popular support the character, such a call?
and of interests of US imperialism.
socialisma Games the hesses their he PRESIDENT CARTER has called for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow unless Soviet troops эте withdrawn from Afghanistan within a month. It is an appeal which will meet with much instinctive including in the movement. It also has the backing of a number of East European dissidents. So why should socialists - even those opposed to the Soviet invasion and the rule of the Moscow bureaucracy — firmly reject Carter's appeal has nothing to do with human rights, self-determination, or any other issue of concern to working people. He himself more or less admitted it in his TV broadcast, describing the invasion as an 'unprecedented act, a threat to a vitai area of the world where the interests of our country and our allies are deeply embedded'. In other words, boycott the Olympic Games to defend the If any further proof were needed that this is what is intended, just think back a bit to 1968. Then the Olympics were held in Mexico. On the eve of the pro-imperialist regime shot hundreds of protesting students in cold blood. No-one at the White House batted an eyelid.
And then there are the Tory canvassers of a Moscow boycott. Many of them are simultaneously as it re-establishes Pinochet in Chile imperialist intervention affairs.
revolutions wake of Vietnam.
down promising sign for the imperialists. the most ardent supporters of the British Lions rugby tour to South Africa — a country where the politics of apartheid determine every single aspect of the way sport is run. It is this Tory government, too, which seeks to punish Moscow at the same time diplomatic relations a classic product of an country's Carter's boycott call is part of a new US war drive whose main target is not the USSR at all -Carter still proclaims his commitment to detente with the Kremlin buresucracy — but the emerging which threaten capitalism's control of the world market. The problem for Carter, Thatcher and their cronies is not lack of striking power. It is the deeply suspicious attitude of working people in the West to the prospect of further military adyentures by their rulers in the They must be softened up to accept new interventions which can put a stop to anti-imperialist upsurges such as those in Iran, Nicarague, and eslewhere. In this sense, the lack of international protest at the despatch of British troops to police the elections in Zimbabwe is a It is a sign of the bankruptcy of the Soviet imperialist campaign against our class. struggles throughout • against whoever threatens them.
conditions Thatcher and rolling back their war drive. bureaucracy that their invasion of Afghanistan has been the single biggest boost to this political drive to roll back the worldwide struggle of working people. But to go along with any suggestion of a boycott of the Moscow Olympics would simply reinforce the Equally there are those who say that both the Olympic Games and the Lions tour should go ahead because sport should have nothing to do politics. We disagree. The Lions tour should be stopped. We take this position because our efforts must be directed towards extending working class solidarity, both with the emerging anti-imperialist the world and with the workers of the Soviet Union itself. Our alternative to the Moscow bureaucracy has nothing to do with that of Carter. We argue for socialist democracy because that is the most effective way of defending the gains and interests of the world working class That is why we don't merely say that the Olympics should go ahead in Moscow; we want to against the repressive through labour delegations and the like — which can help to Improve the situtation of the opposition. This is the best way of exposing the demagogy of Carter and Next weekend, potentially one of the most powerful bodies movement is The Liaison Committee for the Defence Unions will discuss the response to the ories.
Delegates will be arguing that the. steelworkers' strike should be joined by national strike action to stop all closures and job loss — in the steel the railways. and British Leyland. Militants will be pushing for tirsl step In a movement to kick out the Tories.