Socialist Challenge No. 256, 30 July 1982
The scan: sc-no256.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge Tory health cuts kill children
DEFEND OUR HEALTH SERVICE ALL OUT 9-13 AUGUST
No. 258 30 July 1962 25p THIS YEAR 34 dying many suffering from burns, congenital heart disease, meningitis, and uno disorders. away from Guys Hospital in London.
These unfortunate were sent away to die, because of government spending the Falklands war there was an unlimited supply of cash. Billions
pounds are being cruise and trident, but Guys has had to close the Rothschild ward
the children's department, because the department measly £12,000 a month deficit!
It is a scandal that children are turned away to die. It is a scandal that life and limb is put in jeopardy because this decadent ment prefers spending money on weapons of death and destruction, rather than on our underequipped and underpaid health service.
The intentions of the Tories are obvious. They intend to run down the NHS - britain airere socnes less on health care than nearly every other 'developed' country
• and they intend to run what is left of the health service with a staff paid bare wages
The labour movement cannot afford to stand by and see this happen. In their fight for the 12 per cent the health workers are in the front line of the battle to defend the NHS. That is a battle on all our behalf, and this is why they need all our support.
Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
children,
were turned
children
cuts. For
spent on
has a
govern-
March with YCND from Manchester 9 to the Labour Party conference 24 September
Page 2 scan of this page
-the next round
-Editorial
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Phone 359 8180 (Newsdesk), 359 8371 (distribution) After the rail betrayal DESPITE the succession of victories for the Tory government over the last few months the Falkland spirit is crumbling. One of its first casualties has been the unity of the Tory party.
Over battle cries of 'Traitors' and 'God save the Queen' Thatcher is trying to maintain the undisputed sway over the party she enjoyed throughout the South Atlantic war. 'Wets' like Whitelaw are the target.
Her purpose is clear. In a speech to Tory backbenchers last week Thatcher told them that there would be no snap general election Her motives in this are not the honourable ones claimed for her
manifesto committments' etc.
The brutal fact of the matter is that the Falklands factor would not last the first week of an election campaign. fulfilled the basic perspective for which she got near-unanimous support from the bosses at the time of the last restoration of the failing fortunes of British capitalism through cracking up the organised resistance ot the trade union movement
The bosses were siderable They were prepared to see whole sections of British industry going out of business in order to create the necessary mass unemployment to enforce this defeat. But now they are getting nervous again.
The Confederation of British Industry has once again started to talk in terms of a bare knuckle' fight with the government unless the economy begins to recover.
Of course Thatcher has not completely let them down in the last months. The betrayal of the rail workers by the TUC and the Labour Party leaders was a serious blow to the whole labour movement.
But the growing strength of the strike at that the rail workers received from powerful sections of the labour movement powertul sections of the labour movement has demonstrated the willingness of the rank and file to take on the Tories when they are given a lead.
Similar conclusions can be drawn from the experiences ot the healthworkers strike
The three days of strike action were a success. trade union organisation has been growing apace in the hospitals. Now is the time to give that new confidence national expression in the moves towards all-out action.
A national demonstration accompanied by a one day strike by the whole labour movement would be a giant step towards healthworkers leading resistance against the Tories.
The healthworkers are now carrying the torch of resistance against the Tories. Sup port for them must be the top priority for the whole left in the next month.
The TUC and Labour Party conferences will provide the opportunity to put forward an alternative strategy for the labour movement. So far that provided by Michael Foot and Len Murray has been a policy for retreat.
The left wing of the labour movement has to organise to stop the retreat by rallying the labour movement around the current struggles and against the betrayals of the right wingnder the slogan of 'Fight the Tories not the left' united action must-be planned between the Labour Party and the trade unions in the way dozens of meetings held up and down the country by Labour Parties to support the rail workers.
The only way that the Labour Party can credibly plan to win the next election is by tapping the enthusiasm and combativity that lies in the ranks of the amongst the youth marching behind the banners of CND.
During the past months Benn and Scargill have spoken forcefully in favour of such a policy. But that translated into the building of left tendencies in the unions committed both to reform of the
and the Labour Party against the witchunt and for an
It is this Both for the left and her it is a race against time. The Tories must inflict a decisive blow against the sufficiently demoralise the masses if the way is to be opened for another five years of Tory rule.
For the labour movement a response must tracks and pave the way for their removal and replacement by a Labour government committed to socialist policies.
Socialist Challenge 30 July 1982 page 2
by the press leader 'hatred of gimmicks', standing by
Thatcher has not
general election;
willing to make con-
sacritices tor tnis eventual goai.
other They demonstrated that rank and file
June new wave
that it started to emerge in the
working class and
policy must
of battle. left in the GM COOKSON (Socialist Challenge)
that Thatcher fears above all.
whole labour movement that can
By Pat Hickey ASLEF has been given yet another ultimatum on flexible rostering. Even before ASLEF's upcoming the British Rail Board is using the TUC sellout to push forward its attack on rail workers
the conference does not agree to conclude negations . the rosters by 2 August the Board will impose them. This gives exactly tive tions.
The Board believes that the TUC decision means that they push anything they like at the drivers; but the real crunch on flexible rostering has yet
When the new timetables are introducence cooe will try to take
Maxof devaniace flexible rostering which they cannot co on existing time tables: this will have an equally disastrous effect guards. Rail workers should start now to build joint committees to prepare united action against this.
Unity
Railworkers' unity will SoOn vitar on other issues. The Board
withdrawn its 3.5 per cent offer for this
Ward rise, because of the NUR and ASLEF strikes. • This has now been referred McCarthy, who reports next week. The eventual offer will probably be even lower, and tied to the Board's other
productivity
in particular the Board
is pressing for taster in
troduction of one per-
operated trains.
It aims to start this on the Bedford St Pancras line. where guards' jobs will disap.
But
pear as a result
there is no doubt that
will press rapidly
Train drivers
Kings Cross for the extension of this on a national basis.
Noise
Sid Weighell will make a lot of noise about this in the next few weeks. But he will
more fight this attack than did the others. Indeed, there
believe good that reasons he has already agreed to the Bedford St Pancras 'experiment'.
NUR members have to bring Weighall to ac count for his role in the Thatcher has not finished the job for which she was elected
Trade Unions
ASLEF dispute, and for his refusal to defend jobs and living standards. The maximum pressure should brought to bear on the left on the National Executive to take the fight against Weighell's leadership to the rank and file, and warn them of the dangers ahead. But it is in the depots, among who have to pay for Weighell's treachery, that the preparations for unity against these attacks have the greatest im-
be
to Along to the
holp de alto condemn the Labou
As the ASLEF members state
Road depo below Name...
Address
A0e.....
Union/CLP (if any).
50. London N1 2XP
Kings Cross Support ASLEF Smash Tebbit
ASLEF No 1 is calling on all labour movement bodie
Wins of the see and re
support to te Mor strik. n suppl TUC unions ASLEF could have won, and thereb
concamn ne Labour Party shadon
cabinet tor not exoressino unequivocal support lu
ASLEF workers detending Inell rights ana worrie
conditions against the Tory government.
The • orles wort
out to smash the union and the TUC helped them on
Copies a chester ASLE No 000
JOIN THE FIGHT FOR
SOCIALISM If you would like to be put in touch with Socialist Challenge supporters in your area or would like more information fill in the form Send to: Socialist Challenge, PO Box
Page 3 scan of this page
BRITISH TROOPS OUT OF IRELAND!
THE SICKENING hypocrisy of the Tories and their press knows no bounds. The two bombs attributed to the IRA that went off in London killing 10 British servicemen was greeted with the usual hysteria. Accusations of 'IRA cowar dice', of being 'bereft of humanism' abounded Dozens dedicated by Thatcher's Fleet St scribblers to gush about injured horses. sunk with the loss of 250 Argentine lives by the British task force in the South Atlantic, the Sun summed up Tory feel-
screaming headline "Gotcha'. ing by ls sink thịs ship -'exclusion zone' men, was taken by pressed the button. One week after the London bombs. Thatcher was reported to be 'very angry' that her South Atlantic bloodbath was not eulogised by Archbishop Runcie in the memorial service. tributed to the IRA is that Thatcher's action was in aid of maintaining sordid colonial possessions. The IRA's action is part of the Irish people's struggle for freedom from domination, oppression and exploitation by Britain.
myriads of episodes in the history of Britain's etforts to
By Martin Collins
DURING the Malvinas
war highlights its hypocrisy
Irish Republican Army bombings in London.
The nationalist move-
ment has been fighting tor
freedom
bowen uccaues.
ionalist forces liberated
half their country in 1921
creating Eire and have
been struggling to achieve
the re-unification of
Ireland ever since.
As part of this struggle
the IRA has stated many
times considers
military targets in Britain
to be at risk. Thatcher
gave no such
before the SHUTUCI
several hundred Argenti-
nians the General
Belgrano which was sunk
the war zone
around the Malvinas.
But what is the
political value such
bombings do they help
the cause of Irish freedom
from Britain? In a recent
article in Republican News
the Irish newspaper
which supports the IKA
Peter Dowling looks at the
lessons republicans
could learn from the
Malvinas War. Notion
He that the show of South
Atlantic must lay to rest
any notion that the British
can be driven out of
Ireland by military might
alone. No war of national
liberation can ever be won
without cance of forces
political balance
in Ireland and Britain.
There important
military differences bet-
ween the two wars - that
Argentinians were
beaten in a conventional
war within 13 weeks. but
Thatcher's hypocrisy
and 'evil of page of print were
When the Argentine cruiser, General Belgrano was
The decision to - well outside the British imposed 200 mile knowing it was carrying nearly Thatcher's 'war cabinet'. Thatcher
The difference between Thatcher's action and that at-
Ten years ago this week we were witness to one of the
war, the Thatcher government claimed that the use of violence was justified in the defense of democracy and defense against invasion by a foreign power -something the Irish have been saying for years. The government's stance during the Malvinas
over the recent
the IRA are unbeaten after 13 years.
The main difference, Dowling says, is the pot can context. What, example, stops the British Army driving up Falls Rd in Belfast and blowing to smithereens the Republican Press Centre?
Restraints
the nationalist areas Belfast what the Israelis have done to Beirut! Its he says, because the IRA could stop them because of the British tradition ef "liberalism', but because of the political state violence his considered That counter productive. reler vowillig goes uni to say that because the Task Force was launched in a wave of 'popular support' the large losses could be brushed aside. The only real question was whether the Argentine Air Force could inflict sufficient casualties to split public opinion and bring about premature ceasefire.
Whereas in the South Atlantic £1,500 was spent and at least 250 lives lost, it ualllag' the credibility of the Tories in carrying trough inch objective to the end. But in Ireland British forces have incurred much smaller losses and financial cost people as 11011 worth Hove much and must longer stay Dowling concludes that IRA tactics must take of pollica.
snuff out the dream of Irish people.
Willie Whitelaw, Home Secretary in Edward Heath's Tory administration, 'Operation Motorman', as they called it, brought to an end the self-government that Derry had been enjoying. The people there had put up the against marauding Orangemen,
put the barricades up against the British army. A new name had been invented: 'no-go area'.
Irish people. pogroms all have their anniversaries about now.
Irish people fight bombs. Socialist Challenge fully identifies with the aspirahypocritical chorus of the Tory press and their Labore tions of the same scale as the violence of the Thatchers of this world
troops out of Ireland and allow Irish people to manage
against Thatcher and her ruling class friends.
restraint of the British and
turn the physical impact of
their military campaign to
political ends.
