Socialist Challenge No. 201, 11 June 1981
The scan: sc-no201.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 AGAINST WITCH HUNTS DEFEND BENN
JOBS NOT BOMBS: CARDIFF 4 JULY
25p
Socialist
pipsqueak
Benn lobby.
ting tribute when he was
Tory benches.
where he stands.
Labour Party and the trade unions.
support the radical ference, on nuclear disarmament, democracy.
(which has nothing policies) against 'responsibility'
movement.
ecutive of the Union met.
four to one majority is positive.
forthcoming have to be challenged.
paign an enormous boost.
of the likes of Foot and Kitson.
FOOT has declared war on Benn in the Parliamentary Labour Party: Every Labour
and nonentity can add their twopence worth of venom to the anti-
Foot has joined the alliance which stretches from: Labour's right wing via such reactionary rags as the Sun through to the neanderthal Tory backbenches.
Foot's shadow cabinet tirade received its fit-
cheer in Parliament the following day - from the
The great merit of Foot's defence of cabinet 'responsibility' against the democratic rights of the ranks of the labour movement, is that it shows
Foot's election as party leader greeted enthusiastically at the base of the
He has been cheered to the echo at the vast unemployment protest rallies. He has claimed to
policies of Labour's
Now he has ended up bolstering Healey's camp
but contempt Benn; supporting (to big business against democratic accountability to the workers
But Foot's message was not really aimed at the PLP. He had his eyes on the movement which supports Benn, now gathering pace in the unions and constituencies. The day after Foot's attack, the ex-
Transport and General Workers
The TGWU view on deputy leader may be the make or break of this campaign. The decision to throw out the motion supporting acting general secretary Alex Kitson's anti-Benn statements by a
Handing over the power to the Labour Party delegation to decide on the deputy leader vote is negative. This makes a mockery of the rights of the
ȚGWU biennial conference. It will
Much remains to be done to build support for Benn's candidacy. The Labour Co-ordinating Committes's trade union conference can give the cam-
The support in the ranks of the labour movement for Benn is there, despite the manoeuvrings
And Foot's action has put Labour's cabinet on the agenda as a suitable case for democratic treat-
greeted with a great
conon jobs, on
for those Cabinet and the IMF)
Foot, Healey, Silkin, and Kitson as well as Hattersley and Shore
Labour Co-ordinating Committee Conference Trade Unions and Socialism Benn's growing support frightens right wingers
A summer of
discontent?
THE
are TOU
OUtI rail
push amos tims. not muscle Hallel WOrKCIS pull • CO WI
Central Hall, Westminster
Saturday 18 July,
Speakers include Tony Benn.
A rinur scorell. bernara Li
and Audrey Wise Delegates from trade unions an: Labour parties. Contact LCC,
9 Poland St, London W1
civil service unions, the rail unions, and ambulance workers
very angry. Thatcher's bludgeon has provoked them all into industrial action.
As Phil Dexter reports on page 15, members of
main service unions have voted for all-
action counter the Tories' intransigence ovel pay
Even the leaders these unions recognise that tell organisanons will o crippled for years if the now bow to hatchers Substantal job cuts would cent norm be sure to follow.
The axe on the public sector is also threatening
workers with 12.00 redundancies if the unions
ahead with their 13 per cent claim.
The response by delegates annual conference of the train drivers' union ASLEF this week was to vote over whelmingly for strike action against British Rail's planned cuts to services. one-day • national strike is scheduled for next week
Ambulance workers are another of rone Tories front line the Tories war on working class living standards. The govern
has offered them pay rise of £5.89 a week in answer to their • claim for
unree ames amount Without decent pay, he ambulalice seivil will decline still further Strike
Next Thursday all ambulance workers in Britain wl be on one ov sake and the depth of militancy in Scotland and London is likely to mean that there will not even be emergent! cover in these areas.
The Callaghan govern ment, which tried to holo pay rises to 5 per cent, ex perienced the anger DuDic secto workers the so-called winter discontent
Now the Thatcher
a massive shake-out of the British economy in favour of the bosses, is coming up
Fi ne occupation Laurence Scott and the struggle at Rovers are tur ther evidence of that.
The prime ministe may well be confident tha civil servants and other white-collar workers do
have the industrial of the miners. whom she rapidly soughi to appease over the pit closures.
It would certainly be blow to all of us if the civi servants are crushed in the
the postal during the early days of the Heath regime It's up to all of us, through our solidarity, to see thai that piece of history is not repeated.
means of overcoming the
struggles. We should all
• together bring EnEs wretched governmen - now!
Page 2 scan of this page
Pete Hayes, AUtW ana strike commintee Our fight is everyone's fight. they've been picking us off one by one. Someone has to make a stand and at Laurence Scott's we've found 650 people willing to have a go.
ment or whatever, but if that's what's needed, then that's what we'll have to do.
Steve Longshaw AUEW shop steward and strike commit-
650 people have sat in at Laurence Scott Electromotors in Higher Openshaw in Manchester in dispute. prepared to fight to the finish to defeat the attempt to close the whole factory and throw us all our on ine dole By Pete Clifford YORKSHIRE miners sent a cheque for £500 to the eight-week long Laurence Scott, Manchester. Along with it was an invitation to send a delegation over to blacking.
Laurence Scott's
Arthur Snipe, Mining Supplies has made a killing out of cates motors to the nationalised
Now he hopes to close the Manchester factory. further boost his profits throwing 650 workers onto the dole. In a letter to the miners' union John Tocher, engineering union organiser, argued was ume tney umed to put a stop to parasites such as Snipe.
In Manchester a support commitice has been Macaree chaired by Tom
trom Gardners who successfully occupied against redundancies last year.
Support is growing in other areas. Delegations last week went the Midlands and London.
Midlands
'WE WILL win with your support.' That's the message that a delegation from the occupied Laurence Scott Electrometers Plan Oppenshaw Manchester, brought to the Midlands last week.
two-day visit the
lil a delegation met with convenors and shop stewards trom Birmingham and the Black Country.
Amongst those plants covered were the British Leyland plant Long.
bridge, Lucas Aerospace
Wolverhampton and Birmingham, Lucas Electrical, Laystall Engineering, Turner Manufacturing, Cannon Industnes and the
Socialst narenee
we haveto enothe sumuation where
We didn't start with any ideas about fighting the govern-
Iney are all
As the weeks have passed, instead of getting depressed, the
Miners support
occupation against closure at
OISCUSS
first visit to LSE's sister plant in Wolverhampton.
Members OI the delegation also spoke the demonstration
lilas. organised by the workers
Rover SD1, at the AUEW shop stewards quarterly, and Birmingham Trades Council.
London
PETE Haynes, from the LSE strike committee reports: The London trip was set Challenge. for Socialist have collected £600 and nave firm promises of more.
The response can only be described as overwhelming. We've been to Ford, Smiths Industries, Thame. Barrier SilC Chloride s Fidelity and ACLON others.
We spoke at Lambeth and Hackney trade councils and the North London district committee of the
We went to teachers' meetings where we bowled cover Will
generosity and sincerity
spoke al the Tower Hamlet March for Jobs and made collections
demo itself and at
he GLC rall
We would like to thank all those who gave us their
conabons. and all those supporters of Socialist Challenge who helped make our trip SO successful.
Send donations and messages of support joiner shop stewaras Fryer, Roundcross, Romiley 061-223 3815.
Page 2
Even MPs have taken up our case
begun officials.
avoroacn or sonn
on the basis of no loss of jobs and worksharing.
Mick Cordingley AUEW TASS and strike committee:
on the shop
thought it would be better but I'm not so sure now.
and fight.
Laurence Scott sit in
the Rover workers
workforce has got more confident. Our support has broadened.
Led by this and the adverse publicity he has agreed to meet the I June.
A meeting on Sunday 31 May voted unanimously to back the
the district organiser of the AULW
Before the strike I wasn't really involved in the union. I used
went into the offices because I
At first when the dispute started I was opposed 1o sitting in the factory. But quite quickly I realised that we had to stand up Phil Penning from Laurence Scott brings greetings to
Monday. 1 June. Holiday's over. kain stops and the sun shines Now everything directed towards the demo on Thursday. Over the holidays we have handed out over 5000 leaflets around the plant. There are another 5000 distribute.
At committee meeting at 8 am we have a discussion about the f15m offer made by Tory MP Girov-Bevan for Rover plant. £15m wouldn't buy a decent car show room never mind an assembly plant. But we are concerned lest the offer be seen viable by the worktorce and diverts oul campaign
But most do not see it as a serious option, believing that Gilroy-Bevan more concerned about his job as MP for Yardley than our jobs at Rover. On with the demo.
We
ACCU placards, leaflets, badges
lorry, Joveders and banners. We also need to organise delegations from other BL plants. We get messages of support from Labour Party wards, trade union oranenes and shop stewards committees. Rumours
Reaction to the demo from the shop floor is still mixed. Some are saying that there point. Some foremen are spreading rumours the redundancy pay will be cho phere is a dispute Heateds, dispute at Smith's which could result in a layoft at Rovers tomorrow. This would be disaster tor Thursday. There is a mass meeting at Smith's tomorLOW
Tuesday. Start writing bulletin no 3. Lead on the demo and support from outside the plant, also attack the Gilroy-Bevan offer.
the paint shop group has produced a cof fin to carrv on the demo On the lines, people are producing their placards and slogans. One reads, 'Edwardes kills all known plants'.
Stewards meeting
dinner time discusses what should be done to those who don't join the march. We decide to concentrate on wie mass meet
meeting at lilas.
Smiths goes on all morn-
We will definitely be
laid off tonight if there is
resumption OI work
there. Just before dinner time we hear they have gone back to work. Relief all round.
A proposal to ban all overtime is moved and carried, despite the plant
BL: 'Edwa
all knowr
part.
wardes 'rescue pian'.
Leyland Combine,
the Land Rover.
point in unemployment. is rapidly becoming
Edwardes
PAT HICKEY, Rover SD1, Solihull, diary of resistance to the closures. committee's opposition.
This is a potential bomb An overtime ban of that
would lead to tracks being laid off two days a week. If that hap-
we would gave have one-out. all-out position We would be in a head-
Since 1979 Michael Edwardes has axed 60,000 jobs in Leyland and seven plants have been closed in whole or in
The announcement of the closure of the Rover plant will cost another 2,000 jobs if it goes through and another 6,000 redundancies are in the pipeline as a result of the latest Ed-
It is now the firm view of both the Rover shop stewards and the whole
that Edwardes plans to close down Leyland while hiving off a few pre-packaged units like
The People's March was a turning the national fight against The Rover fightback the point where the Leyland workers turn the tables on
deputy convenor continues his confrontation within ten days. The plant is not ready for that yet. We tell the company shop stewards' • Phey reply the afternoon. reD/\ that if the overtime is not worked • Dallll today 40 bodies will be ruined and they will lock
Page 3 scan of this page
Pat Hickey on the demo the paint shop out.
Also, overtime is needed to take a consignment of heaters from Smiths so the tracks can run tomorrow. The committee lifts the overtime ban for today and we call shop stewards committee
rdes kills
i plants'
meeting for tomorrow.
Wednesday. Shop stewards meeting. There is a thorough discussion on the strategy and tactics c the campaign. overtime ban is lifted with only
The banner says it all
HE ROVER
three against.
Dinner time bulletin arrives and almost
hour. It is playing a really userul role and the shoo stewards are making more use of than the earlier ones. We do phone round of the local Dress and get pretty good coverage for the demo.
inursday General
swedi response is going to be and
five minutes. 11.30am the tracks stop.
We take the loudhailer arouna me tracks urgine people to get out. Virtually everybody As we walk off the site a
Collecil trom Land Rover and Range Rover join us.
The about demo 3000 strong which means that about 1000 have join
the mood is excelene.
mood excellent: Lots of shouting, singing
N0200
'Michael Edwardes aren't going on the dole'
As we pass a school
Four workers from the Laurence Scott occupation also councilors and Labour councillors full time trade union officials assure the rally of their support.
A collection raises over £160 for Laurence Scott. The Committee goes to meet the Solihull council while the demo marches back to the plant. We reach the plant at 1.45.
