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"PEACE HAS BROKEN out in the Labour Party" crowed David Basnett after the conference of union and party leaders at Bishops Stortford. "One of the most successful meetings in the party's history" proclaimed Michael Foot. Yet rank and file supporters of Labour Democracy must have watched the milling crowd of union leaders, PLP mandarins and NEC members with some astonishment. Was that really Tony Benn smiling benignly as the news of peace was trumpeted to the media-Tony Benn who,a month bef.ore had YOW­ ed to "Fight like a tiger to prevent expulsions and proscriptions" (Guardian 10.12.81). The next few days provided no answer to those Bennites who won­ dered just what had been agre.ed in the ASTMS centre. Was this the same man who had proclaimed as recently as November 1981 that a major item on the agenda fOJthe new year was "To maintain the pressure at every level for great­ er openness and democracy within the party" (London Labour Briefing, Nov­ ember 1981). Yet here was Benn and the NEC lefts engaged in striking a deal with the initiators and supporters of the onslaught on Peter Tatchell, the witch- huntofMili~ntandother~ftgroupingL . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Then he swept off to the founding The secret treaty of Bishops Stort· meeting of the 'Socialist Society' where ford appears to provide for no more a carefully chosen piece of demagogy on changes before the next election, no rape predictably got him thunderous further witchhunt of the left, no press­ applausel -RAPE ~..... FURORE"I ure on the right MPs, no re-opening of The lower echelons of the Bennite the old debates and a campaign to win movemen,t had been deeply worried the election based on party policies. De­ about their idol's activities. The January spite Benn's claim that no agreement '82 edition of London Labour Briefing took place, a summary of it was agreed muttered darkly: MASKS 'NEW ATTACKS nem con and without a vote by the NEC of 27th January. The same NEC "For Benn to prove manipulable or be­ yond accountability to his own support­ ignored Bermondsey's letter requesting ers at this point would be to undermine the re-opening of the Tatchell case des­ disastrously not only the left, but ultim­ pite hundreds of constituency resolut­ ately the credibility of the Labour Par­ ON WOMEN ions requesting them to do this. Benn_did ty itself. There must be no backstage THE BRITISH RULING class was tem­ aid and refuges. Alongside such attacks When the Lord Chancellor expressed not attempt to raise it either. The way deals." porarily shaken when a judge amongst goes a new threat to abortion rights. his agreement with statutory jailing for the wind was blowing could be seen their'number gave public voice to the After failing to get a passage for the rapists all that parliamentary hopeful from Benn's brief appearanca at the Lab- • These 'Bennites' have· only them­ idea, encouraged by the bosses press for anti-abortion Corrie Bill through Parl­ Harriet Harman of the National Coun­ our Liaison ' 82 meeting on the 23rd selves to blame. They neverneld him to years, that women in certain places and iament last year, the Secretary of State cil for Civil Liberties could say was that January_ Benn's message was "The task account. They never criticised his past certain dress have only themselves to for Health and Social Security used his the guidelines might not be strict en­ of the Labour Left now is to work flat record, his vacillations during the dem­ blame if they are raped. But their repres­ own powers under Statutory Instrum­ ough. out for a Labour victory at Hillhead, for ocracy campaign or his high-handed in­ entatives quickly recovered to launch a ent to enforce a tightening up. New Labour gains in the local elections in the dividualism with regard to the deputy full scale law and order, campaign. Bet­ forms SHA4 require the surgeon per­ spring and for a Labour victory in the leadership battle. Moreover Benn through­ ween them, Hailsham and Thatcher rall­ forming the abortion to state the medic­ Increased powers for the judges General Election". (Observer 24.1.82.) out his two years sojourn in the wilder­ ied the Tory ranks, with Thatcher able to al grounds. The 1967 Act makes no and police will not put an end to rape. ness of the rank and file activists never appear in unfamiliar guise as defender of such requirements; it asks for any two What we need is organised struggle to Repeating his theme that the Con­ ceased to hymn and laud Parliamentary women's rights. doctors to certify that the abortion is defend women against all the attacks ference had been a victory for the left, Democracy as the central, weapon of the When the documentary 'Police' show­ necessary for medical or social reasons. that have been launched against them that the parties policies were the lefts labour movement. The 'broad left wing' ed an interrogation of a rape victim ty­ The majority of abortions since the and to challenge the oppression of wom­ and that for the left to organise vigor­ and the 'hard left' many of whom had pical of those that occur in countless pol­ 1967 Act have been performed under en at every turn. Of course we must ously would be to "minoritize them­ closet criticisms of Benn's parliament­ ice stations, senior police chiefs hastened the 'social circumstance' clause; 120,000 struggle to win those minimal measures selves." Benn's basic message was that arism never once took him up on this to blame the 'other ranks'. Only Pereg­ that could be taken now, to increase the oppositional campaign was over, the of the 140,000 legal abortions in 1970 issue. Now Benn has shown that he was rine Worsthorne of the Sunday Telegraph protection and aid for women-free left had 'won' and now the key task was for instance. one of the parliamentary mandarins all dared to voice the traditional attitudes: buses from work. state funds for Rape to win the next election: along. Like Bevan before him he has " "To ears unused to the vernacular, their All these attacks on women's rights Crisis Centres. used the motley collection of 'hard left­ language did,sound brutal and unsym­ "The left's focus on election victory demand a massive response from the But such measures, which could only ists'-the CLPD, London Labour Brief­ pathetic. But not, apparently to the follows naturally from the work which labour and women's movements. This be forced from the bosses as a result of ing, Militant and Socialist Organiser to girl herself... Here there may be a very we have done to save the Labour party latest tightening up on abortion shows militant struggle, would themselves be act as the NCO's of his campaign. They wide gap between what is acceptable and after our massive defeat in the 1979 el­ how inadequate it was to campaign sim­ no more than palliatives. We need an or­ were happy to don the Bennite uniform ection. We knew that unless we could normal to some sections of society and ply to defend the 1967 Act. It shows ganisation which would mobilise wom­ believing that thereby they would win change the policies that led to our def­ what is acceptable and normal to others." the need to campaign for Free Abortion en in the fight to destroy the "violent, 'democracy' in the party-a democracy eat we would lose again. In other words, policemepl should con­ on Demand. detestable arlct odious" IDciety which that at a later stage would allow 'hard' After two years of debate and dis­ tinue to bully, degrade and abuse work­ breeds the "violent, detestable and od­ socialist policies to triumph in the party. cussion we have won all the policies for ing class women because they are used Rape will inevitably continue in a ious crime of rape." This does not mean which we campaigned, and made signif­ Idolizing Bimn, shielding him from ~rit­ to it. society which oppresses and degrades sitting back and accepting violence ag­ icism, concentrating all their energies icant advances of democracy within the The ruling class hypocrites who are women. All forms of violence will ainst women as a fact of life. It means on '.'the political wing of the labour mov­ party. The deputy leadership election presenting themselves as stalwart prot­ flourish in the corrupt and rotten soc­ building a working class women's move­ campaign indicated the extent of supp­ ement" seemed a small price to pay. The ectors of women, themselves derive their iety of capitalism in decay. All the att­ ment committed to defending and ex­ ort there is for these policies and these policies they have 'won' are the old rag­ profit and privileges from a society acks on women's rights at work, and on tneidng women's rights as part of the reforms throughout the whole move­ bag of 'left' policies. Some, like the which depends on the oppression of the social and welfare services will serve working class movement to destroy cap­ ment. anti-Common Market platform,import women for its very existence. They are to increase violence against women. That italism root and branch. Then the wom­ We have also paved the way for an controls, workers participation and tri­ at present attacking women's rights on is why the feigned concern for rape vic­ en's vanguard could with confidence or­ election victory by our work sinca 1979. partite planning agreements, are down­ all fronts. Their cutback on public sp­ tims of Thatcher and Hailsham is com­ ganise for the final struggle to rid society It is therefore natural that the left should right reactionary. They, and indeed the ending means tighter social security reg­ pletely hypocritical. of the dead weight of centuries of opp­ now be throwing its full weight into the whole so-called Alternative Economic ulations and poorer social services. It ression .• task of campaigning for these policies Strategy, aim at a isocialised' national means less and dearer public transport, But the labour and feminist response among the wider electorate." (Labour British capitalism, putting more women at risk on the to the issue of rape has played right in­ Herald January 29th 82) CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE streets. It means less money for women's to the hands of Thatcher and the law . I " '" l . , ;r~mmmmmm;mfm Labour FIGHTER LIVINGSTONE, YOU PRESUM,ED ~ ; , .J I) ..... ' setba~~, no lessons were drawn. _ vices, and the Tory cabinet, were rtever'li kely to agreE (if!{.... Llvlngstone pursued a strategy of crippling rate to Livingstone's plea. Livingstone's oetrayal of Lon· ,.. p&.. rises which, at one and the same time, imposed mas- don workers lies precisely in that instead of mobilisin! lJt4 e ;If sive cuts in the living standards of his working class and relying on their strength, he encouraged the cruel .... • base and outraged the London bourgeoisie, who were illusion that the Tories were likely to act on their faced with a 70% increase in rates at a time when their behalf. profits were !s:queezed be recession. In this way he When it came to the crunch, and,the Council had stoked up the fires of opposition from the bosses and to vote for 100% fare rises- on January 12th, the pat- . at the same time alienated the workers who could have t~rn of voting made. the whole sorry business look likl formed the basis for resistance to the mounting bosses' a Whitehall farce. Even before the Labour Group met offensive. to decide its line, it was agreed that a free vote should After the High Court decision in November, which be allowed. This safety net dodg!:d a decisive confra ruled the "Fares Fair" policy legal, Livingstone was tation with the right (who had already decided to sta\ complacent. There was every possibility that the aged within the law) over their willingness to honour a key but active ruling class warrior, Denning, would rule manifesto pledge to the workers of London. For Liv- against the policy in the Appeal Court. This threat ingstone and the left, the free vote meant that there to the cornerstone of the Labour Group's manifesto would be no defiance of the law, but that the Lefts did not prompt a single call to action by Livingstone. could salve their consciences. Livingstone and councillors outside County Hall. Sacked London Transport workers will add to the total of Throughout November and early December, he was With the 'Liberals, SDP and Labour right already London unemployed, thanks to "Red Ken". content to let the matter proceed along court channels. committed to support a 100% fares rise from March After Denning's judgement that the GLC policy was 21st (and, wrongly, anticipating the Tories to do the ON OCTOBER 23rd last year a group of fifty reactionary London evening paper, to remind us that: illegal, Livingstone reasoned: "I do not think there same), Livingstone and co were sure, in advance of leading British bosses met in London, and with "Regular readers may have noticed that we do not much is much doubt that we would be upheld in the Lords" the vote, that they had lost. £200,000 formed the "Keep London Free" like Mr Ken Livingstone" (9/11/81). Screaming "Red (Standard, 10/11/81). This faith ignores the whole The Labour Group decided by 23-22 to defy the campaign. Led by anti-union tycoon Sir Charles Ken" front page headlines personalised the fight against history of the courts' legal war against the workers. law, on January 12th. Then at the full council meetin! Forte and GLC Tory leader Sir Horace Cutler, the Labour GLC ever since its election in May 1981. The truth is the judges will only ever bend to the the fare rises were passed 24-22, with three Tories While Livingstone has, to his credit, publicly def­ they launched themselves by taking full page working class's will when it is mobilised against them voting for them, along with Liberals, SDPers and ended many of his views against the torrent of press or the bosses they serve, industrially or on the streets. Labour right. adverts in the press declaring that London vilification, he has not been capable of leading succes­ The same Lord Scarman who felt safe to savage Lon- Still Livingstone refused to stand by his manifesto "would be a happier and more prosperous place ful resistance to the assault on the "Fares Fair" policy. don Transport, reduce bus services by 25% and there- and base himself on