He looks at Vietnam,
saying that once a certain
military competence of the
Vietnamese had been at-
tained, the conflict chang-
hearts and minds the
HOL of Viet-
nam, but decisively
Mincila.
Ireland
On 31 July 1972,
sent in troops to destroy 'Free Derry'
barricades not only who had terrorised the Catholic community for decade after decade, but also
This time of the year is full of such anniversaries for the
Bloody Sunday and Orange
It is against the memory of those black days that the
and against which the IRA plants its We will not
friends. The violence of an oppressed people is not on the
We share a common aim with the IRA: to get British their own affairs. Yet we do not think that the bombs that were planted help this common endeavour. We think they can only set back the task of building a movement in Britain which mobilises the strength of the working class
Stephen McConomy - killed by a plastic bullet by the
The United States was
public opinion had turned against the war.
Socialist Challenge and its sister paper in Ireland Socialist Republic have argued for just such political approach to the building of anti-imperialist movement In Ireland and Britain.
British army - one of many
By subordinating the political struggle to the military the IRA has ex. cluded thousands workers and youth in both countries from helping to get Britain out.
The biggest impact it Britain, Ireland and around the world was achieved by the political campaign around the
strikers and the
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
OUR DEAR SON MICHAEL GERALD KELLY
AGED 17 YRS MURDERED BY BRITISH PARATROOPERS 30 • JAN. 1972 One of the 14 innocent protesters shot by British troops on Bloody Sunday
election of Bobby Sands to the partlamcil not by the IRA's military successes.
Such political campaign makes it more dit ficult for Thatcher and the movement leaders in Britain to whip up chauvinist reaction.
Bombs in Britain will not answer the Southern Irish government which backs
the British and jails Gerr Tuite; bombs will not ex plain to the British or Iris workers now lo oppos Prior's plans which sup Preland; they wil we port Unionist
not lea the thousands of who opposed the Malvina war as part of the strugg against Cruise missiles
wholehearted! the cause of Irish freedo: in the same way.
Socialist Challenge 30 July 1962 page?
Page 4 scan of this page
By Tessa van Gelderen THE SUMMER break will not be a break for the witch-hunters in the Labour Party. They will be seeking to extract every last drop of blood from their campaign against Militant and the rest of the left in the Labour Party.
But the immediate response from hundreds of constituency parties to the register has been an maication of the growing up-
resolutions the mich-nunt nave gone lo Labour Party conference
- the vast maority in ul-
er opposition to the NEC
More importantly, it is be ing recognised that those who sold ASLEF down the river the Weighells, Chapples, and, yes, Foots of this world are the very same 'leaders' of our movement who want reverse all the gains the left hav: made in the Labour Party over the last period.
But the left cannot be complacent. Between now and conference at the end of September a lot of work has done Conference delegates have to be mandated to oppose all resolutions that even smack of a witch-hunt.
If the fight is to suc-
TUESDAY last week saw the first major public response to the proposed Labour Party purge. Tribune, under its new editor, Mullin, organised a rally with Pat Wall, Tony Benn, Jo Richardson and Arthur Scargill.
of ASLEF received a tremendous reception for the stand their union had taken, only to be sold out by the TUC. More than anything their presence stressed the vital necessity of supporting workers in struggle as the best way to stop the witch-hunt.
Socialist Challenge prints extracts from the meeting.
•== lores. -derstand
*e shall be :errible es in ine
..CE wIth Mili.
Lien back
Socians: Challenge 30 July 1982, page 4.
Stop the witch-
hunt-organise!
ceed, we have to be clear as to the principles involved. Socialist Challenge supports the position propos-
by Hackney North Constituency Party, which is calling a conference in late October COordinate resistance to the
WIICLICI 10U passed by the Labour Party. A preparatory meeting has been called on September in County Hall. The same position is embodied, in our view, in the declaration sponsored by Tribune, calling for non-cooperation with register.
The implication these positions is clear: we are saying that we will not tolerate expulsions and wil retuse to them passed by conference. Such a view has met some resistance because the left has always argued that conference decisions should be binding.
Tribune rally: 'No witch-hunt'
Chris
Ray Buckton and Derek Fullick, president suspicions oi Can. instead together to bea: mon enemy
comrades. bou camer get rid of opinions by tak1ng disciplinary against people.
There are many things I disagree with in Militant, such as their attitude to
them to remain in the par-
But accountability does not extend to a right to suspend democratic guarantee for minorities. This is an inalienable right: any organisation which aoes not respect it can never be democratic. It would leadership could always impose its will bv preventing oppositions from forming, organising, and winning a majority.
For this reason we also reject the position taken
wild that constituency Labour parties should accept pulsions rather than face sus oCusIOlIs.
On the Collary. we say that these bodies facing suspension must Joll together, to act in concert instead of being picked off one by one. It is for this reason that the conference called by Hackney North is so important:
It is not defeatist to prepare now for such eventualities. To do otherwise will be to 'go naked ILLO the conference chamber'. A boycott campaign is the best way to
ty so that I can argue with them, and perhaps change inel opinions.
It's well known that Militant
SIONE power base in the LPYS. Are you going to expel all those young people?
which I all vul cullet have a suspicion that some
the NEC would like, close down the LPYS? It won't be the first time that our youth section has been closed down. Tony Benn THIS is a meeting about unity. It is about a united trade and labour
coming logerner because me snow that the nurses picket with the ASLEF SUIIACIS. And so they did. It means the TUC supports workers in struggle. And alas over this weekend we have not seen that support TOTthcoming.
Labour Party
win. If the party leadership and the trade union bureaucrats are faced with an opposition which already dec are ference that it will openly dety expulsions and suspensions, will be
This does that the Labour movement
September, initiated by Militant, should not be supported. Any and every
against the register should be backed.
That is why we think that Miliant, in their 16 July issue, have damaged the movement and their own cause with a divisive attack
the September preparatory meeting called
Hackney North Characterising it as a 'rival conference' argue it is a diversion from Militant
their own, yet Hackney North's circular. which we published last week, says that the 11 September conference should be supported.
The rivalry exists only in the minds of Militant's editorial board.
Accountability means leaders are accountable to
membership The register means that the membership subordinate to the leadership. And that is not an acceptable solution for any governmental party. Do not think that you can use discipline against ideas.
It is a tragedy that between now and October we
spend much time on the question
register. dangerous, irrelevant, unworkable, CONSELICICC won't expel people, they'll suspena constituency parties, they'll find unworkable. But why waste time, when above all the left in Britain and the trade union movement needs to be together.
Pat Wall
VRADES TUC did las: Sunday he ASLEF strike undid in cre stroke every meeting,
demo, every day of action, every leaflet, every school. every send d the TUC held on the Teb.
Bill. Because that betrayal gives the green light to the government's union-bashing.
It's no accident that
GWU. mands LE DEA
is going to defeat the witch-hunt
The left has to set its sights beyond the constituencies. If a local party Lanes SUDUCIISIUL need union backing: moreover, if a local party accepts the expulsion of a
it will be union delegate. interfering with the union's right choose its own representative. Union delegates to General Committees and Labour Party members in the unions as a
Snould resolutions insisting that their union will 110| recognise any expulsions, and will continue to affiliate to any CLP expelled
those who betraved the train drivers are those who
against the Militant and the witch-hunt against the changes in polici fought for by the left, and won a a succession of Labour Party conferences.
If they come for the Militant today, tomorrow they'll be coming for the LCC, tomorrow they'll be coming for Tribune, and the rest of the left.
This attack has beer overwhelmingly rejected by the rank and file of our
Nearly 400 Consti tuencies have declared their opposition to witch-hunts, to bans, to a return to the proscribed list, and to the attack on the Militant newspaper.
IREGISTERED
SOCIALISI
NEW BADGE
OUT
'Unregistered Socialis: Black and white on rec background 25p plus pap: orders over 50, 15p post free. Send your orders in now to PO Box so. London N1 2XP. • Cheques and
Brent rOUD
TGWU
remarks a
FAIR DEAL
for
HEALTH
SERVICE
WORKE
The left has to ally itself with those workers in struggle if it
for refusal to comply with the register.
Similarly CLPs who
take boycott stand should circulate affiliated organisations to ask their support, and call special actions and rallies to mobilise their backing.
The connection to be made is a simple one: the witch-hunt is an attack on all trade unions in struggle capitulation In ad vance to the Tories.
Now the best friends of the left in the Labour Parly are lie wall unvers wile have been sold out by the
Labour Co-ordinating
Committee opposes
Register
pecting.
idea.
It feels
ference. The
tional issues.
the witch-hunters and will
opposition. right fight back By M Richardson, Hemel
the local party
righ:
very successful in its efforts
the party to socialist policies.
TUC and party leaders, are the other • rail workers who have their livelihood s threatened by chief witchhunter Sidney Weighell, are the healthworkers facing Thatcher's onslaught.
It is these forces that the left has to base its campaign on. The train drivers dispute showed that what Foot and Co fear most Is the working class taking action for itself. That 1s why they want a purge and that is why it is these forces who will finally settle accounts with our misleaders once and for all.
GENERAL secretary of the Labour Party Jim Mortimer has received a letter he wasn't ex-
The Labour Co-ordinating Commit. tee, to everyone's surprise, has informed Mr Mortimer that it will not join the proposed register - even though it first suggested the
that it should first consult its members and the best time to do that is at the annual general meeting. That isn't to be held till November, which is slightly unfortunate for the NEC since it will be after party con-
LCC's letter also expresses doubts about a register, suggesting that there is a confusion between political and constitu-
The LCC's decision will be a blow against
stiffen resolve against the register among those who have not fully committed themselves to outright Hemel Labour Party -
THE ELECTION of Paul Boateng as parliamentary candidate for Hemel has launched the right on a witch-hunt. A press campaign conducted by supporters of the defeated candidate, Robin Corbett, has been condemned overwhelmingly by the General Committee of
Black GLC councillor Paul Boateng still has to be ratified at an extraordinary National Executive meeting called by Eric Heffer. The
-e s removing delegates "2s 50- attempting to put a:--runting the left. So far despiie support from the likes of Richard Evans of the Times, the right has not bee-
Now the left has to build on that success by turning the party outwards and showing rank and file members in the party and the unions that the fight in the party is to commit
Page 5 scan of this page
non-cooperation
Tribune, under new editorship, has taken an important new initiative against the witch-hunt. It is circulating an appeal, reprinted below, for signatories to a full page advertisement in its own pages which will call for non co-operation with the register. We urge all our readers to support this call, and seek labour movement affiliations and signatories for it.
Fight the Tories not the Party Dear Comrade I AM writing to seek your support for Tribune's campaign arustine recent decision or tue Labour rare auonarka ecutive committee to estaousn a reo ster or non-ammateo organisations which in our view will inevitably lead to expulsions.
We propose to Tribune signed by individuals and to the proposed register. The text will read as tollows:
Dear Comrade
tasks of our movement.
services.
Tories not the Socialists".
labour movement. me at the same address.
to socialist policies.
