Socialist Challenge No. 220, 5 November 1981

Socialist Challenge · 5 November 1981 · 16 pages, 21,152 words read by machine

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Challenge TRAITORS

No. 220 5 November 1981 25p

THE

SACK DUFFY! That was the cry of BL workers who picketed the national shop meeting in Birmingham should have added 'Sack Kitson' as well. Between them, the leaders of the AUEW and TGWU have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to sabotage the possibility of a national struggle against BL's derisory 3.8 per cent pay offer.

Duffy argued against a strike on the basis of supporting England'. lead, telling his members to 'make up their own minds'. Last week's massive vote for a strike was turned with the help of the media, into a narrow victory against a strike. The role of the leaders was decisive. They appealed

Unemployed and strikers 10p

Socialist

SACK

stewards Monday. They

massive defeat for Leyland workers.

Kitson refused to give a national lead is required

Left in the AUEW.

over the heads of the stewards and more militant workers to the rank and file. The fact that there now won't be a strike, in return for the board marginal fringe benefits, is a set-back, not a

But it shows that for a real struggle against Edwardes' slave labour plans and his ultimate aim to close down Leyland, for a real struggle to the CBI against the Tories' four per cent wage norm, section by section militancy is not enough - a

ple

First and foremost we need a new Broad

The Duffy-Boyd team in the AUEW is the main prop for the right wing in the whole Labour movement - the Labour Party as well be defeated.

JOBS

NOT

BOMBS

THEM

as the unions. To organise against them it will be necessary to take up their policies across

- from nuclear weapons to their craven capitulation to the BL bosses.

'Labour lieutenants of capital' is an old expression. Never has it been more appropriate than now. It was all summed up by a delegate

bosses conference who argued against anti-union laws on the basis of 'why bash the unions when people like Frank Chap-

and Terry Duffy are doing such a gooc job?'. Why indeed? Some of our most impor tant unions are led by peopie who have more in

with the bosses than their own members. Until we change that we will always

Page 2 scan of this page

Longbridge Tuesday 3 November

By Mark Deal THE WORKERS at Leyland's Longbridge plant in Birmingham have latest offer of the BL sion, carried by a 3 to 2 majority at a meeting of about 12,000 people, was greeted with 'some disappointment' by convenor.

This morning pickets were on every gate at the giant complex. Discussion on ine outcome the mass meeting was lively.

As workers assembled in Cofton Park militants brought placards along calling for rejection of the offer and slamming Duffy and Co's attempt to end the dispute.

solitary worker, whose nacard called for acceptance, with choruses of Goreeme greeted you bum,. go home.

As militants gathered the mood of those supporting the strike rose. But it was clear that not every-

Land Rover Solihull, Tuesday 3 November

By Janine Field and Gerry Harp LAND ROVER massive majority for strike action last Thursday. By 9 o'clock this morning, picket lines had swelled and the Socialist Challenge Reject the Offer' leaflet was going down quite well.

The picketers began to move into the plant at 9.30. The vote from Longbridge was announced on the radio: acceptance. The mood began change. «You should be nanalig those out at Longbridge, someone shouted

'We are - but it's the ting them out all over BL,

replied. The

sicwail Communist Party

long speech about the offer.

He made it clear that Edwardes had not softened his stance and that there basic rates of pay. The top Was 1I0 increase the

Cowley, Tuesday 3 November

COPIES of une management's printed appeal were littering the field as Austin Morris assembly plant workers filed into the mass meeting.

But most people were hanging on to copies unions' volunteers for picketing. Convenor Bobby Fryer, outlined the tortuous story of last minute wheeling and dealing and explained the real meaning of the 'improved offer'.

There was some cheering mood was grim and serious. plained that the bonus offer was tied to co-operation in work studies and no industrial action. No one at Cowley will be getting the overtime and night premium.

'Not real money, all ifs and buts', commented chairperson Doug From where we stood the vote looked close - the Leyland Action Committee placaras were on ine orner side or tne field. When it was announced - by a 3 to Socialist Challenge

How the vote

was lost

decided to accept the management. The deci-

Jack Adams, the plant

one shared their view.

Traffic jams delayed

the start and stewards

moved through the crowds

bulletin issued by the

works corruuntee.

One side carried the

details of the new ofter.

the other a report of the

vanous meetings

had taken place since the

original strike call. It was

around this that Jack

Adans maue mis report The story is a familiar

one for trade

Rally allive

unionist. As Jack Adams

reported the

Len Murray COT TUC had gone into

detail of the effects of the

strike on the other groups at Solihull had voted by a

union officials did not think was avala. ble, he said. But the

stewards recommended re-

jection because 'you can't

spend all your life running

away

stand and fight and this is

An electricians union

representative was allowed

to give his view from the

platform. 'Master Par-

sons' was his name and a

vocal minority of the mass

meeting took objection to

him

He did not, he said,

want to take issue with the

DULLS CHICSCIOR steward

But he wanted to draw the

well

appea

but the Fryer ex-

Hobbs.

radio. 5 November 1981 Page 2

of workers outside British Leyland, and stressed the importance

resolve the dispute speedily and satisfactorily as possible.'

There were two meetings with ACAS and at the second one, lasting 14 hours and attended by the Leyland Board and Michael Edwardes, the general secretaries presentea ine new orler to ine negotiating committee.

It was deciaea by general secretaries and the negollaling Commuller which had not been party

the discussion with management - to put the proposals mass

'without ally recommendation'

The response of the senior shop stewards this decision is well known. Allel an оссираtion of the AUEW conference room Birmingham, Monday November, the senior stewards passed their own resolunion staling unal lney were 'of the opinion that

offers should be re jected and the dispute continued until a better offer is forthcoming'.

Regrettably, even this fell short of being a clear recommendation for relec tion. Jack Adams went to

sick than working. Jimmy Floan,

and I'm appalled today's decision.

around without any shoes.'

to the implications of a prolonged strike.

We won't get a better offer and some of us will lose our completely, was his line. He finished to sneers and boos from some and a smattering of applause mom orners, by suggesting that the mass meeting should 'think of the state of the economy and the state of employ-

the West lands.'

The vote was taken. It was very close — 55:45. Cowley convenor, Bobby Fryer, addresses the strikers 2 majority to reject the offer - there was some cheers and a few protests.

We heard the Longbridge vote on the 'Adams didn't do the job Fryer

accordingly some lengths to explain WILY the stewards

disagree national onficers

national officers and the negotiationg committee.

Yet, with the prospect

Fred Stanley, Longbridge worker: 'The vote was disgraceful, I'm on the sick at present and to be honest, I'm better off

Longbridge worker: shall not go back to work now, they can sack me if they like. I'm not getting paid enough. I take home £54 without bonus

and sickened about How can I live on a wage like that and see my kids running

The crowd was disgruntlcalls 'split vote caused the convenor pause and consult the shop stewards on the plattorm.

Only two disagreed about une vole

The convenor closed the meeting and trundled out the gales. We wondered what the vote would have been if the unions had handed out a leaflet and if the senior steward had taken up the political arguments. did,'

Culen

be there was another matter

Longbridge workers looked to their leaders to take on Edwardes. They were let down and voted

severe financial hardships, the threats of BL managers, the condemna tion of the media, and the likelihood of protracted dispute, parent' indecision by the

The will to fight

was there By TGWU shop steward, Longbridge ON MONDAY 2 November Leyland's Longbridge plant which had voted for strike action on l6 October was brought to a complete standstill by mass pickets. The militant response of the workforce to tawardes' threats to sack us was shown as pickets spat out their anger at the management and staff who crossed the picket lines

The mass pickets turned away the few who tried to cross the picket lines and as soon as the plant was closed up we immediately set about the union full time leaders who had tried to stitch up a deal over the weekend with ACAS and the management.

We had found out that all BL senior shop stewards and union officials, cluding Ken Cure union and Grenville transport union, were meeting in the centre of Birmingham at the AUEW offices to discuss the so-called offer the company had made over the weekend. said transport union steward, Bob No time for long discussions; it was off to the picket line. How long we would

national leadership of the union was without doubt the decisive blow to this struggle

Many militants in Leyland understand this and many others will draw

Edwardes

British

As stewards went in barracking

For nothing inengineering the meeting to continue. Hawley Of the

rejecting the deal.

Socialist

MORNING STAR

more information fill in the form below

Name..

Address.

Age.......

Union/CLP (if any)..

2XP.

MINI 1276 5

the same conclusion following this defeat. It is the task of these trade unionists challenge to that leadership if the story is to be any different next time round

Having lived through so many sell-outs in the past, especially those organised by the AUEW officials, workers were furious at the officials manoeuvring with

and coming up with a dea which jell so short of the original de mand. We organised some pickets from Longbridge to go down to the meeting and were joined there by workers from Cowley, Oxford and Rover Solihull.

the officials and senior shop we gave them such a that they were left in no doubt as to what we thought of them and their deal. Deafening chants of '£20 now

'and Reject the deal' at tracted almost as much attention from passers by as they did from the hordes oj TV and press reporters.

When we realised that some officials had sneaked in round the back we decided to invite ourselves into the meeting. More chanting and barracking ended on ly when Jack Adams, Longbridge convenor, and Bobby Fryer, convenor from Cowley, appealed to the workers to allow

Our efforts were not wasted. The meeting adjourned after four hours with an overwhelming majority in favour of

Challenge

If you would like to be put in touch with Socialist Challenge supporters in your area or would like Send to: Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1

Page 3 scan of this page

started in his job.

redundancies,

that they were saving BL's future.

a plan to save BL but to destroy it.

When the ballot on his plan was laken in Du, Ils delalls were in fact never revealed. Even now it is not public.

Dul mne economist explaln-

it thas fisst ang bebiced: tee

alloulccu.

Edwardes' Plan will mean that a lory government cannot be accused of having acted dogmatically when BL

Cyclltually has to be wound up in, say, two years' time, after

Ryder's investment proposals

1975 168 1976 227 1977 299 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 that is, closing plants and sacking workers.

£1000 per year -are demanding.

In the same year BL payments — enough for an increase of £15,

Interest payments

counted for half BL's losses in 1980.

Edwardes' plan

MICHAEL EDWARDES has been holding the threat of closure over BL workers since he

He promised to put BL back on its feet in three years. Until now the workforce has

standards, and killing speed-ups in the belief

But Michael Edwardes is /ying: his plan is not

'The

another bout of disruption.

In other words, the plan TABLE (figures in fm, adjusted to show 1979 costs) Actual Edwardes' investment 155 153 122 73 How to pay BL workers

IN 1980 BL spent £146m 'restructuring' the firm —

This would have paid for a wage increase for BL's

144,000 workers in the UK and overseas of just over

- that is, the f20 per week which they

spent £105m in interest

'Profitability' as a criterion means that first these

payments have to be made, to give the bosses their

pound of flesh, and then BL should make a profit.

and closure costs alone ac-

close

Leyland

industrial would allow for the break-up of BL and the closure of half its niants. using the excuse of in dustrial disruption, and after a two 'softening-up' the workforce.

The record so far confirms this plan. Edwardes has UK workforce from 180,000 to 120,000.

He has closed and Park Royal, assembly at bromwich, and Belgium nounced the brand new Rover Solihull SD1 plant. Increase

The total "restructuring' ding to BL's own balance sheet, was £146m -£20 inçrease to every choloyec

Edwardes along the closure argues inat costs are driving HTIT lower than pean competitors.

The Economist report on the motor industry pointed out that in 1976,

uluual warc CUsLo Der cinolove

vere highest at $19,000, follow

GM, Chrysler, 'lovota Nissan at $14,400.

By Mick Drake Dagenham assembly plant 'I'LL THINK about a strike on 23 November.' This was the scandalous reaction senior Ford union negotiator, to the company's insulting four per cent pay offer last Friday.

all-out national union officials

with parallel' with

the company has turned down flat £20 across the board claim ana ls rerusing even to consider the demand for a 35-hour week.

on acceptance of five efficiency measures which will help strip Ford the next three years.

so-called vatuy s proposals ana

troauction or new tecnnoiogy and work elimination of demarcation between jobs. assemblv line workers would be expected to equipment anc work areas skilled workers and janitors.

Trade Unions

Soft trim Firth Furnishings Coventry

Sheet stee Souih Sates Corporation

Dampers Girling West Bromwich

Wheels Dunlop Birmingham

Tyre Dunlop Birmingham

Seat Callow and Maddox four years later spent three year period of employee.

decline cut the WCoLtuCul. per machinery, Abingdon produce the goods. and stopped Behind Canley Castle Seneffe profitability and has now anclosure of the ed by , Edwardes.

being eaten sales. cost of this in 1980, accor- the only way to save they would enough to pay a Leyland did and modernise taking BL road. He they could high wage it to the wall. wages are nearly all its Euro-

figures to cover up.

