Socialist Challenge No. 131, 24 January 1980
The scan: sc-n131-jan-24-1980.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 Challens Arthur Scargil: VICTORY!
KICKOUT THE TORIES
The Tory government thought they were going to teach the whole working class movement a political and economic lesson.
But the Tories are the ones that are being taught a political and economic lesson by the labour movement. If the steelworkers win we all win.
Onward to victory.?
SEE PAGE 3
than it could chew.
STEEL WORKERS POWE
OFFICIA 'What do we want? Thatcher Out'
expressed their support for the strike.
ON TO
LATER TWO thousand steelworkers marched through Sheffield on Monday chanting
The message from the rally was that the Tory government had bitten off more
Speaker after speaker, including Bill Sirs, denounced the government and
Arthur Scargill, the Yorkshire miners' leader, received thunderous applause.
пото: G.M. COOKSON Socialist Challenge
STRIKE FOR
JOBS
IN WALES
MONDAY 28 JANUARY Demonstration
1.00pm Sophia Gardens,
Cardiff
No.131 24 January 1980 20p
strikers price
Photo: G.M.
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London NL Editorial: 01-359 8180/9. Distribution and advertising 01-359 8371. Moscow Olympics - the name of the game
Tory aims still intact
OUR POLICIES
« apiralism is in crisis. 'The leaders of the lahour Parts and the trade unions ofter solutions that are in the interests not of the workers hut of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the lwe vital tasks confronting
• lo onid broad-nased ca*‹ struggle lendencies in opposition in class-collaborationism isnour savement. These should
non-exclusive grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the creation democratic revolutonary socialist organisation which can, through
application of united front tactics. begin to be seen as an alternative thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be hased on the understanding thai: 1 The struggle for
jerks ln unite the tient of apsinet the withital of other oppressed lager of societ! -•omen, blars people.
viruggling
he achiesed by creating new organs »i power and delesting with all necessary means the poser of the capitalise vise.
Our socialism will
infinitely more democratic I than what exists in Britain today. with tell rights for political parties and currents thar do not lake up dile! socialist state. The Stalinist morets
'incialism' in act ok and Easiern Kurope hate discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of worhers throughou the We are opposed to them and will ofter fall suncort all tighfing ins sorialist democracy.
3 The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalison has 701 created market. politics. Thus we lighi for working class units international icale. This erits will in the long run he decisive in defeating both the imperialisi regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America. and Asia.
Is Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in
the •Furocommunist the pro-Moscow wings have any meuninglul STALLEY for overthron of the capitalist state. *th resotatonar socians bartles AL HE IS necesyary than
Conditions Inda!
LETOIL. more lavourable than over the preceding three decades. But such Dants can rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. the right : organise factions and
If you seree with these principles and wari be involved activities by socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the
interesten in information ahout actsities in my ild. • i sould like additional literature
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popular support
the
character,
such a call?
and
of interests of US imperialism.
socialisma
Games the
hesses
their he
By Geoffrey Sheridan ali
against the emanating
Westminster as
Labour's election defeat.
these
year industry country could hope to meet presented
world
world
• by August.
The Tory
hatched by
Africa
they could take on
of in opposition.
Showdown
nor
LIt the Tories showdown.
are minds about that. built by
closures in steel, indefinite strike This means
Wales are demanding.
action,
in to juggle the balance sheets leaders of the ISTC and the
slightly increased pay offer. more
juggling act difficult,
the SUCCEE
sector, workers in
24 January 1980 Page2
EDITORIAL
PRESIDENT CARTER has called for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow unless Soviet troops эте withdrawn from Afghanistan within a month. It is an appeal which will meet with much instinctive
including in the movement. It also has the backing of a number of East European dissidents. So why should socialists - even those opposed to the Soviet invasion and the rule of the Moscow bureaucracy — firmly reject
Carter's appeal has nothing to do with human rights, self-determination, or any other issue of concern to working people. He himself more or less admitted it in his TV broadcast, describing the invasion as an 'unprecedented act, a threat to a vitai area of the world where the interests of our country and our allies are deeply embedded'. In other words, boycott the Olympic Games to defend the
If any further proof were needed that this is what is intended, just think back a bit to 1968. Then the Olympics were held in Mexico. On the eve of the
pro-imperialist regime shot hundreds of protesting students in cold blood. No-one at the White House batted an eyelid.
And then there are the Tory canvassers of a Moscow boycott. Many of them are simultaneously SHOULD you hear a chuckle
from the Palace of the steel strike enters its fourth week, there is a good chance that its perpetrator is James Callaghan, architect of
The requirement for the British Steel Corporation to break even this
- a demand which the steel West. European wei was government. From that stems the 2 Callaghan's per cent pay offer to the steelworkers and the 52,000 redundancies required
government was willing recipient of the plans for steel
the Department of
Eric Varley, and the steel unions were among those the Tories considered
and beat listed in the schedule drawn up by Nicholas Ridley when the Tories were
Last week the EEC's social affairs commissioner pointed out that the government hadn't bothered to apply for relief funds to help cushion the
suggests that were eager for
The militancy of the steetworkers has no doubt begun to change their
The last thing that Thatcher wants is for the pay strike to spill over into a struggle against the
with the kind of action that the AIR OT miners and railwayworkers in South steel
If the TUC can hold back that
as it is seeking to do, Tories are likely to look for some way
steel corporation's and hope that the Blastfurnacemen can sell their members a James
But as the days go by and the steel blockade bites deeper into the economv.
becomes increasingly
A victory for the steelworkers on pay could dent the Tories' strategy, but not shatter it. With cash limits at
hear of their plan to pin the earnings and jobs in the nationalised industries and the public
remain the Tories' 'weak" category, not least those at BL, where t openly talk of it leading to generalis-
as it re-establishes Pinochet in Chile imperialist intervention affairs. new revolutions
wake of Vietnam.
down
promising sign for the imperialists. the unions are presently balloting on a pay offer
Margaret Thatcher is determined to win her spurs as the leader of the most right-wing British government this side of World War Two.
'non-intervention'
strike was accompanied week by a slight intervention in the gas prices will be pensedrop islation with the proposal that Dius 10 per cent a formula which workers would do well to apply to wage claims.
Still on the stocks, of course,
Prior's Employment which aims to outlaw closed shops and effective picketing. The rumour is that the proposals will include giving employers a free hand to sack strikers. The steelworkers are showing how effective pickets can be mounted - in spite of their union leadership - and we may yet see a concerted effort by the police to confront that
The steel strike does have the potential to setback the Tory government to tae point of its departure. Rank and file leaders in the strike
the most ardent supporters of the British Lions rugby tour to South Africa — a country where the politics of apartheid determine every single aspect of the way sport is run. It is this Tory government, too, which seeks to punish Moscow at the same time
diplomatic relations a classic product of an •another country's
Carter's boycott call is part of a new US war drive whose main target is not the USSR at all -Carter still proclaims his commitment to detente with the Kremlin buresucracy — but the emerging
which threaten capitalism's control of the world market. The problem for Carter, Thatcher and their cronies is not lack of striking power. It is the deeply suspicious attitude of working people in the West to the prospect of further military adyentures by their rulers in the
They must be softened up to accept new interventions which can put a stop to anti-imperialist upsurges such as those in Iran, Nicarague, and eslewhere. In this sense, the lack of international protest at the despatch of British troops to police the elections in Zimbabwe is a
It is a sign of the bankruptcy of the Soviet
Led strike action. That clearly needs to be the objective of our arguments and actions. action being called by the official leadership of the labour movement The parallel the piecemeal way in which the the government nopes lo working class.
The steelworkers and the South Wales have opened the way to a shove that the government will not be able to resist.
Bill,
latest
with imperialist campaign against our class. struggles throughout
• against whoever threatens them.
conditions
Thatcher and rolling back their war drive. The disparate days of
of Trade
carve up the
and railwayworkers industry,
UNS action
Liaison Committee for the
Defence of Trade Unions
Saturday 26 January, 10.30am, Friends Meeting House Euston Road, London
Credentials from Jim Hiles, 137 Wanstead Park
Road, Illord, Essex.
bureaucracy that their invasion of Afghanistan has been the single biggest boost to this political drive to roll back the worldwide struggle of working people. But to go along with any suggestion of a boycott of the Moscow Olympics would simply reinforce the
Equally there are those who say that both the Olympic Games and the Lions tour should go ahead because sport should have nothing to do with politics. We disagree. The Lions tour should be stopped. We take this position because our efforts must be directed towards extending working class solidarity, both with the emerging anti-imperialist
the world and with the workers of the Soviet Union itself. Our alternative to the Moscow bureaucracy has nothing to do with that of Carter. We argue for socialist democracy because that is the most effective way of defending the gains and interests of the world working class
That is why we don't merely say that the Olympics should go ahead in Moscow; we want to
against the repressive through labour delegations and the like — which can help to Improve the situtation of the opposition. This is the best way of exposing the demagogy of Carter and
Next weekend, potentially one of the most powerful bodies of the movement is The Liaison Committee for the Defence Unions will discuss the response to the ories.
Delegates will be arguing that the. steelworkers' strike should be joined by national strike action to stop all closures and job loss — in the steel the railways. and British Leyland. Militants will be pushing for tirsl step In a movement to kick out the Tories.
Page 3 scan of this page
Scargill: Iplead guilty
SUPPORT THE STEEL STRIKE
STRIKE NEWS
North sea
oil-drilling
may have
to stop
By Des Tierney
NORTH Sea oil is the most recent
target of the steel strike in Scotland.
Strike leaders have declared that
they will prevent all steel movements
on the East coast of Scotland, which
would disrupt drilling operation and
production in the North Sea. Pa
Shevlin, spokesperson Scottish strike committee, the effects: "Workers in oil platform production yards at Nigg Bay and
Ardersier have already been told not to allow steel movement in or out of their yards. If we can stop even one shipment going out to the rigs they
would have to stop their drilling. That will cost them pounds per hour.'
Steelworkers in Scotland see any
molestries steel as legitimate targets. major employers in central Scotland are feeling the effects Motors, Talbot, Caterpillar and Honeywell.
'Our view,' said Pat Shevlin, 'has been the steelworkers supported everyone else wholeheartedly in recent years, the most recent example being the lorry drivers who didn't even need to picket us. HOw asking for the same support from the factories.'
The bass of the Confederation of British Industry in Scotland, John Davidson, has predicted 'widespread redundancies, lower fewer jobs and thinner pay packets' because of the effectiveness of the flying pickets.
Davidson said it could take five or six years to claw back lost markets.
Arthur Bell, the divisional officer for the ISTC, responded
bon's threat
we down on flying pickets at s
Wing called by the STUC las Tuesday. 'While we are anxious to stop the flow of steel Scotland, we are concerned about the effects of picketing ing industry,' he said.
That strikers in Scotland yiew the agreement sceptically is demonstrated by their actions in relation to North Sea oil:
The steelworkørs are on strike to win a 20 per cent wage claim. The more workers them the more bite the strike will have and the quicker they will win.
Solidarity is vital, although the STUC seems to be organise it. This should not deter the steelworkers themselves demonstrations, and meetings putting their point of view across to other workers affected by the steel strike in Scotland.
BobScholey skulks into Teesside BSC chief executive Bob Scholey has been to persuade steel strikers there to accept a loval procucuvily acal.
The Teesside strike claim that Bob Scholey 'skulked' into Teesside too afraid to confront the steel workers with his offer: 'He again made the ill-fated Saul offer, which is clearly attempt to national membership of the ISTC. He is really naive if he believes this ploy will work.
The offer, say the steelworkers, would only benefit two out of three employers on "the other third will be dismissed to pay for the offer to the Diner 5W0.
the explained
Audience at Sheffield rally
thousands of
that use All the
General British Leyland,
have
We are level of peopic in tiese
investment, ARTHUR SCARGILI by urging strikers
SUDDHed IR
on manufactur-
give
The
reluctant to steelworkers,
through public Tories.
to thunderous applause:
labour movement. They try to
committee
divide the difficulties it is today.
not just Tory governments.
steel strike
TWO thousand workers marched in Sheffield on Monday in solídarity with steel strikers to a rally ad the City Hall.
demonstrators were in a militant building workers and 'What do we want? 20 per cent with no strings', 'Tories out, and some steelworkers in the Transport and General Workers Union urged a general strike to get rid of the
Arthur Scargill took the stage at the rally at City Hall
I bring you greetings from 66,000 Yorkshire miners (applause). This dispule is a political dispute between the steelworkers and the government. The Tories calculated this strike as an attack on one of the weakest links in the
wanted lo give a political and economic lesson to the whole working class movement.
"Listening to the mad monk on Weekend World you can see that the Tories are not only bent on destroying the steel industry bat all nationalised industries. And here's a lesson for future Labour goveraments. Let's stop taking over lame ducks in industry and take over all their white swans instead. Had the last Labour government taken the correct socialist policies the movement wouldn't be in the
Tm glad these Labour MPs (Stan Crowther, Joan Maynard, Martin Flannery) here today have opposed incomes policy. Let's oppose them under all governments,
•Steel is subsidised throughout Europe with a hidden subsidy on coal. British steel should also be subsidised.
rapturous response when he says:'You're
BILL SIRS
to interfering in the
mood, miners chanted:
seronuary picketing. effective picketing.
win this strike. to win.
just want a fair share.
satisfied (more
Everyone else has got 20 per cent — the miners, the Ford workers, industrial civil servants. Steelworkers shouldn't settle for less than 20 per cent with no strings.
I've been accused of interfering in the steel strike. I plead guilty (massive applause). They say refrain from
What they mean is refrain from They can introduce whatever laws they like but we'll picket whatever targets are necessary to
"The lessons of our struggles against the last Tory government is that solidarity is the key to victory. The miners would never have won without support. If the steel workers win against the Tories it's a victory for all of us. You can count on the support of the Yorkshire miners. Onward to victory.?
BILL SIRS, fresh from his chat with Maggie Thatcher, spoke after Scargill had received his standing ovation
"The government thought we were a soft touch. We didn't want to fight but we had to. Meetings like this are not going to have an impact. Negotiations are not going to win as they did under Labour. We need an all-ont war
*But if you go into battle you need your troops behind you. We've had problems here. We've no intention of accepting the present offer. But neither are we arguing for more money that that which has already been offered. We
'Let's get around the negotiating table (cries of "not less than 20%"). If we get round the negotiating table, I'll
cries of "not less than
, Strikes
Scunthorpe
ference
Saturday.
