but action sprung Societies members of the NUS Executive.
WIlnin tE attend pickets, should be however, is made correctly that instead of alliances NOISS will be the alternative.
Nelson, bernard Hegan, was NUISS International key to the Thus the Liaison Association have NOISS in its formative stages.
BROADER
the supporters of any one group. nationalisation of the 'The immediate task is a political one — fighting for a campaigning NUS.' PuttIng me ngat for a campaigning union to the fore is the strength of a very rapidly produced pamphlet, Inside the Company* Services Crash by Andy Durgan and Graham Threlfall, the two National Organisation of IS In mapping out a strategy to achieve the pamphlet has few answers. In the 'Open Letter to the Broad Left' appended to the pamphlet, the point with the FCS [Federation of Conservative Students] we are calling for a united campaign by the whole left to fight the right-wing threat'. But instead of stating on what basis that unitv of the left can be forged and how, the implication is that Examining the history of NUS since the late '60s, the pamphlet declares that it and its forerunners that pushed for an active union which involved its members not for a side show but as the development of the union.
Committee for the Defence of Student Unions, which led the fight over union autonomy, and the Socialist Alternative which challenged the Broad Left for leadership are presented as working class.
But the most important point about these formations, which accounted for the wide support they could muster, was that they involved much broader forces than On the services crash, the pamphlet says [page 5]: "The correct attitude for the NUS to have taken months ago, both in relation to the survival of the union, the Government's attacks.' service companies and the statts jobs, would have been to campaign for the relevant companies. No answer is forthcoming on The failure of the entire left to confront the services monster that the Broad Left Dult over me aserew vears s pomtea ou in a new Red Weekly pamphlet, NUS - a Socialist Answer.§ In an attempt to reetify that situation, a pro. gramme of action to defend the services ana Joos al stake is pur rorward.
London N1.
SES. ITS SERVICE
COMPANIES AND THEIR COLLAPSE The aim of this pamphlet, according to the authors, is to explain the extent of the present crisis in tne Ivos and tne type or socialist alternative.which can develop the fighting unity of the NUS. It argues that such unity cannot be achieved on the basis of pressure politics and the running of Drivate companies. but rather through thi transformation of the NUS into a mass campaigning union allied in action to the By examining briefly the situation with students unions in other countries. the reasons for nguwng to maintamn the uong of the student movement are clearly explained. Using the experience of France, it shows that 'the sectarian divisions within meet one s uent movement .... cal be overcome on the basis of an alliance with the working class against all the The main task today is to develop an ae ave o ue as sEous osa bem! pursued by the Broad Left a road of having the vast majority of students on the workers' side of the picket lines is to build a united left alternative.
This pamphlet doesn't pretend to contain all the answers. However its main thrust and its conclusions will be a useful contribution to the present debate in the STuUCLE mOYemCnE * Inside the Company, price 5p, available from Bookmarks, 265 Seven Sisters Road, London N7.
§ NUS Services Crash - • A Socialist Answer, price 10p, available from Red Books, 182 Pentonville Road, London N1. For bulk orders write to: IMG Student Commission, 97 Caledonian Road • After the collapse of the NUS service companies, many sections of the left saw the need for discussion on a common stralegy to meer the suuanon. A meenng will now be held in Manchester Polytechnic Student Union this Saturday a 11.00 a.m. to do just that. This meeting First, to work out an alternative position to that of the NUS Executive at the forthcoming national conference. Secondly, to discuss the basis for a united left campaign in as many colleges as possible to meet the rightwing offensive.
At-the planning meeting held last weekend there was widespread support for involving as many activists as possible. With members of the Broad Left now openly calling for the setting up of a radical alliance to replace the Broad Left, which they describe as a bureaucrati election machine, and with many militants now in a position where they cannot commit their student union to support an alternative strategy, the most open and serious discussion is vital.
Among the proposals which will be debated will be the nomination of united left candidates to stand in the event of calls for resignations being successful, and for the conference to arrange a meeting of left
RED WEEKLY 2 ONLY WEEKS after the Labour Party conference voted against British collaboration with South Africa, the Callaghan Government has again decided to give valuable aid to the white racist regime in Pretoria.
