No 69 May 1985 20p/1 Op to N U M strike veterans Monthly paper of the Spartacist league South Africa: Class struggle is the key , lalrt ei •

The oppressed masses and black could be used as the pretext to labour movement of South Africa unleash the bloody holocaust. A are today locked in explosive con­ senior cop declared, 'If there are ilict with apartheid capitalism any further attacks on whites ... and its brutally racist state. The there will be a serious risk of sackin~ of more than 17,000 black white vigilante action .... We are gold miners bg the Anglo-American only a step away from it' curporation of supposed 'liberal' (Newsweek, 29 April). mining tycoon Harry Oppenheimer It is urgently necessary to shows yet again the true face of bring the power of the black pro­ Botha's 'enlightened' apartheid letariat into struggle for its own regime. And the murders in police class rule. The increasing organ­ custody of 29-year-old black trade isation and consciousness of this union leader Andries Raditsela and working class is the Achilles heel student leader Sipho Mutsi add two of apartheid capitalism. With a more martyrs to the cause of South revolutionary proletarian leader­ Africa's workers and oppressed. ship the black union movement Black unions have called a two­ could give direction and purpose hour strike on 14 May in protest to the rebellion of the youth in at these latest police murders. the townships, all of whom are In the seething black townships. wage earners or families of work­ from the Cape to the Rand, police ers. The determined Afrikaner rUl­ repression, raids, arrests of mili­ ers can isolate and napalm black tants continue unabated. Now in townships, but they cannot replace the 'coloured' (mixed race) areas or obliterate the black working of the Cape, previously relativ~ly class, which produces the wealth quiescent, further rebellion has of South Africa. erupted. In the townships of Mich­ __ +p.te.r{lll::t:l9naL soli<:l~ri.~~ is__ ausdal and Outshoorn, police have crucial to aid th8 embattled black attacked crowds of militant youth, labour movement of South Africa. firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The blatant use of police-state Last month's miners strike, terror has led to a new growth of like the Transvaal general strike militant anti-apartheid protest in November, ciemonstrates that internationally, notably in the South Africa's migratory system of United States. But to effectively indentured servitude no longer fight apartheid, militants must cows black labour. When 14,400 reject the impotent and counter­ miners struck against the blatant productive stategy of demanding victimisation of 92 shaft stewards the capitalist bosses 'disinvest' at the Vaal Reefs mine in the west­ their South Africa holdings. This ern Transvaal, management declared call for British and American im­ the strike illegal and sacked the perialists to launch an inter­ lot, Soon after, at the nearby national strike of capital must be Hartebeesfontein mine owned by rejected in favour of a strategy Anglo-Vaal (an Anglo-American sub­ South African mineworkers. March 1983 - their power is key to smashing apartheid of working-class action against sidiary), 3000 more striking miners butchers. apartheid. British miners, who re- got the boot. These courageous ceived inspiring solidarity from miners knew that under Pretoria's slave-labour In South Africa today, funerals and re­ the South African National Union of Mineworkers laws they faced mass sackings and deportation liEoUS services are the only public meetings during their strike, have particular reason to to the desperately impoverished bantust~?S and blacks are permitted to organise and attend. fight for such solidarity. We print on page 11 neighbouring black states like Mozambique. And as they bury their dead, with tens of a telegram sent by several British NUM members Strikers barricaded themselves into their hos­ thousands singing religious hymns and liber­ from a Workers Hammer May Day rally to the tels and wer~_brutally attacked by police who ation anthems, bloody police repression is embattled South African miners union, a used tear gas and rubber bullets to flush them daily producing new martyr~. The New York modest pointer to the sort of class solidarity out, killing at least two miners. Times (28 April) reported repeated chants of needed. The labour movement internationally Meanwhile in the black townships collab­ 'this is a bad place' punctuated by cries of must black all military hardware to the apart­ orators with the apartheid regime are being 'Bazooka!' from militant youth yearning to heid regime, and fight for solidarity strikes doused with petrol and burned or hacked to replace stones with guns in their running with ~heir class brothers in South Africa. death, and repeated confrontations with battle with the police. Above all, a proletarian-revolutionary heavily armed South African police are met strategy is needed in South Africa itself. with new Sharpeville massacres. Sixteen South Africa heading for civil war Militants supporting organisations like the leaders of the largest anti-apartheid forma­ UDF and African National Congress have her­ tion, the United Democratic Front (UDF) have South Africa is heading for civil war. But oically laid down their lives for the cause. been indicted for treason, and the last two should it slide simply into a black-v-white But their struggle is thwarted by a class­ leaders at liberty have now been seized. The race-national military conflict, the poorly collaborationist strategy which looks to a UDF 16 will stand trial for their lives for armed blacks in the cordoned-off townships supposed 'liberal' wing of the South African the 'crime' of leading peaceful protests for will be massacred without any chance that capitalist class -- a win~ exemplified by the basic human di~nity and rights like being able their sacrifice will bring down the white­ Progressive Federal Party of none other than to live with your family. Drop the charges supremacist reGime. Incidents such as the the Oppenheimers, the very people responsible against the UDF l6! Free all anti-apartheid severe burning two weeks ago of a white youth for the mass sackings and butchery of black fighters! who stopped in a black township to buy spirits continued on page 11 Reagan at Bitburg Lessons of history V-E Day British labour and in Germany the Russian Revolution ... p4 ... pI Hail Lankan women worker~ struggle! , Lanka Spartacist A snecial meeting of the women garment ...... r.'T Soviet Union, uses workers of Magnum Garments Limited was r--~ racism to divide g f ! organised- in February to see our comrades of _f - white workers the Spartacist League/Lanka hand over to their t;i against black work­ union, the All Ceylon Commercial & Industrial ers in the (nited Workers Union, funds collected in Australia in States. JR and the support of their strike last year. The text of capitalists are a speech given to the meeting by a represen­ trying the same tati ve of the international Spartac2st tend­ trick here, I ask ency is reprinted below. you not to be It is a very great honour for me to speak fooled. to you today. I would like to explain why this The great Russ­ is so, and why the international Spartacist ian revolutlonary tendency thinks your struggles are very leader, Leon important. Trotsky once sald I'm sorry that we could not bring to you that when they are this money we have collected when you were ." aroused there will still on strike, when you most needed it. I'm \ be no better sure, however, you will find a good use for fighters ~or commu­ it. I have been told that the Magnum manage-, - nism than the women About 1 00 mainly women workers at Magnum Garments in Sri Lanka met to accept ment is refusing to pay you bonuses. Perhaps strike support funds collected by the Spartacist League of Australia and New Zealand. of Asia. I hear this money can be used to help in these new people say that fights. The Apparel Garment workers are on say that because a str'ike is not led by our women in Sri Lanka are not interest~~ strike, perhaps it could be used to support Darty we will ignore it. Today our American, in politics, that they are backward. Yes it is their struggle. German and French comrades have been working true that women have special problems and bur­ The money was collected by our Australian very harti to support the British miners dens. But I cannot accept these excuses. I comrades. According to the standards of living strike. know that women workers can and must be in the in Australia this 13,000 rupees is not a large The miners have been on strike for ten vanguard of the struggle. amount, but it is a gesture of how important months. Now it is one of the coldest winters British imperialism made super profits from they think your struggles are. The capitalists for thirty years. President JR's friend Mrs the tea plantations. Now the Sri Lankan capi­ in Australia try to encourage white racist Thatcher is using police violence, scabs, the talists share these profits. But still the attitudes. But Australia is part of Asia. Our law courts and starvation to try and beat the plantation workers live and work in terrible comrades in Australia know that they must miners. The trade union bureaucrats and the conditions. Now the capitalists also want to build links with the workers of Asia if they top leaders of the Labour Party have tried to make fat profits from the workers of the Free wish to get rid of Australian imperialism. sabotage the strike and have refused to bring Trade Zone and textile industry. They make you As internationalists we believe that we out the other powerful forces of the working a slave until you are a human wreck and then must support all the true struggles of the class on strike with the miners to defend they throw you on the rubbish dump. It is the workers and oppressed everywhere in the world. jobs and get rid of Mrs Thatcher. Tamil women of the plantations and the young We do not say that because a strike is not in women in factories like Magnum who are the our country we will not support it. We do not Our American comrades have collected real heart of the working class in Sri Lanka. thousands of dollars for the miners. The There can be no bright socialist future in money the miners receive goes into a special Sri Lanka unless you take your place in the bank account to run the strike and support the forefront of the struggle. Don't listen to miners families. It does 'not go to the union's those men who tell you that you can and must general funds for normal administration costs only follow behind. I know you can be the best and Officials' wages. But the miners do not fighters and leaders just like Trotsky said. just need financial support, they also need As 1 said we will support your struggles. a programme to win. That is what our British We have bi~ differences with the comrades of comrades fight for when they demand 'All out the LSSP. I read yesterday that an LSSP leader with the miners'. said capitalism is to blame for all the The Trotskyists on Yes, we believe in international working troubles in society. This is true, but how can class solidarity. It was British imperialism you fight capitalism when you join in govern­ World War II that was the great master of 'divide and ments with capitalist parties which oppress rule', of turning one community against workers and even become minister of finance another in its empire. Now the Sri Lankan and and taxation. Trotsky and Lenin other capitalist ruling classes use the same No, if we want to free ourselves from ex­ In December 1941 American Trotskyist leader tactics. But communalism and racism divide the plOitation and oppression, if we want to build James P Cannon, along with 17 other defend­ working class against each other and diverts a SOCiety that is fit for ourselves and our ants, was sentenced under the Smith Act to it from the real enemy, captialism. It is the children to live in we cannot do it in prison for revolutionary agitation against the same capitalists and UNP government that at­ alliance with the capitalists. We must sweep imperialist war. Regarding World War II, he tacks you which also attacks the Tamil people, capitalism into the rubbish dump. We must declared: denying them their rights. JR's friend, Ronald build working class unity -- in Sri Lanka, in We considered the war upon the part of all Reagan, the man who wants to get his imperi­ Asia, in the world. the capitalist powers involved -- Germany and alist hands on Trincomalee harbour as part of Thank you very much for letting me speak to France, Italy and Great Britain -- as an im­ his preparations for nuclear war wi th the you. Workers of the world unite!. perialist war .... This characterization of the war does not apply to the war of the Soviet Union against German imperialism. We make a fundamental dis­ Defend the Newham 7 ! tinction between the Soviet Union and its On 27 April, 1500 demonstrators marched marchers and ganged up on the most militant 'democratic' allies. We defend the Soviet through London's East End, chanting: 'Self with their usual savagery. Union. The Soviet Union is a workers' state, defence is no offence!' and 'Newham 7 -- dem For many of these people such a provo­ although degenerated under the totalitarian­ are warriors! Racist police -- dem are mur­ cation was an amplified version of daily political rule of the Kremlin bureaucracy. derers!' This mainly black and Asian demon­ life. Their basic right to self defence and Only traitors can deny support to the Soviet stration displayed a deeply felt anger and to live without fear of cop violence and workers' state in its war against fascist Ger­ disgust at the brutally systematic violence racist murder were clearly the reasons which many. To defend the Soviet Union, in spite of directed daily by the cops against min­ mobilised them on the streets. They know all Stalin and against Stalin, is to defend the orities. As the march organisers stated in too well that when a black or Asian is at­ nationalized property established by the Octo­ their call: 'our community is under threat tacked by a group of racist punks it is them­ ber Revolution. That is a progressive war. from racist attacks and from the people who selves who are likely to be arrested. One are meant to be protecting us, the police'. James P Cannon, 'A statement on the US racist murder after another is dismissed by The demonstration was called in defence Entry into World War II' (22 December the cops and courts as 'death by misadven­ of the Newham 7, Asian youth arrested for 1941) ture'. Only last month the vicious racist defending themselves and their community from murderer who killed a Mauritian BR ticket a rampage by racist thugs in April 1984, and collector by driving a metal spike through CONTACT THE SPARTACIST,LEAGUE: to demand 'Justice for the Pryces'. Gerald his eye last year was let off by the capital­ BIRMINGHAM ...... (021) 236 9774 Pryce, a black youth, was arrested last ist court with a token sentence for man­ LONDON ...... (01) 278 2232 November by racist plainclothes cops and slaughter. SHEFFIELD ...... (0742) 587282 charged with 'affray' after his 16-year-old brother, Eustace, was brutally stabbed and The largely black and Asian and highly murdered by a white racist thug. The killer integrated London Transport and British Rail WORKERSIIAMMER ~ was released on bail, while Gerald is banned workforce can be key in forming mass trade Monthly newspaper of the Spartaclst League. British section of to this day even from visiting his family home union/minority defence guards to smash cop/ me international Spartacist tendency. in Newham. fascist violence. Calls for police account~ EDITORIAL BOARD: Len Michelson (editor). Caroline Carne (production manager). Alec Gilchrist, Faye Koch, John Masters, Elbhlln McDonald, For the black and Asian community the co­ ability, community control, endless no-win Ellen Rawli ngs ' ordinated conspiracy between the cops and inquiries etc will not stop racist attacks. CIRCULATION MANAGER Anna Ullman courts is a life-and-death situation. When Defend the arrested April demonstrators! Published monthly, except In January and August. by Spartacist the marchers stopped outside the Forest Gate Drop the charges against the Newham 7 and Publications. PO Box 185, London WC1H BJE Subscriptions: 10 issues for £2.00; overseas airmail £5.00. Police Station they were viciously attacked Gerald Pryce! For the right of self-defence! Opinions expressed in signed articles or letters do not necessarily express by the cops, though not without fierce re­ For union/minority mobilisation to smash cop/ the editorial viewpoint. sistance. The cops tried to divide the fascist race terror!. Printed by Slough Newspaper Printers Ltd (TU).