Action
including
Stan
jobs.
year.
again.
toy. firm,
given the push.
evéning
Twenties,
protit.'
been
have put
there others
fall.'
shift
local labour
says, Lesney's,
fight against ANNIE SPIKE 207'").
Socialist Challenge
Scunthorpe
A HUNDRED trades unionists from
day conon the steel strike on The conference was organised by the Scunthorpe Steel
Committee, with speakers strike leaders from Scunthorpe and Corby.
Steelworkers explained the need to link the strike over pay with the fight against closures in the steel industry.
Sheridan, from the Rotherham strike committee, said: "The strike is against the government and its whole economic policies. Pay and jobs must be linked. Youth need
"This will be the last fight in steel,' he continued. 'If we close we'll never be able to fight again."
"A general strike is near 100 per cent certain. If other trade unions see Sir Keith Joseph putting the boot into Bill Sirs, they'll respond. It's not just jobs in steel. There are a quarter o million associated jobs at stake.
the closures go ahead, Sheridan added, 'there could be three million unemployed by the end of the
Sirs has been a moderating influence throughout-the strike, bur the lads are learning on a daily basis. The union will never be the
Women face the sack at Lesneys LESNEY products, the 'Matchbox'
are making nearly 2,000 workers redundant. One-sixth of the 7,500 workforce in Britain are being
, plus about 800 part time workers. Most of the production is done by women and for every man • sacked three women will go.
Annie Spike, shop steward on the
shift at the Eastways, Hackney site, says: 'People have just accepted it, it's like being back in the
they're toid they're good. But the women are Lesney's
The redundancies appear to have
accepted by the workforce without any struggle. Many workers
their names down for voluntary redundancies, although the payments won't be very great,
already per cent unemployment in Hackney. What it shows is the weakness of the unions in Lesney's. That's why Annie Spike is in favour of the rosed shop:
'It's very important, everyone has to stick together. Why should the
not in the union get the benefits. If they realised what union meant, united we stand, divided tre
Annie has fought hard to get he
unionised and to get her members better conditions. But if the full-tine workers aren't going to fight there is little that the women working part-time can do. And Annie isn' confident of much support from the
movement, with the exception of Hackney BOC.
'If people could afford it, sh
should just take ovar like Meccano.' The scal question is: can Lesney's workforce the local labour movement and th whole working class afford nol t0
Many loss of jobs and against the anti-working policies of this Tory government?
24 Jannary: 1980
Page 4 scan of this page
MAKESURE THE TORIES LOSE
SOUTH Wales is fighting for its survival.
The steel corporation's plan for 11,000
redundancies at Port
Llanwern steel works threatens the future
of the region.
Thousands of miners,
associated workers will also lose their jobs as the whole of Welsh industry contracts after the
closures.
can only be achieved at the expense of Welsh jobs.
Port Talbot and modern integrated steel plants. Both have only recently been completed. Now they are due to be placed in mothballs waiting for an upturn in the economy when there will be more demand.
The decision to only partially close these plants is aimed at reducing capacity South Wales 'stimming' means that steel would continue to
produced. Port transferred 60 miles to the finishing mills at Llanwern. would close along with the section at Llanwern. In short, be opened to close plants.
Heart
The steel industry is the heart of the locat The planned closures the immediate loss of 7,500 mining jobs; with BSC's plan to double its imports of American coking coal another 7,500 mining jobs will go.
Half the present pits in South Wales will close, and there are no alternative jobs for redundant miners. And then there's rail. mining and steel industries account for 65 per cent of British Rail's freight in South: and the Tories already want to cut 40,000 jobs nationally.
Add all the figures together and the total is
The official redundancies. the total would be nearer 60,000. Bither way, the result would be the devastation of South Wales. As Don Hayward of the Welsh NUM puts it: "This is catastrophic. now more serious than 1926 or the '30s."
The Welsh TUC initially „G H 21 January, one-day strike for 28 January after pressure from the action to 10 March. Talking
The reason is clear enough. would like to wait until the present steel strike is over before it discusses closures with the government.
There is a growing awareness among steel workers that the wages fight is also about jobs, and that the militancy weeks is far more effective than talking with
By Clive Turnbull
THE latest issue Banner, published by the ISTC, has a page solidarity trade unions around Union after union support for the steelworkers? struggle in Britain.
From the CGT, the largest union in France: 'Having learnt British steel dispute we salute the workers struggling for a guarantee of their standard of living as we; are involved in a struggle against austerity and re-structuring.
'You have our active solidarity and we are at your disposal to help and are ready to concert action in the interests Hrench and steelworkers.'
And from the United States: "The United Steelworkers of America wish you every success in your struggle to win an honourable and decent wage settlement in the face of the enormous increases in cost of living which — in the absence of substantial wage
will destroy the standard of living of your membership.
•Be assured that efforts to prevent the export of off-shore steel to Britain and to seek the support of the
shipments have our full operation and support.'
Similar telegrams were sent to the
STRIKE NEWS
Talbot and
railway and
The profits demanded by the Tories
Llanwern are giant
steel-making by half. This
and thet
The present mills at Port Talbot
• steel-making the way would
would mean
The
Wales,
45,000
The Weish NUM considers that
The situation is new sen called for strike but has now called a
TUC to postpone indefinite strike
The TUC
branch.
shown in the past few
the strike.
Internationalism...
ISTC by Japan, Italy, of Steelworkers' Spain and Brazil.
the world. spells out their attacks on living standards. The type been
of the
standards of all steelworkers; too; Unfortunately,
British isolation, producing
barred from foreign markets.
German, workers. They blems in steelworkers confront in Britain.
in Britain They any
wages and conditions. лу 1564 родо
Allout 28 January
South
Wales
fights
for
By Pat Kane in Swansea
survival
"I've firmly supported the strike,' says Bob Taylor, who works in the hot mills at Port Taibot. I was very disappointed when it was called off. "I think they will keep putting it off because the TUC in London doesn't want it. It's a pity, because it's about time someone did something about jobs.! If the closures go through, Bob Taylor won't have a job to go back to.
Ballot Unlike the TUC and the ISTC leadership, the South Wales NUM is willing to defend jobs. They have been campaigning for a Welsh CHICA LEKE against Hayward says that 'all-out strike action is now
Local NUM officials have organised pithead meetings and a miners' ballot produced an 8-1 majority in favour of strike action. The one-day strike action on Monday is seen by miners as only the start of a movement towards a general strike to stop the closures.
If the NUM and transport workers joined the steel strike it would bring the Welsh industry to a standstill. the difference between calling for a strike and organising it. The methods of the NUM have to be extended to every factory Glyn Jones of the Swansea Trades Council Executive Committee thinks that it's time that the rest of the trade union movement discusses ble savs.
unions in West Germany, Portugal, Mexico,
In every country in the West, steelworkers are facing the same pro blem of plant closure, job loss, and
of solidarity that has given to the fight of British steelworkers shows clearly that there is the basis of an international campaign to defend the jobs and living
the demand for import controls raised by the Labour left and the Communist Party cuts across such a struggle. It is at best a utopian idea, which presupposes that the British steel industry can exist in
only for the British market, and not be similarly
But the main danger of the call for import controls is that it shifts the fight from the real enemy. The crisis in the steel industry is not the fault of
Japanese, French lace the same Dro their countries
The fight is with the employers and with governments like the Tories
have to be beaten in this steel strike.
And they are the ones who have to be beaten in every future battlé on jobs,
Wales TUC
stop the
involvement movement. waiting. They March for
organised forward?
plan. Don
the BSC
of the
whole of But there is all
wages of every
and union Import controls strategy could break up this kind of solidarity.
concluded by the steel bosses.
'We have to get an immediate recall of the
elsh TUC to organise for a general strike
closures. t should be ope delegates from shop stewards' committees and workplace union branches. The trade union leaders have been discussing this for months. It's time the rank and file's voice was heard
'This is the way to get action, through the
wildle trade The BSC aren't sitting around have given a deadline of 31 the redundancy proposal. We have to get the strike
noW. IL S possible to bring
The trade union leaders are setting very firm limits for this strike. They simply want a postponement of the closures for two years, an end to the proposed increases in coking coal imports, a subsidy for Welsh coal to make it competitive and enquiry into the running of
We have to point out that the present crisis
BSC has very little to do with the productivity of steel workers. The BSC should be forced to save every job and the working week reduced to enable the existing work to be shared. The government should guarantee the
South Wales worker. payments of BSC loans should be cancelled immediately. Last year that came to £200m.
These are the type of policies that can unite miners and steelworkers and overcome the discions being created by the Tories and the WEST GERMAN steel workers bring donation to Sheffield rally on Monday.
15,000 mining jobs are at stake in South Wales if steel closures go ahead and coking coal contract is
to the Tory government.
strict cash limits.
union
policies.
the
Mandate
their policies.
Swansea or Cardiff, Clasgow for their policies.
• very future
strike in South Wales.
they do the Tory establishment all those areas Interest
happening. educate, into action.
...not import controls
unions.
SOURSON SociallaT
malenge
The aim of strike action should be to get a the heart of the problems facing the Wels working class — the unemployment policies of
The management of BSC are simply carrying out the orders of the government. It was Thatcher that insisted that the BSC break even this year while imposing
It is the existence of this government that has to be challenged not simply its individual
Callaghan and the other Labour leaders say that the Tories have a democratic mandate for
But they have no mandate from Liverpool, Newcastle or These towns didn't vote Tory and neither did the vast majority of workers who are suffering from threats to their
There is a very real possibility of a general
The determination of the miners, the example of the steel workers terrify the union leaders in London as much as
By extending the Welsh TUC's struggle to
which are willing to fight back we can turn this into a real movement throughout the country to kick out the Tories. But we have to remember there is a long way from the call for the general strike to it actually
Over the next weeks we have to agitate and organise to turn that call
From KAF (Swedish section of the Fourth International)
ALL movement of steel intended for Britain is being blocked by Swedish trade
The dockers responded within a week of the strike's start, refusing from & January to load British-bound ships with steel. Also included were ships bound for Holland with stee which would then be transported on to Britain.
On 15 January a similar ban was imposed by transport drivers, and this week unions representing metal workers, seafarers, shopworkers and works managers are expected to follow suit. Normally 15 per cent of all steel produced in Sweden ends up in Britain.
The British strike is having another effect too. Closure plans have been announced here which will make at least 2,500 steelworkers, redundant. The British strikers' militancy, which is shown on our TV screens every day, is increasing the determination of those in Sweden to take the same course
Page 5 scan of this page
SUPPORT THE STEEL STRIKE
STRIKE NEWS
steel
industry
By Geoffrey Sheridan
This is the spirit in which Labour MP Michael Meacher, chairperson of the Labour ordinating Committee, forward his solution for the steel industry.
an article published Guardian on « January. argues that 'there is evitable about contraction down in the industry':
an important starting point, because -every other industry in steel is undergoine modernisation programme, could bring it into line with the most advanced production methods that present-day technology has to offer.
The requirement closure and mass redundancies are based on a problem that is being experienced throughout the West glut of steel. But that problem. of over-production capitalism. It arises not from fulfillment of demand for steel, but the system's inability to match production capacity with potential demand. Decline
Meacher spells out the decline in the main domestic markets for steel. val lie nal accade to 19/0, proquetion in motor vehicle manufacture fell by 39 per cent, and steelwork by 38 per cent, building and marine engineering by 58 per cent, and construction by per cent.
Reversing the decline in these industries would dramatically change the prospects for steet, and it is this:
difficulty is that he does not advocate the one course that could secure this objective: workers' steel-making and steel-using dustries, imposed by workers. trol over production_ and distribution.
The Treasury, he says, forecasts a fall of 2 per cent in the gross domestic product in 1980-l, company BSC's plan for a cutback of almost a third in steel production.
Meacher argues that there would be an expansion of 'perhaps 5 per cent in stee with a growth rate of 2 per cent in the British economy, lifting steel producuon mrom ine jected 15m tonnes to nearly 22.5m LOLLICS. Estimates
Meacher proposes to the economy management. which simolv consists of higher expenditure in the public SeCLOT coupled with private sector' (presumably cuts in in-
Labour left's unworkable plan
Saving the
without tears
THE Labour left has an unenviable task. While the Callaghan-Healey wing of the Labour Party merely dresses up policies which seek to bolster profits at the expense of working class living standards — Labour's left would have us believe that it can solve capitalism's crisis without harming anyone.
Cohas put
in the Meacher nothing inloss account? runTrading Profit/Loss 1976: - 297.9 unlike practically Britain 1978: - 257.6 1979: - 119.7
come tax and
Around. unique Hasty Nabl or nol obnging.
particular,
have long
vestment industrial plant machinery. which shiprefused to carry out. even. when
billon. The
than from investments here. bians tor. lne Growth con-
boost Meacher's which would ac- public expenditure.
of Meacher's Pail
mand to Britain.
plu
Wing unemployment. stimulate 'demand
*tax cuts in the
BSC interest mounts
'It a measure of industrial performance is required, it is the return before
interest which is paid which is relevant; interest payments to the government,
the banks and other lenders are simply the say in which the surplus earned is distributed.' — Financial Times, 2 January 1980.
And the pre-interest figures of the British Steel Corporation's profit and
BSC losses [and interest] — Emillions Interest Payments - 107.6 140.7 - 167.7 - 197.4 - 207.7
Over the past four years, the steel corporation has declared a loss of £1.215m. But of this, over half - a total of £61 moneylenders in interest payments.
VAT). This, he estimates, would boost production all
pay
Unfortunately, capitalists have a
With the present depressed level of profits, for example, they are just as likely to ab- picket sorb increased demand by hiking up prices than to expand production.
the expansion would be required in industries which overhaul in the scape of massive ite needed complete
new plant and this investment capitalists have resulticly
ment handed grants of £3 billion a year to industrialists, annual investment in new plant and machinery in manufacturing never rosc/abore £4
reason is Simply that British-owned capital earns twice as much from profits extracted overseas
The financiers would consider it even safer to invest abroad with the
inflation contributed by proposal hitticast
Import controls are an inevitable
plan, aimed at cecung most or ine growin in de
Although he has adopted a variant put forward by Cambridge economists — of holding the growth in manufactures to about halt ot what it would otherwise reach sley - this would still force the purchase of relatively more expensive domestic. goods and have the effect of export-
Even if Meacher's version of import controis did not provoke moves to block British exports, the recession in the West ensures that there could be no expansion of these exports.
