Workers Power, 29 November 1975

UNEMPLOYMENT: A Worker’s Answer

Pon . ‘ S 4 cn + 2 5 * . t i Bs a a a it & on, = F 4 ae i i ie mm 7, el i a + | é té =a : z ‘ — = = ig 7 lie i ce [) _ . aa = w a i I = a! —— ni ; at $ ‘ 2 a ] Fy ¥ bye S) * i : =, - : al i r = - Me — »Y. or } - es 5 = 4 = *

or wa irkers’ ‘ Action!) \

WORKERS POWER

A Rewew from Worker Power 29th November 1975

All correspondence to : WORKERS POWER 548 Loa Bridge Rd, London E10.

Phone 07 539 8209 or OF 701 4173

Photo used on cover: John Sturrock (REPORT)

Published hy WORKERS POWER 548 Lea Brags Rid., LONDON E.10.

CONTENTS:

PERSPECTIVES: UNEMPLOYMENT — TUC tries to Sabotage our struggle WAGES — £6 is not our limit - it

PORTUGAL:

CRISIS IN IS:

SOCIALISTS, ABORTION and NAC

ee ee ee |

The Crisis, the Left and our Perspectives

IRELAND:

must be smashed 3 The bosses’ order in dis-array.

james Rogers... wwe ee ew eee 4 Leadership’s fack of programme at

root of Left Faction expulsion, ... 7 Lig-Finfleld .-~ - 2 ween awe 13 PR SNOT cones ote ibis ace a 14

Revolutionary Marxism must give

new lead,

High-time the British Left took

sides,

John Agnew

cit os oo wo

Neill Bell (N. Ireland) 16

- =| - Ea Sees ke é

PERS

The ‘official’ unemploynie nt Fyures are niuving closer and closer the 1.5 million mark. One in every twenty workers in Britain is now without work. And the Labour Government intends. that this situation will get worse, Harold Wilson promisesa bleak and hard winter: The figure af 2 million unemployed is being openly predicted in Government and official circles, The jobs of many more workers are threatened if this Government is to lave its way,

Just what are our trade union leaders doing about it? What are they doing to save our jobs and livelihood?

During the summer they endorsed the £6 limit on all wage claims while arguing that unemployment was the main enemy of the Lubour movement. Since then wages have fallen further behind the cost of living and unemployment figures have continued to rise. Now-they have abandoned the unemployment struggle. Even worse they try to obstruct any rank and file initiative on this issue.

The trade union leaders have put their trust in politely pressuring the Labour Government to keep unemployment level: dawn. This policy hus obviously not worked, In fact it never could, The Labour Government is committed to restoring and streamlining British capitalism. As our jobs disappear, as the Welfare State crumbles, as inflation eats away at our living standards, the Stack Exchange is at its highest point for two years, The Labour Goverment accepts that workers will have to pay the price fora crisis which is not of their making. The trade union leaders have no ulternative to this. They accept cutsand unemployment, hoping only ta persuade the Labour Government to soften the blows.

The Government and bosses hope that the threat of unemployment will make workers prepared to accept cuts in living standards, In many factories it is being used blatantly to undermine militant trade union organisation.

The cudgel of unemployment has been used to great effect at Tower Brand, » Tube Investment subsiduary in Wolverhampton. Shop stewards supported the sacking of two militant TGWU members at the factory. The full time official tried to argue with. the stewards but got nowhere. When the sacked militants picketed the factory their brother workers refused to speak to them for fear of losing their jobs. With unemployment running at 7% in Wolverhampton, there is little-hope of finding a new job.

Unemployment hits bardest at groups of workers least able and experienced in defending themselves. It has opened up divisions between workers struggling to maintain their jobs, Women, black, workers and young people are particularly vulnerable to the divide and rule tactics, being used by the bosses. [See our article on Blacks and Unemployment further on in this issue.)

TUC tries to sabotage our

- 7 “eye

UNEMPLOYMENT

struggle

But short time working-and unemployment also threaten traditionally well organised groups of workers. Both are a threat to the working class as a whole. That is why class-wide action will be necessary to defeat the unemployment programme of the Labour Government. The TUC bureaucrats have deliberately set out to prevent the mobilisation taking place every where against unemployment. They have tried to sabotage the North West Region TUC lobby on November 26", They tisim that such action would up-set their policy of whispering sweet nothings in the ear of the Government. With such leaders who needs enemies? But the bureaucrats have not succeded in having it all their own way in the labour movement, They have failed to prevent the mobilisation for November 26t4_ Strike action has been called foren that day by London building sites and Islington NALGO. Shop stewards committees and Trades Councils have made it clear that they will be going to London. Crawley Trades Council, for example, wrote to the General Council saying they would do all in their power to mobilise for the 26" ang condemning the General Council for their class collaboration. Demonstrations are also being called by Liverpoo! and Leicester Trades Councils in that week. The TUC has got a resounding vote of no confidence in their pussy-footing tactics from rank and file trade unionists everywhere. But one week of good demonstrations will not destroy the Government's unemployment plans. The busses’ attack will only be repelled if much greater force is used. A clear strategy to fight unemployment must be hammered out.

The battles of the last four years have shown clearly that jobs cannot be saved without militant action. The Government is nota charity organisation, It warts to clase down whole sections of British industry. It wants workers to pay for the bosses crisis, The Government has anly been diverted from this course when workers action has forced them to, Even then, it has attempted to make workers pay for keeping their jobs by commissioning “feasability studies’ and then implem.- enting ‘rationalisation’, The bosses say that the workforce

MUS! ACCEPT Wage culs, speed-up, voluntary redundancy and productivity strings. Short-time and further redundancy: plans

at British Leyland show that the Labour Government will

give cash to the bosses and expect workers to. pay,

The bosses wan! our labour only when there are profits to

he made, When the crisis makes it less profitable to employ us or when British bosses’ competitive ability recieves a blow from their rivals, they want to dump us in the dole queues, until business picks up again, ting aa

eS

, igi cea =a =

perspectives:

If we accept this argumentit will condemn large sections of workers to unemployment or short-time working while other sections are doing enormous amounts of overtime, Since the latter are also working themselves out of a job, it is to the direct benefit of all workers to ensure that hours aré reduced to maintain work for all while full pay is maintained. However, work sharing (the reduction of hours to maintain all the workforce) must be under strict shop stew. . ards control,

Only occupation tactics - holding the bosses property in exchange for jobs - can force the hand of employers and the Government. Leicester this summer an occupation by Peggs’ workers saved 40 jobs. The plans for occupation ar Chrysler and the current occupations at Personna in Glasgow and Balfour Darwin in Sheffield (both involving large numbers of women workers) point the way forward,

But these tactics will not win in isolation, That is why we must fight to build in every area trade union committees against unemployment. These committees must not just be platforms for flowery orators. They.must liave a clear pro

pramme and perspective for action, The crucial test for these bodies will be whether they can marshall in the locality real support for groups of workers fighting redundancy, They must take responsibility for picketing, strike fund collecting, blacking and factory gate meetings in support of workers in struggle.

They must also initiate a clear campaign against the threat of redundanoy in the entire labour movement. Most importantly; they must fight for trade union registration of the unemployed, for immediate bans on all overtime and for the 35 hour working week with no loss of earnings. These policies can win immediate support in the trade union movement. Only local trade union committees against unemployment can make sure that these policies are actually fought for in the factories and workplaces.

Occupations by threatened sections of workers can win if supported by the trade union movement through rank and file unemployment committees. But these struggles immediately pose the question - What are we fighting for?

Already we have seen 114 million workers lose their jobs. They are our responsibility, We must ensure that the trade unions and anti-unemployment committees organise and fight for workers already unemployed, When our schools are disintegrating, our hospitals hopelessly inadequate and pathetic housing programmes being abandoned, the entire labour movement must campaign for a programme of public works under the control of the trade union movement. We cannot accept a system where hundreds of thousands of building workers are unemployed while housing, school and hospital programmes are being cut,

We must demand that the Labour Government immediately nationalise all firms that cannot guarantee full employment. But we are not interested in nationalisation that leads, asin the Caal Board or British Steel, to massive redundancies and to workers paying the price through deteriorationg pay and conditions, We must say that the bosses must pay the price for the crisis they have created. That is why we must demand nationalisation with no compensation to the owners

unemployment

who have created the crisis. The workers must not pay the price.We have not caused the crisis. We shall not pay for it.

We must organise ourselves to save our jobs but our struggle does not end there. If we can develop our power and Organisation we need never retum again to the present relationship. with management, Of course we should never sacrifice our trade union rights and independence. We should not accept responsibility and joint ‘participation’ But we must continue to organise to protect the interests of workers more than ever before. We must insist that all books and committees ame open to workers inspection whenever we see fit. We must build our strength to veto.any management decision we do not agree with - those which affect us adversely, We must develop the power to say yes or no to all man agement proposals for production, planning and conditions.

The struggle for our jobs raises the question of who should control. In the fight to save jobs and guarantee full pay we must insist that we will decide what we produce and how we do it. That is what we mean by workers control,

The Labour movement must demand not only nationalisation without compensation but also that the Labour Government recognise the right of the workforce to veto all decisions of management, Occupation committees must ensure that this demand is part and parcel of their fight against unemployment. The plight of workers on the Scotish Daily News and at Triumph Meriden shows just how important this demand is.

