Socialist Challenge No. 169, 23 October 1980
The scan: sc-n169-oct-23-1980.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
Challenge Thatcher's gift to NATO - £7,500m of OUR money BRITAIN OUT OF NATO
MARCH AGAINST THE MISSILES
JOBS NOT BOMBS
INK OF ENGLAND
GLASGOW: Saturday 25 October 11.30am, Blythswood Square March to George Square rally
Socialist
for LONDON: Sunday 26 October 11.30am, Speakers Corner March to Trafalgar Square rally with 'The Specials' and 'The Pop Group'
No.169 23 October 1980 20p Support Gardner's occupation jobs pp 2-3
notomontage, PEIER KENNAR
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By Redmond O'Neill
WHEN Hawker multinational bought out Gardner's in 1977, announced 590 redundancies plant, management claimed it was due to 'falling demand vestment'.
Yet demand for Gardner's diesel engines, each individually made by hand, always exceeded supply. A look at the figures does not indicate that Hawker Siddeley faces financial difficulty, either in its overall operation or in its engineering division. Profits
In 1978 Hawker Siddeley's pre-tax profits were £118m; in 1979, £108m; and estimates for this year are £120m (source: Extal Index).
The firm's mechanical engineering division, which includes Gardner's, following in pre-tax 1978, £53.2m; and 1979, £37.1m.
This year Hawker Siddeley's gross paid sales for diesel commodities alone exceeds £1 billion!
Add to this the f115m Hawker Siddeley received in compensation in 1977 when its aerospace division was nationalised and only a fool could believe Sir Arnolds Hall's statement that lack of profits and markets were the
gone too far'
stop redundancies.
nationally.
Whydo you thirst bilg
ner's first engineering L0 OG' cupy in defence of jobs.
I think we were able to convince people on the shoc floor that enough is enough. I
right to put up my hand for
Kuld wille Lilal it'll be someone else that's going down the road.
This is one of the bestorganised factories, with regular shop meetings and all the rest. Trade union organisation was built through struggles.
In 1973 we had a sit-in here for 13 weeks. Before that we'd been working to rule for nine weeks against management's demand for a change to piece work. It came to a sit-in because they tried to move the engines out of the plant Footway
We organised mass pickets to stop them. The police said we were blocking the footway and threatened to arrest the pickets. So the convenor asked what would happen if we picketed from inside
he gates
The police inspector jus shrugged so we picked up the security inspector who was on marched inside and we all
That was the -week оссираtion. At that time half of the workers unlolliscu.
Since then we've built up to a hundred per cent.
That was in 1973. I think that now things have changed. People are taking redundancies as if they were inevitable. People are scared.
It's not far off from fascism under Margaret Thatcher's government they rule by fear. All that's missing is the guns!
Siddeley, the corporation that
at the
and ingrossed the profits: 1977, £41.6m;
'The Tories have
THE Gardners' occupation is an example to workers all over the country of the type of action necessary to
Socialist Challenge talked to Vinnie Peers, shop steward in the 340 strong foundry section at Gardner's, about why the workforce was the first to occupy and the role of the unions and the Labour Part...
What should the Party and TUC be doing?
They should be giving a lead against hatcher.
Labour Party and TUC conferences not one leader stood up and said "The Tories have gone too Tal. i ney nave lo be stopped. We'll
this government.'
That's what the mass. of trade unionists for leadership top. up They talk about a crisis in the Labour Party, but I'll tell you out in the country haven't got a crisis -got a disaster. If you look at it logically how can this country be conservative number of trade unionists?
But people don't trust the trade union and Labour Party leaders. For example in past Benn's said a lot of fine
reason for redundancies.
The reasons for the run-down of Gardner's have to be sought in other aspects of Hawker Siddeley's commercial operation. Commercial
First, any idea that engineering as such is not a commercial priority for Hawker Siddeley can be easily refuted. The multinational has spent the past five years shifting the bulk
production aerospace into mechanical engineering.
There has been a major slump in aircraft markets on a world scale; the Hawk MRCA strike aircraft suffered particularly as a result of the revolution in Iran. The same is not true for diesel engines.
senior Labour
organise
things but then when he was against in government he ducked out.
In the unions, as soon as they
are looking most of them
from the know us ally lure.
You wouldn't we they're being paid to help us. we've In my opinion members of the union executives Labour MPs should be comwith the ing round the factories and seeing what the people really want. through to the mass of trade That's the unionists. That's the way they
SIT
Home News
Why Hawkers sell
Gardner's jobs
Fasco Industries,
sive in selling
Product away from
'Demand
ENOUGH
FIGHT for
the RIGHT
to WORK
GARDNERS
OCCUPATION
did it in Poland democracy. mikes outside full-timers don't want to the shopfloor People want
believe cher.
and the Party act Pimpernel
way militants,
leading.
WORKERS
Gardner's is not the only diesel firm that Hawker Siddeley has acquired recently. It has bought three major US-based diesel firms -
Westinghouse, and Onan Corporation. There is no doubt that Hawker Siddeley is planning a major offen-
diesel equipment, probably mainly to the third world.
So why is Gardner's being run-down? It is certainly nothing to do with the quality of the product. The Financial Times had this to say about Gardner's engines: "They are the Rolls
Royce of diesel engines, every part is in-
dividually made by hand.
far outstrips supply' red They had the
knew what was going on and the could control their leaders. had a
control of their leaders and they want to see them leading against That-
As it is the people at the top of the unions and Labour of Tom
like the Scarlet - when you need them they're not to be found.
But if we're to get ordinary people involved. not must the their
then the people at the too have to be seen to be
support nationally Tom ed:
Sona to steward
need trom every
On
tion!
them, and they
'Gardner's engines are not cheap
Quality
Equality, or in Gardner's. the markets as possible.
Sir Arnold
tionalisation' policy'
them Hawker Siddeley paid.
and saic any wnere.
Gardner's occupation
is now official
'THE decision to make
strike official has great psychological effect. It has given us a sense of security.
Our morale is fantastic!'
That was the reaction
Macafee, AUEW convenor at the Gardner's plant in Manchester, to the news that the AUEW na tional executive had made
against redundancies official.
Now in the third week of their struggle, the Gardner s workers are digging in and organising to win
for their action Macafee explainyve ve sent correspondence to every divi-
organiser and district secretary in BriConvenor
'We are asking them to distribute the informatior
convenor and on their register.
In line witn our appea
financial backing possible factor! We'd also like to invite Tony Benn to come up to Gardner's and give us his
Monday the Daily Mirror had a full-page article supporting the occupa-
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
"operators swear by them, fairgrounds run on
are renowned „tor • Lie! reliability.' The article, on 28 August, added that 'about 10,000 second hand Gardner's engines chug up and down Hong Kong harbour in local fishing boats'. Finally it pointed out
- but they are quite simply the best there are.?
Yet Hawker Siddeley is not interested in
It is planning to use its newly acquired American companies for its new drive for markets, and probably just wants Gardner's out of the way to cut down the competition.
This is a typical operation on the part of a multinational out to get as large a share of the
Hall, Hawker Siddeley supremo, put it this way: 'When we take over a company we operate a 'post acquisitive ra-
In short Gardner's will be stripped of all its useful assets and technological know-how; its engines will be removed from the markets to a considerable extent, and then the company will again be sold, probably for less
As long as international corporations can shuffle capital from one country to another like a pack of cards, no worker's job will be
Photo: Mornina Star
In the Manchester area the Gardners occupation is meeting with a tremenAlready a second major engineering Ward olou Goldstone in Salford have said that if necessary they will take strike action at the end of the 90 day notice they've been given of redundancies.
Call A meeting of the AUEW Broad Left has decided the call from the last North Manchester shop stewards' quarterly meeting and campaign for the Manchester district o the Confederation Engineering and Shipbuilding unions to call an extraordinary meeting of Confed stewards to mobilise against unemployment and organise support for Gardners The most effective way TalS would through an all-Mancheste day of action in support of Gardner's and against
Every mornina " the strikers organise a mass inside the factory Food and enter lammens are begmng le get sorted out. Last Saturthe • Ti0E The War Game was shown inside the factory.
Page 2
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Solidarity mounts for Gardner's
On our page 3...
UNEMPLOYMENT, said the TUC earlier this year, is rising faster for women and girls than for men, and government accelerating this trend.
The TUC cited a 62 per cent increase in female unemployment in the four years to January 1980, as compared with a decline of two per cent for men.
This year the number of jobless in Britain has hit a new post-war peak, climbing to almost 2:1 million.
Both men and women are hit, and vacancies are now at their lowest level since the beginning of 1977, according to the Employment Gazette.
Yet up to a year ago, a thousand women a month on average came into maid the period 1976-79. then the boom which had brought women onto the labour market in the '60s had well and truly fizzled out. Female unemployment ing, as the TUC figure shows.
Decline
The decline in jobs, depriving women of their livelihood, as it does for men, also deprives them of choices they make about how to run their lives choices men have always been free to make.
That doesn't make malé unemployment more acceptable, point to the wider consequences of female unemployment.
Women do not work for pin money and it we are to tiaht unemolovment
woren in the Labour movement.
women
labour movement.
You can order copies, 30p each,
ment bodies.
It's a woman's
right to work!
all. Trade
policies are
and even
Unlike. security, studies
By aen.
by this was rocket.
TUC policy
as well as
were beginning to
local
but it does raise ment.
10T1g
WOMEN IN
ACTION
Women in Action is a campaigning journal for
It reports and discusses the issues that affect
cuts in services, increasing unemploy. ment, and attacks on our rights. We discuss what trade unionists can do to fight for women's rights.
Women in Action is a voice for women in the
The latest issue has articles on potitive action, a woman's right to choose, and women in industry.
from Women in Action, Box 2, Sisterwrite Books, 190 Upper Street, London N1. Bulk orders are offered to labour move-
effectively we have to fight for jobs for
unions must therefore be careful not to fall into the Tories' trap.
Women should have an equal right to work as men. Many of the women who have taken jobs outside the home have joined trade unions, boosting the numerical strength of the movement
forming the majority some of the TUC's biggest unions.
The danger is that it is easier for the government to be discriminatory over employment without being about it in its policies.
For even social has taken extensive to reveal just how women fare at work and out of work, because discrimination is largely hid-
This danger needs to be recognised and countered if the movement is to tackle the unemployment generated
government. Trade unionists should be fighting to implement the
for posiuve action women's rights, including for
Socialist Challenge is supporting a special contingent to demand action around 'A women's right to work' on the joint Labour Party/TUC demonstration against unemployment to be held in Liverpool on 29 November.
We're asking trade union branches,
Labour Party and women s groups to do this so that women can
their voices in solidarity men in the fight against unemploy-
Reprinted from 'Women in Action'
By Pete Clifford THE Gardner's joint shop stewards issued the following appeal. 'In Manchester it clear spread support struggle. Gardner's workers have a fine record for supporting gles. 'But our struggle is also important opinion polls this week show,
single embarrassment Thatcher's covernment. f victory for would be an inspiration to every worker who detests
The solidarity ordinary trade and unemployed workers show for single most
the Gardner's struggle successful.'
What you
can do
*Send support to the mediately organisation to send delegation of support. *Organise lections, levy. Send food parcels.
Home News
RISIS
blatant {JOBS
MAS
badly
on partwith committee has
GARDNER
is that there is wide-
for the
other strug-
nationally. As
published unembiggest to Gardner's
which unionists
will be the
important that is "Set up
your area. *Invite speakers meeting.
Messages and Marsden, Treasurer
telegrams of
factory im- ton Lane, Get your chester 061-789 2202.
factory col- flowing or better still, a
Stone-Platt
THEIR CRISIS
INIT
OUR JOBS
WE DEMAND
EMPLOYMENT
WOMEN'S unemployment is up 62 per cent over the past four years
Oldham,
€250.
tions
national sent £200.
Mitchell Socialist
CRAFT SHOP STE COMMITTEE UNITY IS STR
regular
cupation A labour movement suport committees in with
the Gardner's to your workers of support donations to: Dave and CSEU Strike Committee, 187 Bar-
ManM30 OMN. Tel
Money and support is donation.
in from throughout the labour movement.
workers from
8
who occupied earlier in the year against redundancies, donated
At the Ferranti plant in Hollingwood, stewards are holding shopfloor •collec.
for Gardner's.
ASTMS members at Inter-
Computers • Ltd
ICL shop steward Rita
explained to Challenge: ICL workers may be faced with redundancy later this year, so this fight is our fig!.!. - it nas to turn te wat agilins! the Tory Government
workers to the Gardner's plant last week.
