Socialist Challenge No. 42, 20 April 1978
The scan: sc-n42-apr-20-1978.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
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Socialist Challenge The Nazis unfurl their colours
SUNDAY APRIL 30/EVE OF MAYDAY*11a.m. RALLY/TRAFALGAR SQUARE MARCH TO VICTORIA PARK*TOM ROBINSON BAND AND STEEL PULSE THER WITH ROCK AGAINST RACISM, HACKHEY CAMPLICH AGAINST RACIS CNNEY CRC, AND TOWER HAMLETS MOVEMENT AGAINST RACISM & FASCIS
lo 42 20 April 1978 15p
WE WILL FIGHT THEM EVERY INCH OF THE WAY CARNIVALI- AGAINST THE NAZIS AGUESED HY ANTI HAZI LEMAR
11111
→ Marti John Tyndall on the anti-fascists who picketed the NF's meeting in Brixton on 15 April:
*When the National Front is victorious, and forms a Government — as it will — these people are going to be swept off the streets...
'We will deal with them without mercy!'
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Never the same again
EDITORIAL
Editorial 01-359 8180/9.
Labour
and
Unity
them.
poross ale sne ones which can 1eke forward.
revolutionary
polarisation is taking place in many cities.
localities and conatituencies.
were a revolutionary party which had such there Isn't. So Government at the alections.
Our strength continues
explored as well.
political bankruptcy.
This
issue
of the paper.
morance in order and designers to attend my ares.
cover costs. [Delete if not applicable]
NAME ..
ADDRESS
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 April 1978 page 2
SocialistChallenge, 328/9 Upper Street, London N1. Distribution and Advertising 01-3598371.
Socialist
WHY DO we stand candidates against Labour? Are we an alternative? What is our centrai slogan for the General Election? These and many other questions heve beer asked of us in recent weeks as the Socialist Unity campaign has got into gear. Let us therefore reply to
Vie stand candidates against Labour because we believe that it is essential to project a socialist alternative in local and national elections; to try and catalyse a current which
More than that, they offer militants who are fighting for class struggle policies to show through thair campaigns and struggles how their
the fightback Elections aiso haip us to have a dialogue with the masses: a beneficisi experience for most socialists in
Now it is true that because of the smart size of the
socialial left its impact will be minimal compared to that of the large parties. But given the
climate we have to The fasciste are offering their solutions and winning support. It is
sufficient for revolutionaries lo combat them
Nonetheless we can only do this in a limited nutriber of
Unis is a reflection of our On a mass level, the only alterative to the Tories in Labour. The Labour Party remains linked to the trade unions, It is the organised workers who constitute Labour's social base. It would, of course, be nicer if there
base. But for the relurn of a Labou
We cannot posture as a serious altemative on that level. important is that the existence of an important layer of to lie in Our OuRS activista in the unions and eleewhere enables us to test out some of these ideas in practice. Socialist Unity Is one such vehicle. There are other avenues and these have to be
What we utterly reject is any idea that Labour has been detached from its working class base because of its reactionary social and economic policies. As long as it still has that support, revolutionaries will be left with little
the return Labour government. To advocate abstention would be a sign of WE HAVE already explained the character of this issue
Substantial sectiong of it had to be laid out to enabie the editorial statt the conference International Marxist Group last weekend. We are sure that most of our maders will not take it amiss (in fact some of you might actually prefer it. The Editorial Board. # you agree with these principles and want to be Involved In activities by Socialist Challenge supporters In your aroa, All In the form below and send it to us: I am Interested in more Information about acthilies in
1 would ilke additional literature and enclose 50p lo Send to Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1.
candidates
met with positive results.
In Liverpool, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford and London, to mention but a few areas, SU
candidates are on the march. Most of them will be attendini
the Anli-Nazi Carnival on 30
VOTE
SOCIALIST
UNITY VUTE KEN CROCKWELL
KEN CROCKWELL is fighting in Basingstoke. He is a local AUEW shop-steward says: If I'm elected I will be the only voice of opposition on the council..
Brixton
THE LEFT in Briston won't be the same after the Lambeth by-election campaign.
When you read this you will probably know how Socialist Unity and all candidates did in the polis. We don't.
good vole for Socialis mity's John Chase will be a HONES • an indes of the impact the campaign has made.
Bet the important gains hase already been made and can be developed watil long after the voting has been forgotten. In the last week or so the campaign has dramaticully hit
understanding thar:
HOME NEWS
hits the road
AS THE local elections draw near, the Socialist Unity
are stepping -up their Hundreds of thousands of manifestos have been produced, many local meetings have taken place and, in a number of areas, door-to-door canvassing has
Bradford,
the local
FIGHT BACK AGAINST
IAD
SOCIOTLINTE JAN METES IS a
department. -ослао ТО ша сонов вань Council, lan has
recent meeting. perhaps most
the centres.
The
turns-out. hot i was neverthe
In an
AHEE TUISI
others who had never
OUR POLICIES
Sect an angssican should he hased un thr
Class struggle in the localities
Socialist Unity
campaigns. 600 anpealed Goldherg:
In
Charlie
April with their supporters. In
Labou
fascist militant, Reuhen Gold-
being supported by a wing of
LAUSA Workers success,
VOTE
VOTE
HEVES
on Moy si building HILDA LAWRENCE the Manchester direct works
He Is
been an ta fight to active fighter_ against reclam and lascism and led ine nigni on the Trades Council against Labour's decision to let the NF use the local town hall for a meetings, • series of posters, eatiets on various aspects of cumpaign the campaign's platform, and,
importantly, individual canvassing on the
TRES SUC doorsteps and in the shopping
rally on Sunday had a disappointing
big advance for the
informal atmosphere people from local campaiens,
committee.
ALARM, the socialist-feminist groups, school students, and
fighthsack involved in political activity attacks.
The struck for socialien week b 1 unile the fight of the worker agains ine bonem with thar of wiher appre sed lasers of socker!
Association. Al a meeting of
Kashmiri workers in
Bradford last week, Tarig Ali
support Jor
London, the
candidates in Hammersmith i
Van Gelderen.
counculor Fifties. He is now over 60 years old, but still going strong. The campaigns bave been a modest Here
socialist
unity
HIGH FAM KEAN and are both teachers in the East End. In a0omon 10 118 3 09100 they are calling on supporters
- 3П00 and the Bethnal Green Hospital. were able to discuss how the
related to the -strungles they were mynted in and how it could better tuke up
All seemed to agree on twe Lings, he open, democratic structure of the campuign made It accessitile to many people who would not otherwise have been prepared to get actively Involved in elections.
And secondly, that Socialist Unity's alternative policies to those of the Labour Gorenment helped In all aspects of the 0m
against LL SULLES
3
Aiich and ad
The Socialist Workers Parly. which was previously opposed in participating local cloctions, has a candidate in the spitalield ward of East London. where Hilda Kean
towards the end of las year Hilda is standine again this year. In Islington the SU has candidates, amitious intervention to dale. Lhe candidales.
Thursday 4th Mus
IVOTEN
socialist
unity
EDALL
DIANA UDALL and ADRIAN YEELES are only two of SU's
They will be standing in the Tollington ward. They stand NOT COUNTERE BACK Their model council is that of Clay Cross. Diana told us:
Councillors who are angry.' The most obvious area is the anti-racist struggle. Both in its hacking for Anti-Naci LeagueALARM actions against the National Front and Its work in the bluck community Socialist Unity had introduced a new fighting election campaiga. And Individual conversations even revealed the extent to which these alternatIve policies helped Labour Party member disgusted with the positions of their party leaders and candidate.
this TRUININ Briston Labour's | Socialist Unity must he judged
The inerests of workers and capita Tas ane irreconelisbie on a won wale. Capitaliom hes not paly creates weld market, it has croiled world The we fight for warsing Flame anity one international scale This ain wiie th one fun be deciure in defceling both th murratic retimes l the West and ise bran Actatorships they spotain in Eatin Anarios
In Pril i implies demandine the imi Safe wubir wal of Brilish Irungs frum Irelan
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Webster's stormtroopers
BAILEY reports. Brixton.
their racist muli-racial arca
1,500 Organisations
the Socialist Workers
Lambeth
list Unity by-cloction BICSCI
IEL WETE. volunleered tu meeting after executive
pointed unter the
anly be
members
Hetted those going in: SWP:
HOME NEWS
candidate in the Lambeth
Association first called lor a picket when the Inner Londen Education Auchority allawed the NF 10 go ahead with the meeting in an infants school in
Local residents were furious that for the second time in 18 months, the NF was to spread
poison in this
jotted the picker. supporting i included the Anti Nazi League,
Party, Anti Racist Movement, and Brixton Socia-
The Workers Revolutionary
incuding the LPYS — both of waih bave candidais in the
-WEIS
The 18 anti-fascists assanl-
amons nube wuL ro into Dick North. memher National Union of Teachers.
Soul to police Representation of the People's Act, schools can
used loi cicction meetines if they are open to
the publie
Martin Webster personally
You re MITEA some of the anti-fasciste away.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 Apri 1978 page 3
EIGHTEEN people were assaulted by National Front thugs and thrown out by the police from a meeting when Martin Webster adressed an audience of 200 of his supporters last Saturday on behalf of the NF
The Inner London Teachers Several blacks were among the
fighting nol
the
the
that
attack Brixton
anti-fascists
by-lection.
IS who finally got in. Within humore Sowever the in were attacked by supporters af the cameras crupt when a black woman insisted that she bad every right to be in this country and was not going to allow anyhody to deport ber. At this, the NF rank and tile couidnt comain theselves any Jonger.
GA NN:
TOP THE
MANY young blacks joined the BnU-TAsCISE PIcKer
DAVE Ency
the showed the
these
Martin Webster and Derek Day weicoming the police protection against 1,500 pickets in Brixton on Saturday
Barler hist week, the Ami Naze League neu taken ouE aE injunction claiming that unde
members should be alliowed in
Phoned would refuse, so forcing: the edocarcon ailthonv ta cance the meeting ILEA bas been
NF in their Webster, Court that the meeting would be an 'open one.
Twenty-four Encluding Dick arrested. Nobody was arrested on the picket ilsell, dispersed s001
However quietly masung thei way back to central Brixton -
being held
evera black jumped an hy
sundled into coaches
Meanwade.
Encluding Martin bimselt,
were trying
people
deal wilh mercy".
Ausbody who witnessed che arrests of chc should contact the Committee on 01-733 4245.
Wehste
schools however, agreed in
anti-fascists.
North, were
wich alterwards. as people were
some to
youths
10
(hlacks
thern
anti-fascists Derence A Tooro shug witn Ene Mr S Sympol Of a 120K DoOT DRNOH the Union Jac
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IRELAND
THE STORY OF CAP_ TAIN NERVEWRECK
A recent editorial in the Guardian commented on Captain Nairac, the undercover British Army agent assassinated in South Armagh: 'His exact duties have never been revealed.
The Provisional IRA has persistently mocked his unusual status. The current issue of their mouthpiece Republican News, has a cartoon strip called Captain Nervewreck which pokes fun at the dead man'.
For a cartoon strip to be mentioned in an editorial in the Guardian must give it some kind of value. Judge for yourself as we reprint it in its entirety, from Republican News...