The trade union leadership cannot save our jobs, Their cringing tactics prove this. We will have to organise for ourselves. But that organisation must have a clear strategy and programme if it is 10 win,

WE ARE FOR: A 35 hour week with no loss of earnings Aa immediate ban on all overtime. Trade union registration and organisation of the pnemployed, The Labour Government implementing a programme of public works, The occupation of all firms threatening redundancies, Nationalisation with no compensation of

all firms who cannot maintain work or full pay.

WE SHALL NOT PAY FOR THE CRISIS: No to participation and joint responsibility. Fight for our right to veto management

decisions - the Labour Government must recognise that right.

- my ~~ = v ce

perspectives :

£6 is not our limit

WAGES

SP os

it must be smashed

The £6 limit has meant that our wages are rapidly falling behind the rising cost of living, The Government is now talking about a £3 of £4 limit next year and anticipating a 5% to 10% fall in réal living standards,

Rolls Royce workers in East Kilbride have put in a claim for £15, This isa direct challange to the Labour Government's pay policy, But the Trade Union leadership has accepted the wage cutting £6 limit. The NUM executive has now decided {o go for the £6 only,

Throughout the country groups of workers are finding that bosses will not even yield the miserable £6 without a fight. Women clothing workers have been the latest to discover this, Over 1500 members of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers (NUTGW) at the Courtauldowned Northgate Group of factories in Cheshire are on strike for the full £6, They have refused a £3.60 offer,

At Kayser Bondet, a Courtauld firm in Merthyr Tydfil 400 women strikers are sticking out for £6 and say they are going to fight till Christmas to get it, if that is necessary, The NUTGW South Wales area officer has refused to make this strike official for what she calls “constitutional reasons”; this inspite of the fact that the strikers’ claim is in line with this year’s TUC economic resolution - “No worker should recieve less than £6 per week increase”,

But the Union official's cowardice is matched only by the brazen face of the boss. Using the Wilson-Healey getout clause that the £6 is conditional on employers’ abil ity to pay, Courtauld’s management are pleading poverty!

Another danger: We must not allow the battle for jobs to obscure the fight to maintain and improve workers’ living standards,

_ Break the £6 wage limit, Our wages have not caused the crisis. We have not caused unemployment and inflation.

Maximum support for all workers struggling to achieve the full £6,

No productivity strings or selling of conditions for wages rises,

No let up in the women's Equal Pay battle,

WE SAY:

Militants must prepare now not just for this year's pay battle but for next year's claim,

WE MUST DEMAND: No limit on free collective bargaining. No

to any Incomes Policy under Capitalism.

For lump-sum increases large enough to at least compensate for our loss of earn— ings over the last year,

In addition we must fight for automatic 1% wage rises for every 1% increase in the workers’ cost of living,

A £1 weekly rise for every 1% rise in the Retail Price Index.

The Trade Union movement must develop its own index of living-costs. We don't trust the phoney figures of the Governiment and employers.

These policies can form the basis for a united class fight to maintain our living standards, They are the only answer to Healey’s and the CBI's intention to divide us again on secti:nal and craft lines with their plan for percentage increases -their incomes .policy,

Militants in all industries that support these policies must unite now, We must not leave the initiative for formulating the next round of wage claims with those who have presided over Wage cuts this year,

WORKERS POWER

Te ae

PORTUGAL

THE BOSSES’

The last two months have been the most important period in the history of the Portuguese revolution. With the ruling class preparing for further attacks, the situation now hangs in the balance. The working class and rank and file soldiers must strengthen and extend the mass movement which grew up in response to the Sixth Provisional Government’s attacks, They must tum this into an offensive for workers power and socialism or the Portuguese people face a bloody retum to fascism.

When the Sixth Provisional Government took over at the end of September, its programme promised a crack down on ‘indiscipline’ in the army, respect for private property, censorship of the media and the breaking we of all private militias, meaning armed workers and left organisations. To back up these moves, it attempted to set up a reliable security force, AMI (Military Intervention Group), as'an alternative to the ‘too Left wing’ COPCON,

So far the Government's attacks have been beaten back by the combativity of workers and rank and file soldiers, The weapons armistice has been treated with derision. Threats of up to eight years imprisonment and fines of up to one million Escudos for possession of weapons yielded only two out of the estimated 10,000 missing from armouries. The power of the neighbourhood and. workers commissions and the rank and file soldiers’ organisation, SUV (Soldiers United Will Win) has been extended. Seisures by armed farm workers of the large southern farms have continued,

The Government's first attack, and defeat, came at the end of September when they imprisoned two soldiers for distributing leaflets of the néwly formed SUV. A demonstration the next day was a massive show of support for SUV. Twelvé thousand soldiers and eighty thousand workers marched through Lisbon end commandeered buses to take them fifteen miles to the prison where they successfully freed the two men.

THE FIGHT FOR RADIO RENASCENCA

Two weeks later the Government ordered troops to occupy the radio stations. This was a pretext to close down Radio Renascenca, once the official Catholic Church radio, where a struggle for workers’ control had been going on for over a year. The Government moves were also an attempt to impose control of the news by the MFA information agency. Within hours of the close-down large crowds were protesting outside the Information Ministry. Ignoring attempts by Carvalho to head the movement off and leave the situation in the hands of COPCON, the assembled crowds went to the stations where discussion with the occupying troops led to them going over to the workers,

4 t

ORDER IN DISARRAY

The Government retaliated by or-- .ing loyal commandos to occupy the transmitters, thus silencing Radio Renascenca. The studios however remained occupied by workers and left COPCON units. Fearing intervention by the paratroops, all stations were guarded by armed troops and civilians during the nights of Monday 29" and Tuesday 30°" of September.

The Republica offices were also guarded. The Government had succeeded in stopping Radio Renascenca’s broadcasts but the mood in the ranks of the army had been clearly demonstrated. During the next weeks a campagn for the re-opening of Radio Renascenca developed with the worker-controlled newspaper Republica playing an important role in publicising the issue, The studios remained occupied by workers and

the transmitters by commandos, The neighbourhood commissions at Buraca mounted a permanent picket at the transmitter gates and the commandos were eventually withdrawn a few days before a forty thousand-strong demostration re-opened the stations. Hostility from the local population is claimed to have played an important role in

the commandos’ withdrawal,

After three weeks off the air, Radio Renascencs was re-opened by the demonstration which was supported by fifteen soldiers commissions and fifty workers commissions from the Lisbon area. Unable to cope with mass mobilisations and the disloyalty of soldiers, the Government eventually used crack troops to blow up the transmitter, silencing Radio Renascenca on Friday October 7™ .

THE METAL WORKERS FIGHT

Another important defeat for the Government was at the hands of the Metal Workers Union. A struggle over pay and conditions led to the Fifth Government agreeing to the workers demands, However, many employers refused to concede and the Sixth Government reversal of the earlier agreement led to a one-day national strike of 200 000 metal workers on Tuesday October 7™. The strike was also against

the Sixth Government's introduction of laws allowing for lock-outs and dismissal of strikers. Tens of thousands of metal workers demonstrated in the main cities that evening. In Lisbon this culminated outside the Ministry of Labour with a massive rally eventually dispersing when the Government conceded most of the demands and waved the lock-out rules for the metal workers, although they still remain for the rest of the working class.

ee

THE CRACK DOWN IN THE ARMY

The Sixth Government has appoinved right wing commanders in all three military regions and attempted to purge revolutionary soldiers and officers, These moves have been resisted, This struggle reached a peak in tho Northem Military Region when the regional commander, Pires Veloso, tried to close a left-wing unit of lorry driven (CICAP), This amall unit of 150 men recieved support from the left-wing artillery regiment, RASP. CICAP"s isolation was overcome by RASP occupying its own barracks and opening them to CICAP and sympathic soldiers from other units, The red flag was rajsed - the struggle began.

Left-wing troops demanded immediate re-instatement of CICAP, a guarantee of no victimisation of any soldier involved in the struggle and the dismissal of Veloso, Local workers commissions and the metal workers the struggle. When a demonstration was called by the PPD (a right-wing,

anti-working class party whose members claim to be Social Democrats) to support Veloso, a large crowd of workers gathered outside the barracks to demonstrate their support for the soldiers inside, The PPD demonstration marched on the barracks armed with pistols, hunting rifles and some avtomatic weapons and clashed with the defenders. Unarmed soldiers from the barracks tried to separate the two sides but were attacked by the PPD, The RASP soldier then brought out two tanks to disperse the right wing. There were fiftysix casualties during the night and this led to a permanent vigil being kept by the workers armed with clubs. Streets leading to the barracks were blocked and up-rooted cobblestones stockpiled for any further right-wing attacks.

Intervention by the army chief of staff, General Fabiao, led to the concession of the first two demands, CICAP was to be re-instated in new barracks and a guarantee of no disciplinary measures was given, However, the army leadership obviously intends to ignore this agreement since din ciplinary measures have begun. Furthermore, a meeting on October 74" to assess the situation and continue the struggle for Veloso’s removal was stopped by right-wing officers.

