When the Communist Party began its campaign for the Assembly in November it didn't look too bad for those who don't know the habits of the CPGB, that is. The demand for the recall of the TUC was put forward and the Morning Star talked about the need for a real programme to fight unemployment. Furthermore the promise was held out of a large democratic gathering of the labour movement, with news that mass factory meetings were to be held to elect delegates in Southall, London, being favourably reported.
But as the list of working class organisations supporting the conference has grown, so every other positive aspect has been dropping out of sight. The demands for a recall TUC and, since the National Executive Committee decision, a recall Labour Party Conference have been popping in and out of the pages of the Morning Star - mirroring the manoeuvres of the parliamentary Labour lett.
NO POLICY As for any programme to fight unemployment, nobody at all (except perhaps the industrial department of the Communist Party) has any idea at all of what it is going to look like. No one even knows if there is going to be a resolution, or whether any policy at all will be adopted. Indeed the most recent circular from the Assembly's organisers, the No. 8 region of the Contederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, simply invites delegates to discuss the unemployment situation - without demanding the right to work!
There are reasons for this. The Communist Party's strategy of left unity puts 'unity" with the lefts above the task of actually fighting for a programme to smash unemployment.
ACTION For the CP. left unity' is the goal itself. But for Red Weekly, unity of the left is unity for action: drawing together the widest possible sectons ojie labour movement br action against the policies of the Wilson Government, and building a permanent labour movement opposition to the Labour Cabinet and the right-wing leaders of the TUC. That should be the task the Assembly sets itself.
It is, of course, something the left can't stomach, as it demands a real fight to remove the present misleaders of the working class, not a paper battle. And the leaders of the Communist Party will do their best to stop that real fight from erupting from the floor of the 27 March Assembly because it will threaten to upset their cosy relation with the lefts.
NONSENSE That is why there is as yet no resolution. That is why no procedure for submitting motions and amendments has been announced. Because how on earth is it possible to have a conference on unemployment actu ally organising any action against Wilson when it is supported by Hugh Scanlon, who is simultaneously announcing his total support for the Government's economic strategy?
For years and years we have heard the eternal refrain from the Communist Party of 'leave it to Hugh', we musn't queer Jack's pitch', and similar nonsense. By now it should be clear to everyone what the corrdors of power strategy leads to.
It is yesterday's "left' darlings of the CP - above all, the great Jack Jones and Michael Foot - who have been to the forefront in plotting and carrying through the anti-working class policies of this Government. It is all too clear where leaving it to X, Y, and Z' has got the labour movement BANKRUPT Crushing any real discussion on programme and action inside the Assembly thus becomes a logical Party's bankrupt line of reliance on the lefts outside. Anyone who has experienced the refusal to vote on resolutions and the ranting leftbaiting in earlier conferences organised by the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions knows that the only time you can expect any democracy from the CP is when the audience is so stacked against them that they have to show a bit of good manners.
The fact that once again they are going to spring a resolution at the last moment, with no-one having a prior chance to discuss it, shows what we can expect in this respect. Perhaps the tender sensibilities of the Labour lefts, and the fact that its own working class base isn't what it used to be, will allow a little democracy to be extracted from the cr at une Assemory. but lt will be an uphill fight all the way. this month in victory. a mushrooming struggle against the cuts, with big support developing for the 25 April national demonstration against the health cuts.
Avonmouth a bitterly fought 17-week strike by 630 workers against wage cuts and redundancies at Commonwealth Smelting Limited ended earlier The working class is beginning to move against the Tory policies of the Wilson Government - so much so that 37 Tribunite MPs felt compelled to abstain on a motion on Healey's White Paper last week, leading to the Government's first major defeat in the House of Commons. But as the working And down in Ray Buckton repeatedly urged the t return to work. Joe Gormley sabota for the right to work at Langwith co Despite this, the Miners' leadershi forced to join the Civil and Public Se tion, the National and Local Govern Association, the National Union of 1 the National Union of Public Empl anding a recall TUC. The possibility to centralise the fragmented struggle son's anti-working class policies is ci The National Assembly on Unem Central Hall Westminster on 27 Mar scale of expenditure to defend NHS spending against the effects of inflation. A resolution along these lines was also passed by last year's Labour Party conference.
The National Assembly on Unem ployment could give this fight a tremendous boost by supporting the 25 April demo against private practice and cuts in the NHS called by NALGO and the NCC, and cam-