Socialist Challenge No. 155, 10 July 1980
The scan: sc-n155-jul-10-1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge € 100 a week extra
LOBBY THE TUC FOR JOBS
SOME
UNEMPLOYMENT races towards 2 million, the increase in take-home
wages rises averaging 12.5 percent.
What a lot of nonsense!
receiving nearly f650 a week.
pocketing over f1,000 a week.
by 10 per cent.
more per year.
Wedgewood company. dend payments from shares.
landlords, shareholders, and the like.
SACRIFICE
pay of nursing auxiliaries is restricted to a miserly €5 a week, but now we are all meant to feel sorry for the 'top people' who this year are to have
Let's for the moment leave the statistics aside and spell out what the increases announced by Thatcher on Monday really amount to.
High Court judges are to get a rise of nearly £100 per week.
Field Marshals are to get an increase which will mean they are now
Heads of nationalised industries are receiving a rise of, on average, just under £100 per week. Some of them — such as the head of the British National Oil Corporation and the head of British Steel - will now be
Remember as well that all those awarded these increases received their last rise only three months ago when top civil servants and nationalised industry chiefs saw their pay go up by 25 per cent and MPs saw theirs go up
And what about the "top people' not affected by Thatcher's
announcement? Earlier this week Labour Research published a survey of
top-paid company directors. It showed that 33 of these receive £70,000 or
One of them, Lew Grade of the Associated Communication Corpora tion, paid himself a massive £195,209 last year. Another, Austin Bide of Glaxo Holdings, awarded himself an increase of 64 per cent.
The differences between these salaries and those of the workers in their companies is astronomical. Take the example of the
A director there, Sir Arthur Bryan, was paid a salary last year of £138,877. That was 45 times the average pay of the Wedgewood worker. In other words if Bryan were sacked 45 more workers could be employed by Wedgewood.
Nor are salaries all these directors have to fall back on. A multitude of 'fringe benefits' are also available. Perks include company cars, private health insurance, low interest loans, school fees for children, company flats, and free holidays. Add in as well divi-
Indeed there remain tens of thousands of people in this country who grow rich without ever having to do a day's work -
How much would nurses like to be in a position where they were asked to make the "sacrifice' of receiving a weekly pay increase of only £100. How grateful would the redundant steelworkers be if they were paid only £1,000 a week.
How much would the low paid in the entertainment industry appreciate receiving just ten per cent of Lew Grade's salary. How much more hypocritical garbage about 'equality of suffering' can this Tory government come out with?
No.155 10 July1980 20p
Miners throw
down the
gauntlet
IT'S going to be a tough
winter for the Tory
if the
National Coal Board
don't give the miners the
£100 they're asking for.
Line mimers messece To En
Tories was spelled out loud and
clear by Mick MeGahey, Presi
den or me scolse Numers. a
Eastbourne earlier this week
Calling for the miners to give a
teau to me rest or me tau union movement, he argue
hat the battle with the Torie
*This resolution, vigorously
pursued, can create the condi
Tons in when we can nave une
earliest possible general election
and get rid of the Tories
has declared to this country no
only that the wages o the
WOrKerS musE come cown. Dul
he has encouraged the workers
to scab on trade union rates of
pay. We must take up tha
challenge.
•Wages,' he said, 'are
crucial in the face of the most
reachonary Tory government this century?
The miners' claim is backed by the threat of industrial ac tion, with a - special delegate comerence anu a Danor lo o held at every pit head first.
It looks as if the left will also Score a vcon in tie dente or the Employment Bill later this week. A resolution from the
the TUC to mount a campaig
- including industrial action il
cooperation with this new legislation when it becomes law on July 16 has won executive backing and is likely to be pass.
Mick McGahey also made it clear that he saw job and wage DOLLOT Sone same battle against the Tory govern. ment:
threat of pit closures caused by Government policy and the im
that wages are no longer an issue, be meditione m
will we righ against pit closures, not only will we struggle to maintain job SCCULLE •DUL establish reasonable rates of pay.
The miners have the power to bring Maggie Thatcher to he knees as they showed in 197 government led by Heath. To
that power now when unemployment is higher, cuts in social spending are sharper, and the cost of living is greater is vital
If the miners' leaders tur their fine words into action over the winter months they should receive me backing or ever trade unionist in Britain. SUMMER SCHEDULE FOR the next few weeks, during the summer holiday period, Socialist Challenge will be 12 pages. The new look Socialist Challenge will be out at the beginning of September - for details see page 2.
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
NALGO leaders back Uhl defence campaign
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders
of the Labour Party and the trade
unions offer solutions that are in
the interests not of the workers
but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that
the iwo vital tasks
revolutionary socialists are:
• To build hroad-based class
struggle tendencies in opposition
to class-collahorationism in the
labour movement. These
non-exclusive
grouping together militants hold.
ing a wide range of political views. cation begin to fight
creation unified
democratic revolutionary socialist
organisation which can, through
application of united front begin lo be seen as an alternative by thousands
workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for seeks io unite the fight of workers with that of other oppressed layers of society - - women, black people, LayS 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 state.
, Our socialism M0se tenoran I than what exists in Britain today, full rights political parties and currents that do not take up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models of "socialism' in the USSR and Fastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the world. we are opposed io them and will offer full support fighting for socialist democracy.
3 ta want at spirin The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalism has only created a market, has created politics. Thus we fight for working class unity on an scale. This unil! will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutai dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people delermine ¡new own ruure
The Communist parties in _ Europe are in crisis. Neither 'Eurocommunist" the pro-Moscon wings have any meaningfui strateR! for overthrow of the capitalise state. Neu revolutionary socialist parties are more necessary before. Conditions loday more farourable than preceding three decades. But such parties can only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right lo organise factions and tendencies.
If you agree with these principles and want to involved activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us. ********--******-
1am interested information about activities in my area. • I would like additional literature and enclose 50p to cover costs. (Delete if not applicable)
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......iel no
Socialist Challenge 10 July 1980 Page 2
confronting
should tuaracter
against
for the
and
about socialist strategy. of IMG revolutionary unity
socialism
We
bosses
left to express their views. their
gle against its
will be
for all ing.
by this widespread Socialist Challenge at nose
paper are needed.
tended to fall develop a style which
world
become an
world
revolutionary thousands international
coming into Thatcher.
always been a paper, centred
of
La new audience.
nor the various
the
than ever
are over the
revolutionary ideas.
more
General Drain, and
rights Czechoslovakia.
