PEOPLE WANT TO SEE SOLUTIONS to the grave problems facing society. They want to participate in making the decisions which vitally affect their lives. But the way the present election is being conducted denies both these aspirations. It is being conducted in such a way as to obscure the fact that none of the main protagonists has any solution to the people's problems, and that the very parliamentary system itself prevents their participation in decision making.

A crucial issue which faces people at the time of this election is what direction will our society take as we enter the 21st century. Will it move forward to something better which serves the well-being of the mass of the people, or will it remain as it is, a society run in the interests of the few, repeating the same or even worse disasters? At present everything is geared to paying the rich, nothing else takes precedence. In response to the crisis of the 1970s, Margaret Thatcher's administrations began dismantling the welfare state, privatising state enterprises, channelling the public funds into "making business successful". This was carried on by John Major. Ever more new areas were found for private investment and profit. Whatever the suffering of the people as a result of the cuts, the profits of capitalists were sacrosanct, paying the debts to the financiers unquestionable. The rich had to be paid whatever the consequences to the people in health, in well-being, in social cohesion, in the very futures of their children. It was claimed that if business was successful, everybody would benefit. But the vast majority are still waiting.

Under a Blair government paying the rich will still take priority. In fact the "one nation" stakeholder economy Blair advocates will, in a step even further back than Thatcher, attempt to get the workers into partnership with employers and government to make Britain number one in a globalised economy, an attempt not only doomed to fail, but a recipe for further destruction of the national economy, for division and even war on a world scale. New Labour has been prepared for power in order to carry through the agenda of the rich against the interests of the people, in a situation where the offensive against the people can no longer be carried by the Tories. In fact this election is nothing less than a coup being carried out by the rich against the working class and people. As such it is being organised as the greatest danger to the people which will lead to untold disasters.

It is said again and again that there is no alternative to the programmes of the big parties which all involve paying the rich. But there is an alternative to the agenda of the rich! There is a way out of the crisis! It is for the working class to rally the people behind its own independent programme, a programme that will reverse the present attacks and open the way to a new society worthy of human beings in the 21st century. This programme must be built around the demand to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programmes. The interests of the people and providing for their needs must be the priority, not paying the rich. In the context of this central demand other important demands on the agenda of the working class can be taken up, such as

• Setting a moratorium on national debt repayments to the financiers as part of developing a planned economy serving the interests of the people and ending the militarisation of the economy;

• Democratic renewal of the outdated political institutions and processes in order to empower the people. Election candidates to be selected from among the people not by the big parties. A modern constitution based on the people being sovereign and guaranteeing their rights.

• Dismantling economic alliances like the EU and military alliances like NATO based on big power domination. An end to all Britain's colonial and neo-colonial relations and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.

• Supporting all people fighting for the same abroad.

Our Party calls on all workers, all progressive and democratic people to take up in the election period and after the fight for this vital demand, a demand which will open the way for a new society fit for the modern age:

Stop Paying the Rich!

No to the Cuts!

Increase Investments in Social Programmes!

Editorial

The Popular Will of the Electorate

THE CONSERVATIVE, LABOUR AND LIBERAL DEMOCRAT parties have all now published their manifestos, as have other parties participating in the election.

The electorate is supposed on the basis of these to give one party a mandate to govern. Is the electorate supposed to pick and choose to see which set menu it prefers? Or is there such a thing as a political programme that the vast majority of the people can unite around?

It is our contention that there is such a political programme representing the popular political will. Such a programme is based on doing the exact opposite of what the Conservative Party has been carrying out in office. They have been paying the rich and implementing the cuts. A popular political programme may be summed up as Stop Paying the Rich, Increase Investments in Social Programmes!

The current election, perhaps more than any recent election, is not being organised in a way that determines the popular will and after the election seek to implement this will. It is not that the manifestos either are indistinguishable or show that the country needs a change. The election itself is being organised to sow confusion and above all to make sure that the rich are got out of the hole caused by the bankruptcy of their political system and the fear that their programme can never be supported by the people at face value. They are trying to accommodate all forces in the "centre ground".

What can unite the people is a stand to Stop Paying the Rich and Increase Investments in Social Programmes.

The people are denied sovereignty to exercise their popular will by the bankrupt and anachronistic political system. The May 1 election is being organised by the rich as a coup against the working class to rescue and consolidate this bankrupt system, and impose a "one-nation" society, a "third way", a "partnership (of the workers) with employers and government", a "contract with the people". This, however, will buy them little time, as the workers and other sections of the people will find that the only way forward is to develop their own struggles to make any headway against the anti-social offensive.