Meacher begins his article: 'What
= Loss Declared = 400.0 - 27.7 • 455.0 - 327.4
was handed to the
¡ the steel unions should be striking over Is nol so much an inadequate
Hotter as a disastrous corporate strategy...'
Presumably he doesn't mean that the steelworkers shouldn't be on the
lines over pay, but approach to drawing up a plan for steel does leave out small questions like the existence of a Tory government and the notion of class struggle.
Perhaps this is why he does not suggest two measures which would have an immediate effect on the job
for 18 February
duced by Barnsley Trades Council. is ahead of most parts of Britain.
leaflets to mobilise support.
economic advance, as decided at last year's Congress
"The call for strike action,
suppert we tall ger on yous and services.
Trades Council. In the opinion of its secretary,
In Barnsley,
mich s redwirement
threatened with the withdrawal of the Labour whip.
зоусве comica ro socialsi.
going all-out for 18 February.'
CORRY Closure of the steel works will bring devastation to the town.
loss and closures in steel: refusing to pay the interest charges count over the past tionalisation of the profitable private steer-sector, which supplies a quarter of the steel used in Britain.
There Labour left could take in seeking to match up steel-making capacity with the wide-ranging needs for the product. That is to hold a conference of re rese steel making the using mee the steel-making dustries, both overseas.
Dictates
to elaborate the needs of the working class in relation to steel, an impetus to the struggles necessary to confront the dictates of capital.
Wing week and sharing of the available work in the steel industry, in order to protect jobs and plants. his production meet needs could only workers' control and that, of course, would require a head-on confrontasimply with government but with all those who stand in the way of socialism.
South Yorks builds
'SOCIALIST republic of South Yorkshire' reads the best-selling badge pro-
While the establishment of the republic may be a little way off, the fight in the area against the cuts in social spending.
A one day all-out strike is planned for 18 February, called by the South Yorkshire Association of Trades Councils, which is now distributing 100,000.
The proposal for the action is endorsed by Sheffield District AUEW, Yorkshire NUM, the Manchester region of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions, and other trade union bodies in the North-west.
George Caborn, secretary of the Engineering Union's Sheffield district, explains that the day of action is part of the TUC's campaign for social and
Caborn says, 'could obviously only be a recommendation. We are now going back to factory and public meetings to see what
A major role in the campaign in South Yorkshire has been played by BarnFebruary action is part of building up of the fight against the Tories.
that fight is also having to deal with the right wing in the Labour Party, which has drawn up proposals for cuts in line with the govern-
Barnsley councillor Alan Schofield, who has attacked this move, has been
Mike Stokes expressed his political perspective as the fight for a Labour
'If it's capitalism with a conscience that you want,' he adds, 'it may as well be a Liberal government. That's why we're
which ac-
for over half of BSC's losses
four years; and na-
say
valuable. step the
and using in in Britain and
Such a conference, by beginning
would give
Among these are a shorter work-
Determining and allocating steel
working class beachteved by
Line present
teachers'
reaction • keep union Tories
Candierigs,
Place,
Mike Stokes, the 18
sell
National
nursery Socialist Challenge
Photo: SOCIALIST CHALLENGE
Pay now,
Scottish
teachers
By Desmond Tierney ALMOST 1,600 teachers in Dundee are due to strike on Thursday 24 January in protest at the decision of the Tory controlled Tayside council to sack 130 primary school teachers on-fixed term contracts.
The strike has been called by the national executive of the Educational Institute of Scotland, and it will close schools throughout Dundee.
The background to the sackings is the council's plans to slash f1.2m from its education budget
Pressure is also building up for immediate settlement of the 1979 wage claim, which was referred to the Clegg Commission. Unofficial action has been taken at one large Glasgow
Commenting the Glasgow
walk-out, Keir Bloomer, chief pay negotiator for the Scottish teachers' union, said: "There is an ob vious danger. There could be a chain
Now our task wil br :to other teachers from taking similar unofficial action.
Such leadership has provoked Scottish teachers to organise a con ference to discuss how best they can prepare to fight the Tories
Sy individual on med fits ne many individual union members, conference will discuss how the Tory policies will affect teachers and the education system. Hopefully it will take decisions on what policies the
should pursue the and how these should be fought for in the union.
The Scottish Teachers and the lories' conference is on Saturday, February, 1am-Spm, at City Halls,
Glasgow Information from: Allan Armstrong, 28 Mertoun
, Edinburgh.
*Teachers in the London borough of Ealing struck on Wednesday for a half-day over the council's plan to
Church England Twyford comprehensive school.
Nottingham, two thousand Union of Teachers' Wednesday over the suspension of a called out on
teacher, disciplined proiesting al nursery cals
24 January 1980 Pages
Page 6 scan of this page
THE WILD BUNCH
Not just a case of rotten apples
HOME NEWS
Jimmy Kelly
-what the
pathologist
said
By Tony Meehan TEN DAYS ago members of the Jimmy Kelly Action travelled to Westminister to distribute performed on Jimmy John Torry. Sir Harold Wilson, MP for Huyton, agreed to table a motion calling for a public inquiry and said after reading Dr Torry's report that he was confident other MPs would support him.
Socialis: Challenge obtained copy of this extraordinary report last week.
The pathologist gives as a major contributory factor to the cause of death, 'multiple injuries'. included a shattered jaw, which in the opinion of the pathologist is most probably explained by kick to the jaw'. Other included a fractured vertabra bruised testicie, " that testible. to
squeezing that testicle' policeman has apparently admitted to squeezing Kelly's pathologist is of the opinion that the bruise was more like to have caused by a blow from the fist or koce
In addition to these injuries there were numerous abrasions which were so extensive that it was unlikely that they could have been caused by Kelly rolling over on the ground. The concludes that Jimmy Kelly, who was in very poor health shock — the result of his beating — or
chiefly as a result of his broken jaw.
The police story is that Kelly was found unconscious on waste ground. This story is contested by a number of eye witnesses who allege that a police car knocked him down and that the officers then proceeded to beat him up. The police have to explain, among other things, why they needed to use and how he received the injuries he did.
The police's best chances fattis an a half empty bottle of
La half-empty whiskey, allegedly found in Kelly's pocket thereby 'proving' drunkenness was found to have several sets fingerprints on it, none of which were the deceased's.
After a number of demonstrations in Huyton, some of which were 1,000 strong, the Jimmy Kelly Committee is now resting its hopes on either public inquiry coroner's court to establish the truth behind Jimmy Kelly's death. Tommy Banks, chairperson of the Action Committee told Socialist Challenge that they were launching an appeal to raise £14,000 to pay for the services of a QC in the coroner's court.
Donations to: Molly Curran, 58 Barkbeth Rd, Huyton, Liverpool.
On Our Backs Sweetman — Pan, £1
Sacialist Challenge
Committee
mortem These
'a blow or
injuries and a
the
and the wildest
pathologist later'. died either of
have died man
of
bottle their tendency
society.
The Times.
It was
son has written.
the Police Federation'.
upholders of law
of
Dabbling
Action
For the but by the reports Countryman'.
who gets in their way. near The concern
THEOTHER BOOKSHOP On Another Man's Wound, by Ernie O'Malley The Singing Flame, by Ernie O'Malley — Anvil, £2.50
Sexual Attitudes in a Changing Ireland, by Rosita
328 Upper Street, London N1 2XQ (Tel. 01-2260571)
:24 Jnuary 1980 Paged
THESE are just a few members of
bunch around whose motto is 'kill now — ask questions
In the last ten years 245 people
while under "protection'. The most famous were Jimmy Kelly in Merseyside, Liddie Towers in Durham, Edward Platt in
AN EDITORIAL in The Times was headed, 'The Police Protest Too Much'. There followed an article which mildly reprimanded mood the leading lights in the police for
attack their mildest critics with accusa, tions of plotting to overthrow
'The police must learn to be less sensitive to honest criticism', said
been an exceptional editorial because, as the historian EP Thomp-
The Times could normally be subtitled "The Organ of with
beries
But now The Times has dared to offer a few words of reproach to the three
and order. That voice has been added to many others from the establishment, even the Daily Telegraph has called for an inquiry into into the murder of Jimmy Kelly.
• The criticism has been fuelled not just by the death of Kelly and others
'Operation This inquiry into police corruption has revealed that London cops are no longer satisfied with dabbling in the porn and drug market but are now organising armed hold-ups and the killing of anyone
of these critics always amicable, 'They are basically
Photo: G.M. COO
Anvil, £2.50
Glasgow.
their friends not enemies', said the top people's paper. 'But', The Times went on, 'the police in their present
are some danger alienating their support.
For the ruling class the worry is that the image of the friendly, neutral bobby on the beat is being questioned. Which means people might begin to wonder what exactly constitutes "law and order'.
Police chiefs themselves
prone to blowing the gaif of late. For instance the former boss of the London police, Robert Mark, has written how his cops had
72,750 burglaries, 2,680 and 450 demonstrations' 1973. The running together of these
categories suggests that seriousness and they are all 'crimes'.
ANATION
Southall's racist trials have been held. Among
picket was that of the
Wild Bunch.
Manchester, James McGeown in
In enforcing their own version of 'law and order' the Wild Bunch have also killed Blair Peach in Southall and Tony Castro in London. Castro was unfortunate enough to get in the way of the Wild Bunch while gang
Such an attitude is reflected in a story Peter Hain tells of how when the Douce were trving to frame nim for a bank robbery, rogators told him: a lot of trouble with your activities and protests make sure this charge sticks on you.
For many police a political protest is just another form of criminalitv: tor some it is the have Manchester's police Anderton, said greatest threat to 'law and order' came from "deal Mark has WHICH rob- Shrewsbury worst of all crimes, worse even than murder'.
There is a temptation to dismiss Anderton and Mark as a couple of particularly right-wing AS part of the Southall week of action, 400 people marched to and picketed Pentonville prison on Sunday. This is where a number of those convicted in
Kings Cross branch of the rail union ASLEF.
Daily Mirror last year.
Jimmy Kelly
Bunch?
whole. for
assumptions. one of his inter- 2,154 'You have caused Director alleging and we are going to
• worst form chief, James
recently that the will be
killers,
"seditionists'. Robert
that the have pickets "committed the Towers' death.
lunalics,
Nutcases
wing pointed
"law and order' stance Metrono far
the banners on the Pentonville
that.
Photo-Dote Colemat
members were taking part in payrol snatch at the London offices of the
Tony Meehan tells of the gang's most famous slaying, — the death of
Geoff Bell asks is
there a 'Mr Big' behind the Wild
unrepresentative of the police as a
Similarly, those responsible
the death of Kelly and other murders could be explained away as simoiv a few rotten apples'.
But there are problems with such
In 1978, there were complaints referred to the of Public Prosecutions police assault, and 2230 complaints of assault submitted to the Police Complaints Board under section 2(1) of the Police Act, 1976. Yet in not one of these cases were disciplinary charges made.
Similarly, the DPP has said there
Pro prosecution of Kelly's Blair Peach's murderers also seem likely to get off scott free for Lies
those responsible
All of which disputes the 'rotten apples' argument. The conspiracy to pervert justice starts with the ordinary copper but involves the Police Complaints Board; the DPP and ultimately the government itself.
Anderton and Mark may be right-
nutcases, but they were ap by the Home Secretary Labour and Tory. The murky, crooked world of the police may now be beginning to be exposed, yet Thatcher's only response has been to massively increase expenditure on her
In this way, the views of Anderton and Thatcher are the same. Both recognise that in the next couple of
. be a rise of social discontent, and social protest, both
that their "law and order' priority is to restrain that discontent and defeat that protest.
To gain information to help them in these tasks the police are willing to go to considerable lengths. For • In.
each week the London Police obtain, by
subscription, nine copies of Socialist
what do the need
nine copies for? We worry abou
Page 7 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
Fi orton were admitted. the ward toiled and bled and bed.
birthday parts.
diletter had bleeded hat is in deters
mare tortinie person illis. nurang.
Health set.
THESE few sentences describing the horror facing young Wollen before the passage of 1967 Abortion Act, an interesting new pamphlet published by the Brent Campaign Corrie.
It is a very useful addition to the available lterature on abortion and fertility control, making its starting point the question of how women feel about pregnand, and Through women describing in their own words both good and bad ex-
By Jude Woodward
MARY DITTA is two years old and lives in Rochdale. two brothers and Pakistan whom met. If the British immigration authorities have their never-will meet them.
Mary's mother, Anwar, was born and grew up in Britain, young girl she returned to Pakistan. where she married and had her first three children. After returning to BriTain in 1975, she and her wanted their older children, aged 9, 7 and 6, to join them.
Despite all ihe eyidence of birth
Abortion-the
horror of the
'backstreet'
STARTED training to be a nurse in 1961 al a large and prestigious teaching hospital in the Midlands, In the School ot during there was no mention of contraception, let alone abortion, But we gradually became aware that women who Bad had abortions were ding looked alder in the hospital and
tal and Contidentiate, where women wind bad backstret
We tired strong personal memory of abortion sir alin d wis sorting on a ward where kidnes machines ball in corre into ee. Oute sight they admitted a soman. marr. children, who had tried in abor herselt he portres it do into her vagina. She was crifically ill and had daraged s
The tali reality et backstreet abortion began in iro home do us more Chrough our personal lives than throuch cur warh, homerer. Three of my died friends had abortions dee ing ihis time, dan tinally diorted on might duty alter walles. ing lavaties, hormone pills and other deerled tablets which we had duces to from che drug cupboard, St juad wont inio
The ccond incident dill scares me when 1 lnh:
haths aho chared d fut with me. I! " he looked aers white end ins tire drug. Kathy was espelled from the hospital and inde lini h her training in a non-teaching hospital.
to. the hired rine. Tie did not tell angone the bri preshaat until she wie oser 13 werhe she had a histors of depression and artempled suicide and was sery unhappy in
Ne enovuraged her in go to one of the Y! Haecologists. but the consullant refused her an abortion.
