Socialist Challenge No. 268, 5 November 1982
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Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge Labour can win
No. 268 5 November 1982 25p THE TORIES are getting ready for a General Election in 1983
They have the bit between their teeth. They miners out of the way for now. The TUC is fragmenting the health dispute Labour Party is split by an all-out assault from the new right wing NEC.
A Tory victory would be a disaster. How can prevented?
First, by that we are not being driven to defeat, but led to it.
It is not because the Tories are strong but because TUC and Labour are catastrophically that Thatcher even Number 10.
Her own backers in the CBI admit the economy is in ruins. One fifth of industry has been wiped out. Millions reject this wanton destruction. health strike showed they will fight if the TUC gives a determined lead. And socialist policies have never been more popular.
majority would Labour's grasp if its came out fighting unilateral disarmament radical measures to secure full employment.
Yet there has never been less confidence in the Labour Party and trade union leaders. Railworkers, healthworkers have
Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
stead of Labour's have the
and the
it be ing
understanding office,
leadership Labour's
the return. leadership weak, socialist stays at
The
Labour's left must learn it.
be in leaders polls or for and
left, steelworkers,
been
betrayed or led to defeat. In-
campaigning for socialist policies Healey and Golding have launched a vicious internal battle to purge their supporters.
A return to 'Labour's tradi-
trong back he voters: This il
bring back the voters. simply not true. We do not live in 'traditional' times. The rul-
class does not want any kind of Labour government in
and the right wing's merely loses rank and file, without winning anything in
Only the most determined
lead combining mass action with the defence of Labour's socialist policies, can secure a Labour government against such opposition.
There is a straightforward lesson from the setbacks and dereats of the last two weeks, from the miners' ballot to the Labour Party NEC. The whole
Neither the Labour Party nor the trade unions can progress an inch further in the fight against Thatcher, at the
on the picket line unless the left organises an all-out fight to remove the right wing traitors. Tony Benn's line of conciliation with the right is the road to defeat. The time has come to organise a united
throughout the Labour Party and unions, to fight for a Labour Victory through:
Defend
socialist
policies
Replace the
No expulsions!
Lobby the Labour Party NEC Labour Party headquarters, Walworth Rd. 9.0am Wednesday 24 November Bring Party banners Called by Labour against the witchunt.
right wing leaders
Stop the
witch-hunt
Page 2 scan of this page
Peckham- why they
Facing reality
AS WE go to press. it looks certain that the miners have rejected the proposal to authorise the union executive to take industrial action in pursuit of the pay claim and over threatened closures by a margin of 60-40. This is a blow to the whole working class. The struggle of the healthworkers looks that much more isolated now. The likelihood of a major industrial confrontation with the Tories this winter is much diminished. defeat taken place?
In the first place, the vote represents a decision by a majority of miners to accept the NCB's eight par cent offer. It does not however represent a mandate to go ahead with pit closures. Scargill's attempt to link together the issue of closures and pay failed: most miners recognised that there was
the possibility of resorting to industrial ac-
tion if the pit closures want ahead.
The crucial point however is that the
majority of miners saw the eight per cent
offer as acceptable within the current in-
dustrial and political situation - if the only
alternative was an all-out battle to defeat
the Tories, which they were not prepared
to undertanu. The poll result is obviously a reflection
of the general industrial climate, and the By Jane Kelly. Peckham CLP MICHAEL FOOT says the Peckham and Birmingham Northfield election results 'mark revival of fortunes for the Labour Party'. I wish it were true.
Peckham the turnout was only 38 per cent, and Harriet Harman, the Labour candidate, took 50
Dick Taverne of the SDP Alliance pushee up the Liberal vote by 25 per cent to 33 per cent of the total vote.
It was taken from both Tories (16 percent) and Labour (10 per cent), with
marked surge trom Labour in the last week.
Peckham is a Labour stronghold' But it's a bit
problem "stronghold" when only 38 per cent of the people vote at all and where the SDP with no policies can take a third of the vote.
Why did it happen?
The campaign itsell was efficiently run, with lots of
help from Labour
below
Name...
Address
Age
Union/CLP (if any).......
50. London N1 2XP
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982
Editorial
workers tion is falling Why has this how
of the While
He
abstained
members and trade unionists. Canvassing, leafletting and knocking up were done by hordes of people and Harrier Harman, the candidate, worked extremely hard to get herself known. The answer lies at a national level. on me doorstep the response was, don't vote, there's no difference between you, and even it And ten is any good! And even Ency accept Inat Labour Party policy ment, the EEC and public spending is different, they faith that the Labour government could carry any of it out.
Far from the NEC at tacks on the Bennite left regaining the wavering Labour vote, it has had the opposite effect. Many Labour voters agree with Labour Party conference decisions but TCCO4I139 that the present NEC and cabinet of a future Labour government will not carry 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 2
current level of wages settlements. Com pared with what many other groups of
accepted eight doesn't look bad - especially when infla-
Moreover, the Tories have shown in the civil service dispute and again with the healthworkers that they are prepared to dig in for long hard industrial struggles
What this defeat definitely put down to is betrayal by the miners leadership. In some respects the campaign by the NUM leadership was a model of
industrial dispute prepared. But a majority of miners were just not ready to be an industrial battering ram to bring down the Tory government.
That they ware not is a crucial indicator
mood inside the working Scargill was able to carry militants, they were unable to overcome the bridge between the militants and the mass of the membership.
In one respect Scargill can be faulted. tied everything economic battle, against the Tory government, to create the preconditions for a
general election. But he has failed to pro-
mote the organisation of the left minority in the unions on a cross-union, class strug
gle basis. The isolation of the miners, the
knowledge that they were being asked to
Harriet Harman canvessing in Peckham. them out. This showed up in the public meetings The first on the police Roy Hattersley and Pat Hewit (NCCL) attracted about 80 people. The second with Tony Bena, drew at least 350 with more turned away. Whether the centre and right of the Labour Party like it or not (and it was clear from David Basnett's face, chairing the meeting, that they don't Benn nas amongst the rank and file just amongst Labour Party and trade union activists
INTERNATIONAL
VIEWPONT
BOLDATONG PEPARES GENERAL STAKE movement.
in the 'no' vote in the ballot.
offer, CILICE Undoubtedly cannot be
should be
class.
the The best
mass struggle.
traditional but from ordinary Labour voters.
The attack on the left
of the party is not popular
Labour supporters, not highlights internal strug BECAUSE gles but because it is seen as an attack on the policies of the left. which are
those of both other parties.
This has led to a confu-
sion and, demorahsation and - in Peckham at least
- to a massive 62 per cent
This is going to be a
long hard battle, because
International
Viewpoint
Latest issue includes major
articles on the SLOTOVEER
Spain rogether CHORDER SOLEVER an extended
Inerview with a leader of
Individua
copies 65p Jrom The Diner
be the front runners in the fight to bring down the Tories, was an important factor
The decision of the miners not to go for a strike is compounded by the decision of BL workers to accept the company s pay
and not to take industrial action therefore the miners' decision represents a turning point. The pressure in the workers movement to look to the general election as the decisive test, as the crucial mechanism for getting rid of the Tory government will build up.
The job of socialists however must be to point out that basing everything now on an electoral strategy is not effective even from a narrowly electoral point of view.
conditions for defeating Tories at the polls is to challenge them in a
For example, struggle has made the Tories immensely more unpopular and has started to make their opinion poll rating
The foolishness of a purely electoral strategy was demonstrated by last week's Labour party political broadcast, hosted by Colin Welland, in which in 15 minutes of hard-hitting attack on the Tories over the health service, not one single mention was made of the health workers struggle!
as the BL vote shows, the mass of workers won't go into battle unless they have a leadership they can trust.
We must widen our sights.
The issue is one leadership across the labour movement. The right is on the offensive on this question of leader ship. We must take up tne fight on the LP. and defeat the witchhunt.
This will mean fighting to organise the left in the unions to deal with the block vote. And we must establish left use unis le currents in the unions to remove the right.
Bookshop, Upper Street. London Subscriptions El6 per an made out to 'PEC . 1o: 1L Montrevil, France.
The miners' decision leaves the health workers dangerously isolated. Every nerve must now be strained to build solidarity with the healthworkers, above all through the national transport workers day of action on 8 November.
But it is becoming increasingly obvious that without a decisive lead towards all out action the healthworkers struggle will be doomed to defeat.
The present climate of cynicism about the possibility of success in the struggle
against the Tories, the essential backdrop
responsibility of the TUC and Labour Party of the miners'
leaders who have failed to co-ordinate and
lead a real fight.
What the miners' decision shows above
all is the urgent necessity to build a na-
tional left wing movement in the unions
and the Labour Party to take on the right,
to remove the labour traitors.
In the face of the witch-hunt and con
tinual TUC betrayals, Benn and Scargill
face a choice. peace in the Labour Party will not deliver a
general election victory.
deliver the movement into the hands of the
right wing Betrayals and defeats. Nothing could bet- and a
ter prepare a Tory victory at the general
election next year.
BUSTIN
*LONCBRIDCE
JOINT SHOP STEWARDS UNITY LAE.U -SEM. S.MEW S. STRENGTH IS
NS.M.M
BL's two year deal
- blazing the trail
for Thatcher BY A majority of nearly 2 to 1 the BL workforce has decided to accept a wage deal which will run from now to November 84. and the same next, the right to negotiate has been signed away for been after for some time.
make British industry
ly wage rises.
PAT HICKEY Longbridge shop steward about the deal. What do you think the deal means for BL It is a big step forward for
management and the Tories. It stops the unions
in a claim until
1984. which means that on the major issue of wages and conditions the union is
removed from the scene
The deal will be used to
further attack the
workforce on manning
levels and conditions.
will also be used to attack
the shop stewards.