On 19 October the British delegaté at the United Nations Security Council joined France and the United States in casting a triple veto against a resolution which would have imposed a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa. Then, six days later, Marconi Communications Systems Ltd of Chelmsford, a subsidiary of GEC, announced that the Department of Trade had granted the company an export licence for the sale of a multipound tropospheric scatter system to the South African Armaments Board (SAAB).
The British vote at the UN flew in the face of the Composite Resolution THE UPSURGE of the black masses in Zimbabwe and South Africa lays before socialists in Britain a fundamental duty and task, that of building a mass movement of solidarity with the oppressed black people of southern Africa. The Fourth International is pledged to build such a mass campaign throughout the world on a scale not seen since the days of the war in Vietnam.
The tasks of such a campaign in Britain are unree od.
* To isolate the racist regimes of Smith Morning and Vorster by stopping all trade and investment with them.
* To block the moves of the Labour Government and British imperialism to establish neo-colonial states in soutnern Africa.
* To provide material aid to the freedom fighters.
To adopt an internationalist position is not simply to take up international questions, but more imporfantly to challenge the role that your own ruling class is playing in those countries. The first two of these tasks are crucial in that respect.
A campaign has been underway for some time, launched Anti-Apartheid Movement, to end all economic and military collaboration with South Africa.
monon on the same unes was aiso passeu ai this year's Labour Party conference in Blackpool which the Labour Government 44 adopted almost unanimously by the Labour Party conference on 30 September, which demanded "British government support for a mandatory United Nations arms embargo' (as opposed to the present voluntary embargo).
Composite Resolution 44, which urged 'an end to all forms of military collaboration with South Africa', had been prompted by disclosures earlier this year that millions of pounds of military hardware (especially so-called 'dual purpose' equipment which can serve both civilian and military ends) had been legally exported to South Africa despite the Government's stated commitment to an arms ban.
The disclosures had revealed a wide range of loopholes in Labour's 'embargo', most notably a clause in the 1970 Export (Control) Order which permits the export of several dozen nomic and military goods.
The second task of solidarity raises larger problems, because it entails an understanding of the role that the Labour Government and the African front line states are playing in endeavouring to remove Smith while at the same time preserving the economic interests of imperialism.
ILLUSIONS The AAM, the major solidarity group in britain, ten prey to some musions when the Geneva conference was announced. In its press statement, entitled The future Zimbabwe', its general approach was to fall in behind the front line states. Hence it welcomes the Geneva conterence ana ranea to call for the dissolution of the Rhodesian army and police, but rather demanded that 'the armed forces must be loyal to the Zimbabwean people.
Clearly the freedom fighters will have to make compromises, as the National Liberation Front did in Vietnam, but that does solidarity movement in Britain must have as its aim the removal of all British interests Irom soulnern Africa immediately, and majority rule now. A firm stand taken in the heartland of the imperialists can considerably aid the freedom fighters.
However, these errors were corrected in a motion on Zimbabwe passed at the Annual General Meeting of the AAM in late October, proposed by Greenwich A group ATKINSON categories of militarily useful equipment without even the formality of an export licence. Among these had been *equipment employing tropospheric, ionospheric or meteoric scatter phenomena'. This was the loophole originally used by Marconi when it signed a contract in November 1975 to sell the SAAB a tropospheric scatter system.
The outery sparked off by leaks of Marconi's contract eventually forced the Government to amend the Export (Control) Order so as to require Marconi to apply for a licence. 'After careful consideration', the foreign secretary, Tony Crosland, said on 29 April, the Government have decided to bring tropospheric scatter communications equipment under general export licensing control.
Accordingly, Marconi applied for a licence on 8 June; and on 25 October, the company announced that its application had been successful. So much for the Government's decision *bring tropospheric scatter communications equipment general export licensing control'!
SECURE Tropospheric scatter systems are used by all major military powers for medium- and long-term military communications, because they offer secure and reliable links without vulnerable relay stations. A small number of large, easily defensible sites can cover entire country whole Europe, for example, is covered by the NATO 'Ace High' tropospheric scatter system, which is linked in with the •American Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS).
