Socialist Challenge No. 157, 25 July 1980
The scan: sc-n157-jul-25-1980.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.
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Socialist Challenge 1,896,000 people out of work in July TORIES AREN'T
KICK THEM OUT
UNEMPLOYMENT
OFFICE MOD running riot, smashing up the nationalised industries
welfare state creating YOSE ment and spending billions on new and useless nuclear TUCKELS.
Over the past ALWO weeks the Tories have announced that they are:
*Selling off some of the most profitable parts of British rail.
*Hiving off parts of the health
SCEVICES private firms.
*Ending the Post Office's monopoly by handing over services to private
In addition, cheerprise.
Tory Employment Secretary Prior 812S announced that he intends to limit pickets to six at any one time.
Attacks
At a local level, too, the Tories are ushering in a new period of virulent attacks on services. The Tory-controlled Dorset county council, for example, has just announced its intention to end the provision of school meals for infants.
This week's unemployment figures will show that 1.8 million workers are unemployed, an increase of 20 percent in three months!
To cap it all, the Tories are spending a phenomenal £5 billion the "independent' deterrent -the Trident nuclear rocket to replace rolars.
WORKING
Thatcher's government is determined to carry out its programme of solving the economic crisis at the expense of werking people. The actions of the Fories over the past few months give the lie to the
wno say that we must wait unt a general election to remove
TORY POLICIES
EQUAL
F RETURN
TO 1930°
5,000 people marched through Swansea last Saturday protesting against Thatcher's visit.
them.
Another four years of Toryism will do irreparable damage to the social services and nationalised industries. Tens of thousands of jobs will go forever. Factories will close never Te. opened To throw out the
FORD
Tories means mass action on jobs, pay, and union rights. means oramang acuon towaras a general strike to kick the Tories out. Here and now we need to build support for three major actions against Tory policies:
*The mass lobby of the TUC on 1 September on
OUT BRITAIN'S BETTER OFF WITH THE CONSERVATIVES.
SWANSEA
JOINT
SHOP STEWARDS
COMMITTEE•
jobs and against Prior's anti-union Bill. *The lobby of the Tory conference on 10 October against unemployment, called by the Right to Work Campaign and the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions. *The call to be considered by the Labour Par-
ty national executive this month for a mass demonstration on unemployment in Liverpool.
LOBBY THE TUC. 'Share the work without loss of pay!' Monday, 1 September, noon, Conference Centre, Brighton.
No.157 25 July 1980 20p
British
dissident
to die on
hunger
strike?
MARTIN Meehan, a Northern Irish Republican, is on the brink of death.
He is now in his third month of hunger strike and, according to his wife Briege, went ou LaSI week.
Martin is a 'British' dissident. leading kennolcan trom ine setasi working class Catholic ghetto of Ardoyne, he was first
Ireland courts in 1972.
flimsy ine that evidence the British authorities were forced to release min, bater me wal charged with membership of the Provisional IRA.
Army
he ony evidence.re. quired for conviction on this charge is the testimony of a -member Special Branch who says he or sh "believes' the accused is in
was sentenced to three years im DUESOLICI
After his release he suffered continual harassment
12 seperate occasions he was
to the notorious Castlereagh Interrogatior Senire ana her unders seven-day detention order.
Eventually, last t year he
ing a teenage barman north Belfast. The sole
"identification' by someone who admitted he was a paid agent or me Army.
Hospital
This agent admitted in court that prior to the iden
been shown a picture of Martin by the Army and DONCE
On conviction Martin went on hunger strike in the infamous Long Kesh prison camp.
His now in a prison hospital.
This week you will hear
good deal about Soviet dissidents. Not them are expected to die on hunger Martin Meehan, who wants nothing more than a foreign army to leave his country, is expected to die
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make mince meat
By Oliver MacDonald WAVE after wave of strikes have been crashing down on the Polish government since
July when Poland's Stalinists launched attack on workers living standards by raising price of meat.
The workers' culminated in virtual general strike in Lublin last week, stretching political resources of the regime to the limit. movement is far from over, but already the leaders must be wishing they had left meat prices alone. It would have been cheaper in every way.
The Lublin mass strike began on 10 July with action by workers
laclul y allu agricultural machinery factory. Plant after plant followed,
downing tools, electing WUIKCIS strike commiltees. drawing demands and spreading the word around ine cly.
Army
By Wednesday of last week at least 17 plants had joined battle. among them the power station, building
WUINCES pharmaceutical factory, Ine cilvs flour mill, bakery and dairy works. and manual workers at a hospital.
regime responded the following day by sending the army into the city and dispatching party leader Edward Gierek Chelm, a town near Lublin - but not too close! - 10 bellow out a warnue mat resoonside actoni was threatening the 'country'.
Army trucks rumbled through ine city as troops distributed bread and milk, the bread apparently coming from the army's bakery.
These moves were met by rail, bus, and strikes brought the city to a halt. The rail strike began when engine arivers stopped a train on the : WarsawMoscow line. The Lublin secretary rushed to the train to beg the workers to move il into the city.
Some Dary menners eventually volunteered 10 do so, but were thwarted as the engine tve one noe in aren decided to strike. They elected a strike committee and drew up their
Politburo:
sections railway workers joined them and their representatives were co-opted oțho le surike commillee. Irolley bus and tram workers also struck.
The workers were insisting that mue meal price increases of I Juiv should be cancelled or neutralised through wage increases. But they • Went T
The
was shown cow deltane raised vot
porker salutory factory.
power station, dustrv and on the ratways.
Responding Gierek's
INTERNATIONAL
their
the
the
The
party
Baltic Sea with
Pomerania › Szczecin
RLI
Poznar
Legnica Dresden • Szklarska Poreba
Sudeten
own
O PRAGUE which
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Dally
promise on TV on 9 July to raise family Delicits Lublin workers demanded tha they were raised immediately and brought into line with the famili benefits of the security services and the military - a 300 per cent rise. The railway WUIKET. demanded new. tree elections tol the railway trade union committee and the right to strike.
the
workers, they demanded written guarantees from the party leaders lhal would victimisation of workers involved in mass action.
The building workers called for greater housine provision and the railway workers ¡creases inconce bonuses - the lump-sum payments for long-term service.
the 18 July was a verv bad dav for building swith the the politburo. Since negotiations
Lublin howlic, an
of price rises
Gdynia Gdańsk
Bydgoszcz •Torun Ciechocineke Vistula
POLAND
•Rawicz
Sieradz
Wroctaw Częstochowa
Katowict
Shland
•Brno
politburo meeting decided to set up year. a special covemamen commission
under vice premier Jagielski investigate workers' grievances in LuOu Government leaders also spoke darkly of disquiet caused by also herbours' watch out for the Warsaw Pact Along with
On salurday settlements were reached: the bus and tram workers won nearly all then aculands. une rawway workers won between 400 and 600 zloly a month (fl equals 60 zlory at officiat rare). sellements were also reached in other factories demanded Meanwhile the
workers who had already won 10 per cent were threatening renewed strike action if their family benefit
movement spread to surrounding towns: transport worken m Chelm struck and workers in a bearins
Polish workers
• Kaliningrad • Lidzbark Bialystok o
Bielsk Podlanski o Bug •Jabłonna WARSAW Terespol
•Lodz
Lublin
• Kielce Majdanek
Kraków Rzeszówo Cieszyn (Teschen) Gorlice Przemysl sKynica •Krosno Beskid Mountains
10
the Poland's - in other words,
19
ihe
lorry factory
Gierek
HUTA
*Kaunas Vilniuse
lithuania S.S.r.
• Grodno •Bereza Kartuska Brest (Brześć nad Bugiem)
% Chelm • Kovei
•Lvov
Ternopol•
In
incline.
Warsaw representatives
waves roll on. shipyard • Italy
had POLAND today
•Minsk
byelorussia •5.5.r.
than U.S.S.R.
ukraine s.s.r.
• Kremenets (Krzemieniec)
• Khmelnitski
factory for aireraft production in
Warsaw printing workers • moving into action. One of une nigges orinang works cici for four hours on Friday morning as their elected representatives • the
TOI securit reasons party members - • chosen the day beth the party leadership. off for negotiations
on the same aay, two ornel
printing elected and drew up their have une national strike
As in the great strike victory of June 1976, the movement against the price rises started at the large
complex, ZM Ursus. wnich employs 11,0 workers or the southern outskirts of Warsaw They moved immediately the rises were announced on I.July.
other workers, At least ar Poland?'
nundred inousana workers wer engaged in action in the first week
Ihe Stalinist bureaucracy ca
dom brine wily spread ush
them before
tElC demands maintain a total news silence.
The party leaders knew therewould be some trouble, tney banked on quick concession to a few trouble spots in order to gain the benefit of price increases evervwnere erse backfired
The news embargo told workers something big was afoot The victories in the first factories
act became • widely known turouen me grapevine ne regal
to go public with a new initiative to try to stem the tide Battle
On 9 July Gierek went on TV saying there would be n more wage Herease productivity deals, , while he made vague promises of rises in family benenis are m wards lor luc lowe paid next year.
The Wereness, offerwise why hadn't he Gierek's made it on 1 July?
the famous Zeran car plant employing 20,000 Warsaw workers who had spear heater workers movement 1956 answered Gierel with strike action. They were joined by a radio factory it the capital, by two textile factorie detachmens or he brin herise Zyrardow, first class. The second wave of strikes was in full swing
1o date opposition circles in warsaw nave cocumenter mont
50 The actual numbers of strikes may be many times arealer wile the numoers o plants where the workers have won without a battle is probably very much larger still.
Trade Unions
The economics of the meat price increase has been turned on
bul unals not te mosi frightening balance-sheet for the
Gierek has managed to call into being a powerful, self-confident independent trade union movemen which will no pushed back underground without major political convulsions.
• sections or the Polish Stalinist bureaucracy will now start preparing fo just such convulsions. while other grouping will urge political concessions
workers in order to sweeten the pill of economic austerity Poland is on the road to profound political
upheaval
official trade unions have been shown to be bankrupt durin! the strike wave. the no siers. ase
they led the workers. worker. neer new independent trade unions and new political organisations to conduct Inel struggle for powel
In this connection the Britist TUC'S visi Poland in evense take significance: what does the TUC propose to do to assist the struggle by. Polish workers for their rights! Where does it stand on the right to strike and form trade unions
Socialist Challenge 25 July 1980 Page 3
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SWANSEA WAR ON THATCHER
Summer school a big success
HOMENEWS
By Pat Kane THE British Steel Corporation closed the secondary rolling mills at Warrington last Friday, the loss of 700 jobs. Ironically, the latest edition of Steelworkers Banner, the ISTC's journal, car-. ries the headline 'We'll fight the closure'.
