Last year it was Wilson who received the full force of a militant Cambridge student demonstration. On Friday 8 March it was the turn of Dennis Healey. Between 500 and 600 students turned out to surround Healey's car, block its progress, and totally disrupt the traffic for a considerable time. The police, however, are responding to the wave of anti-student hysteria which is being stirred up in the press and, whereas on the Wilson demonstration it required questions in Parliament to force the Cambridge police to prosecute, on this occasion three left-wingers were quickly arrested. All were charged with 'threatening behaviour', The fines imposed: tn court were vicious and vindictive. David Stocking and Bruce Barnard were each fined £30, with five guineas costs, Alistair Barrie was fined £20, also with five guineas costs, Student finances are never gcod; under present circumstances they are even worse, and an appeal has been launched for ccntributicns to pay these fines, which are grossly cut of proportion to the cffences and to the financial positicn of students. Please could all contributions be sent to: Geoffrey Crossick, 69 Glendale Avenue, Edgware, Middlesex, Any surplus will be used on the next occasion when a similar situation occurs
Bertrand Russell Greets March 17th Rally
The following statement from Bertrand Russell, the honorary chairman of
the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, was read to the March 17th demonstration
in Trafalgar Square:
"The United States of America is floundering towards the complete defeat
of all its declared objectives in Victnam.e The Vietnamese poople, with
a@ minimum of help from the outside world, have once again thwarted their
colonial masters. This striking achievement gives now hope to the world.
It opens the way to the collapse of the systematic exploitation of the
majority of the world's peoples by a small, wealthy elite in the West.
The United States considers itself "world policeman." In fact it is brutal
guardian of the spoils gained by vast corporations whose tentacles extend
through five continents. This role is being denied to Washington not in
the council chambers but on the battlofield. Having flouted its promises at Goneva to respect settlements in both Victnam and Laos, the United
States is learning the hard way that its word is not trusted. Its calls for what it describes as "unconditional negotiations" are recognised as
fraudulent and irrelevant. The resistance of the Vietnamese people to American barbarism will undoubtedly go down in history as not only
remarkably courageous, but astonishingly offective.
"It is encouraging to sec in Western Burope signs of support for the Vietnamese people. We should not delude ourselves, however, into thinking that our own role has been in any way heroic. The failure to build a movement of support in Britain over the past five years for the gallant people of Vietnam has been monumental, and I am convinced that we shall
pay a heavy price for this failure in future years. Unless a significant
section of our ow community comes to understand the nature of the fraud which the United States has attempted to porpetrate through its propoga— nda machines in Washington and Saigon, we shall fail to understand the next round in the struggle of the third world to liberate itself from the
theft of its raw matcrials and the indiscriminate destruction of its
peoples when they resist.
"In all this sordid story, the role of our own Government defics description. I cannot remember a single government throughout my lifetime which has so debased the British people. Mr. Wilson has been compared
to Ramsay Macdonald, but such a comparison flatters our Prime Minister.
He has tried to stuff all his election promises down the memory hole,
and those who recall the promises of 1964 are told that they are wasting
the tax-payers' money! Our Government, opportunistic as never before,
staggers from crisis to crisis. On each occasion the Prime Minister uses two criteria to. judge events: "What must I do to stay in power?” and
"What will the Americans think?" It is not the promised land that
Wilson leads us towards, but the American graveyard in Victnam.
"This weckend I have published in the New Statesman an article appealing
for a new look at America's war by the people of Western Europe. As
junior members of NATO, we are the hosts and accomplices of war criminals.
It is high time that we in Wostern Europe resolutely ejected the United
States from Europe. The North Atlantic Treaty is due for renewal early
(cont. over)
Rertrand Russell's message conte next year, and I earnestly hope that throughout Burope there will be a ferment of opposition to this. If Wilson renews NATO membership, Britain will be without an independent foreign policy for a further ten or twenty years; if we reject this ignoble alliance, wo have the opportunity at last to repay our debt to the Vietnamese people by weakening the power of the Amcrican Empire in Europe. NATO is the heart of Wilson's foroign policy. Let us sever in our nation the chains which bind us to the greed and brutality of the American Empire."
