The Tories" anti-union bill has been greeted with uproar in all sections of the working class. The diary of protest has been as follows:
December 8th: 350,000-500,000 workers strike, against the advice of the TUC; January Ist: 10,000 workers strike in Birmingham; January 12th: 1 million workers are involved in the TUC's "lunchtime" protest; about one-third of them also use the day to stop work completely; February 21st: 140,000 or more workers go on the TUC demonstration in London; probably 1-2 million are there in spirit; this is bigger than any demonstration including the October 1968 demonstration on Vietnam; March Tat: at least 1½ million AUEW workers strike.
But this militancy can quickly tur into apathy if there is no perspective and no clearly discernible line of advance. There has so far been no coordination, no correct national leadership, and a complete alienation of the rank and file from the official trade union leadership. There has not even been any clear common objective, except "Kill the Bill", which may be a good chant but is meaningless on its own as a political slogan. Why all this confusion when there is universal agreement that the Bill represents a direct attack on the working class?
First, nobody has explained clearly what "Kill the Bill" might, realistically, imply. It is utterly misleading to workers, and can only lead to disillusion and defeatist, to convey the impression, as the TUC has tried to do, that protests and demonstrations, especially on Sundays, can have any effect on the Tories at all The only action the Tories understand is action that effectively stops production. The reason why December 8th, January 12th, March 1st and March The Red Mole 8-22 March 1971 Page 2 18th have not had effect on the Tories. or will not have any effect, is that the Tories know that the workers will be back the next day. This does not mean that these strikes should be condemned; they should be encouraged as a move in the right direction and used as an opportunity to show how far the working class must go to have any effect on the Tories. The only attack which can have any effect is an unpredictable attack. This means that an indefinite general strike is the only answer. Any action short of this, no matter what illusions are created, will not produce any positive results.
The second question is what kind of immediate results there might be from such action. It is clear that the Tories, no matter what action is taken, will not withdraw the Bill from Parliament. The Tories might take one of two steps They might interpret the attack as a political attack on the constitution and therefore call for a national government with the right wing of the ex-Labour Government; no one should imagine that this is impossible. Or they might feel confident enough about the result of a general election to decide to call one.
In the last few months we have seen there are up to a million workers who would be able and ready to respond to a consistent and correct political lead. But no such lead exists. Revolutionary socia lists must work along with worker militants to hammer out a correct political strategy and identify objectives. Given that these militants see the inevitability of the current situation of struggle, their only way to success will be to develop connections with a revolutionary organisation that can coordinate policy and action nationally.
It is a lamentable fact that at the moment no revolutionary organisation has militant workers in sufficient numbers strategically placed among these million or so militant workers. It would only need, say, 4% of this group to be Photo: George Snow connected to a revolutionary organisation for there to be a complete change in the national situation and to create the potentiality of a revolutionary vanguard.
Seen in the context of the massive demonstrations against the Bill, the smallness of the revolutionary groups is obvious. Whether a particular group has 50 or 500 workers in its membership is irrelevant. The absurdity of an arithmetical approach to recruiting workers to revolutionary groups is shown when compared to these demonstrations Recruitment by such methods would be likely in any case to dilute the political level of the organisation and thereby decrease its effectiveness. To build a revolutionary party more is needed than an abacus. It will involve a constant process of splits, regroupment, fusions and growth.
As an immediate response to the problem, militants in particular geographical areas can form councils of action among the rank and file. They can also put pressure on official union leaderships to face the realities of the situation. Thes These councils cannot fit into a universal formula, In some areas the local Trades Council may serve. In other areas it may be coordinated district committees of individual trade unions, or just a collection of local convenors, stewards and/or other representatives. It may be the local Confed unions In areas where there is no struggle. realistic prospect of effective action through the existing channels, a new body may have to be formed from scratch.
In any case, the Councils must not be defensive bodies. They must take the offensive, initiate action and provide a political leadership for the rank and file. They must carry the war into the bosses' camp, and they must provide a new ac. cessible leadership for the workers In time, this can be a step towards destroying the Tories and any other party which supports the existing structure of society.
As we go to press we see that the leadership of the Union of Postal WorkeTs(UPI) has finally capitulated to the Tory goverument and has advised its membership to return to e work without receiving any guarantees from the POst Office except that of a Court of Inquiry which means absolutely nothing.
We have stressed from the very beginning of this strike that the immediate task which confronted the UPW in the face of their apalling strike fund situation was -to call for an extension of the strike and to force the postal engineers to join them on the streets and on the picket lines. This the big moustache consistently refused to do and suggestions by militants tha unions outside the post office had the elementary duty to see that their members refused to indulge in strike-breaking activity were brushed aside with the retort that this is our strike."
It wasn't even necessary to have solidarity strike action except from the P.O. Engineers-their one day strike may just have saved Lord Delacourt-Smith's skin but it did little else than create illusions amongst the P.O. workers-all that was needed was to see that no parcels went on lorries driven by T&GWU members. that the same thing applied for British Rail, that scab delivery messengers were thrown off all public transport, and lastly that the TUC dug into its capacious pockets and came out with some real moncy-at least E2 million.
