Socialist Challenge No. 115, 27 September 1979
The scan: sc-n115-sep-27-1979.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
No. 115 27 September 1979 15p
Socialist Challenge
THEY LOST LABOUR THE ELECTION
YESTERDAY'S MEN
TIME FOR THEM TO GO
INSIDE: Robin Blackburn on Tony Ireland/Kampuchean Atrocities/Labour and
Benn/Zimbabwe Conference/Labour and Abortion Rights/Dylan's Obituary
Page 2 scan of this page
Wanted - Socialism not
OUR POLICIES
C'apitalien is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in In Hates not one огкег. hul of the capitalist class.
Sociali Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class
in apposition to class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should
Characitr grouping together militants holding a wide range of politicat views.
• To begin to fight for the
unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, Ihrough
application ol united front lactics, begin in be seen as an alternative thousands workers engaged in struggles.
such an organisation should be hased on the understanding that:
The struggle for seeks lo unite the fight of workers against the hasses with that of other oppressed layers ut sociely-- weren, black people. gays struggling for their liberation. This socialism can only he achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all neer*sar, mean: the power of the 2 bites nice demean Our socialisma will
I than what evists in Britain with full rights for political porties and currents that de not luke up arms against the socialist fare. The Stalinist models
'acialim in the dosk and Favern Lurope hate discredited secution in fit eres ot miliions of worker. threshon the world We are opposed to them and will after full support in all Those üghting for serialist democraes.
The interestsot workers and rapitalists are irreconcilahie an a worid scale. Capitalism lige only created warid TARTANT. it has created world politics. Thus we fight tor worhing class unity on an international scale. This unity will in the iong run he decisise in defeating both the imperialise regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latir America. Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal British trops from Ireland and leiting the Irish people determine their own tuture.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither 'turacommunist the pro-Moscon wings hare ans meaninglul lor «serthrew of the capitalist state. des resolutionars socialist parties art HELLA! than ever before. Conditions today
favourable than over the preceding three decades. But such
«'ал 0114 build rejerting sectarianism and seeing internal denneracy not as a luxury hut as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and
It you agret with these principles
activities hy Socialist Challenge supporiers in your area, fill in the form heloy and send if lo us.
interested mort intermation about dirties in my arca • I "onid lihe additional literature
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acialist Challenge 27 September 1979 Page 2
By Robin Blackburn
lull in the class struggle, disillusion deteat. happened. and
Public
Margaret
of
But all the government is in for a rough ride.
policies they represent.
within the Labour Party and control
government, and at the last election, indefinitely repeated.
decided and urgent fashion.
limits of the radicalism which we now see.
populist in character.
Tony • Benn's new Socialism, one cannot.
leadership.
Party's own functioning.
need to overhaul it is widely accepted even bourgeois circles.
Labour leadership to
and conservatism. nOr
the the British state.
business: are
hy
bound to be continued
in
populism
THE LEFT is confronting both an unpredictable and a hopeful situation. Labour's election defeat, revealing a loss of support in certain working class communities, could easily have led to a prolonged
with a background of In fact this has not
political debate may be still largely dominated by the monetarists and New Right.
Thatcher and Keith Joseph may still appear as the leaders with conviction and passion, while the Labour leaders stand for the status quo.
indications are that the , Thatcher
The beginnings of a fightback so soon after the election show that wide sections of the labour movement do not regard the defeat of Callaghan and Healey as a defeat for themselves. They have no confidence in these leaders and no belief in the
A further sign of this is the speed of the left in bringing up the question of democratic reform
over its manifesto. This is a very welcome development.
Unless the Parliamentary Labour Party is made both individually and collectively responsible to the Labour Party and the movement as a whole, disasters like those during the life of the last
will be Never before has the accountability of Labour MPs been raised in such a
However it is also necessary to question the
In ideological terms the key themes which now define. the pronouncements of the left are democratic or
If one scans the pages of the Labour press, from Labour Weekly to the New Statesman, if one considers the campaigns and propouncements.of prominent Labour supporters like Afthut Scargill or Edward Thompson, or if one studies the pages of
collection "Arguments for fail to be struck by dramatic, and welcome, resurgence of concern at the highly concentrated and secretive methods of rule embodied by the British capitalist state so often accepted, or even strengthened, by the Labour
This is allied to a willingness to challenge the undemocratic features of the Labour
Since we live in a country with the most archaic political system in the advanced capitalist world the
in
On paper the Labour Party is committed to abolition of the House of Lords — the failure of the
make anything of this commitment is further proof of their utter timidity
But it is not clear that the Labour left is really prepared to press home its democratic critique of
Let me mention a few obvious issues that would have to be taken up by any socialist, or indeed radical democrat, who meant
So long as there is a British army fighting a war in the North of Ireland the tendencies towards arbitrary and secretive state power, and towards more sophisticated systems of state repression, are
and intensified. Tony
Benn points-with alarm to these tendencies in Arguments for Socialism and yet, so far, he has said nothing about Ireland.
Similarly in the referendum on devolution a majority of the Scottish voters voted in favour even of the inadequate measures proposed by Callaghan and Foot. Can it be doubted that there would be an even larger majority for a radically democratic devolution proposal involving self-determination for the Scottish people?
Somehow Issue has been allowed to disappear from public discussion as if Labour's proposals were only a concession made to ward off thię Nationalist threat, which can be now forgotten: In fact'a really radical devolution would be an important componènt in any plan to challenge the power of the British state.
The political functions of the monarchy have been a taboo subject in British politics since the early Victorian epoch. Leon Trotsky warned that in any real crisis the British monarch would become the centre for extra-parliamentary forces of the ruling class. Who can doubt that he was right?
In Greece, in the 196Us, the Greek cousin of our own Queen engineered the destruction of the reformist Papandreou government and paved the way for the colonels' coup. In Australia in 1973 the Governor General, exercising powers derived from the monarch, dismissed the Labour government of Gough Whitlam, despite the fact that it retained a parliamentary majority.
Tony Benn has criticised the Prime Ministerial use of the royal prerogative but has drawn back from suggesting that this prerogative should simply . be annulled. Populist rhetoric on the inordinate expense of the monarchy is no substitute for an indictment of its arbitrary political power.
Other similar issues, which I cannot take up here, include the need to change the present highly undemocratic "first-past-the-post' allocating parliamentary representation, radical measures for democratising the media.
We live in an antiquated political system, in the most decrepit of the older capitalist powers, at a
have to
title, fails to produce. and confiscation extensive workers
servicing.
socialist Vil, ideologists of the Labour Party.
system of been achieved, and
¡ time of global capitalist crisis. Sócialists urgently
bring forward those Arguments for Socialism' which Tony Benn's book, despite its
Unless socialists are prepared to develop a detailed and comprehensive socialist programme the struggles against the Thatcher government could, at the decisive movement, run out of steam.
At the centre of such a programme would have to be uninhibited measures for actual expropriation
directed. at capital — with control throughout the economy. A socialist economic programme also has to establish the social priority of salvaging welfare services and reorganising them to be more responsive to the communities they should be
In both the private and public sector working
programme immensely challenging. Its broad lines can be based on socialist theory, but to convince large numbers we have to draw on the diverse experience and struggles of different sections of the labour movement.
It will also be necessary to look to those moyements that emerged out of the 1960s women's liberation, the ecological movement and so
A programme for socialism must embody a qualitative emancipation of working people. After the experience of the 1970s it is very unlikely that the notion of quantitative economic advance withir capitalism will be credible. Thus greater boldnes and imagination is needed than is seen among the
The priority today may be for the Labour Party to put its own house in order. It would also be good to see socialists outside the Labour Party more effectively organised. But very soon, and quite possibly before ideal organisational forms have
resistance the Thatcher government will need to be guided by much clearer and more audacious programmatic watchwords than those we are hearing from any section of the
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'We want justice .... wouldn't you if it was your brother?
THE steering committee of the
League met last Thursday to consider a number
of Jull Laull problems
people in this country.
ANL from the Friends of Blair Peach and the
Southall Campaign Committee.
called on the ANL to take up the plight of the
342 Southall defendents and the Special Patrol
Group cover-up in relation to the murder of
Blair Peach.
The steering
mously that a call should be sent out to all ANL
branches calling on them to organise pickets of
police stations on 10 October,
opening of the Blair Peach inquest at the
coroners' court in
London. sustained numerous injuries...
Huyton on 21 June.
Since that date,
Kelly's life.
stretching back for months.
This article is taken from the Liverpool Echo. By Anne Robinson
THE KELLY family are not the sort you would expect to be in OUCU conflict with the police.
None of them has ever
trouble, and Bobby, who is two years younger than Jimmy, has a daughter and son-in-law in the Merseyside police force. They are, neighbours in Huyton say, "respectable people'.
Jimmy Kelly was one of six brothers and two sisters. He lived with his
mother, and according to his sister-inlaw, Martha, his mum could not have had a better nurse.
He did the cooking, the washing, the housework, the shopping and when a
left her unable to walk he bought his own mattress down to the living room in case she needed him during the night.
Martha Kelly held the purse strings. Jimmy
security in and she would allow him a little each week for a drink and his tobacco. Often pocket money would be used to buy a present.
Joke
For days on end he would not venture out of
speak anyone. 'She used to joke, did his mother, that he was as much of a companion as
tailor's dummy,?
Lilly, his niece.
When he did go out for a drink he would make a night of it. He enjoyed a sing-song and would invariably be called upon to do a turn during the evening at the pub.
Not one member of his closely-knit family 121l remember him ever 'having words' with
confronting black
On the agenda was a joint appeal to the
The appeal
committee agreed unani-
the eve of the
Hammmersmith, West
How the police killed Jimmy Kelly
*...Immediately prior to his death, Mr Kelly had
I find his injuries consistent with a severe beating — pathologist's report on Jimmy Kelly, aged 53, who died in police custody in
This family have been battling to discover the facts about the last few hoars of Jimmy
An action committee has collected thousands of signatures to a petition calling for a public inquiry, and a dossier it is compiling details cases of police brutality
Jimmy Kelly.
anyone, let alone a fight.
And is the family's collective shock that has united them into the determined with which the police must now reckon. nicely furnished living room of Eddie his eldest brother, a factory become the nerve centre of their efforts. Several of the family were directly involved on the night Jimmy's death and in the subsequent events.
And altogether they sort their way through the legal jargon and official procedures InaT have become an important part of the case.
On the night he died, Jimmy had gone out to celebrate the homecoming of his 'kid' brother Billy, who is 39, from Australia.
Southall 342
support
The theme of the pickets will be: 'Stop the Cover-Up, End the Southall Show-Trials'. The ANL also agreed to organise meetings in several major cities on the Southall trials, in They had about eight pints each and a few tots of whisky at the Oak Tree. At the 'oi the Jimmy was chatting outside and Billy decided he would make the ten minute walk home on his own and leave his brother to follow.
It was the last time he saw him alive.
Billy, say other members of the : family, has been the most badly affected by Jimmy's death. He hes cancelled plans return to Australia:
'He feels he is partly responsible', says Martha, Eddie's wife. 'We do not think so, but the worry has turned his hair grey. I've
that happen overnight but it has with Allr Billy, and he can't sleep.' Tattoos
"I will wring the neck of
whoever is to blame for Jimmy, is all Billy
Make
The first news the
when a policeman called al
the home, at
1.45am, of
nephews in Cantril Farm
1lcy boys
their uncle had a series of
tattoos running up his
but without
giving any explanation.
Their address, it later
emerged, was found in &
diary Jimmy was carrying
at the time of his death. A
little while later, brother
Bobby. received a call
from his daughter who is a
policewoman.
heard
uncle's over the
father to
Whiston Hospital.
Bobby identified his
brother's body, but when
brother Eddie saW the
body later be was both
disturbed and unhappy
about the many marks on
"The following day
when the inquest was
adjourned, permission to
bury was given, but the
family decided otherwise.
Eddie sought help and a
second post-mortem
arranged.
don't know much
about these things,' says
Eddie, 'but I thought myself once he is six feet
ANL calls fornational
national character.
transmitted
order to aid the defence campaign and give it a | Monday's Guardian have already given the under there is no way I can cause a fuss.'
He was right. It needs an order from the Home Secretary to exhume body and the delay obtaining this could well have meant the state decomposition would hinder any examination.
'I got a solicitor, says Eddie, 'but first of all he told me he wanted £300 in advance and then when I said he could have it, told me to take the case elsewhere.' Eddie did and the second post-mortem, paid for by the family, was carried out.
When the Kelly family received the dramatic findings of the pathologist's report on September, they stood by their agreement to a police
The Open Door programme on Southall,
on BBC-2 last weekend repeated tonight, and Tariq All's article in last Wreaths are carried on the march organised by the Jimmy Kelly Action Committee in Huyton
request keep contents secret until they had had a meeting with the West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable David in Getty, who has been called in to investigate allega01 tions of police brutality in Huyton.
Eddie Kelly assumed they would have opportunity to ask questions of Getty and perhaps see a report of the post morter, carried out by the
'But Mr Getty would see our Billy,'
Eddie. 'He wouldn't let us ask him any questions, and he wouldn't agree that if we showed our report he would show us his. He just wanted our report and was going to give nothing return.
campaign SULLIC
The attendance at
Workers
ANL conference.
would participate in co-ordinating committee to
and
weight into the campaign.
'He treated as criminals be discused the court. matter • to ens as and decided contents to the press didn't show it to him.'
