Socialist Challenge No. 144, 24 April 1980
The scan: sc-n144-apr-24-1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge HANDS OFF IRAN
BETRAYAL!
JIMMY CARTER - self styled champion of human rights — is on the verge of launching a military attack on the people of Iran.
That is clear not just from Carter's talk, that the US cannot 'sit still' for 'very much longer', but also from the war preparations Carter is known to have made. For example, the US army is appealing for helicopter pilots changing the colour of its taeks from jungle Vietnam experience green to desert brown.
What lies behind these war moves? Western propaganda would have us believe it's all to do with securing the safety of the US diplomats and military personnel held captive in the US embassy in Tehran.
But all the experts agree that any military adventures the US would launch in Iran would put the embassy personnel at greater risk.
There is no way the US could stage some James Bond type operation and whisk the nostages to sarely.
On the contrary, the first US soldier to land in Iran, or the first mine to be dropped in Iranian waters could provoke the students holding the hostages' into killing their captives as a reprisal.
And if it was the hostages Carter was worried about then all he had to do, the very first day the embassy was captured was to have returned the tyrant Shah to face the justice of
the people he so cruelly ruled.
What really motivates Carter and his West European allies who are backing him is the anger at the determination of the Iranian people not to kotow to US imperialism.
The kicking out of the Shah was the greatest blow US imperialism has suffered since its defeat in Vitorn. tie a defeat other countries in the 'third world' are taking note of.
The US is frantic to try and impose its authority on nations and peoples it sees slipping
from its grasp. "Teaching Iran a lesson' is seen as one way of doing this.
Carter has also his own, shoddy reasons for pointing the might of US weaponry , in the direction of Iran — he hopes it could win him re-election as president. Apparently there are votes in bombs. Such are the glories of western democracy.
Whatever differences Socialist Challenge may have with the Iranian Government, and these are many, we have no hesitation in taking
workers fight. workers were sold out.
No.144 24 April 1980 20p the side of the ranian people against US imperialism and its backers in the Tory and Labour Party leaderships in this country.
After all the 50 hostages are comparatively well. They have not been tortured or executed The same cannot be said for the tens of thousands who passed through the torture chambers and death camps when the old rulers of Iran were doing what the US told them to.
Leyland workers against the 92-page 'slaves charter' being introduced by BL management. Last week 18,000 BL workers came out on strike, determined to throw back the offensive which has been waged against them by Edwardes for 18 months.
The strike started not on the initiative of the union leaders, but as a result of the lead given by the most militant factories. But then it was all thrown away. Transport union leader Moss Evans stabbed them in the back, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
BL threatened to sack all the striking workers. But there was never any chance that this threat would be carried through. This threat was just a last desperate gamble by Edwardes. If his bluff has been called, it would have opened a new chapter in the Leyland
When jobs are lost at Leyland, working conditions worsened, wages reduced and stewards victimised, let no one doubt who is responsible - Moss Evans, who ensured a famous victory was turned into a bitter defeat. Read pages 3 and 4 on how the Leyland
Page 2 scan of this page
IMG £6000 emergency fund drive
Abortion: sexual freedom is a class issue
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders
of the Labour Party and the trade
unions offer solutions that are in the interests not of iht
but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the iwo vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class
struggie lenuencies in opposition to class-collaborationism in the labour movement. be non-exciusive
grouping together militants hold ing a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the creation unified democratic revolutionary socialist
application united begin 1o pe seen as alternative by thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle seeks in unite the fight of workers ayaltist the with that of other oppressed layers of society - women, black people, leration. This sociatism can heir struggling be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
than what exists in Britain today, with full rights for political parties and currents that do not take up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models of socialisit it Eastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout We are opposed to them ar orier rul "upport in all those fighting for socialist democracy.
The interests of workers and capitaiists are irreconcilable on a world scale. C'apitalism created market. has created polities. Thus we fight for working
an scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustaina merican and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding lIC immediate withdrawal British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither the 'Eurocommunist' the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningful strategy for overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionary socialist parties are necessary before. today more favourabie than over the preceding three decades. But such parties can only be built rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and tendencies.
If you agree with these principles and involveal activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in tour area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
•I am interested in information ahout activities in my
• I would like additional literature and enclose 50p to cover costs. (Melete if not applicable)
ame.... ocialist Challenge 24 April 1980
workers
cent steel strike.
South
helped steelworkers bulletins.
file strike committee.
These should character,
and
through
front an By Valerie Coultas of
socialism women's
bosses ting men's ideas and power.
their
movement had ignored women.
(childcare,
and
world.
world
world
international
Africa
always rejected any nor
plannea
than ever
more
labour mevement
have to views. This is what the
Pare 2
HOMENEWS
THE IMG put everything it had into the re-
We had organisers permanently in the field, based in the vital areas of
Yorkshire and South Wales. get out rank and file We played a key role in helping steel workers organise the national rank and
In Llanwern, a week after the strike ended, 22 steel workers attended a meeting of Steel Sheet — a rank and file strike bulletin associated initially with the IMG. Members
Last week Jan Parker argued in this column that while pressurising and working with the labour movement has proved a correct tactic in the abortion movement,
autonomy within the campaign is central to confron-
To back up her argument she pointed out how it was women that forced the issue on the trade unions and that historically the trade union
No-one can disagree with the view that despite massive steps forward on the issues that have concerned women since the beginning of this century
maternity leave, equal pay, abortion), the trade union movement still holds the traditional views of a woman's role as wife and mother first and trade union activist second.
The question that Jan raised is how do
issue. Jan hints at this when she says: •We are fighting for choice and the fight for abortion rights is essentially
Reyolutionaries do not view the for instance, Alan Fisher who told the National Abortion Campaign trade union conference in November 1978 that 'as long as women have responsibility for childcare then they should decide whether and when not to have
because women should have the right
linked to a challenge to this traditional view of women and must be placed in the context of creating a women's needs and freedoms first and makes society as a whole responsible for childcare and domestic work.
When Jan says that it is only the economic argument in the abortion campaign (rich women can always afford abortions, poor women cannot that makes abortion a class issue she is wrong. The fight for sexual freedom for women is part of the class struggle itself. The working class has every interest in promoting the cause of the oppressed in order to strengthen its fight to overthrow the rule of capital.
workers — particularly male workers
view things like Because of the nuclear family, they,
domestic servants and sexual playmates rather than trade the last year
among women will reaffirm such at-
realise that women's concerns are central, women
organise to confront these women's liberation movement has done over
and down the country.
We Workers Group
at Fords Dagenham. Abortion: opinion column
you like for some extra bit of frippery.'
Grossenheim. Published in 'Around Workers Europe' by
Alexander Kollontai (1912).
Campaign to protest at John Corrie's restrictive bill.
the last decade and what the Campaign Against Corrie has built on over
We know that we cannot wait for men to take up our needs as women so we organise now as women to push them into taking action. The TUC demonstration last October proved this can be done.
But we must be clear about what we mean by autonomy and what we use it for. Many women support the
of the IMG accommodated flying pickets up
Inside Fords, IMG members of the Fords took the initiative challenging the reformist leadership to win the right of the steelworkers to close down Fords. We helped to distribute 20,000 leaflets
Two leading strike leaders, Colin Herd and Bernard Connolly, are going to carry out a speaking tour for the Swiss and Belgian sections of the Fourth International in the near 'If it weren't for women our wages would never have fallen so low. Men would have been able to stand up for themselves; but these females, these hussies are ready to abandon their home and family and to sell themselves to the capitalists, to the devil, or anybody
A German social-democratic worker speaking in the village of Police arresting a woman outside the House of Commons on 8 February this year — the day of the all Womens' Assembly called by the National Abortion
demands and ideas of the women's movement while not fully agreeing with women-only demonstrations Over the last decade many women trade unionists have begun to fight for women to represent them as shop stewards, pay, taken petitions around their factories to get signatures against anti-abortion Bills.
Are these women not in a broad
future.
in its resources.
end of June.
fund.
50, London N1.
autonomy?
itself.
that
to deal with autonomy government,
same as separatism.
should
Wall L womens liberation. • Point women's rights.
We
the television
women.
must
- with Jan, women are upfront.
those traditional
We welcome unwaged/low waged. events, discos,
26 Northampton
gone on strike for equal
from Sisterwrite,
But leaflets, bulletins and organisers all need money. The IMG has seriously depleted
To carry forward our campaigns and projects we urgently need money. We have set the modest target of f6000 by the
We ask all IMG members, and all our readers to give generously to this
Send cheques, postal orders made out to "The Week' to: Socialist Challenge, PO Box
sense part of the women's movement? In Russia when working women first started to organise in womens cluds they allowed men to come to meetings but only women were allowed to run the meetings. Is this not fighting for
Autonomy, self-organisation is a means to an end. It is not the end in
When the modern women's movement first developed in the early Seventies it tried to involve men in fighting for the demands. It found
• men patronised and tried to dominate, so they had to be excluded from conferences. Shouldn't women in trade unions and the Labour Party be allowed to go through the same experience and decide themselves how
men? Isn't this what really selfwomen deciding how they think their struggle can best be conducted? Autonomy is not the
This does not mean that NAC
abstain on the autonomy debate. NAC is a mixed campaign that concentrates its energies on the issue of abortion but it is very much
of the broad
At times it will decide that a parțicular point needs to be made about what women think and feel on ar issue. This was why the International Marxist Group supported the women-only assembly on 8 February to make it clear that a male-dominated parliament was deciding to severely restrict
disagreed with the women who did not want the press there because we thought that even though
cameras were held by men the publicity they were giving us was important to get across to other
At other times it will be necessary to involve men and indeed when it comes to powerful trade unions we
involve miners, steelworkers and carworkers in the abortion campaign. But at every point in the abortion struggle, and here I totally agree
we must make sure that
Only if women are seen to lead will
views of women which still predominate in the trade union movement be confronted. Isn't this fighting for autonomy too?
contributions from Socialist Challenge readers on the way forward for the abortion campaign. The NAC conference will take place on 17/18 May at the Belle Vue Centre •* Leeds. Registration is available from Leeds NAC, Flat 1, Belle Vue House Belle Vue Road, Leeds 3, £4 waged £2
WOMEN IN ACTION
READERS MEETING
Following on the success of the first issue, a readers' meeting is being held in London on Saturday
April at City University, Square, London EC1, from noon to 5pm. (Nearest tubes Angel and Barbican)
Copies of Women in Action available
190 Upper Street London N1. Price 30p.
Page 3 scan of this page
"Evans collapsed like a
By Pat Hickey, Deputy Solihull
threat to sack the strikers.
Encouraged by the statement that the "T&G was here before BL', that the unIon would not be blackmailed, and inal cawardes would make no concessions, many workers WCIC convinced that Evans wouldcall anall hours this
But within LOS militancy was exposed as empty boasting. Evans collapsed like a pricked balloon. Money
The agreed statement that emerged from the talks with the company means acceptance of the five per cent pay rise and
92-page document which at e imposes new working conditions in return for the restoration of participation and the introduction of a 10-day period or consulaton verore majo changes are introduced.
The clauses in the document which provoked the strike are
There will be mutuality on staffing levels or mobility of labour. Trade union control of job allocation and oyertime disappears. Relaxation allowances will be cut.
The ten day period of consultation is nothing more than 10 days notice of intent; and of course the five per cent pay 'increase' remains, because as the TGWU statement puts it:
"We were unable to extract more money from the company because it was a fact that there was none'.
The union/managementagreed statement refers to
PAT HICKEY
pricked
balloon'
• Senior Steward SDI, Rover
WITH more than 18,000 British Leyland workers on strike and the numbers growing daily, Transport union leader Moss Evans went to meet BL, declaring that the full weight of the union would be used if Edwardes went ahead with his
'"prior consultation' and 'maxusing arcas But the reality is that Edwardes has made no concessions. The re-establishment of participation expresses BL's confidence that TOOT has been undermined giving national union officials greater control, The bureaucrats and their cronies, like the CP's Morning.
Star, hail this as a great victory on the grounds that the company has withdrawn its sacking threat subject to the tion of normal work.
There was never any question of sacking in the event of normal working - that is in the event of complete surrender. Lead
The sell-out by Moss Evans is even more pathetic in view of the situation which when Evans ment with management. It wa likely that Cowley would have joined the strike and that even Longbridge, where the works committee was
But Evans dispirited and demoralised the most militant plant, Solihull, which had given a lead last week.
Now BL workers will have to pick up the pieces from Moss Evans' cowardice and betrayal.
The company will push ahead in re-organising working conditions and attacking militants.
For BL workers, it's a fight for survival.
agiccuncil .
opensalol
much
resump-
existed made his agree-
holding back,
sabotage
Rover
Following in
Edwardes'
footsteps
Leanington Socialis hallenge grou LAST WEEK 30 members of AUEW/TASS went on strike at Automotive ducts in Leamington. This followed a worker's suspension for refusing to work with new technology computer data system — introduced by the company without prior with the union.
Factory
The strikers are picketing the factory, explaining their Case lo other workers plant and asking lorry drivers not to deliver. sisting that agreement with the unions has to be reached before
Bulletin
Michael company has sent
breach of contract
Propay staff and agement creases
increased flexibility. agreement
leadership
on union rights.
and Socialist at the started Engineer's They •are
new technology is introduced; that suitable remuneration for those effected be provided; that proper health and safety stanel Edwardes out letters telling the strikers they are in
and that they cannot come back to work until they are prepared to use the new equipment. In current
negotiations with both shor floor Swindon. have tied wage inagreement on reduction of staffing levels and
The majority of the union representing the 6,000 workforce has been unprepared to oppose this attack
But militants inside the plant, including supporters of Socialist Challenge
Worker have producing fusion.
