Socialist Action No. 68, 31 August 1984
The scan: 068-aug-31-1984-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
ACTION
IMPOSE THE LEVY RESPECT THE PICKET GENERAL STRIKE
No. 68 31 August 1984 30p
SoCiAlist
TUC MUST:
STOP ALL COAL
NOT nOLE
NOT DOLE
CALL A 24 HOUR
THE DECISIONS of this TUC conference will be the most important since the predecessors of Murray, Sirs and Duffy sold out the General Strike in 1926..
After six months of struggle the miners' strike is at a crucial stage. The sequestration of the funds of the South Wales NUM, and the scabbing by the IST at Hunterston, makes action in support of the miners by the whole movement vital.
by Pat Hickey
The use of the anti-union laws, which will be stepped up after the TUC if the right decisions are not taken, means that the vital interests of the whole trade union movement are involved - just as centrally as in the fight against job losses themselves.
The right wing is well aware of this. They are fighting as openly as Sirs has to scab on the miners.
This right wing are the key obstacle to the successful conclusions of the strike, and to the greatest trade union victory for the working class since the Second World War. These scabs must be openly fought and defeated at this conJerence.
Last year the right wing won the day, and celebrated their victory by betraying the NGA, running away from GCHQ, and refusing to support, indeed openly attacking, the NUM. The left leaders have to take up this challenge - the vital interests of the working class are at stake.
Nothing could be worse at this TUC than hollow formulas for 'unity' which simply concealed inaction and scabbing. The resolutions calling for support for the miners, for respect for picket lines, and for boycott of all coal should be pressed to the vote no matter what the opposition of the right wing or the 'diplomacy' of the General Council.
The right will seek to get some formula that will commit them to nothing. They will claim that the NUM and left are intervening in other unions. Bill Sirs and Eric Hammond have no qualms about doing exactly that when it suits their book, as Hunterston demonstrates. The left of the TUC should intervene in every single union against the likes of Sirs and Hammond
The left must reject any formulas that fudge on the question of full support for the miners -including coal boycotts and actions of 24 hour general strike proportions. A call for action from this TUC is essential.
Up to now the NUM has kept the General Council out of the strike. But Congress is not the same thing as the General Council and resolutions can be fought for there and won. It would be better to fight for resolutions for action and be defeated than allow the scabbing role of the right to go unchallenged.
Even if the right wing were to resist or attempt to sabotage action after the Congress, as they certainly would, there is enormous support for the miners throughout the labour movement. More than enough to stop the country and defeat the government. But the campaign for that action has to start this week with a fight at the TUC Congress itself.
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Socialist Action 31 August 1984 2
Thatcher go
home!
THATCHER couldn't
from the uwuy miners'strike, even while
holiday in Switzerland. Members of the Swiss socialist youth
the RSJ, oreanasanon. dumped 300 kilos of coal on the drive to her holiday home.
The youth, supporters of the Fourth International, called for support Jor ine miners, and for Britain out of the north of Ireland.
work'?
THE MEDIA and
NCB's back to work
campaign total
farce, but the backing
it receives shows the
urgent need of the
government and
bosses to bring the
miners' strike to an
end.
In South wales
organisation calling itself
the Nationwide Miners
Wives Back Work
Movement has been ac-
tive with a poster cam-
paign. whit
shows a donkey with Ar-
thur scarojll's head.
But the movement is
a failure. In the last week
one man has been trying
to cross the picket line in
beowas, anu a meeling
has been organised to
pickelling
stop him.
Abertillery pit was
one of the last to come
out on strike in South
Wales, and a meeting of
DIO DEET
FOR THE
MINERSI
Who's backing 'back to
250 was held to discuss a return to work, but only 12 miners voted for it.
By Nigel Bevan, Penrhiwceiber NUM
The national organiser of the so-called 'nationwide movement' is a woman called Irene
Kent. Last week the
Echo revealed that she had been invo ved in break. ing a strike at the Cowley
Oxford in (al 1974.
At that time her husband working Cowley. After the strike he left and immediate
The down at Betteshangar was organised against his attempts to work.
Irene denies she has any big business backing
and says she has built the movement over phone. She explained
who appear on television or are in the papers with anti-strike sentiments'.
Her counterpart South Wales June Sjaelberg from Beddau, who nas rerused lo appear in public without a representative of the sun newspaper.
Miners' supporters in South Wales are asking
yuts tions.
How did Irene's husband get a job in the pits
after leaving SUUI Cowley? How does Irene get the phone numbers of people the television ог papers'? And how will
she pay her phone bill?
Who is paying for th poster campaign across the country? And who is paying to send outletters to every miner suggesting they return to work!
WHEN IT comes to strike-breaking the laurels must go to the super scab Bill Sirs. Not only was it his attempts to break the miners' strike that triggered the dock dispute, but now, cool as a cucumber, the same Sirs is organising steel union members to break the dock strike.
overseeing the unloading of coal. This makes the steel union leadership the first to attempt to break both a miners' and a dockers' strike.
The dock strike itself was deliberately provoked ovariasa Port employers, probably with governmeo astris.
the coal strike costing in the region of £75 million a week, and the willel months looming, the government urgently needs an end to the miners' strike. They calculated they could break the unity of the TGWU.
At Hunterston the difference between what the TGWU was prepared to unload (18,000 tons) and what BSC was demanding (21,000 tons). was relativeIv smali. The tact that BSO was not prepared to compromise, but insisted on its own figures, was not simp-
LU do with keeping Ravenscraig open. It had everything to do with provoking a confrontation in the docks.
THE ISTC'S STRIKE breaking at Hunterston Ravenscraig has highlighted the weaknesses of the Scottish trade union leaderships' strategy for the miners strike. TONY SOUTHALL looks at some of the lessons.
ed the first of the series of regional days of action in support of the miners. There was a mixed response but with strong support from public sector workers. All in all however it got solidarity action off to a good start and held escalate.
Large sections of the trade union movement in Scotland understood that the miners could not win alone and that the stakes in the struggle involved the entire working
But since that time the lack of a national lead coming out of the Labour Party and the TUC has been accompanied by
Scotland. reat deal of retoric but few proposals for sufficient action to bring the strike to speedy conclusion. The original deal negotiated by tne scotusn Num leader ship over Ravenscraig un-
The dock strike
must win!
At Hunterston it is steel union officials who are
but arter an inmual suci cess it now looks like an exuenevas‹v camoe lo the government. The of the TGWU leadership has reversed the no strike decision at imm. ingham and Grimsby. All the other main freight
By Jane Watson
Sports are out, with Felixstowe the main exception. The most serious threat LO InC dispute nov from the unofficial no strike movement Tilbury in London.
The first element in the bosses tactics is clear. The dockers must be divided, Hlan NOL tinghams should be created in the ports.
Events over the summer llave encouraged the view that this is possible.
Scotland faces test
On Wednesday 9 May the Scottish TUC organis-
out the hope that it would
doubtedly created difmenues
Some of the problems were shown up by the Scotland over last weekend. In Glasgow 300 shop stewards, mainly from the CSEU, met. The meeting was to plan the Scottish TUC/CSEU, Labour Party demonstration to be held in Glasgow on Saturday 15 September. Unfortunately, no detailed plans to build it were put forward and participants went without even the away leaflets and would be needed.
More seriously
Al Immingham officials have been dragging their
ther breaches of agreements since the con clusion of the last dock strike in July. rellxstowe and Dover only grudgingly participated in the carlici strike, and Dover's capitulation from independent freight drivers forced its speedy CorCuson.
Clearly there is opposition to the strike among dockers, and the vote al lest. But the TGWU Tilbury will be major learn from the NUM in responding to this situation.
At the outset the miners' strike went far from smoothly. But when the NUM leadership turned full square into winning the strike, and began the organisation of massive nicketting in the working areas, was not long before Nottingham entirely isolated
The same must be done in the dock strike. The success al Immingham and Grimsby must be followed up with a campaign to win strike action Tibury. one speaker criticised the calling of the demonstration on a Saturday as opposed to the day of action work time on May
There were also three demos ton over the weekend at Dalkeith near
Bathgate West Lothian, , and Cumnock in Ayrshire. Speakers included Arthur and Ann Scargill and numerous Scottish trade union and Labour spokespersons.
Scathing
The demonstrations mainly miners but Wert with considerable support from other parts of the movement. The speakers were scathing about the one per • cent of scabs getting all the media publicity
ISTC's breaking of ranks. They showed a solid determination to win the strike.
But there's the nub of the problem. cle appears a fleet of scab lorries moving
News
And then every port that fails to strike should feel the of
llas. picketting to isolate the strike breakers and extend the action
This is vital as the dock strike can be crucial to the whole development of the miners' strike.
Up and down the coun try momer. their wives have taken new
alu determinatior from the dockers' sup
defeat on ine docks would mean a huge escalation of the attempts to break the strike through bringing in foreign coal. Alongside this, demoralisation among the
would give a new boost to the
failed back-to-work campaign.
Groundswell
For the dockers would dil blow. doubtless becoming a prelude to full-scale atlacks on the Dock Labour Scheme, which the Tories and the port employers have been threatening since last April.
Relaunching solidarity with the miners is the cen. tral task of the next weeks.
the ove
Prese animon ite
low NUM has already announced it has to limit the alstributor trer literature as its funds have reacheu boLLon
Money for the independent women's groups is being restricted. And in everv area there 1. deepening hardship and
limited sources of funds and donations
Through the TUC and the Labour Party conferences the support work must be pushed forward
keep the strike going
But the key now is to ensure the victory of the docks strike.