SALE GEE WIT I'M GONNA
17 577
CAPTAIN * BY CORMACY NERVEWRESK
COHOUSE
GAMIN!
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More law than militancy
IRELAND
COl RABBLE
APEX Conference
How is it that a polically "moderate" union like APEX,
ment Ministers including Hea
STEPSES and Mulley became involved in one of the most militant struggles of the last couple of ycars?
I is rue thal APER'S involvement in Grunwick was somewhat accidental. Bat this does not explain the level of material support given by the union to the strikers,
Official recognition quickly, as did strike pay which was increased as the proceeded. The union's strategy both in Grunwick and other
leadership as militancy within THERE
The emphasis is placed on official negotiating machinery.
Grunwick press conference
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 Aon| 1978 page 5
THE ASSOCIATION of Professional and Executive
Staffs, commonly known as APEX, holds its annual
conference on 29 April to 1 May.
Through its involvement in the APEX has become one of the best known unions, and Grunwick will figure prominently at the conference. JENNY MACONDALD reports.
behaving responsibly. and the virtues of arbitration. Yet when this has failed, APEX has become involved in militant disputes, particularly in the fight for equal pay.
But the militancs within the law'approach came unstuck at Grunwick. George Ward didn' share APEX's respect for the nrocesses or armenon compromise, and he used the law only insofar as it supported him. came He could and can only be defcated by militani struggle, strike and as che Grunwick strike
was: leading and the Government The and the Government APEX leadership called a halt losuch tactics.
On the other hand, it needed
Grunwick strike
to back the struggle and to do
SO SE SUCH
the value of its strategy of several melvine on the GOvernear S
arbitration service. So while the
executive suspended the strike
leaders for their hunger strike
outside the TUC, it
victory at the end ol the ACAS
rainbow
Such JULIUS and surprise to those who knew the
history
ship. The executive's report for
the CODETCE
support for *the
and at the 1977 conference the
stand
Tied with this, the executive
rejected nicas from the Labour
Party for financial help because
of ine failure to deal with the
report on the infiltration into
the Labour Pany of groups
anti-Government
principles".
leTs Is Common.
APEX There
promised
are proscribed.
These Came on no
of the APEX leader.
Grunwick.
spirit and
taken.
militancy,
Winchester.
support its democratic principles and the
and anti-trade union propaganda contained in the journal of the Labour Party Young Social-
Within APEX, the executive operates its own democratic
Talk of was pregnant. tration', outsiders, and split- was
In 1971 a group called "APEX Action was banned as being an 'outside body", even though all its AnnIC 8I50 participants were members of stitcher,
are rules to stop members from communicating Tor tood except through official machinery, and a cumber of both left BLIAOCE and right-wing organisations
Noreen have not siffled opposition and there are five conference motions critical of the union's policy on
But -for such criticism to have a real effect, the opposition needs organ.- until her
means fighting for night, democracy within APEX, both for the sake of the Grunwick country on strikers, and for the sake of Violence, their counter parts in the tuture who find militancy within the law to mican more law and less
onwards rape Noreen
Saturday.
younger
toad.
munder.
The case of
Noreen
Winchester
The Belfast Appeal Court two weeks ago confirmed the seven year jail sentence on 21 year old Noreen
She had been manslaughter of her father, who had continually raped her from the age of 11.
There is now a "Free Noreen Winchester' campaign which has established links with English feminists. GEOFF BELL reports.
The Winchester family came from the Protestant working class heartland of Sandy Kow in Belfast. Noreen's mother, Annie married at l6 when
By the time she taken mental hospital she had given birth to case. 16 children, cight of whom die in the first few years of life
worked but her husband Norman took all the money, leaving Annie only E2 a week
Winter pricelvictions for
convictions shoplifting food.
the eldest MY ELS daughter, and journalist Sarah Nelson who has researched the entire case has described how Noreen's ordeal began when all i she was 11 and continued under constant threats of violence
father's deats. He and
attack kitchen...and drive her into the
This morarcycle degradation and sexual deviations were frequent fearures of the attacks.
Annie Winchester was also Frequently raped and beaten up by her husband. When Noreer was 17 her mother could take no more and left home. But her husband made her drop divorce proceedings and from that time
Aanie was never allowed into the house.
Her fatber made Noreen leave her job on the pretext that she had to care for the children. She was only allowed out of the house on Saturdays to do the
The lather sent the rest of the children out of the house all day on Sundays, and would then
Every Sunday was torture for Noreen; the night she killed ber Father was a
She stabbed, him 21 times wile he slepr and with her
brother and sister dragged the body
She was eventually arrested and charged
Little of this care our at the trial. The defence lawyer did a deal with the prosocution - the dropping of the murder charge in return for a guilty plea lo
sentenced for Neither Noreen, her mother nor her munt who knew the family history best was called to testify, although both Noreen's social workers and her lawyers knew the background to the The psychiatrist's report maintained 'to escape from his influence she killed him but (this) cannot explain why sbe took this method of escape" A social worker and Noreen's main defence lawyer were both to later say that prison would help Noreen, but despite he ordeal sheis a lively, intelligent woman.
Noreen Winchester's case is not simply a вогу of miscarriage of rustice. Abov
is an illustration of attitudes and prejudices The lawyers, jndges, police
sOci workers horrified at the manner of the
That Noteen had done it a bight when the fatber was asleep, was reprehensible. Apparently she should have had a stand fight with this violent brutal man.
Noreen's lawyers and socia workers never explained the legal options open to Noreen who. like many warking clas people, was mystified by the legal proceeding
There were hints that Norcer had really loved" her farber, because she had never tried to escape from the house; what would have happened to th other children had she done se was probably never asked
Sexual assault in the famis was apparently quite continen where Noreen lived, so it was not scen as such a terrible thing
Such thinking means tha Noreen Winchester will now spend seven years in prison.
That she should be fred unmediately is so obvious ir hardly worth saying. But sat all the same and in saving beware of a search scapegoats.
No one person, or group o people are to blame; there was no conspiracy ober than tha of a society who chose Noreen Winchester as a sacrifice for its I brusal twisted values.
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Heated arguments, long laughs and hard work 3,090 women get
WOMEN living
conference in a nearby school.
of time to themselves. conference. 1 WAS immediately struck by the diversity of women at the conference
of all ages, backgrounds political opinion
They were milling around in the hallways and corridors of Ladywood school, or already settled into the workshops where they would spend
SEXUAL POLITICS
together
the estates Birmingham, wanted to leave their children in the creche at the eighth national women's liberation
These women weren't attending the conference: they just urgently needed a place to leave their children while they shopped, cooked and worked, or got a bit
The Women's Liberation Movement has a demand for 24 hour nurseries provided freely by the state. This highlights the importance to all women of the discussions in the school down the road, where over 3000 women had gathered to share ideas and discuss how to take forward the fight for women's liberation. JUDE WOODWARD gives a personal view of the
the rest of the day.
SATURDAY MORNING:
SHOPSEven for registered in advance
movement.
In Digbeth, feminist REGIS TRATION AND 'BLOCK' WORK-
tbose of us that bad
the
WELC base
that
fest half hour 1 had already seen at least half a dozen long lost friends
women's
It is cheering to realise that they are all still active in the movement. We compared experiences and exchanged useful information about events in
Oxford women talked about the nursery opcupation there; Liverpool women described the women clothing workers who are occupying their factory against closure, others talked
anti-racist activity. socialist groups and regional conferences.
Even is that first hall hour & got the impression that the movement growing by leans and bounds and that
involved politically confident year hy year.
After registration supposed to go to "block" workshops
balk of the day discussions were meant to be on three questions: bow we oppress cach other within the movement; ment's campaigns and how advance them; and alternative formis of action,
Some weren't happy with this structure and wanted to move straight on to a discussion of the activitics of the movenient. They feared that an unconstructive debite would ensue irom talking about how we oppress cach other.
Despite this disagremment there
useful discussions. In workshop we had lively interesting exchange about problems of having or not having children, We were fortunate having women with children and at least one pregnant woman in the workshop.
we talked sopus the constant ambiguity in making a decision not ro
the pressure women were under to fed that that decision can always be changed, to feel that someday they may regret it or
falsely separating themselves from the mass of women that do have children
The problem Tot chidesre wa raised and the importance of fighting for nursery provision
SPECIAL INTEREST WORK SHOPS: SATURDAY
SUNDAY 9.30-11.30
After the block workshops bad broken up for women to grab a cup of coffee or a sandwich, we seturned lo the tray.
There were workshops on subjects as diverse as Voice Production and Socialist Feminism. Most were well
with a wide discussion, Women reported back to Heroen to say shat had one olin session their workshops.
Black sisters raised the impoctance
of the women's movement taking up
struggle
fascism, The need to be sensitive to the
particular probiems of black wousn
and tinvolve them in the movensent.
One woman implicity
women For lacking
sensitivity when she said. You may
think you know Who your coemies
are, but when you march against rupe
through black areas, how do I know
that you are not in the Nationa
Front
Another woman spoke
repression of women in Norther
The conference agrood 10
STARTI Sectar telegran 10 Ray
State Tor
reland. supporting SInE
clemency for Noreen Winchester St
is serving seven years in prison for che
manslaughter of ber father who had
tepeatedly rapod her since she was 11.
Women fram one workshop called
support for the International on Britain's Prescoce in
Ireland.
Others from the International
workshop suggested trying to build
next year's Internalional Women's
Dayrally as a united event to oclebrate
more
were The
ten years of the women's movement around the theme of repression of women worldwide
to Other
progress of the Campaien, on thesituation of women in Iran and many more THE PLENARY. SUNDAY 11.30 onwards.
Perbaps the major lesson that socialist feminists must learn from this conference is that they must no
my longer be afraid of pulling forward
Their ideas about the structuring of the Jarger decision making meetines in the women's movement. several Comparisons between the conduct
of the plenary session at the Socialist Feminist conferenoe in Manchester in January and the plenary on Sunday afternoon in Birmingham showed the
that former up in a positive light
Some socialist femitists want to challenge the tyranny of structure lessness and are preparing to develop their views in the women's movemens By arguing for clear chairing and descloping and understanding the reasons behind democratic meetings, feminist current can heip the women's moveinent find ways to settle it differences, Unfortunately wolden do not agree with these ideas relatively small revolutionary Teminists women throughout the plenary on Sunday. Cocasonally they made quite impossible for women to speak? Such behaviour has no place in the movement. Sisters have to show sell ranging discipline when they lear die lay dare the wit operate
other women will not overcome their Sunday
own lack of seif confidence anour 10L830 Political intinndation thugeery — is quite definitely a male
and political stereotype that we should not
aspire tol
DECISIONS criticised
this Despite the acteropred domination
of the plenary by this vocal morny some important docisions were made. The wonen' movement How Kasa seventh demand on rape and vinlence 1b add to the other six on, cotal pay and education, nurserice, DE CHE and conirncegsion, financial, inde
pendenos, lesbian Sexuality:
Mason, The new demand reads, For the Northern freedom of all women to live free call for from the threat oc use of ciolence of
satus. sumptons perpetuate male donacation and men's agcression to women.
SOme women demand should be statement saying that male violence to women was an expression of nac and control."
