Socialist Challenge No. 120, No v, 1979
The scan: sc-n120-nov-01-1979.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
Socialist Challenge NEW TORY IMMIGRATION POLICY WHITER THAN WHITE LAWS
What would the attitude of Margaret Thatcher and William White Law have been to the law passed in Nazi Germany which removed German nationality from the Jews? The new laws being proposed by the Tory government are not fundamentally different.
Most of those who will suffer under the new racist nationality laws will not be the rich and powerful. They will be people like Nasira Begum of Stockport, Manchester.
Married
She came to Britain from Pakistan in 1976 to visit her brother. While in this country
TORIES SAY
she married a British citizen. Three months later her husband deserted her.
Three years later the Home Office declared that it must have been a 'marriage of convenience'. She was given two weeks to leave the country.
The deadline has passed, but she is still in the country.
A local committee, 'Friends of Nasira Begum', has been campaigning since that time and is organising a demonstration on Saturday 17 November. They can be contacted c/o 595 Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester 12.
The new Tory laws mean
POOR MUST
GET POORER
that the fight must be stepped
up.
Refused
widow. She is totally
dependent on her family in
Rochdale. She is old, infirm,
partially deaf and nearly blind.
this country last August. At
first she was refused entry, but
then granted a short stay. Now
she has been told to leave
immediately.
been deported already is
because she is too ill to travel.
every immigration officer
A quarter of the population of Britain is living in or close to poverty. That is the conclusion to a study of poverty
Peter Townsend, published last week. little bit.
Boyson, the Tory number two at the Education Ministry he defended cutting free school meals. 'School meals,' product of war-time and rationing. Why perpetuate this old fashioned custom?'
•For instance, Environment Heseltine said that rises in the next
Around for local workers - among the
Said Bibi is an 80 year old
She came to her family in
blacks.
The only reason she has not
Humanity
The new Tory laws will give
workers in the country
which sackings.
It does not worry the Tories one
For instance, last week Dr Rhodes
get poorer was asked how now. said Boyson, *are a Protest
on Monday, Tory Secretary Michael
СОУСТИНСИ lowest paid
renewed confidence to keep
blacks out of this country.
All the families that will be
kept apart will be non-whites.
The hundreds of people locked
up under the immigration laws
are non-whites. All
immigration laws discriminate stay.
against black people. There is
no such thing as a non-racist
immigration law. The Tories
have now made this crystal
clear. No restrictions on white
Rhodesians. No entry for
These laws are an offence
to humanity. They must be
- would have to be below the existing inflation rate.
Heseltine also threatened that the Party. alternative was yet a further round of
Holding back the pay of low-paid workers; cutting the welfare state, in mean - quite simply - that the poor
The Tory plans need to be fough the
One way of fighting is to join the demonstration and rally against the cuts on 7 November. The protest has been called by Lambeth council and is supported by the South-east Regional
No. 120 1 November 1979 20p fought by all those who claim to be opposed to racism. The demonstration on 25 November must be built for in the labour movement as a whole.
Black people are here to
Axing
*The government also announced on Monday that it
is axing Britain's special political refugee programme
for Latin America. The Chile
Solidarity Campaign is calling a picket of 10 Downing Street on Thursday 8 November from noon to 3pm to demand that
Britain 'keep the door open'.
Council of the TUC and the South Regional Council of the Labour
Labour-controlled Camden coun cil has given its workers the day off to support the demonstration. Workers
Wandsworth hospitals under the threat of the axe have voted to strike on 7 November, as have workers in
Wandsworth direct works department.
The protest is in solidarity with Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark area health authority, which refused to implement the cuts and is in general opposition cuts in social expenditure.
Jom unt largest protest so far against the Tory cuts. Assemble at noon, Clapham Common.
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28 OCTOBER THE MA ON Sunday 28 October, 40,000 people marched through London to protest against t
9.30am Congress House STEWARDS arrive for a meeting at the TUC. Official representatives trade unions and trades councis and Laly women from the campaign groups receive armbands and badges saying. 'TUC steward'.
People remark that these should be sent to a museum of feminist history — to commemorate the TUC calling demonstration for women's abortion rights. official meeting by going through the timetable and explaining the order of the march. We are to steward in teams.
We have to line up behind the chief stewards for each section picking teams for games at school. The women mainiy.opt women's movement sections for the march, and after a Sort yourselves out, girls' or two we pile into a coach taking us to Hyde Park. 11.30am Speakers' Corner THE Liverpool train has
with hundreds anti-Corrie demonstrators Hundreds of coaches are dotting the motorways that encircle few are already at Hyde Park.
In London itself the tubes are full of demonstrators. The mood is defiant. On the journey from. Finsbury Park to Marble Arch (not forgetting to change at Oxford Circus) Haringey NAC яге doing a brisk sale in badges.
In Hyde Park itself the stage is set.
testing equipment. stewards are hurriedly pinning on their wadges... 12 noon HYDE PARK is coming cranks and tourist attractions completely swamped as on all occasions. Hundreds of trade union banners [mainly NALGO, ASTMS, going up. The TUC person mag amoancements.
They sound weird coming from his mouth: 'Will the sisters of Bury NAC assemble at point X'
Arainst Corrie assemble at point Y', and so on.
Thousands of unionists, particularly the public sector where the far left is strong, a tew hundred from the industrial unions, the largest contingent from England sections of the GMWU, and again thousands of supporters from the women's movement are there.
The picture that demonstration is that it is mainly the women's movement, and mobilised by the left groups. The TUC may have given the green light for the
come out demonstration, but for its own part it mobilised no more than a few hundred full-time officials.
Some of us think back to the James White demo and think how far we've come since then.
1pm still in Hyde Park...
ROCK Against Roles and London Zoo
are blaring out across the park. Song
sheets I've got a brand new Private
Members' Bill'
punks and trade unionists alike.
Liberation banner charges across Hyde
Park shouting: 'Women at the front',
the march'...the TUC
•women ego
has cocked it up again.
1.30pm
PAM SHEPHERD was in the CPSA
contingent directly behind the TUC
banner reading: Keep it legal, Keep it
safe. "At first we thought we were
stopping because of the traffic, then we
saw women rushing by.
"I wandered up,
Murray telling the
"We're not having
leading the march. This is our march. If
they want to lead the march they can go
elsewhere.'
'The CPSA contingent of several
hundred were soon persuaded to leave
Len Murray behind arguing and join
the women. We had to
through the police and TUC stewards
" get were doever.
'We tried to persuade the Society of
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
SEXUAL POLITICS
from
abortion
ıge]
starts the Socialis
to steward the
almost of aboard.
London. A alive. The яге such
white collar:
CPSA, NUT] are
starts
iwill the Gays
white-collar trade
North
emerges of the
those
on the are being passed to
Women's
and heard Len
police and press
being wouldn't budge.
time it narrowed.
fight our way 'Our
Page 2
AH TION
• NIS
ABORTION
ON
DEMIND
Civil and Public Servants to join us but
Jama encu union they The women marched off and the TUC followed keeping a gap behind — a gap that Len Murray kept by slowing down the demo every
assistant general sécretary, Alisdair Graham, kept on grabbing the CPSA banner to try and get back with I the TUC but our rank and file members
A WOMANS
got so angry they physically removed him. All he was worried about was damaging his career with the TUC 2pm at last we're off DOWN Park Lane we pass the Playboy Club. A Bunny sits on the window. If it's a provocation, it works.
Women chant
castration on demand' and
women's army is marching' I repeatedly. Men who venture into this
contingent get a cool reception. The tanners "london. women's Rib, Birmingham
about. 2.45pm arrival at the Square WE REACH Free London "The is sune …fe the
•al the Liberation, Spare Women's Liberation. Women's Aid placards are dotted
Trafalgar Square.
Women's Libération breaks into a trot and tries to take their banner
platform where Len Murray and Marie Patterson are sitting
T.U.C.
ABO KEEP I KEEP
CAMPAIC
THE LO
in state.
The police stop them and & breaks out 'Women's banner platform'. Then some women chant 'Not the unions, not the women will decide their fate'. TUC, realising this slogan is not popular, remains intractable 3pm... meanwhile back in Hyd BACK IN the park Carade Corrie finally moves off.
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RCH OF THE 40,000 Corrie anti-abortion Bill. Val Coultas and Tariq Ali were with them.
GAL SAFE
AGRINST
WOMAN
ABOUR
MOVEMEN
HOM
'We leave the park, drowning out
hree people from SPÚC by singing:
ust you wait Mr Corrie, just you wait.
ou i be sorry but your tears will come
late. We sang all the way to the te. The Big Flame song sheet really in handy.
As we passed Piccadilly we saw
strators walking back from the
tyr When we arrived we joined the
omen dancing and singing 'We won't
be ruled by men no more. 3.15pm
to the continual heckles
march. She explains abortion is for working people.
Jo Richardson, Labour
full which
MARIE Patterson, announcing herself as the 'chairman' of the TUC women's advisory committee, starts off the rally
of a small section of worgen from the front of the
important
MP, waS she next. She said she was speaking with the
But much more report?
a hopported the demo Party
supported demo and woman's right to choose.
She hoped that with the NEC in charge of the party manifesto, the next Labour government would be forced to take more positive action for abortion rights. She particularly paid tribute to the National Abortion Campaign and
finished up with the rousing statement that:
It is normal for the Special Branch to 'observe' demonstrations. As the abortion march filed into Trafalgar Square at least four SB members studied the faces of the marchers.
interesting, the person indicated in the photograph was actually on the demonstration and was pulled out of it by his colleagues with whom he is pictured.
There are some questions that we would like Labour MPs to ask the Home Secretary: How many Special Branch officers were employed on the demonstration? Why were they there? How much overtime were they paid? What was their report of the demonstration? Where is the
T.U.C. says ABORTION KEEP IT LEGAL KEEP IT SAFE 'We must show chauvinist body women are not prepared to put up with these restrictions'. But even this failed to satisfy the women at the front who still heckled.
The next speaker annoyed many in the Tory Nelson said he was in favour of the "individual freedom control their own bodies'. He did not
which make rights.
Paris, •NAC -
But,
fighting abortion:
1967 Act.'
February.
'Stand by keep it safe.' biggest trade
Relations Act.
the kind
lead such a fight.
speeches,
Anger
few
win the vote. the size of the
Parliament, that Parliament, that
JC Nee
MP Anthony
of women to
which make tonsens ta
nonsense abortio
Marie Patterson helped to the audience a little by her the pickets that were taking
Maona AMSICTURN Brussels and Copenhagen is:
Angela Phillips, speaking addressed the women who heckling throughout the speec we should have a women's the platform, she said, and there should be. Women
had made abortion a and the she went do gee
she went on, movement needed the trade
such powerfal e TUC support meant that the i abortion could be raised 'where had never been a women's group been a NAC group'.
She added that it was a sham the women who were shouting loades had not been with us campaigning.
She also made it clear that wor
should decide abor "An inherent belief in the stupidity of women is written into th
She argued that despite this, the 67 Act had helped to free women frown the fear of pregnancy and that they wood never return to the old sitnation
She ended her speech by thanking people for the tremendous turn out on the demonstration, but urging peoph to take a day off work again on 5
'Working women Powd have to lose a lot more than one day's wages if the Corrie Bill passes.
Len Murray was the last speaker. He told us why the TUC was opposing the act and finished off with the slogan
the "67 Act. Keep it legal,
Assurance
Marie Patterson closed the rally with the assurance that this was the
union demonstration since the march against the Industrial
That march gave the green light to
hitu opposition lIST defeated Heath and could certainly defeat Corrie. The TUC leaders gave no indication that they're preparing
As the platform walks away after their
the demonstration IS SEl entering the square. Surely it would have been better to have the rally at Hyd Park, ending the demonstration with a march 1o Downing Street.
is obviously mounting against the Tories and the campaigo ha got off to a good start. The energies of feminists must be harnessed in the next
months to build the kind of campaign the suffragettes launched to
We cannot wait for the trade unions to act. We have to combine getting across to the ranks of the trade unions
- particularly the female ranks - — with a campaign that shows that women can fight and they will not accept such an assault on their rights as human beings. A postscript: Later that night THE TV is switched on to see how our nice, objective media reports the demo. The Beeb is true to form. The size of our demo is not mentioned, but equal time is given to a SPUC demo which has only a thousand people on it
ITV ignores SPUC, but fails to give
demo either. What happened? Possibly the police hadn't worked out what figure they were goim to give till later on. They finally decide on 17,000 which was duly reprinted in most papers the next morning. It makes
The contact name and telephone number we published last week for Scotland was incorrect. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979 Page 3
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HOME NEWS
with cuts
By Rich Palser and Patrick Sikorski
ANTI-CUTS campaigners in West London scored an important victory last week, when the Faling, Hammersmith and Hounslow Health Authority voted to defy a government instruction to cut £2,126,000 from the Gospital services.
As a result; six hospitals and clinics of a list of 23 items for the chop saved from closure. But the reprieve could well be short lived:
When Lambeth AHA took a similar stand recently, the Tories appolnted nediti cominissioners to dominister the cuts in its place. To avoid a similar fate, the Hounslow authority decided on Wednesday of last week to 'show willing' despite its refusing to tow the government's line. It voted to balance the books' by 1981.
Compromise
Even the motion rejecting the cuts, put by Alf King who is leader of the Labour group on Hounslow council, compromised by making a £350,000 cut, on the grounds that savings' could be made.
Unfortunately bealth secretary, will not be ruse. In a letter refusing the AHA's request that a broad based delegation be allowed to meet the Lambeth
Fightback
By Hilary Tarr
SINCE Lambeth Council made its
make any cuts
services, the Labour
launched a campaign to win support.
Party is working alongside
campaigns opposing the cuts, such as
Lambeth Fightback.
The council has
Hen suzul for
which is being supported by hospital
workers Wandsworth,
members throughout
London Education
LAILY other workers
London.
Most of the council unions in
Lambeth have voted to take strike
action on the day,
National Union of
ananimously to ask all teachers to
attend the demonstration.
Lambeth Fightback
based campaign formed by Lambeth
Trades Council and now supported by
NALGO, NUPE, and the
tenants'
community groups.
demanding that
expanded, not cut, and is producing
leaflets, TUS CIS and
Wie are holding a public meeting on 1 November at 7.30pm in Lambeth
Town Hall to rally support for the
demonstration. The riserables Clapham 200 pa.: lorember.
Tories press on
Area
area
part
dismantled and
Hated by
different.
The
"genuine propsed by Vaughan, the Tories'
confused by this
Oxford
By Anita Richards
DESPITE last
Jay locally), EEC (£29,000), McLachlan in
group has
within the Labour chairperson of the AHA.
other
called November,
NUPE £ll million to £30 million. the Inner Rather than Anthoriv. and
throughout
and Lambeth Teachers voted
is a broad miles away; there were admissions, uncommon these days.
