After April 26th's united action demonstration amst U.S. imperislism in Vietnam an Trinidad, and the press lies which followed it, the VSC issued the statement which we reproduce elsewhere in this issue. None of the ress published it: neither the Guardian nor the Moring Star, noz, of course, the Workers Press whose account of the demonstration, with snide eferences to "soul brothers", etc., was masingly similar to the Daily Express's. We ust surmise that the press reports were largely sed on police accounts of the demonstration, whose purpose, as usual, was to drive a wedge between the black organisations and the "peaceful" and mainly white VSC marchers.
POLICE BRUTALITY The demonstration was the occasion for a dramatic illustration of police brutality and racism. The police made few arrests during the arch itself, when the demonstrators were united. But once the marchers reached Speekers Corner and began to disperse, police moved in and attacked, ite mine and baling reup o black and white militants, way to some who were trying to leave Speakers' Corner, sending their "shatch squads" into ating many of those who attempted esist, who were provoked into expressing their o be or find ting or ero simply herened e around. The police ferocity was directed painst the black demonstrators, and most of hose arrested were black. Some of the police were red in the face and appeared demented;
of tham, no doubt deprived of ofber "outlets"
seen systematically tearing a banner into Sire or sis other pies olets made brutal es its pole, observer "match squads" must have been organised and TEN STILL IN JAIL The police made at least 20 arrests, with such charts as assals, oostucaon and/o possessing offensive weapons (including a comb!) Some of those arrested were eventually let out on bail, a mockery having been made of the supposed right to telephone solicitors and friends and to arrange for immediate bail.
We me told of a sequel: the next day ten police folleared ab ut 10 Panthers and their The extension of the war into Cambodia was not to be unexpected. It was a logical extension of the twisted logic within which the imperialists operate: the military requirements of the logic of capital. It does, however, underline the fact that there is no national struggle against imperialism in the age of capitalist decline. The fight must be on a world scale.
Guevara's slogan: "Create two, three, many Vietnams" has now materialised. He saw that an imperialism divided and over-extended could only be a weakened imperialism. The invasion of Cambodia will only extend the quagmire that the Americans find themselves in: they have again succumbed to military and technical logic. In true dinosaur fashion, they have been unable to comprehend the most important factor: the consciousness of the risen people. They know that defeat in Vietnam means defeat in S.E. Asia and another sphere of the world taken out of the clutches of imperialism. Nevertheless Nixon has been forced to make noises about troop withdrawals. If he stays in Cambodia, his forces will be that much thinner on the ground. Having failed to contain the situation in Vietnam, Nixon can have little expectation of success in the larger area. The logical end of this policy would be for the Americans to find themselves in a quagmire that had its borders in Burma, Thailand and further afield.
The advance of the Vietnamese and the Red Khmers across Cambodia shows that they were well prepared for the invasion. What little indigenous toehold capitalism had in Cambodia crumbles before them, leaving the Americans nakedly opposing the people, just as in Vietnam. The extension of the war is a useful object lesson for those who still had illusions about the The Red Mole 14th May 1970 Page 2 supporters when they left the Great Marlborough Street court, according to our informant, pushing and jostling them from DONOR 2001 pursued them down into the underground, where two policemen were injured and another nine or so arrests were made, including a giri with an Afro haireut who happened to be passing by (the police are not very good at telling blacks apart As we write, at least 10 people, of whom at least 9 are black, are still in jail, having been refused bail, although most of them have no revious offenses and sureties have been foun or them; the Judge in Chambers is too "busy to hear po is out is extremely hard to obtain, to hear so solome to alphone and are lets are not allowed in to see them unless they know who they are, which they can't unless they are allowed to telephone...
SOME GOOD POINTS.
The demonstration itself was militant. There were a lot of anti-police slogans, as well as calls for victory for revolutionaries in Vietnam and Irinidad. About 1,000 people came on the narch. The militancy of the black comrades i perticular, together with the experience of the police riot at Speakers' Corner and police victimisation of black comrades, were very educational for white militants and others on the march. This was good and useful. But there ace also lessons to be learnt from the demonstration, and criticisms to be made.