Charter
bulletin arguing the need for a united trade union opposition to the company's plans.
Swindon:
'Bloody great
on er sell - out'
By Chris Baldik THE DAMAGE caused by Moss Evans' stab in the bad was graphically illustrated at BL's Pressed Steel plant i
For years this factory has been one of the least militant in the Leyland combine. But on 15 April 3,000 transport workers fet lowed the lead set in the midlands and walked out as soon as management attempted to implement the new conditions in the Edwardes package.
Leading shop steward Tommy Tucker summed up the deter mination of the strikers when he said that Edwardes was 'sticking his neck out and he'll get his throat cut'. The enthusiasm showe the workers for the strike was hailed by another steward who said "the sleeping giant is at last waking up.
But three days later, at a Friday morning mass meeting, th Evans/Edwardes deal had thrown the workers into a state of com
'A bloody great sell-out' was Tommy Tucker's comment. The workers, by a six to four majority, still voted to stay out. But ievitably Tuesday's mass meetings noted the return to work vote a other plants and voted to go back.
Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
SLAVES CHARTER
a John Wayne hero in a B Western, Sir Michael Edwandes rode
Evans gets Star' billing
4: By Pat Kane Barry Busst is a spot welder in the Jaguar Common Lane plant. in Coventry. He was just one of the 18,000 car workers who were out on strike last week throughout the West Midlands. The strike was in protest at management's attempts to impose a five per cent pay deal and new productivity levels of the workforce.
Like many of the young militants on ine picket fines • he remember a strike that had involved so milany workers, skilled workers who know they face the dole queue if they cannot defend shop floor organisation plalits
'We don't need the 92 page document to produce Sherpa vans. productivity is high, and we make a profit. We take in raw materials at one end, and finished vans go out the other. All the people here know that the Edwardes plan is an attack on our rights. They don't need to introduce it here. That's why we came out right at
On
press
Pm RATING THE DALY WORKER by Steve Potter EVANS STANDS FIRM. This was the extraordinary judgement of the Morning Star in the aftermath of the transport leader's sell-out of the BL strikes last week.
The paper was commenting on Evan's gyrations after it became clear that BL workers had gained nothing from the negotiations between union chiefs and Leyland bosses last Thursday.
Yet George Guy, workers' leader and prominent Communist Party militant, the Morning Star of Friday 18 April claiming a 'trade union victory'. Socialist Challenge
the beginning,' he says.
profit out of the industry.
Metro
Longbridge
'Metro'
LICW
could not
particularly un- of
in these worker.
Out
take over their doesn't
workforce.
HOW the establishment hates to admit when
into town, all guns blazing.
Thursday night he slipped
frightened off by the firm stand of t
But you would never have thor
reported what happened in
confrontation between the trade ur
Morning Star
nent article by the editor, time angry prompted him union on Thursday night.
However
for Star readers. reverse of the
strike had failed sheetmetal curately was quoted in
24 April 1980 Page 4
But despite high levels of productivity in many of these plants Michael Edwardes wants to sqeeze still more
pianis. shows where BL management intends to go. Here the
model is about to be built on two of the most automated despite production lines in the world. While Longbridge workers produce around 16 cars a year (about twice the average Dufly,
European workers) when Metro production gets into full swing and lines. the robots start to take over productivity is expected to rise to 23 cars per
However shon stewards are unlikely to take kindly to workers being placed on the dole queue while robots
jobs. Edwardes shop floor organisation to create difficulties for union his plans to chop the British Leyland
The militants in British Leyland
By THE EDITOR
The next day's issue of the Star maintained this position in a promi-
but by this responses by strikers LO dell. there are problems with the agreement reached
"The George Guy was OlE hand again to continue the cover up
The deal was the company claimed by the press he explained, because the threat to sack all those on
But as the 'Fleet Street' press ac-
unlike their harringdon Road colleagues, the company threat had "failed' because it had been Dully withdrawn. It had been withdrawn
are aware of what's at stake. When we interviewed Barry he wasn't at the Coventry platil lic wai 'secondary picketing' in Birmingham Drews Lane plant. This is where most of the axles and transmissions systems are made for the rest of Leyland
The workers here skilled, members of the AUEW, who hope that they will remain working
the Introduction technology because their skills will be more in demand. Urged on by Terry
the president of the engineering union, they were crossing picket
Transport drivers were not moving lorries however and the transport union pickets were clearly determined to close this plant down completely. The recent steel strike had not passed
without car workers seeing the benefits of flying pickets. Normally in the car factories the members of the
stay at home and let the stewards conduct the strike.
This time it different. In Rover Solihull, the senior stewards
it's beat!
quietly, his
because the union leaders had conceded to the most essential aspects of the company case.
The reason for the 'trade union victory' according to George Guy was the 'united front' presented by the trade unions to the company threats.
Leyland management
changed to a conciliatory attitude and sought ways of ending the conflict.
This glowing version of events was denied by Moss Evans himself in his message to the striking workers, who accurately claimed that the Transport and General Workers Union had been left alone on the main issues, a polite reference to the scabbing role of Terry
and the engineering leadership.
were forced to set up a strike committee across the whole site. Hundreds of workers werer turning up for picket the duty. The strike was spreading into an
all-out confrontation.
The transport union leaders did not want ine strike movement to go out of their control. They decided to mainly back . dówn. As Larry
ecutive officer of the TGWU put it: 'Had we not arranged this meeting new with management today i am sure we
would have been besieged by people from the Moss (Evans) to call an all-out strike'.
Strike It was not rushing back from his trip from South Africa Terry Duffy alle Evans.
The Leyland Action Committee, a grouping of shop floor militants based in Rover, Longbridge, Cowley and Jaguar distributed leaflets campaigning for an all-out
Like
posse
Climbdown by
Leyland on
sack threat
However, apart from a temporary delay of the unilateral imposition oi the companies 92 page "slave charter' for ten days, the only gain that the CP could point to was the reestablishment of the national machinery in BL 'by August'. then Bogus
But the cover up campaign of the Communist Party and the Morning Star which had done the opposite of
aim. the fact that the Communist Party did not want the strike movement to succeed at any point, whether before or after the bogus 'victory'.
Proof of this can be found in the
Leyland. Pickets
Smith,
will'.
prese Shop organised another
Michael Edwardes
that defeated this strike but
eventually Moss
thousands
BL. Cars give 'work
with unions'
stewards
participation applies
offensive ment.
made.
Their objective was to cover up working
The notning and
strike to defend trade unionism in
'Stay at home pickets only help the company' said one of the leatlets. 'We need mass pickets to stop any plant that stays at work, and to stop any scabs creeping in...Those are our jobs: if we don't defend them nobody
The Leyland Action Committee does not intend to give up the fight.
floor militants have to be across union lines if Derek . victimisation is to be avoided. A worker's plan that confronts the problem of new technology needs to be drawn up to give a clear alternative to Edwardes productivity plan. Now is the time for militants in British Leyland to get together to force the union leaders to defend trade union rights.
The Leyland Action Committee invites every British Leyland worker who wants to fight back to get in touch. Phone 021-643-0669.
pledge
attitude of the Longbridge plant shop
committee led Jack Adams, CP member and successor to the sacked Derek Robinson.
The conditions of work document
equally Longbridge workers as to those who were out on strike. It would have been an idea.
launch counteragainst the BL manage-
Nothing was done. No call was
The largest factory remained
Communist Party forgets learns nothing. The cover-up campaign of the Morning Star is just one more episode in their road to disaster in BL.
Page 5 scan of this page
STEEL: WE WON'T LIE DOWN
'We have to work for stronger organisation at the rank and file level'
HOMENEWS
By Bernard Connolly, Craft convenor, Rotherham THE fatal mistake the Tories made was in thinking that the leadership of the steel unions reflected the membership. the government's assessment of the leadership was a hundred per cent correct, they got the membership totally wrong.
Their error was in not decimating the shop stewards movement have tried to do in Leyland.
Tunity presentend rant and tile opportunity extend organisation, and with the ending of the strike we will contnue tus organisation.
Central to what is going to happen now is the fight against redundancies. I don't see how the official leadership can lead that fight. As far as they are concerned, the jobs have already been sold.
The official leadership attempted to sell us out from day one. It had to be dragged kicking and screaming every step of the way. This will be the case on jobs.
All unions claim to be opposed to closures and job loss, but they ignore the pleas of the membership to fight.
I don't think it's an accident that South Wales has been picked off. There has been a campaign now for some years to pump into their heads that it's their fault that the steel industry is in crisis. We have to oppose the logic of management and the Tories.
When looking at the Tories' plans for BSC, consider is not the needs of the industry but the needs of the membership. Faced with the threat of job loss, a shorter working week is essential.
This must not be made an excuse for more
On the craft side in
By BRIAN MOLYNEUX, rank and file steelworkers' leader from South Yorkshire, and a member of the national negotiating committee
JUST one day after the steel strike settlement was announced
20,000 Yorkshire workers spontaneously out.
At the Shepcote Lane plant in Sheffield, they didn't want to go back until management agreed to boycott every single firm which had crossed the picket line during the strike. And there were over two hundred firms on the list!
These walk-outs throughout the country ShOw IWO things. morale is high, and so you can't talk about a defeat. Secondly, if proper leadership had been given 1n area, then the walk-outs would have been as good as, if not better than, the ones in Yorkshire.
At the Yorkshire district level we were prepared for a sell-out. At the meeting to discuss the settlement we put across bie view bilal although vul leadership sold us out there was lots to do within our own factories; could above and national leadership.
We told the meeting how we were kept nip. a welcomed the day then and how this needed to be kept up. steelworkers would be on the picket lines of other workers.
A loint committee is beginning to organise now, to get steelworkers on other picket lines;. to
'The official leadership
attempted to sell us
out from day one'
While
first, as they SCHOOS.
improve sent enemi
in the strike
weakness. area, alternatives to the unofficial organise uning
Rotherham, steelwalked each
the strike.
political strike.
that where the only enemy was beyond the
Blair
support
1,300 members work 10,000 hours of overtime a week. Think how many more people could be employed if we cut that out.
Sometimes overtime would have to be done, in an emergency, but it should be priced so high that management is torced to employ more labour. It should be treble or quadruple time. Here we are in the 1980s and still workers can't retire before the age of 65. We could have sabbaticals, longer holidays, longer studying at long Is il since 40-hour week?
We are all in favour of new technology to efficiency. But who benefits? think it should be us.
Just before Christmas we negotiated locally a 16 per cent increase through the bonus, maintaining the number of apprentices and with a no redundancy agreement. Tement mentart of the nana pay He li produce redundancies, but the initial payment covering three months is the last we'll see of it. Nobody will sell anything for that kind of peanuts. It's important to show a united front to management. They'll pick on us where there's a
The steelworkers in South Wales have to be better organised for a fight, bury their petty differences and get it together. It's hoped that the outcome of the strike and the pressure of events will drive them together.
Even when action is official, it's a hard uphill fight. We have to become organised at divisional, and the national level. The national strike committee had to during the strike because the ISTC wouldn't do it officially nor would the other see bois.
There are now many more activists, and in the fight over jobs it will be once again down to demonstrations such as that against the Special Patrol Group on 27 April.
We want to maintain the militancy and organisation which existed during
From the second week our strike was seen by the mass of workers as a
every
We had to be careful about how we posed the strike. In the sixth week we decided we didn't want a situation
Thatcher, because there are also the BSC bosses. links
Now at were raceraclor the bosses is there and we have to relate to other questions outside the
done.
Wt will be pulling people out on 14 May, and other actions like the
Peach demonstration. Steelworkers will want to join in the local pickets of the police station that the
we wor lat
We 12,000 organising committee has called for
It will be difficult. We have to work for a stronger organisation at the rank and file level, but we mustn't be afraid of it.
Following the strike we have set up a joint shop stewards committee in
plant Yorkshire, except in Rotherham.
Every action we take, publicise to the ranks. Every time we are asked to speak, or if we set up
with other steelworkers Europe, as we are doing with West German workers, then we will explain in our weekly bulleln wildl we have
In that way we will be accountable for our actions.
We want a mass shop stewards meeting every three months. This will elect officials for the joint
stewards committee. We have already agreed on different unions.
A 200-strong mass shop stewards meeting will be the controlling body and the joint shop stewards will meet each week. Each decide what it wants to put in the newsheet.
We have to consider a national Corallice. and links. the-sky, OUIL German, French and Basque links. At some stage we need Brussels, So international bulletin.
This union is going to change. The first step has to be a campaign to get Bill Sirs to rescind the cancellation of this year's ISTC conference. We have already started passing resolutions to Lo encel
At this time especially we need a conference to take stock of the sellout. assess where the union is at. anc prepare plans for the next battles. Militants
In the meantime we are organising a conference in South Yorkshire to draw the lessons of the strike. We are we will. expecting the key militants to attend.
The settlement includes a 4½ per cent clause. This won't affect anyone at a local level. 60,000 jobs; not 12,500. No one will negotiate for that.
What the settlement has done is to decreast locally, because savings for BSC are involved in productivity deals, and this reduces our autonomy at a local shop level. It gives a limit to what can be
the representation for
there today,
department will
the weak
international This might seem to be pie-in Jobs
LaKE we have ideas for an
threatened with
cent.
increase. agreements.
manning.
jobs.
officials. There relying on Bill rank-and-file machinery.
15,000 jobs.
They
BSC is really after help,
There and Meconate
morale booster.
negotiated locally.