workers' mobilisations. The day without Mr. Ken Livingstone". In the end, Livingstone, like Benn, cannot be-jud­ after 5,000 jobs, had, only months before, partially after the defeat he was quoted as saying: "I do not They declared their aims to spend £100,000 to ged by either the number of column inches that the retreated in the face of youth rioting on the streets believe the government will stand back and watch the "initiate legal action" against the Labour-controlled professional slanderers of the press devote to him, or of Brixton and Toxteth, decimation of London Transport" (Standard 12/1/82: GLC. A fortnight later, on November 6th, thel Tory by the persistent claims (doubtlessly sincere) of a belief After the Law Lords delivered their legal body Moreover he extended an olive branch to the right of London borough of Bromley applied to the High in socialism. "ay their actions shall ye know them" blow on December 17th, a period of confusion ended the party who had just voted to attack workers' living Court for an order to prevent the GLC levying a sup­ is the maxim by which left reformists like in a council chamber fiasco. Livingstone did not call standards: "I have no intention of engaging in witch- plementary rate to finance its "Fares Fair" policy Ken Livingstone should be judged. on London Transport workers to support the GLC by huntsinside or outside this building" (Guardian which reduced London Transport fares by 25% on Livingstone's actions in the "Fares Fair" case clearly striking against the ruling. Instead he went straight to 13/1/82). October 5th. demonstrate the impotence of left-reformism as a the Tory Transport Minister, Howell. His LT Commit- The reason for these friendly ovettures is that Livil Although Bromley lost that battle, they eventually means of defending the working class, let alone taking tee chairman, David Wetzel, made clear why they were stone had by now set his hear on uniting the Labour wonthe judicial war when, on December 17th, the it forward to socialism. going: "The only way we're going to reverse the dec- Group in a campaign for legal change. His transport Law Lords backed the Appeal Court ruling the Landon Indeed, the warning signs were flashing late in ision is by changing the law through parliament" (Soc- lieutenant Wetzel had earlier gone even further, exten, Transport should be run according to "business prin­ 1981, that Labour's manifesto pledges were likely to ialist Challenge 7/1/82), ing this strategy to all the parties of the council cham- ciples" and Livingstone's £175 million subsidy was fall foul of the law. The proposal to lower school meal Livingstone and Wetzel's whole emphasis was on ber. He was for "an all party public transport campaig "unreasonable". prices was voted down after a threat of surcharges getting Howell to change the law so as to make the rate (Socialist Challenge 7/1/82). Together with Tony Benn, Livingstone has become being levied on councillors. The plan to launch an am­ rise and subsidy to LT legal. wetzel even saw the vanguard of this campaign as the "bete noire" of the bosses and their press. It hardly bitious council-house building programme was, vetoed But Heseltine, the engineer of a variety of schemes being the socially powerless old age pensioners: "It's needed an editorial of "The Standard", the viciously by the central government, Yet in the face of these to prevent councils spending money on essential ser- essential that the legislation is reversed and I think BREAK BENN'S TRLJCE

Continued from front page The fact that the bosses and the bankers dont want of resistance at the first hurdle-getting them really to be 'guided' to invest along these lines should not adopted as the Party's electoral policy. fool anybody that the AES is a socialist policy. Itis The boss-class has pulled out all the propaganda simply a backward looking capitalist policy. Moreover stops with the aid of its agents within the Party and these 'policies' have been the grist to the mill of Lab­ the unions. The SDP has been created as a threat of our Party conferences since 1973. Benn himself has electoral extinction. Apart from the twenty eight stressed quite how useless conference decisions are defectors, another hundred at least were poised to red­ when there are no means to oblige the PLP and cab­ uce the PLP to a rump if the Bennite campaign went inet to put them into-a manifesto let alone to carry on. The union leaders, seeing the prospect of any gov­ them out when in office. The Bishops Stortford deal ernmant amenable to their interests disappearing, envisages a status in which rushed to make Foot and Co present Benn with an ul­ * The NEC enquiry into 'Militant' continues and a timatum. Foot's ultimatum took the form of a witch­ number of validly selected Militant candidates are hunt 'exposure' of Benn's 'undemocratic' 'Trotskyite' under investigation. Tatchell remains unrecognised. supporters. The PLP majority told Foot to stop the These measures amount to a pistol pointed at the left or that they would help the media and the SDP to head of parties considering the selection of 'hard­ smash the Labour Party. The trade union leaders told left' candidates to replace sitting right-wingers, Foot, if the Labour Party becomes useless as a vote­ * Benn's exclusion from the shadow-cabinet for ad­ winner at the next election we'll take our money else­ vocating Conference policy means that only those who wherel Foot fired the openi ng shots of a witch-hunt advocate PLP policy will speak for the Party in parl­ at Benn. Benn to 'save the party' agreed to a freeze iament. in constitutional change and the lefts campaign ag­ * A ban on constitutional amendments means that ainst the right. Benn has put into the freezer for years the ai m of "a Thus the left of the Labour Party has shown yet again its congenital incapacity to take the leadership strong party, with all power accountable, and democ­ from the hands of the right. It is tied to the same means ratic" with "mandatory re-selection; the acceptance as the right-parliamentary and muncipal electioneer­ of an accountable parliamentary leadership of the Moss Evans (TGWU) and Clive Jenkins (ASTMS) whoop it up at BishlJps Stortford - bureaucrats smiling as ing which excludes the masses of workers except as party; and party control over the manifesto" (Argum­ Benn ;s brought to heel. voters or protesters. It is linked, flesh and blood, like ents for Democracy p, 194), The next Labour Gover­ a siamese twin to the right. This despite the fact that nment, if there is one, will be no more bound to rank and file in the Labour Party and -the unions mus the left usually supports the various isolated demands class by the fighting organisations of the working carry out the memberShip's wishes than the last one, draw the lessons of Benn and the Lefts betrayal and thrown up by workers in struggle and consequently is class, and the creation out of them of a workers state fight hard against the right wing in the unions and thl Why has Benn surrendered so ignominously?His much more popular with the rank and file activists of that would be 100 times more democratic than the party around the following policies: apologists will defend his performance on 'tactical' the party and the unions. The lefts however know in mother of Parliaments. Trotsky unlike most of his No bans i proscriptions or witch hunts within the grounds. The right, they will say, will break the pact their hearts that as long as the elections are what matt- present day 'followers' understood the crippling lim­ * Party. For the free organisation of tendencies, and and take the odium of being the splitters and wreck- ers, as long as the majority of workers remain passive itations of the 'Iefts' of his day-the Lansbury's the admittance of all who wish to fight for the in­ ersl When they take up the witchhunt, or flout cher- and thus easily manipulated by the media, the right- whom Ken Livingstone and Peter Tatchell model ished planks of party policy, then Benn will be able to wingers will be able to manoeuvre this 'silent major- themselves closely on. terests of the worki ng class. mount his charger again. But this is to place all ones ity' against the left. "The party continues to be led by extreme right wing­ • No secret deals conducted by the union and Party hopes of victory on the mistakes of ones opponent, Of course1some of the lefts toy with the alternat- ers. This is explained by the fact that the party can­ leaderships, For the left to reveal the details of the as well as being a cynical deception of the rank and ive of mass mobilisation but here they face a cruel dil- not be restricted to various left ventures, but is bound Bishop'SI Stortford discussions. file. The reasons, for ~~nn's betra~al are not difficult emma which is both tactical and strategic. Firstly. to have a generalised system of politics. The left winp­ * For rank and file control of the block vote in the to see and even If a VICIO~S of.fensl~e from ,Hea.ley, "rousing the masses" is unpredictable and can clash ers have no such system, their very nature prevents unions; for discussions of Labour Party matters with­ Basnett and. Co r~store him hiS sullied crea9ntlals the sharply with electoral success. Secondly, such activity this. The right wingers have such a system:they have in the unions from branch to conference level. lessons of hiS actions should be lear.ned and learned now, needs a very different type of organisation to the vote- behind them tradition, experience, routine; and most * For conference control over the manifesto-for the , Anyone w~o .accepts electora.1 victory and a pa.rl- catching Labour Party ward and constituency mach- important of all, bourgeois society as a whole is think­ lefts on the NEC to press the constitutional amend­ la~e~tary majority as the essential means ~f crea~lng inery. It needs vastly greater numbers of more active, ing for them and thrusts ready-made decisions under ments necessary to secure this, sQclalism,.must acc~pt soo.n~r or later th~ right-Wing educated and disciplined members, Most importantlv their noses ••• The right wingers are victorious despite • No subordination of class struggle to parliament­ callagham.te-HealeY lte poliCies th~t go ~Ith these if the working class is organised, mobilised, and aware the fact that the left are more numerous, The weak­ For Labour councils to oppose'Heseltine's legal on­ means. It IS no aCCident that the right-Wing has always of what it is fighti ng for there is no gua rantee that it ness of the left wingers comes from their lack of co­ slaught by breaking the law and relying on the direct led the Labour Party. Rig: ,-wing policies ~ean .do.ing will stop short at the utilisation of the constitutional hesion.and this arises from their ideological shapeless­ action of workers for support, what the bosses and bankers want, or staYing Within machinery in the face of the desperate and brutal res- ness. I n order to rally their ranks, the left wingers will * For local Labour Parties to support and participate limits that leave their fundamental power and wealth istance of the bosses. first of all have to collect their thoughts. The best of in the building of action councils to mobilise an anti­ int~ct. To go beyond that is to challenge head on tJ;1e Of course many honest rank and file Labour Party them are only capable of doing this under the blows Tory offensive. monopOlies, the banks, and their millionaire press, and trade union militants must be shown that the wh- of ruthless criticism based on the everyday experien­ * For the Party to support all actions to break the leg· the civil service bureaucracy, the unelected judiciary, ole logic of a serious fight with Basnett and Foot'is a ces of the masses," (Trotsky on Britain p.163-4.) al attacks on the trade unions rights-for opposition the unelected police chiefs and generals. To defeat , radical break with parliamentary and municipal cret- For those in the Labour Party who wish to fight by direct mass action to smash Prior's Act and Tebb­ them takes more thl;ln a democratic mandate. It needs inism. The viciousness 'of the Tories attacks, and the against the right wing, rather than collapse before it, it" proposals. the mobilised, organised and eventually armed force of pathetic response of the union and Labour Party for those who wish to fight back against Heseltine's * For candidates to stand agaInst Foot and Healey millions of workers. At va-rious poiats, along the road leaders, poses the need fOT a revolutionary alternative. law, rather than pay obedience to the body which for the leadership on the basis of confer,ence control to power it means critical showdowns. ! ~ ,ven the, hjllf- That alternative must link day to day tactics-the produced it; For those who want to do something over the manifesto and NEe control of, the PLP. hearted reforms at present embodied in Labour Party strik~, the occupation, the general strike-to an overall more about unemployment than make rambling sp­ * No holding back to preserve 'unity under an anti­ conference resolutions, have met a· formidable barrage strategy for the'breakirlg of 'the power of the ruling eeches in parliament, the way forward is clear. The working class leadership in the party or the unions .•

