Socialist Challenge No. 136, 1980
The scan: sc-n136-feb-28-1980-[135-feb-21].pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IS UPAGAINST
KICK OUT THE TORIES
AN ARSONIST burnt Rotherham headquarters of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation last Saturday night. It's not difficult to work out why.
lackeys in the Tory government have been running a campaign to stir up anti-union and anti-working class feeling.
Bill Sirs, the ISTC general secretary, got it right when he said that the government was to blame for the arson attack for "leading people to believe that we are evil when we are only trying to find a reasonable way to get our just demands'.
sane Tories aren't having an easy time of it.
The steelworkers won't lie down and keep quiet they won't accept Sir Keith Joseph's argument that the best way to save jobs is to sell them; they won't accept Sir Charles Villiers' argument that the best way to get more money is to ask for less. Arms
And it's not just the steelworkers. Across the country members of every trade union are up in arms against the government's assault on living standards. Women blacks are determined to detend themselves against the attacks on their rights
the Tories are preparing to unleash.
The working class of this the move, united against the Tories. Working people will not pay the price for the bosses' crisis.
It is this unity that the Tories are out to smash. They aim to stir up feeling against the steel striker to set private sector workers against those in the public sector, farm workers against industrial workers, male workers against women. Fuss
And Prior's proposed laws dI C part of this offensive. But these proposals will not simply slip through Parliament without anyone making a fuss about it.
The TUC has already called a demonstration for 9 March and a day of
It's because the British bosses and their
LAW
Sunday 9 March
TUC demonstration
Hyde Park 10am to 12noon
Rally at Trafalgar Square to be addressed by Len Murray and other TUC Economic Department and General Council speakers
strike action for 14 May.
The Tories are worried wal lacy won get unings all their own way, so they are trying to divide us.
They want to provoke
reactionary witchhunt and their rallying cry "law and order'.
But what kind of law and order does Tory talk unleash? It gives the go-ahead to the anti-union arsonist who poured petrol THEO Ene ISTC's Rotherham headquarters and forced a union worker to jump for his life.
encourages the Freedom Association and friends in Kent who have mounted anti-strike
at the gates of Sheerness Steel. Farmers
HE TORY
MARCH
AGAINST
PRIOR'S LAW
Assemble: Speakers' Corner,
Move off at 12.30pm and commuters whose 'right to work' is hardly threatened steel strike - have turned up to shout abuse at legitimate pickets. Cafe owners will not let strikers in. the Tory idea law and order.
Boot
It gives •Maggie Thatcher's Boot Boys' (as the police were dubbed at Sheerness during the mass picket last week) the go-ahead to lay into pickets, beating up and arresting as they go. It gives the police the right to intimidate pickets whenever there's a strike.
Their law and order means intimidation for the working class and a free rein for the bosses.
And what
about une bosses? Aren't they above the law? They can chop jobs, slash pay, carve up industry, invest or not WIVESE where they want, sack workers they don't like (as with Derek Robinson) and the law does not touch them.
Thatcher, husband of Margaret, managing director of company manuacturing the cancer forming chemical 2,4,5-T. Where is the law to stop him?
Prior's law means law and order alright - a fist to punch the working class and a helping hand for the Villiers, Edwardes,
Thatchers and Josephs to do whatever they like.
Prior's mis-named Employment Bill will такс secondary pickeum: illegal ane prevent solidarity action from
not directly involved in a strike. But it's collective action and solidarity which allow the working Class to defend itself against the bosses attacks.
Our reply to the Tory intimidators quite simple step the
CUD secondary pickets, build solidarity action with the steel strike, and make 9 March a really enormous show of strength against the Tories' plans.
If the Tories want it hot Lner we're quite willing to raise the heat.
THIS WEEK INDUSTRIAL NEWS THE implications of the miners' ballot in South
the strike, the police and the Tories... What the
ABORTION
limits... Why Depo Provera, the injectible contraceptive should not be legalised... page 7 BRITISH LEYLAND
strong shop floor organisation... page 6 NICARAGUA
pages 8 and 9 AFGHANISTAN
situation in Afghanistan... page 12 ZIMBABWE
and 16 IMG CONFERENCE AFTER three months of discussion the British section of the Fourth International has held its
page 13
No.135 21 February 1980 20p Wales... What the pickets in Sheerness think about
National Strike Committee is up to... pages 3 to 5
WHY viability is not the issue when discussing time
'RED Robbo' has been sacked and no one is going to fight. Now BL workers face the long haul to rebuild
KATHY Kirkham has just come back from Nicaragua Two full pages of eye witness reports on the literacy campaign, the struggle of Nicaraguan women and the growth of the Sandinista Defence Committees...
STEVE Potter concludes a two part article on the
Who's who in the elections, Britain's disreputable history and what the whites are planning... pages 11
conference, decided on a common line of march and emerged ever more enthusiastic to fulfill its tasks...
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Editorial: 01-359 8180/9. Distribution and advertising 01-359 8371. Kabul crisis — rioting against Russian presence
TINKER, TAILOR,SOLDIER...
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Lahour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in ENC BETCH not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge helieves that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle dendencies in opposition
class-collaborationism in the lahour movement. These should
non-exclusive grouping together militants hold. ing a wide range of polifical views.
• To begin is fight for the creation unified
organisation which can. through "* application united front
¡tein lo be seen 2% an alternative hy thousands workers engaged in struggles.
much an organisation should be baser on the understanding that:
I ne for seeks to unite the fight of
it workers against iht wish that et other oppressed layers si societ! women. black people.
raggling for liberation. This socialions can only be achiered bs creating new organs et power and detealing with all necessar! means the pooer of the
lilan what evin in Britain testan, sith Tell right politicis parties and currents that do not lahe top arms against the socialist stars. The tialinist models
the LASR and Faster Turope bare discredited
niheese at millions of wormers He are attor do them ad will
vikany for socinlis dernocrary.
heinierence workers and capralists are irreroneilahit Toma world scale. C'apitalism has machet. has created polities. Thus wefight lor worhine clans scale. This unit, will in the long run he decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships thes sustain in lalin America, and Asia. In Primen item plies dramanding
withdrawal British troops from Ireland
letting the irish prople determine their own fature.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither the "turocommunis The predesinn wing, hare any
before. more laparable than seer the
precediny thres decades.
6. all
licite sears a cla
biternal denseracs not are lover! but ara vital necessies. This means the right to organise factions and
lendencies.
If you gree with these principles
and wan! o he involved
activities lu Socialist
supporters in sour area. fill in the
form below and send it to us.
area.
• I wouid like additional Beratire
and enclose 50p We easer roses.
(Delere it not applicable)
wame.
Address Socialist Challenge
end Afghanistan.
agents fomenting unrest. character.
and
disarray Longbridge
jobs and the
bosses
their been distinguished
and the Pentagon.
In Europe
upcoming EEC summit.
In Zimbabwe House
for all worked
illare
By Tom Marlowe JUST
world
world another, been in the
international
Recent facts Sunday: Times and
this question a
Africa
for Transatlantic
and Service.
This
were paid by nor US-backed 'entrists" in the
th DENN HEALEY,
DENIS
Bai t
But such
New Leader,
CIA.
Talents
former Labour in Challenge organisation's
NATO: Healey
be linked..
minister and
agriculture. Mason
issue
him entitled necessary?' No prizes for
Duffy has written articles
21 February 1980 Page 2
EDITORIAL
ACCORDING to press reports from Afghanistan, a strike of bazaar merchants has been followed by » Che Soviet troops. other sections of the population in demanding an
to the presence of Russian troops
The Kabul authorities have responded by declaring martial law and arresting one American and sixteen Pakistanis accused of being secret.
While western sources have been notoriously unreliable, the essential aspects of the situation have been confirmed by the Soviet press. In the absence of any other contenders it is fair to assume that Islamic fondamentalist parties lead the strike.
Tories still shaky
THATCHER has tried to use three setbacks
goverumell. workers not strike Robinson's reinstatement; the decision of Welsh miners not to go it alone in taking action to defend
'back to work' moyement.among certain sections of workers in the private steel industry do represent a definite set-back in the struggle against the government.
But Thatcher's problems still remain.
On the level of foreign policy, the Tories have
only. accommodate fully to the needs of President Carter
the Tories have not managed to secure their demand of £1000m rake-back from the EEC fund. Matters will reach crisis point at the
the much-vaunted Lancaster been shaken
LABOUR MP
how many Labour leaders have, at one time or
anoerica Imperialism pay of
revealed in the • State Receirch about Labour's "NATO moles' give
certain topicality, Revealed were the links between the NATO-financed Labour Committee
Understanding (LCTU) and leaders of the Labour right who write for the LCTU's Press
information backs up previous disclosures that in the early 1960s a number of Labour leaders
various •CIA front organisations. A selective list of the
labour movement would read something like
former Chancellor of the Exchequer and favourite to succeed Callaghan •as Labour Party leader. In the-1960s. Healey was a paid correspondent for
ferociously anticomnunist magazine financed by the
Healey now uses his talents to work for the LCTU, whose director,
MP Alan Lee Williams, admits that the bulk of the
funds come from writes - for the LCTU's Press Service on such topics as why pay and productivity should Lord
ROY MASON, former defence time
Northern Ireland secretary, now shadow minister for
is the current chairperson of the LCTU: The first
of the organisation's! Press Service in 1976 caried an article by
*Is NATO still guessing lunch
TERRY DUFFY, president of the in Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, is secretary of the LCTU.
for the
in
rallying cry for national sovereignty. action which is backing them up.
forces who are for Derek administration.
seemingly: insoluble politicians i'
The Tory
to its DENIS HEALEY Press Service attacking the Labour left, saying it wishes to turn Britain into an Eastera European style peoples' democracy:
DAVID OWEN, former foreign or ete CTeD. a vice vice hairs
Other, vice chairs include former defence James Wellbeloved.
ROY HATTERSLEY, environment minister. member the CIA-financed Campaign for Democratic Socialism in the 1960s. Currently another vicechairperson of the LCTU.
MICHAEL STEWART,
Stewart, foreign secretary Harold lember of her CS,
member the CDS. president of the LCTU
FRANK APP Electrea, secretary Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union. Chapple treasurer of the LCTU-sponsored Press Service. He has also attended a
designed to raise cash Truemid, the right-wing organisation
the unions financed by business.
BILL RODGERS, one of the current leaders of the Labour right in
Their demands are not limited to the removal of
Their first act would be to bloodily purge the left and establish an Islami republic which would reverse the reforms instituted in April 1978. These demands are cloaked under the
If these demands were to be fulfilled it would represent a crushing defeat for the workers and peasants of Afghanistan, turning the clock back in a most brutal and barbaric way. That is why it is not possible to support these demands or the strike
foundations with the revelations of the tricks' perpetrated by the same Rhodesian security
helping Lord Soames!
Finally, the other legacy of Britain's colonial past, Ireland, remains s
problem for ruling lack progress at constitutional conference' is anything to go by.
On the home front, things are not going well for the Tories either, The steel strike remains solid among British Steel Corporation workers and its very duration has ensured that the closure plans for many of the plants under the axe will now have to be taken back to the drawing board.
cabinet is still deeply divided on Prior's industrial relations proposals. The reasons for the divisions being the justifiable fear of some Tory ministers that the labour movement response to the laws could trigger off the sort of struggles which brought down the Heath government.
Sunday 9 March, the date of the TUC-called
- paid correspondent for ClA-financed magazine. Parliament, who recently threatened to split the Labour Party if the left control. light in the CDS, chairperson of the LCTU, and was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying that if NATO was funding the LCTU it would make no difference to his minister involvement in the organisation. In the current Press. shadow writes of the need to Former nuclear weapons.