The shutdown came after a ballot result of 2 to 1 in favour of accepting the principle of closure, with over a third of the workforce abstaining.
Yet the Warrington steelworkers in Cheshire among militant during the 13-week strike. What went wrong in the fight to save jobs? Socialist Challenge COLIN HERD, the plant convenor. Investment
"The mistake we made,' Colin, 'was to rely on the TUC Steel Committee to fight for our jobs, and not on our own workforce and the support that we could win from other steelworkers.
'Don't get me wrong, it is important to get the union leaders actively involved in issues like this. This especially true if you've got a traditionally moderate workforce like we had. When they see that the union is involved, it can get them on the right side.
'But we left it up
and they let down. We were told to wait until we 'IT'S war as Thatcher sneaks into Swansea.'
That was the headline in the local press last Saturday as the Prime Minister visited Swansea. She showed her contempt for the unemployed by visiting Swansea just days before the official announcement of the ending of all steel production in Wales.
Everywhere she went there were protests and demonstra tions. In the Norin or Wales her was SHOODCO pelted with eggs Welsh languase lemonstrators fighting for a Welsh language TV channel.
Her scheduled tour was disrupted as workers at the Hollyhead ferry terminal and several factories walked out on strike in protest at her presence.
In Swansea the Tory conference was launched on Fri-
day. evening at a dinner • 2-
ended by local Labour Party
leader Alan Lloyd. Outside
By Valerie Coultas
THE International Marxist
Group's summer school was
a big success. This was the
verdict of many comrades
who attended for the full
week to discuss and learn
about socialist revolutions
throughout Europe.
150 members and sym-
pathisers participated,
cluding comrades from the
Swedish. Danish,
Sri Lankan,
Austrian, and Pakistani sec-
tions of the Fourth Interna-
tional. member
American Young Socialist
Alliance also atended
did members of
Democracy from Ireland.
Dave Bailey, who gave an ac-
count of the events leading up to
Lic cal of the German revolu-
tion in 1919 was a popular speaker
at the school. Joe, who came to the
school on his own from Colchester,
said he was really impressee Will
this session and many other com-
with KnOW
the most
cause.
asked were going to stick to it
over Warrington.
says the closure.
all your life, money was a lot.'
The closure
BSC
strike that the to them
uS ot closures.
the hotel a vocal picket was
mounted by the Right
and Plaid
wOrK
Cymru.
On Saturday the largest
protest ever seen in Swansea
greeted the Tories. From 9am
1495IC gathered at a picket
outside the Tory conference.
Meanwhile the Labour Party
TUC
220 8
demonstration of 5000
could really feel the insurrection happening, particularly description of the workers surging across the bridges into Berlin in 1919.'
Dave's main point was to show in- how the revolutionary potential of European workers was Dutch, by German social democracy at the French, end of the First World War.
One discusion or brought home the revolutionary of the Europe todav. The dictatorship's
failure to deal with the national the as Peoples colones
Mozambique, and Guinnea Bissau led to splits within the army.
ousted from power and Portuguese workers, peasants and rank and file
their own hands. movement had no clear political ine major workers par
had seen the BSC board, but when we got to London they didn't want to
the problems that another closure in Warrington would
"They had made up their mind that the plant was to close, and they
'The TUC Steel Committee had been delaying meeting with the Board
When we finally got to meet them; it was too late to organise the older workers to fight
'If you had worked in this plant
then the seve dice
was officially announced on 17 April, just two weeks after the end of the steel strike. Secret
documents revealed by ISTC have shown that the closure plans were drawn up at the end of last year.
But the members of the TUC Steel fighting Committee knew during the wages' Six
Corporation was preparing for another massive round
Yet they. insisted that the strike
inrougn une city.
Large delegations were
from all the major
the Llanwern Action Group and miners joined the protes! against the run down of dustry in Wales. The IMG and Revolution Youth also had contingents on the picket and the demonstration.
Many marchers were bitrades expressed similar views. 'We their different ways, contained the
revolt. with the the November 1975. when some rank and file power. the Portugal suil nad connacuce. tie dissipated vote for the workers' parties in the last election had been high, over 50 per celli.
relevance of movements War drew out a similar theme and showed how the Stalinist leaders of
Colonies in Afies in PorAngula, alloled frany Angula, aerowed franco to win the ciril ad
The discussion on Cuba reveal ed how the July 26 movement, led On 24 April 1974, Caetano was by Fidel Castro, was won over to a
revoto a Kisouve. ing fully with imperialist domina
But the mass cconoly In 1sok.
Joss 16, Sarah, a member ties, the CP and the SP, both 'in Democracy in Ireland, enjoyed the
Warrington closure:
"Leadershiplet us down"
was only about wages and not jobs.
The refusal of the TUC leaders to
organise against closures during the
strike made BSC's job easier.
The strike had produced a new spirit among steelworkers. months ago there would only
have been a handful of votes against
closure; now there were over a third.
The task was to win the support ol
those who were not committed
ter at the lack of leadership from the lUC and LP. alle most demonstrators refused to march past the conference to the official rally, choosing instead to join the picket outside the conference called by the Right to Work Campaign.
Thatcher was forced lo use back entrances to the conference. 'Wales has prospered school but pointed
It was pointed out that despite start SEOH
suffered 27 periences. soldiers tried to sieze her. Iner
workers movement in
• Revolution
troduction ticular. * reall
The session on the Spanish Civil know very much
One of
movement Salutacu on
Topics such DICak'
establishing a planned
received. from •Brightor of People's analogies and could
taking voluntary redundancy money.
Here again the role of the fulltime officials was crucial. At the mass meeting George Cooper, ISTC official, announced that if you fight, the union will support you, but you have to realise that it may jeopardize your severance pay'
There was solidarity that had been already been organisca by tne local umon commil tee in winning support from Skinningrove, Rotherham, and Scunthorpe for the boycott of orders from Warrington.
They didn't put forward any militant plan of action, based on local trade union and labour movement subport to threatened in the area anything more than verbal support from officials, voted for closure.
To some
leadership, especially ISTC, on Warrington as a test hate costies in the methods that they want to use.
ISTC has produced an alternative before through change and WIL again, declared at the conference •Weish people must prepared to leave Wales to seek work' - athoush what work she didn't say!
The rank and file gave a clear message to their leaders at saturday s acto — we It ready to fight, are you willing to lead? out that she situation. thought it would be a good idea to The
•CODIC S Ical The comrades who at- Union ended from Pakistan agreed with highlighted this
pomted out that the British comrades were very fond of
Youth, really liked the
• marxism in par- necessary for found educational,' she said, 'because I didn't
the most popular of tional courses was the one given b Alan Freeman and John Harrison rades
Introduction to Marxist reading habits.
Devinder, well attended and most participatns expressed entusiasm at the clarity
the atentanve economic strategy and the discus- Marxism
perhaps pay more attention te the concrete
BSC.
plants.
The
adopt would save jobs. the local tne ciall described
head'.
Planned
mention of the
closures.
defend all. jobs being
vital, Without sufficient.
the workforce
the union looked are still there, case to save lobs.
But the problem lies change
ensure Warrington.
Police clampdown
for Thatcher visit
Swansea last weekend as police prepared for Thatcher's visit.
Youth March against Unemployment. assaulting the police.
dress, and previous address in London.
campaign of harassment mounted by the police.
the debates on Afghanistan 'nature to the soviel although exciting, problem. Some participants found the style of presentation rather abstract 2000 wanted riore facts. Emma from debates
that it Wak sociainsis more directly and use language that everyone could understand.
Ine Imu booksnop aia a roar ing trade as more and more com-
decided to improve their
La sympathiser who worked at GEC Coventry, explain- both
know where to start buying books tionary "I've never read a great deal abou
before school's
Boven ano cay and sir
away reading. I've got some idea of what to buy in a bookshop.
A discussion took place among * this year
- Socialist Challenge 25 July 1980
to the criminal mismanagement of But rather than mobilise their members, the union leaders wanted to rely on an injunction through the courts to stop the BSC closing more
The plans start from the need to make profits, not from the defence of jobs. It could have been written by any management consultant Walletol workers were told that it was through getting the Tories to change their policics and the union's plan that they Bernard Connolly, at Rotherham, the ISTC plan sedative before they chop off your
BSC is planning many more plant The first is at Consett this September. If other steelworkers are to be successful in defending their jobs, they have to organise to make -sure that they themselves control the conduct of the struggle.
Involving the full-time officials is but on its own this is not
Full-time officials have to be forced to organise to defend jobs.
Just three months ago, Bill Sirs sold out the steel strike. The same officials "supporting' the fight Part of this fight is to the unions themselves, to that there no repeat of AN unprecedented security operation took place in
Brendan Young, a prominent Irish militant in Swansea, was arrested on Saturday morning under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Brendan helped to organise this year's South Wales
After the anti-Thatcher demonstration a 150-strong picket was mounted outside the Swansea Central police station where Brendan was being held. At one point plain clothes police led an assault on the picket and three demonstrators were arrested. Two members of the SWP were arrested, beaten up in the cells, and then accused of
Brendan was released on Sunday afternoon after his supporters threatened to hold daily pickets. He was asked not one word in custody, except his name, age, aid-
Also last Saturday SWP member George White had his house searched on 'sispicion of having drugs'. Needless to say none were found. Feeling is running high in Swansea, especially among young people, against this
participants about how the school could be improved for next yar a residental schon ensa was ne general consensu. good idea because a great deal was
Trades from branches and sections of the Fourth International
enough thought had been given to of the introductions ana tha e pene revomunonary had been a little the additional ane discusions tude nad been added Women It was vital to involve more women and more proletarian comin introducing items as this would probably lead to a les. abstract approach The importance was stressed of individual and collective education in fighting for revoluideas where revolutionary marzist buituIc did not have a strong tradition. NeR year the IMG intends to organise a school to cater for a larger number 'of comrades. mare sure vor con miss out on it if you couldn't come
Page 4
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Twenty six arrested at Adwest
HOME NEWS
sun,
and Socialist year old
Challenge?