SOME CRITICISMS Pirst, the demonstration was not very big. Mos of those on it alpeady understood what the olice were like, although they may not have zad personal experience of their behaviour. The demonstration took place in front of locked loors and blank walls; the main observers were police and a few reactionaries on balconies; the publie at large learnt of the demonstration through the lies of the press.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF FORCES Second, many of the black demonstrators were diseppointed with the lack of solidarity from so-called white revolutionaries in resisting the police victimisation, and also in making any attempt to break through the police cordons al Belgrave and Grosrenor Squares. On the possibility of peaceful coexistence with imperialism. Since the historical task is the destruction of the bourgeoisie as a class, it is not surprising that it is fighting for survival. A defeat in S.E. blow but it brings that prospect considerably nearer. The boundaries of the imperialist world will draw a little closer and the chill at the heart of the bourgeoisie grow a little colder. Peaceful coexistence should be seen for the fraud that it is: the ideology of a soviet bureaucracy, with little interest in pursuing the international victory of the proletariat. Unwilling to risk losing all influence in the area and to be displaced by the Chinese, the Russians supply aid. They must, however, remain condemned by history for allowing the Americans such an easy ride into S.E. Asia in the first place. In the long term their unwillingness to prosecute the struggle cannot even help themselves. The proletariat must either advance or retreat: there is no room for bureaucratic havens of peace in the course of the struggle.
The stooges of the bureaucrats throughout the world still mouth about "Peace in Vietnam". Revolutionary militants should have nothing but contempt for this defeatist and pacifist idea. We must fight for full solidarity with the fighters of Indochina, who are in the vanguard of the world struggle against imperialism.
FOR THE VICTORY OF THE STRUGGLE AGAINST IMPERIALISM IN INDOCHINA!
VICTORY TO THE VIETCONG!
VICTORY TO THE RED KHMERS!
VICTORY TO THE PATHET LAO! second point, however, there was agreement between white and black leaders, at any rate after the demonstration had failed to take any effective action outside the Trinidad High Commission, that the relationship of forces between police and demonstrators was such that attempts to break through would be incorrect; at Grosvenor Square a black leader spoke to the march and said that we should attack when we were strong and withdraw when wasteful of time and money. we were weak, and that therefore we should continue the march rather than starting a confrontation with the police in Grosvenor Square.
On the question of solidarity against police brutality, individual white militants behaved very heroically, and joined in the struggles of the black militants. But the resistance was not massive, and it was very unorganised; hence the cry, reported in the Times, that "we must reorganise"-not to attack the police, but to get together to protect ourselves against arrests, and if possible to disperse in organised groups. Nevertheless the experience of black organisations is that fewer arrests are made when they demonstrate in their own communities, for instance in Brixton, because of the solidarity of local communities. Previous attempts to demonstrate in the West End, for instance, the Bobby Seale demonstratien, have also led to large numbers of arrests; and in the demonstration against the British invasion of Anguilla, the police again used the technique of lemonstrators as they attempted to disperse. There is the additional danger communities which are seriously under attack, of leaving the local communities exposed when the leaders and militants go up to the West End; this is one of the reasons why some militant Pakistani and black organisations decided not to support the Pakistani Workers' Union demonstration in the West End on May 3rd. NIPPED IN THE BUD One of the results of these demonstrations has been that militants have been victimised for things which they have not done; for shouting anti-police slogans, but not for actually attacking the police. The police are apparentl trying to pick off the militants before the movement gains strength, and before they have engaged in effective action. The result is that many militants are saddled with "previous offences" and/or suspended sentences whose effect is intended to l e, and may actually be, to mittee-27/4/70.
Asia may not quite be the final prohibited. demonstration.
