Part 4 - DW062 001 030 004

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the realisation of their fundam- ental interests and destiny. The Marxist-Leninists of today, and the Party of the future, will play a key role in the building of class struggle unions. The fight for class struggle unions will be a hard and com- plicated one, with different problems arising within each union and each union branch. Certain guidelines can be set out however. Union branches must be made as democratic as possible, and participation encouraged. Trade union hacks often use their know- ledge of constitutions and union procedure to monopolise and con- trol discussion, and write moti- ons in a language all of their own. These are favourite methods of the revisionists and social democrats. They also bore people until enough of them have gone away for them to push through their own proposals with the votes of their loyal band of sup- porters who stay for the purpose. Marxist-Leninists and militant workers should try to get union meetings held during work hours if possible. Rank-and-file mili- tants should work to make sure meetings take place fairly often but not too often; that they are short, effectively chaired, not boring, and deal with real issues. If Marxist-Leninists and militants are playing a leading role, it is all the easier to do these things. Unity is important for victory in any working-class struggle. Marxist-Leninists and militant workers must always fight to unite the great majority of their fellow workers by per- suasion and argument, and isolate the bosses' agents and allies and diehard reactionaries. Only with solid unity can struggles against an employer be won. Unity itself does not come without struggle, and con- flict with the social-democrats, revisionists, trotskyites and fascists in the unions will take place often. One of the favourite tricks of the social-democrats and re- visionists is to put forward their own ideas as those of the working class. When they are challenged, or counter-proposals are put forward, they accuse their opponents of being split- ters. Marxist-Leninists and mili- tants mustn't be intimidated by this sort of thing. It is right not to unite with those who would lead workers into more "social contracts", into dead-ends and class collaboration. The class struggle alternatives should be put as openly and firmly as pos- sible, so that the union members involved will see clearly the differences between our stand Russian workers in the days before the Revolution, organizing to seize power, as the British working class will. and that of such people. As the two lines are tested in practice, and the Marxist- Leninists and militants contin- ue to argue their views, these will win more support, and high- er levels of struggle against the bosses can be waged, with the union members more and more closely united around the class struggle line. The first stages of this strug- gle are difficult, because firms will always look for an excuse to fire militant workers, and a uni- on branch run by social democrats will often, as experience has shown, fail to defend the victi- mised worker - indeed, there are quite a few cases where the soci- al democrats actively helped man- agement pick out militants and fire them. However, when suffici- ent support has been built up for the class struggle line and its supporters, they will be able to work more openly and easily. Racism must be fought with Czechoslovakia: Ten years on...... determination because it breaks up the unity of black and white working people against their real enemies. Today especially, this is full time work. When tackling the social democrats, revisionists and Trotskyites in the unions, it is important to concentrate on fighting the political line and ideology they push, and to iden- tify and isolate the small hand- ful of misleaders putting for- ward their rubbish, who are gen- erally misguided but hones. This even goes for the fascists too - most of the young people they re- cruit are confused and have not seen any revolutionary alterna- tive (not surprisingly) in the fake "left". Trotskyites might throw up their hands in horror at this statement, but anyone who has worked in a place where there is a strong National Front pre- sence knows this is true. These people should be fought in the process of hitting at the capi- 4 talist class. The capitalist enemy should be treated as the main enemy facing the working class organi- sations externally, and the so- cial democrats and revisionists as the main enemy within these organisations. Generally, all unions need to be made more democratic; all shop stewards or union reps should be made accountable to union meetings; annual confer- ences should be able to throw out any top union official by a majority vote of no confidence. All officials should have to stand for re-election at least every four or five years, and no-one should be elected for life. Postal voting should be re- sisted, because it enables the press to interfere more easily in union campaigns to push the bosses' men. Officers should be elected by accountable branch delegates, mandated by their members through a general mee- ting after the manifestos of the various candidates have been circulated and discussion has taken place. Winning these things will make it easier for the mem- bers to control the union and elect a leadership which is ready to fight for their demands. This will make it possible to wage more effective, co-ordinated and organised struggles. Concrete demands must be put forward in each union, each firm and each union branch, tak- ing into account and summing up the demands and wishes of the workers there. Sometimes, mis- taken demands are put forward, and then better alternatives should be argued for in their stead. For example, some wor- kers who are short of money want more overtime to make up their wages, and favour keeping the firm they work for understaffed to enable them to get it. It should be pointed out that this only means having less free time to spend with family and friends, and keeping others unemployed. What they really want in the short term is higher wages, and these should be fought for. Marxist-Leninists and mili- tant workers should fight union rules and TUC rulings which limit the ability of trades councils to do their political work or which call for support for the Labour Party. They should oppose the use of union political funds to back Labour, and call for them to be used instead for anti-racist work, for campaigning against pay re- straint, against the trend towards fascism, etc. While these struggles are impor- tant, ultimately the only real salvation for the working class and working people is socialism. For Marxist-Leninists and revo- lutionaries all shorter-term goals must be subordinate to this. Peace Friendship 10 years ago, Soviet social imperialist forces invaded Czechoslovakia. This has been followed up by expansion and interference around the world by the Soviet Union, while Brezhnev has spoken about peace and "detente." The Communist Workers' Movement and Revolutionary Communist League of Britain are organizing a demon- stration on 20th August, marking the anniversary and condemning Soviet social imperialist aggression today. More details in our next issue. Security

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