EDITORIAL
ched at a time when the fightback
attacks
Callaghan government on work-
debate was taking
place both in Britain and Europe
Euro-communism
the Socialist Unity electoral cam-
paign. Shortly afterwards the An-
ti Nazi League was formed.
launched Socialist
lei er experts all crews. on the NO! Challenge as an open, debating
Today the political situation
has changed radically. The elec-
tion of the Tory government has
given rise to a widespread strug.
vicious anti-
working class policies. The steel
strike and the developments in-
side the Labour Party show that a cab
new pattern of struggle is emerg-
Socialist Challenge has to change to meet the new opportunities and problems thrown up
that important changes in the
For a long time, the paper
into a rut; could obstacle between politics and of workers who are struggle against
While Socialist Challenge has
campaigning on the major working class struggles both in Britain and abroad, nevertheless today the paper needs to express its views in a style appropriate to
Socialist Challenge will re- tically? main a paper open to debate by
currents the Socialist workers' movement. But we want to carry fewer of those debates ticles internal to the far left (which have sometimes dominated the letters page) and develop a closer dialogue with the overwhelming majority of workers, who still the paper's supporters. adhere to reformist rather than
In making this change we don't want to restrict the range of political topics covered but the
changes affect the paper prac- the regular reader who hasn't had
NALGO President John Meek, from the Bury
Secretary Geoffrey national executive member Tony Ayland have pledged their support for the campaign in defence of the Czech Marxist Petr Uhl and other jailed civil
campaigners
NALGO has already protested officially to the Czechoslovak embassy over the jailing of the Charter 77 leaders last October. A resolution allowed
The future of
eSota timewalen the wes lack SOCIALIST Challenge the wants to dramatically ing people were only just beginn. Widen its audience. The
and steel strike showed us
I was in this situation that the that militants are ready
and opened and willing to write for
Socialist Challenge
IT'S NOT ON HEALEY
Socialist Challenge
IRAN- A NEW
POWER IS BORN
First, want strengthen the links between Challenge and readership. We need more arwritten by supporters directly involved in struggles.
We want more direct contact between the editorial staff and
popularise the paper. This means
vamping the language and style of the paper, and making it more accessible to the new reader
through the North West and North Wales District Council of the union last December: The union's journal, Public Services has carried an article explaining the case of the role of
than 63 delegates signed an appeal to the Czechoslovak testing against Petr Uhl's conditions of imprisonment and demanding that a socialist lawyer from this country be
Socialist Challenge
Build the Anti Nazi League
Socialist Challenge
For Thatcher, FIGHT THEIR TORY to ten or fifteen years' experience in socialist politics. its
To carry all this through we need the help of you, our readers. Over the next couple of months we want you to write to us putting forward your criticisms of the paper and making proposals about how to change it. Don't worry if you don't pletely worked out solutions send in your criticisms and sug-
In the coming weeks we will be arranging a series of meetings peal was NEC member Tony Ayland,
over the last three years in taking up the cases of victimised Polish workers and the savage repression of Romanian miners in the Jiu valley after a
Other signatories include LiverBurgess, Bury branch secretary Brian
chairperson Peter Steele, Derby city
and sell our newspaper.
We're going to re
in a big way in the
autumn. Write in and tell
us what improvements
you'd like to see.
Whether it's Callaghan ~ POLICIES
RETURN A GOV'
BUT SOCIALIS LiTY
localities,
our columns. have com letters and
want.
Glamorgan
Davies, played an important role
Danny secrelary movement.
launch Socialist Challenge
Socialist Challenge
TOICE
Socialist Challenge
DISGUSTING!
1£330 £10 aweek for steelboss steelworkers
$14
I MAY
to debate the needs which they feel should be met in
From September we want to 'Te-launch' Socialist Challenge. The design will change, but most of all, we hope, the content. That is partly up to you.
The precise way in which the paper changes will depend on the
articles which you send us, making criticisms and suggestions. For the next couple of months our columns are open to you for this debate. Take this opportunity to explain to us the nature of the paper that you branch ghai Derson sece Cry pland
branch secretary Chichester branch secretary Bob Hazell, GLC branch chairperson John Plant, Harlow TUC secretary
Purton, Aberdeen branch Hugh Robertson, and the Southwark branch chairperson.
The Charter 77 Defence Committee is hoping that this initiative by •NALGO leaders will be followed up by similar moves in other unions to produce a flood of protest from the length and breadth of the labour
Page 3 scan of this page
HOMENEWS
During the years of boom the population of Coventry doubled.
Workers were recruited for jobs in the city from Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and later from the West Indies and South Asia.
The car industry and associated engineering flourished in Coventry. With a labour shortage and a strong shop stewards organisation since the First World War, workers were able to gain considerable control over their conditions of employment.
The Coventry Toolroom Agree ment, signed 1941 regulated the wages of engineering workers in the workers' favour. A schedule of rates was produced and shop stewards negotiated comparability on the basis of the bestpaying plants in town.
Plummeted
Similar practices included the gang. system whereby workers pool ed wages and established a measure of collective control over their jobs.
The success of plant-based strike actions in maintaining and improving wages conditions numbers of Coventry workers helped fuel the illusion that the Coventry workforce could sort out its problems without reference to national politics or the unions at national level.
As the recession started to bite at the beginning of the '70s the bosses began to chip away at the concessions won by Coventry workers during the boom.
In 1971 the Coventry Toolroom Agreement was ended. In the same period the 'gang' system was smashed, measured day work was introduced, and workers were forced to accept large scale redundancies.
In the early '70s the combativity of the workforce was high and a large number of local strikes maintained wage levels alla won agreements, but this success shortlived.
By the end of the decade Coventry had plumetted in the wages league, while local employers were finding it easier abandon agreements and introduce speed up and labour mobility. Components
Edwardes' success in BL ÷ where the tiny wage rise earlier this year was linked to a package of management prerogatives on working practices -las been repeated across the components industry.
Increasingly managements seek to bypass shop stewards and convenors through the use of ballots, personal letters, and mass media.
The impact of the new recession in Coventry has been dramatic local building industry has collapsed, the closure of BL's Canley plant, with 9,000 phased • redundancies streamlining, at the other BL and Talbot car plants in Coventry not only lengthen the dole queues but have a knock-on effect in the whole car components industry, which is
Sum: A. Led Trade Malet St. War
Phone Chis od
9000
2000)
8000
5000 5000
Numbers
4000
3000 effectively 2000 semi-skilled
1000 for
Labour council that
development.
higher
mutually
HOMES
JOBS
internal
and
the
WHAT'S LEFT SC EVENTS
for more info ring phone Colin, AMNESTY FOR ST PAUL'S. New badge ecial offer of 15p for orde RADFORD: SC available from Fourth Id okshop, 14 Southgat supporters sell every Sat Mornin
• IO Cheltenham Rd, Montpelier
rths 11-12.30- 0 Carter Bit
Men:
women Years 1974 1975 try, in the West Midlands, was known as a boom town. Its workers had some of the highest wages in the country, the lowest levels of unemployment.
was inspired by ideas of town planning and community
With the onset of the present reces.
SERVICES
backbone of Coventry's economy.
