Red Miner no. 18

Workers of the world ; UNITE!

in this issue: Overtime Ban a Regional Reports - Chesterfieid Socialist Conterence Abortion Rights - Under Attack Anniversary of Russiain Revolution

; Bulletin for miners and their families

10p

RED MINER EDITORIAL

RANK AND FILE MUST TAKE THE LEAD

Reports. in this issue of RED show the thorough inadequacy ban. All

MINER of the present overtime

over the country militants are desperately frustrated by the lack of a serious battle with British

Coal over the code. The problem is that this frustration soon breeds demoralisation and even despair. Back ain July before the Yorkshire area leaders betrayal, Frickley could have been the spark to light the fire of resistance. Frickley could have been the start of a campaign +o link all the issues facing the NUM into a campaign for a national strike to win revenge against BC and Thatcher.

At the time of the Frickley strike militants were told to hang fire, - "national unity” was more important. The hollowness of that claim is now being cruelly exposed for militants to see. The unity talked about has turned out to be the “unity of the graveyard". The truth is that without a fight for a new strike, British Coal can just Sit back and wait for the present feeble action to fade and die.

LACK OF LEADERSHIP

The situation however, too serious for militants to let this happen. problen

is far

just The heart of the is leadership. The right wing and the soft left on the NEC are quite open in their class collaboration. They are not interested in a serious fight - and worse still they want to turn the NUM into a tame cat union that turns

it’s back on serious class struggle politics and opts instead for the Kinnock, Gould Share-owning, arse-

licking variety of politics.

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Top of their list of priorities is getting rid of Scargill. Already they have put pressure on Scargill to resign, simply for refusing tc meet with the scabs in the UDM. Their campaign will continue until they can remove him. Faced with this prospect it is quite simply lunacy for Scargill and others to

sit around and wait for this to happen while pulling the odd bureaucratic trick here and there.

The only force that can prevent the present feeble action petering out and prevent the hijacking of the leadership is the rank and file. The militants that put Scargill into office must take the lead.

SCARGILL A PRISONER !

In Yorkshire for example that means a campaign to reverse the chronic abdication of leadership by Taylor et al. A similar course of action is needed in all the other areas. We need a national rank and file movement in all the pits. if Scargill wants to stand with such a movement, then he should do- so immediately. For too long he has been a prisoner of the NEC offering coded messages to the militants. The time has come when leadership honest with the rank and file. Scargill should risk the presidency by appealing over the heads of the Majority of the NEC.

If he doesn’t, file movement cannot leadership the truth is that we will face the prospect of a victory for British Coal over the code and a rapidly escalating programme of closures prior to privatisation in its wake.

or a rank and impose it’s

the . need toa be out front and *

Soa a) aetna atk _cgeeetactolet diated hace

SOUTH WALES REPORT

The effects of the overtime ban have been minimal in South Wales. After _the first week British Coal announced that lost production amounted to around 2,000 tons, and presumably it has remained around that level subsequently, although British Coal haven't provided any figures since. Many pits in South Wales don't cut coal in overtime anyway and so the ban has had only a very limited impact. Indeed, miners at some collieries are earning more from overtime than before the strike began!

Ta cover his unwillingness to contemplate real action against the code, Des Dutfield has claimed that the ban is having a serious effect, but that it was “nothing to @loat about". Writing in the October South Wales Miner he condemned the attempts in Yorkshire to escalate the action to a full overtime ban, "we have warned against this, as an Area, because there is no doubt in our minds that such an escalation would result in many of our men losing work through lock-outs - a situation that would inevitably lead to a situation similar to the 1984 strike. Thet situation is not what our members balloted for, and would be an abuse of the vote that they have given to the union.” Many miners in South Wales have had enough of this so called “leadership” and want to see some real attempts to fight British Coal's draconian new code.

It seems that the EEC have given the go ahead for loans to British Coal South Wales to help pay for the Margam development. Llew Smith, Euro MP for South East Wales reported that “it (the EEC) will assure British Coal of substantial loans to finance Margam, and could prompt even more investment in other parts of the South Wales coalfield." At the time of writing, this has yet to be officially confirmed.

