Socialist Challenge No. 152, 19 June 1980
The scan: sc-n152-jun-19-1980.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
No.152 19 Jume1980 20g Socialist Challenge ANTI-H.M. Government WARNING CRUISE MISSILES CAN DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH
Thatcher& Carter
NATO No.1
Megadeath Size
GIVE UP NATO -YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE
Page 2 scan of this page
Labour- step up the fight for democracy
Unemployment: a best-seller on Teesside
OUR POLICIES
C'apitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in the interests not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital lasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in opposition
class-collaborationism in the labour movement.
non-exclusive in grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the
democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through
application begin lo be seen thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
struggle for seeks to unite the fight of against the wOrKerS with that of other oppressed layers of society - women, black people. Cats struggling for liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist staie.
Our socialism
I than what exists in Britain todar. with full rights for political parties and currents that
lo not lake up arms against ine socialist state. The Stalinist models of 'socialism' in the USSR Fastern Furope have discredited sncialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the He are opposed to them and will offer ful! support 10 fighting for socialist democracy.
The interests of workers and
Sima work sale: Captaini
on a worid scale. Capitalism nol only created marhet. il has created politics. Thus we fight for working class unil! an an
scale. This units will in the long run he decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West
and the brutal dictatorships
sustain in Latin America,
and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding
the immediate withdrawal
British troops from
letting the Irish people deter cane
their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. the 'Eurocommunist
the pro-Moscon wings have any
meaningful
overthrow of the capitalist state.
New revolutionary socialist parties
are necessar!
Conditions today
more fasourable than
preceding three decades. But such
parties can only
rejecting sectarianism and seeing
internal democracy not as a luxury
but as a vital necessity. This means
the right in organise factions and
lendencies.
If you agree with these principles
and want 10 he
activities by socialist Challenge
supporters in your area, fill in the
form below and send it to us.
inferested
information about activities in my
•i would like additional fiterature
and enclose 50p io cover costs.
(berte if not applicable)
Name.
These should Claratics
and rightly been challenged —
united front
of
socialisin
bosses
their ard
world
all those
of Trades Councils
world folk on Teesside. world
shopping centre.
government re-organisation , ther Africa industrial image was dropped, denly the area thrusting 'County Cleveland' of Ireland and
was a time when
chemical
Neither
and "all"
for the Today the white hot
wilson's burnt itself out. ever last week. that are
over the
5.1 per cent.
built Handful
built the
to run them.
Gains involved In
the effects on his branch:
dole.
Thire are
in more complete
projects like the ving idle
as the
industrialising
joction ord de Tonic
THE report of Labour's Commission of Enquiry on the election of the party leader and the drafting of the manifesto is the result of the massive campaign which has been waged by constituency activists for more democracy in the party. monopoly of effective decision making by the predominantly right-wing parliamentary party has
the victories at last year's conference are reflected in the report of the enquiry. But it would be a mistake to believe that the recommendations of the report are anything like a total victory for the left and democracy.
In the first place, the electoral college recommended by the enquiry still gives 50 per cent of the
the election of the leader to the parliamentary party — in other words they would still have a decisive say in who was Moreover, the enquiry recommended that this same electoral college should sanction the party's election manifesto. This is of course a step forward over the position of leaving the final say on the manifesto to the party leader alone. But it is less democratic than having the manifesto sanctioned by the NEC, and even less democratic than leaving the final manifesto to conference.
The recommendations of the enquiry represent a compromise — an unsatisfactory compromise which leaves a lot to be fought for. The architect of this compromise, not surprisingly, Evans of the Transport Union JIt was Evans who, as Benn openly challenged for the leadership of the party last week, came out in support of Callaghan
By Dave Carter Secretary, Cleveland Association
If the covers of Socialist Challenge are any indication of what the per-
The issue with the cover headline Unemployment
It's not hard to see why. After local
in 1973, the "Teesside' with its dour, polluted there became the dynamic,
The area had a consistently better jobs record than the rest of the North-east. It
the construction boom was at its peak. Inink old mull-lamonai
company, and it was sure to be investing heavily in plant on the
ICI, Monsanto, Phillips, BP were all
British Steel con-
structing the massive Redcar complex, the
biggest blast furnace in West Europe.
heat of Harold has Ine Guaraian reporca Middlesbrough's male unemployment rate has reached a stagger-
ing 17.6 per cent, while Hartlepool's is
The thousands of skilled workers who petro-chemical sites find that a
relative handful of technicians are needed
Middlesbrough branch orrhe Engineering secretary
Union's construction section. He explains
Almost half our members are on the Of those who are in work, over a outside the area. The lack of investment means that which have been promised to us number two blastfurnace
John blames the private profit syste
main cause, but adds: "There's no
doubt that Thatcher is making us bring a strong Lars area. Seis de-
Cleveland.'
and a Dat
The
elected. as leader of the party.
manoeuvering and
leaders.
was Moss
Labour Party. son on the street is concerned about, it's apparent what worries most thermend proces alled any the
- the only growth industry in Tory Britain' was a best-seller in Middlesbrough's to plead for more government handouts,
For school leavers, the outlook is not so much bleak as non-existent.
were youth work, and 21 notified vacancies.
Another 8,000 leave school month. In the Civil Service office in which I work, not one person has been recruited since the Tories won the election.
The response from the region's MPs has been the classic case of all that is wrong with the Labour leadership. no. thern group of Labour MPs continual-
Whatever Machiavellian plans are in Moss Evans' head, whether or not he thought that support for Callaghan now meant less chance of Healey replacing him, this kind of
horse-trading will neither achieve democracy nor defeat the right.
On the contrary, the decisive way to undermine the grip of the parliamentary party and the right wing is an open fight to defeat their crucial base -their alliance with the right-wing trade union
It is the block vote of the right wingdominated unions which continues to ensure the predominance of the right. That's why the light to rebuild the left in the unions remains decisive, not only for the unions but for the struggle in the
Thatcher won't invite them moans in the Street to discuss NOTE Meanwhile, on 14 May, not one
Cleveland Association of Trades cils. The only policy of the Labour MPs is which the multinationals happily pocket as they lay off more workers.
On 1 May beginnings of a fightback. long 840 steel workers from the beam and 101 rod mills at BSC Lackenby stayed
this when number of fitters' mates in the plant mangemen lace
persuaded 'negotiations'. strike The HOU 2,650 jobs by Xmas, as part of a produc- announced plans. to
task of dislodging the trade union right. makes the decisions as well. that Margaret ing: "the problems of the of them
Slowly,
But the first nine days of June saw the
: was how their children. part out reduce the After a stormy meeting union leaders
back pending The imnortance of. this Crafts,
was proved in the same week as
*shake Friday. Wo
The first initial steps which have been taken to organise Labour supporters in the unions — for example the forthcoming LCC conference for trade unionists — are important for beginning the
The recommendations of the commission now go to the party conference. Socialist Challenge believes that these recommendations → with the exception of the proposal on compulsory reselection of MPs — should not be accepted by the conference. What we need is to step up the fight for democracy in both the unions and the Labour Party, so that the party conference is the final arbiter. The conference is the most representative gathering of the party. Now we have to ensure that it
tivity deal which the unions are discuss*Th he lin arent soled by then inc, aren't sold by then widely expected that the bosses • will chor anyway. A further 600 are to with the closure of the Cleveland mill this anger is beginning to mount • Teesside, as more ana more people themselves and their organisations to pon tect their jobs and to guarantee some for of this proces the Interna tional Marxist Group in Middlesbrough i organising a public meeting: and the lessons of the See reside Speakers; Bernard Connolly Allied enor BSC Rotherham; Brian National Organise June, 7.30pm at King's Hea Hotel, Grangetown.
Page 3 scan of this page
Stop the Isle of Grain scabs!
HOMENEWS
By Jude Woodward AS long as union leaders like Frank Chapple, John Baldwin, Eric Hammond and Terry Duffy carry on as they are over the Isle of Grain dispute there will be little need to push through Prior's union-bashing Employment Bill - these working class leaders doing the Tories' job for them.
The mass picket at the Isle of Grain power station hit headlines recently, but the dispute
back over many months. involves skilled members of the General and Municipal Workers UmoR when a new wages agreement was introduced.
Workers on the frai site were employed by contractors operating on behalf of the Central Electricity RICADG DOIS S'SL-IL meant that some workers were paid higher rates than others. As HOlccl the site different OIR OVO CK RTICIO
: bonus rates as their skills came into special demand.
When the CEGB stepped in last By Mick Drake FORD workers across Europe face a ferocious attack on their jobs and working conditions that will make the present loss of over 1,500 jobs in the foundry and engine plants at Dagenham look like chicken-feed.
Secret management leaked last week reveal that at a recent '10 Year Business Plan' meeting in Cologne, every European plant manager was instructed to comole 'shopping lists' for actions in an "'after Japan" situa-
The list for the transmission plant runs to four pages and 54 suggestions.
These include: elimination of all forms of demarcation replacement of fitters and electricians by increased robots, computer-controlled tions, and more interlinking machines through automation; integration of quality control inspectors into production; and the increased use of selective layoffs.
The drive behind this onslaught is the crisis of the world car industry particularly the three General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.
They have been caught building oversized, overpriced when, because of rising oil prices, people want smaller cars. Japanese manufacturers have steped will take 21 per cent of the US market this year compared with Ford's 17 per cent and Chrysler's 7.5 per cent.
The world recession pounded this crisis for the US-based car giants. In May, for instance, sales were down 37 per cent in the US and 33 per cent in the UK on this time last year.
In the United States, Ford lost $1 billion in 1979 and is expected to lose $1.5 billion this year.
Ford's European operations bilion to the i corp orate treasury floating, contributing 1979 alone - including nearly £500 million from Britain.
But the slump is drying up this flow of cash and the knives are coming Management "Japanisation . • •
This+ means
Sw and á. torm, of worker par-
August the laggers, members of the GMWU, hac won especially oois rates Sue argaers" skils doing the final insulation for pipes and turbines before they SECiII Merl toR Lac Rieers
sre and hence command high bonuses. could threaten complete shut down
A complex bargaining and bonus payments is common to the whole construction
the inaustry, parucularly on big siles. By taking on the laggers at
the CEGB its WaN changing this situation for all by playing sections workforce off against cach other. Board The board began negotiating a new wages agreement to standardise bonuses. For most workers Ul&I SILC methee wage increases bargaining away the possibility of high bonuses in future. But for the most highly paid workers, gers, it meant a wage cut; for man! of them their wages would nav
Ford, robots and jobs
Exterminate!
Exterminate!
West as jobs are eliminated.
effectively
workforce present 76,000!
documents plants?
Automation: in the Halewood shops in
'cost-saving
Halewood setters.
and the This has
use of puterisation of stock control. орега-
process,
production workers.
Participation:
Us galils. and plant level
shopfloor schemes in the Bas-guzzlers circles'.
The
in and people, including
soft hour's overtime.
has com- How long
car tetlt neens The shopfloor
Up to now,
have $2 renewed in
Wage and protecting jobs
calls it of worker automation, diréct manufac-
plant by plant.
been halved. • high Thons renresenang other workers, the Union (EETPU) and the constructanion sectón Union (AUEW), into management's «cccve• lic new return for promises of permanent system of on-site work.
The laggers began strike action Grain, and work was stopped on the site The CEGB stepped
once and stop work al uramn arogclict. of the The leaders of the EETPU and the AUEW lined up ment to insist that the laggers ac cept the wage cut. lepders of ahe cons truetion se, bn
OCSe O hsiots. mond and John Baldwin, said that they would provide on #CuOCs dlc owi utoAs Lo do the laggers' work. wile When the two unions actually carried out this threat they broke the lag- with a fundamental principle trade umionism and a Tool source oI organised workers' strength - that ticipation to muzzle union opposition
The latest issue of Ford's house journal claims that if Ford UK was to
compete with Japanese manutacturers it shoud have a total
of 30,000 instead of the
What's in store for Ford's UK
The use of robots body and paint preparation for the new Escort will cost 200 jobs. New £lm presses in the Dagenham press shop will amalgamate the jobs of die setters, press operators, and automation
Computerisation: Initially visual display units were used in the receiving and shipping departments.
been extended at the Langley truck plant to the full com-
The next step is to introduce computers directly into the manufactur-
meaning minute-tominute control over the remaining
and mausece
The aim of management is to go straight over the heads of the union leaders at national
and to introduce worker participation form of 'quality
workforce is broken down into small groups of no more than 15
La foreman and superintendent. This group discusses a 'quality" problem - usually in a
before we go fully "Japanese' and every worker has to make at least one suggested improve-
has not been prepared for this onslaught. But mass meetings throughout the country last week rejected Ford's proposals for a double day-shift system which would not have cut the working week.
fight the 35-hour week is the first move in urning gew technology to our advan
The second move should. be a campaign for union control over its introduction, rejection of any form
participation, * and European co-ordination to stop the management implementing its p
the
Electricians
not scab on each other.
Engineering Why are jumped straight
trap and tion section arcan ens Grain ? Principles these
Dalawin. leader,
HICHCCS
up threats to
construction sites. justities his scab role
Power
wiht maldic
Eventually, on
CEGB would jeopardise project for the unskilled 28 laggers.
Ca neu
agreements greater always want.
no union will do jobs traditionally The «one v noneron• oworers To put it another way, unions do
the leaders of the EETPU and the AUEW construc- level of
prepared to Stanoaes on the under the AUEW government. has given two reasons for his action: that he is protecting his ception.
jobs, and that he wants to see 'fair' rates for all workers on Fight
Neither reason Train is nearing bmp ; built and it is highly unlikely that the conoeror.
acnertl the entire sakc ol ic nie wages they would pay to the site's
The board is, of course, keen on rate for
set of wages and bonus that provide even overheads — that's what the bosses superprofits lower this, too,
the CEGB
Th.lc
experesce oI the steel strike and the settlement BL show that workers in the public sec.
some of the fiercest attacks on their
organisation attacks organised the auspices of the Tory The power WULACH. employed by the CEGB are no ex-
Casic
Trade unions They recognise that CAISL IO IL N the workers
those of the boss, and that without InTeres s re mV2Y ODooSae the superior organisatior the bosses
win.
Baldwin didn't even begin to cal not the CEGB's bluff. He just echoer S-NOA JI1 O1 SAI SC00 31
Hor all workee on the Grain
all workers on • Grain site, but he did not put up any bat
to raise the wage eve ort workers to that of the laggers. Or
The just went along witt and what was
Ford
prepared to offer
"The agreement undermines the potential of all workers in the in. dustry to argue for higher bonu
tel productvily especially needed.
