Socialist Challenge No. 160, 14 August 1980
The scan: sc-n160-aug-14-1980.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 Nine years after internment and its still BRITISH TERROR ON
country'
Today,
• Michael already dead. He was killed in the early hours of Saturdav morning, near Falls Road in West Belfast. He too was hit by a plastic bullet, a weapon described officially as nonlethal'; that too was fired by a suusa solder
Michael and Anne Marie was injured during a weekend of protests and demonstrations in Belfast and elsewhere in the North of Ireland which marked the nineth anniversary of the introduction
the ultimate British Army in the North of re and was, foremost, a force of repression lo be usea Catholic North of Ireland
show that changed.
Internment orncialy gone but now there are the women's prison in Armagh. nere une vicums or Kritish rule are sent by a juryless
tain should leave Ireland?' was fired by a British soldier.
Donnelly was murdered gravely
of interninternment was proof that the
first and
against une population in the
The events last weekend
nothing has
might have
H Blocks and the
BELFAST
STREETS
A COUPLE of weeks ago Anne Marie McMullen was asked by the socialist youth newspaper Revolution: 'Do you think Bri-
She replied: Yes, it's the only way there'll be any peace. I think they should leave today. They have no right in our
15-year-old Anne lies in a Belfast hospital on the edge of death. She may indeed be dead by the time you read this newspaper. She was shot by a plastic bullet in Belfast at the weekend. The bullet
Michael Donnelly
also the jury and sentencer. tion that avervone
brothers, sisters, in H Blocks or Amargh.
released demonstration in about 20 socal schoos against the conditions. At lunch-time we all started unrow rood everywnere.nev had to bring
US OUL OT SCHOOl.
court in which the judge is
Anne Marie told Revolu-
area supports the prisoners. Many of us have
. or relatives
•When Kieran Nugent (the first H Block prisoner) was
organised
to tear up books and
in Brits (soldiers) to stop us and kick
breeds militants.
Approximately
Piers Marston,
Two. other
two,
une
tion of
scribed organisation'.
has been used agains
remanded
to speak out should be defended by so The demands try
The Troops troops out determination for DCUDIC relevance for Michael
McMullen in weekend.
British
would to
gone on long enough.
No.160 14 August 1980 20p
Ann Marie is a militant.
She would make no apology
The situation Ireland breeds militants. The presence of the British army
In Britain the campaign is growing to get the troops out of Ireland without further repeated is mall last Tuesday. members or ine country-wide Troops Out Movement went over to Ireland to join the protests at une weeken. Atleast one of the TOM members
was arrested
campaigners on Ireland were also arrested in Glasgow on Saturday. The
Kristine Crosbie and Mike Duffield, were selling
magazine Fight Racism Derek Speirs (IF L)
Imperialism! and Hands off Ireland' badges
For this they were charged on Monday under the Preven- A BREAST COMARIE CATAR
I CETTISHE they did solicit and invite SIN financial support for a pro-
It is the first time the PTA
in this way sundariLy activists. The two have been
in custody for
on Ireland all
demands the YTOTHEARMAGHWOMEN Out Movement selfthe Irish
DonMarie Belfast Las
To repeat Anne's words
'should leave
the 12onv ha Troops Out demo in Belfast on anniversary of Internment last Saturday
Page 2 scan of this page
1 September -your date
Manchester against the missiles
HOMENEWS
OUR POLICIES
not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in opposition
class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive in grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the creation unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, an application of united lacuics, begin lo be alternative by thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation shouid be based on the understanding that: seeks to unite the fight of The struggle for
workers against the with that of other oppressed layers of society — women, black people, gays struggling for liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with necessary means the power of the capitalist state. 2 • Our socialism
infinitely more democratic than what exists in Britain today, with full rights for political parties and currents that
lo not take u arms against the
ocialist state. The Stalinist model of 'socialism' in the USSR Eastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the We are opposed to them offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democracy.
З ва чата сі. Сарани The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalism has not only created a world market. it has created politics. Thus we fight for working class unity on an scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
l immer it implies drama int
immediate withdrawal British troops from letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither "Eurocommunist' the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningful strategy for overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionary socialist parties are more necessary before. Conditions today HOTe favourable than over the preceding three decades. But such parties can only be rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury bur as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and tendencies.
If you agree with these principles and want 10 be involved activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
am interested information about activities in my area. • I would like additional literature and enclose 50p to cover costs. (Délete if not applicable)
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......•...Tel no
Socialist Challenge, 14-Auguot 996 iPage 2
unemployment. character.
the response
Socialist Challenge, and beating up old people. through
front ШІЯ НО РОТО ПРОН
For the of
socialism
bosses
their
all
THE quarter of a million people will be many more mutilated by
the A-bombings Hiroshima all Nagasaki, undertaken to teach the Soviet Union a lesson, were memorated last weekend ard by thousands who took rames, marcues, and vigils. world. and will Reported on this page
the events chester.
Some 500 people marched in to York, stopping off Hawkhill Detence College, letter was delivered testing about the
world ment's nuclear
policy.
The letter said that the international existence
weapons in Britain UNIS target for massive catastrophic nuclear attack,
Ireland and
By Pete Clifford
marched
day to the Cruise missiles.
ever
are Disarmament, Frank Allaun, •anora. ano secretary of the built by TUC
Manchester Vissues. a united acton cam
Tories out
more
Tories.
Challenge
Prominent
ting Manchester
orramsue a mass
The War
with the TUC
SUPPORT is building up for the 1 September lobby of the TUC on
With over two million on the dole,
' OI tne trade union leaderships has been non-existent. As Bob Wright puts it in this week's
being against unemployment is like being against
The point is, the TUC
TUC leadership answer is precious little. Many unions wave
Crawley have policies against overtime and for
the the 35-hour week, but again very little
and the
No peace
of
for nuclear
and weapons combases
and called for unilatera in Man- nuclear disarmament.
At a gathering of more han a vege Carlisle, Julie Christie con.
Home demned the government's where a decision sure pro- missiles in Britain.
At the Greenham ComOYCHweapons mon KANH base, Cruise missiles are sited. a 75-hour vigil was nuclear made taking part. Other ootentia LOOK place and Bromley, and Midlands.
AS many as 2,500 peoManchester last satgh. though oppose the and Trident
The demonstration, called by the Campaign for Nuclear by MP for COln barnett North-west
nev were toroweo Dy e large contingent organised by heals. the
paign recently set up in the
NOW!
NSURE
There were hundreds of Labour Party members on the YOUR Drolest win sogans not 1ust against nuclear war, but also UTURE
calling for the kicking out of DOclalisi contingent also called for union action to stop
among the Inhn march were scores of young covie, many or enem SuDDor Youth Against the Missiles, which is candidn to demand that the BBC show ago.
Game; the anti-nuclear film banned 20 year:
The lobby called by the Mobilising
Committee on Unemployment is go-
ing to the TUC to demand that the
TUC organise class-wide action to
stem the flood of redundancies. The
lobby will be outside the TUC at the
Conference centre at noon and there
will be a lobby meeting at the Sea
House pub at Ipill, 1 Middle St.,
Brighton, just down the road from
Speakers at the rally will include Ward, branch POEU, Bernard Connolly craft convenor
Rotherham, and John Walsh, con-
Thousands remember
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Niard (Renort
Andraw
where
events Swindon, West t, Angert
TON PART
YOUNG CIALIS Another striking feature of the demonstration was the Manchester
Brighton Centre
venor of BOC of Challenge readers should be gearing up for a maximum BSC turn-out at the lobby and meeting. For details of WELCOME TO.
A Japanese Bhuddist monk on a 75-hour vigil at Greenham Common, one of the proposed sites for Britain's Cruise missiles
WI
WE
WONT
DIE FOR
FREEDTMATCHER:
Ot TRIDENTR
CRUISER
numner of women marching Peace a large group were behind the Women for
Sea House Pub
Brichton
Hackney. Socialist 01-359-8371.
alu subourie.
FOR A 35-HOUR
transport ring LOSS OF PAY!
the taxpayer f5 billion.
Jackel. It is a pity tnat te cizens
different view of Thatcher, the cold war warrior.
opinion. port this march Signed: Frank
Walder, NW CND secretary.
061-236 4905.
WE WONT there DIE FOR
I THATCHE
banner. Their organiser. Doreen Henshaw explained Socialist
NO TO UNEMPLOYMENT WEEK NOW SHARE THE WORK, WITH NO
March against the
Missiles
Eve of Labour Party conference
Sunday 28 September, Blackpool (THROUGHOUT the country there is a growing alarm
•over Defence Secretary Francis Pym's announcement of Ine NA I O plan to site 100 Cruise missiles in Britain by 1982. and the proposed replacement of Polaris by Trident, costing
The Tories tell us we can survive a nuclear attack by whitewashing our windows and wrapping our head in a
Nagasaki didn't have the benefit of this learned advice.
The Labour Party conference could take a dramatically
— 131 motions explicitly oppose the decision
Consituency parties and unions showed their concern over the siting of the missiles on the Labour NEC-organised march of 25,000 in June. Yet shadow Defence Secretary William Rodgers continues to speak out against this tide of
We've called this march for Blackpool to demonstrate to constituency and union delegates, MPs, and the NEC the massive support from party members and supporters for a campaign to stop the missiles being sited, to support blacking action by unions in furtherance of this objective, and to commit the next Labour government to cancel the Cruise
All CLPs, unions, and individuals are invited to sup-
Allaun, MP; Colin Barnett, secretary; Paul Salveson, Greater Manchester Communist Party secretary; Ken Slater, AUEW district secretary; Bob
Further details from: Labour Conference March Against the Missiles, 25 Osborne Rd, Levenshulme, Manchester. Tel
Challenge they were not just marching against missiles, but were also campaigning to ge US troops out of the country.
They are sending a delega non to me oo arrorce basel Warrington on 3 September to talk to the service personnel aDoul . us wilnorawal from Britain.
NATO
This theme was echoed in Frank Allaun's speech at the end of the march. . He argued: " I he impetus comes trom tne Americans we have to pose Britain's participation in any defence • policy based on une use or unreatenco use ol nuclear weapons. I agree we must get out of NATO unetorthcoming Labour Party conference, Allaun welcomed the 191 anu-war resolanons, bul argued that maximum unity accosal con terence in order nor to dereal the main issue of missiles'
In this light Allaun will be conterenci separate the issue of NATO membership from that of the missiles. two questions are dealt with in separate resolutions. rather unreal il secills division in that Britain is only a site for the missiles because of its NATO membership Allaun is one of the sponsors of a poposed demonstracon against une missues on l eve of the Labour Party con ference in Blackpool 28
Page 3 scan of this page
NATO CRUISES TO WAR
ment.
Sandhurst-trained
General Pasti, most leading European circles see December NATO decisions to deploy Pershing and Cruise missiles as the probable leading cause of the soviet action in Afghanistan. US-Chinese negotiations over missile technology are similarly seen as
factor. Could you comment on lese two aspects of the present military situation?
Let's take China first. When US defence
DIOWI visited China, the aim was to establish common points for harmonisation of US and Chinese militarv policv. with a view toward an eventual war against the Soviet Union.
une visa was oreanised perore Soviet troops entered Afghanistan. Contrary to what
sullC say. soviet move was not the cause of the intensified US-Chinese negotiations; the contrary is the case
The second cause of the action in Afghanistan was the decision to install the Euromissiles
about understood that the Euromissiles are not theatre nuclear DUl are weapons. deployed to destroy targets well within the USSR.
As a result unev canot be term ed tactical but are strategic, and thus cause an imbalance in the world strategic balance of forces This destabilised the international situation.
laci inat ine Us senate refused ratify SALT as couchs signiticant in this regara. DAli li implea reacning a level of equilibrium in strategic
Whitelaw's civil
defence farce
THE government's deci-
sion to devote an extra
£45m to civil defence is
one off its most cynical
decisions.
The main 'civil defence'
DroDosal (made Home
Secretary Whitelaw
civilians should construct anti-
smelters inerr own
nomes. Whitelaw argues that a
lives'
could be
suvea oy ine expen.
cuure orinis tain
In reality, it is highly unlike-
ly that most of the population
would have the time 1o acquire
the materials required to block
off windows and 1o construct o
chener in the 'anti-fallout
room.
