YS 12th Annual Conference-Scarborough April 8&9

MICHAEL IT IS an acknowledged fact that the productive forces of society cannot be developed any further capitalist foundations.

The capitalist class has become an absolute fetter on the development of human wealth and culture. And since 1914 it has tried to plunge humanity into the abyss of barbarism.

The decline of the capitalist system, which now threatens the entire world with cultural and economic decomposition, has made the socialist revolution unpostponably and unconditionally necessary for the salvation of mankind.

But since revolution signifies a living class struggle, it is nowhere stated-except in reformist circles -that the defeat of the capitalist class is automatically and mechanically predetermined.

The capitalist class, far from conceding the judgement of history, fights back with all the means at its command. Hitlerlike, it disregards all the signs of impending catastrophe.

It is pure idealism and alien to Marxism to recognize the fact that history creates the basic premise of the revolution, yet ignore the ruling-class preparations to defy the laws of history and smash the working class.

'The bourgeoisie,' as_Trotsky pointed out European Communist Parties 'even though it finds itself in a complete contradiction with the demands of histerical progress, nevertheless still remains the most powerful class.

'More than that, it may be said that politically the bourgeoisie attains its greatest powers, its greatest concentration forces and resources, of political and military needs of deception, of coercion, and provocation, i.e., the flowering of its class strategy, at the moment when it is most immediately threatened by social ruin... This has rendered its instinct of class selfpreservation ', sensitive in the In his speech Trotsky had a special reference to Britain and to Lloyd George, who he called 'a superb strategist of the bourYS Right-to-Work marchers return cheque Upper Clyde Shipbuilder: Joint Shop Stewards Com Clydebank Division Clydebank Dunbartonshire March 30, Dear Sir and Brother, Following the Empire Pool Right-to-Work marches on March 12, meeting of the 250 marchers unanimously decided that we return the cheque for £100 which the UCS Shop Stewards' Co-ordinating Committee donated to our funds early in January.

At the time we felt grateful for this act of solidarity which we Costs 'grave danger' to hauliers Costly tot MANY road hauliers are facing a 'grave danger' from rising costs, the chairman of the Road Haulage Association William McMillan warned yesterday.

Road haulage costs rose between 12 and 14 per cent last Yorkshire 'union' threat to ETU bargaining THE YORKSHIRE-based Electricity Supply Union has applied challenge to Frank to the National Industrial Rela- electrical and plumbing trade and conditions of power workers. tions Court for sole bargaining union, which at present shares rights at the Ferrybridge 'C' bargaining rights on the joint of intense picketing during the power station at Knottingley. industrial council. YS national secretary John Simmance great step forward geoisie, threatened with historical ruin'.

Both Trotsky and Lenin warned the British communists not to expect the same kind of revolutionary development in Britain as took place in Russia.

In Britain the struggle would be more protracted--and more ruthless because of the historical development of class relations unique in Europe.

•Let us not forget also that the bourgeoisie finds itself face to face with mortal danger, after having accumulated colossal political experience. The bourgeoisie has created and destroyed all sorts of regimes... All this varied and rich experience which has entered into the blood and marrow of bourgeois ruling circles has now been mobilized by them to maintain themselves in power at any cost.

*And they act the more resourcefully, cunningly, ruthlessly, all the more clearly their are convinced represents the overwhelming viewpoint of the majority of UCS. The Right to Work is a basic right affecting all members of the working class irrespective of what political difference may exist between them.

When our Scottish contingent was on the march just over …a week, your committee issued a statement which implied that you were persuaded into giving , the donation by some of our members, without you being aware that they were members of the Young Socialists. which is the youth organization of the Socialist Labour League.

This, of course, year, he told an Association luncheon at Nottingham.

At one time the operator who was unable to increase charges to match increased costs used to 'tighten his belt.

McMillan admitted that some road hauliers would postpone delivery of a new vehicle, make hallen applicatiorank Chappes BUILD THE REYOLUTIONARY PARTY YOUNG TONIES SOCIALISTS DEMAND RIGHT TO WORK OEMA. 'ONSGOW TO LONK PICT 1972 FORWARD TO A WEEKLY PAPER addressing the conference leaders take cognizance threatening danger' ('First Five Years of the Communist International'. New Park Publications. p. 5.)

