Socialist Challenge No. 223, 26 November 1981
The scan: sc-no223.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge HANDS OFF THE UNIONS! —
SUPPORT LSE PICKET
No. 223 26 November 1981 25p Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
NORMAN TEBBIT has unfurled the Tories' package of trade union 'reforms'. It adds up to a major onslaught on the whole union movement, sweeping away legal immunities enjoyed by the unions since 1906.
The proposals include a sliding scale of damages up to £250,000 for which employers
can sue the unions; the outlawing of 'political' strikes and international solidarity actions; and a massive attack on the closed shop. These are the proposals which Tebbit thinks are essential to a 'civilised' society.
Far from being 'civilised' they are designed to strengthen the employers' hands in crushing any labour movement fight back against unemployment, speed up and wage cuts. This new anti-union law should be fought tooth and nail by the labour movement.
A start can be made by supporting the Laurence Scott workers, now in the seventh
INSIDE: Miners presidential election -- special supplement produced and written by militants in the NUM
NATIONAL UNT MINEW ORKERSA
KENT AREA
month of their fight to save their jobs. Si LSE workers have been served with injun tions forbidding them to picket the Doncaster factory of their boss, Arthur Snipe They face the prospect of enormous fines under the Tories' 1980 Employment Act. Every trade unionist should defend the Laurence Scott workers' right to picket e fectively. Labour movement delegations should build the LSE workers' mass picke of the Doncaster plant next Monday and every Monday thereafter.
The fight of the LSE workers against t Tories' anti-union laws is a fight for the whole labour movement.
Page 2 scan of this page
Right tightens grip
Editorial
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Phone 01-359-8189/8180 (editorial and distribution) Tariq Ali, trying to make his voice heard in the Labour Party
TARIQ ALl, former editor of Socialist Challenge. has left the Marxist Group and applied for membership of the Labour Party.
His decision has already attracted the attention of the media and the right wing of the Labour Party, and led to calls for him to be excluded. Denis Healey immediately announced on BBC's Newsnight programme that 'the line had to be drawn somewhere' over so called 'entrism': the Daily Mail editorialised in its usual venomous anti-labour movement tones that Tariq was a political rat joining a sinking ship': and the Morning Star waded in with a report likely to strengthen the witch-hunters that 'his move is part of the group's longstanding general strategy of entering the Labour Party.
Tariq is not the first person to have their membership of the Labour because of thair associations organisations. Elsewhere on this report on other right wing against supporters of Socialist Challenge and Socialist Organiser in the Labour Party
We defend Tariq Ali's right and all those in a similar position to be Labour Party. situation where right wingers Labour Party can organise labour movement bodies like backed Committee Understanding. while persecuted because of their association with progressive campaigns organisations.
Those who fight for a Labour government committed to socialist policies are gaining increasing support in the trade mass movements, and within the Labour Party itself. The loyalty and commitment of such people, including comrade Tariq, is not in doubt.
The same cannot be said of many of the old right wing of the Labour Party, some of whom have already left to build the anti-labour movement Social Democratic Party. and many more of whom threaten to do the same.
According to the Observer George Cunningham, MP for Islington South, who comes up for reselection this week, and who received some 66 votes in last week's Shadow Cabinet elections, refused to assure his own right wing supporters that he would fight the next general election as a Labour candidate. No one has called for his expulsion from tha party.
Frank Field MP for Birkenhead has led witch-hunting moves against local Socialist Challenge supporters in the Labour Party. Yet he called on MPs who were not reselected to stand against official Labour candidates at the next election. The danger to the Labour Party and the labour movement as a whole comes from such people.
Every LP fend the right of Tarig and all socialists to come into the party
More generally Socialist Challenge stands for an and to against far left organisations which are used to witch-hunt the whole of the left in the
Labour Party. Only in this way can a potentially deadly weapon be removed from the hands of the right wing, and the way be opened for the Labour Party to become represen-
tative of all currents of opinion Marxist and
non-Marxist in the working class.
All Socialists, whatever their differences
with comrade Tariq, should campaign in support of his right to be inside the Labour Party.
Socialist Challenge 26 November 1981 page 2
International Party questioned with far left page we witch-hunts
members of the And we call for an end to the
inside the openly in antithe NATO. for Transatlantic left wingers are
and lett wing activist and socialist should de-
all bans and proscriptions
Shadow Cabinet
By Ray Clarke 'WELL-BALANCED' comment on the outcome of last week's Shadow cabinet elections. He had every right to be pleased. The new parliamentary leadership has an even stronger right wing majority. 10-5, than before.
What THOSE noticeable in the results TESTIC SUCCESS of those Labour leaders who have been in the toretront of attacking the party let as a
and ony Benn in
Ramans and for Had
tersley, all members of the right wing Solidarity.
And the left who made the most
: poll was Neil Kinno who has specialised over the past year in stabbing Benn in the back It was Kinnock who co-ordinated the abstentions of Tribune
leadership contest which secured Healey's victory.
Despite
But the most startling
was for one of the *losers Tony Benn. Michael Foot for MPs not Despite the trom to vote for him, Bent secured the support of a quarter of the parliamen tary party.
's insistence on Shadow cabinet collective responsibility over and above party policy, Eric Heffer who was elected will now find himself a prisoner of this right wing Shadow cabinet which ignores conference policies and the wishes of the party.
No wonder the Labour Party gets annihilated in
national and council by-election.
Why should working people vote for a party that does not carry out the
its members vote
for? Why bother to vote for a party whose leadershin really supports the same policies as the Social Democratic Party, (SDP), if you can vote for the real SDP?
Why should they vote for a party whose MPs
Birkenhead CLP
witch-hunt defeated
By John Nolan THE ATTEMPT by right wing supporters of
Frank Field, MP for Birkenhead to witch-hunt
Socialist Challenge supporters in the local party has ended in defeat.
Two Socialist
Challenge supporters were
called to attend a special
executive meeting last Fri-
day to 'explain themselves
over a Socialist Challenge
leaflet
distributed at a Labour
Party public meeting
The leaflet, which call
ed for support for Tony
benn and anackeo curs.
rent and rate rises was
alleged to have been put
out by the International
Marxist Group.
On Thursday before
the EC, Socialist
Challenge supporters put a
was Denis Healey's
refuse to confirm that they will stay in the Labour Party, as Islington South MP George Cunningham who received 66 votes in the Shadow cabinet clections, has refused to do before his reselection?
The Labour leadership and their right wing allies don't inspire any confidence among working people of their commitment to radical change and socialist policies
Even John Backhouse who stood for Labour in Crosby on the basis of campaigning TOT policies, stood little chance of halting the SDP handwagon with the millstone
the national party Neil Kinnock specialises in stabbing Benn in
the back motion to packed
meeting of Oxten ward in
Birkenhcad, which ac-
counts for nearly one third
of the total CLP member-
ship, rejecting attempts by
any section of the party to
witch-hunt other party
members.
The motion suppor
ting the right of members
socialist
policies in the Labour Par-
including through the
sale of papers like Socialist
Challenge, Militant
Socialist Organiser and
Tribune, and calling on
the EC to withdraw the at-
Labour Party
leadership round his neck.
The right wing of the party have signailed an all-out attack on the left with their vilification of Benn and their witch hunting moves against the far left. Gone
Gone are the appeals for unty tor the sake of the party. Instead the parliamentary leadership is taking the Labour Party down the road to electoral Boride to the worn-ubpolicies of the last two CADDUE COVETECHL It is time for the left in
the Labour Party to get organised. Nationally and locally socialists should aght to turn the abou Party into a mass cam-
paigning party against the i ones, ano to comman tae next Labour government
to socialist policies.
tack on 'the right of party
members to fight for their
ideas, was passed
unanimously.
Al the special EC
Socialist Chailenge sup-
porters were not even call-
ed to attend The witch-
hunt resolution was
withdrawn and the
Socialist Challenge resolu-
tion carried , and passed on
to the GMC
The right wing
arguments were exposed as
bureaucratic attack
designed to split the
LaDOur LarLy D
hunting members out of
the partyin arguments
the that
democratic political strug
The Labour Party are tin
: Labour Party are the
only way to build a mass
united party were
unanswerable
Frank Field MP now
has to attend a special
meeting in Birkenhead on
Eric Heffer, prisoner of a right wing Shadow Cabinet Joan Lester, the new Shadow minister for women and social affairs 10 December to explain his letter to The Times on October calling on MPs wno arc not selected stand against the official
candidate and to take loyal members of the Labour Party' with them
Field has resigned as
Ted Heslin back in Oxford Labour Party
hunters,
ing papers such as Socialist Organiser
happy with the 57/29 vote on Heslin.
boy (sic), vice principal of Ruskin College.
front bench junior education spokesperson. He announced at the weekend that he had done so to give him more time to conduct further attacks on the Militant and Olner ch wing newspaper supporters in the Labour Party
OXFORD Labour Party members voted last week to readmit Ted Heslin into the local party after a three year battle against the local right wing witch-
Though Hestin undertook not to repeat the crifical statements against the party that the national executive had criticised, Eric Heffer from the NEC made it clear that this did not exclude sell-
Not everyone in Oxford Labour Party was
Included among the notable dissenters were Lord McArthy, shadow spokesperson on industry in the Lords Olive Gibbs, former CND president, and Bill Con-
Page 3 scan of this page
Europe, posal for the zero option agree not to station Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe in
US administration, in the shape of Al Haig, is making against Nicaragua. together? Is Reagan's appeal a genuine attempt to seek weapons reduction in Europe? Already Michael Foot American move 'much the most sensible proposal to be made by the United Sates for some time'.
The proposal of the United States comes from a positon not a position of strength. Despite its fraudulent and manoeverist intention, the "zero option is bound to cause division inside the ranks rantepists. In that sense it NATO
is an immense gambie by Reagan.
Many Western experts, committed to the doctrine war, and decisive military superiority over the USSR, believe that Cruise and
missiles ssential. But given the Soviet refusal to make any positive counter-proposal however, the to have its cake and eat it They will be able to site their new missiles while arguing that the Sovict failure to respond to their initiative made this essen tial. The Soviet bureaucrats are handing the Americans a propaganda coup free of charge.
It is this danger that the anti-militarist movement in Europe must address itself to. The escalation of the arms race comes from the United States. Behind the cover of their phoney peace proposals they will step up the propaganda campaign against all those who oppose their missile plans.
CND and the other European anti-militarist movements must escalate those plans In response for no Cruise and no Pershing not TOr any reason, not at any price.
The truth of the matter is that the nited Statec is tacing considerable. difficulty both in maintaining the grip of its right wing allies in Central America, ana in acanne wan ine upsurge of anti-militarist sen-
The conflict in
Zero option
road to
peace?
IN A CAREFULLY staged fanfare of publicity. beamed direct by satellite to the whole of
President Reagan has made his pro- that the US will
exchange for Russian removal of a variety of intermediate missiles. This proposal comes at the same time as the
open threats to take military action Cuba and the revolutionary forces in El Salvador. How do these things fit
has pronounced the
Salvador becoming desperate for the US as the FMLN guerrillas continue to paralyse the country,
BELGIUM
Range: 10 mile 36 F104 aircraft ( 650 miles)
Up to 50 M109 and M110 guns PLANNED : 48 cruise missiles (Final assent not given)
BRITAIN
48 Vulcan bombers (3,500). 04 F.111 bombers - US
72 5.117 bombers -us
PLANNED: 160 cruise mis MEDITERRANEAN US SIXTH FLEET A7 aircraft (Range: 585 miles) • Probably noclear depth charges
Europe
nuclears
arsenal
many European
governments continue to
put pressure on them to
engage in genuine arms
negotiations
The 'zero option' prop-
osal IS a fraud. In ex-
change for the Us
siting its Cruise and Per-
shing missiles, the Soviet
Union would have to give
up its intermediate nuclear
including those Soviet
Union itself While the
nited States maintained
its sea-borne and air-borne
OS ACE THE
Soviet Union from Euro-
deprived of the means to
effectively retaliate against
US military targets in the
European theatre.
As German peace
HOLLAND
Range: 70 miles)
N 36 F104 aircraft (650 miles) ome probaby in w berma 13 M110 guns (13 miles) 136 M109
PLANNED : 48 cruise missile (Final assent not given)
48 Poscidon submarine missiles - US
64 Polaris submarine FRANCE
AO M20 submarine missiles (Range: 1,600 miles)
SPAIN 2a Fl aircraft -US 7 500 1000 miles
,Stop the missiles
Gert
Bastian nas pomted ou
the Sovict Union has good
there is already a balance of
weapons in Europe. Bas-
han argued that any ge
nuine proposal for disar-
would
proposais for reduction of
existing nucicar weapons
wone ne es the of the Soviet
Union vividly ilustrate
the incorrect approach of
the Soviet bureaucrats to
me queston or aciencc oi
the Soviet Union. They re-
match weapon for
weapon the military build-
up of the United States, in-
stead of
minimum of necessar
dition to appealing to and
mobilising
militarist potential of the
world
ment.