The report, by Dr John Torry, says that Jimmy Kelly had injuries consist. ent with a severe beating; that he died of acute heart failure and that immediately prior to his death had sustained numers minor injuries consisten with punches applied by the knees, aad a DUeI jaw; suffered considerably more injury than could be expected of a man who resisted arrest.
Dr Torry added that he had come across considerable obstruction by
Socialist Challenge
publicity. The possible defence needs to be built, preferably by ANL meetings sponsored by trades councils and other bodies of the labour movement.
the ANL committee by the central leaders of the three
Associations reflected the importance of the decisions taken by the last
It was agreed that the Anti-Nazi League
setting Bright the Tory broad
government's new proposals on immigration and the impending Nationality Act.
The ANL, it was decided, would support any national mobilisation planned against these laws in the late autumn, and throw its entire
like | police before carry his postmortem found uncooperative. the We
of tha btoms
powerf SArS E Jimmy justice money it c
the was you
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Fighting the Tory spending West London Assembly
ENDA DONELLY, councillor: 'As a member of the Area Health Authority I feel I'm in
funny position opposing
vote against cuts. More important
that can give information I get to the health unions, and be prepared to speak on their platforms when they ask me. They shouldn't be running their campaign to pressure me, should be using my position to boost their campaign.
THE HEALTH service in
Islington and Camden is to be slashed by $4/million.
Previously the Area
Health Authority had been divided whether
implement these cuts, but
now the chairperson, who
lives miles away
Berkshire, has used casting vote in favour. There is however considerable trade union opposit-
speaks out
SONIA MARTYNIAK, Education student:
the Tory Council.'
Labour
the
the ber 1979 Page 4
them.
Further "They services saying there's not enough money, yet looking through the civic budget we find that they are spending £10.000 on maintenance for the Mayor's Rolls Royce -which illustrates the priorities of
about Well, Mr Thompson, you can either die, or have private treatment
-DO YOU REMEMBER what happened at Hounslow Hospital? That was where health officials supported by police, carried out a bed-time raid in order - to transfer patients to another hospital. Hounslow Hospital was condemned to _ closure, and hospital staff were conducting a work-in to stop it happening.
Today many of these staff are preparing to face the Tory's cuts and • closures. This time however they want to make sure they will not be fighting Y _alone. This time they want to see that the labour movement is fighting with
So along with other workers in Hounslow, Hammersmith and Ealing, they booked Hammersmith Town Hall. They distributed thousands of copies. And last Saturday they invited trade unionists, campaign activists, and anyone else opposed to cuts in health care to a 'West
London Assembly Against Cuts'. Here are some of the things they had to say.
ANDY LILLY, AUEW Southall: 'When Callaghan and his ilk talk Thatchers' democratic mandate I think: well I didn't vote for these cuts and neither did anyone else'.
produced a cuts bulletin and
the Area
choose to
be
• does not make
have to close scrapped.
these attacks, today? them 10
to the AHA.
are supposed to
South Wales
By Paul Highfield
Wales
service from Cardiff.
The rail closures.
The
been met
involvement notably the miners.
The county
budget at all.
CARL BRECKER, Chairperson of
Joint Union Committee,
speaking from the platform:
LEON AUGUST & the Area
Health Authority took deci
sions which changed the nature of
that body. From the moment it passed
those cuts it ceased to be a body that
had the job of providing health care,
preventative and curative, to all the
people of the area. It became what
call Ares Health
Asset-stripping institution.
They voted to immediately cut fl
million, and to have at their October 4
meeting further detailed proposals on
how the total f4½ million cuts could
implemented by 1981. These
present cuts are due to the system of
cash limits, whereby the Government
available funds
compensate for inflation, wage rises,
rising costs of supplies ete
The next squeeze will be in the
annual Whitepaper on Government
spending next April... if you heard
what they said at the association of
county councils nobody will be. in
doubt that there is worse to come.
The AHA are aware of this. They
did a study of the cuts that would have
to be made to meet the anticipated
reductions in spending, and found
that every single institution in the area
save the four main hospitals would
— that's 17 hospitals,
health clinics and so on.
What is more they could only do
this if two further conditions were
met. First that the present regulations
regarding redundancy payments and
procedure were scrapped, and second
if the consultative procedure with
Community Health Councils wers
There has already been an outcry
from the doctors in opposition te
but where are the health unions invited come and explain the
consequences of these cuts to the
public but the maximum of medical
opposition has been polite messages
On the AHA are councillors who De accountable to
those who vote them into office. We
OPPOSITION TO the cuts in South
mounting, but remains fragmented. The Rhondda branch of the NUR led the way when they refused to implement a cut in the Valley's rail
drivers refused to terminate the trains, instead driving them to their normal destinations with the aid of the signal operators. Wher British Rail suspended all the drivers; the Rhondda branch went on strike, forcing British Rail to climb down
In the coal industry the NCB is blackmailing the NUM, by saying that they won't proceed with a £140 million investment unless the miners accept pit
second attempt of South Glamorgan Area Health Authority to close the only orthopaedic hospital in Wales, the Rhydlafar in Cardiff, has
with demonstrations and pickets which have won the active
other workers
But the public sector unions have yet to thrown their full weight into the fight, and neither has the Wales TUC, despite its paper opposition to cuts.
council in MidGlamorgan, with Labour, Communist and Plaid members, has declared that for 1979-80 it will refuse to cut its
It s time all these different strands of resistance are united against the Tories.
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CL
bave to make sure we mount a
campaign to force local councillors
and MP's to make a stand and vote
against the cuts.
Oue thing bas however
clear to
soing to
Wher
gOVETI
tecth there were few
Ral
By P.M. Grant, ASLEE Paddington
IN THE September issee of the British Railways Board's public relations magazine 'Railnews', the B.R.B. gave vent to their unhappiness about the lack of progress with the unions over productivity, saying that they had paid out their pittance of a wage rise but had not got the productiyity they had demanded in
Now a confidential report, revealed by the 'Militant' paper, which is circulating the boardrooms of the B.K.B. and the Department of Transport, shows what the
The "Rail Business Review' proposes that a
of the general randowu rail network is the order of the day; that 35,000 jobs go, and that 40 lines are to be axed. The locomotive fleet, already depleted by the age of many of the locos. are to be cut from 2,259 to 1,647; marshelling yards from 181 to 49; and freight 135,000 to 41,000.
is not just BR who will suffer from these The proposed line closures will
less passenger traffic. The B.R.R.
its
their
When Are we
aiming to cut the local trains, especially in country gregs: promising to supplement them with a bus service, that would also soon disappear leaving whole
without public transport.
The Tory cash limits will mean increased fares, as even fares at the present high level only account for 60 per cent the operating costs, the теmaining 40 per cent being covered by coveramed
The B.R.B. have been told that the
VICTICLI £483m subsidy will have to remain constant from 1981 -1989. The B.R:B. estimate
that even if they manage to push through their proposals they will still need a
grant of £633m by 1989.
The only way the service could break even is by, as the B.R.B. put tougher real fares policy.
Civi Service
By Sue Owen, CPSA
Department of Employ-
Section Hxecutive Committee. (In personal
capacity).
UNEMPLOYED readers
will know that claimantsare being asked to
solidarity. Health workers cannot stop the cuts on tbeir om. They need the help of the mighty force of the labour movement.
hospitals COme for march down the High St, or building a movement that can force the AHA to stop.
fortnightly instead of weekly, and will be paid fortnightly as from next week. What they may not know is that the aim of the measure is not to aid them.
For claimants the resulting staff cuts of 17 per cent will mean longer queues, and greater difficulties making benefit out ill the next payment. For us it means less jobs and more work for those remaining.
Fortnightly attendance and payment is not new -nave known ll was coming for two years. Last year action was limited to token strikes by our national mittee, and this year the section executive - all of them elected on a Broad Lẹit "ticket' tially rejected even the limited action the NEC were offering.
Resistance to fortnightly signing and pay ment will now be difficult though claimants still have the right to choose to SIgn weekly. But importantly we have learn in the CPSA, and the public sector as a whole, that the cuts in whatever form are a problem for us all, and wal snorter dours without loss in pay can provide the basis for an effective and united fight to stop the massive cuts in jobs.
Nottingham By Eric Laverick, NUPE Nottingham.
THE NOTTINGHAM County Council has decided on 300 seperate items to be cut. In health alone this involves: phase 2 A lie new University Hospital will not be built till 1981/2, and even then its not assured, resulting in 1091 beds, operating theatres and an outpatient department being indefinately delayed; new ward block at Nottingham City hospital is to be delayed two years; increase in much needed facilities for the elderly.
Trent Regional Health Authority threaten that 'some very painful decisions will have to be taken'. They might have added 'fatal'.
In education things are no better. The jobs to go are 136 nursery posts,
203 prosts 18 posts
Te c
Beneat
3225*
Cuts round-up
ies has sparked off united resistance by parents and staff. 100 mothers and children occupied. the gallery at a Spcial Services Committee meeting on September 13.: After meeting council representatives angry mothers blöcked the traffic on Trent Bridge. Un September 22 nursery nurses in the social
SONICA branch of NUPE marched through Nottingham city supported by parents to demand that there are no closures or jobs lost.
Lothian By George Kerevan
LOTHIAN REGIONAL Councit, which is Labour controlled, has so far refused to implement any Tory Instead, the contingency fund has been used to pay recent wage increases. Lothian has also announced there will be no cuts or rates increases next year.
Edinburgh Trades
has called
dionersber industrial actios cuts. Sach actice will be DECISIT! keep Labour party promises!
Br Rich Patse
HEALTH WORKER Janet
but friend. they
and Janet is
the commissioners
when the
beds in other hospitals.
5 helping on other Janet points out.
and the commissioners
closures will be complete. 'Now,
week. This week hospital for a rally.
first to go plan a work-in
BUILDING WORKERS and fellow trade
over 2 months.
tender for these jobs.
the Trades Council stepped in.
have to be taken etsen here against the trio cor Croudlace and Turrifis. The GaMWU have instructions for their c That is the sort of soldariy Tories and their:
Octaba 10d as lie Crouda ce Sa London S8T. The merest sir i
board Trada Conci i
Secret plans
revealed in
Lambeth
received a letter from a frien week. She does not know their name
are, because enclosed in the letter were secret plans for health cuts in South-east London
secretary of the campaign set up to fight them.
The plans had been drawn up by
sent in to Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham
Area Health Authority refused to implement cuts. Amongst other things they mean the closure of 60 acute beds at Guy's hospital, 71 acute beds at King's hospital, and 36
'Out of the seven members of the Area Health Authority who voted for cuts, two are now commissioners and
sub-committees, 'At first everyone was shocked at the size of the cuts,
speed at which the are moving. We certainly have to act now or the
others. however, things are starting to move, particularly among hospital workers. In St Guys health district a joint stewards committee met for the first time in years last
we are having a meeting for all stewards in the area -we expect two to three hundred there.'
The campaign against health cuts is growing, and their next step is a demonstration on September 29. It will assemble at Ladywell fields in Lewisham and march to St Johns
• St Johns hospital is due țo close in early October - the
and the workers there
I think we have to build up an awareness that these cuts mean more private health care,' says Janet. . 'Our given
opposed to private medicine because it means good care
Socialist Challenge 27
turned out last week for a mass picket of Cr building site in Wandsworth. The Trades Council Direct Works Joint Stewards Committee have organising daily picketing of two sites in Wands arch for
As part of their attempt to cut the Direct Works, Tory council refused to allow their own labour fance s
When UCATT, the bui workers union, picketed the two sites in proses council took out a High Court injunction agaist Regional Organiser, Lou Lewis. It was at this pora
At the mass picket T&GWU Regional Secretary P Kavanagh pledged that members of his union monk cross the picket line. If necessary, he said, action
bers to bo. for the wealthy and ill health fo "One suggested use for the b Lewisham Hospital beds cha close is that they are used as p , This is the distria ment's idea to "save mone very pleased that the genera of the electricians' union, covers the electricians who the hospitals, have come happie's plans for beach in
as part of wage deals." *THE Labour group on l Council came under fire when a l on 17 September, and protes acuncillor Ted Knight to propo activists local wards, motion reversing the cuts. He is calling for council employee day off demonstration against the cats is on 7 November.
Page 6 scan of this page
Going all out for effective
Engineers Charter
action a
Pat Hickey, deputy steward, TGWU, BL SD1 AS THE Engineering Federation responded to the unions' pleas for settlement engineering strike by selective lock-outs, the Manchester last weekend to plan its response.
Ninety militants from most parts of the country attended. As might be expected, the meeting was entirely in favour of all-out action to win the daim.
There was much criticism of the Broad Left in the refusal to make any serious effort to mobilise the membership behind the daim.
(ENGINEERS
HARTER
Sant do a for 7,500 workers.
Socialisi Challenge 27 September 1979 Page 6
cynica electoral
election next year. senior
Employers'
Charter thie beginning Shipbuilding Engineers in lodged the claim, ErDU the demand
holidays.
The claim has
was complete unions.
AUEW for its militancy
OCCUPY!
to fight the lock-outs
BLACKPOOL NOCK
ELALDEAL
MARTER
CHARTER
Lickspittlindouble
dealinstomach
turnindirtycheatin
backstabbinboot
lickinvote
reversin
Never fiddin...
Copies of Engineer's Charter from: PO Box 82, London E2 A QUARTER of the entire population of Corby marched on the talks that took place last Thursday on the future of the town's steel works. 'If this doesn't strengthen the hands of our negotiatiors, I don't know what will, ' said Doug Cameron of the AUEW district committee. The British Steel Corporation's plan is to axe the Corby plant and sack
The Communist Party-dominated Broad Left was accused of engaging
putting Duffy on the spot so as to reap the benefit when he comes up for
From the local reports which were given, it was clear that the Broad Left in the districts was doing no more than the leadership at national level.
editor Jack Robertson pointed out that the Confederation of
and Engineering Unions, the joint union body that has
was prepared to for sherter working week in return for extra
now been So watered down that it was clear that the
determined down from the
For the bosses, Robertson argued, the aim is to smash the developing
the shopfloor in preparation for the round of domestic
winter, 00
CHARTER
SCANLON &
CHAPPLE IN
SECRET MERGER
PLOT negotiations which will take place this
and. for offensive speed-up and redundancies.
Engineers Charter, launched by the Socialist Workers Party, has been
only current in the organising on a consistent basis for an all-out strike. Weekly broadsheets are
being produced, and Socialist Challenge supporters should ensure their widest possible distribution.
The broadsheets, while strong on militancy and full of good agitational information, have not been enough on how to organise and win the claim.
Calling for all-out action córrect, but this has to be fought for not just on the picket lines but also in the union's official structures.
Charter, supportert arawa. fighting for sewa meetings of the Confed, and these Birmingham
By Steve Griffiths, AUEW
branch secretary, Rover
Solihull
THE TWO-day strikes
have received the support
of the vast majority
plants Birmingham.
Even in BL, despite the
announcement of redun-
dancies and planned
closure, the strike is solid
the Castle Brom-
wich BL body plant, where
7,500 workers are threat-
ened with redundancy,
some unions have been
attempting to break the
strike. They are trying to
prove to Edwardes that
they are 'good girls and
boys', so that some jobs
might be saved.
But the majority of
workers at the plant are
staying out on the strike
days.
The local Tory paper,
the Evening Mail, has been
attempting to whip up a
back-to-work movement
The SUCCESS,
handful of supporters
which the scabs initially
had has dwindled away.
At Longbridge and Lucas
Great King Street, where
the Mail concentrated its
attention, the strike is a
hundred per cent.
The new hard line from
the EEF will undoubtedly
see a number of lockouts
begin after the September
holiday, which has closed
most of the engineering
industry Birmingham
CARTE
meetings must organise for all-out action against the selective lock-outs.
The fight to membership is the key to success, but Confed leadership has to industry forced to support these actions and
the Broad committee rooms.
move, but neither should we leave them to hide away until it's all over, and then emerge and take up where they left off. sharp The fight with the bureaucrats,
both left and right, is an essential part of the struggle.
Socialist Challenge should give full support to the existing Charter groups and help to establish
Beeke ene in the piss on the
official structures.
OSTRIKE NEWS
for a week.
It is expected that BL will follow Rolls Royce in imposing Militants will be preparing for occupations, flying pickets, and for all-out strike in the district in response to the employers' action. Bristol
By Mike Eaude Bristol Trades Council
ROLLS ROYCE is being used as the spearhead of the engineering employers' offensive. Management
announced that preferred to close its factories rather than run on three-fifths production.
response, the
hourly-paid workforce at Rolls Royce in Bristol turned up to defy the lock-out on Wednesday of last week. The gates were locked, since management preferred to lay-off all the
clerical and admin workers in addition, rather than risk a work-in.
At a mass meeting held
outside the gates. John
Blackley, AUEW convenor at the • plant, and
chairperson of the nation-
Aerospace Liasion
Committee, called for la
short, sharp national
strike' to win the claim
The engineering strike
is solid throughout Avon.
Attempts by local media to
the wort The
mobilise the
The allerwards Left dragged from
We do not wait for these people to
tien
"tep
Helsitte supporters I whip up opposition have failed to produce than two enthusiasts, whose counter-demo was a total failure.
But there is по picketing at Rolls Royce and attempt by the AUEW to wot kers families, nor the local labour movement.
Leicester
Ву Кау Carter, AUEW member, Leicester
WITH only one or two
exceptions, the engineering strike Leicester is solid. There have been reports of some scabbing, but this has been taken care "of by the pickets
The local paper has
been forced to search outside the city for its
glowing reports of strike
breaking omits
mention the solidarity and strength of the Leicester strikers.
Branches and shop
stewards have been pushing for all-out action from
the outset of the strike. A
motion calling for a mass
meeting was squashed by
the district leadership,
which confines its action
10 calling infrequent shop
stewards' meetings.
Our Engineers Charter
group has organised flying
pickets, and has attracted
a few members of picket
THi. Irec-neck old serike at British Leyland's SI plantat Rover Solihul! contined its his holiday week witt
• commates continuing to sispies the weakren
ihe memhership last wriles Pat Hickes.
The committee is now recommridaaccentance of acompany olici
merely dresses manage
inutuality and sually ciatines in the collective agreement. which managemen is challenging, were artectisely discarded and the procedures tor reaching aprectient on work standards will ne jonger apply
Tantead the company's higures on cherumberot workers on the job and inchested and agreement reaches hard
Keistance forlsdeals beginning
derclop. meeting aner the holiday. Gether, will base do decide whether
the works The jout will the
mccring reces. emo it will be a major
Ethic
tear Blast ollar, stratout car
lines to meetings, to get the information and support that the leadership should be providing.
Some firms have threatened redundancies and lock-outs, and many have organised ballots [not secret].
At Rolly Royce Montsorrel, one lone picket stopped two hundred workers from returning, after the local shop stewards voted not to have pickets.
Coalville THE AUEW strikers at T Grieves Coalville Leicestershire are now entering their ninth week of all-out action. Despite lack of support from their district COLLELCC the strike is completely solid, with 24hour picketing.
Coalvilles IS a small engineering firm, , with 400 workers, ove half of whom are women. The strike came after a claim for a 15 per cent wage rise was met with a 5 per cent offer. This has since been increased to 12.5 per cent, but with productivity and bonus strings attached.
Although part of the Bentley group, in which workers enjoy the benefit ot sickness schemes, overalls, and the like, Coalville workers are still fighting for these rights.
These workers are isolated in a small county community, with support from their city leadership. They need donations and messages of support, c/o K. Carter, 22 Berners St. Leicester
Page 7 scan of this page
John Corries modern witches
By Valerie Coultas IN 14th CENTURY England women who performed abortions were burnt at the stake as witches. century Britain, Tory MP John Corrie is more civilised — brand 'criminals' perform abortions Corrie doesn't approve. his anti-abortion Bill aims to do, that's why it has to be fought.
The same fight has been going on for hundreds of years. The first state legislation came 1801 abortion was made offence. Another law, passed in 1861, went further, laying down a sentence of life imprisonment for attempting
to procure 'unlawfully'.
At the same time these all-male parliaments were passing such laws the birth control
ULLY were dostenniod, drawal, or such lovely practices as injections of a mixture of alum and water.
Contraception was feared by both moralists and sections of the labour movement. The latter associated birth
Labour MPs who back Corrie
LABS
individual choice of the woman concerned.
that right — not to vote to further restrict it.
alternative and restrictive policy on abortion?
Parliament to see conference policy is respected.
change their job:
Eccles;
Michael Cocks, Bristol South
South East;
olallicy conch, lecas
Lawrence cunnie, Leign,
wenzl Davies. Lianell,
James Demosev. Coatbridge and Airdrie:
Geonitey Dickens. muddersner.
Don baxon. Jarrowi
Duty. Altercutte kirkoale.
Alexander cacle. Nato alan,
Ken casinam. sackier
Tom Cis wrexnam
Michael English. Nottingham West:
Alan MIsh.
James Hamlion. Bornwell
Wyatter Hatricon. Wakene di
N. Hogg. Dunbartonshire;
Mark Hughes, Durham;
Today, in 20th poor should
The only wants to doctors who Place and Richard Carlile. which Mr That's what methods occurred in
diaphragm.
when obtain. Evidence. at statutory
reached epidemic proportions.
Obscene
abortion I nose who something about
methods When, 1887 with-
ception she publishing.
being an •OUL Annie
No conscience cop-out
ABORTION
IMPRIGH
WHEN THE Corrie Bill to further restrict abortion rights received its second reading in Parliament, 55 Labour MPs voted for it.
That Labour MPs should care so little for women's rights is a scandal, but insult is added to injury when you consider that the Labour conference policy is in support of increased abortion rights.
How is this justified? Each MP should be allowed to decide •
Abortion certainly is a matter of individual conscience, or put less emotively, individual choice. But not the individual choice of MPs — the
The job of the Labour Party in Parliament is to vote to give women
As Jo Richardson pro-abortion Labour MP says:
*...those who used the conscience excuse simply want to impose an
Not surprisingly the issue is coming up at this year's Labour Party conference. An amendment to the main moțion, from Lambeth Labour Party, condemns the 55 MPs who supported Corrie and supports the demonstration called by the TUC for 28 October. Another from: Swindon goes to the heart of the matter and calls for a three line whip in
The National Abortion Campaign will be lobbying to see that these
- but it seems to be a trend that resolutions aimed at increasing the democracy of the Labour Party are blocked before coming.
The Labour Abortion Rights Campaign will be fighting at the Labour Party conference, but the job of bringing these Labour renegades to heel belongs to us all. Here is a list of the guilty — see they change their vote or
Ted Leadbetter, Hartlepool; Dickson Mabon, Cireenock and Port Glasgow; rrank mechole, cucens rark:
Michae Mcgulre, inte uteror Mackenze Kumeroeni Maclellan. Caithness and Sutherland:
Marshall. Shettlestone:
Michae ariln Springburn; Robert Mellish. Southwark and Bermondsey; Alfred Morris, Wythenshawe; John Morris Michael O'Halloran, Islington North; Robert Parry T. Pendry Gwilym Roberts, Cannock E. Rowlands, Merthyr Tydfil:
Neville cande sor Barry Sheerman, Huddersfield East; Tom Tin Feude RedeSpring:
Sunderland North; Aan Willar Sir Harold. Wilson, Huyton.
control with reactionaries who argued that in order to control the population and avoid famine and poverty the
exercise 'moral restraint'. The progressive arguments in favour of contraception were left to radicals like John Stuart Mili, Francis
A breakthrough in birth control
1ooz wnen a Dutch doctor invented the Mensinga
But for working class women the diaphragm was difficult to
the time from class. doctors and women's organisations showed that back street abortions had
sought it received the unwelcome attentions of the state.
Annie Besant. socialist, produced a cheap pamphlet containing information about contra- selves'.
was charged with 'obscene literature'. She had her child taken away from her for
'unfit' parent.
Besant's pamphlet control, utilise paper.
Chorus
West;
contained the same information that was available for a few shillings in another publication. Annie Besant's pamphlet cost sixpence — her 'crime'
• that she sought to spread the information to the working class.
By the First World War the sheath was commonly, if furtively on sale. Dr Marie Stopes was pioneering birth control clinics to provide reliable and well-fitted contraceptives. A study in 1927 showed that 90 per cent of the clients at her clinic were working
By then, certain labour leaders were more receptive to birth control arguments. Ben Tillet and John Burns supported Marie Stopes' efforts as did a representative from Huddersfield Trades Council who declared, 'Aye! The time's gone when we'll breed soldiers to be shot for a shilling manufacturers and starve Maternity
But it was left themselves to win practical support
governments and authorities. When, in 1923, the
ABORTION The struggle in the Labour Movemen!
Minister of Health refused permission for maternity centres to give advice on birth control the ban was taken up at
Labour Party's women's conference, which passed a resolution by 1,000 to eight in protest.
It was not until 1926 that the Labour Pary conference passed by a narrow majority a similar resolution and even that decision was reversed the following year. occurred despite an appeal from a woman delegate that, 'it is four times as dangerous for a woman to bear a child as it is to go down a mine.
In 1930 the Ministry of Health finally gave way and lifted the ban on maternity centres advising on birth
although some authorities had taken up this option as late as the 1960s
By then the debate had began to
There will be no shertage of slogans to
marchers' lungs on anti-Corrie demo next month, but songs are another matter.
Readers have been invited to fill that gap. This contribution, to the tune of Tom Dooley, is written by CLAIRE WEINGARTEN. We hope it will inspire others to put verses to
John Corrie's against abortion,
He thinks women ought to cope" John Corrie 's in favour of hanging -
Let's give Corrie's Bill the rop!
Hang down your head John Corrie,
Hang down your head and cry. Hang down your head John Corrie,
Your Bill is going to die.
them-
women
local
switch to abortion, Parliament of 1929 had declared legal same flaw fixed the visatsty eithe same law fixed foetus at 28 weeks. The legal restriction on abortion coupled with an increasing demand meant that by 1939 up to 150,000 abortions were illegally.
Sutiering
These figures were produced by the Birkett committee which also pointed to the suffering caused by back-street proper abortions because of the limitations
still imposed by the law.
Legal changes recommended by This this committee were shelved with the
advent of war. Attempts for reform were defeated in 1953, 1961, 1965 and 1966.
Finally David Steel introduced the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill which became the 1967 Abortion Act. But Steel stressed the limits of the local changes saying, 'we want to stamp out
back-street abortions but it is not the intention... to leave a wide door oper for abortion on demand.'
Give Corrie's Bill the rope
Some of us are mothers, the And some of us are wives,
But all of us are women, And we will control our lives.
We will have the say-so, We will have the voice, Not the state, not the church, not doctors, But women must have the choice.
We will not be bamboozled, We will not be beguiled, Every mother mother, Every child a wanted child.
We will not be bond-slaves, And we will not be toys, And we will not be brood-mares, Women must have the choice.
which an Act of
counter-attack restrictive viability of the James
But
from women
liberation being performed
mobilisations
Issue
taken
by the Campaign.