. . Toe - * sa} ‘y Sole leg Che yO

These so called “soft loans" would have very much lower interest rates than the going rate, a condition British Coal has always put on the Maragam investment. While British Coal welcomes the report, they again warned that "Margam cannot be constructed in the absence of an agreement with the NUM on six day production". However, Terry Thomas (NUM Area Vice President) was quick to claim that British Coal had told them -that they simply required the NUM‘'s agreement to discuss the concept of six day working, since, given the time it would take to construct the pit, the issue of implementing it would not arise for about four years. “Such an assurance has now been given", he said. Much to the relief of the Scuth Wales leaders the whole issue of Margam and six day working has been shelved while the “separate" issue of the new code remains to the forefront. They clearly hope that they can come to an arrangement with British Coal that gets them off the hook while the pit ts being constructed, by which time six day working will have been accepted nationally.

Canteen Workers

in the last issue of Red Miner it was repor ted that women canteen workers nationally were taking their case for equal rights for COSA to an Industrial Relations Appeals Court. Red Miner talked to a canteen worker at Deep Navigation who has been active in the campaign. She explained that the result had been delayed because each of the main items for discussion - coal concessions, rest days and back pay were being heard separately. It alsc seems that the NUM Area Leadership has been less than helpful in providing information about how the case was proceeding. Red Miner will discuss the result and its tmplications when it is finally known.

cont.

SOUTH WALES REPORT **** 44H HHH O#

.» Continued

Redundancy Blackmail

In October British Coal announced another attempt to bribe miners out of the industry. They are offering around £5,000 extra redundancy for men to leave before next March, provided they have had two years continuous service. The extra payments can also only come from so called “rationalisation”, by which they mean at least 50 job losses at any one pit - but seemingly it won't apply to miners when a pit closes or merges. It's not clear whether the men made redundant following the recent merger of Marine and Six Bellis will benefit.

The last twelve months have seen no pit closures in South Wales! How long can it last? While British Coal have claimed that they have no closure plans in the pipeline at present, they have predictably used the overtime ban to claim that this situation could quickly change. Severe geological problems in several key pits have led to a 26 million pound loss so far this financial year. But these problems seem to have lifted recently and so the threat hanging over the coalfield is perhaps not so great, but general uncertainty remains.

Labour Party

There's been a stepping up of the witch hunt in the Labour Party in South Wales, with several Militant supporters either expelled or under threat of expulsion. The latest expulsion was that of Ian Isaacs, the former NUM Lodge Secretary at St Johns and a@ past candidate for South Wales NUM President. For his leading role in fighting the closure of St Johns he was victimised by management and now works in ea coal treatment plant, virtually on his own.

The main instigator of the expulsion was Ray Powell MP, together with the rest of his cronies in the ~extreme right wing Ogmore CLP, of which Ian was 4 rember.

TO kkk kok kkk

AROUND THE COALFIELI?S FO OOO Op

A re ent public meeting caliec c+ the North East Justice Mineworkers campaign providen Opportunity for miners to dissatisfaction with the cur:s.. overtime ban

Biriiy Etherington ‘Pre ln a Mechanics des@ibed it as a vere mediocre action" pointing sut “sa in fact there was not mut overtime on coal production one in this region He argued that we should not be looking for a 3% wut but a 30% cut in overtime" also argued that the majority on the NUM executive which decicec

the action doesn't represent ‘tnu2 true majority of miners in ths NUM. " It's the 9 in the minority

on the NEC who represent) ths majority of miners in the NUM" = argued

Billy made a clear cail Doth stepping up the action - " -:2 majority miners in this cou.:.:. - want stronger action and it's .. to us to bring all the pressur-: +3

can to step up we action!" .. unfortunately he ac l:a "but we are all loyal members 9.2.1 we will follow the NEC.” His c oii is for a special delegecs conference to set the real majority in the NUM strains: again.

