Thatcher defends racist ine
Socialist Press1978 1978-02-15Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 1 →
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her stand on immigration will have received a jolt last weekend.
The 'Valentine' of the Young Conservatives Conference at Harrogate told her reactionary audience that if the Tories won the next election there would be an immediate reduction in the number of immigrants allowed into Britain.
Thatcher's speech makes it clear that the Tories are planning a campaign aimed at building a base of support for the most reactionary Tory government since the war to be returned at the next election.
Such a face the PHOTO: Mark Rusher Rushe government would task of taking on the working class in order to force through policies that would enable the capitalists to restore the profitability of industry.
The responsibility for such a prospect lies. clearly on the shoulders of the right wing Labour leadership, who through their alliance with the Liberals and their wage-cutting policies have paved the way for the Tories to bid for power.
All the more urgent, therefore, is the fight to break the Lib-Lab coalition and remove the Callaghan-Healey leadership. Cowley Marina Track mend expulsion of democratically elected convenors in one of the biggest plants in the combine!
They went on to vote for 12,500 redundancies, for speed up, and to reduce the number of disputes in Leyland plants.
Defence The election of a militant leadership cut across this and pointed the way towards a defence of jobs, agreements and the independent interests of the working class.
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Picket of South Africa House last week: revolutionaries demand the release of all political ige 2 In last week's Socialist Press we described the danger to the independence and mobilisation of the working class which are posed by the leadership pretensions of political opportunists like Chief Buthelezi.
Within hours of the article's going to press, Buthelezi was confirming this danger.
Taking advantage of being one of the few remaining "opponents" of apartheid not under restriction or in jail, Buthelezi was addressing a 15,000-strong crowd in Soweto.
Legitimacy
independence.
Yet that leadership lacked the political training, experience and programme needed to consolidate and develop that independence and unity.
Without political leadership based on a revolutionary programme the gains of Soweto were vulnerable.
Leading role
As inevitably happens with such spontaneous movements, the absence of such a leadership allowed the petty-bourgeoisie and sections of the black bourgeoisie to assume a leading role.
This was the origin of the Soweto Ten-a committee of black capitalists and professional men. the toria 12 guards against those betrayals and the vulnerability of the working class which they promote.
This record of betrayal, along with the bankruptcy of the traditional nationalist movements and the growth of state repression, means that all the gains made by the working class during the battles of Soweto are threatened with reversal.
The crucial task was in the building of an alternative revolutionary leadership which can consolidate and build upon these gains.
Exposure
So the construction of a