At Shell Carrinton, the TGWU stewards are taking
collections and have produced leafiets to explain the Gardner's oc
to their members
support committee has been set up in eccies,
representation from trades council, the local Labour Party and five
from Gardner's The aim is to win support from the local community,
the committee organising a social for 10 November.
Bristol Trades Council has agreed to support the occupation with £35
Bolton Trades Council has voted to set up a sup-
Socialist Challenge
SIGINE.
THEIR CRISIS
OUR JOBS
WE DEMAND
EMPLOYMENT
port committee to organise a speaking tour of the local engineering industry. It is arranging for a speaker to attend the Rhyders plant, whose closure was announced last week
Manchester North engineers shop stewards quarterly passed the following resolution: 'This quarterly urgently requests the Contederatio. district committee to con
shop Steware. meeting during working hours to mobilise the trade union membership to fight unemployment.
Tours
Manchester students have been touring the anti-nuclear film The War Game along with a speaker from Gardner's. The turnout ha: been enormous, with 400 students turning up at one college.
Last weekend the film was shown in the plant and in the evening at a Socialis Challenge Jobs not Bombs' meeting. Seventy
heard Gardner's Convenor Tom Macafee
Socialist Challenge supporter and Stockport Boilermakers secretary Jeff West.
They used the oppor tunity to build support for
October CND demonstration against missiles.
23 October 1980 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
ROUT THE RIGHT
MARGARET Thatcher is increasing
labour movement.
'THE Lambeth
launch a fightback against the Tory cuts.
unions have opted out of this fight.
house land for private development.
reinforce the cuts by penalising
the rates by up to 50 per cent to avoid cuts.
ore. then
Heseltine's proposals. HUDSON explains
Party conference.
MORE than
Never the
battle lines being drawn
over the party leader are bound up with the question of party democracy and the policies of the next Labour government.
The right-wing Gang of Three - Rodgers, Owen, and Williams — are pro-NATO, pro-Common Market and
business. They against party democracy.
Boost
conference
For them policy should not be binding on the next Labour govern ment. And they are determined to overturn the decision that the party leader should be elected by more than just the MPs.
The left's victories at the Labour Party conference boosted the confidence workers fighting the Tories. They gave the green light to the fight for socialist policies i a Bein go to ent in tre linked to the prospect future.
here can be no doubt that a victory for Benn in the election for Ine special conference would be a
VICIOT Lne broughout the labour move-
khat is why Socialist Chalienge supports Benn's indidature in that election
But the struggle for ac:cuntability ader to the rank and file
:annet left to a battle mithin the constituencies. The right should be taken into the rade unions.
It is the unions that determine outcome of the _ 200ur Party conferences Those in the right and left alling for reducing _the influence of the unions in the party miss the point entirely.
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
arms spending but everything else is being cut.
Pat Kane asked ALAN WALKER, vicechairperson of Liverpool NALGO, why he is attending the 1 November Local Government in Crisis conference called by the Lambeth
conference is a real attempt to This is particularly needed when the TUC and the national
'Tory minister Heseltine plans £1,000m cuts that will affect every sector - education and housing in particular. In many areas they will destroy council house building. This has already stopped in Liverpool, whore the Liberal council has let out council
'The Hesel de Bill on local government aims to
"overspending local authorities. Last year many authorities raised
'That solution is no longer viable. To defend jobs and services would need rate rises of 75 per cent or
the councils would get their government block grant reduced drastically under
'The Tory cuts cannot be defeated at a local AS Labour right-wingers try to wriggle out of the Blackpool conference decisions on the election of the party leader, DAVE
how the left should organise for the 24 January special Labour
The integration Labour Party and the trade unions at local and national level OlIC use strengths of the Hiuvculcill LOUS However the decisive union block votes should be brought under the control of the rank and file.
Every affiliated should thoroughly. throughout the the method of electing the Labour leader. delegate conterences be held to decide the issue.
There should be resolutions to mandate the unions' delegations to the special conference.
Socialist Challenge always argued that the election of the party leader and the content manifesto should be decided the annual Our supporters will argue for this view at the special conference.
But if such a position is defeated, delegations special conference support any proposal that broadens the franchise, rather than continuing the where only MPs decide..
Conference Engineers' leader Terry Duffy believes that know best working class when it comes eiecting the party leaders.
We disagree.
At present MPs have no VOte party That's how it should stay on all policy matters. should be no special status or privilege for those of any other member of the party.
Party conference shouid be the decision-making body on policies, the manifesto and the party leadership.
Page 4
A chance to fight the cuts
to restore services
housing investment programmes.
groups
time. against the Tories, of the
great workers' country.
union discuss membership
Special
has
the election
conterence
to the should
system
MP's the
conference.
There
above
Labour Party.
evel. National solutions are necessary. Interest free central government grants should be provided
'But of course the Tories won't do that. They're cutting other nationally-funded services like the
'The Lambeth people are right to call for Labour
and local authority trade unions to unite around a programme of national industrial action. This could take different forms, such as not covering for posts that have been cut, or stopping over-
'Our social services department, for example, has refused to collect any increased charges for Meals on Wheels or Home Help services. The Tories hope the extra charges will lead to fewer people using them, so they can be chopped altogether.
If we can unite all the public sector against the cuts we can link up with the wider fight
especially on jobs.
'We all need shorter working and the 35-hour week, none more so than the direct works departments. So we need the support of the industrial
'The Lambeth conference is the best opportunity we have had to forge that unity and to begin a national campaign of action against the Tory cuts.'
According to Shore, Denis Healey has 'splendidly thuggish qualities'
Al Walker Local unions
Government in Organising
SW2 1RW.
'Nationalise banks' -Labour council manifesto 'A LABOUR 'London Council will demand that the Labour government will ... nationalise the banks the and at the same time
Government in Crisis National Labour and Trade Union
Conference Camden Town Hall 1 November For details of registration write to 'Local
Crisis Conference', Committee, Room 103 Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, London
note
now.
be
Greater annul local authority
debts "This would free local authorities from burden of debt charges and allow State bank to grant interest-free loans fund services and developments.'
These pledges are part of the manifesto adopted by special delegate conference of the London Labour Far
elections next MaYhe manifesto also endorsed an appeal the unions to dustrial action to back the council's against the Tories.
Photo: GM COOKSON (Socialist Challenge)
Michael Foot
Constituency
attacks
'subversion'
of Blackpool
decisions
BELOW is the text of the resolution passed last
week the Genera
Management Committee of Islington North Labour Party on the question of the election of the Labour leader.
It is a model of how to thwart the attempts of the right wing to overturn the decisions of the Blackpool conference 'THIS North Islington CLF regrets the decision of the party reader to resion in advance of the special conterence in January decide on a new method
electing a leader. We
the serious and divisive moves of sections of the PLP to subvert the decisions special conference by seeking to elect a permanent replacement for James Callaghan
'We call upon our MP to take no part in such moves and to support the temporary appointment of a caretaker until after the new election procedure to
decided January Photo: CHRIS DAVIES comes into effect.
'In the event of the PLP proceeding with an election for leader other than a caretaker, we instruct our
• to vote for no can didate other than one who gives a firm undertaking to stand for re-election under the new procedure to be decided in January.'
Page 5 scan of this page
Winning the battle against the missiles
By Paul Smith The 26 October CND demonstration is biggest step yet taken against the new round of missile madness. This is a useful moment to map out the future direction of the movement.
Cruise and Trident missiles are central to Tory policy. The commitments the
l'ories have made on 'our' behalf are staggering. One fifteenth spends in government spends ycar will be donatea to tne Us government for the dubious benetits of Trident. t3.80 per person per week will be spent each year for the next fifteen years solely on the missiles.
Apart from the staggering economic cost there are HIVUS political and military costs. Cruise missiles, stationed in Britain, tie us hand and foot American global military strategy. These missiles, totally under control, are designed for a "first strike' European 'theatre' nuclear war. They make Britain the number one European target in any war.
Aggressive
Politically, Cruise has the effect of binding Britain ever closer to the new, aggressive
United States. Since the nominious American defeat in Vietnam, a huge new wave of struggles against sion and poverty has swept the planet.
In 1979, nine US-backed
Photomontage: PETER KENNARD
Why unilateralism
has to mean with-
drawal from NATO
weapons. The
conference was a reflection of this.
But the fact that the
same conterence re-
jected a call for Britain's
withdrawal
Snows war oce
CONTUSION on me
rOOTS OT war and how to
prevent it.
idea that NATO
somehow defends
the supposed
as anot
DOVICT
Valen leaves
ment susceptible to Tory prop opaganda. They argue
the West's
is
are necessary to main-
ain peace.
the
dictators fell. the bean, the backyard one Aucticall imperialism.
war rages in El Salvador, and Grenada has broken from the US camp. A workers' government in Nicaragua toward socialism. oi revolt threatens Us porations in Jamaica.
A of the Shakes ith the
regime in Iran, lapse of the racist regime Zimbabwe, is Ol the accelerating march of US revolt and revolution.
Western capitalism, gering under the weight of in crens all thie economic wants stopped. the war drive is capitalism's answer.
The USA is gearing itself untervene wierever cut revolution threatens; a nuclear steel
Union.
The ageing bureaucrats in the Kremlin are no supporters 1g- of world revolution.
response to the Polish workers for social anc political rights is testimony to that.
Nevertheless, istence states There is increasing opposition in the labour movement to Britain's possession of nuclear decision in tavour of unilateral disarmament at the Labour Party
NATO a0 -gressive alliance. It was set up by the conquering after Second World War but it excludTne Soviet Union. which responded by establishing the Warsaw
"NATO escalation sumulated SINC then.
The latest developNATO the partners to a 3 per cent rISe ar. ement spending. They also agreed to the siting Cruise missiles on Euro-
In the Carri- despite bureaucratic
of mities of monstrous proporcivil tions workers LIC capromic and politicardanger capitalism
The spectre " is forced to extend a protec
nuclear regime Vietnam means
bloody to
wallulls. and the co- up by nuclear hardware,
in vital part of the United States' expression offensive against revolution.
stạg-
crisis
Anc The new arms race ha been launched by the that both sides nOse that responsible not only new face of the facts — the US has is being double the
Soviet warheads, and a massive lead
in the technology involved i 'delivering' those but would
Their ficulty battle of the heories to the people of Viet
Alam or Cub clear the USSR, to use the eloquent the ex- phrase of
where, would have been
pean soil.
It is an operation of the 'big lie worthy Goebbi Hitler's vacanca muster scut tus cocataliull de • etensive move against 'Russian expansionism NATO decided •erine ine nature arms race by inventin
there could be a nuclear war muted to tre eurobean treatre calculations theory LITC "big everything in nittine WILl Tne Tirst Suike ACCOU dingly. all non-European weapons were taken out
Eurone or the USA. were all included.
This is how Russia's arsenal
However. serous Western commentator in question over-
Stop the missiles
We stand
effronterv to throw out disarmament
maáness The fact that the Kremlin
UVOL
the most important backed international
because
EDITORIAL
Unite political suppose
are equally
fly NICHL.
Socialists number of
ted to action to warheads also find dif campaign,
show their broader issues. But it Vithout the existence o
Kissinger, they
bomber series e dominance has the case it has NATO which has always raisco une stakes ne uncer vine reason that capitalist coun are pansionist. Countries with a planned economy ike hussia s are nor Imperialism capitalism Capitalism forever has to and seer market: • eTene exiStine ones against revolution order to keep up its profit rates It is no accident that the recent military COle was carried out while a NATO exercise was tak ing NATC immediately welcomed Tine coup. The Greet colonels coup carried out according to a NATO plan Imperialism will never satisfied until restored capitalism those countries which it has lost, particularly the
back into the stone age'
for opposition the of our own withdraw rulers. We place the blame for the present round of missile
squarel) on the shoulders of Carter and That-
goal.
Because the war drive is issue of popular politics and Thatcher's govern- class ment has made its military
arallis.
commitments a central part of While
stand the nissiles are a vital issue in th fight to throw out this govern-
should work with anyone who is commit-
stop the missiles. In the course of the
will tion that who does not finish missiles. there. Only the labour move- which ment has the power to stop nuclear the government in its tracks. withdrawal It is the fight for a commit-
Soviet Union and China Revolutionary devel.
Doment: around wore are nor eduvalent extending economic base Russia, costing it f10bn a year The Kremlin's aim is stand shoulder shoulder imArguments for Socialism TOnS " sometimes gives he done into dis because it gain diplomatic achieve thon bis its efairis to osi tion in its efforts peaceful existence with the US In order to keep stability in the world; stopping revolu-
ment from the Labour Party and the trade unions to end
missile build-up, and to from Western machine, NATO that should be our political aim. It is only action by thousands of workers that can guarantee
for that particular
We oppose the idea, very
with Sullici that Bishops and other middle-
worrlers are the vital components of the movement
missiles The leadership of the
labour movement.