Daimler-Benz's

running down VW, Ford, working capital. and then negotiations

of Ron Todd. talk

Ing

With Leyland on the brink of

strike action, ane Convenors

efficiency negotiations paThis is despite the fact that despite the

only

divide Even four per cent is conditional

That's

workers of 24,000 jobs in

These conditions amount to next effective sanction of the com-

'After Japan' includes such items as co-operation in the in- fer on

systems and the 9 November.

example,

repair their own November clean their water House eliminating both

The coy talk about 'parallel'

Body pressings Battery Lucas Birmingham Brakes Automotive Products Leamington Spa brake nads reroco chadel en ie rritt Mintey Yorxsnire

How car components firms rely on Leyland

BL's costs are less than two-thirds of Nissan and in 1980 -

- they still on- tion alone. $9,000 each

The real reason for BL's

systematic underWithout the pro. normal no amount of ettort trom the worktorce car

this underinvestment is the criterion of

used by the owners, and which has been us-

Throughout the 1970s, BL's private owners saw their profits

into by declining If they had been concern. ed to keep the industry going •

vestments jobs have done what their more toresighted rivals

pulp ululcy lu

Instead they milked it for all

get, and left scabour covennmenl lo sort oul the mess under nationalisation. ment plan

Between 1968 and 1974 they paid out £70m to shareholders, £17m in interest charges, and a the same time falsified profi posal.

They did this by failing to allow cash to replace used equipment, and by

we culpally s

Workers at Cowley produced figures to show that working

finance of

FORD - ANOTHER SELL-OUT

La new break. through in bureaucrats' doublecover the negotiators from attack for selljobs for wages. At the Coventry Ford stewards conference in September, Ron Todd solemnlv promised that there would be no discussion on efficiency before the pay and hours claim had been settled. Already 4,000 jobs have been lost in Ford in the last two years, opening of a new engine plant at Bridgend, and 54,000 manual workers are left. Todd's attitude threatens to Ford from Leyland workers and weaken the strug. gle of both in the face of the

why shopfloor militants will be arguing in stewards Che mit esan tor auches over week for our national •tcas io cala mediere stake action if the company does not come back with a no strinas' ot pay and hours when negotiations resume on Monday

Leyland workers are also being approacnea lo jol a las: lobby of the Ford pay talks on 9 at 9.30am BaysMoscow Place, We will be tenng our negotiatiors to bring us all out and fight for the claim in full.

LONgDTIORe (bL

International Paint Transmissior

Radiators Leamington Spa

capital was cut by £100m in the two years before nationalisa-

The Ryder report, on which Labour's nationalisation was based in 1975. showec the effect on equipment.

an industrv where the turnover for fixed wo thirds of Bl quipment is t years, over

•us Dar wa

T9, had a hind aras more

and a third was than 12 years old Assets

In 1978 BL had £5,375 in assets for every employee : compared with Toyota's £15,000

The result was that to save

exceptionally were neeoeo. kvoe explained that 'very large sum. l lc culc uce vided from external sources to finance the new capital investneui amu ouner acuon reuuirec to make BL a viable business'.

Ryder proposed lVCSL•

of f1.3bn at 1975 prices. As can be seen trom the table, even by 1978 when Edwardes came in, investment was dropping behind Ryder's pro.

In his plan, Edwardes cut this by a further third.

In fact , following a detailed study of BL in 1980 by the Transport Union and TASS the white collar section of the engineering union, government

at least £1,449m Ron Todd: pleased at another sell out?

Triplex Birmingham Clutch Automotive Products Leamington Spa

Carburettors SU Fuel Systems (BL

Longbridge (BL)

Drivestafts He we Misans

Bearing RHP Bearings Chelmstord Castings Ley's Mallabie Casting Derby

Transmission casings lest Yorkshire Foundry (€

Lianeli (oL

would be needed over the next five years to save BI L as a viable concern. I nIs Is tyssm more than Edwardes proposes to spend

The result will not be a tota. closure of all BL plants — but it will mean the break up of BL selling off a relatively smal number of plants lo interna tional buyers, and the reducLON DI present self o a snauow ol lls

As the Financial Times in August 1980 Salu, 'The prospects for the UK industry are heavily dependent on BL in spite of severe cutbacks, IS SUll capable of making be: ween 900,000 and one millic? cars a year. End

"It needs to retain tha capacity maintain pretence of being a volut.e ?:: ducer. Any further cut in BCaracitv wowu cauce lei. pany to a specialist car ii cern

In short it would mear the end of British Leyland as we know it today, with the loss of jobs in the industry as whole anything between half million and a million jobs.

This is exactly where the Edwardes' plan leading.

Socialist Challenge +5 November 1981 sPage 3

Page 4 scan of this page

Labour to fight Tories over Staffa

By Toni Gorton and Ray Reid LABOUR's ruling GLC group has attacked the government for' to throw 390 local workers on the dole.

the end of September Staffa workers occupied their plant to ave their lobs. Six coach loads of police seized back for the bosses after two weeks and now 24-hour picket line is on the gates.

Ken Livingstone, GLC leader, condemned the

NATIONAL

SOLIDARITY

10am - 5pm

Application for credentials

Please send us credentials for....

enclose a cheque/postal order for £...

per delegate.

Joint Shop Stewards Committees and two from all other

bona fide labour movement bodies.

and

delegates credentials. incre

possible allocated to contributions from the floor with

priority given to those in dispute.

Name of organisation..

Union or Labour Party.

workplace....

Name of secretary..

Address...

Telephone.

Please

Droylesden, Manchester

week before the conference.

the Laurence Scott

Solidarity Conference

By Patrick Sikorski

striking Laurence

Terry Duffy and Ken Cure.'

occupied their Manchester factory

When this was

withdrew official

the Tories.

Jeans, Staffa, Gardner's

have been invited to lend their experiences.

ment activists.

organise solidarity in

Labour Party;

goods embargoed and how to do it; the im-

portance of mass action and picketing; how

the laws affect your rights; the role of union

officials.

sion - it's all aimed at helping Laurence Scott

win their dispute, and at getting rid of Duffy

and Boyd.

at the heart of the conference.

Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981

'encouraging' Staffa Products

government , grant which would enable the company to close down its Leyton, East London and move Plymouth.

He said: 'Taxpayers' money is being used to finance a move that will not create or save a single job'

He said that the

Laurence Scott

CONFERENCE

Saturday 14 November

..delegates. We ........@£2

Delegates will be accepted on the basis of four from

information will be sent with much time W J Partlan, 15 Lines Road,

Creche facilities will be provided if requested up to one Why you should be at

LAST wook if you had asked any of the 230

Scott workers what the biggest danger British Leyland workers faced the chances are they'd have said 'John Boyd,

Three months after the LSE workers had

fight for their jobs these national officials of the AUEW 'negotiated' a deal as full of holes

rejected, the officials support for the strike.

Despite this the workers have fought a hard national campaign for another three months - raising money, gaining labour movement support and getting known as the struggle that shows the way' to fight the bosses and

The Laurence Scott Solidarity Conference called for Saturday 14 November will discuss the lessons of the struggle. Militants from Lee

and many

This will be a real school for labour move-

You'll be able to learn how to the unions, the the importance of getting

There is nothing abstract about the discus-

Winning a fighting union for engineers is

Page 4

government was helping to sack these London workers in the belief that the capital's industry was a

'golden goose which can be robbed at any time to benefit the regions.

On Tuesday November the GLC decided to make fresh offers to encourage Staffa to stay at its present base and to call

government change its industry grants policy.

Meanwhile, Ernie Roberts, Labour MP for Hacknev North. is calling a meeting of Labour MPs lo launch a rauona campaign to support the strug-

WOLKCIS alainsi redundancies and the run-

focussing on the struggle at Staffa.

Stan Orme, Shadow spokesperson on Industry Mike Ward chairperson o the GLC Industry and Trying to hold back pickets at LSE

LSE workers

By Pete Clifford

strike against closure.

Snipe tried encourage workers to return

work after the 230 strikers had rejected the ObeI wole only keep 150 jobs. Having fail. ed to get a return to work on these terms, he appealed over the strikers' heads or a relume to work

But the powerful Conleaeration of engineering and Shipbuilding Unions Manchester District Committee responded strongly.

Recognising this as union-bashing by Snipe LUVe

they unallously agreed that trade

110 unionists should apply for jobs there until 'the isting dispute has been resolved to the satisfaction of the strikers and the unions concerned.

Having failed to smash the union line, Snipe has now turned to the media to launch a

campaign to dissilical credit the strikers and their stewards.

Industrial Relations

Solidarity

Employment Committee, and representatives of the Staffa workers are pected to speak.

Following the youth rebellions during the summer. Labour leaders sad that more was needed solve the problems of the big cities.

Here is an opportunity tor them and the rest ot the labour loin a real tight for these areas.

Socialist Challenge supporters should make sure that their local MP attends the meeting in the House of Commons Trade unionists should argue that their local Labour Parties support the campaign. • Over 30 shop stewards at Ford Assembly plant at Dagenham heard one of the Staffa workers talk about the police raid on their occupation

LSE/Staffa BENEFIT DANCE

Leyton Assembly Hall, Municipal Offices The High Road, Leyton, London E10

Friday 6 November, 7.30-11.30

price €2.50

Smear campaign exposed by

THROUGHOUT the last week large pickets have made sure that employer Arthur Snipe has been unable to bring in scabs to re-open his Manchester factory after six months of the

manager, Stan Lamb, of the Laurence Scott board claimed: "The reopening of the Manchester factory was not possible due to extensive damage and looting by so-called pickets. 'We estimate this damage to be in excess of €500,000.'

Convenor Dennis Barry was quick to reply: stewards wish to reiterate the fact that two IVIl S. Charles Morris and Ken Marks, were given conducted tour the premises the day bailiffs evicted us and will vouch for the near perfect condition of the factory.

Dennis marry sinsis tent that the strikers will be neither moved by scabs by smear campaigns: 'We want the maximum support for r our picket line to show we're here to stay until the factory opens on our terms The main problem the strikers face is the silence of the AUEW leadership.

weeks ago.

They contributed £25 from their own pockets, set out to take a plant collection, and are also recommending an

Check list

• Arrange a speaker for your

Labour Party, union or community

organisation

• Pass resolutions of support

especially directed to the national

executive committees of ASTMS

and AUEW Boyd, Duffy and Ken Cure have continued to ignore this attack the union's ability to defend jobs.

While this goes on the strikers are held back from really forcing Snipe concede their terms - no enforced redundancies.

AUEW Appeals

Court which discussed this unrcal to ucmocracy munt union went so far as to censure the executive, but were wabie to zo dry lur ther because the executive itself withheld respondence.

The Appeal Court members agreed that if the executive does not recall

mittee then the Appeal Court itself should meet again to deal with the situation.

Dennis Barry explains: "Ine ball is now in Ianchester North District committee s court because they have to be pushed for recall

'Meanwhile we hope our national solidarity conference will renew the drive in the engineering unions win this dispute.'

All messages of suppor and donations can be sent to

river komuey, uneshire

Staffa strikers Jim McCulloch (left), Alf Hutcherson and Harry Smith, three of the fifty Staffa 'rabble' at the GLC full council meeting on 3 November. 'Rabble' is how the Tories on the council see workers fighting for their jobs.

terplant collection of the

25,000 strong workforce

Send all messages of sun

Newson, AUEW

Able

• Sell badges

order.

Laurence Scott workers

can see, is not satisfactory.

Laurence Scott workers

leaders.

executive. Again they are

the proposals of their members.

to broken seven union rules and

of breaking union democracy.

unions have if they are not democratic?

stand up for your rights as laid down by trade union principles.

recommendations.

closure.

brothers Cure, Duffy and Boyd.

Signed J Pandolfo P Penning D Barry, convenor

Strike Committee, 39 Somers Road, Walthamstow E17, Tel 01-539 0886 • Staffa can contacted at the Leyron abour Party rooms, 01-535 V000.

• Take collections wherever possi• Plan fundraising events - Staffa stays -order from Chris Newson AUEW strike committee, 39 Somers Road, Walthamstow, London E17. 20p each & 15p postage. No reduced rates for bulk orders. Cash with Open letter to British Leyland workers from

YOU are facing a deal worked out with Ken Cure, Sir John Boyd and Terry Duffy which, from what we

recognise the tactics of these union

We warn you to be wary of the

negotiating their own proposals not

In our dispute the executive has

refused to be moved when accused

What future can the present

Do not accept their bully tactics,

Today our dispute is unofficial due to refusing to accept the executive's

But we are carrying on because we believe we are justified in the actions we have taken in fighting

We hope you will stand up too against the Tories and their friends,

Page 5 scan of this page

Hackney Central Reselection of Labour Candidate 1 will be accountable to

don borough of Hackney Central. test to be decided on 12 November.

You're contesting the nomination of the sitting MP. Why would you make a better MP?

Stanley Clinton Davis and his style in the many years that he has been the MP for Hackney Central, epitomises wnal 1s wrong within the movement.

That is, that people who have held office in the labour movement have always taken to themselves certain rights and privileges.

They have the arbitrary capacity to accept or reject the views of the party that they represent.

Davis is totally against any mandation by his party at any level and says that at the end of the day he's independent and that his integrity will dictate that he is answerable only to himself.

Now if the labour movement were to tolerate that kind of situation then I think we would have the dichotomv between a party that would say one thing but its representatives would be doing something else, as a number of Labour governments have demonstrated in the last 10-15 vears

Wilson and Callaghan are prime examples of this. They paid lip service to the party conferences which have largely been progressive.

