Ory War Budget

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Press Anyone who had been tempted to believe Tory government claims that things are beginning to look up after two years of monetarist carnage should look closely at the new figures out this week. Thatcher heads cabinei containing 8 millionaires. Prior-owns land and farm worth over £700,000. Walker-holdings in £655,000.

Not one person, not one penny for the imperialist war machine!

That would be the policy a genuine socialist opposition to the Tory "defence" budget.

In place of Thatcher's reluctant and partial cuts in the traditional flotilla of gunboats and sailors, (cuts designed to finance a smaller and far more lethal pack of Trident submarines), the socialist answer would demand the withdrawal of all British troops from overseas, the disbanding of the standing army, the unilateral disarmament of • British imperialism, the formation ol workers militias, and a policy of support for anti-imperialist struggles throughout the world.

It was not surprising that no Labour MP voiced such policies in last week's "defence" debate. To a greater or lesser degree all If the local authority shades of opinion in the Parliamentary Labour Party accept that there is a need to "defend" British imperialism against the supposed danger of an attack from the Soviet Union.

The majority of the PLP go even further-and support the use of British troops to maintain . the sectarian Orange statelet in the North of Ireland. And they support the continued existence of nuclear weapons in the hands of the British ruling class-weapons which stand as a major threat to the working class of the world.

Puffing

Small wonder therefore that in three quarters of an hour of huffing and puffing the Shadow Defence Spokesman Brynmor John talled to make any worthwhile points against Thatcher's war chief, John Nott.

Instead, the main energies of the PLP leaderFin ship were directed towards attacking Tony Benn for putting his name to a Tribunite resolution which, in line with Labour conference policy, opposed:

"any defence policy based on the use or threatened use of nuclear weapons, including Trident and Cruise Callaghan climbed temporarily out of his back bench coffin to deliver a ringing appeal for cuts in the Rhine army to replace cuts in the Navy. And Healey slammed Benn for "kicking Foot in the stomach" by failing to support the pathetic amendment on defence policy tabled by the Shadow Cabinet.

As the Thatcher/Reagan war danger grows, so does the necessity for a principled internationalist opposition to be built within the labour movement.