2 WORKERS HAMMER Break with the Communist Party- Take Lenin's road to revolution! This country could sorely do with a commu­ nist part~ several thousands strong, the sort ,of part~· that led the Russian workers to power. If today's CPGB were anything close to what MQr!1i~g St~r Lenin built, the heroism with which the miners Media bid to build up union split fails fought for a year could well have paid off ~ith a big, resounding victory over Thatcher Miners' steelworks ~ld her whole class. But it isn't, and the mi­ ners lost. And now the Communist Party is deal forges unity about to have another one of its congresses at ~hich we'll see plenty of backbiting, behind the scenes manoeuvring, probably a bunch of bureaucratic expulsions -- but no communist MQr!!t~lg St~r politics, on any side. *.Thatcher gave 'no alternative' to action at pits For years now decent militants in the CP have been champing at the bit, waiting for the Kinnock gives complete much-repeated promises of a split once and for ,111 with the Russia-hating SDP-lovers around backing to miners' fight .. . Gordon :lIcLennan and Mi1rxLsm Todi1Y to be real­ • ,\lil:~'';''~' ..... 1"',,,',"."".'0" ... ~:~~-=--,; "'''"'I';''':'' _.-.. , •• ised. So why is it that this mob who love Lech Walesa and think a trade unionist's best friend is his local vicar are still calling the shots M~r~!;ng St.~r and expelling people allover the place? Be­ 'Coal picket lines must not be broken' cause everything that claims to offer an al­ ternative, from Stri1ight Left to Morning Star *Tue leaders unite to the not-very-wninist, only offers differ­ Star covered for Judas Kinnock and TUC traitors, including ent roads to liquidation, sometimes signposted with the miners (top) hailing Mick McGahey's scabby deal with Bill Sirs' ISTC over with rhetoric about 'class. politics' or 'sup­ !:,I'~I' r;::~~ ~:,;,~~: ,,~:I'::::;":'.':~~.~~:~,~~h,:~ ~ , Ravenscraig. porting socialist countries'. Let's face facts: can anyone really tell the difference between StrcJight Left and Labour Weekly? And if Marx­ leaders the way Lenin did in his day. After a the 1920s (most of which they plagiarise, and ism Tocli1y/Focus is (at best) the voice of Neil year of the most vile scabherding by Kinnock, render toothless, from Trotsky and Workers Kinnock, isn't Morning Star the voice of Tony Benn still refuses to openly challenge, or even Hammer) still argue against splitting from the Benn? With alternatives like that on offer, criticise, Kinnock. So, in turn, Morning Star CP and play footsie wi th the Solidarnosc-loving it's no wonder they're all mouthing off so won't criticise Benn. Mick Costello sheepishly Workers Power group? much about unity. admits that he was 'misled' into thinking Because none of them has an independent re­ Thatcher's drive to smash the NUM was a di­ Thatcher/MacGregor wanted a 'negotiated set­ volutionary perspective. Each main tendency in rect corollary to NATO's anti-Soviet war drive. tlement with the NUM' (Morning Star, 26 March). its own way is committed to the old Stalinist They want to smash the gains of the Russian Is this the best Communist workers can expect shibboleth of 'peaceful coexistence' -- peace­ Revolution and that means smashing the gains from their leaders? Either Costello is very ful coexistence with the reformist class of the working class in every capitalist coun­ gullible, or very dishonest. traitors at home, peaceful coexistence with the try. And she went after the NUM with a partic­ But let's look at Morning Star's track rec­ imperialist warmongers abroad. For them 'pro­ ular vengeance because its leader dared take a ord. When Lord Murray's TUC was stabbing the Sovietism' means whitewashing the nationalist stand against the war drive of 'Ronald Ray-gun NGA in the back, Morning Star (22 November betrayals of the Stalinist rulers -- like the and the Plutonium Blonde' and their beloved 1983) said: 'TUC throws weight behind print­ Polish regime's scandalous export of coal to scab 'union' Solidarnosc. workers'. When Neil Kinnock was mouthing off Britain for the duration of the miners strike. The problem with Arthur Scargill is he's for a scab ballot, Morning Star (19 April Or (in the case of the Leninist) they mumble not a communist; to this day he continues to 1984) said: 'Kinnock gives complete backing to about the erring ways of the 'comrades' preach unity wi th Judas Kinnock inside Labour's miners' fight'. Mick McGahey's deal to keep overseas. 'broad church'. But there are thousands of scab coal pouring into Ravenscraig was head­ Reagan and Thatcher are the living argu­ militant workers who in the course of this lined 'Miners' steelworks deal forges unity' ments against 'peaceful coexistence'. They want strike were rudely awakened to the backstab­ (7 April 1984). And just before Welsh miners war -- war against the Soviet Union, war ag­ bing reality of Labourite reformism and would gave Norm Willis the noose, Morning Star (1 ainst the workers and oppressed at home. For welcome the opportunity to become part of a September 1984) told us: 'TUC leaders unite us, Trotskyists, defence of the Soviet Union mass revolutionary party. All they get from with the miners'. From hailing the dockers' is not a matter of pacifist daydreams or re­ the Eurocommunist CP leadership is a slap in sellout as a victory to covering up the scab printing rosy articles from Soviet Life but of the face. Says Pete Carter in the March issue coal scandal at BL Longbridge (orchestrated by fighting to revive the revolutionary tradi­ of Kautskyism Today: 'there should have been plant convenor and CP executive member Jack tions and programme of Lenin and Trotsky's an early condemnation of violence from which­ Adams), Morning Star was incapable of putting Communist International, traditions exempli­ ever quarter .... Support from the bishops the TUC 'lefts' on the spot and demanding they fied in the Hands Off Russia Campaign of 1919. should have been worked for and welcomed. ' fight for genuine solidarity strike action We fight for unconditional military defence of Maybe we ought to dangle a noose in front of because it is the mouthpiece 0f these very the Soviet bloc against the war drive as part Mr Carter as well. 'lefts'. of a perspective of workers revolution against And what about Chater/Costello's Morning Why? Why does Straight Left argue for bury­ capitalism and of political revolution to Star? It's no accident that Tony Benn says the ing yourself inside the Labour Party and ag­ throw out the Stalinist misleaders and restore Morning Star is his favourite paper -- and ainst splitting from McLennan/Jacques? Why the programme of Lenin to the Kremlin. it's sure as hell not for telling the scath­ do~s Leninist, for all its long, turgid 'cri­ In the final analysis, the various pro­ ing, revolutionary truth about the Labour mis- tiques' of Stalinist betrayal right back to Moscow oppositions within the CP are incapable of fighting the Eurocommunist leadership be­ cause they share the same roots and the same perspective -- from the Popular Front of the CPOB ' Leninists ' : rhetoric v reality 1930s to the 'broad democratic alliance' of today. It's called class collaboration. While By their deeds shall ye judge them. On a 'defence of the Soviet Union' and the domestic the CPs of the imperialist countries like whole series of questions, the Leninist seems class struggle. Strange bedfellows for Britain were boosting the war preparations of to stand apart from the morass of different 'Leninists'? their respective bourgeoisies in the late tendencies, factions and cliques inside the The Leninist does agree with its Workers 1930s, Leon Trotsky postulated the later, full Communist Party. They are prepared to level Power chums on some positions ... rotten ones. flowering of Eurocommunist anti-Sovietism: scathing attacks on the Labour/TUC misleaders, For example, both think the NUM should have 'Stalin has reconciled the Communist par­ oppose counterrevolutionary Solidarnosc while capitulated to the scab ballot furore. Thus ties of imperialist democracies with the criticising the Polish regime's scabbery, and the May Leninist says, 'the fact that a ballot national bourgeoisies. This stage has now claim to stand against class collaboration. was not employed at the beginning of the been past .... Henceforth the Communo­ But rhetoric must meet reality. What practi­ miners' strike caused many problems'. And both chauvinists will have to worry about their cal/political conclusions do they draw from pegged their central strategy in the strike on own hides, whose interests by no means al­ all this? appealing to the TUC to launch a general ways coincide with the "defence of the For several months now they have been the strike. USSR" .' (' A Fresh Lesson', 1938) best of political friends with a group of Sol­ The TUC Cold Warriors demonstrated their Let's go forward to victories and not de­ idarnosc-lovers called Workers Power. The hostility to the NUM with their vicious anti­ feats. If you joined the CP to be a communist, latter outfit argues that the creation of Communist witchhunt of Arthur Scargill (at why settle for tailing Kinnock. It was the workers states in Eastern Europe, Cuba and Blackpool 1983) over his opposition to Soli­ Spartacist League which said 'Stop Solidarity's Vietnam represented 'counterrevolutionary darnosc. To the Leninist this meant nothing. counterrevolution!' It was we who nailed the social overturns', and complains that the Red We drew the conclusion from the TUC's role Korean Air Lines Flight 007 as an anti"':Soviet Army intervention in Afghanistan is 'reaction­ there and over the NGA and GCHQ that a general provocation right from the start. And it was ary'. Yet Leninist and they have been organis­ strike could only be organised over the heads we who campaigned to turn the miners strike ing joint me~tings (as at a 9 February miners of these open class traitors, and called for a into a general strike through a fighting support conference in Sheffield) and assidu­ fighting Triple Alliance of miners, rail~ Triple Alliance of miners, railworkers and ously avoid public criticism of one another's workers and transport worj{ers to launch co- transport workers. Join us in building a gen­ positions. So much for any connection between continued on page 11 uinely revolutionary party and a genuinely re­ volutionary international!.

