vantage of the bourgeoise's own interests in the - strands: how racism also operates to the disadsense that it creates further tensions within the system. An analogy is State supported religious sectarianism in the North of Ireland. Thus from the point of view of the bourgeoisie this certainly weakens the working class but on the other hand it (a) is a waste of Catholic labour resources (b) provokes an armed uprising by the Catholic community; (c) is liable at the first sign of forced concessions to the catholics to provoke a potentially violent backlash involving Protestant workers who have been brought up and bought off on the superexploitation of the catholic working class. In other words the bourgeoisie in its need to perpetually divide the working masses also creates problems for itself-and problems which it is forced to face up to. In Ireland these contradictions are today so huge that the ruling class has had to unleash its most basic weaponphysical force-to contain them. As regards racism within the U.K. itself, where the contradictions have not yet reached such proportions, more subtle' ways are used to try and contain jhem. This as was argued in The Red Mole 41 is the reason for the existence of such independent' bodies as the Runnymede Trust and the Institute of Race Relations.
THE STATE MACHINERY However the main supporter of the race relaThere are those bodies which are not primarily concerned with blacks but are frequently used to spy on them. For instance this is the point of the Department of Employment and Productivity's circular 12/508, (Nov. 1970), which ordered local employment exchanges to enumerate the number of immigrant unemployed (for immigrant read "black' because those from the white Commonwealth were deliberately excluded).Jt isof obvious value to a government which has introduced an Immigration Act in order to terrorise blacks with the threat of deportation if they tact contrary to the public good", to know the number of potential black scabs they have at their disposal. In other words, 12/508 should be read in conjunction with the Immigration Act and the Industrial Relations Act. It should not be forgotten that many ummigrant workers who were involved in the events of May 1968 in France were afterwards deported.2 Another strand of the State machinery contains those bodies whose only role is to spy on blacks. An example of this is the Commonwealth Immigrants Advisory Commission set up at the time of the first Commonwealth Immigrants Act in 1968 as a sop to liberals to review' the situation. The attitude of the C.I.A.C. can best be seen in respect to education in its second report. Thus-"a national system cansmash black culture. 3. A third strand of the State machinery are those bodies which have been set up to deal directly with the public and in particular with blacks precisely to diffuse their militancy. One example of this is the Community Relations Council and its local Community Relations Officers set up under the 1965 Race Relations Act. One of the pre-occupations of this body seems to be persuading blacks that the police are their friends from birth and that they should even join the police.3 However the most well-known and the most vicious of these organisations is the Race Relations Board which was set up under the 1965 Act. Two points have to be made about this Act. Firstly, for the first time it made it a criminal offence to incite racial hatred. The end result of this has been that no Powellite or fascist or any sort of racist has been found guilty of this offence only two have ever been prosecuted). The only people found guilty of this offence have been black militants. Secondly, it was made a civil offence to discriminate against someone on racial grounds (though with fantastically wide exceptions). The role of the Race Relations Board is supposedly to investigate such discrimination, try to resolve it (by apology!) and if it is not resolved take the discriminator to court. It is true that the board has discovered a few (a very tew) acts of discrimination-if it hadn't it would have no political role to play in diffusing the situation. However in all cases where the interests of the government or of big business have been at stake it has backed down. The way the Board works is perhaps best seen in the accusagiven for not employing him were: (a) the age limit of 40 (he was 38); and (b) that the interviewer did not have time to check whether his two M.A.s and his law degree from Lucknow University were equivalent to live "O" levels.
OPEN RACISM It can be seen from the above examples that the State machinery has not got a uniform role-indeed it has a conflicting role. On the one hand the purpose of institutions such as the Race Relations Board is to diffuse discontent and militancy provoked by racism. Yet on the other hand the purpose of circular 12/508 and a lot of the other spying network is actually to promote racism. Indeed it should not be forgotten that behind the liberal facade of the Race Relations Board, etc., there is also machinery to administer that legislation which is openly racist. Thus the Immigration Acts of 1962 and 1968 have created a whole caste of Immigration Officers and Immigration Tribunals whose sole purpose is to keep blacks out. And similar machinery will soon have to be erected to implement the 1971 Act, whose aim is to terrorise blacks already here. Steve Cohen NOTES: 1. Sheffield Telegraph, 16 November, 1970. 2. International Commission of Jurists Review, September 1969. 3. See statement of Wandsworth's Community Relations Officer, Evening Standar 20 March, 1972. 4. Race Today, October, 1971.