Trade union solidarity in sup DOL OC KtOSKOw ur'cIl needed, not just for the sake of their rates of pay, but in the intersts
Fi OVO ment.
president of the
I CIr DUnLY AUEW, , played a similar forelock tugging. role The longer such leaders are allowed to remain at the helm the task of the 1 onos. lu orcakm uo uic orlals ed strength of the trate union movement, becomes that much
But leaders like these can be kicked out if workers in their
get oransca lc Tonde. them. A first step towards this in
Engineering Union can be : taken at the Engineering Chartel conference on 27 June. Duffy must
re-elected for a further live years lisal yod
trade union movement the fight by insisting that Len Mur EEPTU and the AUEW construc and discin ime the tion section uniess they honour the
their members off the laggers' jobs.
Page 4 scan of this page
Women need more
HOMENEWS
Women's
Fightback
holds
second
conference
By Rachel Lever FIGHTBACK for Women's Rights holds its second conference this Saturday, 21 June, Digbeth Hall, Birmingham.
At the first conference, 500 women from different political backgrounds in the women's movement and the labour movement inCluding 150 from the Labour Party came together to confront the Tory government's attacks on women's rights.
intormally, the _CO• ference launched a number of areas of work. These oncluded a fight against sexism in the labour movement; a rallying of women for the TUC Day of Action; and an attempt to relate Labour women's sections WUCH movement for women's liberation.
Newspaper
Other plans were to
develop the pre-conference
broadsheet into a regular
newspaper, and to organise
second conterence
decide on firm policies and
plans for action and how the
campaign should be run.
Resolutions for the see-
ond conference include a
draft policy prepared by an
interim volunteer planning
committee, which situates
the campaign in relation to
the women's movement and
the labour movement and
indicates the general areas
the campaign
should concentrate on.
In addition, detailed
resolutions have been sub-
mitted on cuts, women in
the trade unions, women's
right to work, the Employ-
ment National
Women's Festival,
other initiatives.
Campaign
There will be a separate
discussion on publishing a
newspaper.
The conference is open
to individuals as well
delegates, and all those in-
mounting
open, popular,
sectarian campaign to push
back the Tory offensive are
urged to altend
part in formulating the cam-
paign's policies.
There will be a creche,
food, and a lunchtime play
by Midiand Red. Transport
being arranged from
number of major cities.
Marian or Sue
021-471 1964 for details.
From London, two coaches
will leave from Midland
Road (by St. Pancras) at
7.45am.
FIGHTBACK
FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
CONFERENCE
JUNE 21ST 11 TO>
DIGBETH HALL
BARM AGHAM
DETAILS. FROM, al Eningion Scan. London pit
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980' Pagé 4
By Denny Fitzpatrick 'IN general the Equal Pay Act can do nothing tackle the disproportionate concentration of women in low-paid industries occupations.'
That was the verdict of the Women's TUC on the last Labour government's attempts to give equality with men at work.
Women's pay in 1978 and 1979 fell even further behind men's. The declining number of discrimination she seperated from her husband.
as
women in the Labour Party and the unions.
to women fighting back against the Tories.
red to the Equal Opportunities Commission (from 1976, to 108 in 1979) indicates to the dwindling enthusiasm that working women have for the
and More often EOC dismisses their case and has in any case puny powers to force employers tions to stop discriminating.
The time has come for the women labour movement to re-assess its attitude to equality at work.
The programme Labour Party, discussed at the special conference on 31 May, cases refer- makes no mention CATHIE Dobie (above) an engineer at Rolls Royce in Hillington, Scotland, was sacked for changing her name when name when
Two journals or one?
TRADE unions up and down the country have passed thousands of resolutions calling on their members to support women's rights over the last ten years. Now it's time that words
Many worhen activists in the labour movement have come to realise that if women's needs are really going to be discussed special attention has to be paid to actively involving women.
Two new journals have been launched which both have this aim in mind. Women in Action, coming out of the Working Women's Charter Campaign, decided to campaign around the TUC Women's Charter urging the trade unions to act to defend
Women's Fightback, initially launched a couple of months ago by women activists in the Labour Party after the first Fightback conference, aims to reach out to women fighting the cuts in social expenditure, and to coordinate the activities of
A broad based regular newspaper that could involve as many working women as possible would be an invaluable asset
Let's hope for the biggest possible turnout for Women Fightback's second conference so that we can discuss pooling
Hopes are high that it might be possible to insert such a journal in official trade union newspapers, which would massively expand the audience for feminist ideas in Britain
than equality
1,742
than not the Labour Party
feminist labour movement.
compare men's
equal pay. of Because
largely
new
level for all workers.
Oppression
not enough. face
Again skills and
the same money as men.
Equality
enough. Legislation passed and an education
is positive favour
tions which dominated by men
Led set employment
tunities given powers to punish employers to meet these targets.
No waiting
such legislation to sometime in livelihoods
The Equal Commission
workers first in situations
be unlawtui crimination'.
ACTIOI
FIGHTBA
THE KIDSNEED
....and the
women need
their jobs!
equality legislation. Yet Tony Benn and others on the left in the Labour Party have begun the EEC and win. to make overtures to activists within the women's movement, not take up the suggesting that they join the women
integrate economic demands into the ward
Equality at work will not be gained simply by attempting to Party and
work with women's work as the basis for
women's work is different from men's the only way to immediately boost their wages is to fight
negotiations low pay by forcing employers to establish a minimum wage choloyals place.
mingham
But even tacking low pay is
centuries of discrimina be mounted tion and oppression they have to be positively encouraged to
Walling and above all to see it as our right to do the same jobs and earn
legislation is not be programme launched so that there
discrimination in women jobs, professions, and institu-
are presently
Employers have to be forc-
quotas the and training of women, and the Equal Oppor-
Commission must be financially who retuse EI.
But women cannot wait for be passed the future. Our are under attack Opportunity has already pointed out that 'the automatic practice of laying off part-time
redundancy likely to hit
women hardest and could well
indirectdis-
WOMENS
1/we
Name/s
Women need union backing now to take such cases to
The labour movement will
demands of prescul sitaution • unless women themselves come for-
and articulate their demands, both in the Labour
within the trade
Women need to ensure that we are fully represented when
between and take
The Fightback conference called for this weekend in Bir-
provides active in the labour movement with an excellent opportunity to discuss how a campaign can
which tells
Tower Hamlets women's festival Tower Hamlets Festival for Saturday 21 June.
The aim of the event is to highlight the way in which the Tory government is trying to whittle away many hard won rights of women and to discuss how to fightback.
Women in Tower Hamlets feel confident that they can organise a fight back. 'We have had our successes,' says Trina Shane, & member of the women's sub-committee of the trades council. 'We fought for a day-care abortion clinic and won it. We built a local anti-Corrie group and helped to defeat that Bill. We're having a festival to celebrate our ability to organise in this way?
Tower Hamlets Women's Festival, Saturday 21 June, 12-6pm, Oxford House, Derbyshire Street, E2, Social in the evening with "Jam Today' at Fairholt House, Commercial St., Aldgate East,
Women's liberation
and socialism
REVOLUTION Youth is holding an educational event on
'Women's Liberation and Socialism'. Revolution members
have been very active in the abortion movement pointing out
that young women face particular problems in controlling
their own sexuality.
Now Revolution Youth intends to learn more about the
politics of the women's liberation movement. This weekend
event takes place in Brighton on the 19-20 July. It won't be
hard work either. They'll be a gig in the evening and plenty
of time to discuss.
Saturday: Noon - 5.15pm.
Session 1 How it all started — the origins of women's
oppression
Session 2 Sexual politics and sex role stereotypes
Sunday: 10.30am. - 5.15pm.
Session 3 'There will be no revolution without women's
liberation; there will be no women's liberation without
revolution.' true or false?
Film Take it Like a Man Ma'am
Session 4: Summary on Revolution Youth and the fight for
women's liberation.
Women's Liberation and Socialism event Brighton 19-20 July
weekend educational event.
Branch ...
I/We enclose ...For Documents..
Please complete and return to: PO Box 50, London Nt,
whole labour movement that women need positive action if we are to move nearer equality with men at work.
The Women Fightback conference takes place in Birmingham at Digbeth Hall this Saturday, 21 June, Ham-5pm.
Socialist Challenge supporters will be meeting on Friday night at 8.30pm trades council is planning a Women's are interested in attending the
....J/We will need Accommodation....
Page 5 scan of this page
DEFEND PHIL
THE victimisation of Phil Cordell is just one example of the kind of event which will be commonplace when the Tories' Employment Bill becomes law. has emerged from its committee stage in the House of Commons with even more restrictions on trade union rights than
union rights to engage in effective industrial action against an employer, the Bill contains a number of proposals which will strengthen the hand of the employers in disciplining the labour
Outlined here are the main proposals in the Bill.
At present all peaceful picketing in connection with an industrial dispute is lawful. It may take place anywhere, except near a person's home, and there are no restrictions on who can PICkeL.
Under the terms of the Employment Bill, lawful picketing will be restricted to:
* Workers picketing at or near their own LaCC OL. WUrA * Trade union officials who are picketing at
or near their own place of work;
* Workers sacked dispute, who are picketing their former place of work.
No other picketing will be lawful. Secondary picketing, or picketing by supporters of strikes — like the Grunwick or Chix pickets — will not be lawful. Many forms of boycotting, ('blacking') will be made illegal, as will the advocacy of boycotting by pathisers of strikers.
The rôle of the arbitration body ACAS and statutory procedures determine union recognition will be abolished. it wil be left to the workers and the emolovers to slug it out. But because of the limitations on picketing and boycotting it will be much more difficult to win union recognition struggles.
The main provision in the Bill on the closed shop is that workers can opt out of the closed shop, or get reinstatement or compensation if By Patrick Sikorski MORE than five hundred Civil Servants took part in a protest in Brixton, South London, on Friday over the victimisation of two local activists in the Civil and Public Services Association.
The demonstration rally at Brixton Town Hall were just part of a nationwide
CPSA's Department Employment branch in South London, and Richard Cleverley, the branch organiser.
Messages of support were received from all over London and South-east.
Midlands, ( the North, and Scotland - indicating
Shad taken and branches had action for the day or a half-day.
Reasons
Three reasons were given for Phil Corddell's dismissal: that he picketed the CPSA ex-
during the 1979. campaign; that ne signed, branch secretary, an Anti-Nazi League advert newspaper; and that he attended TUC Lobby Parliament to oppose Corrie anti-abortion Bill.
In fact, on each occasion, Phil was acting on the full , mandate of his branch.
of a trade
DONT USE THIS 'outsiders' or sym- SHOP
such as ballots to
CORDDELL
port of reinstatement strongest in Scotland, where 3,500 LIDA came strike. The offices hit by their action included the
customs excise, Sherriff's office in Glasgow, and the Scottish Office.
Stewart and assistant regional secretary
the union's Scottish committee, walich on all members in its section to strike, brought greetings to the Brixton rally. Lies He says that the campaign had been built in the face of lies and slander from management by Way of official culars. There was intimidation that of members who took action last Friday, in addition to substrike national ban on Phil Corddell
culchs pracucaly any Service premises to talk to union members.
Yet since he was informed of his sacking on 30 April, Phil and other members Brixton unemplovment benefit office where he addressed some 120 meetings pay
as around the country.
Stuart Holland MP local just one of the speakers at the
rally who emphasised Phil, and Richard Cleverley, the have been sacked, first because
they are effective unionists, and because they are unionists: who: •Action, last Friday, in sup, issues like the National Front+++
* BIG DISCOUNTS
DON USE THIS
SHOP
they are sacked for not joining a closed shop, if they 'genuinely' object to trade unions on the ground of 'deeply held personal convictions'.
At the moment the only legitimate way to opt out of a closed shop arrangement is on religious grounds. The new provisions will amount to an open scabs charter, allowing in-
Was
out
DHSS,
benetit. secretary of,
DHSS had called
fraternal
Civil
and abortion rights should be of the of vital concern to the labour movement. works have
Victimisation has not stopped at was tivists. Disciplinary procedures have been started that Stewart MacLennan Alison Korce, regional DHSS trades because they
secondly meetings on DHSS premises in
trades, Suppott of Phil and Richard believe that despite the management ban.
Anatomy of the
Employment Bill
DONT
USE
THIS
disrupt closed shops.
enforceable. be held in car parks members'
dragging its feet. the two Brixton ac-
aralllsi and the Scottish secretary, have organised
Assistant : General Alistair, Graham ther parts of the cour- commit the union
ILMS
SHOP
GAUNWICK SIRE COMMITTEN
DON'T
dividual reactionaries to begin to opt out of and
New closed shop arrangements will have to
have over 80 per cent of the workers voting in
favour to be 'approved' — that is, to make it
fice.
It is following
tion in Brixton. Clear try, however, meetings had to
and in own time. This is because the CPSA leadership is
union of its
A fortnight ago the union's annual conference unanimous- spread. ly carried a resolution instruc ting the executive to give ful support for industrial action in the Brixton office, the branch and the union as a whole. But
Secretary refused to • moment, the talking.
Under the
to dismiss whom they want.
There will be no minimum found dismissed — in other words, to win reinstatement!
union activity
DONT unreasonable conduct.
HEM SI HE UNK maternity ticable for them to do so. tions.
siderably tightened up.
can be a member, union ballots.
the Labour
plus pop. Recall the Defend Our Unions conference ON 23 June last year 1,100 trades union delegates met in Manchester to plan a campaign against the Tories' Employment Bill. The conference adopted the Defend Our Unions 'Code of Practice', which has been widely discussed inside
Last month the annual conference of the National Union of Public Employees unanimously adopted the Code of Practice. Yet despite the adoption of the code by many organisations, virtually nothing has been heard of future action from the Defend Our
No plans for a recall or for any other co-ordinated action have been announced. This is a foolish waste of a tremendous opportunity for stoking up the campaign against the Employment Bill, which is at the centre of the government's attack on the unions.
It now seems certain that the strengthened Bill will become law in July. The Defend Our Unions conference last June voted for a recall conference when the Bill became law. There are no signs of
But there is a vital need for trades unionists to come together to map out a plan of campaign for defeating the implementation of
Even if the Employment Bill becomes law, there is no reason for complacency. It is difficult to believe that John Deason and the other organisers of Defend Our Unions believe that we should sit back and wait for a Labour government to repeal the anti-union
Brixton rally to calling out the 90 members at the Brixton of-
quite possible that a meeting of the union's national disputes com- union mittee last week, the leadership may decide to refer the case to
appeals the rather than sanction all-out ac-
Phil Corddell made it clear in his speech at the rally that the members in Brixton, While they needed proof from the strike
official support were prepared to take a cut in their strike pay as the action
They came out for NEC three days when the dismissal organise was first announced
With 40,000 jobs already lost in the Civil Service through terence
waslage, another and 40,000 being chopped at the
The Tories are now of the need to axe
provisions unfair dismissal, industrial tribunals will have to take into account the size and resources of a company in deciding whether dismissal is unfair. In other words, small firms are given a free hand
compensation have been wrongly especially with small firms, they could get nothing at all.