They nave even gone so tar as to put progressive policies manifesto at election time.

But after the election they totally ignore the manifesto and the policies of the party and go on to sustain capitalism.

This has happened because the movement has made the concessions to allow these people to be a law unto themselves.

Stanley Clinton Davis epitomises that. My challenge to him is mainly on the question of accountability.

have fundamental disagreements with him over issues such as his multilateralist position on nuclear disarmament, Ireland, and public ownership.

If selected I quite categorically say that I will be mandated and accountable to the party.

I see the position of an MP as no more or no less as a delegate from the party to parliament to carry out the wishes of the party.

Is that actually the case? Your constituency party is mainly white with many racist views.

It's not at all excluded that the party could take very wrong posi tions on, say the Nationality Bill, or other things that particularly affact black people.

How would you see a confrontation between yourself as a black MP and your insistence countability?

It wouldn't necessarily be a comfortable life to actually tell yourself and your party that you stand for manda-

the party'

PATRICK KODAKARA is a well known antiracist and Labour councillor in the East Lon-

He is challenging the sitting MP, Stanley Clinton Davis, in a four way reselection con-

TONI GORTON spoke to Patrick about his reasons for standing and what he thinks the

tion when it could mean that the party and you disagree on Issuco.

But I see it as a viable partnership between YOU and the political dialogue — with active participation and raising consciousness on the various issues that are concernlabour ed with greater mobilisation into the vally.

At the end of the day if there was still a fundamental disagreement, I couldn't see myselt continuing represent a party or being a party spokesperson over questions I fundamentally disagree with.

The question of partnership cannot be viewed as a stagnant one. where one represents a party and its policles in a bassive sense It must be an active relationship and one should pav a kev role in moulding the views of the party in the process of representing it.

Would you say that you are part of the Benn current? Do you identify yourself that way?

You stand for nationalisation of the means of production and talk about shifting the wealth in the the interests of working and various other ideas that are associated with Benn.

The one big difference is on the issue of import controls, which their you re against.

Whether I'm part of the Benn current is not the important thing.

party LO people

strand of thinking within the Labour Party at this time, but in no way is this current a unanimous brand of thinking.

Defence of Brick Lane in East London one of the most important campaigns for the black community

Labour Party

Patrick Kodakara is from Sri Lanka and worked for a while in Singapore where he was involved in socialist activities for which he was thrown out of the country.

He has lived in Britain for twelve years and has been a Labour councillor for three and a half years.

He is a member of the Council for Racial Equality and the National Association of Local Government Workers.

This current represents a major

liberation struggle.

For instance on the question of I have

roW

tially know

ferent last.

Ireland the Labour Party position is the not 'Troops Out' whereas I'm firmly

same. committed to that and to recognising the struggle in Ireland as a nationa

difference of opinion

HACKNE

EFENCE

The Socialist Challenge

about how the Benn campaign has been fought on that issue

The issue has not been highlighted and has not been faced.

It has to a great extent been postponed.

On the question of the alternative

economic strategy the trade unions, the TUC and the Labour Party are now calling out for import controls.

I feel that this position is too nationalistic.

Because of the economic pro. blems of this country which are essen

generated by the capitalist system this doesn't mean thai whole trend can be reversed by pulling down all the shutters and going into isolation

In terms of trading patterns, of output, of its whole economic development Britain has to be seen as part of the total world, especially the Third World.

Import controls in the context of preferential treatment for British goods as opposed to goods coming from outside could seriously damage the budding aspirations of countries in the Third World who are struggling to achieve a certain economic base through export.

If a socialist in one country ac. cepts import controls and so does one in another, in effect you outlaw internationalism which is basic to any socialist outlook

How do you see mobilising people on rates or race or whatever. For example black people in the area vote Labour but broadly speaking they're not in the party? Yet we

that it's only by people organising in their own interests they are ever going to advance

Black people are organised at dit-

levels, sometimes not very politically, but organised all the same So far, because of their general experience in this society where they have been discriminated agains. Can! people feel rejected and alienated.

1 inink une way black peopic ".. be brought into the mainstream political activity will be when the Labour Party is seen to be activel and sincerely interested in promoting equality with moves to outlaw

Another way is for the movement itself to embrace within its fold black people at all levels not just as foot soldiers.

Up to now the experience has been

Line congress had just a handful of black faces with

Labour •Party conference the

Black people watching these events feel - well, look these places are not places for black people.

I think that it is not enough for the Labour Party and the trade unions to say black people must participate but at the end of the day 'participation' is defined as support for the white male leadership of these bodies.

This is not to say that somehow if I were elected as MP that I alone would be able to further the cause of black people or for that matter the cause of the working class struggle by bringing more black people into active participation in that struggle

It is going to be a long hard road ahead but nevertheless these are a few ways of symbolically showing black people movemenl business about multi-racialism.

What are the issues you think are important?

most important issue for any socialist programme is who controls the economy, the means of produc tion, distribution and exchange.

I but the question of nationalisa tion very high in my programme bu

state capitalism we've known in 3 cent years.

very important issi which needs solving is the achie/s ment of the goals of various liberatio

wolfelt, minorities and gays. I feel these issue: can't be postponed until a socialisi society but need attertion now

5 November 1981 Page 5

Page 6 scan of this page

A POLICE CONSPIRACY

MICK McMAHON and DAVID COOPER served ten years and eight months in prison for a murder they did not commit. They had been convicted almost solely on the evidence of Alfred Mathews who had claimed that they and a fourth person, Patrick Murphy, had tricked him into going to Luton where a postmaster was shot dead on September 1969 during an attempted robbery.

had his conviction quashed when fresh alib evidence turned up. Despite the fact this proved conclusively McMahon and Cooper served another eight years in prison before the Home Secretary remitted the rest of their sentences last year.

Even now.

Royal Prerogative of Mercy and not a Queen's Pardon and thus murder. cause célèbre - there were five appeals which was unprecedented in newspaper articles and television programmes.

by Ludovic Kennedy which finally secured the release of the two men on 18 July 1980. Mick McMahon and David Cooper talked to TESSA VAN GELDEREN about their case. The chief officer involved Superintendent Drur Chief our case Chief was head OTI the Flying Squad at Scotland Yard

became Commande soon after our case and years later in 1970 was convicted himself of corruptor.

He was found guilty of receiving money and

from the Soho layUuls porn king James Humphiies. He was sentenced to eight years, reduced to rive on appeal. He served two in an open prison and came out with his full pension.

It's certain that Mathews and Drury conspired together work out a case against us three.

The only way they could do that was for Drury to agree with Matthews that he wasn't on the scene of the murder. In actual fact valiews was very was Killed the the man postmaster.

Press

At the committal stages the charge against Mathews was withdrawn and ne vecame tne cniel prosecution witness.

Drury was primarily concerned with convicting

for the murder because inis was a great feather in his cap.

There was lot of pressure on Drury to convict someone - there was a lot oi press coverage - it had gone five or six weeks with no arrests. No-one else has ever been charged with the after the Appeal Court quashed Murphy's conviction.

The Commissioner of Police wrote that as far as he was concerned Murphy

still involved the was Only over the years that certain facts came to light we'd only

trimmed up versions of witnesses' statements at Lic unde

For example when (Mick) was first arrested, I was put on identification parade and a woman pick-

me out. She was about 65 yards from the scene of

Socialist Challenge

Three years after the original trial Murphy

that Mathews was a liar,

they have only received the

still have convictions for Over the years their case became a

legal history, many

It was a book 'Wicked Beyond Belief' edited

the killing. I had one statement from her. Four years later I find out she made 14 statements.

Her original statement was very, very brief, only made hours after the incident. She'd seen one man and put him in his teens. She couldn't describe him

anything. And she would never • be able lo recognise this man again. one nOTe statements, and increas-

became L1UIC detailed.

Photo

When Mathews some five or six weeks later picks me out trom a pnoto, lal same day she's brought to

police station and makes a truner serener.

She gives a full description of the three men and says she would be able to recognise one of them again. (The woman, Mrs

later received cluwiel €200 of the reward money

TvG).

We knew nothing about two witnesses until after the trial. They gave the police descriptions of the driver of the van who they saw quite clearly. They said he was a middle-

(At the time aLcu ¡lall David was 27, Mick was 25 and Murphy was 26.)

The only middle aged man in the case was Matnews These LWU witnesses, Seal and McNair, attended dentification parades for Mick. and Murphy. Drury never

Put Mathece on paraded

police suppressed these two witnesses.

woen we were waiting for our first appeal come up that Murphy's family managed to get hold of the names of these two and wrote them. Even then, the police 'advised' them not to get involved

It was only years later that the significance of this came out. Mathews and Drury were working together to get a conviction against us at any cost.

After Murphy's successful

ippea

November 1973, the Home

5 November 1981 Page 6

the conspiracy that was 'wicked beyond belief'

Secretary, Roy Jenkins, referred our case to the Court of Appeal because Mathews' evidence against Murphy was suspect, and

mean as 'evidence against us was suspect

We lost that appeal iy February 1975. July 1976 the case was again referred back to the court when fresh evidence on behalf of David came to light. That appeal was a TOKA press trial.

There'd been a lot of newspaper comment on NOW TCOLACUVE the previous appeal was. We'd recalled into the witness tried Mathews

appeal was se farcicial that Panorama few weeks later devoted the whole programme to the appeal courts judges were on trial. They looked took a lot of stick over not allowille Mathews recalled, so in 1976 they just opened the doors. Some seasoned lawyers were saying never

like 1 their lives.

The Appeal Courts had enough of this case and they weren't going enve inemselves open afterwards say well, look, you were un fair in that appeal'. In the end the whole case became

Ex-Commander Drury has never been charged for his part in

a battle between the Home

the Appeal Courts. It was like a game

concerned about he case and kep

it back to the Al The Appea tha they were right and thes

in 1978. Merlin Rees was Home Secretary at the

time. He wanted to let us out, because wanted to do us any good, but because the thing was becoming such an embarrassment. Rees was just Alfred Mathews who caused two innocent men to spend nearly eleven years of their lives in prison looking for any CALUSC. But the Appeal Court rejected the case again.

Both of us, unknown to each other, had written

OK ADOL the case David eventually got lilalluscilli out found its way to Ludovic Kennedy saw what had happened

go. book he edited forced the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, to release us.

Kennedy's book came out and three weeks we were released. No fresh evidence or anything

Everything in tha

had been before the court for the last tive vears quashed, ver were itions didn't get our conviction Che Royal Prewere give were Mercy

After eleven •years we were thrown out the There she late and told bit of doubt Involved

your case, get on with you

Ives. No new. no orrer

of jobs, nothing. We're both still unemployed he We're the only we know who aren't on any kind of parole, no probation officers, nothing But we're still convicted That's why we demonstrated by climbing scaffolding at the House of Commons on the first anniversary of our release.

Our case not

isolated We're

one. saying it's happening every dav of the week, but it happens in quite a number

country.

The skulduggery that's done on this other with Mr X, that's like the skulduggery that was done in ours

always same with corruption on part of the police. It's their own friends being plicated. Any smell of corruption or wrong doing is

Covered up their own colleagues. When the smell comes out on the part of the police, it's tip ot the iceberg.

There's a lot of corrupLion oy une bonce Drury got a 101 ot the reward Mathews gave him half nes money from his £2,000 share. All that came out later.

tion because in law we got no cullocilsa we still Sane convicted majority of people's eyes we've been cieared. but i

that conviction still

Prosser was murdered

Mick McMahon: I actually spent two nights there during my sentence. In those I said if I had to do any length of time in Winson Green I would have cracked up or ended up dead. They talk to them like dogs there. thought Wandsworth bad enough but Green is ten times worse. If Wandsworth screws classed as pigs, which some of them are, well, Green.... I don't know how you'd describe them. later

book

We

given lifers not

Last

the

by

the

Life in Winson Green where Barry

David Cooper: I was on remand there, in a hospital ward, so you're isolated from the main part of the prison but you could smell it on the air.

Winson

are Winson 1: The crime On 16 December 1980, a secu van, containing £800,000 was ambushed of side Kingdale School, Sou cast oden A skip lorry, a hi-jack crane, a stolen car and a Ken ing van were among a numb of vehicles used in the hold-u When the security forced to a halt, the poli pounced.

Page 7 scan of this page

Daylight Robbery?

Hain case.

Led with murdering

pardoned.

Wing that he would get sentence.

tims is the informer, the agent provocateur.

miscarriage of justice.

Evicted in what was

COOPER.

sentence before

year.

Six men were later tried on a variety of charges arising out of the hold One of these, Kevin Brown, was acquitted. The other five were found guilty. William Tobin was sentenced to 16 years.

Mark Hogg and Stephen Jackson were sentenced to 12 vears. kon Cook and Jimmi Williams were also given 16 year terms.

• The William Tobin story At the time of his arrest William 'Billy' Tobin was a villain at odds with the police. In particular he was CaL Does with Detective Superintendent basseur or kolnernyune ponce.

Tobin suspected Bassett of trying frame him previous occasion; Bassett suspected Tobin of 'nobbling' the lury when these charges were brought to court. It Tobin's contention that Bassett was determined to 'nail' him, once and for all.