NUI aS organisations and is Fulham
Fightback
need to be FULHAM
monthly
local Tory
campaign, told us about it.
demonstration
Common.
Another local authority backs down, but
minister, Dr Vaughan made it clear that the authority must "stick to cash limits'.
Under these proposals, means making cuts in services. Savings The people who may be confused by the tactics of the health authority are the potential supporters of the campaign to stop the cuts. The last Labour government alse insisted there was room for 'genuine sayings', but none of the money saved found its way services. The was fewer bospital beds and longer waiting lists.
Without the vigorous campaign coordinthe recent. established Assembly Against the Cuts, the vote of 15 to 9 for Alf King's motion could well have been very
health workers and unionists mobilised by the campaign made their presence felt throughout the AHA meeting — in the public gallery, on the lobby outside, and in a lightning occupation at the Hounslow Hospital down the road.
That they wil continue to oopose any cuts the AHA was made clear at a of health workers Hospital the next day. management, mistakenly thinking that the full meeting originally
ON THE KNIFE EDGE
Your services, your struggles — send us your news
year's cuts, the Oxfordshire Area Health Authority has again been unable to keep within its underfunded budget. For this they blame the VAT increases (£42,000),
awards (£247,000 to be found
directives nurse and inflation running at three times the anticipated We could add the 749 unpaid private patients' bills (at an average cost of nearly 1300 per Datient per suppliers. week); the £2,200 spent each week on agency staff (which does not include nurses as there is a nurse "bank'); the renewed six month contract for the
firm of management consultants, costing £10,700; and the 190 per cent increase in salary for the
Here there is genuine room for savings — though the ories are noi quick to make cuts in these quarters. printing a Nor was there any public query when the building contract for the new John Radcliffe No 2 hospital soared from
turned up looking in the direction of private profit, the health authority prefers to cut staff. A three month initial freeze in vacancies intended to "lose", the equivalent of 200 full-time jobs. A foretaste of the effects came in September when the new hospital closed its doors for 48 hours — through nurse shortages.
Those they thought might survive the ordeal were sent to a hospital 20
but. then that is not
BATHS have been occupied for the last three weeks by trade unionists and users, who are through trying to prevent its closure by the
Paul Kenny, a
nember of the G&MWU active in the
Our biggest problem has been baying oil 1o keep the baths running. Centre, The problems isa't money, it's that the
"balance the books' inte improving
Hounslow
other trade
at Middlesex to replace them. PAUL KENNY
counci warned oft their usual
We are asking trade unionists to lend us their skills. have got a chemist advising us, as well as a structural engineer making report on the building.
"They tried intimidation to stop us, | got a bill for £750 which they said was for oil we used, but we laughed it loff. Other campaigners have received bills for £1400 and more.
'We built up to the occupation by
newspaper which went throughout the area, and holding a big public meeting to which we invited the Tory councillors. Over 300 people
— we couldn't get them all and the councillors got a shock.
'They got up and tried to arguments like "surely you could buy a washing machine"?. The Tory leader had to resign shortly after.' Edinburgh EDINBURGH and District Trades Council is to hold a conference aimed at establishing a broad-based labour movement campaign against the cuts.
A letter invitation to conference, which is being held on Saturday 3 November, points out that 'the whole trade union movement is opposed to the public expenditure cuts, to the resulting loss of jobs either
'natural wastage' redundancies. The cuts affect the whole movement, not just the public
Their jobs and our services must be protected.'
Credentials from the Trade Union
12/14 Picardy Place, Edinburgh.
any shorter by cutting the number of hospital beds.
package of cuts would be passed, Carl Brecker from the joint shop stewards committee told the bosses that the unions were refusing to sit down and discuss implementing any cuts - with the AHA or with any commissioners appointed
As Carl summed up the situation: 'The first battle has been won, but the war has only just started. This is a national fight against the Tory
in safety row
By John Parkinson Secretary, Preston and steward at GEC.
LAST month iwo workers were killed and five injured when an explosion demolished Attwater's
plant in Transport the cetaral
Transport Workers • Union at been sacked.
Bob Leeming was trying to build worne anion ano get l recognised when the explosion seemed to confirm their worst fears over health and safety in the firm. Not only were Altwater's danger Riverside right next to a children's playground. we trades council and local residents t they got together
campaign against the rebuilt on the same site. Aftwater's claim they must build it there because of the insurance.
When Bob was transferred to the other site after the explosion, another accident prompted him to talk to the women there about joining the union.
This resulted in a management that they would try to
use - build Councils of Action
bodies.
Warley, West Midlands.
NEWS OF the Area Health Authority's decision not to implement the Tory cuts was greeted with cheers and applause by those occupying Hounslow Hospital to protest against any cuts. They heard how one AHA member, P Croft who is a member of the Freedom Association, had had the nerve to blame health workers for overspending, suggesting that they fiddle clock cards. He then went on to say that the problem was with bad management — as if better management could make waiting lists
really damaging
only a national fightback will.'
Death firm sack steward
Trades Council
Riverside
General Attwater's has Bob Leeming.
occurred. This
workers in expected'.
with TITe GEC plant being warning from
'Education under attack.'
A conference organised jointly by the Socialist Teachers Alliance and Rank and File Teacher
Speakers include Caroline Benn At: The Starcross School, Risinghill St, London N1 10 & 11 November. Full details from Tony Graham, 13 Bloomfield Rd, N6.
Campaign for Democracy in the Labour Moyement National Conference - Prepare to force out the Tories - for mass action against the Tory anti-union laws - for strikes and occupations against the cuts
Saturday 3 November, 10.30 am - 5pm Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham Open to all trade unionists and delegates from labour movement Details and credentials £1: from Godfrey Webster, 99 Barclay Rd,
Photo: PETE GRANT
"Thatcher doesn't like it when we force an AHA to oppose cuts, because ordinary working people start to think "maybe these cuts are
services" Sending in commissioners shows what the Tories think of so called "democratic control" through the AHA. That will not stop the cuts, however —
sack him. Now they have reason given is that his 'attitude to the company since the tragic explosion at Allwater's has not been all that is
The trades council is producing a pamphlet explaining what conditions were like before the explosion, and at the stewards are discussing boycotting insulation board supplied to them by Attwater's. The local TUC course on health and safety, a day release course attended by stewards throughout the area, voted to picket the Hotwood St site.
We have to make sure the T&G gets recognition, that a new site is found for the plant, and that Boh Leeming gets his job back.
Page 5 scan of this page
FIGHTING BACKINBL
HOMENEWS
There is
another
way...
By Pat Kane
NO MATTER which way the vote goes in the bosses' ballot at British Leyland the light to save our jobs has to go on.
only thing that Leyland bosses are interested in is more money, bigger profits. First they dreamt up the Ryder plan union participation in which disarmed Leyland workers -and now it's the Edwardes' plan for a 'slimmer' British Leyland with *fewer people' through 25,000 workers.
The union leaders, *participating' Leyland, accepted the Edwardes' plan, just like they've accepted every other lousy idea that Leyland management has come up with for the past few years. They supported the jobs over the last 18 months. supported speed up and productivity deals.
Alternative
Edwardes says there alternative to accepting his plan. The union leaderships have gone along with that. But we say there is another way, For a fight to nationalise the whole of the car and components industry - including Ford.
*No TENTHORNES
*No transfer of work from other plants.
*No participation in job cutting, SCIENCH shop committees.
*No more bosses ballots. trade union democracy, with meetings to decide on action. Sack the union leaders who voted for the plan.
*Recall the Combine Committee and prepare the fight.
*For a national meeting of all By Andy Blundell,
ASTMS group secretary, ICL West Gorton plant
THE THREATENED closure of the Internationa Comonters'
Dukinfield, near Manchester, shows once and for all that internationalism
not a moral issue workers.
As Dukinfield closes,
negotiating for a new plant in South
Africa, where it would doubtless take advantage of non-unionised, paid workers. It was only last year that ICL sold massive computers to South Africa specifically administration of the pass laws. The threatened closure at ICL is the
British
management
sacking
who've been
have
loss of 20,000
They plant
stewards Edwardes' ballot. stewards
Full plant answers. How
we argue against taking
Computer firm
opts for apartheid
South plant extend
of new technology. for British its history of ICL alasted
lowof cheap labour.
At for the
Secret Ballot on the Company's plan for the
recovery of BL BALLOT PAPER
DO YOU GIVE YOUR SUPPORT TO
BL's RECOVERY PLAN?
Are reading a comparin briar cretiny, please indicate your.
YES
WHY THE
A FRAUD
who voted No
Of course there are a great many questions to which we cannot give pat
can Leyland be financed without closures? How do
voluntary redundancy? How do we change the unions into organisations that fight to defend jobs and not participate in
Last
LIRa price of the failure of British workers. including those within ICL, to really support the campaign against the sale ment. of computers to the apartheid regime.
Africa is clearly eager to own manufacturing Fairey's industry, particularly in the key areas
ICL was an obvious firm to approach because of
collaboration with of
help make South Africa attractive to investors by bolstering the pass law system, guaranteeing a steady supply
By ume or le campaign against the sale of computers, South African trade unionists came to speak to li workers and warned us thai
NO
SIX GOOD
REASONS
BALLOT'S
returnames pass
Toanimer these queszions ne bare build strong and
organisation of militants against the
Edwardes' plan We
overcome our differences and begin
to organise to fight back. In Ford the
Ford Workers' Group is just that sort
of organisation - one that fights and seeks to answer the political questions
the next step would be for our jobs to go to South Africa: We were sceptical then, but not now
The present fight against Dukinfield closure is still going on.
Thursday, when management were expecting a cosy
with union officials at Employers Federation, they instead met by a 150 strong picket of Dukinfield workers. It was women workers from the assembly areas who had mobilised most prominently for the picket. Resistance
Resistance to • Ine closure spreading across the company, with the call for a national overtime ban already being implemented on several sites. Delegates from Dukinfield are touring the other sites to extend the action, with the aim of forcing a rapid retraction of the closure announce.
The fight at Dukinfield will be aided by the decision of workers at
engineering plant blockport to resist I00 redundancie‹ announced by their management. There have been a staggering number
redundancies declared Manchester engineering firms -in the last month. This has pushed the Manchester Confed to call a stewards' meeting in December.
building that meeting Dukinfield workers can not only win support for their struggle but spread their determination to fight redundancies to the whole district.
By Pat Hickey
Yes vote they want.
2
essential for this.
3
autited
could begin to pose a real series solution io the probiems oi Lajan 18UL the import streamlining of the so-called Trade Union Alternative. It could develop the fighting spirit and self-confidence of those militants by allowing them
the
ICL
the By Anna Reese were
IT IS not only the workers in the big car plants that are coming
components maustry suffering. One hundred women are on strike to defend their pay structure at the Draftex factory which makes car seats in Coventry.
The strike began on 11 October aller a oreakaown Il with management proposing to cut wages. It is only women workers who are attected br management's proposals — the male workers at the plant have been laid off.
The strikers are still waiting for the Transport Union to recognise the strike so that they can get strike pay -present they are donations. Even the married women
benetits. It tnev were married mer • 2925 they would get some money for their
dependents The women strikers had not been particularly active union the before the strike, but they are solidly
involved in the action. Megan Bull, one of the strikers, also they were building
trade union consciousness among the
THE BOSSES' ballot at BLisa fraud and a sham. Here are a number of good reasons why the ballot should be rejected even if management do get the
The BI bosses spent a lor of money on taking out fuli page adverts in every car town'slocal press. Car component firms like Lucas
5
Hate laken out doverl urging a Yes vote too. The Birmingham Evening Mail gave front page freatment to the Edwardes letter to BL workers, No such facilities were extended to the opponents of Edwardes plan.
While this barrage of pro-management publicit, goes on the individual worker has to make up their own mind, vote and post the baliot form. With the bosses' view presented as the only rational one most workers will not have the confidence to disagree. A democratic decision has to be based on collective discussions and the collective strength of BL workers. Mass meetings are
The ballot is based on • dividing the worhforce.
In the plants that are staying open the bosses have presented a glowing picture of the fulure - to encourage the workers at those plants to vote awas the job of worker- in
organseren controk and
Coventry: This strike
has been a revelation'
'We younger
under Midlands. The car disc We
negotiations which was
because
supported us,
surviving on
entitled to supplementary
and jobs.
and bovcoti members stars.
explained how be boycotted too confidence and
the threatened worher. and
*огкег •noud ‹ole 1! c. 3 . = with another worher sinh
The hallot ha-an.... -stingin it. Evers. ne
in supervisor ha- an equal . with the shop fler. But ste the! the perple realis ai'=.': :
Despile ail ite De"
kept hidden. PatI.nu-r personnel director. ta...letter to the union, deltaalree hand toculturiar" step upproduct!!! profit. and ...n. current stage »! The F. n plan i accrpled. H... - =-
particular letter
Finalis • leaders.
voteintheballur.ca
alternalis the Mrmhe"..s Trul incl SUCt
The Leytand Aition Commansser become such an organisarion. noss is the time to start building it
trying to utrodact members 1o union pro cedures. We take different ones with us when we have invitations speak, and then they can go back and talk about it with the others.
Grave formed strike committee and we have plans abom the branch as more of a thing after the strike. In the factors we were in a closed circuit. This strike has been a revelation to us.
Help on the picket lines is nooded 'We have nothing regular orgacises
of family husbands and so on, so we have ra organise it as we can. Husbands bare
mine has personall done five nights picketing and some have brought wood for our fire.
After so many defeais in is an industry in Coventre-s imagera that these women win the front line in the defence of mage
Workers in car zistin plants should check out the sectic
The lorry owned Bourtes registration number VAM crashed through the picket line should
Donations to the strike fund can be sent to: Megan Bull, 4 Eastlands Grove, Coundon, Coventry. Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
'Chapel power stays, says shopfloor leader
ON 29 November 1978, the day when the lock-out at Thomson newspapers began, William Rees-Mogg, editor of The Times, wrote on its last editorial page: "Truth in words can never be justified unless it also meets the test of truth in action.
This piety was intended to justify was be one longest-running British labour history.
Management made its demands -which included cutting its workforce by 10 per cent, the direct input of copy dy Journalists and cierical stari, and the effective transfer of power from the print union management and the union head offices - and then threw most of its employees out the door.
Now that the papers will shortly be landing on the establishment's breakfast table again, Geoffrey Sheridan asked BRADY, father of the NATSOPA machine room chapel at the Sunday Times, about the "truth in action'.
