The national student organiser of the National Front and four henchmen were thrown out of a conference organised by the Campaign on Rueism, 1Q, and the Class Society. in London on Saturday.
But this decision was taken after a narrow majority of the 250 particip ants-a large proportion of them sociologists, educational psychologists, and teachers-bad voted in favour of letting the fascists speak.
Michael Iraane, champion of purticipston by teachers and pupils in ruaning schools, and several other members of the audience argued that to deny the for diste Tree specch" was to Stoop to their Jevul and the canterence sould let theim condemon themselves.
Tas was seenonusly opposed by ING members and ocher militents, who made it plain that they had no intention of extending 'Ince speech", which the workers' movement had taught for, to those who would deprive the workers" moverent of it. They explained bow the fascists had res ponded to racet strikes by black and Asian workers.
When, after a few rowdy minutes, tbe absurdity of discussing recism in the presense of fascists had become apparent, and half a dozen of the audience had aiready left the hall in disgust, the confurcode agrod to eject the scum, ood of whom turned to proclaim: "Long live the purity of che Angio-Saxon race.
However, although the conference had cartier heen split on the demand of no Platform for fascists, when IMG member Stuart Madewell proposed in the cinsing session that no fascists should be tolerated at future octings, there were only six votes against.
Thie conference itself was the beginning of'a campaien to expos the "sicotilie" racialism behind the theories propuanded lay that blacks, Asians, the trish and just abeur everyone cise ane intellectually interor to white Anglo-Saruns, thanks to the fatters abundant supply of higher order bones.
This is doosed up in claborato statis tical charts of 1Q performance, which have already been used as a justification for dumping thousands of West Indian chisdton into schools for the educationally subnormul", and led suce scientists to call for selective breeding. such topics as geneties and racial myths. EN schools, and the class nature of the education system. The campaign aims to reach all chose insolvod in educational lesting and assogment, particularty roachers themselves, and plans to mount att offensive against all forms of selectios and control inherent in tho @ducation system A meerine to deride on serine crowni the conquiem wil he hrld on Wednesday. 3 pel, at 7,30 par be ate Corway Hall, Red lion Sonare, Holtom, Detals of she campaien, cia SSRSS, 9 Poland Si, Lonion IT.
action.
Workshops at the conference discussed not bother to participate.
receive a prison sentence.
Phase 3 has not been repealed. Unemployment is rising. The Shrewsbury lads are still in jail. No proposals for immediate equal pay tor women are being put forward. The fines extracted by the Industrial Relations Court are not being repaid. The rent rises already imposed under the Housing Finance Act are not being repealed. The Clay Cross councillors have not been reinstated. Prices continue to scar.
Worst of all, Labour is putting forward no plan to take over the capitalst lums which dominate the economy. Even the plan to nationalise North Sea oil has been dropped. Without a plan to break capitalist domination of the coonomy, no matter what short term manocuvres it may take, the Labour Government will inevitable be forced to carry our vicious anti-working class measures.
Behind the protection of labour's refusal to act against capitalism, the employing class is preparing its coun ter offensive, Price increases will be running at 15% over the next year. The 1,700 workers sacked by the Scorrish Daily Express are just the first of the million who will be on the dole queue by the winter. House building is plummeting. The vicious police attacks on students at Essex University show what is in store tor the working class.
By first launching attacks against individual sections of the working class, and against other oppressed ist class believes it can create an atmosphere of demoralisation and defeat. The inactivity and reformism of Labour will provide a cover for this attack. When this demoralisation has been achieved then the Labour Government can casily be got rid of, and a new, openly anti-working class Tory Government put in its place. (Even better for the employers, perhaps the working class can he so severely defeated that the Labour leaders will no longer he afraid of entering an anti-working class coalition Government.)
