position as lur as all this is concerned. It has its strongest bases in the ALEW and the NUM There is however one difficulty for the CP. Undoubtedly many militants want a united struggle, but the number one left" in the whole trade union movement with whom the CP sceks an alliance, Hugh Scanion, has so far avoided coming out for even a national engineering strike, let alone joint action with the miners At the Engincering Voice conference, Scanlon opposed any clear commitment to a national strike. By this he leaves the door open to a repeat of the disastrous tactics of the 1972 claim when cach area was left to fight it out alone against the contralised force of the Engineering Employers. The inevitable result of that piece of nonsense was a big defeat for the engineers.
As a result of Scanion's present policies CP militants find themselves in a huge dilemona.
According to the "British Road to Socialism", which Scanion is the biggest. But at present the needs of the situation are in contradiciton to Scanlon's policies. Are the CP members going to act to meet the needs of the strugplefor a national engineering strike and a innersengineers alliance or are they going to subordinate the needs of the struggle to unity with Scarion?
As regards the CP itself-although not necessari ly all its militants-we think their present posigroups would feei sure of victory and the number tion is clear. It did vote for a national engineers strike at the Engineering Voice conference (against Scanion) but this rapidly turned into a dead letter as far as the Purly was concerned. By the time the lobby of the eqgineering employers came around the whole question CP was calling for support of the Executive's' position-which does not come out for a national strike, Thisis totally useleas, In the present situation workers need, above all, a clear Line on where they are going. As the CP carries out the policy dictated by the British Road to Socialism" it increasingly finds itself in an impossibic position-voting against Scanion one minute, but siding with his current manoeuvres the next. Anyone in the CP who is sertous about the present situation mast break with unis type of policy.
At the present time the situation couid be enormously favourable for the working class But there is stul the enormous danger that all this potential will be wasted and groups of workers isolated in the face of centralised attacks by the employers, the government and the state. This is the greatest danger The key thing is to prepare the working class for the coming fight and to unite all strugeles A miners-engineers alliance would be an enormously powerful impetus for the united action of the whole working class.