MAY 1985' 3 Doenitz' appointment as Reich president by Goebbels, he stated: 'We must fight on against Anti-Soviet warmongers salute Nazis the English and the Americans so long as they prevent me from carrying on the war against Bolshevism.' In a note on the same day to the British commander, Field Marshal Montgomery, Doenitz offered to become an anti-Soviet ally and turn the fronts around. At that time American imperialism rejected the offer. But V-E Day in Germany Doenitz' intention was not without its own realistic calculations. The military advance of the Soviet Union in repulsing the German Wehrmacht (army) fright­ ened the Western Allies. Concerned that a German power vacuum would be filled by the Soviets, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, already in 1942 called on the Western powers to 'after the war put up a barrier against Communist barbarism'. The policies of the Western Allies were to bleed the Soviet Union white. Despite continuous Soviet pressure, the US and Britain delayed the Second Front, promised to Stalin in 1942, until mid-1944. Britain was considering an in­ vasion of the Balkans -- that is, the areas which were already being occupied by the Red Army -- instead of Normandy. The Western Allies' advance on Schleswig-Holstein in April 1945 was justified explicitly with the in­ tention of stopping the Red Army. For the capitalist countries involved, the Second World War was without exception an im­ perialist war. For the proletariat of these countries, in the words of Karl Liebknecht on the First World War, 'the main enemy is at home'. The workers of all countries had one country to def~nd in this war: the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union carried the main burden of the war. Its victory after nearly four years of fascist invasion in Russia cost lJIay Day, 1945: Red Army liberates Berlin 20 million dead! Three million people died in the first three months alone. While Moscow witnessed a huge march cel­ newly strengthened nationalism in the parlia­ The Stalinist policies contributed to these ebrating the fortieth anniversary of victory mentary 'State of the Nation' debate: 'Our devastating losses. Stalin trusted his pact over Hitlerite fascism, the anti-Soviet im­ fatherland, the centre of Europe, was divided. with Hitler and rejected warnings, both from perialist warmongers celebrated by paying hom­ For the Germans of the DDR [German Democratic the Red Orchestra spy network under Leopold age to the Nazi SS murderers buried in Bitburg Republic -- East Germany) and for our Eastern Trepper in West Europe and from Soviet spy cemetery. Standing amid the SS graves at Bit­ European neighbours, May 8th became for an Richard Sorge in Japan, that a German attack burg, Ronald Reagan went out of his way to make indeterminate time the day of the replacement was imminent. The Red Army had been robbed of common cause with them, proclaiming: 'I am an of one dictatorship with another' (Das its most capable and experienced officers by Afghan, and I am a prisoner of the Gulag .... Parlament, 16 March). the Stalinist purges. Thousands were murdered, I, too, am a potential victim of totalit­ The German bourgeoisie sees itself as among them Marshal Tukhachevsky, in order to arianism.' Reagan wants to 'forget' the World bearing a new/old mission, 'to liberate the smother all remaining opposition to bureau­ War II alliances in order to shore up his axis East from Communism'. And the West German army cratic rule. Even the most important strat­ for anti-Soviet World War III. Nicaragua, fac­ has chosen, of all dates, May 8th to demon­ egist of World War II, Zhukov, had been ing new US economic sanctions, is the first strate their striking power as the strongest purged, only to be reinstated due to the lack target for imperialist 'rollback'. But for the NATO army in Europe with a 'dynamiC show of of capable officers. many millions around the world who hate the arms'. The German proletariat must rip power And yet, despite Stalin's policies, the Nazis, this obscene imperialist spectacle was away from the capita~ist class before German Russian workers threw back 'Operation Barb­ met with revulsion and outrage. Crowds of Jew­ tanks (this time 'Leopards' instead of arossa'. Leningrad endured 900 days of siege: ish and leftist protesters, including tearful 'Tigers') once again roll towards Moscow. more than 800,000 people froze, starved or Holocaust survivors, faced down brutal attacks The hypocrisy of the imperialist victors died in defence of the city, but the Nazis from West German police to greet Reagan as he could not take it. It was the determined will and of defeated German imperialism over May visited Bitburg and Belsen concentration camp. 8th gives the lie to their occasional pose as of the Soviet people in defending the home­ They knew where Reagan belonged. As one pla­ 'champions of human rights'. Certainly 'Star land of the October Revolution which made such card outside Belsen read, 'Ronnie, we'll re­ Wars' President Reagan doesn't want to hear obstinate and courageous struggle possible. In serve a grave at Bitburg for you.' about US responsibility in helping Nazi one of the bloodiest battles, fightine house­ The following article, written before beasts like the Gestapo murderers Barbie and to-house and factory-to-factory in Stalingrad, Reagan's visit to Germany, is adapted from Mengele escape after 1945. He's not in the the Soviets finally took the offensive and Spartakist no 54, May 1985, published by our least interested in the fate of the victims of forced the surrender of German General Paulus comrades of the Trotzkistische Liga fascism. What interests him is strengthen- in February 1943. After the victory at Kursk Jeutschlands. ing the anti-Soviet NATO war alliance, in in July 1943, the Red Army stormed further which West Germany is his most important part­ westward. By the end of October 1944, nearly May Day in Berlin, 1945: Soldiers of the ner. US imperialism seeks to reconquer un­ all of Eastern Europe had been liberated by Red Army raise the red flag over the Reich­ ~hallenged world hegemony, which it gained the Red Army. ;tag. On May 8th German Field Marshal Keitel after 1945 and whose loss was marked by the The Western Allies were deeply disturbed: .igns the capitulation. The Nazi regime is collapse of the Bretton Woods dollar-based the influence of the Soviet Union had to be finally smashed and the horrors of the 'brown monetary system in 1971. And that means above driven back. So they finally established the olague' b~ought to an end. The Soviet soldiers all a fight against the 1945 ally, the Soviet Western Front, and the race to Berlin began. vho opened the gates of the Auschwitz and Union, which Reagan today calls the 'Evil On 6 June 1944, US troops landed in Normandy. Sachsenhausen concentration camps put a stop Empire' . Up to that time the Germans had been able to to the horrendous extermination programme On 5 May, Reagan will visit the Bitburg concentrate 95 per cent of their divisions in vhich had murdered six million Jews and five military cemetery, where fallen soldiers of the East, and the Red Army never faced less lillion of other minorities and nationalities the German Ardennes offensive are buried along than 65 per cent of the Wehrmacht strength. .n the death camps. with members of the S8 murder gangs. ~eagan In the last analysis, 'Operation Thunderclap', The triumph of the fascist ideology of the wants to challenge that section of the the April 1945 British-American firebombing German 'master race' and Lebensraum ('living American public which does not share his en­ of Dresden, filled with refugees from the space') had led to genocide, carried out with thusiasm for war and who still painfully re­ East, which took 35,000 lives, and even more German thoroughness as far as the dominion of member the millions of victims murdered by the so the atomic mass murder in Hiroshima and German imperialism reached. The German working Nazis. Reagan even tries to prettify the 88 Nagasaki in August 1945, were intended to in­ class suffered for more than a decade under thugs buried in Bitburg as 'victims of National timidate the Soviet Union. the fascist yoke; their organisations were Socialism'. At the last minute, Reagan and In the Soviet occupaton zone, which later crushed, their leaders, if they didn't escape Kohl are now trying to smooth the waves with a became the DDR, resurgent Nazism was deprived into exile, were murdered, imprisoned in the visit to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. of any social base through the destruction of concentration camps or killed in the war. With Yet Bitburg, amid the graves with the S8 capitalism, and more than 350 Nazi mass mur­ the military defeat of German imperialism a symbols, is certainly an appropriate place for derers were sentenced to death or life impris­ war ended, at least for Europe, in which the Kohl and Reagan to confirm their counterrev­ onment. In contrast, the Nuremburg Trials of imperialists' competition for world domination olutionary anti-Soviet alliance. 1945-46 and other Allied war crimes trials cost more than 50 million livBs. only served as an alibi. Prominent Nazis like Friend or foe? The taking of Berlin in May 1945 was in­ the banker Hermann Josef Abs were soon pulling disputably an act of liberation. Yet none of It's obvious. The flagging victory mood of the strings again. Abs, an influential board the Soviet Union's erstwhile imperialist the Western allies comes from the feeling that member of the Deutsche Bank under Hitler who allies, much less the West German successor they were on the wrong side in World War II. was sentenced in absentia to 15 years hard .t;1i'te to the ''l'hirdReich', w.ant to celebrate Perhat:>s ,the US impe.i~lists think today. they labo.ur by 'Yugoslavia, became t.l1e chairman of #lis. -40th .anniversary of .victory. 1'l}e defeated ShoUlq tlave grasped tfl€ extended hand of tlle boarC;i and llE!lIoouthe fte-construction Credit &rmanimperl.aUs!li e'f. 1945 'billS li)l1g dnce 4d1niralKarll'>MniUin:Aprll iM5, In hiS Agency! . Hitl.r·!'l \\':a~ il1uustrychlef ,'Friedrich taised its head with rene:t.edseU:",cohfidence. 1: May 'Order Qfthe.Das' to the Getlnan Flicj(, whp b1ld rrutde gigahtic pbofHs froll\ tbe

Pederal chancellor Bellllqt Kohl express'ed .the army, immediately after Hitler's suicide arid slave laboui' ,of 40 j {)OO foreign for~d:'"

4 WORKERS HAMM£R labourers and concentration camp victims, was 'Autonomists', Maoists and pseudo-Trotskyists released from jail in 1950 and soon became will demonstrate against the Reagan visit and known as Bonn's 'uncrowned finance minister'. the imperialist world economic summit in Bonn American imperialism had nothing against -- an anti-American and anti-Soviet demonstra­ the reinstatement of 'former' Nazis in key tion of the new German nationalism. An effec­ positions in politics and the economy. Only a tive protest against the imperialist robbers strong German capitalism could be of use would have to be based on defence of the DDR, a~ainst the Soviet Union. In the United States Poland, the Soviet Union and other workers itself, the CIA falsified 800 files and r:ave states, with the perspective of class war \.lzi speCialists 'laundered' documents in against one's 'own' bourgeoisie. order to make use of them for their own pur­ Among the belligerent powers of World War p"ses. The file of 'V-2' rocket builder II only the Soviet Union today sees a reason ~ernher von Braun was among the dossiers of 14 to celebrate the destruction of the criminal scientists who in 1947 were considered 'secur­ Hi tIer regime on May 8th. Reagan and Kohl would ltv risks' by the US but were later 'denazi­ like everyone to forget the horrors of the fied' at the stroke of a pen. The 'Foreip:n Nazi regime, because the imperialist enemies Armies East' secret service under Wehrmacht of old are now NATO allies carrying out the ~eneral Gehlen was absorbed by the CIA to con­ programme of Admiral Doenitz. DDR leader Erich [lnUe its spying and sabotare against the Honecker recently remarked: S,)\' iet Cnion. The Gehlen orp;anisaton was taken 'We will not forget the victims of Hitler's

