SPEECH TO LONDON VIETNAM RALLY — OCT 22nd by Pat Jordan I do not intend to repeat the excellent arguments thet 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 American withdrawal because this is the most principled and most effective way of opposing the war, As other speakers have explained, to limit oneself 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 inmediately 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 we can anid 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 igperialist 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 anti-imperialist; ani anticapitalist. 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 dangerous— ly like the talk of Hitler and Mussolini when 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 soctal transformation of Britain.
Comrades, all over Britain workers are going into action to defend their living standards: the dockers, printers, busmen, buildin. site workers, postmen, elect-— ricians and others, Tomerrow , 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 tréde unionists have much to learn from each other: those in the anti-—Vietnam movement can learn from workers' struggles 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 Govermment policy must be total,
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 demonstration must solidarise them~ selves with the dockers, building site workers, electricians, ani all other workers engaged in struggle, Just as you have turned up here today to show your support for the Vietnamese people, you must also show your support for the
Speech to London Vietnam Ra (Continued )
and building site workers, You must join their demon-
hn be ets Perr for them, get your organisations to support them,
argue their case. But we need also to win the militant trade unionists to
opposition to the war in Vietnam, Out of the fusing of these two great protest
movements we can build a united front, 3. united front with no bans or pro~
scriptions. We are tired of being told that we can't work with certain people
because they are communists, Trotskyists, Maoists, Anarchists, Lets get rid of
this macarthyism once and for all.
There is only one yardstick by which we can judge people: whose side are they
on in the living struggles of today? We judge people by what they do today, not
what they say about history. Comrades, all of you here can help to form this
united front. Let this united front embrace all those who are willing to fight
imperialism and British capitalism and its representatives. Let us bring into
the united front the communists, the trotskyists, the maoists, the left-wing
labour, the left catholics, young liberals, young socialists and non-party
people, Let us once and for all end the witch hunts of the past.
Comrades, we owe a great debt to the Vietnamese people. Their heroic example,
their determination to fight to the end against American imperialism, their. .
noble courage has inspired us all, All over the world young people have been
won for anti-—imperialism, for socialism by the strength of this example.
Our debt is deep, let us repay it. Let us go forward from this meeting to make
one of the most militant anti-—irperialist demonstrations Britain has ever seen.
Let us go forward from this demonstration to build the united front. Let us
build through the united front a mighty movement against imperialism and
against British capitalism's attempts to cut workers living standards. Let us
take this united front on to the offensive, with the aim of building a movement
and the necessary organisations to destroy capitalism in Britain, Let us pledge
ourselves to build a new society in Britain through this struggle. A new
society wnich will help to build upthe terrible damage done by the imperialist
wars of aggression, a new society which will pay its debts to the people of
Vietnam,
Comrades, let us pledge ourselves to do all we can to help the world-wide
struggle for national liberation, social advance and social justice. Comrades,
let us show by our actions that we are the conscience of the west. Comrades,
let us today and tomorrow show the same fighting spirit as the Vietnamese,
Comrades, let us start doing all these things today.