Socialist Action (LSA) Vol. 4, No. 2, February 1981
A different group, and a different paper from the IMG’s Socialist Action of 1983–88. The League for Socialist Action were supporters of the US Socialist Workers Party’s tendency in the Fourth International who split from the IMG in 1976 and rejoined it in 1982.
The scan: Socialist Action v4 no2 1981.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist
MAJORVICTURY FOR DEMOCRACY
By BOB SWART (Streatham CLP)
major victory for democracy.
They claim they are attacking "extremism". That is a lie. Their attack is directed against working people. The idea that ordinary workers in the unions and party branches - and not just a few MPs - should take part in electing the leader sends shivers up and down their spines.
They can see that, for the first time, there is a chance than an incoming Labour government might actually be forced to implement policies in the interests of the people who put them in power.
CONTEMPT
Up to now, whatever was decided at party conferences, big business always had a safeguard.
Action
For a Class Struggle Left Wing in the Labour Movement
Labour conference-
A barrage of lies and smears in the Tory press has greeted the outcome of Labour's special conference, last month. Boosting the "gang of four", the Fleet Street barons have directed all their efforts at discrediting this
It could always rely on the fact that Labour leaders could ride rough-shod over policies democratically decided by the labour movement.
It knew that it could always rely on its chums - the David Owens and Shirley Williams of this world - to contemptuously dismiss conference decisions and carry out pro-capitalist policies. This is, after all, what happened with the last Labour government.
Although conference voted against any idea of a wage freeze - that is, against attacks on workers' living standards - the labour leaders pushed ahead.
Backed up by the Tory press, they tried to impose a 5% wage
BERNADETTE McALISKEY
On January 18 Bernadette McAliskey and her husband Michael were attacked at their home in Derrylaughlin, near Coalisland, County Tyrone.
They were shot several times - in the chest, arms and legs - by thugs of the ultra-right wing Loyalist organisation, the UDA.
As of present, Bernadette and her husband seem out of any immediate danger.
For faller coverage of the assassination attempt -and Bernadette's role in the fight for Irish rights and for socialism - see page four.
freeze in the public sector that alienated many Labour supporters and provoked the "winter of discontent".
ed by the rank-and-file - by the process of an electoral college in which 70% of the votes will be
- sets up a dangerous precedent in their eyes.
measures, such as the mandatory
that workers will actually begin to control their party and demand that it implement policies in their interests when it is elected
to power.
By PETE MARAIS
of the liberation fighters, the US government has decided to up its military aid for the hated dictatorship in El Salvador.
is being rushed to prop up the regime which - over the past year alone - has murdered 12,000
At the same time, it is busy
ships in the area to defend the El Salvadoran regime. troops have crossed the borders into El Salvador and a further 3000 are in readiness under the supervision of US advisors.
AID
Vol.4 No.2
Big business now sees this situation being threatened. The fact that a Labour leader will be elect.
cast by union and party members
Coupled with other democratic
re-selection of MPs, it could mean
At a time when Tory policies are pushing ever more workers to adopt a radical stance, this situat-
Continued on page 2.
Faced with the growing advance
Over 12 million dollars in cash, military "advisors" and equipment
workers and peasants in cold blood.
mobilising other military dictator-
500 Honduran
WORRIED
Last December, under mass pub-
February 81
Hands off El Salvador
lic pressure, the US government was forced to cut off its aid to the El Salvadoran regime. This followlowed the report that 4 US women had been murdered by the dictatorship's right-wing death squads.
President Duarte's regime is now under such pressure from the liberation forces, however, that the US government has decided to rapidly reverse its former position.
Ignoring public opinion, it is rushing support to its political puppet. The excuse given for this change in policy was that neighbouring Nicaragua had openly backed the liberation forces and had sent in troops. Even the Times has pointed out that this was a lie.
What clearly worries the US rulers is the mass support for the
Price 15 p
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STEWARDS
COMMITTEE
liberation forces (FSLN) which launched the insuuectionary struggle in early January. Within days of its offensive, whole cities and areas of the country had fallen into their hands.
On January 11, Santa Ana -the second largest city in El Salvador - had become a stronghold of the guerrillas. The following day, Chalatenango fell into their hands as did a string of towns in the northeastern province of Mor azan. In the capital itself, mass uprisings took place in all the work ing class suburbs on January 11-12. Even sections of the junta's army have begun to desert. On January 11, for example, Lt. Col. Ricardo Navarrete of the National Guard announced over the radio
Continued on page 8.
Page 2 scan of this page
Polish workers fight for 40 hour week
PAGE 2 By MIKE HOPKINS (Stoke-on-Trent CLP)
The latest jobless figures are a scandal. At 2.4 million, they are the highest in the post-war years. A ne ever mnese "official" figures don't tell the full story.
They mask the fact, for example, that over 600,000 are on government training courses that maousands or woncu haven't signed on and that a further 400,000 are on short-time in industries ike textiles and engineering. The real figure is closer to three million.
Planned cuts in social services will push it still higher. being number three in the arms spending league, thousands of teachers, building workers and cleaners will be cast on the scrap-heap.
DELIBERATE
The aim of the Tory jobless strategy is only too clear. Thatcher hopes that a mass pool of unemployed will demoralise workers and keep wages down. it is calculated, will boost profits and allow British firms to modernise and become more competitive in world markets.
There is evidence that her strategy is having some success. British Leyland boss Michael Edwardes, for example, has been able to ram home pitiable wage increases of 5 and 6.8 percent because, as Brian Withers (T&GWU regional official) puri, ne is taking davantage or tne 2.5 million out of work to rule by fear".
UNION-BASHING
It is not only wages that the Tories are out to cripple. It is also the power and strength of shop-floor organisation. Again, British Leyland is a case in
Over the past year, the Edwardes management has sacked convenor Derek Robinson for speaking out against their plans and suspended eight workers - last December - for fighting the latest speed-up proposals.
Leyland has been able to get away with victimising union activists by supporters there.
sure you are there!
Despite threats and intimidation
by the Stalinist bosses. millions of
workers in Poland are continuing in
ten gent to democrac alan
Starting on January 10, a series of
strikes swept the country from the
Baltic ports of Gdansk, Gdynia and
Szszecin to Warsaw and southeastern
Silesia.
The actions followed a decision
ny deemes 0 011 - The in-
dependent union movement - call-
ing for a 5-day, 40-hour workweek
for its members. January 10 was
the first Saturday off.
DISASTER
Both the Polish government and
the Moscow press have charged that
a 40-hour work week would have a
disastrous ettect on the economy.
reducing production by 12%. War-
see cr co cock vag
workers a day's pay if they went
ahead - although Solidarity has
stated it will extend the strike
action if this is carried out.
Solidarity's goal, however, is not
an arbitrary cut in the workweek
regardless of the cost to the econ-
omy. As one Solidarity spokes-
person out it: "The stand of the
government and Solidarity should
not be ucatco a a contronator
but as a first stage leading to an
Jobless total soars
Corby workers march against plant closure.
This, threatening to close the whole plant down, if strike action occurs, and putting the whole workforce on the dole.
MilL ANI While notching up a few successes, as at Leyland, however, there is little sign of demoralisation setting in. again, workers have shown their willingness to fight back. From the steelworkers' strike last year to the spontaneous action by Longbridge workers last December - striking against the sacking of the eight - there has been no lack of mutancy.
What has been lacking is firm action on the part of the union leaders. Far from relying on the militancy of the rank and file, they have given in before management threats and thus headed off any protest. anus nas been true at saiish Leyland, the British Steel Corporation and Fords.
It has also been reflected at the national level. In 1979, TUC leader Len Murray called the one million unemployed figure a "disgrace" fact that it has now more than doubled, Murray has refused to initiate any cam-
All out February 21!
The mass demonstration in Liverpool last November marked the start of the anti-jobless campaign. The next major step is the rally being called in Glasgow on February 21 - the first of a series of regional rallies.
Called by the Scottish trade unions and Labour Party, the action is taking place in an appropriate setting. Glasgow, like other areas of the North West, has been the hardest hit by the Tories' jobless strategy.
Support for the demonstration is coming from all parts of the country Transport has already been booked. London, Birmingham and Manchester trades councils, for example, are organising trains to carry
A mass turn-out on February 21 is vital in ensuring that the campaign against the Tory unemployment plans really builds momentum. Make
Lech Walesa - Polish strike leader
agreement. "If Solidarity gets information snowing tne entire senousness of the economic situation, Solidarity may change its decision. Talks will be resumed".
paign against the Tories' industrial strategy. Protest actions, combined with calls for a Labour government in three years, have been the limit of his opposiHon.