In 1975 there was a work measure incentive scheme on the books. It is
and nothing has been concluded. Some departments at our works have negotiated on this and are getting money. Other places haven't It is that chaotic. There isn't any machinery to jointly negotiate this, so
branches and the weak workers get hammered
That's the way it is with the 4½ per cent They start negotiating with 4½2 per cent at a time when they are
mass redundancies and they are under enormous pressure to negotiate loss of jobs with 4½ per
That is why we wanted a straight
We have lots of slim-line • There are lots of names but they all involve deNone of them has been adhered to locally. We put all these national deals in a drawer when we work on local agreements
South Wales will be hit hardest on
The steelworkers there have to take the initiative, and not rely on the
is no way that Sirs and the union with a few lobbies of Parliament — they will keep 10,000 to
need to approach us for and it will be there. It would be good if fifty of the steelworkers came up to Yorkshire for a few days and had the chance to talk to steelworkers
live with them: talk to workers at the gates; hold meetings; and even put a tew pickets on to test the feeling here. This would be a good
Socialist Challenge: 24 April 1980 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Right wing slams 14 May, but WE CAN'T WAIT
HOME NEWS
Support for strike
call growing in
Scotland
With three weeks still to go before 14 May, support for the TUC's call for a Day of Action is growing, and more and more unions are coming to the conclusion that the only effective action on that day will be strike action.
Manufacturing industry will be widely affected:
Glasgow Confederation Engine sing Shipbuilding and
Unions has agreed a one-day strike. and in Dundee and Edinburgh eading trade backed the strike Call meetings organised by trades council
Those who might be considering going into work on that day will experience considerable difficulty. Most buses will be off the road due to the TGWU support for the strike.
rail will impossible as both the NUR and ASLEF will be out. Even unose wno lave on ov sea wl. find fhat the National Union of Seamen will be preventing this.
It all these oosaces are overcome the heroic "scab' may find that the way to his or mer work is many barredDy the actions of NUPE workers who unionise the anitorial staff of many public build. ings.
Those who contemplate such a risky progress to work on That day should make double sure that they don't SULIC allY accidents — it seems likely that most hospitals will be
Support for the strike is also likely to be overwhelming out Scotland pit head meetings have been arranged where the decisions will be taken to support the strike.
At the moment support is
LIC Wilte
Rundown on local events on 14 May LONDON
Other Rallies:
Storier Per, a Green Southall
res, nr. Iftord / Claphan rth / Empire Way
Local Demos include:
Barnet - Burnt Oak Broachway 10am/
Rail workers want
brakes off for 14
May
By A O'Callaghan, ASLEF Queen's Park PRESSURE is growing on the executives of the rail unions to make 14 May an official one-day strike.
Both Sid Weighell of the NUR and Moss Evans of the TGWU say they expect their members to turn out in large numbers for local protest
•nowever. union has taken the lead in actually calling their members OUL.
Kank ane the workers m the industry see 14 May as an
fight
Ted Miles execuțive member of the other main rail
ASLEF, latest issue Locomotive that: 'the TUC must lead the
Sales Drive
ecoch Tec emo of 6,250. So every ure ot branch
reased ander to the pape
ocialist Chalenge 24 April 1980
collar public sector unions. The decision of the NALGO excave to ave tie cone. to any form of action on that day is being discussed in the
The teachers' union, the EIS, has not yet come out in support of action on the 14th though unornicial action
beingo sti
through the local trades organical marches andralins
Aberdeen, Edinburgh, alre Dumfries. Aberdeen
youth
against the
Tories ABERDEEN Revolution are organising action for 14 May. The local Youth Against the Tories campaign recently brought 40 youth to a picket of the local Tory Club, taking over the nearby main road in the process.
Fresh from this success, they are now campaigning for
movement «emon stration organising Rock
that evening.
Aberdeen Revolution will be filming whole day's
are making out you en
making about youth ностасс.
tarrow 10am / Lambeth & Wandsworth fron
Common to
What's happening in your area on 14 May! Send us details of the campaign to build action and the local events on the day. to: Socialist Challenge PO Box 50, London N1. way the abour movement should answer the call. A total strike on 14 May
serve Tories.'
It is also rumoured that at least two executive members are arguing for ASLEF to close down the railways offic-
One good sign of the build Murray's speech at ASLEPT pressure Len Centenary Celebration dinner last week — it was devoted to explaining why trade are not a me bushess bringing down democratically-elected governments!
Socialist Challenge is planning a major sales drive for 14 May. We are hoping to top the
branch and Socialist Challenge group is asked • to plan extra sales and send down
Wage 6
ALL OUT ON
by Ron Thompson, AUEW Sheffield As the build-up to the TUC Day of Action on 14 May 14 proceeds, debate about it in the hotting up.
Predictably, the capitalist press, led by such Tory rags as the Daily Mail and the Daily onslaught against the Day of Action, denouncing the TUC Murray for organising a political strike, 'threatening the basis of parliamentary democracy , 'opening anarchy', and so on.
All this should come as little suprise: in the eyes of the defenders of capitalism, any form of organised opposition to the policies of this Tory Government is 'anarchy'. Drivel
More dangerous, however, is the support that this sort of drivel is receiving from the right wing within the leadership of the trade union movement -supposedly support the Day of Action. most open attack on 14 May Frank Chapple, leader According to him, accept the result of the election and change the Government through the ballot box.
Even Len Murray, who supports action on 14. May, is bending emphasise that the TUC has no intention of attempting to bring down the Government through industrial action. He has made it
clear that the TUC will have nothing to do
with such
all, 'we're British'
As far as Mr as an Ie
FIVE YEARS!
labour movement is
Express, has launched an
and 'Lenin'
the door to even from those who ine comes from of the EEPTU, the working class must Tories over backwards to
methods
•IT I
TUC
Make no
mistake,
this is
the road
to dictatorship!
are concerned, 14 May will be nothing more than a friendly attempt to government to change its policies.
Socialists and militants within the seric class movement Meles readines:
The Governt
CH
COURS
NO
very simple
whatever means necessary
some working class militants.
Organise
was reiected.
Issare from
cannot afford to wait.' persuade the every
carried the Out' then stors a linue les bir IT= = Ent it
DAY OF ACTION
living standards are being hammered every week by Thatcher and her cronies cannot.
As thousands are thrown out of work, as social services are cut to ribbons and as prices soar, it is clear that the working class has a
choice: "respect parliamentary democracy' (and suffer for the next 4 years) or fight back now to get rid of the Tories by
Does this mean that the Day of Action in May is a waste of time? Unfortunately, there is a danger that this conclusion will be drawn by certain sections of the left and even by
It is true that if Len Murray and company have their way, 14 May will pass off as a quiet protest action, soon forgotten. This is why the proposal of the NUR to make it an explicit general strike instead of just a day of action
But every militant who wants to organise a real fight against this government should see to it that Murray and company do not get their way. 14 May should be used to get the
every corner to the TUC General Council: 'We do want to bring down the Tories; we do want a General Strikes
demonstration in ever • slogan General Strike Len Murray
Page 7 scan of this page
Students take step nearer edge
4000 police were mobilised to protect the pathetic 400 strong National Front demonstration in Lewisham on 20 April. Chix workers gain more support
THE National Union of Students conference at Blackpool last week was a stormy affair.
The far left increased its representation on the nationalexeculuve trom unree to nive (three of the Socialist Students Alliance, two members or tne socialis Workers Organisation), and a motion oncemnine we treatment o women Republican prisoners
Armagh jail was passed
wishes or mie outgoing executive.
all other policy
DUl ON questions. the er amance
the coalition of membearty,
Labour Party, COMMUNISI Party are Ene Young Liberals - chalked up one victory after another.
Left
The 1980 conference takes •the NUS one step nearer the sort of union that the Left Alliance would like to see. retred back Conference referred the strategy document of the Alliance,
Shape Things Come, it passea a resolution containing almost identical proposals.
The Left Allance want to • concentrate union activity on what calls 'unique functions NUS, reducing student campaign work on issues like women's
unemployment, racism and international solidarity.
But • the conference
election results showed that
the Left any Alliance to carry through the depoliticisation of the NUS in practice will lead to a realignmen oro ces
Besides the increase representation of the far left, indenendent NOLS (National Organisation of Labour The strike at the Chix chewing gum factory in Slough is now in its seventh month. The strikers are mainly Asian women, and of the 96 members of the worktorce who have joined the GMWU 91 are Asians.
Despite daily picketing, the strikers have byeen able to cut production by only 70 per cent because the company are - using scabs.
The strike is for the most basic right of all: the right to ne one to a trade on workers were forced out of
gate by the refusal of managing Dennis Rose, to recognise the
The workers earn £38 for 40 hours and they work DOUl Come Ous. exposer constant racist abuse from the all-white supervisory staff.
(centre) being applauded at NUS conference. Students) candidates were./ elected to the executive and it was clear 1121 NURS members voted with the far left for the reference back • of the strategy document and Tol the resolution on Armagh.
These developments did not arise spontaneously. They were made possible by the
boin al get by is that had
waged by the tar over the orevious two terms - on abortion, Armagh, and to a lesser degree, on racist fee Hearerses Dul aso by lie unprecedented degree of unity of the far left itself.
Agree
For the first time since its ? inception, the SSA was able to
policy
At a recent rally, steward Raseen 'We WOrKCO conditions, we were harassed and ill-treated pregnant SISICI ours. despite recommendation from Ther doctor that she be given light Work. lost uct baby lourl a miscarriage. Generally someone gets injured at work we don t c mcucal cale ul compensation.'
AIOLICI added: 'We haveloften been asked to do two people's jobs but never
Jay doing so. We were allowed 10 minutes for tea breaks but got shouted at by the supervisor
Liz Legrua, Women in Armagh Campaign, and Ahn Marie Loughran, of the Relatives Action Committee,
positions with SWSO on a
of questions and to JulC. agree at conercute on a scric of joint initiatives with SWSO on Ireland.
This development led the SSA to issue a bulletin at a joint fringe meeting no organsaons renerall its commitment to unification with SWSO.
Armagh
Collaboration be
must maintained Tone ine leadership of the union and to
ICa. prisoners Armagh 1811 Altho ded the SSA's unity appeal, hopefully manY ITS menisers realise the benefits of the sort of collaboration we saw last week. within eight minutes.
we never gol any help from our brothers in Slough, and there is pressure from our brothers to give up the fight and take other factory jobs. But we want to win and go back to work in the sallic factory?
Support for the strike is growing. Workers the
Sugar LOITOI Refinery, with whom Chix has a contract, have decided
to Chix until the strike is won. Chix is trying to get glucose none relice.
Dockers will approached block that
ance Grunwick there have been a number of strikes by black
Tha balone should Provide
the basis
— a prerequisite for defeating the policies the NUS's leadership and throwing the weight of the student movement behind the struggles of the working class.
*Correction: In the article CP strategy: keep politics out of students unions' (10 April)
stated that Alliance includes the National Organisation Labour Students. While individual members of NOLS are in the LeT stood te as Left Alliance candidates in the recent NUS
decision at its conference last December to withdraw from the left alliance. workers for unionisation, which have also UCCI deleated; two or inese - al Stewart's Engineering and Median Plastics were also
Slough. that's wny 1L S crucial to reverse the demoralising trend by
What can you do?
*Make known the facts of the strike, take a collection of your workplace;
*Invite a Chix speaker to
Labour Party branch and pass a motion of support;
*Send of support and aonations Brother Anwar, 271 Goodmans . Park, Slough, Berks;
*Support the mass picket called for Wednesday 30 April.
on Bristol - drop the
charges
back hard.
One youth has been charged with arson and conspiring to cause £20,000 damage to post "office. Many people OCCI Homested and corned. with looting. young single
charged with assault
One case reported to the Bristol Racist • Laws by a Labour councillor involved a young DHCH
Kick
ltne
Vorie
Kick out the Tories badge available now from: Relgocrest, PO Box 50, London N1. 20p each or cheaper rates for orders, especially for cash in advance.
Massey Ferguson
workers get official
backing
By John Kirby
engineering union for workers in Knowsley
closures.
Now both main unions -the TGWU and the AUEW
official support.
But the decision AUEW is particularly impor tall because it is the main
Knowsley workers are now stepping up their cam-
campaign against redundan.
Dave Kirby, AUEW STewart plained:
'Our message to other Massey Ferouson workers is "help us, help yourselves" We're out not just to defend anows er Massey Ferguson in the UK'.
recent conference represculing all Masse Ferguson workers voted unanimously to support the
WOrKCIS IN Bristol, following the black uprising in the St Paul's area of the city, the police have been hitting
confession of looting • but
a choice of being charged
either with looting or with latc
On Friday I1 April, nine resen after the uprising rep resentatives
11U 'Relations Connels Council met the police who showed them round Trinity police station
"There are no blacks in the cells' said Carmen Beckford,
Communi Kentions Officer, ignoring the fact that prisoners may have been
police stanons • ne -
police succeeded in a publi
relation: exercise "using th
police harassment were unfounded
The following Wednesday, at tne normally sleepy Community Relations Council meeting, Was passed calling lor •Ine dropping of all charges despite CRC solicitor David KOberis caiming taere was no general harassment of blacks, and that alllicoly impossible under English law.
Roberts was shouted down blacks,
some vontas had come into the meeting after having beer racially abusco oy ponce in une surce outside.
The events at the CRC Hiccula show the division
beer enerona Bristol between young blacks and older West Indians who nave chosen to work aroner 'pressure groups. Bristol's
won't their yuuull rights. intend to stand up and fight for them.
March against police
racism
last Saturday.
five members of the family.
Magistrates Court.
people. They need support and money.
Rd, London SE24 OLN.
