Socialist Action No. 51, 30 March 1984
The scan: 051-mar-30-1984-SA-UK.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
ALL OUT FOR VICTORY!
THIS week has begun to reveal the lies of MacGregor and the National Coal Board.
After three weeks of struggle the miners' strike is already taking its toll on coal stocks.
• Domestic suppliers admit they run out of coal in the next few days.
• British steel at Scunthorpe has cut production by a nal que to coke shortages and pickets are moving Oul to other steel
• Many foundries may run out this week, others now openly admit stocks cannot more than three weeks.
• At docks up and down the country miners have succeeded in preventing imported coal being unloaded.
• British Rail admit that only 10 of the 'merrygo-round' trains linking pits and power CHIONS have been running.
So much for MacGregor's lie that coal stocks could sustain a pro-
No. 51 longed strike.
And the hope that divisions within the would end the dispute has also foundered.
The action
CONI against Yorkshire was dropped in the hope that the "moderate' areas would deal with the situation themselves. Instead, after a week of picketing, the decisions not to go on strike have been reversed in every area except Nottingham and South Derby.
The tide is running with the NUM. For the strike to bite as rapidly as possible the urgent need now is for the maximum solidarity from other unions.
The Nuk nas done a superb job in many areas in stopping the movement
rai. Now the pressure on movement of coal by every means should be stepped up. The docks must be tied down, the picketing of power stations extended still further he miners are winning Ine ballie so tar, out tne are still a very long way from victory. The suc-
30 March 1984 30р
SOCiAlist
ACTiON
cesses of the last week provide a firm basis for the future, but major obstacles still remain to be overtone
The miners have so far paralysed the Tories anti-union laws. But these laws are too important for the
strategy them to be continually flouted. The Times, the Mail, and other papers, are urging a return to court action quite possibly against unions taking solidarity action as well as against the NUM.
The government is also relying on the TUC. It was the role of Len Murray that handed cadie snan his victory in Warrington.
So tar the luc has kept totally silent on the dispute. Given its role over the NGA some might think that no bad thing. But in reality disgrace movement.
The NUM is not going to win this dispute by itsell
especially
themselves in court. NUM has to step up the
ROUND
ONE
TO
THE
MINERS
pressure on the TUC to come out openly in supof the dispute. The OUTL TUC must endorse the solidarity being taken by other unions and make it clear that it will call general strike action against any attempts to use the courts against unions involved in the
The entire course of the trade unions is going to have to be turned round
the law page 7 Sarah Tisdall now, in this dispute, waiting for the TUC Congress in September.
As the strike begins to bite the TUC and trade union movement must: • Бина solidarity with the miners • Name the day for solidarity action with the NUM
to use the courts against the unions will be met with general strike action.
INSIDE
• Miners' strike countrywide pages 2 and 3 • Defend Greenham from eviction page 5 • JOAN MAYNARD on the miners' strike and • WALTER CAIRNS opens a debate on the
socialist approach to the EEC page 8 • DAVID BLUNKETT on the attack on local
government page 10 Release Sarah Tisdall
Whitehall
majority that oppose them protested! the document being secret in the first place
wanted secret
ment must act.
THE JUDGE sentencing Sarah Tisdall to six months in jail gave three reasons for his harshness.
First, her action had undermined confidentialiHeseltine. Second, it undermined our allies con- words, it upset fidence in our security - that means it upset the USA. Finally, it increased the likelihood of a clash between anti-missile demonstrators and the police. The Cruise arrival date had to be secret in case the
None of them really very acceptable reasons for
Sarah Tisdall is an unlikely hero of the peace movement - a career civil servant, and not opposed to nuclear missiles. But hero she is, because she had the courage to make public what Heseltine
Greenham women at her trial gave flowers to 'Sister Sarah'. But the most meaningful gift is for the peace movement to put massive energies into the campaign for her release. Press statements are not enough, protest actions should be organised up and down the country. CND and the labour move
Inside: Why the Guardian copped out. p 6 & 7.
Page 2 scan of this page
'ROUND One to the miners' has to be the assesment of the first three weeks of this struggle. All the Lancashire pits are closed, and the pressure is increasing in the Nottingham and South Derby areas.
The efforts of the Tories and the NCB to break the strike by exploiting divisions in the NUM have failed, through the determination of the miners from Yorkshire, South Wales, Kent and Scotland.
But the Tory government and NCB aren't the only problems facing the
The right-wing in the TUC are likely to fall behind the bosses press campaign ballot. The left must bury this campaign.
By Paul Parry
Mick McGahey explained clearly, all those calling for national ballot today are in reality calling for an end to the dispute.
'Labour must
support any
methods the NUM
is forced to use'
By Tyrone O'Sullivan (secretary Rhondda,
Aberdare and Merthyr joint lodges of the
NUM.)
THE law is being used to turn Nottingham
into a police state because they are out to
destroy first the miners then the other trade
unions. If they succeed it will be the end of
the Labour Party and any hopes of socialism.
ed to establish a moderate area in Nottingham.
They have been given extra wages, bigger houses
and the area has had massive investment. Notts it
the teacher's pet in the classroom.
Now pressure from the Nottingham
movement is needed to change the situation. We
have got to get other people like nurses out on the
Nottingham picket lines.
of help.
miners' children and holding back on council rents
for strikers. Community
better than in '72 and '74.
I could say — Twelve months won't be long, if we
win in the end!
NOTTINGHAM
THE barrage in the press about the police sealing off Nottinghamshire didn't stop thousands of pickets getting in.
At one village,
Welbeck, the police sealed
2OUD pickets
emerged at the pithead,
trost in their hair, after
spending the night in Sher-
wood Forest.
Welbeck miners from
one face walked out 1n
protest. At a nearby pit the
union official led his men
out after being stopped by
police four times on the
way to work.
Mark, one of the
Welbeck miners suppor-
ting the action, explane
what he'd seen: "The
TO SHIC were
marched from the pit
down to the river and into
the swamp. wen one
them tried to get out he
was arrested.
During the week were circulating
as to whether the area ex-
ecutive was advising Not-
tingham miners to respect
picket lines. On Thursday
two-thirds of Blid-
2
Miners'
Strike
The campaign for a national ballot is designed to play on the divisions between high and low pay areas, secure and threatenWorkers' pits. democracy is not simply a question of the right vole, but tne nignt to torm pickets, the right to argue will colleagues who still
duct and heiggle The
struggle. The miners in the threatened pits were correct to strike and correct to ask then colleagues support them.
No government would Since 1974 successive governments have work-
labour
The local councils in Wales have given us lots They are providing free school meals for
support has been even
Somebody asked me, will it be a long strike and
worth colliery refused to cross the picket lines.
Increasingly there are signs the Nottingham pits lnal tne runng or lnel executive may be challengand the picketing having an impact. The Coal Board's daily nouncements that all Nottingham pits are working normally is truth. 'Miners' wives from near Blidworth colliery last week brought food and drink to the Yorkshire pickets showing some of the local people do support the strike.
Women Support the Miners Benefit
Narrowboat Inn Canal St, Nottingham
Fri 30 March Spr Late bar Adm: £1.50/75p
Organised by Vottingham and Carltor Labour Party Women's Section
Socialist Action 30 March 1984
all a general election i he middle of a war. It's hypocrisy for the Tories to demand the NUM should hold a ballot in the middle of ItS most important struggle since 1926
he miners Nottingham by working. are falling into the trap laid by the NCB and the Tories. If the NUM is defeated they will suffer 100. The strikers are acting in the interests of all miners and the working class.
In the next days miners will be increasingly turning
movement of coal to the
stations. The first victory has already come
Scunthorpe where British Steel production is down by a half. And coal stocks at power stations al c much lower than government claims.
To prevent this and to move towards victory, the miners need the biggest DOSSIDIC Callbaleil solidarity.
This means demanding the TUC names the day for national support action. It measlesus support committees likeManchester and other areas have done. It means meeting any attempt to use the law, with the united action of the entire move ment.
The miners are acting in the interests of the entire working class. They deserve the support or unc entire movement.
Pulling
RAILWAY workers have been at the forefront in extending solidarity KNAPP, explained the importance of this solidarity at a London meeting last week.
& What we seeing
around the miners is part of the scenario plann-
for every public dustrv. We've already seer similar policies pursued in
and the health ral. steel service. The miners are in Lilc but their fight is for us all.
We saw legislation first
play with the NGA. It was disgrace
disaster that
TUC did not make a stand against unionist in their right mind WOWU lave retused the NGA their support.
BRISTOL
SOUTH Wales miners ar rived Avonmouth Docks last week to prevent imported coal from South Africa being unloaded.
The pickets were withdrawn pending discus-
DERBYSHIRE
THE North Derbyshire NUM Council decided to reverse the narrow ballot vote against the strike. Dave Crowther, a council member from Warsop Main pit, explained the change around:
Derbyshire. It was clear that only the brook colliery, voting 70 per cent against, had tippeo une scale. But the towards the strike and most other pits were determined to come out.
by 12 to 2 to recommend strike action throughout the area. After that we convened mass meetings in all the large pits to get active agreement to this decision.
hall, and after a long discussion we finally convineed a narrow majority to support the strike. We're
then we'll be on the road.'
bite.
the TUC's teeth
miners. JIMMY
General Secretary of the Railway Union,
They will use the same legislation against the miners. mane think thes get away with it. The pledge l make from union to the miners is thai we will do all we can to support them if they face that situation.
Last September the TUC set out on the course of the 'new realism role for the TUC in the 80s But the GCHQ already began to pull the teeth of this new realism If anything good can be said to have come from the GCHQ disaster was
sions with the dockers, but they were back on Monday.
Bristol West Labour Party has passed a resoluof support striking miners and is of Soing food aled shelteners South miners picketting the docks. "The ballot was never seen as binding on North
big Shir-
tide has been turning
'After a thorough discussion the council voted
'At Shirbrook we had over 800 miners in the
spending the next two days firming up our support
With North Derbyshire solid almost every pit in the area sent large delegations down south and by Thursday morning the pickets had begun to
showing that it's not new
we need. but the good old realism • of 1972 and 1974. That is the only language the government understands.
absolutely determined to defend the miners. If coal imports are brought in to break the strike the transport unions have made a firm commitment not to move it. If that's against the law, then SO be it They'll have to take on the NUR and take us to court.