Please send credentials to (name of organisation)
I enclose a cheque/PO for
We would like a speaker Name Address
with register
place a full-page advertisement in organisations opposed A LABOUR MOVEMENT CONFERENCE"Fight the Tories, not the Socialists" - 11 SEPTEMBER 1982 Maver CLer or un rate Nor Cap or a LP entry South East CL: Bradord District LeP. Sponsors include:
Tory media against the Militant Tendency. Unfortunately, Labour's NEC has responded to this red-baiting As you are no doubt aware a massive campaign of abuse, lies and distortion has been undertaken by the by establishing a register of all groups in the Labour Party, excluding 'Militant. Labour Party. It is clear that this is not just an attack upon the 'Militant. Should it succeed, all those This is nothing short of a witch-hunt. An attempt to suppress socialist ideas and instigate a purge of the campaigning for radical and socialist policies will be threatened. union branches and shop stewards' committees. Those who have supported it are detracting from the real trade unionists. Already well over 200 CLPs have opposed such measures, along with hundreds of trade socialist policies, supporting workers in their struggles to improve living standards and defend jobs and This witch-hunt is against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of both Labour Party members and The main job of the labour movement should be to fight the Tories and their SDP shadows with bold, reject a McCarthyite purge and fight the class enemy with a socialist alternative. is invited to send delegates to a Conference called on I1 September at the Central Hall, Westminster, London. The Conference is being convened to oppose the witch-hunt and launch a campaign to "Fight the Your CLP/LP branch/trade union branch/shop stewards' committee/I.PYS branch/tenants' association. selected Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bradford North): Terry O'Neill (President of the Bakers Union and Candidate for the NEC): Peter Taaffe (Editor of Militant) and other leading figures from the
Yours fraternally Tony Saunois
My organisation agrees to become a sponsoleof the conference • (tick it applicable) if for each credential)
Tribune calls for
the Labour Party leadership
•osea reelstel
to advocate their
with the proposed register. 'We the
Wing in the form below and enclosing 13 fraternally Chris Mullin, Editor of Tribune
Friday 27 August at the latest I enclose £3 plús a donation of £ • ORGANISATION
To ensure this is done, the real voice of the entire labour movement must now be heard. We must
All bona fide labour movement organisations are entitled to send delegates, and are invited to sponsor the
conference. Speakers will include: Ken Livingstone (Leader of the GL.C): Les Huckfield MP; Pat Wall (fwice
Further details will be forwarded later. Organisations agreeing to send delegates should complete the form
below and return it to the address above. Should your organisation require a speaker, please send requests 10
On behalf of the sponsors I look forward to your organisation's support in the fight to defeat this witch-
hunt, and to struggle against the Tory government, securing the election of a Labour government committed
scurses Conference Organising Secretary
delegates (Maximum 5 per organisation) on behalf of
• Itick if applicables
Labour Party.
we wish to record our dismay at the unwillingness of
to come to grips with the Tories and the SDP who are the real enemies of the party
We wish to state our unequivocal opposition to the pro
which we regard as an attempt to establish a new proscribed list and which we believe to be a recipe for an unending civil war.
We support the right of Labour Party members to form and urge Construency Labour Parties not to cooperate Campaign
all Parad to the their accep an concentrate instead on tiking phe Torres
Please demonstrate your opposition to the purge by fill
308 Grays Inn Rd, London WCIX 8DY by
I would like my name to be included in the 'Stop the Purge' Ad.
ADDRESS 23 Ironside House Homerton Road London E9 5PW
witch-hunt
THE SAME ad.
vocates of bans and
proscriptions are
the very same
characters who are
arguing that there
should be no action
in real terms against
the Tories' anti-
union legislation or
for a wage claim or
claim for better
conditions.
The language being
used by the Roy Hat-
the Sidney
Weighells and the
Terry Duffys is
reminiscent of the ter.
minology used by Roy
Jenkins, Shirley
Williams, Bill Rogers.
And I notice one of our
leading trade union of-
ficials has said
unless we bring to heel
militants the
party there's a good
that they will
cut off finance Well,
that Call work both The following motion was passed by Birmingham City Branch Association of Scientific Technical and Managerial Staff (541) on 7 July 1982 THIS BRANCH condemns the witch-hunt currently being waged by the leadership of the Party against left-wing acLIVISTS Party's ranks.
It is ironic that such a step should be taken under the leadership of Michael Foot, who was himself subjected to a witch-hunt years ago.
other purpose than to try anc halt the of the left within the Party lakchl place over twelve mollis. l occuis al c time wher clea socials arguments need to be posed by the Labour Party to the mass of ordinary people and when the policies of the othe parties are neid in sucn con tempt by growing numbers of
issue Divisional counch anu ase for support
on all ine brancr Labour Party delegates to op-
the in their Parties and jointly sponsor the meeting in (C) below.
Arthur Scargill on the
We're one of the biggest subscribers to
the part and not prepared to
tolerate the expulsion
of Militant or anybody ese trom the Party.
But anyone
wants examine
closely the credentials
ot some
the party, then I'm on-
¡v too bleased to assis
them. And the first
question I would ask
of any member of our
support Clause IV? If party this:
not, the quicker they
join the SDP the bette
for them.
This party has beer
through this witchhunt once before
the 1950s and in the
60s, the right wing of
our party destroved
the chance of an effec
tive socialist alter-
native policy. And fol
those historians who
Brum Trade Unionists
against witch-hunt
(c) Organise a Public Meeting under the banner of 'No to the Witch-hunt Fight the Toria as soon as possible be invited to address nationa speaker
Tony Renn) and that a place be reserved for a speaker from a trade e ios in struggle (such as the the above to the ASTMS Na (d) Write a letter ressing tional Executive Committee and other appropriate leader
ship bodies (e) Defend the right of all views within the Party socialist: their (f)Seek support from other
Lewis Davies
East He was
president of Teeside union
Students' Alliance, organise a delegation to Ireland in 1977
movement on Teeside.
want to look back and Was gone downhill Fl wonder why our tell them why: since 1945 our party has tried to practise capitalisil better than the Tories It's not the left that divides our Party I'm sick and tired of hear. ing this charge. It's the right wing who does so with the full support of the media.
position perfectly clear. I am oooosed to bans and proscrip tions. I hope that one
emergthings that wil
meeting is the reaffir. mation that our party is not only opposed to a witch-hunt but firm in its commitment to change our party even further.
From the Tribune against the witch-hunt 2 Labour Movement Bodies ic the above.
TONY BENN has • been l vited to attend the meetin Beaten ber provisionally Civic Hali enquiries Stenner son ADIMS Cly Branch) y:
Douglas Road, соск Birmingham 6нн A date will be announce tor a nonning meeune tor i Public Meeting and delegate will be welcome from Labou Movement Bodies supportir. ine coove.
Lewis Davies died in a climbing accident in the French Alps on 22 July. Lewis was a leading Socialist Challenge supporter in the North-
secretary of Middlesborough rades council and a delegate to the GMC o Teeside Middlesborough ČLP. He was forme
Polythechnic students'
He served on the national executive of the NUS in 1977/78 as a member of the Socialist
whom helped
His death is a devastating loss to the labou
His comrades in CNC NALGO, the Labour Party and the trades coun cil will never forget his dedication and devo tion to the cause of international socialism
Socialist Challenge 30 July 1962 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Preparma on provie de 2 Man Alvo — Profits or people?
Demonstrate and strike for health workers' victory National demo needed
programme on private health
most enobling
fellow humans.
ing contrasts with
ploitation of others.
To some of the medical
profession, pain and suf-
fering connoonues
that can be cashed in on. A
long time ago ther took
the Hippocratic Oath.
Personally, doubt
whether anyone called
Hippocrates ever sat under
a uree on une urcer Island
of Kos, and set forth the
basic laws which
guide doctors. But the
legendary ideas he alleged. doctors propounded that
visit the
wherever they may be, on By Janet Maguire THE HEALTH workers' dispute is to be stepped up. Starting on Monday 9 August, the TUC has called for a 5-day strike, although in that period emergency services will be provided.
This is a step forward, but it is still not enough.
The government is deter-
Bolstered its victory
ASLEF UYCI tends to inflict ILOW another
blow on ine trade unions Government reasoning that the trade unions must be taught that they cannot win. The Tories also in tend to hack chunks out of NHS, some services are to disappear altogether,
be handed over to private contractors. govern-
in defeating the health HOLACIS.
This therefore struggle which the working class can ill afford to lose.
Socialist Challenge 30 July 1982
MOST PEOPLE work in the health service because they care; they are motivated by the of sentiments, concern for Helping the infirm and the dy-
speculation and the ex-
the basis of need alone -excellent 1110 guide for all medics. The that medicine should be a social service is a right today as it was over two thousand years ago.
Fat
When see doctors waxing fat on the pain and suffering of others, I know corruption is running riot.
Last Wednesday, I watch2's Man Alive debate private medicine. It Both the defence of the general trade union movement and the NHS Is al Slake. Need
Inside the NHS, more ettective and bling acuon needed. Continuous, selective strikes must be in. troduced scalC. this is already the case.
Workers in the stores. the central sterile supply unit and so on, have via a levy paid by their fellow workers been strike everv dav. anese actions a devastating effect LIC •Tullling the hospitals, reducing them South Wales NH$ strikers clap miners giving solidarity
page f
was a vivid reminder of
what health care should
be, and how some see it as
business just like ally
other.
Two doctors, one with
the unfortunate name of
Martin Webster, and his
friend Dr Stanley Balfour-
Lyn, who is chairman of
American Medical Inter-
nanonal, argued TOT
health service. were opposca oy
panel of Scottish health
workers.
The doctors were in a
candid mood. They
llauc
no bones about the fact
that medicine
could ' not offer a ser-
vice as good as the NHS.'
Yes they admitted that
'private hospitals had to accident and emergency levels only.
type of action be taken up right
to finance these workers Call got trom the na tional health unions and by collections among all workers organised by the TUC, as well as a levy on an edua workers.
Of course this action is not a substitute ior. alternative to the 5-day ac-
called August. must be prelude to the 5 days of action and if need be this action must continue following the 5-day strike.
support giver the health workers by miners, dockers, see workers and other
has been cellent. But it has not been coordinated by the TUC who Have restricted
Solidarity
waiting lists sometimes
longer than the NHS.
Without shame or embar-
rassment they conceded
that the private SCCLU T
could not provide better
medicine than the NHS.
Point
So what's the point of
building private hospitals?
According to the two ad-
vocates of private practice,
"people's right to
choose. Of course they
never said that what per
mits you to choose, in the
private sector, is the size of
your bank roll. If you can
1IUL grease the Palli
some avaricious consul-
tant, you have no choice. themselves to 'encouraging' sympathetic action. All the forces of the labour movement must be brought behind the 12 per
claim. A start to this would demonstration called by the health unions and the
This should be held on Friday 13 August and the TUC should call on all
affiliated unions to GOWa that day and march with the health WUIKCS.
Step
Only the tardiness of the national health unions and the failure of the TUC
organise action behind the health workers
vall hand victory to the Tory government.
Step up the action: All out on 13 'August.
Dr Balfour-Lyn did, in a burst of candour, admit that his company had to • get a 'return on the money their shareholders had invested The Hippocratic oath is okay in its place but Mammon comes first.
It is a sad state of affairs when doctors can plead guilty to wanting to charge money for
all 12ln service Martin Webster actually replied "по' when would go into the private Nuffield MacAlpine Hospital for major operation. What 1S g00d tor some geese is obviously
good for berlalli ganael.
By this time my faith in the medical profession had Southampton health demonstration
SHEFFIELD HEALTH workers made sure that COHSE general
Albert outroLary Spanswick was made aware of their dissatisfaction with his leadership of the 12 per
Angry workers brought to halt a meeting in Shef. field City; Hall deman-
din the rato peal.
rally was disrupted for ten minutes when a group of workers marched up
the line-up of speakers and union officials, demanding the right to speak. Afte: messie protests, 1vuis shop steward Moirs
Hospital was allowed to take the platform
Moira's spottaboous speoch deman ding that the unic leaders atop putting for
•argumente for the case' and ger on
what is going to happen from here received a standing ova tion. She told Spanswick that 'majority hospital
out indefinite strike was the only way to win the claim'.
