APOLOGY We apologise to readers for the numerous typographical errors to be found in this issue of Socialist Press as a result of a breakdown on our IBM machine.

RIDICULOUS- WE'L TO KEEP CONTROL OF!

BUT OFISHAL • SURELY THIS IS JUST THE OLD SOCIAL CO ITRACT? they are, in all essentials, Conservatives".

This, as far as it goes, is correct. But it is necessary to point out that the Gang of Three's policy statement is identical to the line adopted by the whole Callaghan leadership.

And while Callaghan sees the preparation for the Party conference taking the form of backstage manoeuvres to win the block votes of top union bureaucrats, the Gang of Three have complemented his efforts by threatening the union chiefs with a major split if they do not vote down the democratic reforms demanded by the left.

It is therefore not simply a question of calling upon the Gang of Three to "resign": in the growing fight within the labour movement it is nncessary to begin a campaign for their expulsion from the Party, and for the removal of the entire Callaghan gang whose consistent anti-working class policies laid the basis for last year's Tory election victory.

As the manoeuvres and negotiations gather pace prior to the conference, it is essential that ' union branches in particular demand that their delegations vote in favour of the democratic constitutional reforms put forward by the left and reject any bloc with Callaghan and the Gang of Three.

TORY PROVOCATION Four skinheads, aged between 15 and 17, have been charged with the murder. Two of them are well-known among local youth as active supporters of the National Front and the British Movement.

Anger among local black youth has not declined in the period since the killing. Efforts are. now being made to set up a Newham Youth Movement which will focus its activities on self-defence and the creation of facilities for immigrant youth.

Socialist Press supporters and members of the Socialist Youth League will be participating in this movemerit to I'S HIGH TIME WE CAME FORWARD WITH A ESPONSIBLE ALTERNATIVE... WE NEED AN EXPANDED N.E.B... TACTLES WHAT THI IN RUSI At the same time the political inadequacy of the lefts'who have no coherent socialist alternative to the class collaborationist politics of Callaghan and the Gang of Three-must be challenged, through full debate on the NEC Draft Manifesto in Labour Parties and union branches.

A principled socialist leadership must be built within the labour movnment, committed to the mobilisation of the working class in all-out action to bring down the Tory government and the fight to build councils of action in each area to carry on the fight for socialist policies under a returned Labour government.

Such a leadership will be able in the course of struggle to show that parliamentary democracy is a sham, a cloak concealing the capitalists and bankers who use the machinery of the state to protect their class rule.

In the struggle for a genuine workers' government to implement a socialist programme to defend jobs and wages, a new form of democracy-workers' democracy-will emerge, as the majority sweep aside the hypocrisy and double talk of the Callaghan Gang of cryptoTories, and their motley hangers-on. from back page) ensure its success, but also to argue for perspectives that go beyond the self-defence of immigrant minorities.

Correct though the self-defence slogan is; it is inadequate by itself to ensure that anti-fascist activity achieves the kind of class-wide support that is necessary.

We will argue for the slogan of workers' defence organisations, based on the established bodies of the working class -the unions, the Trades Councils, and the Labour Party.

THE SYSTEM , GOING TO THE DOGS-IT'S ABOUT TIME THE WORK RS MOVEMENT REALLY TOOK CONTROL!

BOY! I DON'T KNOW = YOUNGSTERS LEARN V THESE DAYS!

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Welsh jobless