Withdraw the Troops!

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ABOUT 2,000 people marched through London last Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of H Block hunger striker Bobby Sands and calling for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from the north of Ireland and self-determination for the Irish people as a whole.

Speakers included Owen Carron MP and Islington councillor and Socialist Organiser supporter Alan Clinton, speaking to demonstrators before the march began, pointed out that he had called for 'Troops Out' in his election address for the local elections and had won comfortably, thus proving that it was possible to raise the question of Ireland THE BRITISH gutter press roars its applause at every salvo fired by Thatcher's task force at 'enemy' trawlers and tankers. Tory backbenchers bay for more blood - demanding the bombing of 'enemy' airports and ports, or an 'over the top' assault on the Falklands themselves.

And as British imperialism threatens to blow out of the water any Argentine boat or plane found more than 12 miles off their own coastline, a witch hunt is opened up in Britain.

In the midst of a racist and chauvinist hysteria against Argentina, any critic of the British attack is accused by the Tories and their allies of treason.

But we don't need to look to the Argentina junta to find our enemy: the Thatcher government and the bloated British ruling class are here at home.

Thatcher, heaping attack after attack on British workers, is a worthy descendant of British imperialism, which looks back upon a bloody history of exploitation and repression that have left a trail of misery, poverty and violence across all five continents, and whose troops are even now meting out daily brutality to the Catholic population of the Six Counties of Northern Ireland.

Arms

Hand in hand witl Reagan, the Thatcher gov ernment is working to escal ate the arms build-up by imperialism, aiming to asser and re-assert the power te exploit and oppress world wide.

This government and it: military machine are ou enemy. It is those leader of the labour movement whe comfort the Tories who are the traitors... to the working class.

Thatcher's governmen! represents the British mill ionaire class, which draws its privilege and power from exploiting British workers and millions of people all across the world. Britain's armed forces are the mailed fist of that class.

They have gone to the South Atlantic to deliver a smack of that mailed fist. All considerations about the Falklanders' rights are strictly secondary. Even the Tories themselves now say that. The issue, they say, is Britain's (read: the British ruling class's) authority in the world.

The mailed fist of the British ruling class is a fist directed against us at home and our allies - the working people - all across the world.

In this confrontation as in every other, its victories are defeats for us.

It is our main enemy -the enemy at home. We should fight to defeat it - to force the withdrawal of the fleet, to black military supplies, to campaign and demonstrate against the war, and to bring down the Thatcher government.

Shore and Callaghan with their open support, Foot with whimpering acquiescence, and union leaders (such as the TGWU leaders who called off last week's dock strike) who collaborate with the war drive, are all sabotaging what should be the real war effort by the British working class - the class war against the bosses' government and its military machine.

A mere handful of leadling Labour left-wingers -Tony Benn, Judith Hart, Reg Race - have stood out against the war - though it is clear that the war is opp osed by many workers.

As we go to press, new proposals are reportedly being floated in talks in New York. What proposals, no-one knows outside the charmed circle of the embattled ruling classes. However bitter their warfare with cach other, even more sharp is their hostility to their own working classes and their determination to keep the negotiations secret - to ensure that any deal is made over the heads of the people who stand to suffer.

If the deal is to lead to the Falklands becoming a US military base, for. examthe islands and of Argentina then the people of (and us) will be the last ones to be consulted.

Slaughter

Despite what many Labour left-wingers say, secking for a 'statesmanlike' alternative to war, the business of economic sanctions and negotiations is no less the business of our enemies - an exercise in imperialist power politics - than the military battles.

Moreover, the negotiations are very far from certain to stop the military battles escalating - and escalating, perhaps, in coming weeks, to much greater slaughter than has been seen so far.

Our alternative must be: withdraw the fleet. Unconditionally, and at once.

The enemy is at home.

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Socialist Organiser no.84 May 13, 1982 Page 2

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GLC leader Ken Livingstone. within the working class.