Yearly wage deals have
been the rule in British
industry for 20 years.
This deal is an impor-
tant break with that
In view of its impor-
tance why was there
not a call for all-out ac-
tion. instead of an over-
time ban and one-day
strikes?
necessary to defeat BL. All-out action was
But it was clear that such a
call would not succeed at
the mass meenngs.
decision, is above all the Peace in the unions and They will oniy menu for
LONGBRIDCE COMMITTEE
10.WU
LEYLAND In return for just over E5 a week this year,
two years. This is something the Tories and the employers have Government spokespeople have been saying that due to falling inflation and the need to
more competetive workers had to get away from the idea of yearIn fact the BL deal is a two year wage cut. Not for the first time BL has been used as a stalking horse for a new employers offensive.
asked Grant Kier.
The idea was to use the One las actions to build towards all-out.
BL workforce have had heavy defeats and long ex perience of betrayal at th hands the officials Taking on BL means tak ing on the government and the members did no have the confidence to d Our only chance was t get the limited action rol ing and build on that.
What plan: hav militants in BL got nov Firstly the right have th control of the union They wanted to accept! 2 year deal from the sta which is why there was chance of an all-our strik Despite favourable conditio almost one third of members voted for actio We must use this to fig the unions from top bottom for a new leade ship.
Page 3 scan of this page
ches, 87 Labour Party branches, twenty union
branches and eleven women's sections set up
a national campaign to prevent expulsions from the Labour Party
October in County Hall, London.
They heard speakers from a broad spectrum of the labour left including
Audrey Wise. MPs Ernie
Roberts and Reg Race and
Euro-MP Richard Balfe, the Militant, the Young Socialists and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy.
The overwhelming feelings of the conference afternoon by John Card- were summed in the ner of Luton East member of the CLPD executive, when he told conference that this witchhunt is a direct attack on the accumulated victories of the last three years: it is an attack on our socialist policies.
The conference agreed, with around ti voting against including less than ten CLP delegates
establish national labour movement organisation to coordinate opposition to ex-
Steelworker
greets
conference
GREETINGS were read to aLlameer steel worker wo
awst been chosen Parliamentary Prospectiv Candidar cardiff North and was heavily in volved in building for the
month. Ray has the following message to delegates:
There at the trutt
CoCente
ported a policy of ions and proscriptions. period 1 productione
ferences. It is vital to involve the unions in our fight
against the witch-umr. Photo John Harris
We won the CND vote - the
THERE WEL to be learnt from this. If we are serious abou
battle and witch hunts
TENDE WHOR annual ferences and the TUC rational level
90 рег CLPs are on our side. and it is very
Not Crier eyer Bur the only way to get
VEERICA WING THE DUSS TOr e puisions, can only be done with the support of the union movement.
CERT CONSULT CARE SPOR This conference we will our to win the unions to save our party and its socialist policies.
Labour Against
the Witch-hunt
established
OVER three hundred delegates representing 101 constituencies, 67 Young Socialists' bran-
this Saturday. 30 Oh the register
"5 register.
The campaign is to be
run by a National Council,
directly elected from
participating
organisations, with
secretariat elected by con-
ference.
It further agreed to two
model resolutions for
CLPs and for affiliated
organisations, calling for a
refusal to expul-
sions and for support to
any local party disaf-
flated for resisting the
NEC.
It established a trade
union subcommittee
passed
lution from Oxford
Young Socialists (publish-
ed in last weeks Socialist
Challenge) calling
delegates to help build the
Young Socialists and to
detend it against attempts
at disbandment or other
attacks. They also agreed
Reg Race MP summing up on the discussion. Trade Union
committee formed
TRADE UNION delegates to
Conference in the to discuss the
prospects for a campaign in
the wons against the witch
hunt. There was a short but
wide-ranging
agreed thai the figh
aguinst ine wich-nunt noa
De direcred aeainst the trade
anton parons anartmen use oj
the block vote.
This fight was closely ried to the fight for democracy the unions. The fight on the
to set up a youth subcommittee.
Two main points of dispute ran through the discussion. One CUTTCIT supported by small
minority delegates, argued that the campaign
should take operation with the register as a central campaign and should prepare for a network of disaffiliated parties. Focus
This was rejected by conference, which wanted to focus the struggle on ex-
pulsions. As Tessa Van
Gelderen explained, speaking on behalf
Brent South - itself under NEC investigation
many people in the labour movement wno were sul confused about the TCHINCE were nevertheles opposed to expulsions. and the crucial task was to unite with them to stop the register being
ADDICK where it counted most -by expelling people.
A second, much stronger current, mainly supported by the Militant, witch-hunt had to be taken inONE WORN WO WHETHORE sustematic way than the depuTy leadership fight.
Delegates agreed to ser up committee to chart a way for
The first тестие wi Hall, MECOME
London on Saturday 13 TOPPIECE
Contact Carol Turner, 29 Stodmarsh
sw9 for COMICS LONELIN details.
Labour Party_
argued that the conference should not seek to commit labour movement bodies
support disaffiliated parties all. Parties threatened with disaffilia. tion, it was argued, should simply accept expulsions This was also rejected: delegates agreed with the steering committee that they would prevent disaffiliations they readied the labour movement to stand up to them.
Despite an attitude or
ehalf of leading Militan supporters which many delegates felt was disruptive and divisive the substantial Militant presence was welcomed by most speakers, who called on delegates to support the coming Militant regional
on November, and for close co-operation between the new campaign and Militant's *Labour Steering Committee against the Witch-hunt'.
The conference Terrard for vital step forward labour movement. We call on all Socialist Challenge readers to throw their energies into building this
HICH paign.
By Richard Rozanski, Hackney North LPYS
the Hackney
against the LPYS, mediately.
The campaign's open youth sub-committee will
on ine amendment presented to. and passed
Dv. ference from Oxford LPYS
This includes full sup-
port for habing pss.
By Alan Freeman ONE BLACK spot in an otherwise successful conference was the divisive and disruptive approach Teading Militant supporters at COnTErEnCE
The main proposal they put forward called for "a single united campaign
the WHen-TIE and for the conference simply to join with the Labour Steering Commit-
Against the Witchhunt (established from the 11 September Wembley conference) and wind up.
Delegates rejected this proposal. First. they argued, unity would not be achieved simply by ramming two organisations with different functions into a single body. It would be
Photo John Marie
Next steps
Socialist Challenge urges its readers to pull out all the stops ir the ПАХІ NOTIN build the campaign the hunt.
Encouraged by the left's concessions, the right wing will go for broke as quickly as possible Labour's Organisation Commit tee reports on 10
proval 24 November The steps to be taken are:
(i) VOUT Labour Party branch GC, or YS, and if possi ble trade union branch back the lobby on 24 November. Out of
The Young Socialists
SIXTY SEVEN LPYS branches sent delegates to North Conference. Twenty-six agreed to further coordinate their activities. ensuring that the defence of the LPYS is placed at the heart of the new campaign. With new talk in the press this week, of right wing moves
this must be done im-
... complete opposition to any attempt to close down or restrict the activities of the LPYS; the right of the LPYS t decide its own policies and elect its own leaders.
All labour movement bodies - CLPs and union
achieved by joint action expulsions. Sccond, the new campaign would be directly accoun table to the official bodies of the labour movement.
Militant's resolution was not a proposal for unity. It would have split the new campaign and forced chose attending the con-
in the hands of a body they could not control, with a clear majority of Militant supporters. No-one attending conference had any Mitant s jections the decision
cree such a body. But
rejected bureaucratic demand that CYCEYURE the witch-hunt should be
London readers should try to ensure message of support is sent. Banners are important.
(ii) win affiliations to Labour Against the Witch-hunt, and commitments build local support for it. In each district borough, conferences on the lines of the 30 October conference should be organised to win the support of the local labour movement. These are not in counterposition to the
27 November regiona conferences being organised by the Militant-backed Steerbranches, as well as LPYS branches must be won
the defence of the LPYS. This cannot simply be left to the LPYS for two I CODULS
The LPYS is not strong cnough to withstand the labour right on its own Secondly, and unfor tunately, the LPYS's Militant leadership does not support this new broad-based campaign. They counterpose to this Labour Movement Steering Committee set up by the 11 September con-
Militant sectarianism defeats itself
These tactics rebounded on the comrades of the Miltant: and SO demonstrated that the way to deal with the Militant is by political
ArE CHIS and not by witch-hunts or manouevres.
Militant had every opportunity to pur their case Even knowing they intend ed -to put wrecking resolution -to inc terence, the stering committee invited both a Mili TORATE a YS speaker, Many Militant supporters spoke in the debate. And at the end of the day they Tost - in a vote of all delegates pre-
Socialist Challenge welcomes the late
ing Committee against the witch-hunt; they complement them.
preparations are beginning now in the unions for motions to annual conferences. The trade union sub committee will be CIsCussing detailed model resolutions for
agreed by the 30 Оc
be a working basis.
(iv) each week Socialist Challenge will be giving you dotallec up-to-date news about the pro. gress of the struggle Watch this spacel
ference to defend the Mili-
At a lunchtime meeting
of the LPYS delegates and
observers they tried to
prevent the establishment by delegate. sub.
como tee
who support the
establishment of the cam
Despite this divisive
behaviour the conference
declared its full support
the building of the
LPYS, and for its defence
against any moves to close
it down by Heales)
kitchen shadow cabiner.
participation of Millert in
Ine campaign a cantoms against the
cannot be united unles
Miltant take part in it. We call on all our readers to support all the activities now
defence. Militant its LOWE
we address
straight proposal to these comrades. It is not in your
own best interests, nor in the interests of the left, to
your leaders
effectvely - to spit in the
faces of those who are trying to defend They and you should back the new campaign, build its activity, and take part in its work
Or their sec tarianism will continue to explode in your faces.