I/ IS by
that these "shelters' would pro-
INTERNATIONAL
'THE Soviet Union is engaged in a massive build-up of its armed forces and will soon achieve a position of superiority from which to threaten the security of the Western World. We have no choice but to increase defence spending., So runs the argument employed by the Tory government to justify their decision to buy five billion pounds worth of Trident submarine-based missiles and to allow the United States to deploy Cruise missiles in this country.
The Soviet Union replies by charging the West with initiating the new round in the arms race and cites the refusal of the US to ratify the SALT II arms limitation agreement to back up their claim.
Who can we believe? One man specially qualified to shed some light on the conflicting claims Washington and the Kremlin is Italian general Nino Pasti, who recently retired from military duties with the NATO command to become a member of parlia-
But Pasti is a retired military man with a difference: he was elected as a candidate of the Italian Communist Party. And his views on Afghanistan, Cruise missiles, and rearmament, which are set out in the following interview, would no doubt throw our
general staff, not to mention Margaret Thatcher and co, into paroxysms of rage.
forces: parity. It is this parity which the prevents war given unar each siof can inflict annihilation other. ratify meanin to of the deploy calls the deployment Euromissiles is therefore that the US attempting to supailurily The Pershings and Cruises can hit targets within Russian territory.
This is not a quantitative problem. over warheads in Europe. and Cruise is a qualitative change in lne equlorum.
Given that the Soviet cannot and will not accept this, the arms race, which carries with it the danger of a world war which would endanger the whole human race.
The NATO argument and propaganda to the effect that Euromissiles welC achieve parity following deployment of the SS20 is simply false, for the following reasons The SS20s are theatre nuclear weapons which cannot reach They are a modernisation of the SS4 and SSS whose precision and functions were outdated.
SS20 warheads carry three the SS4 and the SS5. Each SS20 missile carries three warheads.
The ratio of replacement is one new warhead for every missiles, a fact recognised officially Ine us and Europe. astonishes me is the replacement of SS4 and SS5s by SS20s. 'II States has replaced their systems no less than several times.
It is important to Kissinger said wnen ne was in tect against fallout. And what little hope personally Sirucien 'anti-fallout' shelters afford - assuming that there's more than four minutes warn70 - will be of no relevance lo The millions of people in urban ureus wrose nouses would be destroyed or severely damaged by blast and fire storm.
Whitelaw's f45 m is not really about prolecting the civilian population detence about convincing ull. people that they could survive nuclear This is a par#cularly cruel and cynical hoax.
Tories Its purpose Is lo make th acceptio war proparations more The f45m-spent on the civil defence public relations exercise payment on the thousands millions for Trident and Cruise.
of
one always ready to fire -Vladivostock in November 1974. During the signing of the interim
the accord he declared in a press con
ference that it was the USA which
means convinced the The real clude theatre nuclea
of overall negotiations, although the Soviet side wished to do so achieve Using the argument that theatre
nuclear weapons could not reach Soviet territory shares weapuls, nissueer asker that they not be included, whereas nuclear Gromyko wanted to negotiate on The Pershing theatre weapons.
June Western Europe the deployment of Union Pershing and Cruise means only a
much heavier targeting of Europe by Soviet missile weapons.
The new missiles can reach Soviet territory within launch, lure
the precious little time to decide on
world war. Some have described recuired
the this situation as a Cuba crisis in
reverse.
Yes, it is a Cuba missile crisis in
US reverse.
But if we look at the other part of the equation. at China. every bit of new technology given is a threat equivalent to the Euromissiles and cal ve a cause or war.
The SALT!! agreement does not three old include provision for the USSR's
weapons aimed
What That is the reason why the SS20 wa
made mobile. According to US intelligence sources, ne nated missile ine lola amoun or solus are amn
Led at China.
Now the note wildl technology to China. increases thi
danger of war. Look at the change in strategic posture of the USA during the period 1973-79 Before, it was based on massive retaliation. A strategy of 'countercity': it vou attack me and destro my cities I will do the same with your cities; so war was impossible. In 1973 Schlesinger invented thi 'counterforce' presupposed a destruction of the enemy unrouen a suronise auack Today, the USA warheads and the USSR has 5,000. ¡ne soviets nave more tarow eithe chimp not for tack cities, countervalue strategy which aim at wiping out the military forces of the enemy. be able to hit Many or anem ls more errective 1o have the same throw-weight but with that throw-weight with fewer.
From the standpoint of military strategy, from snarinors, Machiavelli, and the down- military tradition of the
founding fathers, the US strategy appears bankrupl, because as soun as the USSR
Soviets not to in-
weasons m standpoint
minutes Sovie Union release all its missiles -against China.
more than half nuclear war.
We must consider the increase early warning system.
system.
doctrine. This
has 10,000
This requires that they
small targets and
many missiles than to have
American
monitors on their
With a range of 4,500 miles, the America wil give Britain the al to strike many more targ w. UK siles will threater Russian targets from an area tou times the size of that available t he more vulnerable Polaris boat not suprisonnes dive acept and travel faster radar system a US launch it will
- so the US missues wilt be stakine emory shos
It seems that the reason for the USA's strategic posture is that they are preparing for a limited tactical
that the US could blind the Soviet possibility strike
The US is making progress in this direction
Farc only 20 pel orcach Ine soviel eariy warning
But the Soviets will realise that. 35 YEARS SAIGE AND I TANK FAI HE HORROR OF TE NORLD HAS THROSHIMA LEARNI A VALUABLE LESSON
Trident warhond
TRIDENT: THE LONG-RANGER Yes, but when they realise it, 15 minutes is little time to act on what is going on: It might have been a moon storm or olner onenomenon which is mistaken for a disruption of the early warning system signifying attack. How can one take the decision to launch a full nuclear
under luust condions
That is one possibility. Furthermore, 50 per cent of the US missiles
submarine-launched, wherea
missiles are submarine. So, the surviving weapons after the first strike will be 50 per cent on one side and only 20 per cent on the other.
I DONT TANK THAT
AN AONIC BOMB MILL BE DROPPED EVER AGANI
US steps
up war
preparations
PRESIDENT Carter has
just approved a plan which
significantly shifts the em.
phasis of the United States
nuclear strategy - and in-
creases the possibility of a
nuclear war!
Presidential
which Carter initialled
weeks requires the US
Command
priority to the destruction of
Soviet military and governmen
a largers.
curacy of the new generation o
warheads - to within 200 fee
arte 2,000 miles
makes this possible.
Jargon
The US will no longer rely
on "deterrence based on the
maluans assured
destruction' - military jargon
Soviet Union
oul eaen orner's cities
"The new directive is found-
ed on the belief that it is possi
bie to nave a nuclear war ol
sulle Harold Jackson in the Guar- duration explained
olon 'and that the selective
picking off of the Soviet
capability to wage such a wal
will serve as a detterent.'
Or, put another way, the
scittlive capabilly
Soviet missile sites means that
the United States can start and
win such a war
Deploy
Coupled with the decision to
build the $34 billion MX missile
system, to increase the number
of Trident-bearing nuclear sub-
marines, and to deploy Cruis
missiles West , this
lead,
Jackson's words, to a 'con-
tinued escalation of the growing Amena as Ceberal Pasti
And General
demonstrates in the intervien
avove lar ror bene deen.
sive' measures, the latest moves
of the imperialist powers repre
sent a major stepping up or the
military threat to the Soviet
Union.
That is only part of the story. If on the Soviet side, 11 per cent of the submarines are on permanent patrol, the US has 50 per cent of its submarines on patrol and is making a big effort to increase its number of submarines
In short the United States is doevery lig to reach supentority
Then there are the MX mobile missiles. There is opposition fron the General Accounting Office to these missiles, but Carter will go ahead with them. , Then there is the second Trident that can be used very close to the Soviet seacoast.
POTENTIAL ECONOMIC ALLY
Page 4 scan of this page
THE PROTECTION RACKET
workforce on the same terms as men.
female labour
sion.
THE view that women should not go out to work at all, let alone in heavy jobs,
been current among trades unionists for well over a hundred years.
In 1867 the sixth general meeting of the German Workers Association passed the following
ne empormen o women w the workshops of modern industry is ses of one
our lunies Scandalous Decause u aoes noi imorove mre material situation of the CIUSS makes It Worse. because the destruction of the family in particular reduces workuns css boomacon lo a wrerched state.
*This gives us reusom to reiter wie current eirurts to increase even further the market for female labour.
Even those socialists such Marx and Bebel wno opposea tne view that women should be kept out ot the workforce found some kinas or labour morany reprenensible for women'.
Feminine
Bebel wrote in Women and Socialism:
It is truely not a lovely sight to sep womer even with child. with men in wheeling heavily-laden barrows railway sues. or ko ouserve inem lime and cement, or carrying heavy buds, os sises, or asea ber sorke or stones, labourers ing at washing coal or ironstone
The women there are stripped of all that is feminine and their feminity astramoen macenooi. just as our men, in many different types of employment, are bereft of anything manly.
Nineteenth century capitalists did perpetrate a violent exploitanon or me acomae masse as a whole. Women and children were a symbol of the ruthlessness of that
-WOMENS
'ASHBAs August issue now Features on the housing crisis and the job losses in. hosiery industry; a guide to the Employment Bill; articles on the closure of a women's hospital in Glasgow and on the
treatened WUlliCIl deportation. Plus letters, local stories, campaign news, and a page one appeal for the lobby of the TUC for a woman's right to work, on September 1st. Womens Fightback costs just 5p, plus postage (up copieș for a 10p stamp). Send
Women's Fightback, Ellington Street, London N7 Socialist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 4
'WE demand no more protection than labour as a whole demands against capital' — Clara Zetkin, speaking at the International Workers Congress held in Paris in 1889 EVER since workers first began to combine in trade unions for protection against the employers, a debate has raged about whether women should work in the same jobs and under the same conditions as men.
In March 1979 the Equal Opportunities Commission urged the government to remove the protective legislation that has governed the conditions of work for women. The commission suggested that the legislation was outmoded and that it stopped women entering the
Since then the debate in the trade unions and the women's movement on the protection racket has hotted up. Most commentators have urged the retention of some form of protection because of the vulnerability of
VALERIE COULTAS traces the history of the debate in the labour movement and arrives at a different conclu-
Women Working
course:
be a difficult situation wouldn't it?
and women's loos?
the .ing'.
'Women working"? more
And later:
easy.
carpenter and know what it entails.
published by Wildwood House.
exoolator Free time for leisure was indeed scarce. When whole families workca from dawn il dusk tne ten-nour day was a massive victory for every
Pure But we must also remembe that the labour movement at this time was extremely dominated even the interna.
Hoi n pour movemeni that the leaders of such movements cannot have avoided being fuenced by the prevailing morality which promoted a vision ¡culac as bure ara alvite. desoiu the high levels of prostitution at that time.
The covering of the ankles of •RIeS oset arme roons was one of the more absurd ex. amples of the prevailing morality.
Many or the poorest women workers opposed the of any protective lecisiation. Ther
Oie Friuls
Flour teanine the Your balsi out.
the (haid!!
with For after dhe to i'n te How i kcen dri Tunine ¡hüg !cine lidpsc".:! Ins His tittng ire wt mmmg in dheop
Thase inbo re call dou quito ont:
41 So come chare g
ment from their fellow workers,
GINNY trained in 1976 as a carpenter on à government
TOPS course where she and another woman were the
only females with two hundred men. In the Directory of
Social Change WOMEN she recounts a job interview
she had with a local council after she had completed her
•I had this kind of dialogue with the interviewer: Him: Do you realise that in repair and maintenance,
we spend a lot of time repairing men's urinals; that would
Me: What do you do when you're preparing the
Him: We hang a sign on the door saying 'men work-
Me: Don't you think you can put up a sign saying
Him: You'll have to carry heavy weights and it's not
Me: I know it's hard, but I know it doesn't happen
very often. Besides I want the job and I know I am a
Him: Listen, dear, I'm not trying to put you off but
you will have to carry your tools around..?
