Business as Usual After Img Conference

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In a polite four-day nference the leadership the International xist Group, British ion of the 'United' retariat of the Fourth national succeeded rallying 75% of the mbership behind their ic! of opportunist tulation to the trists of the British bialist Workers Party. fis consolidation of the arship under Alan Jones darified the factional ation within the IMG, the variegated opposwhich sprang up been 1972 and 1974 have e* dissolved into the D=: faction.

It has been facilitated finat by adaptation by * dership to opposition Ers-in particular the 1: electoral intervention.

Opposition = the pre-conference D.= opened therefore, was only one tendency the Opposition"K arogrammatic stance z=i to have similarities Li: :: the WSL.

I: :hay did not stay the • : the end of the I= supporters of the •.=. Socialist Workers yEs already closed • iter tendency, and in p::....:erence discussion i: cervened around a .: • one of their r.: 3:ers-Alan Harris.

Strawson has the trade unions.

In his introductory remarks at the Saturday session Alan Jones was quite frank about the novel nature of the Socialist Unity orientation and blithely waved aside the formally correct 'orthodox' attitudes of the SWP (USA) to the Labour Party as "revisionist"

Summing up

Summing up the debate on Sunday Tariq Ali outlined. the hope which lies behind the Socialist Unity project.

"It's not just us and the SWP. If we unify we can build an organisation of 20,000-30,000 members. A unified organisation would draw in large numbers of independent workers"

For those IMG members who were worried about the lack of fight taken up against the SWP Ali claimed that "We've fought them on struggle to the political level of the programme. Such struggle is carried out only by the Workers Socialist League.

The IMG leadership promised a campaign around the sliding scale of wages over the next period.

The WSL will continue to co-operate on this issue with any forces which take up the fight.

But more than a propaganda campaign for a demand is needed. A clear understanding of a specific line of march is required for the working class to combat the particular way in which the bureaucracy is manoeuvring.

Phase

In last year's battle to end wage control under Phase 2, for instance, only the WSL had a clear understanding of the need to oppose the 'unity' manoeuvres of the Communist Party.