In the vote of thanks to Tir. Benn the main speaker at i.» packed meeting, a Wearmouth lov-. official backed up everything tt: - Billy was saying with a call fstronger action. He argued t2:: any effective action " has i... scuppered by the new realists the NUM NEC.” He said - "there two options for the membership - backward or forward " he ca for a campaign which would gc to the men and explain the

for a full overtime ban ” to f::.:° to protect the 1908 Hours at Week Act, reinstate the sacked m:n,

expand the coal industry 2:3 change the vicious Tory governnmort - united we stand divided fall.”

NORTH EAST REPO:.T

YORKSHIRE REPORT

The Yorkshire Area have joined the call for s delegate conference and will lobby the next NEC. This decision has to be seen in the sontext of their backing off from a Yorkshire ballot on stepping up the action and gives cover for this latest stab in the back for the militants in this area. From the mass activity in the summer led by Frickley, the Yorkshire Area Executive have managed to create disillusion and demoralisation. First they stabbed the strike action in the back, and

now they have dropped the Yorkshire ballot - all in the name of unity.

The price of unity with the likes of Des Dutfield will be paid in more closures and and the use of the disciplinary code to clear the way for flexible working and ultimately the privatisation of the industry. Not content with modifying the ‘action’ almost out of existance the majority on the NEC will not stop until they get ria of Scargill altogether. A motion calling for his resignation over the refusal to sit down in committees with the UDSK, was pushed at the last NEC by the South Wales area. A compromise was

reached when Heathfield volunteered to deputise for Scargill!

In the meantime British Coal spent the weeks before the intended ballot conducting their own campaign. Letters were sent to men at Manton colliery explaining what procedures would have ta be used if the ban was stepped up...what it ammounted to was work and wages guarantees tao the loyal UDM miners and lock-outs for the NUM members.

Management at Hatfield in the Doncaster area used a different tactic. They have offered as much overtime as men can do to every category of worker for *non production’ jobs. They obviously hoped that fat paypackets before the ballot would persuade men to vote against.

Regular letters from management appeal to them to stop your union’ from defending ‘non productive’ workers. The sacking of men for bad timekeeping has risen dramatically at both Hatfield and Armthorpe. Both pits are under pressure of possible closure because of geological difficulties. As the Coal Board have gained confidence in face of the weakness of the overtime ban they have been able to use the threat of the sack as a stick to discipline the workforce.The men are blamed for everything and the overtime ban has been used to start the rumour at Hatfield that up ta 400 jobs.cauld be lost.

LEADERSHIP

In the face of the lack of leadership from the Area executive the Yorkshire Campaign group (‘a rank and file grouping in the WUM)

_ have produced and distributed

about 10,000 leaflets on the Code linking it with the sackings of NUM branch officials.

It will take a well organised, energetic campaign to reverse the damage done by Taylor and company to the militancy in this area. Militants in Yorkshire must try to link up with those in the Worth East where support for increased action has not been undermined to the same extent. A call must be made to Scargill tot appeal over the heads of the WEC to the rank and file.

RED MINEF has recieved a report on the recent WAPC conference from an

activist in South Wales. While not agreeing with all the points in the article we are printing it here as part of the debate in WAPC

On the 17th October National Women Against Pit Closures Committee called together the 19 womens support groups stiil in existence in,the coalifields. The

purpose of the meeting was to decide the future of the National WAPC. It has been increasingly difficult

to keep the WAPC alive and yet it is”

important that they do so.The meeting was to debate and come up with a positive solution to this problen. With 50 pits closed since

the end of the strike and the loss of 80,000 jobs, it is small wonder

that the numbers have become vastly depleted. The issues have become more

acute, convincing many of the women that we must still have a voice. Many of the women are actively involved with the “Justice for Mineworkers Campaign”, hundreds of miners are still sacked and many are blacklisted, unable to get other jobs. The women are also taking part in a wide range of community based issues, such as around education, ~ transport, housing, health care etc. as well as still organising around other Trade Union Struggles. International links have been strengthened with visits and exchanges around the world.