Faced with the militant response of the working chiss and rank and file soldiers: to the attacks of the State, the Government finally managed to mobilise a demonstration in Oparta on October 25." to support its policies. The Prime Minister, Admiral Azevedo, flew in to speak to this massive demostration organised by the Socialist Party end supported by the PPD and CDS. (The latter is a right-wing group which provides a haven for fascists.) These organisations mobilised all over the North of the country for the event which was portrayed by the Government controlled television as a peat victory. Young girls prevented Azevedo with flowers and mastial music was broadcast 2s an accompaniment to

of the demonstration. The right-wing newspaper de Noticias, was able to say the next-day “At lest these is an alternative to the Left”

Weakened by the fall of Goncalves and the Socialist Party mobilisation agzinst it in the North, the PCP was prepared to

by taking part in the Government with the PPD, Raving out of the United Front with the revolutionary

left, the PCP moved to the right to maintair its position. By

its participation in the Sixth Uevernment it is implicated in all the anti-working elass meves whieh that Government has made, li has either abstained of even only. half-hearted support to the struggies against the Gavernment,

At the same time it has been farced 16 be verbally milit ant and attempts to play a dual role, While participating in the Government it uses mass mobilisations a9 a Sp 181 working class base, using this base as a stage army to balsie: up its attempts to carve out a better position in the state apparatus, The PCP uses its control over the worker and neighbourhood commissions in the Lisbon area to launch demonstrations backing its governmental manoeuvres. For instance, when the Sixth Government was being formed,

a demonstration was called with good general anti-fascist and antiC1A slogans; but the main slogan, “For a Government to defend the gains of the Revolution”, implied

that more PCP representation in the Sixth Government ould do that, The PCP has attempted to channel the mass movement against the Sixth Government into support for a return to the laws of the Fifth,

They have built a cult around Goncalves which causes further confusion. (Their supporters carry pictures of him on demonstrations and copies of his “sayings” are on sale.)

With the revolutionary left raising no clear workers’ demands on the Government which could act as an alternative, the danger is that the mass movement against the Government may well be led back under the safe wing of the PCP,

However, the PCP by no means has guaranteed control of future movements. There are spires and regional differences within it, When if left the Linited Froat and joined the Goverament, groups of woskermembers defected to the left im several areas. In some areas there are semi-organieed rank and file oppositions. These do not rpresent a real break bet ase an expression of left moves amongst the working class and dissatisfaction with PCP participation im aright. _ -. St eiaeeaet eck OF

ical development these movements are easily headed off the verbal mritancy of the Party leadership.

A major difference exists in the PCP in the southern farming aves of Alentejo, where there is wide spread seizures of lange Germs by armed workers, ejection of landlords and formation of collective farms. After initially criticising the occupations, the PCP has been forced to support them because of the revolutionary fervour of the population and because its own members in the region were leading the struggles. The Reform Agraria movement which is aa attempt to co-ordinate and centralise the running of the co-operatives, is enthusiastically supported by the PCP and it has great influence within it.

The majority of the leadership and sank and file of the Party remgins to the left of European Stalinism. The only split in the leadership is a right opposition group, which favours a coalition with the Socialist Party. This group

is heavily influenced by the Spanish and Italian CPs.

THE PORTUGUESE SOCIALIST PARTY (PSP)

Occupying the majority position in ‘the Sixth Govemment, the PSP has been responsible for all the anti-working class legislation. 11 is difficult to assess what remains of the working class support it had at the time of the election, for its electoral strength is not reflected in ofganisational form.

Its mobilisstions in Lisbon against the radio station occupations by workers and soldiers are almast totally white

collar and petit-bourgeois in composition. However, the Mlusion it has peddled of economic prosperity going hand

in hand with stable social democratic government ( the examples of West Germany and Sweden) has struck a chord, It obviously has support amongst backward sections of the working class, especially in the North.

Its joint slates with a Maoist group, the MEPP, succeded in winning union elections and withdrawing several of these union from the CP dominated Intersyndical. However, there are signs of splits by organised Socialist Party workers as the right wing nature of the Government becomes more and more obvious, For instance, when Soares denounced the metal workers’ strike af a SP rally in Oporto, the metal workers’ contingent left in protest.

THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFT The development of the Revolutionary United Front (FUR) which is composed of six non-Maoist groups to the left of the CP, has had an important impact. The Front began when the CP used the revolutionary left to defend its position as the Goncalves regime collapsed and the Socialist Party launched its attacks in the North. When the CP left the-Front and joined the Government, FUR was launched arid made some gains amongst CP workers. Since then FUR has made important initiatives. Durthe struggle around the radio stations it provided the lead together with the Maoist UDP. Similarly FUR and the UDP has influented the development of SUV, However, FUR's lack of programmatic clarity and the diverse politics of the groups within it mean that this progress will be difficult to maintain as the tasks facing revolutionaries become sharper with the escalation of thé crisis, Held together by the healthy by insufficient sentiment that ‘it is better to work together than apart’ the groups within it constantly split on the very questions that such a front should answer in a united voice, THE SITUATION IN THE ARMY Government strategy has been to attempt to isolate and purge left wingers and to disolve units controlled totally by the left. There are continued attempts to dissolve COPCON and the Military Police - one of the most revolutionary units in Lisbon. These moves are being successfully resisted in the Lisbon area, the South and in Oporto. The Government's attempt to set up AMI has met with much resistance; many units have refused to serve in. it. The Government has now re-issued automatic weapons to the Republican Guard, instructing them to take over the functions of COPCON. The Government cannot rel ¥ on any section of the army exposed to discussion with the civilian population. This is why it had to blow up Radic Renascenca’s transmitter, since the occupying troops’ loyalty might have changed, Inducements of 5,500 Escudos a month as opposed to the conscript monthly wage of 250 Escudos were used in the attempt to strengthen AMI. This has resulted in the re-inlistment of many right-wing ex-commandos and paratroopers, The Government is also attempting to transt::rm the armed forces from conscript recruits to. a regular service and aims to disband the units mostradicalised by the experience of the summer. The organisation and spreading of the rank and file revolt in the army has been greatly assisted by the development of SUV. Beginning in Oporto, there have been

big mobilisations in every major town, Despite SUV's strength,

fears of victimisation cause soldiers to wear masks 10 avoid

recognition on demonstrations. There are dangers of the

movement being headed off since the less right-wing moder6

ates like Fabiao and Carvalho are suggesting that SUV sho be legalised and incorporated into the MFA, To avoid this and to continue its development, the programme of SUV must be extended. To consolidate and translate its suppor into a stable organisational form, the fight must begin fort election and recall of all officers by mass meetings of rank and file soldiers, Without this, the fear of victimisation wil continue and existing high levels of consciousness may din inish,

The CP played no role in setting up SUV and initially opposed it; but itis now forced to supportit, A CP take: over must be resisted although such a move is unlikely. Th setting up-of SUV caused important developments in the Navy. A rank and file movement (CDAP) already existed, Its CP leadership refused to support SUV but a rank and revolt led to the reversal of that decision,

The development of SUV has been the most important development in the armed forces over the last two month Before revolutionaries argued for the need to exacerbate the splits in the MFA but this has been speedily by-pass-

ed, The Revolutionary Council is now firmly in the hand of the right-wing and the arena of struggle is between the rank and file and the heir archy.

The Sixth Government has failed todestroy the gains made by workers and soldiers since the coup, Workers in towns and countryside have continued to build their own

Organisations,

However, the Government has far from given up. It ha recently prepared an economic programme as part of its efforts to obtain aid from international organisations like the EEC. Wide ranging economic cuts including rationing of basic foodstuffs and wage restraint are included. It proposes the freezing of industrial wage negotiations until the end of the year. However the document also recognises that its application is likely to provoke “serious political problems”. “Consequently its formal announcemen

is likely to be delayed unt) the Revolutionary Council ¢ the Armed Forces Movement has completed the task of n toring military discipline.” (Financial Times: 12.11.1975

The Lisbon building workers’ strike for 40% increases | the seige of the Prime Minister and Government show th the workers have not been beaten back, Their v ictory cle demonstrates to the Government just how serious these 7 itical problems will be.

But the bourgeoisie will not politely leave the stage. T will try every trick in the book to keep their property ant power, If they are allowed, they will find a government w the political colouration toaid them in this task, Asa senior economist at the Bank of Portugal said, “Force wil have to be used and the standard of living pushed down, The important thing is that the government must have th political complexion to drive this through”

The bosses are already training troops in Spain and cos stantly developing new strategies. Backed by Wilson and the Common Market, they will resort to all forms of sabo age and provocation to reasert their power. They have thi support and advice of the entire machinery of American and European capitalism, They wil stop at nothing,

Portugal must not become another Chile. The danger i this is clearly realised by many workers. Hence the aggre:

ive slogan “Portugal will not be the Chile of Europe” is shouted by workers on many demonstrations. The gains of the workers and soldiers must not be drowned in blood. Only the development of workers power ¢2n prevent this. Either the Portuguese workers go forward to the seizure of power or the entire international workers’ movement will suffer a mighty setback.

CRISIS IN [S

Leadership’s lack of programme

at root of Left Faction expulsion

At the end of October the entire Left Faction of the International Socialists was expelled from that organisation.

Hiding behind the treacherous pretence that the Central Committee was only purging IS of the disruptive elements in the Faction, over half the faction membership was expelled or suspended between mid-August and the beginning of October, The National Secretary explained in a circular to branch secretaries that while being a member of the Left Faction was not forbidden, ‘promoting factional policies’ or ‘factionalising’ was, In short an IS member might belong to the Faction as long as they did absolutely nothing about it. This was vividly illustrated by the expulsion of the Faction Secretary in mid-September for— in Jim Nichol’s own words — “continued organisation of factional activity”.

