WHETHER YOU HAVE TAKEN HOSTAGES FROM THE BOURGEOISIE. WHETHER YOU HAVE INTRODUCED HIGHER FOOD RATIONS FOR THE WORKERS THAN FOR THE BOURGEOISIE. HAVE YOU MOBILISED ALL THE WORKERS DOWN TO THE LAST REPUBLIC AND FOR THE PROPAGATION OF IDEAS IN THE SURROUNDING VILLAGES? YOUR POSITION MUST BE SECURED THROUGH A TIRELESS IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE AND SIMILAR MEASURES ON A WIDE SCALE THROUGH THE AUTONOMOUS ACTIVITY OF THE WORKERS' SOVIETS AND OF THE SMALL FARMERS' DELEGATES. IT IS ESSENTIAL TO IMPOSE A SPECIAL TAX ON THE BOURGEOISIE IN ORDER TO GUARANTEE THE WORKERS AND FARM-WORKERS A GENUINE IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR CONDITION AT ONCE AND AT ANY PRICE. BEST GREETINGS AND WISHES FOR SUBSTANTIAL SUCCESSES. LENIN.
into are revolutionary moment.
Lenin sent his reply was abolished on May 1.
socialist redes 1969 selections JOSEPH NEEDHAM. 648pp SOCIALIST REGISTER Contributors include Isaac Deutscher, Mandel, Kiernan etc.
Contributors George Doughty, Lawrence Daly, Jack Jones, John Hughes etc.
AFTER IMPERIALISM by Michael Barratt-Brown. Complete reprint.
the most important economic works published in English' - New Left Review 540pp a general introduction to the writers' ideas.
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SMASH MAN IN DEFENSE OF THE SOVIET This telegram of Lenin's published for the first time in English, shows a magnificent insight mechanics of seizing power in a in answer IO d telegram from the poets and intellectuals who headed the Soviet Republic of Bavaria in April 1919. He had lived in Munich himself, and knew the strategic importance of controlling the country-side around. His advise was not implemented, and, at the end of the month, the white forces attacked. Red Power in Munich THE NEW MERLIN BOOK CLUB The new Merlin Book Club makes available at reduced prices books of lasting interest to FANSHEN... (Documentary of revolution in a Chinese village) "Unique contribution' -1969. Sixth issue, edited John Saville & Ralph Miliband.
TRADE UNION REGISTER Editors Michael Barratt-Brown, Ken Coates, Tony Topham.
Undoubtedly one of SELECTED ESSAYS - George Lukacs. This new collection of unpublished Lukacs provides * Members can also buy recently published MARXIST ECONOMIC THEORY (Mandel; 2 The recent SC demonstration in Sheffield, and the arrests that ensued, led a number of readers to write to the Dwarf; many critical of the manner in which the stewards had handled the march, but others SETTE revolutionary discipline must be maintained. It should come as no surprise to comrades to hear that the Sheffield Vietnam mobilisation culminated in arrests on the usua trumped-up charges. What is surprising is the bloody ferocity of the police and the extremely heavy fines.
Despite the insistence of the Communist Party officials on a 'disciplined' and 'stewarded' march through the centre of Sheffield, many comrades decided that the only real way to show solidarity with the NLF was to fuck up the system by occupying the streets for a few hours at least. The Communist Party were appalled at this decision and attempted to shepherd the march into 'orderly" lines of six abreast. This was resisted of course, by the militants, who were determined to stop the traffic.
It must be made quite clear to those members of the YCL who supported une militants, that this is not a petty sectarian attack but a refutation of the report in the Morning Star which described the militants as a "handful of troublemakers".
If the attempt to stop the traffic for a few hours constitutes 'trouble' then we are indeed troublemakers - surely all revolutionaries must be willing to create some "trouble' for the system we are all trying to destroy!
The militants decided that the idea of supporting the Vietnamese revolution by walking six-abreast in the gutter, and disturbing no one, was a retrograde step from the gains of previous the country and could not be contemplated.
As a result, twenty-four comrades were arrested by the Sheffield police, who in their usual tradition busting anyone who was Part unprotected. (One girl cnanting No ponce arrests al une nead o the march was later fined £10 for threatening behaviour.)
The following Monday morning, ten of the arrested comrades were tried before the equally sadistic Sheffield magistrates.