Ostia's coal from Hunterston to Ravens-
we' ri seriously about winning the strike these meetings should have been used to popularise the call for the entire Scottish trade union movement
coal began to move.
Boycott
What is needed is not a march of unionists through Glasgow shopping centre, no matter what its value but stopping that scab coal getting to its destination
Imoortant work has beer done in Glasgow raising
€3.000 a week for • support for the miners. But mas pickets, actions to cut off Ravenscraig, and the decision to boycott coal are what is needed to win.
The Scottish dockers taking the lead in solidarity that can win. Now they have to have ef fective backing and
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4 Socialist Action
THE 'NEW REALISM', adopted as policy at the 1983 TUC Congress, was the most coherent right wing policy put forward in the trade unions for decades. Despite the setbacks suffered by the TUC right since last year's congress, JOHN ROSS argues that the 'new realism' continues to be the only coherent, therefore dangerous, reformist within the unions.
The policy of class collaboration, the view that somehow the unions and the employers come together to solve the problems that face 'Britain', is as old as the modern trade union movement itself. But what makes the 'new realism' so striking and coherent is that it inextricably combines both an industrial and a political strategy.
While Frank Chapple is the most outspoken "theorist' of new realism the real power which Chapple's old ideas from rightism into a powerful force was the AUEW right wing. Every single idea of post 1983 new realism prefigured by Duffy, Boyd, Gavin Laird during the first Thatcher government.
The starting point was posedly irreversible success of Thatcher in attacking the unions. from this is a political policy for the trade based on Hinks with the Labour Partv. limiting or eliminating industrial action and preparing, if necessary, for collaboration with the SDP/Liberal Alliance in a Labour/Alliance coalition governOpposition
At the April 1982 AUEW national committee Duffy already announced that the Thatcher government had 'embarked on a policy of sapping the financial and numerical strength of the trade union movement', and that 'Unfortunately, they are succeeding'
By a year later, at the April 1983 ALEW conterence. already openly drawing the political consequences which he believed flowed from this analysis. He declared 1 don't believe the trade union movement will tolerate a Labour Party in permanent opposition', and that the AUEW's policy of outright opposinon to une common Marker must De changed because 'In the event of a hung parliament Labour able to work with the SDP/Liberal Alliance unless we agree to a referendum on the EEC?
Before the June 1983 Chapple and Duffy's views still re mained a 'fringe' opinion. other trade union leaders to openly
Labour and the Alliance ere Ben
Labour and the
irs, in the ISTC journal, and Ro
irantham of APEX -a vote for Liberal candidates against Labour in a number of constituencies in the June election itself. Iy sy poli is arera ha need paper, nally Guardian newspaper, which called for an Alliance/Labour vote in June, and the New Statesman, which called for voting Liberal or Scottish Nationalist against Labour in a number of constituencies. The chief theoretical gloss for the Labour right
policy was provided Hobsbawn and the pages of Marxism Today.
The real bombshells which openly cemented however were the analyses made be 'new realism' in
Frank Chapple and Len Murray of the 1983 election.
maJor article Chapple specifically wrote for The Times after the election he announced the need for a change in trade union policy and that "I am convinced that it wil not be long before some mank members start suggestig that instead ot giving our moner Labour Party, we shour the cause of proportiona: . epresentation.' The conclusion was that, 'If we had not been so completely tied to the (Labour) party's coat-tails we could have urged our members to vote SDP.
31 August 1984 most policy
can transformed
fringe
was and
sup-
Drawn
weakening
ting to lead the tion of the general council.
at the general council, nounced an open reversal of
the Thatcher government.
Responsibility
was
Murray argued that, had always
volvement and real and that 'sooner
will not be
working people.
election
The only
were
- who called for
cused Frank Chapple
by Eric
I've just hear‹ that the IMF ha. decided to close down Britain on the grounds that it is no tonger economically viable
and file
• a no-hoe donate it to
'New
Realism'
- one
year on
or Liberal if they had a chance of winning. Over and over again our loyalty Io to Labour let the Tories in on June 9.
Murray himself had been attemp-
TUC openly and would sharov to the right ever since 198] He played a direct and decisive role in sabotaging the ASLEF strike in July 1982. At the congress the same year Murray finally piloted through, by a tiny margin, the new rules on the elec-
Within two days of the June 1983 election. and without any discussion
Murray anTUC policy on questions such as talks with TUC
'the TUC made clear preparedness to work with an elected government which offered genuine in-
responsibility,' later if the economy expanded and the country began to pull out of the recession. then the government would have to
willng cooperation of the ' From then on new realism was up and running as TUC
At the September 1983 TUC con-
sweep all before them. The structural gress Chapple and Murray seemed to face reorganisation of the general council to prevent congress as a whole voting
the government was carried. A resolution proposed by Alistair Graham calling for the general council to 'prepare a statement on the principles of modern
of the congress that even sections of the Labour right and centre were concerned. Jack Straw, speaking in his constituency during the congress, ac-
using his 'fiefdom' in the EËTPU, 'not only to
A PIECE OTHE AGTION
But surely Mrs Thatcher won't allow that! Can't she force the IMF to make some concessions?
to be
Chapple, Duffy, Murray, and the scab Sirs weaken the links with our party, but
destroy them.' He stated that Chapple sought 'a sanitised, centrist trade union movement,' whose reality
be, 'a politically neutered movement.. at worst as corrupt and morally degenerate as the American Teamsters Union OI Jimmy and Mafia fame.
The new realism in practice reached its peak with Murray's, and the general council's, savage defeat of the NGA in December 1983. By January 1984, with Len Murray apparently at the peak of his power, the promised
document on union Strategy for the Future, was urging trade unionists to remember that 'the basis of current TUC involvement in government owes much to Churchill's
coalition and subsequell Conservative governments.'
Compromises
The same document called for a policy in which 'the essence of accommodating industrial change through collective bargaining is the need for compromises reflecting both union objectives and those of employers.'
Yet one year after the famous 1983 congress the new realism on the
of appears to have peared, disintegrated. A month after Strategy for the Future was adopted the TUC withdrew from the National Economic Development Council over the government's policy on GCHQ. Then Murray resigned amid rows over the same issue and criticism of his role over the NGA dispute. Basnett issued statements praising 'old virtues' contrast to new realism. Above all the miners strike has shaken, radicalised, and divided the entire trade union movement. This year it is the left which is making the noise coming into congress and not the right wing.
But it would be a total mistake to
They are prepared to concede anythingexcept the ity of throwing Britain on the scrap-heap!!
Of course! And the IMF has shown itself
the NCB!
- architects of the 'new realism believe that the new realism has gone away. the noise and is on the offensive, but it is the new realist right which both knows where it is going and is proceeding systematically to get there First none of the really powerful Hoffa union bases of the new realist right is
under threat. Neither Hammond nor Duffy and his successors are under real threat in the EETPU or AUEW Right winger Roy Evans was chosen to replace the scab Bill Sirs as general of ISTC. realist right remains
policy, although still a definite minority as
yet. No-strike deals
The EETPU has pushed rapidly ahead with its practical plans for a new business unionism. The no-strike deals signed by the Toshiba, Sanyo, tronics and Hitachi are just the widely publicised spearhead of its campaign. Furthermore no-strike deals will be verbally attacked at the lUC other unions are going the *has signed a deal for compulsory bin- down the same path. The GMBATU
ding arbitration Nissan demanded disap- either the AUEW or GMBATU for its "Japanese style
new factory. Tyne Ship South Shields has a four year no-strike pledge signed by the boiler makers. The civil service unions, and the TUC as a whole, offered a no-•strike deal at GCHQ At the level of the general council the structural as a piloted through by Murray guarantee
La strengthened position for the right wing. There is no serious opposition, or even amendment to the TUC strategy document.
On the political level the distancing of the new realists from exclusive links with the Labour Party has con-
And has an official
necess-
The AUEW
autobiography nounces that.
Labour Party. pay Rolls
be discontent.
The left may now be making
them to.
The open new
the strongest the TUC Lae UCW, withdraw working EETPU with AB Elec-
prepared while the EETPU
with NEK Cables.
single union from
Repair in dominate
changes in election
Fact.
the same coin
GORMAC
capable of 'receiver been appointed?
But Oh, yes Z
dustrial the unions.
In the Unions
tinued. The EETPU has become the first union to appoint a member of the SDP as editor of its union journal.
has withdrawn from Trade Unionists for a Labour Victory. Chapple's passing testament to the trade union movement, his new
Sparks Fly, an'If all that the trade unions can see out of their relation. ship with the Labour Party, is a neverending struggle to put them in power, which doesn't bear anv fruit for the unions, then the unions are not likely to keep paying their money to the
Asked in the Guardian about the implications of this, and that such a financial boycott would make Labour incapable any more of being a 'party of government', Chapple announced 'In that sense, right
Today, at this TUC congress, the open proponents of new realism will be holding their silence for tactical reasons — first and foremost because of the impact of the miners strike. Second because of the long list of major
claims Vauxhall, Leyland, Royce, Ford, and others which are coming up. There may well
For winter, of Collapse
But at present, and this is why the first new realist thrust collapsed in the spring of 1984, the fundamental problem for the TUC right is that the government does not want to talk to
The craven no-strike offer at GCHQ was contemptuously rejected by Thatcher. All attempts to mediate over the miners strike have failed. As the government itself refuses to talk, the TUC has to put on a temporarily
its position and get someone to talk
This is why it was traditional leaders of the centre-right, Basnett of
GMBATU Tuffin of the who took the initiative to from the Economic Development Council. Do not forget Murray's original formulation for new realism that, 'sooner or later if the economy expanded and the country began to pull out of the recession, then the government would have to win the willing cooperation of the
people. during economic upturn the unions recover their power, and miltancy increases the TÜC, packed with new realists, is
to offer its services for
to police the working class. Strategy
persuade
class
If the
of the The left united
seen -some major
to the old days
remains a fun-
Page 5 scan of this page
The left and the TUC
In the Unions
THE MOST urgent task at this year's TUC Congress is to give the support which can win the miners' strike. Without this there cannot be a serious discussion about strategy for the labour movement as a whole.