Brezhnev's response to
the American proposal is
at bes leaden-footed. In
rejecting the US proposal
as just a fraud, and refus-
ing to make any counter-
proposals of their own, the
Soviet Union does nothing
to maximise the influence
the European anu.
militarist movement. To
expose American
been sufficient to respond
native nuclear
Burope *from Poland
to Portugal'.
WEST GERMANY 180 Pershing 1 m
Tu0 por ano ter bute
2475 miles 170 ml aircrant - uS
(200 miles) 33 Mirage bomber (670 miles)
18 Land-based missiles (1,600 miles)
ITALY
7 8 a Tomates
Mobilise
Extracts from the declaration by United Secretariat Fourth International, November 1981)
THE US RULING CLASS, with its allies in Central and Latin America, is preparing a qualitatively new level of military action against the deepening revolutionary struggles of the workers and peasants of Contral America and the Caribbean. Spokesmen for perialism such as US Secretary of State Alexander Haig and Secretary of Defence Caspar state that the moves being actively considered include: - use of troops from Argentina and other Latin American dictatorships Salvador, qualitatively expanded force of US 'advisers and shipments of military material to the Salvadoran junta. - attempts to blockade Nicaragua by sea and land, including an escalation of military action by armed forces and Somozista unit that operate out of Honduras show against Cuba, and a 'quarantine' of Cuban shipping to stop the alleged arms flow to El Salvador. four-week manoeuvre in the Caribbean involving dozens of warships and hun dreds of planes began tober. The announced site of the final GASTEISOS for Readex' is the Puerto Rican island of Vieques.
This campaign has roached a new crescendo following the spec tacular military and political blow struck by the FMLN on 15 Octobe when they destroyed the strategical-
74 Lance missiles (70 miles)
32 Pluton missiles - French
so Fa aireraft - W Germen
30 Buccaneer aircraft - British 300 M110 guna (13 milerta
7
PLANNED: 112 crulse missile:
against the US threat
of the 15 only
together
Behind
revolutionary America.
Despite
AMENGON the
Salvador, Weinberger, nine
of a workers together with
tion.
massive new
the Honduran
power' directed
US naval ceed in hands.
on 3l Oc their
'Operation The solidarity militarist responsibility truth SOVIET UNION WARSAW PACT AIRCRAFT 65 Backtire bomberè (Range 2,500 miles) 300 Badger bombers (1,650 miles) 135 Blinder bombers (1,750 miles)
165 SU7 Fitter A aircraft (600 miles) 500 1 Mig-27 Flogger aireralt (450 miles) / SU17 Fitter C/D airereft (375 miles)
Mig-21 Fishbed aircraft (250 miles)
EAST GERMANI * 20 SS12/SS22 80 Scud/SS23 100 F100/332
POLAND 4 S$12/SS22 9 Scud/SS23 : 10 Frog/SS21
HUNGARY 4 $512/SS22 18 Scud/S523 9 20 PI091332 B Honest Jan TOCKCu
54 F4 aircraft (700 miles)
60 M109 guns (11 miles)
Socialist Challenge
ly important Puente del Oro bria over the Lempa River. It was alleg that such a professional action co
have been executed by special strike force of Cuban troc secretly flown into Nicaragua and filtrated from there into E/ Salvad
the dangerous movas by Washington, is one sim fact: all else has failed to halt 1
upsurge in Cent
massive military aid brutal dictatorship despite the murder more than 11,000 people in the fi
months of 1981 alone, Salvadoran military has been una to stop the advance of the FMLN
The US rulers are now convinc there is no way to stop the creat
state in Nicarag short of outside military intervi
The circumstances are remir cent of other moments in hist such as the eve of the Bay of Pigs vasion of Cuba in April 1961, and events leading up to the Gulf Tonkin provocation that precer the escalation of US aggression Vietnam in 1964
The imperialist warmakers c not ultimately be stopped until workers of their own countries s
taking power out of t But they can be deter That is why a massive response
threats is important before they move.
workers movem organisations, the a movement, all have to help get out about Washington's moves and to work to mobilise broadest possible response
The time to act is now 75 SS
400 SU24 (5U19) Fencer aireraft (1.000 miles)
MISSILES IN WESTERN RUSSIA 175 5520 masies (Rance 2700 m 40 SS5 missiles (2,200 miles) 340 554 minsiles (1,000 miles)
About 40 S512 (300-550 miles) and. S522 missiles (335-625 miles) bout 270 Scud A/B (90:180 ml d 5523 (115-215 mles)
About 320 Frog (10-45 miles) and S521 missiles (65 mules) 5021 is replacing Frot Possibly 150 203mm gun
CZECHOSLOVAKIA 6 SS12/SS22 • 27 Scud/SS23 30 Frog/SS21 TURKEY
718 Honest John rockels (Rangi
About 70 F4 aircraft (700 mles ecified no of M109 and M110 guns
26 November 198
Page 4 scan of this page
By a TGWU shop steward, Longbridge THE three week old dispute at British Leyland's Longbridge plant in Birmingham is to escalate following militant meeting on 22 November.
The dispute,
OVEl management plans to im-
more cuts levels and rest allowance time, has now been made official by the three unions involved engineerine and transport, sheet metal.
Plans are going ahead to cut off the supply of enginés to BL's other major mass production fac ULY COW CHIRAT
Management has held back from imposing the LICW working conditions
isolate Longbridge.
national agreement.
from the workers. elsewhere?
Hours worked
Peugeot-Talbot FRANCE Shrs 15 min Mon Thurs
Fiat 7% hrs
ITALY 5 days
JAPAN
Daimier-Benz
8% hrs WEST GERMANY
USA 40hr week
Daf Trucks HOLLAND 8hrs
Ford 8hrs UK THIS week Michael Edwardes announced that Leyland Vehicles the truck and bus division 4.100 workerk sack another
This is the second stage
dismember the plan
public company.
The changes he has announced go some way towards the plans to reduce LV Ltd to an assembly-only operation.
Under the latest
plan, 1,855 jobs are to go at Leyland, Lancashire: and 1,365 at Bathgate.
Socialist Challenge
Leyland workers
escalate to win'
and emotional mass
once the supply of engines Cowley workers will be in Cowley COMES a position to join the strike and re-establish solidarity with Longbridge.
Although the workforce have been al home during the dispute rather than on the picker lines, the feeling of strength that emerged during the pay dispute earlier has convinced workers that it is possible to win this time.
When Cowley joins the lispute our hand will be Tea breaks around the world ALL car workers around the world take breaks from the gruel!ing demands of their jobs. Some of the breaks are simply the result of 'custom and practice' and some the result of local or
In the case of Britain, the bosses are trying, with the connivance of union officials, to claw back these vital minutes
How do British workers fare compared to their counterpart -
Lunchbreak
1hr unpaid
30 min unpaid
Labour law states that employers shail grant total breaks of at least 45 minutes to all workers working more than six hours and breaks totalling 60 minutes for all workers on eight hours or more
30min unpaid
30min paid
30min unpaid
meal break times variable but unpaid
Leyland trucks-
a fight needed
Scotland.
Tractor assembly at Bathgate is to be hived off to a private firm.
Some 140 jobs will go at the Albion axle plant at Glasgow: 740 more will be lost with the closure of Guy works, Wolverhampton.
Leyland Vehicles is organised on a completely different BASIS from Leyland Traditionally truck workers have been less militant and more isolated. An enurety separate combine com26 November 1981 page 4
further strengthened as we are adamant, that it is we. the workers who have to suffer the present working
and not out national officials negotiate the settlement on
Once again, Leyland workers are proving to all working people that despite the beating we have taken at the hands of Edwardes, and, to their everlasting disgrace, national officials, we have the will and the capacity to take on Edwardes and his Tory backers and win.
Mersapes solidarity should be semend
Committee/Joint HELMERES Committee. Other breaks
48min on Mon Thurs 34min-Fri
40min 64 min
25min
30min unpaid
body & assembly, 55min mittee exists but it has not wet since 15/0. The task now is to convene this combine at once.
Many workers at the Leyland plant feel bitter about Edwardes, the wages offer and redun dancies. but they also feel isolation and a lack of clear leadership from union officials.
What is needed is a vigorous campaign be mounted within all the truck plants outside the trade union and labour move-
Already the Lancashire Association Trades Councils and Preston Trades • Counci have pledged help.
Trade Unions
BL workers saying what they think
THE Coventry strike of public employees against cuts in pay and conditions of service now in its third week.
The transport TGWU, has called for a day of strike action in sympathy with NUPE and against the cuts. Already the teachers union,
NUPE strikers determined to stay out. By Maureen Shevlin IT IS clear that the council is determined not to give in to NUPE's demand that it withdraws the letter sent to NUPE members terms of employment.
The education department already has extensive plans to counter the effects of the strike action.
were instructed to obtain school keys from the caretakers and to familiarise themselves with school alarm systems in advance of the strike.
A letter was sent to school meals staff, asking them to come into school during the strike to cook food which could be frozen
This divide and rule tactic has fallen flat on its face.
The local Tory rag, the Coventry Telegraph, has tricd workers in local engineering firms that NOPE members are in some way privileged, because they have a no compulsory redundancy This is despite the fact that over 300
the appeal. is
union, closed
changing mach are not at school.
John Butcher,
that parents volunteer School school to clean them.
secondary schools
hardship fund have been held in local factories, as well as in schools and council offices.
the Coventry Southeast and Coventry
convince Southwest Constituency Labour Par-
ties calling on the council to resolve the dispute by withdrawing the letters and restoring the cuts. agreement.
La similar position.
COVENTRY: ACTION SPREADS AGAINST
the NUT, has voted to support
The cuts proposed by the Labour-controlled local con- group cil are wide-ranging in affect: answer from a ten per cent reduction legislation in school cleaners' hours and ment. wages to a rundown of school meal services and price rises.
school meals jobs have been lost in the last year and school kitchens have
The local media has also tried to whip up hysteria about large pickets and school students going on the rampage in the town centre because they
Tory MP for outcome Coventry West, has even suggested
into known
Despite this, last week students of Tile Hill College came out to stand with the pickets, and teachers at two
came out for hour to join the strikers on the picket
Collections for the NUPE strikers
sigh of relief.
Resolutions have been passed at
Coventry Trades Council adopted
These cuts are the alternative to a 'no cuts, no rates rises campaign by the Labour
on the council to Heseltine's new on local govern
Here three reports show how the fight is being organis
NALGO branch officers refuse to give a lead By Val Jones
BY THE time you read this article the
the special meeting of the Coventry local govern-
branch of NALGO
If the meeting has not instructed NALGO members working in the arcas effected by the NUPE strike to respect NUPE's picket lines and the branch officers to organise a volun Lary levy, the local NALGO branch officials will no doubt be breathing a
If the meeting supports the call for a day of action in support of NUPE they will reluctantly call members out.
The branch officers of Coventry local government branch of ALGO sent out a letter of advice a couple of weeks ago which leaves it up to
Page 5 scan of this page
weaken
By Mick Drake, Dagenham assembly plant SECRET talks between negotiators and management are undermining Ford workers' claim for a E20 a week wage increase and a 35 hour week. per cent increase on basic rates and attendance supplements, tance of an 'Efficiency Payments Plan', plus a fixed efficiency payment. withdrawn at any plant where the company considered that a group of workers were in breach of the terms of the scheme.
This offer was rejected and union negotiators maintained mendation for an all-out strike from Wednesdav 25 November. However,
hardly any report back meetings for 11008 workers, national union officials entered into secret talks with the company.
Anger
Chief 1111101 Ron Todd, claimed secret talks were
to examine the
scope of further possible negotiations and decide whether there is any point
in the two sides coming
THE CUTS
ed in the unions. It is essential that the labour movement as a whole support the strike. The call for a day of action will not only bring the council the table, but also help create the conditions for fightback against Heseltine.
members as individuals to decide for themselves whether or picket lines.
They also say that if NAIGO members choose to respect the picket lines they will not receive any finan-
CIal SuDDOrI, from either the city council or NALGO.
Such advice is
NALGO members to
NUPE's strike by crossing the picket
lines.
This is in spite of the request from
the NUPE divisional office in Birm-
ingham that all trade unionists should
respect NUPE's official picket lines.
