Socialist Challenge No. 84, 22 February 1979
The scan: sc-n84-feb-22-1979.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Socialist Challenge
VIETNAME
KEEP OUT OF
CHINA:
No 84 22 February 1979 15p taPia Ali on the Chinese invasion -page 2 INSIDE:
Iran -pages 3,485
Page 2 scan of this page
OUR POLICIES 23E
EDITORIAL
Socialist Challenge, Editorial 01-359 8180/9. 01-359 8371. reconstruct its state apparatus. sovereign constituent assembly.
Aiready the mass movement is colliding attempts to reconstruct the state. insurrection from the start —
Shah's army.
masses at every level: into workers,
degree of organisation revolutionaries within it -
relevant.
Yes in Wales
ades in the devolution debate.
Abse and Neil Kinnock. and the unity of Britain.
the instruments of capitalist rule?
union supports the Assembly. subordination of
want to go.
decide?'
the Assembly, Against Separation.
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The next step in Iran
RARELY has there been such a crushing victory of the masses over a bourgeois army. To a far greater extent than February 1917 in Russia, the Iranian ruling class is disarmed. Its aim now must be to
Attempts to do this will centre on the figure of Khomeini, using him to buy time to recompose the capitalist state. To do this Khomeini will have to rely largely on the leftovers of the old regime. Already he is trying to leave the command structures of the army intact and simply weed out the most recalcitrant elements.
But this operation will take time, which is why Khomeini will be anxious to postpone elections to a constituent assembly and substitute a referendum to ratify the accomplished fact of the overthrow of the monarchy. Instead of this Iranian revolutionaries demand immediate proclamation of the republic and elections to a
with Khomeini's Khomeini was against the which most people are aware of -and is now moving fo disarm those very forces who overthrew the
The masses are moving in the opposite direction. It is becoming increasingly apparent that only the organisation and arming of the masses can guarantee a sovereign constituent assembly.
The decisive question at the moment is the organisation of the
soldiers and peasants committees; into political parties; into trade unions and peasant organisations; and into workers and peasants militias. Before such organisations are developed abstract slogans for a Soviet Republic mean little — what is soviet power without soviets? Likewise the
and of course the strength will determine how quickly the demands for a workers' and peasants' government will become
The immediate question is the convocation of a constituent assembly, for that cuts right across Khomeini's plans. But only the independent arming and organisation of the masses can guarantee
PERHAPS the saddest aspect of the referendum campaign in Wales has been the sight of the Labour Party at each other's throats. Indeed, so great is the Labour Party's concern tor democracy that is has provided the main public speakers for both
On the one hand the party apparatus and the trade union bureaucracy who favour a Welsh Assembly; on the other the bulk of Labour councillors, led by the unlikely pact of the MPs Leo
The latter group argues that the Assembly will be bureaucratic (an apparently plausible argument in the land of the Julian Hodge Mafia) and expensive. Debate rages over whether the Assembly will cost £6m, £12m or £20m. But the crocodile tears would be more convincing if shed in a fight for the E200m plus needed for the health service in Wales, or the £800m needed for the steel industry.
Against this they put forward the sovereignty of Westminster
But do socialists really favour the subordination of Wales, with its Labour majority, to a future Tory administration in London? Or do we seize the chance to weaken
National unity and working class unity should not be confused. The Welsh miners, whose record of solidarity with English and foreign workers is second to none, do not make this mistake. Their
bordina ton of we ph porkers to English capital. The west proposed by Kinnock and friends means Wales economy, for example, is based on small farmers whose land is owned by the big food companies and whose language is still dying out, we are told, after centuries of persecution. conclusion is that the language and the people who use it don't
The Assembly alone cannot solve these problems. But it will highlight the question: Does the Welsh nation have the right to
Nor do we think an assembly can solve the major problems of class oppression: poverty, unemployment and declining living standards are not soluble in Wales alone. That is why we say: For
Socialist
By Tariq Ali THE Chinese Vietnam was not unexpected The Chinese Xiaoping had made no secret of the fact that China intended to "punish' Vietnam for its part in the overthrow of the Pol Pot regime in Kampuchea.
Last Saturday Deng kept his word. Chinese troops crossed the northern Vietnam
It is unlikely that the Chinese will stay long in Vietnam, but the invasion will have serious repercussions on relations in the non-capitalist world.
Why did China Vietnam Ted immediate a se
supposed 'indignation' of the Chinese 'at the atrocities perpetrated by the Vietnamese aggressors,
The Chinese claiming that their invasion is a response to Vietnamese 'border provocations" outright lie
The
Deng American Vietnamese had to learn some necessary lessons. words, une chinese woops were on a punitive expedition.
Such expeditions have normally been. imperialist fronted with recalcitrant colonies. the United States and Cuba, Japan and Korea are some obvious examples.
be subjected to this invasion according Because Vietnam had become a "Cuba in Asia. Its intervention in Kampuchea affront to the Chinese. Peking had "lost face'
Pot was overthrown must have rankled in the Chinese capital. And so, in the best fashion of their new-found friends in the United States, Vietnam. the exercise saw them totally isolated internationally. And in OLIC ironies, the chieftain of world OI history's
imperialism, Carter, asked the Chinese troops from Vietnam!
In 1968 unleashed a ferocious ideologiCall l offensive
CASS
revolutionary socialists are:
socialism_
invasion of
leader Deng
confined
cal. border
Brezhnev's eignty" theses, inter-state of Prague.
invade
overthrow
media the
This ing to Phnom Penh.
real reason had been It would have
Xiaoping to better if journalists. The people themselves
In other
help.
launched by powers when con-
Britain and Afghanistan,
excuse that
Why had the Vietnamese to
to Chinese logic?
was a major aggressive turn
internally.
The speed with which Pol he
French and
easy solutions. they invaded
The outrageous character of They are
dealing incursion. cruellest
and appealing withdraw their
Sune Chinese intervention Union against the anyone.
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in the interests, not of the workers, but of the capitalist
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting
* To build broad-based class struggle class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should be non-exclusive in character grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views. • To begin to fight for the creation of a unified and democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through an application of united front tactics, begin to be seen as an alternative by thousands of workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for socialism seeks to unite the fight of the workers against the bosses with that of other oppressed layers of society -black people, gays - struggling for their liberation. This sqcialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with al necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
Chinese invasion of Vietnam
A crime against
Russians for the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Despite their wild rhetoric they were correct.
Today they stand hoisted on their own petard. There can be no hesitation at all in asking the Chinese to get out of Vietnam.
The Soviet Union has so far
itself verbal threats. But its defence of the Vietnamese is somewhat cyni-
The Chinese could easily argue that they are only putting into practice their version of
"limited soverWeTt utilised to justify the invasion
There is no equation between what happened in Kampuchea and the Chinese invasion. The
of Pol Pot was undoubtedly a step forward for the masses of that country.
The regime over which he presided had become a blot on
international workers movement. There was a serious danger of imperialism return-
been much the Kampuchean had been able to remove Pol Pot and his cohorts. In the event they could not do so withour Vietnamese
The latter should now begin the task of withdrawing its troops trom Kampuchea
But the Chinese invasion was designed as a sharp rap on the knuckles from big brother. The
Vietnam was bullying China (a nation of 900 million people is a sick joke.
The fact of the matter is that
China is in the middle of sharp factional struggle in the top reaches of the party. Deng's
outwards designed to bolster his position
might find, like American politi-
cians before him, that tangling
with the Vietnamese offers no
The Vietnamese defeated the French and the United States.
quite capable of with the Chinese
But they should do so by
mobilising their own people
to Chinese
workers and peasants to oppose this bureaucratic escapade. An
by the Soviet would not benefit • tendencies in opposition to
NE THAN
"Modernise our industry certainly, but we Chinese
can adopt too many American ideas" in the eyes of the millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed to them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democraes world polities. Thus we fight for working class unis on sa internation scale. Capitalism has not onls created a world market, it has creat imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal of British-troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist Parties in Europe are in strategy for the overthrow of the capitalist state.
• socialist parties are more necessary than eser before. Conditions todas are more favourable than over the preceding three decades. But such parties can only be built by rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal demacract not an a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and
11/1 1.1 Our socialism will be infinitely more democratic than what esists in
"socialism' in the USSR and Fastern Europe hase discredited socialim
The interests of workers and capitalists are irreconcilable on a wurld
scale. This unity will in the long run he decisive in defeating hoth the
Neither the "Euro-communist nor the pro-Moscow wings have ans meaninglul
Page 3 scan of this page
people's army
From Brian Grogan in Tehran
and Richard Carver in London
'WE WANT a people's army, a OUTC army!' censorship!" "The new government is a government of bazaar merchants and aspirations of the workers! the which does
Led by the Fedayeen, several thousand chanting demonstrators last Friday marched to the 'Komiteh' (Committee), Ayatollah Khomeini's organising centre at a school in the suburbs of Tehran.
The 'Islamic marshals' the door refused to admit a delegation. The Ayatollah had developed a strange indisposition. Finally they relented and allowed eight people through to deliver a message.
Earlier had held a meeting football pitch at the university. The university is one of the few open forums for discussion, beyond 'Islamic censorship'
It is also the only place where women mix with men on ar equal footing and take part in meetings. here, only blue jeans.
Assembled there were soldiers from all three services, deserters. yeen. It quickly became clear was the future the army ne Must hole ease We must shoot the generals. must build a people's army.'
No sooner were these slogans shouted than the news came through that four of the Shah's generals had been tried by an Islamic tribunal and executed
The meeting pressed. Despite the obvious SAVAK gethis come upad ce, people were asking why he was not put on public trial, so that SAVAK's activities could be properly exposed.
And everyone realises that the executions are being carried out under pressure and are a substitute for destroying the
One soldier at the meeting said: We followed the call of
EYEWITNESS Islam to desert. Now it tells us:
get back to your barracks and don't worry what happens to the superior officers who have not changed their attitude.'
REPORT And what should be
position towards officers who did change their views: How are we expected to place any confidence change their coats from one day
FROM IRAN to the other?' a sergeant asked.
Speakers called for committees to link together rank and
soldiers, officers and 'popular vanguard
Islamic
capitalists, meet on demonstrators on the
constraints
is
LuCre are no veil
was unim-
seeing the head
their
WILD the
in leaders who
low-ranking
We want a
- a real army
forces'. These would elect new officers and form the basis of a new people's army.
in the space of a few days Khomeini's strategy come clear. He never favoured the insurrection and now plans to disarm the masses quickly, get rid of symbols of the Shah's control of the army, and transform the old military apparatus into an
'Islamic arm
Even in Tehran, where th army Is all but Khomeini plans minimum of rebuilding, which is why he is so anxious that the command structure intact.
If necessary he is prepared to treat LUCILLIES. There is talk of the Moslem Mojahedeen over the functions of the old Imperial Guard. account will the Bazargan regime allow the free armed organisation
There is a problem, however. The militant mood expressed at the Tehran university meeting
widespread Out estimated 100,000 guns distri
buted durin only 20,00 have returned
The new government having difficulties just organising the collection of arms is using the mosque, which the only functioning administrative network in the country.
But the problem runs deeper than that. Even devout Moslems convinced that the usefulness of their guns is finished.
The establishment of formal militias and the election officers is the only way that the arming of the people can maintained and the army held at bay. Already there have been clashes between 'Islamic soldiers', celebrated being occupation of the American embassy.
Similar reports are coming in from the rest of the country, though it is impossible to assess
accuracy. government talks about clashes
oro-Shah forces difficult to know believe those who attacked the US embassy were described as pro-onan
Certainly fighting reactionary forces is still going on. In Tabriz the army has put up its stiffest resistance. There too the left-wing forces are in the strongest position.
The Bazargan has tight control over radio and television, though this is being challenged. The demonstration to the Komiteh on demanded the abolition censorship and the journalists, who played a leading role in the
committees
Rene
has beBazargan intended.
hated
hardship.
crushed, to do the
back?
Motors
Never INSUCCOR
with the company)
taking Another But on no
Khomeini- us terribly.
of the
taken over.
of an widespread
the insurrection
been
control
- 11
educational
the most
not
are the same. of After
be elected
leftists and
the most around the
for long. these
support.
When
it is
what to
and legalisation by government. their names with
land.
government
coordinate
under control.
Friday
of
come out firmly against state
conto onews
country is returning to work, but with
none of the enthusiasm
government Worker work
cause they have no other way of bility formerly
supporting themselves,
ularly after months of strikes
Indefinite strike is not Icansuc prospect, but
pertinent to ask: under wha
This is how one General
worker
belongs to Pahlavi Foundation which now
should belong to the workers.
part belongs imperialists who have exploited
This part should
also now belong to the workers. Tranother per Who has fled to komiteh, The other part belongs to the
the US and therefore should be
sentiment
nationalisations. One of the
meeting, a teacher, also raised the question of who was to
conditions and
terms of work:
*Ayatollah Khomeini asked us to strike, denouncing
system and dreadful books of the imperial regime. Now he is calling on the Saturday and is asking us to go for
months of factories assembly and refineries being directed by rule
strike committees,
the old managers.
It is unlikely that will accept this state of affairs ate elections
The demand elected should take over the factories
It remains to be seen how of
land before the insurrection
were waiting for Khomeini to the
their markers on a chosen bit of
Khomeini was damping down the struggle. His 'committee to And
strikes' attempt to get the movement
In the oilfields representaby Bazargan, were trying to get domestic production restarted.
struggle against the Shah, have They had already got posta
and dock work slowly
the had letter 'usurpation
partic- representatives of oil workers. which have caused immense suppression of free expression
of diverse
conditions should workers go the fate of Portugal, Argentina
Socialist Challenge before the gate has resigned on the basis
(the that: It was the us but to give us orders. to Komiteh is an
asking
This worker was echoing a events. But then who elected
for the Komiteh?
people at the Tehran university story. In Ahwaz and Abadan
oil towns, administration power,
the the
people to go back to work on Khomeini and Bazargan have back to school. But the system government. It is quite possible hasn't changed and the books that at some stage they will
want to call LO
For the control is being handed back to something different is needed
workers accountable to them. Immedi that constitutent committees be a way of guaranteeing that.
But such would be likely to find a lot of themselves only be guaranteed
the mass the long confidence in Khomeini is maintained and developed and maintained. Peasants occupied armed militias formalised
Some appended for example, shops are now summer open for the first time in ages -villas of the rich, awaiting the at the same time as armed go-ahead to occupy. Others put groups of Islamic and left-wing
militia patrol the streets Most people
But even before the uprising giving the new government a
most
doing the rounds here: "The tives of this committee, headed cannot emerge from the army
La magician's hat.
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 3
workers back to
A leading strike committee member in the oilfields resigned in disgust. He issued an oper
protesting the of the responsi held by the
complained
00IOES on the grounds that they are trying to prevent divisions,' and ended by warning 'we must remember
- and especially Chile.
Another oil workers' dele
La coup d'etat.