PAGE 2 WORKERS POWER February 1982 ' the easiest way to get that is probably old age pension­ ers, who can be used as a battering ram" (Socialist Challenge 7/1 /82!. Livingstone is not allowing his pet scheme to die in silence. l=here'is to be a February London Assem­ bly representing 1,000 community organisations. A Trafalgar Square rally is planned. The drive of the campaign, howvver, is not towards a decisive confron­ tation with the Thatcher government. Larry Smith of the Executive Committee of the TGWU cautioned: A' lame reply to Foot "We want to flood London with pamphlets and pos­ ters to explain the decision to every household. If that doesn't produce enough pressure to force the Tories WHEN PARLIAMENT WANTS to delay the to change the law and allow decent subsidirect action of the working class struggling to rid "The degree of demoralisation was evident at It is in order to go beyond this (we are never told O'Mahony cannot be said to be presenting workers' itself of capitalist exploitation and oppression. This sparsely attended meeting of Labour local govern­ precisely to what!) that the much-debated tactic of democracy in too favourable a lightl is the real significance for revolutionaries of "extra­ ment leaders in London this weekend. Not one deleg­ "extra-parliamentary action" is justified:"The labour In the third article, O'Mahony comes clean at last, parliamentary" activities. It is not an adjunct to par­ ate felt that there was any real prospect of a united mOvement has every right to struggle outside of Par­ describing the workers' councils in Russia in 1917 liamentary action, but a means of developing the rev­ fightback" (LH 29/1 /82). liament against the government" (SO 68). Taken to­ lie in a country and at a time conveniently far removed olutionary alternative to parl iament. I n addition to the local dimension of this defeat, gether, these arguments from O'Mahony amount to from Britain today), as a higher form of democracy. O'Mahony's guarded ambiguity on this point impels the GLC collapse has given an open invitation to Tory no more than a left reformist critique of existing . Once again, however, this is accompanied by signals him, in fact, to choose Tony Benn's alternative. Tucked councilS all over the country to challenge chaap fare Parliamentary democracy. In the absence of any clear to the Bennites that SO perhaps shares some of their away in the second article, O'Mahony attacks the schemes. The West Midlands Labour Group has already programmatic alternative to Foot, the articles could reservations about the Soviet strategy and the Bolshe­ right and declares: backed down on this - a key plank in its manifesto. lead to conclusions not qualitatively different to those vik revolution: "They have forgotten the whole working class And, the much-veunted South Yorkshire transport pol­ reached by Tony Benn - that Parliamentary democracy "it is a proper subject for critical study by socialists notion of developing and deepening the existing demo­ icY is being viewed with a greedy eye by the service­ is in need of "revival" or "extension". whether or not everything done by the armed workers cratic system and they denounce those like Tony Benn cutting Tory predators. Indeed, every time a distinction is made between and by the workers party led by Lenin and Trotsky who want to develop it (I think very inadequately) as Livingstone and his left friends must bear much of the "renewal" and "replacement", O'Mahony refuses to was well done, and whether anything they did contrib­ anti-democrats" (SO 68). In the absence of a clear responsibility for the defeat of Fares Fair, and similar make clear which he supports: uted to the rise of Stalin later on "(SO 70). What statement on the programmatic alternative of soviet schemes elsewhere. They may be sincere in their con­ "For its effect, the rights' accusation depends on O'Mahony is dOing here is preparing to distance him­ democracy, this leaves O'Mahony peddling an unspec­ cern to improve the lot of working people. But their ingorance of what some socialists propose by way of self from the dictatorial aspects of Soviet rule. ific but more "adequate" version of Benn's reformist reformist strategy of persuasion and negotiation as reform of parliamentary democracy, or of what other He argues that the Soviets were the "opposite of strategy. substitutes for the direct action of workers themselves, socialists would replace it by" .... and again: totalitarianism", and in doing so obscures the dictat­ But this strategy, as we have repeatedly shows, is inevitably means that they end up not even assisting "They define democracy in terms of only one of orial nature of soviet power. True soviet power had not simply "inadequate", it is wrong and has proved workers to defend what they've got in the way of ser­ its historic forms and try thereby to ru le out of court nothing in common with the Stalinist bureaucratic itself disastrous for the working class. Indeed given vices, let alone improve them. those who would advocate either a different form of dictatorship of the 19305 that O'Mahony quite rightly that the only addit;':," that O'Mahony makes to Benn's This lesson, borne out by the collapse of Lambeth, democracy or a more or less radical transformation disavows. But in the face of terrible blows from imper­ programme is that Parliament shoud be elected ann­ Lothian and now the !3lC, must be learnt if future of the existing parliamentary system." (SO 67). ialist armies and devastating blows to the economy and ually, he has no explicit alternative to the parliament· defeats are to .be avoided. Only if the meeting in mid­ Behind these seemingly deliberately cumbersome form­ in order to save the workers state, the Bolsheviks ary strategy for building socialism. February of shop stewards representing all 60,000 ulations, O'Mahony obscures to the point of invisib­ rightly resorted to dictatorial measures including the Of course, O'Mahony has many qualifications in London Transport workers votes for active resistance ility the historical form of democracy that he favours. banning of opposition parties and the crushing of the his argument. He has enough respect for the marxist tradition to grant to the working class the right of to fare rises, job cuts and transport cuts, irrespective This ambiguity has its roots in O'Mahony's unwill­ Kronstadt uprising. The point is that these dictatoiral extra-parliamentary action and self-defence. Warnings ar of the GlC's position, will there be any real chance ingness to counterpose to the parliamentary democ­ measures were taken in order to defend the workers are raised about the likely ruling class onslaught whould of reversing this substantial defaat.• racy of Foot and Benn the specific concrete alternative state, still capable of operating the norms of workers of workers democracy. His tortuous argument explain­ democracy in its own institutions. parliament be used to tamper with their wealth and ing that resistance to Thatcher is justified by the Amer­ For us, unlike O'Mahony, democracy is not an power. But these qualifications ring like the pleadings ican Declaration of Independence is significant. The abstract, 'general thing. It is a social phenomenon - of a small centrist eager to curry favour with a big ref­ need for a working class fightback is raised, almost a form of government, a form of class rule. ormist. This Socialist Organiser series has yet to commit itself on the question of parliamentary democracy. After three long contributions from O'Mahony, this in itself is highly revealing. Marxists can make no conces­ sions in the face of Foot's witch-hunt. So as not to confuse any workers who look to us for a lead, it is our duty to demolish the trick-laden arguments of the bourgeois democrat Foot. It is our task to pose the battle for workers democracy as a real and immediate possibility in the struggles ahead. Instead, the SO has opened a discussion in the hope that the long-winded and (,like Foot's articles) trick-laden tomes of John O'Mahony will serve as a reply. This evasive and non­ commital stance is the mark of centrism - it whispers its revolutionary phrases in private, while appeasing and tailing behind the left reformists in practice. No doubt O'Mahony will find ways and means of decorating his equivocation in militant colours. No doubt, he would attack our forthright emphasis on the need to clearly counterpose soviet democracy to bourgeois democracy, as crude and tactically unwise. We would do well to remember Trotsky's response to a similar charge laid at his door by the German dentrists, the SAP, in 1935: "To put it in simpler language, we do not hoodwink the workers. But it is precisely our principle of saying what is that is most hateful to the leaders of the SAP, for the policy of centrism is inconceivable without What WE mean by workers democracy: delegates to the Congress of Soviets in Russia in 1917. We fight for such Soviets in Britain today. mouthfuls of water, tricks and .•. personal insinuations".

WORKERS POWER February 1982 PAGE 3 FRO ACK TO WHEN THE FRENCH tricolour was replaced by Thus for Reagan to be in a position to launch an assault the Stars and Stripes in IndoChina in 1954, the he first has to overcome these barriers to American supremacy. The military strength of the USSR serves US military 'advisers' and the Diem regime in not only to defend the Soviet planned economy but South Vietnam had good reasons to feel confid­ also to sustain and bolster anti-imperialist struggles ent. The star of American imperialism was very against the USA and regimes attempting to break the much in the ascendant (as we showed in our last stranglehold of US imperialism over their impoverished article on the Cold War-see WP 271. The cock­ economies. For the US imperialists all battlefronts lead sure colonels and their masters in the White House to a clash with the USSR. were not to know that the battle for Vietnam Reagan's plans for a one trillion dollar re-arrnament was to be the decisive factor in turning the 'Amer­ programme are aimed at restoring the gap between the ican Century' into a 25 year wonder. US and USSR's nucleur firepower ( which the USSR had narrowed but not closed during the 1970s), to its The present belligerence of the Reagan regime, its con­ 19505/60s level. More significant, however, Washington stant desire to turn every international event into a is attempting to turn Europe into a theatre for a 'limit­ cold war confrontation, must be understood as an att­ ed' nuclear war that it could win. This is what lies be­ empt to re-establish American hegemony in the world. hind the NATO Brussels decision in December 1979 to Its hegemony and role of world gendarme was severely site Cruise Missiles in Europe. With this superiority the undermined by the protracted war in Indo China. After US can bully the USSR into line in all parts of the a lapse of nine years, during which the domestic econ­ world. Crucially it can use its superiority to check what omic situation has worsened, the Reagan administrat­ it calls Soviet 'infiltration' (actually occasional and ion is set on turning the clock back on the decline of limited aid, usually given to serve the reactionary ob­ US imperialism's fortunes. As early as 1978 the influen­ jectives of the Kremlin bureaucrats) into national liber­ tial Kissinger lamented that the "geopolitical decline ation struggles or other flashpoints of international con­ from Vietnam through Angola, Ethiopia, South Vemen flict. The slavishly pro-American British organ of big and Afghanistan" had "demoralised friends and em­ busines6, the Economist, summed this up thus: boldened enemies." By friends Kissinger meant the "It (the USSR) has already started to use its military string of brutal right-wing dictatorships in the imperial­ muscle in Africa and South West Asia. If it is allowed ised world (El Salvador, at the time Nicaragua and Iran, to keep its emerging across-the-board superiority, the the Phillipines, Thailand etc.) that were propped up temptation to exploit it will become irresistible. The and subsidised by the United States. By enemies he only way to remove the temptation is to remove the meant the USSR. superiority. Reagan's new cold war policy is to redress this de­ A Reagan official put it a little more bluntly "the "A new man was needed... " - Reagan, dressed up as Commander-in-Chief moralisation and to cut the USSR back down to size. Russians only respond to pain". He aims to reassure the right wing regimes by The US sent its first large influx of troops into Viet­ regime at the hands of the NLF in April 1975. There is another feature of the present cold war pumping in massive amounts of military aid. The supp­ nam in 1961 at the height of itsjeconomic power. By insult to injury the downfall of the pro-Ameri4 that indicates the American are serious in their threats ort for the Duarte regime in El Salvador is intended as 1965 the US was bombing North Vietnam and by the azar dictatorship in Portugal galvanised the an1 against the USSR. The Polish events have produced a demonstration that the US will not abandon its late 1960s over half a million troops were embroiled, ialist movements in Portugal's former colonies a chorus of influential voices calling for the renouncing 'friends'. But the military hand outs go well beyond El costing millions of dollars a day. But by then the frag­ gola, Mozambique and Guinea-BisSBu. of the Valta 1945 agreement that placed Poland in the Salvador. The Turkish generals are re-equipping their menting morale of the US army began to coincide with Following the fall of Nixon (and the severa Soviet sphere of influence. The openly revanchist armies with the 700 million dollars supplied by Reagan. serious signs that the US's absolute dominance over its Brzesinski called on Reagan to "think publicly of re­ Ford) President Carter gave detente a new twi! Egypt has received 1.65billion dollars of military aid, imperialist rivals was at an end. combined it with a 'human rights' campaign. 1 nouncing the Valta greements." Mitterand, voicing while its repressive neighbour Sudan is getting 100 of the US as aggressor was to be replaced with France's historical indignance at not being invited to In 1953 US imperialism could claim 70% of world million. To keep Libya on its toes Reagan is giving Tun­ the US as freedom lover. This campaign was er Valta declared: "Anything that rids us of Valta is a good GNP in imperialist nations. By the early 1970s this was isia a military hardware package costing 95 million. In in the Helsinki agreement. Within the terms of thing". Haig and the Pope have added their voice to the down to barely 50%. Meanwhile, Japan and West Ger­ the Gulf the US are ferrying arms into Saudi Arabia, reement the Western powers recognised State I chorus. Even the man the American bourgeoisie see as many accounted for 30% of GNP in the mid-1970s are building a base in Oman and are giving Zia of Pakis­ ies-although not social systems-in Europe. T being too soft on the Russians, Helmut Schmidt said: compared to a combined 1953 figure of less than 10%. tan a down payment of 500 million with more to come. of the agreement served to satisfy the Soviet b "It is morally unacceptable to divide the world into These two rival imperialisms, buttressed and strengthen­ For good measure the CIA backed guerilla leader in raCY. But in return the Soviet bureaucracy was spheres of influence." ed by the Cold War needs of the USA in the 1940s and Angola, Jonas Savimbi, is getting military aid to assist itted to upholding a code of 'human rights' pr. 1950s began, by their very success, to penetrate the in his "internal subversion" efforts. Carter described his human rights campaigr markets of the US. Reagan's aim is clear. There must be no more vic­ AN ANTI-SOVIET CITADEL? 