Towards the end of last year, savsne was proached by another villain. Turaculs referred to as 'Mr X' will be which

was what ne was called in the subsequent court case

Tobin claims Mr X told him he was going to bribe Bassett with £5,000 to drop charges Mr X was facing. Tobin's story is that Mr X asked Tobin to accompany him, and witness the hand over of the money, from a discreet distance.

Instead, Mr X's 'meeting' with Bassett turned out to he an

OVER THE last few years there has been growing disquiet on the methods used to get convictions in the courts. The use or misuse of identification parades was highlighted in the Peter

The 'confessions' of the three youths charg-

Maxwell Confait caused great concern and the three were subsequently

recently, during the youth riots, an accused man had pleaded guilty to something he hadn't done on the understand-

bail and a lighter

Many such abuses and misuses of the legal system go on. But perhaps the one that is used by the police more and more to 'nail' their vic-

'supergrass,

Socialist Challenge has been investigating one such recent case. Those affected claim a

We also print on these pages an interview and an account of the two men wrongly con-

known as the 'Luton Murder Case', MICK McMAHON and DAVID

They served ten years eight months of a life

they had the rest of their sentence remitted by the Home Secretary last

armed robbery. Tobin Dussesumer a canca were was arrested with claims, Was photograph the alleged bribe. 3: The Hogg and Jackson Story Mark Hogg and Jackson are brothers-in-law. In late November 1980 they approached in a pub by Mr X.

They had before.

The following met him again. He asked them if they were interested in making money. They told Hogg and Jackson police were in on the crime.

It was only on the morning of the robbery that and Hogg were told that guns, will blanks, woula be usca in the hold-up. They weren't happy about this, but by now they were in too deep to try and get out.

Hogg, who is left-handed. put the gun in his top left-hand pocket, and buttoned his coat over it, so that he was in no position to use the gun.

Jackson and Hogg were arrested at the scene of the crime. hev had thought the plan was that the police would them to escape. on the head with a truncheon during the attempted robbery, by a policeman who had not been put in the picture.

He carried on running and was allowed to get away. Mr X was brought Jackson and Hogg claim that he had set them up. 4: The Ron Cook story Ron Cook had gone to ap- David Goff who ran an icecream van, just school near the robbery the morning the crime took place.

In the aftermath of the robbery both Goff and Cook were arrested by the police. police checked their and found that. Cook previous convictions, but Goff had not.

Cott was released.

Cook was charged. He tains he had nothing to do with the robbery.

was in 5: The Jimmy Williams

Story which, he going On the day of the attempted

robbery Jimmy Williams and his wife, Carol, planned to go shopping. rangements with another

Stephen ple to do so,

make it. On the were shops the Williams' down 11Cl him had broken.

week they nearby nardware story to In-

quire where he could buy a battery. In the shop he bought a were. Mr purchase for which he has pro-

the duced a receipt.

Williams Inen wife in a pub where they chatted to the publican Williams left to find a garage.

Eventually, after failing to so, he set out to return to the pub.

rested by two policemen who claimed they had Williams getting out of a Kenning van the robbery.

to this story in court, four other not seen Williams

allow van. The man who Mr & was hit was supposedly laentitied as

had a moustache. Williams had not. police moustache was a false one.

after he was arrested that Carol Williams knew

trial. was in prison.

off by call.

6: The trial There were two triais that led to the conviction of four of the outside the defendents.

tually convicted at a third.) The first was stopped by the judge when a juror became ill early on in the case.

The

records in very dubious circumstances';

had "Une member or tne jury was the son of the nightwatchman at the but business partner

main- *Towards the end of the trial,

one juror had a heart attack and was released from the case.

was released on the

been taken ill.

They had made arCOur who couldn't way to the unknown procedure. car broke

The battery's terminal

Jimmy Williams went into a witness.

Yet

joined his

At 12.40

do

On his way there he was ar-

just seen

- the one involved in

The policemen later stuck

although cops said they had

ho willams

claim the

It was not until five days

her husband She was tipped

an anyonmous phone

(Tobin was even-

The second one proceeded

premises of Mr X's

As the jury was retiring to consider its verdict. another into!

grounds who they that one of her relatives had before.

Yet despite having only ten memoers now leit on tne jury: majority verdicts were allowed

unusual, though not the van. *Most significantly Mr X did not appear in court at all, either as a defendant or a prosecution

The police claimed in court that he was an informer rather than a provocateur, and that Tobin was the ring leader.

Hogg associate editor refused to comment on the legality of such photographs

William Tobin at his moment of capture. His vendetta

against the police has resulted in a grave miscarriage 01

justice for four men now serving long prison sentences testified in court that Mr X had approached them — not Tobin,

had *In court, the police continual-

Some police placed Mr X in the Kenning van and Tobin in the crane. Others said Tobin was in *The police videoed the robbery; the only man who could be clearly identified was Tobin.

7: The Consequence Four people are serving a total of 56 years in prison for a crime they say they had nothing to do Police provocateur, Mr X poses with guns in hand for his confessions in the Sun. The

with or had been duped into by

Mr received £5,000 reward money trom Scotland Yard's fund and £3,000 from the security firm. He had been hoping for £80,000.

So to make some more money, Mr X tried to sell his story. The Daily Mirror refused

and September then

September the Sun published his story.

It included photographs of him with a shotgun and pistol. The Sun retused to tell Socialis Challenge how much they paid Mr X.

Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981 Page 7

Page 8 scan of this page

THE Communist Party leaders entered Hungary in 1944 with the Soviet tanks. Manipulating the masses' desire TOr genuine radical change and using the presence of the Russian military, the gradually eliminated its bourgeois and social democratic rivals become the 'leading force' in the state 1949.

The economic and social transformations carried out by the increasingly CP-controlled regime between 1945 and 1949 had the support of the majority of the Hungarian workers. Toll

That began change dramatically however 1948/49. The alienation of the working class from regime resulted largely from the economic policies pursued by the Stalinists in emulating the

of rapid Gover mode dustrialisation. The workers were constantiv aggravated by the ever-increasing work

while forced deliveries took their toll on the peasantry. Workers'

discontent was with increasing repression.

Imre Nagy, Prime Minister during the later uprising, pointed out in his later Willie that: number of persons imprisoned is greater than ever before. But the most alarming fact is that the majority of those convicted come from working class, the industrial workers.'

At the same time as the East German revolt in June 1953, which began protest against higher work-norms, there were strikes in some of the

centres Hungary such as Csepel, later one of the centres of the '56 Socialist Challenge

THE BACKGROUND

TOTHEUPRISING

Between 1949 and 1952 the living SLaneare workers had actually fallen by almost 20 per cent, and by 1956 commentators describing LIUSL the mood of working class as one of seething discontent The factor which released this discontent and the explosion of 1956 was the crisis inside the Soviet bureauto

'de-Stalinisation'. by self-defence process carried out

by the ruling elite against a rising tide of discontent in Soviet Union.

It was not a real movement of self-reform. But the relative stablitv of the soviel cracy Inedul that this cess did not provoke any mass upheaval in the Soviet Union itself, rather its explosive effect was felt almost immediately in after Eastern Europe.

CP Hew European satellite

was much more isolated from society a whole Soviet counterparts, especially in Hungary. The CP was prac119 -

tically non-existent at the time of the liberation in 1944. position of power depended on the presence of Russian backing In most visible military sense.

In addition, in the few years CP takeover, InCe bureaucratic elite had not yet succeeded in assembling a solid bureaucratic base, a privileged 'The aristocracy of labour

tied the materially and ideologically.

bureaucratic apparatus the working class made it very when confronted weak any kind of mass social disconheightened LCHIL. It also social contradictions, an explosion much more likely.

another factor in the impact ol de-Stalinisation Europe. Stalinist ship was imposed on Hungary by a foreign power, an important tact in a country where the 6 November 1931 •Page 8

nationalist traditions of the the War of were still very much alive.

The absence of militant and

were Communist

the Hungarian working class also contributed to the fact that the only step into the leadership of this provoked

mass desire for political change was the liberal reformist wing the Stalinist itself. From 1953 onwards this This was a current was associated with the

name of imre Nagy. the Elite

The Nagy current was never really organised inside the rulbüreau- ing party. Nagy's

commitment to the unity and rule of the party elite, and his opposition to any. kind of links with the popular masses outside the party, weakening of this current even in the East on the limited terrain of its own countries reformist project.

lilali its typified the liberal bureaucratic Nagy

element within the Stalinist apparatus. He Minister in 1953 on instructions from the Soviet leaders as part of the temporarv libera isatior and taken after the workers' uprising in East Germany. spent 15 years as a Comintern the functionary in the Soviet Union and was part of the ministration in Hungary from 1944.

firmly On the bureaucracy Stalin's death it was Nagy who

delivered the the from Hungarian ing Stalin as the 'great leader of

with humanity. • The the liberalisation in the Soviet the Union line Stalinist wing in Hungary

making

led by Rakosi and led to Nagy's dismissal at the beginning of 1955.

Eastern He was brought back into

leader- the party and government only

after the beginning of the 1956 revOlL it off.

Independence

traditions in the

political current able to

bureaucracy persona

contributed to the

represented and

was made Prime

He had

CP ad-

morning after

eulogy in the Parliament, prais-

retreat from

strengthened the hard- in an attempt to head

peoples republic.

Budapest.

events

first invasion.

intelligentsia.

ties of pre-1945 powerless

the workers' group in this way:

CRUSH THE

IMRE NAGY, the 'reform communist', was installed as head of the Hungarian government by the Soviet intervention of 24 October. He immediately agreed to the imposition of martial law, approved by the Russians, denouncing, "the small number of counter-revolutionaries who have launched an armed attack on our

The main organised support for Nagy in the party came from the journalists around the party paper and the intellectuals. The Petofi Circle, which played a prominent part before the uprising in organising among the intellectuals, was a circle of the CP youth organisation in

Another inner-party group which ported Nagy was the small group of intellec tuals around Georg Lukacs. The latter were not ill any sense, however, an organisca pollica. group and remained somewhat aloof from

both inside and outside the Lukacs joined the Nagy government after the

The intellectuals had very little contact with what was going on inside the working class. The populist-nationalism and peasant orientation of the Nagy group fitted well into the traditional ideological bent of the radical Hungarian

They were by and large disoriented by the popular uprising on 24 October.

The politics of the Nagy group, and certainly of Nagy himself, evolved in a rapid manner after Nagy took over the government. oriented on the one hand towards the peasantry and on the other towards the old bourgeois par-

which this point components of the CP-dominated Peoples Patriotic Front.

Miklos Krasso, a young party intellectual at the time who played a role in the formation of

councils, describes the Nagy

25 years ag

RUSSIAN TANK

REVOLUTION

lists who were didn't matter.'

sup-

party.

political diverged more clearly.

They government.

were

Hungar

Imre Nagy had his court where these awfi former Stalinist hacks collected, who the became anti-Stalinists and professional ant communists after 1956. And partly the popu

formerly in the Nation Peasants Party and then cabinet ministers i the Stalinist period. The Lukacs group had thi cultural and, to my mind, political line, whil the Imre Nagyists had this demagogy with th posters calling on "Patriots" and this absolut obsession with the peasants as if the worker

It wasn't until after the second invasion on November, when they were already defeated that the Nagy leadership attempted to establis some links with the working class.

When the Nagy group came to power, th old Stalinist leaders were completely discred ited and fled from Budapest in Soviet planes Kadar replaced Gerö at the head of the party

From then until the crushing of the Nag government by the Soviets on 4 November th two main forces in the struggle, , the 'reforn communists' and the working class, began t move more in unison. At the same time th

interests of both 8 up

The Nagy government, by calling for a Rus sian withdrawal and for a multi-party system placed itself in tune with the basic demands o the insurgent masses and the working class. Fo this reason the workers supported the Nag

But as the workers began to organise them selves independently in councils, first in the fac tories and then in the districts and the capital ci ty itself, they began to develop a programme o demands and organs of popular power whic had little in common with the popular coalitio plans with which Imre Negy hoped to salvag the basic hierarchy of power and the 'nation

When Soviet tanks occupied Hungary on

Page 9 scan of this page

WHEN Soviet

1956, for the Stalinist Eastern Europe.

in Hungary

with the authorities. greater democracy dependence.

Nagy government. resistance of

was eventually Singleton recalls Hungarian five years ago.

November and installed the puppet regime of Janos Kadar, all the various right wing forces that had hoped to profit from the revolution disappeared almost overnight. The Nagy current disintegrated, its leadership finding refuge in the Jugoslav embassy.

It was then that the working class entered the scene as the only real force capable of defending the revolution. In fact it was only after the invasion that the Hungarian workers began to politically organise themselves as a class against the Stalinists.

The disarray of the central power after 24 October made it possible for the workers to organise themselves independently of the Nagy government, especially also later in Budapest. Already on 24 October a workers' council Lamp Factory in Ujpest, an industrial centre to the north of Budapest. workers in this factory.

In the days that followed councils were set up in most of the major factories in and around the city. Delegates from enterprises met on 31 mulated a 9-point programme setting out the rights of councils, which included: *The factory belongs to the workers. *The supreme authority in the factory is the астостансану eleclea workers council. *The workers' councils appoint the director of the factory. *The director is accountable to the workers' council. *The workers' councils decide on all matters involving projects, wages, foreign contracts and credit. *The council decides on all questions of hiring and firing.