SUMMER is here, and most of our supporters are trying to safeguard the little maney they have from the effects of inflation, and the escalating costs of being revolutionary socialist (fares up in price,
up, internal bulletins etc.), go away on holiday.
But Socialist Challenge isn't going on holiday; and we want to be here when you
to get your teeth into another year of party building
So save us a little of the
set aside tor gelting drunk on Greek ouzo in Crete, red wine in the South
Spain.
Our Thanks this week to: BLomax £1.50
3.00 D Fowler Anon 3.50
3.50 B Turner 2.50 Swansea Womens Centre 5.00 Swansea IMG 20.00 Stampssold 4.00
4.30 AROL CO'Callaghan B Wells 0:50 J Roffey 10.00 TOTAL 00.00
Nasira
Begum:
here to
stay, here
to fight
By Pete Clifford OVER 500 people marched: through Manchester last Saturday protesting against the threatened deportation of • Nasira Begum.
As the wife of a British. citizen she was allowed to setule in brutaln, altesse was deserted by her husband the authorities moved to boot her out.
Leading Saturday's march were Nasira and groups trom other local defence campaigns
Asians threatened with deportation. tat followed. and CUltingents that
cluding many from Labour Party, callic d Clear message To White Home Secretary William
- black people are here to stay and here to fight!
Anti-Nazi
date in West Brom
By Clive Gilson,
Leamington Anti-racist
Anti-fascist Committee
MARTIN webstel,
National Front's national
organiser, was given
rough ride by Asian youth
in West Bromwich when
he visited the area
for
prepare
demonstration to be held
en 17 August.
The Nazis theme
unemployment. The NF aims
the disastrous job
situation West
Mid ands fo put the blame on
black people instead of the
No doubt Webster's mob
Hiopes cabalist the
support il gained in a West
Bremwich by-election a few
years ago, ano to Millidale
the community.
recent weeks skinheads have
the Sparkhill area
Birmingham:
mobilising
nationally for its march, and
anti-racist comi mittees in the
arca aim fo de likewise fer a
Winter demonstration.
sand. Nicaraguan revolution one
By Valerie Coultas
first anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution.
It was Anastacio Somoza fled from Nicaragua,
defeated the National guard.
-ine Nicaraguan
who spoke at the and, en. was syuulla thusiastic. The Government of Reconstruction had made strides forward with reform, its literacy campaign, and its attempts to counter the economic une bosses by supporting workers who were taking over the fac
by Stuart Cumberpatch AFTER police attempts to prevent picketing at the Reading on 2 July, when convenor Danny arrested pickets blocked those July with chants of 'we demand the right to picket •
strike, following the sacking of 26 workers who • victimisation dispute.
action, the picket
Brixton dole needs your
support
their strike against
union activities.
The two were given notice of sacking on 13 June but sent home immediately keep them out of the office. 49 of the 55 CPSA members at the office are on strike.
The CPSA's national con ference voted full support for the fight re-instatement, but the CPSA executive. in a circular signed by general
Ken Thomas, sculalal y "denlored •EnC being taken by Brixton, urging in-
that Cordell and Cleverley should rely on civil service ano mensta mouna appeals. Such appeals have nil chance of success
thus urgentiy needed for the continuing picket, together tions from CPSA branches to the executive deploring their attitude.
Supporters of the daily picket will be interested in the news that the Special Patrol
in Brixton TOr stay. Theit last stay was part of the why Lambeth
soung, ninated an inquiry et
A THOUSAND people crowded into London's Logan Hall last Saturday evening to celebrate the
on the 17 July 1979 that the hated ferced out of his country by a mass upsurge of peasants and workers after a fierce battle in Managua had
tories he said He gained a big round of applause when he said that the Sandinista was committed to the liberation of women The Grenadan 808 -wished the people 'many Nicarazuail happy returns On- • VOIr ISI birthday.' Placing the revolution alongside other Adwest plant in Adwest Broderick was Swindon. at the factory gate, 100 gates on 14 picket
Sixty workers at Adwest are on
walked out in the holidays.
Within minutes of the start of the 14 July was attacked CPSA members at Brixton dole office are continu-
the sacking IWO members, Phil Cordell and Richard Cleverley, for
(REPORT)
WARD
ANDREW
Loto:
Phil Cordell into policing in the area. Their report published which makes the SPG's arrival back in the area an interesting coincidence.
SUPPORT
BRIXTON DOLE M
developments Latin America, including the
imperialism being challenged • ever • Uncic Sam's own back yard'
Arthur Scargill, responding to the mood of the au dience after the speeches the Cuban Vietnamese concentrated his fire on, American imperialism He was 'sick of listening to Western hypocrisy about une invasion Afghanistan'.
Where were these people, he askea, when ine Vietnamese countryside was being raped and pillaged American bombers?
If these people were "so about self-determination, they coule start by getting Auculcall war bases out of
applause.
Referring to the £2.50 that committee set up last week has decided to wage a determined political campaign to fight the charges and raise money, If the cases are lost, fines are likely to run into thousands of
Public meetings are planned for 30 € July in Reading and later in Oxford and
The first trial will be on Friday 25 July. A
of Reading magistrates court will b held on 8 August when a number of pickets including
A large turnout is essential.
The next picket of the Adwest factory will
factory reopens after tne
Contributions to: The Treasurer, Adwest Defence Citee, 46 Berkeley Ave., Reading
THE deadline for short news articles for this page is 10.30am Monday. Articles up to 200 words Coll rung through 501-359 Sundays on 8189.
Picket every day from 7am at Brixton dole offices, 372 Coldharbour Lane, London SW9. Contributions to 15 Knowlton
Si House forie
it cost to buy school materials for a Nicaraguan cule. pointed that if all the MOneV military weapons was used construc tively 'could wipe out
starvation, and sufpoverty,
meeting had been a good launching pad for the Nicaragua calll paign in Britain, he said. Nou the campaign had to be taker into the British labour move
" All the bromers anc sisters present should give practical aid the Nicaraguan revolution.'
An enjoyable evening en-
the Latin American folk MIST Saraguru, dancing to Aswad,
and hearing a keocae croub. the anti-racist poetry of Lin ton Kwesi Johnson. Linton summed it up rather nicely 'Solidarity with
revolution workers and rorwaru peasants power.
Thames • Valley
26 people supporters and steward at the BL Cowley plant.
other
were charged with obstruction,
defendant who pieauco guilly bam. when with "threatening summer insults at
.was timeo ziou plus des costo Most 1 io plead decided
Courts slam
anti-nuke
demonstrators
By Geoff Young (Sharpness Defence Group)
obstructed a train carrying nuclear waste Sharpness docks in Gloucestershire.
still dumps nuclear waste in the sea, scaffolding, before edging up to it.
Seven people were subsequently
comrades will go back to jail.
this nuclear insanity.
Sharpness Defence Fund, The Gables. Stroud, Cloueestersaire.
Defend Munir Ahmed Approximately 100 streets of Oldham last Saturday in protest against the impending deportation of Munir Ahmed (pictured here). More than half the demonstrators were from the Pakistani community. police Tactical Support Group. Despite resistance, the police arrested including three leading Adwest Socialist Challenge
It is clear that Adwest has now become a testing ground for Prior's attack on workers rights. In reality his 'maximum of six pickets At a special court on 14 July, 25 people threatening criminal damage. On •was charged behaviour' SHORENI scabs arriving on a local bus. He other defendants A defence ON 8 July a small group of anti-nuclear protestors
to The nuclear waste was to be loaded aboard a ship for dumping in the Atlantic — Britain is the only nation which
with its potential threat to marine life and food supplies.
Contrary to press reports, including that in the Morning Star, the stopping of the train was perfectly safe — it was warned 300 yards away and was travelling at only 15mph. The train stopped 20 yards from the
imprisoned remand for five days for this sort of civil disobedience - in which no one was hurt and nothing was damaged.
Together with an eigth person, they were later fined £300 each plus £20 costs — a total of £2560. These fines must be payed within three months, otherwise our
It is vital that we respond to these attempts to intimidate those using non-violent disobedience to stop
Please send contributions to
people marched through the
St Benedict's
mass picket
on 30 July
ON 4 June the Merton, Sutton, and Wandsworth
Health Authority voted to permanently close the St Benedict's geriatric hospital.
The AHA hopes to save €15m as their contribution to the ory covernments cus the National Health Service
The closure
human point of view The hospital due to take St Benedict's patients — the Bor ingbroke, St James, and the South London are totally ill-equipped to be venaiter hospitals.
The staff of the hospital,
palcul. and other hospital workers in the area are deter. unica to contruc wacu cruul month work-in to stop the closure.
Come and give your supnort on me mass : pIckel on Wednesday 30 July, , 6-7pm Church Lane, Tooting. Thi
meeting at :7.30pm in the Tooting Co-op Hall, 180 Up per Tooting Road, (betwee
Footing Broadway and Tooting Bec tube stations).
Speakers: Alan Fisher,
Arthur Sauto, St Benedicts Williams . sec gen COHSE URVI . cirere . commitee Brecker, Fightback, Dai Dawe, regional officer RCN,
NUPE steward Bolingbroke hospital, plus film. There will
food available picket.
Manchester
organises against
missiles
By Duncan Edwardes
EP Thompson attracted
an audience of 800 people
in Manchester for
meeting on turonea
nuclear disarmament last
.week.
The meeting decided 1o
launch local campaign,
Manchester Against Missiles
of Cruise missiles in Brilain Polaris be the ds emion Thi and replacement
dent missile.
Manchester against
Missiles will be building the 9
August demonstration called
by North-west CND on the
Sult demand. It coincides of the
dropping of the H-bomb on
Nagasaki
MAM will hold a rally on
19 October in the Free Trade
Hall on the eve of the bis
: demonstra
tonover 6600 was collected e
and will be used to orgamise
activities throughou! "Butterow Hal, mation chow MAM
Page 6 scan of this page
THE STORY OF THE L
IRELAND in 1919 was in turmoil. In the previous year
general election resulted in over 70 per cent of the population voting for the Republican Sinn Fein party. But the British government refused to accept the election results and continued to occupy the country.
