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5 THE WORLD SCENE LEBANON Continued from Page 1. But apart from a handful of traitors, the Lebanese nation as a whole united to resist this attack. SOVIET AMBITIONS Now Lebanon has once again become the focal point of con- flict in the area. The reason for this is not the same as it was in 1958. Now it is because the Palestinian revolution has become the ma- jor issue in the Middle East and one of the key issues in world politics. Soviet social-imperialism is now the rising imperialist su- perpower with ambitions to do- minate the peoples of the Mid- dle East and the rest of the world. Pinning its hopes on the ru- ling national bourgeoisie in Arab countries where there is a strong state-controlled sec- tor in the economy, and decep- tively pretending to support the sincere desire of the Arab people for socialism, the Rus- sians managed from the late '50s onwards to build up a very powerful influence. SIDON LEBANON SYRIA ISRAELI- TYRE OCCUPIED LEBANON OCCUPIED PALESTINE (ISRAEL) HAIFA ISRAEL OCCUPIED SYRIA FIGHT FOR LIBERATION Collaborating with the United States, the USSR has maintained a no-peace no-war situation in the Middle East and has been making a vast profit in selling to the Arabs arms which they needed to defend themselves against Is- rael which is armed to the teeth by the USA. Recently they have suffer- ed setbacks with the rejection of Soviet diplomacy by Egypt and other Arab countries. Meanwhile, the Palestinian revolution has been develop- ing in strength. The Palestinians, led by their Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) are a thorn in the flesh of the two superpowers. They have militantly been holding to the road of self- reliance, and have nothing to gain from the no-peace no- war situation which keeps them deprived of their land while enabling Israel to immobilise the other Arab states and con- centrate on fighting the Palestinians. COMPLEX CONDITIONS The approach of American imperialism has been and still is to crush the Palestinians and wipe them out as a politi- cal force. In 1970 the Jordanian gover- nment, with US support, car- ried out its notorious "Black September" massacre of Pales- tinians. After that, the Palestinian forces had to use Lebanon as an external base for military operations aimed at liberating their country. The Soviet Union uses dif- ferent tactics from the Ameri- cans. Rather than exterminating the Palestinians, the USSR would like to enslave them, and turn the PLO into a tool of its own great-power inter- ests. Thus the Palestinians are fighting under very complex conditions. The Russians would like to see them beaten down to a point where the PLO has no choice but to give itself up heart and soul and seek Soviet protection. They are quite happy when the Palestinians are subjec- ted to aggression, as is hap- pening in Lebanon at the mo- ment. CIVIL WAR The handful of Lebanese reactionaries, who are quite powerful financially, are still available to serve in suppressing the Palestinians. They are the same people who served US imperialism a long time ago, such as the leadership of the National Liberal Party headed by Camille Chamoun and the Phal- angists led by Pierre Gemayel. During the recent Lebanese civil war, which was at its height two years ago, Israel infiltrated the southern part of Lebanon. Those Lebanese forces which favoured national independence and supported the Palestinians were held at bay by Syrian troops armed by the Soviet Union while Lebanese right- wingers, supported by Israel were able to massacre many Palestinians, notably in the Tell-el-Zaatar district of Bei- rut (meanwhile Czechoslovakia, under Soviet orders, was sel- ling arms to both sides). FURTHER EXPANSION But all this completely fail- ed to wipe out the Palestinians or to dampen their revolution- ary enthusiasm. So Israel has pursued its expansionist policy still fur- ther through a large-scale ag- gressive operation against Lebanon. Israel's plan was to surround and wipe out the main forces of the Palestinians in a light- ning operation. This has failed Not only have the Palestin- ians been able to regroup their forces in an orderly way fur- ther to the north, but they have been fighting back with appropriate guerilla methods. Israel's hold even over that part of Lebanon which it oc- cupies is insecure. In these circumstances, Is- rael is committing itself to a large-scale war in order to re- alise its strategic objective Young Palestinians train to fight the Zionists. which is, as Chief-of-Staff General Gur recently put it, to "create a situation such that it would finally result in an agreement in the frame- work of which the activities of the PLO would be control- led throughout Lebanon." RIGHT-WING MAFIA One important purpose of the Israeli invasion is to pump up the Lebanese right- wing and use them against the Palestinians. For at least two years mini- warlords had been operating in southern Lebanon using Is- raeli arms and logistic sup- port. But they only had very limited success. Now these thugs are able to operate on a larger scale. A so-called "south Lebanese army" has been set up, led by Saad Haddad, and an attempt is being made to terrorise the Shiite villagers of the south, who support the Palestinians. They are being confined to barbed wire-surrounded stra- tegic hamlets, a method used by imperialist aggressors in other wars, like the Americans in Indochina and the Soviet- Cuban forces in Angola. NEW SOLIDARITY Israel would like to give the impression that Lebanon is being punished for the sins of the Palestinians, and to build up anti-Palestinian feeling there. But Israel has supported the atrocities committed by the Lebanese right-wing mafia, and has carried out indiscriminate terror-bombardment against Tyre, and has apparently de- vastated about 80% of the vil- lages south of the River Litani. This has meant in practice that many Lebanese are now more sympathetic than ever towards the Palestinians, since they have had a taste of what it is like to be driven out of their homes and subjected to constant harrassment. RESISTANCE FORCES One problem is that the Le- banese state is extremely weak owing to the effects of the Civil War. The Palestinians accept the authority of the Lebanese state over Lebanon, but in order to overcome the immedi- ate danger of Israeli aggres- sion they have constituted a special resistance force in conjunction with patriotic Lebanese. Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO, has been appointed commander of these joint Le- banese-Palestinian forces. This is recognition of the fact that the Palestinians