SID WEIGHELL secretary of the National Union Railwaymen. Weighell is one of the trade union vice-chairpersons of the LCTU, and has now saying that in NATO is 'the same as getting grants One from the TUC'. now Vice general Other vice chairpersons of the LCTU include Sid Vincent (Mineworkers), Bill Sirs (Steelworkers), and Hector for Smith (Blastfurnacemen). well as big association with CIA and /or NATO organisations, all of them, as far as one can ascertain, are also opposed to the decisions of the last Labour
strike in Kabul.
*Turn to page 12
"dirty demonstration against the proposals,
outstanding. Once again the call should be raised for genera class Prior proposals and carry
the kicking out the Tory government.
The one
campaign the Ryder Report on
patient
class to break ITS back.
Labour
former leading coincidence. he is now a vice-
Service Rodgers
modernise
general of
been quoted receiving money from
side
these gentlemen's
The bureaucratic way in which the Karmal government and the Soviet Union have dealt with the whole problem of the rightist resistance to the reforms over the past years is of course to be criticised. They have made no attempt to rally mass action by workers and peasants. But the arrest of the suspected agents in Kabul hints at a reality which has been present for the last two years in Afghanistan — massive infiltration and subversion techniques practised by imperialism devoted to bolstering the forces now apparently leading the
will be a crucial day for all concerned as moisters sud militants alike judge the scale of the opposition strike actlen to be called by the TUC to defeat the
through the job-by
genuine breakthrough for the Tories has been at British Leyland. But this was not the work of a couple of months. A continuous
to break the back-bone of the BL workforce has been waged since the publication of
participation under the Labour government. This is one sector where thi
work of rebuilding the rank and fil leadership, through such bodies as the Leyland Action Committee is the main task for socialists.
But the fundamental problems of the Tories remain, as de the opportunities for the working
Party conference to democratise the Party. Now there's
accidental death
of an anarchist
IGHTLY
sal pries inchris for to in production of lie ild and Mel March.
Page 3 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
te would crack down on picket much of the dar Wives
A large contingent of steel
wives from Yorkshire declaring women's
and carry a thre women hate scabs'
They have come to challen
Less Steel Workers wives
isolate warch from the pickets. The ocal the Freedom
Tory
STEEL
HORKERS
ES of steelworkers joined.
women's power!
PAY THE STEEL WORKERS wetk. The the pre ay that the
Be its Geoffrey
Sheridan
reports
from
Sheerness
farmers all heip to bastain the hostility to the pickets in the
prates
police dar targets eren that ticular
the 21 arrests during 14 are miners. They are take straight to court. Their fines total £1,750.
West
try boycotts
troduced
picket. Their slogan:
DONT THURSDAY morning. presence on the picket lime after yesterday's mass stake-out Sheeruess Steel. The dozen or so
who have •come Rotherham wear stickers declaring 'Hadfields massacre. 14.2.80. were there scop readsts they e failed series made pickets reple reading they failed at Hadfields Morale is high.
The police are friendly today, offering to stop every approaching vehicle so that the pickets can speal to the drivers. 'We're on first name terins with the police here,' a striker comments. "Their idea is to soften us up.'
For half an hour three of us are engaged in a discussion with middle-aged constable strike, the state of the steel industry in the. West, police brutality haven't seen any in 17 years in the force, the cop says).
The constable insists working cogs and that he doesn't like privilege in this society. acknowledges that in part what he protecting. He is told that's all he's protecting.
'But suppose there are 20 of you here and 200 of the workers come shouting "Fuck off°7 Well protec OLL OI URC plant you.'
The pickets don't believe the police would do anything of the
Sheerness Steel
holds out against
mass picket
Cue for police violence
A tokèn
from
We
should bave
that at first. kind, arguing that the only peopl about the other strikers supporters. (1 police a free says Winton Campbell from IST he is Rotherham. .. And the
so that we ta be backing for this.
He assed, he adis more violence from the police. They ant to smash flying and seconda pickets, so that you, become impossible.
Rotherham the laws will mean maintaining al the action necessary to win the stee
WITH
CONTEMPT
NOT EVER STEEL STRIKERS Winton Campbell (left) and David Motloch on the picket line at Sheerness on Thursday.
and other strikes. they can depend on for their defence just sit back and let these laws bi
and their implemenied. general strike.'
The government has giyen ti
and to lay into u
Tories 10 go.
Like el have eve laws essential supplies ffective strik They members to
David Motloch, also from ISTC
says that confronting strike
"The TUC can't There's got be a
They both consider that the steel strike is turning from a pay dispute into a fight over the cutbacks plants and jøbs. The general feeling they say, is that the government bas
And the objective at Sheerne
teel? The pickets aim to cut o
such oxygen and oil to bring the plant to a balt.
want They Morts Union obey Evans instruction not to cross picket lines
And they're waiting to see if the
committees 'up "North' organise another mass picket.
Prior's
law:
the
old,
old
story
proposity ¿urh
"trade union power', Tory
employment secretar? Jim
Prior trying nothing
Defiance
i Sochile Challenge
Tolpuddle
Fi later strid anhi prospect:
were quired by trade trou
thes statue
Ai!
Ingredients
Tepeate .
So ihe : ürsi humired edd
this: and
seen atlack. on the ragh: in
the right te strike ...0......
same ingredients. ¿their in
at in Pris
Mas üttender:
din diced ight
toddes
Socialist Challenge 21 February 1980 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
RECALL WALES TUC
SUPPORT THE STEEL STRIKE
HOME NEWS
Prior's
law:
the
old,
old
story
JIM Prior's proposals to fine trade unionists who take part in picketing re a throwback to the past.
Denning reded so be
Lord ruled in Taff judgement that
for damages caused to companies during strikes. words, if the bosses suffered a
during dispute the union had to
Taff Vale Case spurred on socialists and trade unionists to organise
the Tory and Liberal parties.
In 1906 election 29 Labour MPs were elected. The same year Parliament passed the Trades
Vale.
But still the judges tried to interfere in unions" affairs. In
THROW TOT DONTA DUESOSES
That spelt financial ruin for the Labour Party, and again
outside Parliament. The
Reversed i 1913.
Four een years later, after the defeat of the 1926 General Strike, the Tory government saw its chance to go
The 1921 Trades Dispute Act ruled that union members had to opt in
wished 10 pay the political levy to the Labour Party.
2I50 tha
sympathetic 'genera strikes were illegal.
It was not until the post-
Labour government of
1945-51 That this Act repealed. ne depression or Mac Donald decision to ake 1930s Ramsay
in 1931 severely wounded the
ability of trade unionists to fight back
that the situation today. The unions and the Labour Party are
much stronger than they were
1930s, which is why even if Prior's law is passed it could be made inoperable within a couple of weeks.
One lesson of the early
part of this century is that the
Labour Party in Parliament
was formed to secure union
rights. That's why the Labour Party should declare
commi mero Here SHOE
Bill now inside and outside Parliament
Another reason is that in
one aspect at least Prior's
Droposals real de a case or
'the old, old story This
the section which
LACROS
taken for some extraneous
motive.
the ban on
sympathetic or general strike
action imposed in 1927 This
time, don't let's wait 20 vears
to get that reversed.
Socialist Challenge 21 February 1980 Page 4
By Valerie Coultas PHILIP Weekes, the director of the South Wales Coal must have taken a few tips from Leyland boss Michael Edwardes.
He described the attempt to get the go-ahead for industrial action in the pits last week madness'. Then, closure of the entire coalfield, persuaded the South Wales, miners to vote by 22,000 to 4,000 not to endorse their executive's strike on 25 February.
Previous ballots taken in the South Wales coalfield have executive's decision to fight steel and pit closures by industrial action, result came as something of a surprise. Why the change of heart?
The British Steel decided to cut back on its imports of
*The Welsh TUC will not see this town derelicted by the misguided market economics of the Tories.'
George Wright, General Secretary, Welsh TUC foreign coking coal the week prior to the ballot. Weekes used this to suggest that the threat to jobs was not so great as in fact it is. Eight thousand miners' jobs are still on the line unless the steel closures are stopped.
Shotton...
.. Port Talbot
MOTION NO 20. STEEL CLOSURES.
executive council to
future of steelmaking in the UK. Corby No 2
This is how R. Southam (Corby successful motion on the struggle on jobs at last year's
and Confederation conference:
'A great deal of emotion was
conference last year over the Bilston issue culminating in a Proposer R. Southam threat of industrial action if are sorce was not wwurawi,
A threat, of course, was then successful, but where are we today? Well, Bilston for all intents closed. Corby is next under
After pit ballot failure
stuck to it.
Board,
CILS
as 'bloody threatening he
call to
and whatever the
so this
Corporation
Welsh TUC, isolate
Bilston, Corby,
and Llanwern?
"That this conference calls upon the
oppose any further closures in the steel industry and that BSC be pressed to review its policies regarding the
direct threat and after that Shotton. Plan "The social consequences for these areas are enormous.
Talk about OCHIE drafted replacement AnOT theoretical than practical. If Corby works was to close, the
of unemployment bordering on 30 per cent. BSC is still DUESUITE ES LOCOSELC plan which is now so out of line with the current market situation and EEC constraints it is not true.
This is not the time for complacency. No one is safe.
It's interesting to know that places like Ravenscraig are going to be up for review in 1990. *This may seem a long wa off, but I would like to remind Me Pontes nat Do COroV 21e Bilston were in exactly the same position when the ter year plan was drawn up. it
The Welsh TUC, and particularly its general secretary George Wright, has not taken a consistent position on jobs and
George Wright has talked a lot about opposing redundancies in steel and coal, although he always agreed that some
were necessary'. But when the crunch came and the miners asked for a
"The Welsh have called on the British TUC to lead and support us because of the problems we face. If that support is not forthcoming
consequences we will fight for the jobs and children of Wales after 31 March.' George Wright, General Secretary, Welsh TUC
commitment to strike action from the
Wright backed down and allowed the British TUC to take over.
Despite the massive response to the Welsh TUC's day of action from miners, dockers and railway workers, Wright was not prepared to break with Len Murray and lead a fight in Wales. He allowed talks with the Tories in London
those trade campaigning for action on jobs in Wales.
The leaders of the steel and mining unions nationally also refused to give the South Wales miners any official backing.
MALES
Welsh workers march to save jobs, 28 January really is sad about Bilston. It's very tragic, especially when you remember all the support that they've had over the last year -I believe ThaT PLATS conference must state today wah the last closure. Now it's time to put an end to BSC's crazy policies starting with the executive committee opposing any further closures Talks should then take
But the South Wales miners have a tradition of militancy that could have been used to counter these attempts to isolate them. Only, however, if their executive was prepared to give them a perspective for doing this. It was here that Emlyn Williams and the miners' leaders failed.
They stuck to their approach to organising strikes, calling a meeting of lodge officials and hoping that their members would endorse their call for action:
Fighting against job loss is no easy battle. Already the Leyland workers, along with steelworkers
'We want the pay issue settled with dignity. On jobs we will not move one step backward.'
George Wright, General Secretary, Welsh TUC
Shotton, and East experienced the employers in nationalised industries. The press has left no stone unturned in its attempts to blame union militancy job loss.
The Welsh miners' leaders should have gone directly to the ranks of the steelworkers, railway dockers in Wales and in England and explained why the fight on jobs crucial.
If George Wright would not give them the backing they should have formed an alliance of their place with the BSC in order
that a sensible policy for the
future of the industry can De
determined.
'A policy based not only but social COONORECL
grounds, which to my minc
the prime
consideration. ask
conference to support motion
20.2
The motion
overwhelmingly with only 4
against.
traditional Moors, have ruthlessness of
they're wary alone.
struggle on jobs. workers and immediately,
workers who fighting on
needed they
are still fighting - The steelworkers Corby, despite tneir minan intentions, British Steel Corporation kept on telling them that if they accepted levels and didn't nress for haher wage tabplant would become • carried Closed
They're about to stop
MINERS' leader Emlyn Williams own in Wales between dockers, steelworkers, railway workers and miners.
The ballot on jobs prior to this vote showed that the miners want to fight. But
of going it completely
The Welsh TUC is the body that has the authority to plan out a co-ordinated
It should be recalled and miners and steel jobs should SCC the importance into the of factories, the railways, the docks and the streets in Wales and argue their case for strike action now while the steelworkers
producing steel at Corby anymore, and Shotton is to be closed completely.
Port Talbot and Llanwers But unless rank and steelworkers take fight AtO ние nationally, and into every other union in Wales through demanding recall of the Wales TUC pian the fight on jobs, thei fate will be the same.
Page 5 scan of this page
STEEL STRIKERS HOLD FIRST NATIONAL MEETING
Occupation challenge to closures
HOMENEWS
By Clive Turnbull
steel strike committees which took place
Sheffield on Monday
facing the steelworkers.
ports, particularly in the receiving deliveries picketed.
Meanwhile at Ford,
Dagenham, for example, two or three mini-buses
carrying DICKeLS
arrived on a given day from different areas with no clear objectives.
It has been obvious to
many militants national co-ordination is vital to CISUTE the effectiveness of the strike.
This has BeCa forthcoming.
The official national strike committee has only
met twice since the strike began.
The problem highlighted By Martin Collins and Pete Clifford
OFFER us flexibility, workers at the Platt, Saco, Lowell textile equipment plant in Oldham were management earlier this month, and there will still be two hundred jobs at the plant by the end of the year.
The workers decided to different option. On 18 February same day as 4,000 demonstrated a few miles away in Manchester against cuts and unemployment — the Platts workers voted to occupy.
In an area that has seen a wave of closures of engineering plants, with over 7,000 jobs disappearing in the last few months, the Platts workers are the first to show militant resistance to closure and what they regard as the government's policy of de-industrialisation.
Support
Their plant is part of the Stone Platts Industries multi-national, and they are now seeking support engineering workers in order to extend the action to the companies plants in Bolton and Accrington.
A MEETING of representatives of a number of
in was the first step to overcoming some of the major problems now
It has been left to local areas to implement the call to stop all movement of steel. Several
North, are still and have never been
were a mass picker was organised on Wednesday of last week long after the private sector had been called out. The mass picket had little effect.
Steelworkers' Banner, the official strike bulletin which nationally by ISTC, has not acted as an organiser. has not carried information on the many that local LESOLA
auring une strike.
More seriously, the bulletin has not provided a scrap of information ISTC the Workers at the Stone Platt factory after they had taken over the factory against closure.
Eddie Holland,
the 850
Diversity
manufacturing told by
would diversify
take the have to close.
The moves
TORCY WCHIL
side of the books,
With cheap abroad, the
from other When
This workforce:
various negotiations hetween the unions. BSC management, and the Tory government.
ISTC members only get to hear of what the convenor at Oldham, says: "We have co-operated all along the line to ensure viability, and the sack is the price we're expected to pay."
Before Christmas management had promised new electrical products that
producuon Oldham site in order to ensure its future. But then it announced that it couldn't afford the £1.3m necessary to purchase the equipment, and that the plant would
Platts workers regard these with cynicism. The firm has received a government grant of f1.8m, but the workers have no idea where this
•We'd like to see the credit and debit
says Ted Brennan, the representative of TASS, the Engineering Union's white-collar section, Platts. *Morally the plant is ours. We have the right to know what is going on.
textiles coming from chauvinist demand for import controls has been widely taken up by textile workers - and the employers.
engineers recently took industrial action on pay, the Stone Platts company chairperson, E G Smalley, told
"This kind of action can
DONTSEL
PORT TALADI
JOBS
happening through the
Tory press, or from their
executive members
they're lucky.
The union leadership only benefit our foreign competitors.'
A similar theme has been taken up in the House of Lords Saco, Lowell. "This firm, Rhodes, a Labour peer, criticised because machinery abroad for other people to use. This meant British manufacturers were suffering great competition.
Now the people who were criticised have folded up."
Textile manufacturers have mounted a campaign to 'save British jobs', which they mean profits for firms.
Platts itself has shown employers put such ideas into practice. In spite of an average return on its capital investment in Britain of 17 percent a year, it is now negotiating to invest t4m in a new plant in South Korea.
'It's the kind of state.' comments, 'where if you try to organise they send you for a three-week holiday. When you come back you can't walk. Revolution technological revolution, he adds, with machines replacing people. We could be on a 25-hour week, but instead capital goes elsewhere.
The occupation committee is well
has only just presented a
formal pay claim
management in Cine
eighth week of the strike
and the membership
has had no report on what
is, let alone the
opportunity to discuss or
vote on it.
In spite of all these
handicaps and the division
with the private sector, the
La two-hour information on 25 February.
movement of steel by
in through the docks.
representatives trom and unions involved in the strike.
division ISTC strike committee publicity, against Platt,
said Lord usea to be sold textile factories in the
arranged. Offered
other Oldham workers.
Nettle Accessories, by British join the London on 9 March. the *Demonstrations Ted Brennan.
Ted Brennan
redundancy,
at Scraggs,
manufacturer.
middle
Oldham.
strike is as solid as ever among BSC workers.
With the right leadership the strike can be won. The sticker produced Warrington steelworkers sums it up: if Bill Sirs won't lead the strike, he should 'do us a favour' and make way for who can and will lead it.
What the meeting discussed OFFICIALS of several strike committees
meeting to exchange The main emphasis of the meeting was on the
stockholders, private sector, and ports throughout Britain. A particular concern was expressed about the lack of effective picketing of steel coming
It was agreed that a larger meeting be held next week consisting of strike committee
all the regions
- Statement by Ted Thorne, secretary, No 3
one Plati Oldham
organised. It has worked out plans for
social security benefits, and
the security of the plant. The main aim at
present is to stop the movement of all Platts products, and a schedule of visits is being
Support has begun to come in from The unions at for instance, have offered to pay for two Platts workers to TUC's demonstration in
are alright," says 'But the TUC and the union officials need to declare policy. The policies the unions have operated
are part of the problem. The Engineering
Union in Manchester, for example, has expressed no concern about voluntary and has excessive over-time working - including which is part of the Platts
group, and Dronsfields, another textile
In supporting the Platts occupation,
militants should aim to make it the focus
for a campaign for the 35-hour week:
Donations and messages of support
to: Eddie Holland, c/o CSEU dispute,
Platt, Saco, Lowell, Featherstall Road,
Socialist Challenge
Prior's
law:
the
old,
old
story
JIM Prior's attack on trade union rights is the third such offensive launched in recent years.
The first was in 1969, when Labour's Employment Secretary, Barbara Castle, introduced In Place of Strife.
Castle's proposals included compulsory
cooling off period while ballots held. the establishment Commission of Industrial Relations, and the setting up of compulsory register of trade unions.
In the forefront of the
campaign against in Place o
DETE Was COMERS Party-led Liaison Committee Unions. TWo strikes called by the Defence of Trade ine LeDiu were supporte by 150,000 and then 250,000 workers.
Argued
Leading members of the TUC argued against Castle's MPs said they would vote DrOPOSdIS due CHOUEH LaDOu against the measures to make the government retreat
proposals sented a ain ly
wher government of Edward Heath
the Relations Act This included compulsory the
Relations Court
the fining and jailing of those who detied the granting of legal authority to union/company agree
In December 1970 half a million workers took part in a
LCDrU against ine Bill. Ini waton cally in 1971. was followed official
Dockers
The confrontation came to a head in July 1972 when five were arrested and jailed for being in contempt of the Industria Relations Court
An immediate walk-out
London dockers joined by tens of thousands of workers in sooner industries With general looming, the ZOVCHECH release the cockers ane ina Industrial Relations Act fell into disrepute
Relations Act dozens of local committees were set up the MOSI being those established by local trades councils or powerful shop stewards committees. Verbal
While the TUC offered
the Act, it was the mass movement which secured its
collar movement A CA defeated In Place of Strife and most other anti union legislation from the Combination Acts onwards.
If Prior's laws are familiar story, the way defeat them can be just as
organise noW against Prior's laws.
21 February 1980 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Now that Robbo bas gone it'S... The long haul for BL workers
STRIKE NEWS
By Paul Smith and Jude Woodward DEREK Robinson, convenor at Longbridge, BL's largest car plant, is out of a job. He was victimised by Michael Edwardes, BL boss, whose hard man style of management is fast becoming mythical, and not workforce that voted nine to one against any action to defend him.
Before he was sacked Robinson was jokingly" povertul people in British industry - but Edwardes showed him who runs BL.
But it won't be just Robinson who suffers as a result of the sacking — BL workforce stands to lose out. A few days before the Longbridge against action announced that 50,000 BL expect to be laid off indefinitely due to bad sales figures on BL cars. They also face a pay offer of between 5 and 10 per cent coupled with stringent measures Claret l stepping up rights in BL. rejected by a full ballot of employees, Edwardes explained last week that he might just have to go ahead anyway.
This is what the successful sacking Robinson really means - a tough management offensive against disorganised workforce. "The Robinson is a real blow for rank organisation within the Edwardes get away with it?
It is questions of viability, profits and jobs that underlie the whole Edwardes, threaten closure and redundancy at every turn. It is the inadequacy of the unions' itsponse to
han dad bes got the BL workforce on the run.
Cond Robinson explained his problem of BL — make it the most prosperous
Manchester
fights racism
THE successful Oldhem campaigu to prevent the deportation of Abdul Azad, a local Bengali youth, has boosted the confidence Asian community.
ommittees for black people facin deportation have mushroomed in the Manchester area there
willinguess to figh
In South Manchester the Begun Committee first cam inign to link anti-racists and black
began had been dit
Nasir egua from Britis
and enc
authorities her with ропаші ner defence Istration local trade
In Oldhan
faces oration.
Britain 1961
only a he with
campaigi
Mohan organised by the Oldham
Racist Laws and is sapported the • Trade Council ald by tie
by Oldh
district Labour
gathering momentary
three children im Pekt
Socialist Challenge 21 February 1980
Engineering Union
supported by
one of the most
the whole
workforce Robinson, Edwardes workers could
dramatically productivity by attacking union The offer was overwhelmingly
but
of
demoralised and sacking and file strikes, plants. How did
situation at BL. and other BL bosses before him,
at, a theoretical journal of the it Party, of which he is a mamber,
approach to the based
Defence them join her in this country.
The Anwar is a rea
the clear fightims In any one'
whe The has made it d built and
residemi with
family Shukai At being Hailsworth атрярі cretary of the
• for politica
MICHAEL EDWARDES — unions no alternative to his threats car firm in the world. An aim that can't be far from Michael Edwardes' own heart.
Fo achieve this, Robinson, and other senior stewards on the BL Combine, went along with management propaganda against "wild-cat'
spended arde he be died ne
management Coventry shop stewards conference after his appointment explaining management and redundancy would 'save' BL. convenors ice at Longbalage bad arende works compu participation, quashed unofficial action and sat on grievances. When it came to his own sacking Robinson, and the rest, did just what they bad done before — nothing. Having put himself at the head of a campaign to.
By Pete Clifford
and her husband retursed to Britain, where she was bara, to fiad work and a home. The immigration astborities now say that she has not proved th children are really hers and will not tel
Ditte Defence organised
monstration for Saturday 1 March
12 noon at Church
centriol Fional cases
would be a victory s and the are to be black dam firm ester's top
CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE
IMMIGRATION LAWS Ananal General Meeting
Satarday 15 March, 10ams—Spu
Waterloo Action Centre, Bayliss Rd, SE1
days.
last year executive member
paigners of all
walk-out? participation
majority
bardline closed; and
show that ANWAR DITTA petitioning for her children to be
amigration Act, which
sting all but EEC and British hands lato this country, There will
a vote on these proposals within 4
Campaige Against Racist will be mounting vigils outside neat етету Tuesday ay antil the vote. The vigils 2pm opposite St entraNce.
Campaig Against Racist recall conference will be on 22 all local ations, trade unions and so on should delegates.
CARL, PO Box 353, London NW5 or phone : 01-485 2872 for details.
Longbridge had a disciplined and productive workforce it is not surprising that workers were confused when it came to Robinson's own fate. Wouldn't he have argued against an unofficial
In the circumstances it is surprising that the
of the plant did walk out when the news of his sacking filtered through. The da fter his sacking Longbridge was completel
Canke Castle Bromwich, Lane and Radford had walk-outs; and mass meetings were held in many plants.
But the stewards let the initiative slip away They did not issuc a call for generalised strike action throughout BL; they did not organise flying pickets; there was little effort to organise or enthuse those who were on strike.
include
Sonthwark, South London. This
The theme of the march will be
and
anti-racist to show its face.
Contact
movement lo
Man at work against the strike.
November, Longbridge
queue they
began to affect the
justification for this
permanently close Longbridge.
strike for reinstatement.
on strike action
meeting told Socialist Challenge:
all go down with him.'
Robinson's
and advocate of participation
Browns
to be made up.
again ed to join hel
NO NAZISIN SOUTHWARK
ON Sunday 2 March the National Front will be laking to the streets of
reestablishing their fortunes after their failar
the Front and the British Movement have been 'active' in Southwark for sonne tine - doing regular paper sales, attacking individual anti-fascists, atterpting to bomb a local community resource centre and breaking up meetings!
All anti-fescists need to respond to this new NF initiative. The massive impact of the auti-fascist marches in '78 and "79 and of the ANI Carival needs to be drive home again in Southwark and wherever else the Front decide
The Southwark Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and the ANL have organised a counter demonstration. It will assemble at 10am at Elephant and Castle. The Front may appear to be finished bat it is p to the anti-fascis
Make sure that it is.
agement, on the other hand, was hard On Thursday 22 three days after the sacking, workers were forced to queue in the rain for hours to get paid. At the head of the
were grilled by management before being handed a pay cheque — they were offered safe conduct through the gates; they were told BL would close if they didn't return to work.
Uncertainty about the AUEW's attitude
action; and by Tuesday union president Duffy called off the strike. In
Duffy used Robinson's own time-worn argument: strike action would
The union commission of inquiry reported its findings at the beginning of February. This shameful document said Robinson had been bad, but that his dismissal was unjustified. Duffy went to painful lengths to exonerate any workers who did not want to join the proposer
The mass meeting at Longbridge to decide
was postponed twice an
ventually voted to ditch Robinson, while ! kept silent. As one shop steward icaving th
"Robinson dug his own grave, but the trouble is we couk
successor as union boss at Longbridge looks like being a man after his own heart. Jack Adams is a fellow CP member
Adams will have a heavy load to bear. If Robinson's sacking is to be just bad, and not a disaster, for BL workers then the independeni political and organisational strength of the BI shop stewards' Combine has to be rebuilt as rapidly as possible. If Edwardes can impose a
ousy pay deal and enforce job moblity on t
orkforte then there will be even more grow
lobinson has gone, it looks like for goo
Shop stewards throughout BL have a long hal to make sure the same thing can't pepper
Photo: WOMEN'S VOICE
march is the first of a series. alined at
• in the May general election. gers'. Both the National
Page 7 scan of this page
WOMEN FIGHT PRIOR
By Valerie Coultas CASUALTY wards in hospitals will receive more visits from women suffering from septic
bortions if any part of John Corrie's abortion
bill gets passed in the House of Commons
the 24 week momen will either face unwanted pregnancies ог стонашов нош ovate арого сІкь.
No woman likes the abortion, particularly one late on in pregnancy. Thre later per
abortions scared to reyeal that they are pregnant or older vomes who associate missed periods with the
These women are unlikely to accept their fate Unwanted pregnancies night mare not only for the mother but also for the child when it is born. Women will turn to the backstreet butchers rather than face the total disruption of their lives.
As Jo Richardson explained in the House of Commons on 15 February, the real time limit will not be 24 weeks. 22-week or 20-week limit in practice. So why have Labour MPs like Stan Orme colluded with Liberals like David Steel and Tories like Gerald Vaughan and accepted the view that abortion should be restricted té 24 weeks?
Conceded
They conceded the argument of the anti-abortionists that abortion foetus is xiable, capable of surviving outside the vorab; that women have so absolate raht to
lestroy a foetus after this time.
have been used to stop women controlling their pira bodies. But women are human beings, not simply wombs that produce babies. The life of • foetus is a potential life. The life of the voian is one that exists in the By Penny Duggan THE South East Region of thé TUC
of the
Employment Bill will away • the automatic right prescially for maternity leave and to reinstatement in their jobs.
Not only does the Bill exempt firms with five or fewer employees, but also all firms who do not find it treasonably practicable such provision, and those where the woman is offered an alternative and sutreasonably refuses.
This goes along with the introduc tion of more bureaucratic red tape surrounding the procedures by which women can claim this right.
The Tory government is not only threatening women's rights. Women are suffering a huge burden of the cuts in social spending in terms of jobs and facilities. Foreign women are being denied the right to marry : the nusbands incy choose Abortion right are under attack:
Freedom
Women who have enjoyed a taste of freedom through their increased participation in the workforce are being forced back into the home back into financial dependence on mer
Vomen have shown in the steel
SEXUAL POLITICS
Parliament has
double standards
for women
lime limit becomes law
idea of having an
cent of women who do have to ,100
can become B
Doctors will work to a
Orme?
have done so because they have
shoult not be allowed If the
Wars moral arguments ilke these
real world. work in the job she take that make malamey too
within the trade union
else:
Looses, live with whom ste choo bortion debate.
And it's beceuse the oppose the idea that women shoald bare th own identity that they only see womed as bab producers and not as people. They reject th idea that women should bave a choice abou hoi they live their lives.
Facilities Anti-abortionists, like SPUC, have nothing to say about nursery facilities, nothing to say about educational and job opportunities for women. They have nothing to say about how to free women from oppression in our society. Their main concern is to reinforce women's oppression, to relaforce domestic drudgery and. keep women in the home.
Once you defend any time limit on abortion
abor fonts. te Poetal servival is accepted as the
cnienon 10r deciding abortions, then what happens when it becomes possible for a ten week foetus to survive in a test tube? Is a ten week limit then necessary, Mr Pro-abortion campaigners should stand up to the compulsory whether they come from SPUC, the Tories or Labour MPs. You can only concede to the arguments of the anti-abortionists if you view women as the 'irresponsible sex', incapable of making decisions about incapable of deciding themselves when they should terminal, a preguancy.
But when y omen are care for others, to bé good wives and mothers, and above all to value children, it is hardly likely that they are going to make decisions like this lightheartedly. Men have never had to be responsible about their sexual activity. should Parliament be allowed to apply double trade Prior's law attacks women's rights
strik: and in the abortion campaign that they are a vital and growing force
That they will not lie down and be trodden on by the Tories or anyone N7.
set by the anti-
the upper imit
motherhood arguments
their owa. lives,
taught from birth to
Why The Tories wish to exploit every
division, every weak point in the
armoury of the trade
movement. Unity is crucial to success
in the battles ahead
The South East Region TUC took Hell helped to organise the mass five stand in support of women
Corne Bill on 3 February — a lobby Parliament against
that drew 20,000 people
Now it has produced 5,000 leaflets
to ensure that women's needs are
brought to the attention of every
unionist who -turns
demonstrate against Jim Prior's anti-
trade union laws on &March YACHTBACK FOR WOMEN'S
RIGHTS
A working conference to pool
experience,
discuss the coming struggles and
stimulate the growth
dialogue between women in
labour movement and
women's movement.
Women delegates prerably,
excluded.
Sateyday 22 Marchi, 11an-5pm Conway Hall •"Red Lion SquareWC]
Registration £2, payable
Fightback for Women's Rights.
Creche available. Contact
address: 41 Ellington St, London
A dream image of women not so far from many a modern man's heart?
THE Committee Medicines has refused Upjohn Ltd, manufacturers of the contraceptive Britaiu.
The committee worried shout the effect of Depo Provers on babies when it reaches them in thei thie Provera in the Horse last week, polated out that while ora
synthetk
out: to pil you can't stop taking it even if you
the use of this drug were women in th Third World' designed to be used on a large a cheap solution to the problems of 'over-population' than the more tackling poverty and scarce resources head-on, of Depo-Provera the unpleasant side effects. It is known to the cause irregular bleeding. It has been
linked to cancer of the cervix and may have harmful effects on fertility but Hair loss,
colour, migraines, nausea, and loss of sex drive have also been reported as effects of this drug.
Now even large doses of this mascullaising effect 'Some instancer
doses
Safety of
…controversial Depo Provers, ded licence for its general use in
is particularly
motber's milk.
Labour MP Lewis Carter Jones.
safety of Depo of Commons
fose of
Unlike
The women who first experienced
Depo-Prover scale as
- so much simplet expensive one of the needs
has тяпу WCH.
the Bull: Ring, acne, change in skin YOrK Square.
Upjohn admit drug have NATIONAL
Assembly
Would
you use
this
drug?
Provera seems to have been successfu In beginning to raise awareness abom
women in contro their own fertility. It can be contac
372 Grays Inn Road, Londo
DEMONSTRATION 'Women will del
law'. 6pm, 29 February. isserah
nort. of Waterloo Statio Road: Disperse at Brunswick
CAMPAIGN AGAINST CORRIE OR day meeting. 1. March, Marble Arch Lo
tensive English Schoo 21 Star St, W2 to discuss the future of the campai
21 F dorary 190
Page 8 scan of this page
EYEWITNESS REPORT
BUILDING A NEW NICARAGUA
'LITERACY IS LIBERATION'
INTERNATIONAL
revolution.
dictatorship last
radical measures. Already they have:
supporters,
companies, mines and fisheries,
leaving
proprietors
capitalist landowners,
crops, TO SEE school students cheerfully drilling in the scorching sun is no unusual sight in Managua these days. It is part training for a particularly tough assigament. In March they leave their classrooms to spend five months in the remote rural areas. There, in the fields, under trees, in village homes, they will teach poorest communities to read and write.
This is Nicaragua's new literacy crusade. A massive $20 million successfully mobilised 180,000 student and adult volunteers into literacy brigades for work on farms and in factories throughout
COLLE. Explains the national co-ordinator, Fernando Cardenal: •re don't want to create super schools and we can't wait for specialist teachers. We're taking anyone who has reached the third grade...'
*Literacy is liberation' street hoardings. By the crasade aims to "liberate' Nicaraguans over 10 years old.
It's an expensive resoarces for refloating the economy are in Bete peratety short sapply. Then again
Is a great deal at stake. The Sandinistas ask of cona
21 Fe
'WE HAVE WON the battle for political freedom, but we have yet to win economic independence.' The words of planning minister Henry Ruiz sum up the crisis threatening the future of Nicaragua's
With the final overthrow of the brutal Somoza July, the Sandinista-led government inherited a country in ruins. Yet the Nicaraguans are pressing ahead with a long list of
confiscated the vast wealth of Somoza and his
nationalised all Nicaraguan banks, all insurance
expropriated 55 per cent of cultivable
25 per cent in the hands of and only 20per percent with
taken control of the export of all major cash
brought in price controls, rent cuts and food
subsidies to increase workers' real wages,
mounted a nation-wide literacy campaign,
earmarked 62 per cent of the government budget
for health, education and housing (compared
of their
neglect to
their country's
the country's venture, has
campaign's To help government
between
end of 198 the says. of 1980 the Once in 900,000
operation when production. from their brief.