Socialist feminists, among others.
reported 0D the For National Abortion
By ter demande
CanEDULT
overdue
socialist plenary.
minority
group harracked OUT DWD
anybods:
there was
aborties
rights and
tlicatre
ca all the and insitutions which all cheerful.
And
argued that the
preceded by a the cuntiesense,
male politica)
Photo: ANGELA PHILLIPS (FLI
objected to this — mainly because il embodied an analysis of women' oppression that not all women agree:
cxample socialist Teminists we see that capitalism and class society play a major role in the oppression of women.
To adopt any one analysis of women's oppression would exclude : large number of women who don' aproe with it. Dur aim must be to bet: the broadest stovement to fight our
national noserted that the next
conference should Take a full discussion of the demand and principles of the movement. The Last socialist feminist conference also suggested that its next conference should discuss this.
Various questions remain unan-
around what we of the women's movement: about the nature of the
the difference berween demands and principles and policies their relationship to demands raised in the campaigns of the movement
That such a discussion is long
revealed by the somewhir confusod debate on the sixth demand wear the end of the
sith demand 1esd "against discrimination of lesbians: for the right of all women to define our own sexuality
LESBIAN RIGHTS
proposed thi the
demand should be split in hall a that is should only deal with lestia rights, while the second halt of the demand bould precede all the other demandsas a principle of the WIM.
This was for three reasous; firstly because women felt that the issue or Tesbian rights had not been treated seriously enough by the movemen; secondly, because the right to define
sexuality it not really demand as it is not demanded of
thirdly. bocause the
demand implied that lesbianism wit simply a matter of sexual preference rather than involving materin!, socia and cultural discrimination.
Albough this motion was carried
cutsiderable confusion expressed i wonten in the hail.
My feeling is chat it is a pity List the question of the sixth demand bad to he raised in such a rushel tastion ar The end of the conference rather than waiting fora full discussion of the role of this demand along with the achers
Not everything at the SOCICIE was lust hard work. Throughout the
conference there were fims, music
and ott Saturday nighr, socin with bands and disco to keep u
despite bigh emotions disagreement and some distress, most women feit that they bad gained team
and that they left fol of ideas about the work that needs to
he done before the conference next
And it what we all go away and de that It is really all about.
Page 7 scan of this page
OPEN FORUM
The British labour movement has, sinde thi eden of thi century. ATTHLT dogmatism'. When translated this simply means a contempt for ideas. Successive leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions have
poken with contempt of the 'heavy debates" which German workers movement in the Twenties and Thirties. exchanges which led to debates within French social democracy regarded here as a lot of 'hot air". for Italy, we all know how 'excitable" the Latin temperament can be.
No. none of this NODeSE WESTO WE &WCE COHH British workers after the defeat of the arcai narus Teocton strange group of people existed, men like. John MacLean on the Clyde, who tried to change this SEALE T TATS proved too powerful for them.
Political ideas which explained the
past, analysed the present and look forward to the future were to remain the preserve of a minority of workers. Marxism never penetrated the British working class. We are still suffering from the consequencos.
NO PRETENCE
The resistance of British labour to the 'continental disease" extended to the cancer which held British society in its grip. The Labour Party has always been subservient to ruling class ideology. It has cagerly
up defended them consistently within the
has not even bothered to maintain a pretence of an ideological indepen denice from the bourgeoisie.
The largest social democratic party In Europe has never had a daily paper. The TUC did have the Daily Heraid bur in died a natural death in the mid-Sixties.
During lections the Labour Party relies on the Duily Mirror to conduct its campaign. TIM ENCAN happens there is little tension with the test of the Tory press. This unwritlen agreement is strictly adhered to by the ruling class. When the Mirror's hos Cecil King started an eccentric and one-person campaign to get zid of Wilson as Prime Minister, it was his own head that was finally severed via a well orchestrated palace coup
Truc, thc Iwo. weeklies Labour Party, Tribune and Labour Weekly do enjoy a certain readership - though Tribune is now read largely by addicts - but their influence is almost negligible outside House. They are seriously within the Parliamentary Labour Party.
In Uts situation it gas beco the daily newspeper of the Communist
boen the only daily paper of Workers movement, It has of course been heavily compromised by. its Stalinist loyalties and practice.
The faithful echoing of Stalinism's twists and turns prevented the Duily Worker and the Morning Star from
becomi rer reinig ine need ol lis
papers,
advanced sections working class. But despite crippling defect, the CP's daillies
What's
Left
ropagand: vapon "
Senst, Landon N1.
liciss, news, exposes, and review
h Raciam and Fricim and the tip
KFORD and surmundino area
-1515WP ceinrades intersted in lel tAcIuEcnE aoI CasasOH
vilh sho retent lond1300 LOTELI
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 Apnl1978 pago7
characterised the
The lively
continental
•TUC
Labourism
was not
TACA TOG WICE LICI
struggles and were.
DEMOL.
For their DOOLIN.
declining
working class paper.
bizarre politics evolutionary Party.
of the
and spend tens of pounds to Transport not even taken b) to campaign to bring
the non-existent
and the butchers who rule Trag.
the
socialist
of the
this
N'SL S STARET CISTE
Cemrat Cor partacist League, es-mamber S00 • Presa editorial board. 7.30pm, Fl 21 April, Caton Seilement Hou C31 008sacangan ml
Conterence to sumterinar y Aulumn.
Who prolminary planning upport wd putnci
Bulk
om1pm. Disce Bem -2pm, Fon зна апо апно
00p.
SLOT SHARE M Camdo- Town. anond 01-267 5059 SOCIALIST UNITY Beneth with Th Frechena: Sua diam Gime:
Apr .Bpm, abs Ielermants con)
A plan to save
the
*Morning Star
AT THE LAST conference of the British Communist Party an emergency resolution was passed on the Morning Star, reflecting the growing discontent in the party on this question. It was agreed that a public debate on the content, style and circulation of the paper should take place till May 1978.
This discussion is now reaching its climax, but what will have been gained at the end of it? A few useful ideas are not enough to stem the rot. In any case they can always be rejected. At the moment many CP members are speculating as to wether a daily paper can be sustained in the present period.
TARIQ ALI argues that a demise of the Morning Star would represent a setback for the working class. He suggests a series of drastic and radical measures to transform and save the paper. supported most strikes (except during
conflicted with the CP line), contained the only real information regarding Industrial
for a whole Indispensable reading even UNCIUL and political
This situation has now come to an cod. The Morning Star confronts a
circulation. LOMTOUDISE Party members are faced with the possibility that they micht have to cease publication af a daily. This Wole eare us wilnoul a Moge CHL
True there alwevs Newsboc. but it reflects the
the Workers
Its central campaigns over the last few years have been, and in this order; a) to sander its political opponents
TT OSSTGS "prove" that they are accomplices" of the KGB, CIA, etc; LF.S
down the Labour tovernar, and erso palen
virtues of regimes such as those of Gaddaffi in Libya
So, in effect, the deuth of the Star would leave us without a paper in which one can occasionally read the views of shop-stewards engaged in struggles and their calls for national solidarity. Should the paper be saved?
Or should we welcome its demise as a big victory for the far left? The latter would reflect a crazed secturianism towards tens of thousands of working class militants. Our answer to the former must he a qualified "yes". But a number of points need to be made.
ather
put
cinema, ua ere picasad to be able 1o
Hause, The Wall, London S1: Take1 но д Мап, Ма'*sminis feature fam In colcur fr 0 81050008 er cinecen. incua te зек-гобе печитан.
Avarable for 18mm hio crom Ma anwards E35 C0 : negotieele. ro-p ar Soolalist Challenge urg
7.d. Tel: C1.F36-tensrp
WOMEN'B DAY Serool: Socinia minism and thereolosiansry parts
May. N Londen Paly, Hollon Bush Hot oncon N7 Creche a allatle. Furth Hünter House Rasd: Shetlide 11. DV315 TrOT Leni
As CP continues to founder seder s. oi at wy Mur CP vois 1
The reason for the crisis of the Morning Star is not related to the weak journalistic formulae employed
75 Farringdon Road. Il 1s fundamental and deep-rooted political weakness. Ir is a combination of two interrelated factors. On the one hand the Party has cautiously moved
from the worst excesses of Stalinism. There has, as a result, been a certain drying up of material support (in the shape of ads, 'rising CLUBLIEI pn) trom ll USSR and Eastern Europe
Ar the same time the pathetically slow pace at which a distance is heing taken has not won it any new support. The paper has yet to wage a campaign for Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia or for the release of Rudolf Bahro in East Germany. True this would mean bet it would lead to a nec l but it would lead to a rise circulation in this country
Secondly the virtual collapse of the
perspective post-1974 period has been frithfully reflected in thie Star. How can the wages policy be effectively opposed WILDOUL confrontation with Jones Scanion? How can a real campaign be mounted against the Callaghar
without indicting Benn HUYCHCL and Foot? How can racism be fough without analysing the politics of M Sydney Bidwell?
It is not a question of the CP accepting our views on these matters. The point is that they are never discussed openly. There is no debate on central issues. A more recent example is the role of Sue and the CP in the National Union of
OweD DuDle moi
swing to cues per bondu!
ochor
SHC-яно.
Shaw It br gaur wamen wagr Street Londoni wicar
Mutile Workers Theat'e
Eg
SOlInOD
readers koow that without CP votes the Tories would not even have won a single pince on the NUS executive?
T'hus the paper lacks credibilicy, If facts do not accord with the political projections of King Street, they can be ERTEU omnitted. included it should need a very sharp FeLIn DEEMCE LOC BIC 10 BCE u
them. Objoctive truth is more often than sot missing trom the paper
A number of
pointed out the logic of this polies
Letters which are critical of the CP Tine on fundamental questions of strategy and tactics in Britain or world political developments are simply not
published. Or if they are, there can be
no comeback. No debate.
The overwbelnsing
letters publisbed in Comment and the
Moriane siar nare concentraa or
stylistic
ments. Duse Lobk Ornity mate Coe most partyl
-ISUe
suggestions in this repard, thoueh!
these would imply a change ir political formula as well. Cook recommends the following incasures/
* The paper must be thrown much
more open.
in
contributors outside the leadership
recognising that their viewpoints wil
sometimes be 'off the line'. • By reflecting
disnareements within the left.
• By
sial" ligures, eg Hain, Silars.
* By raising
answers, eg trade union democracy,
worcers cunirol
* By articles on political develop-
ments within the socialist countries,
instead of either
commemorations", and small,
lated news items.
I GLOUL arnicics we
adequately praise nor criticise.
* Expand
British Road to Socialism discussion
was a model for the open argument of
politics. (Comment,
1978)
Now theac are all useful suggestions.
Bur bow could they be implemented
without changing the character of the
paper as it exists at the noment? Dave
Cook does not suggest a way forward.
Yet he and others like him must realise
that something needs to be done to
transform the paper and thus ensure
its survival.