Taken from the Directory of Social Change WOMEN
rightly saw that it would restrict their earning power, them from higher Women's Protection and Provident League considered the 'an intringement on women's liberties and prejudicial to their opporTes o eu soi uchl Women realised that by going out to work they economic independence gave i em master t01 the means by which they could raise their status in society and parand ticipate in the working class move-
Hicil
of the Kicked
The Open Door Movement, set up in Berlin in 1929, after women had been kicked out of 'male jobs' following the First World War, was also against any special protection for women. tion of workers should be governed introduction by the nature of the job rather than the sex of the worker. Otherwise
Maintenance engineer
wre scats alfier wi were wed witti ine ' man ite inne gion work. ds usuai l såld:
white dean dothes ate on the rack .or re resus. W'H erme up and verub your back.'
The sernice d gore dis re.deate din't halt as good as that'...
I'm a wage dase withous wages. l'in a maintenance engincer. sald mnos !bur "inle woman, tour sneeineart or your dear Well ther wä gos te tatking. diold him hou i felt
some convevor belt snu provides the power supply steak and kidney pic) em nice and clean .!io the hest l've ever seen..
Thö teras ": me aneksen: would mako your hair turn grey
: for twent!-four hours a day. he peri- hough shen Ü'm working through the night wi ana tacil mcl #l kc0 upra*** l mai narc a kla or two
fare d brand new labour lorce to seren...
Women miners in the States, after enduring considerable harass-
of safety. Every miner benefits from this.
restrictions people's personal liberty
which drew its
interests of
the legislation were repealed
defined by
Nino cass bul
female workforce.
that some 'feminine'
wage NO!
can gain
Learn £100-a-week tne unes
Exploit
econe paid jobs. The
exploit female eas abon wolen want
from wilu cuculs fits of female labour
ly
down the mines hostile reacton.
work than they jobs
t roueo toar oroled
work down To think that we're both
Tho lads and me will seu
I said Don't Jump the gun.
I've ofien heard you tell me how o Deler oo orole]
Sandra Kerr
are demanding higher standards
would be placed on
The Social Democratic Party in slowly
Germany and tne socianst Interna-
tional condemned this movement,
support from the
scanainavians, on tne grounds Wlal conditions
such a policy was directed against
benefits men too working women
ane emaiovers wobe lake ercalc.
advantage of female employees if
The fight for a socially-defined
working day, as opposed to one
capital, was vital to im-
proving the condition of the work- the
All Is tess cea lal
protective legislation benefited the
It did not protect women from super-
exploitation in jobs where there was Lrauc.
was Huc ur u wac cuocuuu
Today, no less than in the past
the legislation acts in a paternalistic
way. It is based on the assumptior the worker.
jobs are slave away in hotels, lawories, aan enough Women
nosnitas a nugat ao every nicni
But work on a night-shift in a car
factory or a print shop for a higher ment.
Special
Employers in textile factories exemption
women to work a ten-hour day pro Women's
ducing cotton, but allow women to women are clear.
working down — certamliy nul.
LIOB Wall
Managers walk all over protec
tive legislation when they want to
labour. Yet when the chance to call
higher pay they have a hard time cmemucas
management from the high pro-
with their 'brothers' in the trade
palmarcra cacuees aresroly entrenched within the British ferent economy '
labour movement and the very idea
or women working nights or golg his es ale wor dirs sill would draw
take a different view on women's money.
do of their own
Ana it Isn t simply maic pre
judice that has to be confronted Class
Women taught from the cradle that legislation
unev are tne wcakel sen view col Ilauc
ains her ihof employment as not
United States woniek the mines, and protection lie.
The truth began to dawn then how d Keop himm tit and !rim Sothe boss can make a mlic lat protil out of me and hım And as a solid union man he got in quile a rage Tald "A td w hat abouth opart-ime packing 10h 1 dor man s wite working hard and gottins That's three men that I work for love, my boss, your boss and YOu.. He looked a little sheepish and he said 'Ar from today
whar we do on cqual pav Would you like a housewise union, do you think you should be paid As a cook and as a deaner, as a nurse and as a maid?'
. if you did your share at home Pernaps ia nare tne ume lo ugnt some balnes orly owa
you'll pull the bosses down while you're bossing ME around Till women join the struggle, married, single, white or black You're lighting with a blindfold and one arm behind your back lne message nas gor orel, ne Hat Icalsco di las That power to the sister, must mean power to the dlass...
Hours
week. stevedores on the docks, and on tion.
realising that what women can't lift easily they can't always lift too easily either; that hours when women complain about safe
mines, this
Demark has similar laws. In Scandinavia the protective legișlanon as peer extendeo co mar i most instances neither women nor
work nights
If women want to break out o
female ghetto in Britain in terms of job opportunity, it seems as it there has to be a much broadel debate about protective legislation than has so far occurred within the
UllOl alle wolel s movements. It seems as if the Open Door Movement had a point when ll sala mat cne too saoula coverr the legislation rather than the sex of
Keeping women out of highpald areas or employment never enhance their status in society or within the trade union move-
week:
special needs We need to con- limits trol our own tertilty; to have day care nurseries in which to place our (b) il children; and we need special atten-
our caucalon training, so that we are encouraged to enter male preserves.
The health and safety legisla tion should be extended to protect all workers from bad working conditions and exposure to dangerou:
M aerIE leave and paternity leave should be granted to workers in every industry
satisfied, In 1974 she put it like this: Audrey wise wowe suw rolb order
'If the economy wants me work nightshifts. then want a dit.
No worker wants to have her or
Inte disrunted CEWORK The only reason for people working nights is because they need the
To make work socially defined, in the interests of all workers. necu to abolsa tne rure oi casilai
not protective is the answer to that.
Ulul. leaders alla sulllt feminists do not seem so concerned to involve working women in that
which is where our real power
apply
What do the
protective
laws say?
They are set out in Part 6 of the factories Act 1961 and the
of Employment (Conventions) Act 1936. 1. Women cannot work for more than forty-eight hours a
2. Women cannot start work before am or go on working after 8pm (1pm on Saturdays). 3. No work on Sundays, bank holidays, Christmas Day or Good Friday without a week. day in lieu. 4. Women are not allowed to clean machinery if this would expose them to risk of injury. 5. There are also limited regulations preventing women working with certain toxic materials, or where they may be exposed dangerous
6. Overtime is limited to six hours a week and one hundred
La year. It cannot be worked during HOTe than twenty-live weeks in one calendar year. 7. In factories working a six-day week: (a) Women must net work for more than nine hours a day WILLUUL OverlC (b) They must have a half-hour rest period after four and a half hours of continuous work; or after five hours if they have a ten-minute break at some point during the five-hour stretch. (c) The total hours actually worked in dav. including overtime, should not be more than ten (five and a half on Saturdays). 8. In wo men factor a basic ere-day factories where
(a) Women can work for ten hours a day without overtime, or ten and a half hours including overtime (these
do not include meal breaks and tea breaks).
woman , ther employed on a sixth day in the week, she can work for only four and a haif hours on that day and it must all be counted as overtime; she may do no other overtime in that week.
9. Night work: are prevented from working nights uniess there is an exemption
in force. Women employed solely in cleaning, including night cleaners, are not covered by the laws. 10. Exemptions: iwo million women work in factories. Nearly 200,000 are covered by 'exception 48,000 are specifically exempted for nightwork. (a) Shiftwork: An employer can get permission to emplo! women on a double day shift provided the shifts do not begin before am nor end after 10pm and the shift does not exceed eight hours each day. (b) Specialised processes: Lalinaries. factories making bread, flour, sausages, or con. fectionery can make women work a total of 10 hours a day on two days a week other than a Saturday. (c) White collar women workers, eg nurses, are not covered by these rules of work. (d) General exemptions: these can be given by the Health and Safety Executive over a whole industry if it can be proved that it 'will increase the efficiency of industry and transport'. Both sides of industry must be consulted about this order. (e) Special exemption: these
10 individual factories and have to be renewed each year. The workers do not have
agree exemption order to be granted by the local factory inspector.
Page 5 scan of this page
No peace in Wales Fine
Beyond the conference - why we're going
HOMENEWS
Meeting
against
attacks in
Southall
By Oliver New THE ever-increasing number of racist attacks was the subject of a public meeting held last week in one of Southall's Sikh temples.
Il was orgallist alter a particularly vicious attack led
24-year-old Mughal being placed on the critical list at Ealing Hospital.
He was beaten up by
The Was coming home trom work
steady growth of support for
National Front and the Drust Movement amore sections of white youth.
The meeting was told of severa examdes racist b attacks which had recently taken place In
But there is reluctance community leaders 10 vote organsen sen-terence.
This will be the only solution since, everyone noreen tie sonce nave to er thusiasm to stop the rise in racist violence.
Uranium
robbery
NAMIBIA is occupied illegally by the apartheid régime of South Africa, yet this is where almost half of Britain's uranium is obtained.
On 27 September Preston Trades Council and the Lancashire Association of Trades councils are to noia a con ference to 'Stop the British robbery Namibian
The United Nations has ruled that the trade is strictly ¡legal ver de baisa connec
was 1968
Tony Benn, then Minister of Technology.
Namibians, through their liberation movement, SWAr. Oooose lne urallull trade. They state: 'Those who have relations with the South
Namibia AliCan and actively contribute by
August at Leeds University.
nected
sharing a common vision.'
organisers.
The majority of people
involved in the planning of
the conference are women.
Here is a conference on
all the major political issues
of the day
unemployment;
power — where men have
been in a minority. This has
made a positive difference
By Huw Pendengn 'A Oes Heddwch?' - Is there peace? The answer to the traditional Welsh Eisteddfod proclamation was loud clear this year: not while the Tories govern Wales.
In the past the Eisteddfod has been seen by the establishment as quaint Celtic But they have now become a rocus for protest al tue effects of government policies on the industry and language Wales.
Welsh Secretary Nicholas Edwards was the latest minister to attempt to visit West Glamorgan week.
Eisteddfod held at Goneinon, near Swansea, by a side entrance - to avoid a hundred pickets Edwards found his exit blocked. trade revenues to the régime are nelping to perpetuate the llegal exploitation our people.'
Credentials for the conTerence. lo be nela lrreston from: John Parkinson, 28A Whitby Ingol, Preston.
Delegates and observers f1.
Unwaged 50p.
demonstration against Ine vamoan uranium trade is to be held on 8 November marching British nuclea Diant Salwick, Preston.
Beyond the Fragments has sold nearly 10,000 copies in less than a year. Enthused by this success, people from around the country decided to organise a day event 'open to anyone hoping to develop a new form of socialist politics'. It takes place on 30
'No one is trying to set up a new party,' say the organisers, but they do hope that a 'loose but con-
movement of people will emerge that involves activists from different socialist traditions,
KENNY BELL — a member of the Socialist Housing Activists Workshop - explains why he is participating in the event and what he hopes to get out of it. In two weeks time Socialist Challenge will publish an interview with one of the conference
the friendliness, and efficiency of the organising group.
A determination to avoid sec. tarianism has The organising cuts; peopic In major political organisations. nuclear particular balsatvil overtone Innuence should provide a strong basis for fruitful and open
while Tories rule
Demonstrators at the Eisteddfod demand 'Welsh channel now'
demonstration Language Society members, who shouted and 'Gwynfor'. and The government's failure to honour its election pledge to Welsh language fourth TV chanEnglish nel. Instead the Tories want to spread Welsh language programmes over the four channels.
said: "The of and the language cannot survive without the media.
the Eisteddfod was wrecked, and prosecutions mose who are relusing to pay lor a TV licence.
Wales and England were attackANBEDREOG DRENEWYOD NEFYN 1 nose of us in Housing Activists
feeling of isolation.
community
openness, framework
not proved parucularly relevant to also been evident. community action.
usuall • svimbaldenc to most
No catalytic ane than ODDOTE DISL struck a particular chord. debate 30
This was thanks to a sit-down
by Welsh
'Welsh channel now'
was over the no
provide a
Dafydd Iwan of Plaid Cymru
Eisteddfod cannot without the language, over
The IBA television display at
Wales. mount against language growing
Several TV relay stations in over
the Socialis Workshop are all involved locally in housing action and came together because of a shared political analysis, a general
Existing political organisation have tended to ignore housing and inane
action as a legitimate area of struggle, and we all shared a housine common need to locate our housing activity in a stronger political for much
Many of us also telt that the ac cepted form of organising adopted philosophy by most political organisations had
This CADIeSSCO Beyond the Fragments to develop a way of socialist organising which is wide lallat
and alienating these
The Fragments' stress on mak-
Led during the past week.