Wage 8
BY KATHY KIRKHAM
•launched a new
extra jobs.
factory owners,
Never. land, small big
collections.
needed.
ALFABETIZACION es liberación!
illiterate and where on the isolated Atlantic coast some peasants stili den't know the insurrection has happened!
People's expectațions are bigh after the victory against Somoza. But with 43 years of
put right, changes may painfully slow in some places. So the literacy drive is above all a political project — a way of discussing the government's response to
problems and of orging everyone to step up production. 'Somoza couldn't survive without the support of the masses', says Cardenal, "and we can't do anything without them.
devise the campaign called in Braziian Paulo Freire. : Opening dialogue
students and peasants interests him most. 'The young people will learn much more than they will teach', he
the villages, the volunteers will be expected to pui in severa hours' work a day in the fields to maintain
Distributing nutrition advice ind collecting stories, songs and poems
the different regions is also part of associations of women, peasants, youtb and workers' organisations
with Somoza's 17 per cent),
economic plan to
production, reduce inflation and create 94,000
But starved of foreign aid and hampered by growing resistance from bourgeois farmers and
Nicaragua still faces formidable odds. International solidarity counts more than
Says FSLN Europe Secretary Sylvia MacKewan: 'It's very important for us to have this support now — much more than when we were fighting.' She emphasises moral as well as material solidarity. 'In countries where our aims are being distorted we need people to defend our revolution and explain to workers what we are doing.'
Nicaragua's three priority projects — the literacy campaign, medical supplies, and a life of milk a day for every child jumping off point for fund-raising events and street
Early efforts. by including a film tour in Scotland, have brought an enthusiastic public response. But more action is CRUZADA NACIONAL DE ALFABETIZACION Ministerio de Educación
the Sandinista Defence Committees — are busy gearing many of their activities to the literacy effort. Through the campaign the ¿ government hopes to draw more and more workers into these base groups, turn will help to push forward & iong-term adult education programme for the country In the meantime, as Paulo Freire says, '$20 million won't soive problems of Nicaragua but it can awaken, motivate and mobilise the country, and this is what the crusade really means. Hugo Blanco
speaks at London rally Friday 21 March 7.30pm, Friends House, Euston Rd, NW1 Organised by IMG
typical
poor as
barrio Nicaragu: pavements,
of
raise happen.
members Altagracia.
union
Taboada,
Garcia.
7,000 Altagracia
'In the - provide a useful
IMG branches,
Says Rina: have 10/ years
which in
the economic
'Now we fee
important'
ALTAGRACIA is fairly
of the popular quarters of Managua. Single-
houses are squashed together on narrow streets.
The 50,000 people who live here are not well-off, but not as
some. They want the same improvements for their
as anyone else street lights, a postal service, public telephone and sanitatior in their homes.
And through their network
Sandinista Defence Committees (CDS) base organisations of "people's power' in every neighbourhood - they are mobilising to make it i talk to a groute s
district Among them are Isidro Donaire, a worker with IBM and secretary of his local
branch; 17-year-old student Jose Cornavaca; Rina de
doctor on the barrio's health sub-committee; Gabriel Celis, a broadcasting technician; and the minister of the local Baptist church, Noel
Tunnels
They tell me how 300 out of
died in this part of during the insurrection. Isidro remembers:
Somoza period we organised ourselves into a civil defence committee. During the war we made tunnels from house to house, working secretly to get food and medicines and to send weapons to the Sandinistas.
The women fought alongside the men from the beginning
'Once the National Guard took all our young men from one street, lined them up outside their houses and mowed them down with machine guns. What women could stay at home after that?'
Thirty Altagracia women
joined the newly formed Sandinista police force Many others continue to give the lead as the barrio leaves the dark
behind and attempts to The Erlinda Lopez Women's Centre in Managua. The ind (AMN) has a foothold in 14 regions of the country.
build a very different kind society.
What the struggle has me for people's lives shows in multitude of ways, not least how they see themselves. 'Bef we couldn't express ourselves give an opinion. Now we integrated into society - we t important."
Health
In Isidro's factory, wh trade unions used to be illegal per cent of the workers are n unionised. In Jose's college, students ask questions, critic give their own ideas. Rina, a doctor, nonces lal Dalcils more conscientious about ti children's health and keep their houses clean.
Noel sees the biggest cha in everyone's efforts to responsibility for community. "The lesson we to learn', he says, 'was that can only achieve something organising ourselves.'
Regular after-work rettire of eife in Altagra feature hie in Altagra Here, as in many towns villages throughout Nicara the CDSs have become Sandinistas' power base, put government policies into prac locally and relaying the need the people back to the diffe ministries
Each block elects its five-person CDS, which in chooses someone to represer at district level. Then the se Altagracia districts representatives for the wl barrio who liaise directly government officials.
regala and nati structure of CDSs has yet tr fully worked out. • W developing go alo Isidro explains. •We want to l our government so they will t uis and our hope is to have ( representatives on any fu Council of State.?
Polio
In the space of just months since the insurrect the people of Altagracia hav in motion an impressive nun
PERLIN
Page 9 scan of this page
of changes with the minimum of resources from outside.
¿Poverty and unemployment won't disappear overnight. Medieines and nourishing foods are still very scarce. But a special depot distributes food controlled prices, and children
pregnant women receive extra free rations.
A vaccination campaign is under way fight polio. Doctors give their services free in
LOPEZ"
in of Nicaraguan Women
government-backed centre. restas Taise stock a dispensary, provide beds for the sick, buy books for those learning to read and write.
There's at identification with the
totally neglected.
Somoza's day. Many Altagracia school students are joining the literacy crusade. And brigades of volunteers are standing by to help harvest the coffee, and sugar cane crops needed to tide over the economy during the next critical period. Lukewarm
Co-operation in quarters, the group admits, be lukewarm at times. encountered from those who earned fat salaries or held more than one job under Somoza. them to meetings where we try to discuss why we think everyone should build the revolution.
Noel's church is a frequent, if unlikely venue for meetings. Members congregation fought insurrection and are among the barrio's leading militants. revolution goes with our beliefs'; he says.
While no-one in glosses over problems they have confidence in its future. need all the solidarity we can get. With that, plus the contribution everyone's making, wo.can Consondale our revolution. Nicaragua is going to be great!'
And if old enemies start reforming ranks? *If the direction of the changes in favour bourgeoisie and against interests of the people we will fight again.?
health
10
strong rural
common renis ere
common Nicaragua. 35,000 died in the
CULtUL
revolution and 100,000 were injured. The unusual thing is that there are as many stories about women as men. •About Luisa
certain raped by some of the National
LalI Guard, who
'We've
Sandinistas and died fighting... resistance ...the
young enticed one of Somoza's generals We invite into bedroom
Sandinista soldiers waiting.. ...the: 70-year-old who carried messages in her hair through the Somoza lines to the CDS Sandinistas...
of his In a matter of a few years the
in the
women of moved from "The entrenched playing an unprecedented part in the revolution and forming a Altagracia Nicaragua's fight for their liberation.
'We Cocktails international
During the war those women who didn't join the Sandinista army took up the struggle in their barrios. Through
should Concerned with
Problem: (AMPRONAC) devolution clandestine
the collected medicines and gathered the cocktails and contact bombs.
Today wonien make up 20 to
Freeing women from
domestic slavery
currency
important bodies
Espinoza, and the Committees (CDS). joined the
Foothold
who •Before, where were Sylvis Reyes Espinoza woman Nicaraguan
we're not marginalised.'
The independent Nicaragua have
which position of to of the members
movement fo
peasants,
different age gathering support rural areas the towns. Not all belong Women FSLN, but
the National Sandinistas is stroug.
they militants • like clinics,
Moiotov
30 per cent of the army, police and militia. Women cadres of the PSIN hold leadership posts in
such 8S the rural workers association (ACI), the national institute of agrarian reform (INRA), the Sandinista Workers Confederation (CST),
Sandinista Defence
women didn't participate in the political and economic spheres of life', says
Association of (AMN). "Now we're still dependent but
AMN new women's organgrew out of AMPRONAC and now has an important foothold in 14 regions
Its 25,000 are mainly, but not exclusively, working class ("we're
workers, students, militants and housewives').
They are spread right across • and are rapidly well in the the sapport for the , and FSLN Sylvia Reyes occupy places in the front ranks.
Says the AMN: 'We realise that we will only become fully integrated inte society with equal rights once the revolation
tree
that for that been consolidated. So we are working to build the revolution at the same time as creating the conditions which will enable us to win our liberation.'
SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF NICARAGUA
One-day conference Saturday 29 March, 10am - 6рт University of London Union, Malet St, London WC1 Sponsored by the Labour Party and the Nicaragua Coordinating Committee Delegate's credentials £2 from: Jane Mackintosh, c/o Third World First, 232 Cowley Road, Oxford (tel 0865 45678)
Funds to aid reconstruction in Nicaragua can
be sent to: Account 5014079050, Cooperative
Bank (Ealing branch), London W5 2XL.
•A visit to Managua's AMN headquarters welcomin bustling with activity - reveal something of what these aims mean on a day-to-day level.
Some women are • sorting clothes made by one of their new work collectives, and books and satchels for the literacy campaign. Health volunteers are studying new nutrition leaflets.
meeting IS in progress
how handle education and with prosttules..
Mothers
Co-operation with the government and other mass organisations to alleviate poverty, illiteracy and ill health is seen as fundamental for carrying forward the revolution. But the AMN is clear where its particular priorities lie
"Our main task", says Sylvia Reyes, "is to educate women politically eliminate discrimination in employment and under the law, and to help
child-care centres, laundries and public canteens to
women from domestic slavery.'
The education and care of children, says the AMN, should be the business of the whole society, DOL burden 00 individual mothers. They argue
Nicaragua should work towards building a material base
the collectivisation of
With the ministry of social welfare • headed by a woman, Lea Guido de Lopez — they have already helped to set up several child-care centres in the main towns, and more are planned. Macho
Sylvia Reyes is the first to acknowledge that the castacles Nicaraguan contend with are ideological as •WelE95 The macho mentality is a produet of an oppressive ideology - it won't be overcome right away. But the revolution means change and
change going to happen...'
One siga that change may not be too far away
La recent article in the FSLN daily newspaper, Barricada: "In the society we are building, discri minatory relationships have no place. It is fundamentally women themselves must сягту
struggle forward.. and this struggle...must be supported by all companeros so that we can ideological backwardness, ans victorlous
21 f
Page 10 scan of this page
THE GUARDIAN DISCOVERS IRELAND
LRELAND
Dy Geoff Bell A FEW years age some bright
produced a sticker
Maiming, changed the Guardian from pale pink to bright Orange'.
The Orange in referred to the colour of Northern Irish Loyalism, Guardian had become unrepentant supporter in terms of backing and advocating the link between Britain and Counties. Since most news from the North of Ireland accordingly bad news, little news appeared at all.
Last week the attempted to break from that history. In a special Ulster 80' series a score of articles attempted to contemporary North of Ireland as it really was.
There were limitations, wrong political notions in the series, but it was the first serious attempt by any Fleet Street newspaper to try to explain, describe and come to terms with the North of Ireland for many years.
Dramatic
As such it was difficult to hide the were ty m acceptable face of terrorism and by Hugh Hebert thinking.
Tweedie outlined how the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army were an 'alien occupying force' in the Catholic ghettoes, subsequently the IRA administered social order punishing rapists to running creches. Tweedie accepted that some of the punishments handed out by the IRA to ordinary criminals. were justice, asked 'what options are there when, for whatever tason, official justice bas rejected?' article contained plenty of evidence as Complementing to why the RUC and Army had beent isjected. The •headline told it all;
Why the weary major believes in sclective assassination'.
Lawless
But as well as quoting the lawless views of Army personnel, Hebert also testified to their demoralisation. He argued against giving the Army more
nobody (in the Army) talks about is getting the troops out. The
thing everyone talks about is the end of his tour.'
Most surprising of
Britain:
Abroad:
Name
Address
I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of
*Ds and Money Orders should be made payable to
alist Challenge
has
question
of 'which the an
the Six
was
Guardian
tell
mistakes, Агту
and how has - from
trough other BRITISH s been day of the Hebert's
Enoch and the Paisley. and
allowed to write in a Fleet
Of the
the * emphasised the English nature of the local diet
all, the
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Sers: The question they Guardina's Agenda' page on the first
series gave Sinn Fein president Ruairi O Bradaigh space to air the views of the Provisionals.
John Hume Jan Ulster Defenc even with this balance it was the les Association had similar space, time a leading Provisional has been and
Street
score of others contributed to the series, only one or two sought to pretend that the North of Ireland was just like anywhere else.
article COULON special and un-
The exceptional nature, by British standards, of the North of Ireland, was pointed out most strongly by
When will my tour end!'
Richard Gott:
'Anyone accustomed wandering round the countries of the
World would find little that is unfamiliar. Guerrillas
uspended democracy, armies
tamach on the streets, unthinkable
nour in prisons, questionable questioned frontiers, housiaz; grinding poverty, Inditferent multinationals, vibrant economies in visible decline — these are the essential characteristics of much of the contemporary world.
"The maqueness Northern Ireland is that it lies, not south of the equator but just off the shores of Britain.
Promise
Gott went argue Britain's promise to stay in the North of Ireland as long as the majority of the population wished was 'not worth more and the pater it was vocated Northern Irish independence. tentatively advocated
The 'Guardian's pólitical correspondent, Peter Jenkins; objected to this idea and the other 'fancy notion! of immediate
who much of his time in the Houses of Parbarcat advocated the patching
of some shady deal between Paisiey and Hume.
What Jenkins seems not to realise is that it might be easy enough in Britain for politicians to forget their promises and sell out constituents, but no such easy option exists in the North of Ireland. Because of the obsession with politics, those
who betray tend to get kicked out.
to Leaving
dominant tone of the articles bewilderment seould do. But because tae majoriy and of writers stressed
character of the North of Ireland, the unpression given was squalid it would do Britain no
once was found to
withdrawal.
Milestone
milestone not just appeared, but because it also avoided the usual British clichés. Perhaps that was because it is always easier for a visiting journalst to write the truth about the North when they are no dependent on relations with army and government sources.
of silence which closed in opions and news from the North of Ireland for so long has been well and truls breached. 'solution' began some time ago, but it spends is now gathering pace more quickly
than many imagined.
Guardian scratch bewilderment as to naopen.. next. immediate and unconditional British their withdrawal shines
brightness and clarity possessed by no other option. The arguments are there - all they need now is to be argued.
THE
the
Terrorism Stadents
the
possibility
launch
undertook
initiatives.
step question building Jenkins aside, the was to what Britain
different
that, by and • harm Irelend some good if some way
implement British
strategy
Ent many waot just because i
because teft of the drift to a
пр future, establishing good
But whatever the reason, the wall
Political debate about the
As the liberal bourgeoisie of the
their heads in what should the argument for paign, 25p
with 328
NUS
scabon
PTA
demo
By Mick Archer
decision of the nationa execiatve of the Natlonel Linter of Studentste postpone intelinitely
demonstration that it ha called against the Prevention of
Act (PTA) ta prodaced an immediate response from some of the nations studen! "organisstions.
On the original date of the demonstration on 20 February representatives of the Socialis
• Alliance, the 'Socialisi Worker Student Organisation and
National Organisation: of Labor Students met to discuss the
of organising action the PTA dently of the executive.
Campaign
End Campaign' in the • NUS. Tr representative of NOLS
to report on the meeting to the NOLS nationa leadership so that it could consider whether or not to support specifk
This decision is
• fors of raids just before
This will be the first step in
for national demonstration in the summer term preceded by a joint speaking tour. Overturn
This initiative is also because it challen jebt of • Unity in sctio
NUS plays a central
THE OTHER BOOKSHOP
Black Youth, Rastafarianism, and the Identity Crisis in Britain, by Len Garrison • ACER Project Publications, £1.50
Black Jamaicans' Struggle Agains Slavery, by Richard Hart — Community Education Trust, 95p
Abortion: Our Straggle for Com trol, by National Abortion Cam-
: Upper Street, London NE
2X0 (tel. 01-226 0571)
Page 11 scan of this page
this week. lan
Muzorewa, backed
of the liberation
(ZAPU),
Joshua Nkomo.
THE
LIBERATION
MOVEMENT
TODAY the liberation consists of the wings Patriotic Front, ZAPU and ZANU. ZAPU, formed in 1999 out of several lack Nkomo,
nationalist groupings that were based mainly on intellectuals and middle class layers.
ZANU was formed in 1963 out of a split from ZAPU led by Sithole, Mugabe and Zuobogo.
ZAPU it was beaned and many of its leading cadre were jailed.
The split was primarily due to distrust in Nkomo's following the major made at the 1961 Constitutional Conference. membership of the party forced him to withdraw these concessions. It was also due to his failure to pursue an adequate guerilla war policy.
Although ZAPU is essentially a cross tribal party, and has been from its beginnings, the vast majority of its membership is matabele, west of Zimbabwe, Shona (the largest tribal group) are also members.
ZANU, originally based in the
'alisbury has
hona leadership and membership However, •al a recent Bulawayo (an almost exclusively Matabele city) Mugabe attracted about 30,000 people. ethnic divisions, tribalism fias been a negligible factor so far.
ZAPU has been called 'Moscow oriented'; it has received arms training from the USSR, Germany and so on, but Moscow's influence should not be exaggerated. Its programme is essentially bourgeois democratic, with a very vague policy on the crucial land question (50 per cent of the land is owned by the small white minority).
Under the Lancaster Agreement the large white farms and
multinational agri-business not be touched. ZAPU policy is to appropriate only unused and underused white land.
ZANU has recently cooled its historical links with Peking, and has actively sought alliances and aid from the Moscow camp, especially Cuba. Nevertheless, a Maoist-type ideology. is dominant among its political cadre. ZANU pays more attention land question: than although proposals redistribution are rather vague.
ZANU's programme has always played second fiddle to. its tactics, which it has pursued more consistently than ZAPU.
INTERNATIONAL
On the eve of the elections:
Who's who in
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is scheduled to go to the polls
Smith and Bishop by the British Governor Lord Soames, face the parties
movement, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union
led by Robert Mugabe and
Because the British government and the multinational interests have a big stake in the outcome of these elections, the British media, owned by these same
FOR BLACK SEATS
of the Along with
TOTAL! cessions be Estimated Lancaster House Thẹ Seats from the although many electors.
essentially
rally main parties -
Despite these Council).
ZANU(PE). and East House In UNIO
will Мигогетя, has prop of the Smith regime.
campaign
was only opposition.
support until ZAPU/ZANU was lifted, ZAPU for large-scale
guerilla dramatically, aegligible ZAPU/ZANU.
Robert Mugabe.
hangs in the balance.
represent?
CONSTITUENCY
BREAKDOWN West 311,000
North 360,000 10
MATADELELAND
South 196,000 2,883,000 80
ECTIONS POSLISHED BY BRAISE ELECION COMMISS
THE VOTE
THERE are about 0.25m whites in Zimbabwe and 6.8m blacks. Of the
100 seats in the new parliament 20 are 'white reserved'. The remaining 80
seats will be divided into 8 electoral districts with an estimated 2.8m
There is no voters roll, so there will be ample opportunity for
electoral fraud by the authorities.
Altbough there are several parties standing in the election, the
overmhelming majority of the 80 seats will be divided between the three
Patriotic Front) and Mazorewa's UANC (United African National
This electoral system means that a black party or coalition must win
51 out of 80 sents to have a majority. The only party capable of tbis is
A coalition with ZAPU would certainly result in a large majority -
which is why Britain is attempting to deepen the rift between the tiro
wings of the liberation movement.
THE COLLABORATORS
African National Council (UANC), led by Bishop
become the It wa ormed in 1972 as a 'front' for th banned ZAPU/ZANU partles in the
against government's Pearce Cormission. It
legal focus for
VANC commanded considerable
the ban and the imprisoned cadre released in 1975. with Sifth in tze fraudi fellahtersed Muzorews collaborated settlement', support for UANC has
and • IS now compared However, it has a
interests, has presented a false picture of the issues involved. Behind the mask of impartiality, Britain has been trying to tip the scales against ZANU and its leader
The elections by themselves won't resolve the problems of the masses of Zimbabwe, and the ceasefire itself still
What do the different forces really
Socialist Challenge presents a short guide to the elections.
Contral · 211,000
MASHONALAND East 568,000 16
MANICALAND MIDLANDS 418,000 421,000 12
VICTORIA: 391,000 ZANU (Patriotic Front), ZAPU (standing as the
well-oiled and well beeled apparatas financed by South African money.
Chronology
1888 declared British spheres of influence. 1890 Charter to colonise 1898 and Ndebele tribes are finally subdued. 1953
Federation. 1961 Salisbury to contain the situation.
1963
The here
1965
1966
1968
before 1999. 1969 apartheid society. 1973 liberation movements.
Nkomo under the Lusaka Agreement. 1975 negotiate a settlement. 1976
1977
the rotation of ' 1978
Suithin estrench whitt soprem
1979
Cecil Rhodes secures a concession from Lobengula granting
exclusive mineral rights in Matabeleland and Mashonaland soon after they are
Rhodes British South Africa Company secures a Britis and promote commerce Mashonaland. In the same year the BSAC occupies Mashonaland.
After several years of fierce resistance to the BSAC, the Shopa
Southern Rhodesia enters the Central African Federation with
two British Protectorates, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Nyasaland
(now Malawi), despite black African objections to white domination of the
The rising tide of African nationalism throughout the continent spells out doom for the Federation. A constitutional conference is convened in
(Constitution) Bill despite African opposition. Joshua Nkomo rejects the proposals as 'an evi attempt by the Southern Rhodesian and British governments to cntrench settler minority rule'.
Victoria Falls Conference
independence of Zambia and Malawi. The conference also agrees that the
armed forces of the Federation should be inherited by Southern Rhodesia. The
United Nations Security Council votes unanimously against the transfer of the Federation's forces, thus compelling Britain to resort to use of the veto..
Against a background of increasing political repression (ZAPU and its predecessors had all been banned) and a marked swing to the right in white politics, the UN calls upon the new Labour Government in Britain to stop the impending dections in Rhodesia and 'negotiate new constitutional provisions acceptable to the majority of people of Rhodesia', Britain abstains.
On Il November the Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith, declares Rhodesia to be an independent nation. Britain immediately suspends Smith and his ministers from office, and the UN Security Council approves a resolution calling for international voluntary sanctions against Rhodesia.
Smith and Wilson meet on board HMS Tiger. Despite major concessions - Wilson states quite clearly after the negotiations have broken down that he was not aiming to bring about majority rule - Smith rejects the proposali fo bring Rhodesia back to legality. Subsequently tbe UN Security Council votes for mandatory selective sanctions.