NALGO's branch officers have
not seen fit to make donations to the
NUPE strikers hardship fund, or to
organise collections throughout the
membership on behalf of the NUPE
members.
Support to NUPE strikers
ship fund, c/o Jo Little, NUPE of-
fice, Southfields School,
Street, Coventry.
Secret talks
Ford pay fight
senior union
Two weeks ago the company offered a 4.5
conditional on accep-
This would
together again."
This excuse rings hollow as further talks had been set for Mouday 23 November.
But the damage has heer done. The widespread anger greeted a company bulletin issued on November outlining details of the Efficiency Payments Plan has been dissipated.
Stories about the secret talks have appeared in the popular claiming that Ford will offer seven to eight percent and the strike threat has been withdrawn.
There have been no official union statements
strike action By Hazel McGrath
NUPE
negotiating
been collected united many
HOLOCIO
strikers.
encouraging
undermine
PUSL
maintenance
schools.
absent.
meal supervision.
hard-
East
distributed on shopfloor to counter this speculation.
Thus, the big dange TOW is that when break down on November snap mass meetings the following day will split on the question of nas beer allowed to drift towards the Xmas holiday.
Union officials will then blame the shopfloor, and not their own poor leadership, for the SOUL COME Sacked series of recent disputes show what will happen as Ford presses ahead with its efficiency drive which aims for total control over line speeds and working practices.
Only last Wednesday the nightshift in the body and assembly plants returned to work following a week long strike by welders who were demanding the reinstatement LWO workers sacked for alleged clocking offences.
This determined action forced Ford to reduce the
Teachers vote for
AT THE general meeting of Coventry NUT last week, teachers voted to support the call from the TGWU for a dav of strike action in sympathy with NUPE and against the cuts
Teachers know that it could be their turn next. Well over 13,000 has
in support for the NUPE strikers' hadrship fund and in
secondary schools teachers have given a day's pay.
The general meeting voted almost unanimously to donate £1,000 fron the NUT's local fund to the NUPE
A further motion to ask the NUT headquarters to review its instruction to members to cross picket lines was overwhelmingly carried, reflecting the anger among teachers about having to cross NUPE picket lines.
Teachers are also angry about losing over 100 posts by compuisory redeployment and a freeze on vacant
The council has cut back school and the supplies of books and stationary for use in
They have also cut the number of supply staff to cover teachers who are
as well as free school meals for teaching staff, in return for schoo!
The NUT and the other teachers"
unions have agreed 1o a
cover policy which the NUT is carry. ing out in over a hundred schools.
highlight the CHIS the
number of teachers, students will be
sent home if a member of staff is absent for more than one day.
Trade Unions
sackings to five
But local union officials signed an
ppallin document
pany a free hand to sack or suspend workers for clocking These clude 'doubling up
of away with it'
is now in its ninth week.
Culloch, the union, ASTMS, strike has reached.
I think everybody is now clear that this is going to b a long fight. The story so far is one of continuing broadening of the sup-
the response from the ENDURE BLUPERC
Grant
The mos! recent evidence of this is the backing we have received from a number of MPs. Al the last count 27 had sign-
ed an early day motion
demanding the govern-
ment withdraws the grant
several millions pounds which the Staffa
management have used to destroy our jobs.
Unfortunately,
local MP, Bryan Magee,
basically his is scare
has backed
management.
dalous when you consider
that the closure of Staffe
will remove 30 percent oj
the manufacturing jobs in
his constituency.
All that he has advised
is that we take the money
offered and run. But my
people all want jobs.
The latest situation is
that we have tried to re-
Ranks of cars just off the line at Fords Dagenham
day other such work practices line, thorised time off the which create additional on or even going into another area of your own plant to see a mate without a foreman's permission in- Under Ford's Efficienor
'Not prepared to let them get
THE fight of the 390 Staffa workers to keep open their factory in East London
The dispute which is officially backed by all the trade unions involved is solid. Brian Grogan spoke to Jim Mc
convenor of the stat about the stage the
ореп negotiations management But have insisted on us first agreeing to the move to Plymouth. This we refuse to do. We want an open agenda.
Last week the management moved ONELSONIE machines. These were not the specialised ones needed to continue making the Staffa motor. tested the water and having got away with it we are expecting them back take the specialised machines. let them prepared to away with. We must devise some means to stop i We OUT unions at every firm that is capable of doing the job.
Picket We are approaching the unions at national and steward level appealing to them to black the work. then we intend to call a large picket to assert our rights in the matter.
The nexr stages of the
Payments Plan. disputes and unpaid offs over matters like these tions • as well as basic quesof job mobility demarcation and technology - will be two a penny.
tensificill entre on the the
lensification picketing, the extending of the blacking and bullding on the support in
the government to block the grant We are very confiden of victory.
What you can do to help with they • Join the lobby KOSTON
LP GMC on 27 November a 7.30 at 70 Grange Park Road
• Organise donations and collections
• Put yourself on the mass picket telephone tre • Get speakers to your Having organisations
Join the mass pickets o Monday mornings at the front gates.
• Demand your local Mp an trade unions sponsor the na
hot get Ton the appeal for a national relocation grunt
embargo on Staffa products
• Keep the pickets compan - bring biscuits or some can of beer.
Phone the AUEW strike com AS 0 01-520 4902 r. on 01-535 Donations and messages aj support Newsom, Road, Walthamstow E11
Socialist Challenge
So whatever manoeuvres of union lay- ficials, the choice mass meetings is stil
fighting heac Ford's onslaught on new and wages, he war on compa terms.
STAFFA -
Labour M
split
By Toni Gorton FOLLOWING
-INE
cessful meeting ir the House Comn ger where Stan shadow spokespe for industry, pledge support for the S
strike for jobs, La
MPs have split
what line to take
Local Leyton ward an early day Bryan Magee,
tion parlia
which argues for a
ter deal for the wo
in their redundanc
tlements.
In contrast, ant
motion drafted by
Roberts, MP
Hackney North qu
won wide support
ing on the govern
to review its decisi
continue with th
million grant to 1
the plant to Plym
and to keep the pla
its present site th
keeping the jobs
390 workers.
now an issue
parliamentary
Party but it is beco
issue in the
Labour Party who
the early stage
reselecting their
AHE WOKEL
the Goneral o labour
the Ma
ment Committee
Leyton Party on
27 November calli
the GMC to make
MP support the
mands of the strik
26 November 1981
Page 6 scan of this page
lidarity
stand
elections
avy Jones
EK KURON, the promi-
dissident. has come
fire from the Polish brities. His flat was raidast weekend when ing was taking place of ins involved in the Clubs Self-Governing Republic, mbryonic new political
lis clampdown by the arities against political ity comes as the indepen-
union ssing contesting elecagainst the Communist
next February's municipal dional elections draw near the indent movement 15 nging the right of the ruling Tomise Early to draw up me us! ndidates. In both Silesia and w regions Solidarity has called : union members to nominate own candidates for the elec-
c prospect of popular can-
the ruling bureaucrats. One
suggested party cans would receive as little as two nt of the poll in open elections.
Communist Party is h trouble already without such lations. Party sources have adthat it has lost as much as 40 at of its membership since the trike wave began.
nsor le national talks between the nment, church and Solidarity also raised the question of cenp and union access to the mass
Last week the first of a er of union members went on or allegedly breaching censoregulations.
activist from Czestochowa ed a one year suspended jail ice and a fine of 3000 zlotys
equivalent to two weeks ge salary) for publishing illegal rs in the union journal. was known as the Teddy Bear as the offending poster 1 Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev piant teddy bear.
the arity's national conference callr the establishment of a second ber of the Polish parliament, a I and Economic Council based he workers" self-management
The government responded Tering to set up a consultative :il comprised of hand-picked
adents hile most of the strikes around
over the food queues now ended, in the last few weeks nts have led major struggles st the government. There has a wave of occupations and
across the which i at Radom Engineering Col-
embers of the Independent StuAssociation (NZS) and Solidariaff members there were pro-
sliege rector Michal Hebda. The nts wave of protest has now lened to include the demand for education law. 'hile the bureaucrats desperately some form political comise to draw Solidarity into consibility for the crisis, the Polish ers, farmers and students are oping their own solutions to the
In the developing clash betthese two competing powers, bour movement in this country d line up full square behind the h workers. list Challenge 26 November 1981
By Bridie Ryan
executive passed at the conference,
agreement and consent."
Unionists.
to Irish unity.
is munity,
North of Ireland 12 years ago.
tion 1,820
per households
cent of Protestant families.
such rampant intimidation.
the troops were in tacking the Catholics.
ghetto in district in Belfast.
and in August
without
munity.
were killed by
death of a British soldier.
always backed this majority:
POT- clusively Protestant 'B' Office.
For the
On the
has been
British labour
Conference
itiative.
Ireland and the
11 MPs,
conference and trade
and delegations.
Further ference from:
End Rd. London W4.
page 6
Will troops
safeguard
Catholics?
THE LABOUR Party national
policy on Ireland, October party, declared: We wish to see unity between the two parts of Ireland, based on
This expressed the common view that Irish unity can only be achieved if it is acceptable to the
But as recent events have shown the Loyalists are part of the problem, not the solution,
It was the sectarian reaction of the Loyalists to the democratic wishes of the nationalist com
expressed in the civil right movement, that led to the British Army's intervention in the
In the run-up to and immediately following that interven-
families fled their homes in Belfast. Of those, 82.7 per cent were Catholic. In all, 5.3
of all Catholic in the city were displaced, compared with 0.4 per
The arrival of the British Army was supposed to signal an end to
But within five months of that arrival,
themselves atspecifically the Ballymurphy Prior
Within a further five months the Army had imposed a curfew tary in Catholic areas in West Belfast,
1971 the troops were used to implement intern-
tríal, aimed clusively at the Republican com-
A total of 15 nationalist people
Loyalists and security forces before the first
The nationalist community has always suffered such repression because the North of Ireland state was set up on a sectarian basis. day. being artificially created to ensure a Protestant majority. Britain has
In 1922 the RUC and the ex-
specials were given arms and military personnel by the British. In 1950 RUC members were trained in the techniques of repression by the British Army, and supplied with ment automatic weapons by the War
past 12 years the presence of British troops in the North of Ireland has done nothing to bring about a peaceful solution.
contrary, in the form of and ad THONEY ministration, the British presence Trish
used strengthen Unionism and to bolster partition.
But unfortunately many in the movement rema to be convinced of this argument.
That is why the Labour Movement
Ireland on 27 February next year is a valuable in-
fcared This conference has been called by the Labour Committee on
Committee for Rule Withdrawal from Ireland. Already
including Tony Benn, with have sponsored the conference.
The present situation in Ireland is a good opportunity to raise the
in the Labour Party union bodies, suggesting sponsorship, donations
details of the conConference Arrangements Committee, 1 North
By Geoff Bell THE SPECTACLE OF James
warning the Loyalists about law and order, asserting the primacy of parliamen
democracy. ana aeclar
in the To Vorce of wits
force authority against those who do not respect the rights of others', is deeply ironical.
For, what the Tones are now tac
creation. It is a monster that was built and fed in the years 1911 to 1914 when the Tory opposition in parlia ment lent their vocal financial and tions which lan F political the type of ac
Ian Paisley is leading to
The lan Paisley of those days was Sir Edward Carson, a former Solicitor General and Tory cabine
In 1911 he became leader of the Irish Unionists. At the time, all of Ireland was under British Tre aid ral govern ent led by Henry Asquith, under pressure from the Irish nationalists in parliament, was
arrange-
expressed in the Third Home ate
was to establish devolved parliament in Ireland which would have limited powers to deal with Irish affairs, although at would subservient to Westminister in many important matters.
Even this strictly limited form of
scil-government opposcd by Edward Carson and his Unionists. Consequences
The Unionist upper class Ireland Icared the consequences o
workers in the North cast of treland
DETECHES enjoyed over the Catholic working class.
Consequently, when Irish Home Unionists under Carson responded became possibility
told 50,000 strong parade of North of Ireland Unionists in September 1911: *We must be prepared, in the possible event of a Home Rule Bill passing, with such measures as will carry on
for ourselves the government of those districts of which we have control. We must be prepared..the morning Home Rule passes ourselves become responsible for the government of the Protestant Province of Ulster'.
The Loyalist private army the Tories backed - The Ulster Volunteer Force parade with guns in 1913.
