verts are only accept coptond ourcumstancos, nale. ce pol w CHILE: Don't forget national demonstration, Sur 12 September, assemble 1pm Clerkenwell Green London EC1. Chile Solidarity Campaigi SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT-pamphlet containRACISM, Imperialism and Apartheid in Soutt Africa-weekend educational conference at th University or cast anola East Anglia, Norwich. Capitalism and the Dicte etariat, Saturday 18 September.
Students Union (of Women, Ireland, the Public Sector Cuts. Speak втопнаном тол national, Box 3274, fonta Stockholm, Sweden PUNU-KAISING tor National Abortion Campaion D8T4S0DT THE FINAL DEADLINE for notices for 'What's On -neatre 23, E2, over me snone i from Socialist Wo WOMAN performer details contact Students Union, University o Allais Dictatorship of the Prol 10-6pm, UMIST Sackville St). Sessions on ers: Judith Harrison, Terry Marlowe, David Yaffe.
Railton Road, London SE24 OLschool (RW), 49 BENGALI FRIENDS in Europe and elsewhere, fo *CAPITAL - Volume 1 *Srani-Dal-Biplab er) contact: Bengali, c/ o Inter 8pm (and first Sat in every
A mass call for political amnesty in Pamplona, Spain. Workers democracy is at the core of the Spanish resistance. DEMOCRACY is a dirty word to many militants. It is the means by which political power is torn from the hands of the working class to be replaced by a pen in a polling booth once every five years. It's the icing on the cake of capitalist exploitation. In recent months, with bitter battles erupting in the trade unions and Labour Party over the social contract, under which the press has carried out its campaign interference in the workers organisations on behalf of the Alongside this has gone a campaign by some sections of the ruling class to castrate the power of the unions through the incorporation of so-called shop floor representatives directly onto management committees and participation bodies. Exploiting the genuine desire that many workers have for a more meaningful work life, the siren song of participation has been used to seduce workers away from taking control.
For there is an alternative to the fake democracy of the capitalists. It is the real democracy of the workers: a The biggest union in this country, 'democracy' has been the slogan decisions country at the aspects of social life.
and free Red Weekly 26 August 1976 democracy that has to start in the organisations but will eventually reach out to the whole of society if the working class is to take power. It is a democracy that reached its highest expression in Russia with the taking of power by the Soviets involved every oppressed section of the population in the affecting their lives, while representatives of the capitalists.
It is a potential that was also seen all too shortly in this time of the General Strike, Councils of Action, drawing in all the workers organisations in a district, began to establish their control over all This active democracy of the workers is no optional extra in the struggle for socialism - it is at the heart of it. In Spain, in conditions of illegality, in a situation where the most elementary democratic rights to free elections trade unions do not exist, there has been a tremendous flourishing of the workers' own organisations in recent years. And at the heart of this growth is the democratic organisation of the struggle.
pickets to extend the struggles.
hand in hand with workers are to win their demands.
Factories in Struggle sent delegations to factories in struggle teachers assemblies welcomed When construction Barcelona, all the workers own take Spain to socialism.
- bodies which excluding bureaucratic leaders.
when the throughout society.
Workers Democracy 5 All the bodies that the mass movement in Spain considers useful for united activity are in full use: neighbourhood associations, trade unions, professional associations, housewives associations, organisations of the disabled. New bodies are continually being created that replace or co-ordinate with these bodies in the course of action, always seeking the road capable of providing the greatest degree of representation, the greatest coordination, the greatest extension of action. And always, at the very centre, is the sovereign factory or branch assembly. the delegates, the commissions and committees elected in these assemblies, and more recently, the massive And why does this flourishing of workers democracy go the broadening struggle against Francoism? Because the two are inseparable if the In January and February, during the struggles of the teachers in Madrid, the general assemblies of teachers Pegaso - asking for and obtaining solidarity. In turn, the delegations from the workers' assemblies, from neighbourhood coordinating bodies, and from tenants associations, and together they discussed the demands and leadership of the struggle.
workers went on strike in sites elected delegates, and assembly of delegates took the lead in mobilisations during the strike. In this can be seen the power that will In Britain, the intensification of the capitalist crisis has been coupled with open capitalist interference in the organisations of the workers movement, coupled with a systematic attack on democracy in the unions by their The possibility of a fight back against the attacks of the right-wing Labour Government must be eliminated. And the bureaucracy can claim some success in this: strike figures are the lowest for 27 years, while unemployment is the highest at any time since the in the following pages we examine the methods by which the bureaucracy has established its sway in the unions and Labour Party, and suggest ways in which it can be fought. Dave Wimhurst also writes from Portugal on the struggle there for workers democracy and workers control - a struggle which can only be brought to a final conclusion by the establishment of workers power: the establishment of the democracy of the working class they shall not include it on the
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