Alain. Krivine's Speech to the Victnam Ad-hoc Committee's meeting Saturday, March 16th
One of the highlights of the March 17th weckend, was a large meeting organised by the Vietnam Ad-hoc Committee on the Saturday evening before the Sunday rally. Over 500 packed the small hall -- standing room only. This was especially romarkable as the meeting had been only organised at the last minute with no advertising. People learned of it by word of mouth. Most of those who attended were activists who came from out- Side of London and many of the foreign delegations were presonte Two films were shown — one, "October 1967", a documentary of the suc-— cessful October 22 rally, evoked a warm response. The two speakers at the meeting were Ralph Milliband and Alain Krivine of the National Victnam Committee (France). Because we think our read~ ers will find it of interest, wo reproduce here the speech by Alain Krivine to the meeting. At a later date we hope to publish Ralph Milliband's. "Comrades and friends! In the few minutes I have to speak, I wish to convey to you on behalf of the National Vietnam Committesc in France, our completo solidarity with tomorrow's demonstration. The presence of foreign delegates here shows today that more and more people have taken a stand on the necessity to transcend national barriers, and to organise at this time an international reply to the aggression of American imperialism. The youth demonstration in Berlin on February 17th and 18th was an important step in this direction, but the continuing escalatio Nfs otnam forces us to go further in the struggle. "We consider that it is possible, and necessary, in Hurope to act in accordance with the strategy of Che Guevara whon he called for "ono, two, or three Vietnams," in order to weaken tho imporialist forces. This means, in our case, that wo must utilise all possible methods of pressure to weaken imperialism in Eurbpe and above all, to have larger and ever larger mass mobilisations leading to a permanent fight to isolate Johnson and those around him. "The presence of thousands of people demonstrating in the streets of every European city will contribute to this process of isolation. A definite
(cont. over)
Alain Krivine's speech cont. objective must be to weaken the American military potential. For this we must try to spread among the people the need to refuse to deliver American war equipment, to expose companies and. corporations in Burope which supply. the war material used in Vietnam. We must. agitate against NATO - the instrument of American imperialism in Europe and a weapon to be turned against the labour movement in Europe as we have seen in Greece. "At this time we must denounce thosa leaders of mass working class parties who drag the working class in blood towards American imperialism, and who do not hesitate to call in the police against the protest movement, as in Germany. The movement against the war must assume such a level, that tho military and political presence of the aggressors in Victnam will become repugnant to the people of Europe. In this particular field we think solid political work could be carried out among American troops in Europe, in order to strengthon resistance and to strengthen the ideas of opposition within their own forces. In France we decided to stop all American embassy propoganda mectings. "It was with this perspective that we created the C.V.N. two years ago. The C.V.N. is a democratic organisation based on supporting committees in the universities, schools, factories and urban centres. Today, the C.V¥.N. encompasses thousands of militants in more than 60 towns of France. Oa Scbruary j21st the C.V.N. occupied the Latin Quarter of Paris, which it t.en transformed into "The district of heroic Vietnam" and where the name “Heroes of the Vietnamese revolution" was given to a strest. For two hours 8 thousand militants took over the district.
"But this is not enough: now the movement must be co-ordinated on a Furopean scale and therefore the C.V.N. is proposing to organise a huge international demonstration in Paris. at the end of November and we expect large delegations from all the Western Buropean countries. An international committee could be created for the occasion with the purpose of co-ordinating ideas.for the action formulated by the other committees of the international movement. "It is possible that De Gaulle's government will decide to ban this demonstration, but for us this occasion would show that with regard to the Vietnamese revolution, "neutrality" does not exist. "You can only be for the victory of the Vietnamese revolution, or on the side of the aggressor. After the Berlin demonstration, the London demonstration is a step along the road to the counter-escalation of antiimperialist forces. "Vive la revolution Victnamienne! "
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Vietnam Solidarity Campaign Answers Right-wing Tory Charges. London March 19th, 1968