The *Protestant Ulster tion. The then nine counties of Ulster were equally divided on Unionist/Nationalist lines, to the religious theless, what Carson was threatening was the seizure of power in Uister by the Unionists. It rebelon a against une bust Darne
against laws
Country to whom the Unionists were meant to adhere. Covenant
rebellion grew in deeds and words. In September 1912
THURS Covenant by which they pledged to Irish use an necessary means to aelea the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule parliament in Ireland
In January
private army,
Force was set
ported arms while
leaders made plans to establish a pro visional government if the Rule Bill was passed
Such then
scope of
912-14. derived their political strength from, be and what allowed their revolt to unpunished was mne
were given by the British establish ment, and particularly by the Tory Party
Conservative Bonar
1912: There are stronger things than
parliamentary majorities...l can im
agine no leneth of resistance to which
Ulster will go in which I will not be ready to support them.
relative George V the new king, George V. In May 190)
Bonar Law
King told him it was his duty either to
refuse his assent to the Home Rule
Bill or else
government. The advice was repeated
on a number of occasions during the
next year,
nearly been won over. In a letter to
Prime Minister Asquith in September
1913 the King ominously warned the
Liberal leader that he, Gorge V, hac
"residual'
government. Eventually the monarch
Monster of the
Provinceof was not an accurate descrip-
BETRACHE
which approximated divisions. Never- scriousness establishment
was tantamount i to
passed by that
For the next three cars that
nearly 500,000 Ulster
1913 the Unionists" the Ulster Voluntees
openly and im the Unionist Home
was the nature and the Ulster rebellion of
But where the Unionists
go support the
leader Andrew Law put it this way in July
. In May 1912 in a meeting with the
to dismiss the Liberal
By September 1913 George V had
right to dismiss the by CORMA
backed down, but the Tories' attempt to use George V to over-ride
democracy King's willingness to go along with this at least for the time, indicated the
with which the Tory DELTANCE back the Ulster rebels.
Equally dramatically, the Tory The Ulster Defence Association n
IN DREADFULLY BAD FROM WAR TASTE
Page 7 scan of this page
programme for the NUM
By Jack Lavin AS EVERY miner knows, coal sales have slumped. stockpiles grow day by day. This situation has deliberately created by Tories whose policies have caused closure of hundreds of factories up and down the coun try.
Consumption by over 12 million tons in 1980 and has fallen even further in 1981. The Tories and the NCB have seized the opportunity to attack the miners, to force them to shoulder burden of a crisis they not created.
Industrial action forced the NCB to withdraw its closure list of 23 pits In February, but already seven pits have closed, and 6,000 jobs have been lost. The long term plan is for a small number ty. TRes would mean furier job
would mean losses in the industry.
The strategy of the Board and the government is to try to divide us and force through job losses face by face pur ey pur, arca py area. to think that if we "uncconomic pits to close. it we increase productivity, then our jobs will be safe. Productivity
This is exactly what we were told in the 1960s: productivity increased by 4 per cent a vear but we still lost more than half a million jobs. The CS501 1974 and 1981 i that the only industrial 1972, way to detend Jobs is by militant struggle.
We have to take the offensive, to fight for demands that can unite our union young and old, face workers
surface WITNES 'profitable' and 'unprofitable" areas.
A four day week with no loss of pay and retirement at 55 with full pay would defend our JODS HE CICAC thousands more for the young people on the dole in the coalfields.
Four days a week down the pit is enough! Forty years is enough!
Since 1974 miners'
Special supplement November 1981 5p
Socialist
Challenge
A fighting
fallen The basic rate been have to be the restore it to 1974 levels. economic the
divide the workforce.
Living of coal fell rate.
try to be brought in the that anybody have
Compensation
this усаг
Coal Board's the kitty.
'compensation' further job
£1,500m on plant, Thev want is allow millions of Massive wastage machinery which is left idle, rested closed down shortly after.
nationalised
action working people,
dustry without pit nationalised
planned energy workers' control. trol wages have the facts.
penne lemon atOn According to the zorkshire Miner th
increased to E165 to
The productivity bonus scheme was intendea to buy orr the miners. But it hasn't maintained living standards and has been used as a wedge to
standards should be restored to the 974 leve on the bosme
Wages should automatically be linked to a price index drawn up by the union and miners dependents. theirs.
A rate protection scheme should
operation to ensure who is moved to g less well paid job due to industrial disease or injury does not suffer financially
The Coal Board's answer to our demands is that there is no money in
We are still paying interest on 9. coal owners. In addition. in 1980-1 1nterest repayments to the big banks came to 21,000 per working miner
In 1979-80 the Board spent over
materials and work done by private contractors.
resulted in pounds being spent on Or Inin faces or scams which are
The crippling burden of interest repayments has to be ended and the contractors and suppliers should be
The NCB is still run by the ex-coal owners. Their priority is to make profits rather than to serve the needs of
If the bosses can't run the in-
closures, falling real wages and the high cost of coal to working class families, then we will take over ourselves. We need to end the present stupid situation where the nationalised coal, gas and electricity industries compete with each other.
The oil industry should also be another HELESSETY measure in the development of
under Such workers* conwould require full access to all
Here Need is with private ding the NCB's deals business. Let us see the book INC banks and sce now many fingers — and whose - are in the till.
The fight for a workers' solutior n the coal industry is only part of the fight for a socialist solution to the economic crisis. The weight NUM must be thrown behind the campaign for a Labour government committed to socialist policies, Labour government as loyal to its class as the Tories have been to
Over and over again we have seen ine matorv or our union's leaders ignore or defy conference decisions. Policies such as the four day week are of little use unless the leadership is prepared to fight for them.
The election of Scargill will be a big step forward in breaking the right wing's domination. The next should be the reform of the NEC to end the situation where representatives of a maiorit Or Mmers are a minority on the NEC
Sh for radar feeled ion of orpaign for regular re-election
hals. A socialist leadershin in thi NUM will only have the full fidence of the membership if it is ac
No full-time should receive a higher wage than that of a face worker.
If we are going to defend our jobs and living standards, if we are going to fight tor a tair deal tor reurec miners and youth on the dole, we wil inevitably come into COTTONOT with the Tories as we did in 1974
Joe Gormley and Co. would run a mile rather than lead such a fight. They were all too well aware that a miners strike at the same time as BL workers would almost certainly have is why the NEC agreed to a month's adiournment
The election of Scargill would be a big step forward in the fight for a leadership in the labour
will stand un to the tories. NUM has the power to lead the figh for united abour movement actio against the Tories.
And only fighting socialist policies will ensure we win.
In this special supplement
militants in the National Union of Mineworkers discuss the
policies needed to defeat the
right wing and take forward the
fight after the miners
presidential election.
- ant step
By Ernest Wakefield Mansfield Colliery NUM
.conin the battle official Tories.
the way to the bank
still in the
see fit
latter-day capitalist trick to living boost profits. union accepts
accepting a wage cut.
Until SUCH
duction and the rises above that would
—For the full claim-
THE miners should fight for the full claim and give a lead
against the
The bosses are laughing
the unions are picked off one by one and workers are forced into taking cuts in their living standards
This country is still one of the ricnest on the planet. but the bulk of the personal wealth is
hands of the superrich to be invested where they
Inflation is little more than a never
cut would Every time our pay increase premature Delow une rate or intiation we are
the workers own the means of pro.
Wealt We Dro
duce, we should refuse to ac. trades. opt any roadcoon in our wving standards. Our wages should be поех-инкес. nis woud put an end to the pay rises which are in reality a cut in real wages. Pay
be the this issue.
real rises in the battle to redistribute the national cake.
Had the miners' 1972 pay in
« DREN inflation-proofed. our basic would be ou per cen higher than it is just to maintain our arenasine gower, Ina Cu rent Tax and Price Index is running at 15.2 per cent and the rate is unlikely to fall as the Tories have no intention of introducing price
Miners should also lead in the fight for a four u. -week without loss of pay - Chapple and Duffy
will A Tour day waek help to reduce mass unemployment. Instead of ex pensive stockpiling of coal and
closure of pits as at present ww we capitaist oren tated recession, new pits would have to be opened creating more jobs not only in mining but also i me anchiary Industres and
Finally we have to fight for a rate-protection scheme and retirement on full pay. We cannot allow the leadership to go on flouting conference decisions on
Page 8 scan of this page
'LEADERSHIP IS THE CRUCIAL QUESTION
Trevor Bell -
Long on talk,
By Graham Naylor Bilsthorpe NUM ONLY 30 miners turned
Meg's dilemma.
apparent.
to have their brains bored out by 'Crossroads'
decisions. that guidelines that clever ofheals know wner go forward or retreat. TERES three year wage deals to remove the yearly confrontations over the wage negotiations.
pointed that governments, when elected, could change the terms of the *the Plan or coal and dato the February strike, this year.
Bell assured us that if this happened he would of course then call for militant action. Shades of Duffy and the BL scil-out.
ben went on to condemn Tony Benn and told us that the labour movement needs broad-left-of-centre Labour lost centre ground. He ridicul ed Tony Benn and most of the centre ground. labour movement) for wanting to regain control of North Sea oil. Mish-mash
The rest of Bell's speech was made up of a mish-mash of policies which have been supported by the NUM for some time now but have never been won because leaders MAVE TELESCE LO IMAL LOT ACHI.
These consisted of early retirement at 3 a rate protection
black these motors. remarks of John Secretary of the building and Engineering the National Solidarity Laurence Scott Strike.
their Manchester factory owner: Arthur Snipe of Mining Supplies,
emerged to be an asset stripping operation.
In a message to Laurence Scott workers he said:
work; not merely for themselves, workers in Britain as well. picketing in the heart of Yorkshire
the picket line and by blacking the motors
plies and Laurence Scott products
delegation visited the solidarity conference
Such actions of unity
damaging attack on picketing.
short on action
up at Bilsthorpe Welfare to hear Trevor Bell give his presidential address. The reason for the low turn-out - according to Bell - was the competition from "Crossroads' and
After listening to the address other reasons became
Heavily promoted as a moderate, miners responded to his fighting policies by staying at home
scheme, larger subsidies and good old import (which should never be won).
He said the NUM needed a BEW Image encourage public to use more coal union should be talking to the Tories and big business and get ERE CEO SCE DUEDOHEM viewell called for three year wage deals because he said it would get the other unions off our backs. He was upset by the idea of weaker unions looking
argument said, and forgot to mention that i: was strike action that won the argument.
Tory
Bell emphasised that we must talk to the Tory government despite the fact that admits there is no chance of the government changing directon.
Trevor Bell and the other right-wing candidates lead the miners to place as Duffy and Co have led the BL workers and complete humiliation. and complete union that will help fight for a we need Bell SOCIAL SOCCE that miners should vote for Arthur Scargill.
Solidarity with Scotts...
WE fraternally appeal to the mineworkers to
This was the closing Tocher, Manchester Confederation of ShipUnions (CSEU), at Conference for the
It was seven months ago when the 650 engineers at Laurence Scott said Enough is Enough and occupied
against closure by its new Doncaster.
Snipe, who made his name producing coul cutting equipment, took over the Laurence Scott group in what has
Laurence Scott has become a symbol of resistance. Arthur Scargill is amongst many who've recognised this
'On behalf of Yorkshire's 68,000 miners, 1 extend our best wishes and support to all workers at present in dispute with Laurence Scott who are fighting for the right to
but for all other
Miners across the country have supported the strike, in spite of Gormley's attempt to back Boyd and Duffy.
Now a fresh and more alarming assault on all trade unionists has taken place. The picket of Mining Supplies, Doncaster launched, following the solidarity conference, now faces a challenge under the 1980 Employment Act.
Six of the Scorts stewards have been instructed by the High Court not to attend the picket line. This is a massive challenge to what Arthur Scargill correctly calls 'effective
There can be no doubt the Laurence Scorr strike is a fight for all our futures. In the same way that engineers came to the backing of miners at Saltley Gate in 1972, now miners should stand with Laurence Scott workers on
The first steps towards this has been taken by the 9 Brodsworth NUM lodge. Pickets have been billeted in the miners" welfare hall and the miners have joined the picket line. The Doncaster panel is blacking new Mining Sup
The key Carrcroft workshop is blacking delveries of scab drivers from Mining Supplies. The South Wales NUM executive will be hearing a report from vice prestdent, Des Dutfield, on the question of blacking ufter a
should ensure that Laurence 2 Scott workers can force Snipe to the table and prevent a
Socialist Challenge supplement November 1981 page I|
Miners
derinitely
controls
to the left.
the The miners"
will HOLESLEE
Bell
74, but
leadership.
fa
The
How union, would the same
- low wages, 10B2U conditions
righting wages
1960s.
UT WE ME!
Scargill led the miners' delegation at Gru
TYRONE O'SULLIVAN, secretary of Tower lodge, What would a victory for Scargill in the Presidential election represent in the NUM?