The British working class needs a
daily paper more todny than at other
periods in its history. It is confronted
with a chronic crisis of the capitalist
economic system with all its effects:
unemployment, YIAUEUUE standards, cuts in welfare spending, and crisis in education,
CRES LOANOES HULHUSHC AWLC
that militancy
chouRh Hor molated mintancy car
sometimes lead to fursher redun-
TaLLI
What is increasingly being seen as
vitally important is an alternative plan
to beat the crisis. A discussion on such
a plan is now long overdue. A socialist
daily has to point the way forward,
hut it has to de much more. It has to Slipman be an educating force, which liberates
and enlarges the consciousness of
BANPAIGH Bans HaDsm-nOe
seck toumafis, Mike Fhillip
Gobel
Commitic.
TONU
H3 L UD FOUR SOCIALISTS Icokine fer COmON T nOUG2 In N01 OrE0
which
Et they press, 50
Britain.
What this
readers have also
Printing PPPS had
majority af
and journalistic improve
the Nationa
15 cacresco by gerontocracy
more party
more of the
interviewing more 'controver.
the paper "difficult" questions or have no cul-Snu-drN
within
J'anniversary isoWithout these can neither the tactical
correspondence, The Italy.
Jo ronaly declining living
etc. The most
on its own is not left for
reformism LHO MAYOTTE VAI Stanley House. Upper Parlament St Liverpool B 1 May. 10.30am-5.30pm and 7,30pm-midnight ОДТІМЕ Leon Rosselson: Unity Theatre: Films; [Attice Reggae etc|; discuss ong, music, printing, an photography workshops; potry; songs: food BETA.BHE creche and lots moro EVENING Clapporclaw (Feminist folk bard); Goodtime charlie (Jazz); Bluebelis (Steel band); films DEICe ane Iad Oa Tickets (day 50p, evening E11 and further info frem News From Nowhere, 100 Whitechapel, Liverpool 1. 051-708 7270
CAPITAL
WINDSCALE
DEMONSTRATION
SATURDAY 29 APRIL TRAFALGAR SQUARE 3.00 Assemble Speaker Corner 12:00 for March to Rally, Tralalgor Square 3.00
working people. The lack of a daily oa eri clas-ted tg serving the needa
ail class-struggle militants is a serious and cruel handicap
What is needed is a socialist paper
develops new journalistie forms which bridge the cultural gap between the "popular" and 'quality
caretouy cultivated and maintained by the ruling classes un
means is thar the Communist Party should reliquish ies organisational hold over the paper speaking, not owned by the CP, It is the property of the People's Printing
Society Ltd. In 1977 the 29.552 shareholders of which 28,599 were individuals, 406 trade unions, 39 co-operatives and 508 miscelinneous groups.
A Committee of Managensent exists with 16 members, but participatior from the ranks la virtually nil. Why? Recuuse everyone knows that it is a complete waste of time. Real control
King Street
The situation is now so serious that the CP needs to reconsider its basic approach lo the star It needs to convoke a conference of shareholders and trade unionists to transform il into a campaigning socialist paper and ensuring a genuine independence from King Street, This would nor, we hasten to add, mean that it would be taken over by the dreaded ultralett but it would impart some life into the paper. Naturally the colwons of
would be open 10 discussions and debates on socialist strategs, encompassing all positions
tbe labour movement
FADING LOYALTY
Coverage of world polities would not be hamstrung by a fading loyalty to the bureaucrats in Moscow or to
prescriptions of the Communist Parties of France or
White British LOEMUTWU would argue for these positions they would de so from witlin a much broader political tramework. This WOLO NeCESSaIe HOOrcT BICROCE on the Editorial Board and satt of
the paper. It would mean retaining correspondents abroad, who were not necessarily tied to the line of the local Communist Party, whether they were based in Moscow and Prague or in Madrid and Rome.
It would be utterly sectarian of the CP lendership lo adopt a formula based on the principle that the best way to save the Morning Star is to either kill it as a daily paper or to let it die a slow and agonising death. That would be to put the narrow interests ol'a particular organisation before the noods of the working class. The miness virunc or Len soltan lem hich hat charade ed had
lang disastrouns repercussions for revolu-timers marxism io tus country. Ibe are typilied by the daily Newsline
IT ibe oppressive impotence of left
were now to result in a display of right-sectarianism by the CP, the consequenoes would be with us for some time. How the criais of the
Moring Stur is resolved will be an important indication as to the likely evolation of the CP itseil. exhibitions; bookstal; kids gamas
Conway Hall, Cul F ua%, ismese, S8 22 AP
Page 8 scan of this page
comments: selection. He commented: Pretty Bubbles in the Air. version.
A t the centre of the back row
of the Royal British Legion Band stood the drummer and the cymbalist. The one was a tall. plexioned man WITT expression on his face; he was beating at the drum strapped to his chest and looking away towards the stands. The
with a grey moustache and a nervous
Most of the time he held the cymbals hy his side, bur when he did clash them it was with an awkward deliberateness. They INCOnSTUDUs TaI standing heati of the band, with so little feeling for music.
Andy smiled to himself: he liked the spectacie of the hand, even if he did not like the naise it made.
had lobbed a hat dog into the tuba; they had good further oul on inc pitch since then
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you' ve all been waiting for; a distoricd voice Cnnuscu over ine loudspeaker system.
A quiet spread around the ground. even the chants of "West Ham" behind Te goss occom ne ALDOUCA conductor raised his baton high, bis glasses glinting in the sun. Andy tell the hair at the back of his head bristle a fittle: atoments Jike this brought out a sentimental streak in him. The hand lingered flamboyantly aver the nule of ihe intro.
*I'm forever blowing bubbles, preuy bubbles in the air"
The singing had begun All roond the terraces, arts were libked and bodies swayed from side to side.
Dave stood alongside Andy in the middle of the West Enclosure. He delested scenes like this, grown up men behaving like little boys. right, a man with spots all over lis face and a claret-and-blue scar meatly ried round his neck office worker. still sving mother - tried to catch hold or bis
He pulled hack chrusting his hands intothe pockets of his long maroon overcoat. He felt like grabbing the man's shoulders shaking hum senseless, throtling him
himself. It was one thing to watch football on i Saturday alternoon; it was quite anther to be drageed into adolescent rituals, swaying arm-in arm just for a footbail tenm.
They ily so high, nearly reach the
sky.
Tisen like my dreams they fade and
die.
Each time the line swaved to the right, Andy was buffeled by the man next to him. Fach time it swased to SocIe, Bove drew menel de caEt Lo avoid the spolty faced office worker. He turned to Andy.
'Have you read about this song?" be askod in a loud voice that jarred deliberately with the singing.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 April1978 page B
What the judges said
This short story was selected by feminist writer Fay Weldon as her first choice among the entries submitted for our Xmas short story competition. These were her
A simplestory, written out of a real and not a received experience, properly shaped, and (most difficult to achieve) moving without being sentimental. Stephen Chalkeis the kind of a natural writer (and there are few enough of them about) who can find meaning in ordinary experience. He could afford to throw out a few adjectives and be more precise in his use of language, but never mind (what is a distracted look?)
John Fowles, whose novels include The French Lietenant's Woman, placed the story second in his
A nicely shaded study of the multiple alienations, both personal and social, underlying the friendship between two young men, all done in the context of a West Ham home match. With one or two very small revisions, this would be well worth publishing. Following these comments, Stephen Chalke revised
*Which one?' iwkwardly. bass ruddy-comSTRUI
to them.
Point", actually?
ALOUIS CITICT
seemed place, but he enjoyed it. at the though, he them were thinking conversation "Fortune's looked everywhere He
swaying bodies around him. resignatien about this song. "It's Bubbles appalling, he Wei Ham
right realls.
bubhles in the air.
danger point.
To.hi said.
DEMENTSS with bis from bim.
Dave hared
and his acceptance
about
would be becomning like his subur ban
This face gainst that now.
A
the Larkin poem
We present the revised
Andy replied
"It's in that volume before -"'Whitsun Weddings", Dave always hesitated a lot while he was talking as if the words were blowing around his head and he found it hard to hold on
*Called something like ""Dry Point*. 1 think it is called "Dry
went lo football by himself: when he did, he joined in the
always 5a00 30119 because he felt his accent was out of
With Dave, felt wondered what the men in front of
8 BOLLE INCI
always hiding, I've
Dave was only a little faller than Andy but he stood more urigh and: in front of him, It made hitt seem somchow above the plane of all the
STETTE proletacian really sald, Andy had to agree; ususally he ilked if that thi
crovd was good humoured abour losing hut Dave w'as
There would never be a revolution if people sang songs like
Tin forever blowing bubbles, pretty
The singing ended with a welling crescendo. A man in front of then, with Bryercemed black hair and long sideburns, turned his head and looke briely af them, He turned back and murmured into his companion's eat Andy felt Dave's anger rising
He kept thie conversation in an attempt to pacito hitte the sort of song you' d expert Philip Larkin to like, 1 suppose.
The cierpal virgin, Dave replied scotnfully, ignoring the 'excuse me of somebody trying lo get past lim. A cheer went up as the West Ham team ran our and they fell into silenee
Philip Larkin, his self-satisfied sadness, his defentism,
of steriliry and impolence. Altimes in his life he had slipped into that mentaliy and ir frighened him horribly to realise it To have only 70 years to live and to spend so many of them in a pointiess petit-bourgeois routine with no sex
ambitien, wanking himself into his dolage: it was obscene, There
nothing to stop him faber with his seb-post office and his narrow-minded racism, dropping am all over the table and whining about the permissive society. But he had set
Andy felt eugy. There was a tension between them and that made him withdraw. be had such difficulty heing
Paol Wik
relaxed with Dave that he woudered why be kept on seing him. All th aussers seemed to bein the past. He remembered Dave on the Irain out of Charing Cross the first day of teaching practioe, looking composed with his briefcase and bis Nowerytie. Thetrain had gone so fast and his stomach was twisting and turringinside bim. He had spent days Joeking for lessons and had pothing remotely suitable. Larkin's "Arundel Tomb' for the third form. "It's a dillicult poem," Dave had said with his Teves enlarging with antazement, his couth showing the hint of a Inugh.
PRETTY BUBB
And he had sat there, petrified: pest Hicher Green and his mind a blank, Dave had known more than bin in these days, and he had held on to him like to an older brothe And, coming out of the totorial on the rather stift goodbye in the street and he had lell for the tube. feeling last and aloue- And harrying after him, embarrassed. saring: Say, Alan, you leel like poing to a fülm tonight? he saciled now at the way Dave had called hir so many different names a fist Alan and Anthony and even
by Steph
Henry.
very first day, they had said a
Tube.
Dave had come booking vers
And they a hek buck l'el awkward, each scared the other migh think him homosexual. but thcy ha gone, pleased to lave cach other company. They had soen an America film about a truck driver -goin berserk in a hippy talked about it all the way back to th Seven sears, Ir was a long time t know somebody The referee blew ins witstle for th kick-aff and the players started lo rur into positions. It was a moment Andy always liked. You could feel the kee anticipation of the crowd, comine
Page 9 scan of this page
en Chalke
alive after the long wait. Everyrhing was fresh and new and full of possibilities. The colours were clean and tr heath reare and weet
and white Middlesbrough, the green of the goalies jerseys. the fleshy pink of the players" legs. They were running into open spaces all over the pitch, full of energy and purpose, I made you forget how squashed up you were in the crowd, everybody in their drab overcoats and anoraks, smoking and!