Half of Nottingham's coal is stopping at Sheffield as the railworkers and
niners make sure it goe
1o further. We've said ou members won t cross picket lines and picket lines are turning up in the
SOUTH WALES
THE Welsh National Bus Company have been forced to back down after refusing to accept NUM bookings for travel to omer coameds
When they heard this. bus workers in the Rhondda brought services to a half. A mass meeting of drivers, local councillors and the NUM protested the decision, made under police pressure.
Dai Jones, TGWU
secretary on the Swansea buses, explained the allull.
'We want the leadership of the Labour Party and the TUC to get the movement mobilised Te To should mame of the miners. ine the day now for a day of
It the law has to be broken for the working class to get through - then that's how it has to be.
Welsh nurses will also
be joining the picket line at Port Talbot Steel, against the unloading of
Over 5,000 miners mourned their
dead comrade David Gareth Jones
strangest places. The Chair of the Rail Board has already declared those pickets illegal - he's now judge and jury. Members refusing to cross will be sent home. hat's proot oi the determination to crush the miners But our members will ignore these threats. If the Board sends anyone nome wt might be on strike ourselves to defend them.
I'm not one of the new realists, I'm an old realist The new realists say, stay
the Labour Party OUT and all that. But we need the maximum unity of all wings of the labour movement against this government. Anything is the wrong road to follow.
imported coal. NUPE has put out this call and is asking members in
Secretary.
of the national leadership.
easily as it did the NGA.
screaming into supporting the miners.
Brendan Dawson (Allerton Bywater colliery in Yorkshire picketting in Lancashire.)
Monday when Rovers. Incy
back and then came another way.
picket them out.
still working
to bring the whole area out after all.
work.'
KEN CAPSTICK, Yorkshire Area Council of the NUM, explained his view of the dispute to Manchester Socialist Action supporters. •The Coal Board have been provoking this situation for a long time, but think they have overstepped themselves.
But even the Tories able to take on the NUM, so that's why we are seeking the support of the whole abour move ment.
The Tory press makes a lot of tuss about a ballot We've had three ballots in
years, and each one pro duced a only 10. fight. As far as Yorkshire is concerned we ve nad a mandate for a long time The time has passed for the niceties of a national ballot. We've gone beyond that point now there's no room for faint nears IOOKIg Il a way
coalfields to call specia branch meetings to decide on support action.
Bernard Reagan, Stockport AUEW District
IN every town, village and community we should establish support committees for the miners. This is particularly important because of the betrayals
I don't think the TUC can sell out the NUM as
The TUC will have to be dragged kicking and 'WE were coming over the M62 in Lancashire las!
we were stopped by police Rang threatened us with all if we didn' return to Yorkshire with them as escort. We turned
After the Lancashire ballot we came across to
After a few days of effective picketting Agecroft was the only pit in Lancashire
On Thursday the area NUM met and decided
meeting at Agecroft decided to ignore the instruction, so there's still work to be done. But support has built up during the week and nowhere else will
Page 3 scan of this page
Spread the strike! Support the miners!
Around the country
Photo: NEWSLINE
O'' There's only one condition in which we would
La national ballot:
come clean about how
thev close, which ones, and who will lose their jobs.
To vote without knowledge would De
There are some niers to our victory.
TUC has abandoned its eight point nian They hath laws.
They made aware mal al ine ena or the day they are servants of the working class and be
groundswell
SUDOUIL Or pay the consequences in being swept aside.
There's lots of tactical questions, and we™ must use all tactics that are necessary. But if we can get the mass support need then it will be the
and not who have to worry about y Lacucs.
MANCHESTER
YORKSHIRE miners picketing Lancashire pits started out the week rather down in the dumps. Ihere was immense hostilitv picket, where 80 per cent had voted against strike.
meetings in Manchester their spirits had lifted. Especially once the Lancashire NUM decided to reverse its decision and support the strike.
ship money. Lancashire NUR District instructed all branches not to move coal from pits that were being picketed. mailing all their branches.
solidarity rally, and many CLPs supported it after hearing miners
In Stockport a support committee launched by the Trades Council, the LPYS, the Stockport Six NGA members. secretary of the Stockport factory, Mirlees, 100 workers came to a factory gate meeting, and most major engineering factories in the area are organising collections.
JUb
Photo: NEWSLINE
Agecroft
week touring labour movement
Within a few days they had raised £500 hard-
The FBU and the AUEW were
The District Labour Party agreed to organise a
speak at their meetings. A support
has been
and supported by ALEH District. At
SHEFFIELD
ENGINEERING workers in the Sheffield area showed their support Tor ine miners at packed lunchtime meeting last week. LeonCed no, 8 called chair of the Confed no for the TUC General Council into council of war' Peter Heathfield, NUM national secretary, spoke out azallst lause canner national ballot, and explained that freedom and
had always ty the struggle
NUM tuous oi ihe
Police roadblocks surround Ollerton colliery it 'Won't abide by laws that are laid down to cripple the working class.
Silverwood,
acal Rotherham is one of the main centres for organising the pickets into Nottingham. South Wales and Yorkshire miners organise together for picket duty. Robbie Hughes from Cym colliery in Wales talked about violence picket line. 'If the cops
eep out of the way oui pickets can be successfu without using an! violence. Miner respect the picke
Miners'
wives
march:
don't
stand
aside
LAST SATURDAY 200 miners' wive. marched through Coalville Leicestershire. They came from Kent and they wanted to talk to Leicester miners' wives about whi they should encourage their husbands to join the strike.
A leaflet they put out explained their view. 'We are proud alongside men' said. 'We are engaged in the most important struggle of our lives, for your future, our future and our families' future. Alu I0l the continued well-being or me mining industry and our communities. Don't stand aside.
In Yorkshire wives have organised support groups and are setting up welfare centres to help other families involved in the dispute claim social security.
The depth of feeling involved in this dispute is in-
more than anything by this high involvement of the strikers' wIVes
with the miners
LEICESTER
SOLIDARITY in the area got off _to a good start when the trades council organised a meeting and donated resolution was also adopted for circulation to other labour movement Dones emo Sin! support committee of al
movement bodies, and student that support the miners.
= the
Nottingham is
'bandit country'
THIS WEEK we are going to try and tie up the South Midlands and Staffordshire coalfields, to isolate Nottingham.
Dai Davies (South Wales NUM)
It's very difficult to get to Nottingham from South Wales the police presence there unbelievable. Nottinghan
'bandit like South to slip into the county and then when we get there we lan Ferguson (chair Doncaster area panel)
THE rumour is they are paying pickets £28 a day. If that were true no one would ever go back to work.
It's management not us that are doing the intimidating. Ar Ollerten. Einers were told ihe
B30I = chanied 'festered sore'.
photo: GM COOKSON
Dai Davies
are herded to one side of
the road behind the police.
They won't even let u
talk to our colleagues.
you step out of line you are
arrested. Nottinghamshire
is like an armed camp.
support for ue strike
here in South Wales has
been outstandlg
NUR ASLEF and
TGWU have stopped all
movement of coal.
A ballot is a non starter
for us. We have had to0
already. After the
last failed we lost five pits.
Either we fight now or it's
the end of the pits.
EAST
LONDON
A solidarity campaign has beer East London. The Kent Area NUM has allocated two miners to live in East London to build solidarity for
duration of the dispute.
Several coachloads of supporters will be going to the Kent coalfields to show soldiarity on 14 April Tickets for TOTS visi
avn, Hackney North TU
ton, Hackney North Liason Officer, , 73 Albion Rd, London N16
Socialist Action Foruma
Victors to dae Miners
Sanday 1 April 8pa
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 3
Page 4 scan of this page
A chance missed
4 Socialist Action
SoCialist
ACTiON
Kinnock flops
on the EEC
FEW events so illuminate the forces involved in British over Britain's EEC. budget refund
In the miners' strike you see only the coarse grain of positions.
Liberals, SDP wing of the Labour Party - can all unite to condemn the miners. Over the EEC the fine detail of political currents shows up clearly.
Take first the Tory wets. The revolt of this
regularly editorials of the Observer and the Guardian -not to mention in the columns of Marxism Today.
Entire strategies of the TUC and Neil Kinnock are based on waiting for Edward Heath to revolt against Margaret Pym to rebel against Patrick Jenkin.
State
Needless to say these 'crucial' and long predicted revolts never take place. The 'wets' vote against the government only when they Know Its anyway.
But on the EEC there was a real 'revolt'. Heath and Pym were right into the breach announcing that under no circumstances whatever should Britain's contribution to the EEC budget be witheld and they would never support such a measure.
The SDP and the Liberals were equally rapid. Iv into the breach. Jenkins said he would have accepted what was on offer from Brussels. Owen claimed Thatcher was wrecking the EEC David Steel urged that Edward Heath should be a special emissary to sort out the problem.
The real character of the Tory wets and the Alliance — the 'EEC Party' within British politics
could not have been more clearly seen. The Alliance and the wets are not going to rebel against Thatcher on anything in the interests of the British working class. But they are prepared to put up a staunch defence of capitalism's in-
And where was Labour in this mess? A MORI against membership of the EEC. The same week EEC work for us.' realism is to change the Labour Party's position on the EEC just at the moment it was in one of its biggest crises and the majority of the population were against membership. That's realism!
We had the disgraceful spectacle of Powell in Labour of having abandoned its election pledge to take Britain out of the Market. Meanwhile Kin-
that Thatcher did.
Labour has got to get its policy right on the
are the pro-EEC party. Thatcher likes to engage in a little Tory Gaullism to get the maximum con-
under its new Eurosocialist line runs the risk of being outbid in the political popularity stakes by
the thieves' kitchen of the EEC altogether.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre- last week or pecemoci sent Socialist Action's views. editorials.
