Socialist Challenge No. 260, 11 September 1982
The scan: sc-no260.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 22 SEPTEMBER ALLA FOR THE FULL 12 PERCENT SMASH THE TEBBIT BILL
No.260 11 September 1982 25p.
Socialist Unemployed and strikers 10p
OU
up. The
workers,
follow.
health
a run down, NHS.
member Tory cabinet.
INSIDE-
Special features on:
Poland's show trials p3
Labour's show trials p6/7
Russia's Pipe Line p10
The Tories are in a corner over the health dispute. The majority of people inside and outside the NHS support the demand of the health workers. Now the vote of the normally conservative Royal College of Nursing has left Fowler and the Tory cabinet, up the proverbial creek, without a paddle.
The TUC is begining to muster its forces to make Thatcher pay ty.
NUM have called 24-hour strike on 22 September.
The print union SOGAT is going to shut down Fleet St. Surely the car
the dockers, the construction workers and the rest will
The working class needs
service that without charge, protects them and their families, from pain, suffering and premature death. They know that
financially starved operating with an under paid, overworked staff, is too hor-
contemplate although it is the dream of every
of the cost-conscious
Who cares about Tebbit's law
when such important things are at stake? Last month Sean Geraghty and the Fleet St. printers showed the way by making clear that the cause of the health workers and the defence of the NHS is far more important than some Tory law Now Arthur Scargill and Bill Keys have again raised the glorious banner of working class solidari from the rest of the TUCsoniy Similar shows sure that there is no way that the health workers can be defeatod and that Tebbit's Bill can be used to jail trade unionists.
No dispute has been as impor tant as this since the Tories took office. It is dividing the country between those who support the Tories and those who say let's fight back. An enormous class confrontation could be on the agenda. That is why every single trade union member, every class conscious militant, and every committed socialist, has to work like hell to make sure that Z September brings the country to a grinding halt.
Page 2 scan of this page
No to witch-hunt says Notts area NUM
-Editorial
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP
Phone 359 8180 (Newsdesk), 359 8371 (distribution)
The witch-hunt
- not just an in-
ternal matter
22 SEPTEMBER will see a historic event for
British labour
strike in support of the health workers.
Not a moment too soon. For three years
the TUC leadership has run away from a fight
with the Tories.
After all this, they are at last being forced
off their backsides. But this is no testament
ment to the Aberdeen workers, who held a
one-day general strike on their own initiative;
to the miners, steel workers and Fleet Street
electricians and countless others who have
risked prosecution and the sack to defend our
health services.
They have had to fight their pathetic
leaders tooth and nail to secure this action.
Why? Why won't this leadership fight? Is it
some innate streak of cowardice? No
because of their politics. It is
know that a strike movement like that of 1974
would sweep this government from office,
propel a Labour government into office, and
chanenge luto carry out its promises
More than anything else, our trade union
leaders fear victory.
traparliamentary fury which Thatcher's class
would bring down on them.
And so
their members on, the other hand gets ready
to stab them in the back.
the Labour Party is a blow by cowards and
traitors at the vitals of our moment: an at-
tack on those in the Party and unions who do
not fear victory.
The fight against the witch-hunt therefore
MOLOTS
women, youth, anti-war
unemployed.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE calls on all its sup-
porters to give all-out backing to the 30 Oc-
tober conference against the witch-hunt. Let-
ters of invitation will shortly be available from
the steering committee, and a leaflet will be
given out at the 11 September gathering. We
urge readers to take the following steps
Write to the organisers for copies of the
letter of invitation, including the address of
local organisations which you think can be
won to back the 30 October conference.
• Ensure that the matter is brought up under
correspondence at wards,
General Councils,
Labour Clubs.
• Contact local Labour left and trade union
left groupings to ensure that the conference
is publicised in mailings and in the left press.
• Take copies of the broadsheet against the
witch-hunt produced by
Alliance' for sale in the
ment.
• Turn up early to the 11 September con-
ference, if you have been delegated, to help
distribute literature for
ference. Socialist Challenge supporters will
be meeting at 10.00pm at the entrance to the
conference hall.
Follow Lambeth's lead in calling a rally to
win support from the Labour movement as a
whole. Link the fight against the witch-hunt
with building a campaigning alliance bet-
weem umols. vouth,
ties: mobilise for the healthworkers, for the
16 October anti-Tebbit demonstration,
for anti-missile activity such as the youth
march from Manchester to the Labour Party
conference.
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 below Name
Address
Age.
Union/CLP (if any)..
Send to: Socialist Challenge, PO 50. London N1 2XP.
Socialist Challenge 11 September 1982 page 2
a virtual one dav aeneral
because they
They fear the ex-
while with one hand they wave
The witch-hunt in
trades unionists, activists, the Young Socialists Party Workplace branches and
the 'Unregistered local labour move-
the Hackney conand constituency par-
and Box
DELEGATES from fifteen Constituency Labour Parties and observers from a further eleven decided on Saturday 4 September to resist any expulsions of Labour Party members under the leadership's proposed tions.
Meeting at the invita-
North Hackney Labour Party they endorsed Hackney's call for broad conference 30 October, one month after the Labour COnference which now thought likely to pass the proposed register.
meeting in County Hall, London was packed although Hackney had had very
facilities publicise it.
The main weakness, recognised by LOe organisers, was the small attendence Irom GUL London: Hackney had not had enough money to circulate out of London Par-
Attendence from Les.
London itself nearly half of all London CLPs
shows how opposition to the register is growing. Soul
A fringe meeting is being held Thursday evening at Labour Party conference, and the organisers doocalle for backing from those attending the 'conference against the witch-hunt' on 11 September at Wembley
The meeting heard Hackney North MP Ernie Roberts explain that the Labour Parliamentary Association, which regroups MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates, totally
was against the new register
'We didn't take a forma decision not to register because we led to believe that the Labour Party administration which handles much of our work Woule 00 l automatically whether we wanted to or not,' he said. *But we have been told that this is not the case and we shall be discussing a request to register. t all coll fident we will refuse to do AT ITS RECENT meeting the Nottinghamshire NUM area council endorsed a resolution submitted by the Blidworth branch calling for 'total opposition to the proscribed list of organisations being set up within the Labour Party.'
The resolution had been discussed in all of the area's 31 branches, 17 of which voted for. Brian Lawton, GMC delgate to Mansfield CLP from Blidworth NUM explained wny ne moved the resoldtion.
Brian said: 'The right wing want to get rid everyone who is trying to get progressive policies of the They want push us back to the kind of policies we had under the
HACKNEY NORTH CONFERENCE ON
30 OCTOBER WINS BROAD SUPPORT
Witch hunt:
fight hots up
'register of organisa-
Ernie went on to. plain how he had lived through the witch-hunts of the nineteen fifties, when CLPs were interrogated in 'Star chamber courts held
the House of Commons' and disbanded. He said the present battle was not just for the right to organise, but the 'socialist soul of the Labour Party'.
Everyone recorded growing hostilities to expulsions The
Chipping Barnet CLP explained that after his party voted against the witch-hunt, letters from
peared in the wess ap-
peared the press nouncing the decision. 'As a result' he said 'even the moderates support us.'
Dominic Johnson from Oxford explained why Oxford CLP was now opposed to the witch-hunts. A year ago, he said the right wing controlled the party and, many people knew, had kept socialists such Ted Heslin out of the Party.
The left in the party responded by building the Labour Party locally as an
including its Young Socialists. They campaigned in the unions to win support for their positions and, in the largest General Committee In Britain with over 200 delegate they had won a two thirds majority in March.
Best
Nearly everyone present said the best way to fight was to refuse to carry OUT expulsions. disbandment if necessary
This would be a hard battle, several
went worked
Chance us views once Conference had agreed to the last Labour government.'
Hunter Welbeck Branch NUM summing why he
sappor theres resty one
'There's only one organisation in the Labour
Party that should be look ed at that's the parliamentary party!'
The Notts area
has now raised the matter
of accountability of NUM delegates to Labour Party general managemen colli mittees. As Mark Hunter
- Labour Party
register and the NEC began to put the screws on. This is why the conference it being called, explained Keith Lichfield of Hackney North from the platform. C.Ps stiffen each others' resolve he said. by committing themselves to joint action.
Militant supporter Laurence Coates, Young who represents the Socialists on Labour's NEC, said the CLPs should not refuse to implement expulsions DU! should campaign by constitutional means for the readmission of those expelled.
Vital
But as Alan Freeman from Socialist Challenge said, 'You cannot retreat endlessly while proclaiming you are advancing. Our aim should be, through the conference on 30 October, to persuade as many people as possible of the position that Hackney North has taken, of complete nonco-operation with the register Of course there will be many such Militant supporters and even people who now suppor register, who will become convinced of the need to resist once the first expulsions begin. The conference should be open to them; it should take delegates from everyone who is against expulsions.'