Intimidation failed to stop Left Faction members fram fighting for their polities The leadership were therefore forced to resort to the block expulsion of the Factan,

The Lefi Faction organised a joint meeting with the 1S Opposition on the issue | The policy of backdoor expulsion was a of the backdoor expulsions, The attendance | direct continuation of the leaderships teof 1001S members from all over the coun- | fusal to politically debate with us as a try put paid to the leadership's hope that faction. Most notably during the sothe could quietly rid themselves of the Left | called pre-conference period they produc-

a statement from

WORKERS POWER

the former Left Faction of IS

At this meeting, seeing the low-profile | argued against our representation at tactic in tatters, Steve Jeffries delivered district aggregates, the Central Committee's verdict: The iS members are being given the miserable | Left Faction — if it had the temerity to argument that democratic centralism does | exist at the end of October — would be not permit factional activity In the nine | expelled forthwith, months between conference discussions, | This period permits only the inmplertientation of national policy wherescever atid by whom it may have been decided, This is, in itself, a grotesque and uridalded dis tortion of democratle centralistit, As Il the issues posed by the class struggle kept

Faction without the membership being ed not.one written word against our pos-

any the wiser. itions and their supporters consistently to a timetable like a suburban hus. The leadership themselves lave Hu fhlenthons i

Conferrnee (975: The number of delegates drastically cut of sticking tu auch ‘rules’. They have } not taken the iemibersltij wp canlereives | serioualy.

The last “vunference discussion” was disrupted by their dévision to restructure the basis of discussion and delegacy, What permpeclives cane out of the conference that followed these manoeuvres? |

gimmicks |

Despite the most severe economic crisis of British and World Capitalism since the Second World War, the conference had no perspective for the class and. nothing for the membership to implement. Instead the leadership has.been, forced to cast.around

Moturas Andrew Wied « Ale lea (A emort |

pid lind

aii!

for new gimmicks and answers to orientate

the membership and enthuse sagging morale.

The September Council was presented with a new scheme from the Central Committee to build the Socialist Workers Party out of readers of Socialist Worker, None of this was discussed with the IS membership, Since then the ‘Right to Work Campaign’ has been conjured up as a route to building both the Rank and Pile and 18's periphery. These policies have no consistency except a perpetual distrust and contempt for the seriousness and patience of 1S members,

These methods have not developed overnight. The history of IS has been a series of increasingly less sucoessful campaigns and solutions, The absence of a serious democratic-accounting of the leadership's schemes ensures that most ‘answers’ become quietly forgotten.

The factory branches were to be the bridge to the party. Then it was to be the workers’ paper with Paul Foot as editor, Now the organisation has been galvanised to ‘hate the Labour Party’,

None of these issues was-ever seriously debated and decided by conference, Even the factory branch campaign —‘build 80’ etc — was launched several months after the conference supported careful and cautious recognition of them, They were all swung upon a thoroughly unprepared inembership.

worker leaders

Throughout these chops and changes the composition of the leading committee has remained remarkably consistent. Annual ‘prize’ workers have come and gone in a welter of rhetoric about the worker leadership. Despite ail the talk, the

worker members have remained manipulated and increasingly demoralised by the only undeclared and unprincipled faction in 1S — its leadership. Treated like prize bulls one year, they have consistently been declared backward Jooking elements by the next.

economism

The IS leadership is totally unwilling to present the most rudimentry political and

organisational proposals for debate by the membership.

Why?

Partly because their half-baked schemes would not stand up to the test of serious examination, The leadership are increasing-

ly incapable of providing a clear strategy and coherent tactics.

But this is not the entire answer.

We do not think that the leadership in IS has been seized by a group of incompetents and bunglers, Their errors, in fact, go much deeper than a series of increasingly farcical mistakes.

To build without a programme, i.e. an operative strategy for the party and class, is to build on sand, IS has done serious and often splendid support work for workers in struggle (in every way a crucial task), But its socialist policies have remained on the level of abstract propaganda for socialism and workers’ control,

To those of us who pointed this out, attacked it as Economism and called for a programme, the leadership replied ‘that we were “not in a transitional period” Apparently Socialism was a long way off; #o meanwhile we had to take (and Jeave}

{S Aides belting the

‘“Sacial Democract Cay Workers Demo crecy in siege becouse if Aer no Brahe for fet rood to Warkers Power

fa

workers" struggles as we found them!

This faith in the eventual spontaneuus politicisation of the industrial struggle served 15 well in the period from 1968 to 1972, A recipe of ‘more militancy’ and ‘hate the Tories’ meant 15 could stand asa pole of attraction, The effects of unemploy ment, inflation and a Labour Government made such a recipe increasingly inadequate [S has not been able to cut with the grain again.

The deep and prolonged crisis has revealed § leadership without any serious answers. No answers, for example, as to how to fight inflation, [S chased after ‘Hig claims’ — 30% plus — until the Mark

Hl Social Contract imposed the £6 limit.

Before that, it had simultaneously condemned threshold deals and then lamely joined in when masses of workers fought to get them. While all the time rejecting the rising scale of wages (lump sum increases for each increase in the workers’ cost of living index) as a disastrous check to militancy, Cliff saw inflation not asa danger but as rhe “Locomotive of revol-

ution’, reformism When the £6 limit was imposed, the IS leadership tumed in frenzy on the Labour Party. Previously IS had contented itself with making fun of the Labour Party for its falling votes and diminishing ward me bership. It was incapable of addressing thi confusion sown by reformism in the wai ing class, of providing more relevant ans than ‘more militancy", ‘hate Labour’ am ‘build the Socialist Workers’ Party’, ing the firm hold of reformist ideas 3 Trade Union bureaucrats and the #0

effects of unemployment and inflation on industrial mulitancy, |S has neither the political nor organisational means to tackle these key problems.

1S will neither put demands on Labour sc.as to mobilise against them nor outline cledr alternatives to the old, inadequate, sectional methods of trade union struggle.

offensive

We think that such an alternative can only be posed-in terms of a-clear transitional programme. This programme will be indispensable for transforming defensive class struggles into a class offensive, [t would outline a clear Workers’ Alternative to the crisis, and the strategy:and onganisation necessary to turn the crisis against the bosses. 11 would be the basis of an offensive leading masses of trade unionists and others into the direct struggle for workers’ power,

With the crisis thundering “Who shall pay — tha workers or the Bosses?”, “What is the alternative?” and “Who rules this country — the Government or the Lnions?”, the 15 leadership still intends to play things by ear — to suck it and sec, They continue to scramble for u magical set of gimmicks and campaigns to keep their organisation on the road,

Having rejected transitional politics, they have no altemative. Behind the hysteria

Lenine Had he iia time for democratic central: faa a political pragramme”

of “Social Democracy Out — Workers’ Democracy In” and “Social Contract of Socialism”, lies not one shred of programme. or strategy for the road to workers’ power,

Tony Cliff has written a biography of Lenin and a series of !ournal articles in an attempt to enshrine this methodology. Lenin the revolutionary, not surprisingly, had no time for democratic centralism or a political programme,

The Socialist Workers Party turn will not answer the problems confranting |S. The sudden new sectarian turn against the Broad Left and the launching of the socalléd Engineers’ Charter, the prospects of a Walsall [8 candidate without a programme or support in the area and the new answer fo slow recruitment (those who don't join are the best members. of all and will lay the basis for the new revolutionary party) are the stunts of a sect — not the reasoned and condistent strategy of the revolutionary party nucleus. Only by fur ther diminishing internal discussion within IS and preventing contact between IS members and other cantendingforces in the labour movement will the leadership hold this prote-sect togethers

Workers Power will be producing a review magazine carrying the same name. It will be published every three weeks and will define, in a topical way, where we stand on the major questions facing the working class movement, both nationally and internationally. The first issue will be centred around the fight-back against unemployment, and the deepening crisis in Portugal.

If you want a copy fill in the subscription form over-leaf.

What did ® Left Faction

stand for in IS?

How did it begin?

lt commenced in [972 as a response to the leadership's position on Lreland. One bomb in Aldershot immediately exploded any pretence on their part to argue for support for thase fighting the British Army in Ireland. Since then FS‘s trish work has diminished to virtually zero.

We objected to this failure to argue for clear Internationalist politics in the British working class, We have consistently opposed [S's opportunistic and unpolitical approach to international work and the building al the Intemational. How many IS comrades know the political programme of the PRP (B—R) or the criticisms of [S made by the Socialist Workers’ Movement in Ireland? if comrades do know, we canbe sure they were not told by the IS leadership.

strategy

This failure to argue clear politics was not, we argued, because of an absence ol abstract propaganda for socialism or a planned economy. IS has asurteit of this, It was because IS had no clear programme and strategy for the class.

We opposed the draft programme offered by the Cliff leadership. We said it was a Useless mish-mash of history lessons, rosy portrayals of the future and endless tists of elementary and immediate demands. Asx such it could never be offered to the class as IS's-alternative. We were right. That programme never saw light of day, let alone the test of shop floor battle! 11 was quietly buried hy those who commanded us to obey the conference they so brazenly held in contempt.