While Ronald Reagan honoured Nazi SS line was echoed even by the supposedly Trot­ Thus even the militant coalfield women's sup- killers at Bitburg, ruling-class Britain en­ skyist, but thoroughly Labourite Socialist port march last August sought to petition the gaged in obscene celebrations of 'its' vic­ Organiser (17 April), whose headline read queen. But, as Russian revolutionary leader tory over Hitlerite fascism, as though waving 'Hands off Princess Michael!' Leon Trotsky pointed out, when capitalist the Union Jack would obliterate the fact that It is appearances that the f1irror et al are class rule is threatened, 'the bourgeoisie can Hitler's defeat came at the hands of the concerned with: the association of 'Our make use of the royal authority with great 30viet Union. And for the royal family Gracious Queen' and the monarchy with fascism success, as the concentration point for all gathered in Westminster Abbey, it was designed does not augur well for convincing Britain's the extra-parliamentary, that is to say, the to obscure the monarchy'S own sordid connec­ long-suffering working-class and oppressed real forces directed against the working tions with the ~azis. population of the benefits of British 'demo­ class' . The revelation by Robert Maxwell's Daily cracy' over 'totalitarian communism'. In fact, Remember that the British officer corps is Mirror last month that Baron Gunther von from the 1930s to the present day, the British in good part drawn from the petty aristocracy. Reibnitz, late father of Princess Michael of monarchy, as part of ruling-class Britain in The queen is head of the armed forces, and the Kent, was an officer in Hitler's SS provided general, has always been pleased to make com­ officer corps is very clear that its loyalty mon cause with the fascist and other ultra­ but the latest evidence of the royal affinity is to her, not to Parliament. In a crisis for fascism. This German aristocrat joined the right forces when it has suited them. situation it is quite conceivable that a Nazi party in 1930, three years before The association of King Edward VIII with right-wing bonapartist coup aimed at restabil­ Hitler's rise to power, and joined the SS in Hitler and Mussolini during -- and after -­ ising the capitalist order would seek out the 1934, achieving the rank of Sturmbannfuehrer the 1930s, when the ruling class attempted to monarchy as a buttress to reactionary mobilis­ (major). He must have been quite a favourite convince the Axis powers to attack the USSR ation and as a sign of 'legitimacy' against a of Hitler and his cronies as in those days and leave the British Empire alone, is well­ weak Parliament. Indeed in 1975, after the the SS was an elite even within the Nazi known. More recently, the queen mother was in­ fall of the Heath government, the queen's party. Indeed Reibnitz was selected as a prize volved in lobbying support for apartheid and uncle and last viceroy of India, the late un­ stud in the Nazis' 'Lebensborn' programme in­ the former racist Rhodesian regime of Ian mourned Lord Louis Mountbatten, himself par­ tended to breed 'pure Aryan' babies. The Smith. As the most prominent symbol of ticipated in 'discussions' among various top cover-up stories circulated by the royalty anc Britain's colonial past, the monarchy exemp­ military commanders about a coup attempt. 'respectable' Fleet Street that Reibnitz was lifies the most vicious, anti-working-class just an 'honorary' member of the SS are, as sentiments within the bourgeoisie. To justify As Marxists, we recall with pleasure the famed Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal put it, their support to this institution which was beheading of Charles I in 1649 by Cromwell's 'absolutely unbelievable'. already reactionary even in the time of Oliver revolutionary army. As part of our struggle What is equally obscene is the alacrity Cromwell three centuries ago, certain Labour to destroy this venal capitalist system whiCh with which the Labour lackeys, from Kneel lackeys would have us believe that the mon­ allows such anachronisms to survive while Kinnock through to 'l'eft' Eric Heffer, leapt archy is only a harmless relic, a tourist at­ breeding fascist barbarism, we raise the demo­ to defend the integrity of the English mon­ traction. This is dangerous rubbish. cratic demands that were sadly reversed after archy. Heffer felt compelled to protest in In normal times, the monarchy provides a the English revolution of the seventeenth Parliament that 'we are not against people be­ 'popular' focus for national chauvinism, for century: Abolish the monarchy! Abolish the cause their parents might have been Nazis'. a belief in class harmony and the flamboyant House of Lords! Abolish the Established As though that were the pOint! yet Heffer's assertion of 'legitimate' social privileges. Church! •

MAY 1985 5 ...... ------We print below the edited transcript of a presentation given by Spartacist League com­ rade Charlie Shell at a 4 May Workers Hammer dayschool in London.

hrough the experie~ce of the miners strike, T marry~of the best mlltants have come to see the Labour Party for what it is -- a party commi tted to capitalism, to strangling working­ class struggle. Despite this, or probably in many respects because of this, many people throughout the labour movement are now attempt­ ing to prettify the Labour Party as a whole, to prettify its left wing, or to say that in the future perhaps the Labour Party can be improved. There is a particular article which I think is indicative, produced recently by the Militant organisation who, as comrades prob­ ably know, are very deeply embedded in the Labour Party. The article is entitled 'Marxism: the Labour Party's red thread' [Militant, 29 March]. It is one of the most deeply dishonest and cynical articles that I have ever read. It tries to tell us that Ramsey MacDonald and Arthur Henderson supported the Russian Revol­ ution and defended it against the Wars of Intervention. It conveniently skips over the fact that the Labour leadership supported its own bourgeoisie in the imperialist slaughter of World War I. And it tries to tell us that the formation of the Communist Party in Britain was a peripheral issue of no real significance, and that once formed all the Communist Party tried to do was become part of the Labour Party. In this context, I think it's Red Clydeside: mass strikers' demonstration in Glasgow's George Square, 31 January 1919. British labour and the Russian Revolution very important to look back at real labour net. Supporting the war effort to the hilt and clear that these fine gentlemen were not to be history, at the real history of the Labour backing all the attacks made on the working taken at their word, Robert Smillie, the Party and of the struggle to build the Commu­ class, the Labour Party and the trade union leader of the miners union and a leading left nist Party in this country. leadership acted as recruiting sergeants for in the TUC, spoke to the conference. He said, I want to begin with a couple of stories the bosses. And that included even the 50- 'We have not come here to talk treason, we have to illustrate what was happening inside the called left at that time, Ramsay MacDonald. come here to talk reason.' Which is a very British working class as the war developed. Ramsay MacDonald has got a rather enhanced British way of approaching the problem. In July 1915 the Asquith/Lloyd George govern­ reputation because he refused to join the War The rhetoric was soon to be tested out, be­ ment passed the Munitions of War Act. Effect­ Cabinet and he was supposed to be some sort of cause in October 1917 the Bolsheviks came to ively that act removed all trade union rights, pacifist in World War I. In fact, he simply power and established a workers state in most significantly banning the right to strike. had a tactical disagreement. He felt he would Russia, the dictatorship of the proletariat They passed that act in full agreement with be more useful and influential if, rather based on the soviets. Initially the Labour the trade union leadership of the time, who than being compromised with Lloyd George's leaders fell silent. Soviets were okay as long were collaborating hand and foot. Shortly policies directly, he supported the war out­ as they were filled with Mensheviks, their after, they went around South Wales putting side of the Cabinet. friends. Once they were run by Bolsheviks it up a royal proclamation, stating that a strike Now the mounting discontent and opposition was a different matter. But they were fairly in the mines would now be a punishable offence. in Britain was matched by discontent in all the wily characters and they understood the effect Two days later 200,000 South Wales miners came major powers involved in the war -- and in that the October Revolution would have on the out on strike for higher wages. Lloyd George, Russia more so than anywhere else. In Feb­ British working class. who was then minister for munitions, jumped ruary 1917 the tsar fell. But whilst the tsar When the Labour Par:ty was formed ini.tially on the train as fast as he could and went down fell and the workers developed their own around 1900 it had deliberately disavowed any to Cardiff to try to talk some sense into workers councils, soviets, the Bolshevik party specific socialist aims. It was formed ex­ these 'hot-headed' men. He had to concede all under Lenin remained in a minority. The Men­ plicitly on the basis of liberal politics, asj their demands and came away empty-handed. sheviks, the Russian equivalents of Arthur the voice of trade unions in Parliament. But On Clydeside, things were beginning to Henderson, held the majority in those workers that would no longer do, as the masses didn't boil. Two workers were sacked. The bosses were councils, and they extended a helping hand to want liberal politics, they wanted socialism threatened with a general strike. Those two -- and they'd been shown how to get it. So men got their jobs back. At the same time they Arthur Henderson came up with a very good attempted through the area to impose rent 'Supporting the war effort to the hilt and idea. It's gone down in history as Clause Four increases which the workers could not possibly backing all the attacks made on the working of the Labour Party constitution: you know, to afford, given that during the course of the class, the La bour Party and the trade union secure for the workers by hand or by brain the war, wages were being driven down. A movement leadership acted as recruiting sergeants for fruits of their industry, etc, etc, blah, developed against the rent increases, primar­ the bosses. And that included even the so­ blah. And he got Sydney Webb, another arch ily led by women but also supported by the called left at that time, Ramsay MacDonald.' right-wing theoretician, to write Clause Four trade union movement. A test case arrived: 18 for him. munitions workers were taken to court for non­ Now a lot of people in this country and in payment of rent. One thousand engineers downed the Russian capitalists and ensured that. particular the left look at Clause Four as tools and marched on the court. The men were Russia remained in the war. being a great gain -- this is whe~the Labour released. The rent increases were dropped. The February revolution was greeted en­ Party really became socialist. It's important This pattern of resistance to attacks car­ thusiastically in Britain by practically all to understand that the adoption of Clause Four ried on through the war. A series of unof­ sections of the ruling class as well as of the was part of the Labour leaders' attempt to ficial leaderships developed within the trade labour movement. The Labour leaders sought to head off revolution in this country. What it union movement. By 1917 they'd formed a embrace it as their own -- after all capital­ meant was channelling workers' discontent into national organisation called the Shop Stewards ism still existed in Russia. As the working­ Parliament and dissipating 4t. and Workers Committee Movement. Leading that class struggle gathered pace through that They did this at the right time, because were many fine working-class militants, their period, the Labour leaders characteristically the years 1919 and 1920 were probably the most future deeds notwithstanding in some cases, took a step to the left in order to try to momentous in the history of the British working people like John Maclean, Willie Gallagher, keep at the head of that movement. class. World War I had ended, the Wars of In­ JT Murphy, Harry Pollitt. In fact, after the In June 1917 there was quite a remarkable tervention against the Russian Revolution were Russian Revolutio·n, John Maclean was made first labour movement meeting. It's gone down in well underway, and as usual the British bour­ Bolshevik consul for Scotland. history as the Leeds Convention, and it was geoisie was up to its neck in blood, workers' This unofficial movement was in large part a t tended by a· cross sect ion 0 f the 1 abour blood. Trotsky's Red Army, hastily put together a response to the failure of the Labour Party movement, everybody from Ramsay MacDonald -out of th~ remnants of the old tsar~.-st army, to deliver the goods -- a failure of the through to the leaders of the unofficial move­ was fighting on a number of fronts against the Labour Party, in fact, to do anything. Because ment. It was remarkable because Ramsay Mac­ White armies of Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenich and through the war·the leader of the Labour Donald was heard to call for workers councils, WLangel, supported by fourteen imperialist Pafty, Arthur Henderson, sat in the War Cabi- to utter revolutionary phrases. But to make armies, one of them British. But by early 1919