Dareapplied himself tostudying the game. You only had todook closely al
LES IN THE AIR'
the first two or three movements our of ench defence 1o work teams nans, He had seen this sear before and now perfection. You looked for the skitful players and then watched how thie other leam was marking them. soon knew what the patter of this pame would be.
The crowd gasped with excitement as a Wesı Ham player hir the ball into the side netting. sported the full-back covering the chips.
our the at his programme. irving to memoris the Middlesbrough forward line he could do it to
the hours he had spent reading about He it in the papers and watching it on relevision, points each team needed to avoid pich ahout Dave had already yaakhad all those bours contributed
to his life? Noshere but a head fell of
women, building earning money. One day soon he
had HOTHE
emotional standard.
Dave. pose fol, either.
behaved with
- him replying.
Crikey, There's
Why maybe thirty
fixed
unnerved by the stare
her name and
her neck. He
so absrract.
ejaculating
drawing of a cat
crowd's reaction. Andy was looking
Dave loathed football really It was such a waste of time. He thought of his penis.
working our how many relegation and holding forth in the
the England side. And
junk. He could have heen out fucking There
the revolution,
would cut foorhall right out of his He had done it with chess. Third he
National and Under-Eighteen Championship, and he had never played seriously since He would have made the England Team by now, but what did he care? He saw them about occasionally
cripples, them, walking round with knights and bishops dancing round their beads, still living at home with their motbers He had left all that behind. He gave Andy a game occasionally, that was enough for him. He had improved a
was following the game anxicusly. He wanted West Ham to win, bur, because he was with Dave. he sried to look at it more objectively He had learnt how to do chis from
I made him feel quite heing detached, comchou cuperiar to the spectators shouting at the referee and only seeing their own team's virtues.
*Jesus, it's cold. Dave suddent exclaimed and scarted to stamp his feet up and down. Andy sensed that the war behind was having his view obstructed by this movement but he did not dare look round. At least there was not going to he a repeat of the time at Chelsea when Dave had refused to take his umbrella down. The game lapsed into a ragged predictatility with little prospect of a goal and precious little good foothall
Andy's thoughts turned increasingly to Dave. He wanted to understand their friendship: why did he so aften feel a victim of
woman lie offer talked about that. He and Andy were Andy had very licle idea how he
Only little incidents, Like the girl brushing pas ham in the poh and saving sorr and
That's alright, t was rather nice? And the evening in the Old Vic when he had said so loudiy. had
some amashingly attractive wontenhere. What wouldit be like so be persued by Dave? Andy winced at the thought.
She stand in the corner of the room
looking nervously at the other guests, -The couple in the middie jivine, the group to the right laughing and calling cact other names in mock abuse, the man by the pramophone choosing records. And then, over the other side of the coom, manding half outside a serous conversation, an upright nan
- with close-cropped. far hair and a rather old-fashioned jacket. Looking across at her with a
still and impenetrable, yer defimitely looking at her, She poured herself a drink.
And then he was by her side, asking
seciting so strong. pishing out bis chest a little and fixing his eves on her breasts. What job did she do? And what did she earn? And what did she think about ambition? She tried to be vivacious but she felr ackward about the crucifix around
told bet he was a journalist and talked about puritanism. Or was lie talking about the tap af thems? It was hard to tell. His voice was so cupped and distant, his words
And then they were lying on her bed he gripping bald of her buttacks will a raw excitement, she with her jersey up round her neck and her skirt on the floor, he coming up inle her hard and
quickly she crying our and then laking it. Yes, taking itbecause she was frightened, because she hat not had sex for a while and was tense. and because she did not know but she might want to keep him. He bad spilt a cup of coffee over her
Andy returned his attention to the come there was something brutal and insensitive ahour Dave that he did no like to think aboul. He would notlike any woman he knew to ger involved with lam, He put his hand in hi broad. trouser pocket and adjusted the lie of
The hall-time whistle blew and The players ran off the hield. chips socks round their ankles and Thud on their very hille applause.
Sometimes a game was dell: it was a 1 chanceyou had to take. The nian next
10. Dave tuned into the half-time scores on a small transistor. Andy could bear the mccallic voice rising
Talling with a theatrica excilement but COLIC distineuish the words, The nien in front of them sat down on the stone steps and opened a flack of soup Dare offered Andy one end of his Mars bar Out on the pitch 12 or 15 officials were walking around near one of the goal, staring downat their feel. They were all wearing beavy mass or overcoats and most of them had thei hands in their pockels. Andy started to laugh. They were circling round and round, slowly spreading our across hall the pitch.
are enchanted oing? they he exclaimed. the
Looking for a contact lens, i should Imagine. Dave replied, tossing his Mars bar wrappor towards the men sitting down. There was something naive about the way Andy was always asking quescions: he chought of him sometimes as a village boy lost in a big Cily. Nearly thirty and he was will driftiag from job to job. never caring decent money. He had been like Andy once: living in dingy rooms, going to late night films at Hampstead cinemas, sitting around all day talking ahout feelings. It had never got him anywhere. Indigestible vegetar ian meals and not one decent fuck.
revolutionaries: what had it got to do with the working And it had worried his mother sick. too, especia ly gerting scabies, which meant having to bath twice a day and wath his sheets all the time. She'd had enough to contend WICE father, Anyway why should he nor gel married? Nobody was offenn anything betler. If the revolution came. well, i would be differeor bat he was not going to waste his life
He liked to see Andy, though. They
Andy understood him a bit — nor like the others. They werelike brothers, really
second half was as inconsequential as the first Middleshrough scored but, as Dave said, it was a soft goal. Towards the end, people started to drifi away, making gloomy relegation. There was a fight bebind one of the goals and Andy watched thas for awhile. The players had become tired and their movements repetitive
At the final whistle. Before the players had left the field, everybody in
Enclosure tunned and hurried for the exit It was a narrow onening under a dark oiling at the top of some steps. People were pushing towards it faster than they could ge through. Youcould lake your feet off the growed and be carried along by the bodhes around you. VOU lightly packed. Dave felt a bettor on his coa, being torn off and rumed to Andy in anguish
All this for a fucking game of football," he-said.
DulD me street people were hurrying pass each other, zig-zagpine across the toad berween the tran half-running to get to the tube station BLIC KITE LETTE walked deliberately sinwly, lakie up as much of the pavement as he could. Andy meger alone beside him, conscions of the fruscration building up behind. They were an odd couple
Ands had long black hair and was wearine a blue donkey jacket. He hunched his shoulders a lot and had a permanent cringe shout hun. Dave had very short, fair hair and was wearing a long maroon overcoat. He held himself very croc and rarely hoth looked about thirty although DEYE WIN SECRES DICE AMAN WAN still very thin. his chooks hollowed anu mis arms wrout muscles, Dave
becomIng thicker, his face lamening out and his shoulders quite
They had once been much more sEke in build.
At the rube station they queued for 20 minates, tallone abut Namibia. And then they caught their separate
each looking forward away from Crowds still scuffing themselves with
and chattering about Foorball resuirs
So you anon then, corrade."
Cheerio. Dave.
I was dark when they each got home and their rooms were cold and empry.
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 April 1978 page?
Page 10 scan of this page
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Page 12 scan of this page
psurge or even a revolution. But now there is democracy — of a sort onfident predictions have been shown •ver-optimistic.
socialist Party (PSOE).
lass party.
OF THE major parties, the PSOE has probably the clearest project.
General secretary:
Gonzaler says that the PSOE sees the possibility of coming to power WILE absolute parliamentary seething i scared to this something near
It even provisional Timetable for this trade union and local elections and approva. othe Consitution tor 1978, and dissolution of the (parliament) and new legislative
surprise to see a Socialist Party come in from the political wilderness with a bright new image and heavy outside okie notes in hi of the votes the first semi-democratic elections for 40 years.
The PSOE was under little pressure on its left because of
DOLLIES Communist Party (PCE). The
a working class desire for
APPARATUS
As the second largest party in theCortes, with more than three timesthevotesandtivetses Lid deputies of the PCE, it has set about cashing in on this position to build up its prestige and
Image-conscious, cultivated the use of the mass media lo enlance the effect of its political initiatives, Gonzalez' trips abroad to nicet foreign heads of government.
Ithas not been above resorting to political stunts", such Gonzalez* much intervention 10 secure
held by Saharan nationalists. SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 April 1978 page 12
INTERNATIONAL
PSOE aims for two party system
of the Second
International
ven a year ago no-one really believed that democracy | enterasa constituted tendency. | ould come to Spain without a massive working class
So how was Spain saved for capitalism — at least emporarily? A large part of the answer lies with the
FRED FAIRBAIRN in Bilbao looks at the party which came from nowhere to be the largest working
The PSOE has parliamentary weight to lever itself intor a favourable position mine are autonomy bodies in the regions and nationalitics Instead of mobilising in the streets except in the mos controlled it has used negotiation and behind-the-scenes dealing by
TWO-PARTY Cortes revealed ute Tbe 1973 possibilicy systen. albeit an 'Imperfect one. In different ways and for dilferent reasons both major PSOE bourgeois attempting to help this trend.
This means marginalising the PCE a source chagrin and protests by the latter other "lesser political forma bons.
So it was that the PSOE supported law discriminates agatest smaller The PSOE's pian hegemons on the left involves 'mopping up" the socialist earles Somemembers of the Federation of Socialist Parties and the bulk of the 'Historic sector of the PSOE have already been absorbed. has Negotiations are under way for the incarporation of the two wines of the strong Lara an like Socialist Party, though some opposition has been encountered over the the party in Catalonia.
The next target is the Popular Socialist Party. the Professor Tierno which got nearly 800,000 votes in June. The PSP demanded to
TIERNO: the PSP leader is next in the PSOE bomb-sights
Spanish section
Tendencies are banned in the PSOF and many oppositionists
-and our silenced or expelled. As in all
be other cases the roE yielded next to nothing to the smaller party.
Faced with dissension in his
embargo on meetings of the PSP rank and Gile.
The sticking point for many members insistence that union esshould pass overtothe used is PSOE backed
eventeftle PSP's coury into the PSOE some soctions may join the PCE One of the main lessons the PSOE has drawn fromother West Euroean
fashion above all Portugal,
powerful
wheelerparliamentary condition WITh it 25 CLIE
Party to be able to govern as such. Socauss Can Hope govern without tracte clections CALAMI
Uaf enough, but a tightly run union could do the trick. clation of cause between a strong PSOE and a strong DOt, and vice versa, and the says Gonzalez.
are TRADITION of much Two years self-righteous year ago
and weak. The new Workers" the Workers Connis roach the 1960, had for But under the new conditions
which of bourgeois democracy several
things were favour, Its historical tradition
1o win For one thing, and the failure of
the PCE
smaller Workers'
campaign resolutely for trade union unity.
The number members has grown hugely over the past year or so. bureaucratic USO Cnica), an independent "selfdegree of part of the leadership was
captured, though only a small portion of the rank and file. headed
Galvan, tions show UGT firmly in
sooond place, distance, behind the Workers
even has a narrow lead.