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982 page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
Benn stands for Shadow Cabinet
Labour
right
hijack
By Alan Freeman
new angel of vengeance, brushed aside
fluence.
nounced at Blackpool. unhappy? He abstained in But Foot really the vote on Golding's pro-
HOT against.
There was only one imdispute between Foot and the right wing: he wanted Heffer to chair the crucial Organisation Com-
which will decide how to proceed with the
INS COMELE tee now has a clear right wing majority.
The right wing will now go ahead with their Plan
TONY BENN is standing for the Shadow Cabinet. The announcement was quietly made, in the small hours before the National Executive Committee pulverised the left, by a well-known friand of his Norman Buchan,
His decision to stand WILE HERESCILL , by the Tribune group ol a state or l who will fight for Shadow cabinet places. Bernites and Kinnockites will jostle shoulders, somewhat uneasily, in this allegediy Heft plattorm.
A lot of sacrifices have been made to achieve this semblance of unily. 'hard left" grOuP. of 23 MPs, who at one time an nounced Pom the fribane group split
are to meet now only in private, holding TOLTER spiratorial discussions one at a time with the various Broad Left groups. original idea that the
should hel 10 organise a united ex-
and parliamentary at both grass roots and national level, has been shelved. Benn has cepted many policy sacrifices.
The concessions are all from the left. Not one inch has the right conceded John Golding, the Labour Party's answer to Norman Tebbit, is pressing ahead with his purge.
And this is the crucial
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982
LABOUR'S RIGHT WING are back in the driving seat at Walworth Road. Michael Foot, they say 'sat aghast' as John Golding, the right's
Jim Mortimer's report and drove both Benn and even Foot's supporters from any position of in-
Foot can't really have been as surprised. In the last week the media have been crowing about the coming coup, which was inevitable as soon as the NEC election results were an-
kicking out 60 leading Milliant supincluding their
candidates This will leac 10 OUCE civil war in the Party, If it succeeds it will destroy Labour's election prospects and open the road to a further five years of Thatcherism.
This is not just a defeat for Benn: it is a defeat for everyone who believed Foot could carve OLL "middle ground' in the problem. What is wron with Benn's approach Not the decision to stand, nor the decision that the
main soup shride
main: the Tribune
gro the error is that in
order to maintain a tic-
page 4
party. It is also a crushing defeat for Foot.
Foot might have been stupid enough to believe that the right were interested in the olive branch of compromise, or he may already have given hope of compromise and thrown his lot them. It does not make any difference really. They titious unity, which the
of prescring not ch
and which will result a Labour defeat if it continues, the cut 15 makins concession after concession, instead of organising, fighting to defend socialist policies,
Labour Party
John Golding, Labour's answer to Norman Tebbit.
are now in control.
They intend to their control Labour's socialist policies, and the left, as rapidly and audaciously as possible.
The media are ecstatic.
The Daily Mail said if the right complete their attack with 'voters will now have a real
choice'. Sure: a choice between Tory and taking the battle into the unions to make the block vote accountable at the next Labour conference.
Tony Benn has to answer a straightforward question, as do backers. Is he standing for
weapons and use nucicar weapons, between attack Tory unemployment and Labour unemployment, between Torv IMF policies
and Labore Wiles.
choice Labour the election just as surely as it did in 1979.
Just as nauseaung was the media's label for peo-
nuclear call 'moderates'. A strange
the Shadow Cabinet to cement a reranonsnip with Michael Foot and the right wing, or to cement a rela-
ionship with the rank anc Mile? Is campaign ne conducts going to appease
let Will he conne are or orcanise ind and lead the battle now being organised against the witch-hunt, and take that battle into the Shadow Cabinet, making it plain that a vote for him is a vote against expulsions
will he float above the bat tle, making vague general
TRIBUNE
The rest of the Tribune left understand very
Guy Barnet's
vise him lo vote for the whole Tribune slate chiding Tony Benn made it quite clear that his vote would depend whether or not the princi pic of collective shadow cabinet responsibility" was applied.
In other words, if Tony Benn accepts the which Michael Foot
WIRE prepared for him
The 300 delegates a Saturday's against the witch-hunt have made their position clear! they aren't accepting any tight. They're going
the TaTT every CLP has to put to their MP is this: are you Joinine the tight. are vot against the fight his you, like Tony Benn, abstaining?
Labour name for backers
nucicar blackmail gigantic bank profits.
But a note of caution seemed to creep and there: *The Bennmer are down but not out', said the Mail The Guardian was even
Asian Youth
By Bob Smith, Sparkhill CLP
urged Sparkhill CLP to
October, Pino workers association,
Sparkhill.
He has been charged with Grievous
or Harm by Sparkhill police
secaus he himself when three racist attacked his house on 20 March 1982 they had been on a drink IRE SOREO Rov says there should he a 'police investigation" well into the case, but that Pino
does not need a defence Greenwich campaign" which,
is simply for the "ultralett"
From Higheate and Nor has he
thfields AUEW branches,
on ASTMS West
Health Services Moseley and Kings Heath CLPs, Sandwell Labour Party Sparkhill YS.
have INNOCENT
conference Pino's
been at all the court proceedings. Perhaps it was The Labour Party banner.
10 on the picket lines which question Roy sees as ultraleft'.
Pino Khan is innocent.
His only crime is having a black face, - or are cyes of the Sparkhill police
makes him
•DeNSIMIS Foot... should b nappy al Incl Mr Benn being exile by other ass wingers. It is n decision has helf likelv that the isolation in Benn has foun since the race for ty leadership ... dust of Peckhan thfield has settle may yet regret th Found allies, ° enthusiasm
LEFT
These understand wh pening. Forty: cent of the don't want They don't unemployment. want why the Lab ference voted to these things.
The reas Labour's flaggi at the polis Foot as figure Healey as capta believes Labou out its policies.
As soon as t left decides to real relation of show itself.
Weighell and il been fighting and his cronies® have cronies.
Union confe of and union conteren ject what its lead ing if the left of resist in here That is now task of the hou October against the wit only the first ste Pino Khan defence
Hattersley sells
ROY HATTERSLEY, the man who s repeal the Race Relations Act, suc
disaffiliate Pino Khan Defence Campaign on Tu
Khan, a member of the
works at Bir Batteries and is in the Sally Oak bran AUEW. He lives in Hattersley's cons
The Roy Ha Bodi this world canne on to defend bla defended He can talk ab at 3am after
The a front The backing
Midlands
branch, ing race relatio tion until he go branch the - face. But and comes to the cri Pakistani memi constituency months in prisor nothing but himsell. he friends have racist police on
that the left' ar This hunting leads: why Hattersley must be remove leadership movement. which in the donations te
elence Comm guilty al a 34 Alcester
ingham B/3 SEE.
Page 5 scan of this page
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Page 6 scan of this page
OCTOBER 1917 Sixty-five years ago the workers, peasants and the oppressed minorities stormed the heavens, lighting a beacon of revolutionary hope and inspiration across in every country in the world the exploited turned their eyes in the direction of Russia and the more conscious and more militant BOB PENNINGTON writing below describes how, and why, the Russian revolution happened and how it was won. He explains that its lessons are just as important today as they were in the winter of 1917.
one-sixth of the world's surface.
THE GREAT WAR tore and wrenched apart the old order of capitalist Europe and nowhere were its effects felt more than in Gins, Dackward Mussia
The war, a product of inter-Imperialist rivalries, dragged into its wake the advanced countries like the United States, and the backward nations like Russia. But the demands on Russia were just as severe as those made on the most advanced nations, whereas her ability to bear them
The war ravaged its aconomy. Its people died by the millions for a cause in which they had no interest. At home, away from the front, cold, misery and starvation were the lot of the masses.
As the war produced one disaster after another, the War Minister Polivanov explained the strategy of the ruling class when he said: place my trust in the impenetrable spaces, impassable mud, and the mercy of Saint Nicholas Mirlikisky, protector of Holy Russia'. A general Ruszky told the ministers of war: "The present day demands of military technique are beyond us. At any rate we can't keep up with the Germans.
As the army fell apart under the German offensives its leaders wasted time on superstitions and witchcraft by discuss. ing whether or not to remove the bones of the saints from Kiev.
In the war the Russian army suffered 40 per cent of the total casualties suffered by the alliance against the Germans. More than two and a half milion of its soldiers died. No nation before had ever suffered such casualties.
Despair and dissatisfaction grew like wildfire at the useless butchery. As the military oligarchy retreated before the Germans, so did their fury grow against their own hapless troops. Flogging became the order of the day for even the most trivial offences.
A soldier Pireiko, quoted by Trotsky in his History of the Russian Revolution, told how: 'And sometimes they flogged tham to arouse their fighting spirit./ The same Piraiko also wrote: everyone, to the last man, was interested in nothing but peace .. Who should win and what kind of peace it would be, that was of small interest to the army. It wanted peace at any cost, for it was weary of war.
By late 1916, the despair of the army was turning into rebellion. In Moscow the Minister of the Interior spoke with alarm at the presence of 30,000 convalescent soldiers saying: In cases of disorder this antire horde will take the side of the mob.
A general Brussilov talking of the Riga district told how soldiers refuse to attack' and how they lifted one company commander on the points of their bayonets'.
At first the revolutionaries in the army had been small and their influence negligible. But as disorder swelled so did their influence begin to grow and when the government sent striking workers to the front as a punish. ment the number of skilled and experienced agitators grew in the fertile soil of the army's discontent.
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982 page 6
'Can we also do that? If so how do we do it?'
