Socialist Challenge No. 159, 7 August 1980
The scan: sc-n159-aug-07-1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge FASCIST CARNAGE IN 'RED BOLOGNA'
FASCIST terrorists planted the bomb which last Saturday killed people at Bologna railway station.
On Friday four fascists were indicted in Bologna for a bombing attack on a train tour years previously. The attack on the railway station was fascists reply. On Monday millions of workers went on strike to demonstrate against the attack.
For over a decade Italy has been racked with an acute economic and Donucal CrIsIs. the Mol, nas tens or inousands or supporters and gets over a million votes al electrons.
Among some sectons of te middle class, and the well-heeled sons and daughters of the establish-
fascism Nostalgia for the days of Mussolini and the cream autoritarian society pervades the Tar neu
Target
Bologna is a natural target for the fascists. For years the town has
cil. Since the late ' 60s the Italian fascists have been carrying out acts onuscrimate terror as vart ol their so-called 'strategy of tension'.
In 1969 they killed 16 people and injured 81 in an attack on a Milan bank. Since then there have neen numerous bombings ana assassimanons
The strategy of tension is a campaign of indiscriminate terror aim. ed at creating a climate of fear and
OTOYOKIY military coup, aided by the fascists.
The fascist groups in Italy have
sympathisers in the upper echelons of the army. But over the past decade have become weaker. Every time the fascists threatened to become force, as in Reggio Calabria in the SOLE of the organised strength of the Italian labour movement has thrown them
Tension
Unfortunately, the 'strategy of tension' has been given a new lease of life by the activities of the 'Red Brigades'. Responding reacuer and class tionism of the communist rar the most right-wing in Europe sections of the left have taken to armed struggle.
Their actions, which have in-
75 the vegue.
and industrialists, but also on trade unionists, nave allenated the vas majority of the working class. The! nave aiso maue it much more ul huge ficult for the far left
whom reject Red Brigade tactics -
Any ne paraes or me status quo the Christian Democrats and the Communist Party gained.
The attack on the railway station at Bologna will be used by the CPI and the
state repression against terrorism. Already a
the reigr
deans sectons or une len
The Italian left should reject calls for more state Only the mass workers movemen can deen ine fascists; the left must stick to its "Neither with the state, SIUCAE cuced nor oniv auacks on uaves y nor the ceo sriondes.
most of
have
Christian Democrats
of terror exists
the
All out West Brom 17 Aug boost
MASSIVE -support building up for the counter-mobilisation against National Front's August demonstration West Bromwich.
The National Front has been going through a torrid time recently. has suffered. splits and defections, not least that of its erstwhile Führer, John Tyndall.
order to try to its flagging support the Front is holding a demonstration in West Bromwich on the theme *British jobs for British
workers'
The fascists are attempting to cash in on the soaring unemployment the West Midlands by pretending that black
WOrKerS al C causing it.
The truth of course is that black workers, especially the youth, are the hardest hit by the economic recession and Tory policies which are causing unemployment.
wide-spread support for the counter-demonstration called by the ANL. and Sandwell Campaign against
Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Racism and Fascism has been expressed by black, anti-racist, and Labour
organisations. Thousands of people are expected to be there on the day.
17 August for the National Front is not just
whether they can make headway using the issue of unemployment; it is also about whether the National Front can re-organise and reestablish itself as a vital ponucal force
Let's make sure that the NF is put in its place - back in the dustbin. See you in West Brom!
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HOMENEWS
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in the interests not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the iwo vital fasks contronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggie tendencies in opposition to class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should
non-exciusive grouping fogether militants holding a wide range of political views.
• To hegin lo fight for the creation unified democratie revolutionary socialist organisation which can,
application of united front racernatibe in 1° berusends an alternative thousands workers engaged in struggles.
such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for socialism seeks to unite the fight of
iworkers against the with that of other oppressed layers of snciety - women, black people, gays rusking for liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by crealing new organs of power and defeating with all necessar, means the power of the
Our socialisin will infinites more democratic than what exists in Britain roday, with fult rights for political parties and currents that do not lake up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models of 'socialism' in the USSR and Eastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eres ol millions of workers throughout ihe We are opposed to them and will offer full support lo all those fighting for socialist democracy.
capinord sair Catilin The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalism has nol orly created a world market. if has creaied polities. Thus we fight for working class units on an international scat. This unity will in the long run he decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, and Asia.
e Bmien te ples danaid int
immediate withdrawal British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in Kurope are in crisis. Neither ihe 'Eurocommunist' ine pro-Moscow wings meaningful strategy for overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionary socialist parties
ItOi€ necessar! than belore. Concitions loday more favorable than ore? the preceding three derades. Beri iti: ti parties oniy
rejerting sectarianism and seeing
internal democracy not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and tendencie:;
If you agree with these principles
and want
activities by Socialist Challenge
supporters in your area, fill in the
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interested in
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character.
By Davy Jones IT IS quite appropriate
and that the government's new
proposals on nationality through should be presented in a
'White Paper'.
Tories' main
bring the outdated tonality law into line with recent legislation to curb black immigration.
Even the Liberal leader, David Steel. commented thai the proposals did nothing to remove the 'repugnant discri. bosses minatorv features of the 1971 Immigration Aét' which had
separated citizens ana goals. Ai ts docs 1s 10
their divide them into sheep and
(wo tots of goats '
Born
divided the world be according 'grandfather clause
all Wiener parent had
registered the Kingdom.
This lumped the
world.
whelmingly categories. żenship,
Sexist
world
oPHel government remove sexist
WY BHA Africa removes from
year 8100 removal
nor have any
the
damaging could be
«l c
buill by
followed the example of the United States government and chosen Iranian and Libyan immigrants as targets for racist hatred.
A bulletin members issued Front's branch in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, removal 01 morænc c væ oc o d demonstration to be held in
more the town this
3pm.
Abandoning the law-abiding formulas, Tunbridge branch organiser, Paul King, attempts to arouse co-rasesl. leclaration ut this rabble from our tow! and show them who runs the streets. counter-mobilisation was being considered by local labour, movement organisa?
NATIONALITIES
'WHITE PAPER
APTLY NAMED
The aim is to
The content of the White Paper was almost a foregone/ conclusion. cove rents." and Labour + have
:into sheep their proposals on nationality
on Civil Service blueprints.
Labour's Green Paper of 1977 was based on an earlier .10a consulaive «ocumen and the present White Paper owes much to the rater The Tory and leaders share the same "non-patrials nroach to the issue. Both see the infamous immigration, especially black
immigration, as a 'threa!' to KRISE CHiNTe
born or tributory cause
United and CLOLOI blems. distribution Accepting this overwhelming framework leads them to pro-
pose increasing y ungemocra with tie laws on immigration and immigration. nationality contain
'problem'. "patrial Vicious
These laws strensthen the aim of the state and its vicious attacks on black people. They allow the police to get away with mass raids workers, as recentiy in North London. They encourage the racists to launch .the M MSN MORIA TOSOR R country. aspects Under capitalism all these But the laws on immigration and nacynically Tonals .. r0 They are invitably used to oppressed JaKe quallnication scapegoats for the capitalist
Their aim is to pit workers of one 'nation' against those. of another; to pit U1A3N 41 OlE SCHIEAR ternational workers" solidarity against imperialism.
INe
democratic CARL
.ou tre The Campaign to -Racist- Laws was sel up last year to fight against racist legislation, and against the Tory proposals on nationality.
CARL organised one of the tartes-cve tions against racist legislation last November with people London. Its campaign of op. position is now being stepped uD CeLE LOC Ano Box 353, London NW5 4NH.
for NF
by the
announces that
these im-
HEARD about the BBC's financial crisis? One item Saturday on the corporation's ex-
penditure account is a bill usual the for £1,350 from Hoolahan, a leading libel lawyer engaged by Robin
with Day. 'We need to kick Day is appearance in lt- extremely
about his Ain t nal racist, мит, un exposé of television's racism made by gaiast Racism in the Med nd first screened by the BBC
Successive
Tory
based
:Green
Labour
ap-
social pro-a
racist
the black
murderous
.The White Paper minorities Nationality:
* Replaces the British Nationality Act. creates categories of citizens: one race i) British citizenship for ap-
proximațely 57m closely connected io the
ii) Citizens of the British Dependent Territories living in hong kong, belze, ana various groups of islands
against iii). British
cruzer MOSul another nationality, in particular about 200,000
Maltsit. India,
* British citizens generaiy speaking ve tose with parents or
20,000 parents born or naturalised
through in me uten sincom.
* Children born here to parents neither of whom is a brunst cuizen conditions of stay will not
A question of racism
rowanue ean last year.
The Day excerpts show how in the BBC's uelale • A. Ouestion migration, which he chaired,
A Day attempted to centre the
CAMINOI Enoch Powell.
The BBC's illustrious interyiewer wants to sue une cor oration for transmitting thi AKM programme, ana 10 seeH. enough to help him try. The Camparg
lawyer's arlewings of the tilm it 1250 x ctime (that's just under e10 a
Asians protest against murder of Aktar Ali Beg last Saturday in Newham.
What the Tories are up to
on automatically Brush chuzensnin noner 1948 this could stateless three * Women will he ahle te transmit citizenship equal terms with men to their children born abroad. * Similarly both . will be treated eaually con cerning citizenship by virtue of marriage now oe cute to automarcar apply for.
Overseas after three years residence. posessu!
,except * Naturalisation qualifi-
living cations will include approx-
anle > Ve residence, good character, will language proficiency, and a •crem uemonsirenon inert
grand- app with thew uniteds
with Kingdom' * There will be no right of appeal against refusal of or tree naturensaron
tion.
#illutt! corporation ashamed of the that when the producer of the Open Door unit visited public service broadcasting stations • fre vews di • United States
telei im the a copy os el
to le ARno nn noc vuln. had to obtain a copy from CARM.
happy It can be hired in 16mm
and video from: The Other Сіпетя 12/13 Newport St, Londen WC2 Tel 01-734 8508/9. Price £12
acquire
them
on:
sexes
neither will
cases
registration
By Mark Hackett years
United
Britain.
registra-
paign in her defence, support from trades councils, organisations.
decision.
have a copy of It
because of internal conflicts.
plain enough She-was b rought во t Ro
One succes
one falure w
immigration
TWO immigration appeal tribunal de sions were announced on Wednesday c last week. The adjudicator granted Nasii Begum's appeal against deportation, turned down that of Anwar Ditta who has been attempting to bring her children te
The Friends of Nasira Begum Committee in SE Manchester has mounted a successful ca
including considers union branches, regional TUCs, and Labour
The campaign has unearthed and publicised information that the Home Office wanted to keep under wraps. It is still possible, however, that the Home Office will appeal this latest
Unfortunately the Anwar Ditta defenc campaign based on Rochdale was not so-sue cessful in drawing in local support, part
The evidence supportine Anw
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support of demo over racist killing
THE streets of Newham, East Löndon were unusually empty as 3,000 people marched last Saturday to protest a racist They condemned, too, the police violence which took place on the 19 July demonstration, to protest the murder ot Aktar Ali Beg in East Ham last month.
