IN a recent attack on t'iose fighting for democracy in the Labour Party, railways union leader Sid Weighell conjured up images of work in salt mines for anyone disagreeing with Tony Benn.
Weighell was using the capitalists' lie that socialism equals totalitarianism. and playing on the lack of democratic rights in tae soviet Umon, to smeat lellwingers in the labour movement.
But what does the repressive regime in the USSR really show about that country What kind of societies exist in countrics like the Soviet Union?
To answer this it is necessary to go back to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In this historic event ordinary working people took power in their own hands, sweeping aside the ruling class exploiters and tyrants and their stooges - like today's "gang of three" - in the workers' They began to build a society of freedom and equality.
HISTORIC GAINS Workers began to run the factories and the state through elected councils Oppressed nationalities were grantea tne rignt to deciae tnell own futures. Abortion was legalised and special measures taken to put women and men on an equal basis. The antihomosexual laws were repealed.
It is important to remember how deep and how historic these gains were, as the runng class — wich Is agamst au tnese rights - tries to submerge tne gains beneath layer after layer of lies.
Recently, the Socialist Workers Party, Australian section of the Fourth International, held their two-yearly national conference in Sydney. Len Wagstaff was myed to une conteresce.
The 8th National Conference of the SWP(Australia) was lively, interesting and well-organised. It was regarded as a big success oy au tnose wno parucipalca With six days of activities scheduled between 9 am and midnight, the agenda was able to cover all the main features of the political situation and the party's role in the next period.
As well as all the usual discussion of nowever. the revolton che not take place in the most favourable circumstances for the working class and its Bolshevik leadership.
Russia was an extremely backward county, winch meant tnere were vast objective difficulties to overcome. It was also devastatea by tne worla wal, wilh millions of workers losing their lives, production falling and many factories being destroyed. sened by the civil war launched by the dispossessed rulers and their allies. Fourteen foreign armies contributed to the the international and Australian political situation, the party's political programme, youth activity, building the party's weekly paper Direct Action, industrial and labour party work, and building the party, there was a special item devoted to the unfolding revolution in the Caribbean and Central America Another special item evaluated the party's recent campaign for Jobs For Women in Wollongong, a town where the sole major employer is a steelworks. The on 150 women. This success was partly aue to the overwnelming support ol the existing (male) workforce, contrary to prior claims by the union bureaucracy Lilat the men would see the campaign as a threat to 'their jobs.
Severar films were shown, including El Salvador - Revolution or Death, and there was a hularious Cabaret - a tradtion at SWP conferences. greetings were given by the SWP(USA) and the SAL (New Zealand section of the Fourth International). Bolshevik demonstration in 1917. Workers won big gains through revolution.
destruction. Famine also stalked the land.
rating programmes of the Bolsheviks.
CRUSHED Led countries - which would be able to This situation was wor- ald reconstruction in Russia - were crushed by the capitalists. Leading socialists like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered, along with two years ago, Airey Neave was porIn fact, Neave was one of Thatcher's closest allies. He was a staunch right-winger who planned covert methods to suppress the labour movement.
Statesman, MI6 electronics expert Lee Tracey has exposed the ex-MP for plotleading a Labour government.
Internationa RESISTANCE Neave feared that Callaghan might retire early and leave a clear path for 1940.
cratic rights.
Ins meant inere were lew resources for carrying out the ambitious and libeAl une same ume me crucia racor oI revolutions in more industrially developugenice nelwork ASSASSINATED by a car bomb attack stopped". trayed by the press at the time as a harmless politician killed by mindless terrorists. reliable - was quite clear that these plans SILENT In a sensational interview with the New have kept silent.
ting Chile-style tactics to stop Tony Benn Benn does". many workers, by the forerunners of Williams, Rodgers and Owen in Germany.
In reaction to all these defeats a layer of people in the Bolshevik Party gave up the revolutionary perspective. They beselves and their families scarce goods and services, at the expense of everyone else This layer, led by Stalin, developed into a hardened bureaucratic caste. It grew as Stalin opened up the gates of the party to hordes of self-seekers, many of whom had opposed the revolution.
Because of the decimation of the working class and its growing passivity, Stalin's opponents were defeated. Lenin, who had begun the fight, had already died in 1924. Trotsky, who carried it on, was expelled from the USSR and murAs the U'SSR developed, the bureaucrats appropriated more privileges. In order to do so, they had to crush demoCOLLECTIVE PROPERTY Many of the gains of the October revolution were turned back. But the collective property relations established by the Bolsheviks remained. To have overturnca inese woula nave requirea a massive counter-revolution. posses.
Private ownership of the means of mass production does not exist and so production is not based on enriching the ew a moe exoeuse or zoe maav nas the USSR is not any kind of capitalist Benn to take over as leader of the Labour Party. Just before the last General Election, he discussed with security service agents plans for an "army of resistance" in case of a Labour victory.
One of the agents he contacted was interests Tracey. According to Tracey - an experienced intelligence operative - the contact was made through a world intelNeave asked Tracev to ioin a team of agents who would "make sure Benn was Tracey - whose past statements have always turned out to be included the possible use of violence Not surprisingly, the bourgeois media Even on BBC telivision's Panorama ın which Iracev was allowed to speak out, the programme was shown omy allet severe Interventon ana cultig.
Despite the fact that Benn refused to Deneve mne sioiv. ure vew azotesman published it because "we know the source and the circumstances better that Mr
Socialist Action activity was reported to have been especially difficult to obtain beMARCH 1981
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Australian socialists hold conference
Real face of ruling class 'democracy'