6 are the main force protecting ARAB STRENGTH Lebanese independence. GROWING OPPOSITION It seems clear that the attack on Lebanon was plan- ned a long time ago. However, because the Israeli govern- ment is now seen to have re- jected the peace initiative of Egyptian President Sadat, it is now more isolated than ever before in the face of world public opinion. Moreover, this expansionist policy has provoked increas- ing disillusionment and resis- tance among the Jews of Israel. For a long time the Zionist state had been able to mani- pulate public opinion within Israel, but there are signs that this is no longer working. Many soldiers in the Israeli army are sick with what is obviously an unjust war. U.N. ROLE A further complication is provided by the United Nations forces it was brought in under the terms of Security Council resolution no. 425, composed by the USA, which is extremely vague. This calls for preventing armed elements from entering Lebanon. But of course the Israeli aggressors are al- ready there. Apart from (1) the PLO and (2) the Israeli army, which are the main contenders, the different military forces in the Lebanon include (3) the UN force made up of several different national contingents, the most important being French (4) the patriotic Lebanese forces which are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the Palestinians (5) the Lebanese army under the control of President Sarkis (6) the Arab force, introduced during the recent civil war, which is mainly made up of Syrians and effectively under Syrian con- trol (7) various right-wing militias, mainly composed of Lebanese Christians, which are prepared to sell out to Israel. Israel is apparently aiming at a triple division of Leba- nese territory: (a) the bor- der area between Lebanon and Israel, to be controlled jointly by Israel and the right-wing Lebanese militias (b) north of this area and to the south of the River Litani under international control (c) to the north of the Litani under Syrian control. Obviously this would mean that there would be no place left for the Palestinians. The PLO have accepted the presence of UN forces, but do not accept the Israeli inter- pretation of the UN presence, i.e. exclusion of the Pales- tinians. The PLO sticks up for the point of principle that they have a right to fight the Israeli troops, since the UN force is nowhere near strong enough to do this. Syria is preparing to resume negotiations for a "settle- ment" of the Arab-Israeli "dis- pute" under the patronage of the two superpowers, is not at all anxious to be drawn into a conflict with Israel, and has been using the "Arab force" to prevent Palestinian rein- forcements from entering the area. Other Arab governments such as Iraq often express very pro-Palestinian sentiments but have in practice been very half-hearted in their support for the Palestinian cause. But the tendency to compro- mise in the face of aggression is not the main tendency. Thus Syria has acted to prevent the main forces of the Lebanese right-wing from launching an attack from the north against the rear area of the Palestinian-Lebanese patriotic forces north of the Litani River. The Arab people are an op- pressed nation with a bitter hatred of imperialism, and are part of the Third World. Because of this immensely strong popular tide, the governments of Third-World countries would be swept away if they did not take a fairly resolute anti-imperialist stand. NEW STAGE OF REVOLUTION The different Arab govern- ments have various strong and weak points in their foreign policy. Under the influence of the great popular movement of the Third World, they should be capable of surmoun- ting their differences and taking a fairly correct anti- imperialist line. It is becoming more and more clear that the militant struggle of the Palestinians which at the moment is inter- linked with the Lebanese people's fight to defend their independence is a frontline engagement in the struggle by the Arab people and the Third World as a whole against im- perialism and particularly the two superpowers. Victory in this conflict will take the international revolutionary movement to a higher stage. BRITISH WORKERS SUPPORT PALESTINIAN PEOPLE Workers at the Prestcold engineering factory in Hill- ington, Glasgow, have sent a petition to the AUEW Exec- utive demanding action over the Zionist aggression agains st the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon. It reads, "We protest at the Is- raeli invasion of Lebanon, which follows a year of raids and bombings of Pales- tinians and Lebanese (unrep- orted in the Tory press). We call upon the EC to support the just struggle of the Palestinians for the re- turn of their homeland. We ask the EC to oppose the Zionist aggressors by campaigning for blacking of all Zionist transport and goods, and the raising of a fund for medical aid for victims of Israeli aggress- ion." The engineers have al- ready sent the proceeds of a collection for medical aid. NO SURRENDER IN MIZORAM The Indian government has broken off talks with the guerrillas of the Mizo National Front who have been waging peoples war for 12years for the independence of their homeland. This was because the guerillas had correctly refused to lay down their arms whil st talks took place. Lebanese demonstrate in Beirut in solidarity with the Palestinians during the fighting in Jordan in 1970 SOVIET SOCIAL-IMPERIALISM MOVES IN ON IRELAND The government of the Irish Republic is giving "serious consideration" to a "generous offer" by the Sov- iet Union to build a zinc smelter worth more than £100 million. This smelter would process ore from the 85 mill- ion tonne lead-zinc ore body at Navan, naar Dublin. The social-imperialists would be repaid in guaranteed low- price refined zinc. The ques- tion being considered by the Fianna Fail government is merely what proportion of the total output of refined zinc should be handed over to the Kremlin bosses. This deal shows the com- prador or "gombeen" nature of the Irisn capitalist class; they will willingly sell their country not only to British imperialism but also to any other imperial- ism if it will help them stay in power. It also shows that the Soviet Union is no socialist country, but an imperialist power that exports capital in or- der to reap super-profits. FRANCE Aftermath of French elections UNIFIED M-L PARTY SOON IN FRANCE In the recent National Assembly elections in France, the coalition of openly right wing parties held onto power, resisting the challenges of the phoney "left" coalition of social-democrats and "Communist Party of France revisionists. The French Marxist-Leninist parties, the Marxist-Leninist Comm- unist Party of France (PC MLF) and the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of France (PCRMLF) stood together in the elec- tions under the name "Work- er and Peasant Union for Proletarian Democracy." Un- like all the bourgeois par- ties of "left" and right, they participated without illusions in bourgeois dem- ocracy, not primarily to gain votes but to help pro- pel the class struggle for- ward and as part of the struggle to unite the French Marxist-Leninists. Whilst all the other parties ignored work among the immigrant workers who could not vote, the Marxist- Leninists intensified their activities amongst them dur- Continued over.