But we are not there yet.
initiatives like labour movement conference against the missiles, schedul id for the new year, deserve our full support, they are only small steps along the road we need to travel. The main force
in theciams is build
Socialists CND. It is the main organisa-
will attract those wish to act on the includes grantee, Its unilateral disarmament and from NATO makes CND a tremendously Britain — America's aircraft carrier and a prime target
tons is a larg part of what detente is about CaSi Europe and elsewhere will defend perialist attack and property relations they TrOU aran Ineir privileges But thei attempt to Join with im perialism to preserve the status quo against revolu tion them vance tranSited Imperialis. pressure against the working
It is in this framework of trving «edi WIth imperialist that we should unders. tand between so-called 'socialist' coun
tween China and Russia does not stem from the
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
valuable gain for the workers movement.
But it would be naive a best, irresponsible at worst, to imagine that building CND alone is the answer. There are already local groups which
arisen fight the missiles. We should back these campaigns to show the direction which CND should go.
Action
There is a fight on for the soul of CND. Is it to build a
campaign, directed towards the labour
missiles? Or is it to follow the course. proposed by section. of the Communist party, toward a middle class movement for peace protest
A movement which places Biass and the labour movement at the centre of its concerns will be best placed to tap the energies and en thusiasm of •01 working class youth who can be won to the campaign. The building of Youth against th Missiles groups shows potential.
Ine campaign organisea Missies, Manchester against the
affiliated CND, and directed decisively at labour against the missile , is the best illustration so far of the direction that CND must go in. To do that socialists must be in CND, but at the same time lose no opportunity to demonstrate where we must go. It is these
which •Socialist SCALETONA Challenge supporters will be fighting for at the coming CND conference.
urge capita. defence rkets and profits While there are many
comole hate me tur
TACTORS. fun.
damentally at stake is the
vying of the for sor
favourable treatment by
imperialisin • Start oft the sino
the start the
wanted
China and begin
reduct Cold Wai
More recently
pre
conditions for takin
down the 'bamboo'
tainthe threat of a world
nuclear
war bolico rom
In peasan lo stop
we need to break up im
perialism disarming
he capitalist class in Br
tain and ultimately in the
withdrawa
from NATO will be a big
step in that direction.
Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
•We've so much to learn
What 18 the
CND's politics? What are
you agreeing to when you
join?
I would see CND fundamen-
tally as an educational instru-
ment to awaken people to the
problems of the arms race.
The four aims of CND. in
the constitution, are:
Woweenau nuclear disarma-
ment; world nuclear disarma-
dissolution
military blocs, leading
Convicte did general disar-
mament.
What we are trying to do,
I believe, but other people
might see it differently,
wake people up to what is
happening and act as an um-
brella to get them to
paign on those four things.
Seir diagnoses of the causes of society's sickness will be
different. That's quite clear.
CND democratic
movement, so it's difficult for
me to say exactly what
ticular positions are. I think it
would be generally agreed in
CND that the three slogans of
the demonstration
ones that can get broad sup-
port at the moment.
People might well
panicked they
presented with the idea
withdrawing from NATO
tomorrow. People in general
in the country are still, unfor-
tunately, convinced
NATO is a protective shield.
But what they can understand
are the particular decisions to
have Cruise and Trident. So
it's a matter of tactics.
After the demonstration
we have to continue with the
idea of the broad base.
We have to say to the public you have to be concerned; 10U pulling them towards some vague mull lateral thing in the future, which is a formula for doing nothing, but for immediate action by us - governmental-
our individual organisations.
At the organising meeting
or the demonstration on :
that have. probability 40,000 people marching through London, and the one thing they all have in common is agreement with the slogans of the march.
they don't necessarily agree with unilateral disarmament, or an end to NATO. Some people, including yourself, even questioned whether CND should call people to join the campaign even though it called the march.
wouldn't agree with your analysis of it. I think that if people oppose Trident they
actually in favour unilateral disarmament — but in ten years' time.
they're only a little way off.
You're probably right that if faced baldly with the question: Do you want to get out
would say No. of NATO? lot But if asked: of USUDIC Do you. think the military blocs of the world should be dissolved? I think they'd say
It's not been
my experi ence that people have sup ported the demands of the march, and then not the
If the Labour Party had had before it not a resolution on getting out of NATO. but to work the mos the dissolution military blocs, I thịnk they'd have carried it.
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
"EE!
to
ment it made a
Call-
resurgence of interest in CND.
, par-
full-time secretary of CND.
be were
that
OUNG
CIALISTS
All these groups * slightly different what we need. The question of whether more campaign can build up forces for the future is you have judge ground, There is a Peace Tax Campaign based highly limited issue which is drawing in a lot of people, have conscientious objection to paying war taxes. There's the Against the Arms which is taking up a single issue and it's been a wild success.
But what I'm trying to get at is how you would about uniting groups. What would be the imum unity of all the dit- right basis ferent currents of opinion within the broad ment for nuclear mament?
Can CND just
itself? Can it be brella for the Page 6
fencess consen
THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was launched in 1958. Through the annual marches to the Aldermaston Atomic Research Establish-
national impact. Its familiar slogan, Ban the Bomb, appeared everywhere.
In the late '60s the campaign declined, but since the decision to import a new range of nuclear missiles into Britain there has been a
Its decision to call its annual demonstration on the theme of stopping Cruise and Trident places it at the head of the broad movement of opposition to Thatcher's war plans. Socialist Challenge talked to BRUCE KENT,
ION
PART
Manchester marchers against the missiles
with forces? aims is not I do see CND as being that campaign, but respecting the limited autonomy orner and campaigns. something ground and historically we are the the biggest of these and we've got the resources.
Campaign Trade,
•go How does CND see stoppthese ing the missiles? the next move demonstration? would have many people in CND see it as move parliamentary which they through Labour build ment. Of course, for a whole the um. number of historical reasons a broadest SIcal many people
Stop the missiles,
from the local groups'
RUSSE
WE.
WONT
DIE
FRECOTMAT HER:
STOP
TRIDENT R
ND
CRUISE
VOW!
groups parliamentary On the enormous,
weasel. out.
Cruise
the idea of an
WC: Have people with the facts.
I'm very which don't What's after the thought that weltare groups,
achieve ly pressed.
do not to power.
FOR
HET SINE
ROTEST SURVIVE
have that kind of confidence What in the Labour Party when in apad cision, any decision, think we see the need for an
agree mobilised public unions opinion behind these things.
no government can would nion you have to explain opy mobilise public
more dangerous than anything else; how futile
independent agree on deterrent is. In other words
to plan to educate
and one can't concerned that the vears there are a number of groups operation,
generally get
nuch attention but which attract a great deal of human Ron concern in the country - the
the overseas aid groups, the churches — all these elements should be real- if the
in their turn they should press Labour or any other government coming in- the trade
CND secretary
Bruce Kent: 'We see the need for an enormous mobilised public opinion'
it's
WE
WONT
be
DIE
FOR
THATCHERE
and the
Photo: John Smith (IFD
One
priority does CND give to trying to win suD. port and action from the trade union movement?
Final the trade are potentially massive force for good in thi area, and I would wish tha
involved as closely as possible with them.
'Ihe trade unions have the ability to say. Yes or No to what on that per Some
that. unfortunately there's been natural tendencies in the trade unions to think of jobs and so on by
say that over trade in boycotting or whatever, has been as effec
the Transport Union is speaking from the platform on 26 October. It would be marvellous
TUC came out as block for something like the place, 26 October demonstration lous.
So 1 agree with you that
unions are among the most signincant forces -
I'm not sure exactly how you.
say which is the most signifi-
cant - and they are a group
that we certains want
bring on our side Anyway we
can do that we'd like to hear
about.
But I don't think they are
exclusive.
You've said that CND is a
democratic organisation.
How does it involve local
activists at national
level?
noto. Morning Star
There's a membership, you
join, and as a result you have
the right both to nominate
people once a vear for the
countentions have vote
resolutions.
democratic in that sense, but
terribly centralised, ter-
ribly London-based.
I would very much like to
see a regionalism develop with
regional councils. think
most of us agree there should
more decentralisation.
Also I'd be in favour of a
much closer sense of partnership however that could be worked
Really there's now; they pay their fee an that's the end of it.
The point you make about regionalism and the role of
affiliated bodies is an important one. Say for example, that the Transport
General Workers
Union affiliated to CND representing two
million workers. Would it be given a representative on the national council?
The different sub. Senion CD sections CND, Trade
Labour CND, Christian CND - and there's talk of setting up more, such
Scientific CND Medical CND send their own representatives This isn't true of the affiliates, perhaps it should be. Perhaps in fact
of CND needs re-looking at.
CND ever membership organisation un
til the late '60s; as it sank ou
existence became membership We have to change again
of the people at a liaison meeting for the demonstration, from Cam paign Atom in Oxford, ex pressed frustration that his campaign dion't have national voice in CND.
CND needs a structure which allows the local campaigns and affiliated bodies to come together regularly to play a rôle in determining the campaign initiatives of CND. 1 absolutely 121C0 If CND ever woke up it would collapse! With the present impetus there could be two thousand people coming to the national conference In Leeds, but there are only 350 places
This enormous enthusiasm has not got to be met
bureaucratic regulations saying sorry you didn't pas up, or sorry you can't speak. or whatever The people who are doing the
WORK at people who should make the judgments about things
I'm absolutely for that -I hope I'm not speaking out of turn. What's happened in Oxford, York, all over the
is absolutely marvel Many of these local groups are really doing things and we have so much to learn trom them
Page 7 scan of this page
Youth in the front line
By Ann Henderson
of Conservative Students.
This Young's : was response to the formation of a Youth for Peace group, not to mention the widespread radicalisation among youth in opposition to the siting of Cruise missiles.
Young people have always • been among the mirst to respond to new developments in nic alona From CND in the '50s and '60s, to the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, young people have Deer in ane forefront movements against war and imperialism.
United States, attempts introduce the draft have faced a cos a doc cere
In Britain youth have been prescri on all tae aemonstrations against Cruise. From the OuiseL, Liese mobilisations
included significant HaVe
of working class youth.
The problem is not one of militancy youth can see quite plainly that nuclear war offers no future but deciding the Dest way organise the activity.
Although groups like Youth for springing
LIC place, taking up a range of issues from nuclear energy to NATO, they have lacked any clear national lead.
Revolution Youth believes it is essential organise a national and local campaign
Other
Bruce Kent, and others.
Britain's nuclear weapons.
Available from
by post.
AN MX missile goes into firing position from its underground track
'WE want Britain to re-arm with Cruise missiles, Trident and neutron bombs, which are the only way of tackling a tank advance' - Peter Young, Federation
on the broadest basis possible, in order to involve all the youth and youth organisations which are prepared fight against Cruise and Tri. dent Within that sort of campaign it would be possible for everyone discuss
building the biggest possible
: Salic Liffe
campaign against hatcher's plans for a nuclear war.
Revolution Youth of called for the setting up of a Youth Against Missiles paign nationally. groups already exist in areas re- such as Manchester ingham, and involving youth
We have approached all other youth organisations for a meeting to discuss the campaign. One of our first tasks will be to build links with and
fighting for youth to adopt an anti-imperialist against the war drive of Thatcher and Carter.
The first thing to do is to build the campaign among students, schoolstudents, unemployed youth, young workers, tinue to involve all those who come on the CND marches in
hope all Challenge supporters help us with this project.
THE /BOOKSHOP EP Thompson and Dan Smith Protest and Survive Penguin, £1.50 A collection of writings by Thompson, Smith, Ken Coates,
Lawrence Freedman Britain and Nuclear Weapons Macmillan, £3.25 In examining Britain's nuclear past and assessing its nuclear future Freedman brings to light information never before published about the secret debates that haye been held on
The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London N1. Tel: 01-226 0571. Please add 15% to each title if ordering
LX their
has
Calsu Strong local
Birm-
Aberdeen,
various
We will be
position,
and meetings and to con.
Socialist the anti-Cruise campaign.
Will me
young people were on the picket.
Missiles in Blackpool.
campaign.
Stop the missiles
'A lot of kids will come to
DOMINIC, a 17-year-old cutter at a Manchester clothing factory, explains how he became involved in
"I went to see The War Game. What I saw shocked and horrified
Until then I had no idea what a nuclear war would be like - also ! was shocked to find out just where the war drive was coming from. So without any hesitation, ! decided to do something about it.
, cabited bean refusing show The War me Ait of the BBC about them refusing to show The War Game.