Bazargan didn't come to help
Last Friday's march to the
indication of popular dissatisfaction with the appointed regime. People are
who appointed Bazaranswer is the the mysterious committee in the suburbs which Khomeini uses to orchestrate
Outside Tehran it is the same
for example, the two southern
La provisional has taken comprising merchants and mullahs, with the odd student. In the heart of the oil industry there is not a single oil worker involved.
It is still unclear what plans
ruture of
COSULUCI legitimise their
mass movement
- a government immediately
sovereign assembly would elections if the independent organisation
movement
A strange atmosphere now its prevails in Tehran. There is a superficial air of normality -
seem to be
few more days to prove itself.
of them are convinced of the accuracy of one of the favourite slogans
army of the people
of the Shah, like a rabbit out of
Page 4 scan of this page
Pro-Moscow party backs Khomeini
rattled
Pahlavi
THE SHAH, in common with many autocrats, liked pretena tnal ne ruica over a uniform nation.
The Pahlavi dynasty aggressively "persianised' its subject territories in a vain effort to conceal the tact that Persians are little more than the largest in a kingdom minorities.
Persian-speakers constitute barely half the total popula-
The next largest nationality - the 21 per cent of Azerbaijani speakers — do not even belong to the Iranian
The national minorities are
important spreading the impact of the Iranian revolution.
Baluchis and Afghanis overlap with neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan in the east. Kurds, Turks, Assyrians and Armenians span the Iraqi and Turkish states in the west. the north Azerbaijan straddles the border with the Soviet Union.
And the Arabs of Khuzestan
- the southern oil-producing region which they KnOW Arabestan — provide a bridge to the rest of the Middle East.
Moreover the nationa movements deserve attention as the only political force ever to mobilise the rural population.
Despite severe poverty, active peasant resistance has been rare. More frequent is armed hostility to outsiders on threat of a Soviet take-over of Iran, the spotlight on the role of the Tudeh Party.
THE Tudeh [masses] party is
pro-Moscow Com. munist party - a small and weak group, but probably the largest on a small and weak Iranian left.
It has doubless played a certain part in organising the recent opposition to the Shah. In recent interview with Socialist Challenge one Iranian who was extremely hostile to the party nevertheless paid
organisation. He particularly mentioned the wide circulation of its industrial paper, Navid.
Another Iranian, worker, told us that the Tudeh party had played no part in the strike at all and he had never come across it.
party suffered certain objective problems. Despite the argu-
of the cold scribblers, it has not benefitted from being pro-Moscow party in a country bordering the Soviet Union. Iran's strategic sensitivity makes the Kremlin reluctant to intervene directly
But the real reason the party
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 4
INTERNATIONAL
How Kurds
national and ethnic grounds, as with the largely nomadic and militant Baluchis.
The more populous fertile north has seen the most advanced experiments. mediately after the first world the war and Russian Revolution, when the central Iranian power of had crumbled to nothing, many of the northern provinces and Arab Khuzestan autonomous republics.
In the Republic of Gilan, Iran briefly had its experience of soviet power.
Independent Kurdish control of the Lake Ourmiah region continued until 1930, when the Kurdish leader was assassinated while conducting negotiaLORS with Reza Shah, Tarner Or Mohammed
The Kurdish movement well illustrates the strengths weaknesses orthe oppositions.
After the second world war a Kurdish republic was claimed at Mahabad was also a similar republic in neighbouring Azerbaijan), becoming an immediate refuge Tor Kurdish fighters neighbouring Iraq and Turkey.
It enacted mesures for the promotion of Kurdish language and literature and economic relations with soviet umon, wnien controlca north-west Iran in the months just after the war.
But in December 1946, just a THE Fleet Street scaremongers, brandishing
have turned
has made such little headway is
ponnical Bonerence Moscow. In the late 1940s and early 1950s it was a mass party. During the Mossadeg interlude of 1953, when a bourgeois
office, sectarian abstention led it to miss the chance to lead a revolutionary seizure of power.
The conclusion party leaders drew from this failure was to swing over to an exactly parallel error prostranon bourgeois parties Mossadeg's National Front. The of 1953 remembered in Iran
greatly appreciated.
Typical of the party's current stance is an interview one of its has leaders gave to the Morning Star last week. The party has recently undergone a change of
new-found and support for Khomeini.
The Ayatollah IS present context Does this include his attempt to disarm the workers?
In rener statement me Tudeh Central
USSR
TURKEY
AZARBAIJAN
Rezai • Mahabac
KURDEŞTAN
and
Im- IRAQ
set up
only SAUDI ARABIA
the
Reza
and national vear alter its formation. the
Mahabad republic fell without a fight to the Shah's troops. pro- The coolness of the Soviet
(there Union was partly to blame for
the republic's end. Its best defence would have been an all-out political
from assault on the central power in
Tehran, organising the masses in the other northern minorities.
opened The Soviet Union was well
the placed to do this, both directly
the Tudeh (Communist) Party. But it didn't.
Stalin had
the such
and the uncritical explains: "In these days,
primary importance is the unity CIn the and solidarity of all the political democratic'. forces of Tran
fought for the victory, and the organisation and discipline of all the armed units Committee people."
the national movements, ¿CASPIAN SEA • Tabriz
Masnt • GILAN Oazvin • MAZANDARAN
•TEHRAN •Sanandaj.
• Hamadan Gom • Kermanshah • Arak
LURESTAN • Isfahan
KHULES TAN % Bandar Shampoor •Shiraz EBAHRAIN
QATAR
carve-up of the
Iran would
unspectacular was a man of his word.
But there weakness to regime,
measures
in its defence. agreed the In fact it is the Tudeh Party which bows down to the mullahs.
of
which have who now
apparatus.
be nothing reconstituted army.
ON this page and the next RICHARD CARVER looks at some of the most important political groups in Iran:
the Tudeh party, the National Front and the guerilla organisations.
USSR •Gorgan Mashad •
KHORASAN
IRA N
• Yazd
Kerman •
FARS
ndar Abbas world with imperialism. The deal was that
be outside his sphere of influence and, when it Iran came to this sort of issue, Stalin
counterpart. was another the Mahabad and one that chronically through the Kurdish movement: the republic failed to enact the radical social
comrades. agrarian reform Barzani, the above all, that would enable it to enthuse the Kurdish masses
Another permanent problem inside Iran.
The apparent radicalism of the final phrase is undermined by the stress on unity with those
control the state armed units of the people' turn out to
more than the That
of
AFGHANISTAN SISTAN
Zahedan • PAKISTAN have
BALUCHESTAN
E GULF OF OMAN
has been relations with the Kurdish movement in Iraq. The Kurdish Democratic Party of
has always tried maintain organisational inde
from its Iraqi But for a long time it was simply cheerleader to the struggle over the border.
From 1961 the KDPI sent arms and guerillas to help its
This was fine until Iraqi Kurdish leader, concluded an agreement with the Shah and ordered a freeze on nationalist activities
Star.
Rez:
The Tudeh interpretation of of the insurrection is that it was *brought about by the joint action of the armed people and a part of the armed forces.
wish "characteristic remoulding of real events to fit
The radical wing of the movement did not accept this. -Its autempis to launen armee uprisings failed and militants were hunted down by both SAVAK and the Parastin, Barzani's secret police.
The KDPI only resumed the struggle when Tehran concluded an agreement with Iraq in 1975.
The Shah's signature on that treaty was an inadvertent signal for the revival of Kurdish nationalism. Mass protests have grown over three years, culminating in a demonstration
tens of thousands in Mahabad last year, organised
the KDPI in tavour independence
In the weeks since the Shah's fall the movement has grown even further and the upsurge in
Tehran and elsewhere has led to
crucial weakening of garrisons in Kurdistan.
Despite the Kurdish movement's large contribution to the revolution, few of the pan-Iranian political parties have a clear position for the right of national self-determination.
The guerilla organisations
abstained from any position, though many sections of the Fedayeen guerillas are sympathetic self-determination.
• The bourgeois National Front and the religious movement both stand for maintaining the unity of the Iranian 'nation'. The Tudeh party claims it supports self-determination at the same time as declaring itself for the "territorial unity' of Iran.
Any future revolutionary government in Tehran will find support for national self determination indispensable. The dictum about 'disunion for the purpose of union' was coined in reference to a country composed entirely of national minorities the Russian Empire - and it applies equally to this modern multinational empire
Any attempt to place 'national' unity above the recognition of this democratic right will in fact divide the revolution fatally. in with dogma. The implication is that the armed forces "split rather than that many of the rank and Te deserted under the impact of the mass movement.
This practical implications. If the capitalist army has really come over to the revolution then surelv it is correct to support Khomeini's disarming of the masses. Tudeh party faultlessly follows the argument through toits logical conclusion.
Remoulding the truth becomes pure fiction when it
to the Soviet Union: *The role of the Soviet Union has been CHROSE helpful," the Tudeh party told the Morning
Fernaps mey nao in mind Brezhnev's message to the Shah
This birthday in October:
*Your majesty Mohammed
Pahlavi, light of the Aryans, king of kings of Iran: un une occasion o a day 0l national rejoieing for the Iranian nation the birthday
accept the sincere greetings of
Supreme Soviet of the USSR and my own as well. For you l
good health and happiness.
Most helpful!
Page 5 scan of this page
Fedayeen: no turning the clock back
By Steve Potter
THE mass insurrection
Tehran which has inspired and
strengthened anti-imperialist
fighters all over the world has,
not surprisingly, provoked a
flood of lies and distortions
from the Western press.
The Committee Against
Repression in Iran has called a solidarity conference on 31 March to give a true picture of
occue widi
solidarity action can be taken in this country.
The main efforts of Fleet Street have been to identify the
mass movement totally
Khomeini, and Khomeini with the rulers of Pakistan and Saudi
Arabia. Cartoons in the popular press show Khomeini dragging the Iranian people back into the Middle Ages.
Khomeini has fuelled this campaign by refusing to give
guarantees nediate free COLORS other democratic rights.
But government Bazargan-Khomeini turning the clock back to feudal times in Iran. On the contrary, the main offensive of that CONCINCI the return to work under the same hated NO single political organisation can claim credit for overthrowing the Bakhtiar government.
the several thousand Fedayeen guerillas, alongside une moanencen. a Moslem guerilla organisation, were the main organisers of insurrection.
From his refusal to launch a holy war to his threat to cut off the hands of those who kept their guns, it was clear tal Khomeini was neither control nor in favour of the uprising.
The revolt of technicians at
Tadeh DaShan alroase apparently unplanned, from them on it was guerillas - underestimated by all outside observers — who led the movement.
Only a few months ago most observers wrote off the guerilla
Their orcausauons. of guerilla war had failed utterly with dreadful casualties.
The Fedayeen theorists drew on the writings of Guevara, Debray, Mao and Giap prove the necessity of rural
They argued gera are. that the level of organisation was very low and that combination of guerillas" example and regime's TeDreSSIOR would attract support to an embryonic people's army.
But the attempt to build a nucleus among the Iranian peasants, who have no recent HISTOV ot armed resistance. stood even less chance than Che Guevara's ill-fated Bolivian campaign.
The Fedayeen's low profile
INTERNATIONAL
CARI conference 31 March
for solidarity
owners and managers of the Shah's time - is devoted to preserving 'modern' ism in Iran.
For years before the downfall of the Shah the Committee Repression fought in the movement to give voice to the resistance inside campaigned for the release of political prisoners, support for strikes that took place and demanding that the British government broke all with links with the Pahlavi regime.
CARI thinks that what is now needed is a longer term plan for solidarity, taking account both of the changed situation in Iran and the new configurations in the British solidarity ment.
Liberation, the Communist Party-backed front. TUST
of solidarity committee on the and simple basis of defence of Iran
against imperialism. tunately, although we uncondinot tionally
SUDOULL against imperialism, this is not the only dividing line.
The Khomeini-backed government isnow the only serious prospect for stabilising the was but the
in recent months is because of tel concentranon on purely military propaganda — how to mass
Tire a rile. how Molotov cocktail. Nevertheless the there has been a large influx of the
ment of rural warfare and the military preparation was not wasted when the moment came. The Fedayeen's politics are ambiguous, if only because the organisation comprises number widely factions. Maoism, and strong current anti-Stalinism have all contriDULed their
A long-term plan
capitalist state in Iran. For that TCaSOll CARI
capital- solidarity with the struggle of
the workers of Iran has to be a plank of the movement.
This includes supporting the fight for complete freedom of organisation and expression for ital British labour political parties; equalrights for
women; the right of workers to Iran. It organise trade unions to defend
their own interests: selt-deter organising mination for national minori-
ties; full rights for religious minorities The other group in Britain.
Solidarity Campaign, has stated thajectives. CARI has written te that this organisation appealing for a united solidarity organisation in Britain which includes British and ranian who agree with the objectives of anti-imperialist the campaign.
At its conference CARI will
Unfor- argue the need to build direct
links between Khomeini unionists and the growing trade
union movement in Iran. This is one of the ways we can resist the threat to cancel contracts with Iran. the Similarly the background.
Present reports from Tehran are confused to make a tory, but it would be surprising
if the Fedayeen support the government's disarm And it is a matter of life and death for both guerilla organisations to hold onto their own guns.
We will have to wait for the
varying Fedayeen's Castroism
before trying to predict how of they see the future of the Iranian revolution. The ortho-
political dox Maoist Idea
proposes that
solidarity Iran.
Iranian University
main solidarity
the Iran
with these
of the Committee and all oppression.
British trade
tion.
Delegates' £2, observers'
women's London NI. popular and contradic-
Many Bazargan
attempts the mass movement.
Shah
armed
clock back. the
movement can play a part in helping the emergence of an
autonomous movement fight. ing for women's liberation in
And the long-standing links between the British and
student should continue, as the struggle goes on to get rid of censorship and state control of ideology.
The CARI conference is on Saturday 31 March at 11am at
College, Gower
Street, London WC1. Speakers invited include Fred Halliday, author of the recent Penguin book on Iran, a representative of the Liverpool Docks Shop Stewards Committee, a member
Vickers Combine Call Iranian woman speaking on women's
Because of the unavoidable clash with the international day of action on abortion on 31 March the International Campaign for Abortion Rights has occi myuca to proviac a stal and speaker for the morning session before their demonstra-
credentials are £1, from CARI, Box 4, 182 Upper Street,
new
bourgeoisie
government.
major ones
British
revolution can be halted a promisingly
stage, short of workers' power, party itself. CLOSES is increasingly discredited -partly because of the momentum of the mass struggle and partly because of the Chinese bureaucracy's support for the
The logic of the Fedayeen's Faruhar position on armed struggle is to proceed to smash the remains of the army and replace it with
Geraceness of the masses. Once that happens it will be difficult to turn the until
Mass action opens Tehran jails
National Front
is a capitalist
front
TWO leaders of the National Front have been included in the
Bazargan government.