01-278 2616.
inhibit them from demonstrating, or from undertaking more militant forms of action, in the future. The arrests at demonstrations are part of a general wave of arrests and arbitrary injunctions. The effectiveness of this police tactic was evident in, for example, the failure to occupy LSE, where paranoia about the police played a clear inhibitory role. And of course, arrests, court cases and imprisonment are very CAREFULLY THOUGHT-OUT POLITICAL OBJECTIVES The conclusion for revolutionaries is that we should be more serious about what we are doing in this period of incipient repression. When we engage in confrontations with the "law", they should be real confrontations, for real and carefully thought-out political objectives, and when we consider that the political effects of such action would be positive. When we demonstrate in future, we should be quite clear about what we are doing. We should not engage in useless and token defiance of the police. We should organise our marches and stick together for our own defence. We should consider demonstrating together in areas where there is a large and potentially sympathetic local population. We should attempt to avoid arrest. We should, in addition, organise supporting groups who can attempt to ensure that police and authorities do not get away with arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, and infringement of bourgeois "civil liberties". Finally, of course, we should have a sense of proportion about the brutality and racism of the the police towards demonstrators. Those who go on demonstrations are supposedly politically conscious and they go, or should go, with their eyes open. Much more serious allegations of brutality and racism have been made against the police in the East End and in other black communities. It must again and again be emphasised that Pakistanis and West Indians walking the street at night are not safe from attack from white hooligans or in some cases the police. Our main priority must be not the protection of demonstrators, but solidarity with those who are organising to defend the black communities against attack, even though many of the black militants demonstrating on Sunday were there precisely because they had themselves been subjected to unprovoked attack Press Statement from Vietnam Solidarity Cor The Vietnam Solidarity Committee would like to clear up some errors of fact in the press reports of the April 26th demonstration.
First, the demonstration was not "taken over" by Black Panthers or "diverted" to the Trinidad High Commission. In fact the demonstration was a united action in solidarity with the Indo-Chinese and Trinidadian peoples and was supported by a number of groups including VSC and the Black Panthers. There were discussions prior to the demonstration in which the route, including the march to the Trinidad High Commission, was agreed.
Secondly, the hostility of the police towards the demonstration was evident from the start. At the rally prior to the march the Ad Hoc Committee was denied the right to use loudspeakers and leafletting was arbitrarily Taird, the main trouble with the police took place not in Belgrave or Grosvenor Squares, but at Speakers' Corner. Up to the time the march went to Speakers' Corner to disperse the demonstration, it had been cohesive. But as the demonstrators were dispersing, the police moved in, using, as the Guardian uncritically but correctly put it, the technique of "snatch . It was here that people attempting to defend themselves from unprovoked police attacks were arrested.
The VSC is in full solidarity with the militants arrested on Sunday and with the black people s organisations, and strongly condemna the brutality and raciat behaviour of the police on the April 26th anti-imperialist For further information, contact VSC 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. Telephone:
A Vital Movement for International Trade Unionism The Taronto i€ telephone links from the factory with the out- I at work in the plant. All ROCIOUE side world were cut off, so that workers were unable to call wives and families, who heard the news on the radio; some experienced severe Mal of Ontario was Ikely to figure of 60,000, and in Canada as a whole it exceeds half a million. The situation is an increasingly familiar one for workers throughout the western world, dominated as they are by remote decision-making centres of the super-giant international companies.
Dunlop International Ltd. is a British-based company but, although it conducts sizeable manufacturing activity in Britain, 60% of its business is done outside the U.K. It employs 100,000 workers in its 120 plants, which are pread across 26 countries and five continents The company ranks 49th out of the top 200 countries with headquarters outside the USA.
This was before the merger with Pirelli of Italy, which doubled the size of Dunlop. The new manufacturer in the world, outranked only by combine is the second largest rubber Goodyear of the USA.
Management Excuses The official reason for the closure of the Toronto plant has been given as an inability to match competition from imports of rubber products from Japan and Western Europe. The company claims that it has lost money in Toronto for several years, and that the success of a Japanese company in securing a contract with a public utility Board, for supplies to a Hydro-Electric project, was given as "the last straw". An Ontario M.P., Mr. J. Renwick of the New Democratic Party, believes that the Japanese company may turn out to be a subsidiary of Dunlop! In any case, the $80,000 which the Hydro-Electric Board saved by accepting the Japanese tender is a trivial sum compared with the social costs of the Dunlop closure, or with the generous financial assistance which Dunlop is receiving from public funds to expand and automate its activities elsewhere in Canada.
