The policies of the Communist Party are really going to be put to the test in the coming struggles. The CP is the main organised leftwing force in the trade unions. If it took up the right policies, the effect would be enormous. Unfortunately, however, apart from its many wrong positions on international questions such as democracy in the USSR and so on, the politics of the CP cannot provide an answer to the present situation. They are wrong on three vital issues.
On the question of the gerieral strike and the Tory government the position of the Communist Party is false and contradictory. On the one hand they correctly point out the reactionary nature of the Heath government. The Morning Star on 17 November said "Heath's government is'a disaster for the British people. It is savagely attacking the living standard of all workers and pensioners. It is a threat to democracy, moving more and more to dictatorial rule." If this is the case then clearly the Tory government nust be got rid of at once by all meuns possible. But the CP avoids the crucial question of how this is to be done. Sometimes it appears to come close tu facing this problem. Herl Ramelson at the CP Congress called for a special TUC to organise a mass confrontation that would bring down the government as well as its policies. In his pamphlet Car's Bit and How to Kill Ir