The following is the text (slightly shortened) of a leaflet given out by
supporters of The Week on May Day marches in London and Glasgow:
THE WEEK sends May Day greetings to all those fighting for socialism, for
national liberation and against reaction. On this working class day of
celebration we feel a strong sense of solidarity with the Vietnamese
Freedom fighters, those opposing the new authoritarian regime in Greece,
the anti-Vietnam war demonstrators in the United States, the guerilla
fighters of Latin America and Africa, with the leaders of the Cuban revo-
lution, with all those opposing the wage freeze in Britain (especially
the heroic draughtsmen), and others too numerous to mention.
But our sense of solidarity on this May Day is tempered by a desire to
materially help their struggle. We can and must organise solidarity
action, but this is not the key: the best way we can help is to fight for
socialism in this country and prevent our government from supporting
reaction in other countries, In this respect it must be said that the
Left has had little success since the election of the Wilson government in
1964. Since then the Wilson government has:
(1) Pursued the imperialist "East of Suez" policy;
(2) Legalised the Burnham regime in Guyana, knowing full well it came to
power as the result of a C.I.A. plot;
(3) Been the main bastion of support for the vicious American war of
genocide against the people of Vietnam;
(4) Betrayed all its promises on the cutting of arms, scrapping of
Polaris, and ending the British nuclear "deterrent";
(5) Pursued a vicious anti-trade union policy in Britain - being the first
government for a generation or so to propose legal action against strikers;
(6) Imposed a wage freeze at a time when the prices are rising thus
cutting the standard of living of the people;
(7) Deliberately increased unemployment;
8 Gone back on all its promises to improve welfare;
(9) Taken no basic steps to re-distribute income; and
(10) Made no moves whatsoever to weaken capitalism and increase the power
of workers,
In face of this the response of the Left has been pitiful: part of the
traditional Left in Britain has gone over lock, stop and barrel to Wilson,
another part cannot make up its mind whether to fight or "advise" Wilson
and another section went politically mad and indulged in sectarian
adventures,
If we want to make any real progress at all in solidarising ourselves with
our comrades the world over we must overcome this weakness and build a strong,
viable Left which will represent a real challenge to the Wilson government,
THE WEEK exists for no other purpose than to try to help to build such a
Left alternative to present right wing leadership of the Labour movement, a
Left which, because it appears in the eyes of millions of Labour supporters
as a real alternative to Wilson, can halt the gallop to the right and win
the movement for Left policies. THE WEEK believes that several problems~
need to be overcome if we are to build such a Left.
May Dey appeal continued Firstly, we must work out a correct attitude towars the present Labour Government. Whilst no one in their rig?.t mind wants the Tories back we must characterise the present leadership of the Labour Party as basically anti-working class. The aim, therefore, must be to fight and defeat this leadership... Having understood this we must see that the battle to defeat and replace Wilson and Co. will not take place in the Cabinet or the Parliamentary Labour Party but in the factories, building sites, shipyards and workplaces. The Left must seek to mobilise the workers to struggle directly against Wilson and his anti-working class politics. Secondly, we must recognise that the mass of the people will not be mobilised by mere exhortation. People will swing into action when they see some Qespects of success in their struggle...4s things are now to the mass of trade unionists and Labour supporters there is no real alternative to Wilson. Moreover, they see nothing of significance outside of the Labour Party and trade unions. Whilst workers respect the sincerity of militants who are in organisations which seek to act in competition with the Labour Party, only a very few of them regard these organisations seriously. It is for this reason that those on the left who wish to really influence the course of events must week to build up a left inside the Labour Party and trade unions. Thirdly, all sectional struggles need to be unified into one generalised struggle. All too often are individual sections of the working class left to fight it out on their own. The way the seamen were left isolated last year was criminal. Today, the draughtsmen are fighting a vicious lock out in the shipbuilding industry - a move calculated to destroy trade unionismand they are receiving at best only small-scale financial help. The trade union and political struggles need to be fused: M.P.s, especially the trade union sponsored ones, must be forced to support industrial struggles or get out; trade unionists must, far from withdrawing their political levy, take their struggle into the Labour Party and consciously plan to take Labour Parties over, throwing out the right wing leadership in the process. Any other policy, no matter how radical it sounds, means de facto giving over of the Labour Party to the right wing. Fourthly, the left must work out an offensive strategy with an anticapitalist content. Too often in the past, even in the best of cases, the left only responds defensively to attacks. Moreover, those demands that are made are confined, in the main, to asking for a bigger share of the cake. Unless the left elaborates anti-capitalist demands and unites them into a programme there is no prospect whatsoever of socialist conscousness developing in the minds of millions of workers. Without this socialism can never be achieved. A programme of demands must be worked out which at once appear reasonable in the eyes of the mass of Labour supporters and yet, on the other hand, represents real inroads into capitalist power. Such demands as: "Opening the employers’ books to workers’ inspection"; "Nationalisation with workers' control"; "Shop stewercs’ control over hiring and firing"; "An end to all capitalist alliences"; etc. must be popularised and explained «-eNone of these things will be achieved without an education discussion. The Week sees its main function in helping this process as that of bringing the various strands of the movement together and helping to organise this’ education - through conferences, etc. - and carrying material which will both link struggles and popularise anti-capitalist demands.