Every week the local press reports ponents. Most recently Renold Chain
S225E
my Best Aimed are to one
+ he sinc
VEWHAM: SC sale every Saturday, Ilam to
UNEMPLOYMENT IN COVENTRY.- ON THE 1976 1977
Coventry 1950-1980
e From boom to bust
THROUGHOUT the 50s and 60s Coven. sion the town is facing problems on a
, and a WILL
COVENTRY
YOUVE NEVER HAD
IT-
closed with 800 redundancies.
What does all • mean tor Coventry workers? Each week dole queues grow longer, and more 30-12.30pm in Cornmari Trotskyist International Liaison Committee Public meeting Wednesday 23 July at 7.30pm "For a full discussion on the crisis of the world rotskyist movemen Reconstruct the Fourth Internationa
INCREASE AGAIN 1978 1979 scale it has not dreamt of. Yet there are no miracle solutions; there will be no 'municipal socialism' for Coventry alone.
REESE and GINSBURG look at the background to the recession in Coventry and the facts ofife for workers in the town today.
OD
and more young people decide tr eave the town. Coventry in the '60 was full of young workers with young families. Now the popula-
sis mation abour local a Sires, el. 061-882 FORD: SC supporters sell every Fri 12-2
SC on sale 11-I every Sat., Regen
its cash limits.
Because based on
passed
1980 Evicted
men.
NORMAN
La huge
Edwardes' years that
again. Solutions who came to the town
for the crisis.
Borouzhi Hotel, Corporation: Rd,
rough
1: The Bla
Communist Part d. Speaker: Clach an
IMPERIALISM IN THE EIGHTIES
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST TENDENCY INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER 1980
Post-war stability established under the domination of US mperialism is givil berialism in The Elentes will discuss the present tendenc
and assess their significance for the
For further information, agenda, venue write to Helen Swift (A9) BM RCT, London WCIV 6XX, or ring 01-274 3951, or see th next step. Conference fee £5.00 prepaid, $6.50 door.
tion is shrinking and getting older
Hospital facilities that were adequate for a population of healthy young people are not so adequate for unemployed, older workers, on poor diets living in substandard conditions. Yet the local health authority is being forced to declare cuts to keep within
Coventry's industry is semi-skilled Labour, most young people could expect an apprenticeship followed by reasonable work. Not anymore. A recent survey showed that a third of fifth form school leavers last year were still without permanent employment a month ago
Only one in three of those. who
the construction industry's exam will find apprenticeships with Coventry builders.
Coventry in _its boom years established a tradition of a high level of employment for women. Now the town has a higher proportion ..of registered unemployed women than
During the boom years Coventry
struggled establish the right to waged work, the relative prosperity of Coventry workers was based on the two-wage family so the present slump affects families eve
adversely. Each week an average of two families are evicted from either their council housing or -from the home they are buying on a
working class have faded away. Instead there is a glamorous cathedral,
shopping centre, derelict housing, lengthening dole queues, ill-health, and poverty
Workers at the BL Jaguar plant in Coventry put up a fiery resistance to
plan cut a swathe through their working conditions, but they were isolated and couldn't stand up to the combined weight of the union bureaucracy and Edwardes trying to get them back to work.
This should have shown once and ¿for all that Coventry workers cannot take on their problems alone
Despite this there is still an illu sion carried over from the boom economy; that all it has to do is be Coventry local flexible, ride the present storm, and before long Coventry will be great
In the '50s and '60s plant-based actions and local concessions like the Coventry Toolroom Agreement put Coventry workers ahead of the field in wages and conditions. These tactics are not an effective reply to the level of attacks as the bosses internationally try to make workers across Britain pay for their economic crisis.
The solutions required now de
nand that workers forge links n
nly nationally but international and place demands that insist i that workers shoulder no responsibility
IMG NOTICES toe Borin
CONFERENCE 5/6/7
will discuss the present tendencie
WOrKIng Class
Socialist Challenge 10 July 1980 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
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Page 5 scan of this page
Adwest-police deny NATIONAL
HOMENEWS
London
Labour
Briefing
conference
- no way forward
OVER 200 delegates from CLPs, trade unions, and trades councils from all over London attended a discussion conference on Saturday on how to resist the Tories Local Government Bill and how to fight for a socialist GLC.
London Labour Briefing (LLB), magazine whose policy SO Don anytning submitted to it from the left, called the conference. But the aelegates took по poncy deci-
So The main theme of the
clue was now to arcoat the resistance Michael Heseltine's Bill which will cut the money available to local
trai government's control over how money is spent
JOCT councils to make cuts and will
high spending coun
rates rather than cut into inadequate social services.
Bryn Davies (GLC councillor/Vauxhall CLP)
OUL where possibility of further rate and rent increases this autumn as uc lones win caw back any increase by further cuts in the
available local
confrontations with the Tory government are the stark alternatives facing labour councils.
The conference also
socialist Greater London Council, was
'in terms of amendments Labour's GLC candidates elected etting left manifesto and
Many questions were rals-
of accountability of the uno, outno ways were posea of linking the GLC with the local campaigns against the
The most disappointing aspect of the conference was Is lack or a clear poncy Iol fighting the Tories Labour councils need to build a mass
they are to save services, but they will not beable to do this, if they mace te CHIL Tories want.
Rate and rent increases are cuts in another form. Local councis nave no choice out to fight the Tories, and London Labour Briefing provided no way orward for the labour movement in London.
Apology
WE would like to
apologise for
mistake on page six in
last week's issue. An
article entitled 'Op. мІНІ rate rises
beth said that Labour Party in was totally d to putting up rates. 1 fact. ambeth Labour not Lambeth
Labour Party that ex-
essed such a posi tion. Lambeth Labour
Left is a grouping
militants from dif-
ferent Labour Parties
in the Lambeth area.
THE deadline for short news articles for this page IS 10.30am Monday. Articles up to 200 words can be rung through on Sundays on 01-359
-right to picket
By Stuart Cumberpatch
Wednesday 2 July retaliated in force.
Support Group, prevented picketing the gates.
TGWU convenor, attempted to talk to scabs in front of
police, arrested and later charged with obstruction.
The picket, including Swindon and Basingstoke workers, was maintained for
then went Danny's release.
By Richard Rozanski, former national organiser, NUSS
racking the National Union of School Students, but unfortunately the union's conference last weekend provided no way out of its problems.
Rebel, the school student wing of the Socialist Workers Party, had majority delegates at the conference
Sunday afternoon this majonity was delegates down to thé Henle Kegatta, which the Right to Work planned to disrupt.
This subordination •Lie • umon to te activities or the SWP symptomatic Rebel's approach.
• ne conference degenerated so much during the first day that many people ten. on balulday evenng and
Shotgun
police WAKING up at dawn to the sound of shattering glass and heavy feet thumping up the stairs, you are confronted by police armed with shotguns and revolvers.
a routine raid by the RUC
West Belfast or Derry? No, datest viches of dent of ter this was the experien ton's Manchester police force who carried out dawn raids on h chester at the
15-year-old Antony Gr
WESTERN THOMSON CONTROLS Lid AFTER last week's highly successful mass picket of the Adwest Engineering factory in Reading where sixty workers were sacked in May for working to rule for a pay rise and defending a fellow worker, police on
Sixty police, including the Thames Valley Tactical
sacked workers from When Danny Broderick, the
the gate, he was dragged from the picket line by six
support from Oxford,
two hours. Thirty of the pickets and sacked workers
to Reading police station to demand
He was eventually freed an hour later. When he
School students' union doesn't
face up to the crisis
A political, organisational and financial crisis is union
ly this included the comrades of 3 the League.
Only about 35 people attended the second day, during which there was a Deason talking the Right Work Campaign, and workshops squeezed into about two hours.
Revolution Youth tried to the conference to Condemning the way that il, under attack put an emergency resolution had been handled, and calling burst into my bedroom and a double-barrelled shotgun was HISTen Ander as I lay in bed.' father, left with a shattered front door, has demanded an apology from the police. They have refused to give one. that they had gone to the wron house the police then rusbed to another, through the front door, and burst into the bedroom The only person! the panic stricken girtfrien of the man they were lookiny for, apparently in connection with a robbery. vas working atone me, whe The man police and released after an
emerged, he said: 'The
denied our right to picket the factory gates'.
sacked workers' reinstatement and
and a decent wage rise.
not succeed
Broderick, Flat 4, 46 Berkeley Ave, Reading. Mone urgently required as all state benefits have been stopped. for continued debate about the future of the union. This was blocked by Rebel.
school student's will only be built by campaigning
but apart from a motion sup-
Right to Work.
Rebel failed to put forward a
motion mapping out any political
Revolution Youth argued inside NUSS on unemployment and Cruise missiles, ship to organise the union at a local level into proper bran Scottish republicans
By Lan Sutherland, organiser of the Scottish Republican Socialist League THE Queen's visit to Scotland has cast an ugly shadow across those policies. An unprecedented spate of state harass. ment has taken place and the main victim is the Scottish Republican Socialist League.
This is a revolationary
tablisi ent of a Scottish socialist republic.
On 27 June, racter the
Whil
Donald and Colln Har
rorisen
La of the SRSL.
Ironica bodivideal our orgaal
police are obviously determined to break this strike - they blatantly
In response, he appealed for more support on Monday 14 July, the next day of action, to back the
demands: unconditional compensation, abolition of the dictatorial works' rules and disciplinary procedure,
The use of the Thames Valley's version of the SPG shows that the police are using the dispute as a dress rehearsal for future attacks on workers when the Employment Bill comes into force. It is crucial they do
Messages of support and information to: Danny
Revolution Youth will be building the Lobby of the TUC, the Right Work
Against 'Youth ment, as well as building the demonstration against Cruise • missues cauca Dy me UND TOr October.
It is through that we believe NUSS can be built school
Despite all our differences we hope that we can continue comrades from Rebel, as well as the Socialist Youth League, towards this end fighting for progressive liaison... in connection with
socialist group which stands for the the police picked up 13 sapporters of this grow! ation of Terrorism Act. Nime were held fol seven days. Four others - Isobel and Da mond -rides offences. These include conspirins to sc mition, and explosives for acts of
changed with conspiracy by criminal means to
the organisation takes a Marxist position agains I of, terrorismn. All socialists are urged to defen
AT LAST! A
NURSERIES
CAMPAIGN
paign.
also represented there
Britain appallingly low
'under the Tory axe.
day go out to work yet nursery provision is appallingly low — there were only 500 local authority nurseries in 1978
some of these • face the chop unde
The conference clearly
invites affiliations
and £2.50 for individuals.
DHSS recruit
abortion spies
recruiting ex-police officers to harass and attempl to close down licensed abortion charities.
This is the only interpretation an advertisement placed by the DHSS which appeared in the Guardian on 26 June
charities provide around 50 per cent of abortions -in Britain because of the failure of the NHS to provide adequate facilities
But the DHSS, which has overall authority for the National Health Service, rather than step up its own facilities is now willing to pay a salary of nearly £10,000 to anyone prepared to intimidate chaile
The nature of the work is made clear in the Guardian
'DHSS stipulates that 'candidates (men and women) ; must have CID experience'
key in estatory d and
investigatory
tails liaising with Is liaison onth police and
I police other official bodies; follow. ing up any suggestion of ir regularity abuse involving the subject of abortion; and preparing cases for prosecuDefend Nasira Begum
Support all those threatened by immigration laws
Demonstration saturday, 19 July, 12.30pm Whitworth Park, Mancheste
Socialist Chalong-
WHO NEEDS NURSERIES? Last Saturday saw the launch of a national childcare campaign. The London Nursery campaign and the Surrey Docks childcare project attracted 200 people to a conference in East London last Saturday to launch a national childcare cam-
Twenty different unions had members in attendance at the conference. Not only unions with a high hercentage of womer members but the AUEW and the print union NATSOPA were
« The conference could not have come at a better time tc launch a national campaign. Not only is nursery provision in
• there were only 500 local authority - but even these limited facilities are coming
A quarter of mothers with children under five in Britain to
and even r Tory spending cuts saw lic necd to shout about thi • An interim steering committee has been set up which Cost of affiliation £15 National organisations, £5 local group THE Department of Health and Social Security is
tion and presenting evidence in court'.
The . target for. such investigation will be 'nursing homes 'and 'approved institu tions which have a licence to carry out abortion It appears that the DHSS and its own quasi police force are attempting to introduce by the door what the achieve parliament when, last February, , they taltacks on the abortion charities included in Corrie's private members Bill. velt a der cordia male advert, London-based team involved there
A phone number for.candidates for this post of abortion spy is given in the advertisement as Basingstoke (0256) 68551. Challenge might like to phonse kettlets Socialist this number reference G/5409 - and ex. plain why they aren't apply.
Page 6 scan of this page
Steel union publishes plan for industry AVERAGE ANNUAL EMPLOYMENT COSTS
THEY ARE NOT OUF A fight would send shockwaves through the country
By Dodie Weppler FOR a trade union to put considerable time resources into publishing an 180-page book, filled facts and figures and outlining a blan for the industry in which its members work, is a major event. The Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, the major steel union, done just that.
The book, New Deal for Steel, published last week, documents how:
* British SLCCIWOLKCES lowest paid in Europe, With ne longest working week and fewest nondays
* Labour costs per ton are the cheapest in Europe.
waste and mismanagement are the hallmark of the BSC.
The pamphlet also contains the secret management documents which male rations over the debration or out. the callous boardroom entire steel communities. Material
Such in-depth material can only be an aid to serious trade unionists needing to grapple with the problems of working in an industry wracked by uncle color ecosull.
