Socialist Challenge No. 240, A, 8 April 1982
The scan: sc-no240a.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.
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Challenge Labour must STOP THATCHER'S WAR DRIVE
MARCH AGAINST REAGAN, JUNE 6 LONDON
No. 240 8 April 1982 25р THE LABOUR MENT is being drowned in the biggest torrent of lies since World War I.
Ing defend islanders.
THE TRUTH: The navy is defending territory to which it has no rightful claim, ousned by an ol lobby which kills, robs and lies.
If the government is
Concenes rights of its subjects, why has it tor three years visited anguish on Britain's black people with deportation and exclusion orders under racist immigration laws?
evacuated the whole island of Diego Garcia tor mintary exercises. If it wants to give шле Sers •TOtection it should offer
with full resenement compensation for the
LIE No 2: the invasion happened because the island was undefended. THE TRUTH: The inva-
shore ent case
government clung onto the islands when they rightfully belong to the Argentine people.
The junta used Britain's false claim on the Malvinas the name by which every South American knows the Falklands do an ex-
internal opposition.
In 1969 the British government was negotiating sovereiguty. done so the junta would
Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
defend its adventure in front of the Argentinian people.
LIE No 3: the navy will аетепа treeaom in tne South Atlantic THE TRUTH: The Tories and their warships will
fight dictators.
Hieve Why did they keep aovernor Gairv in oftice until the Grenadian peo. ple rose up to oust him? Why did they send ob-
the election servers to farce in Salvador? Why is the warship Exeter still in Caribbean waters, where it went as part of the US show of force against Cuba and Nicaragua?
1979 they closed the door on the Argentinian refugees in the in terests of a joint 'strug gle against terrorism Only weeks they and their American friends were plotting an Argentinian invasion of El Salvador and Nicaragua.
This is why they are "They the Malvinas. can't even decide which dictator to back.
LIE No 4: The Labour Party Front Bench stood up to the junta in 1977.
THE TRUTH: Labour front bench knows bounds Healey, Callaghan, Foot and Silkin wanted to fight the junta, why did they fit out its navy between 1976 1979,
not even forme US President would trade with because of his human
rights policy?
The British Labour cabinet was Argentina's biggest military suppier. Ana it was on Labour's invitation that
finance minister Martinez de Hoz, his hands red with the blood of Argentine workers, was wined and dined in May 1979 by British businessmen in the London Hilton.
For six years since the military junta came
power Socialist Challenge has backed the Latin American solidarity committees in their fight with the front benches of both •ove ment parties end recognition of the
of Chile,
Argentina and Uruguay, of Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and to open the door to the refugees of these countries. For
Coll longer we have fought for the Labour Party to back the working class opposition of these cousines This is Tne course of action that will defend treedom: these are the people who know how to fight dictators.
A military adventure by the Tory junta will do
peoples of South Amer-
notning tor bruisa workers, and nothing for the sneers the shameful last gasp of choire with clothes. It must be opposed by socialists with all the strength they can muster.
INSIDE
TUESDAY'S meeting of the Labour Party International Committee rejected Tony Benn's amendment to its policy statement on
• Who really owns the islands?
How Healey armed the junta
Argentine's military dictators
Suez crisis
Bring back fleet, says Benn
fiveThe amendment said it 'opposes the despatch of the naval task force and the government's apparent intention to use it in war E
Argentinians believing this will imperil the safety of the Falkland islanders, which should be the prime concern of the
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Thatcher is preparing for war.
Not in defence of the Falkland
Islanders, as the Tories
but to defend
perialism's economic and military
interests in the South Atlantic. The duty is to stop this military adventure.
Its purpose is to shore up Britain's declining world military and
colonial role.
Michael Foot Healey's suggestion that a strong navy is an alternative to Trident is outrage.
strengthen all warmongers.
whole purpose of the
drive over the Falklands create better political conditions in Britain for closer with Reagan and US
imperialism. 'THE NAVY should be sent against the Argentinian dictators instead of to thé Caribbean', said Denis Healey as soon as the invasion came over the news.
tators. which he was chancellor supplied more arms to the Argentinian government than any other country -17 pereent of Avernment's total arms purchases.
government should negotiate from sirengul when acallg wild
dictatorships, as did the Labour ment,' said Labour's International Committee in. rejecting Tony Benn's motion to stop the British
What Labour's cabinet virtually equipped the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships. Arms
These arms were sold
ban on arms sales to the juntas of Chile and Argentina. The government sup
41 cent of Chile's arms.
It tried to sack Eric newer my a ror seak ing out against this, in supDOL Party policy — one year after the Chilean coup.
Britain might well be selling arms it could find turned against itself in the event of a conflict over the Falklands,' says a British Argentina Campaign pamphlet on the Argentinian trade unions produced in
This is backed up by reports from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which reveals that in 1977 the Argentinian junta had the following on order from British firms:
• 12 Seadart missiles, made by Hawker-Siddeley • 72 missiles, supplier BAC Sorry!
Last week's paper was badly printed in parts because o
rechnical reasons at our end. 24224388 Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982
Editorial
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Phone 01-359-8189/8180 (editorial and distribution)
The
pretend, a lasting disgrace. The British im-
those fighting for world over mediately first
waters.
and Denis repressive
the hilt.
This adventure will is even
The present for their is to weeks ago,
Tory col-
Nicaragua.
Labour's
hypocrites
Denis Healey should know all about fighting dicBetween 1974 and 1979 the government of
8 type 21 frigates WG-13 Lynx
helicopters
July the
Labour government suf-
tered a disastrous serback
An order for further
frigates : was lost to Blohm
and Vos of West Ger-
many, worth £500m.
Smarting from this
humiliating rebuff
HMS Par
dispatched
1 al
batness, armed to the teeth
for tour of Latin
America — to sell the arms
to the dictators there.
This saved the day and
subcontracts worth £100m
were given to Rolls Royce,
Westland and David
Brown. Vickers won con
tracts for two T-42
frigates, and in December
1978 a visit was scheduled
for Agosti, the
commander-in-chief of the
Argentinian Air Force,
60
wild was looking Tor
Hawker-Hunter aircraft.
Visit
Sad to say the visit was
cancelled personal
reasons' but, not to be
outdone, the Board of
Trade invited Finance
Minister Martinez de Hoz
lo speak lo a gatnenng o.
businessmen in the Lon-
don Hiton. to be address
ed by Labour Minister of
Trade John Smith.
The election stopped
John Smith speaking,
it didn't change anything:
his Tory counterpart took
over without
noticing the difference.
page 2
cher
awful jingoistic stance struck by the Labour leadership is
British Navy is hated by freedom the Should be imand unconditionally withdrawn into British territorial
The Tories have no interest in freedom and their navy will not protect it. They have backed the
Argentinian junta to the
Their contempt for democracy
more oovious now inat they have chosen Chilean support
military adventury Argentina. Only three the Tories were privy to a US-inspired plot for an Argentinian invasion of revolutionary
THIS
armed the junta: the Tories kept out the refugees ble to win back flagging support.' No, the ITN reporter quoted above was not talking about Thatcher, but with which until two weeks ago the Tories had 'warm relations'.
The junta took over in March 1976, to avoid the General Election schedulfor October. There have been no elections since.
Declaring his aim to be a war againsi terrorism. General Videla the dictator launched a campaign of terror.
The 85,000-strong arand the infamous ' Argentine AntiCommunist Alliance' death squads are reckoned to have caused over 6,000
Falklands Crisis
Socialists cannot reduce the matter to a choice between That.
Argentinian dictator Galtieri. The political character of the Argentinian government cannot determine our decision. real choice is between the rapa. cious claims of a still powerful British Imperialisin wanting hang onto its imperialist role and colonial possessions, and the just claims of a dominated country claims raised by Argentinian governments of all shades for 130 years.
Historically and economically
Falklands Islands Malvinas are an Argentinian possession. The present islanders were settled there a part of Britain's colonial occupation. They have no right to the territory against the rights Argentinians. •They should given the choice of coming under Argentinian jurisdiction, of com-
Public Meeting
Stop Thatcher's war
drive!
Britain out of the South Atlantic!
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square Monday 19 April 7.30pm Organised by Socialist Challenge
IS ARGENTINA 19
8,000 DE
000 MODICA
15,000 DISAPPEAR
Lest we forget: demonstrating against the World Cup visit in 1978. Healey
Argentina's junta
THIS FIERCELY monetarist government rules the country with a rod of iron. But it is now in desperate trouble. Riots in the streets and growing trade union opposition have led it into a desperate military gam-
20,000 have 'disappeared - kidnavoco ov armeo or oad military forces and neve heard of again The claim of a struggle against was usual, the cover for an attack against the unions which in Argentine are the regime's greatest threat.
There are six million workers of whom around four million are in the CGT, the main federation. Anti-union laws have sought replace union leaders by military figure imprison- punish StriKers ment up to ten years, ACCESS. disband unions and change the law regulatillg sacklilg allu ull
Wing back to Britain or moving to any other place which will grant nemsenement. cial compensation British government.
The The interests of the Islanders
will never be served by support for a false and unjust claim to British sovereignty over the territory of the Malvinas wealth in une round them. * They have been government which has followed the dictates of an oil lobby bent on private greed at the expense of all else.
Imperialist military action can1700
not be supported as some way of
defeating thee cod Are tsuan
junta. the military action provides the one be justification that the junta claims
in front of the Argentinian masses recently in rebellion fair dismissal allow political sackings
No, the man's name is Videla, not Tebbit.
The unions, with tremendousiv strong shopfloor organisation, have
stopped fighting back and last week called demonstrations of several
and Cordoba, confronting the pole in man sco battles.
Telephoned reports from Argentina suggest that although
LIC Calle over the Malvinas is immensely populal. this has not benefited the dictatorship The CGT has said that though it supports the claim it has no intention of
LUCC fight against the ment. Newly-freed political prisoners have announced that they will
- with full finan- movement from the down.
Argentinian
the mineral waters that sur- sion.
duped by a
determination
desperate
• contrary such
against adventure
WITHIN WEEKS of coming to office the Tory government began turning away Argentinians seeking refuge from the military junta
files. Below are just three:
Alicia Beatriz Weiland Age: 28 Profession: journalist Serving eight years in Villa Devoto with more than 300 other women
Adopted by the London Latin American Women's Group REFUSED ENTRY 22 June 1979
Walter Desiderio Salinas Pobleto Age: 46 Profession: public employee Arrested 28 August 1974 Adopted by Manchester Central Branch ASTMS UK visa applied for June 1979 REFUSED ENTRY 16 October 1979
Ruben Oscar Suarez Ace: unknown Profession: unemployed Arrested 5 June 1973 for 'terrorism' Serving 16 years
UK visa applied for June 1979 REFUSED ENTRY 3 August 1979
resume opposition.
The Argentine economv is in deep crisis with inflation still running
100 per Coll Unless Thatcher gives the lunta the excuse to diver the union opposition, the government could well be on the point of falling
Our numbering is out of sequence.
SIon will be numbered accordingly
Acknowledgements Our thanks for their help ir Comons inese pages Committee for Human Rights
Argentina, Latin Newsletter, British Social Responin sclence
Our confidence and support is ex. tended to the Argentinian labour to bring InIs junta
Part of our solidarity with the trades union federa tion, the CGT, is the demand that the Tories open the doors which they closed in 1979 to those flee. ing the junta's murderous repres
The political stakes in this crisis are extremely high. Already Lord Carrington has been forced to resign, and Thatcher has stated to use military force against the Argentinians is a bid to shore up her shaky government. A determined opposition by the Labour leader. ship could bring her down The present course of Labour's leaders will fan the flames of right hysteria and compromise Labour in a reactionary military
Freedom fighters
who didn't get
British support
The Committee for Human Rights in Argentina has hundreds of such cases on its Arrested at her home on 11 November 1975 Adopted by Edward VII teachers, Sheffield
The best method of fighting the dictatorship is to strike up links with the opposition in Argentina recognise the just claim of the Argentinian people to the Malvinas and join forces to overthrow tyran on both sides of the Atlantic.
For your archives
The issue dated I!
March should have been numbered 236 instead of 237 All subsequent numbering has been wrong. In order to get back into sequence we have numbered this issue 240 which repeats last week's number. Sorry for any contu
- and bulk subscribers please note your invoices
WE shall be carrying a full report Nationo Sales Day next week.
All the signs are that it was a big success especially in those areas where estate sales were tried.
Meanwhile, remember
Socialist Challenge sales
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Who really owns the islands?
THE MALVINAS - as all South Americans call the Falklands the company that makes the poisonous 245-7 weedkiller. The company - Coalite Limited -took over in 1978 when oil was found between Argentina and the Malvinas.
Dioxin behind the killings and maimings the 'agent orange' defoliant in the Vietnam War.
which a toxic cloud poisoned a whole town.
plant killed one worker and injured 79: since then the company has blocked all attempts to investigate the incident and its after-effects.
Coalite, which made £19.7m after tax in 1981 and whose turnover has
from £26m to £358m since 1972, got the Falkland Islands in its 1978 takeover of the Charrington, Lockett and
includes Dormobile and LIC Glover, Webb and Liversidge company which
armoured desert patrol vehicles.
In a 1976 advert Charr-
isolid fact, ye oils,
*Solid fuel, oils, builders' merchanting,
production, warehousilig, Shoppin Sea holl and com- sheep farming, North puter services.
They took over the 'Falkland Islands Company' 1973 from the Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Company a subsidiary of the Slater turn got the islands in 1972 Walker which as North Sea Oil began to alract senous interest and coal companies began to diversitv into oil.
Strangel enough this last tact did not tigure in Charrington's 1976 adverLocalcul which how it backs up the gallant
determinatior
fees and a hontribution
with a 'contribution
wool e y hear superb
WOUL every which company pockets £400,000.
describes itself as 'the biggest employer on the island'. This is overmodest. The company is the island. It owns fifty per cent of the land outright and twent-nive per cent through interlocking dırectorships
It owns all shops, all auctions and wholesaling, the banks and the shipping line that takes goods to the island and wool back Bradford where it is sold to merchants David Smiths, whom Charrington's have a fifty per cent interest.
IT Course a cocu concerned company. 'We
discharge our responsibility,' it explains, 'not lust as regards conditions of employment but
sponsoring social al tivities and community efforts.
also displays due patriotic concern on the islanders' behalf. 'The company is pledged to do
Britain does not let them down, ' it Get ares.
Whatever it did for the islanders must have been successful since the government retreated
intention, leaked 1969, of ceding sovereignty to Argentina.
are almost wholly owned by
Freedom is close to Coalite's glowing heart. the main component of 245-T was
caused by
It caused the 1976 Seveso disaster in Italy in
In 1968 an explosion in Coalite's Bolsover
This patriotism may have had slightly more to •• with ine minerai oro. spects off the island than
specting began in the early
when Charringtons took over the islands and Shell made its first oil strike off Tierra del Fuego in 1977, a year before Coalite's takeover.