The roW continued last Thursday when Eisteddfod archdruid Geraint added his support to the protests, saying: 'We have parliament or any sort political platform for the youth to make their views known. The Eisteddfod is the only place they can make their voices heard.' The government is worried inat l owymor avans, me presi dent of Plaid Cymru, goes ahead with his threat of a hunger strike fourth Channel this autumn, there could be extensive protests and unrest throughout
Socialists need to link the campaign with the bitterness and anger
poverty sweeping Wales.
BR00R
Come home to a real fire
in action'
tween
ing our vision of socialism more vocallul explicit in day to day campaigns is
reason WIll we becamne inside involved in the conference. The need for a popular socialist vision, a vision wica is alve and Drovide. a real alternative to the present
system, is not peculiar to
However the fact that housing has not been on the political agenda
Not the left and Lito so may of Tory and laying, very lal
Tory and Labour about policy gIven this development greater urgency.
vision anc alternatives will be the common theme to all morning workshops. A
Prouds and tinue; dividuals are involved in preparing
Our experience has shown that co-operation -between socialists is
Employment
Act at
Adwest
By Fred Kingdom OVER a hundred people attended the mass picket at Adwest in Reading on Monday, with the police once again restricting the number of pickets on the main gate to six.
The strike got underway in earnest on 6 May when the uncally sacked SIX SI101 stewards ano other workers who were taking action in support of a pay claim ana to oppose victimisaton Strike leaders Martin Kaumat and Danny Broderick explained the official position after Monday's picket.
The Transport Union has wavered in its support. Official backing was withdrawn le punas inal members subscriptions hac noi been but while a TGWU national officer has said that the main issue is protection of members, the local region has yet to push through official support.
Union locally began by sup porting the strike, but it has not done anything to secure national backing.
The strike committee is
UnIons demandith that moe tions demanding that strike should be officially supported.
Money is required urgentThe strikers have been denied SS benefits, and those will are desperate position Twenty-six pickets have been arrested. and fines are likely to total £2,000. Messages, support, and cash lo. Huwest werence curee 46 Berkley Avenue, Reading
THE deadline for short news articles for this page is 10.30am Monday. Articles up to 200 words can be rung through on Sundays 01-359 8189. more likely if discussion starts from common experiences and problems rather than strategic theories which define our differences
but we neee to go devone unile
which is why the morn ing workshops are organised in a way wolen will make une waks De
specific campaigns and socialism more explicit
The afternoon workshops wil draw, in part, on experiences of co-
between socialists. for examole trades conners sociausi centres, the experience of socialists
and outside the Labour Party working together.
Children's activities are a very important part of the event. These activites are very mucn more tnar a creche. Children themselves have been actively involved in organising events, including hims, theatre, in flatables, tales by trade unionists
A day's discussion cannot ge
Dul lI canaroviat opportunity to deepen our idea
the alternatives are LOT. crealt strongel links, and boost the confidence of people in the localities
hoped discussions started and links created will con-
periodically coalescing Issues SucH resistance to the cuts, to rent rises. unemployment, and nuclear arms.
WHAT'S LEFT
A TES for ads to annegr in Who
elt. so per word or sa per col. in noon Sat. prior to publica
LEICESTER 20 August
Highfield
Sentine E30 each otise. Tr
01-249 0857.
A one-day conference
to go
BEYOND
THE FRAGM-
ENTS
A non-sectarian gathering of Acuviss irom ditterent aren‹
of socialist and radical
politics Saturday 30 August
at Leeds University To register send f2 minimum plus SAE to: 14 Midland Rd Leeds 6. (Cheques payable to -Beyond the Fragments') crèche/camping/limited ясcommodation available.
SCEVENTS
ABERDEEN SC sold Saturdays out side C&As — for more info ring phone BATH: SC on sale at 1985 Books, Lon
and Saturday outside the Roman Baths. Phone 2029 BIRMINGHAM: SC on Ramp, Fri 4.30-5.30, Sat 10-4. For more
from supporters sell every Sa
BRISTOL: SC on sale 11-1, 'Hole ir
CARDIFF:
/ Road, Cardiff
: 461138. available e from Dunde day 4-5.30pm, Triday 45. 30pm. Satis ENFIELD: SC available from Nelson:
Sat. outside County Bar Almada Street
So contact Saul, a Lies en y 1.30-5. nore info contact Paul,
LAMBETH: SC now available at kiost
Oval OLDHAM: SC Linthoree Road. Middlesbrough are IMG NOTICES Cona comrades ero sed to come to
"JAGANGES.
BRANCH National meeting Sat 20 Sept. Venue to be an NALGO FRACTION. Sat 13 Sept London and si For Engine branc reps to attend Sun Ang ar tional Centre Socialist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
HOMENEWS
THE Employment Act, which spearheads the Tories' attack on trade union rights, is now in force. Coupled with the new legislation picketing and the closed shop, which James Prior, Secretary, aims to get through in the autumn.
While the code introduces which will not ostensibly have the force of law, they will guide the courts when employers sue trades unionists.
GEOFFREY SHERIDAN reviews the proposed code.
Mr Prior introduced his code in the House of Commons at the beginning of last week with the remark: 'I believe it will make an important contribution to good industrial relations in this country'
We should begin, therefore, by asking what Mr Prior means by 'good'? Trades unionists who have followed the pronouncements and enactments Thatcher's government will have little difficulty deciding for whom the code is intended to be good.
In fact Mr Prior's next sentence suggested the likely candidates. increasea protection provided to individual employees and employers against abuses of the closed shop and picketing.
Cosy
Sn endi No one bke auer ae a c o cdce have been affected by pickets and the closed shop in their time. But let's take some points from the code perore we gel into tnal
'It is lawful for a person to induce a breach of contract in the course of picketing only if he (sic) DIckens al or near mis own organiser of pickets should always maintain close contact with the police..
'An official is regarded as representing only those members of his union whom he has been specifically appointed cr elected to represent.'
Well, that's all very cosy. Quite possibly Mr Prior has never been on large pickets like those at Grunwick during the battle over union samuev daes wwer engneenue workers olncu uit miners in stopping the movement of coke in the 1972 suike.
Mr Pror nas probably never had the pleasure of joining lots of strange but friendly people set on such an inspring purpose a: tones mar re saoud oe concernca lo resulicl Dalticipation to those directly involved in a dispute.
Among the heros of the Tory backbenchers, for example. Is Mr John Gorst, who along with the police and the courts did much to help Mr George Ward continue to defeating the Grunwick SEIKCIS
Mr Gorst, who is a Tory MP and a leading figure in the Freedom Association doesn't know one end of a film processing lab from the oiner — although he does have a few ideas about strike breaking.
Most emplovers. of course. have no need of his scI vILes. them out, and firms can always rely on other business They have such outfits as the CBI to help
scoort - i nOl ulci valcul Cull ballic raw material and finished goods.
The truth is that Mr Prior is not so much worried about who is on a picket line, as how many
"ne number workplace should be limited to what is reasonably needed to permit the peaceful persuasion of those entering or leaving the premises who are prepared 1o listen.
As a general rule, it will be rare for such a number to exceed six, and frequently a smaller number will be sufficient.
Mr Prior seems a chummy fellow, so perhaps he coesn t renone v kut benne outlaere aksx oruS if we're that lucky sand workers not to go in, with a battalion of police to see that we do it nicely, and convoy trucks rumbling though the gates, could be chilly.
Employment Secretary thal wien toetes „ aOn TO meetings or those nice evenings at the club.
Code
It has to be said, though, that Mr Prior likes things to be normal. He doesn't like the idea that goods or services might be interrupted by such unpleasant events as workers opposing pay cuts or oo loss or unose olner muor dismtocons oronraves
'The movement of essential goods and supplies, the carrying out of une ecuromen. ana ine provaon o services tial to the life of the community should not be impeded, still less prevented.'
Mr Prior would no doubt say, and indeed has said, that he got thẹ idea about essential business -and the code goes on to list a lot of essentials - from
Socialist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 6
A trades unionist's guide to
Mr Prior's new code
Tv nals mo excuse
is a draft code on
Hallels.
Employment
valle clauses mercial contracts of Mrs
'It will reinforce and underline the eCuv ds DOWs wilch ine smooyment Act nas place or WOrK..
Dilce ine
recognition
winning a strike. It's odd,
employ people at starvation wages by
(formerly NAFF),
- LU SIMIl
Not nickes aine entrance 1o - persuading perhaps a few thou-
should remember NIS portemoom essential maintenance of plant essen
the TUC's own code of conduct in disputes. But real-
Any form of industrial action, if it is to have any impact on ine employers. involves the disruption of goods or services. I nal's tne way Inings are, and trying to exclude a long list of essentials just doesn't help
Does Mr Prior not realise this!
Ine employment secrelary adas a turtner point about picketing in his code, and here we can be sure that nis personal experience has conviced him of its
'There is no immunity for interfering with com-
indiscriminate customers and suppliers or at associated employers of the employer in dispute.
probably lh vae c vul scale biскеuшz... inc miners, tor exampie, nave been most dicriminating picking off power stations, coke depots, and the like, and even Mr Prior would probably acknowledge that that kind of enterprise sends shivers down his spine.
As a director of United Biscuits at the time of the lorry drivers' strike, Mr Prior knows how awful it is to oe conrontea oy workers wno actualy want to
His company took a Transport Union official to court for allowing thier premises to be picketed, and now Mr Prior wants to be sure that
And so to the closed shop, which, as the Employment Secretary acknowledges, covers more than five million trades unionists. He makes no bones about it
that's far too many workers. In fact none be more to his liking. Mr Prior summarised the ob
"The code in the closed shop emphasises that existing closed shops should be operated tolerantly and Jlexibly with proper regard to the views of those who do not want to join a trade union and provision for
and that new closed shops should only be set up if there is overwhelming support for them among those who would be affected.
so there you have it. It a co-worker doesn't minc accepting the higher pay negotiated by your union, but doesn't feel like joining it by your employer or by one of those nice articles
Among the latter should be included the likes of Mr Ward of Grunwick, who are verv fond of low paid workers and are prepared to go to any length to
COverAment IOOKS IOr IEs monetarism to an economist in the United States, it is perhaps not out of place to recall an episode in the mstory or tne labour movement in tat country.
It's the Homestead lockout of 1892, when the
accucu to crust ue bower oltre unions
It buit a barbed-wire fence three miles round the
breakers, and brought in 300 armed guards. Then it onsms ed 1s wor orce ae oce voc vov
rom ine government. carnegie won
Of course, Mr Ward, Mr Michael Edwardes of BL, and other employers eager to diminish trade Inon nonis nave nor resorteo vero laues ke me
But on the day Mr Prior revealed his draft
bosses' organisation now wants "a legal status for trade unions and defining their rights, including the right to strike in certain circumstances". I hat goes even further than the former lory government s moustaa ke anoas AcIs. pushing their luck. It's up to the labour movement to
Kank & Fre
Code of Practice
tuo setti nit ing by. han
picketing at
never did forward.
SC: main problems facing engineerlig workers!
BOB WRIGHT: The impact of the acceleration of the decline of our industries is priority number UlIC.
AUEW, have to adopt a much nurter poncy closures and to the rundown of the workforce. adopt an alternative strategy on the future of our industrial base.
me, government, capitalism is failing to supply the necessary investment, the necessary revival and modernisation of our industries, and process generated over 40 years. We've seen large sectors of the engineering industry virtually wiped out.
everyone in they are, has the right to a job. We need an economy that ensures a reasonable standard of living for all. government intervention in industries which are running down; a new investment strategy based on nationalisation and government intervention in industries like the steel industry, and the machine tool industry.
Alternative
tual wiping out of the motor cycle industry, large sectors of the electronics industry, and so one. . posses are Insufficient private investment in
technology is an important cause of these problems. ment's argument that industry will have to seek its own salvation is just not working.
North Sea publicly owned money for investment, not to balance the books against the flood of imports from Europe. Our membership of the EEC has nothing to offer us; it is adverse to our interests as a manufacturing nation. socialist about the Treaty Rome
alternative strategy requires control of the and the barin ci hoi ne brought into public ownership. They handle the money of the people of this country quite independently of the interests of the people.
