Socialist Action No. 73, A, 19 October 1984
The scan: 073-oct-19-[numbering-error]-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.
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AcTioN
PREPARE A GENERAL STRIKE!
No. 73 19 October 1984 30p The breakdown of the ACAS -talks has confirmed what has been clear since the strike started in March. That there is no way the government can be seen to back down, or promise, with the NUM.
Having committed itself to the most brutal strike since 1926 the Tories must win or the. backbone of the Thatcher government will be broken.
And if that was true seven months ago it is even truer today. If the Thatcher government is defeated by the • NUM after it is a goverrment without a confrontation scale, credibility or future.
* Exactly for this reason this government is never more dangerous than when cornered. For clearly than ever, the government is losing the strike.
There are two weapons to hand either of which the labour movement can use to win the dispute beyond question. The first, which would win the strike in only a few weeks, is for NACODS to come out on strike in line with their ballot decision -which, as we go to press, NACODS national executive is delaying. The second is for guidelines on the power stations to be implemented.
It is exactly for the reason that it now feels so threatened that the government, through the courts, is
MINERS
A FIGHT®
TO THE
FINISH
miners'
Thatcher Soldarity with the miners.
even comlegal attack.
High
tack.
this
today, more
to the finish. - a move • A national the miners the TUC called by the NUM.
oing all out to try to break the strik
he $200,000 fine on the NUM is ju a foretaste of the legal attacks which * if the High Court is successful, will be
against unions • taking
The power unions, the rail unions and the seafarers are all in line for a
If it can break the solidarity with the NUM then the government can still win. Sequester ing the funds of the NUM under the
Court order on 29 October would be the decisive step in that at-
This is why stepping up the action by the labour movement in support of the NUM is a vital step to victory. The TUC statement on Monday night, -blaming the National Coal Board for the breakdown of the talks, is a step forward. But it is actions, not words, that are crucial. The entire movement now has to be mobilised to defend the NUM in what has now become a fight
This means fighting for: • An all out strike by NACODS
• Full implementation of TUC Congress decisions on handling coal - in particular at the power stations.
Labour Party/TUC demonstration in support of the
• A national solidarity conference
• An emergency meeting of the TUC
General Council to decide on general
strike action if the funds of the NUM
are sequestered on 29 October.
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TUC must prepare for action
Socialist Action
ACTiON SOCiALKI
It is a moral
question
The deaths and injuries resulting from the bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton will provoke no tears in the Catholic ghettos of the North of Ireland, nor in the mining communities of this should they!
The Tory cabinet, whose core came so close to being wiped out, murderers in the most literal sense. They are the of Prentinian sailors to death when they
sailors torpedoed the Belgrano. health, safety,
have been killed in the entire then year than
the troops went into the North of Ireland
The Tory Cabinet are the people - and they come from a long line — who every day organise the military and the killing and repression that flows from it.
If someone wants to weep violence can list to start with than those who died at Brighton - any pensioner dying from the effects of Thatcherism would do for a start. It is pure hypocrisy of the press that they present organisers of violence as martyrs
Needless to say this same Fleet Street press, and the government, have moved rapidly to exploit the Brighton bomb in their war against the British miners. In this they are greatly helped by Neil Kinnock and the right wing of the labour movement. about 'all violence' pass herself off as a defender of democracy. He which it exercises daily in the North. the government
And those who most rapidiy 'terrorism' are those in the British Labour move ment who most readily themselves. Gavin
'Even although we
actions needed to perpetrators of this foul outrage. position on Ireland at the Labour Party conference was courts and the use of plastic bullets -course in the name of non-violence!
While the leadership of the labour movement takes the positions of Kinnock and Laird Ireland will continue to be an achilles heel of the British
hundred per cent with the Republican. tion of the North of Ireland and not with the Tory Cabinet who received just a minute proportion of their own medicine.
But in addition to the moral question there is also a straightforward political issue. On that the Brighton bomb was a big mistake waging a mass campaign for British withdrawal retreat from Sinn Fein's from Ireland.
It needs to be said honestly also that there are illusions in Sinn Fein if the statement attributed to Danny Morrison in the Observer that. 'If the IRA had wiped out the Cabinet that would accelerate moves towards withdrawal, is true.
In the North of Ireland it is undoubtedly true that the armed struggle has mass because the majority of the nationalist population see the British government and its army as an illegitimate occupation force.
In Britain these conditions do not exist. As a result the political effect of Brighton bombing is to allow the true criminals to portray themselves as the victims of 'terrorism' and 'attacks on democracy'.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN
Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December.
Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre-
sent Socialist Action's views.
ecutonas.
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19 October 1984 country. Nor
is an organisation of mass
death when they Their old age pensions and interna
occupation of the North of Ireland
for victims of =
give them a very much better
these cynical
as Kinnock's handwringing simply allows Thatcher
over the violence ran to condemn support violence
disagree on economic of this catch the Laird's own
to uphold the Diplock non-jury
all of
movement. Our moral sympathy is one
popula-
- ana a developing support
actions like the These are expressed in
THE BREAKDOWN of the latest round of talks between the NUM and the NCB, virtually eliminates the possibili-
of a compromise solution to the miners strike. The government has decided on a fight to the finish. The battie now facing the labour movement not just the NUM iS fold: to bring the power cuts into play as rapidly
possible, and to defeat the High Court attack on the NUM.
By Pat Hickey
At the ACAS talks the NCB made important retreats from the position they had adopted at the start of the dispute eight months ago. Then, MacGregor was demanding NUM acceptance 'management's right to manage' in whatever way it saw fit. MacGregor's demand was for a blank cheque from the NUM which would allow the NCB to
get rid of 70,000 jobs and
VOIL This the NUM
steadfastly refused to acwithdrawal of this demand Macuregor is a considerable step 101• ward the It means that the NCB has been forced to abandon MacGregor's plan tor the rapid, wholesale restruc turing of the coal industry. The sting in the however, was the Board's attempts to secure agree-
around biccculical and slightly longer term approach to the same ena
MacGregor's com-
FoR 800 years we have tried to civilize that unfortunate race-theIrish.
Blockade of Barnsley NUM headquarters following MacGregor's first writ plaints /about the union's unwillingness to accept a compromise are intended to conceal these facts. His statement that the 'sad thing is that, despite our efforts to reach compromise, nobody else seemed to be interested. It is like running up against a brick wall is a real tribute to the principled stand of
Conunluc
tion under
The anullici
review body, without
tion, was intended acneve
before LIC MacGregor.
were to
would extremely vulnerable. The Board
while exhave great
winn-
in the talks.
In lne the the GMBATU
Tories can move of the 22
stocks by roast, it ithe ae
stocks by road, it will
A PIECE "THE ACTION
But the attempt has apparently been a total tailure...
use to them at the power stations, given the solidarity action being taken there.
A further problem for the NCB is the ballot deci-
union NACODS The failure to reach agreement on the review procedure puts NACODS under new pressure to deliver on its pledge of strike action
With 82 per cent for a SACODS strike the ballot,
the production of coal in Nottinghamshire and other areas. This would eliminate the 700,000 tonnes of coal currently being produced. NACODS has a clear interest in fightin alongside the NUN against the closure plans.
But the Tories are not going to roll over and die The battle running against them, but they Will fight all the more desparately for that.
The High Court action against the NUM is the
next weapon they will se.
they succeed questering NUM funds without meeting response from the labour movement, they will quickly consider moving against other unions who are supporting the miners
The key question for the Tories now is breaking the solidarity actions. The attack on the NUM is not a side-show. The Jabou movement must meet the challenge.
Victory
From the beginning the government has relie on keeping TEne miners isolated from the rest of the movement. The lessons of the NGA
They seem determined to reject the joys and delights of British
DADS
JOE Young pickets support the strike
dispute were very much in their minds.
The Tory strategy of breaking solidarity action without legal moves has failed. The decisions at the TUC, and at Labour Party Conference, have seen to that. But the governmen still hope that the TUC will back off in the face of a major legal attack.
A fight must be waged to force the TUC to de-
NUM, and to prepare for general strike democracy!
News
to defeat the courts. The movement must also swing behind the task of building and reinforcing the solidarity with the miners. blockade on movement of coal needs to be strengthened, as does the action in the power stations Finally to get political support for the miners there is the need to build a Labour Party/TUC demonstration in London to build solidarity.
CORMAC
But at least they've stopped assassinating
horses....
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News
BEFORE THE bomb went off last week at Brighton clear signs of nervousness were showing up in the British political establishment.
The media headlines statements by the Bishop of Durham and the Archishop of Canterbury. messages were also being put out by Peter Walker and other sections of the Tory Party. JOHN ROSS looks at why the ruling class 'wets' decided to speak Oll.
Two fears have always haunted British capitalism's support HEDI Thatcher government. The first and by far the most serious, is that the governmens ooic e wouu Icau to a major breakdown in DonC Oracl•
When unemployment
after 1979 pedal lo suar Heath made the accusation against Thatcher that ner policies would leau lo workers occupying their factories to save jobs.
Undoubtedly the worst moment in the entire life of the government was in 1981 when the riots shook Britain's raren has a government looked
Whitelaw appeared on the television in the middle of the Brixton riot.
The signs violent
hostility the police, and the clashes will wel, 1 tue miners' strike has genuinely worried of the
melucs political establishment.
Looked at from a long term point of view there is
whether CUCCII worth shutting quite many pits if it would genuinely lead to increasing opposition by major secuons or tue working Clas to the law, the police, and
key OENOT SIOULEtions of the British state. "there is also concern that prolonged mass unemployment would lead to mass disaffection from conventional Parliamentary politics.
This political concern regarding Thatcher's policies links up with an
were grabbed by the
But suitably coded
economic critique however.
The five vears of the Thatcher government have been a very good time indeed for certain specific groups within the ruling class - in particular for the most powerful groups of British capitalism.
