The Newsletter, vol. 9 no. 458

at Blackpool on September 5 in an atmosphere of grave crisis. Wilson and his right-wing Labour government betrays every principle which the trade union movement has fought for over the past The purpose of trade unionism is to improve the wages of its members. In practice the unions by their struggle succeed in improving the wages of millions who they have not yet recruited. Since working conditions are directly related to wages, trade unions are the pacesetters in determining the standard of living of the working If the unions give up this right to the capitalist state, and allow it to determine what the wages of the working class shall be, then what is the purpose of trade unionism at all?

If you as delegates to the TUC vote for the government of a capitalist state to decide on wages, what you will be doing is in fact voting the trade unions out of existence.

You will be handing over to the enemy the legal right to do the job the unions were founded to do.

There is no middle road. This Labour government is nothing more than a pliable tool for the banks and monopolies. Behind the scenes the whole caboodle is manipulated by the Wall Street bankers whose policy is butchery in Vietnam.

Is there a great deal of difference between the Prices and Incomes Bill and the infamous Dr. Ley's Labour Front in Hitler's pre-war Germany?

In some respects, yes. We still have a strong and powerful labour and trade union movement whose rank and file genuinely But the German workers also had such a movement in the years before Hitler took the power.

However, they lost the day because the right-wing labour and union leaders in the pre-Hitler era of the Weimar Republic tied the unions closer and closer to the German capitalist state under conditions where the rank and file could not successfully Logical outcome The Prices and Incomes Bill is a big step in this direction. Dr. Ley's Fascist Labour Front which smashed trade unionism was simply a logical outcome of the policy which the German Wilsons and Callaghans pursued, eventually opening the door for Think carefully, delegates to the TUC. The principle behind the Prices and Incomes Bill is the same principle which lay behind Dr. Ley's Labour Front. It is simply this:, Let the capitalist state decide on wages.

Are you now going to Don't be misled by Wilson and Feather and their verbal ballyhoo about the importance of a Labour government at If you vote for the Prices and Incomes Bill you will split he trade union movement as sure as night follows day.

Large sections will be forced into open conflict with the Under such conditions the right wing of Wilson, Callaghan and Co. will move more and more into the camp of the monopoly capitalists and in doing so will split the Labour Party.

Do you think a Labour government will last long in such circumstances? At the outside it will last just about as long as Ramsay MacDonald's government did.

When the MacDonald government collapsed the working class were demoralised through unemployment, as well as confused and deceived by the treachery of the right-wing At the general election in 1931, which brought a Tory National Government to power Vita FIther, J and assistson seestress need of wage freeze.

control the economic life of Right now, irrespective of what the right wing fuddy duddies may decide, they are looking out for a British Hitler.

most far-sighted amongst them, after more than a decade of government under MacMillan and Lord Home, believe that even a Tory governnent cannot extricate capitalThe MacDonald government the Tory government of Baldwin. The Wilson government Hitler and Ley finished the job and threw tens of The German labour leaders thousands of rank-and-file strapped the German trade trade unionists into concentraunions to the capitalist state through such measures as the tion camps.

Continued page LAST week saw a definite worsening of the economic crisis in Britain which directly flows from the policies of the Wilson government.

SHARE PRICES Latest figures on the London Stock Exchange indicate that share prices are now at their lowest level for nearly four years.

Last week alone the 'Financial Times' Index fell a further 14 points to 294, compared with a peak of 375 earlier this year.

In America the slide in prices has been of a similar magnitude: The Dow Jones Share Indexwhich was at a peak of 1,000 earlier this year—is now down to 780, the lowest for two years.

There is widespread fear that the slide will continue and business leaders are urging Johnson to take swilt action to arrest what many feel to be an increasingly desperate situation.

BANK ADVANCES Advances by the ll London clearing banks have fallen by £130 million over the last four weeks. This is over twice the normal decline at this time of the year.

Advances are now only f47 million below the 'ceiling imposed by Callaghan in his last squeeze measures. But bankers are convinced that this sum will be nowhere nearly adequate to meet. the demands for liquidity from firms once payments begin under the Selective Employment Tax and the Corporation Tax.

It is estimated that demand for credit will rise by f500 million to meet payments to the government under this head alone.

The answer is clear. Firms will either go out of business and in so doing raise the level of unemployment or else (and this will apply only to the larger companies) they will have to draw on their reserves to make these tax payments.

ENGINEERING Figures issued last week by the Ministry of Technology indicate a mounting crisis in this industry, the backbone of British capitalism.

The April-June quarter shows a decline of nearly 16 per cent in export orders compared to the last quarter.

Outstanding orders have fallen by 24 per cent since March, with output 3 per cent down in the second quarter of the year and deliveries to home customers 2 per cent down.

The crisis will further weaken the competitive position of this sector of the economy, on which any permanent improvement in exports depends.

As we reported last week ENV in London is to close completely and International Harvesters of Doncaster announced the sacking of 300 workers, nearly 10 per cent of their labour force.

For the last month the plant has 'been on a three- or four-day week but the crisis measures, together with a falling export order book, have brought an end to this position.

Both these developments give indication of the policy of US capital towards its investments in Europe. As part of the attempt to overcome the crisis in the United States the Johnson government has attempted to place restrictions on overseas investments.

This has made the drive for profits by the US monopolists in Europe all the more ruthless.

BY PETER JEFFRIES These firms will not hesitate to close plants, redeploy capital and men as they think fit, whatever the costs in lost employment, poverty and suffering.

MOTORS There has been the mighty fall of 45 per cent in contracts to buy motor vehicles during the last month. In this sector of the economy the credit squeeze is producing a first class crisis.

There were 176,000 contracts to buy vehicles in July: August figures are expected to be under 100,000.

There has been a 20 per cent fall in the sale of second hand cars compared to this time last year.

Eumpoumn Couchis declining market 'bound to hot up amongst the car manufacturers in this country, with an intensification of the attack on the wages and conditions of their workers.

But they are certain to face a stronger and stronger challenge from Europe and North America.

In Germany the economic miracle' is rapidly ending and will produce a crisis for the German motor industry which has made such gains in the post-war period and in the United States the motor car trade is itself entering a deep crisis with stocks of unsold models rising rapidly.

STEEL This sector is certain to be hit by any recession in motors. Already there are reports of car manufacturers delaying their orders for sheet metal.

Up to now the industry has depended on a bouyant demand for sheet steel to prevent a major recession: the 'heavy' end of the industry is already in a badly depressed state with many of the larger plants operating at only 80 per cent of capacity. It is now accepted that production will fall from 27 million tons last year to under 25 million tons.

Large redundancies have only been avoided up to now because men have left the industry for jobs where overtime has until recently been plentiful and because employers, thinking that their difficulties were only short-term, have retained men on a reduced working week.

Both these developments are now at an end.

The combined recession in steel and engineering will certainly bring a deep crisis to areas like Sheffield, which is heavily dependent on these two industries for its prosperity.

BUILDING INDUSTRY There are at the moment 24,000 completed and near-completed private houses unsold in this country.

The building industry is being badly hit by the drying up of credit to buy houses.

The 'pegging' of mortgage rates will solve nothing, even if it succeeds.

With interest rates rising all the time it simply means that the building societies are less and less able to attract the funds with which to make lendings.

There is now widespread fear of a 'mortgage famine' '. This sector

is also hit by the Selective Employment Tax (as a 'service' industry it is not entitled to any rebates) and by government cutbacks in building of all types.

The small builder, dependent on bank credit and living a handto-mouth existence, will suffer badly. Many will undoubtedly go out of business, leading to further concentration of ownership.

CONSEQUENCES THE CRISIS Clearly investment will suffer badly. With the rapid contraction of bank credite Will have to dip into liquid reserves in order to meet day-to-day payments, particularly taxes to the government.

Many businessmen are now extremely worried about the longterm consequences to their competitive position of this cut-back in investment.

Last week the Confederation of British Industry asked for a special meeting with Wilson to discuss the crisis. In particular, they intend to put pressure on him to make further cuts in government spending, rather than let investment (and future profits) suffer.

There has been widespread anxiety at the decision of ICI to review the volume and timing of its whole capital expenditure programme. If ICI, one of Europe's leading monopolists, is unable to meet the crisis, it puts the lesser fry in an even weaker position.

There will now certainly be mounting demands for further slashes 1n the Welfare State SO that private investment can be maintained at a higher level.

Many firms are now reconsidering their attitude to the supply of labour. In previous recessions they have often been frightened lose their labour: when economy picked would need all the skilled labour they could get.