'soul of our foreign policy', but its heart and h tories for movements of the oppressed and exploited Moreover, industrial and commercial profit rates of unmistakeably aimed at preserving US corpors like those that have overthrown the Shah of Iran and The 'liberal' American journal Newsweek, in a review US companies slid slowly and surely in the 1960s from and providing a lever to use against the USSR. Somoza in Nicaragua. Right wing friends who are prep­ of Roosevelt's life asked: "At Valta 1945:Did he yield a 9.9% high at the start of that decade to 7.97 in 1975 was out to deflect attention from America's rt ared to help America smash anti-imperialist struggles toO much?", while he virulently anti-Soviet Economist and a miserable 3% in 1979. By 1968, when Nixon was supporting dictatorships by focusing internati4 and keep the world free-that is open to American im­ was adamant: "But doesn't Poland 'belong to Russia' elected to the White House, the effects of the econom- ention on the violation of various freedoms wi perialism's exploitation-will be armed to the teeth. under the Valta agreement? No." (9.1.82). Nervous at ic decline and the strain of the war determined US degenerate workers states. But if Reagan is to guarantee the armed enslavement the doubt being cast on the sanctity of Valta, the Krem­ foreign policy deliberation. The haemor.hageof dollars in In addition Carter wanted to use increased of the imperialised world then he must, of necessity, lin bureaucrats, who view the Valta pact as a permane­ Indo-China created a balance of payments defeat. The ic penetration of Eastern Europe as a means 0 ' ensure that America can dominate and so destroy, the nt one facilitating a strategic peace with imperialism, printing of more money, with its inflationary implicat­ ening pro-capitalist forces in those countries 0 to prising them loose from the USSR. For 'Th Soviet Union. The planned economies of the Soviet have called on the US to stop tampering with "the ions, was completely at odds with the US dollar's role Union and Eastern Europe are an obstacle to American results of World War 11." as a currency 'as good as gold'. Defence cuts were ess­ omist', for example, this economic deterrent n imperialism. They are a severe obstacle when that im­ The avowed intention to reverse the Valta agree­ ential. lri 1969 Nixon formulated the new outlook thus: ism was the most important aspect of detente: "According to this theory, the growth of east­ perialism is wracked by a crisis intensified by shrinking ment-which was not a formal and binding peace treaty­ "We shall furnish military and economic assistance when markets and a collapse of profitable areas for investm­ does indicate the seriousness of the imperialist war requested and as appropriate. But we shall look to the onomic links made possible by detente would ent. The reconquest of the Soviet Union, the transform­ drive. Talk of redrawing boundaries (even of spheres of nations directly threatened to assume primary respons­ liberalise Eastern Europe-partly by making ec ation of it and the other degenerate workers states into influence) is only slightly less dangerous than actually ibility of providing manpower for its defence." ally more confident communist governments 1 colonies of imperialism is the overriding desire of the doing it. In Poland the West do see an opportunity for, was safe to liberalise, and partly by giving the Wall Street magnates. Their ability to realise this desire, at the very least undermining the planned economy. At DETENTE - means of discouraging anti-liberal moves by th however, is conditioned by the military strength of the Illost they undoubtedly hope to prise Poland from the ernments through the threat to reduce trade Ii Soviet Union and the successful sweep of the national Soviet sphere of influence and build an anti-Soviet cit­ A TACTICAL COMPROMISE (9.1.82.) liberation struggles in Latin America, Africa and Asia. adel on the European border of the USSR. For the US That is, detente gave the west a stranglehol imperialists, with their own economy sliding deep into The situation however did not improve. After planned economies of the workers states unde recession, this is a prize worth fighting for. Their cold the dollar collapse of 1971 (the end of Bretton Woods,) text of a 'liberal' campaign for human rights. I war drive can and does indicate their longer term hot Nixon decided to attempt a 'thaw' in relations with the this policy of necessity, required some action war intentions. Kremlin by offering to negotiate an end to the Vietnam part of US imperialism to ensure that the US I To many who thought detente marked a new era of war. As in the 1944/45 'thaw', this manoeuvre sprang dictatorships were not entirely human rights e peace the present war drive appears to be simply the from the relative weakness of the US. Like Roosevelt As Carter's Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, e product of a fanatical President. This merely reveals and Truman before him Nixon used a willingness to it as late as 1979: that those like the Morning Star of the Communist deal with the Kremlin on friendly terms-what became "These moves towards more democratic and c Party and indeed the Kremlin bureaucrats themselves, known as detente-to contain revolution. The Kremlin ieties in Latin America are distinctly in our in· did not understand that the period of detente was, for bureaucrats responded eagerly. In the Paris Accords on The great strength of democracy is its flexibili the Americans, merely a post-Vietnam breathing space. Vietnam, though the US formally acknowledged defeat resiliance.' •• By encouraging compromise and When they went into that war they went in to win not and began to withdraw troops, they also secured the odation, it fosters evolutionary change." to lay the basis for detente. Kremlin's aid in containing, for a short period, the What underpinned this strategy was the hope· struggle of the NLF in the South. In return Kissinger from above could obviate revolution from bell cajoled Congress into an agreement for a massive in­ crease in trade with the USSR and other degenerate workers states. The way was paved for full scale detente. COSMETIC CHANGES DID OC Though on America's part the detente was always seen as a temporary, if unavoidable, tactical compromise. The 'human rights' policy in practice sou~ It did not involve a self-denying ordinance on the strengthen the structures of imperialist holdi part of the Pentagon as far as its own reactionary prac­ only partially loosening the grip of the local 0 tices were concerned. Although Nixon conceded in and landowners whose venality and corruptio March 1973 that 'there is a growing sense of isolation ened to incite the urban and rural poor. Most after Korea, after Vietnam', and the need for 'poly proved unresponsive, having been entrenched centric management' of the 'free world', this did not ressed by all previous US policy. Certain cos involve abstaining from propping up reactionary regim­ changes did occur. Congressional hearings too es or, as in Chile from 1970-73 and Angola after 1974, 1976 on human rights in Nicaragua, Guatema from CIA covert action to bring down anti US govern­ Salvador and a 1977 state Department report ments. Furthermore long standing US/USSR frictions rejection of further military supplies to GuatE such as that over the Middle East conflict (which led El. Salvador via Congress in 1978. That same 1 Nixon to put the US on a nuclear alert in 1973) remain­ Vance even interceded in Guatemala to preve~ ed unresolved by the 'thaw'. leftist PRD party being deprived of power vii The first phase of detente did not give America the elections. Of course, in each case, significant breathing space it needed to recuperate. Rather it was a were allowed so as to make backdoor supplie! prelude to a series of blows that further weakened Am­ Nevertheless, the very existence of a diploma erica's capacity to play the role of gendarme. The onomic pressure weakened the client regimes 1973 quadrupling of OPEC oil prices helped synchron­ Middle East and Latin America. Whilst few a The changing face of the US soldier. ise the world's worst recession (1973-75) since the war. ialists were taken in by Carter's rhetoric, imp On the left, a conscript voices his opinion of his role in It further exaggerated the size of US defence budget in in minor details gave movements like the FS Vietnam · in the 60's - a hired gun for President Johnson. comparison to national wealth. In 1974 the self-confid­ aragua room to operate more effectively. An( Above, a soldier on last year's "Operation Brightstar" in ence and cohesion of the American ruling class was time, Cuba remained a source of inspriatiop, 1 Egypt, designed to defend US oil interests, shows his rocked by the Watergate crisis and more importantly, 'Communism', then for desired levels of healt support for Reagan's anti-Soviet war drive by the final defeat of the US backed South Vietnamese eracy.

PAGE 4 WORKERS POWER February 1982 .... OLD WAR :~ But with the fall of the strongest client state in the The new policy was summed up by Reagan's Def­ Gulf-Iran in 1979, together with the deteat of Somoza ence Secretary Weinburger: "If the movement from in Central America and a left-wing takeover in the Carr­ cold war to detente is progress, we can't afford much ibean (Grenada 19781 the credibility of Carter's foreign more progress." Reagan has embarked on a five-year policy was totally undermined. Human rights and det­ plan to construct and expand a chain of bases across ente had not delivered the goods. the Middle East at a cost 0($2 biilion. The spending It was the last period of Carter's government that includes the creation of 3 new nawl battle groups for saw Amjlrican imperialism turn its back on the tactic of the area. While Egypt and Israel have been the principle detente. The first front in the New Cold War was set up recipients of US hardware the Reagan administration in the Caribbean and Latin America. In October 1979 is desperate to bolster the feudal monarchy of Saudi­ a Caribbean task force was established. Operation Arabia and pro-imperialist Kenya. There are already '. Shield took place there with 20,000 personnnel, 42 1000 US mi litary advisors in Saudi-Arabia and planned ships and 350 aircraft. A 'cordon sanitaire' was set up sales of tactical jet fighters and AWAC reconnaisaPlce around Nicaragua with increased aid to the Dominican planes will require a sharp increase in US personnel. Republic, Haiti, El Salvador and Honduras. With its eyes on the Indian Ocean the US is spending It was in late December 1979 and early January $26 million on improving Mombassa port for the US 1980 that the new, Cold War proper was unleashed . .It Indian Ocean fleet and 6237.7 million on improving was at this time that Soviet troops moved into Afghan­ facilities on Diego Garcia. From these bases the US istan-the first time that Soviet combat troops had gone will be able to move a Rapid Deployment Force of into any non-Warsaw Pact country since the war. Afgh­ 12,000 troops directly into the Gulf should any of its anistan itself was of no great significance to US imper­ chain of armed puppets come under threat. In all the ialism. It merely served as a pretext. In fact the SALT US defence budget is planned to increase from II agreement had already been balcked by the American 8171 billion in 1981 to S365.5 billion in 1986. Senate. The MX missile and the Cruise Missiles were in full swing and the idea of the Rapid Deployment Force But as well as shoring up this chain of pro-US had already been concocted. But Afghanistan was used regimes the Reaganites, in the last period, have stepped to prove the US propaganda lie that the danger to world up their physical pressure on those regimes which pot­ peace came from Soviet expansionism. The invasion entiaJly stand as an obstacle to the stability of US " could be used to illustrate Kissinger's 1978 warning that imperialism. Desperate to protect South Africa at all American tanks on manoeuvers in the Moiave desert. War "games" designed to increase US strength. the US was facing: "an unprecedented Soviet assault costs the US vetoed the United Nations condemnat­ faced with economic stagnation at home, and an in­ to national liberation struggles is limited in the Mid­ on the international equilibrium;" ion of South Africa's September invasion of Angola. creasing burden of aid payments to Indo-China, Cuba dle East and Africa and non-existent in Latin America. Carter gave his National Security Adviser Brzezinski Once again-as it did in the early 70s-the US has and Ethiopia etc - will be forced to climb down and It is clearly not substantially aiding Nicaragua and does free rein. He pinpointed the Middle East, and particul­ given its approval to the South African racists should back off from aiding anti-imperialist struggles. not aid the El Salvator rebels at all. It supports national arly the oil rich Gulf states as the first line of defence. they move against Mozambique and Angola. On at This war drive is not 'missile madness' on Reagan's struggles, like that in Vietnam, in a limited way and He drew the 'arc of crisis': least two occasions this year units of the US sixth part. It is fuelled by the energy of an increasingly with the main intention of strengthening its own bar­ "along the shores of the Indian Ocean, with fragile soc· fleet have provocatively violated Libyan air and sea Worried bourgeoisie. In November 1981 unemploy­ gaining position with the US. ial and political structures in a region of vital