Her situation became a nightmare, and she ended up is a patient in the porchiatric unit. She tried do commit suicide mice and finally one erening she was transferred to a parchiatric hospital. having been sectioned ander the Mental
graphically the right to choose. are taken from
Against - needed choice are also touched on contraception, housing, dependence and so on.
The pamphlet
Gc/o Brent Minet Avenue, London NW10.
Bring Anwar's children home
She has sister in let them come to Britain. she has never
way she
but as a the immigration authorities.
force the whatever suffering is
itself.. willing 10
The dentist periences it makes a powerful case against Corrie and for a woman's
The numerous other issues, apart from the right to abortion, that are
women nave a real good financial in-
called Mixed Feelings and costs 30p (not including postage) from Brent Against Corrie;
Women's Centre, 138
certificates, passports and so on, the British immigration authorities refuse to accept that the children are Allwar's sons and daughter and will not
This kind of arbitrary decision. wrecking the lives of whole families, will continue as long as the racist im- Home migration laws exist. The whole legal climate leaves the onus of proof on big the individuals concerned and not on
Not only do these authorities en-
letter of. the law involved. , bul theveæem to feel ustinied in makine decisions which contravene the law. The British working class has shown
acquiesce in the
on Corrie
ONLY TWO weeks left to stop Corrie. Only two weeks to prevent this Tory government perpetrating a crime against women. Only two weeks to stop thousands of women being condenned once more to backstreets. Only iwo weeks before norses nol just in Britain, but marteride, suffer a tremes
does setback in the strage for thee rigge la
stral thei Fr ide third radia • = Fe choose' and the rest of the staff were specially chosen because commitment to this principle.
The testimony of women who use clinic reveals that here is one clinic performing safe, day-care aborfion on the NHS in a sympathetic and supportive atmosphere.
But if the Corrie anti-abortion Bill becomes law this clinic will have
Activities on 2 February
Northern area: demo, meet Ilam, Forth Si
Newcastie.
Nollingham: NAC demo
Brighton: NAC dem
Leeds: lobby of Sian Cohen MP and a bazaar.
Bedford: NAC street meeting. Church Sr
Birmingham: NAC demo, Victoria Sq. 12.30pm
All Sains, Mançhesler
Scotland: demo, backed by STUC. Glasgow
Activities during week of
action
lower famies: zo Jan. demo tron: Londoi
hosnia som al London mobiliselor
NUS: demo 5 Feb, 12om. Maler St. Londoi
wul to lobby or Parlament
Leeds: curs demo a Jan. NAC confingent
Benton: all might vigil on Pet
Leeds. NAt local demo on s ren
Pismoulh: torchhelt procession on fret
Leeds; women's torchlight proversion and all
night vigil at Leeds Infirmary on 7 Feb.
On 5 Feb the rally will continue from 5-8pm in mistreatment of blacks, so the in. migration authorities feel they are above rebuke.
The Campaign Against the Immigration Laws is determined change these attitudes
As a start there is a picket of the Office on February,
'Bring Anwar's children home'.
gobilisation from the
only stop abuses of the law, and bring three young children home, but it could also take us à step nearer:
rid of these racist altogether:
Picket the Home Office.
February, 12-3pm (opposile James'), bring banners.
The East End takes
the horrors of the
of Come's
1ET * e as End as beca vine faces of many campaigns, not least that to of their win free contraception and abortion
rights. Sylvia Pankhurst and the East-1 London Federation of were the precursors of man! campaigns 1o win women's rights, parlicularly control over fertility.
Breakthrough
The development singer cap ~ vulcn cap — providing a form of contraception that Stopes, the early pro-contraception campaigner, in bringing this form of contraception to East London women.
The Marie Stopes clinic was openled in East London in 1928, the year that women won equal voting rights. However; the motivation bringing contraception to areas like Tower Hamlets has not been simply a question of often it has been a matter of reac tionary ideas that women breed too much. This was an element in Marie Stopes' East End activities.
Similarly. today, the drug Depo Provera — a powerful injectible con traceptive with a huge range of side eftects — is prescribed in areas like Tower Hamlets to control the size of working class and particularly Asian families.
Anti-DP campaigners in the area. notably Dr Wendy Savage, decided to look inore closely at the use of the drug. She found that less than 20 per cent of women on the drug had been properly informed of its side effects. '20s, tionists were a common feature of the 10 East End slums. Ian Mikardo, a local
Labour MP. commented at a recent meeting in Tower Hamlets that when A backstreet abortionists in his street of a boy labour 30 houses. The frequent occurrence
of blood-poisoning. gangrene, and death are testimony to the desperation women faced, unable laws.
The labour movement, the meut, stadeats. south. politic the broad pro-ab this conn
This 11:2
Many _ Suffragettes with the
cases.
of the Men-
• better known as the • was a breakthrough in
Marie
was particularly
for
women's rights. Too
WORKINS class week. As
of pregnancy. be become aw fend the clinic
vice.
back street abor day 26 January,
chapel). there were four
embolism
DEFEND THE MILE END CLINIC Join the demonstration Saturday 26th January Ipm London Hospital followed by a rally at the Mile End Hospita
Socialist Challenge
tinuous activity drawing every last bit of sap port into the struggle to prevent this dedesk.
1067 ¿noma to bare tied from bad abortions in 193"
casualty London hospital: Were
effects 2: ite cartsreet abortionists tha: vasual! beds were set aside especially io deai with these
It was during the passage of ihe White anti-abortion Bill in 1975 that Peter Huntingford started his cam paign for a day-care abortion clinti a: the Mile End Hospital. In June 19° the clinic was finally opened.
'Our clinic was set up on the basis that abortion should be a woman': right to choose', Huntingford sabs. 'The present law enables us to do that; and I am proud and happy that we can provide such a service.
On demand
Twenty abortions per week arc performed at the clinic, which serve a population of 120,000, and worses can usually get an abortion within a
La result, 40 per cent o1 women who attend the clinic receive their termination before nine weeks
The Mile End clinic is the only one in the country which aims to pro vide abortion on demand. Of all abortions performed at the clinic, 9. per cent are for social reasons and would be outlawed by the Corrie Bill
The Mile End clinic will no longer
viable if the Bill's proposals
. But we also have to de against cuts in the NHS, which will also erode this ser-
¡as is way as many bede a possible in the London area shouk come on the demonstration on Satur
assembling at ipm at the London Hospital, Whitechape High Sr, London El (tube: White
And this is also the reason why ne need the biggest possible lobbs of Parliament on 5 February against the Corrie Bill. We want more and more Mile End clinics across the country. not fewer and lewer.
at the
24 January 198
Page 8 scan of this page
Selections
* Morning Star
RECENT in fundamental questions of political principle.
Ever since struggled for the interests people and for peace, struggles throughout the world for democracy, national liberation and Socialism. stand on that basis.
But we express intervention of the Soviet Union's armed forces in the internal affairs of Afghanistan änd call for their withdrawal.
And we will oppose with all our strength the efforts of the British and US governments to exploit the situation to increase tension, step up the arms race, and create new bases in Asia and the Middle East for imperialist adventures.
Morning Star, 15 January
THE MILITANT
WASHINGTON never said a word to protest Daoud's vicious repression, nor lifted a finger to improve social conditions in Afghanistan. But it immediately set out to strangle the gains of the Afghan masses:. Just two revolution, Carter programs to Afghanistan. tried to block loans destined to help develop that country:
Washington's hostile reaction was not limited to economics.
Unable launch intervention because of the deep sentiments of American working. people Vietnam-type war, carry out its operations through intermediaries. In this case it has mainly been through the US dominated military dictatorship in Pakistan. The Pakistani government provides bases for the right-wing guerillas, money to buy arms, military training, and free access across the Afghanistan
With this powerful array of international forces ranged against the revolution, the Afghan government turned to the Soviet Union for aid. Money and advisers were provided. looked like the imperialist-backed forces might pull off a bloody Chile-style counter-revolution right on its southern border, Soviet troops care in. So the issue is not Soviet intervention, but a growing US interventionthe gains won by the Afghan masses finally forced the Soviet government to respond. If the Afghan and Soviet forces are successful in defeating the reactionary right-wing offensive, the Afghan people will position to achieve their aspirations.
The Soviet move in Afghanistan has also put a big crimp in Washington's war drive against Iran, making it harder for Carter to drag us into another Vietnam there. It has gained time for the masses in Nicaragua to advance their struggles.
with less danger of US intervention. It is a sharp blow to the US rulers' efforts to hold back popular revolutionary upheavals throughout the
world.
The real threat to peace and to the interests of American workers and farmers
Washington, not Moscow. The real threat is
Carter's campaign to aid the right-wing Atghan
guerrillas, to beef up the Pakistani dictatorship,
to establish military bases in the Middle East and
Africa, and to squander more billions on the war
budget.
Militant (US), 18 January
SOVIET action in
opposition 1o the UN resolution which it spon-
sored (on hegemonism
clear condemnation of Soviet action and a
demand that all Russian troops are withdrawn
from Afghanistan immediately.
Inevitably,
West have decided to exploit what Russia has
done in Afghanistan as
down the process of defente.
agreement is now in serious danger and opposi-
lion to the nevi auclear
serioushy blunted.
Tetcher. the Soniel action comes as meanna"
24 Jan
from the Left
Afghanistan raise
party of the working in solidarity with all
We take our Red
our disagreement with the
foot
international months after the
cut off all economic
American officials
direct military
against another
Washington has sought to
When it
aimed at taking back - that
be in a much better (UnC from
Tribune
Afghanistan is in direct
- SC). There must be a
the cold war warriors in the
La means of slowing The SALT II
missiles in Western Far Margaret esca: is is proof of her accusations
SOCIALIST
PRESS *
TROTSKYISTS thus in no way advocate the export of 'socialism' by armed invasion of the
Army. We condemn the Afghanistan, which involves trampling under
the national rights of the Afghanistan, and which will blacken the name of Communism in the eyes of the multi-millioned Muslim masses of the East, impeding the struggle for socialist revolution.
- But in the situation that has arisen we are not indifferent on the question of the defence of the nationalised property relations of the Union. We stand unconditionally for the defence of the USSR against imperialist attack, from whatever quarter. Now that the Stalinist invasion has taken place, therefore, we must assess what would be the impact of an immediate withdrawal of Red Army troops.
Such a policy would in our view open up a vacuum of power in Afghanistan into which would step the imperialists, ' support for the anti-communist guerrilla forces.
The establishment of a pro-imperialist regime in Afghanistan would represent a severe danger and Middle East. or otheld it in any wast and Middle East. advance the struggles of the Afghan peoples for self-determination - a right they denied for centuries by the imperialists.
For this reason we do immediate withdrawal of the invading troops. We give critical support to military actions by the Soviet army against imperialist aggression. But politically we must at the same time develop a programme which meets the needs of the Afghan
peasants and nomads.
Socialist Press, y january
Socialist
Worker
DESPITE our doubts about the origins of the 'Islamic guerillas" socialists can have only one response to this: RUSSIAN TROOPS — GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!
Socialist Worker, 12 January
Labour
Weekly
THE country was unique in the world in being a non-Communist state where the Russians were the main military and economic partners: this
administration cut back aid in order to appease Kennedy refused an urgent Afghan request for economic aid. If anyone 'lost' Afghanistan to the Russians it was Dwight D and JFK.
Czechoslovakia is tendentious. In the Afghan case the Amin regime was universally loathed
per cent dependent revolutionary influence was, even if less than the
There has been much talk of the Russians advancing on the oil of the Persian Gulf: but the world's largest oil producers, at a rate of 12.4 million barrels a day, and the availability of warm water ports, whilst obviously convenient,
serious a goal in intercontinental missiles as it was in the days of Peter the Great.
The Russians may have had the misfortune to intervene in Afghanistan in a year, but neither the ill-informed hysteria this has generated, nor the force of Islamic counterrevolution in Afghanistan itself, appear likely to force them off the course they have chosen. Fred Halliday, Labour Weekly, 11 January
of Invasion
peoples
Soviet under the guise of
would it in any way
have been
not demand the
movement
preparing domestically
the
and 01
calling US election
way
THE real war threat — NATO weaponry on parade
The response of the workers'
fo the crisis, particular, will decide whether the war drive launched by the American imperialists succeeds in its aims of
the ground, and internationally, for intervention against the gains of
oppressed and throughout the world.
Socialist Challenge for its part had no hesitation in condemning
opposing LIne Soviet intervention into Afghanistan as a boost for that war drive.
An article by Tariq Ali in the 3 January issue of the paper put this position, going on to call for the immediate withdrawai of Soviet troops. An editorial published on 17 January disagreed with this latter point, arguing that this would be tantamount to
for the victory Islamic rightist guerillas.
The situation had changed since the invasion, the editorial argued,
imperialism opportunity to openly boost through General Zia's regime in Pakistan. The continued presence of the Soviet army
WHICH V
CARTER
THE OUTCOME of the present crisis triggered
by the events in Afghanistan will determine the
course of world politics for the next decade.
in
both
exploited
this war drive, Army's of the the crisis, internationally. because of had the seems the rightists
to the soviet action:
was now necessary to defeat that threat:
At the same time the editorial did n disagree with Tariq Ali's assessment th the purpose of the Russian invasion was install a pliable bourgeois government a not to overthrow capitalism.
On this page we print a number of t responses of the labour movement press
both in Britain
The first casualty outside Afghanist
be the united front 'Eurocommunism'. The Spanish CP da Mundo Obrero was trenchant in oppositi
Page 9 scan of this page
/AY TO STOP S OFFENSIVE
'We say "No! to the intervention of the Soviet military forces in Afghanistan.'-
This view was echoed by the Italian Communist Party: Neither party however has so far called for the withdrawal of the troops. The motives of these parties are transparent. They have fallen behind their ruling classes' rush to align themselves with Carter.
The reaction of the French Communist Party was less predictable. After George Marchais's visit to Moscow, caution turned into. full-blooded Soviet invasion. Once again however, this response is in line with the trepidation with which the French ruling class views any boycott measures against the Soviet Union because of their impact on the French economy.
