[SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real…]

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SOCIALIST Organiser fights to act as a real campaigning paper which can organise

workers in the struggle for new leadership.

To do so we need consistent support and money. Socialist Organiser Alliance groups Why not join with us? Supporters are asked to. undertake to sell a minimum of 6 papers per week and contribute at least £1.50 If there is no group in your area why not have been established in most big towns.

per month (20p for unwaged):

help us to build one?

To 'Get Organised', write at once to us 28 Middle Lane, London NS.

Name Address with an agonising dilemma. Should they risk expulsion by refusing to register or risk infiltration and disbandment if they do?

Threat

A major difficulty for the right wing proposals for a witch-hunt of left-wingers is that it will be immensely difficult for them to deliver the goods. How will the members of a banned organisation be prevented from meeting together in the local pub to discuss issues of common concern? The truth is that the right will not be able to stop organisation completely. They will only be able to limit its effectiveness.

Given this clear threat to the stability of the Party, it is quite astonishing that a majority of the Tribune Group refused to oppose the witch-hunting tactics of the leadership on Monday.

But this is nothing new.

The only purpose in some of the soft left's membership of the Tribune Group

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Socialist Organiser no 9" July 8. 198. Pați i= - AGA NST. SALOR TRAINED DEAR COMRADE THE SHAPE of the next Labour government being 'determined in the Labour Party now. The shape of the labour movement in the period ahead is being decided now too. The report endorsed by the NEC on Militant is nothing less than the manifesto of Labour's counterrevolution. If consistently implemented, it will impose a tight regime on the Labour Party, tighter than it has ever known.

The Labour Party would take a giant step towards the cauterising, sterilising, and centralised bureaucratic regimes that stifle and limit most of the European counterparts of the Labour This is the answer of the Parliamentarians and the trade union bureaucrats to the revolt of the rank and file in the last three years. This is their response to the labour movement's drive, in which we have participated, over the last few years to renew, remake and regenerate itself.

After all the enthusiasm, the aspirations, and the hopes, which welled up in the labour movement, and like a flood-tide shifted and lifted the Labour Party from its long-time moorings in the centre of British politics - is this to be the outcome? A tighter bureaucratic regime in the Labour Party which allows the old establishment to live and operate within the new rules adopted in the last three years?

That will be the outcome if we do not stir ourselves and stop the right wing offensive now. It can still be stopped.

What are the lessons of the last three years? The rank and file revolt was a belated revolt against the governments of Wilson and Callaghan which paved the way for Thatcher and pioneered Thatcher's monetarist policies. The cry of the rank and file was: never ureater aemocracy was damnna to be the means to the end of getting a Labour government next time which would really serve the labour movement. With the rank and file of the Party overwhelmingly left-inclined (as witness the 83% vote for you in the deputy leadership campaign), success seemed assured.

What has gone wrong?

The unions were the first problem. Decisive voting power in the Labour Party was and is in the hands of union bureaucrats who are elected once or twice in a lifetime, or not at all. Some of them favoured the changes at the beginning. But to expect them to transform the political labour movement is to look to the Bourbons to make the revolution. Much of the revolution will have to be made against them.

Press The other main problem was the vast reserves that the Right and the establishment could draw on in bourgeois society, with the aid of the press. • The SDP was the first result. The second result was that the softer Left and the naked careerists lost their nerve and looked for 'compromises" - compromises that left the political establishment entrenched within the new rules.

At wilt last sauvul fairy At the last Tahnur Portr conference the soft Left and the Right got control of the NEC.

But these were 'probl ems' that the serious Left knew about and should have taken account of.

It's no use blaming our opponents and the unreliable 'Left' for being true to their own natures. We must blame the serious Left for not doing better, despite these known difficulties.

For we had - and have - a great deal going for us: a vast rank and file desire for change; the obvious need for the labour movement to be able to put forward a government which is a real alternative. Thatcherism; the fact that the Right and soft Left have. no political answers; and the fact that the trade union barons are vulnerable to the activity of the rank and file in the unions.