Luton's delegate agreed, pointing out tha ¡lally unions had votec against witch-hunts but veristen it it became clea register. that the result was an NEC drive against the rank and file of the party, and that
8018 lo
and disbandments, the unions would have to
fight had to be taken into
reasoning delegates to open the con-
branches as well as YS's,
explained: 'I tried to argue that this should be a mandate on our five delegates to the GMC, but I was stopped and told "you can t mandate them at all"
Mansfield Don Concannon, sponsored Labour MP and shadow cabinet member, argued
NUM should ignore the decision taken by the area committee.
A resolution supporting the register was moved by right-wing delegate in defiance of his own branch Ine right
Joe Whelan
MANSFIELD SOCIALIST CHALLENGE sup-
31 August, of Joe Whelan,
of the NUM national executive committee.
the Notts miners electing a left-wing majority
healthworkers' picket just days before
heart attack he described the elections 'as a
historic moment
struggle, under
right-wing domination.
Communist Party
Socialist Challenge supporters
sharp disagreements
towards the military crackdown in Poland.
occupation.
workers of his generation
revolutionary party
political views and methods
system they represent.
womens' sections and socialist societies. As Tessa van Gelderen representing London Labour Briefing explained, a Party facing disbandment would have to win the support of all its at
filiated organisations, who would have to take decisions to back their local party often deals! pressure from their leadership. It was therefore vital to involve such bodies in the conference Vote
Other delegates said their parties had circulatec affiliated organisations seeking their support and offering to send neti speakers, and Lambeth explained that they had called a public meeting on 22 September to put
wing justified the flaunting of their own union's decision by claiming the decision was somehow the result of behind the scenes conspiracy by the left, trying to prevent any discussion on the issue.
Stan Chambers, delegate from Mansfield Colliery, commented: 'It's just diabolical how the right Wing about democracy then turn round using tactics like this, ignoring the wishes of the members
Concannon had the check I don't
Dhoto. MORNING STAR
porters report the death by a heart attack on
general secretary of the Nottinghamshire NUM, and a member
Joe Whelan's death came within weeks of
Speaking his
- the reward for years of the stifling conditions of
Joe Whelan was a leading member of the
this that had many with him, especially over what attitude the NUM should adopt
On the other hand he often disagreed with the CP's views on Ireland. He used the forum of the Notts miners gala in 1981 to denounce the local MP Don Concannon who is Labour spokesperson on Ireland and called 'for the immediate withdrawal of the British army of
Joe Whalan was not some slick CP middle
man. Like a lot of the rebel he believed a was needed. Unfor tunately he accepted the stalinist counterfeit as good coin. And this inevitably marked his
The Socialist Challenge readers here pay tribute to Joe Whelan and to his long fight against the NUM right wing. We will do that by continuing the struggle in the mines and the factories for class policies to bring down the Tories and the grasing profit-seeking
case, which they hoped owner London Parties would attend.
It was agreed that the conference should be open to everyone opposing pulsions, and that delegates should be taken from all components of local GMCs including unions Observers shoulc be accepted from Labour lefts and campaign bodies Hackney North representatives argued strongly that there should De a volc of the Constituency Labour Parties alone since it was the CLPs which in the first instance would have to take decisions whether or not to ac cept expulsions. was eventually agreed, aLe some discussion that facilities should be mad for seperate vote for CLPs if necessary.
know why people who are members of the Labour Party should put resolutions through their trade unions criticising it.' 'As as concerned Brian London in reply to Concannon told Socialist Challenge 'the unions are the ot Labour Party, they found. ed it, and they should take a part in running it.' This initiative taken by rank and file militants In inc Notts NUM shows wha can be done to defeat the witch hunt it also snow: the methods the right wing will use to clamp down on party democracy.
Page 3 scan of this page
Show trials for Poland
By Brian Grogan
the state'.
trade union,
the against August. the 'signing recognised Solidarnosc.
Meanwhile, mass protest actions continued in Lublin, a city in the South west or rolana, police shot dead five proLeOnic aliveisal y demonstrations. lulicial. vuluay ed a strike by the copper miners.
The Polish authorities tried to dismiss niversary aemonstrations But their extent and size coudn't be ignored. cording to the unofficial sources put the number demonstrated in excess oi 100,000, in at least 12 cities
authorities admitted 15,000, but since they only acknowledged demonstrations in eight cities. sunday uney nau acknowledged that some
place towns in 34 provinces.
The size of the demonstrations more remarkable given the intimidation repression. Six were killed, Inalter and a whopping 4,050 peo-
sentences are being hand-
ed down to many of the arrested demonstrators.
The level of intimidation and repression can be gauged from the following report from Le Monde 'In
state of seige from OR. the population began to gather at the meeting
designated Solidarnosc,
SHOW TRIALS of leaders of the Workers Defence Committee, KOR, are being prepared by the Polish military junta, for 'crimes against
KOR played a major role trade union, Solidarns This shows the up to the formation of the free treme desperation of the Jaruzelski regime in
aftermath of the mass martial law which occured This was the second anniversary of of the Gdansk
on Tuesday
numbering wiere une Inousanas, mediately Clalzcu The witness-
gas masks'. the an- Lublin
This Times, repeated who opened The
which But by they fell
action 54
again, was even Lenin shipyard, afternoon, and outright people up the well over 100 gathered seriously monument Heavy they their Lech Wojczech
gency', and the early 'Freedom Pope Poland', at 4 o'clock win"
KOR leaders like Jacek Kuron, Adam Michnik, Henry Wujak
and Jan Lytinski are being charged for 'trying to overthrow
the state' and advocating terrorism. But the facts
the
demonstrations on 31
accords which
afternoon. demonstrators several were and violently by the anti-riot units of the militia which made massive use or tear gas and was equiped with
scenario was up and down Poland. And, as we know in Lublin the police even fire the Uli demonstrators. It was impossible for the authorities Which was expressed. So expressed. back the Judicrous explanation that these demonstrations did not involve 'real workers'.
Lets listen to Le Monde reporting from Gdansk: 'At the exit to the Tuesday 5,000 10,000 workers that made shift Wolls around the dedicated to the workers killed in the riots in 1970. For an hour chanted slogans which left no doubt as to sentiments: 'Free (Walesa), (Jaruzelski), lock
'End the state of emer'Free the interned condemned' for Poland, bread for the people', "The must come 'Solidarity will .... Ihen. no sooner
Jaruzelski v KOR
show the absolute reverse. Jacek Kuron, recently released a statement arguing that 'a widespread, well organised resistance movement is the Polish people's only chance. Only such a movement can be party to a compromise (with the regime)...can restrain a wave of terrorism.
Adam Michnik has been equally as forthright. In an interview last month with the German magazine Der Spiegel he was quoted as saying 'It is not terrorism that is needed in Poland, but a broadly based underground movement with the goal of rebuilding civilian society.
had a police officer given the order for demonstrations disperse, than the air was nued WiLl bombs, tear smoke bombs. demonstrators off). tud the misto the
granades and bombs, they were joined by numerous other people from the
LOWI responded (to the police attacks) by
and bricks.
SLuliCs CYCU erected with benches dustbins. permanent harrying by the police they resisted for five hours' But of course, for Jaruzelski the shipyard workers are not "real workers"!
reality demonstrations show the continunig massive. port Solidarnosc. shows the authority which the newly reorganised na-
Temporary Committee (1KK) achieved.
Gas
This development is a disaster for the Jaruzelski regime. Because it comes on top of its failure to stem the economic crisis. In the first four months of this
ell by 10.2 per cent com
year, which marked a major decline. This figure was despite the increase COa tion. Production foodstuffs and fodder have markedly, despite given priority. Thus, given the government doubling of the cost of living, revenues have declined by 25 per cent.
This is the background to the decision to go for show trials of the KOR
the
detonatol gas and
(The
moved
LCal
smoke
and
throwing
They barricades
and the face
Lenin
the
sup-
Coordinating
has
already
produc-
animal
declined
being
decree leaders and
repression
of Solidarnose help
have
martial law.
Archbishop leader
Has another authority
the regime.
structure
numerous and general
chanted win'!
International.
the anti-riot police. The scene as the police attacked the march.
to intensify They have clearly abandoned the illusion that they could split off a collaborationist wing
with the of the Catholic hierarchy. In fact Solidarnosc militants and leaders
further radicalised during the eight months of
In precedented development, the TKK openly criticised
Gemp ithe of the Catholic Church for his overtures to the regime. This is the first time for decades that the Church
been criticised by recognised
The ability to mobilise in the way that they did will stimulate Solidarnosc to develop its resistance to developed its underground
to the point where it is organised in early every factory an neighbourhood.
publications sparodically broadcasting radio stations in a number of cities not just the highly publicised
Warsaw. The debate about how to bring down the regime and the preparation of an all-out
strike therefore intensify over the next months. As the Gdansk shipyard workers
'Solidarnose will
The beginning of the pro-Solidarnosc march in Warsaw. Within minutes it was visciously attacked by
ZOMO, the hated paramilitary police. , These thugs were the main forces to attack the protesters Workers in Gdansk chantad: 'Gestapo!' 'Nazis!'
Jaruzelski is dubbed Zomosa.