But this is not enough. strategic weakness remains the policy for the trade union and Labour lett to put together a popular majority capable of confronting Thatcher and realism'.
strategy that's
THE BASIC problems can be stated simply.
Thatcher took advantage from the tremendous divisions within the working class created by the incomes policies the last Labour government.
Wage controls, and their associated policies, very severely hit the better off sections of the types ing class the types workers concentrated in the South and South East of England, skilled workers throughout the country.
The result was the pattern seen al lue last elections. The polls showing the Tories actually leading Labour skilled Women
won't wait
long. I'm only change the and the of
comment of one
mounting
whistles.
up the
the history the great British move-
ment.
SHOSI
are those six places Every
prising sexual
of the
the
cameras con-
many can
spot!
up. 29 per
That's are
no TỨC for
Genate
specifically women's
the platitudinous
The fundamental lack of any
'new
and JUDE WOOD-
manual a huge
east, 'north-south'
ween and the Tories. union the Tories the Alliance
base of the
Only 39
political
designed to the alliance
ing of differentials
council
called between the Tories'
From discussion that's
dispute the whole history of British this year
to prevent protesting for Greenham
when
protest across Europe the
tain as men.
Put best by Mick
women involved in
the miners' then the the
women see
power for
right of the women's
they are as "separatist'. But it's the
organisation. only par-
The TUC
better off sections of the working class.
The economic basis for the entire social alliance is
not to
revenue
British but to
investment Tacl
conOut of this
the alice reflected in
tuates.
Ine have half strategy. alliance the SDP-
As Alliance
pean capital the EEC
partner of supposedly
sections
EEC,
CONC etc. would, in mean abandoning every progressive held by
even 21101 and
for the willll
Spot the woman at the TUC adopted positive action for jobs, but doesn't cam-
paign for it. The question
of a Statutory Minimun
Wage was the subject of a twenty year fight, finally resolved
TUC. But this year the onIv mention of it is in amendment submitted by
the Tailor and Garment Union
This year there is no mention of abortion, homeworking or the rights of part-time workers. Nothing on child benefit, nursery provision maternity leave.
all, nothing
refers to the massive explosion and radicalisation of women that has taken place over the last few years, and especially around the miners' strike.
Yet in failing to get to grips with any of these
issues the TUC not only fails women, it deepens its own problems. One of the major concerns of the
trade unionists support the miners strike today.
Labour Party and trade unions is that it has no Sarategy of confronting either Thatcher's social alliance or that proposed by the 'new realism'.
The left can win individual major struggles.
and Jones finally did smash Heath's Industrial Relations Act - - and finally his government. In principle, though with much
difficulty, the 'lefts' can produce enougt solidarity win broughi union membership
by the
union has
go IlLO maintain rebuild
Today Britain
male are
antonusco These al c
Firstly indicate
the movement.
of women who unions,
be
Tens of thousands of activists, hundreds of thousands of
miners strike although this cannot at all be considered certain. Even Thatcher's government could be defeated
But the problem what is Thatcherism to be replaced with? The old high point of the Labour left's struggle — - the policy government with a social followed
But that policy ons.
that policy, Callaghan government, take the unions seriously, and any recruitment cam-
directed wouid have a solid base to work from
Secondly, women. today constitute about 40 per cent or lnose i work at any particular point
(around million). This In-
of nearly • 120 per cent in the proportion of
since 1951. Limited
While the public sector unions especially NUPE, COHSE, NALGO and the CPSA - have had
some success in building up their female membership, it remains
The potential for the
of
workers remains largely
untapped (from the point
of view of the trade
unions) and ignored (from the point of of
Socialist Action 31 August 1984 led to disaster. Furthermore precisely because of that disaster, such a polic cannot even be projected today as credible.
there today the elements of a totally different course for Labour. A national minimum wage
local
affect working and unfight for
women;
black
elimination
budget;
the means
the could ment.
cities
Labour
the country.
But So these
not tied in coherent widely
women workers themselves.
course the unions
argue that a very high pro-
portion of women workers
part-time
homeworkers who cannol
be unionised in the short
term without major strug
gles. But, quite apart fron
the fact that the unions
should seriously take this
campaign on board, this
does not even account for
the majority of the 6.5
millon worner work
who are not in unions.
But such a campaign to
recruit women would de
mand fundamental
reorientation by the
unions. The majority of
women will remain outside
the unions as loe men y
appear men's
organisations with all
men on the TUC General
Council, with no serious
for the
demands of women and
the low paid. As long as
women who do
speak wolf-whistle
5 The simple "The allance.
even more under • condi-
Today capitalism means million
and the
Any
increase DeLe is. matter what
effects
of time capitalist the
choice: break the
CADIO! itself. the final
of Stens
workers, supporting
of and defeating and
and sexist comments.
Women could wai: forever for the
leadership of the TUC :o
the initiative Bu:
LaKe
women are not jus:
Walle The miners' wives have
shown dramatically how
women car make
presence felt in the labou
movement. The NUM i
100 per cent male tu:
women fought and
NUM had to let them in on
the organisation the
strike including at a national level
Now the TUC is going
to have to learn the same
lesson. It confronts a clear
choice, further narrowing
of its hase as it looks to
deals with Thatcher or the
campaign to draw new
more centrally into
the labour movement on
the basis of policies thai
meet their needs.
And could nearly double the size of the trade union army
Page 6 scan of this page
The economics of th
6 Socialist Action 31 August 1984
strike 'Indefinitely'. In both cases it lied
And
etocks?
PONTIFICATION ABOUT the miners' strike is now Britain's only growth industry. Ministers, stockbrokers and journalists all pronounce on the likely date for power cuts.
Phillips and Drew go for early December, while Energy Secretary Peter Walker insists the ment can keep the lights on
money on early October.
Have you ever wished you
Action's DIY In-
RISON and BOB MORGAN dig deep to mine the truth.
The government can win the strike only by avoiding lenathy power cuts economy cannot function without electricity and the miners can stop generation. The Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) is the major customer for coal, taking about three quarters of coal production (1.5 million tons a week).
But predicting the onset of power cuts by simply dividing stocks by week-
consumption mickey analysis. Some stocks are unusable. During 1974 miners' strike Economist estimated that over four million tons of stocks were useless, much due to waterlogging.
The distribution of stocks also matters. In the 1972 NUM strike, Heath pulled the plug with eight million tons of coal still in CEGB hands but poorly assinated.
Pit head stocks are useless until transported to power stations. usually move by rail, but the NUR and ASLEF boycotts are hitting deliveries
The government estimates that roughly a half a million tons of coal a week is getting through to power stations. The NUM estimate is a quarter of a million tons. Peanuts
Some coal is moving by rail but to shift the normal 1.5 million tonnes a week by lorry would require a fleet of well over 8,000 12-tonnes lorries, making two trips a day, seven days a week. The Ravenscraig convoys, dominating recent TV news footage,
Mac calluls.
The CEGB can also substitute other fuels for coal. Electricity is generated in three main ways: oil, coal and nuclear. In 1983 the split was 7 per cent, 73 per cent, and 18 per cent respectively. This ratio roughly held until March 1984. In April oil burn shot up. The CEGB burnt almost as much oil in a month as it usually does in a year.
Wiel machinery will be shut off is sensitive to
ty, current stocks, tneir usability and future deliveries. (Production is less relevant; deliveries to power stations from either current output or the 20 million or so tonnes of pit head stocks
Most commentators agree that the CEGB is currently using nuclear and oil capacity to the hilt. Walker confirmed this on Weekend World on 22 July. Our calculations also bear it out and it would indeed be surprising if the board
IN BOTH THE 1972 and 1974 miners* strikes the Heath
government claimed it had the coal stocks to last out the
- and lost.
Now the government is provoking a national dock
strike by attempting to keep Ravenscraig in production.
Just how strong is the government's real position on coal
SOCIALIST ACTION looks at some of the answers. cost of -the
real
what is the
The HIOUSC They were not doing so.
But Peter Walker, minimise the impact of the strike on TV, inadvertently let the cat out of the bag. He maintained that COCk coa stocks were falling by only 1.5 per cent a week. Given the latest official figures for stock levels (May), this implies current stocks of about 16 million tonnes.
Candlelight
Assuming electricity consumption in June and July ran at last year's level, and a maximum oil and nuclear burn, we can calculate weekly deliveries to DOwer stations at approximately quarter of a million tonnes. This is well down on May's delivery agreement between the NUM and rail unions over a tighter boycott of coal should have reduced that figure since July.
If deliveries continue at this rate, ana we assume, as ao most commen• tators, that some five million tonnes of CEGB stock are unusable, nothing else much changes we will all be dinina cadelight come Novem ber.
Inings change. The government knows the score. It is doing its own calculations
strike?
and rehearsing contingency plans. anxious to the Darkness approaches other options
will grow more attractive, including action over secondary picketing and using troops to shift coal.
pressures the government faces and of the ettectiveness of the NUM's action.
chief worry. But riding out the strike also costs money. The biggest item is additional National Coal Board losses.
City analysts put these at £34-35 million a week. Switching away from coal costs the CEGB British Steel's losses are up by some f5-8 million a week and British Rail's by around t5 million. figures. And The government also
revenue from week), and forks security benefits (f1 week). Policing the strike costs around
is £70-79 milion a week, or around f4 billion a year.
and that
is well over a quid for every woman,
probably total subsidy 10
disasterous car operation in the North of Ireland.
Contingency Reserve
this was £2¾ billion. reserve.
today
worse the
So don't rush to Ladbroke's to put your shirt on November. Our dateline is less a prediction than an index of the
Power cuts are the government's
£17-18 million week.
loses tax miners (£5-7 million a out on extra social million or so a
£3-5 million a week. So the bottom line
Seventy five million pounds a week
man, and child in Britain. It is also the
John Delorean's
Here
The centrepiece of the government s economic poncy — descripeu Do the Financial Times economic commentator o brutan as une only signicani innovation of the Thatcher government — is the so-called Medium Term Finan- and cial Strategy (MTFS). This plans to shave the difference between government revenue and expenditure.
Since governments are aware that projections of income and spending are dicey, they include an item called the
cash in hand for unexpected difficulties. For 1984-5
But the reserve has already taken a battering. The government aimed for a rise in the public sector wage bill of only three per cent over the year. But to date settlements have averaged five per cent (many conceded to head off support for the miners). Since every one percen tage point addition to the public sector only wage bill costs nearly f¼ billion, this implies that pay deals will whittle away some f½ billion off the contingency
Stockbrokers Simon and Coates suggest that: 'if the (miners) strike ends
eventual accounting cost (including the cost of the overtime ban) would probably be f1 billion. What is
costs are mounting rapiary ..any substanllar proonganon
HUR
SCARGILI
CAN
EAT
THREE
SHREDDED
WHEAT
of the miners' strike would certainly necessitate a re-think.' In other words. it would imply seriously overshooting the MTFS.
Tory rhetoric about 'sound finance'
the evils of government 'profligacy' awkwardly their approach to this dispute. Thatcher, supposedly dedicated to tax cuts, is riding out a strike at a cost of well over f3 a week for every British taxpayer. A Mori poli on the question: *Do you think its worth paying £3 a week to defeat the miners? more interesting than the ones recently conducted.
Interest rates
The price to the exchequer is not the
cost. Stockbrokers Messel estimate that the strike is knocking one perteniag point UK output growth. This implies a loss of some £3½ billion in a year. So the average male manual worker will be some f1.50 a week worse off (in addition to facing a higher tax burden).
Workers were also hit by a fall in sterling. more oi to generate electricity costs dollars. Between March and May the oil import bill rose b
WELL
EAT
GRASS
BEFORE
WE
GIVE
IN
Page 7 scan of this page
we go! e miners strike
about £3.5 million. This hit the balance of payments, and so undermined confidence in sterling, The government responded to the resulting collapse in the pound by jacking up interest rates costing the averave mortuate (with a f20,000 mortgage) £40 or so a month.
So how do the National Board, the government and Fleet Street commentators usury not acceeding 1o the NUM's demands? They deploy several arguments.
One that the strike destructive. Ian MacGregor has suggested that the dispute many pits as he's demanding, since pits
deterioralng through maintenance.
The strike is certainly taking a toll on the mines. But MacGregor may be worried about which pits are suffering most. The pit deputies union NACODS argues that the more profitable the pits, the greater the destruction. machinery has moved along a seam, the more susceptible it is to collapse.
A second argument is that taxpayers cannot be expected to 'uneconomic' pits. This
idea is holes. On official figures the NCB subsidy runs at some f500 million a year. The costs to the taxpayer of the dispute annualise at eight times this amount. The need for subsidy also largely flows from Thatcher's crashing economy when she came to office in 1979. Were the industry running at its 1979-80 level (some 15 million tonnes up On MacGregor's losses would be more or less eliminated.
Pricing coal
The whole notion of 'uneconomic' pils and subsidies' is highiv Both the Coal Board and the CEGB are state owned. So their profits and losses largely depend on government pricing policy (since it is largely buying from and selling to itself. Were the government to charge the CEGB coal, the Coal Board would show a profit and the CEGB a loss, reversing the present situation.
The NUM's Fact Sheet noted that: *Between the first quarters of 1982 and 1983 the price of coal to large industrial CULULICIS increased by cent. The price of electricity went up by 8.1 per cent. If the price of coal had risen to the same extent the Board's operating loss 01 49/ have been virtually eliminated. unprofitable to the CB. The closure An 'uneconomic' of reduces Coal operating losses. But it also cuts coal production. People who were previously mining a socially useful product now producing nothing. Society, just the sacked miners, lose.
The National Coal Board estimates the losses from collieries producing the least efficient 12 per cent of coal at £275 million for 1982-83 (about half total losses). The closure of these pits would throw 40,000 miners out of work, and Andrew Glyn has calculated that an additional workers lose their jobs as miners (Guardian 28 May). worker costs le government 2o,000 in lost taxes and higher benefit payments. So closing the NCBs major loss-making pits would cost the exchequer
bavel
Coal
is self-
will close
Black
The faster
subsidise
apparently
of the
target) GUP
more for
Board's losses.
only 4:7 per
mining jobs (let
relative future million would
guesswork. 1973-74 and 1978-79 threw
The closure
Board long delays and about safety standards,
Governments and not
cost, when oil prices rose.
would also spending fell An unemployed
figures,
aull has a clear edge
NCB
Nantgarw andso Colliery outh£450 million — almost twice the Coal
The government's long term plans
Taxing far more than 40,000 alone MacGregor's target of 20,000). The "justification' is
COSI of different fuels. But this whole area is a minefield
price rises of everything into the melting pot. And initial claims about cheap nuclear power fell foul of
increasing concern which both capital pits, have burnt their fingers over energy policy before. The NCB has closed 'uneconomic' pits and this later reopened them at considerable
However, whilst future energy prices are uncertain. scarcil's claim that Britain cur. rently produces the cheapest deep mined coal in the world apears to be true, if transport costs are taken into account. nucical
The New Statesman's detailed examination, based on Shell Coal Inter-
concluded that: •...once freight costs to Europe are taken into account, only South Africa
over Once
transhipment costs of around f9 per ton from the major leading ports of Europe (Rotterdam, Antwerp) are added British coal looks increasingly competitive' (1 June).
100,000 jobs
So why is Thatcher so intent on butchering the industry? One objective is to pare British mining down to a few
intensive, high producivity which could be successfully privatised. Bradford University's Environment Research Group suggest that
strategy would imply a 100,000 jobs by March 1988
Another motive is the push to go nuclear. This derives in part from the highly powerful lobby of multinational
capital. More importantly, stems from a desire to break the NUM once and for all. A leaked 1979 cabinet minute stated: 'A nuclear programme would have the advantage of removing a substantial proportion of electricity
disruption by miners transport workers.'
The NUM has long been the Tories Industrial Enemy 1972 'n-l' incomes policy. Fifteen thousand Yorkshire miners engineers, in the most effective mass picketing then seen since the war, closed Saltley Coke Depot in Birmingham. The 1974 miners' strike brought down the Heath government - the first time in British history that an administration had been ousted by industrial action.
The Tories held a which recommended a proach in future.
Times recently reminded its readers: 'The "Ridley Plan"
Tory auministraulon prepared to face up to the big unions, such as the miners, only after several years of careful preparation.' "There should be a large and mobile squad of police equipped and uphold law picketing. Good should be recruited to cross picket lines with police protection.' provided the blueprint for Thatcher.
LIGHTS OUT TIME:
Predictions from the gurus loss of and
Socialist Action Number One. miners' strike smashed Heath's
and Midlands'
NUM
withdrew
DOSE mortem strategic apAs the Financial
advised that should be pointed
April).
prepared against violent non-union drivers
This report Economist (21 June) — Early October Philips & Drew Stockbrokers Late November/Early December Observer (22 July) — Late November Weekend World (22 July) -Minor Power Cuts: November/Major Power Cuts: January Peter Walker, Energy Secretary - Never Socialist Action DIY Insight Team — November (the 5th?)
31 August 1984 7
The Tories backed away from con frontation with the NUM in 1981, when the NCB responded to tighter govern ment cash limits by announcing that 10 million tonnes of annual coal produc tion and 30,000 jobs were to go. Th
prepared a strike ballot and Welsh miners struck. The NCB thea
closure notices on 23 pits and the Energy Secretary agreed 10 look at ways to cut coal imports and gave the Board more money.
The government didn't feel strong enough to move against the NUM until the summer of 1983. MacGregor's ap pointment signalled that an offensive was on the way. 'When Thatcher ap
Plan MacGregor to be Coal Board chairman a year ago it was mandate to close pits.' (Economist, 1:
Having opted for confrontation Thatcher is now prepared to effectivet! ditch the MTFS, to add hundreds o thousands to dole queues, and to spesd • the equivalent of a Delorean a weet ol taxpayers money to try to smash t NUM. She must not succeed.