I nere are nol enough people to run both lines so only one operates back on the clock for 2.15 pm. I leave about 3 o'clock
Socialist Challenge meeting in Manchester.
Friday. The demo has been well covered in the media. People are well pleased and morale is really high. Lots are asking, when's the next one?
ROVER
WANTS JOBS
2 THE
Solihull council has given full support and are calling for a public inquiry into the BL board strategy and demanding moratorium on any closures until that is done.
After work there is a TGWU branch meeting
decide send delegates to the unemploy ment demonstration in Ju-
Si campaign 1000 to the
campaign. spending money like it was We need going out of fashion.
Saturday. am, the combine committee. From about 8.30 am on, the media are phoning for information and statements.
the call for
Icocal public inquiry and challenge Michael Ed-
vardes to go for anothe shop floor allot
Attention now focussed on Cowley's position of not accepting the SDI The combine opens with a discussion on
sacking of the
Keith Deeley
go co l
redundancies.
notice of our redundancies.
closing his firm down.
see any end in sight.
Rob Spittle, SDI shop steward
mind.
plant in return for efficiency.
/ almost beyond belief.
about a new mood of optimism
not alone.
strikers in South Africa. We give support and take steps to put pressure on the company.
The Main losures is around the closure! committee gives full sup port to the SD1 and agree to organise a demonstra tion on 1 August in Birm ingham car and components industry The SD1 has the responsibility of organising the demo which has the support of trades council.
We will need to produce a vast number of
A FEW months ago two of my friends had steady
Then out of the blue they were given notice of thei
A lew monins ago 1 woula nave laugned a someone if they had said they were going to close the Rover SD1. But now we have also been given
Just last week my father was told that they are
This senseless destruction of people's livelihoods has got to stop, but I can't
I think that the Rover should act now and show this government that we will take no
I THINK that the work force of the SD1 were before today's march, in a bewildered frame of
Management had promised a future for the We proved our efficiency ve been totally misled into believing that our jobs were safe. But today's march has brought
People from different parts of the country have come together to oppose the closure and give us the support we badly need. Now we know we're
Now we know we can win.
leaflets and speak to all the major shop stewards committees in the area. The combine also agrees to organise a conference of the British motor industry.
We will be seeking sup port from Ford, Vauxhall and Talbot. There is good deal of discussior but it is clear that the bal rests with the SD1 Sunday. Get up late, talk to Radio Birmingham and Guardian, write for Socialist neurotic about the tasks in Challenge,
front of us.
'Socialist Challenge 11 June 1981 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
The new leader of Labour's right wing
Michael Foot - one in the eye for Benn? By Geoff Bell ACCORDING to Tony Benn, what lies at the heart of the contest for the deputy leadership of the Labour tability of MPs and the parliamentary leadership.
the trust with which ordinary party members and the electorate regard those who rise to the top of the labour movement.
strength of this
ine argument strikingly ilhustrated in the row which led Foot to admonish Benn at last week's meeting of the Shadow Cabinet. Foot was upset over Benn's decision
follow Labour he Tory defente and vote against the proposals
That it was Foot who should be the one to carpet Benn is wonderfully ironic. For, in doing so Foot gave a classical example of the poacher turned gamekeeper. There is a remarkable paralle what Benn did during the defence debate and what a former leader the Labour left did nearly 30 vcals azu.
Bevan
Thạt leader Was Aneurin Bevan MP for Ebbw Vale. The Bevan took, the way he was attacked by the party leadership and hounded by the media. hias been recorded in a biography of Bevan
The author is one Michael Fooi, the present MP for Ebbw Vale.
Foot records that et Challenge Jures, Page,
Erect et le
00°
Party is democratic accoun-
It is, Benn has said, a question of dispelling
Bevan's defiance of the parliamentary leadership came during defence debate in March 1952. The Tory government proposea an increase in acience expenditure of £500 million. Defence
In doing so the Tories were doing no more than what had been approved
principle by the previous Labour government.
Cultell Tory defence policy is also, many respects, just a carry over from where the last Labour cabinet lett ott
In 1952, because they opposition and required Labours more radical lanc. parliamentary leadership proposea an amendment
orne rorv celence Dialis
oresent shadow
cabinet did the same
When the amendment
was lost in 1952
MPs were told by their
leaders to abstain on the final vote The present shadow cabinet
same. Nye Bevan rebelled against
By Brian Heron MICHAEL FOOT has won the honorary leadership of Labour's right wing. This is the meaning of Foot's windy lecture responsibility' on 3 June.
In reality, cabinet responsibility IS phrase for letting the ranks of the unions and the party celebrate their socialist ideals, while the real deci-
makers remain SUll countable to the banks,
big business and the IMF This how Labour's
1S cabinet behaved from 1974 to 1979, and it demoralised allu contused Labour's supporters, producing the lowest turn-out for Labour in any election since the war.
Policy
Foot claimed that the shadow cabinet was apply-
Labour conference 111% policy, and Benn was
to 'challenge' 'good faith'. Labour's leader spoke of 'widespread agreement' with the alternative economic strategy Bri-
removal Irom ine EEC, and nuclear disarmanchl.
Michael Foot and Tony Benn
-action replay 30 years on
and voted against the government, along with 56 other MPs. Tony Benn on
did the salle, did 75 Labour MPs.
After VOLC Tony Benn was once again the
the LOI aDust media. In his biography of bevan. Foot somewhat sarcastically records_that 29 years ago, the Daily BENN
Tony Benn for Depu-
"The fastest sellbadge on the taarch, Star, can
Julie.
have a copy of this
hot property for • just
20p (plus 11½ p
postage).
Give-away bulk also available.
Write to: Islington
Group.
PO Box 50, London
2XP.
Hurry.
before stocks run
out!
Herald, rebuked
rebels 'in its most
magisterial tone'
The Herald wrote:
'This time for
frankness. we must tell
Mr Aneurin Bevan and his
Labour Party
on 'cabinet
Healey backed Foot's speech He said Benn chobie nave. une lulcer
to have stood against Michael root personally Integrity is an elastic concept for Healey.
Integrity
He stood anallisi Foot for the eadership, now he is stan-
rules he rejects. ding for deputy And he InUC does not support one word of the policies for which Foot claimed 'widespread agreement'
But Healey knows that cabinet responsibility greatly mellows those who were previously the darlings of the left. Collabora. tion with the real rulers of the capitalist system has had this effect betore, and Healey had great faith in Foot's capacity to follow his left-wing predecessors in the same direction.
While the parliamen-
have rallied taly Dally supporters that sup on acourse which will they
harm the country and imperil the future the labour movement
'They are deliberately bent on...challenging the democratie decisions of the Parliamentary Labour Party, advertising
ana their antagonism to its elected leader Mr Attlee... The labour movement is becoming tired this minority's egoism'.
If this sounds rather familiar, so is what happened next. At PLP meeting the following
week Attlee proposed tha
evan and the rest of th
ficial apology for voting the way they had, and pro mise never to act in the same manner again
Squabbles
One of Atlee's supArthur DOLLCIs, general secretary of the transport union. insisted:
"The present squabble is not around ant principle at all, but rather around personalities'
Similarly, ( Michael Foot last week sought to reduce Benn's statements
representing than attack on my good faith'
In 1952 Bevan replied: 'Is a socialist in danger of being expelled from the Labour Party for voting against the Tories?
Remembering Foot's attempt to try and get Benn
to resign from the Shadow
THE MESSAGE READ TO THE SHADOW CA
The damning dossier that
Foot drew up on Benn...
the wrecker from within
How the right-wing Daily Express backed Foot
round Foot, his cabinet lecture did no1 impress others. The day after. executive of the TGWU
MODOR Wal
discussed which endorsed the criticisms the union's
acting general secretary,
lex Kitson had made o Benn's challenge tor the leadership. The motion fell by a 4-1 majority. That reflects the pressure on the union leadership from the thousands upon thousands Cabinet, a modern version
Te Be vas'sa socialist in
read: socialist danger of being sacked tron the parliamentary gainst the Tories? Yoting leadership Obscene
Attlee's manoeuvres His decame to nothing. mand for recantation was
La meeting of deteated at the PLP. Foot's attempt to force Benn into an election has also come to nothing
Benn has insisted his campaign is over policies. not the personalițies Michael Hoot. Denis Hea ly and Tony Benn. Is Tony Benn telling the truth?
ell, ser ine Bear-
bon copy of defence vote and the Benn defence vote IS teresting to record wenae Foot's conclu. sions on the former:
June aspect ortac coll troversy showed no sign of subsiding. Persistently the newspapers described the debate in terms of 'Bevan versus Atlee, Bevan's grab for power' "If I disap peared tomorrow" said
'the same issues would still be there. It is time this obscene preoccupation with individual lives and careers gave way Iо à more dispassionate consideration of tacts'
Ambitious
'Could it really be that
his personal
VET LAST NIGH
of active trade unionists who back Benn, and it expresses the feelings of the
final Peoples March who, at the end, cheered Benn and booed Healey. The TGWU will now take its decision on who to back tor deputy leader eve of Labour's terence.
Many would support a Nye Bevan were as modest as these words imply? The final answer remained locked in
heart and of course it would be absurd if the possibility of his succession to the leadership never crossea nis mina..
'He had every right to consue himselt call didate for office. But what was talse was the suggestion that all his moves, manoeuvres
challenge to Foot from
Benn. And Foot is right to
say Benn's campaign
the
over ine airechon o.
party. But Benn has
declined the challenge, in
sisting he is not engaged in
COlILES per
sonalities.
Air
Certainly, the
labour movement
desperately needs to work kick out the Tories, and policies designed
strengthen the battle
commit the next Labour
government to socialist
It also needs to
Hicasuco.
clarify where its leaders
stand on the fight for such
policies, replacing those
who waver, building a left
in the unions and party
powerfu enough to
credibly challenge Foot.
And one thing is cer-
tain. Last week's events
have shown that the
democratic fresh air which
has blown through the
election of the leader and
deputy leader the
Labour Party should now
be directed towards the
election of Labour's entire
parliamentary leadership. resignatons, allacks welt calculated however ineptly to further his personal advancement to the leadership.
Tony Benn may not be
exac renlica ot Nve Bevan, but Michael Foot a replica of Clem Attlee? Whichever IS, Michael Foot the writer is
much pleasant chap than Michael Foot the Labour leader.
Page 5 scan of this page
Wales Labour Party says no to the bomb
Labour women: struggle then,
I won't die or Thatcher STOP CRUISE MISSILES
JOBS
NOT
BOMBS
Ten and more at 15n each
Order from Hackney Book N1 2p PO Box 50, London By Judith Arkwright THIS weekend the Labour Women takes place in Manchester. It does so at a time when there is a mushrooming of women's organisations within the unions. But this is nothing new, and in assessing the relevance ot these ments it is useful to look back at what has gone before.
In particular, there is the experience of the Women's Labour League
SaSs organisation of
affiliated to the Labour Party at the start of this centurv. Set up 1906, the League had, by 1910 some 5,000 members.
By the early 1920s, one
millions of proletarian
organised women's suttrage SOCICties, women's trade TOIS ... in consullici Co-ops and in the fadependent Labour Party" Independent
Growth
One possible reason for the speedy growth of these organisations was the fact that between 1881 and 1891 the number of
In employment by 60 per 1USC Because they invariably tended to excluded from trade unions, the
needed some wallickl mechanism for organising their demands.
Thus, the Women's
Labour League agitated
DePT conditions of labour and hours for women, DIOVISION of school meals, and women's franchise.
THE RISE
AND
FALI
OF
BEVANE
By Helen Slyonovics and Barry Wilkins, Cardiff North CLP UNILATERAL nuclear disarmament and opposition to British participation in any nuclear defence strategy, Wales Labour Party. At its recent annual conference in Llandudno unilateralist resolution was overwhelmingly carried.