It is the working class that takes the lead in advancing such a programme to Stop Paying the Rich, Increase Investments in Social Programmes and rallying the people round it. This is the crucial way that the working class can make an impact in the circumstances of the May 1 election. It can advance its cause and prepare the ground for the class battles to come.

THERE IS A great danger that the working class will be left ideologically and politically disarmed in the face of the danger that the bourgeoisie is cooking up with the election coup planned for May 1 and the imposition of the "stakeholder society" by New Labour after the election. The danger comes from the doctrine that the bourgeoisie is putting forward of the "unity of the left with the centre", and secondly that the working class will be bereft of its independent programme, the central rallying point for all forces in motion against the cuts in social programmes, to change the direction of society and to bring about socialism in Britain.

Already it is clear that the bourgeoisie is quite happy that much of the "left" seem to be swallowing the doctrine of "unity of the left with the centre" hook, line and sinker. Not a few of the "left" forces are frankly putting forward that New Labour should be supported because it represents a "lesser evil" to a Conservative government. Such a position leaves the workers in the dark about the disaster that continuing to do everything for the enrichment of the financial oligarchy will bring to the people. In supporting the coalition of the "centre and centre left" in this way, they are encouraging the workers to collaborate with their exploiters. Furthermore, if a stand for an independent political programme is not taken, an opportunity to unite the working class and people against the capitalist onslaught will be missed.

In this context, RCPB(ML) has written recently to various communist and "left" parties and organisations in Britain concerning the danger posed to the working class movement and to society in general by what has been termed the "unity of the left with the centre". The letters spoke of the capitalist class preparing the Labour Party for power, with its move to the right and its elimination of everything remotely socialist from its programme. They raised the concern that through this "unity of the left with the centre" the capitalist class were attempting to carry on their same path, but ruling from the centre, trying to pass this off as something progressive, and trying to get the "left" to acclaim it so as to divert the working class movement and seal it with the election.

The letter pointed out that RCPB(ML) considered it vital in the interests of the working class and people that all "left" and progressive forces develop political unity, irrespective of any ideological differences, to oppose this move and to diffuse the situation. It asked for bilateral meetings with all the groups to discuss this important issue and to consider ways of cooperating on this matter both during and after the election period.

In conclusion, it is an urgent necessity that all progressive and "left" forces reject and oppose this latest desperate scheme of the bourgeoisie to prolong their bankrupt political system, to keep political power away from the working class and people, and to keep up their programme of ordering the whole of society to pay tribute to the rich in a new guise. The communist and "left" forces must unite to oppose the "unity of the left with the centre".

Today, April 12, a March for Social Justice is taking place in London called by the sacked Liverpool dockers and other strikers. It assembles at Kennington Park, SE11, at 12 noon and marches to a rally in Trafalgar Square. The following article under the above heading is also being reproduced as a leaflet for distribution by Party activists on the march.

THE DEMAND of the Liverpool dockers for social justice is a just demand.

This society denies social justice to the 500 sacked Liverpool dockers, the Magnet workers, the Hillingdon hospital workers and all other unjustly sacked workers. It also denies social justice to the millions of unemployed, to the homeless, to women who are the subject of discrimination and abuse, to the youth who are seeking a decent education and a better future, to the sick who are the victims of the cuts in health care, and to the vast majority of people who are faced with job insecurity, an uncertain future and the increasing difficulty of making ends meet.

The March for Social Justice is taking place in the run-up to the General Election on May 1. Will this election bring social justice for the Liverpool dockers and the vast majority of the people? There is no chance of it doing so, since the basis of social injustice will remain. New Labour is pledged to keep society geared to paying the rich, to ensuring the success of the monopolies especially in the global market, to keeping the funds from the state treasury being funnelled into the coffers of the rich financiers and a parasitic elite. The very direction of society that has led to the cuts in social programmes and injustice for the working class and people will carry on and be sharpened. More than this, the workers will find that the new "one-nation" society is being organised against their interests and that they are expected to become a subordinate partner to the interests of the capitalists and end their struggles. However, the workers will never accept this, and their struggles for their rights and interests are bound to intensify after May 1.