WORKERS HAMMER ·,

the British had begun to get cold feet. They Enormous pressure was exerted on the trade --..0;_ orated SovIet Repoil>llc. ' were beginning to think about pulling out, de­ union leaderships who were fighting tooth and spite the overwhelming military odds in their Why h ' nail to keep the workers at work. Robert favour, because of trouble at horne. ave you Come Smillie, the miners leader, took up the de­ On the 13th of January 1919 on the HMS Kil­ Mourmansk1 to mands of the Campaign and was prepared to bride at Milford Haven, the sailors hoisted bandy about the threat of industrial action the red flag, and under it was a slogan which COmrade, ironically at the same time as preventing the said, 'Half the navy are on strike, the other miners strike from taking place. He went to the half soon will be.' A whole series of ships Labour Party i~ order to get them to help. had to be sent back from the Baltic because The ~~C of the Labour Party said, oh yes, their crews had mutinied. There were refusals we'll call a special conference of the labour to sail to Russia reported at Invergordon, movement to decide what action we can take in Portsmouth, DevOllport, Port Edgar and Rossyth. order to secure troop withdrawal from Russia. At Rossyth the ship was actually held for But of course they didn't. So Smillie went to several weeks by the mutineers until they the Triple Alliance with the same demands. The were disarmed by superior numbers. Triple Alliance, feeling the same sorts of In the army the story was the same. The pressures as Smillie, agreed to take up the first week of January, 10,000 troops mutinied Campaign. at Folkestone; 4000 demonstrated in support at In mid-April 1920 hostilities were resumed Dover. The same week, 1500 soldiers seized on the Polish front, hostilities which were lorries, and drove into London demanding to be probably inspired by the British and French demobilised. Before the month was out, 20,000 imperialists. Initially the Poles were very soldiers had mutinied in Calais. And in early $ou\;)enir successful. They went over the Russian border February armeti soldiers were found demonstrat­ and took Kiev. The Times said this was a great ing in Horse Guards Parade. The War Office is­ .ll~rogramme triumph, it was a heavy blow for the Bol­ ~ued a questionnaire to all units, basically sheviks. But the same day in London's East End asking them, could the troops be relied on in HANDS O'F'F RUS,SIA! docks the Jolly George was supposed to sail the event of an English revolution taking for Poland with arms and munitions for the OEMONSTRATiON, ,\,,--III place? And the answer was no. \ ... THL Polish army. The dockers, under the influence At the same time Britain stood on the edge FREE TRADE HALL, of the Hands Off Russia Campaign, refused to ~\ANCHESTER of a general strike. As the troops were Znb, 1\)19, load the ship, refused to let it move. sunbf\\\ lfclH"uat\~ AND mutinyin~ in Calais, the Clydeside engineers • 'lERVENTION, AN.D TO OEM Following that example, the Campaign gath­ struck for a forty hour week. As far as the TO PROTE·51 AGAINST ALLIED I~f ALLIED TROOPS fROM RUSSIA. ered momentum. In June there were a whole TH.E IMM~DIATE WITHDRAW~L 'I \ leadership was concerned -- and that included \ 1\ series of demonstrations outside the Polish people like Willie Gallagher -- this was just 1 II embassy demanding the cessation of hos­ \ ' 'I a strike for a forty hour week. But red flags tilities. In July the Red Army managed to re­ were carried through the streets of Glasgow verse its fortunes and drove the Polish army and the bourgeoisie smelled insurrection and a ,iiL . P,,~~,::T;',,""oN"'.;.~~~ out of Russia. They sued for peace, offering rising. The next week there was another demon­ ~ the Poles very generous terms. But the Poles stration. The police moved in and attacked, Manchester 'Hands Off Russia' call (bottom). Lenin's didn't want to know. So the Red Army ad­ batoning people to the ground. That crowd appeal to soldiers of British army of intervention: 'You vanced into Poland. foup;ht all day against the police and beat them have been brought here to overthrow our revolution, and bring back the reign of Tsarism '(top). In response to that, on 3 August the Brit­ back. Eventually it was defeated by superior ish government said it was going to despatch numbers. But the bourgeoisie was very, very the end of 1918 Lenin issued an appeal to troops to fight a war against Soviet Russia. scared. After the incident they put tanks on British troops, headed 'Are you a trade It was going to act as a spearhead for re­ the streets of Glasp;ow. unionist?' In it Lenin concludes: 'By fight­ newed allied intervention in Russia. The Whilst Glasgow was fighting, the million­ ing us you are not fighting for your country, threat of war with Russia put the fear of God strong Miners Federation, as it was at the but for the capitalists whom your fellow into the trade union and Labour Party leaders. lime, balloted for a strike. At the same time trade unionists at home are fighting. By They knew what that would mean for the Brit­ the rail and transport unions, linked with the fighting us you are fighting your fellow ish working class. So some quite remarkable miners in the Triple Alliance, stood on the workers. Every blow you strike against us is a things happened. Virtually overnight, Councils brink of strike action. But the leadership blow against yourselves. If you crush us, you of Action, three hundred and fifty of them, stepped back, they didn't want to do it. The will only succeed in strengthening the power of sprang up right through the country. The Triple Alliance leaders were called into Down­ your capitalists to rob and exploit you. Labour Party -- its right wing, not simply its ing Street by Lloyd George, and he basically Fellow workers, on whose Side are you -- the left wing -- established a national Council of said: If you go on strike you will defeat us. workers' or the masters'?' Action. The Councils of Action issued a demand But you have to recognise then that it's a Lenin got his answer in part through the to the government: either you drop these plans question of who is going to run the country. troop mutinies. They knew which side they were to intervene militarily against the Soviet Are you ready to take on that responsibility? on. And he got another answer as well, because Union or there will be a general strike. So The trade union leaders weren't ready. With the January 1919 also saw the beginning of the they got an assurance, and it was an assurance question of power at stake, they surrendered. Hands Off Russia Campaign. Initially it was that they could believe. Tory leader Bonar Law said at that time, quite small; the first meeting had only 350 Why did the Labour leaders do that? They 'Trade union organisation was the only thing be­ delegates in London, under the initiative of said, in their own accounts, that they were tween us and anarchy, and if trade union the London Workers Committee. It was supported acting in the 'national interest', that is, organisation was against us the position by a number of left-wing organisations: the the interest of British capitalism. And indeed would be hopeless.' With the army coming British Socialist Party, the Socialist Labour they were. They knew that if ships were de­ apart, with the massive increase in industrial Party, the Workers Socialist Federation, the spatched to Russia, they wouldn't have got militancy, the only thing that stood between South Wales Socialist Federation, organis­ there with their officers. They knew that in the British capitalist class and their over­ ations which later came to form the nucleus of the army the same response would happen. And throw and expropriation was the trade union the Communist Party. The conference decided it they knew that at home it would provoke an and Labour leadership. would work in the labour movement to fight for enormous level of industrial action, of revol­ But the ghost of revolution wasn't an easy a general strike to demand the cessation of utionary proportions, and they were terrified one to lay, because overlying that desire to military interventiqn in Russia. of that. struggle was the determination of the British The Hands Off Russia Campaign immediately When Lenin looked at the situation in Brit­ workers to defend the Russian Revolution. At gained a hearing inside the working class. continued on page 8

January 1924: First Labour government visits Buckingham Palace. From left: March 1919: First Congress of Communist International under Russian Bolshevik leader Ramsay MacDonald, JH Thomas, Arthur Henderson. VI Lenin (standing) = & &*Ff&'" -- 1m MAY 1985 7 When Ramsay MacDonald went into Parliament fact it would be a very good thing for us, be­ he went with the intention of proving that cause the workers know what we stand for and British labour. •• the Labour Party could administer capitalism. what the Russian Revolution stood for, and (Continued from page 7) In opposition to that course Lenin sought to the Labour Party by throwing us out would de­ ain at that time he said, this is very signif­ build a Communist Party, modelled on the Bol­ monstrate that there is no place inside it icant. The British bourgeoisie in their papers shevik party, a party based on the lessons of for politics that defend the interests of the the Russian Revolution. In the first instance wrote that the Council of Action was a soviet working class. In that process we would be that meant a policy of unifying those organ­ able to win workers away from Labour to us. -- and yes, Lenin said, it was a soviet. When isations in Britain who had sided with the He also put forward the idea that perhaps that Council of Action was established, there Revolution, around a series of programmatic the CommuList Party ought to vote for the was the beginning of a situation of dual fundamentals known as the '21 Conditions'. Labour Party in elections, to give them power~ there was the power of the workers re­ Second, it meant forming a disciplined com­ what he called critical support. He didn't presented through their soviets and the power bat party, based on industrial and other frac­ mean that every time the Labour Party stood we of the government, which was very, very shaky. tions, not the traditional sort of loose set­ would vote for them; but in those conditions, But unlike in Russia when the Mensheviks up whose members did or said whatever they where Labour had never held parliamentary of­ controlled the soviets, there was no Bolshevik liked. And third, it meant that,on the basis fice, it was important that the party be party in Britain to organise, to focus the of its firm programmatic principles, the Com­ tested out before the masses. So Lenin said, discontent of the masses into removing those munist Party needed flexible tactics in order we'll put them in power and we'll see what leaders, to demonstrate the falsity of the ac­ to split workers away from the Labour Party. happens -- and then the workers will see that tions they carried out. So the Labour leaders Building such a party in Britain was no they defend capitalism and that we are right. again managed to put themselves at the head of easy job. Often the various organisations' In that way it's possible for the Communist a very significant movement and to strangle it hearts were in the right place but their heads Party to increase its influence. thereafter. Troops were withdrawn from Poland, were not. There was a plethora of egotistical As I say, this approach was resisted by but the government never gave any undertaking and personal differences, bitterness stemming many people. Some were won over, like Willie that it would cease sending munitions to the back years about who said what in what meeting Gallagher, but many were not. There were some Polish troops. Shortly thereafter, the Russian and all that kind of thing. There were also a very, very good people, like John Maclean civil war did come to an end, and the Red Army whole series of political problems with these and Sylvia Pankhurst, who did not become part was victorious. But the Labour Party had done groups. They tended to veer either towards of the new Communi~t Party, or did so only its jOb. They had managed to catch the British opportunism or towards sectarianism. The most briefly. It's a real tragedy that that was the working class at its high point, to control it gross example of that was the British Social­ and demobilise it. And this laid the basis in ist Party. Up until 1916 it was led by a char­ 1921 for Black Friday, when the miners were acter named HM Hyndman. Engels always hated 'When Ramsay MacDonald went into forced to fight alone and the Triple Alliance him, because he was an open racist, for one once again betrayed them. Parliament he went with the intention of thing. He was a man who said that workers in proving that the Labour Party could The overwhelming response of the working Britain would never read anything written by a class to the Hands Off Russia Campaign showed German, even if he was Karl Marx. And he sup­ administer capitalism. I n opposition to great potential for a revolutionary party in ported the war in 1914. Now he got thrown out that course Lenin sought to build a Britain. Lenin and the newly-founded Communist of the BSP in 1916, but he is an extreme ex­ Communist party, modelled on the International had already begun intervening ample of some of the problems that were faced. Bolshevik party, a party based on the lessons to forge such a party. The unofficial move­ Many of the better elements, those most of the Russian Revolution.' ment, under its left-wing syndicalist leader­ influenced by syndicalism, hung onto a lot of ship, had by that time by and large had its their syndicalist prejudices in oppostion to day. It had fought tooth and nail, but in lim­ Lenin. By and large they wanted to ignore the case, because they had suell a depth of ex­ iting itself to militant trade unionism it had Labour Party politically and get on with the perience. And they took a lot of other forces been unable to cope with the political chal­ trade union struggle. And Lenin said, no, with them at the time, and considerably weak­ lenge represented by the Labour Party, or with that's wrong. He wrote a very valuable book ened the party at the time of its formation. the trade union bureaucrats once they began to called '''Left-wing'' Communism, an Infantile A CP with a few thousand members was put shift ground to the left. Thus the Clyde Disorder'. You must take the Labour Party together. It wasn'l as good politically as it Workers Committee, which had been tremendously head-on politically, he said, you must learn could have been, and it was struggling to powerful and organised tens of thousands of the lessons, like the lessons of what happened consolidate itself at the same time as working workers right through the war years, had by to the Clyde Workers Committee and the unof­ class struggle receded from 1921 to about the early 1920s effectively collapsed. ficial shop stewards movement. He offered a 1925. So conditions weren't the best to do The Labour Party grew, taking a lot of perspective and tactics which transcended and that. But worse than that, within a few years broke down the seemingly impassable divide be­ the Russian Revolution itself under pressure 'The Councils of Action issued a demand to tween militant trade-union struggle and in­ of isolation began to degenerate, as Stalin the government. It said, very plainly: drop tervention in parliamentary politics, which and his supporters came to the head of the these plans to intervene militarily against the had so bedevilled the British left. Some of Communist International. Thus, rather than the tactics Lenin put forward at that time are strengthening the weak British CP, they helped Soviet Union or there will be a general very badly misused by the reformists today, lead it further astray. It's one of the great strike.' who gut them of their revolutionary content in tragedies of the British working class that order to adapt to the Labour Party and adulate when that organisation faced its first left-wing activists -- people like Maxton and Tony Benn. But they were appropriate and serious test in 1926 it had become, under the Kirkwood on the Clyde -- with it. This was necessary, and we can learn a lot from them. impact of Stalinism, more of an adjunct of very damaging. There had been a lot of l~ssons He said the Communist Party should seek to the left wing of the trade union bureaucracy learnt through the war and as a consequence of affiliate to the Labour Party. Remember that than a genuine Communist party. the Russian Revolution and the Hands Off the party still had a relatively federal That's a tragedy that we in the Spartacist Russia Campaign. And what these people did was structure without anti-red clauses. He said if League hope never to see repeated. We aim to give a left cover to the MacDonalds and it were possible for the Com~unist Party, on build a party in this country and internation­ Hendersons. They said, we have been your mili­ the basis of complete freedom of propaganda ally based on the programme of Lenin and the tant leaders through all these years, and now and agitation, to take its programme right experience of the Russian Revolution. And we you must follow us into the Labour Party. If into the heart of the beast and fight it out aim to do that so that in the future, when the these people had split in a different di­ in there, then that would be a very good working class f~ces decisive tests and de­ rection they could have taken whole chunks of thing. Many British leftists said, come on, if cisive class battles, it will start with a workers with them and the story of post-war you do that Arthur Henderson's going to throw revolutionary party at its head and not a Britain may have been very different. us out. Lenin replied, we don't mind that. In Labour Party on its back .•