The resolution called for affiliation Wales CND and Labour CND,
"support TOI their Plalls to mount massive opposition against the presence of Cruise and Trident missiles." tion also called for talks with the Wales TUC, examine exading trade snionists in. ways
struggle now?
annual conference of
women's sections in the party and
contemporary develop-
1913 the paper Labour Women was launched, and it soon had nuce cucuadon ITTOOK up a variety of debates,
housewives should be paid. to the question ot the vote, and to why women should oppose world war.
Class
At a national level, the League contained Hally contradictions. Melvina Walker, a member of a suffrage society and later the Communist Party, described a meeting of the League she went to in
The main speakers, such as Mrs Ramsey MacDonald and Beatrice Webb, displayed attitudes which repelled Walker. She complained bitterly of the middle class, philanthropic views of these women, and contrasted that to the predominantly working class audience.
Feminism
The leaders of the League were much tied into the leadership of the Labour Party and the trade unions as a whole. This could be one reason
David Howell looks at Bevanism and
implications for the ontemporary Labour left 60p inc. post ILP Square One, 49 Top Moor Side, Leeds LS11
is now the policy of the
comprehensive
Wales to refuse participate In nuclear war 'survival exercises'.
Untortunately, this positive step forward by une conterence was not carried over to the discusSion on the manifesto for Wales. This 'Programme for Wales' is a diluted and right-wing version of the Alternative why the League was unsuccessful in forcing the Labour Party consistently take up women's demands, and why the organisation itself was
confused in its stance towards explicitly feminist issues
For example, women's conferences in the 1920s took a clear Dosinot favour of making contraception available through local autoriues. but over Laborr period years the
Party's ferences consistently voted Gown as demand
Similarly, on the suffrage Labour Party, even the League, vacillated for so long that Mrs MacDonald once remarked unal She concerned at the number of women who were leaving the League to join suffrage societies, or at least who worked with them.
In more recent times, the 1950s and 1960s women's organisations in the party went through a massive decline. However, this situation is starting to change, and there are now 1,200 women's sections in the party.
One reason for this is that Labour does now support the crucial issues free abortion on request, a women's right to work and equal pay.
The battle is by no means over. The fight still necessary both inside and outside the Labour
movement of working
which Cass wonen consistently take up women's needs.
For a start that means women's sections and campaigning organisations demanding that,
as tne past future Labour government
law. woman's right to choose.
positive discrimination ir tavour ot women.
The truth is that women's section. alu organisations should not be SCCI off women's interests, but as a means of spearheading the fight for women's demands.
Labour Party-
Economic strategy.
However there are signs _oi a willingness to challenge the right-wing control the party Wales. motion calling for the next Labour government to nationalise Britain's financial institu-
was carried agains the advice of the executive committee. Benn
The right hit back at a fringe meeting called by the Wales Labour Coordinating Committee support of Tony Benn for the deputy leadership. There was an organized attempt by the right
dominate the meeting.
The main target was Derek Gregorv.
for National Public Union Employees who chaired the meeting. George Wright general secretary of the Wales TUC. ed Gregory for his role at ference of the Wales TUC. recent annual
conference Gregory had led the op. position to the right-wing Social Plan' which vocate. systematic collaboration between trade tuous ane le bosses. and wage control by a future Lavour government.
In the elections for the executive
willice.
RUSTICE DEMANDS
organized right-wing campaign ensured that Derek
Gregory lost his seat. Abse
This underlines the
against the right-wing to be step ped organised alll above all taken into the rank and file of the trade
It was left right-winger, Leo Abse, MP for Pontypool, to call for the withdrawal British troops from Ireland. 'The Labour Party must prevent Northern Ireland rom becomes our ver nam,' he said to applause from delegates
Such remarks from the likes of Abse who had led a vicious s persona attack on lonv Benn's bid at a fringe me leg id at a fringe meeting by the • Labour Solidarity Campaign indicates the forces which are building
at the base of the Labour Party. in support
the withdrawal of British troops. Abse's declaration can be used to broaden these forces still further. Initiative
But the left must not leave the initiative in the hands of the right.
THEVOTE
Socialist Challengo 11 June 1961 Pages
Page 6 scan of this page
Widespread enthusiasm for h-Block campaign
Bernadette McAliskey was walking through the giant Waterford glass factory along with union leaders and leaders of the local H Block committee on Monday June 8. the final leg of her tour through the constituencies in which H Block prisoners are standing in the 26 county general election.
Cheers came from behind all the work benches, and a great banging
Sle these a ross
Grow 15-year-old apprentice glass blowers who were holding long pipes with
at the end. They greeted her demonstrativelv. One of them shouted, 'Speech!
Speech!'.
Stopping every few workbenches she was inTrocuced to leading H Block activists throughout the factorv complex where more than 3000 people work. It was obvious that she was the heroine of the immense majority of
Wonderful
Many older women came up to her. I heard a rumber of them say variasions on the theme of: 'It's wonaerrur to see you back, how do you feel?'
One young fellow wearing a campaign badge or rine wael, nistorically imperialist of ne the more pro-bourgeois parties, said: •You know a lot of Fine Gael people are going to gIve their second preferences to the prisoners.'
At lunchbreak meeting, Bernadette acked the failure of the Labour Party to defend the people of the north against imperialist oppres-
sion Frank Cluskey
(head of Labour Party) chinks that if he doesn't
Trades councils back
the prisoners
By findy Lilley, secretary, Ealing TUC
in Southport last weekend.
ing for steps towards a united Ireland,
'special category status'
Association of Trades Councils.
ceptional step
'greetings to the conference' on Friday.
asked GLAIC to withdraw it.
of the majority of delegates.
partisanship with the Tories on Ireland.
Socialist Challenge 11 June 1981
Southern Irish election
She was on
mention the north, no one will notice how far he has gone trom the principles of Larkin and Connolly, but the north won't go away. The British are atbreak the heart and the soul of the people of the north but we'll give up.
There's no wav back now Once people have stood
accept slavery.
Slavery In Drogheda, another industrial centre, Bernadette had spoken to a crowd of thousands in the aowntown arca on rrida)
June. Paraphrasing the apostle and the martyr of revolutionary nationalism, Patrick Pearse. she said, 'We in the north can't go back now. There are worse things than death. And slavery is one of them. the one Cared crowd to take the trade unions from the leaders that betray them and to workers' return organisations the forefront of the struggle.
Adoring
Bernadette was on She VCrY covered nearly six hundred miles LIBC first dav her tour. Back and forth aCrOSS the island from Cavan to Sligo and from Sligo to Longford. Mullingar and Draghedia and that night at 8 o'clock she
out she found it nearly imAS MANY as 260 delegates from trades councils all over Britain held their annual conference
The high spot was the adoption of a motion callrestoration of — in erect pontical status for the H Block prisoners, disbandment of the Ulster Defence Regiment, a bill of rights and the withdrawa! of troops to barracks pending complete withdrawal.
The motion was proposed by the Greater London
TUC general secretary Len Murray took the ex-
oj attacking the motion during his
He called on delegates 'not to take sides in the conflict'. He declared that the resolution would split the trade union movement in the north of Ireland, and
But the motion was still put and won the support
During the debate a number of speakers sup-t ported the resolution as a step forward but criticised the failure to call for immediate troop withdrawals. Despite this weakness, the success of the resolution was another blow to the TUC and Labour Party bi-
Page 6
possible to get away. The crowd can only be describ
Despite the exhausting pace of the tour her nadette was more and more buoyant. She had been worried, along with most other leaders of the H Block movement, about the chances for success of such an election campaign. The form was determined by the traditionalist wing of the republican movement. It made for division and prevented the H Block committees from taking full advantage of the opportunities offered to them by the election.
A list of nine prisoner candidates was drawn up, including the hunger strikers and five others.
then to be divided up betWCCI Provisional and IRSP prisoners. The traditionalists considered it to be ar principle not to work for • any canadale Inal migal lake d seat.
Friction
That caused friction in the oniy Dublin consti-
contested by a naLucily tional H Block committee danaida Tony' IRSF
call didate, O'Hara due to be released in a few months and could ceivably take a seat if elected.
Most committee activists had wanted to run 'live candidates, that is, candidates who could campaign, ect. tions thai are much more
than the COMICA Fermanagh-South Tyrone
one was. They wanted
Ireland,
PRISONERS
IN
to stand local activists in order to use the elections most effectively to bulld the committees, as well as
put personalities such as Bernadette wnO could be elected and use the Irish Parliament as forum for raising the H Block issue.
In Cork City, Dave O'Connell popular figure among the traditionalists, staged a heavy-handed operation to prevent the local committee from supporting an independent It created a lot of bad feel In But by the time Bernadette go: to Drogheda, it seemed clear that despite the problems the support ior the prisoners was su
OFE Haughey in Dublin.
REPUBLICAN
NEWS
strong that the election campaign would score successes. In Longford, a fairly small town, there was a crowd of thousands, the largest at such an occasion since the 1920s.
In Dundalk there was also a crowd of thousands. was even more enthusiastic. There were many young people. Bernadette said: 'The papers are talking about the so-called cynicism of youth saying that they are making fun of the elections and politicians. not cynicism, that's common sense. to be made fools of.
INeVe in 800 years have we produced graver and more dedicated youth
TKOC
BRITAIS
H Block protesters surround Irish premier Charles
Ireland who are
re resent prisoner ang
prisoners hunger strikers. nere
Block demonstration.'
Bernadette stressed that unlike the other candidates the prisoner candidates did not make promises, could not make pro-
'they can only ask for your help', but she was sure that the plain people of Ireland would understand that the cause of the
tant than begging for a few crumbs trom ment: 'The politicians can only sve you wollats yours by right, she said, 'You don't have to grovel for 1t.
In traditionally republican north Kerry the crowd and Ballybunion filled the centra sauares and streets but here in republican countrv it was bernadette that brought out the broad support.In Ballybunion the local campaign's organiser told me that he reckoned about half the crowd came to hear her The streets of the town were lammed for hours She got a huge cheer when she said she knew the peo ple of Kerry would not let
Waterford
At a big training centre in Waterford the instruc tors welcomed her in, beaming and shaking her hand. . She spoke to youths
PAMPHLET
The latest edition of the People's
sonstown, Belfast 11
MAKE
HBLOCK
THE ISSUE
Vincent
Doherty Nº1
VOTE
AGAINST
PARTITION
PD's election manitesto ir North Dublin. Funds are needed to offset the onations Peoples Democracy, 38 Clanawley Rd, Killerster, Dublin 5.
in the cafeteria manager came up to tell her that she was there The staff crowded around her, telling her not to worry: 'He's only an Englishman, we'll sort him out.'
Whatever the vote is and whatever problems arise in the campaign it Is clear that the Block movement taking another step forward towards the creation ot a anti-imperialist movement Ulta Call mobilise the majority of the Irish people.
New Almost everywhere new layers of the popula tion have become involved in the H Block Committee election campaign.
In the Premier's own constituency in Dublin and in Limerick the Irish are running campaigns focussed on the
demonstrate best they can how elections car be used to broaden and deepen the support for th prisoners. Thes camwill be important Dalys models when the H Block JULI out the lessons of the movement's tirst intervention in elec tions in the South.
Prisoners of
Partition
H-BLOCKARMAGH
A PEOPLES DEMOCRACY
NEW #DION 40p
Democracy pamphlet on the H Blocks is now available. Prisoners of Partition costs 40p plus 20p postage, from Connoliy Bookshop, Avoca Park, Ander-
Page 7 scan of this page
Labour London:
THE LABOUR Greater London only been in office for a couple of weeks. But in that time it headlines on a number of occasions.
The Labour group plans to stop financing civil defence in London, has no intention of atten-
Wedding aing ine koyal and it accommodated the reopic s Marchers when they were in London. And
conference last week Labour leader, Livingstone announced that he wanted to use GLC money to support Soviet dissidents.
Over the next period the GLC will either move more and more into con-
with central TrollaTon government or go back on the promises made In is election manitesto.
Split
Already the Labour group has split over the
pay council proposal to workers for time off to greet the People's March.
Perhaps not big dif-
- the group was
Unilateralism v
multilateralism:
BRIAN Heron (7 May)
says that Socialist
Challenge supporters
the CND labour move-
ment conference in Man-
chester did not, as i had
suggested, vote in favour
of resolutions being taken
in place of the scheduled
afternoon discussions.