Now many employers are convinced will be a long and deep recession.

Last week the 'Financial Times' urged all industrialists and the government to resist to the utmost any demands from militants for work sharing and labour hoarding as the crisis develops.

As they pointed out, this would

Normanton Town Club Sunday, Sept. 4, 10.30 a.m.

Speakers:

Norman Harding Socialist Labour League Fred Appleyard Normanton Tenants' Association Dave Ashby nat. chairman Young Socialists Oppose the rent rebate scheme Oppose the wage freeze and unemployment House of Commons Comrade, August 24, 1966 Irial by Daily Telegraph' The secretary of my constituency has just drawn my attention to a piece about me on the front of the "Newsletter', . August 13, concerning my action on the government's Prices and Incomes Bill.

I am finding my new life as an MP exacting enough-plus a family bereavement-without having to put up with people like you.

Your story is, as you probably now know, inaccurate. Perhaps you would be kind enough to publish this in the same prominent place that you put your original.

1: should also be glad to recewe a back copy wherein you applaud my unconditional support of the seamen's strike.

The fact and content of your August 13 issue is a display of left-wing disorder. What is sad is that my local lads of the SLL are being made to be a laughingstock.

Yours sincerely, Sid Bidwell.

OUR 1 Comrade, The article you complain about in the Newsletter' of August 13 was in our opinion fair comment. In relation to your attitude towards the Prices and Incomes Bill', the paragraphs of which you complain are as follows:

It is reported in the 'Daily Telegraph', Thursday, August 11, that Mr. Sidney Bidwell, Member of Parliament for Southall, voted with the government on the Prices and Incomes Bill...

TE what the "Daily Telegraph"

Political Correspondent reports about Mr. Bidwell voting for the Bill in Parliament is true, there is no further need for us to comment about the role of this MP who is described as a Labour "left". It speaks for itself?

Of course, we will publish your letter. We are pleased that you object to the "Telegraph' report, although your letter does not specifically state what your actions were in relation to the Bill. Did you, for example, abstain like the rest of the 'left' MPs? And it you did, was that a correct decision?

It seems a long time ago since you were a leading member of the London Trotskyist movement. At that time you fought for Marxist principles, especially during the Second World War.

You were entirely and correctly opposed to all forms of 'abstentionist neutralism' so far as the class struggle was concerned. As a railway worker you saw the struggle from the standpoint of the lowest-paid workers and you were utterly opposed to all those fakers, especially the parliamentary ones, who tried to play an in between game between the working class and the employers.

Remember 1944, when the Churchill war-time coalition government of Tories and Labour traitors introduced Regulation IAA which tied the trade union more closely in the field of industrial disputes to the capitalist state? You weren't neutral then. You, together with the Trotskyists, roundly denounced the renegade Labour MPs who voted for such a measure.

How can you 'abstain' and be "neutral' on the Prices and Incomes Bill today when amongst those who are being hardest hit are RHODESIA The Wilson, Watson, IE I ntroduction of the Constitutional Amendment Bill hodesia's parliament and the breaking off of informal A letter from precisely the railwaymen lower-paid workers?

Well then, why did you not vote against the Bill and call upon the labour movement to oppose Wilson and Company who have betrayed the working class and tied the unions to the capitalist state far more firmly than ever Churchili and the Tories were able to do in war-time?

How can any socialist justify a position of 'neutral abstention' in such a situation?

And how, may we ask, did you manage to become an MP in the first place?

Everyone knows that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a socialist candidate to pass through the selection committee at Transport House. Yet you did it even when some of your politically closest colleagues, such as John Palmer, were rejected.

Surely you must have been regarded by the right wing as a 'safe man'-someone who! had, like your old friend Jock Haston, sown his 'political wild oats' when he was young but had now become 'sensible'.

Perhaps you would explain another matter, that is centred around the question of racialism.

Is it true that you support the government's Immigration Bill? Did you make concessions to the racialists during your parliamen. tary election campaign? Is it true that you were expelled from your association with the lony. Chit state capitalist group, International Socialism, because of this?

The Southall branch of the SLL has nothing : to fear from your activities, or your opinions.

Like the Socialist Labour League as a whole it bases its activity on the principles of Marxism and the Transitional Progranume of the Fourth International.

This is what you used to do. It is not us who have changed but you.

Take another political look at yourself Bidwell-perhaps, after all, it is you who is a laughing stock. You are on trial not before the 'Daily Telegraph', many of whose Tory policies Wilson supports, but before the working class, coloured and white.

-Editor.

hundred years.

Wright farce class.

MICHAEL BANDA talks with the British government has exposed for the umpteenth time the hypocrisy and dissimulation of the Wilson-Watson-Wright cabal.

If Wilson thought that by re- desire socialism. placing Bottomley with Bowden he was going to. ingratiate himself with N. Jan Smith, he has learnt differently.

Every concession only helps to whet Smith's insatiable appetite for power. Immediately after defeat the fascist menace. the Javelin jet squadrons were withdrawn from Zambia, Lardner Burke, the Rhodesian regime's attorney general, boasted about shooting boat loads of 'terrorists' on the Zambesi.

RUTHLESS MEASURES Hitler.

Not satisfied with the powers bestowed on him by the emergency regulations, Smith wants to introduce even more ruthless measures under the provisions of the Constitutional Amendment Bill. Hitler?

Most important of these is the power of preventive detention and the creation of African tribal Westminster. courts.

What happens now?

Kenneth Kaunda, the blowhard, and Sir Albert Margai, the Labour Government. silk-suited one from Sierra Leone, have made demagogic attacks on Wilson and Rhodesia, but, like all bourgeois-nationalists, do not propose any action which might embarrass Wilson seriously.

Wilson, predictably, issued a statement that the talks had only Labour governmentafter What comes been adjourned and that pressure would be exerted on South Africa to enforce sanctions against Rhodesia!

Sanctions have hurt Rhodesia's economy, but have failed in their primary objective.

Rhodesia's imports have fallen leaders. by 30 per cent, and her nonseasonal exports have dropped 17 per cent this year-inclusive of her tobacco export falls, Rhodesia for 14 years, we went through has lost approximately f45 million in foreign exchange in a year.

SOUTH AFRICAN AID Business activity has dropped by between 12 per cent and 15 per cent and must lead to unemployment soon.

If Rhodesia's economy has re- credited they will still own and mained buoyant, despite severe financial shortages, it is mainly because South Africa, in her own Britain. interests, has helped considerably.

The logic of this is that Rhodesia's economy is becoming more and more integrated with that of South Africa.

Whether Smith will permit this is another matter.

A decision on Rhodesia cannot be postponed much longer now.

If Wilson's Fabian policy does ism from its present crisis not work, then it is quite probable that the United Nations will inherited unemployment from step in.

Whether Wilson, Smith, or the United Nations win-the Africans creates it. will be the losers.

The only alternative to another Congo is the armed overthrow of Smith by the African workers and peasants. Prices and Incomes Bill.

APPLICATIONS to join the Young Socialists' October 15 trip to Liege (Belgium) have to be received in the next two weeks.

All trade unionists, students and workers-young and oldmust join this important trip to meet European socialist youth demonstrating against the Vietnam war and NATO.

The round trip costs only £8 10s—including a meal in Liege and free dance on board ship.

sulue, Liege Organiser, Dana Clapham High Street, London,

Page Iwor NEWS September

THE Socialist Workers' Party of the United States cannot for legal reasons be affiliated to the Fourth International. In the past, however, because the founders of this Party, Cannon, Schactman and Abern worked in the closest During the period of the late twenties and thirties its leadership in collaboration with Trotsky harnessed their experience of work in the mass movement to a greater extent than any other section at that time.

The early successes of the SWP were based on a combination of Trotsky's brilliant political analysis of the international scene as well as the problems of the Trotskyist movement and the maturity of its leadership in relation to their approach to the problems of the working class in the United States. In this respect, James P. Cannon was undoubtedly the most outstanding international Trotskyist leader during Trotsky's lifetime.

How then and under what conditions did the degeneration take place which today has transformed the SWP from being the staunchest defender of Marxism and Trotskyism into the leader of a rump of Pabloite revisionist supporters who have betrayed every principle of Marxism over the past 15 years?

Dialectical

naterialism and the revolutionary party The answer to this question does not lie in the difficult conditions of the cold war and the boom under which the SWP has been operating In the United States, especially since 1949, although these have played a role, but in the origin of the early Trotskyist move. ment.

From its inception, this movement was based on a profound contradiction.

