COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTO

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26018, 23 January 1950, Page 7

COMMUNISTS’ MANIFESTO

THREE MAJOR POINTS IN POLICY

CRITICISM OF LABOUR

PARTY LONDON, January 20. Thf Communist Party, in its election manifesto, gives the three' main points of its policy in Britain. They are: (1) To fight to prevent a slump. (2) To prevent the drive towards war.

(3) To end the American control of Britain.

"Cutting down the workers’ purchasing power will only bring a slump,” says the manifesto. “Therefore, we must raise wages at the expense of profits, cut prices, increase benefits and the pensions of unemployed former servicemen and women and old-age pensioners. Basic industries and the land must be nationalised. We must trade with all democratic countries which will take our goods in return.” The manifesto says that Britain should support the Sovjet proposals for a five-Power peace pact and the banning of the atomic bomb, “and so end the menace to our small island.” It should strengthen the United Nations and end such military alliances as the Atlantic War Pact.

“Our working people and our Labour movement have nothing in common with the American millionaires,” says the manifesto. “Britain should end dependence on them and send the Yankee bombers home. No more American dictation of our policy. Britain must be independent.” Scotland and Wales should be given self-government, adds the manifesto. British troops should be Withdrawn from Northern Ireland and partition ended.

"The policy of the Labour Government is, in practice, leading to the positions the Tories want to see.” it states. “The Labour leaders have fought against increased wages while i the employers’ profits have never been so high and prices have continuously risen. They have operated the type of nationalisation which has served the interests of big business and former shareholders. They have used British money, arms and lives to oppress the colonial peoples. They have tied Britain, hand and foot, to the aggressive economic, political and military 1 aims of American imperialism. “This policy means that Britain is now faced with the menace of an economic slump and the development of unemployment and with the prospect of being involved in a third world war as America’s atom bomb base. “This is why the defeat of the Tories and their warmongering leader cannot be decisive unless the workin r people oppose the present policy of the Labour Government.”