The old traditions of the Labour Party in rosition, we are witnessing now an attempted 1 to the left. Just as we found Labour leaders rosing the war in Vietnam before they came ›ower, so we find them now trying to find an e on which can take a left face. But this time y have found difficulty in deceiving the ith. Even when Stewart attacked the proed arms sales to South Africa nobody could ly take him seriously. After all, was it not man, as Foreign Secretary, who supported American aggressors in Vietnam? Was it not man who cynically supplied guns to Nigeria? i it not this very Michael Stewart who plied third parties with British arms for xport to South Africa? Young people would quite justified in thinking that the aspirations routh to the freedem and development of colonial world is trampled on as much by Labour as by the Conservative Tories. Even on the question of South Africa, where le people thought that there could be a real arisation between the parties, we saw Labour apromised even before they started. Indeed actions of the Tory government so far have y been continuations of Labour policy. In dock strike Labour supported the Tories in ir plans to occupy the docks militarily, but re interesting than this, the arch-reactionary Iday Express was able to start a Red Scare the strike on the basis of Wilson's witch-hunt he Seaman's strike of 1966.
This same process can be seen in the Tory tude to Ireland and radicalised sectors of the ›ulation generally. Young militants might be raged by the Army repression in the North reland, but they must remember that it was Labour government that sent the troops in. ry are outraged by the Tory scaremongering vut Black Power but it was the Labour vernment which made this possible by their ist attacks on the right of the Kenyan Asians I their imprisonment of black militants under ir Race Relations Act.
UCATION can see this all extremely clearly in a field in ich all young people have a deep concern. :ducation we can really see the sham argunts of those who pretend that the new ernment presents us with the probability "classroom counter-revolution". In fact this might be an opportune moment to ask these people precisely what gives them the illusion that a classroom revolution ever took place under Labour. Perhaps these people were in fact taken in by Labour's egalitarian phrasemongering on comprehensive schools. Do they really think that even if Labour's plans were revolutionary they could carry out their revolution without laying a finger on the public Schools?
But what was the reality of Labour's plans? It is true that they were a reaction to the crying need of British industry for a rationalised system to educate their workers. But did these people think that equality in education was a necessary part of this rationalisation? Not at all! The so-called comprehensivation of education did nothing for the slum schools which acomocae tie oseaueaenaecr privileged members of society. Neither did they impinge on the privileges of the upper strata of SOCICLy Comprehensivation may well have provided an increased pool of skilled workers, but as a step towards breaking the privileges of the minority it was not even a beginning. Those members and supporters of the Labour Party who rightly condemn Tony Thatcher's educational proposals should remember that it was their party which laid the groundwork for this.
The same is true for the higher and further sectors of education. It was the Labour government which made most intense the division in the binary system and it was a Labour Department of Education and Science which made the most far-reaching proposals to fragment students and avert militancy. They have made a concerted attack on the standard of living of students, and legislated a discriminatory policy against foreign students.
What then determines the policies which affect the lives of young people? Il the determining factor does not lie in the sham fight in Parliament, where must young people look?
YOUNG WORKERS More and more young people are beginning to understand that it is the bosses and the bureaucrats who stand in the way of the hopes and aspirations of the youth.
If you look at the position of young workers, especially apprentices, you see the truth of this understanding. First of all this group is extremely badly paid even by the standard of "adult" workers. Not only is it exploited in this way but apprentices are more often than not used to do adult work and denied an education in the trade. When they go to college they are regimented and denied education except in that minimal area from which their bosses can make a profit.
This is not something which is changed by Parliamentary manoeuvres. It is something which depends on the balance of class forces. It is when the apprentices organise themselves that they can make gains. And here the role of the trade union bureaucracies really shows itself. The unions traditionally have capitulated to the bosses on the question of the rights of young workers. Even the so-called "left" trade union leaders have a bad record on this question. Nowhere have they joined battle with the employers to ensure the basic right of trade union organisation tor apprentices. Nowhere do they lead a campaign for the right of apprentices to strike. It is therefore necessary for young workers and apprentices to realise that it is by their self-activity that they can make gains. They can have no trust in the Labour Party or in the trade union bureaucracies, even of the Scanlon/Jones type.
This is an area where young people can take a leaf out of the book of the dockers. All the time the bureaucrats were attempting to find an agreement with the bosses and attempting to patch up some sort of a shabby compromise. The Labour Party even acquiesced in the Tory plans militarily to occupy the docks. It was only the self-activity and rank-and-file organisation of the dockers which enabled them to gain any concession from the employers. REPRESSION But the period in which we find ourselves is one in which we see a mounting offensive by the ruling class. Their introduction of Measured Day Work and productivity dealing was not only intended to increase productivity but, more importantly, to break the power of shop-floor organisahon The moves towards the Common Market are also to be seen as a "rationalisation" of capitalism at the expense of the workers. And the capitalists are now testing out the means of repression they will use in their showdown with a confident and militant working class.
It is in this light that one can understand the imprisonment of Bernadette Devlin and other Irish militants. The bourgeoisie was testing the response of a weak group to ascertain the level of the reaction of the working class when the government brings in its new measures. This is why the repression against black militants and students has been intensified. It is a preliminary test before the Tories take up the attacks of the Labour government on the whole working-class movement.
At present we are going through a tense period. The working class movement has made big gains over the last few years. Unionised workers, for instance, have made big gains in wage levels. They are becoming used to victory to the extent that it now makes claims far in excess of those which would have been possible five years ago. In the struggle for wages, the working class was gaining the upper hand. Now, in a period of economic crisis, with the fear of an American recession behind every move of the ruling class, they are flexing their muscles for the fight to enter the Common Market and remain "competitive.
WHY THE SPARTACUS LEAGUE This repression is what young people can expect from the Tories. It is the self-activity of the working class which poses the only effective counterweight to their plans. The young people who, since the May events in France have shown themselves to be at the head of the movement, can place no trust in the Labour or trade union bureaucracies.
We must strive to build our own organisations. One of these organisations is the Spartacus League. It is a revolutionary Marxist youth organisation which supports the struggle against capitalism and tries to organise militant young workers and students together under one banner. That is why if we are serious about revolutionary politics, if we oppose the policies of Tweedledum Wilson and Tweedledee Heath, we have to get together to map out an alternative course. The Spartacus League is only the beginning of the process... Gerald Hitman