WoRkERS REViEW Stalinist Purge In S.W.P

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Party as a clear and definitive break by the trade unions from the Democrats and Republicans must be confronted squarely.

The discussion at a 300-strong October 1 conference organised in Oakland by the rank and file organisation 'Labour Notes' underlined the limitations of even militant trade unionism if not linked to a political perspective. Activists reported on an impressive range of struggles, pointing to the scope for rank and file organisation: but, despite the looming reality of the 1984 Presidential elections, no peaker would explicitly addres ne question of building a Lab our Party to give workers an independent voice, and only one platform speaker openly attacked Mondale.

As a result, employed workers, a majority payments. are women. 20% are black -double the percentage of blacks in the US population. and queues for charity hand- ty is bringing malnutrition But such a bland average conceals the massive scale of unemployment in concentrated areas of black population in cities such as Detroit - where it a new federal food distribution can be a rarity for a black youth to have a job. 30,000 households - compris Likewise, the average figure for unemployment among Hi- people. spanic workers - one third above the national average -conceals the astronomical con- Louis Post-Dispatch, centrated levels of unemployment amongst the Chicano communities in the South and West and amongst Hispanics in cities like New York. food. It's pathetic". While the working class as a The 100,000 target whole has come under the ham- pointed out, is:

lie idle and three million workers In the absence of adequate were laid off by plant closures social security provision, pover- in 1982, industrialists have coinLed in benefits from Reagan's policies - with corporate taxes outs of food by church and gov- now contributing a mere 6.6% ernment agencies in working of federal revenues as against class districts. In St Louis alone, 12.5% before Reagan. .

Under such conditions, with centre expects soon to serve class divisions opening wider than ever, and the glaring ing approximately 100,000 necessity for social provision of health care, housing, unemployThe director of this 'Human ment benefits and other protecDevelopment Corp.' told the St tion, the case for the building of La Labour Party, to speak for the "It's an indictment on our trade union rank and file, the current economy: I think it's a oppressed minorities, the downshame what there are so many trodden unemployed and unpeople in need of this kind of organised, is one that must be central to the workers' movement.

The between Asian bases, and for a halt to the Carter/Reagan arms drive, militants in the USA must boldly raise the call for a Labour rary 17___. based squarely on the American working class, and point to the need for the nationalisation of the banks and major industrial corporations.

That it is possible to make progress in the building of an explicitly socialist alternative is shown by the emergence in California of the Peace and Freedom Party, which is established on the ballot with 49,000 registered supporters and over 100,000 votes in the last elections. The P&FP platform sums up its policies as follows:

• Full employment and a decent standard of living for all, with a shorter work week and a Workers' Review is published by the Proletarian Tasks Tendency, PO Box 40458, San Francisco, CA.94140. Copies available, 70p plus postage, from Socialist Organiser.

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