file which such policies interests of railworkers.
Militant is concerned that if the right wing in the NUR win, then they will carry the witch-hunt from the Labour Party into the 3318 I foolish in the extreme to put their hopes in the election OI someone like Кпарр. The only defence of the left against witchhunt is a combative and Russell's shamefully dishonest article is headed 'NUR presidential (sic) election gives rauworkers The workforce is picketing to stop 75 scabs and even suaded not to go in as a result.
Every day from seven am DiCKeTs atner. At 7.20 a lone arrier hat has and the security of man er and the security THE STRIKE for union recognition and against the victimisation of union members at Raindi Textiles and Supreme Quilting in Smethwick is still going on.
largely women, some of whom get as little as E36 a week. They have been extended this to the homes of individual workers who were perSnor While aler transit vans each carrying 5 or 10 scabs start arriving Workers stand in front of them. to talk to the scabs inside. The drivers force through the line and the policeman the next Derson to dang use van will be nicked From now on pickets only bang the side away from th policeman ut the van The T&G has circulated information collection sneels Inrougn us local bran ches and also other unions Collections beer mad ncluding a substantial one at FLUCAIC salare tundraising Soda nas beer arranged jointly the The leadership of the T&G would clearly like to win this -DU wine conccung money is vital and motions of General Workers Bromwich, West Midlands.
SUDDORT Sandwel Labour Party will be discuss ing the are still going in and cles. This DHIYALCYCHICIC SHOW mination of the strikers alone is not enough. The weight of the whole movement used this strike At the weekly meeting th IGWU leadership have bee that the strike is -DICACL Would be a rous to acuy!
Michael Foot came down
By John Ross ONE ISSUE will dominate international politics more than • any other in Western Europe in 1983 - the struggle to prevent the deployment of Pershing Il and Cruise nuclear missiles. The outcome of this fight will affect the class struggle in deployment of these weapons will be extremely hard. They are a central part of the current imperialist military build up. But the movements are also mous. At the beginning 1982 opinion polls showed 58 per cent of the population of Britain opposing the introduc tion of Cruise missiles and 56 percent opposing the Trident nuclear submarine In the November '82 elections eight out of nine US states elections voted 'Yes' to a nuclear freeze. The decision Norwegian allocate funds to carry out NATO's decision to install Cruise missiles was only carried on a 77-76 vote.
The anti-missiles and anti-nuclear movement penetrated extraordinarily deeply into the workers movement. In West Germany even before the fall of the Social Democratic/Liberal government third of the SPD opposed the missiles. In Britain the Labour Party conferences since 1979 have voted against the missile programme and in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament. In 1982 it was a two thirds majority.
Ine Trades Union (TUC) has for the first history come out in Watera Finally the demonstrations against nuclear weapons in summer 1982 — with over three million people participating in Western Japan. Australa. and North America — were the largest demonstrations on an international question since the Second World War.
But there should be no illusions as to now important it is to imperialism to install these weapons. They are a central part of its military build up.
Imperialism has thus commenced disorient the anti-nucter lICW round of — starting with Reagan's announcement of the deployment of the MX In order to understand how the anti-missile movement should con. front these manoeuvres, start by rccaling wnatrole the nuclear build up in Western Europe plays in the overall offensive of imperialism and the present stage of the international class Imperialism's military build up is aimed primarily at confronting the colonial revolution rather than war with the Soviet Union. In this respect it differs fundamentally from the military build up of the late 1940s and early 1950s, which was indeed aimed Socialist Challenge 17 December 1982 enorof proalready al bulging ine momentum military assault on the USSR.
(SDP/FDP) around onethreats or deals. colonial revolution Congress time in its favour of NLF defeated the their puppets in held Europe, Central America would of survival.
The US ruling class believe manoeuvres to movement tion.
we should counter29 November).
fear deed the military potential for But imperialism cannot engage in a military build up against the colonial revolution without also trying to neutralise the Soviet Union by either At each step in the economic and military aid from the USSR to libera tion forces has played a crucial role.