Asian shops and businesses closed in solidarity on Saturday, and many white shopkeepers, aware anger in Newham's black community, shut up shop as the march went by. The demonstrators included people from the local community and black organisations from as far away as Bradford and Birmingham. Local left-wing and Labour organisations joined the march.
The National Front - which the previous Monday had turned out in force to give encouragement to the four skinheads accused of murder - was hardly to be seen, despite rumours that there East End NF mobilisation against the demo. Disgust The few who dared to shout racist abuse or give Nazi salutes did so from a safe distance behind police lines. The march was heavily policed, with horses very much in evidence and riot shields always at hand. The police again provoked and several black youth were arrested. The demands coming from demonstrators centred on black self-defence. This demand was reiterated by he standing committee no Standing NASIRA Begum - won her fight against deportation Pakistan. While living there she had three children, who are now aged between six and nine.
Anwar returned to Britain with her husband in 1975, but the Home Office disputes parentage of the children and will not allow them entry to Britain. This is inspite of the fact that Anwar has birth certificates, records, and photographs.
The campaign to secure their right to come to this country is continuing. The defence committee, which urgently needs funds, is at: 127 Crasiford St, Rochdalo, Lanes.
Shops close in
murder.
also held
of the movement
Aktar's
was
Pakistani Organisations, ine selling up or aerence commitices and for maximum support counter-mobilisation to the; National PTOL August. ing committe, placed the blame for Aktar's death on the state. the demonstrators Asian youth
who seized the microphone told the rally that Asian youth were tired of the flowery speeches from the community elders, their speeches didn't want to fight.
Committee
showing some leadership. with, he said, they should have been the police station release of those arrested.
The holding demonstrations in the space of two weeks has shown that the back community in Newham wants to organise against racism. medical
Several black youth were agair
NO! SELF-
DEFOWL Asian shops and businesses closed on Saturday.
called for
for the
West Bromwich Ull 17
Mr Desai, speaking for the steerwith cops the crowd shields
who despite the content of
He called on the elders to start
night. securing the of two large Rastas were arrested.
The elders, with their petitions to Home Secretary Whitelaw, are still sowing illusions. Self-defence is the first essential step towards effective murder appear.
sted on the demonstration.
OFF organisation against racism.
The next steps in Newham are the
Rastas clash
A mini-riot took place in Leicester on 28 July when police with riot
and batons confronted
some 50 Rastafarian youth.
It began over an incident in the
Burlington, a West Indian pub in th
Highfields area of the city. Twenty riol
police made a rapid appearance, and a
mini-riot went on from 10pm to mid-
The Leicester Mercury report said
that a petrol bomb was thrown. Six
pickets of the West Ham magistrates court on 11 and 14 August, when the 29 arrested on 19 July will appear, together with a continuing presence at the court when those charged with the
'A BOOZY OLD REACTIONARY'
THE Queen Mother's 80th birthday has been the occasion for the most sycophantic and nauseating series of newspaper articles, television programmes, and general reactionary drivel. The Queen Mother is a boozy old reactionary, renowned for her support of lan Smith's regime in Zimbabwe. Her famous 'cheerfulness' and radiance' probably derive from her huge yearly state handout. Few other 80-year-olds have such privileges and lead such an easy lite.
House of Commons as Thatcher and Callaghan adresses'. Fortunately someone was there to sound a discordant note and speak up for ordinary pensioners - Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner. Here we reproduce Hansard's account of the exchange. The Prime Minister (Mrs Margaret Thatcher): I beg to move: That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty on the eightieth birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and to assure Her Majesty of the great pleasure felt by this House on so joytul an occasion.
the case of the Queen Mother the people of Britain celebrate with affection and pride the birthday of a person with a very special place in our hearts. She is a Queen who has been strong with the brave, has mourned with the sad and has enchanted everyone by her grace and wit...
Mr. James Callaghan (Cardiff, South-East): I rise to endorse and support the Prime Minister's proposal.
Mr lan Stewart (Hitchin): I have the privilege to represent the constituency of Hitchin, which includes St. Paul's Walden, where Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, the Queen Mother, beloved of us all, spent much of the early part of her life. She has a special place in the affections of my constituents... Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover): When I read the motion this morning, my im mediate reaction was to think of all the many other 80 year olds in this coun try, in my constituency and in many others. My second reaction was to read the motion carefully. I hastily came to the conclusion that it was very narrow, and needed to be broadened. That is why I sent to the Table Office a manuscript amendment, through which I wanted to add the words:
who have reached their eightieth birthday and above, especially since many of those aforesaid have managed to survive in much more adverse circumstances, especially during the last 15 months of Tory government.' i very elitist and narrow, and comes from a sloppy consensus that I abhor. Mrs Elaine Kellett-Bowman (Lancaster): The words of a very bitter man. Mr Skinner: I am more concerned with people like Mr and Mrs Shuker, who live in my constituency. One of them lives at No. 3 Sandy Lane, with her daughter and son-in-law, Les Jackson, the county and England cricketer. Her husband lives in a small hospital further down the road in the constituency, at Chesterfield. together for the last period of their lives, but are unable to do so because of the many cuts that have been perpetrated by the Tory Derbyshire county counci and the government. I feel that this motion should have included the Mr and Mrs Shukers of this world...
manage to dress correctly for the occasion. I know many 80-year-old women in my constituency and outside who do not have the opportunity to find dresses for the right occasion...
Mr William Hamilton: I find motions of this sort insufferable. Mr Robert Atkins (Preston, North): We find you insufferable. Mr Hamilton: I know that. The sycophancy and the deferrence that pour from both Front Benches nauseates some of us: I cannot let this occasion pass without seeking to open the windows a little. I agree entirely with my hon Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr Skinner)...
Queen Mother has been a remarkable lady. At 80 years old, she is amazingly well preserved and almost too constantly radiant to be real. We can all try to forget for a few moments the hairshirt economy being created by the flinthearted iron lady at No 10 and seek some warmth and comfort from our magnificent Royal charmer.
Mother has been superb. However, some who should know have told me on occasions that her political views are far to the Right of even those of the Prime Minister.
views and attitudes of members of the Royal Family....
achieve. That is the purpose of the institution...
Question put and agreed to
The sickening, grovelling trivia reached a new high point in the
made loyal
An eightieth birthday is always a matter for delighted congratulation. In
'and that this House congratulates all those persons in the United Kingdom
This motion is like many others that we discuss on some occasions. It is
One is 87 years old and the other is 88. They are desperately trying to get
I read in the newspapers recently that the Queen Mother always seems to
We are celebrating a unique occasion. By any standards, Her Majesty the
As a public relations officer for the business, Her Majesty the Queen
Mr Speaker: Order. The hon. Gentleman knews that we do not discuss the Mr Hamilton: I was about to say that as long as the Queen Mother and those like her are around, another revolution will be that wee bit more difficult to
Resolved: That Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister, Mr. Secretary Whitelaw, Mr. Norman St. John-Stevas, Mr. Michael Foot, Mr. Merlyn Rees, Mr. David Steel and Mr. John Parker đo wait upon Her Majesty with the said Message.
Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 3
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We should take charge of the post office!
POST Office engineers on the march for the shorter working week in 1978. Today the fight for control of the Post Office itself has to start.
HOME NEWS
By Brian Grogan THATCHER'S present blitz on the working class is
'monetarism'. What this term sums up
is a historie regression to economic
policies and theories of the late 19th
It is an admission that present capitalist sociewall longer even
mass unemployment,
and the destruction of the welfare state.
anatener's monermsm sase o ordes con-
tred on the creation of mass unemployment to
make the working class pay for the
capitanst economic system. It Is nung tal tae high priest of this creed -
Milton Friedman
viser to the butchers of the Chilean working class.
The basic idea of monetarism is that govern-
post-war governments dedicated to 'Keynesian-
ism'. Credit
Keynesianism is a policy of managing demand
in such a way as to ameliorate the effects of the
governments extended credit to the bosses, so that
profits could be made by
OEU Westminster branci THE Post Office Board is not made up of people who are likely to be sympathetic to the needs of ordinary working people. The Chairperson of the Board now earns £53,000 a year, while other full-time Board members earn around £40,000 a
That doesn't include all the fringe benefits.
People who move in & such a luxurious rarified atmosphere as the a top PO managers have more ¿ in with counterparts in private industry, although
from more humble beginnings.
However, most of them can't evelliam Barlow, the PO Chairper- that distinction. son, is currently the director of at least six other
role al tnc
done almost 20 years as a manager 101 . of English Electric, one of the components of GEC
Ken Young, member of the Board for personnel, also comes from GEC, where he was their personne manacer
Sam Wainwright, head of, Giro Bank, from a merchant While Peter "Benton." head o while Peter Benton, head Telecoms, was manager various times. Out of the six full- Shell, alle timers, only twO have come through the ranks of the PO. lhe other four have held (or in some cases still hold) directorships in a total of over 30 companies.
Privilege
Of course the policies of the PO Board reflect their position privilege:
bening me ser ding to the 1978/9 figures, more than a third of the telecoms
contes TOnI ousidesses Private circuits (lines permanently hired for computer links, etc) ac. counted for less than 3 per cent of total income. Yet, when System X is introduced in the early 1980s, this cw exchance system is colle lo 00 used exclusively for business traffic from the major conurbations. Oramaiy suoscuDers. of the bills, will have to wait till the demands of the large companies
nouses aa ve satisfied.
System X rip-off - the new, all electronic. digital, controles exchange known System X is being jointly developed
unic Post . ULL. , Piessey and STC. These private companies get the advantage of a guaranteed market (the PO) and the use of the Socialist Challenge "7 August 1980'
politely termed
promise
slashed living standards
crisis of the
: Nobel prize winner — is also the chief economic ad-
very simply,
mobilising under-
PC
EU
anda
their t
they Facilites of the Po in tee sure massive £60m a knowledge that if things go wrong, and System X doesn't get the sales abroad they hope, their investment is still sound.
STC is owned by the giant ITT, which has its own System 12 due for out berore osten a are wuca nas
remarkably similar features. It has even been reported that
up ware for Svstem X and System 12
are being developed in the same room by STC, who are thereby get- •
own schemes.
