The Next Step: No. 1, 12 January 1990

SUPPORT

the next step

SOVIET UNION:

RACISM AND

SOVIET UNREST

Page 6 Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly • 12 January 1990 • No 1 • 40p

THEM

ABORTION:

NO TIME LIMITS

ON OUR RIGHTS!

Page 7

WAYS

TO WIN-

SEE PAGE 3

SIMON NORFOLK

PANAMA:

GUN BARREL

DEMOCRACY

Page 6

Editorial 12 January • No 1 Editor: Joan Phillips

YEAR OF

REVOLUTION?

A CONSENSUS seems to have emerged on the right and left that 1989 was a year of revolution in Eastern Europe. The upheavals in Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Romania have indeed Czechoslovakia been momentous. But the changes that have swept across the Stalinist bloc are not the stuff of social revolutions For a start, there has been no fundamental challenge to the Stalinist system itself. These regimes are falling apart as a result of the internal crisis of the 1 ruling bureaucracy. Often it has been the bureaucracy which has initiated changes as in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria.

Czechoslovakia and And in East Germany, Romania, the scale of the popular protest movements have been far smaller than those in Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Publisher Revolutic unist Party, BM RCP, LOnCOR WU IN JAA A C COPYTU!

Printer Press Link International Annual subschouon rates Nornem treiand tzo x curobe Norn Atrica ano Midd Asia. Central and Southerr ) £40 * Outside Europe —All Austa asia ane dabdf Circulation (01) 375 P3X (01)3110540 2 the next step • 12 January Nowhere has the old order been decisively defeated. Indeed, in most places the ruling bureaucracy has had a hand in overseeing the process of transition. Everywhere, oppositionists have acted as a brake on the popular mobilisations. The emphasis has been on putting pressure on the Stalinist leadership to purge itself. Lesser known bureaucrats posing as reformers have been installed alongside respectable opposition leaders. Even in Romania which experienced the greatest upheaval, old the mainstay of the guard Stalinists are new regime. However, if they have not been revolutionary, at least the changes that have taken place in Eastern Europe have been historic, and are to be welcomed on several counts. The collapse of Stalinism signals the end of the old order in the East and West. It has rocked the very foundations of the post-war order which are built on the division of Germany and of Europe.

Above all it has called into question the present balance of power and pointed the way towards a new struggle to redivide the world.

The disintegration of the Stalinist system also removes a major obstacle in the way of the struggle for human liberation.

As long as Stalinism appeared to be the only alternative to capitalism, the task of building a revolutionary movement could make only limited progress.

provided a powerful ideological Stalinism argument against proletarian revolution and a powerful endorsement for capitalism.

The demise of Stalinism will at least make it easier to clarify the issues at stake in the class struggle.

1989 may not have been a year of revolution, but the historic events of the past 12 months have at least created the conditions for world revolution in the 1990s.

BY ANY MEANS

NECESSARY

MANY WORKING class people who have welcomed the events in Romania have expressed worry at the violence employed.

Mindful of the suffering and losses incurred by the Romanian workers we have no wish to glorify bloodshed and the loss of life. At the same time, we must be clear that to win control over any society demands the greatest mobilisation and exertion of the working class and the masses. In circumstances of acute social conflict against a ruthless enemy, only the most determined will succeed. Neither should we expect that the working class should not mete out summary justice to the agents of state repression. Western commentators who have Many welcomed the events in Romania have objected to the violence and retribution which have supposedly besmirched these heady days. But it ill behoves the politicians and media pundits who have accepted the urder and carnage unleashed by the USA on the working class barrios of Panama City to take issue with the struggle of Romanian workers to win their The interfreedom by any means necessary. vention of the Romanian masses has again demonstrated the boundless potential of the working class to organise society. The problem is that they did not take things far enough.

The real concern of these critics of mass violence is not with violence as such, but with who is using it and for what ends. When John Lloyd of the Financial Times records his distaste at being stopped on the streets and ordered about by armed Romanian youth he is not advancing the cause of the new man against machismo. Lloyd is expressing the fear and athing of the petit-bourgeois apologist of th stablished order for the armed power of th working class. It is a familiar refrain of our century that has accompanied and justified countless massacres of our class from Amritsar to Soweto. We have seen only a presentiment of the power of the working class in Romania. As & result the struggle ther placing one set Chat it ae mates in the securitate off the hook. When its time comes, and let it be soon, let nobody accuse the people of aimless violence. Let the aim be sure.

THE SHAPE OF

THINGS TO COME

IT IS difficult to believe that commentators are seriously suggesting that the invasion of Panama has been a success story for US president George Bush. If this is supposed to be a success for US foreign policy then the White House strategists must be praying that they never have a failure. Panama is the most striking confirmation of the decline of American power. The fact that Washington had to invade in the first place is a sign of US weakness not strength. In the past the president would have needed to do no more than whisper somebody's ear to get his way in his own backyard. Today, even former pet dictators like Panama's General Manuel Noriega feel able to snub the White House.

To its frustration, the USA finds more and more that economic power alone will not ensure the pre-eminence of American capitalism at home or abroad. Thus the state has to step in with political and military props to protect its position as the leading power. This has been the pattern of US foreign policy throughout the eighties. As the problems facing American capitalism intensify, the overriding trend in US foreign policy into the nineties will be towards more militaristic policies and more interference in the third world. The desperate lengths to which the authorities went to demonise Noriega will become part and parcel of US foreign policy from now on.

TORIES IN NO

WIN FIGHT

THE TORIES are really in a mess over the ambulance dispute. Having nailed his colours firmly to the mast and insisted that there will be no concessions on pay, Kenneth Clarke cannot very well back down now without it being seen as a major defeat for the government. Appreciating the political price to be paid for making such a U-turn, the entire cabinet has rallied round the beleaguered minister. If the government is defeated neither Clarke nor his health service reforms will have much of a political future, and the damage to the government would be inestimable. Even if the government is seen to win the dispute, it will accrue no glory as a result. The vast majority of people are opposed to the Falklands Factor offensive which the government has pursued against the ambulance workers. It has been impossible for the Tories to smear ambulance crews as enemies within or General Galtieri. Roger Poole as another Clarke's jibes about taxi drivers and attacks on the professional status of the ambulance workers have simply hardened opinion against the government. The hostility their stance has provoked highlights the dangers for the Tories of politicising disputes of this sort.