The UN imposes comprehensive mandatory sanctions against Rhodesia, a full thirty months after UDI. Until this point, Britain had adamantly refused to back such measures for fear of precipitating the collapse of the regime. Wilson's stated aim was to negotiate a compromise; proposals at the talks on HMS Feariess would have meant no majority rule
The Smith regime introduces a new constitution based. on separate racial developinent: it institutionalises Rhodesia's progress towards an
The Labour Party conference votes to support the Zimbabwean
1974 The victories of the liberation forces in Mozambique and
Angola over Portuguese colonialison tilt the balance of power significantly in favour of the Zimbabwean nationalists. These 'new realities', as Callaghan calls them, lead to the release of nationalist leaders Mugabe, Sithole and
Nkomo and Smith announce a 'declaration of intent' to
Mozambique closes its border with Rhodesia as the guerilla wrar intensifies. In October Nkomo and Mugabe join forces to form the Patrioxic Front at the Geneva Conference. The PF receives the support of the front ta states and the Organisation of African Unity.
Smith's forces make frequent raids into Za Smith rejects the Angdo-America with Muzorma godly beacd on majorit confidence
and frustrate the 'settlement' is immediardly condemned by the Patriotic Froet, the front-i states and the OAU, and later by Britain, the EEC, and the UN. In Septeaber, the Bingham Report reveals that the British government knew of Shell and BP's sanctions busting operations as carly as 1968-9.
Rhodesia's 'internal clections' take place in April against a background of full-scale mobilization by all reservists, 85 per cent of the country under martial law, and South African logistic support. Independen observers report mass intimidation of voters by the regime. The 'elections' and the 'government of national unity' that result are condemned internationally — with the exception of South Africa - and the Muzorewa/Smith coalition remains unrecognised. In August, the Commonwealth Conference formutates a 'nine-point peace plan' which leads to the Lancaster House talks.
Socialst Challenge
in Matabeleland an Britain enacts the Southern Rhodesia
paves the way for the his The : 21 February 1980 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
By Steve Potter
(In part one of this article we explained that a civil war was inevitable in Afganistan after radical WaTe.
Peoples Democratic Party came to power in April (978.)
THE AID given to the rightist guerillas fighting the reforms steeply increased in 1979. Egypi Saadi Arabiz and Pakistan acted for the United
tates. bolstering:
tially revolationary might spark off. ation, combined with the faction
le danger of the PDPA being toppled actionary 'Islamic' governrent coming to gi
Moścow. decided to commit itself more deeply. • ILOL prepared construction of an imperialist staging post on one of its most sensitive borders a state which might appeal to the aspirations for religious and Islamic minorities in the Soviet Union.
Troops
Starting on 24 December, tens of thousands of soviel troops bOHeR HOD Hafizullah Amin, the premier, was liquidated a few days later. Babrak Karmal, the leader of an opposing faction in the PDPA, was appointed in his place. disaster. Its motive was not any desire to expo rt From the beginning the invasion revolution but, on the contrary, to stabilise a country in the throes of civil war by enforcing a pro-capitalist goverment friendly to the Soviet Union in its there was a direct threat to the Soviet Union it could have been
of f otos workers and peasants in favour of the reforms
smash the conservativei landowners, tribal chiefs and mullahs in the countryside. The Soviet provided both the encouragement matériàl aid necessary to sustain the PDPA in that period counter imperialist support for the guerillas.
But that is not the method of the Soviet
Revolutonar. threatens their position. They prefer military and repressive methods in order to keep all developments under their control.
Cynicism
The justification for their Afganistan plumbed the depths of cynicism. They claimed that they had been invited in by Amin the man they had proceeded to liquidate. Such methods and such justifications milroduccu massive conrusions n lne malas or workers: everywhere. demonstration of the fact that the inasion had been conducted with little or no thought for the interests and feelings of internationaily, let alone the natonal feelings of the Afghan people.
The imperialists used the negative impact of
WHAT'S LEFT
Abortion:
ur stru
for contol
LOOK WHOS
CHOOSING
FOR US!
New pamphlet from the National Abortion Сатраіда, 25р пон clading postal ,from AC, 374, Grays Inn Ri Londor WC1.
11 F
INTERNATIONAL
Dursued the government that
opposition to dynamic thai This sec the
- particularly
cultural freedom of the aeomanic relabons. I macco
countered by the mobilisations of
• •][
Union could have and the
including military aid to help
åctiyly action in
was clear
the working class ist Sp * mard; New Theatre, on 3 March, 7.15pm.
SOCIALIST
CHALLENGE
EVENTS
Á Russian soldier stands güard over the Kabul highway
the Soviet action skifülly. Since arriving in the
vied to rese sertte dt at sheredy she
tried to everserthe défeat suffered"
American ruling class iri Vietnam. The aim was
and internationally for new US interventions
against such revolutionary developments
those in Iran and Nicaragua.
At the same time, in a stealthy way, the US
military establishment started to build up the necessary technical prerequisites to resume its
role as world cop. Massive increases in arms spending, the formation of a rapid deployment
force, the siting of medium range missiles in
Europe, letting thè CIA off the leash, and the
statement of the Carter doctrine (that the USA
would intervene militarily to defend its interests
in the Persian Gulf) were all part of a package
devoted to this end.
None of these measures were occasioned by
the Soviet invasion. All were well underway
sea mplay. it a colulsn
Span Friday belore pablcatton. All
se roma UKPC. S Caledonian Ra, London NI. ermenil Leeure al th onir che or eo se
E SESE
Ie side it care-tor
THE CONFLICT IN AFGHANISTAN
Part 2: The Soviet
: Union intervenes
cannot exicla invasion,
gerillas interests Afganistan.
avnilable from Fourth Idea ay lam- Ipm. Th Upa s al aper tet wat tube. Heb Hul Brish Rit and Tratic Bolk Loc, scro WINDON: SC on sale I!-l every Sai., Regent St (Brunel Centre). ente and on Ciskorp Rad, Mideiro ch ata Greens Bokstall, upstairs in Spencer Market, Stocktor
orni Ai Sirsa. for o e idarai a bo lice
Middleon Roa
very Sat Moraing at 1!
Trades Hall, Willesch
beforehand, apart from the reintroduction of the first steps towards conscription. fact that Carter could make electoral mileage out of these preparations showed the extent to o {illıl A alM Union had repelled working class opinion in the United States and internationally.
This imperialist war-drive has to be exposed and fought by all socialists. That is why we
Many . support the since the methods of the bureaucrats have made the task of blocking the imperialist war drive more difficult, not less.
But while the Soviet bureaucracy would not hesitate to crush any revolutionary movement which threatened the doctrine of peaceful coexistence with the imperialists, their support for the Afglian army's fight to crush the rightist
temporarily cincides with of the workers. and peasants General Strike, Abortion.
Socialist advance for decade prolonged stay of Soviet troop: counter-revolution.
Portuguese:
the She oburenpr nich the
The contempt
attitude of the
sation of Afganistan.
Third camp
Instead, against the enemies
ting a defeat on those forces
But the drive.
LOruCEl support for the siting hilte.bln
Soviet Soviet
Thatcher.
Afghan, revolutio.
the
Of by the imperialists campaien.
REVOLUTIOS
ORA UNITED REVOLU!
FOR A
GENERAL
-STRIKE
The latest issue of Revolution has features on Afghanistan, the Otympicx, the Order coples iow frem Revolution PO Box 50, Londos NI.
The retreat of Soviet troops under these circumstances would not be a victory for the
elf-determination of the Afgan people. O
he contrary, it woul leave the field open fo the establishment of a reactionary regime which would halt the proces of reform, liquidate the
tiny left, and set back the prospects for an Counter - revolution
The Italian and Spanish Communist parties have fallen in behind their governments and ruling classes in demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops. And of course these parties in no way call for an independent revolutionary path
r the workers and peasants of Afghanist
iey argue that the establishment of a righ regime in Kabul would be better than the
essentially calling for the victory of the imperialist-backer
Other Communist parties — the French an
in particular have give uncritical support to the Soviet bureaucracy, in line with their general support for the methods of Stalinism. In the event of workers and peasants who support the April 1978 reforms coming into conflict with the Soviet troops, these parties will have no hesitation in backing
imperialists themselves have for the democratic rights of the Afghan people has been made manifest by the
European Economic Community. The EEC's first action after condemning the Soviet invasion was to suspend all food aid to Afganistan. This was followed by the advancement of a plan for the neutrali-
Hence socialists cannot take a position of neutrality in the war in Afganistan, or wish for a third new revolutionary camp opposing both the imperialist-backed gerillas and the Soviet bureaucrats — for no sucli camp exists.
insofar as the Red Army is ranged of the Afganistan 'revolution, we shouid be in favour of it inflic-
But our major task must be to start the process of throwing back the imperialist war-
That means demanding that measures ike the suspension of grain supplies to th USSR and of EEC food aid to Afganistan al ended; that the arms policy of the British
and in particular hatchet's of Cruise missiles in - Is opposed. 'The naval base of Dieg Garcia which has been offered to the US Nav for operations in the Indian Ocean should be handed back to its original occupants and the British military presence there terminated; we should oppose the campaign to boycott the Moscow Olympics initiated by Carter and
In this way we can begin to prepare the conditions where not only the fate of the
put into more favourable context, but also we can defend the gains of other revolutions which are threatened
Page 13 scan of this page
IMG Conference decides-
Invest in the future - kick out the Tories
By Redmond O'Neill and Valerie Coultas BUILDING the revolutionary party in the 1980s was the theme running through ail of the : discussions at International Marxist Group's *ational conference held on 16-19 February in London. The point was horne by the large number of youth delegates and observers. Their enthusiasm about launching the youth Rèvolution in May towered over eyery other debate.
The political framework for all the debates was that the class struggle in Britain and the world is very definitely on the rise. Despite political setbacks under Labour, the decisive struggles are yet to.come. Possibilities
The IMG's discussions therefore centred on capable of grasping the possibilities build a
opened up by the deepest capitalism since the end of World War Twe.
The first session of conference dealt with what kind of a party needs to be built today. Many Marxists have enthe themselves to the economism of the British labour movement maintained their purity at the expense of building a party rooted in the working class.
The IMG conference voted in favour of building a party. avoided this Hobson's revolutionary party in Britain must be proletarian in composition and take
all aspocts of oppression exp loitation both at
The large majority (78,3 per cent) in favour of taking special measures
win solid
manual working class consta becaus the
that
verall plan to buikd a revolutionary internationalist party would reduce the work ING workplace, but one that took politics IsSUeS "raised.
and campaigns into the neart of the British labour movement.
The IMG will fight to build a party that places at the forefront of its work issues where many British socialists.
weakest crialism, women's liberation and.
lack liberation, for exampie. The vote for the strategy document put forward in this session was 71.3 per cent in favour.
Tactics
The second session of conference
With the precise tactics the IMG should adopt over the comins period. Four different tactics documents were put for ward and course • of the three conference discussion (for details see
ints Chall cage, 24 January 1980).
common theme discussion was the need to build the broadest possible united
STEEL workers, miners, anti-Corrie
campaigners, youth have shown their
is to fight the policies of this
strong: revolutionary ased in the
power in britain, can offer a socialist
alternațive to thous
are discontented with their trade. id labour kaders and see the
IMG intends to build such a
SURPLUS VALUE
the
hammered
organisation
British adapted which choice. the abortion movement.
Everyone and home and
inside the this Tory government. Crucial was part of an
- a plan that crucial
of the Movement that militant trade consistent basis betrayals of the bureaucracy.
Delegates
fought for at the present time. anti-
organisation
work with
possible.
Tendency
and the CP. discussed in the
month pre
this
action
Send us a fiver to fight the Tories
your support.