Page 8 scan of this page
8 Socialist Action itself is not.
Acid rain is becoming a question
return for
to take an emergency debate on the issue.
But in Britain we hear little about acid rain. And ine race tal the lo le is Ine only union to take it up at
I Ul Wis year would not indicate it was a pressing Biller SOORISIS here.
Yet Britain is by far the worst culprit in the whole of Western Europe when it comes to looking the causes of fast becoming and environmental disaster.
burning of coal and oil — the fossil fuels release suphur dioxide and strogen oxides into the sir. The massive combustion of coal and oil, for electricity particular, but also generally in
creases large amounts
chemicals air, to return to earth at a later date. Some of these chemicals come back earth as dust, but the rest, pumped high into the atmosphere through tall chimneys, combines with water in the air to produce sulphuric and nitric acid.
This returns to earth as rain, hail, sleet or snow.
Small scale pollution
ever since human beings Started burning cual. But
sin the industrial relu
tion amount chemicals pumped into the air has achieved mammoth proportions. million tonnes of sulphur
out over Western Europe each veer. hv 1970 this had doubled to 25 million ton*...
Britain sulphur dioxide is pumped into the atmosphere at the rate of
missiles
IN JULY a group of women met in Leicester to discuss the links that could be made between women active in the peace movement and women involved in the Women Support the Miners groups.
on a series of joint actions to focus on the links between the closure of pits and the loss of coal and the planned expansion of the nuclear power industry as an alternative source of energy.
As the Leicester somen's leaflet says: •Why is it that money can he found to tinance exnensive and unnecessary prosects such Trident nuciear submarines, but Bot to maintain the coal in-
dustre nors action
first they decided on was a Mines ao1 Missiles march from Capenhurst Uranium Enrichment Plant to the Nottinghamshire
31 August 1984
Acid rain-
a bad trip
THE ISTC IS THE only union to put forward a resolution on acid rain at the TUC this year. For Bill Sirs it is simply an attempt to provide himself with an ideological cover for his scabbing on the miners' strike. But while Bill Sirs' concern is a fake, the issue
of major political importance in many European countries. In West Germany this summer the government had to
La special session during the summer recess, for the first time ever in post-war Germany,
roughly 100 kilos per person per year. Staggering alu ulu casall -Britain is in the fortunate position that prevailing winds send most of it out over the North Sea, Scandinavia and the rest of Europe!
By Jude Woodward
The effect of this massive pollution has had a dramatic effect on the acidity of rain. Britain is one of the least affected countries in Europe, yet in the last 30 years British rain has become average 50 80 times more Pitlochrv rain with the same strength DeCI recorded.
Acid rain is now having devastatino environmental affects right across Europe destroying forests, re-, ducing crops, killing fish, eating monuments, and causing S02 TRAFFIC (NOx)
March for miners not
A large number of women turned up and decided
coalfield, from Friday 17 August to Monday 20 August. We chose to march through this area of. the country to go through were me miners' was not well supported Capenhurst was decided on because it is the link between the civil and military nuclear gramme. Capenhurst produces a waste product plutonium - that is used
countless respiratory, skin and other diseases. Phree million square miles of Europe and North America are now seriously affected.
In West Germany the destruction of the
and Black Forests has all the features 01 a neat-reversioe tional disaster. The Black Forest covers
mountaris higher than the British lake district and Pennines with greenery. The forest keeps the water table high and the soil in place.
If the forest dies the water table will drop, and the top soil will dry out anu soon be blown away Sand storms will affect the area anul une soul is disper sed. Eventually green SiODes allu agricultural
band wine replaced by
bare rock, prone
winter bleak and bare in the summe The
West German forestry commission gives the forest seven years to live! We're not talking about some future millenium but right now.
lakes, rivers and forests are af-
lakes setter COHe already technically 'dead'
of fish.
Eastern Europe the forests
Czechoslovakia, boye Union are dying.
Athens the Parthenon, stood
WICH to make nuclear weapons.
Uranium, the raw material used, comes from Namibia. is mined by black workers at below
level Wants who are forced to work in appalling conditions with no satew measures desoc the high risk of radiation poisoning.
By Helen John
Nuclear and danges us-
dangerous. * exposure to Workers have died from
radioactivity alle recent researci has found links between radioactive waste and high incidences of leukemia in
almost as new for 2,400 sycals has suffered more
deterioration in the last 25 cal. than WIDE
preceding history. Virtual-
ly every historic building ir
Eastern Europe is suffering.
Acid fogs, generally more acidic than rain, are
callst respiratory diseases, and
frequently fatal Inose already suffering with ailments like asthma Increased acidity in water courses means more lead is dissolved with consequent
effects on the qualit of
drinking water. West Ger man scientists have suggested a link between 'cot
death' and increased atmosonere Donon
In Britain itself the Thatcher
governmeu firmly refuses to accept the existence of the problem, therefore very little money
been available for
But what is known is that for over 100 years Britain has been the largest
ide emissions in Western Europe, and this is the case today.
If Eastern Europe is included then Britain's guilt is second only to the UŠSR
OTHE the unlike Britain is a net receiver of all al and it has pro mised a 30 per cent reduction in sulphur emissions over the next 10 years. With the USA, Britain is children and with the birth
Down's Syndrome babies
We first went Chester on Friday night and on Saturday we marched through Stoke and Hanley, an area where the majority of miners are still working. It was a tremendous boost for the striking
when we marched into their town.
On Mondav morning we went to Sutton colliery and it was here that two Greenham women were arrested picketing.
• Make a 'Women not Missiles', Yorkshire Bank, Leicester, Account
29797100, Bank numocr number 050560.
the only country in Europe and North America to refuse to set a target to the reduction of sulphur emissions
The Thatcher gover ment has ›nsisten reluset even acknowledge the problem, announcing that research still needs to be done to prove the problem exists. This has meant that Thatcher has not been able to employ an argument used by many right-wing governments that develope power should nuclear
as a 'safer' alternative.
argument is complete joke, as Three
already proved. The 'risks' of
pollution are replaced by the 'safety' of
number of enormous nuclear bombs dotted round the country and pile-ups of radioactive waste. The current law suit against British Nuclear Fuels over radioactive leakage shows that the British nuclear industry is no safer than any other. So what is
the answer?
Even in West Germany environmental effects are devastating, the ment has not seriously grasped the nettle of dealing outright with the problem Yet a solution is within arm: reach.
The cost of fitting the relatively simple mechanisms to filter sulphur diox ide from smoke of power stations and in-
dustry in Britain or Wes Germany would cost around £1.5 billion about the same as the cost of constructing one
power station This would deal with
around 60 per cent of al
atmospheri pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
But of course capitalism can no more do anything to protect the environment than it can prevent nuclear war or pro. Vite full employment. Where profi rules the value of the Black Forest is reckoned on the basis of How many telegrapa pores could be made out of the
MINERS
JOBS
NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS
trees. And that's what is weighed up against the cost of saving it.
Nor will trade union leaders like Bill Sirs do anything The green of the IS IC at this year's 1UC is simply a veiled attack on
miners
In fact the miners themselves are precisely who have to be looked to to solve the problem. The
coal one is failure to spend money cleaning the in dustry can be healthy the basis of cheap coal and clean smoke.
At next year's TUC it would there
ling for the spending
at £1.5 billion to cle the air and end the scandal of Britain's role the destruction of Europe's environment.
• For more information
acid rain, read Acid Rain by Steve Elsworth, £3.95, JUST published by Pluto Press WARNING
CAN LEAD TO LISS
Page 9 scan of this page
News
needed for peace
IN SEPTEMBER NATO is undertaking a major exercise on the border with East Germany, code named 'Operation Lionheart'. Greenham women are calling on the 10 million women who live in Britain to take action to coincide with it.
By Helen John, Greenham Women Against Cruise
In local areas actions
•focus ' ON opposing local government civil defence preparations, and showing where the money should spent on education, health and housing.
Women are also being encouraged to come Greenham where the cruise missiles that can destroy us all are based.
Michael Heseltine has appeaica lo empioycis lo release the largest number ot men ever for territorial army duties in West Ger-
part of the Lionheart exercise.
We appeal to trade
cils to folow the example set by Derbyshire County
Scottish CND -
opposing Trident
FREEZE HAS been dropped at this year's annual meeting of Scottish CND, but not Tri-
dent. Opposition to Trin
dent popular Scotland for obvious reasons. People are horrified at the prospect of further expanding the nuclear arsenal that is only 25 miles away from the centre of Glasgow.
The resolution 1o Scoltish CND AGM in Glasgow on 8-9 September
- calls for support for the national demonstration against Trident, in Barrow on 27 October. Walley priority to t priority to opposing
work of any kind and CND hacking for local authority obstruction of the Trident project.
NATO is on the agen-
Ten million women
Council and NALGO that is to release women to or nuclear disarmament.
nuclear disarmament.
impression given by the press silence. that the brotest at Greenham ceased to exist after the April evictions of this year.
large numbers of women go there it will prove that even if the government spends its proposed £3.5 million on new
mwlion
da too. The two resolutions calling for stepped-
campaigning nuclear alliance shouldn't be watered. down wiin ine ulasgow West amendment Tony Southall, Scottish Labour CND
CND supporters in the Labour party will unders-
the Late. Jwo Larile this, when the new NEC
on defence starchich opens up the whole issue in the party with a firm comHit mento say hac North Atlantic alliance. For CND that meeting the contradiction of Labour head on by continuing to campaign for wider for withdrawal from NATO.