When Spanswick got up to speak he was heckled and the hall
begun to reach an all-time low. But it got a real boost when the opposing panel
doctors, nurses and other health workers got to grips with the issues. In their near unanimous opinion private medicine was a parasite on the NHS. Dr Sam Galbraith succinctly described it as 'morally Queous Sweet
For stating the obvious fact that patients. matter
than money, Dr Caroline Shack was Dalonsnan told by Balfour-Lyn that this was a sweet sentiment. As we know, sentiment never paid the wages of those in
HORE
•In the regions •
which previously held
2000 aimos
emptied as people turn.
ed their backs on him
and walked out.
during the •CEn
three-day action,
secondary picketing by
health workers brought
refuse collectors out in
sympathy This has
driven the local Tory ci
ty council into a frenzy
and its personnel com.
mittee ESCUSSCO pro. secuting both sets of
workers.
The Bath Tories are governen
advice about whether
should do
this. and
cash
would be avallable to
iake ihe casa to court.
Brian Fooks. NUPE
Charperson, said the
40er movement
dia not recognise a len
dary picketing
Moves
underway to get Bath
Labour Party and trades
council support for the
and for evol
bigger action in the five. day strike in August.
In Southampton, key workers at the
General Hospital TOOK
strike action over five
the
surgical supplies unit,
thus reducing the
the super-tax bracket! Cash
Man Alive brought home the difference ween a socialist of mealcine and a torv view To the cash conscious and the profit seekers
every disease has its price. The patients get what they pay
and the workers will be paid as lit-
possible for their labours. Socialists have a altierent view We want to harness the skills and the culpassiol of the majority of health workers for the medical advancement of everybody. We want to turn the legend of Hippocrates into a reality.
hospital to emergency
services only.
The Southampton
Labour Party has been
door-to-door
urging support for the
strike and is also raising
finance.
Pay the
Health
Workers
Bey the Health wworkore badass available at 20p ench
Orders for 10 or mors 834098 - 20p each Orders for 100 or more 15p each
Cheques • novane o co dinal Enterprises' and send to 'Badges PO Box 50 Lon Why not ger vou trade union or Labour Party branch to order some?
Page 7 scan of this page
labour movement.
friends.
to carry out its decisions.
leadership'
Bob Moody. Nottingham Area Executive, NUM talked to Andy Miller.
THIS conference was the most significant for a number years. It remains to be seen when we put the issues to the membership whether we get the right leadership to enable us to carry them through. ASLEF, the health workers and all public sector workers under attack from the Tories, it 1s time now for the miners to take a stand.
A number of other issues came through from the conference. Protection of earning. has been made a priority. This is a sore point in all the coa fields and it is long overdue. I am sure we can win the support of the membership on issues of protected earnings, in creased a four week and improved holidays.
Pit closures is another issue that effects all the areas. It is
Strike for
healthworkers
Arthur Scargill AS ARTHUR Scargill said in his final address Yorkshire Area President, the miners looked to for a lead by the whole labour movement. JOHN CHAMBERS, Markham Main NUM, explains how his pit is trying to live up to that challenge.
A special union meeting was called to decide what support should be given to the health workers' Days of Action 19-21 July. Although a resolution had been nassed at area level to support the nurses, DOLI picket lines, it was left to individual branches to take the initiative.
The well attended meeting opened wiln a report current wages of health workers, and how little they would be changed by government's latest pay offer.
AFTER the TUC betrayal of ASLEF, eyes are now turned to the National Union of Miners to take on the Tories. The recent NUM conference at Inverness confirms the determination of the miners to do just that, and with added confidence now that they have rid themselves of the Tories' friend, Sir Joe Gormley With their new leader, Arthur Scargill, they are committed to strengthening the hand of the left in the
Conference decisions to extend union democracy, like the pledge to elect full time officers every five years, is a beacon to every trade unionist whose determination to fight is sabotaged by the TUC scabs of Weighell, Sirs, Chapple and Duffy. This mafia are accountable to no-one but themselves and their Tory
This week we print three contributions from miners. They explain to Socialist Challenge how they view the NUM conference and what will happen now
'It all comes down to
not a parochial issue. Nobody can trust the Tories as far a uncy can unrow men die no d is safe. There is also the question of lob losses year we've lost 220 jobs. North of Notts prontable which just goes to prove that no pit is safe.
We also have to fight to develop new pits.
With ot the Vale of Belvoir where millions of tons waiting to be developed had a situation where a Tory controlled County Council and its vanguard can whether we exploit the energy resources of the create thousands of jobs.
Again it all comes down to leadership, I'm not just talking about lne leaaersio these and national level. We've got to put it across to the membership day hat so long as a hit list exists so long as we are gelling Only limited investment, no job salc.
The branch president статее his support nurses struggle, and asked for to take strike action solidarity.
In the discussion from the floor. it was pointed out that in deal be sipset fred greet deal support workers during the seven week strike. It would be criminal not return this health workers. than just a fight for a decent living wage. It is a tight to protect the health service as a whole from being whittled away by as the lories To loud applause, Tebbit's are demned as a vicious attack on Employment Bill was LIC The best way fight it was through port tor the nurses. train drivers, and any grois meant taking soariy meant taking onto the picket lines One member said that if the branch did not take action support the health workers his conscience would not on him work on anyway. This was echoed by many other miners.
Although there mend losing a day's pay in what they «nour was a lokel there was no valid against the resolution. came to a show of hands we voted to strike, by an whelming majority the minimum safety cover te snarls, Tans and Dollers.
hi was a bream or res a amer
trade unionism.
become democratic. made in the National Executive
to the left wing areas which nave been
supported the principle that al full time officials of the NUM
years.
The details worked out and decided at nex years' conference. changes will give much more dynamic and in the last leadership in ine union.
right wing realise this.
Lancashire area implied that he was having nightmares about what democracy will do in the union!
I'm thinking
to demand £115 minimum for veloped We surface workers,
the board increases grades not settle with the union by the
dictate first of November, there will be This will be linked to the de. country and
mand for investment recruitment in the pits to create more jobs — it will be a package deal which the union will fight for There was a very strong feeling that the union
against pit closures and to win more recruitment.
The National Committee will wage a massive campaign throughout the ranks one not to orgase lo w this package.
Committee will tour pits,
This has LOU.
then
for the
Also the union newspaper, Miner, will be used to the full.
Scargill will make it paigning paper Yorkshire Miner. a lot other As Des Dutfield, dent of the South said, 'If the NEC is not given pport to ti
con-
mass sup the ASLEF
other
solidarity
to
allow
Monday
were some
gesture. argument
When it
over-
leaving
on for
Miners
'Much more
democratic'
Ucla or nilalll
First our union is going to on the need
much more solidarity.
Changes will be
Committee to give tull weight
Peter under-represented secretary of Conference also miners the should be elected every five ASLEF.
will now be The TUC
These two the back. democratic The of the
Sid Vincent, leader of the the Tebbit bill.
Second, conference decided will take
with across for other If the Coal Board does
ballot for industrial action.
Emlyn resolution withdrawal from much more on to the offensive demning
annihilate Executive organisations.
National Ex- Clarke, secretary not just in their NUM is not but in other al cas not happened șince 1974 and will have a big
raise
La camlike the There will be at stake in this campaign.
Vice PresiWales miners
support by the rank and file this Miners from Tower lodge
time, it will be given the green ight to the government and the
There was strong emphasis
for trade union An emergency was passed whelmingly in support of the train driver's strike.
Heathfield the the Derbyshire pointed out that the train drivers were fighting for
survival of their union Miners were asked to join ASLEF picket lines.
• was called upon to give support, but instead they stabbed the train drivers in
Emlyn Williams, President
South Wales miners moved our resolution against
This calls for trade union solidarity against Tebbit and demands that the Position in dord not aords. Pi position in 'deed not words'
maustral achon lo defeat this legislation
There was also discussion about international politics. A
good from Scotland opposed the US intervention in El Salvador and ahreats in Nicaraguttor Cuba. American attacks It also gave support to liberation struggles in Latin America
moved an emergency demanding the of Israeli troops the Lebanon and conthe repression Palestinians and the attempt to
their liberation
He argued that the miners must stand up for the solidarity on an international level. Eric
Scottish miners explained that the anti-semitic but must be anti-Zionist.
Finally Mike Griffin from Penrhiwceiber pit in South Wales
question about the NUM's stance on military repression in Poland. Lawrence Daly, NUM National Secretary replied that the NEC is still try-
send a delegation roland to meet rank and fe Polish miners and find out the Sador us said.
All in all it was a positive and inspiring conference.
Trelewis
ference.
MINERS_ FIGHT
ANY FURTHER
JOB LOSSES South Wales miners section
on El Salvador
Mineworkers demands THIS conference
of the United States collective action if necessary.
and Cuba
regime tions conducted in El Salvador under the present ploit the wealth of the Latin American countries, of the multi-nationals, whose only interest is to ex- and refuses to cooperate as observers at any elec CONFERENCE declares its solidarity with all With brutal behalf of the suppressed people of Latin America. trade union movement in Britain to campaign on picket hospitals in solidarity with health workers, Tyronne O'Sullivan is explaining
PAUL O'SULLIVAN from Drift pit in South Wales was at the recent NUM annual con.
He spoke to Barry Wilkins about it
MINERS. FIGHT
ANY FURTHER
JOB LOSSES
of lobby of NUM Executive against pit closures
NUM calls for action
labour movement demonstrate its opposition, by of that the the National and to their threats to the sovereignty of Nicaragua trade union and Union 01
and its cohorts in El Salvador to the intervention
CONFERENCE further demands that the British
government dissociates itself from the US policy in
Latin America which is determined in the interests
suppression the Socialist Challenge 30 July 1982 page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
1972-A YEAR OF
1972 WAS a year of
mass struggles. The working class fought against incomes policy and anti-union legislation; national strikes and occupations were used against job loss; Manchester engineers occupied over 30 plants to pursue a national wage claim; there was the first ever national building strike. And of course there were the miners and the flying pickets and the dockers and the freeing of the Pentonville 5.
PAT HICKEY looks at different components of Arthur Scargill in 1972. His flying pickets won the day the struggle in 1972 and at the crucial role of leadership — and lack of it - during that time. In the wake of the horrendous sell-out by the TUC over the train drivers' strike last week, there are both parallels and the roots of today's crisis to be found in the events of a decade ago.
Miners:
Scargill and
the flying
picket
PAUCE LING
THE PACE for 1972 was set at the beginning of the year by the miners strike. Prime Ted Heath had introduced 'Phase One' of a legally binding incomes
Pore. Theonition related
with miners. The previous year the power workers and the workers had been Stocks of coal were high and the right wing leadership miners' union had no stomach for The battle of Saltley Gate was an inspiration to all workers a fight.
But the government's offer of £1.90 was seen as an insult by the rank and file. A new left leadership had begun to develop around a little known official called Arthur Scargill from Yorkshire.
From the beginning strike on 9 January both the TUC and the NUM tried to limit it. 'The men are being a damn sight more militant than we want them to be..
President Joe Gormley.
The feeling in the movement the Dockers refused to unload coal and most lorry drivers refused to cross picket lines. Scabs had to be paid £20 a day (worth f60 today) to break the pickets.