Scargill is one of the most progressive socialist leaders that we've ever had in the NUM. Under a Scargill Presiden-
benefits miners would increase much more substantially ThEn under Gormley Scargill would shift the whole union
Gormley and Daly have shifted to the right while in office. . But Scargill has a consistent record of upholdin
interests over the last 10
Otherer kers willearn that they
never jobs accepting low wage increases. The improvements in wages and conditions under Scargill would set a shining example of what socialist leadership can achieve
We have to keep the Duffys and the Trevor Bells out. The crucial question in the trade unions and the labour movement is the question of
And not just leadership, but also solidarity in struggle Workers from Lee Jeans, Laurence Scott, and Staf-
have all been to this pit and received the support of the lodge, and from
inter the right wing in the Num
How fartives this divided mee
divided and made a united fight more difficult?
Troyed by this scheme The en destroyed by this scheme.
COVE Agreement NPLA) remams in force and mainams the basis for unity. his natione
structure was massive breakthrough for the union in the late
It was when we become a real,
united, national union. the NLPA was won mainly by the leadership of Will Paynter. I know a lot of people criticise Paynter for not doing more to resist closures and redundancies. But he was trapped and isolated in a right-wing NEC After the industrial February defeated the ment and the National Coal Board (NCB) it is clear that they have co cies pits by what my
pits Williams (President Wales NUM) calls 'slow strangulation* - starving pits of investment and recruitment. How can this be and prevented?
We should tell the NCB and the government that if they have not pro duced, by the end of December, a proper programme of investment and recruitment to develop the industry, we will start January. In South have lost nearly two thousand jobs in 1981.
The reserves at Margam are so extensive that a major new development there could provide up to 5,000 jobs. It will need a national strike to force it under this Thatcher government.
Miners leaving on early retirement or due to sickness replaced. If we have a national strike over pay this winter. for this programme of investment and recruitment must be included in that strike.
Scargill argues that the introduc tion of a 4-day week would create another 55 thousand jobs in the industry. How and when do you see a 4-day week with no loss of pay being achieved?
This has to come. developments in technology this is the only way to avoid massive increases in ok mass picket - he should do the same for Scotts
industries
action in
what Emlyn policies?
of south should be national Wales alone we are not being
then demands
policies terests. movement
acuont
ty, then 1
With new
South Wales NUM, spoke to Barry Wilkins. unemployment. I believe that we will win this during the next Labour government, provided it has a good majority. And then this will provide a powerful example to workers in other So what role do you think that miners can play in political strug.
for example, for unilateral nuclear disarmament, and the fight for the next Labour govern-
carry out real socialist
Unilatera nuclear
made a major issue in the NUM and in the Labour Party will need to be industrial action to stop these nuclear missiles coming t Britain, and the miners should be at the forefront of this. This will need to be campaigned for in the NUM anc the rest of the labour movement.
Labour must be our government We will always fight for a socialist government. We don't want another Labour government like 1974-79
The manifesto must be brouch
under the control of the party and il NEC, and then a left-wing NEC can make sure that the government carries out socialist policies. And to counter
the power of the financial institutions we win nave to namonansc wen
But how can workers make sure that the next Labour government will carry out these kinds of
Shouldn't the labour impose socialist policies on it by industrial
If we have a good majority, with Tony Benn as prime minister or depu-
don'! think that will be necessary. But if it is necessary, then yes, I accept it. After all miners can't here ated tour bovernment tar power. That was the Gormley way.
Page 9 scan of this page
1972 and 1974- the years of the miners
and with stafa Scargill for President
THE WORKERS at Staffa in Leyton, East London
movement.
ed in the mining industry. Like Laurence Scott, here is an ideal opportunity for miners throughout the country to show support for workers in struggle. The NUM should black all Staffa goods. For further information contact Chris Newsom, Committee, 39 Somers Road, London E17. Tel: 01-539 0886.
What to do
• Black Laurence
Supplies products
061-231-4434
• Black Scab Drivers
full list, telephone Strike HQ.
• Defend Effective Picketing
plies, Carrs
day there will be a mass picket.
• Financial support
Fryer, 20 Roundcroft, Romiley, Cheshire.
• Get the truth out
strike bulletin for your lodge/branch. Bulk order
accepted. 5p a copy (postage free).
The equipment produced by Staffa workers is us-
AUEW Strike Scott and Mining
More details from Laurence Scott strike HQ
Particularly Armitages and Eldridges. For a
Join the 24 hour picket line at Mining Sup-
Hill Estate, Doncaster. Every Mon-
Send to Laurence Scott Workers Appeal, G
Order copies of the second issue of the Scotts
The battle of Saltley Gate
Arthur Scargill?
change
last 15 to closures.
candidates,
third shaft six pits, let alone one of reserves
The to different
the Early Retirement was correct.
By R Hall, formerly from Warsop Colliery, North Derbyshire NUM
cost many jobs Simultaneously the workers dramatically
federalist national union.
The years of the Wilson government (1964-70) were a disaster, particularly for Britain's miners: 250 pits closed and 150,000 jobs lost. . The first fightback occurred in 1969 when rank and file miner
on unofficial strike in sup008120 2001I00 shorter hours for surface WOENCES Flying It was personally an illuminating with bus loads Yorkshire pickets trom stray from their arca. and desceno on the local pits The unofficial strike movement collapsed for the lack of leadership demonstrated to the Na. tional Executive Committee and the rest of Britain that the building up. Explode This pressure explodec in 1972 The massive con frontation with the Tories was a last gamble there was nothing left to lose Who can ever forget the mood of optimism and ex citement at the confronta
power station in Britain? at Saltley COKL-UEPOI the ing of the strike the sound of pipes, and the sight of thousands of BirKEVIN BARRON from Maltby NUM a member of the Yorkshire executive committee of the NUM, interviewed by Socialist Challenge.
workers What do you think are the key issues in this election and why are you supporting
believe that we have to
the leadership which : only has collaborated with the Coal Board and devastated the mining industry. The leaders of the representative.
20 years have lost us half a million jobs through pit
Do Yorkshire shows, unlike other Arthur Scargill's record in parisons
that employment cannot just be maintained, that ship contest? il can be expandea. We've haa new pits in Yorkshire when other areas have had pits closins For example, in Maliby, we have (130m investment to sin!
Some haven't had that investment in
Expansion hasn't just been becaus
other areas have membership? hem too, but because of deter mined opposition to closures.
Productivity Scheme which Scargill opposed has led
payments throughout the industry, to the detriment of the majority of miners. Scargill's opposition to
Scheme We still haven'? committee got early retirement for surface
Socialist Challenge supplement November 1981 page III
IN 1966 the National Coal Board and the National Union of Miners accepted the National Power Loading Agreement (NLPA), a vicious productivity deal which reduced wages, and
ratio of officials to increased. However NLPA did bring the NUM a long way from its geographical structure, towards a
mingham engincers com ing down that road, and the naked arm of state op pression
Triple
It was ordinary miners who led the way. This time the triple alliance break the miners weren't lett on thel owi and above all the sense of dignity had been restored to the mining community, the bitter memories of 192 "From all sections of the organised class rose one voice - the voice of solidarity.
Contrast
1974 was an entirely dit By sharp CUULL OS ferent strike with the very future of the Tory government at stake. - IL WE. course initially an quickly everyone came to realisc had been transformed into political strike.
However in parison with those heady" days of 1972, was much tamer affair. The TUC had accepted restric tive picketing and Joe cormicy was not now l his first year of presidency. was there, but the NEC and mass picketing was the exception the Heath called an election on who rules Britain and the working class gave its
We are now the lowest paid coal miners in Europe, yer with the highest productivity The right wing's main candidate, clerical representative Trevor Bell, has never held office in the NUM, only the cierical sec tion. The other two candidates
Scargill can-
dubious as the clerica
you see any com between the presidential election in the NUM and the deputy leader
Certainly. The issues in th VUM elections can be paralle. ed to what is happening inside the Labour Party we wan. a leadership whose policies an determined by th economic rystem, or a leadership who. policies are determined by the
One of the issues in the de puty leudership campaign ha been accountability. Ii's a majo issue in the NUM, and I'm sur with Arthur Scargill's election il will become u feature at national level, just as it is at area and local level. For example, a a local level in Yorkshire
men and official. are elected every two years.
Page 10 scan of this page
E Job losses:
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ocialist Challenge supplement November 1981 page IV
- An Autobiography by Awuntain of Desuaii Hund rols o) Ininers Htom ene tilla
PNEUMOCONIOSI.
THE DEADLY DUST THEY TOILED TO DIG THE NATIONS COAL AND DREATHED THE DEADLY DUST. BETRAYED ONCE MORE, DENIED THE DOLE BY THOSE WHO HELD THEIR TRUST THEY ARE NOT HERE AMIDST THE THRONG THEIR HEALTH IS TOO IMPAIRED. WE MARCH FOR THEM TO RIGHT THE WRONG SO THAT THEY MAY BE SPARED
DURING the miners' strike against pit closures last February demands was for government restrictions on coal imports.
of tons imported. threatened by the flood of cheap foreign coal.
It seems simple, And the SOLEOI import controls — - looks obvious.
really so bur are tamass straightforward?
A quick glance at the recent history of the coal industry shows that
LEREported coal is not the main inreat to miners Joos. In the 1960s. Britain was net exporter of coal. But in the same period the
collicries fel TUDCOE
500 a 1939 to aroun
South wales Inere miners; by 1969 the figure was 40,000
The millions of tons of coa on the stockplles. , are not caused by British coa. being replaced by imported coal. The real cause is lack of 'effective demand' in otner words. we need all the coal we can get.
Cost
But the collapse of industry, low wages and poverty pensions that no one can actually afford to buy it. That 1s why thousands of old people literally freeze to death every winter.
The immediate effect of import controls against cheaper, highly subsidised foreign coal would inCVILADIy De a TISE in the cost of coal to British working class families. Next would come the inevitable reraliation.
Countries finding their coal sales Britain stop harriers •CIC! similar
against British products. We should reject the idea that British miners jobs can safeguarded at the expense of foreign miners workers in other sectors of British industry.
The bosses wouldn't hesitate to use import controls to divide the working class. Closures in the steel industry would be blamed on 'expensive British coal' and the workers who mine il. What chance then of a
fighting alliance between miners and steel workers?
Solidarity
And in any future coal
cirike why chond Be man
or French miners show
the SaTLC •SONTERIE they
did in 1972 and 1974 when
they refused to scab on the
Valliy v/ Slogie
TOSL
'Millions of tons on the stockpiles; millions
Coal subsidile the U.K. ere
ELGIUM FRANCE GERMANY
The big weakness IporL controls that they are based on class collaboration. The demand for import controls assumes that the most im0014384 question is паtionality, not class.
Import controls imply that a Weish miner more common with Thatcher or Derek Ezra than with an American miner. It is Thatcher and Ezra who threaten miners johs
We should put the blame where it really lies
, controls
and call for a g ans! alternative to import controis.
We should demand a subsidy tion a qual to that
Belgiun and France (about twenty times the present level) financed by
SCanceaOE NCB's debts to the big
By Kevin Pettinger.
Colliery, North Notts NUM
I WORK in the powder magazine on the surface at the pit. Until 1977 I was a 'headings' man on top rate. Then at the age of 23 1 had a heart attack down the pit. At the time I was on f49.50 a week.
At a stroke, my money was cut to E38. Not surprisingly perhaps, my next heart attack came soon artert wy wvine standara nas drastically dropped through inflation.
This week's pay packet brought home £63. Last week was a 'good one had als on my wade ticket Mind you, I had to put in KOT SAUCCAr TO nnK CPOUT mIen who have to bring up kids on that sort of money.
There's a lot of talk now about E100 for surface workers. honestly we'd need £100 take home to keep up with prices.
Now that I'm on the surtace i see a lot of old men who've had to come up from underground due to iliness or injury. After years on the coal face they ve seen their wages CUL
are import
the answer?
banks.
The stockpiles should be reduced by making coal free to old age pensioners A crash programme of uscful public works could use every ton of coal dug.
Such poncis would de fend jobs and other workers ivine stam. dards by making coal
SOLIBAKI
WITH
BRITISH
The price of coal
Bolsover •ISE DilE
60 hours
Quite our own behalf.
By Mick Kelly cheaper The bosses and hankers created the coal crisis - they should pay tor It. ImDori ConTOs On the other hand would put the burden on the very people who miners have to win to their side to fight for COCIA 1SH workers of all countries.
