The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 405

tion fighter, Tran Van Dang, over 800 Young Socialists demonstrated through London last Sunday against U.S. aggression in Vietnam.

Echoing the last words of the 20-year-old fighter: 'You may shoot me, but others will come against you,' youth at the head of the demonstration carried banners saying 'We are the others'.

In banner, slogan and float the youth made their position of complete support for the workers and peasants of Vietnam against imperialist aggression very plain in contrast to the Communist Party and left fakers' call for peace negotiations and complete betrayal by the Wilson government.

From Marble Arch to Battersea Park youth in the colourful procession kept up their chants of 'Labour must arm the Vietcong', 'U.S. Imperialism Out!' and 'Secret Diplomacy Out!' Their loudest calls for 'U.S. Imperialism Out' resounded around Grosvenor Square as they passed the American Embassy.

Along with the dramatic picture Dang marched three girls carrying 'Americans. Get out of Viet-.nam!' They were followed by members of the National Committee of the Young Socialists and Central Committee memDers of the Socialist Labour League.

Then followed the contingents from all over London behind their decorated lorries and vans.

The impressive floats each had their own theme:

Float themes South-west London, no secret diplomacy; Middlesex, arm the Vietcong; South-east London, Socialism or barbarism (with pictures of atrocities committed by U.S. and South Vietnamese puppet troops); East London, aid to Vietnam by Australian and Japanese dockers (ship of imperialism being sunk by the fist of dockers); West London, a warmongering. Johnson with Wilson in his right pocket and Labour lefts' in his left pocket; Central Middlesex, workers of the world unite (workers of different nationalities burying the boss); Tottenham, Wilson serves imperialism; East Surrey, a huge slogan of 'U.S. imperialism get out of Vietnam', and vans with slogans and pictures saying "withdraw all troops', another saying 'the writing is on the wall for Wilson'.

Large banners of the Young Socialists ('Arm the Vietcong', Defeat American Imperialism') and the Socialist Labour League ('U.S. Imperialism get out of Vietnam') were also prominent.

Enthusiasm

The tremendous enthusiasm with which Young Socialists had prepared the floats, banners, posters and support, permeated through the whole demonstration, which attracted many youth through systematic and thorough leafleting, canvassing and explanations of YS policies in the week before the demonstration.

Tired from marching and slogan-shouting, the youth still poured in their hundreds into the Battersea Park meeting where they heard secretary of the Young Socialists, Dave Ashby, say the demonstration was a tribute to Young Socialists.

'It measures up to the kind of fight the youth are taking up on behalf of the revolutionary fighters of Vietnam, he commented. Imericans of Tran Van large posters, Saturday, July 24, 1965 THE colourful and impressive demonstration organised by the Young Socialists last Sunday was a real blow against Wilson's subservience to imperialism. This demonstration gave the lie to the centrist double-talk about 'Labour foreign secretary Stewart being a prisoner of his own propaganda' and that there can be 'no victory, only negotiated peace in Vietnam'.

As the war progresses, all the deception and lies of the reformists and centrists become more glaringly exposed.

Thee a of i rains 100, 25 dogs' of imperialism, stands equally exposed. For years they have exhorted the working class to place its faith in the sanctity of international agreements and in the virtues of secret diplomacy.

Now, all the terrible implications of this policy are blossoming like burning jellied petroleum. These people denied the fact that The increasing number of Section of YS demonstrators who listened to Editor M. Banda. campaigns and demonstrations taking place showed there was Tetnam! Trotskyism and the in war the real struggle against imperialism can only be an international working-class struggle, led by a Marxist party armed with a strategy of world revolution and independent of all bureaucracies.

The Moscow and Peking Stalinists, by their conscious opposition to such a policy, have placed themselves against the historical interests of the Vietnamese working class.

The refusal to give massive military aid, indeed, to intervene milifarily, flows logically from the reformist, anti-internationalist perspectives of the Soviet and Chinese bureaucracies.

This policy undoubtedly facilitates the diplomatic and military offensive of U.S. imperialism and underlines the necessity to break with the strategy and tactics of Stalinism.

Vietnam The role of Marxist parties is to give unconditional support to all liberation movements fighting imperialism.

In the case of Vietnam, workers in every country must mobilize to weaken the imperialist forces and hasten the victory of the Vietcong.

The campaign for unconditional class support for the Vietnamese revolution in opposition to all the opportunists, Stalinists and revisionists is the first necessity for the construction of parties of the Fourth International in every country.

The Trotskyists are the severest critics of the leaderships of these colonial movements, because we are also the most loyal defenders of the anti-imperialist revolution.

Today, there is a danger that the successful war being led by the workers win Newsletter Reporter dermined n be victory plucked by Pire may erg thia i Moscon Lue basI betraal 1s the talks between nan and Kosygin GINI As in 1954. so today, the bovie leaders hope that by DulLIne lEl revolunon in a LOLa CleS whose object is the American tuls Clad le dangers of such an action are enhanced by the reluctance of the Hanoi leadership to break consciously from the Stalinist national - reformist perspectives of socialism-in-a-single-country, and its attempts to tie the military struggle to a diplomatic solution at Geneva. o matter how heroic the military struggle against the U.S. imperialists, so long as it remains within the framework of these counter - revolutionary politics, the outcome will be against the interests of the people of Vietnam. The prime responsibility of Marxists is the struggle for a correct, revolutionary political line for the workers' struggle. lus, the future of the Vietnamese revolution depends upon, and is indissolubly connected with, the strength of the international against monkink imperialism, and this class in its struggle strength will never be complete without the construction of a Trotskyist party in opposition to the Vietnamese Stalinists and the petty-bourgeois nationalists of the Vietcong. ne independent class-struggle programme of the Marxists, who fight as the most determined protagonists of the war against imperialism and its puppets in Vietnam, is the natural and indispensable complement of our unconditional internationalist support for a Vietcong military victory. le crisis of Stalinism and world imperialism and, in particular, the crisis of U.S. imperialism in South-east Asia today, opens up extremely favourable opportunities for the construction of sections of the Fourth International, not only in the metropolitan and colonial countries, but particularly also in Vietnam, China, Eastern Europe and Russia.