LINKING ISSUES

The meeting was to debate whether the WAPC would broaden out to take in women from other groups, unemployed women and those involved in particular women’s issues. This would be as well as supporting the struggles in the coalfield alongside

the NUN, the fight against the UDM, the six day week, and the new disciplinary code. The latter

issues are still the focus of much of the WAPC’s work, oN to be ever ready to support any

future struggle in the coalfields.

The WAPC does not want to disband but they have to come to some definite conclusion on a way forward.

as we also need

down Other groups being part of

although recognising that Strong iinks must be made with the other groups involved in the peace movement, groups formed during the SOGAT and Silent Night strikes as well as othjer workers who have been involved in struggle, and women’s Organisations fighting on womens issues.

Hoves to change the name also strongly resisted and any change that does happen, nust contain the title "WAPC", as this is now recognised world wide and easily identified.

The meeting strongly came againnt the WAPOS

were

FUTURE AIMS

The future aims of the WAPC

were discussed, the structure, membership, activities, whether it should change into a new womens

organisation or even a womens union as exist in some other countries. The WAPC would still not align itself to any political party but if it was decided to open up the WAPC to affiliations of other Womens groups, they would welcome ali parties who agree with their aims being able to participate in their movement on the terms set by the WAPC.

A women’s charter was discussed but many women felt that the TUC and the Labour Party, and other organisations had had womens Charters but they had not seemed to achieve much in the advancement in Woren.

Finance was a pressing problem aS most groups were still raising

money for the NUM’s hardship fund and «he “Justice for Mineworkers Campaign" consequently the women’s groups were suffering from lack of finance.

- The women agreed that the meetings had been very beneficial as they were able to meet women from other aseéas of the coalfield, discuss the problems in the different areas, and instead of passing & lot of heaningless

resolutions, seriously discuss the issues as ¢ach area saw then.

The National Committee of the WAPC will discuss the arguments for

and gsainst many of the issues disc sussed at the conference. A further meeting of all the areas

Willi taxe place possibly in the New Year.

NORTH DERBYSHIRE

The story in North Derbyshire is the same with the overtime ban having virtually no sffect at all as there was little coaling done in overtime. Moa nh were . fully expecting it to be a full ban but as the present action doesn't involve them doing anything they arn’t even talking about it anymore. As a militant commented to Red Miner " The whole thing has died a death since the Frickley sell-out.”

SEE EDITORIAL FOR RED COMMENTS ON THE OVERTIME BAN

MINERS

EREYS,, av? ae & % = SUPPORT 2,

RENISHAW PARK _® FIGHTING CLOSURES © _

The campaign against the closure at RENISHAW PARK is into the review. It looks as if the result is now in the hands of the Board as the majority of men at the pit are in favour of accepting the review decision whatever it is. This is the advice from the Area officials who have not campaigned to link the issues and get support for the Park from other Derbyshire pits. As in soa Many other cases the branch has been left to fight on their own getting support where they can from their own efforts. The new Haslam bribe on redundancy payments is just one of the problems for those who understand the need toa fight. The Park bulletin now onto it’s ¥Yth issue takes up arguments on this as well ope members informed.

——_——_—_——E——E———E_—_E_—_—E—E—ES ——_——E_E—_—E_E_E_E_E—E—E —_—— ———————_————— TO

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“FROM RENISHAW PARK RANK AND FILE BULLETIN

CAMPAIGN LATEST

| We are receiving tremendous | support from North East Derdvshire District Council. 7 At a recent meeting with | their Collierv Closure SubCommittee. we were offered | assistance with the vroduc- | tior of sublicity leaflets, car stickers and an exhibi- | tion,prepared by the director of Planning. vointing out the devastating effects pit closf ures have on the community, | these are now in circulation. i They are also in the vrocess of making a video for us to show at tocal schools and community centres etc. to | highlight our fight. | We will be having another | stall on Eckington market on , Nov. 6th, a raffle will be ; man as vefore. Hovefully it | will be even more successful | than the last one. | We are also trying to organise a concert at Renisnawn | Miners Welfare the following | week, where the raffle will ; ve drawn.

