SLL Conference discusses The tasks for Marxists

British Perspectives was - moved at the Fourth Annual Conference of the Socialist Labour League by he National Secretary, Gerry Healy.

'This report on the British ¡ituation is the most important since the war,' he said. 'We ire on the threshold of the end of the stage of capitalist levelopment in which capitalsm has been able to stabilise tself through armaments exsenditure.

'Capitalism is now turning • an offensive against the vorking class. The decline in he rate of profit is the prelominant trend.' Developments in British apitalism must be taken longside conditions in the JSA, the secretary said. The uying up of the majority of he Ford's shares in this ountry by the parent comany was a move to influence ections of the British ruling lass and make them accept he Common Market.

This would enable the US to lose down plants in Europe or \merica where necessary. american capitalists needed to dy up Europe and push Britain ut of Commonwealth prefernce so that they themselves ould go into the Commonrealth.

•What is projected in Washington is a global onslaught on the working class.

They will attempt to pit different sections of the working class against each other.

• We are on the verge of a period of class struggles the like of which the world has never seen. It could lead to regimes even more brutal than the fascist regimes of the 30s.?

Gerry Healy said that this conflict was the background to the pay pause, which he called a mild form of Tory effort to discipline the working class.

Speaking of the crisis in the middle class, he said that the swing to the Liberal Party was not move to the Left. On the contrary, it could lead to more totalitarian ideas and should be seen as part of the monopolies' process of conditioning the middle class to go to war on the working class at a later stage.

The retreat of the trades union leaders benefited the Tories and the monopolies. Their participation in the National Economic Development Council showed that they were trying to establish themselves as part of the state.

'As the conflict between the monopolies grows, capital investment becomes very important. Every strike means that the rate of profit falls' The present drive of the rightwing Labour leaders was to come to an agreement with the monopolies, Gerry Healy went on. Following on Gaitskell's attempt to remove Clause Four from the Labour Party constitution came his statement to ICI on profit-sharing.

Gaitskell gave support to a scheme that was used by the most anti-trades union employers. His latest statement on the new towns also coincides with the needs of the monopolies. Workers sent to new towns would be at the mercy of the employers.

Gaitskell's campaign against nationalization, his consultations with the press barons at the time of the Mirror-Odhams take-over and his reassurance to the ICI directors had led directly to the Cunard-Eagle -BOAC deal.

The directors of these two combines needed an understanding with the Labour leaders that there would be no interterence into their transaction by a future Labour government.

The national secretary then turned to the crisis inside the Labour Party itself. The witchhunt was a further sign of the willingness of the Right wing to conform to the needs of monopoly capitalism.

The present attack centred round the fight to turn CND towards the Labour movement. Pacifists who for years had been allowed to stay inside the party would now find themselves under attack. If CND were proscribed it would lead to a large-scale witch-hunting of its members.

Many Left MPs would have to make a choice-to be expelled or to knuckle under to the Right wing.

The Labour Party witch-hunt was part of a general plan that included the Radcliffe Report, the attack on the ETU militants and the screening of applicants for industrial jobs. 'The Right wing is determ ned to have it out with all on the Left. We are seeing now the effects of 'Tribune's' lack of leadership and the betrayal of the Scarborough decisions by the centrists.

• This is a period when Marxist leadership must stand out and have faith in the working class. We have no friends except amongst millions of working class men and women who have no voice.

'The new period of capitalism is going to open up new opportunities to build the revolutionary party. Our work in the next period will be to fight against Gaitskell; to fight now for socialist policies means to fight against all bans and proscriptions.

'You cannot select certain individuals or organizations to defend, as "Tribune' and the 'Daily Worker' have done. Their running away is part of the crisis of the middle class.' struggle against war, said that it was inseparable from defence of the Soviet Union. Marxists must organize the working class to defend the USSR against world imperialism.

In the past year, members of the Socialist Labour League had waged a determined fight against pacifists and revisionists who tried to confuse the working class with the idea that the Soviet Union is the same as imperialist America.

Summing up the tasks that faced the League in the crucial period we were now entering, he said:

Harry Finch " We must develop into a mass movement. We are not overawed by the monopolies. We are wedded to the working class of the world, and we are proud of the record of the British Labour movement' A Scottish delegate said that the wage pause, fear of unemployment and the witch-hunt meant that the working class urgently needed to solve its problems.