Tribunals will be able to reduce compensa.
basis of the employee's conduct after dismissal. This means that workers dismissed unfairly could have their compensation reduced if the tribunal takes a poor view of their trade union activity in trying
Employers will be able to argue that trade
before dismissal
Under the provisions of the Bill, maternity rights for women are seriously restricted. Small firms with five workers or less will be under no obligation to re-employ a woman who takes
leave if it is not 'reasonably prac-
All employers will be able to refuse to give a woman her job back if it is not reasonably practicable' to do so and she 'unreasonably' refuses suitable alternative employment. This alternative job can be anything, as long as the terms and conditions are not 'substantially less favourable' than her previous terms and condi-
The conditions of notification of maternity leave and intention to return to work are con-
These are just some of the provisions of the Employment Bill. It also contains provisions on trade union membership, taking it out of the hands of the unions themselves to decide who
and on public funds for
For the full details of the Bill send for a copy of 'The Tory Employment Bill' published
Research Department, 78 Blackfriars Rd, London SEI 8HF. Price 35p
another 75,000 jobs over the next three years.
As Phil Corddell says, supporting •n19 reinstatement part of the fight to defend the and the job of every
The next mobilisation campaign Wille on 27 June when Richard Cleverley's sacking starts. In the meantime CPSA branch should send the following resolution
"This branch demands that the NEC holds a special delegate con. ference to organise for indefinite with Brixton rematemen of Corddell, Cleverley et al, has been achieved branch agrees that if the NDC actor. then thi branch agrees to re celeder the call Special Delegate
Inquiries, messages of suppor donations to: Brixton 16 Knowlton Hse, Cowley Rd Estate, London SW9. Tel 01-582 1645.
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1880 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Post Office engineers-how to win
Charting a course for Engineering Union
By Pat Hickey, Rover SDI Solihull THE first national ference of the Leyland Action Committee attracted 50 carworkers from major BL car plants when it met in Birmingham Saturday.
The conference discussed a balance sheet of the struggle against the implementation of the 'Slaves Charter' in BL the 92-page productivity document that Michael Edwardes • had successfully imposed in April — and went on to debatel what the next steps were for militants in BL.
Cowley
Alan Thornett, Cowley, opened the conference with SOS CIL strikes against the 5 per pay and productivity deal. He pointed out that management had won not because workers were unwilling to struggle; but because the trade leaders, including 'left-wing' Moss Evans, had not given continued official backing workers' protests.
The combine committee and the Leyland cars negotiating committee, Thornett considered, had given Evans and Duffy a completely free hand. The rank and file had nowhere to turn.
Management has
in consolidate its gains. An appeals system has been negotiated for grading disputes between management and union officials which cludes strike action by setting up a 'final appeals' body for disputes consisting member of the TUC, a member of and "independent' negotiator.
This the nearest any British company must have system of forced arbitration the Australian
But rank and file workers at BL are not letting the company have it all its own way. discussion on the full plementation of the 92-page document showed regrading, 'new manning' levels, and forced mobility were still being opposed. Claim
The next wage claim was also discussed. The Leyland Action Committee decided to campaign for a claim of £120, index linked to the cost of living, and a 35-hour week. BL workers are not ukely to tae kindly to another wage after the insulting 5 per cent deal.
The Communist Party's stranglehold on the combine leadership has to be challenged by militants in BL. The CP has proved itself totally unwilling to lead a fight without official backing. le neller the recent sell out by Moss Evans as a .....
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980 Page 6.
Leyland
militants
assess the
damage
The Leyland Action Committee gained a good reputation in the recent dispute by campaigning for everyone to come out against the 92-page document.
the The grouping of militants
now intends to democratic control over wage
last
negotiations by calling on Moss Evans, Bill Lapworth, the regional automative group, and Jack Adams, Chairperson of the region 5 cars council, to call a national delegate conference. aim negotiating committee that can stop the BL workers being sold again their representatives.
from
the
cent
union
to
joint
since
ex-
By Rab Bird Carbrook No. 2 branch, AUEW Sheffield
engineering industry.
opposition in the union.
The
im-
sees the need
that
support the fight against rights for women.
cut by years of right-wing rule.
Threadneedle Street.
keeps British finance of
than willing to pull the plugs.
elect a
official
per cent. So we
the wage claim THE Engineering Charter conference on 28 June is a must for every militant in the
We are being squeezed from both sides — by a decline in living standards and by a leadership that's out to crush grass roots
Engineering workers need a leadership that can tackle unemployment and inflation,
policies that can unite workers in the struggle against the Tories.
To combat unemployment and inflation we need a fight for worksharing and index-linked wage rises. We have to encourage the struggles of the low-paid and the unemployed and to
racism and equal
We have to fight around the issues and policies that challenge the right wing in the
dispute last year showed that the will to fight is there. The main problem in the union is now a political one -now to overcome the lack of credibility caused
The Engineering Charter pamphlet produced to build the conference does'nt mention istional estet in the mitten and organisational effects of the right wing, the gap between the stewards and branch officials and the ordinary members.
Yet this gap was caused by the erosion of militancy through voluntary redundancy and suport for the Labour goverment's social'con
— as the pamphlet implies — by the ora existence of full-time convenors.
7 YEARS OF NEGOTIATIONS - OUR PATIENCE IS EXHAUSTED Branch secretary, Horsham POEU THE City of London must be dreading 4 August. On that day the Post Office Engineering Union is due to start industrial action in support of its pay claim. The first to be hit will be the parasites of
Telephone engineers run the telecommunications system that
capital running. telephones, computer-links, all run through the Post Office and the members of London City branch of the POEU will be more
That's exactly what they did in 1978 during the fight for a shorter working week. The action was so effective that a delegation of bankers and stockbrokers went scurrying to Downing Street to plead with Callaghan to get the dispute settled.
Since 1978 we have all learnt a lot of lessons about how to run an effective dispute in telecoms, and we're under no illusions about how tough a fight we're in for. We know that the Tory government is out to impose a wage freeze in the public sector. That's why we've been offered 15 per cent and the nurses only 14
know that we're taking on Thatcher. All the experience of '78 will be needed to help us win.
We also know that our executive, or at least its right-wing majority, has no intention of mounting a serious fight. It opposed
- 30 per cent plus 7 per cent bonus — at the union annual conference. They were defeated by the militant branches from the industrial centres — London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow. But the first half-way decent offer they get they'll try to sell-out and they certainly won't be going all out for
and
effective action.
Telex, telegrams, co-ordinate.
action.
- NO SELL OUT
Уг...
That's why it's up to the left to win this dispute. As soon as we got back to our branch we had a well-attended special branch meeting to explain the claim. The response was overwhelmingly in favour of action and of the claim. We're following this up with special leaflets detailing the claim and the arguments for it, with an elected industrial action committee which will meet weekly and with proposals to the other branches in our area for meetings to
This is the first
The executive is likely to do three things: a national overtime ban and work-to-rule, pulling out London City and the international exchanges, and a national one-day strike. While this will have a quick effect, it won't be enough to defeat Thatcher. And this sort of partial action opens the way for divisions in our ranks. We'll be arguing for continual escalation of the action, leading to an all-out strike if necessary.
To start with we need a national demonstration to kick off the action and create solidarity. Regional demonstrations and pickets could also help to create the spirit we need. We will be arguing for the Broad Left activists around the country to take these sorts of initiatives, because it's down to as to win.
The other action we're planning is to get out to other unions and trades councils to win support. We know we're fighting a pay-freeze and so do the nurses. It's about time the rest of the workers' movement woke up to it too. If we lose this dispute the nurses don't stand a chance, and everyone who's got a wage claim in this autumn had better watch out. As the steelworkers said: 'Us Today - You Tomorrow'.
the
the union,
in the factories.
change its strategy.
vide all the answers.
Broad Left and the Charter.
further.
which can unite against t struggle pelicies lt." sharing and equal ?* These are the membership and the Tories.
What's wrans for change a men or t The Charren, 2654 N4 M
35 MRE.
getting solid support for
The right-wing leadership has to be remov. ed before there is any hope of the AUEW adopting such policies. This can only be done by a grass roots campaign that is organised in
factories and branches around fighting policies that can challenge the right nationally
The 'Droad Left', the biggest left group in
has been weak in this respect. Its preoccupation with clections has led it away from much of the routine work of organising
After the disastrous effects of workers' participation in Leyland and the failure Scanlon to defend the membership under the last Labour government, the Broad Left has to
It doesn't follow, though, that militants can simply look to Engineering Charter to pro.
The pamphlet doesn't even mention the existence of the Broad Left, and doesn't take up the difference between the Bie oly organsation ashes the Chatte
organisation fighting AUEW. This approach only confuses militants
The forthcoming Charter conference will provide an important focus for the fightback against the right. But we need to go further; we need a fighting grove i the rank and file
Tories and for class ¿he -nour week, work
pricies which can win the to fist ng bith the right wing
..wring. The.case (plus pop) from 'ers Rd, London
Page 7 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
Nurses lead
action on
pay
By Norman Lockhart, NUPE THREE hundred nurses the Health Service.
be stopped.
national nurses advisory committee.
including working to rule and strike action.
staff and management resume negotiations on 8 July.
who welcomed the rally as the first step in the fightback.
groups to be set up in hospitals.
• NALGO, Talbot
teachers' action group.
From the platform,
would pay for half the NHS pay bill.
is general secretary.
By Dave Burn LAST week's NALGO conference saw lots of noise, few proposals for action, from the union executive. While they loudly protested against cuts, the Employment unemployment and they strongly resisted policies which could stimulate from the membership.
spelling out action to fight the cuts and the Prior Bill were strongly opposed and defeated by conference. A similar resolution Which called for industrial action to fight council house sales was the subject of a card vote at the end of conference vote occurred as the chair had ruled that an extremely close vote was lost.
As a result of strong campaigning by the branches, the executive was forced to change its altitude on allowing branches! movement -or sections to take action arsinst cuts in, sosupposed torebi local government services:
in uniform led a 700-strong march through Glasgow on Saturday.
Organised by the Glasgow nurses action group (NAG), the demonstrators opposed the rent in- the voting paper is the cancreases for nurses' accommodation, the recent 14 per cent pay package, and the continuing cuts in
At a rally after the march Avril Mitchell, a student nurse from Glasgow western district, said that nurses wanted a 30 per cent pay increase like the doctors, and they would have to take
She also called for rent to be frozen, and hospital closures to
The Edinburgh NAG was represented by Veronica Leadbetter, a trainee nursing tutor and also a delegate to NUPE's
She said that nurses should vote against the offer in their union branches and prepare for a nationally co-ordinated fight,
A possible focus for a national day of action will be when
The appalling conditions in the nurses' accommodation were described by Christine Shand, from Eastern district NAG,
Jack Lyttle, a nursing tutor, called for more local action
Banners on the march included: Glasgow Trades Council,
shop stewards, General and Municipal Workers Union, NUPE, Glasgow students, and the on the agenda.
Willie Hamilton MP compared the nurses's pay offer to the huge awards given to the police and the army. He said that the f900m being spent on a new torpedo
George Anderson, a NUPE official stressed that nurses need to join unions. Speaking for the CPSA, International Marxist Group member Stewart McLennan said that more trades unions should support the nurses who were vulnerable to victimisation.
James Milne brought greetings from the STUC, of which he
Anti-nuclear campaign
opposes weapons By Carol Russell
to the objectives of the Anti-Nuclear Campaign at its first annual meeting last weekend.
Over 120 people attended, with the national organisations affiliated to the campaign. The latter includes the International Marxist
Lament was defeated. paign to make unilateral disarmament by Britain one of the campaigning priorities, reference to the Cruise misiles. but the debate explored how divisive it might be to adopt this as a major objective. resoutions dealing with focuses called for an anti-nuclear carnival sometime next year, education of the public on nuclear power, and work within the
NALGO conference backs pay fight
NALGO policy SURTOU ZUUI threatened. but The union's emergency
the fighting the closure Bill, closures, majority of delegates to action contract savagery'.
claims by staff. and supplementary protessions One for defeat of a The card situation
Previousty cross picker*
Transport
• Union rules
not so okay
By Mike Eaude THE large majority of the motions submitied by TGWU branches for the union's rules conference later this month concern
One reason for this can be from the method by which delegates to the conterence user are eccie• with every other ballot in the TGWU, all that appears on
didate's name and branch.
conference, which held every six years, are convenors LOIE laurends. Manly the motions call for details of the background, political and Dlatiorm of can didates to be circulated.
Elections By far the largest number or moons on any LopIc Is 101 the election of full-time officers, a colave.
general secretary.
Peren ce mich beginh on 24.
ference, begins on JUte branches for unemployed who would have the status oi ful members
Women's rights are also Circulars in Union beri 'Dear Brother', as if the third of a million women members
The executive has put in a
be made relevant to
cludes the female sex'.
THE demand for 'no nuclear weapons' was added week.
delegates from local and regional anti-nuclear groups or from representatives, Sylvia Jones from the Wales TUC,
and the Socialist
A proposal to adopt a demand for unilateral nuclear disarm
But a later resolution called for the cam-
ano tnis was passeo will specul
Most speakers agreed with unilateral nuclear disarmament,
national campaigning had only been one of where jobs
committee The had turned down requests to make ac. tion official where branches had been
of old peoples' NAC homes, but where no job loss was involv-
The executive managed to persuade a
support state Both py polcy. ae goldca days or tae socia the large
contrasted with "Tory ingness to r
Nonetheless backing was given for on these industrial action in support of the pay
administrative and clerical the for taking lidustrial action prepared by ial report on procedures ponents the NEC which whitewashed the present
NALGO's procedures are among the most bureaucrauc la te trage ana» ¿crerie •grcomc ou une lel tat-al bac
social services have taken to the streets in two benefits, induding unemsine benefits; £12 reduction benefit paid strikers' families; * Massive restrictions on additional subsicculaly benefit payments The Social Security Bill
To le malie rtant o the Steelworkers
warned over jobs
By Celia Pugh PESSIMISTS who think the jobs fight in the South Wales steel plants is over received a surprise last
Llanwern steelworks was joined by 40 miners majority of voting representing seven lodges,
campaigners from the South Wales health cuts committee, and from local women's groups. Publicity was assured by a Musician's
THE deadline for short news articles for this page is 10.30am Monday. Articles up to 200 words can rung through •on Sundays on 01-359 8189.
this issue will have to be maintained to put up comprehensive proposals next
right-wing in the union was behind attempts to change union policy
and the union's policy boycotting Scarborough : as a venue for
of Scarborousi council's discrimination against gays
Were defèated, bul number of delegates voting in favour showed the executive's unwill-
really fight in the membership
sne contaueo Tragmentanon of la left in the union was very obvious. Unfortunaiely the left seems to be split be-
Scottish com with latter moving towards the bureaucracy.