Its founder, Trotsky, went through all the early political experiences of the pre-revolutionary Soviet Union, the revolution itself, when he led and organised the Red Army, the post-Lenin degeneration and the growth of the Soviet bureaucracy under Stalin.

His supporters in the USA and in other countries came mainly from those who entered the communist movement after the foundation of the Third International in 1919. Their development was conditioned by the post-World War I defeats of the working class outside the Soviet Union and the growth of Stalinism.

These experiences should not be considered in an unrelated superficial way.

Building the revolutionary party is conditioned by them: but in a more fundamental way it is determined by a consistent struggle for the Marxist philosophy dialectical materialism against all forms of idealism which is the predominant philosophy of the ruling class.

Only Trotsky had participated in such an experience, especially during the pre-revolutionary period.

Lenin's leadership was constantly strengthened and developed around consistent struggle for Marxist philosophy against all brands of idealist revisionism. Such a struggle wow greatly facilitated by taculltated the growth the revolutionary forces which were the forerunner of the revolution itself.

Without this experience the revolutionary leadership cannot be trained. The education of a Marxist cadre requires a concluded that Trotsky had the correct political position.

Cannon was strengthened in his conclusion by the immediate conflict of factions within the American Communist Party. William Z. Foster and others joined with Stalin, Cannon took political sides with Trotsky. It was a pragmatic decision dictated by the factional situation within the CP of the USA which produced important results, especially during Trotsky's lifetime.

But this was not enough so far as the training of the leadership of the SWP went.

Cannon and his supporters accepted Trotsky's leadership without understanding the implications of the theoretical experience which lay behind it.

Their political development was therefore of a one-sided character-in effect they remained pragmatists.

At this point we can see the reason why Trotsky had to wage a struggle on dialectical materialism in 1939-1940 against Burnham and Schactman.

Although the American Trotskyist movement was 11 years old, he had to begin his struggle against the revisionists by outlining and explaining dialectical materialism, the ABC of Marxism (see In Defence of Marxism').

Trotsky's tragic assassination by the Stalinists in August 1940 left Cannon on his own. Trotsky Now the real test began, and Cannon faced it in the following way.

The legend was fostered up that the SWP and its members were Trotsky's 'heirs', , which to inexperienced people might seem plausible enough. It was implemented by the publication of Trotsky's writings, implying that he had said the last word on all the important questions.

Trotsky's insistence that the SWP should wage a continuous struggle within its ranks for dialectical materialism was ignored. Cannon replaced it with the conception that so long as he reprinted Trotsky's books it was sufficient.

In this way Trotsky was transformed from a revolutionsecond World War, Pablo was taken to the USA so that he could be 'looked over' • He passed 'the test', if you can call it that, and then became the SWP-appointed "Trotsky' for Western Europe.

So far, so good, but then the real crisis began because Pablo himself needed political assistance and guidance. Cannon desired Pablo to be another Trotsky, but the whole The role of the Socialist Workers' Party thing was based on a pragmatic illusion. Pablo wasn't Trotsky and yet Cannon wanted Trotsky tailor-made.

Having 'got away' to speak with his pragmatic relation to Trotsky in the thirties, Cannon was on the look-out for replacements.

This is where the Marxist method came in. Cannon from his insular nationalist United States outlook wanted someone to take charge of 'Fourth International' affairs, so he chose Pablo, under circumstances where Pablo was being pushed from pillar to post by his impressionism. Coming from a middle-class intellectual milieu in Western Europe Pablo was incapable of replacing Trotsky.

So Cannon had what appeared to be a breathing space until 1951. Then Pablo utilised a minority of the French Section to expel a majority.

At first Cannon applauded Pablo on this issue, then, when the latter began to organise a minority inside the SWP, Cannon . was spurred into action against Pablo. It was OK presumably when it was going on in France, but quite diferent story when it began to happen inside the USA.

The third of a series of articles National Secretary of the Socialist Labour League His pragmatic use of Trotsky was now transferred to a pragmatic use of the Fourth International, which in practice meant that he based himself on a completely American nationalist approach to the international movement.

From a pragmatic attitude towards Trotsky and his teaching was but a small step towards American nationalism which is the most reactionary version of idealist philosophy in the world.

It was this methodology which was responsible for the complete disintegration of the SWP as a Trotskyist organisation.

The struggle by Cannon against Pablo in 1953 marked the beginning of the end for the SWP. Pablo's supporters Cochran and Clarke forced Cannon's hand. He fought them back by organisational means-that is he expelled them.

Now, 13 years later, he and Farrell Dobbs, the present Secretary of the SWP, completely support every point which Cochran and Company fought for in 1953.

In other words, Cannon and Dobbs after expelling Cochran and Clarke then proceeded to adopt their revisionist programme.

The history of Cannon and Dobbs since 1953 is one of expelling those who disagreed with them in order to adopt the policy which those who were expelled advocated. This was the end of the line for the pragmatists of the SWP. From 1953 onwards they were politically speaking turned upside down.

Almost immediately they DOBBS turned towards the English Trotskyists in order to find an excuse for what they proposed to do. They built up the legend that because the English Trotskyists were the victims of Pablo's attack (they had broken from Pablo by means of the 'Open Letter' [1953]) they needed to save the English Trotskyists, which included 'Healy', from Pablo, by way of the 'Open Letter' This was a lie. The English Trotskyists in 1953, like the French Trotskyists in 1951 were well able to look after themselves.

Cannon turns back Pablo When the split with Pablo was over in November 1953, we began immediately to discuss ways and means to bring the differences with Pablo into the open.

In the spring of 1954 we proposed a renewal of the discussion with Pablo and a committee was set up with an equal number from both sides to organise it.

The purpose of this discussion was not to heal the split but to bring out more clearly the fundamental reasons for it.

It was conceived by us as another stage of the struggle against Pablo. The unavoidably abrupt nature of the international split in November 1953 had left a number of comrades in different sections still confused—we wanted to expose Pablo and clarity them.

At first Cannon gave half-hearted support to these proposals, then in the late Autumn of 1954 we suddenly received a letter calling upon us to abandon the discussion. From that moment it was clear than an even more serious conflict was brewing between the International Committee and the SWP.

Even at this early date in 1954, when the split with Pablo was just concluded, the split with the SWP was on the agenda.

We believed that the political fight against Pablo was not an issue of abstract Marxist theory but one which was directly related to the struggle to build the party.

We felt that it was necessary to carry the fight against revisionism into the day-to-day work of the sections of the International Committee and ruthlessly expose Pabloism in the process.

The SWP wanted to forget about the fight as soon as it was over. In his usual pragmatic way Cannon couldn't care less about the problems of the international movement just so long as he had defeated Pablo's supporters inside the SWP.

So far as he was concerned it was the SWP first, last and always, no matter what happened the international movement. Thus did pragmatism merge with nationalism.

The discussion on Pablo's • role in the 1953 split was abruptly terminated by the SWP by June 1954. There matters stood for three years until Cannon, without consultathe International Committee, wrote to Leslie Goonewardene, the secretary of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party in Ceylon in April 1957 suggesting that a fresh effort should be made to achieve reunification between the International Committee and the Pabloites. This was the same Leslie Goonewardene who led the movement into the coalition government of Mrs. Bandaranaike in June 1964.

Cannon was at the end of his pragmatic road, now he had to do a political 'about face' before the entire international movement. Having split from Pablo and his own factions, Cochran and Clarke, in 1953, he now had to find ways and means to accept the policies of those from whom he had split and he had little time to do it since his own 'majority' was breaking up fast.

This is how his ideas developing.

Dobbs, Novack and Almost immediately after the split with Pablo in 1953 George Novack (Wm. F. Warde) announced to Cannon one day that he was in reality a supporter of Pablo's and was on his way over to join Cochran and Clarke.

This caused consternation in the Cannon camp because he lad been boosted as their mait theoretician.

Immediately they went into action. According to Cannon, Evelyn Reed, Novack's wife, announced she was staying with the SWP and he, Cannon, arranged that they (the Novack's) were to join him in Los Angeles, California as soon as possible. the George did, Novack, that silenced at least for the time being. He didn't break from Cannon but he temporarily- kept his views on Pablo to himself.

George Breitman who went to Detroit in 1953 to replace the Cochran faction did the same thing in 1954.

Both Novack and Breitman were Pabloites from the start, but they were also friendly with Cannon. So, for the time being, they went along with him instinctively, knowing very well that sooner or later he would join them.