The British Communist Party followed sister parties in the Spanish state and Italy in ran unambiguous Woddis to the leadership.
Labour the Labour Party, (different views. James quoted at length, but the editorial reflected the line of the Tribune Group of MPs, bemoaning that the invasion made detente more difficult to argue for. But the paper also carried an implicitly strong defence of the Russian invasion by: Fred Halliday, journalist and member of the New Left Review editorial board.
endorsement of the statement by Jack Communist Party
Warty, chered a longer of
carried a number Callaghan was "Troops
starting
CARTER's war unite 1s alled movement.
On the far left in Britain, Worker after a period of caution called for
Out'. The stiffening attitude on the question could be traced in the successive articles of lan Birchall who,
from a dovish reproach to Soviet forces, hawkishly said in the 19 * January issue:
"That's why internationat socialists have always argued that the main enemy is
at home.
Russian army.
Other opposed this view.
In the
invasion, withdrawal of troops.
Soviet troops rightist troops, The International America, came
it a launching against the USSR workers
socialists Socialist
obstacle of their imperialists
offensive movement.
For the Afghans, that means
'For us, it means Thatcher.'
British far left papers in general
Fourth International, French and Spanish sections opposed the
refused to call for Combate, the paper of the LCR of the Spanish state, spoke for both organisations when it said the the
must stay to defeat 'not a day more or less'. cothinkers of the in the United States the Socialist Workers strongly against their government's war drive, giving support to the Soviet invasion after quoting much evidence that the imperialists had provided powerful aid for the rightist forces to make
off point for intervention
The debate over what attitude British
should take to the events in Afghanistan should not, however;
to opposing the contribution to the Carter against the anti-imperialist
That's why we should argue that not a penny or a gun should be provided for Carter's war drive. And in particular that no aid should be given to the blood stained regime of General Zia in Pakistan:
Whatever
embassy
By John Leadbetter up lo ine
Afghanistan.
Finance Minister
the oil-producing region denounce mne
national unity 'expansionism'. river,
While Bani-sadr *common culture', involved in a virtual civil war largest national attacks.
the Azerbaijanis inadequate provisions
the nationalities in Iran. and Arabs, only in the
the
and the factories merely regional executions in Tabriz, arrested in other both
army officers.
the House arrest
Ayatollah
the
Fourth publicly from
of unlikely defuse Party, own
bourgeois nationalist
'republic'
if they take place at all
be an
bleak British
produce any gain peasants either,
demands in
of unemployment and inflation them.
Socialist Chaffenge
happened to
the Iranian
hostages?
THE first anniversary of the Shah's flight into exile passed almost unnoticed in Iran last week. The matter of the Shah's extradition, and the fate of the hostages held in the US Embassy, seem to have temporarily receded into the background with the run-
presidential elections on 25 January and developments in neighbouring
Bani-sadr, a leading contender for the position of president, used the opportunity of an election rally in Abadan, in
Khuzestan, to of Soviet trOODs into Afghanistan and to stress the urgent need for
1 te Soviet Referring to ine diverse nationalities which make up Iran's population, he asserted that 'we have been living a commor life for centuries and have a common culture'.
Such statements reflect official awareness of the explosive nature of the national question. Abadan is a city with a high proportion of Arabs among its population. Last year, in response to peaceful demonstrations demanding an end to discrimination against Arabs, the Arab quarters of the city were shelled by gun-boats from the
and many militants were arrested and executed. Admiral Madani, who was governor. general at the time and in charge of operations, is another candidate in the presidential elections.
pontificates about pro-Khomeini forces are against Iran's grouping the Azerbaijanis.
Eleven members of the Muslim Peoples Republican Party (MPRP) were arrested and executed ten days ago after a pre-dawn attack on the party's headquarters in Tabriz by Islamic Guards. Azerbaijani militants responded by organising mass demonstrations through the city; shops and factories closed in protest against the
Like the Kurds and the Arabs before them,
are protesting against the made the constitution for recognition of the rights of all
But unlike the Kurds the Azerbaijanis who live not province of Azerbaijan, but are found in all the major Iranian cities, often occupying prominent positions in the bazaars
— cannot be contained in a sense. after the about forty Azeris were cities, including Qom and Mashad. Among them were a small number of
The religious leader of the Azerbaijanis,
Shariat-madari, has been under virtual house arrest in Qom for the last few weeks, and has been forced to dissociate himself
the MPRP. Such actions are the situation for long, however. This is no religious disagreement, but a
aggressive unstable central state power and a powerful
grouping gain recognition for its political rights within the
Whoever wins in the presidential elections —
there can be no avoiding a reckoning on this and other questions involving the desire of the bourgeoisie to have some say and control over the economic future of Iran, which at present remains muddled and
The outcome of the elections will not
for Iranian workers and whatever their nationality.
Until they begin to organise and fight for thei
organisationally independent bodies, there can be no solution to the problems
which face
*24 January 1980 Page?
Page 10 scan of this page
Amnesty says 10,000 prisoners held in Zimbabwe Soames keeps freedom fighters
'If the Nicaraguans can do it, so can we
INTERNATIONAL
By Roy Alexander
IN ZIMBABWE today, there are more than 10,000 political prisoners, many of whom fave little chance of seeing the light of day before the "free elections" are held next month. Meanwhile the security forces continue to use the state of emergency martial law « inst renewed by british Grover-
those in prison on political grounds.
These are some of the damning facts to emerge from a recent visit to Zimbabwe by a representative highly-respected international concerned with the fate of political prisoners.
he Amnesty permission to visit political prisoners, but he did have lengthy talks with officials of the British administration. He found an appalling degree of ignorance and lack of concern with the fate of those who had suffered under the old administration.
The views of Soames' officials were almost entirely based upon what they had been told by Rhodesian government officials. made no efforts to themselves, Rhodesians for implementing their policies.
example. wean political dissidents have been executed in secret under martial law. of those rounded-up by the security forces don't know whether they are alive or dead. Amnesty found that the British had no details on this situation and officials refused to take steps LU Make available.
MARIANELLA Vilas is one of three lawyers in El Salvador who defend left wing political prisoners. Over the last few months she has received several anonymous letters.
The first informed her she being "tried" for 'subversion' in a 'patriotic' court. The second said she had been sentenced to death and the third that the sentence carried out. All letters were from the White Warriors Union (UGB); fascist execution squad rather more professional than our own National Front.
Marianella, a representative of the Commission for Human Rights in El Salvador, was recently in Europe to stress the need for solidarity with popular struggles affer
'cosmetic' palace October - ordered by Washington in a desperate attempt to head another Nicaragua.
Junta
Already the new regime is in crisis.
On 3 January all the civilian members of the junta and the bulk of the government resigned after the armed forces rerused to position in favour of 'democratisation'. Marianella explains.
This so-called regime' hasn't carried out any of its promises and is not accepted by the majority of the people.
It has passed decrees on amnesty for political prisoners, reform, minimum wage structure and dissolution of the fascist paramilitaries. Rust 13 pontical prisoners nave not been affected since the previous. regime defined them as criminals. and 5ll brisoners aren'l covered because they are held without recognition prisons.
The law on land reform merely instructs anybody buying or selling land to inform the government. In the teeth of right-wing demonstrations by tbe landowners' organisations none of the promises on this
Socialist Challenge
under lock and key
under British rule, but by
and
Amnesty International,
organisation fat law They had
ascertain the facts for and continued to rely upon the
Soames since 1975 many Zimbab-
The families of many
publicly continue to coffee fields because
was demanded by a new law.
believe that
would
do this clandestinely!
tinting,
continued appearing. coup of 17
off Democracy,
the new coup. On the other (Revolutionary
SOCIALIST
public
'reformist EVENTS
agrarian
'common
Sheffield. Speakers:
Perion Can el central 24 January 1980 / Pagele
Similarly, the thousands
prisoners are having their cases "reviewed officials of the old Rhodesian ministration! And it has been reported that the behaviour of political prisoners custody is being taken into account in deciding
Amnesty points out that, under martial. law, powers of arrest were very widespread + for example, white farmers mobilised to assist could often arrest suspected of sympathising with the guerillas. It is therefore difficult to be certain how many people are being held without trial under mar-
Official figures (and these estimates , clalm o‚ow, but amnesty lninks H could well be more. Similarly, the number of those who have been convicted of political crimes — often by martial law kangaroo courts is not clear, but Amnesty puts it betweeni 3,000 and 6,000.
For the most determined fighters of Rhodesian racism, those who have suffered the most trom the struggle (some of them have been in prison for more than 10 years), the Lancaster House agreement is thus no more than a piece of paper. Their scandalous - who undoubtedly does not want such 'dangerous' people roaming free while he is having his election -reactionary role of the British government.
Britain should get out of Zimbabwe and stop hindering the Zimbabwean people in their struggle to destroy talisill. free from the atrocities of the past, and build a new hife for themselves. problem has heen met. The peasants have
occupy and workers have taken over the the proprietors have not paid the $5.80 minimum a day
As ror disparamg cue rascals, Wi
there is an unspoken agreement between the regime and fascist groups. The government pays a political price for repressing the left directly — far better to let the right
The famous purge of the armed forces has resulted in onlv a lew administrative changes. Torture is con-
208 were killed in the two weeks after the coup and today people are still disappearing and corpses
The reformist parties — Christian
Social Democracy, and the Communist Party — rushed to
regime after the side the BPR Peoples Block) the FAPU (United Peoples Front), the February Leagues and the Trotskyists
CHALLENGE
opera former can can Hote cob Monela, Tariy A
HOKUM,
YOUR COUNTH
DA DAND
of political
ad-
while in
anyone they
are only
treatment
merely underlines the
themselves all opposed it. revolutionary organisations do bave mass support and can take initiatives against the line of the reformists.
Many people about the armed actions of the left organisanons unaccrately alle coup. These had a negative because they miscalculated the rea social relation of forces, which did not permit an insurrection • time. But there was a positive side because the government repression showed that the regime represented continuity.
• Although there is a well organised vanguard, the majority of the masses react spontaneously one wav other - following the reformists or the revolutionaries at different times. We need to maintain clear opposition to the regime but patiently construct
organisation and the revolutionary forces without wasting people in advemansi achons. right are looking for a coup if there is a provocation from the left.
but one thing is sure Salvadorian masses are with CARDIFF: SC so salt from
BR Books Salture Koad, Cardit.
from fourth Idea 643 920.
BRISTOL:
Fullmarks, 110 Chellenham Road, Monipettier, Bristl COVENTRY: SC available from Wedge Bookshop, For
ore into abour local activities phone 461138
Sarday Ti-4pn HUDDERSFIELD: SC
SWINDON: SC on sak 11.1 every Sit., Regent si
Cireens Bookstall, upstairs in Spencer Market, Stockto
Whitechapel tube, Sunday 10.30-12.N9 Brick Lan
ABEL MUZOREWA imprisoned thousands, who are still in jail
These struggle of the
ghove gill with the candinistas aren't so pleased with the Nicaraguan government's
read colonels, but we make a distinetion
between the practical attitude of the Sandinistas and the government. The
side Sandinistas with
organisations.
No one in Central America can at that talk about a revolutionary
being restricted to just one country. It's a Central problem. Yanomis this and so do most of us.
For us the victory in Nicaragua makes our struggle even more urgent. ' or [ne Historically our level of organisation
has been more developed than theirs; so if they can do it, we certainly can too.
And for that we don't just want moral sympathy but solidarity. best sort is when workers in companies that have links with El Salvador take action in their factory
All the
the
From the Chile Solidarity Campaign
officials. the right of any detainee. with a warning cross.
Nicaraguans and We
recognition
the popular
process
American, regional understamd film
women's
Friday Women's Arts The
Clapham, SW4. British officials try to outdo Pinochet
WHILE Hugo was a prisoner of President Pinochet in Chile, between 1973 and 1977, his one consolation was regular visits from his family. Now, a free man in exile in England, he is being denied that right — by British immigration
When Hugo's brother, Claudio, came over to see him a fortnight ago, he was stopped by immigration authorities al Dover. They wanted to know all about him, and about Hugo — what he did, what political activities he was in-. volved in. Claudio was strip-searched, not once but four times, by different officials. Then they phoned Hugo to ask how he was going to support his brother during the visit. At no time was Claudio allowed to speak to Hugo —
Finally, they decided that Claudio had 'no visible means of support, and could be planning to slay in Britain as an illegal immigrant — despite his return ticket and his stated intentions, and the fact that the rest of the family, his parents and other brothers, are living in France. So they bundled him onto the last departing ferry of the night — a car ferry with no proper accommodation for passengers. For good measure, they stamped his travel documents
Hugo, like the rest of us, is left wondering at the state of 'law and order' where individual officials have the power to unite or divide families entirely al their personal whim. What kind of pelly dictators are we allowing to rule?
By Dave Kellaway
to support their fellow workers in our country. At the moment the very minimum we need is publicity aboul the real situation and the continuity of the military regime. More information from: Nicaraguan Coordinating Committee, 20 Comp
Terrace, London N1. Latin American Bureau, 1 Cambridge Terrace, London N1. Iranian women's
A FILM of the 20,000-strong Iranian
demonstration taken by French feminists will be shown twice in London in the next ten days: on
January, Alliance, bridge Terrace Mews, , Chester Gate NWI; and on Saturday 2 February, 7pm, at St Ann's Hall, Venn Street,
Page 11 scan of this page
REMEMBER
IRELAND
OUR BLOOD spattered pavements and barricades eight years ago because of the denlal of the nationalist minority's basic human rights since the creation of the Six County statelet in 1921.
Only a few years cartler that saine minority had taken to the streets to demand equality in votes, jobs and housing. In the months that followed that first serious baton charge against evil rights manchers, 1968 in Derry, ibe RUC and Loyalist thugs endeavoured resistance of the nationalist munity in what became known as the attles of the Bogside and the Falls (Belfast). After anised police treet confit, madely by stones sod three street conflict, petrol bomba, the Brttist
in troops to authority.
In August 1971 the Stormont junta, which was & one party stateiet repressive or weapons terment since introduced without charge or trial. As reports of torture leaked from camps, the-many-sided protest move ment became even more determined and active. By the end of December a group of trade unionists from different parts of the occupied statelet,
concon People's Democracy group, planned to defy the ban on demonstrations.. tions.
