Vatican's various allies

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JOHN O'Mahony's analysis of the Church's role in Poland ('Why Jaruselski is pleased to welcome the Pope') is more than borne out by the subsequent article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Ossevatore Romano. The article stated that Lech Walesa should now abandon his role in the struggle for the independence of the Polish working class and that Solidarose should accept the counterrevolutionary military coup of the Polish Stalinist bureaucracy as a fact of life. The Polish workers should, of course, pray for better times in some unspecified future.

Only a few months ago, the Pope was touring to America and telling the people of Nicaragua and El Salvador that they should seek 'peaceful solutions' in the face of U$ imperialism's butchers.

Às comrade John points out, •The Catholic Church is the oldest bureaucracy in existence..." It will support any ruling class or bureaucratic caste, however oppressive, that serves its material interests. The Church's hierarchy understands that, in a socialist world, its material base would be utterly destroyed.

It is therefore an implacable enemy of the world socialist revolution; but it has a very clear understanding of the world revolutionary process - far clearer, unfortunately, than some of our comrades in the workers' movement.

The Catholic Church has no illusions about the world being divided into two 'camps' - one 'progressive' , the other 'imperialist'. There are probably very few 'Marxists' in the Vatican bureaucracy, and even fewer students of Trotsky, but, by their treatment of the governments of different countries around the world, the hierarchy demonstrate a clear grasp of the fact that there are three distinct sectors of the struggle towards a socialist world revolution: the Vatican preaches 'peaceful solutions' to the permanentlyrevolutionary struggles in the semi-colonial ('Third. World') countries; it cautions against the sinfulness of abandoning nuclear weapons in the rich imperialist countries; and it preaches acceptance of bureaucratic oppression in the Stalinist countries.

For the Church recognises what the great American Trotskyist, James P. Cannon, described in the 1940s, that ". ••• Stalinism is essentially an agency of world imperialism in the labour movement of the advanced countries, as well as in the colonial world" • We have to recognise that, whilst we must give unconditional support to the revolutionary struggles against imperialism in Central America, we will undermine those struggles and disarm our own working class's support for them, if we do not resolutely oppose their support for Stalinist positions - in particular their condemnation of the Polish workers' struggle through Solidarnosc.

The success of a political revolution, sparked off by a mass movement such as Solidarnosc, would deal the deathblow to imperialism in the colonial world and lead to mass support for revolutionary socialism in countries like Britain. Readers of Socialist Organiser should know that this is the position of the majority of Trotskyists in Britain and, indeed, throughout the world socialist revolutionary movement. The 'Angry Reader of Stockport' position is a minority one amongst Trotskyists.

JOHN NOLAN Birkenhead * 'Angry Reader' wrote to SO supporting Castroite politics in Foot was unconvincing. But why?

ao00ф Send letters to Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8. No longer than 400 words, please: longer letters are liable to be cut.

base IT CANT simply be assumed that if last month Labour had fought on a socialist manifesto with a united leadership, then we would have won a massive victory.

To rebuild Labour's base we have to convince people that they want a socialist society. Obviously that it done through work in part-

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