Particular anxiety had been aroused by Marconi's November 1975 contract since part of the equipment to be sold to the SAAB was to be installed in Namibia, where (according to UN ANT-APART GROUE of 1977, and will no doubt support the call made by the Organistion of African Unity for international action on 16 June, the first anniversary of the Soweto events.
Red Weekly would urge all its supporters to back the activities of the AAM, because it offers the possibility to build a mass movement of solidarity in the British working class. that nope not mentw support all aspects of the political positions of the AAM. Differences exist over the role of the front ine states and te Labour Government; however, that can be taken up within the movement.
Sults the burning task is to build movement that can isolate Smith and vorster and stop brush trade and arms arriving there, and on that point a basis for A LANCE-CORPORAL in the Rhodesian army, killed in action three weeks ago, thought that he was John Wayne Matthew Charles Lamb, had been declared criminally insane in his home town of Windsor, Ontario in 1967 and committed to a institution following deaths of two people. This apparently did not affect the decision ot the Rhodesian army when he applied to join two years ago. Governmen spokesman said that 'no adverse indication arose his medical examination'.
But Lance-Corporal Lamb was not only Smith regime's remnast Commissioner for Namibia Sean MacBride) South Africa now has over 50,000 troops involved in counterinsurgency operations against freedom fighters of the South-West African People's Organisation (SWAPO).
COVER In a bid to cover itself against public Marconi informed the questioning, Department of Trade on 21 July that none of the equipment would be located in Namibia. 'The South African Armaments Board', Marconi claimed, has decided to redeploy all - ANTI-API AAM within the labour movement nor offers itself as a democratic alternative we should note. for example. the self appointment of officials with which members or supporters of the SAS were confronted. Its separate existence is therefore both sectarian and only serves to weaken the forces active in building a solidarity movement. Red Weekly urges the SASC and its supporters to unite with the AAM to build a mass campaign of solidarity with the oppressed black masses of southern Africa.
Today the centre of world revolution has moved from Vietnam to Spain and southern Africa. The solidarity movement m United States and Europe which got the US troops out played a crucial part in the victory in Vietnam. A similar movement is contle ronuired in Rritain to get -British emulation of John Wayne's treatment of the American Indian population that the Rhodesian army launched its in Mozambique #doables weeks ago. Certainly a report from the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, published recently, indicates that murder and torture by the armed forces is a regular occurrence.
In sharp contrast to the white supremacist propaganda peddled by the British television news, this report makes it clear that the battle for the mind and heart of the man in the midale is erectively lost. in ome words, the bulk of the population is being drawn towards the struggle of the ZIPA guerillas Although the report is clearly hos the to tne armed struggle Zimbabwean people, it scrupulously SH the equipment covered by this expor licence application to provide services within the Republic (of South Africa). This apparently gave the Labour Gov ernment the political cover it needed to give its go-ahead to the deal.
But no evidence has been provided that the basic purpose of the system has been changed. Last May Marcon stated that if they did not receive a British export licence, "they. could arrange for the equipment to be manufactured in South Africa unde licence' (the Government, despite its arms "embargo, has never controllec the export of licences. This suggest that equipment destined for Namibia may now be built under Marcon licence inside South Africa.
In any case, Marconi's tropospheric scatter equipment could, whether any of it is located in Namibia or not, play an important part in the expansion of South Africa's overall military appa ratus and could link in with othe equipment installed in Namibia PARTY Once again the Labour Governmen has violated party conference deci sions, and under cover of moralistic condemnations of apartheid has al lowed the export of valuable military equipment to the South African rac
rica of the film. Their demands centre on:
* NO MORE EDUCATION CUTS * AN END TO THE QUOTA SYSTEM * A FREEZE ON FEES RED WEEKLY 2 December 1976 Poly, led by overseas students, voted to occupy the administration centre of the Poly. Since then two more branches have joined in.
* A HARDSHIP FUND FOR OVERSEAS STUDENTS Pal Luthra, the chairperson of the Enfield Overseas Students Group, says that the overseas students took the lead because they had become disillusioned with the approach of the NUS. They realised that they could not wait until the NUS or the labour movement decided to take action. They had to initiate the struggle Pal emphasises that the struggle must be carried beyond the immediate problems of students at Middlesex Poly. It must take up. for example, the 1971 Immigration Act, which is racist and
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INSIDE THE COMPANY