The great mistake of the serious Left was that we failed to organise properly. It was only with the deputy leadership campaign that the Labour Left began to take the issue of Labour Party democracy seriously into the unions. The issue of union democracy has not been taken up, except on an unavoidably small scale by Socialist Organiser and London Labour Briefing.

Socialist Organiser believes that a central weakness of the broad Left which you personify is that it does not have fully developed working class polities for the replacement of capitalism by a democratic socialist system; and on some.. vital issues it has positively wrong politics. Your own arguments for a British national liberation struggle have been discussed at length in Socialist Organiser. And we have stressed that the work of Michael Meacher to prepare the way for a new incomes policy under a Labour government is not compatible with serious left wing politics. We believe that the socialist struggle will not be won in Parliament - however important Parliamentary politics may be - but by working-class direct action.

Despite this, the Left could have done much better against the establishment if we had been organised. To preserve the possibility of a free discussion in the labour movement on these and other political questions is an essential common task. And that possibility is now threatened by the Right and soft Left counter-offensive.

If they set up the new system at the next Conference, the decisive question will be wnetner we let tem --11 L AL-_ work it, i.e. whether the broad Left fights back and organises resistance. That in turn will depend on whether the Left now. settles into accepting that the Right/soft Left has come out on top for the moment' That would mean accepting defeat, at least for the period leading up to the election and perhaps beyond it.

It would be to accept that all the hopes of the last three years are to be trampled on; to accept in advance, that the next Labour government will be as bankrupt as the last one; to accept that the labour movement has n iate comprehens native to Thatche We cannot, 1 and will not acce defeat. Voluntar ance of such a de out a struggle, is uishable from th betrayal in whie! Left specialises.

We should n understand that proposals amour entially - to a m ritarian regime lo immedsive alterrism. must not, ept such a feat, withindistingle sort of h the soft ot fail to the new it - potore authothan anything known in the past in the Labour Party. Before, a newspaper or group was left alone unless banned; now it will be assumed to be outside the Party unless the Parliamentarians and the other leaders accept it. Under this regime, the Michael Foots and Stafford Crippses and Aneurin Bevans of the past would have found no place in the We must organise to fight back. The demise of Labour Liaison 82 is the opposite of what is needed: yet it does express the decision of whole sections of the broad Left to acquiesce in the victory of the Right and soft Left.

You, comrade Benn -we say it despite our political disagreements with you - have played a tremendous role in organising, rousing, and leading the Left in the last few years.

Right now you could stop the retreat, and rally the forces of the Left for a new advance.

You could stand against Foot for leader of the Party. You could create a campaigning organisation to fight for the leadership of the Party.

You said after the NEC decision: "I will die an unregistered socialist" We need to organise as unregistered socialists! You pledged to fight like a tiger: we need to prepare the sinews and muscles for such a fight.

Foot is now the close ally of the Right. We were correct to support him against Healey. But he is now serving Healey's politics.

Stand against him!

The deputy leadership was a position of little power. It was a symbolic DONT WISH contest. Challenge Foot for the position of real authority.

You would be unlikely to win. But you would rally the Left in the constituencies, and we could pick up the work begun with the deputy leadership campaign of organising in the trade unions.

It would be a clear declaration that the Left is not beaten and is in no mood to surrender.

It would be a warning to those who will control the next Labour government that this time they had better not ignore the movement. It would be a beginning on organising the rank and file to resist the right and soft left in the next Labour government.

It would be a major liftoff for the work of organising for trade union democracy.

Crossroads

The labour movement is now at the political crossroads, comrade Benn. Ii we let the Right and soft Left consolidate their victories, the chance may not come again for years or decades to do what we hoped to do in the campaigns of the last three years - remake the labour movement into a force to transform British society.

More perhaps than any other single individual in the labour movement, you, invencine the direction the British labour movement taxes now.

We urge you to stop the retreat of the Left. Stand against Foot for leader!