Outflanked
This call led to some 4,000 people on Christmas Day taking snow-drifted roads from Long Kesh concentration camp some ten miles away. The British army had
outflanked and preparations halt the proved abortive. There was a sense of ubliation in the nationalist ghettoe all over the north. The law had been flouted and made to look like an ass; while the barricades remained intact, holding out both the British and the infamous RUC.
Inside those barricades commune-style society existed. The people set up their own people's robotialo bulletins, local advice centres, policing, radio stations, an independent postal service.
A march called by the Civil Rights Association for Derry on 30 January promised to be another resistance. On 26 January Unionist Premier Brian Faulkner beld talks with British army general 1 uzo. he next day he flew to London for private talks with Heath.
On 78 January Defence and Overseas met after a previous meeting of the inner cabinet' Such gathering was hardly mere arrest and snatch-squad operation. There followed a public commitment from the British army and the RUC that they would 'action', as yet unspecified, against illegal marchers.
Assurances
On 29 January, Paisley called off his counter-demonstration in after a suranbe halt the civorcents march necessary": His supporters were instructed to stay off the streets, and on no account 'be anywhere near the city
manager's wife and their two daughters.
member Committee and of
Republican Socialist Party.
on 5 October
smash com-
were days. of
Had the dull the civil
most
internment
the left-wing to the Belfast fo
all their march co-ops, and
show of
Cabinet's Committee
august flown in -discussing a mand of Colonel Derek who was from the take work on that day.
The army leave the
Guildhall Square erected Derry
Street.
POLICE in the South of Ireland have now released all 31 people arrested on 10 January on suspicion of being involved in the kidnapping of a Dublin bank
Among those arrested was Martin MacGhoill, a
of the recently formed Smash H-Block the Irish revolutionary organisation Peoples Democracy. The majority of those held were members or sympathisers of the Irish
The arrests took place in a blaze of publicity which strongly linked those held with the kidnapping — which secured a ransom of £30,000. But it is now clear
18 years ago
BLOODY
FEW PEOPLE today remember more about Bloody Sunday than the single fact that the British army shot and killed 14 civil rights marchers in Derry on 30 January 1972. But the details and context
6°
centre'. The chosen instrument was Lord
the Ist Battalion of the Parachute Regiment under the com-
Wilford, to receive an OBE them English monarch for his
allowed the march to Catholic ghetto prevented it from marching to the
by barricades William Street. The three organisers, accustomed to such diversions, re-directed the march towards Free Derry Corner, some 500 yards from the British army along Rossville soon
While Bernadette Devlin MP and
The ransom gang that wasn't
police vehicle to follow.
Commenting on the arrest of their
political harassment,
trying to build support for campaign of the H-Block prisoners.'
SUNDAY?
explains.
Brockway addressed meeting, a few hundred marchers stayed at the army barricades protesting against the refusal to allow march Stones thrown and the army replied with CS gas. followed with water cannon ic disperse the small crowd.
At 4.15pm crowd, fleeing from the gas and water, were running or walking Rossville Street towards the mass meeting. companies of the ist swept into the street in armoured cars and were hastily deployed into firing positions. The order to open fire and thousands witnessed in disbelief the killing and that the irish police used the kidnapping to stage a series of raids on political opponents of the Southern Irish government. The real kidnappers escaped when a motorcycle carrying the ransom drove through a laneway too narrow for a disguised four-wheeled
member, Peoples Democracy said: "The only motive was
We find particularly disgraceful that the police force of this state spend so much time attempting to intimidate those who are
the political status
are important if Bloody Sunday is to be understood as well as remembered. Writing from Derry's Bogside, FIONBARRA O'DOCHARTAIGH
the wounding of unarmed civilians.
The including Irish, British, and overseas
were
Then Paras THE H BLOCKS THE NEW INTERNMENT POLITICAL PRISONERS
Those either flecing.... ...Kevin
The bullet
For relatives..
Patrick Doherty,
...As
chest.
Official
attack their claim. level.
VILAN BReRSCIDE
Use Columbis Timell
has
time,
reasonable time
But speculation
hundreds of eye-witnesses,
I far right. BLOODY SUNDAY COMMEMORATION DEMONSTRATION
Birmingham: Sunday 27 January
Assemble 2pm, Sparkhill Park, Stratford Rd. Coaches leave London 10am from York Way (Kings Cross) and
Kilbarn Sq.
Organised by Sinn Fein copies cost £1
London W14.
Socialist Challenge
journalists, told a horrifying story.
who were shot down were McElhinney WaS
bands and kaces crawling away from
the gunfire when a soldier shot him.
entered hha buttock
and travelled through his body to
leave at the left shoulder,
going to the assistance of friends
Bernard MeGaigan was shot in
the back of the head as he was crawl
ing on his stomach to save the dying
For trying to surrender... fled, Gerald
McKinney stood still, holding his
hands above his head to indicate sur-
render'. A soklier corse mp, raised his
rifle and killed him by a shot in the
The army version of events - as
given in an official statement in the
Commons by the Minister of Defence
- was a tangle of lies. They claimed
they opened fire after coming under
from nail bombers and
fusillade of fire of 50 - 80 shots from
the area of Rossville Street'..
independent witness from
among the scores of journalists and
other observers accepted this conten-
tion. The army cold not produce the
bullets or the bomb fragments or
even one injured soldier to suppor
The British said were on theit
some of those shot
wanted list but did not name them,
and this was later disproved. They
said they shot three snipers in the
multi-storey flats in Rossville Street
but all the casualties were at ground
No definitive version of what
happened can yet be written. Some
people argue that the massacre was a
result of an army plan to draw out
the IRA from the barricaded ghetto,
ambush, and eliminate their units.
Others say the army went berserk
though it is inconceivable that rigidly
disciplined paratroopers would lose
their heads at the sight of an unarmed
crowd running away from their gas
and water cannon. The army story
virtually no supporters outside
the military establishment itself. In
however of those in that day will, when has elapsed, speak
out and tell the truth.
Resistance
perhaps in the last analysis is not necessary. One
Phe massacre was consistent with the stands incontrovertibly
entire role of the British army to ter-
rorise and break the resistance of the
minority community and to placate
the growing strength of the Loyalist THE graphic in last week's Socialist Challenge on H Block was taken from a new magazine/ poster produced by the Troops Out Movement.
The H Blocks: The new internment aims to give British people basic information about the protests of the blanket prisoners and the political background to it.
Attractively designed, the magazine costs only 10p plus 10p p&p, or 15
plus 30p p&p.
It is available from Information on Ireland, 1 North End Road,
24 January 1980 Pagell
Page 12 scan of this page
IMG CONFERENCE MEETS FEBRUARY WHICH WAY FORWARD?
Tendency One sect
THE ELECTION of the Tory government was a political setback for the working class. But engineers and steelworkers have shown that Thatcher's offensive will be met with major resistance. Likewise the liberation struggles of the Irish and Zimbabwean people will ensure a difficult passage for the Tories' resolutely policies.
But what is the political future for the labour movement? It's immediate past has been unhappy. The experience of the Labour government was drops in living standards and, massive increases in unemployment laboration of the leaders of the labour movement. The need for a socialist alternative inside the working class has never been felt so urgently.
Today, two currents are growing inside the labour movement. One is explicitly reformist. tac olier Is revoramonany. rent, which is infinitely stronger in its mass support, is led by Tony Benn. current, which is extremely weak numerically, is strong in providing a political alternative to the crisis of British society. It is chiefly led and organised by the Socialist Workers Party and the International Marxist Group.
Two other currents have declined in support and influence. — albeit gradually. The right wing of the Labour Party have temporarily lost credit as a result of the election defeat. But more immediate in its impact on the left is the siow decline of the Communist Party. which played a key role in catalysing the mass anti-Tory the 1969-74 appears unlikely to be able to repeat the performance today.
Debate
It is no coincidence that the first major public debate of the Labour Party (on 17 March in London) is with the revolutionaries rather than the Communist Party.
The IMG conference has to provide an answer on the direction of the labour movement today: We believe that its tasks are the follow-
posit in ander participation in in broade
Socialist Challenge 24 January 1980
The choice for the IMG: party or
class struggie rathet
Minority Movement
ment of the same period. pro-imperialist
all with the col tionary youth Unity
The revolutionary
internal democracy.
SWP
This party next years. years from the Communist
an organisation, however small.
new left wing inside the
building the
ference.
tag a party ar a sects:
Page 12
• Through this fight for united action to begin to build a new leadership for the labour movement; a new left wing based on the policies of
than class collaboration.
Our model for the trade unions is similar to the
1920s; for the Labour. Party the National Left Wing Move-
• The building of such movements and leaderships depends on the simultaneous fight for a powerful vanguard revolutionary organisation rooted in the working class. Three fundamental steps are necessary to achieve this: the majonty of IMG members should be in the centres of industry; the charice to build a united revolu-
organisation should be energetically taken and we must aim for a fusion with the Socialist Workers Party.
Much, though by no means, all the discussion in the IMG has centred on our attitude to
We believe that this question is even more important in the battle against the Tories and is not a tactic to be dropped with the fall of the Labour government.
For these reasons we would withdraw the letter gent to the SWP from the IMG in October 1978 and instead propose fusion on the basis of
We will propose that the join the Fourth International, since a revolutionary party can only really be developed as part of a revolutionary international.
Major opportunities lie within the grasp of the revolutionary left in this country over the
Many sincere militants can be won Party and the Labour Party to our ranks. But this can only be achieved if the correct conception of a revolutionary party is defended and is reflected in the building of
For our part we believe that all those who defend the historic interests of the working class should unite in a single democratic centralist party, whatever their disagreements on secondary questions. Without this conception there is no possibility of taking any major steps towards
party:
This conception is under attack at our con-
That's why me have no hesitation in saylig that the choice for the IMG is between
Tendency Two IMG
The IMG Conference needs to decisively re-orient our organisation if the IMG is going to be in the forefront of the growing mass anti-Tory movement. We want to link up with new layers of militants who are today fighting to defend their democratic rights and living standards. But this involves new tactics for the different problems we face.
Furthermore, cónference cancentrate on more fundamental issues. must decide to end the abnormal situation where large numbers of comrades are outside the core sections of the working class. The IMG was built primarily out of the youth radicalisation of the late 1960s.
Today new opportunities exist for fighting for our politics in the factories and industrial unions. The question facing the conference i whèther the IMG will follow the rest of th Fourth International in politically convincing the bulk of our members to take industrial jobs so that the opportunities are not lost, and so we are best placed in thé decisive battles to come
A related task is to consolidate our initial successes in building a revolutionary youth organisation. provide firm basis revolutionary-minded youth solidarity with the Fourth International.
But all these steps involve a sharp break with the orientation we defended under Labour. need organisations; a drastic change in our newspaper Socialist Challenge; and a more approach to education, and branch and fraction organisation.
Set-back
The election of the Tories was undoubtedly a set-back for the working class. However, events since then have reinforced the view that a defeat for Callaghan was not a defeat for the working class. The Tories want to roll back the social. economic and organisational gains won by the class since 1945. But the working class is strongly organised, and capable of fighting back
We are not in for a simple re-run of the mass action which brought down Heath. There will be casualties along the way. But it won't be an easier road for the ruling class. The imperialism especially Zimbabwe and Ireland — threaten to combine with and deepen the domestic crisis.
Above all, the strength of the class can turn today's, defensive struggles into offensive battles. But the existence and role of the reformist bureaucracy is a major obstacle. These leaders, when they can't directly sabotage the action -Robinson's sacking - will try to divert it into harmless parliamentary channels.
however conuuulle relative independence of the leadership movement. to head up the struggles, as the best way Ol attempting to control them.
Absolutely decisive therefore is our fight for united front and transitional demands objectives which is the only road to polarise the ranks against the utopian and disastrous road offered by the reformist misleaders and to limit their room for manoeuvre and betrayal. This is the road to building a party, an alternative leadership rather than a sect.
Decisive
This orientation, unions' cannot limit itself to this. Ihe decisive class struggle forces ongoing way by the Labour Party and there is a burning need to win Labour Party activists to involvement in the mass action from the outside.
For a decisive reorientation of the
the central issues raised. needs to We Our conference decisions should
winning to political
We to the Tendency systellati Tories.
Communist disastrous consequences for the bureaucracy.
The IMG
struggle left wing
crisis of British its projects in
Struggles
organisational
as Dutty did, over not they fully agree
strength and rank and file especially in the shop stewards • will tend to force the bureaucracy as well as the SWP.
but this
programme
whilst centring the
are not organised in ar
But part of making the mass struggle politically count is by polarising the Labour Party around
The Labour Party may be a 'hollow drum', but its reverberations extend into very wide layers of the working class. Our primary task is to build a class struggle left wing in the unions, but this is NOT
MAGINe
FEMINIST
Photo Dave
301 THAT
linked to taking the fight into the Labour Party
Two for united trade union/Labour Party action to bring down the
This approach is sharply opposed to the Party's 'Broad Leftism', whose were clearly revealed with the paralysis of the CP under Labour when the "darlings of the left rubber-stamped the Social Contract. The Socialist Workers Party's Rank and File groupings have not engaged in any such class collaboration, but their strategy has utterly failed to make even the slightest problems
needs to fight for its 'OWI - for a united front, and a class challenge union leadership in the fight for class struggle policies On this basis, in each union, a tactical judgement is made about how our members can best fight for our line of march: in the Broad Left, in Rank and File, or in other union formations. But in all cases, we aim to take Rank and File with us:
As the struggles develop, revolutionaries of action will emerge from the labour movement. We must link up with all those who in practice take up the overall tasks of the period, whether or
the revolutionary marxist programme at the outset. But successful fusion with them in the future depends on a correct attitude today towards revolutionary currents that exist: the small Trotskyist groups,
For 30 years the SWP has tried to build itself against the Fl. Its re-orientation in the late '60s has led it to take more or less class struggle positions in the last decade. The practice of the SWP means we characterise it as revolutionary
practice objectively SWP's formal programme and tradition. While in the next few years the main cadre for building the FI in Britain won't come from the SWP, the fight to build a revolutionary party with
adequate to lead revolution clearly involves a battle to fuse with the SWP, to form a unified section of the FI.