SOCIALIST EVENING BROADWAY HOTEL DUNSCROFT DONCASTER INVITED SPEAKERS: pec .19™

ARTHUR SCARGILL

KEN CAMERON (FBU) TURNS: BANNER THEATRE

THE MOANING MINNIES BUFFET TICKETS £1:50/£1:00 FROM DONCASTER TRADES COUNCI

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RED MINER The Legacy of October

SEVENTY YEARS ago the Russian workers overthrew first the hated Tsar and then the bourgeois government that replaced him. In doing so they changed the face of human history. For the first time state power was taken directly into the hands of working men and women.

The Russian workers showed the world the revolutionary power of the organised working class. Not only could it bring to a complete halt the wheels of industry and paralyse the workings of government, it was also an inherently socialist class as its every act of resistance was expressed in strengthening the bonds of solidarity and collective organisation in its ranks.

The agent of socialism was and remains the working class itself. It was the workers, organised to emancipate themselves, who could smash the power of capital and forge an alternative. The 1917 revolution exposed the uselessness of those who had hoped that bourgeois parliaments or patemalistic municipal schemes would do that job. And it exposed the treachery of those leaders inside the workers’ movement who refused to heed that lesson.

The Russian workers rose in conditions of extreme squalor, exploitation and oppression. The reformist socialist intelligentsia sneered at the dark rebelliousness of these “benighted masses’. Yet out of these struggles a new world was being born. There was a new democracy, no longer beholden to the

- capitalists who controlled the nation’s wealth and its levers of power.

PROLETARIAN DEMOCRACY

Through the soviets the workers directly elected and controlled their workplace delegates and ensured their every change of mood was registered. In these soviets, together with the armed militia, the workers’ Red Guard, the embryo of a state of a completely new sort was emerging. It was to be a State that was the organ of the exploited and oppressed, directly responsible to them within the terms of proletarian democracy. The task of that state was to eliminate all exploitation and oppression.

As the crisis of autumn 1917 deepened the privileged took flight and the intelligentsia cowered. But the working class rallied to its revolutionary banner the millions who suffered the yoke of oppression in the Russian Empire. To the women of the proletariat it held out the hope of emancipation. To the national minorities it offered the chance to destroy the Great Russian chauvinism that stifled and strangled their national cultures.

And most important of all, to the great majority of Russians at that ime, to the peasant masses, it guaranteed the defence of their newly won lands against the landlords. For the soldiers—the peasants in uniform—it ensured that the barbaric and humiliating tyranny of the officers was smashed completely, Only under the leadership of the proletariat could the most downtrodden and oppressed have any prospect of liberation.

1917 shows us all the qualities that make our class the only revolutionary and liberatory class of the epoch. But it also shows that in and of themselves the spontaneous strengths of our class are not enough for victory. What guaranteed the

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victory of October 1917 was that in the Bolshevik Party the Russian workers had an organised vanguard party, deeply rooted in every section of the masses, that could centralise and lead their struggles politically and organisationally. That lesson of 1917 must not be forgotten as we pay homage to the great Russian Revolution.

Those who made the revolution did so convinced that their’s was but the first act in the overthrow of capitalism worldwide. Their’s was the first blow of the world revolution. They were taking a sixth of the earth’s surface out of the hands of the capitalists. They expected others to follow, and quickly. The workers of Europe did respond to the clarion call of the revolution. Risings throughout Central Europe occurred. But they were aborted and crushed by the reformist ‘socialists’ of the Second International at the behest of the capitalists and imperialist chiefs of staff. The internationalisation of the 1917 Revolution remains our task today.’

The very existence of the USSR is still an affront to world capitalism. It is a serious obstacle in its drive for markets and raw materials. It is even a source of occasional material assistance to those struggling against imperialism. Yet, isolated in backward Russia, the Revolution degenerated. A caste of bureaucrats, led by Joseph Stalin, usurped political power and strangled every iast vestige of genuine proletarian democracy in the USSR.