At present the working class a t00 strong for any Government to use repressive laws such as the Industrial Relations Act or the Incomes Policy If Labour tried to use them it would discredit itself very rapidly. victories for the working class. But big victories have been won before and wasted, because they were not followed up. If it had its way, Labour would waste this latest working class victory as well. The Labour Government is not preparing any real moves to deal with the cause and effects of the capitalist economic crisis, The rents freeze, the promised pensions increase and the order to cut food profits are all useful. But they are mere drops in the ocean.
capitalists and their agents are in a position to launch anti-working class Thousands of employors will create unemployment, The police will be Judges will be dragging up still more anti-working class laws, College autorstudents. Racists, fascists and the police will keep up their attacks on black people. Reactionaries of all sorts will try to deprive women of even the limited rights to abortion and contraception which they have now. The uxe of private scab forces against workers will increase.
Against all these attacks the Labour Party and the present trade union leadership will provide no protection. On the contrary, as in the case of Shrewsbury and Clay Cross, it will be trade union and Labour leaders who sabotage the fight back of the working class.
Socialists and revolutionaries have a vital role to play in fighting all these attacks. in particular, four issues stand out as vital ones:
Unemployment: Nothing demoralises the working class so much is sections of the population, the capital- hundreds of thousands of workers on the dole queue. The fight against unemployment is an absolutely central one, In the last economic recession struggles such as those at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders and at the Briants printing factory in Lendon Inspired the fight back against ment.
This time as well, in addition to the Fight for jobs and the fight for full pay for the unemployed, every redundancy must be met with an occupation. Big nation al campaigns, far better organised than that over Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, can he waged round every major fight against redundancy. With Labour in office the demand should go up that every um which creates redundancy should be immedately nationalisco, WisH! 212 pensation, and placed under the manage. ment of the workers Shrewsbury and the picketing conspiracy laws: One of the scandals of this Labour government is that the But tens of thousands of individual building workers imprisoned at Shrews *From the start, the T& GWU district committee and local officials made it bary are still in jail. Labour has not even a fig leaf of an excuse for this. No Act has to he passed through Parliament to release them. One stroke of Home Secretary Ray Jenkins' pen is enough to set them free.
But Labour relies not on the struggle of the working class and its fighters such as the Strewsbary building workers, but on capitaliest laws and Parliament. Labour is terrified to release the Shrewshury Sin because they may have acted "illegally" The working class movement must there Fore fonce their release. Mass action releas od the dockers jailed at Pentonville. The same must he done nos on Shrewshury.
But sot only must the Shreeshun Six be released bar there must never be the possibility of another Shrewsbury. A vital task of the hoar is to force an end to the anti-picketing laws and die conspiracy lams and gain the release of all those imprisoned for trade anion activity. This is in addition to the complete repeal of the Industrial Relations and Incomes Policy Act SELF-DEFENCE Workers" self-defence: Every oppressed section of the popalation is launching vicious attacks on workers, going to come under plysical attack by the capitalist class in the coming months. have already been in action in the last Private thugs were organised by employers against strikers in the Sheffield Telegnaph dispute and at Chryslers. Squatters have heen viciously attacked by the police, Insmigrants have been attacked by the police and by racists and fascists, The police violence against students at Oxford and Essex shows what lies in store here. now is a kep question for every oppresser secrios of the population. The students who resisted the police at Essex, the groups, the workers who have set up picketing pools, the militants who hav broken up fascist and racist attempts to organise, all show the way bere.
The Heath style of open Toryism com pletely failed to convince any section of the working class that it held out any solution to their problems This is one of the chief reason Heath fell from office.
But othc: servants of the capitatest class ane more subtle and dangerous in their approsch.
and the National Frost, try to convince backward sections of the working class Employ- that their problems can he solved by gerous kind of capitalist attack of all.
The racist demagogues have shown a real ability to make some inroads into the working class in the way open Tories on racist Sinies.
revolutionaries and socialists must Clay Cross councillors; the repayabortionists of SPUC. But it is and finally threatening to occupy tant effects. combativity.