Scottish (ND behind many other regions in having no TUCND. Glasgow South proposes
high security fence
the Hunchical missiles will still not be sale l vul countly.
• 10 Million Women at Greenham posters and leaflets are available from: the Peace Centre, 18 Moor Street, Queensway, Birmingham B4 Donations to the Spider Web Poster Fund DE sent to the same address.
women
10 days
•enham
September 20th-30th
to change this with a Scottish TUND Group. But all local CND should be involved in its founding conference and the fight to win affiliates, and proposal to the contrarv should be defeated
Resolutions to the annual meeting will be debated on Sunday, while Saturday includes a lecture from Fortress Scotland author Malcolm Slaven.
Labour CND will be highlighting two areas. of our campaign in the com-
• lan Leitch from Strathclyde Regional council will examine ways
combat the new civil defence regulations • Les Robertson, formerly from the Faslane Peace Camp and now a Dumbar-
COCCE sider how local authorities
dent programme.
Out of
by many labour movement activists.
Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in Labour's new NEC statement, Defence and Security for Britain, which attempts the impossible: full commitment Britain's unilateral nuclear disarmament Inter Labour, together with full support for continued membership of NATO!
Ithe document DIU° poses to campaign within the alliance for a nuclear-free defence strategy.
Labour may just as well demand that NATO generals fly. Since its inception, nukes have formed the bedrock of NATO war-fighting strategy.
Over the years the Strategies inemselves have changed. The InterContinental Ballistic Missiles 'hit 'em with everything ya got' plans
Campaign
THE YOUTH Trade Union Rights Campaign has launched a Health and Safety Charter for trainees to fight the appalling safe-
conditions on the government's Youth Training Schemes.
Since 1980, 23 young workers on government training schemes have been killed. 'Over 10,000 have been injured, with more than 1000 amputations.
By Peter Wells-Thorpe, YTUR Campaign
Employers taking ad
ths' free labour under YTS
not prepared to pay even the slightest attention basic health. and safety standards.
The MSC which is responsible for the scheme has refuse will wanted that they inspect
workplaces make sure that they are sate deaths and over 1000 accidents in the last year, the MSC has still not got a single full-time safety officer in any of its 55 area offices. Each office responsible for, on average, 6000 trainees.
Young people are be ing forced by government policy on to the schemes. Over 7000 people had their ... schemes,.
NATO and the TUC
nuclear club!
AMONG THE resolutions calling on this year's annual Trades Union Congress to campaign for peace and nuclear disarmament, the EEPTU's one-line affirmation of Britain's NATO membership stands out like a sore thumb. An attempt by SOGAT '82 to compromise on the electricians' full-blooded commitment to the American nuclear alliance — by adding a rider that such support is given only if it accords with other TUC and Labour Party policies — is a sad reminder that the real role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is still not understood
of NATO's early days have turned into the sophisticated (and phoney) concept of 'limited' nuclear war in the "European theatre' But the basic element nuclear remains the same.
By Carol Turner
In Labour's attempt to reconcile cilable, something will have to go. (Cynics suspect it will be our unilateralist policy.)
There is no attempt this year at either conterence - to openly ditch unilateralist policies. But the tran. Chapples Dennis Healeys would have otherwise. Introducing support for NATO onto the TUC con-
Youth Trade Union Rights
End cheap labour scandal
Y.OT.
CHEAP
LABOUR
benefit between December '83 and May '84 for 'unreasonably refusing' to join scheme Many trainees are forced work non-union workplaces or in privately run schemes.
George McCormack of West Lothian, Scotland, • was one such trainee.
July 27th 1984 he was killed in a head-on colision between a minibus carryino traineer Twelve days later his fami. receive a relier un MSC explaining that their not entitled to compensation as he was not legally employed. Instead they got a cheque for £78.
The scandal of this cheap labour scheme which offers young people no real training, no protection under the law. , and no real job at the end of the time on the scheme must be ended. The TUC should throw out all proposals to collaborate with such
Socialist Action 31 August 1984 gress agenda is the first
The TUC's recent policy has been of silent compromise with NATO membership; the EEPTU's resolution represents the first attempt to get congress' active support. It must be completely rejected. Labour
Labour's defence document introduces 'non-nuclear' defence policy in the form of a pro mise to rid Britain of all nukes, but to up spending on conventional forces varuculay the navy the central European front (Germany). This will volve spending and of increase military fers the least threat to our stable membership of NATO.
Hence keeping NATO sweet is responsible for losing Labour policy close to the unions' heart: diverting military spending into socially useful production. This will begin to cast doubt on the whole of
radical social change.
Trade of course, exist to protect
Trainees rights:
trainees in all premises used in their scheme. state sickness and industrial injuries benefit
tective clothing and footwear
ty is at risk - without loss of benefit
without loss of pay
Schemes:
centres only
proval of the Health & Safety
La local ltduc unluil barely ICo
trade union safety reps with continual, trainees and trade union
MSC and area manpower boards:
ceras or a accidents reported ov traineec
13) MSC lake Icha
Wing agent/sponsor quirements.
National safety policy
Executive.
9 their members' interests, first of which is having a
beer chary unilateralism because of the possible loss of jobs in. volved in getting rid nuclear weapons.
The TUC's OWI discussion Defence and Jobs, shows the nuclear not jobs producing.
DOll cies will of 80,000 1988 (compared 1979 figures). putting massive into military blocks and potentia vestment.
NATO does no the interests
It locks NAI the interests of capitalism in general and American imperialism in particular threatens, not safeguards, jobs. Congress should clearly reject he EETPU resolution as a first step towards committing the TUC to a policy of withdrawal from the bosses nuclear club.
YTUC Campaign
Health & Safety Charter for Trainees
1) Health & Safety legislation to be extended to cover
2) Trainees to receive full N.I. coverage and the right to
3) Trainees to be given free use of safety equipment, pro4) Trainees have the right to refuse to join a scheme, or leave their scheme, at any stage, if they believe their safe5) Trainees have the right to elect their own safety rep
receive union training in health and safety,
6) All schemes to be in unionised workplaces/ training 7) No scheme should go ahead without the written ap
Executive (or authority environmental health officer) and approval. by
8) All schemes should receive regular safety checks by
and the Health & Safety Ex motoring
9) Improved collection, by MSC and area boards, of statistics and information on YTS health and safety 10) Improved training for MSC local staff responsible
' safety. 11) Full and published investigation of every serious or fatal accident; local MSC and area boards to publish
12) Legal liability for any accident to rest with MSC.
managing agents/sponsors are not legally liable managing agents/sponsors who break legal safety requirements 14) Area boards have the right to withold YTS funds and withdraw the license from any scheme where the manag-
Stalls lo meet MSC safety re
15) An immediate reversal of Govt. cuts in the Health & Safety Executive since 1979, as a first step towards a ma jor increase in funds and staff for the Health & Safety
Page 10 scan of this page
Blacks say No to collaboration
10 THE FIFTEENTH anniversary of the troops being sent into Northern Ireland was marked by TV images of the most appalling brutality of the RUC. A symbolic gesture if you like to underline the irreformability of the sectarian Six County state.
Even Official Unionist remarked 'our police force needs investigation and enquiry like they need a hole in the head'. Confirmation of the armed struggle from an unusual source!
Liberal opinion at least has the merit occasionally being able to see what is going on when
on peak time David Steel respond-
immediately with the
this charte illal was rolice riot. Even Shirley Williams had comparisons to make with the murder
peaceful protestors some time earner Peterloo.
There is no solution to the 'problems of Ulster' to be found inside the gerryrandered North. Only the die-hard loyalists of the Militant tendency persist in the idea that the cop-
WIll lie down' and bigots will evolve into acmocrats. Belatedly supporting the campaign
plastic bullets, their response to Sunday's events carried the acidic sting which laid the blame for Sean Downes' death at the door of Sinn Fein on the grounds that their provocalve stance did nothing to ease sectarian LensIon.
The publication in the Guardian of Benn's draft Withdrawal Blll Is to be welcomed. cuts
ali use manoeuvrings the Tories and Labour's 'not-so-bipartisan-as-we were-before' front bench Icalll Cuisule 'new' Ireland which is just as subservient to the international bankers and investors as ine present.
It says what the far left have been saying since 1969
- there can be no
South Africa
ELECTIONS WERE HELD last Wednesday for the coloured sections of South Africa's chamber legislature. They were the first step in trying to legitimate the new constitutional deal that
term future by giving the vote to the entire population.
The bottom line of that is the total exclusion of the 22 million black Africans by their being deemed citizens of 10 'independent
des nile the fact that only a minori-
around 10 million live within the borders of
artificially created, impoverished statelets; and despite the tact that the states so far created
been recognised by other country in the world and state machinery, particularl the police, totally depends
wille stale 1Ul finance and often personLCh.
The rest of the population whites (4.5 million), coloureds (2.5 million), and Asians (800,000) represented in a tricameral parliament with a rallo 4:2:1. The present white House of Assembly
Socialist Action 31 August 1984
Ireland at the TUC
Thomas Passmore
British solution — Ireland as a whole must decide its
government and structure. It dismisses Lne so-called tional guarantee to loyalist
without ascchuall y backward glance, and is well timed stimulate debate in the movement.
By Martin Collins
There are those who wish delay phase withdrawal; there are those who think that
government should set about disarming Ine sectarian state apparatus its predecessors have crealea. WHol should the to Ireland's jails be handed? What future is there for the trade union movement
Ine chooses to affiliate to London rather than Dublin?