CAMPAIGN Time and There are signs, however, that the situation is changing. pressure from union members. the Labour leaders were forced, last November to call a mass rally against the jobless total which mobilised 150,000.
They have further been forced to extend this into a series of regional demonstrations starting with one in Glasgow on February 21. The climax of the campaign will be the massive Liverpool to London march sponsored by the NorthWest TUC, starting on May Day.
to contemplate industrial action, this marks a major step forward. such ac tions should be mobilised for everywhere and the labour leaders pressured Despite the into seeing them as an ongoing campaign to get this government out of office.
SUPPORT
Mass action around the demands passed at Labour's conference - for the 35-hour week and an extension of public services - can become the rallying cry of ever-wider layers in the labour move-
It can give much-needed backing to workers facing redundancies and to Labour councils facing the Tory cuts. It can show them that they are not alone in the struggle and that they have the support of millions of working people up and down the country.
Most important, it can unite the labour movement in the face of the Tory offensive and lay the basis for the re-
DEMOCRACY
One worker from the Roza Luk-
semburg light bulb factory touched
at the heart of the present struggle:
"Maybe it is necessary to work some
Saturdays", she explained, "but our
position is that that should be dec-
ided at the local factory level.
are the ones who best know what
the factory needs"
in Poland last August, workers have
argued that this is the best way to
solve Poland's problems. The call
for a full and open discussion on the
country's problems - together with
an end to the special privileges of
ponce and government orcials -
was a key part of the Gdansk agree-
ment signed between workers and
government on August 30.
democracy on every level of plann-
ing that accounts for the current
struggle.
SPREADING
facing ever-growing opposition to
attempts to maintain their repress-
ive rule. Only recently 600,000
farmers - out of a total of 3½ mil-
lion - came together to form Rural
Solidarity and demand a say in ec-
THIRD PARTY? party".
one aim only.
Under mass REACTION
Although the TUC leaders have refused mitted to defending workers' interests. SWIG INN
We off.
Since the first days of the strikes
STAND
It is the absence of such workers'
The Stalinist bosses, however, are
major victory
for democracy
ion is seen as doubly dangerous. As Tony Benn recently put it: "It will give encouragement that a process of Weighall of the NUR - who also democratic change can be carried through the whole of society". control.
Fearful of a challenge to their privileges, this is why the Fleet Street press is desperately boosting the "gang of four" and moving in FIGHT behind their calls for a new "centre
Talk about an alliance between the Liberals and Labour renegades, the rash of public opinion polls to show how popular a new party would be, have one aim and
They are an attempt to confuse and divide the labour movement, to provoke new splits to ensure that Labour has little chance of election next time round.
Such pressure, it must be admitted, has already had an effect. It has not only given a new lease of life to the "isolated gang of four" who would otherwise have disappeared into the wilderness.
It has already began to influence a layer of the right-wing MPs who still remain in the party. Bending under the Fleet Street campaign, figures such as Michael Foot and Roy Hattersley have said they intend fighting for a reversal of the democratic decisions of conference.
They have been backed up in this
Intercontinental
Press
If vou would like to read onthe
spot reports of * the Polish Workers
struggle; * the fight for socialism in
Nicaragua; * the meaning of the
Iran-Iraq conflict; * the fight against
austerity in Western Europe. why
not take out a sub now?
Regular copies can be obtained from:
Socialist Action, PO Box 65, London
onomic decision-making.
The opposition is even spreading
to the Communist Party itself.
Workers at the Roza Luksemburg
plant claim that approximately
1000 CP members there joined the
vote in favour of taking January 10
Moreover, as the Christian.
Science Monitor has reported, CP Moscow.
members have been meeting accross
tne county and raising demands
for openness of political life and
for the dismissal of incompetant
ana conrupt party ornclals
Faced with this upsurge - which
has even began to spread to the
party's rank-and-file - the Stalinist
bosses have adopted a "get tough" racy.
attitude. Irying to renege on the
Gdansk agreement, they have more , recentlv refused to recognise Rura
Solidarity and have used the police
against striking workers (as in Nowy
Sacz where over 60 were arrested
lot protestug conupdon)
Most significant of all, party
leader Stanislaw Kania has taken a
firm stand against the call for a 40-
hour week with no loss of pay. He
has denounced Solidarity's attempt
to intervene in economic decision
making and has called the use of
SOCIALIST ACTION this by certain trade-union leaders - such as Duffy of the AUEW and
fear the implications of democratic
They are clearly worried that the Blackpool decisions create a precedent which might disturb their cosy and bureaucratic control over their own unions.
Such pressure may have had an effect upon a number of Labour MPs and union bureaucrats opposed to the growing influence of the rank-and-file in decision making. But it has had little effect on workers up and down the country bearing the brunt of the Tory policies - on those on the dole, those fighting cuts in social services, Blacks fighting racist laws and women fighting attacks on their rights.
If the Labour Party is to consolidate its victory in the period ahead -and fight off the challenge from the "gang of four" - it has to root itself ever more firmly among these layers of working people.
It can only grow if it shows, in practice, that it is prepared to champion their interests by class-struggle methods. It is by building mass opp osition to unemployment, by giving support to Labour councils fighting the cuts, by pioneering the struggle against anti-Black laws etc, that it will gain in strength, deepen its support and isolate the Tory-backed Labour renegades.
Intercontinental Pres
WORKERS: STRIKES
CHALLENGE POLISH REGIME strike action "intolerable".
Clearly, the Stalinist bureaucrats have decided that - unless a stand
- une mass bosurec 10j workers' democracy will become unstoppable and their corrupt and repressive rule swept aside. Such a thought sends shivers down their backs, as it does their mentors in
SOLIDARITY
Their bureaucratic manoeuvres however - backed up with threats of a Soviet intervention - will not curb the aspirations of the Polish workers. More and more, they are realising that the only way they can resolve me prooems lace society is by establishing a socialist democ-
Such a move means challenging ever more firmiy the Stalinist leaders whn need to maintain their repressive regime to defend the privil eges they enjoy at the expense of working people.
It is up to socialists in the British labour movement to gain the widest solidarity with the Polish workers. A victory for them would be an inspiring example for workers everywhere who are also faced with attacks on their living standards and democracy gils
Page 3 scan of this page
CARL conference plans mass action
Interview: Mike Rodney(CARL Nat. Sec.)
French CP backs racist goons
FEBRUARY 1981
STOP THE
TORY
RACIST
LAWS
By JEREMY SHORT (Hornsey CLP)
Almost 300 delegates and visitors attended the national conference of the Campaign against Racist Laws (CARL), January 10. The conterence was called to mobilise support against the Tories' proposed Nationality Bill.
Present were representatives from a number of Black organisations (including the Indian, Kashmiri and
What do you think is behind the Tory Nationality proposals?
Well, I think you've got to put it into perspective. The Tories came to power on a racist ticket - pledging, among other things, to tighten up the 1971 madon del
This has already led to a major attack on Black rights. "Fishing raids" are taking place, twice the number of Blacks are being deported and police harassment of the Black community is on the increase. The Nationality Act represents another step in the Tories' racist campaign.
But what will the Nationality Act do?
categories: those whose ancestors were born here (mainlv white) and those who weren't (mainly Black). This "colour bar" will not only exclude Blacks from entering Britain -turning many of them, it should be added, into stateless citizens. It will alao mean that those already in the country will suffer a real attack on their rights.
Why do you think the Tories are pressing ahead with this Bill now? It's certainly not accidental. By singling out Black people in this way, they're trying to show that they are a "problem" They doubtless hope thev can thereby divert the trustration and anger building up over unemployment against a small minority.
Why then hasn't there been more of an outcry about the Act? workforce. Rather than defend them, Stalinists are attacking them.
By JASON HILL (Stoke-on-Trent CLP)
Over Christmas, an immigrant hostel in the Paris suburb of Vitry was the target of a vicious racist attack. Using clubs, wire-cutters and bulldozers, the attackers
The attack was not launched, however, by ultra-right goons. It was led by the mayor of Vitry - Paul Mercieca member of the French Communist Party, and backed up by 50 CP members.
Mercieca justified the attack by saying: "The people of Vitry are fed up. Out of
Pakistani Workers Associations), the Labour Party, trade unions and regional anti-racist groups. The size of the conference - called at short notice - was an indication of the opposition building up against the Tories' racist campaign.
