tunately Jim is more concerned with the message he is getting from the IMF than from the working class. Jim is quite happy to open the books to the IMF, but he has no intention of opening them to the workers.
It will need a campaign of national mass action to end the social contract and force a halt to the CULS. Where the Communist Party trail after the Fisherites, patting them on the back for every good deed, socialists must demand that the lefts mount a real fight. we must demand that they name the date for a day of national strike action. Red Weekly calls on its supporters in the public sector to campaign for a day of national strike action in their unions, mount lobbies of their union execuLIves force home the point, and take up the call in the local and area strikes, such as the Midlands NUPE strike called for 1 December.
This is the next step in building a public sector alliance for mass action to stop the cuts - an alliance that is prepared to take on the Social Contract and the anti-working class policies of the Labour Government. In this way the lack of involvement of workers in other unions can be overcome in the fight against the cuts. held on the issue. For these worthies the Basque nation against Francoist oppression. against a Scottish assembly last week.
'parliamentary means quite deliberately, Assemblies outside the Palace of Westminster. government for their own ends' attitude to democracy, in favour of any referendum include trade and industry referendum would be a farce delighted, soon as it is set up an acceptable Bill on devolution...
the two parties gets fainter every day.
sions, both have the same starting point: politics are parliamentary procedures and backstairs deals.
tion for Scotland Devolution for Scotland hit the headlines again last week when over 70 Labour MPs signed a motion to block any legislation until a referendum is the 'national question' something which arises in the colonial world like Vietnam and Angola, or as part of the struggle against autocracy, in the shape of the struggle of But the national struggle in Ireland, the sweeping victory of the Parti Quebecois in Canada and the likelihood of similar victories for the Scottish National Party in the next General Election have brought the national question into the heart of the so-called 'advanced democracies'.
But there are none so blind as those who will not see. The Labour MPs claim in their motion to the Commons that devolution does not appear to enjoy the public support which would justify such a major and irreversible constitutional change.' It was presumably on this basis that Neil Kinnock felt able to share the same television platform as Enoch Powell in arguing But what underlies the refusal of these MPs to confront the problems raised by devolution? Their real aim is to block and sabotage by any parliamentary means possible the setting up of the Assembly. We say for behind the motion is the Tribunites' staunch defence of British parliamentary sovereignty. It was this which led them to wave the Union Jack so enthusiastically during the EEC campaign against foreign' rule from Brussels. Today the same arguments are being used to counter the 'disunity' of demanding separate This has been taken to its logical but absurd conclusion in Scotland where the Labour Party's research officer, Alf Young, explained to an incredulous press conference that he now considered the SNP to be a subversive organisation as they were out to 'use the institutions of This parliamentarism leads the Labour lefts to a totally manipulative government imposed from above on the Scottish people. However, this latest manoeuvre looks like ending in a sick joke. The Liberals have threatened to boycott it unless it includes a provision for federalism, the Scottish Labour Party have demanded that powers for the Scottish Assembly, and the SNP will urge their supporters to vote against if the words 'separation' or 'isolation' are used anywhere. In light of this, such a demonstrating notning except the manoeuvring stupidity of the Tribune group. In fact the SP are privately and now cheerfully intend to disregard any result and introduce a new referendum to strengthen the powers of the Assembly as The two SLP MPs were well placed to mount a campaign in the labour movement against the bureaucratic arrogance of the 70 MPs. Instead their central al raly me previous da working class towards the middle class SP. 'If the government produce then they can survive, stated Jil Sillars. 'Acceptable', that is, to the SNP and to the SLP whose votes now apparently form an organised bloc to preserve the 'national' interests of This move can only be disastrous for Sillars and Robertson. In return for trade and industry powers to the proposed Assembly they have promised blanket support for the Government on any vote of confidence. Presumably this would mean a change in their position of voting agains. the cuts, if the vote was for one of 'confidence' - a high price indeed to pay for the temporary prestige of a parliamentary alliance with the SNP. Unlike much of his membership, Jim Sillars is against actually dissolving his organisation into the ranks of the SP; but the dividing line betweer Any alliance with the SNP is just as useless to the labour movement as is the Tribunites' anti-devolution stance. Despite the different conclureduced to The Labourites, however left, have no answer to the political problems raised by the disintegration of the United Kingdom under the impact of the social and economic crisis of British capitalism. Their only alternative is either to pretend it isn't happening, or to be driven into the camp of Enoch Powell and the banner of parliamentary sovereignty. All socialists in England should be straightforward in their demand of self-determina-