There are no short-cuts or gimmieks that car build the IMG. We will win new members only if we have a clear line of march which takes into account the new political situation but above all decisivély re-orients the IMG towards the labour
Page 13 scan of this page
The 1980 Conference of the International Marxist Group meets on 16-19 February in London. Delegates to the conference are elected from the branches after a three-month discussion in local branches and elected committees.
During the course of the discussion every member of the organisation has the right to submit their views to an internal discussion bulletin. More importantly, members have the ' right to organise tendencies to gain the maxi-
Tendency Three
class party
From the coming conference, the IMG has to radically re-orient its work, break out of the confines of small circle sectarian politics and begin to lay the basis for the construction of a genuine mass revoludonary party. The type of party that we must build has to be internationalist in word and deed. The crisis Afghanistan, the role of the British ruling fess in Zimbabwe and Ireland show in the
dramatic may that the working class ãe to be able to deel with the central ques tions of world politics and economics as well as national questions and trade union
Because the IMO is the British Section of thè Fourth International it-has a great advantage in this task over the otherleft groups, and building the revolutionary party in Britain has to be seen a bart or the task of building the Fourth International as a mass workers' international.
In our view the IMG has to combine two processes: the struggle for a workers'. front against this government to defend every ingol or we working class trom attack; and specific party-building tasks aimed at raising the political level of our organisation, rooting it more firmly in the working class, and assisting Revolation to build an organisation which can organise revolutionary socialist youth.
Driven by the international economic crisis, the Tory government has declared war on the working class. Because the capitalist class has to attempt to increase the rate of profit, Toçreasing the average productivity of labour, it tries to cut unproductive labour
this means launching a full scale attack on the post-war Welfare State.
The Labour Party and the trade union leaders maintain their base in the working class because of these and other reforms, which workers have struggled for, using the mass organisations as their instruments. Atlacks on these therefore also pose a threat to the leaderships of the working class organisations. In maintain their base in the working class these leaders are being forced to fight this government.
Towards a revolutionary working
This will involve the bureaucracy, both left and right. Wesee that both the engineering strike and Ine steel strike have been bureaucrats.
These leaders do not want to fight, any more than do the 'lefts' choice. these revolutionaries must advance the policy of the united front. In Britain this means the battle to over build a fighting alliance between the Labour Party and the trade unions.
Labour
While we fight for the unconditional return of a Labour government within struggles, we also fight for specific demands that can take forward the interests of the class. Thus for example we fight within the abortion campaign to win the mass organisations to support for 'Free Abortion on Demand.' In doing so slogan put forward by other sections of the IMG of 'A Fight for Socialist Policies' which fails to clarify the distinction between revolutionaries and reformists.
We seek to work with and to structure the united activities of all militants prepared to defend the interests of the working working in specific formations within the trade unions, but also being aware of the importance of forces at present outside any such groupings. 1 nus we would break witn alcil caucus ill a unon if its orientation were to prevent us reaching out to the masses.
At the same time it is necessary to seriously overhaul the internal life of our organisation. It is crucial to begin to draft a 'Programme for through Britain' which can update the Programme in the light of the last 42 years and and less which can make it specific to Britain. process would educate our own membership and chabic us Lo fight more clearly against other tendencies. This also links together with the need to professionalise the life of the organisation, organise intervention organisations, turn its press to the concerns of the whole of the working class and make it a place rights where working class militants can survive.
The IMG will pursue a vigorous fight for the order to unification of all revolutionaries within a single organisation. unification of all Trotskyist organisations. addition we continue LO relations with the Socialist Workers Party, for despite its inadequate programme we think it is possible to win this organisation, including its leadership, to the construction organisation of revolutionaries. draw the lessons of the three year 're-groupment' orientation of the IMG.
Failure
The failure of this project unwillingness of the leaderships of any of these grouns to move in the direction of unification. However, it is clear we have broken with some of the past isolationism on the left and it is now easier to continue debates and attempt to get common work in the class struggle.
However, it would badly IMG and others on the left if we projected any short-term prospects of re-groupment. In this we have to be guided by three principles: rty vine are building as being based onl
building programmatic agreement,
maintaining principled and fraternal relations with the Trotskyist 3. vigorously building the recruiting new radicalising workers.
The best way to win other forces individuals and whole groups to the IMG and the Fourth International is an unrelenting struggle to fight politics organisations of the class programme and tactics as we learn from this.
mum support for their views.
The IMG has a tradition of publicising its pre-conference debates, believing that . issues being debated out are of importance and interest to people outside its ranks.
In these two pages we feature the views of four currents of opinion inside the IMG; three tendencies and a group of comrades on the Central Committee of the IMG who do not agree with any of these tendencies.
lead by right wing
- the fact is that they have no
conditions
following the
HOWA NI the
reject the
and reforms. class. This entails The general and most productive sections -Transitional This Attacks
the mass
We will fight for the principled needs of the workers,
In , foster comradely ruling class
of a single But we have to
reflects the
misorientate the
being
groups and the SWP and
IMG through youth
both as
within and develop our
the
tion, and black liberation.
Other extracts of the debate will be decided on by the majority of delegates.
For a decisive turn to industry to
build the IMG
(This article is based on a resolution for the IMG Conference submitted by a caucus of comrades on the Central Committee)
The World Political Resolution adopted at the world congress of the fourth International held last November set the central task for the FI to help all its natlonal sectons to get the majority of their members into industry. Many sections of the FI are already making the turn and others are for a class clarifying the political issues in order to do
Underlying these decisions is the estimate of the world economy and changes in world politics
defeat for US imperialism in Vietnam and the inability of world imperialism February to get the system back on its feet since the onset of the world recession of 1974. The turn to industry
big changes in the situation confronting the imperialists and from the way the working class is responding to the deepening ruling class offensive being waged against it.
The chronic international crisis of capitalism is rooted in the most basic contradictions of the capitalist system. It excludes the possibility that the capitalist class can buy off the working class and its allies through massive social concessions
LUTE character of the Thatcher government's offensive is to turn the clock back economically, socially and politically. It weeks to destroy the fundamental gains of the welfare state won in 1945. To do this there has to be a regroupment major change in the relationship of class forces. national Major defeats must be inflicted on the working class, especially on its strongest, most organised
the industrial working class. In order to restore its rate of profit the ruling class is obliged to make the industrial workers and their unions the key target.
Legislation against the unions, attacks on trade union democracy, especially on the right to strike and to win other workers in solidarity, and the maintenance of sexist and racist divisions within the labour movement are a necessary preparation to prevent a generalised fight back. These facts pose the absolute need for the labour movement to lead the fight for the broad social
unemployed, women, blacks, immigrants and youth, and win these forces as allies in the coming showdown with the
The depth of the economic crisis, the nature of the ruling class offensive and the response of turn the working class have already put the industrial * to workers at the centre of the fight back. To have any influence in the big class battles (like in steel) and to recruit industrial workers to the IMG requires us to make the turn to industry now.
featured in Socialist Challenge between now and the conference and a full report of the proceedings will be made. The topics being discussed by the conference include our strategs in Britain, the Tory government and the tasks of revolutionaries, building & youth organisa-
After the conference, it is usual for tendencies to dissolve and the whole organisation works together to implement the positions
It is the only way we can take advantage of the in the class struggle, thereby implementing and carrying forward our basic proletarian orientation.
The turn requires us to substantially increase our influence in the Labour Party. Labour Party activists delegated from trade unions can be influential in helping to develop and win support struggle programme mobilise workers and their oppressed allies in united anti-capitalist actions.
Discussing the importance of and implication of the turn and deciding to carry it out is the single most important task before our conterence overwhelming majority of the outgoing Central Committee support the turn to industry. At the conference a way must be lound to register the maximun support for the turn so that it can be carried out in the most effective way possible.
Polarisation
The polarisation of the organisation around the question of the Socialist Workers Party (UK) cuts across mobilising the IMG to carry out the For Tendency One to project a major orientation towards fusion with the SWP while at the samé time stating there is no possibility of a fusion in the next period is irresponsible. This is the continuation- of the project adopted 1978 conference. This project completely failed in its task to fuse with organisations like the International Socialist Alliance and Big Flame and build the IMG. order to win the man! • revolutionary. minded militants in the ranks of the SWP to the IMG and the FI it is necessary to make a politica. offensive against the SWP while endeavouring to get the maximum unity with them in class struggle action. Through our concrete work to build a class struggle left-wing in the labour movement we will show that we are the militants equipped with the programme, organisational concepts, strategy and tactics to build a Leninist combat party. By putting our resources into making the turn to the industrial workers we will be able to convince members of the SWP of the correctness of our proletarian orientation and win them to Trotskyism.
The major tasks facing our organisation are: * to géta majority of out members into industr to decisively increase the number of supporters we have in the LP as a necessary part of the
orient Socialist Challenge towards the workers and their struggles and make it a paper to build the IMG * to build the Trotskyist youth organisation CEASEFI
ASSEMB
PLACE
Socialist Challenge 24 January
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS 328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON N1
Workers' councils without workers? IREAD with horror your Arguments
for Socialism' (Socialist Challenge 13
Dec "79) which supplied the idea that socialism = automation + workers' councils. But once there is full automation there will not be any
workers so how can there be a
workers' council?
The 'workers' would be a tiny minority of the population. If there were one supervisor controlling a would we allow that person to rule every aspect of our lives as they are the only 'worker' among us?
Exploitation does exist and that one worker would be producing tremendous surplus value which the rest of us would be expropriating! There will always be surplus value (see Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme].
What you are talking about is a recipe to dissolve the working class through the process of automation whereas the real precondition for the dissolution of the proletariat is the destruction of the bourgeoisie. Your socialism - the level of productive forces (automation) and the relations of production (workers' councils) — is a contradiction. What you are really posing is the creation of a new bourgeoisie, a socialist bourgeoisie, consisting of us all.
You pose the solution of automation without any consideration of the masses of the underdeveloped countries where automation has only destroyed the possibility of strong proletarian movements and theretore the preconditions of socialism.
Instead of spending the huge amounts on productive forces which would be needed for us to be fully automated it would be our duty to help develop the productive forces of the underdeveloped countries.
Then we could start talking about automation and so on, but then we'd have to have the problems of a new form of alienation — a world where relations of production seem to have completely disappeared.
If your article is supposed to be educational then how about educating people in socialist responsibility, and awareness of the problems of socialism, rather than feeding them irresponsible, dogmatic formulas. Even Nationwide tries to pose some of the problems of
your part to pose it as a Marxist given', when in fact there is no: mention of it by Marx even though he was fully aware of the concept. ALAN LEIGH, Hull 'Scab' steel?
IN YOUR coverage of the steel strike, in the issue of 3 Jan, I was most disappointed to find no mention of the international aspect. A major part of the attacks in the bourgeois press has been designed to set Britain steelworkers against their brothers and sisters abroad by stressing the 'threat' of greater imports and the "Tact that the problem is due to foreign steelworkers working harder than British ones.
Even the trade union bureaucracies recognise the importance of this, as Sidney Weighell, TUC delegate to the
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I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of
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Socialist Challenge 24 January 1980
International Confederation of Transport Unions, has asked that body to boycott steel destined for Britain, and pickets are reportedly being placed at ports to stop import of 'scab' steel.
We have the right to expect a paper that claims to be internationalist to give full prominence to such moves and investigate their weaknesses and limitations. We also have the right to expect a paper that supports the Fourth International to give us news of the struggle of other sections against redundancies in their steel industries and what they are doing in support of the present strike.
A strike such as this is a golden opportunity to show the doubters and the national chauvinists how important internationalism is in MARTIN EADY, London W7 Never mind the quantity...
I SHOULD point out that Chris Young in his letter (Socialist Challenge No 128) underestimates the size of the OCI in France. According to Fl estimates this organisation has between 35000 and 4000 militants. So it is one of the largest revolutionary marxist organisations in the world.
Anyway what counts is not numbers but programme. I don't care whether the SWP (UK) is twice or five times bigger than the IMG. centrist policies of Cliff and Hallas can only confuse the SWP militants whatever their number CHRISTIAN RONSE, Brussels Imposing socialism IN ALL of the debates concerning Afghanistan one question keeps forcing itself into my mind. When will Afghanistan qualify for entry into 'deformed workers' states'?
Charles Lister, in Socialist Challenge No 129, manages to trip very lightly over this subject: 'Will the Russians impose a socialist system?', he asks (my emphasis).
Perhaps realising that he has pitched the odds a little too high he then cools down a bit: "The evidence. points the other way.'
But just suppose that the Afghan economy is nationalised (or 'planned" in your parlance) what then? Will you still oppose the intervention of the *Red' Army? Or will you, as your international journal Intercontinental Press already does, acclaim it as part
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Page14
of the 'world revolution'?
You could on the other hand choose between a cleft stick and a petard. Hoist yourselves on the
metaphor of your choice.
GERRY KELLY, London WC1 Anti-apartheid appeal
support in our efforts to reinstate Maggy Jones who was banned from taking part in disabled sport for the recent Stoke Mandeville Games. Scotland and Britain for many years,
was expelled from the European Paraplegic Table Tennis Championships at Stoke Mandeville
fellow competitors at the games leaflets about health care in South Africa.
Jones was summoned before a tribunal consisting of Sir Ludwig Guttman, Chairman of the British Paraplegic Joan Scruton, Secretary General BPSS and five other individuals.
Maggy Jones was told that she had banned from further participation in
Our
The
Fund
Drive
THIS WEEK'S total of over £300 is boosted by from Canada, Denmark, Zambia. With being taken out in Israel, Sweden, Yugoslavia and even China, we hope they will follow this example. raising money by selling stamps on the market and asks in particular for
albums and send Socialist Challenge.
for the fiver campaign, including one who said in appeal please find enclosed f6'. Frank Anon Ed Mahood FRevell B Voss D Ross Апоп Anon C Van Gelderen :
Swindon IMG G Carroll A Grass, Hayes J Smith OWL IMG Wandsworth IMO Anon S Murphy L Mikkelson S Manchester SC supporters Oxford SC supporters Cardiff SC Xmas draw Bristol SC supporters M Colley D Sinnett This week's total CUMULATIVE TOTAL
sport.
as she left.