When the Russians invaded on 4 November the councils called an immediate general strike

party leader Nikita denounced the crimes of Stalin at the 20th Party Congress in

The triggered off a severe crisis bureaucracies in Workers revolted in the Polish city of Poznan. In Budapest

mass student demonstration in solidarity with the Polish workers led to armed clashes

The Soviet army intervened on 24 October and installed a new government under the 'reform-communist' Imre Nagy. But the demands of the masses became more radical. And as the working class began to organise itself independently in Workers Coun cils, the Nagy government was forced to concede the popular demands for

and in-

The Soviets then intervened a second time on 4 November to crush the

The armed the working class against the puppet regime of Janos Kadar continued for months before it

defeated. Joe the events of the revolution some twenty

bourgeois and in the provinces, but was formed in the United There were 10,000

councils in 24 large October. They for-

enterprises

existing

which was total and lasted for one month.

Although the strike was the main weapon in the hands of the workers, the statistics show that it was also the working class that put up the greatest armed resistance to the invasion. fighting lasted until 11 November in the traditional working class stronghold of Csepel.

Another statistical publication records that: "The greatest number of deaths during the armed combat was recorded in the 8th (22 per cent) 9th (14 per cent) and 7th (13 per cent) Districts. These are among the principal working class areas of Budapest. And finally: 'According to

cent of the wounded were young workers, while students represented 3-5 per cent.

After 4 November the Kadar regime knew that the armed resistance was not the main problem. Kadar's policy was to pursue a long term political struggle with the workers' councils as a preparation for a final confrontation. As long

the councils refused

frontation was inevitable.

But in the meantime the regime took a conciliatory pose. In his programme broadcast on 4 November Kadar declared that: 'On the basis ot the broadest democracv workers' management should be realised in all factories and

Point 11 of this programme stated that: Democratic elections will be guaranteed in all

administrative bodies revolutionary councils'. On 15 November he told representative of the workers' councils: 'We surrender the party's monopoly: we want a multi-party system and clean and honest elec-

workers however general strike. The Soviet military also dealt directly with the Workers' Council, going over

of Budapest.

'our

which included: continuous

regime

the famous composer cecaranor on

working class revolution'.

Finally

importance of movement itself.

and experiences

Council were young twenties.

Hungary,

active in the workers'

Democratic Party.

organs of workers' elections, and so on.

The recognise the and in the

maintained the

Kadar

the head of the CP and ignoring the so-called coalition parties. On 14 November, after the invasion, a mass assembly of delegates elected a Central Workers' Council for the city

It drew up a programme which declared,

unshaken loyalty to the principles of socialism. We regard the means of production as collective property which we are at all times ready to defend'. It drew up a set of demands

*non-recognition of the Kadar government and the return of Imre Nagy. *release of all political prisoners. *withdrawal of Soviet troops. *an end to the false information in the media. *a multi-party system which recognises parties 'that base themselves on socialism'.

The period after the invasion was one of

struggle between the Council and the Kadar regime. The radical intelligentsia came more and more to recognise the central role played by the working class.

Shortly before it was dissolved by the Kadar

the Revolutionary Council Hungarian Intellectuals, whose president was

Zoltan Kodaly, issued a 'complete solidarity workers councils' which recognised that the

was 'the strongest mass force capable of defending the achievements of the

the Nagy leadership, Lukacs, which was still in the Jugoslav em bassy, issued a statement which recognised the

the councils: of the Hungarian Republic should first and foremost rely for its support on the workers' councils.

The growth of the working class movement after the invasion and the escalating confrontation with the illegal Kadar regime was also accompanied by the beginnings of debate and political differentiation inside une

This political differentiation had a lot to do with the different backgrounds

of the workers who played leading roles in the struggle.

About half of the delegates to the Workers'

workers in their early They had and had internalised and taken for granted the many social transformations that had taken place during the previous 10 years.

The other main group in the leadership consisted of older worker militants that had been

movement under Horthy regime before 1945. Many were skilled workers and often members of the old Social

The political role of the workers' councils as

power, were not clearly recognised from the beginning. The demands of the factory councils often dealt mainly with the question of the running of the enterprises. The district and regional councils were however clearly more political organisations.

Likewise all of the councils raised political demands — for a multi-party system, for free

The leader of the Central Council was Sandor Bali. Bali was one of the older militants from the pre-war Metalworkers

10 days

workers' tions....

Hake ue same

where we started

authority to

'counter-revolutionary'.

Workers'

to reinstate the sacked directors.

of Miklos Sebestyen, later wrote: now come...

wile une

including

central and seized all copies. Peoples

Council dissolved.

workers'

January

post-1945

for even distributing leaflets,

the

ment decree on 17 November 1957. The repression ruthless. At least and more than

Are Nagy, was executed.

Thus ended workers'

Nagy

sociate Celess s banana

Union, a social democratic stronghold

He argued: 'We know quite well that the

councils can't be political organisaWe know that the workers' councils Will become the directing organs of the coun try's economy, and of course we welcome this. But we don't want to commit the same mistake that the party made in the past, when it was at one and the same time the master of the country and of the factories, and the only organisation representing the interests of the workers. If we

mistake then we'll be back

On 22 November the government passed a decree which attempted to limit the Council's

economic matters. Then on 27 November Kadar denounced the councils as

During the revolution many of the councils had dismissed factory directors. Now the struggle began in the factories as the Kadar regime sought by repressive and intimidatory measures

This confrontation strengthened those who argued that the councils should play a more political role. As one of the council leaders,

"The time had lo asscil ourse ves as a oonca force recognised as such by the people'

Plans were underway to establish a national Workers' Council for the whole country, but from the end of November outright repression increased considerably and threw the workers' councils on the defensive. When the Budapest Central Council decided to bring out its own newspaper to counter the lies of the official media the police raided the printing premises

At the beginning of December some 200 members of various councils were arrested and on 9 December a majority of members of the Central Council were arrested and a government decree declared the Budapest Central

The response of the workers was a general strike throughout the country which was pro bably the biggest in Hungary's history. The government then declared a state of emergency.

the Soviet leaders visited Budapest and a few days later the death penalty was extended to striking or inciting to strike.

On 15 January 1957 the Budapest Central Council issued its final appeal to the workers: 'Because of the terror, and the death penalty

the Council exhorts the workers to spread all news concerning the underground by word of mouth. Sabotage and passive resistance are the order of the day.

Sabotage and passive resistance continued throughout 1957 but the councils had been broken. They were finally dissolved by govern-

organised by • Kadar was 2000 people were executed 20,000 imprisoned. Political parties were forbidden, the revolution was now declared to have been a 'counter-revolution' and the leader of the 'reform communists', Im-

the Hungarian first attempt to create a socialist alternative to Stalinism

Tron 3

Page 10 scan of this page

Where you can

buy Socialist

Challenge

Scotland

ABERDEEN: SC available at Boom

Cing St. For more info

Side B. Sa EDINBURGH:

Bus Station An-

arews Snd, Princ 1.30-5.31 5 Si. Also a

Aore info on local activi

SLASGOW: SC sales every Thur/Fr 4.30-5.30pm at Central Station. Als

avaoks, High Ste Glasgow Bookshor

Cresswell Lane; s more nto cona oit Sat

Ford, 53 Eliot Crescent, Hamilton or Pau Yogo, 18 Forest Crescent, Wales Bonton sCad, aad sa lrs s 20 s.

3pm outside the Roman Baths. Phone BIRKENHEAD Cereland

preciee od side Sat 10-4. Fo hone 643.

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nevesy. Sa Nesent ka Every Peday build OLDHAM. SC soa cray sac utside Yorkshire Bank,

What's Left

London N 2XIshop, 328 Upper Si,

Prison orta io prion sonences 4oi Lond 0 Woor women ist prison or S3 0289. EL WAP, phone: Cathi

at Tpm s6 Dares ao orest Gate E7

I won't die for

Thatcher STOPR

CRUISE

MISSILES

ADGES: Make monev for vor organisation or branch. luge redur ions on anti-racist, Irish solidarity Tare trom ar ic a s Frea Badges, POEO x S0, London Ni 2XP.

Socialist Challenge , 5 November 1981

TAFFORD: SC on Sale Market S te 10.30-1 Say, lpm, Misey lay Can bre delivered™

236 4905 (day)

SWINDON on sale 11-1 every

Laind outside Roolworids

British

Untiray t Cober sheo llec. London BRENT: SC sold Willesden Junction

Sold Thur, Ealin ENFED. Nesons negents,

Sit 10.30-1. 0 usie Wooivorins Bookshops BANGOR: Rainbows Holyhead

In ryea di.ok The Public House, LitBRISTOL Füllmarks, 110 CheltenBIRMINGHAM.

Other Bookshop, ham Ciry Co-op BrOSD: Sout Esse EBookshop, 335 Socialist Challenge events

1: Sat 21 Nov -2 noor

RAIL: national meeting of supporters m rail, dal l iov, 1. svom al centre

Nevoito,

YOUTHR

•AGAINST

"TORIES,

Page 10

Letter!

that the

power.

But it is important that we register the gains of the 1979 revolution against the Shah: *The monarchy acostec and a republic established. *The right to vote, speak and to demonstrate is tirely different to under the Shah. *The secret police SAVAK was disbanded and there iwere _purges of the army and the state hierarchy. *Wages were doubled and the workweek trom to 40 hours. * SAVAK managers were from the factories workers committees (shoras) were established. *The banks tionalised along with the insurance companies, establishing Iranian trol over their own oil. *Oil to South Africa cut off, links with Israe] broken recognition given to the PLO.

How else, if we don't register the massive gains from the overthrow of the Shah, can we understanc ucomeu sederste Is its power based on exploitation of the Islamic fanaticism of the Iranian masses (somelming wnlcr the bourgeois press plays up)?

For me the bourgeois character of the state and government and the reactionary Caracte Islamic clericism is not in dova but wes certe

us his identify toe gamas ses

who identify the gain: the revolution with Khomeini leadership

It is not religion

Khomeini his but the political won by that leadership

struggle against Gi2lf and imperialism. This explains its ability to establish the confused anc

Marchico ino uture

Letters ONTH AETTERS

Iran: who represents

counter-revolution?

CHARLIE VAN GELDEREN (15 October) says Khomeini regime is revolutionary and has been so since it came to

was

enthat

reduced

and anvel and

deceptive ideology of the na- Islamic Republic.

We always understood that Khomeini's would be unable to satisfy the masses' material and national which is why ruptures and differences deepen divide the clergy.

The crackdown, star-

far Yeth, tespecilly attee

left, especially August 1979 the tempt to deal with the continued combativity of the Iranian workers peasants, who are mobilis. ed and confident.

Factory

still continue as do peasant mobilisations for land. Attacking such a movement head on 1 would be suicidal. effective like the army is but this is divided and unsure although its prestige is the Witn Ils o the Iraq/Iran war. that It is also on this ques-

barție is wrong. The fragi

VasC

prestige

invasion while not directly Ine engineered by imperialism is most certainly in its interests in destablising the revolution. US

@CAMINIONGE

NUCIEAR DISARMAMEN

OGETHER WE CAN STOP THE

Letters

perialism would overthrow the regime and counter-

replace it with a new right ving government The presen1 and terror is fundamental. ly backed bv right and we should more explicitly LaCHes. DUL are we backing the meinı revolution? We have never given support to it.

But ignoring the more reactionary role of imperialism leads rades to see the overall threat 'medieval Islam'. the dosieuoR Iran/Iraq war.

Similarly, from the policies of the Khomeini government and failing to register the revolution leads misunderstanding of the goyernment maintains its social base -regime ing religion as the central

element Revolutionary socialists are not for the overthrow as•ilauouk of the current

and zova mcal ov ani-oalin

Bakhtiar, the Mujahedin, or by ali y other aligned with imperialism. after We should, was an at- says, be for the mobilisa-

tion oi the workers

pes anvenmenta power-

and governmental

through their organisations committees To begin with we must

support the defeat of the imperialist-backed invasion and destablisation of Iran. instrument training and mobilising the needed, masses under the shoras

and peasant committees is vital.

Armed and organised

workers and peasants will •oe mO prevent right-wing backed tervention in Iran and prevent real revolution.

DENNY FITZ.

PATRICK, BRENT im-

Readers who saw Paul Lawson's article 'Uncle Sam expects you to die for him' may be interested knowing more Morwenstow base in This is supposedly was partly and according agent had ground facilities for the Rhyolite spy satellite installed in 1970.

Rhyolite has a long and interesting history, and the part it played in HaReTi politicai history should be of par. ticular concern The ground facilities for this American spy stalled near Alice Springs in the late 1960s. The were never toid ot the function of these bases to believe that research'.

When Gough Labour power in 1972, the CIA broke it agreement to share any information from the spy satellites with the Australian Intelligence Ser. vices and began curtailing some the information available.

