DEA When Nixon bypassed the House and the Senate, where the various political blocs and lobbies have traditionally contended for political favour, he made the White House itself the sole effective interface between his regrouped political interests and state power. This inevitably meant that the power braking conducted on behalf of ITT, the Milk Lobby, the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa, etc, which have always been a normal part of American politics, became the exclusive prerogative of the President's Office, When small leaks occurred and mistakes were made, and curious reporters began to follow up leads, Nixon reacted by withdrawing and surrounding himself with aides who cut off channels of communication with other bodies of government and with the Republican Party machineand conducted more and more of the powerbroking themselves.
It is to this that the bourgeois press refera when they talk constantly of Nixon's 'isclation" Without the Republican Party as a channel and mediator of pressure from various sectors of the bourgeoisie, the politically partisan exercise of state power by Nixon and Co. became naked and direct. The necessary leeway required by the State in order to function on behalf of the bourgeois class as a whole was eliminated. The remarkably crude appearance of the deals Nixon made on behalf of various corporate interests is a result of their direct nature. With WINCHESTER PRISONERS: Picket Irish Embessy, 8 pm Friday 11 January to demand Free State support for their repatriation; picket Wormwood Scrubs prison, 3 pm Sunday 20 January, marching from rally at Speakers Corner aT 2.30 pm to Home Office in Whitehall. Further Bob Purdie 01-837 6954. 'CRITIQUE' SEMINAR: Jan Kauan on The Legacy of Crechosiovakia'. Friday 18 January, 7.30 pm in Room S175, St Clements Building, LSE. LONDON RED FORUMS: New series begins the Tuesday 15 January, Bpmin the General Picton pub, Caledonian Road, 5 mins Kings X tube, This week: What is Imperialism' society, and led to mass radicalisation among white youth and sections of the petty bourgeoisie."
and rules in the interests of capital as a whole...
past presidents, these political favours were handled through Party channels and kept at arm's length to protect the President. Not so with Nixon. Without using the Party as a buffer he would often phone the head of a State department and order him explicitly to drop the ITT case' or whatever, It was only a matter of time before this type of direct power-broking would backfire.
STRONG STATE Of course, there can be a rationale for concentrating political power in the executive. Its efficiency, speed, and directness can often work to the advantage of the nation's bourgeoisie. This strong state formula of political rule is often a suitable accompaniment to the economic concentration and centralisation of capital on a national scale. De Gaulle's regime in France was a case study in the exercise of efficient executive power, while the French Pariament was relegated to rubber-stamping his decrees. But the strong state has its dangers. Its stability is dependent upon a President who remains above contending factions of the bourgeoise and rules in the interests of national capital as a whole. While De Gaulle was able to do this; Nixon obviously is not. Nixon is a narrowly partisan politician who uses the state against his bourgeois enemies. This is precisely why the revelations of Watergate were political dynamite, fracturing his grand political regroupment into squabbling pieces. Nixon is now left, one short "SANITY, MADNESS & THE FAMILY': Northwood, Harrow and Ruist p Socialist Woman Group forum, Monday 14 January at 8 proar Baptist Church, College Road, Harrow, For further information, phone Sue at 01-B83 2294.
AGAINST RACISM & FASCISM: Area campaign (Kingston Richmond Twickenham) public meeting, Speakers: Mike Cooley (TASS), Stevan Hase Jake Bharier Kingston LPi, Steve Lynch (G&MI. Surbitan Assembly Roome (5 mins from Sarbiton stationi, 7,45 pm, Friday 18 January: "THE POST-WAR WAR: Slide show telling how Amer can involvement in Vietnam has changed over the last year Monday 21 January ar 7,30 pm in Room S101A, St Clemens Bailding, London School of. Economics, Houghton Street. Drainised of the ruling class. GLOBAL CONTEXT new low. /Old Mole, Clumber St Lane).
Stockholm, Swiden.
