Labour Prime Minister Wilson inaugurated the year 1966 with a speech announcing austerity measures, wage freeze and further cuts in social spending. Ted Grant commented that Labour leaders were treating with contempt the modest demands of the workers while giving in to the pressure of big business. Any concession granted to the bosses would inevitably result in bigger claims.

For the first time in many years, a workers’ demonstration on January 15^th for jobs was enthusiastically written up and supported by the Tory press” – Ted Grant ironically commented back in 1965, exposing the hypocrisy of the Tories. Ted Grant pointed out that the real problem facing the labour movement was the failure of Wilson’s Labour government to face the crisis of the aircraft industry and the Labour leaders’ subordination to the interests of big business.

British rule over Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was shaken in the early sixties by the rise of the African people against colonial rule. In order to preserve its interests British imperialism tried to start a transition towards so-called “partnership” between blacks and whites. In 1965 the white settlers’ government unilaterally declared its independence (U.D.I.) to keep racialist rule, threatening to unleash a conflict with the black majority. Ted Grant analysed the interests at stake and what the attitude of the labour movement should be.

In 1962 Gaitskell’s right wing clique was trying to consolidate and extend its grip on the Labour Party with all sorts of manoeuvres, expulsions, bans and tricks against the left wing. Ted Grant exposed those attempts and pointed out the need for the left to appeal to the ranks and fight back.

In 1962 bye-election results revealed the profound discontent of the middle class and workers with the policies of the then Tory government. Ted Grant underlined that the big swing to the Liberals was because they presented themselves as a radical alternative to the Tories. The Labour Party instead was bogged down by the right-wing policies of Gaitskell and his clique.

A wave of strikes, starting with the Asturian miners, challenged the dictatorship of Franco in Spain in the spring of 1962. Ted Grant argued that this heroic struggle represented the beginning of the end of the regime, but at the same time highlighted the limits of the positions put forward by the leaders of the Socialist and Communist parties and the need of building solidarity action with the Spanish workers by the international working class.