1976 did not see a decisive swing towards one side or the other in the international class struggle. For the workers movement it was mainiy a peroa ot consolidation and siow, painstaking advance. Even the rout of imperialIsm in Angola was not able to orng abour a decisive change. In Europe the most important develooments weren Spain, where, nevertheless, the gains have been slow and won at a painful cost.
But this long retrenchment on both sides of the class divide is a good education for the that WO KerS movemen. altla revolutionaries are first able to challenge the nOle NaHOUS KeTon HS! parties movement and forge a leadership which can play a decisive role in a revolutionary upsurge.
SUPPORT It is in this context that we must assess the progress made by the Fourth International in the past year. Ine most important gais Have come in the Spanish state, within a steady rise movement and increased readiness of more politically advanced workers to break with the reformist schemas OTInB Communist Party. clearly creates very favorable conditions for the intervention revolutionaries.
Our Spanish comrades have shown themselves to be equal to this task. By advancing a consistent strategy of a working class united front with the reformist parties, calling on them to break their alliance with the "liberal' bourgeoisie, the Fourth International is creating the preconditions for breaking -HaSS of working class from the practices of reformism as the revolutionary situation unfolds.
For revolutionaries the fight for unity within the workers movement is as much a principle in the struggle for ine socialist revolution the intransigent fight against class collaborawhich accompanies it. clear and TIOT principled position of the comrades of the LCR and LC has already won them many gains, both trom tne ranks of te stamnists and trom the vacillating Mao-centrist organisations.
The struggle of the Fourth International for international solidarity action and the building of an international revolutionary organisation falls within the same framework. Solidarity on a is the best education which the wone scale workers movement can gain. 1976 has shown, and 1977 will show again, that the development ot ie word revolution is not an even process But this between the lever of struggle in different paris of the globe, can be turned to our advantage.
The sharpest example ot inis came in ine reflected in those countries such as Germany and Hungary where the working class attempted to seize power. In southern Europe initiated a series of mass upsurges, while promoting the development of independent working class organisations in countries such as Britain 1977, the 60th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, may not see quite such dramatic developments; but the tasks of international solidarity will be no less pressing. It is still the Iberian peninsula which offers the greatest prospects for the first socialist revolution in WeSten Europe GeSOIG set-back .In Portugal and the slow tempo of events in Spain, one of the central tasks of the coming year will continue to be the building of active support for the workers of Iberia. This in itselt is one of the most important schools for the Like Mao - and Brezhnev - Tito of Yugoslavia will not last for ever. His death is likely to open up the contradictions of the 'self-managed' economy.
The hourceoisie was not too happy about Brezhnev's visit to Belgrade in revolution in capitalist Europe as a whole It is on the basis of an international solidarity campaign in defence of the PST, the Argentinian section of the Fourth International, that the Colombian Trotskyists have made such great avances lutionary left under the banner of the Fourth regroupment ICYU"
International The evolution of a pre-revolutionary period in the imperialist hartlands of Western Europe has been the decisive new element in the world class struggle in recent years. The beginnings of a challenge to the rule of the bureaucracy in the workers states of Eastern Europe has added new dimensions to the struggle for workers democracy on the Eastern European continent as a whole.
1976 has also seen the explosion of the anti-imperialist struggle in southern Africa. It is likely that this will continue to be the central arena of the class struggle in the coming year This, above all, requires the greatest solidarity fortnighitls, no.f4, 9december 1976 430, S1, 101h from workers the world over. By one of the ironies of the neven development of the world revolution, southern-Africa, which has seen the largest upsurge in the past year, is also the most underdeveloped in terms of revolutionary leadership. Building international solidarity with the people of southern Africa is a part of the fight to build a revolutionary leadership which can undertake the battle for a united socialist Africa.
Political clairvoyancy is as foolish as any other variety. The tasks of revolutionaries in the coming year are not dictated by predictions of what will happen in this or that country, but by an overall appraisal of the world struggle for socialism. 1976 has shown us that the crucial arenas for this struggle will continue to be southern Africa and southern Europe. The test of the internationalism of the left in 1977 will be its ability to advance solidarity and the building of a revolutionary leadership in every continent.
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Hed weekiy nas received a numhei of letters on the national question attitude socialists should take to the devolutron proposars or ine tabour We will be publishing these in UTE topr, partourary mar duaressed Neil Williamson's 'In Focus' article in in our monthly supplenanonal cuesuon in coulano in ceoinir addition the IMG will be publishthe discussion on *Devolution Debate', Red Weekly, 97 Caledon NCUNCCALT DUN uary 1977 9
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the great maneuvers of the bourgeoisie and the rise of the mass movement