It was this chapel, whose members run the printing machines, management blamed for a series stoppages prior to the lock-out, and it is Reg Brady whom much of the press identifiedasthe key trade union figure involved.
In terms of management's achievements, the certainly wasn't à victory for them. They lost 150 million amounting to £30m, together with the good faith of their employees. It will lake inem. years to overcome cne resentment that's built up against them.
Much of what Thomson management tried to do was based on the experience of the United States, where the print unions were slaughtered.
They had Canadian lawyers word all the documentation which meant, for example, that the workforce was
By John Thackara,
Campaign Against Racism
Media
THE BBC, concerned employees may take action over the content of programmes,
SCU procedure to deal with such cases and to head off the possibility of collective action.
The Corporation's concern doubt arises from recent instances of writers and producers criticising the BBC's censorship drama and documentary programmes dealing with Ireland, and from the response to the broadcast last April of
political broadcast by
National Front.
When TV stations in eight cities were picketed during the broadcast, the BBC took the staffing key centres exclusively with management personnel.
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
The Times v The Unions
the
of the downs?
chapels
Thomson news-
REG
technically "suspended", meant which unemployment of security.
self-respect.
Fleet Street. lock-out national copies, Now we'ye caught up.
their chest.
men wno
Times.
natural wastage.
The late Lord Thomson in the Sunday Times machine room in 1961
BBC weighs its workers'
secretary, 1n the
that its
has begun disciplinary hearings in such cases.
July, as
publicly of Broadcasting National Union of Journalists.
conduct on and puts the nary discussion,
of
racist or ally Page 6
Have you ever wished
you were better informed?
THE TIMES
DICK
SAND
and this could claim benefit or social
A victory for us? I would say the chapel representatives have held their
My section goes back with a pay rise of over 50 per cent, but this has to be seen in the context of the rest of
During the preceding four years, Thomson was the only which stuck rigidly to pay restraint.
There isn't a clear indication of how many jobs have been lost - the FoCs are keeping the figures close to
We're losing 90 out of 540 shifts in the machine room. That's the loss of Saturday night to produce the Sunday come in here on cent.
If no one volunteers to go, then it will be through attrition
intake where months.
But it was, ironically, an Asian technician who was asked to start the video-machine at BBC TV Centre that put Martin webster on the air, and the technician refused to do it. Now terms the Corporation is trying to get the
disciplinary
A first meeting was held on 23
result of which Hugh Pierce, the BBC's assistant controller
has sent a confidential letter to the Association
This aims to establish a 'Code of
matters of conscience' forward a number of proposals arising from the prelimi-
which the letter stresses are only of a tentative nature.
But Piece makes clear that the BBC has no intention of recognising the right of its employees to object to
reactionary
RADIO 2
OUT OF CHAS WIL
SALISBURY TROOPS
END BBC
SANCTION
BUSTING
Against Raclsm in the Media last August
So it could take five years to achieve that. There are a number of men here aged over 64. Thomson's pension scheme is the worst on Fleet Street - it's f2 a week — which is why they stay on. Now, with f2,500, they will take the opportunity to go.
Management wanted a 63 per cent cut in my chapel. They've got 16 per
Chapel power has not weakened at all. They wanted their overseers to control the work and the
of labour, with complete flexibility of staff to do any They've failed completely on I'm still the ganze macher (Yiddist for "big shot) in the machines
As for direct input, the National Graphical Association is committed to discussing it with NATSOPA and the NUJ in order to introduce new technology into the composing room,
copy is typeset, within
That means a reduction of 40 pe cent in the composing room, and if it goes to arbitration I think the NGA will end up conceding it. They've got ¡ content of programmes.
His letter states that the working party on 23 July agreed to examine the make-up' of a body whose sole
of reference would be determine whether his (the employee's) refusal to undertake the duties concerned is justified in all the circumstances or not'.
The concluding paragraph adds "The recognised unions for their part agree that in such cases (where the employee tound action on their part shall be limiter exclusively the advocacy representation of the individual concerned' - in plain English, that means they won't LaKC industrial action.
That's the BBC's version of what it would like the agreement to say, and so far the discussions have not been communicated to members of the ABS, the main union concerned.
Such an agreement, if
JIMMY
RACIS
snA KILL!
Above: Reg Brady, father of the machine room chapel at the Sunday Times, on a picket of the BBC held by the Campaign
big problems. With compensation of up to £25,000 a worker - and that's before the new pay rates — that's a very large carrot to dangle in front of anyone.
The NGA ought to sit down with all the unions in the industry and talk seriously about amalgamation. While they've always said that they're the craftsmen in the industry, been now moving into the semi-skilled and
clerical areas in order to make up their numbers traditional recruitment areas. job. that. between
NATSOPA is democracy. All full-time officers have to stand for re-election every three to five years, while the NGA's are elected for life Unity is now vital. As far as the present agreement with management goes, I've said it's built on sand. The
12 same problems they've had over the
past 11 months will come up again in a year's time when everyone seeking to restore position.
The chips are frightening.
conscience
reached, would be directly counter to clauses in the conduct, which among other things obliges journalists 'not to originate material which encourages discrimiBBC nation on the grounds of race, colour,
For creed..
to work on material which offends their conscience. This decision arose from the action of NUJ members on
any London, who took strike action over Hornsey
and a National Front advert.
movement, the BBC has every reason to be worried about its maintain its editorial policies. members need to ensure that the workers' movement begins to have its own voice on the BBC's television it is and radio channels.
unions
stake claim
By Tessa van Gelderen
hasic wage
unanimously rejected the latest offer
recommendation to their depots.
derisory industrial action there and then.
But John Walsh, (C the property of all the
SM officials taking over.
majority will once again reject the offer.
£25 on the basic wage allowance for
The company time-and-a-halt double-time for Sunda
from 5 November, instead of 1 October.
government.
the
media
they are
that cuts across all the
the
to put his case:
will be their previous
. We
To 'The Week
BOOKS fOr NUJ's own code of
Generalely
can spare, BOokS fO
Even the right-wing Press Council
organised oy committed MANCHESTER
School,
Journal North Manchester
With the issue of press freedom debated in the labour Holsteinsgad
Denmark ability to
anti-working class
ABS and NUJ
British Oxygen
WORKERS at British Oxygen have decisively rejected the company's pay offer of £7 on the
And last Friday, shop stewards from all the depots in the southern region
an additional 60p — and will now make the same
In fact the stewards were so incensed by the
wanted to vote for
convenor of Hackney depot, who proposed the motion of rejection, argued that such important questions must be
work orce, ornerwis they would lay themselves open to the union
BOC workers have fought for control of what happens in their union and this control
must remain in the hands of the shop floor, (Socialist
Walsh maintained. All BOC depots will meet early this week, and it seems certain that the
Management has not moved on any other
SHERIDAN
part of the claim, either. BOC workers want
They want a meal drivers, as other companies provide, and BOC has offered them nothing on
or Saturday work ofted Photo: GEOFFREY
rates that Bod work workers already have! It has changed its offe on shitt rates: the new rates would now begin
winter not just against its own employer but against the anti-union policies of the Tory
should be demanding a reduction in working.. week and longer holidays. I agree with the idea that the should be expanded, rather than jobs cut. But who will produce more newspapers? I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope for a labour movement daily newspaper.
The Times closure has certainly raised the question of press freedom, which has been taken up at the various meetings and in Times Challenger. 'he right of reply nee to be ought for now. If they attack yo and you don't get the right of repl ell us and we'll get it for you There was strong condemnation at TUC of the coverage winter's strikes. If Alan Fisher had come to NATSOPA we'd have got the space
WHAT'S LEFT
«ERFF ABORTION on Demand and No
Week, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Singly 251 ach, bulk 12p each. Make cheques or POS ol
tray, 30 Theobatas Road
Africa internationalist activity Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N SPECTACULAR bonfire plus Belt and Braces Briangle Wellington Way, London 3. Adm 4 Novemeer Bow tree rirework oisolay pas of Bair Poach ine rmiends o
Revoltiionary communist 'Fight Racism - Defend .30pm Birley High uncheste koad Moss
We would prefer a collective or the like. Please write as soon as possible 1o: Poul-Erik Philbert, 2100 Copenhagen, 2222 WILLIAMSON. , ased 26 'Optimism of the will
Basement, Camden Town Hall, Judd S1.
Page 7 scan of this page
MARCH ON SUNDAY 25 NOVEMBER
VICTORY at Barnet court, at last. Southall defendents (I. to r.) Brard, Johal, Aulakh, Gedhu, Heer, and Mustafa. Gedhu and Heer were fined for Stop the racist show trials!
HOME NEWS
Stop the
racist
deportations!
By Asha Patèl
ON Saturday 19 November there will he a picket of Armley Gaol in Leeds to protest against the imprisenment of blacks ünder the Immigration Acts. It will start at noon and last for two nouts.
Armley is the detention centre for all 'illegal' immigrants in Yorkshire ana nas become a focal bomt for initiatives the area against
The activity is part of the build-up for the national demonstration which was originaliy scheduled December, but has been forward by a week to 25 November. Backed
The demonstration
by every major organisation in the country, together with the TUC, the Labour Party, and the far-left organisations.
There can be little doubt that it will be the largest working demonstration™ against immigration laws. There is also little doubt that the majority of workers demonstration will be black.
In all the co-ordinating committees have been established on a broad basis to build for the demonstration.
Differences
However the old between the more organisations and the youth persist. A NONDET youth leaders extremely cynical, and see the demo as a one-off affair. They are in favour of more consistent and long-term work against racism in every sphere.
The second fear is that exclusive COH CenO ! propaganda repealing the 1971 Immigration Act could COTTLE DOSCU immediate and vital campaigns. But there is no reason why this should happen.
strong contingent demonstration focussing
or else...
secretary, Manchester area N eneral Duncan Edwards,
THE Department of Education has instructed universities and polytechnies to cut their intake or accept an equivalent cut in income. Overseas students will only be able to continue their education by paying year - supposedly their education in Britain.
Even some of the right-wing press is indignant. For them it means that Britain will not be able to. future leaders of the Third World -Kenyatta, Hastings Banda, Indira Gandhi all studied here! Union op Seidents, Trever The
Students, Trevor Phillips, has described the government's action * vuurageous anq anoreceden • He has called for 24-hour occupations :Since ministers had consulted neither
READERS will be sorry to hear that Bob Pennington. revolutionary and Political Committee oi ine national Marxist Group, hospitalised after being passing car last Saturday. Bob has leg injuries which until the New Year will prevent him from organising speaking publicly
for brought
is being
• black
place at
. Class predecessors,
NO! •on the
cities Mustafa, Nirinder Gedhu
differences HOl ulce wores.
traditional
snouo be are
for
more and daily police brutality.
demonstration
on the on the report,
Colleges told - kick out
overseas students,
staff measures. 'We
start,' declares Phillips.
their science
£3,500 a
LuLd. the full cost of
On their own initiatiye,
There have
influence
London Poly,
Nyerere, Bradford and UMIST.
Unfortunately
National
nañona.
will be fighting for in the weeks.
long-standing member of the
Inter- 200łu again has been hit by time tei continue
and them via Socialist Challenge.
assault, but the others were acquitted this week
WE informed readers last week that a new stipendiary magistrate, C Burke, had taken his Barnet magistrates court wonderer whether he conld he worse than his Canham, Cooke, Badge McDermott. The answer is a clear and
The six defendants who were tried last week were Tarlok Aulakh, .Gurmil Brard, Malkit Heer, Majit Johal - ail on a variety of charges of assault and threatening behaviour. The trial lasted a whole week and the magistrate retired on Friday to consider his verdict.
The high point of the trial was Richard Harvey's summing up for the defence. He did
Harvey implied that it was the police who on trial. He pointed out the take character of police evidence. He explained tor
deportations and the Southall show trials being held in Barnet will be the best way of expressing the anger of black people against state harassment
*In the weeks leading up to the
Socialist Challenge will be publishing reports from all the localities where campaigns are taking CLP. place. Make sure you send in your THE
second students about these
forced to mount nation-wide protest, of which next month's occupatons wony be d
Students at UMIST in Manchester face the possible decimation of many
and technology Thirty-two per cent students on these are from overseas.
they decided to withhold this year's fees. and
been occupations against the racist measures at North
Middlesex Poly,
Phillips? token occupations will not do the trick. A
of strikes and occupations against the cuts is what is meeded. ' lhat is what socia ist students Tories.
corning
Socialist Challenge would like to wish Bob well on behalf of its readers with the hope that he will be out and
very StONElT. meantime we know we won't allow himself to get rusty and will use this
writing for the movement. Comrades wishing to send messages to Bob are welcome to send
Southall on 23 April.
and stipendiaries
ignored or interrupted and CHOO
the police at Southall.
Shahid
and acquitted.
Shahid assaulting acquitted.
Heer and Gedhu assault. and respectively.
More headaches for
Callaghan?
By Hugh Richards, Battersea South
HEADACHES for Callaghan leadership merely started at the Labour Party conference. As
debate committee inquiry hots up, the left in the Labour Party is beginning to organise.
The Labour Co-ordinating Com established in 1978 to extend the fight for party democracy and a socialist manifesto, is holding
regional conference Manchester this weekend.
A Scottish conference last month attracted over 300 trade union and constituency Labour Party members. The Manchester conference promises to draw similar numbers.
Discussion will centre on the Labour left's response to the party inquiry together with cuts unemployment. Saturday rally offers an opportunity to hear the ideas of Tony Benn, Arthur cargill
Michael Meacher on questions.
Time will tell if the LCC can take the lead in the growing opposition in the Labour Party to the Callaghan leadership. Socialist Challenge sup porters hope to see the LCC join in support for the increasing campaigns and trade union actions against the
At present, the LCC Labour Activist, concentrates much on reactionary proposals for import controls and participation in industry.
A debate on these policies needs to be had at the conference. Do they really offer solutions for workers in the public sector and basic industry fighting cuts, redundancies, speed-up more measures needed?
Contentious issues like abortion rights and the British army's role in
the magistrate what had actually happened in
There can be little doubt that the previous
at Barnet would have either Harvey. But Burke played it according to the rules and refused to ignore defence evidence. The result was the first victory for the political prisoners captured by
Tarlok Aulakh faced three separate charges of assault and threatening behaviour. He was
Mustafa charged with three police officers. He was
Gurmil Brard was charged with assault as was Majit Johal. Both were acquitted.
were found guilty WOIS fined £250 and £150
Burke's verdict represents the first serious
the its in and night
these the North of Ireland are completely ignored by the LCC
paper, in Scotland was a step in the right too direction. Now we need a national conference to discuss policy more fully.