Socialist Chalterge 11 Saptembor 196
Page 4 scan of this page
Countdown for Blackpool
YOUTH MARCH
ON TO
BLACKPOOL!
Why I'm
marching
Paul Wongsam is an unemployed black youth from Cheatham in He told Jim Coutts, the march organiser; why he'll be out I'LL BE marching because the only thing you can do is protest. take away the boredom for a while. They are going to replace Polaris with Trident and install Cruise missiles. They say they are a deterrent, but really they threaten us with a nuclear war.
They are all a waste of money. They are just going to scrap Polaris when Trident comes. All that money just down unemployed for six months and get £16.50 from the dole. I give £10 of that to my mum. So I'm left with six and half quid.
I don't think the unions have done enough to protest against and stop unemployment. really haven't been doing anything.
I'm glad the riots happened. everybody the amount of frustration and pressure that was building up. They were the biggest protest so far against unemployment. But they were not just about that. They were against people being trod on by the police. But happen again. power.
I wouldn't join the Labour Party as it is now. The people who run it don't do anything for people like me. They do things for the middle class They ignore young people, black people and people on the dole like me. If Tony Benn got in, things might be different. He is more radical and wants to do away with nuclear weapons.
The papers try to tell you things the way they want you to see them.
Falklands. But most of my friends were against the
If it had been up to me, I would have given wal. the islands to Argentina. They say the PLO in the Lebanon are terrorists, but they are really treedom fighters. They say the missiles are a deterrent, bute Reagan is our main enemy. I hope the march will get these things out.
Socialist Challenge 11 September 1982 page 4
jobs
not bombs
Manchester
sept 23 sept 26. us Manchester.
on the road
Anyway, it will
the drain. I've been
They
These showed
I don't think they'll The police have got too
They were all for the
THE COUNTDOWN to the start of the North West youth march for 'Jobs not Bombs' has begun. It leaves Manchester on 23 September heading for the Labour Party concerence in Blackpool. It culminates at a mass Labour CND lobby of the conference on 26 Receptions are being planned in most places en route. There will be a gig every night for the marchers and local youth. Barbara Green has been in Manchester helping to organise.
THINGS HAVE really started moving this week
Manchester. Over 50 marchers have signed up in the last three days alone. A CND supporter nere nas given us a 3 ton van to use during the march; a local students union nas
an office; loads of bands have offered to play With the arrival of Cruise, 1983 is going to be the most important year for YCND witch-hunt in the Labour Party, the 1982 conference could be one of the most decisive in the history of the LPYS. The youth march to the Labour Party conference has had some success in bringing the LPYS and YCND together.
For YCND to get rid of the missiles it has to build a
callasts the streets directed ine labour movement. For the LPYS to become a mass campaigning socialist youth movement, it has to place itself at the head of
campaign. here would best acrence agalst une wilchhunt.
Recently, Jim Coutts, ordinary officer of the YCND ( National Committee spoke to the national
both organisations. Annajoy David was speaking Kevotiner socialist youth papér, and Andy Bevan of the LPYS spoke to Second Generation, the 1200% magazine YCND.
Hillajoy explained I was very pleased that the LPYS backed our march. I would like to see closer links in the future. We will certainly be encouraging our members to work with the LPYS. We would hope
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Write for international rates. BAD We doctors TASTE Euthanasia-
Stop the missiles
September.
on the march for expenses only and even a number of Labour Party MPs have
been pestering us for
things they can do - none of them as yet have offerec
to march with us!
We've been down local dole offices, leaflet-ting and going round the
March unites LPYS and YCND
With the
will do more to get
members involved with the
local work of YCND.
port to the march:
supported youth
march because of our 1981
conference decision
support CND and its ac-
tivities. We want to give
support for all those
YCND initiatives that call
on the LP to stick to its
guns. We are asking LPYS
members from the north
west to go On the march
saying to YCND that we
think Labour
government committed to
disarmament
will stop the missiles. If you agree with that you
should also come on the 16
October LP YS demonstra.
tion in Liverpool called to
protest unemployment'.
Lets hope that the
youth march and the 16
October demo mark the
begining of a great rela-
tionship.
want to cunscribe t REVOLUTION for 1 year/6 monts
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pect consterine you
Sorry. men
• as a way
with survivors of wwIll who are
factories for support. At Gardners, a big engineering factory, the workers there who have been in and out of fights with the
jobs and are now faced with again, were dead keen to support the march They money and are going to try and get a delegation onto our Sunday lobby of the Labour Party conference on September 26.
Chlorides in Salford are another factory with problems their own. i ney have had 1,000 recite ances the two years - and now the Wall NOTC They are going to fight and
FUTURE
JOBS)
wav to continue the fiaht.
Let's face it, there's
to be people dying of
and there's not going to be a that anvant con co to ciches cure them or ease aren
the first step is to support
our march. They took col-
lection sheets and leaflets
and have promised to do
all they can for the march.
The LPYS are doing a
national mailing ot all
their branches this week
Sponsorship from union
branches is still coming in
These now include Tne
North West region of the
transpor union Youth CND and LPYS branches
up and down the country
are out on the dole queues
and in the factories leatlet-
ting and building support
nor lie march.
The Salvador
Solidarity
EXPRE
GIVE US A
FUTURE
The TUC's Jobs Express raised the hopes of many youtn, they were badly let down. The North West youth march is a
Perhaps we can get the military or the police
even the to
moss all, they are not without
this hard to
agreed to send two mar chers. Other anti-imperialist organisatons like the New Jewel youth
the oraansano!
General Union of Palesti-
Students have beer invited to bring along their banners and raise their demands and protests on the march.
want to come on the march, or to sponsor
desperately needed finances or any
details, phone OUre write to: UMIST Students
Union, Sackville St., Manchester 1 (061 236 9114 ex-
48) Jim, 48 Swindon Close Gorton Manchester (061 236 9114 See you on the march.
Photo: LABOUR HERALD
• DUT
Wand " not be mor to practie ere meal.
practice euthanasia on
That's a те,
Page 5 scan of this page
Scottish workers blaze trail
victory!
'As far as we are concerned the TUC and the General Council are the head of the movement and therefore we expect them to give us a lead.
ing. This is the time we have to show the Tories that we're prepared to fight back and not just knuckle under.'
This how Sean Geraghty summed up the Tasks the 114th TUC Congress taking Place Brighton this week. The Fleet Street
leader's cecinciall s words were backed up by a MORI poll published on Monday.
Asked support for the health workers' strike action su percent oI trade unionists supported sympathetic strike action.
And that's without any systematic preperation by
UNION mobilise their membership for the Z2 September day of national strike action with the health unions.
The bosses have evidently been taken by surprise by the scale of the backing .101 the General Council's call for strike action on the 22 September.
Photo: G M COOKSON
'Confront the Tories' says Scargill
A great example
from Hemel
By Hemel Socialist Challenge supporters AFTER the ASTMS
demonstration to support the health workers
- a call now taken up by the TUC - members of Hemel Hempstead Labour trades council got hospital workers to build a large contingent. It is in fact hoped to book a special train to go to London for the demonstration.
ly in the local trade union branches. A public appeal to demonstration has already raised f76. was done by collecting fifty pence pieces in the town's streets last Saturday.
from here to show that the local workers the people are worker's claim.
Give usa
'I don't think the troops are unwill-
But the TUC leaders are under tremendous DIeSSUIC from their membership for an effective response to the lores offensive.
That pressure has been voice 1n the high councils of the TUC by Arthur Scargill who has that if backing the low paid and defending the trade union movement Micals confronting the Tories anti-union laws
Support
The support which Scargill's argument enjoys in the ranks of the labour movement has been bro. ven by the veritable queue of general secretaries now presenting themselves for call for a national
Party. and the together with local
Support for the idea is growing, particular-
sponsor health workers for This
I here to sto build the local okernd
behind
TUC must break with the Tories
But the militancy cannot conceal
facing decisive tests at this week's congress.
ONE thousand delegates from Scotland trade union
action on 22 September.
vice unions were
a consistent theme of the conference
Jim Airlie the AUEW saw it as a battle for g that it class to win, saying that the health WOLKCIS WCIL down other workers would go down with them Stressing the importance of this fight he explained 'working people are crying out for leadership. ASLEF said: If a one-day Walker stoppage was not enough,
By Murdo Ritchie
Glasgow's
September.
Prominent healthworkers
Forge.
Many would
demonstration
been organised. But the
Scottish TUC leadership
rejected that course. Led
by general secretary Jimmy willne, a memder or tae
Communist Party inside unev well Has cao
meeting with Thatcher totel her she should mend her ways and impose import controls.