There were arrests throughout the strike and one miner was killed — crushed by a scab lorry. But it was the flying pickets shutting down of the fuel depot at Saltley in Birmingham that was the turning point in The fight against 'containerisation' in the docks was a fight Saltley became a symbol both for for the right to organise. It was the dockgrs who confronted the miners and the government. the industrial Relations Act head on. 130,000 tons coal
Sociallet Challengo 30 Juty 1982 pago 8
stockpiled at Saltley.
Friday
Led, at times
waving iron bars.
solidarity
bulding sites
use of force.
Saltley.
safety'. battle of Saltley Gates.
hook. It set up the Inquiry.
had won the day.
Led Arthur events of today will
police brutality.
picket lines for scab labour,
about it.
defied: that
Minister Saltley would be closed
the labour
postal about a socialist revolution.' defeated.
These words the many militants.
ly organised
of the strike. The totally
women cleaners
won wage rises.
would said NUM
labour
But it was not that simple. reverse Freeing the
Pentonville
5
and the industrial relations.
large, through the strike.
were
Picketing by the miners began February. Large numbers of police were mobilis-
outnumbering the prison.
miners. Scab lorry drivers drove
Steer, at the picket lines at high speed
Monday saw the first day of action when from SU Carburettors and from
joined the miners.
Throughout that week the police kept the depot open by the sheer union
But on the Thursday, 10,000 Birmingham engineers converged
The police were swamped. The lorries stopped. By 1lam the officer in charge closed the gates 'in the interests of public
The miners had won the After that the government had to find someway of getting off the TUC
Wilberforce The result was a big setback for Heath's income policy Once again it was the actions of the rank and file going far beyond what the leadership wanted that
When Saltley Gates were closScargill said 'The go down in the history of the British working class movement as a historic day, when not just individual unions but British trade unionists decid ed that they had had enough of
They had had enough of intimidation by police in obtaining passage through the
and they decided to do something
'We had a lesson in workers blems. control. For the first time in many years the workers of this land decided that the nation would be
the state system would be defied and the gates of
It is a situation like this, 1 suppose, in the future which will bring about the kind of unity in the trade volved. union movement that is necessary to combine the whole forces of
. movement to bring the of Arthur Scargill echoed the sentiments of
After Saltley, there was a huge wave of militancy. Millions took action against the Industrial Relation Act. The well-organised engineers went into a national pay fight. The poor.
building workers pulled off the first truly national
unorganised In Whitehall under May Hobbs organised and
To many militants it seemed that deepening militancy and ever growing solidarity would indeed Courtiy usher in the British Revolution.
dio,
'THE ISSUE is far greater than good
The public at But they properly elected parliament, has set up the industrial court... Our whole way of life is based that on acceptance of the rule of law. l was Friday 21 July 1972. Sir John Donaldson, President of the National
Industrial Relations Court (now ne ly appointed Masters of the Rolls place of Lord Denning) was maki an order committing five dockers
The five, Vic Turner, Berna Anthony Merrick. Der Watkins and Cornelius Clancy, refused to obey a court order to st picketing the Midland Cold Stora depot in East London.
At the heart of the dispute lay t hated Industrial Relations Act. T Act attempted to make the tra
leaders police their members by making unions respon ble for the action of its shop stewaro Hence the transport union was fin £55,000 because lorries were black at Heatons Transport, St Helens, al
The line of the TUC on the I dustrial Relations Act was to enga in protest achols and in a poncy non-cooperation. It had refused commont une Act nead on Inste:
leaders had engaged in tal with the government and the boss
NATIONAL INDUS Confederation of British Industry o 'solving' the country's economic pr
An incomes policy was at the hea of these talks. The mood in the cla was in stark contrast to the attitude ( the TUC. 1971 had seen 13.5m da Ost sunke - the highest since tr General Strike of 1926. By the first s months of 1972, 15.5m days had bee lost with nearly 1 million workers it
The jailing of the Pentonville was the first big test of the Industri Relations Act which aimed to tack
pOWe shop flor organisation in British industry. Th rank and file were not prepared to s five of its comrades jailed. In th growing mood of militancy the TU was forced to call a one day gener strike for 31 July. Within hours that decision taken on 26 July. decision which was opposed amon others by David Bassnet and Fran Chapple — the dockers were freed
The working class hadn't waite for the one day general strike. Th docks were at a standstill; there wer no national newspapers; nearly all th London buses were off the road; th train drivers were preparing to tak strike action. And so on around th
This great wave of industrial a tion culminated in a huge demonstra tion that moved from the Industri Relations Court to Pentonville priso to greet the five dockers. 'Ee Ay Ad
we've got the dockers out' wa the cheer that resounded over again that fateful Wednesda afternoon ten years ago. It was magnificent victory.
It was a victory for the rank an file despite the trade union leaders
were unable to take struggle forward to remove the Ac from the statute book On the da
dockers were released.
Lords upheld a fine of £55,000 on t TGWU for failing to control its sho stewards on Liverpool docks.
Page 9 scan of this page
LASS STRUGGLES
More importantly, the rank and
e were unable to develop a national
vement to organise the left in the
ons and settle accounts with the
our leaders like Feather and Len
Tay who continued to seek a deal
the Tories, or like Reg Prentice
• had attacked the dockers and
Lared that 'the law
'Free the Five' struggle had
C, ASTMS and USDAW to aban-
their support for the Act and come off the register. But the trade anion bureaucracy was determined to aroid a fight with the Tories, and the Act remained in force, much weakened, until the Tories fell.
The need for a national alternative capable of fighting the leadership, and leading independent actions soon became clear on the Jones, transport union leader, still liv-
preparing a sell-out deal on the docks dispute, which had been behind the confrontation with the IR Act. "ELATIONS COURI
Dockers
contained:
the morning
after
THURSDAY 27 JULY: it was the morning after the Pentonville 5 had been released. Dockers were lobbying Transport House waiting to hear the recommendations of Aldington Report.
Jack Jones was general secretary of the transport Aldington was a former Tory MP and chairperson of the Port of London Authority. Together they had formed
joint union/employer which had been established to deal with the jobs crisis in the docks.
This had been caused massive introduction freight. The off-port container dépots were a threat to thousands of dockers' jobs. It was the picketing of these container depots that had led to the jailing of the five dockers.
The Jones-Aldington report did nothing to save jobs. Instead it offered improved redundancy The delegates rejected it, dockers launched an immediate all-out strike.
After the freeing of the five the mood was militant. Flying pickets and clashes with the police were the order of the day. A state of emergency was
Jones-Aldington hastily produced a new report. Although only slightly changed, Jones packed the delegates' meeting with representatives from the Srider and dockers lost the fight to control the container depots. Over the next few years the docks were decimated.
The tremendous militancy of the
ship.
bureaucracy.
lost.
should be
EEPTU, docks. Jack
story
as a leit. was
Hugh The despite
munist Left in the organised Communist
and Lord
of flying.
committee
workers'
by the when of container
terms. and the activities.
had lost
day the
ports. The
ville 5,
policy
dockers had not been sufficient to withstand the sell-outs of the leader-
Industrial militancy alone was not enough to deal with the right wing
The rank and leadership had no effective counter to Jones. Tens of thousands of jobs were
Only a fight to fully nationalise the ports and major sections of road
could have stopped the disas aus feis of standardia on hat
living sandares was lacking was a nationally ordinated left wing. The right wing lived to sell out another day.
Leadership,
the old, old
JACK JONES scabbing on the dock strike was not the only instance of the trade union leadership acting against the militancy of the membership. Throughout the massive struggles of that year the positions of the leadership were in marked contrast to the actions of the class.
No army ever went into battle with a more reluctant leadership.
Scanlon, president of the engineering union who obtainene incontes deny one 43 the incomes policy of the Labour government — refused to initiate national action over the 1971 engineering claim.
claim was 30 plants in Manchester being occupied. The Com-
Party dominated AUEW, which had Scanlon's against the old right wing leadership, refused to campaign against Scanion's position.
This defeat undermined the position of the lett and laid the basis for a resurgence of the right. taking Scanion with it.
There was a similarly level of militancy in the building industry in pursuit of the national claim: £30 for 35 hours. and file organisation led by the
Party was responsible for the development of the strike and the energetic use
pickets. But its paper, Building Workers' Charter, failed to appear at all during the strike.
After 14 weeks. the building union, UCATT, out the strike. More than that,
two pickets, Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, were later jailed for five years and three years respectively for alleged intimidation during the strike, no mass mobilisations released them irom prison.
UCATI refused to detend the pickets because the union could not be seen to endorse 'criminal'
By using the criminal law instead of the industrial relations law, the Tories succeeded in regaining some of the ground they
on the picketing issue with the Pentonville 5.
The most glaring example of the role of the trade union leaders was the deal they cooked up with the Labour Party. On the very
TUC called a one day general strike to free the Penton-
the trade union leaders agreed to a voluntary incomes
under a Labour ment in return for the repeal of
This was
file
cond world war.
TUC that they preparations
co-
for a Labour government. At the September,
comes policy.
tions Act that
DOSCU action General said that
traditions LAKe government.
But the
based organisations Communist
workers action. The
defeated
This shop Broad
had the support victory workers.
left the building
high bureaucrats.
The rank
mainly
have been very different.
its massive
the foe Tories
eventually militancy They blow being
to organise
itiative.
proved on
govern working class
world war.
the Industrial Relation Ailson's
Harold 'Social Contract' which was to lead to the fastest fall in living standards and the most rapid rise in unemployment since the se-
The depth and breadth of the anti-Tory struggles on the part of the rank and file so alarmed the
began to make for Labour government equally committed to policies for saving capitalism. In fact the TUC couldn't even wait
TUC Congress in wage controls were decisively rejected. One month
the TUC General Council was engaged in tripartite talks with government and CBl on in-
But it was the Industrial Rela-
dominated this whole period. The TUC had op-
against the Act.
Secretary Vic Feather such action was unconstitutional and contrary to the
action against an elected
Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions,
the shop stewards and led by the Party, called for action. Hundreds of thousands of
struck in two days of TUC was forced to move but it channelled the action into protest demonstrations.
Scanlon, under pressure from
stewards, called number of one day actions which
of over 1.5m But the trade union leaders were not prepared to fundamentally challenge the governmenthe LCDTU, and the broad
engineering and unions, abdicated leadership of the struggle to the
The enormous potential of those struggles to br ing down the Tories and replace them with a Labour government tied to defending the interests of the working class was lost.
Had the LCDTU and the broad left, which quickly lost support, fought both to win the officials to action and to organise as a consistent opposition at the base of the unions, the recent history of our labour movement could
The labour movement, despite
organisational strength and fighting spirit, had a deadly weakness. It had a leadership which refused to build on the the strength of the class to defeat the anti-working class policies of
Tories' defeated by she gre by the gull of the working class, ell in 1974 with the fina miners. But the eare or the the delivered
an effective opposition to the right during the struggles against the Tories, allowed the Labour right to take up the in-
The deal that had been ap Wednesday 26 July
1972 was put into operation. The Social Contract led to the fastest fall in the living standards of the
since the second
Bernie Steer Anthony Merrick
Sir John Donaldson
was president of the
hated National In-
dustrial Relations
Court. As he jailed the
dockers he said. 'Inhe
purpose of this court is
to promote good in.
dustrial relations'. The
issue was, he claimed,
whether these men are
to be allowed to opt
out of the rule of law.'
This man, now Lord
Donaldson, is a fitting
successor to Lord Den-
ning as Master of the
Rolls.
Welsh miners
5 on their release from Pentonville Prison. union movement that got us out.'
Derek Watkins Cornelius Clancy The Pentonville 5.
Their imprisonment tional strike action. It forced the TUC to selle nude goner SUING
weren't prepared to wait.