I was glad to see

Campaign.

plug to the

like to

go unchallenged.

bombing In fact,

LC CNemE

denounce such posed in doing so

Kho

of the

Party in recent years. com-

Khomeini and not leading

Hence

on the

starting parties include the

repressive

labour plan'. gains of the

to why old parties by their own

again see.

membership's interests.

capitalist

Sorted by Chilean group

force

Charle this class Socialist Challenge. oufle GREG McMASTER powel EDMONTON, CANADA own

Iraqi

Arming,

Many in-

counter-

Getting rid of the bases

about the them.

Cornwall.

British but Australian

paid for by the CIA Vietnam

an ex-CIA

bases

Saleite wore

Australian people

they were led We

it was 'space

Whitlam's came 10

occurs

AE FIELD, made POOLE

Class struggle unions in Chile

your recent centrespread on Chile (17 Sept) and the column by Jerry Hughes of the Chile Solidarity

Hughes' article focussed on the new problems facing the solidarity movement against repression under the Reagan administration in the USA, but also gave a

'National Trade Union Coordinating Committee' (CNS).

We all must join in protest against the repression faced by this grouping after its petition was presented to Pinochet. But Hughes' claim that they represent 'approaching one million workers' cannot

this Committee's mandate dates back to the union movement as it was before the coup, 8 years ago. Com-

of representatives assigned by

olitical parties (the political oppositio

ccording to Hughes), the CNS carri out actions like petitions to pressure the government to accept the latest version

'Social Pact' called for by the Democrats and Communist

However, these officials are simply

the class-struggle unions which are re-grouping now in Chile. Unions that are independent from the government and from the old political

Industrial Textile Workers Union (PANAL), whose strike last year was the first to defy the junta's

Some of their leaders used to be reform-oriented moderates themselves but they were forced to break from their

experiences under the regime, trying to defend their

Committees supporting these Chilear unionists are organising speaking tours of Canada and Europe this fall, sup-

: like Combate Fourth International), MAPU (CC) an the Socialist Party (CNR), and by unions like the Quebec Federation of Labour.

I hope that we can read more about

struggle union tendency in There were already fears that Whitlam would reveal the truth about the bases or even remove He had already angered the Americans by bringing the troops home TEOA ana ir 1973 ne aenounced the bombing of Hanoi. American intervention was not to be on the bloody scale of Chile, instead funds were secret ly given to the opposition pro. parties Before Whitlam cossi ry calte don sto ases wvtas aneva the Governor-General, and partly because of the funds channelled the opposition parties, lost the subsequent general election. should consider what would naopen in government came to power witt the intention of the bases. It will not be surprising il the 'Australian experience reGreece, where the bases are not even as important tains extensive as those in Bri

Page 11 scan of this page

DOUBLE

VISION

By Tony Graham

that film

the rounds. for two reasons. publicity campaign universal acclaim

ticipation justice to its subject. book tongh iee do the We experience vision of its author telling a sluly SCL 1867, but continually interrupting it a century on, only to finish vl bne alolguous mllale vl its double endings.

Ihe storv Concciusd chance meeting between Charles Smithson (Jeremy Irons) and Sarah Woodruff (Meryl Streep) at the end of the Cobb at Lyme Regis «og CW of old grey wall that flexes

and its aftermath.

Tror caares samuasor.

gentleman of considerable means, discovers that it is easier to follow his amateur passion for the study of fossils than it is to pursue his even greater DassiUll 101 lic wollall al the end of the Cobb. Sarah Woodruff, it should be made clear, the Victorian English equivalent of an Untouchable.

Status

She has lost whatever status she began with, as a governess, tnrough public knowledge of her dalliance with an officer on a French mem stands the rigidsoceal merchant Between convention of the newlyemerging industrial ruling class - whose taste for the Vicious exploitation of workers was matched only by the continual stream of moralising they offer, uncharacteristically, so freely.

Reviews have embasiser ertner the idiosyncratic casting of the American Meryl Streep, or the film's efforts to the dualities of the novel onto celluloid. The film adopts a device whereby the tors playing Charles and Sarah are seen to be pursuing a romance parallel to

original cast contemporary clothing and without the savagery

the Victorian moral code.

In the novel there may be two endings but there is ottv one lae. un une mimo there are not only two en-

eve though some care has been taken consciously 1I1 -terlace them.

Fowles used to receive letters from readers demanding to know the 'real' ending. Whatever ending the reader wanted contirmed, rowies nilgnl gently point out to them

THERE can be few people left in the Western hemisphere who are unaware called The French Lieutenant's Woman is currently going Great expectations exist

First, the massive

and the almost from critics and reviewers alike have branded the film a success. Second, those who have read and enjoyed John Fowles' book have waited a long time, in doubtful anthat a film would ever do

that the other conclusion was more likely.

Part of the book's attraction is that it illustrates ulal ll willl: as ui ical life, conscious choices are the lifeblood of human acnvily. HOW cetny does this emerge in the film? Fowles prefaces his novel with quotation trom Marx: 'Everv emancipation is a restoration of tlic uliall world and of human relationships to man himself.'

Throughout the book, the quest for liberation is strongiv telt. Sarah weeDs silent tears while midVictorian capitalism does rs nest to desrov une eforts of a single woman to SCCK an independent path Charles, who is beginning to see the world more clearly through the spectacles oi Charles Darwin wants to liberate himself trom the entanging welter of ignorance and religious prejudice through electing to follow Sarah.

The rolling thunder of old chains breaking (evolutionary theory) while new ones form (the rise of industrial LUlll® merce) can be heard distinctly the background.

Yet, this is a world in we right toe which dCCuC to choose and, then, make their destiny. Where women are denied their freedom, men can never realise their own humanity: So long as Sarah is shut out from her society, Charles will be cut off fror his, too. Modern

The French Lietenant's Woman then, foundly modern tale. Its rests less with its WUWC riddles than its relevance to us today. Whatever the ending, it is a positive affirmation of human potentiality.

The author has acknowledged that the fiim is anothei wav of at-

story. nn the modern ee

the modern SUl Y sion, unares Sarah are played by actors Mike True to C VLi writer Harold Pinter's hallmark, little said, a noles we ooserve lucu engaging in an affat • betweet takes At one point, they are practising seclic Commol where Sarah slips and falls into Charles' arms. Immediate-

Under Review

ly, WC are transported back to Ware Common where the image is realised in its proper • setting, hus to-ing and fro-ing is also reflected in the fact that

of the original ilally characters are OCCI fleetingly in their modern guise.

Sarah's mistress, Mrs. Poulteney, (Patience Collier) is obsessed by a desire

appear pious; her modern counterpart, who Dasse. judgement on the Mike/Anna affair, is no less COLICCUICU with ap-

pearance rather than reali-

In one sense, the film is about the same story as the OOUK. HOe & dole out the narrative (as

Tess) say. allu some way identifying the storytellers intervening WULU the story in this case, the film-makers.

This does some credit to Karel Reisz, the directogether came up with thịs and Pinter w.nu individual solution. little more annoying to have Anna and Mike pop

up at odd times than it is to have the author ingenious-

write himself into the story in various guises.

What is disappointing however, is to find so little ot that : challenging spirit that haunts each page ,of the book - the spirit that theire pe Disto congen

own history though own metaphor reproduce original dilemma, it remains literal in its explanation, oflers no explanauon al all

Neither the force with

which Charles and Sarah interrupt each other's lives, nor the light which the writer sheds on this interruption from tury's distance are successfully carried over into une film. Ultimately; the film resembles a Pyrrhic victory - Il wins tne Iorm but loses the content.

Despite this, it is worth seeing for other reasons. It for other

Icasol should be seen for Meryl Streep's convincing trav! of saran Woodruff - one of the most impor-

Wl ane oct lonrec 1 contemporary literature

At times, the tim cat. ches the flavour of the original, such as the initial scene on the Cobb, or the

in Exetel Charles and Sarah finally make love nsena hints. Fowles himself in his OICWOT Harold Pinter's screenplay should be seen if only to prevent the book from becoming sacrosanct possessing no more life than you might find in a fossil.

Socianst Chaflénge 5 Nóvember 1981 Page 11

Page 12 scan of this page

Africa's longest war

By Charlie van Gelderen The constitutional rights Since September 1961, a small nation in the of the tritrean people

were ignored.

Horn of Africa has been fighting a determined battle to free itself from colonial oppression. In 1956, Amharic, the

official Ethiopian For two decades the people of Eritrea have been engaged in armed struggle against language became ficial language in Eritrea the OI-

Ethiopia first against the forces of Haile Haile Selassie's Selassie and, since 1974, against the armies of began a systematic reign of: the Dergue. terror; the few remaining

There would seem to have been a compact rights of the Eritreans were abrogated. between the capitalist press and the organs of the left to keep silent about this war - the Strike longest in the history of Africa.

The various ethnic nions of the Eritrean peo- Trade unions were groups which comprise the ple must receive considera- banned but continued people of modern Eritrea tion. Nevertheless the exist underground and in ilavc strategic interests of the 1958 organised a general history of struggle against United States in the Red

sunker Ine ponce openca toreign invaders. Sea• basin and considera fire on the strikers, leaving conscinusness as a nation tons of security and world 500 dead or wounded. The within ¡clearly defined peace make it necessary die was cast frontiers became firmly that the country had to be In September 1961, the established during the linked with ally, armed struggle began 1T2an colonial rule bet- Ethiopia.' under the leadership of the ween 1885 and the Second Almost from the start, Pritrean Liberation Front World War. During the 'autonomy guaran- (ELF). A year at taile war, the British repeatedly teed by the UN resolution November promised the eritreans in- annexed chured dependence in return for pian empire. A regime of with the tacit support of help against the Italians. the United Nations. The On 2 December 1950by 46 votes cluding. Britain's the General Assembly of the United Nations resolved that Eritrea should 'constitute an autonomous 1011 federated with Ethiopia'. Federal

Among those who opposed the SOS-

was the Soviet Union, wild demanded complete independence

Eritrea in accordance TOE with the provisions of the UN Charter

Ethiopia at that time, though formally independent, was fast becoming a client state of US Denausa The wishes the Eritrean people had to make wav ior the interests of the United States. John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's Secretary of State, did not mince his words:

'From the point of view of justice, the opi- ELF members - many of whom were not alive when the war for independence began.

Socialist Challénge "5 November 1981" 'Page 12

consulted. the People's

conventional

International

people of Eritrea were not

(Eritrean Liberation Front), have carried out both guerilla warfare and siege and assault warfare, inflicting

Fighters in the Eritrean Liberation Front, 25 per cent of activists are women.

massive defeats American-Israeli trained Ethiopian forces.

From the beginning, the struggle took the form Within ivo limited eas, revolutionary war.

EPLF has tried

generate social DIU

the gramme and have succeed-

Led in mobilising the masses through elections, in the villages of women, youth da ve groups

Particular stress has been placed on women's participation in the strug-

gle and 25 per cent of the fighting ranks consist of women. a truly remark able achievement

where women have been subject to severe discrimination in the bast Laws which prohibited the ownership land women were abolished.

By the end of 1978, the EPLE controlled all the major roads in the coun try, and all the major cities with the exception of

Asmara, WaCI . SUI rounded and Massawa, which was under offensive siege. Most of the coun tryside except Dankalia and Barka Provinces was under their control.

Charge

All changed LOTS dramatically as a result of the partipalion ot the Soviet Union and Cuba on the side Mengistu's regime in Ethiopia, , which overthrew Selassie in 1974. In October and November 1978 the overall balance of forces changed As result, the EPLF has now been driven back from the offensive and

aral resorting to guerilla tactics

In effect there is now a new war, a second war of national liberation. Eritrea, Haile Selassie's white terror has UCCI

vielgislu s 'red' terror!

The Soviet ruling bureaucracy, which supported Eritrea's right to

1950, and called for its independence, by 1978 was more interested in the geomillary aspects. On February 1978, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign fairs declared:

'The Horn of Africa is primarily of military, political and economic importance. The importance of the region is because of its situation, wnere the two continent. of Africa and Asia meet There are many good har bours in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean Moreover there are maritime routes which link the on-prouucig Coll tries with America and Europe.

Support

Cuba, also, has chang. ed its position in line with the Soviet Union. In 1968, Fidel Castro called the Eritrean struggle 'progressive revolution'; now he calls them

sectes sionists' and talks of 'Ethiopia's right to defend

territorial integrity against the Ethiopian seccessionists.

Eritrean independence struggle remarkable, not only in the solid support it has

the amon: Guesses because not once has it called for aid from any of the imperialist countries. Although it has, rightly, criticised the Soviet Union, it has forfeited all out a trickie or canese did

bee chorus set Savin

the chorus about

imper shar

sharply differentiates between e Soviet perialist

And precisel because of this, fearful of

of Lill socialist Eritrea, US im perialism has not rushed to give its blessing to this in. dependence struggle.

All the reasor. why the abour movement and the left should raise its voice in support ot the heroic struggle of the people of Eritrea.

Page 13 scan of this page

The funeral of Bobby Sands MP. Tens of thousands attended, illustrating the breadth of support for the hunger strike.

THE hunger strike in the H Blocks of Long Kesh in the North of Ireland may have come to an end, but the issues that led to the strike have yet to be fully resolved.

ding officer in Long Farlane, was put in three days solitary confinement. Later this week prison authorities will spell out how they intend to reforms on prison nounced by the British government at the end of the hunger strike. tor in deciding whether some form of protest continues inside the H Blocks.

have sons in Long Kesh and who are leading activists in the H recently spoke to recalled the background of the H Block issue. They began by telling how their sons were arrested.