The ambulance dispute could turn out to be one of the most significant disputes of the past decade. It has assumed such importance in spite of itself: its place at the centre of British politics has less to do with the cringing and moderate approach of the union leaders and more to do with the political context in which it is taking place. Given the growing anti-Tory mood it is no exaggeration to say that a victory for the ambulance workers could transform the British political scene. Such an outcome could psychology of defeat that has ng the past 10

FREE THE

BIRMINGHAM SIX

PRESSURE IS growing for the government to reopen the case of the Birmingham Six, the Irishmen jailed for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. The cases against the six have long been seen as suspect by anybody who has looked critically at the evidence. They were convicted on the basis of confessions that were beaten out of them and forensic evidence that was discredited long ago. Over the years compelling evidence has been amassed showing that the six are the victims of a monstrous miscarriage of justice. Now the release of the Guildford Four and the controversy over the disbanding of the West Midlands serious crimes squad have increased the pressure on the authorities. The Birmingham Six have spent 15 years behind bars because of the British state's determination to criminalise the Irish people.

Ever since the start of the latest phase of the Irish War in 1969, the British authorities have sought to discredit those fighting for Irish freedom by branding them as criminals. In the atmosphere of hatred and revenge following the Birmingham bombings, the British government introduced the Prevention of Terrorism Act which has been used ever since to terrorise and criminalise every Irish person in Britain.

The Birmingham Six were among its first victims.

We demand the immediate release of the Birmingham Six and all the other Irish people who have been framed by the British judicial system. We will also continue campaigning for the release of every Irish republican incarcerated in a British jail for acts of war against the British Crown. As far as we are concerned, none of them are guilty: they are all victims of a political conspiracy by the British state to deny the Irish people their democratic right to selfdetermination. Irish republican prisoners have committed no crime: they are in jail for playing their part in the struggle to free Ireland from British rule. As supporters of Irish freedom, we demand their release too.

LIVING

MARXISM

January's Living Marxism is on sale in your newsagents now.

HISTORY IS UNFREEZING

As the Cold War thaws we explain why the USA and USSR would far rather go back to 1945 than face the future.

CONFESSIONS OF A COMMUNIST

We give the Marxist response to the collapse of the Stalinist regimes in the East.

CLEARING THE WAY FOR COMMUNISM

We reprint a set of theses on the German question and the crisis of Stalinism

DON'T PANIC!

At the start of what many pundits predict will be the nervous nineties, we publish replies to the scaremongers on Aids, acid house parties and international terrorism.

PLUS

Kraut-bashing makes a comeback; The bigger issues behind the Lord Aldington libel trial; More CND vicar?; Royal family fortunes; Punk meets ballet an interview with Michael Clark; Monster hits, mad scientists and psychos; Ireland's identity crisis; Theatre of complexity: Howard Barker gets serious; and much more.

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THERE are two points I would like clarified from the 'Theses on the collapse of Stalinism' (1. December 1989) Thesis 4 noted the 'tremendous opportunities for of right-wing capitalist ideas' in the masses' systems. But Gorbachev's and Solidarity's attempts to molement auster sorces against the working class look unlikely to succeed. East _urooeds workers aspirations for change cannot take the form of Thatcherite tree-market individualism.

whate be these there a yo hope, because there is economic basis for sustaining it. The East German workers chanting support for Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Leonent as tey tore down the wall may well provide a taste of the working class potential only now being unleashed. More importantly, while the mancial press sees ine soviet Union as the 'Korea of the nineties', the next step has yet to analyse the worrying possibility of the West opening up the Eastern bloc as a new market che a sooo cheap labour. Could

WHY THE

STATE NEEDS

ABORTION

IN reply to Hilary Savage (letters, 24 November), Ine state certainly has an interest in allowing a limited abortion service. Generally speaking, it will be in the state's interest to CHiCou dee women to nove children-the future generation of workers-but in some cases une state may be keen to limit women's reproduction. For example, the 1967 Act was introduced specifically to deal with 'problem families', eg, where a working class woman already

LABOUR: NOT

DEAD YET

YOUR article 'Last of the dinosaurs' (1 December 1989) suggests that the Labour Party 'no longer exists'. As a credible socialist force with real strength on the ground that is cleariv true. But hasn't Kinnock: if Labourism is dead why is he ahead in the polls?

QUESTIONS ON THE COLLAPSE OF STALINISM

inematona credove come the internal barriers to the creation of a consumer goods market in the East? Could the collapse of Stalinism boost

LE PEN MAKES A COMEBACK

THE 'affair of the headscarves' has brought to the surface the latent racism the next step, 10 November.

Originally a controversy about Muslim girls wearing leadscarves in the classroom, Las Since en onamore openly political dimension.

'he bigotry whipped up against immigrants by liberal and left elements, selfappointed champions of ances a sceo system. has predictably boosted the Front National. Two parliamentary byelections in late November dramatically confirmed the resonance a seeine anti-immigrant message of he racist Front National.

FN made its first big has more children than she can cope with. Obviousiv in these situations it is cheaper for the establishment to provide an abortion service than to give women the facilities they need, such as 24-hour childcare. Also, the ruling class may wish to limit reproduction by 'undesirables' , black eg, So long as the final sav rests with i the respectable medical profession, the establishment is happy. The 1967 Act, designed to meet he needs of the ruling class cows tre conto ane patrolling of abortion, which is usually limited but sometimes encouraged. This is why we must fight for abortion on demand, ramer man detending tne divisive 1967 Act. Helen North London that always been the case since 1918 when the modern Labour Party was founded?

Indeed, if we look at the Labourist ideology of the party, surely such ideas were seen to be bankrupt even in the 1860s? But a central paradox bothers me. If these points are correct, how can we explain Labour s continuin!

ead in the polls? We can' i Done the real world. Donovan New sovingare

PANDORA ANDERSON

wore tate ovine me ecoine imperialists a new lease of life in the nineties? Dave Chandler Newcastle breakthrough in 1983, the racist candidate polled a staggering 42.5 per cent of up from the tirst-round vote, parliamentary elections. In Marseilles, the FN vote rose from 20 to 33 percent. the 'affair of the headscarves, coupled with the dramatic Comesco neatera period in the doldrums, has demonstrated yet again that Tasm emans me cental issue in French politics. Any revolutionary movement in its point of departure an uncompromising opposition it takes. Louis Dufoix rank News focus

AMBULANCE DISPUTE

lies with rank and file workers espite attempts by union leaders to limit the ambulance dispute to a public relations exercise, it has become a major test of the government's resolve. The Tories are on the rack over their handling of the dispute and deeply divided over the government's strategy. Meanwhile, ambulance workers enjoy overwhelming support and are united in their determination to battle on.

Given the tremendous potential that exists for winning the dispute, the strategy being pursued by the union leaders is a disaster. Instead of harnessing the anger and frustration of their members behind a campaign of direct action, the union chiefs have tried to restrain crews from taking action and pursued tactics that are divisive and counterproductive.

Throughout the dispute the unions have argued that ambulance workers are a special case. Chief If activists seize the initiative, we can make the Tories pay negotiator Roger Poole has said that ambulance crews should not be regarded as health workers but compared with members of the other emergency services. By insisting that ambulance workers are professionals akin to firefighters or police officers, the union leaders hope to establish that they deserve parity on pay. This approach emphasises the divisions between health workers rather than what unites them.