was the case then. But in 1921, of course, when the coal was no longer wanted, then, 'Hands Off Russia' was the call comrades, the crunch came. They didn't want the miners; or they wanted the miners but they We print below extracts from remarks by Red Army. didn't want to pay them the wages. And when Don Hughes, South Wales NUM member, at the I remember him saying that around about the mineworkers objected they were simply 4 May Workers Hammer dayschool. 1919, word came through that the tsar and locked out of the pits. There is a story of struggle, of course, his family were brutally slaughtered by Of course, there was the bitter strike in the mining industry, and in the twenties, these mad Bolsheviks. I wonder, he said, when again in 1926. They were rough, they were as comrade Charlie qUite rightly pointed out, that bugger and the other one we've got will hard, they were tough people. But, comrades, it was a strong part of workers' struggles in get the same thing. He was of course referring unlike our last strike they were men of this country. Now my uncle was born in 1902 to King George V and Queen Mary. And I remem­ principle and any scab in 1926 was dealt with and he started work at the Prince of Wales ber he said he went to the local cinema around more or less just like the bloody tsar in colliery, Abercarn, in 1915 at the age of 13. 1920 and saw the silent flicks on the news­ Russia in 1919. Now he told me -- he could just remember, reels, and they were having some memorial And you see, I begin to realise it now, young he was at the time -- about the Hands service, I think in some cathedral, maybe that from 1926 until 1984 the working people Off Russia Campaign, and how the mineworkers St Paul's in London. King George V and Queen in this country haven't learned such a lot. of Great Britain all got together and de­ Mary were there with heads bowed. Well, I They're still following bent trade union manded that we take troops out of the Soviet suppose, as the saying goes, they all piss in leaders. They still can't realise that these ,Union. 'Hands Off Russia' was the call. That, the same pot .... people are obviously in the pay of whatever incidentally, comrades, is still remembered During the First World War -- as in the government is in power. Your point of view, to this day in the Soviet Union. last war, the Second World War -- when this comrade chairman, and your followers', and When they got it going then, it was only nation needed all the coal they could get, that man there's [points to Lenin's port­ echoing the start made by the dockers who, they couldn't get enough coal, so they en­ rait) -- how you're going to do it I wouldn't he told me, refused to handle goods sent to couraged mineworkers by paying high wages. And know, but you've got to do it. You've got-to the port of Murmansk for the British ex­ he said his father, who was on contract on get about this country, you've got to get to peditionary force. They thought that they what was then very new hydraulic supports in everywhere and you've got to tell people in were armaments and they refused to load the the Prince of Wales, was paid a fantastic this country that they are being exploited the goods onto the ships because they were to be sum. He'd come home on a Friday and tip a same as the Russian people were prior to used against the Russian people and their bagful of gold sovereigns on the table. That 1917 .•

8 WORKERS HAMMER officials to be subject to re­ call. But the precondition for TGWU ... trade union democracy is full (Continued from page 12) and COmplete independence of the in-the-wool support to the Labour misleaders. labour movement from the capi­ But the vote is not an irrelevancy. The trade talist state. And that in turn unions should maintain their political requires a struggle for a new, funds. In the aftermath of Labour's stab revolutionary leadership of the in the back to the miners, many militants labour movement, not one tied justifiably feel disgusted at having to hand to Labourite parliamentary their money over to Walworth Road. If only tinkering. As Russian revol­ there were a genuine, mass revolutionary utionary leader Leon Trotsky alternative to get the money instead! But in wrote shortly before his death the absence of a revolutionary party, for in 1940, 'The trade unions of individual militants today to opt out of the our time can either serve as political levy or vote for their unions to secondary instruments of im­ stop paying it could only feed into the perialist capitalism for the right-wing attacks on the entire labour move­ subordination and disciplining ment. Defend the levy against Tory attack! of the-'workers and for ob­ Marxists stand for the fullest democracy structing the revolution, or, within the labour movement. Without giving on the contrary, the trade one inch to the bosses' anti-union witchhunt­ unions can become the instru­ ing, we have no illusions about the fact that ments of the revolutionary the bureaucratic misleaders will and do engage movemen~ of the proletariat.' in anti-democratic shenanigans to maintain We say: Defend the political their grip and stifle militant action. The levy! Down with the witchhunt labour movement must clean up its own house! against the TGWU! No vote to In particular, militants must fight for all Wri~ht or Todd! Build a new decisions on strike action to be taken out in revolutionary leader~hip to the open at mass meetings and for all union organise for victory!. Ron Todd with Arthur Scargill. Lea Hall miner with Patrick Sliney. Pat Sliney to Ron Todd: 'I know where you stood on the miners strike'

We print below a letter sent by Ron Todd to the least I was shocked when I read it. It factory told me they were in favour of strike Labour MP Tony Benn regarding Patrick Sliney, sounds more like something Land Rover Manage­ action to win my reinstatement. In effect the BL Land Rover militant sacked for fighting ment might have written. such a strike would have been the first in for strike action with the miners. This is Nowhere do you mention the miners strike. the Midlands in solidarity with the miners. followed by Brother Sliney's reply to Todd. It was for this I was sacked, not rubbish And this eets to the heart of the matter. about Rule 21. When challenged by Brother Joe I don't know where you got your misinfor­ mation about my case, but I do know where Transport Harris, my convenor, at the appeal, manage­ and General iJ ment admitted that on any given day dozens of you stood on the miners strike. Our union had Workers Union different pieces of 'unauthorised literature' a brilliant opportunity to make common cause _i:mti!l.t::iiM!i.I""i"'i"'JiC&.'i.:ru:.ta~"iIiJIM.,.it••• lN'I.U."'" liIiJI:__ circulated through the factory. Mine was with the miners against Thatcher. I am proud singled out, as Brother Harris pointed out to be in the company of those many thousands then, because of its political content; it of TGWU members who did what we could to sup­ 3rd April, 1985 called for strike action in support of the port the miners. While myself and my co­ Mr. A. Benn, MP, miners (and our own pay claim at the time). workers tried to put a stop to the scandal of House of Commons, In any case, it was not addressed to mana~e­ scab coal coming into our factory for months, LONDON SWlA OAA ment and had nothin~ to do with theD. It was Transport House turned a blind eye and branch an appeal to my union brothers and sisters officials like Joe Harris and Jack Adams Dear Tony, which I would have made at a mass meetine had openly connived with management. The TGWU Further to my letter of 1st March, 1985, I been allowed the opportunity to speak. should and could have been brought out on I have now received a report from the Region You say the membership were unwilling to strike alongside the miners from the beginn­ concerned on the matters involving Brother support a strike. It was never put to the ing. That's what I foueht for and that's what P. Sliney, who was employed at Rover, membership. Stan Hill, my senior steward, I was sacked for. And if our union had joined Solihull. backtracked even on calling the shopfloor the NUM on strike, helping to assure a I understand that Brother Sliney was dis­ meeting he had promised. When he was finally miners' victory, it would not now itself be missed from his employment for distributing forced by some of my co-workers to at least the victim of government/Fleet Street witch­ literature within the plant. His dismissal explain the Situation, he expressly refused hunting. Your level of support for me is con­ was based on Rule 21 of the company's rules to support their appeals for strike action. sistent with your level of support for the which stipulate that no literature will be Even despite his and Joe Harris' opposition, NUM. For their part, the miners have p,iven me distributed within the plant unless author­ when it came to the Joint Shop Stewards Com­ overwhelming and unstinting support. isation is first received from the Manage­ mittee, th~re were six votes in favour of Yours sincerely, ment. strike action with ten opposed. In fact hun­ When the Convenor and Shop Steward found dreds of brothers and sisters inside the Patrick 'Sliney that Brother Sliney was distributing the leaflet, they drew his attention to the difficulties that he might create for him­ self in the process. I am advised that READ THE Brother Sliney, nevertheless, persisted and when the matter came to the attention of Management, he was dismissed. The membership PRESS THAT at the factory were unwilling to support a strike, to achieve his reinstatement and locally the Union took the issue through the TELLS THE procedural machinery. We were unsuccessful in persuading the company to Change their TRUTH! minds. I Currently, the Region is exploring the ---~------. question of taking the case to an industrial SUBSCRIBE... : tribunal, although against the background of the evidence and the fact that Brother Sliney 010 issues of Workers Hammer for £2 I was previously warned for distributing leaf­ Special offer to NUM members and their families: I lets it is not felt that there is a great o 5 issues of Workers Hammer for 50p I chance of succeeding. 010 issues for £1.00 Nevertheless, Brother Sliney's appli­ cation will be supported and he will be rep­ o 10 issues of Workers Hammer plus 24 issues of resented by the Union at the tribunal hear­ Workers Vanguard, MarXist fortnig htly of the ing. Spartacist League/US. £6 At this moment in time that is all the (all above subs include Spartacist, organ of the information that I can provide you with. international Spartacist tendency) 4 issues of Women & Revolution for Yours sincerely, o £1,50 Stalinism and Trotskyism in Vietnam 75p Ron Todd Name ...... Lenin and the Vanguard Party £2.65 Phone ...... Black History and the Class Struggle (part 1, 35p GENERAL SECRETARY ELECT Address ...... ' ...... Black History and the Cia.. $tru99le (pert 21 45p I ...... ' ...... SQlidarnose: Polish Compen" Vnion for etA and B~ 15, 9 Nay 1985 prices , . '. . .. I Make payable/post to: SpartaciSl Publication.s, I {All inc~J Dear Brother Todd, I1 ______PO Box 185, London WCl H 8JE 1I______For~etail.OfotherSpat1acist'p.mphJet, ______•• write tIJ:• Tony Benn kindly sent me a copy of the I $partaeislPubl.ications. t'O; ~t"5. t.ondon WC1H IJE letter yoU wrote him about my case. To say