Surveys suggest that the thickest oil-bearing strata are to be found on the 'putative median line' between the Malvinas and Argentina other territory stir he Brise
will islanders' patriotic spirit (and, of course, Coalite's) is duly rewarded by Mrs Thatcher.
Coalite is well-suited to inherit Charrington's treedom-loving, spirited defence the
byshire plants were a continual source of complaint from miners who found heavy pal over everything smoke hung "like but found the Culbally strangely unwilling to do anything about it
In 1968 an explosion in its Bolsover plant killed one worker and injured 79 more, exposing 90 in all to toxic by-products of the low-temperature carbonisation process which creates Coalite at the same time as a host of dioxinrelated poisons.
Coalite continued using these products to make
245-T until the Seveso incident but has tended keep its reasons to itself Indeed chairperson Needham' unexpected
audience since 1976 when the company stopped talking to the press.
In 1977-78 Coalite was forced by pressure from the Health and Safety Executive to authorise follow-up study of workers exposed to the explosion's effects. It then refused to publish the results, blocking a turther study by in the Health and Safety regulations despite appeals from the Health and Safetv executive the and Derbyshire County Council.
Desert Patrol vehicle made by Coalite subsidiary Glover, Webb and Liversidge
Falklands Crisis
Ms Jenny Martin, the clinician who carried out the study, finally published some of the results in
medical journal Lancet. Her house was subsequently burgled and records of eight subjects of the study were removed.
There is no duplicate copy and the work is now lost. Macclesfield police say the case remains on their books as unsolved.
Perhaps they are too
....I STILL THINK IT WAS A LITTLE
RASH, JOHN.
busy with the growing
threat of street crime to
investigate the rather
obvious possibility for a
connection between
this and a mugging
whose scope far ex-
ceeds anything that
takes place on
streets: the mugging of
peoples the South
Atlantic by the oil com-
panies and Margaret
Thatcher, hysterically
egged on from the
Labour benches.
THE ARGENTINE people's claim on the Malvinas as they call the Falklands has been part of their 130-year fight for independence.
They all see the 100-odd islands as part of Argentine territory. Every village has a street named after them.
When the newly-formed Republic of Buenos Aires won independence from Spanish in 1820, it also secured Spain's rights to the islands, and set up a
Britain and Spain both claimed discovery and contested sovereignty until
the nev Argentinian republic
The British had not
possession since 1774 when they ended a three year occupancy.
But they left behind a flag and a plaque on which their present claim rests.
In 1832 the Argentine appointed governor im-
BRICK
Independence
and the
Falklands
pounded three US ships for infringement of fishing Washington SCHILS organised a naval assault and trampled on the Argentinians. A year later British re-occupied militarily, expelling all the locals Since then they have maintained the occupation with a settler population composed entirely of people from the British Isles although the British claim has never been recognised internationaly and the United Nations has made repeated attempts to make Britain settle the issue. issue.
The Islanders have been victims of British am. bitions to rule the seas. As a leaalng haang nation control of trade routes allowed Britain to dictate •terms to its rivals and sup pliers. The Malvinas gave them control over the vital South Atlantic passage round Cape Horn at the tip of South America.
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982 page 3
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- Tories plan new fake devolution-
By Phil Hearse BRITISH imperialism throughout the 20th Century has been a declining world wars have destroyed the British empire.
rising nationalist movements and fought series of bloody rearguard actions to defend its colonial remnants.
Malaya, Aden, Kenya and Cyprus. In addition to fighting to keep its last outposts, British imperialism fought together with the United States against the revolution in Korea.
British troops between 1945 alre 1947 JOCOI against the Communist-
Greece. But the last great
British imperial interests against world UDI1IU1I WaN doubtedly the attack Suez in October 1956.
The conflict arose out of the decision by the Egyptian nationalist leader Nasser to nationalse the Suez canal.
Nasser came to power in a coup organised by Junior THIS WEEK, Jim Prior unveiled his plan for 'rolling devolution' in the North of Ireland. Already, all the major parties in the North have denounced the unworkable. Like other schemes before it, the Prior than the paper it is printed on. What is important for the government is not whether a particular plan for the North of Ireland works, but whether it looks as if it is working.
If it succeeds in getting at least the 'respectable politicians from both com-
RIGHT! WE'RE HERE TO WELCOME SIR KENNETH
NEWMAN TO LONDON CORMAC
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982
The fiasco last time...
The Suez
adventure
imperialism. Two
After the Second World War, Britain faced
British troops fought in
nationalist officers 1952, overthrowing the despotic King Farouk. The canal, a key transit point for Western shipping was owned by the internationally-run Suez Canal Company. The Company in turn was dominated by
Nasser's intention was to use control of the Canal - which after all was on Egyptian territory put the squeeze on ships to and from Israel.
government allies in the adventure, the:
French, were less concernWILl LEUS LAdE LIC development of the radical nationalism in the Middle
Bevan speaking at Trafalgar Square on Suez 4 November 1956
White Paper proposals as
plan looks set to remain less valuable
munities around the same table, then a body which be presented to the ROYAL
POLICE page 4
East which Nasser represented.
Together with the Israelis they hatched a plan to overthrow Nasser. Israeli would
I11vade Egypt and fight their way to the Suez canal. The British and French would call both sides withdraw ten miles from the canal, and in the face ol gyuan rerusal, would send troops 'separate the contending sides
The British armada that set off from Malta was rather more formidable than that presently lumbering to the South Atlantic. 130 war ships were involved, together
over 100 troops freighters.
ine attack startea on the evening of 31 October WiCI 240 and French planes bombed the Egyptian ports. Landings Followed on s Novemoop. British paratroops world as democratic and representative of all tions of opinion will be useful to denounce "terrors due generally ove voice to the opinions of the British government.
Whatever the govern-
In the South of Ireland may say all indications are that it is in favour
providing much stability for British terests in Ireland as possible, and moving into the
AND I DON'T WANT
COMMENTS ABOUT THE ULSTER CONSTAB ULARY! NO JOKES ABOUT INVOLVEMENT WITH
Falklands Crisis
The response of the labour movement Was rapid and vociferous. On 1 Novembel the House of Commons had to be suspended. for the first time since 1924, such was the fury of Labour MPs.
The Labour Party organised a campaign of marches calling for Anthony Eden's resignation, which culminated huge demonstration Trafalgar Square on November, addressed by both Gaitskell and Bevan.
DIO ceeded world opinion moved against Britain Most importantly, the United an perialist rival of Britain in
the Middle East, opposed the Franco-British invasion
The decisive weapon of the United States was economic. There was a run on the pound internationally, and Britain's gold reserves collapsed. A loan
of £300 million was arranged with the International Monetary Fund, backed the United States - on condition that Britain arranged ceasefire, and that United Nations LOUDS replaced the British and French. Eden
Eden agreed without consulting the French. The Suez fiasco was over. The Labour Party later calculated that cost around £330 million 1950 Huge amount prices.
The failure of the Suez operation to either win back control of the Canal or to dislodge Nasser was a devastating blow BrI tain's imperial delusions, which al c unfortunately being re-born the Falklands 1956 the Labour leadership fought the imperialist banditry of the Tories. Today things are rather different
Wher Ine British troops were withdrawn the Tories looked stupid and Eden eventually resigned. This time both Labour and Tories are going to look extremely stupid Western military alliance.
At a recent lunch for top US businessmen in New York, chane Haughey, the Irish Di clice. was asked about his country's views on NATO 'Ireland', replied, "is part of the Western ethos, it shares the principals of the West, in this sense it is not really neutral all.' As US Secretary of State and warmonger Alexander
OKAY! 1 THINK THIS
HIM COMING NOW-
JUST REMEMBERNEVER LET HIM HEAR YOU USE THE PHRASE " TORTURE IN CASTLEREAGH BARRACK"!
By Niall Power
Empire itselt - in Dublin.
Though little more than 1500 volunteers took part, and although only in isolated cases did it spread outside Dublin, this rising lasting less than a week was to rock Britain's hold over Ireland, and indeed all imperialist occupations around the world.
Other risings took place that year in both
French and German colonies, and a mutiny of Indian troops took place in Singapore
In Ireland the revolt was organised by the nationalist movements, or canse ov suck beo t as Patrick Pearse and Tom Clarke and a section of the workers movement, mainly organised in the Irish Citizens Army under the Marxist James Connolly
They saw that Britain had no intention of granHaig remarked, That's some man'!
The role the Americans behind the scenes in the Anglo-Irish business Is being increas ingly recognised. Even the 'elder statesman' of the Official Unionist Party, James Molyneux, now claims to have seen documents demonstrating CIA involvement in the assass natol promi nent politicians, as part of
ANNOY.
British soldiers among rubble of wrecked buildings in Dublin
The Easter 1916 rising
WHILE BRITAIN was fighting the first 'Great War' against its imperialist enemy Germany in 1916, a rising took place in part of the British
ting independence IrelandEngland's and calculated that danger' (the world war) was 'Ireland's opportunity The Citizens Army had been formed the previou year in the large scale industrial disputes the Dublin lockout of 1913 -protect workers from the assaults of the police.
Connolly believed that Britain did not intend to give Ireland independence after the war, and that it was clear that the British establishment intended to retain its hold over the island through a policy of partition.
Far from partition producing opportunities for socialism in either part of the country he calculated that it would produce a 'carnival reaction' north and south. The history of the sixty years of the plot to pull Ireland into NATO
Concretely, Prior proposing new elected 'Assembly'. . Would it have any powers? The answer seems to be that it might if Jim Prior thinks it is mak ing sensible choices.
First, a decision car only be made if 70 per cent Assemol agrees But if the British Minister Northern fairs thinks a measure has
THWEKS
partition showed that this was all-too-true
The British authorities responded to the rising with five days of military encirclement Duolll with artillery fire which was supported by one of their gunboats on the River Liffy.
Many civilians and of course Irish rebels died through this action and the centre of Dublin was
Following British executed all the man leaders come tod wounded Connolly strap-
who were patently not even cauer
The majority of the Irish peoble were to give their support to the rising
latel Lilt general election, where Sinn Fein won a huge vote. The international working class was to follow the
Kussa and then Germany and beyond an even shorter period.
broad support, then a normal vote would do. Why bother to take a vote at all? Why not admit that the whole proposal is a sham?
Reactions to the initiative are mixed. Irish leader Charlies Haughey and John Hume from the SDLP rejects Prior's plan because it concentrates on the North and doesn't have enough of an 'Irish dimension
James Molyneux from the Official Unionists and lan Paisley from the ex. treme DUP reject Prior's plan because they suspec an Irish dimension. All c which suggests that like hundreds of other British
for Ireland James blalls Prior's proposals will pro. ve unworkable
The Unionist monster, with its sectarian oppres sion and hatred of the people of Ireland was created by the British when the mass of Irish people were fighting for the removal of the British altogether. l may have outlived its use but they have neither the strength nor the desire to break from it. Democracy, as proposed by Jim Prior, is a joke.
Page 5 scan of this page
certainly victory D'Aubuisson's fascist defeat for the Christian President Duarte. The
Salvador government.
with the objective support for the United against the revolutionary Farabundo (FMLN).
But this gigantic stunt was a failure, if internanonal recognition and support was the objective.
All parties standing in the elections were required
list of 20,000 names and addresses supporters to the authorities. ror ine fell to nave stood the elections would have been to hand over a massive hit list to ine acaln souads
In any case, electoral fraud is the stock-in-trade of the military rulers of El Salvador. In civil war conditions the holding of elections was a farce.
The elections, far from showing El Salvador to be lighted 'democracv' onlv high-
the repressive Coaracted ot the regime. During the election campaign tour Dutch nalists from the religious
were murdered, probably by the National Guard.
Before and during the elections the FMLN demonstrated its ability to launch attacks wherever they wanted, including in the heart of the capital San
Western government
gave any 1csltion to the elections was the wretched Thatcher government, one of only eight out of sixty-eight governments asked to send observers.
The only success for the regime and the United States was the numbers wild votcu — one million. A number of factors explain this higher than expected turnout. First, the large and relatively prosperous middle classes in the towns turned out en masse. They
FRRG
The ultra
right defeat
the far right
WITH most of the returns in, the result of El Salvador's much vaunted elections is almost
for Major Roberto ARENA party and a Democrats led by elections had been prepared for more than a year, with the intention of giving a 'democratic' facade to the El
It was a gigantic public relations exercise,
of winning international States' war effort guerrillas of the Marti National Liberation Front
see the revolutionaries as a threat to their position, and formed the mass base support for D'Aubuisson.
Since voting is compulsory and identity cards are stamped 'has voted' urban LUVI feared reprisals if they did not TWO IMPORTANT
of El Salvador Wednesday in Central America.
duran Airlines flight.
the danger of being Salvador where their lives will great danger.
The El Salvador Solidarity asking for telegrams to
tions to Costa Rica and Honduras.
Telegrams protesting
Rodrigo Carazo, Rica, Palacio
to: Sr. Edgardo Paz Barnica, de RRLI, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Wall grafitti: 'Yesterday Nicaragua, today El Salvador, tomorrow
vote. In the countryside the peasants can expect a nicasue protechon from the FMLN, but in the LOWITS the ICUI COSIUlI fierce, and there is virtualno defence against the death squads.
It was asking a lot of the workers in the towns to boycott the ballot. Even so those voting spoilt their more than 12 per cent ballot papers. countryside and even SULLIC the military aCLIOl and bovcott call disrupted the election completely.
I ne outcome is almost certainly the demise Duarte. The Christian Democra In Lne junta have in any case always •centre captives of the military, and in particular of defence minister Jose Garcia.
Lives of FDR
leaders in
danger
leaders of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR)
were arrested last Farid Handal was arrested at Costa Rica airport after arriving on a Panama airlines flight from Nicaragua. Cardona was arrested at Tegucigalpa airport in Honduras after arriving by air on an Hon-
Both these important leaders face
deported to El be in
Urgent action is needed to free them.
Campaign is be sent from labour movement and other organisa-
the arrest of Farid Handal should be sent to: Liciendo
Presidente de Costa Presidencial, San Jose, Costa Rica. Telegrams protesting the arrest of Ramon Cardona should be sent
Ministerio
AYER NICARAGUA HOY EL SALVADOR
MAÑANA BUATEMALA!!
El Salvador
When Sunday David Blundy was interviewing Duarte a right wing officer came into Duarters chair tee
Duarte's chair. character of the military who run the regime, and their relationship
Duarte is excellently summarised by this anecdote.