IT'S official. That's the good news from the
the Massey Fergusom who have been occupying their factory since 3 March against the threat of
tion.
But management threats of redundancy plus a promise of fiv work forced
transferred from Knowsley. But Knowsle! convenor rank Yates point lisatire's got to mobilisation defend That's the real Manchester will not be
Earlier this week Knowsley workers mounted
Lones The ported AL
under of the AUEW WOLK DECI workers in official dispute is not to be handled by any other union nember In this way they hope to stop any management moves to prepare for the transfer ol work from knowsley.
Workers at Perkins Diesel, Peterborough, have verN shift the components normal
Ly eistinday or delegatey. Nestinedy ar delegate. of
Knowsley workers leafletted them in an attempt to wit Thel support.
The Massey Fergusom management/union nego body the National Tom Come - necol day. The dispute at Knowsles was the only item on the agen
taken a clear stand that there be no negotiations until
Whose
energy
crisis?
NORTH Sea oil is paying off - for some. Last week Esso declared profits of £506.5m, a rise of a mere thousand per cent from £43.2m in 1978.
Dividends being paid to the US-parent cultUally. Exxon.
Sea has turned Esso into one of Exxon's 'brightest jewels
North Sea now total f1,700m, so North Se running al su per cent on capital invested This record profit follows five pressure by the oil companies to cajole British governments taxation levels 2 80 selling OTT licences bargain price companies have ettechvey been
sea, the ten taste the
basis supposed risk anc possible low margins of oil exploration there.
A DEMONSTRATION in support of Junior Archer and the Earlington Family, and against the racist, bully boy tactics employed by the Hornsey (North London) police was attended by about 60 anti-racists in North London
A year ago this month, police invaded the Earlington's home, assaulted them verbally and physically and then arrested
Junior Archer was also beaten up and arrested by Hornsey police and despite the fact that he is on very low pay has been denied legal aid to defend himself at the notorious Highbury
Defence funds have been set up around the country to fight back against vicious attacks by the police and courts on black
The Earlington Defence Committee's address is 49 Railton
Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
USELECTIONS AND 1 WHAT'S GOOD FOR IS BAD FOR THE
man' image which helped Jimmy Carter win the intervention in Afghanistan that Carter's main
BACK TO THE
COLD WAR
By Roy Alexander LAST week saw fresh sabre-rattling by the White House as President Carter tried to line up the world's capitalist powers in a common front against the Iranian revolution.
As well as sending ships to the Indian Ocean, guns to Zia, and declaring the entire Persian Gulf to be under American control, Carter threatened armed action against the Khomeini regime if the imperialist powers don't agree to an economic boycott of Iran.
The choice of Iran as the target for this 'get tough' stand, even though the Soviet army is still in Afghanistan, strikes some imperialist ideologues — the Economist for one — as misguided.
But the explanation is not hard to find. It is election year in America, and while the 'red star over Afghanistan' has stirred up a good deal of reactionary American patriotism, American hostages has had even more effect on the electorate. Vietnam and detente have taken some of the cocksuredness out of American politics. The attempt, for example, to get American athletes to rally-round-the-flag over Afghanistan was an abysmal failure, and the US Olympic boycott was imposed only by the use of that older and more deep-rooted principle, rally-round-the-dollar. Even an old red-baiter like Ronald Reagan sees that there are more votes in hostages and petrol-pumps than the independence of Aignanistan. Oil
Carter's international allies are much like his voters. Apart from the Japanese, who depend heavily on Iran for oil, most imperialist countries would prefer to confront an isolated, underdeveloped country like Iran than to take on the Soviet Union.
By victimizing Iran, Carter hopes both to get back into the White House and repair the 'Western alliance'.
But the problems of Iran and Afghanistan can be separated only with difficulty. American policy-makers are presently in the middle of a difficult operation: to adjust the imperialist system, economically, politically and militarily, to a situation in which the United States no longer occupies the world position it once did, but without giving way on US claims to world "leadership'.
Thus, for example, they want the European countries to assume more of the costs of NATO's European forces and Japan to finance the defence of imperialist interests in Asia. The dollar is to be eased out of its position as the main means of international exchange in favour of the IMF's 'Special Drawing Right' which all the leading imperialist countries will underwrite. But in everything the White House will still call the shots.
But to imperialist powers like France, Germany and Japan, who are far more powerful in comparison with the United States than they were when the 'Western alliance' was constructed in the '40s and '50s, these arrangements offer little. So Carter must convince them that the United States is as indispensable for the defence of their interests as it was twenty years ago. There is only one thing to do; resurrect the bogey of the Soviet Union.
The sort of world order that thẹ US wants requires at least a partial return to the days of the Cold War, and we must expect US policy to become increasingly aggressive in the years ahead. Scapegoat
Margaret Thatcher understood this even before she arrived at Number Ten. Reluctant to see all British ruling class eggs in the basket of the EEC, the Tories have done much to pave the way for Carter's 'new direction', hoping that Britain will benefit once again from a 'special relationship' with the United States.
It would be wrong to see recent events as a piece of great power rivalry of no concern to the international labour movement. Apart from strengthening domestic reactionary forces, cold war revivalism will not seek its first target in the Kremlin but in the anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist movements breaking out around the world.
Today the scapegoat is Iran, Southern Africa, Pakistan, or even one of those sunny Mediterranean lands where British tourists crowd the beaches. The real meaning of cold war revivalism is global counter-revolution.
The British left has responded in various ways to events in
Afghanistan and is still, quite rightly, debating their significance. But imperialists care nothing for nuance. They will oppose anything that smacks of revolution.
We must be equally blunt. Whatever we think of the specifics of
the Afghanistan must insist
determination includes the right to make a revolution and the right to
seek international aid to carry it through.
Only defence of that principle can immunize the labour movement
against the reactionary offensive.
Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 8
Iran's seizure of green.
The tomorrow Central America, By Stuart Paul
York shopkeeper reasons
that the right to self-
an analogy, restrictions).
matter?'
It is now just six months until the American presidential elections take place. Meanwhile US marines have been practising beach landings, a call has gone out for helicopter pilots Vietnam mine-laying experience and the army has painted its tanks desert-brown instead of jungle-
approaching vote and the preparations are not unconnected. The 'simple
presidential election last time around has turned out to be rather too simple. seems to be out of control, with inflation running
•Hamburger' That's how a New
summed up the for the primary election
results in his state last month.
He was talking about the soaring price
of mince beef, but he cannily summed up
the American presidential race.
For a system where beef can be called
"ham', and the name can stick it, is as good
Many for what passes as
democracy in America.
Time magazine recently devoted a
whole page to proving that an array of
statements made by Republican front-
runner Ronald Reagan were patently false,
(that, for example, Americans could have
cheap petrol again by lifting Government
Concluded Time, "The Big
question is: Do the facts, after all, really
Since late last year there has been a Britain.
great media hoo-ha about which politi-
cians will emerge with the nominations of
the Democratic and Republican parties to
has suffered humiliation and failure. with
war the limitations
The US economy
-Tweedledee, Tweedled
run for US President.
The nomination methoa, favoured uf to as late as 1968, was for machine-picked delegates to select the nominees at the party conventions.
With the decline of American popular confidence political institutions however, an attempt was made to give the impression of greater mass participation in the selection process.
Thus, the two main bourgeois parties, the Democrats and Republicans have their convention delegates elected, in the majority of states, by 'primaries'.
Primaries
Everytime there is an election in Britain, TV man Bob McKenzie appears on TV with his swincometer davocate ollarics
Ironically it is those very • swingometers which are sending US pollsters round the bend.
In the recent Democratic party primary in
at its highest rate for 33 years, while in Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East US foreign policy
In Afghanistan the US can, and is, attempting all sorts of 'covert' action — some not so covert -against the government and the Soviet presence there. However, at the very most this can offer Carter only limited mileage. It is a comment on
on the possibility of US
strategy is to boycott a sports tournament.
Iran is a different case, where the US is not directly facing the might of the Soviet Union.
New York the Harris Poll managed to miss the winning result by 38 percentage points as Kennedy raced past their choice, Carter ne reasol pous cannot picaice a curately is that the real winner in these elections has been abstention. In the 1976 presidential election. Carter was halled as a tearaway vot catcher Florida, he won great acclaim for win ning half the Black vote in the primary But a
won half of the look at tne resuit, snowca tnal da had four percent of blacks who voted!
He swept the nomination nationally by taking a grand total of 4.2 per cent of the elec torate, 80 percent of whom didn't bother to vote.
This year, top pollster Ruth Clark told Time that primary polls couldn't be relied upon torate, not those who actually vote.'
Her own agency • Yankelovich, Skelly White, have just conducted a poll in which th majority believed that they would face a Carte • choice in November: however 36 D cent wished there was a better alternative.
Page 9 scan of this page
e haste. lost press and TV reports suggest there is a • deal difference OCIWCCH
Anderson and Reagan). on also hear of great differences between
REVA Zie all now.
Proctor and Gamble makes
Republicans, both
To appreciate just how similar all five canes are just consider a real alternative edy, who currently is painted as the most wing of the candidates. ast year he landed himself in a great deal of
_for making the patently obvious statethat the Shah was a tyrant.
iat's all. socialist
hand sent a telegram to Tehran, which ap-
on the 17 November front page of the
per Baamdad calling for the extradition
and a solerase win me anal
against the US.
has been made of Kennedy's anti-
HE CRISIS
CARTER
WORLD
ary intervention is an option there and one Carter seems to be moving towards with
But is the greatest international crisis the d has faced since the Second World War ly to do with the US election? Or is what lies nd it an attempt by the entire US ruling class
establish its world authority? And what of presidential election itself, how 'democratic'
ROY ALEXANDER, STUART PAUL and JOHN ZLO examine these questions and issues.
, Democrat, Republican
LnIC LWU Washington bureaucracy. and three
out very nuit of Governor all three. capitalist in Washington.
Lesser Evil
presidential election:
nev it ret
boch
RACINE LABEl By John Laszlo
porters had publicised.
But on 17 January at 7pm Pulley, the Socialist Workers didate for President walked H110 department. He whole line. 'Hi, I'm running for President of the United States,' Pulley said, introducing himself to chassis 'Damn right!' she said. Many of the workers came to the 2.30am meeting to talk wil runcy• Draft The SWP's candidate for Vice President is Matilde
candidates were stumping for votes years ago when he was running against the
Now arch-reactionary Reagan. who used troops against peaceful anti-war demonstrators
of California, is promising to 'whack away at the fat extravagant Government
Thus as one bourgeois politician falters the two party system in America puts up another. The next is sold as a lesser evil. if. as this time
no candidate evokes much positive
SWP candidate Peter Camejo explained the system in a debate on the eve of the 1976
'The people that run this country can sways tine sonetody lal s worsc Ford. a they was on to Core for ust up,
you to vote for Mussolini,
the lesser evil Lyndon Johnson. It seems a joke now but they said LBJ would keep the US out of a war. Unry me swr s millan prcuicica tal
The real alternative
THE car workers on the second shift at the Generai Motors plant at Tarrytown in New York were wondering whether Andrew Pulley would be allowed in to the plant, as his sup-
the Party canof the United the chassis ILISL walked along lne
SWP
La black woman final line 'Hell, no, we won't go -
didate to march or speak.
nowhere in sight.
An SWP
Zimmerman.
chancates are workile ocubic
The was just as likely as Goldwater to go to war I heard Corretta Scott King Martin Luther King and a respected civil rights I trust the Democratic party. Today she is stil bromise music wat las is lac last lull backing the lesser evil party but the evil is now more obvious. support Kennedy Republican John Anderson reflects a rejection of the war and austerity promused ov carter and Keatan or Republican candidates will deliver the same
As Camejo said 'The oil industry gets the secretary or state no matter wno wins. since the war, regardless of the Secretarys Sockerier foundation. State have Alternative In Zavala County in Texas the Raza Unida party has displaced the Democrats as the main parcanos, iphas takemons the too party sun m.
It is a gain Black and all other workers sorely need — their own party, and a Ten troce
WE
OUR TROOPS
tions,
New Hampshire Matilde Zimmerman joined a march there against the draft, one of the
speculates.
With the most popular chant
• We won't die for Texaco,' it wasn't surprising that Zimmerman was the only can-
*Anti draft' Kennedy and Anderson were signatures!
campaig Cuba pointed out that while election yea
claiming "friends of the working people, our
justices
rently campaign
Pulley has
port for and have received stockade of out all Democra
The
President, all from the my.
Justice
combosc or and rul around
"Well
IN ORDER TO PROTECT
AMERICAN INTERESTS
IN THE PERSIAN COF
REINSTATE THE
DRAFT REGISTRATION, SO
IF THE NEED ARISES WE
CAN QUICKLY MObIlIZE
THE SOViETS MUST KNOW
WE WILL NEVER EXXON ERATE
OUR, RESPONSIBILITES TO THE
STANDARD'S OF A SAFE AND FREE...
Pulley and Zimmerman's campaign needs to collect thousands of senatures to set on inc ballot. Malls in the US accept these ballot restric SHIC and follow "lesser evil' vorceois canceales Time Out magazine in London gave a typically false view of the choice for the left in its 11 April rest or ths Arke the Socions.
Socialist Workers Party and Workers World
states, report
It goes on to practically rule out ine possiomly of getting on tac Darlo in Kentucky, where '5,000 signatures required' The SWP was the ballot in states in the 1976 elections, and on 31 March it was certified for the ballo in ... Kentucky, where it filed 14,000
The SWP uses the petition drives justices oi medican pose tracy.
American "democracy'
The candidates make no attempts to hide their politics The US is curbesieged by a propaganda to whip up against Iran. Cuba , and the soviet-backed government in Afghanistan.
recent trip to Cuba, and Zimmerman
didates to Nicaragua in March. Sup these revolutions features
Pulley was won to socialism in the the Fort Jackson , army
posing the Vietnam war He was in the army because when was arrested in riots
assassination, he was given a choice of the army or jail. He took the ar-
"The rulers of this country want coal, the Iranian people, Pulley said in a speech at the height I'm being kicked around,' he added. 'I own nothing in
Iran. I didn't lose any sugar mills in Cuba. and I'm sure the overwhelm ing majority of Americans are like
are being kicked around, the Rockefellers and the Du Ponts.'
'We should Join with the Iranians, the Cubans, Nicaraguans, the Vietnamese, the black Africans and help them kick around some more. The world will be a better place for it.
Matilde Zimmerman is forthright
power She walked around the Three Mile Island area during the recent commemorative activities demanding a shut down o nuclear reactors. She called instead for coal-based power now.
proposal draft womet back: "I think the majority of women reject this approach We are fighting for equal rights for all, not equal op pression.
• She added: 'This has nothing tr
Wild. Eat females are unfit for combat.
"I returned a couple of weeks ago from Nicaragua by example of how women can fight when justice is on their side. I talked
who commanded to youll. guerilla tronts and wno organised tne insurrection against Somoza
This is how the socialist alternative is being put across in America. Local
candidates
The SWP is also running candidates for US Congress and Senate posts, as well as lor cily mayors and stali DUVELIUL Governor of Washington
(not the city) the candidate is 21-year ola sniphitter Mary Nell bockman. I
, SWP candidate for Mayor Libby Moser, a Ford assembly lin worke Success nil Caterer set current mayor to a widely-publicised debate.
In West Virginia. home of the world famous Appalachia coal mine area, the SWP is running coal miner
. ne • Frenesi Governor in the state's history
I and banking owner John D That Kockerche WICH all nounced, made the front page of several newspapers and was carriec on both Associated Press and UP wire services.
Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
200 delegates attend Nicaragua Solidarity Conference
OPENED BOOK
INTERNATIONAL
IMG NOTICES
ABUKLIUN campaign zracuon. sat 10 м one representative. Pooled fare will operate. 10.30am. National centre. Jach branch to senc ENGINEERING national fraction. Sat 26
District Centre Alicy conference, cections enl, nationa
10 May. 2.00pm -
VALGO fraction Sun 11 May. 10.00am -1.00pm. National centre
Dam. National Craction. Sat 17 Ma
lational centr Rati acion . Sat 3 May. 12.00 - 4.30pm dais atonal agerogalc. Sat 31 May. More London notices
BLAIR PEACH demo 2' 12.30pm.
Get Rail Fraction at 3pm Sat
May National Centre Organised by Labour Palty, Coop, trade
S1. WCI. March C Hyde Park
12 palabre Socialist chars to attend. Meet WHAT'S LEFT
Derbyshire St, London 2. Prie 3p. LANDEN/BLINGEON
Rd, NI. From 8.30 onwards.
ighties. Public abeting edgshiped th Brentford Labour
April, 7.30pm.
School, off Hounslow Hish St.
- What lig Flame public meeting with speaker and Campaigt
emingford Aras, Hemingford Rd, Londo
LOUNSWOw socialist rorum: south Atr ocialist revoluti
former
SCEVENTS
informationare. Tet. de STOCKPORT SC 061-257 urday Ipm
4905 for more
sell every Sat Morning
saravailable from 108 'SC - Saturdays outsid - for more info ring phone Colin
Phone 20298 for more details available from Fourth Idea
IRMINGHAM: SC on sale at The Ramp. F
0-5.30, Sat. 10-4. For more info phone 6COSSETON: For more info phone Nick; BRISTOL: SC on sale 11-1, 'Hole in Ground' Fulmarks, 110 Chelenham Ond, Montpellier.
al activities SC available from Dundee City
available Brixton Oval tube,
on sale 11-1 every Sat., Regent SC sales: on Linstorpe Roadd and on upstais in Spencer Market, Stockion High
в ив, 5..
Weds 9-945pm, Thurs.
North Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980
By Alan Freeman Movement.
While recognising the need for urgent financial material support to Nicaragua, the conference reaffirmed the need to build up solidarity in defence of the revolution and against any US or UK intervention.
Throughout the local solidarity have already raised support for medical projects and for the literacy crusade marked as campaign priorities. By John Smith in Managua 'PUNO en Alto .. Libro Abierto' -Fifst on high ... opened book - is the militant cry of 125,000 young Nicaraguans, organised in the 'Ejercito Popular de (EPA), the fighting 'cultural insurrection' sweeping republic.
Detachments are being sent to every forgotten corner of this land, to teach the illiterate 52 per cent of Nicaraguans, 2¼ million people. how to read and write -a prerequisite for their participation in the revolution.
Ambitious s
This ambitious Crusade' has aroused extraordinary enthusiasm among the mass of the people. It occupies a central place in the present phase of the Nicaraguan Revolution.
The literacy crusade has as its central task the consolidation of the revolution. The mobilisation of youth around this task is the complement organisation of workers in the struggle to raise production.
In the towns, it has been the CDS (Sandinista Detence the Sandinista workers union that has played the principal role in recruiting for the EPA and its 'Militias Obreras de Alfabetizadores'. In the country it is the ATC (Rural Workers Association) that has allocation and reception of the brigades.
Participation in the crusade is completely voluntary and without payment
approximately youth considered eligible have enlisted: of the remainder, most have either failed to receive parental permission, or occupy too central a place in the subsistence of the family to be able to take part. Practical
In organising around practical tasks in this way, the mass organisations are developing and consolidating their control over all aspects of the revolutionary piuroso, ao new surial laycis alc laugil now to read and write, so they too will be brought into the mass organisations, increasing their geographical strength over all the land
In the word& of Ernesto Cardenal, the Minister of Education centrally responsible for the crusade, much pedagogical with political implications, but it is a political struggle with
Page 10
OVER 200 delegates, representing 180 organisations, came to the founding conference of the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign in London two weeks ago. They included eight trades councils, five CLPs, and 38 solidarity organisations, as well as the Labour Party, a sponsor of the conference — an indication of the growing support for the Nicaraguan revolution in the British Labour
Northern and Sheffield committee have been raising up to Money so far sent nationally exceeds £100,000.
Tune literacy won support from teachers — a country, separate Literais committees launched on NUT's recent conference gave a good reception - both ear- material. Over thirty delegates attended a fringe meeting and Alfabetisacion' army of which is this young revolutionary 'Grand National of the self-
Committees). .and
Coll vicicile the
organised the
per cent of the anti-imperialist
the revolution ever-present numerical and ignoran
the task is not so organisations;
discussed crusade in schools.
paign Nicaraguan ment;
region is raising money for a hospital, and the building
British £300 week. through shop ches, crusade has Labour
crusade was ferences. being produced April, and
crusade
FIST ON HIGH
The course content is militant Sandinism pedagogical implications!
The youth of Nicaragua played a central role in the guerilla struggle and urban insurrection that toppled the US-backed tyrant and smashed the bourgeois state apparatus last July. In the heat of the fighting the youth have developed a deep
political consciousness, which the FSLN leadership have carefully cultivated from the very beginning of
Classes are held during and at the end of the working day and they centre on the history of Sandinism and the FSLN; the struggle for workers and peasants control through thew own mass organisations; the struggle for production and the sweeping agrarian reform; the liberation of women; the anti-imperialist character of the revolution; and the struggle for popular education and health.
The teaching material explains the
threat of Culle" revolution, in the forms of manipulation
, economic dislocation, CIA
filtration,' and military aggressio also explains the necessity of the active participation of all workers in the mass
the need to consolidate the alliance between the workers and
publicising struggle
Other areas the NSC is con- condemning centrating on include: a cam-
support of the women's movebreaking the press support blockade on information and explosing imperialist attempts El Salvador. to subvert the revolution; and
Contact WLB labour movement stewards' committees and trade union bran-
as well as preparing to raise the issue in the TUC and
party autumn con- dated Three pamphlets are demned Massacre one by the Labour Party itself.
The NSC conference also marked the public launching of ing an El Salvador Committee, and forces in an attempt to protect
LUCHA CON
MILICIAS OBRERAS ALFABETIZADORAS. MOA
ESC FCO. CASTILL.O.F. AO MOA
peasants; and the organic unity of the FSLN vanguard with the masses, so as to present a solid united front against the counter-revolution. his, speech to brigades at the beginning of the campaign, Sergio Ramirez, member of the coventen keconstruchon marised the message of the crusade as follows: * The course content is militant Sandinism * We are fighting for a democracy from below, not for electoralism * We are going to bury oppression and injustice.
The first stage of the 'cultural insurrection' will take five months, which time the brigades will return from countryside and their schools and colleges will be reopened. teachers will work inthe fields with their During students, and will be fed and housed by the rural workers. They have other tasks, including the animal and plant life; the teaching of elementary first-aid knowledge; and the organisation of a
the a special session was held on the its own interests in the coun-
there resolution try.'
US intervention and welcoming the formation of an El Salvador Committee in •Britain, also gave conference
' IO the National Revolutionary Coordination in
Sentiment
This sentiment was echoed in a statement from the Labour Party International Committee
15 April, which . conthe 'Palm Sunday Archbishop Romero's funeral, and pressed concern that:
"The US appears to be backthe Salvadorean armed IMPERIALISMU
ERRADICAREMA CLANAL FABETISMO
the assembled
sum-
met with total failure
"alfabetisation Garcia,
after ricada on 21 March:
stirred by
collection of data on destiny..
and dietary our illiterate tion.'
Evidence
It went on to say that: 'Evidence seems to bear out Archbishop Romero's fear that the land reformis in no sense being carried In cne interests of the El Savadorean people.'
It ends with the words "the people of El Salvador should be allowed to determine their own future and we deplore any attempt by the United States to influence El Salvador's interna affairs.'
The EI Salvador Committee urgently needs help. Contact via CARILA, 29 Islington Park Street, London N1.
MOn
MILIC
vast census of all aspects of the conditions of life of the rural and urban poor.
In recent weeks, bourgeois and reac tionary elements have intensified their campaign of disruption and hostile propaganda against the advancing revolution, but each attempt they have made to insert levers into fissures and open up cracks in the revolutionary front have
-For example, in the build-up to the crusade, reactionary sectors of the clerg. and the bourgeoisie attacked the crusade for 'Marxist bias' and have argued for
through Christ'. Ivan general secretary of the San dinista workers union, replied in Bar-
*... this reaction is because they are
fear, terror, that brother workers and peasants will not simply learn how to read and write, but as they become literate they will become converted into active agents in the tasks of reconstruction and deciding their own
accompanying the 24 letters of the Castillian alphabet there will arrive to
orutners.... Ine Revolu-
Page 11 scan of this page
'Our skin has turned dusty grey
IRELAND
STAMPING feet and 'troops out now' slogans followed speeches by Ireland speakers at the National Union of Students conference Blackpool. One of the speakers was from the Relatives Action Committee, the other was protesting about the conditions in Armagh jail.
The student conference was polarised on the issue, the NUS executive suffering a major defeat after an emergency motion taking up the plight of women Armagh was passed by 296 delegate votes to
The incoming executive is now mandated to issue a complaint to the Home Office and the United Nations, to support demands for the restoralion normal prisoners, and to launch a national petition By Valerie Coultas ARMAGH prison in the North of Ireland is becoming notorious. It is inside these walls that women prisoners, who dare to demand prisoner-of-war status, are being subjected to regular beatings and have been denied washing toilet facilities.
The harassment goes on non-stop. On Wednesday 26 March four women prisoners were attacked in the prison yard and suffered cuts and bruises. On Sunday 30 March, while the women were at mass, prison warders entered their cells chamber pots over their Warders switch lights on bang cell doors, and rattle the door shutters back and forward.
The governor has also prevented two women, Dolores O'Neill and Anne Bateson, regular visits to which they entitled. a Patricia-Craig, andrber prisoner, has contracted a rash called impetigo. The rash is highly infectious because of Pauline's refusal to be 'criminalised' she has been denied medical treatment.
Smuggled
illa HOle . smuggled out on Tuesday 8 April, which was reprinted
Republican News, describe what it is like to be denied washing and sanitary facilities.
'We have been here in 'A' wing for six weeks now. Our cells covered in excreta and urine. The dust and dirt are building up to a marked degree. When one walks across the cell floor the dust rises catching at our chests and throats.
'We ourselves are filthy. We have not washed nor have we had any change of clothes since 7 February, so we are in a filthy state.
'Many of the girls already have infections which, through time, only get worse. Since it is six weeks since we were denied washing facilities all of us have now gone through our menstrual cycle in these filthy conditions. dangerous time, the risk of infection
high. Sanitary towels thrown into us without wrappings.
Although we have combs it is pointless to use them because our hair is thick with dust and dirt. impossible to get a comb through it. Our skin has turned a dusty grey, not only because we are locked in our cells twenty three hours per windows of our cells are boarded up with large pieces of allowing little air or daylight through. Food
'As regards the food situation it is a major problem. Breakfast consists of porridge. lumpy it is inedible. Bread is rarely seen and if by chance we get some, it is stale. Supper consists of one pancake or one sandwich.
"The quantity and quality of food is totally inadequate. Many girls have lost weight - weight they afford to lose. We are unlocked one at a time to collect our meals and
Northern
last week in
for Dr Cole,
Workers Republican prisoners
privileges for the
Armagh A wing is women's H block
and
ART
ESCAPED
emptied
beds.
and off,
getting
are
but are
completely
because of
them, freezing. will extremely toilet and
collect her meal and the she is talking too long, they
are just
screws.'