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" 30 March 1984 politics like last weeks row
The Tories, - not to mention the right or urging Francis measures are going to be passed
Cent as Weekly ran a centre spread 'Making the
Part of Neil Kinnock's new
accusill: _ and behind her the figure of Powell.
These are expressed in
sales
CIVIL-AND-PUBLIC
SERVAN
LIVERPOOL
DH
ISID
BLOC must build a broad movement DESPITE THE ENORMOUS trial of strength between the government — backed up by 20,000 police
and the NUM, the TUC has sidelines. This abstention takes miners are in the forefront of the struggle to deteat the Tebbit/King laws, thus rendering a service to all the trade union movement, against pit closures are showing unemployment is not inevitable and can be fought.
unemployment has steadily mounted and government attacks on working peoples' living standards increased, so the TUC retreated before Thatcher's onslaught.
It has stood by while unemployment has driven its artillated membership from an all-time peak 12, 172, 508 in 1979 down
under 1983.
By Bob Pennington
For years TUC relied on a policy carriec out through a myriad of bureauc alic Colleco of collaboration with government. In a period of high unemployment Coll cessions could be gained
the use of the lobby and particularly when Labour was in government, personal contact ministerial level.
This stategy now lies in
and influence has collaps-
ed. rrom 1979 the worsening economic situation has
REGI
CHES
TUC abstains
stayed on the place when the
and by their stand
The stance of the TUC comes as no surprise. As
left lice a oration mex
class collaboraton - ex-
cept if it is wholly on the
government's terms.
government which
relies monetarist
policies nas lo lake
trade unions and that is ex-
actly what the Tories have
been doing since 1979
Before the Tories took
office in 1979 they
prepared a plan for dealing
with the unions which was
in a report bv
Norman Ridley the present
Minister of Transport.
This was a plan of ac-
tion for dealing with and
breaking the power of the
government carried
with determination
and enthusiasm since the
day majority.
And it is a plan that the
TUC have failed to resist.
every single issue
and whenever there has
been a showdown the TUC
THE BROAD LEFT Organising. Sheffield attracted almost 2000 delegates from all parts of Britain and every major union. This makes it a rival in size to the Liason Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions when the latter was at its height.
It was, however, far from its equal in influence The LCDTU could, and did, launch calls for action which it could be confident of achieving. BLOC was in no such position. This reflects the weakening of the rank and file eadership of the labour movement past ten years. Despite this, the
was outstanding success for the organisers. The last conference JUst ove a ycal
drew only 100 plus delegates.
By Pat Hickey
BLOC's ability build so large a conference
she existence of a rage
La large minority of activists at the base of the unions whe understand the need organise the left in order to fight the Tories. Secondly,
decisive SHOWS weakening of the political influence of the Communist Party in the trade unions, and their replace. ment by new political forces based on the left in the labour Parti
facts gave BLOC
one hand, organise on a broad that minorit! united front basis to take on the Tories and the right wing in the unions.
And on the other to break with the CP policy
subservience the trade union bureaucracy. has either capitulated to the government or even
worse sold out the workers
who have taken the
When ASLEF opposed flexible rostering the TUC stabbed the railworkers in
the back by refusing sup port. In 1982 the health
workers went into dispute
with the government
Throughout this dispute
workers like miners,
postal workers COCKCIS
print workers and others
downed tools in solidarity
with the health workers.
People saw the neec
both to defend the NHS and also une chance to li
flict a blow against the
government's attacks
the union. But the TUC restricted solidarity to a one-day Dayor Action
and then toned it down to
so-called days of regional action.
The great wave of op
position to Thatcher ebb-
The health DaCK
workers were forced to accept the government's pay
award and the way was
opened for even bigger at-
lacks on lne neain service
In the NGA dispute it Murray's
Wal BOSSIeNCE
that the Tory laws should
be observed that won the
day for Thatcher. Again
was the failure of the TUC
to fight for strike action at
GCHQ backed by solidari-
Committee in
From this point of view BLOC failed
The platform, organised by Militant, kept careful COLLO the debate. There were eight platform speakers and on İy 24 from the floor. Alternative resolutions were not discussed, or put to conference. There was plenty of anti-Tory rhetoric and innumerable denuncia-
of the TUC right LIONS wing. But there was little about organising campaigns that could unite the
eft and provide a way forward for building a broad based opposition the unlols.
The resolution on the miners, for example, , call-
labour and trade union movelucill to solidarity but nothing about how this could be done vagueness of the resolu-
rivalled the LCDTU in the days of its decline. The second part called for industrial action necessary' he event o1
campaign to force the TUC to name the day tor national action in support of the miners would have given the delegates something practical organise around.
The declaration put to comerenct was equally vague. While denouncing the Tories and the TUČ right it set out its objective as campaigning to.commit the 1984 Congress
Dockers support is needed by miners
action from other unions that weakened the poșition of the civil service
unions and opened the
.to witchunt in
way
Whitehall.
The TUC has failed on all these matters because 11
sees its role as a mediator between the working class and the government.
members are there to be negotiated for in commit-
tee and the boardroom.
bu rev dre not a loice lu
brought into action
When policy fails
because the government is
no longer prepared to pla
by the old rules the TU( left high and dry.
It can either change
course or it can do little
but make ineffectual pro sultation. For Murray and
company it has to
latter course. This
why stays on the
sidelines in the miners'
strike. In fact Murray and
his circle are utterly oppos
ed to the 'unlawful'
picketing but are not keen
to come out and say this.
In the Unions
to: (1) Co-ordinate the fight back of the unions against
anti-union laws, so that no union cooperates with any section of those laws and that no funds are drained one penny further by fines imposed under these laws. (2) Call a 24-hour general strike as the first step in solidarity action the event of the seizure of union funds or the arrest or fining of any individual trade : unions.
While unexceptional in itself, gives no campaigning focus, and little basis for organising the left in the next few months. Present aLlacks the political funds and the closed shop. were ignored
The opportunity join with forces in the Labour Party to launch a massive campaign on this issue was missed. BLOC should have joined with the LCC to build such a campaign in town ane ever work place it the country This would
have put BLOC at the cer tre of a struggle to unite the broadest of forces in the novellicil Similarly, the question of district or regional BLOC was left deliberately
The dominant vazuc force in BLOC, the Mili-
tant tendency, has learnt little as the LCDEN periences
the Rank and File Organising Committee.
They are determined to retain BLOC under the contro of one tendency, rather than building it as a genuine united front. . And that Cal 1UU be
forward for the labour movement as whole
The reaction therefore of the NUM in telling the
TUC they are not "redesting da me vent r
assistance from the TUC
understandable. A friendly pat on the back
from the TUC right-wing
akin TOOLORI
manager getting a vote of
from their connuence
chairperson.
But the TUC should hook. The Nue has every allowed off the
ight to demand its su
ort and in fact the NU
needs support
ASLEF, NUM,
TUC. The NUM should
physical and
INSISI
financial support from the
TUC
The NUM should
therefore approach the
TUC for this. Equally the
leaders of the left unions
on the TUC must respond
to their request. If Murray
and company refuse
as is likely hense let
as is likely then the
must act independently
and give full support to the miners.
Page 5 scan of this page
News
visit will get world-wide publicity.
the war in El Salvador,
sible for Cruise, Trident, escalation of the arms race.
To coincide with his visit should gigantic turnout of
labour and anti-imperialist movements.
Only a strong national call
CND guarantee such a demonstration.
So we have only demonstration called London Region CND which is 'backed' by National CND. But this will not mobilise the 400,000
the demonstration last October.
It is difficult to understand the reason for NaNEWBURY COUNCIL AND the Ministry
the Greenham women. Despite the dismantling of the camp at the blue gate the other three camps are still going strong. and women are sleeping out in Gortex sleeping bags.
But the battle for Greenham camps right to exist continues.
Evictions continue and on 22 March Newbury counci is once again altempting to get the women cleared 'their' land once and for all. Spirits are high among the women.
On 8 March Labour Women MP's visited Greenham and women arrived spontaneously from all over the country to express their solidarity with the camp.
In London 500 peace
demonstrated,
CND must...
Mobilise
against
Reagan!
AT THE beginning of June, US President and war criminal Ronald Reagan is coming to Britain for the economic summit of major capitalist powers. The visit of the arms race supremo should be a major focus and opportunity for the peace movement. A massive demonstration to coincide with Reagan's
Ronald Reagan is not just the leader prosecuting
attacking Nicaragua and backing South Africa. His administration is respon-
Pershing and the huge
tional CND's reluctance to make Keagan's visit the focus for national mobilisation. Perhaps it is a refusal to acknowledge that the butchers of EI Salvador and Vietnam are the prime culprits in the new arms race die a rec tance to get tarred with an
such c "tion is completely Every stage of the new arms race has been orchestrated and Concier EDe tagon and White House.
London CND has now written to CND National Council calling for an all-
Greenham: still going strong
of Defence have not succeeded in their attempts to evict
The benders (tents) are still in use
Women's Peace
chaining themselves to the railing, outside a promotion conference Marketing Societv of America. tighteen women were arrested on charges of obstruction and criminal Hallase Paint was thrown on the ground as names delegates and the cry of warmongers penetrated the length of Picadilly. action has been forthcoming from various unions involved.
national demonstra. tion on 9 June. It has done
of the very
because favourable response from CND groups around the country at the grassroots level tor the idea or a na tional demonstration. By Kevin Jones (CND London Region council
- personal capacity)
London Region CND states in its letter that only lailulla. CND the resources and ability to br-
demonstration against the warmonger-in-chief
The London Region meeting three weeks ago passed une following resolution: 'In view of the
tional demonstration on 9 JULIC WC call National CND to build this event as a national demonstration in conjunction with London CND'
The slogans which are being put forward by London Region are the followThe National Bakers' Union has refused to deliver bread to the base and UCATT has offered to supply the women with wood for their fires.
