Paul Foot's Open House

Scan page 9

by This book is a 'must' for all those who like the moralising, phrase mongering, anti-political brand of "socialism" put forward by the many-faced International Socialists group.

Whether they appear thinly disguised as their "Rank and • File" Organisation, or doubly masked as its "Right to Work" offshoot, or simply posing as Socialist Worker supporters, the IS can be recognised by a common political tendency. This booklet is no exception.

Written by Paul Foot, editor of Socialist Worker, it bears all the hallmarks of complete political confusion and misdirection which have turned IS into a virtual appendage of the Stalinists in the Communist Party in union branches and trades councils throughout the country.

begins with denunciations of the scandalous record of the Labour government - at no point going beyond the kind of material that 'left' MPs and Stalinist union bureaucrats trot out endlessly when called to speak at anti-cuts demonstrations and rallies.

And it goes on to draw exactly the same conclusions as do the 'lefts' and CP. Foot tells us it is not the job of the leaders to lead the fight against the cuts - but the job of the rank and file!

Of course every militant has heard this story time and time again. The bureaucrats translate it into "You take action, we're right behind you!"

The IS give it more of a 'left' turn of phrase:

"MPs won't go on [!] voting against the cuts - trade union leaders won't use the industrial strength of their unions UNLESS THEY ARE SHOVED INTO ACTION BY THEIR RANK AND FILE": (p16).

By this formula the IS divert completely away from the daily betrayals by the reformist and Lister Stalinist union bureaucracy which ате enabling the employers to implement the cuts.

Because if no action is taken, then, according to both the bureaucrats and IS, it is the fault of the rank and file, not the bureaucracy!

This latest booklet is a sharp indication of the way the IS analysis consistently backs up 'left' reformism.

Certainly it emerges clearly in their conception of the economic crisis. On the one hand, Foot tells us the wicked capitalists chose to have a recession:

"It's caused, deliberately and directly, by a class of people who control production for profit"

This not only suggests that capitalism is planned and consciously directed by the capitalists, but even worse leaves the door open to those who want to believe that perhaps more "reasonable" employers would solve the crisis.

On the other hand, and harmony with such a view, Foot hunts that, if only the unemployed could all be given jobs, capitalism could continue to function as it did during the boom!

"We could afford all the spending programmes which Healey is slashing just by going back to unemployment rates which we know are possible - because we had them for nearly thirty years!" • (p9)

This speaks volumes on Foot's longing to get back to the 'good old days' of the capitalist boom, and can only strengthen the illusions within the working class that the cuts can be stopped through simple reforms of capitalism. This again is what the 'lefts' would love workers to believe.

Indeed for the IS the fight against capitalism takes the form of verbal propaganda simply' telling workers in a valaty of ways that capitalism is nasty, evil, wasteful and undesirable - while socialism EVERYWH would be pleasant, wholesome, planned, productive and much better. This theme is plugged again and again in all IS literature.

What they leave out of account is of course how workers are to bring about the change from capitalism to socialism.

Only Trotskyists focus their activity within the working class on the necessary political preparation for this change - for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism which can only be brought about by the mobilisation of the mass of the working class around a programme of struggle leading to the fight for socialism.

This is the importance in the fight against the cuts of putting forward transitional demands.

These demands start from the crisis and problems faced by workers under capitalism, but as they are-taken up in struggles they show in practice the necessity fot workers to overthrow capitalism if they are to defend living standards.

One such demand is for workers' control of the social services.

This is crucial not only to defend jobs and working conditions but also to defend the services themselves. A first step towards such control is the fight in every area for the books of the social service authorities to be opened to elected trade union committees for them to assess future plans, waiting lists, manning levels, and the major firms profiting from the social services.

Only on the basis of such knowledge can the fight to control these employers and for the nationalisation of social service suppliers (nowhere mentioned by IS!) of for a sliding scale of spending to protect the social services against inflation (a demand opposed by IS) be firmly taken up.

OPPOSED

and the Tear are been Stalinists have been a major pillar of opposition to such demands.

Instead Foot advocates a series of purely trade union demands, simply adding on "No redundancies No cuts!" , with no clue as to how this is to be fought for.

This complete lack of political direction is coupled with blatant opportunism. In his "come one and all": final paragraphs, Foot shows the reactionary role of substituting a "rank and file" body for a fight for new leadership.

"In the fight against the cuts, there will be International Socialists, Labour Party members, Communists, Welsh and Scottish Nationalists, Liberais, and people who have no political affiliation at all.

The Rank and File FIGHT THE CUTS campaign requires only lour

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