CLIMAX
The conference was opened by
ed exactly what the proposals would mean for Black people both inside and outside the country. She was followed by Mike Rodney (CARL Nat. Secretary) who put the proposals into political perspective.
Rodney explained how the Tory Bill was the climax ofan ongoing campaign against Black rights. It comes on top of the tightening of the already-racist 1971 Immigration Act, he said, which has led to Filipino workers march in protest against deportations.
That's a good point. The answer, ot course, lies in the record of the Labour leaders. Racist immigration acts have been passed through Parliament - over curbs. Instead of challenging them, the Labour leaders nave meckiy accestca them and - when in office - implement-
Take the last Labour government. Merlyn Rees not only implemented the 1971 Act. He actually introduced measures to tighten it still further. Moreover, the government was also planning to introduce a Nationality Bill roughly similat to the Tories' present one.
Immigrant workers in France - the most exploited and badly treated section of the
every 10 inhabitants, 2 are immigrants". DENIAL
Did the French CP leadership denounce such an altack ana expel tuese memocis for whipping up racist feeling? On the contrary, Cr leader George Marchais told a rally a few weeks later that "... it is ininto France when we have two million French and immigrant workers on the dole"
The fact that the French CP was
rishing raids, increased deportations and police harassment of the Black community.
this attack on Black rights was
It is an attempt by the Tories to divide the labour movement -to make Black people the scapegoat for the anger and discontent Anne Dummett (JCWI) who explain- building up against unemployment and the fall in living standards".
STRENGTH
of the delegates who took part in
delegate from an Indian Workers Association stressed, to take the campaign into the labour move.
Party - to win support there;
Soci
Acti
* JUSTICEFON FILIPINO
MURKERS How can this be changed? ing to change. When CARL called its
- Will casabel not only the Black community but a laver in the unions and Labour Party
for the repeal of the 1971 Act.
forward in understanding, It's only a
with their racist offensive - and split on immigrant workers - and then de
Stalinist screw.
ration into Britain.
UNREST
tensions among the population..."
immigrants and other workers. But what is the cause of these tensions? Isn't it the inability of capitalism to provide decent jobs and housing and
rants the scapegoat of any discontent that might arise?
fight tooth and nail against racists attempts to whip up reactionary hysteria against the most oppressed layers of the labour movement? HYPOCRISY
racist gutter? Quite simply - they have
Rodney went on to explain that
no accident. "It is quite deliberate.
one's back on it.
the racist MPs".
This point was echoed by many
ACTION the debate. All the more reason, a
ment - into the unions and Labour
"The Tories might be strong", he
JUSTIC FILIPINO WORKERS for the March rally. ort.
Tories racist laws?
Well, to tell the truth, it's already begin-
first demonstration in November 1979, over 20,000 responded. This included
Over 60 MPs backed the rally and called 1971 Immigration Act.
We clearly have to build on this step
motion to this effect. small step - but it's a vital one. Make no bones about it, if the Tories get away
the labour movement - it will be twice be effective? as easy for them to ram home any piece
responsible for launching a goon attack
fended it - represents a new turn of the
merely
Make no bones about it, the argument used by the CP leaders are identical to France" those used by right-wing racists such as Enoch Powell to justify curbing immig-
In words that could almost have been taken from Powell's "rivers of blood" speech 10 years ago, Marchais explains that too many immigrants "could create
It is certainly true that. at times or re positions? cession, tensions can develop between
STALINISM
the attempt by racists to make immig
ultra-right
And isn't it the task of socialists to
ism". Oniv too true.
Just how has the British CP explained away their French allies' descent into the on immigrant workers is the logical out-
said, "but an alliance between the Black community and labour movement is even stronger. United, we can ensure that this Bill is thrown into the dustbin where it belongs".
Rudi Narayan, combatting the views of a few speakers hostile to the Labour Party, backed up this point. It the Labour Party has a bad record on the issue of racist laws, the answer is not to turn
"Get into the party", he said, "and chuck out
Despite attempts by a small group to disrupt the conference (the Revolutionary Communist Tendency), a number of concrete proposals were adopted towards building a mass opposition to the Tory Bill. Key among these was the What plans does CARL have for mobil. ising greater labour support?
As you probably know, that was a major point of discussion at the recent CARL bers. conference. It's clear that the Black community is up in arms about the Tory proposals and will be mobilising en masse
What we've got to do, in the following months, is to take the campaign into the unions and Labour Party to explain why this issue is vital for the whole labour movement. I think that process is already underway. CARL groups, up and down the country, are trying to enlist union and Labour Party support Most important, CARL activists in the Labour Party are amane a mass one day conterenc shortly before the rally to mobilise supp-
Will CARL be trying to get the Labour Bill. Party to pledge to fight and repeal the
Certainly. One of the central aims of the one day conference will be to demand mat the Laoour leaders give ten suppor for the rally and - when they are returned to power - throw overboard not only the Nationality Act but also the racist
There shouldn't be too much of a problem here because the Labour Party conference, in 1976, already passed a
All it would need was to carry out conference decisions. Do you think the turn-out in March will
From the mood building up, I think it
defended it. Glossing over the goon attack. Harrv Samson in the CP pape Morning Star says the French CP is
See or a r co moao! in the mutual interests of workers in
If the French CP is right, however, then why isn't the Brirish CP calling for a halt to Black immigration into Britain? Instead of opposing Thatcher's racist laws, why isn't it defending them?
And instead of opposing goon attacks by the ultra-right on immigrant areas such as soutnan, wny doesn t it baci them? Isn't that the logical consequence of defending the French CP's racist
No amount of word-juggling can hide
the French Communist Party is a racist campaign in the traditions of the
As a leading member of the French Socialist Party exclaimed, that campaign is "unworthy of a party which proclaims workers' solidarity and international-
But the Stalinist parties abandoned workers solenty nematon decades ago. Organising goon attacks
come of their chauvinist outlook.
PAGE 3 decision to launch a mass demonstration in London towards the end of March, As one delegate from South London CARL put it: "Last time, we managed to get 20,000 onto the streets. This time, we want to get ten times that number". As a build-up to the demonstration, it was agreed to call a number of regional rallies, to hold a public meeting in London and organise lobbies of Parliament.
The enthusiasm at the end of the conference left all delegates in no doubt that, with serious organisation in the weeks ahead, the Nationality Bill could be stopped. All those interested in obtaining more information about CARL, please contact: CARL, Lansbury House, 41 Camberwell Grove, London SE 5.
will be the biggest anti-racist demonstration we've seen in Britain for some time. Aul the back orcamsanons are swungue behind CARL, as are anti-racist groups, Labour rarty acuvists and umon mem
I think more and more are realising that, if Thatcher's offensive is to be stopped, we need to build a united campaign which shows its power in the streets.
Message of
solidarity
The following message from the League for Socialist Action was sent to a Caribbean Labour Solida-
rity meeting in Brixton on Januar
Nearly 100 people attended
the CLS meeting, which was it
opposition to the racist Nationality
Dear sisters and brothers,
the League for Socialist Action -a group of revolutionary trade union
and Labour Partv activists - sends
our most fraternal greetings to your
meeting on the Nationality Propos-
als. We hope it will lead to redoub-
ling people's determination to fight
the racist attacks being launched
by the Tories, the party of Britain's rich white rulers
What a contrast the policy of this
supposedly civilised British govern-
ment is to the policies of the revolutionary governments of the Carib-
What a contrast to Grenada where black working people, lea by the
New Jewel Movement, are building a truly just and humane society.
What a contrast to Cuba, where the revolutionary government, since it came to bower. declared war on racism and abolished it.
What a contrast to Nicaragua where the Sandinista government is
•one al a can to ensure the rgn.
of Black people and of the Indian population, and abolish racism.
But the Tories defend a system based on private profit not human neces. ane cerany not on toe rights of Black people.
We can take heart from the victories of Black people and other working people in the Caribbean. From them we see that if we are determined to struggle, we are unbeatabie
Through mobilising the power that Black people have, through mobilising the power of the whole labour movement, we can defeat the Nationality Proposals. The British labour movement must say "An injury to one is an injury to all" and give full support to Black rights.
Let us build the upcoming demonstration called by the Campaign Against Racist Laws into a massive show of our strength.
Let us fight together until these proposals and all other racist laws are thrown into the dustbin of history.
Page 4 scan of this page
Labour and de
PAGE 4
Socialist Action
looks ahead
When we launched our fund drive, last year, Socialist Action had two aims. To bring out the paper more regularly and to deepen our coverage of the anti-Tory struggle. labour movement, bringing out a regular paper arguing for class-struggle policies was seen as vital.