At a well attended press conforonce today, three leaders of the Victnam Solidarity Campaign, Miko Martin, sccretary, Pat Jordan, chairman, and Tariq Ali, a loading member of the Ad-hoc Committee, repudiated allegations printed in the "yellow press" that they had sct out to deliberately provoke violonce on March 17th. "At no time," stated Pat Jordan, "did wo advocate a confrontation with the police or violence against the police." Tariq Ali stated that the police were as "responsible as anyone for what happened." Mike Martin informed the conference that certain allegations made by several papers were being considered by the Campaign's lawyers to sec if they were actionable. The three spokesmen for V.S.Ce issued the following statement: "We wish to point out that we attempted to deliver lettors of protest to the Amcrican Embassy —- as had been agreed to by the police — but were prevented from doing so, in the first instance, by the crowd in front of the square. When we attempted to get through the police lines to tell the crowd to proceed with the march as planned, we were prevented from going forward by the polico. "But having said that, we think it is absolutely hypocritical for the press and the Government to moan and whine about the 'violence' of the demonstrators. What can bo expected when we are constantly exposed - in the press and television ~ to the daily crimes of the Americans in Victnam: napalm, torture, bombing ctc? As far as we are concerned, the mood and tempor of the demonstration on Sunday was determined by the nature of the Amcorican aggression. It is impossible to remain calm and peaceful before the barbarism of American aggression in Vietnam. As our president Bertrand Russell has said: to remain quict, to acquiesce in face of such barbarism is to condone ite Many of those who have been "shocked" by events on Sunday have not made one word of protest about cveonts in Vietnam. "Frustration has increased because all cfforts to turn the Americans from their course seem to have failed, and especially because the Labour Government has reneged on cvsry promise it ever made on Vietnam. Its leader, Harold Wilson, just ignores his own party's annual conference decision on Victnam. "We are convinced that all those who are concerned about the war will seck to use whatever means are necessary to influence the Government to change its policy of slavishly following Johnson. We do not think that there is anything alion in this to British tradition. I+ was not until the suffragettes used the most militant means ~ which resulted in much violence and the smashing of win-— dows that their voices were .listened to and women won the vote. Perhaps the Vietnam movement will have to do the same. "For our patt, we are not going to let ourselves be intimidated by the press or by Tory M.P.s. We plan to counter-escalate and intensify our opposition to the Government's support for the Americans. Last Sunday's demonstration was only a beginning of our campaign against American aggression in Victnam and in solidarity with the people of Victnam against that aggression."
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George Brown, The Budget and The State by Charles Van Gelderen. There are few socialists, inside or outside the Labour Party, who will express any regrets at the departure of George Brown from the government. For too many years he was the very symbol of right-wing entrenchment within the Transport House establishment. It was he who, in the ninetecn-thirties, moved the expulsion of Nye Bevan and Stafford Cripps from the Party. He was one of the instigators of the movement which pushed Gaitskell into the leadership. Not so many years ago he tried to expell Bertrand Russell. His present pose as the champion of the fundamental aims of the Labour Party will deccive no-one. It is but one more gamit in the game of manocuvring for supremacy within the Party. There are, however, some curious facts which came to light in the course of his resignation speech. Like many other Labour politicians ~ including the late Nye Bevan — George Brown entered Parliament under the illusion that it was the citadel of power in Britain. His experience as a Cabinet Minister, second-in-rank only to the Prime Minister, has brought home to him what Marxists have always known - that real power is in the hands not of Cab-— inet or Parliament but of those who control the country's economy. In the case of Britain decisions are taken in the City of London, in Wall Street and in Zurich. Roy Jenkins' Budget, delivered on the very morrow of Brown's remarkable resignation speech is the expression of the wishes of international finance capital. Far from reflecting the views and interests of the Labour movement, it is a vicious anti-working class budget, designed to defend the capitalist system come what maye If George Brown was sincere in his desire to restore the morale of Labour he will now toll all. He could do a real service to the movement and the cause of socialism by exposing the tight grip which the Bankers exercise over the British economy, using the Treasury as their instrument within the Government. Marxism describes the State as a class institution, the Governemont as the executive committee of the ruling classe The trappings of parliamentary democracy are designed to conceal this iron fact from the people. When the Tories are in powor, this camouflage is more successful because there is a complete identity between the Tory hicrarchy and those who own and control the nation's economic life. Under labour there has to be more direct interference with the machinery of government. The masters crack their whips and the Cabinet has to come to hecl. That is why the Labour Government ignores. resolutions passed at Annual Conference and attempts to stifle criticisms within the Parliamentary Labour Party. They know they cannot serve the capitalist state and the cause of socialism, and from choice or from ignorance they prefer the former solution. From this flows all the errors and betrayals of the past three years - the anti-trade union legislation, the racialist immigration laws, the support of Amcrican imperialism in Vietnam and the Carribean. The only alternative to this is a resolute fight for a pricipled socialist policy and this will not be realised by M.P.s who abstain on vital issues. Only by fighting all the way against the reactionary policies of the Wilson government can the morale of the movement be restored. The time has come to stand up and be counted. :