Interest from Telecoms naid out £2.373m in interest payments of almost an entire year's income. 1 his money goes, vla the ficasury,
stra London thanos as of the cice
London banks not nouses.
Workers' control and workers' managment are traditionally suares oriue rodo lo socalist vialSuch planning cannot come 11111g about without the
without the working class whole being organised to run socie-
councils or soviets.
Nationalisation of
ned, socialist economy.
Deelt together all the privately
secuons o any neustry mnu single nationally organised unit, where production, •simoudon can oe rauonansca 1s the first step to socialist planning. The wasteful anarchy of private owacisilo mucans ular compallice compete against each duplicating every aspect of their Page 4
WHAT
MONETARISM?
utilised capacity.
This policy was the price the capitalist class was pesca lo bay to safeguard their system against a working class that refused to go through another period like the '30s, and the horrors of fascism and the Second World War
Today the bosses are faced with powerful
from off-loading the crisis of the system onto the backs of the working class at the level they need if
pansion basis. They have been unable to overcome the falling rate of profit.
So 'Torv governments, starting with Heath in 1970, set themselves the task of breaking the
the trade union especiary une snoo stewaros oriansator Thatcher learned from Heath was that this can't be done through the use of legislation or political appeals alone. Suas to smacce me amons comes policies and political attacks only work if a materal threat is created to union strength - th
research operations from administration to research and development. calousty suara luch secrew arallist their rivals and thereby waste the progress poo ing the results of research anc experience
telecoms doesn't lead to them meeting the needs of the soft- LuC OW WUEKCIS class as a whole. In fact, just the opposite can happen: the industries Call cuuul private capital than they The bitter
1971 to "79
have rocked steel, Leyland, and the Post Office are — the equivalent
cooe emouas evoene orlas « tagonism between bosses in nationalised industries. and finance workers in industries that are na- ante
tionalised to begin to take charge Inense ves in the industry, meetings and joint stewards commulecs. bene involveu m une oro cess of taking control. It means all and opening the financial books of the rUSL private telecoms manufacturers rip it off, how the private sector is subbasic in- suisca. now une system Is acszcu for their needs. It means vetoing all decisions of the management that Bringing owned go against ru workers and work ing people as a whole Socialist
research, and socais. s aooul oremar work. ing people
destinies. ( im une workolace. it's about wresting power from the tiny group of other, to dictate to half a million Post Of fice workers.
FOR
of government policy.
SIOn
developed by sucessive which prevents them
Labour.
IBUYCAICHA
to such vicious policies
policy is working.
They
that could be made b
But as we have shown, the na-
for hostes automatically munications.
serving the needs
more efficiently
would have in private
the mines,
workers and (formerly lis for the
t seas ever worke Hiving-off
through mass
their Office to find out how the
Other from the truth.
democracy, genuine
controlling our own The The best place to start is
bosses who want firmly tied.
ARGUMENTS
SOCIALISM
weapon of mass unemployment. What is new and specific to Thatcherism is the use of unemployment as a deliberate and most fundamental tenet
Thatcher's policies haven't created the reces-
bul ley nave achoeralely made lt worsc She has abandoned many of the instruments
post-war governments that have prevented the full effects of the reces sion from creating a reserve army of labour. This is the coherence of the whole of Thatcher's inter-
- cach тоттену pionecica D)
No-one knows how high unemployment levels might have to go to have the hoped-for effect. June alone unemployment levels have leapt by 20 per cent (on official figures from 1.6m to 1.8m)
It is the possible response or une working clas.
Is which is creating all the nervous talk about U-turn just now. Only th most tentative evidence exists to support that the
MAKE 122,000
GIVE THEM
WHEN Sir Keith Joseph, Tory Secretary
of State for Industry, announced his plans
ending the Post Office monopoly, some people
breathed a large sigh of relief.
Bryan Stanley, general secretary of the Post
Office Engineering Union, wrote to POEU
branches claiming that the union's campaign in
defence of the monopoly 'has had some effect
in reducing the scope of the government's pro-
posais from what they might have been.'
In fact, Joseph's statement was only the
opening shot in the Tories' campaign to hive-
off the profitable parts of British Telecoms
Post Office Telecommunications)
and to make the basic telecommunications net-
work even more subservient to the needs of
British capitalism than it is already.
The Tories make great play of the fact that hiving-off activities will mean greater
'competition', and that this will mean better
services to the customer. Nothing could be fur-
There will be no real competition between
British Telecoms and the private sector. Firstly,
British Telecoms is having to invest £1,500m a
year in modernising the basic telecoms network
and is having difficulty generating this money
from its own revenue, despite its high profits.
government-imposed cash-limits
that there simply won't be the capital for invest-
ment in the areas where the competition with
the private sector will be fiercest
apparatus. British Telecoms will have its hand
and the miners are
them.
to do with defence of free collective bargaining the last election were confused into thinking.
strongest detachments.
Wing it vallall unemployment weapon dominates instead.
Demands
Wing maustries.
They are in favour of making
the high ideals summed up by 'monetarism'
ENGINEERS
BUZBY
CAVENDISH
Monopoly breach only first step
Telecom-
• cross-subsidisation,'
Joseph put it.
those countries.
nol be lited
the road.
The
munications between themselves.
mean private monopolies. - customer
direct result of the Tories'
In the face of 1.Em unemployed, wage settlements were still running above 20 per cent. The Post Office engineers have settled for 23 per cent
claiming 36 per cent. If the Tories have to go to 2.Sm or 3m jobless they tea that the revolt of the working class will engulf
Her opposition to incomes policy has nothing as many skilled workers who voted for the Tories Thatcher's opinion incomes policy will not work without first severely weakening the class, but it also gives a focus for unifying the class behind the
This is how the weakly organised bush for their demands. Her opposition is not to incomes policy as such, but to mak.
central instrument of policy. . In the oi monetarism, the
For all the talk of Tony Benn and his co.
• They are not in favour of giving up the core of their British-based wealth produc-
quite con siderable sacrifices it the result is a defeat for the working class and a decisive weakening of its organisation. Removed of all its verbiage such are
35HR WEEK , HAPPY
Secondly, private firms will be free to use
their huge profits and reserves to subsidise their
products while they get their initial hold on the
market, while British Telecoms is going to be
specifically prevented from doing so. 'British
Telecoms will need to. account separately for
those subsidiaries in which it is competing with
the private sector. We intend that precisely to
was how Keith
Thirdly, GEC, Plessey, STC, and their ilk
will be free to go to parts of the world where
workers don't have luxuries like trade unions,
They will produce their wares at far cheaper
rates, on the backs of the oppressed workers of
Finally, while the private companies will be
free to make incursions into the profitable parts
of British Telecoms, the reverse will not be true.
The restrictions which prevent British Telecoms
entering into manufacturing in a big way will
In short, the Tories intend to effectively
hand over the most profitable parts of British
Telecoms to their friends in private industry.
These proposals are merely the first step along
people who profit will be the real
monopolies, the giant electronics firms that
already carve-up the private parts of telecom-
The losers
will be ordinary working people who will have
to pay more in order to subsidise the telecoms
network which will in turn be milked by the
The latest price rises for telephones are a cash-limits policy,
and an ominous sign of things to come
Page 5 scan of this page
HOMENEWS
of the
Act
picketing.
at Adwest...
By Steve Potter THE STRIKE at the Adwest plant in Reading is at a critical stage. Fiftyeight workers - many of them women and Asian -are fighting for reinstatement. Police action against pickets has not only anticipated Prior's law, it has gone beyond it.
• They have denied the workers any right to picket.
The courts: have backed them up win conviculons and fines for the first of the 26 arrested at the last mass picket, which was held on 14 July.
..and Brixton
By Geoffrey Sheridan D-DAY approaches for Phil Cordell and Richard Cleverley, the Civil Service union activists who have upset the establishment by such ungentlemanly pursuits as participating in a Parliamentary lobby on
behalf of their CPSA branch.
Both face dismissal, and will appear before the Civil Service Appeal Board on 13 and 14 August.
Support for their reinstatement unprecedented
the Service.:
Unofficial strike action at the DrIXIOn benefit office, where both are employed, is now in its fifth week. 2110 …over £7.000 has been raised to mount the defence campaign.
None of this is thanks to the CPSA leadership, which has put out a circular denouncue cac unollidar strike
The police, too, are doing
Sree Lekha Kazi dies
suffered great loss recently with the death of ting Sree Lekha Kazi.
cious for some time after a road accident at Easter.
was indicative of the wat against she fought for black peo ple.
In her home town of three-year-old Oldham her defiant recerd wwas equal to none; from encouraging black workers to challenge racism in the mills, to setting up Asian women's
First victims
Employment
ROYAL ASSENT was given to the Employment Bill last Friday, so that it has now become law.
The police and courts have jumped the gun in two important disputes - at Adwest and the Brixton unemployment benefit office. Strikers in both disputes have called for support for mass
Ins makes building
Vital matter, not just for the strikers, but for whole labell prepares to fight the Employment Bill The strikers aré asking for resolutions from Transport and General Workers. •and Amalgamated Union of Engineering • workers branches to make the strike official and to raise money for the fund towards the defence costs of those arrested.
The Treasurer, Adwest Defence Committee, Berkeley.
A venue. Keroine Adwest from bam on Monday 1l August. neir oil to detent ine ciate limiting the HullOCI of DICKELS ..LO SIx Richard Cleverley was rested for a picket-line ofTence • E0Є Haustre court has instructed him not to go within halt a mile of Brixion UBU as a condition of bail. *Union branches al C general secretary and the executive demanding that they •CasC. savs Phil Cordell 'It's a crucial strike for civil servants because it is about Dasic Waae umon principies.
The exemeting of the
CPSA executive, August, is to be lobbied, and for trade unionists
mass picket of Brixton UBO 13 August, from 7-9.30am Brixton UBO is in Coldharbour Lane, close to BrixSend cash to: Brix. ton UBO Campaign for TU:
Rights, 16 Knowlton House, Cowley estate. Cowley Rd, London SW.
THE anti-racist movement immigraton laws for which
she was best known; starwith inspiring the Bengali pollation Oldham to sucessfully op-
Sree had been uncon- pose the deportation of
Abdul Azad, and going of from thai to helping proHer fight for life since then mote defence deampaigns
deportations many parts of the country.
Tragically she leaves a girl fro whom a memorial fund
Donations welcome, cle
established. c/o CRE, New Vale Oldham, Landes.
Oldham International resisting Marxist Group
tober.