'The working class is viewing more critically the existing leadership and is looking for an alternative. The Scottish TUC's policy of pressuring the Tories to direct industry to Scotland, in spite of Phoney Peace in Laos \HE agreement of the three princes of Laos coalition government and end the eight-y might be welcomed in Washington and Mc will fool no one in Laos or Viet Nam.

The agreement does not commit any of the participants to a definite policy-not even to the nebulous 'neutralism' of Prince Souvanna.

To Prince Souphanouvong the agreement can only be an embarrassment at the worst or a brief interlude in the war at the best.

Prince Boun Oum, who was pushed by the US government into the negotiations by the threat of the withdrawal of US aid, is determined to spike the ployment, shows that the CP and the the social democrats have abandoned completely the class struggle' He declared that the Stalinists in the ETU had rejected the SLL's plan for a rank-and-file campaign. As a result the ranks had turned to Byrne. In Scotland, similarly, the CP had crushed the desire of the Fife miners to fight.

"There will be no automatic swing to the Left. We have to intervene to develop the working class and unleash their power. The 'No' vote in the Confed ballot was not against the strike but a vote of no-confidence in the present leadership' Bob Shaw said that the attacks by the monopolies on the working class will precipitate major class struggles. The first tremors have already been felt in the BMC factory in Scotland.

The car bosses are planning to cut wages nationally and they have begun by paying workers at their new Scottish works considerably below the rates existing in the Midlands. This was a deliberate move to set one section of the car workers against another.

We must train a leadership in industry. The CP has smashed workers' struggles in the mines by walking out and letting the mines be closed down. We must intervene.' Turning to the witch-hunt in the Labour Party, Bob Shaw spoke of the vicious attacks being made on the youth movement. The Glasgow Federation had been closed and Transport House was sending people to investigate branches and members.

Unilateralists were being refused parliamentary seats. It was vital that a fight be staged against the Right wing. We must lead that fight, he said, the revisionists, such as the Pabloites, were incapable of doing so and would run away from the struggle.

A delegate from Merseyside spoke of the struggle on the docks to preserve the unity of portworkers against the combined attacks on the employers and TGWU-appointed officials, who had tried to brand the militant members of the 'Blue' Union as non-unionists.

He said that the 'Blue' Union had demanded an increase in wages that was f4 a week more than was being asked by the TGWU.

The 'Blue' dockers had appealed over the heads of the officials to the solidarity of rank-and-file TGWU members. The CP had lined up with the 'White' Union officials and had told the members to set up ear-old v scow but neutralist guns opportunity.

He had insisted that all matters concerning defence and internal affairs would have to receive the unanimous assent of all three princes.

The last time a coalition government was set up, Prince Souphanouvong was in charge of administrating US aid to Laos and most of it went to the Pathet Lao. To end this 'anomaly' the CIA instigated the Gerry Healy not to work with the " Blue'.

They had received little support and the result had been a • resounding defeat for 1 the employers and their plans.

Harry Finch, Birmingham engineering worker, revealed the latest plans of the employers in the motor car industry to smash the workers' militancy. In one large Midlands plant, he said, the management had organized a team of blacklegs to break up a strike that had spread to most sections of the works.

While shop stewards had been refused permission to hold works meetings, the blacklegs had been given canteen facilities during working hours to appeal to the men to go back to work.

He, too, was highly critical of Communist Party members who rely on right-wing officials to try and break down the militancy of workers. He said that the CP was running away before the monopolies.

Summing up the discussion, Gerry Healy said: 'We must have an understanding of the role of Marxists in the Labour movement. We cannot take the problems of the Socialist Labour League in isolation from the Labour movement.

Capitalism can no longer work because investment is exceeding the rate of profit. This has spurred on the growth of monopolies which dominate the state. These monopolies, through the Common Market, for example, are planning a showdown with the working class.

'The postponement of the crisis after the war has not solved any problems. The driving force is the struggle between Capital and Labour.

" Our task is not to start wages movements. They already exist. We are concerned with the problem of power? Boun Oum -coup of 1958.

This time it is indeed doubtful whether any elections will be held. The victory of Pathet Lao in a general election is a fore. gone conclusion. This is why the US marines have not been withdrawn from Siam and why the military build-up continues.

In the meantime, the war in South Viet Nam continues with unabaited ferocity. According to reports, the Viet Nam government has not sent a train out after dark along the main railway for at least two months and fierce guerrilla war goes on all round Saigon.

The "peace' in war in Viet Nam.

of de Gaulle Russell snubs has strengthened the French government's bargaining position in relation to the FLN.

The extensive destruction already carried out, the dislocation of economic life and the large-scale exodus of Europeans