MP.
The Festival for a
Estate,
LEWISHAM Monday
GLASGOW TION
must he a willing JOURNALISTS
CORRIE Equality Street holding
7.30pm.
The ruling class soon began the
with attempts at legislation through the White Bill (1975) and the William Benyon Bill (1977).
underestimated the fighting power of the women's
movement that had emerged in the late 1960s. The mass
women defeated these Bills and forced the trade unions to at last see that abortion was a class
— that all women, not just the rich should have access to abortion and the right to control their lives.
*Many of the details in this article
from 'Abortion: The struggle in the Labour Movement'
excellent pamphlet just published
• Labour Abortion Rights Contributors include Mary Donnelly, Ann Kingsbury, Dị Berry Beaumont, and Jo Richardson
pamphlet, price 40p, available from The Other Bookshop 328 Upper St, London N1. Add 10p i ordering by mail.
Abortion events LEWISHAM CAC is holding
Woman's Right 1o Choose on Saturday 29 September at Woodpecker Centre, Milton Court
Deptford. From 2pm onwards. Social with Au Pairs, South Circular at St Marks Centre, Edward Street, Deptford. 8-12.30am.
CAC meets every 7.30pm, Law Centre, Deptford High Street.
NATIONAL ABORCAMPAIGN meets every Monday at 7.30pm at the Women's Centre, 57 Miller Street, Glasgow.
AGAINST along with the NUJ Working Party and Fleet Women's Voice are jointly . public meeting on Wednesday 10 October in St. Brides Small Hall, Bride Lane, EC4. at
Socialist Challenge 27 September 1979 Past?
Page 8 scan of this page
LABOUR'S LEFT LOOKS AT WHY WRONG DIAGNOSIS A skilled workers backing the Tories as Labour. reactionary and anti-wo final episode of a lengthy agony in which they should be the occasion f per cent of trade unionists voted for the mass elected on the most radical Labour manifesto in important collection o party of the working class, with almost as many recent history pursue policies of a blatantly
THE LAST election was IMAGINE a restaurant. One of those slightly, ora-Tasmonca, establishments where amd middle class families and solitary diners can all feel equally at home. Individual tables; clean, white linen; well-polished cutlery.
The menu is neatly printed and offers a wide range of tempting fare. But once the customers have made up their minds and all the orders are in, the atmosphere suddenly changes.
The tablecloths are whisked away filled with fish-head stew are served
The courteous staff have been replaced by a team of bouncers who silence any cries of outrage and make sure that no one tries without paying the bill (plus VAT and service charge).
Not a recipe for good business, you might think. But ongest-running establishment record. Of course, like all great trade secrets, its formula for simple: it has managed to convince its clientele that it's the only joint in town. Remedies
The authors of What Wrong? like particularly disgruntled diners whose gastronomic expectations were that little higher and disappointment is thus that deeper-
Now they are clubbing together out on the street to discuss possible remedies: "There must be a better way of running things.' 'I suppose so, but this is the only set-up experience of.' 'Well look, let's take a really firm stand next time - then maybe we can at least get them to leave the tablecloths on.
Perhaps not a very kind portrait. But one of the most striking features of the Labour left is its inability to criticise and rethink the structures of capitalist society in a radical way.
After all, the wasn't the first right-wing government we've had to suffer. As the second Wilson government raced towards electoral defeat banner of 'In Place of Strife' in the late '60s, many Labour lefts pondered deeply about "What went wrong?'
A young Labour MP by the name of Stan Newens, writing in New Left Review in 1968, pinpointed the fact that *...the real power decisions has been withdrawn from Parliament.'
Crisis
The present discussion, enriched
- if that's the word - by four years of the Heath government and another five years of right-wing Labourism, doesn't seem to have gone that much further.
When the miners felled the Tory government in "74, Labour knew full well that it was coming to power at a time of international economic crisis, with Britain the worst country in the advanced world.
The question was Labour leadership would try to ride out the storm in the interests of capital
Socialist Challenge 27 September 1979
disaster for Labour. It received only 37 per cent
of the votes cast, the lowest proportion since
the war, and opinion polls suggest that only 50*
comfortable working Class it's. the Went of
whose much
we ve nad Labour's le episode Labour
flying the tundamental excuse for postponing it.
of making entirely Fund
capitalist investment.
the more radical measures
Benn's National and
afflicted capitalist down
whether the ground.
The record
Page 8
an unmitigated NO PARKING FIRE EAT a huge increase in the dole queues
or whether, as Tony Benn put it in 1973: "The crisis we inherit when we come to power will be the occasion for
the
Under the immense pressure from only the bastions of British capital — which transferred money out of the country hand over fist — and their friends and allies in the International Monetary
Treasury, Labour chose to attack working class living standards in order to recreate favourable conditions for profitable
Pay restraint, public expenditure cuts, the steering of Britain into the EEC, were one side of the package.
The other was the dropping of all to which Labour had committed itself — Tony
Enterprise Board 'planning agreement' scheme, supposed Lo give government powerful leverage over the major industrial firms, was scaled industrial neemocracy and 'industrial schemes were just talked into the
of the Labour
government in raising profits and lowering living standards is shown in Hughes puts it in What Wrong?: 'The legacy. is there no
in reduced public services, unkempt and obsolete buildings, and potholes in the roads, but in an additional half a million or so unemployed workers.'
Decline
The remedy advocated by Labour left is not so clear diagnosis, but broadly speaking it can be summed up as pulling out of the EEC; imposing import controls protect British industry; and using the instrument of a powerful National Enterprise Board, compulsory planning agreements and widespread trade
participation in management decision-making to force industrial firms reinvest their profits in 'regenerating industry'
On the basis of the increased productivity and output it would then be possible to satisfy working class material and social
But for the Labour left, 1979 was only the
DEPARTMENT * EMPLOYMENT
Unemployment Benefit Office
needs, stabilise the economy, move towards socialism.
There are,
Went difficulties with
ignores the fact that the decline of British industry is an historic one that
public cannot be overcome by a few discreet
import duties. Several key sectors of traditional British industry shipbuilding cars, clothing, and much of the engineering industry, among others - have long been uncompetitive on a world scale. the the beginning run-down British capital seeking compensation in the enhanced opportunities invest in more profitable European industries.
Pened, but British big strengthened. This is a process in which the working
British interest, and the call for Britain to
withdraw from the EEC resulting justifiable.
trying to create a behind the wall of import controls.
week and
however, several industries, this scheme.
- steel textiles and
beyond. its Beginning into Betracted industrial
protracted retreating these sectors, with division
British industry is being weak-
capital
class has
is quite
Yet the solution does not lie in industrial
"siege' economy the further
Little wonder that th
Spokesman
Labour Party figures unc
For one thing, import controls will do nothing to help export-oriented
which include many those in crisis. Indeed, by inviting retaliation from the more powerful capitalist countries it would have severe negative consequences And the home market is not a sufficient basis for efficient production under modern conditions
Socialism has to be built on the foundations of capitalism, but going
accomplishments. The attempt to build an isolated British
would mean from the • internationa of labour forged by capitalism, to a less productive, more backward national structure
The price of this would be to undermine socialist internationalism. After all, if 'socialist' Britain can try to solve its unemployment problem by excluding foreign competition, why is the same course not valid for the French or Italian labour movements? And the real victims would be those Third World countries whose future
growth, pathetically stricted by imperialism, depends or
development of the
Page 9 scan of this page
CALLAGHAN LOST ND NO CURE
ng class character. lection post mortem soul-searching. This
publishes
essays by leading the title What Went
meant for the bosses' pockets and ours.
less than three years previously.
international division of labour.
These objections
ledged in Stuart Holland's contribu-
tion to the book. While still trying to
find limited Tole TOI
controls, he makes the point that "The
real safeguard in international trade
for the British economy depends on
the centrai question of whether or not
we harness the economic
giant enterprise — across the broad
range of its activity
and social ends.'
Holland advocates the far more
correct idea of 'planning of foreign
trade'. But if this is not to be just
we must ask:
nonisill,
whom?
The planning
economic problems should be the job
of the internationa labour
ment. The crucial policy decisions
about the European.
labour, the location of
industry and the equalisation
economic and social benefits within
Be European economy should be the
Government.
an
movement.
What the Labour government did for you
WHEN Jim Callaghan and the rest of the Labour right blame last winter's strikes for bringing down the 1974-79 government, it's worth mentioning what their policies
Corporate profits, which had collapsed to only 9.3 per cent of total national income in the depths of the crisis in 1975, were rebuilt to the pre-crisis figure of 13.2
Meanwhile all sections of the working class had their living standards squeezed between rising taxes and pay restraint: by April 1977 the real disposable income [tbat is, income after deductions, in terms of real buying power] of the average male manual worker was 5 per cent Labour's legacy — workers sleeping rough in the daily queue for casual hotel jobs in London.
Hated action by the labour movement.
And this import
agriculture.
The British power of UH. this question - to social needs Urgency for protecplanning by True, the countries suffer international divided labour
division of curodean of the greater
Wrong? Explaining the Fall of the Labour
ROY ALEXANDER casts a critical eye on these musings and assesses their importance for charting the future course of the Labour
With ascruptoyment soaring as a result of the crisis and Labour's restrictive economic policies, the number of those in porerty rose fourfold, with over 1.6 million
first two sears of its existeace. the Labour goverument more than resersed itself with its cuts during 1976-77 and continued the cutbacks until it had to hand the hatcher
By 1978 pablic capital sperding (money spent on providing and maintaining buildings and equipment, as opposed to paying mages and other operating costs] was almost 40 per cent less than it had been in 1974.
subject of deliberation and co-ordin-
European
would be a two-way
street. For if Britain has its industrial
problems, the continent suffers from
the backwardness of its peasant-based
labour movement
should have something more to offer
than grumbling
about the price of butter and cursing
the French farmers, who are as much
victims of monopoly capitai as we are.
maJor European politically movements, but the
prestige of the British TUC and the
urgency of the problems to be tackled
could go a long way to overcome that.
We may want to get out of the
EEC, but we should also be seeking
unity of European
workers: the creation of a real Euro-
pean TUC and Europe-wide combine
nore than 1.4 times the paltry
acrease in pablic spending during the and industrial committees
Even Stalin had the decency to wait for the imperialists to isolate Russia before proclaiming 'socialism in one country': it is a commentary on the political poverty of the Labour left that they start from perspective.
This lack of radicalism in political thinking reflects itself more widely in the approach of the left to economic policy. Their complex scheme of the NEB, public shareholdings, and trade union directors, planning agreements, tighter corporate
price controls would unnecessary if the principal blocs of capital financial and industrial WC1C simply nationalised workers control.
Then proper socialist could begin. Far from being bureaucratic that Tories portray, it would be far simpler than even their brand of capitalism.
bringing all important economic decisions under a single structure it would be able to regulate
What
Went
Wrong
prices, determine the distribution of incomes, and allocate funds to social expenditure in a manner virtue of its simplicity, would be open to genuine democratic scrutiny and contral.
capital seems to te a arom in fa
of capital without a tually upsetting
bitter resistance of controlled press influenced Whitehall bureaucracy to even the mild measures discussed in early days government.
Control
point: the ultimate root of the power of capital lies not in its propaganda
Photo: REPORT and conspiratorial skills,
fact that it organises production and controls the economy. Any challenge to the power of capital thus results in economic disruption which provides the fuel for the press smears and the Whitehall manoèuvres. The tactics of capital in Chile under Allende show that clearly.
to the real social power of capital is the ability of the through its organisations virtue of its role in the productive process, to take control capitalists' hands.
on the dictum of one of their mentors, R H Tawney: "You can peel an onion layer by layer but you tiger paw by paw.' public The failure
movement to grasp the significance of tax, workers all be Ken Coates, who makes the point that
the death sentence was pronounced "industrial democracy' under original TUC proposals began to be
planning the the self-respecting shop steward should
wish to embroil himself (sic) in such a stew of compromise and equivocatron. Rank-and-file diminished devaluation of the original project,
*z: airead
which, by
Such
The lefts" tortuous caboration oi
Tina Tr
But they themselves document the
the capitalise- crucial and capitalist
the Wilson case
action.
They also ignore an important
capable of but in the
recognise
The only effective counterweight
working class,
questions out of the day-to-day The lefts would do well to reflect
can't skin a
of the labour
control is documented b
once the
•..It was difficult to see why any
enthusiasm, each SUCECOSIVC
Michael Bandit Fi di Patrill Birt
Francis (ripo Frank Hid VIP iom toreser Suart Holland MP John Hughe Michael Matter VP trances Murrell
on the fall of ih= Labour dionernsien quite see me tet= pronounced a promise it bees that was never to come
will be the fate of
CIDE I TENTATE
Do can Throne! "
Icie
reinforces the impressios of militants that their ideas are as
overdose rhetorx covering up for an insufficien! of
Discussion of
in the abstract for the fighting, committed leadership for the labour movement as a shok
waging the defersim. struggles of today in order 1o go onso the offensive against capital. Action
But at the same time
that the fight restructurin of Labour Party and the discussion onc the programme of the next government is an important onc the building of such a leaderst
economy politics, what we have to say about d
struggles will be over. shadowed by the propaganda of te Tories and Labour right.
It is on this basis that a macet ground between revolutionarks
Labour left is emerging common ground of discussion as so wnere we should be going common ground of action stick si determine whether we are atte 1o ge anywhere at all.
It is only on the basis of sac common action that our differcat can be tested out and start to rate o real meaning for the mass labour movement rank-and-file by Spokesman Books at 2295 *What Went Wrong?