Vic Turne were only part of tremendous demonstration that marched from the Industrial Relations Court to greet the Bernie Steer addresses the jubilant crowd outside the prison: 'We were put in prison by political court and it was the trade
Socialist Challango 30 July 1982 pago 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Letter
to arms
WHILE Brian Heron's overall analysis in 'Rearming the disarmament movement' (SC 9 July) is correct, and shows some actual knowledge of what he is talking about, I must pick him up on one particular point.
While the CP may well be interested in alternative
TOI artis dustries is not solely their property as ne seems to suggest and criticise.
It is a popular and integral part of CND's overall strategy. It is one attempt to answer the
"how' when you shout 'Jobs not Bombs'.
practical and straightforward tactic
link disarma ment to those sections of have advanced to working on alternative production techniques.
For those of us trying hard integrate unilateralism with the labour movement we must work with as many sections of the movement as we can.
In order to stop spent nuclear fuel and missiles going through cities on the railways we try to get
phone pETt GRANI (Hoclallet Challenga
CND has to look for alternatives to arms production
Socialist Challengé 30 July 1982
Letters etter SETTERS
Dismissing
alternatives
production
ASLEF and NUR Support. uven ineir current problems it is not easy but
Wing workers in the (rail) industries LOC burden and responsibility tor a labour Lovelicit response to the missiles'.
Let's be realistic, alternative production, demos of a quarter of a million, or pressuring the PLP are 1Ul achieve anything on their own.
We have to do them all, and to do them with the maximum of support from, organisation by, the labour movement.
CND has a policy support and encouragement to the setting up work place and trade union CND groups. Surely looking at alternative ways is a positive step forward.
GL YOULDON
Vice-Chair London CND page 10
Letters
I MUST object to the glib way Briar Heron simply dismisses the issue
production in his article * Rearming LIC disarma ment movement' (SC 9
Building on a 'mass action labour movement orientation' obviously means demonstrations, conterences aloO WOrk the workplaces and insofar
Communist Party obstructs this, it is at fault.
But it we are to move beyond protest, labour movement action then we are talking about pavilig the and preparing the climate for political industrial action. Industrial action, either direct or in solidarity in-
either Involves bases or the arms industry.
Inwest London, lis question is brought to the
of arms factories. It has become dr ISSUC OW shop stewards at one of the
EMI factories, conjunction with the TGWU district office, struggle develop strategy to moolise the workforce against redundancies. This is exactly the opportunity that UND needs to develop a labour movement orientation.
Any CND group that cals for action against the war drive and war industrv. WILLIOUL considering the issue of jobs and alternative products. will, with justification, be 1g nored trade unionists.
Socialist Challenge's
World is
divided into
two classes
one hand Davy Jones and Geoff Bell give the
play dealing charking class (sc chauvinism British
the other hand Mari Alice cove costa Mendes and the Argentinian junta
parents, recosmsme cuou es socials virtually consummies a change in class "camp the military junta very definitely defeatist relation England
LUp world divided into two classes.
Marx: front
line fighter
on Ireland
John Ross (SC 9 July).
and ever
revolutionary Karl Marx the
WUs greuiest revolutionary Time and again Marx put himself on the front line for the op pressed Irish Through the International Working Men's AssociaLON. wart relemiessiy al tacked the servile trade union leaders for whom happiness meant turning merocks on the sufferings of the Irish people.
whole Marx household laboured tirelessly to Bri-
enouse
of
Marx organised
Engels rejoiced liberation could
and antiEnglish
sentiments
of the class.
on Ireland
old Mcbeing
civilian bullets
with conveyor
and imprisonment LILe SIX counties.
frame ups Irish im-
The Party
pamphlet 'CND Lessons of the first wave makes this point: 'Industrial action has to be understood as a tactic in the broader campaign to win working class to reject the bomb... this requires an explanation of the possibility of replacing war production by production for social
The Spanish state and the Argentinian jurin are it cre and we are be frie can brace no connaence wnei soever in ermer me soonish or Argentinian state play a
role in combatting imperialism.
J WOODWARD Manchester
/ WAS pleased to see your
Gay the labour mov
lou could have left rights for gays. As yourar ane out TCe says WA have no rights. It's discrimination all the time (unlike say way where there are laws
You also forgot to men. tion discrimination
FOR KARL MARX the greatest happiness was to fight, submission was the greatest misery and servility the vice he detested most, writes prosecuted a terrorist wal against the working class, and trade THORS refuse to defend their Irish
Irish Republican Army has the resilience to mount ao the and the
manent challenge stablity of the British state.
With all this, if Marx were alive today would he not again be on the front une making propaganaa agitating, organising to get Britain out of Ireland!
Would Karl Marx be happy on the mock battlefields of Labour candidate selection
meellies or would he be happy on the streets building anew fighting organisations for the British working class? John Ross and every single Challenge °5 reader Socialist
know the answer to this question.
Are they happy to face its consequences? If not, then they could be described as followers of many historical figures • D HOL in truth, as followers of Karl Marx Victory to the Irish people!
ANDY GODDARD
need.
Brian should read the pamphlet, stop sloganising ana give some tougnt to what 'mass action, avour movemen oneola tion' looks like in practice.
LEWIS EMERY Hounslow, W. London
Postal
points
Gay rights
one's family. I came from Nottingham to because / could
noi тасе my family asking about marriage when gayness came our soo found out who my nearest and dearest were and they did not include own parents, not unusual.
RG MARLOW SE London
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Page 11 scan of this page
Nicaragua: three years of revolution
pire.
unknown ex-student
revolution, twin-engined
Nicaragua. Both rockets missed.
Coordinator of the
of the Honduran border.
But as the counter-revolutionaries, financed and armed from Washington, grow boIder in their military actions, so their support inside the country diminishes. The Nicaraguan people are on a war-footing and this third anniversary celebration was no passive commemoration. The Slogan appears everywhere: 'We defend the revolution by building socialism'.
The official slogan of the day — 'Without counting the cost we will fulfill our duty to the country' signifies "no retreat' No retreat from the military tasks of defending the country and TaP tion, no retreat from exrenole une over the land they people" work; no retreat from the ambitious economic and social ed and begun in health education, housing.
As Corinto was attacked we were boarding a bus to take us ine zu miles from the capital. Managua, Masaya. Over here demonstrarions begin ar ou in ine morning!
The young Condimista militia cuard wor
has told ine the he was a maths teacher by tud:: was thoroughly his miliery detes. My pailed his ex-US any insce sub-machine gur with pride, sinned, and wished
La good day the celebration.
He had to stay behind and finish his guard duty at the hotel; every public building throughout the capital is guarded. By o'clock up to 30,000 had assembled in the plaza in Masaya, mainly local innantanes but alsO contingents and represen-
JULY is a month of revolution: on 14 July the starving people of France stormed the grim Bastille prison; on 4 July thirteen American states won formal independence from the British em-
Since World War II, another two dates have been added to the calendar of revolution. On 26 July 1953, the year of Stalin's death, 120 people led by an
called Fidel Castro stormed the Moncada barracks
AT 5.30 in the morning, Monday 19 July, the day of the third anniversary of the Nicaraguan
plane fired two rockets at a fuel depot at Corinto, northern
So reported Commandante Daniel Ortega,
Junta of National Reconstruction and member of the directorate
FSLN a few hours later to the crowd of 40,000 assembled in Masaya to celebrate three years of the revolution. The plane attack is further reminder, if reminder is needed, of the state of war that exists in Nicaragua today. Armed attacks on Nicaraguan militia and installations occur daily, mainly from across the
tatives from all the mass organisations the SanWorkers' Federation, the peasant organisaLOUS. the agricultural workers' union the Sandinista Youth, the national women's organisation and LIC Sandinista Defence Committees - local community organisations that sprang up during the insurrection and now form people's TInG Dass power' in Nicaragua.
The crowd had swelled
the streets of this smal town. bv the time the nine members of the national directorate of the FSLN took their places on the podium, beneath the hand-painted 30 foot mural of Augusto Sandino, Carlos Fonseca Amador and Rogoberto Lopez Perez.
This anniversary celebration was small com. pared to the 600,000 who filled the (CHILIC of Managua this time last But this followed a policy decision to locate the alive ball celebrations in different towns each year to honour the different roles they played in the revolutionary war Al our demonstration there were only the local inhabitants plus the contingents from elsewhere.
who had walked al! the
casc. the problems transport, especially in the context of the state of war that exists, just does not allow for the mansporting of huge numbers of people any particular place.
The choice of Masaya for this year's celebration has deen signiticance. he founder of the Nicaraguan
Sandino, was born in thé region of Masaya.
MOrE recently, the town of Masaya played key role in te July 19/9
daily threat:
facing their third year of revolution.
insurrection and rightly deserves its title of 'heroic city'. It was one of the places from where the final assault on Managua was launched; the Masayan Indian community that lit the fuse the insurrection the
and the yeal history of this town's mili tant struggle goes back cennes to me resistance against the brutal col-
Not the Spanish conquistadores.
shows its scars. The walls LOWIl of the houses peppered with bullet holes, the bombed and gutted houses from the final murderous days of Somoza and the young Sandinista war-victims, crippled and limping towards the town centre. There are too many heroes
namea rom unis town alone but a short list
gle is read out slowly to the crowd.
After each name the demonstration "They're here!' The Ivals niversary honours its dead all not with sorrow but with the promise to complete the struggle to the end.
Guest of honour was the President Venezuela, CHIS Herrara Campins, who received a luke-warm recephon hon the crowd. His speech was continually interrupted with slogans of 'Socialism!' from the Sandinista Youth.
But Venezuela has, for whatever opportunistic reasons its government
fit, provided Nicaragua with desperate. ly needed technology and oil. And with Washington nearing another Vietnam type involvemen! in the
*lohn Harrison on •Economic Crisis
International.
in Santiago de Cuba. The attack failed, but the movement formed from it the July 26 Movement - inspired and then led the Cuban revolution. And on 19 July 1979 the Nicaraguan revolution deposed the hated president Somoza. These revolutions are now under
our eye-witness report from ANDY DE LA TOUR in Masaya, Nicaragua, tells how the people
this threat as they celebrate
region, the Sandinista government has to maintain good relations with those Latin American governments that are compelled to pay lip service to Nicaraguan revoluof tion, whether they Venezuela or Argentina.
But the crowd roared to greet Ortega when he rose speak. At гететелсі made destabilisation campaign of the Reagan administration the US ambassador lett his seat on the podium and walked off in a huff.
The theme of the Commandante's speech was the consolidation of revolution and the need to go forward. Detail detail he went through the different areas of national reconstruction and defence of the need to arm the entire people, need to extend right tenure peasants, of the need to ex-
cooperatives into wider areas of the countryside of the need to reach production targets of staple crops, and of the need to extend the mass organisations that now encompass an incredible one half of the entire population 'Production - Study - Defence' Ortega left no room for anyone to think that Nicaragu: might hold back because of the threat of imperialist intervention.
And when the crowd replied 'No Pasaran' 'They shall not pass' - to each of the tasks that were spelled out, they were replying to Reagan, to the ex-Somozist counter-revolutionaries, nobelo. to the Sandinista renegade Eden
nemational
'Debating Socialism'
Weekend Oose: 10/22 l eatal London eune
* Bea Campbell & ya! Contas debate hardt roadom
* Men Livingstone, Frances Morrot & Alan Freeman debate 'The New Labour Leti
* Ernest Mandet on 'Socialiss Democracy'
* John Ross on Break-Up of British Politics"
* Bernadette McAliskey & Perry Anderson also invited
Tickets: Just f4 for whole wcekend, t2.50 per day. Creche provided. Write 1o: International 'Dehating Socialism', PO Box 50, London N1 2XP.
