demanding the withdrawal of the British troops is the most urgent task. The fact Heath took time out, in a speech at an obscure meeting, to insist that the "British people' (i.e. the British Government) would not be pressurised into withdrawing the troops by a bombing campaign in Britain, confirms that this issue is central. The failure to destroy the Provos, and the increasing unlikelihood of the Assembly achieving any progress, implies a major crisis of policy for British imperialism. Such a crisis would greatly increase popular support for the withdrawal of the troops.
As yet the effects of the recent spate of bombings on the development of such a movement cannot be accurately gauged. A sustained campaign of this kind, combined with the continuation of the war in the North of Ireland, might in the long run increase support for a quick end to the war. It is very unlikely, however, that the Provos (or anyone else) could keep up such a campaign for long enough. The effects of a short term campaign would probably be quite the opposite: to polarise public opinion back behind the British Army in the North and hinder the growth of a Troops Out movement in this CO UHILLY A major part of the preparation of a Troops Out movement must consist of consistent propaganda against British Army repression, so as to develop a current of opposition to the repression, especially within the trade union and labour movements. Without such propaganda the demand for the withdrawal of the troops will find its main support amongst those who put it forward for reactionary reasons. will limit its ability to draw in trade unionists and would make the campaign dependent on elements who could easily be swayed by on the increase. One sign of this was the outbreak of wildcat strikes on the railways in the middle of the summer.
At the same time, the economic outlook in the major capitalist countries is extremely gloomy. For a brief period France appeared to be a haven of relative prosperity. But today the economic expansion encouraged by runaway inflation seems about to give way to a generalised recession in the main advanced capitalist countries. The anarchy of the international monetary system, its inability to give any stable expression to the real relationship of forces among the capitalist countries, threatens to provoke a swift downturn in international trade.
These prospects are shaping up at a time when the government does not have the political means to impose a traditional policy of austerity, and is faced with a working class increasingly determined not to carry the can
Lim ROUGE. DES TRAVAİLLURE. LMA SI "UUGE VOLETENS for the capitalist muddle TASKS OF THE LEFT In this situation. the whole left must discuss the tasks before it today. They are clear: To draw for the mass of workers the lessons of Lip concerning: How to struggle? How to prepare within the struggle of today for the society of tomorrow? How to build support for a movement? What is proletarian internationalism?
To work towards the absolutely necessary political clarification of the questions posed by the strike for the working class vanguard: selfmanagement, expropriation, workers control, etc.
To defend unity of all forces withqut exception in working for victory at Lip: hence the demand by Rouge and Workers Struggle to take part in the joint meeting of the trade unions and parties of the left in support of Lip To put forward proposals which can create the best possible relationship of forces against the - a 24-hour general strike;
- the creation of Lip support committees everywhere, uniting all forces without excepin sympathy strikes, the putting forward in each factory of the workers' own demands; - preparation now of a planned counter-offensive by the whole working class against inflation and unemployment; - a sliding scale of wages;
- refusal to carry the can for the capitalist muddle To spread and popularise all initiatives of workers control concerned with promoting what can help the strike and preventing what can injure it: such as the example of the printers of Free Parisian, who forced it to publish a trade union statement by going on strike; the proposals of the 'ORTF Red Mole to give time on television to the Lip workers durg the broadcasting strike; etc To ruthlessly expose this government which, under pretence of defending 'public order' (i.e. the bosses" order), thinks nothing of dissolving the Communist League one day and sending in the police at Lip the next Red Weekly 14 September