import· space. The message from the Reaganites to all of these ment in the US reached 8.4%, the highest figure since ance to us threatened with fragmentation. The resulting regimes is that the US is prepared to use its military the 1975 recession. More alarming, in the last two That is, the interests of the wotJd revolution are political chaos could well be filled by elements hostile might to bully and intimidate them and in this way the quarters of 1981, US GNP fell by 1.6% and 0.6% sacrificed at every step by the bureaucracy in the to our values and sympathetic to our adversaries." White House hopes to force them into line-by encour­ respectively, indicating a stagnant level of investments. interests of its own self-preservation. aging Sadat type pro-imperialist factions within them Inflation is running at 9.5% and the fiscal deficit for But the nationalised and planned economies of the if possible, by physical force if not. 1982 is feared to be as high as 100 billion dollars. USSR and the other degenerate workers' states re­ HIS TOUGH STANCE RINGS FALSE Perhaps the most revealing is that in America, the land present a historic gain for the working class. This Reagan's drive to hold the line for US imperialism of the motor car, car sales are at their lowest since 1958. property form is the prerequisite without which the Carter belatedly donned the uniform of a Cold of necessity means trying to force the soviet bureauc­ With nothing but gloomy predictions for the future, the working class cannot build socialism. That is why the War warrior warning the USSR in January 1980 that: racy out of its new-won gains. This means not only American ruling class is beginning to look to other break up of the planned economies by imperialism woul "Any attempt by any outside force to gain control of using force against pro-Soviet regimes in the under ways out of its crisis. be a set-back for the international working class. the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault developed world but also trying to tie the USSR down For its part the Soviet bureaucracy maintains the on the vital interests of the USA, and such an assault in Europe. An anti-Soviet frenzy has gripped the US reactionary strategy of peaceful co-existence. Its mes­ The present war drive is placing the imperialist coun­ will be repelled by any means necessary, including ruling class the more its international fortunes have sage to the Imperialist bourgeoisie is "If you leave us tries on a lead-on collision course with the workers state military force." declined. Major General Schweitzer-a top defence alone, we won't touch youl" Every time Brezhnev and with the movements of national liberation in the He further warned: "But we must understand that not specialist-gal(e voice to this when he declared to an bends the ear of Helmut Schmidt this is his refrain. imperialised countries. In these conflicts we are not every firm application of power is a potential Vietnam." assembled audience that the Soviets were 'on the move' The defence of the Soviet Union for the Kremlin oli­ neutral. We say clearly: Carter was a victim of his own earlier policy and and 'going to strike' against Poland and the Gulf. But garchy, simply means the defence of their privileges, his new tough stance did not ring true-particularly the rational kernel-from the viewpoint of US imper­ their political rule, their sphere of influence. The USSR ~ Full support to all genuine national liberation after the Iranian hostage rescue debacle. A new man ialism-is that the Soviet Union must be weakened if was the driving force behind SALT I and SALT II struggles. was needed for the new Cold War. US imperialism is to reassert itself. Reagan and Haig during the detente period. It was willing to negotiate ~ Down with the Thatcher/Reagan war drive - out of NATO now. The election of Reagan in November 1981 has hope that by commissioning a new round of armam­ an unfavourable peace at Paris between North Vietnam ~ Defend the USSR and other degenerate workers' given rise to an intensified anti-USSR rhetoric. With ent spendil)g in Europe, by hinting that they are prep­ and America. Its invasion of.Afghanistan, part of states against the restorationist aims of the his base in the small-medium capitalists, oil magnates, ared for the !exchange of tactical nuclear missiles in its sphere of influence, was seen as a legitimate act of imperialists. defence industries and the 'Moral Majority' Reagan Europe..... "1 could see where you could have the ex­ defence against destabilising rebels, not as an act of has proceeded to arm Brzezinski's 'arc of crisis' front change of tactical weapons in the field without it expansionism. It has been on the defensive in the face by Keith Hassell and re-equip the original Cold War Front that divides bringing either one of the major powers into push- of the cold war - offering to withdraw its SS20s behind and Mark Hoskisson East and West Europe. ing the button." (Reaganl then the Soviet bureaucracy the Urals and pull troops out 0.1 East Germany. Its aid POLISH WORKERS ·.. MUST BEWARE OF FALSE FRIENDS THE ARMED SQUADS of Jaruzelski have tempor­ ewski are Jewish. The national party paper Trybuna of the stalinist bureaucracy. That is to be expected. Whether Polish workers will break with their cleric< arily succeeded in crushing the open resistance of Ludu has stepped up its campaign against 'Zionists'­ But the clandestine bulletins circulating inside Poland misleaders and see through Reagan's anti-working class the Polish working class. At least 70 workers were code name for Jews in the Polish Stalinists black nation· show, through their frequent support for Reagan's war drive depends, to no small extent, on the kind of killed as occupied mines, factories and docks were alist propaganda. This in a country where Nazi genoc· sanction campaign and appeals for support from the solidarity movement that is build in the capitalist surrounded and stormed by crack riot police. 8000 ide wiped out three million Jews and where there are Pope, that the workers movement still labours under countries. A movement in solidarity with the Polish steel workers held Huta Katowice, 3000 miners held now only 5,000 to 8,000 Jews. other chronic illusions as to where the force can be mob­ workers that remains in the tow of anti.-communist the Ziemavit and Piast mines until driven out by Thousands of Polish workers are asking themselves ilised to break the Jaruzeklski regime. bourgeois politicians and their agents in the labour armed force. Radom-the soene of the fiercest fight­ 'What went wrong?' How did a movement comprising The western powers may be prepared to operate movement will only further strengthen the hold of ing in 1976-was sealed off from the rest of Poland 10 million workers fall prey to this hated and discred­ sanctions against Jaruzelski; but only with the end in reactionary ideas in the minds of Polish workers. That for at least 10 days after the coup. ited regime?And, most vitally, where do Polish workers view of turning Poland into a semi·colony of the US why the left has to struggle to make the cause of the But the arrest and incarceration of over 5000 go from here? and Western Europe and to strike against the USSR. Polish workers the cause of all those struggling against Solidarity activists and,the dismissal of thousands of Some sections of the Solidarnosc activists are already Their interests are not those of those millions of Polish capitalist exploitation and seek to ensure that the Pol­ workers because of their record of struggle, or their beginning to publicly answer these questions. For Buj­ workers who struggled for equality and workers rights ish workers hear of, and see, concrete solidarity action refusal to sign anti-Solidarnosc 'loyalty' pledges, has ak, one of Wal8$8's 'radical' critics, the problem was in the face of the bureaucratic regimes of Gierek, Kania I)n the part of the organised working class. not succeeded in crushing passive resistance or root­ that they tried to negotiate and bargain with a party and Jaruzelski. The same forces who call for action The Massey Ferguson workers blacking of parts frol ing out underground organisation. Solidarnosc bull­ and army leadership that was not prepared to·concede against Jaruzelski openly support the Turkish anti-union Ursus shows what can be done. But the Polish Solidaril etins are continuing to appear in the principal cities via negotiation any of its mllterial privileges or one iota martial law Junta and accuse the Solidarnosc leaders Campaign which is attempting to spearhead solidarity and industrial centres. At the time of writing Solid· of its absolute monopoly of pontical power. In a cland­ of having gone 'too far too fast'. work in the British working class is attempting to tie arnosc leader Bujak remains in hiding and committed estine interview Bujal,c. outlined his understanding of the Similarly the clerical hierarchy still looked to by solidarity work to reactionary anti-working class force! to organising resistance to the Jar"Uzelski regime. Sab­ flaws in the reformist strateg~m that he himself had ad­ Solidarnosc activists counselled compromise with the Its bulletin recommends that banks refuse loans to otage and passive resistance in the factories shows the vocated: Stalinists up to, and after, the coup. In the interests of Jaruzels~i-"in their own best interests anyway" they deep hatred of tl:1I1 regime felt by millions of Polish "Many people compared the construction of Solidarity strengthening its own position as a bridge between the declare. Robin Blick favourably reviews the parliam­ workers. to a revolution. 'But' this revolution precluded the use of workers and the bureaucracy, and hence augmenting its entary speech of the reactionary Tory Sir Bernard The Jar!Jzelski junta now has to brace itself to push force and !defections It was supposed to allow the party and government Archbishop Glemp has made no secret, visiting with right wing Tories, bankers and the Church. from the Polish ,United Work,~ Party, p~f,~i~ul,arIY in authorities to reform the system of rule in the country western politicians, of his exasperation with Walesa's Action to black all imports from Poland is the key the factories has obliterated the sOcial roots of the and find 8 'new formula for the leading role of the party refusal to negotiate with the authorities. The first US task of militants. Every ship returned unloaded, every partY destroying' it for, the: imined'iate tutu'':,' as the ill­ taking into account the social changes that were occu­ senator to visit Poland after the coup reported "I got container untouched prevents the Jaruzelski regime strument of bureauc;ra~i~ 'rule. ItS ~rop~.sJln,da machine ring. It is kilow no~, that nobody was thinking about the impression that the primate was being critical of from solving its crisis at the expense of the Polish is dredging the depths of ,PQ,ish, nationaUsm, to IIPpeal such changes and reforms and that our hopes-that we Walesa's intransigence. Archbishop Glemp said Mr Wal­ workers and with the cooperation of the western work, to the most backward laye~ ofsQcilttyagai~tSolidar­ would find' ever, jj token of good will on the other side­ esa had not 101lll been in politics and did not know ing class. It is a visible and concrete way of posing the nose. The'party paper in Szczeci,";,fof example, has ' were illusory. Its clear the current situation could not how complicated things are" vital lesson to the Polish workers-that it is the work· car.ried viciously anti-,semitic m~terilll 'blami, ng all the have been avoided." (International Herald Tribune So craven are the Church's attempted dealings with the ers of the west, and in the bureaucratically degenerate problems of Poland since 1947 iln the Jews, claiming 19.1.821. ' Jaruzelski regime that it has, while condemning intern­ workers states, who are the only allies of the Polish that Jews controlled the secret Mrvice in the 1950s The Jaruzelski coup has disabused many Solidarnosc ment in principle, offered to intern Walesa incommun­ workers as part of the struggle to ovM:thl'!lW exploit­ and that KOR supporters such ~ Michnik an.d Modzel- activists of their crippling belief in the reformability icado in one of its own secluded monasteriesl ation and repression world wide.• I !,