Unfortunately, New Steel is dead wrong in its starting for a guide to action in the fight to save jobs and protect their interests will be led up a garden path
For THE closure of Warrington Steel will be a devastating blow to the area. Already unemployment is higher thạn the national average; 45,000 people are chasing 1,500 job vacancies.
Warrington is a viable operation. past two years we have submitted to productivity deals, de-manning, and so on. Now, it is clear that questions must be raised about the effectiveness of such a moderate attitude.
Such an attitude has led to management in'forming union officials on 17 April of BSC's decision to close the entire works. This was not only inhuman but contrary to the provisions of the 1975 Iron and Steel Act, which states there will be 12 months consultation and negotiation given to bodies representing the majority of the workforce.
The ISTC is now testing the legality of this refusal by BSC management to consult in the High Court. Time to prepare the fightback is Vital to us — wnich is wny manazement throw normal procedure out of the window. It's the same thinking which informs their refusal to open their books for our inspection. In fact, we know that management destroyed all the books from 1975 to today.
Warrington is not the only
enfence of death. The secret SC document just published by the ISTC show that a butchering job has been in preparation for many, many months. More recent revelations show that both Llanwern and one of the Scunthorpe threatened with total closure along with Consett and Warrington. But everyone seems prepared to go like sacrificial lambs to the slaughter. A com-
mon fight is the only way to stop this.
Socialist Challenge 10 July 1980 Page 6
Profits for BSC don't
guarantee jobs
management, the pamphlet endorses the fundamental proposition of the BSL: inal ll shoula acnieve tne pron levels set by the Tories. It then tries to that with the with workers' interests.
But any serious militant knows that their interests are 100 per cent incompatible with need to boost profits. pamphlet Amounis to ment plan which involves an attack has on workers' rights. what Is me basic prodiem as lai as the ISTC leadership is concerned?
It's bad management.
LIC present management. The inefficienand waste which coccus is scandalous But the roots of this inefficiency can't be put down simply to the per-
Scholey. The wrong investment decisions come from an inability to deal with ac tracy comercocon ty of the capitalist market. A new management team Any proposal that BSC workers snoula take tne responsiblity for the ups and downs of the market under a LCW Lette this is what the pamphlet gets caught up in, when it sees workers' interests «scene to sou dons.
MacGregor has been brought in to be more ruthless than Villiers. This for misintease needs oine bosses and Tories in the midst of the recession.
Just consider the ISTC proposa that the management of BSC against market. This is plain silly, as an alterLAST week's meeting between the TUC Steel Committee and the board of the British Steel Corpora tion resulted in deadlock over the closure of the Bewley Road plant at the Warrington works. Colin
Over the has removed or
plant under
plants are
* courages them.
detence - ing their ability mass unemployment. with the That's At best; the At worst. it
unless whole rotten system.
Millions
The document.
Today the pamphlet
, of Villiers and would made capitalist while me recognise.
is a result
profits. away.
At present Llanwern is looking up the motorway to the Consett closure for its slavation, and Ravenscraig is looking down the motorway for the same reason. But the report shows clearly that no one is safe. Every capitulation only en-
native to Butcher MacGregor. Working people today are coming to see that the way capitalists prepare for a new upturn is by boosting profits. boosting productivity and by attack-
interests, weakening to resist by enforcing losses that steelworkers face today. solution to the yet in our society, tere is no otner way to prepare for an upturn, in the
we break with the
literally millions of workers are being victimised for living in a capitalist. society which is governed by the anarchic laws of pro-
planned econd be anade to suit penices
"suit people's and slumps occur regularly as the bosses determine production accor-
And that's the fundamental point
A Damoner oesn'
The responsibility for the crisis in the steel industry doesn't lie
of decisions taken and their over-riding interest in making
But the jobs which BSC is willing to let go by the board to keep theil books in the black are jobs that will disappear for tomorrow's workers as well. That's why job losses have to be fought: they aren't our jobs to give
Herd, ISTC convenor at the plant which is scheduled
to close on 18 July, attended the meeting and ex-
plains what was at stake.
It only brought total closure nearer.
sett is a big producer.
decided to sack
won't impress BSC
solidarity is there.
throughout
dustry. *Warrington
The acceptance of slimline at• was underway as we go to press.
Average USA
Stelco (Canada)
Cockerill (Belgium)
Estel (Holland)
Average Germany Average Japan (1974-7)
Arbed (Luxemburg)
Sacilor (France)
Italsider Ensidesa (Spain)
BSC
major world steel companies through the seventies Have you sponsored the
lobby for jobs?
September.
is scheduled.
Tories'.
text of a model resolution appealing for sponsorship. Port Talbot and Llanwern didn't save anything.
A determined decision by Consett to go for an all-out fight would completely alter this situation. Warrington is just a small rolling mill; Con-
BSC will not change its policy by arguments about viability. Consett workers have to start from the fact that BSC has
them even though they are recent venouse ecomes or weedy brosie tion. All the viability arguments in the world
An all out united fight is needed. Warringtor has got commitments from Rotherham, Skinningrove, and Scunthorpe that they will not take our orders while we are fighting. This shows that
Sirs has said he will back our fight. Good. A united front of the whole movement based on no closures and no job loss would send shockwaves
the country and make the Tories think twice about destroying the British Steel in-
But if Warrington decides to fight, we will take our fight through to the end. If the TUC Steel Committee can't see the urgency and the need for a national fight against the corporate policy of the BSC, then it is up to us, the workers within BSC, to take through the issue.
stewards recomended a fight against closure at the mass meeting last Monday, but it was decided to ballot the workforce. This
PER EMPLOYEE: 1974-8
£11,300 29,600 £8,500 £8,100 £7,800 $7,300 £7,100 £6,800 £6,000 £4,800 $4,600
Source: BSC comparative financial statistics -THOUSANDS of leaflets have been produced by the Mobilising Committee Against Unemployment which has called for a lobby for jobs at the TUC Congress in
Sponsors for the lobby are growing and now every effort needs to be made to get more delegations to Brighton on Wednesday, 3 September. That's when the economic debate
The fighting basis for the lobby is: 'No to unemployment — for 35-hour week now!' and 'For a fight to kick out the
If your union branch, shop stewards committee, or Labour Party will support the lobby, then write to the Committee, c/o 328 Upper Street, London NI 2XP, and get the
A letter to Warrington workers
have no future.
are ours as well. What's the point of us trying to find work when there are no jobs to have.
WELL before th strike earlier this the British Stee were sitting carpeted board r ing a secret docu
This involved ing the jobs of steelworkers in
BSC out economic mess.
The document is NeM Deal for published last weet Steel Trades Confe
seticl 'The return to fina business proposal f
disregard for work steel industry Pag calculanions nave." how to make a tars
Profits
BSC managem three options hs. Forst, ohe Red
invo ver Costs Lackenby plants, sett and Lianwern Ravenscraig plant.
