of the Lahour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in ENC BETCH not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge helieves that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle dendencies in opposition class-collaborationism in the lahour movement. These should non-exclusive grouping together militants hold. ing a wide range of polifical views.
• To begin is fight for the creation unified end Afghanistan.
agents fomenting unrest. character.
and ACCORDING to press reports from Afghanistan, a strike of bazaar merchants has been followed by » Che Soviet troops. other sections of the population in demanding an to the presence of Russian troops The Kabul authorities have responded by declaring martial law and arresting one American and sixteen Pakistanis accused of being secret.
While western sources have been notoriously unreliable, the essential aspects of the situation have been confirmed by the Soviet press. In the absence of any other contenders it is fair to assume that Islamic fondamentalist parties lead the strike.
in rallying cry for national sovereignty. action which is backing them up.
forces who are for Derek administration.
seemingly: insoluble politicians i' The Tory to Their demands are not limited to the removal of Their first act would be to bloodily purge the left and establish an Islami republic which would reverse the reforms instituted in April 1978. These demands are cloaked under the If these demands were to be fulfilled it would represent a crushing defeat for the workers and peasants of Afghanistan, turning the clock back in a most brutal and barbaric way. That is why it is not possible to support these demands or the strike foundations with the revelations of the tricks' perpetrated by the same Rhodesian security helping Lord Soames!
Finally, the other
legacy of Britain's colonial past, Ireland, remains s problem for ruling lack progress at constitutional conference' is anything to go by.
On the home front, things are not going well for the Tories either, The steel strike remains solid among British Steel Corporation workers and its very duration has ensured that the closure plans for many of the plants under the axe will now have to be taken back to the drawing board.
cabinet is still deeply divided on Prior's industrial relations proposals. The reasons for the divisions being the justifiable fear of some Tory ministers that the labour movement response to the laws could trigger off the sort of struggles which brought down the Heath government.
Sunday 9 March, the date of the TUC-called strike in Kabul.
*Turn to page 12 "dirty demonstration against the proposals, outstanding. Once again the call should be raised for genera class Prior proposals and carry the kicking out the Tory government.
The one campaign the Ryder Report on patient class to break ITS back.
The bureaucratic way in which the Karmal government and the Soviet Union have dealt with the whole problem of the rightist resistance to the reforms over the past years is of course to be criticised. They have made no attempt to rally mass action by workers and peasants. But the arrest of the suspected agents in Kabul hints at a reality which has been present for the last two years in Afghanistan — massive infiltration and subversion techniques practised by imperialism devoted to bolstering the forces now apparently leading the will be a crucial day for all concerned as moisters sud militants alike judge the scale of the opposition strike actlen to be called by the TUC to defeat the through the job-by genuine breakthrough for the Tories has been at British Leyland. But this was not the work of a couple of months. A continuous to break the back-bone of the BL workforce has been waged since the publication of participation under the Labour government. This is one sector where thi work of rebuilding the rank and fil leadership, through such bodies as the Leyland Action Committee is the main task for socialists.
But the fundamental problems of the Tories remain, as de the opportunities for the working