Under the slogan of ‘socialism in one country’ they treacherously turned their backs on the international revolution. And in the USSR they stood as a real obstacle to the transition tosocialism. Mikhail Gorbachev is the latest helmsman of this caste of bureaucratic usurpers.

POLITICAL REVOLUTION

As the Soviet bureaucracy attempts a painful self-reform it is haunted by the year 1917, It celebrates it in sterile official speeches while quaking in its limousines at the prospect of proletarian action being unleashed once again in the USSR. The Russian workers must, and will, take the road of 1917 again. Only through new workers’ councils and new mass struggies to overthrow the bureaucracy in a political revolution will the road to socialism be re-opened.

The very existence of the USSR represents a historic gain for the working class. Despite its degeneration into bureaucratic tyranny the historic task of overthrowing capitalism was pioneered there and has not been, to this day, undone. Against the imperialists we defend the USSR as a gain of October.

We live ata time when Labourite cowards are searching for anew ‘socialism’ for the 1980s. The organised working class is being relegated to fourth fiddle in the permutations of the rainbow coalition brokers. Let them ponder the lessons of October. It is the working class, and only the working class, that has the ability and interest to destroy capitalism. It did so in 1917. Its struggles since then have proved the point again and again. Its future struggles are the hope of humanity. We exist to speed the day when the settling of accounts with capitalism, begun in October, is completed.

Long live the October Revolution!

-<SPUC> - the group behind the 14

-is part of the mother’s body,

a. woman's body. Who decides ‘whether she has a baby. Who

Most of us have seen the free publicity campaign given to the Alton bill to restrict abortion rights by the press. Larger than life pictures and emotive text telling us what the foetus ‘likes’ and what it can do are the hallmarks of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child

attempts made so far to weaken the 1967 Act. This group, massively funded by the Catholic Church, is against all abortions and many support the Pope's teachings and Oppose contraception and treatment for infertility as well. They see no right for a woman to control her own body.

Alten and his supporters claim that abortion is a moral issue, they want the rights of the *umborn child’ protected in law. But the foetus is not a baby. It

totally dependent on her. Of course a 20 week foetus has the potential of becoming a baby, but then so does every fertilised embryo in the womb. These ‘defenders of rights’ say nothing & about the rights of the woman! 5:

The real. issue is who controls

gg etal 2 pg

decides whether she will have ag healthy child or a child with a serious congenital abnormality. We know those who support Alton have no interest in the well-being of women or the rights of disabled people.

Aportion is not a moral issue - it is a class issue. There have always been abortions whether legal or illegal. It was working omenrinmeinm class women who were forced to go Women must tight for fahour movement -aubpert tor thelr rights to the illegal, unqualified and

. eee wy FEED opt te, ar

illequipped backstreet “consequences of th 38, ae — abortionists or who attempted to backstreet quacks as o serk _ebort themselves. NHS staff can up bleedins in hospital unable to testify to the | serious sav

cone Continued

ABORTION RIGHTS

we so Older communities will remember who you could go to to get a contact name for an abortion.In countries where abertion is still illegal today | many thousands of women die or are maimed having illegal abortions. Of course rich women have always been able to exercise - choice through payment and they . will continue to do so. They can fly off. somewhere that will do an abortion when they need to.

It will be young working class women who are the most seriously hit. The number of abortions amongst those under 20 has risen steadily over the last decade and over half of all abortions are to women under the age of 25. WNew restrictions on sex L

—brought in by the Tories will result in more teenage pregnancies through ignorance...not choice. How many young women on YTS wages or worse are in a position to choose to start a family. ~ with Alton's bill they will not even have this limited choice. The bill will effectively bring the limit down from 28 weeks to 14 weeks as doctors allow a margin of 4 weeks for error (they could face prosecution if they get it wrong) It is young women afraid to tell their parents or admit toa themselves they could be pregnant who need the facility of later abortions with the present poor facilities on the NHS and inadequate access to contrceptive advice. Women waiting for the results of tests for severe abnormalities taken at 20 weeks and older women who believed a missed period was the menopause will also face the hardships of bringing up an unplanned or seriously handicapped child without any support from the social services.