The reader may well ask: join the Pabloites? did Cannon eventually In answering this question we do not have to refer to Novack (Warde) and Breitman.

The answer lies in Khrushchev's speech at the 20th Congress of the USSR early. in 1956. But that. readers may ask, is surely very difficult to understand-nothing of the sort.

Immediately, that is from the split of 1953, Cannon rejected the ideas which led to Khrush. chev's speech. He didn't accept that the struggle against Pabloism was tied up with build. ing revolutionary parties throughout the world and especially in the United States.

Once he believed that the SWP was free from the immediate menace of Pabloism, which him meant Cochran and Clarke, he just turned his bae international mozement.

But Khrushchev's everything Trotskyists fought for was right, changed all that.

In effect he posed an all-out struggle to expose and destroy Stalinism. It was at this point that Pabloite revisionsm reallv strangled the international Trotskvist movement For five years it had turned the sections towards the possibility that the Stalinist ureaucrac after Stalin's eath. would reform itself. Nor the cat was out of the bag.

It became a question as to whether or not the Fourth International of would take advantage Khrushchev's speech and fight as never beto expose and defeat Stalinism, or whether or not it would adapt itself to Khrushchev's variety of Stalinism. ity with Pablo. That is the real significance Cannon approaching the Ceylonese renegade Goonewardene in April 1957. He had decided to sell out to the Stalinist bureaucracy and the imperialists. Cy Socialist Labour League saw things in an entirel ferent light. We saw Khrushchev's 20th Congress speech as an opportunity to expose Stalinism and Pabloite adaptation to Stalinism.

When Cannon was looking for unity with the Pabloites in 1957, we were fighting to clarify the 1953 split, and extend the struggle against Pabloism, utilising Khrushchev's speech in order to do this.

Immediately upon hearing about Cannon's • letter to Goonewardene we wrote to the Sir made sei ed outies. SWP and dissociated ourselves he wrote back a letter the lord of the manor writes lo serf. was a letter from an arrogant American nationalist telling the English comrades where to get off.

importahce ues toror bost cussion before unification took place. Cannon said that there was no need for any discussion. He had to Pact com. etely at the point when Khrushchev's speech opened up a real oppor tunity for the Trotskyist move ment to fight Stalinism, Cannon ran into the arms of Pablo.

ist Labour League lost no the The leadership of the Socialportunity xposin Stalinists over Khrushchev' speech. to abooism, to like the filest order to fight ê Stalinists—we gained mot from this approach than all the Pabloite sections, , including the SWP, did together Now let us look a little more closely Cannon's cadre. Following atthe split of 1953 and Novack's threat to join Cochran (the American Pabloite) things went from bad to worse inside the leadership of the SWP. the split with elected general secretary of the SWP found he was unable to carry out his assignments he cause Cannon, he said, con tinuously interfered with his work as secretary from Los Angeles. Dobbs came to England early 177 1958 order, Саппол. gain our support to fight George Novack and rela tions with Cannon. We insisted that the solution to these problems MUST be and accordingly we told him to par ticipate to the full at the first congress of the International Committee which was held Tune 1958, although the SWP we noo as Anter because of did nothing of the sort. He was, he said. under instructions comment on the political questions.

Just imagine Here we were at the nrsi congress those sections who had fought the revisionism Pablo, and the section which had led the fight in 1953 had nothing to salt was equally clear from the informal discussions Dobbs that the SWP was being torn asunder by an internal crisis Which the surface appeared to centre around organisation issues reason store Pane sit one mons inside me bert of factions inside party were blindly hehting against each other, without the political issues being clear.

The one thing that did emerge from all this squabbling vas the undoubted right-wing revisionist orientation or o the factions.

Cannon did nothing to clear up thic political mess; he simply intensified it. took a Posite righ-ve he acid at Murry Weiss against the Dobb: faction small wonder that luring visit to Europe 1958 Dobbs spent most of hir time looking for allies in the Towards the end of Septem ber 1958 just before he was due to return to the United States of call called for a special meeting English French comrades at which he could with problem of Cannon At this meeting he announced (There is a stenographic re. port of all probability he would of this meeting available. be removed from general secretary norite tot when he returned from Europe.

Both ourselves and the French comrades were amazec by such a revelation. We told Dobbs bluntly that under no circumstances could take any cides hetwear him and Cannon omrade i read also at e anad late in November see if it were possible assist the leading members SIVP to overcome this crisis.

Dobbs returned to the USA and things more or less staye as they were until the visit of

continuous ideological struggle derived from Marxist theory in participation and study of the workers' movement. Only in this way can leaders be historically selected for the great task of overthrowing capitalist society.

This was precisely the weakness of the Cannon-Trotsky combination.

Trotsky's theoretical genius flowed from the entire revolutionary experience of the Soviet Union, both in its triumph and degeneration.

Cannon's politics, on the other hand, were mainly derived during the period of Soviet degeneration and defeat for the international working class outside the USSR.

His early years in the Communist Party of the USA proided him with a meagre grast of Marxist theory. Like thi rest of the party leaders he was imbued with pragmatism (if it works it is right) and his relation with Trotsky was based on this method.

He correctly saw Trotsky as the co-leader with Lenin of the Russian revolutio Stand took the break with stalin took place after Lenin's death, he

CANNON

ary Marxist into an idol. After he died Cannon went straight over to idealism and kept the old leaders of the SWP in the dark as to his method. They, in any case, were unable to discern it since they were themselves educated under it, From there on Cannon was forced more and more to rely on pragmatism in his approach to the international as well as American problems.

Such an approach dominated his early relations with Pablo. Cannon desired 'another Trotsky' so he latched on to Pablo.

Almost immediately international relations were resumed after the end of the decision The year was 1953 and the full implications of Cannon's pragmatism were now becoming clear to the internationa. movement.

From the end of the Second World War onwards he had utilised the international movement as an international front for what was happening in the United States. Just so long as Pablo kept his nose out of what was going on inside the SWP Cannon was happy.

Now we see the other side of Cannon's pragmatic method.

During the period when Trotsky was alive it produced what appeared to be favourable results. Now after his death these results were dialectically turned into their opposite.

Cannon, who accepted pragmatically Trotsky's political line without question during the period before the Second World War, was now plunged into an extremely different situation after his death.

ON AUGUST 8 this year, G. Healy, national secretary of the Socialist Labour League, sent a letter to Ralph Schoenman, an official of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, which is sponsored by Bertrand Russell, explaining why the Socialist Labour League could not be associated with the This followed a meeting, organised by the Campaign, held on August 6 in the Mahatma Gandhi Hall, London, when Schoenman opposed the League's policy of opposing the role of the Communist Party and the 'left' Labour MPs in relation to Vietnam and attempted to prevent SLL members The August 8 letter was reprinted in The NewsHere we reprint sections of Schoenman's reply, dated August 17, which was received after the August 20 Newsletter had gone to print. 6 THANK YOU for your letter of August 8. I cannot agree with your account of our meeting last month, for it is at variance with the facts. You were asked not to attack the Geneva Agreements from the platform of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign. The Solidarity Campaign supports the Vietnamese revolution and the organs of struggle leading it. It is impossible to make solidarity with the Vietnamese while they are under siege, waging a bitter struggle against their oppressors and, at the same time, attack agreements signed by their leaders as a betrayal of the revolution. The SLL can do this in its own organs, as can other organisations, but the Solidarity Campaign is not a forum for attacking the National Liberation Front and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. You accepted this point during our discussion and agreed that the Geneva Agreements would not be attacked by you from our platform.

No proviso concerning the responsibility of the Geneva Agreements for the present crisis was entertained, and I can only repeat that this discussion is no part of the objects of the Solidarity Campaign, which is a united front of all those committed to support the You reconstruct and misrepresent the reasons why some members of this. Campaign (not committee) expressed doubts about Mike The objections were based on something other. than fear of consistent support for revolutionary positions or consistent condemnation of the war in Vietnam. The obiections about Banda were based on the apprehension that he would place factional considerations before condemnation of the war in Vietnam or support for the Vietnamese Revolution. Factionalism was the worry, not revolutionary consistency. If there was any concern about consistency, it was as a result of recollection that Banda and the SLL condemned in print the Congolese rebels at the time of the Stanleyville invasion and that you condemned the Algerian revolution as a petty-bourgeois formation. At the time the SLL and The Newsletter supported I should remind you that you telephoned me for a meeting and you made the suggestion that the SLL should speak at our meeting and participate in our demonstrations. In response to this overture, I made three points as chairman of the Campaign :

1. No attack on the NLF and the DRV whether with regard to the signing of the Geneva Agreements or anything else, for 2. No factional attacks on other participants in this Campaign, but concentration upon exposing the aggressor and 3. No further use of the neo-fascist and colonial term "Vietcong" which has been used repeatedly in The Newsletter September 3 Campaign. from speaking.

letter on August 20. Schoenman (left) and Bertrand Russell to he should raise the question o! Algeria.