The party's social base is the
of the Tehran bazaar — a layer that is both intransigently opposed to the old regime and stabilise a new pro-capitalist
The Front itself is what its name suggests — a coalition of groups, of which there are three
Dariush Faruhar, the labour and social minister, leads the section of the National Front with the most affinity to its
namesake. His Iran Nationalist party is uncom-
pan-franist, though it refrains from the
of the Pan-Iranist
The latter models itself on the Nazis and stands for the annexation of Bahrain, Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan and the Soviet Union.
IS a prominent
The centre section of the Front was led by former Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar
This expulsion for accepting office under the Shah six weeks ago. That Bakhtiar
could have been in the Front so recently is an indication of how far to the right Faruhar's group really is.
Karim Sanjabi, now Bazargan's Foreign Minister, is the National Front's general secretary and leads its liberal wing, the Society of Iranian Socialists. Since his recent visit to Khomeini in Neuphie-leChateau, Sanjabi's salon radicalism has been reduced to total oenticanon win the religious leader.
EYEWITNESS accounts from Iran form the centrepiece to the new issue of Intercontinental Press/Inprecor. Other features include Claude Gabriel on Cuba in Africa and a perceptive article the editor,
HICH Mary-Alice Waters, on •Where
War Danger Come From?'
Single copies are 30p. Subscriptions are f9 for one year, £5 for six months or £2.5 for an introductory offer of 10 issues. Write now to Intercontinental Press/Inprecor, PO Box 50. London N1 2XP Cheques payable to Intercontinental Press/ norecor
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Lucas workers
plan faces defeat
By Geoffrey Sheridan
THE FIRST serious divisions within the Lucas Aerospace shop stewarus commrnce responsible for drawing up an extensive plan sociallyuseful products — are likely to emerge SUYCE an agreement reached last week between the company, the government, and
COE 1 Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.
The daily press, from right to left, unanimous in verdict on the agreement.
*Radical plans gain respectability', announced the Financial Times. 'Lucas stewards score hit in *alternative work" drive', declared the Morning Star's headline.
Industry minister Gerald Kaufman, who chaired tripartite meeting, was among the cheer leaders.
But behind the agreement, which already has the support of several stewards in combine, a number of combine members see the acceptance of job loss and the danger of an end to the independent role which their committee played in challenging dictates of the capitalist mATKe.
At the centre of the present battle was Lucas Aerospace's decision last year to close plants in Liverpool and Bradford, which employ OVer workers.
The new agreement gives the go-ahead to these closures, with the concession that a Lucas factory be opened Huyton, Merseyside, would employ 800 instead of the 500 originally proposed.
on abortion rights
By Judy Watson
WOMEN from every major European country met Barcelona last weekene discuss plans for 31 March, the international day of action on abortion rights.
The call for action is being dlS WCrCU throughout world:
*In Australia, major demonstrations are planned in every main city.
*In Quebec, abortion cam-
paigners will be marching
for their rights.
*In Belgium, the pro-choice movement is organising local tribunals.
*In Holland, the embassies of Catholic countries will be the scene of street sales contraceptives.
In London, activity is well underway and because of the international dimension to the campaign, many new activists -2A0AULE20ARI especially black women.
Regular forums organised by the International Campaign for Abortion Rights have discussed forced sterilisation, women in Eastern Europe, the companies, and, next Friday, women in Latin America.
The British focus for the demo will be daycare abortion Taclues. Over the past ten years out of 86 deaths resulting from abortion, 72 were NHS
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 6
A new plant is also to be opened in Bradford. But this still leaves 650 of the Liverpool workers facing the dole queue, with 'no compulsory redundancies' over the next two years. t was the accepfance of these concessions by John Mottram, Engineering Union convenor at the Liverpool tripartite meeting last which opened the way to the agreement.
Its supposedly radical measures are the setting up of a joint working party to examine suggestions for new products, with the assistance CuPInSuO AWARRII If any 'commercially viable' products emerge, Lucas Industries will use its endeavours' to them. The eight-strong working the party will include two shop first stewards.
When the 72 shop stewards in Lucas Aerospace meet shortly to consider the new agreement, the one proposal that is likely to be
put is that representation on the working party should be on the basis of: no job loss; diseussion of socially-useful products; and has accountability of the representhe tatives to the shop floor.
*Phil Asquith, an executive memper or tte cucas comoe committee, will be one of the speakers at a national trade union conference on Workers' Plans and Workers' Control, 2,000 organised by
lenge.
It will be held on 28 April (note new date) at Digbeth Civic Hall, Birmingham. Cost £1. Creche available. Tickets from: SCTU Conference, Box 50, London N1 2XP.
International action
patients.
The health service is still only able to provide 50 per cent of in abortions, which means half to the women concerned need to
pay NAC is demanding patient abortion clinics as they provide much safer, earlier (less the than 12 weeks) and
abortions. Today, only 15 clinics in Britain. NAC has already campaigned for the extension of six of these and In Iz omer areas provision of facilities.
The campaign doesn't stop at the question of facilities. NAC demands the right of women themselves for abortions, to avoid reactionary of port for women to the clinic;
more say in how the clinics are TULL, no cuts in in-patient facilities; and more publicity. After 31 March, NAC's main emphasis will be on a campaign to change the 1977 NHS Act. Today, only facilities are mandatory on the NHS, and NAC wants abortion facilities to be the same.
drug *Next international
men's forum American Women woman's right to control her own fertility a relevant issue?', Friday 23 February, Seymour Hall, Street, London WI.
the Brixon plant, at the
week of
*best manufacture
IDE MAND
RELEATE
OF THE
CLAPHAM 4.
Socialist Chal-
MORE than marched to
organised by
and included the
Hackney NUT.
Phillip. police station.
Two of
Court on
out-
easier
there
•d Ci
- for the appearance
providing
Ferreira. refer
LU
IN BRIEF
GPs: trans
Sexism in education By Jan Pollock contraceptive
THE NEXT
Latin MCW CannDalL!!
IS The Campaign
7pm, set up from Shouldham conference
which over 200 attended.
Police storm
Community
Relations office
POLICE in Brixton made no bones of their attitude to "community relations' on 12 February. They raided
offices Community Relations and arrested three of the staff.
POLICE:
NO OBRYD OLR 100 people Hackney police
station last Saturday to protest
at police harassment of black
youths. The demonstration was
Black
People's Defence Organisation
banners of
Hackney Trades Council and
Our photo shows the father
of three of those hauled in Noel
Morris — speaking outside the Osbund and
Dennis and Lee Samuel, come those charged,
up at Old Street Magistrates
February; and Phillip Morris Wednesday
comes up at the same court on
Thursday 1 March. Pickets are
being organised on both days at
There is also a picket of Highbury Magistrates Court on Tuesday 27 February at 10am for HBPDO supporter Winston James, arrested during a court of those charged with the killing of Michael non-sexist time Shirley teaching.
Williams argues that schools will need to 'compensate for the their anti-sexist protests resul-
she will ted in their suspension from find a ready response from a school.
Against open meeting Sexism and Sexual Oppression structure in Education (CASSOE) was basic aims
'10 February, London development adoption
Enormous difficulties face educational establishments.
Lambeth Council STO:
POLIC
TN IMDBLACK
PEOPLE NOW: BLACK vall the campaigners. Workshops heard how a woman teacher Pickwick was victimised after a checklist. SE9 4SA. was published in Spare Rib on
approaches to victory
Two students recounted how
THE
Street
The campaign will call an
to discuss and direction. Its failed to include TELC evidence anti-sexist policy, and a campaign for its
by unions and
found in the offices.
The included
suggested,
CRC's offices
hauled
That's
Ouseley, Meghie Lloyd Douglas.
STOP
POLIC but, both
HARASS/g released
OF and arrests
PEOPLE Community
NOM
therecently hundreds
In a
said
police in Tilley The
night
Join CASSOE today!
Court, London
Squatters'
CASE against defendants in the
squatters' - trial was charges rejected by a magistrate last victory, as the prosecution has week because the prosecution failed to get an all-embracing
present that the 11 were the resisting the sheriff.
However, the case against Camden squatters' leader Piers Corbyn Kentish Town Road, London will continue on 1 May.
The police burst into the offices at 9.15 on the Monday morning. Apparently they had been tipped off anonymously that someone connected with an incident outside a pub the previous Friday night could be
incident which the stabbing of plainclothes cop — had, it was
involved someone wearing a sheep-skin coat.
So when the police raided the
anyone found with such a coat or anyone admitted to owning one was
off to the cells at Brixton police station.
what happened to senior administrator Herman
This assistant Sid and youth workers
Herman Ouseley says that when he was arrested he was not cautioned and when he was taken to the police station he was not even questioned. He was released after an hour. The other two picked up with him were held for a longer period
were eventually
As a consequence of the raid
the executive committee of the Council for
Relations in Lambeth have decided to quit
set-up CCRL/ Police Liaison Committee
The CCRL is also asking Lambeth Council to hold a puble inquiry into the whole question of police/community relations in the area. There are numerous complaints of police racism in Brixton, including a Special Patrol Group operation in May/June last year when
of blacks were stopped, searched and arrested.
statement the chairperson of CCRL, Gerlin Bean
*There has been virtually no positive action trom the police It is absolutely clear that the
Brixton and, the out-of-touch Home Secretary do not care about people in Lambeth or their rights*.
Bean went on to warn of 'dire consequences of 'the growing misuse of police powers
Home Secretary Merlvn Rees has in past ignored numerous calls for an inquiry into police racism in Brixton, including one request from MP John
group Black People Against State Harassment held a meeting on the raids and police racism on Wednesday
The prosecution argues that his alleged action of pouring water over the sheriff's head is prima facie evidence of resistance. Two others from the Huntley Street Campaign are also to go on trial.
The campaign, which conHuntley tinues, sees the dropping of the
important
sufficient definition of resistance under
Criminal Trespass Law.
Further information c/0 Law Centre, 146
NW5.
Page 7 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
Women's
work':
centre of the fight
700,000 today.
70 per
pay.
Women make up. the majority of low-paid workers
Britain. The Labour Government recognised this when it introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1970.
But since the end of 1975, when the Act was supposed to come into full force, the gap DCLWCCIayCare male temale earngs has actually widened.
Wny: Iot Just Decause emplovers found all sorts ways to get round legislation, but because it was irrelevant to two-thirds worren workers.
For them there are no comparable men s JoDs provide a basis for pay equality
in terms of the Act.
Most women's jobs are in effect an extension of what they are expected to do in the home
servicing and caring for other people. Large numbers of women work in catering, for example, and in the health service, as nurses, domestics, and technicians.
Because in the past these areas have been seen 'women's work', they undervalued and low paid.
Under the pay policies of the Labour Government, with their percentage limits, wages for these jobs have fallen further behind.
In 1974-5 women manual workers in the NHS received 88.6 per cent of the average female wage. In 1978 this figure fell to 83.5 per cent, and the average woman's wage was only £56.40.
Many women with family responsibilities are obliged to take part-time jobs; double shift work - in and out of the home - which puts them in a double bind.
Pay is low, and with little flexibility about the hours they can work, their choice of jobs is limited, leaving them vulnerable to employers' requireTECHES.
You may have thought that the Government's initial 5 per cent offer that gave 60p a week to the lowest-paid public sector manual workers was derisory.
undervalued
and low paid
THE NATIONAL Union of Public Employees, at the against low pay, boosted membership from 300,000 in the late '60s to over
Most of the new recruits were women, who make up cent of the present membership. DUGGAN follows the pitiful progress of women's
vast But for most of the quarter
million workers in that grade, the part-timers, would have been 25p per week. And the Government's latest offer of a minimum earnings guarantee specifically excluded those who work less than a 40-hour week!
and Faced with such appalling
levels or pay and offers, it comes as no surprise that workers not previously
of thought oras militant
the schools meals staff, cleaners,
Jane noso ta ancuaty workers
of - should be prepared to take
action to defend their living standards.
to Women workers in these
SCCEOLS face however. Although they have been joining unions at a rapid rate over the past few years, women have not integrated into the particularly at shop and other official union levels. While tens of thousands of women did take action on 22 January, the workers who have supported all-out strikes since then have not included many
are women workers. It has been the
refuse collectors, grave diggers, and sewage and water workers who in the main have been confident enough to take this even sort of action.
Since women make up the vast majority of the low-paid workers it is vital that the unions ensure that women are fully behind the £60-35 hours claim.
It needs to be explained that even cor womer wno do no! work 35 hours this claim will mean a real increase in their pay, since they will receive a pro-rata increase in their hourly lales.
Women should be fully involved in discussions on the action their union is taking, so that they do not feel they are being wheeled out to vote for strike action without any real involvement in the life of the union.
Only then will the publie sector workers be able to wage a strong, united fight for their claim.
Manchester
By Eve Bryczkowski
NUPE steward (housing)
WORKERS' ignorance of what's going on in
the strike
acceptance of a sell-out.
A stewards meeting
nised last Saturday by
£60/35 hours campaign (which
includes all
Manchester) discussed how we
could start to break the hold of the union leaders and the action
We agreed to put out a bulletin and leaflet presenting
ways of stepping up action and involvement all-out strike, stewards meetings, a campaign against cash limits, and regular
production of bulletins by the
unions — as well as the political arguments against a sell-out.
We are also supporting a resolution to the various local trades councils this week calling for a pay action committee to
co-ordinate the
against low pay
* Local NUPE leader Colin Barnett refers to himself as a 'sensible Сомалием treats his membership like chess pieces. BERe
Manchester was to have 1,000 its workers on strike each week, but so far it's only averaged 250. The would cost the union too much has been used to stop any move PENNY by area officers to sanction more strike action.
South
the increase
Glamorgan
By Alex Webber NUPE steward, United Hospitals.
THE official line of selective pathetic and sectional strikes is dividing and confusing workers here. Our local Low Bulletin is so far the only contact and information between different SCCEOHS,
Through this bulletin we are proposing an area joint shop stewards committee problem, ordinate local action. This has already won ambulance drivers, collectors, and hospital workbeen ers. Many workers would like unions to see action stepped up but steward have little confidence in the
present level of organisation in
TTe TOIS
We are also organise meetings women can particular problems, so that we can involve more women in the fight and get the unions to take up these problems. Newcastle most By Paul Davidson
ALMOST all schools in the North-East region are now out In Blyth the council employed LUOHL squads school door down, broke into caretakers' houses to get at the boiler-heaters, etc. As the strike bulletin pointed out, this shows who the real vandals are.
There current for disaffiliation from the Labour Party. are trying to mobilise support around demands across this argument - such as for the Labour council to pay the claim now!
The strike committee has sent a resolution demand to next week's AGM of
isolation and
recipe for
orgathe the far left in
extend
Newcastle Party. It
such as
joint shop
Scotland
By Des Tierney
ACTION campaign Setoland,
the Secretary Scotland have concessions.
those argument that it
in widespread action.
(NUPE
Says:
§60
NOW
Pay Action
of
SUUECE
to co-
support from
refuse trying to which Avon diseuss their
Mike Eaude TGWU hospitals steward
reduced the urgent admissions only. problem is
dispute.
to break the through media
aheas and potentially response.