7 Continued from Page 6. ing this period. Great successes were won in the election campaign, and the Workerand Peasant Union is to continue. The newspaper L'Human- ité Rouge on March 17th car- ried an article and speech by its political director Jacques Jurquet and high- lights of a speech by Max Cluzot, a leading comrade of PCRMLF. They stressed the necessity of uniting to build a single Marxist-Leninist party. Comrade Jurquet pointed out, "The progress made in the unification process... is being watchedin France with great hopes, confidence and enthusiasm."He pointed out that the founding of the Party had been regarded as an urgent task since 1963. "The present endeavour to develop a current of the masses against capitalism and revisionism, as initiated by the PCRMLF and PCMLF has al- ready achieved positive res- ults." "The progress in the uni- fication of Marxist-Leninists in the past month or so was more decisive than that in the past 2 years." Comrade Cluzot pointed out, "Both the demands of the class struggle and the posit- ive balance-sheet of our com- mon work call for the unific- ation of Marxist-Leninists, and...we will do everything possible so that this year will not pass without the realisation of unification of our 2 parties." MARXIST-LENINISTS UNITE! *** Birch sinks lower The CWM was founded by ex-members of an organisation called the "Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)" which is led by Reg Birch, member of the AUEW executive and the TUC General Council. Since our organisation was founded, we have seen Birch and the clique around him sink further and further in- to the swamp of revisionism (revisionists are people who revise away the revolutionary essence of Marxism-Leninism, scientific socialism). Now Birch has joined the camp of the Soviet social-imperialists andtheir agents. Since the early 1970's, Marxist-Leninists around the world have recognised the fact that capitalism has been restored in the Soviet Union, and it has become an imper- ialist superpower, which is socialist only in words. That is why the communists of China, Albania, and the gen- uine Marxist-Leninists of all countries attack Soviet social-imperialism. Precisely because some people (though they grow fewer every day) are taken in by the "social- ist" words the Soviet Union uses to cover up its imper- ialist character (as shown most recently in its inter- ference in the Horn of Africa) it is important for Marxist- Leninists to show that the Soviet Union is no friend, but a social-imperialist enemy of the peoples of the world. But Birch has consistent- ly refused to refer to Soviet social-imperialism; he has just spoken about "Soviet imp- erialism. Recently, he has even done that less and less. These days, he generally just mentions the Soviet Union, not even calling it imperial- ist. There are clear signs that he is trying, in his own little way, to reverse the correct verdict of the international communist TRAVAILLEURS FRANCAIS IMMIGRES UNIS French M-L poster- French and immigrant workers united. ZIMBABWE SOLIDARITY The Central Committee of the Communist League of West Germany (KBW) issued an appeal on March 24th supporting the armed struggle in Zimbabwe, and denouncing the seizure of funds collected for ZANU in West Germany. A collection eaucrats, NATO generals and under the leadership of Int- ernational Imperialism march in a new crusade to destroy Russia and quite incident- was being organized with a view to gathering in enough money by May Day to fully equip a ZANU motorized div- ision. The state seized 105, 000 marks deposited in the Central account in Mannheim. The statement stressed the determination of the KBW to reach its target for May Day, and to recover the seiz- ed funds. "OUR TIMES" It has been decided to discontinue the story "Our Times," which has come in for quite a bit of criticism. It has been said that, "It's messageis unclear, the char- acters are cardboard." It is "out of character with the rest of the paper." These points are valid. ing sentence of the article says, "Because of the diff- erent system of society, the unions' functions are ent- irely different to ours." Reg Birch, Chairman of the CPB(M-L), talking with Chang Chun- chiao, one of the Gang of Four. This was on his last visit to Peking, before Chairman Mao died. On his return, he told some members of CPB(M-L) that China's foreign policy was revisionist, and that the CPB(M-L) should not change its policy, since there would soon be changes in China. Could it be that he knew some- thing about the plans of the Gang of Four to seize power? Could it be that Birch was something to do with the "illicit foreign relations" the Gang of Four were accused of maintaining and was involved in wider conspiracies in the international communist movement? movement on the Soviet Union ally, all Europe." and its agents. Our organization supports In several recent articles the Three Worlds Theory of in the CPB(M-L) paper, "The Mao Tse-Tung, yet we don't Worker", the Birch clique have support these things-it's attacked those who uphold the just more of Birch's non- Three Worlds Theory and acc- used them of calling for a war against the Soviet Union (A complete lie, since all the supporters of this theory have done is to point out that there is a growing dan- ger of war-which Lenin said was inevitable while imper- ialism existed-and that the world's peoples better get ready for it). In an editor- ial of March 23rd, Birch (the article is unsigned, but is in his peculiar style) wrote, sense. But that's not really the point. If "International Imperialism" is to march in a"new crusade" against Russia, what is the Soviet Union? Does this mean it is not part of "International Imperial- ism?" "Now, giving up the str- uggle to survive and becom- ing slaves to their exploit- ers, abandoning national sov- ereignty, workers are asked (I.E. by the supporters of the Three Worlds Theory, among others-Editor's note) to accept Common Market bur- This is undoubtedly the conclusion Birch is moving towards. This is confirmed by an article called "The USSR as we saw it", which app- eared in the March issue of the AUEN journal, written by J.G. Russell and Birch. The whole tone of the article is approving; there is no criticism at all of the Soviet Union, not even the mild criticisms which members of the older-style revision- ist "Communist Party of Great Britain sometimes allow themselves. The most reveal- Birch recognizes that Brit- ish society is capitalist, so if Soviet society is a "different system," then doesn't Birch mean it isn't capitalist? Birch never really broke with the revisionism of the CPGB, of which he was long a member; he and those around him are degenerating fast, as revisionists will. His latest pronouncements on the Soviet Union are just further evidence of this, and he is bound to get worse. Honest revolutionaries should put no trust in him, should oppose his revisionist line, and, if they are in the CPB (M-L), they should leave it and turn to a genuine Marx- ist-Leninist organization, for the Birch party is so much under the control of Birch and his close assoc- iates that they will not succeed in changing any- thing from within, as ex- CPB(M-L) members in CWM know from bitter experience.

8 BEING ILL IN CHINA Criticising the National Health Service is not very difficult. Even some of its 'experts' agree that it is an unmanageable bureacracy, overstaffed with administrators and understaffed with doctors and overworked nurses. Most families have a personal tale to tell about the N.H.S. - some of them tragic, Yet the working class which finances the health system out of its wages is made to feel grateful for even this ailing service, with programmes on the radio and T.V. describing the plight of many families in other capitalist countries without health system at all. The faults and failings of the N.H.S. are in fact mer- ely symptoms of a bigger ill ness in our society - the social relations which the capitalist system generates. It is not easy to say how socialism would change the N.H.S. exactly - this will be decided after discussions at all levels - in the com- munities and by patients as well as doctors, nurses and other health workers. However, while visiting the People's Republic of China recently along with a small group of academics, I was taken ill with acute append- icitus. It was a real eye- opener to experience at first hand how different things can be under soci- alism. After an emergency opera- tion, I was very surprised to be told that the surge- ons had found a large stone in the appendix which they felt must have caused chron- pain for some years. I had suffered pain in the abdomen for a number of years but had never been given tests and my General Practit- ioner had diagnosed chron- ic constipation! I have never been troubled with such pains since. I have always dreaded the thought of an operat- ion but as I was wheeled into the theatre I felt relaxed and among friends even though I couldn't speak a word of Chinese and the doctors and nurses only spoke a little Eng- lish. This was because just a few days before I had visited a small hospital serving the Two Bridges Commune just outside Pek- ing and seen excellent facilities. We were told that this commune had four dentists, 22 doctors seven surgeons and 17 bar- efoot doctors. (These are more highly trained than nurses but not as qualif- ied as doctors and gener- ally deal with minor ail- ments) QUESTIONS I was not sedated; all my questions were answe- red and I received clear information as how the