In the face of a guerilla campaign, the British occupation forces replied with their traditional repressive measures. One victim was Robert Byrne, a pro minent trades unionist southern Irish town of Limerick and a member of the insurrectionary Irish Volunteers.
In January 1919 Byrne was sentenced to a year in prison by a British military court.
When he on hunger strike in support of his right to be treated as a political prisoner, Byrne was transferred Limerick Hospital. It was there on 6 April 1919 that his comrades tried to rescue him.
A constable was shot dead. a second was mortally wounded, and Byrne was taken away by the rescue party - but he had been fatally injured in the struggle. His body was removed Limerick Cathedral. Limerick Board of Guardians paid tribute to him as la selfeffacing patriot.
The British government. was obiged to ac statement. Limerick city proclaimed a 'special military area' under the control of the British Army.
At Byrne's funeral the route of the procession was lined by British troops with bayonets; the procession was patrolled by armoured cars, while military planes overhead. Two of 'Byrne's cousins were arrested.
On 11 April a large area in and around the borough Limerick was declared to under martial law as from the following Tuesday, 15 April.
Anyone who wished to enter this area could do so only if they carried permits, bearing photograph and signature, that were issued by the military. No exception was to be made for workers commuting to and from their jobs, many which were outside the proclaimed area.
On 12 April the workers in the Condensed Milk Company's Landsdowne factory, most of whom would be affected by the permit order, went on strike in protest against the measures.
The next day the United Trades and Labour Council held: special mccting. It resolved te all a general strike in the city a from 3am on 14 April until the ending of martial law.
Sean Cronin, chairperson of the trades council, threatened to call out the railway workers, stating that only the 48 hours notice they were required on doe
executive London prevented him from calling an immediate strike.
The Trades and Labour Council transformed itself into a strike committee. It took over a printing pres and prepared placards explaining the strike posting them all over Limerick.
This was the first of many publications during the fortnight; permits, clamataions, Food price and a strike bulletin rolled off
press. Besides the propaganda, the committee detailed skeleton staffs to maintain electricity, and water supplies.
The strike was an immediate success. Despite the suddenness of the decision, it was executed by 15,000 organised workers.
On 14 April all that operating were the
under their skeleton staffs; some carriers with permits from the strike committee to enable journalists to interview the ittecs the banks,
INTERNATIONAL / IRELAND
had in the
to
The
was
fixed
itself
flew
of
be
their
British
of British
and the railways. on the railways struck the next day:
This triumph gained support beyond its class nature. petty-bourgeoisie - the small shopkeepers The Limerick Chamber of Comsent a statement to the British Prime Minister, Andrew Boner Law, condemning permit system. Sinn Fein backed the strike and Mayor O'Mara refused to leave the proclaimed
next area for his home.
The strike committee had
lists soon to escalate the struggle.
Food shortages began to appear on the first day. The committee ordered the rationing of
gas, hotel meals. In the evening it
granted permits — to be entorced by pickets — for shops to sell bread, milk, and ween 2-5pm as from the next 4 dual day, for the bakeries to naintain production public To avoid a shortage,
strike committee established subordinate body of four councillors with Irish Volunteers supply of food to
The engineers
The Waters of unmenick
The 1/-
participated.
AGAINST BAITISH MILITARISM muffled oårs, and by day hearses from the brought food supplies into the city. Profiteers down Other sub-committees established to supervise pickets, propaganda, first body executed police duties.
The propaganda commitice was most notably responsible for the dally Workers' maintained throughout the period stoppage. potatoes bet- By Good Friday, 18 April
power developed to its fullest.
On the the British Army. It had brought in an extra hundred police at the city time of the inquest on Robert control of the Byrne: had
military forces, including an atmoured car and a tank. It had big boats with
into the proclaimed area.
labour in Limerick
The . VCKL
British Army workhouse hospital,
were closed
were city permits.
and funds.
powers.
Bulletin; perination
Limerick
the one hand there was that the military authorities
This statement by a number of clergy, considerable
the route
Against the colonial power was the full force of organised
backed implicity by the Irish Volunteers.
the accepted the strike committee's authority. Even the
was • affected: a Scots regiment had to be sent home hastily when it was found that its soldiers were allowing workers to pass in and out of the
without demanding their
Already there had been one trial of strength between the two power.
On 12 April General Griffin, the British officer in command, taken by tried to win over the Chamber of Commerce. The chamber referred the terms offered to they Limerick, strike committee. The committee replied that it had no wish tee take. the step it had taken, but military guard.
had
backed headed by the bishop, Dr Hallinan, who
inaction denounced the permit system as
Matters, could not remain single organisation). Its meeting and
DR O'CONNOR LYSAGHT. writes of a little-known incident
in Irish history when the vision
of the Irish workers' republic
came into view.
thus. Either the strikers or the British had to win. The danger strike for the British was that the struggle would escalate in a way that could bring Irish labour to state
The most definitive move in that direction would have to be
the railway workers throughout the country had refused to handle freight in
except where it was permitted by the strike commit-
where under
was expected that they would extend this action to a full-scale railway strike
What held them back was the
of executive of the Irish Labour Party
Trade Union Congress (a
on 16 April declared that the
concerned the workers basic right of travel, and it ap pealed to all workers and people of the world to support it.
But it did not make recommendation or call for a broadening of the strike, prefert ing to wait until another meetin of the executive scheduled to be held in Limerick itself six day laterhen on 21 April a majo blow was deliyered in London.
Stockman, speaking m GENERAL STRIKE *167 The Workers of Limerich Promise 80 Pari 5/- FIVE MILING 51-
Page 7 scan of this page
MERICK SOVIET, 1919
This article is an extract from
estory of the Limerick soviet,
nocracy
it.
the
Foran, president of the
who refused to extend
had
f the British TUC and of
trade unions whose
were involved in the
declared it to be
mike and accordingly
Tons to refuse
shea by the Irish revolu-
ary organisation People's
strike pay those of their members who were involved in
Stockman's statement supported by the executive of
National 01103 Railwaymen, which ordered its Irish members to avoid action.
While the strike committee was under such attacks it also had headaches from its rank and file. Their militancy was on the increase.
On 19 April an Arry sentry to disperse COWe youth. Two days later there was at serous altall. A hurting match was held just outside the proclaimed area and many used
he opportunity to trail their
On returning to the city in the evening some 500 individuals refused to show their permits. The Army stopped them entering the area, with the support of 500 police and two armoured cars. Most of the crowd stayed the night at a nearby dance-hall.
The next day they boarded a train and avoided a military cordon at the city terminus by getting out on the side of the station opposite to where the were waiting. The next day shots were fired by troops at a fair when people again refused to show their permits.
The strike committee meanwhile money blems. Trades councils and some unions sent money to Limerick but these helped only to a limited extent. The Labour Party and
national estimated later that £8,000 week was needed to maintain the soviet. Only £1,500 had arrived when the strike action after a fortnight.
The finance sul commit
GENERAL STRIKE
10/-
ALAINST BAITISH MILTTARISM -„Гі"іші.я.,
bank no desi be issued one cine credit of the strike committee troops Some notes were put out before
strike ended, and were accepted by many shopkeepers.
On 20 April William O'Brien and Thomas Foran, of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union and the Labour Party and
pro- TUC executive,
Limerick. meeting of all sections of the community Sean behalf of the strike committee, executive offered to hand over power to
Labour's executive
ended Part of the reason was that
The knew what had to be done to win the strike and he felt that the
TEN SHILLiNGS. 10|-
national
note to be issued on the
the next two days.
mittee Cronin's hopes
gencia
arrived in
That night at
•Cronin, on and totally utopian:
were fighting
simple.
dent.
bishop
having have as it
retreat. until the
area
later. working
able to expand the struggle. The
Cronin had already talked about calling out the railway Vision workers; now he declared that
executive should make Limerick the headquarters
'The of Ireland's national and social
Soviet'
Lysaght
The other members of the executive arrived in Limerick over
On 23 April they talked with the strike com-
far. into the evening were dashed The delegation stated that it had
strike without the authority of a special conference of the Labour Party and TUC
What the delegation proposed instead was at once limited
That the men and women o
imerick whom they believe were resolved and determined to sacrifice much tor the cause they
should evacuate, their, city and leave it as an empty shell in the hands of, the
military?
What this meant was quite
The executive was prepared to go to any lengths to avoid a confrontation with the
occupying forces The limita
tions of the politics of pure pro test have seldom been more evi-
Quite correctly the strike committee rejected the proposal.
The next day the mayor anc
visited General Griffin. What happened at this meeting is unknown Subsequent events point to them
obtained what might been considered a com promise: the soviet should end and, if for a week after that, there was no trouble in the pro claimed area the military permit order would be withdrawn.
Faced with this offer, backed by the leaders of bourgeois Limerick and deserted by the national executive, the strike committee began
On the same day as the mayor and the bishop met the sentral remine declared
strike notices were withdrawn for those working within the boundary of the pro claimed area.
There was considerable bitterness and copies of the pro clamation limiting the strike : were torn down. Many talked of a 'second soviet', or just a new strike committee. On :26 April demonstrators • stopped permil holders from crossing a bridge
they were themselves dispersed by the police
As yet only half the strikers had returned but on 27 April the strike was denounced from the pulpit by a Catholic priest. Even without this the strike committee could not resist the pressure. The bishop and mayor had at least some scheme of action; the committee had none.
On 26 April the general strike was declared to be at an end. The next day, except for the bacon factories, the city was back to normal. Seven days later
proclamation was withdrawn. Permits to enter the
covered them were declared unnecessary a week
The Limerick Soviet's defeat, for such was what it was in the long run, had seeds in the nature of the leadership of the struggle - the all-class composi tion of that leadership and the bourgeois nature of it. But this was compounded by the hostility of the trade union and Labour Party bureaucracies both in Britain and in Ireland.
It was the leadership of the
• class movement that betrayed it. This ensured that the Limerick Soviet would not have the place in Irish history that its counterpart in St Petersburg has had in the history of Russia.
workers of Limerick need not apologise for what happened. For two short weeks the
of the Irish workers' republic was raised. A splendid vision it was.