But ambulance workers face the same problems as every other group of health workers— low pay, lousy conditions, low morale. If all 800 000 health workers were united they could address these problems together and mount a major challenge to the Tories.

By singling out one group as a special case, the unions have entrenched divisions and undermined the possibility of united action.

At the same time, the union emphasis on professionalism is creating divisions within the ranks of ambulance workers themselves. Clarke has made it clear that he is prepared to give preferential treatment to paramedics. But why should unqualified staff be forced to live on starvation wages any more than paramedics? The nurses dispute of two years ago showed the dangers of the special case approach. The union leaders' stress on the caring qualities and professional status of nurses allowed the Tories to foist on them a divisive pay settlement under which student and less qualified nurses lost out. Ambulance workers cannot afford to fall into the same trap. They must build a campaign that unites all health workers behind the tight for decent pay. The unions have hailed the initiative by a number of Labour-controlled West Midlands councils to establish an alternative ambulance service as a major breakthrough. In fact it is a retrograde step which provides no solution to the dispute. Ambulance workers cannot rely on anybody but themselves to win their fight for them. And they certainly cannot rely on a bunch of local authority employers to do them any favours. By allowing councils to run accident and emergency services, ambulance crews are surrendering control of emergency cover. The only people who should determine emergency cover are crews themselves, not ambulance managers or local authority chiefs. And by establishing local council services, the union is playing into the hands

CREWS SHOULD

TAKE CONTROL

Linda Ryan argues that the key to winning the ambulance dispute service along regional lines

PEOPLE

CARE

• Blockade Whitehall real headache. • Occupy control rooms campaign of flyposting, hospitals, surgeries, etc.

• Unite all health workers of the Tories, who have long sought to privatise the ambulance service. The council strategy not only undermines national unity among ambulance crews it can only help the Tories break up the national The union leaders are also responsible for de mobilising the massive support that exists for their members. The proposed 15-minute national stoppage on 30 January, cooked up by the bureaucrats to head off pressure for more action, is a pathetic stunt.

Union leaders are too meek to call it a strike in case they get accused of inciting secondary action, and have instructed workers not to do anything without asking their employers for permission first.

The health unions have also done their best to demobilise this Saturday's national demonstration in London. Union leaders have insisted that only

SU HODGE

members of the emergency services and their families can take part in the demonstration. Everybody else is supposed to be a spectator in Trafalgar Square. The unions cancelled coaches and trains from around the country and tried to restrict transport to ambulance 'crews only. This was sabotage of the first order.

It is about time ambulance crews began to take matters to then we Hands. mercasing numocts oi workers are becoming frustrated with the spoiling tactics of the union leaders. It is up to these activists to take control of the conduct of the dispute and step up the action. Ambulance crews themselves are in the best position to determine what action is necessary to bring the Tories to their knees. They should agree on a programme of direct action which can dramatise the dispute and bring a speedy victory: Blocking the centre of London with ambulances for an afternoon was a good idea that should be repeated every day and in other towns and cities. This is a dramatic and effective protest that would draw attention to the dispute and give the authorities a One way to establish control of the dispute is to occupy ambulance control rooms. This would give ambulance workers direct control over the provision of accident and emergency cover. In the meantime we should publicise the direct numbers for ambulance stations as widely as possible, through a sending delegations to Ambulance crews should hold mass meetings in hospitals to involve all workers-nurses, ancillary staff, laboratory technicians—and all the unions in the dispute. There are many ways hospital staff can back the dispute. For example if nurses refuse to process the paperwork for patients brought in by the police or military, this would gum up the administrative system without harming patients. The police and army should be treated as scabs: hospital workers should send them to Coventry.

If activists take the initiative and raise the stakes along these lines they can win, and fast.

12 January • the next step 3

MARXISM FOR OUR

discuss perspectives for party work in 1990 and elect the Feature espite the fast pace of events the 1 general analysis of the underlying trends put forward at our last conference still holds. Although we may have overestimated the speed with which recessionary trends would manifest themselves, the capitalist system has not experienced any qualitative renewal in the growth of productive forces, nor has it overcome its crisis tendencies. The main reason why the recession has been postponed is the ability of the world capitalist system to continue to extend credit. This expansion of credit was made possible by the high level of international collaboration among imperialist powers.

The extent of such collaboration was underlined during the October 1989 stock market panic, when the governments of the key imperialist players worked hand in glove to prevent the situation from getting out of hand. The extension of credit can continue in principle until the present phase of international collaboration comes to an end. The collaboration of imperialist

SIMON NORFOLK

The City: heading for a recession rivals requires that the benefits of cooperation out weigh the differential interests of national capitals. Once the existing international equilibrium becomes difficult to sustain, the reconciliation of national interests gives way to conflict. In these circumstances, credit can no longer postpone the development of a full-blown recession. From this perspective it is not economic factors but the maintenance of the existing balance of power through political means which is decisive in sustaining stability.

It is ironic that the main catalyst behind the present break-up of the post-war international order is the disintegration of the Stalinist order. This calls into question the relévance of a global balance of power under US domination. The division of Germany and Europe, with its traditional Nato- Warsaw Pact framework, has lost its relevance, and the weakness of US imperialism stands exposed.

The changing contours of international politics heighten the potential for conflict between the ascending and descending imperialist powers. As the balance shifts 4 the next step • 12 January in this period, it will not be possible to carry on with the old forms of international cooperation-especially because new political realities have developed in a situation where the management of capitalism in Britain and the USA is fraught with more and more difficulties.

We can project two possible scenarios for British capitalism. If international cooperation continues to hold in the medium term, then Britain can expect to experience a recession which could fall short of a depression. At the very least this would mean stagnation of output, rising unemployment and a squeeze on public spending. If, on the other hand, the British recession coincides with a more general slowdown of growth internationally, or with a reduction of imperialist cooperation, then the effects of the recessionary trends will be more far-reaching. Sensational Such an international slowdown could nave a disproportionately major unpact on the City, and, by implication, on the British economy. This projection is not based upon any calculation that there will be a sudden crisis of bourgeois confidence resulting in a stock market crash or a breakdown in the banking system. The possibility of such sensational events is of course very real, but we cannot base our perspectives on them. The unresolved character of the present phase of transition makes it impossible to discern the pattern of future developments. The disintegration of the Stalinist system complicates matters, since it is not yet clear whether its destabilising political effects can be compensated for by any boost it may give to the world economy. A recession as such cannot be avoided, but there is a difference between a recession on the scale of the early eighties and one that is more widespread and thoroughgoing. The superficial foundation on which bourgeois rule rests can be judged from the mood and reaction of the capitalist Despite all the talk of the prosperous eighties and economic miracles, the bourgeoisie internationally remains subdued and exudes a sense of pessimism.