IS could never develop a programme for the class as a result of the contemplations of cloistered leaders. Only the experience of the membership could develop a programme and a correct line and orientation for the Organisation, As a result, we have always argued consistently for democratic centralism and against the § violent twists and tums that have resulted from a lack of serious democratic accounting in 1S,

ere not taken in by the baloney .“Workers’ Leadership”, seeing it est, a token and at worst the smokescreen for further manipulation. A-workers’ leadership can only emerge as the result of genuine democratic argument — any other ‘committees-of workers’ were sure to get in ; | the way of the leadership and had to be declared backward looking or no langer sufficiently proletarian! We have argued for a consistent fight ' | to build a genuine rank and file movement independent of the swings of the IS leadership, We have always argued for a serious, altermative, workers’ programme for the crisi§ as an answer to the illusions and blind alleys of reformism. We have argued for women’s politics not to be an optional extra but central to the battle for our ideas in the working class movement, We are proud of the consistency and correctness of our ideas.

purge

We attempted to remain in 1S ona principled and perfectly open factional platform, The alternative was the unprincipled gossip world of secret factionalism, The {5 teadership has expelled us for the former.

We consider the mounting crisis increasingly reveals the inadequacies of the politics of this leadership. The internal regime makes correction and new direction impossible. The leadership will first try to smother and ignore argument and differences, If they fail in this they will reply with expulsions once again. We are confident that they will be forced to purge the membership in the immediately foreseeable future,

the Party

We will argue for our politics outside IS. The increasing bankruptcy of IS makes ever more urgent the need to build the revolutionary party. Some comrades in 15 are not yet clear to what extent the organisation is reformable or, on the other hand, only going through a‘bad patch’. We urge them not to wait and see but to argue their differences openly before the membership. Only in this way will they put the IS leadership to the test.

We are committed to building the party. The crisis of capitalism poses the need and possibility most sharply, IS cannot meet that challenge, We appeal to all [S:membert sickened by the political bankruptcy and bureaucratic practices of the Internat-

ional inlint = beade fat tuhes i rship to join us in

The Left Faction orgued for an alteriative workers programme av an antiwer te te iris ond blind alleys of reformism

SUBSCRIBE

to

WORKERS POWER

Three montns (4 issues)... .. .£1.00

Six months (8 issues)... .. .£2.00 One year (16 issues)..... £4.00 MAME... «keto. ¢ Pe oe Forward to: WORKERS POWER 548 Lea Bridge Road

ADRESSE nies Os oo os LONDON E.10. sete eee . on 8 2 meee © * ee Phone orders

through to: 01-539 8209 ron i. or 7 oe ? 01 - 701 4173

———=—_———————————————————————_—_—_———————— — —

On the previous four pages we heve reprinted 4 leaflet which Workers Power issued to IS members shortly after our group was expelled from the International Socialists.

THIS WAY FOR THE ~ PORTUGUESE WORKERS

The summer offensive of the ‘forces of order’, spearheaded by Mario Soares’s Socialist Party and the ‘moderate” grouping in the AFM around Fabiao and Antunes, resulted in the installation of the Sixth Provisional Government headed by Admiral Pinheiro de Azavedo, This government has two central tasks; to restore the armed forces as disciplined tools of the State power; and to rest from the workers the gains they have made in terms of wages and conditions, In addition, it must arrest the encroachment on management autocracy by the various forms of workers control.

So far the Government has failed to achieve its first aim which weakens it considerably when it comes to the task of disciplining workers, The Government chief hopes of achieving its goals are to organise or rely on:

Provocations aimed at the left to produce an gut break which could be used to crush the vanguard at the same time isolating them from the great mass of workers and peasants,

@ir dead weight of the SP, CP and the Intersyndical bureaucracy holding back the working class long enough to demoralise both soldiers and workers.

@ir further demoralising effects of the econc nic cTisis; prolonged and severe unemployment-and inflation,

However, no serious shift of class forces in the bourgeoisie’s favour has yet occurred, The workers and soldiers moveare gathering momentum, The next few months, even weeks,

could be decisive, In this period the strategy and tactics of the revolutionary workers are crucial to the fate of the revol. ation,

The question is now posed - will the workers in the factories and fields and the soldiers in the barracks find the road to insurrection, then establish the dictatorship of the proletariat; or will the bourgeoisie and the army high-ups establish a crushing Bonapartist dictatorship (perhaps decorated to a greater or lesser degree as a “pluralist democracy")

Crucial problem areas for the fate of the Portuguese revolutution are:

REVOLUTION

THE UNITED FRONT

The hold reformist parties still have within the working class, their power to confuse and obstruct the mobilisatior of the class for the crucial offensive and even for defence of previous gains, necessitates the fight by revolutionaries for a workers united front against reaction.

The present FUR (Revolutionary United Front) is totally inadequate for this purpose, It does not include the CP, the largest and most influential party in the working class, [ts manifesto is an ideological muddle - too long winded and imprecise for the agreed slogans of a united front and tao compromised for the programme of a revolutionary party. A_ united front requires limited but precise fighting slogans that attempt to win all workers and soldiers organisations to them while allowing the clearest delineation of political tendencies within that front.

What immediate issues must be taken up by a united workers’ movement? What issues point the way to the only solution - workers power? Revolutionaries should fight for a united front which takes up the following points,

For armed workers defence squads, Support SUV. full political rights for soldiers: for the election and right of recall of officers, DISBAND THE AMI AML, Against the selective disbani! 2 of revolutionary units, For the disbandment ui the standing army and its replacement by a popular militia, Work or full pay (average industrial wage) for all demobilised units - transform these units into workers defence guards, Units of these guards to enlist, arm and train workers,

@ro united local councils of delegates from the workers, tenants and soldiers commissions, For a national congress of delegates from these organisation, BUILD WORKERS COUNCILS,

istance to the peasants, Give them interest free credit and cheap fertiliser, Nationalise all middle-men enterprises and repiace them with a non-profit making State marketing agency under

@ workers and peasants control, Nationalise all large farma (latifundia) under workers control, Legal recognition of all land seizures and occupations by farm workers, Defend and extend these selzures, Interest free credit and cheap fertiliser to the agrioultural co-operatives,

& Aguinst economic sabotage. For measures which annul the effects of the economic crisis on the working class. Nationalisation without compensation and under workers contral of all latee firms and enterprises. Workers inspection and control. Abolition: of business.secrecy, Support for all wages struggles - for a sliding scale of wages against inflation, For a public works programme under workers control, Work or full pay for all unemployed, Workers control of the media - defend the papers and radio stations under workers control,

WOKKERS COUNCILS

The Portuguese working class has shown immense creativity in the variety of fighting organisations it has built, Far instance, workers and neighbourhood committees of i This it has done dispite constaht ‘attempts by the whole spectrum of Stalinism from the PCP to the MDP to bureaucratise them or subject them to their sectarian strangle hold,

The ur gent task is to draw delegates from these bodies into local councils and, ultimately, a national assembly, Important elements of dual powerare emerging, The task is to speed and strengthen this development and open the road to workers power, Dual power isa highly unstable situation which must be resolved omway or the other, To develop workers councils, all sectarianism must be lain aside - all bona fide delegates from workplaces must be admitted, whatever workefs party they belong to, Any attempts to limit their membership to ‘revolutionary’ workers or to exclude certain parties OF to proclaim the councils anti-party will prove dis astrous, The broadest masses of workers, rural and urban and the widest layers of soldiers and sailors must be drawn into these bodies. They can form a massive bulwark against reaction immediately, With the correct leadership, they would be the most powerful] lever for achieving workers power, To enable workers in these councils to assess the right lead - the most eorrect strategy - there must_be absolute freedom of expressjon and caucus for all workers parties,

THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

The multiplicity of revolutionary groups has helped produce a certain anti-party sentiment amongst the most militant sectors of the Portuguese working class. The representatives of ‘officia)" Trotskyism, the LC] and the PRT, stand largely on the sidelines.

The Maoists stand immobilised by their Stalinism; the Third Period ‘Social Fascist’ line added ta the-stages theory which ' Tules out the proletarian dictatorship, leads to a combination of hysterical ultra-left phrase-mongering (and obstruction of the united front) with a Menshevik shrinking from the per spective of workers power. ;

Left centrist groupings such as the MES and the PRP are more healthy in the short run - both have assisted, propogandised and initiated the formation of workers and soldiers rank and file organisations,

But the Portuguese revolution is moving into a stage where

12

the question of the party resolves itself into the question of what programme or which strategy leads to victory,

The PRP has many correct elements of such a strategy. It has broken with the Stalinist stages theory and in practice and theory recognised the international nature of the Portugal uése revolution, At the same time it has rejected the seductive ‘left’ nonsense of “Social Fascism’,

But what are its weaknesses? Some are associated with its strengths - a certain -militarism Jed to sowing illusions in Carvalho and the left officers, Another important weakness {is PRP's lack of clarity about the united front and the rélationship this front should have with the CP.