Socialist Challenge contributions from supporters on the kind of policies they consider are successful fightback. and *The Labour radical Committee's conference is to be held at : Manchester November. only. The fee is f2.
been the core of the police case # magistrates CO HaL anyone into a false sense of security.
cases (even
concern by lawyers and the labour morea
show trials.
there hundreds more defendants to come
November. In of
show trials must be stopped!
events
thanaike! d 4.30-5.31 643-9209 LUYENINI.
KINGUKON
Nidary sureel Cornmarket, lo
The open debate at the conference
: welcomes Labour Party
necessary lead a
Co-ordinating
Town Hall on 34 Labour Party members
rebuff for the lies and distortions which bave chould noe But this es sa fact tar thee polic) dens a odali
police) inconsistent. It is also a fact thai the groeia has meant a bit more attention being paid to tee
Thean paign must cary o Noca McDermott and Co. will also return to Barser
A number of bonfires to burn the Barnes magistrates have already been organised for s
Wolverhampeon Odord.
Preston, Southall and Highbury Fields (Nort London) plans are under way. These should be further generalised. Our demand is simple: The Socialist Challenge
inrancime ne cei erep e fe tushrin ite esn creperie fi ite it-rage
BERDEEN: SC soid Sanurda or more info p trone otma 505* Ck
Saturdays 830 M10, Sar. 1S4. For more m * h info piro BROSETON: For more info roco lid
RADFORD: SC available from Fourit i
Bone l 158r more info abour local cime іс Во , ма вок, ор в 554-10%6 or wrie: Box6, ist May Boksho 12.30-2.00
dld s tamaras dust r 1cl sn to saet Challenge (Box 64), PO Box S0. Locke si
OXFORD: SC sold Fri, King . For more info phone 562k.
Han s5) Ah on si Si o h To T7
NAL CO 1 NOY, CPSA 10 Nov,
LIVERPOOL: SC forums Thursday. & Nov: Troosky 2 e Dec: The Cuts, 20 Dec: Immigratioe Lers 7.30pmat 15A Richmond Si (off #al
"Fight the racist immigration lars'
Meeting on Tuesday, 20 Novenber. at 7.30pm, Central Hall, Oldham St, Manchester Speakers from IWA, Nasera Beg and Said Bibi Defence Committa
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
THE CRASH O
TEN YEARS ago they couldn't happen again. the past. Marx was a has-been with nothing to say about today's conditions.
Nobel Prize 'By means of appropriately monetary and fiscal enterprise system can avoid the excesses of boom and slump and can look forward to healthy progressive growth.'
No one believes this now.
Two weeks ago, the Guardian carried a report from ITEM, a group of economists using the Treasury's own computer model. It forecast an unemployment level of 2.5 million by mid-1981, and double figure inflation until 1982.
constered outlook looked bleak enough. But we now know that the situation in the first half of 1979 was already worse than we then slump has begun.'
The first steps back to the 1930s were taken in the slump of 1974. This is what took place then and in the following years:
*Mass unemployment is back. It rose to 17m in the West, and has never dropped below 15m since 1974.
*Permanent surplus capacity is rising. millions starving in the Third World, over a third of industry in the USA and the UK lies idle.
*The recession hit the whole world economy. Even in miracle' Japan production fell 20 per cent in 1974.
*The imperialists are falling out. America is no longer trusted as a world banker what les behind the collapse of the dollar and the flight to gold. Each national capital now tries to solve its problems at the expense of the others. Summit
The ITEM economists summit (in 1979) hardly co-ordinated reflation or balance of pavments strategies... international economic wartare which the world has not seen since the 1920s and 1930s.'
Have Keynesian policies stopped working? The fact is they never did.
CLUl wal. counter-revolution; backed technological revolution.
They were used to 'manage' the boom that resulted. But they did not cause it.
Now the boom is over. sinking. The world monetary system is in ruins. Production, trade, and investment are faltering or stagnant. These problems cannot be overcome Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
AND
'79?
were still saying it Not Slumps were a thing of
winner Paul Samuelson wrote: reinforcing policies, our mixed
social peace.
"Four months aco.. the
supposed.. The With this is wrote: "The Tokyo bothered to discuss
The result has been an outbreak of
They followed a fascism and up by new Chrysler,
Profit rates are
Page 8
with 'another dose of Keynes". another dose of the '30s.
everything the same.
police de let emmense the vester
depth governments printed $175 billion ten way our or me recession. stopped a crisis but changed its form.
Capitalism needs slumps. inefficient capital. They bring share prices into line with real assets and they restore profit rates. State intervention blocked this process to buy
Chart IX Rate of return on capital (profitability) Post as rest cost of cafete * Bush of Enchane Guattery Bubetin Decerbor T978, 0,54
result, Tementol overvalued capital has built up. For example,
the third largest US corporation, only kept alive by giant transtusions trom int government, and its profits run at only 1.5 per cent of turnover.
Furthermore, credit and debt have built up to a fantastic degree. By 1974 private debt in the US stood at $2 thousand billion - more than 1.5 Is l am production.
cycle of slump/boom.
They call for
for the present.
Keynesian
Keynesian Western financed by government
and bought This has not Walker
They shake out the mark.
another 'Great Crash'
Estice 1ax
Switched
and that come and because it's not true.
prizewinner, Milton Friedman.
capitalists do intervention
restore profitability by
from the middle of the crisis.
backlog health services and keep
these resources The capitalist
THE Wall Street Crash of 1929 has been celebrated by long features in the ruling class press, television programmes, and the asking of 'could it happen again?' Much of the views offered by the media have consisted of stories of how poor bankers had to sell their yachts, or how 1929 was an 'accident' which had nothing really to do with the capitalist system. Socialist Challenge offers its own interpretation. GEOFF BELL tells what really did happen — and why — in 1929, ALAN FREEMAN writes of a possible repeat performance and JUDE WOODWARD tells of how to break out of the whole
class is desperately mortgaging its future to pay
policies fuel this. They borrowing, adding Suber Walker cent on be actor the that the government is too frightened to allow a collapse
and will therefore bail them out if they overstep
But putting off the day of reckoning only
increases the final bill. There is an explosive risk
of a world-shattering chain of bankruptcies -
If a giant like Chrysler goes down, dragging its bankers with it, no one's credit would be safe. There is a price that has to be paid now for every new dose of Keynesianism - inflation. The less debts are backed by real assets, the higher what lies behind the double-digit figures of the last decade, now eise coura mulation be snoolle up after four years of working class restraint?
Karl Brunner puts it bluntly: 'If we want to eliminate inflation there will be a price to pay price is unemployment... And don't me there's another way out
This is why leading capitalists have switched to the 'monetarist' ideas of the 1976 Nobel
But monetarism is not a real alternative. The dare abandon because of the of the catastrophe that this would lead to. They want to shifting income. from workers to capitalists. The welfare state is being dismantled so that the money which finances social services can line capitalist pockets and bail out ailing giants. Thus Chrysler received £37m last Labour government in the
This is a political attack. It isn't inevitable Our economy does have the resources to house the needy, educate the youth, give us all decent capitalism that is at fault because it cannot use
There is a way out, Mr Brunner. It's called socialist revolution. Last time round both the capitalists and our own leaders chose the horrors of slump, fascism and war, rather than accepi this way out. The new generation has to see that the bankers and the rest don't get away with it again — there may not be a next time.
By Geoff Bell industrial
present at are
% 100 state
1970
BY THE summer of 1929 the United America was being hailed as paradise f American dream of prosperity for all v to be a matter of a few short years, m months away. In December 1928 the
Coolidge reflected optimism when he said:
'No Congress of the United State with a more pleasing prospect than t appears at the present time. In the don Inere is tranquility and contentnerl highest record for years of prosperity
The good times were ascribed to th system. It was thanks to this that durir
production doubled, pre rising and money seemed to be in a More than anywhere else the good t
New York's Wall Str Exchange. The New York Times share 86 points in 1928 and that was only: what was to follow in the first nine 1929. It meant that those who bou could expect higher dividends the i shares rose and that those who spe shares could buy, sit back and sell agai months with a vast profit.
Money was easy made, all that w was a bit to invest. Even that was no! for bank loans were easy to come by. ! summer of 1929 the amount of loans increased at 400 million dollars a ment that found its way to Wall Street. As I shares stayed high, or kept rising, the good business for the bankers and thos
The U.S. dollar
Effective pre-June 1971 1972 1973
Page 9 scan of this page
res of
idged
going
of
* WEL which
dl the
€ '21s
were they invested. *inck i rose was involved in it for Monopoly:
hares
the •d in himselt on a 20 point margin.
teded accumulated savings into a few shares.
1g the being
trusts were in operation if the
were established to
investment trusts. everybody
riches could come in no time.
one newspaper.
stock market. new dawn and refused to intervene.
change rate; D parity = 100
1974 1975 1976
F'29...
WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LA the loans were assured of a profit on the money
Another observer suggested the whole nation
this real life playing of
'The rich man's chauffeur drives with his ears laid back in catch the news of the impending move in Bethlehem Steel: he held 50 shares
The window cleaner at the broker's office paused to watch the licker, for he was thinking of converting his
The window cleaner may not have been ton skilled in kpowing where to invest but that did not matter. By 1928 an estimated 182 investment
in which supposed linancial geniuses would invest the money of others. The system grew and grew; investment
invest in other investment trusts which in turn invested in other
The advocale of one trust ought to be rich and promised that for £200 dollars initial investment
The inventor of this scheme was John J Kaskob one of the leading industrialists in the country. In 1928 he was appointed to the national committe of the Democratic party. Commented
"today the worldly-wise candidate of one of the great political parties chooses one of the outstanding operators in the
That was not just an indication of the link-up between politics and big business, the business leaders themselves became folk heroes, with their pictures appearing on the front cover of Time magazine. The system seemed to be so much an answer to everyone's prayer that the capitalist
authority. rederal Reserye Bank permilted the money to be lent out and lent out, the politicians hailed the
1977 1978
And then came the Thursday', 24 October 1929, 12 million shares changed hands in the rush to sell. Inevitably prices fell. The capitalist giants who had profited so much from it all made one last effort intervene. A representative of one of the most famous, John P Morgan boughi shares on the floor of the stock exchange in an attempt to boost contidence A few ofber bankers followed sun
29 October the pleaded, 'heed the words of America's greatest bankers'.
It was to no avail. Within a couple of weeks share prices had dropped by 50 per cent. The decline continued and three years later the shares were a sixth of what they were in September 1929.
For the American people people elsewhere, for the US was the lynchpin of the world capitalist system — the promise of Utopia turned to depression, mass unemployment and in some instances fascism.
In fact the ordinary people never shared in the boom in the first place. The image of the window cleaner profiting from the stock market was a figment of the imagination. 1929 only one and a half million people had any dealing with the stock market. population of 120 million. The vast majority of the American people suffered consequences of the crash of 1929 but very few of them benefitted from the orgy of speculative profit which preceded it.
In that there is a clue to the crash. historians now agree that sooner or laler the boom was bound to collapse and that the higher the boom went the greater the fail would be. In that sense the precise events which triggered off •black Thursday' hadn't been that Thursday it would have been some other Thursday. The problem was the
stem; a system whose god was profit and t vhich everything else was secondary which could have been invested in new plant and machinery found its way to the stock market. The lack of control over the stock market. banking institutions and the industrial giants meant in the final analysis it was sustained by nothing but confidence in that American capitalism of the described thus by the bourgeois economist JK Galbraith:
'The fact was that the American enterprise in the twenties had opened its hospitable arms to an exceptional number of swindlers, imposters and frauds'.
And such is the nature of the system, for Galbraith has argued that the number one cause of the crash of 1929 was:
'The bad distribution of income. In 1929 the rich were indubitably rich...five per cent of the population received one-third of ail personal income...The highly unequal income distribution meant that the economy was dependent on a high level of investment or a high level of luxury consumer spending or both. The rich cannot buy great quantities of bread. If they are to dispose of what they receiye it must be on luxuries or by way of investment in new plants and new projects.
But instead in the late '20s the rich simply used their money to chase other money; and in the end the money dried up.
The consequence was the depression which followed. At the start of 1929 the United States was portrayed as the greatest advertisement for free-enterprise capitalism, by the end of the year il was wel on the indictment of capitalism. 1979
crash. On 'black Wall Street Journal
- and indeed for
By the summer of
That out of a
greatly from the
All
are largely irrelevant; if it
Money CALC
providing system itself. '20s has been
promoters, grafters,
very rich
expense
people bankers,
individuals,
profits. Fancy
way to becoming the greatest
have themselves at
producing
1929
ployed breadline.
this country,
and housing.
body.
characterised
By Jude Woodward
ment, WE ALL know that capitalism
the misery and deprivation that people suffer la terr dally uves. Capitalism operates not on the basis of
people with what they need; on the contrary, it doesn't care about needs.
Its only motivation is profit more capital to invest to make more capital to invest to make more capital:
It's not even about making a small group of people very,
and giving them everything that they need at the
of everyone else. •Capitalism does have the effect •or creating such & group of
things the bosses, the landlords, the speculators, and the superstars.
But capitalism isn't loyal to pay groups of individuals. It is loyal to one thing alone, and that is more
One of the worst things that capitalism does is put millions is an
people altogether, so that they don't
the means support ali. And they certainly can't buy the fancy commodies tude capitalism l
tempt the
If there's another slump of
proportions then even people wit be unemand living on the There won't be their holidays abroad, or even in should Cornwall, for most people in
We won't see more and working with cars, washing machines
comfortable council Instead there will be less of everything • for every-
The capitalist crisis is crisis of overproduction and is
declining
Socialism's answer
income, increasing unemploy.
the appearance desperate poverty (and eyen famine).
Of course, famines have always happened. But the difference about pre-capitalist crises is that they arose out of scarcity. Capitalism is particularly horrific precisely because this is not the case; poverty arises because production has grown excessively.
The equipment is there to
can live well, but they cannot be sold. We don't have money to buy them. The money is there for investment, but the profits are not big enought to tempt investors.
Ihere is enouch of mosi
for everybody, but capitalism won't allow us to just share it all out. We have to
for it. But capitalism doesn't give us enough money to pay for it either, because that cuts into profits too sharply.
So what kind of answers can socialists offer to the crisis?
We start from the interests of the poor and the oppressed so the first thing that is required
immediate in wages, and ployment pay. Circulate
This will also ensure that more money circulates in the economy, leading to greater commodity sales and hence an increase in economic activity.
Secondiy, rather than allow people to languish on the dole,
productiye capacity
public works. This means reversing the cuts and embarking crash programme of public works, in health, education, housing and so on, under workers' control.