1 had understood that
they did because they sup-
•We will stand
by our
programme'
Council has
has managed to hit the
after all in favour of employees having time off pay but
Threats because it was threats of surcharge that divided the councillors this might bode ill in the future.
Now the G! C face the problem of environment Michael Heseltine's punitive cuts in government subsidy with a possible massive rate rise How will the Labour GLC respond to this? Ken Livingstone spoke to MIKE FISHER after the first full council meeting since the elections. 'We will stand by our programme. Heseltine takes our last remaining £200m, that's the last of his penalities. another fl a week on top of the extra f2 a week the rates as a result of their Tories have put the We have to support both
ported the idea on the organising committee. Sorry. the question of unilateral versus multilateral disarmament, though, I think that Brian has got hold of the wrong end of the stick. He argues that we must choose one or the other, that it is impossible to support both and that
cuts in London.
'So at the next general election, where Labour would be pledged to make good the Tory cuts in rate support grant, we would
saying lo voters, Labour government would mean f3 a week cut in your rates. How can the Tories answer that?
Stops
'If Heseltine tries to stop ralsing revenue that would be an attempt to stop local government. We would expect trade umonists to launch a cam paign of industrial action and Labour MPs to make the continued working of parliament impossible.
But how credible Livingstone's threat to pressurise the government by industrial action? 'We
are no industrial action
industrial action concedes.
OulSCIVeS 'We want to avoid the Labour GLC being seen to step into anything from the outside.
to do so only causes confusion.
I agree that there issue cut i think it is for Conson over precisely opposite reason. The self-styled mutate ra disarmers' (such as David Owen, William Rodgers and others) are fond of arguing inal we must choose between the two.
If there choice, multilateral disar.
sounds mament
unilateralism. Surely it's better for everyone to
Letter:
Sutcliffe: a product of
our society
I'VE BEEN surprised and
disappointed by the lack
Challenge of the Sutcliffe
lia.
All the bourgeois
media has been full of the
gory detalls of how peter
Sutcliffe went round with
bag of sharpened
screwdrivers, knives and
hammers, killed thirteen
women,, and attacked
Labour Party
Pyotr Egides last month
'Given the role of the Labour Party over the last 30 years, the Labour group County Hall needs to win respect by what we actually do to win the right to leadership, for example by supporting all trade unionists in dispute.
disarm than just one?' And this is reflected in the
opinice oils.
luca that the choice multilateral disarmament actually ists as a practical alternative is used as an excuse for endless cop-outs of the 'of course believe in disarmament,
Dut... variety.
That old fence-sitter the Guardian, reckoned that the Labour Party has contradicted itself by backing both unilateral and multilateral disarmament. No 0018
viners without knowing one of them personally
As he said when arrested, no woman was safe while he was around. He killed them because they were women
The trial centred on whether or not Sutcliffe was mad because everyone wants disown i his monster. He's either an in::.dividual madman on tast
Ken Livingstone at the Socialist Challenge Rally with Soviet oppositionist
We are looking for the possibility of providing funding for the Time Out
and giving occupalivi them accommodation they are evicted.
'This, repeated in dispute after dispute. could re-weld the links bet-
'multilateralists' Brynmor
'contradiction' allows him lo stay as shadow acience minister although he does not SUDDOI disarmament. It's not on and we have to make that clear both to him and Michael Foot.
By saying 'a unilateralist
Il, Frank Allauo mans
Frank Allaun wasn't going SOTT on Whale ralism. He was putting the multilateralists spot: you are either for disarmament or against 11
Letters letters rters
plain bad'.
explanation confronts the fact that Peter Sutcliffe is a product of this society where women are cast in the role
dress op for men were
we're
rigid; if we do we're tart
Women are beaten up by their husbands, whistled after in the street and UsCu Eve pornography. From through the ages to women in adverts for diesel pumps, women are portrayed
through sex to do hen something they wouldn't do otherwise duping inem:
ween the Labour •Party and trade unionists and we would be happy to give the same support when we get omer occupalions. taclul y closures or struggles like Grunwicks or Garners Steakhouse.
'We shall also be set-
and that is the only choice.
If you are for it, then it is clear that unilateral disarmament is now essential, both in its own right and to get the multilateral process going. The claim that there is a choice between multilateralism and unilateralism the cause of the public's contusion not only allows NATO apologists to parade as disarmers' but
even allows them to gi
le impression that CN
somehow against anyone but Britain giving uv nuccal weaouls
Letters
When Sutcliffe was supposedly duped out of £10 by a woman he'd paid to have sex with, it wasn't this one incident but how LOUS incident was dicative of the way women
and decelve that set him off on his mis sion with all the zeal of the Witchfinder General
Because neither the legal system nor the media can afford to analyse how society produced a Peter Sutcliffe, they're forced to argue that he hated and killed womer because of his individual relationship with one woman
Socialia: Grailenge
ung up trade union research and informatior. service available to trade unionists. pears to be under no illu. Ken Livingstone sion as to what he car achieve at County Hall For him the split that of cured in the Labour group over whether or not to pa! council worker the could greet the march for jobs does not change in situation.
It has always beer clear that there would bi no majority in the counc for any deliberate act tha would lead to surcharge Most of the Labour righ don't believe that's correc and we have larg: number lawyers barristers concerned abou their professional pos: tion. Confident
'We have a right wir but no social democrats Any social democra would be lost in the GL where we have a straigh choice between a socialis GLC elected or manifesto all councillors support, vicious Thatcherite Torie:
confident sha have no defections in ou four year term.
Mac races a difficult path one ministration Londo the next few MOREOS
will face criticisms from a
. How it will confro:
its critics and more impe
tant how it will stand up
the onslaught from centra government remains to b
seen
But there's no dous that Livingstone ana
comrades are sincere ar
enthusiastic for the tasi
they have set themseiv
As Ken says: I'm glad i
haven't of a dea
weight 900 years
cumulated Collseila...
and routinism. Soni
movis Certainly
down at County Ha
Westminster.
We want rid of nuclea weapons world wide and, as a start want rid of all those in Br: tain. If unilateral disarma
culoularc multilateral disarmament then so much the better
It is the people who claim tha the separate, that multilatera asant alca miniatera disar-
disar. mament that we should direct our argument against. It's a tricky argu ment but I think Frank Allaun got it right.
ALISDAIR BEAL Leeds 8
It was obscene how the implicati
Soni Sutcliffe in crime. She was said dominate him on he prison visits, she was mer
tally ill in 1976 and - ta:: about scraping the barre
- she went out with a icecream man when sh
was doing her A leve before she was married
Sutcliffe's father ha even claimed that the ki hapened if hed marrie ings would ha: any olner
want to blame anothe
woman for these wome:
deaths. It's not his faul: nuinely baffled by se Many people are
case and it is up to a pare
with a feminist under::. analysis to its readers ding give
Marcella Fitzgerald
NW London
Page 8 scan of this page
NEW CROSS MASSACRE CHAIRPERSON JOHNLA 'They have to deal with the g of Babylon the police, the al judges, the courts. It gives 1 different sense of their polii
'We are quite capable of fighting our own battles. '
Cross Road earlier this year are well-
again.
believe that the fire was caused by a firebomb, and sees it as part of a racist violence.
How did you get involved in the events around the fire?
I was in a routine meting of the Black Parents Movement when we heard the news and decided to investigate Three of us saw Mrs Ruddock (who lost her children Yvonne and Paul) that same evening. Alex Pascall of Black Londoners did an interview for his radio programme.
In spite of her agony and suffering she spoke because she had already heard radio reports that weren't true.
She said that it had been a peaceful party. There had been no tights. it was the tirst party she had glven in the house.
She'd made a special concession to her daughter, Yvonne for her 16th birthday and she was glad she had because she had never seen her so happy before.
She was very clear about what she thought had happened that it was a firebomb.
Two police otticers at ditterent times had told her this.
Already a number of West Indian organisations papers had been in the area: such as West indian word and the West Indian Standing Con-
- we weren't the only BicTence ones.
The WISC had already called a public meting the following Sunday. We intervened and suggested that there should be a
The facts of the terrible fire at 439 New
known. Thirteen black youths at Yvonne Ruddock's 16th birthday party lost their lives; several more received injuries, and their families and friends will never be the same
The black community had reason to
series of violent racist incidents in the area.
In response to the attempts by the police and press to cover up the real story the New Cross Massacre Action Committee was formed. John La Rose, its national chairperson, spoke to Toni Gorton about the campaign, its future plans, and how the black working class views the fight against
preparatory mecling January. 300 people This established the New Cros:
Massacre Action ana part OTES WOlK known as the Black People's Assembly.
People came from as far away as the Midlands. It really gave the black some idea of what had taken Prom neonle like Lestey Morris people like Lesley Morris and Carl Wright the party. nurse who had received the victims at the spoke. That meting showed us the extent of the concern in the community at what had taken place.
Who was involved in NCMAC?
You can imagine the range of voices on that question. decision was that the Commitwould be open to Asians, Africans and West Indians -all black people for the purpose of directing the campaign.
The Assembly should be open to all those who ported the general aims of the campaign. The Assembly made recommendations and Committee took the decisions about how LU carry through.
PACM-Hadstart African Congress said that
blacks From the first position was rejected, this some Asians were threatened. Stewards took action against it but we could never PACM-Hadstart to stop.
How did the develop?
We knew it would go through Celall Olascs
plays. So we hessueat ter ao-
titude of the press and the state would be dependent reacuon orine dack communty.
The public meting on January was important. 2000 people turned up and trom turther north 20 Midlands, but Bradford, Hudattended. dersfield, Leeds
chester.
Committee Sybil Phoenix, a local comDelant munity worker,
demonstration in collabortion with the police to go from the rally to 439 New Once there she began to sing community 'We shall overcome
But this wasn't a civil rights movement like in the 60s. They would like it to be but it isn't. • who were ai Anyway the
much more vital.
When she hospital trom the house on the route she
had planned with the police on people followed her The others said no and remained blocking the road outside the house tor 3 or 4 hours.
This destroyed the plans of the police to bring the black community behind the Community Relations Councils and Comfor Racial Equality.
We see these as a colonial office for blacks The SCelv. Their undermine the struggle of blacks.
How do you see the Black Peoples Day of Action?
sup-
This was an historic event. The the decision to hold it the NCMAC on 27
them The decision was to show the
determination (Pan population that they will not be Movement) killed, maimed or injured with
impunity and that if the state
should be involved
meeting this despite ana whites
: a commitment from
camuaruis
Ine press nac
we knew that the at-
on the
25
not Just the
and Man-
planned
Cross Road
reggae songs are
moved away
would not
in British purose is to stage of the campaign? independent
important event for the nebress and the Sunday
came from tack wasn't true.
January.
JC CC SLOn the black
quest attempt
PINTNO
STOPPING
USNOW
WE ARE On
THEMOYEN
'Black People's Day of Action on 2 March 1981 was an historic event'
protect its citizens then the black population and its allies in the country would. and to
acmonstraleu
March.
Can you say what you think of the inquiry and the next
ne macucs was ooviousv ar been
police January uke bre Observer Times sought black communit This that what was being said about the massacre being a racist at-
The truth was something else. Ihe truth was
wc kucw tral a dianuslal play would be made at the in-
where the voice would elaborate their ine inquny
theories in a way which would be convincing to the population
the blacks who had Peopies Day of" the Black
Action on 2
failed because I don't think the police and the coroner
realised the extent to which the NCMAC was prepared. It had
prepared since the when DOLI the NCMAC and the fact-finding commission were established
commission investigated what had happened and it also found out about the metnoas inat ine police were using to obtain their information and their line of investigation ventually ail that became public knowledge at the time of
Police in Southall, ,
The . police had a political motive in trving to prove tha this was not a racist attack. If they had admitted
been 15-20,000 marching in the streets but 100.000. It was this they sought prevent. would be
• a march to protes police failure to stem racist attacks ke the recent one it Coventry.
It is a matter for serious consideration that the coroner, vi vavics. alcaumle coroncı ! Britain, should have shown bas and incompetence to the extent that he did.