As a result of our growing support - both financial and political -we are now able to take a major step towards this goal. Starting with the next (March) issue, a number of staff writers will be joining the
Creating a team of full-time writers will, we hope, allow us to turn Socialist Action into a real tool in the fight for socialism. It will allow us to give more in-depth analysis of the issues facing the labour movement, get on-the-spot reports of workers' struggles and beef up our fight for class-struggle policies.
Our new editor - replacing Andy Scott - will be Terry Viney. Terry entered politics over ten years ago in the mass campaign to get the US troops out of Vietnam. A member of Ravensbourne CLP, he has since been involved in a number of campaigns and is author of the Socialist Action pamphlet on "Stalinism". He joined Socialist Action three years ago.
Joining Terry will be a number of other comrades in different areas of the class-struggle. ular attention to the fight-back developing on the shop floor against Thatcher's attack on jobs, living standards and union rights.
Liz Easton (Wood Green CLP) will concentrate coverage of women's rights in the paper. A long-time member of the women's movement, she played an active role in building NAC and the fight against the Corrie Bill.
Jane Ansell (Finchley CLP) has been active in the fight-back against the cuts for some time. ched by the Tories on the social services and the fight-back that is now underway.
Finally, because Socialist Action has always prided itself on its internationalism, coverage of Ireland and other international struggles will remain prominant. team of staff writers with particular responsibility for this area.
for Socialist Action. become an even more useful tool for all those fighting the Tories and will be key in pioneering a real class-struggle left-wing in the unions and Labour Party.
What We Stand For
Socialist Action sees as its central aim building, within the labour movement, a class-struggle left-wing fighting for socialist policies against those which lost Labour the last election and disillusioned thousands of Labour supporters.
Such a left-wing should support not only policies in the interests of working people but also their allies among the youth, Blacks, women and oppressed manna mares. all the oppressed and exploited that a really united offensive can be organised against the lores (and their right-wing allies in the labour movement).
Socialist Action believes that a fighting left-wing should be built around the touowing demands.
* Hands off the unions! No curbs on the right to strike or picket!
* For the 35-hour week! End unemployment by work-sharing (with no loss
of pay) and introduce a mass public works programme for those already on the dole.
* Oppose all wage curbs. For wage increases to be tied to the cost of living
to offset inflation.
* Open the books of all companies claiming inability to pay a decent living * Tax the rich not the poor. No cuts in social services - for social spending
To be tied to increases in the cost of living
" For women's rights
free nurseries, equal pay and opportunity. Support NAC
* Fight racism. Repeal all racist immigration laws. Defend the right of Black
* people to organise as they see fit in the community and labour movement.
the troops out of Ireland now!
* End the war drivel Por unlateral nuciear disarmament.
* For a safe environment. End nuclear reactors and base an energy policy
on coal. Explore alternative energy resources.
Socialist Action supporters, while fighting for the above demands, seek the widest possible unity of all forces in the labour movement around concrete Issues. Iney also seek to encourage me widest democracy in the labour movement to allow all currents to argue for their point of view and for decisions to de mandatory on Labour leaders
If you would like to find out more about Socialist Action - or contribute to it - write to: Socialist Action, P.O. Box 65, London SW16 INN.
With Thatcher's growing attacks upon the Terry's views on the role of Socialist Action are clear: "What we need in the labour movement is an open, fighting paper which can champion the demands of all those in struggle - and give them a real perspective today in the fight for socialism. 'That's what our aim must be and, I'm sure, it will meet with a growing response".
George Hold (Peckham CLP) will be paying particShe will be concentrating on the attacks laun-
Tim Robinson (Lambeth CLP) will be joining the
Setting up a team of professional staff writers is a major step forward
We hope that, in the months ahead, the paper will It is only by showing that Labour champions the rights of wage or threatening redundancies. Nationalise those that put profit before
For the right of all women to abortion uil demand,
or the right of all oppressed nations to determine their own future - Get
Mass applause greets outcome of Labour Party conference. By CAROL REES (Peckham CLP)
A split now looks inevitable. At a secret meeting held after the special Labour Party conference, the "gang of three" plus Roy Jenkins - is sued the embryo of a new party manifesto. As Shirley Williams confirmed, only a "miracle" could now stop them walking out.
Within a few days, they had managed to gather around them another nine MPs who have a running battle with their Constituency Labour Parties over the question of party democracy. Some of these -like Neville Sanderson - have shown their concern for democracy by running witch-hunts against anyone on the left who doesn't share their views.
TORY PRESS
The step towards splitting from the party has, of course, been heartily greeted by the Tory press who have turned their pages over to the new Ramsay MacDonalds as an election platform. They have used their red-baiting attacks as a stick to beat the Labour Party.
Speculation is rife on a deal with the Liberals whose leader -- David Steel - has already approached the dissidents. The press is full of talk about the "demise" of Labour and a radical re-alignment in British politics.
Such talk is nothing more than by the Tory press who are frightened are looking to their party for a lead. hot air - or, rather, wishful thinking I stiff by the developments in the Labour Party. The "gang of three" don't represent the embryo of a new party. They represent the
By LIZ EASTON (Hackney CLP)
Timothy Sainsbury has finally decided not to sponsor an anti-abortion Bill in the next parliament ary session. What clearly made him change his mind was the growing labour movement support for women's rights which was shown on the mass TUC-backed lobby against the Corrie Bill last year.
While Sainsbury has been forced to back down, however, the rights women enjoy under the 1967 Act have, over the years, become seriously eroded. Inroads into these rights - combined with cut-backs in abortion facilities - have meant that there has been a noticeable de. crease in abortions on the NHS'
It is for this reason that the National Abortion Campaign (NAC)
splitting away of a miniscule group into the wilderness.
CONTEMPT
The three - plus their Tory backers - have tried to portray the shift towards democracy and class-struggle policies in the Labour Party as a "conspiracy". It is due, they claim, to the infiltration of "Marxist currents" out to destroy the traditions of the movement.
Such red-baiting tactics show a contempt for the thousands of union and party members who built Labour and have defended it, over the years, through thick and thin. The shift in the party is not due to comic-book "infiltrators" but to the fact that the rank-and-file are sick and tired, year after year, at seeing democratic decisions by party conference overturned by a tew unrepresentative MPs.
They are sick and tired of a few MPs selling the movement short. As Tony Benn put it: "The real problem is that 90 percent of the public know as well as we what has been wrong with the party: that we say one thing in opposition and do something else in government".
FIGHTING
It is this mood which has become doubly reinforced under the Thatcher offensive. As the Tories attacks on jobs, wages and social services escalate, millions of workers
They want that party to champion their interests and - when returned to power - to implement class-struggle policies. The mass turn-out
Labour Conferenc
T.U.C. says ABORTION KEEP IT LEGAL KEEP IT SAFE
SOCIALIST ACTION in November against unemployment is a sign of the fighting spirit building up
The attempt to democratise the party - to make Labour leaders accountable - is a step in this direction. The labour movement wants a leadership that will abide by conference decisions and not, when returned to power, contemptuously ignore them.
No-one wants a repeat of the last Callaghan government, whose proTory policies - implemented against conference - alienated millions of Labour voters and allow. ed the Tories to get back into office.
FEAR
It is this attempt to turn Labour into a fighting party - a party rep. resenting working people - which frightens the Williamses of this world and their Tory backers. Both Williams and Owen have pointed out that a Labour government cannot be bound by conterence since its role is to rule in the "national interest"
But just what is this national interest Labour MPs are supposed to protect as against the interests of working people? Just what is this idoi Labour MPs are supposed to bend their knee towards instead of representing those who put them into power?
In a society dominated by the banks and monopolies, the "national interest" is clearly what serves to bolster their interests and increase their profits. The national interest is, in this sense, a fraud, a cover-up for promoting the aims of
decided, at its last conference, to begin a campaign in the labour move movement for positive legislation on abortion rights. The aim of such a campaign will include "de-criminaising" abortion and ensuring adequate facilities are provided. CONFERENCE
A major step towards this campaign will be the labour movement conference called by NAC on March 14. The aim of the conference is to begin now to win support for making abortion rights a plank in the Labour Party's manifesto
The fact that the 1977 Labour Party conference voted in favour of a women's right to choose - and th that the TUC mobilised massively to stop the Corrie Bill going through - shows that there is growing un-
Page 5 scan of this page
FEBRUARY 1981
nocracy
the big corporations.