Available from The Other Bock 328 Upper St, London N1 Add 109, 0l ordering by mail.
Socialist Challenge 27 september 1979 Page?
Page 10 scan of this page
1979's guaranteed non-event
Why the Liberals will discuss
IRELAND did not play an insignificant role in Labour's election defeat last Spring. It was the failure two Irish Republican Frank Maguire Democratic Labour Party Gerry Fitt, to vote with Labour on the motion that brought down the government.
Yet despite this, and despite a continuous campaign to 'make Ireland an issue' during the POLIC itsel. the late stubbornly refused to relation to the six counties.
The Labour Party has not undertaken a thoroughgoing discussion of Ireland for tens of years, while the last time that Labour made it a campaigning issue was in 1921.
Thus it is not surprising that there is no plan by Labour's leaders, make it a subject of debate at the Labour Party conference next week.
Agenda
There are who think it is time that Ireland is discussed and several motions have gone forward to the conference. They are unlikely to get much time on the agenda — they are even less likely to get passed.
Hemet Hempstead CLP's motion calls for an orderly withdrawat of British troops and British involvement. They pamphlet to explain their positions, which we will review next. week.
Edinburgh Central CLP have put forward an amendment to the Hemel motion calling for the immediate withdrawal of the troops.
probability amendment will get properly discussed, and in the absence of a real discussion inside the Labour party for fifty or so years they are unlikely to get passed.
This is the Hackney Labour Party, constituency. It calls for a special conference of THE LIBERAL Party Assembly this week will be according debating time the Ireland.
The Tories won't be discussing it at their conference, acciae wnelner keep troops in Ireland.
And the Labour Party won't make it a major discussion, to the shame of the labour movement.
Why are the Liberals discussing it now? Jude Woodward talked STEVEN DAWE, Young representative on the Committee for Withdrawal from Ireland, to see how he explained the Liberal's interest in the issue.
Can you explain why the Liberal Party is discussing the Ireland at its conference, other major parties are not?
I think this is do traditional attitude in Party about civil liberties.
Report and the Amnesty International investigations made I clear tal civi noellies die al risk in Ireland
Then there's also sympathy with the kind of things that John Pardoe is fond of saying about Ireland - that a solution in Ireland requires some sort of republican initiative.
In addition the Liberal Party unlike the others — is not convinced
the of legislation.
And finally there's the fact that it's now been going on for ten years -it's a kind of psychological moment when people have to themselves that it is an emergency.
I understand you have recently been on a fact finding mission to Ireland. Perhaps you'd explain delegation was and what you learnt from it?
There have in fact delegations — an official Liberal
Socialist Challenge ' 27 September 1979 Page 10 .:
Conference debate on Ireland
MPs, Independent and Social
crucial no confidence
Labour government discuss its policy in either left or right, to
members of the Labour Party
have produced a
hellner motion Such
members. importance of a motion from
Ernie Roberts'
Ireland this year
major question of
although they the British Liberals
question of when the
with the the Liberal The Party delegation
have
range of people.
tor the need political initiatives.
emergency
themselves, they
Commol to the daily life adjust under the situation.
antagonism what the
the Unionist side. been two
the Labour Party within 12 months to discuss Britain's role in Ireland. conference would allow discussion about Ireland to open "p - Labour's record on Ireland would be brought under the scrutiny of party Perhaps Benn and noticeably silent on the issue, would be forced to reveal where they stand.
But even this motion is unlikely to be 12 August demonstration in London — Young Liberals played a leading role
which the Young Liberals were not invited to take part in. And there's been a Young Liberal delegation, the one I was on, which seems to have seen a rather broader up
The overwhelming impression we got from the people we interviewed
for immediate
The SDLP for instance could not really see any future in the kind of British policy that's being pursued at the moment. They saw no future for
saw ho pressure being put on the Unionists to come to terms with them or with anything else.
Wealso got a strong impression of calling
how people live and
The reaction to the British army is
on all sides. Nobody believes that the army is playing a troops? peace keeping role, no one is naive enough to believe that — not even on
Could you briefly describe the motion
La real discuss the issue. in the
Inleads, next year.
Committee Ireland that is going to the Liberal Part
issembly this week
The main motion calls for the setting
call advisory council on voluntary basis. 10 this there are three amendments.
The first calls for the reunification of Ireland within European Economic Community. The second suggests that the British troops could be replaced by a UN peace-keeping force - this amendment is likely to be divided up so that people can vote for removal rather than replacement.
There's also a third amendment
for the remoyal of Emergency Provisions Act.
Is there no specific amendment simply calling for the withdrawal of British
An amendment of this type was sent in but interest in the idea of sending in UN troops. produced this composited amendment.
carried. We are not yet in a position where the mass of Labour Party members are burning to
Those who are, which to the shame of the Labour Party includes a large number Liberals will be meeting in London on 1 March
A forum on that date, organised by the
for British Withdrawal (which called the 12 Why do people think that UN troops would be any troops?
The present police force, the RUC, in the North. , of unacceptable populanon, Al lnc same me tic UDR is also unacceptable.
If you are a politician you believe that law and order must continue in some torm. Therefore, satisfy this demand, and to get rid of or change the existing organisations, you must have something to put in its place.
Therefore the sending in of UN troops is seen as something acceptable than either keeping in the British troops or of taking them out and strengthening the UDR or RUC.
But it would be a stopgap measure.
But aren't these exactly the arguments used for the British troops being there protecting the Catholic popula. tion, preventing stopping the RUC and UDR berserk? about the UN troops?
I am a little sceptical about the use of troops in the situation. However I remain open minded on what would happen if it was necessarily think that it would be totally unacceptable to many people In Inal Sildaliull It would depend on the context. If it was done as a means of creating some new status quo in order that the British government got out of having the to do anytning aboul Ireland io1 twenty years, then it's a quite useless idea.
If it was in the context of regional aid from the EEC perhaps some sort of confederal idea, Fitzgerald, Fine perhaps one would be talking about something more acceptable to the different parties in the situation.
of
Ireland, refuse. The biggest
SILIE August different to British
training
Ireland is totally
the minority supported
UTOM provided obtained.
in order
the UDR.
It is meeting
more Mrs
education
Ist May Edinburgh bloodbath, going What is it that's different and
done. | don't
ten,
cartoons by , along the Garrett Gael, lines then last ten years.
Other
demonstration), looks set to become the biggest discussion on Ireland for many years, with delegates from political and labour movement
It's about time Labour started discussing
but we won't wait for them if they possible attendance in March will step up pressure on the Labour leaders to begin discussion themselves.
Dundee
against
the UDR
DUNDEE UTOM is organising protest demonstration against the of • the Ulster Defence Regiment at Barry Buddon army camp, six miles from Dundee. The proposed date for the demo, which is OLIC. Scottish branches, is 13 October police permission
There has been a storm of protest in the Scottish press over the decision to bring the Irish war to Scotland via
hoped to hold public in Dundee with guest speaker Mary Nellis, the founder of Derry Relatives Action Committee. Nellis has been invited Scotland in October by Edinburgl UTOM as part of a week of action and on the . situation in the North of Ireland.
For details contact UTOM, c/o Bookshop, 45 Niddry
British Labour
land: 1969-79 So cartoons bye A new pamphlet by Geoff Bell with Cormac, which analyses the costs of bipartisanship over the Available from The Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London N1. Cost 40p plus 10p post. Bulk rates on request.
Page 11 scan of this page
Nicaragua. we want a great
By Gerry Foley
THE FORCES of the Khomeini-Bazargan
government completed their occupation of the
in the
September. The last major town entered by the
army was Sar Dasht on the border with Iraq.
On 3 September,
accupied Mahabad, a town of about 100,000
inhabitants and the main political centre of the
Kurdish area.
In every case, the Kurdish forces left the
towns before the arrival of government troops.
The towns are generally located in valleys, and
are defenceless against the air,
armoured forces of the army built by the Shah
and the US imperialists. The Kurdish guerrillas
reportedly made their withdrawai in good order
and with their morale intact.
The real battle for the Kurdish areas seems
to be just beginning. It is the fight for control of
the villages in which the overwhelming majority
of the people live, and in
economic activity of the area, agriculture, is
centred. Disarm
The villages are also the focuses of the
agrarian revolution,
Bazargan government's offensive was designed
roll back. In order to accomplish
objective, the government forces must disarm
the peasants and force them to give up the land
they have taken.
The peasants seem determined to fight. For
example, in the Saqqez area, the government
offered an amnesty to all those who turned in
their weapons. But according to the official
Iranian news agency,
admitted that in five days only six guns had
been handed over, while most Kurdish males
are armed. even voung bovs.
The government occupation of the towns
will have the effect of politically isolating the
Kurdish fighters,
communication with the outside world, as well
as of open political activity.
However, the Iranian regime is extremely THE following interview with LEO YBERTA, a Sandinista trade union organiser in the Nicaraguan city Masaya, was recently obtained Ron Poulsen of the Trotskyist weekly Direct Action.
How did the Sandinistas set about rebuilding the trade union movement in Masaya?
The first step we took was to call an organising meeting for the Sandinista Workers Centre. We invited all the Masaya workers, unions, carpenters, bus-drivers, taxi-drivers, turned up.
We explained the objectives of the centre to them, ine aims or ine Sandinista Front, and the importance
organising. the WOrkers peasants.
Then immediately afterwards we opened this office and all the trade unions in Masaya came to register. There were the telephone workers, bank workers, drivers, the workers from the Sandinista electrical station, the factory workers, the teachers, and the hospital workers union.
We meet here once a week with the representatives of the various trade unions to hold discussions and give them the technical know-how so they can act on their own behalf. As well,
fortnight we hold with each union and falk about social and political matters, or whatever they bring up.
Our aim unions schools in which everything is taught, from the history of Nicaragua to the reasons for the Sandinistas' struggle. We Walll unionists politically so that they can Come o understand all the problems we have to integrate them into national reconstruction.
What kind of work is the Sandinista CCILLIC peasants?
The peasants are not
Kurdish areas of Iran on 6
central góvernment forces
artillery, and which the basic which the Khomeini-
this a spokesman of the Guards in area
since these were centres of
worker-peasant alliance'
of by Australian and all the trade
craftworkers,
members of the
is affiliated to practice it's much the same.
existed before
the struggle separate organising the happened.
make the
educate preparing to SOCIE themselves.
confront, to
the work of
education.
among the
formally motive force of our revolution.
against
vulnerable pressure with regard to its repression in the Kurdish areas.
Reports are circulating that in the city of Rasht, one of the largest centres in northern The Sandinista Workers Centre in Masaya.
Sandinista centre.
They belong to the Association of Farm Workers, and this organisation
the collie, SO
The Association of Farm Workers
we overthrew the dictatorship and played a big role in
against Somoza, and them of everything that
Since the fall of the dictatorship the AFW has developed enormously, and has set to work teaching new techniques to the peasants. But aid to the peasantry mustn't be paternalistic. The peasants must obtain it by organising on their own behalf and
defend their conquests This shows the imporWOK of conscioushess, of social and political
The AFW exists because we want to bring about a great worker-peasant alliance, because we consider that the worker-peasant allance will be the
about.
Stop campaign
Kurdish people!
JURAMOS N
What perspectives does the Sandinista centre have for the future?
The Sandinista centre is intended to give the workers the revolutionary power to confront the task we have undertaken. It is directed solely by Sandinista comrades and, together with the AFW, can be seen as the base for creating the "Sandinista party'.
Here we see the importance of the worker-peasant alliance, since the party will be a party of workers and
The party must play a leading role in the reconstruction of Nicaragua and we want everyone to understand that reconstruction doesn't involve reconstructing the buildings which have been destroyed.
LU change Nicaraguan mentality, raise mentality of brotherhood (sic), more communist mentality, we can be more comradely with our neighbours, so that a new person can
formed. This what reconstruction of our country is all
Iran, whole units of the army have refused to go to fight in the Kurdish areas, and that there are celebrations in the barracks every time that another unit refuses to go.
By Don Thomson
THE TUC has for formally acknowledged affiliated Latin wing, the Pan American Organisation of Workers (ORIT), receiving lavish cash payments from another US-controlled organisation, the American Labour Development (AIFLD).
AIFLD is multinational companies. Its boss is multi-millionaire Peter OWIks companies. AIFLD has been widely condemned as a CIA vehicle by Latin America worker organisations. Both ORIT played a vital part in the coup that overthrew Allende's government in Chile in 1973.
Revelations
connection between contained in the council's recent congress. It follows revelations about both ORIT and AIFLD contained in the War on Want report Where Were You, Brother?
ORIT, created by Serafino Romualdi in the late 1940s, currently claims about fifty affiliates. In tact near y controlled "yellow'
TUC's connection however, has made it impossible for the British trade union movement to link up peasant movements.
Furthermore, the most powerful and conservative influence inside Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). for the ICFTU to drop ORIT as its simply official regional wing.
Breach
the it to a
this situation and thus help to release that British and European labour from the
CIA Latin receipt of these hidden cash payments
the automatically
breach of ICFTU rulings. The ICFTU - meeting for its world congress in
flow of information and the
clear that
peopie.
SOLIDARITY
taken up Trotskyists in
Elite imorisonment.
