Now who are these workers and peasants who could be mobilized' third camp exists between the Soviet troops and the imperialist-backed criticise, as he does, the Italian and Spanish CP for not calling for an such camp exists?
the article, joined the trade unions during the first year after the PDPA came to power? There clearly is a third camp in Afghanistan and Potter's difficulties stem from the need to find some justification for supporting the military occupation, even if it contradicts his whole The fact that the Soviet Army's fight against the rightist guerillas "temporarily coincides with the interests of the workers' is quite irrelevant. The Fourth International called for a withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe after 1945 in spite of the fact that the Red Army actions against the capitalists and landlords temporarily coincided with the interests of the workers.
incompatible with independent revolutionary class politics. One or the other must go. Potter and the IMG resolve this by wishing the Afghan workers out of existence. But real life in Afghanistan will soon thinking of Upper St.
I READ Vladimir Derer's letter (Letters, 28 February) concerning Trotsky's remarks on the nature of the Soviet Union with some alarm.
His argument centres on Trotsky's conception that the bureaucratic social structure of the revolution the Soviet Union was USSR was shown to be a precursor of new exploiting relations' What rotsky in fact argued it, and surrender it, as in the USSR, to a privileged bureaucracy, then we would be compelled to acknowledge that the reason for the bureaucratic relapse is rooted not in the backwardness of the country, and but in the congenital incapacity of retrospect-to establish that in its fundamental traits the present USSR exploiting regime on an international • Soviet Union is not dependent on this or that imperialist war, but on the nature of the world proletariat.
Thus Trotsky goes on to conclude that: 'If the world proletariat should actually prove incapable of fulfilling the mission placed upon it by the course of development, nothing else would remain excent onlv to recognise inal the socialist programme based on the internal contradictions of capitalist society ended as a utopia.' DESPITE agreeing with your front page general strike demand, I found the way in which you said it somewhat lacking, shall we say.
If there is to be a general strike, can you please ask your 'designers' to get back on the job until the rest of the class is ready!
WHAT DO WE WANT? and 4 May. We especially like her Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, etc:
detailed tactical prescriptions) and a break with the sectarian traditions of some Trotskyist organisations is vital. The LPYS is the child of LPYS slogans on the big TUC march last Sunday were disgusting. Socialists (young and old) should not chant: "Ditch the Bitch', 'Milk speakers. Wed Revolution conference planned for 3 a quick look at the latest issue of the paper Revolution tends to contradict This is in sharp contrast to the men.
to reflect a real rather than a formal or organisational independence, then children of the SWP, and so on. We By the way we thought that the ENTRIES are 5p a word; semi-display £2 a column inch Deadline: 5pm Friday before publication. All payment:
London branch TACOS Typing dupled 1o Proud of my sex Although I agree with Valerie Coultas' conclusion in her critique or susan contar's views on Margaret Thatcher (6 March) -that Sontag's feminism is redundant without a class perspective - I feel that along the way she misses out on some interesting points.
When I was at school I would often respond to attempts to put down my sex with the fact that Indira Gandhi was a head of state so women were clearly as good as I was proud when a woman won a Nobel prize for science, and so on.
Of course we do not endorse the politics of an Indira Gandhi or a Margaret Thatcher, but Susan Sontag did not suggest that we should in her article. She said it would be "pointless' to support the candidacies of women like these.
What Sontag did say is that such women are of 'interest' to feminists. With this I agree, and I think that Socialist Challenge does too. Why 'else has the paper carried articles on Margaret Thatcher as a woman or more than one occasion?
Where Sontag is completely YOUR PAPER seems to assume that a 'labour movement' daily would be a good thing.
But it would be utterly dull, unimaginative and right-wing. It would probably have its own 'Page 3'; it would be typically patronising to blacks, ignore gays and only back official strikes Now it could be argued that the daily paper of the French Socialist Party, Le Matin, is none of these things. Furthermore it also produces special supplements on Trotsky, the Russian Revolution etc., which are a visual treat. But the argument wouldn't hold up because the political level of the French working class is somewhat more advanced.
In a British equivalent we would probably get a supplement to mark the centenary of the birth of Clement Attlee, who is fast becoming a cult figure on the left of In reality what we need is a newspaper more like Le Monde in which serious analysis mingles with an in-depth cultural and literary coverage. The trade unions and the labour Party should tiance the establishment of a Trust to set up such a paper.
JONATHAN HITE Luise South Lambein Estate, Meadow R SPECIAL OFFER TO SOCIALIST CHALLENGE READERS: 'Russia's *Behind the Kabul Corps *Don't join the imperialist outer *Afghanistan: What we think Trotskyist movement's Russia's occupation of Eastern Europe postage) from: WA (special offer), Pi Box 135, London N1 ODD THE OTHER
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USSR still an relapse
STEVEN ARCHER, Brighton Front page not the best