Such questions are for the irish to answer. It 1s thanks the Labour Committee on Ireland that
will have the opportunity for discussion with them. With visits of Sinn Fein no longer arousing national headlines, the barriers to dialogue are being lowered. chance to hear Irish TeC The TUC will have leader Matt Merrigan explain why Irish trade unionists are in favour of Irish reunification and independance. Labour Party conference will be hearing the views of the Republican movement, the women's movement and unions in Ireland. We should listen well.
new three-
claims to settle democratically the country's long
(166 seats) becomes the white chamber with 83 in the coloured chamber and 43 in the Asian.
By Tony Southall
All of each chamber's votes will be recorded in favour whatever deci sion the as
Thus white votes will ensure practically anything.
The same principles apply to election of the executive, president 2161 president's advisory coun
WHOSE HELDEN Cal' not be in the parliament, and 25 out of 60 of whom
dren poised The preser
dent also appoints the cabinet which is not responsible to parliament.
The purpose of this scheme is to create in each section black
population, behind a thin veil of democratic institutions, a small amply-rewarded collaborators with white people. South Africa's coloureds gave their answer to this charade last week.
Despite an intense campaign to gel peopie lo register to vote, backed by
police against fion peopposition only 60- peaceful demonstraper cent y 9i0 per these, only per cent turned out to vote nationwide that is, 18 per cent of all those eligible
In Cap Town where
nearly half of live, and where less than 50
Belfast:
THE ANTI-Show Trials demonstration in Belfast on 12 August showed once again the brutality of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Their vicious attack left Sean Downes dead and more than 20 injured. TANIA WEAR and CERI EVANS were there. Here they describe what really happened.
THE MARCH was about 4,000 strong which included British Troops Out delegation, a delegaLOT from the United States and people from all over curope
We marched peaceful-
three abreast from
Road to Andersonstown. There was a huge army and RUC presence along the route, with groups of Saracen tanks and armoreo car. every few hundred yards
When the march arrived at the Busy Bee shopping centre in Andersonstown it was met by tens of armoured cars and Saracen tanks. A few stones were thrown by youths and the RUC immediately opened fire with plasuc bullels.
The crowd scattered and four people were left wounded. The crowd then
held outside the Sinn Fein centre on Falls Road.
At this point the rally was surrounded by the RUC and the army, as they sealed off the crowd. As soon as the banned Noraid leader Martin Galvin appeared the RUC moved in.
They drove their tanks and cars straight HOLO
per cent registered, only 10 Ree percent Tine per won his E24,000 . cent of eligibles.
year seat with 118 votes.
"This boveott success is
only the latest in a tradi-
tion going back 50 years. It
is further proof the vast
majority of South Africa's
black majority do not ac-
eyewitness report
peaceful who
DUECSICIS were sitting in the road.
Police in riot gear attacked marchers will batons and deadly plastic bullels firing crowd at close range Shots were aso tired and inside the Sinn Fein centre. Attack
After this unprovoked attack had begun it seems that Sean Downes ran across the road to › aid his comrades. An RUC lhal raised his gun fired and Downes tell to the ground as the bullet hit his chest at
100 miles an hour over
Marchers fled in all directions, and many ran into the Peoples Democracy bookshop around the corner from the Sinn Fein centre.
The RUC were firing on these running demonstrators, hitting the grill on the window of the bookshop dany ulc
Their work over, the RUC withdrew leaving Sean Downes acau ana more than 20 others, including small children, injured
This was not just a few RUC men going wild. It was planned attack, authorised at the highest levels, with the aim of arresting Martin Galvin and driving the nationalist population off the streets.
failed. Galvin got away. And the next day at least 10,000 people joined an illegal black flag march to remember sean
Being in Ireland and being eyewitnesses brought home to us how the RUC and the media lie and distort events.
First the RUC claimed they were attacked by
cept any form of col
laboration with white rule.
It lays the lays theat devd op-
rapid develop-
ment which could be nur-
tured by three factors in
particular. First, the for-
mation of new federations
of black organisations,
notably the United
Democratic Front, but
International
rioters and that their action was defensive. Then they claimed that they shot most of their bullets into the air. They even said inere was a witness who saw Downes being hit by a ricochet bullet.
All this was disproved bv many evewitnesses and by film taken of the event
Head of the RUC Sir John Hermon C"CI said that people who demonstrate Northern Ireland can expect this sort
anyone who attends legal, peaceful demonstration should be expect to be shot dead by RUC thugs.
Tiny stick
The media, despite
tacked, also did their bit! By Tuesdav morning Sean Downes was an ex-IRA rioter, wo was seen with a stick in his hand.
No mention that he nad probably seen Inends being beaten and shot at betore he ran across the
roaT he parine of West
The people Belfast didn't believe these media lies They turned out in their thousands for his funeral And workers at his youth training centre went on strike his memory
This attack is just one in a long line of brutalities carried out by the British army and the RUC. In the Six Counties their aim is to smash the nationalist defend the position and sectarian Six County state.
clear that the number one task for British socialists is to build a mass campaign to ban plastic bullets and • lO get the troops out of Ireland HOW
also the more radical New
Forum Committee.
The second factor is a
crucal crish of the ec.
nomy, with a plunging
gold and
rate. And third is an im
pending national strike
around wages demands by
the two year old National
Union of Mineworkers.
Page 11 scan of this page
20 September by-elections campaign "It is crucial we win
News
his constituency of Hayes and
paign, and how it's being run. LABOUR IS at the mid-point in our campaign to save the GLC. The legislation scrapping next year's elections
through parliament but won't be triggered until the main legislation is carried. We expect that to be introduced in November.
So we wanted something to start off the next stage of our campaign with a bang. That's what the four by-elections on 20 September are all about. A victory will be a real stimulus to the campaign.
We chose Ine constituencies we did because we wanted marginais and also
geographical spread.
And
CUSt JOUl because that's our majoriLy On the GLC. came
Edmonton and Pad-
where Ken LIvingstone is standing.
The constituency campaign is launched on 28 Auoust with our press conference. During the election we're having
surcel meetings every Saturday with whole range of speakers including Ken Livingstone, Tony Benn, 21001 WHO I leaders.
We want to ensure that people realise the by-elections are about saving the GLC and the right to vote - but also that this is
Not just
any old
elections
THE FOUR GLC by-elections taking place on 20
programme of crushing
people by unionism and abolishing Labour's strong-hold in the cities.
The attacks umons are me Dodos ed abolition of the GLC and metropolitan counties must be stressed. Nowhere is this clearer than the attack London Trans DOlL
As soon as control of LT was the GLC the
LRT, a programme of roll-
DEFEND THE GLC...
as socialists"
JOHN MeDONNELL was chair of the GLC's Finance Committee before the by-election called in
Harlington/Hillingdon. He explains why Labour is fighting the cam-
only one part of the strugthe govern ment.
We will have speakers from the miners' union on pianorin, and local trade unionists in struggle CP»A ІГОП local job centre which is Dell closed, and local UCW workers whose subpost office is also threatened with closure. we want people_to recognise that GLC is DarE of a broader struggle.
Rail strike
The rail workers strike 12 September is in the VIl middle of our election Hayes calllJalall railway constituency, with a big railway estate and a large and active branch in Paddington. We
and Jimmy Knapp down during the campaign and, Ine David Wetzel and rank and file rail workers on
The issues for this area are stark. There is a large British Kai workforce and London Transport workers in Haves. all of
Lewisham Concert Hall,
Paul Boateng, September will be a major test for the government's strategy of removing any and every obstacle to its
the wille standards smashing effective trade
Wing JOD cuts totalling 16,000 Wai announced The GLC's of defence of COUS vices are the real reason for abolition.
It is because the GLC under Livingstone's leadership has broker with the past practice of most Labour councils of implementing Tory policies 'under protest' and cutting
whom stand to lose their jobs.
Our opponents in the Hayes by-election are an
an SDP candidate and the National Front.
Tory MP for this area. Terry Dicks, is described by the Guardian as the Fred Flintstone of the
neanderthal racist who has
ollowed Thatcher's dictat
refusing local Conservative Association to run. But an unofficial candidate came
The SDP candidate is the former Labour GLe candidate, Peter Russell.
Lewisham West Public Meeting
Catford, SE6 speakers include Ken Livingstone, Lewish Herbert and Denis Healey (invited)
in a 'humane' way. Instead thei nave beato unite working people and
the face of the Tories at-
divide and demoralise the working class. They have done this
policies such as their cheap fares policy, grants
organisations representing local working Clas. terests, anti-racist policies, statements the British occupation Ireland, and support for women's and gav rights.
By Fred Carpenter, Paddington Labour Party
In recognition of this Paddington Labour Party, with its candidate Ken Livingstone, raise these issues as part of its election campaign. . we will pe can. paigning on the right of Londoners to vole, a rignl removed by the abolition
tions, but in the context of
GLC COl. mitted to Labour's policies
Activities aloullu
Their
ed about From
people 1o sign the necessary We in. tend to they're
back again.
ty Hall -oul nave Iorm 01
ment The SDP favoured
Because
doorstep People want the
miners' strike will be integrated into the election
through the candlell
platforms public meetings and through continuing collect money and food for the strike. Picket lines
Also, on the day of the transport strike. 12 September, Ken will visit some of the picket lines in from the sarike will be int the area and a
• be in vited onto the platform of that night's public meeting.
