tracts and be in the union.
• Holiday Pay • Sick Pay • No money to be paid by drivers out of their own pockets •Two shifts to be introduced in the freezers, where people work at 30 degrees below zero.
The workers were sacked camco that they nad pounce union official went to see the nise or even meet with the unThe sacked workers were then attacked by hired thugs Road, London N17 9QP. Fax 0181 880 9094 • Money and messages of support should be sent to JJ. Fast Food Locked Out Workers Support Groupaco Unwaged Centre, 72 West Green Make cheques payable to J.J. Fast Food Protest Committee Socialist Outlook has published this new collection of articles, including Ernest Mandel's Learn the lessons of Germany, to examine the roots of racisms and fascism and outline a strategy to defeat them. How strong are the far right today? Why are racism and fascism on the rise in Europe? What lessons are there for anti-racists from the experiences of the 1930s7 Can the ethnic cleansers of ex-Yugoslavia be called "fascist"? For your copy of this 128-page book, send a cheque for €4.95 plus 75 pence postage, payable to "Socialist Outlook Ending the Nightmak
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 94 November 25 1995. page 6 HISTORY never repeats itself precisely. but it certainly has lessons for socialists: and unless we leam from them we will repeat the mistakes of others.
There have been many attempts to form left breakaways from mass social democratic parties, particularly in Western Europc. Without claiming that it is possible to map out preciscly how Arthur Scargill's "Socialist Labour Party" will develop, we can at least draw some general lessons as to the problems and pitfalls.
Whatever the circumstances in which they broke away, they have all come up against the same basic problem - that if they are to sustain themselves and grow in competition with their "parens" party, a qualitatively different kind of party and programme is necessary.
A rival social democratic party, however left its version of social democracy, is very unlikely to grow and challenge the hold of the old party on the working class.
A basic tenet of social democracy in all its variations is the belief that parliament can legislate socialism into being. For revolutionary socialists, parliament is the "executive comThe upsurge of the Russian Revolution Inspired mass left splits from social democracy circumstances - amid mass unemployment and without any radicalisation of the masses.
The ILP had pre-dated the existence of the Labour Party, and its leader at the time, Keir Hardie, can be credited with bringing the trade union-based Labour Party into existence after a long fight. From the start the IL? was an affiliated organisation, and providco scretal early leaders of the Labour Party (including Kamsay Mactobar)
The ILP had always been a left reformist organisation, accepting that parliament was the vehicle for legistaling socialism and oaly ch pressing frustration at the most craven aspects of Labour Party politics.
The ILP was permitted to stand Labour candidates under its own name, and after the general Election of 1929, which saw the election of the second Labour goverment, it had 37 While there were grumbles from some sections of the ILP about the weakness of Labour's programme (particularly in dealing with mass unemployment), the ILP had so real al. ternative.
Things came to a head around the government's acceptance of proposals to reduce unemployment benefit. The ILP group of MPs opposed the proposals and the group attempted