These parties can, and will be built only through uncompromising struggle against all forms of Stalinist and Pabloite liquidationist revision of Marxism. That is the meaning of Sunday's demonstration. Wilson attacks railmen Brown and Gunter Labour leaders further colleague Gunter, Minister of Labour, have threaten unions swing to the right up

La change taking place in the world- it was increasingly possible for the working class to fight back against the power of imperialism.

'What we have to recognise is that there is no peaceful solution, he said, adding that it was class warfare. In Vietnam it was not simply a fight of the Vietcong against the Americans. As far as the Young Socialists were concerned, there were no Vietnamese, Americans, or British, (Cont. page 2, col. I)

again spread on Wednesday, management and union officials met hurriedly, with the result that the majority of assistants will be placed in the jobs they had before the recent, victorious strike.

When the assistants returned to work on July 12 after winning substantial wage increases and recognition for their union, the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, many were given jobs they did not want. Only six of the 60 strikers returned to selling books.

The strikers had warned union officials this might happen and that a definite undertaking had to be obtained from Christina Foyle. The growing discontent since the return to work probably led to the rumour of a further strike. It has become obvious though, during the last few months, that only strong organisation amongst the workers has broken down the stubborn attitude of the Foyle's management.

24,

in recent weeks gone out of their way to make clear that if the unions cannot convince their members to put up with a wage freeze, then the force of the state will have to be used.

Both these gentlemen, who now threaten the organised workers on behalf of big business, owe their careers to the union movement, havit trade union movement, having worked their way into Parliatrade march worked their way into Parliament through the trade union machinery and drawing thousands of pounds in wages from the subscriptions of ordinary workers.

At the Durham miners' gala last Saturday, Harold Wilson, once the blue-eyed boy of the fake lefts, bitterly attacked the train drivers for their goslow on British Railways, Southern Region.

All these statements are in line with the complete right-wing policy of the Labour government, wholly subservient to U.S. capital at home and abroad.

New leadership At every turn the working class finds its aims obstructed by the Labour government. Above all, the working class needs a new leadership in its struggles, a leadership to oppose both the employers and their servants in the government. Anybody who imagined the British Communist Party might provide this alternative should now be learning very quickly, as many members of that Party are doing.

Last Thursday (July 15) the 'Daily Worker' carried a front-page article headed 'George Brown appeals to Daily Worker readers for aid'.

'Other way'

In the text, George Sinfield reports George Brown's statements about incomes and prices, in which he warned that methods of compulsion might be necessary. Among other remarks, he addressed Sinfield as follows:

If we don't make a go of this, if not helped by the TUC and by you and your readers, it will happen some other way. ... It can be done by voluntary cooperation between manage(Cont. back page, col. 1)

Belfast

NORTHERN Ireland Young Socialists marched through the centre of Belfast last Saturday in a demonstration of solidarity with the workers and peasants of Vietnam in their struggle against U.S. imperialism.

Headed by a huge red banner bearing the slogan 'Victory • to the Vietcong', the marchers raised the chants of 'Vietcong in -U.S. troops out'. As the demonstration made its way along the main street, huge numbers of shoppers crowded the pavements to watch.

A small contingent of CND followed the main body, but the Young Communist League, who had been invited, did not appear.

EXPOSED GENEVA

At a meeting later, Bill McElroy, regional YS chairman, outlined the causes of the Vietnam struggle and exposed the role of the 1954 Geneva 'peace' conference.

A re-call of this conference, for which the Stalinists and CND were campaigning, both in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, could only be in the interests of the imperialists, said McElroy.

Harold Davies, the Communist Party and local trade union leaders all received invitations to be present, but sent no representatives, thus exposing their treacherous role in the labour movement.

The meeting decided to work for another demonstration for some time in August.

but there were workers there were employers.

The only solution to the war in Vietnam was the complete defeat of American imperialism.

'We desire, wish for and fight for that, he commented.

The fight of the young Vietnamese workers was also an example and lesson that it was possible to inflict blows against U.S. imperialism.

'If there is anyone in the park today who thinks it is only necessary to call for peace, we should remind them that the people in Vietnam have been fighting for many years' He explained the defeat of the French and the 1954 Geneva Agreement 'peace' fraud. To secure peace Only a complete and final victory of the Vietnamese people, the drawing out of foreign troops and the building of à socialist and united Vietnam could secure peace.

The real purpose of the war became clearer each day, he said. It was to intimidate and threaten any potential revolutionary force in the world today. Why else would the Americans use the weapons they had been using.

It was significant that at the same time Wilson, the fake lefts and the Communist Party spoke of 'peace' talks.

'We should have nothing to do with the fake lefts inside the Labour Party and "Tribune' who say that the Americans are strong; that no side is going to win; that there are going to be negotiations, so why don't we get down to them now. We don't accept that' 'Democratic' lie There was also the story that the Americans were fighting the war for democracy. But it had supported a succession of South Vietnamese governments, which changed every month. Young workers were maiming themImmigrants join Bradford march cinema applauded Young Socialist speakers on Friday, July 16, when they denounced the American government's war policy in Vietnam, and condemned Wilson for supporting it.

The following day a loudspeaker van toured the area where immigrant workers live, with an Indian Young Socialist speaking in Punjabi calling for support for a Young Socialist demonstration the same day.

An open-air meeting was later attended by over 60 immigrant workers, who gave full support to YS speakers.

In the afternoon a colourful demonstration was held through the centre of Bradford with youth chanting similar slogans to those on the London and Glasgow demonstrations.

Several young bystanders joined the demonstration, including two Labour Party members and an American student, who contributed a pound to the cost of the demonstration.

At the meeting held Cot out of The message is clear as the march moves past the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square. selves in South Vietnam so they did not have to fight a war for these puppet governments.

These governments had the support of the U.S. to which the Labour government was giving uncritical support.

Join YS

To measure up to this situation, youth had to join the Young Socialist movement, which was in the forefront of the struggle to build a revolütionary party in Britain to fight, like the youth in Vietnam, against imperialism.

Central Committee member of the Socialist Labour League and Editor of The Newsletter, Michael Banda, said that with the escalation of the Vietnam war, many more, larger demonstrations against Wilson and his government of betrayal would be led in the next few months.

The Socialist Labour League had consistently for he gains the var wad rouent agalast une war and ii oanson escaates thie war we will escalate against those people who support it, not only Wilson, Gordon A warmongering Johnson with Wilso in one pocket and the Labour 'lefts' in the other One of the YS floats on last Sunday's demonstra tion. the demonstration, Young Socialist speakers declared full support for all those workers and peasants in Vietnam who are fighting against imperialist aggression.