At present details of the nublic meetings have not been finalised, but invited •OCaNCIS reflect Labour's concerns. Arthur Scargill has been ask-
to une constituency's major rally on 17 September ana an all. for our eve-or-pot rally er black platform is the 19th. And we are pro-
icalicts weekly. focussing various aspects of the GLC's work
like housing and
of that right next year by the government's proposals to scrap the elections.
In addition to that we're getting quite amazing reaction on our canvasses to the Labour
specifically policies locally. We've introduced range policies to tackle unemployment and bring back the social cohesion our community nad in lne 50s and early 60s.
munity began to deterioriate environmentally and socially because
high unemployment airport coming along. The GLC has introduced environmental protection polices,
local volunteer groups and local ethnic minority groups.
reaction to the Labour
and against Lilt Conservative candidate In Haves the GLC is the only authority protecting
The Con local interests. servalve conness been making a range of cuts.
Local people closely identify the GLC as the protectors or our community, whereas they identify the Conservatives as the people who are ravaging it.
The critical part of this campaign is winning the struggle SOCIOLAS. fOl just a broad alliance
tion of the GLC. It is important that we win , the right implement our policies • policies of providing assistance for working people within our communily. crucial.
What is lacking at this stage is London-wide focus, to bring together all these issues and to reach oul to me alons or con. doners who will not be able to show their support by voting in one of the by-elections
The best way to do this would be major demonstration on the weekend before polling
organised Greater London Labour Partv and the south was Region TUC.
The Tories have tried to boycott these elections by refusing to stand. But maverick Tories - Inret in Paddington alone — are contesting scals. well as the Alliance and other fringe candidates But it is still likely that Labour will retain all four seats.
These are not just any old elections however. They amount to a referendum on abolition. To be successful Labour needs not just to hold the seats, but to qualitatively increase its vote. This is why
Socialist Action 31 August 1984
DEFEND THE GLC...
don Labour
tency plays its part.
Paddington.
Edmonton..
Hayes & Harlington
Lewisham West
John McDonnell says:
leafleters.
or just call in?
mass ticularly important. Opportunity
It won't be enough to ask people how they're voting and then walk away. Canvassers will have the opportunity to persuade electors of the im portance of voting by ex-
Paddington's Public Meetings:
Monday 3 September speakers: Jo Richardson, David Blunkett
Thursday 6 September speakers: Merle Amery, Brent councillor venue: to be arranged Wednesday 12 September speakers: Dennis Skinner, Valerie Wise venue: to be arranged Monday 17 September speakers: Arthur Scargill invited venue: to be arranged Wednesday 19 September
from the black community
venue: to be arranged
11
EVERY LABOUR ACTIVIST in
London and beyond must turn out in
support of the GLC for the four by-
elections on 20 September. Consti-
tuencies are being allocated to work
in one of the four areas by the Lon-
Party headquarters
(01-703 6511). Make sure your consti-
By-election HQs: .. 2869692 . 8071627 .. 573 2778: 699 2001 We work from the Labour Hall, Pump Lane, Hayes, Middlesex. Telephone 01-573 2778. We're here every day from 10am till 11 al night. We desperately need canvassers and
And we need any financial contributions that people can make. We've got a whole series of public meetings, soap box and street activities you'd be welcome to come along and attend. Why not ring our number,
plaining the positive policies of the Labour GLC.
Already many activists have been phoning in t find out they car nelp. Ine London Labou Party is allocating consti elections. To find out wha: you should be doing, contact your constituenc! secretary. And do it now
venue: Marble Arch English School, Star Street
speakers: Merle Amery, Diane Abbott and others
Page 12 scan of this page
Rail, tube
and bus
strike:
FORGET WHATEVER ELSE you may be told. The national work to rule on British Rail, starting on 70 September, and transport strike on 12 September are about defence of jobs.
numbers game "millionaire bingo', it is difficult to get a true picture of just how many jobs are at stake. Suffice to say that anybody working on BR or LT who thinks that any less than 50,000 jobs are under the axe during the next five years is living in cloud cuckoo land.
By fighting on the jobs
the transport unions will be struggling along-
and the bullies
kers. It will be a logical
oI ine supporl
i has been unstintingly
en to the miners by the
train crews, who
• e been resus to cros
'M picket lines and who
Sallit
sport to the dockers.
With
gicalest ally
will only be a matter time before the BR Board begins to make the same ¡moves to break the coalmovement boycott by the rail workers that the British Steel Corporation
Inland 6 months f8; 12 months £15 Overseas (12 months only)
Europe €17; Air Mail £ 24 (Double these rates for mulli-reader institutions).
Name Address
Please send me as special offer
Bothed by Carenal Enterpiches, PO Box 50, London N1.
SOCiAList
ACTION
12 September
No more
job loss!
the London Region one-day
With management and the media playing more desperately than
has taken at Hunterston.
The best form of defence is attack. Already 35,000 jobs have been lost for ever on BR during the last five years.
By Patrick Sikorski, East Ham NUR (pers cap)
As usual far trom being satisfied management are coming back for more and more. This is clearly the time to launch an all-out fightback.
Ever since the Tories came to power they have waged a vendetta against the nationalised transport system.
BOIS has been done
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I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action fgr $ ..
Sendio: Socialist Action Subs, 328 Upper St. London NI 2XP
against a background of
constant cuts in subsidies
and resulting productivity
and job loss for the
workforce. The Tories
having taken over LT now
Insist on slasning Ine sub
sidy by 50 per cent from its
present £190 million to £95
million by 1987-88. Bet-
16,000 and 20,000
jobs are at stake.
Deregulation
Now the Tories are
rushing complete deregu.
lation of the bus industry
inrough parliament
will mean that private taxis
ana minicabs can act lust
like buses.
They have awarded a
£60 minion contract for
the building of a new Lon-
don docklands Ignl
railway to a consortium of
GEC and John Mowlem.
As far as the iS is are
concerned
railway of the future
Its 16 stations will all
be unstaffed and equipped
with automatic
vallIcis
and videos. There will be
11 new trains which will
run entirely automatically.
Special free book offer!
Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books:
Thatcher and Friends by John Ross
Over our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb
Introductory offer for new readers: Eight issues for just f2!
the Tories understand is all-out indefinite strike action
against this background that the antics of the unions head offices over the last 10 days must be seen.
rirst the actions were called, but the work to rule is called 'non-cooperation' ane no all bk trains ir London will be stopped occause i septemoer onl involves London area managers' districts This means for example, that Victoria will
DUl Clapham Junction (Southern Region) will not.
Then more talks were held with management and ine acuon seemed to nave been called off despite the
have jacI not withdrawn malaccinch
only promised not to table any more official cuts al present. More talks
At the end of last week the action was reaffirmed. But there are to be more talks
Meanwhile London Transport management have announced the
been hard building.
duced readers
on 11 August.
for another donation - this time of $500
sent £30 which makes their
figure we're looking for.
The time for one-day protest is over. The only language
unilateral imposition of the first round of job cuts.
The union side of the Sectional Council concerned has stood firm. But we are told that in the interests "unit! in the Federation of Rail Unions the NUR executive cannot yet call all-out indefinite strike action. There are to be further talks after unless management withdraws the cuts action will 'escalated' from 12 September. Two choices
The rank and file on both BR and LT know that there al C only two choices ahead: accept the inevitability of cuts in the interests of what management call more petitive and cost efficient railway' or fight.
There is only one way to escalate the action from 12 September. for one day protests is the Tories Over. _he onlv understand language all-out definitive strike action
Back to work on the fund drive!
WHILE READERS have holidayed far and away in sunny climes, Socialist Action has
at work looking for a new
Although the regular weekly issues of the paper have not appeared over the summer, we have pro-
with a t500 special collection IrOl an 8-page issue at the end of July during the first docks strike, and a 4-page broadsheet for the Women Against Pit Closures demonstration
Our thanks this week to our reader in the USA
- keep it coming: and from readers in Southampton who
• running total £55 towards their target. To cap it all a meeting over the summer of Socialist Action readers collected the magnificent sum of £750 — that's the sort of
LOND
DAY OF ACTION
OFFICIAL DISPUTE
201 MARCH 1984
WOULD MEMBERS
OF ALL UNIONS
AFFILIATED TO THE
ATTUC PLEASE OBSERVE
THE PICKET LINE
Tory strategy for transport
one aim
with:
• allowing private
cream off profitable services • asset-stripping profitable enter-
prises
• extending Whitehall control over
the metropolitan Transport authorities.
to private transport are hardly
publicised. They include:
• new roads are built with a 100 per
cent government subsidy
• 'uneconomic' rural railway lines
are threatened the same criteria is never applied to roads
• company cars get around £2000
million a year in tax subsidies, double the amount going to support passenger railway.
on 12 September, in two weeks' time. And fron
then on we're back to weekly business as usual —
with a post mortem on the TUC, a preview of the
Labour Party conference, and regular coverage of
the miners' struggle.
the fund drive can be forgotten. We still need to
meet the f50,000 target to change our address and
keep the weekly paper alive and kicking.
you should start thinking about local events that
will raise money for our building fund. And keep
watching this space for news of national fund rais-
ing events in the weeks to come.
Pho CARLOS AUGUSTO GUARITA (Photon.
Four Tory transport secretaries of state have launched six transport acts with just
— to take the 'public' out of public transport. Their acts have been concerned
operators to
and London
The massive handouts and hidden subsidies
every
with closure but The next issue of Socialist Action will appear
But no reader should imagine that this means
Now that you're back from your summer hols.
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