Journalists quite a strong strike
ICUCHE
The strikers санао movemer
which
with this under stewards' control
N. U.P.E
GEORDIE SEZ
HADDAWAY WI YA 5%
IT'S BOODIES!
Camden to
North Labour also calls on the district Labour Party to mount a campaign against any attempt to restrict the monies available trom central government.
The
by NUPE in which has lagged behind the rest of Britain, is to be escalated now that talks with
of State -TOT brought no
Mick Napier, chairperson of the Edinburgh South Hospitals
HACKNEY branch of NUPE, is just one of
London disappointed in the limited action proposed by the
supports full-time officials. He says that demands for unofficial action can be expecled unless his Labour branch membership is involved
Sweeney
Labour pledge.
What interest financiers? locally.
The
not
can't be left
THE POLICY of hitting key sectors in the health service has
Avon area to sentatives'.
The that the large majority of health workers are not effectively involved in the
Management's strategy has been to try to wear us down
propaganda, rather than making any direct By Penny Piks
provocauyc
We are holding discussion: with local National Union of
members (whose supported), • WC and taking the fight out to the
Workers at Rolls Royce, for example, have sent donations and joined a demonstration by health workers in Bristol last week. With a sell-out now in the air, we need an all-out national strike with emergency cover
Haringey
By Nigel Hamiltor
IGWU-ACT
THE MONTH-old strike by NUPE members in Haringey, NOTII COROOT. Is macking mn neither resolve nor support.
When Alan Fisher told a support meeting attended by over 200 people last week that
public inquiry, strikers used the example ol
argue that they would stay out for the full claim if the national settlement falls short of this.
The meeting decided to build a broad-based support com. mittee, which was formed on Saturday by 40 delegates from local organisations, including the Labour Party, 'Parents for
caretakers', and Socialist Challenge group.
COTHL will be leafleting, raising funds, helping to build inter-union links, and holding a picket of the Hornsey Journal, which has done its best to break the strike.
Hackney
By Martin Meteyard
council in East has Labour members out of 60. It officially
the public sector workers' claim but it won't agree to pay it now.
councillor John explained Socialist Challenge meeting last week that this is because the
wing Oitalt group: "They see tee themselves as employers, local managers. Their role is to do the government's dirty work
And they will certainly make working people pay for any of wage increase by raising both rates and council rents - in defiance of their manifesto
about withholding charge SEHE Sweeney didn't think this was on, because the officers wouldn't allow it and the majority of councillors would back them up'. Yet these not. interest charges account for more than £15m - about half the revenue the council raises
Treasury has also dictated that by next year all council borrowing must be for a minimum of seven years, so as
disturb the capital market. For Hackney this will mean an extra f1 ½m in interest charges - enough to finance six new nurseries, tor crampic
This is clearly an issue which
to the Labour group but must be taken out to the mass of working people whose interests are being sold out by their so-called repre-
the
London College
of Furniture
President, LCF student Union
VICTIMISATION has СПОИ become an issue in NUPE's pay battle at the London College of Furniture. The head caretaker is paid to begin work at 8.30am, so he las not been opening the college until then.
The employers, the Inner London Education Authority have retaliated by refusing to pay the other caretakers for the twe and a half hours from 6am, when they begin work.
The result — a NUPE strike,
which has closed the college from February. Last Thursday the principal, helped by police, broke a window to force their way in. Students are picketing against this action
in support of the caretakers.
*At Thames Polytechnic,
scene of a week-long strike by NUPE machoels, some lec turers have found a curious wa
of 'supporting' the shutdown. John Downing, head of
sociology, re-located a staff meeting to the LSE last
Monday.
All Out
£60
35Hrs
Tower Hamlets
By Stewart Madewell NUPE member
THERE have been problems with strike action among home helps and meals on wheels staff
in ower Hamlets as well as
Camden. So it was agreed to make special exemptions for the social services departments at the mass meeting where the decision to go on all-out strike was taken.
The shop stewards commit-
subsequently made two decisions: to exempt the meals on wheels but not to service the vehicles; sub-commiltee to examine each and lo ser up
the homes and make decisions on what should be done in every case
The sub-committee has the power to pull people out on the spot atter investigating a home The rule of thumb is incontinents need help and are therefore treated as emergency cases, whilst other cases are
In all situations it is the trade union representatives rathei than management who decide
and iles al lased to vod wark
agencies allowed to do normally done by council staff
Scottish
teachers
By Joanna Haynes EIS Glasgow
AT A rally in Glasgow on 13 February, almost a thousand teachers heard proposals from
executive SOT EIS, the Scottish teachers' union, on action to support our salary
The union leaders called for a one-day strike along with the National Union of Teachers, selloied by stikes nis t schools. joint EIS-NUT
committee was also proposed
They argued that a 43 pe cent rise was needed to restore teachers' pay to Houghton's standards -The executive's resolution, to which amendments were allowed, was
However, nearly half the meeting stayed to hear proposal from Rank and File calling for a minimum increase of £20 and consideration of ar all-out strike
V31sW9s defeated by 225 votes to 216.
Sociälist Challenge 22 February 1979 page
Page 8 scan of this page
counLEy.
NUPE branch secretary John Suddaby puts it:
By Geoffrey Sheridan
Just how far Camden's offer has divided the Labour left on authorities can be judged from the remarks of two prominent supporters of the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, Ted Knight and Livingstone.
Knight is leader of Lambeth council in South London, which experienced an all-out strike by its employees, and prospective parliamentary candidate for Hornsey. He is furious that Camden is prepared to pay up.
*They're politically irresponsible,' he told Socialist Challenge. "The fight is with the government capitulated on that fight.
Needless to say, Lambeth has refused to make any offer to its employees. Knight's recommendation to them is to urge a London-wide all-out strike to stop Fisher's sell out'.
Ken Livingstone's response to that is brief: "Tea and sympathy," he snorts. Livingstone is chairperson of Camden's housing committee, and prospective parliamentary candidate for Hampstead.
It was his resolution to the Labour group, passed by 15 votes to 9, which brought Camden into the national headlines on Wednesday of last week, seven days after the 2,500 members of NUPE's general branch in the North Lonodn borough had begun a virtually
AMDEN TOWN
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 8
Camden pulls the
£60 and 35 hours
pie from the skies
THE OFFER by Camden council's majority Labour group to meet the full £60-35 hour claim of its employees — with some possible provisos — has stepped up the pressure on other councils across the
While the public sector union leaders have sat down to talk about a 9 per cent national offer, the Camden strikers have shown - as
'No one can now say that what we're demanding is pie in the sky'
all-out strike.
What we need now is to get other councils to follow our example,' says local Livingstone, "That will put an end to the sodding pay policy as far as the public sector is concerned.'
He singles out Ken Lambeth councils in London, which both have much heftier Labour majorities than Camden, where Labour 202S holds 33 of the 59 seats.
The offer has still to be put to a full Labour council meeting, but there is little chance of the Labour group's decision being changed. What is at issue, however, is the interpretation to be given to the resolution that was passed.
It states: "This group agrees to the they've NUPE claim for a basic wage of E60 for a 35-hour week and resolves to open local negotiations to implement this decision. *This new basic wage to include the consolidation of awards under earlier phases of the government's pay policy and also the existing guaranteed bonus scheme.
We accept that this policy will reduce differentials and resolve that the reduction in basic hours should lead to an increase in employment rather than overtime.
Existing differentials are already narrow - basic pay for all the local government workers involved ranges from £40 to £44.91 a week, and the union negotiators accept that this could be futher narrowed.
HALL
£60 for all grades.
would not 250 people Hackney and
could make himself heard again.
John Suddaby, secretary and International Marxist Group.
limit the resolution' explains,
to stop a demobilisation,
bag."
explain the Camden developments.
its rates
pay rise is expected to lead to.
Labour
9.30am. the call for a recall conference. charges." to low pay.
The main bargaining point is the determination of some councillors to interpret the offer as a minimum earnings guarantee rather than a basic
The former would mean in effect that those who presently depend on bonus payments, including refuse workers, road sweepers, and highway staff,
benefit from the local agreement, but have to rely on the national settlement for their pay rise.
The response of NUPE members to this proposal was evident at a meeting for the public to meet Camden strikers and councillors last Saturday, which
attended. When right-wing Labour councillor advocated the consolidation of guaranteed bonuses, five minutes passed before he
'It's a ploy by the right wing,' says
the NUPE branch member of the They didn't want local negotiations in the first place and now they're trying to
'Our position is that the resolution says £60 basic and we're demanding By Patrick Sikorski that the council doesn't back down.'
Meanwhile the strike continues. The offer has giyen the strikers enormous encouragement. "We don't hear many whispers against the action now, John
No one can now say that what we're demanding is pie in the sky. But at the same time we've had to fight
because members have assumed the deal is in the
The strike committee has received numerous enquiries from other NUPE branches about the offer, and is preparing to send out speakers to
immediately
It is also anxious to argue that Camden is not a special case, although the borough receives three-quarters of
income trom commercial properties, which will pay the majority of the 8 percent rates increase that the
The branch maintains its call for a national all-out strike, and will lend its weight to the demand for other Labour councils to follow Camden's example It is supporting the lobby of the London
Party's annual conference, to be held on 3 March at (coincidentally) Camden Town Hall, Judd Street, WCI. The lobby, called by the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council support committee, begins at
Camden's offer has made a national sell-out that much more difficult. But if it is not to remain a unique exception then the battle has to be taken to the doorstep of every local authority and into the heart of the Labour Party, with
As Battersea CLP member Hugh Richards argued in Socialist Challenge last week: "There is a way that Labour local authorities can meet the full claim and increase services and reduce rates at a stroke. That is to refuse to pay interest
It means that Labour councillors will The then have to stand shoulder to shoulder with ducation. their employees, instead of praying for the government and the union leaders to get them off the hot seat. A national all-out strike remains the best means of forcing all the public employers, and Prentice. not least the government, to put an end comparability
teachers?
LOW
Public sector pi
a concordat wi
SCEPTICISM abounds about the concordat announced last week by Jim Callaghan and TUC general secretary Len Murray. Margaret Thatcher called it a "boneless wonder' and much press comment was of the same order.
Accordingly if Callaghan is to give the concordat any degree of authority it must be seen to work - and work at once. And this is where the public sector workers come in.
It was at the public sector rally on 22 January that NUPE general secretary Alan Fisher stood up and promised that he would only consider a comparability study if it was a one-off exercise and if public sector workers were offered
the 'going rate' of between 14 and 15 per cent.
Fisher has also maintained that any comparability exercise would not just involve comparisons with those in similar work, but comparisons with the
The dream wor
comparability
THE MAGIC word 'comparability" is now being put forward as the solution to all the problems of the low paid.
It is suggested as a crucial plank to the Government-TUC concordat and which comparability is the chief weapon the trade union leaders in the public sector are using to sell to their membership the idea of ending the present strike wave.
But comparability is not a new idea.
It has been used before; for example to determine the pay of teachers and civil
The 1974 report of the Houghton committee recognised that teachers salaries had talen hehind those of comparable workers. The government accepted Houghton's comparisons and gave teachers a 22 per cent increase.
Secretary of State for Reg Prentice, said: *For teachers to fall behind, year after year, then have a catching-up exercise at long intervals would be to sell teachers short in the future as we did in the past'.
Fine words from the now Tory
But just where has the exercise of 1974 got what
ALL OUT
THE SE
The proposals now on offer, both suggested in general terms in ti concordat and specifically in tl negotiations between the public sect unions and the employers, do not eve approach the settlement outlined by Fisher on January.
Indeed the concordat hints long-term agreements by which strik in the public service will be 'voluntaril abolished. Nor is there any mention the concordat or the public sector p offer of the 35-hour week, even as long-term commitment.
For the public sector workers, th means that through the concordat 35-hour week claim is ditched; Fishe
of comparisons with manu workers as a whole has been droppe and the 'unacceptable' offer of 8.8 p cent made before the strike actic began now turns into the acceptab offer of 9 per cent, plus comparibili with those doing "similar work.
Last year the National Union Teachers in conjunction with employers conducted a new compar bility' study, using the comparison o
Houghton award recommended.
The conclusion is that since 197 teachers have fallen behind othe non-manual workers by between 18 an 22 per cent.
Fred Jarvis, general secretary of th NUT and one of the more right-win union leaders, has commented: Th years of income policy and the fact tha teachers "productivity" extras have led to th have - HU "fringe"
present sorry state of teachers' pay?
_The NUT has now put in a claim for 35 per cent rise, to bring up their pay t the levels of 1974. And that years on — is where comparability ha got the teachers.
Civil servants' pay is a similar story In this instance there is a permanent pa comparability body which is through a pay research unit governe by a pay research board.
This lays down how far and wit
other of
Page 9 scan of this page
Towards a workers'
LL-OUT
posals ~
n low pay
The only additional factors are vague romises on the productivity front. But he government, sensing correctly that he concordat now puts the public ector union leaders in an embarrassing osition, is unlikely to give anything for othing as far as productivity goes. The already chronically understaffed ublic services seem likely urther job losses if a productivity deal s to have any substance.
The concordat has thus achieved its
— to allow the union leaders in he public SELLOR to calling off the struggle, long before the ull claim has been ipproached, except — so far — in one London borough.
The long-term implications of the concordat - both for public sector and ther workers — are even more serious.
voluntary' limits should be placed on trike action; there is the institutionaliing of 'comparability" exercises; and
I of
omparisons will be made. The right ving of the civil service unions argue in
claiming independent' unit, free from 'political' nterference.
degree of independence and mpartiality of the board lustrated by a quick glance at its nembership.
The chairperson is Lord Malcolm shepherd, a deputy director of the stirling Group of
overnment is hardly suggested by revious employment e was a leading light at the Foreign Office, during Wilson's period rovelling support for American policy n vietnam.
Other members of the pay research oard include Sir Derek lirector of Marks and Spencer, and an x-Tory MP, Lady Pike.
All the board members are appointed
the government, and government representatives
together with from ackground.
PAY
TO BEAT
the union
will have the right to pickets should be placed.
face "boneless".
concordat,
recommend
COnCOrdaI remotely "voluntary' law.
credibility
that firm in one fell swoop. How?
against the concordat. judgement of
it to operate as promised.
can be
going rate.