About 25 people came along to a meeting after the picket, we discussed our future plans for Youth Against the Missiles in Man. chester.! also volunteered to speak at the March against the
For the first time I felt really great about being part of something which was fighting for a cause. I personally think that other young people will get a lot of satisfaction from the Youth Against Missiles
I have told my friends at work about Revolution Youth and Yout! Against Missiles, and they are coming to our next meeting.
'The older people I have talked to tell us that we have not lived long enough to know anything. We know that we don't want our future threatened by a nuclear war.
'I now see it as my aim to bring to light the horrors of a nuclear war to as many young people as possible. I think a lot of kids in our area will come to our meetings and demonstrations, and will fight
NOY
Build the Labour
Movement Con-
ference against
the Missiles
By Dick Withecombe,
Oldham East CLP
behind the anti-missile campaign.
Manchester against the Missiles, after organising a successful lobby the Labour Party conference, has taken the initiative in building a national labour movement conference against the missiles to be held in the new year
Weld
There has been a ready response. Support has COLL from leading trade unionists, as wcha constituency parties and local trade union Untain oin
This reflects the suc. cesses at labour movement conferences this year, with the Labour Party . a number of trade unions voting against Cruise.
The aim of the conference against the missiles is to help weld this opposition into action. We also need to be better prepared To Congresse a icocal of the
where an ambiguous resolution was passed that even sup-
porters of Cruise missiles like Duffy and Boyd of the Engineering Union could support
Labour Party and trade umon banners wil be present on CND's march this Sunday. We are setting ourselves the targe of getting the Labour Par forefront in every future and the TUC to the march not simply with their banners on the day but in the weeks beforehand in building support among the members and working closely with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
It would be an enormous boost if every national trade union were to urge its branches to join
building LOCA missile groups and CND They should also help to set up and build groups such as Engineers against the Missiles, and Busworkers against the Missiles.
Bases
We have years to stop Cruise. We can't wait for the return of a Labour government; we need to start organising ourselves now.
Stopping the missiles will require trade union action such as refusing to do any work connected with mega-death weapons and their bases.
The conference should
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
Organising
in the Unions
A CRUCIAL part of stopping the Tories' plan to allow Cruise to be sited in Britain will be to gather the strength of the labour movement
discuss how we can extend decisions like ta be the southern region the building workers' union UCATT to refuse to move
connected with the missiles . We need to win Labour Party support for such positions.
The conference will discuss members of the TGWU and dock workers can organise boycott material
'We have
three years
to stop
Cruise. We
need to
start organising
ourselves
now'
nected with the bases.
The Tories already have their links; so do our right-wing
the movement like Duffy and Chapple, NATO. We have to develop international links to counter the missiles.
Factory
In Manchester, the convenor of the occupied Gardner's factory has connected the fight of the
workers here with the millions spent on nuclear weapons. This is a valuable way _of linking two aspects of Tory anti-working class policies.
"the only factories in the Manchester area taking on workers at the pre sent time are those linkec
the defence industry The billions being spent on a holocaust could provide a living wage for all thos
une cold • Instead of 2.1m unemployed we could use the money to pay for sharing out the work with no loss of pay - then we'd all have a job.
We want to discuss at the conference how workers currently employed in the business of making technolog could instead be used for making socially useful goods.
Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
THE SOVET CHON. TH
THE siting of Cruise and Triand the setting up of the and setting up of Soviet SS20 missiles show that a new arms race is under-
way. This is obviously in part caused by the deterioration of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Why has this deterioration occurred?
You can start that question by debating when these relations broke down. One conventional view is that detente broke down with the advent of the Carter ad-
January Sae with trumean and Kennedy Democratic presidents
-tend to be less secure in their handling of international affairs. Although the crude theory vocating this is simplistic, it has some merit.
Parties
The Republican Party is a more solidly-based ruling class party with a clear hegemonic ideology. But the Democrats are an alliance of different interests, although of course a bourgeois party, they need to cement their alliance with alternative ideology, and it tends to be anti-
launching various moral and world scale,
Democratic presidents tend exacerbate relations with Soviet Union. This applies to Eisenhower and Nixon. It cannot however explain the difference between Carter and Reagan.
ins neory nas. some which should be registered, but I don't think that it is the main casull - there are two much
important reasons.
LIULC first is the upsurge of revolu-
struggle in the World, and the second is the revival of a new rightist militancy in the United States.
The of these factors relates to the way the Americans DOCISLOOG American eyes it covered not just
limitation and post-1945 division of Europe, but also a moratorium on revolutionary advances in the World. The 'rules of detente' included a counter-revolutionary stability thesis. Yet what we' seen since the mid of revolutions or at least radical social upheavals in countries which were thought to be stable elements in the world system. Status quo
The most spectacular was the Iranian revolution of 1978-9: but there was also the fall of the US's oldest ally, the Ethiopian regime, which fell in 1974; the nationalist
the Portuguese colonies and Zimbabwe; the temptea revolution — wouldn't SAtghanistan in 1978.And then successful there have been developments in Nicaragua, El Salvador and the Caribbean -Grenada, Jamaica, etc. have therefore been a number of countries where the USA has felt that the status quo has broken down; or where the influence of the Soviet Union has dramatical-
where the Us's influence has declined, without a Soviet advance.
If one looks at the record more closely in each of the countries where the Soviet Union has gained ground or where the US as lost out, it was the United States which took the initiative.
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980 Page 8
dramatic as we
adscale, In Angola the CIA decision to
to back the UNITA
the Holden Roberto led
Cubans going in, with Soviet backing.
In Ethiopia, where the Russians didn't support military junta until the end 1977, the Americans
couraged the Somali invasion -
The which brought in the Cubans and
the Russians.
Third
Iran In Iran the USSR wasn't involved in the revolution, but the US had been for 25 years.
Afghanistan, the reason that the old regime 1978 was because the Shah of Iran, backed by the Americans, Third ter epine Was crush the left.
replied by itself with results that we all ‹now. All these things backfired series on the Americans.
These events have given the impression that there is a massive Soviet World. After Angola in 1975-6 and the Soviet intervention in the Horn of Africa in 1977, BrzezinSLaULCO talk "linkage'.
The irony of the situation is that at the height of the Vietnam war, when the Russians and the Chinese were actively supporting the Vietnamese in frontation with US imperialism,
at- the Russians and the Americans
were quite capable of negotiating probably because the spheres of Soviet influence were clear, and partly I think because there Republican administrawas a tion.
There Shift The developments that I've outlined Ilavc ideological shift to the right in even the United States which is given a
special twist by the fact that the United States is today dependent on the import of oil in a way in which it never was before.
Thus although they had to acCOOL Hosing Cuba, they are not prepared to
Nixon and Brezhnev sign arms treaty
"lose' forces of have it —
to the sense of imperialist
has been undermined.
The atmosphere phobia new of
and the affair. The
Reaganite candidates are an in dex of this.
And in counter-revolutionary
was overthrown in Rapid
case in point But it's
The arms race.
of the colonial revolution?
Third sense that they're designed
what they call the 'central front ADOUl - that is Germany
offensive deployment in Centra Europe; and I don't think an of a direct con- fensive intention, although it ob viously has an offensive capaci
to defend itself. Given the switch inion is in China's stance, tional position than in the first cold war.
the American ideological system that they have superiority parity with the
one is an essentiale ber
caused America's popular ideolog.
not just in the arms race but il anything. the best' politically and internationally What as satisfactory and the Soviet Union is that they
China, are number one and the others fit
into place.
- in the sense that the Saudi Arabia. confidence of xenoand chauvinism in the United States has been greatly in reased by the Iranian hostage
Moral supporting aimed at the Third World. The
Deployment Force is a
not so clear why Is the struction of the MX system a rational response to the rise
I depends what you mean b! 'rational'. It's not rational in the
to meet an alleged Soviet threat on
my view is not in fact there. Th Soviet Union does not have an Soviet
availability
There is
, otherwise it wouldn't be abl
the Soviet weaker convenThen
respects. It is an essential part of
- not have negative Soviet Union essential part
•We're the biggest anc positive also militarily, economic effects.
the Americans regard vis-a-vis Europe new arms race
whether
FRED HALLIDAY, a member of
the New Left Review editorial
board, is the author of Arabia
without Sultans and the Penguin book Iran. He has written ex-
tensively about Afghanistan,
The second rational aspect is the economic pressure that it brings to bear on the Soviet Union By forcing the Russians to spend living much more on weapons they put immense pressure on, for exam-
consumer goods are scarce enough at the best of times.
another aspect in which it's rational and that is the extent to which it holds together the ideological consensus in the United States and the Western alliance and Japan as a whole.
there's aUSO the nuclear economic benefit. In a recession Soviet the arms companies benefit from a new arms race. Whereas in the Soviet Union the arms race will
effects on the economy and on the availability of consumer goods, it would ap pear that in the United States and from She Was face col naive
AL LEAD race will have counter-recessional
But it is irrational in one final respect. The Russians will not be intimidated or terrorised by a
into changing their policy in the Third World,
Afghanistan
Interview with Fred Halliday
Plane takes off to bomb Vietnam from American aircraft carrier
anywhere else. Neither will they refuse to compete in a new arms race because of the effects on the
standards of their own people. This is not only because the Soviet leadership is stubborn but because they calculate tha their own people will blame th new consumer restrictions on the Americans, as they did the Olympic boycott.
I want to ask you a question about the threatened use of
weapons by the Union. Many left believe that this is wrong either from a moral point o view - this is the point made
the Enropean scient sit
European Nuclear armament campaign
the point of view of revolutionary politics.
For example, the sup-
the Militant
endenc! argue that the
Soviet Union should give ur the use of nuclear weapons and rely on a combination of a workers' militia and the class consciousness of the Western proletariat.
which he times.
Socialist him about and the res Union.
Is unilateral nuclear mament a feasible optio the Soviet Union?
I think that the only fe argument against the poss by the Soviet Union of n weapons 1s the moral on any practical grounds, tunately, the Soviet Unior own best interests has to nuclear weapons. i say inl an historical point of view
When the Soviet Unic not have nuclear weapon United States did threa covertly with the use th And indeed the very dropp the bomb on Hiroshim: Nagasaki has been shown tr been partly motivated, no desire quickly to end the wa Japan, but to intimidat Soviet Union in the negoti over the post-war division world, and to keep the Union out of the main re:
of US imperial inter alcd that time - - the Pacific Ri
I cannot believe that the has now become benevolent towards the system in the Soviet Unior
Page 9 scan of this page
s visited several
Challenge asked
e new arms race nse of the Soviet
hatred of the Soviet Union is very deep here. The idea that workers' militia or the class consciousness of the Western letarial wil defend the Union quite frankly dream; I think that most people realise that.
A workers' militia is all very well against something armed with remotely similar But the case of Chile showed that Call have immense heroism and relatively good organisation, id but you need to have a similar
technological level of weapons to deteat an organised and politically coherent on side. What goes for a civil war situation also applies to interna50 0 tional conflicts.
The level of technological
DOWCT that the
such that a militia while very nice and a very useful back up, is no substitute for a conventional army - armed in much the same way as your opponents.
The hatred of the st Union by the Western ruling
classes, and as we've seen with
Reagan, the hatred of China, is
very deep. There's a reason for it
WEST, AND
which is perfectly obvious to any historical materialist. And in that situation they're not become more Soviet Union abandons nuclear weapons.
We can expect major frontations not West divide in Europe but in the third world, where there are no anes or marcauon and wnere a series of upheavals over the past tive vears has increased the sensi of competition between the two systems, and where the conflict is an active and in some places a hot one.
Why did the Americans not invade Vietnam? have held down much of the territory, destroyed Hanoi, killed a couple of million people. Why didn't they do it? Vietnam
The main reason their fear of the Tesistance.
Chinese which in the stages of the war was very doubtful anyway. reason is that such actions could have led to a confrontation with the USSR, which could have had very major consequences for the
Ed iust ke to sav one more word about the revolutionary instincts of the Western European working class.
Quite frankly, I don't think that at this moment in time they are inat strong, ternational issues. the Soviet Union is The attachment to the cause of socialism, however down, is not too well established and in such a situation this is no cerence whatsoever determined onslaught. I may be wrong, but I would not bet on it.
Do you think that defending the right of the Soviet Union to possess nuclear weapons and to threaten to use them in the event of a nuclear attack means that we should defend every aspect weaponry? warfare, chemical weapons, nerve gasses weapons?
All the things that you mention are ones which themselves immoral and cannot stances and for which condoned pro-Soviet solute need demonstrated. I know this is an old debate. But unless you take a pacifist DUDOULL some while at the same time trying to establish some
The use of such should be abjured in principle by socialist countries.
other the banning of napalm. that this is a step forward.
