Greetings presented to Socialist Action rally

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Representative from The following are excerpts from the speech by the representative of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International.

I convey greetings from the United Secretariat of the Fourth International to your convention.

SOCiAList

Closing date: Dec. 18, 1986 Editor: ALAN BENJAMIN Asst. Editor: MICHAEL SCHREIBER Staff: Paul Colvin, Suzanne Forsyth, May May Gong, David Kirschner, Hayden Perry, Joe Ryan, Carole Seligman, Kwame M.A. Somburu, Sylvia Weinstein.

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We know very well that you have a very difficult task, quite probably the most difficult task of our movement in the world. You have to fight against the most powerful imperialist force in world history.

Even if revolutions are won in other countries-even in the industrialized coun -tries of Western Europe-these victories will not be definitive until imperialism ceases to exist in the United States.

Despite its weaknesses, the Fourth International is the only international revolutionary movement organized on a world scale. It is the only instrument the working class has on a world scale. That is our basic strength. This is why we are actively building the Fourth International.

Long live the solidarity of the working-class movement in the world. Long live the revolutionary Marxists in the United States, and long live the Fourth International!

Trotskyist leader from Great Britain The following are excerpts from the speech by Dave Hudson, a representative of the British International Group.

Since 1979 the British working class has faced a vicious onslaught from its employers and the Thatcher government. Nearly 4 million out of a population of 60 million are unemployed. There is a massive scaling down of the welfare state. There have been stepped-up attacks on local government and democratic rights. And, of course, there was the miners' strike.

Despite these successes on the part of the ruling class, Thatcher has been unable to inflict a scale of defeat on the British workers' movement that is necessary to regenerate the British economy, which is known as the "sick man of Europe." Despite the fact that the working class has been thrown on the defensive, its capacity for struggle is still intact.

In the eyes of the majority of people in Britain, the stakes are high in the upcoming general election. The Labour Party, despite the successes that [party leader] Kinnock has had, has failed to exploit the contradictions and difficulties of the Thatcher government. In fact, what the Labour leadership has been able to do is exploit and roll back the development of the left wing in the Labour Party, which we call the Bennite Left. This wing emerged in 1979.

Unfortunately, many in the Labour left see the only way one can influence things today is by supporting Kinnock and stopping him from falling into the hands of the right wing. And as the general election approaches there is more and more pressure on the left to fall in line with the rest of the party to maintain unity and not rock the boat.

We see the need for the working class to take up the fight for a class-struggle perspective and a class-struggle leadership within its own mass traditional organiza -tions—the Labour Party and the trade unions.

Our key governmental slogan that we're putting forward within the labor movement is "Vote Labour and Fight for Socialist Policies." That is, for a class vote against Thatcher, a vote for the Labour Party.

We work alongside militants in the Labour Party. We don't share their illusions, but we share their struggle. That's the method we use inside the British labor movement.

Journalist/activist

from Nicaragua The following are excerpts from the speech to the rally by Carmen Olivares, a Nicaraguan journalist.

Most of my people, on finding out I was coming to the United States, told me, "Bear this message to the American people: We are willing to welcome you as friends. We SOCIALIST AC' Socialist Action/Joe Ryar Carmen Olivares know there are human rights, basic rights that we all must struggle for. We have a great big heart, and we are more than willing to embrace you as friends."

"Yet let them know," my people said, "that everyday we are seeing our brothers and our sisters die. So if the American people come as friends, they will be greeted as friends. But they should know that if they come as aggressors, we are more than willing to defend our country."

Today I would like to be able to speak of the accomplishments of our revolution. But unfortunately we are slowly seeing those accomplishments—the literacy campaign, healthcare, childcare, women's rights, new roads, and housing-eroded by a war. And so I must speak to you of war.

Today, seven years after the revolution, more than 18,000 of our people have died because of the U.S. aggression. Many more have been kidnapped, tortured, and disappeared.

Today I come to you in solidarity with you and your movement here. We are not asking for pity. We are asking for active solidarity.

We have won our revolution. All we have to do now is defend it. You have yet to win yours. If you can win your struggle then we can guarantee ours.

ION JANUARY

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Three years after U.S. invasion: