Socialist Action No. 6, 22 April 1983
The scan: 006-apr-22-1983-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
ACTiON
No. 6 22 April 1983
Unemployed IT'S ODDS ON now for a June election. Thatcher's advisors are probably calculating that as far as unemployment and the economy are concerned things will only be worse in October.
If after the local elections the gauntlet is thrown down, the labour movement must seize it with both hands.
The opinion polls are consistently over-estimating Tories real support, and even in the polls the Tory lead is narrowing.
Chance
A real chance exists throwing out the Tories Labour campaigns on the central issues of unemployment and nuclear disarmament. Labour has to throw its full weight behind the campaigns and activities on these questions in the next few months.
This means backing: • YCND's carnival on 7 May • International Day of Action on disarmament on 24 May • The People's March for Jobs which ends with a huge rally in London on 5 June
Labour has home the message unal question of unemployment and disarmament are linked.
MODERN
TIMES
BL CONLEY
HIL
With Duffy in on the negotiations, we'll probably lose our dinner breaks as well...
• See back page for report on the Cowley strike.
30p
People's
march
message
to
electoral
Thatcher
the of if
ON THE MARCH
Women's
The same system, the same policies responsible for prohammer ducing the insanity of nuclear the weapons and war is exactly the
same system which unemployment on a vast scale. Capitalism in crisis always produces unemployment drives towards war.
If the Tories win again it will mean zooming five million without jobs and more and more missiles Many of the voters in this election will be young people voting for the first time. Rejection cruise missiles and the Tories warmongering iS popular with the youth.
Rally That's why Labour and the LPYS should throw weight behind Youth CND's rally in Brockwell Park on 7 May. This will be YCND's first mass rally and Labour can only gain by backing it.
Throughout May, and into June, the People's March for Jobs will be winding its way through the country.
Parties and the whole trade union movement should be en-
suring that the People's March
is a huge crusade which cap-
tures the imagination of the
whole country.
SoCiAList
AGAINST
April to 5 June.
THE
marches pass through TORIES march
Scotland to London
election year. is absolutely produces
and tion period.
women's towards
General possibility
and Trident
immensely
its full Labour
JOBS
BOMBS!
SOCIALIST ACTION will be making a major effort to bring you all
information about Peoples March for Jobs from 23
in particular well be aiming march • Profile the different areas that the main march and the feeder
• Have correspondents with the
Foot and Murray didn't want the People's March in an
Their approach wrong. Labour can only gain by a mass campaign on unemployment which goes on throughout the elec-
Support for the 24 May can
day of action for disarmament is snowballing. If the action is backed by the Women's TUC and the TUC
Council there's of action up and
NOT
• Carry weekly roundups of the march including local rallies and support action: • Have a six week long sales drive for the paper during the
Socialist Action correspondents and sales organisers throughout the should prepare regular coverage of the
and plan sales arives throughout its duration.
down the country by women, backed by the labour movement, against the missiles. It can stretch out to tens thousands of women who want a nuclear-free future.
Labour can win if it goes on the offensive. Labour activists
take up these campaigns here and now, with or without the support of Labour leaders. This type of campaign, ad-
by Socialists for Labour Victory, is the road to victory.
inside:
of GRENADAN Prime Minister Maurice Bishop warned packed meeting London's Kensington Town Hall last Saturday of the growing threat posed by American military ag gression in the Carib bean and Central America.
The United States naval manoeuvres off the Grenadan coast are directly linked to the US-backed counter-revolutionary invasion of Nicaragua and the stepping up of
MARIANELLA
and ANA
MARIA:
a tribute to two
heroic fighters
for Salvadorean
liberation
Pages 8 & 9
Tony Benn on
the prospects for
Labour
Page 7
PETER
TATCHELL on
gay rights
Page 13
Maurice Bishop
Phone CM COOKSON
US military aid to the EI Salvadorean dictatorship.
He also spoke of the impressive economic and social gains made by the Grenadan people in four years of revolutionary government in the face of the devastating impact of the capitalist economic crisis on developing countries. • A Juture Issue of Socialist Action will carry a full report of Maurice Bishop's speech.
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NATO - the warmonger's alliance
Socialist Action
JOND
*23-24 April North West London Labour Movement Conference against the missiles Cruise Missiles' at Brent Town Hall. Speakers: Kęn Livingstone, Pat Arrowsmith, Tim Webb and women from
Common.
Papoloi 01-904 7951 or write to PO Box 332 NW10 SHU. *Sat 23 April Day School on Non-nuclear Defence Contact Robert Colls Tel: Leicester 554455 ext 150 for details. *Sat 23 April TUC/Labour Party Jobs march starts from Glasgow. *Sun 24 April GLC Bunker Party 7.30pm at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East: *Mon 25 April Glasgow joint meeting for members and friends to discuss the way forward for Scottish CND. To be led by Willie Thomp-
(Scottish CND Elections Langside Halls, Pollokshaws Road.
Speaker Bruce Kent. At Leyton Town Hall. Details from Chris Gray (01) 601 9321. *Thur 28 April Anti-Trident Campaign disco, Strathclyde University Street, Glasgow. *Thur 28 April Meeting 'Greenham Common Helen John (Greenham Common). At Islington Central librarv. Holloway Road. starts 7.30pm. * Fri 29 April Two anti-nuclear films, Hitler to MX' and 'No Place to Hide', 7.30pm at Studio 1 Cinema, 74 Victoria Crescent Road, Glasgow. £2 (£1.50 unwaged). Organised by Glasgow West CND. * Fri 29 April Public meeting on 'Labour's Non-Nuclear Defence Policy Foulkes MP, Keith Macdonald (PPC for Ayr). 7.30pm, Ayr Town Hall. * Sat 30 April East Fife CND march from St. Andrews to Leuchars airbase. Meet 10am in Queens Terrace, St. Andrews. *Sat 30 April Scottish CND/Anti-Trident Campaign ioint tundraising booksale, Kenneia sl. stepnen vente Bath Street, Glas
420 Sauchiehall Street, 041-331 2878). *Sat 30 April East London Labour Movement Conference Against Cruise and Trident, to be held in Queen MarV Waterhouse 01-359 8288 or Ken Cull Hornchurch 53518.
* May March from Truro to Exeter via Plymouth, Barnstanle and Somerset fonly Ior Stephen Hugget. Tel: Plymouth 268724. *Sun 1 May GLC May Day festival for Peace, Victoria Park, London. Starts 11.00am. * Sat 7 May Youth UND restival tor reace. starts al 1lam with a demonstration from Embankment marching to Brockwell Park. Bands, speakers and a festival village. * 10-12 May ponents. Expo * Thur 12 May Day of Action against Arms production
Thorn-Brymar's Brimsdown site in Enfield. Organiscu uy London Region committee.
London WC1. Speakers at this lunchtime, meeting will include Ken Livingstone (GLC), Jonathon Hammond (NUJ President), Paul Lefley (Se
Council), Lou Lewis Organiser), Ron Jeremy Corbyn (Haringey Councillor and PPC for Islington North). *Sat 14 May Conference Trades Union Strategy. Starts 10.30am at Riddles Court, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Speakers will include Gavin Strang MP * 14-21 May'Ealing Labour Party Disarmament Week. Contact David Bays (01)-992 0287.
CND Diary is a regular column in Socialist Action, giving a round up of useful facts, news and dates of forthcoming events in the Anti-Nuclear
The listing of events is free and the details should reach us by tion. Send to CND Diary, Street, London N1 2XP.
22 April 1983
EVENTS
'Jobs not Bombs - No
Details/credentials from Nick South/Pollokshields CND
Organiser). -7.30pm,
Leyton CND
fund-raising students Union, Jonn
and Speakers: Anne Cesek (Islington N. LP) and
• America — From
Tickets
with speakers John Silkin MP, George
gow. Offers of books to Scottish CND
Glasgow G2 (tel.
from Phil
Details from
Demonstration outside Defence Com-
'83, in Brighton. Contact (01)-278 1976
Trade Union subDetails from LRCND, 6 Endsleigh Street,
Tacloy calc.
Haringey LONCOR
Blanchard (Haringey Councillor) and
'Nuclear Disarmament, a the Wednesday, one week before publica
Socialist Action, 328 Upper
CONSECUTIVE Labour Party conferences have called for unilateral disarmament, moves towards withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
But the fundamental argument used in favour of nuclear weapons -sian threat'
NATO.
critics of unilateral inside and the
NATO alliance
Staying in NATO
US
under American
Having position in
delay
to
pro-NATO defence policy defence cagainst
threat
editor Chris Mullin last argued
troduce in-
theorists Mary and Smith
any idea the United
arsenal Benn
'collective Javous security' the USSR.
last CND
partisans.
late the
Western made their turn war-time alliance •Tie
cold war the. Unitec
States at time col-
revolution Greece.
but rejected
we need them against the 'Rus'- is the very argument for staying in the dic-
repressive
not an In of
and aralist
The which position of
this is that. of
in other an alliance against 'Russian threat'. Whatever
Russia to invade
East
'world em-
the ageing and cautious
tell of Eastern Europe unstable
solving
The military
posture the Soviet
of the race history the Soviet
increasingly
more new weapons the United
States.
and drive to
defence aven
point of
how Britain could remain in NATO all nuclear weapons WElC removed from British soil.
Britain remains decisive link even Ine decisive link in the NATO attack system more than 100 US military
weapons from British soil would mean getting rid of those bases.
the United States has used its facilities in non-nuclear Japan - to store and transport nuclear weapons. If the UDA allowed to keep its British bases it will use them in the same way, keep its nuclear Donvers subare. and use the radar and warning installations part of NATO's nuclear capacity.
The argument Labour's New Hope for Britain campaign document that Britain could get
Selim Duzgun TWO REFUGEES from Turkey's military junta have been refused political asylum in this country.
Nesat Tolunay and Selim Duzgun were both members of the mass socialist organisation, Dev Yol (Revolutionary Path) in Turkey.
Currently 10,000 Der Yol members are in
The death sentence
rid of nuclear weapons and maintain its existing system of alliances is contradictory and absurd, and under Labour govern-
present immense problems implementing the promise of
non-nuclear within five years.
socialist foreign policy would mean a break with the world's major im perialist alliance. It would mean chucking out American and the rest of NATO's paraphenalia
Those who like Tony Benn accept 'collective
security' are saying that we have an interest in allying with other imperialist powers. British capitalism does, but British socialists don't.
Labour CND has decided to step the campaign against NATO inside the Labour Party. It
Nesat and Selim must stay!
Nesat Tolunay
demanded for over 1500
of these.
deportation of
Nesat or Selim would
prisonment, torture and
perhaps death.
Nesat is a worker in
the garment industry
London and a member
or the Tailor and Gar-
Workers union.
Selim, just 19 years old,
is Kurdish an offence
in itself in Turkey.
IS therefore im-
perative that Selim and
Nesat be given the right
to stay. With backing
News
is fettered in this objective ny mne mescence v ul CND leadership itself,
ignored last year's conference decision
NATO a campaigning issue - reflecting the increasingly right win positions of people like EI Thompson who is beginning to repeat the cold wa attitudes towards the Soviet Union.
The question of NATO must go back to Labour Party conference; the fight
keep Labour its unilateralist pledges volves clear position against alliance responsible for every stage
escalation for the last 30 years.
• Copies Labour CND newsletter
Labour Penbury Road, Worthing, Sussex. from the labour movement they will win that right.
• Copies of their petitions and model resolu tions can be obtained TrON The Friends Nesat and Selim, c/0
Islington -Lan Centre, 131/132 'Upper
London N from the Turkey Solidarity Campaign BM Box 5965, Londor WCIN 3XX. Both Selim and Nesat are available to speak at meetings on ne cases
Page 3 scan of this page
News
Photo: CARLOS AUGUSTO GUARITA (Photon)
WILLIE WHITELAW has made a major climbdown on the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. He has been forced by a lobby of doctors and the churches to backtrack on aspects of the Bill dealing with police access to professional records. He may also give in to the Journalists who are anxious that unpublished material and notebooks could be seized by the police as evidence against a suspect. But those parts of the Bill centrally affecting street policing will remain untouched.
• The Bill is not intended
church, assault the medical profesSON. even to limit the activities of journalists.
By Tim Wright
It is intended to give the police powers to control the population of incutes. LIe Dack Collmunity and working people who are bearing the brunt of Tory austerity.
The Bill follows from all the antidemocratic legislation that has been mounting throughout the seventies ana Into tne eignues — ine Prevention of Terrorism Act, Tebbit's law and the immigration acts.
Photo: GM COOKSON
Stop the
Police Bill
It is part of a Tory
second term of Tory
- with rising unemployment, the col lapse of the Health Ser-
ice, erosintinueducation
continued stepped-up use of anti-union legislation the discontent of working people will rise to an all-time high.
The Police Bill, tied in with the sophisticated armoury the police have accumulated in the past years, will enable the
and dissent of working DCUBIC
in manv wavs. though. the Bill merely legitimises
of policing the
black community has suffered from for years now.
The Job, the paper of the Metropolitan Police states that the Bill is merely 'good police practice converted into legislation'.
Clause 1 of the Bill gives police officer power 'to stop and search someone reasonably suspected or carrying Call offensive weapon or ticles which could be used for theft and burglary'.
As even a comb could be an offensive weapon within the terms OI the Bill, the police will be provided with an excuse to stop and search at will.
Courteney Griffiths, a black barrisie! and member of the GLC Police Committee, pointed out that this sort of 'stop and
was exacuy wildl was actised, during the SWAMP which led directly to the Brixton riots.
Clauses 9 and 10 give the police powers to search premises not only of the
of democracy soap opera.'
suspect, but of her or his family and friends. This SULl police is what the White of activity the
family in Hackney were subjected to
They took the police to court and won. In summing up, Justice Mars-Jones decribed the police activities as 'monstrous, wicked, shameful conduct'.
If the Bill is passer such conduct will longer be 'monstrous' but legal. Truth
The Bill involves fundamental shift in the DEILISO legal method. Courteney Griffiths describes British justice as an 'adversary system not interested
DUT merely in the relative strengths of opposing cases.
The Bill will restrict access to a lawyer, let the police hold suspects without charge for up, to four days, and allow as evidence contessions gailed under duress.
Target
The Bill must be resisted, not in part but in its entirety.
The black community is already painfully aware of its implications. The labour movement must realise that the working class as the target of this victorian legislation.
Local campaigns to combat the Bill are springing up all over the country; but one of the most important developments is the setting up in Hackney of the National Campaign Against the Police Bill
•The Campaign is
Model resolution
Criminal Evidence
on democratic rights.
actions by the police already taking place
people.
delegate/delegates to it'.
delegates that can attend the conference.
of destroying the very brink tabric
Photo: GM COOKSON
holding паш hal day CHECICICE with speakers from the Labour past and ethnic organisations the trade unions.
Out of the conference will come a broad, 1ldrepresentative committee to co-ordinate nanonal acuivines against the Bill.
Labour movement delegates and individuals are invited to participate in the conterence. Socialist readers should build for this participation with the help of the model resolution provided below.
'THIS (branch/CLP etc) notes that the Police and
is currently passing through Parliament and believes that if the Bill becomes law it will institutionalise severe curbs
'We also believe that the Bill will legalise ticularly numerous cases of harassment of black
'We therefore resolve to sponsor the conference called by the National Campaign Against the Police Bill on Sunday 15 May, and to send a • Please send a copy to the National Campaign Against the Police Bill, c/o Room 50, Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street, London E8. Tel 01-986 3123 ext 280. There are no limits on numbers of
'And now an award to a great bunch of Chief Constables for their ongoing role in the great My men are a faultless body of individuals constantly under attack from the barbaric hordes of communist militants and subversives who
take cops to
court THE campaign demand a public enquiry into the death of Colin Roach is part of The opposition working people, especially the black community, to the methods of policing in the inner cities.
The police Hacknes have used snatch methods against Colla Reach pickets and demonstra tions as perfected on the Beast. Blahty sik people Derry have already been arrested in this way.
But the Roach Family Support Committee fighting back.
press conference on April that they are going to take the police to court on a charge of conCabaret •
Socialist Action 22 April 1983
TV DRAMA AWARE
are on the
Roach campaign
to spiracy
Wins a lot ol
Alf Lomas. member of the European Parliament, they of publicising their case internationally and are hoping to take a delege tion the Euroean parliament. They want te expose the nature British policing to an inof ternational audience.
The Roach Family Support Committee also calling a Londonwide demonstration 14 May starting at Tower Hamlets and ending Stake Newington. week later a na tional demonstration is being called on 22 May in Is opposition to the Police Bill by the Committee of 15, a grouping of ethnic organisations. Socialist Action readers are urged to support these demonStrations.
Move it on
May Day!!!
• Buftet • Jazz • • Disco East London's Socialist Celebration
Sun 1 May • 7-11pm idmission at door £2.50/£1 unwage Jfton Hall, Ufton Road, London N.
Buses 73, 30, 38, 22 or 141.
(All proceeds to Socialist Action)
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Let Brent East make its own decision
Bid to control Wythenshawe party
4 Socialist Action 22 April 1983
IRELAND
UNFREE
Matt Merrigan speaking at the Dublin Tally
The general
strike in the South
THE SOUTH of Ireland ground to a halt, 14 April, as workers staged a half day general
payments increases. 150,000 workers took to the streets in protest at tax increases that will take IR£2 out of an average pay packet of IR£140, and up to IRf10 from higher wage earners. The equivalent size demonstrations in Britain would be over 3 million strong.
Workers are refusing to shoulder the burden of the economic crisis in the South. They point to the fact that the IR£260 million increase in PAYE is
link exisine tax bands to account for inflation
This sum is more than all of the contributions ala Dy private companies out together. It's ove live times that paid by the wealthy farmers
Employers are being feather-bedded out of the pockets of ordinary workers, who want to know
the IR£500 million taxes owed by big business.
To workers in Britain the organisation of such massive demonstrations may seem to snow a real fightback from the unions but workers in Ireland are getting increasing v annoved at the refusal of the union leaders to go beyond demonstrations. Waterford Glass who have told their employers to withold all their tax and insurance for two weeks in
As a result of their threat to take strike action if their demands were not compiled with, management gave in and paved wages in the form of loans. This avoids the legal obligation to pay tax on all
TOWEL SuDDles it any
In March, the threat of a general strike to free the Rank occupation workers was enough to get them released, so it looks unlikely that the government will rush into anything hasty this time.
Workers' leaders like Matt Merrigan are talk. ing about a rolling series of strikes leading to a
Speaking at the Dublin rally Merrigan got the biggest applause of the day when he said the unions should reconsider their links with the Irish Labour party — a coalition partner in the present
He argued that they should try to build an Irish party of labour in the tradition of Connolly and arkin, that acted for the interests of working peo-
recoup the cy.
iS union theatened to bia poor
BRENT EAST CLP is fighting for the right to re-
select its MP. The present MP is Reg Freeson
has put off the discussio
until the next full NEC or
By Ronan Brady (delegate to Brent East GMC personal capacity)
Freeson, an ex-housing Minister in the Callaghan Government, lost the supManagement his General
Committee He opposed the GaS On a (GMC) some ago. host of issues and on its
THE REGIONAL Sub-Committee of the NEC is recommending that the national agent should take direct control of the Wythenshawe Labour Party.
The reason for this extreme proposal is a complaint received from USDAW in relation to their delegate to the constituency.
We don't know exactly
the regional subcommice is proposing as we've only read about it in the Manchester Evening News! The local Labour Club isn't letting us into our offices to receive our mail.
By Clir Alf Home, Chair Wythenshawe CLP
The problems for the NEC began the Woodhouse Park Ward of the constituency. The sitting councillor, right winger Tom Farrell, wasn't accepted onto the
boun-
National Executive.
likely seats.
Possibly equally damaging in their
ferences Labour
pro-
which the NEC have comorehensivel undermined
A
included i process
The majority of delegates want Ken Livingstone
call for troops out of
for Silkin rather than Benn
contest which decided most delegates against him. Ever since, he and his supporters have relied on outcauliacy legalistic quibbles to keep incild and
him in his seat.
His latest ploy is to allege that Brent East has •delayed reselection so long that it must drop the issue.
The many delays are with one exception due to either Freeson and his supporters
Constituency
The ward shortlisting was
this sorted out, and finally a Ich shortlisting was held in February.
It was agreed that votes would be accepted from those who had been members tor 2 months before 2 December - the Cale ok which the had decided to delay the shortlisting. This WaN agreed by the NEC, and the right and left in the ward.
Everyone mobilised, but Tom Farrell didn't even get on the shortlist!
Nottingham wants open selection
This allows them to impose short lists of existing MPs or prospective candidates from fragments of old constituencies which are included in new consti•tuencies.
Already a number of Labour parties are attempting to challenge the NEC
St. Helens, Gorton, Pollack, Islington parties and Nottingham East want
stand by conference decisions and the right to hold open selections.
The Nottingham East situation is likely to leave the NEC attempting to ım-
ose a prospective. can
Martyr Sloman who brings in a minority of wards into the new constituency. Furthermore the
PIECE OF THE ACTION
A crown prosecutor. assisting people to the, wrong end of a rope.. a peculiar occupation for a mystic.
The GMC did vote
to defer the process until
agreed whole-heartedly this decision. wune delays
officers being too busy' and to a damaging internal inquiry forced on the party by Freeson.
This report by Joyce Gould, Assistant National Agent, was 'leaked' to the press on Friday. It makes
no recommendations but it catalogues a list of rightwing complaints report will undoubtedly be used against the party
The selection was fixec for 22 February. At thi meeting Joe Paine, the election agent, challenged the validity of votes, , saying the freeze date should have been 17 November. This was rejected and the selection took place.
LABOUR
BRIEFING
Joe Paine tried every tactic to get the selection reconvened involving the NEC, the region, the district party and the constituency.
He insisted that David Hughes, the national agent, had told him to call
When he went ahead and selection SUCCUM distributed notices for new selection, the constiselection of Sloman in the old East Nottingham constituency was very con- i • troversial and had led to allegations that people who were not properly members of the Labour Party had voted
A subsequent NEC in. quiry held by Eric Heffer under the banner of 'party unity' did not find sufficient evidence to disallow selection. Decided
In view of all this East Nottingham GC has decided by a very large majority to call for an open selecmont not treet gree ment with the
• VIl a
of Heseltine's latest
army for a year?
locally as Brent
equivalent of shredding
Bermondsey election leaflets.
Left
As against this, the party has received legal advice trom Lord Gifford that selection should go ahead. Speaking Socialist Action, Colin Adams, Chair of the
, said: 'We're confident that we've satisfied all the NEC's organisational requirements and we can • see no reason for not proceeding with the reselection process as soor as possible
tuency executive suspend ed him from his job. Tha was when the Labour Club locked us out.
Nomination
On the 9 April Tom Farrell's nomination as an independent candidate went in, signed by the right wing in the ward. I think they realised this would put themation water,
nomination was later withdrawn.
It was at this point that the regiona sub-
the NEC Connilice discussed Wythenshawe. direct control of the CLP unless we have a recal AGM.
Their grounds are a spurious charge that we have ignored complaints from an USDAW delegate timetable for this.
Advertisements have gone out asking interested
supply their details and it has been decided that is imperative that any short list must give representation to women and blacks.
What might embarrass the NEC and stop it just
In pally the events in the nearby Sherwood constituency
The situation there is exactly the same as East Nottingham, but there an open selection will be allowed. The National Union of Mineworkers want Even John Golding-dominated NEC is worried about trampling on the rights of the miners.
Dad! Have you heard
people like me to join the
You'll never attain. atori that way, son
News
Brent East GMC has given authority to its Ex. ecutive to take nominations, thus beginning the
But the NEC is most likely to delay ever further in the hope of forcing Freeson on the party
when a June election is called.
Brent East will suceed only with the most forth must show itself willing ty right • action. The implement stitution in spite of the Cull
NEC
need motions support Irom the Labour Movement drowning the NEC. And we'll need them fast. about his treatment by the constituency. We have never received any complaints from the delegate.
We have refused their demands, and we'll continue to do so. We're not going to let appeals for party unity in the face of a general election make us hostages to the right wing
This is the beginning of
witch-hunt against the whole left in the Party and has to be fought.
I'll be arguing to the CLP executive that we lob. by the NEC on 26 April and write our case up for distribution to everyone concerned.
I support the Hammersmith North in refusing to expel Militant supporters But our case is a new stage we have not done anything 'wrong al any point
55
affiliated Against the Witch hunt.
whose National Council
April
decided to:
• Fight for the
reinstatement of expelled Militant editors
• Fight to scrap the register at the Labour
Party conference
Campaign with the
Labour • Steering Com-
mittee to defend CLPs
11,000 copies of it:
latest newsletter have been printed and are
available for 5p (3p fo bulk) from the secretary, 11 Wilderton Road, London N16. → CORMAC #6
4/83
i'? Pe rhaps that acid he used back in the
remaining brain cells.
..which might
explain the old man. • but what would explainthe ludicrous • Heseltine:
Page 5 scan of this page
News
Women's
hospital
by closure
mended to close it down in April 1984.
hospital left to provide a ment for momenta . ment women women doctors and staff.
Kathy McKewan, midwife at South London, explained why saving the "The SCIVICC that
By Hilary Driver
women's hospital can provide are essential today.
One of our aims is preventative medicine.
"Betore the closure threat, we were planning to expana our services providing, a walk-in Well Woman clinic and screening for cancer of the breast alu cervix.
'We also have the only day-care abortion in the district. Although we nave over 70 beds. we proud of our reputation as a very welcoming hospital with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Wandsworth District Health Authority say they are closing the South "London so they can divert the £2½ million saved to services for the mentally ill, handicapped and elderly.
But as Kathy says, 'we aren't going to fall into the
MALE
ORDER
'Female charisms'
POPE John Paul made the following com-
vancan a a recen international meeting of
threatened
THE LAST remaining general hospital run by women and for women in the country is now threatened with closure. South London Hospital for Women was founded in 1912 by Maud Chadburn, originally a surgeon at the Elizabeth Garret Ander-
years later, the Wandsworth District Health Authority have unanimously recom-
where resources should go. We want the best health services for all sections of the community. 'In the last 7 years there've beer ave hospitals closed in south London, with no evidence that the money has gone to those in need — it just gets swallowed up in the overall budget'
The staff at the hospital have all reacted angrily to the proposal for closure, and are united in Leer determination fight it. support campaign has been active locally; with from the GLC Women's Commitcc. women's groups and labour movement tivists. . The campaign • al' also supported by Labour MPs Jo Richardson and Joan 'Mrs Maynard who Thatcher is always sald;
saying how concerned she is about "the family" and as women comprise at least •percent ol 'the family" their needs must be raised very publicly in the pre-election period.'
• Save South London Hospital Campaign meets every Thursday at Balham Food & Book Co-op, High Street, Balham at 8pm. 'Domestic Collaborators in the Priesthood': 'Let me confide that upon seeing vou here in such great numbers my first impression women do have their place in the church.'
InTS point, you may be wondering if his holiness has changed his line on women priests ... well, not exactly The pontiff continued: 'You have perceived that you are giving your life to a great Catholic priesthood. Mis cause that your work that is indispensable visibility and vitality of the parish communities.
Abortion: new
THE RIGHT for
women to control their own fertility has been long fought for in the Labour Party. The trade unions have also been pressured to taking a stand on this issue.
So many people will be disappointed with Labour's campaign document for the general election.
By Ann Potter
The New Hope for Britain states, 'While continuing deferd and respect the absolute right of individual conscience, we will improve National Health Service for tamily planning and abortion, counselling and day care and will riers to the implementation of the existing right of
women in the Lennalon of cy.
This falls far short of the policy adopted by Labour Party Conference.
invone DRIVER. Send contribu.
Order'
Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street London N1 2XP to arrive not later than Thurs day a week prior to publication.
SAVE
SOUTH LONDON
HOSPITAL
THE LAST HER WOMEN M
NUPE poster in support of the South London Hospital
hope or retreat?
1967 Act is completely inadequate, because it leaves
the decision in the hands
doctors. Conference
policy supports abortion
for women on request.
Blocks
The New Hope for Britain holds to the 'existing right of women, where doctors can retuse to do abortions. Anti-abortion consultant gynaecologists are still one of the main blocks to NHS abortions in many areas.
The campaign document sticks to the 1967 Act, proposing simply to improve facilities to imple ment it.
Some Labour leaders think abortion rights are a controversial vote loser What they forget is that at the time OI the anti-abortion Corrie Bill, the
Womens Own magazine showed 80 percent of women supporting abortion as a woman's choice in conjunction with her doctor.
The TUC gathered magnificent support for its demonstration for abortion rights trade
Fat profits
THE multi-million pound slimming industry
has launched its spring
offensive
complete with images of
quivering lumps of flesh (le the way most women really look), and visions of nymph-like models (the way we're 'supposed' to look).
Meanwhile, the Consumers' Association which has recently tested most so-called slimming
products, has concluded
that most of them don't work and that some are positively harmful.
union-called demonstra-
UOR unprecedented
where in the world
UrUG lal ine
Roman Catholic church
and reactionary members
of the Tory Party are
against abortion. But the
Labour Party doesn't exist
to represent them. It's
responsibility is , to fight
for the needs of working
class women, , who do sup-
port their right to choose.
The Labour Party
Conference
members views more
closely than the National
Executive Committee,
which drew up the cam-
paign document. Hostile
Some members of the
NEC remain hostile to the right of women to control their own bodies There has also been a lot of anti-abortion activity against
MP's who support abortion rights. This may have
frightened Labour leaders into retreat.
We must make sure that conference commitment to improve abortion rights appears in Labour's manifesto.
This should extend further than just improving facilities. Conference decisions for a women's right to choose should become a real 'new hope', in law and in practice.
A survey published this week on smoking has discovered nearly half of :10,000 young
interviewed smoked to help keep their weight down
This is just the thin end of the wedge of what women go through to try
the media/fashion/slimming idea of what 'beautiful' is.
Meanwhile, women readers can join me in wishing for renaissan of flesh when vast expanses were the thing to have!
TAKING the issue of
gay rights into the
labour movement was
for Gay
9 April.
By Peter Purton
progress during
last
policies.
cils have followed
lead of the GLC
employment,
Gay Centres.
And the
impact made
LPYS conference,
in a month.
Important
these advances
the Party
been done.
At the
Blackpool
the Labour
promised to
discrimination
to 18 rather than the
which applies
heterosexuals
Even
compromise
from the "The Common Cause' is the title of a set of eight photographic postcards ot women campaigning against nuclear missiles Postcards, 13 Cla meds Produced Leeds
Socialist Action 22 April 1983 5
Labour's gay
activists
conference
document. No one in the
LCGR will be in the least
surprised if the four lines
gays get at the moment
somehow slip out of the
A number of ac-
tivities are manned for
the coming year to do
possible
prevent the exclusion of
gays from the manifesto.
and to change the ex.
istine conference policy.
LCGR
pushing much harder for
new members and new
affiliations from
labour movement.
In order to begin the
gigantic task of taking
the issue into the trade
will be taking the bins
will taking the in
itiative in trying to get
together the various gay
groups which exist
many unions, in order to
coordinate a campaign.
Involved
The LCGR will be
getting involved in
tivities against the Polic
Dill, and will find itself
side by side with other
groups campaigning
around the manifesto for
the next election.
Unfortunatel
move to get LCGR to
participate in Socialists
for a Labour Victory was
defeated, because the
SLV's platform has no
mention of gay rights.
Perhaps at least it will
be a salutary lesson to
socialists gays in the
Party have had enoug
of being ignored
patronised.
• For more information
about LCGR write to:
LCGR, c/o Gay Centre,
chester MImLY!, 6lA Bloom Manavailable from The Other Grove, Leeds Bookshop, Uppe
London NI or 137 Digbeth, Birmingham B5 for 95p plus 20p post and packing.
Page 6 scan of this page
Sri Lanka: plantation workers' plight
Socialist Action 22 April 1983
WORLD
Blacks
FOUR blacks
Soweto
quitted at trial in
charges of 'furthering ine alms South African Revolu-
against
the four
and Other
the prosecution witnesses, Mozam-
major fabricate evidence.
the
against government
village been shot
'Pik' South
said the government
cident'.
Lucky's pal
gets his
ELEVEN people were murdered in Mafia killings in Sicily in 24 hours last week.
Among the victims Antonio Nino. le time lieutenant of Lucky
Carlo, who had on him a plane ticket to New when he was shot.
high on the list WCIC 162 Sicilians suspected of trafficking drugs to New
The Sorci's owned a
discovered by police last year, where more than
1O0lbs of morphine and heroin were discovered.
Baluka trial
EDMUND Baluka, well-
Polish socialist
and member of Solidarity, was put on trial last
'to subyert the socialist
system'.
Baluka left Poland
after: i the 1970 workers leading
revolt, and spent several years in Britain, working
in the engineering in-
dustry in Manchester.
Next Sunday a meeting
of solidarity
place at the Rio Cinema,
Dalston, addressed by
MacDonald,
Ullyer
Tariq Ali and Paul Foot,
starting at 2.15pm.
Garden path
Party last week voted measures terrand.
DOWGl raise
allivile socialist and
Marchais's
going to
measures.
PCF magazine Revolution
ing led up the garden path silent'.
Pacification SWAI
Defending
the Nazis
DOCUMENTS and cables uncovered in the US National Archives has revealed an extensive
protect
Nazi war criminals in the
period following World
War II.
The United States made widespread use of
Nazi agents to inform on
Communists and
wingers, and shielded
them. from •TOSCCulIOll
and punishment.
LICI . Was
Klaus Barbie who was
kept by the US for three
years Wiesbaden,
despite repeated requests
from the French govern-
ment for his extradition,
for crimes committed
the SS commandant in
Lyons.
RLANTATION WORKERS in Sri Lanka, who today work mainly on tea plantations but also rubber plantations, were brought into Sri Lanka in the second and third decades of the last century.
they were made to work on the tea estates. Today
percent
feet by 10 feet
cents per 50p.
Work the plantations workers
WicH they
example January,
there the WOLKCIS • very few days work.
hardship.
urban
villages agricultural labour.
there are many workers
referred as 'Indian
01 basic rights, tor the
Being Indian nor Sri Lankan citizens, they are Totally "stateless', and suffer THE coordinating committee of Solidarnosc has appealed for major May Day demonstrations against the Jaruzelski regime. demonstrations comes in the wake of a secret meeting between underground leaders — almost certainly including Zbigniew Bujak and Bogdan Lis -and Lech Walesa last weekend.
as an active leader of Solidarnosc, and is a major blow to the regime.
the show trial of seven Solidarnose leaders, and the coming trial of KOR (Workers Self-Defence Committee) leaders. Below Solidarnosc appeal for international solidarity.
In the name of the self-managed independent trade
union Solidarnosc, in the
name of the Polish
we extend our
greetings to the workers
of the world for this Ma
Day. Polish workers wi
demonstrate on this day
under the banner of inter-
national solidarity.
The festival of 1 May
was born in the struggle
for the dignity of human
labour. In 1886,
Chicago, paid
with their lives for the
right to their own trade
union representation. For Chicago was repeated in the Polish workers,
Gdansk 1970, in Silesia
1981, in Lublin in 1982.
And we are aware that it
could be repeated many
times again.
On 13 December
1981, the counter-
al c
Unfortunately because of mistakes by the
have not been recognised
are tied to the
say day, nt then lit
111C i
NoX
Without doubt this signals the return of Walesa
It comes at a time when tension is escalating over
we print extracts of the
flowed and our trade union con
terror. activists
ternment and prisons.
are still languishing there, harsh sentences. Strikers and
assaulted, hundreds been crippled, dozen
fend liberty and
Paradise on earth, but not for plantation workers minimal. On typical estate school there will be a hundred . or more children and only one teacher. Health care is at a bare
went
and the are Repression continues. Trade-union activists are
being sacked, many factories have been
militarised. The setting up of forced labour camps has been announced People have been
persecuted for exercising
their natural humar rights. Arrests and
political trials continue.
Solidarnosc will not
allow itself to be
destroyed.. Solidarnosc
lives and is well rooted in the factories. The trade union continues tions, and will not give up defending the rights of
workers, nor fighting to
oppression and exploitation. One within the country, workers are at the bottom of the working class. The second is international exploitation.
In my view Britain cannot abdicate sibility for the plantation
Most of the line rooms which exist today are the line rooms which were built by the British
The British working class has a lot to do to help to pressure the teamarketing companies and to ensure that a fair price is paid for the tea.
• Of course the struggle cannot be won in Britain alone; we have to win the plantation workers in Sri
appeals for May Day actions
SoLin
SOLDARNOO
institute social and economic reforms in Poland..
The workers showed when they organised ago, that for the labor demonstrations •movement in Poland, 1 May has become a day o struggles for social rights. We are not alone in our fight. From the first days of August 1980, we have been able to see the
the world. eve of this May Day we thank the trade unions of other countries, as well as the organisations, and
International
Father Paul Caspersz
Lanka ; well But essential precondition for
ploitation carried out by the British tea companies Paul Caspersz is a Jesuit priest, working with tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka.
International Conference "The Plantation
workers of Sri Lanka'
23-24 April, Hampstead
Town Hall, Haverstock
Hill. London NW3 (Nearest tube Belsize Park).
Speakers include: Paul
Caspersz, Kumudini Samuel, Guy Barnett Mr nan Look
Organised by Sri Lanka Research
and Information Group all those who have acted as individuals whose devotion proof human solidarity.
Zbigniew Bujak (War saw), Wladyslaw Hardek (Cracow), Bogdan Lis (Gdansk), Jozef Piniol (Wroclaw), Eugeniusz Szumiejko • (member the Praesidium of the na tional Commission).
Temporary Co-ordinating Committee of the self managed, independent trade union, Solidarnosc. 23 March 1983
Page 7 scan of this page
THE ACTION INTERVIEW
Interview
FOLLOWING the publication of the Labour Party's campaign document New Hope for Britain there has been a strong impulse on the left of the Labour Party to unite behind the document and to put on one side its fudgings.
Tony Benn, the acknowledged national leader of the Labour left, has been one of the strongest proponents of this view. In this interview, conducted with Phil Hearse and Alan Freeman on 14 April, he explains perspective for a Labour victory in the general election.
If there is a June election, can Labour win?
Yes we can, and it's yery important that we be confident.
Duelaulc. which we've hammerèd out over a long period, and in the possibility oi victory. A lot oi Tory 'wet' voters are going to vote SDP and the Labour decided leadership and programme has got a good chance. ralkianas war Is over as a raclor, lo a very large extent. There is a very good cnance or willlllg In June...
think it's important should flave Corecuce popularity of our policies. 268 Liberals in Tottenham ioin the
Party the their parliamentary their local council candidates.
I believe that the Labour Party is going to pick up enormous support from Liberal voters they are fed up with the fact that half their candidates have been defeated before the election begins by Jenkins and the deal with the SDP, and secondly because if the Liberals were to do well, what would be the effect? They would put back into power Roy Jenkins who has been the sort of Labour leader the Liberais have most disliked because he bureaucratic, centralistic, secretive, he wanted an authoritarian consensus society.
On the other hand a lot of Tory wel volers are golng lo say lilal we can peril ng Re conservative halues or vote Jenkins the present government just be a slightly milder form of con. servatism. It would be the conserVaLID li of MacMillan, Heath Churchill. So with a split Tory vote and a Labour vote augmented disatișfied Liberals, there's a good chance of winning.
If there's no overall majority after the election and there must possibility of that pressure inside the PLP for a coalition with the SDP, and what will your attitude be?
Well I'm absolutely opposed to it. But I don't want to discuss it too much, for the reason that you don't go into a battle saying 'If we re beaten what will we do next?'.
Michael Foot himself has made Gea. and so has the National Executive, accepting resoluuons, lal Inere is no cuesuion of a coalition. If the Tories largest single party then that's their problem.
If we are the largest single party, we form a government our boncy. wetrylo zenouanae House and if it's defeated Tories, Liberals and SDP, we go to the country and win a majority as we did in March '66 and in October '74.
I'm sure that if we proceed on the basis of our policies that we could win support. So I'm totally opposed to any arrangement or coalition.
The his Confident in
party with a
think the
that we
We saw
day with condidate and
Partiv because
Roy would encourage people to
luCIL — that this was some way
moderating broker for coalitions. was he was
take your without im-
House of
- it would you'll appeal to the people.
That's perfectly have been done in and ing a Lib-Lab pact. nothing for the life of the government, govelllchl anything.
'79... be wil there be
leadership which is those policies, jority on the NEC at present.
consistenl pessimism.
constituency sayıng ayere Is No artemnativer.
are the tion TINA bined just demoralise people
and present happens if we don't win,
happen if we do by the gramme isn't
ment will continue demands,
It's important to say that, not in the sense of anticipating a defeat, but in the sense that one of the things which
vote SDP would be the belief of avoiding the iwo extremes' and it could be a
influence being
Well it has been said, but we're going for all-out victory on a programme which has been hammered out. So I
point, you have to make clear you are going to put forward your programme in any case and if the Commons won't carry it over. Why?
, pr instead of navThat pact did us, it simply prolonged without actualy QUIng And in my opinion it contributed substantially to our defeat in
But there is a tremendous campaign underway in the party to restore the
identified with and which has a ma-
I know the line you are taking, which
and Deisioicill
If I were to accept your argument I aiOLC policy. would quit. And the trouble is you are
own left wing way There is the Thatcher TINA and the Socialist Ac-
- and both TINAs com-
All the questions you ask 'What
what will will and ine bro Labour implemented all you're doing is spreading pessimism.
We're not pessimistic that the move-
we are pessimistic of the to press its (oner response of the party leadership in the
Tony Benn MP
'Socialist Action supports a
line of consistent pessimism'
face of these demands.
Well look at Tatchell. It ended in tragedy, but he won — he beat the ExCCuLIVC. The trouble was that in ine process the leadership beat him.
And if you take the Militant argument. The Executive went to a huge victory at last' year's conference not on the basis that they would expel the five editorial board members, "they would dis-endorse all the Militant supporters who are candidates, they would get the 60-80 Militant sellers, and possibly they would go further and expel ten or twenty thousand people. Six months later
Nobody's going to touch it. Because the movement is strong that even a right wing executive can't do it.
LOOK alue DOnCy lus olaev
phrases of caution which I wouldn't
have drafted in that way, but the main policy changes of the past few years are in place. You're not tellng me that is the way it would be drafted by the other side. debilitating effect not oreme, but a .cheer you're having other people.
You put down a motion at the NEC arguing against incomes restraint...?
The amendment I moved was accepted. The reality is that the trade union movement is not going to have
government-imposed They know if they accept it again from a Labour government it will be used against them under a Tory government.
There will be pressure for it, we all know that, ocoalse Callaghan will still be a member of the House of that the allaghn vinu 41001 you musun t that the of how
government should behave has disappeared from the scene.
At the Scottish TUC there's a resolution which rejects all forms of in
restraint even through a National Economic Assessment.
The National Economic Assessment can be read any way vou like. Those who favour a pay policy will argue the National Economic such a policy. But having moved that amendment, the National Economic • Assessment is presented as an indica•
tion that we'll have a Labour govern. ment with as close a relationship with organised labour as the Tories do with their backers.
understand the making but the general assessment is one of gloom. At this moment in the electoral cycle when you have an ab. solute duty to beat Thatcher, if you it's the difficulties, then you are actually assisting her prospect of victory. so
There's another way that gloom ha: been spread, with people like you saying that the developments in the Tory party represent fascism. What worries us about this argument is that it could make people unduly defeating way to the fascism one should link anyone — for example the SDP — to defeat her.
I've never said Mrs Thatcher is a fascist.
period of crisis you have to study th
deas oi lascism. Just as vou have t study the ideas of Marxism. If the left
frightened of and what brings fascists to power wage you won't see that Mussolini to power-was exactly the ideas being put making it illegal to strike and so on. To say that you mustn't mention that for fear that the soft left will make an alliance with the SDP is ludicrous.
I've never said anything, like some wobbly elements in the Morning Star did, who think you have to alal-Cucul they have the same position on proportional representation. strength of the British working class movement that Bosite conclusion from the hoaliposite conclusion tionists.
Tony Benn
ment?
document.
do women
that a disrupt would be
point you're
with the policy.
and the through.
gloomy about Thatcher. It could pave the the together the argument that against
with the What I did say is that in a colerend
coalition
discussing fascism tive thing what brought
forward now about TWaY
have an with the SDP because
party?
IL Wa ane
defeated
tascism
from
Socialist Action 22 April 1983 7 In CND there's a lot of scepticism about the value of voting Labour. Is Britain really going to be nuclear free after five years of Labour govern-
documenta osa i can undestand
Now understand people being sceptical. But when they come to vote what are people going to
vote and give lhatche! majority? Are they going to vote for the SDP which essentially agrees with
• or are they going to vote Labour and keep the pressure up?
I've said before that if a Labour government is elected the Greenhan
should double their conLulecul ounsc une bases Bume ac
Labour government will be much more amenable to pressure is a reflection of not only the conference resolutions but CND itself.
But what worries people for example is the statement that this would be carried out in such a way as tc
exisuing alliances'. very difficult to do that.
That would then become an argument for not doing it...
Well it could be. All you're saying, let me sum it up for the benefit of the readers, is that there are people in the Labour Party who were in the '749 Labour government who don't agree
I agree. But they are ten per cent of the party. And the cha tes Tud agree ntot thel gy
TUC agree
But to ensure it is done the rank and worrying is that if it hadn't been for
existence that go1 consituency parties to fight the witch hunt, we wouldn't today be talking about successes defending Militant. we now have people trying to organise in a similar
mass campaigns, that th polcici manifesto, that the MPs are against
in bodies like-Socialists for Labour Victory. But some on the left seem to be saying that noW ll would be seen as a divisive and disrup
if the rank and file of the Labour Party were organised in this
There are times for certain things After a defeat is the time for a postmortem, for policy and constitutional changes. But are you saying on the eve of poll we should all be sitting round discussing whether Peter Taaffe and Claire Doyle should be back in the
The only difference, if there is one, is whether the internal discussion of these matters should be the dominant or the secondary question in the pre-election period. And I think the! should be secondary question.
Page 8 scan of this page
Marianella Garcia Villas
THE ARMY's version of her death claimed that she was group of guerrillas March in a clash with Salvadorean forces near La Bermuda. In fact, Marianella Garcia Villas, founder and president of the Commission for Human Rights of El Salvador, was murdered while peasants away from a fierce army bombardment of their towards a refugee camp. leagues later confirmed that the 34 year-old lawyer and journalist had been taken alive by government troops, identified, then atrociously tortured. Twenty of the peasants died with her.
At the time of her death she had just returned to El Salvador from temporary exile to reports of the use of napalm and phosphorous bombs villages by the El Salvador force. Under her leadership Human Rights Commission documented and drawn the world's attention to the horrific repression
Photo: CHRISTIAN POVEDA
8 Socialist Action
and witnessed its effects that I take it for granted.' among death squads
military 43,000 in
evidence
leading
homes
Her col-
to shore up the regime.
hit list.
investigate
against round of air the has 22 April 1983
'I cannot say that I am not atraid. Iam afraid but 1am not terrified. And Iknow that I will find the necessary strength to overcome this fear. I am struggling for life, a real and dignitied life. I repeat: I do not want to die. However, I have often come so close to death
of the population by the right wing and the assassinations (over the last three years, massacres, torture, abductions and the use of chemical weapons. few
The Commission's independent has made of Ronald Reagan's arguments that the human rights situation in Salvador is improving, arguments concocted to justify his pumping in more US military aid and advisors And the visibility of the workers who collect and publicise this evidence has put them high on the security forces'
When Marianella Garcia, accompanied by a photographer, used to go on her gruesome morning the streets San in Salvador searching for the bodies of death squad victims, she knew that she and her colleagues could also meet such a death at any time.
Her close friend and Commission
Press Secretary, Maria Magdalena Henriques, was abducted, tortured and killed in October 1980. Her Executive Secretary, Valladares Perez, was shot down a
weeks Last another Commission America Fernanda Perdomo, was abducted by soldiers and has never been seen since.
Marianella's own family were forced to flee the country after their house was bombed. On two previous occasions she herself had sought refuge abroad, using time to speak at solidarity rallies and give evidence before the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Yet 'she always against the advice of friends, on coming back. These extracts from her personal letters sent to a friend
Europe, published humously, explain why prepared to run the incredible risks she did and ultimately to pay the highest price of all for the struggle of her people.
Ramon
August, Photo: SALPRESS
worker,
(7 July 1980) the
I will always work for
insisted,
with the workers, the peasants. I give them
post- priority. With them 1 she was
human, of sincerity, of of simplicity and loyalty.
and feelings lead me to
peasant comrades with whom I have shared hardships and bitterness,
are, and with so many
that it is my duty to be at their side.
FPL, of which Ana Maria was a comandante.
'Each drop of b.
is one more spa
and with the people.
My place is in El Salvador,
discover the value of being
dignity and at the same time
If I am sent to fulfill other duties at another level, I will do that too, because I am aware of their importance.
However, my inclinations
prefer to be in the town or in the countryside with my
and also sacrifices and joys.
I am in utter anguish about what has become of them. I no longer know where they
massacres I very much fear that something irreparable has happened to them. I feel
Left and above women fighters of the
(9 September 1980)
6 For me the oppress
those who are humiliated, exploited, assassinated, arrested OI disappeared have neithe colour nor nationality. constitute a social class situated in different geographical areas but suffering from the same main enemy and similar secondary enemies ... A need solidarity, understanding, sacrifice support. Of course, the are degrees of urgency, concrete circumstances which impose priorities solidarity at the international level.
As far as Latin America is concerned, I think the peoples who should have priority are those of El Salvador, Guatemala and Bolivia (where the dictatorship since been overturned Ed.). Next come the oth — Argentina, Chile, Uruguay etc. And at the heart of these peoples al the peasants, the factory workers and workers in general who have the greatest need of support
Page 9 scan of this page
* which builds the fire..'
solidarity.
It is better to be more than to have more. And the only way, to my mind, of being more, is to give your life, your work, for others - the exploited, the oppressed. (They) offer us the opportunity to feel really human, not to be puppets nor cogs in a machine, saying and doing what the owners of the circus or transnational company say...
To share all life's experiences, especially the worst ones, with those who are traditionally the main victims of the system, is what gives full meaning to "being more". If they suffer, we share their pain. If they are happy, we share their joy. If they die, we also share their death. And if they live, we work with them so that they can really live like human beings. Our people love lite and want to live; that is why they are fighting; that is why they are dying; that is why they are waging war. And we are part of the people. We are all human beings, and we feel, think and desire in the d same way. That is why we
ood of a revolutionary
equals. with their threats. meaning, literally, step off the plane
must share everything like
(On the subject of the intimidatory measures of the national police directed at the workers of the Human Rights Commission of El Salvador and at those people coming to the Commis. sion's offices to denounce the crimes of the army)
They have not succeeded
The comrades are continuing their work in our local offices, and the families of the victims continue to go there to make their protests. I think that it is important to overcome the fear of the enemy. That is one of the factors of a victory, and it seems to me "que no hay mal que por bien no venga" (a saying
"there's nothing bad that doesn't lead to something good")...
I will (re)enter El Salvador legally. The last thing.I would want to lose is life, but I am aware that I have a 90 per cent chance of dying from the moment I
- cannot say that 1 am not afraid. I am afraid but I am not terrified. And I know that I will find the
necessary strength to overcome this fear. I am struggling for life, a real and dignified life. I repeat: I do not want to die. However, I have often come so close to death and witnessed its effects that I take it for granted. We must all go through it sooner or later, but in every case it will always be too soon for those who want to live life to the full.
Every minute that passes has a meaning, an unequalled depth, even if it appears to be part of the daily routine. Each breeze, each song of the cricket, each flight of the dove is a poem. Each tear, each look of hate or love, is an expression of the life we are going through. Each drop of blood of a revolutionary is one more spark which builds the fire and strengthens our morale to fight to the end. If only I could see this end, which will be the beginning of a song of freedom, a step towards happiness, and towards the fulness y9 equally a step of life!
COMANDANTE Maria', unified leadership Salvadorean movement
entered her
the Nicaraguan capital.
Farabundo
open war in
try from Honduras.
The military Salvadorean ment in
the support
Salvadorean insurgents,
made by administration
the Forces
Salvadorean
three years
cial, Salvador pio, who in enve the
'Ana Maria'
a tribute from the FMLN
'Ana member of the of the guerrilla was ANDES. assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday morning (6 April) in Managua general
which by an unknown group who
leader. house, 17 kilometres to the south of unified
The general command of the
Marti National the Liberation Front (FMLN) has accused the 'sinister bands of the CIA'. And certainly this act cannot be separated from the strategic
the north Nicaragua by more than 2000 Somocistas which, with US support, have penetrated the coun- products.
Valiant assassination of a chief of the Her guerrilla moveManagua could be a method chosen on this occasion Maria', to demonstrate in a tragic form
which the San- sibilities dinista government gives to the
an ac-. the Reagan and never officially admitted by Managua.
Melida Anaya Montes the conception real name of comandante 'An:
Maria', was the second in charge complexity
for Popular politically.
Liberation (FPL), one of the
guerrilla groups which have for the past
constituted the FMLN. She was the closest col- desperation laborator of comandante 'Mar-
Cayetano Car1970 decided to potently Salvadorean Communist Party to form, together
with 'Ana Maria', the FPL.
'Ana Maria' was 54 when she was killed. She had been a leader for many years of the Salvadorean teachers union,
and Weill into clandestinity in 1967 following a threat against her life after
strike of teachers in she was prominent
When, • late in 1980, the
leadership of the Salvadorean guerrilla was constituted, she was integrated into
•command, and later initiated and led the general offensiye on the Usulatán front. Usulatán is a department of
importance in the economy of the country because of its coffee and cotton plantations, two of the basic export
compañeros of the unified leadership of the FMLN have outlined the career of 'Ana
from her union strug gles in the sixties to her respon-
in the military apparatus of the guerrilla.
According to this report, most important was 'her valiant contribution to the development of the unity of the revolutionary forces in El Salvador and the
of the popular revolutionary war, in its military
well
The general command of the Salvadorean guerrilla understands that her assassination is a further proof of the
of the Reagan government which, in spite of its massive military support, im-
watches the demoralisation of the military machine in El Salvador. Socialist Action 22 April 1983
Page 10 scan of this page
SoCiAlist
ACTiON
Socialists for a
Labour Victory!
WHATEVER the date of the general election, the Tory election machine is moving into top gear. Thatcher's message to her troops, however, faint-hearted.
The Tories are aware that among bosses that the upturn will encourage workers to turn the tables on employers who have used the dole speed-up and hold down wages. This is exactly what is going on in the car industry — accompnied by other struggles against privatisation in steel and telecommunications.