Story of the Limerick by DR O'Connor is available from The Other Bookshop 328 Upper St, London N1. Price 40p plus 20p p&p
Page 8 scan of this page
Defend the nationalised industries
HOMENEWS
By Brian Grogan
'NATONALISED
dustry is bad for workers,
private industry is good.
That's the message
Tories are hammering out
today - and every nation-
alised industry is threaten-
ed.
*The Ferranti
group and the Fairey engineering
firm, . recced том оакоси
the National
Board, are now back in the black:
year, Fairey f5.2m.
Tories have sold them
private investors
prices
*British Rail has been forced
to sell oll some of its notels and
cross-Channel ferries. *Management at the British
Steel Corporation is considering
hiving
Rotherham/Sheffield complex to
ment's borrowing
demands.
"Sections of the health service
are to be sold to private firms.
*The Post Office's monopoly
orustat sorviceis to oc abulsile
ed to allow the private sector to
move in on the profitable opera-
LOUS
*Demands are growing,
cording to the bosses
the gas monopoly'.
The Tories have two things in
By Patrick Sikorski In the first three months of 1980 there were 7,000 redundancies in the Northern Region notified to the Department of Employment, helping to bring the total at 12 June to 142,707 since the same time last year of 24,000.
In the North and South Tyne areas (covering Gateshead, South Shields Jarrow) there has been a rise of 7,700 since last June to over 47,000.
groups ot workers have been particularly badly effected. First women workers: over unemployment among risen 248%! Second, older workers: over half the workers at plants like Adamsez (sanitary ware), Engineering and Vickers Scotswood were over when their factories shut. Their skills obsolete overnight and they found getting new work almost impossible.
The third group are the young,
SCHOOL Newcastle this June 2,455 people left school without a job to go to. 'A phone call to the Newcastle Careers Centre on revealed that there were just two jobs available for them in the whole city - a sales assistant in a butcher's shop and a building labourer's job!
Structural
Decline
The industrial north developed during the latter half nineteenth century when Britain was the most advanced economy in the world Coal mining, shipbuilding and marine engineering were the major growth industries. The peak of the North achievement was in the years before the First World War; export of coal at record levels, the launching of the 'Mauretania' with its turbine engine, the growth of the power generating industry Parson's and the vast production of armaments on Scotswood Road.
Post-war unemployment
international recession brought with crippling unemployme ta ase well ad of staple markets
in wages i employment. The North manufacturing base has never really : recovered.
But both the programme rationalisation by the Government in 1945 and the regional
both parties since have had the same effect. They have allowed the bosses and bankers pull -unprofitable, declining that would need massive investment bie, and they
the
electronics
Enterprise
Result? The
back to
bargain
mind. First, to give their friends in the City some unearned pro-
lucrative campaign tep
campaign . LIaL Haloraised requirement bad because they are nationalis-
Led. 'Bear in mind what you know
advise the Tories.
LudL rampant in these nationalised industries: their history speed-up But the big lie is that these pro. paper, The blems come from the fact that
uncy are nationalisca.
The truth is that dustries into an increase
Newcastle,
and
years,
women has
Tress
were rendered
young
Tuesday 8 July
of the
engineering,
East's
revolutionary
and
private capitalists
workers
Hast industries.
• OI Labour was Labour dawn of a 'new era' in which
be the out of industries reconstruction Cof
FOR
because they are subordinate to the profit system. tney were nanonansca as a step 1n up their political che alise rationalisation workers task for the management of
bankrupt firms out of the red.
It was the same story with the mines and rall. All Enese basic in dustries had Well, it's true because protits weren't enough to convince capitalists to invest their ill-gotten gains in them. The state one of had to bail these industries out. and closures There might be waste and inefficiency in the nationalised sec-
parable to private industry. Betpublic in- ween 1958 and 1968, for instance, difficulties outout per person-rose by on
comehome to roost
West Newcastle may become on
with generous handouts of public money to set up on the modern factories in more profitable
bank
The 1974 manifesto on which
elected heralded the the undamental balance of wealth an ower would be shifted from the ric to the workers. Central to this would
new industrial policy. •The National Enterprise Board funded by North Sea Oil would be the tool of
ARGUMENTS
SOCIALISM
In most cases plans. clectricity by 7.5 pe
has favourable. run down Europe.
of gas for typical is the
Unemployment in Newcastle and the NorthEast
Labour's and workers plans
the first (free) Enter prise Zones' Ane as umpion that ane NOB assumption would act like a workers bank with Tony Benn as 'your friendly loca manager ignoring overdraft, was the result - especially in the North East.
But many workers are now asking whether planning agreements and the NEB were an adequate alternative to full-blooded socialisation. This by no means overcomes the central problem of who is going to control 'process of socialisation' and whose interests: Is it going to be th workers through their owe actron pr
ment.
fits.
industries in the first
the railways
compensation
into losses. four per cent in British manufac- Find £200m turing as a whole; in the nation payments.
40 IC cent, in the mines by 6 per cent, in
it, and in DIUlIt, DRONSTONS been even more Today production per person in BSC is the highest in
overboard capitalism.
These rates have been achieved despite the fact that nationalised industries have always subsidised the private sector. ICI, for example, has a contract for gas by economy. which it will receive £110m worth
mere-f20m. More
ment's demand that the nation-
÷ Health and Safety Acts will not be binding managers appointed NCB industry or banking?
Even doesn't even mention the only way the this can be done successfully from the workers' point of view occupations against •M25S labour However what it does signify is that a growing number of stewards realise that in practice the NEB acted from lay one like a merchant bank wit the only commercial considerațion: in mind. +• The a Vicker's - Committee produced one of the most
alised industries make massive
public sector borrowing require-
This will allow the Tories closures Lo: couce laxalul u brivalc 1' dustry and thus boost their pro-
Furthermore the owners responsible for bankrupting these
place are capitalism. still receiving compensation: 101 example, the former owners of
are still receiving Even where nothing isn't interest charges on loans to the agreements banks rapidiv turn trading protits
. This year BSC has to for
1o delena the nationalised sector we have to reject the logic
socialists challenge. inner workers control. Above all this means using the nationalised sector to plan
speed, woe economy the anarchy of
To do this we need to extend nationalisations, taking over the top 80 firms that dominate our
Then, by taking over cooks ane mace louses it would be possible to plan in- industries vestment according to need and
famous concerned with 200 will • Vickers'
more
poured (formerly
not only industries
social services
on the Tyne,
wellare services,
the civil service and being
from private stewards importantly this effectively as
- through closures and job; to movement action. immediately
that the
Combin
In this situation the scandal of
the closure of whole steel works
costing tens of millions of pounds
would be ended. For such waste
taking
decisions based on the anarchy of
the pronts system as such. in
unemployement, lay and overcapacity are typica
or tre wide есоноу This Is
what we have to attack: the
subordination of the nationalised
104(
Such a proposal for workers'
control and workers' plans has
in common with Tony for His proposals,
which leave the core sections of
"forget' one fact: profits are the
be all and end all of capitalism.
Workers' control is a total counterposes the
plan to capitalist anarchy; and at
lactory level it puts in the hands
of workers the decisions over line
hiring and firing,
number of hours worked. It is a
policy that ensures that workers
not profits benefit from advances
in new technology
tion. It means sharing the work «lu aulola
with no loss of pay.
This is the framework within
which defence of the nationalised
against the ,Tories
shoule benrance lis a keytasi
for every militant
of the worker's the alternatives of producing Chieftain tanks. But well. produced pamphlets are no substitute for class struggle. 750 jobs have gone from the Vickers Scotswood Rd. 350 jobs will be lost this August at the Vickers Elswick plant and another
go this September. The case also conclusively gives the lie to the Thatcher argument that more profit automatically leads
investment and more : jab
Government and EEC aid was
into Vickers-Michell Michell Bearings), However far from any signs of the 700 new jobs promised by Vickers, 54 jobs have actually been lost from Michells over the past 2 years.
The government cash limits have
forced the nationalised to cut jobs to meet profitability targets but prevented the
from expanding soak up unemployment. Over the last 10 years thousands of young workers
who previously would have gone into apprenticeships, have found employment in education and
the University and the Polytechnic, in the hospitals or in
More than a quarter of Newcastle workers are in these services today. But now the cuts have dried up this source entirely and while there have
been no compulsor redundancies, 1400 Civil Service job will go in the North in the next two years through "natural wastage".
The latest government recipe for solving the unemployment situatior
industry the Tory's Enterprise Zone' proposal. I is the logical Tory conclusion of pas government policy, The proposal is to create inner city zones where no 'restrictive legislation' like the Healtt and Safety Acts will be binding it order to attract small business and create jobs. It is possible that West Newcastle may be the first area to be declared a "(free) Enterprise Zone'
Workers have to reject this returr to the Dickensian sweat shop as wel as rejecting the pie in the sky stit
peddled by the Labour lefts o the NEB, planning agreements and workers' plans which embroil the
in participation sas any formal 'Leyland type' participation plan
The fight for jobs has to be wage as a direct struggle to protect every
get a 35-hour week sharing the work with no loss of pate first fighting for fall pay during lay-ofk and short-time and to occupy agains closure threats and finally to demang
next Labour government nationalises, under workers contre all the basic industries, threater
Page 9 scan of this page
«We must liberate shall surely win"
By Lars Palmgren CLARITA is coming back from the river and tells me that her father will return soon. 'Water?' she asks, and gives me the pitcher she has been carrying on her head.
While I'm drinking, me about the teacher is afraid of us. we, 'who are in the Bloque (BRPBloque Popular Revolutionario), are subversive and that we only ourselves to blame...
We are sitting in the shadow of the trees in front of her clayhouse. Clarita is 14. She has eight brothers and sisters. Celisindo, works as a day-labourer in the sugarcane fields, which stretch out in front of the house.
The crop is ready now.
'It's us and the five nearest houses who are organised,' continues. 'But in these houses over there are squealers.'
Clarita is little. She she's ten, but sounds as if she is 18.
Celisindo comes up river, sweaty from having fast. On his back is a small rucksack. WOrK material,' he pointing towards the rucksack. walks into the house, to put his shoes on. Vulcano
Behind the sugar-cane fields, on the other side of the river, the terrain rises steeply. To the vulcano Guazapa. It looks cooler up there.