WE ARE writing to you to appeal for
London W1. handing out anti-apartheid leaflets at
Mrs Jones, who has represented Jones c/o our address
in October last year for distributing to
After distributing the leaflets Mrs
Sports Society, Miss
There, shortly before she was to play, Belize or readers USA and subscriptions
A comrade in Leicester has been
payments in advance So dig out your old stamp them care of (Warren St cube). All welcom This week we've had 42 donations
response to your £5
£5.00 5.00 10.00 5.00 3.50 5.00 2.60 4.00 9.00 15.00 6.00
8.00 labour movemen 15.00 •Why hone 80.00 policies. 12.50 sternat 5.00 0.50 3.00 55.00 13.00
5.00 5.00 22.00 £317.50 £673.04
national and international disabled
Mrs Jones was then ordered off the premises accompanied by two escorts to ensure she spoke to no-one
We would appeal to you to inform your readers about the ban. We would be happy to supply you with further information should you require it. JONATHAN FLUXMAN, for Anti-Apartheid Health Committee, 89 Charlotte Street,
* Send messages of support to Maggy * Write to your MP informing him/her of the ban and urging that he/she take up the matter with BPSS and the Minister of Sport.
Write to the Minister for Sport, Hector Monro, Department of the Environment, Marsham Street, London SW1, protesting about the ban and calling for Maggy Jones to be
Write to the Chairman of the Sports Council, 70 Brompton Road, London SW3 1EX, also protesting about the ban and calling for the witholding of the Sports Council grant to BPSS until the ban is reversed and Maggy Jones reinstated.
Guatemala?
GEORGE KEREVAN's article on Belize (Socialist Challenge 10 January) might have been written by an agent of the Guatemalan junta, so full is it of mystifications.
We are told that Belize 'effectively blocks Guatemala from the sea'. Even if this were true it would hardly be a major grievance; many other countries survive total lack of any coast. However, the maps you produce show not only coast between Belize and Honduras, but bundreds of miles of Pacific coast for Guatemala. Perhaps George Kerevan WHAT'S LEFT
vord; serai-display t2 a colar
Cling Committee. Fri 25 Ja • Central Hall,
organisations and campaigns
tenants
or one and aus police and real raise
"UBLIC MECHIN * Koes Leninis oxia
Library. Last Alad
is unaware that the Pacific is also sea?
British imperialism grabbed' Belize from the Spaniards, he says. Well how does he think they got it in the first place? By politely asking the native people for it?
Weare told that in 1977 'the Guatemalans' threatened to take back 'their territory'. Which Guatemalans did this, and whose territory would it be? Has the CIA-backed dictatorship abolished class struggle in Guatemala, or are we supposed to believe that the mass of the people would benefit from such a conquest?
I have little contact with Belizeans, however, I have heard ol no evidence that on the whole they would prefer to be ruled by Guatemalan fascists, and if I were in their positions I think I would rather stick with the devu I knew. However, I suppose the people who actually live in the area are the last whose views should be considered
Not a shred of evidence is produced that the British troops are being used to suppress revolutionary developments. Pęrhaps Mr Kerevan does not know that the USA has much vaster resources in the area which have time and time again been used to do exactly that - in Guatemala and elsewhere. The forces in Belize are unlikely to be needed for that purpose. When they are we should expose them with facts, not vague denunciations.
In the meantime I would suggest that the presence has more to do with maintaining an independent position for Britain in competition with the USA for markets and investment in Latin America.
The article seems to be inspired by the absurd view that we should support anyone who disagrees with British imperialism. In the past it is true that socialists have often supported for instance , BoeTs or Zionists. By now they should have learned better.
PHIL MeSHANE, Wolvercate, Oxford. and her contribution coe let a mail be d MARCH for abor
•WOMEN'S LIBERATION
England. We ner lours
Page 15 scan of this page
-Red Moles?
UNDER REVIEW
fire
By Lucy Britten and Margaret Fry Former students of journalism at City University, London
A GIRL runs into a police station shouting: 'Rape, rape, I've raped.
"Did you see who it was?' asked the policeman. 'No', replied the girl, but they members printers' union? 'How do you know that?' asked the policeman. she said, 'they made me do all the work.'
This "joke? went down well with the port and cigars at the dinner of the Newspaper Society; it came from one of the managers of our only liberal daily newspaper, and it was so funny that it eventually reached classroom of a post-graduate course ingournalism. It was passed on by a -lawyer specialising in press law as a Tight-hearted introduction lecture the Sexual (Amendment) Act of 1976. Nobody laughed; two women in the class objected strongly.
Lawyer
The lawyer took little notice. It did not occur to him that the joke might be offensive to women case are merely good spoil for a spot -of union bashing. customary sexism
those who run the oress.
As an exercise our class was taken to the Old Bailey to report on a rape
Our tutor for the day was a freelancer whose agericy most of the crime Condon papers and some to the "nationals. One of us wasn't happy about using a rape trial as her first experience of serious crime reporting 'Nonsense, my dear', she was told, it witt be very exciting.' Exciting? Was it boredom she was worried about?
The fight started later. student was told to rewrite the first paragraph of a story which began: The Old Bailey today heard the evidence of allegations of another sick •Sad rape case." The freelancer crossed this out and wrote:
not reporting.
By Phil Hearse THE Militant tendency in the Labour Party is becoming the victim of a carefully orchestrated witch hunt by the right wing in the party and the press.
witch-hunt Guardian's publication on 11 January of a documen supposeuly „but supporters in October 1978. It suggests that Militant is building a secret party inside the Labour Party.
Lord Underbill, the party's national agent until six months ago, has threatened to publish his own report on üniess lisbon's notional. executive indicate their willingness to join the witch-bunt and
distribute his 'evidence' inside the party.
Suddenly the bourgeois press, which daily
uppresses information on all sorts of issues, is
impaiguing
real motives osing the activities of all the 'communists' "Trotskyists' in the steel strike.
Why has the Militant affair caused so much fuss now? Labour's election defeat last May
but the right-wing leaders on the defensive. The
eft now bas the initiative in the Labour Party, backed by the rising tide of opposition to the Tory attacks.
‹The right wing wants to hit back, and what
better way of doing it than
Page Three
comes under
emphasis. "This
been
of the haired, said... 'Well', the first paragraph.? Temper
temper and said,
the enormous penis...
attack. The Offences five students.
our editors'.
day now that Page Three,
to the pin-up. - who in this
This unthinking.
common powder.
supplies celes
conv to local thought.
Advertising
Advertising sexual/sexist
One copy, apart
breasts, unfaithful
buyer in mind. 'This is comment
DIEN *No
Militant
was launched by the
out by Militant
Trotskyist infiltration'
Underhill's report The Sunday Express revealed the
with a feature
by using their
suggestion of violence and does not report the facts of rape attack' (his
is a real human interest story', he commented, and went on to write: "An attractive 18-year old giri told an Old Bailey jury today she was brutally raped after a man threatened to attack her with a wrench (deleted) broom handle. The girl, slim and dark
' He stopped. "Dia he tear her clothes off? That should go in
At this point the student lost his
What you want is: "An attractive dark haired girl with enormous tits, only 18 years old, was raped by a huge bearded black with an
woman student joined in the newspaper totally amazed, and finally told the
present that "this attitude would get us nowhere with
Sadly he was right. Rape reporting is used to sell newspapers. It is a rare
Five and Seven do not carry a rape report next
Larry Lamb, editor of the Sun, told us in his lecture to our course: 'We're selling a product in the same way, I suppose, as one might sell soap
He speaks of sales figures when one asks about Page Three of the Sun. His only doubt about Page Three is whether the pin-ups do really
mally copied was once
often blatantly is the blood of a paper, and to gain advertising papers
need to be sold, at whatever cost. So
from the ubiquitous
women's page, is designed to appeal
to men. Whether it includes models' head
rape
victims it is designed with the male
in City University does acknowledge I the principle of equal training for
CAPT
supporters among - to help them launch a 'reds Mirror especiaily -under the bed' scare.
They are particularly worried that Militant may win some MPs if local parties cam control
PAGE THREE JOINS THE SUN GRAND NATIONAL
Denise, filly
the punters
should fancy both sexes, and equal numbers of mer and women are accepted on to the course. But with one exception all the tutors are male, and the men who run these courses are already conditioned
view women as lower in their hierarchy.
Reinforcement comes above. In the UK Press Gazette, the
examiner of the Nationa Council. for the Training Journalists declared that 'the increase
recruitment of women extremely worrying trend... Whatever is said about sex discrimination and
views.
in driving
Larry Lamb, editor of the
Sun
'We're selling a product
in the same way, I suppose,
as one might sell soap
powder'
equal opportunity it is a plain simple unavoidable fact that the majority of young women expect to become wives, and equally true that many of them are also likel to become mothers or will wish to work only part-time. from only answer to sexism on training courses and in the wider world of of journalism. • deal for women in is an generally, a lobby could also press for reporting about women that is fair, responsible and not sensational.
Reg Underhill, the author of the report to the NEC in 1977 is notorious for his right-wing
Together with fellow nationa!
Sarah Barker, he was instrumental in tae 190Us
out the leaders the Socialists, including Dave Ashby
MY WIVES NEXT
£93,000 PERM FOR
We
journalists are
been
the
A feminist lobby is probably the
: Committed to a better me.
the media *This expulsion of Ken Labour Party in 1964.
to do with socialism, Marxist views are suppressed?
Militant's
and the Labour Party'
Every left-wing
Party through affiliation?
Ine only
every kind or
agent How LICARS
DOOR!
Lennie has a
real problem
on both sides
HAIR GIRL
can star complaining now about the abuse of evidence in rape cases to make profit. This has already done successfully association of race and crime. Оле ol women , students asked our hard-nosed crime reporter if he would have reported that a rapist was black. "Oh, I would have done a couple of years ago: Now the law won't let
article IS reprinted in shortened form from the December 1979 issue of the Journalist. through the paper Keep Left. Underbill and Baker were also instrumental in engineering the
Coates from Nottingham
Labour leaders are always appealing for young people to come into the party to changi it. The Labour Party is supposed to represen
Why should Lord Underhill's views, which have little or nothing
be represented while
ideas are hardly outrageous.
According to their leader Ted Grant they stand for peaceful transformation of society through winning a Marxist majority in the trade unions
viewpoint in the Labom Party is threatened by this attack. It is all ver well for those like Tony Benn to defand the right of all opinions to exist in t "broad church', but is he prepared to stick his neck out and demand that all socialist groupings shou have the right to be members of the Labow
willy lo fight back against the tate rid is forced of societi said e
crecd or socilsi should allowed in the Labour Party, every group showld have the right to be part
freedon
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
AND
ON 8 February John Corrie's anti-abortion Bill stands a chance of becoming law. This Bill has to be stopped. Here are some reasons why. 1 Women will be forced to turn to illegal
backstreet abortionists in the desperation of unwanted pregnancy. doctors cases. The dangers of death and disease from unsterile conditions or untrained surgeons will once more become a reality for hundreds of women. 2 Women will choose the highly effective
contraceptives high dosage contraceptive pills not safe from the point of view of their health. 3 Women who do quality for abortion will
find it much harder to get them on the NHS. If Corrie's Bill becomes law pressure on the NHS to provide such services will decrease leading lo still already a limited provision.
4 Once more employers
women are a 'bad risk' for training and promotion as they are unpredictably likely to go off to have kids. But it will be more true as women will have less choice man iney nave enjoyed for the last twelve 5 Younger women,
irregular periods or are less willing to admit to pregnancy, are likely to be the worst
WHY
HOW
TO STOP
CORRIE
very good
Even sympathetic will be powerless to help in many back
- like Deno Provers or 1 which are
further decline in what is
will claim that next?
2
years.
who often
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by Relgocrest Ltd, for Socialist Challenge,
to suffer due to the reduction in time limits to 20 weeks for abortion. The changes in referral; and the likely increased costs of abortion, will also affect working class and
Wealthy always been able 1o get abortion and still will. IF YOU'VE just read the reasons why Corrie will be a disaster for the women of this country — as well as setting
the struggles worldwide — then you'll know that it's time to start doing something to stop the Bill. Here's what you can do.
Trade unionists: it's not too late to get your union to approve one day action for all those who want to lobby on s rebruary, The lobby is officiall backed by the TUC and the organisers include the South East Regional Council. NALGO has said it will back any of its members going on Ine JODDY what is your union's Women need the labour February if they are not to suffer a huge defeat. And if women lose this one who will be
Women are main abortion campaigns both nationally. They have led the fight to get the labour movement to take up the struggle for women's rights. have di was the culmination of women's campaigning activity. The Corrie Bill may well be passed, but now is not the time for women to get
demoralised. activites and private assembly
have
3
women go on the college planning?
view? movement on 5
activities
weight in the 5
locally and
The TUC demo in October
inte statements
• The local the women's at Central hall, Westminster are a chance for
to express their outrage, and to show that though Parliament may pass the Bill it will not be so easy to enforce.
The National Union of Students has called an all-day strike on 5 February to protest at the Bill. A demonstration will leave Malet St, London W1 to go to the Commons at noon on that day. For the national motion to become a reality it requires local activists to get their students unions to strike in each college. The NUS executive isn't organising this — it's up to you. What is your
The National Union of School Students supports the anti-Corrie should mobilise its membership to campaign against the Bill. Leaflet schools with the facts about Corrie. Point out how young women will be affected. There will be lots of local
Line coming weeks students can be involved in these
Doctors and nurses have tremendous weight in this campaign. Corrie and his cronies try to pretend that his Bill is what doctors want, and a favourite line of the anti-abortionists is that the '67 Act lurns 'doctors
murderers. Leaflet hospitals from Doctors Choice and explain that we need medical
call for one-day
campaign,
school
the anti-abortionists.
with Women's. was I London wouldn't stand a chance.
328/9: Upper St, London N1. Printed by East End [offset] Lid. PO Box 82, London E2
workers on 5 February to counter the lies of
# EVERYONE who opposes the Corrie Bill
on 5 February the Tories
← Socialist Challenge No. 130, 17 January 1980Socialist Challenge No. 132, 31 January 1980 →