HOUR OF THE FURNACES In Argentina, as in the rest of Latin Amenca, to the problems of the working masses. in particular, illusions in a peaceful return to power by Peron, which he is at present attempting to manoeuvre. Unfortunately a much-acclaimed film which was shown in London at the recent Third World Cinema festival and is shortly to be shown again does much to perpetuate these illusions about Peronism as a popular movement.
La Hora de los Hornos (The Ho ur of the Furnaces) gives us no real analysis of the forces which dominated the political stage betyeen 1945 and 1955 in Argentina. This four-and-a-half-hour film, divided into three parts, is an attempt at both a political analysis of the dependence of the Latin American peoples on foreign imperialism, and the forging of future perspectives for the liberation struggle in Argentina particularly. There is no doubt that its form is revolutionary and innovatory, in the sense that it provides breaks in the film for discussion, is open-ended allowing for "new testimonies of combatants , and uses collage techniques mixing interviews, documentary newsreels of particular struggles and speeches with political analysis. Neocolonialism and Violence', the first part, dedicated to "Che Guevara and all the patriots who fell in the struggle for Indo-American liberation", grasps the very essence of the economic and cultural dependence from which Latin America suffers and stands as a brilliant work of art as well as a political weapon.
Despite these strengths, however, the analysis provided by Fernando Solanas and his Film Liberation Group from Buenos Aires of the decade of Peronist power betwicen 1945 and 1955 leaves one with the impression that they still cling to Peronist ideals and still put their faith in the existing Peronist organisations. Peron for instance, is presented simply as a popular leader of the working masses, rather than as a figurehead for the Argentine industrialists who used the working class movement as a stick to beat the more neactionary oligarchy consisting of church and army This grave weakness in the fim is compounded by the knowledge that it has already been shown underground throughout Latin America, as well as in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, the film does provide many valuable and absorbing insights into the developing liberation struggle in Latin America, and its open-ended form Murderous Providence: A Study of Pollution in Industrial Society Hart-Davis, £2.95)
The question of pollution and the so-called eco-crisis is one that has been largely ignored by the left, who have dismissed it with such banalities as "it'll be solved after the revolution". This is a totally incorrect position for Leninists to take. Firstly, the legacy of industrial pollution is one that will be carried over into a future socialist society so that any moves to prevent the gradual worsening of the situation now must be supported. Secondly by an adequate analysis and programme relating to the oppression of capitalist pollution, we could almost certainly attract sections of the millions of people who have mobilised on a reformist platform, to fight the increasing worsening of pollution.
Rothman's book goes some way to correct this ignorance on the left and to provide a preliminary analysis revolutionaries can draw on in beginning to form such a programme.
Rothman is no optimistic, technologyworshipping Micawber or a moaning. fatalistic Jeremiah, but a revolutionary Marxist and as such he relates the problem of pollution and the supposed problem of the "population explosion" to the current state of capitalist organisation of the means of production - man's means of interacting with nature to satisfy his needs. His thesis is summed up early in the book: ". whilst our technologies have advanced in power, they have increased our capacity to produce unintended effects... in fact the socio-economic structure of our society produces social groups which consciously fight against the socially rational use of technology." (p. 24)
In fact, maintains Rothman, an unplanned capitalist economy in which competition and the need to accumulate profits in the short term are central, will produce yet more and more oppressive and polluting side-effects.