MV SOI was arrested in August 1976, at home, at 50 in cne morns. He was brought Castlereagh Centre, and held for 60

diLe finally signed a statement.

Durine unc tion he suffered mental and physical ill-treatment. unev meao lareas about what would to their mothers and sisters.

was charged with possession of weapon,

was never produc ed, with attempted murder of a British soldier, and at his trial, no soldier gave evidence against my son.

He was also charged with membership of the IRA. The trial was a farce

H Block struggle

not over yet

Last week the Provisional IRA's comman-

Kesh, Brendan Mac-

interpret the work and education an-

, This will be a crucial fac-

Lily Fitzsimmons and Kathleen Holden, who

Block campaign in Belfast, Socialist Challenge and

Irom beginning to end. My son got a total of 15 years.

Kathleen Michael was arrested on 20 August 1976 and held in Castlereagh for 62 hours.

During that time, OCCIDS sion for a doctor or refused. He was also told solicitor him wa. that his mother had been caugnt with an Armalite, and was being put in Armagh jail.

Like other prisoners, he signed statement, heavy duress. He He was given ment. Since that day, he las been on the blanket protest in the H Blocks.

Socialist Challenge Britain has been accused

of using

Lorre inne prisons; do you think this Is all exaggeraton.

Kathleen No, it's not an exaggeration. Britain

cal Lalk about her fine modern

but there's Daci uney never showed

and that's punishment block, where most of these young men are thrown if they noy the warders.

It is a concrete block, no bed, where some men spend 30 days, where they were given bread and water, and very, very slight potuous.

Lily It's not a question of modern prisons, but the treatment. The prison officers started the protest by refusing them their clothes, and threw them a blanket. They started the 10-Wast protest. The warders wouldn't let them out to the toilet without going naked or being the hot radiators.

My son was put in an COLV cell, and continu high poseered hose, thil hosed down with he was hospitalised.

Socialist Challenge

do you think that such extreme measures are used?

Lily Because they Republican prisoners, and

International

they demand to recognised for what they arether they are guilty or prisoners war, the alleged crimes or not. Because they will just not bend the knee.

Kathleen Also, the biggest majority vi bie screws are Loyallsts. I've seen it with my own eyes. one warder had 'for God and Ulster' written on his sleeve.

Socialist Challenge How much support is there for the prisoners? Kathleen I think the hunger strike proved it. There were thousands and thousands supporting the prisoners, especially when Bobby Sands was elected.

Lily You see, . Britain always tried to play down the support, giving a small ber. centage of the numbers at demonstrations and funerals. as a whole, but especially in th 6 counties, have been right behind the prisoners.

When go round the Nationalist

arcas, you see the posters in the windows, they were there even before the hunger strike.

Kathleen When Bobby died, came out onto the streets with bin lids and whistles we had only gathered, when the Brits cane up firing plastic bullets into the crowd, but there had been no trouble.

People were standing crying over Bobby, and the Brits were shouting

"slimmer of the year' had died. They used the plastic indiscriminately to try and

Lily Fitzsimmons get the off the

streets, which they failer to do.

Socialist Challenge What role is the British army performing?

Lily The same role as ever, to guard British interests in

Ireland. They are there to keep the nationalist people down and to keep us in our own areas, lal as the young people, schoolboys and girls

Their language to them is unrepeatable

We were told in 1969 that keepers, but in 1970 when- they were calc

ever Loyalists tried come on to the Falls and attack us, and we dared to protect ourscives, tne brits turned the guns on us. Kathleen They've told us that their

cycs. WC have rights, they're treating us

second class citizens which we won't tolerate any more. On 24 October a young couple were sitting watching telly, with a year 0 Day and the marine commandos in Turf Lodge kept rapping at the window.

The man told them to 'take off' and leave them alone. A row developed, naturally, then they beat

arrested him, and took him to Springfield Road barracks.

Socialist Challenge troops withdrawn? Do yUL want British Kathleen

would love them to be withdrawn immediately, we all would. but if they gave us a date it would be a relief that we will be rid of Le alast

Lily If the British government LOOK guarantee away from the Loyalist populanon there would be no

Socialist Challenge

'bloodbath'. The Loyalists nave some strange idea that they are superior the Catholics. They are little better off than we are. with unemployent being so high

They have poor hous ing and the same social he workin hey problems. But every lit

class rise Loyalist people that the are superior I think that Loyalist people would realise • they would be bet ter off running their own country.

Socialist Challenge What message would you give to British socialists?

Lily I think the socialist people

England good job by highlighting everything we tell them.

The English people should find out what their

doin but the

troops are The politicians know ordinary people don't. All they hear is bombs and shootings. But they don't hear of innocent 9 or 10 yca. dead and hundred.

blinded and maimed by the plastic bullets

If you build a movement in this country to get the troops out, , it would be marvellous The better off VOUL walking would the SLICCL Inal walking the streets of Ireland in a British army uniform.

Kathleen Also would like to thank all the people and socialists who are helping our prisoners, and our

5 November 1981 Page 13

Page 14 scan of this page

Japanese nuclear industrys deadly

By Chris Pitts

nuclear movement.

disaster.

Despite an expensive pro-nuclear

propaganda campaign

jointly by government and the in-

dustry, massive amounts of money

paid out in bribes and compensation

payments to buy OlI

anyazilis. and the use of riot

police and private strong-arm squads

to break up peaceful protests, the tide

of opposition to Japan's

development program continues to

The current situation Japan has 21 nuclear reactors in commercial generating capacity of 15,000 Mega- with

watts.

All but one, the gas-cooled Tokai No 1, are light water reactors designed by Westinghouse or General Electric of the USA. Eleven are Pressurised Water Reactors (PWR) and ten are Boiling Water Reactors (BWR).

Japan is second oniv to the USA in the world nuclear energy league. Britain has more reactors, but less generating capacity.

The Japanese government, anxious to reduce the dependence on imported fuel, aims to increase the proportion of nucleargenerated energy as rapidly as possible. But technical problems, popular resistance and spiralling construction costs nave torced toem to scare dow plans for nuclear expansion several times over the past decade.

They rate of expansion which will double present generating capacity by 1985, and triple it by 1990.

By 1990 it is hoped that there will be 58 nuclear plants generating almost half of Japan's energy needs massive 53,000 Megawatts. plants are currently under construction and approval has already been granted for seven more.

From the start, the nuclear program has been plagued with technical problems. Cracks steam coolant pipes and other components, the bending of fuel rods, and leaks of radioactive material have caused long shutdowns, the usually claim are for maintenance'.

Some plants have been undergoing this 'routine maintenance' almost as thev operating. In 1979, the latest year for

figures are available, average capacity factor (energy actually generated divided by generating potential) of all Japan's nukes was $9.8 per cent.

It is calculated that reactors must operate at 70 per cent of capacity to be commercially viable, but few have achieved this figure for more than a tew consecutive months Death and disease among nuclear workers According to the government's own figures, released in response to questions in the Diet (parliament) March 1977, 75 workers temporarily employed at nuclear power plants had

Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981 , Page 14

JAPAN's nuclear power plants are generating more than just electricity. In the 15 years since the first commercial reactor came on-stream, mounting evidence of the harmful effects of the rapidly expanding nuclear programme is fuelling a militant anti-

Among the evidence which is giving increasing cause for alarm are massive increases in cancer and leukaemia deaths among communities living near some of the plants, the rapidly increasing irradiation of casual workers employed in them, the discovery of mutated plants and fish, and the high number of 'accidents which leak radioactive material into the environment, particularly the coastal waters.

Almost incidentally, there is also the fact that the nuclear programme is proving to be a commercial

promoted

anti-nuclear

nuclear

combined

Nuclear worker

previous ten years.

country's and five from other causes.

Li calilicil categories of employee.

Throughout permanent projecting to their training,

pany until they retire.

Seven jured on the job.

For safety standards.

and hazardous work.

The nuclear

companies 'routine break down more serious v. they radioactive. for have been times higher the general public, receives his

reactor.

pendable workers.

Up to now.

of-work

work.

labour.

it. that ITaC

died of 'unnatural causes' during the

There were 32 deaths from cancer, three from leukaemia, 23 due to high blood pressure, 12 from heart disease

Significantly, but not surprisingly, there were no deaths recorded among full-time employees at the plants; the over, reason for inis nes in ine altierent

accorded the LWO

Japanese industry, employees with labour contracts are considered valuable due

experience, and the fact that they will stay with the com-

Also, companies are usually oblig. ed to pay large sums in compensation if one of these workers is killed or in

Therefore it is customary to protect them, although not by improving working conditions

adopt the cheaper expedient of hiring subcontract and temporary labour for the dirty and

industry, though, faces a unique problem. As the reactors become older, they not only

frequently and also become more

So despite the fact that the permitted level of radiation exposure is ten

for workers in the nuclear industry than that for the

each individual permitted dose atter shorter and shorter periods inside the

Hence the industry needs to hire constantly increasing numbers of ex-

there has been no shortage ot casual labourers and out-

farmers willing to take the high wages offered for a few hours

They are often recruited from the poor areas of Japan's towns bv loca entrepreneurs who set up as subcontractors specifically to supply nuclear

The recruits are given a minimum

of instruction in satetv proceaures

and most are understandably totally

ignorant of the nature of radioactivity and its potential dangers.

Since work with radioactive materials began, there has been a pro-

gressive reduction in the permitted dose as new data about the dangers of radioactivity became available

They are not a guarantee of safety, but a compromise between the

pressure to , protect workers against

the harmiul ettects of radiation anc the industry's need to expose them to

In Britain and the USA, the permitted dose for workers in the nuclear industry has been 5 rems/year since 1957 and 1958 respectively. (A rem is a unit measuring the amount biologically damaging energy received radiation.)

Permitted doses for the general public are much lower; one tenth of that of nuclear workers in Britain and Japan, but one thousandth USA since 1974.

The higher figure for nuclear workers is defended on the grounds

they receive checks, continuous monitoring, protective apparatus and so on. Un fortunately, for Japan's workers, permitted a dose of three rems every three months, this is just not the case.

The latest figures from Japan's Natural Resources and Energy Agency show that the total received radiation dosage of all nuclear workers in fiscal 1978 (April 1978 to March 1979) increased by 60 percent over the previous fiscal year.

This increase was largely due to the increase in the number of subcon-

workers irradiated (up 25,362 to 34,155), and only secondarily to an increase in the average exposure per worker, which rose to 0.41 rems from 0.33 rems.

The distribution of this radiation exposure is disturbing.

The average subcontract worker received twice the dosage of average permanent employee. More-

subcontract workers bore the brunt of the high exposures - out ot a total of 1,292 workers exposed to radiation levels of between two and four rems in 1978, 1,278 were subcon-

At one reactor, Tokyo Electric's Fukushima No 1, the company authorised an unprecedented posure level of one rem per day pe worker after the latest of a series o mishaps and breakdowns occurred in January 1980.

Of course, as soon as a worker is 'burned out' (i.e. has received his permitted dosage), he is sacked.

® Shimane 460,000kw P Takahama

Genkai P 559,000kw

of in the

'public' hearina. health

use ot satety. Apart from the fact that ab

sorbing a three-month dose of radiacasual tion in three days is not to be recom-

Amended, there is no system of checks to ensure that workers do not travel from plant to plant in search of the lucrative work, collecting many times their permitted yearly dosage in a few weeks.

Led about working conditions in the nuclear industry 'Horie Kunio, describes how many of the workers he met showed symptoms of radiation sickness, such as always

from

feeling fatigued and languid

from workers whose health is ruined. like that of a 53-year-old farmer from Fukui Prefecture:

Tsuruga nuclear

the months

March 1975. days grateful for work and high wages provided by the power company. My daily salary was about 5,000 yen (£12). "Two worn at the Tsuruga plant: red ones and yellow ones. uniform, so I guess I was working in

ex- contaminated areas. Every day I went

down to the working area with a pocket radiation badge, and an alarm vas mainly radiation clean-up

to have trouble with my stomach and throat, and felt sharp pains in my

NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN JAPAN

(In Operation as of 1981)

• Ooi ® Tsuruga 2,350,000kw 357,000kw

Mihama

1,652,000kw 1,666,000kw Ikata P 556,000kw

Riot police drag out demonstrators at sit-in at Hamaoka

18 March 1981 But this in itself is not a guarantee joints,

back.

three rems

In 1979, three books were publish- sicker.

home

The author of one of these books.

panies,

There are dozens of testimonies

the

I took on temporary work at the

power for the five from November 1974 cent of nuclear people were

kinds of uniforms known

wore a red plants.

From view,

counter, a . film meter. My job

At the beginning of 1975 I begai

Tokai GB 1,266,000kw

Hamaoka B 1,380,000kw

head and in the small of my Then I began to feel listless. Doctors said it was due to old age. I didn't know that the amount of radiation I had been exposed to was

until members of the Tsuruga City Council and the Town Assembly came to examine me.

Lately I have to go to the doctor every other day, but I get sicker and

I stay as still as possible at day long every day.

