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    Vol.61/No.15           April 14, 1997 
 
 
Communist League Campaigns In UK  

BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN
LONDON - "Squalor," "sleaze," "sex scandal." In newspaper after newspaper, TV and radio news bulletins, and chat shows, these have been the opening words of the general election in the United Kingdom.

The first week of the campaign has witnessed the resignation of a sitting Tory MP for having a extra-marital affair; the resignation of the chairman of the Scottish Tories for a past homosexual relationship; front-page pictures of another Tory MP kissing a 17-year-old; and a campaign of demands on Neil Hamilton not to stand in the elections. Hamilton is the Tory MP at the center of what has become known as the "cash for questions" scandal: MPs receiving bribes to ask questions in parliament.

The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties accused John Major of calling the election to avoid publication of a government-commissioned inquiry into "cash for questions." Now the Labour Party has upped the ante by offering, if other parties agree to do likewise, to stand down in Hamilton's constituency in favor of an "anti-sleaze" candidate.

Launching the Communist League campaign in the London constituency of Southwark North and Bermondsey, candidate Ian Grant warned against the workers movement being sucked into the crusade against sleaze. "The problem with the capitalists and their political representatives is not that they are immoral, hypocritical people as individuals," Grant said. "The scandal mongering is an effort by capitalist politicians themselves to draw working people into the gutter and divert them from the real issues.

"It's the right wing and the ultraright that benefit from this pornographication of politics, and of the resentment and envy it breeds," Grant emphasized. "Such campaigns became the stock in trade of the Nazis in the '20s and '30s when they assailed the `filth' and `degeneracy' of the Weimar republic.

"My campaign says that working people shouldn't give a damn about the sex lives of MPs - or the royal family for that matter. The working class doesn't need expose's of individual capitalist politicians. What we need is to understand that we have no common interests with the class these politicians speak for. My campaign exists to promote an independent program to advance the interests of the oppressed and exploited."

Grant said that at the center of the Communist League's campaign is the issue of jobs. "The greatest division within the working class is between the employed and the unemployed," the communist candidate explained. "Permanent mass unemployment is a feature of capitalism. Officially today in the UK there are 1.7 million unemployed, a rate of 6.2 percent. But the real figure is closer to 4 million."

Fight for jobs for all
Grant pointed to the findings of a three-year study by independent researchers at Sheffield Hallam University. "For example" Grant said, citing the report, "up to 1.2 million long-term unemployed are now claiming Incapacity Benefit and are therefore excluded from the unemployment figures."

Grant, an assembly line worker at Ford's Dagenham plant, spoke of recent developments in the car industry that exposed the lies of capitalist politicians who claim they're interested in solving unemployment. "Ford recently announced 960 redundancies at its Halewood plant near Liverpool. Renault has announced the closure of its Vilvoorde plant in Belgium. All this is done in the name of `overcapacity.' What the capitalists mean by `overcapacity' is too many cars than they can sell to realize the profit they need. Fighting unemployment cannot be done in alliance with the capitalists but only through a struggle against them.

"The Communist League campaign argues in favor of a cut in the working week to 30 hours with no loss of pay," Grant explained, "and a crash program of public works to build the homes, schools and hospitals workers need and employ the jobless.

"Closely related to the fight for jobs is the fight for a national minimum wage," which doesn't exist in Britain today. "It should be illegal to be paid less than 6 per hour," the communist candidate said.

"Such policies won't be bestowed on the working class by a sympathetic government," Grant added. "The Labour Party pretends the social gains that make up welfare state were its gift to the nation following World War II. Many workers are today hoping that a Labour government will start to improve their conditions. In fact, this election will solve nothing. Whichever party is elected to government, it will launch new attacks on working people as the capitalist rulers seek to off-load the effects of the crisis onto our backs.

"For example, on jobs, the Labour and Tory Parties are both projecting "workfare": making the unemployed work for poverty-line wages under threat of having the miserable unemployment benefit withdrawn.

"Whatever working people have got, we've had to fight for," Grant said. "The welfare reforms after World War II were implemented because the rulers feared that workers in Britain would emulate the struggles of their brothers and sisters in Europe who were challenging capitalist rule. There are two important lessons from this," Grant continued. "First, that working people need a program of united action through our unions and on the streets. Second, that working people should reject the `national unity' policies of all the capitalist parties. `Britain first' means `profit first.' What we need is class unity, not national unity.

No common interest with bosses
"At the center of the discussion among the capitalist parties is the issue of Europe. Each party is divided over this question. The Referendum Party has been established on this single issue. All approach the issue on the grounds of what's in Britain's interests. But really what they're debating is what's in the interests of Britain's ruling rich."

Grant blasted parties that speak in the name of the working class and campaign on an anti-Europe platform - such as the Socialist Labour Party of Arthur Scargill and the Communist Party of Britain. "Working people have nothing to gain by hitching our wagon either to the anti- or to the pro-Marketeers," he said. "Our interests are served by forging an independent program and uniting with working people in other countries - in Europe and around the world."

Grant pointed to the recent intervention by British forces into Albania. "The Special Air Services [SAS] went in supposedly on a mission to defend British citizens in Albania from the `anarchy' that is engulfing that country. But the truth is that the SAS guns were pointed at the armed rebellion of Albanian workers and farmers. Just like the guns of the thousands of British soldiers in Yugoslavia are pointed at the workers and farmers of that country. The true story behind British troop intervention in these countries is the desire to reestablish capitalism and, as they do so, to ensure that British capitalism is not squeezed out by its rivals."

"British troops should also be removed from Ireland," the communist candidate said. "Through their domination of Ireland over centuries the British rulers have profited economically and politically. They've been able to divide working people along national lines, especially Irish from English.

"Unless working people in Britain break from the British rulers in their fight against Irish freedom, we'll never be able to fight the same British rulers as they seek to make us pay for the crisis of their system.

The Communist League is also standing Tim Rigby in the constituency of Manchester Central.  
 
 
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