National Union of Students.
committee
the 14 Trotskyists Workers Partv) have Among them
Graphical Association, three from union SLADE,
Association, nine NATSOPA,
Journalists, I2 TrOM Tailors & Garment Workers,
National and Local ANOMALOU
TUC admits CIA links
the first time that its
America regional
has been
Institute Free
part-funded by US
Grace, who Latin American
and peasant AIFLD and
This admission about the cash
the (wo TUC general report the 26р pop
from ORIT CIA agent
There unions. The with ORIT, Icachon
with the real worker and
the TUC is about
the International
This has made it difficult
squads.
speeded up
The TUC confession may change
generally
America. ORIT'S
means that it is in
Although the crackdown has limited the
expression opposition to the war in the Persian centres, it is
increasingly unpopular.
International publicity and support for the Kurds can aid the development of this anti-war sentiment throughout Iran and help stop, the government's campaign against the Kurdish
with the Kurdish struggle is being organised by the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Democratic Rights in Iran, which has
the case 14 auct Iran, twelve of whom face execution (the other two have been sentenced to
The committee is organising a teach-in and demonstration in November, and sponsorship for the former has already been won from the
In Liverpool a local branch of the committee has been set up after a successful public meeting sponsored b the trades council and port shop stewards
Further telegrams demanding the release of
o1 the HKS (Socialist NUS, Liverpool SOGAT, Liverpool NALGO, and Hackney North Labour Party. A large number of delegates at the TUC also signed a petition calling 'for the immediate withdrawal of the death sentence against these socialists and the dropping of the charges placed against them'
were 10 from the Boilermakers Society, 10 from the Nationa
the print five from the Civil Service Union, 23 from the Civil & Public Services
from the print unior from the Association Broadcasting Staff, one from the Agricultural Workers, eight from the National Union of
the National Union 16 fron the Engineering Workers, 12 from the Society of Civil and Public Servants, and 15 from the
Government Officers Where were you, brother!
Anarcourt of Tradel honepenalsn
by Don Thomson and Rocky Larson 61,20 Available from The Othe [328 Upper Street, Londo 81 2X0 and other left booksh
Madrid this November — Tens tas is opportunity to cut free a long las
Initiative are already signs that European labour is preparing for nea initiatives in Latin America against unprecedented repression of trade unionists. This is likely to include the dropping of the ICFTU's government-run affiliate in Guatemala in favour of connections with the real worker and peasand organisations, many of whose leader. have been killed by government goce Whether or not this programme of dumping "yellow' union affiliares and finally ORIT itself - can be will depend crucially or the part played by the TUC trays flowed us one followed oversez: labour policy. The TUC's role ai the ICFTU congress, when ORIT will be discussed, will reveal the extent which Congress House has fallen inc Uncie Sam's pocket and therefon into the hands of the bosses.
Socialist Challenge 27 September 1979 Pure 11:.-
Page 12 scan of this page
Kampuchea—how it happened
JOAN PILGER'S
aches have revealed anation reduced to a
charnel-house. A staggering two million
• have died in the 1970s
a after the overthrow of Lon Nol by the
ter Rouge guerrillas in 1975.
The reaction of socialists tbroughout the
to the uncovering Ination camps and the like has been one ror and revulsion.
CLIVE ation. We invite further contributions to
| 1970 a saturation bombing campaign cretly begun by Nixon and Kissinger, The 0 once va imas. The rain of destruction the carnage of the First World war. The
"lation of the capital, Phoom Penh, soared
undreds of thousands of peasants fled from the countryside for their lives.
Out of this baptism of fire the Khmer Rouge emerged to lead the struggle to overthrow Lon Nol. So dependent was US aid that the Khmer Rouge forces were able to bring its tottering structures crashing down despite their own lack of mass support. Shrine
Pilger describes Phnom Khmer Rouge marched in: 'It is a Luddites' shrine, cemetery of ambulances, fire engines, generators, television sets. There is a separate pile of burned telephones; communications, including "¡llegal''... Some two and a half million people were ordered out of the city at gunpoint on that April day, and most of them are said to be 'missine'.
Measures such as these defy any capitalist rationale. No Hitler, coming to power as a last resort of the capitalist class, obliterates the capitalists and their Rouge leadership didn't change places with Lon Nol and proceed to enrich themselves from the old sources of profits, plunder and graft. On the contrary, they destroyed the old regime lock, stock and barrel. government tres smashed - We army, police entire and civil service. All property was nationalised - not just the factories, banks and land, but ven the smallest items of personal property Money was abolished, foreign trade established la foreign trade actually ceased]. All resources were towards agricultural production.
Mao
Most socialists were agreed that in Vietnam such capitalist rule, politically and economically. In
place a workers although one in which Communist Party kept monopoly of power. This consideration must
THE CREATION of a new political
party, the Confederation
Independent Poland
announced on 1 September
dissident rally attended
people in Warsaw.
This is a major development: for
the first time an opposition group has
up the
Previous efforts were defined in terms
of 'democratisation',
ended up in pushing for initiatives
from the bureaucracy.
The KPN, on the other hand, is
saying in effect: no democratisation
without overthrowing
MOCZULSKI spoke to a correspon-
dent for the French Trotskyist paper
Rouge on the telephone.
Why have you announced a new
party?
The existence of political
which act openly is the only means of
reconstituting and institutionalising
political life in Poland. An atomised
society is
organised power. The
always mislead, silence and destroy it.
The role of a political party is to
prevent that.
But the Social Self-defence.
mittee (KSS/KOR) and the Move-
ment to Defend Human and Citizen's
Socialist Challenge 27 September 1979 Fage 12
reports from
the bulk of
of Nazi-style
How did it happen?
offers
equivalent to five
outdid this puppet regime on
Penh after the
machines: cars,
typewriters,
modern post, were property. The Khmer
Nol's
and a monopoly of
Pot regime. formality, The the state and directed signified the overtur of
established, the Vietnamese bureaucratic
of (KPN),
by 3,000
Rights (ROPCIO), formally
about your initiative? power.
which often
Line THre
that their the bureau-
LESZEK parties in line with its programme.
against well
ideological
Malici Call
Com- aim the
Nazi-style extermination camps
be set against the extreme brutality of the Pol
Khmer Rouge leaders themselves on Mao Tse-tung and the victory of the Chinese CP. Like Mao, they concentrated on building a peasant army which would win the countryside and then take the cities. Kampuchea's backwardness determined for them the primitive agricultural base from which reconstruction would have to begin. Al the same time they were faced with the problem of how to feed the swollen population of the citie - urban centres which nests for counter-revolutionary activity. The methods they adopted came naturally from their training in the Stalinist school: although not "political parties, were in effect playing that role. What is new
The KSS/KOR and ROPCIO act of course as political forces. However, at
they their 'non-political' character, and the fact
aims are primarily
the repression, for human rights, for the practical application of legislative texts recognised by the authorities
Both have declared that their aim is not to take power. But a political party is something very different. It must on the contrary seek to achieve power in order to transform reality
DUL What are the aims of the KPN?
which They are put forward in a 10point
declaration. The most important says: "The opportunity to create à new, third Polish republic, independent and democratic, must the not be wasted. The only road to this
ending of Soviet domination through the liquidation lof the power of the Polish Unified
caused socialists to react in horror. forced regimentation modelled brigades.
middle
they saw as corrupt responsibility
was given.
New party formed in Poland
Workers Party [Polish Communist Party.'
other words, we want construct a political system excludes the exercise ot power by a single party, whatever its character. The same goes for the hegemony of an exterior factor.
The question of the ownership of the means of production has always been considered an essential element determining the character of a party. What is your programme in regard?
Our party is heterogeneous, hence the name 'confederation'. The first point in our statutes declares: "The KPN is a arty incorporating groups which are
politically and WUCU102Ca11 autonomous, including also
the course of development will take the decision to transform themselves into independent political parties.
Certain groups which are part of
KPN, above all Movement of Polish Socialists which is based mainly among the workers in Nowa Huta [an immense steelworks in the Cracow suburbs],
evacuation of the cities of the masses into Stalin had carried through forced collectivisation of the land in the 1930s and '40s in just the same way, with liquidation of the
peasants class' and transportation of whole peoples like Crimean Tartars from their homelands.
Nor is it a matter simply of the historical example of Stalinism. The bureaucrats Moscow and Peking today bear their share of
for what happened Kampuches after 1975. They had the resources to feed and support the population. No such aid
| Katowice, Lublin, and more recently
build a real socalis sysces. y his
to build a real socialist which would thoroughgoing socialisation means of production, system of workers' self-management, or rather the associated producers over the means of production.
Other groups, however, who see state contro of the leading straight to this envisage a large
1 myself start from the facts: today the Polish economy agriculture one wanted to return it to private hands, whom it could be returned. those no social forces, no capital to create a their significant capitalist sector alongside the huge state-owned sector,
denationalise.
How has
received?
The authorities wanted to prevent us from proclaiming our party. More
and work
Today the
the population, from diseases"
malnourished in trauma of the terror"!
than
foreseen
We're
of the time,
For lne activities. provocateurs
been economy as totalitarianism, area of private the government.
apart from because it comes — is state owned. Even if
there are no proprietors to for actions
• There are ridiculous.
which
wouldn't want to
your initiative been for
gossip!
Today, however, the most burning issue is not whether Pol Pot was a Stalin or a Hitler — it is the fact, as John Pilger testifies, that thi people of Kampuchea face extinction
process begun by Kissinger is nearing completion... 'We have six months to save three million people, the majority of the
starvation and related said Jacques Beaumont {a UN official]. Eighty-five per cent of the women have stopped menstruating, because they
and exhausted and, like everybody, they have not recovered from the
A massive labour movement campaign for aid to the Kampuchean people is vital.
people were arrested, including those who were going to announce our existence. But we had replacement teams, and we were able to go ahead in five centres in Poland noi afraid of this repression: far from weakening us, it strengthens the determination of our At the same however, they are trying to mount a slander campaign against our Rumours that we are trying to establish pretext for Soviet intervention have started by Pax Catholic organisation founded Pascist leader in 1947 which supposes a former
A second example, more serious from opposition circles whom we respect, is to treat us as parasites who want to take credit led by others. That's We willingly acknowledge the contribution of other movements, and all we want is to be able to carry out our own actions.
The opposition too often wastes its energy in useless quarrels. We're polemics on policy, programme — and we hope that other programmes will be set against ours - but not on the basis of corridor
Page 13 scan of this page
We will impose sanctions' says TGWU
Bishop bows off historical stage
BRITAIN'S largest union is pledged to impose sanctions against the Rhodesian regime if the
Tory government unilaterally decides to lift them. Ron Todd, national
Transport and General Workers Union,
week warned the government that impose sanctions'.
Todd addressing a rally Central Hall Westminster on 19 September,
wIlch also hearo raouc cronispeakers-'we will not tolerate a sell-out in Zimbabwe,' Todd said.
He referred to the resolution passed at the
TGWU's biennial delegate conference earlier
this year, condemning apartheid and minority
rule in southern Africa and pledging solidarity
with the liberation movements in the region. He
declared the union's support for the Zimbabwe
Emergency Campaign
which had organised the rally.
Todd's commitment sanctions was made
'Statement of. Intent being ZECC. The idea is to get signatures pledging to continue to do all in our power to implement THE London Zimbabwe conference seems likely to end in predictable deadlock. But before that happens it will have given some indication of the shifting political Torcer county
Most importantly the government has won concessions from the Patriotic Front and the •Salisbury delegation essential points of their constitutional proposals.
But even if there were unanimity on a constituion unlikely — the conference would still not have dıscharged its most decisive task. That is to determine who will supervise the transition of power. and how.
This is the result of a considerable tactical victory by the Patriotic Front in the first week of the conference. Foreign Secretary reiterated the British government's belief that the conference's only task WaS Thereby the Tories hoped to gain a paper agreement — or walk-out which would license them to carry out the real settlement behind the scenes.
Control
Carrington was surprised to find the Patriotic Front lying in wait with its own agenda on which the crucial point was the transition and control of the state apparatus. Muzorewa had nothing say but Carrington. His team's disintegration
member- including lan Smith -supported the Patriotic procedure!
By getting its agenda accepted the Front has at least cut off the British government's first line of manoeuvre. Even when Callic constitutional discussion.
Nkomo-Mugabe delegation tained was of secondary importance, it still held the initiative. other delegations were taken aback at the appearance of a set of coherent Patriotic Front constitutional pro posals, while Muzorewa could offer nothing better than the tattered and discredited 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia' constitution as his submission. Feeble
By this point the near collapse of the Rhodesian delegation was an open
Muzorewa's already • authority was so diminished that he was on the DoInt ol Salisbury. Matters were only salvaged. by the decision agreement with the British.
But Muzorewa has not abandoned white safeguards. The relevant clause
the proposals white through a separate electoral roll.
At firsi the Patriotic Front was scathing about this agreement. spokesperson, Eddison Zvobgo, said
officer of the last 'we will
of 1500 at Committee (ZECC),
implement
reference to the
circulated by in the
British
important
which is most Lord Carrington
constitution.
support they might
representation Front's minorities in Britain! If LIC
to the leaders.
which the
settlement which will favour main-
Both the
Dro-Western regime installed
decision to
question of white
white SOCCUULY
seeking.
The feeble policing returning to
political Zimbabwean people. all its
Britain representation
Its interference in
Ron Todd - pledged to impose sanctions Ian Smith has withdrawn to the shadows. But will the Tories ditch Muzorewa?
consider if the are representation arran
racial
Muzorewa delegation imagines that this concession will be enough to win a lifting of sanctions it is likely to be disappointed. The Tory
committed to British interests in Zimbabwe — that is one in which the war is ended and a stable LOCLIE
Yet the Front has now made such a solution more likely by its subsequent
accommodate to the British and the racist regime on the
LES stated readiness to build a 'new' Zimbabwe army in partnership with the present
torces represents precisely the sort of solution Britain is
Patrioțic Front's call for United Nations troops to play a part
new would represent a dangerous sacrifice of the
independence of the
statement before the conference the Front insisted that by its acquiescence in the racist regime
'right'
decals posed by imperialism have
threats posed by imperialism proved even more potent than it had reckoned. It is this continued British
Zimbabwe's affairs
them.
direct
in the
Marxist
trade
sanctions.