Leading left MPs such as So sean benns skinner. Joan Maynard, Jeff Rooker and Neil Kinnock are among ne supporters. Over 200 trades union branches, trades
By Geoffrey Sheridan THE documents revealed by Granada TV's
World in Action pro-
gramme during the steel strike were embarrassing enough the British Steel Corporation.
A total of 250 'secret' BBC documents were leaked
the strike had been brought about by
management; that the government had intervened in the conduct orle cordoratoris affairs; and that the productivity of BSC's workers. was not as low as boe Mallage ment were pretending.
In short, they showed that both the corporation bosses and their superiors in Keith Joseph's were lying through Department Industry ten teet
BSC, remember, • Is a na-
to be owned by all of us, and in theory it is accountable to
virtue of which World in tion ought to be accorded the Kid or carmen a presently
Hundreds of sponsors for
Right to Work march
OVER 40 Labour MPs are among the sponsors of an the Right to Work Campaign march to the Tory Party conference, arriving in Brighton on 10 Oc-
councils, and Labour Party wards have also agreed to be sponsors.
So, too, has the South Wales executive tional Union of Mineworkers,
Press freedom behind bars of steel
being received by the Queen Mother Instead, thanks to the decision of the House of Lords last week, sulliculc di branaca now faces jail because the company refuses name the source of the leak.
The Granada executives, concerned about the renewal or ineir iranchise, are aoing foucn will society their best to finger one of the World in Action researchers Laurie Flynn, a former "journalist on Socialist Worker - as supposedly the
10
TO WORK COMFSION
anpronriote endorsement cher. "Von can
will start from South Wales. will be taking part in the march delivered a letter to pre estemployed adate unemployed that they find a job The letter promised That-
only person at Granada who knows the identity of the mole 11 Dol The is up in arms about the House of Lords law-makin decision Times went so far as to say that the judgement was allack OLS. freedom, but that it showed that the law lords are out of For investigative journalists (and there are few enon or men amos means quite simply that their sources could dry up, fearing
MORE
Members of the NUM and Latin American exiles march in solidarity with resistance to Bolivian coup in London last
for the campaign as the march many thousands more like us outside your Tory Party con-
When the Right to Work to protest outside 10 Downing S tet weren they were stopped from wear
• their traditional orange jackets.
exposure through the courts.
Yet the moves at Granada show that the press barons and nell editors cannot be relied on to defend even the limited that presently prevails in Britain.
The National Union of Journalists and ACTT, television technicians' union, should consider very seriously calling an all-out strike on this issue.
They will not lack support.
BOLIVIA:
DEMANK
Andrew Wiard (Report)
WHAT'S LEFT
ICCOMMODATIOI
Centre, North
Scien Postage
Begum
photographic exhibition: stalls. Adm
Mathew's Crypt
Organised by S London set Chorion Road, Ma s write to:
London WCIV 6XX or rin evolutionar Communist
endency is holding further forums
Court Road, Warren
Tional Conference or
n Swift, BM RCT, London WCH 6XX.
SCEVENTS
DHAM outside the yorksnire ti High DEPoRT in Mine Menou STOCKPORT
NEWHAM: SC sale e
ton Park
:Corporation
IMG NOTICES
on a coma dracon set to b
Sar 6 Sop
meeting Sat 20 Sept. Vent NALGO FRACTION. SaU 1
Page 6 scan of this page
WHEN 250,000 TO TEACH RUS
announce an Defence spending as a deep shelter. arrive.
have the benefit of this advice.
HARRY Truman, president, claimed that the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was a military necessity to shorten the Japan and saves lives. reasoning was echoed by the Labour Party leader Clement Attlee, prime minister Winston Churchill, and William Rust, editor of the Communist Party newspaper the Daily Worker. Cynical
In reality the bombs were cynical diplomatic blows against the Soviet Union. The Cold War began before the 'hot' one had finished.
From 1941 until the spring of 1945, the United States, Britain, and the USSR had co-existed in an uneasy, temporary necessary alliance.
By April 1945 Hitler's forces were being crushed between the advancing Red Army Allies In the Far Americans controlled seas and the skies.
On 23 April, Admiral Leahy, one of ruman's visors, wrote: 'No® 'narm coula be cone to our wal prospects if Russia should slow down or even stop its war effort in Europe or Asia.'
The US Joint Staff planners told their chiefs the following day: 'Early Russian entry into the war against Japan longer necessary to make invasion feasible.' Retreat
With Germany almost finished and Japan in full retreat, the basis of the alliance with the USSR was beginning to crumble. The Americans were preoccupied about the shape of the post-war world.
in •East Europe the Hiroshima regimes were done for ever. The despised dictators and monarchs had been sent packing. From the JAPAN Baltic in the north to the Adriatic
the south, governments were trol.
In West Europe, the working class was demanding Nagasaki change, and in France and Italy large Communist
alist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 6*
On Thursday 7 August, 35 years and one day after the first atomic bomb was dropped, the government will
increase in Civil of £18m.
However the bulk of that sum will go towards special deep shelters for the administration of central and local government. Working people do not need anything so extravagant
The Stationary Office pamphlet Protect and Survive tells us we can survive by white-washing our windows and wrapping our head in a jacket when the nuclear war-heads
It's a pity the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not
! These latest proposals really spell out ruling class policy. For the
the US
Wing of nationalism.
With easing war with Truman's words His dutifully War
UnIs Potsdam with commenting
on".?
Bomb but
postponed and the Truman East the both the
military adparticular tugal.
Moreover, 1945.
becoming
old
they could do.
pro-Russian taking con-
social
Parties en-
rich,
chance. hands any joyed mass support. Throughout the third world there was a stirr-
the millary pressure and the political pressure mounting, it was -
- time to tell the Russians that if they did not cooperate 'they could go to hell'
What made the US president so cocky was his knowledge that America was on the brink of producing the atomic bomb. During the late spring and early summer of 1945, the scientists were urged to come up with the goods. The
Secretary, Henry Stimson, wrote to Truman about
impending • meeting Attlee and Stalin 'the greatest com would ...if the bomb had not yet been "laid
Truman replied that he had
the . MCCLE until ...15 July to give us more time'.
was far more in terested in impressing the Russians with the Bomb than he was in getting peace with Japan. He already knew that the American State Department had received a Japanese peace feeler • via Por
the Americans had intercepted a message saying
everywhere..
TERUFUMI Sasaki was a doctor on the staff of
Hiroshima's Red Cross Hospital on 6 August
This is how American journalist John
Hersey reported Sasaki's experience:
•By nightfall 10,000 victims of the explosion
had invaded the Red Cross Hospital, and he was
worn out, moving aimlessly and dully up
down the stinking corridors with wadges of ban-
dages and bottles of mercurochrome.
'Other doctors
saline solution on the worst burns. That was all
'After dark they worked by the light of the
city's fires and by candles that the ten remaining
nurses held for them. Dr Sasaki had not been out
of the hospital all day; the scene inside was so ter-
rible and so compelling that it had not occurred
to him to ask any questions about what happen-
ed beyond the windows and the doors.
and for the ministrators, nuclear shelters will be bought or provided for. The mass of the people will be left to take their
The cynicism of these proposals is unbelievable, until you remember that they are proposals made by the same ruling class that murdered and maimed some three quarters of a million people in two atomic raids in 1945. Such proposals should not suprise us. What they should do is reinforce our determination to pursue the class war more vigorously, so that we can remove from their
power they have to launch a nuclear war.
BOB PENNINGTON recalls the horror of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
that a former Japanese premier was visiting Moscow to explore the chances of peace. Stalin asked Truman at Potsdam whether this merited a reply, but Truman was too determined to teach the Russians a lesson to say 'Yes'.
The atomic. bombs
Eisenhower: 'The A-bombings weren't needed.'
THE American Newsweek on 11 November 1963 reported the Eisenhower, the former supreme military commander of the Allied dent from A-bombings. • voiced to him (Secretary of ings, first on me be or. ings, first peter lig defeated.. • It wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing.
dropped on 6 August and 9 August — the latter being the day the USSR entered the war against Japan. American needlessly killed 250,000 people, maiming and mutilating dreds of thousands more. It was their way of telling the Russians in particular and the world in general who was top dog
Dust, blood, and vomit were
and
were putting compresses of
state ad
were magazine
Wilhelm 1952-60 about the
Error
Rodgers
imperialism
message into hunment left leaders.
'Ceilings and partitions had fallen; plaster, dust, blood and vomit were everywhere. Patients were ayung by une nunareas, nobody to carry away the corpses. Some of the hospital staff distributed biscuits and rice balls, but the charnel house smell was so strong, fen were hungry.
Wilhelm Kleinsorge, a German priest, •Hersey that when he woods a man in uniform asked: anything to drink?' Thinking there was just one soldier Kleinsorge approached with the water
'When he penetrated the bushes he saw there were about 20 men, and they were all in exactly the same nightmarish state: their faces were wholly burned, their eye sockets were hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had run down their cheeks.... Their mouths were mere swollen, pus covered wounds.
Kleinsorge, a Ger nightmarish state as this. down their cheeks..
Truman is now dead and all his old advisors are either dead or retired. But the same type of ped ple run the American state
In Britain they can rely or Thatcher, David Owen and Bil
Fact their apologists, just as Truman could rely on Clem Attlee to take the
the labour move ment. In 1945 the labour move-
it to the right-wing Today too much is at stake in terms of mega-death ever to make that error again:
but there was
; told was going through the 'Have you
Page 7 scan of this page
APANESE DIED
4 conservative estimate a :
ter of a million people died
oshima and Nagasaki
L 1945. Another 580,000
injured In the
*The energy give off from the
was roughly
is: 50 per cent blast, 35 per
Aimal radiation, and 15 ionising radiation. The reached temperatures of million degrees Cen-
Ip to 1.2 kilometres from the
of the explosion, people
shrivelled and roasted. a 4 kilometres from the cen-
thermal radiation was 20 es greater than that from the
and: exposed human skin badly burned.
As the moisture condensed
particles, a 'black rain' of
ash and dust fell over the
A shock wave swept streets, smashing
thing in its path.
called the say that they saw I Even those who lived and cred no physical damage
been haunted ever since by
umare of seeing peoples'
their eyes
in Hiroshima when Truman's bomb was dropped. He saw 20 men in the same e wholly burned, their eye sockets were hollow, the fluid from their melted eyes had run
The survivors say that
hey saw "hell".
spilling out of their abdomens.
Everything lay in ruins. The hospitals were turned into rubble. Fire stations, transport and local administra. tion simply disappeared. People lay buried beneath piles They lay pavements, in the streets, burned and bleeding, and there was no one to help.