The Board of Dunlop's Canadian subsidiary company which authorised the closure is made up of nine people, five of whom are nonCanadian; they have addresses in England or the USA. The head of Dunlop Canada was transferred from Nigeria last year, where he had been operating the company's activities on behalf of the British Board, and the chief manager was sent over from Britain to organise the closure only a few weeks ago. Economists and trade unionists in Toronto are convinced that the decicion NO NO Chairman of the International company, has specifically endorsed the decision in his reply to a protest cable from the Canadian union Local.
reaction must go down as a no appropriate major pioneering venture in the struggle to evolve a trade union strategy to cope with the problem of the international companies. The Union concerned, the United Rubber Workers of Americh, Local 132, has a 100% organisation of the Toronto plant, and consists of workers of whom have records of long service of the Local is Philip Japp, a 42-year-old 15.20,25 yeats- with Dunlop The President worker in the plant. He and his committee, supported by NDP members, students, Professors of Economics at Toronto and York Universities, and the entire work force of 600 have conducted a remarkably effective campaign against the closure.
First they protested against the manner in which the closure was announced to the workers. Secondly, they demanded the suspension of the closure "for a few lousy weeks" (Japp) so that a feasibility study of the lant and its finances could be carried out they applied to the (Tory) government of Ontario, asking them to institute such a study.
This would have required the company to "open the books" and whilst the government expressed a vague willingness to conduct an enquiry, it backed down quickly and endorsed company indicated its displeasure at the idea. managerial prerogative" as soon as the The workers at the plant then proposed that they should buy out the plant (though they wanted first to see the books and participate in the feasibility study) and run it as a cooperative. "We are not convinced that the plant is dead. We could run it if we get rid of some of the clowns up there," said Japp. In fact the workers strongly suspect that the plant is perfectly viable, and that the closure is not the result of losses, but of a profit which is inadequate when compared with alternative centres of employment open to a company like Dunlop throughout the world. Dunlop and the Ontario government have refused all appeals and proposals from the Local, despite the wave of public support behind them. In a classic statement of Tory respect for the rights of property, the Prime Minister of Ontario, John P. Robarts, told Philip Japp in a letter that, whilst he understood the feeling of the workers, "At the same time, I believe that a businessman must •have the right to decide what is best for his company.
The New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party spokesman for the workers in the Ontario parliament, Mr. J. Renwick, has made a first-class contribution to the workers' cause. In a most detailed and documented speech to the Ontario Provincial parliament, he paid glowing tribute to the work of the Local. Describina a meatine at 4..
The recent sacking of Haughey and Blaney from the Fianna Fail cabinet on suspicion of helping gun-runners to the North shows that all is not well in the southern Irish state. So far the more dramatic events in the national liberation struggle have occurred in the north. We should however. Fianna Fail's pose as the inheritor of not assume that this will always be the case, the anti-imperialist mantle is increasingly shaky. Lynch and his friends are finding it difficult to have it both ways. They find that their interests bring them closer to British imperialism and look for some federal solution that will drown the Irish problem once for all in a capitalist united states of Europe. However, to seek this road puts them at odds with the vast majority of the Irish population whose interests are objectively anti-imperialist. They have to contend with the remnants of the capitalism in one country school in their ranks, the small capitalist who would not have welcomed the moves toward free trade with Britain; with the first to suffer if the common marketeers get peasantry and small farmers who would be the their way. In August last year it was just possible for Fianna Fail to make militant noises while rushing elastoplast to the border and appealing to the U.N. This time, however, the actions of Blaney and Haughey put them on the spot and Lynch was forced to come out in his true pro-imperialist colours. Lynch, however, Green Tories in the south has been achieved has a far from free hand. The hegemony of the only because, after the defeat of the republicans, they were able to pose as the defenders (and in 1932 extenders) of the gains of the struggle against Britain, particularly for the small farmers. As sections of Fianna Fail attempt to accommodate to imperialism, their ideological hold will grow progressively weaker, and the chances for a genuine thorough-going anti-imperialist movement will increase.