Dangers
November.: importance
the principle
campaign HANCINCIT which drives sections of the liberation movement to seek such dangerous solutions.
The Patriotic Front may well be making concessions in the expectation that they cannot be met doing so they are playing with fire.
The distance between the parties remanis coo wae lor ine government to achieve its solution at Lancaster House. But the
conference is dangerous
beware British map or ess
towards British Limababwe where elements from the White settler state and the liberation movements coexist exploitative combination.
Threat
The important solidarity demonstration on 11 November is therefore unlikely to take place under shadow of lifting sanctions. probable are behind-the-scenes Tory manoeuvres in pursuit of its sort of settlement. Such a threat makes solidarity more not less important.
We should not be deceived if the Tories ditch Muzorewa in their search for a deal any more than we were deceived when lan Smith withdrew to the shadows. If Lancaster House has made one thing certain it is that the Bishop, never capitalism's convincing defender, is near the end of his given historical role.
sanctions in the event' of the government lifting
However, Todd went one better by insisting
trade union action sanetions. In this he was echoing floor speakers
campaign forumat the Teach-in on 15 September, Activists from the Zimbabwe Information Group,
Group, Big Flame and Workers. Party stressed the need to approach
bodies and shop committees for an undertaking of action on
¡An IMG speaker pointed out government would probably not try to lift the Sanctions Order when it came up for renewal in
But this did not diminish campaign around Statement of Intent. It was essential to establish statement could be the focus for a nation ide working class action.
explain to the trade dangers current manoeuvres over Zimbabwe.
B! Valerie Coultas
but in ASTRID Proll is no longer in prison.
On Wednesday of last week the judge at her trial in Frankfurt, Johanna •British Dierks, decided to grant her bail after desired the West Berlin Interior said that the key prosecution witness could not appear because he was still on active duty 'successfully fighting against terrorists.
Astrid Proll had been accused by the West German government new being a founding member of the Red Army Fraction and of attempting to murder a counter-intelligence officer in February 1971. But after becoming one of the first victims of the 'silent
the Intercontinental Press More
NICARAGUA extensively in the latest Intercontinental Press/Inprecor [Vol 17, No 341. As well as reports and interviews, there is a statement by a delegation from the United Secretar iat of the Fourth International, and a review of assessments made br ache left papers most
impose
Zimbabwe solidarity.
Hebditch, International
Socialist strong connection
stewards' Local ZECC
action on Zimbabwe.
reaching the especially among that the
the Zimbabwe.
• union Tory
By Richard Carver
Astrid Proll freed
Britain granted bail.
Minister of the was
• owes of
trial goes on
combined it i recor
Cuban again featured Kampuchea, issue of
[inchucing Scinfist
SL-
The theme of mass action was set by ZLOC secretary Simon Hebditch. Campaigning a Co unions, Hebditch said, was not reducible tr paper support of a handful of leaders. I and file involvement was the key to sacee
member of the Star Committee of the Anti Nazi League, argan
between solidarity Zimbabwe and domestic anti-racist str
groups should anti-racist committees and ANL
Hebditch recalled the success of the AN
previously young people.
ZECC should have a strong youth orients
* The Statement of Intent is a we Campaigning on it must start now to help! the 11 November national demonstration ci
Socialist Challenge group!
weeks before the November uêbate in Parliament are a golden opport to approach local trade unionists to pledge commitment to action on Zimbabwe.
wing' in Stammheim jail she escaped briefly
When she was picked up in Britain last year the government made it clear that in order to allow her extradition it prepared 10 change the immigration laws if necessary to get over the problem of her marriage lo an English citizen.
That Astrid Proll walks free today much the internations campaign of protest on her behalf, which was taken up particularly
Britain and West Germany. But the — and so does the tortu of the silent wing at Stammheir
Havana non-aligned conference, attitude of Cubans in the USA to th Revolution, the famine and an obiluary Marxist novelist James T. Farrel
Individual copies cast 30p 10p pass, but subscriprions толі much cheaper at Ill On a reso issuest is for sir monito 2o
....=:....m
Page 14 scan of this page
Knocking in some press freedom HAVING just purchased a copy of Denis MacShane's book Using the Media I think his bland words on the • subject in your paper earlier this month need some comment.
The book is certainly full of helpful and practical information, and on that score it ought to be in every activist's war chest. But MacShane considerably overrates the effectiveness of having a practical and 'professional' approach to the media.
No doubt there are sympathetic journalists dotted around the place, together with nooks, crannies, and contradictions within the media apparatus itself. All these should be exploited to the full, but let's not run away with the idea that this will change much
MaçShane acknowledges this, yet that's as far as he goes. To really deal with the media, activists need to know how to confront it, and MacShane barely touches on this.
The demand for the media to provide a right of reply has to be shouted from the skies (not to mention the picket lines), and it's about time we came to grips with the appalling trade union journals — which MacShane sweeps under the carpet.
If Denis MacShane wants to be friends with the lefts in the trade union bureaucracy, bully for him, but that won't get the working class very far.
There's too many union members
- at the bottom of the tree as well as the top - who are quite happy to have a slanging match with Fleet Street without bothering to do anything about the rubbish rolled out from the unions own presses.
Let's knock some press freedom into the lot of them!
DENISE AARVOLD, London NW3
A macho mobilisation? DESPITE the overall correctness of your support for the Irish struggle, we felt it necessary to make some criticism of your coverage of the mobilisation for the Troops Out demo in London on 12 August.
The information on the NF counter-mobilisation in the 9 August issue of Socialist Challenge was reported in an irresponsible way. Our criticism is not that the information turned out to be incorrect; rather, we criticise the report for failing to take into account the prime function of the article — to mobilise for the demo.
While the news that the NF was mobilising from 'as far away as Manchester' may have mobilised some Troops Out supporters on a 'macho' basis, it was equally likely to intimidate some others unused to demos.
We feel that you should have made it clear that on past occasions we have been well able to defend ourselves against fascist attacks. You should have ensured that your reporting raised rather than lowered morale. Socialist Challenge is not Socialist Challenge, 27 Sept mber 1979, Page 14
simply a newspaper but an instrument of the struggle.
BRIGHTON Socialist Challenge Forum Irish peers WHILE I applaud your taking the Daily Star to task for their hysterical Irish-bashing after the Mountbatten incident, I think you ought to get your facts right.
First of all, Guinness has got two "n's and the head of this, in fact very, Irish firm is not Tory MP Jonathan Guinness (who is connected with the Guinness Mahon merchant bankers) but one Lord Iveagh.
I here are lots of Guinnesses on the board of Arthur Guinness, and most of them are similarly highly anglicised Irish peers.
CHARLES FOSTER, London N16 Chewing up animal lib READING issue 110 (23 August), I chanced upon that itinerant column News from Nowhere. After I had read the Guardian style hash made of the Rentaprop item, I was horrified to read the Animals one.
Naturally I would agree that the issue of party democracy is the most important one for the forthcoming Labour Party Conference, and it is to be regretted that another motion on another topic should be used to supplant it.
However I wonder if you would have thrown away the ren acement topic so dismissively if it had been about gay rights or something else.
1 know hardbitten revolutionaries like yourselves find it difficult-to take anuma issues or environmental ones seriously — you chewed up articles on Torness by myself and another comrade to become short chunks of gibberish.
However, lack of inclination is no excuse. Short paragraphs in NfN are no place to start or finish a serious: analysis DI anytig.
PAUL HUBERT, Newcastle-on-Tyne
A tactical error AFTER the most successful world-wide propaganda action yet carried out by the Provisional IRAI find it extraordinary that the paper limited its coverage to the exposure of the shooting of the civilian at Warrenpoint - interesting though this was (6 September).
It is not the job of socialists in Britain to tell the liberation fighters how to conduct their campaign, but it is to consistently bring to the labour movement and public the need for unconditional troop withdrawal.
'The Irish Problem' has been the talking point of the nation/media for the last week and its virtual absence from Socialist Challenge was an important tactical error.
Otherwise may I congratulate you on keeping alive the banner of non-sectarian sanity in the lett press. MJONES, Co Durham Southampton LP hits back I FEEL obliged to reply to your misleading report in News from Nowhere (23 August) concerning conference resolutions from Southampton Constituency Labour Party.
As a member of Southampton ILP, I cannot speak for Tribunites, nor for the 'Hodgson centrist grouping' (perhaps SC could tell me who these people are!), nor for comrades who were mandated by ward branches, but I can state that Southampton Labour Party has consistently and actively supported Camoaign for Labour Parti Democracy initiatives (indeed we were one of the original movers of the resolution some three years ago).
We completely reject the destructive and divisive tactics of the Militant if putting their own 'position' on party democracy in opposition to the CLPD initiative — tactics which have actually impeded progress on this question in the past. Certainly we were not willing to
African Barbarians
been
hoping
InclusIon
racial lines in South Africa
meeting is being mandate our delegates to vote against the interests of party democracy.
together to ensure the success of a conference resolution on Labour Party workplace organisation — it was unfortunate that the choice in the final ballot for the second resolution involved a motion on animal welfare and the splittist Militant position on pally uemoraly.
- In such a situation, particularly when no debate or amendment is possible, the only option as far as I'm concerned is abstention.
checks its sources more carefutly before repeating idle gossip, particularly when it concerns such a central issue as party democracy -worthy I would hope of more serious political comment.
CAROLYN MAXWELL, Southampton
A rosy image of
women at work IT WAS good to read about women's fight for equality in the United States and the progress they have made [Socialist Challenge, 13 September]. But Ilona Gersh, the iron ore miner, seems to have some odd experiences
have been harassed by their male co-workers it can be traced directly to the foremen's attitudetowards women and their discussions with mine worker.
who are the women bashers, while male workers are supportive — runs through the article, and is in complete contrast to reports of the shop-floor position in Britain.
Your article about a woman
Stop the Barbarians!
ON Monday 1 October the South
rugby team arrives in this country. It has already
banned from entering France and Ireland, but the Tories are more prey rede hoping ll with the toke. SART.
that token A coach black and Coloured players will divert attention from the tour match the continued organisation of sport along Camborne in
for the first match,
Some hope! Stop All Racist Tours October, [SART] are planning a hot reception for the Barbarians, to include trade union boycott action. A big public
organised Militant and ILP members voted
apprentices.
thing - profit
the rest.
I suggest that Socialist Challenge
capitalist nemselves tactical.
She says that each time 'women
enough.
This view - that it is management
| October in London to focus attention on the campaign; it will be held in Central London Poly, New Cavendish Street, W1 at 7.30pm, and the main speaker will be Peter Hain of
will leave after the meeting, at 10.30pm, for the second
following day Cornwall. Transport at Exeter on 3 is also being organised by SAKI. for further details please ring SARI c/o Anti-Apartheid at 01-581 5311. Readers in the South-west are particularly asked to get in contact.
• had training
'FREE
IMG
8371.
electrician at work, for example, described horrendous behaviour and WOMEN attitudes on the part of male
sondaTily
On the face of it, since management is interested in only one Lancaster
— it is quite possible that they would be keener to have women doing traditional men's work than male workers are, since the latter fear for their job security, status, and
Unless American male workers are programmed quite differently (and if so, how?), one is drawn to the conclusion that Ilona Gersh's rosy picture has something to do with the view that the working class is wartless.
So goodbye to women's, blacks' and gays' caucuses — the oppressed have got nothing to fight but the
Wonderful!
KEN PRICHARD, Bristol Odidry Opportunist logic I WOULD like to take exception to Socialist Challenge's editorial on •Ireland (13 September). It gave the impression that the reason we call for Troops Out Now, and not for *a declaration of intent', is purely
The editorial argued that 'a watering down of Troops Out Now will not suddenly ensure a qualitative growth in the numbers prepared to take action on Ireland'. This iș true
But the key sentence comes later: "This is not a criticism of the basis of the 12 August protest. The demand on which the march was called - thạt Britain declares its intent to withdraw — did allow wider discussion, wider sponsorship, and a greater variety of participating organisations.
Although it goes on to say that the Troops Out Now demand is liable to
become more important, the article
still implies that if we believed we
could organise qualitatively more
people on the withdrawal demand
then we would have to change our
minds — a thoroughly opportunist
logic by any standards.
The right of self-determination is 1
a fundamental principle of our
movement. It is not negotiable and
should certainly not be conditional on
the whims and manoeuvres of British
imperialism. What are British
promises worth anyway?
An equivocation on the Troops
Out Now demand inevitably compromises the question of
self-determination. We are not asking for Ireland to be left to settle its affairs when Britain decides that the time is right, but now!
In my opinion the editorial will sow confusion in our ranks as to our reasons for supporting the 12 August demo, and in our future orientation to currents such as this.
Wedidn't join the march in order to link arms with the Liberals, but to
politically disarm them and build
UTOM. We shouldn't sponsor these people or we will end up disarmed ourselves.
Two competing solidarity movements would be disastrous for UTOM and place great strains on our already fragile unity DAVESHILLINGLAW, Aberdeen
WHAT'S LEFT
: group has
Merseyside. Donations towards cost of rent rand to Socialist challenge Box 4) x tractly receIved 50. London N1 2XP.