WORKERS POWER February 1982 PAGE 5 being subordinated to the politics dictated by the strategy of building "socialism in one country". The Cl at its second congress and under Lenin's guidance had outlined a revolutionary strategy in relation to the nationalist movements in colonial and semi-colonial countries. This recognised the necess- ity of making alliances with the bourgeois nationalists against the imperialists. This would allow maximum by Sue Thomas unity in action against imperialism while at the same time allowing the communists to demonstrate the IN A RECENT ARTICLE a leading member of build a common struggle against the mine owners and weakness and compromising nature of the nationalist the South African Communist Party (SACP) their class, it did not launch any determined opposit­ leaders. Only through maintaining complete prog­ writing under the name of Toussaint, declared ion to the retention of the colour bar. rammatic independence and freedom of criticism would The crushing of the strike and the resulting alliance that the really vital contribution of the Party the communist parties be able to win the masses and between the Labour Party and the Nationalists increas­ demonstrate that only the communists and a social- to the struggle in South Africa has been the ingly tied the white working class to its own ruling , ist revolution could guarantee complete victory in "development of the real understanding of the class through the ideology of "Baaskap" ,-white sup­ the struggle. Thus Lenin argued at the second congress: relationship between proletarian revolution and remacy. (See W.P. No 26 "The Roots of the Racist "The Cl should collaborate provisionally with the national liberation in South Africa. Or, put State"). This development forced the'CPSA to re-ev­ revolutionary movement of the colonies and backward another way, the relationship between the fight aluate its strategy. countries and even form an alliance with it, but it for socialism and the struggle for National Lib­ While the Communist Party concentrated on mob­ must not amalgamate with it; it must uncondition­ eration." ("In Retrospect 60 years on" African ilising the workers to overthrow capitalism, the strugg­ ally maintain the independence of the proletarian Communist No 86 Third Quarter 1981). le for civil rights lay firmly in the hands of an all-class movement, even if it is only in an embryonic stage." No one would deny the often heroic role played nationalist movement-the African National Congress. ("Theses on the National and Colonial Ouestion" by militants of the SACP in the struggle against the Founded in 1912 the ANC reflected both the strengths Degras,p.144) racist regime in South Africa. It is a struggle that has and weaknesses of the modern African nationalist mov­ However under Stalin this revolutionary tactic was cost hundreds of SACP members their lives at the ement. Recognising the lessons of British imperialism's completely distorted In China between 1925-27 Nelson Mandela, currently imprisoned for life by the hands of the South African police and army, and one ability to crush isolated tribal opposition the ANC the Chinese Communist Party was amalgamated in racist South A frican regime which it is the duty of all British socialists to support reflected the desire for a united African movement to an uncritical bloc with the Kuomintang in the struggle unconditionally. However it is also the duty of revol­ win democratic rights within South Africa. However against imperialism, a policy which led to the bloody utionaries to vigorously combat the political errors of the movement was dominated by the most privileged crushing of the Shanghai proletariat by the KMT in ANC leadership, it nevertheless drew massive support the leaderships of the resistance movements. In the layers of African society-lawyers, teachers, small bus­ 1927. For South Africa, the application of this and brought a huge increase in ANC membership, crea- case of the SACP it is precisely their erroneous con­ iness men and religious leaders. Most of them had been strategy meant that the CPSA should fight for an ting a mass nationalist movement. But after the Defi- ception of the "relationship between proletarian rev­ trained in the missionary schools designed to produce "Independent Native Republic" as a stage towards ance Campaign was halted in 1953, and in the face of s olution and national liberation" that has weakened a privileged elite t ied to the existing state. This petit­ a workers' and peasants' republic with full equal vere restrictions and bannings, there was a downturn and misled the opposition to imperialism and the rac­ bourgeois layer had as its aim not the emancipation of rights for all races" (ECCI Resolution on SA, 1928) in activity and the ANC shifted direction back to- ist settler state at crucial junctures in South African t he mass of workers and peasants from their exploit­ The foremost theoretician of South African wards the perspective of winning white "progressive" history. ation and oppression but the winning of democratic Communism in its subsequent period, A.T.Nzula, support. The CPSA was formed in 1921 as the South Afric­ rights and privileges for itself, so that it could govern spelt out this "stageist" perspective. "The basic The Communist Party was of central importance in an section of the Communist International (C.I.) alongside its white rulers. Thus the campaign initially content of the first stage of the revolution in Black this latter move. The CP had suffered a severe set- through the merger of the I nternational Socialist Leag­ took the form of defending and extending the political Africa is a struggle for land and a war of national lib· , back in 1950. It was so tied to its perspective of peace ue and a number of smaller socialist groups. It was an system of the Cape colony where coloureds and a min­ eration. In this case, therefore, the revolution will in tul persuasion and legalism that faced with the threat almost entirely "European" organisation. All the del­ ority of Black Africans had a vote based on a property its initial stage be a bourgeois democratic revolution:' of the "Suppression of Communism Act" it dissolved delegates to its founding conference were white and franchise. Part of the Congress were the Tribal chiefs, ("Forced Labour in Colonial Africa" Nzula et al.) itself without preparing any measures for an under- it was built very largely on the traditions of struggle maintained by the British, forming an upper house of This perspective of the democratic stage of the rev- ground existence. "In fact it was only within days of of the European immigrant workers. Its manifesto, " princes of African blood." olution has remained part of the CP's programme the actual dissolution that the party membership was while it declared the necessity to unite workers of The strategy of the African Nationalist leaders was since 1928, although it has gone through several informed. Many of them accepted the decision with "all ranks and races", had little to say about the one of appealing to the British to extend the rights of mutations and been attached to contrasting tactics a mistaken conviction that an underground apparatus fight for the democratic rights of the black masses­ Africans, through petitions and delegations. In this they from deputations, through passive resistance to armed must already have been prepared but could not be the workens and poor peasants without civil rights sought aid and encouragement amongst the white struggle. But its essence and its danger have remained talked about for security reasons." (60 Fighting Years and deprived of their lands by the imperialists and " liberal" sections of South African society. Protests constant. The Communist Party's programme is, in African Communist No. 86) their agents in South Africa. The party, marked by were limited to demonstrations and passive resistance the last analysis, limited to that of the petty bourge- The party did not re-emerge as an underground organ the syndicalist ideas of Tom Mann and the Industrial modelled on the Natal Indian Congress campaign led ois layer who lead the nationalist movement. Rather isation - the South African Communist Party (SACP) - Workens of the World (IWW), placed almost all its by Mahatma Ghandi. Edward Roux describes one than winning over sections of that layer to the fight for until two years later. Then the SACP encouraged the J. emphasis on the industrial struggle. It was presumed such demonstration organised by the ANC: the communist programme, and fighting for the work- which it re-established 'as an influential force, to that having finst destroyed capitalism the working "There was a kind of naive heroism in the spectacle ing class to lead the struggle for national independence form in 1955 the Congress Alliance with the white class would then sweep away the remnants of racism of thousands of black men assembled on Von Brandis combining it with the struggle for workers'power, the Congress of Democrats (communists and liberals) and and imperialism. Square arguing; "Down with the Passesl" But then, CP ties the black working class to the limited demo- the South African Indian Congress. Even the bourgeoii Such a perspective led naturally to a concentrat­ "no violence" surrendering their sticks, setting about crBtic programme of the petty~ourgeoisie. The fatal United Party was invited to attend the Congress of ion on the white working class-it was better organis­ their defiance of injustice with songs of Brittanica, consequences1of this strategy can be seen in the sub.. the Peoplel (Harsch, p.233). ed, and not yet tied to the ruling class through system­ with cheers for England's King and for President Saquent history of the CPSA. This Congress Alliance adopted the Freedom Charter atic privilege. Sections of it had developed an internat­ Wilson, only to have their meetings roughly dispersed In the mid-1930's the period of the "popular front" which became and remains the most influer:ltial man- ionalist outlook in opposition to the Fi nst World War. by police." ("Time Longer than Rope" p.18). brought the party into increased activity and influence ifesto amongst the black organisations - The Freedom But the test of true proletarian internationalism, of a campaigns which threatened to mobilise the within the ANC. This period saw the ANC contin- Charter is a democratic programme calling for the de- thoroughly communist outlook, was whether the black proletariat were avoided in fear of offending uing its strategy of attempting to persuade the regime struction of the apartheid state and its replacement young party could break from defending white privil­ their white allies and wrecking their strategy of peaceful to moderate. In this the Joint Councils, set up in many by "democratic organs of self government" enshrining ege and could fight for class unity, not by economis­ persuasion. The ANC stood aloof from the campaigns urban areas as a meeting point for white liberals and equal rights for all races. It includes a call for land tically counterposing it to the nationalist struggle of of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of black churchmen, had an influential role. But while reform and nationalisation. But there is no mention the black population, but by building it through tak­ Africa (I CUI which after the First World War mobilised the liberals were dreaming of reform, Herzog was win- of how this programme can be realised, of how the ing up and leading the struggle for democratic rights t ens of thousands of African workers in strikes and ning his campaign for his totally segregationist "sol- struggle should be conducted. Thus, the Freedom of the blacks themselves. political campaigns aga inst the regime. In 1928 the ution to the native problem", culminating in the 1936 Charter can be all things to all sections of "progressives The CPSA failed its first major test which was the House of Chiefs refused the idea of cooperation with Land Act and Representation of Natives in Parliament It could be used just as well by the advocates of passive white miners strike on the Rand in 1922. This was t he Communist Party after one of thei r number Act which destroyed the remnants of the old Cape protest and persuasion and those who embrace armed called to safeguard craft positions for whites and t he perceptively observed that "The Tsar was a great man system, allowing a few seats in Parliament for guerilla struggle against the regime. strike leaders raised the slogan "Workers of the World, in his country, of royal blood like us chiefs and where white representatives of Africans, and created an But even democratic demands and peaceful protest Fight and Unite for a White South Africa." (Si mons is he nowl" advisory Native Representative Council (NRCI. are enough to scare the apartheid regime which con- and Si mons. Class and Colour. quoted Ernest Hansch By the mid 1920's the CP had moved away from its A groundswell of African protest led to the conven- tinued its repression with the Treason Trials of the 'South Africa' p.191. The CPSA took an active and emphasis on the white working class. It was active in ing of the All-African Convention in 1935 which late 1950s. Meanwhile, impatient with the "go-slow" important role in the strike, stressing that it was ob­ the militant struggles of the ICU. But by 1928 the Com­ included the ANC and a vast array of black organisat- policies of the ANC, the ,'''Africanists'' formed the jectivelya fight against capitalism. While it called for munist International was in the hands of Stalin's sup­ ions and political groupings, including the Commun- Pan African Congress (PAC) which led a new campaign the involvement of black workers and the need to porters and the fight for internatio!!"1 revolution was ist Party and the Trotskyists. But the opportunity for against the pass laws. This culminated in the massive united mass resistance was squandened when the ANC protest in 1960 to which the regime responded with supported and encouraged by the CP rejected a pol- the Sharpeville massacre and subsequent crack- icy of boycott. The ANC proceded to stand a num- down on the PAC and ANC. ber of candidates for the NRC, won several seats and It was no longer tenable for the ANC and SACP followed this by supporting the election of white leadership to hold on to the strategy of a peaceful liberals to represent Africans in Parliament. Thus campaign against apartheid. During mounting repress- the CP had effectively sabotaged the most hopeful ion, government intransigence and the consolidation movement for non-collaboration and opposition to of the apartheid regime, the SACP had failed to warn the Herzog regime in its desire to maintain its alli- the African masses that armed struggle would ' nec- ance with the petty~ourgeois nationalists. essary. Now, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, This policy of conciliation and peaceful persuasion Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) was formed won no concessions from the South African ruling But the ANC did not adopt armed struggle methods class. Neither did the CP's "Defend South Africa" appropriate to a mass revolutionary movement of campaign, launched after Hitler attacked the Soviet workers and peasants. This would have meant build- Union in 1942, which meant the CP opposing all ing for workers militias linked to a guerilla army. The strike action and giving full support for the regimes tactics adopted, with the support of the SACP, were war policies. The consolidation of the white supremacist those of sabotage and "exemplary" actions. Further regime under the Nationalist Party Government after repression followed and the ANC and SACP entered 1949 showed the abject failure of this policy. an exile period in which their influence inside SA An upsurge in the class struggle after the war (over waned. 70,000 African mineworkers went on strike in 1946), Far from strengthening the struggle against imperialis combined with the failure of the ANC's previous the policies of the Communist Party of tying the inter- policy led to a new radical young leadership emerging ests and struggles of the black South African proletaria in the ANC's Congress Youth League including such to the programme and tactics of petty~ourgeois figures as Nelson Mandela. Under their leadership, the forces, severely weakened it. When in the 1970s a new ANC moved into a period of mass protest in the 1950s era of working class struggle was ushered in by the and adopted a Programme of Action calling for African Natal strike wave to 1972, it was not the ANC and self-determination and adoption of tactics such as boy- SACP which led it but for a whole period, a new layer cotts, strikes and civil disobedience. of radicalised youth in the Black Consciousness After a series of short-lived, but militant protests, Movement •. the ANC launched the Defiance Campaign in 1952, South African army troops preparing to launch attack on bla~ks. In order to defeat these armed thugs, a workers militia linked to a guerilla army must be built. modelled on Ghandi's methods. Although the protest relied on individual action and was limited by the TO BE CONTINUED