The enormity For countless vivors there was to be a future of illness, disease, and disorder. Keloids - an awful alsiguration SKIn leukemia, cancer of the lung, the breast, and the thyroid, are just some of the after-effects of the was equivalent to 22 kilotons of TNT.
want to use them.
A A LESSON
two bombs.
By March 1977 the number of people granted public status totalled 366,532. Over 30 years after the bombs dropped these people were still suffering. of Figures such as 250,000 dead, the injured, classified as victims are almost impossible to comprehend. They are unreal. stunned What is real is the murderous nature of imperialism. To defend its power it was quite prepared to mental incinerate and mutilate hundreds of thousands of human beings.
Hitler's gas Truman's atom bomb show that capitalism can lead us nowhere but along the path to barbarism. Thousands of killer-tons
THE Hiroshima bomb was equivalent to 12 kilotons of TNT and the one dropped on Nagasaki
Today the destructive power of nuclear weapons is many hundred times greater. We cannot afford to allow the ruling class in Britain or the United States the right to decide when they
Remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki
and Nagasaki : remembered : in weeks in throughout Britain
mament.
dangerous step being throughout Western Europe. NEWBURY
TrOM
me alone domids Hiroshima and Nagasaki support for the vigil. MANCHESTER
ween Mancunian
SCOTLAND
tioning in Glasgow. Edinburgh Haddington. 041-942 1099 for further
(in front of Art Galleries). YORKSHIRE
Nagasaki Day assemble at 2pm car park,
40I feeder
Easingwold Market up with the main rally. BIRMINGHAM
• Nagasaki
King at llam LONDON
Festival 10 August. 366,523 still 1.30pm Mancunian Peter's Frank CND.
supporters are asked to
loin the Socialist
THE DEAD of Hiroshima
will be the next actions organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disar-
had
Vigils, petitions and meetings will newspapers also warn against the present trend sought towards nuclear escalation, the most
tion of Cruise missiles into bases
Iran from A 75-hour continuous vigil will be held directly outside the main gate of Greenham Common Roval All Force base outside Newbury, one. of the two proposed sites in Britain for the Cruise missiles. The vigil will run creation
Wednesday August to llam Saturday 9 August These are the exact dates on whict
were aropped on but the made the RDF,
Over 30 MPs have pledged their
A mass demonstration will take place on Saturdav assembling be
Way and Booth rush Street (on Oxford Road) at 1:30pm. 1 ne march will move oll to arrive al Of a rally in St. Peters Square at 3pm.
A day of action will take place throughout Scotland on 9 August, involving mass leafletting and peti-
(Contact lan Davidson details.)
In Glasgow there will be a commemoration ceremony on Sunday 10 ground August at 2.30pmat the Cherry Trees
march • will al neworl Greel marching to Clifford's Tower via York Minster for a rally at assemble at 9.30am that morning in demonstraton sion
Square. marching vla Hawkmes to rork to joll
Dominican Day, petitioners will meet at St. Martin's in the Bull
duct Augh or stan
Hackney's Second Anti-Nuclear
will take place in Clissold Park. Stoke Newington on Sunday
I won't die for 'hatcher ¿ STOP • CRUISE MISSILES
No replacement for Polaris!
No Cruise Missiles!
No more Hiroshimas!
DEMONSTRATION
Saturday 9 August way, Oxford Road, Manchester 1. Rally 3pm, St
Speakers include Allaun MP. Organised t
(All North West Socialist Challenge
Hands off tran and the Caribbean.
GEARING UP
FOR NEW
VIETNAMS
By Fred Feldman THE Soviet Union was about June, to invade the Persian Gulf, seize the oil, and place the West at its mercy. In case you
Many doubt about this and magazines lo remove it by publishing maps. Those thick black arrows showing 'traditional' invasion routes into
force Afghanistan and World'
Soviet Central Asia were supposed to strike terror into our
One of Carter's answers was the Rapid Deployment Force (RDF). Its response to the soviet action i had proclaimed unrest been under discussion before, claimed the 4 February issue of Newsweek, had
Afghanistan 'definitively, a key element in US defence planning for
The Rapid Deployment Force which was formally established
supposed 150,000-strong crack outfit that can
anywhere in the world counter Soviet aggression
course the definition of 'Soviet aggression' is very flexible.
tually do anything... or even think about doing anything
Lt Gen Paul Kelley, the marine power. who commands the RDF, made a valuable clarification when • ne•announcea on 1o june tnal tne force could 'be ordered to launch a pre armed emotive strike to seize threatened ment Force is all about
before the Russians
He told New York Times cor. respondent Richard sategy had
pre-emptive strategy" evolved in the first one hundred day. Haus of the new deployment force? But Halloran raised a note of uncertain-
*Would ar American President defy precedent to make such a deci-
before an attack?'
•Perhaps Halloran has been lost in transcendental meditation while the 20th century was marching on, but I think the people of Vietnam, the
Lebanon, Cuba, Haiti, and quite a few other their own destruction by launching a countries could come up with a quick answer to that one.
The RDF propaganda has been fakery from the start; it wasn't a pro-
the Sovie intervention. in It stal March, and it has nothing to do with
label military forces that have long had no other purpose but rapid intervention in countries where the interests of US big business are threatened.
Even in its present form, the forThe people of El Salvador, Guatemala, Iran, and other countries in Asia, Africa are the intended victims of 'rapid deployment.
mation of the RDF long preceded the Soviet role in Afghanistan. On
1979 seven months before Soviet troops entered Aighanistan -the US Army announced it was drafting plans for a 'quick-strike force'
Asked on 21 June if this was a 'concept or a concrete decision,' General Bernard Rogers replied
'The Armv intends to do this. Il purpose of the force at the time was not described in terms of Soviet ag oreccion was lie diswer lories dent Carter's desire for a specialised
for conflicts" in the Third
It was to be 'a "go-anywhere" force rather than one specifically targeted on the Persian Gulf or any other area'
In the preceding months, popular
La rebellion in the army toppled a pro-Washington dictato in Afghanistan; the Iranian masses
driven the Shah from his peacock throne; and Pol Pot's leime in Kampuchea had been top-
As General Rogers made his an nouncement, a mass insurrection was routing the dictatorship of Anastasio • Some crama
Washington had backed these tyrants against the people of their
souteruness or decade And Carter administration officials could hardly hide their chagrin tha
• States made it impossible to pour in US troops to keep the dictators ir
That is what the public relations ballyhoo about Soviet aggression, in. cluding ine recaristening or tne un
forces as a 'Rapid Deploy.
It is aimed at pounding the American people into accepting
tion of the draft, and the inevitability of new and even more bloody Viet.
The immediate target isn't Moscow, , even though Washington is infuriated by the aid that the revolu tionary government 1n Cuba and liberation forces in • Indochina, . Southern Africa. and elsewhere havi obtained from Moscow.
The Soviet Union also has lucien misses however and the US rulers are not anxious to assure
nuclear conflict. It's the people of B Sale countes in ala Salvador, Iran, and
, Africa, and Latin America who are the intended victims of 'rapid deployment' working people like ourselves who are trying to create a just society.
give towards wat in dens of core gression our the rie
threatens well-being of American people, and the people of the rest of the world Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
SEXUAL POLITICS INTERNATIONAL/ IRELAND
Whatever happened to the 'Stickies'?
By Joan Twelves JOHN Corrie's anti-abortion Bill was defeated last paign which diew together the women's movement, trade unionists, Labour Party activists, students, and young people.
• Now that attacks on abortion rights are no longer front page news, the Department of Health has been trying to introduce Corrie's backdoor.
Not content with sacking two civil servants who supported the lobby of Parliament on 5 February, the • Department has been imposing harsher restrictions
and it continues to employ ex-CID officers to police the 1967 Abortion Act.
Hospitals are imposing their own time-limits and existing facilities are threatened by cuts.
Those of us in the National Abortion Campaign who believe that women should have the right to
TO SPEAK
TONY Benn has agreed to be one of the speakers at a meeting on Ireland to be held at this year's Labour Party conference Blackpool.
*ne meelly will be held under the auspices of the Labour Com mittee on Ireland, the grouping inside the Labour Party which been largely responsole for gelling ten resolutions on Ireland submit- ted to the Blackpool conference.
speaking al ine Debate or tne Decade' earlier this year, said: I was brought up to believe
crime against the Irish people, I
said so on many accasions'.
HELLES SLICe enris agreed to speak in public specifically on Ireland.
The LCI resolution, which the fringe meeting is designed to promate, notes, 'the evidence that the clear popular wish of the Irish peoole favours a British irom Ireland, and calls upon the
mediately begin the process of this full political and military
Seven of the resolutions submitted to the conference are based on this one from the LCI, but despite
year in the number of constituency Labour Parties calling for a debate on irelana, there are sigus wal tne party leadership could make an attempt to have no debate at all oB re sno a due corterence.
The evidence is the 4 July issue of Labour Weekly which reports that a 'working party' on the North of Ireland, set up at last year's conference, will not now make its final report
Weekly, could persuade this year's 'conference managers' o corolous to de dererred pending the working party's findings'.
Flynn
As Don Flynn, secretary of the LCI writes in the current edition of
and Ireland:
It is absolutely essential that the present unsurge of interest in the political situation in Ireland should not be allowed to fade away
All constituency parties will have a Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 8
March after a massive cam-
even proposals • by the
TONY BENN
ON IRELAND
AT LABOUR
CONFERENCE
in Benn withsays dimendment to the resolvines: lamp-dowi moving The amendment reads: "Yur. thermore, conference calls on the NEC working party - on
posals as its terms of reference for its researches and its finst report.*
choose winow tea or micaca resucons are sci "and tired of having to defend an Act which doesn't
give women that choice
All the pro-choice groups are agreed that we hav to go on the offensive. The best way to do that is now being debated
Various options by way of Parliamentary Private •Members its are under discussions tempt to make the provision of abortion facilities mandatory on the NHS. Another consideration is the decriminalisation of menstrual extraction, an abortion method which can be used up to 6-8 weeks into
- At a recent meeting at the House of Commons, a working. party was set up by several pro-choice
By Geoff Bell A RECENT advertisement in a new Irish magazine declared: "We schedules carefully worked out to meet the businessman's needs. Io help you make the time.'
advert. What makes it interesting is the magazine in which it was placWorkers Life, a peculiarly named which "businessman's needs':
Worker's Life is the official organ of Sinn Fein, the Workers Party, past 11 years is an object lesson in Irish politics.
In August 1969 what was to become the leadership organisation was then in control of une irish kepuoncan Army, and Is political wing, hese split in 1970, Official Sinn
- was one result; the Provisionals, the other.
The Officials quickly became known in Belfast as the Stickies' • occausc a nad gum on is back which tne bearer was meant to 'stick" on to his/her lapel.