The demand has
European Disarmament
Europe, put it 'from Poland tugal, and at first might appear to be a which attacks Soviet equally.
But disarmament be kery much in the of
ITECTESLS Union? Despite the neutralist
new nuclear going to campaign, benevolentif the that it
immensely positive? conalong the East-
have an
ly because itselt,
be destroyed.
They could nuclear
the Russians
Wing more
Vietnamese we position
crossing the nuclear disarmament
One has to aLCI
The fundamental
own military Americans there's no
with it.
especially on in-
Hostility to very deej
watered
against imperialist Soviet Detente in trouble What about germ
This
and similar
shadow boxing enables une are in
circum- armaments. no abcan be
military Europe. lave right to combat manoeuvre
movement is rules.
• and thus
tion
I think
these
been raised
Nuclear campaign for a that the
they to Por- Soviets sight this demand European
both sides
wouldn't European tries
fears.
the Soviet
and pacifist retoric of the
disarmament don't you think possible. will have an anti-imperialist dynamic? Isn't it
I think that this campaign will
anti-imperialist dynamic. It is positive, not simp-
it is progressive in necessary. the left has ignored a question which is of no trivial significance
• whether the world is going to
Whatever the class character of that question, it is clearly not a secondary one. yield up
As for the demand for Euro-
disarmament, think that it is a positive one, but that the future depends on what
do. The USSR could play a positive rôle in encouraging this process by show-
willingness to disarm vis-à-vis the US, if the US is will- the ing to do the same. Then I think Europe,
would be in a much better
to push for European cidentally the criticise the Rus sians for the fact that they don't assist those in the West who are doesn't
chicourarc disarmament. First of all they don't pro vide any information about thei
forces rave it, the
reason why they shouldn't supply other people
ferent Europe. power SCOUCICO Union. information would enable an intelligent discussion to go on. At the moment, it's all
that's what right get away with so much of their exaggeration about the level of Soviet
East room 2101.
system
loads January events,
in saying have underplayed reproduct disarma-
some Soviet Eritrea lessening of features.
NAR
in Europe which would make in-
disarmament more But in discussing the
posibilities of this movement I
think one should be clear that it's
not just a question of convincing
those on the right - it's a ques-
convincing the Soviet Union that a rôle in such a campaign and encouragement of it is
Part of the solution lies in the Prevision of cinparmation aboch
own Cabas les given the nature of their society and the role of secrecy within it,
they are extremely reluctant to
Don't the events in Poland show that even if the Soviet Union carries out some tions in the third world which are objectively progrester
régimes Eastern of which the Soviet Union is the leader - - and in
the guarantor o continued existence of the others - are not socialist ano na the working class
directly exercise political power?
Aren't we dealing here with a régime which rests on a privileged bureaucracy?
I think that's mainly correct The Soviet Union's international rôle in the Third World is dif-
from its rôle in East
In the Third World it has given assistance to revolutionary movements and governments which have issued from revolutionary movements, albeit with mancuye conscaucices Eastern Europe it is assisting the party bureaucracies to remain in
What underlines the dif. ference between the events in Poland and some other parts of the world is that events in Poland
threat to the Soviet leadership itself - much more so than the developments in Iran or Afganistan. The example of workers striking, either for political rights or improved living standards, is an example that could have very serious con-
inside Soviet
1 doubt whether the Russian working class is as political as the Polish working class, because it doesn't share its national aspirations nor does it have the history of the Polish working class.
Poland
But it certainly shares its concern for living standards and a ser falde rivation and eling
economic
We've seen this year the strike at Togliattigrad, where a member of the Central Committee had to arrive with two train-
consumer The Polist placate the workers.
coming in a country on the borders of the Soviet Union and with which the Soviet Union has a traditional relationship, illumine the nature of the Soviet system itself.
That underlines one of the most negative features of the rôle ot the soviet Union in the Third World, namely its tendency to
those countries where it has influence a system analagous to that in the Soviet Union itself. The repressive solution to the national question in
and the building of monolithic party are two such
Revolution rocks
Central America
By Paul Lawson
into Havana, the
Central America.
26th movement, was radical and democratic.
labourers and the urban dispossessed
the economy both American imperialism
to socialism.
whole of Latin America.
direction. Nicaragua
insurrectionary Sandinista Front (FSLN).
Nicaragua
leftward-moving direction.
During the insurrection
money.
begun. people's militia Nicaragua is following the Cuban road.
For the worse by the insurrectionary
which is supported by millions.
Castro
regime's moderate Oscar Romero, gave the signal for open civil war.
The military junta repression. Thousands of political assassinations by the right-wing death squads and the army have been carried out. The rulers of El Salvador are trying to drown the revolution in blood
Imperialism will not surrender El Salvador without
in Grenada or Nicaragua,
But the millions o heard the words of Fidel Castro: 'Bombs can kill the hungry, the poor, the ill and the illiterate, but they can't kill hunger, illness and ignorance. The fight against hunger and without social justice.
bean need our maximum solidarity in that fight.
ON 1 January 1959 the Cuban revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara marched
capital, toppling the American-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. A new era had opened in the Caribbean and
The movement of the revolutionaries, the July
It sought land reform and justice: a new deal for the impoverished Cubans masses - the agricultural
Fidel and his comrades were not Marxists, but in their struggle for democracy and justice they came up against a problem. To even begin to transform the country they had to break the stranglehold on
local capitalism and
In his second declaration of Havana, in 1961 Fidel announced the only way forward - the road
For twenty years the United States has tried to
the Cuban example, and its eradication of poverty and illiteracy, and stood out as a beacon in the
The grip of the American ruling class on the area received two savage blows in 1979. First in the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada the local dictator, Eric Gairy, was overthrown by the radical New Jewel Movement. The movement and its leader, Maurice Bishop, have subsequently evolvediin a socialist
Much more serious, in July 1979, the US-backed dictatorship in Nicaragua was overthrown by the
strategicaly vital country.
Stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, it cuts the Americas in two. The evolution of the FSLN government since that time has been in a rapidly
Before the Sandinista victory huge sectors of the country were run by Somoza and his family.
immense damage was wrought to the country. Sections of the ruling class fled Nicaragua with their suitcases stuffed with
Since the victory of the FSLN a massive literacy campaign has begun - adult illiteracy is on the verge of being abolished. An immense effort at national economic reconstrution and land reform has
has been created.
United States the position is made situation in Salvador, a country ruled by a tiny oligarchy of 14 families. They face a united alliance of three revolutionary groups, the Peoples' Revolutionary Bloc,
The assassination last March of one of the
opponents the archbishop
replied with savage
In Central America nothing has been settled.
a fight. Neither will it accept a socialist revolution
Of poor and dispossessed have
poverty will not be won
The people of Central America and the Carib-
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980 Page 9
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Page 10
By John Leadbetter
hours' flying-time
made possible
across the continents.
and the world's population with it. For Carter and That-
cher the new generation
of nuclear missiles
Cruise and Trident - are vital instruments to en-
force their rule throughout the world.
They face a workers' revolt at home against the effects of the recession, and revolution by the oppressed people of Third World countries like Nicaragua and Iran.
In this shrinking world. national solution. don't exist. We are fightmig methalonal millary alliances and multinational companies.
Workers of the world need their own instrument to defeat imperialism international revolutionary party. Socialist Challenge is sponsored by the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Fourth International.
Socialist Challenge has been in the forefront of building the campaign
OUT co-thinkers throughout the world are deeply involved in campaigns to defeat the imperialist war-mongers.
United States the Socialist Workers Party and the Young Socialist Alliance are leading the SOCIALIST campaign to stop Carter enrolling the youth into the army. In the '60s and "70s they helped build the
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Ihroughout the sections of Fourth International support the movements against the missiles and
Campion the cause or al
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In America,
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Socialist Challenge News
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL on the march WE LIVE on a shrinking planet. A few
separates capital cities of the world. New technology has
instant communication
A brief journey by a few nuclear missiles could shrink all this to nothing in minutes
struggles Peru, member of the FI. Petr Uhl, a leading member of Charter '77 Czechoslovakia; sup ports many of the policies of the FI.
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committed to building broadest possible movement against the missiles. We will unite with all those prepared to fight on this issue Europe respective of political the ferences we may have.
But in the end, we believe the way to stop weapons altogether will only be by overthrowing the imperialist system which gives rise to them our special supplement this week we have why we call for withdrawal from NATO and for solidarity with all Hugo Blanco, the most those fighting imperialism in the
Third World.
GUNNENE
INTERNATIONALE
The International Marxist Group and the Fourth International for une revolutionary overthrow of impenausin. lne image or socialism presented by Russia. China, are Lie Eastern bloc is not model.
We stand for system socialist • democracy where the workers have the real
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is the tinue to campaign vigorously to build a mass movement against the missiles the campaign should anti-imperialist stand. To do this ir- effectively dit- port.
Challenge will nuclear meetings up and down the country the Bombs'. We leaflets literature to build the anti-Cruise explained campaign. devote space to the campaign in the paper.
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Page 11 scan of this page
The anti-bomb best seller
Cruise missiles
and chips?
By Tom Marlowe
EVERY the
world spends one
million dollars on
military activities.
We'll reveat that,
just in case you didn't
get it the first time:
every the
world spends
million dollars on
military activities.
Some people think that
this is insufficient the
government
States, for example. Within Protest and Survive, edited by EP Thompson and Dan Smith Penguin Special, £1.50 DURING the winter of 1979 and the spring of 1980 a series of significant decisions were taken by NATO and the Tory government which made the danger of a nuclear holocaust more imminent.
It was announced that by 1983, 160 Cruise missiles would be located in Britain at two American air bases.
Polaris was to be replaced in the 1990s by Trident at a cost of £5,000 billion, while in the meantime €1,000 million was being spent on modernising the present warheads.
1rue CLO aneu manitesto the Tories were cutting every aspect expenditure except defence and law and order. Protest
Since then a broad movenier or oooosiuon was Derun to emerge. CND has grown dramatically. Many trade unions have come out against nuclear weapons. The Labour Party conrerence volca unilateral nuclear disarmament.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest. EP Thompson must be well
he made in his pamphlet, Protest and Survive, has met such a stunning response.
That pamphlet, published jointly by CND Spokesman, sold lens thousands of copies even
stalls of WH Smiths
Now we nave the book. The editors and Penguin have to be congratulated speed with which this collection CONCYS lico been published.
The book's strengths lie in its countering of the usual media statements: the necessity of nuclear weapons; and
that the West lagging behind the 'Soviet menace'. It also supplies accurate factual mațenal wack will be essen: tial for any campaigner against nuclear weapons. Horror
It also provides the starting point for a discussion of the attitude socialists should PaKe soviCl aucical arsenal the 'workers'
Why does the USSR allocate such huge resource to nuclear weapons? Why do
the next five Washington plans to double
the story goes that tel is necessary to protect the free world from the
socialism and the like, and that the US and
Western Dowers ar makıne a cred coccer order lefend freedom
not just the developed
in the third COuALLICS oul
That argument is about as reliable that the World War was une war lo stop all wars. and of
the
Now
Weapons,
power.
No Nuclear Photography Workshop,
they continue to develop even more deadly in 1979 did they nuclear test any other country? What do they hope to charade of the Strategic Arms Limitation lalks? What. use can a workers' atate have for a nuclear bomb?
The first 61 book edition of Thompson's pam-
The evidence is that military spending, especialUS, increases the exploitation of the third world. It in creases poverty there and increases despotic régimes.
A specific example is oil wiich. weare onentoda precious commodity, not to e wasted, much needed b Cuties something which should be everywhere,
preserved.
Try telling that to the US military, year CRUMBLING walls and corrugated iron - that's the usual place to find campaigning posters. Peter Kennard's photomontage based stable's famous Haywain has been so effective that it has already graced the pages of the Daily Mirror.
Kennard, photographer Mike Abrahams, and writer Ric Sissons have come together to produce No
combining ana text to canal wue reall Several of the montages from the exhibition appear in this week's Socialist Challenge
• Weapons can be seen 119 Roman from Tuesday 21 October until Friday 28 November. Open-
phlet. weapons? Why make more tackles the same themes: that civil defence offers no hope for survival gain from the weapons and is actually aimed position sat this is part or suppressing the continual erosion of civil
pages of the nissiles are to be sited her revised democratic decision making;
Stop the missiles
considerably more than South Asia Now sometimes that third world countries benefit from ins. • Intal, tor instalice, ble
aluminium which Tonnes the US
The Insane Society
military uses each veal for less export balance those third world countries producing
Bul as aly budgetbalancer would confirm, far more beneficial to the countries if they kept Luelt laW
Constable against the missiles
Wing times are But Wednesdays, on conavailable for hire -01-980 8798
montage, of nuclear clude at the Half Moon Road, London E2
Road, Leeds 3
that In less polemical style he war have been
this latter
against nuclear uses
reality.
trates the last that Hiroshima
framework of were
processed them and exfinished products.