The parents sought an injunction against him for his summing up, the reading of police evidence rather than
which he had failed to HULes take. It was admitted by Justice
Page 9 scan of this page
ACTION COMMITTEE ROSE INTERVIEWED
atemen
"my, the
hem a
ics'
Comyn that the coroner had acted gross irregularity.
The bias had been shown.
The open verdict was unsatisfactory to the families. On
evidence that had been shown was clear that police had failed to look for the
truth about what had happened.
The police weren't satisfied with the verdict either, they had concentrated their efforts into their story of the fire starting as
result of a fight at the party. The parents immediately called for a new inquest and as soon as they receive the transcripts or the summing up they will lodge all avocal
The Action Committee will be organising an international commission of inquiry within the next few weeks, after con-
Photo: TONI GORTON
ril 23 1979. '... the most serious and violent attacks come from the police'
All the youths said that they had been bullied and coerced into making statements which the there
to charge the police with illegal activity?
Not that I know of. would happen is that the police would investigate trense ves blemish.
How do you see the problem of racist violence and right wing groups?
For the black community the most serious and tacks come from The actions of those Front and other
they groups complement
any violence.
The state authority and arbitrary powers on the police The Blair showed how the Special Patrol What Group was itself acting illegally
with themselves against regarded as ordensive to he SULLS those without
Slaic
How should fight the police wing groups?
John La Rose is a Trinidad-born publisher and poet. He is the
New Cross Massacre Action Committee.
He is also a member of the Alliance of the Black Parents Movement, the Black Youth Movement and the Race Today Collective. annihilation.
organisation you have.
form of wartare 1s politically working black unemployed,
the courts.
We politically violence
repression.
Black asalist
Brixton. violent
ali the police. the National right wing
that getting around
confers its
Peach inquiry slalt
who
- this is Babylon.
the gatemen of Babylon black people and right
La strong middle class
chairperson of the
There are two ways. One is the
way you tight in Brixton. You ty hasn't
organise, attack and disappear
because to expose yourself at
all after an event like the Brix- munity
ton insurrection is to invite vir-
Or like in
New Cross where you can have create an a huge political effect on society by the nature of the political
and
1 believe the most advanced problem. political warfare, not military. There are sections of the black nonua tion who say that you have to
role oc as ordanisce as unc Donce. don't disagree with that but I which
see it as important to win over
those sections of the class i Class like the working and suffer at the mally hands of the police, the judges,
have to organise fight police - in terms of organis. ing day by day against cases of
LORS classes politica action
defines itselt in relation to th work place and in terms of its naked relationship to the state.
Donations are still needed for the work of the Action Committee. Send them to New Cross Massacre Action Committee, 74 Shakespeare Road, London SE24. Tel 01-737 2268.
Most of the black youth and unemployed when they move
their oppression mediately come up against the OU l state. So they're on the street or If by in an insurrection like Bristol or
defending class
If you're in the workplace you have your union meetings, then you have to find a way of
your district secrelary ana lany you re ur against management. There are all these layers between you and your ultimate oppressor - the
The minute the black youth and unemployed act they come up against the oppressive nature of own battles. the state and they are very clear
And they have to deal with
the police, the army, the judges he courts. It gives them a di erent sense of their politics
It's not the same with the Asian working class. They have
'Blacks would march to protest police failure to stem racist attacks like the recent one in Coventry'
The West Indian communigot an economically
strong middle class. There is no part of the West Indian com-
that can regulate its conduct. It doesn't exist
like to effective to
control the black working clas and unemployed. But it can't
therefore the black unemployed create a serious
What do you think of the
of anti-racist groups seem to be usually
Yes, black people don't nor-
participate in them. wouldn't say that they don't have a function.
Becaust racist violence comes from whites, then the extent to which these groups can mobilise white workers and sec-
of white midale against these people then they can be important in creating alliances between the struggles of the black and white working classes. But if you expect the black working class to be part of these groups you misunderstand the nature of
forming a white antiracist group you think you are
the black working which incapable of detending itself this is starting from the wrong assumption. gramme Miriam Karin of the m accent television Anti-Nazı League was talking about 'poor blacks'. But blacks don't see themselves this way. We see ourselves as facing all sorts of economic racial and cultural oppression and al C quite capable of fighting our
industries two thirds of the workforce black. Do you see that they have more force in society than the unemployed?
'We are the majority a Fords'. Certain forms of conduct have been observed at Fords Dagenham as when they had that internal insurrection a couple of years ago and broke
they have power over production as in textiles, various parts of engineering works, service industries, does confer on the black working class a power to influence the situation politically that we need to have.
For example who have overthrown British Governments or forced them to make U-turns in reccur limes - miners
Tony Benn said recently that black people should come into Party, organise separately if the body.
Is in The governmeles whoe is in the government Labour or Conservative. You couldn't live in a colony as I did and believe that the Labour Party was a radical or anti-imperialist party.
Ine Labour Party has always been seen as an alternative that wil staunch the rebellion of the working class when it becomes restive.
What makes the situation different now is this, that the crisis in the LP is part of the crisis in society
In my opinion the party has to split and split again to make it a reliable instrument of activity for the working class
One supports the general direction of the Labour Party towards a radical socialist parBenn is part The situation that Tony
of will lead to a alcalci radicalisatior and democratisation in the Labour Party and the trade unions which have been a functional part of the LP
These developments are of great importance for the black working class and unemployed as they are for the white. Black people may take up Benn's appeal when it becomes more real than it is at the
Whatever else is said the problems facing the British state today are the Irish national liberation wal, the unemployed and the restless working class. It is the coalescing of all these struggles that will make for serious change in Britain.
11 June 1961
Page 10 scan of this page
in industry 27-8 June, London
Socialist
Challenge
REVOLUTION
Industrial
Workers
Conference
London 27-8 June
Entry by ticket only from PO Box 50, London N1 2XP By Denny Fitzpatrick, POEU OVER the last decade there has been a tremendous growth fighting for women's rights inside the labour movement. There have been struggles for equal pay - from the Fords women machinists to the women at Tricos, West London and SEl in Manchester.
the most militant disputes of recent years -from Grunwicks to the current Lee Jeans occupation in Greenock.
Together with the campaigns from the women's liberation movement these struggles forced the trade unions to take women's rights seriously.
Now mere de countiess advisory committees, women's conterences booklets and general
labour movement.
ror te trade union leaders the answer to women's oppression was the passing of the Equal Pay and Sex Dischmination Acts. There was no
the need Labour government would look after women's interests. Over the five years later these measures are shown to be woetully inadequate. Pay
Today women's unemployment is still double that of men. Women's pay is only 73 per • cent oI
men's pay and the gap is
widening. New measures
to defend women's rights are being sought.
Positive action is the
new catch word. All sorts
of people are organising
around The TUC
recently sponsored a na-
tional union ConTe ence
on positive action, so too
did NCCL. The
women's TUC have pro-
duced a renort for the next
TUC congress. It calls for
the TUC to recognise that
women suffer from past
and
therefore that compen-
satory measures need to be
taken.
Sarialist Challenge 11+00-1981
paper Revolution, discuss how to fight for policies in industry.
The
battle for socialist ideas.
of leading militants
Building a
proletarian:
women's
movement
in the movement
momentous
women industrial workers have led some of
We believe that movement must be built for women's rights based in ine working class. fact that the TUC backed the anti-Corrie abortion bill march made ten times harder for the Tories and other reactionaries to oppose women's rights.
Women will obviously be the best fighters against their own oppression, but they are not the only ones who will gain from it. It's the bosses and the Tories who gain by a divided trade movement segregated by sex and colour.
When women's wages
IN this conference organised by Socialist Challenge and the youth
supporters will socialist
session Saturday morning, 'Fighting for socialist policies in industry, will attempt to map out the • opportunities which exist for winning the
In the afternoon there will be a panel
the various wing industries which will attempt to draw the lessons of the fight against redundancies.
HE WOMEN NOTAT
are depressed or their jobs
boost men's wages or give them JObS. Nor the qual pay struggles of th 1970s lower men's pay. Or the contrary it was a boost Women at Trico vote to reject the management's pay offer
The fight for socialist policies
We hope to have militants from BL, steel, mines, British Telecoms, Lee Jeans and the People's March among others.
The Sunday morning session will take up the theme 'Building a party of worker revolutionaries'.
Conference will then break workshops which will include. • The role of the industrial working class in the socialist revolution. Building a proletarian women's movement and the fight for positive action.
Constructing a class struggle left the labour movement: the experience of the Minority Movement. • Building a class struggle left wing:
DANGER
ENO ENTRY
USED
WORK
for all low nao workers giving the lie to the idea that positive action women unfairly discriminates against men.
The fight for positive action challenges the way
the USA in the '30s. • The role of black workers. To end the Challenge supporters industries will into
the labour movement.
Saturday
celebrates
Youth youth speakers.
TON
OFFICIAL
STRIKE
which the education
system and the bosses con-
demn women to being se
cond class citizens.
organised move-
ment for women's rights,
particularly the right to
work and the right to
choose, is a threat to all
those who benefit from
pitting one section
workers against another.
to
those reformist leaders
WIlO within the bosses® work
system
to iron out inequalities by
paltry measures and emp-
ty promises.
Fighting for women's
rights is part of the fight to
leadership
within the labour move
• ment capable of uniting all
the workers' struggles into
• a successtul challenge to
• the whole capitalist setup.
fRole
We are confident
that such a leadership can
be built and that working
• class women will play a
major role in its creation.
Ten years ago it would
YOUTH
Trotskyists and the Teamsters union in
conference Socialist
meet to discuss the next practical steps to be taken in building a party and the class struggle left wing in
evening rally the 1st anniversary of Revolution with international
the Industrial
National Union of Railwaymen leaders refuse to mobilise it.
Campaigning left
every debate. nose into the Labour Party ched a campaign of his own side the Labour Party. members into
appear on this year's agenda General Meeting (conference).
The division
left that consistently makes the links
the daily struggles in the workplace.
youth.
Crafts, British Steel.
learned in the fight against the Tories
need a clear-sighted leadership.
powerful unions.
step in ensuring that
right time. have seemed impossible for the TUC to call a national demonstration on abortion, SHOWS how rapidly consciousness is changing worth rights. And today the Lee Jeans women are in the forefront of the fight agalnsl the Tories unemployment policies.
Fighting for positive
french revolutionary youth evolution Youth REVOLUTION Grenada, Nicaragua, Ei Salvador, treland
Hear speakers from :
First Anniversary
Raly
SATURDAY 27 lune
CAXTON HOUSE
7.30pm E1 129 ST JOHNS WAY
LONDON N19
(near Archway Tube Sta)
Why I am coming to
Workers Conference By Hazel MacPherson, Paddington No. 1 MY union, the NUR, is part of the Triple Alliance of rail, coal, and steel workers. This alliance has already showed its potential strength when the miners took on Thatcher and with the support of the rail and steelworkers, beat her. The combined strength of these three unions could quite easily get rid if the government altogether, but the top
wings need to be built in every union to deal with the sabotage of the officials. This means involving and reaching out to the whole membership in every struggle and in
The left in the NUR must stick its
Our General Secretary, Mr Weighell, has laun-
- against the left inThis has drawn NUR a political debate on an un precedented scale. No less than 18 resolutions supporting the left and the gains on party democracy
of our Annual
between politics and trade unionism is beginning to break down. If we want to defeat Thatcher's government, then we have to challenge our own leaderships. We need to have as full a political understanding on our side as does Weighell from the point of view of management.
Socialist Challenge is the only newspaper of the
between politics on a national and international level and
From what I can see, this conference will be Photo. JOHN STURROCK (Report)
discussing those issues that workers themselves are raising every day, especially those who have the least to gain from the present system and the most to gain from change - black workers, women and
Bernard Connelly, Convenor S. Yorkshire I welcome this conference of Socialist Challenge as an opportunity to discuss out the lessons we've
The steel strike experience showed that if we are to use our massive power effectively, then we
The Sirs and Chapples of this world have to be got rid of. This can only be done by fighting from inside the big
It is excellent that Socialist Challenge supdustry. Lee conce that this conference will be one their energies
when the next big battles break out Socialist Challenge is not only operating from the outside but also from the inside. You don't only need correct ideas, but the people ready to carry them out who are in the right place at the
I will be speaking in the session on the fight against redundancies. I think we have to look not only at the big successes like the miners but also some of the failures like in steel. We have suffered some big knocks, but we are not completely out.