Duarte will in all bability now just pack his bags and leave the country.
For the United States, D'Aubuisson awkward figure.
Cashiered from the army deported from the United States, leader of the death squads and responsible for the murder of Archbishop Romero, who spoke out for the poor and against the repression, D'Aubuisson is not SOIL of figure wno me United States can parade as a democrat.
The plan proposed by US ambassador Deans Hurton is that a new threeperson junta will be formed including two Generals and one civilian, but not including D'Aubuisson.
Generals will include Videz Cassano, head LIC in chers. D'Aubuisson could then be the leader Constituent Assembly, the
alliance with the of Icaucts
If the United States at least for the time goes along with this arrangement, the result
of the war. D'Aubuisson is known to tavour calling in the Argentinians and other right-wing Latin American FMEN with a real inter- confront national brigade' of counter-revolutionary A new and terrible escalation of the slaughter is on the cards.
D'Aubuisson's ARE NA party Has maae massive political advance during the elections. Now the virulently anti-communist middle class have their man in power, and they will want decisive action to will labour movement in Bri- the war. For
tain and internationally, a new stage of the war mus be met with a new stage of the solidarity movement.
The March 28 demonstration was a good start, but not nearly enough for the job of stopping the thatcher governmenl giv ing active support to the criminal of the United States. pullin In ticular, the trade unions and Labour Party, despite the resolutions of Labour Party and TUC against the elections, were not well represented.
For socialists a crucial task in the coming months must be to fight alongside
the FMLN. And first and
that building a gigantic wave of demonstrations against Reagan when he comes here in June.
Guatemala!'
Times
with
pro-
the army
being
can
the
the
par-
the
money now!
Bristol Newport Preston Lambeth Tower Hamlets Nottingham Wakefield Glasgow Ford worker Misc.
Previous weeks Grand total
Shortfall for the Quarter
Whatever the outcome of the elections, El Salvadoran army was the victor
Socialist Challenge
FUND DRIVE '82
Help us fight
Falklands adventure THE RESPONSE of the Parliamentary Labour Party to the Tories' Falkland adventure has been pathetic. Sud denly discovering that the Argentinian junta is fascist — which they didn 'tapparently know when in government they sold Argentina its navy -have been even more war-mongering than the Tories.
When Eden sent British forces against Egypt over Suez in 1956, the Labour Party launched a huge campaign against the Tories.
Today things are different. We are faced with a fight inside the labour movement to call the Labour leadership to order, to fight for opposition to this adventure by British imperialism.
We are going to need money for this fight. In our campaign against British imperialism, we want to build up our campaign against Reagan's war drive.
The next couple of months are going to be very heavy ones in terms of our campaigns and hence very heavy on our pockets
Last quarter's fund drive finished £800 down. If the fund drive doesn't reach its target, it's the campaigns and activities that go, because the production costs of the paper are more or less fixed.
So if you want us to make our contribution to building mass activities when Reagan comes here in June, if you want to help us fight the disastrous course of the Labour leadership on the Falklands, send us
This week we received f594. 70 and we'd like to give our thanks „to our supporters in the following towns:
€25.00 60.00 30.00 100.00 80.70 171.00 54.00 42.00 15.00 17.00 £14,626.91 £15,221,61 Fund drive target £16,000.00
£778.39
Michael Foot and co Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Trident
By Martin Meteyard THOUSANDS Glasgow this Saturday, 10 April, in opposition to the Tories' plans to base Trident nuclear submarines on the Clyde.
The march, which leaves Blythswood Square at llam and ends with a rally on Glasgow Green at noon, has been organised by the Scottish Campaign Against Trident (SCAT).
SCAT was set up last year by a group of CND activists who saw the potential public opinion on Trident.
Getting rid of all nuclear weapons is such a mammoth task that many people see it as unrealistic. But stopping a load of
new missiles is another matter, particularly when they're going to be based right on your doorstep.
New
SCAT's first job was to exnlain that Trident is something new 'first SUNKC weapon represents massive escalation ot the existing Polaris system. And for this we're being asked to fork out f10 billion at a time when jobs, wages and social services are all on the chopping block.
The government dead against unilateralism when it comes to nuclear disarmament. But Trident shows they've got nothing against unilateral rearma-
The message is getting across. rollowillg LIC evidence of polls taken during the Hillhead election, phone-in on kadio scotland last rridav showed no less than 84 per cent of callers opposed to Trident.
And people al Ci startled into awareness of
By Stewart Maclennan, West Scotland area secretary CPSA (personal capacity)
THE RECENT trade union conference held by
the Scottish Campaign against Trident (SCAT began to get to grips with the problem of organising nuclear weapons in Britain.
Bill Niven of AUEW TASS described the work of shop stewards Vickers, Barrow where the Trident missiles are to be built, to devise schemes for alternative socially useful production. He emDiasset HOWEVE such programmes have always OCCI resisted by manufacturers and government and cannot be realistically seen to be the decisive means of stopping Trident.
With mass unemolovment imposed as a weapon of tear against trade union militancy, it is a stark fact that the Vickers workers will build than go on the dole, unless
can back up its moral ex-
with mortaliulis organised mass movement capable or coordinating, sustaining and protecting
Sociatist Challenge 8 April 1982. page 6,
March against
of people will march through
what Trident means, they begin to think more seriously about the issue of nuclear weapons whole. It's not too surpris-
Scottish Campaign Against Trident
STOP
TRIDENT
NUCLEAR MISSILE BASE EASTER DEMO Glasgow-Saturday 10th
April, 1982
March starts -11-00 a.m.
Blythswood Square Rally with Speakers & Entertainment = ing that the _polls now show majority in scotland also in tavour of unilateral disarmament.
But it's Trident that
Trade unionists against Trident
mass trade union action against
strike action in the key
areas of weadons produc tion and installation.
Base
These prodiems become increasingly com-
tive base — the Clyde sub-
(CSB)
Jasc Faslane and Coulport in the West Scotland, already notorious the home of Polaris. This site, contrary to its popular image as a small semi-secret American base, massive industrial comPousand manual, several employing severa
area of massive
The only practical socially useful alternative employment which could
has to be stopped
- and now. Work on the site was originally planned to start early this vcar. l seems that the volume of protest has already forced a delay.
But Thatcher's blood-pact with Reagan the project will go ahead unless the opposition can be mustered to prevent it. 420 Sauchiehall St. Glasgow 041-332 3141
Trade union support will be crucial. And this must go bevond the usual bout of resolution-
Every Laud unionist must feel involv-
be offered by this war machine would be a short. term one demolition! tie workers loo have problems within their own ranks. lnere is a nistory or division between the Inaustrial saaes organised
TGWU EETPU and the nonindustrial grades in the civil service unions.
Within the latter, further Dolena scuss aso exis between the highly skilled SC CHUC SLOT the
clerical grades.
movement in Scotland is
Scotland against
Reagan
So you thought last year's demonstration of
a quarter of a million against nuclear missiles
was big? Well, for 6 June,
calling on its supporters to organise transport
for double the number who travelled down to
London in October
Match that,
we'll really put Reagan in his place!
Stop the missiles
ed, and that they are con tributing something to the
The Rolls-Royce shop stewards Glasgow, have given an excellent lead in this respect. They decided to circulate SCAT's petition round every single worker on the manual side - and ask for
donation at the same aime. se resuit a massive shopsoor about Trident discussion and the nuclear weapons Issue, and a collection of £207 in small change
Rally
Another good example ot what can be done was i trade union rally against Trident organised Paisley CND last week. Every major workplace was leafleted for the meeting, and this was reflected in the attendance and discussion.
•airdav s demonstra tion can be the launching
sweeps through every workplace, housing scheme and school to say
Trident. A move. ment that finds expression through Scottish Assembly against Trident
similar representative gathering. movement that says working people, organised together, have the power and the responsibility to check the plans of a government whose CYCl Slep nuclear destruction
which gives confidence to and sustains those workers best placed to take action
Trident: on the construction sites and in the planning offices
That way and no other lies hope for a nuclear-free future.
serious about more than verbal opposition to Tri-
should DOW be coordinating the unions at the base It to oppose Tri- LU . support
and extend initiatives suct as that taken by NALGO which has decided to black maintenance and development plans for the base.
should support union organisations such as newest Are Committee
BC toes branches at the base and in other defence installations, and has affiliated to CND
Scottish CND is
England and Wales, and
Fighting
nuclear
weapons -
the lessons
of Hillhead
By Tony Southall
POLLS taken during last month's
Hillhead by-election showed that
nuclear weapons were a crucial
issue for voters.
especially true of the
plans to site Trident II on the
Clyde at Coulport.
The local umbrella peace organisa-
tion, the Glasgow West Disarmament
Campaign, played an important part in
this. It held a series of well attended film
shows and public meetings; leafleted
every house in the constituency twice;
and appeared with propaganda at most
of the candidates
constantly on the streets up to polling
Raising a single issue like this during
an election campaign is not easy.
legally impossible — as well as politically
undesirable — for such campaigns to en-
dorse a particular candidate. But we do
wulli (o persuaae people lo make a
choice based on the parties' lines on a
particular issue. Unfortunately the cam-
paign in Hillhead was not clear enough to
do this.
The popularity of the central slogan, By Martin Meteyard
election.
They have chance to develop aspect campaign further with the regional elections on 6 May.
Several of Scotland's
regional councils cluding the largest, Strathclyde have already declared themselves nuclear-free zones. That's not a statement of literal fact, course. The Polaris submarines haven't suddenly vanished from the Clyde.
But as a declaration of intent it's important.
Right now it can mean no wastage of resources on civil defence which spreads the illusion that society can somehow survive a nuclear war. It car mean no cooperation with
Bridgend
councillors
dig in
By our special correspondent WALES has been
first nuclear-tree country in Europe But councillor.
Mid-Glamorgan are determined to hedge their bets in the battle against nuclear arms
At their December meeting, , having declared Mid-Glamorgan a nuclear-free LUill the Labourproved plans to refurbish dominated council bunker at Bridgend to enable to withstand nuclear attack Three Labour councillors who opposed the majority group decision were threatened disciplinary action by the
to get it!
The slogar polical
how to end the arms race.
This
Tories'
The Wiseman, Trident. But
will use our powers
meetings and were
have been able to It IS tion!
demonstration in Glasgow
general election.
Vote for a nuclear-fre
CND supporters all over Scotland have drawn encouragement from the impact made on the issue of nuclear weapons in the Hillhead by-
the government's nuclear that war games, , such as 'Hard
Rock '82' later this vear In Strathclyde it has meant refusal to discuss The Ministry Defence any aspect of locating Tricent m use region -as roads, sewerage, and so Oll Win of
Most importantly, it lays ine basis lor a cal paign to win the mass lne population to the idea that there should be no nuclear weapons in their region: to explain, , for instance, the direct link between mass unemployment and expenditure on these weapons of destruction
local party.
Local CND groups
were quick act. 24-hour picket was established at the site and mass pickets called for everv Sundav. The counci was obviously becoming embarassed by the moun ting criticisms of its decision to spend £390,000 on nuclear defence while cutting back on education ana social services
The bunker, they now camer withs cecon. tamination chambers and reintorced concrete basi proof walls, was only to coordinate civil disaster such as floods and blizzards
As the Councils
hit rock bottom, protestors moved in to occupy the site. The ensuing battle which included concrete being poured over proLestos hit the headlines throughout South Wales.
Deeply embarassed,
'Vote for Peace', could be seen in the number of badges, stickers, and window posters displayed in the area. But at the same time, it let the candidates off the hook. Even the Defence Secretary, John Nott, could and did argue that the Tories wanted peace — you just needed Trident
failed to show that differences about nuclear weapons are about what to do here and
One poll in the constituency showed 73 per cent against Trident - • including 44 per cent of Tory voters. Even Jenkins won votes by saying he was against it. Less publicised was his qualification that the Alliance would renew progress accor ding to the stage the project had reache when (sic) they assumed power.
Labour candidate, David was unambiguously anti-Labour leader Michael Foot, speaking in the constituency immediately before the poll, avoided committing the party to unilateralism: 'We
example and intelligence to see that Britain's influence is used against supporting this madness and to secure independent negotiations to bring this nuclear arms race to an end.'
CND's campaign in Hillhead should
nail such prevarica-
This could have been done by linking Trident to the whole unilateralist case. All candidates should have been called on to build - indeed head — the 10 April
Such an approach will be essential if CND is to have a decisive influence in future polls — most critically in the next
And then to use such: port to begin to make idea a reality — by pre ting the introduction Trident, for example. Stand CND groups in : with Scottish reg will be campaigning f VOLt on 6 May, casu nuclear zone' •SICI tal volers go into lne ing booths knowing w candidale the issue. This will be o through publishing
candidates. public forums at which of latter will be invited to plain their position answer questions; org ing mass leafleting; an on.
In particular, all th who claim to oppose dent SDP and Liberals) will
the Council acted once more to stop the work passing a motion by 63 to 4 io convert the site for peace time use.
But once again the vic torv was hollow
Home Office Council officials announced that they would be
baileding the repare her
failed prepare nuclear war.
This Easter, protestors from all over South Wales will converge gend's bunkers in a battle to establish a real nuclear-free zone The Welsh NUM, Ray Powell MP for Ogmort and speaker from CND Plaid Cymri will greet the demonstra tion in Bridgend The message for the Bridgend Labour Party i clear: either Labour Party policy should be im piementec • the cillors should make way for those who will.
Page 7 scan of this page
Direct action and the missiles
action is a completely inadequate strategy.
Supporters of non-
violent action
(NVDA, for short) form a
strong current within CND
and the anti-nuclear move-
ment, basing themselves in
part on the actions of the Committee of 100 in the 1960s. is very likely that
over the next year their
tactics will be adopted for
the actions marking TIne
government's Hard Rock
civi aerence exercises
October.
Many of the proposed forms non-volen direct action socialists would agree with: pickets. marches and strikes were all organised bv the Direct Action Committee in the 1950s and 1960s, auallist the parliamentary lobbying line of the CND leader-
ship. But there are big
zone!
sked its i trey will do if
stop Is introduction they are elected.
Big
The campaign to stop Trident and get rid of all nuclear weapons is a big opportunity for the Labour Party in Scotland to ecover lions setback at Hillhead, demonstrate
vote the SDP/Liberal Alliance is incompatible with the majority sentiment Scotland for unilateral nuclear disarmament, and WIll mauritici the regional councils committed to standing up to Thatcher's nuclear offensive.
This in turn can help to boost support for Labour in the next general election as the only party government which 1 can be committed to ridding Britain of the obscenity of auced weapons.