One defendent accused of kicking constable in the shins, denied this and requested that the constable roll up his trouser leg and show the court his "bruises"
The magistrates, with a typical sense of British justice, refused this request and fined the comrade f35.
Another comrade asked for a definition of Assault before deciding how to plead. The answer was an immediate and unequivocal 'If you touch a policeman you are guilty oi assault. The comrade then pleaded 'guilty after which he was amazed to hear that he supposedly seized a constable by the scruft of the neck and punched him in the kidneys both of which are covered by the designation touching' - Fined £35.
A comrade of seventeen years old made his road. First offentes- Fined C10 Did I say down in the road. First offence justice?
Ten comrades have now been fined a total o £225. The fourteen remaining face more serious charges, and it would appear that the local magistrates, following the national pattern of awarding stiffer fines for revolutionary activity, The fact London makes it all the more necessary to give it. The students and workers already fined, and those awaiting trial cannot afford this kind of money. We, on the other hand cannot afford to see the movement attacked in this way. Hold a meeting and collect.
Fines after Sheffield Wilson demo 1968 Threatening Behaviour ... 62 - f3 The increasing cost of Militancy!
More comrades to be tried on April 10. Be 'there!
Support the Fine Fund:Keith Bullock, Sheffield University Soc-Soc, 164 Tom Lane, Sheffield, S10 3PG. • This not case of police provocation, because that entails arresting someone only when he has actually transgressed the law. No. This was indiscriminate in what proved to be successful attempts to grab anyone within reach until the numbers arrested had satisfied Moloch's appetite for justice.
And who is helping them? The stewards have gone clean out of their minds. They abuse and pull and hit just like the police. Surely they are plain-clothes cops, not stewards?
Too often, tragically, no.
We are still 12 abreast. Suddenly the police charge between the ranks. I clasp the flag to prevent it being trodden beneath steel-tipped boots. I cannot even move while a camera clicks thrice in my tace.
Then excruciating pain. A boot from behind has kicked me in the balls. Utterly deliberate and carefully aimed.
I turned and saw five fuzz, no possibility of getting the offending number. All around there is struggle. A plain clothes man seizes me and a policeman joins him.
I'm copped. What in hell have I done? Three poor bastards are pulled across the road by their hair and another has his head hit against a wall. "Disgusting, disgusting!" I chant.
"You shut up see; you're under arrest. continue.
Passers-by are genuinely shocked. The lost long hair is not entirely in vain. By such small tokens are the days of the bourgeoisie numbered We shoved into that bus. A policeman yells with relish: "We'll show you this is Sheffield; we aren't those bobbies down in London."
It was not until I was in the police cell that I learnt of the agreement which not only the CP but other organisations, had made with the police about marching six abreast.
Whatever sectarian reasons the group may have had for making this agreement cannot sympathise with those elements who have so little self-discipline that they flout all attempts at organisation under the plea of freedom, anti-bureaucracy, self-expression or whatever We do not gain either the sympathy or the respect of workers by cavorting through the streets. Most marches at this stage of comparative working-class non-consciousness are counter-productive.
Certainly, if we had been told of the agreement, before the march had begun, I am ertain most people would have stuck to it. Bu ve were told nothing; nothing that is unt halfway through the march when the news came to us as an order, and when to have obeyed it would have been tactically dangerous.
This for me was the internal failure of the march. In future I hope we may be told about such arrangements though, as for myself I shall not be going on any march for a long time, not until through hard work and much explanation to workers, it has a chance of bearing fruit..
(name and address withheld)
Some fundamental points have to be raised. Firstly, the behaviour of the stewards has to be condemned. They were provoked, but this does not excuse the actions of some of the stewards who acted as auxilliaries of the police.
The second point applies to some of the Revolutionaries present. They behaved as if they wanted to wreck the meeting. They have to get their priorities right. Are they more
have with him, is a part of the working-class would have been tar more constructive to have listened to what he said and, if need be, heckle him on contentious points.
Julian Atkinson (VSC), Frank Gortan (IMG), Nottingham.
Dear Comrades, I would like to clean up the vague report on the suspension of two Sixth-Formers from the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. The two coaces were nor susoenace because unc were involved in a leafletting campaign but because in January they had walked out of a "Business Conterence organised by the Industrial Society protest against manner which The Black Dwarf 28th March 1969 Page S