British DanKlY and finance has undergone a huge boom. The overseas earnings or brusi Dank: alone increased ninefold £224 £1,842 million, in the five years from 1979 to 1983. huge outflow of capital from the country has also taken place with the overseas assets of the British private sector tripling between 1979 and 1983 from £50,000 million to £153,000 million.
such Other specific as the producers of SeCON North Sea gas and British farmers, have also benefitted greatly from the Thatcher years. Taken together all these groups make up the powerl bloc with British capital.
But in order to keep the entire capitalist class happy thatcher had produce economic growth within Britain itself. Those firms in sectors such as manufacturing, with their production base primarily in Britain. can for a certain period improve their proitability simply by cut-
But over longer term ste teen to lucrease oulput as well.
It is here that the Thatcher government demonstrably odin® The to deliver the goods.
Miners international
solidarity meeting
Satugday ed by Sober 10.30 -5.30
• How can the strike be won! • The women's movement in
the strike
• International solidarity with
the miners and the struggle for a i
socialist Europe
Speakers include (in a personal capacity): Alain Krivine, Ken Capstick Yorks area NUM exec, Dai Davies South Wales area NUM exec, Phil Sutcliffe Kent areà NUM exec, Ann Jones South
Wales Women Against Pit Closures For registration and details contact Socialist Action, PO
Box 50, London NI or Phone 01-359 8371
Tories before
that bomb
worst received speech of the entire Tory Party conference was that Chancellor of the Exchequer Lawson- - w10 8c to gain even the most ritual
ISOtRr standllg ovations.
British manufacturing output is now completely stagnant even leaving out of account the effects
the miners' strike.
Economic growth last year Output
was three per cent, this year is scheduled for two per cent, and is projected, without confidence, to in-
UCC I again next year. But this is scarcely enough to make up for the huge fall in output that occured between 1979 and 1981.
Overall the rate of economic growth under
the Thatcher government has been less than one per cent a year = the lowest recorded economic growth, outside war and its effects, in the 20th cen-
Any idea that Thatcher's policies could, by themselves, get the
moving again are disappearing
What is therefore being increasingly floated in rul-
class circles are elements of short term alternative economic policies to Thatcher's. These would naturally maintain in " place iva tise measures 'privatisation', laws against unions and so on passed by Thatcher, depend upon defeat of the miners, but would involve some substantial public inVOUCHL
CBI
The CBl has for some time being advocating substantial 'infrastructural investment — measures such as the eleclieten olle rauways.
ncreased public construc Lou elc• wavu owel 1e now launched what he terms a National Jobs Plan
whose stated objective is to create a million new jobs but whose real emphasis is £1,000 million of 'industrial illy CanICi improvements' in construction and road CUEU grammes. Robert Max
Daily launched a publicity campaign for simi al measures.
It was to these types of policy that Tory 'wet' Peter Walker referred in his much publicised speech to the Tory Reform Group 'criticising' Thatcher's attacks on all forms of
ublic expenditure
There is however a pro viso to all these measures. This that employers are now becoming increasingly worried by the increase in working
Photo: GM COOKSON
class struggle that is occurring eve l smal econe min creoses trinl wages in particular are now running about four per cent ahead of inflation and sectors that capital thought had been totally defeated, such as car workers, are showing rapidly recovering militanсу.
To control this situation David Owen
vuL class codet in his "Howi if in ruling class code, put a million to work' in the Guardian on Monday: 'If wage costs are rising fast at such an early stage
the present weak recovery, then it becomes
expansionary prosucceed securing a sustained redaction unemployasi without triggering off i flation, the rate of increzse of incomes in the privat sector, as well as in th public sector, severely restricted.' In short 'wage controls here we come again!'
Socialist Action 19 October 1984
Owen in fact, logically, also makes it clear that in his opinion capitalism requires the assistance of the trade union bureaucracy ai present. In his words, "The trade nave. managemeat. the respon. solit! to fact te realit! dar if des a
dhe rentt theresetres a measare of income restrzint.' In othel words if an expansion of the economy might create
3 Prior, Pym, Disraeli and puppets better conditions for working class struggle then it is the duty of the trade union bureaucracy to ac.
wage contro s make sure that struggk doesa't take prace
Meanwhik Ro. Hat.
Serra i proact -n • економі coupled with... wage cre trols.
curious coincidence isn't it!
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The lessons of 1972
Rule 41 and Tory laws
4 THE TORY Employment Acts are the direct descendants of the 1971 Industrial Relations Act. That Act attacked trade union power on many allowed individual scabs to shop. It allowed unions to be sued for causing a 'breach of contract'.
postponement of strike periods') while secret ballots were organised. It called for agreements between unions and employers to be legally binding.
"there Was al that unions which registered the could gain a certain protection under the law (e.g. employers could sue them only up to £100,000). special court, the National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC), was set up. special judge presided over it former Tory Call arcate Jonn Donalusol.
On 11 November 1970, 100,000 workers came out on unofficial strike against the Bill (as it then was)
On 8 mainly in Scotland.
December 1970 the number prepared to strike for day had risen to 500,000. The stoppage was anofficial (except in the case of SOGAT, whose executive WElL into hiding for a day to avoid being served with an injunction ordering them to call off the strike). Early in January 1971 there SCIE similar one day strikes in Birmingham and Coventry.
The TUC called a rally on 12 January 1971, which was well supported, and a TUC-led march Sun day 21 February saw over 250,000 trade unionists demonstrating in London.
The AUEW called an official strike on 1 March, LES GASSOR is lodge secretary at Nantgarw coke ovens. We talked to him about the legal threat NUM's funds.
What will happen to the NUM's funds if the fine remains unpaid?
Only the national union's runas are inreatened. We have two separate funding systems the national union funds and the area funds.
Socialist Action 19 October 1984
fronts.
challenge the closed
It gave the government the power to order the
action (cooling
and 1.o million workers downed tools.
March 2 million walked Out.
The majority of unions refused to register under the new law, the summer of 1972 the NUR had agreed to hold a secret ballot ordered to, and the TGWU had paid a fine of £80,000 imposed by the court. It looked as if
the Tories were getting away with it.
The dockers were the first to challenge reverse — this trend. They were engaged in a long and bitter fight to prevent their employers from diverting work away from the well-organised docks into container depots COld stores employing poorly organised and badly paid workers. Their main tactic was to boycott firms whose lorries went across picket lines into such depots. It was this sort of boycott action that led the NIRC to impose the first solail fine on TGWU.
The struggle soon focussed on the Midland Cold Store, London depot owned by the giant Vestey company. London dockers established an effective picket and resisted
The writ only affects the national funds because it was taken out against Arthur Scargill and the national executive The
al ca. of course, has already has its funds sequestered
The strike is not a nationa strike. It's an area strike action which has been made official by the national executive under rule 41. The national union is in fact a federa. tion of areas.
If they seize the funds of the national union there
DOSBARTH GLO CARREG
GWAITH ABERCRAF
MEWN UNDEB MAE NERTH
HEDDWCH.
every attempt by the NIRC to remove them. The court ordered stewards leading the picket to appear before it! The stewards simply ignored the summons. On Friday 21 five leading stewards were arrested by the police for being in
and 'contempt of court' sent to Pentonville jail.
Within every port in the country was
Knocker walked off the job. By Sunday 23 Julv fleet Street was Shut
out, and in the next two days more and more workers joined the dispute. The TUC called a one day general strike for the following week, but by the Wednesday it was clear
The WHO Law Lords let the five Shop stewarus go
The government and its legislation had been dealt a mighty blow, but the court continued EHIVEDI m late 1973. AUEW members at Con-
for union recognition. They refused to obey an order from the NIRC to stop the picketing and were fined for contempt of court. The NIRC ordered the se. questration money from the AUEW's funds. The AULW caned a national one day stoppage in protest.
The Commission of Industrial Relations, a new body set up under the Industrial Relations Act, was
dispute, it recommended recognition. The employers refus-
But the HUNDER strike gradually dwindled will still be the area funds. They are usually topped up by contributions from
national dues have been paid but
been frozen because of the strike
It they go for the are funds that will be an even bigger problem.
What exactly does the judge's ruling mean? The judges have ruled that the picket lines in Yorkshire and Derbvshire are illegal and that it's not
Police clash with miners in 1972 and in April 1974 it was called off
However, the next month the employers' case came to court for its full hearing (you can only get a temporary injunction you are ISSUES proceedings, which usualtake severa monus ut come to court). An award of £45,000 compensation was made to the employer. Again the AUEW refused to pay
The court threatened an official strike.
Our rule book says that each area can take action under rule 41, with the per mission of the national ex ecutive which has been done.
We're supporting the Wembley TUC decision to oppose legal interference in trade unions. If we went to court our case would be clear. The TUC Congress decided not to recognise the right of legal interference. Where's the rest of the TUC to support us now?
We know that our strike is official and that they have no right to interrer our mue Dook to sull
their ends.
What's your view of the ruling!
Their double standards on the law are clear. In 1976, when Joe Gormley was president, the High Court ruled that areas had the power under snue 41 negotiate the productivity bonus, with the permission of the then right wing national executive.
Now the national executive have given us per-
to sequester all the union's
Ine Aurw called an unlimited stoppage of all its members. Within 24 hours an anonymous businessman had paid the
The Industrial Relations Act was discredited, made unworkable by
by unionists. The Tory government had not been able to shackle the unions. keprintea from Report 'Assault the unions', 95p. mission to take strike ac-
navidual arcas against pit closures. the
courts have ruled that it's illegal.
What should the rest of the unions be doing?
They should be considering strike action port, because if the NUM
oses its case they would be the next to be attacked.
There've been guide lines issued by unions to respect picket lines but it's a bit early to see what effects that will have.
What about the decision to fine Scargill personally for contempt of court?
I could respect their decision fining him for contempt they made similar ruling on the Lord Chief Justice. He was Radio 4 before the High Court made its ruling giv ing advice on how to deal with the NUM.
He was just as much in contempt Arthur Scargill. Nothing has happened to him.
Kinnock supports
Lanwern scabbing
JUST ONE with alter the Labour Party conference bached the miners overwhelmingly. Veil Kinnock sandtioned the coal convoys passing through NUM picket lines at Llanwern steel works.
