Mass action can stop the loyalist

The loyalists, despite differences in tactics, broadest possible anti-imperialist alliance in immediate effect on life in anti-unionist cannot be doubted. It was significant that the areas of any aspect of the offensive. Committee's August 17 demonstration, the \Nature of the loyalist offensive to'ainy-specifie orgiaiation and ieinding 6 bas Ow . : out in the street in protest, many uncommitted (unwilling to tackle the loyalist paramilitaries. organisations whose leadership had refused to both in Belfast and in the Mid-Ulster murder Since then the Committee has undertaken a @ triangles, over the past year brought only a limited series of street meetings throughout Belfast to and short lived response in British Army and popularise a number of demands and slogana Antmperai unity against the loyalist takeover,Ups to be extended to the south if repression is ithdrawal of the British Army and disbandment The United Anti-Internment Committee has the RUC and UDR to allow the antiunionist %t itself the task of building support for united W resistance of all anti-imperialist groups. All have individual groups and start to broaden active groups to take part in united actions, and the = sivaiakt in the anti-imperialist struggle. tank and file members of these organisations The formation of the United Anti-Internment @¢™and that their leaderships take up the call for RMG, [RSP and PD, it has been seen by the CAMPAIGN! - }a step towards this. Supported by the FORWARD TO THE UNITED RESISTAN trying to do so will have|mortaged the future of [rish capitalism to an even greater and more dangerous degree than before, Secondly, while the linking of wages to prices should ordinarily result in a fall in real wages given that no allowance is made for taxation and the bogus nature of the consumer price index, this may not happen under the terms of the “mini-budget™. One economist, writing to the ‘Lrish Times’ put it as follows: “Some may feel that, since the C.P.[. is cut by 4%, a proportionate 4% fall in money wages keeping real wages constant (ignoring the defects in the C.P.1. — 10) would be appropriate... . Another approach, however, is to angue that since the Minister has reduced taxation by £20m, strict reciprocity would require no more than a £20m cut in the total wage bill of £2,000m fora 1% wage reduction, “By leaving this important question so vague and indeterminate, the danger exists that the price reduction will leave real wages higher than they would have been in the absence of the budget and so do-little or nothing to ease inflation.” (Irish Times, June 27th).

New confrontations Notwithstanding their reservations and scepticism the employers have gone along with the government and trade union leaders on this occasion, But it is obvious that they have done this only ‘on the understanding that if the “package deal" fails the government will opt for a policy of “the big stick”, Thus the anouldering tension that exists between employers and workers can be expected to burst into open confrontations during the course of the next year.

Whether or not these confrontations will lead to a defeat of the workers or will, on the contrary, unleash a revolutionary process depends tO a large extent on the intervention of socialists. A key aspect of this intervention will be for the independence of the trade union movement. In the past this fight has been sonceived by some groupings on the Left as simply iuing propagandist calls to the trade union eaders to withdraw from all bodies such as the Employer Labour Conference. Such demands, xy themselves, are useless unless accompanied by ivigerous fight to end the stranglehold of the yureaucracy within the unions. In other words, he fight for democracy within the unions is the wey to the fight for the independence of the trade inion movement as a whole.

Asecond aspect of any socialist intervention oust be the organisation of solidarity with local trikes. This task must. not be thought of as imply in terms of providing material aid; much nore urgent and vital is political leadership, Further, socialists must not neglect work utside the unions such as housewives, small farme tudents, unemployed, without whom there can € no successful fight against inflation, ‘dundancies, wage-cuts and reductions in public «penditure etc. [n many instances these forces ‘ll initiate struggles Jong before the trade unions re roused to action and in such cases fetishisation | f union work (or fear of retaliation by the ureaucracy) will only deprive socialists of veboalie pportunities to give revolutionary | Finally, socialists must not forget that the smomic crisis in [reland is only part of a much ider crisis which is expressed in the failure of titish imperialism attempts to politically defeat \@ anti-unionist working clasa in the north. The ‘onomic and national struggle cannot be itional demands are posed and fought for in a iMiistant revolutionary manner than it will be sarly seen by most workers that the only neral solution to their problems is a 32 Co. others republic.