Northern At the time of the split many saw the Officials as the left wing of the Republican movement,
Abortion and the labour movement
possibilities
One is to at-
is to
choose. fly • LE
most of your
•The tire social" democratic tended to advertise
Party of Ireland.
The Provisionals'
the Catholic
Sinn Fein. When
Provisionals
south of Ireland
revelation on badge they distributed
in the Irish magazine Magil
Fail gold', but it has
Campaign (LARC), 'examine
While a parliamentary focus is important, Parlia-
ment will not be the main arena where the fight for a
woman's right to choose will take place.
To win this right we have to mobilise the strength
that defeated Corrie, but this time behind NAC's
position of no legal or medical restrictions. The task
• overcle
legislate in accordance with Labour Party policy.
The draft Labour Party manifesto includes
But without pressure on the Labour Party
that policy will be ignored by the Parliamentary
SFWP votes in the North of Ireland
May 1973 local elections:
February 1974 Westminster elections:
October 1974 Westminster elections:
May 1975 Convention elections:
May 1977 local elections:
May 1979 Westminster elections:
June 1979 European elections:
was because the Stickies' had a left
programme, critical within Republicanism, and had links with the Communist no trouble for
government.
The Provisionals. bv. contrast at the time of the split, denounced the 'Marxism' of the Officials and IRA cuted t as one reason tor une sont
other criticism was the failure of the leadership of
LIOn population Belfast against the Loyalist attacks on the Catholic ghettos in August 1969. place.
There was a suspicion that the
had been largely Inanced by memoers or tne greet Tory Fianna Fail party in the
"The truth of this last rumour • has now been clarified by the recent
Westminster as sottlicni 'arms crisis' of 1969/70 published
Great Britain.' sionals did receive some Fianna
that so too did the Officals. Both these payments took the form of
Hence money by members of
Labour Party
holding •Have
Forum and affiliate to NAC.
Party, take up the issue of the free vote.
PATROL-OTCAL TRA
% of votes 3.0 17 3.1 2.2 2.4 1.7 0.8
Fianna Fail to the beleaguered Catnone population in tne north.
• The payments were also designed to ensure that Sinn rein causec
the Fianna Fail
A turner spectacular exposure from Magil is that two 'Stickies' in
Army regularly informing on the IRA to the Southern Irish state forces
It is unlikely that such infiltra-
explains . Ine subsequent degeneration of the Officials, that degeneration
The level to which it has now the reached is evident in SFWP support for: a devolved parliament in
he North of Ireland; the H-Block policy of the British government: the increase of Unionist seats at
la democratic and naturál sten in bringing Northeri Ireland into line with the rest of
As a. consequence of such atbeeh revealed titudes SFWP now has hardly any support in the Catholic ghettos of the north. Its decline in votes is evi dent frout the table produced here
Without the fight being taken into thi unions, block votes will continue to support vote for Labour MPs on abortion, thüs igno wishes of millions of working class people m Labour, and perpetuating the myth that abo matter of individual conscience not class,
women's forum - o November to take up the discussion on how k for a woman's right to choose with women Ins
Plans are also well under way for a NACAL labour movement conference next March: This already been sponsored by NUPE and the NUS
What you can do: Get your union branch or to sponsor the NAC/LARC trade union confe
union or other organisation to support the W
If your trade union is affiliated to the E
The party fares a little better in ine soutn but is boast al tne las southern south win thee seats in the trish Arish election
• parliament proved hollow. Its policies in the South were summed us i a recent salemen bow president Thomas MacGiolla: *We do not attack the (Irish) Labour Palty, even wren we alsagree will what it says.'
Behind such thinking, especially as far as the north is concerned is a theory about how 'socialism' can be brought about in Ireland - and it is a theory which is often repeated in Britain.
At its core is an insistence that before anything else can be con
tween the northern Protestant an Catholic class. Conse quently SFWP. either not raise the national ques tion, or when it does to support th Lovas vasor one ssuf
Unfortunately for the SFWP Loyalists have shown they
in the first place, and the Catholic working class has totally abandoned SFWP because of its attitude to the national question.
The political degeneration of the Officials, as well as its decline in support, emphasise: that those in Ireland who do no put the issue of British presenee in Ireland to the forefront of thei thinking may as well take one ol those businessuen -trips to t
Page 9 scan of this page
WOMEN IN IRAN
of the veil.
In London recently.
What has happened recently in fran on question women?
The issue of women's rights has been polarised around question of the veil. Khomeini made a speech about the corruption from the Shah's regime which still existed in government departments. He tributed this to the fact that there was not true Islam in Iran and that state employees
He did not actually mention the veil but in the minds of his followers it was clear enough.
There is a strong popular feeling corruption because of the Shah's regime. Not wearing the veil has been made a symbol of that corruption.
Polygamy
Women were given ten days notice to appear with the veil and were lieu fired if they defied the order.
The speech affected women who didn't wear the veil in public. Women. walking down the street were threatened with acid and knives. I had first hand experience of this myself when I was called a prostitute for being without a veil in public. while the ruling is restricted to government employees at present, in fact it extends to
This was not the first time this had happened. made a similar announcement last year. Then there were big demonstrations against his ruling and the government had to back down.
The new regime wants women back in the home too. They have introduced various ¡carules policies passed under the Shah. For example, women have been barred as judges, coeducational schools don't exist any longer, only men rave mie right lo divorce, and polygamy is now unrestricted. Laws
In addition there have been a number of new attacks on women like closing down all day-care centres and the new labour laws which reduce maternity benefits. This will force women back into the home and will effect working class women equally.
By Roy Alexander
THE recent bitter strike laun-
ched black municipal
in Johannesburg
workers
part of a much wider struggle
the South African
government and the new, rising
organisations of the
working class.
For the past five years black
WULACIS have been
TRen
organisation, despite the
complete denial of trade
reus to back workers under tae
apartheid system.
INTERNATIONAL
ATTACKS on women's rights have been a prominent feature of the Khomeini regime in Iran. These attacks have sharpened over recent months, there has been a new willingness by Iranian women to protest against such measures as the imposition
Continuing a series of articles on women in the Third World', we talked to Azar Tabari, a prominent activist in the Iranian women's movement, who was
Many feminists have argued
of that
WCHE under the Shah. How you reply to this?
the Well women's situation
women may have been better, that doesn't.
DUIL anything. Women made some gains under the Shah
at- because capitalism
developing and there expand skills - and this extended to
So capitalism. This
wullell. limits capitalism. doesn't mean we want to return to the Shah: it means that we have to have a third road neither Khomeini nor the Shah.
In other words it shows the need for a strong fight for needs of women revolution, doesn't it? has happened to the women's movement?
Before and after the International Women's demonstrations
all women's groups emerged
mainly attached to one political organisation or another. And November 1979 the first unified congress of women was held to discuss against the family laws (on
So polygamy and divorce).
While this congress did not, involve women factory workers it did involve a broad spectrum including teachers, nurses, and other state employees. It can't be dismissed because social composition. It was the beginnings of a movement the first of its kind in the Middle East probably.
Banned
However since that time almost all of the original groups have ceased functioning. This is partly because OI ficulties of organising politically at the moment, because of LTER organisations to which groups were affiliated. began to think that the issue was a diversion.
So when this latest attack came, women wanted to something but they unorganised. Despite 3-4,000 people turned up to a demonstration against the veil. Another form been wearing black as a sign of
demonstration was planned but
Given the growing importance of hack workers to ure boull African economy, government to make some conces
black unions.
But it was determined to give no steadily more arounu lau riccassal y
back workers unions are not almost entitled to basic trade union rights
union condition that
"registered" with ine allows the state to interfere in their
but
better off
would
111C(
only was was a professional
This
women's
the
within
What
Day year,
joint action
of its
the dif-
but also pollica. these They was banned.
Another problem has been the attitude of important left groups. Women looked to the do Fedayeen and were previously but this groups say that against imperialism issues ICOS of protest has There is a real danger that, in
desperation, further to figures like Bakhtiar as he appears to be the only force
South Africa: black trade unions rebuilding
operation and to prevent them taking up 'political issues — like the this forced the injustice of the whole apartheid
importantly, unions are 'racially-mixed' - that is they caninclude both coloured workers This is nothing they are blatant attempt to divide-and-rule.
state. One of the main reasons most
Women walking down the
street without veils were
attempts to impose the Islamic code on women.
standing up rights.
Mujadeen side. these the struggle makes porarily because the important.
women will look 'coloured' because they
allowed be
'African' and
short a eastered boss.
black unions have rejected registra-. Municipality Workers Union, not
threatened with acid and knives'
Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhall - one of the reactionary mullahs who has been at the forefront of
for democratic That's why the left has to take up these issues and win forces like these women to its development
Women have retreated temgeneral but contradictions
still exist for middle class and
working class women alike.
Clashes will come between
the Islamic code and women on future again.
demands,
tial coloured memberssup, an own affairs.
represent black represent workers in industries where there are members or ool groups In tne workforce and where unity of the entire workforce is essential to ef-
The South African government understanding has responded by declaring war on
The Johannesburg city council refused to negotiate with the Black
and interference.
a far larger scale. Iran is not a typical colonial country. It has
certain level of capitalist
and sooner or
later Khomeini will have to deal
with the economic problems.
The women's struggle nas
to link up with that of the na-
tional minorities. And while
there may now be a pause for
rethinking the issue of women's
rights will become central in the
because of the content of thei
but because it is an unregistered union that insisted on is açmoctauc rigal to decide Its
This is a basic principle of trades unionism and one which every British trade unionists will
should translate this into sympathy by giving the black trade union move. ment in South Africa the support it needs to establish its democratic right to exist free of state controls
OCCUPIED
WEST BANK ISRAEL Protests mount over Israeli seizure of
Jerusalem
SEVERAL thousands Arabs took to the streets of Jerusalem the weekend in protest at the decision of the Israeli parliament to declare its sovereignty over whole city. At least demonstrators were arrested.
The western part of the city has been Israeli territory since the state was establish ed, but since the 1967. war Israel has also been occupation of the eastern half an occupation repeatedly condemned the United Nations. Autonomy
Last week the parliament voted by a larg majority that all of Jerusalem is the state's 'eter. nal capital'. To emphasise the decision premier Menachem Begin is to move his office to the eastern half.
The formal annexation of the area has been attacked by even the most moderate Arab opinionin
pro-western Hussain of Jordan warner at the weekend that 'tremendous disaster obviously in store for all concerned in the area if there is no progress toward. the establishment of peace'
So strong are the protests that President Sadat of Egypt has been forced. to
Israel/Egypt talks aimed supposedly establishing Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank.