Those are obviously national pols jorl government.
BOB WRIGHT, assistant general
secretary of the Amalgamate
Union of Engineering Workers,
has for a long time been a leading
left-winger in the union. He is the
left's candidate in the forthcom-
ing elections for president of the
union. Patrick Sikorski asked him
what policies he would be putting
What in your view are the
resistance
The unions, including the and fight of resistance closures.
We've got to closures.
under whalevel
June policies.
so vOL has been vee workers
Our job is to ensure that Well,
Britain, whoever
tion; resistance.
We need massive investment and visaged
more forcibly
ment.
Other examples are the vir-
This govern- dustrial front,
struggles. the Tories oil should be But we and provide
We have
There is nothing for that?
Yes. economic working
the financial institutions,
was but act tied-up
week
Wing future Labour What would you week.
'The first time a
goes to jail, the
be talking about
say to a shop stewards commutee or a district committee Jacing closures and redundancies? We need a clear commitment and strategy to intervene and support
nu nel cosures Take the steel industry. Many workers were prepared to stand
. 011 the question But we've continually seer dade umot acoulescence m
We must revive the demand for the right to work, and build up a massive campaign to force
governmem lo change ls
would advocate that Jacing Crosure should be occupying those plants to resist redundancy?
occupation is just one method. But whatever the type of action, it's not a definite solu-
medEs We need national policy solutions based on public
control as enby the alternative strategy. We have to challenge the government's strategy much
Any trade union leader can get up and condemn unemploy.
That's just like being opposed to beating old ladies. The question is what do you do about
We've got to get it across in the movement that it's nor just a temporary set-back that we face, but the permanent undermining of whole communities.
It has to be fought on the in-
and the Labour Party has to respond to those
. We need to get rid of • a.s soon as possible. shall need a fighting Labour government that puts the interests of working people first.
not seen previous Labour governments.
One of the key demands is for a 35-hour week. Are you fighting
We also need a shorter with holidays. The new technology, as well as ine recession, wilhe jobs. In my view the 30-hour week is more like what we need.
Ons Ke oy the engineering unions to ratify
agreement until 1984 with no reduction in the working
except for one hour in 1900-ol. i nere snouia oe grow.
pressure for re-opening discussions on a shorter working
Intervie
with
Bob
Wright,
Broad
Left
candidal
for
presider
of the
AUEW
What do you think we should doing to oppose the Employm Act?
All our trade union rights w Woll by workers who prepared to struggle for th‹ rights, both the pioneers and recent years. We've always h
fight. repressive laws police harassment.
I could relate from my o experience the struggle we had the Roberts Arundel dispute Stockport. The Employment A
C DoUI isolating workers struggle and preventing solida ty. We need national union : tion against it. The first time worker goes to jail, the Tl should be talking about a gene „strike
Page 7 scan of this page
Photo: G.M. COOKSON [Socialist Challenge]
Our own union was persuaded to accept money for secret ballots, but in my view no union should accept money for ballot purposes. union should accept state handouts for its functioning. The next step is that the state will want to send out the ballot papers and intervene more and more in the affairs of the union.
With due respect to our national committee, I would say as face side eatendid ade theres
extremely trend. If we're not careful, we'll have the employers' tions determining our policies. If the TUC laid down a policy of non-acceptance money for ballots, in my view it would be totally wrong to take
worker
UC should
wny self-respecting
view,
out.
dangerous
organisa-
chief sovereil
a general strike'
this money.
What went wrong in Leyland?
was ine Robinson successful?
Edwardes was appointed by the last Labour government, in my
to reverse ine Enterprise Board Leyland that had been worked
together will unions - that of a continuing British capacity to produce cars.
Once that policy reversed by the Edwardes' Edwardes had the upper Robinson was victimised as the
spokesperson former policy.
The workers did Robinson's victimisation.
which VICIOUS
Robinson wrong.
controls?
heavily countries. contract government?
suspicious Callaghan. tract'
policy. governments victimisation of
party.
National strategy for
Sped rapidly
had been
plan, hand.
of that
react status
Six unemployed.
Leyland plants came out over it. But it was the events after that
caused confusion. hystericapress attacks and the
campaign even . workers to disown him. It's all connected to an intimidation of the worktorce in Leyland.
Our own union allowed the situation to develop. The whole way it was handled was totally
What's your position on import
There are certain sections of our industry that shouldn't be made vulnerable to imports that are
subsialsea rom I'm very much favour of planned trade, but not
complete free trade where goods can be dumped on the British market at the expense of jobs in this country.
At the moment we're importing unemployment.
Are you in favour of a new social
with the next Labour Healey Callaghan are talking about import controls now.
would be automatically of Healey The last 'social conwas One-way Large parts of it were forgotten by the government. It turned into just a wage restraint policy. I'm totally opposed to wage restraint
Do you think we need to get ria of the present leadership of the Labour Party? In your manifesto you come out clearly in favour of Labour Party democracy.
In the Labour Party, I'm ver much in favour of accountability. During the last three Labour
we've seen parliamentary party in conflict with the rest of the party and the unions. Labour MPs cannot be estranged from the movement.
If they are, they need to be
Which way will he AUEW vore a
called to order by the movement.
on democracy at the Party conference?
The union's national committee did not commit itself, structed the executive to recall the national committee when the Labour Party commission of in. quiry had reported. I believe that the union leadership is attemp ting to pre-empt a recall by making statements and commitments against more democracy in the
How is your campaign developing in the AUEW?
I think that the gilt is being strip.
off the gingerbread terms understanding in the union.
Workers are not fools. might lead them up the garden party once or even twice; but they are beginning to understand that this sort of safe, moderate, right-wing kind of leadership just actends une stalus cuo.
quo means iwo million
The
against
the
rich
Sturrock (Report)
policy
John
and
and
Harrap (Report)
the
Peter
Pet
Labour
but in
very political
You
But the
_HALL 2AI
AMBROSE SHARDLOW'S
WORKERS OF THE WORLD ETTE ALEU UNITY IS O STRENGTH SOUTHALL DISTRICT
66 65฿
64 Socialist Challenge : 14 August 1980 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
Ruling group lurch to the right but mass mobilisations continue IRAN AT THE CROSSROADS
By John Leadbetter WEEKS of uncertainty manoeuverings behind the scenes
the Iranian ruling class ended last weekend with the announcement that Mohammed Ali Rajai has been nominated as the new prime minister of Iran.
Rajai's appointment will mark the final success of Ayatollah Islamic neoublican rarty arm secur-
overall control of the (parliament).
The parliament, in which the IRP has an overwhelming majority following the bogus spring. elections, has been waiting since its opening session on 28 May for the come or a doz dodde even President Bani Sadr and the leaders of the IRP over who should be nominated for the Dos uon or brenier.
Bani Sadr's grudging announcement of Rajai's appointment, still to be connirmed by tne Majis but already approved by Khomeini himself, signals the failure of the President to untie himselt from the apron strings or te Islamic rundamentalists. Hardline
The new prime minister is likely to appoint a hardline, Islamic days altad. nalal s cicactuals lot theoo were won in the Ministry of Education which played a coordinating role in the re Could of the universitie! launching of the Islamic 'cultural' revolution.
The stage is now set for the debate over what to do with the American hostages, who are at present held in far flung regions or une county. Direrences remait wildn the majlis over the hostage question. The faction around Ayatollah Beheshti - the IRP leader - lavour Dulung une nostages on trial as spies, with a sentence to follow if they are found guilty.
Others favour a trial of the US itself, Will nostages merely
Yet present foreign minister Ghotbzadeh (who Is makev to serve me ine new covernment.
sin heaven eneral cord him
revolutionary') bossibly even ban dada mansel like to see the hostages released, and a normalisation of Iran's international relations.
Compromise
Exactly which faction wins will depend
degree on the views of Khomeini nimse t
For the ruling class, the hostage question goes hand in hand with the problem of now to consonate us no• on power ane rebuild the institutions of a bourgeois state. The obstacle which blocks their path are me centine anu-mper ast teenes or
the ore helmy fem anag orismnions
deeply antagons Pahlavi regime and its crimes. and to the role of the United State's government in the plunder of their country has become poine lo wa tae manteousness or mne hostage-taking in the Hilalls
Av compromise on a cue woke be seen as a betrayal of the revolution itself. The effect of these sentiments has beer lo de me nares outre cerov aud wit their room for manoeuvre in dealing with the hostages. Instead, they have been forccu lo orcicuu lilal luc hustare-lakille llas been the most decisive blow struck in the struggle against imperialism and that the
should be the return of the shah or (following his death) of the shah's property.
However. the factions following the hardest line on the American captives have up to the present time been able to boost iner own all-mochaust cregenuals ana to establish their own those of the more 'wet' factions.
Yet not a single suggestion as to how to take forward the struggle against imperialism has come from any ruling block. Nor is it likely to do so Hostage taking has become a cover for not doing anything. Collapse
The most important struggles being waged in Iran today are around solving the provens el dento b social and economic crisis deepens every lay with inflation running at around per cent a year and unemoroyment Dast lne 3.5 million mark and still rising.
from shah's grandiose but lopsided indusralisahon projecis, nas alien wel the conservative estimates of the govern-
Socialist Challenge 14 August
INTERNATIONAL
and Khomeini's
Majlis cabinet in the Bani-Sadr
and the present including the
would eyes of many Ira-
revolut on
an actuat technical factors measures taken by
position against limit exports
resource.
lapse of investments section of the
• plan tor maustral reconversion.
and spare parts
home to roost.
Lance
to resolve some of these problems.
the motor for the The
below even
Islamic politicians use hostage
ment due both to a glut on the world market as the recession takes hold and to
nroduCuOn and through the Iranian oil workers to non-renewable
owners.
At the same time there has been a col-
in both the private ana buone sectors as we covermichl old
unable to impose discipline work force (minimum wages doubled over the last year) or to come up with any real
The dependence on foreign technology
which characterised the chan usman acorre
government's relucwith the laws of the
of a planned economy which could begin
same reluctance to break with capitalist propertv relations has lead the government into conflict with the pressure for a radical land reform from many sec
Iranian women at the time of the insurrection issue as diversion from
tions of the rural population. clergy has always been one of the larger landowners in une country inrouen religious foundations, and there are also strong links between the bazaar a soda base or enemune cer — and the big and middle-sized Iranian
While about a thousand landowners possess some 25 per cent of cultivable land
, nearly 10 million peasants have to subsist on another 30 per cent. Primitive arming mennoos. une breakdown une. agribusinesses by foreign under the shah, and a rising population inevitably mean food shortages - a10 ll6 growth of a black market economy in food which directly benefits the middlemen of the bazaar.
Housewives protesting creases have been attacked by shopkeepers and merchants in the bazaars throughout
But to end speculation and
the complete redistribution of land and a
anti- imperialist struggle
The shite comnlete change in the structure of credits
and price levels, as well as a long-term project of education, and social and technical Lne assistance to the peasantry. the Trials of hostages are land- relevant to the solution of these problems which make everyday life intolerable for the majority of Iran's population. Yet for anne reas Satan'
Iran every Friday, each imperialist action by different sections of
capital large ine population nas been mel with repres sion
authorities The struggles of all minority groupings, especially the Kurds the fight of women against the veil and
among peasants in many different parts of price in- Iran; the
unemployed for job creation projects; the struggles of workers in shoras or councils decision-making process within individual Tactores ormousules
justified
Led the
"freedom'
Certainly alliance fullest attention. timism
reluctance soldiers to
Standing ally
marked
nore at their peril.
rightward
cupation, exist and organise.
Left layer of foci LAHOREOU
anti-imperialist
final, completely it- nationalities.
Party
speeches against the rea which echo from pulpits around
and every anti-
and denunciation from the Islamic
the national cils.
for the
higher wages and participation in the
— an inese real allo perialism!
attempts to extend the antiImpertalst struggle into areas wnien alreci the everyday lives of millions have expos-
ugly face Islamic imperialism', Islamic culture and Islamic
As yet, however, the ruling block has not succeeded in inticing a deleat on these struggles. Massive repression on the scale which existed in the shah's dav would require an army and a secret police totally dedicated to the clergy's project.