At home misery and despair with a war that nobody wanted, that hardly one single person believed could be won, fed the people's hatred for the regime.
cvervone wanted peace as the deaths mounted. Everyone wanted bread as the food queues grew longer and the prices became higher. And every peasant wanted land in a country where 30,000 large landowners owned as much land as 50,000 million peasants had to live off
All the ingredients for revolution existed. The old order had become intolerable to the great majority of the masses. Normally the decisions are made by the specialists, be they ministers of state, civil servants or dictators. But as Russia's crisis grew in intensity the masses becan to cross the barriers that normally exclude them from the arena of politics.
Their old representatives no longer seemed adequate old institutions were insufficient. As the confidence and hopes in the old order broke down, so the workers and peasants demanded change and to get that change thay had to take action of a forcible character and begin to take charge of their own destiny.
In the great bourgeois revolutions of the past the bourgeoisie had won the peasantry to its side by breaking the power of the feudal-monarchic system. They had done this by offering the peasants the land. Only the offer of the land can inspire the peasantry to join with the revolution.
But in Russia the bourgeoisie could not do this. In fact they did not dare raise this demand. The peasant insurrections did not drive the capitalists forward against tsarism. Instead it drove them back into the camp of reaction. A numerically weak Russian bourgeoisie which had come too late on the scene to play any progressive role and whose wealth often came out of the great semi-feudal estates, did not dare raise a hand against feudal property.
In 1917 a nobleman Bokorkin wrote to Rodzianko, the chair. man of the last municipal Duma *1 am a landowner and I cannot get it into my head that I must lose my land and for an unbelievable purpose to boot. for the experiment of a socialist doc-
Had the capitalists solved the agrarian question then Russia would have entered into the era of bourgeois democracy. Instead the war of the peasants for land which by the autumn of 1917 affected 482 departments out of 624, had to find its ally in the Russian working class, the natural enemy of the bourgeoisie.
As the peasants set fire to the property of the landowners the flames lit up the insurrection in THE CHES. The two factors necessary for the birth of the Soviet state had come into being - the peasant war that is a characteristic of the development of capitalism and the proletarian insurrection, the move ment that announces the ending of bourgeois rule had combined.
The four million industrial workers were joined by over 100 million peasants. For the first time in history the wrath and land hunger of the peasants was
whose historic interests lay along the path of the socialist revolution.
population of 160 million, 90 peoples were subjected to persecution and deprivation of legal rights by the bureaucratic
right of self-determination for
able to win them over to their side. These too in their overwhelming numbers were peasants.
place in the hell hole that was tsarist Russia came as no sur-
letarian revolution, surprised averyone ourte marxistrevor tionaries. People who had
and this included most Russian socialists, had predicted that Russia would first have to go through the experience of the capitalist revolution, before the basis could be laid for the socialist transformation.
Trotsky the fact that the pro. letariat could take the power in
was expected. He had in fact
as far back as 1905
Prospects he had written: 'In an economically backward country the proletariat can arrive at power earlier than in a capitalistically advanced one.
The Russian revolution creates the conditions under
event of a successful revolution must be transferred to the pro-
opportunity of unfolding its talent for governments to its fullest extent.
that in its immediate tasks the Russian revolution was a
it had to solve all the problems taken on by the classical bourgeois revolutions like the French revolution of 1793.
But the Russian capitalist class was anti-revolutionary. It could not solve the agrarian and democratic needs of the old capitalist revolution, in fact it was absolutely hostile to them. Only the working class could lead the fight for such demands, of course not stop at getting these demands.
Such aims for the working class could only lead it on towards its own goals and therefore the Russian revolution would not stop at the bourgeois democratic stage but would be permanent in character.
But for Trotsky and the Bolsheviks that was only a part of the theory. The other part rested on the understanding that the productive forces of capitalism have long outgrown their national limits. capitalism has spilled over its national boundaries and entered its imperialist stage, it is utopian to imagine that socialism can be
given a lead and direction, not by the capitalist class but by a class
restriction.
But the hand of the revolution reached out even further. It raised the banner of the rights of oppressed nationalities. Of Russia's
million were 'other races'. These
regimes of Moscow. The revolu- western Europe. tionaries, by demanding land for the peasants and supporting the
the oppressed nationalities were
That a revolution could take
prise. But that it should be a pro-
thought about change in Russia,
1917.
Lenin to be precise.
But to marxist thinkers like
an historically backward country predicted such a thing happening
own parties
In his pamphlet Results and which the power can (and in the
letariat, even before the policy of bourgeois liberalism receives the
What Trotsky explained was
bourgeois revolution. This meant
advance. However,
sufficient.
but a victorious proletariat would
In heroic terrorism.
the victories of 1917.
workers.
constructed within those national boundaries that even capitalism finds an intolerable
The Russian revolution therefore was not an end in and of itself. For the Bolsheviks 'the chain had broken at its weakest link. But for that link to healthily survive, it was dependent on the extension of the revolution on a world scale, particularly to the metropolitan countries of tion
Only the revolutionary marxists understood that. Just as they had been the only people to understand that the objective conditions in Russia, like the weakness of the capitalist class; the revolutionary character of the peasant question and the op pressed nations; and the specific social weight of the working class would produce a situation where the workers would have the chance to take power.
These conditions produced the revolutionary situation of
They could not, however, on their own guarantee the success of the revolution. That suc cess depended on the existence of a party: the Bolshevik Party of
In all previous revolutions new forms of property have developed in the womb of the old society and these new pro perty forms have generated a new class with its own spokespersons, leaders, and its
But the working people are in a different position. In no society. except in a workers state does the working class hold the power. Under capitalism it delegates its authority to people who rule on its behalf
But they rule in the interests of capitalism, not on behalf of the workers they allegedly repre sent. Unlike the rising bourgeoisie who owned enterprises and businesses under feudalism and therefore ac cumulated power and wealth. the working class does not rule and control its own means of production under capitalism.
For many years the removal of tsarism had been a necessary condition of the Russian economy and cultural life was to
the forces for the removal of this outdated feudal-type monarchy were in-
The capitalists feared the revolution, dreading the thought of unleashing the anger and wrath of the new proleteriat and the giant mass of the peasantry. The intellectuals had always turned to the peasantry and believed that the 'deed' would inspire the revolt, and as a consequence, the cream of the Russian intellegentsia wasted itself
The Bolsheviks began anew They saw that the way to unleash that powerful force in the countryside was through the workers. The 1905 revolution in its defeat had pointed the way to
It had demonstrated the power of the young Russian proletariat. It has shown that new forms of power existed called Soviets, which had been spontaneously created by the
By combining the struggles of
the workers and peasants, and
by championing the cause of all
the oppressed peoples and
minorities, the Bolsheviks by
1917 had become a truly national
party in the sense that it
represented the overwhelming
majority of the population. What
is more it, and it alone,
understood that victory was only possible if the masses followed
the road of proletarian revolu-
Sixty-five years later the main lessons of that first great suc cessful revolution are still there to be learned from. It showed in
dramatic from that it is only the
masses that make revolutions Only when they are convinced that things cannot carry on in the old way, and they step into
the arena of politics can a revolution take place.
The tasks confronting the mass of the people when they go along the paths of revolutionary insurrection and start seeking power are political. But for years they have been precluded from politics and decision-making and therefore cannot have an independent revolutionary theory and revolutionary strategy to achieve their alms.
Yet these are essential for revolutions to be successful. The key to the success of the Rus sian revolution was the understanding that it was not a capitalist democratic revolution but a combination of the bourgeois revolution and the pro letarian revolution, and therefore the revolution had to be permanent in character, both nationally and internationally.
Such a theory is not reached spontaneously. It requires study. discussion and analysis and therefore requires conscious intellectual application by individuals organised in a party.
Once the Bolsheviks were clear about the character of the revolution they took the logical and practical step of construc ting a workers' state based on the soviets, the most democratic political organisations yet created. There is no road to socialism without the existence of democratically run workers' councils (soviets) and these are the only real alternative to the state created by capitalism. The Bolsheviks had learned that by the actions of the masses in the dress-rehearsal of 1905, and the party consciously set out to base the new workers' state on the soviets.
The internationalism of the Bolsheviks is well illustrated by just one of their many actions Anyone arriving in Russia after the revolution had immediate rights to Russian citizenship and the right to vote immediately. To the Bolsheviks, the Russian revolution needed the support of every worker and for every worker nao to De weir interna tional homeland. What a contrast this practical internationalism to the actions of miserable right-wing Labour leaders who introduced immigrations laws.
The lessons of October 1917 are still as relevant today as they were 65 years ago. No revolutionary socialist party can hope to lead a successful struggle for power in the advanced coun tries, unless it has absorbed and understood those lessons.
Page 7 scan of this page
Above Trotsky, Lenin and Kamenev. Top right the storming of the Winter Palace. Below the masses take to the streets as Russia takes the path to revolution.
ПРИГЕТІ
КРОН
БРОНЕВИН! СТРАЖЬ СВОЕЛЬ
ВООРУЖЕНІЕ
ИНТ. РНАЦІОНА
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982 page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
ne thousand Scottish supporters of the Triple Alliance (made up of miners, steel and rail unions) march in London to warn against
y Bill Alder, National Union of Hosiery and nitwear Workers - NUHKW - Mansfield nd Sutton District
HE MYTH that women workers can't be militant as taken another knock on the head. 420 women at e Meridian garment factory in Bolsover, North erbyshire, have now been out on strike for more ian a fortnight.