surgeons proposed to deal with my condition. I was surprised that the operation was carried out under local anaesth- etic, but I was told this was to reduce the feeling of being 'poorly' after the operation which accompanies full anaesth- etics. In fact I was wa- lking about a little, just 18 hours after the oper- ation. (It made me wonder whether the Western prac- tice of using full anaes- thetic was for the doctors' convenience rather than the patients?) Each day in the hosp- ital began early as in most hospitals, with an orderly washing down the walls of my room to counteract the thick dust of Peking which even managed to penetrate the mosquito screens on the windows. While breakfast was brought up in steamers from the kitchen (not very successful in keeping food warm) the nurses and doct- ors piled out on to the sunny terrace for 15 min- utes of 'keep-fit' to music before coming back to start the day at about 7:30 a.m. HISTORY No-one insisted I woke before breakfast was served and I was left to decide when and how I bathed. My surgeon Dr. Chow visited me at least twice a day, and when dressings needed changing or stitch- es removed he did them himself, often serving me orange juice and whatever. He never attempted to pass dirty or menial jobs on to the nurses, if he could do them him- self. Dr. Chow's day seemed to finish about 8p.m. before he returned to his wife and small boys. But this seemed to be from choice as he would often visit just to chat about politics and literature or to relate some of the his- tory of the hospital before going off duty. The Capital Hospital in Peking had been built at the turn of the century for foreign diplomats and businessmen. Most of the Chinese people were denied medical treatment then, and though they built the hospital (a very beautiful building with yellow glaz- ed tiled roof, in the traditional style), they were not allowed to use it. Only after Liberation in 1949 was the hospital thrown open to the people. Every Chinese has the right to walk into any hospital and ask to see a doctor. However, Liberation did not set everything in the hospital right at once. Many of the doctors still lauded themselves over the patients - especially poor people and medical students from poor families. After the Cultural Revol- ution began in 1966 the social relations between, doctors nurses and pat- ients really improved. Even the lowliest orderly in the hospital had the right to criticise the highest consultant... Such a system would prob- ably terrify many of our N.H.S. consultants, but from what I saw in the Capital Hospital it prod- uced real teamwork and seemed to bring all the staff together. Dr. Chow said he had taken part in the Cultural Revolution as a young medical stud- ent and that some of the more progressive sen- ior doctors had also supported this new way. In the end, every one except for a very few reactionaries were won over. (Next month; how I found out that the Chinese slogan 'To Serve the People' is no clichè). Z.A. This new paper, NEW AGE, is a paper of and for the working people of Britain. We hope you will write for us: your views on our society, on the world situation, your own experiences. We want articles, information, letters, and particularly comments and criticisms. Please send all contributions to: NEW AGE October Books 4b Temple Court Liverpool 2. NEW AGE is published by the COMMUNIST WORKERS' MOVEMENT (C.W.M.), which has been formed with the intention of uniting working people and revolutionaries, and uniting with other Marxist- Leninist organisations, in order to build a revolutionary Party of the working class. We aim to apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought to concrete conditions here. Our Programme, a general expression of our views, is available from the above address at 15p post paid. Copies of NEW AGE 20p post paid. Reductions for bulk orders and discount for shops. please write for details. I NEVER KNEW THE FEUDAL SYSTEM EXISTED UNTIL I CAME TO CLARIDGES - so proclaimed the poster held by this picketing worker at the hotel recently. (See page 2) SUBSCRIBE TO NEW AGE £2 A YEAR Post Pd

NEW AGE 10p MONTHLY PAPER OF THE COMMUNIST WORKERS' MOVEMENT. No.4. June, 1978. ZAIRE: KREMLIN STEPS IN ZAIRE (SHABA) Kolwezi Lubumbashi ANGOLA ZAMBIA Recently, an attack was launched against the south- ern part of Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) by a group of mercenaries. Behind this attack was the Soviet Union. The area of Shaba (formerly Katanga) is very rich in cop- per. In preparing to launch a third world war, the USSR want to lay its hand firmly on the key sources of raw materials. HISTORY OF MERCENARIES The same ethnic group is spread over Shaba provinve, the northern part of Angola, and north-west Zambia (this is because the African empire which used to exist in the area was carved up by the co- lonialists of Belgium, Britain and Portugal). When Belgium was forced to bow to the national liberation movement in the Congo at the beginning of the '60s it dre- amt up the idea of playing on the tribal sympathies of the southern Congolese and fomen- ting a secession of the copper rich area. This was carried out under the puppet leadership of Moise Tshombe using an army of "Kat- angese Gendarmes", with Afric- ans as cannon-fodder, European mercenary officers and headed by the sinister "general" Mbumba. NEW MASTERS After the secession collap- sed and then Mobutu took power (continued on p. 7) CONTENTS Hackney Abortion Campaign.........P.3. CWM/RCLB: Determined to Unite.........P.4. East End Murder..P.5. Liverpool F.C. V. Councillors......P.5. Cameron Was Right............P.6. Ireland..........P.6. Protests in Georgia..........P.7. Being Ill in China............P.8. (A longer article than that on the left about recent events in Zaire will appear in our next issue, as will a review of "Why Paul Foot Should Be A Soc- ialist;"this was held over because of short- age of space.) THE WAY FORWARD In recent months, var- ious sections of the work- ing class who have gone into struggle for trade union rights or economic demands have suffered setbacks and defeats: Grunwicks workers and the firemen are obvious examples. Some other workers have accepted 10% pay deals, including recently the post- men. These things have to be faced up to as setbacks-it is no use pretending they did not happen. However, if many workers and working people learn from them, then these bad things can become good things. A growing number of workers are seeing through the Labour Party and the trade union leadership which supports it. At one time, the Labour Party could call on the working class for support at elec- tion time and get it-now that support is steadily falling. Many are not in- terested in voting at all, while others cast about for alternatives, and still others vote Labour, not be- cause they hope for anything good from it, but as a way of keeping out parties they feel are worse. Trade union bureaucrats have also come in for grow- ing criticism from the peo- ple they misrepresent. Some, like Roy Grantham of APEX, who let down the Grunwicks strikers, (he wanted to stop mass picketting at least in part because he was afraid that "industrial unrest" would upset Labour's chances of being re-elected), or Tom Jackson, one of the leading architects of the Social Contract, are well known supporters of the Lab- our government. Others, who have taken a more critical line towards Labour (like Reg Birch of the AUEW) have finally been shown up as EDITORIAL hatchet men for capitalism when they have tried to hold down workers' demands. All these people have been ex- posed partly in the process of sections of the working class suffering setbacks. We, as Marxist-Lenin- ists, are of course not happy that the working class has had to pay a bit of a price for the deeper know- ledge of the trade union and Labour bureaucrats, but, all the same, we welcome the fact that there is a move away from these people going on. Our attitude is completely different from that of the revisionist counter-revol- utionaries of the "Communist" Party of Great Britain, the slavishly pro-Moscow New "Communist" Party revision- ists and the various trot- skyite groups, who try to make out that the Labour Party is somehow better than the other parties of capit- alism. More and more, the words of these defenders of social-democracy are being disregarded. These developments make certain tasks more urgent. Firstly, the building of a revolutionary party of the working class-a Marxist-Len- inist party-which alone is capable of leading the struggle for socialist rev- olution in Britain. That is the only real alternative to the politics of the various parties of the ruling class. British Marxist-Leninists should work hard to unite the M-L movement and to lay the political, ideological and organizational bases for the single M-L party-all those who really want soc- ialist revolution should work with and/or join the Marxist-Leninist organ- izations working on this task. Secondly, we must work to make unions into organ- izations of class struggle, not of class collaboration, as they are, in general, at the moment. This will take a lot of hard work by revolu- tionaries and militant work- ers. Unions need to be made more democratic, and demo- cratization has got to begin, not from the top, but from the bottom-the branches. They need to be made inta organs of struggle against capitalism, against pay re- straint, bad conditions, long hours of overtime and for a shorter working week, higher pay and better con- ditions. (Continued P.2.)