By Valerie Coultas
Defending agreement reacato at tnt Decl ning of the strike ne said 'What's essential is the steelworks kept in
Collectors
arrested
tober) outside Sainsbury's,
rested collecting for
previously
supporters. This is political policing.'
mass
$50-96}p by selling
food.
News
Dhoto. VENT MESSENGE
production market remains for the coalfields This statement prosoked a sharp reaction from the president of the South Wales NUM Emlyn Williams who is now putme oressure tor a total disgusting that kinnock should take a stand totall! out of line his own WAICH wholeheartedly
backing our struggle Keeping stee plants and keeping them workinu were awar iwo different things.
THE HACKNEY Miners' Support Committee organised a mass collection last Thursday (27 Oc-
Dalston, where two members of Hackney Young CND had been ar-
the miners two weeks
Polly Vittorini and Tom Silverlock, both supporters of the youth paper Revolution, were arrested and charged with obstruction. Tom said: "The police are obstructing the miners and their
collection 25 people raised The Miner, NUM newspaper, and collected 2 large carrier bags of
Page 5 scan of this page
A declaration of war
Railworkers: no coal will move
News
'WAR HAS been declared on the whole trade union movement. That is the meaning of the f200,000 fine against the NUM. It is a calculated attempt to smash organised labour in this country'.
reaffirmed the determination of the NUM to continue its defiance of the High Court.
Mr Justice Nicholls imposed the fine because, as he puts it, the union and Arthur Scargill had 'wilfully, deliberately, knowingly and repeatedly broken his order that the •strike in Yorkshire should not be described as official.
NUM's COltempt' relates not only to the and Der. byshire areas, but also to Nottinghamshire, North Wales, North Western and Notres dreas. Obeying the court order would ef-
mean calling off the strike in those areas, and surrendering to the NCB.
That the reality behind about the rule of law.
une move by luc court to sequester NUM funds is
crippling union's ability to continue the fight. If the courts can get away with imposing the fine, and seizing the assets of the union on this issue.
will certainly return for more.
The unions which are
supporting the NUM Will YOUNG
be attacked. The NUR, ASLEF TGWU, GMBATU, and so on will all be liable to court action for 'secondary' industrial alliull.
The fine is therefore a serious blow aimed at the strike. The Tories are losing the battle with the miners and action in the power stations is beginnRAILWORKERS at the Coalville Freight Depot in Leicestershire have been united in their refusal to shift coal since April. management to retreat on more than one occasion since then.
months, management is again up to its dirty tricks to try and get the trains carrying coal back on the road.
Last week, Roy Butlin, leader the Coalville guards, and local miners' eader, Malcolm Pinnegar, were warmiy weicomed In East London by local
support groups, and by rail union members. Butlin explained why moral and financial support for Coalville's 150 railworkers is more than ever needed, and why he plans an urgent return trip
present nis members' case to wider labour movement audiences.
seven long mollths,' Butlin said, 'Coalville ral workers have had to exist in our tightly knit community where many of our next door neighbours are working miners.' And with only a handful of the
2500 miners
to as "The Dirty Thirty'
that surprislg railworkers and striking nes codoorde coser.
Coalville Freight Depot has strategic impor-
The High Court attack
With these words the current issue of The Miner
ing to bite. The legal action attempt weaken the NUM, and
the solidarity alTONS.
By Pat Hickey
It is a challenge to the right strike that the labour must defeat. 'business as Police in action Their unity has forced
However, faced with the onset of the cold winter
tance in Butlin's view. 'My members shift 135,000 tonnes of coai each week. We supply coal for power
LOSION The Brithy inl used all
British Dideot power station. We shift other things - like
ro bur our mainstay s
but our mainstay coal'.
By Doreen Weppler, NUR guard.
Butlin insists that if management gets a single coal train on the road at this stage of the struggle, it will have a devastating ef-
'And it will put off a bit further, the day of victory which will come with the first power cuts .
Management this only too well. Fron Day One of the dispute — when NUR members were getting only £l a day strike
management tried to pay
ușual' attitude is not suffi-
If the courts proceed to seize the assets of the NUM there HUSi be widespread action to stop them.
The general council of the TUC should be recall-
the NUM prepare the movement for à general strike. The High court must de ell unaer
illusions ahe to the of HOVC ment, if it proceeds.
The left leaders have a particular responsibility in this regard. Left to itself, send home men who refused to move coal, rather than giving them alternative work. Four days of strike action forced retreat. This same issue led to the threat of a 24 hour strike on 24 August by both major rail unions at Derby. It was averted only when management backed down. Closure
The latest efforts are the most serious. In the past few weeks Mallage ment has tried the old scare tactic of presenting closure plans the depot. 'Shift coal by Monday,' Coalville's railworkers were lola, or a five point closure plan will
Separate meeting drivers and other railworkers considered this threat. Both came up with the 'We'll continue to support union policy.
This scare tactic was even a bit too flimsy for BR's head office. National business manager for coal, Leslie Smith, in denying a closure plan existed, even had the cheek to imply the
the general council will happily bury its head in the sand and, in the case of the right wing will stab the miners in the back.
fight needs to be waged to ensure that this does not happen.
The executives of these unions should meet and •ecare men take action in support of the NUM, and to call or the TUC to act
The silence of the labour leaders on this issue must be ended. There will have fight prepare the movement for action. That fight needs to start immediately. closure plan was a figment of the union's imagination!
Hand in hand with
methods, ment has targetted vulnerable members at the depot in attempt to break up the unity. For instance,
signalmen with only few years left was recently approached by the area manager as part of the campaign to get the coa trains moving.
A major source of concern to all railworkers the : of scab lorries shift the coal. 'Consider our signalmen from their signal box, all they can see is convoy after convoy of
Butlin. 'It's soul destroying to be idle and see the work being done by scabs.'
Transport
member will allow coal to be loaded on to scab lorries. All coal transport will return to rail.
that rank and file miners who will be the refuse to load the lorries
'It's class law'
Jack Collins Kent NUM THE DECISION to fine the NUM £200,000 and Arthur Scargill £1000 was taken by class judge enacting class law.
'We're all in contempt'
Bob Clay, MP for Sunderland North AT LABOUR Party conference several hundred party members were prepared to sign a declaration contempt, saying that if Arthur Scargill and the NUM were in contempt of court, so were they.
Most party members don't want any equivocation on the law they are
laws, emasculate the trade union movement. We will not accept them.
I agree with Neil Kinnock about civil law - if people wish to defy it and
will be even more vigilant when they are back on the job if thev know of the sacrifices railworkers have made places like Coalville.
Until that time, as one striking miner advised the signalman, 'Don't look at the columns of scab lorries on the road: • look up to the sun. Because as the sun sets earlier each day, victory is in sight.'
Stop the trains!
Support the Miners
meeting
Hounslow Civic Centre Lampton Rd, Hounslow
Tues 45pm 30 October,
Speakers:
Peter Heathfield
Whitwell Women's
Action Group
Organised by Hounslow
Miners Sunport Committee
• disabled access
Socialist Action 19 October 1984
Every societv in the world makes laws to defend and perpetuate itself. We live capitalist society, so we have laws to defend capitalism.
Not a single judge comes from the working class. They are all from the ruling class, elevated by the ruling class, to enac rulin is she wi
is the judges who should be democratised The working class should have a ballot to say who the judges are.
not surprised at the court ruling. Of course, the NUM should continue its official strike and ignore the decision of the courts.
We don't recognise class laws as these are, and we appeal to those miners still not in line with the ma-
take the consequences, it's up to them. But what concerns me is the context of his statement, which implies unde CIIcumstances should anyone
dangerous distinction.
If the law says you shouldn't shout 'scab" then we're quite right to break it. If the law says we shouldn't intercede when someone on the picket line or in the community is be-
the police, then we should break it
The pickets should carry on doing what they're doing. What infuriates me is the silence about widespread, direct police violence.
The Labour Party, as a political organisation and an alternative to the pre-
5 jority examine their decision. It's their union
The rest of the labour should rally round , and continue their tinancia support to ine miners, so we can continu
official strike. And now they must become
involved 1r ouI dispute.
When one section of une movementis on suce
support them. need days of action, weeks of
, and months of ac tion if necessary. tomorrow, got out of bed, If everyone woke and just sat on their hands
Enf strike would be over, the government defeated, and the wnole trade movement would be stronger for it.
sent government, should say loud and clear that it stands with the NUM, that it identifies with them and agrees with them that they should not be bound by
decision a incal teled, es..
party can act as a catalyst and coordinator for more widespread action, which is certainly going to Conc the Cout proceeds. Many trade union branches, trades councils and workplaces are already beginning to organise for this.
The Labour Party is in a good position to give political cohesion, provide political leadership and bring together those peopl prepared to stand solid with the NUM. It should SO SO
NUM
OFFICIAL
PICKET LINE
SLEF • NUR ARE LATTH US
Page 6 scan of this page
Nicaragua: on the eve of the po
6 Socialist Action
• Nationalcapital
NICARAGUA is a socialist country about the size of Britain with a population of three million. Desperately poor, it faces
regular US-hacked military
incursion. Next month it will hold
IF THOMAS COOK ran package tours to Nicaragua, its ads would feature "a land of contrasts'. Once market research showed that all takers, aside from that asshole teddy bear Oliver, were social science graduates, it might add paradoxes and contradictions'. If so, it would be dead right.
Nicaragua comprises coastal regions, separated mountainous backbone of hostile jungle. There are no roads. English speaking habitants of the Atlantic coast refer to everyone from the Pacific side, including blacks, as Many have hardly noticed revolution.
from airport, advertising American Express shoulder to shoulder with tionary propaganda. And, yes, there is a MacDonalds. Shanty towns more graffiti than Railton Whilst up-front political, it exhibits as much flair and bad spelling as the New York subway.
The revolutionary hero Sandino -responsible for the S in FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) — is usually reduced to a stylised cartoon of his hat.
Downtown Managua is simply a modern bank building vivor of the 1972 earthquake rounded by wasteland. human hurricane, ringed by seething barrios. Don't try and cross it by public transport unless you've got a couple of days to spare.
Uniforms are everywhere and more people carry Ak47 Kalashnikov assault rifles than briefcases or handbags. Yet the streets feel more like Amsterdam than Moscow.
Nicaraguans are devout Catholics who hate the Pope.
Jesuit priest, recently married, assured us that His Emminence was another heretic'. The Nicaraguan version of the Lord's Prayer is part the usual gobbledegook and part a call to revolution.
Western marxists find one contradiction particularly stomach. How can a revolutionary socialist government economic activity in private hands as Thatcher i jes? For many it is simply a contradiction in terms. Socialism im-
19 October 1984 NICARAGUA the first free election in its history.
returned from Nicaragua. provides some background.
tion remains
are a poor substitute for analysis.
'and of pre-revolutionary Nicaraguense
two by traditional through cultural exports. inSomoza clan's.
'Spaniards'.
the dustry and finance.
billboards
stand with Cuban racketeers, revoluHene KeDozo. flaunt Road.
Guard.
In January
— the sole sur-
— surThe eye of a A 55-year-old
'just
hard
much
Doce
JOHN HARRISON, recently
plies public ownership; most produc-
private Nicaragua is not socialist. QED, move next item, and all hail the local Suslov. Back in the real world facile syllogisms
dante
Three financial groups dominated
Nicaragua. Banco comprised the more dynamic elements of the bourgeoisie, closely tied to US transnationals. Banco de America was dominated by the
conservative oligarchies who ran the estates producing agri-
The most powerful group was the
Its personal empire ranged from prostitution and extortion through agriculture and mining to in-
One it its more enterprising and profitable operations involved buying local human blood for resale in the States. It had close links
Mob. monopolised political power by rigging elections and controlling the National
By the early 70s, the Somozas were openly flouting all rules of bourgeois competition to squeeze out rivals. the wake of the 1972 earthquake they stole millions of dollars of foreign aid
1978 they assassinated
Pedro Joaquin Chamorro — big wheel
Banco de America, bourgeois oppostion politician patriarch of the second most powerful Nicaraguan family and editor of the anti-Somoza daily• La Prensa. Such mafia-like tactics hardened capitalist opposition. Sections of the bourgeoisie edged closer to the FSLN.
Twelve bourgeois notables — Los
proposed including outlawed Frente in discussions about political reconstruction. responded enthusiastically, asking Los Doce to represent it. When it launched the insurrection, in September 1978, it asked the 12 to head a provisional government to expropriate Somoza's holdings and replace the National Guard with a less partisan, sadistic, standing army. A year after the seizure of power, two of Los Doce were in ine ruling Junta. seven ouler held senior government posts.
But the FSLN retained the itiative. The tens of thousands who flocked to see the Junta sworn in at an open-air ceremony in Managua heard the voice of Thomas Borge — sole surviving founder member of the FSLN, and its most charismatic
- signing people up. For those at the back the match-stick figures on the podium were dwarfed by four gigantic silver letters which had appeared overnight on the hillside behind. No prizes for guessing which four.
As the Frente dug in, bourgeoisie distanced itself from the
La Prensa attacked FSLN stridently and the alliance fractured. But other considerations weighed against widespread nationalisations.
Nicaragua is starved of technicians. Administrators, engineers, cians, economists and so on worth their weight in dollar bills. The FSLN's pamper this strata - most of whom can earn more in the private sector was boosica o its foreign allies. The Cubans now regard their failure to integrate many skilled personel into the revolution as a major mistake.
The Frente is also painfully aware that Nicaragua's growing and inexperienced bureaucracy is a drag on development. Full scale central planning would expand the bureaucracy exponentially.
leading the
FSLN and less
in-
They shall not pass!
Comman- is a US invasion.
stand no chance in set-piece battles witt the marines. If uncle Sam's tanks roll down the Pan-American highway then the army, the people's militias, and the Commites de (CDSs) will opt for the mountains and the other guerilla war. A market structure
will then offer a better chance of surthe vival than a command economy.
The speak to in Nicaragua, the greater the emphasis on international solidarity. The Frente leadership public all against US invasion.
propriation would alienate both North American liberals and the Second In ternational.
blems. Pockets of grotesque wealth re main, although most Mercedes are now discretely garaged. Income differential: are high. most pretigious investment project — a combined sugar refinery plant — showed us round the place. He was paid the public sector maximum of 10,000 Cordobas £2,000 at the official exchange rate. Electricians on piece rates earned up to 34,000. The minimum monthly wage in the countryside is 1200.
Destabilisation
CIA destabilisation experts, sconsed behind the electrified barbed wire ringing the US embassy, promote economic go-siuWs hoarders exacerbate shortages.
The Junta uses measures to combat these problems. It fixes prices and minimum wages. I controls . and dividends and requires reinvestment. foreign employs state-purchasing agencies. It subsidises and rations scarce basics
Dhoto, INUN HAPPISON encourages trades unions and CDSs
to root out speculators. These devices have so far prevented disruption.
Reagan tightens the economic noose and hots up the war then the captains of industry may muster more effective production strikes. wore unet Nicaraguan people can thank their
LUCHAMOS PARA VENCER
NO
PASARAN
The biggest threat to the revolution
Nicaragua would
left
Defensa Sandinista The
more senior the person you National
for sees Western major bulwark OlIC Wholesale ex- back
The private sector does create pro.
The director of Nicaragua's
and power
La month, about en-
Speculative
La battery of
laxes pronts, limits
exchange and
. It
widespread
They may yet prove inadequate. If
Further steps needed. But the
lucky stars that the Frente, and not its 'marxist' critics, has been in the driving seat of the revolution
It has been no easy ride. Somoza
most Nicaraguan. illiterate undernourished and poorly housed
ethnic prejudices i ne fostered As a parting gift he poisoned the capital's water supply.
The mountainous jungle currently favours the Contras Groups of ex-
Guard, CIA mercenaries and Honduran military can hide there
weeks, attacking farms and villages by night. Near the border, no
works without a rifle on their
Page 7 scan of this page
lls
Nicaragua is desparately Output per person is maybe £400 a revolutionary export market, the rs, biggest and now faces an economic blockade. It is chronically short of foreign exchange. War and a land reform have starved the country of labour to pick coffee and cotton - the main dollar
But the achievements are dramatic. Soon after the Triumph — the univeral term for the Somoza's overthrow - thousands of high school students set off on a 'literacy crusade' to the countryside. Adult literacy rose from 40 per cent to 90 plus, and the
narrowed. Schooling,
Photo: JOHN HARRISON
universal and free. basic hygiene.
Unemployment
poor.
pre-revolutionary Hulles now 1200
Europe. Nicaragua
with a labour shortage.
whiff of Stalinism.
penalty. Tomas
division between town and country
previously the exclusive preserve of the rich, is now
So is basic health care. Many basic diseases have been virtuallv elımınated. Malaria is now confined to the SO border areas — mosquitos don't carry passports. We shared a hotel with the San Fransisco Mime troupe, touring outlying Villages with a play about
and underетрюуел are largery history, as are the slave-history conditions of many
latifundia and Minimum monthly wages are Cordobas in the tryside and 1600 in the cities. Welfare and pensions are, comparatively, as generous de vera l wester
the only underdeveloped country in the world
All this has been achieved without a
On the day of Somoza's overthrow the FSLN leadership, most of whom had been tortured in Somoza's jails, abolished the death
Borge, told the
tions. slogan,
National Guardsman convicted of torturing, raping and murdering his wife: head. You will serve your prison term and then go a free man. My revenge will be that you will know that our justice is
much greater than yours (quoted in Politics and Profit, Oct '84)
One of the Junta's first projects was an open prison farm - no guards, no fences — for ex-National Guard thugs, many serving the Nicaraguan maximum of 30 years. There have been only two 'escapes'.
Elections
Ke-reading the last tew paragraphs, _ sense that —ke almost everyllis written by socialists who have visited Nicaragua it might seem over the top. The revolution has not ushered in the communist millenium Few urban workers have more money pockets today. Some have less. Most of their rural counterparts are probably a bit better off. The old and the sick can now get by. Hardly heaven on earth but a hell of a step forward.
This, then, pre-election Nicaragua. Nicaragua Libre as the new car number plates proudly announce. one can be sure of the outcome in a country with no history of free elec-
and no opinion polls. My own guestimate is that the Frente will pick up 55-70 per cent of the votes in a high turnout.
The elections will certainly be free, and meaningful. Over 90 per cent of
— 16 upwards — have registered. A plethora of parties, some explicitly bourgeois, al c after power. Their programmes differ markedly. Representation will be based on votes received and the process monitored by Western observers.
Not so up North. There the geriatric star of Bedtime for Bonzo seems set to romp home on the back of the most expensive media campaign and lowest turnout in US history.
In the words of the FSLN's election
Fi seguinos de frente, con el Frente. Forward with the Front.
How to find out more: • The best book on Somoza's overthrow is George Black's Triumph of the People, Zed Press 1981. • The Nicaraguan Solidarity paign organises occasional study tours. Mine lasted 17 days and cost nearly £800 all in. • The Financial Times has a sympathetic and well-informed correspondent in Managua. It will be worth reading over the election period. • Under Fire is a great movie. • The FSLN produces a weekly in English, Barricada International. A six month subscription is available from Apartado 576, Managua for $19.20.
Demonstration outside Armagh jail
was.'
conference and
the strip searches in Armagh jail
paign, it must be the beginning. Even if the prison their
bend under pressure,
mediate practical results.
munition into the
NO
is being waged
searches. have
followed and strengulcus their them
ceed in breaking their spirit.
public campaign
Tried out inside.
ference in Swansea said:
Northern Ireland
degrading
escalation of repression Cam-
the women in Armagh.'
British controlled
Socialist Action
IRELAND
UNFREE
ARMAGH
•OW
LAGH GROUD
SMAS H-BLOC
Armagh: the
louder we shout...
THE SUCCESS at Labour Party
at Labour wishes of women's conference before it, in winning a policy of opposition to
cannot be the end of the cam-
governor, Thomas Murtagh, and the Thatcher government seem unlikely to
campaigning against strip searches has im- It
The aim of strip searches is not to found prevent smuggling of arms and am(after all, metal detectors could be used if that were the problem), but to introduce systematic sexual harassment of women with the aim of breaking their morale and collective solidarity. vulnerable. Knowledge that a vigorous campaign
the prison walls undermines the effects of the
said that the knowledge that their case is being
campaigned around making They feel that the degradation and humiliation cannot be allowed to suc-
Women have also said that at times when the
1S its most vociferous, there is a reduction in the frequency of the strip searching car-
This year's Labour womens' con-
'the use of Women's strip searching whether in English or nakedness deplorable practice (which is) aimed
and demoralising women prisoners. In the case of Irish removed. republican prisoners, it is proof of an
_or an or pressed nationalist population by the forces of the British state. Strip searching is a tool by which British imperialism hopes to crush the spirit of
Labour women successfully took this resolution to Blackpool, demanding that the Labour Party as a whole condemn and demand an immediate end to strip searching of women in FOR
prisons.
Richardson, who is Labour's womens
19 October 1984 7 rights spokesperson, has followed the
Labour womens con. ference and personally campaigned against strip searching and is intending to visit Armagh to see conditions and talk to prisoners herself. Of Northern Ireland, she 'women particular are suffering and have indignities heaped upon them daily Strip searching of women on remand in Armagh is a disgrace.
must remembered that women on remand have not been
guilty of any offence. Not knowing what to expect from the arbitrariness of the system which passes for justice in the North, they are held on remand for excessive periods -sometimes up to eighteen months. It is then that women are at their most
The weekly visit to the courts to renew the : remand order becomes a mental and physical ordeal as it is inevitably accompanied by the degradation of the strip search.
Women have said that they felt tempted to confess or inform upon others to break the weekly pattern.
have said that they were prepared to do this even though they knew that the confessions they were being asked to sign were false or the individuals they were asked to in. criminate were innocent.
Quigley, ex-Armagh prisoner, who was a visitor at Party conference described strip searches an 'attempt to use our bodies against us'.
bodies sind their are degrade. Women's menstruation is used to exert extra pressure as sanitary protection can be sometimes forcibly
Pregnancy is also used as fears for their safety heightens the tensions of the search.
Labour's speakers must now im-
pally policy, stepping ur pressure upon the government and prison authorities to stop the searches and giving support to the Armagh women's campaign. Local parties or union branches wishing to know more about the campaign or hear speakers should contact: LABOUR WOMEN
IRELAND c/o Feminist Library, tigerford House, Victoria Embankment, London WC2
Page 8 scan of this page
The early gay rights movement
8 'ALTHOUGH THE THEME of sexual behaviour may not be economic and political struggles....the search for an objective means of assessing this side of social life is not irrelevant.... The party is strong enough to influence the shape of state law, press influence both public opinion and members. Thus the party already sibility...'
member of the shadow cabinet in Labour Weekly on the need for the Labour Party to take up the struggle for lesbian and gay liberation? No. These WOre WILLCH by Eduard Bernstein in the German Die Neue Zeit in 1895. socialist wavel
Bernstein was writing in defence of Oscar Wilde, who was about to get two years' 'gross indecency' in Britain. and his views reoresent a far more advanced understanding politics and the oppression of homosexuality than will be found in most of the modern left.
Hirschfeld
Two criticisms
Why I write I do not
As this letter has no place TO CON For a letters' page you have no room, Hurry up! and make some soon.
But seriously, comrades, am writing with reference to two articles
Firstly in Redmond O'Neill's article, Solidarnosc says stop all coal, he stales Imal une views or Solidarnose have been systematicaly the British press.
Irue, but Redmond is also guilty.
In his article he caooses to ignore une disgraceful statements attributed to lech Wales: in the which he gave his back- British
Wing not to the miners but to Thatcher.
Many (Solidaries view Valesa and as indivisible. The
Socialist Action 19 October 1984 of paramount significance for the
its speakers and its
has certain respon-
was lonely on the left
contrary.
advancing struggle over
been SO
and most Lesbal and gay activists
day history struggle
century.
an movement
NOPORSTU
KLETTERSTU
NOP
absence therefore of any
criticism or mention of
Walesa's
WaN
particularly noticeable
and unfortunate.
Secondly, the article Ilona Aronovsky, More police violence at Greenham, was excellent .... apart from one point. The response to the
call for 10 million women
was not 'terrific' — it was
The idea that 10
million would
turn up at the base over
the 10 days was a non-
starter. The true figure
probably
Wak
100,000 — and, yes, I was
one of them.
CND ot off their arses to back been and hen the realistic
made more realistic for one
million women 10
days - - then, perhaps, we
could have claimed a 'ter-
rific success.
MARY HARTNER,
Gillingham, Kent
19th century.
The massive social upheavals resulting from in-
Play behind
class its
mould of
century the ma-
for
who was
created opposite,
homosex121 person, repre
tablic,
Prior period
only terms to sexual which Was 11Ul an altribute of specific
was devised by a Hun-
named
planations' which all shared one sumption:
ing it was
solitary
or third sex
men's men's
The term he coined for them — Uranians (drawn
As young school
student vatching
Labour Party conference
I have been appalled at
some of the decisions —
not to develop black sec-
tions, not to grant the
women's demands, and lesbian rights ay and
lesbian rights the
debate on civi apertes.
These decisions should
have every serious Marx-
ist and socialist up in
Why I am writing to
vou is because think
that these decisions con-
tain a lot of ominous
omens for young people
The youth in the paralways Been
treated badly, ie, they
tative on the NEC and
only £15,000
keep the YS and its
10,000 members on their
feet. This appalling treat-
ment is largely due to the
right wing and the fact
that they have something
active,
campaigning youth see-
LOl.
The main point of my
letter is to say that the
youth, and sympathetic
elements within the par-
ty, that means SA sup-
porters, have get
together and thrash
from Plato) and his work remained the justitication for the struggle well into the 20th century: for if homosexuality was inborn, then whatever
view its desirability, it was clearly unjust to punish it
It was adopted by the
important figure in the historv of the early movement, Magnus Hirschfeld, who founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in 1897 - the first campaigning homosexual rights organisation
Wine movement (such as Benedict Friedlander's Community OT i the Special) developed more advanced theories. but The most remarkable was again put forward by Bernstein
In one of his 1895 articles, Bernstein had already begun to apply serious marxist analysis to social and sexual relations and, in a more advanced form than Engels had managed in his Origin of the Family, demonstrated the wholly social and historical basis of the construction of sexuality and nute ale relations, and therefore the nonsense of using terms such 'natural' and 'unnatural' to describe them.
The tragic loss of this thinking from both the left and the movement as whole has forced it to start again from scratch challenging the ignorance and unclarity which now smothers. the relationship between lesbian and gay liberation and socialism
Line type OI sex scandals about leading establishment figures to which we are accustomed today were a prominear Icature of the 1890s. The Wilde
The vital role of youth
ARTY YOURS KUR an effective and coherent socialist policy.
Anyone who has read Trotsky's Transitional Programme realises the
of youth in Inbuil. the fight for workin class power, and the need for older comrades help in the education and politicisation of the youth.
GAYS THE WORD 2
Gay Rights demo trials in England, and several scandals surrounding sociates in Germany, were the best known
In England, the subsequent reaction was terrifying enough to drive into silence those who might have been expected campaign against the 1885 bouchere amendment, which created the anti-
tially repealled in 1967
they enabled Magnus feld's Scientific Humanitarian Committee (SHC) to keep in the public eye the injustice equivalent in German law, Paragraph 175.
The SHC's campaign for the repeal of 175 was to be the central and unifying feature of the homosexual rights movement in Germanv I01 auarter of a century. The SHC under
What I am suggesting is that Marxists party must take steps le organise with the YS and try to develop an effective body that can discuss What old and young can do together to ensure the future bright, socialist one for all.
DAVID IVENS, Coventry North West Labour Party
BARE GAY SHITEHBORED the way in bigotry and are
total
, but also of vicious reaction and a code. was for the repeal aimed at prominent political, cul-
Germany
The was backed with vast
What the should
which through
tours and
Surviving inevitable during the , the
1918 German revolution. It was firmly
himself with
land and Austria. The
down of
finally
25 years
ment for consideration.
TOHN HARRIS
remains on Germany's statute book to this day....
German
The German revolution provided Hirschfeld with another project: magnificent palace stitute for Sexual In-
Science 1919. t came a world centre for research. an archive of in valuable information and a home tor lectures. nars and international gatherings of scientists, as well as public meetings, medical advice, and a massively popular marriage advice bureau.
News
LOUSAN GAY TEACHE
GROU OF 837-754
The immediate destruction of the institute by the nazis 1933 represented both and a symbolic termina
extraordinary and dy-
Bernstein's was not the only contribution from the left. As early as 1898, the socialist leader, August Bebel. introduced the SHC's demands into the Reichstag. Wan peated in 1905 and 1907,
vith wide support in l
arty - the SPD. On t latter occasion this intervention was at the height of an anti-gay witch-hunt. Bolsheviks
the 1918
major with the
by
, director of Moscow In-
SHC 1920's. The first of the
does recognise
morality'
new
under
Reich, set sexpol
Central the
Naz was satched or-
Hilall y matched Stalin's reintroduction of
legislaall oscala tion in the same year Hitlerite denunciation of 'deviations' 'sexual bolshevism' was countered
To escalo tion of homosexuality pexversions 'the tascisi Thus the physical annihilation of the movement was matched by political elimination of all connec tions with socialism.
Now, almost 50 years after the death of Magnus Hirschfeld, we are stil struggling to re-establish the connection.
Page 9 scan of this page
Why Kinnock is no democrat
Surplus Value
LAST WEEK Neil Kinnock attempted to modify his previous position on liberty, democracy, and obeying the law.
