The Troops Out Movement is organising a mass, labour movement delegation to visit reland over the weekend of 18 or 25 September. The purpose of this delegation is to establish the facts about the situation in reland, thereby enabling the British labour movement to develop an informed and progressive workshop I would like to inform your readers about the 1976 History Workshop at Ruskin College, on 29 and 30 May, which is on Workers' Education and Class Consciousness. In a wide ranging series of worksnoes and pienary sessions we will De discussing the experience of working class and adult education, trom the Chartists to the WEA, from Vietnam and Cuba to the South Wales Miners. On Sunday morning, school children from the East End of London will re-create a Socalist Sunday School service. A winding now adopted this slogan itself. were entirely correct: the trade union side.
MPs to vote for Benn speaks of.
policy in support of the Irish people's long struggle tor selt-determination The British Government has been Torced to abandon the latest in a long line of attempted 'solutions' and return to Direct Rule in Northern Ireland. But the war and bloodshed continue and the threat of civil war grows greater, not at Ruskin up session will try to apply Ine lessons oT the past to workers education today We are sure that this year's History Workshop will not only be varied and interesting, but will demonstrate that knowledge of our history is essential in tackling the problems facing the labour movement today. Tickets are £2 each (OAPs 50p). Enquiries should be accompanied by a stamped adressed envelose and sent to. husKin HiStory Workshop, Ruskin: College, Oxford Un che-bobrong e tnaroerson in its political line in recent weeks. After initially launching a vicious sectarian attack (which unfortunately was only too reminiscent of the old Workers Fight style polemics) against the IMG for raising the slogan of 'Recall the TUC", Workers Action has Alter polemicising against all demands to 'Make the Lefts Fight*, Work ers Action has now correctly moved to take up the demand that the left MPs should vote against the Wilson or Jenkins.
Finally, in relation to the candidates in the Labour leadership election, Workers Action took the correct position of calling for a vote for Benn and nobody else. Furthermore, the arguments it gave for voting for Benn and against voting for Foot CISLID "Some time ago, before the present Government, the candidature of Michael Foot might have given hopes of a "left challenge" to the leadeusuD. now maris norte caser rootts ane government side of the hinge that links the Labour Government to the trade union bureaucracy.
He is Mr £6 limit just as much as Jack Jones on *This leaves Benn. Workers Action says that socialists in the Labour Party should tell their Why? Not because his policies provide the WOIKI CASS WII AIV WAW TOTWaTG OUL ORTIE Not because he has stood out against Wilson. Certalny ne nas nad nis citerences, bur ne accepted collective Cabinet responsibility for the £6 limit, the Healey cuts, and all the other right-wing policies. And not beause we have any confidence that he will push for the reforms in Cabinet procedure, like the election of the Cabinet rather than its appointment, which he *But his candidature is the only one which expresses amy destre to break witt mne wavs or Wilson....Benn, however, will almost certainly nave to crop out arter une rust baloc. nat wul leave a group of candidates all pledged to continuation of the present policies lock, stock and barrel. Foot will, if he is still in the running, get most of the Left's votes at this stage, because of his past. But his present record determines that no-one claiming to be on the left should vote for him....or any of the other candidates.
Red Weekly would have no serious difference at all with the position taken by Workers Action on work. the leadership elections. But this and its correct changes in line in the period before the election raise a number of important issues for the comrades Firstly, the slogan of 'Recall the TUC" was adop centrist one ted without any reference at all to the silly violent Dulcine previousy launcheu asamst the vur Tor making the same call. Instead it was accompanied by yet anther violent attack on the IMG, which served merely as a smokescreen to cover this change Such stupid sectarianism obscures rather Secondly, it is relevant to ask why Workers Action thinks the Benn candidature would have the objec tive character it describes. For Red Weekly this is -we nave consistenuv anarvseo benn s role as remaining within the Cabinet while attempting, within cowardly limits, to differentiate himself from the Government's policies. We have campaign ed to expose this role by demanding his resignation from the Government - which in relation to Benn organisations. is simply the application of our position to 'Unite Peter Jameson less, each year. It is therefore imperative that we, in Britain, develop a clear understanding of what is happening there.
To this end the delegation will visit Dublin and Belfast, where it will meet representatives trom trades councis. trade unions and shop stewards commi tees; sections of the main political parties; tenants, community and civil rights organisations; and radical lawyers grOUD:
We, in the Troops Out Movement, are raising funds to finance the visit. This clearly involves large sums of money, since many labour movement bodies are not in a position to pay their delegates' fares. We are therefore asking every progressive group/organisation/ branch/individual in Britain which supports the Irish people's right to self-determination to make a contribution towards the cost of the delegation.
This could be done by holding raffles, collections, any fundraising activity - or directly from the pocket!
Any sum, however small, will help - but obviously the larger the better. Cheques ana oostal oracls Davaoie to Labour Movement Delegation to Ireland", should be sent to TOM. 1 North End Road London W14. It's a small sacrifice to make wnen so mucn is au stake BILL FREEMAN (Treasurer)
to fight the policies of the Wilson Government and remove the Wilson-Healey leadership But Workers Action has taken a different position. It has stated that on crucial issues, for example the EEC, Benn was actually to the right of Jenkins or Wilson. It has attacked the IMG for saying that there is a difference - not a historic difference but a difference in their immediate relation to the working class and the ruling class - between Benn and Why therefore does Benn objectively have behind him forces opposed to the Government according to Workers Action? Is it simply his demagogy? Should they not now seriously reconsider this position in the light of the line they correctly took on the lead- after all, a line on an election should flow logically from what went before it.
Finally, despite the fact that on these issues they clearly find themselves in agreement with other sections of the revolutionary left, including the IMG the ICL and Workers Action unfortunately continue to maintain their ultra-sectarian attitudes. This is not a question of individual sectarian positions or - every organisation on the revolutionary left is guilty of this - but of a sectarian political frameWorkers Action continues to divide organisations into only three camps - reformist, revolutionary (which is essentially itself), and centrist. This leads it to absurd positions - such as declaring that the IMG is not a Trotskyist organisation but is a Unfortunately this approach has no justification either in theory or in history. There are many divisions within the positions of revolutionaries. The differences between the ICL and the IMG, significant as some of them are, are not those which separate Trotskyists and centrists - they exist within a framework of two Trotskyist organisations.
We hope that the change of line by Workers Action on the slogan of "Recall of the TUC', and the correct position it took, with the IMG, on the question of the vote in the Labour leadership elections will help the comrades of the ICL to break from their sectarian political framework and embark on the type of serious discussion with the IMG which is correct between two revolutionary Trotskyist