When Callaghan introduced a
wage freeze in 1979 - against the
wishes of the party and unions -
whose interest was that in? Was it
the giant monopolies who wanted
union rights curtailed and their
wages curtailed?
DEMOCRACY
When the "gang of three" - and
other right-wing MPs - argue for
the "freedom" of the Parliamentary
Labour Party, they are arguing for
its freedom to collaborate with the
IMF, Tory-inspired civil servants
and big bankers to attack working
people.
That is why they have let out a
shrill voice of protest over recent developments in the party and have
even been driven to threaten a split
on the issue. They know that the labour movement, representing millions of workers, is in direct conflict with big business. If they were bound by conference decisions, after all, they wouldn't be free to
create millions on the dole, slash the social services and support the arms
LaCC The "gang of four"
In defence of their right to pursue these policies, they actually have the nerve to invoke democracy. It is, you see, "undemocratic" for 300odd MPs to implement the wishes of the millions who put them into power. It is so much more democratic for them - collaborating with unelected civil servants and bankers - to ride roughshod over the millions who put them into office in the first place.
EXTREME?
As they make their move to split, the "gang of eleven" (as it now is) have argued that Labour's "extrem-
of concern to all working people.
Already, the conference has drawn the support of industrial unions, such as the sheet metal workers, and numerous Labour Party branches up and down the country.
CONSCIENCE
Equally important, the conference will be discussing moves to end the "free vote" on abortion by MPs. Over the years, Labour MPs have blandly ignored conference decisions and have felt free to vote according to their "conscience". This has been one of the major factors allowing women's rights, under the 1967 Act, to be eroded.
The Labour Abortion Rights
ist" stance will alienate wide sec-
tions of the "middle ground".
an argument is slightly ridiculous.
After five years of the Callaghan
government, during which time he in the interests of working people or implemented policies to their liking,
the Labour share of the vote was
the lowest in the post-war period.
How on earth can socialist policies lose voters when Callaghan's pro-
capitalist ones drove away and de-
moralised so many Labour supporters.
It is not Labour's "extremist stance" that lost the last election. It is the fact that Labour leaders, representing no-one, reneged on the positions of conference and implemented policies not in the interests of workers but of big business.
WILDERNESS
At present, the "gang of eleven" is basking in the limelight of the Tory press. They are being wined and dined by all those forces who are attacking working people and who are frightened by the shift left in the Labour Party.
But the limelight will not last for long. As the Tories move further walking away from the Labour Party
right to implement their anti-working class offensive, more and more workers will be drawn towards the Labour Party as a fighting party to defend their interests.
The Williamses and Owens of this world might collect around their stale and tired banner a few exLabourites such as Dick Taverne. They might do a deal with the Liberals. They might even draw out a few more Labour MPs frightened at Labour becoming a party representing working people. longer term, they are doomed to be nothing more than a footnote in history.
on Abortion Rights
der standing that women's rights are Committee (LARC) will be argueing that it is not enough just to include abortion rights on the party manifesto but that it is also vital to
Laster. lect in the remaining three months. drive.
utions coming in.
London SW16 1NN).
Such who were and are opposed to the
tion; and who have consistently opposed decisions democratically decided upon by party conference.
It is they who are responsible for the splits and divisions within the party. And it is they who can produce the unity referred to, providing that they will stop their sniping and accept the views of ordinary members rather than treat them with contempt.
Rank and file members of the Labour Party are sick and tired of the elitism displayed by MPs who for some inexplicable reason feel themselves superior to ordinary party members.
to be selected at an initial conference of the party, but are almost paranoic about facing a re-selection conference and having to answer for their stewardship during their perl0a or onlice.
period in accordance with the constitution and rules of the party, and carried out the wishes of the constituency, he or she has nothing to fear.
ignore or disregard decisions of their General Management Committees on major issues, then they must expect reaction and possible rejection if and when a re-selection takes place.
These prima donnas in Parliament apparently want the privilege of sponsorship by a trade union and/or the party and at the same time the luxury of independence.
A person who wants to act independently in Parliament should stand as an independent candidate and not But, in the use the Labour Party merely as a vehicle for propelling themselves into an exclusive club in the centre of Westminster.
ensure that MPs are mandated to implement the manifesto.
For details of the conference contact.
NAC, 374 Grays Inn Rd, London WC1.
Fund drive - on the way!
January's fund-drive brought in £1,300 towards our target figure of £10,000 by
That brings the total up to £3,360 and leaves us with about £6,500 to col
Particular thanks are extended to those readers who dug so generously into their pockets last month - particularly DS (North London) who contributed £300. It is clear, however, that - with only three months to go - we will have to make an all-out effort if we are to reach the target figure on time.
Unlike the big business press Socialist Action has tried not to pass on to readers our growing production costs. We still sell at 15 pence even though - through inflation - the cost of the paper, printing etc. is sky-rocketing. can keep our price stable, and come out more regularly, is by building up the fund
It is for this reason that we urge our readers and supporters to keep the contrib-
A regular donation - however small (Please make all cheques/postal orders payable to Socialist Action, P.O. Box 65,
Scargillon
democracy
TRADI
CAS CLP)
Tyrone.
legs.
Our party does not belong to a select bunch of MPs. It was created out of the womb of the trade union movement and belongs to all of its
The only disagreement that now exists in the party is in the minds of right-wing MPs and their supporters HIT-SQUAD who were and are opposed to extending the franchise for the election of leader and deputy leader of the party;
introduction of mandatory re-selec-
COMPLICITY
These same MPs were quite content
of the UDA.
If an MP has acted throughout that
against the UDA.
On the other hand, if MPs blatently
SYMBOL ish backers.
H-BLOCK
her country.
- would be even better.
independence.
Bernadette
McAliskey
By SABINA ROBERTS (Streatham
On January 18, Bernadette (Dev-
lin) McAliskey and her husband
Michael were seriously wounded in
an attack on their home in Derry-
laughlin, near Coalisland, County
Three masked men burst
their way in and shot Bernadette
five times - in her chest, arms and
Rushed to hospital by an army
patrol - which "happened" to be in
the area - her condition appears to
be "stable" and there is no immedi
ate threat to her life. It looks as if
the assassins' attempt has failed.
It is now fairly clear that the assassins were members of the rightwing Loyalist hit-squad, the Ulster
Defence Association (UDA). As
court convictions show, the UDA has, over the years, been involved in a number of murders and attempted murders of members of the nationalist minority fighting for its rights.
Most recently, it has turned its attention to leading members of the campaign in support of the hungerstrikers. As the statement by the HBlock/Armagh Committee makes clear, prominent activists Miriam Daly and Noel Little have both been assassinated over the past year.
But it is not just the ultra-right UDA which bears responsibility for these crimes. Complicit in the murders and attempted murders are the British army - and its mentors in Downing Street - who have turned a blind eye to the terrorist methods
While launching a mass repression against the nationalist minority, they have refused to take any action
On the contrary, they have done their best to cover up for the UDA by describing it as "essentially political".
The attempted murder of Bernadette McAliskey is a chill reminder of the dangers facing any Irish person who dares to take up the struggle for their country's freedom.
More than anyone else, Bernadette symbolises this struggle. She entered the fight for Irish freedom 13 years ago, at the time of the mass civil rights marches. She became a prominent spokesperson of the nationalist minority struggling for its rights against the repressive weight of both the loyalists and their Brit-
As a result of her role in this fight, she was elected to Parliament in 1971. There she became the deadliest enemy of the Tories, exposing their repressive methods at every killers... | turn and using Westminster as a tribune to speak out on behalf of the Irish freedom struggle.
In the years that followed -although she later lost her seat in Westminster - Bernadette took part in almost all the struggles and campaigns against British occupation of
Moreover, she carried the fight for Irish freedom outside the borders of Ireland to an international audi. ence. She became, for millions, the living symbol of the fight for Irish
PAGE 5
This was nowhere more true than in the campaign on behalf of the hunger strikers. She became the chief spokesperson for the prisoners whose sole crime was daring to stand up to the British rule and fight for their country's freedom.
She toured the world, winning support for them and exposing the brutality of the Tories who had tried tried to physically and morally brea break their spirit. She played a key role in mobilising mass actions that forced the Tories finally to back down and make concessions to the prisoners.
HATRED
It is undoubtedly this role that won her the hatred of the Loyalist thugs and their British supporters. And it was because of this hatred that she was singled out by the Loyalist terrorists for special treatment as a target.