Meridian is part of the ultinational Courulds LLO. WHICH SCIS irments and hosiery under a umber of Welley. Ente and
Lyle Bondor. Like 035
SKINNER:
irther redundancies. ,000 SCOTTISH workers came down to Lonon last Tuesday 26 October to demonstrate gainst unemployment and threatened closure 1 coal, steel and the mines. It has been called y the Triple Alliance. Dennis Skinner focussed he mood of the ghting the Tory government. He brought the ouse down in hroughout with cheers and ovations. sception was in sharp contrast to that given y Michael Foot. peech.
EVERY victory we've ver won for our class has een won from outside ocialist Challenge 5 November 1982
Garment workers take action
aulds lards SHURACIS
priorities
For management at the Bolsover factory
Centralise all
the struggles'
demonstrators bent on
speech punctuated His
Here are extracts from his
Parliament and shouldn't be mealySHOULCU about it. We
carn on their piece-rates.
womens' cutting the established piece rate for particular jobs. Th YOHICH 3 COS SORS W83
The strike has now been
In ола 00n Hosiery and Knitwear Workers. nay after management tried to SCAR WOIN DUL DETAC TACLOE
TRIPLE ALLIANGE
N.U.M N.U.R I.S.T.C
FIGHT FOR JOBS & WAGES
have to get Labour Government which carrier our these wishes in practice. we need more of this sort of extraparliamentary activity.
Last had strikes on seperate days.
We had a
WELL NOTALE strike one day, a telecom-
strike LOL another, then a health strike and then a steel soesnt the YUC set thell strike. hell strikes together on one.
HIf we did that weld
Trade Unions
Union refused to cross the picket and
nOW resorted to non-union seah lorry and van drivers.
Morale
women's morale good but they need financial
SOCHIIE Challenge always
Spin because W456 13 0 VILE DATE DEACH and their families income.
Dennis Skinner frighten the living daylights out of the Fleet
editors and Thatcher. We would be showing that the real power lies with
you, the wealth creators
You are the people who make this country tick.
'We have to dedicate ourselves to smashing the Tebbit law outside parliament.
1 say to Michael Foot and Ian Mortimer. From
let's against the Tories. TOIL
pointed oint work for pin that women do MONEY becatise their wage is a vial part of then and their familics income.
The Meridian have shown that by striking. Readers should recognise it by TUSHITTE and messages of support to: and Kiwear Workers. of Hosier and Knitwear
ST. Bas/ord, Notts. about trying to drive ple out ofthe Labour Perty. We haven't got the time
We have to go from
this. this meeting campaign to get rid of the Tories: to campaign for a hour week: Shorer working hours; we need a better life
of the Common Market
rid of cruise aa lose missiles. Let's go from this to dedicate ourselves to the most im portant tendency of all -the unemployed tendency
1982 1. That structs the organise a day
the stationing Europe:
this end.
TUC
ing industry.
ference voted
policy of not only
NATO.
now!
in the unions, Golding.
way.
bring down the Tories.
to register.
The
page feature
iran. sexism, women
now.
Sheldon engineers
show way on CND
This motion is for consideration by the National Conference of the AUEW in 1983 and was passed at the meeting of Sheldon Branch on Friday 22 October
the National Committee in Executive Council to of all-out action on Hiroshima Day 1983 as part of a European wide protest against Trident and
of Cruise missiles in
2. And further, to encourage all links with European Engineering workers to
3. To work with the Labour Party NEC to back this action in conjunction with the
4. To give aid, through the Youth Sec tion of the AUEW, for building support for Young CND groups in the Engineer-
Further, that the National Committee notes that the last Labour Party con-
for unilateral nuclear disarmament by a majority of more than two thirds and therefore calls for
ending Britain's nuclear role but also withdrawing from
REVOLUTION
SOCIALIST PAPER FOR VOUTH
KICK OUT
THE TORIES
WE CAN
WIN
Revolution out
A new copy of Revolution is out. It's a socialist paper for youth with supporters
Labour Party Young Socialists, and schools and colleges all over Britain. We are fighting alongside the health workers in the Youth CND and everyone taking action against the Tories and their policies. And we want to boot out the Tories in the Labour Party
like Dennis Healey and John
At the LPYS national conference it fought to get backing for YCND, to get the hundreds of activists in Youth CND to come together and fight the introduction of Cruise and Trident in a united
Revolution also campaigned to get the YS out onto the picket lines of health workers to build support in every city to
And for our pains we've just had a nice letter from Jim Mortimer asking us
newpaper covers the fight against the witch-hunt and is against the Tories at home and abroad. There is a
on the Middle East coverage of the war in Central America. a centrespread on Poland and a letter on
There are also articles on fighting at work. black liberation. All this for 20 pence. Get your copy
Page 9 scan of this page
El Salvador regime under attack
responded massively to that theme - that only
statein the Cortez) they redrawn the political map of Spain.
one thing
election policies.
The election was a disaster for the government party the conservative Even the
minister Calvo
Sotelo, lost his seat. They were squeezed by the rise of the hard right Popular Alliance, led by Manuel Fraga who won 105 seats and 25 per cent of the vote. In effect the ultra-right Fraga has succeeded in making the AP the main party of the right, eclipsing
his more moderate rivals.
The Communist Party
(PCE) suffered an
EASTSTeT losing two-thirds of its votes and parliament fall from 23 to
Gonzalez has gone out of his way lo provide
By Toni Gorton
into darkness. This dramatically demonstrated the latest stage of
military offensive by the liberation forces. In the past 20 days of fighting. the FMLN the сто инонику дистена агmy says that 403 government LOUDS have killed or wounded and 119 have been captured. Traffic on all main routes has been reduced to a trickle with dozens of trucks and buses belonging the businesses backing the junta destroyed
Much of the province Usulutan has been without for three weeks after pylons were destroyed.
In Britain, the Labour Party has condemned the VISIt Salvador's Foreign Minister Fidel Chavez Mena, in London to talk to the Tory Foreign Secretary:
Slim Mortimer, Labour Party secretary said that the visit appears to be an attempt to gain the support of a European LOVE HERE TOT nationally discredited
which LECTUSES negotiate a political solution to the civil war in Ei Salvador.
In another blow at the murderous junta ruling in El Salvador, the United Nations has been exposed as being unable and un-
Gonzalez -
a Spanish
Denis Healey
'POR EL CAMBIO' - for a change - was a central slogan of the Spanish Socialist Party's election campaign. The Spanish people have the Socialist Party (PSOE) had the possibility of providing change. In giving Socialist leader Felipe Gonzalez a huge victory (201 of the 350
have completely
But the irony is that fundamental change is
that thay are unilkely to get, Felipe Gonzalez did not even promise it in his
guarantees Spain's rulers that he is going to alter nothing fundamen12U-1 The democratisation process in Spain since the rall of Franco has evolved an unstable compromise between the "democratic" parties and crucial sectors ot Ine old Francoist state apparatus who remain entrenched in the army state burcaucracy. Gonzalez's first promise was to do nothing to purge the Francoist hard-liners the hundreds of officers who sympathised with the attempted military coup in 1981, and who have been TWO CaLCUl coup-plots subsequently The PSOE has talked about the army as the representation of popular
AS TOP US official, Fred Ikle, arrived in the capital of El Salvador on 27 October, six guerrilla bombs exploded plunging the whole city
the new political and
willing protect thousands of refugees fleeine the appalling conditions he their country, 000. Hidden Tans in disease. There omoncagua and Mest Grande in Honduras and Ei Salvador itself accor to 30,000 homeless in ding to Oxfam On one hand the UN claims that Honduran military authorities are blocking access 10 VITa are un has been soused areas of passivity by the Interchurch Ter reline Canadian.
Canadian relief agency claimed that the 17213 scriously understaffed in the border area and the reception cenfor receiving new refugees lacked adequate
The Amricans are getting uneasy about the bad press that the regime is getung and nave laid down the law a little.
The US ambassador to Flinton, vas Warned Salvador. Deane regime that unpunished muracts and kicappuss tied to some elements of
sovereignty* and the guarantor of constitutional rule". During the inLeT Our Derweetoonzalez's clection and his taking office (six away) many Spaniards will be distinctly nervous about the army.
But given the socialsts overwhelming victory it seems unlikely that the army would make a move. The crucial thing is, however, Inst une nara! line army right wingers are still there, ready to move at a time of crisis.
Gonzalez has pledged his support to the "antiicrrorist leeislation in the Basque country, and will make CCOHCEASIUILS the demands for self-determination in the Basque country and other nations of the Spanish state. Jobs
On the economic front Gonzalez has promised an extra 800,000 jobs in four years. achieved, would only bring down the unemployment To per cent to 12 percent. But even this modest objective is unlikely to be attained
GUATEMALA
BAN SALVADO SALVADOR
PACIFIC OCEAN
MAP: ENRIGUE
The departments under FML control.
endangering US support.
The hlunt language seems to be a response to the diplomatic offensive of the liberation forces. in particular the stink that has been made world wide over the arrest of eight well known figures in the FDR.
political wing of the FMLN.
The Social-Democratic government in sweden sent a letter to e Salvador expressing great
tion and disappearance of
tion politicians and calling
International,
The PSOE promises only one MALIOHEISCEIOT - sectors of the electricity the fight of capital from industry. WENDIC
Spain before the clections, Gonzalez will do nothing to touch the assets Spain's uitra-right wing bankers.
Recently Gonzalez has opened a polemic against TOILE socialist leaders Mitterand accusing him of being the representative of
too-ideological "socialism', too dogmatic, too left wing.
Given the extent of the economic recession in Spain it is difficult to see how the PSOE, with its open spousal of
economic liberalism, can begin to solve the economic problems of the Spanish workers.
Unlike the Communist Party, the PSOE did no
posal for legalised abortion — a burning question of democratic rights in a
TELLIT
for all parties to begin negotiations for a political solution to the conflict.
