Labour Must Unite to FIGHT GAITSKELL

ECENT decisions of the National Executive of che Labour Party should leave no one in doubt as to what is to be the future of the Left wing under Mr. Gaitskell. Even the most reactionary correspondents of the capitalist press were forced to admit that the meeting was almost entirely preoccupied with the issuing of bans, proscriptions, expulsions and threats of expulsion.

That very fact alone emphasizes the incurable crisis of the Labour Party. Gaitskell, Brown and the gang of hardened right-wing MPs who support them, work might and main to sever the Labour Party from any vestige of socialist policy. Scrapping Clause 4 It is not just a question of the H-bomb. Gaitskell's nonationalization assurance to ICI, only weeks after the Courtaulds grab, reinforces everything that the Socialist Labour League has said about the Right wing being nothing more than the tools of monopoly capitalism.

The campaign to get rid of Clause Four has been translated from theory into hard fact. At a time when the monopolists are preparing for a cut-throat trade war under the guise of the Common Market, Mr. Gaitskell assures them that he has abandoned nationalization.

Western European right-wing Social Democracy is today following closely behind the infamous Guy Mollet. It is more and more adapting itself to the monopolies at a time when they are preparing to destroy the Labour and trade union movement in the capitalist countries of Europe.

Lowering Tariffs Capitalism has entered a period of grave crisis. After the pay pause comes the threat to lift the tariff barriers against industries which grant more than a 2$ per cent increase in wages. After the Rootes showdown with the Acton shop stewards comes the Ford threat of all-out struggle against the trade unions.

Meanwhile, the rate of profit continues to drop alarmingly. The capitalists face the Common Market with inadequate reserves to equip the new industries which will be required to meet the competition in automation and electronics.

Because of the rapid modifications and changes which have constantly to be made, capital investment in these industries is much greater than in the old heavy industries. This is the nub of the problem facing Tories and the employers.

4% from wage-cuts and speed-ups Profits are falling, heavy industry stagnates; the working class, powerfully entrenched in trade unions, are stubbornly defending wages and working conditions. This state of affairs has to be changed, and the only way is for the trade unions to be defeated so that wage reductions and speed-up will once again begin to fill the coffers of the monopolies with fresh reserves of profit.

At this moment when the economic crisis grows sharper, the right-wing trade union leaders hasten to combine with the Tories and agree to an all-round 4 per cent increase in production. The capitalists know very well that such an increase is impossible on the basis of the present state of industrial relations.

Collaboration

Like Mr. Gaitskell, the rightwing trade union leaders snuggle up more closely to the monopolies at a time when they should be preparing to fight them. Whilst they talk at the conference table, the monopolies are busily preparing behind the scenes to take on the trade unions in a decisive showdown. Gaitskell's adaptation to the monopolies and the rightwing trade union leaders drawing closer to the state are two sides of the same coin.

It is a similar development made safe for the H-bomb the monopolies.

It is all right for Gaitskell to discuss with President Kennedy, the leader of Wall Street imperialism, but it is impermissible for Lord Russell, leader of the Committee of 100, to discuss with the leaders of the Soviet Union in Moscow.

It is all right for George Brown to talk to the reactionary officer caste in BAOR, but it is impermissible for Canon Collins, leader of CND, to join Lord Russell in the visit to Moscow.

It is all right for right-wing chiefs like Woodrow Wyatt to write as much as they like in the capitalist press and broadcast as much as they like on radio and television, but it is impermissible for a group of Young Socialists to produce the monthly newspaper 'Keep Left'.

It is all right for Gaitskell and Brown to break every decision of the Scarborough conference, but it is impermissible to defend the decisions of that conference today.

This is the Labour Party under Gaitskell's leadership.

Whether they like it or not, even the tamest of left-wingers cannot continue for long in such an atmosphere. They must either shut their mouths and conform to Gaitskell's dictatorship, or risk expulsion on the flimsiest of pretexts.

The plight of MPs who support CND in the House of Commons is becoming untenable. The five MPs who have been expelled from the Parliamentary Labour Party have been driven on foreign affairs such as Laos more and more into open opposition to Gaitskell.

Several other Left MPs who support them cannot hold out much longer within Gaitskell's party. The threatened expulsion of Lord Russell is bringing things to a head with breakneck speed.

What are these MPs going to say in their coming general election statements about their opposition to the H-bomb? If Gaitskell and Brown won't permit them to speak out in the House of Commons is there any reason for believing that they will give them the right to speak to the electorate?

We should say that the chances for the endorsement of Michael Foot and Sydney Silverman as Gaitskell candidates seem extremely remote.

Rising opposition There is good reason to the coming general election failed.

No more fakers!

The movement, in turning towards the Labour Party and the trade unions, has in fact become a nightmare for Gaitskell as well as the pacifist MPs. Some of the MPs who today are threatened with expulsion because of their association with CND managed to remain members of the Labour Party right throughout the Second World War.

They joined the CND believing that it would be similar to the pacifist movements of the past. They overlooked the powerful influence of the tens of thousands of young people being drawn annually into the fight against the H-bomb.

The pacifist MP is trapped in this situation. He would like to twist his conscience in a way that would conform to Gaitskell, but he is unable to do so because his every action is watched by thousands of people both inside and outside the party.