2 (Continued from P.1.) But work among the org- anized working class and working people should not be confined simply to good trade unionism; we, as comm- unists, stand first and fore- most for the working class as a class, not for the particular interests and de- mands of one section of workers or another. Even the best orthodox trade un- ionism only stands for a better deal for the working class within the capitalist system, while communists stand for the overthrow of that system and the estab- lishment of a society run by and for the working class and those whose int- erests tie with it. We must step up the fight on the political, as well as the economic front; against growing fascism, the schemes of the two super-powers for world dom- ination, and racism, for equal rights and opportun- ities for women, for sol- idarity with the national liberation movements and revolutionary parties of the world, with those taking a stand against imperialism and social- imperialism, with social- ist China in particular; we must work to develop the realization among workers, working and progressive people that socialist revolution al- one can enable us to put an end to the hundreds of problems we face in life under the capitalist system. LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS The importance of capit- alist elections should not be over-estimated. All the same, it was good that the vote for the NF fascists was low. Even in their "strongholds" places where they have won over 10%, even over 20% of the vote in the past, they were knocked down to 3% and less. This was due to the hard work put in by thousands of anti-fascist activists in leafletting, arguing against the NF and their like, organiz- ing anti-fascist demon- strations and counter- demonstrations, painting out racist slogans, etc. The success won by the anti-fascists has proved that those who advised us "Ignore the NF and they'll go away," were talking nonsense at best, and encouraging the fascists to step up their activities at worst. The movement against fascism and racism must be broadened to bring in more and more people as WHY PAUL FOOT SHOULD BE A SOCIALIST-THE CASE AGAINST THE SOCIALIST WORKERS' PARTY When the Socialist Workers' Party was launched, it published a book by Paul Foot- "Why You Should Be A Socialist" This book showed many of the faults of the SWP very well. Now CWM has published a book which not only refutes most of what Paul Foot says, but indicates the way forward from the errors of SWP. "New Age" will publish a review in its next issue, but we can recommend it to our readers, particularly those who have had some contact with SWP. WHY PAUL FOOT SHOULD BE A SOCIALIST can be obtained from: OCTOBER BOOKS, 4B, TEMPLE COURT, LIVERPOOL 2. (Price: £1.20, plus 20p for postage and packing) Also available from: NEW ERA BOOKS, 203, SEVEN SISTERS RD, LONDON. N4. (Contact NEW ERA for wholesale terms) Callaghan, British Labour Party Prime Minister, meets Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan's Martial Law Administrater, who has been busy suppressing the few democratic rights the people of Pakistan had, inc- luding trade union rights. Perhaps Sonny Jim, "the" workers' friend," hopes to pick up a few tips.....or give some. activists, and deepened, so that it faces up to all steps towards fascism, particularly moves by the state, and does not give all its attention to the activities of a small bunch of Nazis. After all, racist immigration controls have been brought in by Labour and Conservative governments; it is the Labour Party that has supported corporate state measures like the "Social Contract" and it is the police, part of the state machine, who turn out to defend the fascists when they march. THE MORO KILLING Aldo Moro, the Italian Christian Democratic polit- ician who was recently killed by the Red Brigades, was a reactionary of long standing. His party turned a blind eye to the activ- ities of fascist terrorists like the Black Order or SAM (Mussolini Action Squads) for years, but are now mak- ing a big thing of his killing to crack down on the genuine Left and on progressive Italians. Their repressive measures have recieved support and co-operation from the rev- isionist "Communist" Party of Italy (PCI), which is thus showing its real, right wing character. Marxist-Leninists do not support terrorist ac- tions like those of the Red Brigades. The capital- ist system will not be overthrown by the assass- ination of a few reaction- aries-there will always be a steady stream of replace- ments for them; it will be destroyed by a revolution headed by the working class and its party, and a few individuals cannot replace the masses as the makers of history. POLICE COMPUTER According to a recent edi- tion of "Police Review" a perfectly innocent person was recorded on a police computer as being a homo- sexual child molester. This was based solely on street-corner gossip. The wife of a policeman was shopping in a village shop when she overheard someone remark that "X liked little boys". She reported this to her hus- band who recorded it in an occurrence book. From there it made its way to the Thames Valley police compu- ter. This occurred in the course of the centralisation of police intelligence files under a home office order. If an off the cuff remark in a small shop can be treated so seriously and be recorded in police files it is clear that much more acc- urate information on any revolutionary or anyone who causes 'trouble' could be available for easy access for senior police officers and civil servants. While this may not be in fact the case, it shows that the machinery for fascist con- trol, if and when needed, is already in existence and is being extended. "Police Review" was natu- rally concerned that the police should be more care- ful as the thing they fear most is exposure of the intelligence section to bad publicity. The capitalist state is get- ting increasingly panicky about the activities of army intelligence units also being brought into the limelight by journalists Aubrey and Campbell and the recent case of the Leveller magazine. The Leveller is being prose- cuted for naming a state witness in the Official Secrets Act trial against Aubrey, Berry and Campbell as highlighted in the last issue of New Age. This growing corporatist state apparatus is being intro- duced under a labour government showing that the Labour party is just as much a bosses party as the Tory party. The Leveller should be suppor- ted in their trial and their campaign against the Official Secrets Act. EXPOSE STATE MOVES TOWARDS FASCISM! SCRAP THE OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT!