Companies.
cine exercise in une puone sector. his
For whatever. of
incomes policy imposed by Raynor,
unlikely
the on the 'independents', would do well to learn.
service. 4-5,000
for on picketing there is the proposal that
officials and not those Wales actually involved in any strike action
decide where
Seen in this light the concordat is
cuts by "boneless' only in so far as it threatens to make the trade union movement
Not one single vote on the TUC General Council was cast against the on trips.
including those of Alan SOUL Fisher and Communist Party member Ken Gill. But that does not mean the
now law, 2 Del
Just as the deal will gain a good deal
if the public sector workers' offer is accepted, so the public sector workers can deal with the measly offer they have had, and the concordat,
By rejecting the offer and calling for an all-out strike — against low pay and
Civil servants have not had a great deal of recent evidence to base a
pay research because the government hasn't allowed
From 1976 to 1978 the government didn't allow the pay research unit even to convene. And because of the social contract civil servants had to accept the
There is no guarantee that the same won't happen to any 'comparability'
Any comparability award given to school caretakers, ambulance workers
and due to come into effect in August or the following April, could well be suspended through the terms of the concordat, or through an
Tory likely ly the present go teachers
accept teachers' comparability demand for 35 per cent this pay round. And in that there will be a lesson which all public sector workers
the health service should be run.
campaign against health service cuts.
By Stephen Marks
'A lot of the best campaigns have been where support has been mobilised from outside the health service, says Kate Truscott.
The Fightback bulletin, which sells
copies quarterly, examples such as the industrial action
hospital Hempstead, and the widespread communiy and trade umon suppor for the fight against health service cuts in Cynon Valley, South Wales
In Cynon Valley, a protest sit-in lasting eight weeks was supported by rolas or pickets wrom sieel Works factories and pits, each providing two or four workers per shift, with thei
made up by workplace collections.
'We didn't leave it there,' says Cari Brecker. 'We found there were three campaigns in Wales not in touch with ach other. So we proposed they ge ogether regionally, and with Cardif Trades Council they now form a South
Co-ordinating Committee against NHS cuts?
entally seror hospiLancashire, mentally subnormal Lancashire, nurses worked to rule against staff
occupying TWO running them at what they thought was an adequate staffing level. Local bus workers helped by taking patients out
whether the issue is cuts or wages, the question of cash limits can't be ducked. The Government has a rigid cash total for the NHS bureaucracy to work within, leaving them to divide it UD DCEWCCU wages, investment, and running costs.
*This means that any demand for wages or against hospital closures will affect the overall total,' Carl explains. 'You can't raise the question of more jobs, higher wages, or closures withou cmanoe an ena to cash unus and massive injection of funds.'
plan for the NHS
WORKERS are beginning to take their own decisions about how
That is where recent action by health workers is pointing, according to CARL BRECKER and KATE TRUSCOTT, members of the co-ordinating committee of Fightback, the national
They argue that the present wages fight and the struggle against the cuts raise the question of a new way of running the health
It also means running the health service in a new way. Kate points oul how the way the health presently run works against the level of health care in the community.
Prestige in the medical profession does not come from community care. reports or specialising in looking health needs of children, the old, or Hemel women, or dealing with industrial disease. *It comes from specialising "prestige acute diseases and medical disorders, or high-technology things like heart transplants."
The current struggles point to a different way. have justified their action by saying if we do not take action, cuts will reduce provision so much that we canno provide a service *They know the NHS is already just an emergency service."
But this makes it vital to link the demand for £60 for 35 hours to the question of staffing. *If workers win more money without breaking the cash limits, Kate argues, *that could just mean fewer jobs, more cuts in equipment and more closures of hospitals; and shortages, which hardship to staff and patients.'
Fighting the cash limits also means taking up the private profiteering trom the health service, by drug companies and outside contractors More and more hospital services, such as laundry and catering, are being contracted out to private enterprise low-wage profiteers attack on workers' ability to control the health service,' practice in the health service is not just a matter of pay-beds.
But union leaders are not taking this up, instead tney are talking productivity deals, lity'. 'But the £60 claim is based or comparability; it is two-thirds of the average male wage,' says Kate.
two service is
after the *Everywhere workers
and the
workers especially more staff spontaneous,
CausC the biggest control.
level,
'All this is an discussed
says Carl. 'Private councils,
early in June. about and comparabi- Make sure represented.
London NW1 Socialist Challenge
SSHOUR
*The problem now, Carl maintains, *is that wherever people are trying to get meetings going that cut across union limits and go beyond £60 for 35 hours there is an unwillingness to respond because of the way the union leaders are directing the campaign, into sectoralism and inter-union rivalry.
The policing role of the trade union leaders has never been more damnable than now, when the feeling, the anger
degree of trade union organisation are tere as never Derore, and the political conditions are there to win against the Labour government.'
Kate points out that the 1973 ancillary
strike W dis much more with more stewards
But the members today are better organised, more prepared to act and
ess frightened. Both agree the bes action has been where control has been wrested by stewards from divisional
For where officials have been better than average.
problems will be by Fightback's affiliated union branches, cuts campaigns, trades
women's shop stewards committees and others, at their forthcoming national conference
your organisation is Further information from: Fightback, 30 Camden Rd,
22 February 1979 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
One small step towards working class control
HOME NEWS
legislative Assembly in Scotland.
is campaigning for a Yes vote in the referendum. BY THE LATE 1960s the traditional ruling parties in Britain had been exposed in the eyes of the Scottish
working people. *13 Years of Tory Misrule had been followed by the Labour government of 1964-70, and yet the social and economic problems which had throughout the 1920s and '30s seemed to be still insoluble.
The deep-seated structural problems of the Scottish economy persisted. Long-term attrition of job opportunities - the closure of the
the shipyards, ine railway and the heavy engineering Tactories remained a major problem.
New industries, where they were set up, tended to be part of a "branch factory economy, employing unskilled, low-paid workers: in many cases in areas far from the traditional areas of working class concentration.
Glasgow and its surfounding areas, in which almost half the population of Scotland lived, continued to provide some of the worst housing conditions, the worst unemployment figures, and the lowest health standards of any similar area throughout Europe.
Migration from Scotland in the 1960s accounted for almost 96 per cent of the natural growth in the population, a higher proportion than any other area of Europe.
A central factor in the rise among Scottish working people of aspiratons to self-government was the changing role which state institutions came to play in economic life after the Second World War.
The "welfare state' ideology promoted by the Labour Party endorsed by the British working class in 1945 included a commitment to full employment — a concept which was retained, at least in principle, for the next 20 years, even when the Tories were returned to power.
But the deep structural problems in the Scottish economy meant that even the DUSL-WaI boom and subsequent period of relative prosperity throughout the capitalist world could not provide sufficient employment in Scotland.
This brought about a wholly new development - regional economic policy, which began with the Distribution of Industry Act in 1945. The aim of the policy was the direction of industry; the provision of an adequate environment for it to grow
and in SOlIC cases the provision of
MEETINGS IN WALES
*Why socialists should support
an Assembly for Wales'
Monday, 26 February, 7.30pm, Corporation Hotel, Cow Bridge Rd.
East, Canton, Cardiff
Meeting sponsored by:
Socialist Challenge, Morning Star,
Tribune, and Y Faner Goch
Tuesday, 27 February, 7.30pm,
New York, Princess Way Roundabout, Swansea.
Speakers from: Socialist Challenge and Y Faner Goch [Morning Star invited]
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 10
Devolution in Scotland
ON 1 March the Scottish electorate will be asked whether it approves the government's legislation setting up an elected,
DES TIERNEY and PAT KANE explain why Socialist Unity
adequate workforce, through the setting up of new towns.
Regional policy - especially since it had the support of the trade unions and the Labour Party - became the main vehicle for change in Scotland. The vast majority of Scottish people Scotland believed that this policy, combined
with distinct 'Scottish' institutions of the state, could reduce unemployment and provide adequate housing and health facilities.
Disillusionment with the performance of both major political parties was widespread at the time of the fall of the Heath government, and was reinforced by the austerity policies rapidly introduced by the newly-elected Labour leaders.
All the preconditions existed for some form of 'radical' change. The growth of the Scottish National Party 4101003120M Scottish people's desire for that change ane was in me new town. that the ideas of nationalism first took hold.
The new "middle classes' were totally disillusioned by the failure of Heath and saw the possibility of being squeezed by the unions.
The SNP took this regionalism one step further. Why not set up our own independent Scotland, free from outside interference and able to use the new benefits of North Sea oil? This was the view which attracted the Scottish middle class, together with sections of the working class.
The demand for Assembly in Edinburgh became the and focus for the discontent, and with the
Labour Party initially hostile to any change from Westminster rule there
YES!
the
was a massive transfer of votes to the SNP, mainly from the Tories but increasingly from Labour supporters. Coupled with the growth of trivial forms of Scottish nationalism, this in,
development was seen by many an particularly the
movement — as a step towards reacnonary nationalism. socialists to outright revulsion against any form of legislative Assembly. What they could not understand was that the rise of working class support for the SNP was temporary, and in itself a reflection of the aspirations of the Scottish people for some form of self-government.
With the introduction government's devolution legislation in 1977 and the long drawn-out battle in Parliament to get it passed, Labour regained the traditional which the people of Scotland, in their majority, have always given the party. Throughout 1978 support for the Labour Party in Scotland grew. Confirmed government supporters were
General Election!
than in any period since 1966.
SNP. Despite
crisis seems to be developing within the party over its reactions to these events and the leadership of the party is in turmoil.
despite the attacks on working class living standards by the Labour government, and workers' continued elected resistance to these, the political con-
cessions which the Labour government offered were supported by the Scottish working people. elected Assembly in Scotland within the British state. It did not represent a winning of sections of the working class positions. stand on this demand? labour The SO HORS
which beset the Scottish working class It led many will not be solved by the setting up of
an Assembly. planned, socialist society, in which capitalist property has been taken over, can people begin to overcome problems.
about through the independent action of the of working class people. Does the
setting up of the Assembly take us nearer this solution or further away? A powerful argument against the support Assembly, were it proved correct, is
that the setting up of the Assembly will increase the "nationalism' as an ideology gaining ground within the working class.
All the evidence at the present time
ASSEMBLY?
MORE
TAXATION MORE
BUREAUCRACY
MORE GOVERNMENT
SCOTLAI
SAYS NO
Regional economic policies haven't worked and nor will an Assembly on its own. adopted and elected in the three by-elections which took place; in two of these the Labour Party achieved Scottish more votes than it did at the last
Opinion polls showed greater support for Labour
The reverse was the case with the
having excellent, the Assembly "populist' candidates in the three by-elections, the SP's vote slumped. A
Secretary
What does this indicate? First,
commissions.
Their demand had been for an
SCOTLAND
SAYS No
union executives 'nationalist" electorate.
Where should socialists
to the problems
expressed Only through democratically-controlled
phraseology. these
Such a solution will only come but it hinders
in Scotland.
possibility of Scottish implement their policies.
Scottish political scene.
EDUCATION
-YOUDECIDE
AND LESS PORTI FOR SCOTLAND
RESTUESTER
seems to point in the opposite direction. In the absence of an elected
Assembly and the real advantages which it will confer on Scottish working people, the pull of "nationalism" will be stronger.
Much more positive reasons can be seen for supporting the setting up of
There are at present unique and separate institutions through which the Scottish people are governed. The
of State for Scotland, through the Scottish Office, employs 12,000 civil servants running the equivalent of nine English ministries. They supervise 204 ad hoe boards or
The form of British state which governs Scotland is, to say the least, the less generous than the forms which govern England and Wales.
This allows a specific relationship to develop between the elected leader-
Scotland
ship of the working class in Scotland - Labour MPs, STUC, and Scottish
and their
Unable to test their 'programme' in action due to the failings of the British state institutions or the 'slowness' of vote, the rest of the British working class
through the all-British union leaders, the leadership of the Scottish working class is characterised
their demagogic left-sounding
This may be helpful to their subsequent careers in the union apparatus
advance in consciousness of working class people
The advent of an Assembly would bring with it the opportunity demand legislation, the inability of Assembly members to dodge the issues so readily, and pressure on
executives
This will allow a clarification on the
Although there are dangers in the
Scottish people placing their trust in
any form of Assembly, it has already
given a great impetus to reforming legislation. In many areas of civil life
divorce, abortion, women's legal
rights, homosexual rights, education-
al provision - a range of reforms are
presently being formulated
While many of these will fall foul of the new legislative process, their introduction will become a focus for the mass activity needed to achieve them.
Already working people look to the institutions of the state to intervene in their favour. This process WIll DI greatly strengthened with an elected Assembly.
Whether or not the Assembly has
formal DOWCIS solve unemployment, bad housing, and inadequate health provisions, this will not stop the Scottish people raising demands for the Assembly to act in their interests.
Socialists have to argue that only struggles outside the Assembly will have any impact on the massive problems of Scotland. But through the Assembly it will be possible to take to task the traditional leaders of the Scottish workers, and to contrast socialist solutions.
For these reasons it is vital that the socialist movement should support the demands of the Scottish people
The Labour Party, the Scottish unions, and the Communist Party are lined up behind a Yes vote. The CBI, the banks, industrialists and the Tory Party, together with small sections of the Labour Party left, are for a No
During the referendum debates, it is the policies of the SNP and the Labour Party which are dominant.
With the participation of the Socialist Workers Party, revolutionary socialists would be making a more powerful inpact on the campaign Unfortunately, the SWP is calling for
vote. Socialist Unity is campaigning in Scotland for the biggest possible Yes vote (not least because those who do not vote will be recorded as a No vote). socialisis seppointhe cal for an We are explaining Assembly, and are seeking to use the campaign to help build a socialist alternative to the policies of the SNP and the Labour Party.
Page 11 scan of this page
Will Smith survive
Soweto 11 framed for sedition
Saturday, 3 March ZIMBABWE ACTION CONFERENCE
Economics.
London WCI.
Further
AAM, 89 London WC1. 5311.
By Jim Atkinson RHODESIAN troops Black on the rampage orien
villagers Zimbabwe since nationalist
STOL COWI Rhodesia viscount airliner on 12 February.
*Initial retaliation for the Viscount crash', the Guardian reported on 18 February, taking place inside the country in an area heavily populated and controlled by guerillas.'
Helicopter-borne Rhodesian commandos of the notorious Special Air Services have been combing the Vuti area in what appears to be a deliberate and
tactic to drive every African from the region'.
The SAS, the Guardian said, are in a 'merciless mood' and black civilian deaths can only be high
Another Air Rhodesia plane was hit by guerilla fire on 15 February. These incidents highlight the growing success of the nationalist forces.
The guerillas have sunk deep roots all over the countryside and have now moved into the cities in considerable numbers. On 13 February, freedom fighters attacked an industrial zone of Salisbury, VICTIMS of a Rhodesian raid into Mozambique
By. our Foreign Staff THE Soweto uprising of 1976 still looms over South African politics. The regime is trying to assign the "blame' for rebellion and distract
from its other troubles — with the resumption of the Soweto trial
The trial of 11 student leaders, which has restarted after a two month break, is aimed at proving that
INTERNATIONAL
Support March 3
Zimbabwe conference
11am-4pm London School of Houghton Street,
information from Charlotte Street,
Tel: 01-580
capital's main power station, only two miles from the city
have centre.
The regime's own officials admit that there are now over 12. 000 guedition in the country thousands of recruits in bases in Mozambique and Zambia.
The imperialist powers are increasingly scared
"is white settler regime will simply
collapse if a transfer to some form of neo-colonial rule is not rapidly negotiated between the Smith government Patriotic Front, mands the allegiance of most of the liberation fighters.