attending this meeting. There was a representative at all levels of the government on the platform-though why we were on the platform I will never know, but we were. And I just want to say as an aside to the Speaker that 1 as a politician do not intend to be the olive oil or the lubricating machinery by which this plant is going to be shut down. It is all very nice for politicians to appear at meetings and express their concern, but I assure you that I am certain that those of us who appear at meetings-as we are not only obligated to, but as we chose to do -have a determination that we will achieve our objective in the short term of the feasibility study, and I think that goes for the members of the Federal Government that were present, the members of the Provincial Government that of the City of Toronto who were present. We were present, the members of the City Council are not going, if I may use the term, we are not going to be patsies to allow time to go by which will make this arbitrary decision irreversible...
(Ontario parliament; Proceedings, 16th March 1970).
The New Democratic Party is, in effect, a Labour Party with unusually strong ties (for the North American continent) with the unions. Since Renwick's speech, the Party organisation in Toronto has joined forces with the workers to conduct what amounts to an election campaign on the single issue of the closure and the Union's programme, which now includes a demand for a general new Law which would forbid arbitrary closure of plants and would insist on the accountability of companies towards their employees. A door-to-door canvass is being conducted in the City, to collect 100,000 signatures in support of the International Labour v. International Capital This is a far from academic matter for trade unionists in Britain, or for the workers' control movement. The Institute for Workers' Control has been corresponding with a Canadian counterpart, the Praxis Corporation for Social Change, for over a year. The Praxis Workers' Control Group recently held its first, and very successful, weekend conference on Industrial Democracy in Toronto, to which several prominent trade union leaders, and several hundred rank and file members contributed. When the closure of Dunlop and the workers* campaign broke into the news, Philip Japp made immediate contact with us, as part of the general campaign to match the internationalism of the company with an international response by Labour. The need for, and appropriateness of such a move, will be well appreciated by workers in Fords, GEC, Roberts-Arundel, Lytton Industries, MGM, etc., etc. It corresponds precisely with the work which IWC has pioneered in the car industry, and which has been followed up by the unions not only in that industry, but in the docks (Tilbury container dispute) and elsewhere. But the strategy is in its infancy, and every contributory experience is stop press We should of course have no illusion Haughey and Blaney. They do not repre trend that is capable of leading the anti-imperialist struggle to a conclusion satis o the proletariat. They are, however, a of the break-up of the Green Tory blo this is to be welcomed. Whatever the act of Haughey and Blaney, we can say in ge that the arrival of any arms in the north Catholic hands is to welcomed, even thor distribution of these arms may not be ide because of their political origin.
May 9th saw the biggest Anti War demonstr in London since 1968.10,000 marched to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square. Age and the fine for threatening behaviour has the police reacted strongly.100 were arreste E50 over the space of a year or two. Many of risen from somewhere around E5 to nearer the arrests occurred at the end of the demo. when police became confused by a departur from the usual pattern es demonstrators split up in a number of differ nt directions The demonstration was organized at extremely short notice and represented a considerable militant activities contact VSC at 01-278- organizational success. For details of future 2616.
Played down by the bourgeois press, the Anti-W ... . . movement in the U.S. has reached a previously unsurpassed dimensions after the invasion of Cambodia and the murder of the Kent State Fou The national student strike met with a massive response: 73 campuses struck in the New York a alone; rallies of 10,000+ are reported from the University of Washington, Arizona State, Bostor Southern California. In Colorado, Giant Colorad Springs Air Force base was sealed off by the milit after over 400 airman and other Gis marched thre downtown Colorado Springs. Massive actions plar for the end of the month to coincide with the Memorial Day actions (May 30th). An appeal for solidarity action is being considered, ring our offic 01-837 6954 for details.
using the international telegraph service, Philip Japp was able to make a start on closing the communication gap which exists between the workers in two continents-a gap which hardly exists for the wealthy giants of the world of international corporations. That elementary lesson requires careful but speedy digestion by international Labour.
