To mark the 70th anniversary of the General Strike of May 1926, the Weekly Worker will carry contemporary articles from the communist press each week

Joint campaign refused

From The Workers’ Weekly, paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, March 19 1926

To the secretary, the Labour Party
Dear comrade,

I am instructed by my central committee to propose to your executive committee that the Labour Party and the Communist Party (jointly with the ILP, whom we are also approaching) should immediately begin a campaign amongst the workers of the country for the following objects:

• nationalisation of the mines
• a living wage for miners, based on the cost of living
• 100% trade unionism
• workers’ self-defence against the OMS and Fascisti...

Yours fraternally,
R Stewart
(acting general secretary)

To Mr R Stewart, CPGB
Dear Sir,

I beg to acknowledge your letter of 23rd inst, which was submitted to the national executive of the Labour Party at its meeting yesterday.

The suggestion that a campaign should be organised jointly with the ILP and the Communist Party in support of the programme outlined in your communication was considered, but it was decided to decline your request ...

Yours sincerely
Arthur Henderson

Number 135

Thursday March 21 1996

The Weekly Worker is available from bookshops across the United Kingdom or can be delivered direct to your door by completing our online subscription form.

Council workers prepare to fight
Unison threatened with derecognition in Brent. Peter Manson reports

Lethal gas claims first victim
Ibrahima Sey, a 29-year old Ghanaian-born asylum seeker, became the first victim of CS spray. Paul Greenaway reports on the latest lethal addition to the police armoury

Party notes: The SLP left
Members of the Socialist Labour Party should not be afraid to flex their muscles, writes Mark Fischer

Letters
Massive step; Hollow polemic; Imperialist trap; Disgusting views; Absolute law; Inadequate response

Socialist crusade
Nick Clarke reports on Dundee SA's Tuesday night rally

Brent left in open discussion
Brent Socialist Forum held a successful meeting on March 6 to mark International Working Women’s Day. Siobhain Mc Loughlin was there

SLP update
Linda Addison reports on latest develops in Socialist Labour

Herts on Ireland
The newly renamed Hertfordshire Socialist Alliance discussed Ireland

Reforging the Communist Party of Australia
Marcus Larsen of the Communist Party Advocates reports on its conference in Australia

Irish feud wastes revolutionary lives
The January’s killing of Gino Gallagher, national organiser of the Irish Republican Socialist Party and leading member of the Irish National Liberation Army, appears to have sparked off a full-scale feud within the IRSP. Jim Blackstock reports

Newbury campaigners harassed
The working class must be in the forefront of the struggle to defend civil liberties and the right to protest, argues John Bayliss

Bob Smith - For a Permanent Party Polemic Committee
The British disease

Middle East summit: The real terrorists
What the Palestinian masses and Israeli workers need is a secular, class-based communist organisation, writes Nick Clarke

Parliament rejects destruction of USSR
The destruction of the Soviet Union was an undemocratic carve-up by the political elites of Russia and the other former Soviet republics. John Craig takes a look at recent events

Communist press: Materialist method

Militant’s origins
Ian Mahoney reviews Peter Taaffe's The rise of Militant

Dogmatic delusions
In the March 4 Morning Star, Kenny Coyle wrote off the Socialist Labour Party as a dead-end diversion. Ian Farrell replies

Labour movement in crisis
Over a hundred turned up last Saturday for the Workers Revolutionary Party (Workers Press) conference, ‘Crisis in the Labour Movement’. Anne Murphy reports on the debate

Menshevism in microcosm
Because they represent a real movement of the working class the Socialist Labour Party and Socialist Alliances have thrown into sharp relief the theoretical and programmatic limitations of many revolutionaries. The Trotskyite group, Workers Power, provides a case study. Jack Conrad takes out the scalpel

World-wide solidarity
The dockers’ dispute in Liverpool has been exemplary in forging international solidarity. Helen Ellis reports

State madness controls guns
Communists stand for the arming of the people, in our struggle to overthrow the state and its standing army, argues Eddie Ford