Kurdestan
the Khomeini-Bani Sadr giving question their But the armed force! have not yet recovered from the massive blow to their morale which they received during the rebruar usurrecuon. Ine performance against the Kurdish people both last August and in the war which i continuing in Kurdestan todav. give the government much cause for op
The exodus of American advisers last year deprived the army of much of its
support, while extensive desertions in the Kurdish campaign indicate a
Anoth officers fight against • their erstwhile allies in the anti-shah movement
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards remain loyal to Khomeini, but they are no substitute for a professional and reliabl
The rightward lurch of the ruling block Kurdestan, the attacks ore women in recent renewed war weeks, and the driving of the left organisa tions from their strongholds in the universities tollowing the announcement of the "cultural revoluton is a dangerous and
which socialists ig-
Tortes cave nor ver ex hausted their stock of barbarities: But the
shift taking place without inere oeing any rundamental change In the balance of class forces. Although the Arab movement in Khuzestan province has been temporary nailea oy d virtual muitary ou
resistance groups continue to Oil Minister Moinfa continues to complain of 'unruly and un controllable oil workers' preventing hin from 'rationalising' oil production.
there is a continuing tendency seizures lo lake place. , Organisea Dy Village and town councils and civil defence com-
Among the working class, the develop. ment of shoras continues. Although these organisations still remain mostly confined to trade union-type activities, the fact that many of the industries have been nationalised and that the shoras are dealing directly with the government ministries brings out much more clearly for a whole
workers the bankruptcy of the government's policies and their inabilit to solve the problems facing the country.
For those of the oppressed masses who still place their faith in Khomeini - in par țicular the artisan working class who stand in a much closer relation to the merchants and small capitalists in the bazaar, alla
• a firm stand on the hostage question ensures their continuing support for the regime
tel une hostages cannol be kept in definitely: as long as there exist extensive
opposition the and government will continue to rely on their
credentials ballitail their popular base. Thev will onlv be abl
irreversible blow to organisanons or tne working class, te lelt, and une
For socialists in Iran, the priority is to ensure une most lavourabe balance o forces when that confrontation arrives The road to this lies through the selforganisaton ol we masses Inemselves, 11 the shoras, among village and town coun
A mass revolutionarv party will be built only through tirelessly campaigning
an extension, coordination, and cen
cemocrancal elected
anti-imperialist demagogy Islamic regime. socialists must say creart to the Iranian people: "Let us build, bur own independent struggles against im
Page 9 scan of this page
The capture
'IN the early hours of Monday 9 August 1971, 1 was kidnapped from my bed by armed men, taken away and held as a hostage for five and a half weeks. I was not in Uruguay, Brazil, Greece, or Russia. I was in the United Kingdom, an hour's flight from London. I was in Belfast.
my pyjamas to answer. As I opened the door I was forced back against the wall by two soldiers who screamed at me, "Do you live here?".
was su. whereupon they foolishly asked why.
reason for anything," minutes to get dressed. " Through the window I could see in the dawn light half a dozen armed men skulking in our tiny front garden.
young soldier boosted his ego by sticking an SLR up my nose ... I was frogmarched and escorted at the double down the avenue by eoul soldiers.
accent ordered. "That's hardly necessary," I said, as I was frisked for a second time up against a lorry, or "pig" as they
poral who was positively twitching with desire to practise his Boy Scout knots on me. My shoes were taken off me and ! was put none too gently into the back of the "pig". Two men with sten-guns covered me.
Fenian mouth": - John McGuffin
The torture
THE hood was put on
beat my head on the wall.
I was then taken into a 'copter; taken a journey of one hour, put in the lorry and back into the room with the noise.
put against the wall and left. was beaten when I could not stand any longer, taken away for ques 40m8. laken oack to ine wall, back for questions.
Time meant nothing. was only a sore achine body and a confused mind. ATie
was only wife think about the babies, think about the martyred dead,
The escape
THE 1971-72 period of internment became notable for a number of spectacular escapes. famous was from the Maidstone, an ex-Royal Navy ship converted to a floating prison and moored in Belfast's River Lagan.
Maidstone smeared themselves all over with butter. Then they daubed on boot polish, and clad for the most part only in football shorts, cut through a bar on a porthole with a fret saw, and sappea trough.
slipped into the water.
was near freezing point, there were constant searchlights on the water, and once clear from the porthole the men had to overcome barbed wire, and then swim some 400 yards;
Somehow they managed to do it
yaras away trom where tneir comrades were waiting to pick them up.
6.30am they stole a double decker bus and headed for the Markets area of Belfast. away, and as they arove into te Markers ine district was surrounded by the British Army.
the public there was no way the men could escape. But as the colonel was saying this the 'magnificent seven', as they were instantly dubbed, were already in another part of Belfast, having been whisked away. by local people in the Markets.
ing a press conference and telling the world their story.
INTERNATIONAL / IRELAND
* A crashing on the door awoke me. I went downstairs in
•Overwhelmed by their perspicacity I admitted that this
ordered me to get dressed. I
••Under the Special Powers Act we don't have to give a
an officer said. "You have two
•I was given exactly iwo minutes to get dressed while a
'''Tie him up and gag the fecker," an educated English
'This was accepted, albeit reluctantly in the case of a cor-
''Nice morning," I ventured. "Shut your fecking
think praved for God to take my
pipes. I remember being left. room
looked at them, felt them, and eventually smoked them. remember singing, 'Four Green Fields remembered thinking that martial law had been declared and that they were I had shoot me. given up all hope.
I think then I asked for a priest. I would have liked to have seen my wife and children before i died.
On 10 January 1972 seven of the internees on the
Their comrades chatted to the armed guards as the men
It was 5pm on a cold, dark January evening. The water
After a 20-minute swim they found land — but it was 500
All night they hid in a nearby bus terminus. Then at
They were spotted as they sped
A confident Army colonel appeared on televisionio tell
Within a week the magnificent seven were in Dublin, giv-
THIS week sees the ninth
Ireland.
AT 4.30am on the morning of 9 August 1971, the British Army raided hundreds of houses throughout the six counties of the North of Ireland.
A total of 342 men were arrested in these first swoops. Hundreds of others were to follow. They were held under the Special Powers Act, a piece of legislation once envied by a prime minister of racist South Africa.
Those arrested were told that they were to be held without trial in prison camps.
It was not the first time that internment had been in-
but it was to prove of greater significance than on any of the previous occasions.
At the time, the parliament of Northern Ireland was
Sex stence. headed Unionist Party Prime Minister, Brian Faulkner.
Repression
Faulkner was in trouble. For the previous three years the ruling Unionst Party had
a civil rights movement demanding equal treatment lor calmolics A mIxIure repression and had not succeeded in dampente biotes.
On the contrary, the battle against Unionism had at least
¡llo a call paign against the very istence of the North of Ireland sidle
Ninth anniversary of internment without trial
THE DARK SIDE
OF DEMOCRACY
anniversary of the most re what
cent introduction of intern- assesses its relevance for
ment in the North of the Ireland of today.
This campaign was led by the Provisional IRA, which declare unate experience of the first two years of the civil rights had
Enta ine Ireland was beyond reform that the real 'civil right' which should be fought for was the right of all the Irish people to rule all of Ireland.
raulkner had also to con tend with his own right wing and the rising popularity o
Paisley. lali DUlli weTt aemanding inat Faulkner should go more onto the of-
Republican population.
Failure
Faulkner decided that the introduction would all these blems: it would answer ira call of his own right wing for more 'action', and it could be used to imprison the leaders of the civil rights movement ane lne IkA
The Unionist Prime Minister's faith in internment dated back tr 1956-62 when, as Minister of Home Affairs, he had used it against an IRA
callaiel North of Ireland border.
Others in run-
North of were not so sure of the value of internment. General Tuzo, the most senior British Army orticer then serving North of Ireland, was against
ou such ooponents wert out-manoeuvred by Faulkner WIIO persuaded Tory minister Reginald Maulding, then responsible for the North
back internment.
The Tory government agreed, as much in an attempt to save raukaer rom nis owi right wing than for any other
When came to a I casual.
vote in parliament the Labour opposition abstained.
on every level the policy was d failure. Kritish inrelligence sources were later to admit that less than a quarter ot inose pickea-up nac. an) connection with the IRA. The
GEOFF BELL recalls happened, and
interning of civil rights activists. such as 15 members o Peoples Democracy, , and the Seand Civil Rights Associa secretary Northern tion, was proof that Faulkner ponents, not just the 'men of was alic his political
violence'
Most of all internment and the torture wolds was In flicted on a number of those arrested torture latel confirmed by the European Com mission for Human Rights did not defeat the movement in the Catholic ghettos against Unionism, but increased its tempo massively
In that sense the use of the
measure by Unionists, backed by Britain was macca une utilale vivu. that no 'reforms' could be ex pected to be won from such quarters
The movement for rights had been answered by jailing, without trial, without release date, or inose demanded such rights. . From
Wa. issue in the North of Ireland became the state of Northern irelana lisell
This was to be confirmed six months later when 14 anti-
demonstrators were • gunned aown Dy British Derry's Bloody After that
was intronce
But it was , Westminster which had ultimately given the go-ahead for the introduc tion of internment, and rule
Westminster was _Drove no senencia te the majority of Catholics ir Northern Ireland than that of IN G regime or te unionis party.
Lesson
Internment was a savagt lesson for those who lived in the North of Ireland and who voice mer •oooson o e Union with Britain. But the lesson was learnt well, and the resistance which internment was meant to defeat remain ed. In a different form it re mains today
the full implications of naopened ony Aueusy I Northern Ireland have not yet been assimilated
ALLel all. that a liberal Western democracy can jail its political opponents wirnout tal is not sometnin which the population of this country has been taught to ap preciate. happened nevertheless, in the North of Ireland, nine years ago. Anc that's worth remembering
The aftermath IN late 1975 internment was brought to an end. I had proved political disaster for Britain and militarily counter. productive.
replaced in ternment was, in civil rights terms, little better.
These were the Diplock courts', so called because of
government-sponsorer report written Lord Diplock which recommend.
style of British lIcW "justice'.
Under the Diplock courts the 'accused' is tried
Unlike normal 'trials', hear.
evidence is. permitted
abolished
The accused, in the case
cones on prove such a confession was obtained bi force if s/he wisest emerge detor
mally it is up to the police t
admission was extracted willingly.
consequence studie have shown thai over 90 per cent of • CONVE tions in the Diplock court
based on evidence.
Amnesty International has shown that many of thes
UCCH UR tained under torture
In fact whole Diplock svstem of 'justice is internment under another name; internment the sense that thi accuseu an convicted and locked away without the
¡democratic Varu justice applying.
Socialist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
US workers need
munist Party, that socialists should give critical support Trotskyists of the Socialist Workers Party are putting
But these arguments are empty.
had the support of organised labour
Tweedeldee, Tweedledum, Democrat, Republican. That's the choice American voters in presidential elections which will be held in November. Yet earlier this century campaigning socialists such as Eugene Debs won millions of votes.
need a erican socialists. however, failed to do what was achieved by the working class cycly burovcan country. as wenas in Australia and New Zealand, which was to build an independent working class party — a party of labour.
Why was this? In the United States Le MarYST left remained small and isolated. Workers found it quite easy to win Down boluca an socavancer without having to form their own party.
Britain the working class turned away from revolutionary politics after the heady days of the vial uses i cue loqus. occause li British ruling class the most ad-
- could afford to give it some crumbs from its im perial conquests.
Rights
The working class here found it
Party, which at that time was the traditional party of reform, to win uchuwall meals such as tre rant to vote, and working class rights such as the right
organise and imitations on tne working day.
wasn't until British run Into s
the basa decline = ahat wenders
the last
century - WORKERS Tolte mense ves torced to tiant independently for their rights, and to form their own party.
Unike Ine contnentai workers
France, and Italy, they did not form action that fought in the streets as well as for seats in Parliament.
The British ruling class enticed the sober-minded trade leaders into parliamentary system after the defeat of the CharLISTS,
The leaders of the Union Congress waited until the last liluic to lorn a soluca Da.
They hedged it around bureaucratic controls. They fought agallist i Havlig a soclanst poncy. It was a party to represent labour in Parliament; never to encourage the revolutiollary Lanstormalion society outside Parliament.