Socialise
been buresucratica. ly
-МНЯ dertocracy.
party's
(Ele PSOE'S all trade
LOt. In the
ward'. dismissed the PCE countries 'ridiculously is that HIC 'identified" indispensable the Socialist Though he
union dangers',
Votes at elections are bot
expect to "There is a and effect practice such
Fouth ar ar he LiCT was very even one
wave leadership
the UCT'S whole
leadership of the actually
Commissions
of UGT
the UGT in smash-and-grab Revolutionary (Workers Leapue members were
PSOE line
The current workplace elec.
tendencies revised possibuilty.
Commissions, In some working class strongholds with a ECH tradition, notably Vizcaya, it
Although it Is a member of the rional, the PSOE is prepared on occasion, opportunistically and demagogically, to take derance tom traditional social
In a polemic with Norberto Bobbio of the Icalian Socialist Party, Alfonso Guerra, one of
leading lights criticised the headlong rush of social democracy into class collaborationist administrators of capitalism. He reaffirmed that the PSOE has been, since its very inception, a Marxist party in the purest sense of the
In a recent interview Guerra
and the balan Communist Parts
social demo even cisied Ine
PSOE could do with a few
quickly qualified this: only a few drops, mind. because it also contains serions
Within a party which handse about such rhetoric one migh
groupings pressing to see this radical phrascology pur into
hampered by the ruthlessness
When the 6th congress of the Socialist
1975 amoroved programme containing transi-
demandsthe PSOE soon replaced
elected with a provisional one which lasted until the next congress Just a couple of months ago those
In the PSOE and the DIGT and Palestinians
sections influence of Troiskyies' have been threatened with expulsion
-expelled on the
the fate of the atrong PSOE
La working class suburb of Madrid.
Attempts have been made to Egyptian
uspend a local committee of
Asturias where Communist
and sections in Alava, Navarre and Madrid have been warned when they have not toed the
The old LGT statutes which [manu provided for the formation of
have been exclude this with followed
step
meeting,
the university
SEIL BE
TAD S
U GL
FELIPE GONZALEZ caught in typical pose
Egyptian dissidents
The question
can't be put
in mothballs'
Details are beginning lo there emerge from Egypt of the treatment meted out to
both Egyptians who are opposed to President Sadat's peace initiative.
After the fiasco of Sadat's beca attempt to emulate Entebbe in Cyprus, repression of dissident
government has already announced is intention
withdraw the special Pales entored by tinians living in Egypt
The most famous of Egypt's opposition voices are Ahmed Fund Negm (a colloquia: poet) and Ewa Balbas and Sheikh
Fissa (both singers).
They have been it and out of prison for years
Their works are banned from Explian radio and television as lley describe the bies ord cary workers and peasants the strupale of the Palestimans. and anti-imperialist Struggles around the world. Their songs are distribured samindat-stole
ERSSIS from person to person.
• latest involvemeat the Eeyptian police rocical the Universite of Ai Shams in Cairo. The security police tried
them entering intersity, but filled
The recital took place and wa followed by a discussion
visit Negm was arrested after the
SMILESHET changed with forced entry into
Sheikh Jmam is an unlikely assault. He is sixty fears old
Their case was transferred hy reachin decre civilian 10 a court, insisting theis was a viran LaNe
Negm went on burger strike the end of December, The Latest information is that they have
summoned 10 appear before a military court again.
In the utmosphere prevailing after the Larnaca fiasco it is likely that they will Teturn to prison yet desin
Ordinary Esyptians apd Palestinians also heen Victints of police. Palestinians taking taxi rides a30 capese tatto Sadat's -visit Israel have found the taxi river 19s.10 them direct to the nearest potice
In one case at the end ol Draemher an Erehan wave ling te work by bus was heard
Sadat's initiative. Suddenly. a secret
appeared and Bauled tum off to the police
But the Sadat regime has not
Cablc suppress all dissident views. A play called The question cun't he put in a closed with mothballs has been Flaving rudent-worker grouns in Catro
I descibes the problems en Espcan professor has with the Suthorities after thee discover he has been teaching that King Ahdullalı Jordan
waitor and wanted to make deal with the Zionist enemy
The parallel with Sadat
The prolesor defends EirselF he saving be is reaching excily what is written in the government's history
Page 13 scan of this page
REVIEW
ITH AROUND 10 milhor AS 3 population one fifth the size of Britain's. Yet annual cinema admissions in this country, at 119m, are a few million less than in Cuba. In other words, it seems that people in Cuba see films Tive times more frequently than we do This may not seem so much if you compare it with British cinema attendance when it was at is peak, ai he end of the Second World War Then the British went 1o the cinema. more than twice as much as Cubans do now. Attendance 35m a weck probably the highest rate of cinema-going anywhere at any time for the size of the population.
But when you learn that in Havana today, with a population of about 2m. an important new Culan film may he scen by half that number within a few NOTES JOU realise that cinema in Cuha is still the most powertui cultural means of social cohesion, as it was for us before television Cubans also have TV, but it hasn't killed tieir cinema.
We have to speak here of more than cohesion. Cinema in Cuba today 1s ananated, just as it was everywhere around the turn of the century, when the excitement of invention and discovery Soviet Rise incidedestine revolution when. for example, an sodience of workers watching Soris
abstract experimental film Rain said to him afterwards: Why are you afraid of faces? If you could look at a face with the same franknest with which you look at a raindrop you would be wonderful
Historically Cuban cinema therefore stands in the same development which also includes French cinema around the Popular Front of the mid-194%; -Italy following Liberation of 1944; Poland. during the "50s; Czechoslovakia in the period leading up to the Prague Spring: France again in the movement to which May 68 belonged: Popular Unity in Chile: Britain only almost once or twice, but one day surely in the future if enem manages to
Undershe kinds of conditions which produce this animation. operates as an unparalleled critical instrument which both expresses and develops a popular vision of the world. And in taking up the most rigorous intellectual and intaginative imperatives, it overrides the division which bourgeois society discovers and sustains hetween popular culture and elite Art
INSTRUMENT
The knowledge that film could be an instrument of this kind was present at the very beginning of the revolution. ICAIC (Instituto Cubano del Are y Indestria Cinematagrafico
Cubail Institute of Cittensatographic Art and Industry) dates back to the law of 24 March 1959, three months after Fidel's Havana.
As Alfredo Guevara said in his repart on Cuban cinema to the first meeting of Latin American Film Makers In 1967. the new cinema s Cuba and the climate of artistic freedom which it has enjoyed were the natural results, not of some kind of theoretical concern for the purity of cinema as Art, bur rather of the file activities carried on in conditions of clandestinity during the war of the
guerillas. Coupled with this were the experiences of the film clubs and
other cutural associations as centres
for the dissemination of revolution
and resistance to
and political oppression by
imperialists.
Cuban cinema accepted thar it had
to perform revolutionary tasks and it
sel create
conditions. But it was never, even ar
the bepinning, merely propagandistic.
It knew how to benefit from the
visionary chance it had been given to
create a new film cultare which was
to a pre-existin
culture of mass literacy, but could
grow in harness with the campaign for
mass literacy which was one of the
resolution's primary aims.
The visual medicia of cinema and
the medium of wrinen language are
not the same, they do not lead to the
same kind nt awareness of the world.
The cinema
capitalist world developed amid a
SOGIALIST CHALLENGE 20 April 1878 page 13
briefly. cinema Cuban
into
necessary conditions.
mass commercial popular literature which colonised it and reduced its wass of telline stories and presenting cultural reality to certain kinds of formulac -
like Hourwood pems. ten canoes to me wie land, or bit consists, on the something very much like tairy tales. necessary and on the other, renders most of our
actual experience intisible A paradoxical effect, no doubt, for a visual medium to exercise. At Les Huberman pointed our in Mun's Warldly Goods:
The dilectors of the carliest movics altent did queer acost curions was their showing you people riding about in a taxi, then piling out and walking awes without paying the driver. They d rich all over lown, have fun, or go to a place or bu and end of that. No payusent necessary.
of the "It was vety much like most of those
books on the Middle Ages that go cn
After the Revolution
Cuba's liberated
cinema
by Michael Chanan
CUBAN cinema accepted It had to perform revolutionary lasks and it set out to create ine
Indies all and Hollywood one hand, these things,
the reality things. One of the habit of LITERARY
The Color
for pages and pages about knights and
decked out in shining pay dresses, tournaments and games. They always live in splendid castles and have plenty to sat and drink. You get very Little Bine that someone had to provide al
doese't grow on trees, and that tood doe grow, has to be plaited and looked anthropologist after and worked over; Burit does So the ask which Cuban cinerna took upon itself was, as Alfredo Guevara pu. it, to discover the roality within
clear
There is also another kind of liegemons which highly developed Literary cultures exercise over cinema
In Tilm-maker Marts explained how Cuban cinemn abe served is an example which shower
moment, and
SECTISE how it was possible to attack this effect as well. It was throuch Cubar casema, she wrote, that she forst learnt that the filmmaker did not have u carry on being a simple impartia observer of reality the hourceois ideology of knowlede: - in which the datoner like an maker & supposed to he
eneared 00 investigation, with the film camera an an empirical recording device
That Cuban cinema continues to provide revolutionary examples was
from selection of new films of the last two or three sears which were showe in London dering the recent Cuban Film Week at the National Film Theatre.
These flims were by so means all of a piece. These it no ruling aesthere
a considerable variety of themes an meatmens even in Cuba'
feature film output. At the sail tune it is possible to observe certain lypes of film emerging which could almost be called revolutionary genres. Sergio Giral's Huncheador (The Rancher is a historical epic ahout black slavery in Cuba Rio Negro directed by Manuel Perez is a füh
for the revolution itself, dealing comes to a head at the moment of the Bay of Pigs, between two men in the Escambray region, One of them is a
De9san1:TC acher a counter revolutionary whe leads a pro-Batista bandit group. A third kind of film can be found in De Clerta Manera (In a Certain Way) by the late Cuban woman director Sara Gomez Yera. Here, in a story ol growing consciousness in an urban Slum housing area in the process of being rebuilt, fiction and documen tary are mixed. But what makes this a particularly powerfal film is that it is Barcoderni Banon sids 3000 J0u fiction and documentary sequcoces Rather the film is constructed by creating a sarrative involving both fictional and real characters in a real location in a historically specific
EXPERIMENTAL Humberto Solas, the director of another experimental film included in the programme, Cantata de Chile was one of a delegation of Tour who came with the films, Cantate de Chile creploys an eclectic range of myths. poems, historical reconstructions and other stylised elements. Solas regard: the whole of Cuhan cinerna today as experinentas, He calls it a laboratory for the creation of a socialist culture.
There is no longer any force left in bourgoois celtare, lie said. And the bourgeois modeis which still had some influence on us in the 60, lave beca discarded. But there has never ver been a true socialist culture. It is
something that can- appear overnight. And it isn1 a matter of theory either, In any case there hasn' heen a real Marxist theory of are from the point of view. We are therefore in a laboratory 518.00 We have to experiment in practice to discover the now fort:
It is preciscly this laboratory spirit
makes Cuban сілета accessible to us. Culturally we have a very fundamental shared experienc
with the Cubans: the death
culture. We are used to
a powerful avan: garde tor beller
series of avant gardes) which is also. Laboratory for new forms
Apart from the very esportan functions of solidarity and of showing us what the Cuban recolution is like
Cuhan cinema also presents us with a
critique of avant garde practice. It is a practical critique of a positive kind
which pots to shame the theoretical dagmas which often appear in ou own speechifying. It does not dismiss avant pardism as a fas-end mutation
ol'artistic traditions, the result of the
artist's alienation, loss of audience
primitive apobitical senic
rebeilion. Nor does it make a ferish of
avant gardism for its own sako, or
of some mooessarily
revchutionary core which all
enemietta art
supposed co possess
i bas the truly open attitude of th
creativg scientific researcher; the
altitude of the experimenter for
whom an experiment is not an acceepi
to confirm foregone conclusions, but
literally a trying-out of an idea. — a
possibility
But this demands a different mode
of consumption for the acarbetic
object, the film. Is is no longer to be
judged either. the habit af
bourgecis a potentia
masterpiece; nor as a fleeting object
of leisure-rime consumption, as in the
dominant cinema of the Hollywood
tradicion: cinema which diverts and
fleeces the audience at the sane tinc
Instead the film has to be judged as
openly as it was inade
This is a vital example to us if w
too, are to break with old habits and
move towarde the creatica of a nseful
cinema. In a word, we can learn this
AMY TO STOD Films
Begrations
positsoes over what kind of cinema we
Bught to have. Then we could regard
each and every film as simply an
experiment on the way towards
Page 14 scan of this page
COMMENT
BOB PURDIE AND THE GUARDIAN
SOB PUKDIE Socialist Challeng
10L US HUS US his call to the Provisionals to lay SANTACT AARONS. CLONGEEL argument is undermined by his failWE LOCATE LOIT CEME
A serious error concerns his asses-
of campaign. Comparing the scale of operatons mar earlier phase of the (spectacular car bombs cic.) with that of the present. he arrives at the conclusion that because there has been a "de-escalation' in the scale of these operations there has also been a * decrease their
Yet the effectiveness wars is not to be judged by the size of scale of military operations, but by Пси Suces B послема and politi cal contradictions. respect, the recent campaign has been *We remind readers chat before effective.
Christmas shere was a [3m Fire-bomb bille, and that between 1 Jasuary and late February when La Mon occurred
and RUC men had been injured and three UDR men had been killed, In the same period there were over 100 bomb blasts.
Belfast hotels cio. This campaign has prevented the British Government from stabilising the stateles. It has humstation of Roy Masan who had boasted that the IRA were defeated, an partical develope h an political developments in
in relation to the South, Purdie ens mn his claim that manna Fail and Fine Gael are bolding the Ine on behalf of the SDLP* because Westminster is again capitulating to Unionism. pro-unity statements DULT ACUAR parties are chiefly response to two factors: (1) the
of nationalism grass-roots level in Ireland, and (2) the fact that the coonomy and politics of the South are adversely atfected by the continuing instability in the North; and the demise of 'powersharing', plus the campaign nave acmonstraca toi this cannot be rescived in the British
Bob Purdie asserts
throws up obstacles to the re-building DOESTESS TENE would be foolish to
that this might allow mobilisation to take place.
The сопосрі that campaign and a mass movement are mutually exclusive mechanical one. What in fact occurs is a process in which the failure of the imperialist power demands put forward by peaceful mass protest drives logical conclusion that take up arms. And every liberation strugele SHOWE organisations that win mass support
nice only to defend the people against their oppressors but military offensive in pursuit of the popular interest,
In the Trish context, the Official Republicans followed Bab Purdie's logic and gave up the war against Britain. The result has been not only the degeneration of their organisat-
Socialist
Challenge
EVENTS
NORTH WEST WARRINGTON Sell CoMing Manchetter Socialian Challenge
trices far decalls: Cet 235 2052 GREATER MANCHESTER Socialiss Challenge Schoo studeols anD support the paper and mould lise 10
Soollisi Challang forinightly on - 003 Canning
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 Appl 19/8 page 14
Tion into a poston
muster a
Duffy's funeral Commemoration have shown
minary 'episodic
characterised an
campaign Mon had
effectiveness.
guerilla honest. We
In this ourselves to building
there than 40 Brish Amy, UDR CARL GARDNER
AND POWER
on out-of-
Oh.
Northern to the public print since the
Casement of nuclear power
February|.
Bob Comrades Pils. Talbot.
simply
The recent Irish Union having at and of itself position implying
continuing IRA
that correct the scientitie/industrial cannot be arrived at entisde of SENIACE But the TRA underlying them
LIVE LOU
La mass production
military merits and opposing systems totally
meet the *fringe conlogy groups
Luden's suggestion people to the
they must
T38H require AMENISE revelationary
which they are hased.
Challenge up FaTE.
YORKSHIRE
therealter 7.30pm.
Club Nerthumber
NORTH EAST DURHAM
Delait. Iron 1 Fox, 41 The Senue DAELNSTON MOCK ON
nailenge balco tam-tpm. Socialist Chailange is
WhEN RICHARD lism, but a drastic dwindling of their base, An Offcal demo is lucky 1ỏ
hundred people. whereas thousands connue to turn out for the Provisionals as the resent demonstraton for polical status. the attendance at Volunteer Paul
WHAT A and the Easter
It is unfortunate for Bob Purdie's argument that what he describes as difference
rise in Catholic millancy has actually taken place in the wake of the La Mon bombing. Even ine tuardin concewe mat La
had no ill-effects on Provisonal support, giving the lie to his claims that it caused widespread
Bob Pardie reminds us of our
logical would remind him that we also have a respomibility not only to make an accurate analysis of the situation in the North, but to address
powerful solidarity movement in this country.
LASTAIR REN (W. London) can How
Ok..l give Aller receiving the liggest hattering in
publication of the
Britich Rosd', I admit that I was utterly and completely wrong in my movement,
and
Tang, Williams and Euden made many
to oppose by simplistic, timeless first principles, as l orcinally attemoted to do though 1 am doubtful abour Colin Talbot's contention that we should even be opposed to the Soviet Red
purticular, I was wrong to imagine that nuclear technologs is somehow,
"neutral' form
with positions 1 hold on other issues. detailed
However, Hia cicar energes trul infiltration of the debate — and Alan Luden NAP Hunes on too point most clear -
positions developments
scientific data
For example. how cun we odont u policy on different forms of energy
Without the people having a clear grasp of the
demerits Lesse social and cconomic terms? This is a task witich the left press has yet to address itself to, leaving it instead to the supposed
comrade of an article explaining how a fast breeder reucior works would be a meful beginning
Such a vital course would also
reassessment of the Socialist view organisation cannot Take postess on scenarc questons: Il is difficult to see how we can take u
BULICUE "dehate without choosing between different technological policies and the scientific data and hypotheses on
Yet
CARL GARDNER [London NW6) He sent To Marise t avai able - DOCISI
WALES SWANSEA Socialist Challenge group
SOUTH WEST
Ubowe
SOUTH EAST COLCHESTER Socialist Challang
outside High How local Angusa Fil, Winerine.
CARVER AND THE MAFIA
carve up: That was my reaction to Richard Carver's article on the Red Brigades. There's a great
between criticising the actions of the Red Bripades. slandering them in Stalinist fashion.
The Communist Party in Haly has issued a call to root our all tertorist" sum Bathisers from warkplace and the community. Weall know that this means every revolutionary faces a witch-hunt led by the PCI.
The Malia has issued a death threat and to all *Ked Brigade prisoners to be Implemented by their own members in ail. Weknow that all imprisoned left wingers face being murdered a la
Socialist Challenge tail ends th PEtiE its fcoonine di recent even: You claim that the Red Brigades have little support in Italy. How come they
issue thass bulletin simultaneously in 12 differear cities?
conse even the Italian bourgeoisie admits they have support on the shopfloor?
Your reports on Italy have tended to
inaccurate and to reflect bourgeois media's covernge of the
evolutionary left as Mickey Mous
roups!. (see Red Notes criticisms i
experiences mass Socialist Challenge has used the crisis of the lett organisations to score points against Bip Flame, pointing to the ructions that took place in Lotta Continua
Unfortunately you fail to apply the sate criticisms to your own sister organisation, the GCR in Italy, whose
has dropped from 2,700 to below 30
I have deep criticisms to make of the
• Brigades LACE tactics, macho posturing, and failure to grasp the need for mass action. These criticisms do not, however,
I put this 'socialist challenge" Socialist Challenge: either provide
evidence of neb-faseist of the Red Brigades, and GRAPO, withdraw your allegations and issue an apology. NICK HEATH (Landon E3)
FASCISTS IN THE UNIONS THE ISSUE of fascists in the unions has recently come into the limelight. The bureaucracies of unions like the National Union of Railwaymen are
01 al fascists, and this call has been recently backed by the comrades from
Workers Party and the International Communist League.
After all, why should we accept fascists in the unions? They stand for the destruction of all working class organisation, and in any case they are an allront to all soclalist. black people, and so on, having to work with them.
would argue that contrades of the SWP and the ICL are making a serious mistake. They key is
LONECE
SCOTLAND EDINBURGH
Mike,
and the
Socialist registration fee.
NAME.,
ADDRESS.
Conference,
not the presence of themselves, but the political question of whether they are organising and ponticaly done position, fighting for their poisonous filth etc The position would be different if there were hundreds of thousands of fascists on the streets ourside, if they the were becoming a big threat to the
workers" movement. intimidation to the union struggle of the workers. But the threat of course, like that this tor specific sicuations. workers were forced to work with a fascist in an ares where the NF had the been atracking blacks and whipping
up racial hatred? Even if a fascist is nat politically active, there should be
BRIGHTON Socialist Challange Saes
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fascists
- none a union
minority. booted out.
Then even the It also and the
we should allow What if black Sire, sach Saturday. la-pr MIDLANDS
Sirsel Birmingham, 021 43 82031 SEES arist Challenge celails ring 0533 25854.
BIRMINGHAM Socialist Challenge 20 Apri 7,3097 Racism Julian Aikinsen and Ania Bue a. Ausirallan lar, Hurs Street Birmircham.
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the richt not to have to work with him or her. In pertuin specific cases thar might have to mean booting the
as this can give a lot of ammunition to
prohlem when left-wing activists who
GUSSIES It could mean you get
lets the trade union burcaucracy off the hook. We want them to take part in organising a political campaign azal racism and fascism. That would rake up also such questions as their complicity with the racism of the Government. By simply allowing them to get rid of a few fascists, they can sidestep problems ol racism and fascist in their union
I ADAMS, 5 BELL, (Cardits)
GREENWICH/LEWISHAM Socialis Setall Toil on in 25707 HARROW Socinlist Challenge Croup apperies or !
Walths-
Isas, writedo Landon 3C arganis H20032-U,-.001F BRENT Socialist Challenge Forum porters meet mery pier Manle
Page 15 scan of this page
Love is an enemy of women
+
sufficiency of the
market as typists and clerks.
establisbed, and the first birth Smedley was one of the many proician an women or tre anic in revolt against the conditions
Her commitment to social-
political involvement (she was and active in the Indian nationalist
reyolutionary from the feelings and ideas of her childhood experiences.