The British and governments know that the 20 April "internal elections will fail to head off the growing black revolt.
The white minority is to retain 28 per cent of the cabinet seats after the poll, the rest being shared out discredited black have joined the government since the 'internal settlement' signed Was March.
The white-run army, police and state bureaucracy remain intact after transition to Smith-style 'Majority rule ana mere are they responsible WCIC seditiously stirring up the black
Although sedition
the common law offence the
also face charges of conspiracy incitement to sedition the Assemblies Act and participation in terrorist activities under the Terrorism Act.
just
These statutory provide a convenient smear.
until the
constitutional provisions barring the take-over of farms, mines and factories from their white capitalist owners.
The elections themselves can only be a farce - if the Smith tens regime actually
• holding them. 85 per cent of the country is now under martial law, with special military courts that the empowered to
death sentences against which there is no appeal.
In much of the especially most of the 'tribal and the trust lands', which com- have
dislodged the very few blacks are likely to US vote at all.
Elsewhere, intimidation settlement"
private armies of the black
marily those led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi Sithole), may force between the some Africans to turn up at the groups that polling stations.
Smith The disintegration of white
power would last masses to fight for well as national jeopardising the will plans for 'black' neo-colonial the rule under which interests were preserved.
The black agricultural proleLalal. which attempted to seize the 4,000 huge white capitalist farms tha occupy half the arable land, certainly start to do so. And the urban proletariat, one of the largest in Africa (besides that in South Africa itself would be spurred forward to fight for its own class interests.
This is what the British and American determined at all costs to avoid.
Delay breeds danger, Owen, the Foreign said in London on 23 January referring the refusal of the whites to come to
•Delay has allowed communist ideologies in many countries to flourish. emerges as the real threat'.
Minority rule cannot survive, Owen said. for The prosecution has made no attempt to prove, for example, that the accused 'persons in the making of petrol bombs for poses or that they introduced a commit "terrorist or terrorists to the Riotous students.
Equally the defence does not dispute that the involved offences number of the demonstrations
and stay-aways cited by
elections?
way it is ended.'
impact
succeeds
Africa.
hand down
speech. We country,
where the investment in South
effectively which, settlers" army,
£5,000
by or of Germany. and the
South Africa groups
masses bring the Rev
likely under the
spur on TOTCE
social, A liberation,
imperialists role, whatever
imperialist
Line serious not
country's would almost
in Britain.
the Zimbabwe ference being
London on 3 March.
Pare the David Secretary, local
stubborn Zimbabwe Union Zimbabwe African Union (ZAPU).
Chaos which
*The question is
prosecution
instructed that the 11,
destructive pur-
have never
movement over
11 were anyone else organising
COLYCHCHL the opponents of the regime.
how long it survives and in what
The biggest threat of all te the imperialists is the potential
impending victories of the Zimbabwean masses on blacks in South
This is where the imperialists' interests are really
"Let us be open and frank', Owen said in his 23 January
do remain vulnerable because of certain key minerals and a huge UK
Africa including investment, is of the order of
million, probably double that of the United States
The British government is so alarmed at what may happen in
it the black down the Rhodesian regime by force that it already has contingency plans to send out British troops, most
United Nations 'peacekeeping
British military force would not play any progressive
the official propaganda. Its sole purpose would be to oversee a transition to a neo-colonial government.
danger that British imperialism will directly intervene in Zimbabwe in the not-so-distant future empha sises the urgency of building a powerful solidarity movement
A key step to doing this wil
Action Conheld by the Anti-Apartheid Movement ir
The conference is supported by the National Union of Students,
International Marxist Group, the Communist Party, by Pete Evans
anti-apartheid groups, Third World First and both the
African National Africa (ZANU) and the People's It starts at 1lam in the London School of Economics, will hear speakers ation from ZANU and ZAPU, and urgent. will end with a demonstration to Downing Street at 4pm.
solidarity boycotting South Africa.
What this all adds up to is
who have been detained since July, are on trial for political views which they speakers from
denied and as movements. representatives of a political
which they activists. more control than in
'Sedition' and 'terrorism' are
epithets for
DISINVEST Now!
THIS 15 NOT
STUDENTS Unce
MEETS -TH
SIX students at the London School of Economics have gone
without food for nearly two weeks in protest at the college's
refusal to sell its South African investments. The college's
director, Ralf Dahrendorf, is displaying immense fortitude
in not giving in to this 'moral blackmail', but holding on t
the £311,000 worth of investments.
Union solidarity
RECENT events in southern
for instance the coming majority rule' elections in Rhodesia and the trial
make solidarity with the liber-
struggle particularly
We need to build in the trade
and workplaces for actions such all trade with
In the North West such a campaign is already underway.
A conference last November, called jointly by the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the North West TUC, set up a liaison committee to organise a tour by
the liberation This will be especially aimed at trade union
Public meetings are planned
Manchester, Tameside, Liverpool, Preston, Blackburn and Burnley, with meetings in a number of factories, including
A
GEC and ICL, both of which have extensive southern Afri can links.
We hope the meetings wil not only educate trade unionists on southern Africa, but also group together a number of trade union activists who can
to build the solidarity campaign in the labour movement.
Such a network could, for instance, foliow the example of the Rover shop stewards at Solihull, who produced broadsheet on the links be. tween British Leyland and South Africa.
Along with other Leyland stewards they have taken action in solidarity with the struggle for union recognition by th black Metal and Allied Workers Union which branches in Leyland plants in South Africa.
°The North West Trade Union-Anti-Apartheid Liaison Committee can be contacted c/o 59 Tintern Avenue, West Didsbury, Manchester.
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
H Block - the real
IN
BRIEF
Astrid should stay
THE authorities in both Britain and Germany are getting rather DCIOUS OYCE growing protests against their bid to extradite Astrid Proll.
In the Appeal Court last week, Lord Chief Widgery adjourned the Proll hearing to await clarification on Astrid's nationality status.
Her claims British nationality, Dy virtue of nel marriage to Robin Puttick, are currently being heard at the Family Division of the High Court. Her lawyers argue that Inere can be no extraction or a British subject.
In an obvious attempt to get Astrid back to West Germany, the Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Baum, has hinted at clemency.
In an interview with the magazine Stern, he suggested that Astrid would be treated leniently if she gave herself up and renounced her alleged associations with the Red Army Fraction.
The Friends of Astrid Proll held a rally on 20 February at an interview which Jo Richardson MP spoke out against the extradition bid. Violence against
women
A NUMBER of groups and or canisanons women's liberation movement, including the National Women's Aid Federation
everal rape crisis centres, are riataine a week of action on
rolence against women from 3 to 10 March.
Activity will be concentrated at a local level and directed towards women. The organisers of the protest point out that 25 per cent of violent crime is wife assault, and that 50 per cent of rape cases reported to the London rape crisis centre involve men known to the WORCIA
More information on the week of action can be obtained Dy phoning the following numbers: Scotland Leeds son, Jo Kirk, 031-225 8011; Leeds - 689882; birmingnam - Heather Powell, 021-452 8742; Cardiff Carol Jenkins, 499084; Sheffield Maureen Storey 0742 51816; London - 01-837 9317, or 01-340 6913.
Expulsions
A LEADING member Oxford City Labour Party has been expelled. He Heslin, chairperson of party's anti-racism sub-committee.
Heslin was expelled month on the charge that he supported and distributed the literature of an organisation whose principles and constitution are contrary to those of the Labour Party.
The right wing in the branch complained that he had sold Socialist Press, the newspaper
Workers Socialist League.
The branch has also refused two applications from membership on similar grounds, and past expu sion bids have been made against both Socialist Press and Socialist Challenge SUUUUrECIS
Heslin's trade union branch
he is chairperson of GWU 5/833 - protested against the expulsion at a meeting on 7 February and elected a steering committee to fight for the lifting of the ban.
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979
IRELAND
programme turned out to be. By Geoff Bell
Panorma hardly mentioned the actual circumstances surrounding H Block. there any description legal procedures which lead to convictions for offences.
Instead Panorama concentrated on explaining American newspaper columnist Jack Anderson had been misled into criticising British policy in Ireland.
The programme ended with
Ireland Minister Roy Mason, who "welcomed' the straight! tunity put the
Panorama hardly mentioned the actual circumstances sur-
propaganda offensive
being waged by the
H BYCESHHICEEL on Already it has 250,000 copies of a special and newspaper on the issue
But at least H Block is now talked about, and argued about. Here is how the argument should proceed.
What's actually going on in H Block?
Over 350 Republican ers and a lew prisoners are wearing nothing but a blanket. They are refused exercise and normal facilities and are kept locked up for 24 hours a day.
As a rule the only time the Sue prisoners leave their cell is to go to mass or, more ominously, hospital.
The prisoners are refusing to "slop out', wash or empty their toilet Consequently most of the cells are filthy.
The prisoners also say that they are regularly assaulted and beaten up by the
of But the government says that Ted these conditions inflicted'. the
The
CORICHCHE last prisoners to the cells and the denial of normal facilities are not "self-inflicted" They are punishments imposed by the prison authorities for protests UnC DrISOnCES making.
Nor have the chosen to have no chairs, beds or tables in their cells. These
taken WCIC dWay authorities as punishment.
But nobody is stopping these people from washing, slopping out or cleaning their cells. They have done that from choice.
It depends what you mean by "choice'. The prisoners say they had no choice, it was the only waw to craw aeros to wid was going on.
What happened early last year the authorities
page 12
issues
"THE PROPAGANDA prison' was the sub-title of last week's Panorama programme, advertised as a report on H Block, Long Kesh. And propaganda the
suddenly stopped allowing the prisoners to go to the toilet unless they uniform.
Nor was So unless the prisoners gave
of the in to this demand, they were
unable to dump their piss and "terrorist" shit.
Then, once these new rules were introduced, how orderlies were given the work of emptying the toilet vessels and they began to topple the pots over the cells.
It was the combination of all this which led to the 'dirty with Northern strike' of the prisoners.
oppor-
record It all seems to go back to this
question of prison uniforms.
What's behind the refusal to wear them? now
British It is a bit more complicated
Block. then just produced uniforms.
happened was as follows.
In 1972 the Conservative goverument hopefully peculiar
prison for crimes with the political the North of Ireland and granted those prisoners special category status In all but name this was political status. It meant that
prison- the prisoners were allowed to
Loyalist wear their own clothes,
freely, and take orders only from their officers' rather than the prison staff.
DESOI
also
Spots.
Prison
*self-
of the
prison
prisoners
by the he stayed out of it?
Just like the Derry 14.
Sunday?'
natural to them.
whisky." *Irish?' 'No, Seotch." 'You bet it was!" was that
wore a prison
Loyalist
deliberately the question Essentially what
recognised
nature of those in
connected situation in prisoners who fell
still operating.
Most
mix
The 'You see Maudling's dead? 'Yeah, died of drink you know. The newspapers' version was all censorship. He died of a booze-ridden liver." 'What will he berememberedfor? His mates in jail, or how
'Well, he always did say they would never take him alive
'Do you think he was drunk when he approved Bloody 'Not necessarily. It's like Mason. Such things come
'You know Reggie's famous remark on a plane leaving here? "What a bloody awful country, bring me a large
"Well I hope it was Irish that got him in the end."
H7I "THESE FENIANS ARE ALWAYS EXACGERATING ABOUT H.BLOCK CONDITIONS. WERE JUST SENDING A CLEANER N NOW?.
Their status was similar to that given to prisoners of war.
There were not a great many
into this (1973). category at that time, because internment without trial was the
Republicans were simply interned, and the camps operated on a similar basis to after granted the special category' rules.
status. phasing out of internment was accompanied
facilities. noused. itself
offences criminals. alone, accused blanket' differently
Act. by the establishment of new legal procedures as contained in the Emergency Provisions Act
Eventually this was joined by
abolition of *special category' status by the Labour government in May 1976. No prisoner convicted of a crime
was be 'special category'
Those convicted refused to accept this change, and refused
uniform to wear ne prison required under the new laws. The British reacted to this by denying the prisoners the usual
So essentially it was a change of rules by the British government which produced the whole H Block issue. The H Blocks are the compounds in Long Kesh where the prisoners are
But why should the government treat these prisoners differently from any others?
First of all, the government
recognises those Convicted of so-called terrorist'
al C not normal
They are convicted by special "Diplock' courts, in which the normal laws regulating criminal trials do not apply.
For instance, there are no
The accused are tried by judges
and those making the accusations are not required to appear in court and therefore need not be cross-examined.
The Amnesty International invesuigation mo ponce bru tality testified that the way the
are tried, held and convicted has eroded the rights of suspects held in connection with terrorist offences.
From the minute they are picked up to the minute they are convicted. those now on the
are treated entirely from ordinary criminals. The argument is that this process should continue all.
after conviction.
They may be treated differently, , but this does not make mem pontical prisoners
Even the British government does in one way admit that Inese prisoners are ponucal
The legislation under which most of them are convicted is the Emergency Provisions Act This Act talks of terrorist OTTenCes
What is meant by terrorist offences? Another piece legislation, the Prevention of Terrorism Act, offers
It is the PTA under which the suspects are first picked up, and some are convicted under the
It defines terrorism as 'violence for political ends
Thus even on its own terms the British government admits that the offences are political'
But this is not the central reason why the prisoners are demanding political status. Instead it involves the nature of the crimes committed racher alleged, for often the
evidence under which they are convicted is extremely flimsy
Amnesty International. 1o1 instance, reported that 90 per cent of convictions are based or confessions and Amnesty went on to severely question how these 'confessions' were obtained
The main point 1s thal "crimes' are committed in the course of a national liberation struggle for the right of all the Irish people to rule themselves. It is a political struggle for political ends
The vast majority of those committed have no 'criminal' record, they are volunteers who are fighting not for personal gain but for a political ideal Their actions take place in the context of a war against ar occupying army and govern ment.
Since 1918 the Irish people as a whole have never been given the right to vote on the presence of this or on the government of Ireland.
The volunteers in Long Kesh are arguing they given that right, and that only the Irish people have the right to determine their own future
So why doesn't the government give in to the demands of those 'on the blanket'?
Precisely because that would be to admit the political nature of the conflict taking place in th North of Ireland. It would rais the whole issue of the nature of the struggle taking place.
As long as the government can say that the IRA are just 'criminals' or 'gangsters", it can portray the war as merely a 'policing action' to root out *terrorists" who have
community.
SUPPOR How these 'isolated gang-
sters" can exist, as they have done for the past nine years, in the face of between 15,000 and 20,000 British troops, the government does not care to explain
What the British want to avoid is a discussion of the real causes of the conflict and of the justice the Republican demands in that conflict.
Denying 'political status to the prisoners is one means of doing this, for its pretends that the conflict is not political at
Page 13 scan of this page
Internationalism: a very practical question
OPEN FORUM
deny that the results of every effective solidarity perspective cannot even be developed. IMG.
international capitalism, the internationalisation of its counterrevolutionary and repressive funetions, the international co-ordination of workers' struggles intervention of the vanguard is an urgent TASK SUCT cannot be improved on a piecemeal basis.