Does he not know that John Palmer, another speaker on the plattorm, and his group of state capitalists, gave unqualified support to the MNA and opposed the FLN as a petty-bourgeois tormation right through the war?

Was the question of factionalism raised in his case?

We hardly think so.

Because the state capitalists are in an unprincipled allance with the Moscow Stalinists against Trotskyism, Mr. Schoenman is prepared to turn a blind eye on its politics. So much for his principles!

Another gentleman on the plattorm was Tariq Ali. Who is he? A distinguished anti-imperialist? An uncompromising socialist? Hardly.

In fact his only qualification is that Mr. Ali is on the editorial board of 'Man About Town'! (No doubt Mr. Schoenman could extend his 'united front' to include Carnaby Street as well.)

Anomalies Like Mr. Schoenman, we too have done some retrospective surveying of events and discovered some curious "factional' anomalies in Mr. Schoenman's own political career, which do not add any lustre to his position in the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign.

We discovered, for example, that while he is extremely intolerant of Trotskyism, and all those who fight for the emancipation of the working class, he is the side led by the United Stares will De Victorious. vygen that nappens, it is provaule tnac single muntary government will be estavusned over ne whole worla, and inal, inerelore, great wars will cease. rIoVuea the necessity 10r such a single government Is aacyudiery reaustu, mankina may, aler ine next war, enter upon a perioa of unexampied peace anu prosperity. (SIC)

These quotations show that the Schoenman-russeu leagersmip 1s ронисаму suspect and that Kussen s tran ormauon trom colu war proiagonist to present aay humanist is thorougmy opportumst.

ver. Schoenman's so-called 'thrée principles of unitea iront acuvity 1s as Irauament as nis Previous arguments. No sucn agreement was encered into Dy ine league, 'razson a etre or no 'ruison u ture!

Fresumadiy if there had been an wir on tne plauorm, none oi the speakers coma have auackea the raruamentary Lavour tarty. Inis manes a larce of the unitea tront anu oniy reveais the monumental ignorance 0I scoenman on ells Viidi LaCuC.

Since wer. scnoenman is a reauer of the ivewsieuer, he showd know that the staurists are absoluiely opposed lo ine siogan 'viciory to the NLt' ana that they are prepared to use the capitaust pouce ana law courts, as in Croyaon, to prevent any demonstraton of real souaarity with the Vietnamese. As one Stalinist aptly put it: This slogan AS the capitalist economic crisis worse, bankers and governments in every country are taking it on the workers. The 984929 creased unemployment and Irish working class faces inanti-working class legislation.

Trish Banks Standing Committee has 809х0 ÷ х W1H| mean prices, CHES creased interest -to Cell OVeLULaLLS. This public spending and building, and increased unemployment. Lne sarne utit Irish workers emigrating to Britair will come up against increased unemployment caused by the CICuI succue auu luc Daylvu TaX.

Accordino to the cAntani kante interest rates Irish farmers.

Treland beready

Vietnamese in their struggle against aggression.

Banda as a speaker...

Messali Hadj....

this was at variance with our raison d'etre.

supporting the victim of the aggression.

and by the 'Young Socialists.. gainst imperialism: Unite together. in egard ter other workers or whatever other workers' or whatever other government might arise before the war or during the war. The defeat of every imperialist government in the struggle with government in the struggle with the workers' state or with a on behalf of the Vietnamese people goes right back to the Saigon and Hanoi uprisings and the proclamation of the Democratic Republic in 1946.

When the French imperialism, with the connivance of its Stalinist Ministers, tried to retain the Vietnamese Republic within the French Union, the French Trotskyists were the only political group to oppose this reactionary move. MICHAEL BANDA claration of Intention', which prescribed national elections for the reunification of Vietnam, to be held not later than July 1956. The worthlessness of this concession can be seen in a remark made by the Communist North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam)

Prime Minister, Pham Van Dong, to one of my Vietnamese friends immediately after the signing of the agreements.

When asked which side he thought_ would win the elections, Dong replied: "You know as well as I do that there won't be any election".'* Today no one, except the Moscow Stalinists and their British counterparts, is enthusiastic about the Geneva Agreement and a return to another cynical summit conference.

Is this why Schoenman is so amazed by our stand on Geneva?

No, Mr. Schoenman, the Trotskyists cannot and will not support the fraudulent secret diplomacy of the imperialist gangsters and their Kremlin stooges.

If we did not make a big issue of this at the meeting it is because firstly we undertook not to do so but also because history has effectively exposed the 'sanctity' of this agreement. There will be NO return to Geneva.

Now let us return to the question of 'factional considerations'. The references to the article in The Newsletter (December 12, 1964) written by P. Desai are hardly illuminating.

This was a signed article expressing the viewpoint of the author-and not that of the Socialist Labour League. After a reply from a leading member of the League, Desai acknowledged his error. So it is just dishonest, or shall we say, factional for Mr. Schoenman to misrepresent this episode.

SLL and MNA As for Messali Had), it is obvious to us that Mr. Schoenman knows nothing of the history of the Socialist Labour League's record on Algeria.

The League and The Newsletter supported with reservations the Algerian National Movement (MNA) so long as it adhered to its founding programme. But when the MNA began to talk of negotiating with de Gaulle-a policy which was later followed by the National Liberation Front (FLN) —we broke off all relations with the movement and its leader.

As for the FLN,, we refused to repose any confidence in this bourgeois organisation and subsequent events in Algeria have amply confirmed this. Their acceptance of the Evian agreement was a complete betrayal of Algerian independence-or do Mr. Schoenman and his Pabloite advisers-Jordan and Taite—disagree?

It is unfortunate-terribly unfortunate-for Schoenman that *['Communism in North Viet Nam', , by P. J. Honey. Ampersand Books 1965.] more than indulgent when people of a ditterent, and reactionary, persuasion are involved.

we reter, of course, to his attitude to the lascists and racialists. For the benefit of our readers, and his own lessinstructed supporters, we quote below extracts from his letter to 'The Guardian' when the Labour-controlled educational authority in Coventry quite correctly sacked Colin Jordan from his teaching job:

I am deeply concerned about the response of the left in this country to Mr. Colin Jordan and Sir Oswald Mosley. I believe that individual freedom is dependent upon a willingness to tolerate the ideas of those whom we despise. It is no test of a belief in free speech to tolerate those views with which we agree. The test lies in the willingness to permit those we cannot bear. Colin Jordan is a teacher of competence and I believe it is outrageous to deny him the right to teach because of his political views....

•.. • The Nazis in this country serve to provide the left with a means of expiating its sense of impotence. This is not only because civil liberties are involved, but politically destructive because it is so revealing. . . '! (Our emphasis.)

(Guardian, August 9, 1962.)

Yet Schoenman has the temerity to support a war crimes commission based. on the example of the Nuremberg Commission! What an utter fraud! Will allenate the middle class.

A united tront is not a straitjacket, but a means whereby aitterent parties with dittering programmes combine to strike together on a particular issue which transcends any doctrinal ditterences they might have.

In the case of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, the overriding issue was, and is, the defeat of US imperialism and the unconditional victory of the National Liberation Front.

Justified attack All those who oppose this victory, like Wilson and the Stalinists, are obviously opposed likewise to the Campaign. And since neither the Stalinists nor the parliamentary 'lefts' publicly supported the Campaign, the speakers were quite justified in attacking them as lustily as they could.

That is the united front as we Trotskyists conceive it.

If this is not so, then what is the purpose of a separate existence for the Solidarity Campaign? What indeed!

Would it not be better if it disbanded and merged with the Stalinist-controlled Council for Peace in Vietnam? What is Schoenman's and Russell's attitude to the Stalinists who-consciously and consistently betray the anti-imperialist struggles?

Why didn't Schoenman reveal the text of Kosygin's reply • to Russell at the meeting and why did he have to wait two weeks and release it to the press only after Russell had a long conversation with a high official of the Russian Embassy.

for and pay for of every they Every some 10,000 What longer Already, it Act TeleFoniste Irish Associaduring their strike. Under victims Fianna Fail and Fine some cases, PICKETING ILLEGAL hat will make picketing ¡legal in tese strike Licence ti ard bimposed on the the Labour Court tees trebled.