They pointed out that the struggle of the working class against imperialism was internătional.

They also stressed that the Labour government's shameful support for Johnson's policy in South-east Asia and its complete betrayal on the question of the Immigration Act are very closely linked. A . call was made for a united st uggle by immigrant and British: workers against the Vietnam war and the Immigration Act.

ofhers will come against you ToneD Americans Anericans Get out of Vietnam!

Walker and all their Cabinet colleagues, but all those so-called left-wingers in Parliament.

"These type of people cannot lead anyone anywhere. They put up a fake opposition, but they are traitors.' The Wilson government had attempted to betray the British working class and had also tried to sell a 'dud plan' to Hanoi by proposing a peace mission. This was intended to tell the people to tell Hanoi to lay down their arms.

But the people of Southeast Asia had shown their contempt for such a mission.

Davies sent

Then Wilson had sent Harold Davies MP (who had 'floated around the revolutionary left at one time) to Hanoi with express instructions, which Wilson had been unable to get across.

'People in Hanoi asked him if he would like to see the site of American bombing. He said "Oh, no. Only on condition that 1 can see your leader." He was not interested that the people were rendered homeless.

That is the secret diplomacy which we are against, said Banda.

The people of North Vietnam had been overridden by American, British and French imperialism, with the aid of Moscow, after the 1954 Geneva Agreement.

Since then they had been fighting for land from the landlords and factories from the capitalists.

This struggle would not be ended merely by demonstrations and meetings of millions of people throughout the world who supported the movement against the war. Long struggle This would be a long and protracted struggle combining the energies of all the youth, working-class people, the trades unions and all those opposed to imperialism in the USA, Europe and South-east Asia.

He concluded:

Down with imperialism and its agencies.

"A victory to the struggles of the Vietnamese people.

For a military defeat of U.S. imperialism?

Other speakers at the meeting were Sheila Torrance, treasurer of the Young Socialists, Barrie Evans, YS National Committee member from the East Midlands, and Aileen Jennings, editor of the Young Socialist paper 'Keep Left'. Big business Vietnam in half Geneva is GLASGOW MARCH ANSWERS MAGISTRATES AN impressive and success• ful demonstration against American imperialist intervention in Vietnam was held in Glasgow on Wednesday, July 14, by the Socialist Labour League, supported by the Young Socialists.

Behind the Socialist Labour League banner 'Defeat Imperialism in Vietnam' marched members of the League followed by Young Socialists with their branch banners and posters demanding an end to the American imperialist war in Vietnam and full support from the labour movement for the Vietcong.

From the Eye Infirmary in Berkeley Street, down SauchieStreet, Renfield Street, Argyle Street and Queen Street, all the way to George Square, the marchers kept up a continual shouting of slogans, demanding 'Arm the Vietcong, Imperialism out, out, out'.

The impact of the demonstration on the general public was two-fold. A large number of passers-by and people. in cinema queues stood on the pavement to watch the demonstration and read the banners and posters.

Many of them bought copies of the Young Socialist paper 'Keep Left'. Two young French students on holiday in Glasgow joined the march.

On the other hand, an army officer standing in front of the Central Station, very much put tne lmpacı of tne demonstration, threatened a Young Socialist Keep Left' seller with assault.

After the demonstration, a short meeting was held near George Square and such was the enthusiasm of those who had participated in the march, that they were reluctant to journal Voprosi Ekonomiki' (Economic Problems'), some 20 per cent of Soviet workers have no regular jobs. This labour surplus is to be found, not only in the big industrial centres, but even in the less developed parts of the country.

The 1958 seven-year plan badly miscalculated the rate of increase in the labour force. Instead of 1.7 million more workers, over three million have become available each year.

At the same time as automation has begun to reduce the demand for labour, the rate of growth of the economy as a whole has declined.

Moreover, the size of the problem is hidden by the way in which managers, whose salaries depend on the numbers of employees they manage, tend to inflate these numbers.

Youth affected

In many places, young workers are finding it especially difficult to get jobs.

disperse when the meeting ended.

The demonstration was also a fitting answer to the rightwing Labour magistrates who a month previously had refused permission the Young Socialists to organise their own demonstration in support of the Vietnamese workers. A further demonstration is being organised.

NORTH VIETNAM GENEVA AGREEMENT VIETNA Party Communist Party of Gre Britain, scheduled originally for Easter, is now due to take place in November, Whether the Party's 'highest organisation' will reflect its true condition depends upon the activity during the next four months of the opposition to the Gollan clique.

That the Party is in a far from robust condition is no secret. Apart from the expulsions which have taken place since the last Congress (no official figures have been issued, but there is evidence that the total from the Party and the Young Communist League runs into three figures), there has, according to Gollan, been a decline in membership. Worker hase dropped sub- The the "Daily stantially. Many branches are not even functioning in social-democrațic manner, let alone as Leninist organisations. And, at all levels of the Party, there exists opposition to the present leadership and its

July of two articles on ›pular support. The Baath arty came to the fore.

The frustrated Baathist middle-class intelligentsia turned towards the backward section of the working class, the lumpen proletariat. Alongside ruined ofishoots of the bourgeoisie were vagabonds, discharged soldiers, disgruntled • students, brothel - keepers - the whole indefinite mass President in February 1963.

This was followed by a Baathist coup in Syria the following month.

The workers and peasants, however, are not dormant. In 1964, 11,000 workers were on strike at the Iraqi Petroleum Company. In 1965, the Bahrein workers shook the Bahrein government by a national stoppage.

What of the Iraqi Communist Party? Two months ago, the Central Committee called for armed insurrection and guerrilla wafare.

Stalinist excuse When Stalinism fails to build the workers' party, it turns to the excuse of the 'existence of different historical situations' and the 'need for guerrilla warfare'. The experiences and blunders of the South African Communist Party run on similar lines.

The failures of the Algerian Communist Party brought the petty-bourgeois to the helm of

A taken from the Soviet CCORDING to reports In the nationalized economy of the USSR, it is the mishandling of planning by the bureaucracy which is the whole cause of the problem.

The bureaucracy cannot reveal the truth in statistical or any other terms because it must hide its own parasitic role.

