Moderates' on the Warpath

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POPE'S FRATERNAL As a gesture of goodwill towards Hanoi's "peaceful coexistence' with the Catholic heirarchy in North and South communicated an Archbishop recently ordained by him.

An announcement in Rome on January 16th, declared that Monsignor Ngo Dinh Thuc, formerly Catholic archbishop of Hue, in the north of South Vietnam, together with five priests whom he ordained as bishops in Spain at the end of December, had been cast out of the church.

Archbishop Thue is a brother of Ngo Dinh Diem, the dictator ol South Vietnam installed by US imperialism after the partition of the country in 1954. When the Diem regime fell in 1963, the Archbishop fled to exile in Europe.

The Vatican announcement of excommunication stated he was purged under a 1951 decree of the Holy Office, which automatically excommunicates anyone who consecrates bishops who have not been nominated or appróved from Rome.

This decree has never previously been used. The axing of Thuc is a sign of the Vatican's satisfaction that its representatives in Vietnam are getting the support and collaboration of Party and state officials in both North and South, and it indicates that they do not wish to prejudice this by maintaining any sort of token 'church in exile' When serious questions of class collaboration and the right to hold socialist views in academic institutions are involved, academic freedom must be thrown to the wolves.

That is the gist of written proposals by the Director of the London School of Economics, Board Put its the IrSE's Academic at its February meeting.

Director Ralf Dahrendorf, a former West German Social Democrat and Common Market Commissioner, proposes the setting up of a 'Centre for Policy Studies' as part of the LSE, for the "improvement of economic, social and political conditions in a different climate"

Among the problems he identifies for attention are the international economic and monetary crisis, the sad state of the UN, the stagnation in British industrial investment, the high level of strikes, and "Hostility between workers and management, and high tax levels"

DEPLORE Getting down to brass tacks Dahrendorf deplores "a tendency to seek, and embrace extreme solutions for a far-reaching transformation of economy, society and polity" and a resulting "evacuation of the centre"

solution involves a Centre for devising and propagating policies "in the national interest"

It would employ academics and "middle level executives from industry and the civil service" › and the aim would be to "mobilise and stabilise the restless and increasingly disillusioned mass of middle ground citizens around a focal point which is independent of the existing political parties, which provides a credible commonsense means of expressing the moderate view as to what needs to be done in the national interest to resolve the country's problems"

At this point, the thoroughly reactionary and anti-communist character of Dahrendorf's "concensus' politics declares itself. Since the aim 1s to preserve capitalism in crisis, the 'Centre' must be staffed by its loyal servants.

Or, as Dahrendorf delicately puts it "One is not talking about a purely academic institution, but about one which is supposed to be relevant. Contrary to a university -LSE for example - the range of problems, however loosely defined, is restricted and should be so. Contrary to a university, it would not seem necessary, and perhaps wasteful, to try and invite people of all intellectual and political convictions to participate for a would unacceptable university, is therefore acceptable for a • Centre for Economic and Political Studies, i.e. restriction of participants to the spectrum of views represented in Parliament. This must not, of course, exclude other more idiosyncratic views as objects of study"

In a nutshell, keep 'extremists" out!

For his cockpit of anti-communist policy-making, Dahrendorf impudently proposes an initial endowment of £8½ millions. No doubt he hopes to attract this sort of sum from employers who consider the hundreds of thousands they pay every year to the Conservative Party, Aims of Industry, etc money well spent.

Workers and students in higher education must reject all such sinister proposals, and demand the removal of those - like Dahrendorf -who spend their time hatching such schemes.

Dahrendorf seeks to rally "the middle ground' against the working class.

Students and academics who seriously wish to resolve the economic and social crisis must grasp that this can only be done by a revolutionary leadership of the working class which will end capitalism once and for all.

The fruits of two years of Labour government can all be seen in the area. The attack on the NS and social services locally has been merciless.

Without building any replacement facilities, the scoreboard of hospitals already closed or closing shortly includes Popiar Hospital, the Invalid and Crippled Children's Hospital, the Eastern Hospital, the Metropolitan Hospital, the Connaught Hospital, the accident unit at Albert Mothera Hospital (Hackney' main maternity unit).

Thousands of workers in the area are jobless. In Newham over 5,000 are already unemployed, and with the closure of more factories such as STC, that grim total is sure to rise.

It is in the face of this desperate situation that trade unionists have begun to organise to fight back. Trades Councils in Hackney, Bethnal Green and Dagenham have set up unemployment subcommittees and a variety of local conferences have been held.

However, so far these activities have been limited to protest politics and no real alternative perspective nas been put forward. This is why the call by the East London Action Committee against the Cuts for an East London Labour Movement Conference to Defend the Right to Work and the Public Services can prove an important step forward. The Committee, composed delegates from over 30 trade union branches - including NUPE, NALGO, NUT, ATTI, NUR and Fords Shop Stewards Committee -was originally set up in May to organise the fight against hospital closures.

What is needed is not another talking shop, but a working conference with the job of mapping out a clear programme of action to put the working class on the offensive.

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SOCIALIST PRES The nature of this rednesday, 28th January, 7976. (cont'd from front page).