Even some STUC thought this Wan bit far. Tom
Dougan, Scottish regional organiser of the engineering union, tried to
get the meeting called off
but was unsucessful
rightly pointed out: "How can we
expect to get help for the
Trade Unions,
TUC
Trade union membership has declined to 11,006,000, a loss of over a million members in the last But the promainlv west o branches and workplaces Diedded unanimous support to the cali ot the scot tish Trade Union Congress for widespread solidarity
All the major industries, factories, and public ser.
present at the meeting on Friday 3 September. The idea put forward by George McCormick of Rolls Royce Hillington, that the government platform rested on defeating the health workers was
Flavour movements responsibility was to stop altogether.' He also added that the campaign should then go on to remove the Tories and elect a Labour government Govan shipbuilder's leader, Sammy Gilmour, also insisted that there must be indefinite strike if there was no settlement by early October Mick McGahey, prest-
Glasgow greets Thatcher
FIVE HUNDRED noisy demonstrators greeted prime minister Thatcher when she arrived at
Holiday Inn last Wednesday,
among them were demanding payment of their claim and steelworkers fighting redundancies and closure at BSC Clydebridge and Parkhead
jobless from the person Witte hai created their misery? What we want to do is concetrate on getting her out of office.
This was the spirit in which Edinburgh Lell MP Ron Brown stood in Thatcher's path at the top _of the hotel steps and in his own "told her she was not welcome in Scotland unal she should get back to her bunker'
For his pains, Brown Was tloored scullly men and dragged away to a police shouting, *Is this Poland?' He was held for six hours and then charged with committing a breach of the peace Later conv benn came down in between signing
portion of workers organised by remained the same percent. This shows us that Thatcher has failed in Mick McGahey dent of the Scottish NUM told the meeting about a , triple alliance meeting he attended which
Wai police copies of his book and going to speak to the Trades Council. He told the
the main project laid out in the policies on which she was accolo once the cracking of the organisea resistance or tne trade union movement.
•But the union movment cannot continue to sustain Ine type oI sel backs which the Tories
the last few months.
Decisions
At its last Congress the TUC took a number of left decisions on issues such as fighting unemployment, privatisation of nationalis-
monsane COOT dination of the struggles of use buone seclor umon
But again despite opi nion poll evidence that 4!
percent of trade unionists
want to see the TUC pursue its campaign against Tebbit's anti-union laws TUC activity been
minimal. The same applies
CLIC campaign
unemployment, where
confronted with a real Issue jobs on the railways the TUC leaders
engaged in the most shameful act - betrayal of discussing action on how to save steel jobs. The first item on its agenda said Mick 'was complete stoppage to support the health workers 22 September.' Coal
'Not a pound of coal moved in Scotland on the day of the last solidarity SLIIKC with the NHS told the conference. And ne repeated not a pounc of coal will move on 22 September.
Ronnie Scott from the FBU explained that firefighters the Strathclyde area had been operating an emergency
for Ulll Labour MP Ron Brown being dragged off by the
demonstrators that he was there occaust soluanav was the key to resisting the
ASLEF's strike.
systematic mobilisation oe
the trade union movemen: for the one day strike on 2: September is vital for the whole future of the
of thi
type can begin to put the
the detensive
providing
fidence in the ability of the unions to defend their members. Failure achieve mass backle wi give the Tories the oppor tunity to put the bool in
22 September can start force the Tories from office. This is
TUC leadership fears above anything else. They know that dismissing the Tories in such a way would open the way for the elec-
tion of Labour : government which would be com pelled to make massive concessions to lne working class.
would also courage the rapid development of a left wing in the unions and the Labour Party which would threaten their present domination of the labour week now in support of the health workers. He hoped that a meeting of Scottish firefighters due to be held on 9 September would ex. tend this action across the country.
Glasgow South West district hospitals Jolt snop stewaras com mittee must have been more war bicasco will lI conference which certainly reacted well to leaflet calling for 'the TUC to call for an indefinite strike of all health service workers with emergency and acci. dent cover only.' urged the TUC 'to call on all the trade unions to take solidarity strike action with The nealin workers, and asked for this action to be made official. Tory attacks. Different sections of the movemen had to support others who were going into struggle 'as the miners are supporting the nurses, and as the whole movement should have supported ASLEF'. STUC
Tory policies, he said 'are deliberately designed to create mass unemploy ment and turn the clock back 100 years' "There are no solutions to be found ir the Holiday Inn hê declared the STUC leaders were still trying to persuade Thatcher of the error of her ways!
As Benn pointed out 'What we need is a Labour government as committed
pol as she is to hers: peo
ple as she is to hers'. ticular applause greeter his call for Labour governmen Trident and get rid of the Us nuclear bases - which is about all the Tories are prepared to spena mone on in Scotland
Socialist Challenge 11 September 1982 page!
Page 6 scan of this page
The Labour Party - TUC Liason Labour's P
Published by Hodder and Stoughton, price f6.95
Bennism with its
pants down
By Bob Pennington WHEN THE EDITOR of Tribune writes a novel about
crisis-torn Britain, in the year 1989, I have to be interested. And, I must admit that Chris Mullin's novel: 'A Very British Coup', is interesting. In fact I read it cover to cover at the first reading.
Mullin describes the victory of a left Labour government lead by Harry Perkins, an ex-steel worker from Sheffield. But this is a very different Labour
ed to get rid of the US bases in Britain; it intends to get out of the EEC and favours abolishing the House of Lords, the honours list and public schools. The government also intends bringing the pension and insurance funds under public control so they can be used for industrial investment.
more socialist programme than any of their predecessors, about the capitalist state.
Perkins says: "To win real power we have first to break the stronghold exerted by the ruling class on all the important institutions of our country. that, I thought - that's not bad for starters!
Right from the beginning the people who control all the important institutions, in collusion with their American allies, get to work on the new government. A run on sterling is organised. The air force bosses plot and scheme with the US top brass to stop the bases being dismantled. A trade union leader, who has connections with US intelligence, calls a go-slow, normally this leader is about as keen on strikes as Frank Chapple. The cabinet are spied on by the intelligence service. Their sex lives are investigated by means of phone taps, tailing, and by ordering the prime minister's police body guard to burgle his home. The media, including the Beeb and ITV, unite as one against the government, even supporting the go-slow!
Finally the government is brought to its knees. Perkins is framed by the head of D15 because of a past love affair and is forced to resign. He is replaced by his chancellor of the exchequer, a 'safe' man on D15's payroll - strange how in life as well as fiction,
the exchequer.
say: 'Everyone should feel proud...There had been no tanks on the streets. No one had gone to the firing squad...lt was a very British coup.
Up to here Mullins has done a good job as a novelist. Without preaching a political sermon he has given the reader a real insight into the power and the ruthlessness of the British establishment. But I must confess I do get worried when he writes about the Labour lefts. In this book they are the fated rabbits to the weasels of the establishment. As the state tightens its grip the lefts obligingly roll over. Nobody seems to have any idea of how to fight the state, and what is even worse nobody tries.
I am not asking for some fairy tale ending like:
do think Mullin might have shown that there are always some people prepared to fight back. Surely such a radical Labour government would never have been elected in the first place unless it had the backing of powerful social forces and leaders who enjoyed a mass base - where were they at the time of the debacle?
Now such people do not always win, but they leave some important lessons for the future. Unfor-
his cabinet is that Bennism got caught with its pants down! - not exactly an inspiring message for the next generation of socialists.
Socialist Challango 11 September 1962 page 6
the election of a Bennite-type Labour government in a government than you and I have ever seen. It is pledg-
Not only does Harry Perkins and his cabinet have a
but they appear to have few illusions In his election speech,
Reading
But knowing about the power of the establishment and being able to deal with it is quite a different thing. Labour has a habit of getting right-wing chancellors of
A self-satisfied Director General of D15 is able to 'Socialist Challenge supporters overthrow state in last desperate charge and rescue spineless Bennites'. But I tunately all we will remember about Harry Perkins and
THE DEFINITIVE VERSION of the Alternative Economic Strategy has been produced. It appeared in July and it's called Economic Planning and Industrial Democracy: the framework for full employment.
It was drafted by the Labour Party-TUC Liaison Committee as a report to the Labour Party and TUC conference. It is signed by everyone from Terry Duffy to Tony Benn: the leadership of both the TUC and Labour Party will try to unite our serried ranks around it to win the next election.
It will almost certainly be endorsed, almost unanimously, by the Labour Party. Nevertheless, in this article ALAN FREEMAN argues that it should be rejected by the left, and that we should campaign in union branches and Labour Party branches for an alternative: a programme of action in favour of the most widely accepted demands of the Labour movement, to remove the Tories and secure a Labour
carry them out.
'very British coup'. abo.
What the Labour Party
What is the alternative?
government that can be forced to
The Liaison Committee Report, cooked up in the same pot as the Bishop's Stortford agreement -and with the same good faith from Messrs Healey and Duffy - Wil become a noose to strangle the voice of the rank and file as a prelude to the betrayal of any progressive content it may have.
This betrayal is already implicit in the compromises made in the report, which call, not for worker control, but joint control by employers and employees.
In other words, it cannot function without the employers' agreement. It gives them the weapon with which to blackmail us into submission and implement their LOIN
There is an alternative: here we explain what the Liaison Committee says, and what we propose in its
tions
and TUC
SIUlIS
propose
Full employment and social justice
The declared aims of the plan are • 'Rapid progress towards ful employment for both men an women.' • 'Major improvements in the struc ture of the economy as a basis fo lasting growth and development. • 'Greater social justice and th removal of poverty and inequalities. • 'More democracy and participatior in economic life.
The causes of the crisis
Previous weakness i the result of the priorities of larg firms, who have a large and growin •share of the market, and whose "investment policies have been gearec to the consolidation of market posi
rather than developing new markets'.
This has been accompanied by short sighted approach by the finan. cial sector to the investment needs of industry... plant and machinery ha become increasingly obsolescent, and
industry and services have deteriorated
Short-term commercial considera
WITn regard wider economic and social priorities have perpetuated the vicious circle of low investment, low productivity and low growth... The extent of this collapse is unparalleled anywhere developed world.
The immediate aim: an expansion of the economy
The first measures which a Labour government should take are to spend £9bn in the nationalised industries to create new jobs and provide socia services and provide a basis for in dustrial growth.
The need for planning
Planning is ; 'about taking deci
better way mee economic, industrial and socia needs...(it) is therefore a proves. which must involve the people af fected by accisions. It entails pro viding the framework for releasing in itiatives, co-ordinating them and im proving the performance of British in
•'Co-ordinating the activities o
The immediate task: an action programme The Labour Party and unions shoul campaign for clearly identified an popular measures, with three aims: • An immediate dramatic improve ment in the living and working condi tions of working people, to restore th right to work, freedom from the fea of nuclear war, and an equal right to free social services. • To blunt or remove the mos dangerous unaccountable in sur unlicils with which the ruling classes will resist these measures. • To give working people the mean: to struggle for and implement these measures themselves, against the at tacks being made on them by the bosses and their Tory government.
Many such measures are already Labour movement policy; but the leadership refuses to organise a rea fight to achieve them. must organise that fight ourselves and force the leadership to back it - o replace the old leaders.
So what we propose is a pro gramme, not just for legislation by future Labour government — if there is one — but to be acted on now, to serve as a basis for united struggle. The success of this struggle is the best guarantee that a Labour governmen will be returned.
Page 7 scan of this page
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CASTOMEAU
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TATIANITI
AUSTRANSONS SRSOMIE
de ce ae
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de donne d de ( овый т351 нафиогоад и адинутно хуергод
Page 8 scan of this page
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SOCIALIST SOCIETY summer
school 10 |1 12 Septer
Letter
A NUMBER of comrades responded sharply to the position put forward in the articles by Ros Kaplan and myself in which we argued that the PLO should not abandon West Beirut (SC 257).
Some of the arguments were serious, some notably from comrades Kelly and O'Brien - were just abusive nonsense. ocai with SOLIC of LIC nonsense first.
Rich Palser and Bisi Williams say that my time 'would be better spent attacking the counterrevolution of Israel and
Unall the PLO'. In fact, week after week we have done
ist that, including in iss
complain about.
Six weeks before the Israeli invasion we devoted a back page to an article by myself which predicted that the Israelis would invade and that the USA was complicit in this coming lavaso
Headline after headline denounced Zionism and US peraisil keep sense of proportion, com-
whether we should criticise The uestion the PLO leadership at all. Some comrades appear to think not. that within the framework of sonaarily we nave a rignl and a duty to analyse and Crucise.
It is those comrades who that criticism of those in strug-, gle is permissible who are the real 'romantics'. At any rate, refusal to criticise petty bourgeois nationalist leaderships has nothing whatever in common with socialism.
Kelly and O'Brien ask: 'Can't Hearse tell the difterence between a set-back and a defeat?' Unfor-
I am replying to comrades D Kelly, J O'Brien, M Meteyard, Challenge 259, articles in Socialist Challenge 257. In these articles we sup ported the position of the Lebanese section of the TrOUILD (RCG) who appealed the PLO to SLaV in Wes Beirut and fight alongside the Lebanese left, muslim and national movements to halt the Israeli invasion.
I wrote as a militant in Palestine solidarity work
DOLO Britain Middle East for six years. 1 cal lestily lilal my view 1s not just a personal one nor
idiosyncracy RCG but a widely. held view in Lebanon and with Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Why?
Because the battle is not just with the PLO but with the Arab peoples and in particular the people of Lebanon. Williams and Palser display the height ot ignorance They about the RCG statement ... is very brave, the
Letters etters- toes
'Not just a military decision'
tunately but they don't seem able to. To argue that the crushing defeat of the Palestinians at the hands of an ascendent Zionism is merely 'set-back' is to understate it. Since this touches on a crucial difference of
ing into
The
the through the
complete stalemate,
of in TIne
a unilateral to the 'problem'
militarily
•v Israeli press, re-settle Israeli 'Defence' Minister Sharon
'A major set-back'
B Williams and R Palser in Socialist criticising Phil Hearse and my
although if they to fight, then there will soon be no section... ' But unlike the PLO they have no choice! Where do you propose the Lebanese resistance should go? They are Lebanese people; the mans. Their not are not Palestinians. try is Lebanon. They face
future fascist state and Phalange repression with the aid of Israel on a hor rendous scale - possibly the worst Lebanon has seen and occupation by the Zionist army.
Already the Phalange are discussing, not preparing, of massive sections of the Lebanese Muslim COlllmunity exactly what Israel would like to see.
Should the Lebanese people accept this? They have no intention passively accepting this fate. They are continuing
Letters
Lebanon debate
the bulk of the Palestinian population on the East
Bank of the Jordar Jordan itself.
This involves bringing all the Arab regimes in the ICTION heel Lebanon into a puppet regime and generally forcing a Pax Israel on the whole of the Arab , East.
This project profound implications for
genocidal attack on the whole Palestinian popula,tion of Lebanon to expel them from the country, and the destruction of the leftist militias by the Phalangists in alliance with the Israelis
The 500,000 Palestinians in Lebanon and the Jerusi militias have nowhere to go. They will now nave to stay and lignu It is not question
Vlavely of life. And the evacuation of the Palestinians from West Beirut makes the next stage of the operation all that much easier for the Israelis.
What has happened to the PLO militias is very the struggle. But without the PLO thev are in a much weaker position.
The
TOO CHI that the comrades, despite aiscialmets endorse political line the "moderate' PLO leadership
The heroism of its militants is not in question. But its political line has resulted in enormous difficulties for the future
The PLO took a political decision to leave Lebanon, military one as these comrades seem to think.
Their military withdrawal was undoubtably tied in with the new US proposals for a settlement of the Palestinian struggle
The main terms of the Reagan settlement are as follows:
Self-government for the Palestinians in the Israeli Occupied Territories (West Bank
Mala Strip) in association with Jordan — not an independent state.
obvious. They have been scattered throughout the
East, will be dependent on the
Arab nationalist regimes,
will attemot to COntrol them. They will be unable to launch militari operations (from Tunisia,
South Yemen?) Their central co-ordination and command structure are shattered.
Now of course this doesn't mean a final, total defeat. But rather
than LIU1C US SCL back'
The long term reason for this situation is well explained The Martin Meteyard. PLO's strategy has been reliance on the Arab bourgeoisies rather then mass mobilisations the oppressed
Arab masses.
Martin makes good points about the necessity for orderly retreats in some situations. I did not of course mean to imply that retreats are never necessary, that it was always right to stand and fight
1 = 5/ PLO leader Yasser Arafat
No Israeli annexation of the Occupied Territories
not Israeli withdrawal. Immediate freeze on the building Israeli
SCL tlements in the West Bank
- not the disbanding of already existing ones.
This is neither a just nor a lasting settlement, but a guarantee of further Israeli expansionism. Socialists must oppose it and demand the withdrawal of all imperialist and Zionist forces from Lebanon and tne cupied Territories
The US plan, which has so far the approval of the conservative Arab regimes, shown for example in their willingness to debate it at the Fez Conference this week, in effect demands PLO and Arab acceptance of the State of Israel continued presence in the Occupied Territories.
In other words it would be a malor set-back in the struggle liberate
CLU
But war is the exten sion of politics by other
Some military decisions are not just 'tac-
crucial OUTl political importance
Lebanon was not just the fate of the fighters in Beirut. but of the whole Palestinian population and the leftist militias the remaining Palestinian fighters Tripoli Bekaa valley. Martin says 'a retreat is only justified as a way of preparing a
offensive Maybe I'm wrong , but just now I'm not entirely sure that this present retreat can be explained quite that light.
Perhaps we were over hasty in suggesting that the Palestinian fighters should not abandon Beirut. But those people who think the OCCSON Wal Conce should make that assess ment in full knowledge o the consequences. The attack the Palestinian population in Lebanon is just beginning, not ding
Phil Hearse Palestine. But the moderate PLO leadership's outlook has left it wide open to this manouevre. In return they will get nothing but a diplomatic recognition worth no more than the scrap of paper it is written on.
Meanwhile the
in Lebanon.
