I do not intend to repeat the excellent arguments which have already been made on this platform about Vietnam. I want to address myself to one topic only: "What can we do best to assist the people of Vietnam to defeat American imperialism". First, and most obvious, we must build-up the movement in this country which takes the line of immediate American withdrawal because this is the most principled and most effective way of opposing the war. As other speakers have explained to limit one's self to call for ending the bombing and negotiations leads one into a trap. It is impossible to build a protest movement on these lines because it will be immediately confused by the so-called peace initiatives of Johnson, backed up by his faithful follower, Wilson. This much is obvious. But there are wider issues: how can we really bring about a change in Government policy? Or to put it another way, can we bring about a change in Government policy? I want to say most emphatically that I believe that we can and must force a change. But we can only force a change in the sense that the Government manoeuvres. This Government is totally committed to the defence of capitalism and imperialist domination of the third world. Whether it be open domination or disguised in the form of neo-colonialism. That is the whole meaning of its foreign policy. Therefore the only lasting thing that we can do to help the people of Vietnam, and other countries, in their fight against imperialism, is to replace the present Government with one which is antiimperialist and anti-capitalist. How do we do this? Comrades, this week that man Gunter talked of an unholy alliance of Communists and Trotskyists who are trying to wreck the British economy. That is dangerously like the talk of Hitler and Mussolini when they justified their destruction of the German and Italian labour movements. But I want to pose an alliance in another form of words: A united front of all left wingers in this country on the issues of a struggle against imperialism and a struggle for the social transformation of Britain. Comrades, all over Britain workers are going into action.to defend their living standards: the dockers, printers, busmen, building site workers, postmen, electricians and others. Tomorrow, they will be followed by huge new sections of the working class. I propose that we fuse and integrate the struggles against the wage freeze with that of the struggle against American aggression in Vietnam. The anti-Vietnam movement and the militant trade unionists have much to learn from each other: those in the anti-Vietnam war movement can learn from workers’ struggle that only the might of the workers can, in the last analysis, bring about basic changes in Britain. Militant trade unionists can learn from the anti-Vietnam war movement that opposition to Government policy must be total, That one cannot isolate the wage freeze from the Government's support of the Americans in Vietnam:it is an integral part of an overall policy. Comrades, the thousands of people on this demonstrations must solidarise themselves with the dockers, building site workers, electricians and all other workers engaged in struggle. Just as you have turmed up here today to show your support for the Vietnamese people you must also show your support for the dockers, electricians, building site workers. You must join their demonstrations, collect money for them, get your organisations to support them, argue their case. But we need to also win the militant trade unionists for opposition to the war in Vietnam. Out of the fusing of these two great protest movements we can build a@ united front. A united front with no bans or proscriptions. We are tired of
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