Italian Stalinists play cat and mouse with Tories

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searching for a new leader- based on the fight in practice ship which can defend its for the demands and independence and outline a principles of the Transitional programme in defence of Programme can answer this jobs, wages and democratic political crisis.

Expelled Cubans leaving Somalia last year The Italian political crisis, at least at the level of the party leaderships, has come to take the form of a game of "snap".

Every few days Premierdesignate Guilio Andreotti on behalf of the Christian Democrats and Enrico Berlinguer, General Secretary of the Communist Party emerge from conclaves of their political lieutenants and place a new card on the table.

On the card is a form of words to describe a formula for a government which will be some form of compromise between the Christian Democrats and the Communist When both parties propose the same form of woras on the same day the immediate crisis will be over though, as with the previous agreements reland Employers are threatening thousands of lay-offs and possible redundancies if there is not an early end to the twin strikes of telex operators and postal delivery workers.

These strikes have paralysed export trade and prevented contact between head offices abroad and their Irish subsidiaries.

As such they have highlighted the dependence of the Southern economy on external investment by imperialism.

This is the factor to be borne in mind during the conference of the ruling Fianna Fail party next weekend, which is likely to form a platform for a further verbal call from Prime Minister Lynch for Britain to 'set a date' for withdrawal from the North.

Lynch has begun to use such rhetorical flourishes to please his nationalist supporters - while in practice doing everything possible to crack down on republican forces actually fighting imperialism. of the last 18 months, the overall crisis of bourgeois rule must deepen.

Since Andreotti's previous government resigned in December the Communist Party has been consistently playing a card marked "CP ministers in the government".

And Andreotti has equally consistently played a card "CP parliamentary support, yes, CP ministers, no" Last week that changed. It was predictably Berlinguer who showed himself as usual willing to comply with the wishes of the bourgeoisie.

He has abandoned his demand for CP ministers and now only insists that the Stalinist MPs should be allowed to vote for the Christian Democratic government and to be counted as part of the recognised parliamentary Maurity mentary majority; bourgeois the "democratic parties.

Grudging

Even this grovelling subservience is officially too much for the Christian Democrats but it now looks possible that out of a series of cards containing ambiguous empty formulas one will soon be picked up by Berlinguer and be held to mean what he wants.

All this rigmarole will, say the commentators, enhance the prestige of the Communist Party.

If so, it will not be among the class conscious proletariat from which the CP has traditionally drawn support, even if that has often been grudging.

The Italian Stalinist leadership like that of every mass workers' party in Europe is expressing its fear of its proletarian base by holding out a hand to plead for the support of the bourgeoisie.

Permanent

All such leaderships practice class collaboration on a pel manent basis.

But it is at times of crisis for bourgeois rule that those leaders feel compelled to abandon even their formal independence from the capitalist class.

As its leaders attempt to drag it into the inferno of the "historic compromise" the Italian working class has already shown itself to be • Ta » LA rights.

Trotskyist party

Only the construction of a party in Italy position of the US So far the US has chanelled arms to Somalia only indirectly via Iran and Saudi Arabia.

But last week Vance announced that the US would intervene directly if the Ethiopians and their allies cross the border.

looks as ILI Italian students march demanding jobs general agreement between the imperialists, the Stalinists and the OAU, that the borders established by colonialism will be restored and the rights to self-determination of the inhabitants of the Ogaden region will be crushed.

This, however, will be more difficult to achieve in Ethiopia's other war-against the Eritrean national liberation movement.