The second poss 'Llanwert орпов
workers whose plat open if adopted,
cosure of the steel industry!.
Finally, the Sou
Talbot and Llanwe
By looking at disadvantages oi a siderations
which in thousands ol stee with increased prod agreements those plants which has decided will rei
The surprising document is that its put into effect by month. This has oc corporation where to be "consultati 'PLEASE don't sell our jobs. It's up to you to fight for our future. If you accept redundancies we might as well accept unemployment. Remember us when you decide whether to fight or give up. We need your jobs or we'll
"They are not only your jobs that you are selling Th
Page 7 scan of this page
JOBS TO SELL
i for axe-
Bds of
mpt to • current
fated in the
called viability: a
page of
workforce and management!
troduction to the bamohiet:
November, we that the Corporation was only going.
We leave school next June. It's already hard enough
find work now. What will it be like when your job is one? We can't do anything about it. We are in school.
it you must fight for us as well.
*Remember, one of us could be your son or daughter.
ve you asked your children if they would prefer a holi-
on the Isle of Capri or their father and mother bring-
home a wage packet?
We demand a future. We look to you to defend our.
he to work. Why should we suffer because you won't
The Bourke ton High School.
revealed
ii1) Clos Ine Bedser. ortion : The seikes ent er
- Wide Slabe As Bill Sirs points out in his inbecame convinced Consett
fights
closure NEARLY 3,000 Consett steelworkers voted unanimously on 20 June to fight against the BSC plan to close their works.
On Wednesday the steelworkers marched through London streets and put their case at a and to MPs at lobby.
and to
Union leaders and a number of MPs have already given their backing and now the fight is on to broaden the support for the Consett workers!
Secret BSC document
sruth hales Option •Do prete are through the motions of listening to our own views. Meetings were oelg used only to seek to extract from the
ratification previously made boC decisions.
This is the same conclusion that
job loss
FIGHTING for jobs is not an easy thing to do. catastrophe unemployment facing there are no simple solutions. desperately needed is a workers solution to
The L'lanwern Jobs Action Committee has drawn up a draft charter which outlines the kind of policies which — if they gain wide support in the labour movement - would begin to provide the basis for a fight which could halt the job loss and for the full implementation of a guaranteed 35-hour working week and worksharing with no
It demands the complete nationalisation of steel producers, processors, and stockholders. It calls for a complete stóp to closures.
Adoption of the 12 points of the charter, the workers a real voice in control of the industry But a fight for any of its proposals would run
Nationalisation of the more profitable parts of
As the charter recognises, many of its proposals would need to be implemented at the level of government. These kind of policies begin to directly challenge the so-called 'rights' of private property. They challenge the bosses' control over
Work-sharing, for instance, interim measure, especially if it is achieved in a single industry. A workers' solution to the crisis would require a complete
APPENDIX 2
HE RETURN TO FRANCAL VIABLITY T
ESS PROPOSAL FOR BEOET
the Corby steelworkers came to a few months earlier:
Charlie Keeney explained in an issue of the Llanwern Steel Sheet publiched during the strike: "Corby
Fighting policies to stop
the working class, What is government. bosses.
anarchic
"retooling' of the Gwent, Wales.
cheaply than bringing it in, with only
intended to buy our jobs with 'We tried to make the Corporation see this. . It was at this point that finally dawned didn't want to know, wanted to know.
"The whole
nad been a gigannic noax at our ex per We had been fed this thread o- BSC's plans had never changnope in a cruel attempt to keep quiet until they were ready to give u the chop WOLKCIS similar problem. their plant notches up BSC this won't guarantee jobs BSC has decided. research in the world to prove that an individual plant can 'make it' ir the British economy isn't going to change the mind of bo-calca Consulalon hasn't helped: The TUC Steel Committee - minus Bill OLIC saW document at a meeting with BSC in December.
Prepared
Just think how prepared steelworkers could have beer if that document had been distribute throughout the membership by the union officials before the national steel strike.
Of course
right against the rules of participatior by unions in such management.
Even the late annearance of this document will be useful to workers in steel, because it contains BSC's detailНИРА ПРРА ТОТ СІРОВО Britain.
Charlie Keeney's warning to other steelworkers during the strike is fust a: relevant today: Don't tall for BoU lies, brothers and sisters, as we did at Corby, unless you against it, they will close you anyway.. "Carry on the fight closures. If you don't fight from the very start, you'll soon find that the closures demanded are ever-growing the time-tables gp shut-down ever shorter.' whole economic system. And this is something that only a government could do. But a workers government committed to these policies would have nothing in common with the last Labour
A real workers' government would have to wrest control of the economy from the ruling
dast maplement a rational plan
economy, it would have to expropriate the cor sectors of industry and the finance houses. Thi would need to be backed up with the action taken by workers, and sanctioned by the government, to organise workers' control over industry
Unemployment and over-production disappear if the government was out to serve the interests of British people. A crash programme of useful public works building schools, hospitals, and stimulating industry -would require more workers, not fewer.
A planned economy would also government monopoly over check the effects of the market forces.
This policy of taking power is quite different from the plan offered by the ISTC leadership today. It wants to better manage capitalism for the
A new militant left-wing steel industry with strong links throughout the labour movement could not only fight to kick out the Tories, but it could begin to challenge the
profit system which thousands of workers on the dole queue.
Copies of the "Steelworkers Charter', draft document for discussion printed by the Llanwern Jobs Action Committee, is available from: Steel Sheet, c/o 5 Sydney Street, Newport,
new
they
they'd never
for viability
bluff
By Valerie Coultas today face
even
profits for
ban on overtime?
British Oxygen the steel bosses
with :300 Sirs and a few
SCUIC "The only thing
Wing Walsh,
much better starts talking about that.' the
much , this would have gone would accept
meetings with
£6,500!
Militant
John was not
the company,
fight dancies.
against the
explains.
Mickey Hackney, meat gets its way, agrees taking voluntary sighted
'Where else
most of Lesney's,
have cut
Ipswich depot, frontation
for the Transport and General
Government
would
mand that the . homes,
need foreign trade to for
arguments for sharing country at the present time.
The main industries
bankrupt ones. movement in the
ownership?
throwing
the
paste
BOC workers
call bosses'
'YOU'VE got 90 days to change your mind about sackings or we'll start a
That was the unanimous view of
shop stewards at a special meeting on 26 June. Threatened
redundancies, the 3,000 workers at BOC depots throughout Britain have called the bosses' bluff.
we are prepared to discuss in the next 90 days is a shorter work-
week or early retirement,' said John
, the convenor at Hackney. . 'No one until the , company
John Walsh has a shrewd idea of how to fight sackings. Pulled into the office by the manager at his depot, John was told how
money he would be offered if he voluntary redundancy.