спл DAvico пороту
MINERS
FROM LIMBURG
BE LGIUM
Some of the older men receive a disability pension from the Department of Health and Social Security. But as soon as they do a bit of overtime to keep their wages up -then it comes off the pension.
The NUM should tight for e proper rate protection so that no one loses out as a result of injury or
I'm only 27 now. Unless there is a radical change, by the time I'm 50 I'll be polishing the pit managers* boots for 50p a time. And the Sun
me I'm a highly paid miner!
We don't choose to go down the pit. My only option is the dole. And what could I do with E22 a week? I'd be better off if we took strike action for decent wages.
ne SusIAnaS a WOIe SUnKS. Whether it's down the pit or on the battlefield its us that have to fight the bosses' wars. There's not many bosses in society. But they've got the whip hand at the moment.
With a proper lead we could change the system and run it on
Page 11 scan of this page
ories own creation
aders considered the option of usle me mouse or cords to so disrup: le British Army that it would leave te Ulster Volunteers unchallenged in cland.
Strategy
aw, arching in Belfast in 1974.
FOLKS!!
RED GAME INGTONS !!!
The plan, as developed by Bonar
Carson and leading establish
IT'S CALLED "THE COLLAPSE OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM":
the parliament
Edward Carson figures Cenal expert Professor Dicey, was Lord Halsbury and constitufor the Tory-dominated House of Lords to either vote against or amend
Bill, by which voted the necessary money to pay the wages of the Army.
HOW CAN YOU CALL IT A GAME WHEN THE ODDS ARE". HEy!!
HOW DOES THIS GAME END 2
Two ploys were suggested by the
Tory and Unionist leaders. One wa to vote against the Bill, the other was to amend it so as to exclude the Arm DCIS used in Ulster.
neither tactic was put into operation mainly because a number of Tories very existence of the Army was too mccaine wit Ene
I THE GAME END WHEN THE CAPITALIST STRANGLE THE GUTS LAST PRI
The British
Army and
the strikes
of '74 and
'77
By Tom Marlowe
MONDAY's 'Day of Action' was the third attempt at strike action undertaken by the Loyalists in seven years. On the two previous the British authorities in cluding the Army, showed lit tle willingness to take on the Loyalists.
The first strike was in May 1974. It had two aims. One was to bring down the "power-sharing" government or the North of Ireland, led by Unionist Brian Faulkner and Gerry Fitt of the Social Democratic and Labour Party The other aim was to prevent the establishment of a Council of Ireland a move which had been agreed by the Unionists, the SDLP and the British and Irish governments as part of the December 1973 "Sunningdale' •HETECHECHE The strike was called by the Ulste Workers Council. It was backed by a number of Loyalist politicians, including Paisley.
The strikers were taking on the Labour government Harold Wilson, and its Northern Ireland Secretary, Merlyn Rees. Wilson went dangerous on television to denounce the strikers
this way, the Tories and their WILL UNE ATI as 'spongers', but this verbal assault in this way, the was the most vigorous opposition offriends in the military establishment fered by the government to the decided on another approach: to strikers spread military disaffection, even The Ulster Defence Association mutiny by Army officers. Prominent openly controlled the streets of in this conspiracy were Bonar General Wilson, operations in the war office, General director of military SLAW Belfast and other areas, setting up road blocks and carrying clubs to
Paget, commander-in-chief of the dissuade strike-breakers. Only at a British Army in Ireland and General very late stage was the Army used to Gough, commander the Third move then on a very limited operation. essential supplies, and even Cavalry Brigade
General Wilson was a fanatical BBC television in Northern Unionist. He also served on a govern- Ireland was allowed lo operate a
office committee which system of "balance" - when Rees atdiscussed how employed in Ulster in the event of the the Army would tacked the strike in a special broad cast, the strikers were given equal
rebellion coming to fruition. All time to reply these secret discussions he reported to Labour MP Paul Rose was to later Bonar Law who in turn passed them write that ine government had on to Carson and the Unionists "failure of nerve over the strike. This
Paget adopted a more direct ap- was true, but there is no doubt that
At a meeting with his senio even if Merlyn Rees had wished to officers in Ireland on 20 March 1914 take on the Loyalists, he would have he attacked *those swine" in found it difficult. government, and while not promising that he would mutiny, encouraged his The clearest evidence on this was officers to do so. an article later written in the magazine
of the right-wing Tory Monday Club Mutiny In this an Army officer maintained
that the government had decided to
One General Gough took the try and use troops to smash the strike hint and organised a mutiny at the but leading Army officers had refused Curragh barracks ncar Dublin. to implement the orders Gough, his three colonels and 55 of The 1974 strike was completely his officers declared that they would not move against the Loyalists if in- successful, tried again by the Loyalists in 1977, SO, when the tactic was structed to do so. He was immediate backed up in London by General the Labour government and its
SUCCIN state. Roy Mason, to put further pressure on the govern- adopted a different approach. ment. He told Asquith: It was the Both the Army and RUC were certainty of British support more actively deployed in 1977. But had made the strength of Ulster the circumstances were different. One resistance. of the aims of the strike was to bring
In the end, this resistance proved hack the old Stormont parliament. successful. Although the first world That would have amounted to han war materrupico tae connontanon in ding over all authority in the North of the Liberal or crement had Ireland to lan Paisley.
This Mason couldn't agree to. The capitulated Unionists and strike was defeated or was it? For Tories, and agreed to some form o the second demand of the strikers was partition. had threatened rebellione achieving this, the Loyalists for greater 'sccurity measures. and to this Mason capitulated
plied to them from British establish- bought arms, often with money mey sup- in the RUC, to provide them with bet- He agreed to increase the numbers declared their willingness to dely nly circles openly ter wcapons, to increase the strength
of the Ulster Defence Regiment and wishes of the British parliament. to increase the activities of the SAS.
In doing the Tories who all this they had had con- been detailed memorandum The proporandom thick mad which spired with the King. the House of been previously presented to Mason Lords and British Army officers to by the Official Unionists. Unionist State in the North of ireland. similarly defy of this the WIsncs Ot paria were enough to persuade the majority The concessions Mason made
of Loyalists that strike action was not was born. necessary.
Socialist Challenge 26 November 1981 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
The following interview MONTERREY, a central leader of the Association obtained in Managua on 22 September. The interview was conducted MATILDE ZIMMERMANN.
The Nicaraguan revolution is famous for the involvement women fighters both in the mountains and in the urban insurrections. How have the lives Nicaraguan women been changed by the revolution?
There have been big changes. We think there are still problems with the degree women are incorporated into the work This isn't because women don't want to work, or because
CONCERTEE doesn't want us to. The problem is the overall lack of jobs.
And it is still sometimes true in our country, that When there are two people for only one job, the job is given to the man.
We still have the situalion where women do certain types of work, the
Tory hypocrisy
By Chris Guthrie FEW black people would have been surprised by the Home Office report on racial violence brought out on 17 November.
It's hardly
HOWS
ranging from verbal abuse to the petrol bomb put through a letter box that killed a young Asian woman and her three children earlier this year in East London.
The Home Secretary William Vhitelav can call for a more informed" and 'sensitive' police force to give greater priority to reports of racist attacks but he promises very little to deal with right wing groups.
Of course, the 'climate' that he says these groups create are not created by them at all, but ayd abetted by Her Mad and abetted by Her Jesty's racialist Tory government.
The racial motives of the Home Office as they try to deport black women like Shirley Graham and
others; the violence of the Photo: MICHAEL ANN MULLEN
as they factories in search of illega immigrants; and the sus
harassment blacks get daily from the police, is no referred to.
Certainly Whitelaw doesn't say that black peopic have the right to delend themselves.
The twelve young Asians known as the BradSocialist Challenge 26 November 1981 page 12
Women in
Nicaragua
with GLENDA
of Nicaraguan Women (AMNLAE), was
in spanish by
types that require less physical strength, and generally carl less than male workers. To a certain extent this is a problem of our industry itself, which is very underdeveloped.
This is beginning to change, because women are getting more organised and participating in a more active way. Women are more organised now than we were a year ago.
Could you talk about some of the special problems of women industrial workers in Nicaragua?
It is our opinion that the women of Nicaragua, besides being doubly exploited, alsO heroic. Our women get up in the very carly hours, take care of all their children's needs. The big majority here are single STEEV 30 S work and come back in the
Bradford 12 show
that Asians and AfroCaribbeans are subjected to daily harassment
ford 12 are a case in point.
They were active against
FRETHE BRADE TRI
afternoon to yet housework.
And these paneras, when they do not also work outside the home, get no recognition for their domestic work.
The fact that they are working recognised by men, by their families. or even by society. We think that this type of work must gradually be changed into collective work and must
be seen as socially valuable by the rest of Nicaraguan society.
I guess AMNLAE's biggest campaign this year
18S- been to recruit women to the Sandinista People's Militias (MPS). What has been the impact of women joining the militias, on their families and on the women themselves?
Organising into the reserve battalions has not yet beer what you would call easy. I gave a speech in Jinotega in which I explained how hard it had been — not so much oraganise the racist harassment by the
tar right.
They also fought the Home Office and the police for the right of AnMildren to Britains Ditta to bring her
They were also active sup porters of similiar campaigns.
following their arrests in July, they are threaten-
ed heir endin the all
their lives because, according to the police, they discussed using petrol bombs to
JIND EN SUPPORTITE
News.
women win acceptance from the husbands, the families, and in some SASC from companeros within the military.
Participation in the militias began on a massive scale in mid-1980. But then it consisted of exer cises that were done cerTALE afternoons or a certain day of the week, outside the normal hours of work or school. It was hard work, but women did it, and they found ways to fit it into their schedules.
But the reserve battalions HELE WHEELIE
ing off to the mountan
mountain:
Tot two or unree weeks. ment of a different scop implied commit-
not just in terms of physical training but also of readiness to defend the against any type of aggres- country time, sIon.
But women have shown themseives to be capable of being reservists. There are five women's reserve battalions that have gone out so far. There were also young women who went out in the student reserve battalions. And women who participated in the mixed battalions men and women reservists.
noticed with the women's One we have battalions is that ine participants are not necessari-
not necessarily paneras from the barin but rather comUOUSCVIVCS LECHLECTS the Sandinista Defence Committees (CDSs).
We don't yet have a concrete plan for our work with women workers and
detend the black community. pleaded not guilty to the Although have charges "conspiracy" and although they are not charged with actually using petrol bombs five of them stayed in jail for five months after being refused bail.
In contrast, white racists in the same lown have readily been given
with
received light
sentences for physically attacking black people.
GUE
20
Glenda Monterrey peasants. But we're studying the situation, making tours to study the special problems of lactory and peasant women, listening
In addition being held so long without bail, one of the conditions placed on all the defendants is That they do not to to an! public meeting in any political activity
This clearly shows the political nature of their cases and the necessity o joining their defence campaign. Charges
On 15 November sup port groups from Bradford. stondon sheffield Leeds Manchester, Leicester and Birmingham set up a national mobilising committee to build a
to their And
perhaps for 1982, or for the national conference of AMNLAE in November, we will be able to begin to
national demonstration in Bradford on December, calling for the dropping charges against the Bradford 12
can reliance on Whitelaw and ine police to defend black people - it's up to black
STOP
DEPORTATIONS
MUMTAZ KIANI 8110
her young British
borr daughters ENTERE and Attia, are threatened with deportation under the Immigration Act. Mumtaz Kiant came to Britain in 1975 as a visitor and subsequently married here in April 1977. In May the following year she was given indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
In 1980 the Home Of-
Play the lines of our work with these sectors.
Reprinted from Intercontinental Press/Inprecor
peopie themselves with the aid of the labour move ment.
Join the demonstra tion and send resolutions of support and donations London Suppor Group, c/o 54 High St Southall, Middlesex.
Public Meeting
Thursday 26 November Millan Centre, 59 Trinity Rd,
London SW17
Organised by South London Support Group
fice alleged that Mumiaz Kiani's husband was and he was deported in 1987
Although Mumtaz Home coffee now cam the Home Office now that she been here without leave since 1977
hed are trying to deport
national protes demonstration has been orranised 28 November. Assemble 11.30am Infirmar Lane, Bradford & Lumt Fields, corner
Free the Bradford 12
Saturday 12 December
Assemble 1.30pm
Manningham Park, Bradfora
Page 13 scan of this page
Preparing for war: Reagans Middle East policy
Roots of the Middle East conflict
year.
from other EEC countries -
conflict.
Peace Plans in the smokescreen for imperialism's War Plans.
In the last two weeks
thousands of marines
have landed on the shores
of Oman and Somalia from US assault ships, the
Division
(paratroopers) were drop-
LIC Egyptian
desert, and B52 bombers
screamed halfway acros: the globe from North
Dakota to an airfield west of Cairo.
all thousands of troops, not just from the US but also from Egypt.