But they failed. They Sir: succeed in killing her. Socialist Action - alongside all those supporting her heroic fight over the years - wishes her and Michael a speedy recovery He: determir. ation, courage and commitment to socialism are more needed today than ever
H-BLOCK
statement
Below is an abridged version of the National H Block/Armagh statement on the attempted assassination of Bernadette McAliskey.
The National H Block/Armagh Committee is shocked to learn of the attempted assassination of Bernadette McAliskey and her husband Michael. We express our abhorrence at this latest shooting which is clearly part of a concerted campaign of murder against H Block activists and leaders.
To date, several leading members of the campaign have been murdered, including two members of the National H Block/Armagh Committee, Miriam Daley and Noel Little...Little or no attempt has been made by the British authorities to apprehend the
Bernadette is the latest victim of the assassins obviously because she is seen to embody the determ. ination and success of the cam. paign. She is Public Relations Off icer of the National H-Block/ Armagh Committee and, as such, has travelled all over Ireland and Europe holding press conferences and speaking at public meetings. While expressing our sorrow at this attempt to kill Bernadette and her husband, we are equally determined, as she and Michael are, to press this campaign to a successful conclusion. Our sym. pathy goes out to her family, neighbours and friends.
Page 6 scan of this page
Will Labour's AES work?
HBlock~the fight goes on
Labour activists discuss Ireland
PAGE 6 attacks on workers' living standards?
Britain's ills. under the microscope.
The AES is not new. Although presented as a "radical alternative", it was concocted in the early 70s and served as the basis of the 1974 Wilson government. Now, as then, its central weakness is simply that it views the problems facing the British economy in isolation.
But what we are faced with today is not a crisis unique to Britain but a world period of "boom", the world market crisis of over-production. As atter any has become saturated and this has sparked off fierce competition between rival
In this increasingly cut-throat world, the weaker firms go to the wall and mass unemployment is the result. Undoubtedly Britain - with its old and unproductive industry - feels such competition most sharply.
But the crisis we face is not a British one but a world one in which the jobless queues are growing in all countries -from the United States to West Germany The OECD Report forecasts 21 million unemployed in the capitalist West by 1984.
STRATEGY
Failing to grasp this point, the main thrust of the AES is therefore to come up with proposals to help ailing British capital against its foreign rivals. Far from seeing capitalism as the problem, it seeks to strengthen British industry in the cut-throat market.
Workers are encouraged to see the solution to their problems not in fighting against a system that - world-wide -throws millions on the scrap-heap. are encouraged to identify with it and to
MARANT COYLE 15YR6
DACALLON
Mass demonstrations - such as this one
in Dublin - shook Ireland in protest
against the inhuman treatment of H-
Block prisoners.
By GARY ERLISKER
About 50 people attended a one-day
school on Ireland and the Labour Party,
organised by Battersea CLP on January
17. The turn-out showed the growing
interest in Irelana developnig among
party ranks.
The first session heard MP Jock Stann-
ard and Socialist Challenge staff writer
Geoff Bell. While Bell dealt with the his-
tory of the Irish struggle since partition,
Stannard concentrated on Labour's abys-
mal record on Ireland.
He pointed out the leadership's bloc
with the Tories in opposing the right of
the Irish to determine their own future
and ended by saying it was no accident
that the N. Ireland secretary most popu-
lar among unionist bigots was Labour's
Koy Mason.
The afternoon session saw workshops
around such areas as unionism, republic.
Speaking at the mass rally in Liverpool last month, Eric Heffer called on the next Labour government to begin "rebuilding British industry on socialist lines". Heffer's militant speach reflects the anger of millions of working people faced with mounting dole queues and social service cuts. But, while militant in words, what policies does Heffer - and other Labour leaders - have to tackle the current crisis? What programme have they got to ensure, when re-elected, they can deal with the rise in jobless and The answer is, of course, the Alternative Economic Strategy backed by the TUC and Labour NEC. The AES is being flaunted as a real answer to But is it? Below, Terry Viney (Ravensbourne CLP) puts it
get it working again.
This comes out clearly in the three basic proposals that the AES makes: reflating the economy, setting up import controls and creating a prices and incomes policy. All these proposals will hit -and not help - working people.
DEMAND
A major factor behind "reflating the economy" is to create greater demand.
Increased demand will, it is hoped, provide a market for British goods and cut back unemployment.
In order to ensure that British firms benefit from such demand however and not foreign competitors - the AES places great stress on "selective import controls". Foreign goods will be barred entry to bolster up uncompetitive firms.
Such a view not only seeks to maintain British jobs at the expense of workers in other countries - hardly an internationalist viewpoint. It is also counterproductive.
TRADE WAR
In a period of recession, when the world market is shrinking, any attempt to keep out cheap imports can only lead to retaliatory measures abroad. in the USA for example, there is mass pressure building up in the auto unions to keep out foreign cars.
Once anv government began to introduce import controls to protect its own industry, other governments would be forced to follow suit. British goods would be excluded from their markets.
The result would be a repeat of the They thirties. A trade was would develop in which millions of workers' jobs - in
By GRAHAM WEIGHT (Croydon CLP)
The struggle by the H-Block prisoners to gain political prisoner status is far from over. Last December, it seemed that the Tories - under pressure from the mass movement building up - had conceded all of their demands.
It is now clear, however, that they are reneging on the deal. Having defused the mass movement, they are now seeking to backtrack on the concessions they were forced to make.
ISSUE
The fundamental issue of the H-Block protest was the prisoners refusa to wear convict uniforms. They rejected and demanded political prisoner status.
Because of their protest, they were forced to live naked in their cells and were subjected to inhuman treatment and harassment. Ine prisoners decision to launch a hunger strike was a desperate attempt to protest this treatment
anism and the media and Ireland. Participants agreed that the media treatment of Ireland was completely one sidea and designed to prop up British rule.
The work-shop on republicanism, however, saw differences arise. - such as those from the Militant current - seemed to be more concerned with the "Iights oi the Unionists than the strug. gle of the Irish people as a whole for justice and freedom.
As others explained, the national struggle is central to the whole classstrud le in Ireland. Supporting the "rights" of the Unionists means supporting a privileged layer in N. Ireland and their backers in the British ruling class.
TROOPS OUT Another disagreement that arose was over the question of British withdrawal
Britain and other capitalist countries -would rapidly be lost.
BAILING OUT
ive amounts of state funds into them. This was the position of the previous Callaghan government which set up the National Enterprise Board.
over these firms - but merely propping them up at tax-payers' expense — it is difficult to see how this will contribute to "rebuilding... industry on socialist lines". It is even more difficult to see how this will protect jobs.
Already over £50 million was sunk into Chrysler in 1976, didn't the company use it to streamline production at the expense of 10,000 workers' jobs!
WAGES oppression. own clothes, to refrain from work, to
activities and to get full remission on their sentences.
BACK-DOWN
"common criminals"
were to be given their own clothing.
not hard to fathom. The Tories were
withdrawal.
Some people
COMMITTED
needed.
be built on this basis.
Workers occupying Gardners (Manchester) show way to fight job loss.
Sure.
The second plank in the AES to protect ailing British firms is to project mass-
Since the AES does not call for taking
DANGERS
Pouring money into firms to "rationalise" them will, on the contrary, lead to a massive job loss. Isn't this the experience of the last Labour government? When
facing working people.
The third major plank of the AES to bail out British industry is to introduce a flexible prices and incomes policy. Pegging wages, it is argued, would be a ration- the well-being of the present system. The al way of planning investment for the fut- idea of industrial democracy - i.e. work.
dished out to men whose only crime wa. fighting to rid their country of foreign
on the British Embassy
They demanded the right to wear their freely associate with other political prisoners, to organise their own educational
Although the Tories pretended they RENEGING had not given an inch, Humphrey Atkins' statement on Dec. 17 clearly conceded most of these demands. According to Bernadette McAliskey, clean cells were to be prepared for the prisoners and they
been turned away.
The reason for this about-face was frightened by the mass movement developing against the prisoners' inhuman treatment. In the weeks preceding the end of the fast, mass demonstrations
from Ireland. Supporters from Socialist
Challenge moved a resolution which in-
cluded calling on the Labour Party NEC
to campaign for military and politica.
When some supporters of the Irish struggle assumed this meant immediate
withdrawal, the Socialist Challenge com-
rade who moved it said this was not the
case: immediate withdrawal was purpos-
ly left out as a "broad campaign" was
now.
An ammendment to insert the word
"immediate" was moved by Socialist
Action on the grounds that troops out
now was the only position consistent
with supporting Irish self-determination
and a mass campaign could ard should
Such a stance did struggle
REALITY
NORKER
SiT ment attacks.