3 HACKNEY ABORTION CAMPAIGN Abortion facilities in Hackney are among the worst in the country. Some women there have been campaigning to get a day-care centre organized. At day-care centres it is possible to have a very early abortion before 14 weeks of pregnancy are out. At this stage, the foetus is still in the process of being formed; it is poss- ible to induce an abortion without an anaesthetic. The woman has the abortion, goes away, has bleeding slightly heavier than a normal period, but is gen- erally all right afterwards and can usually return to work the next day. Unfortunately, women in this area have to go through such a complic- ated process of getting their abortion that even if they do finally manage it, it is much later in pregnancy, when it is much more painful and dan- gerous to their health. It doesn't make economic sense either. Not only does the woman having an abortion take up a much- needed hospital bed, but she also has to have time off work. She very often requires pain-killing drugs or an anaesthetic. Contrary to popular opinion, abortions are not mainly done for working class fifteen year olds who have been "totally irresponsible" abortions are needed by women over the whole range of ages when they may become pregnant, and from all classes too. Often it is the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances. To bring up an unwanted child is no good for the child or parents concerned. No child asks to be born or to be buffeted from foster mother to children's home and back to mother. The economic and social system of this country make life very hard for unwanted children. Historically, when industry developed away from the home, the traditional family and com- munity life changed. Chil- dren moved away from their parents and familiar sur- roundings to seek better houses, employment, etc. In doing this, they became more isolated and more dep- endent on having a family. An individual without the support of a family was in a very difficult situation and the unwanted child is in this position. An un- wanted child is really un- wanted in this society. Socialism is by no means utopia, but the emph- asis in a socialist society is on the well-being of everybody. Children are not two people's commodity, to be used and abused accord- ingly, but belong to the whole community. In such a situation, if a family has more children than they can cope with, their neighbours help out. If that were the case in this country, abor- tions might not be so nec- essary. As it is now, women need to have good abortion facilities easily available for when they want, as soon as they want. Family Life 'NF Style' The future the NF has in store for women. This cartoon comes from a leaflet produced by Hackney Socialist Feminist Group and Hackney Committee Against Racism. and distributed in thousands in the area. nat.front, nat.press (The following article was contributed by a reader. We would just like to make the point that many people have opposed the fascists, not only those who belong to "socialist movements.") The national press, al- ways avid for sensational headlines, is getting good mileage from the Fascist Movement these days. A rec- ent fracas in Wolverhampton, instigated by National Front supporters, was widely rep- orted in the national press as a race riot involving hundreds of black youths attacking policemen and the insidious implication that our inner cities are violent ghettos. It is true that black kids hang about on street corners in my town-if you are unemployed and getting £12 per week what else is there to do? And when you know that the percentage of unemployed kids like yourself is higher than for white school-leavers, it must seem a ridiculous farce to go to the Careers Office when you don't stand much of a chance of a labouring job, let alone a "career." And if I was black and I read in the paper that the rank and file of the police force had a leader of a racist party to speak at their conference, I wouldn't have much faith in our famous "British Justice" either. As for our inner cities, a lot of them are ghettos, caused not by black people, but by racketeer landlords, who rent out slum property to lower paid work- ers in general. A prime ex- ample of this is Glasgow, a city with a very small imm- igrant community. Govern- ment expenditure cuts force councils to slash housing projects-social evils like this must be fought by the labour movement. The national press does much to foster racial hat- red, with its sensational reporting and its reluct- ance to condemn outright the National Front. Bast- ions of capitalism like the Daily Mail and the Daily Ex- press pomtificate through their leader columns, "The National Front are entitled to have free speech" they say "Suppressing them is wrong" and then go on to condemn socialist movements who actively fight racism. This is the classic tech- nique of divide and rule, set worker against worker, play on his fears and prejudices and when he is weak turn on the screws. The National Front is a product of capitalist soc- iety, it is vicious and evil and must be fought at all costs. We should refuse to work with fascists and treat them like the scabs they are. After all, how can they do their jobs impartially, es- pecially in something like the benefit service? As ind- ividuals we must guard our- selves against their poison- ous attitudes, and collect- ively, through our unions, fight against fascism. A united labour movement can never be defeated. NATIONAL ABORTION CAMPAIGN July, '77. National Abortion Campaign march to Downing Street to protest against the Benyon Bill, which sought to restrict further a woman's right to choose whether to have an unwanted child or an abor- tion. Practice has shown that restriction of the right to free abortion on demand leads to many women being forced to turn to back-street abortionists, with all the dangers to health-and even life-that that involves.

4 CWM AND RCLB DETERMINED TO UNITE On the afternoon of 29th April, a public meet- ing took place in London, organized jointly by the Communist Workers' Move- ment and the Revolution- ary Communist League of Britain on the struggle to unite the Marxist-Leninist movement here. The meeting was opened with two revol- utionary songs performed by the "New Era Singers" Speeches were then made by Comrade Chris Burford, Chairman of the Central Committee of the RCLB and Comrade Ian Williams, Sec- retary of the National Committee of the Commun- ist Workers' Movement. Front Nazis but also from corporatist policies being followed by the "Labour" government. Both speakers used the occasion to publicly ann- ounce the determination of the two organizations to achieve unity. This ann- ouncement was greeted with applause. The speeches were foll- owed by a lively discussion with the participation of mambers and supporters of the CWM and RCLB, as well as members of the Workers' Party of Scotland (Marxist- Leninist), Nottingham Comm- unist Group, and other groups and individuals. a thunderous and prolonged standing ovation. A reso- lution was passed unanimous- ly by the meeting, condemn- ing the hostility of the West German bourgeoisie to the Zimbabwean people as shown by their refusal to admit ZANU representatives to West Germany and the seizure of funds intended for ZANU (See "New Age" No. 3.). A collection to help raise money for a land- rover for ZANU netted over £172 at the meeting. The meeting closed with the singing of the Internationale; this was followed in the evening by a social. MORE BRITISH JUSTICE On April 10th, the trial started in Sheffield of five people, four white and one black. The background to this case says a lot about what British justice really means. The defendants were all arrest- ed last year on July 4th in Burngreave, an area of Sheff- ield with poor housing, high unemployment and no clubs or facilities for young people. The police went round, picking up young blacks while "pursuing their enquiries" into a robbery from a car. In all, ten were taken to Atter- cliffe police station, of whom only two were charged, along with two other people, six weeks later. The prosec- ution used "confessions" signed under duress and thr- eats of violence to get these for young blacks found guilty and sent down for three years; throughout their time in the cop shop they had been refused access to solicitors. The four white people be- came involved when the police were making their original pick-ups. They protested when they saw plain clothes police- men beating a black youth, Anthony Armstrong, with trun- cheons (he was never charged with