Instead, the tendency is for these e third world countries to buy back the pro. fron the developed world.
materials . originally theirs were
What SULL of finished Well, for a start there's, ye? aloe invo ve you've guessed maments American arms sales in 1980 are expected to top $14,500m. Most of these weapons are acquired by Thursdays. and Fridays. from noon
Local CND groups should note that the exhibition is
for details contact the Half Moon on
Nuclear Postcards To coincide with the opening of No Nuclear Power the campaign tor Nuclear Disarmament is publisning tou postcards based on Kennard's photomontages. These in
the Haywain and 'Nuclear which is shown on page 12. The postcards cost 50p for a set, and are available from Leeds Postcards, 13 Claremont
the horrors of nuclear hidden 11101 the people; and that allied to
point the media a language that fakes
have The second chapter illuspoint vividly.
The bombs which devastated the
and Nagasaki After all. called 'Little boy' and 'Fat man'. Weapons belong 1947
third world countries. The
in question • often highly sophisticated ones the military countes • cemaio leen TrOm ineir governments as the price to be paid for their to the existing régime. Thated retimes in rye dominated
therefore, WOrk product of some of
tries to manage their affairs
mould it 1s? consequence of the arms market presided over by the developed countries Then there is the ques tion development aid given to the third world This aid in itself is often 6.00pm on Tuesdays
(weapons/energy) bob, which ills people and 'families' The neutron leaves property alone, is called a 'radiation enhancement
However, the book does omissions: The collection does not really lay much responsibility at the door of
Labour it was the Atlee Labour goverment which ir
secretly gave the goSocialist Challenge
third huge contrick, given to
world
countries which then expect
use the money i to
buy back commodities from
luc donor sindustries
the United Nations stressed
in a recent report, Economic
the Arms Race
LIOS naustranse the military budget
rises the development aid
Translated means that States
machine as on development
aid.
And that just about
sums up the priorities of the
UNA alutes
people in India can't eat
Cruise missiles
Photomontage: PEICH KENNAND
ahead for the British atomic bomb. The expenditure
Iwa.
penditure called •Public Buildings'
Te then has Bareed and
since and developed the British nuclear
tained a firm commitment to NATO.
Ine book also fails to draw any link between nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are now within the grasp. of several "states due . Ic perialist expor of the technology for the construc tion of puclear reactors and reprocessing. plants.
But the weakest section or? the book pertains to action
: the final chapter contains a foll call for variousit sorts of action and appeals to. a diversity of people it fails to offer any perspective for the organised working class" movement ol explain now trade union action can help halt the menace of nuclea weapons RIC SISSONS
23 Octobar 1980. Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
The power behind the bomb
By Simon May
'THIRTY seconds after
the explosion
first, the air blast.... to
be followed almost im-
mediately by
strong, sustained,
awesome roar
warned of doomsday...
'Words are inadequate
tools for the job of acquaint-
ing those not present with the
physical, mental, and psycho-
logical effects. It had to be
witnessca to be realised.
The place was Alamogor-
do in the New Mexico desert,
the date 16 July 1945, and the
stunned eye-witness
standing five miles away from
the first atomic test.
Linked
That bomb, and the one
which killed 40,000 people in
a tew seconds at Nagasaki a
month later, were made from
plutonium Droolicer world's first nuclear reactors.
Thirty years later India exploded its first atomic bomb using plutonium developed from the 'peaceful' application of nuclear energy. Both events and everything that has occurred since demonstrate one thing: that the development of nuclear weapons and
power are inextricably linked.
In Britain all the nuclear factories the Windscale
hurst enrichment plant, and the Calder Hall Chapelcross reactors — were originally built make nuclear bombs. The Calder Hall and Chapelcross reactors are still operated primarily for the production of plutonium and tritium for the H-bomb, although they also pump electricity into the national grid. Function
The Windscale reprocessing plant performs the military function of reprocessing the plutonium in Britain's nuclear warheads every ten years. This was recently completed as pall of the
of the bomb'!
By Bob Pennington WHEN US president Harry
spread
The Russian leaders were slow to get the message. that when he told Stalin that the US was to drop bomb on the Japanese, the Soviet cane choi esser mis aengnt and
nove L020 the Americans would 'make good use of it...'
Identified
British Even Communist Party late the was saying: 'All intelligent peopl helped to thus saved millions of lives.' that shorten the the wal and bomt
reason Communist parties did not oppose the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was because they wanted to carry
alliance between soviet Russla ana tne capitalisi West into the post-war world
So attached were they to the
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
came,
the
which was the
Photomontage: PETER KENNARD
Stalin to Truman:
'Make good use
Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he gave notice that America was not going to allow
communism. The Cold started with the hottest blast in military history.
idea of such an alliance that they openly and enthusiastically identified themselves with terests of their own ruling class riance leading members servea in De Gaulle's
Se, was one of the hire French
vice-presidents who countersign ca ine government order to start bombing Haiphong in The French CP L 'Humanité w ote plaintively on 26 July 1946 Are ing Syria and the Lebanon yesteruay, to lusc m100-cta and North Africa the day
Exploit
Bit ite secretary CP, Wat workers to fight for a government
Page 12
that Included progressive people from all par Ties Churchill!
Pollitt took no
government with a large majoriThe policy of trying to win the
capite US meant Mat
Communist parties agreeing to capitalist armaments - conventional or nuclear also accepted vanilalst.
Colones capitalists generous minded.
France, LICi had served their purpose revolution in those trev were kicked War had governments.
Despite the advice of stalin, the peoples of China decided to make revolution • exploiters. the masses took up arms to win their
I cool In Korea the people the North waged war to the regime in the South. he Frenc Stalin's dream
alliance with Western capitalisn was destroyed, revolution on the one side and the i Vietnam imperialism to retain and
Expand its economic and politic: nfluence on the othe
Summit
TOMOr.
The US adopted the role of the counter-revolutionary heading the holy crusade against communism.
Having been
national teeth by their erstwhile allies the narr Collusi parties British oppose them having
weapons. Previously the CPs had
Stop the missiles
the most
Tories like Aussia were • occaust rortunately 'or Me together
and returned a Labour
nauous to an alllance capitalist nations
the finished
Gollan, Pollitt's successor the rights of the national secretary,
exploit their
were not so
Annistere at top level...
Ranks out of the
CP short of allies wight, autor or
in Vietnam the boasted:
of
revolutionary
the policy as adopted by the last Labour Party conference or a ner
colonial Gaitskell and had deserted his on the left to help the right wing
callcoo '...the goverment to itself refusing ture or use nuclear
Trades Union,
kicked in the
began to Gaitskell against unilateralism. . Nuclear Disarmament cortinued
Chevaline upgrade warheads.
The
Pressurised
• 01 American econ Now the
Generating bombs
While the
with regimes Korea, soul Alrica, and sionist Profits
the feeds argued that world peace would be
America and Worker the CP going to work
Now they found a new hope fould be ache pitor could de Peaceful co-existence
vy puone oolnion conic be ped.' (12.10.57.)
force reluctant warmongers. The new cry was the to stop being campaign was call for an international summit.
This was spelled out by John
Or as who Luc "The basic fact remains that the wIUlt. way to remove the causes of inter. national tension and avert war is honest international negotiations
joined its ranks.
policy did not leave the
Close all US
- Ban on the t5t, nam vacu "This
and use of nuclear weapons by
of Hugh Nye
unilateralist resolution
Norwood Labour Parti
The Norwood resolution had Gollan Lead by weaknes take of the to test, themselves wCasOIS. Ul Parised
The CP-controlled Electricial
the Fire Brigade , and the CP-led Scottish delegation all voted with Treaty'
Meanwhile the Campaiin for
programme the Polaris
early commercial
edge that the Westinghouse
Water Reactor
gained over the General Elec-
Boiling Water Reactor
was the result of its adoption
the first generation of Polaris Posnuclear submarines Westinghouse PWR
is to be introduced into Bri-
tain as a commercial reactor.
Central Electricity Board have chosen Sizewell ( in
Suffolk as the first site.
Repressive
Nuclear power and atom linked
through the proliferation of
nuclear technology under the
guise of supplying electricity
This technology is in fact usec
for bomb production.
Socaust oppose
the racist sentiment that pro liferation should be stopped because 'we cannot trust these
crazy Third World states' we are against the worldwide increase in nuclear weaponry.
Among the countries with nuclear technology are those greatest demand LUIN
the most repressive Chile South Brazil, Argentina and Pakistan those with expandesigns on their neighbours - Israel and Iraq.
The drive for profits by
*nuclear multinationals the proliferation of nuclear technology. The com-
export among 1953. these companies leads them to go around the existing nonproliferation controls in an effort to win orders.
to grow, despite being boycotted
denounced CND'S The for unilateralism, arguing: 'It is a proposal that would divide those who are today united in demanding that the tests should be stop-
cullacnce
In 1959 when the unilateralist within the unions and the Labou Party, the Communist Party held Its Congress in London. Outside
Congress the CND demon minster stration was making its way pointment. Trafalgar Square, growing by the
mud maore canon parties and trade union branches
scramble on time for the conference
Worker
beginnin
1 Uddy nateransm
has claimed: been that some "The existence reliance CND lave neg aOOI from the involves movement with Even at that late hour all he coud call for was *a readiness to discus
Serin and on a pron lee
The British CP was not out of step with its European counter- rors of its ways.
While good fo business it • presents problems for imperialism which has no LIlCICSl nuclear weapons that it does not control. use of nuclear weapons in the prosecution of a local dispute would completely destabilise imperialist domination in the Cavilalst word Easier The recent conclusion of the International Fuel Cycle Evaluation, initiated by PresiGent Carter, was aimed allowing nuclear export bul removing the threat of pro. liferation recommends that SC -Co0012 countries be excluded from reprocessing, cunchment, and fast breeder technology - all of which give easier access to material but would reactors.
There is a tendency in the anti-nuclear movement to say 'get rid of nuclear power anc you'll weaponset rid nuclear While the military users of nuclear technology depend civil facilities, would be mistake to think that a successful struggle against nuclear power would result in for the nuclear weapons programme.
Militant
In fact the state would
simply appropriate what
needer and Windscale, Capenhurst, Chapelcross,
and Calder Hall would again
become military installations the Whạt were from 1945 to is needed is a Mutan campaign
against these weapons, that
unites the anti-nuclear and
labour movements. parts Unita.
CP decared 'We
munists of Rome salute Dwight
Eisenhower the name of
250,000 electors in the capital of the Roman Republic, express our
determina-
tion that the great hopes fo
which were aroused in the hearts of all peoples, hopes created by
the USA and the prime
, shall not end in disap
Loyal
shante on to same agal to
bandwagon in 1960 Labour Party At that conference a resolu на пост, а в ва, was
movement, forecast three years earlier. : It was a split between those who loyally served the interests of their
Ten class and those mostions
take against the imperialist war driv
the calls but it attempts win this aim by the same kind o
Is which aligned it with im the wabour right wing in the 1930s
The politics of peaceful
i prose natoss the USER. means
between building alliance politicians priests at the expense of developing the class struggle
The fight against nuclear war means the disarming of our own tullig class, not nopelessly tryin to persuade it to recognise the er
Page 13 scan of this page
NEXT WEEK: News
direct from Poland
week.
'Our reporter, Kay
Lech Walesa, and other Polish militants.
next week.
By Davy Jones AS THE Iranian Parliament meets to discuss Carter's hostages, now stationed in the Indian Ocean 'to protect the Hormuz routes.'
Last week the Alacrity, joined the British guided-missile destroyer, Coventry, fleet, mainly from the France and Britain, includes three aircraft carriers, half a dozen destroyers and a number of guided-missile frigates.
The imperialist powers deny any plans for an international task force in the Gulf region. The Iranians have already pledged that despite the war with Iraq the Hormuz Strait will be kept open, so the naval build up clearly has more sinister goals.
Imperialism fears the spread of the revolutionary dynamic unleashed by the overthrow of the Shah in Iran.
Since the Iran/Iraq conflict began the United States government have hoped that the result would be the overthrow of the Khomeini regime and its replacement by a pro-Western government headed by former prime minister, Bakthiar.
motley group organisations heads a new alliance of opposition forces in exile. They involve the Iran party, the Pan-Transit party and the National Front. General former military governor claims the support of many exiled former army officers.