In a planned economy it is simnle to correct previous ArArrera SANTIAA errors, by changing investment programlle snor tenne in ISOR working hours.

But for central planning to operate properly, it must be supplemented by the functioning of the market mechanism, and above all, by the action of democratic criticism, discussion and control by the workers.

It is over three decades since Trotsky pointed this out, but in the age of automation it is clearly true than

Managers are reluctant to take them on, because they are given full pay for shortened working hours. 15- and 16-year-olds are not allowed to work more than four hours and 17- and 18-year-olds six hours a day.

Only now, when this problem has become really serious, is anything said Mishandling of USSR's 'planned economy' led to present problem.

about it. Even then, Soviet statistics are designed to hide as much as possible, as a recent report by economist Abel Aganbegyan complains.

He says that, because of the 'stupid incomprehensible secrecy of much statistical information', Soviet economists often have to get their information from American journals, including reports of the Central Intelligence Agency.

No comparison It would be a big mistake to compare Soviet unemployment with that in Britain or the USA, despite any superficial resemblance. Automation under capitalism is used only to make profits for the employers. Sackings there are not due to mistakes, but are the inevitable results of the system of private ownership.

within 1L UNNIE This is a reply by Jean Simon issue of The Newsletter taking In article in the June 19 Newsletter about the publication in the Soviet article in the June 19 Newsletter Union of 'The Phenomenon of ardin. by Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Union of 'The Phenomenon of Chi I. I never intended to pass judgement on the activity of Teilhard de Chardin as a geologist or palaeontologist. My purpose was only to discuss the reasons which could impel the Soviet bureaucracy to publish a work with a metaphysical outlook foreign to historical materialism, in a country where the publication of works directly or indirectly touching on philosophical questions is rigidly subordinated to political considerations. 2. J.C. is wrong to say that the writings of Teilhard de Chardin only began to appear in the Catholic press after his death. Certain of them were published in 'Etudes', the official journal of the Jesuits in France. 3. The fact that Teilhard de Chardin came in for the condemnation of the Vatican does not mean very much. The church often condemns schools of thought which will later represent its own essential outlook. Is it necessary to recall the Christian Democratic movement? This movement, which is now one of the most solid supporters of social domination by the church, grew out of the Sillon movement, which was condemned by the Vatican. Finally, the new general of the Jesuit order, Arrupe, insisted in his first public statement on the value of the work. of Teilhard de Chardin. It seems the latter will remain on the Index a shorter time than Pascal.

4. In any case, even if the thought of Teilhard de Chardin presented some real interest for the development of Marxism, I would not do J.C. the injustice of supposing that he believes this to be the reason for his being published in the USSR! Roger Garaudy, French Stalinist intellectual who introduces Teilhard to Soviet Mwaw THE 29th Congress of t • J.C. who wrote in the June 26 p a point from Simon's previous bout the publication in the Soviet lan' by Jesuit priest, Teilhard de 'din.

readers, uses this Catholic writer's thought to elaborate a vague philosophical amalgam which translates into the domain of thought the political desire for an agreement with the church. Teilhard's thought constitutes an admirable metaphysical system appropriate to the new policy of the Catholic Church: a rapprochement between • the different religions against the movements for freedom all over the world, which threatens all churches.

5. The bureaucrats in the Kremlin naturally have no consideration for the development of Marxism, since the development of Marxist thought represents a serious danger to themselves! Does not J.C. think that the work of Sigmund Freud represents for Marxism a more profound source of enrichment than the metaphysics of Teilhard? And yet not only is it a question of Freud not being published in the USSR, but his work is discussed in terms which one would much prefer to see used for the Jesuits, whether or not they are admonished by an authority to which they always stay subordinated, like Teilhard de Chardin. See, for example, now the bulletin 'Novy Knigi' announces the publication of a pamphlet against Freudianism by Affasiev: "The author of this book unmasks Freudianism and the writers, poets and philosophers of the West who strive to turn the peoples away from their struggle against capitalism and for the rights of the workers.' Thus Freud excites the same hatred from the Soviet bureaucrats as he does from the bourgeoisie of the West; this is because his thought is antimystical, which the mythical metaphysics of the reverend father Teilhard de Chardin clearly is not.

policies.

What is the nature of this opposition?

Broadly speaking, it may be said to exist on three levels.

Firstly, there is the economic opposition. Probably the most inarticulate, this, in the main, takes the form of grumbling about the Party's record in industry and in the unions.

Examples most frequently cited are the debacle at Dagenham; the pronouncements of Paynter since he became President of the National Union of Mineworkers (note here that, as in the Labour Party, so in the Communist Party, militants are expelled, while the right wing keep their Party cards); the 180 degree turn of the comrades on the National Committee of the Amalgamated Engineering Union last April; and, of course, affairs in the Electrical Trades Union, from the vote-rigging case to the recent resignations from the Party by those full-time officials, whose Leninist train-

HE Baath Socialist Party was formed in Syria in the early forties by Michel Aflak and Salah Bitar. During the thirties, these chauvinist leaders had sympathised with the Hitler movement in Germany.

The ideological head of Baathism, Aflak, explains his philosophy thus:

I quickly found Marxism inadequate, based on materialism without human and spiritual values, without national consciousness.

Nations are only large families and the Arab family needs more than Marx. Thus we evolved the Baathist doctrine of socialism, mingled with nationalism and the human spirit?

Union and break By 1947, after the French left Syria, the Baath bad 1,000 carefully selected members. At the Third Party Congress in 1956, the Baath decided on the union of Syria with Egypt.

When it became obvious that the big capitalists of Egypt were exploiting the weakness of the Syrian bourgeoisie, the final break with Nasser came in 1961. Since then, the Baathists have quelled two Nasserite insurrections in Iraq and five in Syria. Of Nasser one Baathist said:

'We loved him and cherished him, the bastard. Nasser is a lost prophet. He tried to annihilate us, the devil.

Nasser complains:

I have read every book by or about Baath and I could understand nothing?

'Arabisation'

The Baathists want to assimilate national minorities like the Kurds, forcibly to 'Arabise' them, monopolise governmental power and sweep away all opposition. - Within the petty-bourgeois Baathist movement stand two visible trends. ing was of such a high order that they chose to put the lowest form of class organisation before the highest.

Secondly, opposition exists on the political level. Why, it is asked, does the party, having been transformed into an electoral machine, continue to make no progress at the polls?

