2 W.A.L.5.0. to hold school on Portugal - imperialism's
weakest link
Medway towns i.C.F, to be established
M.C.F. to campaign against re-enactment of colour bar bill
Prominent African intellectual charged under 'sabotage' bill
Colour bar in pub, ovokes Labour Party protest 3 Housing campaign under way with new sponsors
The last issue of Union Voice
N.U.R. stand for more housing
Left organise in Royal Arsenal Co-operative 4 Norwegian Labour Party does well in local elections
Discontent in Italian countryside
Strikes stop two leading Dutch newspapers
Nearly million strike against high rents and evictions in
Milan 5 Does Sweden show the way?
The livian Agreement not the Koran — Bon Tella 6 Chinese say Yugoslavia is state capitalist, hint Russia =
may follow
Cuba publishes huge quantities of pamphlets
Che Guevara on Latin American revolution
Fortugal's economic dependon°eon Portugal
o~
Letter _to Readers
As we go to press, reports are coming through from Scarborough that the Standing Orders Committee is struggl— ing, by all means, to prevent controversial discussion from taking place, One ‘controversial’ resolution is reported +o have been 'accidentally missed' off the agenda. This, whilst it had to be expected,reprosents a dangerous develo— pment, Wilson gained the support of many on the basis that he stood for the sanctity of conference dooisions, as against Gaitskell who plodged himself to 'fight, fight and fight again' against conference decisions, This position will be of no value at all if anmial conferences are manipulated to become, on the Tory pattern, mere -lustionrallies —., and opportunities to cheer tha 'leader', Arising out of this annual conference, a fight noeds to be made at all levels, inside the party, against this tendency,
The struggle between right and left has not been , avoided, <All tho undebated questions will arise again on a higher level after wo have a Labour govemmant. The Wilson leadership will only have itself to blame if the polemics are then much mora bittar,
On page 6 we report on another disturbing matter the Chinese hint that "Russia may become state capitalist! This isplaying around with theory in the intersst of fact ionsering in a most irresponsible way. Marxists all over the world heve supported the Chinese against the axtreme - opportunism of Khrushchov's policies, o.g., on the Sino/ Indian border dispute, but this cannot lead us to underwrite their theoretical positions, It would a simple matter for the Russians using the same methods as the Chinese to 'prove!’ that China is also'state capitalist! = - then where are w, theoretically speaking?
A he Sa WE Se Jeon Sb SUE Oe UE Ue ye
claimed that I'acmillan has been chosen as the the Tories! scapezoat upon whom all their ills can be blamed. Despite the Premier's statements after the publication of the Denning report, there is much evidence that serious sections of ruling class opinion has vome to this desision, .. The Financial Times of 27/9/63, the day after the Denning report hed been commented on, had an article entitled “After Denning = an urgent search for a new leader"; it contained tho passages ",,eeTho Denning report makes mich more urgent the search for a succes= sor to Mr, Macmillan who ought to have.'emerged' by the time the Party Gonference onds in mid-October. Whether or not this is possible, it now scems plain — and I think that few influontial Conservatives would dispute it that the Party cannot hope to win an ‘lection under lir. Macmillan. And, accepting this, tho change ought to be made quickly if the disunity and the damaged morale of the Party is to be mended quickly enough....™" The Economist of 28th September finished its editorial: ",..The dangor is that Mr. Macmillan, after having optimistically analysed the usual conference ovation for himself, may conclude again that he is the only man to save tho country end the party from whatever ho thinks at any one moment is most threatening it. It will not bo loyalty, but simple il abdication, if the Tories who do not agreo with him fail to let him kmow their viows. The leadership of the country and of the party is too serious a metter to be left unsettled in a mood of polite ambivalonce,." Its comment onthe Denning Roport concluded: "..+eTho prime minister himself, it is explained, fslt it better that ir. Profumo should be questioned by “friends of his own ago": this was the attitude of the person supposed to be in charge of the government of Great Britain." It would be by no means the first time in recont history that the Tories have chosen this method gotting themselves out of a mess, Wilson quoted the examples of Baldwin, Chamberlain and Eden. But by concentrating on the issue of 'security', “ilson and other Labour Party leaders have cbhscured the real political issues of the whole affsir, It is true that to a cortain extent the Tories are prisoners of their own professed 'ideology' end the system of mystification they have built up around the sacred inatitutions of the British way of life — the family, royalty, the 'Christain' way of life, otc. In this sense ths whole crisis is an illogical expression of this very same mystification, But the point is that a confidont, dynamic leadership would have basen able to ride out the 'Profumo affair', It is ospecsdally the lack of purpose and direction which has characterised this government since the Common Market fiasco that makes so very difficult for Macmillan and co, to face such things, The overriding political opportunism which stops the Tories from calling a General Slection pravonts them from finding a solution by having a'clean sweep', ' Thus we find the direct political instrument of the big business circles in this country suffering from a profound crisis of policy, and,to a certain extent, even paralysis of will. Undor these circumst.nces,even a serious opposition bourgsois party would strike hard at the government but instead Labour leaders want to play it cool. They have tried by all means to keep a socialist alternative out of the debate at Scarborough, They say "Let us first take power - and thon we can get on with job", nationalisation is «a dirty word, the press willutilise any differences, etc.,stc. Implicit in all these arguments is the necessity to capitulate to 'public opinion' as whipped up by the capitalist press. This moans in effect, capitulation to the capitalist class (which will continue to manipulate 'public opinion! after a Labour victory). Unfortunately because of the low idcological level of the left wing of the party, “ilscen's argumont will ovoke a big response from all sectors, Marxists have the difficult job of being the custodians of socialist conscionce of the party without cutting themselves off from mass of the party's members.