Mark the date in your diary now - 23/24 October!
are be
the the
by
of the the
Pastora, to the reactionary 'La Prensa', and also to all the 'faint-hearts' and 'crypaoles Nicaragua who do love revolution and who will not fight for its successful conclusion.
By a picture of Lenin to our bus tor the return Journey Managua we were agair reminded 'We defend the revolution by building socialism' The workers movement throughout the world owes to Nicaraguan people to fight to stay the hand of US imperialism and to support ex- wholeheartedly this
unfolding revolution.
the
Thatcher'sh
war at to
home
the
still
Juiy: August issue now out!
Singer on Poland; freedom; Clara Runco on Argentina; women workers Socialis: Cre
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Page 12 scan of this page
Reagan fears Iranian advance HIT.
By Steve Potter
The current phase hostilities between Iran and Iraq started on 22 September 1980. Iraq forces moved eastern frontier claiming jurisdiction over the Shatt al-Arab waterWaV which separates countries. The river has been a constant factor in Iran/Iraq tensIons.
In April 1969 the Iraqi government claimed the whole of the river, drawing a sharp response from lran who denounced the 30 year old bilateral treaty governing the border. In retaliation Iraq expelled tens thousands of Iranian nationals. Further tension came with the iranian takeover of islands guarding Straits of Hormuz in 1971. tonasation of the finance and cer-
IRAN/IRAQ WAR
of
across their
the two of
the
THE MIDDLE EAST plunged further into crisis last week with the invasion of Iraq by the Iranian army. The resulting battle is the largest involving ground forces on tons and at worse a permanent threat port to Khomein throughout the war
voulll
International.
LIC CON counter-
limited front since the Second World War.
The outcome will be decisive for the
future of the region, perhaps even over-
shadowing events in the Lebanon.
to deleat the iraat intervention. In LAOSC LUCY Were gains of the iranian revolution can be ana Jordan.
were
rrance.
Kurdish
among the
ne ask or ourone a movemen rorinioniv news
lIST • 60p pe
International
Kicnara-Lenoll.
Page 13 scan of this page
Lebanon -the hour of decision
By Pam Singer
working class opposition
bureaucracies in the East European states.
But is is more
letarian democracy,
to the formation of Solidarnosc. he spark was rising fond
prices. July the
authorities announced a price
actory-distributed
meat. By the next day, tens of
Inousanas moustrial
workers stopped production
in protest.
3y 8 July a more
strike
WaVe was
Workers began demanding al
improvement in workme con-
ditions in addition to higher wages midouly, tieshe in-
dustral cedare or Let one
Kalworkers By Brian Heron 'WE HAVE only our lives to lose.' bitter judgement on the seige of Beirut given to the world's press by a Palestine Organisation fighter last week. Arms in hand, fighting at the side of the PLO, comrades of the Fourth International in the Revolutionary Communist Group delivered their own view of the Israeli onslaught: 'They are making a massacre ... in a few hours there were more than two thousand victims. fragmentation bombs has murderous...'
Since the latest drive by the Israelis began on sunday June, thousands have died. seven hundred thousand people have become refugees and ten thousand rot army
Descriptions of callios. torture are widespread, which have been confirmed recently by a british citizen who was taken prisoner by my as a PLO sympathiser and tortured.
This the bloody balance sheet of the fourth major drive since 1948 by the Zionist rulers of Israel, backed by US imperialism,
put end the Palestinian 'problem'.
Palestinian DIO• blem, as the ruthless logic of war reveals, is nothing less than the key to the Middle East revolution.
Four and a half million Palestinians are dispersed (often result of Youth CND
condemns
Israeli
invasion
By Jim Coutts Youth CND has declared its sunport for ine peace movement in Israel, which campaigns for of hostilities in the Lebanon.
Israell invasion, its National Committee Which
children been killed. We believe this Wal illustrates the way wica nuccar war can oclegered off by a conflict in the
Solidarnosc — 2 years from Gdansk
Solidarnose was born two years ago: a strike wave begun in July 1980 culminated in the historic signing of the Gdansk Agreement on 3l August which signified the beginning of the most formidable
we've ever seen to the
than just a trade union: it organised 95 per cent of the industrial working class, as well as students, intellectuals, and small farmers each with their own organisation. A model of pro-
it was an attempt to make a reality of the first line of the Polish constitution: Power belongs to working people of the town and countryside.' Here we go over the events which led
cemancer wage new factory committee work-free retirement at 55 and 1,000 per increase family allowance. They guarded their depots from the police and army.
August workers reporting for the cany mor ning shipyards were greeted by ,000 zloty wage rise, a cost of living bonus and news on the sacKing Hille walen EVnOWICk militant some 30 years seniority. Soon This is the
Liberation The systematic use of been particularly
massive military offensives) the map of the Middle East.
One million two hundred thousand are in territories occupied by Israel since 1967. the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, five Lousand live within the 1948 borders of
two and a half million are sprcau mailly Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and the Lebanon.
This dispossesed opulation has formed the edrock of all armed struggle against the Zionist client of imperialism since Unilke most of tne reactionary regimes of the the Palestinians cannot compromise with unc chasin clients, for they have nothing to barter.
Victims
As a result, the Palestinians are always the ultimate victims any Illajol WHoe Hous sive in the region. When Israell tanks allu Dialle delivered their stunning blow against Egypt 1967, the final chapter of their offensive was not written until September 1970 with King Hussein's destruction of the Palestinian camps in Jordan.
For, as usual, it was the Palestinians who were prepared to continue the resistance to the Zionists through to the end, and wno paid the price blood.
Similar moves by prest: dent Franjieh were started against the PLO in 1973 in the Lebanon. Once again the Palestinians had
leaflets were distributed to all
sections and workers
Danners.
Yam thousands
gathered the
Amid roars of
protest the director attempted
lo socak. LECI
nao been sackee or involve
ment in the 1976 strike and
had climbed over the gates to
get into the shipyard declared
a strike and occupation
200 delegates were elected
to the strike committee man-
dated
abolition com-
Hills ally controlled 'of-
bonnical onsoners. reinstate
ment those victimised;
family allowance parity witt
the militia and building o
a monument in tront of the
shovard gate. com
memorate the workers killed
negotiating committee elected,
workers millia sel up -- cle
were going to be no more mar-
TyrSNews
occuption Soman. ne she yard Before long the Paris
in Gyd-
Illa was on lolar strike ana
communicaons were ser uo
between fight for their existence. In
'for the Palestinians alliance WIll Dcasallis and workers against the rightist Christian and Falangist militias the civil war of 1975/76 was only staved off by the intervention of the Syrians.
one therefore, that before
was dry on the Camp David Accords,
invaded Southern Lebanon in 1978. Pay
Today the Israelis seek yet one more decisive solution. But they will have to pay an enormous price to get HOr imperialism, led by the US, can no more let is mulerests in the region co-exist with the armed Palestinian Deo ple than can the Zionist state, their Israeli allies are
International
prises
After many sessions of
negouation, • committee
accepted a management offer
and Lech Walesa announced
the end of the occupation. But
had heard
every WOrG over the
loudspeaker system wouldn't
They „varted vo stad
on strike in solidarity
strike committee revoked it:
decision.
It was clear that strike was
not simply
was a well organised political
offensive.
That evening the 'Inter
Enterprise strike committee
was formed encompassing
delegates from
town: Gdansk
Gydnia and Sopot Within a
weet representea aimosi
400 enterprises.
It drew up the famous list
of 21 demands of the
agreement of which the main
one was lot unc acccolance o
Ine state or independant trade
union.
On 31 August, the agree
ment mo then of the riggi but was signifyin
mistoric
struggle that is by no means
resolved.
Israeli troops overlooking Beirut - scene of genocide becoming an embarrassment.
As the guns thunder
West Beirut, aCrOSS Washington looks anxiously toward its new allies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Can the reactionary Arab bloc, built so painfully by the US survIve ine effects of the heroic resistance of the PLO? From this concerr comes Reagan's proposal to land US marines in the Lebanon.
Begin and Sharon's war machine has been supplied and bolstered by the US up to the last bullet. But that machine may go tie far the saint of
the stability Arab reaction.
In such a situation imperialism can only trust those forces directly under its own control. And as every hour passes,
solidarity büilds with the PLO, so the peace movement in Israel undermines the morale of the Zionist war machine.
As always, war concentrates the strengths and weaknesses the contenders. The clash of arms see hes out y crack in LiC perialists. It has created a great strain between com ponents the alliance which the US has spent so many dollars to create. At the same time the leadership of the PLO comes under the brutal searchlight of war.
Right
United Nations resolution 242 was passed in the aftermath of the '67 Arabdian or 22 Auly As the Guardian of puts it: 'Acceptance by the
Lech Walesa holding up pen that signed Gdansk agreement Palestinians of such resolution is tantamount to recognising the right to exist of the State of Israel
PLO leaders, including chief spokesperson Zabadi, are now propos ing an amended version of this resolution as the basis of a comprehensive peace settlement.
After the '67 war, PLO leaders received support from some Arab regimes on the basis interference in the internal affairs of their respective countries. From this flow ed a certain dependence by the PLO on the Syrians
others gual dians of the Palestinian Cause At the same time the PLO retained armed resistance to the Zionists.
As a result, when sold out by the Syrian interven. tion into Lebanon in "76, the PLO retained its
Socialist Challenge
autonomy, its armed organisations and its capacily to resist • as is now graphically shown in the suburbs of Beirut
But the PLO's policy had the effect of cutting it off from sections of the Arab masses who themselves struggled against the weight of their oppressors at home.
Today one or other of these will triumph. For it is no longer possible for mem vola co co-exist The PLO will diplomatic and political triumphs because of
imperialism and its allies in the streets of West Beirut
Dismantling the armed struggle and recognition of Israel will set back the Palestinian cause twenty years
All mobilisations in aid of the Palestiniar Caust should be supported.
30 July 1982 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Great bourgeois
revolutionaries
By John Ross IN THE last article of land and bring in more this series, I stressed democracy. Critica that Marxists had 'no times the struggle
against the monarchy he interests separate vacillated. His rule was and apart from those
through the army. of the working class Despite this, Cromwell as a whole.' Marxists is the greatest and the most always unite with progressive person anyone who england's cabitalist fighting oppression, history. At the time of the
civil war in mid-17th cenexploitation and
tury England, there was no justice. possibility of working
This then raises the class rule. Only the feudal oueslons. Who Cal be landowners, represented relied upon to lead such
by king, struggles! unel capitalist class, organised leaders stop once they
inrougn parlament, were nave acheved Sonne powerful enough to take minimal reforms, and then
power. Anyining else wa. give inel support to tne utopian. So war broke out ruling class on all other
per ween issues? Who are the neonle Charles I and parliament. who will carry through the
Almrs une baramentary struggle right to the bitter forces vacillated and comend? These are the questions Marxists must ask, oromised. put a stop to this and oul cromwell because ine answers lel us organised the revoluwhich type of alliances can tionary 'shock troops' of be made, and who can be capitalism, the new model supported. army. Action Even then, parliament
hesitated to take the decision to execute the moThe history of the narch. Cromwell's lieutecapitalist revolons Ireton and Pride, shows why Marxists sup- ¡laills i purged the House of Comport the actions of people
Umons, removing those who at certain times, despite would not act against the lact tnese peopie werc not in any sense connected "naries. king was
beheaded and the abWeLC they consistently pro- SOUTES monarchy powel was destroyed. In e gressive. Cromwell had established
tionary, Oliver Cromwell, The British revoll. the supremacy of parlia-
ment. For the next two this australes centuries Britain was the Cromwell, is remembered by the Irish people with richest, and in a relative deep hatred and correctly sense. the most tree coun. try in the world. Given the so. He conquered Ireland
limitations of the produccarrying out massacres of the popula- tive forces, these were the
maximum gains that could tion.