Shackles
American socialists today find themselves in a situation similar to British socialists at the end of the
American bourgeoisie has been able to offer sulliciell material concessions to Ine workers the discourage them from their own party.
This was made possible by the rapid and unfettered HOWLE Amenical capilal, tree trom teudal or absolutist shackles after the civil war in the 1860s, and by the rise of archican imperialism
American capital did run into real difficulties in the 1930s and an
Sacialist Challe
INTERNATIONAL
a labour party
WITH the opinion polls in the United States showing exfilm star Ronald Reagan way ahead in the race for the Presidency, many people see the Democratic Party - in the form of either Carter or Kennedy — as the lesser evil.
They argue, as does for example the American Com-
to the Democrats who are to the 'left' of the Republicans.
Both the major parties in the United States are capitalist parties. The Democratic Party has traditionally
— 'lesser evilism' has tied the workers' movement to this bosses' party. The Democrats have used this support to carry through policies in favour of big business all along the line.
facing tne Will union
Trades
with
explosive wave struggles led to the formation of the Confederation of Independent Organisations (CIO). portunity to form a labour party was missed The Communist USA aligned itself with Roosevelt, backing the Popular Front policies of the Kremlin The Trotskyists of the Workers Party maat breakthroughs ticularly in the Teamsters were still too small to suc cessfully initiate the project of forning a labour party he Seconc World War American capital a new lease of life which by'hurling it into the position of the world's leading imperialist power ¡ac worle was rebuilt in the image of the dollar. Hopes of a working
1% Most 1900 Pace 10
United States people.
needed. trade union class political revival in the USA
faded with the cold war.
But the op- Today things •are
ferent in the American Eagle, Bulldog half a century Party in the ing its bite American
since Ine dereat longer has everything its own way.
Al nome it is having to ask its OWI working class
Union,
It is not only the living standards of the Amencar class that are threatened, but their political rights. the brunt of the attack. will be forced, as in the
The Democrat and Republican
The last three Democratic presidents - Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter - have all been rabid champions of
imperialism. noticeably to the 'left' of the Republican Nixon.
In the current presidential campaign, the American
foward their own candidate — black steelworker Andrew Pulley. They are using this platform to push forward the growing movement for an independent party of working
Here ALAN BALL exlains why a Labour Party was never formed in the United States and why it is urgently
little difslates. The like the the last century. agu. is lusJust as in Britain, Vietnam American workers
accept their class interests
bureaucrats WOrKIng as in Britain?
Black will bear The unions '30s, to find LIC SUI
They have not been ship.
Union? caucuses, as the election campaign USA
will turn their backs on
the Liberal Party did in Britain in
will Cult usEl ane nee to see donuca bower u their own right in order to defend
country.
Who will take the lead in form ing their party? The working class
and the opportunists residence.
American Revolutionary Marxists are determined to see that
in the present election campaign Trotskyists in the USA are making
party in America a central issue.
AROUND THE WORLD
West Germany
UNEMPLOYMENT is on the increase in West Germany,
the country of the 'economic miracle'. Last month the
unemployed total increased by 9 per cent, making 3.7 per
cent of the population out of work. With industrial produc-
tion on the decline German
scapegoats. And who better to blame than the workers.
Count Lambsdorff, the government's economic minister.
West German workers,
"layabouts'. He criticised them for not working harder,
reporting sick too often and demanding longer holidays. He
contrasted such indiscipline to Japanese workers, who he
said, 'work very hard'.
that their employees have to work as hard as the South
Koreans?
Iran
'I THINK he needs time to ponder about what he is going to
do. 'So said Princess Azadeh Shafik, neice of the dead Shah
of Iran, in Paris last week.
Shafik was referring to the Shah's eldest son, Cyrus
Reza, who is now the head of the Pahlavi family and a sort
of shah-in-waiting.
The thoughts Reza was pondering concerned, said the princess, 'not about being shah but about what he is going to do as shah...He wants it very, very deeply. He was raised to be king.' Shafik's parting shot was that Reza return_to Iran...and for him the sooner the better. Well, there's no time like the present. Bolivia THE Bolivian military regime has broken off diplomatic links with Nicaragua. A case, surely, where congratulations to the Nicarguan government are in order.
Last week Bolivia's foreign ministry accused Nicaragua of 'aggressive conduct'. The complaint was that the government there had been urging the Organisation of American States to take concrete action against the Bolivian dictator-
So far only eight nations have recognised the new Bolivian regime: Argentina, Taiwan, South Africa, Brazil, Egypt, and Israel. What's the betting Margaret Thatcher makes it into the first 20? United States DON'T buy Wrangler jeans! That's the message coming this week from the USA. The reason is that the Blue Bell company which owns the Wrangler label are as reactionary as you can get.
No member of a trade union is permitted to work for Blue Bell, and the company has also decided to opt out of competing for federal government contracts because of its employment policy. This involves a refusal to abide by US government controls on the hiring of racial minorities.
'We want to avoid that because if you cannot meet the stipulation you sometimes have to hire people you do not want to hire,' said a company executive. Like blacks, Puerto Ricans, and trade unionists presumably.
Soviet Union THE Soviet press last week accused two US diplomats of 'improper conduct'.
Mandel - standing up for peace, love, and democracy, and thus the victims of a tyrannical campaign by the Soviet
Not exactly. Apparently Judy Mandel, the political affairs officer at the US embassy in Moscow recently told a local family in the Uzbek region of the USSR that Jimmy Carter deserved criticism for 'his indecision and hesitation to use the atomic bomb against Iran'.
THE power that US immigration officials have to refuse entry to gays is threatening the gay refugees from Cuba who have fled to freedom-loving America in the last couple of
The repression that gays suffer in Cuba persuaded several thousand of them to join the recent exodus from the
But now, according professed' gays are admitted to the country on what is known as a 'deferred inspection', meaning that no final decision has been made as to their eligibility for permanent
Refugees are not allowed to leave the camps set up by the US authorities until they have sponsors. groups have launched a major drive to find such sponsors for their Cuban counterparts.
bosses are looking for
This certainly was the opinion expressed recently by Otto
declared Lambsdorff, were
How soon before Japanese bosses start saying 'wants to Paraguay, Uruguay, Were the iwo - James and Judy to the US press, 'self-
American gay
Page 11 scan of this page
LETTERS
'Entirely
misleading'
SOCIALIS I namenge should be ashamed of its front page story 'Now Tories go for the kids' (31 July).
Certainly you should - at long last — be commenting on the ories aracks on benents. ana so drawing attention to the obvious suffering these will cause.
But to link these cuts to child abuse is not only gratuitous, it is also entirely misleading •lauslically. and une arlicie claims to rely on 'statistics', there is no correlation between poverty ano comesic volence.
Domestic violence, as the Women's Aid Federation has bontec outor may vears. oc curs in families of every class and every level of income. Does socaust charence rearv beneve that poor parents batter their children more than
The Tories' policy on benefits wii mean that more chiloren will suffer from malnutrition, rickets, and the cold. Ihey will not be treated more violently by their
Children suffer violence from their parents because of an ideology that considers children (and women) to be the disposable property of their parents (and husbands); that considers childrer to be the sole responsibility ol their biological parents; and from
'alienation of capitalist soCiety all subjects SC would do well to tackle before they resort to using pictures of battered children to support an inadequate examinanon or ine pre sent government's attitude to benefits and the welfare of Chlorer.
JULIA UNWIN, Liverpool Violence
against
women is
premeditated
YOUR reference to wife beating in an article about children and child battering (31 July) was most Silalec. Luu lump them together and suggest they have the same cause.
Surely the many articles in the feminist and left press including Socialist Challenge) on the reasons wav men rave ano baler women cannot have completely passed you by?
cunaren can drive vou to distraction, especially babies who cry and cry for no apparent reason. roverly, as you tiently point out, makes it worse. Every parent has experienced that awful urge to hit their child -sometimes it becomes uncontrollable.
That is not what wife beating is about. The causes of wife battering are very complex, but one lus Is lor suic. i usually Isil t all uncontrollable urge. Violence against women is generally •remedialea, it is about une man's possession of the woman, about power
Parents who batter their children are taking out on them the unbearable frustrations of living in a capitalist society (this is not or course to concone cano battering); men who batter women are exerting control over men own Dobery
I'm not saying it is worse to batter a woman than a child; of course not. bul piease don t jolr the bourgeois liberals and blame wife battering on 'tensions and economic worries what it's about at all.
KAREN FOSTER, London N16
Disappointing
coverage
of women's
issues
I FOUND your coverage of the UN Decade or women Con ference (31 July) very disappoin-
In issue 157 (25 Julv) Valerie Coultas tried to show the importance of socialist revolution for
as her starting point an article by Jill Tweedie the Sunday Times.
I don't wish to defend Tweedie (indeed I would question whether she is even will in ine bares or oocialisl Challenge), but my memory of the article is not that revolutions ser women Dack' oul rainer tioning whether they take them forward.
Valerie's wham. bam. hit them-on-the-head simplistic attacks do little to argue the case for the integral relationship be tween socialism ane teminism
The report from the alterHalve currei cuce was Husi welcome, but the main article was a waste of space.
It consisted of little more than a list of the terrible effects of imerialism on Socialist Challenge readers really need to be told that legal equali-
tie sell-corollar worlu, or lila imperialism 'often reinforces religious hierarchies and backward traditions to stabilise its domination'?
Socialist Challenge is not an Oxfam broadsheet which Calalogues i the degradation the people of the neo-colonial world suffer; it is a fighting paper. It is пот енотепо wck a token we paragraphs on the end telling us that 'women's position...is intimately bound up with imperialist exploitation' without having argued that in the article.
women in the "Third World' to fight imperialism; why is the antificient to achieve women's liberation these are the questions the artice suould flave douressed itself to.
The article on the Bengali
teresting, but it happened thirty years ago. Why did you not write about the many struggies woniel are involved in now? Why not write about women in Zimbabwe or raresune. wily nol transiate une interview with a Nicaraguan woman which appeared comoule Daber of the Spanish section of the Fourth International)?
Bridget Elton, London N19
Contemptuous
attitude to the Welsh?
Ine Duolcallon 0i a Icilel 11ul he S Wales IMG on the arso ane bomb alacks in wales j July) was a great service to us in Wales.
It showed quite clearly that the IMG adopts the same contemptuous and arrogant attitude to the weisn as ll has adoptea to tause fighting imperialism the world
That the IMG is proud to stand 'against the arson campaign' is revealing in itself.
What have all the ruling class papers said about the arson: 'this is not the way to raise the issue' Every soclanst sees through Lile lypocrisy of that respons
Wales IMG say? ous is nol lne way lo raise le issue'. What is the way?
Out of the IMG's magic hat of formalistic solutions to haltincerstood propens comesd
ed to leap trom nothing to a mass movement out ice Degaas are precisely one way in which movements are built
This year saw the biggest ever turn-out in support of the
ton, lor the two members or MAC who were killed when laying a vomo on the morning of the Investiture (of the Prince of Wales) in 1969. armed struggle against the British state is both possible and necessary.
The truth is that without the sures soclanst cnalenee would not be talking about second homes in Wales.
If thev are now 'emphasising these positions (against the arson campaign) in its political work', when ine role tual une • wale. IMG have taken upon themselves is to undermine the building revolutionary movement in Wale: directed against the British state.
For a Welsh Socialist Republic the liberation of -women She4ook ROD JONES, Caerdydd.
worth arguing
American Worker, oucs (Matthew Ward).
got to it before me.
south.
E.
of the unions.
Denby
question of discrimination in reverse.' Caucuses
black caucuses.
sions.
tancy by appointing
in Freedom
fighters, not
dissidents
I THINK you make a grave mistake in referring (25 July) to Martin Meehan, an Irish freedom fighter, as a 'dissident'
Generally speaking, the whole oss den issue over le as rew years has been used as a stick with which to beat the Soviet Union.
stepping up the attacks on the Union, •aris have occu evidence of the Soviet Union's supposed inhumanity and as a cover venu wilch to muc lic continuing war crimes of Britain and the USA.
Therefore to describe Martin Meehan as a 'dissident' is to totally deny the nature of the struggle he is a part of.