In reality, of course, all wage controls do is tie workers to the cost-strings of private enterprise. Workers are expected to make sacrifices so that bosses can create bigger profits for re-investment.
At a time when inflation is surging UNITY ahead and - with massive loans to state industry as well - this will be the equivalent of asking workers to take a wage cut. The result will only be - as Callaghan found out to his cost in the "winter of discontent" — a wages explosion.
As can be seen, for all its radical rhetoric, the AES is not new. It is not radically different from the policies pursued by British Labour governments over the past years. It will not solve the problems
First, by viewing Britain's problems in isolation, it does not seek to challenge capitalism but to "bolster" it in competition with its foreign rivals. What does it matter if thousands of workers in other countries are thrown on the dole as long as jobs are protected here?
Secondly, it ties workers' interests to shook the country from Belfast to Dub. lin where, on Dec. 6, 40,000 marched
The Tories realised that - if any prisoner died - it could unleash a mass explosion. It could bring masses onto the streets and fuel the fight for a united Ireland free from British rule. The concessions (though denied) were an attempt to defuse this situation.
Having defused the mass movement, however, the Tories are now clearly reneging on the deal they made with the prisoners. Relatives of some prisoners bringing civilian clothes to the jail have
Moreover, prisoners have been told that they will have to wear prison unif-
orm and obey prison regulations before
they are removed to clean cells and allowed to wear their own clothes.
Such treachery has - as a statement
not preclude working with forces, or
taking part in actions, which did not
agree fully with this principled position.
As well as Socialist Action and Work-
ers Action, a number of independent
Labour supporters of the Irish struggle
backed the amendment. Socialist Chall-
enge, however, and local Labour mem-
bers less committed to self-determin-
ation, opposed the amendment and it
was lost 17 - 18. Because of the back-
sliding on the part of Socialist Challenge,
a valuable opportunity was lost to win
support for the position of troops out
The meeting ended on a more posit-
ive note, however, with a telegram of sol-
idarity being sent to Bernadette and
Michael McAliskey, and Labour activists
coming away were enthused and comm-
itted to organising support for the Irish
SOCIALIST ACTION I er representatives on boards of directors - is introduced to help this process along. Rather than calling for workers to take • over the economy, it suggests that iney should identify with the problems of their given firms.
Finally - and most important - the AES offers no way forward for workers fighting today against the Tory govern-
What can it say to workers in the car industry fighting for jobs? That they should unite with Michael Edwardes to keep out foreign cars!
What does it say to workers fighting Thatcher's wage freeze in the public sector of 6%? That they should be willing to accept a wages policy (even though inflation is raging at 15%)?
What is needed - if jobs and living • standards are to be protected - is a fighting programme based on the needs of working people and not on the needs of ailing private enterprise. Socialists should start from the premise that working peop le did not create the present crisis - and shouldn't be made to pay for it.
If jobs are threatened, the demand should be made for work-sharing with no loss of pay: For the 35-Hour week! If management refuses to concede the de mand, workers should call for access to the secret acounts: Open the books! If it is proved that the firm cannot guarantee full employment, it should be nationalised under workers control.
For those workers already on the dole, Labour councils should campaign for an increase — not decrease - in social expenditure to soak up the dole queues.
With inflation raging at 15%, workers should refuse any form of incomes policy. They should campaign around the demand for inbuilt cost-of-living clauses to safeguard their wage packets.
If the labour movement rallied around these demands - fighting demands -then the Tories could be rapidly defeated. They would, moreover, create a Stag programme for an incoming Labour gor. ernment and ensure it operated in the interests of workers and not bosses.
by the H-Block/Armagh Cttee recently
said - created growing "tensions and frustration.. in the prisons". It means that all the men on the "blanket" are
still in protest and there is talk of even launching another hunger strike. MASS ACTION
If the Tories think they can get away
with reneging on the deal, however, they
had better think again. Early in January,
Bernadette McAliskey announced at a
rally in Beifast that, if the Tories refused
to keep their word, the protest would
have to return to the streets.
This is exactly what is beginning to
happen. The National H-Block/Armagh
Cttee has called for a widening of the
campaign. It is up to us in the British
labour movement to give maximum sup-
port in that struggle. A first step will be
building the Labour Committee on Ire-
land rally, February 21, which is high-
lighting the plight of H-Block prisoners.
Socialist Action
Pamphlets
10.
Par
Socialist Action, PO Box 65, London
SW 16 INN
Page 7 scan of this page
FEBRUARY 1981
EDUCATION FOR SOCIALISTS
"What is racism and how did it arise?" writes Phil Collins. "'Has it always existed or is it a more recent development?" Phil's questions are useful because - even among socialists — corruson can orren be found on what racism is.
Racism rests on the carefully-built assumption that Black people are "naturally' inferior and that this inferiority has always existed. Such a view, however, is relatively modern and only came into being with the birth of capitalist society.
The indignity and humiliation which Blacks are subjected to today - in the ghettoes of London or New York - did not exist in pre-capitalist times.
George Brietman, leading American socialist, strsses this in his pamphlet "Anti-Negro Prejudice". While showing that pre-capitalist societies were based on many forms of oppression - cultural
never based on the idea of a people being considered inferior because of the colour of their skin.
Hr gives numerous examples of race relations in early slave-owning societies to prove his case. He quotes Oliver Cox on the eariy Egyptians who "looked down on the Negroes to the south of mem nev eustavea unem and souxe scornfully of them, but", Cox adds, "they were just as scornful of the Asiatic sand-dwellers of Trogdalytes who were lighter than the Egyptians".
That it was a cultural discrimination in Egypt can be seen, Cox says, by the fact that many of the Negroes who were captured in battle were allowed to enter Egyptian society and become Pharoahs themselves.
The same picture is true of all societles - irom the vieek to the koman - to the feudal era. There were divisions and antagonisms of class, culture and religion but none along race or colour lines. late as the 15th Century, when the West
excuse for the enslavement of Blacks was not that they were "black" but that they were not Christian.
ROOTS
Racism - the idea that Blacks were innatelv infenor - onlv began to develop at a later stage. Its roots can be traced to tne plage ana rape ol Allica ana inala in the 17th Century by the newly emerging trading nations of Britain and Holland.
These new trading nations found in the under-developed world huge profits not only in raw materials but the human beings they shipped as slaves - in their millions - to work on the cotton plantations of the West Indies. It was out of the vast profits gathered in the slave trade that the new capitalist class was able to finance the industrialisation of the 19th Century.
The process was simple. Manufactured
slaves to be shipped to the United States. The ships returned to Britain loaded with the sugar and cotton produced there for the manufacturing industry. ular trade reaped millions in profits for Manon Bustin - coal miner Inreatened with deportation
By ANN WESTCOTT (Salford CLP)
On March 16, the FBI, CIA and other government spy agencies will be put in the dock. They are facing a lawsuit from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) which claims that, since 1938, they have conspirea to distupt its pontical activity.
The lawsuit - filed back in 1973
for the disruption caused to date. It also
Roots of racism
manufacturers, plantation owners and sunobers alike.
RIGHTS
Ihis barbanc trade createa, nowevel, a problem for the new trading class. Their rise to power had taken place under the banner of the "rights of man" in wnich no numan being was une property of another. It was difficult to reconcile this idea with the pillage of Africa in which Blacks were shipped like cattle to work as slaves.
The growth of racism has its roots in the attempt by capitalists to defend this barbaric system.
Africa were justified on the grounds that Blacks were "subhuman" and "naturally inferior,
It was on the basis of such an ideology - backed up with pseudo-scientific trappings and Biblical quotes - that countries like Britain were able to justify the pillage of the Third World and build the "British Empire".
PRIVILEGE
The anti-Black virus spread by the manufacturers and the shippers did not permeate into the labour movement easiv. During the American Civil War. for example, Lancashire cotton workers organised massive protests against slavery in the Southern States. mass actions against slavery.
Over time, however, the myth of Black inferiority - created to justify
profiteering areas of society. Even though workers had no interests in colonial oppression, many began to identify with the "British Empire" and oppose the independance suruggies or colonal workcis ana peas ants.
This backward attitude on the part of the more privileged layers in the labour movement was noted by Engels in a letter of 1882 when he wrote that "'the workers merrily devour alongside them This triang- (the capitalists - Ed.) the fruits of the British colonial monopoly".
US socialists sue FBI
calls on the government to stop spying, infiltrating and harassing the SWP.