Tp help share out resources more equitably we should call for the reduction of prices of essential commodities, coupled with releasing extra resources forinvestment by radical taxing
of the rich and cutting defence expenditure.
Other elements which pose a workers' solution to the crisis, include the sliding scale wages and social expenditure,
ensure that people's standard of living at least keeps pace with inflation and rising prices.
•We need a state monopoly of foreign trade coupled with workers control of industry ana tne arecaon br wyesmel so that it is in the interests of the working class. Sense
These demands all point in the direction of a workers solution to the crisis, which means breaking _ or ine upturn, boom. crisis, and depression cycle once and for all.
It means clearly turning our backs on the bosses' solutions to their crisis - • solutions which have taken the form of fascism
outright war for foreign fields of investment, and which always take the form of imposing austerity and declining working class.
However, these demands simply point in the right direction. If the working class
take over and run things itself, then we could go a great dea further. With five-year plans and an integrated approach to tue wubie economy; baseu. Ul need and usefulness rather than protits, eventually could all enjoy the full fruits of our labour.
We could produce even more than the capitalists do; we could do it
more effeciently and we could share out the produce out equitably among those who need it
And we wouldn't stagger from crisis to another Instead of anarchy in control, society would De. run on lat basis of what makes sense. And that's called socialism. Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Neither Maggie nor Mao..
Who holds power in Nicaragua?
INTERNATIONAL
HUA GUOFENG visited Britain this week as the third stop on a tour of Western Europe aimed at buttressing the Peking bureaucracy's ties with imperialism.
While Hua toured Europe, however, one of the leaders of the "democratie movement' in China, Wei Jinsheng, was sentenced to 15 years in ai. He was unofficial journal, Exploration, which insisted that in China today the majority of people are "deprived of power'.
PIERRE ROUSSET explains below how the growth of the dissident movement reflects the crisis of the regime.
The present situation leadership is particularly delicate in that the crisis of the regime is expressed at all levels of authority and society.
extremely grave, and this feeds a permanent mass challenge and mobilisations. In the last few weeks there have been demonstrations by •railway workers, artists, unemployed .tormer soldiers, and young people who have secretly returned from the countryside.
The aval alus itself disoriented. Although Deng's faction rules the roost in the initiative, it is quite probably a minority in the immense provincial and which is marked by its conservatism.
More serious still, confidence in the bureaucracy, ine regime By C A Udry
TWO MONTHS after the overthrow of Somoza,
Barricada published declaration What are the CDSes? — the eyes and ears of the revolution'.
The Sandinista defence committees [CDSes] are the extension of the civil defence commuttees appeared after September 1978 and took on a range of functions during the course insurrection.
This movement towards organisation is one of the distinctive features of the revolutionary upsurge in Nicaragua. encouraging the strengthening of the CDSes, which 1s in Nicol stress on the *workers and peasants to power
assemblies, demonstrations, and CDS wall newspapers. Tasks
Four important tasks are assigned
the CDSes: to defend revolution by ensuring the mobilisation of to sabotage, Somozaist attacks, etc.; to assist in resolving the social and economic
unity health measures, organisation
consolidate the mass organisations... to achieve the aims of the revolution, to move towards popular power'.
Intercontinental Press
combined i b
THE full text of the Barricada article outlining the role of the Sandinista defence committees is reprinted in the latest issue the Intercontinental Press/Inprecor (Vol 17, No 39). Other articles include an analysis of the rising Ilass moycient in Brazil and an interview with a Fiat worker in Turin.
Individual copies cost 30p plus 10p post, but subscriptions work out much cheaper at fli for a year (48 issues), £6 for six months (24 issues),
0 weeks. should be made out to 'Intercontinental Press' and sent to: IP/I, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP.
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
of the editors of
of the. Chinese
and social situation is
repeated sectoral
peasants, students,
divided and
leading bodies and holds the
bureaucracy,
the masses have lost
daily
September],
entitled:
which
popular
mass
slogan in
and constitute
the In major
combat council; coordinated most pressing council. The capital,
problems The mass
employment,
have.
unfolding revolution outside their structures.
tion weekiy advance of the revolution.
looking to its weapons.
in the chamber Cheques/POs
institutions.
Page 10
faces a generalised crisis of the dominant ideology, the ideology of the bureaucracy. It is in this context that the 'democratic movement' sh The Wester press does is best to identify the movement with the values democracy, and it certainly has illusions in the
A CDS is organised for every few blocks. CDSes of a neighbourhood form a coordinating committee with democratically elected members
Sandinista neighbourhood committee [CSB].
centres there s coordination of the CBs through a
with these again of municipal Managua, currently divided into tour zones.
of the population petty continuously turn to the CDSes resolve their immediate problems of
food and housing. towards "They're the ones in charge', people say, which reflects the power they
But at the moment they can only Prensa, act on the municipal level. Choices and decisions on the big economic, social and political questions — which will largely determine the future of the social
are posed
Their coordination and centralisa-
national scale would therefore be a maior assurance of the
are
Faced with this strengthening of mass organisation, the bourgeoisie is
Cruz,
It has important economic power, in a bourgeois state which still gives legal protection to private property.
Organised in employers' associations,
of commerce industry, itis seeking direct aid from the banks, imperialist governments, and venous international financia
In so doing the capitalists aim to
of bourgeois
today. recoup their strength and negotiate their participation in 'reconstruction' in such a way that private property is maintained and the state sector is turned in the medium term towards servicing the private sector.
In this struggle the bourgeoisie is supported by the bosses' associations
Central America [which recently], by the bourgeoisies of Latin America, and by imperialism. also seeking to forge links with the
bourgeoisie, notably hetter-off sections of the peasantry, Some imperialist aid has been directed
strengthening this social
The bourgeoisie controls the most important naner In Nicaragua
and has the support of the Catholic hierarchy. It has launched a political party, the Social Democratic Party, with the backing of German
democracy [and deutschmarks!].
The bourgeoisie has important posts in the coalition government. The Economist [29 September] rightly comments: 'The economic portfolios
mostly held by reassuringly moderate industrialists and bankers.' The central bank is headed by Arturo
whose links with the imperialist financial institutions are well known.
Certainly, at the moment, the strategic decisions of this government are subordinate to those of the FSLN leadership. The bourgeoisie, having lost all control over the army, is in a very weak position for organising a counter-offensive:
The relation of social forces
West. But equally the majority of the Chinese 'dissidents' identify much more strongly with the Marxist tradition, are much more drawn from popular layers, are able to develop more militant currents and operate in a much more dynamic social context than exists in the USSR
arising out insurrection, like self-organisation of means that the pack to me wau. Inis is me particular expression dual •Nicaragua today. Counter-attack The bourgeoisie is in no position, therefore, to make any rapid moves.
It has to rely on its economic power,
presence in the government in order to try to hold back radical measures and gain a breathing space to recompose its forces.
In a context of growing crisis, the bourgeoisie believes that it can extend its social base counter-attack reducing the role of the popular power and replacing them with bourgeois parliamentary institumet
It is
VOTE SOCIAL
big humanity.
of teachers and
directly
tundamental questions
parties, structures
transition to socialism. sometimes increasingly Lenin or Marx.
Link-up
social protest movements.
in arresitt
demonstrations.
'popular publications' dissidents.
tolerance and repression.
be eliminated through repression. the popular the degree .of the bourgeoisie has its
power in masses
conflicts
and its SUUUUrLe
inevitable split
forcefully, directed towards imperialist of against which
and
FULL RIGHTS F
LESBIA
ON 14 October 75,000 people marched in Washington demanding an end to discrimination against lesbians and gay people.
Eleanor Smeal, President of the National Organisation of Women, explained why feminists in America were backing civil rights for lesbians and gays. "Those who preach ignorance and fear will not win... Those of us who march for equality will be the overwhelming majority of
The demonstrators demanded the repeal of all anti-gay laws as well as laws that oppress and harass gay youth and an end to discrimination in lesbian mother and gay father custody cases.
Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers Party presidential candidate and a steelworker, was among marchers from the East Coast. He was the only presidential candidate on the march.
The movement: is primarily made up of members of the skilled professions, factory workers, and local party cadres. The influence
intellectuals seems rather
involves militant layers estimated at some thousands in the case of Peking and hundreds in Shanghai or Canton. Its critique is oriented in the first place towards the sole problem of 'democratising' the regime, but the debates within it increasingly take up
These include the position and role of
of socialist democracy, conception of the state, contradictions of the
Yesterday Mao and Stalin were quoted; today it is
A link-up seems to be developing between sections of the 'democratic movement" and the
Yuehua, militant of the 'democratic movement'; was
January after physically demonstrating his solidarity with the peasant
Each Sunday now, several thousand people gather in front of the famous "democracy wall" to read the latest wall-posters and buy the
produced the
The regime treats them with a mixture of
The situation as a whole is still under its control. But since 1976 it has had to take account of an anti-bureaucratic current which, though confused, cannot simply
The economic and social crisis, the reluctance of the capitalists to invest without guarantees [of their profits]; • ne sabulage anu speculatiol, the urgent and unsatisfied demands of the can only stimulate anticapitalist mobilisations. This is what is happening in any case: numerous are breaking out in the factories and private farms. of the revolution must lead to a confrontation between the bourgeoisie and its allies and the working masses who fight under the leadership of the FSLN; and an inside the coalition government between the contradictory social forces which make it up: Any advance of the revolution will also place on the agenda, still more the danger intervention, a threat the whole workers movement of the imperialist countries Latin America must be
Photo: THE MILITANT
GAYS
FELLER
Page 11 scan of this page
of world Labour backs fact-finding mission to Czechoslovakia
INTERNATIONAL
unite?
By Tom Jordan MEETINGS of generals — allied or even enemies
But soldiers different are supposed just to shoot at each other.
Things be about change, however. This soldiers from nine conntries wif he meeting for the second time this year without their 'chains command' to exchange experiences, discuss their problems and, cautiously, feel their way towards permanent international cooperatOH: ECCO
the European Conference of script Organisations, will be held in Putten, near Utrecht Holland. According to a Dutch spokesperson for the conference: GI unions
"We know the represented at our first conference in Malmo last March wil all he coming Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium have recognised official GI unions or elected conscript
There'll be people from West Germany again, and -of course - - the more or less illegal French and Spanish groups. this time we hope there will be more..'
Among those absent up to now have been the American soldiers stationed in West Germany and
representatives of 'unorganised' British soldiers.
Both the Americans British are theoretically teers, though in practice many are 'economic conscripts' — lured by false promises into the army from the dole queues and the slums. One of the questions discussed at the conference will be whether or not
limit participation in movement to actual conscripts which would also leave half of the French and German outside.
In the late 1960s and early '70s, American Gls were ready to "join up' with a union or which would protect them from 'the machine', the monster', the army. That Vietnam.
Pentagon
But even now the Pentagon fears the possibility, and last year pushed throneh the Bill', which makes any attempt to form a Gl union punishable by five years in jail. 'You are nere protect democracy, not to practise it', GIs are told. Today they turn to drugs, but tomorrow...?
British soldiers still remain cut off IrOm contact with civilians, who in turn ignore them. But structured international organisation could make difference. Says a member of the illegal Spanish UDS:
"Since Malmo not only the establishment press but also the political parties have been obliged
face up movement, the lack of rights [and pay] we have compared to the almost heavenly conditions of Dutch or Danish soldiers.'
If Putten lays the basis for an international soldiers movement, a confederation soldiers unions, the news will spread. And - soldiers read today...
*For further details contact ECCO Steering Committee, c/o VVDM, Hojel Caserne, Utrecht, Holland.:
Soldiers Charter 77 jailings
from usually
week sixth defendant,
for 5 years. of Pravo, declared with
kia's image
second
Con-
Soviet-installed Husak regime
publicity.
if they kept what
countries
Gordon Wright,
Norway, then the jittery chief judge,
me court nunarcas or ponce
the crowd of onlookers.
But Script
the organisers scrapped
volun- racing through
Tuesday deadline. trial's last shred of credibility.
bire ally leshmolly.
the detention. (The two who Dienstbier and
armies other accused.).
any group
VONS • to
'green naivete and
was Communist Party member
period.
judge her. "Thurmond
pointed our inat
The had relected it because he
La cynical dilempl
most
the Americans,
La well-known playwright.)
Frenzy
soldiers
communist.
The frenzied evidence produced some
trade One
subversion
written about
cratic Lawyers
declared aims
THETRIAL of six Charter 77 leaders. in Prague closed on Tuesday last week, the day after it began. Five of the six were jailed: Petr Uhi got 5 years, Vaclay Havel 4½ years, Vaclay Benda 4 years, and Otka Bednarova and Jiri Dienstbier 3 vears each. A
• Dana Nemcova, received a 2 year sentence suspended
The Communist Party daily, Rude WECONCOIS ironv that the accused were being punished for 'harming Czechoslova
abroad'. II SO organisers of last week's trial were a thousand times more guilty. Ten years of painstaking PR work abroad by the
was obliterated by a couple of days of trial
The police seemed to believe that
went on in the court-room secret, damaging publici ty could be minimised. So they barred entry to a Canadian socialist lawver.
who had already been granica a visa lo aliena cne trial,
Antonin Kaspar, had Petr Uhl's wife, Anna Sabatova, dragged from the court for taking a few notes; meanwhile outside
were involved in picking up and hauling off
In response to the torrent of
Prom basses abroad to trie
abroad, the four. day schedule for the trial. After lunch on the first day, the managers started
the script with This broke the
All six defendants pleaded not guilty. Four of them had refused to
to the police during their tive months of pre-trial
did, Jiri Dana Nemcova, refused to testify against any of the
In court, Otka Bednarova refused to take any part in the proceedings LADI except to make one short statement: she explained that she had been active the
compensate for shence wilch in the 1950s, she had not spoken out against the Stalinist monster trials of that
She added that she did not consider that the present court had any moral or political authority to
Petr Uhl and Vaclav Benda took a be. similar position. And Vaclay Havel
tne regime had offered him a year's trip to the USA a very couple of weeks before the trial, but
the innocent of any crime. (The offer was
brand Have inside Czechoslovakia as a lackey of
while avoiding the bad publicity involved in jailing such
labour Europe
The most extraordinary fact about the whole affair has been the complete arrests, failure of the massive police operation to find a single fact about any of the accused which could discredit them in the eyes of any Western socialist or
search for such ridiculous proof Uhl's
document he was supposed to have been
La body called the International Association of Demo
The DrOSCCULOIS seized on this, perhaps because its
sounded similar those of Amnesty International. They
Jir Dienstbier, Dana. Nemcova, Vaclay Benda. Vaclay Malv
know that the • Soviet-sponsored Organisation, embracing lawyers
USSR, Hungary, Germany including the Justice of Romania!
