Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press, Trotskyism Today and the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee, 1975–1984

The Workers Socialist League

Socialist Press no. 34, 19 May 1976 · scan p. 3 · about 443 words

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The Workers Socialist League was formed in December 1974 to struggle for the continuity of the principles of Trotskyism in Britain and towards the rebuilding of the In the daily struggle to take the demands and principles of Trotsky's Transitional Programme into the trade unions, the WSL has been at the lorefront of the fight for the sliding scale of wages, and work sharing on full pay - demands which at the 1975 T&GWU Conference were the only alternative to Jones' £6 pay plan and the wholesale acceptance of redundancies by the bureaucracy. In today's fight against the TUC's 42% pay cutting proposals this demand for a sliding scale of wages (rising according to the rising cost of living as assessed by trade union committees) is the essential basis of consistent opposition.

In the Health Service WSL comrades have led the struggle for a sliding scale of NHS spending, for the start of workers' control of the service (beginning with opening the books of the Health Authorities), along with the fight to end all private practice. Perhaps more important we have led the growing call for strike action to defend the NHS against the cuts and to implement these policies, fighting those like the ASTMS leadership In local disputes also, WL comrades have tested and developed the demands of the Transitional Programme, putting forward in every case the only real opposition to the Stalinists and the right-wing. Our struggle for the "open the books" demand in the motor industry has won a mass At the same time we have put forward a policy to fight unemployment, calling for unity of employed and unemployed through In doing this our comrades have been forced also to lead struggles for trade union democracy against the bureaucratic manipulation of the While these interventions have developed the Leagues's grasp of Trotsky's Transitional Programme there has been a consistent drive to deepen and enrich the movement's understanding of the history and the present crisis of the Fourth International, as an essential part of : any We urge all readers who agree on the need for revolutionary leadership and the demands we put forward to find out more about the WSL and Fourth International. who substitute the words for the action.

response.

the fight to mobilise the trade union movement.

the political issues to workers.

Stalinists and right-wing.

serious initiative towards its reconstruction.

join our fight in the labour movement. fights consistently for union militancy to pose together with workers?

Will you consult the workers on the important. decisions of the Will you

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The WSL is the only movement that transitional demands, going beyond mere trade

← Contents of Socialist Press no. 34, 19 May 1976