Secretary to Britain last March, there have been few significant actions in this country in solidarity with the struggles of the Spanish working class. Yet this has been a time of the most determined and militant struggles by the Spanish workers themselves.
They have mounted a massive wave of strikes against the Government pay freeze, orgarised mass demonstrations in every major city demanding the liber ation of political prisoners and democratic rignts, and detied the brutal Franco ist police forces. The Government has responded with the most ruthless repression - murdering eleven workers in cold blood, wounding dozens of others and imprisoning and torturing workers leaders-bringing repression in spain today back to the level it had reached before the death of Franco.
All this has been allowed to go by without any clear response from the British labour movement. due to any lack of sympathy among the ranks or workers: when, for example the Perkins Diesel Joint Shop Stewards Committee in this country organised a factory collection in aid of Perkins workers in Spain victimised for striking in support of workers commission lead er Marcelino Camacho, more than £400 was readily raised. The failure has been due to the lack of any centralised lead. and united actions through which the labour movement could express its solThis has not been February Conference in Solidarity with the Spanish Working Class, mandated to do just that, has done virtually nothing in this period. At the time of the Conference its Secretary, Will Paynter, called for 'mass demonstrations up and down the country' on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Civil War. But no plans to this effect have been announThe Committee set up out of the 14 the dictatorship. brothers and sisters.
Malet Street, WC1.
national Socialists.
end the meeting on 8 June.
ced, and the date is drawing near.
This date, which will doubtless be the occasion for important events in Spain, must not pass unmarked by the British labour movement. It is an impor tant opportunity to demonstrate our solidarity with the workers of Spain and to start the work of building the sort of mass solidarity that the Spanish warkers will need as they launch even greater struggles in their fight to defeat The anniversary of the Civil War Snould be made an occasion on whic! the labour movement in this country faces up to its internationalist responsib ilities, made even more urgent by the fact that British and Spanish workers face a common enemy in the form of murtinational Tirms like IT, Chrysler Fords, ICI, Rio-Tinto Zinc, etc.
For these reasons the undersigned organisations are inviting all organisation and bodies of the left and labour move ment to meet to discuss the organisation of solidarity actions to mark the anniversary of the Civil War. We urge everyone concerned with the cause of the Spanish working class to attend, and extend a special invitation to Will Paynter and the 14 February Committee either to send a representative or to inform us of their intentions so that we can build the most united and effec tive actions possible to aid our Spanish We propose that this meeting take place on Tuesday 8 June at 7pm in room 2E, University of London Union, International Marxist Group, Inter(Our comrades of the LCR/ETA-VI in London tully support this initiative anc urge all other Spanish left groups to attosed by the Communist Party - that is a government of the parties of the work HE Class Unfortunate Unfortunately Proletarian Democracy does not go on to spell out the basic demands which it would call on such a soverent to enact tie. Matonansatior under workers control, expropriation without compensation of manufacturing industry, and the withdrawal of Italy from NATO and the Common Market). In other words, the common ground of the revolutionary left has not been built upon to draw up a programme which however insufficient - could have polarised all those forces which have broken with reformism.
Furthermore, Proletarian Democracy reflects the sectarian manoeuvres of PaUP and AO in the make-up of its slate. If it had been opened up to all the other organisations supporting it. including representatives from these groups and also representatives from the factories, tenants organisations etc who aren't necessarily members of any particular revolutionary organisation, then the far left's election campaign would have gained a great deal more force. Support The GCR (Revolutionary Communist Groups), Italian section of the Fourth International, have consistently argued for a united slate of the entire revolution ary left in the national elections (a position they were almost alone in holding in 1972). Although they have some criti cisms of the sectarian way that Proletarian Democracy was formed, they intend to give it their full support in the campagi and in me elections
HEALEY'S 4½ PER CENT STEAMROLLER emerged unscathed from last week's AUEW National