Cecil Ballantine certainly has a point when he takes me up for my reference to Mosley and the British Fascist Party, I did not mean to imply that the Radical Alliance was a neo-fascist manifestation. What I tried to convey was that political frustration with the Labour Party and the subsequent collapse of attempts to find a short-cut to socialism can lead to paths unforseen by the initiators of such movements. I feel flattered by his reference to my "Leninist confusion about 'class! and 'party!, and must plead guilty to the conviction that socialism cannot be won in Britain except through the conquest of power by the working class, As long as that working class sees the Labour Party as the medium through which it seeks to achieve power, that is the place for socialists to work, It sometimes seems to be an endless and thankless task but if we cannot win a decisive section of Labour Party workers for socialism what hope have we of ever winning the state? This, like my reference to 'tdarisory?, may be trite, It remains, nevertheless, equally true. I am as fully aware as Cecil Ballantine that ending the Vietnam war is perhaps the most important issue facing the world today and that all means to end it, with justice to the people of Vietnam, should be tried. But how will it help to bring this about by replacing Mr. Wilson's Government with one which is, to say the least, as much committed to support of American imperialist aggression? 4 * Letter from Charlés van Gelderen to the editor.
Editorial note on the Hull by-election discussion We have devoted a great deal of space to the discussion aroused by the decision of Radical Alliance to stand a candidate in the North Hull by~election, Despite our ow position on this (that of giving full support to Humberside Voice which is calling upon people to vote Labour but not muting in any way its sharp criticism of the Labour Government) we have tried to give every view a fair amount of space. We are now, however, going to be more discriminating because of the danger of the mere repeating of arguments, Please when you write on this topic try to make new points.