Again, there is concern over the way the party has buried itself in the 'peace movement'. The logical outcome of this policy was seen in the recent lobby on Vietnam when Gollan announced, in effect, that, while they did not really agree with the demands being presented, the Party would support it.

But it is the Party's attitude to the Labour government which is giving the greatest cause for alarm. From the Party centre has come no class analysis of this government and the situation in which it finds itself; nor has any clear lead been given against its capitalist policies — its role One group wants to carry out an outright war against the working-class vanguard and a pogrom against the Kurds, and the other (pro-Nasser) group wants to utilise socialist concepts in order that a working-class victory 'must be arrived at peacefully and within the framework of national unity, and by means of dissolving class distinctions'.

Concessions

Following the formation of the United Arab Republic, the monarchs and semi-feudal sultans of Jordan and Iraq united into the Hashemite Federation.

The Iraqi bourgeois-democratic revolution of Kassem in July 1958 dissolved this relationship and overthrew Nuri-es-Said. Kassem deprived the feudal landlords of some of their privileges and gave concessions to the workers employed in oil companies by increasing their wages and recognising their right to organise. east of Suez', prices and comes' policy, disciplining the unions, etc.

Instead, the most opportunist position has been taken, very little different from that of the pseudo-left hypocrites around "Tribune'.

It is on the third, theoretical level that the most sustained, articulate opposition is to be found.

This opposition first began to make itself heard about three years ago, following the commencement of the public polemics between the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union and China.

At first it confined itself almost entirely to support for the Chinese position, coupled with the demand that the Party press should give at least as much space to the position of the Chinese Party as it was giving to that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

But over the pas t two years the 'pro-Peking' cor nrades have developed their pr ›sition and The Stalinist leaders of the Iraqi Communist Party, overwhelmed by these seemingly progressive measures of the bourgeoisie, called for a united front with the Kassem regime against imperialism.

In the second year of his rule, with the increasing militancy of rural workers and peasants, Kassem turned upon the Communists and jailed hundreds, condemning to death 28 Party leaders.

Kassem's so-called progressive section of the national bourgeoisie, in fact represented the inveterate enemies of the workers' movement—-the local bourgeoisie and the agents of the foreign oil and petroleum companies.

Baath to The Kassem regime, sterile in political content, weak and unable to take over foreign interests and carry to its conclusion the bourgeois revolution, found itself rapidly losing sint Cabinet after Union with Syria.

published sustained criticisms of most aspects of revisionism in the British Party.

Among these comrades, there is a growing awareness that revisionism, not only in the British Party, but in the international Communist movement as a whole, goes back a lot further than Khrushchev.

In order for the opposition to be at all effective at the coming congress, it is absolutely necessary for these three strands to be drawn together.

Those comrades who are critical on the economic and political levels, but who ignore, and even in some cases, are hostile to the theoretical criticism of the revisionists, must appreciate that the disastrous methods of work of the Gollan clique flow naturally from their 'theory' and programme.

And, secondly, the struggle must commence in earnest now. As a start, two demands should be made: 1. That pre-Congress material should be distributed immeorganised into a National Guard in Baghdad.

Numbering 200,000, this green-armband army marched into workers' quarters, each section led by Baathist Party members. 3 month killing In February 1963, the National Guard ran amok, shooting down suspected Communists, raping women and murdering workers indiscriminately, all in the name of revenge on the Communists.

For three months this macabre act unfolded in the streets of Baghdad. The blood of 10,000 painted the sandy pavements, and the prisons were filled to bursting with screaming detainees.

The Stalinists pleaded with the Kassem regime for arms, but the government refused to move.

Kassem was murdered, and the Baathists won the day. General Aref, the butcher of Baghdad, was proclaimed diately to the branches, so that the maximum time might be devoted to it; and 2. That the pages of 'Comment' and 'Marxism Today' be opened for a full exchange of views.

In conclusion, a word of warning is necessary. If the opposition's perspective is the defeat of the present leadership and the transformation of the Party, only disillusionment will result.

The revisionists control the machine and will make full use of it to stifle the opposition. Only one perspective is possible: that the fight against Gollan, Dutt, and their associates, is part of the fight now being conducted to smash the reformist grip on the working class, and for the construction of a revolutionary Marxist Party capable of leading the class to the overthrow of capitalism.

fraternally, B. Hayward, Birmingham. the struggle against French imperialism. The present struggle within the Algerian bureaucracy is a product of the joint crisis of Stalinism and imperialism.

Aref continues the Baathist war against the Kurdish people, who are led by Mustapha Barzani.

When, in 1922, Britain imposed a monarchy in Iraq, the Kurds began a life-and-death struggle resulting in the occupation of the town of Suleimaniya in 1924.

Kurdish revolt The ensuing decades saw a number of Kurdish uprisings, the most notable being the Barzani revolt of 1943-45.

In the period of 1964, in the Erbil Province, 37 villages were given to Arab settlers and the Kurdish inhabitants driven out. Within the context of 'Arab Socialist Unity, the Baath regime intends to *Arabise' the Kurds.

The war begun in 1963 by Aref reached a climax on April 3, 1965. Having doubled the salary of his officers and supplied gas masks and toxic gas to his regiments, Aref shifted 40,000 troops into the hills of Kurdistan.

The Iraqi forces descended upon the town of Suleimaniya and opened fire in the streets and cafes.

In the melee, scores of people were killed. The raging storm of repression continues, and British Hawker jets are now being used to smoke out Kurdish fighters from their mountain holes. While blood flows in the Kurdish village streets, profit flows into the coffers of the Iraqi bourgeoisie and British imperialism.

"Solution'

The bourgeois - national leaders of the Kurds, aided by the Iraqi Communist Party, demand 'a reasonable solution, keeping the integrity of Iraqi structure intact.

Contrary to this, Lenin stated ('The Rights of Nations to Self-Determination'):

"Therefore, it is against the practicality of the bourgeoisie that the proletarians advance their principles on the national question; they always give the bourgeoisie only conditional support.

•.. The bourgeoisie always places its national demands in the forefront. It advances them categorically.

For the proletariat, however, these demands are subordinate to the interests of the class struggle' The future of the Kurdish peasants and workers lies in their unity with the Iraqi workers. The ruling classes in the Middle East are only divided on the issue of how best to oppress its workers and peasants.