Tine TUC will empowered off' the register any union it dis registe Unions and approves of.

These ast two measures are a1med against smalli militant

colonial country is the lesser colonial country is the lesser evil' ('Transitional Programme' 1964, p. 31.)

Unlike the present leader of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, Bertrand Russell, the Fourth International actively opposed the Second World imperialist War Second World imperialist War as a reactionary unjust war whose sole objective was to re-divide the colonial world amongst the victorious powers. victorious powers.

We fought to support any and every movement that opposed the war plans of imperialism and war plans of imperialism and tried to turn the imperialist war into a world-wide civil war.

Thus, when millions of colonial Thus. when millions of colonial slaves in Asia rose up in armed colonial yoke. insurrection at the end of the insurrection at the end of the war, the Fourth International was war, the Fourth International was neither surprised nor dismayed neither surprised nor dismayed but fought for the unqualified vic- but fought for the unqualified vicContinuators tory of these movements. tory of these movements. We were, and always have been, We were, and always have been, guided in this struggle by Lenin's maxim that the 'main enemy is at home and that the defeat of your determination of nations. own government is the lesser evil'. own government is the lesser evil'.

Those like Schoenman who to- Those like Schoenman who today try to question 'antiimperialism' of the Trotskyists are assured of a violent shock.

The political integrity of the Fourth International is proved by its entire record since its foundation and, incidentally, by the hundreds working-class martyrs who died under its banlitan countries. ner in the course of the Second ner in the course of the Second World War. Nobody-we repeat opinion of Lenin that: nobody-is going to impugn its nobody-is going to impugn its traditions without risk of reprisal.

It is nothing less than a gratuitous insult to Trotskyism when Mr. Schoenman insinuates that Trotskyists place 'factional considerations' above revolutionary consistency' revolutionary democratism.' The implication of his state. The implication of his statement that Trotskyites are people ment that Trotskyites are people who are blinded by factional malice is utterly abhorrent-and it is not rendered any the less objectionable by references the Fourth International. episodic articles in The News- episodic articles in The Newsletter. (We shall return to this in war (and a long time before Mr. a while.) a while.)

Schoenman discovered the evils of napalm and the virtues of the National Liberation Front) our Our record Our record movement prepared politically for such events:

Has Mr. Schoenman studied the Has Mr. Schoenman studied the record of the Trotskyist movement on Vietnam? Presumably not, otherwise he would not make such inane judgements.

Let us point out to this middle-class muddle-head and his crooked Pabloite advisers that the Fourth International did not jump on the Vietnam bandwagon in 1965. On the contrary, our own record of sustained struggle When French imperialism, launched its bloody retaliatory attack against Haiphong and Hanoi in 1947, the Trotskyists were the first to denounce this filthy business and organised protests in France.

Right through the period of the 'sale guerre', (the 'dirty war'), Trotskyists the world over fought for the victory of the Viet Minh and the expulsion of the French from all of Indo-China.

In Indo-China, the Trotskyists, despite persecution from Bao Dai and Stalinists, fought for the victory of the revolution.

We welcomed Dien Bien Phu as the greatest event in the colonial world, but refused, quite correctly, to support the Geneva Agreement which carved up Vietnam and robbed the Ho regime of the real fruits of victory.

Since Schoenman has raised the question of the Geneva Agreement without any reason we feel bound to comment on it.

As a professional confusionist, Schoenman cannot see anything but contradiction between supporting the Vietnamese revolution and opposing the Geneva Agreement.

We are not members of Ho Chi Minh's government and therefore are not bound to defend every aspect of its policy. But that is the least important aspect of this question.

The real question, as Mr. Schoenman knows, is that the Geneva Agreement was forced upon the Hanoi government by the combined pressures of Russia, China, Britain and France -with the tacit backing of US imperialism.

Even a bourgeois author like P. J. Honey recognises this:

'The Geneva agreements of 1954, which ended the long Indo-Chinese war, gave far less to the Vietnamese Communists than even their most pessimistic supporters could have expected. After a struggle in which they had unquestionably defeated their opponents, and despite the great military victory of Dien Bien Phu, the Communists were granted control over only the northern half of Vietnam and were obliged to accept the presence of an International Control Commission on their territory. In signing the agreements they were forced to bow to strong Soviet pressure, a fact that robbed them of much prestige at home, and the only face-saving concession made to them was the unsigned 'De-

We would suggest instead a commission to investigate the bona fides of Schoenman.

And what about Schoenman's ideological godfather-Bertrand Russell? The Socialist Labour League and The Newsletter it is true supported the MNA in print —but does Mr. Schoenman know that his leader, and one-time CND enthusiast, supported an atomic war against the USSR? Not verbally, but in print?

And, in fact, he, Russell, was one of the first to enunciate the principles of modern misanthropy. Mr. Schoenman might shrug this off as another piece of 'factionalism', but we cannot.

In an article entitled 'The Outlook for Mankind' in 'the magazine 'Horizon' (Vol. XVII, 100, April 1948) Earl Russell, amongst other things, opines that there is no way out of the crisis but war. This was after the Berlin blockade when the US had a monopoly of nuclear weapons. Let him continue:

It seems to result from our survey that what would be best would be an agreement to partition the world and not interfere in each other's zones;

next to that, a war soon, ending in American victory; next, Russian victory; and, worst of all, a draw. (!) I am afraid it is useless to advocate a partition by agreement, because the Russians will not observe agreements. The only possible way, so far as I can see (our emphasis of avoiding a war between Russia and America, is to make it obvious to the Russian government, that, in our war (sic) America would be victorious. It is obvious that the Marshall Plan, combined with a West European Union, gives the best hope of this, as well as of bringing victory to the West if there is a war. ... I expect a war. Nevertheless we should do all in our power to make the Russians afraid of war.

Fortunately the means necessary to that end are exactly the same as those involved in preparing for war if it should come, namely to build the economic and military strength of Western Europe in close alliance with the United States.' (sic.)

While the Trotskyists were proclaiming that the only alternative to fascism and nuclear barbarism was the world-wide socialist revolution, what was the honourable Earl saying? On page 246 of the same magazine he outlines his ghoulish solution.

•.. if there is war, the destruction, especially in our own country, will probably very greatly exceed what happened in the last war. But I have little doubt that in the end, What secret confidences were exchanged in these meetings and why wasn't the Campaign informed about them?

Until we receive satisfactory replies to these questions, we remain free to infer that we like about the motives and methods of the Campaign and its organisers.

The all-important question, the question which separates the revolutionary from the non-revolutionary trends in the working class is how do we best ensure the victory of the National Liberation Front?

It is on this question above all that we find no basis for agreement with Schoenman or the Stalinists.

The Socialist Labour League believes that the only effective way to support the NLF is by intensifying the struggle against British imperialism at home.

Redouble efforts unions such as the elenhonists Association| and the Busmen's Union.

Minister of instice Lenihan also preparing epication strengther police powers arrest and search headauarters at made che seriet Unenino a new ti4.000 centiv Lenihan made remarks about crime and stated:

is in dere te con society exercised of course tor wrong in Curren tarIreland, brutality'

This means a thorough-going exposure of the Labourites' treachery and the Stalinists' apologies for Wilson. It also means a redoubled effort against Wilson's plans to smash the trade unions and create unemployment.

Unlike the Stalinists, we do not propose to subordinate this struggle to the collection of blood and medical parcels for Vietnam.

We think that one decisive blow against Wilson is worth a million pints of blood for the That is why we reject totally the operative clause of Schoenman's letter:

Individual views concerning the Soviet Union or revolutionary change, or the role of the Communist Party in Britain are irrelevant to the call we have made to everyone who takes the minimum position of supporting the Vietnamese struggle against imperialism:

"Unite Together"! (Our emphasis.)

If this is Schoenman's idea of unity there is no reason why General de Gaulle and Senator Fulbright should not be made honorary members of the executive committee of the Campaign. • We, however, will have none of it. We say instead: Down with this charlatanry!

Support the October 2 demonstration of the YS and SLL in Brighton and help make a real and positive contribution to the defeat of imperialism in Vietnam.

required that physiantorcement while an indivilapse tra omen might ome times arda into trouble with the ablic, he ha never vhat would "be single Instanc brutalito.

called After гесевт experiencer what an be exnected fron Lenihan, then.

PREPARE NOW

demand against the ment Fine, 08 driven the all farme rule CASSO. name for Republic

Come to Liege on October 15 and demonstrate real working-class solidarity with the NLF.