The crying need is for a mass revolutionary International, sections deeply implanted in working class. Starting with existing revolutionary forces, can we begin this task? For comrades the answer is workers' struggles, discuss, but above all... wait'.
This is how Duncan Hallas of the SWP puts it:
'To develop a real current internationalism - and without such a current all talk of an International is self-deception - it is necessary to start bi linking the struggles workers in one country with those of others. workers actually exist, namely in the various countries.
'It means putting aside grandiose ideas like "International leadership", "World Congresses" and the like in
*IT IS around such issues as
internationalism that the Inter-
national Socialist Alliance and
the international are
planning series
dav-schools. The first will be o
*Revolutionary Strategy and the
Revolutionary Party',
on Saturday 10 March.
We are inviting all
signatories to the appeal for joint
work which appeared in the 4
January issue
Challenge to attend, as well as
comrades who feel they agree
with the appeal. Big Flame has
also been invited.
Venue • Hampstead Room,
YWCA, Great Russell Street,
WC1. (Organised under
auspices of the London World
Affairs Group.]
Registration £1,
School, PO Box 50, London N1
2XP.
Developments in Iran have put to the test the political strategies offered by socialist organisations of every variety. Furthermore, the Iranian struggle has brought home to many revolutionaries the very practical questions of building a party in Iran.
Internationalism is a fundamental, practical issue, which can no longer be dismissed as 'abstract'. Very few socialists would
far-reaching — or even decisive — in changing the relationship of forces on a world scale. We need only remember the differing impact of dramatic events like the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, Vietnam, Chile or Portugal.
That's why it is not enough to organise support for these upsurges when they occur. Much more is called for, including a critical opinion of their development, the steps which should be taken, and the political tasks involved. Without this approach
iS precluded, and a sound
The question of internationalism, specifically the Fourth International, is the centre of much discussion today. The IMG, at a national and local level, is involved in debate with, amongst others, comrades of the Socialist Workers Party, the Workers' Socialist League, and the International Socialist Alliance.
Below, we print a contribution to the debate which is taken from a new pamphlet called 'On Trotskyism and the Fourth
. It is written by Phil Hearse, a member of the
including
however limited and the
co-ordination lets in various essential...'(1)
with the build BUBe tendency nOW some "link up abandons the revolutionary
ulous approach below. Further, in 1978, on TCHIL of
is acclacary annoualca of
where
the world
permanent organisational
on political analysis.
, in London mechanisms the
SOcIalISI real problem internationally
Rally
the when the
from se on
the SWP
'national' struggle can be
national
IMG propaganda and agitation in one's own country together with developing meaningful international links, which
first are meaningful to workers outside the
milieu...meetings and scussions Derween socialist group-
countries are
Let us note straight away that this approach abandons all attempts to
pontical in favour of 'humdrum tasks' and 'meetings and discussions. In this respect, such an argument
left in each particular country to its own spontaneous development, a ridic-
We discuss the notion that there does not exist a real cur-
internationalism' In the workers movement in many countries
But the real objection to Hallas' approach is its abandonment of the the possibility of the Marxist vanguard in each country co-ordinating its activity and developing a common analysis of
situation and political
These possibilities exist even when revolutionary groups are very small; but they cannot be realised without a common framework for discussion, a
structure and at least a limited division of labour, and a commonly accepted way of making decisions and agreeing
If some comrades find the names actually given to these essential
(International leadership, world congress, international executive committee, etc) "grandiose" then that is a very secondary objection which can easily be dealt with. The
whether agreed analysis possible, agreement on internation-
possible, or whether these things are merely 'fictions' and 'self-deception.
For example, was it 'self-deception
Fourtl International oriented its sections at the 1965 world the congress to building mass campaigns
Vietnam? Or did it find some concrete result in the central role of
the US anti-war movement, the central role of the
FORTH
in the Vietnam Campaign or the central role of the JCR in building the Comité Vietnam in France?
Was it 'a fiction' when the French and Swiss sections set about jointly linking up the struggle of French and Swiss workers during the strike at the Lip watch factory - a decision which led to some concrete, not just verbal, linking up of workers' struggles internationally in SIne COTIN demonstrations attended by workers in watch factories in both France and Switzerland.
Or again, was it simply a fiction when the whole weight of the Fourth International was used to win over a substantial section of the nationalist movement to Trotskyism. Without the intervention International, and especially the influence of the French section or the ETA-VI comrades, TOLS VISIT would be in an incomparably weaker state than it is today in Spain.
Is it pure fiction that Trotskyist organisations have been built in several East European under repression and in the most difficult circumstances, plishment which would have been literally impossible without permanent work of militants from many countries in Western Europe? We could add endlessly to this list of examples. They all testify, against the international passivity of Hallas, to
possibility international work by revolutionaries.
Such things are not however, if contact between Marxist vanguard is limited "meetings and discussions between grouplets in various Permanent Joint action requires an arganisational framework: i every- agreed programme and thing has to be discussed from scratch in "meetings and discussions, then nothing practical gets done.
The many conferences held by the French organisation Lutte Ouvrière, several times attended by the British IS (SWP), demonstrate that conferences without programmatic agreement or organisational framework modify nothing. For comsde Hallaterm nes
existence consciousness. His polemic represents the rationalisation of a nationallybased group, albeit a large one, which
terrain.
The near-destruction of revolutionary Marxist tradition by Stalinism has led to a situation where
re-building OI revolutionary organisations and the re-appropriation of revolutionary Marxist politic
especially after 1969 - by broad new forces has taken place in a complex and contradictory fashion.
HERNHES
FOR ARORIO ROTE
Д ANNIVERSAR OF HERE
Ernest Mandel speaking at the IMG's rally on the 40th anniversary of the Fourth International last year
Solidarity
fully broke HICVCH positions
been through
of Joint
on one of its central concerns
seizure of power.
Basque to the tune of Il Manifesto'.
of the has been the
win these centrist revolutionary Marxist positions.
Manifesto's
COUTES CS.
an accom-
ment whole. the organisations,
tion which are ABC to Marxists. meaningful
internationally
possible, nated struggle
the
seriously countries'. national intervention;
joint
practice totally
face of the revolutionary left.
pamphlet On
determines
Trotskyism'.
failure review the
The Other
Up&p.
Duncan Hallas.
Revolutionary
'Party and Class', Pluto Press, 1969
This is classically demonstrated by the case of Il Manifesto in Italy. Its core was expelled from the Italian Communist Party (PCI) at the end of the 1960s for leftism'. But its leading group, around Rossanda and Magri,
trom Stalinist
Failing to develop a homogeneous politics or cadre, the organisation has
numerOus internal crises, and has ended up going back
- the key role of workers control in the
Now it sees its central role as left pressure on the PCI, in Rossanda's words making the 3½ million legs of the PCI march
Crucial in this whole development
absence of firmly-rooted revolutionary Marxist organisation capable of intervening to
forces
experience has been repeated in slightly different ways by the other two major organisations of
This represents a major tragedy for the European revolutionary move-
These huge numbering nearly 50,000 militants at one time, each with daily papers, are being frittered away because of their inability to answer central questions of orienta-
No modification can occur in the state of the existing revolutionary left
without a co-ordi by revolutionary Marxists. Any national revolutionary organisation which takes its own ideas
must attempt an interand this immediately poses the question of international organisation. Any other approach simply leads to constructing alliances with the most diverse trends,
incapable contributing anything to changing the
* The extracts above are from the
Trotskyism and / the Fourth International'. The pamphlet contains two essays: 'On the Fourth International' and 'Big Flame on
The last article will be of particula concern to many Socialist Challenge readers who were critical of our
Big Flame's pamphlet. We would urge them to order a copy of the pamphlet from:
Bookshop, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XQ. 30p plus 10p
"Towards Socialist Party" in
WHAT'S
LEFT
She warde Display a per column publication. Payment in advance. STRATEGY for Socialism in Mozam
: Discussion meeting amigu , Friday. March. 7.30pm Information Centre, 34 Percy Stree connon wi Admission 4u0 inic. Hel refreshments. essential - reading Frelimo's Third Congress Report abu trom above adoress).
WOMEN'S Theatre Group open Soap
Walk, London E9. Or 15 March Saturdav 17 March, Sunday 18 March at 8pm COMRADE from the Other Bookshop. Please ring 226-0571 for details MANCHESTER. The Crisis of British
Communist Group organise the
Longsight Town Hall, Stockport Roac Longsight RELAND - A selected mail orderls of over 130 DuDlicaTIons In SToc Available on News From
PICKET GARNERS: Main picket
Selfridges
Oxford Circus): 40-41 Haymarket Whitcombe St. (Leicester Sq.). Mas
COULD YOU
Phese three positions are one full me
Road London W10 Applications close: 2 March WOMEN and Health
0.30am-5.30pm, University of Londo
Inion, Malet St. London WC1. Adr 50p at door MAY DAY GREETINGS: trades council
the name
address of the branch secretary and c 28 February the branch will be maile allowing the item to be raised at the branches March Or April meeting copies of ine circular • inclucine rares from D. Weppier, PO Box 50, Londor N1 2XP.
Socialist Challenge. 22 February 1979 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
LETTERS
Pigeon post
YOUR pigeon racing correspondent labours under complete apprehension when he February and what pseudonyms are Trotsky and Tariq Ali?) that Beakless Benn could be one of those birds unable to get out of its shell.
Those in the know recall that this winged wonder once ruled the skies,
under nanc Stansgate. The later change of name caused some controversy in ornithological circles.
Only recently has this bird begun to show its true class. Observers report that it is returning to the place it started from at great speed.
Your correspondent should worry
high-flying superstar birds and be more concerned with happening among ordinary working pigeons. What we really want to know is how to build the Revolutionary Loft.
IAN BLUNT (Hackney) The alternative strategy'
SOCIALIST Challenge readers in the Labour Party are unlikely to be impressed by Tariq All's strange claim that 'the Labour left lacks even a left reformist programme' (1 February). This claim seems unfounded, given the evidence of broad support to be found for the Alternative Economic Strategy.
In fact, resistance to the current crisis is frequently axed around the
themes of this strategy. Textile
orkers call for import controls to
jobs. Engineering workers the sack call for takeovers by the National Enterprise
The current sharp upsurge of wage
iancy by lorry drivers and council
can ony placc ine whoic question of incomes policy and a new THE DEADLINE for this publication the Saturday COLOR before NORTH WEST WARRINGTON Socialist Challenge groupe Total Challenge office for Man details. 061-236 2352.
GREATER MANCHESTER Socialist
support the paper and would like to get
a Chis 2735947, day or Steve
calisa Challenge
fanchester
MOSS supporters sell the paper at Moss sig SIDE Socialist
entre, Saturday, 11-1
group now meets fortnightly on days. For details phone V01-100 6006
t Piccadilly c to marchester ou correl PRESTON Socialist Challenge grou
*Southern Africa in fermen behind the Zimbabwe?' Speaker Pete Evans (NW trade union committee). Thur 22 Feb, 7.45pm, in liaiso
Windsor Castle pub, Egan St. NORTH EAST NEWCASTLE Socialist Challenge local supporters are active! If you want
Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 14
BAD
TASTE
missuggests (l sort of
of Lord
CONTRE
particular
social contract once
familiar these inflation.
what is
capitalist
defects,
labour movement.
shown by the proposals for production.
now at Vickers,
Agreement.
programme,
factory resignation in 1975,
on its head.
defeats on the Rock Against Racism, 27 Clerkenwell Close, London EC1
2005in them, phone Pete on (0632) DURHAM Socialist Challenge ror detais
Pittington, Durham.
MIDDLESBROUGH Socialist
lenge sales. from Newsfare in who
MIDDLESBROUGH Socialist
local NUPE branch. Thur 22 Feb, Bpm AUEW Hall.
SOCK ION-ON-TeEs readers can bul oocialist chanence rom treen books upstairs in the spender nail shopping
SCOTLAND ror normation about ine saber orl Supporters cotiana piease contact DoORs. - 04
at afternoons. Phone for alternativ renternational publications EDINBURGH Socialist i George at 031-346 0466 10
DUNDEE Information about Socialist Challenge activities from 64 Quee Glasgow Join in Boots (corner of Reform Saturday 11am-2pm
again at the centre of political debate, given the
media spectre of wage
Some sections of the left dismiss the alternative strategy far too easily as simply a programme for restructuring rented.
system in decline.
However this programme, for all its
still effectively dominates discussion of political strategy in the
One very clear example of this is
Lucas Aerospace socially useful Socialist Challenge's support for the workers at Lucas, and
remains purely formal unless it is extended to the logical step of campaigning for the proposals to be taken up in the form
compulsory Planning
Curiously, having overlooked the
the Tariq then goes on to attach enormous political importance to its 'crisis of leadership' in the form drivers of Benn and the Tribunites. Whatever can be said about the case for Benn's
For since, this approach really stands the problem
Benn's relative silence is as much an effect as a cause of the labour movement's deep demoralisation after the
EEC and incomes
(01-802 8773)
among
they're Hallenge every heroell Sonialise Challenge Sup cerals or local activites contactdont contact: rora, bos chor crescent, Hamilton
ChaiYORKSHIRE HUDDERSFIELD SC Chal- Fand Sly & Trades Club, Northumber-
DEWSBURY Socialist Challenge sales
Ask, 12.30-2.00pm HUDDERSFIELD Socialist she Plazzaary saturdays 11am-1pm in
TUnA socialist Citalenge is on sale d me TorK CommUnILy
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Socialist
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LEEDs socialist Challenge sales everi saturday at City Tam 1.300m. And at ciland hoadwhen Leeds Utd are playing at home!
THIS EXIST? HAVE THEY SURVIVED?
DOES DAILY TELEGRAPH?
policy. The current wages militancy, however determined, clearly does not present an adequate socialist alternative to the Callaghan government, and the overall resistance to his policies remains weak and
PETE JENKINS (Manchester)
Militancy - and humanity
MY MOTHER is a kitchen assistant in a hospital, and for two years I worked as an auxilary nurse fully support the strikes by low-paid workers. But i can t accept attitude Inat ambulance drivers shouldn't answer emergency calls — that this would be the most militant and therefore "right" thing to do.
From my own hospital experience I know that callpeople will die emergency unanswered.
- it is they who are first on the scene, and it is often their skill (not doctors') that means the difference between life and death. This especially true in the case of cardiac arrests - heart attacks.
It's no use saying it's the fault of the Labour government, the capitalists, if someone did die. In the end that may be true, and yes of course government manipulating consciences of the workers it pays so little. Just as it (hypocritically) shows verv little conscience when it shut: hospitals and cuts back staff, so that people certainly do die as a result.
