" 7 Miners debate Vietnam trip." 8 New Left moves forw rd,
es 9 May Day Minifesto, ” 10 Letter from Nigeria,
"11 Hammersmith VSC row, " 12 Industrial notes, Johnson's Gesture and the Middle East crisis with a great flourish the world's capitalist press has leaked the story that Johnson has taken Hanoi and Haiphong off his target list. This action is linked with the Middle East crisis and Johnson's alleged desire to avoid war, Meanwhile Mr, Wilson's Government pursues a craven policy of supporting every American move in complete detail, No wonder many on the left describe Sandy Shaw's Eurovision prize-winning song - "Puppet on a string" - as the Wilson song. The Vietnamese are treating Johns©n's gesture with the contempt that it deserves. The parallel between Johnson's double-talk and the actions of Hitler during the war is almost uncanny, Hitler, too, with a great flourish, announced many times that he was giving Britain a chance to negotiate by relieving the pre:.sure by making an almost worthless gesture. But there are more significant reasons for Johnson's b®haviour: his action shows the basic weakness of his position. He wants at all costs to avoid a second front, This in turn is striking confirmation of Che's thesis that the best way to help Vietnam is to start up other fronts, It is striking confirmation, too, of what people like Russell and Sartre have said: namely, that the Soviet Union could, and should, provide cover for national liberation struggles. We, in Britain, must stand firm against the wave of jingoism which is being vhivred up against the Arab countries, To take this position is not to take nasser's side, We must patiently point out that the picture of "poor little Israel" being threatened by "big bad Egypt" is completely at variance with facts, It was Israel which, egged on by British and French imperialism, attacked Egypt in 1956. It was Israel which was threatening military action to topple the left nationalist Government of Syria, The state of Israel as it exists at present is an imperialist enclave designed to exert pressure on the anti-imperialist Arab peoples of the Middle East, The aspirations of the Jewish people - tragic vicitms of the nazis - are being cynically manipulated by the very people who have rearmed their tormentors, Britian and the United States regard Western Germany, led by an ex-Nazi, as a bastion of freedom, The left must stand firm against all imperialist manoeuvres no matter how cunningly they are presented, to jingoism we must counterpose unity of the working people: Arab, Jewish and West European, We must play our role in this if we are to reamin socialists, POVERTY IN BRITAIN Most readers of The Week will have read in the press of the shocking disclosures One fact alone is sufficient to damn the existing set up: nearly half the children in the area live below poverty level. We are proud that one of our founding editors - Ken Coates - was one of the initiators of this survey. It is time the trade union movement and local Labour Parties took up this scandal, The TGWU is to be commended for publicsing the Child Poverty Action Group's activities and arguments, Others should follow this example, We are going to throw open the columns of The Week for a discussion on how best such a cammaign can be organised,