Our thanks this week to: party, Sharon centres of industrial •Outer West London
E Mahood D Ballard J Reitze Islington IMG dical solution to the ills Oxford IMG
SELondon IMG
to the youth,
industry and
against the Tories in the steel strike, in
campaigns; in the pro-
aiso saw the vital importance of taking up the debates Jobs. in the Labour Party and encouraging Socialist Challenge supporters to turn those debates outwards to be part of a mass movement that can overthrow
project • also identified in the unions as building a class struggle current, a new Minority
would organise unionists on .to challenge the
had different views about how this objective could be
Tendency I stressed the necessity of building a national cross-sectoral
those • trade unionists prepared to fight the Tories Within this framework it argued for
the Rank: and File groupings within the unions wherever
2 argued against prioritising Rank & Fue and stressed the importance of fighting for a 'third way' in the unions between the SWP
Far left regroupment, particularly with the Socialist Workers Party, was not seen as a top priority by this grouping given developments in the Labour Party and the trade unions.
Tendency 3 thought that united action between the Labour Party and
party. But to do this we need your
energy and your
£15.00 5:00 15.00 :40 1:00 5.00 15:00 5.00 5.00
revolutionary unity
the trade unions was key to defeating the Tories and opposed the idea sending a large of members into industrial and manual four grating of i comrades frome Delegates supported the
outgoing Central Committee urged a turn away from fighting for regroupment on the far left; the IMG should instead concentrate attention on the Labour Party and 'getting a majority of members into industry':
grouping which won the greatest support among the delegates was Tendency 1 which argued for a three-pronged. approach 9. building — turning to the industrial and manual working class, building the revolutionary youth organisation, and fighting for far left regroupment
particularly with the revolutionary organisation in Britain the Socialist Workers Party.
Majority
Tendency 1 gained 50 per cent of the vote and was given a majority on the Central Committee. Tendency 2 had 28.3 per cent; Tendency 3 14.1 percent; and the fourth grouping had 6.6 per cent of the total votes.
The whole conference inspired by the debate on Revolution. The large number of youth delegates and their political confidence debate showed that Revolution a whole new generation of young leaders are being Marxism.
T Kemp •Camden IMG Heme IMG A Chesterton A Jones p&p Jackson Апоп G Stewart Lambeth IMG WNg
Cardiff IMG
Weekly Total
Young women, encouraged by the
of success of Revolution supporters in IMG mobilising young people against John
Corrie's anti-abortion dominated the debate.
IMG members were asked to pull out all the stops to get youth to attend the May conference that will launch Revolution national organisation, all, its controlled by youth themselves.
Emphasis
Delegates discussed not Revolution should at this stag put major resources into work in the party LPYS. This was rejected as an overal
emphasis given the domination of the Militant group in that area:
The result of this discussion was $5.5 cent for largest Committee document, which argued
for united action with the LPYS, but building Revolution independent fighting for its founding conference to express political solidarity with the IMG and the Fourth International. The conference rejected the view put by some delegates that Revolution should play down its attempts to win Rebel tbe oroganisation)
Youth League (the youth group of the Workers Socialist
was project of building
revolutionary youth organisation. The last
in conference, on black liberation, also through pointed to a new and fresh approach
to party building. Delegates explained the vital importance of building a black movement
7.50 20.00 20.00 10.00 Total so far
1.50 10.00
:5.00 105.00
:5.50
as Total so far
workers.
This overwhelming delegates favour.
Messages
the Fourth
SWP
also
fusion.
hardly comrades Bill,
an independent
run and
whether or
WC1.
the Central
out an organisation and expressed their
. dissoluțion
it H
SWs school students and the *Socialist
about.
(League) to
•united
discussion the turn
revolutionary
in Britain,
Fund Drive Target
Sales Drive Target
independent of the state and black people themscives, if ra to be confronted among
Asian workers and Asian were noted as being among the militant and politicised sections of tu labour movement today.
document receive support of -95.5 per cent voi
Solidarity
• of solidarity delivered to the conferenot fr Dutch, French and Irish sect
International an from its cothinkers in the An
Pete Goodwin, of the British SNT
spoke to the delegates. contribution made it clear that die SWP is reluctant to receive the INCi advances, and that their minds : have to be changed on the queste
Pete Goodwin raised partic objections to the IMG's 'federa of tendencies'. But such an objection
stands up when all who had orga themselves to fight for their partica
IMG School
Students, Youth
and the Struggle
for Socialism
Discussions on: *The revolu tionary youth organisation *The prosent crisis "Women's Liberation *Black Liberatisa *The revolutionary party. The revolutionary intermational Open to all members of the IMG and guests.
Saturday/Sunday, 18/16 MeNd The University of London Union, Malet Street, London
Registration: £1.50
orientation for the IMG agreed to ta
and build the IMG artet . conference along the line decided and
"desire for the carly of their tendencics.
The IMG persists in its belief that necessary to have out the arguments fully before the conference and then unite in action to test the
decisions taken at the conference in the class struggle itself/ we think this is what Leninist democracy 1s
From this conference the IMG will a outwards, build youth organisation,
centre its work in the industrial and
manual unions, and launch a public
campaign to unite the forces of the IMG with those of the SWP.
$2,500
81,759
5,000
4,500
Icy 1900 Page tl
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS 328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON NI
A lesson to
champion
IT MAY be difficult for those working on the paper in London to believe it, but over 1,000 (one thousand) people plodded through the snowy streets of Newcastle on 2 February to protest Corrie's Bill. Not 100 as your caption to my photo said.
What's more, the demo received front page coverage in both Newcastle and Sunderland evening papers that eyening and coverage on two local radio stations.
The rally following the meeting was addressed by representatives of the Northern TUC, NUPE, the NAC steering committee, as well as Sunderland's MP, Gordon Bagier. It raised more than £150. Lessons like this should be championed! JOHN LASZIO, West London Sorry about that. We did know it was 1,000 not 100 uncorrected misprint. More detente, and, of course,
to Moscow. these nations. the West. Trotsky THERE might have been some excuse for Trotsky, in 1940, believing that the property relations established by an advancing Red Army would be 'in and of themselves progessive', but there is
- i was un
the
oligarchy...
Chile left. anywhere else. we're on.
Union. But lives.
21 Febraary 1980 Page 14
I'M SITTING, MAMTY OFFICE DUL DAY WHEN THIS GUY
WHY DOES SE ETIES COMI STRIP? democratisation
Ted.
Russian troops.
side of the
MISS
UTIC OF socialisin.
Lanka underneath it possible.
asserts, use. free Europe other week in political union.
MELL, SOMETIMES I
THE DEADLINE...
EVERY SO OFTEN,
CE SOMETHING PHAT
QUITE IN LINE WITH
THE
RE ALLY!
SUCH AS? 'For a Bomb-
downfall?' (Ibid) taken NW11
Europe
time
today.
• he relations. how
don't have:
Kabul?
N16
Page 15 scan of this page
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Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge THREAT OF WHITE COUPIF MUGABE WINS
By John Hunt THE BLACK people Zimbabwe have been fighting a Chimurenga - a war of national liberation — against the whites who occupied their country and have kept them in virtual slavery.
The first Chimurenga was in 1896, shortly after British imperialism had conquered the country, and it. so happens that the British general who crushed the uprising was Carrington.
A contemporary noted: 'It is in his * physical accomplishments Carrington principaily shines, and in
them his mentat LET. development is very small.
This time imperialism stands to be defeated in Zimbabwe, Carrington who is the chief enemy off the black people today s- in the shap of Lord Carrington, • thẹ foreign secretary skilful opponent than his namesake. Settlement
Zimbabweans are presently goug to the polis, under Carrington persuaded the nationalist fighters to agree to in the Lancaster House settlement.
Carrington's intentions were plain enough. He wanted to head off the revolutionary implications of the war in Zimbabwe.
The days of the Muzorewa regime were numbered, and the increasing radicalisation of the militarts could have led formation of a government prepared
expropriate British
Hence the plan for a Britishorganised election. There is no doubt that the Lancaster House settlement represents a considerable setback for the Zimbabwe people.
The elections are being 'observed" by armed British and Rhodesian racist troops. A fifth of the seats in the new parliament have been reserved whites, and these have already been won by lan Smith's Rhodesian Front.
Fraud
The election is largely conducted by the existing civil service of the racist state. There is no voters' roll, so there is a strong possibility of fraud by the Muzorewa regime.
While the Rhodesian army police are fully mobilised and able to
Help!
YOU • know that
experience when you
search around to find a scrap of
paper when you want to note
something down.
That's been us for the past
week. We've run out of the paper
supplies donated by readers.
kind of paper will do, so long as
blank side.
thanks.
called
that
but the
British is a far more
which rationalist
to s Ine
economic
ZANU contingent on
points, under
450 British police officers experienced at for people -The British
the campaign of one of the standing in the election: ZANU.
being LArU In Ine members
the whites. been Soames main target. and ne governor Rhodesian army
annoying have to атту. Elite
Any
Many
their way to plant a bomb.
TROOPS
OUT OF
DOWN WITH
GRA
roam the country at will, the Patriotic Front guerilles remain at assembly
the supervision of British troops: And just to help out
well dealing with black have been sent over. governor, Lord banainy Spames, has done his best so disrupt
Since it played a greater role than
military struggle, would not so easily be persuaded to accept a neo-colonial solution which serves the interests of
That's why ZANU has Soames has allowed the LO. kill ZANU guerillas who have refused to go to the assembly points. He has not lifted a finger to stop the shooting and bomb attacks on ZANU leaders, which are almost certainly the work of the racist
A car which blew up prematurely in Salisbury earlier this month carried his two members of the Selous Scouts, the elite of the Rhodesian army, on
Last Sunday two people were
er. Pablialied by Relgocrest L
BReTS
HAVE A RIGHT
VO last Saturday's mass picket of the Foreign Office to. killed when they planted a bomb in the offices of the Mambo Press in
The production manager, a Catholic missionery, said it WAR IOSI probably the work of the Rhodesian security forces.
Meanwhile
tor ? ZANU's traditional slogan Forward berk the Paraberi Chimurenga war of national liberation'
Even one of the British election supervisors, responsible Mount Darwin area has said that
IS LyIng when the claimed that ZANU is carrying out intimidation in that area. And the Daily Telegraph reporter, no friend of the nationalist forces, said that none of the main political parties has been prevented from campaigning in the are The imperialists hope principally
with coalition government dominated by Nkomo's ZAPU. Nkomo has links with the multi-national Lonrho and has shown
willingness to go along with Soames plans.
But Robert Mugabe's ZANU is likely to poll the largest vote, and although Mutabe has stated that his
SOUTH AFRICAN
TROOPS
party. •BOI Land store, the whites are or y lared at the prospect of a ZANU gOV erument.
Whatever the doction, the blac demandie the chetice of their urban basic needs. tonwards massive social struggles and civil
the
latter ge, 328/9 Upper S1, London NI. P
SOAMES
plan any
dion of industry and mould
while farmers for any
outcom of the
The drift of events is British Zimbatore,
Debate: 'The Crisis and
the Future of the Left'
Speakers: Tony Benn, Paul Foot, Audrey Wise,
Stuart Holland, Hilary Wainwright, Tariq Ali Monday 17 March, 7.30pm
Central Hall, Waminster, London SWI
For tickets send £1 plus s.a.e. to:
Socialist Challenge (Debate), 328 Upper Street, London N1.
East Ead foftset] Ltd. PD Box 82, London Ez.
D TAKE
INSIBILM
It is British imperialism which built the racist state in Zimbabwe. It exploited and massacred Zimbabwe's people. And it is now attempting by any means possible to maintai
*Who's who in the elections, and
imperialism's record in
← Socialist Challenge No. 135, 21 February 1980Socialist Challenge No. 137, 6 March 1980 →