The Tory view of
Trident
Greater
perspective.
half what we spend on beauty dressing and manicure. • £7.5bn cost average of £500m, consumers spend
Blaker is concerned, much as that on books!
ourselves seem half as expensive.
How can we defeat nuclear madness? That's the big question for millions of people today. Among the strategies put forward by those opposing nuclear weapons is the tactic of non-violent direct action. Last November's CND conference advocated it and last month's London regional conference voted to oroanise a series ot weekend schools on the issue PHIL WATERHOUSE argues that non-violent direct
disadvantages to the NVDA approach.
First. actions bv small groups of dedicated inoften counterposed to mass acTot aver hor exam. ple one woman from the Molesworth Peace Camp commented in Sanity on last October's mass demonstration in London that: 'It's all very well hav1nd a can vene de of a million people turn up, but at the end of the day they all go home and it's easv for tne press anc the government to forget about them, whereas we're here all the time.
Eve
Of course such direct action can be producțive at Cellalll Civil Defence:
The Cruellest Confidence Trick New CND pamphlet by Phil Bolsover, just 80p Write to: CND, 11 Goodwin St, London N4.
TORY Minister Peter Blaker has eased the fears of those of us worried about the new Trident nuclear missile system. Speaking at the annual conference of London Young Conservatives on 27 March he explained that: 'We must put the cost of Trident in
'The price tag of peace through Trident is hair' In fact if Trident's is broken down to an annual Blaker pointed out that times as much on
alcoholic drinks and tobacco. Worse, as far as
they even spend as stop drinking, smoking, reading and making The message is clear: if we would all on
beautiful then Trident wouldn't
Pickenham campaigns into the public eye, especially if it's well planned and carefully linked into building mass ac-
8
weeks
Support the
American
people -
dump Reagan
startling turn round in his popularity.
some 52 per cent said no,
ed.
cent.
cent opted for cuts in social programmes.
nuclear arsenal.
loo many neadaches at nome.
Stop the missiles.
Will Warren, supporter of the Direct Action Committee,
base, Norfolk, in 1958
tions and demonstration. by a dedicated handful are more likely ByST IN CASE you thought that organising a big campaign against Reagan's visit to Britain smacked of anti-Americanism, you can now rest in peace. Latest US opinion polls give the thumbs-down to the American president in a
Asked by Time magazine whether they thought Reagan should stand for a second term of office
with only 37 per cent wishing he would. Further, some 35 per cent of the people interviewed felt their impression of the president had worsened since his election, and only half that number, 17 per cent, that it had improv-
Even in his own state of California, Reagan's popularity has nosedived. He has dropped an unprecedented 27 popularity points from 64 to 37 per
Perhaps the greatest condemnation for Reagan in the opinion polls is the extent to which his 'guns not butter policies appear to be rejected by the electorate. As the State Department announced 10 million unemployed, Time magazine revealed that 48 per cent of those interviewed thought that military spending should be cut and only 23 per
There was a clear two to one maioritv against tax cuts, which has been a favourite hobby horse of the right wing politicians over recent years. And some 71 per cent favoured an emphasis on arms reduction negotiations rather than increasing the
No wonder Reagan is coming to Britain, he has
being removed from North
wrath of state repression Inrough prison sentence and heavy fines than to challenge the real power of the war-mongerers.
Proof
Proof of this problem can be found in the history of the Committee of 100 which from 1961 tried to go beyond the symbolic acts of the Direct Action Committee. Mass sit-downs were organised in Trafalgar Square which led to all CoLs and beatings by the cops. The
By Paul Lawson WHEN
in June, thousands of people
missiles in Sicily.
Already a committee representing
parties is preparing the demonstration.
The plan to site Cruise missiles in Sicily has already caused a furore in Italy. Last September 70,000 people marched to the NATO Southern Italy.
The missiles are clearly not aimed at the Soviet Union, but at the Middle East.
capacity to hit any target in the Middle East, the most likely target at present is Libya, which the Reagan administration bitterly opposes.
Following last demonstration, peace groups, a vigorous campaign was
against Cruise missiles workers' movement, Communist Party (PCI).
Sensing the changing mood, the PCI supported demonstration against the missiles last October in Rome, despite its position that Italy should not withdraw from NATO
But the majority of the tens of thousands of PCI supporters who marched that day chanted slogans against NATO and against Reagan's policies in Central America.
Whatever the PCI's wishes, the anti-missiles movement in Italy is taking an increasingly anti-imperialist
aim was 'propaganda by deed', serving as a rehearsal for mass resistance.
But the net effect of such civil disobedience wa: demoralisation and availly. They would have done well to heed the ad vice of an earlier advocate OI onso peonence.
Thoreau: 'If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison or give up war and slaverv. the state will not hesitate choose
Morals
For other supporters, •non-violent arrect action Is a form of moral persuasteing from pacifist or religious beliefs. The idea is that through taking exemplary the moral justice and truth of an idea will be revealed including to its opponents. In inis silua tion NVDA seeks to destroy the enmity not the enemy.
Unfortunately life is a good deal more difficult and power of the ruling class will not be challenged by an appeal to its morality. will tolerate any repression, injustice and inequality duding thou go che use of defend class society, nuclear weapons neCessary Mass conversion of the ruling class to 'common sense is a non-starter Warmongers the world over will not be moved by moral argument, but only by the power of mass op position movements of th working class and the
A hot Rome for Reagan?
Ronald Reagan visits
started
hundreds of Salvador,
demonstration, pected to march in Rome against calling of a national demonstration in US policy in Central America and Milan in support of Solidarnosc.
members'
peace groups, trade unions and political tioning and disputes over Poland
cessful in defusing 30,000-strong
headquarters
Although they would give the US the an anti-imperialist character.
Just France,
September's organised mainly by
in the people of El Salvador. especially by the
300,000 strong
the CGIL
Reuben Zamora,
the demonstration.
direction. revolutionary guerrillas.
dispossessed That's why the most effective way forward for CND is to take its campaign labour movement and the vouth. Mass actions anc protests by these social forces will be much more effective than the nonviolent direct action tactics of exemplary action. CND Easter
marches
Glasgow: Demonstrate against Trident, 10.30am, Blythswood Square, Walesay A Bridgend Wales: demonstration, after local feeder marches, llam on 10 April at county war bunker, Bridgend.
Leeds: March from woo•nousi Moor, 11.30am on 10 April East: March and festival at sub-regional controllers' bunker, Hexham, Monday 12 April.
East Anglia: March from US airforce Woodbridge base to Ipswich, 10 Apri at 10am.
London: March from Princess Wales Blackheath at 12 noon on April East London feeder march at Green wich and back Blackheath Sheffield: March and ral0742-693658 for details. April. Ring Birmingham: March 12 noon from Milk St on 10 April, , rally at Town Hall
Manchester: March on Saturday 17 April, assem ble 1pm at All Saints.
The PCI's motives for calling the demonstration were not exactly innocent
their El and fixed the date of the only one week after the
They hope that by vigorously turning
attention Central America, they will quieten down the ques
The PCI leadership was partially suc-
support for the Solidarity demonstration, which few of their members attended
Despite this negative side of the PCI campaign, the events in El Salvador and the rest of Central America will increasingly give the anti-missiles movement in Italy
Britain, Germany and tens of thousands of workers in Italy will tell Reagan he is an 'undesirable element', unwanted in Europe.
On 13 March, 50,000 people marched in Bologna to support the struggle of the
Although organised by the major
trade union federations, the march wa inspired by the PCI, and addressed by its best known trade union leader, Llama of
The rally was also addressed by vice-president of the Salvadorean FDR. Once again the PCI leadership was outflanked by the mass of
While the trade union leaders called merely for peace and negotiations, many of the PCI rank and file, together with the Young Communists and the revoultionary left, called for the victory of the
Sócialist Challenge 8 April 1982 pagò ›
Page 8 scan of this page
YCND • REAGAN'S VISIT • LA MASSIVE OPPORTUNITIES TO
GIVENSA
FUTURE
Youth unemployment has risen dramatically over the years June 1974: 5,400 unemployed school leavers June 1980: 178,300 unemployed school leavers Manpower Services Commission estimate 600,000 school leavers in the summers of 1982 and 1983
By Tessa van Gelderen NOT CONTENT with youth no future, the now plan to put a curfew on them. Young 'offenders', such as those involved in the youth uprisings last summer, will be made to stay in at night and at weekends.
From 6pm to 6am weekdays, and from noon to 6am on Saturdays and Sundays, 'offenders' will be forced off the streets. For many young people such a curfew is a way already. With job money. and now the ment plans to stop the dole for all sixteen year olds much to do anvwav.
Just in case youth do get a bit uppily dna go out for some an maybe a 9pm bey'll have to pay fun atten YCND
London like everyone else.
London Transport has to break even but such a rule can't bring in much No, for one bus journey is a good way of keeping young people off the
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982
FUTURE
last few unemployed
workforce
total workforce)
young men 1980: 90,000 young men
available
No curfews on youth!
jivinc streets.
be safe. being proposed
course, who
on hope no future of thousands these Now they have to pass repression
of life people are em and flog govern-
there's not The labour
has to
after
repression of police.
Tory it's another
page 8
GIVEUSA
tion
October 1980: 814, 000 under 25's
41% of the
(Under 25's represent 20% of
Apprenticeships 1968: 170,000
*It is significant that no figures for female apprenticeships are
Even taking to walking will not
The new police powers will bring back the 'sus' laws. Police will be able to stop and search anyone and, of
young will bear the brunt of it.
The Tories have created a 'no
society for tens ot voung people. laws of keep down the growing tide of anger that young
showing. The 'hang em origade Is ger ting its weapons ready for another summer of tiahtina on the streets
movement has to oppose inese vicious proposals. I
say loud and clear that are not reponsible for the crisis, they aren't going to bear the brunt of the naked Tory
curfews and riot
•overnment has nothing to offer the people of this countiv and it can't baton down the growing swell of opposition to
THIS WEEKEND, the Labour Party Young Socialists holds its annual conference in Bridlington. At a time when youth are leading the struggles against the Tories' war drive and austerity policies, such a conference should be discussing how it can transform itself into a mass campaigning youth organisation.
both in the past and in the pre THROUGHOUT the sent, it has been youth who have been in the forefront of struggles. In Nicaragua, example, the average age of the government is 24, and it was youth that led the revolu-
that overthrew Somoza dictatorship.
In El Salvador, Poland and Ireland it is young people who are leading the fight against oppression and it is the same in Britain.
Youth have never suffered the defeats that older generations have; they haven't experienced the betrayals of the leadership of , the working class. Youth don't, in
THE CAMPAIGN for trade union rights for YOPS is a good one. In porters Revolution Youth Bristol. A couple ot supporters campaigned for YOPS workers to unionised into the National Union of Public Employees and the campaign gradually took off.
Militant does call for a higher wage but it has to make clear that it demanding full union rates for the
They have to make the union cadets take up une issue. workers need full rights inside the as just nike any olner worker
Revolution Youth supports the unionisation of YOPS workers and the full rate for the job. Fighting to Last summer in Brixton. The Tories are preparing for a long hot
member of the engineering union's delegation to the LPYS conference He is an AUEW National Committee youth delegate and a supporter of Revolution Youth. He talked to Socialist Challenge about the issues facing the Young Socialists at this crucial time.
general, have the same ties that older workers have, they are more dynamic and more apen to radical socialist solutions. for
indication of when the youth felt under attack from cops the fought back against the system in
the only way they could see open to them, particularly black and Asian youth.
The Labour trade unions failed them in the fight-back against However, begining to change. it in government where it carried out basically watered down Tory policies.
-Campaigning against YOPS-
end the exploitation that these young workers face is the best way to get rid ot these schemes jobs for everyone.
be decent conditions for YOPS workers,
otherwise all nave tell conditions and rates or pay eroded.
is against Tebbit:
realise that the lories' attacks on the same and on the exploit and the YOPS thing.
young people on these schemes leads to the destruction of lobs
for six people to clean and redecorate the place. Management employed one summer as it prepares to do battle with youth and trade unionists
CLIFF WILLIAMS is a
on The uprisings last year were an
this dynamism:
and fascists, they
the Party and the
the Tories. the Labour Party is We have seen and create prope
It is in the unions' interests to get
workers are going to
It's the same with the campaign
the unions have to one
In my factory it takes over a year for youth,
schemes for them
Photo: G M COOKSON
if necessary
Many grouping.
Revolution's rally last December
There were big attacks on th working class and a Labour prim minister called on workers to sca
other workers during th winter of discontent. The ran and file of the Labour Part knows that it was those policie which were the main reason fo the defeat of Labour at the las election. They want to see radica solutions to the problems facin
working class, hence th debate that has been going on in side the party.
But at the same time, the part has not really mobilised the work ing class against the government Aš long as the Labour Party stay within the framework of waitin until the next election before tak
person and six YOPS people. Th
weren't paying the YOPS people penny, it came from the governmen
One of the young people had t use of only one arm. He had to clir a lowei avour vlool men. carryll paint and a paint brush as well. Pec ple were working below done it, he would have lost his job.
He also had to go to the hospit
afternoon and out of hi miserable £23.50 management stop ped his money The union's not a strong as it could be in our place bu we did get him the money back.
If the unions nationally would on ly fight for proper conditions and pa
we could get rid of thes which give no training o hope for permanent empolyment.
Fighting the
witch-hunt
REVOLUTION YOUTH fights fo any current of the working class to b part of the Labour Party and oppose
witch-hunts. The best way fighting the witch-hunt is not to g back on your positions but to argu
openly inside the whol labour movement
Militant should be organising with all those forces under attack at pre sent, Peter Tatchell, Tariq Ali, as we as trade unionists who are being witc hunted in unions like the electrician. and railway workers unions.
Such an offensive has to be basec on the support of the masses and or the mobilisation of the working clas
It has to be based o total opposition to any witch-hunt o
But in the end the only way • to fight the attacks from the right is to get the policies of the left accepter
labour movement That's what Healey, Chapple and th others are really frightened of.
Page 9 scan of this page
JRENCE SCOTT • EL SALVADOR BUILD THE YOUNG SOCIALISTS
END
REVOLUTION
ing on that fight, instead of taking on the Tories now, there are going to be big problems.
I think there will be more riots this summer. Certainly the Tories are preparing for it.
Party Young Socialists has to repond to this situation urgently. It has to involve itself youth who are on the streets and it has to play an important role in side the party itself campaigning for radical policies to be adopted.
There are 25,000 young peo-
ple in the Labour Party today.
I he vast majority of them are not
the Young Socialists. joined the party because of the developments taking around the deputy
and around policies for nuclear disarmament which the YS has not been involved in.
The approach of the Militant tendency, which is in the leadership of the YS, is not to go out to youth, to the mass radicalisation and mobilisation of youth to try to recruit them. Militant is scared of a mass Labour Party Young Socialists, it is scared of losing the leadership which it holds very tentatively.
It accommodates leadership of the Labour Party in order to avoid witch hunts. So it does not favour a mass campaigning YS which is what is needed if youth are to be attracted in large numbers.
The way in which Revolution Youth would build the YS - and it's what we've attempted in those areas where we have supporters
is by taking it out to wherever and whenever there are mobilisations of youth. For example, during the riots Militant originally had the correct position but within a week it was attacking the rioters and defending the police Revolution Youth would have defended the rioters agianst the police at all costs.
At the same time we would have pointed out to them that the best way forward was to join the YS and to channel that energy into a real fight against the government; to fight to change society rather than a lot of action which in the end achieved nothing.
We would also turn the YS out to those mass campaigns which are leading the fight against the policies of Thatcher and Reagan and which are composed, Te YS to be leading Youth D. main.
Revolution Youth has effectively built YCND. of the way Militant does not take this question of nuclear disarmament seriously we have not been able to win these youth to the YS.
VOLUTIONS up the struggles of the workers throughout the world.
young people Ronald Reagan
The Labour
calender.
with
They
place leadership
details re. bulk rates.
onto
to the
becoming
world perialism.
Youth what Reagan's up to, in El Salvador.
mass
ment of youth.
action for
women
forefront Tories.
Lee Jeans,
trade unions,
in the dominated by
labour movement
But because
inside the labour YS should lead the way.
Photo: COLIN HEADWORTH
We want to build the YS out of the thousands and thousands of
who will greet when he VIsIts Britain in June. This event will be the most important event in the
REVOLUTION
BUILDING THE LABOUA YOU
KOCALSIS
New pamphlet just out 20p a copy plus 15p pap available from Revolution PO Box 50 how? London N1 2XP. Write for
The YS should be building, alongside other forces, a massive anti-imperialist contingent on the CND demo on 6 June to show Reagan what we think of him. It's jobs not just in America that Reagan's
unpopular, he is the
she word for American tod
American
certainly understand particularly They'il be out on the streets in their thousands to support the struggle of the FMLN
El Salvador and in protest at Reagan's policies. The YS has to build from this growing move-
For positive
YOUNG WOMEN have been in the
struggles against They have fought for jobs at Plessey and elsewhere.
They are in their thousands in CND.
But in the Labour Party and the
the leadership is still men. The Young Socialists should campaign for the
fight for woman's right to work and argue that it is in the interests of all workers in the fight against unemployment.
We have to have positive action
movement which allows women to play a full role. The
REVOLUTION
* таке олі
Tebbit
And it's not just Reagan, the YS should also be leading the fight against lebbit Many Young Socialists are trade unionists. The YS has led a good
against the schemes. Now it has to organise all young workers to take on Tebbit. That's the best way to help those on YOPs schemes and at the same time to recruit to the YS.
We that campaign into the heart of the trade unions. The union leaders have said they want to fight Tebbit, but
In my union, Boyd Duffy have said they want to link up with the bosses' federation, the CBI.
But then what else can you expect from leaders who have tried to smash a strike of their own members who were fighting for
at Laurence Scott. workers like these, many whom are young, that the YS has to support.
The union leaders remember how they got the Tories to back down last time, in 1972,
Why the
Young
Socialists
should turn
to Youth
CND
The Labour Party, particularly the
leadershio. has not carried out
policy adopted by conference to
commit the next Labour government
to unilaterally disarm. CND involves
hundreds of thousands of people,
many of whom are not members of
the Labour Party or the trade
unions. Many of them are youth,
many unemployed. The Labour Par-
these people to the labour move-
ment. to the ideas of socialism. it 1l
is actively involved in these cam-
against with the Pentonville dockers.
threat of a general strike by the TUC, and they were out of jail The miners showed last year how to stop the Tory onslaught when YOPs they struck against pit closures.
The train drivers have done the same. This is how to take on the governmen and Tories anti-working policies.
Militant's tends movements countries which are fighting have fought to and system in their countries. Unlike
thousands of youth the world, Militant spired by the revolutions. It is the same with Ireland, where Militant has come under pressure from the trade union and Labour Party bureaucracy not to rock the boat. It's Revolution Youth are internaof tional socialists.
gle takes place on an international scale and a defeat for the working should class and
anywhere in the world is a defeat for the working class world wide.
Photo: PETE GRANT
A
Britain.
Vietnam,
defeat the class of the world. sectarianism
in other or
overthrow the so
the YS. throughout take the YS are not in- supporting
base itself
The class strug
oppressed people
trade unions.
REVOLUTION
SOCIALIST PAPER FOR Y US hands off
El Salvador,
Nicaragua!
A victory is a victory for us, and it strengthens our position in
When the mightiest imperialist power, the United States, is defeated by a tiny nation like
is terrified by the revolution of 110,000 people in the tiny island of Grenada, that says something about the effect such revolutions have on the rest
It is a really exciting period we're entering into. There has tr be a change in the YS. There ar‹
many opportunities to build
This conference has to outwards towards CND and the women's right to work event, and against Reagan and Tebbit, and to get the youth involved in these campaigns into the YS
This is where the YS has to
instead of on small propagandistic type meetings. has to become a real campaigning force that gives a lead to the thousands of youth who are taking on the Tories in the factories and on the streets.
Why a
member of
Youth CND
should join
the Young
Socialists
Revolution Youth is fighting in the Labour Party and the Young Socialists for committment to CND and YCND. IS CND and YCND are to be successful they have to win the support of the labour movement
The Labour Party has a vital role to play because of its links with the
We have to fight inside the party now to make sure the next Labour government is actually A member of YCND can play a vital role in changing YS policy and helping to ensure that Britain gets rid of nuclear weapons.
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982 page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Where you can
buy Socialist
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Collets, Bookmarks, World
By Grant Keir 'Better stop dreaming of the quiet life it's the one we'll never know...! Paul Weller's singing comes sailing over a badly mixed and distorted sound of the rest of the Jam at Birmingham's Bingley Hall.
It's Saturday night and the majority une dience wearing 1960s mod tashions. is aged bet ween 12 and 25 and is savourilly of the most politically and musically interesting band to emerge from the 'punk'
opposed 'reggae') revolution of the late 1970s.
Hanging from the back of the stage is a banner with "Transglobal Unity the new but the Gott Express' written and although it has only Just been released, cycl yulic seems be mouthing the words. Imagine if tomorrow, the workers went on sorke not just British Leyland, We wrote wore who would earn their profits! who would make their bombs?
What makes The Jam' SO enjoyable that stylistically they borrow from the exuberance and confidence of the '60s mod and tamla motown sounds but mix it with the political realities of the 1980s. By Simon Lockwood
stuff has always been too stylised, too self-
their own influences.
duchen their new
reinforce this idea of The album 'The Gift' tends to
COSTICIOR. Lies
though all these qualities
merely ways of broadening
Their do thie that
tOl ONLY i he Jam
lyricshe left's current ems
from two developments
and the unashamed political slant of Weller's new lyrics. But haven't we been through all this before with The Tom Robinson Band The Clash, The Beat? Are we any further the road?
Interestingly, Weller's sensibilities more with the sixties generation of pop. rebellion and in particular Ray Davis of the Kinks
The imagery is pseudofightback is non specific
- against 'the establishment'.
- cos
To continue to quote HOIC lyrics from the album would to give
impression of power and logic
and would credence to the idea that "The Jam' are chanting 'right-on' ove backdrop of sound.
This is HOL unease Neither politically nor musicallv are Ine jam in the rut of banality. Time and again stress is laid on the need for practical, well thought out political activity to be added to the current feelings of youth anger they existed in last sumuCT STIOLS - - and still exist in Thatcher's Britain today.
The Jam recently played for the Right Work campaign during the
Lobby Parliament to complain about YOPs. They also played for CND on last year's huge demonstration London. They will also play when Reagan arrives position to his being here.
Weller: an old-
fashionęd male hero
I'VE NEVER been that sure of The Jam. Their
conscious. Except for their best songs, they've always sounded uncomfortably like the sum of
though, lacks of Ray golden years and most of all he lacks Davis'
of his SOnES. lilall nerisms often take very little account of what he's singing about (apart from sing hard for rocks and ballads,
for his personallty to get in between the audience and what he's
When Weller comes on idealistic, he advocates his own virtue as much as he does solidarity with his au-
When Ray Davis What are we living he is singing both for anc
The Kinks were never regarded as a groun will revolutionary potential
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The real political significance of The Jam is that they are not seen by
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racism and fascism,
indicates that whole generation of youth
becoming acutely closer to mv idea of true radical pop
It is a beautiful sounding record homogenous yet diverse, witty yet haunting, clear yet dense. It's kaleidoscope of Wyatt's musical and political interests; two Latin American political anthems chic song "Trade Union' written and sung by the Bengali group Dishari; indeed, only one of the tracks 'Born Again Cretin' is written by him
Inevitably, the focal point is Robert's own sing ing. There is no distance at all from the lyrics, yet his vocals are so unmannered that one is still able to extract the full power of these deeply committed
This is nowhere more evident than in "The Red Flag', a song which I had shamefully never taken
Wyatt betore reinvents the song and
its true dignity to me for the first time.
Paul Weller is an old-fashioned male hero; Robert Wyatt isn't. Birmingham B5 6DR: Phone on Monday, Tuesday,
aware of these problems and the need to do something positive about them.
At the risk of turning The Jam into a political
Trans Global Express does sum it up:
'Get this trans-global caress movies and see our marvellous leaders quiver
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Page 11 scan of this page
Cuba
COMRADE PHIL HEARSE'S article (SC 11 February) on the Cuban and Nicaraguan stance TOWNES Tine Polish crackdown and his
defence (Letters 18 March) invert the approach to the Cuban leadership that Socialist Challenge has pursued so far.
Up till now we have emphasised Lne revolutionary character of the Cuban leadership and its break from peaceful .coexstence practiced by the Kremlin. We have explained
unlal les Dos LOn on the reformability of those bureaucratically degenerated workers' states like Russia and Poland is in contradiction with their revolutionary positions, particularly in Central America.
Phil now puts the mat-
his se vane, Acce Cinda ns
scheme Lile Cubans generally follow a line of peaceful co-existence (that is, of stalinism), but for reasons of self-interest have broken from peaceful Lucasce in Central America.
It is totally ridiculous
explain LOe 'breaking. their isolațion' by extending the socialist revolution on the basis of some 'empirical' accident.
broke their station ese
broke their 'isolation' accommodating with imperialism.
This was not an 'empirical' accident, but due to the fact that this coincided with the interest of a bureaucratic caste. The Cubans did it our way.
CONGRATULATIONS on your coverage and analysis both of Poland
Gary Erlisker's letter is both unfair and stupid. is unfair because Socialist Challenge's of the countries he mentions nas in fact been CALCUSEVC and helpful. It is stupid because he ignores the unfortunate fact that a successful revolution backward, impoverished country, largely dependent
Soviet Union tol economic survival, does not automatically produce socialist thinking on the highest level.
Many Cubans already regard the ideas of the
nematona
Only revolutionaries see 'breaking their isolation' through extension of revolution. the evolution of the Cubans has been fantastically positive.
How can Phil square this with the astonisning statement that 'the close ties with the Soviet Union has more and more made its mark on the way that the Cubans see the world' and that 'they have internalised a crucial element of the Stalinist world view the "two-camp'' theory'?
Phil himself spells it out: the two-camp theory considers the bloc' rather than the international working class as the main bulwark against imperialism! But how does this apply to Central America where the Cubans advocate a policy of relying on the masses? This Cuban approach is antipathetic to any notion of 'two-campism' anyone will know who has suvoled the Chinese revolution, the Spanish revolution or the 'twocamp' policy of any Latin American Stalinist Party.
How do revolutionaries sum un the contradictory stance of the
We Cubans? recognise their break from Stalinism but also recognise that they have not come to terms with it. Not having come to terms with the heritage Stalinism precisely leads to errors like those in relation to Poland. But recognising them as revolutionaries WIO broken with stalinism leads us
Uncritical support?
'sectarian'. Would they change minds, would the cause 01 socialism be served, Socialist Challenge were suddenly to Castro uncritical support?
A central problem for revolutionaries since the late 1920's has been that they cannot point to a model, a country where a successtul revolution has
to society which
looks good' Lone dinary worker. But critical support is a hard idea to get across, it is at least more practical than uncritical support, which has disastrous
In Poland, a model which oralllary workers
Socialist Challenge will next week be printing a reply to the correspondence on Cuba.
develop, as best we can, a male usa argument With them. For •Phil, only achanciaon is in oract.
The Cubans al c in agreement with, and indeed inspired the Nicaraguan FSLN and the Salvadorean FMLN These people, unfortunate as it may be, take similar positions to the Cubans on the Polish crackdown. Phil is prepared these are revolutionaries. Why not the Cubans?
The Cubans are the only other current the world which bases orientation _Central America on the fight for
The state capitalist views of the British Socialist Workers Party, for example, lead them TUEC out the possibility of a socialist revolution underdeveloped country. The Communist Party stands for the establishment of 'democratic stage' whose results country after country have been bloody defeat - as we saw in Chile.
The question which is therefore posed for supporters of the Fourth International whether we will be able to link up with the new generation of revolutionaries - and in the process of common action and dialogue rub off whatever warts disfigure them.
Cde Phil's position was:
determined step back from that challenge BRIAN GROGAN Hackney can identify themselves with has begun to take shape. Even here, course, we have a duty to criticise wrong ideas within Solidarity (and we
such is the imperfect state
LUC world, that mant Polish workers undoubtedly would . regard our ideas as 'sectarian').
But Phil Hearse is right to emphasise the importance of the Polish revolution the success which, among other things, certainly help to popularise
seclallall ideas aUvul Stalinism, , in countries like Cuba and Nicaragua ARNE GUNNARSEN Bergen: Norway,
182
LetTe
RapeinCuba
I AM SICK of reading Socialist Challenge that rape has been eliminated for 'virtually eliminated' as Dave Smith told us in issue 239) in Cuba. It is clear that huge gains have been made by women in Cuba and this must have had a huge effect on the general conI'M WRITING about Mike Leveson's letter about the Militant (SC 239). I found some of the opinions expressed and
anguage used most disturbing, and as a SC supporter myself believe his approach to be dangerous.
The points Mike made about the political failings of Militant, and their own success in winning norters were tair enough guess; also his conclusions
and filolcau the LPYS and unions outwards to mass action, taking up ine oppression of black people and women, and actively campaigning over international issues
Yes, I think that's the way to convince the Milifactory tour
IN AN otherwise excellent set of reviews on Solidar-
(18 March), Davy Jones made a rather hur-
comment regarding the Socialist Workers Par-
work Solidarity. 'The SWP has done and is doing next to nothing to build solidarity work.
Letter letters- tee
Editor reserves the right to cut any letter over 400 words. Write to SC letters, c/o PO Box 50, London N7
sciousness about women's position society
But (and assumption it must be as we are never given any facts) that sexual relation ships have been so radical-
changed that sexual and oppression nave been eradicated Huschise. It would take
Militant Win or destroy ?
tant group of our policies.
But listen to what else he says. Militant 'has to be politically confronted
the won over, and organisation marginalised and if possible destroyed.
Later he talks of 'the way to take up and break ' Mili
The connection between 'winning over anc 'destroying' organisation eludes me!
Such talk evokes echoes of the Moscow Show trials, and the short leap, during the Civil War in Spain, between the Stalinists talking about politically eliminating destroying (bad enough!) ine anarchists, me roum and the Trotskyists, and actually doing it, as they murdered Andres Nin and countless others.
Solidarnosc member Piotr Kozlowski meets Mick McAuley, convenor of Ferremti Measurements Oldham on a recent
This does an injustice to the individual comrades and branches of the SWP who have supported the Polish They have, however, received poor and wrong leadership
This is due to the incorrect evaluation of the SUP
regard solidarts
Letters
2XP
years and years for that to happen in any society.
KaDe is not oni something, that happens late at night dark street. Women all round the world have been challenging that myth fol years. Rape, in its broadest
attention. • Most rapes take Dlace in the home bv male. known to the woman, cluding Most
Halt also not reported
Our movement should have had • enough experience of being
attacked, prevented from organising
Slandered bv Stalinists and bureaucrats in many counte nave some sensitivity on this question
Let me restate a couple
things Socialist Challenge stands for: the right of all currents in the workers movement to tree expression of their ideas,
in any workers SLALC.
We are also against the use of violence within the workers' movement, and to my mind that includes verbal violence, which yet another wav timidating someone from expressing their opinions.
SWP and Solidarnosc
committees ana working with militants the Labour Party. thinks irrelevant whether you make substantial sections of the Labour Party into campaigning organisational bases.
=e.:
Maybe it is the case that women are safe to walk the streets at night in Cuba. That in itself is fantastic. But the logic that flows from a uselessly nar-
definition of rape
glorification of the series unnecessary gains of the Cuban revolution, which we wholeheartedly support.
LAURA MITCHELL Oldham
Mike might reply that I'm nitpicking and that it was a mere turn of phrase. Nevertheless, it's a pretty insensitive, arrogant and sculallall Lull vl a time when Militant and
of the left in the Labour Party are sufferin
he brunt of a witch-hun aunched would very much like 10 'destroy' and 'break' all of
together, whatever paper we sell.
I would be pleased it the editorial board would print a disclaimer of those particular ideas I've men. tioned in Mike's letter.
DE PASSINGHAM Burnley learn about workers' democracy in Poland. It is not enough for the SWP: o complain from the sidennes doout ine Lacoa. Party not making this == essential issue
A SINGH Tencaste
, Socialist Challenon 8 ARni 1982. page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Iran's victory threatens
By Brian Grogan IRAN HAS scored a major victory against the invading Iraqi forces in the 18 month old Gulf war. Iranian officials have made clear that they have no intention of entering into Iraqi territory. nonetheless to engulf Iraq sternation of imperialism.
The three wave Iranian counter-offensive against the occupying Iraqi Fourth army corp began March the DezfulShush region of Khusestan. The 20,000 hayi woops were touieu.
The Iraqi army, was MOrC uC OUs ana lar better equipped than that OIlRil. According to the Guardian: 'Apart from a few tanks, the Iranian's heaviest weapons appears
nave Deci jeepmounted recoilless rifles'.
The ditterence in morale of the two armies was a decisive factor.
Huge crowds came out in Tehran to celebrate the valorv onue occaonol the third anniversary of
the JoUOE?
Islamic republic. Iranian leaders called tor the over. throw of Saddam Hussein ot lrao. But in a speech
reau ou byatolan o toe
Ayatollah cowu. meini made it clear that Iran harboured gressive intentions against any otner country.
Earlier, the Iranian President Hojetoleslam An клоет cec areoo a radio broadcast that Iran had no designs Uli llaul territory. *It the Ba'athist mercenaries who attacked our country and occupied parts of it. Ag. gression is not in keeping with the dignity of
Solidarity Committees with Solidarnosc
McCalman, 18 Mossgiel Rd, Glasgow G43. Ring edinburgh Polish Solidarity Committee, c/ Edinburgh & District Trades Council, 12 Picardy Place, Edinburgh.
Greater Manchester Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Jon Silberman, 51 Montrose House, Crete St, Oldham, Lancs. Ring 061-620 2885. Leeds Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Dave Feickert, 28 Roundhay Yorkshire. Ring 0532 490927.
South Yorks Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Rab Bird, 279 Ellesmere Road, Sheffield, S4 7DP. Tel 0742 617174.
Nottingham Labour with Solidarnosc, c/o 3 Elm Close, Nottingham. Birmingham Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Kozev urav. 11. Ring 021-773 5396.
Coventry Solidarity Committee, John Fisher c/o ASTMS, 26 Queens Rd, Coventry.
Oxford Labour Committee bandury ka, uxrora. King voos Joz3o.
*** Eastern Eurone Drive, London NW11. Ring 01-458 1501. Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, Box 23, 136 Kingsland High St, London E8.
Solidarnosc Trade Union Working Group in
SW5. Ring 01-373 3492.
Labour Solidarity operative Bank, 110 Leman St, London E1.
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982
imperialism
But the Iranian revolution threatens
- much to the con-
Islamic Republic', he said.
'The Moslems of Iraq
are Iran's brothers,' he ad-
ded. 'Our SUDOUlL
them does not mean that
we will take our forces into
Iraqi territory'
Saddam Hussein had
originally gone into Iran
on the pretext of a border
dispute over soveriegnty of
the Shatt-Al-Arab water-
way. But his real aim was
to reverse the gains of the
Iranian revolution and
prevent its inspiration
leading to his overthrow.
In this situation, the
repulsion of the invasion
by the independent mobil-
isation and organisation ot
the workers, peasants, op-
pressed nationalities and
army ranks was the chief
task of the day.
Without in any way
avie polcal subDoll lu
Khomeini (opposing the
voting for war credits ir
the Majhlis, for example)
revolutionary Marxists in
Iran proposed the arming ot ine masses as the best reao lut nary ir rention
Allei"
revolutionary ir of the Iraqi Arm,.
It is despite the restrictions which the Khomeini regime placed on such
mobilisations that
ilas. the military victories of the recent past have been won.
In doing so they have struck a blow against the
reactionary Ba'athist
regime, bringing closer the
Glasgow Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o lan
Mount, Leeds
Movement Solidarity
28 Blackford Road, Birmingham
Poland, 468
Solidarity Campaign, 10 Park
UK, 64 Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court, London &
Fund, c/o Co-
page 12
prospect of the demise of Saddam Hussein.
The reactionary Arab states and imperialism will also receive a body blow
definitive Iraqi livii ally defeat. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have all given backing to Saddam Hussein, bankrolling the gargantuan Costs OIne war. Jordan not only provided arms but also dispatched a 'volunteer' force.
Approximate Iraqi
counter-offensives A Amara
IRAQ
Euphrate.
0 Miles 50 KUWAIT
In tne artermaln or lne recent defeats, King Hussent ayseg Baghdad promising the fullest support. President Mubarak has declared that Egypt supports Iraq 'as an Arab country'. Blockade
It is evident that US imperialism will not either SLamu Dv ner ecoRomt blockade which has resulted in maior hardships for the Iranian peoDie is clearlv not enough.
es the Ge asdiae exppan-
Department, reflecting concern that Iran's recent victories over Iraq could eventually alter the political balance
une Gulf region, has called for urgent negotiations'
It is this deepening concern over the potential of the Iranian revolution to inspire revolts in the rest of the Arab region that has
International
thousand.
led the US to increase their aid dramatically counter-revolutionary groups trying to overthrow the Khomeinı regime
The New York Times recently reported on support for covert actions
which include financing two paramilitary units composed largely of Iranian exiles eastern Turkey adjacent to Iran, providing several million
front line before Iranian
IRAN
Dezful •Ahwaz
Vol alol allt Basra Abadan onatt al Aral
dollars a year to Iranian exiles groups.'
The larger of the two paramilitary exile groups supported by the CIA has 8000 men and is led by Rear Admiral
Ailllal Madani. He was chief of the Iranian navy under the Shah and then Khusestan province after the monarchy
OvenITOWH where he directed the bloody of
trikers. The other grou UDULCSSK consisting of 2000 men is led by General Bahra Aryana, chief of staff of the Iranian army under the Shah, responsible for the wholesale slaughter of tens
thousands of workers and others.
US support doesn't on-
MOnaTCASI sg al Douregons na The economic
sources say Washington, Baghdad and Riyadh would all like to see Abol Assan Bani Sadr restored US oer Tehran and officials
The morale of the Iraai troops can be accurately gauged from the fact that one 12-year-old can guard several have had extensive contact witn tne former presiaeh and his entourage Paris'. Banı sadr is in ar
and Poland
By Davy Jones
Organiser in recent weeks.
Things began to turn sour when out of the bluc Organiser announced in its 18 rebruary Issue nC IISl lld Tonal Ta•OU movelrenl demonstration in support of
held London on 13 March. It called
trade and La bolu Partv LO DaCK march called at four weeks' notice
Socialist ystified by was somewhat mystitled this cal as a lew days DrevIuusly we nee a lomt meedog witd Socialist Organiser to discuss
solidarity work which a march on this date • was menuonea, and where we agreed to work close v as oossiole in rulure on the ponch iscue Neliner wert any of the major solidarity committees around the coun try ever consulted about thi
'national' march
Socialist estimated that such a march would be a flop, thereby ting Ualk tllal this soldarilv country aiming. to nase cne campaign on a labour move
We therefore
persuade Socialisi WCCKS oreamser io unink araln. Dul to no avail.
While it attracted some paper sponsorship from a fen
miovenicil bodies Lnougt trom none ol tre loca solidarity commitees march was a fiasco. • ns na
had the gran uciulstlallvl tola. OI JUL marchers les
claims
would cuce mat l was a seclarlal stunt which no wa!
trengthenec those fighting for a labour movement orie tation for the Polish solidarity campaign.
All this might have been vałer vncr e dcce dv dr the of Socialist
alliance with the Mojahedin who have been responsible for a bombing and asasination campaign against the top leadership
Khomeini's Islamic Republican Party. 42482
• On |6 March represen-
tatives the Revolu-
tionary Prosecutors Offic
began 1 confiscating
copies Kargar
news adel • the Revolu
tionary Workers Party
(HKE) from news-stands ii
declared illegal for Ine unid Islauuiil neouDiC •uDlisane Hes Cane siancerino Ine judicial
HKE the Iranian revolution and has DeCU acuve ••DosinG m•erCiscarrcksoniran
Armed men to the shop where Kargar is
Ion 15 March 1 and arrested the printer, Mohamne•one nel rASeT. whereabouts unknown. Falsafi has been
NCHIVOU the iraniar ¡rotskvist movement (TOl ten years.
The previous issue Karaar had contained ar extensive interview Will HKE leader Bahram Ali Atai, who had just been
Socialist Organiser
IT IS VERY SAD when fellow comrades from the revolutionary movement commit serious errors of political judgement. But it is irresponsible to let them pass without comment. Such is the case with the incredible gyrations of policy on Poland from Socialist
Organiser the Polish Solidarity Campaigt annua general meeuns Socialis Challenge supporters wenl the meeting to clarify whether the PSC could be transformed into an adequate : instrument
organising the solidarity 1OI movemtenl We assumlicu Socialist Organiser same intentions
political basis and practice of the PSC was amDicuous • SomeLIiCS SlIess ine a anlr moveme oe tation, at other times welcom
anti-labour movement politicians to their forms. Nor did the PSC have a cemocranc suruclure zlvllls full say to the local solidarity
1 k6 those Glasgow, Manchester, Bhave Birmingham, real roots in the ment and which have organis. ec une success ul workolalt tours around the country
week's Socialist Organiser claimed that 'it is «ттеи o assess Inecn ference there are some Brc ma y e thin ing g that the
to play such building a Droau worklle class/labou movemert camdaa wnich formally dissociates itself from the cold warriors)'
b an ite reac on is
ICI CHl Wa. DI CocHlcu will. Inree resomuons on bonticd orientation. onv one or iner called for dissociation from old and variors like Thatcher and ingiy naomil 1 it was The main counterposer ILO tion, moved by Robin Blick (described Socialist
as 'Leninophobe') said campaign should . oc oDel LU al unose suoborung maeoen dent trade unions everywhere.
When
ambiguous resolution meant seeking sup port from non-labou ment forces like the SDP, the movers emonaucatl answered yes, and viciously attacked the notion the
disociating itself
The recent Iranian militarv victories wit be a signal for the stepping up oi attacks on the iranian revolution. It is the task of socialists to oppose these attacks. ro ase intervien rist
interview, Atai reported that secret execu cons „oecn corcc ovu at the prison. He said tor-
practised
cluding hanging people from the ceiling with only unell toucning floor. Atai and other prisoners were whipped on the feet, he said.
The HKE has filed lawsuit callina for a halt to torture. Hega cetentons and executions. Ine con
K tgor
reported : lawsui and on harassment of the Mnc o tue dutuontes
Those who support the Iranian revolution and defend it against imperi
Sutoule selle telegrams calling TO Falsafi's release to Hojatolislam Mousavi Tabrizi, Prosecutor General, Revolutionary Court
Iran. Copies should be sent to Jomhuri. e-Eslami, Tehran Iran.
from Reagan and Thatcher as
Even when the solidarity Che ontye all ee nad baa
only way had beer
spearhead taking Solidarnosc speakers into the tactores ana workplaces wa.
diferentiating themselves
voted reso mumon: nev tonowea unt. up by voting for a constitu
ino the cich kaign ill the band
campaign in the London-based dividual members
t s not otracul lo assess the PCC conference at all. Iti quite clear that it has refuse
pro-imperialist Reagan nypocris)
Thatcher on Poland; it has remuseo o base s canDazı on the labour movement; and
refused to adopt democratic structure dl c buciculc ,grounds whatsoever for thinking tha the PSC can play a useful role in the future
We cannot allow to go
appallins cominenl. last week s
Socialist Challenge. beciulsi Organise. . The arti- avou cle had an even-handed ap
the fact that the meeting wa
occas on Socarased challenge. aorset
Challenge
Dollalis Challenge sup porters, are mentioned in th same breath the •traci Stilnism, and Reagany Thay bureaucracy cher as among the 1 ordalisille solidarity with holoaes have tne con rades ot socialisi organise lost all sense of proportion?