JOHN BLOXAM JOHN O'MAHONY

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miners revolt •PLO leaders face Beirut dilemma BOMBARDED AND DESERTED! £6000 fund Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the SOA. Published by the Socialist Organiser Alliance, 28 Middle Lane, London N& 8PL Printed by Fast End Offset. Linden F3., DESPITE renewed aerial and artillery bombardment, with water, electricity and most food supplies cut off, and abandoned by their so-called allies in the other Arab nations, the Palestinian guerrillas in Bierut continue to hold out for a negotiated withdrawal that will preserve their organisation.

There is no doubt that as result of the ruthless, genocidal onslaught of the Zionist military machine the PLO has suffered an extremely serious setback.

The invasion of Lebanon has destroyed their last military strongholds within striking distance of the borders of Israel, and captured vast stocks of PLO arms and ammunition.

les A meeting called by London Labour Briefing on Monday night 5th July, agreed to form the Unregistered Alliance to fight the present witch-hunt. Together with London Labour Briefing, Tribune, Militant, Women's Fightback, Socialist Organiser, National Left Wing Youth Movement, Labour Herald, Socialist Challenge and members from many CUPs ere represented at the The call is for all groups in the Labour Party to join the Unregistered Alliance, and for all sections of the Party to:

*Oppose any expulsions within the Party due to the witch-hunt.

*Refuse to cooperate with any inquiries into groups and organisations in the Party.

*Oppose the register, refuse to register with the NEC. Constituency parties not to cooperate with NEC requests for information.

Central to the fight will be the unions, and the need to campaign to commit union delegations to Party Conference, to link up with the industrial struggles against the Tories and work closely with union Broad Lefts.

*Further information: Jeremy Corbyn, 28 Lausanne Rd., London N8 (01-340 9069). :. * It has also created conditions for heavy iepression of the left wing Lebanese allies who had rallied to the Palestinian cause.

They, together with the whole population of South Lebanon will now find themselves increasingly under the heel of the Zionist invaders and their fascist allies in the Christian Phalangist militias.

All of this is welcome news not only to the Zionist war chiefs in Tel Aviv but also to their imperialist sponsors in Washington.

But for the Reagan administration it is important also to preserve. harmonious relations with the Arab bourgeois regimes of the Middle East - in particular Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States whose compliance is vital to US military and diplomatic strategy in the region.

This why Reagan's envoy Philip Habib has been drifting disconsolately around seeking to patch up some kind of deal which can allow the PLO leaders to evacuate Beirut with the minimum of humiliation.

But with Zionist leader Begin having gone to such lengths to crush the strength of the PLO, and confronted by a rising mood of popular opposition to the war at home, Habib is involved in a race against time.

There now seems to be no chance that US pressure could - even if Reagan chose to do so - force the immediate withdrawal of Zionist forces from Beirut before the final evacuation of the PLO from its former headquarters.

WHEN Arthur Scargill got elected president of the National Union of Mineworkers, many left activists in the union were worried that his militancy might start disappearing among the cushions of the office armchair.

They'll still be watching warily. But in the meantime they'll be cheering loudly.

For, as Arthur Scargill told the NUM conference in Inverness this week, his election as president was "a demand for a break with the past, a demand for a differ ent kind of leadership". And so far Scargill has delivered on that demand.

Under his leadership, the NUM conference has voted • to consider re-election of all Begin knows full well that though Reagan may huff and puff the US administration could not withdraw the vast military and economic aid which sustain the Zionist war machine.

Indeed just as the Falklands war underlined that the US relates primarily to its fellow European imperialists and only secondly to its sponsored Latin American dictatorships, the Lebanese invasion has confirmed that the alliance with Israel is for the US paramount over its attempts to cobble together deals with reactionary Arab regimes.

But it has also shown that none of the Arab bourgeoisies is prepared to take the lead in openly opposing imperialist and Zionist While marches of 20,000 and 100,000 against the war have surged through Tel Aviv, the opposition in the Arab countries has been remarkably low key; instead, reactionary regimes * have confined their attention to back stage negotiations on the evacuation of the beaten PLO.

The utter bankruptcy of the "rejectionist" Arab leaders is summed up in the message to PLO leader Yasser Arafat from Libyan despot Colonel Gaddafi. He advised the guerrillas to fight to the death, and Arafat personally to commit suicide rather than negotiate with the Zionists.