Action in Britain Apart from their cable to IC, the Canadians have appealed directly to Jack Jones and Lord Cooper-whose unions organise the rubber workers in Britain. They have already received a cable of sympathy and support from the Dunlop convenor of the T&GWU in Liverpool.
Their approach to Charles Levinson, secretary of the Chemical Workers' International Secretariat affiliated to ICFTU, produced a sharp response. Levinson has cabled to Sir Reay Geddes demanding a stay of the closure, and threatening action by workers in Pirelli plants unless he receives a satisfactory reply.
In order to demonstrate that industrial relations do have precise location, and that the British labour movement had understood the significance of the Toronto case, the IC and the Socialist Charter organised and carried out a picket of the London offices of Dunlop International on Friday, April 17th. Philip Japp cabled the support and the thanks of the Toronto workers to the organisers and participants. A most significant moment during the picket occurred when Alan Sapper, general secretary of the Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians Unions, came to carry one of our banners. He had no doubts about the elevance of our campaign for his union nembers, who, he told us, face the self-sam problem of organising effectively on an international level to meet the remote powers of the international film companies Trade Unionism in the Seventies It is hoped that representatives of the Toronto workers and the NDP may visit Britain shortly to follow up all these new contacts and to cement the experience through which they have been working. If they do come, the British trade union and labour movement owes it to them and to itself to give them a most attentive hearing. For they and the six hundred workers of Do Can began explore a vital area of trade unionism in the seventies. They have done this with extra-ordinary openness and breadth of vision. Philip Japp expressed the view, in a letter to the author of this article, that the "heart and guts of the trade union movement are in Britain". That is a moving and unionism; by responding in kind to the spirit generous tribute to the pioneer country of trade and the intent of the new pioneers of Toronto. the British trade union and labour movement will acknowledge the tribute in the only effect effective way. For on this occasion it is our turn to learn, and to express our appreciation to our teachers from Toronto.
Tom Tonhan
the labour party Dear Comrade Robin Blackburn's article on the Labour Party in Red Mole No.3 raised some interesting and controversial points. It is good to disculs them in a serious way. He is quite right to say that Marxists have to analyse this question concretely and not rest on the formulas of yesteryear, which were elaborated before we had had the experience of six years of Labour boyemment ne is quie nigat to aescribe une present administration as the "most reactionary Government since the second world war.
However, I think him wrong in some of his assumptions. As soon as time permits I will be putting down my thoughts in full. In the meantime a few points:
. Robin Blackburn is wrong in comparing the Labour Party with the U.S. Democratic Party Of course, in the decisive sense the Labour Party is a bourgeois party. Its social function is to preserve the status quo and persuade the working class to accept sacrifices to enable capitalism to solve its problems. However, unlike the Democratic Party, the Labour Party rosis upon workcrs organisatons te trade unions. In that sense it is a workers" party. Although these links have been eroded and are not now living relationships, it is wrong to describe them as being purely based upon cash nexus and bureaucratic connections. In politics, very often, the potentiality of a situation is of much greater importance than its immediate reality. Until these links (affiliation at all levels, workers thinking in terms of Labour being their party, ete.) are decisively severed, there is always the possibility of them being renewed.