Hinay we wou aoe to the Socialis comrades to think again We believe that you to the traditional positions o OUI movelcnl evel aspect support for the workers in the bureaucratised
would micai nu suppulllig a can Dalel tlla reluses dissociate itself from the im perialists. not oali labur one's own 'national
' with real support from any othe forces
We still believe and hop that Socialist Challenge and Socialist Organiser should work together in building the largest possible labour move bucul SuDUl! CI Ul nOSC. y
Page 13 scan of this page
Why socialists support positive action
another
view
THE DEBATE among whether women should work underground in the mines has been joined by EILEEN MURPHY of Bolton, Lancashire who has written a play about the women Wigan pits. She disagrees with the views put foward by Jack Lavin in issue 238 of Socialist Challenge as she explains....
play 1 made use of Angela John's extensive research (By ine • Well or Their Brow Croon Helm) and I inter viewed 40 women who had worked on the surface between 1910 and 1956.
Women were barred from surface work in the Wigan area in 1954. Arthur Munby made a study of them between the 1850s and 1880s, there documented evidence about the attitudes of the women themselves to the work on the surface, and of some of them to the underground work they had done previously. Shocked
The 1842 Act excluding women from underground work was rusncu taroun not because of working class agitation won after years of struggle' as Jack Lavin claims but because the middle class was profoundly shocked at the findings of the commission sent in to investigate child labour in the pits
Some of the shock was right and Jack Lavin correct to insist that there should be no romanticising of the conditions.
But a good deal of the horror was offended VicLoriall not allly separated by class, geography and new edition of the pamphlet, Womans Right to Work: the case for positive action' produced by Socialist Challenge and Revolution, socialist paper for youth.
It is available at 50p each from the ciner Bookshoo ON posture from PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.
SOME socialists
alco demands for positive divisive TACu they women's demands at the expense of men's and are class demands.
We disagree. Women organising for their rights are a challenge to the system of divided labour, system which worke sinterests.
The Militant tendency in particular thinks positive action is a substitute for class through the trade
Party. They such demands divide the working
Women in
the mines -
our readers about
surface workers at the
tradition from the mining communities for whom they were legislating.
In Victorian England it was enough for a woman
wear trousers, work alongside men and get dir-
Tor ero be concenn-
Jack Lavin's assertion that 'the campaign wasn't so much about replacing women with men but about eliminating the worst jobs in the pits' is so generalised as to be extremely suspect.
Coal
Certainly, Lancashire men and boys were
drawing' coal to the main roadways as une wower had done, until well into
Of course the women continued to evade the law and work down because they needed the money (that's why men work down, too, isn't it?), and there were numerous women who didn't want to return to underground work.
But Munby's research shows that there some who would have preferred to work down.
With regard to surface work we have much more
women's preterences.
Several ot the women i
class.
BUT the already divided.
the
They are constantly
Positive
that action are
right of place
place in the therefore not
my of labour.
Positive all and within the trade
action trade
and whole. arque that some
United States
interviewed had work in the cotton mill but movea to une pil top and preferred it. Only one had not liked the work. Their unanimity is striking and certainly didn'1 incy glamorise their work justify their feelings.
Mary Zins' confidence that 'British miners and the National Union of Mineworkers will detend
is the en morkers the
the principie unions' (SC no 238) largely wishful thinking.
The union led the attempts to exclude women from surface work. In Wigan the men were divid. ed but the majority of areas joined with those working class women and ethnic minorities are the most expronted secton or tne workrorce
dragged in and out of the workforce depending on the state of the economy.
action demands challenge this. They challenge the have role of women as a reserve army of labour for capital and assert the can do
• women to a permanent workforce. This WORKERS since full employment cannot be achieved while women remain a reserve ar-
action increases Well, women's status in the job market alike
unions. It gives us more bargaining power. share This doubles the strength of the We
movement as government
industries in the the inclusion of
Women's Rights
bosses who did not employ women, to try to get the women out.
The women's support came from their own unanimity, some local miners (at all levels of the union hierarchy) suftragettes and suffragists and the owners who paid them low wages.
Most of the women women in male-dominated areas has acted as an impetus to fight for better safety and better training facilities for all workers.
Positive action challenges the notion that it is women's biology that prevents them from achieving full equality. This is a Tory and reactionary argument ano wower
proved that they are quite capable of doing any job a man
It is the bureaucracy of the trade union movement who argue that such demands on positive action are divisive because they have already accepted the share of the cake offered by the bosses.
women and male workers want the whole bakery. Positive action demands a greater
also fight for a Labour committed socialist policies for a 30 hour week with job sharing. Only such national solutions can challenge
Mary Zins down Walbeck pit in North Nottinghamshire were not in the union in 1887 and 1911 when the two most senous parliamentary attempts were made however the Wigan women became members in 1918 and we would have thought that attempts to exclude them from their JODS would have given way to the full protection of the union
But in the local NUM
the anarchy of the
Demands around positive ac-
TOA are seen this
Fighting discrimination
fighting for unity of the working
class to achieve all our goals.
When Women
have had enough, when they start
to fight back who do they really
challenger Its the bosses
don't want to pay better rates, it's
the bosses who don't want full
employment.
Action for goals and targets to
force the employers
government to hire
demands that they
employer claims that there is a job
shortage and that this agreement
must be at the expense
workers then the trade
movement should fight to defend
those jobs - not ask women to pay.
minutes there is evidence that union negotiators frePee to trees to persuade
owners debar women from certain jobs.
agreement between the National Coa Board and the NUM (1954) which removed women from surface jobs altogether was instigated by the union supposed to represent the women.
They were picked off
by pit, some redeployed in the kitchens, most made redundant.
With the number surface jobs dwindling, there was no sign of opposition from the men at this sacking of a whole seccan camber simp. Jobs
I haven't spoken to a single male pit worker who has claimed that the women could not do their jobs.
But in Wigan just 25 years on, when mechanisation has made both surface and underground jobs easier, the overwhelming male attitude is 'it's not a job fit for a woman' - the old Victorian moral ludge ment kindly, paternalistic, and much difficult to fight IU1C than outright aggression.
bosses'
RIGHT
TO WORK:
means
POSITIVE
decide they ACTION
High we can
who women,
If an
of other
union
Socialist Challenge
Joe : Gormley last year said: 'We worked too hard and too long to get women and kids out of the pits to put them back there now and I bloody well won't have a woman
long I'm president.'
Those of us who remember the pin-up debate with Scargill are afraid that, despite their
differences, Arthur and Joe will be at one over this
But maybe not don't let's prejudge, but don't let's glamorise : the record of the union with regard to women any more than we should glamorise the work.
That will be of no help who tempt to break back into wond pit work in this country
Finally, it is not illega for women to be employed on the surface.
The exclusion of women from those jobs was done at level stand, could be overruled and, as lar by a national law such as the Sex Discrimination Act
If you are interested in Eileen Murphy's CalenDon nroomceo ov riceron near which can contacted ai Atherton 892910.
A WOMAN'S
THE CASE FOR
to end job
requality al
8 April 1982 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
against
By Jane Shallice, East London delegate AFFILIATION to CND will be the first motion to be debated at the annual conference of the National Union of Teachers at Scarborough.
The motion, proposed by the Socialist Teachers Alliance, was voted top of B9e l agenda. Despite the clear support for affilia-
however, it is likely GOIN
be opposed most strongly by teacher members of the Communist Party, whose journal Education Today and Tomorrow has argued that backing CND is 'divisive' 'disruptive' and will lead
people up a blind alley the
them unilateral part of the peace motion is not only wrong in itselt: it will afford some people the chance to atiack the very discussion of disarmament conference. In other words the journal is more concerned not to upset the 244244243 Wultex workers on strike
3y Matthew Creighton
SHOP FLOOR workers at Wultex factories in Huddersfield and Horbury have come out on strike. Members of the AUEW and the Boilermaker mon, le nur dred strikers, are determined not to see their wages cut this year as they were last They have rejected a 7.4 per cent over.
But the main stumbling block, say strikers on the
INSPIRACY
Bradford 12 be freed.
make
26 April when their trial beains.
Socialist Challenge 8 April 1982 page 14
Teachers
the bomb?
right wing NUT leadership than to fight against the threats posed by Thatcher and the cold war warriors of the Tory Cabinet. The
through would place teachers at the collic the campaign against the Reagan visit.
Undoubtedly the teachers union is at a major crossroads. In the current salary claim, the right wing executive called the whole union into action not to achieve the claim, Despite ene fact that the agree arbitration. Thatcher government still has a right to veto any arbitration award, the NUT leadership greeted arbitra-
Huddersfield picket line, is
schemo. They have been requesting one for 5 years
The commeans maKeS mining equipment, is cer-
profitable. weeks of the wages settle ment last year which lost fits workers were registered money, ore nearly £1m.
'Maggie Thatcher says
that produce more we can be paid more comeany thirty per cent more work out oi
for less money, said a sispute is now officia. The The Over 3000 black, labour and anti-racist activists marched in ex plosives. The next stage of their campaign will be a mass picket of Leeds Crown Court on
tion as a victory.
The conference must clearly get to grips with a real strategy for defending teachers' pay. Clearly the grand old Dukes of York (ed earl all the are
who run the have no idea how to do it. Votes
In the recent executive elections the votes for the majority of sitting executive members actually declined as did the number of votes cast. The one exception was Outer LONGO waere SOCISI Teachers Alliance member Ken ingres. Secretarv of Barking. Dagenham Association, was elected for the first time to the executive.
Barking and
next steps are to oreans. blackina products by the NUM, and of any sub-contractors who may scab on the strike
Lyons Bakery dispute
By Matthew Creighton SIXTEEN hundred bakers' union members in Wakefield and Barnsley are in dispute with Lyons' Bakeries. ficial strike after rejecting u wure cur mine ormore 7.2 per cent pay offer. The
ER ADFURD
Leeds on Saturday 3 April demanding that the me Aslan youts are Inreate tea with te imprisonment a round gunty of
News
has been on serience six
defence teachers' tenion members haveso far and
forced the Labour council to reduce the threatened
This is an exemplary fight which should demonstrate to all that a fightback against the Tory initiated cuts is possible
Their fight is not over and others are to come. At the annual conference the Socialist Teachers Alliance will be arguing for motions
make a reality of a united public alliance against the Tories, and which prepares for the fight against the proposed Tebbit legislation.
clear from number of executive amendments that the left has forced une union to
of issues which represent a step torward and equality for women -but on some central issues the essentially right wing nature of the leadership
through. They refuse to back campaigns
defence of the 1967 Abortion Act or to campaign against the legislation of the Immigration Acts.
The election of Ken Jones and the return of Bernard Regan Inner London, together with the votes achieved by other left candidates, most notabilv lonv Harrison In Greater Manchester and Colin Adams Outer London, reflects the membership's search for an alternative strategy
union has lodged a 19.5 per cent claim which would have made up the pay lost in previous years.
'We're out till we get a decent offer
exprested on the picket line in
Wakefield Express come is best to weaken ine strike, has given its front page lead over
jobs are threatened by the strike. But
• are strikers aren timoressed. is clear i them that if orders are lost, it is the fault of management, in failing to act reasonably and to at least maintain their wage revers URY
ANDREW POTHECARY
conspiring
Labour
victory and
Poland
dominate
NUS conference By Chris Bertram and lan Hawkins LAST WEEK'S conference of the National Union of Students Blackpool saw a sweep ing victory for the Na. tional Organisation of Labour Students. Previously the union leadership has been dominated by an alliance of the Com munist Part and
but this tim NOLS candidates won
executive COCCUS that they contested marking widespread feeling that students needed a more fighting leadership against Tory attacks.
The enthusiasm of rank and file Labour students was tempered however by doubts leadership
break from the •oncies or ine Leil Allanc These fears were reinforced by NOLS' decision to support certain Left didates for full-time posts and do transier mael voles lo lor Darcus Howe
'Thatcher and
Whitelaw have no
authority in the
black community'
order' debate.
What do think of the demands by the GLe leaders to greate accountability by Lonaons police:
The big issue with the police 1S not calling for their accountability but calling for massive reduction in police power. This is avoided by all.
There should be a bar on stop and search. This Dowel • should be removec by the British parliament
However. this can't be won without the mass
of the black community and its allies -and this is on the agenda. Do you think there will be more uprisings this summer?
I don't know if there will be, but if there are I know wiele I slaila
But we do need to advance to another stage, we
and Liberal candidates in ine name of 'pluralism'
of NOLS members was also shown the high vote for Labour Students Alliance (SSA) can alcate baran Veale, TOi Welfare vice-president who easily defeated Trevor Gill the Left Alliance who had th valkile or clause •
NOLS supporters in th colleges will have to build the maximum self-organisation of students to NUS Neil Stewart and siuachl. aralllsi boncies. on lne curs. suuden autonomy and on international issues such as Poland and El Salvador
In fact it was the issue of Poland and solidarity with the independent student UnIOn NSZ
wallen whole conference, including the NOLS caucuses . The NUS executive of the NS representative ine conterence not to send a NUS delegation to a Moscov
the controlled present. NOLS members : were appalled when InC NULD Caucu stano a canoidate tor elecuor to this delegation
In Socialist Challenge supporters together , WITN rank and NOLS
and other socialist
boycotting the election They
Polish students did not inten sify the Cold War rather
those refused to defend Solidarnoso ONE YEAR AFTER the Brixton riots there is widespread debate on community policing and 'law and order'. At the recent enormously successful First International Black Radical and Third World Book Fair, Toni Gorton talked to Darcus Howe, the editor of Race Today about how the black movement views the 'law and
can't remain here forever. Some issue will arise seven de excen sion of police powers which might even possibl extend to an international
mass movement developing now, generated from within the New Cross campaign and similar ones
transcene stage and go further.
Out of tha dynamic will come another stage of political action against the state institutions such ine ponce and tne courts Yes, but in the face of the current developments the use racist crime statistics, new moves on law and order and so
is what you're say Ing enougur But against your examples I would sav that the events
let Reagan and Thatcher
Final ine rory governmen
students was underlined when the Thatcher
representative enter the coun ury to attena une conterence When outgoing presiden David Aaronovitch ruled tha
the boycottists delegation Still be sent to the meeting, a
delegale. walked out of the hall in pro-
It is clear that Poland wi
e a major issue at the NOL
WECK divide on Poland runs right through the Clause Revolu
NOLS should continu
fight solidarity
those who equivocate or side with General Jaruzelski.