Special anti-picket squads of the police Parliament.
The organisarion of physical self defence squatters who have formed mutual defence The racist and fascist threat:
The racists and fascists, such as Powell There.
smashing the blacks This is the most dannever could. Powell's aim is to permanently weaken the working class by splitting it ATTACK.
Of course there are many other for the reversal of the unseating of the ment of the fines levied by the Industiral Relations Court, against Che antiatound the four main questions dealt with abore that the main struggles of the summer must be waged.
The final key problem for the ruling class counter attack is the labour Gosemment. Although this Govemment will carry out anti-working class policies, its existence has impor Millions of workers saw the election of Labour as a real victory. Just as the defeat of the Tories increas Lie confidence and combativity of the working class, the fall from office of Labour would be seen by the mass of the working class as a defeat and would decrease their confidence and For this reason revolutionaries must have a very clear attitude on capitalist attempts to unseal Labour. They must be for maintaining Labour in office-not because of Labour's policies or because of anything Labour does in Parliament, but because of the effoct Labour's fall would have on the struggle ovarside But revolutionaries must point but that Labour can only really be kept in office as an independent government party by what can be done outside Parliament. Any attempt to unseat Labour by the Tories and Liberals should be met with mas strike action.
The German workers bave already sct an example here. When, three years ago, the Christian Democrats, Germany's Tories, tried to turn out struggle the Social Democratic-led Government, engineering workers immedi atcly went out on strike and 80,000 workers participated in mass actions and demonstrations. The Christian Democrats were scared out of their wits and quickly backed off.
Any attempt to witseat Lahour should be dealt with in the same way cannot be an exouse for inaction. The mort dangerour threat facing the But keeping Labour in office decisive struggle from every point of view is that outside fariament. Preventing the unseating of the Labour Government must juar be one aspect of a central campaign to SMASH CAPITALISM'S COUNTER The main obstacle to the Working the capitalist class. The employing class suffered a defeat even with the Tories in office. Nos, with the Tones gone, the ruling class is temporarily without a clear way forwand. All the Individual capitalist attacks could be any wackie m coir actor y relatively easily defeated The main problem which more than ever holds hack the working class is the political spinelessness and retarmism of the Labour and trade union leadership. In 1972 these people wasted the great working class victories of the miners and the relcase of the Pentooville Five, In slead of moving in abd finishing off the Tories then the trade union loaders went quiedy to Downing Street to discuss incomes policy. The resile was a wages freeze and Phases 2 and 3 of the incomes policy, which lasted until the miners once again won a greut victory.
Exactly the same mistakes we being made again now. The employ ers are on the ropes. The minera have smasbed Phase 3. The task now should be to finish off the capiralists by decisive measures such as nationalisation and workers control and by the stepping up of the wages Instead the trade union and Labour leaders are trying to work out some 'social contract within capitalism. this aust means anoice come policy and more anti-working class policies, Meanwhile, the trade won Jeaders use the slopan of don't rock the boat for Labour' to call off any strugele which could exploit the victories over the employers.
The 'social contract is in fact the working class at present.
This deal will not solve a single one of the problems which face the working class. As the capitalist attacks mount this will become rapidly obvious to wide sections of the working class.
Throupbout the summer revolutionaries therefore have two vital tasks.
social contract in reality holds the working class back while the capitalists mount their counter-attack.
Second, revolutionaries have to show the steps which can be taken which break up the social contract and by the management and recruited to
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The fall of the Heath government, the success of the miners' strike. and the formation of the Labour Government are all important
SMASH THE CAPITALISI COUNTER- ATTACK!
years against Hull dockers and in the Footprints tools dispute in Sheffield,
issues of the capitalist attack on which struggle. In particular, they must fight
class consolidating the victories of the last few months is not the strength of First, they have to explain that this
THE ONLY SOLUTION IS A SOCIALIST SOLUTION!