By Valerie Coultas and Kay Bastin
The attacked with mechanical excavators. After a visit to the workers of the firm which hired them Ivewour Council, by Bristol CND. these
not • Deen used again at Greenham.
In Manchester demonstration against the evictions place which there were 13 arrests. There have also been
be?
ing: ror a nuclear-free Europe; no Cruise, no Pershing, no Trident; US bases out.
The visit of Reagan is not just an issue for those whose primary political JOCUS opposition American policy the third world - it is an issue for the peace movement as a whole. The llass ocalt movement in Europe owes
very existence to the decisions or ine united States government and mintary to but Cruise and Pershing missiles into Europe, thus making our continent the number one target the event of Duced Wa
sunshine'
By Maria Welsh (Manchester Greenham
Support Group)
for a week
still high and they are determined to stay.
bOSSESSOIS.
sunshine' to the bailiffs.
by the next day
will be for the bailiffs to destroy it.
demonstrations in Bradford and Manchester.
However despite the militancy of the Greenham women CND has done little in their defence so far. When une missile laun-
chen and not the base
did not "telephone tree' to start the
Only Southern ALCOL Region CND was alerted.
CND council coming
must take major discussion Greenham and decide how it can encourage women the camp
The continuing role of the United States British nuclear policy is illustrated by the govern ment's banning ot trade unions at GCHQ, in direct I COUSC LU T demand from the Americans, and the 102 US bases in this country.
All CND groups should now write to CND National Goodwin St, London N4 Council
знО demanding tional demonstration, arrive before the next meeting on 8 April. They should nake their own preparations l alisDorl demonstration on 9 June.
"You are my
THE RECENT evictions made me feel that I ought to spend some time at Greenham, so I went down
The pressure of the evictions has made life there harder and I found that the women were physically and mentally tired. But their morale is
When the bailiffs arrived at Violet gate women decided to save their energy for the future and so they deflated the tents and removed their personal
Meanwhile they sang 'You are my
All the bailiffs got away with was food and wood. And that had been replaced three times over
The Greenham camp is there to stay. Visitors are coming to the camp from all over the world, and the more support the camp gets the harder it
organised basis. Internationa Women's Dav for Disarmament on 24 Vidy The luc and the WTUC are committed to supporting Greenham.
The labour movement should turn words into action and demonstrate their support for the women at the camp that day.
The Women's Peace Movement is orcanising a
will you be 'MEN and matters' is the very appropriate name of a column in the Financia
Even women (who presumably column reports don't matter that much it reports from an compromisingly male point of view
this little gem from a report on the election of Krenda Deal to the general secretary. ship of Sogat:
'Male reveals the FT, rivals Sogat,' 'have been taken by surprise that this good looking, smartly-dressed blonde, who tries avoid controversial argument has barnstormed ner way to une leadersap of Sogat in less than a year'!
Ms Dean who was formerly president of the print union Sogat 82, is the first woman to lead a
TUC-affiliated union. Unfortunately, MIS Dean is politically of Bill Keys,
gelleld
Ms Dean is also one of the 'I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps and there's no
other women can't do the same' school. She
quoted in all the papers on the day after her elec. tion as saying 'I have never sought any favours or specia consideration because of sex and I do not intend to start now. and 'i hope I have been
person capable of doin
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 5
Oct.220
Where
will you be?
MALE
ORDER
Encouraging women
Brenda Dean Male bureaucrats and the ur movement will be right wing
against positive action. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. One woman general secretary is hardin proportion to the number of women in the unions. do does Ms Jeal thin they're all thick and
then what is the explanation for representation of women in the leadership of unions and the TUC?
Ms Dean hopes that her success 'will encourage other women to forward'. But achon help to relentless personal alla institutionalised discrimination against women, hopes will stay just that.
COMPILED BY Hilar send tributions to I 15 are
send Orde
Page 6 scan of this page
The Guardian of liberty?
SARAH TISDALL'S CASE is a fitting epitaph to the final decline of the radical democratic tradition in British establishment politics. It is also appropriate that the Guardian, self-styled banner bearer of that tradition in British journalism, should bear the responsibility for ner imprisone.
Why did the Guardian give in to the Tory government's obsession secrecy and let a young woman go to jail for doing what she believed to be morally right?
The Guardian explained the reasons last Saturday:
'The Guardian is, and had stated in court was, acwovauci. Only that weeke editorial columns, it has expressed the view that it was not for the NGA to take
into its OWIl because it did not like the law.
'The Guardian advocated
paigning to change laws of which it disapproved, not selective breaking of them. It would have been inconsistent with the Guardian's regularly published material to break the law then. It Fould have weakened authority in the future, and made it very difficult for the Guardian to argue against the selective breaking *hich others found disagreeable'
At least the Guardian When it made the NGA Six hostages to their boss Eddie Shah on the ington pickel line in the name of legali-
they made themselves and Tisdall hostages to the Tory ment's attacks on press freedom -in the name of legality.
The run up to the Sarah Tisdall case proves the hollowness of the Guarsian s lperal outrage over the harshness of her sentence.
• Why weren't we in the dock as well?' moans Guardian editor Peter Preston. But the question wasn't the Guardian in the dock in-
Socialist Action
The Peterloo massacre of 1819. Protestors demanding parliamentary
with law-abiding
its
hands simply
cam-
Sarah Tidall paper's stead? the
stead they honest.
Warr- and democratic convictions!
Sarah govern and even • also born in the Civil was
none or tem exactly legal acts.
to smash the why
30 March 1984
reform were cut down by the cavalry Guardian editors had destroyed the document Sarah Tisdall would never have been convicted. In-
wrung their hands, wept crocodile tears, and handed it over.
So much for the courage of liberal
Liberalism and democracy in Britain did once nave a genuine radical
revolutionary, tradition. It Inelr War, and was reinforced by the French revolution and American war of independence —
But that tradition was buried long ago. It really died in the streets of London in 1848 When the city was occupied
Chartists. Ironically, of Sarah Tisdall goes to jail, finally proving it is dead, as thousands of police oc-
cupy the coalfields to smash the miners.
The origins Manchester Guardian were as the tribune of the radical 'millocracy' the vanguard of industrial capitalism in its 'democracy' against the power of the landowners in the nineteenth century. From 1848 it was obvious what kind of democracy they wanted. Having their own grubby hands on the vote, ensuring that the workers' movement new political power was bent to never threatened Capital's new liberty.
Today the Guardian reflects the same interests and the same hypocrisy
- for freedom, for democracy, as long as it does not conflict with the interest
property. Inside the managers have the right to manage, and companies have inviolable rights to
'JUDGES give decisions on the law and the evidence before them. Ther do so totally impartially.'
No wonder Margaret Thatcher's description of the role of courts was met with derisive jeers from Labour MPs in 1981. ridiculous in 1984 when police are arbitrarily inventing new Kent miners in the Dartford tunnel.
It is astonishing that Labour MPs. and the Guardian newspaper still claim that it is a principle of democrac! that the law must always be obeyed.
Reality shows this everv malor democratic freedom wa won because people were prepared to disobey law freedoms were not the judges but people in the dock.
The struggle of the Suffragettes, the struggle for the working class right to
Gandhi's VULC disobedience to gain independence for nola are lust ne best kawa crampics
But nowhere has the struggle for democratic freedoms been so long and make profits. Police have the right to fight pickets, but pickets don't have the right to fight police.
The only force in this society that
Guardian newspaper, tried to defend the that would defend people like Sarah Tisdall.
Thousands of miners braving police violence on the picket lines have no interest in halting the democratic process at the doors of the Guardian, or in the corridors of Whitehall. movement can and democracy for all. The Guardian aban-
loned that struggle a long time ago
veil Kinnoc uphold the law, where this left the Guardian. Harriet Harman got it right in Labour Weekly saying:
'Sometimes democracy is defended better by a principled objection to the law rather than an adherence.
What about Greenpeace, breaking the law to prove that waste was poisoning our oceans?
What about parents blocking traf fic and illegally obstructing to protest al the death of a child on a dangerous school crossing?
'How stamping out such protests as these?'
And one coula add, now nas le Guardian improved got aiding the Tory government in sending Sarah Tisdall to jail?
One of the revolutionary capitalism his views in the disagree with what you defend to the death your right to say it.
For the Guardian that has become 'We will defend your right to say it ... but if it turns out to be illegal we may factory, turn you over to the police anyway.' Thus has liberalism trod its historial path
Democra
aucals even more
against
is nonsense.
The tounders
civil pened
class even for the law. is the force that
NUA. The force Concern
way they The labour will defend
, who claims to always should take note of
ship of restrained, challenged,
best, workplace door.
For Sellafield nuclea
La single persor i is democracy improved by
democracy dent on livelihoods.
greatest writers in
, Voltaire, put the immortal phrase,
Clerical workers demand the right to for so illegal as that for the elementary right of working people to form trade
While the labour movement and the press talk of trade union rights, and the right to strike, no such right has ever been recognised in law. What has hap-
is simply that Parliament has been periodically forced by working
alllul. intervene and 'decriminalise' certain aspects of trade
The fundamental and basic right to join a trade union can still be denied by any employer who has the forced to do so. Grunwick showed that and so did
Stockport Six The simple democratic liberty that every worker has the right to join a trade union, and that the employer must recognise that union, is still not accepted by British
The explanation for that is simple _ British laws is capitalist law. The owner of property, of capital, has the right to dispose of that property in any
choose unless that specifically limited by law. A worker confronted with capital on the contrary has no rights unless they are specifically granted to her or him by law.
The British system of law can accurately be described as the 'dictator-
capital' dictatorship but never fundamentally by law. Democracy something which very firmly, and al
stops at the factory gates or the
example the Tories aotale about the NUM not having a ballot on a strike, but the right of MacGregor to cut 20,000 jobs without the miners having any right to vote on their jobs is
In a compan person board of directo - sometimes
› can decide to sack ten, twenty, thousand people who are totally depen-
those for their The Thela shrines title more the
owners capital. democracy of those who work.