These developments show what also is needed to make sure that the cond crack of the whip. leadership have shown that they do not intend building on these struggles or those of the peace movement and the black communities. At the
document is a new social contract. The Labour leadership is telling the bosses that only they can hold back a wages explosion next year. But the bosses don't believe them!
Nothing can disguise the fact that Labour are going to have an extremely difficult job winning the next election, despite recent opinion polls which show a halving of the Tory lead over
But it is wrong to argue as Tony Benn does in our interview that we should not continue confront the right's offensive in the party in the name of unity for the election.
Policy
The right are actively preparing the next stage of their offensive; coalition, witch hunts and the junking of conference policies. to even discuss these problems publicly in the name of combatting 'pessimism rank and file and plays into the hands of the right.
Nor, as the Morning Star has argued in realtion to the Peoples March, building up of an anti-Thatcher alliance embracing the Liberals and the SDP. Socialist Worker in its council of despair has argued that whoever wins the next general election is largely irrelevant to workers.
A small minority within the labour movement have reached a different conclusion. Organised around Socialists for Labour Victory they argue that Labour can win if it links its election campaign to promoting a massive wave or extraparliamentary action against the Tory govern-
SLV argues that the Labour left should put its
unions to organise such a campaign of mass ac tion through organising mass and industrial ac-
against the missiles, pushing forward the Peoples March, and exposing the attacks of the Tories on democratic rights through the Police Bill by backing the struggles of the black com-
Socialists for a Labour Victory is a modest step in the direction of a fight to organise at least a section of the Labour Party to fight on the basis of clear unfudged policies, against coalitionism
decided to campaign at trade union conference with broad lefts for a rejection of any kind of in-
with a panel of speakers that will include the Greenham Common women to help local parties. It will be providing speakers and model leaflets as a service to parties who are determined that policies and support for mass action.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December. otice ances sy conmoutors do not necessanuv reore sent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in editorials.
Send all correspondence regarding subscriptions, ana receipis to socialist Acuon Distribution, 3zo Upper Street London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180) Send all material for publication (including advertising) We regret that due to the high cost of postage we cannot return or acknowledge unsolicited copy or photographs unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.
uncharacteristically
unease exists
queues to cut jobs, boost
Tories don't get a se However the Labour
The New Hope for Britain campaign
LICi Refusing
disarms the
is the answer the ty
be sales
10
CND and
Labour
WHY shouldn't CND call for a Labour vote? What else should we do? General elections are about forming governments.
There is a clear choice between parties against unilateral disarmament
Tories, SDP-Liberal Alliance) and one party,
Smaller groups, outside Labour, haven't the faintest chance of saving their deposits, let alone of LCC
anti-unity
AS A former member of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee who left because of its misleadersnip or lne lent, 1 must rep ly to LCC Secretary Nigel Stanley's Letter (SA 8 April):
This piece of bland waffle completely ignored
differences between the LCC and others on the lett. which are not lust over priorities.
Over the last two years LCC has opposed any form of left unity. First, it
the Rank and Mobilising Committee for Labour Party Democracy, one of the most important bodies in the entire history
Then it refused to consider all agreed lett slate for the 1982 National Ex-
Committee elections. Surely this would be
unity — it's not even particularly controversial as the NEC elections are always contested
This isn't building anti-Tory unity — it's abandoning any real struggle in the pious hope that the right will do the same.
•Yes, of course the left
unity against the Tories, but all inose wao reject such uni-
should be opposed, otherwise the left will just
chewed up and the Tories will remain unopposed.
LAVIRGI McGREGOR
Coventry SE CLP.
Calling
an
A POWERFUL show of solidarity by Irish trade unionists recently secured the release from jail of workers charged with occupying the Ranks flour milling plant in Dublin.
The use of repressive laws has not deterred the workers involved and the occupation has now spread to the company's main plant in Limerick.
Ranks (Ireland) a subsidiarv ot the British-based. multi-national RanksHovis-McDougal (RHM) decided earlier this year to close down milling operations in Ireland and change over to importing flour.
Over 200 workers in Limerick and 100 workers in Dublin lost their jobs. In the case of the Limerick plant a lot of false hopes were raised by local politicians, businessmen and ranchers wno gave tne Impression that they were go-
WILl scheme reopen the
Fortunately, these diversions and deadends did not take the steam out of the situation or take the
Socialist Action 22 April 1983
forming a government!
we are a movement ot millions. We can make o break a government if we have a clear strategy, not if we fudge decisive choices.
If we don't call for a Labour vote we will go into the election without a message on who we want to form a government. We will be marginalised.
Worse, we will let' the Labour leadership off the hook. We need to be right benina unem breathing down their necks! Labour vote are needed to Mass action and stop the missiles this year. PAUL ATKIN, Manchester.
attich Áce
in the platform of
Doesn't this rather
campaign throughout labour sion OI Scottish
- a wallling to labour
• says
credence to Argentina's dubious the
opposition
sovereignty! doesn't say.
diversion the Junta,
of a
successful, WCIC although military
workers' has
offensive, by
fight
tended. workers nave that it
dependent
General Union
action and
boycotting RHM
whole flour milling in-
on
Coull
the case of European a basic food.
, the
Pressure force RHM meet its
nationalisation, the only
YOU ARE quite right to point out (SA 8 April) that
Labour Party and trade union branches into the anti-nuclear
To this end CND local in South London and East London are organisig conterences In May at which labour activists can discuss how to turn paper policies into action.
We hope readers, particularly in South London, Will encourage delegates to attend from their own
and Labour Party branches.
MICK BRADLEY, Tooting CND.
bly
E Assembly from SLV's platform so ironic is that
high level of support among working people in Scotland makes a Labour victory even conceivable at the next election.
But that support won't forever survive the denial of genuine political voice. Redraft that platform!
MARTIN METEYARD, Glasgow Pollok CLP.
"The must be seriously.
foremost denouncing
aISO not engaging
ad-
workers
ther. only be
working
the there once again. industry and the
date.
struggle
try.
It is that the
tain. workers
if possible, • Further information
Fight-Back Group, c/o
Poem THE • 'Up and
Warner.
Whose alternative?
trades
open up
the Labour
which Coverickl
State In(se cond 1982
£3.50) led them to that the
labour movement in-
Party policy Have
LCOULLS alter-
the points discussed detail labour movement meetings the declaration.
Planning
Through Industrial Democracy for example
between and democracy in the TUC/LP document Economic and Industrial Democracy
be if the
plemented.
quired to
socialists
witch hunt and slander campaign Peter Tatchell
for
of abuse an in-
been'. (SA, about this?
of Yakir and others
Rykov, Krestinksy, Rosengoltz
the and
long ago
eople as the
that dregs of
with the of the
days October Socialist Revolution.'
pp317-8
Now
slander
campaigr against Benn
Write to us!
This is your page. Send us your comments, criticisms or even congratulations. But please be brief -letters over 300 words will be cut Write to: Letters, Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP. (Tel: 01-359 8180)
Letters
and which encourage
the West Midlands, GLC
and their NOTC itiatives where they
authorities limited in
tional state
conference on Populal
on 21 May.
Aerospace examine the to
Wainwright deed to wha socialists
couple of
of and Liv-
paign Labour's popularity support.
duck-pond politics for
what Tat-
to what will
Whạt us here is
ingstones the
with
The did
the being about the
left criticised
attack Bolshevism by claiming Ludi • Wai
Page 11 scan of this page
REVIEWS
IT STARTS with all those people arriving there in big cars. Lots of toothpasty smiles. You can hear the dollar bills rustling and the producers' and directors' minds totting up the potential profit — or loss, both which depends a misshaped gold statues. Everyone 'delighted', 'very excited', 'honoured' and winning was just one big surprise even l1 the had been tipped off DCLOIC Everybody, just everybody, looked intense and sincere but that comes after yeats of acting.
This year the Brits cashed with Ghandi which is a message for peace, love, and box office bonanza, and what bank could ask for more than that. Art cinema triumphed over reality.
Back i Doul Africa Ghandi's grandson Mewa Ramogobin is now in his 17th year of house arrest He is stuck out in the Indian township of Verulam where everv five vears ne gets his sentence renewed and there is no appeal.
Euphoria
But Ghandi's director carried away with all that
euphoria just never got arouna to mentioning nis plight when he made his Oscar acceptance speech. He had more sense than Venessa Redgrave who had the courage and the dignity to use her award as a way of turning this self-indulgent into focuss for the plight of the Palestinians. Marlon Brando when he got his Oscar HaVe the film establishment definite thumbs down by sending an indigenous US Indian to speak about the ill treat-
CHOICE
Swindle,
Saturday. 23 April,
7.45. Channel 4
HOW capitalism works,
three episodes.
series on the • in the 505.
Robert Vesco in the
with dummy banks,
Swiss bank accounts and
all the rest.
Panorama.
Monday 25 April,
8.10, BBC1
CALLED 'America's
secret . war'. Panorama
goes to Nicaragua where
reporter jeremy Fazman
claims to have evidence
of the CIA's secret de-
stabilising operation.
This 'infringes US law',
we are told. What about
Nicaragua law? Should
better than the
average edition, though.
Britain in the
Thirties.
Thursday 28 April,
9.25, BBC2
AN 1S o71 series on
aspects in that
decade begins with the
' Mutiny at Invergordan'
when the men of the
Atlantic Fleet rebelled
against pay cuts and
Oscars mean money
bit on getting those
ment and explóitation of the people who discovered the American continent.
But why spoil all these nice peoples' evening by reminding them that the racism and violence of white imperialism is more important than box office figures? Nobody asked the awkard question when Lev Corase slack what happened historical truth? Where
By Bob Pennington
did Subhas Chandrea Bose
He was freedom ighter who broke with Ghandi and was pressed with British Emprie than the Mahat-
Nor, surprise, Ila. prise, does the film deal
with Dr BR Ambedkar who was a leader of the untouchables. When the film deals with South Africa there is an absence of blacks. just might be because Ghandi started from, and never deviated from, the
in that racist hell hole was to get a better position for Indians.
When Attenborough got attacked by SUllIC reviewers and the young Indian film directors whc wanted to know why the Indian government but uc £4 million to finance a film made by a white man and did not gIve Indians
The able quote the approval of Mrs Ghandi. He can even boast of being made a Padma Bhushan which the refused to sail their ships. The admiralty subse-
quently broke its promis
hat there would be no victimisation.
The Eagle.
The Dragon, The Bear and Kampuchea, Thursday, 28 April, 11.15, Channel 4 DON'T expect this Good as ye be good excellent series on Vietnam (Mondays, 9.00, C4), but still worth watching. puchea's problems
WILl NLF's supply lines in the lale sixlits as Is suggesicu
imperialism was there aul canier than thal.
Karl Marx:
The Legacy.
Thursday, 21 April, 7.50, BBC2 THE END of this dread-
series. last episode is called *The
thạt was'. A better title would
'The have beer that never was'. It cer-
wasn't about Marxism.
equivalent of British peerage. Getting Chandi colade trom. Mrs should be no surprise. She needs to seen asle natural heir of the Mahatma and she had no intention of her own directors making a film that showed how she and her class cheated the Indian people of their rights.
Films
Also the rake off from the Indian Films Develop-
Corporation $4 million investment will go
hands VELO Mrs Malti Tambividya the IFDC's managing director is not too worried about 'white only' premiers. She chuckled merrily: 'We will expect our share from the South African distribution.
In the world of capitalism, be it run by whites, blacks or asians,
An Amnesty International Report. Published by Amnesty International Publications £2.50
loose by
"legally' armed or police.
case with a
Alta Verapaz in. 7 April 1982.
with
with machette. entire hand
They took her
the ground.
Illy
been in house. The
rillas, must be killed. My saw how they killed my parents, mother, my
brothers
the fast buck is more important than morals political principals. Britain, Ghandi's Oscars mean big rake offs Down
Although the British cinema audience was down to 65 million last year this is not senaing snivers of apprehension down the spines of and his backers.
of and TV movies US
and only for starters. those wet
faces at the • Oscar don't get misled.
drinking. induced greed and avarice.
Political killings by governments
IF YOU are squeamish then you should read this report in small doses. It details the barbarism let many modern governments against their
and my little one-year-old
only she and her brother Ramos are alive
reports: 'We can't go to the hospital at Cobán. I think they would
In June Efrain Rios Montt became president. But this has not
organised terror. Amnesty
"There have of massive extra-judicial executions since General Efrain Rios Montt took power ...'
Reported
What goes
Guatemala is repeated in
El Salvador and was a day-
to-day occurrence
throw of Somoza
In Argentina since the
military coup of 1976
thousands of people have been abducted by the
police and security forces and taken off to secret camps.
Amnesty estimates 'at
least 6000 people peared ? known have "disap
According the Report: 'In Chile dur-
The film that got nominated for
the Oscars
category was Costa-Gavras' film
Missing. It won only one
screenplay adaptation.
No wonder. Unlike
Missing tells a story that strikes right
at the core of the foreign policy of US
imperialism.
The story of Missing is a true one.
It tells of the abduction and exeçution
of the American journalist,
Horman by the Chilean military, dur-
ing the 1973 coup. The film proves
that his murder was carried out with
the knowledge and acquiesence of US
military personnel who helped plan
the coup.
Horman knew too much. By acci-
dent he came across US naval person-
nel in Valpariso on the eve of the
coup, who mistaking
leanings, spilled the beans to him.
Horman's father (played in the film of Khmer Rouge atrocities. ing the first few months after the 1973 military coup thousands of people were reported to have been summaris
Since 1977 the Report says '... a number of alleg. ed members banned political parties lave died in the custody of the CNI (Chilean police).
But 'official' violence is not restrictd •to the American collicul East Timor which has been occupied by Indonesia since 1971 it is alleged that
many as 500 people, among noncombatant women and Cuttered. were alleged have been killed after capture by Indonesian forces in Lacluta.
reports Iran say that 'in addition
Socialist Action 22 April 1983 A happy Sir Richard but Mewa Ramogobin is less ecstatic
The missing Oscars
nearly every
— OI
'Ghandi',
Charles
home.
his political America.