Highlight
For its part the Palesti nian Liberation Organisation is to press for economic sanctions against Israel al the United Nations.
Even before the Israel parliament's vote, Arab anger in the occupied territories had reached a new pitch. This stemmed from the recent deaths of two Palestinian political prisoners. They died of hunger strike, undertaken
highlight the abysmal conditions in the Nafha prison
The prison protests have nOW escalated, involving near 600 political prisoners. There have been widespread clashes in the streets between Arabs supporting the prisoners
Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Why CIA seeks to
INTERNATIONAL
By Fred Feldman 'MANLEY Will Have to Pay the Piper; 'Manley's Day of Judgement'.
Headlines like from Newsweek have appeared in many American newspapers and magazines. They have set the tone for an open campaign by Washington, backed by US and Canadian big business, to topple Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley - whether through elections scheduled for the autumn or by other means.
On ‹ july in te Jamaican capital of Kingston, Louis Wolf, co-editor of the Covert Action Inhe said one the name of is ClA
said were the names of 15 CIA officers in the US Embassy. assignment: bring Manley down.
Why the rush to get rid of Black
Jamaica has economic, political, and strategic importance tor us imperials. WiLD
largest English-speaking Caribbean island.
As the world's second largest bauxite producer, it provides much
the used aluminium in the United States and Canada. Jamaica is a major sugar exporter as well.
While US and Canadian aluminium barons pull in huge proits trom Jamaica, ls peopie lace deepening poverty. The 'average' yearly income is £346. This statistic is misleading because the cent of the population at the bottom gets only 24 per cent of the national income - the same percentage skimmed off by the top five per cent.
Half the adult population is illiterate.
banks and corporations have had it easy in Jamaica for a long time. Independence from Britain in 1962 did little to alter imperialist domination of the island. But things are changing.
Jamaicans have been fighting back. The example of the Cuban
Tas had a grooving miles A
nas mao a crowig Invade. now the revolution in English-speaking Grenada is being felt also.
Under the pressure of the struggle of the Jamaicans for improvement in their lives, the government of Michael Manley, , elected in 1972,
the Although is a capealismero, he proced
"democratic SOCKS.
Nationalised
The government nationalised the electricitv company and took a majority. interest in much of the bauxite industry. It imposed new taxes Lne revenue of aluminium companies.
tried to forge an OPECtype cartel to protect lne mterest. of the bauxite-producing countries of the world market.
Land was purchased from some of the big anatores agribusiness combines
Some of the money from taxes on the aluminium companies was usea to mance and Benees or tons inse mie.
These actions alone might have been eash enion's hit list. But he com enough Manley
bined them with the establishment
triendly with Cuba. Hundreds of Cuban
doctors come to a nace and
coctors came lo Jallaile
selfless behaviour undoubtedly
won even more people to the idea
should follow the
tal aladd
Cuban road,: Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 19
oust Manley
these
news
Their 4. In
Michael Manley
make ou Del black,
the
ANG In 1976 the Central Intelligence
Agency got orders to arrange for Maniev s overthrow According to Ernest Volkman and John Cummings writing in the 1977 December issue of Penthouse
2100 magazine,
and money the rightist
Labour Party. Its heavily gangs went into accion, alming to assure the election of JLP can-
other didate Edward Seaga, a business-
man. Three attempts to assassinate Manley were planned by the CIA out none succccucu On 15 December 1976, Manley won re-electiohi by an overwhelmrelations Ing majorly. Once re-elected.
tried to shift to the right. cepted an austerity programme dictated Monetary Fund as the loans.
The results were rocketing food prices, cuts in real wages, andian
Manley has tried to fend off dissent through repression.
unemployment rate of 30 per cent (50 per cent tried to fend off dissent through and by retression wing of the PNP, headed by DK
Duncan. didn't work.
Jamaica uprisings
armed island and Manley pulled back. He
announced in earl would ignore a ceiling in demanded by IMF cut off all loans to Jamaica in December, he outright.
in Manley's PNP led Washington to doubt that he could block the
Broad CuDa International Washington had remained hostile price anyway, since Manley had retained
friendly relations with Cuba and had positions at the September, nomr
Edward Seaga for youth). vane
purging the left
Strikes and threat to spread throughout that
1979 that he aid was cut off. wages Now the the IMF. After the
rejected ils termis point.
A resurgence of left-wing forces ' growing desire to Gane the planned military coup.
Panel
predicting autumn supported many of Castro's knowledgeable foes seem far from
confident.
aligned conference in Havana.
On 6 October 1979 Manley joined the governments of Guyana Grenada and St. Lucia in denounc ing Carter's formation of a military task torce tor the cariddean as a
Many government in the asserted independence. In retaliation US food
CIA is again heavily backing JLP candidate Seaga in the upcoming elections. The JLP gangs are relying on violence to mane ti
Thirty-one officers and soldiers of the Jamaican Defence Force and one civilian have beer arrested since 22 June as part of a
The US media are unanimous in
Manley's defeat in the . erecuons.
AROUND THE WORLD
United States AFTER the decision of the Law Lords, ordering Granada TV to name the 'mole' at British Steel, journalists may well again look to the United States and pine after the Freedom of Information Act which operates there.
But in the US, too, 'press freedom' is not all it's cracked up to be.
Last week, a select committee of the House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it a crime to disclose the identity of a 'covert agent' of a US intelligence agency. The Bill would even make it a crime to try and expose such a spy, even if such an attempt was unsuccessful.
The measure is aimed at ex-agents like Phil Agee who has named hundreds of CIA spies, and Leonard Wolf, who publishes a newsletter that has listed an estimated two thousand CIA agents.
El Salvador
EL SALVADOR'S Commission for Human Rights last week accused the right-wing ruling junta of waging 'a war of extermination against the people'.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, junta member Jose Antonia Morales Ehrlich has threatened that the government's campaign against the left, liberals could leave 'at least 300,000 dead' before it is finished
The guerillas fighting the government have vowed to launch an all-out offensive within 45 days. A statement issued by the freedom fighters said: 'We must take immediate action to lift the masses' morale before its combativeness is drowned by right-wing repression.'
Secretariat of the Fourth International has called for 'all out action to stop the assassins of the Salvadorian junta'.
Said the United Secretariat: 'It is necessary to demand that all governments break immediately their diplomatic relations with the junta, and cease all military and economic aid. In particular it is important to demand that all parties defining themselves as part of the workers' movement, and who participate in any governments, demand that their ministers immediately blockade of the junta and of Salvadorian reactionaries.
"The trade and simultaneously organise a massive public campaign to denounce the crimes committed against the Salvadorian people, and to give full political and material support to the revolutionary organisations... who organise and co-ordinate the defence of the masses against terror.'
India ABOUT 306m people, more than half India's population, was living below the poverty line in 1977-78, according to official estimates issued in India last week.
United States 'WALL Street, here I come. Let's make millions of dollars together.' These were the words of Jerry Rubin, writing in the New York Times last week.
Rubin, older readers may recall, was a leader of the quasi-anarchist Yippies in the late 1960s and author of 'Do It Now!' Now Jerry is to become a 'securities analyst' on Wall Street experience on Wall Street was in 1967 when he and a couple of others threw dollar bills on to the floor of the stock exchange in a 'symbolic protest'.
Recalled Rubin: 'The floor brokers stopped trading and rushed after the falling dollars'. Now Jerry has decided to join the rush. Japan THE new Japanese government, headed by Zenko Suzuki, has announced an increase in its defence budget of nearly ten per cent.
The plan is to spend £5 billion on new military equipment over the next couple of years. The army plans to increase the number of tanks from 840 to 1,140, while the navy is planning 16 new destroyers and five new submarines.
Intercontinental Press/Inprecor In this week's issue: an exclusive interview with Maurice Bishop, prime minister of Grenada; what the Republican Party convention showed; report of 26 July celebration in Cuba; and more.
Single issue 40p inc! p&p, or £6 for 24 issues. To IP/I, PO Box, 50, London N1.
trade unionists and A timely statement recently issued by the United
take up the question of a total
workers' parties must — the heart of US capitalism. Rubin's previous
Page 11 scan of this page
CAPITALISM IN DECAY
UNDER REVIEW
THERE have never been dentists, and there never will be. The complaints of poverty you will hear when you are encouraged to accept a course of private dentistry are to support a standard of living beyond the wildest dreams of, say, nurses.
Earlier this summer nurses received a pay increase of 14 per cent, representing a cut in their real income of nearly 10 per cent. Dentists and doctors were awarded a 30 per cent pay rise without hardly having to bother to ask.
happens that 30 per walen is tne averace Day tor cen. tists, represents the entire income of a HUISC.
hear ane lenorance acou wiat coes on inside your mouth are exploited to the full by dentists. he toothache which keeps you awake at night, one of the severest pains your body has in store for you, will because the alternative is going to the den- encurca lor days SUlIC tist.
The patient in pain is in no position to consider whether the dentist is entitled to an emergency fee or to shop around for the best cear. Ana now woud you know whal a good deal is?
Suffer
Dentistry comes on faith. You will be told that tooth-coloured fillings cannot be done on the NHS, which isn't true. Or that better materials are used for fillings done Duvale wich is aiso alc. I vour acHus! is at all motivated by the profit incentive, it's your dental health and purse which are kew to suter
For example, you may be sold a private porcelain crown for over deciacary mienol crown on the NHS. same but is much stronger and more exDens ve to make.
Even dentists don't always know when a more sophisticated, consumnng SoluLOn lo a aculal DrODICH has any advantage cheaper method. The emphasis at dental reachne nosoilais Is Research comes up with better solutions to a patient's problems, but they are nearly always more time-consuming and expensive.
Prevention
The result is brilliant solutions to the problems of a few while the dental health oi tne populaton as a wnole is negiectea The real task in dentistry is prevention. Caring for already essenual, out can il be allowea to lake precedence over prevention?
Plaque, a soft, white deposit which
THE OTHER
BOOKSHOP
THE EYE OF THE HERON, by Ursula le Guin and others.
Excellent new science
tion from the author of The Dispossessed. plus sci-fi short stories by authors. Panther £1.25 COTTERS ENGLAND, by nasuna stead.
Set in post-war England, the work explores political and personal tnemes inrougn tne lives of one family. Virago £3.50 NOVEL ON PAPER, by Stevie Smith.
Witty, poetic novel about a woman writer Vlasu La.ol
THE HARDER Mov vichaee wel.
The story of a country boy trying to make it through the hard music world of Kingston, Jamaica. Pluto £2.95 WOMEN IN NICARAGUA, SEne Nicaragua sondarity Campaign.