There is a manifest lack of vision and of direction in the bourgeois camp. Their uncertainties are well-captured by their intelligentsia, which is distinguished by its irrationalism and its fear of the future.

Unfortunately, in the absence of a working class alternative and with the dramatic demise of the Stalinist model, the bourgeois outlook on the world is likely to influence society as a whole. In these circumstances it will be impossible to benefit directly from the bourgeois crisis. In Britain we can already see that tne crisis or une tores does not dutomatically give an impetus to radical impulses. It will first be necessary to recreate a Marxist tradition based on contemporary experience. The paradox of British politics at the end of the eighties is that the Conservative Party is likely to maintain its preeminence despite growing economic instability. This is the result of the commanding position it has established over the past decade and the parallel process of depoliticisation that has resulted from the defeats experienced by the labour movement. Individualism While the popularity of the ideology of Thatcherism has been greatly exaggerated, there can be no doubt of Thatcher's success in discrediting the policies and institutions of the traditional labour movement. Few people now believe that taking collective action through the unions can achieve much; since the miners' strike, Wapping, Dover, etc, they fear that such actions can risk a great deal.

If many now believe that greater public spending on infrastructure is necessary as a pragmatic response to transport and environmental problems, lew are prepared to oppose privatisation, even in the health and social services, on ideological grounds. The triumph of Tory individualism over Labour collectivism reflects and reinforces the passivity of the working class. It means that growing hostility to government policy on issues such as the poll tax fails to take a political form. Or at least it fails to take a collective form, as workers are assimilated into amorphous petit-bourgeois forms of protest in the mould of the traditional angry ratepayers. The dominance of the Tories over British society is reinforced by their success, with the help of the media, in defining and redefining what are the important political issues.

We are familiar with the process of the construction of moral panics around issues such as Aids, child abuse and drugs In many ways the Green phenomenon can be seen as similar: the publicity given to Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth initiatives, campaigns against nuclea waste dumping, the Chunnel row, etc reflects an official willingness to tolerate these forms of political activity, not to mention the saturation media coverage of wider issues of nature conservation rainforests, etc. In the absence of any real challenge to its authority from below, the ruling class has enjoyed unprecedented freedom-and constantly advancing technology-to promote its ideas throughour society. Boasting The depoliticisation of the working class over the past decade overshadows the growing resentment at and resistance to the consequences of continuing Tory domination. This is the context in which the new mood evident in the industrial 1989 has emerged. disputes of summer Workers, particularly in public services, are angry at having to work harder in worse conditions for stagnating real wages, especially at a time when the govern- The destruction of the Berlin Wall symbolises the demise of the old order

PARTY PERSPECTIVES FOR 1990

The Revolutionary Communist Party held its conference Here we reprint edited extracts from the Political Comn conference, assessing the political character of the pr

SIMON NORFOLK

ment has been boasting of its economic achievements and companies have recorded rising profits and rewarded executives with big salary increases. Yet the same workers have no confidence in familiar trade union tactics and strategies.

Hence they accept modest objectives and pursue highly defensive methods in the hope that they can get something, or a least save face. There is a new mood of resistance, but no new methods or institutions to replace those that have been discredited. Careerists The most dramatic testimony to the domination of the Tories over politics is the fact that, though their programme is now obsolete, they can still force the major opposition party to adop The endorsement of its key elements. Meet the Challenge, Make the Change at the 1989 Labour conference signals the abandonment not only of the reformist Alternative Economic Strategy of the seventies, but also the Lib-Lab programme of Keynes/ Beveridge / Attlee which formed the basis of Labour Party policy throughout the post-war period The reconstruction of the Labour Party has been one of the most significant developments of the Thatcher years.

We commented on the demise of the traditional right of the Labour leadership after the 1987 election. The combination of moderate trade union bureaucrats and upper class intellectuals which ran the Labour Party since its foundation has been replaced by a new generation of professional careerists and media Gould and Kinnock: managers. new-look Labour

TIMES

n December to party leadership. ittee report to esent period Over the past cople of years the left has been effectively liquidated as a force in the Labour Party; the elimination of Livingstone from the NEC at the 1989 conference completed the process which began with Healey's victory over Benn in 1981. The Labour left exists only as increasingly isolated and ecentric individuals, with no roots among rank and ille union activists or in any social grouping outside of the party.

Proletarian The social and political transformation of the Labour Party has been accompanied by similar trends in the unions.

The combined effect of strike defeats delining membership and the shift from consensus to confrontational styles of workplace management and collective bargaining have made the union leaders much more insecure and more remote from the working class. In the unions too middle class protessionals play an increasingly prominent role in place of the traditional officials with roots in the workplace. It is striking that in controversies around PR and the block vote at the 1989 Labour conference, traditional left-right alignments gave way to positions taken up according to more pragmatic assessments of the tactical options open to the labour bureaucracy. The paradox of Labour's position is that though it now presents itself as more classless than ever before, its electoral base is more narrowly proletarian today than at any time since the twenties.

Though there is certainly growing voter alienation from the Tory Party, there are few indicators of mounting enthusiasm for Labour among the middle classes, or even among the electorally crucial sectors of the working class in the South and Midlands. While it remains unclear whether Labour can succeed in broadening its appeal, it is also uncertain whether it still has enough ties to the working class to enable it to respond in a more traditional reformist manner should working class pressure mount.

Domineering More and more remote from the unions and the working class, the Labour Party is increasingly a non-Thatcherite Conservative Party, a Tory Party Mark II offering its services to run the system. In une saort term, une growmg unpopulart) of the government, the economic crisis and the collapse of the centre parties create new scope for Kinnock's Labour Party. All things being equal, however, when it comes to the election voters may well opt for the Tory Party Mark I, in preference to Kinnock's imitation. In the event of acidents and a continuing Tory slide, the Labour Party could win by default on its Mark Il programme.

In the two to three election, current trends are likely to be reinforced. Kinnock will keep his head down and keep crushing the left in the hope that Thatcher's unpopularity will finally bring him to power. Meanwhile, the Tories will increasingly dominate British politics as CIN OI WH CO SCdCaIK OVeI issues like Europe assume growing significance as the main axis of political connict. une result is akciy to be tre continuation of middle class protests, such as the Chunnel and BMA campaign.

It is quite likely that the Greens could manage to consolidate a section of disillusioned middle class opinion, though the scale remains unpredictable.

Working class protests are likely to follow a sımular torm-as in the ambulance dispute and the engineers' campaign for a 35-hour week. The lack of political representation of the working class in the electoral sphere and in the broader class struggle is certain to become increasingly evident as the major hallenge facing the ICvoluLOnary mOVCHICHE British politics is already overshadowed by the prospect of the 1991-92 general election. The Conservative Party has entered its third term in a state of programmatic exhaustion and its policies are increasingly irational and unpopular across wide sections of society.

