OUR SUMMER SCHEDULE
In common with many left-wing journals we have decided to reduce our schedule over the summer period. We have skipped the July issue and have brought the August issue forward. Subscribers, however, will lose nothing by this as we work from issue numbers rather than months.
INTERNATIONAL'S FUND DRIVE
The response to this has been highly encouraging. At time of going to press we have some £200 of the £500 target with many pledges still to be collected. We urge all those who haven't got round to sending their donation in to do so immediately.
THE SPLIT IN THE SDS
We have published this article for two basic reasons: firstly, there has not been an account of the SDS conference in any left wing newspaper in Britain of any length despite the importance of the issues. Secondly, we feel that many lessons can be learned from this episode. There are organisations in this country which are seeking - just as SDS did - to build a mass movement without a political programme.
A recent copy of TRIBUNE had two articles on its front page, one praised the TUC for its progress in modernising the trade unions; the other spoke of the Labour Party's turn to the left. Recent demonstrations on Vietnam, in the main organised by the Communist Party and its off-shoots, have called for the implementation of the TUC and Labour Party policy on Vietnam. Supporters of the solidarity line have been told to go to the back. If matters weren't so serious, one would not know whether to laugh or cry. However, the point is to understand.
During the hectic days of the so-called confrontation between the Labour Government, the whole of the mass media presented the question as though it was a matter of a conflict between the Labour Government, hellbent on modernising industrial relations for the sake of Britain, and the backward looking trade unions, hostile to all change and wishing to retain their power to hold the country to ransom. In fact, the argument was about something else: how best to tame the militant trade unionists without provoking an explosion. In the event "the Government saw sense" and decided to hand over the job to the TUC.
However, it is clear that this is not the way it seemed to the ranks of the trade Unions. Whilst a colossal confidence trick had been pulled off, enabling "left" trade union leaders like Scanlon and Jones to gallop to the right, the deception had a certain dialectic: for many, many trade unionists the manoeuvres of Wilson appeared to be a victory. In their eyes this "retreat" meant one thing: it pays to be militant. Hence the contradictory features of the post-June 5th situation: the official trade union movement has taken several giant-sized, crab-like, strides to the right but the IMMEDIATE effect has been to increase militancy.
ARGENTINE
Very little appeared in the left press in Britain [illegible] comparable with those in France a year earlier. A very interesting aspect of these events was the unity between workers and students. Whilst the struggle has subsided to a certain extent an extremely unstable situation continues. All serious bourgeois commentators have predicted the fall of Ongania; the only point at issue is when. As we go to press, news is beginning to trickle through about repression against our co-thinkers. We know for certain that three militants of EL COMBATIENTE are in prison after being before a military tribunal in Cordoba.
A TIME TO SPEAK CLEARLY
These events show the colossal reserves of militancy the working class possesses. They highlight the craven policies of the Communist Party and the Tribunites. There is no excuse whatsoever for pussyfooting, for being afraid to be bold or breaking with one's associates on one's right. A dynamic campaign against the TUC's sell-out to the Government would evoke a tremendous response. The Communist Party has the power, when it makes a militant call, to bring out hundreds of thousands of workers on strike on a political issue: February 27 and May 1st prove this.
But before one can ensure a really militant and clear-cut response one has to speak clearly. The double-talk we quoted causes confusion and takes the sharp edge off militancy. We desperately need a massive response to the Government's attack on the unions and working class standards. The C.P. could play a big role in ensuring this; everything indicates that its leaders put more store on their new-found friendship with "left" M.P.s and certain trade union bureaucrats. The rank and file militants of the Communist Party should demand that their leadership speak out, denounces the TUC sell-out and calls for militant action against that policy (a one-day strike during the TUC meeting in September would be good business). If their party refuses to do this, the Communist Party shop stewards should join with other militants in the trade union defence committees in calling such action. Time is short, the autumn will see a renewal of the offensive against the unions and militants. The vicious attack on Alan Lew, by the press, and the move against the East Midlands organiser of the NUVB, by trade union bureaucrats, are pointers to an offensive which is in the offing. It is time to go on the offensive; it is a time to speak clearly.