If the lessons can be drawn by a sufficiently large minority to fight for policies which are in our interests, then everything we have had inflicted on us won't be in vain. Socialist Challenge has had the merit of raising some of these policies and this is why I'll be there to debate them out further.
action for women's rights central to challenging t.ne whole of the Tories offensive against the working class. Building a proletarian wower . movement based in the in dustrial unions is the besi guarantee that such movement will be powerful weapon in the struggle women's Jihçration and socialism.
Page 11 scan of this page
We want to march
National Abortion Campaign
We have to make
choices
By Ann Potter THE NATIONAL Abortion Campaign is holding its conference in Manchester on the weekend. It comes at a time of massive attacks on abortion rights throughout the world.
Eleven Spanish women went on trial last week for performing or having abortions. In the
being debated which, if passed, will define abor-
In Britain, parliamentary attacks on abortion rights have been successfully defeated by the pro-choice movement. this country, women still face attacks from the DHSS, the courts and through cuts in public expenditure
The National Abortion Campaign has to decide how to continue to defend existing abortion rights and to fight for better facilities if women are to have more control over their fertility and their lives.
The experiences women face in other countries has a direct bearing on the choices facing By Judy Watson 'EVERY struggle is just a spit in the ocean, bui IT we all spit together bastards!
strike at Royal Pride in Manchester, summed up the achievements women's rights held last month.
Over three thousand women attended LICi festival, and it was the first step together fight the
of this Tory government.
Unity, self-organisation, and women
back PCie CliC of the day. Now we have to decide what's nexHor do
we build on the gain: no: only of the
gles it reflected - Che fight
People's March for Jobs, tue 22m-
struggle of women in ireland. and otiners? Call
A ciear message from the lestival was à call on
Labour fartv and the
TUC organise demonstration on woman's right to work.
Among the sponsors this call are:
Richardson, Michael Foot, Arthur Scargill, Spare the National Child Care CamWaisin and the Labour Party's national women's committee. Involve
The right lo work is crucial to women's fight for freedom and dependence, and it involves the right to choose on abortion, the provision of nurseries, an end to discrimination against les-
Yet despite our success in
for a women's
right to work
we'll the
These words from Eisie Broad, who is on
_ot the festival for
bians at work, and for the or immigrant black women to live and work Dalal.
Without these rights,
NAC. The main debate at the conference is whether or not NAC takes up contraception as a major campaigning issue.
In some ways this has immediate appeal: there is a feeling that we can do very little on abortion rights during the lifetime of a Tory
NAC is a very successful campaign coverett. and because of the close links between abortion
we should campaign around this issue as well. But such an approach misses the point
The right to abortion in this country is still under attack; indeed, it is still the main way the state attacks a woman's right to control her fertility and her life. Contraception may be inefficient and in many ways downright harmful, but the right to contraception is not
VAC cannot stretch its limited resources to detending and extending abortion rights and also take on board the issue of contraception as well. We must make choices.
To ensure we defend our gains and obtain better provision for abortion we have to campaign tor better legislation. This fight has to begin now with the support of the forthcoming Facilities Bill. We need to put pressure on the Labour Party, particularly at its conference this year, to commit itselt to improve abortion legislation when it next comes into office.
NAC has to continue along the road for free abortion on demand, a women's choice. That's the choice NAC should make.
our ability work is greatly restricted.
The call for a woman's right work march should be put to the TUC General Council, which meets at the end of the month, and to the National Labour Women's Conference, which starts on 14 june - we should see that it is!
Women's Rights
under attack We want to build on the united action between
KEEP ST LEGAL ..
the women's and labour movements that we saw a the festival, and at the labour
Coll ference for positive legislation abortion. We need the kind of unity shown in the unemployment marches Liverpool, Glasgow and Lon-
Such action is required to take forward ine sirug gle women's rights
raise the demands we want une next Labour ment to implement
action committee woman's right work has been set up from
planning group.
What you can do
• Sponsor the call for the demo and send lotters of support or resolutions, Tron yOu women's groups or labour movement organisations.
modei resolutions and leaflets
tion committee
• Collect petition signatures.
Come to the next action committee meeting to help coordinate the call Contact the Action Committee for a Woman's Right Worr Festivai Planning Group, 374 Grays • Іпп Road, London WC1.
Ladies need
not apply
A SOCIALIST Challenge supporter
discrimination and as
e* The
Last of Alison Guesi Alpine Soft Drinks was in the words of the chairman (sic) of the Tribunal Ladv French 'an open and shut case'. Ms Guest had phoned up for a driver's job in February to
told by the depot manager that the firm did not employ • ladies because they could not lift crates and the job involved jumping in and out of vans all
day This gentleman did not
appear to have considered how arduous many of the jobs which women do nursing cleaning lifting heavy loads of shopping - can be and did not appear to have heard of the Sex Discrimination Act
Laugh
So the assembled feminists and friends hard. ly contained their laughter when the solitary representative of the firm admitted that the company had discriminated. He tried to argue mistake and all the fault that this
the depot manage: who had wasnandied the telephone conversation with Ms Guest.
Alison was awarded compensate loss of earnings and her application for damages in relation to injury to feeiings was turnica dowi
National Counci for Civil Liberties, which took the case A appeal agains the fair Alison's behalf are decision and the decision
to award full which were funded bv the Equal Opportunities Com mission. But it is the inade-
of the law itsell vuaLiCs that is highlighted in such a case
DS Alison Guest recently took a firm to an industrial tribunal fo
your reporter JUDITH ARKWRIGHT shows the case revealed more about the law than it did about the company concern-
In the United States if a woman takes case and wins than she wins on the basis of 'class action which means that the jurisdiction does cover all the women who have been discriminated agains: by the firm in question and
The massive fines reall do hit the company hard Beass oe ! that society does discriminate and pensate women for • pas: discrimination After such a case the firm would be required to draw up target for ULNE future Alison Guest may have won her case but there i no guarantee that the firm will cease to discriminate It employs 400 drivers whe are all men but as Lad!
French herself expressed rather angrily, "The fac a.ne company discriminated other people is not with!. the jurisdiction of body. You can't have vot cake and eat it Crumbs Under the existing la
tabie The Daily Mall May) carried a story abod a young man who had arplied to a tribunal again discrimination on groun.
was awarded costs for itjury to teelings and headlined in the Da Mail.
The so-called crimination against voung man was ina that the employer preter women because h!! *:: a source of chear We women can
London Immigration Action GrouPublic meeting Deportation & Repatriatio•I ure 8
Socialist Challenge 11 June 1981 Page.
Page 12 scan of this page
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Page 12
Making
bread
VICTOR CABRAL looks at an exposé of the grain industry in the first of an occasional
series of reviews of books that readers might
have missed when they first came out.
WHO has heard of Cargill, Continental,
Bunge, Louis Dreyfus and
Andre? What do the names of inchel tripourg.
Bernard Steinweg Ben
Nordemann, Georges An dre, Jorge Born, Willard
Sparks, Milan Sladek,
Walter Klein or Leonard
Alderson mean to you? If
nothing at all, then read
Dan Morgan's Merchant. of Grain. history of robes ive enore This
the five enorHOUs privale transnational companies that trade the OUlK ot the world's internationallymarketed grain; the seven Tamines that run these companies and the ways in which they
Halloulde the world grain processing and distribution systems, wielding considerable influence, including over the Us government. Secrecy
These companies have, for years, shrouded their operations behind a veil of secrecy. Michel Fribourg, President of Continental Grain, once said he would rather lose million dollars than get his name in the papers, and his company has never published a company brochure.
Details about the finances of these companies rarely public view. Their profits have been enormous. Ove the 1970-76 period, Cargill reputedly made $886m after tax in its worldwide operations.
The international grain By Pam Singer I AM typing this article on to a flickering visual display unity. If I don't take a tenminute break after it's finished, will leave work with eye strain, a stiff neck, backache, headache - and a foul temper.
And people say office work is 'soft!
Because typewriters and filing cabinets are not likely to cause dramatic occupational accidents, there has been little study of the health problem sufterca by ornice workers.
The British Society for Social Responsiblity Science's Office Workers Survival Handbook breaks new ground presenting such informastion and in giving detailed
for improved conditions. On both counts, the book is excellent.
its starting point is that we have a right to a safe and healthy work environ-
trade has expanded con-
siderably over the last two
decades from 30m tons in
1960 to 180m in 1978, and
ПОЙ
billion. These five com-
›alco accoull 1o aDol
35 per cent of all grain ex
ported from the United
States. They also count for
a large proportion of the
grain exports of the other
major exporting countries,
and handle about 90 per
cent of the EEC's trade in
wheat and maize. Access
Although the com-
panies have substantial in-
vestments in grain
and storage installations,
shipping, transportation
and grain processing on all
continents their strength is
their access trading
capital. The companies al
or nine figures at dozens of
banks. Novembe
1977, Cargill had in-
vestments in and loans
outstanding to subsidiaries
and affiliates totalling
more than $754m, using 43
banks, with an open line of
credit for at least $300m in
unsecured, short-term
borrowing.
Systems
Other factors that have
helped the companies to
continue to prosper are
Lnel well-developed pri-
vate information systems
on the global grain trade,
Office workis dangerous
ment, and that an economic system which puts protits above
workers' health is the root cause of poor conditions.
The first section establishes the legitimacy of a rarely recognised occupational hazard stress. It points out how the particular problem that women workers face
the double work day, low pay, harassment, lack of adequate rest time - compound the
due to
crowding shis, costice
noise, office workers suffer.
The book goes on to cover the surprising number of health hazards caused by office environment (such as lighting, chemicals, temperature and ventilation) and physical layout.
There is a section entirely devoted to exploring the new problems cause by the rapid expansion of new technology
The book is not simply a catalogue of office hor-
-Under Review.
and their ability to effect
swift transactions through
their private connections.
over a venom waca
many large family com-
panies have developed
broader-based corporate
structures, these com-
panies have remained suc-
cessful family-dominated
transnationals. gaining
some of their success from
the family loyalties of top
executives, and the ability
to make large swift tran-
sactions on the nod with
trustworthy relatives.
Dan Morgan's style of
anecdotal investigative
journalism provides a very
readable of rors. In its own words, 'a practical and political tool. Every chapter pro vides well-researched data. illustrations, and checklists on recognising hidden health hazards (such as poor lighting, fumes from photocopiers), and stepby-step guidance on how
use every available recourse practical, organisational and legal.
There ara examples of how successful struggles flave been conducted. sample health survey, a list of resource addresses, and a comprehensive bibliography are appended.
The book states unequivocally that the answer avoiding nasty-smelling Tippex, but in organisation and struggle. The final chapter, therefore, outlines the precedure for. forming a union, and for forming women's inside existing unions.
This handbook is a 'must'!
Van Gogh's 'View of cornfields', 1888. The grain merchants now hide their operations number of major grain trading 'coups, backed up by detailed information on personalities and events, and placed in the context of more general developments in the history of the wou said
Nevertheless, he is very conscious that this work is only a pioneering effort.
He observes that 'multinanonal scnolarsmp or ine kind required for inquiry into a subject like the grain trade is still in its infancy'
US Senator Frank Church said regarding the companies: "No knows how they operate, what their profits
S•T.A. L-I.N. I.S.M
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PAMPHLET 45p supporters place your orders now
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what they pay in taxes and what effect they have on foreign policy - or much of anything else about them It tnese five grain transnationals' power is to increased research into their operations is needed, as well as a constant vigilance over their activities. followed by organised international DOlECa action. Dar Morgan's book stands as a valuable primer in this activity. *Merchants of Grain by Morgan Widenfeld and Nicholson £10
New Socialist Challenge pamphlet Stalinism & Bolshevism By Leon Trotsky
45p, available from:
The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London NI.