It is also split between the NALGO Action Group, supported by the SWP, and other left forces. There seemed to be
vent unity around specifie issues is those sacked.
way to proceed while a nationah: ..
OVER the past week claimants and consumers of
Since the Tories came to power, claimants and their standard of living have been under attack
amenamel. oul resistance l
calmants people
side the headquarters
Social Security and went on to
lobby MPs in defence of the
Chronically Sick and Disab.
ed Persons Act.
This the Act under
which services such as home
helps, personal aids, adaptaA steelworkers' picket outside the threatened
•local Labour Party
Union strikers, complete with
tails and instruments who
came along to show solidaritv
in the common fight against
government cuts.
Jobcentre aids bosses in
Adwest lock-out
By Stuart Cumberpatch
MANAGEMENT at the Adwest engineering firm in
Reading is taking a lead from the Tories and pursuing a tough line with its workforce.
for higher pay. A work to rule led to one worker being sacked, so others escalated the action and were also sack. ed.
The ConcO. Danny Broderick went on hunger strike outside the plant, while
Most of the 24-hour picket. night shift joined the strike mucalc. au most or lac day shiit 1s now also on sinke in solidarity with the sacked WUINOS
Management had a helming hand from and from the local Jobcentre.
The High Court granted an
off the factory forecourt, and
Jobcentre is making
special efforts to fina . workers — scabs — to replace
Eight of acked
Claimants take up the struggle
to une govern ment's call for a 6.7 per cent cut in personal social services
Aa weakeee ever
'Bread and water will be
afford after November, ' was the message put across by the National Campaign Against the Social Security Cuts at its
The protesters were warn
Llanwern. steelworkers that the 3,600 jobs recently signed away
agreement could Tolls weild have devastatre. followed total consequences for the Gwent community.
An action committee with broad support was formed to
BSC's claims that UDcontested. The action group
bulletin.
It alms to lay firm founda
for a fightback agains
refusal of national and local union officials to fight reden dancy and closure
Plans are now being laid for lobbies, marches and rallies to follow the lobby o! the Labour Party's special conference last month. Sixty workers are now locked out for going on strike
workers responded by occu-
government-run Jobcentre until private securi
ty guards were called in to remove them. A picket on the Jobcentre has helped dissuade potential applicants from
workers.
Solidarity with the Adwest
There is to be a day of action on Monday 23 beginWoodles deading. Headley Rd East,
Messages of support and in. Broderick, Fla , 46 Berkey : Danni Broderick, Ave, Reading
Soclelist Challenge
Alexander Fleming House on
rights workers from as far afield as Wales and Sunderland were authorities supported by members of the
branch Civil Service union CPSA
cluded John Tilley MP
members David Doug Murwho are campaignin myth
DHSS officials are being increasingly asked to play.
They gave their support to the Nalola vampalg
Against Social Security Cut: Join Wadham Tea. be contacted c/ John 01-228 9734.
Ealing
Tories reach
for the law
CLASS conscions Taling
Council most certaimi
It attemnted to han bi High Court injunction a local rally on the TUC's Day of Action. unsuccessful
action cost the rate payers £1,500.
Now & suo-commitee 0]
Tory counciliors is proposin
o prosecute Labour MP Sy
officials who spoke at thi rally in Southall
The Tories allege that th four broke a council by-law
prohibits meetings on
end up in Wormwood Scrub there are lots of people in th House of Commons who wil come and visit me to make sure I'm all right.'
Sunderland
council
ditches
overseas students SUNDERLAND's Labour-controlled council has vetoed bursary scheme • that would have helped •overseas students to pay the two hundred per cent increase in their fees at the town's polytechnic.
The huge rise in fees, im. posed by the government fo racist reasons. , means that it is
be a foreign stu at Harvard Universil) than at Sunderland Poly.
The bursar scheme had approved by the por authorities, the loca council says that it would b
This is in spite of th jaci inal reessiae una ore polys are already running such a scheme
Brabban, student union president Sunderland •describes
counci decision 'disgusting and prejudiced.
• 19 June 1980
Page 8 scan of this page
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Page 9 scan of this page
Soviet Union were to behave in a consistently revolutionary fashion it would go quickly to the aid of each new revolution as it occurs. offering military and economic aid without strings. Hesitation and appeasement in the face ot aggression does make war less likely. shown that retreat simply gives confidence to the aggressor and makes the escalation of the conflict more likely.
In the years between the First and Second World Wars the leaders of the imperialist states and of the Soviet Union tried to appease Hitler.
Sple in bie vigilay in a drano
victory Franco, because his policy was to appease imperialism order to avert ar "imperialist united front' directed against the Soviet Union. This simp-
allowed • Impertalism stronger.
The Soviet Union was not
of the • ooosted destruction Word war That should have showed once and tor all that the ultimate victory of the worla revolution in no sense depends on avoiding 'provoking'
already:
If we look at the world situation from + the world war it is clearly more advantageous to argue for the
FIGHT
DRIVE
reat to peace
Union to intervene rapidly with arms in aid of revolutions.
confine the imperialist's room for manoeuvre.
As world imperialism
1101 severe economic crisis
evermore dressan ole reck areas outside its influence. If there is hesitation then collare ward its advantages. At first in the semi-colonial countries I cala la. Cuba. Iran Germany, and Eastern Europe as a whole would not be Lonin this situation the targets for world imperialism would be near to the nerve centres of the Soviet Union
have to respond military self-defence.
grOW
Bie that cho the are on ay.
spared Better Soviet
and and and anger world Two. gains
socialism, than to existence is threatened - for then the whole world is in danger.
Nuclear means
suicide, and this is true as much for imperialism as for the international working class. Only in a desperate șituațion would Sovięt
getting weaker, a special duty is incense book te Amero work.
as on us ae meuse ves as wen.
Strengthening there will world revolution will
world scale. struggle continues all talk of disarmament is enters a it becomes revolution ner
of necessity will simply
DICSS 1O1
in - but East tions various
immune for
the globe. Such
for reasons
I hen the revolution.
world nuclear leave it until its
perialist heartlands - in West
nuclear imperialist i human kind will be free of the threat of war and nuclear annihilation:
American why
Hooles
increasing Parliamentary While nothing can stop imperialism
ing class: it must disarm the US important monopolists before they turn their
As long as capitalism survives
struggle as clas resolution peace and litionaries no nor a illr war, pure illusion.
cannot pacifists, for that is to fly in the fac wing.
To avoid war, to end war, we have to step up the class struggle on every front, and take it through to
and his own
This means supporting revolu-
and growing number of countries as the condi. tions for revolution mature across began the
support
simu other us pitains stains, the
fighting against Alliance war drives that imperialism will tr to unleasn against each successive
In the final analysis the question of whether or not there will be a
war will be decided by the
Germany, Britain and above all in North American
When the working class ol the world has finally overthrown the
war-mongers then
we oppose, Cruise this country
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarma ment was one of the most successful mass campaigns ever conducted in Britain. Today, after years at a very low ebb, it is undergoing a revival.
PHIL HEARSE looks at the rise of the CND, its gradual demise in the early sixties, and the lessons we can draw from its history.
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament got off the ground in 1957 — no acci dent. In 1956 the world had been shaken by two dramatic events: the brutal suppression of the Budapest uprising by Soviet troops, and the joint British, French and Israeli invasion of Egypt to prevent the nationalisation of the Suez canal by the Nasser regime.
Out of these two events crystallised an
awareness of the of the Western powers, and the truth of what Stalinism represented. People left the Communist Party in droves, and the 'New Left' began to emerge.
At the same time people became increasingly disturbed by the escalating level of nuclear tests: Evidence of ill-effects on health of above ground nuclear tests came to light. It was clear that nuclear weaponry was getting more effective and sophisticated and that a future nuclear war could wipe out humanity completely.
The founders of CND included left Labour Party members, scientists, religious figures and a wide range of supporters from every walk of life. In 1957 CND initiated its annual Easter marches from the Aldermaston nuclear plant in Berkshire to London. Progressively CND's activities drew in wide support. Huge public meetings were held all over the country to launch the campaign. Unilateral
At first the campaign was centred on one demand — unilateral nuclear disarmament. But gradually the campaign was extended to include opposition to nuclear alliances, and thus support for British withdrawal from NATO, and opposition to nuclear bases in Britian.
CND's biggest impact, however, was made inside the Labour Party and the trade unions. Virtually the whole of the Tribune left of the
Labour Party unilateralist, despite Nye Bevan's refusal, supported by left-leaning trades unionists, the most
whom was the Transport Workers, Frank Cousins.
The polarisation inside the Labour Party le to CND's finest hour — the debate at the 1960 Labour Party conference: Cousins
from the Transport unilateral disarmament.
It was opposed in person by Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the party and spokesperson of the right
Against a rising crescendo of heckling which made parts of his speech virtually inaudi.
, Gaitskell, in his famous 'fight, fight, and fight again' speech, staked the future of the right
personal future on the struggle against unilateralism in the party.
The right-wing organised the Campaign for Democratic Socialism, which, with huge funds,
task of defeating the unilateralism. But for a year the official position of Labour was for unilateral disarmament.
The changes in the world political situation and the development of the radicalisation in the left of British politics began to put strains on the alliance around CND. The attempted US-backed invasion of Cuba in 1961 led directly to the Cuban missile crisIs or IS0z
U2 planes over discovered the setting up of Soviet missiles on the island. President Kennedy ordered the blockade of Cuba by the US Navy — all boats heading for Cuba were stopped and searched.:
The world held its breath, awaiting a clash •between the Soviet and American navies. CND
The success and
failure of CND
overwhelmingly
begins t take
the radical left.
developing.
Seats of Government (RSGs),
imperialist Fight
Wing under CND's umbrella. the film Z').
— lony Ambietelos - wAs British became
leader of the
Positive CND's impact moved however,
Union for
imperialism. support for the Young
left on politics by CND. outstanding
Cuba step they couldn't take.
these simple,demands
mobilised its supporters in a protest that was
directed against the United States — the supporters of the campaign were CND was becoming identified as a campaign of
Two developments in 1963 confirmed this trend. A more radical wing, led by such figures as Bertrand Russell and Pat Arrowsmith,
They wanted direct, non-violent action to confront the war mongers. Already they had organised sit-down demonstrations in central London and at US bases which had been met with considerable police violence.
This radical wing — known as the Committee of 100 — exposed the existence of the Regional shelters where government personnel would go in me event or nucicar war. wards le 1o0› castel march, a section of the demonstration broke away and marched to an RSG near Reading.
Although 80,000 marched on the last day of the demonstration in London, that evening, Easter Monday, CND's best known figure, Cannon L John Collins of St. Paul's, appeared on television and denounced the extremists shelter-
Later that year, the campaign against the visit of Queen Frederika of Greece confirmed the trend of CND supporters to the left. The regime in Greece was still holding thousands of political prisnors — mainly Communists — in jail. Rightwing thugs, in league with the police, had recently murdered the left-wing pacifist deputy Lambrakis (the murder of Lambrakis is the subject of
One of the most celebrated political prisoners
the husband of a Communist. In 1963 he had been in prison for 17 years. Against this background of repression in Greece, Queen Fredrika was receiv. ed by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
For a week in July 1963, thousands of people, organised by CND and the Communist Party, fought nightly battles against the police, trying to march to Buckingham Palace. CND had never before been so closely associated with the mili. tant left. The CND alliance started to break up
As CND's more moderate support began to ebb away, the left began to turn its attention from simple unilateralism towards the issue of Vietnam, as the United States began to draw the line against Communism in that country. CND began to peter out as a mass campaign.
on British political life was overwhelmingly positive. It had the immeasurable merit of breaking with cold war consensus. From being oppossed to a particular type of weapon, it moved towards active neutralism in world politics, while many of its supporters went a stage further towards anti-
Thousands of young people were drawn into
Socialists through CND
at a time when CND was dominated by the SLL-organised Keep Left tendency and the IS supporters around Young Guard.. Hundreds of today's left-wing activists were brought into
Any campaign on nuclear weapons will even tually have to start to confront the questions of world politics, above all the question of the reason for the existence of nuclear weapons and the threat of war. No explanation of these things can be found without explaining imperialism.
For many of the early supporters of CND who opposed nuclear weapons on moral grounds - or who thought that Britain could make an
moral gesture to the world by unilateral disarmament — anti-imperialism was &
• Without doubt there is a place in British politics today for a single issue campaign agains Cruise missiles and for unilateral nuclear disa mament. That campaign should be based ou
- and not like today's CND on a wide range of neutralist policies.
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980 Pape 9
Page 10 scan of this page
NO TORY PLAN
"The violence
MP, Eddie Loyden MP, Joan Maynard MP, Ron Thomas MP, Stan Thorne MP, 1976 should therefore hand it over to the people to solve... all-out civil war…...
made them tolerate the troubles for quite a long time.' The historian AJP Taylor, 1976.
people.
in 1920-21.
and within the UK.
reasserted.'
Michael Mullen, and General Workers Union, June 1979. in the country as a whole they are a political majority.
so many other parts of the world in the past.' Joan Maynard MP, 1979.
Labour Party to support withdrawal from Northern Ireland....
mitment to end British rule.
Irish problem'.
Socialist Challenga 19 June 1980: Page 10
INTERNATIONAL / IRELAND
'WHAT the government has done, and continues to do, is to underwrite the perpetuation of the Northern Ireland state as it was set up in 1921. This is the most dangerous of the options open. It offers no solutions. It is not a recipe for peace in Ireland, but for peace between the parties at Westminster.
'It should now be clear that bipartisanship over Ireland means that policy is dictated today, as it has been since the end of the last century, by the Tories and the Ulster Unionists.
in Northern Ireland, which has logically spread to Britain, is the result of repression and injustice.' Andrew Bennett MP, Sydney Bidwell MP, Maureen Colquhoun MP, Martin Flannery MP, Tom Litterick
"The British have always been the root of the trouble in Ireland for the past 400 years...The British governments have successively failed to solve the problems of Northern Ireland. They
'I don't know what the term bloodbath means. If it means native is not between an entirely peaceful Northern Ireland and a Northern Ireland in which a lot of people will be killed. If the British withdraw some sort of settlement would be arrived at. British withdraw some sort of settlement would be arrived at.