Alliance
Oveissi and Bakhtiar are trying to link up with another former premier, Amidi, to form an anti-Khomeini alliance. Despite their wild threats to launch a civil uprising their real military thrashing of the Iranians by the Iraqis. They could pieces'.
But imperialism and Bakhtar's rag tag and bobtail alliance look set for disappointment. Iranian resistance at the key city OT HoOs observers' expectations. As we went to press it seemed an outside chance that the might hold seasonal rains, expected in 4 weeks time, halt the Iraqis' davance sticky mire of the former desert.
Further it appears that the Iranians
may soon launch an invasion of northern Iraq, some 600 miles away from the Shatt al-Arab waterway. Reports are rife of an Iranian military build-up in the Urumia region, in north west Iran near Iraqi Kur-
distan.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders visited Tehran
last week for talks with Iranian officials.
As we reported last week Kurds in Iraq
nave beaun hostilities
Baathist regime since the war with Iran
began. It is possible that an Iranian offen-
sive into northern Iraq could be linked to
a Kurdish uprising there.
may Seal the
regime and the imperialists that come off
worst in the Gulf war. Certainly socialists
in every country should demand an end
to all imperialist military interference in
the region.
SOLiDARNOL
reports and interviews
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE is planning a major 'interference' in Polish internal affairs next
Carter, has just returned from Poland with an interview with strike leader,
She has also brought back fascinating new pictures from inside the Lenin shipyards. Don't miss this special coverage in Socialist Challenge
offer on the 60 Western warships are
Strait oil
Royal Navy frigate,
the area. The United States, Shahpour
of right-wing
Oveissi, the of Tehran,
Dr. Ali
hope lies with
the
exceeded all
out until the
TA OUCHI the against the
despotic Iraqi
Carter Armed Iranian mullah in Khorramshahr: the Iraqi regime may yet lose out in the Gulf War Speakout THE article Iraq by the published
Campaign
Repression Already and tol Democratic LOns Rights in Iraq (CARDRI) is officials part of our 50.000 men,
children have been 'Speakout service to the
sure your really Iraqis' campaign sends us its press held releases.
assaulted 'politically are taken
International,
Lech Walesa with Socialist Challenge reporter, Kay
CARROT... AND HOLDS
Repression in Iraq
By the Campaign Against Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq (CARDRI)
THE Baathist clique of Saddam Hussein is ruling
gun, the gallows, chamber. The secret police, headed by Hussein's brother, ruthlessly round up people suspected of disloyalty to the regime.
this year there have been 500 political execu-
with sentences being moured cars, handed down by government
judges. Over women, and genocidal forcibly deported since April 1980 on regime has the grounds that they are 'not
$3,500m
According to Amnesty International politica! suspects,
detention without charge or triai, are tortured of the
matter of course Gulf'.
Women prisoners are sexually
and children of is spreading suspect' hostage and tor- go-slows tured in front of their parents.
CARTER OFFERS
BIG STICK READY
Wing
and the torture
Ine
The Baathist regime has ment. been buying helicopters, ar-
and machine guns for use in Kurdistan and is preparing for a full-scale
war against the Kurdish people. Already the
made deals with France, Spain, and Italy for
worth of arms for street and mountain fighting, as well as naval equipment to enable Iraq to fulfill the role
policeman the Iraq.
Opposition io the regime
Working class resistance takes the form of
Sunken Cory the death penalty - and the for-
Polish unions
clash with rulers
By Davy Jones
FOUR million workers organised by
Solidarnosc free trade
denied legal registration
authorities.
While 12 other indepen-
cent Havi already
been canetored
authorities have now admit
ted thạt political difficultie
stand in the way
of all the
1AC LAC lar tes
dependent unions, , Solidar-
nosciney
object The
failure statutes
refer to the 'leading role of
the
responded by authorities that Solidarnos would operate forthwith a
registered: 'If we cannot be
registered, we do not care
about bureaucracy. mation of underground committees inside the state-run unions. Despite the repression of academics Struents. opposition leaflets are still be
distributed willin the universities.
In August Aziz Rashid Akrawi, State •Minister. deserted the regime saying he was going to join
armed Kurdish
CARDRI calls for an end to mass executions in Iraq, an
for the release of politica
for the release political prisoners, an end to the war against the people of Iraqi
and an end to terrorist activities from Iraqi emDass co
Democrats in Britain are urged to support CARDRI'S campaign against repression and for democratic rights in
The Committee Agains Repression and for Democratic Rights in Iraq can be contacted via PO Box 210, London N16 SAP.
Socialist Challenge
• the
union are being
by the Polish
The Polish rulers are terrified by the growth of the independent inions Even
newspaper, Ollicid Trybuna Ludu part! has admitted that the Com munist Party-controlled unions have been i forced out
the rush to
The Polish Ministry of
• has com
lained bitterly to Westerr diplomats sof Polist pres coverare descrioed a internal Solidarity with the people of Polish anlals
Poland against the ruling
more bureaucrats loan ever. Forums
on Poland
Wed 29 Oct
York. 1pm Universit
DUL/ SUr meeting and
7.30mm in Labour and
Co-op
Micklegate. Both with
Kichara KOzansKI
Fri 31 Oct
Plymouth Polytechnic
meeting witt Richard
Rozanski
Iranian
socialist
arrested
NEMATOLLAH Jazayeri, a
leader or ine iranian rot
skyists of the Revolu-
tionary
was arrested on Ray-o No
War co can
charges had been levelled
against him
feliow-
worKers art circulating
petition demanaing his
release
urge all supporters
of the Iranian revo ution to
following
senC LITt the
frantial
Prosecutor genera
Ghodosi Office the
Revolutionary Courts
I am a supporter of the
Iranian revolution
opponent the
government's threats anc
the Iraqi regime's crimina
aimed
militar
against your revorator
1am deeply concerned
about the arrest of Ray-Q
worker Nema staunch anti
detained without
any
urge you to
onscione his wHereabout
to nis ramily Conches
and call on you to secure
his immediate release
23 October 1980 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
The case for the H Block h
IRISH Republican prisoners in the H Blocks of Long Kesh are due to go on hunger strike from 27 October.
The view government is prisoners are criminals' and that any sufferTHE most obvious question that springs to mind concerning the declaration of the hunger strike by the 'blanket' prisoners
of Long Kesh is what hor. rendous circumstances could possibly nearly 400 people declare their willingness to take such action?
One version, that favoured by the British media, is that the hunger sinike was an 'order' from the leadership of the Provisional Republican movement. This is far from being the case.
Discourage
As the Irish Times reported on 11 October, were opposed to the idea of a hunger strike'. A spokesperson for Provisional Sinn Fein was quoted:
'We have tried with some success to discourage the idea
hunger strike... We feel totaly madequate in regard to influencing the men and we have tried everything possible to stop them.
'But after what they have gone through they have been eft with no alternative but to use the last weapon — a hunger strike to the death.'
The important phrase here
'what they have In 1975 the Labour nounced that special category status was to end the following year; that all those convicted of terrorist, or as the prisoners would argue offences, were from 1 March to be treated as ordinary criminals. That a sider on 29 February brick al a soldier would, if convicted, be category stalus. thrown on the following day would be judged an 'ordinary criminal'.
The reasons for the change in policy need not be outlined here. Sufficient to say that the new rules were part of an overall shift in government policy which sought to de-politicise the Irish question.
The aim was to suggest that the only 'problem' Northern 'gunmen and terrorists'; that Britain had no political responsibility but to defeat those terrorists; were not engaged in politically motivated acts but were mere criminals and ought to be treated as such.
This period co-incided with the ending by the British government of any attempt to negotiate a political solution, with all
Socialist Challenge 23 October 1980
Wing
of the British
that these 'ordinary
1. Are the prisoners
'ordinary criminals?
through'. The story begins in 1972.
This was when Conservative recognised the peculiar cumstances of those in prison 1Or Cans comet me e political situation in the north force of Ireland and
prisoners 'special to status'. This meant that the prisoners were allowed to wear heir own clothes, and organise their own recreation and education.
Why did the Tories agree to 'special category'?
CUSSION weene dine time of another hunger strike by the Republican prisoners in Belfast's Crumlin Road prison. luis hunger sunke was accompanied by wide-scale street which emphasised the popular support, and tense teeling behind that support, for the demands. But the granting of 'special category' both kepublican and Loyalist prisoners — was also logical.
Survey For whatever reason they were in prison — be it military activity, street rioting, because their Republican sympathies led to their being framed for crimes they did not com- those 'crimes' arose out of the political conflict which first came to the fore during the
gone civil rights campaign in the
2. Did they commit
'ordinary crimes'?
government an-
problem political, category
who threw a 1976
grantea special but if the brick were
she or he Ireland was
phrase? that the same people
Page 14
they endure is 'selfinflicted'.
Is this the case, and if not what really lies hunger strike? GEOFF BELL explains, and argues hunger strike deserve our unconditional support.
north of Ireland in 1968 A survey taken in 1975 and published in (6/5/76) stressed tional nature of the convicted 'terrorists'. then emerging view that those 'special category' crime: be treated
the then dinary criminals'
government New Society
cir- 'But a study of the background and records of the 467 defendants who Calle courts on terrorist charges in the first half of 1975 certainly category casts doubt view.'
mix freely, Troubles
The survey went on to detai that a majority of the Catholic
First the so convicted had no previous
criminal record; that a majority of all those convicted were in employment; and that 83 cent OI Catholics were under 25, compared to 50 per cent of those convicted for ordinary crimes in England and the in- Wales during the same period other
prisoners' were the crimes of those afford
given to ed substantially different, special calegory too were the type of people who "were convicted. worker quoted said: "But for the troubles these young men would not not have been in court.
It was the acceptance of the validity of such opinions, back. ea as iney evidence, they were by conditions, which granting special SLalls sound rationality. the various contending parties.
What the government was attempting to say that the 'terrorists' were an Irish
rather than a symptom. to maintain that the former
crimes were in fact 'ordinary" crimes, the argument had to be sustained all along the line.
opposite was and remains case. Throughout the 1970s special laws were passed by the British
suspected 'political' offenders differently from those who normally come under the scrutiny of the legal system.
The most notable legislation was contained in the Emergency Provisions Act (1973 and updated in 1978) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act (1974 and 1976).
The Emergency Provisions specifically designed for what it termed "terrorist offences'. What is meant by this
The PTA gives the the answer, defining "terrorism' as 'violence for political ends'. Thus even the government's own legislation agrees that the 'terrorists' are involved in 'political' offences.
The details of the EPA and the PTA further emphasise this fact. Under the EPA a
-Ireland—
behind the
why the
New Society the excep-
It referred to the
government convicted of 'can
prison like or-
commented:
before the
on this official
per convicted , but so
As a social
in new Society were by statistical and substantiated as
existing political
gave the category basis in But special
criminal cases.
the
government
'terrorist or
Act was
number of restrictions are placed on the rights of the suspect which do not apply in
In practice anyone arrested under section 11 of the Act can be held completely incommunicado for 72 hours. There is no right, as is normally the case, to see a doc. tor or solicitor. An arrested person is not entitled to make a phone call or receive clothing or cigarettes.
If the police want to keep someone longer than 72 hours then he or she will be arrested under section 12 of the EPA and after 48 hours in custody a five-day exten-
Conditions
Further, if a person is charged with any of the 'terrorist offences' outlined in the EPA, he or she can only apply for bail before a High Court judge and must meet very stringent conditions.
The Crown may tell the judge that, for example, the police believe the accused is a member of the IRA. No reasons have to be given to the judge as to the basis of this
up to 18 against them are dropped.
Internment nocence rather than as is guilt
belief and there have been many instanc where people have been held in remand f
months and then all charg
What is operating here is, in effect, form of internment without trial.
if the accused is eventually brought trail an extraordinary set of again apply. For example, triais are co ducted without a jury and by one judge si ting alone. Also in cases where possessic of weapons or explosives is alleged, ti accused is obliged to prove his or her i
'normally ti case the Crown being obliged to pron
Thirdly in cases where the Crown relic wholly or partly on an alleged confessio such a confession has to be shown to hat been obtained by torture to be ruled ina missible. Under normal law a confession ruled inadmissible if it is shown that th accused has been subject to the slighte
Page 15 scan of this page
nger
'self-inflicted'?
WHEN, on 1 March 1976, the British government arbitrarily changed rules by abolishing the speciat category status for political prisoners, many of those who were subject to the new rules refused to accept the change.
The first was Ciaran Nugent: When he arrived at Long Kesh (Maze) Prison he refused to wear the prison uniform offered to him.
Nugent had been sentenced for hijacking a van, and he vowed 'that they would have to nail the clothes to my back' if any attempt were made criminalise him.