PAGE 6 WORKERS POWER February 1982 @ll;l;m;m;l;m;m;l;mi Fourth-International (International ··Committee) ~;l~mmm;m;mm~;mmm;m;~;l;~;~;l;m;m;lmtm;mmm;mmmmm;m; Yet another ·rottenbloc falls· apart~ IN NOVEM.BER AND December 1981, the been discussed openly before the FI(IC) was founded Fourth International (Internationar Committee) it was unlikely that Lambert would do so after "fus­ (FI(lC)) definitively split. It liyed for less than ion" had been achieved. Doubtless Moreno, a season­ one year. This product of an unprincipled bloc ed factionalist, knew this very well. When on Septem- • ' ber22nd 1981 he submitted a long article attacking between N. Moreno's "Bolshevik Faction" and the OCl's position on Mitterand for publication in Pierre Lambert's Organising Committee for the Correspondence I nternationale it was a declaration of Reconstruction of the Fourth International war. Events thereafter took on a familiar ring to those (OCRFI) which proclaimed itself to be the who have experienced or studied the splits and fusions 21' liiia;. DMAiORI1 "largest international grouping of Trotskyists" of the "Fourth Internationals" since 1953. has disintegrated into its component parts. The OCI stalled on the question of the publication This outcome was not difficult to forsee. of Moreno's article. On October 14th/using the pre­ text of a letter from Moreno to the Central Committ­ PS/PCF A L' ASSEMBLE In Workers Power No.22 May 1981 we ee of the Spanish section of the FIOC), OClleader observed: Stephane Just claimed there had been a breach of "The re-groupment of the FI(lC) has more in democratic-centralism and that no discussion was A MITTERRAN_D---­ common with the cynical "political musical possible so long as Moreno characterised the OCI as chairs" of post-war degenerate "Trotskyism" "revisionist" • Despite Moreno's declarations of per­ DE GOUVERNER CO.TRE LES than with the principled relaying of the found­ sonal admiration for Lambert,"the most talented Trotskyist leader I have met throughout my political ations of a revolutionary international. The existence" and of loyalty to the FlOC), "the greatest CAPllALIS1ES ET ~ES BAIIQUIERS "Forty Theses" offer only the old menshevik acquisition of the Trotsk'ijst movement since 1938", centrism of the OCRFI., combined with the dip­ Just and Lambert had no intention of tolerating any lomatic cover ups of an unprincipled bloc. The discussion of the OCl's policies in France. formation of the FI (lC) merely lays the basis On October.24th at a National Conference of (Text reads: 14th June: New Defeat for all the bourgeois parties. 21 JUNE:'PS/PCF Majority in the for new splits in the future." Cadres of the OCI (u) Lambert pointed to a "provoc­ Assembly to give Mitterand the means to govern against the capitalists and bankers.) ation" against the French organisanon mounted by In articles in Workers Power (Nos 11, 14,22) we the fascists, the French Stalinists and the Ligue Com­ OCI weekly paper covers up the presence of the bourgeois radicals in Mitterand's electoral pact: suggests have analysed the adaptationist policies of Moreno muniste Revolutionaire (LCA, French Section of the that Mitterarid plus a majority equals an anti-capitalist workers government and Lambert's grouping. Moreno has a record of ad­ united Secretariilt of Ernest Mandell. Moreover he aptation to the forces of petit-bourgeois nationalism "reveal lid" the involvement of ex-Bolshevik Faction and to the bonapartist figures that they hoist into the members of the OCI (4) in it. On the basis of this crude The results of this whole operation can hardly be take the traditional form of "building the party" here saddle in Latin America. The OCRFI leaders were amalgam Lambert expelled the leading Morenoite satisfactory to Lambert and Just. Having failed mis­ first and then at a later date turning to international perfectly well aware of this. In December 1976 supporters from his organisation. On 29th October at erably to "Build the Party of 1.0,000" in the last year­ questions. This is a thoroughly false lesson. The errors Lambert's theoretical organ La Verite wrote of a meeting of the International Executive Committee indeed having lowered their sights to "Build the Party of these groupings lie precisely in their lack of an of 8,000'; the split in the FlOC) has obviously decided Moreno's "adaptation to Peronism": "To criticise Lambert refused to recognise the voting rights of a international programme and organisation. The roots them to go for broke. Whilst their membership (off­ the policy of N. Moreno is an indispensible task. It has representative of Moreno's PST. He announced a ban of the opportunism and sectarianism of Lambert, pushed to great lengths a serias of profound deviations on public sales of Correspondance Internationale No. icial and inflated) figures show a drop from 5,300 to Moreno, Mandel, Healey and Aobertson lie in their 4,600 in the last year they have (on the 30th Decem­ own national soils. Their 'international' programmes from Trotskyism.'~ Lambert on the other hand, has 13-the issue which contained Moreno's article. systematically adapted to Social-Democracy for Moreno's request for 1,000 copies of it to sell and ber 1981) "proclaimed the party". The OCI (u) will and organisations are simply their national prejudices many years. The election of·a Social-Democrat as the right to open an office of his' party (Argentine henceforth assume the "historic" (late 40s) name writ large. Thus the only unity they can maintain is Parti Communiste Internationaliste (PC!). The FI(lC) either that of a non-aggression pact which rules out President of France and the coming to power of ~ OST), ostensibly to work with Argentinian exiles in social-democrat dominated popular front coalition­ France was summa'rily refused. At the,same time has also had a face-lift. At a meeting on 21st-23rd discussion, criticism and a new programme or subord­ has not brought about any change in the policy of the Napuri, leader of the Lambertist POMA in Peru, who December the ex-OCA FI rump declared itself the ination of an asteroid belt of small sects around one "Fourth International (International Centre of Ae­ Organisetion Communiste I nternationaliste (OCI). had condemned the expulsion of the ex-BF members large group. of the OCl(u) was ousted from his organisation and construction)". In the summer of 1981 Moreno suddenly "discov­ Politically all these groups combine centrist adap­ accused of being a CIA agent. Lambert and the OCI ered" that on the question of the Mitterand Govern­ Thus Lambert has gained nothing except two new tation to alien class forces-to Social-Democracy, Stal­ summoned a General CouAcil of the FlOC) for Nov­ ment "We have differences of 180 degrees"(Corresp­ and inflated 'names'. Moreno has probably strengthen­ inism, petty bourgeois nationalism-with gross sectar­ ember 21 st. Moreno's supporters demanded as a pre­ ondence Internationale. No.14 p.10). Moreno has ed his Venezuelan section and now has a small group ian antics in the realm of organisation. claimed that he wrote to Lambert on July 13th des­ condition of their attendance the reintegration of the (some 70 members) in France. cribing the French sections orientation toward the ex-BF members of the OCI the reconstitution of the All this has occurred at a time when the United The split in the FlOC) yet again proves that there Mitterand Government as being one of "critical International Executive Committee, the publication Secretariat is facing deep internal disorder-with the is no "Fourth International" extant which expresses support" for a Popular Front. of Moreno's articles and the organisation of a democ­ Socialist Workers Party (US) moving closer and closer the method and the developed and extended progr­ "The leadership of the OCI (u) does not dare to put ratic debate. to Castroism-even to the point of discussing a "new amme of Lenin's Third or Trotsky's Fourth Internat­ a name to its policy, but it accords uncritical and al· It therefore only remained for the OCI to declare international" to include the FSLN of Nicaragua the ional. Lambert and Moreno can only drag this historic mast total support to a popular front government." that Moreno had "organised a split" (I nformations New Jewel Movement of Grenada and even Cestro name in the mud. Workers Power-in collaboration (C.I. No.14 p.11) Ouvrieres NO.1028 28th November) and to call a himself. The Healeyite 'International Committee' has with the I rish Workers Group and- in serious discuss­ World Congress for June 6th-13th 1982 at which become a spokesperson for Gaddafi and Khomeini. ion with revolutionaries in other countries-sets itself A reading of the OCI (u)'s paper "Informations amongst oth.er items to be discussed was to be "The The tiny International Spartacist Tendency has come the task of re-elaborating a transitional programme for ouvrieres" from May to September 1981 reveals that Popular froo.t and the politics of the OCI (u)" and out as propagandists for the Kremlin in Afghanistan the new period of Imperialist crisis, of establishing this is a justified criticism. But nothing in the OCl's "the an.ti-Imperialist United Front". In this Alice in and Poland. The effects of this debacle in insular Brit­ on this basis a democratic-centralist international ten­ past record could lead one to expect any other res­ Wonderland "Trotskyism" first we have the split and ain will be to accentuate the national centred attitude dency as the foundation of a reborn revolutionary ponse. Since serious programmatic differences had not then we have the ,"discussion". of mllny British would be revolutionaries. This will communist International •• TURKEY: repression grows IRELAND· coalition crumbles IN SPITE OF the hypocritical promises of the days. They constantly wanted me to admit being a THE SOUTHERN COALITION government of offer only savage attacks on the working class. Being Turkish military junta to re-establish democr­ member of an illegal organisation (Kurtulus-Left the Fine Gael and the Labour Party, has come the former government which increased foreign bor­ acy, the long list of tortures, arbitrary arrests wing grouping -WP). My body still bears the wounds. crashing down after seven months of relying on rowing to buy votes, they still fail to reassure the I arrived at the prison in a state of coma." (Turkey the support of three independent "socialist" bourgeoisie of their committment to financial and executions ('legal' and illegal) continues Information Bulletin, special issue). rectitude. unabated. In the trials of 52 leading members The EEC worried about the public image of the deputies who had sided with the coalition aus­ However, if FF seems likely to scrape together an of DISK (the Progressive Trade Union) begun junta, has temporarily witheld 600 million dollars terity measures rather than face a new election. overall majority on February 18th, it is partly becasue in December 1981,15 months after the defend­ worth of aid. However this is no great threat. It is But the coalition's second and major budget was the nationalist vote that deserted them for the H-Block ants were first taken into custody, the prosec­ more than made up for bV aid directly from West too savage for two of them, the ex-Labour independ· candidates has since been squandered by the republic­ ution have called for the death sentence. The Germany and Aeagan. America has just poured in ent Jim Kemmy, and Joe Sherlock of Sinn Fein, the ans, but mainly because the Coalition's back has been court room was surrounded by a massive army 703 million dollars, the vast majority of that gOing in Workers Party. broken in a manner which threatens to wipe out the the form of military aid. The OECD has also promised Had Garrett Fitzgerald made the simple amend­ I rish Labour Party's parliamentary presence. presence. Defence lawyers were dismissed and ment, now conceded in the budget proposals of his intimidated before the trial. There is little chance S 1,000 million to shore up this murderous dictator­ At the time of writing, their party's ruling council ship. Besides these funds Thatcher's promised £15 election platform, of not imposing VAT of 18% on is in open conflict with its parliamentary leader who children's clothes and footwear, Kemmy would have that the people on trial for their lives, simply for million looks a paltry sum, although it still indicates prefers to defend the coalition budget as the plat­ being trade unionists, will get a fair hearing. quite clearly whose side her government is on. While kept him in power. form for joint electoral campaign with Fine Gael. Sinca the coup in September 1980 there have been the west sheds crocodile tears about the eclipse of The\budget offered tiny steps towards more equity Only the crudest lust for the spoi Is of office by an ten sentencas of hanging carried out. Another 112 freedom in Poland,it has no hesitation in giving its in income tax, but meant more taxes on all but the historically bankrupt rump of labourites can explain people have been sentenced to death and the prosec­ wholehearted backing to the murderers of trade un­ lowest wages. It would