You can't tell what it is because the forces in play can't be judged until they can operate. I have very grave doubts whether, faced with the responsibilities of a position after the British withdrawal, the Protestants would, in fact, resort to an
"The Irish problem is undoubtedly difficult because British people have been interfering there for four hundred years and I suspect that many of them can't get it out of their heads that the British know much better how to rule Ireland — how to run Ireland — than the Irish know themselves. It is a view which has
"The essence of the "Irish Dimension" is this: the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland — some 40 per cent of the population as a whole — form part of the political majority of the Irish
"They are so by virtue of the fact that they are mainly nationalist in politics and would prefer to be ruled by the Irish rather than by the British governments, their predecessors having been incorporated in the United Kingdom against their will
'Partition has denied them their rights as a majority, therefore, and turned them into a minority within the North
'It seems to me that a permanent settlement cannot be achieved, unless it recognises the injustice of this fact and comes to terms with it by opening up a way to a sitaution in which the political rights of the Northern Catholics and nationalists to be part of the polițical majority of the island as a whole can be
general secretary, Irish Transport
•...all the injustice the minority population has suffered springs from (partition). Particularly, I think, whatever you did on civil liberties you would still have the fact to face that the Catholics have been made a political minority in Northern Ireland when
"And the only way you could solve that would be by uniting the country. After all Ireland is one country, and we undoubtedly divided it in order to divide and rule as we've done in
"The London Co-op Political Committee has chosen as its resolution to the forthcoming Regional Conferences of the
the growing call for
'Our aims are still those of the Better Life For All Campaign some years ago — to end the violence, the discrimination, and the deprivation in Northern Ireland. However the policies of the last ten years have failed and it is now clear that the aims of A Better Life For All cannot be achieved until there is a com-
"This is the only policy which has not been tried, and the only policy which deals with the cause as well as the symptoms of the
London Coop Political Committee 39801.4
THE Tory plans for Ireland should be opposed by all those who call themselves That can be said without even knowing tae precise delalls.
The reason is simple: Tories have no intention of giving, to all the Ireland, the right to determine the future of all the people of Ireland.
The importance of the principle of self-determination and what it means in the specific Irish context is explained in the extracts from Ireland - Voices for Withdrawal reprinted on these two pages.
This pamphlet also vides ample breadth of feeling in this country for British withdrawal. For that reason, and for the general excellent quality of the poet, it aeriom presenty
material available on Ireland.
thing does not do, meant as a criticism, is to map out how the sentiment expressed within it can be harnessed into building a strong and effective movement play its part in forcing Britain out of Ireland.
Organisations
At present there are three organisations themselves to this The first and largest in terms of membership is the Troops Out Movement, will be held in Edinburgh at the end of this month
Involved in number of left-wing groups the International Group, Party, and Big Flame - as well as many individuals belonging to no political organisation.
The TOM is not a 'front' collectioned individual or collection that is one reason why it has been successful in building 40 odd branches up and down the country.
The TOM is based on two demands: troops out now, and self-determination for the people of Ireland as a whole. British A newer organisation is the Committee for from Ireland, the Voices for pamphlet.
The CWI was established to organise the demonstration last August ween 6,000 and 10,000 people. The TOM and the other groups riyalved in, the IOM are part. poof the WI, as,are a number of.
IN A few days, the Tory government is to publish its plans for the future of the North of Ireland. Whatever their exact nature, one thing is certain: the Tories will insist that the north-east of Ireland remains under British control.
But that is easier said than done. In the North of Ireland the resistance to British rule continues, while in the South the Irish Prime Minister, Charles Haughey, under pressure from his electorate, is demanding that Britain declare itself in favour of Irish unity and British withdrawal.
In Britain, too, there is a growing realisation that the only peaceful solution Britain has to offer Ireland is to get out. In London last weekend 250 people attended a 'Forum for Withdrawal; there
Communist Party.
specific deadline by socialist.
Britain should
the
people of
mittee.
The third organisation is
Ireland within evidence of the pro- Party
pam-
presently
pamphlet and this is not
which can addressing problem.
whose conference
TOM are
Marxist Socialist Workers
individuals "troops out model resolution
begin political Withdrawal withdrawal' which produced Withdrawal the CWI as competing
which attracted bet- al times iences.
tirely satistactory
Liberals andithe New
reproduced.
On
The CWI is different from what is necessary the TOM in that it does not set
which country dedicated Ireland, nor does it explicitly endorse the demand for self-determination for Ireland as a political unit. Organisationally have the CWI is also different from several years. TOM in that it has no branch That structure, but is organised and British run by a London-based com- misrepresenting
as, and British the sides apart'
Committee on Ireland, set up specifically to raise the issue of
the Labour "terrorists'.
There
The basis of the LCI is Lion it the circulating in the hope of it being debated at the next party conference is not quite so explicit, saying that the next Labour shown in Ireland goverment should immediately Labour Party
the process of full and military possible to the type
It would be wrong to see which
TOM, the LCI, and the solidarity
organisa- country for so long. tions. Each has specific tasks, addressing different, although built?
overlapping, aud- basis?
And yet this is not an en-
situation.
While the three organisations
each other, "neither'in themselves or in theit principled: basis
are growing signs that Ireland will become a signifi-
cant issue in the Labour Party; and the recent
launch of Charter '80, a campaign seeking 'human
rights for Irish political prisoners', promises to
make an issue of the conditions
prisoners are held in the H Block at Long Kesh and
the women's prison in Armagh.
These two pages chart the growing movement in Britain for withdrawal from Ireland. Extracts
from a new pamphlet, Voices for Withdrawal, are
opposite
Republican Movement expresses its view of how an
Irish solidarity movement can be built in Britain.
Below GEOFF BELL, one of the speakers at last
weekend's Forum, gives his view.
sum total has managed to build
- a movement with mass support in this
to getting Britain out of Ireland
The failure of such a current to emerge is largely due to the political circumstances that
existed in •Britain for
is, the. success of governments what is happening in the North of Ireland
in the first instance, the
Army 'keeping two or more recently, tain the Army defending the com munity from 'criminals'
are real signs that this is beginning to change.
other. process for
The scope of the contribu-
the Voices Jor Withdrawal pamphlet is just one indication of this. Another is the increasing interest being Illative
within the In All of which suggests that it may now be together
realistically build of mass campaign has evaded the Irish last year. movement in this
How can this campaign be
What should its CWI,
Socialist Challenge believes - as it always has done - that the two political demands of the Troops Out Movement are, at this point. in time, the only
"for such'
under which the Provisional novement On the political level, to agree that Britain has no right to be in Ireland but to say that Britain should not leave immediately is contradictory and confusing.
On the practical level, the immediate withdrawal troops is less likely to produce a Loyalist backlash than the announcement or withorawa within a couple of years. In the latter case the Loyalists would have time to organise and mount such a campaign of terror, both in Ireland and Bri-
that the government could be pressured into stay-
Mobilising
Even on the level of mobilising people in this country, the twin demands of self-determination and troops out
ple to their banner than any
This is not to say that the CWI or the resolution adopted by the LCI should be opposed. Rather they should be seen as
in an evolutionary process in educating people on the demand that Britain should leave Ireland now.
To ensure that this does happen means continuing to build the Troops Out Movement as the major campaigning organisation in this country
In an attempt to aid this
the International Marxist Group will be proposing to the TOM conference that the next national initiative which should be supported by the TOM should be to call or support a national demonstration in the autumn on demands of 'No Tory Plans
Ireland' and 'SelfDetermination for all the Irish people now'.
The organisers of the CWI forum have also called for demonstration, the basis of which would include opposi tion to the forthcoming Tory proposals. Hopefully the LCI can also be drawn into such an
this way the three organisations can organise
and build a quantitatively bigger demonstration than even the 12 August march
The IMG believes that such
demonstration should _be built as vigorously as possible by the TOM, the LCI, and the
and by all socialist organisations in this country.
But in the run up to such a . demonstration during it and ; aftér it, the building of a mass troops aut current, remains the priority.pr
Page 11 scan of this page
SFOR IRELAND
Building a troops out movement mi an area sit and e
THE leaders of the national liberation struggle in Vietnam always recognised the importance of a broad-based movement against the war developed in the Imperialist heartland itself.
They did not find pointless or impossible to build a troops out movement in spite of widespread support in America for the war - including among the trade unions. Vietnam
The Vietnamese always appealed for unity in action among the various antiwar organisations in America.
Xuan Thuy, ambassador to the Paris peace talks, put it like
'Facing the serious situation as it presents itself now, I call upon the progressive American people and all antiwar organisations in the United
closely, associate all forces and strata of the population irrespective of their skin colour, religion and political trend, thus making a united and strong movement so
as to curb in time new military
adventures by the US
ministration, to demand an end
to their war of aggression
South Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, 'demand
withdrawal' of all Ametican
troops from Indochina and let
- the Provisionals' view
their own intern peopat settle the Indochina The principle is that an antiwar movement in an imperialist country must unite broadest possible forces behind being the basic demands of 'troops
out' and 'self-determination'. The stress of the American it anti-war movement was always
on action, rather than, for example, working gress.
So there were demonstrations against the war over a number of years, such as the 800,000 who Washington 1971. were protests. _icach-ins, mass mobilisations down the country throughout leaders the war, expecially
draft was introduced.
This movement main principles. First it had a non-exclusionary line, in other words anyone who supported the basic demands was free to participate.
Programme
Secondly, it was a single-issue campaign, which did not include in its programme points on broader political issues. If these principles plied in Britain what is ad- result?
If the Young Liberals or Cyril Smith or a number and Labour MPs say 'troops out of the Ireland', but take reactionary
positions. 'on other issues, clearly this conflict îs their pro-
blem and not that of activists in the troops out movement, long as their actions help in some way to build a troops out
the movement.
building an anti-war movement in a hostile situation of making politically Republicans like to see in Con- thousands marching
calling huge
withdrawal of British troops on principled, marched in basis.
There
Protest
and
and
But it may after the likely that a 'Bring the Boys
Home' movement will develop based on nad two
and chauvinist sentiment. This would Daily Mirror vocating. sense this could result in action against British interest.s While a progressive anti-imperialist movement would be the more Republicans cannot ignore the prospect of a movement saying "troops OUL chauvinist reasons ("let the Irish
the sort themselves out').
Protest action
wanted, no matter
of basis. However,
movement the radicals should,. of course,
then
war.
The so America
It is always the danger in
factional. would obviously hundreds streets. through for the war, mainly anti-imperialist students
unIons, against the war.
well be more for bulaing
British self-interest seem to be what the
has been ad. In a purely objective
unwittingly councis and unions. gnorant
welcome,
_ own situation here.
is what is what the within this.. flexible approach
try to educate people baised... around the issues raised, in the -principles. ?*/ exclusiontry and-sin
.... trade unions in mainly favourable to the war in Vietдат. This was basically on a pro-imperialist basis, and purely for self-interest because the war meant more jobs. Building workers in New York, the 'hard hats, even violently attacked anti-war demonstrations in the
Gradually, the building of a mass movement against the
• supported by black people, turned the tide in the trade
and many came out
In Britain, it would seem the situation is more favourable
"troops • out' movement within the organised labour movement. Support for the Chile Solidarity Campaign (set up after the bloody military coup in 1973) was, for example, quite widespread among trades
On ireland, most trade unionists seem to be not so much hostile as ignorant of the
It is for those active in the troops out movement to decide themselves how best to pursue their activity. But the prospects look good, if a principled yet
adopted, the
I'm an Irish-American and a reporter. I've lived twice in Ireland for periods of more than six months and have visited Belfast almost 30 times since 1963. I'm certain that I've spent more time in Ireland, North and South, than Shirley Williams or the editorial writers of the London newspapers. And what I have seen is very simple: I've seen a state ruled by British
"I've been shot at in Belfast and teargassed in Derry. I've talked to the IRA. I've looked at the British concentration camp at Long Kesh, seen British soldiers bash kids on their head and fire four-inch hard rubber bullets at crowds of women. I saw the blood on the streets of Derry after the British paratroopers fired into a crowd and killed 13 attitude to the North of Ireland is not sentimental. It is made of
"The British press might thunder and say that this is not the business of America. But if Israel is our business, if Egypt is our business, if South Africa and Rhodesia are our business, if Soviet Jews are our business then Ireland is our business....
'Everybody wants the killing to stop. And there is only one way to stop it forever. Get the British out and make Ireland one country, as it was at the beginning.
Pete Hamill, New York Daily News, 1979
Belfast is filled with British soldiers in camouflage uniform. They man the check-points, stand guard at petrol stations, on roads to the airport, at the seaport, in front of the banks and the bigger shops.
Stealthily clinging to house walls, they patrol the streets keeping an eye on all pedestrains and the upper stories of apartment buildings. They are always on the alert, with their finger on the trigger. Add to this the constant drone of helicopters patrolling over the city and of the roar of the armoured vehicles riding in the streets....
'Northern Ireland is a land of total surveillance. The British Army has a computer file on practically every adult, listing facial features, date of birth, licence number, colour and make of car, even type of television and colour of the wallpaper in the home.
"This is complemented by telephone bugging and a network of paid informers. And all to keep the people in a state of constant intimidation, compel them to give up the fight for their 'Since 1169, when Henry II invaded Ireland, troops have been in that country against the wishes of the majority of the Irish people, as they are against the wishes of the majority of the Irish people today.
'Throughout those 800 years, every generation has produc ed Irishmen and women who have been prepared to assert the right of their nation to national freedom
'And every time they have done that they have been me with the brute force of British imperialism.
'The irony is that Ireland was Britain's first colony and is Britain's last colony, while the institutions which were built up to hold Ireland in submission were institutions that have been systematicaily used against the working class of this country...
'What is being done in Northern Ireland is being done in the name of the British people, in the name of the millions who go day in, day out, to factories, who create the real wealth that we see about as.
"While there are troops in Northern Ireland and while there is a system in this country which supports them there, the working class will never be free.
"The campaign to get the troops out of Ireland is a blow against British imperialism, is a blow against the British ruliny class in this country, is a blow for the Irish working class, and their natural ally, the British working class.
Mike Cooley, former president AUEW/TASS, 1975
"The way forward clearly lies in united working class struggic But that kind of unity of action cannot be built on a situation where a whole layer of the working class is given certain privileges — the best jobs, education and homes — and where that privilege is backed by the forces of the sectarian statelet.
"A united struggle of the working class can only devełop when that situation is no longer possible. When the Orange state is dismantled, then and only then can a realistic dialogue leading to united action develop....
In a sentence, the presence of the troops perpetuates th divisions of the trist working class:
Phil Flynn, ment and Pablic Services Union, 1976.
occupation, religion, address, deputy general secretary, Local Gove "sotialist Challenge- 19 June 1930 : piage 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Thatcher's Olympic hypocrisy
The forgotten story of the Korean War
With the Olympic games just a month away, Tory leaders are still appealing to members of the British team to ignore the British Olympic Association away from Moscow.