Oman, Sudan Somalia, HEVE participated in Operatior Bright Star, a show of
armed might worthy of a
Hollywood еріс. course this is real life, and it's the lives of the peoples of the Middle East which are in danger.
Purpose
Behind the twists and turns of the last few months is an artist with a purPosc. SNEL N IS lITl-
perialism and its purpose
is to mobilise an alliance between the US, Israel aginst ine Soviet Union and Arab states and against Arab revolution, particularly the Iranian revolution. All this at a time when direct Soviet influence in the area is at its lowest point for twenty five years.
By Charlie van Gelderen
ZIONISM as a movement was born in the nineteenth century. It aimed to bring the Jews back to Palestine and to establish a mono-cultural Jewish state.
From the start its principal leaders recognised that this could achieved al the expense of the native Palestinian population, Such views have been repeated ever since. As recently as 1967 the director of the Department of Colonisation of the Jewish Agency for Israel stated:
"The only possible solution lies in creating Palestine, orar Western Palestine, without Arabs...and there is no other way to do this than to transfer all the Arabs to neighbouring countries, to move all of them out of here. We should not leave a single tribe, and those transferred should be sent to Syria and Iraq.
From the beginning the Palestinans resisted Zionist colonisation. TeNAnCC WAs CADresseO IR ARTEsSenI of Jewish settlements by who had been run off their land, by the uprisings of 1920/21, and in great strikes
BRITISH TROOPS are to be sent as part of a 'peace-keeping force' to the Sinai desert next
The Tory government confirmed last Monday that British troops would join those
France, Italy and the Netherlands - to police the final stages of the Camp David agreement on the Middle East
But British troops will no more keep the peace in the Sinai than they do in the North of Ireland. NICK ROBIN argues that all the talk of
Middle East is a
All the 'Peace Plans' for the Middle East are really different attempts by the imperialist powers to defend their interests against potentially damaging conflict: The new Saudi Peace Plan, backed by Lord Carrington and sections of the US administration is very similar Ine famous Camp David Peace Accords which the late (bul not lamented) President Menachim Beein of Israc вдурІ and drew up.
New The new tenturas the Saudi Plan are the specification of the need TOT an "independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital' where as the Camp David TWEEHEI merely vided for "autonomy" on the West Bank and Gaza.
But also implicitly recognises the right of Israel to exist.
Inese two points could provide the for another "compromise LU please everyone everyone except the masses of lispossessca Palestinians whose right live INCIT OWE homcland is trampled on both Saudi Plan and ed by Zionist militias.
only be Zionism nas
fluential region.
and the Tsar of Russia. least
were able to well outside the borders
and to Bank, and Sinai.
This
the peasants Arab revolution.
the Camp David Agreements.
Nevertheless, in an at«CIUSG TEE C Israel/Arab conflict
press upon Israel the need ior compromise, Us mmperialism has a bargaining All the Peace Plans ignore the interests of
and street demonstrations in the 1930s.
These reached a climax month general strike in 1936 followed by a generalised revolt in the countryside, which was crushed by British forces aid-
But Zionism received the active support of British imperialism, which saw in it a safeguard for its oil interests in the Middle East and its route to India.
always allied itself with what it considered to be the most in-
imperialist powers in the Thus Theodor Herzl, its founding father, sought the support of the Ottoman sultans, the German Kaiser
The six-day war in 1967 came as a boon to the Zionist expansionists. With their vastly superior military might they
establish their superiority of the statelet created by the United Nations in 1948,
occupy the whole of the West the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights Zionism is the imperialist dagger in the Arab East and the chief agent of imperialism in containing the
The ideological justification for Zionism was always that it would put an
-International
counter against begin
regime which nitiall
deneunced the Saudi Plan. wants an enormous billion
1982 "defence"
Eis war) budget from the
Meanwhile the US imperialists cannot MAKE Donald McCullin, from Jonathan Dimbleby's book The Palestinians)
end to anti-semitism. In fact it has done nothing of the kind. Modern day antisemitism, like other forms of racism, is a product of the decaying capitalist system just as the anti-Jewish pogroms of the Middle Ages were the product of a dying feudalism.
Zionism has generated anti-Jewish racism where it barely existed before -in the Moslem countries in the Middle East. Because /Zionism represents the whole of world Jewry, every act of Zionist aggression against the Arabs leads to reprisals gainst Jews in the neighbouring Arab states
Zionists insist Zionism with should resist this insidious propaganda Anti-semitism, like all other forms of racism, serves the ruling class by causing divisions inside the working class.
Jewish revolutionary should support the struggle for a free Palestine, free from imperialism and its Zionist Arab. Jew and Christian together building a socialist Palestine as part of a Socialist Federation of the Arab East. There is no other road to peace in the Arab East.
their minds up over the Saudi Plan. One wing of the Administration feels it makes too many concessions to the Arab states, anther feels it provides mme pest soluton to ine explosive Middle East crisis.
One thing the imthe Palestinian masses (Photo by
insists that it
on identifying anti-
SOCIalISTS
Egy socialists
CraCSMe WEere
can live
perialists are sure about is their desire to turn the whole taking North Africa, the East Mediterranean and a slice OTOESIEA -InTO 8 us sanm arsenal for imperialism.
The first ,steps were taken on this road by former President Carter who drew up plans for a Rapid Deployment Force (RDF) permanently in the region. The Reagan administration is going further, creating a network of forward bascs for American units as in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia whose inhabitants have been displaced by US military hardware.
Threat
There is speculation in the press about the "prepositioning of 100.000 American m ne region One can im agine the Red Scare LINALOLLE
on possible Soviet RDF to be stationed in. tae Nicaragua!
whole Middle East is bristling with
The last few months in the
Middle East
June: Israelis bomb Tragi nuclear reactor.
Lebanon.
August: Libyan
to be sited in Sicily, aimed at the Middle East.
Saudi Arabi to be an Iran'
October 6: Sadat shot. His successor, Mubarak,
pledges to continue pro US-policies.
Juneral ex-Presidents Ford and Carter call for a
"dialogue' with the PLO.
October 18: PASOK elected in Greece ending fif-
ty years of right wing rule, pledged to remove ÜS
bases from Greek
Saudi capital Riyadh on behalf of the EEC and
expresses support for
Peace Plan. Israel
icipation in "peace-keeping' force in Sinai desert
as part of Camp David Accords
October 28: AWAC'S
Arabia to receive $8.5 billion worth of advance
radar planes and other hardware from US.
October 30: Israeli
responds that Saudi Plan is designed to liquidate
Israel.
OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Tel Aviv4
Jerusalemio GazaA
El Arish
SINAI
JAN1980 LINE*
Socialist Challenge
American weaponry The statistics are horrifying In the first half of the 1970s US the Middle East average arlis sales l $3.2 billion per year, more than the total sales over the previous 15 years.
And since then arm sales have nearly tripled they had reached 58.9 billion per year, ac counting for more than 69 per cent of total US arms sales. Israel has of course always been the main benef iey of these saldi Egypt and Arabia and other Gulf states are not far behind Part of the legacy the Vietnam War was the development of a huge capital intensive arms pro ducing capacity United state: which means that the US needs to produce and sell arms. More important the imperalists are desperate to prevent any more Iranian SCrotuHOns The Economist recently described Reagan's Middle East policy with the phrase visibility is the essence of „ deterrence" We prefer to call it warmongering.
July: Israeli troops invade and occupy southern plane shot down by US in Mediterranean. Italy annonces its Cruise missiles October 1: Reagan declares: "We will not permit
October 10: On the plane home from Sadat's
soil. Lord Carrington visits
the rediscovered Saudi
opposes European
deal completed. Saud
Prime Minister Begin
Damascus
Golan Syria
Amman
ISRAEL Jordan
Saudi Arabia 26 November 1981 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Where you can buy
Socialist Challenge
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Socialist Challenge 26 November 1981 page 14
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REVOLUTION Fed si Stemed 3961361 ar Beroc, 4040. Contact Bis
Letter!
in sight
AFTER Council typists and machine operators are very near to reaching a settlement of their 12 months old dispute over pay upgrading, more training and increased job opportunities.
On Monday November, an agreement was reached between the Liberal leader of the city counci. Trevor Jones and the typists" strike committee.
The Tory councillors ane agreement ond have the agreement and called for the sacking of all the strikers. They are accusing the Liberals of giving in and have condemn-
the agreement as 'charade" since it amounts to arbitration.
They have called for a special meeting of the city council to try and throw out the proposals.
The agreement, which is backed by the Labour group, provides tor the
Letters etter SETTERS
S NALGOS
LIVERPOOL
AXPISTS 4 MACHNE OPS
STRIKE FOR
RECRADING NOW
Liverpool typists-...
an agreement
18 weeks on strike, Liverpool City
setting up of a Joint Committee with an independent chairperson. The committee will consist of three persons nominated RALOO, three by the city strikers' WHIOH, council and a chairperson sclected 1TO1 HOTECO which the arbitration service, ACAS, will provide The chairperson will have to be acceptable to both sides.
The typists will present their case to the committee who will mediate between both sides. In the event of a failure to negotiate a sctuement, Ine chairper son will make the final decision. The committee is to take no more than eight weeks to make its decisions.
Letters
Letters
Hee
This agreement was ratified by a mass meeting of strikers with one vote against AL BEC HeLES the Liverpool NALGC Action Group circulated a newsheet which opposed the grounds that there should work while the committee
The strike committee had alrcady rejected this idea. They suspected that the city council would not
committee's decisions and have in sisted therefore, as part of the agreement that the findings should be binding. This has now been agreed so there is littie point in staging a strike while it meets.
The typists and machine •operators will stay on strike, however until the composition of the committee is agreed and they have voted .to escalate industrial action should the city council drag its feet.
ALAN WALKER, Vice-chairperson Liverpool NALGO
The JR of Doncaster
SOCIALIST Challenge's coverage of the Laurence Scott workers' struggle against Arthur Snipe's Mining Sup. plies Company has been of particular interest to me.
In the mines with Snipe when he was a deputy Cadeby pit, near Doncaster. Snipe was NOCTA T TECHIC OIC OS UIa prodding the roof with his deputy's stick, telling us that it was as sale as houses. No sooner did he say this than down came a slab of rock the size of a table top. It's: shame it wasn't three feet nearer would have crushed old Snipey and saved the LSE workers the trouble.
BETOE or workers under
into the quarrying business. when he patented the tool that made his fortune in later years. And the talk in the Labour clubs around Doncaster is that he didn't even invent the tool himself. But he made his fortune, and he's now the "JR of Doncaster". who will spend thousands of pounds on a St Leger COR WALC dreds of men to the dole queue.
from some time ago. stood up to him
A MANSFIELD READER workers Women continue
the fight
ment employees' union, NALGO
to the Women's TUC.
For many who OCE ACUVE ORESues au ting women in NALGO this came as a surprise. We ing siow but steady pro
NALGO called a national result. women's conference on 14 November and 163 delegates from 81 branches came together to tr to work out the reasons for our defeat and the best way forward.
The day covered a wide range issucs with workshops on sexual har rassment, new technology, rights of working parents, job sharing, feminist pracLocal™ working branches
working branches and the Women's TUC.
The conference, as well as allowing a vital exchange of experience, was able to develop proposals which could be fed back fo further discussion in the branches.
The workshop on sex-
Zoo Time
Wales to be their guest.
Ching's recent false pregnancy.
pregnant Princess there to gawp at.
PAT ARROWSMITH.
LONDON
late 1950s I worked in the then it
Obviously, his attitude to the wellhim hasn't
changed much. Snipe by name, snipe by
After Snipe left the mines he went This was
The kind of man
condemning hun-
So that's my knowledge of Snipe t's time someont When the Scotr's
workers win their struggle, they will have
my special thanks along with that of all THIS year's conference of the local govern-
saw a set back for women's rights with the defeat of motions both on positive action and reaffiliation
Dual harassment, for exampie, discussed the need to have women with specific responsibilits this the branch, Womer making SCURS plaint then would not have through did not steward if they wish to.
The workshop on the Women's TUC proposed that the next light in the union should be to toear le TOI the TUC -70 remove constraints from the Women's TUC which stop it trom being an ettec tive body.
This is vital because in NALGO many people have argued against affiliation on the basis that the Women's TUC does not have any real power.