At the Labour Party ference Kinnock announced he opposed 'all' defiance of the law. Now, under the pressure of mass opposition in the labour movement to the attack of the High Court on the NUM, he has attempted to introduce a distinction between breaking the law and defying the civil law.
According to Kinnock, speaking on Thursday on World at One, criminal law must be obeyed under al! circumstances. But civil law is difTerenl aneane use oruie aw auas! people does not oblige those people to bend down before the law and accept the civil rule of a court.'
By John Ross
Kinnock was even driven, at last,
Be vs vocvzc 'It has always been the case in Britain that people will . undertake action in civil cases knowing that they invoke the penalty of the law', 'Many of the advances of English liberty have come as a consequence of people being willing to take those consequences. '
But Kinnock still refused to say the truth. That almost all major advances in liberty, both in Britain and internationally, have been through a willingness to defy the law. That violence, also, cannot be condemned but that it is just to meet the violence of the oppressor with the violence of the oppressed. That there are principles and rights which stand above the so-called 'rule of law' rule of law that in many countries, at many times, has been perpetrate the most toul crimes and injustices.
Was it just to obey the law against Jews in Hitlerite Germany? against women in Victorian Britain? Or against blacks in the deep south of the United States?
And if anyone does not choose to compare the trade unions to these rights, let us state a few home truths.
The labour movement, above all independent trade unions, are the foundation democracy in world. Margaret Thatcher, now by some theorists of the Labour Coordinating Committee Geoff Hodgson, claim that capitalism and markets which defend freedom. But the facts show otherwise.
Horrors
There are innumerable dictatorships in the world, from the horrors of South Africa to the dictatorships of Latin America, and markets exist but where there is no democracy. But there is no country Il lne woria in wiich taere is no tree labour movement but political liberty exists.
So fundamental is this principle to any form of democracy, torm of democratic SOcaT socialist democracy, that even where the working. class has power it must still absolutely maintain the independence and freedom of the labour movement and trade unions. As Lenin put it after Revolution there is Stlil 'workers' organisations workers nron inen stater
The overturning of that principle, the destruction of free and independent trade unions in the Soviet Union, was one of the most fundamental crimes of stalinism. The fight to reestablish that right, to create free, independent, self-governing unions in Eastern Europe is one of the pillars of the fight for political liberty in these countries. Solidarnosc
concriminal
and that,
fight is workers,
build that labour movement. won
South Africa
utilised to keep alive,
unions.
Or has always
political parties Anyone wno
movement
the echoed
form open to them
SUCI
it is can, witn any
sophistical
audience istening lo nim,
you cannot where capitalism law, that
violence', etc?
who argue like him,
the struggle for socialism.
and any
For
conquered
the Kussian
need for to protect
Poland Five of the Tolpuddle martyrs
Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst showed just how fundamental that
and just what sacrifices faced with the tanks of Jaruselski, are prepared to make to
This question of the freedom and rights of the labour movement exists
where black workers, including black miners, have been openly engaged for 10 years in the fight to create their own unions. In the dictatorships of Latin America workers have fought under conditions of enormous repression and torture to
and rebuild, their trade
The first drive of every fascist dictatorship, such as Hitler or Mussolini,
been to suppress and eliminate the trade unions - and the French
Daseo on them accepts the legal shackles and attacks on the labour
all opponicil of democratic rights — and that includes the leader of the Labour Party. This is the truth the leadership of the Labour Party should have been proclaiming from every television screen and plat-
But how is it that Neil Kinnock
credibility, refuse to back the NUM in its confrontation with the law, and now try to introduce
distinctions between breaking the civil and criminal law? How can he spend his time, with any
proclaiming complete nonsense such as that derers? always 'the law will have its way', that
successfully break the lence, democracy rejects It is because, despite Loe the rhetoric, Neil Kinnock, and those and
retuse to base themselves on the real lessons of the struggle for democracy - let alone
IaLOU
How was even the most elemen-
tary step to democracy in Britain, the
abolition of the absolute monarchy achieved? It was acmevea by ultimate form of violence, by civil war. The side of parliament triumphed through raising an army, crushing the tyranny of Charles I, and finally executing their monaren. violence justified or unjustified? Would it have been right to continue uve mmder an dosomulc monarchy oi
was it not the right and duty of people
to take up armsand crush the violence
of Charles I?
And what about the establishment of elementary political democracy in other countries? Was the United States right to create itself by taking up arms and throwing out the British? Was the
revolution an 'error'? wasn't it right to fight for the birth of the United States, and for liberty in France, both with violence and in a way that was totally 'against the law"?
If anyone believes that such questions are solely issües of the past let them take just some of the events of the present dav. How manv leaders of independent countries in Africa and Asia were once locked up in jail by the British (includng by Labour governments to their shame) for fighting
gainst the 'empire on which the su
lever set'? Were the Sandinistas rigl in Nicaragua to take up guns to fight -Somoza? And do we urge solely 'peaceful' struggle against the arms of the South African racists and mur-
Anyone who condemns that vio-
traitor not simply to socialism but t
most elementary human mignl.
democracy that exists In world. Because laws exist to fit people and human rights, and not people and human rights to fit laws. The condem-
by Neil Kinnock violence' is just rubbish.
And what about when political democracy is established although under capitalism there is no democracy in the economic or social sphere and only the democracy even in politics. necessary to consider the history of the fight for the right to vote to see the lessons, and the truth. almost too well known to need repeating
The passing of the first extension of the right to vote, the 1832 Reform Act, was secured through the pressure of massive rioting throughout Britain
and was itself inspired revolutions of 1830 in Europe and the threat of rebellion in Ireland.
In Bristol workers seized the city. Nottingham castle was burned. Derby jail was sacked. Mobs in London attacked public buildings and the king's carriage.
Was all this violence to be 'abhorred'? Or wasn't it the means whereby the first tiny extension of the right to vote was secured? Do we place on an equal level those who took to the streets for the right to vote and the troops who 13 years earlier, at Peterloo, had cut down those demanding it?
Not all violence and lawlessness is to be 'abhorred' phrase. were heroes of democracy. who attacked the crowd at Peterloo were murderers. That is how history remembers them and how it should remember them. The rioters of 1832 were the forebears of the movement Neil Kinnock now claims to lead that And what about Chartism? The movement that every single political right in Britain. Chartism was not simply a petition. Chartism staged the last armed insurrection in Britain -armed miners, under the leadership of John Frost, fought troops. Furthermore in 1824 Chartists attempted the first general strike in history. be 'condemned' both violent and illegal? In fact they Or are glorious pages in the struggle for democracy, even though, unfortunately, they were defeated. Chartists
It was fear of what Chartism had shown as a mass political force in the 1830s and 1840s 1850s, led to British capitalism making concession after concession to the working class movement. gains of democracy and organisation in the labour movement in the last part of the 19th century were not born out of the goodness of the hearts of British capitalists. They because relapse into the 'chaos and anarchy which it had seen as symbolised by Chartism.
And finally consider the greatest single demand on the vote that the Chartists did not fight for - the right to vote tor women.
The Suffragettes totally refused to remain within the law *all for Neil Kinnock's within the criminal law. But it is the
Socialist Action 19 October 1984 formal
most limited democracy It is only
The story is
by the inevitable dred nototorious
In 1834 the
- to use Kinnock's nose who roted in 1x32
Those sent to jail. pioneered virtually
fight when in 1839 never has,
seized Newport and
over
Are these actions to
Unjust
because they were
democracy
which, from the
The great
were gained have neve British capitalism feared a
established
Ine
under
including, інтогтанов civil walr.
Washington, people
was
WOlCS
Thatcher
new Labour
democrat either.
9 Suffragettes who are rightly, regarded as heroes by history and those who enforced the law against them who are remembered as bigots and enemies of
When it comes to the trade unions the record is long. It should be known to every person in the labour movement - and is known to Kinnock.
The first known attempt to form c trade union was six hundred years ago
- in riorence in 134). How ao we know this? Because the court records show that the wool comber who made the attempt was sentenced to death b' the courts! Anti-trade union legislation is scarcely an invention of Norman Tebbitt and Margaret Thatcher
Tolpuddle
In Britain as early as 1633 troops were used against striking manufac turing workers in Newcastle. A hun-
and sixty years later the combination. Acts of 1799 and 1800 were still sentencing to prison anyone forming a trade union.
: Tolpuddle martyrs were transported for forming a union. As late as 1873 gas workers in London were imprisoned for a year for going on strike. In 1972, with the Pentonville Five and in 1984 with the 37 workers imorisoned trom Cammel Laird's, trade unionists are still being
Coming to more recent times, and more general laws, the Taff Vale and Osborne judgements in 1900 and 1909 tried firstly to smash the funds of trade unions for going on strike and secondiv to end the right ot trade unions to contribute funds to the Labour Party. Eighty years later the trade unions are once again having to
for those rights. Capitalism and never will, change its spots on these questions. Anyone who believes the fight for democracy
aloel we can now relax, deluding themselves.
In this entire struggle the unions the labour movement, and political
itself have only Deel defended by ordinary people time and time again being prepared to break the law. Furthermore it is not the case that 'the law will have its way
- LU quote Neil Kinnock. Historically a whole series of these uniust laws have been smashed — which is why we enjoy most of our rights today. As recently as 1972, over the Pentonville Five and in the miners strikes, the Tories' Industrial Relations Act wa:
pulverised bay il eal aian
Democracy, and the law
been the saallt thing Democracy has often had be defended agains law, and
against the law. It is Arthur Scargill, not Neil Kinnock, who stands in the long line of struggle fo
in Britain and inter nationally. Those who accept the law
all are not democrats but historically have been enemies of democracy
The parliamentary armies in the
Cromwell, the Levellers, Robespierre, were the peoperacy. Not a sinule one orenten actually created
pacificist condemning all violence. Not a single one remained within the law. But they all lived at a time when the fight for liberty 1 and democracy actually meant something in the mouths of those who uttered
was then miserable hypocrisy 'democracy' and 'law' has become in the mouth of a
- or a Kinnock
Neil Kinnock likes to claim he is a 'democratic socialist'. He is certainl] not a socialist as anyone reading the
Party document on the economy will find out. His attitude to the law shows Kinnock is not even a
Page 10 scan of this page
NATIONAL
Labour CND March in Blackpool CND ACTIVISTS from many local groups met at County Hall last Saturday to discuss how to defend the unilateralist direction of the Nuclear Disarmament organised by Peckham CND, resulted from a decision by the Conference Arrangements Committee of CND National Council to veto a composite resolution from over 20 groups which called for defending unilateralism, dropping any thoughts of a freeze, and increasing our anti-NATO profile.
