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Italinist Foreign Policy - Mao with Kissinger CHINA In a hard-hitting speech at the end of last month, former Vice-Presidential candidate Edmund Muskie set out his programme for solving the imaginary opponents of US New "business-like methods" including cuts to public spending, would solve the crisis, coupled with an aggressive campaign for "law and order".

The fact that Muskie's "reply" to Ford was more of an echo than a rebuttal reflected the identical class character of the two main American political parties: both are bossess' parties, and the primary aim of both is to restore capitalist profits to their former heights.

Their differences arise mostly over how this is best done, and one important tactical problem is finding a strong enough electoral base on which to rest in attacking jobs and conditions of the working class.

Among Republicans the sharpest differences in approach are represented by Reagan and Rockefeller, Reagan, who makes his bid largely to the disorientated opponent obs govermen"

He talks (though vaguely) about "devolution of power" from federal to state level, which appeals to those layers who, without understanding why, sense that they are blown about by forces out of theit control.

He is also a supreme advocate of "law and order" , which in times of depression and industrial unrest means violent attacks on trade union rights.

Rockefeller, the most direct spokesman for big capital, would still seek class collaboration from the trade ions in keeping workers' milita icy under control. survival, has adapted right at every turn.

That is the meaning of his veto of the bill to expand the rights of building pickets (5 January) and of the "domestic squabble" with wife over the abortion issue (3 February).

MIRE

But each wriggle has sunk him deeper into the mire: his stand on abortion brought criticism from all sides, and his incompetence in dealing with the bribery case of an ex-Senator has placed his Florida primary campaign (where delegates to the national party nominating convention are selected) in serious trouble.

Rockefeller is waiting in the wings. Having stated that he would not be a candidate for re-election as Vice-President, he now admits that, he would consider trying for the Presidential nomination if Reagan were to defeat Ford.

A recent Supreme Court decision to weaken federal controls on campaign spending. and to abolish the limit on what a candidate might spend in his own behalf gives added room for manoeuvre to the super-rich Rockefeller.

With the approach of the first primary in New Hampshire (24th February) the sparring between Ford and Reagan, though still polite, has intensified. The American capitalist press expect them to split the vote about equally. The New Hampshire contest and that in Florida will probably decide Ford's fate, with a struggle between Rockefeller and Reagan a likely outcome.

CONFUSED

Among the Democrats things are yet more confused, with a rough dozen candidates stumbling over each others' feet in a race to find a path to the petty bourgeoisie and The "populist" candidates George Wallace and Fred Harris represent the extremes of the political spectrum. Wallace, whose racialist record as governor of Alabama gives him a strong following among Southern whites, shares many of Reagan's attitudes.

Harris, ex-senator from the farm state of Oklahoma, makes an appeal to the poor with left' talk of "exploitation" and "class struggle" disconnected from any programme of real struggle.

In between are such figures as Jimmy Carter, a "civilised" version of Wallace whose success in the Maine precinct caucuses (what some states hold instead of primary elections) makes him a strong runner, and Birch Bayh, who is particularly concerned to court the union bureaucracy.

Trade union bureaucrats sat out the last election, but will play a major role in the Democrats' campaign this time. They will seek a candidate who can help them consolidate thier own power base, and who at the same time has a reasonable chance of winning.

The fact that the aristocracy of labour is returning to national electoral politics offers no satisfaction to the mass of workers whose jobs are threatened or who are already on the dole. When leaders of the AFL-CIO (nearest equivalent to the British TUC) can support such a capitalist stooge as Lloyd Bentsen, (wealthiest of the Democratic contenders/, who actually voted against the building picket law, conscious workers know they must turn elsewhere for a solution to their problems.

But where? There is no party of the working class in the United States, and its construction, on socialist policies, is an urgent task.. The high degree of confusion and disillusionment which all the "public opinion" poils now show, the prognosis of mass abstentionism in the coming elections, point to the need for American workers to free themselves from the dead-end

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country's problems. "Don't knock America", , he sneered at

chauvinism. *Be proud of your country"