Despite telling the manager that he was not interested, John was told that he would get
: sure whether the figure was high because of his 25 years' service to
For because of his militant was certain that he wond have nothing to do with voluntary redun.
I have no right to sell my job because I'm selling away someone else's future, youngster leaving school for instance,? he
'I think the trade union movement as a redundancy. I wouldn't be working in BOC today if someone had sold my job.
Boulter, deputy convenor at who faces the chop if manage. with John that redundancy short-
would I get a job in Hackney today?' he asks. "They've closed
making 3,500 people redundant. I've lived in Hackney all my life and I'm not moving anywhere. The Tories
earnings-related benefit, so unemployment's no joke today.'
Brian Jordan, a shop steward at BOC's
thought that it was scandalous that 'thousands of kids were leaving school without hope of a job.
*The unions and the government should bring the retirement age down to 60,' he said, 'and give people a reasonable pension
If BOC workers are forced into a con.
they hope for support from other workers, particularly the dockers who are members of their own union - the
If the private owners of BOC refuse to budge, argues John Walsh, the trade unions 'should be prepared to take over and de-
government guarantee jobs by taking BOC into public ownership'
John pointed out how people in Britain had been brainwashed into grabbing things
was why necessary for socialists to put forward the
the wealth of the
taken over by Labour government's in the past have been
The people whom the goverment bought out have earned more money from compensation pavments than they would have earned from continued
John would be happy to see all major industry under public ownership but he was insistent that trade unionists actually working in nationalised industry should have more control over production than in the
Socialist Challenge 10 July 1980 Page 7
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By Geoffrey Sheridan
only be
That in the position
of the far
5m/ joke republics
The overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship ago,
hing. low the revolution in Nicaragua threaten
Hated in El Sal müer
On 24-25 June 1 there in Bl Ivador which shut down more cent or any, commar own, au goval ment offices.
Siege
It was called by the Revo Com ittee of the at the beginning of the ye left-wing organisations, military wing.
The general strike gained more nors, 18,000 caches, and joined by
mployees. Even small business
nd lorry companies ad food s two days. The daily newspapers were shut dow
is mentors in Washington, was let in to done
tion its mentors in Washington what the mass of the country's people want.
TON KWESIX
Who Invited Se
to bond Ar
By Roy Al
THE U
with
the
ommunists have to face the fact
that the Soviets are fighting along.
side Afghan tonie country. present
Yet i Africans have
made no attempt to dress their invasion by of troops
acked by armoured columns
air strikes, as anything but a viola.
tion of
the racist invaders were responsible
for over 600 civilians deaths and
of
troops. have done their best
to wreak in the
economy of southern Angola. driv-
ing thousands of head of cattle
across the border into Namibia.
this operaton
tern set by the Rhodesian forces
with their strikes deep into Mozam-
the Lancaster House settlement.
This similarity is more than super-
South Africa is presently in-
volved in discussions with the UN
AVCI
scheme for Namibia
set-up
Zimbabwe. South Africa
out of the hands of
the SW fighters.
the Ponte from
INTERNATIONAL
is at hand; of a straggle the the overthrow of casion of the masse
today in El Salvador, the publics in Caltral America but by
do El Salvador has undergone
er of urban industrial workers
The M subject to periodic acting for United its
Washington
of which
omow's former atcom
was a two-day general strike.
organise people vernment
Cops closed for ti JUAN EMBASSY AND THE NICARAGUA SOLDARTY CAMPAIGN RESENT
1st NANAYER SARY OF THE MICARAGBAN REVOLUTION
CELEBRATION
MINSON (POETRY READING)
ide 52 in echance man NSC 218
flexibility in internation sions.
There are also South Africa has anti-government forces with the pro-imperialist roup, led by Jonas Savimbi, in th it has invaded. Savimbi te recently returned from a trip to the Uniten States to lobby financi military support sabotage operations.
As & result. maht-wing icaders in the US Congress are proposing to repeal a law which prevents the Dresident from levally giving such aid or authorising similar work by fragile the CIA.
Ronald Reagan has already announced that he UNITA if he is elected president.
All this activity is due to imperialism's concern to
key mineral industries.
With Rio Tinto Zinc financing the world's targest uranium mine al Rossing and British Nuclear Fuels buying its illegally duction, we in this country should The international •5. movement has to act to prevent may be DoulD Alca gaining from its bloody operation. It mas
sore that it insist on the isolation
ATHCAS and reject any settlemen racists' that infringes the their determination or Not majority or restricts the r the SWAPO fighters.
The strikers demanded a halt to the militar repression and an end to the state of siere. They call: ed for a stop to US military aid and interference. They demanded the right to strike, pollucal Icaders wno nave been jalled by the junta Confrontation
The strikers made preparations for the full-scale
WE •109 CRM called for the period of the strike to be used to
people' committees and mities. Many such mectings were hek
Food, water, and niedical supplies are now being stocked for the anticipated insurrection.
general strike, paramilitary group OR DaN mand is presence rin, armoured there were few armed clashes.
The discipline of the strikers largely ensured tha ut on 26 June the junta showed its love for t reject populated working class area Salvador, was shelled. Reports indicate that at leas 2 redople were killed and hundreds wounded or cap.
The attack was a prelude to the invasion of the neare holding a press conference According to ders National University, where
MY MIGH CON
I (LATIN AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC)
Ma 706 6767 . $ 2:50 on thadbor «hina
reports.
connecte UNITA
for his ment, bureaucratism,
Algeria
would back
defend its ethnic group.
of Kabylia.
exported pro Poland
solidarity
South
right of self
After 2-day general strike
Salvadorans prepare
for insurrection
respondents who and the release of
already revolution.
The dies self-defence
while the government
in the capital, San
CRM leaders USA
AROUND THE WORLD
LAST week the Chinese Communist Party celebrated its 59th anniversary. It did so by calling for the elimination of 'fondal and bureaucratic influence within its ranks.
Commented the People's Daily: feudal thinking runs deep and broad. Our party is no exeption. Such practices as the lack of compulsory retire-
patriarchal tendencies, factionalism, seeking. nepotism are all aspects of feudalism'.
students; and trade union militants who had been jailed for demanding that the Berbers be recognised as a seperate
As reported in Socialist Challenge (26 June), the imprisoned militants were to be tried before the state security court for taking part in strike action in the Berber province
THOUSANDS of Polish workers have gone on strike in spontaneous protest against increases in meat prices.
According to the dissident-organised Self Defence Committee, 17,000 workers staged stoppages in the Ursus tractor factory plant in Warsaw and 3,500 struck at a vehicle parts factory in Tezew, near Gdansk.
The strikes have been described as the most widespread since 1976 when walk-outs and street protests forced the
Nicaraguan daily El Nuevo Diario, foreign cor-
were present compared the attacks to the geocida measures of somoza ocrore n hasty departure for Florida.