The Trotskyist Fourth International extends a hand of solidarity to the proletarians and peasants of the Middle East. The reconstruction of this International with parties in every country able to lead the workers and reject the petty-bourgeois and Stalinist leaderships, is the key to the struggle against imperialism.

Despite Baathism and Stalinism many militant strikes and Greek Trotskyists join anti-government demonstration among the tens of have opened the way to a dicthousands of Greek trade tatorship disguised by demounionists, students and the 'A new reactionary Stalinists who demonstrated ship menaces us. last week-end against the 'We call on the putsoh and in support of the stand at the ready. deposed Prime Minister, 'Against the King and his Papandreou.

The whole of the Athens attempts of the right-Against police force turned out to meet the offensive of big business. the demonstrators, and there 'For the protection of the were violent clashes. Several few liberties which we have arrests were made.

Although the demonstra- in the past. tions are in favour of Papan- For bread and for the prodreou the Stalinists are not tection of our wages. Even going so far as to say: 'Down these are in peril. with the King'.

The Greek Trotskyists have been putting forward the following slogans in the demonstrations:

Down with the King!

Death to the nutschists!

LAIN Get out of NATO! (the 'official' Stalinists refusi : to take i up opposition to NATO).

For a general strike! (the Stalinists refuse to say the word strike).

Against compromise! (between the King and Papandreou and between the Stalinists and Papandreou).

In a leaflet. issued hv the Greek Trotskyists last Saturday, they said:

"The aristocracy, expressing the interests of the imperialists and the plans of the right, has imposed a new government and a new Chancellor by coup d'etat. demonstrations have been held. cratic etiquette.

class to Court-Against the imperialist conspiracy-Against the fascist gained through bloody struggle 'For the immediate crushing of the government, which is the puppet of the Royal Court. It is a first step to open brutal dictatorship.

'ONLY the working class and the exploited masses of all countries ran emach all tha TODTYTC TYD 3171 plotters and plans of the imperialists.

'ONLY the struggle of the workers can defeat the dictatorship.

'ALL OUT ON THE STREETS!

'With demonstrations and strikes in order to stop the plot to strangle the working class.

'Against all compromises Against all horse-dealing of the capitalists carried out on the backs of the workers.

'Down with the putsch!

*Long live the working class!

'Long live the united front of the working class for the defeat of the government!'

Page F OU I July 24,1965

ment, unions and government, or as in the past, by deflation and unemployment, or we can have imposed price control and wage freeze?

Brown is not mistaken in appealing to the Daily Worker'. The leaders of the Communist Party long since abandoned any idea of revolutionary politics. In the trade unions they have failed to lead any opposition to the government's policies.

When Party member Will Paynter spoke against the wage claim of his day-wage members in the miners' union, he escaped without even a public censure from the 'Daily Worker'. In the Amalgamated Engineering Union, the Communist Party members. voted for a resolution of confidence in Labour's policies at the National Committee.

As on Vietnam, the policies of the Communist Party pave the way for the hypocritical betrayals of the Labour government.

Brown's advocate Sinfield, instead of warning the workers of the dangers of Brown's threats, actually chooses to be his advocate. He says:

I understand that Mr.

Brown is a determined and wholly committed advocate of the voluntary principle' As the Labour leaders make their most pronounced right swing, so the Stalinists more and more apologise for them and help to trap the working class.

Brown comes under only tne mildest criticism from the editorial column the same day. This editorial says that the wage freeze should be called off and a policy of "peace and social advance' put in its place. By whom? Against whom? There is no answer.

Instead, the 'Daily Worker' calls upon its readers to reply to Mr. Brown in the correspondence column. They promise to print a fair and big selection of letters for or against Brown.

Debate When a Labour traitor threatens the working class on behalf of big business, the Communist Party opens a debate on the question.

When a thousand young workers march through London in support of the Vietcong, the 'Daily Worker' cannot even print a single word, thereby in effect supporting the Labour government.

When Khrushchev exposed the hidden iceberg of lies and repression that was Stalinism, in 1956, there was no debate, just as now there is cowardly silence on Trotsky and the Left Opposition, 25 years after Trotsky's assassination by Stalin's agents.

These things are not unconnected.

The fighting opposition to the Labour government, on Vietnam as on the wages front, is coming from the revolutionary youth who base their programme on Lenin and Trotsky. That is why the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League bear the main brunt of the attacks of the Labour leaders. It is no surprise that Wilson and Brown have the support of the Stalinists who lead the British Communist Party.

Registered at the G.P.O.. as a newspaper Published by The Newsletter,

decision—by one vote—of the executive of the Associated Society of for industrial action, that he may set up decision arises out of The railmen are deman the rail management are b Swing to right Locomotive Engineers and Firemen to reject any call Ray Gunter, the Minister of Labour, has announced an inquiry into the rail dispute over bonuses. This the 2o-slow on the Southern Region of British Rail. ding a weekly bonus of 63s. and ecoming increasingly worried by * delays caused by the go-slow.

Drivers at Paddington in the Western Region have given the union a week in which to settle the claim.

There have been enough arbitration results and courts of inquiry in the last year for workers to know exactly what such a plan means.

Gunter and the leaders of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Fireman want to create a situation where they can get an inquiry and so sell-out the railmen.

After the announcement by the executive that it will ask a re-call delegate conference in London on August 10 to allow negotiations for the 'highest possible payment with the minimum relaxation of the agreement on single-manning', it has become obvious what the intentions of the Labour government are.

Gunter satisfied

Gunter is reported to be apparently satisfied with the decision to put forward such proposals at the re-call conference.

He can only be satisfied for one reason, because he hopes between now and the conference to persuade the leadership of ASLEF to sell-out their members to an inquiry.

Intervention by the Labour government in a dispute has come to mean only one thing jell-out.

ROOTES TRY TO BREAK LINWOOD JUST before they stopped work on Friday, July 16, for the annual Glasgow Fair fortnight holiday, workers at the Imp factory of Rootes, at Linwood, were told not to report for work when the factory is due to re-open on August 2.

This is the means by which Rootes' management are intervening in an attempt to break the strike of service engineers, employed by International Computers and Tabulators Ltd.

The service engineers, members of the Association of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians, have been on strike for five weeks over a claim for a wage increase of 20 per cent.

