impose any similar policy.
increased repression.
implement the Scotland Act.
laws; support for butchers like the Shah of Iran.
months. 1972. The potential to build the developed as a new relating to women's rights has expanded.
If Labour was returned.
revolutionary alternative is not being presented. inherently more right-wing than Callaghan's. Nazis argue.
Workers Party will be fighting alongside If you agree with these principles and want to be involved in activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
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Delete if not applicable] NAME| ADDRESS Send to Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. AFTER FIVE years of office, the Labour government is on the way out. Several major issues are finally breaking its back.
* The 5 per cent pay policy has been broken, and there is little short term prospect of the trade union bureaucracy being able to * The continuing resistance of the Catholic masses to Unionist and imperialist rule has prevented any political solution in Northern Ireland. The Labour government has responded with * Despite a clear working class vote in favour of a Scottish Assembly, the Labour government has refused to go ahead and If the Labour government falls, it will be for one reason only — its attacks on the interests of the working class. The working class have seen wages drop under the Social Contract; hospitals, schools, nurseries, and social services slashed; unemployment double; the maintenance and extension of the racist immigration The way has been paved for Tory policies by the TUC General Council's stamp of approval on the Concordat. The Labour lefts remained scandalously silent on this vital issue, but the potential still exists for a determined resistance, even if the Tories are elected. That much is evident from the fightback seen in recent Nevertheless, we shouldn't dismiss the serious implications of a Tory victory even if the confidence of the working class is maintained. A Tory victory will be a setback for the working class. Furthermore, it will make conditions for building a real class struggle alternative in the working class that much more difficult. It is just not the case that political conditions under a Tory government speed up working class radicalisation. Quite the reverse. The conditions are then laid for all the lefts to attempt to polish up their radical image through anti-Tory demagogy.
Moreover, although a credible alternative has not emerged during five years of Labour rule, a Labour government still provides the best basis to push forward the fight for an alternative. For in these years we have seen a mass fightback against austerity strike figures have reached the post-war high years of 1971 and "Troops Out' movement has undoubtedly opened up enormously. Youth radicalisation has factor in British politics. A real mass movement against racism exists. And the breadth of struggles This hasn't been translated into a powerful class struggle movement. However, this failure has as much to do with the problems of the left as with objective circumstances. Outside the promising beginnings of the Anti Nazi League, the revolutionary left has not been able to give a clear lead in the fight against the beresucracy. The recent struggles of the working class have helped to cranty une basis or suca a ngat ano tais couro accererate ruruner For all these reasons, socialists should be organising to ensure the return of a Labour government. Socialist Challenge will be calling on all its supporters and readers to vote Labour where a Under no circumstances should such a call be translated into the view that Labour's present policies are any closer to working class Interests than those of the Tories. If there is one thing in which Callaghan has excelled, it is his ability to steal Thatcher's clothes. It's true that a victory of the Tories will make it easier to impose right-wing policies. But the reasons for this can be found in the gative effects on the working class that any such victory wou fect, rather than in the incorrect view that Tory policies a There is only one guarantee of a Labour victory. That is the continuation and initiation of struggles for policies in the interests of the mass movement. The presentation of a global alternative is a vital element in this. Support for mass action for such alternative policies will be part and parcel of Socialist Unity's electoral campaign. And with the National Front intent on standing in over 300 constituencies, a massive Anti Nazi League campaign is called TOr. DUE SOCIaTSES aIso nave me broader tasks Or expialmmg just who is responsible for the crisis, that it's not the blacks as the Presumably the International Marxist Group and the Socialist CECI continuing struggles in the pre-election period. We would ask these comrades one simple, yet urgent question. Who will gain from your refusal to make a strong united electoral intervention? The working class, or Callaghan? For us the answer is obvious. NO MATTER what assembly.
Now The referendum and the subsequent denial of demo•cratic people in Scotland represent a setback for all sections of the British working class.
The antics of the Labour encers prevent the setting up of an Assembly feed British nationalism and will help the Tories in their aim of strengthening the centralised British state. British state.
In Scotland, where thirds of working ciass voters are estimated to have voted for decisions of nee abenr decisions government and the Labour Party in Scotland are sowing disillusion in the organisations of the labour movement. and at the same time threatening the unity of working class.
least, precedent has been created by the acceptance of the 40 per cent rule.
Would it be surprising if the Tories attempt to legislate for a 40 or 50 per cent vote in favour of strike action from a union's total membership before such action could be taken?
The Scottish working class, in their majority, Assembly as exercise more direct control over the institutions British state in Scotland, and to a limited extent to begin to overcome the problems they experience.
This was explosive for the ruling class, who through sections of the mass and the British Industry weighed in for a No vote. other in the Now the Tory and Liberal parties — in spite of the latter's long-standing commitment to a federated British state lalllal parliamentary Labour winds its way into in the coming month, one thing is certain: the interests of Scottish working people are not at heart, The devolution issue is settled manoeuvres