The trial was a complete non-event from a legal point of view. Of more lasting concern to the regime is the fact that it has also proved to be a political non-starter: its purpose was to break the VONS and the Charter, however high the political price might
It has now paid the price but the trial has not delivered the goods: the
next day, leaders of Charter 77 and VONS made it perfectly clear that
civil rights movement would continue.
Investigation
The most vigorous reactions to the Prague trial have come from the
of and Canada movement Charter 77 committees have been active since the
carrying out activities on the same lines as the British Charter 77 Defence Committee: stimulating protests and appeals from movement organisations for immediate release of the Chartists organising financial aid families of the accused, and helping to alert socialist lawyers to the affair. An important part in all this activity has
played by members of Fourth International.
With the encouragement of a resolution from Eric Heffer that was passed unanimously by the Labour Party NEC end of July, a Charter 77 Defence Fund has been se
Top Row (left to right): Vaclav Havel, Olka Bednarova, Petr Uhl, Jarmila Belikova, Alri Nemec.
FREE THE
PRAGUE TEN
up to help the families of political prisoners in Czechoslovakia. Already it has raised over £400.
But the most important single step has been the decision of the Labour Party NEC last week to approach the French, Italian European Socials, parties, European establish a fact-finding commission to go to Czechoslovakia to investigate the civil rights situation there.
Cold War This resolution is an unprecedented effort to with West European parties. As a positive initiative to gain an objective picture of the undistorted by the propaganda of the Cold War lobbies, these facts to workers in Europe, the fact-finding commission could be a major factor in pushing the Western Czechoslovak regime to either make Labour concessions or expose its anti-workdefence ing class character.
The immediate solidarity movement demand the dropping of the charges
labour
the
Saturday 10 November 10amto 6pm
the
Group.
Films, Kurdish food
and Spanish along with parties,
tions
suppression
achieve collaboration representative Communisi
facts, and to present present
defence
London focus of the will be Race London SWI:
DAYSCHOOLONIRANAND KURDISTAN
Speakers include: Stuart Holland MP, Martin von Bruissen, Kurdish and Iranian speakers, and a speaker from the Iranian Women's Solidarity
Organised by Committee to Defend Democratic Rights in Iran
Bottom Row (left to right): Ladislav Lis, against the other five VONS members still awaiting trial, and to focus labour movement protests on the torincom ing appeal by those jailed last week.
Beyond that, it is of the utmost importance that labour movement organisations give public solidarity to the continuing work of VONS. In this connection, all trade union delega
• Visiting Czechoslovakia could contact VONS to inform its members of the attitude of both the Labour Party and the CPGB to its attempted
CPGB has permanent in Prague on the editorial board of World Marxist Review. This person could be asked by the party here to meet VONS and convey the views of the British labow movement on the current crackdown.
Those wishing to participate in the
campaign should . contact: The Charter 77 Defence Committee, 14 Elgin Court, 16 Montpelier Road
W5: contributions to Defence Fund should be sent to: Reg
MP, House of Commons,
Conway Hall Red Lion Sq, WCI
Entrance £1 (75punwaged)
Socialist Challenge 1 Noveraber 1979 Paze 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Are the unions Ireland's only hope?
IRELAND
By Geoff Bell
DURING the occasional debates at major conferences of the British labour moyement on Ireland one argument is heard time and time again. This concerns the role of trade unions in the North of Ireland, how they are a force for unity among working people, have a brave record in opposing discrimination and repression.
Such opinions come under scrutiny in 'a new study of the trade Ireland Research Unit*. The unit's latest bulletin traces the history of unions in Ireland and examines the record of leadership of the North Irish unions on civil rights and sectarianism, as well
on the "bread employment, wages and conditions.
The image of the 'non-sectarian' unions has its roots in 1969, when shop stewards held a meeting in an attemotto orevent anv recurrence or the fvoe of anti-Catholic pogroms which took place in the 1920s. In August 1969 the stewards were largely successful.
Resolution
The Workers Research Unit have done well to dig up the resolution which was passed then.
called for throughout the community' and the need to break the cycle of mutual recrimination'. But it ended with the 'demand' that 'the force of law and order take stronger measures to maintain the peace.
At the time that resolution was passed the 'forces of law and order' had just finished playing their part in the assault on the Catholic ghettoes of Derry and in the killing of eleven Catholics during the anti-Catholic pogrom in
To say that the shipyards' resolution was an outstanding example of 'non-sectarianism' is to say that this should include encouragement for a police force which has consistently acted as the main physical instrument of Protestant sectarianism. Peace may have been secured in the Belfast shipyards in August 1969, but it was secured at a price. Price Paid
A similar price is being paid by the trade union leadership foday. Jerry Carin. who as Northern Ireland officer of the Irish Congress
Is tne bureaucrat in the North, currently serves as a member of the Northern Authority, adequate and efficient police force'.
When his membership authority has conflicted with his position as trade union representative, Carlin has come cowa on tae side or le former. gaus ne did nothing when the 1978 conference of the ICTU decided, against Carlin's wishes, to demand a public inquiry into the death of trade unionist Brian Maguire at Castlereagh interrogation centre and charge him as Northern Ireland Officer to press the matter.
In refusing to take up the issue of Brian Maguire, Carlin was following one brand of 'non-sectarianism'. For Maguire's death was indeed issue, protesting loudest over his death were from the Catholic working class community.
But explained in this way 'non-sectarian' is
doomed
THE latest Tory initiative on Ireland
The only whether it will be dead by the time these words are read or whether it will last a few more weeks.
The plan was announced by for secretary of state Humphrey Atkins last i nursday. I inyolycu a lour parly conference to discuss restoring to *locally-elected representatives some at least of the powers of government at present exercised from minster'
The first response of the Official Unionists was to announce that ther would boycott the conference. Ian Paisley of the Democratic Unionists Jaid down a number of conditions wmic ne sala wouid nave to De mel for him to attend.
The Social Democratic
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979 Page 12
Bala now wey
unions in the North of
He last workers
butter' issues
the Belfast shipyards in August
efforts of the
'restoration peace
leading union
Ireland Police *to maintain an
of the police of it.
those
way.
Atkins' initiative
questont 1s the fourth party involved
West- badiy at the kuropean elections Atkins may yet some conference,
proposals
and
ALSO
PAYMENTS (FOR DEBT ACT
45p
60p a useless concept - for if sectarianism is opposition to the RUC, then the trade unions in The North of Ireland could do with a good dose
As well as paying special attention to the Maguire case, the Belfast Workers Research Unit also investigates the attitude of the trade unions to the attempted Loyalist strike of 1977. The leadership ot the unions strike, but again they did so in a 'non-sectarian' sack
Turner,
Oficers
Party also expressed scepticism. Only Mary
Alliance — promised to turn up. Alliance have no MPs at Westminster and did very
cobble together but this latest British initiative looks like having an even shorter life than previous ones.
Whos Atkins' White Paper on his
published, Socialist Challenge will give a full analysis of the Tory Government's Irish policy — or non-policy, as the case may be.
WORKERS RESEARCH UNIT
BELFASE
TRADE UNIONS
HORTHERN IRELAND
→ THIS ISSUE
IN KOHICIEDUI
industrial stability'.
Committee.
opposed ine
television
Victimisation threat
By Duncan Smith Edinburgh was threatened with the TRADE union activist
because organised workplace meeting on Ireland.
The involved
publicity officer Edinburgh Gas branch of National and Local Government
Association. The meeting arranged by Lyn was addressed by
Nelis of the Derry Relatives Action Committtee, an organisation which campaigns for prisoner-of-war status for political prisoners in the North of Ireland.
After the meeting; management threatened Lyn with the sack, locked out the union branch from its office at the headquarters of Scottish Gas, and disciplined the branch's assistant secretary, Donald Mackenzie.
Two charges were levelled at Lyn — that she brought an 'unauthorised person' into the building and that she
BULLETIN
SUMMER 19
IN DECLINE
of NEWRY
The first statement the Northern Ireland Committee of the ICTU issued on the strike was
with the Contederation British Industry. Its grounds for opposing the strike was that it damaged 'progress towards
But no condemnation of the strike's aim was forthcoming from the : Northern Ireland
Indeed although mentioned in the bulletin Carlin went on
during CHEt strike and Paisley's demand for greater "security'.
held an 'unauthorised meeting.
Lyn told Socialist Challenge: "Although Donald and I have been singled for Vul action really amounts to an attack on the whole branch. In the past we have Lyn supported the Anti Nazi League and the held collections for struggle. 'But what annoys Scottish Gas the most is that in 1978 we went on strike in defence of 14 of our members who had been sacked. reinstated and ever since that victory our bosses have been watching for an
organisation.'
Lyn also noted some particularly sinister aspects of the affair: Many of the people who attended the meeting have been grilled as actually said during it. Management appear to know so much about its political content that I suspect they were either briefed by Kranch or have beer
Better Life For
free from violence...
to adequate social services'. Paramilitaries
such demands
how life would be if it were standards — better. prospect of peace and people.
What such
unionism in the North of
members of all the affiliated unions'. ladeen une more liable to Republicans, for
Consequently, Unit savs.
Partition
For their part
For have sought porterners trom souterners.
Protestants from Catholics.
double schism, should be impotent.'
of
available this isn't
backed
Belfast 10. Add 15p for p&p.
union room.
the situation punishment, this
workers
out of its room.
We got thiem
Weaker branch 'troops out'.
silence on
the Special
The dilemma the trade union leaders have faced is summed uo in their sunport of the
All Campaign. Launched in 1977, this campaign called for 'the right to live
the right to associate freely... the right to well paid work... the right
As the Workers Research Unit point out,
contained little that anyone could disagree with... They did not comprise a political programme but rather a statement of
- by anyone's
This was not how the sponsors of 'Better Life' saw it: Leading trade unionist Andy Barr argued that 'the choice for Northern Ireland people is therefore to resign themselves to the paramilitaries to fill the vacuum, or to do as
dOne support constructive set of proposals which hold out the
prosperity for the
sentiments overlooked, and what the general mythology concerning trade
Ireland overlooks, was pointed out in one reply to Barr from another trade unionist: *The paramilitaries are
Loyalist 'paramilitaries' are be in trade unions than the the simple reason that Loyalists are more liable to be in employment.
as the Workers Research the unity to which union ofticials refer is therefore a shallow one. It might be more accurate to say that the Loyalist workers tolerate the trade union movement as long as it is concerned with bread and butter issues.
the trade union officials have been content not to shatter this fragile state of affairs. They have remained inactive,
compromises Their non-sectarianism is passive, not the result of concerned action against sectarianism'.
Even on the bread and butter issues' the trade unions have a poor record, with wages
Such failures cannot simply be explained as the result of 'sell-outs' by the trade union bureaucrats. They are inherent in the context in which the unions work. The conclusion offered by the Workers Research Unit insists: "The partition of Ireland divided not only the country, but also the workers of the country,
'The continuation of that partition leads not only to repression and sectarianism, but to the further division of workers in the North,
Given that, it snoutu moe be surprising tial le trade union movement in the North, working within that
The full argument which leads to this conclusion cannot be detailed here. But not for the first time the Workers Research Unit has produced a bulletin which is both informative and very good value. It is the best introduction to trade unionism in the North of Ireland
*Belfast Workers Research Unit. Bulletin No 7: Trade Unions in Northern Ireland. Price 60p. Available from WRU, c/o 52 Broadway,
Donald Mackenzie explained how devel obed 'We immediately put out a special edition of the branch news-sheet. This seems I• nave rallied management a bit They have withdrawn their threat of instant dismissal. Instead both Lyn and myself have been issued with final written warnings.'
But the union branch is still locked The obvious lesson is • that it is a terrible mistake to séparate 'economic' struggles in the workplace from more "political' campaigns like
Those who want to attack trade union rights share the aims and values of those who strive to the British presence in One result of the victimisation of Lyn and Duncan is that many workers at Scottish Gas now realise the connection detweet Ireland and trade union rights.
Page 13 scan of this page
FORGET REVOLUTIONARY UNITY?
From Martin Shaw
I COME not to praise revolutionary unity, but to bury it. Or, as its one-time 'patron saint' perhaps I should offer to conduct its funeral service.
Revolutionary unity Indeed it is a good idea. But there is no real prospect of it happening. Of those who were interested in a broad-based unity a year or so ago, Big Flame now rejects any practical moves at the present time.
The International Socialist Alliance, which I helped to launch, has faded due to lack of enthusiasm others for the unity perspective which was its foundation.
The International Marxist Group, formally committed, has turned its attentions — more in despair, one imagines, than from conviction back to the Socialist Party, which in turn partner.
Fragments
The problems revolutionary designed to solve are surfacing in new forms. Much of the far left is discussing Beyond the Fragments, a useful book but one which should be renarned 'Beyond Lennism — Back to the Fragments', if the title were to reflect the contents.
The discussion has, in any case, a largely timeless quality. Thereal problem is that there is no prospect of the far left with any strategy -Leninist. quasi-Leninist, anti-Leninist — in the forseeable future.
Let's face the facts. The best opportunity
ISA
From the former Socialist Alliance
AT A dav conference on September the International Socialist Alliance decided to dissolve itself. Two CauCUSC welc continue the discussions in progress with Big Flame and the International Marxist Group, ana blans for production of an independent journal are being actively pursued.
The conference was small but enthusiastic. It was recognised that the re-groupment on the left which the ISA was set up to promote was no
on lie agenda.
While the objective need for it was as great as ever, there was no longer a tide running in its favour.
The Socialist Workers remains sectarian and BF no longer sees a unity with the IMG as feasible in the short term, The IMG's open invitation to others on the left is appreciated as a valuable gesture, but one which clearly would not now have
It was also clear that ISA members felt there was an identitiable political tradition which they were associated with, not expressed by any grouping on the left.
Doubts as to the possibility of developing it within any other existing grouping were universally expressed, so no grouping of ISA whatever their personal inclinations, was ready to push for joining BF or the IMG at the present moment (let alone going into the SWP).
Equally we recognised that the •impasse we found ourselves one shared by many others on the left, including large ex-International Socialists members we were still in touch with on a formal or informal level. The network nature Apologies
IN last week's issue the poem " "Pigs"
BATTLE OF IDEAS
was a good idea. both on its own part and that of
still
Workers remains an
unity was non- Leninist take - making a serious breakthrough
Requiem for the
International
29-30
the Stephen Marks, ISA.
Party
present form.
to pursue the
down in
of perhaps other Secondly,
and the IMG with
supporters, that the best
Not these
individual acts. in was Everyone
solutions and from BF and
Wing in this regard.