By Dodie Weppier
Thatcher is not happy with the results of the boycott campaign so far. She is no doubt equally unhappy about the labour movement campaign to raise money to pay the fares of British athletes who decide to go to Moscow.
The recent decision controlled Hackney Council to send f1000 to the Olympics Association donations from Newcastle Counci least five Scottish local authorities, the Stirling Trades Council, and a number of unions, including the construction section of the Engineers' Union.
None of the imperialist powers is able to come up with a coherent political solution to the Afghan crisis which is mutually acceptable to Western governments. Carter alone has a shook the country last
dictatorship.
organised. Police stations,
defence.
traces the origins of today's struggles.
WHEN the city of Kwangju was seized by its inhabitants last month, top US government officials called special White House meeting. The result? US troops stationed in Korea were placed on alert.
General John A Wickham Jr, head of the joint US-South Korean Military Command, re easer Korean combat troops regular duties to help put down the unrest. An American aircraft carrier was sent to the South Korean COcoL. tO DC replaced by the giant warship, Midway, soon possible.
Hodding Carter III, US State Department spokesperson, declared that the White House was 'deeply concerned •Ine strife'. For over 30 years this kind of deep concern' nas been expressed by successive US governments.
America still has 40,000 troops in
country. backed UD mighty Seventh Fleet, by enormous US bases in Okinawa, and by untold numbers of tactical nuclear weapoe us
The government became directly involved in Korea in 1945, when Ine Japanese surrendered al
The British
involvement
British support Was
£4,700m over three years. programmes.
INTERNATIONAL
and stay region.
proach.
tackled
the Labour-
followed similar from
national Schmidt,
ple.
BRUTAL repression has been used by the South Korean regime to try to smash the massive mobilisations that
month. Then, hundreds thousands of Korean people went on strike against the
The cities of Kwangju, Mokpo and Polkyo were seized. Committees of citizens and students were
armouries, and a military vehicle factory were raided to obtain weapons
The key to understanding these events lies in the war that began 30 years ago this week. Jonathan Silberman
The 38th Parallel
the end of the Second World War.
Then, the US military decreed that Korea would be divided along the JoLl Parallel. which had joined the war against the Japanese, withdrew its troops from the south US troops landed in S Korea on 8 September, 1945, supposedly to aisarm une Japanese troops two days parlie had been pean the People's Republic
was committed to a programme of reform, equality for allu • OLICI laulcal ICUlls highly popular government, based on a network of over a hundred recognised by the Soviet Union. COLICS
The Amen can LOOD. nothing less than an invasion force, opposed majority of Korean people. Yet one month later, the US government in Korea declared itself the sole government fact that it did not have a single member who spoke Korean At the beginning of 1946. the US established the Representative Democratic Council Syngman Rhee. It's true Rhee was
The British Labour government followed the US lead fully.
instantaneous and unqualified, wrote Michael Foot MP. 'No word of dissent was raised in the Cabinet, and few in Parliament or outside'. The decisive speech in Parliament was made by Nye Bevan, which committed Britain to
'We shall carry it through; we shall fulfill our obligations to our friends and allies..' he proclaimed.
Almost 700 British troops were killed during the war, with over 2,500 going missing or wounded. The only opposition to the war came from the Communist Party, and from the tiny forces of the Trotskyists of the Fourth International. The fore-runners of the British Socialist Workers Party took a neutral position as the imperialist forces invaded the North. The SWP continues to defend the view that the Korean war was an inter-imperialist conflict.
It's hard to estimate just how much blood is on the hands of successive British governments, but they have faithfully supported the 'Seoul lobby' at the United Nations. An 'Honour Guard' of British troops is still deployed in South Korea, Britain is still op-, posed to a policy of re-unification, and, is heavily committed economically through both expanding trade and investment
clear policy: to use the presence of Soviettroops to boost his war drive and to justify the stepped-up military presence of the US in that
But even in his own country, other government leaders haven't been convinced by his ap-
Secretary of State Muskie, stance, argues that the SALT treaty should be
independently of developments Aighanistan.
President Giscard of France has now supported the proposal for a supposedly 'neutral' Afghanistan put forward by Lord Carrington. They want a a negotiated Afghanistan, made part of a wider Middle East settlement so as to attract Soviet leaders to a conference table. West Germany's Chancellor
however. seen To Afghanistan and prioritise other issues like arms control in dealings with the Soviet Union.
Of course all these powers share a common end, even though they differ over means. None have at heart the interests of the Afghan neo
Western leaders are eager to defend them of
for JuS Korean
women,
La Korean, but he was flown back to General War United States as an emigré!
ed with a dod ison et
ruled with a rod of iron. political activity WelC Despite the repression. the Korean people fought back. In the autumn
overwhelming of 1946, a pre-revolutionary situa-
military mon expouca. Bike loudy s everts it was met by brutal methods of terror. By 1949
- desole unt
mutay ad nad been dunsca into the South since the end of World War Two.
by
CHINA
NORTH KOREA Hamhüng,
Pyongyang , Chongiu
-Kunsa
Mokpo
alliance of Afghan
Thatcher
for in-
in but remains
by the dictatorship of
settlement inspired by
want to drop
MacArthur's
was banned.
, some $440 million of helping
General MacArthur, the region, led
South-east
wait until they in the legislature.
CEASE FIR
June. Just six days later, Auctica Wal O SEOUL
SOUTH started.
KOREA three days in
Taegu action' meant.
specific however.
attacked the North'
from Soviet tanks but not from the reactionary
landowners, clergy tribal leaders presently being supplied with arms by Egypt and the Gulf states
denounces the 'butchers of Kabul' but congratulates the British Army on its work in the North of Ireland. Carter waxes and man s l Aganisar
silent about the hundreds thousands of Iranians killed and maimed by the Shah, or those oppressed in South Korea The boycott of the Mobcow Olympics is no
concern abqut the bureaucratic methods of the Soviet leaders but by a desire to attack the gains of the October revolution. In condemning the Soviet Union, Western powers are seeking to prepare the working class to accept moves of their own against revolutionary developments in the Third World Central America is especially threatened.
However, it is not all smooth sailing for the USSR in Afghanistan. Soviet troops intervened there to stablise the civil war situation that
US carnage
AMERICAN imperialism was pre-occupied with Korean events because of the effects of the victorious Chinese revolution. In 1949, one third of the world's population liberated itself from the inter-
to stimulate further revolutionary developments in the entire area.
US military commander for the policy adopted by government: to smash any efforts by the people o
Asia to take tneir desuny in tneir own hands. Just four weeks after the Chinese victory Rhee's • defence minister stated: It we nad our own way, we would I'm sure, have started up already. But we had to
(the Americans) were ready... We are strong enough to march up and take Pyongyang (the Norm korean caotan will alew days
US and South Korean policy also stemmed from the outcome of the elections in the South. They were nela on su May 1y4y rollowing pressure mom drestacl Truman to establish a more 'democratic', more stable base for American interests. Despite grave electoral restricuons. me solen cored peone overwnemy. rejected Rhee. He won less than 20 per cent of the seats
The prospect of the cards. Its first meeting took place on Monday, 19
Korea was at war well prepared for the Austranan, ana Us millary autoniues neia top-icvel conferences in the Pacific area just before the fighting
MacArthur also met John Foster Dulles, leading us kepublican rarty member wato lad spen
Seoul with Syngman Rhee. predicted that the US would soon be taking 'positive acuon... to preserve micinauoral ocalc. justice in the world'. He refused to say what 'positive
MacArthur's biographer, John Gunther, was more
Hours after the conflict began, Gunther was informed by one of MacArthur's aides "A big story has just broken. The South Koreans have
In official Western histories the Korean war was
and right-wing Democratic Party, defending,
being made to of • CROPOIL the
core of militant Afghans,
vicious right-wing
Today,
drive. policy
especially
national capitalist system, with the prospect aid desperately needed by the Korean people. In the
naval aid could have clinched it early on. the Truman
Stalin's treachery.
end of the war, mintary casuales al 144,0l
fered the most terrible devastation:
of napalm on the North *By the end of the war, Korea naa dropped rom y.om to o.om beginning of the war; 80,000 at the a government
policy burning everything in war. British months of war, 22 villages
Led to the ground in the Wonju sector alone.
Dulles Us planes
airport in the security alu the
troops into ar ave
But the war continued
" were ller "11 started by the aggressive moves of the North Korean. refugees were loft to face the peace'......
threatened the status quo in the entire region.
They chose to strike a blow against the opponents of the People's whatever their intentions, the radical reforms undertaken by the PDP government. But the blow was struck
in a burcaucrauc way, will no schious alchip!
win over a section peasants or the middle class of the cities who
reactionaries. By mobilising around a radical social programme a small
such as those who organise the militias, the Soviets could undermine support for the reactionary alliance.
ensure that a regime is not installed in Afghanistan. But the methods and policies of the Soviet bureaucrats can't be replied upon to win the sort of deep-going gains which could
people. This •only come from the independent mobilisation of the masses, something which would turn back the offensive of the rebels and check Carter's war nunnes one remin. ne in is that me seeds o' the war — the civil war — were sown by the American
• itself which denied the right of the Korea people to determine their own future and cracked down on any independent political organisation.
Nevertheless, in the name of 'peace' and "freedom', Truman authorised the bombing of 'specific military targets in North Korean'. a naval blocade of the entire Korean coast, and the use of American ground troops
Far from the claims that the war was a plot by the USSR. the Moscow bureaucrats tailed to give adequat‹
first months of the war, the South Korean army was almost swept off the Korean peninsula. Soviet air anc
ins treery in adition to da us, 15 offor
In addition to the US, Western and pro-Western governments sent in troops following a US resolution to the United Nations. At the
America's own figures put the US-UN
But it was the Korean and Chinese people who suf-
*By as early as September 1950, the US airforce had dropped 97,000 tons of bombs and 7.8 million gallons
the population of North
*The population of Pyongyang was 400,000 at the
• end. Only two one raid alone. the US dropped 697 tons of bombs and 10,000 litres of napalm on the Northern capital; 6,000 civilians were killed
* the imperialist armies pursued a scorched earth
neir wake AreT and 300 haystacks were raz-
*The US used germ warfare, with untold damage
The war was not limited to the Korean peninsula. cities. On 8 October, two US planes even attacked an
• Soviet Union. Finally, MacArthur got ms counte revolutional Wal against China. On 24 November, he ordered 100,000
I offensive designed to reach the Yalu — the North Korean border with China : China joined the war and the US offensive was pushed back
And with it the carnage.
Altogether three million Korean and Chinese people
Toreoten wen •Fwentv milhor
Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980 Page 12
Page 13 scan of this page
flames grow higher
Teachers' leader shot in El Salvador
By Tom Marlowe 'BETWEEN the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle we shall crush apartheid and white minority rule.'
These words were written two years ago by Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress. They were the last sentence of a smuggled out from Mandela's prison camp on Robben Island olI. Capelowi which finally reached the outside world last week.
Despite the time it has taken Mandela's message to get to his supporters IL remarkably timely.
Monday was the fourth anniversary of the Soweto uprising when thousands of blacks rebelled against the regime in South Africa. many as 600 blacks were killed, and four times many injured, when the rising was put down with a brutality which is part and parcel of the apartheid system.
The anniversary was marked in Soweto by a general strike and repeated clashes betweet blacks and the South African security forces The government was so scared of what the anniversary would bring that not only were public meetings banned, so were church services.
The announcement of the ban was accompanied by statement from the African prime minister P Botha which gave, warning to those who under-
the government's determination to maintain law and order. This followed a threat from police minister Louis Le Grance: "As far as l am concerned we have had enough.
All the signs are that the blacks in South Africa have also 'had enough'. Botha has maintained takt the wave of anger and protest which has
From Sara Ritcher, San Salvador various union positions since 1974.
fighting against injustices.
Ine concluons la teachers are a persecuted species.
by government forces.
teachers. this year the number has already reached 39.
five months without receiving their salary.
INTERNATIONAL
HE TROUBLE SPOTS racist As
NUARY 1, 1977: One killed in Soweto bom 1922: Two whites 1977: Black securlty police
Ling: Targe
a real lar in Catione
Job: bomb explosion on ER 12, 1977: Germiston police station EX 11, 1877: Bomb at Benoni railway 1978: Two police kllled in clant Bomber kllis himself in Port South W final shaken the regime in the last two months is 'the work of professional agitators', breadth and depth of the protests exposes such claims as raiculous.
Whether it be the schools' boycott campaign hundreds of thousands youth, the increasing number of black workers taking strike action; or the armed struggle of which the latest success was the
THE first time I saw Hector Ramón Guardado, the afternoon was drying the life force that flowed freely from his body. He had been vilely assassinated.
It was not until some hours later, with a call from a teacher friend, that I began to know something of this person who first appeared as corpse.
Hector Guardado was a founding member of the national teachers' union, ANDES-21 de Junio, and held
Last year he was elected to the executive and as secretary of grievances. In this capacity, Hector was responsible for personally attending to labour conflicts and violations of the rights of his 'companero' teachers.
He spent much of his time at the Ministry of Education
On 8 May, after, 13 years in the classroom, Hector lay in state at a secondary school. His forced silence is testimony
present-day El Salvador, where
At this moment there are more than two hundred teachers throughout the country who cannot go to their classes — and many to their homes — under threat of death
Some country schools have been closed for lack of
Last year 37 teachers were killed by rightists and
In a country of 60 per cent illiteracy, teacher dedication is very high. Three thousand have continued to teach for
Despite these tremendous pressures, despite being one of the marked teachers who could no longer safely continue •going to class, and despite having two young sons and a
South Africa: the
Botswana FOUR YEARS OF TROUBLE
In injured
killed.
BECEMBAR 16, 1978: Bomb blast on Easteri nation dee ador
suermos sche ands blowing up of the SASOL oil plant two weeks ago, the Botha government is now faced with the most widespread opposition in South Africa's history.
involving with a traditional carrot and stick approach small carrot is being dangled, and a very big stick is being waived Salvador
minorities, million Indians, mixed million blacks represented whose pointed by
sultative powers.
military
Masterminding strategy Malan, African
are Pote clash with guerila Woman killed in Port
closest advisor. beneficiary
sits on the
1979: Guerrilla killed in gun cil.
Other security head of the
the chief of the police Silack on prote near ship. Springs, including rocke ting what Both has 'total strategy', 1980: Attack on Booysens Police military ured pulls school boyentt Both
called enemy' determined and create
The government is reacting
alarmingly'. - except a very wife who shares his commitment, Hector continued to dedicate himself to the rights of the teachers and all working peole in this suffering Central American country.
