scale in the 1926 General Strike.
were a thing of the past. ments are increasing and not decreasing.
Even in Britain the decision of the Labour Government to send troops to break the Glasgow dustcart drivers strike is the thind major row in less than 18 months over the use of the army against trade union struggles. In the previous two cases, against the Glasgow firemen's strike and in the row over Mick McCabey's call for the possible leafleting of troops should they be used in the 1974 miners" strike, the Labour leaders either sat on the sidelines or made verbal attacks on MeGahey.
Now the Labour leaders are right in the driver's scat using troops against the British working class, It Is not a new experience. In 1945 the Labour Government sent in the army to break a goslow in the Surrey docks only five days after it was elected.
EYE TO FUTURE
The danger posed by Labour's support for the use of troops against strikes goes far further than simply strike-breaking At the prosent time, of course, the army has neither the intentions nor the means to launch a millary coup in Britain. However it does have its eye on what may be necessary in the future. This was the meaning of Heath's infamous speech at the United Nations in which he said that "civil war and not internatio nal war would be the main problem of the 1970%.
This is also the purpose behind the appointment of Brigadier Frank Kitson, the top specialist in "counter-insurgency, as head of the School of Infantry Training. He has absolutely no doubt at all what he wants to achieve. Kitson wrote in his book Low Intensity Operations that it was necessary to set up forces of "specialist individuals and units within the army to enable essenTHE BRITISH ARMY has a long history of murder and repression in Ireland, Aden, Cyprus, Malaya and many other colonies. Its use as a Most people were until recently under the impression that such uses In fact, in Europe at present such developRoger Smith in the event of civilians being unable or unwilling to maintain them."
Tus Towed Tom his aralves that: "If a genuine and serious grievance arose such as might result from a significant drop in the standard of living. all those who now dissipate their protest ever a wide variety of causes might concentrate their efforts and produce a situation beyond the power of the police to handle.
Should this happen the army would be required to restore the position rapidly.
The problem for the Kitsons of the ruling class is that at present any widespread use of the army in Britain would lead to an enormous response trom the working class.
It is for this reason that the army has to play 'softly, softly, catchee monkey. If tanks were sent careering through the streets of London there would be outrage.
But u tocy can pe used against "terrorists", 'the Irish', "health hazards and so on, without the working class reacting, then the thin end of the wedge will have been put in.
The most important wedge by far is in the north of Ireland.
Under both Labour and Tory Governments the army has been allowed and encouraged to catty on a reien of terror against the nationalist population in which every trick from torture and socret assassinations to "limited masacres - (a tactic advocated by Kitson) has been used. This betrayal of the working class by the leadership of the Labour Party has wreaked its the acceptance of such things by the British working class. What is being done now in Ireland is merely the bloody dress rehearsal for what might be needed later in Britain.
In Britain itself more subtle tactics are needed. One is the recent recruiting' advertising campain in which the role of the army in maintaining 'internal order' was stressed. More significant still are the repeated army exercises at: Heathrow and other alrports. These aim, on a really dramatic scale, to get the population used to seeing the army working with the police and to accept it as 'normal'.
A military coup is definitely not an immediate danger in Britain, but the working class has to oppose the use of the army in any dispute right from the start.
HELPS RIGHT WING
task Labour actually helps the most right wing forces in society by inself using the army against the working class struggle. The Labour leaders provide an active cover for every would-be Chilean general or Greck colonel Their action is like that of a convict helping the hangman to crect the gallows. It Ghas to be stopped: In the lone run the standing army must be wissolved by the revolutionary action of the working class and a workers militia sel up to establish and defend a workers state Now the working class has to fight to defend itself against the use of troops for strike-breaking. and troops for strike-breaking, and their future use as armed soldiers against the working class, by demanding:
*No use of the army in industrial disputes rights in the army.
fraternisation with soldiers used against strikes.
*United industrial action to force the Labour Goveruntent to withdraw the troops But instead of carrying out this *Full trade union and political drivers. *Trade union Icafleting of and This is the man the army chose to lead the troops into battle against the mutinous muck in Glasgow - Brigadier D.B. Riddell Webster. While the troops are shovelling the garbage in Glasgow, the Labour Party will have to think of new uses for the army, to keep them busy. Landon docks.......
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strike-breaking force is less well known. It was, however, frequently used against strikers before the First World War and employed on a massive