But in fact only the bullding of a movement that can take mass, direct action on the scale of the VSC will compel the Labour Party to reverse its policies. Taking advantage of the feeling in the workers movement, the Chile solidarity movement can mount a powerful campaign of mass demonstrations. boycotts, blacking of Chilean goods and strikes. Only then will Labour listen.
CLAY CROSS
This point must be stressed to the many Labour Party militants who will be attending the conference of local constituency Parties which has been called by the Clay Cross Labour Party for 8 June.
David Skinner, a leading member of the Clay Cross LP, stated in his message of support for the 5 May demonstration (see Red Weekly 48) that Chile would be high on the agenda of this conference. But The impact of this gathering on Government policy will depend on whether or not it is prepared to throw its energies into building a mass solidarity movement, Militant resolutions are all very well, but the centre of the struggle to reverse Government policy will be in the streets and in the factorles:
After all, one of the most important lessons of the Clay Cross struggle is the futility of relying on the official structures of the Labour Party, and the need to take direct action, Under no circumstances should the solidarity movement be influenND ced by the argument that because the Labour Government is a minority Government we must therefore avoid "rocking the boat", The real problem lies in the fact that the Labour Government, like all previous Labour administrations, is a bourgeois Government which bases itself on the institutions of the capitalist state jUR and makes the defence of the existin social order the linchpin of its actions, For that reason, the only way that the working class and other social groups can obtain even the most basic concessions is by fighting.
TASKS
Solidarity with the Chilean masses means support for all actions that aid the development of resistance in Chile. This means that the campaign has several tasks al present:
( Labour's sell-out 1. To isolate the junta Internationally by blacking Chilean goods, preventing the sale of arms, demanding that the Government breaks all links with the Pinochet dictatorship and preparing suitable 'welcomes' for the ambassadors and representatives of the Chilean regime in Europe.
2. To organise campaigas to collect funds for those sections of the resistance which urgently need moncy to buy arms. Apart from collections made by the solidarity movement we should campaign for the Labour Party and the TUC to make funds available for the struggle in Chic.
3. To demand that the Labour Gosernment opens the doors for all Chilean refugees (22 have so far been refused entry), and provides special grants tor students, teachers and trade unionists, as the Swedish Government has done.
4. To constantly explain and conduct debates inside the working class movement on the relevance of Chile for our struggle hete, The recent exposure of Special Branch activibes, the role of British troops in Ireland, the victimisations of trade union and student militants, and the attacks on blacks, all show that Chile is mot so distant. The lessons we can lear from the Chilean struggle have concrete. practical importance for all trade unionists and socialists.
5. To make the Chile Solidarity Campaign a democratie and non. exclusive body open to all those who are coumitted to the strugale against the military dieratorship:
The 5 May mobilisation has to be seen as only the heginning of a mass campaien of solidarity with the Chilean victims of repression. THE FRENCH Mitterrand-president, Mitterand president' was the cry which rang out nearly unanimously on the left within hours of the death of Pompidou on 2 April Even before he had announced the main themes of his campaign, Mitterrand's candidacy had been endorsed not only by the parties of the "Union of the Left'-the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the Left Radicals but also by both the main trade union federations-the Communist-dominated CGT and the Socialist-inclined CFDT-as well as by the small Unified Socialist Party (PSU).
Strengthened by this support, Mitterrand is now in a very good position to try his hand at the bonapartist game, putting himself across as a president for all the French; as a man who-in the words of Socialist Party secretary Pierre Mauroy knaws how lo take up position in and yet at the same time above the tray SEVERAL YEARS Mitterrand's candidacy is the outcome ofseveral years of political proparation, much of which he describes quite straightforwardly in his book, My Share Of Truth.
In the 1969 presidential elections, Gaston Deferre of the Socialist Party turned down any kind of agreement with the Communist Party and ran with no other support. He polled hardly any more votes than the total cast for Alain Krivine of the Communist League and Michel Rocard of the PSU, Mitterrand learnt the lesson from this setback for the "Third Force' policy, which aimed to skirt round the problem of the CP in order to snuggle up close to the liberal Centrists, In a country like France, where the CP exercises decisive influence, the social democrats cannot reach office without it: I simply recognised that the road to the Union of the Left lies through the Communist Party', writes Mitterrand.
To gain the upper hand in this alliance, the Socialist Party had to start building a base for itself both to the right and to the left of the Communist Party. In particular, it had to set abouf winning back at least some of its audience among white collar workers.
As Mitterrand puts it quite unambiguously, in his own inimitable style:
"Socialist democracy, if it is to be able to assert its leadership inside this new majority, must expand its audience both to the left (through the far-reaching nature of its econounc programmey and to the right (through its political liberalism). Hence the importance i attach to building a political movement which can first hold its own against and then dominate the Communist Party, and finally take on by itself and within uself the role of the majority*:
COMMON PROGRAMME It was this project which was launched with the renovation" of the Socialist Party and the signing of the 'common programme; and which is being carried on today through a policy of maximum expansion.