Rootes have an ICT computer installed at their Linwood plant which handles production and stock control and the calculation of wages. It is at present out of action and, due to the technicians' strike, cannot be maintained.

'NO RESUMPTION'

At the neighbouring factory of Pressed Steel, which produces the bodies for the Hillman Imp, the 2,000 men employed on the body • line were told that full production may not be resumed on August 2 due to the situation at Rootes.

Men reporting for work on August 2 will be guaranteed four hours' pay.

Such strike-breaking action by the employers causes no surprise.

More serious is the fact that a union official at Rootes is reported to have said that the shop stewards agreed to the shutdown at a meeting with fhe management and that the shop stewards had sent a telegram to Mr. Ray Gunter, Minister of Labour, asking him to intervene in the dispute.

Rootes workers must realise that this is not a dispute between them and the computer service engineers-but a fight against the managements of both Rootes and ICT. This fight can only be won by the united action of motor car workers and computer service engineers.

MP INTERVENES

Shop stewards who refuse to fight in this way, who seek agreement with the employers, are completely opposed to the interests of workers and should be removed.

It has been reported that Mr. Norman Buchan, MP for West Renfrewshire, who claims to be a left-winger, has had discussions with the leader of the computer technicians' strike.

He is also reported to have said afterwards that he thought the general secretary of the ASSET would be prepared to In its efforts to betray the railmen, the Labour government will have allies. in a section of the union executive.

At a five-hour meeting on Tuesday night, Albert Griffiths, general secretary of ASLEF, stated: I would urge all footplate men to resume normal work and to stand loyally by their executive' But Griffiths and company are not finding it easy to hoodwink their members. It was only the casting vote of President L. Kirk which stopped the call for industrial action.

Alter decision

The executive are obviously now working to change the decision made at the annual conference earlier this year that talks on bonus scheme for drivers must not be linked with that of single-manning of diesel and electric locomotives.

For the railmen it is not just a question of increased pay but the whole question of speed-up and redundancy.

They want a wage increase with no strings attached.

They must receive the support of every rank-and-file trade unionist in this fight against both the management, the right-wing Labour government and the union leadership.

The annual re-call conference must throw out any suggestion that the pay dispute go before an inquiry and demand industrial action for a wage increase without redundancies or speed-up. meet the management of ICT in a bid to settle the strike.

What is Buchan up to? If he is intervening to prevent a victory of the workers over the employers, he should be sharply told to keep his nose out.

Instead of intervening to settle strikes, Mr. Buchan would be more useful assisting the car workers in his constituency to fight against low wages and for improved working conditions.

He should be carrying on a fight in parliament against the retreat on steel nationalization, against the imposition of the prices and incomes policy on the working class, and for the nationalization of the whole of the engineering industry, including cars and computers.

Education award upholds management's offer expected, the leadership of the teachers union nave traved the rank and file to the Secretary of State for Education, Mr. Anthony Crosland, and his arbitration tribunal.

The arbitration award. announced this week. is almost identical with the management's original offer.

The total award comes to £444 million. The management had offered a total of £43 million, compared with the teachers' demand for £150 million.

A basic scale will now run from £730 to £1,400, whereas the teachers had asked for £900 to £1,700. The management had offered f710 to £1,400.

Graduate allowances will stay at £100, plus £120 for a good honours degree (as the management wanted).

ALLOWANCES

The teachers had demanded that both these sums be raised to £150. The London allowance will be f70, as the management offered, and not f100 as the teachers wanted.

Allowances for headships, deputy headships and graded posts are all identical with the management's original offer and the teachers' position is rejected.

Hunter: Ex-TSSA secretary West India ban week-end working DOCKERS on the West India dock, London, have followed the example of men working on the Royal docks at Tilbury and banned week-end working.

The Royal docks have operated a no-weekend-working rule for one year and this same decision by the West India men was made at a meeting of the unofficial London Port Liaison Committee last week.

Dock employers are getting extremely worried about the loss of ships to their ports, which the week-end ban will produce.

They are afraid that if ships find the ports closed at the week-ends they will seek other ports where they can be unloaded.

The dockers, however, have shown that they want the right to decide on their own weekends and it is obvious that they do not want to spend Saturdays and Sundays working.

Rank-and-file trade unionists must support this decision, which is a blow against the port employers and their attempts to dictate the whole lives of workers.

Port employers are probably also thinking about the effect this defiance of the dockers may have on the introduction of speed-up plans in the future.

The increasing number of attacks by the press and employers on the struggle of the dockers for such demands as an end to week-end working are laying the basis for the introduction of the Devlin Commission report at the end of this month. This report is almost certain to embody the speed-up proposals of the new deal', Which the employers failed to introduce last year, The management's position on two-year trained teachers is also endorsed by the arbitration tribunal.

The only points which differ from the management's original offer are: £20 a year more on each of the first four steps of the basic scale and a refusal to cut the allowance for special qualifications for teaching blind and deaf children.

TWO-YEAR FREEZE This means that a young teacher can still take home little more than £10 a week after stoppages.

In addition, the award imposes a two-year freeze on any other major claims.

Mr. Crosland has not explained how this miserly treatment squares with the Labour Party's pre-election promises of a new deal for teachers.

It is obvious that schools full of discontented and underpaid teachers make nonsense of the Labour Party's much-vaunted 'crash programme' of Colvilles strike enters 4th week cosh works of Colvilles Ltd. is now entering its fourth week. Not one of the 570 men involved in the strike has wavered in his determination to force the employers to withdraw scab labour.

The dispute, which began at Ravenscraig on June 28 in protest against protracted negotiations over the demand for increased bonus and plant payment, was joined a week later by the Gartcosh men when the management deployed stail labour to maintain the plant.

Whilst the demand for the withdrawal of scab labour has become the dominant issue of the strike, the men are equally determined to obtain satisfaction on their claim for increased pay.

At a mass meeting held at Motherwell Town Hall on Sunday, July 18, union officials put forward a recommendation from the joint steel trades negotiating committee for an immediate resumption of work to allow negotiations to proceed.

UNDERTAKING

This committee met with the management on Wednesday, July 14, and it was then rumoured that Colvilles had made some concessions on the question of the use of staff labour on maintenance work.

All this amounted to was an undertaking that staff labour would be withdrawn-except at special safety points-and that if the men agreed to return to work, and notified the management of the time of the proposed resumption, all staff personnel would be withdrawn by that time.

