The Thatcher government has an historic mission - to raise the rate of profit of ailing British capitalism sufficiently to enable it to compete in a shrinking world market.
In order to achieve this end, it is forced into the most ruthless attack on workers' living standards and democratic rights seen since the last war. Pushing the jobless total to over three million - in order to cripple unions' bargaining power -is only one aspect of this offensive.
It has been coupled with an axing of the social services and a ruthless attempt to erode the democratic rights won over decades of struggle. The attack on the right to strike, or enforce 100 per cent union membership, through the Employment Act, is a case in point.
WAR DRIVE For the Tories and their big business backers, such an offensive is vital at a time when ailing British industry is faced with growing competition due to international recession. Surviving in the cut-throat jungle of international trade means workers have to fork out in terms of wages, jobs, rights and - potentially - lives.
It is no accident that, at the very time that health and education are being cut to the bone, Thatcher is pouring millions into the nuclear death traps symbolised by the Trident missiles.
"Guns not butter", this is the slogan of the Tory government -and other capitalist governments around the world - as they step up their armaments programmes. The threat to world peace, as in the 'thirties, is being bought at the expense of decent hospitals, houses and schools.
DOUBLY OPPRESSED Worst hit by this offensive are, of course, those doubly oppressed layers of the workforce such as women or Blacks. It is they who are Under the attacks from the Tory government, a mass radicalisation is occurring in Labour's ranks. It is this radicalisation which has caused the major debate in the Labour Party and unions as rank-and-file workers come into head-on conflict with the pro-capitalist policies and undemocratic measures of the present leaders. Under such pressure, sections of the Labour right have split to form the SDP and others, grouped around Healey, are planning to overturn the gains made so far.
What attitude should socialists take to these developments? How can they best intervene to advance the struggle for socialism and democracy? How should they relate to leaders of the left such as Tony Benn? Below we reprint aspects of a report - presented at this year's Socialist Action conference - which seeks to answer such questions and chart out a clear course of action for socialists in the period ahead.
hardest hit by the cut-back in social services or the dramatic escalation in unemployment figures.
In order to get workers to accept the offensive, the Tories have launched an ideological campaign to weaken and divide the labour movement. They have consciously sought to whip up racist feelings -around the Nationality Act - and to restore the image of the "family" in which women, made redundant at twice the rate of men, are expected to find a "natural" occupation.
The clearest ideological stance of the Tories has been revealed in their attitude towards the heroic hunger-strikers in Northern Ireland. imprisoned for seeking to tree their country from British oppression. The hard line adopted by the Tories - which has led to the death of over 10 political prisoners - is, symbolically, an attempt to break the backs of all those who dare stand up to their anti-working class policies.
DISARRAY While having launched a determined attack on workers and their allies, however, the Thatcher government is confronted with an internal crisis. Attempts to beat workers into line through mass unemployment and a steady erosion of their rights has not achieved the desired aim.
Moreover, in the process of deflating the economy, British industry is being increasingly crippled on the international markets.
This has provoked sharp criticism in big business circles, reflected in the opposition within the cabinet by "wets" such as Prior.
Although the differences are merely tactical in nature, they reflect the growing loss of confidence among sectors of big business that Thatcher will be able to restore the rate of profit without setting off a powder-keg of anger and resentment among working people.
Socialist Action Pamphlets
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JUSTIFIED attacks by the Thatcher government deepen, there has been a layers of the labour movement. Faced with a massive loss of jobs and democratic rights, more and Tories at national level.
tools of struggle to defend their class interests.
years - around both policies and party democracy - is not, as the Tory press portray it, a clash of reflects initial attempts by the policies of the last Labour governand programme that reflects their interests and not those of big business.
CLASS DIVISION class-collaborationist line.
the EEC etc - as well as the fight ea -the class struggle within the mass organisations of the labour movement. It represents a growing rift between the mass class base of the movement and its middlein the interests of big business.
ion, since that time, of other renegades - is a sign that the differlonger be contained within a single party. What is opening up is a fight of historic dimensions to tinue to introduce pro-capitalist policies (under the guise of the "national interest") or whether it will - as Benn puts it - return to its roots and represent the class interests of those workers who built it, finance it and support it.
SDP publicity to the launching of the SDP.
Rong only recently, in cities as far apart Such fears are justified. As the growing radicalisation among wide more workers have seen the need to create a fighting alternative to the This growing radicalisation has been reflected in attempts to turn the mass organisations of labour -the unions and Labour Party - into The fight that has opened up in the Labour Party over the past few "personalities". On the contrary, it grass-roots of the labour movement disillusioned by the pro-capitalist ment - to develop a new leadership and job prospects.
The struggle that has burst out between the party conference and the PLP, and within the PLP itself, is in this sense no accident. As workers move into struggle against the Tories they come increasingly into conflict BENN with the reformist leaders and their The fight for unilateral nuclear disarmament, for withdrawal from for democratic control over MPs to ensure such policies are implementrepresents a continuation of allies.
class leaders who have consistently, over the years, introduced policies The split by the "gang of four" to form the SDP -- and the desertences are so deep that they can no by the ultra-right.
decide whether the party will con"March for Jobs" reaches London Boosting the SDP - and its marriage of convenience with the Liberals - offers, for them, the best way of cutting into Labour's electoral base and destroying its chances of victory next time round.
There can be no doubt that the platform of the Labour left - represented by Benn - is a limited one. While notching up decisive steps forward in terms of. for example, unilateral disarmament, the overall strategy of the Bennite lett otters no long-term solutions to the real problems facing workers and their Support for import controls and withdrawal from the EEC will not. in themselves, solve the massive problems of unemployment and decline facing British workers. By seeking to defend British workers jobs at the expense of workers overseas, such policies can only breed dangerously nationalistic illusions which can be preyed off ship.
Moreover, despite the rhetoric, Benn and his supporters have tended to confine the struggle against the Tories within a parliamentary framework. While prodded into calling mass demonstrations against the Tory jobless strategy or its nuclear armaments programme, they have not yet decisively pushed posed for a mass campaign, rooted in the power of the shop-floor, to bring this government down While these weaknesses clearly ent that programme - is increasingly being waged within the unions and Labour Party.
It is here that more and more workers are beginning to debate cut. discuss and ererust agre gramme of action against the Tories and their big business backers. While limited to the policies of the left reformists at this stage. the growing attacks on their living standards and rights will push them - and several of their leaders - increasingly to the left in the years ahead.
STRATEGY It is within this framework that socialists have to begin to work out their strategy for the coming period. The central aspect of this strategy must be building - within the unions and Labour Party -a class struggle left-wing that will resolutely advance the interests of workers and their allies against both the Tory government and their allies in the Labour leaderIt is only by building a mass. action left-wing, rooted in the struggles of workers on the shopfloor, that the right-wing oppon ents in the unions and the Labour Party can be effectively dealt with and the fake "lefts", such as Neil Kinnock, who refused to vote for Benn as deputy leader, exBuilding a mass action left-wing however, cannot be achieved by any given marxist current setting up a "flag". It is not enough to declare oneself the marxist left to become it. On the contrary, a real class-struggle left-wing can only be forged out of the strug gles on the shop floor and in the streets in which marxists, as an integral part of the labour movement, play a vital role. In order to be able to accomplish this task, three preconditions are necessary.
INDUSTRY The first is that socialists, seeking to promote such a perspective.