During the last week of the Tory Party conference, some 200 unemployed youth marched 300 miles from North Wales to Brighton in order to demonsttate wen plignt.
There can be no doubting their seriousness of these young people, eager to draw attention to the hardship facing growing numbers. Why then. It must be asked - wiel tree are over two milon on tne dole - did not the campaign gain wider support?
If the Socialist Workers Party, who were the campaign's key backers, are correct in their strategv why was the road to bacon not over was will tens of thousands opposing the Tory 'dole' policies?
SIDELINES The answer is not difficult to Work march was not organised in the labour movement. It did not stem out of a real tight - in umon ana Labour rariv oranenes - to launch a mass opposition to the Tory government.
On the contrary, It was a 'stunt' organised by the SWP oursue or une labour movement with tne al or getting paoncity for itself. Such a sectarian position of 'going it alone' didn't attract many workers who don't see it - or its sideline campaigns - as the answer to Thatcherism.
SWP stunt can be seen most clearly if it is contrasted with the mass demonstration against unemov ment aunched. m Liverpool on November 29th, by the Labour Party.
INADEQUATE Not only was the SWP campaign a diversion away from the mass anti-Tory struggles but the focus of its demands was equally maaccuate. The march concent. rated around the call for the Iignt to Work While this is correct, it didn't offer any other demands which would give workers a perspective as to how it could be acheived. It ignored, for example, two of the key slogans passed at the last Labour Partv conterence: for "A 35-hour week' and for an extension - not a cut-back - in social services.
These two demands offer workers practical - and reliablesolutions to the threat or the cole Why not shareout the amount of work available among the existing workforce without loss of pay? And why not 'soak up' those already on the dole in socially useful tasks - like building hospitals which are in short supply?
ON THE SPOT Finally, another basic weakness of the Right to Work campaign was mal ll our une onus lor 1120ling unemployment upon those wn are are our ok wołk Drawing together the largely disorganised ranks of the unemployed is not only difficult. It is incorrect.
If the fight against unemployment is to be successful, it can only be won by mobilising the muss vower or are trace uniors and th? Labour Party. collective weight can draw the unempioved benino them ane show the government we mean business.
Mobilising the trade unions and Labour Party, however, -as happened on November 29th means that vou have. first of all to be part of them. And for the we busy on the sde mes or the labour movement, this is a difficult task. cher was elected, America is being portrayed as entering an 'era of conservatism'.
Such a picture is a fraud. While the American ruling class may be shifting right. that is certainly not true of US workers. stemming from the election was not a landslide victory for Reagan but a landslide against both candidates of big business.