* Public spending cuts will continue. As the postwar boom began to disappear in the 1970s, British government resorted to massive 'deficit spending' to shore up British businesses. Central government expenditure shot up from £21 m in 1971-2 to £8. 806 billion in 1976. British industries! reliance on 'hand-outs' is now enormous as in the case of Rolls-Royce, Chrysler and British To carry on 'supporting' these firms, more and more cuts in the public sector will be * Unemployment will continue to rise. The Sunday Times pointed out that the normally "high of employment since the war have been the result of high investment levels". At a time when investment is falling - due to lower profit margins - and when recession is looming, we can expect the jobless level to escalate still higher.
The trends of the Callaghan offensive, therefore - wage curbs, public spending cuts and rising unemployment - will deepen in the period ahead, leading to ever-greater opposition in the ranks of the labour movement to the Social Contract. The task is to forge out of this opposition - which will be increasingly open to a socialist alternative -a class struggle tendency ready to move boldly out and fight for measures in the interests of working people and their allies. Tendency Key to building such a tendency will be clarity in political programme. Contrary to the divisive and confused positions of the Labour lefts', it is necessary to develop those which can create the maximum unity among working people in the fight for their interests. Soaring inflation must be met with a call to end all wage curbs in favour of ency must be totally non-sectarian in its approach, being ready to collaborate with any forces on a given issue - such as the fight against the cuts or in favour of abortion rights - regardless of their position on other issues.
Democracy It is one thing to fight for these measures but it is quite another to enforce their implementation. At the last Labour Party conference, a resolution calling for the repeal of the racist 1971 Immigration Act was passed by a large majority. Despite this expression of democratic will, however, Mervyn Rees stated he had no intention of carrying out conference decisions on 'racel any more than Jim Callaghan intended carrying out conference decisions on 'nationalisation!.
A central issue which must be taken up by any real class-struggle tendency must be that of party democracy - the right of conference to expect any government to implement those decisions democratically arrived at. Such an issue has already been raised within the Labour Party over the past period. At conference, a resolution was moved that all MPs should come under mandatory re-selection before elections - an obvious attempt to make MP s abide by conference decisions. - and that the Party leader should be elected not merely by the Parliamentary Labour Party but by conference as a whole.
These moves are an indication that growing numbers are beginning to question not only the policies of the right-wing but also their undemocratic practices as well. A vital part of this struggle for real democracy within the party is the right of tendenc -¡es to exist with full freedom of criticism..... The response of Callaghan to the reception he met - at last year's conference - was to launch a vicious red-baiting campaign against what he called ".. the bully boys" of the left and to demand the NEC start to "examine their activities and report back to the party". This witch-hunt, which has grown in the past few months, is an obvious attempt to stifle all independent opposition within the party: As the challenge to the government's pro-capitalist policies mounts in the next period, such witch- hunts against the left will escalate. It is vital, regardless of other differences, that the maximum unity in defence of democratic rights be obtained.
labour movement - the struggle to