Peckham CND is extremely concerned that this year's CND CULference will again fail to
the question of
ampaigning for Britain's
vithdrawal from NATO
For twenty years, 'Britain out of NATO NATO out of Britain' has been CND policy but in the last few years CND has refused to argue clearly for
Today all major political parties support
he NATO alliance. Non-nuclear defence is leading CND away from unilateral disarmament policy. Worse, collates
membership of NATO,
ing unilateralism.
Peckham wrote to all
bored rone Labour CND
Labour composite for this year's conference in an attempt to organise to defend the anilateralist basis, and
CND. This will be done by essaring that the groups themselves, and
UNION
OF MINEWORKERS
NORTH WESTERN AREA
PRIDE OF GOLBORNE BRANCH
OBST
Direction 85'-
CND left
organises
Campaign for in 1985. The meeting, not a select few on National Council, determine the campaign's policies.
Our efforts met with a great response, and about thirty people from the twenty odd groups conattended the Lacucu meeting reflecting the real concerns within the movement eralism must remain the basic goal and Wass call' paigning the basic method of achieving it.
By Kevin Jones (Peckham CND)
It was clear from the weekend's meeting that part of the problem to be 1AC < en is democracy inside CND., of withdrawal from NATO campaigning agenda means that national conference decisions, which represent the democratic expression of CND activists, have been ignored. The Labour CND composite was excuucu
from the Cycl agenda while a resolution from member has found its way to the tina proposal.
Decisions taken by National Council last year have not coots feeling in CNDS reflected
witness the ailure at firs
back the Reagan demonstration in June. We feel sure that many other CND groups are discussing these issues.
meeting at the weekend decided to launch
'85 to take up these debates. We are pro-
newsletter to defend 'Britain out NATO' as CND policy and to keep it on the conference agenda.
CND should not act as an advisor to the NATO generals the best method of 'non-nuclear defence'. Unilateralism remains our central commitment.
We are organising 'Europeans Against NATO' fringe with speakers invited from aurope as well as our own peace movement at CND annie Collecce
• For further details of Direction contact
Peckham CND, Vervain House, Hereford Retreat, Bird in Bush Road, London SEIS (01-635 0942).
ube!
CND'S NATIONAL Council lurched violently to the right last weekend when delegates voted to lobby the Warsaw Pact embassies on 8 December — but not to mark the anniversary of the announcement of cruise deployment in Britain December.
A two hour sitdown in Parliament Square wa proposed to mark the fifth anniversary cruise bul Council decided to give it a miss on the advice of the campaign officers who felt it was too much of a strain to organise two events within days of each other
The decision was taken
that London region did not support the embassies event.
These decisions put the lid on a weekend marked by National Council's retreats from campaigning on the issue most central to the peace movement Britain: getting rid of the new generation of missiles.
Council began by welcoming 'with reserva tions' Labour's new defence policy which commits the party to remaining in NATO and to a 'nonnuclear' defence strategy basea on mcicasca con THE LABOUR Coordinating Committee campaign to defend the political levy the "Labour and Unions Charter' — is holding a major conference in London at Central Hall
Westminster on December.
The 1984 Trade Union Act, which makes
unlawful for union to
have a political fund, and
herefore to give money t
ballot of its members
became law in September
A meeting of national of unions was
held with the Labour Par-
ty on 1 August to decide
on campaign for
ballots which, accor-
ding to the law must be
held by 1 March. . But this
campaign is likely to con-
centrate on presenting the
CND lurches right
Wednesday 12
ventional arms spending It was little wonder then that the Forward Planning and Project Committee's reports made no mention of campaigning for NATO withdrawal in the coming y cal.
By Dick Withecombe (CND National Council, personal capacity)
Instead the forward planning report which will
presented to annual conference at the end of November outlined the aims for 1985: 'our overriding goal is to convince the majority of the public by the next general elec tion of the case for complete nuclear disarmament by Britain and the adoption of a credible defence policy which does not rely on nuclear weapons. tivists have already begun
LABOUR AND UNIONS
CHARTER
case for a political fund in general without linking it specifically to the question of the Labour Party.
In any case any central campaign needs backed up by local and workplace campaigning
The LCC campaign is sponsored by a wide range
of figures in the labour movement including Arthur Scargill, Ken LivBluntess i Heater and Tony Benn,
Alan David
Blunkett Ron Todd - 0 < 401
to supporters of the LCC
itself and by Socialist Action.
The conference will be Kedre Livingstone, Tom
Livingstone Tom
Sawyer, and Robin Cook.
The registration fee will be
£3.
The conference is open
to individual trade
and Labour Party
members out supporters
Where
will you be?
to discuss calling a halt to TOS CHL
CND National Council is proposing a debate on 'non-nuclear' defence annual conference. Deptford and Newham • CND however have presented a resolution rejecting any shift within the campaign towards supporting Conventional defence policy.
One older National council prioritised for discussion at con ference however are HOLC 101 including one calling for a national demonstration against i the weapons of the USSR (no. 24 on the interim agenda), and one dividual member calling
La biennial conference TO which would give more powers to National Coun cil (no. 13). A constitu-
from West Region wants to get rid conference altogether!
Removing a democannual conference Tale would certainly be a useful
first step in any attempts
CND's main demands.
are urged to get delegated
labour movement organisations.
Details and credentials from Labour Co-
ordinating Committee,
Poland Street, London
WIM 3D (01-439 3749)
Planning the
Local Economy
Second of 5 meetings
about socialism in Lon-
Wednesday 24 October,
7.30pm, County Hall
Speakers: Mike Best
Madhu Verma and John
Tilley
Urganised by
the Socialist Society
Phone 01-734 850
or terri
News
Oct. 22
A composite resolutior from 19 groups calling fo campaigning against NATO and instructing
campaign for nuclear freeze, has been dismissed by the Conference Ar-
Committee With only ten resolutions on the final agenda no discussion O1 NATO planned for conference. Women 5 posa for
conference has also been dropped.
The National Council's decisions to ignore thi fifth anniversary of cruise comes as a timely warning to peace activists of what's
store conference. rans or an event to marl the announcement of cruise's will go ahead regardless of the national Council decision. CND groups should give special building and supporting
A boycott of the em hassies event is way to make clear CND's leadership that changing the campaign's aims just isn't on.
Target
Labour
Government
TARGET LABOUR Government held meeting on Sunday 14 October to review priorities after Labour Party conference.
It was decided to hold a
conference at the end January jointly with
Labour Briefing and to in-
vite the Black Section,
Women's Action Committee, Labour Campaign for
uay kigns, Labour Coll
mittee on Ireland and other organisations to participate.
Discussions were also
held on policy positions
for Target
Government interna-
tional policy,
policy, and law and
order/justice'.
Page 11 scan of this page
Stop the scabs
NALGO: right wing on the march
Jaguar sets the pace
In the Unions
who are supporting this official strike.
women's support group set up by the families of the 37 workers jailed for Birkenhead shipyard.
A continuous picket is 10 be maintained at lne yard, with a mass picket each Monday at 7am. The aim is to prevent several hundred scabs crossing official picket lines to finish WUNK on a destrover and
oil rig, previously осcupied by the 37.
Once this work
finished, the destroyer will
e taken by the navy, and
he oil rig towed to France to be fitted out. Then there will be no more work, and the jailed workers believe that the yard will then be cleared and sold to private industry.
privatised yard would employ a handful of workers, on the casual labour conditions which were once the plague poverty-stricken Merseyside.
DELEGATES representing nearly 800,000 members at the NALGO special conference on 10 October, gave a motion calling for a ballot before further national funds could be donated to the miners 30,000 votes less than the two-thirds needed to make the motion policy.
The majority mood on TIOOI was support the miners, but many delegates had been mandated to support the ballot motion against their review.
The
The Jaguar claim has been carefully prepared over MOLLIS of discussion. It began with shop foor meetings where the members put forward uner views.
La joint claim COVEILL grades and all unions in the three plants had been hammered out. une SHOD stewares issued eight page
coatine claim in detail for
CYCL
The issue behind the claim is the low basic rate.
£116.60 and £118.75, skilled production workers
£40-£50 Jazual al c behind leading rates in the al ca.
SUPPORT THE Cammell Laird prisoners — stop the scabs: This is the demand of the newly-formed Cammell Lairds strike committee, organised by Wirral Trades Council to help the 300 Lairds' workers
The strike committee is working closely with the
the occupation at the
The official GMBATU leadership has known this for months, but has allowed the occupation become isolated and so encouraged scabs to return to work.
By John Nolan, Cammel Lairds Support Group
The Merseyside GMBATU official, Barry Williams, tried stop trades council supporters of the strike using loudspeakers to persuade scabs to turn back.
Williams argued: 'Only microphone should be used on an official picket line' his. This was at the gate where the scabs were under heavy police escort. own wishes. The NEC also opposed the motion, but it is now unlikely that it will give further active support to the NUM.
Ballots
This is the first time since the 1982 ballot on affiliation the Labour Party that the left/right divide has been so clear.
Tactics used by the right in calling the special conterence ballots rather than the issue of support and the work put into support for the ballot, were LAST WEEK, 7000 hourly paid workers at Jaguar turned down management's first offer in the '84 pay
workers' decision shocked both management and the press, and put Jaguar in the position of pacemaker in the '84 pay round in the car industry.
The booklet explains that £25 TOT all grades would not close the gap in one go, but it would make significant the SteD 1n right direction and no more'.
