CP WILL STAY IN THE

member and secretary Kights Association, exy prospects in Ulster.

We have been working We have been working for an end to repression • and an end to repression an end to discrimination. end to discrimination.

The old system of government has been scrapped, but Britain has not yet been able to provide a viable alternative.

We are determined that in any settlement the civil rights demands must be granted. l think that Whitelaw is endeavouring to build up some sort of centre grouping which would be basically conservative — a local assembly with less powers than Stormont perhaps based on the Labour, Alliance and Unionist Parties and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).

Provided we get the legislation guaranteeing democracy and smash the old corrupt Orange administration a new government would have to be prepared to adopt really radical measures to end unemployment and the housing shortage.

It is going to be very unfortunate on the British government if it is trying to get a solution in the light of the recession because our experience is that Northern Ireland has always been that much worse hit than Britain itself.

Unfortunately right-wing forces have used the demand for democracy to raise the monster of sectarianism. In the past this has obscured the bread-and-butter issues. You can generally manage to get some sort of alleviation, but instead they were at each others throats.

Speaking personally I think the enemy of the British and (above), a Communist Party of the Northern Ireland Civil ains how she sees the political Irish worker is the same. operation between British Irish workers against Heath government portant.

In Ireland the main demand remains the demand for democracy. This is something we can and will win.

This can remove the basis for sectarianism and lead to a peaceful and democratic advance. How can you have a united working class while sectarianism exists?

Hopetully once sectarian divisions have been healed, you would have the working houses and jobs.

Derry was one of the worst housing areas, but they reckon now it will soon be solved because cash is being poured in. Even a Tory government providing houses and jobs will be cheaper than keeping the army in the north.

Generally it will be very difficult for these problems to be solved in the present climate of recession.

Regarding the independent revolutionary party this is probably a difference in tactics.

We have always believed the working class learns and advances by winning victories that are possible to win. It is such a rotten situation here that we have to create more favourable to work.

The Communist Party has been trying to explain the economic crisis, but it is n ot a large party and sectaria mism makes normal working-class politics difficult. Coand imAfter 15 years of French membership in the Common Market the Communist Party is not in favour of pulling out because this would adversely affect the national economy.

Georges Marchais, the acting general secretary of the French CP, in London last week for talks with British Stalinist leaders, made te i clene aPs Press conference Covent Garden headquarters.

'With our socialist allies we have agreed to act within the Common Market to democratize it and defend the interests of the workers.' Following Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's decision earlier this year to 'recognize the reality' of the reactionary EEC alliance of monopolists the French CP has abandoned all pretence of opposition.

This appears to put them in opposition to the British Stalinists, who are still formally proclaiming their opposition to the EEC. But the difference is more apparent than real, as Marchais made clear.

"There are between our two parties differences which come from our different situations. But this does not mean there are divergencies, he said.

Marchais claimed that the Common programme drawn up Socialist Party and the Left by the French CP with the Radicals does not accept the Common Market 'as it is now'.

'We do not accept its objectives which serve the interests of the monopolies and not those of the workers.' However, the Stalinist chieftain did not explain how the EEC is to be 'democratized' and converted from an instrument of the monopolies into an instrument for the working class.

CO-OPERATION WITHOUT PROGRAMME He simply said the two parties would co-operate after British entry into the EEC to combat the multi-national firms whose harmful effects the British and French workers have experienced.

Naturally, neither Marchais nor British CP leader John Gollan have any programme for carrying this policy into effect.

The common programme of the 'left' in France envisages the nationalization of less than 1 per cent of all industrial Marchais, these are the "key 13 businesses in France.

In addition, the government which Marchais hopes to form (under President Pompidou) after the March National Assembly elections in France would:

Try and ensure more effective workers' representation within the Common Market (a clear sign that French CP deputies-unlike even the British Labour Party-will take part in the European parliament).

Reserve the freedom to carry out its programme regardless of the measures taken by the Common Market as a whole (which indicates that the common front does not envisage basic clashes with rest of the capitalist EEC). • And not treat participation in the EEC as an obstacle to collaboration with other countries, 'without distinction Many kind as to their regime' In other words, France under this new-style Popular Front is explicitly committed to collaboration with fascist Spain and the colonels Greece, though l Marchais claims the CP opposes Spanish, Portuguese and Greek entry into the As far as relations with eastern Europe and the USSR are concerned, Marchais gave implicit approval to Gaullist policy, while claiming that a Popular Front government would go even further. BLUEPRINT FOR CONTINUED CAPITALISM "The fact that certain policies of co-operation were set in motion by General de Gaulle does not mean that we should abandon our efforts. We support all efforts in that direction,' he said.

The policy outlined by Marchais is a blueprint for the continuation of French capitalism under conditions where the working class is duped into thinking that the EEC can be reformed.

It is. advanced at a time when the Common Market monopolists are openly preparing for war on the working class through the establishment of dictatorial Bonapartist regimes all over western Europe.

Nowhere is this process more marked than in France, where the Pompidou government rules through a presidential system which deprives IN COMMUNIST UNIVERSIT COMMUNIST UNIVERSIT OF LONDON OF LONDON h COMMUNIST UNIVERSIT "ON MMUNIS! OF LON Marchals Gollan (right) at last week's Press conference and the elected Assembly of independent significance.

Only last week the regime began the trial in Lyons of nine workers under the so-called anti-riot laws which have previously been used only against students and left-wing groups.

The British Communist Party, which is plainly heading towards acceptance ot the Common Market, despite its formal 'opposition', intends to participate as much as it can in this reformist line-up.

However, the movement of the working class throughout Europe is throwing both parties into considerable crisis. The French Stalinist Press is in serious difficulties, and there is talk of reducing the size of its daily, 'L'Humanité' Marchais attributed these difficulties to the general crisis of the Press in France-an explanation that will fool nobody who reads 'L'Humanité' itself.

The paper is full of appeals to readers emphasizing the necessity to carry out elementary tasks like selling it.

The British Stalinists are in an even more serious crisis.

According to the paper's editor, George Matthews, the Mer 135,000 by ese end of next year..

The price is to be raised to 5p in the new year. According to the 'Daily Telegraph' it has 'faced growing competition from more militant journals including the Trotskyist Matthews talked in terms of a reduction of the paper's size from six pages to four.

It may well be that these questions were among the inthe questiosed be ceen the two parties' leaders at their meeting in London. •MARKET MOSSES POUNDS FOR PENCE FOR THE OLD TORIES PLAN TWO YEARS AN TO SLAP WILL TAX TORY A ON RENTS to change all this BRITAIN NEEDS al in bras YOU PAY SOCIALISM MORE LESS JIN TRE COMMINIST PABY 1.U23,583 STOCK ENCHANT ONES