SUPPORTED by the US, the UK and India the Sri Lankan army is bombing and shelling Northern Sri Lanka in a frantic, ruthless and bloody campaign to wipe out the Tamil Tigers, the self defence organisation of the Tamil people that has defended them against Sinhala chauvinism for the last 30 years.
The UK government is helping to arm the Rajapakse led military in Sri Lanka, and its state broadcasting network, the BBC, is ignoring the massive casualties being suffered by the Tamil people and the atrocities that are being committed against them on a daily basis.
It is well known that British capitalism is very heavily involved in the exploitation of the Sri Lankan workers in the clothing, tea, rubber and other industries and has an interest in maintaining the Rajapakse dictatorship over all of the Sri Lankan workers.
President Rajapakse is a regular visitor to Britain at the invitation of the British government, while his children have links with the British military. The UK capitalists are with Rajapakse all the way.
The trade unions cannot just stand by while a British backed government is massacring the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.
They must demand that the UK government ends its support for the Rajapakse regime and ends its proscription of the Tamil Tigers.
They must demand that the export of war material and trainers from the UK to Sri Lanka is stopped, and that the British government tells its client President Rajapakse to end his war on the Tamil people and negotiate with the Tamil Tigers, in the same way as British governments have negotiated with countless liberation movements that it had termed as terrorists.
The trade unions must begin a national campaign for these demands.
Nationalise the motor car industry to defend every job!
THE Labour government that has poured billions into the coffers of the banks to save the bankers has refused to lift a finger to save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of British motor car workers from the deepening slump.
Mandelson made clear yesterday that his interest is to aid the motor car bosses – saving the jobs of motor car workers is off his agenda.
The truth is that the trade union leaders who have themselves just asked for major support for the industry have played into the hands of the government, because they have made clear that they are opposed to action to defend the jobs of motor car workers.
The only way that this can be done is through the nationalisation of the motor car industry in the UK under workers control, to become part of a socialist planned economy.
The trade union leaders are not even socialists. They limit themselves to measures to aid the bosses – they are not interested in focusing on defending the jobs of their members.
All they want is to be the very junior partners of the bosses and to have a little say in what is to be closed and who are to be sacked.
That this is treachery to the working class, there is not the slightest doubt.
There has to be a trade union programme of action to save the jobs of hundreds of thousands of motor car workers.
There must be no job cuts or wage cuts. There must be work sharing with no loss of pay!
Threats to close factories must be met with occupations and massive strike actions to demand that the motor car industry is nationalised.
The Brown government is currently determined to privatise the state-owned Royal Mail.
The trade unions must be ready to bring down the Brown government and go forward to a workers government that will carry out socialist policies including nationalising the major industries and the banks under workers control.