'Are you ready?' Celinsido asks. He is already on his way down to the river, marching quickly. I run after him. They told me come to realise how true it is - that I shouldn't walk in the countryside on my oWl. So Celisindo chosen to walk with me.
He belongs to the (Federacion Trabajadores Campo, an organisation affiliated to the BPR), like most of the peasants and agricultural workers who live in the areas we are going to visit.
On the other side of the river we " start to climb. Celinsindo walks fast. When we reach the first plateau my mouth is dry and my drenched with sweat.
Celinsindo indicates harvested fields. "They only let lease the fields for six months. rest of the time they let their animals graze on the rest of what we have sown,' he tells me.
We walk for hours, occasionally taking a rest in the shade. We pass a spring ana ine Celisindo explains things but I don't have the energy to listen. leave the discussion till later. We still have a few hours of walking ahead of us.
'Can you see down Celisindo asks, as we finally reach our desination. houses without roofs?'
can Just make shadow in the green nod to him. *It was the first house they burned down,' he starts walking down.
Fire
Suddenly 'lae houses appear in front of us.
Grey-brown. the same colour as the ground, we arrive at La pava canton of Buenavista. Don Felipe meets us front of us into the burned houses. "They collected everything that could burn around here and set fire to it,' he says.
There are no more than 15 houses in La Pava. They were all burnt out. The villagers only had time to save a few. Five were burned down to the ground.
"They also set the maize crop on fire, Don Felipe explains, shows us the charred maize which lays spread out on the ground, mixed with the smashed bricks.
Everyone in La Pava knows now that we are in the village. standing in a ring in an open space in front of Don Felipe's house.
'It's now two weeks ago,' Don Felipe tells us. "When we heard the helicopters coming we went up into the mountans. "they came from three directions. Garcia
have
her father,
looks like
from the walked
explains, He
El Salvador.
right is the
and I have
has been
FTC del
clothes are
the newly
us The
great.
We have to
there?'
you see the
out a black vegetation and
says, and and walks in
Don Felipe
ana ne gringos joined them.
left again.'
We are Most people in
was with
THE revolution in Nicaragua just a year ago could shortly be followed by the overthrow of the tyrannical regime that rules its neighbour in Central America,
The junta in El Salvador stays in power by means of bullets. Thousands of rebellious workers and peasants them as a guide. He lives down there.
helicopter They • only stayed for a short while before they
La Pava own a little piece of land, but it is so small that it is totally insufficient to live on. And Some people don't have any land at
i " 'Him there,' Don Felipe points at a man. 'He has now only the clothes
Is wearing. They burned down
The revolution in El Salvador
ourselves... we
destroyed. liberation - death Clarita everything he had...'
But why? What did they say?
What did they want? And why did they destroy the houses?
With a voice as calm as the earth • we walk on Don Felipe says: want to spread the terror among us. when they can't destroy the people they destroy the houses and the crops.
For the past seven years most • people up here have been organised They have never received anything.
have been murdered. Villages have been burned to the ground and crops
One such attack was on the village of La Pava in the Buenvista canton of El Salvador. LARS PALMGREN recently visited the village. This is his report. Don Felipe knows that he has only one
For three years now they always sleep up in the mountains at night. 'A group of five people stay to guard the place,' somebody explains 'But we always sleep together in large groups. You see, "They next village, while they slept. So now we must stay A week previously the governing great, extensive revolutionary land great, extensive reform, according to the information to the press
believe in
under our feet. 'We
system,
The Don
Felipe's house.
ourselves,' they
Death like that.
Just
men and women , not
While
come back
organisation.'
long,' I say. lower rents, demanded
reform. anything?'
around us
'We
ternative to Calm
the archbishop
places
of the abandoned.
over there in the we have...? they killed five people
. revolutionary
official
'No,' says Don Felipe, 'we don't
anything they say. They have promised so much and the only burned down rectivedes around us thing we have received is this...
The carbonized maize crunches
ILIS liberate ourselves here, 'he adds. 'We must create a new
system exploitation. As the people are united now, we shall surely win. We think that other people will support us..?
pigs are grunting around us. Felipe's cock CrOWS.
Anxious birds cause a rustle in the trees. The 50 inhabitants of La Pava are standing together outside Don
'We are certainly going to liberate
say. "Those killers must be punished'.
For Don Felipe and his 50 comrades there is only one alternative to liberation — to die in struggle. It's not simply their words which make me understand that. It's their voices. Only somebody who already knows has such a voice. Only people who have made up their minds can talk
before dusk we arrive at Tresceibas. A few hundred members of the agricultural labour union
— are sitting under a giant tree. In front of them on the open space there are ruins of the old schoolhouse, which was earlier also used as a meeting place.
'Last time they came was a week ago,' says one of them, 'but we were
There. We always forewarned. But this time someone wasn't able to keep up with us when
into the mountains. helicopters circled ENG soldiers caught up with him and shol him in the head. They said they will
fortnight. They want to get hold of all of us, all the organised. They want to destroy our
'You have been fighting for so
«You have demanded better prices, you have agrantal retorms, 4l10 they have passed a law of agrarian
Doesn't that mean
His smile is the same as Don Felipe's. The others are sitting quiet
They know what he is going to say: No, here we don't accept anything of that. The agrarian reform is a bluff. They are just trying to feed us with hopes...but we know what it's all about.
know that they will never side with the people . We know tha! it's only after we have liberated ourselves that we can start to talk about agrarian or any other reform.
And will they defend themselves?
'We know that they are trying to work out new plans of attack. The intend to come from all directions, as they know we are always. warned, but we will get around them somehow: It will come one day.'
There is no reason for them to tell me their plans. It's enough to let me know that they are prepared, and that they will find a way out... When dusk comes we will walk up into the mountains. People will be left behind to guard the place.
In San Salvador, the capital, in
backyard murdered there are 300 homeless families of agrarian workers. They have been forced to run away from their homes and their land. In other
around the city there another couple of thousands. Some
cantons are completely
This is what the regime aims to do with the 500 families in Tresceibas force them from their homes. 'But we won't leave. We will find a way. will not let them take away the littk
Their calmness in the night makes my heart beat normally again. Not even the mosquitos will now be able to disturb my sleep.
is laken from "Internationalen', the newspaper of •the Swedish section of the Fourth
ist Challenge 25 July 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
time and time again by taking up 'The Socialist Revolution in China not only liberated women from Japanese imperialism and
WHAT'S LEFT
Per for the ther l efficiency are. Phone Criss on some artistic Or Mornin to retire force in ops
WITHDRAW the army of occupation from
at the Court. 26 July, noor at stake.. A series of
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Polytechnic students he Mander Certre
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Ties * The Other Book Shop from
Special prepublication of-
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Book Shop 328 Upper Street, London
Socialist Challenge 25 July 1980 Page 10
the rise in Western Europe.
Jill Tweedie, putting for-
tions set women back in last
seems to have succumbed to
the propaganda.
Iran is no exception in restric-
ting women's freedom according to
onialism in Algeria
back into purdah; Portuguese col-
cumcision didn't; the oil profits of
Saudi Arabia have placed women
benna closca doors. riter, Lenin, and the IRA alike all sold out on
¡neocure is crystal clear. Patriarchy rules world
Women have no interest in socialist revolunon. vien will always sell them down the river.
Western eyes
world entirely from her own Dosi. tion as a well-educated professional
woman living in Britain. The only
oppression she chooses to identify
own separating sexual oppression from national domination and class exDOPTIOn anti-communist worldview is developed.
China
Compare the position of one.
eighth of the world's females today in China with their position a century ago. The socialist that took place in China not onl iberated women trom tamine and Japanese imperialism it also ended the barbaric tradition of foot bin-
No sual acmevement our one completely ignored by Tweedie:
Since the fall of the Somoza dic-
Nicaragua women's organisation Ampronac, the Association of Women
has transformed itself from women into a mass organisation. It DOES Western
that they must be careful not to
assume that their priorities can b une sane as wonen colonel ane semi-colonial countries.
'Our call pointed to the need for women to yom te struggle for a free country; without hat population we could not talk of a sentent popular
One women's wee would not satisfy the big international feminist movements because it gave greater emphasis to the general struggle of our people for a LECC CHLY. real needs of Nicaraguan women who understand that
participation in the construction of a new Nicaragua'
Imperialist domination is no loke for women. The high levels of prostitution and illegitimacy were well known South Bangkok today is notorious as a centre for prostitution. Sexual exploitation has always been a part of
the Third World have expressed their hatred of foreign domination
arms and fighting imperialism -
Vietnam, Korea. • Cuba. Mozambi-
Guinea Bissau, Ireland
Rights
National oppression holds back womn's emancipation and women are continually propelled into confronting imperialist domination in tnese countries
By talking of Hitler and Lenin in the same breath Jill Tweedie denderately tres to obscure the ditferences between a socialist revolution and
and the implications for women.
Hitler, in line with his attitudes of racial persecution, domination, and extreme class exploitation, indeed banned tracephon women), crushed the women's movement, wone lo produce camor occe for the rising German Empire
The Nationa Movement' was, as Goebbels explamed in 1934 in its nature a masculine movement', based as it was on the most backward ideas of the petty-bourgeoisie in a capitalist sor But Levin leiia revolution
But Lenin Wilco overthrew capitalist ploitation in Russia in Bolsheviks ended the Russian par ticipation in the First World War, carried out agrarian reforms, na tonalised all the major industries, and instituted workers control.
INTERNATIONAL
women wide. cludes them out.
view the right-wing,
forgotten.
sex. By
Bolsheviks reneged on
was too much and too soon.
later Jill "HerdMothers"."
Jill Tweedie
Coll
60
• Tennist
the
I ne the pillar of
Vietnam
•Women in
Zimbabwe, The Bolsheviks did not simply
They passed some of the most advanced reforms the seen.on this issue.
men and women to live 'unregistered'
IcHaliscu homosexuality
COLLICE
Kolonel. 'cabinet to organise to fight fo imperialist
as in 1925 to Con Aryan anmony luna to protect single
German women
forced falling
Socialist
ex1917: The
'MANY women have come to the conclusion that change, whether in the guise of modernisation, revolution, or a new nationalism, inevitably conspires against them or in-
Whatever heap there is, they say, we end up at the bottom of it. Whether the men in power are
left-wing or dead
'THERE is nothing new about this and nothing peculiarly
In the years before the Russian revolution, women were promised equal rights, even the sharing of child-care and love without marriage. Women fought and died in their thousands for Lenin and the communist
But after the storming of the Winter Palace, childcare 'rejection of the family' and 'petit-bourgeois
Alexandra Kollontai protested but it did her no good. The women of the new Soviet state were saddled with the familiar responsibilities, the familiar identity. Ten years
Stalin, famine, it also ended the barbaric tradition of foot binding. No small achievement....