Zionism is on its biggest expansionist campaign since : 1948; imperialism on the offensive and the US is trying to neutralise the Palestinian revolution in order to secure and
its surenciner OWIl terests in the area. Both are trying le redraw the political map of the Arat
Understanding this will place us in a stronger position for building long term solidarity in labour movement wiel recognise exactly what the Palestinians Lebanese and Arab peoples are up arallis!
Ros Kaplan
Page 9 scan of this page
Washingt on presses war on Nicaragua
Phalangists come to power
By Fred Murphy
US imperialism's war against the San-
dinista revolution in Nicaragua con-
tinues to escalate. Towns and villages
in northern Nicaragua
beset by Somozaist terror attacks for
months. (
cities have been attempted as well.
* On 19 July
Sandinista revolution -
flying from Honduras fired two rockets at
concentration of storage tanks holding 800,000
gallons of highly combustible fuel in the port of
Corinto. The rockets failed to hit their targets;
had either done so, the entire population of the
city could have perished in the resulting fire
which handies
Nicaragua's foreign trade,
reduced to cinders. * On 24 July, a force of about 100 counter-
revolutionaries crossed the
anu allacked une lown or san rrancisco del
Norte in Chinandega Province.
Belgian rites.
small mortars, the attackers besieged the town
for two and a half hours,
members in battle and capturing three others
ana slashing their throats in the town's plaza
Eight more militia members were also captured
ana araggea across the border before
Nicaraguan troops could arrive to provide rein-
forcements.
* On 27 July, a second aerial bombing attempt
ly oil refinery, on the western edge of Managua. By Phil Hearse THE NEW Gemayel, 'Phalange militias. He was elected in the wake of the Israeli invasion, in a farcical 'election' in, the Lebanese parliament.
Israelis — they made it abundantly clear to the other Lebanese Christian factions that they would tolerate no one else.
Since the civil war in 1975-76, Phalangist militias have collaborated openly with Israelis against the Palestinians and the Lebanese lett. To understand hackground to the war and the character of
Phalangists = necessary to take a look at the history of the Lebanese state, and the origins of its religious, confessional, character
As early as the 13th Century the Druze Arabs
the dominant force among the Lebanese Muslims who are the ma jority in Lebanon had control over much of the area of what is now known as Lebanon.
Their rule was disturbed only by the invasion from Egypt in 1585 during which 60,000 Druze Arabs were killed. Druze rule was
aristoce Maronite Chris-
The tians - descendents of the Christians of Palestine at the time of Christ - came LLLO the region agricultural labourers and small traders and artisans.
But the area was firmly under the domination the Druze princes. The Druze sect maintained its mononov on power wrI all the esoteric fervour characteristic of this kind of religious sect
Druze domination of the region was however disrupted by the eruption
the 'Maronite offensive' between 1842 and
have been
Now, air raids against major
- the third anniversary of the an unmarked aircraft
of
would have been
Honduran border
Armed with M79 granade launchers, and
Kulling 1t multia by LEBANESE president is Bashir leader of the Christian Maronite
His election was under the auspices of the
1860 in which the oppress-
ed Maronite masses fought
tor power
In this war confes-
sional loyalty merged with
class conflict. In 1864 the
war was given a new twist
with the dismemberment
of Lebanon by the French.
The Maronites had
been defeated militarily,
protect They
created a Maronite enclave
Edent the first world
until the first world
war, when the Ottoman
Turks overan the region.
After the war the
region
the British and French.
new Lebanese state was
founded, with the roles
reversed. Imperialism en
the Maronite Christians as
Dulwark dealist
Arabs. Clergy
The Maronite traders,
andowner. and clergy
formed the ruling class
out of the post-First World War redivision that presen l political
alignments have come.
The Contessona
character of the state is in-
stitutionalised through
precise division the
parliament to apporțior
each of the 16 recognisec
regions rosa de ite
number seats. The
overall balance however
ensures a conunuing ma-
jority for the Christians.
FSLN loader Tomás Borge be driven off by anti-aircratt fire and planes from Nicaragua's small air force. Destruction of the refinery not only would have been a devastating blow to the country's economy, but the resulting fires and explosions could have killed thousands of Managua residents.
Besides these attacks, Coordinator Daniel Ortega made known in his address to an anniversary day rally of 100,000 in Masaya that the armed forces and Ministry of the Interior had thwarted a large-scale plan
the counter-revolutionaries Atlantic Coast port of Puerto Cabezas and the new Miskitu Indian settlements at Tasba Pry.
Behind all these attacks stands the Reagan
Palestinian fighters leave West Beirut. Inset, Phalangist leader Bashir Gemayel. Gemayel's father, Pierre Gemayel, organised Maronies into the Katahe right Party which vied with the for domination l equally PNL domination Marone Shalange militia The
International,
Washington
avoid the impression land Nicaragua
Attacks
presented Security
paramilitary Nicaraguan Junta
do Honduran border.
of the to seize the revolutionary troops,
operating camps.
attached to Gemayel's par-
direct was created under the
inspiration of the
rise of fascism in Europe,
rollowing Gemaya!'s visit
to the Berlin Olympics in
1936
The domination of
Christian politics by the
administration in Washington. While the full scope of Washington's collusion in the terror raids from southern Honduras remains shroud ed in secrecy, a few more details have begun to emerge in the US capitalist press.
Shington i on the sumned press s.
columnis.
Rosenfeld wrote 6 August that 'it is hard to
that ine Keagai ministration is cranking up something like a slow-motion Bay of Pigs invasion as a part of a multitaceted plan to destabilise Nicaragua
The operation entails not a single dramatic assauli across abcaci out seems. a sowou of many hundreds of former Somoza national
fed and barker forthen her und
border between Honduras sheed our ine cack to me Us National
last November and subsequently OK'd by Reagan. According to an ac count published in the Washington Post last 10 March, at least $19 million was allocated, anc the CIA was directed to begin to build and fund
force OI uD lo 500 Latin Americans, who are to operate out of comman-
spread along the Nicaraguan-
It is now clear that this was but the thin edge
wedge. Some 5,000 organised in large units and possesing sophisticated weapons, are now
out of the southern Moreover, the direct US Phalange stems from the civil war of 1975-76. By the 19/US ine Muslims were clearly majority in Lebanon, yet the Maronite rulers refused all attempts
Moreover the left wing in Lebanon, almost entire-
dramatically.
COONSC manoeuvers and
to the State Department in
accounts of the clea examples destablise Nicaragua.
which appears to be aimed unluccessaly wal
forced us to realise the inevitable.
against Nicaragua.
Nationa.
people no
August, the Sandinista
and neighborhoods.
counter-
Central America Honduras
ly Muslim and organised in Kamal Joumblatt's Lebanese National Move. ment, was powerfully aid. ed by the re-location of a large portion of the Palestinian militias Lebanon, following their defeat September
presence in Honduras has been stepped up
the US-Honduran the US-sponsored military buildup along Nicaragua's nothern border, the Sandinista government issued a note of protest
early August. It pointed to the manoeuvers and to the published
CIA's covert-action plan as serous attempts
The protest said the manoeuvers 'confirm the interventionist attitude of the United States toward the Central American region and further represent a clear and open provocation,
at causing an between Honduras and Nicaragua, with unforeseeable consequence
A Nicaraguan diplomat in Washington tol the Miami Herald, 'All of these elements have
The United States is fortifying Honduras for a first strike
The mounting attacks leave the Nicaraguan
choice but to strengthen their defenses and prepare for full-scale war. On 14
government ordered militia units to report within ten days for intensive training. The Sandinista People's Army remains fully mobilised. Civil defense prépara. tions are under way in all factories, schools
The July air raids against oil installations pointed up Nicaragua's vulnerability in face of the Honduran air force, the most advanced in
with a dozen French SuperMystère fighters. Honduras is also scheduled to receive six US A-37 light-attack aircraft and is reportedly seeking US F-5 fighter jets as well
While both sides maintained their Beirut enclaves intact, the Muslim and Palestinian militias were rapidly victorious in the countryside marone-comer state was in danger of defeat and collapse.
But the Lebanese National Movement prevented from securing its victorv through the in tervention of the so-called 'Arat peace-keeping force namely the Syrian army. Doing the dirty work of imperialism the Syrians ensured that the Maronite positions WET: wefended and the
Lebanon was unresolvNOW Calle sion has resolved it. Militia
The Phalangist militias integrated with the Israeli army at every level.
Many ICOULLS from the Tripoli area speak Israeli officers giving orders to Phalangis troops. During the seige of Beirut the Phalangist joined with israeli intantry Lebanon under Gemayel will be an Israeli puppet state pure and sim ple. In return the Maronite landowners will keep and extend their power. The future for the Palestinian refugees and the Muslim population - the majorit! is however extreme!! grim.
Gemayel has, like his father, been prepared ic utilise every method of ter ror against both Muslim: and opponents Christian community Maronite domination ha created imperia's= Zionist Praare:
Page 10 scan of this page
World ends soon-official
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Socialist Challenge 11 September 1982 page 10
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Socialist Challenge.