raise social wel:fare in line with labour leader O'Leary's blind gamble on yet another ution is calling for a further 2,449 hangings (figures ionists in Turkey. But then Turkey is in NATO, is inflation but it would tax unemployment and sickness coalition. for December 1981). Clearly the junta's promise of friendly to America, and is a bastion in the eastern benefits as an "incentive" to work. It would remove Openly and daily in the media, he and his coterie 'democracy' is dependent on them first wiping out mediterranean against the Soviet Union. For these subsidies on milk and butter, raise standard VAT from proclaim that the test of committment to the "nation­ any potential future opposition. reasons the west is quite happy to turn a blind eye 15 to 18%, and slap it on clothes and shoes for the al interest" is the already proven readiness of the I LP This legalised murder campaign only represents the (or even excuse) the ',excesses' of the military rulers. first time. It would raise the 25% VAT to 30%, it to impose austerity on workers to save this rotten cap­ tip of the iceberg. Torture and summary killings are I n order to publicise events in Turkey and organise would put 4Y:.p on a pint of beer, 8p on a glass of spir­ italist system. The ILP is courting open conflict even commonplace. A recent Amnesty International rep­ supportive action in the British labour movement, the its, 14p on a gallon of petrol, 11 Y:.p on 20 cigarettes, with the trade union bureaucracy, from whom it ort stated that torture is carried out: "as a routine Turkey Solidarity Cempaign together with the Comm­ 20% on post and telephone charges. holds its licence to call for workers votes. Its electoral practice in police stations and in some military es­ ittee for the Defence of Democratic Aights in Turkey Minimal token taxes on capital, a total levy of extinction, unfortunately, would not represent the tablishments all over the country." have organised a week of action from 6-13th March. £15 million on the banks and a £20 million jobs fund end of political illusions in reformism among Irish wor­ The left and the militant workers organisations are In additioh to this, the Turkey Solidarity Campaign for a new National Development Coroporation, were kers, so few of whom ever vote for it. But if it opens the prime targets of the NATO backed military reg­ is organising a speaking tour by exiled Turkish Trade the only sops to the trade union bureaucracy. All up the question of building a new all-Ireland Party of ime. Mirza Arabaci, a member of the Revolutionary Unionists from March 24-April 3rd. Labour movem­ this with prices rising already at 20%, wage settle­ Labour, there may emerge a vital forum for revolution­ Miners Union administrative board recounts: ent organisations are encouraged to invite a speaker ments below 10%,an embargo on filling more aries to argue their programme as the way forward for "On January 15 1981 I was taken from my house by and to sponsor the !our. For further details 'contact than 1 in every 3 public sector job vacancies, and 13% a new political organisation of the working class. For policemen; ••• I was brought blindfolded to Balikesir. Turkey Solidarity Campaign of the 3Y:. million population on the dole. neither the present collapse nor any of its li kely elec­ Since the populist Fianna Fail (FF) party lost the I was subjected to so many tortures that it is impou­ BM Box 5965 toral outcomes offer any hope whatever to the ible to recount them. I was hung by my arms and London WC1 N 3XX June election, nothing has happened to win them any I rish workers .• beaten, naked. I was doused with co.ld water, given new support, although they use less of F itzgerald's electric shocks, subject to continuous torture for 17 by Gen Doy crude threats about the "national crisis", but still by a member of the Irish Workers Group WORKERS POWER February 1982 PAGE 7 RAIL "ST·RIKE:

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I, • THE REAL VICTORY of the Brit­ fiie NUR guards have spontaneously come ish Rail Board in last year's "ambig­ out unof , ~icially, in the Southern Region, uous" deal over productivity agree­ Crew. Birmingham and Manchester. They ments with the NUR and ASLEF, are rebelling against a similar agreement to the one BRB are attempting to push lay in its success in dividing up the onto the locomen. rail unions against each other_ The agreement, signed by NUR's Exec­ The arch-conservative Sid Weighell uti~e, was rejected by the guards as can (NUR), has long exercised an iron grip be seen in the vote against the agreement over his union, at every turn seeking to at the 1981 Guards Grade conference, ancl deliver up his memberS' jobs as a sac­ by the flood of resolutions from the NUR rificial offering to his hero. BR Chief branches condemning the deal. Sir Peter Parker. Weighell is unstinti.ng in his praise: LIES AND DISTORTION FROM "If we can get this country governed the way Parker looks after BR, we might get THE PRESS it going again" (G,uardian 16.3.811. In­ Buckton's strategy of limiting the ac­ deed, Parker has created massive unem­ tion is not going to win the disptlte. The ployment in his BR "constituency", with two-day strikes are not crippling BR. They 10,000 jobs axed in 1981, and another may well lose custom, but the passen- 25,000 planned for the chop by 1985. gers they hit are coping by other means. As a job cutter he rivals Thatcherl The action cannot generate enough pres­ The determination shown by the sure 0 n BR and the governmellt for a footplatemen of ASLEF to defend their settlement. This is particularly so as each guaranteed 8-hour day and the 4,000 day of the long drawn-out dispute allows drivers' jobs (20% of the total) at stake, Fleet Street to marshal its hack writers stands in stark contrast to their union to attack the rail workers. From "The leaders. Sun" to "The Sunday Times". lies. exag­ gerations and distortions wi 11 serve to iso­ late the ASLEF strikers. A.S.L.E.F. EXTENDS A HELPING That's why all-out i ndefi nite stri ke HAND TO BRITISH RAIL action is crucial to brill: Parker, Rose Striking ASLEF rail workers lobby their ExecU/t;ive, and were later able to disrupt Buckton's attempt at and .the BRB to their knees. The secret negotiations with British Rail. The detefmination of workers like these must be built on to Buckton himsolf, the ASLEF leader manouevres leading towards "independ­ ensure that 11 full-scale all-out national strike takes place. has had to be pushed all the way to the' ent" arbitration with a Tory Lord have limited actiun so far taken. Way back in to be scuppered, as it is a device for sow­ treachery of these "leaders". and take August la st year, he had hoped to sell ish under conditions of isolation and thus undermining the strike. ing.confusion and crippling the momen­ control of the negotiations with BRB the "flexible rostering" deal to his own passivity. Secondly, only the rank and Finally, the same principle of rank tum of the workers. The proposal for out of their hands. members, as Weighell had imposed his. file bodies can ensure the effectiveness and file unity hano be applied if the arbitration at least indicates some weak­ A network of rank and file bodies is ASLEF's traditional craftist militancy of the necessary picketing that will need much-vaumed Triple Alliance is to become ness on BR's part, and this crack in res­ crucial for three other reasons. First. to be thrown up nationally to prevent activated. For Weighell, Buckton, Sirs has prevented this so far. However, des­ olve must be exploited through all-out the hostility or lack of sympathy bet­ any goods which normally go by rail and Gormley, the Alliance exists on paper pite the increasing calls for an all-out action. ween sections of the NUR and ASLEF, from going by road. In particular, the only. But with the continued slaughter· strike from sections of the membership, If an all-out strike is to succeed, it created and fostered by their leaders and TGWU, UCW ISTC and NUM must in­ of jobs by the BSC, the threat of, pit I especially from the Scottish region, the must be controlled by the rank and file acting as a l.Iarrier to the creation of one struct their members to black all such closures still hanging over the miners executive of ASLEF has extended a help­ from th's start, organised in local strike union for all rail workers, can only be traffic. and battleS over issues like one-man oper­ ing hand to the BRB by confining their committees at every station and depot. overcome by the daily contact that such Without the authority of the rank ated trains still to come on the railways, action to two-day strikes and a ban on with elected, recallable delegates. Taking organisation brings with it. and file bodies, phoney "dispensations" the potential of that alliance to knock overtime and rest-day working. shape as!l national alternative to Weighell Such coordination could prevent for all kinds of "essential" goods will be the stuffi ng out of the Tory offensive Despite Weighell's dictatorial attempts and Buckton immedidtely, it would help the gutter press and the union officials allowed through by the union officials, is there .• to force them back to work, rank and safeguard the stri ke from the proven from exploitin!;l the divisions that flour· COMMIT LCI TO TROOPS 'OUT NOW ON FEBRUARY 27th there will be be permitted to allow those who did noth­ on I reland last year, and overturni ng the vacuously of withdrawal and the need on weapons, can emerge. To this end, a conference of Labour Party and ing to ensure that the hunger strikers won democratic decision of the Southport for a united Ireland! militants have a responsibility to attend t;rade union activists to debate policy to apply new varnish to their justifiably nedes Council Conference to back the this conference and ensure that it marks political status campaign. a turning point in British labour's silence tarnished reputations. The work must pe done within the for bringing about the unification studied silence on the enslavement of of Ireland, long divided by British rank and file of the working class itself. The LCI and the CWI see this confer­ Militants who wish the conference to Ireland •• imperialism. The example of national caucuses within ence as a chance to extend the "victory" be a genuine and meaningful expression the unions - such as exists in ASTMS - DETAILS: Labour Movement Conference on Ireland. Organised jointly by the Labour Com­ of the October 1981 Labour Party Confer­ of solidarity with those struggling against bringing together those committed to ence into the trade unions. That "victory" Saturday, Feb 27th 1982 mittee on Ireland (LC!) and the Committee the British army will have to push the Troops Out NOiW and Self-Determination, 11.00 am The Theatre. 309 Regents st for Withdrawal (CW!), the conference is amounted to a partial break with the position of Troops Out Now and Self­ must be followed. Out of such beginn­ London. a vital one for militants committed to the previous uncontested Labour-Tory bi­ Determination For The Irish People As ings, meaningful action such as blacking Delegates and Observe" credentia ls partisan approach to Ireland. It passed A Whole. Only this position takes a prin­ (delegates £2.00) from: I rish liberation struggle. military supplies and blocking research 1. North End Rd, a·vague committment to a "united Ire­ cipled and unambiguous stand and states London W 14 It will be graced by prominent labour­ land". But the decisive rejection, by the clearly that British imperialism has no ite politicians (Benn, Livingstone, May· union block vote, of a Troops Out Now right whatever to be in Ireland. Only nard) and trade union official "Iefts" position indicates that while it may be this position, moreover, gives a practical (Sapper, Buckton)' It takes place six relatively easy to persuade the Party to immediacy to the calls for withdrawal, INSIJ(: POLAf\I) months after the final defeat of the cour· an unspecific committment to eventual and allows for concrete and immediate Tf£ LJ>!N FORD·S ageous hunger-strike by Irish republicans withdrawal, little more can be expecyed demands to be placed on the Labour SUBSCRIBE PARLlM£NT and socialists in which 10 died, in their from the Labour and trade union leaders. f~t:Util leaders in soldiarity with the Irish LaI:xxr I1'lOIA'lfl1ef1 m.JSt struggle for "political status". The hunger struggle. stri ke was a bitterly contested struggle Taking their cue from the Dublin­ against the Tory government. One of its London talks last year, the British trade S..,. .... most disgusting episodes was the sight of union leaders do not feel so uneasy now The record of the LCI to date does Labour I rish spokesman - Don Concannon not encourage us to believe that it will TO wmtl'S' about touting the prospect of eventual MP - crowing over their deathbeds at withdrawal. After all, $uch a position force this issue to the centre of the con­ their suffering, and arguing for Thatcher ference. The LCI itself is deliberately not NAME •...... •....• resisbIa does not appear too different fr.om that Send to the MId ..... below and to stiffen her resolve against the dying of certain members of the ruling class committed to TroQPs Out Now, so as tp £3 men. itself. allow bridges to be built to Parliamentary ADDRESS. _•...... •••• rec*ve 12 issues of the paper. and union leaders. Our principle task in Make cheques or POs payable to The Labour left will hope that the in­ solidarity work is to galvanise and con Workan Power and forward to: tervening months have allowed the mem­ The conference must remember not vince the rank and file of the unions to ory of their silence (with the partial ex­ only the heroism of the hunger strikers, support the struggle to end British rule Worken Power, cePtion of Livingstone), and their inac­ but also the TUC's pernicious role in pro­ in Ireland. This will not be done by BCM Box 7750, London, tivity, to fade. The temporary downturn scribing Trades Council participation in cow-towing to the odd officials who are WC1 N 3XX. in solidarity activity in Britain should not the Coventry Trades Coucnil conference prepared to grace platforms and talk

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