In fact, it is necessarily built into the foundations of capitalist society that what should exist is not democracy but the limitation and denial of democracy. For democracy and private ownership of capital are totally incompatible
If the private ownership and control of capital are to be maintained then the
Page 7 scan of this page
cy vs. the law
JOIN
THE
NUC
a union at the turn of the century most people can be permitted to vote for are candidates once verv five vears for Parliament - and a little more for local government.
Of the things that most directly concern the course of their lives - their job, their wages, HOW neighbourhood is organised - people have no democratic right whatever. This is despite the fact that whether a person has a job or not affects them far more than the abstract right to decide once every five year which Party will misgovern them and which will ignore the Manifesto they were elected on.
If people were entitled to vote on their jobs, their wages, or the functionang of the economy, then necessarily the rights of capital would eliminated. You can have democracy or you have can have the private ownership and control of the means of production. You cannot have both.
Trade unionism has been savagely resisted by capital not only because it affects protits and production. It also has to be resisted because it represents
beginning extension democracy out of the realm of pure politics into the field of economy and
Support
Trade unionism terresents necessarily and inevitably a challenge to the 'right of management to manage'
or more precisely of the right owners of capital to dispose of it as they will and regardless of the effect or those who work for them). That basic fight has been going on for over six centuries.
As early as 1351 the Statute oj Labourers denied any workers the right to join together to pursue their common aims. In 1721 it was reaffirmed that 'conspiracy to raise wages' was a criminal offence.
The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800 prohibited any collective ¿organisation of workers. The supposed relaxation of these acts in 1824 and 1825 was shown to be meaningless in the famous case at Tolpuddle in 1834.
But the case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs shows not simply the brutality of the law but its chiefly arbitrary character. The actual crime involved at Tolpuddle was organising agricultural workers' benevolent fund.
Lne charges technically brought under not simply Common Law but the 1797 Mutiny Act was not directed against trade unions at all but against members of the armed services!
The same patterns continued during the latter part of the nineteenth century by which time the become too powerful to be banned. Acts of Parliament in 1859, 1871 and 1875 specifically gave immunity from LSCU prosecu for Taose
peaceful pickets. These laws were then vote in practice overturned by court deci-
sions which declared that while those "imparting information' had the right to do so, anyone alempung to persuade' someone not to cross a picket was acting illegally.
The famous Taff Vale judgement of 1901 solemnly declared that union activity was legal... unions must pay the losses sustained by employers during any strike.
be The right of trade unions to have
political funds was ruled illegal by the 1909 Osborne case, 1913 Trade Union Act, changed from 'contracting out' to 'contracting in' by the 1927 Trades Disputes Act, reversed by the 1945 Labour government, and is now under attack again by the Teb-
of - which
CLERES
DEMAND
OFFICE
IASPECTIO
bit/King laws.
unions had
labour and capital.
organising
took away force, not law, always decides
proletariat'.
trade
but that dictatorship of capital.
clearest expressions of that reality.
Democracy and capitalism legalisca vy
compatible.
today, into
of a man like MacGregor.
Police confront strikers during the 1926 general strike
In each case the change involved was not 'legal arguments' but simply shifts in the relation of forces between rights.
When capital was on the defensive it was forced to grant democratic rights.
When it was confident and powerful, it
democracy. again. Power and
The French Marxist Etienne Balibar put it brilliantly. The bourgeoisie hates the Marxist term 'the dictatorship of
That is because it wants at all costs to conceal the faci that the society in which we live is the
The long struggle of labour against capital, the long fight for elementary trade union rights, is just one of the
are inIf you want proof of that just look at the Nottingham coal field ing
La workshops like the Stockport Messenger, or into the mind
over the years
dispute
law.
the law.
It's them today and
us tomorrow By Joan Maynard (MP for Sheffield Brightside) MRS THATCHER AND her government are working to a strategy of attacking the workers on all fronts: through attacks on local government democracy, and through attacks on trade union
Rate capping and the threat of abolishing the GLC and metropolitan counties is a fundamental attack on
effect, what the government is saying is that it no longer accepts people can choose their own representatives who will determine what rate to levy.
This is a direct attack on socialist councils like Sheffield, whose way of redistributing local wealth is through the very popular cheap fares policy. The government can't afford this form of local democracy because it it's seen to work — as it does in Sheffield and London - then people will continue to support it. Hence me Tories have decided to stamp it out
At the same time, they are attack-
rights of trade Cheltenham was a try-on because the labour movement allowed the NGA to go down. And the NGA went down following the change in the general council at last year's annual congress. It's a TUC rather too prone to talk with this government, rather too prone to be 'moderate'.
This Tory scenario is aimed at destroying the things we've fought for
civil and political liberties and the welfare state we've built in Britain. It is the background to the latest attack on the miners.
State intervention into the miners'
and attempt SLOU pickets moving about the country, is almost akin to introducing pass laws. One of the issues that creeps into this dispute is the question of breaking the
My own background is with the agricultural workers, and it's ironic that all this is happening on the 150th anniversary of the Tolpuddle martyrs, who were deported for breaking
Times haven't changed that much. Workers have got to make that sort of decision again.
The Tolpuddle martyrs made the right decision. If the law is bad and obviously against the interests 01 working people, then we have to say it's anti-democratic and we're going to break it. That's what the miners are doing when they picket.
The Tolpuddle martyrs made the right decision. If the law is bad, obviously against the interests of working people, then we have to say it's anti-democratic and we're going to break it. That's what the miners are
doing when they picket.
I was hopeful that the court action by the Kent miners would win, because the police, I'm sure, are exceeding their powers. But there aren't many times when we win in the Cours. The wav to win is by en couraging other workers to come out in support of the miners. The old adage, an injury to one is an injury to all, was never truer than it is today.
At their conference some ago, the miners voted against bonus schemes. They ended up with them just the same, because Gormley and the right wing leadership were deter mined to have them. Arthur Scargill was bitterly opposed to this, and he's been proved right. This has been a significant factor dividing the union in today's dispute, a significant factor in dividing one area from another.
The Yorkshire miners, by their flying pickets, are attempting to say
the Nottingham miners, even though you are alright now, don't forget it will be vour turn next. Ine flying pickets are an important way of building unity amongst all miners.
It's tremendously important that the labour movement, like the Tories, should have a strategy and not treat each attack as an isolated incident There must be large numbers of work. ing people waiting for just such a lead That's why I support the Yorkshire miners
And it's why I support Liverpool council too. They are carrying out their mandate difficult cir•cumstances. They aren't being 'extravagant'. Far from it. They're just holding the line. And the miners are holding the line for the rest of the trade union movement.
What happens in Liverpool today will face many Labour councils next year. What happens to the miners today will face many trade unions in the future. It's Liverpool and the NUM today, and us tomorrow.
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 7
Page 8 scan of this page
Lebanese Christians
The EEC - a new
approach
THE failure of the EEC summit in Brussels once again raises the attitude of socialists to the Common Market. WALTER CAIRNS continues Socialist Acions's series of discussion articles on the EEC by arguing that Labour must go beyond the 'memberchip' or 'withdrawal' argument.
beginning dominated socialist thinking in this country on Europe. On the one hand, there are those who have always opposed British membership of the EEC and look likely to continue to do so.
such a policy into a vote-winner is a proper explanation of the detrimental effects of membership on the country's economic and social structures.
This camp is by no
eans restricted to the rat
eft, since Austin Mitchell
Peter Shore find
*emseives on inis issue aked in an uneasy • nance win ennis skin-
and Militant
At the other end of the
there are those
ho claim that now that
= UK is firmly attached
the Common Market, •: may as well make the rest of it, try to reform the
from within, and .. ne vanous curoocal estitutions as a forum for
debate . and policy-forming.
Roots
Here again this proach is not being a0 -• ocated exclusively from he point of view of one particular faction of the L.Cila uniting it does such diverse political thinkers Roy Hattersley, Stuart Holland, Richard Balfe and Eric Hobsbawm
Both sides of the argu-
HAUS aust mindful of the likely state :7 which the EEC will find ::self when the Labour Party the government. On the one ..allu. the trade patterns nto which membership of
EEC has artificially ::opelled this country will :ave become even rainforced.
Also, the EEC as a cor- wale enuly or which ine
* forms an indelible part
Slave mychological roots in the -inds of the electors. Radical
I am of the opinion
-at the Party could side-
queston
hdrawal simply by an-
bour Government that
abour the
K will continue to be a ember
at it will not allow the
ammon Markel Lon-
its radical pro-
all c Cocc
ams, the relevant clauses
the 1988 Election Manifesto should read : mething like this:
•The Labour Party :cognises that the
asent stage of this coun-
membership of the wilhetawal can no
nger be regarded
DIODUSiLIOn. abour Government will,
fundamentally 2w ever.
the relationship the United nadam n de Com-unity on the following
(a) The Labour Government will proceed with its plan for jobs : agardless of any provisons in the Treaty of
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 TWO schools of thought have from the very
They argue that all that is needed to transform
Rome which may obstruct
Unemployment having risen at a much faster rate in the UK than in the other EEC Member States as a result mine vears disastrous Tory policies, Lne LaDOUr Partv COl siders that is fully justified in contemplating such measures.
(b) Henceforth all regulations, directives and decisions issued by the EEC authorities will subjecieu to approval Dy Parliament. so doing L Labour rary nee intends restore the democratic Community decision-making, in view of the present situation under which elected EEC bodies. are given unconstitutional powers to supersede the wisnes dime electorate as democratically expressed
LICI representatives in Parliament.
(c) The present common Agricultural Policy of the EEC is designed to satisfy the needs of counLiCs will aDollintensive agricultural Industry operating through relatively small lands ullils.
As such, it is totally unrelated and CYCL detrimental to the structure of agriculture in this country, and consequently the Labour Party will cease to apply it forthwith.
In its place, a Labour Government will reinstate the system payments to tarmers with
view achieving agricutural production which provides low prices for the consumer whilst at the same time guarantee ing a regular and fair income for the agricultural industry.