By 1 August 1978 over three hundred prisoners had joined Nugent in his protest. Here is how Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich, the primate of Ireland, described the conditions in which the prisoners survived H-shaped compounds of Long Kesh:
'Having spent the whole of Sunday • In the prison I was shocked by the inhuman conditions prevailing in H Block 3, 4, and 5, where over 300 prisoners are incarcerated. One would hardly allow an animal to remain in such conditions, alone a human being.
The nearest approach tợ it I have seen was the spectacle of hundreds of homeless people living in the slums of Calcutta.
The stench and filth in some of the cells, with the remains of rotten food and human excreta scattered around the walls, was almost unbearable. In two of them I was unable to speak for the fear of vomiting.
Blanket
'The prisoners' cells without beds, chairs, or tables They sleep on matresses on the floor and in some cases I have noticed that these were quite wet. They have no covering except a towel or blanket, books, reauing material except the Bible,
TV or radio, no hobbies or han, dicrafts, no exercise or recreation They are locked in their
threat or inducement.
The effect of these various procedures has been a much higher rate of conviction than is normal, and a much higher reliance on 'confessions' 94 per cent of all charges brought before the special 'Diplock Courts' result in conviction, and 90 per cent of convictions are based on confessions.
Different
Thus from the moment they are picked up to the moment they are convicted these
are leated enurely from 'ordinary criminals'
As was stated by the 1978 Amnesty International report into police brutality in the North of Ireland, such procedures have 'eroded the rights of suspects held in connection with terrorist offences'.
Amnesty® also severely means by which many confessions' sion was that 'maltreatment of suspected terrorists by the RUC has taken place with
3. Are their conditions
the
Cardinal O'Fiaich cells for almost the whole of every day and some of them have been in this condition for more than a year and a half. "The fact that a man refuses to wear prison uniform or do prison work should not entail the loss of physical exercise, association with his prisoners, or contact with the outside world. These are basic human needs for physical and mentar nealn, not privueges to be granted withheld rewards or punishments. the 'The human dignity
every must respected regardless creed, colour or political viewpoint, and regardless of what crimes he has been charged with...
'Several prisoners
plained to me of beatings, of verbal let punishments for making com-
plaints, and of degrading searches carried out on the most in. timate parts of their wear the obligatory uniform.
chooses intero chas hee
were taken away by the
it could be argued that nobody vestigate it.
Official figures show that
differently
criticised the of the alleged "were obtained. Its conclu-
criminals
strikers
What happened was that in 1978 the troduced a new rule whereby the prisoners WELC from going to the toilet unless they wore a prison uniform.
Then, WELC introduced, orderlies were given the work of emptying the toilet vessels the prisoners were now forced Lo usC The orderlies began to deliberately topple over the cells. Faced with such provocation, the usules withdrew former previous cooperation.
Finally
aspect of the H Block regime which no one self-inflicted: the beatings suffered by the prisoners.
It is true that the evidence of these beatings comes from the prisoners themselves, but such is bound to be the case in view of the refusal of the authorities to allow a regular inspection of the H Blocks.
fellow Beaten Here is just one of the many stories that are told by as of the H Blocks in September 1979: of 'One man at a time was be taken from of his warders ran him from the B to the circle (the ministration Block). Each man was pulled about by the beard and hair and com- then a thorough search made of his mouth and ears using a flash
additional tame victim was then ore
cibly spreadeagled naked ground, and beaten
was shone up his back passage a
bes were a pen, plus gloved and al c
if 12 winders who panted
Anyone who fell was kicked and dragged by the hair, establishment of a public inquiry to in-
Although such a public inquiry was rejected by the then Labour government an internal inquiry was held, albeit in secret and with a very restricted brief. Again the report of this inquiry (the Bennett Report) indicted the police.
Evidence
Its general conclusion sustained during the period of detention in the police office were inflicted by some-
other than the prisoner(s).'
There has of course been evidence that ordinary criminal suspects in Britain can be subject to such 'maltreatment'. But on nothing like the same scale as reported by Bennett and Amnesty.
The fact is that from 1976 onwards the only time the 'terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland were treated as
when they were finally thrown into prison.
of the
Al Cycled
last once these new rules
Loyalist
do officials to the pots stop dole claims.
Block The their
we come to the one
could argue is It was smuggled out
a cell and the
adover
placed on the
by six up
and exciting.
This
Failure
was: Injuries
Led.
favour
'normal' feminist ideas. The
paign.
Birmetal dispute in 28th week
week
By Grant Keir JIM Robertson, a member
Birmetal disputes committee in Birmingham, sacked summed up the discontent
felt by many of those who
Friday marched the through the city in support of the Birmetal workers: day.
'I think what we have to force our district fight the others question of job loss and picket
pissing about with march was the that something new had
re-examination needed
By Valerie Coultas IN January 1978 approximately a thousand women flocked to a socialist feminist conference. With the setting
newsletter, Scarlet Woman, and local groups, many left the conference feeling they were part of something new
weekend socialist feminists will have their first opportunity since then to meet together nationally
Everyone who attends this conference to be held in London on the theme women and imperialism, will be able to assess the impact of socialist feminism in the past two years.
Untortunately. while concrete actions of international solidarity from a thriving and growing movement point to success, abstract and theoretical discussions about anti-imperialism indicate an insularity.
Groups that closely identified with the socialist feminist current, such as Women Against Racism and Fascism have collaps-
Scarlet Woman is suffering from lack of funds and involvement. The conference has been continually postponed
Yet it is not the case that the ideas of women's liberation are less popular.
The massive shift in public opinion in
of a woman's right to whether or not to have a child, evident during the anti-Corrie campaign, is just one indication of the widespread acceptance of
apparent failure OT feminism to key into such an acceptance was illustrated during the anti-Corrie cam-
News
ported by members of the four unions involved in the dispute - TGWU, GMWU, EEPTU and AUEW which is now in its 28th
and involves the sacking of 700 workers
But instead of fighting for the right to work, union officials have tended concentrate on getting the
workers ployment benefits. this dole question which is
purpose of Was. pay, 2p acted for this Fri-
October, outside the Birmetal factory.
Jim Robertson and
feel the would be better employed asking for sup port from other workers in
Birmetal Qualcast WOMEN at the 1978 socialist feminist conference — many left confident been established
Socialist feminists: a critical
palan was
own
in all spheres of society.
Priorities
of
ment to action brought results,
the medical profession, institutions, If socialist
have tended popular impact of the
raising movement.
choose
forward
socialist *The
Tel 01-388 0182.
Socialist Challenge 23, October 1980
parent company in the fight to save jobs The support for such an emphasis evident at last Friday's meeting when the speaker who received the biggest applause was from . the occused Gard ner's factory in Man chester.
After 28 weeks the union officials have proved that they are unwilling to give similar lead Birmetal. Workers there will need to organise themSelves They will also have to oroanise support from other workers in Birmetal Qualcast. slogan shouted on the march put It today, you tomorrow.'
While many socialist feminists others wore critical the can-
unions; the left groups were too dominant; it was not 'feminist' because it wasn't women only; it was too 'parliamentarian'.
focused as it was against a parliamentary attack on women's fertility rights, that it galvanised women, and even men,
The National Abortion Campaign has always argued that choice over childbirth should lie with women alone. At the same time there was an openness and a commit
against Corrie which particularly within the unions and the Labour Party, but also in
the educational , and the media. feminism has taken its distance from the National Abortion Campaign, and local groups and newsletters
to avoid assessing the move ment, many tended instead to concentrate
consciousness' within the
The conference this weekend needs to critically re-examine such priorities and to look instead to the successes that have been achieved by broad-based, open campaigns such as NAC and Women's Aid.
If the conference could begin to make this kind of assessment of the popular impact of feminism, it would be a big step
conference is on Sat and Sun 25 and 26 Oct at Sir Williams Collins school, Charrington St, London NW1. Starts 9am
Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Challenge it's a fraud SOLIDARITY WITH THE
THIS Monday
political prisoners in
the H Blocks of Long
Kesh prison camp on
the outskirts
Belfast will start
hunger strike.
That strike,
the prisoners,
'carry us through to
the bitter climax of
death, if necessary'. Return
Over the coming weeks
these prisoners, already in
a weakened state because
of the atrocious conditions
forced on them, will slowly
and painfully die.
Their only chance of life
is that pressure in
Ireland, Britain
throughout the world will
force the British govern-
WOUL agree
demands of the hunger
strikers.
These demands call for a return. the
status or
category status as it was
then known
political prisoners on
North of Ireland in 1972, but
arbitrarily Goonster
Patience
The prisoners are calling for:
*The right to wear their own clothes;
*The right to abstain from prison work;
*The right to free association with other prisoners;
'The right to organise their own education and
*The right to full remission of sentences.
They have been pressing these demands for four years; now their patience is exhausted
Successive British governments i have peaated the fiction that these prisoners criminals' despite the fact that they are tried in special courts, interrogated under special rules and charged under special 'emergency' legislation.
Claims
Now there is the added rebuttal of the governMeALS ARMS 'ordinary criminals' are not inclined to go on hunger strike.
Supporters of Britain's role in the north of ireland last week delivered their OVIL of death when they shot dead Ronnie Bunting and Noel Lyttle in Belfast. Both were active H Block campaigners and members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party.
Ine killers were presumed to be Loyalists acting with the assistance of the Royal Ulster Constabulary or the British Ar-
ruDino by caratnal ent Ottaot (TU), London E2
Socialist
of
say will and
the
the four NOEL LYTTLE RONNIE BUNTING
prises, P.O. Box 50, London N1
SECRETLY taken picture of an H Block prisoner Activities: 25 October: day of local actions. 26 October: 'blanket protest, Birmingham. 10 to 14 November: local public meetings 15 November: national demonstration 'For a British
Agenda:
Audrey Wise.
STRIKERS
LCC Rank and File Trade Unionists Conference
Leeds University Saturday 1 November 10.30am. 11.00am, Unemployment and the Right to Work. Speakers include Bernard Connelly, Roger Griffiths, and Stuart Holland. 2.00pm, Demands and Policies. Speakers include Eddie Loyden and
4.00pm, How do we organise in the movement? Speakers include Tony Banks, Peter Hain, and Anne Cesek For credentials write to LCC, 9 Poland St, London WI, enclosing £1.25 per person:
fight:
IRISH HUNGER
Withdrawal from Ireland'.
Assemble Embankment 1pm. March in 'Troops Out Now' contingent. 7 December: national demonstration 'Don't let the prisoners die'. Details to be announced.
For further information tel. 01-267 2004.
Labour leadership
•LIC
16
Healey
bosses
MPS WIne
PLP and benn through
MPs
Janual y gains with it!
By Dave Hudson THE Labour right have
declared war on the deci sions of the Blackpool conference on party democracy.
meaning of Jim Callaghan's decision to resign the leadership of the party at this time.
As the main architect of the anti-working class Dolicies of the las
covetinen has once again offered his services
His early resignation can have only one effect position Denis right, in
candidate of the right
clection. Healey the most acceptable candidate for
recognised e's lathcabinets voice i
***
* * Callaghan's resignation opens
ty (PLP) to flout the decisions on the election of the par
leader. They hope to establish a
who will be oldicul to remove after the 24 January speciat party conference
allowed PLP to 'assert its determination not to ac cept a leader it does not want.
*
Howeve the situation is com plicated ! by the fact that the majori are under pressure from below to dissociate themselve ministration
unacceptable candidate for them - MPs cannot ig nore the attitude of the trade unior
This is why there has bee so much pressure on Foot to stand
As a man of the centre his candidature is far more acceptable. Al the same time Foot is seen by man
as candidate who can head off the tide of the left.
His formerl make him the ideal candidate to pil
1966 Labour cor ist the was freeze at the
rerence and in ending spokes per son of CND in the Foot was always the champion o the left in the constituencies
*** *
But Foot, who in the '7Os was Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Presiden of the Privs counch. migal wen turn out to o the last ne of defence against Benn. There is no way in which h is a candidate of the left
The first response of some left
OILabour S tional executive was to call on th
to suspend standing await formula being decided by the special conterence.
****
But this is not enough
launchea, led by Ine caraldalt 1C1l
Stung vr emergency general committee meeting
to participate in this fraudulen PLP election. Already a TV pol has shown that over 60 per cent ol constituency chairpersons feel that
should no elect leader the special conference in
Any MPs who fail to implement
in the election should be removed at their next reselection meéting. ***** *
Already IShington North Labour Party genera collitice ha: votec
the election
The decisions of the Labour conference on party democracy: were a big step forward, It is in
worker to stop these right wing manoeuvres to overturn these
Don't let them get away
← Socialist Challenge No. 168, 16 October 1980Socialist Challenge No. 170, 30 October 1980 →