robbery). All five were arrested and charged with various offences, including criminal damage (to a police shirt), assault on a police- man in the execution of his duty, and, in Armstrong's case, with possession of an offensive weapon (a billiard cue). The five pleaded not guil- ty to all charges. Local people are sick of the treatment they get from the police-black people espec- ially have suffered a lot of police harassment over the years. During the arrests men- tioned above, the police show- ed their racist attitudes in the abuse they used towards the black youths. The four whites were threatened, ass- aulted and called "do-gooders," "agitators," and "social Work- ers"! The defendants have rec- eived a lot of local support, and a defence committee was set up to support them, c/o 23, Catherine Rd., Sheffield S4 7HH. WANE WIRRAL TRADES COUNCIL LEYLAND FIX TRA TRAD UNITED WE STAND NEEDS BUI IT ON JIM LEYLAND Trade Unionists march in Liverpool on May Day. CWM and RCLB members marched together, there as elsewhere. In the future, with their own party, workers will push revolutionary politics to the fore on May Day, and push aside the Labour Party and CPGB hacks who presently dominate May Day marches. Comrade Burford prais- ed the heroic struggles being waged by the British working class as exemplif- ied by the recent firemen's strike, but pointed out that these were without central leadership because the working class lacked its revolutionary commun- ist party. Therefore our central task is to build that party in order to provide a fighting head- quarters for the working class. Comrade Williams said that it was necessary to take a sober view of the situation because our forces are still weak and divåded and generally iso- lated from the working class. He stressed that while there was genuine cause for optimism we should not rest on our laurels: the danger of fascism is growing, not only from the National A message of solidarity was brought to the meeting by a representative of the Confederation of Iranian Students (CIS) who thanked the CWM and RCLB for their messages of solidarity to the last Congress of CIS and expressed the sincere hope that the British rev- olutionaries would be able to overcome their differ- ences and unite in a single organization. His message was greeted with loud app- lause. The meeting also heard a speaker from the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-Patriotic Front), who spoke on the present situation in his country and pointed out that it was in the Lenin- ist tradition for workers in the imperialist count- ries to support the nat- ional liberation movements. At the end of his speech, the ZANU Comrade was given On May Day, the CWM and RCLB jointly particip- atedin the May Day marches in London and other cities. The joint public meet- ing of the CWM and RCLB as well as the other joint work of the two organiza- tions marks the important advances that have been made in the unity discuss- ions between the two org- anizations. Unity of the CWM and RCLB will take the Marxist-Leninist movement in Britain to a new stage. MARXIST-LENINISTS, UNITE! LETTER to the EDITOR Dear Editor, I'm a single parent struggling to bring up two small children on S.S. I would dearly love to go out to work. Life is not much fun living four floors (Continued opposite)

5 LIVERPOOL FC V COUNCILLORS up in an old council flat, having no money and no- where to go. There are clubs, etc in the area but I don't feel I can attend. I would not want to disgrace my- self and my children by app- earing to be poor. I have had the child- ren's names down for day nursery for over a year but have been told it is virtually impossible to get a place unless the children are "at risk"- in other words, unless I hammer hell out of them. I have a limited know- ledge of what I consider a socialist society to be like and therefore bought a copy of "New Age" No.3. I feel I have little to lose by learning about com- munism in its true sense and therefore would support the paper. Allow me to point out to all those who consider themselves arrogant enough to criticize "Social Sec- urity Scroungers"-One wrong move could easily put them in the same boat. SOVIET FLUNKEYS MEET A congress of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) took place recent- ly in Prague, capital of occupied Czechoslovakia. The WFTU is a tool of So- viet global expansion and comprises the state-contol- led "trade unions" of the Soviet Union and other revisionist countries as well as trade unions in capitalist countries that are controlled by revision- ist parties. The resolutions of the congress were filled with revisionist bunkum. They made the incredible assertion that the Soviet state unions are free and democratic - this at a time when Soviet workers are being impri- soned in jails and psyc- hiatric hospitals for at- tempting to form a free Trade Union. British workers should take note that present as an "observer" at the con- gress was National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) lead- er Joe Gormley. Gormley is notorious for his sup- port of the corporatist "social contract" as well as a productivity deal in British mines that sets miner against miner and puts safety gravely at risk in order to make great- er profits for the mine owners - who just happen to be the Labour government of which Gormley is a faithful servant. Perhaps Gormley would like to see British miners who struggle for a fighting union placed in psychi- atric wards? Liverpool councillors were up in arms over the arrange- ments of Liverpool FC to play Nottingham Forest on May 4th, the day of the municipal el- ections. The councillors fear- ed that the workers would pre- fer the match to voting, so they condemned the club for playing them. However, it was those very same councillors (or the majority of them) that chose to miss an important council meeting in order to watch the European Cup Semi- Final against Borussia Moen- chen Gladbach! This goes to prove that the councillors are not interested in the problems of the city, but only their own careers and perks. People consider all three main parties as the same, and no longer attach much import- ance to elections-thus it was estimated that 50,000 people would prefer to watch the match instead. The "Left" Labour councillors will acc- use the club and workers of apathy, but the apathy is created by those very people who do the accusing. After the elections, the party that gets the majority of seats will push through pol- icies regardless, and the other parties will say, "I told you so" and so the mer- ry-go-round goes on. Of course, the directors of the club would have liked the elections to go on with- out the match interfering (as social-democracy is in their interests), but profit had to take priority over el- ections. So worried were coun- cillors that they appealed to the League over the date. They don't give a damn about the destruction of the city, which has been left as a barren wasteland near the centre, nor about the bad re- pair of housing or public transport. All cuts tomthese essential services have been brought about by the IMF dic- tating policy to the Labour party, or rather, by the Labour party doing its usual job and having the IMF as an excuse. Of course, not one of these councillors gets up on an anti-imperialist platform and exposes the Labour party or really tackles the IMF. On the contrary, it is the usual "don't rock the boat" slogan. It is no wonder that the people would rather watch a football match than vote for a council who pursue practic- ally the same policies which- ever party gets in. The lesson to be learned is that many workers will continue to think football more important than politics until the Marxist-Leninists can give them an alternative- this can't be done until we have a party of the masses, for the masses. EAST END MURDER The extremely brutal mur- der of a child in East Lon- don has received little at- tention in the national press and T.V. Kennith Singh, a 10 years old Indian boy, was a victim of a "vicious, sustained and extremely brutal attack" to use the words of the police. He was discovered on a dere- lict site near his home in Plaistow in the evening of April 20th - with fourteen stab wounds to the head and shoulders, a crushed skull and severe bruising - short- ly after going to the shop for his mother; he died soon afterwards in hospital. He had not been sexually assaulted, neither had he been robbed - but on the fences round the derelict site, and near by, were daub- ed numerous slogans of race- hate. At or near this spot a small