Sit-downs and the Labour Movement

EVERYONE must admire the courage and self-sacrifice of the youthful demonstrators who were carried unresisting from last Saturday's sit-down in Parliament Square. ‹asperated by the complacent respectability of CND's established leaders, they seek more vigorous means of arousing public opinion against the threat of nuclear war. it what might appear to be a challenge to the H-bomb danger becomes a harmless stunt, a means of letting off steam. le 1,172 arrests will be followed by as many fines and some jail sentences. The traffic near Parliament Square has been delayed for two hours. 3,000 policemen have done an afternoon's lucrative overtime in the shadow of New Scotland Yard. le State will, on balance, have lost a few thousand pounds, a tiny percentage to be added to the cost of preparing for nuclear destruction. le Newsletter and the Socialist Labour League have taken part in every major demonstration for unilateral nuclear disarmament since the first Aldermaston march in 1957. We have, however, never hidden our opinion that such demonstrations are not enough. espite the protests of pacifists and others, we have insisted on the political implications of CND. Seeing the H-bomb as part of the drive of imperialism towards war against the USSR and the colonial revolution, we have tried to turn the anti-H-bomb movement to face the organized working class. or the fight against the bomb, being one aspect of the fight to rid the world of an outmoded, violent and repressive social system, can only win if it brings into action the industrial and political power of Labour. is task is both difficult and urgent. People like the Committee of 100 are trying to find short cuts which will avoid if. But there is no other way. le passive resistance and nonviolent methods of individual protest cannot possibly succeed against the power of the imperialist war machine. The danger is that they divert attention from the most vital job. lis remains the organisation of the fight in the Labour Party and the unions to break them from their NATO leaders. CEU banner on the February one-day strike in a Liverpool demonstration.