BOOKS for Southern Africa comrades money is desperately needed for this vital field
Or send any book . Books for Southern Africa
102, Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, Londo
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ABORTION on Demand' and 'No
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UNION CPSA; 30 Sept, NALGO; 21 Oct, health; 3 N rail. For details write to Centre or phone 01-35 BATH: SOCIALIST CHALLENGE on sale at 1985 Books, London Road, and Satrudays 2pr
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AND IRELAND organising cortercice fo involved _ In iris
work or interested in becoming
lOam, St Matthews Church Road, London available. Registration: London: waged £1.50
50p. Chelsie
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST Tend-
wedness. or erectve solcarity with the Irist struggie. boeaker, Kate Marshall ri sor
London. Goodge St/Warren St tubes Koenuck Tottenham Court Road
bocaKers vishnu narma.
Wed 1008c 7.35pm Easim Town Al
High St South, London E6 COMMUNITY - energetic, capabie persoi ¡cucu to town can communty weverooment centre in cardir
from: Riverside Community Centre, Brunel St t34o casing oate • Details Riverside. Cardif. Tel: 0222-22310 PUBLIC MEETING: Beyond the Fragment
Rowbotham Lynne
Red Lion Square arrange accomodation and creche
Noting til Nic. Organised by Padington
TROOPS OUT NOW!
UTOM lobbynierent / of Labour Part Mo darence Contre ran 2, am Coaches leave
Page 15 scan of this page
shock to many peopie.
Once upon fime
(now there's
obituary seems timely.
TWO YEARS ago the BBC banned the original version of a film called Scum about the horror of life in a Borstal. Bill Cotton, the controller of the BBC, said he channel'. view it, like Cotton, yuu magistrate.
Written by Roy Minton and directed by Alan Clarke, the film traces what happens to three 'trainees' when they begin a new spell in Borstal. One is, black, slim-built white guy who's inside for a petty offence. Unlike the third boy, these two don't. stand chance: If you can't look yourself...then you become the victim of an endless round of beatings and harassment.
Many modern films glamourise violence, rape, and suicide. They are not banned and become big box office sucesses. however, is different. It portrays institutionalised violence, and Icycals now themselves nurture the violence of the strong against the weak. Hierarchy
Borstal is shown in the film to be a mirror image of the hierarchy of a Public school. The toughest and most brutal rise to the top and create A the top of the pyramid is thes ard boy create a tag-like system oi in the story who helps the screws keep order.
In one scene when 'Daddy', the third boy, smashes another inmate in the face with a sock Tul or Dinare Dals, une vice tels the screw de
WHEN T was first known that Bob Dylan had found religion and got himself baptised it came as something of a
The wrote anti-establishment masterpieces like It's Alright Ma', 'With Ciod on Our Side'
an irony) and 'The Times They Changing'. Only recently he campaigned actively for the release of Hurricane Carler, a black bover framed by the police. Now he has thrown in his lot with the Bible Belt. An
But the reality is a bit more complicated. Dylan has not
"did not want it on his Quite an understandable point of as d
and another 15 a
after
Scum,
the screws lackeys
"fell'.
reactionary described. Given
socialisn. what is
[sic! or he forever damned!
The asleep'.
'Counserfeit
up?"
in injury.
our side.
course.
rise to the top
Another screw watches while a boy is raped by three others and calmly tells the boy to get on with his work, accepting his explanation of having tripped'.
BOB DYLAN
RIP?
By Nigel Hamilton
crashed from on high overnight. For a start it has to be admitted thai, if you can ignore what he's saying. the music on his new LP Slow Train Coming' is as fresh and exciting as anything he's produced in rears.
But, more importantiy, Dylan is no
idenlogies. Over the years he has been a consistent woman-hater, Women 'break just like a little girl' or have to cook, sew, make flowers grow' or 'Lay across my big brass bed'. He has played the patriarch, the hastion of the nuclear famil, and then fought hard against giving up any of his property in his recent divorce seltlement.
He is a confirmed Zionist, reporiedly giving huge sums of money to Israel. He's owned huge mansions on the richest reai estate in C'alifornia. It has been a long time since Bot Dylan was tren remotely on our side.
What is different now is that he has openly come out with a solution to the probiems his songs hare previously only
This position. his individualism we could hardly expect that solution to be Compassion
Instead he has plumped for revivalist religion of the
'Either you got taith or disbelief ain't no middle ground." This religion lach: tren compassion (never his strong point). For example. 'Hon long can you falsit!
real? How long can you hate "'aliness that you feel?". or 'Imagine the darkness thai will Tall from on high/ When men beg God to kill them but they won's be able to die.' His new songs have one message: We are all helpless against Cind «ith no option but to serve him
He know, what he'sap against as well. On When You Cionna Wake dip' he sings In order to dream you gotta still
#fire tou wisht thing an apt comment on the spinn of the masses. But he goes on to explain himself:
philosophies have polluted thoughts Karl Mars has got you by the throat and Henry Kissinger has fied you up in knots/ When you gonna wake
Socialists, we are to conclude, pollute the minds of the people. We are slowly strangling everyone and, to add insult
are equated with imperialism's foremost advocates. Dylan is clearly not on
Alternatives
When you consider what else rock music has to offer; when hands like the Gang of Four, The Spoilsports, and, of
Tom Robinson are consciously sexism that has so long been at the heart of popular music.
Scum-'Only the most brutal
By Judith Arkwright
The unwritten
newcomer to wealth and his yourself for the your
American challenging the agreement between screws and 'Daddy' is like a microcosm of the
The uniformed screws maintain their control by setting the 'trainees' against each
when Linton Kwesi Johnson is so powerfully articulating ihe reality of being black in Britain (and calling for resistance). when the Resisters and Charge are taking issues like Ireland and anti-fascism onto the streets from the backs ot forries, when Rock Against Racism is one of the most creafive forces in rock music. do we really need a reclusive. millionaire preaching religion and reaction at us?
I'm sorry to say it. and I cling to the vague hope that his current phase won't last, but Bob Dylan is really no longer anything to do with what rock music is about. And he hasn't heen for quite some time.
other through racism, granting of privileges. fail, the governor is called in
And for those
ex-Metropolitan Police
Warning
wayward young people. however. Britain population in
especially
they have done outside. hope in the film
the The solidarity
imposed on throughout Scum.
Zionist. repression, and the When these methods
who think this . sounds far-fetched, some official representatives from Borstal claimed that all the incidents were possible but wouldn't happen in such a short space of time. The main screw is played by an
officer and incidents were based on reports by ex-Borsta
John Judd, one of the actors, says the film should be shown in schools as a warning to
We feel differently, has the highest prison West Europe, of then young people and more often than not black The film is a rounded indictment of the pera
Its i Calle of youn offenders, which the government's proposals for 'reform' will do nothing to improve.
The violence the "trainees' learn to respect inside the institution is far worse than anything
The only glimmer of is when the youth com together to organise a mini-strike in protest against the suicide of a new Borstal inmate.
of this action contrasts dramatically with the rampant individualism
'trainees' by SCTEWS
Socialist Challenge '27 September 1979 Fage 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
By Ron Thompson,
steward, Sheffield
ENGINEERING shop stewards in Sheffield at their quarterly meeting
called for national all-out action on our present claim. That was three weeks ago.
The same resolution
factories, Engineering Union bran-
ches and shop steward quarterlies are received by the AUEW's executive
council every day. After two months of a national overtime ban, successive one and two dav there still deadlock engineering industry.
The employers and Fleet Street are beginning to show signs of nerves.
she engineerine emolovers' Federa. tion has given the green light to its members to start mass lockouts.
The headlines in the press are becoming, more hysterically union and futile attempts continue to encourage scabbing on the strike.
The duration of the dispute has clearly taken the bosses by surprise. In
spite of the inadequacy of the claim itself and the half-hearted industrial action called by the union leaders, the workers in the industry responded overwhelmingly to the call' for support.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of the struggle is the fact that such a bastion of the right-wing as Terry Duffy is in the leadership.
When Duffy was succeed Hugh Scanlon as president of the AUEW. , he was welcomed with open arms by the press as a sensible 'moderate who openly declared his desire to see an end tö strikes in the industry.
Yet more working days already been lost in the engineering industry through official industrial action since Duffy ciected than during the whole period of Scanlon's term of office.
The truth is that Duffy has little choice in the matter. policy-making national committee of the AUEW has a narrow left-wing majority. It was this body rejected Duffy's first sell-out the claim earlier this year.
Since that decision Duffy has been trapped between the pressure of his own membership intransigence of the employers. There
that Duffy recommend calling off the action on the basis of one day's extra holiday -the employers' latest offer maintain credibility membership.
His awareness of this problem is no doubt sharpened by the threat that he LOLICS up for re-election president. next vear.
Since Duffy is not Scanlon, the Communist Party and its Broad Left THIS WEEK our fund drive total akes a big jump to £17,188.17.
commemorate Leon rotsky's centenary last Friday was #tended by over 400 people
ey gave us their backing to carry on Trotsky's work to the tune of over *Three thousand pounds.
Some of this was donations, some of it the proceeds of fur supporters' fundraising activities no the localities. But the point is that it puts us within striking distance of our 20.000 target.
So this is a message to every reader of Socialist Challenge. If every one of you gave us only one pound by the end of the month we'd go over the target.
Or, still better, you could follow the example of some of the people at the Rally and pledge us all or part of that tax rebate Maggie trying to buy us off with.
We won't waste the money, Every
Registered with
AUEW shop allies have no
to save face; strike fast
trom leaders.
Commanor
and of the workers. strikes, in the argue for abandoning This is why nanonal strike action
realise that this is the
anti- the executive council.
But if a
call a national strike.
have
leadership effective
elected national
promised: at should be
leadership to make it official. hawe
national
was demands of the claim itself.
The
1982. which attempt to down of the original claim,
were dropped altogether.
Thirty-five
and the
and holding the strikés together.
can now
campaign against made with the and
with the
to defeat the employers.
as
LIC LIVEL
Big boost for fund drive,
but price rise unavoidable
penny revolutionary
boost in that fight. and
quarter. individual
Street does,
launch further fund drives.
and further Thatcher's
go to 20p.
Post Office as a
desire to help him
wriggle off the hook. His main hope
has been that the employers would
throw a big enough sop to allow him
but Duffy must be that bosses'
economic interests come before their gratitude to right-wing trade union
The main danger now is that the the two-day stoppages without any conclusion in sight will begin to demoralise sections
Any signs of serious weaknesses in the strike will give Duffy his chance to
the struggle. it is vital that all-out. called as soon as possible, and an increasing number of workers are beginning to
only way forward, as is shown by resolutions to
national strike Is to become a reality, then resolutions are not enough. The rank and fue musi take action to force the leadership to
Shop stewards committees should demand the recall of the national shop stewards conference held in Sheffield in July of this year. A call from such a conference for national strike action - with or without the blessing of the
would be the most off the movement towards an all-out strike.
shop stewards co-ordinating committee, which was
the July conterence, set up to conduct the campaign for the rank and file to take indefinite strike action and force the
It is crucial that the rack and file • seizes the initiate pennot only to escalate the action, buf to ensure that there is no further retreat on the
It has been quietly reported in one
papers that Duffy has informally agreed to drop the demand for the 35-hour week by
This demand was a watering and it would have a disastrous effect if it
hours. is the one demand that is uniting the workers
Shop stewards committees must
Many being employers without ratification by the membership. The solidarity shown by the workers so far has proved that they have the strength
But time is running out. Unless the rank and file militants act now, Dutty will find the so-called 'breakthrough' that he is seeking and sell us all down
will go io the fight for socialist. politics.
Making the £20,000 will give us a big
Rush your donations and pledges to SC, PO Box 50, London N1 - and get them in before the end of the
However, despite the boost to the fund drive, it is not possible for us to avoid a rise in the price of Socialist Challenge. Whilst no left-wing paper can expect to be totally self-financing, since we do not enjoy the massive income from advertising that Fleet
our paper must have a stable base income from which to
I. Miles
With increasing costs of all kinds,
printing increases expected due to the rises in paper prices, we feel that now is the time to
newspaper. Published by
Engineers:
ERNAT Our thanks this week to:
A. Holling
Janet Hughes M. Jones Hugo Dewar IMG Irish Fraction •Ed Mahood Canada).
Relgacrest? Ltd.
TWO DAYS
NOT ENOUGH
ALL
OUNI
TO WIN
BACKDATE TO APRIL 1st.
E. Ryan Shaffee AHN £1.00 P. Roberts 2.00 D. Stevens 1.50 Amit 5.00 John H. 5.00 Rab Bird 2.00 Nöttingham IMG : 10.00 Thomas Boushier (USA). for Socialist Challenge, 328/9
CHARTERI TRoche •M Rice Preston IMG B Sachs R Correll
Camden IMG
Centenary rally
5:00 100.00
6.00 10.00 10.00
Fund. 10.00
5:00 My name is... 25.00 23.00
Address.....
1.01 Upper St, London NI.
CHARTERI
2.00 10.00 14.26 10.00 6.00 Middlesbrough IMG 2.00
22.25 Tower Hamlets IMG 16.00 Moss Side IMG, Manchester 30.00
3158:00
Cumulative total €17,188.17
I won't be bought off by the Tories' anti-working class budget measures. I want the money I receive from the backdated tax cut to go to the fight against the Tories. I therefore pledge
whole tax rebate/half tax to the Socialist Challenge (*Delete as appropriate]
Printed by East End (offset) Ltd. P.O. Box 82, London E2
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