t9 resist « to The mass movement in solidarity with _theVietnamese people againsT imperialism was a major feature of 1968 in Britain. It was the focus for the radicalisation of entire L an generation: a radicalisation which went beyond the single issue of Vietnam and led many thousands to embrace varying forms of revolutionarypolitics. TESSA VAN GELDEREN spoke to PAT JORDAN and TARIQ ALI, both founding members and leading figures in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC). Pat Jordan was a full time worker for the campaign during the mass demonstrationsof 1967 and 1968. He was a member of the International Marxist Group at the time and has been a lifelong fighter for socialism. Pat is currently recovering from the effects of a stroke. In 1967-68 Tariq Ali’s picture was never far from the front pages of the press. An editorial board member of Black Dwarf, he became a symbol of the mass demonstrations and occupations. His book about the period, Street PAT JORDAN The orientation of CND was to get the Fighting Years: An Autobiographycf Labour Party to adopt unilateralism. the Sixties, is reviewed elsewhere CND WAS THE left campaign of Then Aneurin Bevan, after initially sup- the fifties, its main activity porting unilateralism, made his famous in this issue. was a once—yearly march from Al- somersault. This rapidly disillusioned dermaston. The march was like people. They realised that they needed a revolutionary university — people ar- something else other than this simple guing, tactics and strategy debated, orientationwhich was entirely within the thousands of papers bought and sold. framework of supporting the Labour The main organisation to gain from Party, at that time under the leadership this was, rather surprisingly, the Labour of Gaitskell. Party Young Socialists (this was before Many CND activists were people who the Socialist Labour League’s control in had left the Communist Party at about 26 the sixties). the time of the Hungarian revolution in

SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 7 May/June 1988 There was also a resolution on the agenda which had been inspired by the BCPV which called on the Wilson government to take an initiative ‘to bring this dreadful war to an end’. Nottingham South’s delegate, Peter Price, came under immense pressure from the Tribunites to withdraw his resolution: they supported the BCPV. They did horrific things like waking him up at two o’clock in the morning, bully- ing him. They argued that if the Nott- ingham South resolution remained on the agenda it would jeopardise the pass- ing of the BCPV resolution. We were, of course, totally opposed to withdrawing the resolution. In the end it got a not insignificant number of votes as did the BCPV resolution. This then was the background to the establishment of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. Schoenmann was part of these discussions and observed the pro- duction of The Week bulletin. He came to us with a proposal that we start a diffe- rent type of movement against the war in Vietnam. He’d discuss it with Ken Coa- tes, who was a member of the Fourth International and worked for the Ber- trand Russell Peace Foundation. I moved to London from Nottingham to work for the Peace Foundation to set up such an organisation. I did that in January 1967 and we held the founding conference of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in June 1967. We tried to intervene with all groups of people including CND, arguing that they should support the struggle in Viet- nam where it was possible that nuclear weapons could be used. We had no joy from them, although individuals did 1956. As a result of these developments tain. This was the British Council for support us. We also had support from the Committee of 100 emerged and ar- Peace in Vietnam (BCPV) which was led various maoist groups. New Left Review gued for direct action. by the Communist Party. The first line gave us facilities. We produced a photo- One of the people involved with this of its founding statement was ‘we do not graphic exhibition of the war in Vietnam was Ralph Schoenman who persuaded take sides, we want peace in Vietnam’. which was shown round the universities. Bertrand Russell to support the com- Quite rightly the Vietnamese did not There were a few hundred delegates at mittee. The Bertrand Russell Peace like this as it took out the anti-imperialist the founding conference, a large propor- Foundation was established. The name essence of their fight. tion were students but there were a was to make bridges, Schoenman was In Nottingham The Week group was in sprinkling of trade unionists and a the driving force. the Labour Party. At the Labour Party number of people from Labour parties. When Schoenman went on a visit to conference in 1966 it produced a daily Local groups were established to mo- Vietnam he was told by the Vietnamese bulletin. There was a resolution from bilise for national demonstrations and communists that they were very dissatis- Nottingham South CLP which ended up local activities. A favourite passtime was fied with the anti-war movement in Bri- with ‘Vietnam for the Vietnamese’. stalking Labour prime minister Harold 27

SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 7 Mayllune 1988 whole period its political Wilson who said: ‘Everywhere I go, I get ‘why we’re not marching’! what gave that left its entire followed by people picketing me about The great strengthwe had was that we meaning and mark on an all the world. Viet- Vietnam’. were part of a world-wide movement. If generation over The focal point in to prevent La- we talk about the objective effects, what namese were a that. There was an attempt imagine the Viet- foreign Michael Stewart the VSC did in part was to reinforce the It’s foolish to that bour secretary be mechanically from speaking the Oxford Union. American anti-war movement which in nam exprerience can at the political situation This raised the whole question of ‘free turn was one of the factors demoralising repeated now. If in Europe, anything’s possible. speech’. You have to rememberthat the the American army of occupation. The changes then I don’t think that the Vietnam the television main factor demoralising them was the But even war was on conjuncture will be repeated nearly evening and there was a fight put up by the Vietnamese and the particular every because its conjuncture that happens revulsion against Wilson who