The way the coming election is being organised is to prevent the people from advancing their just demands and exercising their political initiative. These just demands centre around the programme of the working class to Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes. It is such a programme which points the way forward. Such a programme will end the social injustice of destitution and unwarranted sackings by seeing that the right to a livelihood is guaranteed by law. It is this programme we believe the workers should fight for and that the people will support. Only such a programme will bring justice to society and solve its problems by putting the needs and interests of the people in the first place.

We salute the just struggle of the Liverpool dockers and of all the people fighting for a better society. We wish them every success and are sure they are bound to prevail.

Stop Paying the Rich!

For a Guaranteed Right to a Livelihood!

Investments in Social Programmes Must Be Increased!

REPORTS are being received that the first edition of Workers' Weekly in broadsheet form, published on March 29, has been widely distributed by Party activists in different areas of the country. This edition warned of the danger presented by the electoral coup and called on all "left" and progressive forces to oppose the danger posed by the "unity of the left with the centre".

In London, for instance, several hundred copies have been distributed at workplaces, educational institutions and in the communities. These have included a large car plant, several hospitals and postal sorting offices, and some colleges. In addition, the newspaper has been disseminated widely at local markets and shopping centres. It is reported that the edition was received with interest and a number of lengthy discussions took place. Several people expressed enthusiasm to see the communists taking a stand, and on this basis gave donations over and above the cover price. In the Midlands, the North East and the West of England, activists have also reported encouragingly on their distribution programmes among the workers, students and among activists in the working class movement.

These programmes are bound to gain momentum over the weeks leading up to May 1.

News agencies report that an advance team of military experts from six countries wound up its preparations on Thursday for the arrival of a multinational "security" force which aims to secure key harbours and the main airport in Albania. The 6,000-strong UN-backed military force, comprising troops from Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, Greece and Romania, is due to arrive in Albania on Monday. Albanian government leaders were reported as saying that they hoped the military force would help restore order in Albania.

Workers' Weekly condemns this foreign military intervention in Albania and calls on all democratic and peace loving people to demand that the foreign troops be withdrawn and the Albanian people left to settle their own affairs.

The Albanian people have risen up against their government. They have risen against the robbery of their savings perpetrated through the government sanctioned "pyramid" schemes and against the kind of democracy imposed on them through the regime of President Sali Berisha. In opposition to their demands, the newly installed "Government of National Reconciliation" is demanding that they lay down their arms and submit once more to foreign, particularly EU, domination. It is clear however that it has been foreign interference, in the shape of the imposition of the Paris Charter principles of the "free market", political pluralism, and human rights based on private property, that has brought anarchy and chaos to Albania in the first place. Further foreign interference, and particularly foreign military interference, will only exacerbate the situation.

The Albanian people should be left, and if necessary given disinterested foreign assistance, to fashion their own institutions in their own interests, not have reimposed on them institutions which have brought them nothing but disaster. No attempt should be made by foreign troops to disarm them. Their right to bear arms should be upheld, as the US Constitution upholds for the American people and as did the laws of the former People's Socialist Republic of Albania also.

The fact that the United States, Britain and the other EU powers are attempting to disarm the Albanian people and put them once more under their domination shows that these powers are not for freedom and democracy. The British government in particular must be condemned. Every post-war British government has shown itself openly hostile to the interests of the Albanian people, from the backing of terrorism by former Nazi collaborators against their heroic wartime ally, right up to the present.

All workers, all democratic and peace-loving people, should demand that foreign interference in Albania ceases and that the Albanian people be left to settle their own affairs. The Albanian people should be supported in their struggle!

ON MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1,300 workers staged a second day's stoppage at the AMEC offshore oil and gas production yards at Wallsend, North Tyneside. The 550-strong weekend shift also staged a stoppage on April 6. The workers have twice rejected the company's pay increase of 3% and other conditions at mass meetings and the AEEU has lodged a claim for 10%. On Thursday, April 10, the workers overwhelmingly rejected the company's latest 5% offer.

AMEC came to the Tyne after the demise of British Shipbuilders, the national shipbuilding industry, under Margaret Thatcher's privatisation programme and absorbed a number of the former yards as well as private companies trading in offshore production. The AMEC Group is a huge multi-national company trading in the "global market" in engineering, construction and property development with a turnover approaching £2.5 billion. The Group's main presence is in the United States of America, Holland, Germany, Australia and South East Asia.