*Neither internal confidence nor external support can long survive here in the absence of an effec-
system criminal justice', said Hinton. This was a reminder that the US hands more than $230m and cconomic aid this year.
The liberation forces are now holding 20 towns
villages Chaltegnango, the north
province of Morazan and the eastern
country where hundreds of women die cach year after back-street abortions
The main chang ex-
ected from the PSOE vi tory is on foreign policy. The Socialists will organise a referendum on Spanish member of NATO, which they oppose. But Gonzalez is precise: •We have never been opposed to NATO What we are
COLLIS L Spain's joining NATO which is different. And he insists: 'we in hurry
Collapse
That could be taken as the leadership. Despite all the talk change the "socialism' of Gonzalez is the 'socialism' of Denis Healev
Why then has the vote of the Communist Party collapsed? For several years the PCE has been in a state of political and
CHATANLAREO HONDURAS
MORAN
ARAGUA
province of San Miguel
The Are of Liberty? now stretches some 500 square miles along the Honduran
northeast of San Salvadoro and the FMLN 15 stepping up its efforts to widen it.
Affiliate now to the Saivador Cam
Did Tor area isations pease
please печис payabic 1o In
1 Salvador Solidarit Can
and 29 Isl ington Park Street, London Ni. tel 01-359 2270. Details o the May Move
Conference from the sane address
The 'Eurocommunist' tion taken by party leader Carrillo led the PCE to en dorse the various social
notably the Moncloa pact, whích im posed wage restraint.
Equally the PCE has been a paral han order rather workers' militancy, endorsing the repressive police
against Basque nationalists.
this situation, policies have often seemed none-too-different from those of PSOE.
Catalonia historically a stronghold of workers militancy, the PSUC - the Catalonian CP was in 1981 captured by quasi-Stalinist factions who opposed the Eurocommunist policies of the Madrid leadership. The "Pro-Camille militants led toro Spirit of PSUC 8000 worker militants to form their own party.
Defend the
Sandinista
revolution
By Toni Gorton
The US has complained, via an article Newsweek magazine,
government has got
forces.
US
ball for the safety of the revolution.
The Nicaraguans have heen on full military aleri for over a year now as counter revolutionary ac tivities increased along the border with Honduras. Between July 1981 and
1982 US military violated Nicaraguan airspace on 40
The CIA was granted $19m specifically to co-ordinate armed attacks on Nicaragua and devclopment loans have been blocked by the Reagan administration
Newsweek gives details of the military plans against Nicaragua which,
says, are directed by the US ambassador to Honduras. John Negroponte
Many former Communist have voted for the PSOE as a "useful" capable of resolving the vote, VILE main question of who was going to form the government. This is exactly what happened ith CP v France, with voters giving their mandate to Mitterand.
The Spanish workers will get nothing out of the victory of Gonzalez except austerity measures impos ed by a "Socialist' govern SEPTE Indeed the PSOE comes to power at a time of profound downturn in the strength of the workers movement. Because of the recession and unemploy. ment the unions have los more than half of their members since 1978. This has particularly affected the Workers Commission the pro-CP trade union federation The beneficiaries have been the union ederaion UGT, pro-socialist Result
How then should we assess the overall meaning the PSOE victory?
Unable to go forward on the economic front, faced with all the problems that recession inevitably bring the working class, the Spanish workers have reached for a governmenblems. The middle clas have SECULICU by consolidating the hard righ Thatcherite-Reaganite AF led by Fraga Socialist experidisitsionmenly ter in disillusionment the WOTKCIS The danger that Gonzalez's failure will ultimately become Fraga's victory. Revolutionaries in Spain have the task of continuing to light for rea socialist policies to solve the crisis, to build a left wing alternative "socialist austerity.
FOLLOWING the diplomatic success achieved by the revolutionary government of Nicaragua in getting onto the UN security council, the USA is trying to cover its hostile intentions
The us has completed, ma rica arole ri
that their efforts to simply harass and undermine the Nicaraguan
out of hand with the recruitment of former Somoza troops into the US backed and trained counter-revolutionary
attempts to disassociate itself from responsibility for the thousands of armed men it has put in military camps in Honduras. Florida and California must strike a warning
with the aid of 50 CIA agerits, dozens of retired military and intelligence officers and 20 Argentine military Plans have also been drawn up for the creation 500-man paramilitary force.
Any military intervention uto Nicaragua will be the direct responsibility of Reagan and his henchinen in the CIA. Any pretence that Somocistas have taken over is utter baiderdash. Nicaragua needs your support now.
solidarity Campaign, Compton NI Tel 01-226 6747 Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982 page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
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coke, High St; Glasgow Booksho
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mad or Cretent
Wales
ONTYPRIDO: SC sales every Su
Nor: 1m 1pm WANSEA: SC sales ourside Co-op, Oxfard St, 1Tum-Ipm, Saturdays. England BOTH: SC on sale at 1905 Books.
side the Roman Beth, Phone 0298 for more details
IKENHEAD: Clevelati
DESOVER: Cross Keys, every Fri BRADFORD: SC RISTOL: SC on sale 11-1. "Hole ir
Pullmans Lorene He COVENTRY: SE Sanel sale every Sat
available from sales in HUDDERSPIELD: SC S
The Plate So a c at Peacework: 1t and 10do 1200
ship, Wahul lane.
outside
Church it, be Top Stop.
op. Tel: 061-236 4905 for fur
NEWCASTLE: SC on sale enwicks. Also
• of Hape hookshop
fe University TING HER MOnday saran Shao Square. For into Phone
rities. Tel. 061-682 5151
hats left
ATES for What's Laft. So per word
kshop, 328 Upper/St. Landon N
Hanse Write
OCIALIST
BOOKFAIR
ialist Challenge 5 November 1982
INFORD: SC sold Fri 12-2pm
rkery Saturday,
SOUTHAMPTON
ice Sharin 1 Above Har Past O
STAFFORD: SC ou Sale Market Sa
veningi, 3964905 Playe
London
BRENT: SC sold Willesden Junction
wold Thir, Ealing
OR BODE Uxorder use sation 30-12.30 in shopping precinct,
HOUNSLOW: East tube, surg sold
Thur marines out ide sold Thur and Fr
NEWHAM: PADDINGTON: Mir. Unton Par oid Sat Ha
obello Rd marker Sat a
VEMBLEY: SC sales Fri 6.45am at
By BR Station
Bookshops
Fourth
BRISTOL: Fullmarks, 110 Chelten-
BIRMINGHAM: Other Bookshop.
Birminghar
Cily Co-op HEORD So New Book hop. 335 10% Chunk ever walker Book, OXFORD: EOM Books, 54 Couley
ishi S. Leese, and Rank,
ndon Rd, Leerst LIVERPOOL: News from Nowhere,
Com Kent Me One
shop. 323.0
OUTHAMPTON: Getaber Book
UNDERLAND: The Coolfri YORK: Community Books, Walt
NON-STOP PICKET outside South Africa House. Trafalgar Square you/your delegation come on a regular basis 01-405 4498 and book your SOROAR Amandia
Free South African Support the Liberation Strug gle in South Africu. hit soals dockian 1901
Euston Road. London WCT
page 10
all.
ing like never before.
never had a government they liked so much.
banking
system is on a scale which,
EDCINE from the oil in-
dustry, totally dwarfs the
rest of the economy. One
British bank alone,
Barclay's, in 1981, made
more profit than the entire
private hanking system of
WOSE Germany put
together!
So enormous are the British banks In Tact
they make more
profit than all the other
private banks of the
EEC combined.
While British industry
has been crashing into the
red the banks have been
booming as never before. In 1979, the first year of
Thatcher's government, the
Big Four clearing hanks
preparent to soned by
percent stand at a record £1.56 billion.
Despite the small cuts micrest rates in the following year they auce to stand al 21.40 billion. In 1981 they leapt to £1.68 billion.
The bank profits wind fall tax of £316 million in 1981 was a flea-bite, both
IT'S AMAZING! When
really want to do something, YUH can.
episode two, and barcly made it back from Stoke Newingtor to Poplar to catch the last UTIC I saw 'Smiley's People from the beginning, more or less, to end.
It was worth it just to
the discussions afterwards: •No, LOTTER was Smiley's Anne gave it to old George
that's why Karla set up Haydon, to have an affair with Smiley's wife.
I must say Karla was a bit 0I5000008 He looked like a parody of the KGB hatchet man. OtherWIsC (though definitely ideologically was wonderful. I wanted each episode to go on for an hour longer
Old Smile: had ideological problems too - and that was the heard of it.
BAD
And Rees lad elecled men whi
actively
Violence...
THE BRITISH ECONOMY is in a dreadful state. For working people it certainly is. But not for For some the capitalist economy is boomBritain's banks have
because it was so low and because it did not touch wide sectors of the banking system. And to meet
cost the banks simply increased their charges.
This bank finance has not been used in any major
to promote jobs by creating industry.
Tapan in 1974-78 around 15 percent of the national CLUEURLY bank loans to industry. In West Germany it was eight percent. Britain
Oil
The banks are involved however two boom
areas of the economy. One
is North Sea Oil Britain's most profitable in-
but which creates virtually no major number of jobs.
