Socialist Action No. 96, 5 April 1985
The scan: 096-apr-05-1985-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
UCW, TGWU,NUR... New Tory
IDS OFF RAIL RKSHOPS
• OFF
ACTiON SociAlist
attack on unions
HANDS C
RA WORKSH
N•U•R
HANDS OFF
RAIL WORKSHOPS
THE TORIES are trying to make the labour movement pay for the failure of the TUC and Labour leadership to behind the miners month battle against pit closures. • Immediately following the decision of the NUM delegate conference to call off the overtime ban Scottish MPs showed the NCB has plans to close eight of Scotland's 12 remaining pits. • After a five and a half hour executive meeting on Tuffin, general secretary of the Union of Communication negotiated a deal with management over new followed the union executive instruc tion to call off the strike at Mount Pleasant sorting office in the face of a High Court injunction.
The leaders of ASLEF have accepted a five per cent wage otter flation. • The press, at the prompting of that renowned union Chapple, is stepping up its campaign against 'ballot rigging' in the TGWU in the hope of secretary elect Ron Todd by right winger George Wright.
far they failure of the TUC to back the NUM. But they are particularly determined to try and drive home their attack on the left in the unions simultaneously with their assault on jobs and conditions
turther retreat ov the union leaderships. Mount Pleasant workers showed their opposition not merely b walking out against management attacks but by intitially rejecting the UCW instructions to return to work. Resistance from rail workers forced BR to concede the separation of pay and productivity widespread disgust over the acceptance of the five per cent wage offer.
tinue to show the pattern of clear victories by the pro-strike left against the right in the union — the latest being in une elections tor the ecutive in Durham.
No. 96 5 April 1985 30p
mobilise support Pleasant. in their 12 stepped up
government.
Tuesday Alan
Workers,
working practices. This commented
the NUR and
— one below the rate of in-
Many deal democrat' Lord . spokesperson, large parts replacing general economic
wage controls.
The Tories are not at all sure how
in exploiting the
Kinnock,
There is big resistance against this
McGahey and there
The elections in the NUM con-
Notts Area N.U.M.
nationa
COTGRAVE
STRIKING MINERS
ty hongdre U
greate
NOTTS ENEM STRIKING MIN
The problem for this resistance is that it is being disorganised by the union leaderships - as shown by the UCW instructions to return at Mount
Equally Neil Kinnock has his campaign to divert resistance to the Tory attacks into resting on hopes of a future Labour
Roy Hattersley's words at the last Labour Party conference have now been turned into Labour Party policy • in the new Jobs and Industry document and campaign launched around it. This abandons any pledge to full employment, to nationalisation, or to defence of wages. As the Cuardi an
its editorial on Wednesday the document could be sampled by Tory wets or the Alliance without indigestion.
Neil Kinnock also made clear at the weekend for the first time that he is prepared to consider an agreement with the Liberals after the next elec-
although as yet he opposed witn -ENE SDP David Penhaligan, Liberal Party economic
said he could accept of the new Labour policy provided it was coupled with a firm commitment to
The different options facing the labour movement in resisting the Tory attacks are becoming crystal clear
Willis, and Hattersley are trying to take the movement further and further to the right. The Scargill left wing of the NUM, a large part of the rank and file of the labour move. ment, and major parts of the Labour Party support want to fight back.
The events of the last week show that there is literally nothing to be gained by the TUC and Neil Kinnock's policy of lying down and play. ing dead in fron of Thatcher. Mick
put it well during the miners' strike: "If you run away the Tories just keep chasing you.' The on ly only time they stop is when you turn around and fight.
Page 2 scan of this page
Defend the TGWU
2 Alan Tuffin, UCW general secretary
Postal workers —
no option but
to fight
THE LEADERSHIP
the Union of Com-
inication Workers as given notice that it 3 going to wage no efective fight against the Tories plans to disman-
the present postal crvice and destroy ostworkers living stanards. This is what lay ehind the criminal excutive instruction to
• Mount Pleasant sor-
*g office workers eurn to work in line vith the court order.
Management has in the
seline one of the biggest
acks on the workforce e1 seen in nationalised in-
includes what
ounts to a 20 per cent molition through the
of overtime
on or a's stem oroduc-
La system of part
and casual workers.
Overtime pay averages
per week. Manage
claim that 'produc-
ity' payments will offest
is wage cut.
But not only do they
Imit that the absolute taximum this would bring
rould be f14 — which
ty a very narrow layer of
orkers could have hoped roget - such schemes inwitably involve speed ups
redundancies.
somelming mucn mort tangerous is involved in ccepting such a proposal
that is the introduction
two-tier system of arking conditions.
bote layer of workers on
: time and casual basis
have the status of se-
ad class citizens.
The proposal is for
.000 such workers. As if
four million unployed are out of work
really they are
-c ag parl ume or casual
toyment!
And then behind this is
open Tory plan
onopolise the postal
avice. T'his would have
effect of weakening the
gaining strength of the
Socialist Action 5 April 1985 union and allowing condinons to de rurtner eroded. In terms of service such a system would mean a complete deterioration of the postal sente for the working class with SUUC_ efficient for business.
Postal workers have no option but to fight. This is what the Mount Pleasant workers understood. Their sentiment shared by Anknate and down the land. WUIACS UI This
las Deen reveaied in the intransigent stance of the labU COUHe 1HE0 IPT conferences of the union.
What the leadership is banking on, the destabilising adherence to the order. In the wake of the hoped for subsequent demoralisation the ecutive calculates that the upcoming May national conference will capitulate to its agreement on part
workIng WILE management.
The Mount Pleasant workers are in an excellent position to scupper these planș. Three thousand and seventy workers are con centrated there. Thirty per cent of the nation's passes through the office, including all the post from Heathrow and Gatwick airports.
Of course, the Tories are poised to unlease the scab private postal firms that are presently ticipating the massive profits to be made in a postal service geared big business spending. The rest of us can go to hell -we're not profitable.
However, the movement is quite capable staying these scab outfits. 1 ne airport workers coulo strike a death blow with a flick of their m.oinhe all incoming
outstanding question is whether the lesson in unity has been learned from the experience of the miners defeat.
THE NATIONAL COAL Board has closed two pits since the miners' strike ended on 5 March, Frances in Scotland and Bedwas in South Wales.
ing as Jack Collins describes below, to push home theri advantage by demanding that the NUM agrees to both voluntary and consequential redundancies, that is pit closures.
What is your view of the results of the ballot on the levy!
We won it in Kent with a would sugest that if you campaign then
Others areas • Valell
A lot of miners didn't vole
necessary to have a ballot Iol alcvy oecause ournue
Oiners saw it as conscience money that could lead to salKcu mulcs forgotten by the union.
What do you think of the decision Call off the overtime ban?
I think it's completely immoral say suilic lilall SIOule work overtime
others can't even WOrK notid unse referring the sacked miners ot course
we should demanding is a four dav week. The Coal Board are IN THE WAKE of the miners' defeat, the ruling
dassiss iis niste pato ies oberede dess-
dustries. orchestrated campaign against the Transport and General Workers Union centred on the charge of 'ballot rigging'.
The discrepanicies involved are minute: 630,541 votes were cast. The actual charges involve three brancne. winnere severei hundred votes between them only two or three votes of which proved to
rasult of this, the TOWU
result of this, has expelled two officials Trom no CinG OTrICe
course does not satisfy the Tory press
n bob ggæ cc
creeched the Daily Mo posing its own campaign ér e new ooo cs croa ing pressure'. The more
PRECE OTE
I doubt your reality.
I suspect that you are
little more than the
¿paranoid product of my
profound depression."
Possibly..
push home their advantage'
The Coal Board and the government are now trythat work
HlUSL overtime Coal Board them to.
Inal s almost
law is on. We'll get no
cricket.
go back normal
production before
some peo-
ly.
push nome urem aavan-
That's why the Kent dca vulcu azaliIsl Ere ting of the overtime ban.
In Kent they are sending letters to every miner and a lot of men are showing an interest. sedate Sunday Țimes was satisfied with innuendo: 'although there is yet evidence centrally
LRalocu CalDos DYu
ft to rig the ballo
Was lli DO SOROu. back-handed defence.
Tet sear ton e er
generation suffiient charges and innuen do to give cover for
LIC colnis maler vetine lao tot union and demanding a new
They would hope in
suse ince matan esto oile
the rank and
ACTION
After all, there are many things to justify depression which might cause nervous breakdown.
Jack Collins: 'NCB knows how to
GM COOKSON
Jack Collins, secretary of Kent NUM
In an article in the Guardian it said that the coalboard was offering VIRILaE recuno ances and that there would Coriscoucuud redundancies'.
What a wonderful
Todáenera sece tary,
right candidate George The
between them Ialell
original election was only 45,000 votes.
Because of the role the TGWU played within the miners because did not tulv MO Duse IL
Entire umpers p in rac-
suppor miners, it is vulnerable tr such a campaign But Tực to (he rebuff by the
campaign • a declaration that it would not tolerate the interference of the courts InILU an aftiliated union -
wo Motionh on oip.
Motions support from branches TGWU and other trades unions would be a good
I am sure that many a strong man
very mention of The T.U.C.
language we nave For consequential read compulsory redundancies.
They intend to do what they did Bedwas and close a pit using the excuse that there aren't enough preparation puch a stance by the TUC
By Brian Grogan
The fact that the campaign has been atuncned
Lord Chapple, previously dictatoria General Secretary of the electricians'
unull. the lie to the Tories campaign. Chapple came to prominence as a renegade member of the Communist Party providing the evidence for the CP's ballot rigging in the electri cians' union in the mid50s
From then on, any dissent in the union has been ruthlessly stamped upon by Chapple and his has beentempted to throw himself from a tall building at the
hand probably make
•teel rather cheerful...
miners left.
It they succeed in get-
ting away with breaking
dialiolla agreements and
customs and practises ig
noring the union and ig
noring the Mines and
Quarries Act, then it seems
to me that even the TUC
- with what authority it
has let1 ne political
parties of the left and the
Labour Party will be taker
apart
Why the majority of
the British working class
can't see this I don't know.
The Coal Board have a plan. Those
prepared tọ take voluntary
redundancies will go. Then
to rave hil gor rd then
to move will go.
they'll try and sack the
militants and al the
wonderful past traditions
of the miners will be lost.
We'll have to oppose
this but need other
workers lo stop throwing
money at us and start putting down their tools!
One last point, the press is
having a real go at Scargill
and NUM leadership
the dispute. What's your view?
Tid thee nationa l does,
COOG ON ! don't
think they can be criticised myself. They welre down by other sections of the working class miners in areas like Nottingham.
has been exlugned fram
been expugned from the union and militants exOCICU
Worse, the union has •ys cillal cal conspired with the bosses to victimise militant workers.
In recent years, despite a growing challenge to this complete autocracy, the EEPTU
pionceres sweetheart deals with the bosses priding itself conciualng 'no strike' agreements and foisting them onto the membership with an iron fist.
There are big stakes in this Tory challenge to Ron Todd. . If George Wright is installed will weigh heavily in the offensive to shift the axis of the labour movement to the right.
© Cormac On the other ....they
Maggie Thatcher
Page 3 scan of this page
Wanted: a national union
Women get angry too
News
North Derbyshire
DAVE CROWTHER, delegate from Warsop Main colliery, gave his view 10 Socialist following the strike. ENSHINE NORTH DER-
we are in the Bosuol Wal people who
broke the strike are in the majority. The strikers have got control of the union structures. Now we have to regain the backing of the men.
We have a real chance to get back our base especially from those men who went back since
for personal reasons.
We have got to test the waters by facing up to inevitable confrontation with management.
These are already occuring through local issues
over the imposition of a four ing time.
Men went back before the strike ended are taking these up perhaps to redeem themselves. By doing this they will again feel themselves part of the
While I understand the reason for calling off the overtime ban disagree with it. There's been no Call from the ranks in general to take the ban off.
It just gives credence to Notts who have broken the national union's policy by ending the ban on their OWli
It's wrong to think the coalboard will now soften up and negotiate in good
faith. The coalboard have already indicated they will go to war.
JUST AS THE miners' strike was ending LORRAINE JOHNSON, secretary of the Bold miners': wives' group, and JEAN MURRIE, chairperson of the Skelmersdale wives' group, toured France at the invitation of the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT). Their views expressed in the interview with JUDITH BAKER below, stand out in stark contrast to the analysis of women's attitude to violence in the
Statesman (8 3 84).
left's' assessment of the dispute, she said that violence 'is a peculiarly masculine characteristic' which explained the 'tendency of the male left to equate muscular militancy and violence with political strength.
Against Pit Closures against feminism, eagerly burying the
failed to popularise the issues in the strike by learning from the tactics of peaceful protest of the Greenham women. She recalls that it wasn't hard to find miners' wives from Ollerton, who supported the strike, who felt alienated by the 'angry, brutal, and useless' behaviour of the miners.
response of thousands of miners' wives to the "brutal',
well that hundreds of miners' wives were forced, the same as the men, to confront the police on picket lines and did so with as much gusto as the men.
chose to confront them. Bea Campbell and her allies in the Labour centre and right will not be allowed to pit mining women against men in this dishonest fashion if the answers
for Margaret Thatcher and the government?
Lorraine: It is neither defeat nor a victory. If the
North Derbyshire Area
Action of the situation in the NUM
Whereas before Ine
concilliation proceedure
use they are
was there to
now saying TOT
'Where there is an alleged
grievance we Will consider
using the procedure.
There nothing to
stop them in the future
from breaking with what
been sacrosalill
Delore.
People think that we
Call have the threat
another overtime ban kept
in reserve to use in future
times SUCXL Hulullll
but the board would
launch Calludici for
miners to ignore the ban
viciously as
LICH USL
they would do now.
While we retain the
ban on overtime it would
give us that slight bit of
dignity we need right now
and I believe we could con-
trol it.
This would test the
union out for the future
battles we have to prepare
for.
Sacked
The levy should have
been callea in the nist In-
stance just for those who
have been sacked not to in-
clude money for those who
may sacked the
future.
Some miners saw this
as the first step towards
establishment of
future strike fund.
This got in the way of In an outrageous article, defending the 'democratic
The fundamentalist left, she argues, hijacked Women But why does Beatrix leave out of her analysis the macho violence' of the police? She knows full
They didn't choose to confront the police. The police for Thatcher.
But we still have the union and it will stick together. For example, don't Nottingham
Johnny Moyle, sacked President Betteshanger NUM, Nicky Boyle (wife of a sacked miner), and Betty Heathfield (above) addressed the 2,000 people who marched through Sheffield the miners and wasn't proper- Cast for the sacked
ly motivated
I'm confident that the same miners WRO VOTed against national levy will come back for a loca levy as well as supporting the sacked miners voluntary basis.
Area by area we should. conduct our own raising of funds. There should be national co-ordination for re-instatement campaign against the glaring inconsistencies.
NOTLE verovsture men have been taken back who have been conviceca really want to split off and it's important that we al stay together.
Jean: Before they had the Spencer union, and that was forced to come back into the national union. The point is the struggle is not over yet.
There's more to come
Some men weren't happy with the way they had to go back. But I think in the end we had to go in order to stop Thatcher getting an all-out victory.
Lorraine: Yes, but on the first day they went back at Bold, they were only there for an hour and a half, and they came out again. They all marched in together.
They refused to go on
Coal. Board buses. They said, 'if it takes us all day to get there we're going in together.? They went in about 10am.
We went home and were 'phoning each other up because we really didn't know what with ourselves 120 m husband 'phoned up to say that OLIC lad had been suspended for picking coal and they had all walked out.
Also apparently women canteen staff who had scabbed during the strike had locked
of criminal damage such as sinlasilllg the scab's windows.
But in Scotland miners accused of petty offences are sacked.
we should fight to have the precedents North Derbyshire applicable to Scotland. now getting fragmented ATed and branches arc turning inwards. Men who
occalic aware of the national
This awareness is ullull. now breaking up.
To counter this we should hold out with the themselves in the tiolets. The girls who had been on
angry. I hear stories CuUs and flying
think the men were out to prove that they've still got some fight left in them.
Who do you blame for the outcome strike?
Jean: What we needed was leadership from the TUC Instead of giving it us, they seemed to be afraid of the government.
The rank and file sup ported us. Thatcher really did not calculate on the support we were getting from the general public But with the dockers the support was there, they were just bribed back to work *Lorraine: Yes, if the leadership had been strong enough we could have hac a general strike.
But what are the prospect
hen for the future? Hor
shipyou change the leader-
People have become more
on Saturday demanding an amnesty and reinstatement for all those miners imprisoned and sacked during the NUM dispute. A leaflet distributed by the South Yorkshire Defence Campaign who called the march pointed out that managers were out to overtime ban, work to conference to kick out chae and call the special Notts area and to restructure the NUM areas
Instead of affiliated bodies we want divisions
the NUM centraily under the control on the national union.
We want to codify that sense of unity developed during the strike.
We do not have the luxury allowing the Notts scab leaders Lynk and Pendergast to carry on.
Like Spencer their leadership is self justify. leadership we the rank and file in other unions should fight for the same Il s une same will the Labour Party. I intend to join the Labour Party when I go back.
Why?
Lorraine: Because that
For us, ald dering ine
strike five realised that hit
isn't, and something ought to be done about it. It's no good just criticising from the outside
Jean: Yes, a lot of us are
going to join the Labou
Party. Me and four of m friends are all going to join together.
Lorraine: A lot of people are going join miners, miners wives, supporters — so we won't be on our own. That is the thing about the strike - so many people have got involved politics who never were before. especially young people and women.
What do you intend to do now to keep the miners
Lorraine: We will be involved in the campaigns of the NUM, but also we
saying
of them in Yorkshire. seek to justity their 12 seek justify their month scabbing
we cannot wait fol time to prove them wrong, to wait for Lynk to fall
Leicestershire.
lis so callea sare area 1s
Bagworth. the day shift.
denying us gur " union rights.
But it didn't make any difference. the afternoon shift scabbed on them anyway. Once.a scab always a scab.
the NCB announcement that 40 pits are in danger of closing. It would serve them right if this includes Leicestershire.
want to get involved in other women's struggles. At the moment we've got the teachers on strike nationally and the hospital workers our area. They're mainly women so we will want to support them.
Jean: I think we should be allowed to join the NUM myself, after what we've done.
During the strike we linked up with Greenham Common women. I went down there for a weekend to stay, and after Easter I'm going to stay for a week We are going build for the international day Greenham called for September 5.
Would you call yourselves feminists? What in your view is a feminist?
Lorraine: After all this I would call myself feminist • because I don't like being told what to do.
Jean: I am, because I want to control my own body. I had eight children, and my husband didn't believe in
n't I decide what I do with
Socialist Action 5 April 1985 3
victimise more militants. Derek Law, manager of Silverwood colliery was quoted as 'We've got a faction of about 30-40 militants and this is an ideal time to sort them out'. 900 miners have been sacked so far. 300
down holes. By setting up a new Notts division with Notts alle those who refuse to follow Lynk will be stronger position to act as a truly national union.
MICK RICHMOND from the Leicestershire Dirty 30 told Socialist Action the state of the union in
That has now been reversed to £l.2 million loss since November due to water damage. That's how vulnerable
We still haven't got recognition from our union a
This week the electricians went on strike on
The official Callaghan asked one of the Dirty 30 to honour the strike after scabbing on us for 12 months and
_Even so, we agreed.
The electricians on
Now they're facing the result of their actions with
own body? Why should you have to explain to men, to doctors or to anyone cise, wily you wan to do something?
Lorraine: There was strike in the social services in st Heens a town in Lancashire] because one bloke leaked information about one of his clients. who was trying to get abortion, to one of thi pro-life groups.
We supported the strike. I think there should There should be more nurseries for under-fives SO that women can go out to work This strike has taught me a. lot. It's made more responsible it's taught me not to rely on men.
This strike has let the government know that miners will fight and tha people wont just lie down and the walk all over them.
Reprinted from tional Viewpoint 25 Marc
Page 4 scan of this page
NUT conference
4 THE CURRENT TEACHERS pay dominate the first day of the National Union of Teachers annual conference at Scarborough this Easter. Teachers are campaigning for £1200 rise for all teachers as a first step to restoring the 33 per cent decline in their pay over the last 10 years. They have rejected the employers' offer of four per cent, and a proposed move to take the issue to arbitration.
Teachers learnt lesson last year when despite opposition from the SOCa ST Teachers Alliance (STA) and others on the lett, the claim was taken to arbitration resulting in a mere 0.62 per cent increase on the employers 4.5 per cent offer. The conference will be
executive BIsCUSSIlmotion on the next phase of the campaign.
There are increasing calls to step up the level of action, which is based the moment on three-day strikes in selected areas.
The union needs to call out MUCH greater unDers than the 8000 involved in une ast weck. a subslalltial number of teachers in
selected cities need to be
called out indefinitely, and
on Hackney
The foundations for a defeat on the defence of jobs and services Council on 27 March. This followed a 23-22 vote by the Labour group to set a legal rate at some future date. A minority of Labour councillors joined hands with the Tories and Liberals to water down the council's previous position of "finding it impossible' to set a rate to merely deferring it.
They also sent the
leadership away to look at
the issues raised by the
director of finances
report'. This report which
outlines possible 'savings'
cuts, was prepared
without the knowledge of
the counci t was leaked
to the media at a time
wnen il scemea thal mone)
was running out and coun-
cil workers would not
Socialist Action 5 April 1985
must step up
the action
fight will the whole of the membership involved in rolling strike action. one-day national strike should be added, to organise mass meetings and mobilise support for the monthly levy to sustain the campaign.
by Bernard Regan, NUT executive, personal capacity.
Keith Joseph has produced a white paper OIOvocatively entitled 'Better Schools' Coupled with his proposal to introduce meril pay' for vulslallding teachers this represents a concerted attack on and aLICOl isolate teachers. The Tory's objective is to produce, a
Pressure increases
were laid at a meeting of Hackney paid. Whoever leaked the document was making a carertily considered political move to undermine the council's stand against rate-capping.
by Tony Hunt, Hackney NALGO (personal capacity)
The High Court has lifted its ban on the council
HACKNEY JSSC
NO CUTS IN JOBS. AND SERVICES
pliant workforce which will fall in line with their proposais to remuroauce d selective system of education talloring education to the employers' priorities.
The campaign mụch therefore about more than salaries -it is about the condition which teachers work in and the whole education system. At the conference members of the STA will be arguing the need to take the campaign out to win Sune active support working class parents, and Lo uk uo witn ocner uauc unions involved in pay campaigns and defence of jobs and services.
Teachers are conscious that the fight will not easy one after the miners strike. There is however no choice but to fight.
The leadership of the union is constantly worance avou uie sece com. petition for members in teaching but during the re. cent action there were
recruits than the union could handle cenborrowing money, but its 'reminder' that the council must set a rate stands. This reminder was changed to an instruction on Monday. the 22 Labour councillors WINO volee wis me coses and Liberals at the meeting on the 27 March continue to do so the result will be a legal budget and rate. original Labour budget of The between £118 million and a lega budget possibly £92 million - will be impossible to bridge without cuts. The unions in Hackney joint shop stewards committee have been united in calling on the council to defy the rates act alie
trally. Marie Price of the Mansfield Womens' Support Group told striking teachers in Westminster never to say that three-day sorid is am "What you sarc strikes are fighting for is extremely M00 al adu C0le to spread YOU! everywhere I gơ'
Socialist Teachers Alliance conference meetings:
All at the St Nicholas Hotel.
Friday 7.30pm: The pay campaign. East London and Lambeth NUT followed by STA pre-conference briefing. Sunday 7.30pom: Jerem Corbyn, MP anc FDR/FMLN representative.
Monday 7.30pm: Women in the NUT.
Tuesday 7.30pm: Rate. capping Hilda Kean, eader Hackney Council. Wednesday 7.00pm Better Schools. A socialist reply. Disco tickets £3 Conference caucus every lunchtime.
Court. However, at two NALGO branch meetings the membership has been split over the question of taking action — ie., striking or at least 'working in under union control - or not.
The work-in proposal would mean employees KCouE SUrC Sel Vicc Tull ing under trade union control while supported by levy on union members in other local authorities. However these decisions were taken in the context of continuing resistance by the council. If this should col lapse the unions will have a much more difficult situanon to ceawil
cent. Thirty one Labour councillors
A budget by Labour right winger Allan Wood which involved cuts larger than those proposed by the Liberals and aimed at crippling equa. opportunities policy, the police HO HLO SIES commicc and the campaign units was defeated by an ammendment which set the rate. It called on the policy and resources committee to draw up a budget to put to a council meeting not later than the end of the first week in May.
This removed the imMORE than 200 delegates representing, on paper at least, up to 250,000 council workers met in Liverpool on Saturday 30 March to discuss national organisation against the government's attacks on local government jobs and services.
Conference resolution establishing a
Co-ordinating •Committee local authority shop stewards-
organise solcaisily strike action other authorities, in the event of compulsory redundancies, -legal action against coun-
Rate-capping defeat
in Manchester
Manchester City council met on Sunday 6 March and agreed to set a rate, with an increase of six per
once again deserted party policy and voted with Liberals for a Tory resolution to set a rate. Earlier 22 of those councillors had called a council meeting to do just this. Although 45 councillors remained loyal to party policy, the budget was passed with a majority of
mediate threat of the right wing voting through a cuts budget. It was argued for in terms of no cuts and no rent or rate rises above the rate of inflation.
by Duncan Edwards
Mark Hackett, member of the city party executive which was present the council Cianoe in order discuss tactics with the Labour group, said of the meeting, *The decision of
Local government
delegates meet
Cil ots or council menters,
Mao en commissioners or other aclicc. a local authority.
Cuts
Conference. called on Labour authorities resist the rate-capping legislation and to refuse to cut jobs or services. firs meeting of the cOOrOaue ComuLLcC wan set for 13 April. there was a oweven marked lack of clear discussion on how the ore blems facing local governmcuLuol wee.Lo
the right wing to vote with
the lories and Liberals to
set a rate was a betrayal of
working people of Man
chester need the f7
billion stolen from the city
by the government since
1979. reduces the
pressure on Patrick
Jenkin, and endangers
CROSC CouTCuS. SUCE
Hackney who are
Jenkin's firing line
'A united front would have made it impossib le for the government to ad-
minister all the cities and boroughs refusing to co-
with OoCLaLt TaLC cap ing agi satineae
defeat the rate issue, many in the council and the party will be pushing for deficit budget.
In the meantime, City con
SULUCCa veidca in demanding the resigna-
tion ot the 31 scab coun cillors. dealt with. In the face of the retreat by Tabout authorities from the ratecap fight passed to the unions. The conference did not grapple with the problems.
Building national
tion by local government
wil be a ditticull task. It is not made easier by resolutions which fail to pose this question as the core of a national strategy.
Equally important will be the policy of the unions involved. The national co
need to be a campaignins body
CO ordinating body. Develop ing that aspect of its policy will be its first task.
Page 5 scan of this page
Victorian values
VICTORIA GILLICK, Thatcher share a belief in a long lost golden age when families were happy and united and everyone knew their place, especially women and children. Such an age never existed of course.
poverty to work, little girls were sold into prostitution, servants who got pregnant were thrown onto the streets and unwanted babies were abandoned or drowned. Mrs Gillick would have been lucky to have survived ten pregnancies with all her children alive and well. Neither she nor Mrs Thatcher would have had the vote. Mrs Gillick would not have been able to make use of the courts without money of her own.
Thanks to hard fought battles by the working class and by women, we've come long way since nen. But respect, we are still in the Victorian age. Women still have little say over what happens to their own bodies
is true that confreely Laccollull available to all - unless
are under 16 yUl course. Mrs Gillick, young women are once again seen as the Droperty of their parents regardless whether those parents are caring or HUL.
Her campaign similar to those which have been conducted 1n the United States, where number of states have passed "Family Laws' which put children firmly
their parents'
states that means under 18
Calliol oolalll (U11traception abortion without parental permission.
Some of those states have also outlawed sex education. At the same time, and the pump out heavily distorted pictures of sexuality, leaving young people confused and ignorant.
In New York schools voung women go to school armed with guns against possible their
lauc school fellows on or off the premises.
PAULINE MCKINNEY was arrested in December 1982 on the evidence of 'supergrass' Christopher Black. She was among the first of the women in Armagh to be subjected to the strip search procedure
Pauline was imprisoned.
don, a packed meeting heard Pauline explain the strip search regime and its purpose.
I WAS arrested through canstopner was a paid informer. The
had Sure scary uncl been in progress for around three weeks.
We didn't know this when Well in. We didn't know it until the second day of the trial until we had go down to reception.
We were into
There were three to four
When we went in they told us to strip off. thought
SuSU jumper änd skirt. But they
Enoch Powell and Mrs
In Victorian times small children were forced by
The organisations have led the campaign against sex
the naive
about their bodies will lead youngsters mto promisculty. Parents
Young women in this are loday al lne of their parents.
Mrs Gillick's victory in the Appeal Court preventing doctors prescribing even advising about con-
will not SLUD them having sex. If they get pregnant, it is for their parents to decide, with the doctor, if they can have an abortion.
But for all women the decision as to whether or not to nave an aboron Is not theirs to make. Abortion is stil legal under a law of 1868 and the Abortion Act of 1967 requires that two doctors make the decision - they determine who are 'fit' mothers - ner cnoice 1s secondary.
For young women, used to modern methods of contraception and believ-
is relatively easy to get, the
of fighting to maintain what few rights we have and to extend inose rignts may not seem to be a priority. But for
Armagh body snatchers
it was introduced two or three weeks before
On Thursday 28 March in Stratford, East Lon-
said everything off.
There were four or five screws the reception aled that They stood in front of me, lookine over my body then thes turned me round to check the back. Then they said put your clothes back on.
Liz was brought down and then Margaret. This happened to the three of us about 30 times if
one week.
Then started to WC question They said security. It was not security.
They didn't whether you had a period or not. They "didn't care
'Woman in White Stockings' by Suzanne Valadon whose paintings completely broke the mould of female subjection. opposition to women having control of their bodies and being allowed to express their sexuality freely.
four years — from 1975 to
we fought after battle to prevent the
being destrovcu. WC al C having to fight the same
whether it was a heavy period or not.
We pressed for the
plained. But they wouldn't callall. The reason that this was being done to us was not only to break our spirits, but also to degrade us, to dehumanise us, to numulate us.
Security
It was just another tactic along with others that had been used in Armagh jail over the years to break une spirits or lae womta fl that jail. But they didn't
They petty harassments. Only
this was not a petty harassment. This was serious.
You've all heard of the film The Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, well these were the body-snatchers of
because ther WELC trying to take our
Powell & Gillick
What Powell and Gillick share is complete
people in new ways.
boosted by the right-wing
government, anti-abortionists are turning to such fields as bodies, they were trying to
They did not strip search the men. We do not
men to go this procedure, but if it's for security why doesn't the cedure apply?
Nicholas Scott claimed that the strip search was for security reasons because the massive break-out in Long Kesh,
But the strip search started
November '82. The break-out was in November '83.
How can stripping
stop LICH from escaping?
Because of the protests the strip searches have been scaled down. But it's still going on.
It does leave a mark on you when you get out. It's left its mark on me, I just haven't got the guts to ex-
it has af-
OPPOSE THE POWELL BILL!
SATURDAY
ASSEMBLE 1PM LINCOLNS
sex . cocation. called Family and Youth Concern (the Responsible Society) have produced a video for which depicts young people leav ing church happily mar ried having kept themselves pure for each other, whilst other less fortunate youngsters gaze on with regret that they
LOC did not keep themselves Chances of happiness are Decalist
SPUC
The current concern over the Pill emphasises
research onto better and
research into better healthier methods of contraception are and how important It is lnal acornon remains as a back up for talled contracention very common reason for abortion - so tha: some can use less certain. but less harmful.
Lution tion
MASS LOT
DEMONSTRATE
27 APRIL
RIGHTS FOR EMBRYOS MEANS RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY FROM WOMEN!
endangered by the Unborn
Children (Protection) Bill
•TONIULCI Enoch
Powell. He now claims it
should perhaps be called
Embryo Protection Bill.
The principle remains that
the embryo should be
given status.
The Bill endangers in "' vitro fertilisation which
will especially harm poorer
women who cannot get
private treatment here or
abroad One in ten
couples are infertile in this
country and research into
the cause will
damaged by the Bill.
Anything which
threatens abortion rights
especially effects young
women. 24% of women
naving abortion alc
ween 16 and 19 and 27%
between 20 and 24. A fur
ther ?. "Fo are under 16.
That means that one in
five women berteen
ages of 16 and 25 are tai-
HeRY There:t:
any ailace on aborte s
JUSTI
Socialist Action 5 April 1985 5
Although women who have children must be able to take a tull part in socie 1y, the ability to determine
and when have children central if
achieve liberation and equality.
It is hard for us now to realise elen omen did not have like
inıs abilly al all, altnoug! it is only 50 years ago that
LICi labour movement were fighting for family planning clinics and the right to contraception. A few brave souls even then also argued for abortion. Meantime women spent weeks wages on pills that were more likely to kill them than give an abortion
Thanks to advances in modern medicine, we will not return to those days even if abortion becomes
again the Powells and Gillicks of the world have their way women will once again be forced into illegality creasing the risks to their health and making them feel gulity and furtive Again the poor will suffer the most.
We have had to fight long hard battles to and retain our limited rights. We should now b fighting to extend them
Instead yet again we are having to defend them. It is important that we do not take our
we do they will disappear. That t why we must support th
campaig against Powe and Gillict RIGHTS GIVEN TO EMBRYOS MEAN RIGHTS TAKEN AWAY FROM WOMEN! • Organise contingents to the demonstration agains Powell on Saturday April 27.
Distribute petitions leaflets, posters.
Write to/lobby MPs. • Organise loca
• Affiliate to NAC.
NAC can be contacted on
01-405-4801
NAC at
NUS
Out of a proposed 17 speakers at the NUS ference, top of the was placed speaker, Leonora
She outlined portance of the curre tacks on abortion represented by the Bill and the Gillick and called unions to mobilise them.
They should in their colleges to 1 ple to the
Page 6 scan of this page
For a mass ca
THE LABOUR Party Socialists' annual conference meets in Blackpool over Easter. It will be dominated by the impact of the 12 month struggle of the miners. The strike was one of the most powerful and mobilisations of youth ever seen in Britain.
As Arthur Scargill put it: 'How many times have we heard the saying "young people today are not like their foretathers. i hev're too busy making mortgage repayments.' are sick and tired of listening to the Jeremiahs of the movement saying young people will never fight as well as
older generation that built the movement. I say, without fear of contraaichon, mal l lnose wno bull our trade union movement could look on this scene today, they would salute our boung miners.
What is at stake at this year's LPYS conference is very simply whether or not the Young Socialists can become an organisation for taking the immense ponucal lessons thousands of young miners and their active supporters through the labour movement as a whole.
Of course this is the last thing that Neil Kinnock and the right wing of the labour movement would like to see. Despite their very real concern to build up Labour's votes amongst youth, the last thing they want is a mass youth movement - one through which young miners could take the lessons they've learnt about the police, the courts, the role of women organising in their own groups, the role of black organisation,
struggles against oppression last the role of the present leaders of the labour deliver their promised support to the NUM.
Gimmicks
That is why all of Kinnock's gimmicks to appeal to the youth vote stop short of actually building up a self-governing Party Socialists. On the contrary, resolutions on the LPYS adopted at this year's Scottish regional Party conference showed, the Labour kadership and its supporters are actively considering ways to bring the LPYS under the control of the dead-hand of the trade bureaucracy. response of Kinnock and friends to the magnificent role of youth in the miners' strike is to take steps to keep the lid on the LPYS.
But, unfortunately, cellent work by many, many branches, the LPYS nationally did not come forward presenting a clear political alternative to Kinnock in the course of the miners' strike. ine committee could and should have been a voice oi opposition to policy - with statements denouncing every retreat from support for the NUM, lobbies of the NEC and party leadership, and a campaign for a national solidarity demonstration in support of the miners. his would have made the YS very unpopular with Kinnock, but it would have won the support of every young supporter of the miners and thousands of recruits. Failure
It was a similar wish not to rock the boat of accommodation abour bureaucracv. based on accommodating to imperialist backwardness, which resulted in the failure of the LPYS to build out of the wave of youth rebellions which swept British cities in 1981. At that time, *Rioting no answer' distributed in Liverpool won the LPYS and its vltant leadershin the condempt of thousands of militant black youth, even though it certainly found favour with the leadership of the party.
Militant's policy of existence with the Labour Party leadership will not defend the YS from witch-
mine the ability of the YS as a national organisation to build the kind of sup-
Socialist Action 5 April 1985
Young
British
coulagerus But now we
those support all
and, not
failing
Young the as
Labour
The
despite ex-
national
Kinnock's
such attacks.
the Militant LPYS.
SUCH campaigns
with the Solidarity
they were CHOI movement'. This
infamous
leaflet paigns were not Labour Party
resulting
peaceful co- leadership.
port and alliances necessary to defeat
For the past 16 years there has been an implicit understanding between the Labour bureaucracy at Walworth Road
leadership of the black Whilst left wing groups ouside the Labour Party threw themselves into
Lue Vietnam Campaign, the National Abortion Campaign and the Anti-Nazi League, the Militant-led LPYS largely abstained from them on the grounds simply
part labour suited Walworth strike.
Road because it meant that thousands of youth radicalised through such cam-
coming THLO the and challenging its leadership. The Labourist politics and class.
sectarianism, of Militant suited the interests of the Labour Party
This whole relationship is undermined by the førces which emerged in the course of the miners' strike. As we saw at last year's Labour Party conference, all the movements rejected by
Militant as 'middle class' and divisive found their expression in the very core of the British working class with the NUM's support for the demands o1 women and women's organisation, for
sections, for gay rights, against repression in Ireland.
Alliance
These formal positions of the NUM
reflected the practice of Scargill leadership in the course of the
The NUM came forward in practice as the de facto leaders of an alliance of the exploited and oppressed against the Tory government led by the vanguard of the industrial working
The policy of the NUM demonsurateu n emoro a enurev oooosite model of working class leadership to that advocated and practiced by Militant. They argue for the most oppressed and exploited - for black people. for women, for oppressed nations and semi-colonies to abandon major
for Gay
Rights
parts of their own specific demands in order to get unity with the white working class. Scargill in practice allied the most powerful section of the British working class to whole layers of the oppressed and exploited. significant parts of the NUM broadened their outlook and began to take up important demands of those oppressed and exploited by British capitalism. Contrast
The results were clear in the contrast between created in and around the mining com munities and the disastrous split that Militant's politics have engineered between Liverpool city council and Liver. pool's black communities.
The unity will inevitably find increasingly strong expression in the LPYS itself — and will be foremost by the young miners who received their political education in the past 12 months of struggle.
Since 1979, the LPYS leadership has proven on issue after issue to be, in practice, to the right of left wing forces in the Labour Party itself. This was shown on the Malvinas war, on support for the Nicaraguan Ireland and the Fein, the organisation and women and black and Labour Party left, have in many cases maintained their cratic disdain for youth in general and the LPYS in particular. preferred debates in GMCs and various committees to actually building up a socialist youth movement. the The colossal impact of the miners' strike has the potential to change this situation. In the course of the greatest class struggle outside war for 60 years in Britain, all alternative imperialist sectarian politics has begun to emerge in practice in the class struggie. The forces carrying out that alternative were the young men and women of the mining communities
What is possible struggle is to build the LPYS in the image NUM and in doing so to build up a
political wallival lille Militant's leadership within the LPYS.
Labour Campaign
NEVER Labour
In so doing, tending
the tremendous unity
constituency an
to prevent tions approach to 'class
brnught there first anc
revolution, on dialogue with Sinn rights selfrepresentation people. But the
traditional, aristo-
They have
divisive.
divisions which
the pIo
Militant
following that
of the Scargill leadership of the
alternative wing
sir own struggle"
SHORT of ingenuity, Party apparatniks have dreamed up a new and esoteric way of killing two birds with one stone. Seeking to stop the spread of black sections throughout the party and, at the same time, to give a helping hand to their favourites in the current round of MP reselection, they are instructing constituencies that each general committee delegate at-
the reselection meeting must 'sign the pledge' before they are allowed to participate.
Every single delegate of every single
• party is expected to sign undertaking to uphold a nonexistent rule, the effect of which will be
delegates from black sec(which the party refuses voting who should be their candidate in the next general election. But there is no provision in the party constitution that allows the national executive to interfere in this way.
By Carol Turner
This 'loyalty oath' is designed to mop up the effects of the recent upsurge of black activity in the pearlywhite ranks of the Labour Party. Many sitting MPs in particular feel threatened by the influx of black activists into Labour's midst, demanding the right to self-organisation and challenging the institutionalised racism of the party.
Not for the first time, party chiefs have found an unexpected bed-mate in the form of the Militant tendency. The myopic Militant don't support black sections. They believe the issue of better and specific representation for black people at all levels of the party is
Instead of putting the blame for
do undoubtedly exist within the working class as a whole and which find a reflection in the party, fairly and squarely where it belongs -with the ruling class who are the rea beneficiaries of any such divisions —
demand black people cease and desist from their cantall break up the racism of the Labour Parthis demand is in the interest of work The Militant tendency clalms Wal ing class unity. It is in fact, objectively speaking, in the interest of the right
Page 7 scan of this page
mpaigning LPYS!
NOLO NO NARD
This is the section of the party, and the labour movement as a whole, which has most to tear from increased participation by black people. The same arguments have already been rehearsed during the past few years of debate around the demands of women in the party.
It has been argued that women are ghettoised into women's sections.
from enabling them to better express and represent their interests through al-women discussion and orcanisation. the right wing and Militant alike say that women's special interests should be taken up by the party as a whole.
Special measures
Of course, women agree with this. But they also understand that special measures are needeo to make sure unis is the case. In the Labour Party, these 'special measures' start with women's sections. Active women's sections help recruit women to the party, and once recruited, help articulate with confidence their political opinions, and - most important — organise to put them into practice.
One of the clearest examples of this during the miners' strike was Chesterfield Labour Party's women's organisation. Starting as a
during the by-election at the beginning of 1984, the women turned themselves into the Women's Action Group and immediately plunged wholeheartedly into support for the miners' strike.
The truth of this argument isn't evident just in local examples either. The
ILFORD!
Militant and
black people
Labour women's conferences, regional and national, consistently take progressive posions on all politics. And Labour women are in the forefront of mass campaigns such as Greenham.
During the Malvinas war, wollen demand dina me use ee!
withdrawn.
Labour women's conference came out in support of Britain leaving NATO. These are only two examples out of many.
The same goes for black The most oppressed sections of society have little Halend upholding the status quo, in society in general or the Labour Party in particular. It is in the interests of al socialists in the labour movement to support demands for self-organisation.
Reactionary
But since the movement for black sections in the party first began, Mili-
openly campaigned against them. They have lined Labour's right wing time and again to block the aspirations of black activists, using the same reactionary arguments that have been used wrong against women.
All this said, one of the most telling arguments against the Militant tenden. cy is an extremely practical one: the fact that they feel constrained to put for ward those arguments own (misguided) black members. party ferences, in the Young Socialists, and wilerever possibie in tue consuluencies.
aspects
La compliment to the strength of black activism in the party.
Labour
Bankruptcy
This year's London
In Liverpool, tendency al C they've had ample people. demonstrate in practice the bankruptcy of their views. Since the appoinment of
for the city council, the Liverpool black caucus have picketed the council offices and openly organised against the council's attitude. explained it thus: "The Sam Bond affair isn't the first dispute that Liverpool's
council, but it's symptomatic of the problem with the politics of Militant. "They say the black representative of the community as a up Will whole. But we are representative of all the black munity: Chinese, and so on. They, and the trade unions - and proved in the city support us.
pointment as such is a diversion. But I want to put you in the picture. About this time last year whole series of problems in our liaison through their with the Militant-dominated city coun-
At regional CUL
ment to fighting racism and to positive action for black people. In that context
NUCLEAR
WEAPONS
ARE
PErRICE
Black organisations and sections of the Li against the propose Precial Race are rod as Liverpool City Counci it is their black members who are expected to front their arguments against black sell-organisation. This in itself is
where the Militant politically dominant, opportunity to
am Bond (a Militant supporter from
'ent in London) as race relations chief
Liz Drysdale from the black caucus
community has had with the
caucus isn't
organisations in the com Caribbeans, Asians
'The dispute over Sam Bond's ap-
table since 1981
we were having a Liverpool organised gathered
"The issue was their exact commit- novellell.
To
well ICC
BLACK LINX GC,
cuts
RACISM
and the
ment. one of the issues that had been on the
was the establishment of a race relations committee.' Bond
Liverpool teck cathes shed of ter
caucus, to protest it. Support from the Liverpool labour they
date 11 out of 33 Labour-controlled wards in Liverpool, and two
constituencies out of five, support the black caucus. Liverpool Trades Council and the Liverpool city council joint shop stewards support their position, as
TGWU, NUPE, NATFHE, ASTMS, NUT and 70 black organisa-
Liz explained: 'In face of all this, the District Labour Party which Militant-controlled has defeated motions encapsulating our demands on three seperate occasions. If the Labour Party is a broad church, as is claimed, then we should be able to hear the voice of black people. Our position on Mr Bond will not change, because what we are talking about is the question of the oppression of black people.
'This is not just an issue for black people. We want your solidarity and support. As we say in Liverpool: we will stay and we will fight. No more Bondage!'
Not all of the Labour left has the same attitude as Militant of course Many constituencies are already sup. porting the black sections' demands.
Vauxhall, in South London, is one such local party. A black section has already been set up, with full voting representation on the general commit-
Like others they have recently received Walworth Road's new dictat
Reaction came sharp and quick Bryn Davies, Vauxhall's GLC coun cillor, slapped down a resolution to the
rejecting the proposals of the na. tional executive and demanding that subject to consultation with affiliated organisations and ward parties, the constituency refuse to comply. It was carried with only three votes against.
Accountability
Bryn says: "There is no provision in the constitution for the national executive to stop people being delegates The issue for us is that our delegates are accountable to their branches not the NEC.
"The loyalty pledge directly under-
the accountability of GC delegates. I am personally in full support of black sections and will argue this view in my branch.'
Marc Wadsworth, also a member of Vauxhall Labour Party, is elected to the Black Section Steering Committee. He was forthright in his view of the latest attack on black self-organisation. 'This is a classic tactic,' he said, 'of the right wing. They are determined to crush everyone in their path.
"The loyalty pledge should be extremely concerning to the whole of the movement. All those on the left should close ranks against a new round witch-hunts - which is what this move against black sections means. Whether you support the right of black sections to exist and being opposed to the witchhunt are twin issues.
"The Black Section Steering Committee believes that, conference decision or not, black rights in the party are non-negotiable. Our policy is for black representation in the reselection process and for more black MPs in parlia-
'Black sections aren't just about recruitment to the party, they're about recruiting activists. To accept the pledge would be & stab in the back of the black community.
"The pledge is only the thin end of the wedge. Vauxhall Labour Party GC has taken a strong stand. We want the wards and the affiliated organisations to do the same.
Militant should take a leaf out of the Vauxhall book. What they have to learn from the battle for the black sec. tions, in the words of Liz Drysdale who paraphrases the famous poem, is thi 'They came for black people first, the came for the women next, and then
will come for everybody. You can't save youself by • lulling you backs on other people as if they didn't concern you.'
Socialist Action 5 April 1985 7
Page 8 scan of this page
Sinn Fein assesses the miners' strike
8 Socialist Action
THE ARTICLE we reproduce below appeared as a prominently displayed double page spread in Republican News — the political newspaper supported by Fein in Ireland. It shows the complete identity of the Republican movement with the goals and methods of struggle of the British miners.
Republican News had not wanted to make any public comments whilst ‹ne strike was on for rear inal any such overt support might be used against the miners by the Tories. But Republicans had massively in the raising of funds and solidarity for the miners in Ireland.
It is clear from the article that Republican News had followed the
Iy sensitive to and supportive of the miners efforts to reach out to women, black people and other oppressed and exploited layers.
The British miners' strike from the very political strike. It was not simply an attempt to win higher wages from reluctant Rather, it became a confrontation about a fundamental question: should society be organised for the benefit of present and future generations of working people, or should it be organised to make profits for a few capitalists?
On the one hand, Margaret Thatcher ana ner government plan lo ruthlessly reduce the mining industry io a lew superpits coalfields. These would be equipped with the latest technologv highly productive, with few miners and a weakened union, then be sold off to multinational mining enterprises.
Pits in the outlying areas, and the communities that depend on them. would be left to die, and the miners and their children would be forced to join the army of at least four million unemployed that Thatcherite policies have already produced.
The miners, for their part, argue that the coal industry
Lne those who work in it and for the community as a whole and that long-term plans should be made for the careful exploitation of Britain's natural resource. It does not make sense either in social or economic terms to destroy communiles, swell the ranks of the unemployed or to leave viable pits producing high quality coal to rot for lack of investHUCIL.
The attack on the miners is part of
5 April 1985 Sinn
participated
was
a highly
employer. multinational
Photo: MARTIE VOLK
in the central
and be
and could
the interests
should be
greatest
the nationalised industries.
HaLS put
ISTRI
CAMPAIK
a long-term strategy, also being implemented in other nationalised in dustries and in the welfare services, of restructuring the British economy in
of multinational capitalism. The miners have recognised, as Arthur Scargill has repeatedly stated, that they are in the frontline of the fight not just for their own jobs, but for everybody's jobs. In failing to support them, other trade unionists are undermining their own position.
As far back as 1978, right-wing Tory MP Nicholas Ridley drafted a report on Conservative policies for plans
forward contingency plans for a miners' strike which included: building up coal stocks, par- priority. ticularly at power stations, introducing dual coal/oil-firing in all power
stations, cutting off state benefits to strikers and equipping and preparing a large mobile squad of police to act against violent pickets. 'Good non-union drivers, the report said, should be recruited to cross picket lines with police protection.
When the Tories came to power, these nans were switt v implemented. They organised their defences and prepared to beat and starve the miners back to work. Coal stocks were tripl. ed, generating stations were switched to more flexible fuel and the policing
were: acted on Laws brought in to make mass picketing and secondary picketing illegal and to the establishment that are treated as a
At the same time, the government moved to cut off funds to the miners
and their families. Although the National Union of Mineworkers was not severely restrict the pavment of social security benefits to strikers' families.
The British thrown every available weapon into the battle: public money, the police, the law, the media, tactics. Under this onslaught, tens of thousands of miners and their communities have been politicised to an extent not seen in Britain since before World War Two. they will never see the state through were the same eyes again.
The government's plan to develop a tew pits and leave the rest to die meant that 'divide-and-rule' obvious tactic. The strike started with miners at threatened pits coming out. The NUM leadership's decision to transform this into a national strike without a ballot was to provide a propaganda weapon for the government.
But, as the striking miners pointed out: Why should we allow people in sale Jobs lo other people?' The the Coal Board worked behind the scenes to set up scabs' committees. Business tycoons and some assisted in planning work' campaign and designing advertising material for it. Using the so. called working.
Tory lawyers initiated a succession of legal actions against the NUM.
In pursuit of its objective, British government has poured huge amounts of public money down the drain. It paid £1.5 veteran union-breaker MacGregor from an American merchant bank to man', first of British Steel and then of the Coal Board. By the end of the miners' strike, had been spent — much of it on im porting coal and oil for the power sta tions -saving of £250 million.
As with the occupation of the Six Counties, costs payers some £1,500 million per year, and of the Falklands-Malvinas, which costs more than £1,000 million annually; it is the long-term interests of
receiving f16
Dese sus amount. So school-age out.
of Ine
counted'
feminists
ment.
out.
and searches.
The tional ordinating
ranged the
of 13,500 men.
officers
Counties.
government has
been 'divide-and-rule'
dons
Many swear that
was an
Miners' pounded by
vote away the jobs of
Tory Party and
poured in money Thatcher's advisers
the 'back-to- government,
miners as a cover,
the
indeed million to buy Labour Party lan
make him the
"axe
with over £3,000 million
- in order to achieve an annual
British tax- developed
March
paying strike pay, the 1980 Employment Act 'deemed' that strikers were
per week from their and their social security Were by that two adults with two children were receiving just £24.75 a week. Single men go nothing. Also, legal action by the Na tional Working Miners' Committee succeeded in freezing the £6.8 million assets of the NUM, which meant that funds for financing flying pickets ran
While financial hardship was the main factor forcing miners back to work, it paradoxically also helped to produce the most remarkable feature
strike: the unprecedented mobilisation of women. Women in
ly been confined to the home, but over the last twelve months thousands have decided to 'stand up and be
They have organised women's action groups in all areas and allied with
form the national Women Against Pit Closures move-
They have raised money, bought tood and provided regular meals for the strikers day in and day
Women WILd no previous political experience have toured Britain and abroad speaking at meetings, joined picket lines and gone to prisor
suffered degrading strip-
mass ve and sophisticated policing operation against the strike has brought many in the mining communities to see the British state in a different light. In effect, Britain's local police forces have been welded into a national force through the Na.
Reporting Centre, body based at Scotland Yard. Aided by a computer, this ar-
deployment of police around the country • it arranged zu, assignments in une hrsl lu weeks of the strike alone, from a pool
The police operate in squads of 23
known 'police support uns, wmen Have receivea nol tran ing which includes the 'snatch squad' technique as developed in the Six
Suddenly, villages where relations with the local 'bobby' had generally
friendly found themselves besieged by vast numbers of often brutal police. The use of police cor-
around Nottinghamshire, of road blocks, and of riot shields provoked many comparisons by miners and their supporters with the situa tion in the Six Counties.
Many hundreds have been arrested, and extraordinary bail conditions have been imposed, preventing strikers from picketing anywhere in the country or attending demonstrations or addressing meetings.
Danger las OCCI comthe media coverage, which gave massive coverage of picket line violence but said nothing about police brutality. Whereas everyone in Britain has heard of the taxi-drive who was accidentally killed, few have heard of the two pickets who died, Davy Jones and Joe Green.
Throughout, television and the press have behaved — as they do in İreland — like agents of the British
trying to persuade the strikers back to work, attacking Arthur Scargill and failing to present the reasons or me souce • 'I don't know anyone who buys the Sun newspaper any more,' said one miner.
As a result of their treatment by
police and media, and the shameful behaviour of leader Neil Kinnock, who failed to support the strike, many in the mining communities have come to see British politics in a new light. They are developing a new solidarity
Britain's black communities, who have given a lot of support.
The reaction of many to the Brighton bomb was 'Pity they bloody missed'. There is the beginning of an understanding about Britain's role in Ireland, which, hopefully can now be
• This article is reproduced from the
o5 Republican
Page 9 scan of this page
Surplus Value
ERIC HEFFER and presented a paper to fional Executive for withdrawal from NATO. ship is- currently dorsed at successive conferences.
We print below presented to the NEC. THIS PAPER argues that the time is ripe discussion about Britain's membership. NATO and it attempts to set out CEne arosenes alid against that course.
The case for remaining in NATO. 1. Membership of NATO Is Labour poncy as cnaors ed by successive Labour COH C CICE
lo reopen that issue now would be divisive and might harm Labour's pro-
spects forae-argum.
that argument is resumed it might reopen the Party's commitment to
non-nuclear defence policy and the removal of all US nuclear bases in Bri-
4. Public opinion, much of which still accents the idea of a Soviet military threat,
I caly countenance so radical a change in Britain's defence and foreign policy, after nearly 40 ycals during which it was part of the allparty CorsCHIsus
There are other and more urgent policy priorities.
The case for reopening the question of NATO membership
Labour Conference policy actually calls for the IN THE Name of the People is a new film shot in El Salvador's liberated zones. parallels with the miners' strike, but multiplied and intensified a thousand times over.
Watching government peasant suspects and kicking their heads brought back picket line memories. died in the last 12 Salvador, 50,000 have died over five years.
To fight a government army financed, trained and equipped by the USA, the popular opposition (the FMLN-FDR) has had
mobilise and organise the whole population in the zones it controls about a third of the country. Like the miners' suppor natw b rt ing everything and fighting a war.
Everything is organised around the struggle. To take part you have to read and write, so the guerrillas run SCHOOS for everyone, not just the kids. You have to eat, so there is collective organisation of food, from crop cultivation to canteens.
You have to fight,
ing. Onou haver to rein-
You have to keep healthy, so the guerrilla para-medics SEUlS both emergency surgery for the wounded and basic health care for the general population - the first it has ever had.
Moreover, as with the
NATO-the case
for withdrawal
Tony Benn last week the Labour: Party NaCommittee arguing the case
NATO memberLabour Parly policy, en-
full the paper
simultaneous disbandMES.E A800-095 Pact and NATO, and the substitution a pan-European security system. CEAUS saw Pact year, 1985, the War- comes up for
and therefore it 1cucwal would be very appropriate for us to raise the possibility ol aispanaig now, before the Warsaw arowe cece ostie future of their alliance. Cold
NATO was established to deal with the possibility of a soviet attack upon Western Europe, and this
has been the ass ulHoLIUH basis western military thinking since the COlO wal Decat though there is no factual basis for that asumption and while people continue to believe
t they Labour's non-nuclear policy.
NATO is dominated by the USA and is seen in Washington as a way of maintaining American hegemony in Europe, just as ner omer derence pacts
like SEATO and ANZUS - O I OUCE parts of the world.
NATO ministers have tended to take the collec-
El Salvador on film
Watching it drew many
soldiers spread-eagling
But, here, five miners months of struggle. In EI
experience of women in the miners' strike here, everyone takes part - the kids messages women run food distribution and fight with the guerrilla units.
By Paul Atkin
These people are fighting a society that only has room tor them silent, powerless and expendable units. Many of them have returned to El Salvador from refugee camps in Honduras. Only in the liberated zones can they survive, rebuild their lives and defend themselves.
The film does not glorify or prettify the war Sequences late in the film of guerrilla sortie int San Salvado CIWO
and shots Salvador army up to that point an unseen threat, picked up distance on crackling radios -aJn a :very
tive defence spending deci sions of member states out of the normal public ex-
a. fixed percentage at the expense of social pregramlead to phe joint financing process that could of the 'Star Wars' project where much of the produc- tion work will be done in *
America.
American waseg and nuclear weapons in Britain ae OCu e Bocha o. NATO, and as we are seeing in the case of the New Zealand government, refusal to allow US nuclear weapons in their ports has produced angry US response, inciuag threat of trade
ZUS.
Public opposition
the siting of US cruise missiles, as at the Greenham Common and Molesworth bases, nas edee government to use military ane olce Dowc CasE civil liberties; and much of the Civil Defence planning is, in reality, designed to deal with dissenters.
Bases
Despite the argument that the acceptance of US Dases. alu uc casicucc ul our own nuclear deterrent, gives Britain influence with the USA and a seat at the top table arms control talks, unis country Is ex cluded from all the superpower osama aes negotiations, and
IF GRENADA FALIS
HE
THEN SWITZERLAND FALL S.... AND
DISNEYLAND FALLS...
AND IF DISNEYLAND FALLS
THEN CHAD FALLS...
AND IF. vigorous counterattack
Bocca toughness that may be taut
DOILI But they show the struggle ahead will be long and hard.
It also shows why the Sne end. Aganst popular
end. Against popular mobilisation based popular needs, the oligar chy and the USA can only
ruthless killing machine half-drunk on its own violence/!
precious little influence on their outcome.
The reality of the so-called special relationship with the USA is that we are a client state, dependent the provision of US military technology and inteligence for the building and operation of our nuclear weapons, and alc ezaccica micial. accept their missiles her and furnish them with al the inteligence that we gather through .OWI security SCI VICCS the Special Branch and GCHQ.
Meanwhile the continual propaganda about the imminence of a Soviet military threat acts as means of identifying all domestic critics "traltors or 'subversives In addition, our member-
AND IF EL SALVADOR FALIS
(NEWFOUNDLAND FAL....
, IF NOWFOUNDLAND FALLS
AND IF SWITZERLAND FALLS THEN
The film's politics are
low key. It doesn't go into
the situation since the elec-
tion Duarte elaborate on the FMLN-FDR proposals for negotiation But it does ook at the position on th ground - gives a glimpse of the way the war is the population. As such it has played to the USA (even getting into the Variety ". list), ci
ship of NATO effectively freezes out any British foreign policy that might be taken to reduce tension in Europe
develop closer links with the USSR or Eastern Europe.
It is beginning : to be clear that, for all these reasons, all incoming Labour government would not be able to implement its existing policy without facing implacable US and NATO opposition, and thus those who have argued that there is an in herent contradiction between SOO UC present defence policies, and our commitment to remain in NATO, are correct.
At just over an hour long it's very useful for meetings and deserves widespread through the solidarity and labour movements.
• In the Name of the People opens Rio,
Dire on Sanda DES
Hire Cinem dr Wardour The Other Cinema, St, London WCI V3TH (01 734 8508/9).
Conclusion and recommendations
These issues should now be made the subject of a full, realistic : public and outside the party, sc ulal we cal Colc ol walc with a fresh policy state ment designed prepare the M NATO foI withdrawal from
Cruise
action now!
Molesworth, cruisewatch,
weekend of 16-17 March.
Saturday started off on • a high with some excellent speakers. But the ovation was reserved for women from Greenham and Italy.
Thirty workshops ran simultaneously, with viacos, Ivs, stalls, and ex hibitions. Everyone exchanged ideas and planned how cruise could be kicked out. The conference was very exciting. The only sour note came from James the lone national CND representative.
By Mary Kelly
He sugested that at Molesworth at Easter people should refrain from actions unti arter s.Jubi in case of trouble!
Sundav started with a vigil Cathedrat Manchester
by O lSCU Helen John show solidarity with the people of Belgium and the women from the Pacific who had
SO movingly of their nuclear problem
People had been asked to let the organisers know
they wanted from conference, and all these ideas were takes ILONC final workshops on Sunday afternoon
At the workshop I attended the general was that national CND must broaden their
Pocialist Action 5 April 1985
- to be put to contererce wila view to including it ir next election
manifesto.
Such statemen
would need to be entirel
positive and to spell ou
how we see Britain's
foreign and defence policy
role in pursuit of detente
and coopertion
United Nations, in the
whole of Europe, and in our work for peace.
development, democracy
ana Jusuce in tne rest un
the world
This would be a major
undertaking, •designed to
develop lc W. and
distinctive proach and it should be set Labour
In nana as soon as possi i ble. "THE WANDERING tribes came together' is how the Observer described the 500 CND activists from all strands of the peace movement - Greenham,
NVDA, Comiso, Holland, Demark - who took over Manchester Town Hall (with the council's blessing and 100 per cent cooperation) for a cruise conference on the
horizons to avoid a split
with the activists who con-
demned them for not com-
ing out on the side of the
miners
People felt CND must
spena more money on ac
tions as opposed to medl:
coverage. Also they were
unhappy at the way the
chair at national CND
conference had
manipulated the meeting
to stop a miner being in-
vited to speak.
The cruise conference
was not mandated to move
resolutions and demand
changes but sug.
gested that CND back the
women trom the Pacific in
their fight against nuclear
weapons and that a special
group be set up to deal
solely with cruise
Conference brought a
lot of fresh ideas and new
ways of campaigning
against cruise Credit rea
ly must go to Rusholme
and Longsight CND anc
Greenham Umbrella
Group for their magnifi-
cent organisation.
On a sad note: in the
early hours of Monday
morning my telephone tree broke the news that cruise
was out again. This shows
just how m canne con-
ference of cruise activists
Was -cccssaly and that
cruise must continue to be
the main tocic toi -oCald
movement activists in the
months to come
Page 10 scan of this page
10
Peru
THE DEFEAT of Bolivia's general strike, alongside the constitutional crisis triggered in Brazil by the Bear fatal iliness of president elect Tancredo Neves, shows a new and contradictory phase in the so called "democratisation' of Latin Cone'. The coming elections in Peru make the situation even more complicated.
Below we reprint an LUCAR, a leader of the Peruvian Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT).
Spanish weekly Combate.
HOW IS the Peruvian left approaching these general Glections on April 14th?
It is the first time in history that the left united.
There is a left alternative with a real chance of coming. government, United Left (IU). Then thère is APRA, effect is the bourgeoisie's
Opuon IL S almost certain that the se-
TOURU will find APRA facing IU.
l'here is al present tremendous process radicalization. 80 per cent
are controlled by IU.
Many people without par-
Y APRiA, entose rady
APRA, whose traditions they see bureaucratic, violent and coercive: in the end they
opt for IU.
Bat APRA presents itself
nationalist, democratic nad socialist. Lan
possibly ally with the richt?
APRA's aim is to win the dections at the tirst round This not the same ¡populist APRA of 30 years ago. Today it has lost the leadership of the trade union and popular movements. Its main enemy is IU, and that will force APRA to ally with the right.
You speak of the left in
seral, but what of the revolutionary left? How is
proaching the elec-
There are two basic quesTons tor the revolutionary left. The first is that there
battle for the left to
n hegemony in the coun-
Today this battle
ainst APRA. We are all
on
Vonetheless within LAC eft there is another battle over which current has the
One of the currents in the left sees the elections as
eno in themse ves
actieving that it would be possible to have a govern-
of the left which
Socialist Action 5 April 1985
Crisis in
America's 'Southern
interview with JORGE
It first appeared in the
would call on APRA to participate in the govern-
and HaKe historic compromise with the Armed Forces. A process radical i reform would be initiated, without Questi the limits bourgeois democracy. This current is in a majority on IU's execuuve personified by Barrantes. together WILl the Peruvian Communist
the Revolutionar Socialist Party and number of independents
The other pole is the revolutionary wolen understands the need to fight on the electoral tield in order to win hegemony in the country, but thinks would foolish to imagine we can
tions, or that the right and the Armed rorces would
des win the elections il we
win the elections.
We see the elections as a means of mobilizing people and carrying on the political struggle, but in the end we believe things will not be decided by VOLe. tion that ineveitably will be violent.
Are the revolutionary currents in IU united? What do they have in common?
There's the Unity of the Revolutionary Left (UNIR), of Maoist origins, which is one of the largest organisations in
There's the Mariateguista Unification
which war previously, Popular Democratic Unity, and for some years ran on roughly maoist lines Together with the PRT, and some other organisations, these groups all share some basic judgements: the country is heading for confrontation and inevitably this will be violent; that the fight now
expressed in electoral
The lessons Nicaraguan revolution, of the struggles against dic tatorships in the southern cone, ol sondamose, post
aoe es amnes questions.
exalnoie. seizure of power doesn't necessarily mean a single
parality m partiesolve e
plurality Dal Lics. want to discuss this, and
other things, Hilally together.
The experience the Mariateguista Unification Party (PUM) an teresting oue. this fit into what you're just been saying?
The founding of the PUM has been very important. Firstly because it has turned into a proper party with clear discipline. Secondly, it has allowed a series 01 vague and imprecise positions to be spelt out clear-
last programme the Revolutionary • Vanguard one of the components of the PUM,
Stalinist Was „DIUgramme. Now, eight years later, the PUM is a revolutionary organisation with extremely advanced pro-
DOsUOns. For example, the incorporation of theses on the par ty's democratic internal regime. Obiectivelv. this is
step forwards, even if thev still displav a lot of sectarianism towards ourselves.
The PUM still
set themselves as the leading
sollicWilai tradiction with their pro-
and lalliall Dositios. there still internal
al c struggles, but it is certainly a positive development.
lou say that violent con frontation inevitable. Yet in some areas of the country such confrontation already taking
What is your attitude towards Sendero LIMMOSO IN What's happening in Ayacucho, Huancavelica and Apurimac is what wil inevitably happen in rest of the country. SL has real roots in sectors of the
pe as leaders are real
leaders rea renners peasant movement, ind have beel
10 have led land seizures and
¡nal s one reason why SL has been able to
most extreme brutality.
But what your differences with Sendero Luminoso?
The difference is not that they are in favour of armed struggle and we are not. it is over wnetner luis Is tne right time to be launching ance actes die wacue the way they are carried
SL ONUL. places no value on the role
orcallisallulls whilst for the revolutionary currents this is fundamental. Wnat is more there problem of democracy. SL is a deepl a stalinist and intolerant
This, country with so many mass organisations, comes into contradiction with .our
calls for collious united front.
the Sharpville massacre twenty-five years before.
Earlier in the year, 18 pee police interner
police in the squatter
blacks is the government's
of maintaining
In less than seven months since the new constitution came into force, (hailed bi South Atrica's im-
forward!) more than people have been killed by the polic Some 600 vere killed in Soweto anc other townships in 1976.
Guardian stated: "There is nothing Virule unprecedented about Langa except for the macabre coincidence that twenty-frplace took the
anniversary
Sharpville. could
have happened at any time
Why has black South Africa exploded in a wave of unrest and protest? UnColony utte movement
endemic, réached boiling point because of the worsening
increased and rising cost of living.
The budget, which included an increase in the general sales tax and which followed sharp increases in the price of petrol, airline tarrifs, and
costs has conrising prices generally without a commensurate increase workers' incomes. As inemployent relief their black workers
Cape of storms -
South Africa
HARDLY a day passes now without reports of increased repression in South Africa as the government confronts the growing anger and militancy of the oppressed. The killing of 19 people at Uitenhage the liberation organisations maintain that the true figure is nearer 40 — only attracted universal attention because it took place on the anniversary of
and unbearable hardship.
By Charlie van
All outdoor meetings, sport gatherings allu bona gathering; are already panned. Now the banning has been extended to all indoor meetings dealing with boycotts of schools and universities. In the SoHevere Ciskei homeland a numE number of
South Africa Allied Workers Union have been arrested. The Ciskei is a commuter area for the industrial complex of the Eastern Cape which includes Uitenhage.
The government will not accept that the risings in une lowiisies the spontaneous outburst of a people who have taken ai can take, and desparately looking fol scapegoats antong leadership of the liberation movements. Neither the UDF nor the NF are strucEue avec colo Lo the kind of militancy now They are loose malcol. alliances of varied organisations united only by their opposition to apartheid.
Despite the arrests, the violence in the townships have not
township cils, who the people regard collaborators, are creasingly coming under attack A feature of the current unrest is that it is not confined to the townships
and squatter camos near the ,great metropolitan
occurring in little known townships the areas.
There can be no doubt that South Africa is approaching something like a pre-revolutionary situation. Quite certainly the
onger prepared to quiet! accept the rule of their op pressors. The ruling class is no longer confident that it can go on ruling in the old way.
That is why it has attempted to adapt to the new situation with 'reforms' only to find that these do not work because the oppressed . are unwilling to be fobbed off by these half-baked measures. so tne regime has to fall back on brute force despite the fact that this can only bring dismay to its imperialist allies, the United States and Western Europe, who fear for the safety of their in vestments.
But while the underly-
in caes blarth people is
black people economic there are alsc significant political factors at work. • A feature of the revolts have been the attacks on the collaborationist black councillors in the townships.
The imposition of undemocratic community
authorities is a cause of deep alle significant pointer to the growing political awalc ness of the masses. To this must be added the peren-
tion of the hated pass laws and the fieht equal education opportunities for Black scholars and students and the abolition of corporal punishment in the schools.
• International
Faced with this massive wave of black revolt, the apartheid knows only answer inCreasceedression. Ever before the Langa shootings, atter the suc cessful campaign to boycott the elections to the new constitution, 16 opponents of the government
of the Uniter Democratic Front (UDF) fron the black trade unions and the National Forum (NF) rested and face charges of high treason for which the maximum penalty is death.
In the wake of the Vitenhage massacre, there has been a wave of arrests Two hundred and thirty nine people, demonstrating against shootings, were arrested in Cape Town when they marched on parliament. Among •them were the church leaders Allan Boesak and Beyers Naude.
All public meetings
at home Cape and the vaa triangle Eastern
which includes Sharpville and Soweto has been months. All meetings of 29 anti-apartheid tions in these districts, in-
those held UDF, and AZAPO (Azania Peoples Organisation) are prohibited.
All this will be of no aval. In souln Alrica lo day the government is confronted not only by the traditional nationalist iberation movement but by the growing strength of the working class organis-
unions and closely integrated with the Coller These the forces which will bring down the apartheid regime and the capitalist system with which it is bound up.
Page 11 scan of this page
END LOW
PAY
Colman Fastners picket in Manchester
jobs attack
JUST THREE days after returning to work, the strikers at Colman Fasteners in Manchester face the prospect of a major redundancy. The Company has announced its intention of axing 65 of its employees including 51 of the 162 shop floor workers! If the Company is seeking to build on the 3-week strike over then it has certainly misjudged the mood of the worktorce and another controntation in the future seems certain. JON SILBERMAN, Convenor at the firm, explained to Socialist Action:
'The wage deal was only reluctantly accepted by the worklorce pushed the skilled rate up
£120.75p. £12-£15 behind the average for the al ca which was our target. But the return work In no way signalled that we had been defeated. On the contrary, we accepted the
deal the ware knowledge that we now have a new fight on our hands — to save our jobs.'
The considered stayilig
LABOUR'S NEC has confirmed the expulsion of two members of the Labour Party and the refusal to admit two new ap plicants to its Birmingham-Yardley constituency. A third member has also effectively been expelled, in that despite appealing against the refusal of the constituency to admit him he has never been interviewed.
The decision an ominous one for three reasons. First, the three members excluded from Were transfers from other branches. Their membership was in order.
FASTE 35L
Coleman fasteners now face
wages in order to push through the job cuts
AUEW
strike until the ment gave a commitment that there would be no enforced redundancies. "The will to fight on was there' Silberman says 'but UUl Executive Council member, Ken Cure, strongly advised against staying out on the basis that the jobs issue was a new one, and that we should go throught the 'recognised procedure'.
'In fact, there was strong feeling for staying out on the wages question too, but again Ken Cure advised against, saying
They have never been
disciplined. Rather the
been used to prevent
them joining the consti-
tuency in which they live
because the local officers
disapprove The NEC has de their
views.
facto endorsed this.
By Mick Archer
Second, it is generally believed that a regional Party supported them being accepted into membership. Normally such a recommendation would be endod mediation dorsed appeals committee and the Not on this occasion. When the recolamendation came to the NEC, Ken Cure of the AUEW
CHARLES HOUSE
No
EN D LOW
PAY
that in his view the ofter was the highest we'd get So we decided to recommend a return to work and seek a mandate for a fight against enforced job cuts.
the event, the mass meeting voted unanimously for immediate strike action in the event of any victimisation or compulsory redundancies, and the proceedings ended will chants of 'here we go, here we go!'
As the strike began to bite, so the strikers' confidence soared. At each mass meeting, the majority in favour of staying out increased, day, 21st March, despite threats of closure and legal action against the union,
management actually mobilised for the meeting, only seven votes were cast for going back.
Within of that Ken Cure had arranged a gle.
Yardley witch hunt
intervened to block their
He infered
aucculalce.
that fresh evidence had
light. This so-
Cute lu
called evidence has never
been presented the
members concerned. Nor
it seems has it ever been
presented to the NEC.
In fact it is clear that
Cure merely wanted
delay a decision until the
climate
favourable. The defeat
of the miners' strike has
parnas urgence of the
party's wing,
what Roy Hattersely
likes to call 'the real
Labour Party'.
The Yardley 5 are first
casualties. True to form
Neil Kinnock supported
the expulsions.
Third. reports sug-
gest only
evidence offered was the
meeting with the nationa engineering Federation over the heads of both the strikers and the local Cure plained to the shop stewards and to John Tocher, the local Divisional Organiser, that because the strike had been made official by Executive Council it was then under the control of EC
This view is certain to be hotly contested by the union locally generally in the run-up to the Union's Presidential election contest, in which John Tocher is the Broad Left candidate. In
the went ahead, excluded by the Company,
return to work was reach-
salutory lesson to
— one which they strikers
the next stage of the strug-
assertion that all four
is simply a lie, and show
amalgam the
struct.
Three of the five supAction, and have openly and sell
Action is not proscribed
stands for, rather
concerns the Yardley of-
ficers.
When interviewed in
ed were subjected
questions about
support for CND
struggle.
NEC's decision
therefore creates a new
situation where party ac-
person operation and via local agreements.
proposals are 'already
off jobs grade by grade and depot by depot. campaign has bron unda propaganda
ed about how
come and jobs have been
lost by the freight workers
who refused to move coal
during the miners
This lays the basis for get-
ting rid of freight guards
but they were already
under the BR Corporate
Plan.
In the rail industry the
unions set national policy
but the regions, districts,
and depots can reach so-
called local agreements.
"Ihis opens the door TOT national policies to be
eroded from the base, for
management to divide the
workforce and crush the collective strength of the union.
For example within the last few days a letter has been circulating from the area manager at Willesder within his authority. ASLEF driver
He makes the case that trains
cancelled al C
because of the shortage of
drivers and therefore it is necessary. for drivers to
work their rest days. It is national policy for ASLEF not to work rest days, for a vasely 01 reasons primarily health and safety.
Who wants to put their faith in a train driven by
seven nays a working
sevel davs
hours a day which is quite common in other grades?
But this manager points out that drivers on tivists can be thrown out for moving into an area where their views considered disruptive Kinnock and the so-called centre clearly approve of this.
All five comrades are known and respected
tivists. Two are members of the TGWU, two of the NUT, and one of the NGA.
It is in the interests of every party member that they take this issue up in their wards and constituencies, protest at this decision to the NEC.
• Further information and copies of all resolu tions or individual protests should be addressed to:
Acocks Greens Birmingham B27 6DS
Socialist Action 5 April 1985
Rail unions still
under attack
WHEN BRITISH RAIL announced this week that they were offering five per cent without productivity strings many railworkers felt a sense of relief that the threat of all out national strike had receded. But the issues remain the same. The five per cent offer is an insult to one of the lowest paid groups of workers in the country and job loss is still on the cards, both within the London Regional Transport authority and in the agreements already come to around one
BR management consider that its productivity
well down the road to agreement'. While the union negotiators are bound by Annual General Meeting not to discuss productivity the tactical approach of management is to pick
southern region do work rest days and its only the union leaders on his patch wno are blocklig lilis He explicitly invites individual ASLEF members to scab on their union by telling them contact him directly — 'after all its £40 a day extra and summer holidays are coming up..?
by Toni Gorton NUR Guard
It is important to note that their initial flush of 'victory over the miners' have climbed down from going all out to take on the next sizeable sector of industrial workers. This reflects the balance of forces in the rail industry as well as society as a
11 whole. There is a proven will to fight against Tory attacks. Given leadership. workers will defend their livelihoods and living stan Caes against onslaught of • government But the leadership o the rail unions are wobbl ing over the place Rúmour has it that Knapp/Buckton will settle for the 5% on offer and allow the productivity deals to be made by the back door The miners strike has shown how one union can't go it alone and neither can depots, branches or districts. The ped plans for railwavs its simply about them in a different way.
The death of Beecham a few days ago is a salutory reminder of the failure of the rail unions to figh governmen during '60s. This failure cost u 100,000 jobs, 2,000 route mile 900 freight depots and 700 stations Whatever else happens, the rail leaders have Cast substantial increase in basic wages which still has to be fought for.
Stop Press: this article was written before the five per cent was accepted.
Nottingham Socialist Action Day
School
Saturday 13 April
'After the strike.. the struggle
continues
10am to 6pm Queens Walk Community
Centre, The Meadows, Nottingham
Social and Disco 7pm till 11pm
The Third Socialist
Action Miners Solidarity Meeting
Saturday April 20
'Lessons of the Miners
Strike'
Snowdown Colliery Welfare Club (New
Club)
Ayelsham Kent
Workshops include Women's Liberation, Black Liberation, Ireland, the Young Socialists, the
Labour Party and the Miner's strike,
Internationalism and the Strike.
Registration will take place from 10am. First session
starts lam.
Transport: British Rail from Victoria to Ayelsham,
Kent Road by the A2 to Dover.
Coaches from London tel 01-254 Q128
Page 12 scan of this page
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← Socialist Action No. 95, 29 March 1985Socialist Action No. 97, 12 April 1985 →