From this standpoint the emergency resolution adopted by the. Young Socialists' conference on Sunday was not only correct -but absolutely necessary to reemphasize the warning given by Trotsky 50 years agor" i Lloyd George may be dead, but his spirit lives on in the political manoeuvres of the Tory Party in its attempts to outflank the working class.

Only the Trotskyist movement because it bases itself on the strategical and tactical contributions of the First Four Congresses. of the Communist International -can analyse Tory policy in a correct way and provide an alternative strategy.

As the YS resolution points out, the Tory attack takes two forms.

...By creation Those members who addressed your committee were well known in Glasgow as members of the YS who had sold Workers Press continuously outside the shipyards. Indeed, they were specifically asked by members of our committee if they sold the replied, of course, in the affirmative.

Your repudiation of our march strengthened the right wing of the TUC and Labour Party who had banned and proscribed it. It was tentamount to a stab in the back of unemployed youth in Glasgow and to the young people who marched for five weeks on the road to London.

tyres last longer or reduce maintenance bills.

Under new , legislation cutting standards could be fatal through suspension or revocation of the operator's licence.

Furthermore many customers were putting transport costs at the top of the list when seeking economies.

The council negotiates with the electricity boards on wages Knottingley 'C was the scene miners' strike. unemployment which will be intensified with entry into the Common Market and by the strengthening of the repressive powers of the state. Demoralization by unemployment will be supplemented by wholesale intimidation through the courts and the police stations.' Attack is always preceded by diversionary moves and the resolution shows exactly the nature of Tory manoeuvres by drawing attention to the conscious and credulous acceptance of Tory plans by the TUC and Labour leaders.

Far from succumbing to the mood of euphoria, the Is resolution gives a sombre warning to the working class not to fall in behind the illusions which are deliberately created by the trade union bureaucrats:

*They [the Tories] use the reformist leaders to create the maximum political confusion before the big battles, by reviving momentarily the old. reformist Unemployed youth hate Tory government and want to see it forced to resign.

Your action not only strengthened the enemies of the working class but it showed a contempt for the plight of the unemployed youth in the W of Scotland.

In returning your £100 we feel sure that trade unionists everywhere will send donations to cover it. The campaign for the Right to Work will go on with renewed vigour.

Yours fraternally, CLIVE NORRIS, National Secretary THE PRICE of most big brands of whisky is expected to go up by as much as 15p a bottle from May 1.

A spokesman for Distillers Limited whose brands include Haig, Johnnie Walker and Vat 69, said yesterday its wholesale price was going up by 10p a bottle at the end of the month.

The increase was necessary "to recover increased costs in production and to maintain profit margins in the UK market'.

Distillers has 60 per cent the home market. pipedreams: regional development, state subsidies to industry, "peace" moves in Ulster, Cabinet reshuffle which appears to replace reactionary ministers reality a preparation for battle..' Tory nonentities, but is So while the Stalinist-dominated Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions was once again trying to revive the corpse of the protest movement and avoid a struggle to force the Tories to resign, the YS resolution rang out like a clarion call for real political struggle against the Tories:

"The only answer to the grave dangers from the policy employers and the government is the fight to force the government to resign. This fight has been pioneered by the YS and the SLL and no other tendency can or will carry out this policy?

As the Right-to-Work song proclaims: 'There is no one who can stop us, there's no one now who can.' This does not mean in any sense that the YS ignores or belittles the struggle of workers for their legitimate economic demands, such as wages, rents, etc. On the contrary, it is only by tying these demands into the general strategy to replace the Tories with a Labour government pledged to socialist policies that these struggles can have any real significance.

This is something the Stalinists, reformists and revisionists pointedly refuse to do. In the words of the resolution:

'They tail behind the spontaneous militancy of the working class in order to avoid and obstruct the political struggle. Their "left talk" conceals their absolute passivity in face of the preparations of the ruling class.

Nothing illustrates this bankruptcy more clearly than this week's 'Socialist Worker' - the International Socialists' weekly which calls on the T&GWU not to pay the £5,000 fine imposed by the National Industrial Relations Court, but remains inscrutably silent on the ques tion of what to do about the Tory government!

Their evasion of this issue is explicable and predictable. None of these revisionist groups have an answer to the Tory government, because their reformist theory and their middle-class leadership inevitably doom them to prostration and servility before the capitalist class.

While these groups wallow in their political impotence, the YS, by endorsing the decision to transform the Socialist Labour League into a revolutionary party, and by its campaigns over the last 12 years, has shown that it is in the forefront of the struggle for a socialist Britain.