Unfortunately large numbers of workers still CC MSC L DOLE CR s ner WaV0 expressing themselves politically (even if they c combicse cynica a0ourTs lescersnio his is seen clearly in the results of the GL elections. The gains for Labour resulted from the fact that a section of the working class voted Labour to express their political opposition to Tory rent increases. They did not vote Communist, even though the C.P. militants have been extremely active in the tenants' asocianons. Ine same partern is nkeiy to be repeated in the municipal elections. 2. So far as the General Election result is concerned, we have to start from the fact that this result will be determined by factors bevond our control. If all the revolutionary Marxists in the whole country went all out to OCTUNE DCODiC IOlolc LaDOUT IT " COuDU hether this would win the L.P. one seat. Moscici TOm ne Dolno View o 3na VsIs. we have to say what effect different results would have on the class struggle. In that sense the best result would be a Labour win. Marxists should not be squeamish about saying why they would welcome this result: it is because another Labour victory would help to destroy social democracy. In the negative sense it would take away the possibility of social democracy being The Divine Abstraction Within the City, so much money has coagulated Get lease of lide by the emerge "efi" Labour Party in leadership of the Foots, Heffers, eic.
Having said this, it must be stressed that the actual election result is secondary compared with the problem of building a working class response to the attacks of whatever government gets elected. Attempts to paint a terrible picture of what will happen if the Tories win are, it must be said, helpful to Wilson and Tribunite "lefts" . It underpins the arguments that we must stop fighting Wilson to prevent the "main CHemy getting back into power. This kind of argument has been used time and time again by phoney letts to justify their spinelessness in face of the right-wing leadership. In that sense 1 agree with many of Robin Blackburn's strictures of those who talk of the danger of a Tory "counter-revolution". Political events are determined by the class relationship of forces, not the ideas in Heath's head. 3. The most fruitful thing revolutionaries can do in the coming General Election campaign is to use the heightened political interest (especially amongst the young people) to spread revolutionary ideas and expose the bourgeois politicians of all parties. This means explaining that the workers and youth must prepare for the struggle against the next government, no matter what its political complexion. It means explaining that the construction of a working class leadership which will go over to the offensive is now a matter of urgency. To pretend that there are any fundamental issues involved in the differences between Labour and Conservative is to obscure that vital fact. Yours fraternally, Pat Jordan, Secretary, International Marxist Group.
Dear Mr. Thompson, I gather from your contribution to Warwick University Ltd. that you don't like red moles. Being a red mole myself I thought I ought to eply to your criticisms of us Ne do not think that Warwick is very different from any other university in capitalist society. As the IS comrades pointed out in their pamphlet "Education, Capitalism and the Student Revolt" cy-etalisates inerseasiel. he dependent on highly-educated personnel. funetion of the university is to meet this need. Forster's Education Act was explicitly stated at the time of its introduction to be a necessary response to the growing challenge of German capitalism. The current expansion of higher education is similarly dictated by the needs of British capitalism. erosion or the id ibera valae ot acied byan freedom' "a community of scholars", ete. As higher education ceases to be the preserve of the elite and as its function becomes that of producing highly-skilled personnel for capitalism, so the ruling class has to extend to the academic population the same political surveillance and control that it exercises over the working class. The IS writers show how and why this takes place-to embark on a full analysis here would for the most part be to duplicate their pamphlet.
We think then that Warwick is not unique. What is perhaps ecuhar to this university is the ncompetence of its rulers in failing to conceal it could override any political or social objections unconditionally. Lee setbod Fe do not believe, as you seem to think we C0. noten rower In fact we would see your own position as being akin to that of its exponents. You write that "the logic freedom in the educational system as an of the whole conflict...must lead to a positive and far-reaching reconstruction of the University's self-government and of its relations realising that power in the university as Dolnt where we must demand a more democratic constitution than any existing university enjoys." This position is, we think. utopian. If there can be no socialism in one one campus. We cannot hope to achieve a democratie university within an undemocratic society. For the ruling class to permit such an institution to exist would be for them to deny the very funetion of the university within capitalism.
spoof and at the same time helping to man its defences. This is a misrepresentation of our position. We believe that bourgeois democracy is a sham. By advancing democratic demands wiar we col co tevea cus to me unconvince mass. We say to the ruling class: "You say we live in a democracy. We therefore demand that you grant us the right to free speech, the right discm nato eleWe de nortelee thal discrimination, ete. capitalism can meet these demands and we advance them to prove this point. If we can destroy people's confidence in the mystitications of bourgeois ideology, then we can seriously begin to develop socialist consciousness. Socialists have always demanded democracy while believing that we cannot achieve it within capitalism. Only socialism can create genuine democracy and it is our duty to make this clear. We therefore see no contradietion in our advaneing democratic demands that we do not believe can be met without impinging upon the undemocratic power of the ruling class.