The suit comes at a bad time for the u nilers. They need to strengthen their secret police to help silence the growing opposition among US workers to their policies of inflation, union busting and
They need to overcome the widespread aistrust among working peopie to1 te FBI and CIA, to convince them they are necessary in the "national security".
The trial - scheduled for March 16 -will blow this wide open. It will publicly expose the anti-worker role of these government spy agencies.
Already, the suit has forced the governmenteto release thousands of files which show the SWP accusations of spying, burglary and frame-ups are true.
The files reveal how the FBI plotted against the Black movement, tried to drive union militants from their jobs, sought to discredit the women's movement and undermine mass opposition to the Vietnam war.
POST-WAR
the influx of Blacks into Britain since
ice industries like health, catering and transport).
Slavery and the rape of
LeRS
basic rights: i.e. thev can be arrested
unity (as seen recently in the fishing
schools.
DANGER
introduce a new nationality bill. aim of this is to encourage the beliet
- high unemployment, falling living standards• but by Black people.
identified by colour.
tions of the labour movement can be drawn behind a reactionary ideology. Ior uer ownl
UNITY
The Chattists led
- began to seep into all the Tory government and their anti-working class policies stopped. SWP. However, on November 20 last
the party.
suit exposed.
tion and Naturalisation Service (INS)
the centre of their case.
people have a right to hold political
is trampling on the rights of all
This ideology, however, has become particularly dangerous today because of
the war. Blacks were encouraged to emigrate to Britain to fill the labour shortage that developed (particularly in serv-
The racism of British capitalism -created over 300 years ago - is no longоных эe нne coco e of Blacks who have settled over here. In recent years, successive immigration acts have not only tried to exclude Blacks on the basis of colour but have turned those already over here into second-class citi-
Under these laws, they can be denied
without a warrant and deported without right of appeal. This gives the police the "green light" to harass the Black comm-
Leyland. such acts permeates all aspects of society Blacks are pushed into the most menial jobs, are forced to live in the worst slum MISCONDUCT housing and to be educated in the worst
The present Tory government, of course, is deliberately playing on anti-Black prejudice in its tightening up of the immigration laws and attempts to
The
that the cause of the problems we face
- is not caused by capitalism shop.
The Tories are whipping up the prejudice of centuries to try and divert atten-, RECORD tion from themselves onto a scapegoat
The danger is that - because the labour leaders nave done nothing to oppose such attitudes - sec-
Far from challenging the clamp-down on immigration, for example, past Labour governments have openly implemented racist laws. Merlyn Rees actually tightened the 1971 Immigration Act and proposed a White Paper on Nationality which the Tories have used as a mode.
Such weak-kneed attitudes have to be challenged. If they are not, the Tories gave in. will be able to split the labour movement - which wil make it easier for them to ram home their anti-labour policies. An example of what can happen was seen at Imperial Typewriters in 1973 when white workers scabbed on their striking Black brothers and - by so doing - allowed management to ram through working (Pathfinder Press) conditions which set back all workers.
A central task in stopping the Tories is to build mass opposition to their present racist immigration proposals. It 1s only if the labour movement can be won to aerenang ne ngais ol au the oppress ed that a united front can be posed to
In 1976, following some of these exposures, the Attorney General ordered it takes up, the FBI to halt its investigations into the
year, the FBI was forced to admit it had continued to maintain files on the SWP despite claims to have halted spying on
This was just one of the lies the SWP in the United States.
A concrete example was the case of SWP member Marion Bustin, a coal miner from West Virginia. It was discovered that for 6 years the Immigra-
have been trying to find grounds to deport her because of her political views.
The case of Marion Bustin and Hector Marroquin, another member the US government is seeking to deport, will be at
As Andrew Pulley (SWP Presidential candidate in the 1980 elections) explained in a recent statement: "The American
opinions and express them freely. By denying this right to us, the government
Defend Longbridge 8
Pened.
Michael Edwardes - leading the ores anu-unon orlensive.
By TIM ROBINSON (Lambeth CLP)
Late last month, the "independent" enquiry into the sacking of 8 Long bridge workers returned its findings It recommended that only 2 out of the 8 workers be re-instated.
These recommendations, if accepted by Longbridge workers, would de a major set-back to snop-nool organisation in the whole of British
The workers were originally sacked, last December, for alleged "gross industrial misconduct". Hauled before the bosses' kangaroo court, they were promptly dismissed.
Their "misconduct" involved standing up to tne Leylana dosse who, for years now, have been seeking to ram home speed-up and job loss. The men took part in a protest action when management, snoruy berore, sougnt to introduce speed-up in the Trentham seat-build
Cleariv. for the Levland management, the victimisation of the 8 was
of shop-floor organisation. Michael Lawaraes recora speaks tor liseu
* Two years ago, Edwardes rammed home his "plans" for the company which involved a massive job loss. Sacking convenor Derek Robinson for criticising his views, he threatened to shut down the compary alless bile amons agreed
* In April, last year, Edwardes imposed a 5% pay norm - at a time when inflation was raging at 17% -threatening, once more, to shut down the company unless the unions
—reviews-
Socialism on Trial, James P. Cannon
Radicalising young workers begining to take an interest in socialist ideas often ask if there's a particular book they can read that sets out - clearly and simply - what socialism stands for.
Socialism on Trial has served that purpose for decades. It is particularly usetul because it is based around a series of questions and answers.
What is the fundamental role of socialists? How can workers take power into their own hands? What attitude should socialists take towards violence? What happened in the Russian Revolution! These are just some of the issue
The method used to explain the ideas was no accident. Socialism on Trial was literally that. It is a court testimony -that of J.P: Cannon, a founder and longtime member of the socialist movement
Cannon and 17 other leaders of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and Minneapolis truck drivers' union were on tat lot ne sociaust views aunng World War Two. They were accused of "sedition" for refusing to give up their ideas and cease fighting for the rights of working people.
Despite a defence campaign, supported by unions representing 2 million workers, the socialists were rail-roaded
In having to give Cannon the chance to expound his views from the dock, however, the US ruling class undoubt edly came out the loser. Capitalism, Cannon explains, in its early stages took humanity forward. But now it can only offer unemployment, curbs on demo-
PAGE 7
* Only last November, despite the anger and frustration of Leyland workers who voted 2 to 1 for strike action, Edwardes rammed home a 6.8% pay rise on the union leaders. Mass sackings would result if the deal was not accepted, ne threat
No wonder Edwardes is the Tories' blue-eyed boy. He is clearly setting the pace for the whole Tory drive to beat down and cripple the trade unions.
WEAK-KNEED
The reason why Edwardes has got away win nis arrogant turcats is obviously due to the weak-kneed attitude of union leaders. Frightened by threats to close down the company, they have meeklt accepted
ved up over the years
This can be seen in their attitude to the current dispute. leaders refused to call Edwardes' bluff by threatening wide-spread strike action if he didn't re-instate the men. On the contrary, they recommended that the 1500 who had already struck return to work and called for an independent enquiry.
Seeing no alternative, the strikers returned to work and an "independent" enquiry was set up whose recommendations have only recently been announced
DEFENCE
Unfortunately, these recommendations - which clearly back the management's action - have been meekly accepted by the trade union leaders. If the Edwardes' management is allowed to get away with these victimisations, however, then no-one at Leyland will be safe.
As Tony Benn says, it will not only give Edwardes the green light to apply similar methods in other Ley. land plants. It will give the green light to all managers to get tough hata tne umon.
This is ighy it is vital to begin the fight-back now. Already a detence campaign is being set up, sponsored by Selly Oak Labour Party.* Such a cambas das zo beannow to con vince workers that only strike action will defend union rights against Edwardes' dictatorial methods. * Messages of support and donations should be sent to: Selly Oak Labour Party, Albert Bore (Secretary), 10, Greenend Rd, Birmingham 13. James P. Cannon. cratic rights and ultimately war. It has become the major obstacle to human
In contrast to the capitalist minority who rule by deceit and force, Cannon
fighters for democratic rights, for the unions and for all oppressed people
He goes on to explain how socialism has nothing to do with the bureaucratic caricature that exists in the USSR The Russian Revolution, for the first time in history, placed power in the hands of working people. But the revolution - isolated in a back ward coun try and attacked by capitalism internat. ionally - eventually was overcome by Stalinism
Since Cannon was explaining his ideas to a mass audience who were not socialists, the book is easily readable. As an introduction to, and stirring defence of, the basic ideas of Marxism, it is a powerful weapon in the hands of working people who want to fight tor a better world.
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