Thatcher builds on Labour immigration fever

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Living conditions in Garscadden, Glasgow, where right wing Labourite Donald Dewar is attempting to beat off Scottish Nationalist opposition in order to hold the seat. Scottish workers in the area clearly have nothing to thank the Lib-Lab coalition government for: but the 'socialist' alternatives fighting the by election (CP, SWP and Scottish Labour) all fail to confront the need to break the coalition and fight within the workers' movement to build a new leadership. support took a further step forward last week through the door opened by the Labour leaders.

Years of reactionary Lib-Lab policies, slashing living standards, jobs, conditions and social services, have created the necessary mood of frustration among layers of workers and the middle class.

Refusal

Labour's continued enforcement of Tory immigration laws and TUC refusal to mobilise working class action against the fascists of the National Front have created new openings for the racists.

And the racialist recommendations of the Parliamentary Select Committee report, signed by Labour MPs including Tribunite MP Sydney Bidwell spelled out the basic elements of the Tory policy for a drastic curb on the democratic rights of black workers announced last week.

The Tories' plan goes a bit further than Bidwell's racist proposals. It calls for:

*A register of dependents wishing to come to Britain, to be followed by a strict quota of entrants from the Indian sub-continent.

*An end to concessions on entry of male fiances; tighter restrictions on parents, grandparents and children over 18.

*A new Nationality Act aimed against workers from Hong Kong.

*Further ruthless harassment of "illegal" immigrants, with possible internal controls-meaning effectively the introduction of a system of "Pass Laws" in Britain parallel with those in South Africa.

Answer?

What then is the answer of Labour's professed non-racist MPs?

In the main they have followed the reactionary line of Home Secretary Merlyn Rees, who last week argued there was no need to implement the provisions of the Select Committee report, since "sufficient controls already exist on the inflow from the Indian subcontinent"

Racialism

Such a position is merely racialism with a "moderate" face. It rests on the fact that racist legislation, passed years ago through parliament is now having its effect on immigration.

For socialists, however, the issue is not whether "fair" or "foul" means are being used to cut immigration but to assert the right of all workers to live and work in the country of their choice, without harassment from the bourgeois state.

The Labourites on the Select Committee starting from the mass unemployment created by a slump-ridden capitalist that th workers 1 make the economy, argue basic right of st be sacrificed to stem work.

Whitelaw But the issue is to fight poverty and unemployment through a programme of socialist policies designed to overthrow capitalism and bring about a planned socialist economy.

The fight must be taken throughout the Labour PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Party for resolutions condemning the five Labour MPs' decision to endorse the Select Committee report.

Trade union and Labour Party sponsorship for them must be withdrawn in the next election because of their clear advocacy of racialist positions.

And Labour Party branches and CLPs must demand the repeal of all Immigration Laws, coupled with action by the trade union and labour movement to ensure that workers defence squads are mobilised to protect immigrant communities against racist This fight for policy on immigration must be combined with the fight to break the Lib-Lab coalition and for a programme of socialist policies to restore public spending cuts, create new jobs through programme of public works, and nationalise major industry and the banks without compensation under the management of elected workers' committees. and racists out of their ranks-according to Prime Minister Callaghan.

Speaking in Parliament last week Callaghan pompously declared that he "utterly deplored" and "did not find at all acceptable" that people should lose their jobs because of their political views.

This was in reference to the correct decision two weeks ago by the National Union of Railwaymen to take disciplinary action, including fines or expulsions against known members of the National Front.

Closed Since the NUR has a closed shop arrangement on the railways this would involve fascists being driven out of the industry-to the particular satisfaction of thousands of black railwaymen.

Motions have since been tabled for the GMWU conference demanding similar bans in Britain's third largest union.

Callaghan's position on these moves makes it absolutely clear that it is no accident that the recent decision to ban all marches in London for two months in order to forestall a clash between the NF and the antifascists in Ilford was no accident.

The Lib-Lab government, as mouthpiece of the capitalist state, would sooner impose swingeing restrictions on the workers' movement than allow independent class action to crush the fascists.

This is why we can make no calls on the state to ban the National Front, but must rely instead on mobilisations of the working class movement to combat the fascists.

Speech

Callaghan's speech shows that he would actually sooner see the fascists free to work within the unions to destroy them than the union leaders forced to take action to get rid of them.

This is just further evidence of the need to couple the fight against fascism with the fight to break the Lib-Lab coalition.

But union militants must take care in formulating demands for the expulsion of fascists, since union bureaucrats no less than the Labour leaders will be eagerly searching for loopholes through which they can link action against the NF with a crackdown on their left-wing opponents within the unions.

Already the Southern Dis-