Factory Closure Highlighis- - Tories Ireland Profis

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The MPGWU-whose own more militant-sounding talkwas relused recognition by Ferenka management and this prompted strike action by MPGWU members.

Taking advantage of these "labour troubles" , Ferenka Lynch but re-appears in the crisis ridden north, which also suffers the military face of imperialism-the British Army and its local henchmen, the RUC and the UDR.

What is clearly needed for Ireland is a revolutionary programme aimed at expropriating all capitalist concerns in the country as a whole and A good example of what type of programme the Irish workers do not need was afforded in the December 2 edition of 'Militant', the paper of the geriatric Labour Party Young Socialists.

Under the headline "A Challenge to Sectarianism» Militant announced that the Labour and Trade Union Co-ordinating Group were standing a candidate in a by-election to be held in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, on December.

The chosen one-a certain Eric Johnston-had his programme proudly presented in the paper.

Reformist

Allegedly concerning himself with 'issues that concern ordinary people" , Brother Eric puts forward a series of sub-reformist demands:

"All recreational facilities to be open seven days a week, and to be free of charge... the end to the hospital run down • Proper housing maintenance and estates to be designed with the interests of people (!) in mind" etc, etc.

Brother Eric is also against the 10% limit, for a shorter working week with no loss of pay, for "the nationalisation of the major monopolies under workers' management". concerned.

Eric is also against sectarianism and calls on Northern Ireland's trade union movement "to stop the killings" What killings are meant is deliberately unclear, making the demand a thoroughly pacifist call for "an end to Not mentioned Most notably, though, the Army and British imperialism are nowhere mentioned in the policies put forward-a startling omission in view of the fact that Northern Ireland is now crawling with some 30,000 State-financed, Statearmed thugs (UDR, RUC, batish Army, etc).

The omission is undoubtedly determined by the fact that this sham socialist is standing in the staunchly Protestant district of Ballymena, where principled calls tor immediate troop withdrawal are probably none too popular Toad But to capitulate and buckle to loyalist opinion in this fashion is the behaviour of a toad, not the behaviour of a Marxist.

If Johnston feels he cannot criticise the Army at all in his platform, he-and the Militant group which uncritically back him should not stand at all.

The last month though has seen a series of financial scandals involving the Liberals, and this has contributed greatly to the government's possible undoing.

Mid-way through November, the tormer Finance Minister and deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Philip Lynch, resigned in a row over land deal irregularities.

Shortly after, the Prime Minister himself revealed that he had set up a trust fund in order to avoid payment of taxes.

Legally there was nothing irregular in the set-up, but the revelation has incensed Australian voters who have had to put up with Government attacks on "tax dodgers" for the past two years.

The admission that Fraser himself was precisely such a "tax dodger" looks like costing him a good number of votes.

If Fraser does lose the elections, it will not be solely because of these financial scandals.

Above all, it will reflect the strength of Australia's working class, an important section of whom-the la. Trobe Valley power workers-have just ended a three month strike for a $40 wage increase.

Who rules?

Taking advantage of the crisis caused by the strike and lock outs, Fraser called the elections he's been angling for all year.

His main electoral theme has been-like Edward Heath in February 1974- 'Who runs the country?", the unions or the government.

But this strategy seems like backfiring, as the workers of Australia seek to ditch the party whose programme is wage-cuts and unemployment.

Their alternative at the moment is the Australian Labour Party, whose own policies and structure is akin to that of the British Labour socialist press calls for a vote to the Australian Labour Party as a way of drawing the class line between the working class, and the direct representatives of the bourgeoisie-the Liberals and the Country Party.

Our support is of course critical, since the ALP's reformist appetite to administer the capitalist state means that it cannot satisty the real needs of Australia's workers.

But if Fraser is booted out and Whitlam voted in, that would constitute a small but important step towards class independence for the Anetralian nioletariat

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