THIS WEEKEND Socialist Action is hosting an 'Alliance for Socialism' event. It is a good time to emphasise what our paper stands for and fights for.
Marx wrote in the Communist Manifesto the beginning and the end of all wisdom on working class politics: that Marxists 'have no interests separate and apart from those of the working class as a whole. They do not set tarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
Marxists are, he said: 'distinguished from the other working class parties by this only: in the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they bring out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proetariat, independently of all nationality. In the various stages of development which the strug gle of the working class against the bourgeoisie to pass through, where represent the interests of the movement as a whole.' He added: 'the theoretical conclusions of the communists are in no way based on ideas principles that have been covered, by this or that reformer. They merely express, terms, actual relations springing from an existing class struggle, from a historical movement going on under our very eyes.
Within its limited resources, that is what Socialist Action tries to present and to emulate. We are a paper with our own definite views on every major issue. But we don't see that as -counterposed to the actions of anyone else who is truly defending the interests of the working class. On the contrary we see those struggles as the ones which we champion.
Throughout the miners' strike, Socialist Action was inspired by the leadership which Arthur Scargill gave the miners - as were the members of the NÜM. We applauded Dennis Skinner when he talked out the Powell Bill. We have never seen a movement in Britain like Women Against Pit Closures. We stood with Bernie Grant when he defended black youth and denounced the police for their riot in Tottenham.
Internationally, Socialist FSLN in its fight against first Somoza and then the contras.
Salvadorian junta. And we stand shoulder to shoulder with those who are fighting, and dying in the struggle against apartheid in The pages of Socialist Action are open not only to our own views but to those fighting on any issue in the interests of the working class. That is why you find in our paper the views of alliances black people must make, the African National Congress demanding the implementation of the Freedom Charter, Tony Benn defending. the miners, freedom for Ireland, and as many other strug gles as we can find space for.
Even where we disagree, we still find room for causes campaigns gressive. For example, ocher on many things, out for his election as AUEW president, and for a 'no' vote against government funds for union ballots. On these, pages are always open.
Socialists have nothing to fear from the clash of ideas. Who is right and who is wrong is tested in the struggle, in real life. In today's world those tests come quicker than they did in the decades of the '50s and '60s.
It is for these reasons that we are hosting the 'Alliance for Socialism' weekend. And this is how we try to present each week's issue of the paper.
Ne don't hide our own views. But our pages are always open to those who want a platform for the cause of the working class and oppressed.
We agree very much with something Tony Benn said: ideas are very important in politics, but most important of all is which side on?' To pinch a phrase of Arthur Scargill's, what me try to build is a newspaper as loyal to our class as the Financial Times is to Margaret Thatcher's.
But that's just another way of saying what Karl Marx said in the first place.
Smart guy wasn't he?
up any secthey always and everyinvented, or diswould-be universal in general on a higher level, supports every effort of the We back the FMLN against the of anyone Diane Abbott arguing the type of calling for which pro we disagree with John but we'll campaign flat and similar struggles, our some kind of 'democrat' that union leaders be accountable to the members. But here again, she is advocating a method of elec- insisting, quite rightly,