The fight of the Irish people, led by the brave Republican movement. bears absolutely 10 compastoned hensort disaffected citizens of the
We are suppos- socialist countries (a plight which has been deliberately magnified
out of all proportion)
The Republican movement is fighting for freedom, rights. The Irish people are not dissidents, they are in the front line of the struggle to end British im ocllalisill.
JANE PETRIE, Edinburgh Charter 80 They showed that
helping Brits?
IN THE article 'The Case for Charter 80' (31 July) you call Charter 80 'the campaigr established in Britain to promote the demands of the H Block and
Even a brief read through the demands shows this is untrue as of a ine real acmand or lne orisoners
is omitted from Charter 80.
This demand is for Stalls absence of this demand, Charter 80 denies the prisoners are prisoners of war,
Indignant Heart, Testimony of a Black
by Charles Denby Published by Pluto Press 1979. 295 pages. Price £2.95. INDIGNANT Heart is a very readable book. I took it to Rover to read in the teabreaks, but kept finding that Patrick or Julian, two Afro-Caribbean workers, had
The book is in two parts. The first was written in 1951, at the height of the McCarthyite period, under the name of Matthew Ward, and describes Denby's life. His grandmother was a slave and he was brought up on a farm in the
represents generation migrated to the factories of the north.
He vividly describes the racism blacks met in the Detroit car plants and the struggles they launched against it. Some of the practices, such as all-white departments and low-paid jobs and no promotion for the blacks, are not unfamiliar in Britain today. The same goes for the attitude
was a member of the Union of Automobile Workers, which at that time was under the control of Walter Reuther. His view was that 'negroes shouldn't raise any problems about negroes as negroes in the unions'. This was backed up by officials saying 'if you raise
negroes as an issue, it is
The book describes the response of black workers and their limited success. By using
and because of their large numbers, (the population of Detroit was over 50 per cent black, and in some plants blacks were over 80 per cent of the workforce) they won a series of minor but important conces-
However, the UAW bought off this mili-
'Uncle Tom' blacks to
The second part of the book is mainly a commentary on all the major events concerning race in the US in the '50s and '60s.
Denby was personally involved in the civil
namona horanon cam-
prisoners of war. imoerialsil
little less brutal
and terrorising imperialism. "political paign in Ireland. because i it
Black with blue collar
rights movement, and his account of such incidents as the Montgomery bus boycott is impressive to read. But he dismisses the black power movement as unrealistic, and so fails to understand the rise of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.
riots of 1967, acting as an individual. But his main concern was always fighting racism at the point of production. His weakness is that he has no overall strategy for organising blacks even at the point of production.
Autonomy
The was involved in revolutionary politics. The Communist Party picked him up as a result of his interventions on the shop-floor. He soon broke with them when he discovered that they supported the 'no strike during the war policy, and were against the Washington.
Party, a sympathising section of the Fourth International. His experiences there clearly show deep-rooted racism Americans. It was only many years later, with the rise of the black consciousness movement, that the left started thinking positively about black history and culture.
Denby was Workers Party for his refusal to take a group of blacks around him into keeping in touch with them. There is a lesson for the left here on black autonomy versus
large number of blacks also went through it. Af one time Denby even recruited about 100 blacks to the SWP in a matter of months. His wife was also a militant worker, and she has contributed two of the chapters.
not really comparable, the two main themes of the book - arguing for black autonomy and
our own most burning needs.
Raghib Ahsan
captured while fighting a war of
With this fact established it is easy to understand why people such as Mick MeGahev. president perialism"! of the Scottish National Union of Miners, and Gordon McClellan, genera secretarv or ine com munist Party, support Charter 80.
The Communist Party, SWP,
supporters of Charter 80 have consistently refused to recognise against British imperialism, and ine struggle or the irish peopie Charter 80 gives them an oppor navo moul calls lol lullai act rights' without recognising the armed anti-imperialist struggle of
The prisoners are not fighting for "human rights' or 'humane conditions': thev are tighting to be recognised in their true status
By denying - will lt blanketmen of Long Kesh and the women of Armagh jail are lignuing, and if necessary willing to die for — Charter 80 is helping British imperialism keep its grip on reland. by making small con cessions the Charter 80 campaign hopes to clean up the image o
The article omits any mention of the struggle of the Irish people, led by the Republican movement, and in a war situation where there are only two sides it sides with imperialism, only asking it to be a
This is useless as imperialism is by nature and necessity brutal
around it Charter 80 its backers hope to disguise this fact. In effect they cover up for British imperialism.
The article does not outline 'The Case for Charter 80: 11 shows instead the case for complete British withdrawal, Irish freedom, and the defeat of British
STEVE MILNER, Edinburgh.
Geoff Bell renlies: in fact. thi •demands of Charter 80 are exactly the same as the five demands raisea by ine prisoners lemselves They are also the demands raised by the National H Block Cam-
That is why Charter 80 is not just supported by the organisations listed above. but also by the Provisional Republican move-
Denby was involved in the massive Detroit This is despite the fact that for several years
Black March on
He moved on to the Socialist Workers
IS among white
. from the Socialist
NAALI and ten
His experience is not unique in that quite a
Although the situation in Britain today is
, at the workplace — do refleci
ment, who presumably, on the criteria applied in Cde Milner's
must also be 'helping British im. Ill-informed attitude to
skinheads
WITH the growth of racist violence on the streets once more, Paul Lawson's advice to the let in Britain ( lime for the lett to
31 July) is to 'revitalise KAR' in a patronising, lllinformed article which ignores the growth of black resistance to racism, and prefers to dabble in comments on youth culture and the crisis in the National Front.
According to Lawson the crisis analysis starts from. But surely we should look at the wider economic and political situation, and with two million unemployed surely the CrIsIs Is in capitalism not the NF?
The NF were quick to respond
called on 17 August in West Brom under the Slogan BritisA IODs Tor BRuS!
, and the Tories' rightwing policies have given credence
Paul's article is wholly concerned with the white left's response. with no criticism of RAR's impact as a mainly white movement that did not, and still oves soi uraw black youll
In Birmingham we have some, it limited. experience of thi growth of racist attacks on the
Our response was to side immediatelv with the black voutt willing to organise against these attacks, to defend their com munities and, when necessary, to run the racist gangs out of Small
One of the best ways to fight Tascisms to organise sen-detence and at this time that essentially means black self defence and an autonomous black liberation movement. Lawson doesn't even
Why? he artice goes nint at tne fact that youth are important in the fight against the rise of racism and tass une only answer he gives is to start RAR up again We should defend RAR gigs from
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fascist attacks of course. but an re-involvement in RAR would need to include a hard, political Dallie to alively Involve liest layers in defence of the black communities against racist atlack.
Our perspectives among white youth do not start from the at ulude war larde numbers or unes thugs cannot be won by the propaganda of anti-racists and the lett. we start rom la knowledge that youth are always the most open to › revolutionary
to work, to leisure, to sexuality, and, by organising among the unemployed and young workers to fighting against the Tories through local Revolution Youth oranches all Hallullal callDalen.
The last point is, perhaps, the most complex: what is our attitude to 'skinheads'? It's not just a simple equation: skinhead = racist = violent = BM . How do you exian women and orac skinheads in that context? How much is culture and fashion and now muck is organisea rascism.
The only attitude we can clearly have is that, from the point of view of black communities, a gang of skinheads coming into their area poses a threat in the 'uniform of fascism' , However we snould always de carerul to prenx skinhead by "racist', "fascist', or wilaleyei is accurale
Birmingham Revolution Youth will be building a youth con tingent for the counter demo it Handsworin against te Nr on li August. Now it's time for the left to act. Join us there!
BIRMINGHAM REVOLUTION YOUTH
Sociálist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
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.
FASCISTS and communists they're all the same, cause trouble. This is the view that is encouraged Public Order Act. It was passed in 1936, ostensibly to deal with Moseley's demonstrations. But often than not, the legislation has been used by the police to stop left-wing marches.
Socialists should oppose this law. We oppose any restrictions on the right to protest and demonstrate. Unlike the capitalists, Parliament, the newspapers, and television to put
have only a few political means to express their opinions.
Why should the police, not accountable to the community the murder of Blair Peach and Jimmy Kelly prove that beyond a doubt have the right to say who will and who wil not be glowed to demonstrate? Neither can the Police be trusted to implement bans in an impartial way. Blanket
Selective bans under the Public Order Act blanket bans on all demonstrations — and this means the police can encourage the view that all those who demonstrate are a threat to the community.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ANTI-
RACIST ACTIVISTS 18 OCTOBER 1980 to exchange info and ideas alled by Leamington Anti Racist Committe upported by AN for further details:
Leamington anti racist Committee, Box 5, 42 Bath St
Leamington
HOME OR
ABROAD
- GIVE
US A
THOUGHT
BANS WILL
NOT STOP
FASCISTS
out to labour groups, and the by the tion to the
anti-Jewish
more
lies of the fascists.
who have the
working people
who are Socialist are not possible
- only come your local transport. week.
BRISTOL Socialist
supporters complained blanket reference to readers sunning themselves on continental beaches. 'Some of us can't afford such glamorous holidays, they said. Quite right, too.
So this week we make two appeals. To those going or just back from abroad you responsibility to help your paper over the summer. issue for the Trades Union Congress at the end of this month, as well as material the Fragments' conference.
All this takes money. For those
On Sunday in Birmingham, the
movement, the anti-fascist Asian community should unite to express their opposi-
of the National
The Public Order Act is not an adequate instrument with which to oppose racism and fascism. 'The Nazis will always find somewhere to march. Black and white workers alike should rely on their own organisations and their own strength to put a stop to the
Join the counter-demonstration in Birmingham next Sunday.
March against racist solutions to unemployment!
Assemble 11am Finch
Road off Lozeles Rd,
Handsworth, Birmingham.
Challenge supporters are urged to
along. Contact ANL for
NO PAPER NEXT WEEK There will be no issue of Socialist next This is allow i caracos to sentee for the new-style paper in the autumn The next issue of the paper will be out on Thursday 28 August and will I be back to our normal size of 16 pages.
Challenge at our
Alan & Colin MB R Player
have a special J Silvertown
We will have a special Des Stevens Bob Garland E Mahood 'Beyond Total Grand total
'BRITISH jobs for British workers. ' This is what the National Front wants to chant through the streets of Smethwick next Sunday. plan to focus unemployments ano coeresv encourage race hatred inside the labour movement has met witn a lew obstacles Fearing retaliation from the Asian community to this Drovocalon Smethwick, the Chief Constable of the West Midlands has obtained irom tac nome secretary per. mission to ban the demonstration.
The Front seems to have backed down and now plans to march in a less 'sensitive' alca in message - wherever it mar- une Valanes LES
ches will be less dangerous The idea that immigrant workers are responsible for the large dole queues in Bri tain today is a view that is quite widely held among even the most committed of trades unionists.
Trade union leaders who tall to give support to strug gles of black workers and who urge-solutions to unemploylichil which involve protec tion' of British industry from foreign competition entcoulast SUCIl nationalistic
readers not able to journey abroad thanks for your continued support and how about organising some small fundraising events to help us through tne summer months!
Our thanks this week to:
£47.00 15.00
5:00
Ullabritt & Walter
.50 Middlesbrough IMG 10.00
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£110.51 £177.31
Nazi Webster ignores ban in Manchester in 1978 — he receives a lot of police protection.
Nazis jump on the dole queue
Fascist violence could increase. views
The assumption that most black workers are not British 1s or course tase. surce many black workers were born in Britain. Immigrant workers However. llle West dian, Asian, or American, are
responsible for today's high level of unemployment
One economy ism a stale of decline because for the past Cellul and a half British capitalism has tried to expand itself by sponging off Third
Britain:
Abroad:
Name
Address
World countries. Now that i
relationship with colonies, is economy is reeling the pinch The National Front has no SOILLOI unen olovines that is in the interest of the working class There is
and bosses getting together to the problems anemployment, as te tron implies.
Jobs will be protected only
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if the labour movement is strong and united and refuses
2IUW ally wurKer • to bi sacked. applies in Britain, and the trade union
would stronger if it were also applied through solidarity internanona
The National Front's pernicious propaganda must be steadfastly opposed lavour movement, parucularly now as the dole queues lengthen.
← Socialist Challenge No. 159, 7 August 1980Socialist Challenge No. 162, 3 September 1980 →