(d) As a result of this discontinuation of the Common Agricultural Policy, a Labour Government will only contribute to ine cec sucn runas as are necessary for its every-
with the exception arricullure. This Will reduce the net contribution United Kingdom by approximately 70
Coul
The EEC authorities and the other Community countries would hardly be dancing with delight when
proposition, but what effective ac-
could LUll LaKe against a Labour government prepared to embrace such a policy.
Thus the fundamental objective which gave rise to the policy of withdrawal would be realised - if we Lail arrive the sand result means than
La policy withdrawal, why should be not pursue it?
were President Gemayel's Phalangists -
dominated state, keeping the Muslim factions under control.
This US project - a Western government Illassive realilies, relationship of forces on the ground.
The pro-Western Maronite community is no longer ine largest. Rather, the Shi'ite Muslims now the biggest, and the fastest growing, communi-
Syria, with 30,000 troops in Lebanon continues to have an effective veto over political developments
Last week's conference in Lausanne aimed at
power the country on the basis of a
real relationship of forces The leaders of the Shi'ite Amal and the Druze Progressive Socialist Party demanded a bigger say for their communities in ef-
Ic-wring of the 1943 National Pact which divided power among the different confessions.
Despite the collapse of the Lebanese Labour Movement Conference on Palestine
Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn MP, Peter
Tatchell, Moshe Machover and Palestinian trade unionists 19 May County Hall Details from PSC, London WCI N3XX Organised by PSC and LMCP
refuse to budge
LAST MONTH's bitter fighting in Lebanon dealt a harsh blow to the right-wing Maronite Christian forces, backed by the United States. The main losers
- the biggest force among the Christians. Since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 the United States and the Phalangists have attempted to construct a Phalange-
with a powerful national army
strong, national procollapsed under two Syrian opposition and the real
and the terrible beaung waco laev aro me fascist Christian militias received at ine nanas of the Muslims, Syria insisted on keeping Amin Gemayel as President.
By Phil Hearse
Syria's solution to the governmental crisis was a Maronite president, with a representation of LOC Muslim communile the government. But
favour of giving complete state power to the Muslim communities, who might use break their dependence on Syrian patronage.
Above all Syria want. to maintain a weak and aviaed Lebanonsoldi Syrian president Assad Box BM PSA,
will remain the puppetmaster
In fact the scene was all set for a deal at Lausanne Amin Gemayel had already been to see Assad, to be told that the Phalangists would have to give more power in the government to the PSP and Amal. return Gemayel would remain president.
Rivals
Gemayel had difficulty however in selling this deal
This more militant Phalangist milita commanders. It opened him up
attack among the Maronite community in general. Both Gemayel's main political rivals in the Maronite community Chamoun and Franjieh upped the ante in Lausanic. ucmanamees concessions from the Maronite community
the end Frajieh. whose militia controls the area around Zghorta and who in the past has sided with Syria, re usea lo along with any further concessions the Muslims. By ensuring the failure of the reconciliation conference, he also gravely weakened the position of Gemayel, making another round I of fighting and Gemayel's departure more likely. Control
PSP leader Walid Jumbiatt commented tha the Christians would have
ocalille before power could be redivided.
footnote to the Lausanne conference was the battle which erupted in
Karantina 1976. The fascist Christian militias who perpetrated this massacre are now on the defensive West Beirut on 21 March between the Druze PSP ana the Murabitun 'Nasserist' militia The Murabitun left-nationalist group sup-
mainly Sunni Muslims, and much more independent of the Syrians than the PSP and Amal.
International
Franjieh Two days after the liberation of West Beirut
with Amal Amalies miance Ine alliance decided to try to crush the Murabitur once and for all, to ensure that West Beirut remains under their own control.
Page 9 scan of this page
How the media lies about Ireland
News
Ireland: The Propaganda War.
The British media and the 'Battle for hearts and minds'. Liz Curtis, Pluto Press, £5.50.
IN HER new book Liz Curtis carefully documents and analyses how the British media have distorted information from the North of Ireland over the past sixteen years. broadcasting freedom and clearly shows how on such 'sensitive issues' as Northern Ireland the media quickly falls into line and follows government thinking to the letter.
This made of our democratic society. She says 'In Britain, the broadcasters' appearance of independence from government had been carefully cherished; this not only maintained their credibility, because of the BBC's international reputation, sustained Britain's image abroad as a free society'.
Pravaa migal well referred to as the official paper of the Communist Party, but heaven forbid
such an inference about the Drillsh reporting Ireland, with
few anu nigilly conexceptions, the British media have acted as the official mouthpiece of the British government.
By Phil Casey
When the brutality inflicted on civil rights protestors by the RUC and B'Specials was finally bastered over our screens and in the press, after a long period of silence over Northern Ireland, the media could not help but portray the bigotry and prejudice inherent in the six county state. Tv and press coverage was symWallelic ulat ll porROBERTO D'AUBUISSON, leader of the fascist ARENA party, for a major victory in the general election this Sunday. 'Major Bob' to
supporters, nickname ponents because of his past activities as a National Guard intelligence officer responsible for 'processing' political prisoners.
D'Aubuisson was insurgency warfare Washington International Police Academy, the US military school in Panama, Taiwan Uraguay and Guatemala.
The general election has turned into a race between the Christian Napoleon Duarte and party. The third major right wing party the PCN (National Reconciliation Party).
FuN nas iraanonany basea Itsell on strong sup
port from the army. But Salvadorean middle class which was obvious at the boosted time of the last general election in 1982. The 1982 election established ARENA as a major national party and ensured the position of D'Aubuisson as president of the national assembly.
At that time his ambitions to become President of the Republic were thwarted by the vigorous intervention ot ine United States,
American faction in the army led by cia. The US ensured that Magana got the 100 DaA on international
Aubuisson President.
D'Aubuisson may be strong enough to dictate his own terms.
The rise of middle class support for ARENA
and the decline of the PCN represents a new stage
of the war in El Salvador. The military successes of the revolutionary FMLN guerrillas over the past three years have created an atmosphere of hysteriad. among the perous middle classes.
She explodes the myth of press and
undermines many assumptions that are
but also,
trayed what was happennothing nothing less.
Things soon began to change dramatically when British troops were sent to Derry in August 1969. The British media immediately laented will tue loops.
As Liz Curtis remarks 'With the arrival of British troops on the streets of Derry and Belfast August 1969, changed (any sympathetic coverage of the Nationalist community's struggle).
Britain was now openly and physically involved, and British observers could no longer regard the situation with detached alstaste. Ine medla s iden tification with the troops was instant and total.'
Attitudes In government circles were changing; stability rather than retorm was me moveduosi priority for the govern-
Major Blowtorch
heads for power
seems to be heading Salvadorean
D'Aubuisson the 'Major Blowtorch' from his op-
trained in antitechniques at the
poor.
Democrat former preslaenl
D'Aubuisson's ARENA
has faded. The
ARENA has been SUDDOLE
VICIOV.
and the because General Garthe PCN candidate - obviously fearing the impublic opinion This time round, wealthy and even moderately pro-
I his Is illustrated by Liz when she cites an artiDy Christine Eade in The Guardian troops arrived in Derry: 'Certainly the British are now taking seriously reports that both the Irish Republican Army and Catholic extremists Northern Ireland are being influenced by Trotskyists, and Communists.'
Bernadette Devlin, whose elecion Westminster in 1969 had been greeted with headlines such as: 'She's Bernadette, she's 21, she's MP, she's swinging'
Express), now became the 'leader of sinister army' of revolu-
D'Aubuisson understood this potential when he founded ARENA in 1981. tend his rallies are neither the peasants nor the urDall WUIKCIS but the neatly dressed nouveau ricne wearing the latest European fashions.
Former US ambassador to El White has documentary evidence that D'Aubuisson acted as unc colmanac o lie den wie acau suudus and the link person between the
extles in Miami. poured money into his election campaign
White also contirmed the that D'Aubuisson had personally given the order for the murder of San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero, murdered for his staunch defence of the
By Paul Lawson
The Christian Democract candidate Duarte is hardly the spokesperson of a 'liberal alternative', despite the efforts of the Western media to portray him as such. Throughout the election campaign he made it clear that it he wins there will be no talks with guerrillas and the war will be pursued until
As president between 1979 and 1982 he acted as the liberal' cover for the launching of all-out war and the rise of the death sauads
Voting is compulsory in El Salvador. Many opbecause of fear of retalation prem the deans
of fear of retaliation sauads it thev do not. But the election will simpi) not take place in the large area of the country trolled by the FMLN-FDR. tions the FMLN-FDR called for a boycott.
This time they haven't bothered. hand it is too difficult for many voting, on the other the result of the elections will
in El Salvador itself. The left could not participate openlv in elections without exposing inell porters to brutal repression. stands that the question is simply what political faction of the ruling class will take charge of the war trom now on.
BRITISH тот.
THE MAN IN THE HOOD tionary extremists', who were now said to be in complete control of the civil rights movement.
Colony
becoming openly involved Britain now another colonial war. However this one wa on her doorstep Liz Curtis explains: "The supposed effects television Lovelase of the war Vietnam on the American public were fresh in the establishment minds.
Sunday Express commenlater heavily television for showing the British army in Ireland in . lhe people who at-
Salvador Robert
embassy
squads and the
who have
persistent rumour During the 1982 elec
On the one elections.
people to avoid
SUD- stepped up its Everyone under-
Hone
La bad light', noted 'it is on-
are running up against the problem, it is one that has assailed the United States for nearly a decade.
There can be little that He evision coverage of the Vietnam war was largely respousl ble for sapping the moral fibre of the American Deo ple to continue the strug
The British nent had no intention o letting the media moral fibre' of the British
The reaction of the media to allegations of torture by the security forces was simply to ignore them!
D'Aubuisson supporter at San Salvador rally
The United States has made it clear that it will work with whoever becomes president atter the
Even they prefer ED' Aubuisson has at least demonstrated his impec. cable anti-communist credentials and his determination to use any methods to win the war.