The inhuman it is Armagh al c
day. The the women.
authorised wood thus
have us believe.
that protests violation OI
own record in Ireland. can ll
protesting at the inhuman conditions under which they are held. The petition will also call the resident medical officer in Armagh, to be struck off the medical register.
The Socialist Students Alliance, a grouping which includes IMG students, and the Socialist Student Organisation gether throughout the conference to bring the attention of delegates to the situation in the North of Ireland.
On the opening night of the conferenee the SSA and SWSO won a motion to have guest speakers from Belfast. To pay their fares a collection was taken on the spot, despite the
GERMANS
Bir no
THE IRISH
M
this time-consuming method, the majority of the giris meals are, by the time they receive from
"The attitude of the screws is
hostile; they are clad in protective clothing, including masks.
Quite frequently when a girl is out to
screws think drag her back to her cell making sure they get a
constantly subjected physical and verbal abuse from the
conditions LIUL product of vindictiveness by the prison wardens, altnough mey are vmaicuve lowards
This brutality and sanctioned by the British government in Westminster.
The women in 'A' wing, like the men in H Block. are not 'criminals' as the British press and government would
They are ordinary people who are fighting for the British army to get out of Ireland and leave the Irish people to live in peace.
The government in Westminster,
so loudly about the human rights Afghanistan, has no qualms about its
But it seems as if it will not be long before the European Parliament will be brought onto the scene to prick the
Students back Armagh protest
refusal to
mandate to do so.
worked to-
discussed
and the Britain's conscience a little.
It is shortly to consider a motion
George Marchais, member of the French Communist Pegal Committee to: calling for the Parliament
'conduct an rights in the Sin denties into the denial of human
Women Against Imperialism in Belfast can take a lot of credit for the success of the international campaign to highlight the conditions in Armagh jail. It was the women in this group that decided to organise a stration on International Women's Day last year to bring attention to the plight of the women prisoners.
Arrested for palls, decided to boycott the proceedings and concentrate energies on exposing British brutality.
On 9 April the day they should have been in court, a public tribuna was held in West Belfast. The pane included Frances De La Tour and Vanessa Redgrave, Noel Mccafferty
journalist on the Irish Pauline Roe (a member of the executive of the National Union Students) and Pat Arrowsmith. The tribunal heard evidence from prisoners, relatives and notes smuggled out of the prison detailing conditions inside.
Pat Arrowsmith told Challenge that the Tribunal succeeded in showing that the conditions of
women Armagh are
hostility of some delegates to this proposal.
The executive was also taken up on its
Amount a campaign against Prevention of Terrorism Act despite having a
The Left Alliance which dominates the executive did their utmost to stop Ireland being
Andy Permain, a member of the Communist Party, opposed the collection for the Armagh campaign on the grounds that it
Relatives Action Committee "Provisional IRA fronts'
Alan Christie, the Deputy President of the NUS and a member of the National Organisation of Labour Students, likewise thought that
in Long Kesh. a leading The women ding four basic rights 1. The right to clothing. 2. Free association prisoners.
demon-
court ther with:
Alternative Cabaret Bloomers Cunning Stunts Demolition Decorators F.I.G Sadista Sisters Times)
of
ex-
Socialist as well as their children. noW
supporting the
it stands for'
the would have put Traditional
breakthrough'.
Irish issue.
the women of Armagh effective Scene from
committee
deteriorating to the state of H Block 3. One food parcel, one letter and s
visit each week. in Armagh are demantivities. wear their own
with other
A benefit for women in Armagh jail WOMEN IN ENTERTAINMENT presents a review by women on behalf of women
BREAKING OUT
& others from Women In Entertainment Sunday 27 April from 2.15-5.00pm Venue: The Rio, 107 Kingsland High Street, London E8 Women only: £1.50 waged, £1 unwaged Creche available - phone Rio for details (01-254 6677) Tickets on sale at door and from the following:
Rio Cinema, Centreprise, Action Space, Sisterwrite, Women's Arts Alliance. The money raised will go towards the campaign to help the women in Armag
Socialist Cl
Armagh prisonels and publicising their brutal treatment would give
credence to the Provisional IRA and everything
Pauline Roe, for the SSA and the IMG, replied that if she had wanted the conference to
give support to the IRA that's the motion she
supporters of the executive
among the delegates broke with them to ensure
that the emergency resolution was passed.
The decision, said Pauline, marked a 'huge While in no way committing
the NUS to campaign for troop withdrawal it
has forced the NUS to break its silence over the
It remains for student militants at the base
to make sure that the NUS executive are not
allowed to cop out of making its protest about
the "Armagh play' on the plight of the prisoners, produced by the Belfast Sinn Fein women's
4. Educational and recreational ac-
The courts fined the Armagh 11 a total of £290 in their absence. 24 Aprl 1980 P
Page 12 scan of this page
By Alix Lee, South London Revolution YOUTH are once again on the move. All over the country we are standing up to say No to the vicious repression and the empty future that Thatcher is offering. again youth are leading the fightback.
from the racist state, black youth in Bristol put the police on the run. Their success has inspired many young people.
Wales
march their feet off to oppose Tory policies, which offer a life on the punks, skins, and black youth staged spontaneous mass closure of their club following a police raid.
It's a big step from turning up at the odd Anti Nazi League against the forces of the state.
Even we so-called seaside resorts could be seen as a response to
SOME of the key figures in the Left Opposition: group since February 1976. What happened at that time?
Young people, high school, university students produced leaflets at the time of the 25th Communist Party congress in 1976. The leaflets were pro-communist, communism with a human face.
The KGB arrested Others Ornes involved alre in and Reznikov, - last grade of high school or the first year of institute or university.
Their leaflet ended demand Long Live the New ReClution? The Live
Group was pro-communist, Marxist, but also anarchists and socialists.
How did the group develop after that?
In Leningrad there are many places where artists, political dissidents can meet cafés and communes.
After the leafleting attempt in 1976, Skoboy organised a commune in Leningrad. Arkady then studying at the University of Tartu, where he had many friends.
At Skoboy's untille Leningrad many people together to talk about art, politics and philosophy. As well Leningrad, they came from Moscow, the Baltic republics, and Siberia. If they came to Leningrad, they stayed at the commune.
Tsurkov and Reznikov came to the commune and sometimes lived there. With Sokobov they formed the core of the Leningrad grouping:
Could you describe the commune?
It was on the edge of the city, Primorsky Prospect, about half hour by train from the centre of the city. It was on the first floor of an old two-storey wooden home.
The commune had a set of statutes written by Skobov. It defined the commune Suke communist society. Everything for everybody. Skobov private property. He was opposed to violence.
There was a cash box for whatever the commune néeded. Its doors were always open. Everybody knew where the key was kept. From 5 to 10 people lived there at any one time, but a lot of people came in from other cities.
How did the commune become the centre for a political movement?
We had discussions commune. We talked internal situation, foreign about the latest cultural philosophy, and so on.
We wanted more Outside the commune we weren't free to express ourselves. We even listen to the music we wanted to hear.
We didn't like the system. We couldn't travel abroad. For example, tourists from Finland could come to Leningrad, but we in Leningrad could Finland.
Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 12
INTERNATIONAL
Once
After years of harassment and brutality
youth were prepared to
dole. In Liverpool
demonstrations the
azallist
If anything youth are more political now.
waging a struggle
'Easter riots' at the
had been active
and
calling for
Andrei.
with the
Communism!
proincluded Opposition.
school and
protest at the arrests.
people, and - in apartments,
form.
Tsurkov was
in came
from an
small was repudiated at the about the policy, news,
freedom.
couldn't
passport
trave to
Southall and Brick Lane which inspired the anti-racist movement within punk, so if these youth are from the left the influence of fascist boot-boys can easily be stamped out.
The Revolution newspaper was launched in 1978 to draw on the potential that the ANL generated among youth; to begin organising those who saw that capitalism wasn't working and that an alternative is necessary.
Salutes The fact that many of the youth gave Seig Heil salutes indicates that they see no way out of the 'No future' offered them by those who claim to lead the working class. So they tate up the British Movement or the NF.
Just as it was the struggles of Asian youth in IN LATE 1978 there were reports from the Soviet Union that the KGB had broken up a commune in Leningrad and arrested several young activists who belonged to a group known as the Left
On 5 December 1978 some two hundred
university students in demonstrated outside the Kazan Cathedral in
The left-wing ideas which these young people identify with, including Marxism and anarchism, are for the most part available only in samizdat The Leningrad group had established links
Revo: on the march!
perspective at Bristol.'
establishing
are not ignored.
'We couldn't even listen to
the music we wanted to hear' -
Soviet youth speak out
USSR,
Leningrad
the events in the St Paul's community a few days earlier. One of the most popular chants when they took on the police was: "We got you
We said that this youth organisation had to be independent from any 'parent' party, so that as many youth as possible could be involved in organising and politicising themselves.
it has been quite a long, drawn out process
Revolution as all organisation. Yet we have been able to involve hundreds of youth in struggles and campaigns that we have helped to lead
We made sure that the demands of youth
In this period we have also laid the groundwork for our founding conference on 17-18 with other left-wing and socialist groups in the
and had decided to hold an 'All-Union conference of the Left Opposition'. It launched a journal called Perspectives, to serve as a basis for discussion at the conference.
After the KGB arrested some of the key activists, the secret police moved against other participants in and around the group, expelling a number from the Young Communist League and from their university or school.
The interview published here is with one of the Leningrad activists who was forced to emigrate Now aged 18, he left the USSR in November 1978.
We felt the hypocritical. There are so many lies.
How did you become involved with the commune?
I had a lot of friends in the Academy of Arts in Leningrad. These people artists and painters each other in cafés like the Sphinx or Red Castle in friends who came there often, even Irom moscow. place to spend the night, so we would help them.
Through this I became acquainted with people who knew Skobov and introduced me to him. friends.
There Welc demonstrations Usually we attempted to expose the fact that the Soviet communist or Marxist, and that the Communist Party is because in the soviet Union al the power is in the hands of the state.
Communism
society. We could understand a state being necessary to build communism.
But in the USSR the state only serves the interests of the upper class, the bureaucrats.
What were the main political currents in the group?
There WCIC three currents. There were the Marxists like Tsurkov and Reznikov and Fedorova.
There were anarchists like Khavin and me. Skobov was half Marxist and half anarchist.
There were three left democrats like Victor Pavlenkov, who was from Gorky. His father dissident and he had many friends in Gorky and Moscow. democrats weren't anarchists, but simply took part in the democratic rights from a left-wing point of view.
The Left Opposition group
tional Marxist Group.
system. independent
planning Conference
Skobov, scale.
we want to universities No. leading figures?
On - tended to find exile.
Leningrad. I had
And they needed a
We became
calls to have Leningrad and to speak out.
Union is not
not Marxist, only six Leningrad After should be free
it is only
closed. dismissed.
main political
school.
famous
The left Marxist to
was would help us.
"May which will establish us as organisationally and financially independent of the Interna-
We've gained the experience of electing our own leadership, and established the first steps to a regular dues
If you want to join an organisation which can involve youth in the fight against the Tories and for youth rights, an organisation that you control, come to Revolution conference.
Saturday/Sunday 17-18 May
REVOLUTION NATIONAL
CONFERENCE
The University of London Students Union
Malet Street, London WC1 (5 mins from tuston Station Guest speakers; discussions; workshops; films; gig and disco; and
much more besides
hold 'All Union of the Left Opposition'.
How did this plan come about?
Tsurkov, Fedorova Rezkikov and others from Leningrad went to Moscow for a meeting. There were only people from Moscow and Leningrad at the meeting, but the! were planning to have a conference in Leningrad that would be on a larger
We began to put out Perspectives. distribute it in the and high schools to present our views and get supporters Although we would make only 10 or 15 carbon copies of each issue of Perspectives, many people read it One person reads the copy and then i it on to a friend. A lot oi people learned about our magazine.
Was the Conference held?
On 12 August the militia came and smashed the commune. And after that, it ceased to exist, although some people continued to meet there. But it was dangerous for them. They were followed by the militia.
What happened to the commune's
14 October • 1978, Skoboy was arrested. On 16 April 1979, his trial was held, and he was sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment for an indefinite period.
Arkady Tsurkov was arrested on 31 October, and in April 1979 he was sentenced to five years in a concentration camp and three years internal
On 16 April, Khavin was arrested He was sentenced to a six-year term. Reznikov and Fedorova were sent to Victor Pavlenkov had to emigrate like I did.
A friend of mine from Leningrad has told me that now the school where I went has been changed. My school was one of the best high schools in school privileged, for children of important artists, big party members and so on It was a 10-grade school and had a special French school • there were such French schools in
the December demonstration, when the 9th and 10th grade students came to the demonstration, the KGB came to the school and now an eight-grade school, because the 9th and 10th grades were lot of teachers were
So now it is an incomplete school, a poor quality one, like the schools that thev have here in States for Puerto Ricans and blacks. An eight-grade school is not a good "
What can socialists abroad do to support the movement of young militants in the Soviet Union?
I think the movement in the Soviet Union is continuing. There should be a defence campaign organised here for Skobov, Tsurkov and Khavin -articles, organise demonstrations and cuinmittees, and carry other actions the comrades of the Fourth International would work on this, it
Page 13 scan of this page
anniversary blues
HOME NEWS
black people. If the trained thugs of the Special Patrol Group had
bludgeoned Blair Peach to death on 23 April 1979, there would have been no great hue and cry, no soul-searching in the liberal
Yes
operations on that fateful day, almost
the Scotland Yard chiets to see an
against largest community ruined by an over-zealous SPG Inspector and his gang.
