Week - 'ents

AFTER _THE ELECTION Most of our readers will receive this copy on election day, Most of them will also, some time during that day, be voting Labour. Later on Thursday they will stop up late to hear the election results. Everything seems to indicate that these results will entail the gaining of a good number of seats by Labour, We would add only two qualifications to this: first, the Labour vote could very well be much lower than the gallup polls indicate because of apathy and over= confidence; secondly, the Tories are in a desperate a - Heath is fighting for his political life - and they will ‘pul tr the stops organisationally. For these reasons, it is very likely that Labour's majority will be somewhat lower than that indicated by the polls. This does not please us - we want the biggest Labour majority possible. We want to remove from the political ‘situation any factor which gives Mr. Wilson an alibi for not carrying out socialist policies. We hope that we are wrong and the pollsters right. Having made our general position clear, we must say all the main issues facing the left will be very much the same after the election. First of all there is Vietnam, The report from the Daily Telegraph we have reprinted on page 5 makes a liar of Mr, Healey = and a whole motley of other Labour leaders, Will Mr, Wilson feel strong enough, with his larger majority, to follow South Korea, New Zealand and Australia in going to the last point in collusion with the U.S. over its barbaric war in Vietnam? Nothing that Mr. Wilson has said and done since being Prime Minister indicates that he would let political principle stand in his way, The Americans are very anxious indeed to involve as many of their "allies" as possible in their criminal adventure in South East Asia. The left, the peace movement in this country will have to vigilant and demonstrate on the Easter March that Mr. Wilson cannot take this step. On the contrary, our position is that we should fight for Labour to solidarise itself with the N.LF. against U.S, aggressions. That is why we shall be proud to share a banner with our friends of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign making this point. This is by far the best way to prevent British troops going to Vietnam. The compromises of the past, the watering down of demands to find wider support from Parliamentarians, etc. paved the way for the position where this Government could support the bombing of North Vietnam. This fight and the struggle against trade union legislation will go on no matter how big Mr. Wilson's majority.