The first section of the book deals with the growth of life and energy and consciousness on the earth's surface and the complex totality of energy-flows, which comprise the biosphere. Science has become so fragmented and specialised that it is unable to see the whole for the parts and therefore is incapable of arriving at a total view of man and the effect of his productive activities on nature: "The enormous potential for change in modern technology makes it imperative that a scientific discipline competent at the biosphere level be developed... Ecology is misuse of technology, as produced by an unplanned capitalist economy. There is also a section on the incapacity of the legal framework of capitalism to limit pollution, because to do so would entail an attack on the private property relations which bourg cous law defends and on which such, law is based. The Marxist conception of the state is here implicit in Rothman's argument, though he doesn't state it clearly. Reformists believe that the law can control the excesses of capitalism, bècause they see the state apparatus as a neutral arbiter between groups of people, for the "common good". In fact the State and its law functions to maintain a particular class-structure, which is itself at the root of the pollution crisis, so can not be used to attack that structure in any radical way. Any reforms are only desperate responses to specific crises which threaten capitalism, rather than longterm, planned control.
In the last section Rothman faces squarely the question of "Social Reform or Revolution'" and points out the total incapacity of capitalism as a form of economic and social organisation to solve these problems. Where the maximising of private profit is the driving force of industry and where pollutioncontrol costs money and lowers profits, firms cannot afford to implement them. Even capitalists with "a social conscience" can do nothing, for immediately they finance pollution-control, their profit-margins are lowered and they cease to compete with their rivals.
The important question for us is that of the specific ideas revolutionaries should be explaining in connection with this form of oppr ession. Rothman doesn't have a great deal to say on this, but active Leninists can begin to formulate some preliminary propaganda and agitation from his analysis. One aspect of this contradiction, brought out by Rothman, which is usually glossed over by the "we're all in the same boat" school of analysis, is the essentially class nature of pollution - the fact that it oppresses the working class, especially in the factories ( and ironically in agriculture, with the increase of poisonous pesticides) more than other classes of society. Therefore we should attempt to explain ideas about the nature of this specific oppression to all sectors of society and how the total economic and social organisation of capitalist society is responsible, not individual bosses.
Secondly, we must take into account the response of the ruling-class to the increasing clamour for pollution-control, as outlined by Rothman. This will take the form of blaming the workers for demanding more material goods ( the "greed" denounced recently by Sir Alec Douglas-Home and others), and attempts to alleviate the problem at the expense of the working-class - red und ancies to cut costs (the elimination of lead-additives from petrol in the USA, a very necessary measure, will mean the loss of 10,000 jobs in the lead-industry), increased prices, state intervention in the form of increased taxes to pay for pollution-control and the encouragement of voluntary organisations to fight pollution.
It is clear that revolutionary socialists must get over the essential idea that the working class should take no responsibility for the alleviation of this problem created by the ruling-class. Neither should they accept a lower standard of living to help capitalism through the crisis. However they should fight for the right of information and veto on any changes of plant or industrial process which might conceivably increase the deterioration of their environment, inside or outside the factory. This would involve one of the demands Rothman raises - an end to secrecy and the opening of industry's books.
Any programme relating to pollution as an oppressive element of capitalism must also face the problem of the Third World, the over-exploited and under-industrialised countries. How can such countries afford to industrialise cleanly when the betterendowed advanced capitalist nations find the implementation of anti-pollution measures so difficult?
To end with a quotation from Rothman, which sums up the long-term strategy of revolutionaries in relation to this aspect of the crisis of capitalism: "It is in the struggle for such demands that conservationists will become conscious of the true nature of the system they are attempting to alter.... In the light of such possibilities one can expect increasing numbers of anti-pollutionists and conservationists to proclaim that their goal can only be achieved by far-reaching political changes rather than the present perpetual tinkering with the existing system. It is only because of this newly awakening consciousness that we can look to the future with any hope." (pp. 319,322) Carl Gardner SOCIAL SECURITY A pamphlet on the Social Security system, incorporating the latest experiences of the working class in the Manchester sit-ins, is now available from IMG Publications, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.l.
This pamphlet is a useful handbook for all militants needing practical advice on how to claim etc.
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one of the key tasks for revolutionaries is to combat illusions about "democratic solutions