group of white youths used to gather on certain evenings and shout racist insults or threats at Asians who were passing; since the murder they have not been seen there. In the words of E. Warner, Secre- tary of the Newham Community Relations Council, "There is a strong feeling in the com- munity that this may have been a racialist attack." This is the feeling of neighbours, black and white, who have expressed their sympathy to the bereaved parents. This indeed is the way the evidence over- whelmingly points. The police however claim to be at a loss as to the motive for this horrific crime, which they describe as a "motiveless attack", "just a senseless slaying." FASCISM Some people will remem- ber that just around the cor- ner - on the other side of Plaistow Station - the fasc- ist Kingsley-Read, former Chairman of the National Front, delivered a notori- ous speech including the com- ment "One Down One Million to Go" on the death of an A- ian youth in Southall; and that a judge in the Old Bai- ley "wished him well" for this speech. Could these events be more than a co- incidence? A few miles away in White- chapel another brutal murder of an Asian youth occurred on the evening of May 4th (the day of local council elections in which National Front candidates did very badly) - the victim was the ASIANS DETERMINED TO FIGHT BACK Bengali youth Altab Ali. After some 8,000 people marched in protest from Whitechapel to Hyde Park on May 14th, the murder and other racial attacks on the Bengali community in the East End were the subject of a T.V. programme. Even the police, very reluctantly, were forced to concede that such attacks do take place - but blamed the Bengalis for not reporting the at- tacks to them. But as a member of the Bengali community pointed out, "only a few have been reported to the police. The people feel they have no protection and to contact the police would only ex- pose them to further at- tacks." In other words the Asian community has absolutely no confidence in the willing- ness or ability of the poli- ce to protect them or pun- ish the attackers. This is a result of their own exper- ience. That is why Asians in parts of East London where such racial attacks take place have no alternative but to organise their own self-defence - in order to protect themselves, their families and their homes and property. As one slo- gan on the recent march said, "self-defence is no offence!" RESISTANCE Contrary to the impression which the T.V. programme tried to give, the Asian community in East London does not stand alone. The fascists and active racists are a tiny minority of the people - even in those parts of the East End which they claim to be their 'stronghold' and they are spurned and ha- ted by the vast majority of the people, particularly the young. Hundreds of white people took part in the pro- test march on May 14th with banners of Stepney Trades Council and other local bo- dies. More and more white working people and youth are joining the struggle against racism and fascism - as shown for example by the 80,000 people who took part in the demonstration and carnival on April 30th or- ganised by the Anti-Nazi League. In the face of these two vicious murders and numer- ous other attacks, Asian people have every right to organise to defend themsel- ves - and we will give them active support.

6 THE WORLD SCENE IRELAND a visit to the north OR MORE CORRECTLY, THE OCCUPIED SIX COUNTIES. (Contributed by a recent visitor to Ireland) After arriving in Belfest city centre, the first thing that strikes you is the fact that you are in the middle of a war. ر British troops (known locally as Brits) patrol on foot, in open jeeps and in Saracens. The police (RUC) march around with rifles and machine guns nothing like the traditional image of the British policemen. Walking through the main shopping area, the failure of the security ring is obvious; this is shown by the large number of shops displaying not- ices saying "we have moved to temporary premises at......" by the sudden gaps in rows of buildings where the premises just seem to have vanished. Public buildings such as the court I walked past reminded me of the aviary at the zoo, because of the massive wire mesh fence with its own sloping roof as high as the roof of the court itself. The big concrete blocks in the road made me wonder if the IRA has tanks as well as M60 machine guns! Police stations and British army barracks have the same defences of high wire-mesh fences, barbed wire and concrete blocks in the road to prevent cars from being parked. Across the roads approaching the barracks, there are high ramps to prevent cars travelling at even average speed, to lessen the dan- ger of attack by car. BEING SEARCHED Being searched as you go through the security ring into Belfast town centre or Derry is bad en- ough the first time, but when you walk around the corner and are searched again, you begin to under- stand what life is really like for those living in occupied Ireland. Walking through the streets in Republican Bel- fast, we were stopped, questioned and searched twice in an hour and a half, while the almighty computer checked us out. One Brit even expressed surprise beс- ause my Irish friend said that he had never been lift- ed for screening! As well as the harassment on the streets, the Brits go in for the wrecking of homes. If you can't get out of bed quickly enough at 5.00 A.M. in the morning to let these vandals in, then they let them- selves in by smashing in the front door. Pipes are then torn from the walls, floor boards pulled up, children are forced out of their beds, while par- ents have to wake their babies while the Brits search their cots. After wrecking the home, the Brits will often lift one of the men of the family and drag them off to a torture centre such as Castlereagh. In the Castlereagh torture centre, the victim is likely to be subjected to being punched in the face, stomach and privates, and beaten on the soles of his feet. Often the victim is told he is going to be shot, a gun is then put to his head and something heavy such as a book is dropped on the floor. The victim might be told he is going to be handed over to the J.V.F. to be killed. Now there is a new depth of depravity in Castlereagh, with a youth being sexually assaulted by members of the R.U.C. Obviously, this treatment often succeeds in gett- ing people to make the statements which the R.U.C. desire. These false statements extracted under tor- ture are the only evidence in 80% of the court cases. But it is enough to get young men sentenced to long years in prison (10 years for I.R.A. membership alone). COMPLAINTS If the victim does not break down, he is rel- eased without being charged. But often he is told that he will be released only on condition that he makes no complaint against the R.U.C. Amazingly, people do complain and this explains the recent court case of a member of the Irish Rep- ublican Socialist Party, Ronnie Bunting. After being beaten up and having U.V.F. carved on his arm, he took aut a complaint against the police. The R.U.C. claimed the comrade had beaten him- self up and carved U.V.F. on his own arm! They then charged him with "maliciously inferring that two senior police officers inflicted injury on him" and with "wasting police time." He was fined £1,00. The political situation in Ireland today shows the complete failure of Roy Mason's war machine. The policy of criminalization by which the British have attempted to have the national liber- ation war defined as criminal and the Irish Repub- lican Army and Irish National Liberation Army sol- diers defined as gangsters has failed. This is because of the courage of the 300 men on the blanket in H block, Long Kesh concentration camp and the mass support they have from working class people. In the words of the leadership of the Repub- lican movement, "The world should be in no doubt that the length of the war of national liberation and the strength which the Irish Republican Army can exert are proof that we command mass support in the occupied North. We wish to stress the det- ermination of the Irish Republican Movement to continue the struggle for an end to British rule. Irrespective of how long it takes, our units will strike at enemy forces until England declares openly and honestly that she is withdrawing from Ireland." For those of us who are English, Scottish or Welsh revolutionaries, our task is clear. We must demand:- TROOPS OUT NOW. SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE AS A WHOLE. Republican women and children show what they think of the British troops,