These reflections are prompted by reading the Report of the Unofficial published by the National Council for Committee Enquiry, * Civil Liberties.
Report
The members of the Committee of Enquiry were: Micnael (Wykeham Professor of Philosophy and Logic at Oxford Roger Butler (AUEW Secretary in Southall), Stuart (Professor of Sociology at the Open University), Patricia Hewitt (NCCL), Bill Keys Joan LestoDick (MP for Eton Slough), North Executive), Paul O'Higgins (Reader in Law at Cambridge Ranjit Sondhi, Rt. Rev. Thompson of and Pauline Webb Church).
The report establishes an accurate chronology of what took place in Southall a year ago. detailed account of the numbers of policemen and SPG units prese
how they dealt demonstrators:
Clearly a lot of work went into the report and its authors deserve to be congratulated for the attention they have given to detall. The language, too, chosen. designed clearly to convince those who are loathe to disbelieve Scotland Yard Left
I did, however, resent the snide reference to the revolutionary Paul Holborrow is virtually called a liar. The Socialist Unity leaflet calling for a picket outside the Town Hall is criticised for not using the word 'peaceful'
It is stated that my presence was resented by some who thought that Socialist Unity was using the situation to gain votes. Anything more bizarre could hardly be conceived. Socialist Unity was so thoroughly immersed in the anti-NF mobilisations ignored and abandoned its electoral functions.
Virtually canvassing
place. We threw our entire campaign at the disposal of those wishing to mobilise the community.
In fact I was prevented physically by the police from canvassing or using
loudspeaker equipment electoral purposes on 23 April. At the same time the police were allowing the NF to hold an 'electoral meeting'. If the Committee had wished it could have discovered these facts simply by questioning me. They did not do so. SPG
But sideswipes apart, the report confirms everything that was reported
Socialist Challenge and Socialist Worker. Where it is at its weakest is in its recommendations. composition of the committee clearly the cause. For though it 'unofficial' it same framework committee.
It is caught in a contradiction. On the one hand it accepts the existence of racism, including the police force
Dummett
University,
District Hall
(NUT
University),
Hewlett Willesden), (Methodist
provides
esent and
the
meticulous
carefully
handouts.
left.
showered
to chart a middle way,
not even propose disbanded,
that
took the police
police,
Front,
dozens of others.
The
over trials at Barnet Court.
Communey
undertaking,
Here the that a repetition of 23
The unofficial
'official' was outside
this canard product
and quotes the vile, racist abuse wnich
innumerable Asians. On the other it still attempts
La neutral course and implies that the state is somehow impartial. As a result it does
that the SPG is a demand which has already been accepted by the TUC and the Labour Party conferences.
However there can be little doubt that the report will be denounced by
and. Its backers the the media. It makes it fairly clear that the
by refusing to tolerate any demonstration against the National
provoked a situation: which ultimately resulted in the death of Blair Peach and serious injuries to
also highlights the judicial frame-ups which were carried out by the magistrates who presided
The question we have to ask and attempt to answer is the following: Why were the police able to defeat the
and could this have been averted? We are fully aware that to discuss such matters is not a popular
but unless they are tackled there is nothing to indicate
April 1979 would produce a different result. the
collect quite correct v dismiss the notion that it
agitators' who were responsible for what took place. But
was not simply the of fevered imaginations in Fleet Street. It was also the view of the
Southall-first
- 10,000 people marched through Southall to commemorate Blair Peach a few days after his death
secretary of the Indian Workers Association, Mr Khabra, who made a series of slanderous-and unfounded allegations against the Anti Nazi Leis tact is mot mentioned in sor
is not mentioned in the unofficial report.
In fact these attacks by Khabra were widely quoted in the local press and were clearly the basis for the concerica campaign launched Fleet Street and the BBC. Khabra has been elected president of
Indian Workers Association, replacing Vishnu Sharma!
What does this signify? First that the way in which the IWA was run left a great deal to be desired. The IW A is undoubtedly a powerful network in Southall, but its name is somewhat inappropriate. For those who run the IWA are essentially a conglomerate of businessmen, shop-keepers and local notables. The only occasion on which they appeal to their membership is when they are seeking re-election. Unity
The most serious criticism made •of Vishnu Sharma by socialists Southall is that he did not utilise his period in office to try and alter both
structures and mode functioning of the IWA. Instead he SouzilL. LU Shitt it to the leit by manipulating its existing structures. I us allempt cnaca lu lanuic
The IWA failed to mobilise the community after 23 April. It collected funds for the Defence Campaign, but
consciously refused to do anything else.
Its rival in Southall Youth Movement, was formed half a decade ago. The SYM undoubtedly layer community, IWA tended to be apolitical.
Incapable of taking up by Now
demonstration
on 27 April. in
should oppose the SPG.'
come to
opposed
for
goods. Target
different.
obduracy
wounds.
from
day realities.
tion of
that she
Bilities, foolish. groups cannot
racist friends
Nor, force
police.
The Southall Was the organisation which
represented within the but its hostility to the of the Enquiry, Vishnu
Steel Pickets: Why we'll be
coming to the Blair Peach
CONTINGENTS of steel workers from South Yorkshire will be coming to the Blair Peach Commemoration demonstration in London
One of the main themes of the march will be the demand that the Special Patrol Group be disbanded. Steve Pilley, Rotherham ISTC, told Socialis Challenge: 'At all the mass pickets I was on, there have been lots of arrests, the police just pulling people about. When I was arrested the police carried me round the back of a truck, covered my head with a coat and put the boot in.
"The Special Patrol Group are what we shouted at them strike: 'Maggie Thatcher's boot boys'. Thatcher brought out the SPG like she did because it was political and they are political police. The Army's got the SAS and the police have got the SPG — it's all the same.
"Steel workers should be on the pickets of the police stations because their brothers and sisters have been beaten by these bastards. Every trade unionist
Bernard Connolly, South Yorkshire Crafts convenor said: "The Tories used the police, and particularly the SPG, as they said they would in the Ridles Report — against trade unionists and pickets. The SPG should never have beer formed in the first place. They are just thugs in uniform. Their boots aren't made for walking, they're just for kicking.'
Sharma politically its leaders often resorted to vulgar abuse and intimida.
One can appreciate their frustration, but in the medium term a refusal
with reformist politics was bound to be disastrous Thus in the IWA elections the SYM
Sharma, DUL backed the forces which were well to the right of the local Labour Party!
Undoubtedly one major reason
defeat suffered by the community on 23 April 1979 was a combination of the IWA's reformism and the SYM's refusal to understand that only united actions and a collective co-ordination could deliver the
In normal times the police sides with reformists in order to isolate, defeat and smash all forces to the left. In Southall last April, the mood was
Anyone who was on the streets was regarded as a legitimate target. Incapable of maintaining their margin of manoeuvre because of the
of Scotland Yard the Terrust projecl received a severe blow to the head. It is still nursing its
Meanwhile Southall has moved further to the right and further away
organised politics Hopefully this is a temporary phase, but social. ists cannot afford to ignore present-
It is ironic that the police suffered their first major defeat at the hands of the black community in the St Paul's district of Bristol. Political organisa-
Many sort within this community is virtually non-existent.
leading Socialist Challenge supporter in Southall was so elated
suggested we immediately produce a badge emblazoned with the motto: Bristol 1, Southall O. The idea was vetoed lest it offend some sensib-
but the thought was
Solution Sed
The unofficial report says that we must prevent a recurrence of what happened in Southall. One of the measures it recommends is that the election deposit be raised so that small
put candidates This is a joke. The fascists and their
• will not teel unduly restricted by a proposal of this sort.
incidentally, will the police
As racism continues to exist and
grows will the hostility directed at the blacks by the
After all there were no Nazi parades in Bristol a few weeks ago
only solution is the selfof the resist all attacks. It is worth asking why it is only revolutionary socialists who recommend such a course. * Southall: 23 April 1979. The Report
Unofficial Committee of , Published by the National Council for Civil Liberties, £2.20.
during the steel Socialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Politics and fun at Summer School
LETTERS
Setting the
facts
straight, 1
IT IS quite true that I have not
ssed the Challinor Board L-level examinations in the Challinor school of theoretical understanding, but I trust this will not alsqdany me nom canymg a few matters of fact about Jim Murray and the Tyneside Socialist Centre. See jeltes Iv aoll.
Jim Murray is not 'a of the Socialist Centre'. He Is on uc cclue s co-ordltall" committee as a representative of the Vickers Elswick shop stewards COmlCe.
If Ray Challinor really felt so strongly about the struggles within he Labour Party then the most enccuve way or removing Murray from the Centre's committee would have been through the shop stcwarus commalicc, Oy icatieing the Vickers workers, the shop stewards quarterly, etc, at the uHc o uc aly colecice.
They are the people with the power to remove him and if these stewanes mave ecele amast dss opportunist' then surely the most important thing is to have the arsuncu wil ucl.
Secondly, the Socialist Centre is not a party or a substitute fo the revolutionary groups. All the main socialist parties and groups of Militant are affiliated to the cente on tne basis or a very general commitment to all struggles against oppression and for a sod kust socct. a conmunet lo organise secilisi debate and education, and to provide pracaca r esources Tor local sucaes
Clearly even on this basis there could be occasions when the Cenue wowe savero corere member's behaviour or reject his or her membership. But the basis ol bac allance is not yel soecinic enough for the Centre, as a body, to condemn a member's vote over a particular reform of the Labour Party.
Murray's case for voting the way he did on the election of the endersolo - wille volna les the left on re-selection and the manifesto was that the proposais pur forwara tor elecung a leader would only have increased the power and status ot the trade union leaderships. He argues that a leader elected by MPs who would be subiect to re-selection would be more democratic, given the present undemocratic structure of the unions.
A bogus argument, I agree, and so did most of the rest of the Centre's membership, but not sufHacu rounas lor tac ccnuc as d whole to make a public condemnation.
What we did do though, was to organise public debate on the issue boln trougn our montuiy By Davy Jones POLITICS and fun — that's the agenda of the IMG Summer School from 12 to 18 July. It will be a chance for comrades from all over the country to meet in a relaxed atmosphere to discuss vital questions of Marxist theory and strategy. It can mark an important step building a revolutionary organisation confident in fighting for its programme.
The school aims to revolutionary Third World during the 20th century.
Ernest Mandel will speak on Revolutionary Strategy the Third Global Policy from Yalta Charles Udry, the Fourth International, HACSON on une Portuguese 1974. Robin Blackburn Cuban Revolution.
A series of debates will take place on themes such as Afganistan, Cuba Today. Optional courses will Marxism and the Family, the British Labour Movement, and an Introduction to Marxist Economics.
The summer school won't all be 'heavy
Socialist Challenge
bulletin and through an open
TeNOr c icec once eneres
to the Labour Party conference.
Jim Murray and a number of
orner acicgates gave inelr reports
I and many others at the
meting expressed our strong
alsa ccmcut waw Murray.
Challinor did not bother to turn
up to the meting. Neither did
Andy Strouthous put his resolu-
tion calling for public disassocia-
tion by the Centre.
It was not until a Socialist
Centre meting in February five
months later that Strouthous
decided to put his resolution.
Unalinor ala not botner to turn
up to that meting either
Finally, though Challinor
micht well have been too obsesser
with Jim Murray to notice, the
Centre, far from being a 'squalid
mess'. has been nretty successfull
recently within the limited aims it
sets itself.
The Centre's bookshop, Days
of Hope, has overcome a major
financial crisis with contributions
from over 150 individuals; its
oookse nice Pikes socaiis
literature to a growing number of
trade union metings and schools
which would otherwise have only
official trade union 'literature'
avalldulc
The Centre organised a very
successful day school on the
Labour left, with the majority of
senkers dene rom ane revo l-
tionary left. It has raised money
and organised a social for the
steerworkers ano nas nao reauyau
monthly forums on Zimbabwe,
repression Soviet-style, repres-
British-style. and the crisis "
in the NHS, with a regular atten-
dance of over 70.
I would be the first to admit
that there are tremendous pro-
blems in creating a socialist
alliance of this sort -
been working at them for five
Socialist Challenge
readers will be tamilar with such
problems in their own areas.
One of them is indeed the one
which Challinor touched on of
how to go beyond general agree-
ment to a more specific pro.
gramme and vision of socialist
chane ard ute dantes or con-
promising that process in order to
maintain that alliance.
Sa Hos Sacesions
have always been welcome but he
has rarely been willing to get prac-
ucaly uve vca. Aue commens
based mainly on personal abuse
rather than political argument are
annicui to lake seniously.
HILARY WAINWRIGHT,
North Shields
Left Back biting
IT WOULD almost have been
ironic, if not yet another depress-
ing illustration of the backbiting
stance all coo orten adopted look at important upheavals in Europe and the
World and Stalinist Afganistan. another well-known leader will lead off revolution will speak on the
State Capitalism politics'.
include 24 April 1980 Page 14
(nallinor s personalisea put-down
TENSTOC DOSe RN
LIC Coll EL SL ICS 01 1C11
10l O Ho auye Cucs io ulc
Hocova alc alca maly Wolcl
As a supporter of the Tvneside
nol apolo sc lor lal.
wc tave
surct uc me exstcnce ol d
to us polical value nere on
ANNIE HUDSON, Newcastle
Setting the
facts straight,
SOME inaccuracies appeared in my alucle (1 l Apri) on te National Union of Teachers conference which I did not include: 1. luc caccugye was no 'defeated' on backing action for 14 May. The executive itsel) issued a statement on the first day orinc conc cuce bacaneoc associations/divisions taking half-day action.