CO VC C OnCem CC eue of Thatcher, now reaching the end of her political career, the Tories are likely to face mounting opposition from diverse groups in societv in the run-up to the next election. Ready-made There is a general recognition that Thatcher is riding for a fall and much discussion about possible replacements, either before or after the general election.

This is certainly a problem for the Conservative Party, but its general significance is widely exaggerated, not least on the left, as a result of the cult of Thatcherism. cabinet, the government, the Tory Party (and the Labour Party) have been remodelled around the prime minister reflects the wider. reliance of the British establishment on the sort of hype of which the Thatcher personality is the most consumate expression. The unprecedented instability of British politics over the next period is certain to create greater dangers as well opening new opportunities. The political situation in Britain is also influenced by the demise of Stalinism.

Coming on top of a series of working class defeats, this represents a further blow to the traditional lett. There is as yet no new audience for left-wing politics in Britain.

Those who are angry and possess the right instincts do not constitute a ready-made left constituency. won to the ideas of working class politics and of collective action. We will be able to measure our ability to develop Marxism by the extent to which we can transform those with anti-capitalist instincts into an audience for revolutionary communism.

Until now we have emphasised the dangers inherent in the period ahead. But to gain a balanced perspective it is also necessary to underline the opportunities.

projection of other alternatives.

terrible distraction of the Kremlin.

years before the Ex- Ambulance dispute: lack of The very fact that the faith in collective action back on the political agenda.

we can not only become relevant They need first to be abortion can become a point of reference- Marxism. In a sense the past decade can be seen as a graveyard for burying the traditional alternatives that have misled the working The collapse of Labourism and Stalinism has disoriented the working class but at least it has cleared the decks for the As we noted previously, it is fairly clear from the experience of history that Stalinism had to disappear before there could be a qualitative transformation of working class politics. The dangers of a blind reaction against Stalinism in Eastern Europe are in terms of history outweighed by the opportunities for influencing the working class without the Most sections of the lett unconsciously see in the disintegration of Stalinism the end of Marxism as a political project. A minority of dogmatists pretend that nothing has changed and expect the return of past patterns of class conflict.

Both sections of the left are doomed to different view. irrelevance by their failure to grasp the essentials of contemporary reality. In

SIMON NORFOLK

ARBITRATIO

PLEAS

whole. contrast the Revolutionary Communist Party does not depend on the past for its future. Nor do we see in the period ahead the end of Marxism; rather we interpret the present phase of transition as a necessary prelude to putting communism Our party's intellectual tradition and theory are our most precious assets in the period ahead. We do not carry the baggage of irrelevant traditions. Paraphrasing Gibbon, our imperfections flow from the contagion of the time but our virtues are our own. Through our theory against the left, but also sound convincing against the ideas of the bourgeoisie. This is particularly important at a time when the bourgeoisie is able directly to influence the working class. Our arguments from the German question to if we can organisationally back up our ideas. All the work we have put in to publish Living Marxism has been worthwhile because the party has begun to learn to give a contemporary meaning to

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THE WORKING CLASS in Britain and throughout the West has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years.

These setbacks have strengthened those who argue for moderation, 'realism' and a strategy of defensiveness. The Revolutionary Communist Party takes a We believe that these setbacks are the responsibility of the old parties and union macines of the official labour movement. In Britain the Labourist tradition has exhausted itself and can no longer relate to even the most modest aspiration of the working class. The exhaustion of Labourism in no way undermines the potential of the working class to change the world. The RCP is committed to the construction of an independent working class movement. Only a movement which recognises that the interests of the workers are irreconcilably opposed to those of the employers can fight effectively in the struggles ahead. For the RCP, working class politics cannot be reduced to trade unionism or the affairs of the workplace.

Workers must take a stand on every issue and express an independent point of view if we are to liberate orselves. The fatal flaw of British Labourism is that it restricts workers' horizons to economic matters, while it allows the employer class to monopolise political debate. Workers must define every problem from our point of view and fight for the rights of every section of society if we are to constitute a politically independent class. While the RCP supports the fight for real reform or improvements in the lives of the working class, we believe that no durable gains can be won within capitalism. The RCP argues that the overthrow of capitalism provides the necessary precondition for the liberation of the working class and of society as a The British state exists to protect the wealth and privilege of the capitalist class. The RCP aims to destroy the state, which maintains the conditions for exploitation. We believe that the state cannot be used for progressive ends. Any attempt to use the 'soft' side of the state, such as local government, inner-city partnership, or police authorities, lends legitimacy to the entire state aparatus. It can only strengthen the authority of the capitalists coercive machine.

The RCP believes that workers have no nation. British workers share the same interests as the exploited in other countries. British workers have nothing in common with the employers and must resist the appeals of patriotism and chauvinism. As internationalists we recognise that the enemy is at home.

Since Britain remains an imperialist power around the world, the only international role it can play is that of the oppressor. The class struggle is inextricably linked to the struggle against imperialism. The RCP supports all anti-imperialist struggles. Workers who live in the imperialist heartland

WHAT

WE FIGHT

FOR

have a special duty to back those fighting against the British oppressor. Thus we fight for the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Ireland and for Irish selfdetermination. We opposed Britain's colonial war in the South Atlantic, and support the return of the Malvinas islands to Argentina. We oppose British and Western interference in the Middle East. We support the destruction of the Zionist state in Paletine and of the apartheid egime in South Africa. We uphold the same principles in every struggle against imperialism, The RCP is a fervent opponent of all forms of British militarism, nuclear, and 'non-nuclear' alike. The RCP believes that the fight against oppression is central to the construction of an independent working class movement. Workers must defend the oppressed if we are to fight for our own liberation. This is why the RCP is wholeheartedly committed to the fight against racism. The struggle for the emancipation of women is another fundamental issue for the working class. We ureservedly oppose any form of discimination against lesbians and gays and call for the deriminalisation of homosexuality.

Workers must take a stand on these issues, not out of altruism, but because it is in our class interest to fight for the fullest extension of democratic rights. Workers need combat organisations capable of defending our interests.

The existing organisations of the labour movement are singularly unsuited for this task. The RCP believes that the Labour Party is a bosses' organisation that should be fought and exposed. Despite its working class constituency the Labour Party has always followed the dictates of the capitalists. Whenever Labour has been in office, it has always betayed the hopes of workers. The RCP is against giving any electoral support to Labour.

Workers need a party that is 100 per cent our own and only responsive to roletariai micrests The existing trade unions are heavily bureaucratised and incapable of representing the aspirations of their members. The RCP argues that rank and file trade unionists should fight to take control of the movement.

Trade unionists should organise across the workplace and industry and demand that we run our own affairs. Rank and file committees organised on an industry-wide basis could ensure that the unions truly belong to their members. The RCP's aim is social revolution in Britain and internationally. We believe that this perspective is no less essential in Estern Europe and the Soviet Union than in the West.

