fightback against the reactionary amendments and to demand that the Labour Party gets its parliamentary act together and bangs down clear amendments to this Bill, along the lines expressed above. This would help to push the Tories onto the defensive and show that Labour really takes the cause of women seriously.
Valerie Coultas SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 20, Dec Jan 1989-90
EASTERN EUROPE SUPPLEMENT The Implosion of East European
The following are extracts from a document discussed and unanimously adopted at a January 1990 conference of Socialist Outlook supporters. It was drafted before the fall of Ceausescu's Romanian regime. 1990 will be the year of elections in, at least, Hungary, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and probably Bulgaria as well. In each of these countries the elections will in effect be a plebiscite on the continued rule of the Stalinist parties. In each of them, the Stalinists will certainly suffer crushing defeats. It is the end of an era.
The eruption of the East European masses in an attempt to overthrow SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 21, February 1990
East Germany's New Forum movement on the march - heralding the demise of Stalinist rule Stalinism bureaucratic rule, together with the events in the Soviet Union, represent the most important development in world politics since the victory of the Chinese revolution in 1949. At stake is the continued existence of Stalinism as a significant force in world politics.
The whole world order which arose out of the defeat of Nazi imperialism, finalised at Yalta and Potsdam, is now in question. The division of the European working class imposed by the 'great powers' is rapidly being swept away. The bipolar" character of world politics, dominated by two armed camps, has been shaken to its foundations.
As we approach the 21st century a fundamental turning point has been reached: there is an historic opportunity for the victory of the political revolution, but also great dangers that the working class could be robbed of
NEUES FORUM the social gains inherent in the bureaucratised workers' states.
The revolution underway has shatteringly confirmed the Trotskyist critique of actually existing socialism'. Trotsky's watchword of defiance towards what was then an ascendent and victorious Stalinism -that 'the laws of history are stronger than the bureaucratic apparatus* - has tumed from a slogan to dramatic reality. To tum this crisis into working class victories, Trotsky's abiding concem - the 'crisis of working class leadership' must be resolved.
The roots of the crisis
The mass upsurge against bureaucratic rule now affects every cast European country. What has clearly sparked this crisis is the growing realisation that the Gorbachev regime lacks either the will or the capacity to intervene militarily in Baster Europe to save Stalinist rule
Page 11
"the removal of the protective cover of the Red Army rapidly revealed the fundamental weakness and instability of bureaucratic rule. As a parasitic layer, and not a social class, the bureaucracy lacks the deep social roots and mechanisms of support enjoyed by the imperialist bourgeoisies" *bureaucratic rule, unlike capitalism in boom periods, contains no fundamental mechanism towards innovation and the permanent revolutionising of productive technique" Page 12
- as happened in Germany in 1953, Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. December's meeting of the Warsaw Pact in Moscow was symbolic in this respect: Gorbachev in effect told the East Europeans to go their own way: the Soviet Union can no longer afford its huge subsidies to the other Comecon countries.
The removal of the protective cover of the Red Army rapidly revealed the fundamental weakness and instability of bureaucratic rule. As a parasitic layer, and not a social class, the bureaucracy lacks the deep social roots and mechanisms of sup port enjoyed by the imperialist bourgeoisies. Its rule has relied entirely on its monopoly of politics, imposed by force.
Compelled to face their own working masses alone, the party apparatuses and secret police forces have crumbled. While the last military action to crush a workers' revolt - the December 1981 coup by General Jaruzelski in Poland - was carried out by domestic forces, it was backed by the perceived threat of direct Russian intervention under the doctrine is at an end.
Underlying the revolt is the nearexasperation of hundreds of millions of East European citizens at the failure of the bureaucratic system to deliver either material prosperity, or political and Despite repeated subventions from the Soviet Union, and vast borrowing (especially by Hungary and Poland), the East European economies failed to develop beyond basic industrialisation and the provision of a social wel
With the exception of East Germany and Czechoslovakia, even these gains have been put in question. Every East European citizen understands thoroughly the waste, inef-
sclerosis of centralised bureaucratic command economy. These failings have been especially highlighted in the past 15 years, as the gap between these countries and the advanced capitalist countries has increased, both in terms of productive technique and the standard of living of the employed sections of the working class.
Bureaucratic rule, unlike capitalism in boom periods, contains no fundamental mechanism towards innovation and the permanent revolutionising of productive technique: indeed structurally inbuilt in these economies are powerful tenden-
SUPPLEMENT cies towards the reproduction endlessly of the status quo. That is why the Soviet Union and