Hector's body was surrounded by hundreds of teachers, secondary school students, friends, family. As I sat and talked to those who came to give their departing tribute, the figure of a truly human person arose
Hector Ramón Guadardo was a persecuted teacher, one of many who refuse to seek the security of silence. He sought justice although little was to be found. For this he has won the admiration and love of all who knew him or of
For his years of untiring struggle and his role in the national work stoppage by teachers in May to end the repression, he has become one of the too many martyrs of the Salvadorian labour movement.
Messages of support from teacher unions and labour
The struggle in El Salvador
Speaker: Rafael Menjiver, former rector of San
and representative of the University Democratic Revolutionary Front.
Thursday, 19 June, 7pm Friends Meeting House, Euston Rd, London NW1
The carrot is the establishment of a 'President's Council' to replace the existing all-white Senate. Its 60 members will be drawn from the four principle
totalling, SCYC people whites, Chinese and those of parentage. The 20 will not be on council, members will be apthe The council will only have 'con-
The stick consists of a big, 55 per cent, increase in military spending, and the rise to prominence of the South African
establisment within the country's ruling clique.
the new General Magnus chief of the South Defence Force, and widely considered to be Botha's
Malan is of General Staff training. He now
powerful inner cabinet' in the Botha government — the state security coun-
members of the council none o national intelli gence service (formerly BOSS)
police minister Le Grance. Together this bunch are plot-
called a which includes attacks on South Africa's black neighbours.
Malan and Botha know that their problems are increasing. At the start of the
he called ree communist
'communist would 'attempt to confusion, discontent and disloyalty'. Admitted Malan, 'the total revolumonary onslaugil agaust our activities. entire population has escalated
That was six months ago. Today the 'escalation' is showing signs of turning into a tor-
AROUND THE WORLD
Guyana WALTER Rodney, Marxist historian and a leader of the left opposition Working People's Alliance (WPA) was murdered by a car bomb in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, last Friday night. The car in which he had left a WPA meeting was blown up by a bomb placed under his seat.
This is the third murder of WPA members in the last three weeks, and follows searches and arrests of other leading members. It also comes a week after the adjournment of the trial of Rodney and other WPA members on a frame-up charge
National Congress.
Walter's assassination is clearly a political killing by sections of the right, probably within the government itself, who are alarmed by the recent growth of the WPA. It echoes similar campaigns of political violence in the Caribbean, notably in Jamaica, where a situation is again developing similar to the attempted 'destabilisation' backed by the CIA in 1976.
In the late 1960s the banning of Walter Rodney from Jamaica sparked off the black power movement in the region.
WPA Support Committee mobilising meeting on Wed 18 June at Institute of Race Relations, Pentonville Rd, London, for rally on Sat 21 June. East Germany ALTHOUGH Rudolf Bahro and thousands of others were released under an amnesty to mark the 30th anniversary of the republic last October, the persecution of political dissidents has not ceased in East Germany.
On 15 May this year a court in Leipzig sentenced 22-yearold Simone Langrock to five years' imprisonment on charges of "anti-state agitation': Her crimes? Simone was accused of daubing the slogan Freedom for Rudolf Bahro' on à Leipzig monument in summer 1978; of distributing leaflets calling for the release of all political prisoners in the GDR and Eastern Europe; of discussing and distributing the writings of political authors like Herbert Marcuse, Eria Fromm, and Bahro.
Simone's father, Rolf Mainz, member of the ruling Socialist Unity (SED) party, and his brother Klaus have been imprisoned since October 1976, also for 'anti-state agitation'. Simone's grandfather, Albert Mainz, spent four years in Nazi concentration camps for anti-fascist
Letters demanding Simone's immediate release should be sent to: Embassy of the German Belgrave Sq, London SWIX 8QB
Denmark SEVERAL thousand women from across the globe will be attending a conference in Copenhagen next month. It is to be held on 14-24 July, at the same time as a women's conference organised by the United Nations on the theme of Equality,
While the latter is exclusively for government representatives — a follow up to a similar event held in Mexico City five years ago — the alternative conference is open to all who wish to attend. Some 80 workshops are planned.
The UN is providing financial support for this conference. While no resolutions will be permitted, contacts will certainly be established, and international campaigns such as those for abortion rights, contraception, and against forced sterilisation can play a valuable role. Spain THE Spanish parliament last week began debating a bill to legalise divorce.
Spain is the only country in Western Europe, apart from the South of Ireland, where divorce is still banned. The prohibition was introduced in 1939 after the fascists' victory in the Spanish Civil War.
Opinion polls have shown that a vast majority are in favors of the legalisation, but right-wing parties and the Catholic Church are campaigning against the reform.
Intercontinental Press/Inprecor
The latest issue of Intercontinental Press/Inprecor carries
the United Secretariat statement on South Korea. There are
also articles on Iran and on developments in several Central
American countries. Finally, a major article by Les Evans
on China is featured.
Single issues 40p including postage, Subscription Intes
£6 for 24 issues. Orders and cheques/ postal orders to
continental Press, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP:
La former journalist and
Democratic Republic, 34 Socialist Challenge 19 June 1980 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS
morc Into BRADFORD: SC available from Fourth Idea
supporters sell every Sat Morning
RIGHTON: For info phone
RISTOL: SC on sale 11-1, 'Hole in Ground' •. Ato a Cable from 108 Road, Cardiff. sore triable focal tele SC available from Dundee City Thursday
Rd, Enficid Town.
Parlam co larker, Upeon
elevery Per Sa every
Te. 061.236 4905 for more information SWINDON: SC on sale 11-1 every Sar., Regeni
Booksall, on High St. ker: Martin nan. Venue:
"CASTLE: Socialism in WHAT'S LEFT RATES or 11 pe apolo tach. Dead.
tion. Payinest in s
• pub, Shirland Rd, W9. Speaker: the tape or fat
all Com sites Poland 50p polp SATIONAL demo to defend Nasire Begum from deportation, and all those threatened by
ration i oil Moss Lane East, Park
gether all radical members the union for
Fi write to: 36
Box I, Fullmarks,
FUND DRIVE
A WELCOME £10 came into our Fund Drive this week from Steve Pilley, a shop steward in the Rotherham steel works. 'Before the steel strike, writes, *1 personally had no idea that organisations like the
Marxist Group existed. I have always had my own point of view, but I have since found it to be more or less the same as the IMG's.
Steve ends his letter with the message: 'Keep up the good work.
are going to do that, we need the nelp or every reader. Let's hope next weck s post origi us the funds to do just that.
the following
Our thanks to renders whose conautons dayt brought this quarter's total €849.32 P Foster Camden IMG Anon ME • Wilson Bolton East CLP SC supporters * Drinker
D Kellaway M Holbrook S Whitely SE Manchester IMG Anon Swindon IMG Canterbury IMG SPilley J Mooney.
£119.39 104'
Socialist Challenge - 19 June 1980 1P
SCEVENTS Disarm West
aturdays outside and eas
'HISTORY poses this question (for or against the re-absorption of anti-capitalist states back into capitalism) defensively', thunders Noel Hibbert (5 June). Martin Shaw is but a 'latter day William
nuclear proliferation the worid over Some of us would take such comparisons with pride, but Noel as canny not bol comenaculary and his argument - because the Soviet Union is not imperialist,
and so has the right to the hydrogen bomb - has to be concer 1. Unilateral disarmament campaigns fail because in each country (or bloc) 'going it alone in a hostile world seems impossible and utopian. Any new paign must be international and involve both main power blocs. 2. The economic structure of the two blocs is not the only fac
aggression. The Cuban and Soviet workers' states are trying to smash Entren. the Soviet Union has invaded Afghanistan; China, Vietnam, and Kampuchea have
3. A defensive mentality does not mean defensive weaponry.
cautious men with a siege mentality but they have risked aggression — I LILA WOLLO Wal and again (Hungary Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan). 4. If, say, there is a crisis in Yugoslavia and troops mass on the borders, hot lines fingers hover on buttons, then no one can guaranice tnal there won't be a pre-emptive Soviet
Inn, strike.
5. As we live in Britain our
complicity with
he Not all
doctors are
Thatcher's
friends
YOUR analysis of the recent doctor's pay settlement ( May) was restricted to a front-page denunciation of the 'huge wage inclass 101 'Thatcher's friends' including 'well-healed (sic) doc-
This analysis is woefully inadequate, in not reacuonary and £2.00 dangerous.
, begin with, a clear majori. 17A0 ty of doctors are neither well-paid 15.00 Junior doctors, 2.50 for example, are almost invariably
contracted to work some 80 hours 4.00 1.00 overtime — and in practice
frequently work 100 plus hours a 1U.U0
week Overtime, it shobld be noted, is paid at one-third normal rate, not time and a third. 3.50 Tale is intrerore less inan many 10.00 nurses and ancillary workers.
these and other doctors are on 10.00 call for many, nights which great-.
ly restricts personal life!
All this occairs in a situation of.. demoralisation caused by staff:
shortages, run-down of facilities, and so on
Undoubtedly many doctors, especially tosc at tae top, tify totally with the ruling class. But it is not Socialist Challenge's
reactionary camp; it should be trying to win sections of them to
We should support their cam- demands for higher salaries, fewer
and in doing so try to overcome the division betwe the one hand and nurses clary workers on tac ounci, which the bureaucracy is foster-
Urnerwisc we can cupcel no support from doctors for the pay claims of the nurses
luck to the doctors! Now 30 cent for nurses and all other PHS
workers!
OT A E CLARKE
Hospitals Does and Afghanistan
still exist?
FOR a number of months Socialist Challenge has remained
as if the country had ceased to exist.
The last series of articles was an attempt to dismiss the massive popular resentment which was developing in the cities against the Nove mu 000000 a manifestation of the riff-raff, the flotsam and jetsam that exists in every city.
But since that time there have been further developments. It is now virtually indisputable that:
1. A growing movement among school students saw some or me eroet ste denonstr.tions in Kabul since the overthrow of Daud in April 1978.
taken place inside the Afghan army and certain reports emanating trom New Delal sug телено то Newsel Su
est that there have been clashe between regular Afghan army
The Afghan army remains an unreconstructed bourgeois army. The links between the soldiers and the villages remain strong and clearly the general mood of the country is beginning to affect the Hal all
3. According to Agence France Presse there have been a number of strikes in Kabul against the Soviet presence.
Any notion that what is taking place in Afghanistan today is a civil war fought by two conten •ding social classes and their Their hourly Essentially, the comrades
Also
(which was always a gross iden- somewhat ludicrous. cen doctors on and anopposition and made any
tremely remote. 4. and ancillary
choice is cither a permanen
the USSR or a Soviet troop withdrawal.
L WOOD
but it will be the people of Histar WIo decide their own fate.
VIC MARKS, Bath
French e the Afghan HAS ATON
Mans.
voters.
Sud Aviation,
LSA steps back from unity
THE League for Socialist Action is a small Trotskyist organisation with members in London and the Midlands. The International Marxist Group and the LSA have been in discussions for some time, and well over & year ago the LSA voted to fuse its forces with those of the IMG. In line with this policy, members of the LSA leadership were given the right to attend IMG leadership meetings.
the IMG's national conference
At a recent aggregate, however, the comrades of the LSA took a step backwards from this perspective of fusion. While agreeing to fuse its forces with those of the IMG 'at some future stage', and re-affirming its position of political solidarity with the Fourth International, it was decided that fusion with the IMG was impossible in the short term, because of tactical differences.
positions adopted by the IMG conference on revolutionary unity and on the orientation to the Labour Party.
The IMG considers that the decision
reveals a misunderstanding by the comrades on the programmatic basis of
respective bodies of armed men
simplification) now becomes
years.
Unless of course it is argued that the sovict troops. who repre sent the interests of a degenerated workers' state and its ruling bureaucracy, are defending the historic interests of the Afghan
Such talk throws over-
oard any notion whatsoever of
raid
In reality the presence and activities of the Red Army has
possibility of recouping some of the real gains of April 1978 ex-
The choice is not between dark reaction and social revolu tion (albeit carried through by the Red Army à la Bulgaria). The
assimilation of Afghanistan into
socialists support, regardless of the regime that will result. In the
tion for the toilers of Afghanistan in both town and countryside
many socialists in the West today, Communists
and May '68
workers took
60,000 mar-
and
tion from
right in the case he tries to cite against my argument. He claims that the first strike took place at
led by Trotskyists.
cupation and it took place on 14 May, a fortnight after the CGT
build a party,
of the LSA disagreed with the
HAUT HOW DO YOU KEE federation) had mobilised 100,000 workers in the first legal demonstration in Paris for 14
In the months before May there had been literally scores of stoppages in the Renault Billancourt factory in Paris
More disgraceful, however, is Terry's allegation that in May 1945 Tillon, the then Communist Air Minister, ordered a bombing 40,000 deaths. Here he is either completely ignorant of the facts or engaging in deliberate distor-
Algerian affairs in that period depended solely on the decision sional Government, and were be-
the Ministry of the In terior and had nothing to do with
irorce of tae cycll scveral days after it happened. Th is a fabrication, as is the allegation that it 'denounced Cohn-
Only last vear the PC: un masked a government scandal when it revealed that the French Government naa appomica as a high official a man guilty of
IMG 1980
CADRE
SCHOOL
AN exciting programme of debate, relaxation, and a genuine battle of ideas is lined up for the summer school of the International Marxist Group 1980. Send in your money now to receive a full programme of events, details of venue, plus reading lists. Attendance at the school is open to members and sympathisers of the IMG, Revolution Youth and the 4th International.
I am interested in coming to the summer school. I am a member of the IMG/Revolution/I am a sympathiser of the IMG/Revolu-
Name/Address .
lenclose a cheque/PO for towards the £47.50 cost of the schoo Cheques payable to 'The Week Society'
splits and fusions. If the LSA refuses fusion today because of 'tactical' disagreements, then logically it can only be waiting for tactical agreement.
The basis of party unity, however, is not this or that tactic, but the fundamental programme of socialist revolution — expressed in the programme of the Fourth International. If the LSA does, as it says, stand in political solidarity with the Fourth International, then it should fuse with the FI and build it.
There is a more serious side to the position of the LSA. Its position logically leads to & justification of splits in the event of tactical disagreement; with this irresponsible position it is impossible to
anything but a dead-end bureaucratic sect.
While the IMG considers that the position adopted by the LSA aggregate is irresponsible and only perpetuates the splitting of the Trotskyist movement into '57 varieties' which have no fundamental programmatic difference, the IMG will continue its policy of joint work and discussions with the LSA. The door remains open for the LSA to put its programme of solidarity with the Fl into practice — by fusing its forces with those of the Fourth International in Britain and jointly building the revolutionary party.
MPUTER tion, and the government was compelled to accept the subse. quent resignation of the official.