Action's Oscar:
An execution ground in Kampuchea displayed by present government to remind people
to the large number of of-
ficially announced execu-
since the revolu-
tion (more than 40 at he 97 February 1979
of. November 1982)
Amnesty International has
received reports of execu-
tions which have not been
announced ...
Afghanistan
thousands of people
'disappeared' April
and in 1979 when
President Babrak Karmal
took over an over and
declared amnesty.
dermees were ro
released and the Karmal
government says these were
killed before it came to
Government officials
told Amnesty they had 'a
list of 4584 who had been
killed, but they believed
the number of killings and
11 by Jack Lemon) and his wife (Sissy Spacek) search for him, but meet only obstruction from the US authorities.
Missing caused such an outery that the State Department was moved to issue official denials. It films the fear and terror in the streets, and shows the Santiago stadium with its horrific piles of bodies. The film in the mortuaries is harrowing. This is a bitter reminder of not only what happened in Chile, but what is happening today in El Salvador and Guatemala.
Ghandi can mean anything to anyone. The well-heeled performances who won its Oscars can spout pompous platitudes till the cows come
Missing tells a story of the here and now tet-revolution frey utton
counter-revolution
Without question it gets Socialist
'disappearances' tually higher'
Amnesty by exposing these dreadful crimes do a real service. They offer some hope to the prisoners rotting in the knowing that at any tims. these regimes, they could be dragged ou executed They also arm the socialist ment in its fight against murder and injustice. socialists we must oppos frame-ups and the use oi torture wherever they take place, and whoever's name they take place None ot whilst Caines like these
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Page 12 scan of this page
12
DIARY
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MAY
24
• International Women's
— 24 May. For more information please contact 'May 24th' 16 Arundel Rd, Brighton, E. Sussex. • 24 May Glasgow Women for Peace are calling. a Scottish Day of Action. Rally in George Square and resuval. ror uctals collact ulasgow women s centre, 57 Miller Street or ring 061-221 1177 Saturdays after 1pm • El Salvador - Bristol public meeting. Speakers: Meagan Marun (ci soc); Perry Lees (T&GWU regional officer. personal capacity); and Solidarity ith batin America representative. Fim: Ballots and Bullets. Sponsored by SLAM and Bristol T&GWU. wea zI April, 1.supm Transport Hse, Victoria St. Contact Rose Cooper, 5 NIhermarle Row. Hotwells. Bristol for details.
alled by the Emergency Citee Against the invasion of Lebanon, 27 April, 2pm. Lobby vour MP to protest at the continued occupation of Lebanon by Israel and the aross v madeouate saran Commission findings of violations of international law.
THIS WEEK, Mr
Leon Brittan, chief
secretary to the
treasury admitted that
government borrow-
ing last year would ex-
ceed the £7.5 billion.
forecast, but claimed
there were encourag-
ing signs for the
economic recovery.
Pm une same week le
President of the World
Bank cap
hand to Margaret That-
cher to back a large l
crcase In loans to the
Poorest of the
countries.
He's trying to raise
£10 billion loans to keep
the 'poorest of the poor
countries in the
capitalists' pockets.
Borrowing
With so much bor-
rowing going on, you
may wonder what all the .
fuss is about the Socialist
Action Spring Appeal.
After all we are only try-
Socialist Action 22 April 1983
• Hunger Strikers Commemoration Rally. 1 May in Birmingham.
Assemble at Spark Hill at
*anaton workers of Sri Lanka'. An international conference on 23/24 April organised by the Sri Lanka Research and Information urouD. , rurner aclals Iron SLRIG, 9 Grays Inn Buildings, Rosebury Ave, London CLi.
will unilateralism win?'
Jewcastle CND public
Sawyer (NEC), Pat Arrowsmith, Bob Cryer and
Campaign). Fri 22 April, 7.30pm, Rooms 4&5, YMCA. • Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom Conference and AGM, 7/8 May at Goldsmiths College SU, Lewisham Way. London SE14. Details: CPBF, 9 Poland St, London W1. • 'Plastic Bullets' public meeting (exhibition and shoesnow wiln Alslall Renwick (ex-British soldier) and Andy Harris (GLC councilor. Wed 27 April, 7.30pm, 1 Thorpe Close, Ladbroke Grove tube. Organised by West London Troops Out.
'Towards a police state?' Hounslow Socialist Forum meeting with criminal lawyer Brian Rose-Smith introducing on the Police Bill. Sun 24 April, 7pm, George IV pub, 185 Chiswick High Road, W4. • Women Against Rape public meeting with John they and ome speakers, followed by a women only discussion.
May, 7.30pm, Camden Centre, Camden Town Hall, London WCl. Meeting to. discuss John Tilley's Bill to make rave in marriase d crime. Further info: 01-837 7509/387 3244.
CHILE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN PRESENTS IN CONCERT FOR CHILE
Quilapayun
DOMINION THEATRE
Needed - economic recovery«
ing to Well, paltry £19,500. I guess you all know the answer, or you should do if you are a regular reader of Socialist Action.
Like Leon Brittan, we can see encouraging signs for the future. Busy
We see the sales figures of the paper on the increase, and a busy
ahead WILD the Peoples' March for Jobs. the Youth CND Carniva and the May 24th Womens' Day of Action.
This is a month when the sales should increase, and the figures on our logo will begin to link up right across the country.
There must be bank
accounts over
country just aching to be
uscu
Use it wisely, make
out a chedue or standing
order to your paper to-
day!
• Troops out now! Public Roach Family Support Speakers from committee, irisa keoublican Socialist Party; Sinn Fein; GLC; TOM • South London Troops Out Movement benefit Sat 30 April, , 8 til late.
African Dawn, The Morons and Chris Ransome. The Loughborough Rd, SW9. £1.50/75p unwaged.
Support the May 7th
demonstration for
Britain out of Ireland
and Self Determination
for the Irish People.
For details of sponsorship etc
contact the May 7th
Organising Committee,
Box 353, London NW5
4NH.
• Labour Committee On Sat 23 April, County Hall, London SEI. Discussion on new madame au wade unions. Details: Box BM 5355, London WCIN 3XX. • Merseyside Labour Co
Fri 22 April, 7.30, Central Hall Renshaw St, , Liverpool 1. Speakers: Allan Roberts MP and Peter Tatchell. • El Salvador public • meeting with film 'Portrait of a liberated zone' and speaker. Fri 22 April, / suoin. wan rolel. Lon don Rd, Liverpool. (Organised by Merseyside Latin American Solidarity Front).
Nottingham Campaign against Kacism and Fascism public meeting with speaker from the Roach Family Sup. volt curee, sun o ividy 3.00pm, International Com-
munity Centre, 61b Mansed ka
ThE BOYS OUTE LOUGH
SUNDAY IST MAYAT 7PM
* 5800 9582 Thanks this week to:
I. Aranovski
Huddersfield
Total this week £ 854.20 1 OLAI SO TEl £1346.04
Help us to
stop the missiles!
When we have reached our Spring Appeal target of $19.500, the map will be covered by a massive CND chain. So help us to stop the missiles! Send us a contribution today to Spring Appeal, Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP.
• 'The Fight against the ronce Dill way conierenet to launch a national campaign and establish a broad, nationally representative committee. Speakers from LP, trade unions and ethnic organisations. Sun 15 May, 10.30-5, Hackney Town Hall. Further details from National Campaign against the Police Bill, c/o Room Mare St, E8 (01-986 3123 ext 280).
Colin Roach London- wide demonstration calling for a public inquiry into his death. Further details from RFSC, c/o 50 Rectory Road, London N16 0-44 480
"The Galaxy's Guide to
review is periormee ov int Fall-Out Theatre Company on 3 May, Methodist Church Hall, High Rd, East Finchley, 7.30pm. • People's March for Jobs coland events Sat 23 April Glasgow sendoff demonstration, assemble George Sa), 11.30am, march Nor manover oron 12 noon for rally in Queens Park. Barrhead welcoming march assembles 4.20pm Salterland Rd. Sun 24 assembe s.Jvom. nuinead School, Hillhead Roundabout, Kilmarnock for march into Kilmarnock and rally at Grand Hall. Thurs 28 April assemble 3.30pm, Newton Rd, Lochside for march inte Dumfries and rally at Mill Green. Sat 30 April assemble 10am on western outskirts of Gretna village to see the maren across une border.
Socialist Action Forums
EALING 'Getting rid of the bomb'. Speaker Alan Lenton (London Region CND Exec., personal capacity). Thurs 28 April, 7.30pm, Three Horseshoes pub, , Southall High St (opp Town Hall)
EXETER 'Socialist Action -a new labour movement newspaper The Oddfellows Arms, New North Rd.
NOTTINGHAM Joint Revolution/Socialist Action day school on 'Centra America and the Caribbean' and 'How to use SA'. Sun
Walk Community Centre, The Meadows. For details phone Nottingham 256667.
• Popular Planning for Social Need conference. 21 May, County Hall, London SEI, 11-5. £2.50/£1 unwaged, creche available. o develoo a democrat Alternative Economic Strategy Organised by LA POVONM London. Holloway Rd, N7. • Glasgow Polish Solidarity Committee AGM Thur 21 April, 7.30pm, McLellan Galleries, Sauchiehall St Speaker: Marek Garztecki (Solidarity TU Working Group). GREENHAM COMMON
AND LABOUR
*XXXXXXXx
• The Green Rally •realised ov renos orene Earth and CLEAR, Wed. 27 April, 7.30pm Central Hall, wes minster. Sneaker: include Ralph Nader, Joan Ruddock, Petra Kelly, Davic Bellamy. Tickets £5 from Rally Box Office, CLEAR, 2 North Down St, London N1 (01-833 1250).
• GLC Women's Committee open meeting to discuss women and health care in London. Fri 29 April. 7pm. Creche facilities and sign language interpretation available. Further info: 01-633 1038.
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Page 13 scan of this page
Labour movement must come out
Surplus Value
Bermondsey Labour Party
won't be standing
Tatchell as their candidate in the general election, as a
direct result of the media
witch hunt against him.
Peter has written up a speech hitting back at the press which he gave at the recent LPYS conference fringe meeting on gay rights.
THROUGHOUT the Bermondsey by-election, popular press and opposition parties took a sudden and extraordinary interest in the issue of gay rights.
But it was not in order to add their weight to calls for homosexual equality.
Rather they played
gay rights and homophobic prejudice in order to undermine support for myself and Labour at the polis.
For fifteen months, in the run up to the Bermondsey by-election yellow rags of Fleet Street ran a series of sensational stories: Red Pete went to the Gay Olympics' (Sun), 'My fight for the Gays I support them says
Pete' (Sun), row Labour' (News of the World), Gay Old Battle in Docklands' (Daily Express), etc.
All these stories clusively on myself and the Labour Party. They conveniently ignored the fact that several of the leading figures in the Bermondsey either gay or supporters of gay rights.
Indeed, in Bob Mellish, the people of Bermondsey have had an MP for the last 37 years who supports gay rights. The new Liberal MP, Simon Hughes, is also a supporter rights - or at least he has claimed to be since the election!
But Fleet Street chose not report such 'unpalatable' facts which might have harmed their political objective of bolstering the anti-Labour vote. What. hypocrisy standards! Throughout election campaign It WaN teresting to observe tne wåy in walca the media portrays my defence of gay rignts as a personal rather than advocacy of official Labour Party policy.
Official
Whilst I do have a personal commitment, gay rights is official policy, and, as such, every Party member is duty bound to fight for its implemen-
That includes Michael Foot, and even Denis Healey, Labour parliamentary candidate!
Just as I supported gay rights in Bermondsey, so did the Labour candidate in Darlington, and so will the Labour candidates beyond. It's our official policy agreed by conference!
In the post-mortem followed the Bermondsey by-election, it has been instructive to witness the way many people, even some within the Labour Party, have said that a more 'suitable' or less Labour candidate might have been a wiser choice. More "suitable whom?
What they really mean is more 'suitable' to the Tory press and more in conformity with popular judices. That effectively means more clones from Labour candidate factory: moderate, middle-aged, married, macho and male! Heavens! We already have far too many Labour MPs of that stereotype.
If merely continue reproduce that traditional style of Labour candidate we will never get an
Peter
3 Y
CTIVA
the
ALL
on the
rocks 'It's a
focussed ex-
by-election were
adequate
of gay cing them by parliamentary selection to candidates' and opposition parties.
double the byalso in-
"idiosyncracy'
SDP.
Judging from tionalism offices in government.
plus every
Cardiff and parliamentary
open
which has
Bermondsey. Protect
'vulnerable
establishment, and,
pre allies in Fleet Street.
Nowadays,
COME OUTI
representation of womer and black MPs. Instead of overcoming prejudices, we will end up reinfor-
conducting conferences within the parameters of 'acceptable
as defined by the media
Allowing Fleet Street to dictate the type of candidates we choose is only one step away from allowing it to determine our policies as well. If we permit ourselves to be bullied and intimidated down that road, we will be colluding with the transformation of Labour into a 'second eleven' for the
the press sensasurrounding Bermonasey, one would have thought that there flinch. had never been any gay MPs inside the House of Commons. Far from it! Of course there are lots of homosexual MPs from all parties and both
- and there always have been! Some of them have held the highest
Their sexuality does not in any way diminish their ability to be good MPs. Indeed many are held in high public esteem for their conscientious
service Regrettably, none of these gay MPs feel able to be
their sexuality, fearing exactly the kind of anti-gay witch-hunting which I experienced in
Of course the establishement does protect its own. Most of the homosexuals in parliament are part of the
providing they maintain a degree of discretion, they are protected from exposure by their
tar-brush homosexuality is largely only used by the mediadagainst left-wing socialists. In my own case, Fleet Street's real objection was to my socialist policies.