By Paul Mitchell
It goes on to say: 'We seek an across-the-board increase SO widening differentials beyond their present levels. If we are to be sucal Cold mination must be Shown the CLiC worktorce and an equal reward in this LIOSI al ca should therefore be sought.'
Support the Cammel Lairds prisoners
David Basnett talking to Len Murray at the TUC
Reluctantly, after the 37 have spent two weeks in Walton, David Basnett, celeral SeCretary of GMBATU is to ask the TUC for help. This will be on Wednesday, two days
prisoners are due to be released.
Run rnaay, me aay o. their release, Lol Duffy, far superior to their performance conference itself. Speaker after speaker the real nature of their support which was hostility to the miners.
It was only due to their own incompetence around the manouevres which always play all important role that tney talled to get the required two-thirds.
However. having tasted their power they will 1101 stop after this setback. They will continue to organise against supporting the miners at both
On sick pay the claim is for payment trom day one for those off sick for more than one week Al present. the first three days are unpoid. The stophe cost of paid. The stewards granting this part of the claim would be very small but would provide greater degree of security for our members'
The claim also seeks to reopen the question of the grading structure. The pre-
structure was forced Pollohe ga a dispute in BL following a dispute in and with threats to close the company down.
The claim concludes: 'We will miserly reply Ve wil expect a reply that • pays a
evel of wages sufficient to provide a decent standard of living for them and their families.
Management's offer, despite the media's
chair of Wirral Distict Labour Party, is due speak on a platform with Keva Coombes, Merseyside County Council, at a Merseyside Labour Briefing House, meeting (Trans. port Berners Street, Birkenhead, 7.30pm).
The subject will be aclocal and national level.
There is a caneer tat instead of recognising that the one-third base to build on, the left will retreat into routine and branch work.
At a fringe meeting at the end of conterence. attended by 80 delegates, there was a strong teeling that branch work needed strengthening by building miners' support committees independent of the branch leaderships
It was also felt that the one or two left branches would help this work.
overage, is in fact mise ly. Managemen are strongly committed to two year deal, over the offer is spread. The proposal consolidate €3.75 out of bonus is proposal to pav us out of our own money. In actual money terms. £5 weekly after deductions.
The offer on sick pay is most revealing of management's miserly approach. They offer the reduction
countability. Lol Duffy микроне sconn. tability of the GMBATU leadership, Keva Coombes will look at the accoun tability of MPs. Frank 'Rainbow Circle' Field who is so reluctant to support the Lairds' workers
very much everybody's minds.
Of course, this is all very important. But in the face of the growing right mistake to concentrate all wing attack it would be attention on this area.
National organisation of the left must become a reality. The attack on local government will make unis a vital question.
A start can be made by giving maximum
› the national Broad Le conference on hurch er Centre, at Carrs Lane Church Birmingham (11am-4pm). of waiting days from three
Then come the strings: the unions must help manacement police absenteeism; persistent aUsCHiCCIsil be disciplined; workers must sign sick notes for unpaid days; and 'the company reserves the right to revert to three waiting days if any of the above conditions are not met'.
The negotiating team rejected the offer on all counts, and mass meetings
Plants supported this position unanimously. Negotiators dated to press improved for 'substantially offer based on the original claim'
This could well be the beginning of a prolonged struggle across the car industry to take back the in-
several years of unrelenting manage ment pressure on pay and conditions.
Socialist Action 19 October 1984
Students and
Ireland
By LCI Student Officer
THE BOMBING of the Tory
mittee on Ireland.
paign against plastic
disgraceful delay by
Miners
degrading strip searches against the
The LCI's excellent magazine,
activity — why not sell it in your college?
N1 2XP. • National CND Conference Sheffield, 43/44/45 November Deadline for delegates is
November. Don't delay, make sure your college sends its full delegation? • NUS Women's Conference, Birmingham University, November. women supporters urged to at. tend.
11
SociAlist
AcTioN
Party con. ference last week has once again focused attention on Ireland's British problem. For after the press hysteria has died down, the facts will still remain that the British presence in the North of Ireland is the root cause of all the violence that occurs, whether it be in the North or South of Ireland, or here in Britain.
Last year the National Organisation of Labour Students became the first national organisation of the Labour Party to affiliate to the Labour Com-
It also recognised that the British military and political presence is the root cause of the continuing war. Now it's up to the Labour Clubs in the colleges to get that message over to other students in their unions and the NUS
The murder of Sean Downes by the RUC at the 9 August rally in Belfast, marking the anniversary of internment, re-emphasises how vital the cam.
bullets is. Despite the Labour's spokespeople in remembering that party policy is to ban plastic bullets, many others have a different outlook.
visiting Ireland have noted how repressive methods developed there are now being used against the labour movement in Britain. How long until lethal plastic bullets, already stockpiled, are used against the miners and others here?
Many student women's groups have already been active in protesting at the use of violent and
nationalist women imprisoned in Armagh. This will be raised again at NUS women's conference (open to all student women), in Birmingham on 10 November.
New Labour and Ireland (only 40p), is highly informative and easy to sell. It carries a page on student and youth
Information on student and youth campaign work for inclusion is welcomed by the LCI. Contact LCI Youth Officer, c/o PO Box 50, London
Photo: MARK RUSHER
ACTIVISTS DIARY
• Founding Conference Further Education Labour • Students, Liverpool Polytechnic 10/11 NoveudCr
Want advertise meetings or events in the activists' diary? Write to Activists Diary, • 328 Up Street, London NI 2XP.
STUDENTS
Page 12 scan of this page
THE Salvador is the offer by Duarte of 'free elections' in which all can participate without fear of their lives.
intends to, make no such promise. There is only one real power on the Salvador and that is not president Duarte. power lies with the army and its high command.
The freedom fighters of the FMLN understand this very well, which is why their main demand in agreeing to participate in the talks was that the army high command should also be there.
The army is highly
of success from Duarte's 'softly, softly' approach to the liberation movement.
openly broken with the Duarte redime due pressure from the US
Indeed that is the only
that Duarte got elected in the first place. It is the army which decides who will be president of El Salvador, not the popular masses. : So the US used a very simple mechanisa blackmail.
Said to El Salvador was officially cut off before the presidential
situation here the MIEN
already exerting
Last year he FMLN made clear progress in attacking garrison towns and opening up new areas 01 countr free
In year r it attacked and defea ted a garrison only 36 miles north of San Salvador, and blew
Cascallan bridge, lt: breaking American highway. Pan-
was mear: Get Duarte
US was clear Duarte elected and the military aid will come back
Duarte being duly elected earlier this year the military
ack into El Salvador with
vengeance, quite unprecedented previously
What is involved in the negotiations is a game of bluff and double-blufi. At every point along the way since Duarte was elected the army has threatened to kick away the traces and break with the regime. That essentially would 6 months L8: 12 months CIS Overseas (12 months only)
Europe £17; Air Mail € 24 (Double these rates for multi-reader institutions)
Name.
Address
By Cardinal Enterprises, PO Box 50, London NI y Laneridge Ltd. (TU), London E2.
SOCiAlist
ACTION
BASIS of the present 'peace talks' in El
But this is exactly the problem. Duarte can, and
government side within El
That
openly unleashing death squads against the civilian population and letting the army loose in COHERSUC with considerable embarassfor the US adminstration.
Since the election the army has tried to present a more 'acceptable the international public by "scaling down its use of terror, torture and the death squads.
By Jude Woodward
But nothing has fundamentally changed. Last was announced month i
hy opend reson s00
opened unarmed peasants Chaletenango province. The death toll was over 35, entire families have disappeared. Most ironic the battalion inyolved has been previously held up a shining example of a unit with its old brutal ctices since Duarte's electior ept that the US While the nerals accan make hings difficult, Iney also know that if it came to the
SUBSCRIBE
crunch the US would not see the EL Sa vadonan ar my destroyed that would aid only the FMLN. The army is prepared for these talks to go ahead, because they will exercise a veto on any result. And the army will not allow genuinely 'free elections' El Salvador. There is only VIC such elections could take place, and that is if the army's political power the geore Is will ne allin, point, Duarte cannot allow this either. Because after all, whether the army really wanted him or not, he knows he is only president because the army arranged This is why the army will let the talks go ahead, because they intend that it won't make a bit of ference. nilitary El Salvador put source it: 'this is a publicity stunt that will nowhere' talks can nothing. There is only one way with LIL military dictatorship in El Salvador and that route that the FMLN is embarked LIOL the struggle to build mass bObutai organisations, arm the people and defeat and destroy the military force of the El Salvadorian army.To build solidarity with that struggle the main aim of the interna campaign Salvador.
Special free book offer!
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THE STRIKE by Vauxhall's 14,000 workers against management's seven per cent offer in the 84 pay round opens up a hot autumn in the car industry.
Jaguar has rejected management's offer of a two-year deal, and reaffirmed a claim of f25. Fords have submitted a claim for 14 per cent.
Oberthe la stearth re has been revival militancy dustry, which will have a in the cal inbig impact on the autumn pay round. At BL's Cowley Assembly Plant, there has been 130 disputes in the last ten months.
The miners' strike is one element in this revival.
DI Salvador
a sham!
Car industry heads
for hot autumn
BL unions have submitted a claim for £22, while
The relative upturn in the motor industry has also been important.
By Pat Hickey
Earnings in manufacturing have been rising at wen aoove lue cantelleu a
Peace talks-
per cent. They are closer to 10 per cent.
• particularly serious development for car industri enoloyers They for
million in Salc 1984, while forecasts
for about 50,000 to 100,000 fewer sales in '84, than the 1.78 million sold in 83.
The result is rapidly sharpening ConDena with the major producers pustillig cost pliers and dealers. The markel рпс of cars Europe is well below the cost of production
Europe has about half of the world's excess car manufacturing capacity of
million vehicles. The resure un cabo es ll hold down wages is very great.
Any concessions made noW will be even more costly if there is the expected down-turn in sales next year.
Workers in the industry had tive vears of speed-up wage cotallll. The growing confidence of the unions looks likely to run head-on into the resistance of the
← Socialist Action No. 73, 12 October 1984Socialist Action No. 74, 26 October 1984 →