As for condoning the harassment of immigrants, Humanité and Humanite Dimanche printed dozens of articles denouncing this in 1979 when I lived in France. I would advise comrade Terry to stick to the facts in future and not waste our time.
DOUGLAS CHALMERS, Dundee YCL
Backbone or rump?
WITH reference to the comment by Bernard Reagan in last week's Socialist Challenge (12 June) that the International Marxist Group is the backbone of the Socialist Teachers Alliance: speaking as members who are not in the IMG, who may be characterised as the
. or just plain arse-holes of the STA, I would remind him that without us the STA would be a very tiny rummp JOHN BANGS, STA executive member, London
from 12-18 July, ..... (Town) since tactical disagreements are inevitable in
Page 15 scan of this page
The Tin Drum: beating through the history of Danzig
Exit the animals Belgium1 England 1, Italy 1 England O
UNDER REVIEW
By Jude Woodward OSKAR, hero of Gunther Grass's novel The Tin Drum, is a strange commentator on human history. On his third birthday he achieves his only ambition, to possess a tin drum, and henceforth decides to stop growing.
This blond, blue-eyed mannikin, with red and white tin drum and a piercing scream that shatters glass, is the narrator of twenty years of the history of Danzig.
Danzig, now named Gdansk and officially art of Poland, was made a free state aiter the First World War.
War the rise of Nazism posed the question of the Baltic port becoming part of Germany and a referendum of the people of Danzig resulted in its annexation by. Germany.
September 1939, the Nazi invasion of Poland began and was echoed in outright measures against the Danzig Poles.
In this context Oskar observes the pain, confusion mediate family and the people of Danzig as a whole.
Through Oskar's eyes we see each in-
of'78
By John Glover RUDE BOY cannot be seen as a movie in any conventional sense; the plot, such as it is, is a bit thin, incidents are disconnected and incoherent and the central character is, to frank, a boring jerk.
The film comes across as a sort of retrospective for the class of '78. 'ahic was tae ver ollie ANaZ League, the Clash and punk rock.
ycal when through vagaries cumstances, and the hard work of LIC activist left, a lot found themselves on the fringes o1 politics.
Rude Boy opens with footage
National Front Throughout the film there are clips
of Anti-Nazi mobilisations, police MaSSLICEL. LIC Clash busted, and the like • Heroents that have little directly to do with
the central character, Ray Grange.
It is Ray's story which provides the only peg on which to hang these
events. wee une core o lic traces his progress, such as it is,
from working in a porn bookshop,
inrouen us Tallure as a roadle with
the Clash, to his ultimate degenera-
nay Is a tall. gangling Clash fan, with roung shouders 0. ?
walks along, though searching
ine pavement TOT Tag-enos.
wears the regulation black leather
jacket, khaki fatigues, and a hang-
manently in his right hand.
He is the al
veryone
oldin
Toppa
(lash) gorks, out. on
apparent reason
armed
passionate
Before the Second World
old
the streets, repressive
and degradation of his own im-
RUDE
BOY
The class
hard to blame him - Headon stops hitting the bag and sets about Ray instead.
His situation isn't helped any disabities Raths the fact that besides
In a notel room somewnere or tour, Joe be singer, is washing a T-shirt in a sink. Ray asks what message it carHolding it paRo shoving in te Brigate Rosse RAF (Red Army Fraction) symbol the chest. 'What's the dankine restaurant, Ray. is informed, of cir- look
people He is also something of a right winger by virtue of the fact that he
identifies totally with the 'fucking Lally. Socialist Workers
SusaMous acks As his alienation from everygetting right ward, eventually Becoming oes thing Ray
fensive. to nis erstwnie 'We're fucking watching mate; we're fucking watching you', Mick Jones tells him.
Rude Boy adopts a documen-
analysing, merely noting events as they The enormous ticulateness of its mair contoures to. ano enorasses unis
Unfortunately talis documentary through its refusal to elaborate ally theme. doesn't have any pretensions to be It is simply a visual record of certain events which overiong al states.
STILLE
Like myself. you although Is, aid sin fat to these quali could meet all these qualifications
dividual as a grotesque; deformed and distorted by the daily struggle with the material conditions of their lives.
The grocer becomes a Nazi and unable to openly express his homosexuality is a ludicrous figure. His buxom, frustrated wife takes the diminutive Oskar under her quilt where he discovers the strong smells of female sexuality.
Agnes, never comes to terms with her prolonged affair with her cousin,
enjoyment of him. gorges herself to death on fish — eels, tinned sardines, pickled herring.
His grandmother, the quintessence of the
folk, the history of Danzig, conceived Agnes while hiding a runaway convict under her skirts on the edge of a potato field. The Jewish shopkeeper, the Nazis,
Oskar's father, all come and go in weird parade against the background of salty, poverty-stricken Danzig.
When Schiondorff's film of The Tin Drum opened in London last month it was hard to believe that this circus of a book could be turned into anything like convincing However, since Grass himself had collaborated in making the film, it was clear that it would not
• these not very bright
the Clash's
replies
'that?'
DIZZ and drunkenly
Party, and is
By Geoff Bell THERE we were, sitting quietly watching England's footballers play the Belgium footballers in the European Nations' Cup.
It was shaping up to England playing. • cilalalici English football - boring and predictable. Then, riots, tear gas and, at last, real
and down, with the English supporters well and truly
dras. the big debare started: shar
Victory to the victimised, brutal Italian polite. *
be a total travesty.
scout leader, the spirit of the book.
sleazy and
Oskar's mother,
and fears her own
She finally
lost in the film.
uncontrollable giggles
the children of
Even so,
cinema. 'a very good team'. (prime ministers
be be ignored. with was typical next encounter -suddenly, Italy on Sunday. tween the unaise
After the excitement had died
get smashed, and the but to no effect. The use InE
answer seemed way back in 1966.
enemy. was our ally
Italians outplayed bewildered All workers must oppose the
The film is long, two and a half hours, but even so the story is hugely compressed, and ac. tually leaves off before the end. But it is true to
David Bennent, who plays Oskar, the film — he is not quite as pretty as the Oskar of the book but his child's physique and utterly knowing face make the casting a complete suc. cess. The film is in German, with subtitles, but nonetheless Oskar's voice, its tone and pensiveness, is a positive element of the film.
Of course it is not just that the story is telescoped, other elements of the book are also
The Tin Drum is one of the funniest books I have ever read — the kind where you break into
but the film only raises the occasional laugh.
The book's strong element of mystery and magic — Oskar as a figure of semi-supernatural power — is unsuited to the realism of the film,
when Oskar stands cathedral tower, his eyes casting majestically to and fro, we know he is capable of anything.
• Similarly the book's fulsome elaboration of the particular history of Danzig — in dialogue, narrative and so on — in the film is reduced to
Then, Thatcher went on to say that the English footballers were
That showed good chances. she knew nothing about footbal
never do). perhaps whatever she said about in the studio the events of that afternoon should
best to suspend judge. ment on the whole issue until the JOICH ICIS
England versus
As it turned out the replay be-
Italian cops proved a damp squib The Italian fans tried their best to
going animals at the English him; of the dirty trick or adit
The.English players seemed as stayed fans. The Britannia department of the game. "The o" Tine should be. Holy Pasir possi
varied architecture.
Drum
makes
warmth. lovingly caresses a potato -
Danzig rush to greet Hitler score was so close only because the Italians missed at least three or four
That was not how the Englist commentators and the experts back
saw it. The Italians nau playea alrty tney insisted; int
felled kicking the
Even with only the restricted vi-
obvious that this was a load or rudoisn. sure ine Hallans playco rough, but so too did the English. The English captain Kevin Keegan ting
Butch Wilkins performed a two; the
B0C1 I a
After the game the English fans
Benne and - sang : 'Rule Britanhia" "rüles" the waves! That decided what
excellent aerial shots of the city panning over its
All this is forgiveable because the fun. damental theme of the novel is retained. The
us that beings, however degraded by the conditions they have to grapple with, are not in themselves degrad. ed. The system is degraded, and its system of relationships, but each character has human
Grass demonstrates implicitly in his book that only the materialist can be a true humanist.
Oskar is an amoral onlooker at life, so he is a real grotesque. The little people of Danzig, who fight and struggle, lie and cheat, love and hate, and who are forced into repellent moulds by everyday reality, are nonetheless real people It is the Nazi grocer who sums this up when he
"They are forced into so many ugly shapes by the clods of the earth but still 1 find them pure and innocent
It is this innocence which belongs to the people of Danzig, not to Oskar the knowing child. It is this innocence which allows them to
. 'They thought they had found Santa Claus, but it was the gasman'.
And it is this innocence that they have to surmount if the history of Danzig is not to endlessly repeat itself in each individual life.
Able to have any sympathy for this drunken jack-waving chauvinistic rabble? here English chauvinism horrible and dangerous sentiment. It is fanned wiene they applaud the SAS murderers o Embassy seige Englist less harmfully, that 'our' team is 'very good', raise Lumpen elements in English society expectations which rey wen do lo cor
English to win,
quite English aren't up to it And so England is out of d uropean Nations' Cup. Exit d animals Socialist Challenge • 19 June 1960- Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge Czech dissident imprisoned under inhuman conditions PETR UHL: THEY'RE OUT TODESTROY HIM!
By Ed Murphy PETR Uhl, one of the most respected leaders Czechoslovak dissident movement, is today languishing in the Mirov prison. It's clear that the Czech authorities wish to destroy this revolutionary socialist, both physically mentally.
Although Petr Uhl suffers from chronic bronchitis, he is forced to do heavy labour and is fed on an inadequate diet. He is not permitted to keep material, allowed only one visit of one hour every six to eight months.
Today a massive campaign is underway to protest against prison conditions endured by activists in Czechoslovakia, and support is mounting in Britain. Student
Petr Uhl, who is serving five years, became a revolutionary Marxist during his student days. According to the Czechoslovak government development is by no means unusual. After all, large numbers of students join the Communist Party. 'Marxist Leninist' youth
What distinguished Uhl, however, was not that he recited 'correct' views in order to pass his course, but that he took Marxism seriously as a method of analysis, of capitalist society as well as of 'real' socialism.
Between 1965 and 1968, Uhl paid a number of visits to France where he came into contact with the Fourth International. He abandoned his earlier view that bureaucratic society could be reformed, realising revoltokay action could Stalinism.
Following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, Uh! helped to organise the Movement of
Youth and wrote his programme, the Manifesto of Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Release
Arrested in 1969, Uhl spent nearly four years in the prisons malised' Czechoslovakia. Contrary to the hopes of the however, prisons didn't break him. Shortly after his release, with 29 other former political prisoners,
open the Czechoslovak : Lawyers that body's Chilean junta as hypocritical.
In the words of the letter: ...we are linked with progressive Chileans through common ideals, goals, and frequently through a common fate. However, we deny the right
express such solidarity gentlemen the Czechoslovak Lawyers for we are not aware of a single instance in which your union would have come forth in actice of munal gate ties, or adherence to legalities in your own country, Czechoslovakia.
This, lętrer, is reproduced in an ex=. cellent new Socialist Challenge pat t Registered with the Post Ottice as a n
of the
and
and is
civil rights
such
and
organisa-
that only
topple
tists in Czecholosvakia.
the Unlike many
him Laugull struggle for democratic rights.
'nor- Revolutionary
bureaucrats;
he signed
Union of denouncing
of the Britain:
Abroad:
common
'YOU Name Union of:
Address
civil liber-
phlet, Petr Uhl and the jailed Char-
people on the Western left, Uhl's own experiences as well as nis grasp or Marxisu Have
the importance of the
In his 'Appeal to the Western
Left', which is also reproduced in the Socialist Challenge
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pamphlet, he wrote: 'But it is a common belief of all of those Marxists and. revolutionary socialists already the first revolutionary phaseof the communist development must bring to every member of society, more rights and freedoms than can be assured by even the best bourgeois democracy.'
Uhl has consistently refused to
9125( £18.00
accept both the superior form of democracy exists in Eastern Europe, and the argument of -Stalin s apologists that in the face of a hostile imperialist world, repression" organisation by threats of the dole. socrest Ltd: tor Socialist Challene; 32819 Upper St, London N1. Printed try East End (offset) Ltd. PO, Box 82, London E2,
77 and
In
one sentence,
'All persons
cynical
themselves insult to injury.
Uhl and
Please
Europe',
Led in the book.
Chartists in
Stalinist lie that a
TUC lobby for jobs
JACK Collins, president of the Kent area of the National Union of Mineworkers, has added his name to an appeal for a mass lobby of this year's TUC against unemployment. British Oxygen workers at the Hackney depot also recently endorsed the appeal.
Put it forward in your labour movement organisation, and inform Socialist Challenge! This is the text of the appeal:
"This Tory government is intent on destroying workers' standards of living and their organisations, the trade unions. Their main weapon is the creation of mass unemployment in order to increase profits through squeezing more production out of a reduced workforce; in order to "persuade" workers to take cuts in pay rather than fight for a decent standard of living; in order to weaken and smash union
"disciplining" those who want to fight back with
"The whole labour movement, the unions and the Labour Party, must unite against this threat and take united action now.
'As a first step in such a campaign this branch/ward agrees to sponsor a call, for a mass lobby of this year's TUC Congress in Brighton around these demands: «No, to Unemployment - For a 35 Hour Week Now. *Fight' to Kick Out the Tories?
is necessary, albeit unfortunate. He was a founding member of Charter
the Committee for the Defence of Unjustly Prosecuted Per-
October 1979, Uhl was sentenced to five years imprisonment. As he has already completed
The is considered a recidivist and has been categorised as a strict regime prisoner
According to Czechoslovak laws;
deprived of personal freedom shall be treated in a humane manner and with respect for the dignity of the human being.' In fact, the treatment of Uhl in prison shows this law, like all other paragraphs of the Czechoslovak legal code, to be a
mockery of the working people of that country.
It should be a matter of outrage to every socialist that these things are
of. such crimes communists only adds
Socialist Challenge appeals to all its readers to support the Defence Committee's campaign. Send labour movement protests against the barbaric crimes committed against Petr Czechoslovak Embasay. comrades to the
25 - Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8.
Socialist Challenge • readers are also urged to support the publication of a book of Ühl's writings. Five hundred pounds is urgently needed
send postal orders/cheques payable to "Alternatives in Eastern
PO Box 50, London N1. Any individual/organisation which donates £20 or more will be mention.
'Petr Uhl and the jailed
Czechoslovakia'
Excellent new campaigning pamphlet, 40p plus 12p (p&p) From SC Pamphlets, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Buik order rates on request.
← Socialist Challenge No. 151, 12 June 1980Socialist Challenge No. 153, 26 June 1980 →