On page 147 of the book you present your conception of our position on Warwick. This presentation is almost entirely false and I will deal with it line by line.
Firstly you accuse us of "uncomradely narking in the columns of the Red Mole. I do not believe that this accusation can be substantiated in any way. I would ask you to Mole where we express our position on last term's upsurge of the student movement and then to back up your attack so that I may reply to it. You may perhaps have been annoyed by the criticism of your position in the article on Warwick written by Paul Shevlin and myself. I would point out to you however that in the note your valuable exposition of Warwick as a "business university While the comrades of the Socialist Labour League treat every other left tendency as challenged the socialist credentials of other tendencies. Criticism is not condernation and we believe that it is only by criticism of each other and ourselves that correct theories and tacties can be evolved.
We do, it is true, attack compromises with liberalism. The reasoning behind this is simple. We believe that there are two theoretical bases for action in the present situation. The first is the liberal which sees in Warwick a deviation from a generally acceptable norm. The liberals seek to restore in the modern university the liberal conceptions of the nineteenth century Implicit Racialism It should be remembered that this form of gross university, an institution which served as a finishing-school for the elite rather than a source of trained labour. The socialist theory on the other hand sees the restriction of political essential concomitant of late-capitalist development. Our programme, then, is one that, to the community. We have forced matters to a elsewhere lies with the capitalist class, proposes a struggle to take away sectors, and eventually the whole, of that power. We therefore propose struggle for demands such as open committees, open files, staff-student control of admissions country, then still less can there be socialism in and dismissals. These demands are based on a realisation of where power lies in the university and a determination that it should There are, then, two theories from which follow courses of action against the "business You aceuse us of denouncing democracy as a the norms of a past era; the other seeks to university One of these seeks to re-establish advance towards a new, socialist era. We agree with Marx that liberalism is, in the last analysis, reaction and we therefore leel that it is vital that the class realities of society and the university should be made clear and that our struggle should be conducted on a socialist basis.
I should point out that this does not mean a rejection of the aid of liberals. We have always had a policy of working in united fronts with any person or group who accepts the demand of the front.
As for Open Week, you completely misrepresent our position. The advocates of the week said that it would involve the community and particularly the workers of Coventry-this was as near as anyone got to talking of the setting up of "a revolutionary soviet of workers and students". We said that this was sheer utopianism, and our beliefs were borne out by events. Very few workers came on to the campus and they, almost exclusively, were members or contacts of the various socialist groups. There was no mass involvement of the workers of Coventry. The only people who came to Warwick in any numbers were semihippy elements from other colleges and universities. During Open Week everyone had a good time but politically the week achieved nothing.
You say that Warwick's struggle has been read again the article on page 12 of the first Redabout a great deal more than files. This is true out all struggles take place around concrete ssues, and the issue around which Warwick, an the other universities that supported us, mobilised was that of files.
My previous comments deal with the next passage but you go on to say that for red moles "academic staff and "the Administration' are article in Redbrick from which you quote I did seen together as one reactionary blur". This is simply not true. The point is that any unity must be around the correct demands. Socialists do not water down their demands so as to a achieve general acceptance. That is the policy inherently countér-revolutionary, we have never Of bourgeois and social-demoratic parties. The Bolsheviks could have watered down theig programme and supported the Provisiona Goveroment. They did not do so, however, and they fought as a minority until they won mass acceptance for their ideas and then went on to make a socialist revolution. The question of unity in action must be dealt with as Lenin dealt with it. We do want a staff-student alliance but it must be an alliance for action. It is better that a minority should act than that all should agree to do nothing.
Fraternally.
John Presland, D16 Rootes Hall.
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