Racine-Jaques. In the same issue we also published another poem by the same author entitled 'Jean Seberg': in the third line the word should have been dirt, not dirty. Both poems were copyrighted when presented to our editorial offices, and we agreed that the author should retain his copyright on their publication in Socialist Challenge.
since the war for a new party or movement to the left of the Labour Party - the late '60s and '70s modest-sized sect (the SWP) and a couple of organisations of small or tiny size but some seriousness (IMG, BF).
The latter have now proved their inability to any serious steps towards irrelevance of the organised far highlighted by the advance of a new left in the Labour Party. of the ISA was valued, but it wasn't felt it could be maintained in its
What was felt possible was, first, of independent revolutionary journal.
Previous initiatives had got bogged
discussions between three organisations trying to reach a greater
thar necessary merely the production of a discussion journal.
was resolved continue discussions with Big Flame
more intormal caucuses than had hitherto existed.
Individuals may have already decided by
solution for them personally was to join one or another
but it was accepted that these would just be rame
was agreed the desirability of seeking more collective
the the the IMG the conference were extremely encourag-
Over
and Potatoes was hi N.
From Tony Cliff to Tony Benn?
more than one political
movement. unity, The don't left is organisations SMASH
RADSM
Socialist Unity election campaign.
By Phil Hearse of the International Marxist Group
AT ITS recent conference, attended
20 people, the International Socialist Alliance decided to shut up the shop and form two caucuses. One of these would discuss fusion with Big
and other with International Marxist Group.
i ne ISA was born out of regroupment of former members of
International Socialists - (now SWP) most of whom had left or been expelled in 19745. These included
La hundred supporters of the Workers| League, a group included some of founder members of IS and some important trade union cadres.
the first ISA conference, attended by 150 people, Martin Shaw argued for participating in Socialist Challenge and ultimate regroupment with the IMG. This proposal was considerably modified. that the ISA would become a talking shop unless it had a clear political
The left's presence seeras raore and more to boil down to that of a fragmented mass of both
sects and socio-politico-cultural movements, existing alongside and interpene trating with — because unable to challenge —
organisations the
know what the of the left should do, individuals (like myself deeply dissatisfied with each of them as they are, there is no longer
We stick to our guns!
project.
The fact that its funeral assembly WaN attended reflected its inability to exist as an independent force. And now Martin Shaw, one of the founding members of the ISA, has decided that life is politically easier in the Labour Party the under the Tories.
The ISA had conclusion that broader regroupment involving Flame and ultimately the SWP backed out of any regroupment with the IMO. In our opinion this is not unrelated to a refusal to come to grips with the question Leninist party in the conditions of late capitalism.
The ISA, too, lost its nerve. The . SWP had set its face against any short-term regroupment.
Since the ISA was never a properly structured organisation with its own programme but only a network of militants working towards regroupment, there was never any structured political activity on a national basis:
from that sector.
Option
Of course,
independent socialist alternative policies
Labour and its left. and the means are not to band.
labour
political but for
paralysis.
got than
prepared activity
has anti-Leninist,
vanguard'
cheer
0073 2
as an organisation
'Non-dogmatic'
As disappointed.
Vullic as only people
Martin
come to the
would join always
Bi . BF
of building at the moment.
in this
democratic debate
February, Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
much reason to hope for positive developments
we can still be active in the movements of the left; in that sense vive the fragments! But what are the political options?
I have fought for the last 13 years for an
to Labour.
But, however necessary this may still be in the long run, I cannot see any good reason for socialists to hold aloof from the Labour Party at the present time; and by that I mean, at least for the period of this Tory government.
The failure of the far left (and the CP) means that the popular opposition to Tory
• in so far as it finds political as opposed to sectoral or trade union expression
is bound to be reflected in the growth of
Or to put it another way: a revolutionary left that could not pull itself together to grow under the last, appalling Labour government is not likely to prosper when the Tories offer the Labour left its present golden opportunity.
The recent record of the far left is dismally different from that of the late '60s and early '70s. There is no point looking for a repetiten of that period, when the situation is differen
The real questions of the present time, ne ! see them, are how to develop and advance th politics of internationalist socialism — in the many movements of the left, yes, but also within the rising left in the Labour Party.
And how socialists like us, who have been through the experiences of the late '60s and "70s, should organise ourselves for such a new perspective in the first half of the 1980s.
Indecision led the ISA to virtual
Even the very modest proposal of the IMG for a joint discussion journal response practice.
Demoralisation set in, and militants dropped out of activity.
In our view all this was the disastrous consequence of adopting a position of waiting for the "perfect' regroupment to come about rather taking steps regroup with those forces which were to engage 1n common in joint democratic centralist organisation, which could have acted as a springboard for a wider regroupment.
A section of the ISA membership Degul LOWEEN libertarian positions.
This coincided with the unprincipled of Big Flame which despite describing itself as a 'Leninist Organisalon attempting to build itself by becoming leaders for the anti-Leninst ideas in Beyond the Fragments.
Defeatism
The introspection and defeatism of some members of the ISA fits in neatly with Big Flame's self-portrait "open' and 'non-dogmatic "Open', 'dreaded IMG. that is, but on every question but regroupment with the IMG. for 1. We do not regard this are naturally
inevitable. We believe that if Martin Shaw's orientation had been adopted and the ISA had fused with the IMG, a tiny step forward would have been taken towards a broader regroupment.
Shaw joins the Labour Party as an individual. We think he is wrong (and we are the ones who are accused of being 'soft entrists'). While an orientation to the Labour Party and debates with the Bennites are vital, the constituency Labour parties are not the arena where these debates are being resolved
We still maintain that it is possible period build large revolutionary organisation, based on discussion and орел which could challenge the Communist Party as the major force on the left of the Labour Party. It is on these and related themes that we will be discussion prior to the next conference of the IMG scheduled for
Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS 328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON N1
Constitutional
wrangles?
THE 1977 Labour Party conference overwhelmingly supported the abolition of the House of Lords, Not one NEC or Cabinet member spoke. against it. Yet the 1979 election manifesto merely contained a promise to reform' the Lords. How did this happen?
Almost everyone knows that this is oniv one case reoresentative of the general attitude of the party leadership. Callaghan was simply not having it.
Indeed he even threatened to resign if this policy was incorporated in the manifesto. He preferred pre-election chaos to bowing to the democratically decided views of conference.
Of course, having got his way on this and other policy issues the election was still lost — something which we should not let him or the Labour right forget.
So if the party is not to accept the status of a rather weak pressure group then the leader must be elected by an electoral college.
Despite the severe limitations of any constitutional changes, I would argue that no other reform is individually more important than attempting to make the leader more responsive to the party as a whole.
In tue coming penod luis "constitutional wrangle' remains of fundamental importance. In the long run the Labour left must produce a new leadership. In the short term we have to do all we can to stop the rot.
The fight for party democracy must not stop at this conference. The basis of our democratic socialist perspective rests on accountability to the rank and file by all those who hold office on behalf of the party.
We cannot risk being sidetracked by Callaghan's spurious argument that we should instead be fighting the
Decision making and control must be the perogative of party members, the notion of public primaries is an effort to sidestep party controi.
A democratic say for all the membership provides the only sound basis from which the left can fight for change. Our concept of democracy is not tactical but one that seeks to build the party on the basis of participation.
At the end of the day it must be acknowledged that whatever constitutional reforms are gained they
HOMENEWS
SOCIALIST TEACHERS face a big challenge this winter. 1ле cutbacks the Tories have made in public school meals, teaching materials abs, spending threaten
nursery education.
Many classroom teachers also feel angry about the sell out over the last pay claim where the heads, men, received a packet and the lowest paid, often women, got a pittance. We asked Wanda Maciuszko, teacher in Waltham Forest, to see how two journals, Socialist Teacher and Rank and File Teacher, shaped up to this challenge.
journals in teaching that both cover similar ground is I think a sad reflection of the lack of unity that exists among the left in teaching and this needs to be tackled urgently.
Rank and File Teacher provides many useful facts . and guidelines about the cuts and the current salary situation. Its policy of campaigning for ElS a week rise for all teachers seems much fairer than the executive's position which seeks to increase differentials.
Spenders
Ihe centre spread on fory cuts puts paid to the myth of Britain being one of the biggest welfare spenders in the EEC or that the spending cuts will save money.
In conclusion it states So cuts in the education services are short-sight-
and reactionary. As such they should be opposed by all trade unionists. It is in their interests and in ine terests or ne country .
Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
RMAC can in themselves never guarantee a leadership that is responșiveto the party's socialist aspirations. They may stop the rot in the short term, but in the longer term, the left has to grow stronger and create an alternative leadership.
Reforms of the party structure need to conform to the perspective of creating a powerful Labour left with a desponsive leadersmo commited to socialism. In short, automatic reselection is not automatic socialism. GARY KENT, Brighton ILP
A number of errors THERE WERE a number of errors in my article on the Ford pay claim as it appeared in Socialist Challenge 25 October.
Firstly no 'B' shift shop meeting took place at Dagenham on 27 September. If it had, around 10,000 night shift workers would have been present and unanimous v endorsed the Ford Workers Group proposals for afl25 basic and a Coventry stewards conference to decide the claim! If that had happened we would be on strike bv now
There was a meeting of around 100 workers on the Press Shop B shift who endorsed the FWG claim. The Press Shop is a section of the Body Plant which is one of five plants at Dagenham.
Secondly, one, not 'various' shop stewards committees, has called for reconvening the Coventry shop stewards conterence - the Dagenham Body Plant.
These points are not small — the officials and full-time convenors are firmly in the saddle on the Ford claim this year. It is this complete absence of
drastic
mainly NUT
Socialist Teacher answer some more basic questions about the cuts. that 'thou Tories now re-shaping hot just a scaling down of education'. Not only do we need to fight the cuts but we also need to look at the philosophy behind them. Page 14
BLAIK TEACH WAS MURDERED
JIMMY KELLY WAS MURDERET democracy, discussion and preparation for a fight in drawing up the claim which makes a Vauxhall type deal possible -the inadequacy of the individual demands in the claim.
workers 'found out' what the claim was four days before it was submitted on Friday 26 October. In fact a steward at Langley who supports the FWG hassled his convenor till he spilt the beans. A few hundred of us were the wiser hourly paid workers may have found out in the news on Friday night.
The main points of my original article were the difficulty of confronting the bureaucracy even in a well-organised place like Ford, the centrality of trade union democracy and of mass participation in deciding even the smallest economic demands - aproblem your Leyland correspondent is also painfully aware of. This was not ciear in the article as it appeared. •Ford Dagenham correspondent
A deeply worried
socialist IN AN article on Dylan two brief. references are made to Dylan's connections with Zionism. For Dave Rosenberg (Letters 18 October) this is sufficient to accuse Socialist Challenge of 'vile and base anti-semitism'
Now, Daye doesn't say Nigel Hamilton's article is factually wrong That's just as well because Nigel could have said more on this scoreexample that Dylan contributed to the Jewish Defence League, at the time the most racist right-wing Zionist
Socialist teachers:
the search for unity
Socialist Teacher is available
from Archie
Langley Rd, Harrow, Middx.
Rank and File can be obtained
from
London N4.
In attacking education, re-introducing direct grant schools, and discouraging progressive developments in education, the Tories are attacking the principle of equal opportunity that was the hallmark of the sixties.
to explain the kind of education we want, not just defend what exists. As Tony Graham states: attempts over the last five years the organised left has had to face up to the fact that The editorial argues a line on education (euphemism for a intend strategic analysis) is not an optional luxury. discussion on tactics. Is the unofficial action that Rank
AND HAS ANYONE BEEN CHARGED WITH THESE CRIMES? - not necessarily for Israel.
Finally the article said that Ford
anti-semites? - something like 57,000
Zionism. the last — 101 Faulds, 52
265a Seven Sisters Rd,
comprehensive
Socialist teachers need to be able
'Increasingly
I think there neecs to be more
The and • Fle puts Education
J DON'T BE RIDICULOUS WORM BESIDES THAT IS NOT THE POINT! group. Ialso remember Mrs bench'. Zimmerman (Dylan's mother) being interviewed on Galei Zahal (Israel Army radio) about her son's support
So as Socialist Challenge is openly anti-Zionist why does Dave consider that stating the fact of Dylan's Zionism is anti-semitic? If Dave really believes that all anti-Zionism is veiled anti-semitism, why bother to write to a paper staffed and read mostly by
I hope it's because Dave believes he is a socialist, but is deeply worried by the fact that so many other socialists feel this is incompatible with
PAUL SAMUELS, Surbiton Our watchword IT IS clear that the growing offensive of the working class against Why? hatcher sattacks will mean gicale. use of the police and other repressive bodies of the state. For example, the events in Southall, hospitalisation of Vauxhall pickets at Harwich, the Kelly and Cavanagh campaigns on Merseyside. Blair Peach's death wasn't the first and certainly won't be
An important point of principle has been raised in this situatior especially over the events of 23 April in Southall. The article in Socialist Challenge of 18 October said 'we should be considering a writ in the
(magistrates) Badge, Cook, Canham and McDermott are biased and that they should be removed from the
teacher
assault well
forward always feasible? It's vital to oppose the right wing domination of the union by challenging them elections but that requires a minimal was unity between Rank and File and the Socialist Teachers Alliance.
Midlands conference on Under Attack pont
[SO MUCH ENERGYL EXPENDED AND ONLY TWO MEN DEAD! S
LESSONS FROM WOULD HELP THEM TO ACHIEVE A COUNTRY
Accompanying the article was a photograph of posters reading 'Public Enquiry Now' — a slogan which was also mentioned many times in the reports of the Blair Peach pickets.
Both of these demands go against our principle of class independence. What does it mean to call for a public enquiry? Is it like the one Lord Widgery headed which whitewashed the Paratroop Regiment's murder of 14 unarmed people in Derry in 1972? Or Lord Scarman's enquiry into the police-murder of Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square, which blamed the IMG for his death?
Or does it mean Tariq Ali, Len Murray, Home Secretary Willi Whitelaw and John Methven of the CBI, heading a jury elected from the so-called 'general public'?
Revolutionary socialists call for none of these. We call for a trade union/labour movement enquiry.
Phrases like the 'general public' and 'national interest' are constantly used by the media to hide the fact that the 'public' is divided up into two classes. The capitalist class uses everything in its power to divide and beat back the working class.
Another important reason why we call for labour movement enquiries is to encourage the sell-activity and confidence of the working-class. Only working people have any interest in finding out the truth about Blair Peach's death, not his killers.
Our watchword is class independence! Our slogan is labour movement enquiry!
MARKTURNBULL, Liverpool
towards the right sort of approach to unity. Hopefully we'll be able to build on that in London this month.