By Alan Freeman TWO WEEKS ago, with the Tories rejoicing over falling interest rates and proclaiming yet again - that an upturn was just around the corner, Socialist Challenge said the changes heralded a worse slump.
In the heady days of postwar boom this would have been greeted as a pro-
IrON dogmatic Marxist. But we live in a changing world and last week Denis Healey joined with us in forecasting a world banking crisis.
Now, however, Ine Financial Times has gone a bit further: it asks if the world has ended. 'There is
still small but well-informed school of thought, mainly of financial rather than economic analysts, ll says 'wno sa) with some confidence that it has.
'Recovery is nowhere in sight, goes on. 'We
and that is why interest rates are falling.
Why hasn't the IMF 'cured' the slump? The FT quotes disgruntled
I reasury official: "The
answer that everyone must become more competitive with everyone else.
Monetarism only works when it is applied to
country, use it to boost its bankers at the expense of others whilst smashing up its working class as to make its industry more competitive. But when all ine capilansts try to ao il we end up at square one WILl seventees milion unemployed.
It's a bit of a problem. You see, capitalism Is a competitive system Now, we dogmatic Marxists have a solution to this problem: a planned economy. But though Margaret Thatcher has been friendly with the Russians of late,
are about to endorse the Communist Manifesto
The slump is a product of capitalist competition on an international scale.
This has profound implications for socialist strategy. For thirty years
THERES A RUMOR
GOING 'ROUND
THAT WE WON...
Bankers predict worse slump to come
the West has maintained a LUl. capitalism's boom, limitations, despite
by surrendering overall control of financial and military matters America. America became the cop and the
world's bank banker
But bankrupt and the can't even deal with the riots in America's own backyard.
Moreover, America has paid an important price Her rivals such as West Germany, and above all Japan — the only country whose economy is now reviving have built up their domestic industry to LIC point where challenges American industrial and technological supremacy. Dollar
These second-line racketeers no longer trust the mighty dollar because
• rightly they GONE believe the underlying strength of the American economy can back the
has ended
Competition between blocks of national capital has resurfaced with vengeance, and almost every major conflict in th
vorid todav has a bearin
the struggle between these blocks of capital.
The first and most obvious sign has, been the growing trend towards trade war. American demands for import restrictions on steel from Europe are being met blow
with threats of counter-restrictions from ine curopeans.
Now, according to the theorists of the Alternative Economic Strategy, import controls ought to lay the basis for world expansion. Strange to say, the result has been falling demand for steel on both sides of the Atlantic, fall-
International,
and another Haraoe. twist to the spiral of the slump.
The second effect has been differentiated response to the third world revolt. Thatcher and Reagan conspire to smash the 'communist threat' in Central America because their two ruling classes engage in the same kind of robbery — piracy.
The German and tren ch, who specialised in fraud whilst their senior partners cornered the market in mugging, took a more 'civilised' attitude in Central America.
Fraud calls for the confidence the victim which is ditticult to win 1 your cosh is too visible.
third and most spectacular effect of inter-imperialist competition
has been ten usin
row over Russian pipeline. 'Wounded by a friend' says Thatcher that is, stabbed in the back by a fellow thug.
Thatcher's committment to the war for civilisation did not quite extend Kamikaze assault by what's left of British industry, who are heavily involved in trad with the Eastern bloc and would like to trade more.
There has been just the slightest suggestion that Americas approach sanctions which says
it's OK American grain but not European turbines might be motivated by the self-interest of the American wheat grower rather than a tactical dif terence on now to preserve democratic values.
Just to rub the point in the Economist has dubbed the 'mercantilist'. Mercantillism. in case vou didn't know, was primitive economic theory subscrib. ea to by ignorant feudal monarchs. It is a precursor or morelarsm. OUR SACRE. ly more sensible.
Interimperialist competition is having an equally dangerous effect on the world banking system. As we canned LWO weeks
ago, monetarism did not cause the supply of money to dry up internationally. Bankers who could not lend British American industrialists went orgy of speculative lending to the third world countries.
This Denentled the banking sector of those countries WILO highly developed banks, at the expense of the third world countries, at mes expense dustrialists of those countries, and to the advantage of multinationals who set up branch plants in third WOTO financed with loans from the world banking system
Monetarism, which was most strongly backed by the two banking tions • America and • Bri tain — cut two ways. Bank profits surged. British 'invisible income' from financial and commercial operations CROU accounts for over half BriBanks
The banks alone earned £3.5 bn year, But international lending by DaNK provided an outlet for capital expons technologically most advanced nations. The dollar and the pound paid. Mexico and Argentina, for German car plants.
British and American tinanciers choice between catastrophe and disaster
they demand stiff restrictions on the international money supply, third
number of world countries will default. According to the Financial Times, during the Thirties over 70 percent Latin countries defaulted.
the Economist says Argentina is 'drifting into nyperspace
Not only does threaten tremendous crisis of contidence in the banks which are lending to these countries; it also calls
for such drastic attacks on the peoples of these countries that the prospect of a revolutionary upheaval, or of a nationalist and anti-
reaction, becomes a very serious
If, on the other hand, the banks respond as they have done by 'creating' LICW money Iloating new loans from Westerr
an alternative danger looms.
money can be created for Mexico then why not Germany? Why not France? Why should these capitalists be forced
suffer because the American and British bourgeoisie have failed to sort out their economies and smash up their working classes?
demand of the continental bougeoisies is tor world money supply SO they Call benefit. Once again the Brandt report is being dusted off. , and the pathetic, 'alms to the third hypocritical goes up world! INLO European this means recycled Credi European multinationals!' it Brandt and Healev had the slightest real concern TO. the dependent coun tries it would be arms , not
for.
America loses both ways. Reagan is therefore driven political strongarm tactics. Thatcher has to decide whether Love me romeaner or the strongarmer.
Faced with this awful dilemma, the Financial Times reduced whimpering platitudes combined with desperate cynicism. 'When will the world end?' it asks, and gives the stirring reply 'no
We take a differen view: we don't wane te world to end don't
to make it socialist to stop it ending
But then, we are only dogmatic Marxists - and who believes dogmatic Marxists in this day anc age?
Page 11 scan of this page
Welsh women march against unemployment
Oxford
unemployed
mugged
'AMAZING DOLE FIDDLE' screamed the Mail. 'Amazing dole swoop' echoed the Sun. Tory ministers for smashing a 'f1.5m racket' in Oxford last week.
172 of the 286 arrested were kept in jail, denied the right solicitor and 'treated as if they were guilty before being tried.' They were handed summary sentences of 30 and 60 days after a huge police operation which included setting up and staffing a complete fake DHSS office.
There is a small question. Why does it take half of Thames Valley police to discover that three hundred people are signing on from the same house? The answer is that the alleged 'racket' was not the reason for this James Bond-style operation.
Homeless people, people forced to sleep rough, had been using a hostel address to get a few extra pounds. DHSS and police knew this for years. They turned council failed to provide night shelter facilities, and prosecutions would have brought light on this embarrasing fact
But the last few months were different. union was actually doing something for the unemployed of Oxford. didn't have the nerve to take on the claimants as a whole - so they picked on the section of the community - homeless people. As the claimants' union said 'the real crime these people have committed is to be homeless and unemployed.'
Doesn't it make you proud of the boys in blue?
Four scroungers
who won't be
jailed
ANOTHER less publicised case won't get quite so much police attention: Alexander Howdens, one of the top five insurance companies. has been at the centre fraud scandal since its takeover by Alexande and Alexander Services of the USA
Howdens is a bit more reputable than Oxford claimants; its chair, Raymond Posgate, is the second most highly paid person in Britain. In one month he earns as much as all the arrested claimants got in one week. seems some of his colleagues resented his high earnings.
Alexanders have just announced, wounded tone, that Howdens is £14.6m short. An emergency audit has revealed irregular accounting practices and business transac. tions' grand scale.
The problems surround a subsidiary called Southern Real Estate Howden senior employees held shares in this company on an 'undisclosed basis'. Howdens was taken over, a settlement was arranged with these four gentlemen. But sadly 'certain assets to be transferred under the agreement nave not been received, value of some the assets received appears to be less than originally contemplated.'
In other words, they welshed on the deal, lied about their side of it, and stung their new partners for a cool $25 million.
Some people are a little hot under the collar about this. 'Various legal remedies and insurance claims are being considered' by the American company.
But after all, our dear police don't exist to worry now do they? It's only enough to buy houses for all the Oxford claimants instead of jailing them. poor bastards to the wall for the loss of one tenth of this amount.
That is why you won't see a fraud swoop in Panama, folk being carted off to the nick. In fact, the Economist is •VILe business, which it considers one in the eye for a brash American company.
But then, it ain't what you do but who you are - isn't it?
cheered the police social security
to contact The
La blind eye because the
Why? Because the claimants'
The cops
most inoffensive, defenceless
For 8 malo
But it
in
- in other words, fiddling - on a truly
of Panama. Four
When
ana une about trifling sums like £14 million,
Much more important to screw the
For distressed bowlerhatted city
pleased at the
The National Front under a stall in Brick Lane Market and this was granted by the Tower Hamlet's controlled Labour Council.
literature appeared. This uproar, particularly amongst population and a number of the Jewish stall holders in the market.