The reason why the junta's backer, the US ruling class, is frantic can be seen from a glance at a map
Cuba, just off the United States mainland, ha
demonstrated willingness
The foreign minister of Nicaragua, which strad
North has warned President Carter that any form of direct US intervention in El Salvador would be like aggression against our own person.
The only policy open to US business intrests in June when hundreds of Salvadoran peasants fleeing an army attack tried to cross the Rio Sumpul into
"The influence of
personality cults, privileges and
PACITIC OCEAN
and South
army, National Guard
That's Carter's view
Salvador:
soutien à la
grève gếnérale ! ....
Polish Government to drop plans to raise food prices.
The price rises which have cansed the protests include dombling the cost of beef and bacol Brazil AS part of his tour of Brazil, Pope John Paul II last week visited the shanty town of Vidigal, on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. The large crowds which had welcomed the pope elsewhere in Brazil were pocaliarly absent in Vidgal. Less than 100 local people turaed out and the rest of the pope's audience was made up of security agents.
The reason is that in the carly hours of the morning of the pope's visit the majority of the town's inhabitants were cleared out in a massive police operation designed to clean up' Vidigal and rule out the possibility of the poor using the visit as an occasion for anti-government protest.
The theme of the pope's address was 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.
United States
IN the USA there is political asylum and political asylum. Last week in Florida a district court judge ruled that between 1978 and 1979 the US government had illegally rejected the claims for political asylum of more than 4,000 Haitians.
Judge James Lawrence King said that the government had been 'following a line of discrimination and political expediency' in refusing the Haitians asylum. He said that an attempt by the US State Department to defend the tyrannical regime of President for Life Jean-Claude Duvalier "was unworthy of belief.
Judge King also authorities had shown to the Cuban refugees with those of the Haitians, the latter having the misfortune to come from. a country with which the US has friendly relations.
As to the Cubans, the original claims by Castro thạt the refugees from there included large numbers of criminals are now being substantiated. Almost 1400 of them have now acknowledged that while in Cuba they committed serious crimes — including murder, robbery, and rape. An additional 9,417 refugees have admitted committing what are my described as pett offences. i are.
Gull of Maxioo
They were driven back by units of the Honduran
and then gunned down by the Salvadoran hundred were murdered. fisherman found the bodies of five children in his sotdate Cathe people of Sale or paint human rights. please Carter or his friend Thatcher:
contrasted the attitude Federal
Page 10 scan of this page
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Socialist Challenge Iranian women rebel against the veil
TWO thousand angry and brave Iranian women protested against the imposition of the veil in Tehran last Saturday.
The women were angry because they had been ordered to wear ministries, national oil company and even in military establishments. wrath of islamic counter demonstrators, a large number of them men, and crying 'death of the foreign dolls'. vere dressed in black in monato servants The women, lost freedóm. 'Bani-Sadr, you must answer us!' they chanted
'If I have to wear the veil I shall resign', said a secretary from the commerce ministry.
Many civil servants had turned up to work clad in black to show their solidarity with the women's protest.
-wo revolutionary guards caused a fivehour delay on the flight from Zaheda in eastern Iran, to Tehran because women not wearing Islamic dress. Eventually the plane left after passengers staged their own demonstration.
Once ational Women's Day, the chador has becom the focus for controversy over the place of women in Iranian society.
Aaomeini and the Shi'ite clergy couraging women to 'preserve their chastity Registered with the Post Office as a n
Islamic dress in all the state radio and television, the
brave because they faced the calling them 'whores'
- in mourning for theli they objected to
gain, as in March last year on Inter
are en-
and 'drew order 'not to reveal their finery except to their husbands'. They are trying to portray the demand for free choice in dress as the left overs of American culture', inciting Islamic bands to assault women who choose.
They argue that these women are aspiring to an independence that preachings of the Koran.
Last chador the protests of women, both veiled and unveiled, forced Khomeini to back down and say that the wearing of Islamic dress was optional'.
This time the battle will be harder. The abortive rescue attempt to free the hostages in the American Embassy has hardened the atfitude of the iranian people to western culture as a whole.
By dubbing the women who protest against the chador as dolls of the Pahlavi regime', taking instructions from the radio station, the clergy religious hysteria against women's freedom.
It was not Khomeini and the mullahs who _overthrew the Shah. It was the mass mobilisa. tion of the Iranian people, many of whom were women.
It is only by appealing over the heads of the clergy to the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people that Khomeini will be forced to retreat once again and the battle of the veil will be won.
Published by Cardinal Enterprises for Sociafist
their veils over their bosoms' in
dare to dress as they
contradicts the
time there wàs a conflict over the
Voice of America whipped up
WITH only ten days to go to the end of the International Marxist Group's emergency fund drive; we've just received towards our £6,000 target.
During the last few months we've strained every nerve to support the struggle of the steelworkers on wages and closures. We've helped to build a tremendously successful youth march for jobs in South Wales and seen the launch of Revolution Youth.
Now we are in the forefront of a campaign against Cruise missiles. All the campaigns have required tremendous resources and a lot of money.
We asked all our members and supporters for donations to meet the Help your paper! JUST under £1,000 was the final total for last quarter's Socialist Challenge Fund Drive appeal to bring down the Tories.
And that was mainly thanks to some of our regular supporters' sterling (ouch!) ef-
But we need much more help fron all our readers every urce monts Just to keep tne ballis from the door.
So before you rush off for mer nondays on a distant sandy Deach, pul Broad: 12 months - Surface Mail
Name
Address
I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of
€6,000
One last
big effort
from railworkers, £3,730 IMG branches.
So now
Manchester,
•YOUF
can send us a We aside a contribution newspaper on the left!
IVEI
Ed Mahood 'Indian Joe'
Rob Jone - In all, we need 12.50 Carali IM.
L. Schiffer Education TV workers your sum-. Canterbury IMU TOTAL
SUBSCRIBE NOW
6months £6.50 £12.50 Airmail £18.00
Multi-reader institutions: Double the above rate Let and red to oraline Chole be nade perse come a payable to 'Socialist Challenge
nge. 328/9 Upper Street, London N1. Printed by East End Offset Ltd (TU), London E2a
costs, and we ve received donation
steelworkers, teachers, and health workers as well as collections from over half the
we're appealing to all those who have not yet contributed -
Birmingham, Glasgow and other IMG branches. • We need
contribution, too, and from trade unionists — engineers, NALGO members, civil servants.
Doctors and dentists in parțicular, with their recent massive pay award,
substantial donation. need YOUR help to reach thi $6,000 target in the next 10 days.
Rush donations to: The Week, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Cheques should be made out to "The Week'.
for the best
Our thanks this week to:
T&G shop steward (Elland, Yorks) 15:00
15.00 10.00 50.00 5.00 5.00 10.00 5.00 105.50
← Socialist Challenge No. 154, 3 July 1980Socialist Challenge No. 156, 17 July 1980 →