Having destroyed the national shipbuilding industry, the capitalist class now want the workers to form a "partnership" with them in this global market and are hoping that a new government under New Labour can carry on where Thatcher left off. However, in spite of the lucrative profits in the offshore industry AMEC is trying to cut back the wages of the workers and worsen their conditions and this has led to the present dispute. The bourgeoisie has made its plans and trying to seal them with the election, but it seems that the workers are already starting to resist before polling day has arrived.

THESE days all kinds of things are said on the question of youth in the society, most of which denigrate them. From one side they are called troublemakers with an "attitude problem", whilst on the other they are marginalised as politically "apathetic". But what is the real issue for the youth and what should they do to change the situation they face?

Youth occupy an important place in every society and in every generation. Nobody will deny that youth as a social force represents the most energetic section of the present generation of human beings and society's future. As such youth will always stand for what is new and developing and their very being demands continuous renewal and revolutionisation of the society and the world they live in. This is why this old capitalist society, the final period in human history of exploitation of persons by persons, which has become a block on society's progress, is permanently at odds with youth and tries to "keep them in their place".

In Britain today, in various communities, as much as 60% of youth are jobless. Education, most important for the training of youth to make their contribution in the society, is also in crisis and is targeted as a source of maximum profit for the capitalists. Such facts show the retrogressive direction of the society and the impact on youth.

What direction will the youth take? Will the younger generation be content with the capitalist status quo or will it work to open a path for the progress of society? Youth must be in the forefront of the struggle for the progress of society in order to guarantee a future.

RCPB(ML) has given the call for people to join in the important work to study, write for and sell Workers' Weekly. This is also one of the most important activities that the youth can take up. RCPB(ML) calls on youth to come forward and organise themselves around this political programme to make a contribution in the struggle to change the direction of the society in the interest of the people and to organise for communism.

THE LABOUR PARTY'S ELECTION MANIFESTO makes it clear that its foreign policy will be based on a continuation of the policies of the present government. New Labour will serve the interests of British imperialism, not those of the working class and people. In this vein, New Labour bemoans the fact that Britain under the Conservatives is no longer a "leader of nations", and plans a new leadership role for Britain throughout the world.

New Labour is a strong supporter of the European Union. It claims that under a Labour government Britain "will be a leader of Europe", and argues that withdrawal from this reactionary organisation of the big monopolies "would relegate Britain from the premier division of nations".

In Europe, New Labour's manifesto is solely concerned with rapidly extending the single market, especially to the countries of central and eastern Europe. It is concerned with opening up "new opportunities for British firms" and strengthening the EU's competitiveness in rivalry with other major trading blocs in the global market. New Labour's much publicised support for the Social Chapter is based on the view that this too is in the interests of the monopolies and can be used to promote what is termed "employability and flexibility", in other words, the greater exploitation of workers not only in Britain but throughout the EU.

The Labour Party also wishes to establish Britain's big power leadership internationally. It plans to step up the exploitation of Britain's former colonies and other countries now grouped together in the Commonwealth, and use its influence in these countries to further its global ambitions. At the same time it is planning to introduce a new government department of "international development" to further facilitate British imperialism's exploitation of some of the world's poorest countries through "aid and development programmes".

Just like the representatives of British imperialism in the past, New Labour claims that "Britain cannot be strong at home if it is weak abroad". Speaking of its belief in "internationalism", it hopes to hoodwink the workers and line them up in support of the interests of the financial oligarchy.

New Labour's plans to "make Britain great again" are outdated and doomed to failure. Its quest for European and world leadership poses a great danger, and can only contribute to the increasing threat of world war as the rivalry between the imperialists and their contending blocs intensifies. The working class can have no illusions and must demand that Britain withdraws from the EU and that Britain gives up all remnants of its colonial past. The so-called internationalism of New Labour serves only the interests of British imperialism and must be vigorously opposed.

BRITAIN, with only about 1% of the world's population, has the sixth highest level of military spending in the world. It is estimated to be some £22.1 billion in 1996/97. It is a leading member of NATO, whose military spending is greater than that of the whole of the rest of the world put together. Britain devotes 3.1% of its wealth to military spending. It is one of the world's largest arms producers and is the world's second biggest arms exporter, exceeded only by the United States. In 1996 Britain's share of the arms trade went up to 25% with orders worth £5.1 billion. The arms trade is a lucrative market, and NATO expansion, with its emphasis that any new countries' armed forces will need to be "compatible" with existing NATO members', is opening up even greater possibilities for profit-making on this front. New Labour is taking over the Conservative's mantle of militarising the economy in the name of "defence" and of support for NATO. This agenda poses serious dangers for the British people.