The PRP tends to see things in the light of logistics rather than politics, Fro this reason it seriously underestimates the question of a programme, Its slogans hover between maximalism - “The Dictatorship of the Proletariat" and the immedjate demands of the day, Its programme, such as it is, lacks any clear understanding of transitional politics, Its tactics ; are confused and eclectic, particularly on the united front. To. suggest as 15 does that all this would be solved by a daily paprand mass recruiting, is lunacy, The PRP must develop quick ly a revolutionary programme or become a serious centrist obstacle to the revolution (joining the Maoists and the MES), In outline such a development would mean:

developing and centralising workers organisations into effective centres of struggle and potential organs of power,

@ Launching the fight for the united front - with all workers parties if possible; certainly wth members of all workers parties,

Revolutionaries should take up within the united front and the workers councils:

@m- fight for a workers answer to the capital. ist crisis,

@ Me fight to dissolve the armed forces as part of the bourgeois state machine; to win soldiers to the side of the working class,

@ iotemationatism - at) support and assistance to the Spanish workers and the MPLA in Angola,

The task of re-building a revolutionary International on a Leninist basis,

THE INTERNATIONAL SITUATION

The revolution, itself owing an enormous debt to the heroic national liberation struggles against the Portuguese colonial occupation forces,exerts an enormous influence on developments in Europe and beyond,

The Spanish revolution ‘will bring enormous assistance to the Portuguese workers, But to suggest a policy of wa iting for Spain is disastrous, The seizure of power by'the Portugwese Workers would be the biggest stimulus to the § working class and all oppressed nationalities, A Workers State in Portugal could lend a Spanish up-rising material support,

For revolutionaries in the rest of Europe, Portugal is a vita" issue, Maximum assistance must he given to the Portugwes. workers and soldiers and solidarity ‘action ate up. Direct links must be built between workers" crime

The correct analysis of the Portuguese revolution ia a tawch stone of revolutionary strategy and could act as the focus for the re-construction of the International and ite programme,

SOCIALISTS, ABORTION and N AC :

“If a woman's choice haz anything of an individual character about it, she won't be forgiven ' by bourgeois society. This attitude is a kind of throw back to the traditions of tribal times. Society still wants 2 woman to take into account,when she is making her choice, rank and status, and the instructions and interests of her family. Bourgeois society cannot see a woman as an independent person separate from her family unit and outside the isolated circle of domestic obligations ands virtues................. Contemporary society goes even further than ancient tribal society in acting a5 women's trustees............° [Kollontel: “Sexual Retetions and the Class Struggle]

As international Women's year draws to a close, abortion to embrace our tong term aims. Neither must we support it remains the only issue affect] ngwomen that has recieved merely a5 a necessity for the woman worker as the housing any major publicity. Equal pay, equal opportunity, the pro- problem becomes more acute and prices continue to rise,

vision of nurseries, unionisation - all the main demands of the All women including white collar workers, secretaries and’ women’s movement and socialist groups agitating for women’s housewives, should have the right to choose whether to have

equality - have been relatively ignored in the face of the in- children or not, and the right to be independent of the creasingly urgent issue of abortion, “family” if they so want,

Although the quotation introducing this article was part The aims of the 1967 Act were to allow abortion of Kollantal’s polelmic against the bourgeois familly and for the ‘casualties’ of the system but to uphold restrictions traditional shackles of marriage, her analysis if applied to the for the mass of women, Abortion on demand was to be present abortion debate illuminates paints essential to that resisted, This was social engineering on the part of the debate, polarised as it now between the positions of SPUC Labour Party. It is in tune with ‘limiting problem sections’ and NAC. of the working class. It is in line with Sir Keith Joseph's

SPUC considers its members, as a largely religious group, rantings about ‘classes 4 and 5°. Abortion on demand js are ‘free’ to characterise abortion as a ‘sin’ against ‘life’, a class issue as it challenges the bourgeois concapt of while the rest of society must be un-free to control their re- marriage, the family and women as reproducers of labour production. They represent the extreme bourgeois concept power, and it contains the notion that women as well as of ' contemporary society acting as trustees’, Within a class men should be free to-participate in changing the class society this means that a small group of people assume that nature of our society. /t prepares the ground for women's they know what is best society as a whole. This assumption. equal participation in changing the class nature of our also implies that the majority of society could not possibly society. know what its real necessities are. SPUC’s demand for re- AFTER THE 1967 ACT strictive legislation on abortion would lead to a return to Abortion remained a controversial issue after the 1967 back-street abortions and racketeering, Act and after four years. the Government set up the Lane

NAC and the pro-abortionists emphasise the slogan “A Committee to review its working. That body found the Woman's right to choose” - the ability of women to control Act had provided improved conditions for women seeking their own reproduction, This slogan embodies the notion abortions, Its recommendations that the W.H.5. prewide that the masses are not a bunch of ignoramuses and that better abortion and contraceptive facilities and each one of us has the ability and should have the right to reduce private-sector abortions were ignored by the control our own lives. Under capitalism such contro! eludes Government. Although the Lane Committee's us, No woman and especially no working woman, is free recommendations were taken up by the lang-standing to control her own life even when she has contro! of her re- Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA), it had no production, But once women do have control of their repro- clear perspective for political intervention and failed duction, they are also free to choose participation ina to demand abolition of the private sector. movement to control not only their own lives but also to The initiative was siezed by the right with the change the whole conditions of our present society - the introduction of the anti-abortion James White conditions of exploitation at work, inadequate housing, bad Amendment Bill, ALRA, under pressure from the women’s schooling and a rotten health service - the conditions of movement in 1975 launched ‘4 Woman‘s Right to capitalist society. Choose" campaign acainst the Bill.

By freeing the individual to choose that control we are In February 1975 NAC was formed with the main aim not acclaiming ‘bourgeois individualism’ but providing the * of fighting restrictive legislation on abortion through potential right for women, and men in some instances, to be grass-roots action. Here was the chance at last for the free to participate in the society and change it. In supporting women's Movement and its potential periphary to a “Woman's right to choose” we must not use it as just agitate on a broader scale and develop its own a rallying cry against SPUC; we must extend its potential politics and to move on from the development of the

theory of woman's position under Capitalism. ; 13

14

= = fe a reat LPM a, Cattah ral

srter the successtul activities of the spring and summer and the spread of NAC groups all over the country, most people involved saw it still as a campaign to fight AGAINST the return to back-street abortions and FOR a “woman's right to choose’, At present the . main aim of NAC is to fight the re-appointment ) of the Select Committee which followed the fall

of James White's Bill, In the last manths, NAC’s political orientation has not

changed radically. It essentially remains a campaign to fight restrictive legislation, But this orientation was verbally contradicted by the reiterations at the recent conference-of the need for the campaign to move on to the offensive, The adoption of the slogan “Free abortion on demand - A woman's Right to Choose rather than just “A Woman's Right to Choose” was indicative of this healthy if confused feeling in the campaign. How this in practise changes the orientation of N AC is unclear. Unless “Free abortion on demand” is seen as a political demand on the Labour Government for improved NHS facilities and adequate financial resources, then it is a meaningless slogan, It is clear that the Government is not interested in an efficiently run NHS for people's needs, While they complain there is no money available ta improve the NHS, the fact is that it could be run more economically, (If the 56 000 terminations, currently performed on the NHS were performed in outpatient clinics there could be a saving of £1 million pounds a year accord. ing to the medical journal ‘Pulse’.)

But we are not interested in merely propping up a failing capitalist organised health service, We must demand that the private sector performing abortions is stopped and all abortions ions are freely available on the NHS,

Ata time when the NHS is visibly crumbling, when doctors have for the first time begun to act militantly, when hospitals are being closed up and down the country, NAC must make it clear what “Free abortion on demand"'really means and against whom it is directed, NAC must take up in all its agitat ation the following immediate demands as 2 challenge to the the Parliamentary Labour Party:

Free abortion on demand up to the 12" week of pregnancy, available in day clinics under the NHS. With the expansion of provisions for early terminations, tate

terminations would be more scarce, For exceptional cases free abortion on demand

up to the 24" week must be available on the

4 NHS with the necessary medical advice provided. With the establishment of the above provisions The private sector must be abolished . End all

exploitation of women wanting abortions. Services under the private sector must be incorp-

orated into the NHS, Free, safe contraception to be widely available

on the NHS. More money to be made available for research.

These immediate demands around which NAC should be concentrate its activities, cannot be isolated from the broader political context. NAC should be locally and nationally

involved in the broader movement that is emerging to fight

cuts in education and housing. Where cuts campaigns exist, NAC groups should be actively participating in them and making the links necessary for both campaings to be forceful enough to challenge local councils and the Government. It is not adequate to merely broaden the campaing by leafletting factories where women work of pass motions through the Trade Union branches, although the TUC must be forced to fight for its committment to “Abortion on

demand". As many women do not work, local orientation should be

towards women on estates and to activity on the cuts immediately affecting thase women, Involving health workers in such campaigns | s central to such an orientation.

We must work in NAC to improve it not to take it over. |S has the latter aim and that of trying to convince people they should join |S. This tactic is merely disruptive as demonstrated at the OCtober Conference where they lost all their arguments through take-over attempts and the alienation of most women present. Workin NAC is an essential part of United Front activity where opportunism has no place aod where we must work with the genuine desire to build the movement and extend its aims.

The Crisis, the Left and Our Perspectives.

The emergence of yet another grouping on the British left is more likely to be greeted with despair by workers.and militants drawn towards revolutionary politics than by repoicing. The last year or so has.seen a further splintering of the Trotskyist groupings, Serious comrades may be forgiven for exclaiming, “On no- not another!’, Why have all these splits occured in this particular period?

In the metropolitan capitalist states, the last few years have seen the definitive passing of the long period of stabilisation which characterised the third quarter of the century: A seties of dramutic events have signalled the ending of a whole period and heralded the onset of anew phase marked by serious and prolonged capitalist crisis. (The triumph of the Vietnamese national liberation movement has heralded the decline of American imperialism and toppled the US from its position of unchallengeable supremacy.)