None of this was done and in view of their role on this strike we can see far too clearly what they will do if they come up face to face with the Tories on the Industrial Relations Bill. They will funk it, as they funked this one. "The Tories will never divide the unity of our great Union movement" said Funky Feather on Febuary 21. Now we can see that they don't need to. Yes, certainly to give a lead to, agitate and propagandise Jones and Scanion have called out their Unions against the Bill but what will they suggest should be done once the men are out? What are the slogans, what is the strategy? And why should anybody think they will carry out their slogans when they have shown themselves incapable of giving any real aid, of using their Unions for the cause for which they were created. in solidarity with a live STOP-STOP PRESS:
The sell-out by the leadership will not go unanswered and already there are signs of a protest from the militant rank and file workers who have been betrayed and who are prepering to wage a struggle against this bankrupt leadership. In the next issue we will be carrying interviews with leading militants.
for a revolutionary youth movement Attended by 400 militants, the Spartacus League held its first conference since its foundation, on the weekend of Fob. 20th and 21st in London.
The lessons drawn from nearly eight months* activity and growth were defined and discussed. The conference centred on the main fields of work and posed the tasks which confronted the organisation. In most, the fundamental issues were clarified: in others it was obvious that the problems should continue to be discussed within the organisation.
The conference opened with a report on the political situation in Britain and the world, and the specific role of the Spurtacus League as i youth organisation, while the bulk of the dis cussion took place in commissions divided iccording to fields of work. Both the pructical and theoretical stage of development of the Spartacus League could be assessed by its members. This revealed our basic political positions on fundamental issues as well as the need to continue discussion of other problems within the organisation at branch level.
Youth culture On the question of youth culture, contributions from comrades were very diverse, not only as to the nature of youth culture, but also as to the perspective it held. It was emphasised that our analysis of the social composition of the youth cultire mosement-which for example would demonstrate that it is not predominantly composed of students-is basic to a clarification of these points. Spartacus League comrades working in schools and with school students have gained experience in this field. Our support of the struggle against the repressive and authoritarian educational system, which is linked to the attempts among young people to build an "alternative culture" as a substitute for the sterile bourgeois culture, was evaluated in great detail-by the commission on schools. Comrades argued for an orientation towards working class schools and for the building up of work and schools groups in towns, at the present stage This discussion involved an analysis of pust attitudes and policy towards the Schools Action Union.
Women The commission on women's liberution tonded to rovolve around the question of which cumpaign and which demands should be put forward by revolutionary Marxists working in the movement. What this reflected was the high degree of participation of S.L. comrades in Socialist Woman groups in defterent locautics and a higher level of experience in this work. We will continue to state our basic position on the class nature of somen's oppression and continue to develop our analysis of the role and nature of the family in capitalist society through work in the Women's Liberation movement and organising educational schools.
Imperialism The struggle of the Irish people against British Imperialism has decisively been taken up as our own struggle here. As revolutionaries in the oppressor nation Itself, our task is to fight our bourgeoisie. A priotity has always been our struggle against Imperialism, but on the question of Ireland has a specific significance. The power that attacks comrades and people fighting in Ireland is based in Britain and can only be defeated here. The Spartacus League will continue to be active in the Irish Solidarity Campaign.
The essential task of generalising and deep ening the revolt of thousands of young people against the Vietnam war over the last five years will continue to he a priority. U.S. Imperialism's intensification of aftacks must be met by mas sive solidarity for the Indo-Chinese people's struggle, on the Day of Solidarity on April 24th. The Spartacus League is calling on other tendencies to participate in united solidarity actions. Support of struggles in other areas of Intense conflict in the Middle East and South Africa-was reported on and future work was planned.
The themo running through the entire conference was the contral role of the working class in all struggle to change the social system. Flowing from this analysis was the busic fact that the revulutionary party cannot be built unless it has firm roots in the working class.
As a revolutionary youth organisation, the task: the Spartacus League faces in relation to the young workers is to win them to a revolttionary political position through a rejection of Stalinism und reformist politics. This is how to build a strong revolutionary force within the workers morement.
To mobilise support for the working class struggles, the youth organisation will carry nut work among students, engaging them in active solidarity - this has been our experience during the Dock Strike, on Dec. 8th, Jan. 12th and February 21st, the postal workers' strike-and among young workers and apprentices, who are won to a youth organisation by the political positions it cakos in relation to struggles here and internationally.
Following this extensive discussion in the young workers commission, the conference Followed on with this central theme in the report on our stüdent work. It is our perspective in relation to the working class struggle that has won us student militunts, capable oj analysing the precise nature of the student toile and the role of their struggle in relation to the working class militants.
The discussions and decisions taken by the conference have achieved a clarification of our work for the future. They have also shown the strength of the organisation after such a short period since its foundation.
The Red Mole 8-22 March 1971 Page 3
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STRIKE LIN
Postal strike sold out