Only the working class has the capacity to liberate humanity. Our job is to contribute practically to the realisation of this objective.

If you would like to discuss these issues further, please write to: RCP, BM RCP, London WC1N 3XX, or phone (01) 375 1702. 12 January • the next step 5

GORBACHEV PLAYS THE RACIST CARD

International

PANAMA

GUN-BARREL

DEMOCRACY

James Malone and Stefanie Boston argue that America's rape of Panama was not the success it has been made out to be very morning in Panama City, Guillermo Endara has a meeting with US ambassador Arthur Davis. Davis informs him of the I decisions that have been taken in his name on the previous day by US general Maxwell Thurman.

Endara is the new president of Panama, but he is as much a prisoner of the US authorities as is former dictator General Noriega, now languishing in a Miami jail. 'The US army did not come to Panama to obey other people's laws', declared. Thurman.

'Operation Just Cause'-the US army's codename for the invasion-involved 26 000 troops and the biggest US paratroop operation since the Allied attempt to seize the Rhine bridges in 1944. The White House has defended the operation as necessary to restore democracy, defend US citizens and bring Noriega to justice for his drug trafficking. In fact the invasion was the latest in a long line of American attempts to establish contro over what it considers its "backyard". Operation Just Cause shows the lengths to which the USA will go to impose its authority on the region and the-increasing difficulty it faces in doing so.

The very existence of Panama is testament to US interference in the region. In 1903 US president Theodore Roosevelt established the state of Panama.

which was then part of Colombia, in order to protect the planned Panama Canal. Washington installed a

SOVIET UNION

E vents in Eastern Europe over Christmas have | accelerated the nationality crisis in the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian Communist Party decided to som trom me soviet communist Party, and there were disturbances in Azerbaijan on the Soviet border with Iran. The contrasting response of Mikhail Gorbachev to the two crises wa: striking. The Soviet leader ruled out the use of force against the secessionist Lithuanians; but he immediately ordered troops to be deployed against the demonstrating Muslims.

By stirring up antagonism against Muslims among Soviet Europeans, the bureaucracy hopes to shore up its position and prevent the disintegration of the Union. The Tass report of the Azerbaijan incident was reminiscent of the hysterical denunciations of popular unrest put out by the dictators of Beijing and Bucharest. The official condemnations accused drunken and drug-crazed rioters of rampaging along the border and wrecking military installations. The authorities made no attempt to disguise the racist overtones of their pronouncements.

Hungry for land Nachichevan, the centre of the disturbances, has a lot in common with the notorious district of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is a former region of Armenia handed over to Azerbaijan in 1921 to forestall an invasion of Armenia by Kemal Ataturk's Turkey.

Unlike Nagorno-Karabakh, however, Nachichevan's population is 90 per cent Muslim. Cut off from Azerbaijan by a narrow wedge of Armenian territory, it is vulnerable to Armenian pressure and has not been involved in the dispute over Nagorno- Karabakh. Even so, Nachichevan has not escaped the mass unemployment and falling living standards that afflict the rest of the Soviet Union.

Berlin Wall, Inspired by the breaching of the Nachichevan's hungry masses looked longingly towards the vast stretches of fertile land occupied by border fortications and tore them down. The idea that they are keen to unite with Iran's five million Azeris across the border does not stand up. Soviet Azeris pity their compatriots who suffer under Tehran's oppressive rule. Why should Soviet Azeris want to live under a regime that outlaws the teaching of their own language? Ignoring the underlying economic causes of the unrest, the Kremlin painted a picture of nationalist subversion by crazed Muslims. Moscow seized the the next step • 12 January client government which leased the Canal Zone back to the USA in perpetuity. Since then Washington has maintained a permanent military presence and ensurce wat only stooge govermments achieve power The US treatment of Panama set the tone for its relationship with other countries in the region.

December's invasion was the forty-second time this century that America has sent troops into Central America. During the Reagan years, as Washington felt its loss of authority around the world, the USA took an even more belligerent attitude. The invasion of Grenada in 1983 was the most dramatic expression of the new attitude. Sex, drugs and underpants For much of the post-war period the USA has used the bogey of the Soviet threat to justify armed interference in Central America. With the thaw in the Cold War, Washington has discovered a new enemy drugs. From Peru to Colombia to Panama, the war against drugs has become the latest excuse for US Over the past two years the US media have presented Noriega as an evil drugs baron who needs to be brought to justice.

Since the invasion the US media have invented new charges against the general—he has been smeared as a womaniser, a drugs fiend and a drunkard who

SOVIET UNION

RUSSIA

GEORGIA

Black Sea Tbilisi

ARMENIA

Yerevan

TURKEY

NACHICHEVAN

(Azerbaljan) opportunity to foster anti-Muslim sentiment as a means of consolidating a reactionary base among Russians who have been demonstrating in cities like Sverdlovsk in the Urals against the food shortages caused by perestroika. Muslim fundamentalism is increasingly being presented as the threat against which every Soviet European must unite.

In contrast, Gorbachev has consistently treated Baltic nationalists with kid gloves. Their region escaped sovietisation in the thirties and bourgeois social relations are deeply entrenched there. Baltic nationalists have often demonstrated that they share the Kremlin's antipathy towards the Soviet working class. And beneath their rhetoric about democracy Noriega: the CIA drug-runner who got up Washington's nose indulged in pornography and practised witchcraft.

General Thurman exposed Noriega's supposed penchant for wearing red underpants as evidence of his depravity. The demonisation of Noriega by the US authorities was designed to set him up as a uniquely evil dictator whom America had a moral duty to deliver to justice.

In fact Noriega was a typical third world dictator who until recently had a very warm relationship with Washington. He came to the CIA's attention in the early sixties when, as a student at a Peruvian military academy, he began selling to the US information on fellow students. In 1966 Noriega was recruited by the CIA. In the seventies the CIA, under the leadership of George Bush, established Noriega as the agency's drug-runner and money launderer on a salary of $200 000 a year. After the death of Panamanian Caspian Sea

AZERBAIJAN

Baku

NAGORNO-

KARABAKH

IRAN

lies a rich seam of reactionary prejudice against Jews, Muslims and any non-European foreigners.

The nationalist movements in the Soviet Muslim republics lack a similar base of support, except among a local bureaucracy weakened by the collapse of its system. In such circumstances, the Soviet Muslim masses can more easily dictate events there.

So far, the Kremlin has successfully manipulated Muslim grievances by redirecting them against their Christian Armenian neighbours over the Nagorno- Karabakh issue. If Gorbachev continues to use the Soviet Muslim people as a punchbag, however, he could provoke a jihad against Moscow.