MAY 1985 9 Miners aid campaign in America Workers hands across the sea Workers Hammer The following article is miners' side of the class adapted from Workers Vanguard no war in Britain. ' 377, 19 April, newspaper of the In fact, the PDC ran the only Spartacist League/uS. sustained, national campaign in this country to support the When they marched back after strikers and their families. For 12 gruelling months of class the most part the reformist fake­ war, the miners were able to left took their cue from the hold their heads up, defiant in labor fakers and did nothing defeat, in large part because of in some cases even opposing do­ the tremendous outpouring of nations being sent through the international support which PDC. their militant struggle in­ Where others had taken the spired. The miners strike gal­ iniTiative in particular union vanized the world working ~. locals to raise funds for the class on a scale no recent class miners, we supported those ef­ battle has. French dockworkers forts, encouraginv trade upion­ dumped lorry loads of scab coal ists who did not want to give before they reached port. The through the PDC to donate di- Soviet trade unions sent £1 mil­ P!llI1I1l~':l rectly to the NUM's Miners Soli- lion to the miners. Even the dari ty Fund. We also encountered savagely oppressed black South . . several strikers collectine: African gold miners, battling \' funds in the US and Canada on the bloody apar.theid regime, N, GM . .1/ behalf of individual collieries sent contributions and messages VE T or areas, who had run into the of support. PI e /\ ....III brick wall of the AFL-CIO bu- While Maggie Thatcher was do­ Kent miners collecting in London early in strike (at right is Terry French. Betteshanger reaucracy, recei ving handshakes, ing her best to rip up the NUM, NUM. subsequently victim of vicious· five-year jail sentence). International support promises and li tL Ie else. Spart- the most conscious American helped keep strike alive. acist supporters in Detroit and trade unionists recalled how her fellow labor­ ery of the American labor bureaucracy, the PDC Toronto assisted such miners in approaching hater Ronald Reagan destroyed the PATCO air broke new ground with our class-struggle de­ union locals where we have friends, resulting controllers union. Their dollars sent through fense work. Under our own colors, and ap­ in several large donations. the Partisan Defense Committee helped revive proaching hundreds of un~~locals for the The PDC's work, including the miners aid traditions of labor solidarity going back to first time, the PDC fought/for real inter­ campaign, is modeled on the International the 1920s, in sharp contrast to the protec­ national solidarity. And we did it in the face Labor Defense (ILD) and its forerunner (to tionist poison dished out by the AFL-CIO tops of what the NUM frankly termed 'the unsupport­ which it later affiliated), the International (who didn't send a penny to support this cru­ ive position of the AFL-CIO'. Prostrate before Red Aid. The ILD was founded in 1925 at the cial class battle). The PDt's Ai~to Striking Reagan's union-busting, these servile lieuten­ initiative of the then-revolutionary Communist British Miners' Families campai.gn collected ants of capital have shackled the American Party USA because of the need for: over $23,000, including official donations and labor movement with racist protectionism, , ... a large mass centralized defense or­ collections from over 70 local unions and con­ class collaboration and anti-communism. ganization which could serve as a weapon tributions from scores of Workers Vanguard But the mainspring of hostility from Lane and a shield of the workers in this period readers and PDC supporters. Pledged contribu­ Kirkland & Co to the British miners' strike of intense class struggle; an organization tions are still being forwarded to the NUM's was their hatred of the Soviet Union and NUM that would be able not only to provide the Miners Solidarity Fund, where they are desper­ president Arthur Scargill for denouncing pro­ persecuted workers with legal aid and ately needed to support the hundreds of sacked CIA company 'union' Solidarnosc in Poland. The moral and financial support, but one that miners and those facing criminal charges from TUC and Labour Party tops, assisted by the would be able to fight effectively for the strike. scurrilous Newsline rag of Gerry Healy, witch­ these workers and to mobilize the broad International response to poe campaign hunted Scargill for correctly stating that masses in their support.' ('What is the Solidarnosc is anti-socialist. The AFL-CIO International Labor Defense') The Spartacist tendency mobilized its re­ hacks picked up the cue. The notoriously CIA- While lacking the broader base of the ILD sources internationally to back the embattled and the authority of the early CP, the Parti­ miners against Reagan/Thatcher reaction. In san Defense Committee stands in the tradition addition to the PDC drive in the US, Canada p ..rti§d O -..efeo§e of the ILD's uncompromising militancy and and Australia, our comrades in France and West Iii e anti-sectarianism in defending class-war pris­ Germany raised hundreds of pounds; the French £o...... itte oners such as Sacco and Vanzetti. The ILD de­ section sponsored a highly successful fund­ fended any member of the working-class move­ raising tour of two miners. We were also in­ ment, regardless of his or her views, who e strumental in forging links between the DedIEndo,ed Brothen pleMeand SlstefS hnd ,n "oen' ,ppeol by 'he p"""n De'eooe Comm,ue on beholl 01 suffered persecution by the capitalist state the herOIC Bnllsh mlner5 dnd thelT laIfllhes British miners and striking Phelps Dodge cop­ Slohno 'nl"h m,ne" Ole ,ppeohno ,n'elOallooolly 10 ,,,de un'OOO ,o.d WOl,ono ,'a" because of activities in the class struggle. o

10 WORKERS HAMMER is wrong. This would only assist the Spencer­ trade union demands and union democracy ite wrecking operation at the present time. (which, given their support to the ballot, Miners ... In the case of Workers Power, this position means scab democracy). Thus the April Lenin­ reflects sheer cynicism, given their cheering ist sums up its programme for the 'rank and (Continued from page 12) for the scab ballot furore from early on in file movement' with demands that go no further cleanse it of scabbery. Through the use of in­ the strike and their countless pleas to 'take than 'the fight for industrial unionism' and telligent tactics, the tide can be turned the arguments' to the scabs. The guiding tac­ democracy in election of officials. This pre­ against the scabs even in those areas where tical approach for militants in scab-dominated sents no programmatic alternative to Scargill, they are currently in the majority. Immedi­ areas today must be to remain in the union and and could be (at best) nothing more than a ately after the strike ended, an election for fight to regain control of the union, with second-rate version of the present NUM leader­ branch leadership at Lea Hall in Staffs be­ full. active support from the national union. ship. came ~a contest between an all-strikers slate To be sure the NUM leadership's pussy-foot­ What the NUM leadership lacked was a pol~­ and an all-scab slate. This was correctly seen ing over diSCiplinary action against Lynk and ti cal al te rna ti Fe to the s cabherding Labour by strike militants at Lea Hall as a refer­ Prendergast, and particularly attempting to Party; without breaking from the perspective endum on the strike. despite the conciliatory regain control of the area through the bosses' of putting Labour into Number Ten Scargill character of the strike slate's election ma­ courts. is less than useless. In fact, from was incapable of defying the established sell­ terial. In the upshot, even though only some the failure to pursue an effective campaign out Labour/TUC leadership and mobilising the 10 per cent of the branch stayed out to the for amnesty for the sacked miners to their dis­ whole of the working class and oppressed be­ end of the strike. their slate swept five out gusting condemnation of 'violence' in the hind the miners. Today while Durham strikers of six committee seats being contested as well Wilkie case to their secretive manoeuvrin~ on express strong sentiment to disinvile scab­ as the branch secretary position contested b, the proposed rules changes, The NUM leadership herdei Kinnock to this summer I s gala. :he incumbent superscab Tony 1.1orris. a prominent has offerea no lead. Above all, it persisl­ Labour Party in Sorts stood candidates (in­ figure in the Spencerite National Workin~ te~:!} denIes that the strike was defeated. cluding scabs) in local elections ~ith the Miners Committee. An estimated three hundred and thus that the membership has any lessons full support of the Lynk clique. scabs broke ranks and voted for the strikers' t,u .learn. and thus d.;"3a;~::i:? ~-= ~':-:: J--;repaT_ln;! Those militants sceking an alternative to slate. Following the election, two scabs re­ tne next 1:Ja_tt~c. the limitations of Scargillism must generalise signed from the branch commi ttee and Morris is On 13 April some 100 miners and miners' on this understanding about the scabherding more isolated than he has ever been, This is a wives met in Sheffield at a Rank and File character of Labourite reformism. A new lead­ victory for genuine trade unionism at Lea Miners Conference which discussed a sustained ership must be committed to a revolutionary Hall. campaign in defence of the sacked men. Sparta­ and internationalist perspective. It must There are lessons to be drawn from in­ cist supporter and ~ictimised TGWE militant transcend the confines of trade unionism (and cidents such as this, and a similar result at Patrick Sliney was given an opportunity to ad­ one trade union) and act as a tribune of all Keresley in Warwickshire. Had the strike won. dress the conference. He emphasised the the oppressed -- fighting racial and sexual the question of the scabs could have been necessity for the union to preserve its fight­ oppression, and the imperialist war drive dealt with in passing. But it didn't. Now the ing capacity and to learn the political which means war on the unions at home, oppos­ Tories and the Coal Board would dearly love to lessons of the strike. Centrally that lesson ing nationalist protectionism in favour of a see a huge Spencerite splitaway. It is necess­ is that reformist trade union militancy is struggle for jobs for all. Whether in the case ary to do everything possible to eliminate or not enough, that a revolutionary alternative of an effective struggle against the Spencer­ neutralise organising centres for a Spencerite is needed to the Labourite reformism of Scar­ ites, or in the building of an effective camp­ right-wing 'dual union' within the NUM thrOUEh gill and Co. aign to defend the victimised miners, every purging hardline scab organisers. But to It is this lesson precisely which papers immediate task facing NUM militants is inte­ argue, as does for example the fake-Trotskyist like Workers Power and the Leninist, who en­ grally linked to the necessity to forge an Workers Power in its Red Miner (April 1985) thuse over any 'rank and file movement', seek alternative revolutionary leadership. Free the bulletin, that 'The NUM nationally should im­ to bury. The key question is what programme. class-war prisoners! Reinstate the sacked mediately expel the scab area organisations' What they want is a movement based on minimal miners! Defend the NV~'.

