Part 007 - PAMPHLET 032 007

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Working Class is exploited by US imperialism, as well as by its "own" bourgeoisie. The ruling class of Britain and those of other west European countries would like to go on ex- ploiting the Third World, but they lack the political, military and economic strength to compete effectively with the super-powers and to dominate the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The British ruling class may try to do the latter by tagging along at the coat-tails of one of the super-powers, some favouring collaboration with US imperialism, and some, represented by the Labour "lefts" in particular, with Soviet social-imperialism. The dominant trend among the bourgeoisie of western Europe is to strive for some degree of independence from the super-powers, but this trend is weaker among the British bour- geoisie than among its European counterparts. Much of it is still tied to US imperialism and opposes Soviet social-imperialism while allowing US domination. The bourgeoisie of Western Europe have grouped themselves together in the European Economic Community. The tendency towards solidarity among them, expressed in the EEC, has a positive role politically insofar as it promotes independence from the USA (which is quite prepared to see Western Europe turned into a battleground, quite happy to fight to the last European against the USSR) and counters the Soviet strategy of dividing the targets of its aggression and swallowing them one by one. Because superpower domin- ation over the Third World would inevitably bring with it superpower domination over Eurpoe, there is a certain tendency among Second World bourgeoisies to accept more equal relations with the Third World than they would have at an earlier period. But this is a very weak and indecisive tendency, and only exists at all because the Third World has won re- peated trials of strength with imperialist countries. The Third World (Asia -excluding Japan - Africa, Latin America and countries in some other regions) consists of those parts of the world whose development has been stifled by imperialist exploitation. It is where the contradictions of the world are focussed. Since the disappearance of the Socialist Camp (which used to exist when the Soviet Union and East European countries were still socialist), the Third World has become the strongest force for change and progress. This is because it contains the overwhelming majority of the world's population and those who have suffered and suffer the intensest exploitation and oppression. It includes China, which is guided by a firm proletarian line in international affairs, as well as the other genuine socialist countries. Apart from China and other socialist countries, most of the states of the Third World are headed by bourgeois or even feudal regimes. These, in general, want to develop their own countries independently, and take a larger cut of the fruits of their people's labour than imperialism allows them. For this reason, and because of the demands and struggles of their peoples, these regimes are in general, standing up (to different degrees) to the im- perialist powers and fighting for a more equal relationship with them, but they wish to go further and eliminate all forms of capitalist and feudal oppression. They are the most res- olute opponents of imperialism, and are giving a hammering to the ruling classes of the USA and the western imperialist countries, and, increasingly, to Soviet social-imperialism. The Third World peoples are a reliable ally of the proletariat in the imperialist coun- tries, including Second World countries like Britain. The imperialist system is the common enemy of the peoples of the Third World and the workers of the imperialist countries. In the international fight to overthrow imperialism, the international proletariat is the leading force and the Third World is the main force. H. CAPITALIST STRATEGY IN BRITAIN Class struggle develops in complicated ways. Communists must analyse every situation concretely, distinguishing between their main features and the less important ones, between those trends which are growing and developing, and those which are declining; they must assess the various class forces at different stages so as to formulate correct tactics for wag- ing the class struggle and building the revolutionalry Communist Party into a reliable head- quarters for the proletarian forces in their fight for socialism. In the early 1970s there was an acute conflict between labour and capital in the form of strikes. The strike movement in itself could not endanger the capitalist system, but class