International
July issue out next week!
Articles on Labour and Ireland, socialism and disarmament, politics of porn,
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Page 13 scan of this page
South Africa's Republic Day
~ SOCIE
By Tra Martle In Nas York Cry
AS appositio:
measures designed to gag all dissent.
ment and disruption
them.
* A new Senate Sub-
committee on Security and
Terrorism (SST) has begun
open hearings.
rorism' is the new code
word of the Keagan ad-
justify
every repressive action 11
commits or supports.
Senator John East. ex-
plainedal seem that in
would seem that
order track
adequately and for an inBy N 'Ndabeni WHILE South Africa's celebrated 20 years of the apartheid republic on 31 May, the black victims of the system marked the occasion in their own way.
In Johannesburg, fire bombs exploded while the republic was displaying its military might. Several bombs exploded across the country during the week preceding "celebration'. At a mass demonstration in Soweto, the South African flag was burned before heavily armed police were able to disperse the chanting proLCOLUIS
On the campus of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) University, black and white opponents of apartheid joined in protest demonstrations and burning the nanona! flag. Students at the University of Cape Town clashed with right-wing supporters one walte rule class.
Significant
But by far the most sıgnificant demonstration of growing black power Was front. The current strike industrial
wave began in the first week of May, when 2,000 black workers at British Leyland In Cape LOWI came out on strike. They were protesting because the pay rise agreed by the National Union of Motor Assembly and Rubber Workers of South Africa (NUMARW) last December came nowhere near to meeting soaring inflation, especially the big increases
the cost of food and other essentials. They demanded 25 cents Increase to R2.00 (£1.20) an hour.
The Leyland bosses refused to meet the union to discuss its demands, acçusing the union of breaking the December sacked all tee-
striking workers and oftered to re-hire them on an
individual basis. The com-
claims that Dally 1,500 have returned
work and that production has been resumed. Ford
Strikes have also
broken
General Motors. This was
in solidarity with 160
ers of MACWUSA, the *Motor •Assembly ano
its policies the Reagan administration is floating a series of
Every one of them has come up in the SWP/YSA lawsuit to stop the US government's harass-
programme against
telligence or law enforcement agency to predict the occurrence of terrorism, it would have to have some surveillance of legal and non-violent support.
A sustaine allial is under way to dismantle the Freedom ot intormation Act, under which the government was forced to release some of the files detailing its disruption of the legitimate political acwhite ruling class
Component Workers UmOn South Africa, sacked in January. Ford anu Genera Motors workers have refused to handle
Testond Some 1,000 Firestone WULACIS have also now joined the strike.
Solidarity
The solidarity actions show the rapidly developing consciousness of the workers. This is a powerful weapon
breaking down the inter-tribal nostube. which the ruling class has trea to rosier evel imperialism established its
on South toothold African soil.
While writing these lines, news coming through of the demonstration by over a thousand black students the
coloured townships
and Newlands near Johannesburg. began as peaceful demonstration demanding the release of the President
student Kepresentative Council at Christian BRotha School in Newclare Aziz Jardine was detained about two weeks ago. Students
Under South Africa's
draconian laws he can be
held indefinitely without
charge or access to lawyers
or relatives. The marching
carried banners demanding 'A People's
Republic and 'Freedom
Now'. Despite
violent stance adopted by
the demonstrators. the
police were soon on the
with sjamboks
(rhino whips), batons, tear
gas guns and dogs. Many
were injured and nearly 60
arrested
The growing hostility
to the apartheid regime
displayed in the WeeKs
leading up ' Republic
Day' has frightened the
government into dropping
their
erate' mask and resorting
to the harshest repression.
The black Bishop of
Johanness been Biship
Tuthu, has placed
under house arrest.
Banning, orders have
disclosur: Aci
A measure called the Intelligence Identities Protection Congress. The specific an working way through of this piece of legislation is to protect informers such as the hundreds who spied on the SWP and
during FBI's 40-year-long investigation. According Covert Action Information Bulletin, the bill 'would prevent an organisation from exposing and expell-
FBI informer 1n9 discovered in its midst'.
All these moves boil
been issued against promi-
black trade
leaders and
priest, Father Shomang,
the
Black Priests Solidarity
Group working
Soweto. was arrested and
brought manacled in leg
irons to his mission to col
lect his clothes.
The British labour
movement and especially
the workers in Leyland
Ford, Firestone and
give their
Kowntree must
full support to their fellow
International
down to one thing: the Reagan administration is openly prepared ride roughshod over democratie rights in order to crush opposition to its war drive This was made abundantly Cicar in court with the testimony of JUSUCC Department official Robert Keuch last week.
Reasons
According to Keuch the real reason behind the government's massive investigation of the SWP was 'the inherent power and responsibilities of the President', referred to in a court opinion some years ago which noted 'that the President of the United
South African child holds up tear gas canister and bullet used by police to repress black revolt.
workers in South Africa
who are fighting the same
enemy - capitalism.
Miners
At the Buffelsfontein 1,500 black miners, mine, more
most
of them contract workers
from the Transkei and
Lesotho, refused to come
off shift in protest at long
hours. These workers are
not in any union but they
showed exceptional
solidarity, staying under-
it exposes more dirty tricks -
Reagan's government: spies on any opposition ground for 24 hours. When they came out they were met by riot police and dogs.
them were sacked anu sell back none
Textile workers Estcourt. Natal, have gone back to work under protest, following a strike
wage increases.
Management has agreed to recognise the Tex ile Workers National Union of
Workers, at Rowntree
chocolate
States has a fundamental duty under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Powers
Keuch explained with reference to the SWP and YSA: 'I believe it was that inherent power that the precident was exercising l 1936 and the successive presidents and
successive attorneys general have ex-
and utilised authorising investigations
organisations UnLU and individuals who could potentially fall into or who could indeed take unlawful or unconstitu-
Port Elizabcin are also on
strike, demanding pay in-
creases and better condi-
tions. Strikers
slogan
Dauce. WILl Lile
'Spit out the gum, chum!'
Strength
South African capitaland imperialist
vestments in South Africa
are almost whony aepel
dent on the super-
exploitation black
labour for their massive
tional means to change h form of government...
Woes the government can do what i wants, when it wants, and to whom it wants. And it isn't accountable anybody. No wonder growing number of peopie aren't too happy about this form of governmen and want to change it
When the government
police state methods it does so from a position of weakness, not strength. And every twist and turn it is forced to make in court in respons to the charges of the SWF and YSA only undermines its position further. 26 May 1981
profits. This is the four.
aanon on willen lie dpa.
theid state is constructer
ine growing realisallo! -
tens of thousands of bian
dustrial strength is a big WOrKCI. that their
threat white occasional
bomb of
significance.
South Africa
class struggle of worker
against capitalism and "
fight for self determir.
tion by all the black peo
is inextricably interwore Socialist Challenge : 11 June 1981 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
*& The Soviet sabre
Discussion at Solidarity meeting
For a government
of the workers'
parties in France
By Alain Krivine, from Rouge, weekly paper of the French League (LCR)
AN IMMENSE hope has been born. French workers have just won a considerable victory. They went through the 1968 general strike, tles, often carried out under difficult conditions, before they succeeded in defeating the bourgeoisie's parties period.
The victory of Fran:ois Mitterand shows not simply that the majority rejected the policies that Giscard and have been carrying out for even years. t also presses a desire for radical inange, à desile away with a society that exploits and oppresses the aorkers.
The LCR threw all its forces into this battle.
From the beginning of the campaign explained chat Giscard could raten.
We knew that, because =: the policies of the CP and SP, the defeat of the
resolve proBut we were cor
inced that it would give
workers new con-
:dence, that would seate a new. and much more favourable, situation for the growth of workers' Revement of workers mobilisations inity in struggles. Joy
Our analysis was conirmed by the explosion of
ay that greetec the elecsion results on the evening e: 10 May, and by the fact
CP leaders felt they attend these
Socialist Challenge 11 June 1981
Revolutionary Communist
The
and then years of struggles and bat-
and opening a new
demonstrations. was further confirmed by the new tone that the CP leadership is using.
Following this initial victory, the desire for unity is more powerful than ever. Millions of workers feel that now anything has become possible. Because of the failure of the May
1968 general strike and the 1978 legislative Felection of there is a real feeling distrust of the CP and SF leaders. Millions of people are wondering what guarantees there are that this time things will turn out better. Unity
The only guarantee is the organised strength of the workers, their unity, their own initiatives. It is important now that everything nosciale done to make sure that the workers parues wu ama jority in parliament so they won't have any excuses for
carrying out the deđ the peop le. Winh khis demands majority
government composed of their two parties alone
The LCR will demand the immediate formation ol a government made up
Page 14
exclusively of the CP and SP, without any bourgeois ministers. The workers must demand that this government begin to altack the real power of the bosses by carrying out the radical measures that the current situation demands
— especially the thirty-five hour workweek without any cut in pay.
Strength
To carry out all these measures effectively the workers can only rely on their own strength.
concrete demands in united general assemblies. Mitterand proposed drawing up a balance sheet of
he seven years, but who 1
etter able to draw up i balance sheet of the situa. tion in the factories and the most pressing need! of the working class than th workers themselves?
The LCR addresse itself to the thousands of tepated with usin the bar- workers who have
Giscard. Together we have just won an initial victory.
Fragile
We know very well that this victory is still fragile that the bourgeoisie is stil In place, will Ils nanas or the levers of political and
CPleader Georges Marchais and newly-electec dent Francois Mitterand are not ready to really contront une bourgeoisie
Today the LCR faces Immense responsibilities because the decisive battles still lie ahead. ( For these Danier successful there has to be a powerful
COMMES •organisation, rooted in the worko aces.
The May 10 victory can lead to others. It can lead to the victory of socialism.
International.
rattlers
are at
it again
LAST weekend the Soviet leaders sent a strongly-worded communique to the Polish Communist Party insisting that they make no more concessions to the workers.
The latest threat comes in the by Solidarity to stage warning strikes this Thursday in four major cities. This is
protest against the authorities' failure speedily bring justice those responsible for the
In vialch, when Solidarity
were beaten up by the political police.
Polish deputy premier Mieczyslaw Rakowski has weighed behind the Soviet threat accusing Solidarity of wanting
the state and party on trial. In a scurrilous attack on Jan Rulewski. leading member of Solidarity who was Daev foranco.
• with Jaook Kuron
Bydgoszcz, Rakowski protested: 'Why does no one say publicly that Rulewski is a classical demagogue?'
The Soviet bureaucrats have good grounds for worrying. In the last two weeks three events have further undermined their domination in Poland First, the police officers have petitioned to form their UWIl independent trade union affiliated to Solidarity nationally.
The rank and file police officers have been profoundly affected by the hostility of the workers, particularly since the Bydgoszcz affair. An anonymous spokesperson explained the demand for inel own union tnus. we
the gover
vice-chair Andrzej Gwiazda
don't want to be
of the passing interests of taceless high un otticials.
Then came the pronounecucuLs of the ill-fated Katowice forum. This
group hardline Stalinists issued an appeal denouncing the 'ragamuffins and scoun-
in Solidarity who 'undermining socialism'. This was music to the ears of the Soviet leaders who rushed to embrace the grouping's every ulicialle.
Kiss
Such support however
the kiss of death in Poland and acknowledged sympathisers of the group queued up to disassociate themselves from its
By Davy Jones remarks. The group itself rapidly issued a new statement welcoming aspects of Poland's 'democratic renewal' before dissolving itself entirely
The final blow which caused great gnashing of the Soviet leaders' teeth was the release on Friday 5 June O1 four dissident members of the nationalist Confederation of an Independent Poland A massive campaign had been launched for their relcase. in numerous parle of the country people had son a huand students
May and students across CEnt country had held protest demonstra tions. Aim
What the Soviet rulers tear most is the undermining of the undemocratio
rule of the communist Party over the Polish workers. Not only have Dollical been released, has censorship been partially liftec and independent trade unions and a peasants union been set up, but now reforms are hitting the Comnenist Party ioner.
party congress scheduled for mid-July is likely to be a strange af fair. Instead of the de legates being handpicked from the top as in the past they Will all have been elected from the workplaces and the party rank and file.