Of course this isn't adequate, but it does reflect the present situation nationally in' the trade umons waere amon icadersnips
ADAL
The conference centre s conntrvside Barlles There'll be plenty of time for relaxing in the sun, watching films or joining in the sporting Sactivities in the conference facilities.
Attendence at the school is
328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON N1
9 Manche emenire ion.
backed action in
Scant.
general propaganda. atouel 1 choose.)
ting to show that the middle
the left to organise and conmonths.
Setting the
3
tọ me to comment on that; although the march'. members or Revolution. places in all.
open to
are forced by the Tory attacks and pressure from below to back action. It is also a logical exten sion or tne Nol 's backing Tor tne
The executive is not ITEC OHO VE ZITA TITE ATINTOTTN sense as, say, the EEPTU. It has
many area Afganistan. against the cuts; it has shifted ToweTes coser incs winh me tat unions than a few years ago. Such actions are small but not insignifi-
3. Executive members argued for (not against) the strike fund being dissipated into financing
This move was overwhelmingly deleated
4. John Perry is not 'an exMilitant supporter'. I said that he was an 'ex-Trotskyist' and 'ex.
of both the SWP and the IMG (Incidentally, he also opposed a molon ol a woman s ucul lo
5. The headline Teachers' leaders get a kick up the backside was extremely regressive. The bourgeois media constantly uses 'images of corporal punishment to describe any actions of teachers.
This is particularly offensive given ulal uc communust rarty ana al forces to the left of it are strongly opposed to corporal punishment.
Such alterations gave the artice a oreromnanty execunve- last year. bashing tone. I was also attemp-
ground of the conterence hac shifted and that it was vital for
Sundal LICSC allIs UVC LICICI
HILDA KEEN, London N16
facts straight,
I AM reported in your issue of 10 April as saying, regarding the NF march in Oldham on 12 April, hat 'the NF have the right to march if they so wish, it's not ur
police should ban it on the day if it becomes a racist
I wish to make clear, what the Charter.
sympathisers of the IMG and But hurry, there are only
Branches of IMG and Revolution should
discuss the school as soon as nossible. A denosi
of £10 will secure your place but the full £47.50
ON': article does not anywhere reveal, that the purpose of the NF marct as advertised was to protest asamist mc palsunaly lor lly so• called campaign against the police and also against Jim Lamond, th other Oldham MP
, because of hi views on te cuss am lavasion or
Clearly I would not seek to colsor anoody make dudac their objection to my views, and I felt it would be doubly inap•oonae to uyo cere borce to call off a march whilst it was directed against what are sup •osce to be mry views ane monves in regard to the police temselves.
However, 1 am of course aware that there have been some savage and unprovoked attacks against members of the Asian culmusuty l aly colsutucucy oll several occasions over the last few weeks and months, and for that reason, because it was all toc cea lal me maco moni o used in fact for racist propagand purposes, I did write to the Chie useninchdenl or tre ond police drawing his attention to these violent attacks on Asians ze ce dn co done marc if he had any evidence or reason to believe that the march would be usea tor oler tan tne pudlc ly stated purpose
As to the events at Southall
el me make l aosonre ly clear that I am on record several times as supporting that demonstration and calling for th toRi olse memeni or e ru and indeed Ishall be saying exactly that again next Sunday when I speak al ine invitanon or tne Friends of Blair Peach Committee at the rally they have called in Trafaigar Square.
MICHAEL MEACHER MP, House of Commons
Lies about
'Real Steel
News'?
I WISH to take issue with Brian
Grogan when he says (10 April) that Real Steel News failed and
that, in consequence, the SWP
lallcucu lac buce wok er
school courses temselves. Week, PO Box 50, Lopdon Ni. Send cheques IMG SUMMER Name/Address
150
enclose a cheque/PO for
OF TH TD EGICH BARBARISM OF THE NAZIS.
Firstly, its a pecuhar concop of failure To take Scunthorpe as an example (since I knov something of what went on there) the Real Steel News began in 1978 as a montniy bunleln. It wa: produced for a long time by an SWP steelworker and anothe SWP member Towards the end of last year a number of Labour Party members as wel as mor-arce steelworkers joined the RSN 'group so at the beginning of the strike there were about 8 steelworkers › producing the weekly bulletin. During the course of the samke rem aree vews amacter many supporters - - about 50, which is quite good for an area wiln no ucull omutacy Incidentally, the SWP branch grew from 4 members to about The Steelworkers Charter is an RSN initiative which has won the support of the Sheffield and •ocksoro e sunike committees ak well as other militants in several areas. It is intended as a focus zom we e c be launched on closures, job losses and for the democratisation of the
What will the IMG do now -keep calling for a national strike committee or support the charter?
To conclude. the SWP launched Real Steel News two vcar verore me surke ara ore would have to 'bend a stick' beyond breaking point to say that lt nas lalled. Ine argument abou our not calling for a national "strike committee can be made as a political point (although I don't agree with it), but it isn't helped by lying about the success of Rea Steel News and the Socialist Workers Party.
GEOFF COLLIER, Hull
LETTERS exceeding 400 word: will normally be cut to ensure that the maximum number of readers can express their views.
Anonymous letters will only be published in exceptional circumstances, but real names will be withheld from publication has to be paid in advance. This will cover your accommodation, meals, reading lists and the
postal orders to 'The
SCHOOL 12-18 JULY
I am interested in coming to the summer school. I am a member of the IMG/Revolution /I am a sympathiser of IMG/Revolution from
....(Town) owards the £47.50 cost of the schoc
Page 15 scan of this page
UNDER REVIEW
By Skip Laszlo THE Art Emsemble of Chicago doesn't sound like a typical jazz-band name. But then the members of the band don't play what most conventional critics call jazz.
At London's Queen Elizabeth Hall earlier this month, a packed house heard them play with equal precision African drum music and free jazz to smooth melodies and Big Band swing.
The only analogy that seems appropriate for their music is Jimi Hendrix's 'It's like the waves of the ocean. It's constantly moving all the time.?
A blues solo on Malachi Favors' bass rises with a swell of African percussion and flute from the other musicians. A hurricane of imBy Lesley O'Keefe and Jenny Flintoft THE most prolific film industry in the world is in India; its films are widely viewed throughout the subcontinent and the East, and are avidly seen by the Indian community in Britain.
Indian films are escapist, romances laced with song and dance, and drowning in sentiment, or wildly absurd melodramas full of suspense and wicked villains. Even popular is a mixture of the two.
Chums
Like Hollywood, the Indian film industry endlessly churns out films which avoid the real issues; for India, the problems of land and food shortage, illiteracy and, for many, actual survivar. few films break with this pattern but a notable exception Benegal's Bhumika (The Role), which was recently screened in London.
Like Mizoguchi's films feudal Japan, Benegal's work shows a compassionate understanding of the plight of Asian women who are oppressed in a far more complete way than • women in modern society.
In fact one of Benegal's stated aims in making Bhumika was to show 'the problems of women in our society, the search for their own identity, their desire to achieve independence'.
Flashbacks
The film is also remarkable for its expose, through flashbacks, of the superficiality of Indian films, and in particular of the shallow assigned to women faces, gorgeous saris, and
Shit. The aquascutum
500 a be is still on T.l
my Marks & Spencer Sh dress.
1,000
1,500
2,050
2,500
* the budget
cialist Challenge 24 April 1980 Page 15
ranging
association, songs of love.
Smita Patil brilliantly
romantic roles she plays. loosely based on Middle Wadkar,
either
Alcoholic
HOIC
and bullying
But while still
freed fetching and carrying for launched on a career film star.
her; she marries
Come are career,
about
ting her filming.
Trendy
Western
like herself, and trendy
exploits her nothing in return.
Stability and security -
when SUCCS
roles second child.
endless Bombay film world to
cari stop
clapping teel
at
BOOO!I800H
provised sound, with no one instrument discernible, settles into a calm and moving saxophone or trumpet solo.
Don Moye's drum and percussion solo continually varies speed and sounds.
While noted for their influential role in the most free and improvised jazz - the new music Art Ensemble's repertoire contains tributes to all strands of Afro-American music. The band emerged ten years ago from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Music, an organisation established by black jazz musicians in Chicago in 1965. The
which still exișts, drew together musicians interested in playing the more free-
Women in India
behind the love songs
pollays Usha, a talented actress whose real life contrasts sharply with the simple.
The film is the life of Hansa misleadingly described in wife. the London Film Festival brochure as the "Joan Crawford of the Marathi scene, getting through men by the dozen and bottles by the thousand'.
Daughter of an alcoholic father
mother, Usha's face childhood is dominated by conflict.
La small child, her same.' musical talent is discovered and she is
the traditional role of men and her. as an adored
But her career does not liberate
older. man, Keshav, while still very young, and he exploits her; tightly controlling her in-
even withholding the news of the death of her dearlyloved grandmother to avoid interrup-
Other men prove to be no alternative as she finds in her affairs with weak self-centred Rajen, a film idol
Westernised Sunil, an egotistic film director who
sexually and gives
She leaves Keshav several times, diences but returns because she needs respec-
and that means a man - only leaving for good
abort her
She then flees the emptiness of the
find refuge
Sometimes 1 like Im being watchea by knownothing militants June.
Salvador.
branches
The Art Ensemble of Chicago
Black Music', refers not only
choirs of Africa.'
cussion and
with rich businessman Vinayak, on • his country estate. There Usha finds
solace in her role as mistress of the
household, generously caring for the
needs of 'husband', his affectionate
small son and his suffering bed-ridden
But Usha's dreams of finding hap-
piness in domesticity are shattered by
discovering she is literally a prisoner.
The businessman's 'high principles'
include a ruling that no woman can
set foot outside the estate.
The sick wife advises her to accept
face fate, saying bitterly, 'Only the
the changes
bedrooms and kitchens remain the
Having written secretly to Keshav, Usha waits passively for him to rescue
Thoroughly defeated and humili-
ated in her attempts to find a satisfying life, she returns to Bombay.
Daughter
Now, there are few roles left for her to play; no longer a sought-after actress, no longer a daughter (her mother died while she was away, Usha rejects both reconciliation with Keshav and the role of grandmother
the household of her married, Dickla faces utter loneliness with fatalistic accolance.
Left activists can use this film to
provoke understanding and discus
sion of Indian women's oppression attracting both British and Indian au-
Another useft! film is an earlier one of Benegal's, Ankur, which deals with the oppression of women and the masses, including caste oppression. 'Bhumika' can be obtained on 16 mm from Contemporary Films, 55 Greek St., London WI (01-734 4901).
to get rid ot this abominabl
spectacle,
send in that
Cash!
BRING the Curtain Down on the Tories - that's the theme of our fund drive appeal from now to the end of
another £2,500 this quarter from our readers so we can keep up our coverage on the major events in the class struggle, so we can send journalists to Bristol and to the major steel areas, so we can produce exclusive pictures of the fighting in El
time we made our large. thanks to the Fiver to Fight the Tories campaign amongst our supporters. This time we will be dependent on local supporters groups and
organising fundraising events for us.
What we can promise is that the
form, improvisational, new music, and at the same time promoted black pride in Afro-American culture and music.
The Art Ensemble call their work 'Great
which they told Val Wilmer to the designated as jazz, but to the Church music of singers like Mahalia Jackson and the drum-
Using a stage packed with an array of per-
instruments, many of them African, traditional jazz instruments, Ensemble members gave a powerful visual and musical demonstration of this claim.
the newlyShe Britain:
Abroad: 12 months
Name
Address. curtain will fall further on Thatcher and her cronies the more money you
Our thanks this week to:IMG Haringey IMG JIrwin Ros & Tina
La strong blues anchor.
previously
timer who
died in the 1920s. five Most Indian films are all beautiful faces and gorgeous saris.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
12 months £12.50; 6 months £ 6.50 - Surface Mail £12.50 Airmail £18.00 Multi-reader institutions: Double the above rate I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of Lneques, rus and money Urders should de made payable To
Complete and return to: socialist Challenge, so Upper Street, London NI.
D Fowler S Hughes L Austin Lambeth IMG £25.00 Total 2.00 2.00 3.50
Not only does the Ensemble reflect the Chicago blend of new music inspired by the advancement association, but the heritage of the city as the capital of urban blues gives the group
There is no period of 'Great Black Music' which is not skilfully honoured by the Ensemble. And just as the link with Africa shows Just how old their 'new' music is, many of their new techniques are old memories they have revived.
Trumpeter Lester Bowie is known for his low-register (almost saxophone-like) playing But he is said to have learned it from an old-
took his trumpet off him demonstrated a method of playing that had
Attracted to the new music by the advancement association, Bowie began his career as a
2.00 1.00 30.00 100.00 £165.50
Cumulative total so far:- £366.47
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge REMEMBER BLAIR PEACH DIŞBAND THE SPG
PICKET OF BLAIR PEACH INQUEST MONDAY 28 APRIL 9am BATTERSEA CORONERS COURT, SHEEPCOTE LANE OFF LATCHMERE Rd SW11 (BRITISH RAIL CLAPHAM JUNCTION
PICTURED above is Inspector Alan Murray, former head of the six-man Number One Unit of the Special Patrol Group, named by Scotland
adstered with the Root Oface
MURRAY OF THE MURDER
SQUAD
Yard is being present at the death of Blair Peach. He has now left the
SPG and is stationed at Chelsea.
• ML. Arbited by East End
← Socialist Challenge No. 143, 17 April 1980Socialist Challenge No. 145, 1 May 1980 →