It merely used my sexuality and support for gay rights as a means to 'discredit' a socialist candidate which
WId
Peter Tatchell on gay rights
it wanted to see defeated at the polls. If I had been a Tory, Liberal or SDP
candidate, there would have been no innuendo about my private life at all
- just as there were no press smears about the sexuality of candidates who stood for those parties in the Bermondsey by-election.
Even in defeat, one of the good things to come out of the Bermondsey by-election was Labour's refusal te concede an inch to anti-gay prejudices despite all the abuse, threats and violence which marred the campaign. No other party has ever had its support for gay rights put to such gruelling tests of commitment as Labour experienced in Bermondsey. when the crunch came, we didn't
Guts
Unlike the other parties, Labour confronted bigotry head-on. We had
right, even in the face of adverse contribute to the courage and convictions
It is all very well for the Liberal victor, Simon Hughes, and his party
10
judices after the by-election. But if they are so principled, why didn't
condemn it during the cam-
gay rights was shown up for the sham it is. Not only did the Liberals evade the issue, they positively added to the 'queer-baiting' atmosphere of the campaign by wearkissed by Peter Tatchell'.
should also show a little honesty and humility in recognising Labour's own record on gay rights leaves a lot to be desired. There are those on the 'left'
dismiss
ESBIANG
UNITE
because it is 'not a class issue'. Well, it certainly is!
•Of Britain's three women and men, majority most likely to suffer the full brunt of our homophobic laws, homosexuals can use their wealth and powerful connections to 'buy' way out of discrimination and harassment. Money talks — even for gays.
I am reminded of the case of a wealthy Labour MP who felt obliged to marry to disguise his homosexual preferences in view of the climate of public and press hostility. Several years ago, he was arrested for imporAnd tuning late at night. However, a couple of telephone calls to the solicitor and a 'friendly chat' with the local police commander at 4am in the morning apparently release without charges. That would not have been the fate of an ordinary working class homosexual arrested in similar circumstances.
While Labour-controlled authorities such as the Greater London Council, Lambeth and Islington have pioneered municipal gay rights many backwaters still remain. A couple of years ago, council sacked Susan Shell. nure v and simply because she was a lesbian. Prejudice
In the wider society too, prejudice still runs deep. Several years ago, a husband murdered discovering that she was having a lesbian affair. He was given a 12 month suspended prison grounds that his wife's lesbianism was a serious provocation. Last year a 22 year old man who dared to love an 18 year old was convicted of illegal sexual relations and was sentenced to two years in prison!
Lesbian mothers still often have a battle to children in divorce proceedings — as if their sexuality makes them any less caring and loving towards their kids!
In the context of such harsh op-
Socialist Action 22 April 1983 isations seem
people pay
benefit. cludes
. the
taken for
ty.
mitments
demands:
with
Photo• CHRIS DAVIES (Renort Scotland,
Armed Navy).
activity
punishable
fences
million gay the overwhelming are working class and are
services whereas rich also to
their best
secured his
local
SPECIAL ISSUE Barking's Labour
Frayed gay
Obey the
his wife after
Women lovine
sentence on the
now speeches
Tatchell secure custody of their
conference.
13 pression, relatively small grants made by the GLC and other local authorities to fund gay counselling organ-
modest indeed What is astonishing is the Tory and media outcry against such grants. Gay
taxes and rates like everyone else. They have a right to expect that some of their contributions to the public purse are used for their
At present, a lot of the taxes and rates paid by homosexual women and men are used to finance their own oppression in the form of police harass ment and discriminatory legislation. Gay people pay TV licence fees to finance the BBC which virtually ex-
from its programming and frequently denigrates them in sensationalist news reporting and mocking prejudicial comedies.
It is long overdue that gay people
democratic : human rights as many other Britons have
granted. If socialism about the liberation of all nations, all classes, all peoples, and all minorities from all forms of oppression, then the Labour Party must be in the forefront of the struggle for homosexual equali-
In place of the often vague com-
Labour's Programme '82, we must fight for more radical
• Reduction in the age of consent for male homosexuals to 16 in equalit
heterosexuals (including the North of Ireland, the Forces and the Merchant
• The repeal or amendment of other sexual offences legislation (such as the laws on soliciting) which specifically penalise homosexuals where a similar
between and women would either not be an offence or be
by a lesser sentence, thereby ensuring common sexual of-
laws that treat homosexuals and heterosexuals equally. • A generalised Anti-discrimination Act to make it illegal to discriminate against homosexuals in employment, housing and the provision of other
For to incite hatred and violence against gay people (the ac
cover women and black disabled and other minorities). • The right of young gays not to be deprived of their individual liberty b 'protective' custodial orders, and th right of lesbian mothers not to be deprived of custody of their children in divorce proceedings on the grounds of their sexuality.
I would urge that resolutions to this effect should be passed through local Young Socialists and CLP branches, and to get their branches to affiliate to Gay LPYS and the Labour Campaign for Gay Rights.
Blackpoo Report '82
Foot upset camraigne
heart's
m-GAL KOW ROCKS hampeign for Gay Rig
• A special issue of Gay Socialist is
available which contains rights by Tony Benn, Jo Richardson and Ken Livingstone as well as Peter
Send 50p. plus stamped addressed envelope to 19 Hamilton Road, Southall, Mdax. Labour campaign fre Gay Righes • See page 5 for report
Page 14 scan of this page
Changes on the way in APEX
Socialist teachers fight pay sell out
Transport workers in conference
PICKET
LINE
Firth Derihon occupation
EIGHTY WORKERS at the Firth Derihon plant in Sheffield have been
their factory since 1 April in the fight stop 11 enforced redun-
closure of the saw and die shops.
Iley see dancies and the transfer
COCCO! departments to Darley Dale near Matlock as being another step towards the total closure of Firth Derihon in Sheffield.
Paul Mackie, COL
for the joint stewards committee inOIVIL CEPTI AUEW, and UCATT T&G.
members told us have been on short time working for 2 years and fifteen months ago there were SALY voluntary redundancies and closure of the saw and die shops. We said we wouldn't accept either, and after a break down in procedures we stopped work.
'Then on 26 March cowboys were brought in to take the work out. We responded with cupation and have been here since. what we've got to do,
Phorn: OM COOKSON and are planning in ad-
vance for what management will do next. * Collection sheets are available from the join! stewards committee c/o D.Michie, 21 Mather Road, Littledale, Sheffield S9 4GN or by phonSheffield ccupa. the occupation on (Rich Palser)
Monks strike
WORKERS at the Shef. field firm Hodkin and Jones which produces prefabricated Colicie structures are now in
fourth week of strike.
On 1 March, Monks. leading builders merchant announced swinging cuts in picce Tales.
'This meant
average cut in our wages of 20 per cent' said Fred Sanderson, TGWU shop steward. For some of the lads its even more. We just couldn't afford it. So we started a work to rule'.
Daleside Haddon
ON 26 January, workers at Daleside Haddon, a Nottingham dying and finishing firm, were sacked for refusing to accept the imposition of continental shifts.
Ante weekson strike which had begun to hit the bosses hard. they have been forced to
pay of £500, plus £85 for every
employed by the firm. None of the workers have been offered their jobs back.
Responsibility for the defeat lies with the top officials of the NUHKW. President David Lambert threatenca lne strikers lat I tney didn't . accept the deal the union's NEC 'review their position' shorthand for withdrawing official support.
Hosiery and knitwear bosses will see
WARNIN group 4
HA
FRa
20rE0
Firth Derihon occupation Sheffield
When on 18 March, 12 workers were sacked, all 32 went on strike to
restatemen and talks on pay. The strike is official and there are regular pickets. Vital cement deliveries have been stopped.
One striker explained 'We came out last nurses, now we nedd supe September port. • Donations and messages to: Roger Horne, H and J Strike Committee, Hands Rd, Crookes, Sheffield SIO INB (Martin Hill)
Daleside Haddon as the green light to impose continentar been sic
been cessfully resisted) and to tear • existing agreements.
The lesson of Daleside Haddon is that militant action pickets, rallies, demonstrations. — must go nana in nana with a fight for union leaders who will defend their members, not sell them down the Swannee. member) (By NUHKW
PICKET LINES. Short 150 word reports by
before publication. Longee. Sures. CONCE Editorial Board by Monday, the week before publication.
14 Wilson and Callaghan.
For most delegates the biggest change will be the voluntary departure of president Denis Howell MP, who adds witch hun. ting left ministerial talents of organising sports and natural disasters.
By a conference delegate.
Howell's departure has highlighted the rift in the union between the hard right, for whom WITCH AlRI response and those who seek Iberalisation and a more relaxed regime.
APEX
The left candidate for the David
Winnick the MP for Walsall, is likely to run right wing choice Ken Smith a close race. The executive is narrowly divided over internal disciplinary hearings into allegations
Broad Left organisation. A victory for Win-
would HICK Consonale changes which have been ONE of the chief issues at the National Union of Teachers conference at Easter was teachers' pay. On •25 March the employers made an offer of 4.5 per cent which Fred Jarvis, NUT general secretary, rejected on behalf of all teachers.
But in an hour long salary report Jarvis concentrated on the defeats of public sector workers on the pay front. A milk and water executive resolution was adopted, takes place in July.
Out of 522 resolutions submitted by branches, there are more on nuclear disarmament than any
By Mick Gosling TGWU 1/1107 Branch (personal capacity)
But while a number of these resolutions usefully show how the union can use its resources to back unilateral disarmament and insist that this is part of Labour's election manifesto, none mention
Socialist Action 22 April 1983 DELEGATES assembling at Scarborough on 23 April for the annual conference of the clerical workers union APEX are faced with two major headaches — a decline in membership of over 20 per cent since the Tories were elected and a right wing leadership desperate to return to the happy days of
working their way through the union as the Tory atLack. Lave hit APEX members hard.
The leadership stakes
on the gamble OI a Labour victory at the next election. A dose of radical rhetoric combines easily with the call APEX made at Labour Party conference for the expulsion
Militant supporters General secretary коу Grantham argues openly tor a Labour deal will tne SDP and Libérals if the elechon goes agalist unc Tories.
On the union front Howell and Grantham see the consolidation of the right wing TOOLS. creeping moves towards a confederation amalgamation the
WILl EEPTU and the GMBATU. АРЕХ
These moves will be challenged by the majority of delegates who oppose deals with the SDP and are hostile to moves towards the EEPTU. Conference which placed 'confidence in the union's negotiators'.
An amendment put forward by Socialist Teachers Alliance supporters, calling for preparation industrial action to win the union's full claim of 15 per cent was rejected.
By Bernard Regan executive member NUT
Just a week after the conference the employers offered 4.98 per cent •and the establishment 'comparability machinery' to
how teachers pay sions of the thirtieth Biennial Delegate Conference
Hiroshima Day on August. Last year the Trades Union Congress voted to 'Initiate plans for a European-wide demonstration with sympathetic trade union on
Hiroshima Day 1983 but little or nothing has been done to prepare this.
bulladly worded amendments to the TGWU conference, which must be in by 4 May, could be a shot in the arm I0l this action.
Just three out of 22 resolutions support incomes policy. The rest
will instead be pushing for APEX to come in line with the of the labour movement on kev ques tions like disarmament, democracy and active oD position to the Tories.
APEX
Tebbit's attack on union rights, the witch, hunt, support for unilateralism and incomes policy have been squeezed off the agenda. But on ISSUES of women's participation in the union, the executive will face its most radical challenge.
With women a clear
me minion, ere car
union, under-representation leadership positions beyond the branch is a major testimony to the unions previous policy of opposition to positive action.
The executive report APES is a major step
major step towards positive action at every level of the union
The battle to develop this policy women in the base of the union is one the right wing will try hard to control.
This policy will not be won at conference but in ne one name dames a lee base of the union to turn comercuce proclamations into reality. compares with others
could and nOW found by the employers to pay tor te increase
At an emergency executive meeting April, only seven out 42 members voted to
BIC ject the offer. The union Will oe nolang a specia conterence Scar-
on 7 May discuss the proposed settlement.
Left
The Socialist Teachers Alliance, which recruited 70 new members at the annual
reflect the bitterness of many members about the continual overturning conference for free collective bargaining.
Birmingham Power Engipeering Distric Committee is determined not to be caught again 'opposes any form of in-
policy, whether under the guise of a national plan, social plan or
other euphemism ally which may be used to at-
Roy Grantham — general secretary APEX
THE
conference and is now
largest lett torce the NUT, will be organis ing against the sell out.
At the annual COnference the STA consolidated position from last year and in cara volc of delegates, representing the 250,000 members of the union, it regularly scorec in excess of 90-100,000 on issues such as disarmament.
The right wing were •able to claw back some of the advances scored by the left last year — resolutions on CND was ruled out of order. But the conference
tack and undermine the principle of free collective var zainllie. Deadline
Due to the deadline for resolutions only my own branch has had the opportunity to add Labour's Na-
Economic Assessment to this list. Given the normal process of fudging Wlal goes compositing of motions, it is vital that other branches clearly express through
tion to union and participation in any national economic assessment.
In the Unions
UNIONS
showed increased political awareness inside the union.
Silence
The conference stood for a minutes silence tribute to Marianella Garcia Villas , president of the El Salvador Human Rights Committee, murdered by
the junta A collection
the STA disco raised £201
school EI Salvador.
The STA has been at the centre of these political developments and all other left militants in the union are having to consider their attitude towards it.
All resolutions on the internal Labour Party call on the TGWU oppose the witch hunt.
What is missing is positive alternative to the
So branches should submit amendments calling on the union to support the constitutional amendment submitted by Greenwhich Labour Party to the 1983 conference.
This supports the right of pressure group to operate inside the Labou
Party so long as they sup
port its objectives and d not stand candidates against Labour in elections.
Page 15 scan of this page
Rotherham steel strike continues
Telecom workers demand more action
News
THE FIGHT for jobs in the South Yorkshire steel industry is continuing. 900 strong meeting of British Steel Corporation craft workers in Rotherham voted overwhelmingly to continue their strike action against management' so-called 'survival plan'.