As the elections approached the FMLN has attacks government military posts and cut the Pan-American Highway, main means of communication with the east of the country. Whoever wins on Sunday, the main contest is taking place on the battlefield.
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 It was over two months mom wuen lue alcganon. were made that any report of them reached Britain. When the story did break
was openly attributed to IRA propaganda.
media dutifully reported, the prime
of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner put it 'the IRA had poured out propaganda aimed at undermining public morale, confusing the issues and discrediting the government and security...
Truth
The Daily Express, that bastion of truth, claimed that the IRA were torturing their own men to
headline the Express announced 'Army
Cells mala bert up heas
after OWI 11l2l
The began: ' A dossier is being compiled by police and army in
terror against its • own men'.
on allege that had been interrogated for 26 hours) had been beaten up by the IRA after his release, then presented at the hospital as Rained of injuries sus-
during interrogation'.
The doctor who examined McAllister, James Wilson, remarked: allegations in the Daily Ex-
They quite fantastic. What makes them pletely absurd is the sug gestion that he was beaten
STOP PRESS
Duarte,
Sunday's election
lead,
Democrats.
9 up by the IRA before he was brought in here. The damage was psychological not physical June mena coverale o Bloody Sunday the cold-blooded murder of 14 unarmed civilians • was quite remarkable Although reporters at the scene reported in
the paratroopers the media as a whoe but the blame on the marchers.
Editorials contradicted eyewitness reports doing. The Dail)
Telegraph in a leader titled 'Death March', equated the civil mohts movemen with the IRA and blamed both for the carnage: (the civil rights movement) does not murder: it simply creates conditions favourable to the murders attempted by others and leaves the army in the last resort with no alternative but to fire'.
It is immediately clear from this book that when "sensitive' issues come into conflict with democracy it is the latter which is shelved. Undoubtedly the book
what extent this democracy of 'news' really official pro. paganda? Strikes, riots, racist attacks, women struggling against nuclear arms and police can all in turn be labelled "sensitive' issues.
This well-written and informative book is a mus for all, not just those of us WIll are interested in the political conflict Ireland in Salvador was characterised mainly by chaos. Many fewer people voted than in 1982. First estimates put Christian Democrat Napoleon Duarte in the but gave none of the main parties an overall majority. Now Roberto D'Aubuisson will have to fight a run-off with the Christian
Page 10 scan of this page
Defending democracy
10
combat the government threats.
IN SHEFFIELD we had an enormous rate increase, 10 per cent in 1981, to compensate for the government's redistribution of grant from the cities to the shire counties and for the penalties levied for not adhering to government targets. While we were in a relatively prosperous position, it was possible to ask people to bear the burden of Thatcherism.
Now it's simply impossible to keep on putting
This year
the rates we've managed with Labour in control for 50
we've had " cars, substantial base to cushion
us. Next year we'll have to find £3.20 for every fl we wish to spend.
We have launched local campaign to build commitment to collective services and to democracy.
We
recu LO Culalize people's experience of
public services noW operate, so that they genuinely believe these services belong to them, and they're running them. • We are campaigning not just to protect individual jobs and services, but 1o win people comprehensive view of the wav the world's got to be organised. This differendiales from social democracy, from paternalistic welfare attitudes.
Ine sociallst view Is Illal people have every right to have their hands on the levers of power.
only a certain amount can be done at a local level. It would need a socialist government to
people's DuE ICovulles ai disposal nationally.
Our local ampaigr
national campaign to stop
legislation and counteract the propaganda of the Tories. But the local campaign provides the essential springboard
We provide work-time faculties tor the unions to organise their campaign
it with every section and dearlot of And we've put a lot money into supporting campaigns the community and community groups, and Collary oreanisations.
A PiECE
Let me make this quite clear... I am totally and uncondillonally in solidarity with the striking miners! f
Socialist Action 30 March 1984 DEMOCRACY DAY on 29 March highlights the government's many attacks on local democracy, especially when that democracy is administered by left wing Labour authorities. Sheffield and Merseyside councils are both under direct threat from the Tory plans. DAVID BLUNKETT, leader of Sheffield, and KEVA COOMBES, leader of Merseyside, told Socialist Action what the government policy means for their authorities, and how Labour must organise to
all of whom are dependant on stopping the Tory attacks to survive.
The local Labour Party and the council's Labour Group tirm We're not in the business our democratic rights or cutting public services. Such a stand DOSSIDIC though if there's across the country. on a sufficient scale that an individual authority can't be picked off and wiped out as an isolated abberration.
Clay and Lambeth are all examples of individual authorities who weren't supported by anvone else anywhere. There wasn't sutticient momentum enable them to succeed.
Unity necessary hecause the Tories , liave d coherent strategy. Look at une suce suriKe. the attack on the NGA and the print industry, and the current David Blunkett
THE
As a Labour Member of Parliament I will do anything in my power to help these men to win their fight!
attack on the miners, not to menton privatisation
Thatcher's
deliberately restructuring the economy towards the market place The labour movement must work out where to go ana now to tany suppor rather than always responding to the cards the lorie. play.
At last year's Labour Party annual conference 1 moved a resolution which made clear the need for a united campaign and recognised necessary in the future to indemnitv councillors 101 their actions in defence of democracy a position subsquently confirmed Labour's executive.
Liverpool's position is difficult because it's unique. Thev are not only tac. ing the worst conditions of economic deprivation and industrial decay, they're
after Liberal/Tory administration left nothing to draw on. i ney are wymg to nic
a cumstances ine tense
circumstances must all give whatever support we can.
Anything
SINCE LABOUR CAME to power in Merseyside, in 1981, we've altered our image
we've popularised our policies, and begun to get across what the council does.
inherited a bad legacy. The county council was regarded as 'the local House of Lords'. • But
have radically changed since 1982. We now have solid framework in which make radical and propressive policies. Within the limits of the capitalist
we're delivering sysleill. the goods.
Our campaign against abolition doesn't must res on the organised labour MOVCUCULA Until the end of the White Paper consullation period, January this year, our method OI opposing legislation to abolish the metropolitan counties has been to get the support from Merseyside or callsallulls
This wasn't just labour movement organisations, it included for example the Chamber of Commerce large privale and churches. The government proposals inevitably depend on lowering public SCI ViCeo. and the government assumes the county councils will easily achieve this by cooperation.
This is not case There has been substantial counciary support Tories council. Tories distance themselves from abolition. Our original
the White Paper proposals was an all-party resolution calling for an independent public enquiry before abolition.
An opinion poll con ducted by Liverpoo Polytechnic SnoW same results as the London one. Seventy per Cell Merseysiders want to re-
strengte the
powers of the counsil, only 20 per cent want it abolished.
We have carried out an exense duverse callpaign: posters on the DusCs. and Everton football ground and we've put leaflets through every as advertising on local radio. We've spent since October, and we'll be spending more.
We are explaining that abolition is wrong because it would stop Labour ing the things it's pledged
reasonable, that is! that doesn't appear to infringe some law or other! Anything that doesn't doesn't = y get me branded as an extremist! Anything...
• Keva Coombes
funding voluntary organisations like unemployment and weltare rights centres. im. proving public transport, and developing. industry through vul Enterprise Board
The second phase of our campaign is to show how abolition would adversely affect current services. And we've concentrated on the dangers of the 1985 elections being cancelled. All the district councils and the local LaDOu Parties have passed resolutions of non-cooperation with government legislation, and we are discussing this with the local government unions.
This year we're staying within the law. We only need a 9.4 per cent increase
precept • that's about 25p per household per week
This allows us to expand every service, without cuts or redundancies. And there will be no
in tact we've reduced them twice since 1981 and expanded the system
That makes the level of increase we need to maintolerable. If it werent, ises tain promises option to stay within the law wouldn't be possible.
Neil Kinnock has been saying don't reduce services and don't put the rates up too much. but
within expenditure
imits. He needs to be a better magician to do that conjuring trick.
Oul strategy is keep support for the policy of non-cooperation. We need to get through to the rank and file and work through them.
BY CORMAN
Ah, what the
hell!
head dove
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
A right
to work
MRS THATCHER right that the police are on the picket lines just to make sure that 'anyone who wants to work can do so. To
she ordering Britain's largest evel police mobilisation outside Britain's dole of-
thousands of police will Starting HUTTON escort the unemployed to their former workplaces. Any attempt by their old bosses 10 stop them working will be broken up by the cops.
She assured Socialist Action that her first target is those pits being closet down by MacGregor.
What's in
a name?
SHOULD we keep our name or not, was the big soul searching exercise
the Guardian. odd liberal on the editorial staff bleated *after Sarah Tisdale can we really We ardian of civil right as th
Then a more agile-
Not the staff had a brainwave 'Surely', he said "Guardian can also mean running the "nicks So what's wrong with the name? Our record on Sarah Tisdale proves we have every right to use it" The editor is said to have looked very relieved
Pick the
jurors
MICHAEL BETTANEY the M15 officer accused of spying for the
News
DEMOCRACY
DAY
DAMN CANTY COUNCI
I never knew the GOVEANMENT
is was so Keen people WORKING... on
PuEe
Russians is worried that he won't get a fair trial. Being an ex-member of the should chasing mob
about things like that
But he is being a little unfair on his old chums who for the last few months have been secretly vetting jurors. All the
py catchers are doing is
checking that the jurors
Slaver• sive thoughts like being
of the labour Party or belonging to a trade union.
You can hardly expect such people to reach an objective Who knows they might go anu reach verdicts lie state don't want.
The rag
and the facts REPORTING the suicide of miner lan TarI CH the Sun told its readers young miner defiantly carried on working for aweek In its next edition it reported 'he even tried to work one day' and *returned home when his
With a rag Sun pays money and they make up the facts.
Page 11 scan of this page
Liverpool's pierhead
Labour Party
FOR THOSE who think the battle for accountability the labour movellent over this new Campaign group pamphlet will come as a shock.