\MES CONWAY a protestant ascendancy state. In recent months the campaign of assassinations and all anti-imperialist organisations into joint indiscriminate attacks on catholic ig The British Army and RUC have shown themielvesnumber of members of anti-imperialist While attacks on the catholic population, centred take part in united action.

(RUC patrolling, the retaliation against loyalists in South Armagh last month saw the deployment Against the loyalist take over; fof some 650 troops in the area in. an effort to Withdraw the British Army; appease loyalist demands. End Internment;

But if the British Army and RUC prefer Free all political prisoners; collusion with the loyalists (as the files given to the UVE and “leaks” to Paisley have demonstrated) to dealing with anti-catholic assassinations, it is a campaign which cannot be which they form a part has been defeated.

Other aspects of the offensive have been the threats of a further UWC strike, the call for the formation of an “Ulster Army” made up of the RUC and UDR, a loyalist pull-out and @ obstruction tactics in local Government, and above all the united demand by loyalist politicians for an ond to the truce with the Provisionals. All these threats and demands are intended to force the hand of the British Z0Vermment to increase repreasion of the Cathalio working class and accelerate the rebuilding of ia loyalist dominated administration.

The moves of the politicians and the murder ampaign, currently spearheaded by the UVF and including also elements of the UDA and the UVF, UDA, Tara and the Ulster Special Constabulary Association and through the links between the Ulster Army Council and the @ Ulster Loyalist Co-ordinating Committee.

The fight against the loyalist offensive can only be successfully conducted by united action of the anti-unionist working class. It is to start e process of rebuilding unity, self-reliance and confidence within the catholic population ~_ — action by antiimperialist groups is emanding in protest on the streets the to-be successfully combatted. di 1 Lit action. Formed following the decision of voices from the August 10 anti-internment protest, the Committee has since aimed to draw work in opposition to repression.

Long Kesh march, drew over a thousand people No to SDLP collaboration with the loyalists; Oppose the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Bill Meetings have been taking place at Ardoyne, the Markets, Divis Flats, New Lodge Road, Short Strand and Andersonstown RUC Barracks and are to culminate ina rally And at the beginning of November a conference is to be held to discuss the building of a united resistance movement against repression and the British hand over to loyalism.

All forces must join in The Committee as it exists at the present time is a joint action committee of the RMG, IRSP and PD in Belfast. It is far from being an anti-mperialist united front in the full sense of the term. Major anti-imperialist organisations, Provisional Sinn Fein and the Official Republicans are keeping their distance from uniting against repression. Participation by the major sections of the anti-imperialist movement are essential for any Teal united front. And it must be unity not simply in terms of leaderships agreeing to certain joint activities, but action at all areas of activity at a local level, United activity between the groups cannot be limited.to the six counties: Imperialism, especially since the Lynch Government, has been able to mount an all-ireland offensive against the Republican movement. The attempt is being made ‘to’ bring this to its highest point with the Criminal Committee recently occupied the Bord Failte office in Belfast as a protest against this Bill. There is a need for united activities by anti-imperialist

Since 1884, when Engels described the origins in private property of women’s oppression analysis of the family — a reflection on the backwardness of the socialist movement on this question. Only in recent years, as movements for women’s liberation have begun to develop in advanced capitalist countries, have there been some initial attempts. We hope with this article to open the pages of our journal to a discussion which is the essential and the forms of the family which maintain it, theoretical task of revolutionary Marxists in the women’s liberation movement.

The working class family As the bourgeoisie assumed the dominant position in society, the forms and functions of the ruling class family were slowly changing. But it was on the jower class family that the capitalist mode of production had the most dramatic impact. The early industrial period was one of extreme exploitation of female labour, women and chitdren being driven into the factory and the mine by the inadequacy of one man's wages — and moreover when the employer had the choice he would in many instances go for the cheaper kinds of labour. The social consequences had dangers for the bourgeoisie, especially in the context of the early crises of capitalist production. At such times, the mass of the working class, undivided, uncontrolled by the institutions of church or family, with the evidence of their exploitation everywhere about them, could present a terrible threat, a3 they did in Britain over the Charter and the 10 Hours movement. The stirring of the social conscience of the bourgeoisie coincided conveniently with the awakening of fears for property by the condition of the proletariat as it emerged from the first and crudest stages of factory production. From mid-century onwards, there was a tendency for women to be turned back inte the home where economically possible, and at the same time bourgeois ideolay elevated the nuclear family to a central place in the literature, religion and public modes of the epoch.