The second industrial leasing:
This is used by industrial comCALLS CIRCEUCEV an alternative to capital spending themselves. Britain's
Smiley's People
class is more than a bit "ideologically unsound' a bit unsteady on their pins at the moment. Poor old SCOTEC MENO MO WISH through the tangle of red herrings, and his path through the thickets
the British establishment - now choked with the 'new breed" up in the shadow of the CIA
To make these dilemmas more obvious everybody was played to the edge of caricature. • In this, the series was faithful
the book, which understand was written for the series well oiled wheels within wheels. But the drunken Connie being harried by George to get her memory Smiley's dismissal of his first and only love Anne (who has given up her racing drivers and wants to settle down) all this was a bit crude
All the ambiguities in
TASTE
And James Prio spake Chus
Every Chipselar
Vorther is a setback"
Japan
Swiss trustee accounts Singapore
West Germany
2 Bahrain BRITAIN'S BIG BANKS Barclay National Westminste Lloyd's Standard and Chartered Midland Royal Bank of Scotland
tax laws allow firms leas-
ing out equipment to claim
percent capital
depreciation against tax.
The result was that in 1980. in deepening In-
By Brian Heron
Haydon's "betrayal' of his COILE coupled with Anne's "betrayal' with Haydon — all the fine tuning was missing. The pro
blems are neatly packaged now. George is the only goody lell.
Still, something of the aroma lingered on.
Karla and Smiley, two old knights from the looking glass War, each in turn brought low by their
(Smiley overlooked the mole for so long because he was entangled with Anne; Karla only wants 'the Best his errant daughter). There they were, staring at each other across what EP Thompson calls the central fracture in world politics, the German border.
Both old. Both from
time. Karla was one of Stalin's monks. remorseless butcher in the name of an abstraction. We can guess his revulsion at the time-serving, flabby
there was
privatisation of naCionalisec industry! 00
WORLD BANKING CENTRES
JUnited States
5 tnousand millic 400
Britain's banks lend twice as much as any other.
Bank profits 1981-82
E million
386
452
dustrial recession, and when the profits of the rest of industry were plummetting, the leasing subsidiary of the Midland Bank increased its post-tax profits
ways of the postKhrushchev bureaucrats. Yet Carre acute enough to suggest Karla's VISIOn stronger than Smiley's.
They meet in the '30 while Britain is presiding over its decaying indian Empire. And Smiley's cer tainties dissolve into dust. He loses. The British rul ing class loses. Even the horrific HOUSTONEL of Stalin's Russia cannot extinguish the spark of a new society. a new hope for humanity that is worth every sacrifice.
Smiley's People reduces the collision between two social systems to the contest berween two individuals - both out of time and place. We are warned to be sad or understanding - bur in the end we are all in dividuals, and all individuals are the same. There are no victories or And in high places
COPAI oiler and gnashing
and muci
By John Ross
from E52 million to E58 million.
The leasing subsidiary of Barclays's profits by 26 percent in the SHES VEG
The banks are above all international opera tions and were the tremendous gainers from abolition of exchange controls by Thatcher government 1979 Midland Bank interna tonal division increased profits by 30 percent in a single year.
Slogan
Lloyd's Bank Internatonal increased profits b 122 percent in i the first si months of 1981 compared to 1980.
Barclay's 1980 became the first major curocan bank money on the New York stock exchange.
When Labour considers its programme for 1982 one of the top items on the list should
control thest tremendous financial in
'Nationalise the banks" is one of the oldest slogans of the labour movement In Brilem n is more rele vant than anywhere cisc!
defeats any more.
'You've won, George,' says Peter Guillam Karla is driven de. Yes British Intelligence says George. I suppose have
But, of course, he hasn't. There recognition. All Smiley has done is tidy up the few loose ends of the previous cold war the better to get on with the new one.
It's this new r one tha Smiley doesn't understand. The old ruling class values cannot comprehend
Public school "loyalty' and "decency" are not necessary to de-stabilise the Chilean economy, or manufacture torture machines for Phillipine government
But then Smiley will never understand, in an increasingly bewildering world, that the collapse of his values is not the end of the story but only just the beginning
врy cormac
the home countie
Page 11 scan of this page
New immigration
Club are currently feeling
bottom of Division 2.
secutive 4-1
'promotion campaign.
Angry fans have wat-
ched successful team
sold ott to other clubs.
David Armstrong (now an
England player)
Southampton, David
Hodgson and Craig
Johnston to Liverpool,
Mark Proctor to Not-
Forest Tony
McAndrew to Chelsea Tory Party greeted the government's publication last Monday of new immigration rules, which are to come into effect on 1 January. How dare this Government confer more rights
manifesto commitment to do the opposite?
of the new rules. Not only do they not concede very much, but, in some cases, take even more rights away from black people.
The change that received the most media attention was around the right OT KEESI WOmer Io DEnf foreign husbands or hances into this country At present, this right only CAISS TOT WOMEH WHO WCTL born here or who have a BETELL WHOOS DOHLC White women are far more likcly to satisfy this criteria than black women
The new rules say that all Britich women can now bring in foreign hushands
except LAICIE will have and other Home Office officials that they are ,веnuincly getting married.
It was these officials
Renvers Anware Dint
Anwar Ditta separated trom children for six years, and wachave kept other families separated tor even more yoars, and mount.
troduce 'with an eyedrop"
their "eligibility" for
operating over 8,000 checked
eligible
It is already policy in
DHSS specially screen claiming supplementary benefit. In Oldham recently there was
Open the Boro's books!
SUPPORTERS OF MIDDLESBROUGH Football
more persecuted
than the editorial board of Militant. Relegated
from Division 1 last season, the club are now
Attendances have slumped to around 5,000,
not surprising in view of the team's three com-
defeats at home to start its
the list is endless. At least the club should have some mui ly is instead hais but is instead half a million in debt.
The Boro Supporters Action Group, set up by Frank Griffiths, the prospective Labour parliamentary Cane eRTe SEOE Teeside Thornaby, has
rules are a con
GASPS OF HORROR from the right-wing of the
on black people when they were elected with a
These sick reactions from people with sick minds should not confuse people on the nature
were used to refuse entry to 14,000 people last ycar.
The new rules therefore still allow ample room for racial discrimination against black women.
In addition, women Tes enLI Sumar wgo are not British citizens will still HOBAYC TISSELT. CLEET may pay taxes to help the government buy Trident missiles or to wage a brutal war 8,000 miles away, but they may not live here with a man who is not British.
WHe ASBEL O BAE REV rules which received less
children born Britain whose parents are neither British citizens nor settled in Britain students or work permit holders. for example Under the new Ivanonany AcE wnich aisc comes into force on STeSe CHaTEl will no SIEVE-EIE
Mobilising against the checks
By M Wongsam, Manchester City Labour Party, anti-racist committee AS THE government increase the intensity of their attack against the black community by deepening the role of the state machinery in the internal control and surveillance of blacks, resistance to these attacks is beginning to
The latest move by the government is to in-
La scheme of natonality checks into the NHS, whereby blacks will be obliged to show their pasports to prove
free health care in hospitals. In one hospital where this scheme is
people have been already, since the 1st of October. resulting in only one person being found 'not
reported 680 cases of black claimants being refused nenet the grounds that they did not "qualify" for benefits under the 1980
Ma/colm Allison
started to investigate. Wc
have found out that the The new immigration rules
status into line with this.
Although they are not likcly to be deported while their parents are here, they
They leel he county
voluntarily because their status is at the discretion of immigration officers.
The new rules are at pest ony a mior concessupplementary benetits act. In fact, when these cases were takcI by the
COMMISSIO!
Racial Equality, the DHSS capitulated on all but six.
Cases such as these in
nationw ae scale nind in a
nationwide scale.
that chance oldham CRE took the decision to pursue such an investigation that the case came to light. These instances blatant state racism have not gone unnoticed by local anti-racist activists.
There are in existence several campaigns aimed al particular facets of state racism; now .=• seems that mere o a coog cuance ua they can come together in united action around the
News
By Dave Carter
club's new sports complex, which cost over £1 million and is still not in use two years after completion, has been offered for sale to the local concil.
The complex was large ly funded by public HOEV. much or it from the Sports Council but SUTORISHU Wal DUE out to tender. It was built
Parkway
Estates, whose chairman i:
Amer is a director of the football club. and until last scason was hs chalr
man. The Sports Council have just announced their own enquiry.
In a novel attempt to
DEN
Anwar Ditta reunited with her children after a six vear fight. sion, partly because the
faced some
emba oninge ess ean
general question of state racism. The labour movement is now also beginning to take a long overdue interest.
Recently, both CPSA and NUPE have taken for mal opposition the HHICMCHLEEUI FUCE checks, and NALGO are against their members carrying out pasport checks, thouch only on the grounds that would create too much work, and would cost more money than it would save. The timidity of these responses can only be challenged by
sebes yosk amo these
memberships
in order to make the schemes inoperable
It is to adress itself to
boost its flagging fortunes,
the club nas applied for
permission to build 100
homes on the first team's
training ground. No prizes
for which
buin for the coit ac tap.
Boro supporters in the
Labour Party have drawn
ID OCHOT TOE SENIE DI
home match against
Bolton. We Ocan.
ding:
That the books of the
CUE OBRER
dependent scrutiny.
• An open public meeting
to supporters
question the directors
C A DOCY OT VBOUCBO aO
TUSSIOn OT pricet TOr TOE
unemployed to all parts of By Chris Guthrie
Commission and Court. The right to repeal the Immigration and Nationality Acts must be stepped up
Manchester Labour Party Conference Against Pasport Checks Saturday 4 December 10am Manchester Polytechnic Students Union, Sidney Building, Oxford Rd.
these questions that the Manchester District Labour Party has called a day conference to discuss out the implications of im-
nal control ll is hopen
hoped that out of this conference there will emerge united effort on the part of party, trade union members, and antı-racist ESTSES! fight back these unbridled attacks WOUL the blac! community and working class in general.
The Labour movement must see clearly that the attacks being perpetrated are a disguised attack on the whole working class, and that the опіу feasible response therefore united resistance of the whole working class.
the ground.