Having begun the process of tying down Labour leaders in opposition, une Campaign Group of left MPs nave turred their attention to Labour
power. it the radical reforms in the pamphlet were achieved. Labour prime minister and cabinet would be directly elected by party conference.
The the
LOULC Dalli phlet takes to explain this proposal is somewhat circuitous. rests the view that Britain is not country which palilament is supreme.
By Valerie Coultas
The Campaign Group argue Britain is not democracy but a 'constitutional monarchy' which is divided into three parts: the monarch, the House of Lords and the Commons. Consequently 'British peobe nave on v one: the right to elect one-third of our system of government'
They point out the crown has the power to aussorve parnamenl, appoint the prime minister, and start and end wars The pamphlet proposes to chu uese Doweis. But it is' the proposals that challenge the power of the Labour leaders in office which will
cause siderable controversy within the labour movement.
The Gang of Four left the Labour Party among other reasons because the election of the
Dally leaders by an electoral college, and the reselection of MPs made it harder for the right wing. ignore the rank and file of the movement.
10 have democracy and to carry out socialist
democracy: round two
policies, Labour must have more power and control its own representalves. More DOWCI 101 Labour means abolishing the House ot Loras, ting rid of the royal
and submit Dictoralive. ting all major public appointments to "the Commons for approval, and by televising the Commons.
Information Act.
Control
More control over a Labour covertical will be achieved cabinet
and the prime minister are subject yearly election by the party conference. Ine bower ol the prime minister would also substantially reduced by giving more DOWCT tary Labour Party. to the parliamen-
also suggest that the law should be changed so that if an MP leaves a political party they should stand for re-election.
This pamphley will not only shock the establishment, but also the present Labour Party leadership.
shock socials should welcome
Major
There are major drawbacks in the pampniet nowever Most importantly, a series of par-
which demands
socialists should support,
are presented as ends that
could secure the goals
outlined. particularly
clear and extreme example
ending the situalivil
where army officers swear allegiance to the monarch
personally not
parliament.
present system
makes easier the in-
terference of the military
in politics a military
Historians always
point to personal oaths of alle once most tester
one or ine most
measures taken by Hitler
- our unis appies lo ine
Copa British crown
It Is quite wrong to believe that altering the oath of allegiance would prevent the possibility of a hituitar y coup. It would simply make it harder to organise and legitimise.
to other weaknesses in the ball onlict. which ap proaches democracy general but actually only deals Witn „ne specific field of parliament. Ine waole probici of democracy and the state apparatus civil service, armed forces, and so
is democratic control of the economy.
Point
One final point. How can any socialist pamphlet
the British monarchy? Surely the Labour Party could least become explicitly republican? Or are we still aiming socialist monarchy?
Despite these provisos, almost every specific measure proposed by the pamphiet should be supported. It would be a grea step forward for Labour if LICSC proposals were adopted as party policy.
PARLIAMENTARY
DEMOCRA MOVEMENT ABÖUR Parliamentary Democracy and the Labour Movement is published by the Campaign Group of MPs. costs 50p and can be obtained JOUr Mannons, London sui! Maynard, House
Liverpool:
slabs,' predicted Liverpool's district melodramatic warning of the
make a legal budget on 29 March. Thatcher has different plans.
The government treating Liverpool's firm stand seriously and preparing emergency
Environment Sestep ro Patrick Jenkin to step allu run the city. And Thatcher is planning
pear Labour leader Ne
innock on the norns o his own dilemma by asking for all-party support for such legislation.
nalgo
CUTS
HIT THE
NALGO's national executive has authorised all
NALGO members to par-
ticipate in Democracy Day events. But what will this week of action really mean to our members?
By Lesley Catchpole (GLC/ILEA NALGO
in a personal capacity
Some NALGO
members feel the emphasis
should now move from
'fun days' to linking with
other trade unions and
labour movement
organisations to create a
coordinated and effective
resislalice
ment's policies. In par-
ticular, NALGO should
ensure that the ban .on
members doing abolition
work effective
throughout the GLC and
local authonne
The har's success di
Kinnock-
get off the fence
'THE DEAD WILL lie unburied on the mortuary
auditor, a dire but as yet unknown consequences of the council failing to
But Margaret
It is Kinnock's position of less than wholehearted support councils - his insistence. the face of dailyrowing attacks from th that Labour stay Willine aw allows the government to ly a manoeuvre to split the Labour Party ranks.
Despite pressure Liverpool Labour Group voted 36 to six last Friday NORE I
Igo
naigo
INE IS MORE CUR
Action to stop abolition
GLC NALGO HAS mobilised for the week of protest from 24 March to Democracy Day, 29 March, culminating in a national march and rally in Central Hall, London. The action is aimed at building trade union support for the campaign against abolition of the GLC and metropolitan counties, and focussing public attention on the threat to services and jobs.
depend on the resolve of the membership to carry it out. But some areas there has been little or no action to mobilise the membership. imperative that loint trade union committees prepare now for joint action. The abolition proposals are pall of an overall plan to destroy the public sector, thereby taking away our right to a job, education, health service and a decent standard of living for all.
Socialist Action' 30 March 1984
to continue their strategy,
making the most likely
nutcome for the 29 March
that no budget at all is fix-
and caving CILl
without a legal rate. Tak-
this into the
unknown has not
prevented the majority of
CONCHOS
supporting the only viable
stand to protect the city's
working class; and it has
not prevented Labour can-
didates in May's city elec-
tions standing on the same
platform.
The local elections will
follow one day after the
queen opens the Interna-
ngol malr
CUT
LSS MEAN
HOMES DI
= QUEL
The following resolution, passed by a main contribution to the fight against abolition:
areas within their own departments tion will be most effective.
end of 1984.
call to all-out industrial action. e moncarons or ne
context of the above
membership 1o the above workplace meetings in pursuance Be To cacy for Lois programmen
program.m.e.
11
DENOCRACY
tional Garden Festival in Liverpool - not a good time for the lories to bi slogging it out on the city council's fate.
With the terms Liverpool's rate-making meeting fixed seems unlike v that the battle fo the city's future will end on 29 March. On the con trary, it will be only just beginning Il is not too late for Labour's national leadership to get off the fence and give the local labour movement the support it should and must have.
94
CUTS:
YOURS
MIT HE
SICK
GLC/ILEA NALGO branch, should be supported by all local government trade unionists committed to stopping the Tory abolition plans: In order to build on the success of the day of action and avoid duplicating publicity work carried out by the council, the following programme is agreed as this union's
The plan for industrial action at key points within the
Shoo stewards committees to identit where serective uc . The defence committee to draw up an overall plan to coordinate such action by the
The programme of selective industrial action to be initiated in response to any attempt at implementation of ine covernmen savo on drovoses. amy victmsullur of members carrying out selective action to be met with a
• policy of non-cooperation already agreed by membership to be considered in the
To launch a determined publicity drive to win the
proposals convene of this objective; 1o seek ine acuve cooberation or ul so sie wures comma 1e To argue for this programme vigorously within ih
To organise depart. paigning against abolition. To mandate all delegates :. the Democracy for London Campaign and all other. Cr trade union committees to work for the adoctor
Page 12 scan of this page
Defend Democracy Support the Miners!
NUPE
12%
ALL THIS WEEK we saw the brutal face of Thatcher's Britain: • Eight thousand police occupying the lottinghamshire coalfield in the greatest police action against a trade union since the general strike. • Sarah Tisdall sentenced to six months in prison for having brought into the open the lies of Michael Heseltine. • Opinion polls showing a three to one majority against the abolition of the GLC but the government ploughing on with plans
SOCiAList
ACTioN
No. 51
regardless.
• Local government
minister Patrick Jenkin
exposed as suppressing
elections to try to pre-
vent 'a major
debate' on the aboli-
tion of the Metro-
politan councils.
This was the
record of only one week for
a government that in 1979
and 1983 was elected declar-
ing it was going to set Bri-
tain free from
tyranny' and the 'strangle-
hold of bureaucracy'.
But the actions'of That-
cher's government
spring from misjudgements.
Even less the
pet epic es, Po Box to, Londe s NI.
30 March 1984 30p
N
LIVE ON
BREAD + WATER
'spirit of the times' the Guardian editor bemoaned last week. tacks on democracy flow logically, day, from every policy pur-
public sued by this government.
unemployed they are going to want to fight back.
When 20,000 track jobs are going to be scrapped the NUM is going to fight back.
When the Health Service is attacked
'socialist ninety per
population fight back.
pool, or London, or Shefdon't field is going to see its services gutted they are going mysterious to fight back.
4
Thatcher's at- of this
as night follows democracy.
When four million are
sistently miners гасу.
National
Cell of the is are going to
When a city like Liver-
ment.
BLAENAU GWENT
LODGES
UNNED WE STAND
DIVOED WE
WH WALES AREA
The Thatcher government has no answer to any
except more and more repression and greater and greater suppression of
There is only one force that in Britian today con-
defends democ-
It turned out in tens of thousands on 29 March in demonstrations throughout Britain to defend out cities.
fall defending Sarah Tisdall. It is fighting on the picket lines in Nottingham to defend not only its jobs but the British economy and our political liberties from the attacks of this govern-
SOMALINON OF MINE WOFFE
FALL movement must support the miners.
Liverpool stands
firm
Liverpool City Council will be holding out against the Tory government attacks on Thursday when it sets its budget for the com"ing year.
Atter Monday's council committee approved Labour's budget - a snort
£190 million necessary spending in 1985-5 — Tony Benn who was speaking at a rally in Liverpool's St George's Hall, pledged full support for the council.! have come to give 100 per cent
OSPER T
Miners supported the healthworkers. Now the labour support,' he said, 'to the decisions of the Liverpool Labour Group. Labour was elected in Liverpool to protect jobs and services and it must keep faith with the people who put their confidence in the council.'
The people of Liverpool agree with Tony Benn, that's why they'll be marching to the town hall in their thousands on 29 March, to show their determination to stand firm against Thatcher's attacks on their city and their council.
← Socialist Action No. 50, 23 March 1984Socialist Action No. 52, 6 April 1984 →