The signing of the common prog rumme indicated the wish of the rwo workers' parties to give a common response to the wish for change inside the workers movement. This response, of course, was to be completely reformist, respecting the laws of the capitalist ecunomy and leaving alone the bourgeois State with the futile perspective ot democratising it.
It was different from the Popular Front of June 1936, however, in that this alliance did not include any subscantial section of the bourgeoisie. This is not because the reformist leaderships reject such a prospect On the contrary, this is exactly what Mitterrand would like it is not so long since he made a public appeal to the Centrists in a speech in Vienna, federation) in the future.
Cantot be ruled out this situation, managenitent. minimum necessary. around five busic casks: 1, more human freedom: 2. a juster society: 3. a stronger currency, 4. greater co-operation; 5, a more involved France.
It is also implicit in the 'antimonopoly line of the Communist Party, which has led it to make approaches to the shopkeepers and small businessmen, and it was this line which was also at the bottom of the recent agreement betwen the CGT and the CCC (managerial staffs But the political polarisation produced in the wako of Gaullism is such that neither the Socialist Party nor the Cortunist Party has been able to drag in more than a few ambitious riff-raff known as the Left Radicals: In spite of the weakness of the latter, however, their very presence among the signatories to the common progranime is a sign of the compromises that the reformist able. leadershups are preparing to nake ABOVE THE FRAY The death of Pompidou meant new presidential elections, producing such a crisis of the succession that a victory for the Union of the Left Mitterrand is just the man for But in order to enlarge his electoral base, he has had to modify the common programme in favour of a more restricted and less specific platform; and he has had to take his distance trom the Communist Party, while at tine same time reaffirming his commitment to This has meant embarking on a particularly obvious "bonspartist"
* On the left, he has taken the CFDT and the PSU into his confidence, winning their support in exchange for a few words in his speeches about self-managentent in the future, and the promise of a ministerial post for PSU leader Michel Rocard, Indeed, Mitterrand congratulates himself that the Socialist Party is the place where the two currenis of the left come together. The "responsible" current of the left, that of the common programme and the current for socialist selfAt the same time, Mitterrand has redoubled his pledges of moderation as far as the hourgeoisie is concerned. In an interview on the econone policy of the Union of the Left which he pave to the magazine The News, for instance, he said nothing at all about nationadsation. He has reduced the number of meetings with the Communist Party to the In fact, Mitterrand is trying to raise himseil above the level of parties, and while he scill declares his commitment to the grand design of the common programme, be has launched his campaign The vagueness and moderation of these 'tasks" i truly remark.
HEAVY LEGACY
Clearly the Communist Party is not in control of things. After having called for the joint designation of a joint candidate, and a joint discussion at least-of a 'presidential charter', it has had to be content with simply supporting Mitterrand's candidacy without being able to make any suggestions of its own.
But while it is trying to prevent the common programune trom being kicked under the table, it is far from suggesting its immediate implementation. Even before the death of Pompidou, CP leader Marchais-on the TV programme Actuel 2'- had started to talk about the "heavy legacy' they would inherit from the bourgeoisie the task of a president of the left in these conditions would be not to implement the connon programme, but to create the conditions for implementing it'. The distinction is all important.
Guided by the same desire to be realistic, the signatories of the programme undertook before the death of Pompidou a campaign for "five urgent measures of a clearly minimalist nature, These five elementary demands were addressed to the Pompidou government. Yet on 9 April, Marchais took them up in his report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party and presented them or the five socal mensores the wowld be taken by a Government of the indon of the Left. On wages in particular, these proposals are simply pathetic: - a minimum monthly wage of 1200 francs (abour $23 a week), when only a fortnight ago the CGT for a minimum of 1500 francs (abour £29 a week): -and then, 1200 franes for the basic 40 hours*, which means that extra payment will be made for hours over and above this; but asse that the parties of the lett will not even demand an immediate return to a 40-bour week.
"Change the present way of life' "change course" these exhilarating slogans contrast vividly with the poverty of what lies beneath them for the workers. Monge/
ONE YEAR OF Red Weekly Today Red Weekly publishes its 50th edition.
From the beginning we were determined to make Red Weekly into a campaigning paper.
It was only after a number of months of almost solitary campaigning by Red Weekly that other much bigger political forces wete forcei to take up the issue. But the refusal of these forces-in particular the Communist Party-toadopt the A general strike became u real, live posibility. There was an excelent chance to inflict a crushing defeat on the ruling class. class centralised its offensive through its Tory Government, For this reason it was essential to unify the workers' struggles around the demand to bring down that Government. The general strike is a mutter of how the working class can best use its power and bring its full strength forward to defeat the roads to socialism. But one had to do more than write sinug, selt-congratulatory articles on how right the revolutionaries had always been.
From the beginning Red Weekiy took up a vigorous cumpaign for the "blacking" of all goods and trade with Chile. Its readers were urged lo take
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