It was the economic and military support of the Soviet Union which supplied the weapons with which the Americans and Vietnam, which maintains in existence ine cuban workers state, and which made possible the Cuban intervention in Angola Any new workers' state tormed ir 1930s necessarily seek support from the USSR and agreement to or refusal of this would in great measure determine its chance does non is fomenting US revolution. As Henry Kissinger put it in a recent interview, "There are some American conservalves in boul par ties who luxuriate in the myth of diabolic Soviet planners implementing a master plan for world revoluNo one who has actually dealt with the top Soviet leadership has encountered such types. If they exist, they are well hidden from foreign visitors. The leaders one in fact encounters are tough, ruthless and persistent. But they have originated no profound initiatives; they have usually avoided great risks. They have ex- Wal. panded into vacuums created by irresolution or weakness. (Newsweek But if US imperialism does not world revolution led by the Kremlin', it takes very seriously inof the Soviet Union. The US also knows that in cases of imperialist irresolution or weakness* - by which it means suc cessful revolutionary struggle led by others — the Soviet Union can supply major material aid to consolidate the ferent ways Cuba, Angola, and could happen again in As result each imperialis military build up against the colonial revolution also involved an maments build up against the Soviet Union. For example the massive American military prostatinc against the colonial revolution which took place in the late 1950s and early WaS accompanied simultaneous one against the USSR. Decisions of December 1957 and May 1958 of the NATO council led to the deployment of American Jupiter and Thor intermediate range missiles in England, Italy, and Turkey. Major naval bases for nuclear marines were established at Holy Lock in Scotland and Rota in Spain. The construction of 1000 Minuteman nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, and of Polaris submarine launched missiles was ordered Kennedy. These remained backbone of strength into the 1970s.
This nuclear build up against the USSR took place simultaneously with a huge conventional military tion which culminated in the Vietnam The attempts by the Soviet bureaucracy to negotiate a halt to the arms race, for example through the unilateral Soviet troop reductions ordered by Khruschev in 1959 were ignored. Kennedy and his Secretary of Defence McNamara calculated on the economic superiority of the United States to outproduce the Soviet Union , in difarand crush all obstacles in their path. It was only the strength of the Vietsub- namese revolution, and the crisis the effects of the war produced inside the imperialist countries, that led the US ruling class to reverse its position and embark on the policy of 'detente followed in the early 1970s.
Detente the sidered a move to 'peace' by the US ruling class. It was simply a move to reconsolidate the situation in imperialism's home bases and prepare for a new offensive. As Kissinger, the chief escala- 'detente' put it, 'what could we do otherwise than to mosphere when, in this country, the political climate (under the impact of the Vietnam war) was almost that of civil war.' He explained, Nixon conceived detente as a means to create a satisfactory relation forces and to promote a certain world (Politique Autumn 1982)
AMPAIGE was in no sense con"liberalism' or organiser of arenas calm the at*President While of course the missile build up in Western Europe and the United States is not the only factor in these Soviet decisions — it would for examDie be a much more decisive confron. tation with the United States for the Soviet Union to arm Nicaragua than it was Ethiopia - nevertheless there is no doubt that the American military escalation is both hitting at the col onial revolution and affecting many of the revolution through its pressure on the USSR The stakes in the anti-missiles and anti-nuclear weapons movement are enormous not only for the workers of the imperialist countries but also for the USSR and the colonial revolution.
There is no doubt that the resistance to the missiles in Europe is qualitatively greater than foreseen by imperialism. From their statements it
been foreseen by imperialism. These are not on the level of demonstrations but on a scale which could deflect government policies and provoke political crises.
The fight over the missiles in Western Europe has become a struggle involving huge international class 'protest' Greenham Common Photo: John Harris
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every part of the world. The struggle to prevent the