The craftsmen are completely united in their opposition to the ase of 'scabs' and "blackleg' labour to maintain the plant at Colvilles. At the strike meeting last Sunday they rejected the recommendation to return to work.

GAINING SUPPORT

A further meeting of Ravenscraig and Gartcosh craftsmen will be held on Sunday, July 25.

Meanwhile the strike committee is exerting every effort to gain support from other workers for the very determined struggle of the craftsmen against the Colvilles monopoly.

Collections have been taken at many factories in the Lanarkshire, Glasgow, Paisley districts, including the Pressed Steel factory at Linwood, where the workers are in a continual struggle with the employers. educational advance.

Teachers and pupils alike are being made to suffer for the crisis of capitalism.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the National Union of Teachers, who have a long record of capitulation to the employers, are reported to be secretly relieved that the award is not lower than the management's offer!

And the leaders of the National Association of Schoolmasters, who welcomed arbitration, now say the poor award is due to the cost of equal pay!

There was never any hope of the teachers gaining anything from arbitration, whose findings were binding on the teachers, but not on Mr. Crosland.

SETTLE

Now of course, these findings have been carefully announced at a time when the schools are breaking up for the summer holidays, in the hope that the teachers' anger will have died down by September.

There can be no doubt that teachers will get nowhere until they settle with their leaders'.

Support has come too from the miners who gave generously from their holiday pay last week to the collections organised at the pits.

But more than this is required if the steel employers are to be defeated. The fight must be taken up within the craft unions, which include the Amalgamated Engineering Union, Electrical Trades Union, Plumbers Trades Union, and the Boilermakers' Society. The full rank-and-file strength of these unions must be used in support of steel craftsmen so that dispute benefit can be paid for the whole duration of the strike.

REMOVE OFFICIALS It is also necessary to fight for the removal of those union officials, such as those in the British Iron, Steel and Kindred Trades Association, who have condoned the bosses' action in using scab labour.

At the same time, within the trade unions and labour movement a big campaign and a struggle with the Labour leaders must be organised for the immediate nationalization of the steel industry, under workers' control.

Where do the Labour MPs for Lanarkshire and Glasgow, who claim to represent the interests of steel workers in their constituencies, stand on this question?

Not one has spoken out against Wilson's retreat on steel nationalization.

Financial support, collections, donations for Ravenscraig and Gartcosh craftsmen should be forwarded to: The Treasurer of the strike committee, D. Wallace, 12 Dumphail Drive, Glasgow, E.4.

FOLLOWING almost immediately after the Foyle's youth have shown again that they can fight back the bosses.

A short time ago, girls at the three "Michael Andrew' hairdressing salons in Oxford decided to join the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers.

As soon as the union attempted to start negotiations on commission, the management refused to recognise the union.

The girls then came out on official strike and the only people left working were the apprentices —who are not allowed to strike.

The strikers kept picket-lines going outside all three salons all day long, talking to passers-by about the strike and persuading customers not to go in. They received tremendous support, many passers-by cheering them and telling them not to give in, and nearly all the customers refusing to help the boss by having their hair done.

Director of the firm Mr. McGrath at first called for support against the strikers from his hairdressers' guild. He denied that he was against unionisation but put advertisements for staff in the local newspaper offering £10£12 a week-far more than the girls receive.

BOSS WAVERED

However, when he saw that the girls were standing absolutely firm, and that he was losing nearly all his trade at a very busy time, Mr. McGrath began to waver.

His guild—perhaps also frightened by the determination of the strikers and by the thought that their example might bring many more hairdressers into the union -refused him any help. Finally, at the end of the second day of the strike he gave in, saying that the girls could come back 'on any terms they like'.

What this strike shows above all is that if youth stand up and fight together against their bosses, they can win their demands.

The hairdressers at 'Michael Andrews' have won the right to be in their union, but no more. Membership of the union is only one step on the way to end bad conditions and wages. This strike must be made the beginning of a campaign to bring all hairdressers into the union and to put an end to all bad wages and conditions for hairdressers. victo: agair

LONDON telephone operators, on strike for a £l week increase, expect to receive supporting action from men in Northern Ireland at the end of this week. Men in Bradford have already staged two-hour stoppages for two nights in support.

The strikers-night operatorsare refusing to take anything but emergency calls between 10 o'clock at night and midnight.

Other operators are extremely angry about the letters sent by the GPO asking them if they will take the place of the London strikers who might be suspended.

VICIOUS ATTACK

On Wednesday, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, the Postmaster-General, made a vicious attack on the strikers.

This one-time, self-styled 'left' firmly lined himself up with the rest of the reactionary forces in the Labour government and announced that the strikers would have their pay stopped 'for those hours that they are refusing to work normally.

Benn's concern for the 'public' and his attitude to the strikers, really expose his whole position in the labour movement.

This man hid behind left' phrases around the "Tribune' group for too long. Now he shows himself in his true colours-aligned with the employers.

3-YEAR AGREEMENT The operators are members of the National Guild of Telephonists which signed a three-year agreement last year under which they have already received a 3} per cent increase this year.

But like many other sections of workers throughout the country the telephonists are challenging George Brown's policy of keeping wage rises down to a certain level.

ON Friday, July 16, Leicester's Labour Council announced big increases in council house rents, to commence in November. The increases range from 6s. 7d. to 10s. a week-an increase of 30 per cent.

Houses built 10 years ago, with an initial rent of 24s. a week, got up to 53s. Pre-war houses, which only cost a few hundred pounds to build, have also suffered an increase of 7s. Id a week.

Even though these houses have been paid for several times over by their tenants, present tenants are made to cut even deeper into the shrinking buying power of their wage packets to pay interest into the pockets of the investors and to solve, momentarily, the problems of the profiteers and financiers.

This increase is directly due to the Wilson government raising interest rates in order to help the capitalists.

'Be grateful

Friday's editorial in the 'Leicester Mercury' said tenants should be grateful for the increase. It would close the gap between the 'hard hit' private house owners and the council house tenants.

But this is shown to be a complete red-herring by the admission in the same article that the policy of the council is for no subsidies to council housing. apart from old people's dwellings.

Everyone knows that a tenant is in an inferior position to an owner in that he pays property many times over.

Tenants in Leicester are going to fight these increases. Protest meetings are planned, when demands for the nationalization of the building and building supply industries and of the land must be made.