THE CONFERENCE of the International Marxist Group is to be held in London this month. In our 24 January issue we carried contributions on the way forward organisation different points of view inside the IMG. This week the League for Socialist Action, revolütionary organisation, gives its opinion on the matters under debate.
The LSA has voted in favour of fusion with the recent aggregate of the group. Participation conference discussion is part of the process towards joining the two The aim of the government is crystal-clear. It is to change the balance of class forces sufficiently to drive up the rate of profit for British capital. This aim - which has confronted all governments over the past few decades - she has pursued with ruthless determination.
Divide Implementing. laws, slashing social services to create a mass "pool" of unemployed, she : hopes to both divide and weaken the 'core" unions confrontations take place. The steel strike is the first example.
This erode all the won working class since the war, already drawn thousands struggle. As sectors movement thove into however, they inevitably pressure on their organisations lead that fight. The fight against the Tories is linked with a fight to turn their organisations into struggle'. This process can already be seen in the fact that it was not the 'left' but the TUC which led the mass Campaign against Corre rally and the Labour Party's national executive committee which organised the anti-cuts demonstration.
This growing pressure the tensions and fissures. within the trade union bureaucracy and the Labour Party (as registered at the last conference in the sweeping rebuffs to the Callaghan leadership).
The fight to turn decisive which seeks to the Dy has. into of the labour struggle, bring to 'tools of explains rooted their in practice, Calle This rejecting Icadership (a la Party) organisations' Trades Union are sectarian.
Mass action situate of this on concrete issues cadre significant the bureaucracy, this labour movement.
Developing us from the The discontent would asc basis, social issues expression in the Labour which building up to Callaghan). wing against the reformist leaders is in the struggle Tories. It is through fighting for mass action to defend living standards and basic rights that the reformist leaders basic be isolated and achislycly 'denunciations' of the Socialist Workers • building front (like the Socialist Campaign for Labour Victory, All Alliance etc), which class It is through building mass action - and supporting anti-Tory initiatives by sections of , if necessary - that 1) the thousands will be drawn into struggle and will be given the opportunity to test out the various currents in the class-struggle levl-wing cannor de lsolalca doi car Labour Party (which is the political wing of the trade union movement).
and radicalisation that emerges in the unions, often on a political IfUS Party (as can already be seen in the opposition young In seeking to build mass action against the Tory offensive, we must carry this struggle to put the means that all supporters in the unions should be active if the Labour Party if a real orientation to be Analysis of the the Labour Coordinating Committee ÷ is important here.
The demands that we raise should be aimed at reinforcing two concepts: class independence and class unity. The positions we advocate to deal with unemployment and inflation register our belief that responsibility for the capitalist crisis. working class The fight to win the movement for defence of abortion rights or anti-racist work is based on the attempts to unite the • WOrKINg against attempts to split While comrades will be involved in day-to-day work in the Labour Party etc, we feel national priority terms should be around: anti-cuts 2) abortion; 3) the immigration laws;
All other activities of the IMG Launching a youth organisation is vital today since the layer we should campaigning programme. Instead of should be clear from the start that International (though organisation Fraction work in the Labour Party Young Socialists should be a priority.
As regards Socialist Challenge, we feel that it should cease being a paper for the left but should re-orient itself towards those layers in the labour movement are influence It should be a) explaining basic labour problems of concern Ciobs, wily •it ' протал. it racism/sexism our demands to answer the crisis. d). reporting unions, that Socialist Challenge should be a paper ot workers for political thrust should be explaining the need for united action. labour movement and putting the reformists on the spot (not in sectarian way but in terms of action).
Finally it is clear that the IMG cannot become a mass party merely through individual Splits and fusions, particularly from the Labour Party, will play a centra. role in this process and we must be constantly on the alert to seek out forces moving in our direction.
Fusions, however, dictated by abstract schemas, but by the dynamic of the class struggle itself which will push certain tendencies closer to us (and draw others away). If the IMG adopts a clear strategy in the labour movement, fusion with the SWP must be rejected Not only is the SWP programmatically opposed should towards fusion could mean adapting the SWP's line which passed by the dynamic of the class struggle in the years ahead.
itself organised well Marxist be £47.50 meals, facilities, send seeking Portugal THE Portuguem Trotskyists of the s Tabled their vote to t 37,800 Deceraber's assembly elections, and would have deputy if proportional representation had been established on a national scale The PSR made gains throughout country. These pronounced in the Setubal industrial vote increased agrarian reform area, and some districts in the north. It managed this despite an intensive media witch-hunt: on the last day of campaign the radio and networks even falsely announced that the PSR slate had been invalidated by the electoral courts.
Particularly upsetting the authorities was the PSR's emphasis on the fight for the right to abortion. It was able to publicise this and its other positions through 65 minutes on television and 12 hours on various radio stations (of which six hours was on national radio). Having profited this unique opportunity, the PSR is now trying to consolidate national scale and is beginning a recruitment campaign. Summer school A SPECIAL summer school is being by the Marxist Group this year. The school will take place near Cambridge from 12-18 July inclusive.
The school is limited to 130 people and will feature as its main •Zith century revolution as subsidiary courses on the British labour movement, Marxism and the family, an introduction to economics and issues in political economy.
The all-in cost of the school will which will include all social events, films, sports swimming and country walks. A deposit of £10 secures your place at the school. (All cheques to be made payable to the 'The Week', and to PO Box 50, , London 2XP.) The school is open to Socialist Challenge supporters on application to local IMG branches