To Messrs. Schoenman and Russell we say: To hell with your rotten 'united front' of state capitalists, Pabloites, Stalinists and centrists. Your campaign stinks and will continue to do so until you learn to fight in a principled manner.

The Vietnamese will spite of you. and hanke

YOUNG Socialists and members of the Socialist Labour League joined by trade unionists held a successiul demonstration in Glasgow last Saturday against the wagefreeze and the Prices and Incomes Bill.

Along with the banners and posters of the YS and SLL, members of the . Draughtsmen's and Allied Technicians' Association carried their district council banner.

Thousands of workers lined the pavements as the demonstrators marched through some of the busiest shopping areas in Glasgow.

Much interest was aroused amongst housewives and young people as the demonstration assembled in the working-class district of Maryhill.

All along the march the demonstrators shouted their protests against the wage-freeze, anti-union laws, rising prices, and unemployment and demanded the nationalization of the banks, that the bosses pay for the crisis and that the unions must fight.

A victory was won when representatives of the YS and SLL fought successfully against an attempt by the city magistrates to prevent the demonstration marching along busy shopping areas in the town.

On two previous occasions the SLL and YS have been refused permission to march along the route they wished to take and last year the YS was refused permission to hold a demonstration on Vietnam.

• ROLE OF SV From page a member of the Committee. prepares split At this meeting Cannon proposed to the English comrade who was the delegate that they, the British, should join the Americans and break from the French comrades who led the fight, on the grounds that they were 'sectarian'.

We told them that this was not our conception of how an international movement should be educated and built.

Just as we refused to line up with Dobbs against Cannon, so we now refused to line up with Cannon against the French section.

We had made up our minds not to be the pawns in the SWP pragmatic game with the international movement as the board.

The time had almost Cer- i tainly come for the Socialist Labour League to split openly from the SWP. Since the split with Pablo in 1953 we had utilised every available means to fight his revisionism.

Now that it was clear that the SWP had capitulated to Pabloite revisionism, our task was clear—we had to organise the split from Cannon, Dobbs and Co. who had betrayed Trotsky and the Fourth International.

'he development.and growt! of the Socialist Labour League is directly related to the struggle against Pabloite revisionism and the degeneration of the SWP. There can be no compromise on these issues.

The Socialist Labour League is out to destroy Pabloism and its SWP accomplices. There can be and, we repeat, there never will be a compromise on these questions-the fight will go on until we destroy the Pabloites and the revisionist SWP.

Today the Socialist Labour League is, even in the eves of bitterest opponents, the strongest section in the international Trotskyist movement. We are confident we can continue along these lines and smash the unprincipled SWP leaders, Cannon, Dobbs and Co.

Next article: is Joseph Hansen? CONCRETE ACTION PROPOSALS to 'pressurise' the TUC to act against the wage freeze were mooted at a meeting of the Merseyside Campaign Against the Wage Freeze held in Liverpool on Friday, August 26.

scientific workers, together with 'leading trade unionists'.

The chairman attempted to confine discussion to a public meeting on the eve of the TUC conference around the slogan 'Press the TUC to speak out'.

The platform called for a lobby of the TUC on September 3, but on the insistence of the Merseyside Rank and File Builders' Movement, they reluctantly agreed also to have a demonstration.

Alternative

Representatives of the builders' movement insisted that it should not be a short, half-organised demonstration. These workers expressed the feeling of the need for a fight to develop an alternative leadership in the trade union movement.

On Thursday (August 25) the 'Campaign' held a Manchester meeting at which a leading Communist Party member declared that the movement should not be opposed to the Labour government.

But the wage freeze is the central pillar of government policy and it cannot be fought without fighting the government and, in the process, forging a new leadership.

ICI site faces redundancies THE redundancies announced by ICI last week are having a comeback on rank-and-file members of various contractors at ICI's Kenal Works at Runcorn, Cheshire. .. The site convenor, Clive Burton, told The Newsletter that he had been told 500 would be made redundant-250 from J. B. Edwards, civil contractors, and 250 from the mechanical trades.

He said this was typical action by large capitalist combines today.

We fully appreciate that this is only the beginning of a bitter and hard fight which is going to start very soon. Even doubtful militants can see the betrayal of Wilson and his henchmen,' he said.

Organise for October 2 urges THE tenor of a meeting in Glasgow last Sunday was probably summed up in the rash of 'melt the wage freeze' badges. These flourished everywhere, despite the fact that the leading Sunday newspapers of that day carried headlines indicating that implementation of clause 4 of the Prices and Incomes Bill, making the statutes compulsory, is only a matter of weeks away.

The three main speakers made many correct points but were unable to see a way past Wilson.

They could only end by calling on all Labour MPs 'not to vote in the affirmative' when Clause 4 comes up in parliament for approval Labour MPs to vote call to against Clause 4.

A speaker from the floor called on the speakers to support the Young Socialists' demonstration outside the Labour Party Conference in Brighton on October 2 to demand that the policies and the present leadership of the government be changed.

Convenor's call

Other speakers from the floor, among them Mr. William Dunn, convenor of the Babcock & Wilcox factory at Renfrew, took up this proposal and called on the main speakers to organise large contingents of workers to demonstrate against Wilson at Brighton.

This meeting showed that the working class is not responding to vague calls of militancy from the left MPs and trade unionists.

Workers are correctly hesitant to follow leaders who refuse to show a clear road ahead for independent action on the part of the working class which will defeat the employers and their friends in the labour movement.

This was most clearly shown when, after eloquent appeals were made from the platform for a collection, only f25 was raised out of an audience of approximately 500.

However, the campaign for the Brighton demonstration is going ahead and the Young Socialists welcome the call made by the Babcock's convenor and the interest shown by other trade unionists who indicated that they wished to attend.

THE first meeting of the West of Scotland Co-ordinating Committee since it half-heartedly took a small number of people to London for the Communist Party-backed June 22 lobby of parliament took place last Saturday.

The secretary, a Connell's shipyard worker and wellknow CP'er on the Clyde, opened up the meeting with some general remarks about the Geddes Report and an outline of what 'progress' had been made at Connell's to implement it.

He stated that he and his stewards ste Committee preen or stewards to increase production, but without the management being part of it.

JOINT MEETING

Other Communist Party members present gave brief scraps of vague information about what was happening in the yards where they worked but all objected vehemently to one delegate who suggested a meeting stewards from all yards and all sections of shipbuilding to prepare action to defeat Geddes. One CP steward from Fairfield said the Geddes Report was a basis for discussions on shipyard re-organisation!

At this stage the secretary shifted the discussion to the wage freeze and proposed that the meeting should delegate someone to attend the TUC conference at Blackpool and express the feelings of the committee against the wage freeze. A few breaths later it turned out that the secretary himself would be at Blackpool as a delegate and would be only too pleased to do the onerous task.

When one delegate reminded him of his militant statements on the June 22 lobby when he proposed that to fight the anti-union laws of the government a token strike and a mass demonstration should take place in Glasgow, he immediately responded calling for a token demonstration in Glasgow during the week of the TUC conference.

ADVENTURE

Without the slightest vestige of support he can move from two months of total inactivity to the leader of a wild adventure.

Another delegate proposed that the committee should organise to take a large contingent from the shipyards and engineering facmoval of Wilson and the rejec- tories to demonstrate for the tion of his policies at the Brighton conference of the Labour Party.

This was objected to by one of the CP stewards who said that for those who were 'first of all trade unionists' the TUC conference was more important.

This same steward called a reference to the Shardlow's strike of last week as being a political strike a "smear'.

The committee finally decided to urge all factories to send letters and telegrams to the TUC delegations calling on them to vote against the wage freeze. The demand that a contingent be organised for Brighton was put on the agenda for the next meeting in two weeks time.

About 70 trade unionists attended the meeting, organised by DATA, ASSET and the

I realise I haven't said a single hopeful or constructive word about the situation in Doncaster. I don't know what the solution is. I don't know what's going to happen. I cannot offer any optimistic words because l've nothing on which to base them."—Harold Walker, Labour MP for Doncaster.

'The loans we got to maintain the pound were given on certain conartions. It is necessary to create temporary unemployment? —Richard Kelley, Labour MP for Don Valley.

AT a meeting called by the • Doncaster Trades Council and the T&GWU branch at Doncaster ICI Works last Sunday to discuss the Prices and Incomes Bill, neither Harold Walker nor Richard Kelley could offer any solutions either to this or to the recent redundancies at the Doncaster factories of ICt and International Harvesters.