These demands have been widely publicised in the local press and on radio and TV. Even as l write this article, George Kitching, who was Amer's successor as charman, has annonced his resignation due to the pressures of the job'
There are going to be a lot more pressures on the DORIA LOC COMME WCCK as Middlesbrough lans de
what the TEGOOW hell has been going on.
Now this ailing club has appointed Malcom Allison as manager whose buying and selling at Man-
'Poetry that is
everyones'
N.I.
ROQUE DALTON IS EL SALVADOR'S
him prizes for his poetry.
and of the oppressed of El Salvador.
His poetry gives a per
sonal and vivid picture of
the awful repression and poverty in the country that statistics and news reports cannot show. He wrote not as a passive commen-
tator but as an active insurgent.
He believed that the revolutionary is 'the person most uscful to his
epoch'
The view also applies
to the revolutionary poet
and therefore he thought
it foolish to even discuss
the matter with those who
assert that, in poetry, the
social function and the
DOHre are
least. extra-poetic elem-
ents.
He did not believe that
the revolutionary poet's
job is to write *foretelling
of socialist society before
raising to the category of
poetic material the con-
traditions. disasters
defects, and struggles of
our present society.
His poems are of tor-
TITE PrISOn AOWERS
rulers scheme, the violence
around him and the sor
didness of individual deeds
told with a bitter sarcasm
that can only come from
experience of many years
oppression. What he
wrote of shows how the
rulers rule. How he wrote
shows how people resist.
In "looking for trouble"
WC SC idea o1 how
natural the repression and
resistance Is seen in the
COCHE
*The night of my first
cell meeting it was raining
the way I was dripping
was much applauded b
four or five characters
trom a Goya painting
everyone present seemed
rather bored
perhaps with persecution
or even torture forever in
club HOLC CIL LICAL N OULU the yard. What hope have old Middlesbroush got? which can t hide the fact diversion have controlled the cad have controlled club have sold off their best players and assets and stil managed to crin the club.
The business men have got the ETEV and the prestige, and the fans have got frustrated and paid out their cash But that's capitalism. It even cheats you on a Saturday afternoon on the terraces Poesia Militante/Militant Poetry by Raque Dalton, availab Jrom E/ Salvador Solidarity Campaign, 29 Islington Park S
bes known poet. His recognition as a major cor tributor to Spanish literature spreads furthe than the many countries which have awarde
But he was not just a poet. He was a revolt tionary from his youth through his many yeat in prison and exile, to his death in El Salvadori 1975. This made him more than a revolutionar poet. He became a spokesperson for his clas
their minds •When we left it was no longer raining my mother scolded me for coming home late.
He showed that he ha no time for reformers an charlatans who construc fancy notions of wh Salvadoreans suffe repression He showe where the blame lay. In 7 Few Lines' he wrote:
Dear philosophers, dear progressive SOLIDUSL dear social psychologists, don't fuck around so much with 'alienation" here what fucks us up the most is the alien nation.
This pamphlet gives a
insgue noton poet yis
Roque Dalton shows now DOCODC IIVCI Salvador and Latin America.
The book contains th poems in . their origina Spanish with an Englis
making Salvadorear n any Englis culture cessible to speakers. But most of alli makes clear the need fo the revolution.
•Because otherwise the people-child will still go naked stabbed by the most bemedalled thieves choked by all the rubbist and hith in this country like the river-bank slums of Acelhuate unable to demolish this great shanty town of El
unable to flatten once and ror an ws mound. and potholes to leave the land ready for the bricklayers and carpente LOCHE and raise the new HUUSCS.
Socialist Challenge 5 November 1982 page
Page 12 scan of this page
By Jeff King
to resign his Bermondsey seat.
his hostility to the Labour Party when he supported 'independent'
Labour in the May 1982 borough elections.
But Foot in his hostility to the left had been quite willing in fact quite eager, to make an alliance with Mellish despite his very dubious socialist
The ex Bermondsey MP had in ne pasi been deputy chairperson of the Angio-Spanish group, whose aim was to rive a orand of fascism -clear s to Franco's
was an excellent ally against the brand of socialism put forward by Peter Tatchell.
Ever since the Bermondsey saga began, Foot has given an excellent impression of someone who wanta to osc Ene seat ot Labour. Under Tory proYOCUUOL BC HRO publicly denounced Tatchell in the House of Commons.
Tory press grabbed this gift and went to .town democratically selected Labour candidate.
Public meeting and film Release Nelson Mandelal Victory to the ANC! Wednesday 10 November 7.30pm Conway Hall (Small hall) Red Lion Square (nearest tube Holborn)
Admission 50p (unwaged 25p)
Organised by City Anti Apartheid Group
ALAN FREEMAN
HEREL
Registerad as a newspaper with the Post Office rupuanv oo caromai entororinan PO Rox HLondon Mi Pruteo by cast and Chisot ITul Lid London Fi
Socialist
Chalenge
UNITE BEHIND
TATCHELL IN
BERMONDSEY
A 'SURPRISED' and 'vexed' Michael Foot has been put on the spot by Bob Mellish's decision
Why Foot should be surprised is beyond comprehension. After all Mellish had shown
candidates against
This was a gift for the SDP/Liberal Alliance and another possible candidate Bermondsey's ex-Labour boss John O'Grady, who with his right wing cohorts had the borough Southwark like a British version of Tammany Hall.
The behaviour of Foot and the right, and their sordid alliance Mellish, acts against the interests of Labour in the oye-election. This is why no concessions must be made to the night wing.
Party should once again Bermondsey HE2rOIr Tatcheh as its Candidate. Anything else would be a MISCEI the rights of the Labour Party members democratically decide who they want to fight the electon and would hand over book normally costs $3.50
BEM boOk NICARAGUA - THE SANDINIST REVOLU
TION (Usual price 2.95).
LAN FREEI
ERA
that right to the media and the Healey/Golding wing of the NÉC. That is the best way to lose elections.
This is why no other left candidate from Militant or elsewhiere, should oppose in Bermondsey at the new selection COICTCTC Right from the beginning forces of the left must unite, and that means uniting behind Peter Tatchell, anything else would create disunity.
If Peter Tatchell is again chosen as BermondSey'S candidate the election will be a real test case for the left. The press and the television will throw everything they have into a campaign vilification and slander against Tatchell. Iney Foots' eift and do their very best to make sure the once impregnable Labour seat of Bermondsey is lost.
The Labour Party rank and file, particularly its lett wing cannot permit that to nabnen. Every London Labour Party must CILONCE this challenge.
The full forces of the London labour movement must be SCHE Bermondsey to support Tatchell, so that a resounding victory can be gained for Labour and its conference policies.
SUROCRIRS
SPECIAL OFFER
For readers who take out a year's inland subscription we are offering a free copy of Alan Freeman's new book THE BENN HERESY. The
Alteratively we are offering Henri Weber's
FREEMAN
H BE
ERESY
Police saturated Brixton.
By Toni Gorton
Robert Hunt declared
have put into practice new techniques
a fit up.
Al 2am Monday morning SOTEC BLULA police saturated the Railton Road area in designed to coincide with the eviction 01 a small group of squatters houses due to be demolish-
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Brixton fires
TOP COP, deputy assistant commissioner
that Monday November when Brixton's 'front line' again want up in flames was a great success tactically and strategically. In a stroke London's police under the leadership of Sir Kenneth Newman
of black-bashing and placed all the blame for the day's events on black youth. The whole thing's
Led later in the day to make way for new council housing.
In the event, no arrests took place during the evic. tions at 5.30am and all occupiers of the nine properties left quietly.
Inland: 12 months £14.00/6 months £7.00
Surface & Europe £17.00/Air mail $24.00
Cops provoke
Lambeth Labour leader Ted Knight said,
*We had agreed with the police that there would be a token presence wille the evictions took place.
•Commander Fairbairn did say he would have some forces in reserve outside the area in case of any developments.
He went on to say: We were shocked and surprised by the large number of police in the area We can't anticipate any trouble. It is regretable that the whole thing has been used as a kind of exercise; it
Quite right. Saturation policing a la the Swamp 81 operation that sparked off uprisings sby the actual wasn't called To. brat
was at stake was the need for the pouce to test Eneir nev techniques, new equip ment and themr new aim mediate Response Units".
Later in the day large numbers of youth angry at the
OVEEWTCRHH! presence of the police and what they saw as the further destruction of their community as bulldozers tore up the empty houses marched on Brixton police station and also set fire to obvious symbols of the local council.
This was the excuse that the police had lookec for and planned. Into action swung the These units are similar to the anti-riot squads used in the North of Ireland and benefit from the Perience of metropolitan police chief Newman who ACECO up Roya Ulster Constabulary for a number of years. They can be mobilised in a matter of moments from 48 seperate areas in London.
Most of the press knew something was up. The early morning edition
the Daily Express, publish-
ed the very time?
everything was happening
article headed
"Brixton police swoop"
A thousand
policemen were poised this:
morning to breal .up the?
so-called "no go" London: area
has shown that the police? as a whole are spoiling for: a fight with the black community
This confrontation has notning to do with black s
"crime" but is part of the
wing
against the whole of the:
tosh commumy day mng and day out
The Daily Express considers that Newman's performance as police chief :
winning the next clection.
this
Common Market, nuclear disarmament and wages
Whatever may bc thought of their prognosis law and order has always been high on the Tories programme. They have consistently usco ideas to split the working class, intimidate black people and stimulate fear in the middle classes I's more than time to
black youh t paricie o
black youth in particular
black people SECHCN small step will be to start building fo the demonstration on March 1983 sponsored by the Campaign Racist Laws
← Socialist Challenge No. 266, 22 October 1982Socialist Challenge No. 269, 12 November 1982 →