the torturers.
This radicalism promise of the technological revolution' promise was made.
DEtweEn, banner of equality. clection slogan, cautious moderation, leadersbip, And yet Britain today is more in need make the point.
workers earning less than they Thus the otherwise be same period million people continue to depend o Today more than applementary benefits to survive Teverse, Margaret Labour necessary lo spend agreed since 1975.
Socialist Challenge 1 May 1979 Page 8 the death-dealers, the bomb-droppers, reward the biggest wreckers of them all: have a competition as to who can best of the major political parties in Britain before. In 1964 there was the youthful compared with others which have gone clection campaign be Get Things Done' and holding out the demanding Let's Go with Labour and of Harold wilson, even ten years later we had Denis Idealism was all the rage then. And White neal of the pronouncements about the need for a fair society have been few and far monarchy.
Thatcher has pinned their colours to the and neither Callaghan nor The Tories do not even have an while Callaghan's point has no-change conservatism of the party is that the economy will operate on the the plodding number of full-time "mixed coonomy. entitled control and who work for thems.
Charche providing jobs, on better hospitals, or the productive process. They millions why it in to do workers jobs.
HELP BUILD THE LEFT IN THE UNIONS.
Labour which party will improve things, mess. They are arguing not so much until their pips squeak". Only the naive out of the country, that women should threatened with major reverses, non-white immigrants should be kept decisions that affect them. Ireland, that Scottish and Welsh people shouldn't exercise genine control over that British in NATO and the Common Market, They equally share a consensus that continue to spend billions of pounds a year on defence, that Britain should be minimum, that services should he restricied to a bare shouldn't apply to profits, that public be severely limited, leaders all believe that wage rises should death dealers is just one of them. certain basic things. Higher pay for the The Labour, That's because they all agree about troops should stay in Tory and Liberal country should that And they all seck to preserve the sanctity of the family, parental control. The list is endless. But by now the the House of Lords, the within the same framework, they ail Tory and Liberal leaders all work been made. The Labour, Those rules are quite simpie. Rule one basis of free enterprise. Labour is supposed to oppose this by the stare so as 10 service extraction of private profit. means that some industries bave been nationalised. But in fact these are run Rale two is that those who own. The 'mixed" the niust be placed, and thie army is brought judges decree where those picket lines police are used to break up picker lines. exists to back this up. Where necessary, means restricting the rights of those must be afforded protection, production, distribution and exchange A powerful apperatus based on force miurage the means of Which These basic rules don't just apply to thems. Now they don't. So immigration controls are tighrened up more and after the war because the bosses needed grants were encouraged to come here seen at work in all areas of society. Take racism. Commonwealh inmi- can be hands The somewhat soured in game isself and larger numbers. more 'law and order' is necessary, that Britain is ole — it has been unable to the same southern Africa, Tran - imperialison is Cuba - have been taken out of the capitatist market. In other areas - Eastern Emope, China, different. Huge chunks of the world - capitalism. isolated, the world seemingly saved for culminating in the Second World War, defeats — in Germany, Spain, cic. coralled back by a series Today socialist infection had the situation working And in its heartlands happens afterwards. But the future will be decided by what with is leaders when they are in office. class is better placed to settle accounts should bereturned because the working malters that a Labour make mach difference to the faruse. li Interests. insist that society is shaped in their organising togerber, working togerber, arguing togerher, fighting together, to voting every five years So what happens on 1 May won't complaining, by writing letters, or bs they can make it all the same. Not by Society they wauld like to live in. they given a choice as to whar kind of sickness. Volers are asked perhaps ten times in their liver to choose which politicians to distrust less. Never are They are not given that choice, bur believe a rebash of Heath's promise 1o "out prices at a stroke Labour"? Who would he prepared to thinner. scriously the slogan 'back to work with Gencra) profit driven system effective again. working class which it needs to make its inflict the shattering defeats on the So the magic solutions wear even Who today government inadequate one, of socialism. delinition, and by to wrest control of society out of the power themselves. And that is on continuing struggle of working people presently profit from i: and take the of the small minurity crucial factor will be the ло means who What's happened is that those who are has become supposed to be passive spectators have recent Years, of major was been 15 rather Indochina, - oF which could take sum up this but by THE main fealure of government — at least in the eves of the the the Labour ang
mandard of living for everyone. But that the country can't afford a decent depth of the econontic crisis as "proof" REFORMISTS of all stripes use the radical change if conscious socialists
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applementary benefits increased fro 30,000 in 1974 to 290,000 in 1976. Th number living below the poverty lim leapt from 260,000 to 890,000 in the
But such statistics have not figured * the clection campaien. Quite th
screamed from the rooftops about the Rebor that put expenditure a
on improvoid education facitities. Its unwillingness to take up such issues ishardly surprising. After all, the Labour goverament itself has taken 18,000 million out of public spending
Healey promising to 'squeeze the rich probably believed him, but at least the not have the right to free abortion, that This clection campaign has seen nuclear weapons and nuclear power nothing like that. Even the ritualistic stations are essential.
April made that point only too brutally. But if these are the rules that the Tory, Labour and Liberal leaders play
been spilling outo the pitch in larger After the Rassian revolution the