In its election manifesto, New Labour spells out its positions on the US-led aggressive military alliance of NATO under the heading of "Strong defence through NATO". It states, "Our security will continue to be based on NATO", and goes on to say, "A new Labour government will retain Trident". On the question of the arms trade, it says, "We support a strong UK defence industry, which is a strategic part of our industrial base as well as our defence effort." Labour has said it will carry out a "strategic defence and security review" which is elaborated in the manifesto: "The review we propose will be foreign policy led, first assessing our likely overseas commitments and interests and then establishing how our forces should be deployed to meet them."

Opposition to NATO, militarisation and the arms trade are growing and the working class cannot tolerate the use of massive military force in pursuit of the interests of the rich. It needs to set its own agenda for a modern foreign policy based on the principles of the equality of all sovereign states, of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries, and the withdrawal from and dismantling of all military blocs such as NATO.

On the night of April 14-15, 1986, American F-111 bombers, many of them flying from Lakenheath and other bases in Britain, struck at Tripoli and Benghazi, Libya. Dozens of people, many of them women and children, were killed as they slept in their beds. This was state terrorism perpetrated against the Libyan government and people by US imperialism with the full complicity of the British government.

To date the US imperialists present Libya as one of the "rogue" states that must be brought into line, and they orchestrate an international campaign against it. To commemorate the 11th anniversary of this act of state terrorism against an independent state and condemn it, the Institute for Independence Studies is organising a public meeting and seminar today, April 12, at the Conway Hall, beginning at 10 am.

April 15 this year marks the 85th anniversary of the birth of Comrade Kim Il Sung, the great leader of the Korean people, who passed away three years ago.

To mark this occasion, the Committee for the Commemoration of the 85th Birthday of the late President Kim Il Sung of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is hosting a celebratory meeting of Solidarity with the struggles of the Korean people, on Sunday, April 13. The Committee points out that the purpose of the event is to commemorate the anniversary by expressing solidarity with the struggles of the Korean people, as they work tremendously hard to overcome the hardships caused by natural disasters and by the continuing efforts of the US, the south Korean government and other reactionary forces to stifle and suppress the national independence of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Cornelius Cardew was an internationally renowned composer who became an active communist and member of the Central Committee of RCPB(ML) in the 1970s until his untimely death at the age of 45 in 1981.

In the context of the overall project "Towards the Millennium", the South Bank concert halls are staging a series of performances of works written in the 1960s, under the general heading "I Have a Dream". On Sunday, April 6, a portion of the work that Cardew wrote from 1968-1971, The Great Learning, was performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in this series. The piece was paired with Stimmung, also dating from 1968, by Karlheinz Stockhausen, the German composer with whom Cardew worked as his assistant in the late 1950s, and whose music he came to severely criticise.

Cornelius Cardew always had a love for the collective that transcended individual concerns such as career or fame. This became conscious and put in the service of the people's struggles and the movement of the working class for its complete emancipation when he joined the Marxist-Leninist Party. Although he justly rejected the specific experimental form and backward-looking content of The Great Learning, based on a Confucian text, nevertheless the piece reflects Cardew's love of humanity and his concern for the general interests of society that were his characteristics. However, to promote Cardew as an icon and laud particularly The Great Learning as a "sixties classic" as per the bourgeois propaganda is unacceptable and something that Cornelius himself and the collective in which he placed himself would have found anathema.

Prior to the concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on April 6, which included music by Cornelius Cardew (see article), the pamphlet The Question Is Really One of Word and Deed published by the Progressive Cultural Association was sold.

This pamphlet is very important in acquainting those involved in cultural work, as well as musicians and others who are interested in the work of Cornelius Cardew, as to what were the characteristics of his contribution and the nature of the revolutionary culture to which he dedicated his life and which was his legacy. Its author is Hardial Bains, National Leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), who is closely associated with the joint work of PCA and the Canadian Cultural Workers' Committee with which Cornelius Cardew had been active. Twenty-four copies of the pamphlet were sold, many of them to interested music students. Sixteen copies of Workers' Weekly, dated March 29 and containing a review of the pamphlet, were also distributed.

Anyone wishing to obtain a copy of The Question Is Really One of Word and Deed or who is interested in obtaining more information can write to PCA See advert for Pamphlet