Andy Clarkson leader General Torrijos in a mysterious plane crash in 1981, the CIA helped Noriega consolidate his power. This included helping to rig the 1984 presidential elections in favour of Noriega's candidate: Washington had no qualms about Noriega's illicit activities-until the dictator started freelancing, buying and selling drugs from all comers, including Nicaragua and Cuba, and taking a larger cut than middlemen are supposed to do. Once Noriega began to branch out on his own, Washington decided to cut him down to size, and replace him with a more pliant stooge. Washington's failure to topple Noriega over the past two years has been a source of deep emwarrassment So long as Noriega remained in power, he was a constant reminder that the USA was unable to get its way in what was supposed to be its backyard. As Larry Birns, director of the think-tank the Council for Hemispheric Affairs pointed out, Operation Just Cause has more to do with White House fears of "wimpdom" than any realistic threat to US national security. The invasion shows how far Washington is willing to go to assert its right to lay down the law in the region. Estimates of civilian casualty figures range from 1000 to 7000- -maybe even more than the number slaughtered by Causescu's Securitate during the fighting in Romania. Most died when the US airforce used its top-secret F-117 stealth bomber to raze working class districts in Panama City. Up to 20 000 Panamanians were made homeless as a result of the devastation. America alone But despite the enormous firepower employed by Washington, the invasion was a military and political shambles. George Bush boasted that all resistance would be mopped up within 24 hours. Yet US troops did not even manage to seize the national radio station within that time; Radio Nacional continued to broadcast anti-US propaganda and organise resistance. Despite the presence of 26 000 troops and sophisticated surveillance technology, Noriega eluded the US military and managed to gain sanctuary in the Papal Nuncio. Ordinary Panamanians put up even greater resistance; fierce fighting erupted in working class districts, such as San Miguelito in Panama City and in the Caribbean port of Colon.

On the world stage the invasion has isolated Washington. Both the United Nations and the Organisation of American States condemned the invasion. Even Latin American states normally friendly to the USA, such as Costa Rica, denounced the action. Peru and Bolivia pulled out of a planned drugs summit in February; Peru also ordered the US-backed anti-drugs operation in the Upper Hualaga valley to be suspended.

Colombia has given a frosty reponse to the arrival of two US warships off its coast this week, ostensibly on an anti-drugs mission.

President Endara is widely regarded as a US The United Nations refused to accept stooge. Endara's representative when someone noticed that the request for his accreditation had been faxed directly from the US army HQ. Apart from Britain and the USA, only a handful of other countries have so far recognised the new government. Within Panama itself there is widespread resentment at the US-imposed gun-barrel democracy.

The biggest headache for Washington could be Noriega himself. Having invaded Panama to put Noriega out of action, the US authorities are now lumbered with a potentially embarrassing and incriminating trial. Far from imposing America's stamp on Central America, the invasion of Panama has shown again that the USA cannot even prevail decisively against a tiny country in its own backyard.

Action

ABORTION CAMPAIGNS

NO TIME-

LIMITS

ON OUR

RIGHTS

Sara Hardy argues against making any concessions to those who are attempting to curtail access to abortion n 7 December 1989 the Human Fertilisation Bill received its second reading in the house of lords. The bill, which is a government-sponsored measure, aims to tighten up state control of embryo experimentation and research, by licensing research centres and clinics administering in-vitro fertilisation and artificial insemination. It offers parliament the choice between banning all experiments on embryos outright, or allowing experimentation up to 14 days under tight control.

The bill will therefore grant legal protection to On 30 January 1972 British paratroopers opened fire on an anti-internment demonstration in Derry City. When the firing stopped 13 Irish nationalists lay dead and 70 injured, one of whom died later. The Army insisted that it had been fired on, although every independent witness rejected this version of events. The Derry coroner described the killings as 'sheer unadulterated murder.

However, Lord Widgery, appointed by the government to head a commission of inquiry, absolved the Army of any blame. To drive home the point, the Queen awarded Colonel Derek embryos, recognising them as special forms of human tissue which need special treatment.

It has dangerous implications for women seeking artificial insemination, especially single women and lesbians who may not be regarded as suitable parents Irish Freedom Movement

EIGHTEEN YEARS AFTER BLOODY SUNDAY

Troops out of Ireland now Wilford, the commander that day, the Order of the British Empire. Bloody Sunday was the most brutal lesson Irish nationalists were to learn in their struggle against British rule. But rather than cower in submission, they fought back with greater defiance. The ruthless calculation of the British establishment in carrying out the Bloody Sunday killings revealed that it will stop at nothing to crush resistance to its rule in Ireland. But the resistance of the nationalist people in the 18 years since Bloody Sunday shows that even sheer unadulterated murder cannot crush their desire for freedom.

SCOTTISH RALLY

Tuesday 30 January, 7.30pm City Halls Canleriggs Glasgow Admission £1

LONDON RALLY

Tuesday 30 January, 7pm McNamara Hall Irish Centre Murray Street (off Camden Road) NW1 Rally to be followed by social • music by the B&l Ferrymen • hot food available Admission £5 For further details ring (01) 375 1702 November's protest against the embryology bill showed how to, organise for abortion rights by the government. The granting of legal status to embryos has dangerous implications too for the fight for abortion rights. The anti-abortionists are already claiming a moral victory, on the grounds that embryo rights are being recognised even if experiments are allowed up to 14 days. Sir Bernard Braine, chair of the all-party parliamentary pro-life group, has noted that it would not only be morally repugnant but ludicrous if parliament decided to give protection to the human embryo...but denied any protection to a child at a later stage of life when it has become a recognisable and sentient human being and can recognise its mother's voice. In other words, further restrictions on abortion are the logical corollary of any move to limit research on human embryos.

In addition to the anti-abortion consequences of the embryology bill itself, anti-abortionists are planning to add an amendment to it which will reduce the legal time-limit on abortion from 28 weeks to 22, 20 or even 18 weeks. To stop this development, dozens of Stop the Amendment campaigns are being set up around the country.

Thousands of women are worried about the possibility of further attacks on an already pitifully inadequate abortion service, and are prepared to come out and light against any attempts to undermine it further. Some 500 women from London and the south-cast alone demonstrated against the embryo bill last November on a protest organised by the London Abortion Rights Committee. Veteran campaigner In this context it is worrying that many activists think that the focus of the campaign against the amendment should be restricted to parliamentary Many veteran abortion rights manoeuvring. campaigners, including Alison Frater of the Coordinating Committee in Defence of the 1967 Act, believe that we should accept the bill introduced to the house of lords by Lord Houghton as the basis for campaigning against the anti-abortion amendment.

Houghton's Abortion Amendment Bill would remove the time-limit altogether in cases of severe fetal handicap, while lowering it from 28 to 24 weeks in all other cases. This would prevent any abortions on social grounds (that is, abortions based on the health and happiness of the woman) after 24 weeks. Proabortion activists are claiming that the bill represents an effective way of filibustering anti-abortion amendments to the embryo bill as such amendments cannot be moved so long as the Houghton Bill is being discussed. Many veteran women's rights campaigners are also claiming that the bill represents a positive step in itself. Alison Frater argues that the bill may also open up the possibility for significant improvements in abortion legislation' and that it is time to concede the argument on 24 weeks for social abortion. She concludes that "Houghton's initiative represents an important step forward' (Guardian, 12 December 1989).