As well aé Campaigning to stop Alton NUM members need to be in the forefront of a campaign to improve facilities. Improvements can lead to early, safe, and free abortions for women within the WHS.

women mtn “Our "i.

education -

At the moment 20% af ls: abortions are caused by delays the NHS. The fight has to 3e {

extended contraception a abortion facilities, free available on demand for all vome

The price of atorti

restrictions,.will. yet. again paid for by working class Wwoi and their families taking additional burdens. The rich w.. continue to have the right to ;.

for what they want. Mi ne branches should pass resolutic condemning the bill. Wome .

Support Groups can link up wi? localFIGHT ALTONS BILL groups ; Labour MP's must be approached «4 » demands put on them to stick wicil Labour party policy for 'A woman’: right to choose.’

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Red Miner

The Red Miner is produced by members and supporters of Workers Power. Workers Power is a revolutionary organisation fighting to build a new revohitionary party to cverthrow capitalism - at home and abroad.

Workers’ struggles

We. support all workers’ struggles against the bosses. We fight to turn all struggles into conscious anti-capitalist struggles.

Reformism

The trade union and Labour leaders believe capitalism can be reformed, made better, but they do not aim to overthrow capitalism. They act as go-betweens for the bosses with the workers. Even militant leaders limit their struggle to the fight for gains within capitalism. For this reason we are for building rank and file movements politically independent of the bureaucracy and committed to transforming the unions into democratic, class struggle unions.

Revolutionary Party

A revolutionary party will be a workers party, a party that, built in stuggle, can learn and pass on the lessons of the 1984-5 s-rike and other struggles. We stand for mirers taking their place in the front ranks of building such a party as they did in the 1920's. Orly by building a new revolutionary party can we create the class army that can fight and destroy the stinking capitalist system that threatens us with always having to fight to protect our jobs, conditions and organisations.

Internationalism

We are committed to fighting internationally. We strive to build an international organisation of revolutionary parties. (Workers Power works with Irish, German, French, Austrian and Chilean revolutionaries in the Movement for a Revolutionary Communist International.) In particular we fight nationalist solutions to the crisis put forward by reformists like calls for import controls. Such demands merely divide the working class.

capitalism

Divisions We fight all divisions in the working class.

Divisions are fostered by the bosses to weaken us. We are implacably opposed to racism,

WE STAND

diser.=_of wore:

immigration controls, fascism, ation against and oppresion lesbians, gay men or black people.

The oppressed

We support all struggles by people oppressed t-. the bosses of Britain, America, France, Itah and the other capitalist (imperialist countries. Immediately in Britain this means we support the right of the Irish people as a whole (not just those in the North) to determine the fate of their country. We unconditionally support the republicans and socialists in Ireland fighting for this right and demand the immediate withdrawal of all Bri tish troops from Ireland.

Workers' states

The USSR, Eastern Europe, ete are workers states. Capitalism has been abolished. However, in each of these states a bureaucracy, based on the Stalinist Communist Parties, holds political power. This situation arose out of the international isolation of the Russian Revolution in the 1920's. The revolution degenerated at the hands of the bureaucracy headed by Stalin. The other workers’ states were degenerate from birth in that they were created in the bureaucratic image of the USSR.

Therefore we call for a political revolution in all of these states to overthrow the bureaucracy and realise the full potential of these non-capitalist economies through democratic planning. At the same time, in order to preserve the gain for the working class represented by these economies, we defend the USSR and = degenerate workers’ states unconditionally against imperialism which, through war, will seek to re-introduce capitalism in these countries.

Overthrow capitalism

The revolutionary party we seek to build will have as its strategic goal the overthrow of capitalism by workers organised into workers councils and armed so as to defeat the police and army that the bosses have used, and will use again, against us. We are for a socialist society in which all property is in the hands of the workers’ state and all production is directed towards the meeting of human need, not satisfying the profit greed of the capitalists. We stand on the old slogan of Karl Marx:

Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains, and a world to win!