Some of the old eft have defected for good Handbooks with little analysis

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"v ot a retormist softion to the A..

Ifter Kinnock's win, Labour must face a new learning process solution to the 'Solidarity Underground: Free trade unionism Poland today' is a new pamphlet by Magda Zalewska, Henryk Gawinski, and John Taylor, published by the Polish Solidarity Campaign. 50p plus postage from PSC. 186 Avenue Road, Straightforward, clear, easy to read and easy to understand - that describes two new books on militarism and nuclear war, 'Crisis over Cruise' by Philip Webber, Graeme Wilkinson and Barry Rubin, and Andrew Wilson's 'The Disarmer's Handbook of military technology and organisation' Both books are full of facts, figures and information. 'Crisis over Cruise' is more specialised, but brings out the major points about the missiles.

"Large numbers of air-launched cruise missiles (with some accuracy and first-strike potential) are being deployed on B52 (and forthcoming B-1) bombers, both in Europe and the US.

"In a few years, when 'stealth' cruise missiles and bombers, virtually undetectable to radar, become available, the total force of air, ground and UN London W3.

nO TOM RIGBY casts a critical eye over two new books on the arms race recently published by Penguin.

sea-launched cruise missiles, plus the other weapons of high accuracy, may then have a first strike capability against the Soviet Union"

'The Disarmer's Handbook' is more wide-ranging, providing information on virtually every conceivable aspect of the question, with particularly interesting chapters on 'sick war' (chemical and biological weapons) and 'para-war' (intelligence and security).

Both books will provide useful sources for socialists and dis. armament activists who wish to increase their knowledge about the arms race.

OUN AT PRESENT, most members of the Labour Party are concerned with the short term.

They were concerned at conference, quite properly, with who won the leadership election: and the Kinnock/ Hattersley team having won, they are now concerned with the immediate prospects for rebuilding Labour's political base in the working class.

However, the books share some failings. Both focus mainly on NATO. Though this is understandable, bearing in mind capitalism's responsibility for the current climate of cold war, it provides a distorted view.

We need more information on Soviet militarism, produced by someone other than the traditional sources - Western propagandists or Stalinist apologists.

Deeper

Neither book seriously analyses the deeper forces generating the 'new cold war' Most of the arguments are of the traditional 'arms race' style of explanation, in which a whole set of factors: big business profits, research and development programmes, ideologies of war, etc, are all jumbled together to produce this overarching phenomenon, 'the arms race'.

This creates tunnel-vision in the politics of both books. For Webber, Wilkinson and Rubin, the answer to their question, 'Who is responsible?' is, 'all of them and all of us' Andrew Wilson is more sophisticated, "Arms alone are not the real threat to peace -the real threat lies in the fear or hostility behind their acquisition"' . But this kind of explanation is unconvincing, and leads only to pacifism.

Marxism

Socialists active in CND should read these books. But we still need a rounded and developed Marxist account of the new cold war, one that avoids mechanical explanations, be they of the 'permanent arms economy' or whatever.

We need an analysis of the relationship between war, capitalism, Stalinism, and nuclear weapons that is more than a Marxist gloss to traditional CND style arguments.

This is a natural enough preoccupation, because all members of the party wish to see the foundations laid for a sweeping socialist victory at the next general election. But there is a feeling of deja vu in the air.

Wilson

The parallel is with 1963. Harold Wilson was elected as leader by the votes of the left in the Parliamentary Labour Party; and there were those, myself included, who believed that it was sufficient for a Labour government under such leadership to be elected to produce a radical transformation of society.

We were thoroughly disillusioned by the Labour government of 1964-70; we learnt, at great cost, that reality was deeper than the image.

The Labour Party now looks as if it faces another learning process. The present leadership team sometimes gives the impression that it wants a re-run of 1963-4. The press is being nice to Neil Kinnock so far. Everyone is therefore living in a purple, LSD haze: all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.

No concessions This Panglossian creation will not last. The difference with 1963 is that British capitalism has lost the ability to make concessions to the working class; therefore, if the Kinnock/Hattersley team begin to make demands which go beyond the 'modernisation' of capitalism, they will be denounced up hill and down dale by the very media that are now so supportive of the idea that Labour needs a new, image-conscious leadership.

There is a new contour to the face of the Labour Party. The left alliance, based on a coalition of interests around the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the Parliamentary left, some left wing trade unions, and left groupings amongst the rank and file, has fallen apart. It badly needs to be reconstructed.

Brazen

It cannot be the same alliance, as some parts of the old left consensus have defected for good -witness the brazen backing of Hattersley by elements of the Labour Coordinating Committee, the National Organisation of Labour Students, and Clause Four.

We need to develop a new alliance on the left of the Labour Party. It must be based on clear principles: an end to the pathetic toy-town witch-hunt of socialists inside the party; defence of the policies agreed by conference; the further democratisation of the party, with particular emphasis on the role of the Parliamentary Labour Party; and the firm creati of links between the political a industrial wings of the labc movement.

Rebuild This is the prime lesson of conference. We must reconstruct a left alliance. Not based on sectarianiem not hased nn individ- CLL 16 LI VILL uals, based only on the clear understanding that the present honeymoon between the leadership and the Press will not last beyond Christmas.

We need people of vision who recognise that this is the time to save the next Labour government from its own inadequacies. The labour movement has been here before: but this time the possibilReg Race «This reminds Lenin's famous line The classic Marxist analy of Stalinism is Leon Trotsky's 'Revolution Betrayed: What is the Soviet Union and Where It Going?' Available via Socialist Organiser, 28 Middle Lane, London N8: £2.50 plus 50p postage.

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SOLDAR OSC Trotsky on Stalin

a reformist ref lution Bonin