*SIMON NORFOLK

Houghton's bill is getting a hearing among proabortionists for several reasons. Developments in technology have meant that tetuses born carlier and earlier are capable of surviving. This has led to a consensus in parliament and among the medical profession that the abortion time-limit-should be reduced; Thatcher herself is said to prefer a 24-week limit. Yet this does not alter ine reasons many women have for presenting for late abortions.

In a recent Observer article. British Pregnancy Advisory Service records revealed that 30 per cent of women presenting for late abortions were victims of bureaucratic delays in the health service, 17 per cent had been misdiagnosed by doctors despite their own suspicions of being pregnant, and 12 per cent had changed circumstances, the majority due to being deserted by their partners.

Others had had contraceptive failure or were afraid to admit to being pregnant (10 December 1989). However, the pro-abortion movement has always been hesitant about arguing for abortion lor women in these circumstances, and has preferred to concentrate on women in particularly difficult situations; victims of rape and incest, or those who are carrying a handicapped fetus.

Ancient member We should be clear that developments in fetal viability do not affect the need of women for abortion. The potential viability of the fetus is irrelevant to a woman who has decided to terminate a pregnancy. for whatever reason, and it should be irrelevant to those fighting for abortion rights.

Whatever the state of the legal provision at present, some women will always need the right to abortion at any stage in pregnancy. The fact that late abortions are only permitted at the moment due to fetal handicap is no reason for not fighting for the right to abortion in the later stages of pregnancy The only reason for the 91-year old peer's sudden popularity is that many activists do not believe that the anti-abortionists can be beaten by arguing for women's rights They do not believe that our arguments can beat those of the anti-abortionists and can convince working class people of the need to fight for women's rights through a campaign outside parliament. From this perspective the only option appears to be a parnamentary campaig! We can accept no further reductions in time-limits through amendments to the embryo bill. But we should recognise the dangerous implications the bill will have even if it is not amended by the anti- We should also recognise that parliamentary tactics have proved ineffective in defending even the limited provision we have today The Alton Bill was filibustered in parliament without pro-abortionists winning the argument for abortion rights and 18 months later we face yet another assault on our rights We should stop relying on ancient members of the aristocracy to fight our battles for us, and take the arguments for women's rights on to the streets.

Thousands of women want to fight. We should be giving them the arguments to fight with.

12 January • the next step

the next step Revolutionary Communist Party Weekly • 12 January 1990 • No 1 •

ROMANIA

UNFINISHED

BUSINESS IN

BUCHAREST

THE fall of the Causescu regime in Romania has been hailed by reactionary commentators everywhere as the final nail in the coffin of communism. As revolutionary communists, our view is that things have not gone nearly far enough in Romania. The hated dictators Nicolae and Elena Ceasescu have been toppled, but the Stalinists still hold on to the levers of power. As in every other capital city in Eastern Europe, there is much unfinished business in Bucharest. Nobody could fail to have been inspired by the events in Romania. The courage of ordinary people who took to the streets and defied the guns of the army and Securitate was breathtaking. The heroism of workers and students who formed themselves into armed militias and confronted the Securitate was impressive. The desire of men and women, old and young, for bloody retribution against supporters of the old regime was positive. But after all the pain and sacrifice they suffered, what are the people of Romania left with? The recent demonstrations by students and others ought to tell us that there is much dissatisfaction at the results. The truth is that there has been no significant social change in Romania and there has certainly not been a revolution. There is no question of the state having been destroyed: the army and the central administration remain intact. The changeover that has taken place resembles a palace coup or a purge not a social revolution. A few faces have changed at the top and a few tinkering reforms have been implemented. But there has been no fundamental challenge to the system or those who have a stake in perpetuating it.

The majority of those who constitute the National Salvation Front are former Communist Party members, some of whom held high-ranking party and state positions under the Causescu regime. Ion lliescu was at one stage a key figure in the old order: he was a former youth minister under Ceasescu and a member of the central committee until he fell from grace. Silviu Brucan was a former ambassador to the United Nations and editor of the party paper Scinteia. The new prime minister Petre Roman held a privileged position under the old regime and was a party member. The army also has a strong influence over the interim government appointed by the front, controlling the ministry of national economy as well as the ministry of defence. A debate has begun about whether a revolution took place at all and about the origins of the National Salvation Front.

Sensitive to criticisms that many of them are simply Stalinists who fell out with the old dictator, members of the front have insisted that the organisation was forged in the fire of recent events. But in a video of the first meeting of the leaders of the front after the toppling of Causescu on 22 December, the new defence minister General Nicolae Militaru says that the front had been in existence for six months. From this and other evidence it seems likely that a clique of anti-Causescu Stalinists in the upper echelons of the party and the army had been plotting to take power when the time was right. However, the real issue in this debate is not whether these people really did plan to stage a coup in the past: the important point is that they are in power now. From the point of view of the working class and the youth of Romania, the problem is that the stalwarts of the old order survive substantially in the new order. They are manning the central administration, issuing governmental decrees and running the army. In practice, all that has happened is that the rule of one man and his wife and family has been replaced by the rule of an enlarged clique of Stalinists. And no matter how keen they are to distance themselves from the crimes of Causescu, they too are responsible for the regime of terror that has prevailed for 40 years in Romania It is this unpalatable fact that accounts for the widespread resentment against the new government among ordinary Romanians.

Already, people are protesting about the composition of the new unelected leadership, about the limited character of the reforms and about the organisation of the forthcoming elections. Students have warned that unless they get some satisfaction they will take to the streets again. In this unstable political situation it is no exaggeration to say that anything could happen. Events in Romania illustrate in a particularly stark form trends which are common throughout Eastern Europe. In Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, popular aspirations for fundamental change have been suppressed, as they have been in Romania. Instead, there have been attempts to negotiate a stable transition: everywhere Stalinists remain in power together with compliant oppositionists. This pattern looks set to be repeated in Romania, unless there is another popular mobillisation to confront the power of the bureaucracy.

If things carry on like this the potential of the mass movements throughout Eastern Europe will be squandered. Until now the power and creativity of the masses have been harnessed behind a strategy of piecemeal reform by the middle class leadership of the opposition movements. But nothing positive can come out of any strategy which looks to sections of the bureaucracy to undertake a process of carefully managed reform. The bureaucracy and the system it supports are the problem, not the solution. Western commentators fearful of things getting out of control might recoil from the proletarian power which we caught a glimpse of in Romania-but this is the only thing that can give the masses of Eastern Europe what they want.