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of last summer, the cam paign around New Cross the Black People's Day of Action, this Book Fair TuCa are being generated
These two worlds face each other and the contest is on - in the context of British society - not up in the sky
The writ of the present government doesn't extend to the black com munity Thatcher and Whitelaw have no authority in the black community and that is bound to extend to the community as a whole because blacks are not 'queen bees' who exist separately.
But in the face of the sharp threat posed bu Thatcher isn't more reouired now!
We have to answer this from historical logic. Were wel within own
poised to make an historic
political Within the next five to ten years there will be breakthrough.
One thing that is required now revolutionary patience and foresight and we have that
abundance in the Alliance (Race Today Collective, Black Parents Movement, Bogle l'Ouverture). have now established ourselves as a formidable force.
What about your relation to the organised Gou movements We're part of it: as black
we're influenced by and we influence what happens British factories.
There is an enormous
contest in the labour movement against those who have dominated it since 1926. I see this as a Major lask which we don enter from a position of weakness Is the black community concerned about recent developmentsi I don't think they're concerned but watching and waiting to intervene. There
watching which denotes anxiety hopelessness but i haven't
Page 15 scan of this page
Sitting in to fight
Railworkers strike to save union militant
thesack
MORE THAN 3000 Massey Ferguson workers in Coventry have gone into occupation to stop management plans to sack 140 people.
Massey Ferguson had tried to achieve a cutback or ou in une labour force in their UK operation by voluntary.
'Shutting the
gate and taking
a stand'
JIM DUNN, the transport union shop steward convenor at Massey Ferguson spoke to Valerie Coultas.
Wing proposals.
in pay is that one is imposed on you by someone else whereas the decision to workshare is a self imposed decision to save jobs. 'Ihe main against compulsory redundancies. If they speed up the track they'll have to bring back that labour. If it's been laid off then they can't take it back. But if we've won worksharing the work will be there. 'Everybody else redundancy; they cried into their beer in the pubs. This action is about shutting the gate and taking a stand.
in England. What's happened to it? I used to come to work with huge traffic jams.
By two Kings Cross guards as told to Toni Gorton IN A flash unofficial strike on 1 April, around 1000 railworkers stopped Kings Cross station dead for nearly 24 hours against a management suspension of leading union Forey.
forced to withdraw reinstate him.
Steve Forey, a driver, was a main spokesperson for the union during the recent ASLEF dispute. He led the blacking action
The Sun newspaper and has been defending ASLEF members on disciplinary charges as part of his job
(shop steward).
He is also the health and safety representative.
Management, have Deen engaged in campaign against union activists since the ASLEF dispute, demanded that Forey restrict his union activities and ask permission before leaving the depot.
They called for meeting with him but refused him the right to be accompanied by another union member. He refused to attend
On 12.45 Thursday 1 April the area manager, Charles Wort, went to the LDC's room, suspended Forey and ordered him off the station. Within
workforce responded.
2.45: Immediate walk out drivers both guards and
Signalmen agree to Messages go out along
une mue or ciews lu get
MASSEY FERGUSON
Most of these were in the Coventry plant.
DURI acd has already been hard hit by the crisis in cal 'Management refused to accept our work shar-
We've done worksnaring bejore.
The difference between worksharing and a cut
Issue has to be to take a stand
Coventri has accented
"This city had the biggest engineering complex
Where are they militant Steve
At the end of the day management was
the suspension and day now to BR's consternation back to the station Arrangements are made for signalmen to walk out at 13.30 and a mass meeting to take place. Kings Cross box pult the Signa men therebv halting movement of trains between Peterboro ang London.
Mass meeting endorses strike call. ASLEF headquarters informed of dispute.
dustry, with the closure of BL S Canicy Plant, CULS at Talbot, and the soin-ott ettects in component companies.
The
result that Coventry has, in the space of four years, gone from being an area OI full employment to having an unemployment rate over 17 per cent.
As approach Coventry by train a peeling полсе board proudiy announces 'Coventry the Ci-
of Skills and Opportunity' It is now a city with plenty of skills but no opportunity to use them.
With prospect of finding alternative work the 'golden handshake' oftered by Massevs did not get the required number of
So thev turned to compulsory redundances. , A mass meeting of the 3000 manual workers re-
M
14.30: At reconvened mass meeting train crews are informed that despite agreement with British Rail regional headquarters York that Steve Forey be reinstated, local ment maintain the suspensIon.
Lord McCarthy: his tribunal should be reporting any
The meeting recom-
mends signal DoX
returns to work to enable
train crews to get to their home depots.
decided to aSO
continue the strike by train
crews to 0800 hours when a further mass meeting will
be held.
Mass picket is set up.
16.30: Management quest meeting with local
reps and a full time official
of ASLEF. Meeting set for
News
jected this move and voted
only vorer against, for occupation of the plant until the threat of sackings with withdrawn.
response this management has withdrawn the offer of voluntary redundancy to those who would have got more than £2,000. They have also stated that if the occupation continues after 5 April work will be transferred to Massey's French plant.
The unions are demanding that the company in-
work sharing system, but Masseys seem determined to push ahead with their plans. No doubt they are encouraged in this hard line by the fact that the jobs massacre in the
Wrou Millands has sone
through with resistance
F
- NO MORE
18.00 hours. 20.00: Mass meeting convened to hear report back from meeting with management.
Steve Forey has been reinstated and all charges dropped.
at Kings Cross
ment miscalculated the strength of feeling
workforce - - we won -
People are being disciplined for nothin for not pulling the chain in the loo brought in for
and threw it on the manager's carper. It's all things like this
tried to sack a TSSA LDC for incompetence
so
and our elected leadershin.
Steve Forey, ASLEF driver, at Kings Cross WE won the day! The workers arer: Farr
alternative.
principle of no victimisation It may
they've. found the water boiling hot
tne sonamen nove been win us so souary remember such unity.
The picketing
ing the official strike eartier ins year
a camouren orterror, new ve nau erouen
By Pat Hickey
Only . at Ansells was there a fightback, and that was sold out by transport regional octiclar)
Brian Mathers. The main unions in Masseys are the and the AUFW.
One of the first tasks for the strikers will be organising to ensure that the officials them out.
This will Calll paigning for support the labour movement. The dispute will need to be turned out to the wider labour movement as rapidly as possiand some lessons of the Laurence Scott struggle drawn on.
The strike committee would have much to learn from the LSE strike committee who are pushing forward the Rule 14 Campaigr against Boyd and Duffy's sell-out policies.
GEHEIMF WORKERS L
→ OCCUPATION
CLOSHREC
Management offer to pay all train crews who sign on for duty a full shift pay. hose who booked off on They will not
earlier shifts.
The meeting demands that everyone be paid or 34223834
Tricia, ASLEF, and Jane, TSSA, railworkers
AT Kings Cross feelings are running strong. Manage.
The area manager took on the strongest section of th
- but the next time he will try on the weakest. But if anything like this happens we'll all go
This thing has been building up for a long while now.
ne verson was orouer wo verore une ureu manaxe manager demande breake in to cis minis soie chewing
'Wart as we call him even
This manager was nut into Kings Cross to clean it ur but he's done us a favour. The workforce has never been
and all because of his attacks on individuals back on the se ne or par assue but nere isnt any
The important thing is that we've established in
testing of the water as far as finding out how the workers will respond to an attack by the British Rail Board. But
It's backfired. This is the first time for example tha
was more widely supported than dur-
I think this is because the workers feel under the hammer from management who have been virtually running
Laurence Scott
workers face new
attack
By Pete Clifford
come under Tebbit's law.
Over month ago convenor Denis Barry and five other stewards received a bill for £6,800 for the eviction from their cupied factor DaCK August. At the time they were rightly preoccupiec with fighting the scabbing operation organised Anderton's police force which finally the strikes.
passed on the matter to their union's district committee Just month previously the Plessey's sit-in in Bathgate Scotland had
SuC cessfully maintained
legal threats, there was some hope in the Laurence scott camp
But last week, just before they were due to ap. pear in court to contest this, a bombshell came: a letter from Sir John Boyd, AUEW general secretary, informing the district committee that not only would The union normeet or con
Many claim for costs following 14. July, the day the union executive made the strike unofficial, but they wouldn't even provide legal aid.
Billy Partian, senior steward, summed up their anger: 'The unions are giving Tebbit grounds he's not Plessey's fought and won that an occupation form of industrial dispute
membership being attacked again and
the strike will continue un-
til 08.00 hours Friday mor-
1lll 21.00: Mass meeting told
that management refuses
Pickets arranged to cove Strike continues. depot until 08.00 hours.
08.00: Mass meeting debates whether or not to
return to work. Some
that we should continue the strike until blallazculcul arıce lu pay us
Both the LDCs argue
Your Bank
Name of Account to be debited
Account Number.
Our Bank
... Lloyd's Bank, 19 Upper St. London N!
Account No...
Sorting Code.........30-94-57
Amount to be paid..
First Payment due.
Signed..
SHOP STEWARDS who led the Laurence Scott battle in Manchester are facing a fresh and united attack from their employer and union leaders, which could be a foretaste of things to
all the union leaders can
do is pontificate in public
against while we pick up the tab.
Billy Partlan explained •We occupied the factor background to this on the recommendation o local engineering union of ficials. they told us this was the best form of industrial dispute When Boyd made the strike unofficial he acted out : of
rule. withdrawing LE e
union's solicitors he also
acted out of rule in tac
the union's solicitors continued to act for us after 14 July. That the dispute was
unofficial was contested in
Many case and only ratified by the union's national committee in November.
The union must take responsibility, they contested Ene eviction and they should contest this
quences. If the shop stewards are made lable it's a deterrent for others to fight. This is just what Tebbit wants.'
Shop stewards are appealing for financial ald to fight this. As Billy Partlan says: 'The fight Tebbit starts now by supportillg and defending people such as ourselves Trad and Labour Parties are urged to send financial support
• to the LSE joint shop
stewards, 20 Roundcroft. Romiley, Cheshire.
that we should return to work having secured our OUICCLIVC. Steve Forey says: 'We've showed up the area manager as the April Fool.'
A message was sent to the signalmen thanking them for their support and saying if they need our support in the future we'l be right behind them.
Also decide immediately respond to any further attempts at victimisation.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE BANKER'S ORDER FORM 0179678
.Monthir
in the month thereafte- .And on the same date Socialist Challenge 8 April 1962 page e
Page 16 scan of this page
TUC
By Toni Gorton
the face Tories?' This challenge thrown down by Arthur
union, received the feeblest of replies from the
unions, meeting in Wembley on 5 April.
vague atmosphere of worry hung over the conterence, ois sexecutuves of TUC affiliated unions mecung lo response to discuss the Tebbit LuCIL
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'THE big question is: what are we going to do in
of this declaration of war by the
Scargill, newly elected president of the miners'
massed ranks of the leaders of Britain's trade
Employment Bill.
But the worry never translated itself into a clear guide to action for the millions of workers whose hard-won rights for trade each 12 month inland subscription to Socialist Challenge we are offering a free copy
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organisation under threat.
The main provisions of the bill include banning in-
alisilla from:
aisputes other than those between workers and their own employer • disputes outside the government's definition of industrial relations questions It will also be used to:
force strikers back to
court WOrK Dall orders, fines and even im-
open up the unions to be sued for huge sums of up to $250,000
reward non-unionists dismissed under a 100 per cent membership agreement lo cralm sums up lo £20,000 from union funds • bar closed shop agreement which doesn't win the support of more than 80 cent of workers in five-yearly ballots four days notice to striking alow lie DOsseS lO zivt
without CHOUVCES recourse to an industrial tribunal.
These staggering restrictions will become law in June without any serious challenge by the TUC.
Despite this the trade Union. envers nave aer
little The picket of Wembley, calling for a mass lobby of parlia-
organised the Delence of thete for Defence the Trade Unions mobilised fewer than 300 mainly from left groups.
Arthur Scargill, miners' president Terry Duffy, rightwing AUEW leader Len Murray, TUC chairman
Inside, David Basnett of the general workers' union warned that 'we're on the edge of a precipice and we've got to stop sleep walking'
The TUC has been acting more like the walking dead!
Instead of ordinated campaign of mass activity directed against the Tory govern ment involving public meetings, demonstrations, lobbies, petitions the TUC has settled for polite talks, *tomorrov struggle' line and a wistful reuaice LUC
Lebeal Te Solernment
Still without proposals to mobilise mass working class action against the bill before June, the General Council presented
eight point plan to undermine its implementa-
lo Key to this is a cam-
paign convince the bosses that the bill is not in their interests.
Sid Weighell of the railworkers union went a step further by arguing Thane TUC campaign shouthe bosses. should co-ordinated
Other main points include:
informing the rank and file about the implications of the bill
in secret ballot or tance of public funds for ballots • stronger inter-union co-ordination and consultation
for unions faced with legal possible financial action • no co-operation with industrial tribunals union membership questions • establishing. Campaign and Delence rund with a levy of 10p from every umon memoci
Finally, if all else fails, the TUC will consider in-
bring down the govern
Len Murray general -secretary of the TUC would 'welcome public concern bringing about an early election anc a Labour government being elected.
The unanimous agreement by the execunve with the TUC plan reflects a common neca lor unity in the face of this vicious attack
However there is no real agreement on some fundamental questions such as how far to go in delying le law and wiene! the funds shall be used for a political paying legal costs.
Indeed, some unions declared that they will not be held back by the TUC if industrial action is called
for The sheer hypocrisy of
many of the union leaders was topped ott engineering leader, Terry Duffy — who has for years sabotaged the right AUEW members to have any say in their union, If you want democracy, said, 'you take your orders from the bottom.
No witch-hunts
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organisation National Executive
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TARIQ ALI has once again been refused membership of the Labour Party by the
committee. With almost certain endorse that decision, and with Hornsey
facing possible disband. ment, the left has to repond immediately.
Tariq Ali has been denied membership solely on the grounds that he is a revolutionary socialist Failure to launch a massive campaign in support of Tariq Ali will open the flood gates to the witch-
This is not only an attack on Tariq's views but on the democratic rights of all members of the party to hold positions at odds with the leadership. It
A defeat on this question will be a setback for those who are fighting to get the Labour Party committed to a manifesto for the next election that
conference policy: the scrapping of Cruise and Trident; withdrawal from the EEC and
These are the gains that the left has won. It is these policies that will win thousands of workers to
That is why the right has to be defeated now. That is why Tariq Ali has to be
local Labour parties ; should be preparing now to send an avalanche of motions to the NEC at the first possible opportunity. Labour Party members in the unions should take this up
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