Tor women and men should draw up their own marriage contracts to : world has ever men to take more responsio tv to , Thev made mar. domestic labour.
LUC were
Soviet
democracy se the the ton of
women's liberation but the party
Pressive eaten
Women in Action/Women Fightback
Saturday 26 July, 11pm, Lucas Pub, Gray's Inn Rd, WC1.
All supporters of Women in Action and Women's
Fightback invited to attend to discuss the details of the
merger between the two journals decided on at the re
cent Women's Fightback Conference held in Birmingham. For copies of Women in Action proposals please contact Judith Arkwright on 01-359 8371
WOMEN AND
REVOLUTION
centre, our needs are
Kings.
Louise communard
5 K
She also suggested that women
linked to encourage economic ment
Ted these ather nervous spy
dustrialisation.
who
political
by
with position because
people
hands.
For troube Tweedie to offer feminist Dach
weal
battle 'IN rebellion alone woman is at ease, trampling upon both prejudice and suffer-
Michel, writing after the Paris Commune of 1871
struggle
struggle
enemy is
so hated
the munity culal
une posinon or women in society 1s
the general leve of and political develop An economy liar is nerves dependent on agriculture cannot be Ine judged by western standards of in-
freedom not vel wiped out illiteracy completely but it has abolished famine and starva tion and given the vast bulk of its population work, which is far more than any semi-colonial country that Has nut cubarac on a planned economic development can do
Neither is it possibly to look at
development through Western eyes. Khomeini,
sections the bourgeoisie in Iran. is attemptins to establish an Islamic regime
Then pithin that thomeries
strong anti-imperialist feeling of the Iranian
and their memory of the autocratic regime of the Shah he does not have an easy job on his
The Kurdish freedom fighters who demand the right to run their own country are causing him a lot
wilal advice nas Jil emergent movement in Iran? Go to me progressive reame o the Shah where a tiny section of the paign, female population were allowed to
Value and bulk of the female population was kept illiterate and in poverty? That will make feminism very. sobuld
among the Iranian masses today!
No The greatest allies of
women in Iran today are the Kur:
dish freedom fighters and factory
workers who refuse to be cowed by
Khomeini. Only by seeing the link
between sexual, national, and class
oppression in Iran today i will it be
possible to defeat the reactionary
ther the cause of feminism. The
Tweedie's will be cas but figh Jill
'patriarchy' worse than
useless. It tells women nothing about where support can be found for a difficult struggle.
Battle
Jill Tweedie makes one point, and only one, that cuts any ice
"Changing women's lives mean men losing their identity. says a young member or sinn rein interviewed in the article. He thinks
it's not possible to ask IRA fighters to and defeat British imperialism at
same time. Women the Republican
WHO JIl didn't bother to interview, have a different idea however.
They are beginning to organist and discuss out feminist issues and at a recent conference discussed a wide range of feminist issues in cluding abortion, sexual harass. ment, contraception, nursery provision, and sexual stereotyoing.
It is true that traditional values and culture die hard. In Ireland Catholicism reinforces male pre judices in the Republican tradition. In Iran, Islamic ideology strong hold on the movement that over new use oran women can not wait for national liberation and socialism confront male preTudice. inal nas to be cone as lot battle goes on.
Negative
More and more women are drawing this themselves. Not only in the West, not only in the semi-colonial coun
women
Jill Tweedie wants women to draw a negative balance shee socal ciance one moles concunt
against Dalllarcus primary and that all other social chance s superca oi women Men are the main focus for her attack. She deliberately tries to confuse women about who the main
Sexual oppression cannot be
from other forms • of domination world have Women throughout
wecales view Women in semi-colonial countries are not confused. They know that Imperialism nas to de booted our or their country if they are to be treated as human beings
neca ine mass women in Britain today - for com
nurseries, decent wages, opportunity, lo independence from men - - cannot be satisfied without confronting class exploradon wach uses women a: an easily dispensible labour force.
Jill Tweedie does not talk of the women of the Paris Commune, the women m une Kussian revoldon
actions of women today in Nicaragua fighting for their
She pessimistic view of their past and of their future. I wonder why?
VALERIE COULTAS
50p
WOMEN IN
NICARAGUA
THIS new pamphlet, produced by
Nicaragua Solidarity Cam-
SHOWS SnOw revolution can alter women's lives
# revolution taking place in
today available at 50p. plus p&p from 20, Compton Terrace, London NI.
Page 11 scan of this page
LETTERS
Repression in
Greece
THE Greek Government is conducting a campaign of repression aramist tac revoluuonary Ici. d group of five, independent far left militants have been arrested at Hamia. Crete. They include the journalist George Economeas, and Alexandra and G Lagadinos.
Others arrested recently include:
*Leonidas Christakis, 52, editor of the review Ideodromio, accusca or sellng up icirorisi groups;
*Nikos Ntalos, 20, Alex Triandariou. zu. t serans, 10, A Palilou, 20, accused of having set up an anarchist group at Iste:
possession of anarchist books, and of having participated in minoe crates wacc ticy sus ported libertarian positions;
*John Miras, 18, Constantin Stamatiou, 19, Dimitrios Mourikas, 21, accused of having. formed an anarchist group in Chalkida (Isle of cuboea). being in possession of such books as Listen, Little Man by Reich;
*John. Mpouketsides, 24, accused of having set fire to the fiscal archive at Nicea The only proo onerea was tnat ne nad long hair like the person seen running away from the fire. He was Sava cly torturcu by tulce policemen under the direction of John Gianoulis, a torturer who operated under the Colonels' regime.
In the prisons, Kyriakos Kassaliades and several other ondes are suler arca deprivations. In Corfu prison recently the autonomist Scandalis PARn eCRo mayorotesico against prison conditions; his health is now definitely ruined.
Palte ame sora avrus were
entenced to nine and five years for possession of Molotor •* er cy WELC planted on them, Sofia is ill after
cing given massive doses of drugs on the
psychiatrist Malatoes, while Philip
very ill after a hunger strike
LEC MALMOS COLC GALIS m oco re oc o tion, while Philip Kgziksis and Bouketsides, anarchist militants, have been tortured.
The trial will begin soon of 14.
UNDER REVIEW
By Hazel Mcpherson and Tommy Cusack
THE other day we went to see a Hungarian film called Angi Vera at the Gate Cinema. cinema full of love for the film directed by Pal Gabor.
By portraying the between Hungarian Party members at a 12-week cadre school in 1948 — when Europe was in tumult aftér the Second World War - Gabor gives us an insight into the nature of Eastern block
The bureaucrats are there, right from the beginning But so are the workers Heroes .ine resistance miners, soldiers and women workers the flower of the Hungarian proletariat in d zve en ce ceron ve cos Some, like the 18-year-old Angi
acuuci alcIy selected militancy: A RO1 Vera.s
• denunciation coraiuls her hospital ant treatment the patients receive.
Peacocks
: ne rarty bureaucrats in tne mum were generally well-dressed males who strutted
bout like peacocks But the film drew a sharo divide between them and the bourgeoisie by giving, at the
beginning of the film, the old ruling class in the PCISUI airecior or lne nospilai wnose. dearing. manner and status showed him to be the geruine article. The director would have been eclaiv a1 nome on t.e ox o. r
while the would be more at home on the top table oi a trade union conterence
Two women at the school struggle for Angi Vera's allegiance. One, nagema worker. wno reves in ner own excality and the companionship of the Jest of the women. She continually defies MERA dee oreReo soerener owt
ersonality Wę learn later that she ha
so been an organiset of laad seizures a
militants who have been accused without a shred of evidence of having killed the debutv chief of the riot police. A striking contrast, this, to the trial going on at •resen oriwo porcenen accuser of killing Spzidou Spyzopoulos in 1978: the policemen fell in the path of their bullets. sc it was his own tauf!
Please send letters of protest to the Greek Embassy, la Holland Place, London W1l. Say you were going to take a holiday in Greece this year but will no longer do so Please inform the prisoners that you have sent a letter by conTORREN KOS KROls Democritou, 21, Metamorfosis, Athens, Greece.
RON ALLEN, International Secretary, Libertarian Communist Group, London.
An open letter
to the anti-
racist, anti-
and of fascist
movement
WE are very disturbed that a National Front demonstration of over 1,500 marched through central London on Sunday 15 (the anniversary of the death of Kevin Gately) using an 'antiArab' platform.
Their demonstration was dominated by the presence of skin-head youths chanting: 'Blair Peach's body lies Lic clave. alu c rront cocs marching on.
The Anti Nazi League countermobilisation did not take place Only a handful of isolated antifascists witnessed this appalling spectacle.
We therefore feel bound to say this …... it will not do! Despite the spits and defeats suffered bv the extreme right, the evidence is clearly suggesting that the National Front fand the British Movement) are beginning to regroup their forces.
I ol vIcw we are tun witnessing a new variation on the old theme they've gone away.
We believe that a more serious response is needed. Some commitWe left the
relationships
countries
moverenl.
Vera, for their case of the working
the
in pin-striped suits:
of of the over Hungary.
school's leaders dictate. bureaucrats • Ine omer io ra.
hero the nevertheless been weight bt ne Maria, is an
other W.UCH
(a. journalist!):
BAD
TASTE
claim that he mcIL lo osvosr luc danonr Front is not a luxury in the fight against the Tories. It is absolutely uccosa. IL SIcur adere this point needs to be made at all.
CLIVE GILSON and VAL WHEELER, Joint Secretaries, Anti-racist, Anti-fascist Committee
On Unity
I READ the article 'End the Scandal of Disunity' (3 July) with some bemusement. In my union, he ura memoers orine mier. national Marxist Group operate within the Broad Left and look upon Redder build an independent rank and file organisation with a certain oisoriln In the NUT we have the Socialist Teachers Alliance, aobaranl SC counter-position to Rank and File Teacher a mouldering in Don't you think grand calls ior organisatonai unily are a bi premature when the IMG doesn't seem to share the SWP's assessment of the way forward for revolutionaries in the trade ulOHs !
