Date Set for Weekly

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The tootroom strike: Socialist Press alone drew the real lessons DEADLINE NOVEMBER 2 That was the date fixed for the first issue of the new weekly 'Socialist Press' at a meeting last week of the Executive Committee of the Workers Socialist League.

The go-ahead for the expansion of the paper comes at an explosive stage in the development of the political crisis in Britain, as the Lib-Lab coalition struggles to hold together reactionary wage controls rejected by the vast majority of workers, Such a situation confirms the need for a Trotskyist weekly In their efforts to maintain the Callaghan-Steel coalition in office the TUC leaders have embarked on a series of manoeuvres and breaches of democratic procedures even more blatant than those that railroaded through the hated Phase 2 policy.

In their desperate attempts to hold back the working class on even the most basic struggles for unionisation and recognition-as in Trust Houses Forte,, Grunwick, Desoutters and Westminster Press.

REFORMISTS

This provides the clearest conditions for a struggle both for an alternative programme to the reformists and for the construction of a new leadership within the trade union and labour movement.

The work already done by the fortnightly Socialist Press on such issues has established a record far ahead of any other left wing paper.

Tos take just one example, we should note that throughout the whole period prior to and following the Phase 2 vote at the 1976 TUC, Socialist Press alone insisted that the TUC vote was a stage-managed bureaucratic manoeuvre which in no way reflected the feeling of workers on the shop floor.

STRUGGLES

While every other left group attempted to argue that workers "accepted" or "agreed with" the TUC policy that there would be no struggles against Phase 2 and that the only hope of activity would be protests against the cuts, it was left to Socialist Press to pinpoint its tell-tale signs of a wages explosion honoath the enrfare of evente This is why we alone were able to draw the political significance of the Seamen's strike, of the pay strikes last year at Rubery Owen and Salisbury Transmissions, and the New Year's wave of pay strikes.

This resistance culminated in the Leyland toolroom strike which brought the downfall of the Labour government and the emergerice of the wage-cutting Lib-Lab coalition.

And while the left groups floundered on this, it was lett to Socialist Press in a Special Issue, to draw the political lessons from this change and to step up our consistent struggle for the exposure of the 'left' talkers within the Labour Party-demanding the 'left' MPs vote against the coalition, and fight for the removal of the Callaghan-Healey leadership.

Indeed Socialist Press alone consistently characterised the Lib-Lab deal as an unspoken coalition and highlighted the urgent need to break that deal if the fight for socialist policies is to proceed.

Our line on these developments and interventions into key struggles at home has been combined with a continuous orientation towards the struggles and political problems faced by the working class internationally.

From the earliest issues of Socialist Press we have seen the crisis of political leadership in the British workers movement as part of an international crisis of leadership, in which Stalinist and reformist parties play a treacherous role in every country.

And at the same time we have recognised that this crisis of leadership can only be resolved by the fight to reconstruct the Trotskyist Fourth International-at present divided and disorientated by opportunist leaderships and unresolved problems.

Socialist Press has been able to carry therefore not only international news-spanning dozens of countries and attempting in each case to provide not simply neutral "news" but a Marxist assessment of struggles-but also considerable material on the problems and the tasks to be confronted in reconstructing the Fourth International.

EXPANDED

And as we have expanded Socialist Press from an initial eight pages to twelve pages we have been able at the same time to develop extended book reviews, and coverage of the arts, as well as industrial news pages which offer regular and serious analysis of a wide range of disputes.

Every one of these aspects of Socialist Press will be developed and expanded with the added scope of the weekly paper. It will retain the existing 12-page format though the added expense of producing a weekly paper will mean that we will have to impose our first ever price increase, with the new paper going on sale on November 2 at 15 pence.

The decision to name the date for weekly publication follows an examination of the strong response to our £3,000 Special Fund, which is now within clear sight of complete success.

But the fight for this money must not relax. We need every penny of that £3,000 to proceed with this development of the paper.

WSL branches throughout the country are already straining every muscle to raise donations and carry through fund-raising activities-but readers can also play a vital role in rasing the final amount needed.

Many of course have already donated generously during the campaign for the Fund. But we call again on all readers and supporters to rush last minute donations for the completion of the Fund to Socialist Press without delay. And at the same time we want to urge our readers to let us know their feelings about the content and style of the weekly paper-articles and topics that in your view ought to be featured in the pages of Socialist Press.

Already a number of meetings of WSL members have revealed a strong feeling that our coverage of the Labour Party should be expanded and developed in the weekly, while others have proposed a regular allocation of space 1917 saou oo 1977 The first issue of Trotskyism Today', the theoretical magazine launched by the Workers Socialist League in July, has been an enormous success.

Many local areas have already sold out their allocations and continued orders are coming in for additional copies.

In the light of this response the magazine's Editorial Board, meeting this weekend, has tixed the next publication date as the end of October, from when it will appear regularly on a quarterly basis.

Among the features to be included will be the transcript of an educational lecture on Aspects of the History of the Fourth International given at the WSL Summer School, together with an examination of the role and policies of the Trotskyists in Britain during World War 2.

Advance subscriptions are now

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BESTRIAL RENTS

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wages, the union bureaucracy has reached the point of sabotaging

WE ARE NOT CHALLENGING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT