CLIVE PONTING'S revelations over the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Argentine cruiser, the have given a glimpse of the lying and corruption which are the everyday fare of capitalist government in Britain. Thatcher has been caught with her fingers in the till, yet the Labour leadership have failed to make this her Watergate.
The reasons for this have nothing to do with Labour's pathetic debating techniques as the Tory press would have it. The fact is that the Labour leadership is completely wedded to the same rules of capitalist government as are the Tories; and are guilty of the same malpractices whilst in office as Thatcher. But more fundamentally in this case, Tories stridion seine Are total the Britain went to war with Argentina for one reason only: to defend the British imperialist system. It was seen as a warning to any oppressed country as to what would be in store for them if they attempted to assert their rights against Britain's involvement in the stranglehold of their nation.
Specifically, it was a warning to the Argentine people - who at that time were beginning to stir against the imperialist imposed tatorship — not to oppose the continuing imperialist syphoning of their distortion of their economy.
The servicing of Argentina's vast foreign debt is merely the most open way that imperialism sucks the blood of the colonial world. British banks have a direct share in this transfer of wealth picated in the present 765 per cent inflation which Argentine workers and peasants have to bear Understanding this is_indispensible to any hope of really hurting the Thatcher government. It may very well have been the case at the time, in the midst of the chauvinist hysteria, that opponents of the war would still have been in a minority even if Labour's front bench had joined us. But even a week is a long time in politics.
Now, three years later, we can see how such a stance then would have been translated into a real challenge to Thatcher's government in the midst of Pontings recent revelations and his acquital in the courts.
If Labour's front stance on this war, it would have been able to link Thatcher's current embarrassment over her imperialist adventure in the Malvinas with her assault on the miners and other working people. Her government would threat from all sides at this point. As miners have come to understand in their 12 months of struggle, internationalism is not an added extra, but an indispensible key to victory.
At the time, the Labour leadership and even self-styled marxists like the Militant tendency derided opposition to the war as being utopian. We can now see who are the real practical politicians: those who tell the truth and act on the basis of interest popularity. It was those within the labour move ment who opposed the war altogether who are in the real position to exploit Thatcher's disarray over Ponting.
The height of Labour's current attack is to suggest that the main problem is 'Thatchers abrasive style of government' — as suggested in the parliamentary debate by Labour's front bench defence spokesperson.
The problem is not Thatcher's style or her particular policies British imperialist system. This is what has to be fought. Until it is, disarmed when crudest of Thatcher's manoeuvres.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December.
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