\t ig hare that we encounter the more insidious forms of women’s oppression in bourgeois society. “The worker is the slave of capitalist society," wrote James Connolly, “the woman is the slave of that slave”. The division of labour in the proleaterian home is far stricter than among the middle classes — where in the last century the bulk of the work wes thrown onto the vast army of domestic servants and in recent times @ certain liberalisation has taken place. The difference has scarcely lessened in the present century, and relatively the oppression of the working class housewife has probably increased in some respects, for example, her increasing isolation in view of the atomisation of the extended family which reappeared in an urban context in older industrial areas in the late nineteenth century. The nuclear family is the only institution which capitalism has been able to offer the worker to care for his basic wants; the only place, moreover, in which he can be master, It has also provided some kind of goal to justify the need to sell his labour, so-that the division between work and “life” might be maintained as though it were some natural phenomenon, the one being necessary even to the hope of enjoying the other. In this way the collective consciousness of the organised male workers is weakened, the family acting a a brake on trade union militancy.

At the same time as she fulfils this function without cost of employer or state, the woman remains part of a reserve pool of labour. This pool has been drawn upon in particular conditions — in the two world wars (as a result of which certain minimal concessions had to be granted to them); in conditions of high demand for little has been done to develop a Marxist labour, such as the post-war boom, lasting until recent years; and in a different context, in periods of slump, when women are forced out into menial jobs in order to provide any farnily income, or employers lin backward sectors of industry! replace men with cheaper women workers, as happened in some areas in the "30s. Because of the peripheral nature of this oppressed section of workers, the trade union movement has traditionally been backward on the question of their organisation; the working class woman remains relatively isolated.

Does capitalism need the family? The bourgeois family, meanwhile, continues to fulfil the function of training children for competition; and perpetuating the idea of a separation of social roles between the sewes. But this role is increasingly fulfilled by other tocial institutions, notably the whole educational syttem; and the importance of the family in bourgeois society seems increasingly to depend on the ideological and economic function it has in relation to the working class. There are contradictions here in the experience of recent years in the advanced capitalist countries. The family has taken on new roles in relation to consumption, most notably in the commercial exploitation of the family, of the mother-figure and sex-object. But at the same time, and till recently, the living standards of large sections of the working class — and petit bourgeoisie — have risen, and the physical burdens on the housewife have lessened; a capitalism which has proved unable to provide full employment and could find an adequate reserve army of labour within a less rapidly growing population, has been able to tolerate the aclvocacy and use on an increasing scale, of contraceptives, The reserve of female labour has been dravwn on increasingly; and women have turned increasingly to employment outside the home to raise their standard of living and in many cases to provide them with a certain independence, The possibility that capitalism can do away with the family begins to appear, And indead this is not beyond the bounds of possibility: in certain conditions of production, notably plantation slavery, it has occurred before — and we know well enough that the basic contradiction of capitalism, the fundamental, irreconcilable antagonism, is between labour and capital, not between the components of any form of social organisation, such as the nuciear family, which is appropriate to capitalism at a particular period, But when capitalism which has not yet reached such a level of sophistication is plunged back into crisis, in the way we are experiencing at the present time, then the use of the proletarian family in specific ways is again increased; and the ruling class seeks to exploit it, both economically and politically.

And they are not entirely unsuccessful: a working class housewite, isolated from the collective institutions of the class (even if she works she may not be ing union, or she may be in one which neglects: her and her workmates), and burdened with the increasing problems of managing the family budget, can be quite susceptible to intimidation of this kind at a time when the class as a whole has not yet found a way of responding independently and politically to the ruling class Task forthe present period In recent years. a new revolt has begun stir in the form of the women’s liberation movement, which has emerged in the process of a radical isation of youth throughout the advanced capitalist countries. The rejection of bourgeois norma of social organisation has hed a key place in this process; the absence of great working class defeats, the ideological impact of struggles against imperialism on the advanced capitalist countries, have brought sections of youth to revolutionary politics, Because of the very strength of bourgeois ideology, it ia relatively late in this process that women have begun to see the need for them, as being oppressed in