The issue of racism is tackled by both journals. Rank and File Teacher takes up the case of a Birmingham
who being victimised because she was convicted of an
on an anti-racist picket. Socialist Teacher publishes a profile of Anita Bhalla, which is a powerful indictment of the racist education system we as teachers perpetuate.
Less blatant racism is also a cause for concern. Why is so much money being spent on disruptive units to control the large numbers of black kids that inhabit them? Why are so many black children being suspended from school in areas like Haringey just before exams?
Dinners
In campaigning to defend school dinners, socialist teachers need to
OilE effects on working mothers. Women and outsideteaching need to be on the attack as
as defending existing rights. Rank and File provides an excellent example of how to do this in the article on maternity rights. It's vital that the issnes of racism and sexism become a central part of anti-cuts campaigns.
There are many other informative and thought provoking articles in both journals. For me the most optimistic
Power sharing in a Spanish School, which gives an account of a school where a lot of the ideas of socialist teachers have actually g been put into practice.
Page 15 scan of this page
Britain and The Jews of Europe 1939-45 By Bernard Wasserstein Clarendon Press, $7.95 WHICH country had civil servants and politicians who stated the during the last world war?... nave cone nothing but add to difficulties by propaganda and deeds since the war began'. that in their hearts they have always hated us; they hate all Gentiles.:. they cannot even keep their hands off illegal immigration', opinion a disproportionate amount of the time of this office (the Foreign Office) is wasted with dealing. these walle answer isn't Germany. In
No, the answer fact was Brital Wasserstein's book shows that whatever reason the British government declared war, it certainly was not to fight the horrors of anti-semitism. Just the opposite entire war. Britain refused to give any assistance to the Jews of Europe.
The . main emphasis government's policy towards the Jews was to block off all escape routes.
They prevented jews
ONE of the ac!
Birch, of the Viet
steps of Indep
The NHS- in
sickness
and in
health?
Health in Danger — The Crisis in the
National Health Servict
By David Widgery
Macmillan Press, £2.95
ONE OF the great strengths of this book
is its assessment of the inadequacy in
concept and the failures in practice of
the NHS. Ittraces the history of medical
services in Britain from the atrocities of
the Poor Law to the failure of the NHS
'thirty years on' and outlines a socialist
BOOK REVIEWS
Palestine
following regularly "The Jews
*1 am convinced hate us and
'In my
. with
Bernard for Europe'.
war, throughout the
of the
entering I eventually exterminated.
STYMYING US
IMPERIALISM
critique.
tallure lo differences in ill-health,
patient, and so on. book
SWP, gives comprehensive
Du Cocall axing SEVICE
While the
which at that time was under British control. Throughout the war, ships with Jewish survivors were
refused Palestine. After one ship (the Salvador) sank with over 200 people drowning, the head of the Foreign Office Refugee Section said: "There could have been no more opportune disaster from the point of view of stopping the traffic.
They controlled all Jewish refugees to Britain itself. For instance in 1942 the Vichy regime in France agreed to hand over 19,000 Jews to the Germans to be deported to Poland. This meant certain murder. Appeals to the British were refused on the grounds that 'We cannot turn our country into a sponge
Wasserstein produces evidence show that for the first 18 months of the
the Germans nad a polic of expulsion and not extermination of the Jews. However, the British refused to take any expelled Jews on the grounds that they were not 'War refugees in the sense that they are in danger because they have fought against the Germans but simply racial refugees'. Most were
sited States out of Victnam. John throws a jar of bis own blood on the
This encompasses
cheapness of the service to capitalism,
Imorove social class the undemo cratic structure of the NHS, Its sexism
towards women, the alienation of the
gripping
account of the rise of militancy among
health workers in the first half of the
seventies. Drawing on action sheets and
rank and file papers from the period,
David Widgery, who is a member of the
first really of these
important struggles to date.
seriousness the Tories demands that health militants be armed with
detailed understanding of the size and
scopeof the NHS; its social and political
history, and the scale of the cuts, and
their likely actual effects on the service.
book mine
British complicity in the holocaust
Britain before the war were put in "internment camps' on the grounds that they were potential "enemy Thousands of these Jews forcibly deported to various parts of the British empire. ship-load of deported Jews were killed when Arandora Star torpedoed.
Combined with this was the utterly cynical attitude of the towards the information about the concentration camps. The true facts were known from at least April 1940.
They were greeted with remarks (from the Foreign Office) like: 'As a general rule Jews are magnify their persecutions, remember the exaggerated stories Jewish pogroms in Poland after the last war which were found to have little • substance'
Though a public declaration was made in December 1942 this was mainly for anti-German propaganda. Even a late as 1945 an officiat of the Refuge Section of the Foreign Office wrote that | 'One notable tendency in Jewishi STEVE COHEN
Monad Press, distributed by Pathfinder, $4.50
United States tradition the book is a
British imperialism's colonial policies.
intervention.
was to build an open,
could then be
party'. is political writing of a bige order.
America was at war with 'communists.
inspiring contribution.
STEPHEN BELL
the | useful information on
questions it is marred by a political
shyness which limits its usefulness.
Though Widgery frequently casti
gates social democracy for compromis
ing over private practice, for cynically
turningtail on the cuts, and for having a
gradualist conception of
towards socialism, at no stage does he
even outline a possible
strategy. The reader is left with no clue
as to what might have been done about
these outrageous defeats and betrayals.
By describing
politically challenge the fundamental
All books may be purchased.
Camden Town
Jews who had managed to get to ! reports on this problem is to exaggerate
the numbers deaths.' aliens'. Throughout the were then organisations made In July 1940 a and incinerators at Auschwitz. was
complex which they had adjacent to Auschwitz.
press regularly featured
inclined profiteering, and I pacifism. of before his own suicide:
tion of the Jewish people taking any steps to prevent it.
THE apparent limitation of this book — the fact that it's written for activists - is its strength. In detail, Fred Halstead documents the movement in the
against the wars in Indo-China, and in Its relevance will be recognisable to militants in Britain attempting to build campaigns againsi
Halstead's argument is that the greatest aid revolutionaries in imperialist country can offer to struggles in oppressed nations is to build a mass movement which can check and finally stymie the imperialist
Halstead illustrates how this political line was able to prove the most effective in the USA despite considerable support for alternatives from the right and the left. The Socialist Workers Party and Young Socialist amiano (American co-thinkers of the Fourth International] fought to maintaie toe mass character of the movement, even when there was no reass sapport.
They insisted on a concentration on the issae of the troug united actioes willis which al political force democratic cau their particular opposition to the war. The reass character ol
weighed against those seeking an acco imperialism; and those aiming to tura the anti-mar more combined with a process of social radicalisation in America which foed its The inability of US imperialism to defeat the Indo Chinese outlet in the largest anti-war movement in an imperialist constry Russia in 1917. The breadth of this movement is startling. In May 1970, after the invasion of Cambodia, over four million out of a total of seven million students 1ook part in strikes and demonstrations. In April 1971, on the sarke day, demonstrations of 750,000 took place in Washington; 300,000 in Ser Francisco; plus myriad other actions throughout the country.
All areas of American society were affected. There were even instances of organised opposition in the CIA. Halstead's material on the crumbling of morale in the American army and the organisation of the Gis against the war
The book makes it clear how such a movement contributes to a more permanent change in society. The principle of non-exclusion which the anti-war movement adhered to meant that socialists were able to. work openly once again after the long era of McCarthy, and despite the fact that
The oppressed nationalities, the women's liberation, gay, student, and the workers' movements were also able to make common cause against the US government. Such an experience is bound to be repeated. Activists in the United Troops Out Movement and Anti-Apartheid will probably gain the
most from this book, but it's recommended for all socialists as a genuinely
all these | economic
One cals a flaislic., for the return
progress Health in Danger remains alternative the NHS.
PATRICK BYRNE THE books
failing 10% if ordering by mail. 1979 Socialist Bookfair
The most comprehensive display of socialist and radical writing in
Britain today. Over a hundred publishers are participating. There will
be a selection of literature written especially for the labour movement.
Hall, Euston Road, London NW1. Friday 2
November, 12.30-6:30pm. Saturday 3 November, 11am-5pm.
of deportations and
Jewish requests to the • government to bomb the gas chambers
Thes were told that such pin-point bombing was technically impossible. However ir September 1944 the US airforce was . able to bomb the IG Farben industrial
was immediately
There is no other explanation of all this than deep-rooted anti-semitism For instance during the war the popula
anti-Jewish articles, accusing Jews in this country
food hoarding and
As one Polish Jew wrote shortly
'Let my death be an energetic cry of protest against the indifference of the world which witnesses the extermina
'without tbe best Marxist immediately
an rationalisations for cuts
offered by successive Labour and Tory
administrations and the return of what
less caring Britain, of the Poor Law
mentality', the author swamps us with a
historical inevitability. But essential
reading for health workers and users of
reviewed here
available from The Other Bookshop
328 Upper Street, London N1. Ado
Pluto 4A Press new
from
pluto
politics Duncan Hallas Trotsky's Marxism £2.50
New impression Leon Trotsky History of the Russian Revolution £7.95
Big Red Diary 1980 Politics in Sport £1.95
Mark Poster Sartre's Marxism £2.95
Also:
Jean Paul Sartre Sartre by Himself £1.95
(Urizen) health
Lesley Doyal with Imogen Pennell The Political Economy of Health £4.95
women/music
Kathy Henderson, Frankie Armstrong and Sandra Kerr My Song is My Own 100 Women's Songs £3.95
masculinity race Paul Hoch White Hero Black Beast Racism, Sexism and the Mask of Masculinity £3.95
Scottish labour history
Nan Mitor John Maclear E50
media
Denis MacShark Using the Meciz How to Deal with the Press, Television and Radio £250
early 1980
Eamonn McCann War and an Irish Town New updated edition f1.95
Michael Farrell Northern Ireland: the
Orange State
Second revised edition
£5.95
Andrew Arato & Paul
Breines
The Young Lukacs 14.95
Elizabeth Sigmund
Rage Against the Dying
Campaign Against
Chemical and Biologiczi
Warfare EI.95
Charles Denby
Indignant Heart
Testimony of a Black
American Worker £ 95 Socialist Challenge 1 November 1979
Page 16 scan of this page
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OUL.
British
11 NOV
By Roy Alexander
THE TALKS over the Zimbabwe could be rapidly moving towards a conclusion - • and one thai will hold out no benefits for the oppressed majority.
Having rammed a constitution down the throat of the Patriotic Front that guarantees the interests of the exploiting white minority, government is now trying to impose a scheme for the "transfer of power' thạt will give maximum advantage to the present coalition of white racists and black collaborators.
Pressures from international opinion and the black African states
that the Smith/Muzorewa
stepping down for new elections to be held before any recognition or lifting of sanctions is granted. The crucial question is: under what conditions will the new elections be held? Untouched
If the structures of white wealth and power — control of the land, the mines and tactories. the top posts of the military and state machines — are left untouched, then there will be huge possibilities for arm-twisting by the whites. This may not be ballot-rigging the sort Commonwealth observers would see
equally undemocratic behind-the-scenes manipulation.
What is 'free' about a vote in which every black elector is made to know that his or her boss or landiord has a definite idea about how they should vote and that this view backed by the government administrators, the police, the army? What is democratic about an election in which the opposition has to carry on its campaign under the guns of those it has been fighting for years?
formal resignation Smith/Muzorewa government and its replacement by a British governor will make no difference at all to the basic structures of power. The voice giving the orders may have changed, but the
people will be interpreting deciding which to follow and which to ignore, and carrying them
That fact will be understood by every black voter in Zimbabwe. Willing
is hardly surprising Muzorewa has indicated willingness of his government to step down. His supporters will continue to
key positions under British governor. And if they were to fare badly in the election, there would be nothing to stop them staging a
and sending governor packing, just as lan Smith did in 1965.
Muzorewa and Smith nothing to lose by going along with Carrington. And they know that the reward for cooperation is big
recognition, lifting sanctions, and British aid to smash the Patriotic Front's resistance.
Moreover, the British scheme is such a transparent manoeuvre lal the Patriotic Front is quite likely to
Oppose Tory plans on Zimbabwe
ALL OUT
reject it. Then Muzorewa and Smith will collect their bonus absolutely free - the prize for being the good fellows future of
who would go along with the Tories' scheme.
talks the Tory government is gearing up for an attack on the Zimbabwe people that will make what they doing in this country look like a the Tory garden party.
Building against the Tories means linking up in solidarity with those fighting them overseas opportunity than the demonstration called by the Zimbabwe Emergency Coordinating November. should be there in force.
blatant
that
of the
that
Want
have
of
LENA Through the Lancaster House
are
an effective struggle
- and there is no better
Committee on 11 The labour movement THE South African Barbarians rugby team has left Britain, and according to manager Chick Henderson 'everything went smoothly'
So smoothly that the South African team — made up of eight whites, eight coloureds, and eight blacks — was forced to play its matches in small out-of-the-way places surrounded by thousands of police at enormous public expense. So smoothly that demonstrators picketed every match — the 700-strong picket at Llanelli last week (above) was the biggest demonstration in the town since the General Strike.
So smoothly that some black members of the team were acutely embarrassed when a Llanelli delegation which was allowed to meet them asked why it was that the South African Rugby Union, the 50,000-strong non-racial organisation, has condemned the tour as a sham.
In South Wales the Barbarians were even forçed to cancel one fixture for lack of opponents. And the Welsh Rugby Union has already had to pay a price for its support of the tour — the withdrawal of rate relief on its Cardiff ground by the Labour council.
DEMONSTRATE
SUNDAY 11 NOVEMBER 14th anniversary of UDI Support the Zimbabwe liberation struggle Victory to the Patriotic Front No sell-out in Zimbabwe Hands off Zimbabwe No collaboration with the Muzorewa-Smith regime Sanctions must stay ASSEMBLE 1.30 PM SPEAKERS CORNER MARCH TO RALLY IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE
P.O. Box 82, London E2
AA BACKS
TU ACTION
By Max Holz
TRADE union action on Zimbabwe and South Africa —
was the call from last Sunday's annual general meeting of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
After a vigorous debate, a resolution from the Manchester AA group was carried pledging the movement - as a major priority - to give support to shop stewards committees and AA members campaigning for the implementation sanc. tions in the workplace.
Manchester AA members
trade union support for sanctions could only be made effective through direct action by trade unionists themselves.
order assist such moves, AA will be organising a network of trade unionists involved in the sanctions campaign, and calling regional working conferences on the implementation of sanctions.
UNITE FOR SOCIALISM
RADES UNION COUNCI MARA Printed by East End (offset) Ltd,
← Socialist Challenge No. 119, 25 October 1979Socialist Challenge No. 121, No v, 1979 →