To make real pains in sections:
ne of Wilson's policies from sece union bureaucracy, the real within the trade unions. It will of those forces struggling against uty, and inside the trade unions ing period.
ing of a revolutionary tendency ent neither the political pro-reon acceptance within broad sec, demands, nor the organisationpation with a significant base hile the aim of a revolutionary be put forward, simply to pro se "Rank and File Movement' th politically absurd and orgof the working class vanguard mited issues of the class strupthe united action on Chile, i the Working Women's pe of action which can be a real revolutionary trade union tendency.
slogan of the coming period The central goals which the IMG sets itself in the coming period are therefore clear. The fight for revolutionary politics within the trade union movement is the decisive question of the day. forward continually, as we have in the past period, the politics around which a revolutionary trade union tendency must be built, We will seck to organise the maximum number of working class forces around That programme. But we are not so foolish, or sectarian, as to believe that a grouping of our supporters provides the organisational basis in the coming months for the solution of the working class's problems.
While continually explaining the need for a permanent revolutionury trade union tendency, the IMG will seck to create united action within the working class movement of all those who are prepared to struggle against even limited parts of Wilson's programme. ted action will both help to repel the attacks of Wilson, check the penetration of the extreme right into sections of the working class, and will politically prepate the ground for the later emergence of The IMG will build itself into a revolutionary organisation with real roots in the working class not by organisational sectarianismwhich unfortunately is developing rapidiy in the 1S and already dominates the WRP-but by the correctness of its politics. For that reason, far from being afraid of united action with others, we will be the first to seck it. March separately bur strike together i the We will put Such uni emerges. ed.
marginal, from West, All the parties in Britain at this clection had a 'gentlemen's agreement not to mention the crisis of British strategy in Ireland. Nonetheless votes were registered and counted. The resulis do give us, in a distorted way, a further view of the basic alignment of forces in Ireland.
With the "Northern Ireland Constitional Convention" due to assem ble in the spring a very clear picture Even a cursory glance at the election results spells out one thing loud and clear. The 'middle ground" on which some power sharing agree ment could have been built out of the Constituional Convention does not exist. The basic tendency towards armed confrontation between the two communities was confirmThe Faulkner Unionists were completely humiliated, the Alliance Party remained absolutely.
Most of the votes lost by these "moderates" went to boost the absolute votes and overall majorities for the United Uister Unionists of Powell, West, Craig, and Paisley.
Not even small comfort can be drawn from the fact that Unionist leader West lost his seat. This was not the result of any swing away but it was due to the fact that a united anti-Unionist candidate was put forward who toppled West from his minonty position of last February.
As for Powell, he was unable to recoup all the protestant vole trad itionally going to Faulkner. This gave Powell the smallest majority in the history of the constituency But given the fate of West, Powell is now almost certain to emerge as the leader of the most reactionary bloc of MP's in Parliament. He can operate on a mass base outside the Tory Party and draw on the huge funds of the Unionist Purty This spells cold comfort indeed for the British working class and antiUnionist forces alike.
As for the anti-Unionists', the mealy mouthed and parliamentary cretinous Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDIP) naturally achieved nothing of note. MidUlster, a seat which Bernadette Devlin won in 1970 with over 38,000 votes, went to the Unionists, with the SDIP polling only 25,885 making the combined anti-Unionist vote short of 34,000 The SDLP was clearly under imitense pressure from its base in the anti-Unionist ghettos. Its bellycrawling attitude was this time re placed by a pathetic demand that if the inevitable happens and the Loyalists win a majority of seats to the coming Constitutional Convention on an anti-power sharing ticket, that British imperialism should at that point renounce its claims over Ireland and go for a united Ireland.
It was only on the basis of the hardening up of its attitude and in the absence of any serious alternative that it was able to keep up its votes from the anti-Unionist pop ulation.
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reaction shapes up for the kill