"Your suicide would immortalise the Palestinian cause for future generations .. Your blood will fuel the inevitable revolution from the Atlantic Ocean to the c a ner full-time officials every five years (overturning an Executive decision). It has decided to shift the union headquarters from London into the coalfields.

It has voted for a restructuring of the union to give the big coalfields their proper weight within it. It has laid down a £27.20 flatrate pay claim - and detailed plans to fight for it, committing the union to call a special conference if the Coal Board rejects the claim.

Scargill has given the Coal Board a sit-week deadline fo withdraw the closure of Snowdown colliery, or face industrial action. He has boldly denounced the witchhunt in the Labour Party against Militant, and called Gulf."

With advice like this from their "friends" , the Palestinians scarcely need enemies.

Pounded by Zionist bombs and shells, forsaken in their hour of desperate need, the PLO fighters have little choice but to regroup elsewhere to continue their struggle for the right of return to their homeland and the overthrow of the racially exclusive Zionist state.

That struggle has never been winnable simply by guerrilla means or by alliances with existing bourgeois Arab regimes: now more than ever it requires a revolutionary strategy for the mobilisation of workers and peasants against their repressive governments throughout the Middle East.

The British workers movement must lend its solidarity to that struggle.

enay for a socialist policy.

He has made clear and repeated calls for miners to defy Tory anti-union law and strike in support of the The union conference gave recognition to Int "break from the past" by passing a censure motion on ex-president Joe Gormley for accepting a peerage and for using the columns of the Daily Express to urge acceptance of a Coal Board pay offer.

The NUM right wing is reeling, and the whole union is now firmly on path for confrontation with the Tory government, after the Novemher 1 pay seitlement date or maybe even carlier. It shows what a little militant lçadership can des. SCOTLAND Glasgow Edinburgh Stirling Carlisle Total YORKSHIRE AND NORTH YORKSHIF EAST Durham York Bradford Leeds Hull Sheffield Total NORTH-WE Merseyside Manchester Winsford Stoke Total WEST MIDI Birmingham Coventry Total 16.40 40.00 56:40 ORTH 110.00 68.00 102.50 280.50 120.00 148.00 10.00 278.00 328 .00 590 .80 918 1.80 IN a massive show of militancy, tens of thousands of black mineworkers have gone on strike in South Africa. The strikewave started on Friday (2 July)

when 13,500 workers mobilised at a mine near Johannesburg.

By Monday, at least five gold mines had been hit by strike action. At least eight workers have been killed by the bosses' police. Hundreds, probably thousands, of workers have been sacked and forced under the pass laws into rural areas, where there is nothing but starvation and disease.

Workers are showing their anger at the new wages announced by the mine bosses' organisation - an 1112% increase which brings the minimum up to £66 a month for underground workers.

But inflation is effectively over 20%. This is in fact a cut in real wages. For these starvation wages, workers work a six day week, and 12 hour days under the most terrible safety, health and living conditions.

The mines are like giant prisons in which workers are cut off from the outside world by barbed wire and constantly under the armed guard of the bosses'. • private police.

The standard response to a strike is an attack by these police, using tear gas, dogs, bullets and helicopters.

In the recent strikes the bosses have been forced to call on the state police for help to put down the workers.

The courageous action of the mineworkers in the face of massive oppression is a fighting example to workers everywhere.

The vicious response of the bosses and their government shows yet again the real meaning behind all the recent talk and plans of reforming apartheid, and the powerful action of the miners shows yet again the answer of the black workers to these plans.

_Eta EAST MIDLANDS Nottingham 114.00 Leicester 60.00 Northampton Total 174.00 WALES EST Cardiff 45.00 Bristol Total 45.00 WEST Oxford 357.00 Southamp Basingstok 45.00 Total 402.00 LONDON SOUTH-EAST Brighton -London 256.00 Total 256.00 MISCELLANEOUS 138.80 TOTAL £ 2549.80 Send donations to. Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8 8PL..

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MANOS JOHN HARRIS