Building an independent rank and file organisation is no mere example of 'the current tactical line of the SWP leadership'. It embodies a strategic conception oi the road to workers power.
If you understand and support this conception frequently should begin by instructing your rapp anes le brin tha appro rinte and therebv alaving many swº.comrades' suspicions about the IMG, and making an important imAngi Vera does well at the cadre school.
Her distrust the leadership makes her severely rebuke Vera Party ubot oue cassae or cr laye and uncritical acceptance of everything accused
ae oura ista
resistance who emittered by the oWn. sacrisces 1oi Trajan feels her separation from the life of the workers acutely. She enves mne colecuve domtory. asuusice by a conversation about sex among the
La 'deviation' among the proletarian and peasant women which she
'denonces petit- Vera, ponders
bodies.
whining!
Kensington
Leamington Boycott
Boycott?
interview (3 July) concenne deon sovcol.
Boycott.
Tape's struggle to
Gooch is an éxample.
50 spread over us u eclec aic lilal a Mal tu ect liu ol!
Mr ames'
adopt 'extremist
openers.
Bovcott
history
an article about the CPSA as your paper "SUL
organisation,
anti-abortion Bill
The life and no soul of the Party
bourgeois! A determined follower of the
leadership, teaches oculay dl old SOCIal accusen the co ansis. the
and Socialist Party.
nyse ecoce ber*e o lovers, both married men with children. Neubauer, a miner who with his comrades sant iwo wee su us mre nour hao An presa ve cher an er ea cher at he schooli on, aad the reaction, been a Party member since his first vear a University.
Their attitudes to Vera are different, The miner, in openly revealing his lave for
why a communist can't
provement in the work of these
If you don't, then stop
PAUL CRAWFORD, North CLR James spoils an admirable couldn't help
by his remarks •OUDCLY CLE.
He says: 'I would get rid of
He just demoralises the es o une tennac any English batsmen have benefited greatly from opening innings under une quaane or bovcol al test and country level. Graham
anything they
Nole aso ual boycoll nas al average test score of just under
• 91 matches. Is for • radical pollical stance is fine; but he should not
positions on the subject of one of England's great
DAVID WRIGHT, London
Hidden from
gays
A FEW weeks ago you publisher
members at Brixton unemployment tenen once wro anve bee sacked for union activities, one of these activities being their atten
USA •ne oe y obov o Parliament' against the Corrie
Readers may well think this is
cance his life 'Why to married?' asks the TaSe Vi worker. unificațion The teacher on the other wants to seeo wiln vera wale ds amay is away, never questions his own marriage depressed by eraraon .ION course which he clearly sees as invitable.
Vera chooses the away wo ms room l u night. Trajan is persuaded to turn a blind eye to the affair because Andre is after all a teacher. Maria, who thinks Angi Vera is nes cramera activities and forces Angi Vera to retur,
328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON N1
HEY COULI START a trifling exercise, but I hasten to point out that the event - the
biggest Lobby of the Trousers of Parliament for ten vears. it wa trull rumoured, and an important part of one of the biggest defeats of a ¡ory bonc so fal - was ortono ed by the Campaign Against the Corrie Bill and co-sponsored by the SE Region of the TUC
sEkI ul was quite nonesi from the start about how it
pay the bills, do • Its support was ob viously very welcome, , but let's be quite clear about what even the SE Region's banner representec on the platform.
Can Socialist Challenge really pe somenuo conse me rou with a feminist campaign? Don't women ever get the credit for
ev onee ! think that such a mistake would encourage any tendency towards COHoe Cerc lir on fighting for full abortion rights
We may be hidden from history, but the Lobby of Parliament was only five months ago... JAN PARKER, London SW8
Castro's
persecution of
SOCIALIST Challenge quite rightly played its part in exposing the lies, hysteria, and hypocrisy produced by the ruling class and its press around the recent exodus of refugees from Cuba to the
It is the duty of all revolu'tionaries to defend Cuba unconditionally against imperialist attacks
La second time
worker
the course. down
'How dar UKC leaders Vera
tries to shut her
itself.
Prize
fine car.
to enenew establish the
Angi Vera will afready-maried cal l
hand only September the thought London; Cinema,
vera i neen oI ane
and steals maue or une Tyneside RFT.
three days only. ust Challen
• HEL! NG CF THUL THAT THIS COUNTRY! of any type But it is also the duty of revolutionaries to always tell the • in this case. as was widely reported in the bourgeois press, the fact that a high percentage of • relusccs are gay Why should gays want to leave Castro's Cuba? Is it beacause, as Castro claimed when whipping u acabaan aernst laene unev are petty bourgeois degenerates or criminals like many of the other Heusees The real answer is different, although one searches the revolu. GORdy Des un vall lo imla ll Gay people are oppressed by the Castro regime: persecuted, driven mom Joos, Preventca nont meeting, denounced as degenerates, imprisoned .We know that they will not find their lot any better in the capitalist world, but it is not realsnosu tuat many ur lich should identify socialism with oppression If gays are to be won to the net ror socausu ane sunt to build a revolutionary party, it is vital that revolutionaries support une strumae o arv pove or their rights and against repression both in the capitalist countries and in all the workers' states.
PERTER PURTON, Oxford
IMG and Gay. Activists Alliance
STOP
• CRUISE
MISSILES
to her bed when she tries to sneak out for
The day of self-criticism at the end of the course brings events to a head. One
after another publicly humiliated for daring to raise criticisms of
peasant women breaks in tears. veteran defender of the 919 Council of Republics is denounced Maria bravely speaks out in his defence
• you speak to an old comrade • Chalcuce Party
alone is singled out for praise But at this point she breaks down anc confesses her liaison with Andre. Trajan
up but fails. Andre not ony con rus vera s duilission Dul coc on to denonce the self-criticism process
Vera coolly denies this, , suggesting it was Andre s autority sne lovea.
Next day there is a new teacher and Vera, at the end of the course, receives a prize...ana a job as a Journalist
The final scene of the film sees Trajan and Vera leaving the school together in a
On the road they pass a lon figure huddled on a bicycle riding against the wind. It is Maria, on the way no doubt
overturns property Hungarian workers state. more than a windshield and a car door moe ha a snee accl that separates them. Maria does not hear.
be shown around Britain on the following dates Week beginning 31 August - Unit 4 Manchester: 7 September - Screer on the Green, Islington, London; 14
Ritzy Cinema Zarito * october Chapter Cardiff; Birmingham Arts Lab; 2 November
Lancaster RFT; 9 November
These are all one-week bookings except for Chapter Cinema, Cardiff, and Lancaster RFt which are for
25 duly 19
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Socialist Cnallenge BLACK YOUTH ORGANISE AGAINST RACIST MURDER
By Ken Glanfield At 4pm last Thursday, Ahktar Ali Baig, chartered accountant, out of the Halifax Building Society in High Street, Northeast Ham. A moment later he lay dead, killed by a single stab wound to the heart. skinheads have been charged with his murder.
The reaction in the Asian community was immediate. By early evening over hundred gathered at the scene of the murder shouting Death to fascism' and 'Kill, kill, kill the skins'. They marched on Forest Gate police station, where the skinheads were being held.
The youth called for a demonstration on Saturday and marched back to East Ham declaring Self-defence is the only way'.
On Friday over TARAN were distributed black people and anti-racists to join the march.
That evening the black formed the Newham ment to demand: 'Don't organise', 'Here to stay here to fight', 'Self-defence is no offence" and SUS must go'.
On Saturday at 2.30pm 1,500 people set out from Plashet Park led by the new movement.
Anger
The mood was very militant, with the black youth and Asian community in tron or we march, ronowed Dy Ford workers, local trades unionists, Labour MPs Ron Leighton and Nigel Spearing, the local NUT, and antiracist organisations.
At the top of the High Street racist abusé was shouted at the march from the upper windows of a house. youth responded to the police indifference by attempting to enter the house to stop the racists. The police stepped in and made four arrests.
It was at this point that the anger of the black youth came to fore.
The march halted at Forest Gate police station. It was going no further until the four people arrested were released.
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It Office as a nowspa
the youth, and Mr Kadri of the Stand-
Pakistani
arrested.
made. per, Rublished by Cardinal Enterprisen fpr Socialit
Organisations went into the police station to negotiațe.
Outside the anger mounted, the road remained closed, more arrests were made.
After nearly two hours the police gave an undertaking to release those
The march moved off on its way to West Ham police station where the murder inquiry was now centered. Suddenly the way was barred by a cor. don of police and more arrests were
The march broke out of the cordon to return to East Ham, picking up more people on route. It was now over two thousand strong.
Five people had now been releas ed, but 29 arrests had been made and no more were being released.
It was now 6.10pm and the march gat down at the crossroads in Easi Ham to protest at the arrests and the non-release of their black and white brothers and sisters. After 15 minutes the march made its way back to the
of the murder, more it sat in silence and then listened as prayers were said.
For the Newham Youth Move ment, the campaign has only just begun.
In the words of Mr Kadri: 'The police said "Have a go. Catch your assailants". We must have a go and organise our own defence.
«The mosques and temples must provide the money to do so. All black people must become involved against racist attacks wherever thy happen.'
much larger protest planned for August 2nd.
The killing of Ahktar Ali Baig is the latest racist murder in follows that of Gurdip Singh Chag
gar Whitechapel, Michael Ferreira.
where once supported
governments.
The
One was Plashet assaulting threatening teachers.
being
Britain. It
all anti-racists. 323/9 Upper Street, London N1. Printed by East End Offset Ltd(TU), London E2.,
in Southall, Altab Ali in and Ishaq Ali and
They are just some of the victims of the racism in British society, which is backed up by the immigration laws
by Labour •Tory
practical effects of these racist laws and the prevailing ideas about white superiority can be seen in the activities of the skinheads who are being held for the latest murder.
allegedly excluded from school East Ham for . All Asian pupil and black and Jewish
They had openly shown their su
ort for the National Front and tl British Movement.
All these are reasons to make sure
campaign in East London has the fullest support from
← Socialist Challenge No. 156, 17 July 1980Socialist Challenge No. 158, 31 July 1980 →