England he sup- have been made then. Despite his limitations and pressea novements even recognising his crimes that wanted to divide the
against the Irish and the
A strategy for black liberation
By Anil Sen, South London Revolution supporter LAST SUMMER's youth rebellions gave a militant, uncompromising lead to all those fighting the Tories. A shaken Margaret Thatcher admitted she had experienced her worst days since coming to power.
But Tne Tories and the struggle against this their rotten system are still capitalist system, which by here. Despite the very breeds whitewash Scarman Report, police harassment To do this we need a
black youth goes on.
policy of action based on The Tories have mounted the struggles of black peonew attacks on the black ple and workers. The ideas communities of the great
From Rebellion to Malcolm Revolution' is a new pam- essential in working out a phlet produced by Revolu-
strategy for fighting black tion and Socialist oppression. Malcolm Challenge, weekly jected the idea that black, socialist paper. The pam-
struggle has nothing to do phlet brings together the
with the struggle of white different experiences of workers against their opune But also and maps out a road for
argued that black people liberation of black must first organise under people. their own leadership.
Are black people condemned and This will enable ehem harassment for ever? No! to best win the support of Ine pampniet argues that white workers. precisely because they are ing them to examine their so oppressed, black people
UWII allicule. will be in the leadership of black people. This will in-
•Socialist Challofige : 30 July 1982 . page 14
poor peasantry, Cromwell is recognised by Marxists
great revolutionary Icauci.
The French revolution is an even better example of the revolutionary role played by capitalism in its early development. The French revolutionaries, overtnrew ine absolutist monarchy. Paris and the larovincial the populations cities. The peasants seized the land. When the counter-revolutionary mies of Austria, Britain, Prussia and Russia invaded they were beaten back by the revolutionary armies of France Robespierre
As Britain the bourgeois initially hesitated fearing to deal withune Monacov even more fatefully
before the threat of invasion. But at Tne decs ve momcil the capitalist class acted. Inspired bv Robespierre. and the Committee for Public Safety, the masses dragged the king trom nis palace al Versailles to his place of execution. Universal male conscription was introduced and the population of Paris was armed. The Austrian army - financed by Britain — was routed The greatest and most far-reaching revolutionary upheaval ever seen in historv unti that time had taken place.
STOP RACIST MURDERS
Black people march against racist murders evitably bring white workers into conflict witt the misteaders their Mass OrseLons. labour bureaucrats.
The struggle of Asian
What is Trotskyism?
The last of the great capitalist revolutionary struggles was that fought by the armies of the Nor-
Union against the slave-owning Confederacy of the American southern states. Again at first LinCOH capitalist friends refused to abolish slavcl y and tried to hol back the revolutionary energies of the people. But faced with the deepening of the Civil War they had to crusa une cournern reactionaries by force. In 1862
- two years atter the war started - Lincoln abolish-
slavery Genera Grant's armies destroyed the save owners as a socia class and prepared the way for a massive exnansion oi the productive forces.
In all these struggle the attitude of Marxist: would be to oppose all the vacillations hesitations of the capitalists the war against feudalism and reaction Because the capitalists did take action against the old order and acted decisively then they would have to be supported to that degree. This is what determined Marx's attitude to the American civil war, and what would nave determined the attitude of Marxists to all the early struggles of the capitalist revolutionaries
However the transforwhich took place during the Characet or changed the character the capitalist class and its
Their historically progressive role became exhausted and therefore the working class and In Marxist movement had to take a ditterent attitude to capitalist movements. This is what we will look at in the next part.
NO MORE POLICE RACISM
women at Grunwicks
1977, actions against the Tories' Nationality Act,
Massacre Campaign, and the Bradford 12 Defence Campaign
are the most recent example of the fightback led by black people, aDie lo port from the
10 August 72: The French King taken prisone 21 January '73 Louis XVI is executed
The struggle against the British ruling class is ar international one. Around the world, black and other oppressed peoples are fighting to the death against British and imperialism The Caribbean revolutions of Grenada and Nicaragua
figet, and are a living ins
are a living in-
black and revolunonary movements batain to be in active solidarity with these struggles The fight against black
link up with industrial workers and all youth fighting the bosses'
But to fight against the bosses means must challenge the inaction of the traditional leaders of the labour movement who do everything possi ble to colaborate with the bosses, and fight for a new leadership of the workers' which were movement.
To finally destroy this labour rotten system, the working
class needs a programme
From
rebellion to
revolution
La lay for which unites all the strug-
with revolutionary struggles around the world
Socialist Challenge are fighting both tor a ner leadership and programme of united actior We support independent black self-organisation but explain to black youth and inorigine fir vite liberation norall the pressed and exploited in society.
If you want u copy write 1o. Eust London Socialist
Challengend fich s
Lon don E8. Cost 20p plus 13½½p
Page 15 scan of this page
Bonus schemes in the public sector
YOUTH will be mar-
ching for OOS
bombs on 24
September. The mar-
ch, organised by
Manchester
creater
CND leaves Man-
chester and arrives in
Blackpool, two days
on 26 Sep-
aLCI
tember.
We aim for the
march to loin up the
Labour Party Young
the
YCND under the
slogan: Jobs not
Bombs. On reaching
the with the Labour CND march will link
demonstration
which is marching on
the Labour Party
Conterence. Labour
CND will
that the two-thirds
majority which
unilateralism got at
the CONCICCC
be put into practice.
Blackpool we
hope that
possible section
the labour move-
ment will swell the
THINGS ARE NOT what they used to be. People are
climbing the walls of Buckingham Palace to
the royal wine and borrow cigarettes pays their own way these days. pise, the family and the community just do not seem to count any more.
But the Metropolitan police is a thin 'blue line' that is still trying to keep the old standards alive.
Because Met has however tried to encourage enterprise and
Communiy in sas been
been Communily slandered and villified. motley collection of professional knocker headed by operation coun tryman diLC the blood of the coppers
Charge after charge has been made against our
Countryman took police. 209 complaints against individual officers and order to find out what these charges ; were, police were forced to break into the city commissioner's office!
Countryman asked the Yard's Complaints
vestigation Bureau to take
charge of 187 enquiries in-
police corruption.
some one had not nicked
93 of these, large amounts
of public money would
have been wasted
vestigating wild charges
against our police.
Because the police try to help people, they have been under suspicion.
Brian Davies was a convicted fraud who intended to mend nis ways. So he turned to the ponce for
He entertained 10 police to booze and food.
YCND to march
to Labour Party
conterence
ranks of CND, YCND the and the LPYS. This can be a real example of unity in action and help to beat back the witch-hunt. YCND
Youth CND has had massive with
Pro months is
months. now largest two political youth organisation in the country, but it STill has to face up to how to stop cruise and trident, because the YCND can not do this all on its own.
To stop missiles,
have to stop Thatcher, and to stop THIS Thatcher you have to lInk up Lne fight against the war drive, with the struggle against unem-
This means insisting that the Labour Party and the Trades Walon Congress takes the lead in the campaign against unemployment and Labour Party makes
nick
The spirit of enter-
He took one policeman
to Paris so the lad could
honeymoon.
allalice
He hired a Rolls Royce to
take detective constables
to see Evita.
Then after these
policeman had unselfishly
given up their time to help
him, he went and reported
them to operation coun
tryman. If some one at the
Yard had not suppressed
the photographs, receipts
and witnesses' statements
Davies gave to coun-
tryman, these police would
probably have been jailed
for trying to help Davies
get back the straight
and narrow.
Unlike the majority of
trade unionists the
puolic sector who rely on
cablings one porce have
police have
been prepared to go
and start their own bonus
schemes. "Commander A:
received money
respect of a major crime
resulting
appearance of a witness
Commander B: received
part of £40,000 paid to of
ficers in respect of bank in respect of eem any robbery mnquiry.. Com-
theft
Commander corrup
BOu. perjury and, con-
spiracy
This goes to prove that
those wno are in charge are
prepared to get their hands
campaian for members unilateral disarma- wner ment a main part of Blackpool, its manifesto. delegates
Already local that
CND, groups making this, along
the YCND festival, one of their big events in the next
months. In the Manchester million area we are trying to Veal
labour move- fight We want organisations the LPYS branches to be Spurs!
modelresolution
BRANCH of the CND's Youth March for Jobs Not Bombs to the 1982 Labour rary comperence In line with the decision of the LPYS conference this vear to support the activities of CND we căll upor the LPYS National Committee to sponsor and suppor
best way of showing its support for the the marcr CAD and building
We call on other branches this appeal and to come on the march. Notify: Youth March for Jobs not Bombs 4x swimeon close Gorton Manchester. or Tel. 061-236 4905 by 14 August if your LPYS supports this statement.
dirty with the rest of the workforce if only the rest of our businesses had managers and directors like that.
All the Met works hard for its money. Right from the unnamed people who €300,000 reward colecicu money from the job pulled in March 1980, LUC humblest detective constable. The young COL• stables are not allowed to sit on their arse has its own YOPS scheme and so they are sent out to deal 1 in drugs, flog the odd bit porn, collect their rotection money West Enc prostitutes burglaries and stick ups. T and take the hospital cleaners showed that kind of enterprise they would not ing about being low paid.
Even when police have tried to social work they have been misunderstood Countryman claimed that detectives extorted money from bail, • for crimidas privileges and for weaken-
Ing prosecution case What countrymar did not understand was that the police are only too well aware of the overcrowding of Britain's jails and that is why they have been prepared help the bankrobbers and stick-up merchants keep out of the nick.
But they know that crime must not pay So they have instituted their own system of fines, which saves the country the ex
News
National Committee
member Youth CND
so that arrive at the will see not but it is an action backed by une labour movement.
Remember unemployment is climbing to the four
mark. Next the cruise missiles arrive. Let's
back against these evils and one way to do that is to
the Man. chester march.
LPYS supports the Youth
i of the LPYS to support
to it. pense of trials, and keeps the jail population lower.
After all you have to make sure that there is plenty of room in the nick for the blacks and the lefties Countryman Was apparently taken aback when
Blackpool
26 Sept
Preston
MARCH
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE welcomes the march and demonstration called by Greater Manchester Youth CND and backed by the national YCND. urge our readers to back this march to the hilt. Throughout the country branch, LPYS, CND or YCND branch and trade union to sponsor the demonstration and send people
they learned that a group of detectives had sent a telegram to the wedding of one OI south London's most violent tearaways The telegramme read: 'Bes wishes from one good firm to another.' Cynics
YOUTH MARCH
AFOR
NOT
BOMBS
_HON get your Labour Party
By Bob Pennington I MUST CAUTION
YoU THAT ANYTHING
You say WILL BE TAKEr AGAINST YOU IN EVIDENCE AN
WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
ML
countryman were doubtful when a detective in the 'firm' explained that the police were just interestec in the thief's future and thought family life might mend Ills ways The disclosures of
Manchester 24 Sept
Bolton
DOWN AND MAY BE USED
countryman could underour police force. the Met feels that it can no longer run its own produc tivity schemes morale will be destroyed and then where would the country be?
*Socialist Challenge 30 July 1982 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
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