As the gendarme of imperialist order, US money and mil itary aid had everywhere installed or propped up reactionary regimes. In Spain and Portugal, Greece and throughout Latin = America, military and semi-fascist regimes lent on the working class and the rural masses. In South Africa the southern quarter of the continent seemed an impregnable barrier for facialist barbarism. In the Middle East the forces of expansionist Zionism had defeated all but the heroic guerilla fighters of the Palestinian people, Within a few years all of these pillars of reaction have suffered severe shocks from the antiimperialist movements and from the re-emergence of the basic internal contradictions-of world capitalism, °

For the first time in decades the anti-impenalist struggle and the working class struggle. have come togetherin the, crisis of Portuguese colonialism. This holds profound consequences for both southern Africa and for Europe,

British capitalism, senile and bearing the accumulated weight of $0 years of decline, acted after 1945 a3 a servant to US imperialism, With the crisis of its master and the in creasingly violent competitive war for world markets, the British ruling class is forced into ever sharper attacks on the conditions and organisation built up by the trade union fnovement since the last war, The miners strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter unseating the Tory Government, heralded a period of acute class struggle not witnessed since the 1920's, The Irish national movement, dormant since that period, has broken jnto armed conflict that has reached the proportions of open war,

In these circumstances, revolutionaries, their politics and their tacts are put to the test with increasing sharpness - a

test which fs showing the fundamental weakneses of all the major tendencies of British Trotskyism, What are these weaknesses?

Firstly Economism; the underestimation of the conscious idealogical struggle and the consequent belief that the working class will spontaneously evolve the strategy necessary to take power, This tendency develops a basically social democratic split between propoganda (Socialism) and agitation, (trade union and ecompmic struggles). It, of course, sincerely believes that the bread and butter issues will evolve into the struggle for Socialism. All these ‘revolutionaries’ have to do is to give a bit of organisational encouragement to this trend and genéralise it,

This tendency rejects the Leninist and Trotskyist conception of the Party as ‘built around a étrategic transitional programme which means an active fight to transform the ‘actual struggles’ - the day-to-day trade union routine - into a conscious and coherent-offensive against capitalism,

Such a programme does this, not on the basis.of yoluntarism nor because it would be nice for revolutionaries, The transitional programme depends on the objective need for transitional struggles as the only answer to a capitalism greedy to restore itself on the crushed back of a prostrate working class. The choice is increasingly stark, cither the goals and methods of trade trade union struggle as we have known them for 30 years ate consciously transformed or the gains of that period - wages, conditions, social services - will be lost.

Either new organs of struggle are forged -a national rank and and file movement, combine committees, councils of action - and old ones transformed ~the union branch, shop steward committees, trades councils - or the trade unions will suffer decline and perhaps destruction, Since 1969, the British ruling class has set as its task the drastic weakening of the trade unions and particularly the shop stewards organisation,

But the very size and strength of the trade unions breeds a certain complacency and inertia, This affects trade union mijtants as well as revolutionaries.

The IS group and Tony Cliff probably encapsulate the Economist tendency in its purest form, But many ‘orthodox’ Trotskyists have turned the transitional programme into a barren and inoperative totem - they act in practice no differently to the Cliffites.

A further danger running parallel to the accomodation to pure trade union consciousness, is accomodation to parliamentary reformism, Though the latter is very much a junior partner to trade unionism, it may prove more attractive to Trotskyists who (mistakenly) recoil from the apolitical nature of trade union routinism, The logistics of accomodating to Parliamentary reformism are far more manageable, Trotskyists have always been able to take over its youth movements and hold their own alongside the Tribunite left reformists and assorted CP fellow-travellers,

The danger is that.the Labour Party is seen as the battle ground for the soul of the British working class and that in this battle revolutionaries simply amalgamate with the left against the right, From this all kinds of follies arise,“Make the left MPs fight", “Kick out Wilson”, “Labour to power on on e Socialist Programme”. Talk of a “class struggle, prolet-

anan tendency” being forged in unity with Tribune is sometimes heard,

All these slogans and positions sow criminal illusions in the left fakers,; Tribunites and Benn-type mavericks. Of course their authors think they will expose the left of the Labour Party and thus Social Democracy. But the great exposure never seems to come off, Meanwhile any honest Labour Party worker who is not in on the secret takes these slogans seriously.

All these positions whether whispered within the Labour Party by entrists or shrieked form outside by hysterical sectarians, point in the wrong direction - away from transforming direct industrial action into direct political action, Of course it is necessary to challenge the Labour Party - to expose it - and to put demands on it, But these demands must be put by real forces, forces capable of doing the job themselves when the reformist politicians, left as well as right, slink into the background, failing to live up to their promises or openly betray the class. "

Tailoring ones politics either to the spontaneous issues of the factory floor or to the left/right battles of a reformist party af# both forms of adaption, mM

Two further possible reactions are abstract propagandist sectarianism - sorting out theory in small colonies of intel lectuals - or total absorption in a broad movement such as the women's movement or the narrower circles of Irish or antifascist work.These reactions are possible because.of the .- philistinism and concessions to national and male chauvinism of the large groups. ' ;

“How does Workers Power - a very small grouping - intend to avoid these pitfalls and offer a positive alternative.

: The task we see as central is the raising of transitional politics in every major workers struggle, This implies a fight te maintain a central orientation towards the fighting organs of the class- the trade unions, We will raise in the trade unions a transitional programme which outlines a workers answer to the crisis. To avoid fetishising this programme we realise that particular demands have to be raised agitationally and translated and explained in the clearest possi ble terms,

This is not to under-estimate the importance of the programme asa whole, though here we must observe that the 1938 document, its demands and its basic method need to be re-applied to the new imperialist crisis of the late 70's,

This is not a national task alone, That would be to turn Trotsky's international programme into the property of a national sect, The re-elaboration of the Transitional Programme

isa central part of the struggle to re-create a new International based on the method of Lenin's Comintern and Trotsky’s Forth International, .

We recognise that on the Trotskyist left today there is a multiplicity of tendencies, We do not believe that any group canhave a monoploy of theoretical correctness and —_orientation, We believe the task facing us is one of regroupment a ground a clear programme - a. clear strategy and precise tactics,

We are not in favour, however, of an amorphous political swamp where a thousand schools of thought vie with each other , We see as crucial to revolutionary regroupment a number of basic positions:

INTERNATIONALISM

A clear line of unconditonal support for those fight-

ing British imperialism in Lreland and for the defeat

of the British troops.

Serious activity in the British working class move-

ment to combat chauvinism on the Irish question.

Opposition to racialism - for black peoples’ self

-defence and organisation,

i} For united action to drive the fascists from the streets,

16

1£

As Ireland and tacialism are-the acid test for British revolutionaries; Portugal tests the strategy of all national and internation Trotskyist groupings in the sharpest way, It lays the basis for international regroupment and. the fight to recreate a democratic centralist International on « re-develaped progiamme,

THE TRADE UNIONS

Orientation towards the mass fighting organisations of the working class - centrally the trade unions. Against the trade union bureaucracy, left and right, and all class collaboratianist and chauvinist policies,

or a rank and file causus in every industry and workplace,

or a genuine, mass national rank and tile movement aiming to: unite workers for militant policies; transform the unions, ¢siablish rank and file democratic contro] and thus oust the bureaucracy, For open revolutionary socialist leadership of such a movement on the basis of a political strategy - a trans itional programme.

THE LABOUR PARTY

The Labour Party is a capitalist party with mass support from workers. It is nota two class party nor are its left reformists a proletarian tendency, It can neither be ignore: syndicalist fashion nor transformed into a revolutionary party. Entry work must be a tactic. It must not become a strategy or central orientation as it can never end with the Labour Party seizing power forthe workers. An ¢ntry tactic isa mat+ ter for concrete assestment which takes inte account firstly, the Labour Party's current relationship to the class and mass struggles, and secondly, the size and influence of revolutionary groupings. No programmatic concessions cin be made to this tactic. The central fask of the coming period is the building of an independent revolutionary party,

THE UNITED FRONT

For a clear non-séctarian policy of participation in all broad movements or united fronts of an anti-capitalist mature, raising there a Marxist class analysis.

In the women’s movement for example, active support for all equal rights demands and against legal disabilities and restrictions (equal pay and abortion).

But we recognise that the social enslavement of women can be tackled at root only by the struggle-against capitalism, Never-the-less women’s struggles to overcome opression must not wait until the revolution, They must become an integrated part of the struggle for Socialism, Emancipation of women will be won only when women fight for jt and lead this fight,

Resolute criticism and struggle must be carried out. against petit-bourgeois feminism, radical or socialist, There must a central orientation towards working class women who suffer both opperssion as women and often super-exploitation as women worker,

The nucleus of the British revolutionary party dots not exist in any of the large revolutionary organisations, Our experience has convinced ug that 1S, the largest group, cannot build that party. Those who have broken or are breaking with the dead-ends represented by the Jeaderships of the major tendencies (compromised as they are by Economism, sectarianism and opportimism) must make a serious attempt fo develop an altemative strategy capable of building the party on firm foundations, : 5

To such a task we dedicate our Sthdfl‘resdtirces’ We-welcome into our ranks comrades with a similar petspective.