How women ana struggica i tne Nicaracuan revolution. 50p Other Boksiop, UppeTht, available from Tel 01-226 0571.
Add 15% if ordering by mail:
poor cent OCU DIC which is •LIO UVIA-LYDC The latter looks the
expensive and time-
over a quicker and
sobnisticaulon. mutilated mouths is
fic-
live other women YELLOW
except for ortodontics '30s.
Drobiens or overcrowaca lecun
preventable.
THEY from dentists? participated scaling and polishing
receive the instruction?
Another
in
Open Wide! PAUL
SHAFEE describes how
many of his colleagues in
the dental profession
DENTIST Paul Shafee demonstrating how many of his colleagues work
forms all the time on your teeth, is composed of bateria. This is what you brush oil and unas been snowa to oe une causc of both tooth decay and gum disease. Thus
coping with the - LIC LWU
diseases that dentists combat are wholly
Is this reflected in the care you receive
The NHS will pay dentists a f16 fee to show a patient once a year how to effec. tively clean their teeth, which includes the use or a narmiess ree ove to disciose biaque so that the patient can modify her or his toothbrushing, followed by instruction on the use of dental floss, and extended
Many dentists claim this fee. Do you
important factor in tooth
decay is the way in which the food industry manipulates our diet so tnat we eat renned
which promotes
disease. Then there's fluoride. Adjusting the fluoride content of water would cut
There's gold in them thar fillings
IM AFRAID THEWHOLE
WALLET IS GOING
TO MAVE TO COME
OUT!! tooth decay by half and benefit working class children most.
The system produces dentists who are primed for cheque-book dental care, but at least with pure private practice know what game is being played. Mos dentists cannot find sufficient private patients so they attempt to ucus vu pout cose wue cau va! privately and filling the rest of their books
with the parts of NHS dentistry which pay the most.
The result is that it is hard to obtain dentures or bridges on the NHS, or for children to be u Calcu Dentists forgotten the ethics and joined the 'Nash bash'. Some happily admit to first and secona class treatment as belween private and NHS patients.
At present I offer only NHS dentistry ana oy never working out wien treatmen earns me the most I don't allow cash to in
treatment planning. make a reauve v arge sum o moncy
Since 1 pay a standard 50 per cent of my earnings to my principal, who supplies
demand this not only of
their patient's mouth but
of their purse.
me with patients, a surgery, and staff, I am not involved with the money which goes into wages and equipment.
WOLK I exemplities the sional attitude of my principal and other associates who like me work for him.
week, with a one-week holiday entitlement after six months these wages and conditions there seems to he no ene or schoo eavers wad any training in a surgery from their first day on the job
have potential emergencies in a dental surgery?
one dentist, but be 'floating' to different surgeries nerE surgeries, and dentists have quite different routines.
I still what nurses can expect. vonne was sacked for taking an afternoon off to go for a moD intervich her had just taken a day off to look for a
new job.
lunch-hour
cal tbs me nas
equipment seulotave
of the chair.
fumes.
Profits
gross drops below
He
SIX ORLOS Inland by his Rolls
Sound
Neitner
staff. suggested to the
The wa: month's notice.
Studs
on TV
said of his Lonnigan: '1
The practice I The caring, profes-
The nurses at the surgery receive t3s a
employment. Even on in ITV's
WILnOUl The - are working on their own
Is common sense enough to cope with
Bookshop. nc ses may Hol cycu oc allaclicu li
- travelling during the these standaraisallol
Manushi, One uniform and a lot of abuse; that's
The dentist who dismissed
At another practice owned by my principal the nursing staff were lectured one
on the need for them to show respect to the dentists. including calling them 'doctor' in front of patients!
My principal goes to some lengths to maximise his profits. He employs 15 to 20 associate dentists, creaming off half their
replaced boxes of tissues with whipment is repairdi ely olim, using
repaired by Instcaa or ciecurical Insulaung tape and forceps in place of spanners
Because a reducing valve had not been fitted to my high-speed drill it screamec like Concorde. Eventually the air pressure became so great that the cable exploded, causie uc umrortulalc vaucll to icap ou
The surgeries are old, with curled lino as the floor covering. It is a trap for mer cury and amalgam, which give off toxic
My contract says that if my monthly
It uu une bracioa receives 55 per cent instead of 50 per cent.
specialises in importins quatee cenists trom soule alca an Australia to come here to knock the NHS, make as much as they can, and leave after
Revenue's someumes lakine wien unen share and leaving behind patients whose treatment has been only partly completed.
My patients are surprised to see me for two successive six-month treatments. They are used to a new face every time they come to the surgery. The profit motive enes nome to aculal carc
The status of my principal is indicatec
Royce Yet how can he forced to plough his DrULILS TL surgery equipment and staff wages? If l o wou ld be inted ately redl aced. the staff withhold our labour we
I would like to start an ideologically sound preventive NHS practice, but to do so is an extremely capitalistic enterprise Paying high wages and using only the best equipment is easy — deciding what income you are prepared to take is not so easy.
should SUCE practice charitable or exploitative to patients or
I would like to meet any dentists who have the same problems as me. Please get in touch c/o Socialist Challenge
LATE NEWS: Paul Shafee has just left ine dental surgery wnere ne workea.
few days ago the faulty air-pressure cabl
he mentions in his article blew up for a secona ume. He rejusea to parcn ul up anc
principal that he migh
plough some of his profits into increase wages and better equipment.
His boss went berserk. Shafee was told ienoramus and given on
Lonnigan
JAMES T Farrell, the American
socialist writer who died last year
major work Studs view it as a tragic
story of how defeat can come in a
setting of spiritual poverty.?
setting the Irish
Catholic community in Chicago's
South Side during the years of the
Depression. Studs is a tough. You
can follow part two of his career
Best Seller series next
Monday, 11 August, at spm.
800-page book
published by Granada at $2.50.
It's available •trom The Other Manushi
the Indian feminist
magazine mentioned last week, is
available from Shakti Bookhouse,
46 High St, Southall, Middx. Tel
01-574 1325. Price 80p incl p&p.
Socialist Challenge 7 August 1980 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge Gang of Three threaten to split LABOUR'S TORY TRIO
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by Cardinal Enterprises for Socialist Challenge. 328/9 Upper Street, London N1: Printed by East End Offset Ltd (TU), London E2.
By Tariq Ali THE manifesto of Owen and Rodgers, published in the Guardian and the Daily Mirror, attacks the move to the left in the Labour Party and threatens a walkout from the party. It is an event of great importance British politics.
The capitalist crisis has inevitably put immense pressures on the traditional right-wing Labour solutions.
More and more of the party's rank and file see the need for bold socialist policies, and understand that to get these policies adopted and put into practice by a Labour government means a complete democratisation of the party,
The combination of the demand for socialist policies and democratic reform is what worries the ahom right. They fear that the party might adopt a radical manifesto, change the rules for electing the leader, and endorse mandatory reselection.
combination of measures would be an immense threat, to the stranglehold which the Labour right has kept on the parliamentary party, which has enabled it, year after year, to ignore policies formulated at the party conference.
Squeal
Hence the anguished hence the systematic use bourgeois press to attack Tony Benn (as if the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror were not sufficient in regard); hence the wild denunciations of the 'far-left' taking Labour Party; hence the resign and form a new party.
That these are real worries for the right is beyond dispute, chances of a clean sweep for the left in October appears somewhat remote at the present time.
The real powers to decide rest in the hands of the trade bureaucrats. The block vote of the unions will determine the future of the Labour Party. It is true that the growth of the public sector unions has won the left some new allies, but the T&GWU and the AUEW will still decide the crucial questions.
Callaghan, on his part, is confident that the unions will back some shoddy compromise by which he will defeat attempts to drastically alter the process of electing a new leader. In
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such an eventuality he may well resign and try and get Healey elected as his
All this is speculative, but the very fact that such discussions are taking
hysteria engendered by the right is designed to
within the party, because they fear that such
ultimately lose them their
Secondly, they are utterly opposed to any radical re-orientation of the
The main inspiration of the trio is the former deputy leader of the party,
Roy Jenkins. It is rumoured that in the event of his idea of a new party proving to be still-born, he would be quite happy to become the editor of The Times!
It is unlikely that Rodgers, Owen, or Williams would become editors of the Guardian or the Daily Mirror, though they might aspire regular columns (which would mean less space for Peter Jenkins).
The Labour left, on its parts, has to clarify its attitude towards unions and the way in which they wield the block vote. If mandatory reselection is necessary for Members
-An open letter to their fellow members
of the Labour Party
From David Owen, William Rodgers
and Shirley Williams
OUR WAY
•Voters who deserted Labour
did not go to the far Left.
They went to the Tories'
do YOU think? Write to Public Opinion Spacial D
of Parliament, then surely it is equally vital that trade union leaders are also recallable by their electors.
If democratising the Labour Party is essential, then to leave the trades unions alone would mean that the former process would always be incomplete. to write The strategy of every Labour left leader has been based on an alliance between the Labour Party executive and the trade union the While this is necessary to defend the workers against Tory attacks, it is totally insufficient to take the offensive and fight for socialist policies in
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They
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Today
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programme measures.
the past.
the game. they and simple. their careers leaderships.
Mobilising
The most revealing aspect of the 'Gang of 3' manifesto, which shows the utter political bankruptcy of the Labour right, is its attack on the view that there is a crisis of welfare
Rogers-Williams-Owen still live in
world of Butsekellism. They believe that a solution to Britain's problems can be found by moderate solutions, which were appropriate to the period of economic boom in the
yearn for the period relative consensus between the two
without 'extremist' solutions of either left or right.
these views totally anachronistic. Thatcher's Tories were
power by the bourgeoisie precisely because they have a bold programme of anti-working class measures to start to deal with the
The cuts, unemployment, and the rest are all part of that programme The only answer to this Tory offensive is for Labour to adopt its own
of radical socialist the 'realistic answer. The "Gang of 3' are living in
Labour Party led by Healey/Peter Shore will not defeat Thatcher, either on the streets or at the polls. A left victory would undoubtedly shake the ruling class and even provoke it to change the rules of
That would not be a bad thing for it would stress the fundamental primacy of politics and class struggle in the years that lie ahead.
The threat of Williams, Kdgers, and Owen to walk out of the party more than anything shows their true colours. When it comes down to it,
are bourgeois politicians pure
In the past they have been relatively at home in the Labour Party; but they would be equally at home in the
Democratic Party or in some of the European liberal parties.
If the Labour Party ceases to be a useful tool for their policies - or
they will have no qualms about following the example of Ramsey MacDonald - out of the Labour Party to greener pastures. Such a development could only help to clarify the reality of their politics.
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