* Living conditions lower than in the 1930s, * Unemployment at over 20 per cent;

30,000 killed, * Thousands detained in concentration * Over 2,000 simply ‘missing’; * The price of bread up by 140 times;

Total sales of food down by over 25 per cent These area few of the statistics that give an ides of the terrible price that the Chilean workers and peasants have had to pay fortwo long years now since the bloody military coup of 17 September | 1973. To them can be added the use of the most modern torture techniques — including the | widespread torture and sexual abuse of women, | the armies of beggars that cram the centres of the cities, the children who die of malnutrition, | and not beast, the awesome atmosphere of fear that pervades the whole country. The list of the sufferings that have been imposed seemingly never ending, and reveals ine graphic way the horrors of life in the Chile of the generals.

particular ways, to organise independently, and the strong tendencies within the women's movement which see the need to relate this new area of struggle to the generalised class struggle are only just beginning to develop the theory which is an indispensable part of that practice. Central to this theory is an analysis of the role of the family in contemporary Capitalism, on the basis of which we can develop the demands which best relate to the struggles of working class women, both at the point of production lincluding demands which relate to the concrete problems of working women with family obligations) and with more difficulty, away from it, We need to understand the restrictive role of the nuclear family — unlike the Statinists, we do not pretend that the nuclear family can somehow be turned into an instrument for revolution — but in order to intervene in and give support to actual struggles, we also need to understand in-what way the family nexus contributes at the present conjuncture of the class struggle to the formation of existing levels of consciousness, The ending of bourgeois family forms of social organisation is a part of our whole perspective for socialist revelution, but in working towards the objective of socialist revolution we have to work from and raise existing levels of consciousness. Work among working class women requires that we raise and accept some demands which relate not just to women alone, but are a part of the struggle of the working class as a whole: because, we repeat, the fundamental contradiction, the contradiction which will lead to socialist revolution, is that between labour and capital, between the proletariat and capitalist classes, and not between the nuclear family and sexual liberation: socialist revolution will Open the possibility of direct struggle for the latt Our immediate task is to help overcome the divisions among the working class, the brakes on consciousness, for which the nuclear family is responsible; and this of course involves an appreciation of women's oppression within the farnily.

The junta has exacted a mighty price fram those who dared to threaten the capitalist way of life in Chile, But in doing so it has begun to encounter increasingly seriouproblems. When it came to power it set about applying an economic policy that was designed entiraly to benefit imperialism and those sections of the Chilean bourgeoisie most closely tied to imperialism. It hoped to be able to stabilise the aconomy, create conditions for the super-exploitation of the workforce, and on that basis to draw in foreign capital which could then be used to finance an export-orientated consumer durable goods industry, Chile wes to be a repeat of the Brazilian ‘miracle’ — but times have changed since the Brazilian gorillas carne to power in 'Mféh, and the junta’s strategy was doomed from the start, In the first place, they have not even succeeded in. stabilising the economy. Inflation, for example, ran at over 527 per cent for the 12 months preceding April 1975. Secondly the world recession militates strongly against big investments in the consumer durables sector by imperialist capital — particularly in countries with raging inflation, Added to this have been other factors, such as the fall in the price of copper (the linchpin of the Chilean economy), the necessity for Chile to import 75 per cent of its. oi], and the growing economic and political isolation of the regime which culminated in the refusal of most of the capitalist nations in the "Club of Paris’ to renegotiate the junta’s debts.

As a result, the necessary foreign capital has not come in and the junta is lett with the immediate social consequences of its policies — Unemployment and mass poverty, The failure of its economic measures has Stimulated those sections of the Chilean capitalists who hed least to gain from the junta’s policies toa come out into open opposition to the military. Alecentiy the whole of the bourgeols Christian Democrat party, which represents those Chilean capitalists whose profits depend on the internal market — a market which has been decimated a: 8 consequence of the economic policies — announced that it wes against the junta. A year ago only small sections of this party, which played a major role in preparing the coup, were willing to oppose the regime.