We shall fuse our organisation with any grouping sharing the same fundamental political principles,

IRELAND:

Revolutionary Marxism must give new lead

The outbreak of the latest inter-Republican fewd signals the most serious and_ profound state of demoralisation, confusion and fragmentation within the the anti-unionist population since the outbreak of mass civil conflict six years ago. Whatever the stated reason for the feud (and let there be no doubt about it - the Provisionals ‘reasons’ in no way justify the murder of political opponents, despite the lack af sympathy for the Officials in view of their own murderous and lying campaign against the |RSP), the present conflict only serves to underline the total political bankruptcy of Republicanism, whether in its purely nationalist form or in the

Stalinised version of the Officials. At atime when the anti-Unionist population need more

than ever to see the possibility of building, uniting and strengthening resistance in the face of mounting British Army terror, the continued existance of internment,and the potential Loyalist military and political “take-over (despite tamporary divisions), Republicanism (whether of the Provisional, Official or [RSP variety) has shown once again it is incapable of regaining the mass support and involvement of sections of workers. Republicanism cannot proide the elements for a strategy or consistently give the lead in the fight for its principal demands. The Repubficans’ divorce from the concerns and needs of the Catholic working class as a whole, has forced many of them to adopt more and more conspiratorial tactics (the bombing campaign in England of the Provisionals; the attack on the Loyalist para-military by the |RSP’s military wing) or slick manoeuvres (the incident centres - ceasefire -slow release of internees). Both ‘tactics’ can be seen as the outcome of conflicting pressures upon the Provisional leadership, on the one hand from their activists to step up the campaign and on the other from a tired, war-weary population who see no strategic or tactical point in the bombing campaign. |The present feud can be seen as the heightening of these conflicting pressures upon the Provisional feadership.|

But the impotence and failure of republicanism should produce no surprise lor regret) among revolutionary Marxists. What is cause for regret is the trajedy that thousands of the most active and involved workers in the anti-Unionist find themselves virtually leadershipless in the face of the combined effects of a major political, economic and social crisis whose ultimate effects, if nothing is done, may be the establishment of a proto-fascist Ulster state. The full responsibility for this rests fairly and squarely with those so-called revolutionary socialists of the SWM, PD, RMG and IRSP who either through the crudest economism of the most blatant capitulation to nationalism have failed utterly to outline of fight consistently for a revolutionary Marxist strategy which would be cap-

—_

able of brasking sections of anti-Unionist workers away fram the conspiratorial idiocias of Republicanism. The prasent situetion in the 32 counties - mass unemployment, raging iafistion - attecks upon wages, conditions and social welfare - growing State repression in all spheres of life - retreating and increasingly demoralised sections of workers everywhere - highlights the crucial need for all revolutionary Marxists, who now realige< the impotence of Republicanism and the sterility of Econormism, to begin the fight to halt thé retreat happaningon =|, all fronts. What must be done as quickly as possible is the drawing up of 8 balance sheet of the strengths and weaknesses of the class as 3 whole in the light of the defeats and eat-backs of the last dacade. This must be tha first stepin = _ the production of a revolutionary international programme for which co-operation, debate, discussion with British ravol-~ utionaries and Marxists of other nationalitias is paramount. At the same time, practical steps must be taken to propagandise and agitate for the building of United Front committeas on the question of repression in the North init- ~ jally, and rank and file committees on the issues of unem- ‘ ployment and inflation on a 32 county basis, Onty if these are built can the Irish working class as a whole defond itsetf against the ensleughts of British Imperialism, Irish capitalism and Ulster Loyalism.

Neill Bell (N. IRELAND)

high - time the British Left took sides

After an initial period of confusion when British troops arrived In force in the Six Counties, it is now clear fo most on the British left that despite the present ‘truce’ that there sopen if undeclared war in Northern Ireland, That war Is setween the Republican workiirg class and British Imperialsm. Those who are ganuinely confused, or those who- seek jo confuse, should have this made absolutely clear to them, \reland is no more complex an issue than most other imperalist confrontations, in fact it sa classic example of the itd imperialist tactic of divide and rule, That there is a large iro-imperialist bloc in Ireland should therefore surprise no oclalist who has any knowledge of Imperialism’s history of xplaltation around the world. In all these situations the orrect reaction of socialists living in the Imperialist country fas to support the anti-imperialist forces struggling against selr own army and government

Why men do so many on the British left fail to make, or ven understand, this elementary point of socialist internatwmalism? Why is it that arguments about “terrorism”, divisions In the working class", the "non-socialist nature of epublicanism”, drown out the elementary socialist message F solidarity with those fighting against British Imperialism? he answer to all these questions is to be found not in Irend but in Britain,

Britain is the oldest and mast experienced imperialist power in the world, Despite its present decline as a world power, the effects of Britain’s past dominance has left a heavy ideological imprint on the British working class. Idea about the “national interest” and ‘‘ours boys’ in Ireland an but notifications of previously more confident ideas about “King and Country" and the “white man’s burden”. Even though the material crumbs of privilige which British worke used to pick up from Britain's plundering of the world hard: ly exists any more, the past and present imperialist ideology blinds and hampers most British workers, including many fine militants, from seeing that struggles like that in Ireland are in their own objective interest.

_- When and if the Repulbicans plant bombs in Britain (a misguided and backward tactic), it should be recognised that:this in itself while strengthening and reinforcing British chauvinism does not create it. This has been created by history.

What then are the positive arguments for supporting the struggle in Ireland?

The first and most important reason is that this struggle can only assist the fight for socialism in Ireland. This is because any fight against British Imperialism even though it is thoroughly nationalist , is in reality a struggle against capitism. The fact is that capitalism in Ireland is either British owned or dependant on British capitalist domination. Moreover, a real struggle against Imperialism must primarily mobili the trish working class as well as other oppressed people like fisherman and small farmers, Who else has any real interest in fighting. A. movement to smash the Northern Ireland sectarian state will destroy the basic institution which creates and perpetuates that sectarianism. Onee that State can no longer guarantee sectarian priviliges for Protestant workers then Irish working class unity can be seen as a concrete alternative to whole layers of them,

Whilst we believe that republicanism is unable to lead the irish working class right through to these objectives, we also recognise that so far it has been the only real force to push developements in this direction, Therefore, any socialist party in lreland cannot dismiss the national struggle and its leading movements, They must show in practice that the socialist way is the best way to solve the problems of the border; sectarianism and British domination,

But it is no good us preaching to Irish workers about the best way to achieve socialism and defeat British imperialism. We talk primarily to British workers. and thus we pitch our: arguments accordingly. We have a duty to shout loud and clear that the irish people have a right to self-determinatian and that we support.any one who struggles to thatend be

they nationalist, revolutionary socialist or anarchist. We would prefer it if they were revolutionary socialist, we would

prefer it if if their tactics did not include eetrogressive bombings in this country. But our primary duty is to explain to British workers that the British State is not their state but

the sole property of the bosses and that a defeat for the British ruling class in Ireland would be a victory not only for the Irish struggle but also the British working class. It is interesting to note that the left have been slow to take up these positions on Ireland while the National Front has been making links with the UVF and in this country making extensive anti-irish propoganda amongst the working class. Like-wise the Monday Club and the Conservative party a5 a wate not only sympathise with right wing Unionism but also use yreiand aan excuse to demand that the government bring in’ measures such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The British Withdrawal from Norhtem Ireland Campaign, a pacificist group, are the latest to suffer from the catch-all conspiracy laws.

Their crime was to inform British soldiers of their legal rights rights under British law conceming concientious objection and avenues out of the British Army. Enoch Powell uses

the Irish issue in an attempt to bring reactionary ideas into the forefront of British politics.

The right wing has made the most out of the |rish national liberation struggle; the British left can no longer dither on on the sidelines, A refusal to solidarise with the trish strugdle is not only astab in the back for the Irish anti-imperjalist mfavement, it is also a refusal to combal one of the most poisonous tendencies in the British working class - British chauvinism and anti-lrish racism, a tendency which will, if not combatted, contribute to the destruction of the working class) «omavement in this country.

To prevent the possibility of such a- defeat we must mtb: ilise active support inside the British labour movement lui the building of the Troops Out: Movement on its limited yet principled platform of “Troops out Now” and “Sell-determination for the Irish People” is central to this aim.

To this tend we must mobilise: for TOM's December rally and oné following on February 1°! to commemorate Blink Sunday. Wherever possible, WE MUST Strive Lu pone iiss labour'movement delegations. ta’ retard; TOM is Cn gan sing these over the coming yealg

SUBSCRIBE | tO

Three months. (4 sues)... .. £1.00 Si montns {BP isswes).. . £2.00 One year (16 issues). . £4.00

NANIE

AUURESS

Forward to; WORKERS POWER 548 Lea Bridge Road LONDON E.10.

Phone. orders through to:

01-539 8209 01 - 701 4173

| would like more information about WORKERS POWER

SEND TO ;° WORKERS POWER 548 Lea Bridge Rd

* London, E10

ee

Summer 1975

Communism and Philistinism: the two

souls of the Comintern (An obituary article on

JP Cannon and AP Dutt) Edit. rial: The Left and the Common Market

IS and the Common Market (Adocument of the struggle of WF inside IS)

Bukharin on the Economics of the Transition Period

Palamic’ Chile: drawing out the lessons? Aletter anda reply

Published Workers’ Fight, 98 Gifford Street. London N.1