reformists. The Russian soviets grew out of Do you want to build a party with a reform­ mass revolutionary upsurges. Potential organs ist programme and social-democratic approach ,Leninists '... of dual power (soviets, councils of action) in and more than a half century of class treason (Continued from page 3) the miners' battle could have been thrown up behind it? Then stick with the L(,J;jJ)~'st inside ordinated strike action. The Leninist's -- through spreading the strike to other key the CPGB (or join the Labour Party). The CP's comrades in the CP had considerable influence unions and organising joint strike committees. reformist programme didn't come from no~here. in the 'left' trade union bureaucracy, Workers That's what we fought for. What 'socialism in one country' meant was the Hammer exposed the scandalous blacklegging The Leninist's wordy editorial writers will subordination by Stalin of the Communist scab coal operation at BL Longbridge by CP tell you how 'socialism in one country', pro­ parties around the world to the anti-revol­ convenor Jack Adams and agitated for strike claimed in 1924, 'was Stalin's invention; it utionary interests of pressurising, and ulti­ action. What did the Leninist do? is not a Leninist concept' (May 1985). They mately collaborating with, the imperialist They aFitated far and wide for a general will denounce the class collaboration of the bourgeoiSies. And Trotskyism represents the strike ... within the toothless miners support Popular Front and support to the Allied im­ struggle to defend the programme of Lenin's groups. These they lUdicrously dubbed 'soviets perialists in World War II. They will tell you Bolshevism against Stalin's treachery. So if in embryo'. The May Leninist complains that that the CPGB has a 'reformist programme and a you're interested in drawing revolutionary the Spartacist League 'dismissed' the miners social-democratic approach to membership and conclusions, if you want to build a party with support groups as 'Labourite-dominated' and organisation' (April 1985). But what does it a revolutionary programme and a Bolshevik ap­ goes on to explain how the Petrograd soviets of get you? Their advice to militants inside the proach, then don't settle for a halfway house. 1905 and February 1917 were also dominated by CP remains: Don't split! Go all the way to Trotskyism, the programme for proletarian power .•

WORKERS HAMMER Public Meetings i Smash apartheid ••• (Continued from page 1) mineworkers! SOUTH AFRICA: RAZOR'S EDGE To succeed, the li~eration struggle against apartheid must throw off the nationalist lead­ • Smash Apartheid • Class struggle is the key ership, which only looks to the workers as a vehicle to power for a petty-bourgeois layer aspiring to exploit 'their own' black tOilers, Spartacist League Central Committee Speaker: CHERYL MYALL, as in Machel' s Mozambique and Mugabe' s Zimbabwe. Instead, as we said in 'South SHIREBROOK DONCASTER Africa: Razor's edge' (Workers Hammer no 68, 12.30pm, Sun 2 June 7pm, Sun 2 June April 1985), internationalist communists, Shirebrook Village Hall, Ingram Arms, black, coloured, Indian and white, must lay Park Rd, High St, the basis for a multi-racial revolutionary Shirebrook, Notts. Hatfield, workers party, to lead the emancipation and Additional speaker: Dick Hall, nr Doncaster. reconstruction of the oppressed nation under Warsop Main NUM Additional speaker: Dave Douglass, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Smash (in a personal capacity), Hatfield Main NUM Branch Delegate apartheid -- For workers revolution! (in a personal capacity). Adapted from Workers Vanguard no 378. 3 May 1985 BIRMINGHAM CANNOCK CHASE 8pm, Tue 4 June 7.30pm, Wed 5 June Solidarity with S African miners Room 46, Cedar Tree Hotel, The following telegram was sent to the Dr Johnson House, Main Rd, South African National Union of Mineworkers Bull St, Brereton, from a 4 May Workers Hammer dayschool. Birmingham. Ruge ley, We members of the British NUM salute your Staffs. strufgle against vicious apartheid bosses. NEWBRIDGE, GWENT LONDON We denand reinstatement of all sacked South African mineworkers. Black workers can lead 7pm, Fri 7 June 7.30pm, Fri 14 June all oppressed in struggle to smash apartheid Celynen Colliery Memorial Institute, Conway Hall, ca~italism. Workers of the world unite! High St, Red Lion Sq, Newbridge, Holborn, Signed: Dennis Thompson Yorkshire NUM Gwent. London WC1. Eddie Loseby For further details contact the Spartacist League at: PO Box 185, London WC1H 8JE, Paul Brewin Derbyshi re NUM Dick Hall Birmingham (021) 236 9774, London (01) 278 2232, Sheffield (0742) 587282 Don Hughes South Wales NUM

11 MAY 1985 WORKERS Bloody Thatcher will get hers the miners! The Iron Bitch swore to be vindictive in for non-payment of victory, and she's carrying out her vow with dues during the strike a vengeance. Scarcely a week goes by that some to these scab organ­ young lad isn't Jacked away for the 'crime' of isers. One militant having fought to defend his job and his union. demonstrated his dis­ As we go to press, two major 'trials' are gust by paying it all taking place. In Sheffield fifteen miners from off in silver all parts of the country are up on charges of thirty pieces for riotous assembly at Orgreave, where even the Judas! BBC's biased television cameras proved beyond The NUM returned to doubt that it was Thatcher's mob of thugs-in­ work bloodied, "but not blue that was rioting. In Cardiff, two young broken -- and That­ miners face murder charges over the death of cher/MacGregor and scab taxi driver Davld Wilkie last autumn. their lackey scabs may Seeking to paint Wilkie's death as a simple yet live to regret criminal act. the prosecutor argued, 'It makes their bloodlust, Since no difference that they were striking miners the end of the strike who were trying to stop what they regarded as there have been numer­ a strikebreaker' (Times, 8 May). ous local and sec­ They want strikers' blood! Several tens of tional actions to make thousands of trade unionists downing tools for it clear to the Coal a day throughout South Wales to surround the Board that the miners court in militant protest might help to remind are not prepared to them what this trial is about. To a man, the crawl on their knees. huvdreds upon hundreds of sacked and im­ In early May South prisoned miners stand in the tradition of Kirkby colliery near countless class war prisoners of the past, Pontefract downed subjected to the bloody retribution of the tools for nearly a bosses, from the Tolpuddle martyrs to American tants as they can, while relying on their week against the victimisation of four IWW miners' organiser Joe Hill to the black Spencerite fifth column to weaken and gut the strikers. Shortly after that, at Ireland coll­ South African trade unionists butchered in ~UM from within. The Lvnk/Prendergast clique iery near Chesterfield, a majority scab pit, police stations. Free the South Wales 2! Drop in Notts claim to be ' leading the fight against the leadership was able to pull off a pro­ the charges against the Orgreave l5! Free all Arthur Scargill's attempts to impose dictator­ test strike against the importation of five class war ~risoners of the miners strike! ship on the national union' (Tirres, 27 April), scabs from Brodsworth. Having failed to smash the NUM in the evokin('; the memory of their anti-Communist The key immediate task facing NUM militants course of that bitter year-long struggle, colleague::; of scab Polish Solidarnosc. Hean­ today is to preserve the fighting capacity of Thatcher, MaCGregor and the ruling class are while strikers face provocation upon pro­ the NUM as a national industrial union and ~ now trvin~ to sack or imprison as many mili- vocation, including the threat of expulsion continued on page 11 TGWU under the gun The Transport and General Workers Union these 'democratic' rulinc-class politicians as a supporter of the NUM's fight. But through last month was placed in the crosshairs of the in Northern Ireland in order to discriminate the entire strike he never lifted a finger to Tory drive to smash effective trade unionism against the Catholic minority. But while the mobilise concrete industrial support. On the with the vicious witchhunt over 'ballot­ ~ory/SDP union haters ranted and raved, contrary, he did everything he could to stifle rigging' in last year's union elections. After ballot-lover Neil Kinnock immediately made or divert initiatives for strike action from weeks of Fleet Street 'exposes' and a non-stop clear his support for a re-vote. Wright, a the TGWU membership in the car industry and propaganda barrage by the enemies of trade self-proclaimed Kinnockite and head of the elsewhere (see letter exchange, page 9) and to unionism from without (like the Tories and Welsh'region, demanded a new ballot. Wright is divert those actions that did occur, notably SDP) and within (Neil Kinnock & Co), the TGWU a stalking horse for the 'new realists', an the two dockers strikes. How can a leadership national executive finally agreed to call a open anti-communist who demands a ban on any which refuses to mobilise its own me~bership re-ballot this month. Militant supporter holding office in the union. in struggle defend the union against the vile The 'democratic' union bashers of Fleet Two of the five candidiates in last year's witchhunting of the gutter press and the Street and their Tory/SDP masters are of election have come out in favour of Todd in bosses? course not concerned with trade union demo­ the re-ballot (while one has declared for cracy. In fact they're hostile to it. The im­ Wright), in part as a protest against the Defend the political levy! mediate aim of their campaign is to bring the ruling-class furore for a new election. Mean­ powerful TGWU into line with Cold War 'new while virtually all of the fake-left press is Had the miners won, all the Tories' anti­ realists' like Duffy and Hammond, open scab­ campaigning for 'left-winger' Todd. Typical is union laws would now be little more than herders against the miners and partisans of Socialist Action (3 May), whose front page scraps of paper. As it is the union haters are 'no strike' deals. More broadly, it is de­ features a larger-than-life photo of Ron Todd on the warpath, with one new attack after an­ signed as a pretext for even more legislatiVE with the heading, 'Defend the TGWU!' They other. The SDP et al screech that without shackles on the trade unions, including a cam­ argue, 'every stop's got to be pulled out for postal ballots the same' jiggery pokery' as paign to force through mandatory postal bal­ a victory for Todd and in defence of the supposedly occurred in the TGWU will continue lots for all elections and strike votes. TGWU' . in the impending ballots over trade union political funds. Outrageously, the fraud squad was brought in Is a vote for Ron Todd the way to defend The bosses want to weaken the trade unions' to investigate officials in the Bristol and the TGWU? We say no. This is not a situation ability to fight and turn them into toothless South West region of the TGWU. Keep the cops' in which direct government intervention into friendly societies. Their attack on the pol­ filthy fingers out of the union's business! the TGWU (eg through a court-ordered re­ itical levy, just like that in the aftermath Down with government interference in the ballot) might have made appropriate a vote for of the 1926 General Strike, is aimed at deny­ trade unions! Todd, despite his policies, in order to oppose ing the working class the right to organise Tory/employer interference in the affairs of No vote to Todd or Wright politically, with its own parties. The open the union. As it is, the support for Todd by bosses' parties get their 'political levy' in In June 1984 Ron Todd beat George Wright by the likes of Socialist Action has nothing to the boardrooms of the City financiers; the the small margin of 45.000 votes in the work­ do with defence of the TGWU. For the lot of Labour Party, as a party built and based on place ballot for TGWU general secretary to these phoney revolutionaries it reflects no­ the trade unions, must primarily rely on these thing more than their perennial tail-ending of succeed Moss Evans. Eleven months later, and union political funds. only after the defeat of the miners strike, every 'left' in search of a 'lesser evil'. When the supposedly Trotskyist Socialist allegations of electoral malpractice began to And Todd isn't much of a 'left', even by Organiser (10 April) wri tes, 'No challenge now surface. For all the hue and cry, an 'indepen­ their wimpy standards. He too is a Kinnock facing the labour movement is as important as dent' in~uiry determined that some 3600 votes supporter. While Wright was notorious among winning a yes vote in all the ballots on the had [one astray in the election, in a 1~­ South Wales miners for turning a blind eye to political fund'. it is proof only of its dyed- million-strong union. Contrast this with the TGWU lorry drivers scabbing during their sort of gerrymandering routinely practised by strike, Todd tried to carve out a reputation cont.inued on page 9

12 MAY 1985