This decision came as the national executive of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation was meeting to order a return to work for production workers. Despite BSC threats 10 close the plant, craft workers mounted a picket which was respected by ISTC production workers.
BERNARD CONNOLLY, Rotherham crafts convenor, plains what is at stake.
The ISTC met with management secretly behind the backs •I all concerned, even their own members. five point 'deal' was reached яссерting position that everybody prior to coming out on
The only concession, if you could call it that, was that the workers who had been sent home as redundant would be given a further two weeks in whịch to decide whether to accept your action. I believe the
with capital.'
Westminster POEU members struck for and a half hours to attend the meeting. They gave a standing ovation to fellow members indefinite strike to stop the government's Telecom Bill denationalising Buzby.
Stan Orme, the shadow minister loudly applauded when he said "Un my first day secretary of state for industry in the new Labour government I will tear the - POEU
member Whitehall and at the Bank ol england are alcady ul. strike. Exchange
WORM'S
BYE
VIEW
Black youth's face
batters police knuckles
WHEN TWO of Brixton's more socially con. scious detectives beard a black youth had been ar.
They know that it's easy to get lonely in tae colk they kindly
•redeployment or redundancy.
the meantime, the LICW shift patterns would be operated as 'decreed' by management and there would be 'discussions' on how the 'survival plan' would be implemented. Overturn
As I explained at the
BSC management are trying to overturn long standing agreements and negotiating procedures
TONY BENN told a 2000 strong meeting of striking British Telecom engineers last week 'I fully support
labour movement has always been slow to use industrial action compared
maintenance engineers on
the government CBX net-
WULK linking most
Whitehall ministries, including 10 Downing Street, have also been WILLUL&WIl
By Pete Cooper (a member London West branch POEU
A proposition welcoming the NEC's steps so far, but calling on it to widen the scope of the action to include 'City speculators and financiers who stand to profit most from the
They would go and Lad get
out of his depression.
L'afortunatety in thi ash morid good inten
roarded
tion. When Sergeant
and replace them with dietatorship.
Bound
The 'survival plan' is designed to prepare the
for the privatisation BSC Special Steels, delivering the trade unions bound hand and foot, SO
of the unal une privalcers private sector can launch
attacks their drive for profits.
What we are fighting
union recognition.
BSC is trying the
sale of BT was carried unanimously
David Norman, the union's national treasurer spoke for the POEU Industrial Strategy Committee. He announced that the joint Telecom unions (BTUC) was mounting £600,000 publicity campaign against privatisation.
On escalating the action he claimed that the union had 'a whole Pandora's box' of measures prepared. Pandora's bor when opened let loose four. winds which she couldn't control.
Fear up the NEC's tear of ms That about sums
Clive Farr and constable
Keith Hunter went to see
Winston Rose he launch-
ed a vicious unprovoked
alack on tne driving
his face into
knuckles, naplainin Winstons
damage
lact Sergeant Farr
pointed out 'It is highly
probable that my closed
fists might have come in-
to contact with his face'.
Medical evidence con-
firmed the Sergeant's
allegations because even
Winston's defending
connci had to admit that
Winston did have a 'face
like a swollen melon.
Despite this con-
clusive evidence the jury
cleared Winston of
charges of assault. No
wonder. the two 'fuzz'
same sort of tactics as Edwardes Fords and that we've seen at Tebbit would like for the public sector.
If we don't fight these attacks the country is in danger of becoming one big Grunwicks.
Challenge
As the first works since
to challenge
on trade union rights in the steel industry we are call-
dustrial action: While Whitehall can weather industrial action this is not case with OLICI possible targets like the Stock Exchange, the commodity market or casinos where speculators can lose profits of £100 million a
if they can't make deals by phone or telex.
TELEPHO
The NEC fears such escalation to financial in-
are wondering whether
or not it's worthwhile
visiting lonely prisoners
in their cells.
No
Coercion
THANKFULLY the
Ministry of Defence have
decided that no legal ac-
tion or disciplinary ac-
tion will be taken over in-
cidents in the Malvinas
where
prisoners
whilst in Britis =5E:
The accidents and in-
juries OCCULCE whilst
'volunteers' from the
Argentine prisoners were
shifting ammunition and
clearing minefields. The
MOD concluded that the
ing on all sections of the trade union movement for support.
We've prevented one sell out by the ISTC leadership so far, and if we don't suffer another, we'll have struck a blow against the looting of nationalised industry. • Financial support is urgently organise the dispute Donations to: SM Wood Teasurer, Rotherham Works Joint Craft Com: mittee, Francis Drive Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
stitutions. It would mean taking on the employment laws on secondary action
direct political .confrontation with the government.
Escalate
They are worried the action will escalate up to the June annual conTerence nan come take matters into its own hands to up the action and elect a majority of Broad Left supporters to the NEC
Massive pressure must be brought on the NEC by
branches country wide to step up action in the City, give the go ahead on the levy and call national solidarity actions
prisoners were not ac-
ting under coercion'.
Of course they
weren't. Having.
of the firing line they
were bored and
aching to go working
among unexploded land
mines and live ammuni-
tion.
The MOD know they
wouid be taking all the
fun out of war if they did
= 08==20
paled by BOB PENN. Send Worm's Eye,
Socialist Action, 328 Upper
Street, London N1 2XP to
arrive nonster toon nurs
day a week prior to publica-
tion.
Socialist Action 22 April 1983
workers
win reprieve
a significant reprieve last week.
Faced with the decision
workers to strike against
imposition Japanese-style work practices and manning levels, Management withalew il 12-point efficiency plan.
The immediate resull of this was the postpone-
redundancies originally set for the end of this month
By Mick Drake
The determination of the body plant workers to strike against the imposition of the efficiency plan despite being laid off four weeks because of the Kelly dispute, has forced managcmachl s nand. Majority
In the event of a strike at Halewood the vital Bridgend and Swansea plants were pledged to imHe onle solidarity strike action. Bridgend produces all the engines for
built Escorts.
swansea
Dagenham with rear axles and gear boxes for the top selling Sierra.
Nor could Ford be assured of Sierra cars from
On Friday, workers at the Genk plant in Belgium, which currently produces the top end of
the Sierra range Bri-
Tain. votee to sae o
25 April in support of their
demand for two hours off the working week and an extra 500 jobs to maintain current production levels.
So Ford faced hav-
ing no Escorts
Helping hand
MRS THATCHER is right. Private enterprise teaches self-reliance and
develops initiative. Take
the example of the Fitz-
william Hunt private hospital in Peterborough where the medical staff have set an example of how people can help us
by helping themselves.
Because the private bestice dees por always 204225
- 73EXTE
they pop across to the and borrop the old bil NHS hospital and
of medical equipment.
Mental lave
taken medical records
from the District
15
Fraud
Ford: Halewood
ALTHOUGH THE fate of Paul Kelly = the assembly plant worker victimised for alleged van. dalism at Ford Halewood - now rests with an independent enquiry, the Merseyside car workers won
and Sierras to sell in Britain, the backbone of its European market. Faults
But, Halewood body plant senior steward, John Bohanna was cautious 400U the company's climbdown when 1 I spoke
him 'The redundancies have only beer postponed for four weeks although it is impossible to see how the! can be implemented separately from the company's efficiency plan Worry
'My worry is that some officials and convenors will be prepared to make concessions on efficiencie: in return for a deal on a new wages structure which is meant to be introduced inans vers ware col tract Previously, the situation has been under our control and we've developed our own links with Bridgend and Swansea: Now the national officials will be trying put a tighter rein on us.
But all Ford workers. indeed all car workers, can draw a lesson from recent events at Halewood The cut-throat competition that presently exists between car manufacturers not only compels them to savagely attack the jobs and working conditions of their employees - it also makes them more vulnerable to strike action
That and solidarity action, nationally and internationally, Call still be a winning combination.
Hospital to the Fitzwilliam. No point wasting time doing the iob over again and it cut down on clerical costs
Some people have even tried to move pro
perty from the Distric Hospital the william suppose the idea is that the NHS does priate enterprise is so belong everyone trying to get its share
One consular:
=
STEER I=
auúress iol his consulling ral enough that's where the money is earned
The telephone number to ring is that i of his secretary at the NHS hospital!
Page 16 scan of this page
Stuff it Duffy!
By Cowley assembly plant strikers
determined
management.
this Friday.
The main reason support is getting stronger is that we all know that if managemnent win this
they will push their advantage and our work conditions will get worse. But we win challenge their attacks and give OUl stewards.
We all know this isn't just about three minutes
time. The old Michael Edwardes introduced a plan to break the union, in-
productivity and then sell the profitable bits to private industry. This means attacks on our jobs, conditions and work pracLICC Cowley management
are trying to trade off our washing up time for bonuses under an efficienPlant Status (APS). scheme called
This means doing away with 243 jobs.
Any money we make up on bonuses will be at the cost of efficiency and speed-up. It'll be management's bonus not ours. The work force won't be able to monitor any of this.
The plant is due for new models, the LMI1 and a joint venture with the Japanese Honda. Management using these models as blackmail, threatening that if we don't accept efficiency and productivity they'll take the work elsewhere.
They are playing plant against plant, country against country to get their profit-making schemes through. They are trying 10 make Us believe it's workers in other countries
jobs rather than their thirst for
SOCIALISTS
Labour Victory (SLV)
is an important new
campaign in
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Fi By Bast End Offset (TU) Ltd, London E2.
SOCiAlist
ACTION
DESPITE back-room wheeling and dealing by Terry Duffy and other union leaders, Cowley workers are
to end their three week strike without substantial concessions from our bullyboy
Last Tuesday we showed this by an even bigger vote for continuing the action than previously. But another sell-out is being prepared for a mass meeting
profits at our expence.
Our union leaders are trapped in this little game port controlsin on port controls. managment can organise internationally why shouldn't we?
It's struggles like ours that show a way forward and we should be making con tact with unionists in other countries instead 'protecting ourselves' against them.
Our national union officials tend to say that this is a particular dispute with Cowley management. But these attacks are general throughout the car dustry as Ine Halewood. strikers shown.
The issues are the same - the emplovers 'right to manage', their right sack workers ike After troduce schemes like ' in Fords and APS in BLАп Our union should go the offensive against this on a national basis.
They should organise for the governmet to invest and build up an overall plan for our industry that benefits us and not the profiteers.
Changes
We should insist that private nowhere near BL and that under nationalisation there is no more speed-up change working practices which assault us.
We've WOl things the past like mutuality.
When piece work replaced by a measured day, any changes in work practice had to be vetoed by the shop stewards. want more of this making sure that any new
for labour movement.
It's purpose is to assist in the election of a the majority Labour
subscribe
Send to Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP.
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technology doesn't take away jobs.
The Edwardes the 'blue challenges this veto the rights of our stewards. This is being opposed in individual plants issues like the washing up time. But it's time that the nationally fronted the blue head on.
Our worry is that they
im- are only concerned to get
back to cosy relations with BL management, mey can Da Coale and negotiate over our conditions. We're not interested in union negotiators cooking up deals behind closed
of doors. We want a real veto
of what goes on plant.
In the second week of the strike Thatcher hit out Tebbit and wardes have had their say too. But until the state-
in- ment from the campaign Ford group of MP's which was have read . OU our
meeting, we've such statement of suppor from outside the plant. want our leaders to us like Thatcher wardes back
siNow that the strike is
official, the union should give a direcnive to envers mao cao are moved across country:
Management threatened to sack all the If this happens the SUIKCS. unions should spread the ac LON beyonc Union Labour Party committees arty and TUC nationall should issue statements of support.
The LP document for the election is called, 'The new hope'. BL workers won't
was think a
ment holds much hope for
cannot come behind their
We struggle to control work
Wing conditions and defend OUS
Socialists for a Labour Victory
government coming general
tion.
SLV's objectives are SPECIAL OFFER For readers who take out a year's inland subscription we are offering a free copy of Hard Times, a new book in the 'Arguments for Socialism' series by Bob Sutcliffe. The book normally costs £2.50. Alternatively we are offering Alan Freeman's book, The Benn Heresy. For new readers there is our special
All subscriptions are posted first class on dav of publication.
plan,
paper'
and
over
LUil
paper
where
in the
Ed-
had
We
back ana ca their own
Transport
the
have
Cowley. branches,
general the Labour
campaign
next
JOHN
covert-
the simple. Firstly
elec- Constituency
Parties in a practical way by publishing based on policy and campaigning
Secondly, by drawing attention to the fact that the Labour Party win the next while hunt of socialists inside the Party going on.
Deal
We will also paign to oppose the creation of government or a parliamentary deal Labour and parties.
Finally, we'll be trying to persuade everyone in the Party that the best chance of winning a ma(jority Labour
BL CARS
Cowley workers leave mass meeting more determined
By Mandy Moore and Andy Harris (joint secretaries, SLV) to help ment lies in pushing forLabour ward the socialist policies
agreed by leaflets ference. official Party bodied in large part in
the Campaigns sugges-
Link
can't election to link up with forces
witch fighting for such policies
against the Tory government, such Greenham the People's March for Jobs.
cam-
of Socialist coalition campaign to
their CLP, women's secbetween tion or union to minority and ask their MP or pro-
spective candidate to sign forthcoming statement against coalition. • Build SLV!, page 10.
Party conThese are em-
Docu-
It will be important
as the and
We hope that readers
Action will affiliate
SLY,
SLy
Photo: GM COOKSON LABOUR MOVEMENT IN EL SALVADOR
London iF Ter: 355 2270 COUNTY HALL LONDON MAY 14 Snake order the Eagle y FURTHER INFORMATION from: Salvador Moncada (FDR Representative) DELEGATES invited from Trade Union & Political Party branches Salvadorean Trade Unionists El Salvador Solidarity Campaign
← Socialist Action No. 5, 16 April 1983Socialist Action No. 7, 28 April 1983 →