Fares in Ireland. year after his unprecedented electoral triumph, devoid of support froit any significant sector The implications of Nixon's domestio isolation at this time are seen when this crisis is situated within the world political context. It is clear Protestants that the class struggle is intensifying on a global scale and the stability of world political alignments are extremely fragile. In the last two months open class war has broken out in Chile and civil war is imminent in Argentina and possible in Spain. Thailand and Greece have seen student explosions which obtained working class support and forced alterations in both regimes. The Vietnamese ceasefire is collapsing and in Cambodia the Lon Nol regime hangs on to power by a thread. The Middle East came close to burying the Soviet-US detente, and Nixon felt compelled to flex his naclear trigger finger in a show of strength. Under the pressure af the Arab oil embargo inter-imperialist rivalry has reached a new height, as BEC countries and Japan have both differentiated themselves strongly from US policy in the Middle East. The apshot of this heightened global turmoil for Eichard Nixon is that has extreme domestic weakneas cuts his international authority to a WALLY SECCOMBE BRET SMILEY NOTTINGHAM RED CIRCLES: Woeranging series of discussions besed on the politics of the Fourth International. Every: 2nd and 4th Tuesday in the month at 8 pm in the Lion Hotel, TARIG ALl on 'The Way Forward for the Working Class, Wednesday 16 January at 2,30 pm in Tottenham Cammunity Centre, 628 Tottenham High Road between Bruce Gove and Lordship BENGALI FRIENDS in Europe and elsewhere, contact: Bengali, Mulivaden, Box 3274, 10365 "THE IRISH TRAGEDY: Scotland's Disgrace". Pamphler by John MacLean reprinted by Central London AiL a crunchion with troops Lui Movement. Available price 12p plus p&p from HED BOOKS, 24 Boundary Rosd, London NWVe JAMES CONNOLLY: SELECTED WRITINGS Ed. P. Berresford Ellis (Penguin, 50p) and With the resurgence of the Irish revolution, much critical appreciation has centred on the greatest of Ireland's Merxist thinkers, James Cannolly, who wer executed by the British after the Easter Fusing in 1918. Unfortunately his longer works have only beer available in fragmented, small-edition pamphlets and his shorter works, in easily available paperback colinc tions, are therefore very wilcome and should be devoured eagerly by all socialists wishing to under stand the comples problems confronting revolution On the whole the Penguin collection Is the best value, certainty looked at in financial terms. It has a more Ty-roundes Irocut Conor 318 on politics and ends with an index of names, which is a sad amission in the Cape coilection. Both collections however, contain his classie Labour, Nationality and Religion' essay, but the Cape selection on the whole tends to stress the strong syndicalist strain in Berrestord Ellis, more in tune with the immediata needs of the class-struggle in Ireland, stresses the problems of pertision and Connolly's writings on revolutionary warfare and physical toree in politics which is really what glues the Penguin collection its CHEMORIOTOCO CUTERS CARL GARDNER POLITICAL MURDER IN NORTHERN IRELAND, by Martin Dillon and Denis Lehane (Penguin Special, 45p)
Dillon and Lahane, Two journalists working or The Beifast Telegraph, describe the assassinations in the Six Counties over the last couple of years, and on the wale its a book which shodid be raRd with caution. The authors, being trained journalists, have anticipated establishment reaction The end af the book has three chapters on The Killers' 'Killers I!| tha IRA, lists as sectarian killings the executions by the Provos of spies, Informers, a UDA man caught with a gun in his hand in a Catholic block of flats at 3 am and thras soldiers who happened to be Killers |I|l, the Protestants, contains much original documentation on the Orange Black Hundreds assaination gangs. This chapter aione makes the book worth reeding. Killers [Ill acknowledges some British Army assassinations-co be exact, the pnes whish the British Army has itself already acknowledged! The authors admit that the Cathalic com munity believe Not just thet the British Army his been involved in the assassination campaign, but that it has been responsible for the bulk of the killings on artner sice, but wisea and benare casin only two deaths out of over 200 can be catngoricaliy laid at the door of the Army These different findings are explained very simply: two different methods are used to arrive at the facts. When dealing with the IRA, it is enough that some bady said, or the Army thinks, or the police believe and Thereatter our gallant heroes in effect demand thei the evidence prove the IRA Innocent, In the case of the British Army, untess the Army hes admitted thet they shot the person concamed, they are assumed GERY LAWLESS INTERNMENT, by John McGuffin (Anvil Books, 75p)
John McGuffin's book is a surprisingly welf-researched study of the policy and the fuchs of ihternment in Northern Ireland, It is absolutely essential reading for all activists on the Irish question, and should figure on every left-wing bookshelf Having said this, it is all the more regrectable that the authar, formeriy a leading member of the Peopie's Democracy, could not resist bitchy attacks or individuals in the anti-imperialist movement with whorn he has canned in the past. For exampie, Sean Mac Stolen has pointed out (rish Times, 27.7.73) that, contrary to the claim made by Meduffin, he did not recognise the Free State court. The digs at Seamus Tworney and the whole reference to the bombings in Belfast on so-called "Blaody Friday' show a tremendous willingness to accept the official British side ol the story, which enables the author to hit siyly at people he doesn't fike. And for the record, the author or this review never signos outor the curragh, on legal advice or orherwise.
These unfortunate sips and inaccuracies apert, the informstion in this bock should be used bu all activists fighting for the self-determination of the Irish people and the end to the appression of Ireland by British imperialism, of which internment is just one sordid symprom.
GERY LAWLESS Red Weekly 11 January 1974 Page 9
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against his bourgeois enemies' WHAT'S ON
JAMES CONNOLLY: SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS Ed. Edwards & Ransom Jonathan Cape, Writings of the Left series, £2.25p