Even members are having stand as delegates for the congress in order to be reelected to the central committee. To date only two politburo members • have secured : their election both identified with the party's more radical wing. Links
The Soviet leaders and their Polish counterparts will use constant pressure and intimidation over the coming weeks to break up the unity and determina. tion of the Polish workers. At both the party congress and tirst Solidarity conference in August the
wil solidate the gains of the Las! institutiona reforms and elections for new leaders. It is this process which the Soviet
NEWSLINE leaders fear
ensure that their threats are not translated into aDOu movement in this country should Photo: with the Polish workers . and demand Soviet hands oft, Poland.
Page 15 scan of this page
A MAJOR scandal concerning overtime working has hit Ford's Dagenham workers in the Foundry and Engine plants have been on short time working for most of the past year.
On Thursday senior stewards in the engine Diant took lo a snoo stewaras meeting the company's argument for overtime working on line (OHC) and in the related machining areas which supply wtn.components.
By Des Tierney
from the nuclear submarine Glasgow.
CND branches from all Britain were present and they were joined by trade union and Labour Party branches and dent unions.
Ine maren was overwhelmingly. made up young people and the most popular chant 'Jobs kick the Tories bombs out' reflected their anger al the present level youth unemployment.
The march ended with concert and rally Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park. Speakers at the rally Jimmy Milne, general secretary of Scottish TUC, and Helen Liddell, secretary of the Labour Party in Scotland. Muscle kon lodd of the transport workers UHOl emphasised that the success the campaign depended on the involvement of the trade unions and their use of their muscle to stop deployment of the cruise
Margo McDonald leading Scottish tionalist received longed applause for call to LIC NATO alliance.
However the longest applause went to a speaker who was unable to be present, Tony Benn who sent wishing
One worker's overtime is another's job
where thousands of
This disgraceful proposal was are ica ucsolle une Dillei UnL stewards themselves. company's 'need for overime yorking arises from sho tact that June alusic engine Dant workers de be. ing transferred to the Body
From Faslane
to Glasgow-a
THE Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament received a massive boost this weekend in Scotland. Over 20,000 demonstrators took part in the 26 mile march
base at Faslane to
stu-
of
not
of the 'inCND leaves Clydebank 7 June
marchers success. doubtedly those lia- realised that it's through pro- Benn's campaign In her Labour Party that the best chance on nuclear disarmament exists
Taking advantage the makeup of the march, supporters of youth CND the distributed 10,000 leaflets
FATEST AND SURING
Going through Clydebank mainly youth on the march
and Assembly plants.
more than a year around one-third of the 5000 jobs in the cheme plant nave been lose Amongst Ine bresent transfers is nearly one half of the current OHC work force.
Unable to maintain proCucuon iness •CIr cumstances. rore wants hours a day working so it can run the OHC line at half speed while other people are trained
big
success!
March for
the future
Un- building for the Scottish YCND weekend of action on 27-28 June. And collecthe names for YCND branches. more deral
of Edinburgh YCND Smiling Sun Bookshop Nicholson Street, Lamour er or phone Raph on 031-557
News
By Mick Drake, Ford Dagenham
to do the displaced workers'
jobs
The situation even
worse in the machining areas
where the number of shifts is
Deing reduced Irom unrec
two and the workers on the re
maining two shifts are being
plus Saturdays anc
i nis is ine clearest ucmulsul a
on inal one workers over
time is another worker's job.
In effect Engine plant
DON T
local
abou CND
West
At the rally in Glasgow
may ores to the Body and the UlIS Assembiv plants. Bv allowing it to happen senior stewares have kissed another 500 jobs Engine plan the union eadership in the across Dagenham estate which has seen www oos asapocal I the past year Overtime work today is a guarantee of more layoffs and sackings tomorrow.
CRUS
TRIDENT
NEUTRON
PANKO
Photos: DAVID GORDON
Civil service-
By Phil Dexter, CPSA Newcastle
civil service trade unions. The
Tour main unions involvea -IRSS, and the CSU
and indefinite.
cent) or we fight to win
and public expenditure cuts.
Fact and win this dispute.
solidarity from other unions.
civil service trade union
beaten.
By Tessa van Gelderen LONDON Labour Briefing is
bulletin Labour left in London. It has playcu al important role
in ine treater condon coun
as the radical policies adopted in the Lon don Labour Party's manifesto for the election.
Last week it came unde allack. had a go because the latest issue carried an article on the events in Brixton. The was horrified with statements such as 'the street fighting was excellent but could have been (and, hopefully in future, will be) oreasusca 'There are occasions when in defence genuine legality anu democracy methods insurred nonary Decont necessary.
Thatcher was quick to seize on the Daily Mail's arti
Tuesday last week she claimed London Labour Briefing was irresponsible and dangerVUS
Graham Bash, Briefing's editor made lne tolowing statement to Socialist Challenge:
contribution in Lon . Labour subject Brixion demon sirule inur ine responsion
ine bonce wno entered brix ton as an army of occupation.
The people Brixton
Time Out staff stay out
for pay equality
LONDONERS may forgiven for thinking that nihilism has finally
the capital, where bulletin apparently called 'Not' is being handed out to passers by
Its full title was 'Not Time Out, until a High Court writ last week necessitated the obliLEOLOT of those last two words
The bulletin is produced by the 64 staff members of the London weekly magazine, who have now been on strike for five weeks to defend what is probably unique trade union agreement.
It ensures that they are all on the same pay
currently £8,700 which to some extent eliminates the 'pecking order common to commercial publications.
Socialist Challenge
all-out strike now!
THE civil service dispute is now, incredibly, in its 14th week, and decision time has arrived.
The government is hell bent on sticking to its cash limit. The Tories are out to smash the
selective action has bitten hard, but it has not been enough to win. The
CPSA, SCPS have called for an all-out strike, which ought to be both immediate
Although the selective action policy has worn down the membership, we have no choice. We either accept the 7 per cent offer (while MPs have awarded themselves 18 per
If we lose this battle we are set to be smashed for years to come, and management will be able to force through massive job loss through the introduction of new technology
The Council of Civil Service Unions must
against us will be enormous and we'll need
Despite the leadership shown so far, the
membership has grown up in this dispute. Like the miners, we can prove that the Tory government can be
Left press under attack
BRIEFING LONDON LABOUR
Noll JUNE
E LONDON'S OURS! E
took the streets themselves democratic ponce violence. Il is our righ and our duty as socialists and members of the labour move ment to aegena ine peopie oi Brixton and our statement of support them is une quivocal.
It is nonsense to say tha we nove incued nem to ro The incitement has come from the government and the An MP has already refer red the offending article to th Attorney General and there is a possibility of the Director o:
brought in. An attempt to st He une cellores. mus vigorously _opposed Dy labour movement The agreement also gives ine Chabe representing NUJ SOGAT and NGA members, the right to be consulted over commercial ventures dreamt up by Time Out
The magazine has an annua move • o† ł3n year, and Elliott has long been in search of role for his money and himself. Hence his anx iety to end the agree.
The three have made the all-out strike official, and provided cash Comes the staff are stronger position to si out the dispute than their redundant boss Send your cash and cooooo to Helen Mackintosh, Time Out Chapel, 314 Gray's Inn .:Rd, London WC1. 11 June 1981 Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
IRELAND: STOP MASS MURDER
By Geoff Bell
come up with a 'solution' to the crisis in the H
of Ireland.
every single political prisoner in the H Blocks.
If Thatcher isn't stopped this will mean that
anything up to 400 prisoners will die.
This is the consequence
of the Tory government's
-ontnuca rerusal to con-
rede the five just demands
ine mish poncal prisoners
are making.
Faced with the govern-
ment's intransigence, and
encouraged by the world-
wide sympathy for their
the prisoners have
now decided that there is M• olIer course ODel them but to begin what amounts to a mass hunger strike.
On Monday Tom Mcllwee became the tenth ebone to lake bart it Luc hunger strike started March by Bobby Sands.
Four prisoners have already died, and underline the dedication felt by the prisoners, it was announced weekend that two more H Block inmates will loi the strike every week until Thatcher a co way. Death
The prisoners have declared: 'We feel that this Escalation necessary hecause the existing four-
ran relay strategy allows
*. British a recuperation Photo: DIRECT ACTION
triod during which they ressure and esse callously lessening repare for the death
-= hunger strikers.
'The escalation will enthat no respite ocit's.
The British government will claim that the prisoners are committing
— a view echoed in
*e Parliamentary Labour Party, whose leaders seem
on proving how
oval' 'Opposition' hey are when it comes to acidic. the government
go to extraordinary lengths to get this false =essage across.
This week ITV dropet a film on the hunger srike. The IBA had apparently objected to a clip which showed one of the aead hunger strikers. Pat. • O'Hara, in his coffin. Truth
This blatant censorship i all too typical of the hypocrisy of the British ex: ablishment about 'democracy' on the : спе папа, and allow dult eierted MPs to die on the
But the truth of the H Biock situation is now being accepted international1. In a recent survey contucted the Sunday Times only one out of 64 international editors gave unconditional
Thatcher ,and he was the editor of a Registed by Cardinal Entr Printed by East End Offset (TU) Ltd, Landon E2
Socialist
Challenge
MARGARET Thatcher at last seems to have
Blocks of Long Kesh prison camp in the north
Her solution is to sanction the death of Demonstrate 4 July Sack Concannon!
Support the hunger strikers! 2pm Mansfield BR station Coaches leave York Way, Kings Cross, 8.30am Organised by Labour Committee on Ireland
right-wing Turkish newspaper which supports the military regime there.
The world knows that the prisoners have been torced to do what ther have done by the heartlessness and humanity of Thatcher.
Millions are aware that if more prisoners die it will not be because they chose die, but because the British regime in the north of Ireland allowed them
H Block campaigners ram home the message in Australia Break bipartisanship!
no other option.
It is now as obvious as crucial that the prisoners need all the support they can get.
In London this Saturday, 13 June a demonstration will take place to express that support. Stop Thatcher's mass murder- all out 13 June. Assemble Finsbury Park, 1pm.
•Assemble: 1.30 Finsbury Park London
SYRIA
Mediterranean
EBANON
IRAQ
ISRAEL JORDAN SAUDI ARABIA
THATCHER'S
THATCHER
SUPPORT IRISH PRISONERS 13 JUNE
IRAN
Baghdad,
Israel destroys Iraq atomic reactor nea Baghdad
BOBBY SANDS
strike again
The US State Department said it 'condemns the raid ine (real value £3.15!)
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Israeli terrorists
EVEN Israel's best friends have been embarrassed by the Zionist state's bombing of Iraq's nuclear power plant, just east of Baghdad.
precedented character of which cannot but seriously add to the already tense situation in the area.
The British Foreign Ottice has been similarly critical, and even Israel's best friend in the Middle Hast Egypt's President Sadat, said the raid was "grave. irresponsible and unjustified'
None of will HaKe ditference to the Israeli
Prime Minister Begin knows • that the US will continue to supply Israel with the F-4 Phantom jet fighter-bombers which were used on the raid, and knows too that the Egyptian president will continue his sell-out of the Palestinian people Begin, should he wish, could also point out that he was only putting into practice the theory of the has been elstorated by been elaborated by Ronald Reagan and his advisors in relation to the Soviet Union and the revolutionary upsurges in Central America Certainly, the US government is upset by the Israeli action. unHe the State Department and the CIA have been buttering up to the despotic Iraqi regime, hoping it will take over the role of 'policeman' of the Gulf, formally held by the Shah of Iran.
The Israeli bombing will hardly help to push Iraq into such an openly pro-Western position.
But one effect of the raid is to underline the real nature the state of Israel. order to 'defend itself' it has, within the last couple of weeks, tinued to supply arms to the neo-fascist Phalange Tary Lebanon, threatened to bomb Syria, muruccu arcoresentalive Lin the Parent bra Organisation Brussels, and now, notched up a new world 'first' by bombing nuclear power plant And they dare to call those who resist such aggression "terrorists'. SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST CHALLENGE
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