Sometimes I feel I'd rather die.'

Japan's nuclear power plants are being developed and operated by nine privately-owned electric power com-

which also run conventional plants. The unions which encompass their permanent employees support

policy hiring subcontrac labour for reactor work, as a means of protecting their members.

The larger of the two main unions, ZENROREN, organises about 80 per

the and supports power. few hundred employees are members of the smaller and more militant union DENSAN, which is active against nuclear power, but as soon as their views become

to management they are transferred to one of the conventional

these workers' point of it is a case of unintentional 'Protest and Survive', but among the unorganised subcontract workers, the number of victims continues to grow.

At the same time as the data on deaths of subcontract workers were announced, the Ministry of Health and Welfare also released statistics

P: Pressurized water reactor

B: Boiling water reactor

G: Gas-cooled reactor

Fukushima B 4,695,000kw

Page 15 scan of this page

record - can it happen here?

showing that people living nuclear power plants were suffering a significantly increased risk of dying from cancer or leukaemia.

In Mihama town, ture, the number cancer per thousand in 1974 was 278, almost twice the national average of 141. The leukaemia death rate in the same year at Mihama was fifteen, compared with a national average of

There are three reactors at the site on the outskirts which started commercial operation in 1970, 1972 and 1976.

At nearby Takahama, reactors less than seven away. the leukaemia doubled in one year, from eighteen in 1974 to thirty-six deaths per thousand (i.e. over eight times the average!) in 1975.

Unfortunately, more figures on the numbers of cancer and leukaemia deaths are not available.

But if there is any satisfactory explanation of the above statistics other than the effects of constant emission of radiation into the environment, neither the government nor the industry has yet produced it.

Genetic Mutation Results of a two-year study by Kyoto University scientist Ishikawa Sadao show that wort, a plant he claims has cells and genes similar structurally to those of humans, show a significantly higher rate of mutation than normal when

vicinity of the two growing inac reactors at Takahama.

He claims that the plants accumulate radioactive iodine 131 given oll into tie atmospnere oy lne nukes, and that some show cell damage after only two weeks' exposure.

The Professor report with an appeal to halt operation of nuclear facilities dangers human understood.

In addition to evidence of genetic mutation caused by radiation, various groups of scientists in Japan have collected evidence showing that seafood is being contaminated and killed in water near nuclear plants, all of which are sited on the coast.

The Jananese depend on marine products for food to a far greater extent man people or olner maustnalsed nations, eating five to six times the amount and much less meat.

seafood is harvested in coastal waters

family livelihood has become much more arnicull mn recenl years. petition from huge, ocean-going factory ships and industrial pollution of their fishing grounds have fishing a precarious way of earning a living.

Now, fears that fish and other seafood will accumulate radiation in their bodies through the food chain, and a number of scares which have left them unable to sell their catches have driven many of the traditionally conservative fishing people into the anti-nuclear camp.

The Opposition Movement Although the anti-nuclear movement in Japan does not yet mobilise the tens of thousands that those in the USA and Europe do, the potential certainly exists.

Opinion polls show that a majority of Japanese have at reservations about nuclear safety; most regard it as a necessary evil, and the first reaction of residents threatened with nuke town nas tenaea to be aon t bulla ll here, but somewhere else'.

Inus ine Japanese movement is characterised bv strong. militant oDposition to specific plants among the

organisation.

Nevertheless, as long ago as 1976, a spokesperson of the Energy Council

HCOT

Fukui Prefecof Mihama,

with two

kilometres

rate

national

recent Professor spiderconcludes his

until the are of their nuclear whose

Stiff com-

made

the near-catastrophe at

least some

power

near their

One of the many massive anti-nuclear demonstrations ruefully admitted that 'the siting of

plants is not going at all smoothly due to the ooposition trom local communities. This is the single, most serious bottleneck in our whole

While that bottleneck has continued to narrow, it nas been aue more to the impact of events, such as

Three Mile Nuclear power plant opponents and riot police clash at Hamaoka, Shizuoka prefecture.

Island USA in 1979, than to a clear political lead from either of the mass workers' parties

The Communist Party nuclear weapons, but is in favour of nuclear power, with 'adequate' safety i caulious

The Socialist Party nationally does not have a clear stand either for or against, but certain SP members of the Diet are outspoken nuclear op-

ponents, and give a lead to local strug-

gles the near

opposes Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in March 1979 caused a furore, mainly because the crippled reactor is the same design as a majority of Japan's nukes. Even before it was clear exactly what had happened, demonstrators had invaded the offices Resources and Energy MITI in Tokyo.

Mounting

Fi could government to reluctantly halt operation of several of Japan's reactors.

TMI gave the потан н ow e eve recovered from. authorities have been forced to resort to desperate measures to keep their nuclear programme moving forward, and a new focus of the anti-nuclear struggle has become the ings wich must be neid belore per mission to build a new plant or reactor can be granted.

come which is Dower collDallics

In some cases, the hearings have been held

enome res at fe the proposed sected

that residents can attend, but the case of the hearing Prefecture in prize

residents to submit their opinions on te proposar to buna tne nucical plant in writing in advance, and selected out

of the 3,000 or

hearing have Shimane,

Wing held.

though they cessful, tracted unionists.

by the reactors Pacific

dumping

was safe.

reporters

when a are

Japan's hushed-up

catastrophe at Three

than of

of the Natural

Agency of

forced the reprocessing reported since The Japanese nuciear

For this reason, the

public hear-

to downn av it These have been blatantly rigged

favourable to the

millirems, 100

affected There at Kashiwazaki, Niigata 1978 must take the

The local authority appealed to

so replies a mere 47 people from 17 families to attend the

Hundreds of locals turned up on the day to protest this sham and about 200 entered the gallery of the hall, demanding to be allowed to par ticipate in the hearing

AS DOL dozens of police in full riot gear forcibly expelled all the members of the public, including the hand-picked 47. The doors of the hall were locked, and the 'public hearing' went ahead uninterrupted

Since Decembe 1980, provesiers

gathered at Kashiwazaki, and Hamaoka, to prevent these undemocratic hearings from be-

What was particularly encourag ing about these demonstrations, even

were not totally suC was the fact that they atsupport from thousands of

Another issue raised by Japan's nuclear programme is what to do with the lethal radioactive waste produced

The Japanese government's an-

plans dump radioactive waste in the Pacific Ocean has brought expressions of opposition from residents of many of the islands from Guam to Micronesia.

Last year the Japanese govern. ment sent a special mission on a tour of these islands armed with charts graphs, and survey results, ostensibly to explain their intentions and hear the opinions of the Pacific peoples.

Having heard nothing but objec tions, the mission returned to Tokyo and issued a statement thanking the

Islanders for their operation, but announcing that the

would ahead anvwa since they, the Japanese, were sure it

An official of the Science and Technology Agency pointed out to

that "international harmony' was important, but in the last analysis it is still 'not necessary to get the approval of foreign countries

this attitude with the reaction of the Japanese authorities

Soviet nuclear submarine damaged by fire (although not leaking radiation) was towed briefly through Japanese waters on its way back to Vladivostok, last August.

That action was denounced in the strongest possible terms as a breach of territorial integrity; it seems that there

different standards, depending upon whose integrity is at stake.

The Tsuruga Accident The worst accident in the history of

nuclear programme the radiation leak at the Tsuruga plant in western Japan, came to light last April

Over 40 tons of highly radioactive coolant had gushed from a storage tank; in the company's panicked attempts to clear up the mess, more

50 workers received high doses radiation, and most of the dangerous material was dumped into LUC DUDIC SCWCSVSLCHI

The incident was certainly not unique; two more radiation spills, at Oi

and al the Tokai facility, have been

Tsuruga plant itself has reported 31 previous accidents, and workers there have recently told of other incidents which the company tried to cover up

The aspect which appalled many Japanese was that the operators of the Tsuruga Plant showed such criminal irresponsibility in trying to keep the latest tragedy secret, and then trying

For example, the company claim. er one rude worker levolved in the clean-up received more than 13

but inspectors vestigating the contaminated sludge.

• coolicu to lave au sorbed 30 millirems in a few minutes

- this almost a month after the spill.

already more than enough evidence to indicate that ever! nuclear facility in Japan should be shut down immediately.

And there is more than enough evidence to suggest that if it can hap pen in Japan it can happen here.

Socialist Challenge 5 November 1981 Page 15

Page 16 scan of this page

Labour Party: stop

Socialist

Challenge

bosses.

the witch hunt

path.

newspaper.

ford North

Manifesto has used the selection of Pat Wall as the pe 9 October Wall, a supporter ot the defeated Benjamin Ford, the sitting MP

Ine Bradford North tuency to dump Ford was not surprising

nas said he agrees with the SDP 'on many issues'. H also told his that he would refuse to be a Labour candidate if the party's election manifesto continued commitment to unilateral disarmament withdrawal from the EEC

As both these were adopted Labour

Bradford Party had littl option but alternative candidate.

The Manifesto statement is part of a general campaign which is now being waged against the left by the right and centre of the party. SDP victory in the Croydon by-election used as a stick with which to beat the left.

Foot blamed 'distractions Labour lemenyichael and dissensions party for the Croydon result. He also highlighted the affairs that have happened on the Greater Lonaon Council' swipe at GLC leader Ken Livingstone.

But the Pat Wall Labour candidate,

Socialist Challenge exclusive

RIGHT WING provocateurs are trying to have socialist railworkers victimised

under the name of Rank and File (Railworkers fraction) designed to alienate left militants from their co-workers, laying them open to attacks from management.

WORLD

THE Labour Party's right wing is on the war-

In a statement issued on Tuesday, 60 MPs from the party's right-wing Manifesto group demanded Labour's national executive launch a witch-hunt against supporters of the Militant

They also ecutive to refuse to endorse Pat Wall as the party's candidate for the constituency of Brad-

The Manifesto statement ended by hinting that the MPs would consider leaving the party if their demands weren't met.

La supMilitant,

decision of the constiThe

10a Darl

policies overwhelmingly the the

select an

ty.

The is being

the LIC

'some of hon

sue.

Croydon Stan

They are circulating a phony leaflet called upon Boden, was on the rightWillg of refused to allow Benn to campaign during the election in Croydon

This did little to kindle enthusiasm among Labour workers in the by-election. All tour Crovdon consti tuencies voted for Tony Benn in the deputy leader. ship contest

The new strategy of the Labour left is becoming obvious. Any small victory for the left, or any setback for Labour is being used as an excuse to purge in the party

The aim is pressure on new national executive on which there was a shift to the right and centre at the conference.

The best against these moves is maintain the campaign for democracy and tabilitv in the labour Par.

The constituency parties have every right to insist that it is up to them to select the parlamentary candidate of their choice.

Moreover, it is from the actions of the 60 Labour MPs who issued

purge Stalement tual MPs are still too fond of acting without consulta-

The vast majority Labour Party activists are totally opposed poncies ana scare lactics or the Manifesto group. O•DOS UOR be brought into the open.

Provocation against railworkers

the rail

witch-hunt

men,

pro journal. ment

shopping

ficials

Led,

the Dar Tone against the

glaringly

call for a

to put the party's

defence

to

accoun

clear

£17.

of

to the

Address That

This clever hoax aims to take advantage of

that Weighell, leader of the National Union of Railway.

has launched against the left inside the union Most of the names on the so-called steering commit tee on the leaflet are supporters of Railworker, the

Socialist Challenge supporter, Pete Grant was also named. He explained Inal une icariel walen starts with the demand to port gays and cnas wiln al appeal to support the IRA, will be usea by manage-

against militants: 'There is no doubt that a

list of demands with no explanation is not the way to raise

Issued

Railworkers, union of-

and management should be left in no doubt that this leaflet is a fraud and has to be denounced. Already two of those nam-

Roger Cox and Jim • Have occuralled before management to 'explain' the leaflet.

THE

Regular readers will find this

to be prepared in advance. (real value f3.15!)

FREE COPY of Malcolm X

Books (usual price £1.95) 12 months: £14

6 months - £7 10 issues for f2 only

Other air mail £24 Delete as appropriate Named._._..........

For multi-reader

Whoever the SId

NUR, has

expel members NÜR sacked

National sup- wants restrictions

Weighell show such such those fighting to

and leaders stand for ane against the

tivities.

ABDUE

This week's Socialist Challenge

Challenge a bit out of the ordinary. There is more

because most of those who work on the newspaper

have spent the last week at a Socialist Challenge

conference. Consequently, much of the paper had

Socialist

Challenge

SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST CHALLENGE For new readers we are offering TEN ISSUES of Socialist Challenge for the incredibly low price of f2

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was behind this affair has to be rooted

Weighell who is presently bringing charges

militants the campaigned to rights fascists to be members of the union. In April 1978 he wrote in the Daily Mirror: 'We are not proposing lo

from the get them simply because they are misguided enough to become members of the

Front. witch hunt or against the beliefs of individuals.'

does not 'tolerance' to members who are

right wing leaders, and for

pose all that sid he heli

other union

has to unite attacks from both the union leaderships and the right wing provocateurs who seem, from the evidence of this leaflet, to be stepping up their ac-

week's Socialist , - An Autobiography by double the above rates.