It was felt that the conference had been very valuable and we agreed that a similar event should DeCENCH SERAHUA the autumn to allow natonal conterence motions TERRY CONWAY ISLINGTON NALGO London Zoo might like to consider augmenting its takings by inviting the Princess of
If the number of Zoo visitors increased as a result of prurient curiosity over Ching
surely it would increase astronomically were & caged
Page 15 scan of this page
By Simon Lockwood IN SPITE OF the rejuvenation of radicallyintentioned pop music in the past three years, I have yet to read a socialist perspective which gets past the 'well, far out' state.
propaganda force or a confirmation of change seems incapable of a political investigation into the true motivation and effects work.
The result of this has been to hand a critical carte-blanche to the pop wecklies.
Thus, when considering bands like Specials, Clash, UB40, Beat, Gang of Four, it is almost impossible not to see them within the traditional rock framework of "sound and 'visuals'. There is virtually no attempt to see these groups from an angle that
should command — that of political CULLETS
Searching around for a convenient peg DEPACE to hang this much needed' investigation, what could be more CUPCICEL BREE inc Clasn and Gang of Four treading boards again after all these months?
These two bands represent an interesting contrast witnt radical rock. The Clash personify the bad guys searching for truth, rock 'n' roll rebel
LOULLIC. while Gang of Four think it necessary to undermine the conventions of pop itself.
By examining sections of the Gang's career with relerence to that Clash, I hope to stir up some thoughts on radical pop can and can't hope to achieve.
-Other-
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A socialist
perspective
on radical pop
The left is quite willing to use bands as a
of their Much has been made of the dynamic of Gang of Four on stage; their ability to galvanise an audience, to translate ideals into rock 'n' roll action first time I saw them, I was impressed by the way they recreated the - anger, humility, chaos, democracy, all fused with anti-sexist sentiments. Impressed, but somehow marginalised Hadn't I been through this sort of stuff on lash's white riot tour?
Certainly there were significant advances. Clash i ne SCOTCUT have an anti-sexist thought in their collective braincell. But wasn't the Four's appeal just as physical, Just as male? I wasn't sure.
The rest the audience were less undecided and, after the fourth or fifth encore, I was in little doubt that here was rescrvoir of revolutionary potential waiting unleash itself on London's unsuspecting streets.
So happened?
The band released album that reassured their following but won few COLVETES. To me it sounded repetitive and smug.
The cutting edge of their lyrics was mostly submerg ed in their own political put together REVOLUTIONARY MARXISM TODAY ERNEST MANDEL Cloth, normally E10.50.
THE POLITICS OF COMBINED & UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT.
Prepublication offer: € 3.50 Will be £4.50 NICARAGUA: THE SANDINIST
Republication offer: E1.95. Will be
two unconnected ideas
and you get
- ронаса
enlightenment.
The music seemed
tuneless and leaden. This
was followed by a year's
the
UK. Reports broke
through of their Stateside
conquests, They were
LUDUECE oe conster.
ing settling in the more
'stimulating' atmosphere
of New York. And they turned down requests to
more prestigious
enefits both in this coun-
Ly and supposedly a pet concern.
Their re-emergence
Britain was heralded by
their second album
Solid Gold. A gross dis
appointment fans
know, it strikes me as just
unlistenable. The discovery
of irony as a lyrical device is
SOTEWITEL undermined by
the fact that large chunks
of words are inaudible. The micature of the is Lin. music plodding
'Paralysed" stands out from the morass but even that's more depressing than galvanising. The whole thing reeks of jamming in the studio, ultimate malaise popsters with cash but no inspiration.
In spite of all this, the obligatory promotion tour Pire attraction then ever
attraction then ever before.
People went, not to be challenged, but to be confirmed. The gigs had become institutionalised and lnc band trotted out their own past The response was as total and. it became clear, as ritualistic before. The only act of rebellion one expects from a heavy metal gig is the odd smashed betting shop window
It strikes me now of course, that the Gang of
our spectacle was alway
hat of the heavy metal monolith. That even when the really good material was fresh and challenging. they were actively undermining it with pomp and technology.
Is "Love like Anthrax' more resonant because it is announced as one or te "star numbers' by horror film lighting? As a total experience it may have more immediate impact. But what the song? Steamrollered by the desire to elicit a response.
Lightshows don't heighten people's sensibilities, they bury them They don't stimulate political action, they simulate it They anger, derail it. That's why the revolution never gets past the foyer.
han concentre four
harshly the because they do have genuine socialist aspirations, they think about
Under Review
cuitural implications. It
would have been far less
instructive to have focuss-
ed on the Clash because
their and
aspirations are so much
more transparent.
I was part of the Clash
white riot army. 1 went
pack, tour after tour, THE Joint Stock Theatre Group is about to go on tour by Hanif Kureishi. to see it in London recently where it can be seen in the West End's Royal Court Theatre.
Amina to the borderline. borderline between childhood and adulthood It's also the borderline bet ween Asian Southall and the alien, white-dominated world outside. And it's the borderline that she has to cross daily between two cultures one traditional Asian and the other, aggressively modern Western.
author
write aboul Southall from the stand point of the Pakistan community, rather than from that of the dominant ethnic group, the PunJabIs
His characters include
woman whose desire in life is to return to Pakistan (Amina's mother); a student belleves that the way for ward for Asians is to move upwards through the white educational system; two political activists and white Liberal radio reporter, Susan.
Amina's father is arranging a marriage for her.
The play is not Agitprop - the characters and the issues are complex. There aren't any easy answers and nobody is complerely right
CYCI with his traditionalist outlook and his obstinate
in the justice and fairness of British democracy, isn't altogether wrong about everything.
Only student, Haroun, stands complete-
condemned. -nOr the play ends with the historic National Front meeting in Southall and ahead lie the horrific DON CE violence and the vicious attempts to
looking to recapture the
unself-conscious unity of
1977 And I felt the per-
SENSE betrayal
when I realised that their
impact was, in fact, based
around i roll cliche in thie narcissistic
rock
book - which also applies
to a good number of their
songs.
Borderline-fast mowing
and very funny
with a new production Borderline JENNY FLINTOFT went
crush the Asian communi-
Although uncertain as
to the right tactics, the You they Asians understand
that and the com-
munity as a whole must
stick together. But
Haroon will not stay and
help defend Southall.
He is leaving for
University where he will
become a lawyer - not to
serve his community but in
OTUCTIO blend into the
white man's world.
young vigilantes of Southall
AN JOINT STOCK THEATRE GROUP & THE ROYAL COURT THEATRI
The point is that Gang of Four have fashioned ar influential campaign Au Pairs,the Beat - Ou
seen and breaking
repressior
divisive pop fantasies, only to resort to the same self-glorifying techniques themselves.
I would say that unless
The use of white actors to play most of the Asian parts worked well on the whole, mainly because the accents were convincing. But it was distracting to
Socialist Challenge
New Play or El Salvador
AMERICANS or LAST
TANGO IN HUA -
HUA TENANGO, bas-
ed the current
events in El Salvador.
The famous San Fran
cisco Mime Troupe
will be visiting
England next month.
From 8 to 20 December
they will be appearing
the Riverside
Studio, Crisp Rd
Hammersmith with
their new play.
the band can get the energy together to write a new riff and rethink their presentation they will be destined to remain an instructive irrelevance resting on the laurels of one ground breaking EP
Hopefully this article will encourage debate on a
crucial and neglected area. have Amina's father and one of the activists played by a blonde man.
More serious Is thi criticism that Amina's ag gressive sexuality the limits of credibility The author is attempting to challenge the stereotype of the passive Asian
but, while extremely amusing, it does not completely come off
These grumbles aside the play is well worth seecellent the dialogue is
- it sounds like people talking. And funny.
Borderline's first few productions at community
London have End told be s End Royal LOWE • due to end on 2 November. It will be bac there for two later dates
and 7 December On Mondays, all seats are f2.
Outside London it can be seen on the following dates:
On 30 November, the Central Community Theatre Scunthorpe: from 2 to
sity; from December Bosworth College and the Moa Community Leicester; December, Aston Centre for the Arts and Birmingham Univeristy. 26 November 1981 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Crucial jobs fight
Jobs Express:
WHEN the Jobs Express was speeding through Scotland on Monday, a report issued by the Scottish Development another powerful argument for a fightback on jobs. The report disclosed that the number of Scottish workers made redundant in the past year had increased by a massive 63 per cent.
Other evidence points in the same direction. At the end of October the research department of the white collar union ASEMS predicted that by the time of the next election there will 5.5m jobless.
If these gloomy forecasts are accurate it chose on the Jobs Express, WITO will be hit hardest.
But there is nothing in-
Laurence Scott
Socialist
Challenge
just the begining
Agency provided
evitable about the rise in unemployment. It will on ly occur il the bosses and the Tory government are allowed to get away with How can they be stopbed? By itself, the Jobs Express which ends its journey in London this weekend, will not stop the What b-cuting policies. also needed is a campaign of
OUT
LAURENCE
SCOTT
Ex 50, London Nt
action, the strength of which will force the johs battle into the centre of the political stage.
Part of such a campaign would be mobilising support tor nose who are already fighting against the sack. Ăt present, the best example is the workers at Laurence Scott In Manchester who, for the COSE SEVEE months, have been on strike against the closure of their lactory.
Sadly, the strikers are having to take on not just their bosses but the leaders of the engineering who have refused to back their members' jobs fight.
WORKERS at Laurence Scott Engineering have been on strike for seven months against redundancy. Despite their occupation of the factory being broken, hundreds of workers are continuing the fight against Arthur Snipe, boss of Mining Supplies, which owns the factory.
The magnificent example against the do-nothing tactics of the TUC leaders, their own union leadership, the AUEW ecutive.
But now their struggle has entered a new and decisive stage, and they are
victims of another massive attack - this time
the law. The Laurence Scott workers
picketing to extending the Mining 34G33
in Doncaster, to spread the struggle against Snipe. Six of the stewards at the fac-
Until the union Icaders
Laurence Scott unempiovment protest. they do support - such as the Jobs Express - will be seen as no more than token protests.
Jobs battles like that at Laurence can be won. There is the example Laurence Scott workers have set a
and the sabotage of
ex-
tory, including convenor Denis Barry, nave been served with injunctions ordering them Stop picketing their employer
They face possible "contempt of court' proceedings for their refusal TO BICAP TO SE
To eaten Pity are one
the unions. the sharp end of the Tory attacks on trade union
Bristol 27 November
•London
of the magnificent victory achieved at the Lee Jeans factory 1C.I Glasgow where a long occupation ended with the closure threat being lifted.
The Lee Jeans fight involved women workers,
them young women. And the fight for a woman's right to work is rights; their struggle must be supported workers,
The court proceedings against Deni Barry,
with Phil PennLOECLICI ing. Billy Partlan, Peter Rown,
Frank Stubbs and Dave Hallsworth has ACCOCIV Sunster edge to them The six under injunction tace the possibility of surcharge for the lost
their employer which could run THEM thousands of pounds.
The last time the Employment Act was used
this at the chloride way, workers
workers each. This time it could be
much more Partlan
Billy told
MEET THE JOBS EXPRESS
Support youths' demands for jobs, education, training anda voice
24 November Manchester -6 Sheffield
25 November •Birmingham Swansea November
Lobby of Parliament
another campaign that is an essential part of the jobs battle.
The Labour Party has called a demonstration for carly in the New Year on this theme. Following the
Express, "Woman's Right to Work DEST CHE ICAL HELORE mobilisation which needs to built if the fight against Socialist Challenge: •We're fighting for long-established trade union rights. We've always had to break the rules to defend workers' interests. The Tories will not pro duce rules which will guarantee our rights — we have to fight for them ourselves
Last Monday between two and three hundred people picketed Snipe's Doncaster plant, including miners from the Armthorpe pit workers trom International Harvester.
A big boost was given to the picket by the support of British Oxygen workers who respected the picket line, preventing essential supplies TrOM entering the plant.
23 Novembe Newcastle •Edinburgh • Glasgow
Liverpool Jobs for Youth
Festival
First ring top road barte
March and Rally
the dole queue is to be taken forward
In the meantime, march with those on the Jobs Express this Sunday Assemble Speakers Corner, Hyde Park at 11pm. And on Monday join the lobby of parliament outside the House of Commons at 2pm.
Next Monday will b Scott:
The mass picket
MinIng Sunniles will take place again and the AUEW
will HALONGE COITEL again whether to support the struggle
Laurence Scott workers have not only shown the to light unemployment, they are also in the lead of the fight against the Tories' antiunon laws as well. That's why thousands of people are needed next Monday in Doncaster. Be there! Mass Picket, Monday 30 November, Mining Sup plies, Carr Hill Industrial Eastate, Doncaster. Of A630. Starts 6.30am. Mass picket every Monday.
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