was giving fact that they were completely socially a least in political to isolated in Vietnam. Only the scum of very rarely in a century. support, at a sense, nothing like it. People the Americans. People outraged. Vietnamese society would have any dea- There’s been were it like the twenties and thirties. We well aware of weaknesses lings with them. say was were our Yes and Spanish civil in terms of social compositon. We took This was expressed in various ways. no. The war was a big in Europe. It did not steps to try to remedy that. We orga- Many were drug takers, the level of very event about world-wide radicalisation. nised trade union conference and a discipline started to collapse. If Ameri- bring a a revolution did, the youth conference. can imperialism had not been forced to The Russian so twen- the whole withdraw its army it would have had a ties are more comparable. But its its widest business about 1968 is that it not ‘a mutiny on hands. In scena- was favourite pastime was rio that’s the kind ofjob that will have to confined to Europe. stalking Harold Wilson, who be done in relation to central America. It is true that many important things in Europe: the general strike said “Everywhere I go I get There should be an internationally coor- happened dinated campaign. in France, the creeping general strike in followed by people picketing the first military defeat Italy, the overthrow of a senile bonapart- ’ Vietnam was me about Vietnam” suffered by the United States. After- ist regime in Portugal. wards the Fourth International drew the But you also had a general strike in 1969 toppled milit- The steering committee of VSC met conclusion that it was virtually im- Pakistan in which a dictatorship and led the break weekly over this period. There were possible for American imperialism to ary to up fights and packing of meetings. It intervene again because there of the country. There was a massive many in different of usually fight between the Inter- was such revulsion to the Viet- peasant uprising parts was a beginnings of struggle in national Marxist Group and the mao- experience. I wish they’d India, the a nam against the ists. At the first conference of the VSC the been right. Latin America, the fight Angola, Bissau maoists had wanted to write into the Portuguese in Guinea and successive strike constitution support for the ‘13 points’ and Mozambique Argentina. the and the ‘10 points’. These nego- waves in There was were there the tiating points forward by the Viet- uprising in Sri Lanka. And was put in the United States We were opposed to that TARIQ ALI anti-war movement namese. which without precedent in the hi- because it would have tied us hook, line was of that So it really and sinker to the North Vietnamese THE SOLIDARITY movement story country. was that’s what made it uni- government’s position. It would have with Vietnam was not sponta- global and so allowed political freedom what- neous it had to be organised. que. us no — struggle of the Vietnamese It was in part the result of a The some- soever. how symbolised all that: the determina- The first large demonstration was in decision taken by the Fourth Inter- and the confidence win. October 1967. It huge by stan- national at its eighth world congress in tion to resist to was our the Americans could dards: 10,000 people. 1965 when it decided to make solidarity The fact that not the defeat the Vietnamese played big The VSC became the focus for many with the Vietnamese revolution main a very in the radicalisation in Europe. organisations and individuals to express priority for its sections all over the part But the victory in not their opposition to the Wilson govern- world. It was that big central push which Vietnam was repeated elsewhere; in fact the setbacks ment. We would have placards on VSC threw cadres of the organisation every- in Europe decisive. The demonstrations with ‘victory to the NLF, where — even in countries where there were pretty general strike in France the largest want higher pensions’; ‘victory to the were only a few — into building the — we strike in the history of capitalism NLF, workers’ control in the shipyards’. movement. general regime, did topple People spontaneously reacted. They This coincided with a political con- shook the but not it. In the subsequent general election the knew they were anti-Wilson’s govern- juncture which was extremely favour- gaullists re-elected and that had a ment. They knew the demonstration able so that it became a mass inter- - were against something the Wilson national movement. The whole unique- very demoralising effect — not imme- was few later. government doing, so they wanted ness of the Vietnam Solidarity Cam- diatley but a years was in Europe it. paign is that it became an umbrella for a The other important event to go on 1974- The Communist Party campaigned, newly developed revolutionary con- was the Portuguese revolution in 75. had big set- at first, vigorously against the VSC. sciousness amongst a fairly substantial There too, we a very pri- back. In view, the far left collectively There was a strange amalgam of forces and significant number of youth — my opposed the CP, the pacifists and marily students but not exclusively so. and the Portuguese Communist Party to us: for that the Socialist Labour League (SLL, later Vietnam lit the fuse and enabled bear part of the responsibility defeat. failed understand the to become the Workers Revolutionary people to go way, way beyond a single They to question which agitated large Party). The latter produced a leaflet for issue and embrace varying forms of central I that’s of people in that country the 28 one of the mass demonstrationsentitled revolutionary politics. think numbers —

SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 7 Mayllune I988 L E links between socialism and democracy. terrorism. This could have been could build a movement outside the The revolutionary upsurge was not de- avoided. Labour Party. feated by a bloody counter-revolution;it The stalinist parties refused to accept I would say that the far left was was defeated by the victory of Mario that what was taking place was a revol- wrong, throughout western Europe, in Soares and the Portuguese Socialist Par- ution. We did. The Vietnamese them- assuming that this radicalised layer from ty. selves were very open and invited us to the sixties onwards would be sufficient November 1975 marked the end, by Vietnam to collaborate with them. They for providing the base for building mass and large, of the period of radicalisation were present at the founding conference revolutionary parties. We are now 20 which had opened up in Europe in of the VSC. The Vietnamese CP belonged years away and in not a single country in 1967-68. From that time on there was a to the stalinist family. Cadres were edu- Europe has this happened. It can’t just continual drift to the right. cated and formed in a period when the be an accident. The far left has got This depresses some people. It does Communist International was domi- smaller. not particularly depress me. There are nated by stalinism. Yet this party also The only exception, I think, is Ger- many examples in history where after made a revolution and led a successful many, ironically enough, where you every revolutionary wave and upsurge struggle against three different imperial- have the Greens, which are not a classic you have a period of regression. You ist powers: the French, the Japanese, the revolutionary party but represent a left, have reaction which is triumphant and French again and finally the USA. So you radical populist force with a strong as the tide goes back it leaves all sorts of could not call it a party which was aiding socialist component to the left of tra- flotsam and jetsam in its wake. That is counter-revolution. ditional social democracy and are mak- It also did many reprehensible things. ing an impact. ‘Vietnam lit the fuse and Sections of the CP in the south played a very bad role in drowning out dissent, ‘the why the Americans enabled people to go way including killing trotskyists. At the same reason it occupied Nicaragua beyond a single issue and time was in a united front with the have not trotskyists in Saigon and there was a today is because there is still embrace varying forms of So it joint slate. was not a simple issue. revulsion because of Vietnam’ revolutionary politics’ For us in the Fourth International, it was not a problem which prevented us how the historical process operates. It is from throwing everything into defend- Some things could have been diffe- not permanent. ing that revolution. Its success would rent. I think in Portugal it is an open There were people so hypnotised by have enormous repercussions through- question if the far left and the CP had had the fifties that they could not see what out the world and on that we were a different strategy and a different set of was going on in the sixties. It would be a absolutely right. The reason why the tactics. If you had a revolution that was tragedy if people were so mesmerised by Americans have not occupied Nicaragua socialist and democratic it would have the victory of reaction in the late seven- today is because there is still revulsion in been a model for the whole of Europe. ties and eighties that they totally fail to the United States because of Vietnam. Many people have written, including see what is possible in the next decades. You have to be on the side of those in Marx and Engels, that students are a The success of the solidarity move- struggle. You can do this without capitu- very good barometer of changes about to ment in the United States and in western lating to their political conceptions. In happen and in 1968 they were the first Europe marginalised during that period the VSC and in our press we did it. It’s on the streets. But the sixties were not all those political parties that were essen- not that we were uncritical. just one big street demonstration. It was tialy putting forward either a pacifist or a I remember writing in Socialist Chal- university occupations that led to factory occupations.‘ popular front approach. Our movement lenge that the issue of democracy was not showed that you could mobilise far more unimportant and should not be, ignored You had a working class upsurge in since the people on a clear solidarity position. The by the Vietnamese. Many of the things Britain unprecedented twen- fact that this could be done first split the Gorbachev is saying now we were saying ties. There were the 1972 and 1974 Young Communist League, then years ago and I think some of the lessons miners’ strikes, very different from the divided the Communist Party and of glasnoxt can and should be applied to miners’ strike in 1984-85. There was big finally the Morning Star started reporting countries like Vietnam and Cuba. They support for them from other sections of is VSC actvities in a sympathetic way. Li- need them for their own health. These the working class which why they won. kewise in other west European coun- are tactical questions but the tactics are One of these strikes directly brought tries. not unimportant. I am very proud that about the end of the Heath government. is its In the United States it was more our current in the labour movement was Britain a bit peculiar because of complex in that the CP was not the only among the first to recognise this. antiquated electoral system. It forces organisation opposed to solidarity slo- In 1968 people came out of the La- Labour to represent all segments of opi- gans. The US Socialist Workers Party bour Party because the Wilson govern- nion. There’s no way out of it. If you slogan was ‘bring the boys back home’ ment was so reactionary it was very had a system of proportional representa- which was not sufficient. difficult to do anything inside the La- tion, I think it would be worth having an The group in the US that made the bour Party. The Labour left, at the time electoral front. At the moment its utterly biggest gains was the Students for a led by people like Michael Foot, was useless. Democratic Society (SDS) which mobi- simply incapable of exerting any press- Nothing will happen unless there is a lised around ‘victory to the NLF’. ure whatsoever. By and large they de- breach in the ranks of labourism. I don’t Because the SWP(US) cut itself off from fended Wilson’s policies. So there was say you can’t do anything. But there will this layer it won over very few people no possibility of a fightback in the La- be nothing big politically which which was a tragedy; many of them went bour Party and thousands of people left. will affect national politics un- to different ‘organisations and some of I think in retrospect that this was abso- less something happens in that them ended up defending individual lutely correct. It was the only way we formation.

SOCIALISTOUTLOOK no 7 Mayllune 1988