CHARACTER
Mane Rogers, the central character of the book, was born in a two room farm house in
SHE CES cribes her fatber, dreaming of DISKITE stumbled barefoor behind the ier mother, already exhausted
This is the "old" comniete with calico dresses. corn cob apes, log cabin
my small holdings separate by vast stretches of prainie. The Isolation and monotonous toil of the rural settlers" lives is broken only at harvest when the farming families for miles around joined in the
ated with feasting and music. farm, disillusioned by the back
-That nothing but bare survival. In the mimine towes of Colorado and New Mexico, Marie's father does haulage work for the Company owned by the Rockefellers.
This is the era of the great syndicalist strikes, and Marie place in the langourously sensual American Deep South.
ASPINALL.
But the remarkable thing about this novel is that it is not simply a story about a woman defying all conventions for the sake of true love', It is about something much more radical, and much more difficult to definet a woman's struggle for her ownidentityand autonomy.
protagonist, Pontellier, gradually comes to not what society expects them
The catalyst for recognition is her sexual love for a young mail she while on holiday with husband and children. though it doesn't come as a bolt from the blue because Al a
period she apprehended instinctively the dual life that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions'.
Edna's reaction growing awareness is In starl
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE 20 Aprli1979
Daughter of Earth' by Agnes Smedley
Daughter of Earth Is set in America between the early 1890s and the twenties. This erasaw the disappearance of frontier life. If saw the subsistence-level self-
settlers turning into the dehumanised labour of the industrial working class. And huge numbers of women entered the labour
was by SUSAN WATKINS Agnes
state militia of towns where the mines, the bars, the school, the church. houses Company-owned. goods were paid for with Her Company monc Company store;
Miners" wives fought the years in China fighting with the troops to open the air vents to
the mines after one underSeround exalosion Cloung the vents meant suffocating the miners, but saving the coal.
Marie's family is supported by her aunt Helen, a prostitute.
Helen's value as a wage carner appears to put her on an cqual footing with men. Her active independent life is a strong contrast to that of married reliant for survival on the whim of their Husbands, LATTE fiercely position al women in marriage.
west, Inancially independent
of semi-vagabondage that was -10 last for years She lies ber way into college courses and teaching jobs. In New York she gets work typing time, for a newspaper, works as a journalist.
In rejecting the traditional Tole Marie is also forced to reject all
nagging wives yields TENSESTE Woen begging for
marry...J would never be so weak as to love!
The price of her independence isolation bitterness. She can afford to respond neither to the claims of describes the occupation by the, her family not to the solidarity
The Awakening' by Kate Chopin
THE AWAKENING, appropriately enough, takes
climate of the Vivid descriptions of the blossom-scented air, cigar smoke, the murmur of the sea. sitting on verandahs fanning away the heat, create a real sense of physical immediacy, It seems to be the ideal setting for a romantic interlude, writes SUE
doing as she likes and feeling as likes, WHICH abandoning the various role expeced to hostess, wife and motber, and
wandering the streets, -DROULEL Her husband is, Edna shocked — he could see plainty that she was not herself. is, he could see that she was becoming herself... process bf self discovery also this involved a re assessment of her relationship to her children. meets her PASSIONATELY
The novelist Kate Chopin, LETTES IS MO WEVES TOI the tine unprecedented terins of honesty; Edna was tond of her childeen in an uneven, impulsive way. sometimes gather them pas ber sionately to her would somenmes forger them
are Company
be
their
rejects the and then
women, with the telephone company.
Her
woman is one of pain and confusion. Murie has no basis from which to understand the
applied to her, the threat of and wing owned, the reification or
reacts with incomprehending anger to the
Sad and mad and bad
Tbeir absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admir
it went henle Chopin's
was challenge to the idcology of motherhuod enraged the crities of the time.
In the USA of the 1890s, the novel was first published. women's economic dence was ne grudeingly accepted necause
LILLILY the Civil War bad decimaled so
many OL H that many more women from the muddle classes were tore
and to carn a living.
naturally, REALISTIC
That Solin, motherined wa But,
SECTIN sacrosanct, and
children described as 'antagonists. who sought to drag ber into the soul's slavery" certainly going loo tar. novel was publicly condemned.
CENTITLE NSSE AUNTSE THE bad", and Kate Chopin was shunned by former friends and acquaintances. She never wrote spotler novel.
The excellent introduction by
SPOTE
before the publication of The -SOC Awakenine Kale Chopin wa regarded as a respectable,
struggle to liberate
Manvekar,
standards that are
blind, Anand politically devoted wife and
the knes cigarettes, which
PICI
LIONCOCT beginning
brendwinners"
Edna is Even her
have so profound.
ALIU still hear love
was
means of
as 1899.
The early 1900g in the United States saw women's integration into the dehumanieing processes of Industrial society. Many women became clerks and typists — or, like the two above, signed on
injustice in her relations with men. Comradeship too proves a murky, contradictory affair.
Her relationship with Anand
with whom she works in the Indian nationalist movement in New York, destroved when Marie's sex life CRISIS Is used by other men in the
Marie's life, Her sexual relationships are inability
mother, SHE LEGALE HOLDAVE THI WITCHE habirs such as crossing her legs movement,
smoking CHANCE
CONTRADICTIONS
It is clear from the ending of the novel that no woman in Kale Chopin's position could have coped with the enormous contradictions of living out her beliefs in practice. In the novel
eventually isolated, lover is unable to understand the changes that
taken place 3bher consciousness, because they are
Edna wants simply to give herself where she chooses! she realises that, despite her
for this man, "The day
the thought of him would meit alone'. She rejects marriage, even to a man she loves, as
FuHitment. Her CALOONY IS BOILLIOus
It seerus amazing that these sartlingly modern ideas should fave been described as long ago
Unfortunately.
Kale Chopin's Edna. the only solution was suicide. Nearly 80 years later, the same problems exist for women, but at least by
all disastrous in one way or ancther, The objective position of women does bot allow her to realise her own sexual need and her aim of independence: 'Love is an enemy of woman!"
The book ends at a crisis in
with her final 10 resolve the relying on the support of other
and women's The we have More
BOOKMARX CLUB
• Chion & Laurie
CILE ME GLACK Meis Mwangihop
contradictions in her relationship and her decision to leave America. For Agnes Sincuicy perseu, the book was "a desperate attempt to reorient my lite It was to prove successful, and she late TOLELLO ACE VORT the Chinese revolution. But
cry of pain and confusion, and OT TELL accentpts to change our lives
Awakening Kate
our Women's Preas, 1976
IN THE HAMOS OF REVOLUTION
MOUSES OF THE JUDICIARY
ICKINGHAM SHIRI
OUTCASTE OF FOOLGARAN
WOMEN'S BODIES WOMEN'S
HIGHTS. Ledo Gordon 12.50
Page 16 scan of this page
SPEKE! NOT ONE JOB MUST GO
Registered with the Post Office as a newspeper. Published by Relgocrest Led. For Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Streel,, London N1. Printed by Goodhend Press Limited, 25 Murdock Roud, Bicester
MARK TURNBULL.
When the closure was first
nounced, payments of up
the press had erraned. Bui
the press now it has been revealed that it is more a case of two brass
The offer is:
*One week's pay for every year's service — as Leyland are
"An additional week's pay-
ment for every ycar
"A maximum of 12 weeks" *What this amounts to is that BOLILL instead of the thousands of pounds, it has turned out that most workers will only receive around E600, and good deal less.
After the 17-weel lay off at Speke ended in February, most workers were quite happy to sell their jobs But bow the
'Everybody is disgusted and blazing says Peter Wilson who has worked at Speke for eight years.
*All the workers are together now. he adds. militant but misested we wil nor let then are all so
get away with it. There is talk 0Е аП ООСТаПОЛ.
At a mass meeting held on Saturday, the Speke workers backed up these words when all hut four voted to reject the company offer. Sensing the WE ARE WAH BIE announce whether WH Smith will be distributing the paper un is outlets.
chare bad a communication from them, and we rebrun the letter below with a suitable addendum. We CHITUC TO MIC CHECTS want to buy their copy of the
Workers' plan needed
given a little booklet outlining the company's redundancy proposals last Thursday evening, reports
anger, comtine shop stewards chaicperson Derek Robinson declared:
•Not a balt will be allowed to leave the TR7 plant."
But Robinson went on 1o say: • We are improvement of in British Leyland so we can compete in commercial terms on the international market."
Yel the previous LevEn workers nad decely rejected the latest productivity scar tor Leyand. now much Robinson's talk of nuts and ploy semains to be sens
remains
ing at the weekend suggested
that Leyland was preparing to increase its offer even before
the original one was laid on the table: thar the initiat offer was made so that Leyland could appear *generous money was increased.
The only answer to these sort of tactics is Leyland workers to show that their jobs are, quite simply. not for sale
The most immediate expres Son OT such restance would factory, and the building tol Decupetion mass support
Leyland for the one-day strike
agreed at the Liverpool Trades Council conference earlier this I month,
W HSmith reply
barer through the Jocal WH Smith outlet to let it he made
making a specific request to the shop.
We thank those readers who have responded to our special pleas to makean extra effort in getting in their donations to the who TunD drive in ngn ol ine fire-bombing on our premises.
Socialist Challenge
Ken if bei see at
Leyland boss Michael wardes will retreat, Instead of shifting the TR7 production to Coventry, he could simply shur down production of the model completely.
From a strictly commercial point of view, Edwardes would feel every justification to make move. productivity
are wides acknowledeed to be failures week
Leyland is trying to make the workers mistakes which they responsibility for: just as the overall strategy seen wardes's plan
aver 10,000 interests of solving Leyland's profit problems.
By itself, an occupation and
general strike will not counter management's strategy What when the would? First a demend for a cut in the
working week Leyland without loss of pay for the
to maintuin the johs il the TR7 is scrubbed.
Second the Leyland's books, and a full workers inquiry Leyland is run and responsibile lo the problems the throughout workers face.
Third a decisive rejection of the entire CONTINUINI officiul union Leyland. Ir is a workers' und it needs a workers' plun.
Unfortunately our accountants have not totted up this week's efforts, 50 rush donations so chat next wock total will be worky treet and vet another brick is removed to reveal the vital message concealed under neath the wall!
YOUR contained, as au insert, a letter do readers from your Editorial Board alleging that 'within the newspaper distribution sector Smith
unlikely
Ed-
The TR7 has
of management te have so for
the
is to sacrifice
jobs
SERIE
Liverpool opening of
into how who is
Edwardes's plan
by the
leadership
Brixion on Saturday crisis stutement is untrue. in your These the
well over the
96. issue of 30 Murch
selling Chailenger
virtuslis Name
Address
Brision. See pages 2 and 3 for a full report
position? This
about 33,000 newsagents in this country, of which uhout 375 are WH Smili shops or bookstalls. Throughout Britain there are about 430 that wholesale distribution depots of which WH Smith have about
The letter also stated that if rade seling is Socialist
Socialist Smith hundreds people' sould no longer be able to buy the paper from us. You
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STOP THE NE
, Over the past wook the election campaign has dramatically hit the streets in
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SOUT many know the facts.
SIMON HORNEY (Retail
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the Monopobies and Mergers Commission following a rel crence in them by the Office of Fair Trading
← Socialist Challenge No. 41, Battle of Ideas Supplement on Fight for Socialist Alternative, 13 April 1978Socialist Challenge No. 43, 27 April 1978 →