Walker first tried to claim that the redundancies had nothing to do with the government, later declared that the government was being influenced by the National Coal Board to squeeze workers out of other jobs to force them down the mines.

He then tried to convince the audience that the 'left' MPs had put up a fight in the House of Commons, but he was greeted with ribald laughter when he declared: "Unfortunately, we were overtaken by events.

'We were in a dilemma. The severity of the sterling crisis, the gravity of the Prime Minister's words, the private discussions in the House of Commons, showed that the government had to have the opportunity to solve the crisis through its own measures. We had to vote for or against-the alternatives didn't enter into it. So we trooped into the Lobbies to support the government's wage freeze.' Walker, of course, failed to inform the meeting that on June 22 he told shop stewards who lobbied him over the Bill that he would never vote for anything that would restrict the rights of stewards.

Nor did he mention the message that he and other 'left-wing' MPs-Stan Orme, Eric Heffer and John Mendelson-had given the stewards: 'You fight the Bill outside and we'll fight it inside.' Richard Kelley, bluntly declared that unemployment was necessary to force workers into industries 'beneficial to the nation'.

LEADER of the Normanton, Yorkshire, Tenants' Association Mr. Fred Appleyard told a meeting in the mining community last sunday that the proposed rent rebate scheme (a" 'means test') had been bulldozed through the local council.

Many families, he said, were suffering already because wives had to work to supplement their husbands' wages.

He asked how a government could call itself socialist when it froze wages, but not rents; when it imposed heavy penalties on workers fighting for wages, but did not act against councils which raised rents.

Attack financiers

Mr. R. Bubb of the tenants' association said the government should be taking action against the insurance companies and financiers who had been making fortunes out of interest payments on housing.

Tenants became with local MP Roberts when he told them to be dispassionate. Housing had always been a problem, he said.

As he spoke generally about costs and wages in 1933 and 1966 and how he became an MP, the irate tenants told him to get to the point of the Normanton rent and rebate scheme.

Interrupted at one point to be asked: Why should we pay more rent for houses we have already paid for over the years, Roberts finally admitted that he did not know what the rents were in Normanton! Present He then agreed to join a tenants' deputation to the local council.

LAST week the Group of Ten -representing all the leading capitalist countries-published a report on the present crisis in the world monetary system.

Their report demonstrates clearly that this crisis is no nearer to resolution. In fact it is obvious from a study of this document that the divisions amongst the capitalist powers are growing to such an extent that any lasting agreement is virtually excluded.

What is the basis of this monetary crisis?

Briefly, it is a liquidity crisis which stems from the inadequate means which now exist for the settlement of international debts.

At the moment there are three methods of settling debts which arise between capitalist countries in the course of trade and finance.

Settlement is in gold or in one of the two 'reserve' currencies: the dollar or the pound sterling. Of these latter two the dollar is by far the more important: the pound retains its place largely as a hang-over from the past.

There are three reasons which explain why these three units are now inadequate to finance the present level of trade and payments.

Gold production has not expanded rapidly enough in the post-war period to meet the rising level of world trade.

Secondly there is a large question mark over the future of the dollar. This in turn stems from the growing US balance of payments crisis.

Because of a massive export of capital into Europe, together with large overseas expenditures on war (in Vietnam and elsewhere) and a growing 'aid' programme, the Us balance of payments has deteriorated rapidly in the last few years and there is a widening gap between the size of the deficit and the US holdings of gold to cover it.

RESERVES HALVED

US gold • reserves are in fact only about half what they were in the late forties and early fifties. This has led to widespread speculation about the possible devaluation of the dollar—or an increase in the price of gold, which would amount to the same thing.

In addition to these growing problems of the dollar, there are the well-known problems of the pound. The decline of British capitalism has reached such a point that the pound can barely hang on to its position. It only survives through the support of the international financiers who fear a disruption in the whole monetary system if the pound were to go bust.

The essence of the crisis is this. Without large US and UK balance of payments deficits there would be a complete inadequacy in the world monetary system. (That is, money would be called in from the reserves of all the capitalist powers back into London and New York it both Britain and the US were to 'correct' their balance of payments deficits.)

On the other hand, the continuation of these deficits places a large question mark over both these currencies, In particular the dollar will only be restored to its former position as equal to gold if the US moves into a payments surplus.

Altogether five plans were drawn up by the Group of Ten. But they remain paper plans. There was absolutely no agreement about the implementation of a single one of these plans.

There are in fact deep divisions between the capitalists about the solution of the present crisis.

France refused to sign the Report. But France does not stand alone. She expresses much of the growing hostility to the threat of total US dominance of the entire capitalist world.

In fact the US has made no progress towards the correction of their external imbalance.

Any 'progress' which Johnson has recently: claimed is based simply on the flow of 'hot' money to the States attracted by rising US interest rates.

Even this upward trend in interest rates will have serious repercussions for other capitalist countries. Britain, in particular, already embarked under Wilson on a programme of severe deflation, will have increasing difficulty in holding money in London as it moves across to New York attracted by rates of interest which are higher than at any time since the 1920s.

Such pressures will further weaken the balance of payments position of British capitalism and lead to intensified attacks on the working class to put it right.

The present monetary problems reflect the deepening crisis for the whole imperialist system. The crisis in Britain is inseparably linked with this international crisis.

Never has the struggle for socialism in this country had such international significance as it has today. delay the modernisation of British industry and only maintain an evil which has blighted industry since the war.

With the cost of plant and equipment reaching higher and higher levels in recent years, firms will not in any case be able to go in for their former 'soft' policies towards labour.

There will in fact be a drive to concentrate production on fewer and fewer plants to make the best use of investments, to speed up work and wherever possible to introduce shift working.

nelyment will hit some areas of the country with particular severity depressed' areas will All the suffer badly, but perhaps hardest hit will be the North-East coast, from where the initial call for the massive unemployment lobby of parliament of 1963 came. from rate area in suffering Already this over twice the national average and closures and sackings have been announced at Blyth (which now has a 7 per cent rate of unemployment), South Shields and Sunderland which involve the loss of over 2,000 jobs.

To fight for a policy of work sharing with no sackings is now to engage the employers, supported by the government, in a life-and-death battle.

• OPEN LETTER

convenor ON August 25, the morning shift at the Cambrian colliery Rhondda Valley, South Wales, came out on strike agains the closure of the pit, planned for September 24.

This was after the men had -heard that letters, telling them that contracts with the NCB would be terminated on that day, were being delivered by registered post.

As reported in the last two editions of The Newsletter, tree at the Cambrian, one of South Wales collieries to be closed in September, have refused to co-operate with the National Coal Board in the closure or the transfer of men to other pits.

In a statement to the press on Friday, lodge secretary Garfield Rogers said:

SEEK SUPPORT 'The men feel they have been let down by the union and that they are being pushed around by the Coal Board He told The Newsletter that approaches would be made to other pits in the area for support.

The previous Tuesday delegates from the Cambrian lodge met the executive committee of the South Wales area of the National Union of Mineworkers to ask for the date of a special coalfield conference on pit closures to be brought forward from September 16.

The committee refused and declared that it had gone through all the machinery to save the Cambrian. It advised the men to co-operate with the closure.

The area committee is actively opposed to a united struggle necessary to defend the nationalized coal industry.

Attacks on the Rhondda miners and elsewhere are part of the government's giant attack on the working class.

Miners should not raise any hopes in Wilson or any officials to support them.

RECORD

The Cambrian colliery is being closed at this point because of its record for militancy.

An example of this is that piece workers have a wage-pooling system and other practices which the NCB would dearly like to break down.

The 'Morning Star' has reported the campaign against the Cambrian closure without any warning against the NUM bureaucrats who are betraying this struggle Last Saturday's issue reported the strike, but failed to mention the lodge's criticisms of official union policy.

This silence signifies the Stalinist degeneration of the Communist Party in covering up for the most discredited actions of the trade union bureaucracy.

OFFICIAL Newsletter Correspondent ECONOMIC CRISIS

Later many of them died in Auschwitz and similar hell holes. They were burned and gassed to death and in their death rattle they paid a terrible price for the German MacDonalds and present day traitors such as Wilson.

Are you going to tread this terrible road again?

Remember, you vote at this year's TUC with the eyes of millions and millions of wage earners questioningly turned in your direction.

Are you going to betray them?

Please remember what happened in Germany. It must not happen again. We appeal to you to vote solidly against the Prices and Incomes Bill.