No alternative But no matter how strong the opposition and how complete the failure of its economic strategy, the junta still has one trump card to play, It can claim to be the only force which can control the working class, alboit by the mort brutal and sustained repression. The Chilean big bourgeoisie will not consider any alternative to the junta unless if can guarantee its ability to contain the workers and peesants.

The Christisn Democrats have therefore decided to approach the matter from a different angle. They have launched a campaign to win the support of the Chilean workers and peasants in which they seek to pose as the defenders of iberty" and ‘social justice’. This has been taken up in alliance with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and involves such things a3 soup kitchens where food is freely distributed, and sermons which denounce the torture and arbitary arrests.

What of the organisations of the working class? How are they shaping up to the situation? Unfortunately it has to be recorded that of the major partie: only the Communist Party and the Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) exist even now inany real sense es organised Structures inside Chile. The MIA has been the main target of the junta’s repression, especially over the last-year, end has lost many courageous militants. Nonetheless, it has managed to survive and i now reorganising and regrouping.

The C.P. on the other hand, has set jtee!f the task of being the best allies of the Christian Democracy. They have drawn the conclusion from the Coup that the main enror of the Popular Unity period was that thay did not form a unity with this bourgeois party earlier (or at least with Important sections of it). Evidently they have been engaged in negotiations with Frei to see if terms for a joint agreement can be reached. They have even been working hand-in-hand with the Christian Democrat forces in their efforts to re-organise the workers’ movement, No mistakes!

Outside the country, the parties of the Popular Unity all exist in-exile. They met together jointly for the first time since the coup this August, and decided to reconstitute the Popular Unity. A statement issued after the meeting announced that ‘errors of leadership were partly to blame for the defeat’, but ‘that in no way detracts from ‘the general correctness of the process begun by the Popular Unity’.

In other words, after two years of suffering, after the greatest defeat ever inflicted on the Chilean workers, the leaders of the reformist and Stalinist organisations can only proclaim that they were right all along — and indeed, given half a chance, will apply again the strategy of the gradual and peaceful road to socialism, In the meantime they urge that all democrats in Chile should unite against the junts and that the Army should now seize the opportunity to vindicate (sic) themselves and take action against the generals. In this way the parties of the Popular Unity fall in behind and add their veright to the attempts of the Christian Democracy tc win the support of the working class, Revolutionaries must oppose these machinations, They must ensure that from the blood of the Chilean defeat the lessons are drawn which will ensure tha* never again does a working class have to suffer the ‘peaceful road’ to extinction, It is now an important task to form a united front of the revolutionary left inside Chile — a task which our comrades of the Liga Communista de Chile have set aan important priority in their activities, Such a front would form a clear political pole inside Chile — a means by which revolutionary politics could stand clearly opposed to the class collaboration of the Popular unity, a means by which fresh forces from the left Socialists from the MAPU, even from the CP could be won to the revolutionary road.

It is important to see that the Chilean workers and peasants do not stand in isolation. The solidarity campaign that has been waged must be extended, and must increase the scale of its activities so that they can really weaken the junta, Most vital of all ig to understand that the Chilean workers and peasants do not stand in isolation from the rise of world revolution. In Latin America this has taken a particularly dramatic form with the outbursts of the general strikes In Argentina; while in other countries, not least among them Brazil, a rise in the mass struggle is claarly discernible. Thera is no doubt that these events will immeasurably increase the resistance of the Chilean workers and peasants against their military tyrants.

iI

Life 1S VERY HARRY US KEEPERS OF CAN THE ANTI-WNIONIST POPULATION BE SAVED BY A FICTIONAL SUPERHERO P OR (as seary Fears) 15 THe ANSWER, ARMED SELF DEFEMCE, ?

IF YOU DOMT READ THE *SOULALIST REPUBLIC = YOU PLAY HOT Awow TH

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teed gittitary aimed ce 9 Provisional Sinn Fein to exclude all other political premises and individuals has had a most ictegnsion amaeenicun ee ee eo ~

nmittee in Belfast at the beginning of August "ity. groups as just a beginning to the creation of the

dered, could draw in more layers of the been invited to participate in its activities. The 2 class than attend the protests of the people of the anti-unionist areas must call on all the role of the family