Responding Jewish minorities, the local labour movement called for a meeting of all those against racism in the Borough. A march was organised - the biggest in Brick Lane since 1978.
claiming that it cannot revoke a permission for the stall, hide behind legalities so the racist abuse continues.
Somehow Tory Councils can always find a way of banging the left, irrespective of the legal niceties. Why it that Labour precedence Maybe the Tories are just that little bit more loyal to their class?
The master race!
THE BBC, in an unusually bold move, have at last realised that the best way watching millions is to put on documentaries at 11.25 on Sunday evening.
Challenge reader would probably say it proved that the BBC would no doubt hotly dispute
hour in some go
hour showing: documentary looking at racism in schools - was well worth seeing
Described as chilling in press pre-views, the gramme's aim was to look at unconscious prejudice, and at how some teachers and schools were tackling
group 15-year olds courage lo lalk freely on
• Blacks take all our jobs, there are so many coming in
By a marcher Last Saturday, the campaign for a woman's right to work, received a huge boost when 150 women, men and children marched 15 miles through South Wales.
march was organised by the women's nons committee anomad the support and backing of
Labull Party and women's groups in the area The basis of the march was to protest against women's unemployment, but the women were also against the Tory government and its policies.
It was sent off by Dora Cox, a veteran of the South Wales hunger marches o the twenties. This 80 years old woltdu. reminded us of the gains of the woman's hovelical irom ine days she first marched. She urged us to
to keen these and to go on and extend them. with the first priori ty being the removal of the Torv governmeni
Brian John of Pon-
News
guise applied for a
As soon as the stall was set up NFand other racist
caused an immediate the local Bengali
to the reaction of the Asian and
But the stall still remains, the Labour Council
allows capitalist law over the rights of ethnic minorities?
Anglo-Saxon attitudes
to influence the TV-
The average Socialist was riddled with racism, an accusation they
to the end of opening But in spite of the late Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
• They should be sent back where they belong • Just because they're born here doesn't mean they're British When asked to estimate the number of black and coloured immigrants in Britain, the answers ranged from 10 to 30 million! The commentator points out that only 4 per cent of the population typridd trades council brought to the march the support and solidarity of the trade unions.
The women chanted and sang along the long route, raising the issues of equality and positive action, and call a calls! nuclear weapons rang clear 111 cu and exhausted we finally reached Cardiff to be greeted by a welcoming crowd which included health workers, the Mayor, members of the local county council and The armatid shown determination women to fight against unemployment and that determination and enthusiasm it stirred will now une People March for Jobs in two weeks ulc.
AZISTALL
UT OF
RICK LANE
Bengali youth oppose N
are non-white, that half of these were born in Britain and that the majority of immigrants are white.
Different attempts at multi-national education were looked both primary and secondary schools, with the emphasis on gelling al tackl Wacl they're young'. A Moroccan student described her experiences of racism school and lic ack orsus port she'd had from leachers because weren't prepared to take
The emphasis was on changing individual teacher's and student's attitudes.
The education system was considered in isolation
EQUALITY
FOR WOMEN
WiLL BE BEST
MET BY
Welsh women march for jobs.
Nazis in Brick Lane
NAZISTALL
OUT OF BRICK LANE
-G17 70
56350
By Hilary Driver
from the outside world -
from massive dole queues,
rotten housing, low wages
and racist immigration
laws. Ine impression ila
was given was that racist
ideas are inevitably rooted
the white suband could
Conscious
combatted by exposing
them as morally wrong.
This approach on its own
is useless. As Marx said,
ideas don't just fall from
the sky, but are rooted in
around us.
To begin to challenge
the consciousness of the
mass of people, including
youth who learn most of
their ideas and attitudes
outside OI school there
are more concrete pro-
MEN
WOMEN
STAND TOGETHER
AGAINST THS
GOVERNNENT
EMFLOYMENT
ECONOMY
NAZI STALL
OUT OF
BRICK LANE
blems that also need tackl-
ing. Institutionalised and
State racism are difficult
nuts to crack. Organising
one-off Asian cookery
useful to the individuals
involved, won't challenge
racism by itself.
Reforms in the schools
are necessary step
towards integrated
multi-national education
But such reforms
on their own are doomed
failure As black
woman teacher at the end
of the programme pointed
sort result in tokenism at
best. she
"liberalism is our worst
enemy'. . And the BBC has
got dollops of that!
UNEMPLOYMENT!
Socialist Challenge 11 September 1982 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
revealed by N 'Nda beni A MASSIVE regime has been
master-minded at a secret meeting in
African Secret Service,
Washington-based Cuban exiles.
According to Expresso the scheme envisages military invasion Angola, synchronised with
of power in Luanda by dissident elements within MPLA.
plannca Invasiol pilled during the 1975 will follow war with two invading colVillas. Angola from Zaire in the ULIC Culcalls
north and the second from Namibia in the south. The northern column would consist of about 500 mercenaries, transported first to Gabon and then to Zaire where they will link up will lne ENLA.
The operation has been
detailed
column would move rapidly to Ambriz, on the Atlantic coast, north of Luanda, where they would probably come into con-
From there they would move on to the capital to coincide with an expected rising.
From the south, the Unita reinforced with march eies, uanda. would
march on This group would go into action at the same time as regular South African troops launch an attack deep into ritory allegedly against SWAPO bases.
The large-scale South African which began on 2 August and which has preceded by air raids against Cahama and Tchibemba on 21 July may well be the softening-up
October Banquet East London Socialist Challenge Splendid food, auction, Disco and bar. Guest speakers from Central Tickets from M Martin PO Box 36 136 Kingsland High Cheques to Hackney Book Club
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Socialist
Challenge
South Africa
plotsagainst
Angolan
Government
plot to overthrow the MPLA uncovered. The influential Portuguese weekly Expresso 7 August reports
last April between representatives of the South
dissident members
and A and an eat from sorr
envoy from a group
process of this operation.
At the London meeting it was agreed that while 'Kubango Operation' would be attributed to opDUSILIOLI elements within Angola, it would be coordinated by general staff which South African army officers
Africa would also finance the whole plot, the initial cost of which is estimated at US$5m.
Among the aims of the oclallull 1S the replacement of the present Angolan regime with one more sympathetic to the West and with South African interests. The conspirators are relying on some of current MPLA leaders playing a powel structure; the ending or drastic reduction Pularly in the mir SWAPO, field - support would be restricted to declarations principle and diplomatic recognition.
Namibian refugee camps would be withdrawn 450km. north of the Namibian border. 'Angolan' new regime would also accept the Western plan for Namibian independence and would adopt a softer position towards South Africa in international bodles. give credibility to the indigenous of the revolt the new regime would immediately recognise the Pretoria government but it would America
Road, E8 (986 6439)
pursue a policy of peaceful co-existence with South Africa. The establishment of full diplomatic relations is scheduled for a later stage.
The new government would negotiate the recall of Cuban forces and. colla tually, a power-sharing arrangement with Unita and FNLA.
According to Expresso the operation could be launched August or September and, in addition to the current largescale invasion, South Africa has certainly massively macreased HIL forces along the Namibian-Angolan border. Early this month, the Angolan Defence Minister Pedro Maria Tonha, also referred to the increasing presence mercenaries among the South African forces.
Expresso also claims Inal lt nas evidence that Lisbon has served as one
THEBEN HERES
ALAN FREEMAN
HERES
of the main bases for the plotters against Angolan government. Various meetings have been held in the Portuguese capital where details of the operation has been planned and funds channelled to cover external costs such as recruiting mercenaries There have been several weeti Victor Fenandes, Lisbon between leading Angolan dissident and Gary van Dyke, harge of European affair: for South Africa's Na tional Intelligence Service (NIS — formerly BOSS).
Fernandes also visited South Africa in June and July, where he met with van Dyke other leading figures in NIS. According to Expresso, the South African embassy in Lisbon is also involved in the conspiracy.
In charge of military planning is South African Brigadier Jack Rollins. While in South Africa, van Dyke and Fernandes had meetings with Rollins (whose real name is James J. Koos Kemp). He is a top NIS man, running
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TEBE
South African armoured personnel carrier during incursion into Angola
the counter-espionage the branch of the secret ser
vice. Rollins was also in Portugal towards the end of May.
Frank Sturgis, one of the five men who broke in to the Walcital headjuarters of the Democrati Party, would also appea involved stayed at the Hotel Roma in Lisbon under an assumed name for several months. In its 14 June edition, Newsweek alleged Sturgis is currently 'working with Cuban rebels an Nicarguan exiles A member of the Portuguese government told Expresso that the Portuguese authorities aware of the conspirators movements in Lisbon obecaves This has led to strained relations between Lisbon the and Luanda. On
August the Angolan Am bassador in Lisbon lodged a complaint with President Eanes. This was followed by a denial from the Prime Minister's office that they were aware of what was going on.
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