But...could you really sit on your backside and allow someone to die for the sake of your pay rise? In my
ambulance drivers are the most compassionate in the health service;
not taken in by 'professionalism', so they they're workers, and so they know the patients are people. We have to find ways of fighting without losing our humanity.
MIDLANDS For details supporters throughout the the Centre.. 76b
NOTINGHAM Socialist
Mushroom Books, group meets SOUTH WEST
hursdays
Cialist Ch The Nat. Worming ter 44 Union St, Ryde
Challenge details
DOOKSnOD, above bar seats York PORTSMOUTH Commercial Road Brecinct. : Satur-
NORTOIK St.. attne off every around Hayman
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/NEVER MIND • TRY DIGESTING THE ECTAKIAN KAVINGS C
1LEFTMilitancy might not be our fault if they conflict, but the fact is that they sometimes do.
Rigidly saying 'the end justifies the means' is the kind of thinking that led frag- to Stalin's Russia.
Until you realise that, you'll not have the trust of the ordinary working people of this country. If socialism means we have factories, cripple industry, then yes If it means crippling or killing our own people - then no KATE CAHILL (London N7
So l Anti-Zionist work
your IN your issue of 25 January you tell anyone interested work to contact either Palestine Solidarity know that Socialist Challenge is alive if and well, but not so the PSC, which has just disbanded.
Anyone interested in anti-Zionist work should contact the British Anti-Zionist Organisation Solidarity, which among other things is works to expose the links between Israel and various regimes including South Africa. The address is: George Mitchell, 90 John Street, HANNAH ROBERTS (York)
the the 'Troops Out' reports
RECENT reports Challenge of leave much to be desired as far as scope and accuracy go. Geoff Bell's article on the London march of 28 January makes no mention of which organisation called it Regular readers will know that it was Provisional Sinn Fein. But not its every reader is a regular reader. Anc know one of the uses of the paper is te inform people about political developments and struggles they might otherwise not be aware of. mention in this case was made of
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THAT-
SOME OF HE SKIESH
not inhumanity. which
sented.
has previously
to cripple the lican Troops Out
in anti-Zionist and RCG you or the Campaign.
Republicans,
Palestine
Glasgow. done in
Socialist Troops Out" activity
request.
No iversity of East Angi Thursdays at BRIGHTON SC TorumS TornIOntI Tor setas. Contact Micky on 60505. COLCHESTER Socialist Challenge supporters meet regularly, For details phone Steve on Wivenhoe 2949.
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Challenge
A WONDER WHO
THEY'RE TALKING
organisations were repreappeared on the Glasgow march the Furthermore, no report has
before, despite great importance of public "Troops Out' activity in Scotland which the paper
- rightly — stressed.
According to An Phoblacht/Repub-
News (3 February, 800
*The James Connolly Republican Flute Band headed the march, which was also accompanied by the Kevin Barry Flute Band. As well as Sinn Fein members and supporters, the march was attended by the Scottish Republican Socialist Club, the United
Movement and the British left-wing groups SWP, IMG
The demonstration assembled in Blackhill and paraded to Cowlairs Park, some five miles away, where representatives of Sinn Fein, Scottish
PAC and •UTOM addressed the rally.
The Editorial Board has to commit itself to ensuring that what appears in the paper on Irish solidarity improves in quality. There is no way that respect for its policies can be won and kept, in my opinion, unless this is
the future. It's particularly important, too, because of the good coverage of activity for the International Tribunal which has recently been included ROGER HURCOMBE (Leeds)
THE LENGTH of letters printed will usually be kept down to 400 words in order to encourage as wide a range of contributions as possible. All letters may be cut at the Editor's discretion. Unsigned letters will not normally be published, although we will withhold real names from publication on
Road. Rome. Next meeting Thur are SUOM
on Iran.
HACKNEY supporters sell
Saturdals to- . 12-2pm , in Kingsland Hig Sainsburys outside HARINGEY Socialist Challenge group public meeting. nunney omee the long state Speaker Prors Corbyr L. Detence Committee, D • Thur 22 Feb, 1.30pm Community Centre, Stanley Rd N15 (Turnpike Lane tube).
Park and Sever evening; Muswell Hill and Crouch End Brave a Saturday l Bosto Broadways, Saturday Muswell Hill Vares Middle Lane bookmarks, Finsoury rark PADDINGTON/N KENSINGTON ocialist Challenge group meetir Nuclear powe
8 Feb, 8pm, in meeting room of th Tabernacle', Talbot Rd. (Powis Sq.),
LEYTON readers
WALTHAMSTOW Socialist readers -Can
Bai too i chalenge un
Page 15 scan of this page
Fulli or
envy for
the uterus
About Men, by Phyllis Chesler The Women's Press, £2.95
HE WOMEN'S movement
on men's roles as well as
certain crisis of the male ego. A
certain crisis of the male ego. number of men on the left have attempted to come to terms with this OV SCLUTE up men's groups and magazines in order to examine the roles wnich society torees unem to play.
But this approach smacks a bit of boys' clubs with their male exclusivity which has always been oppressive to women«
Men are not oppressed in the same way as women, and it is difficult if not imposible for them to come to terms with their alienation under capitalism uniess incy seck to do tais un conjunc tion with the people they oppress.
Phyllis Chesler's About Men is valuable reading for those trying to deal with the more subtle aspects of that TOC book contains a polled history of Christian culture and the WayS OCCI
Chesler traces a psychological continuum based three themes which VallOUS writers unconsciously displav: uterus envy; the violent treatment of sons by
fice of Isaac 1o numerous
(but rarely LCHEDULCEY and lastly the accounts. between brothers within the family, which is identified as the root of competition between men, them from having loving relationships.
Creation of new life is woman's fundamental achievement, and it is men's envy of this which prevents them from relating to other men in a
The death of
of Aberdeen
By Duncan Bush the rear wheels.
And they talk about 'crushing the pickets' -
under a juggernaut Foden or Leyland or Dat. driver killing driver (neither of them being drunk) because the one tried to speak to the other al a gate.
UNDER REVIEW
their own reminder of that achievement. relation to women.
Chesler's Nazism and the Vietnam war. war.
make-up of men and
Malena casons
plays a role in the
what happened and why
emerge. illusion
male women still exist through
common artists and challenged, not male heads.
JUDITH ARKWRIGHT
Poetry
con-
with a
political
bite
Erich Fried Translated by Stuart Hood John Calder, £4.95
S
seems
TCSUILS - exile publicised) imaginative writing.
CHLY
• prevenung
This is the
scab-picking muster as
Robert Watson, 37,
A LORRYDRIVER on picket duty was killed on 18 January when he was hit by a lorry as it left the Shell oil depot at Aberdeen harbour. The man was hit as he moved towards the vehicle to speak to the driver as the lorry passed through the dock entrance. Another picket said that the driver did not stop and the man fell under
well, they crushed one in Scotland on Thursday
meaningful way, since, for example,
sons are a constant
This is also the root of women's oppression, Chesler argues, because women must be rendered powerless. Her analysis leads to many useful insights into male psychology, such as the competitiveness, and the fear of intimacy which many men display in
analysis combines radical feminist perspective with a peculiar compassion for men in their plight as the powerless section of society; a situation they have sought to make up for by numerous horrific Life deeds throughout history - including
Yet it is the division of labour Life within the family which to a large extent determines the psychological
women, not some primal urge. And men have Life
- not just psychological — for oppressing women, such as privileges in the family and higher
While the male psyche undoubtedly
unfolding of history, we have to look at objective historical circumstances to explain
Chesler's analysis leaves us with the vain hope that men will reform and that the dictatorship of the father will be challenged and 'new heroes' will
This hope will remain an long as the material conditions for men's dominance over
the 'fighting experience' of women's self-organisanon Inal tne male role will -c this
by changes inside 100. Poems Without a Country, by
OMETIMES almost that needs -one or Its - to produce good
The failures and problems of the class struggle should concentrate the minds of writers as well as politicians.
The international class struggle has yet to achieve its goal - socialism.
"human predicament" than the endless existential that usually passes 'profundity" in much
The wheels that turned over the one man's body were not the same as the wheel turned by the second man's hands: he was unsighted, there was no purpose
lt was lust unal someone was driving the man who was driving the lorry (it may have revealed itself
contempt,
without his even really knowing he was being driven.
You might even say that the victim who survived knew less about who was driving him than the dead victim will know about the third man (a stranger, but a man in the same job) who must now drive him slowly to the cemetery.
It says a lot about the literary culture of this country that probably the best poet presently writing in Britain writes in German. Erich Fried has lived in this country for forty years; his writing and translating largely unrecognised.
His poetry is not fertile soil for the symbol and myth mongers, nor is it one of passive wet-eyed humanism Fried's latest collection, *100 Poems Without a Country', have political nerve and muscle even when they appear to be at their most personal: WHAT IS LIFE?
that is the warmth of the water in my bath
that is my mouth on the open lips of your sex
at the wrongs in our countries
The warmth of the water is not enough I must also splash in it
My mouth on your sex is not enough I must also kiss it
Anger at wrong> is not enough we must also probe them
and de something about them only that is life
No British poet could write like
This collection spans a wide range
from the morning rituals of the bathroom to the repressive West German state; from the problems of writing poetry to some sharp-edged glances at the left.
Thought-provoking, ironic very funny, these poems will freshen
COLIN SMITH
The manure
collectors
are here!
Chinese Shadows by Simon Leys Penguin, 80p pbk. A western organiser of a trade
exhibition in Peking was A asked: How many visitors would you like to have? Twenty thousand? Forty thousand? Sixty thousand?' Exactly 60,000 visitors turned up at the exhibit. Perhaps example typifies Simon impression of Mao's China.
The post-Mao period opening up, with the outcome likely to have a major bearing on dynamics of the world revolution. Shadows, a well informed humorous account of China under Mao, provides a background to in what he had thought was momentary anger or
or through the newspaper he carried in the cab)
events unfolding today
book is the conflict between the real China aid the China the west thinks it knows"
accept the wise words of the bureaucracy; those who spend their time at banquets, writing books and articles for the western press extolling the virtues of beloved Chairman Mao.
other China.
escaper to Hong Kong. Asked where she would like to live, she replied:
*Well in Yugoslavia, for example Because, in pseudosocialist countries run by revisionist hyenas in the pay of American capitalism, oil and cotton cloth are not rationed."
developments comes from the disastrous all-embracing Cultural Revolution. Secondary education closed for four years. A cultural past is torn
down to make way for barren tarmac
centives to the peasants is denounced as rightist, then opponents are 'leftist but in fact rightist".
So, for example, revolution' is denounced as Trotskyist while 'continuous revolution' is Mao's gift to Marxism. Indeed th
"revolution'
LOLI absorbed by the masses to mean 'this is what the administration approves of - beware!'
modern operas which are repeatedly shown as the only works at cinemas and blared continuously over loudspeakers as workers guided by Mao Tse-tung thought make their way to work. and gets encore production brigade arrival in the hills of the manure collectors'
minder of how similar the Cultural Revolution was to the Moscow Triais.
pared to unite with anyone, even the most reactionary west, to preserve their own positions of power.
Moscow trials has any bearing, so any analogy with the liberalisation under
Khrushchev
warning.
We
"Kruschev'
triumph at this stage.
this masses break from the bureaucracy -Leys' an essential feature of Stalinism
and organise their own lives, is now
lived.
Their ability Chinese but
against imperialism.
turns made bv Mao.
aescripave ramer uan anatyucal
it is priced at an attractive 80p.
RAY SIROTKIN
SUS on stage
native Youth
London.
The play,
the police, and the sus laws.
Pertormance:
February to 3
115 Upper St, London N1.
The main preocupation of the
Leys ridicules the Sinologists who
Leys manages to piece together the
One absurdity is the case of an
The material basis for these absurd
The policy of giving material in-
suddenly its
'permanent
is used and
What is approved? Six or so
At banquets the western audience
after encore of 'the celebrates the
Above all Chinese Shadows is a re-
The Peking Stalinists were pre-
politicians in the
However, if the analogy with the
should come as a
do not know whether a 'Brezhnev' will
What is certain is that unless the
Many gains made at present will be short-
to force the bureaucracy away from its disastrous foreign policy even in the short term IMG remains important in the struggle
Chinese Shadows isn't clear as to the reasons behind the reactionary
The author admits that his main object was to be
To dispel the Maoist mythology that has passed as Modern Marxism the book is vital reading, especially as
THE NEWLY-formed Forum Alter- tion
Theatre, featured in Socialist Challenge earlier this month, has found two London locations for
This Green and Pleasant
Damian Duggan-Ryan, is about young blacks,
1.15pm, 26 March, Soho Poly Theatre Club, 16 Riding House St. London W1. And 1.15pm, 6 to 19 March, Kings Head Theatre Club,
Up&p
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Socialist Challenge 22 February 1979 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge FIRST VICTIMS OF CONCORDAT: THE LOW PAID?
Registered with the Post Office as a newspaper. Published by Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by Feb Edge Litho Ltd (TU),
hours demanded by the unions.
In accepting
conferences.
By Brian Hearse
In the very week that the TUC-Labour government concordat was announced, the Guardian carried an interview with Denis Healey.
Chancellor remarkably frank.
In reply to the question You clearly unksome Torm Ol permanent incomes policy inevitable? the Labour leader replied: I think it is. You have to have one in the public sector anyway, and that's a third of the labour force.
In other words, the Labour government will maintain a permanent force of low-paid workers, force an incomes policy down their throats and hope for the best. The first test for those union leaders who are recommending the 9 per cent offer will come this week.
The ambulance staff have already shown that they are not
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be on the verge of settling with the government. They are set to recommend a 9 per cent increase. Despite the comparability clauses, this is a far cry from the £60-35
the government offer, the leaders have ridden roughshod over their members and the decisions of the TUC and Labour Party
prepared to be intimidated by either the government or the ideological offensive Tory press. Their could well be followed by other public sector workers.
The WORT the situation reveals is this: an all-out strike by public sector workers would be the most effective way of winning the Cal.
The course recommended by Fisher was, at best, designed to put pressure on the government make a few concessions.
Fisher might be satisfied with the crumbs he has gained, but most low-paid workers will be extremely unhappy.
The militancy of low-paid threw the Callaghan government off Because of the proximity of the General Election (it legally be postponed October 1979) he was forced to
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But the designed to demonstrate that the government had not been converted to free bargaining. It was also aimed at
the aiding the trade union leaders
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The weakness concordat from beyond ment's point of view is that it
has no status in law. But this is
need £200 per week to reach the £2,500 target each quarter.
Hackney Socialist Challenge Group's £25 came benefit night organised last week. Tuesday is not a good night for a social occasion (it was the only one available at such notice) and there were also problems with equipment and the size of the YCHLUC.
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Meanwhile thanks to the bands who played - Oxy and
policy is inevitable'. It is these right-wing policies that will ensure
something
are elected to office concordat was
TUC to convince the collective
the militancy of
of the said this week:
the govern-
lambs bolstering
(800 4530),
from Hackney SCG Ann Chesterton Anon S. Zutschi Ian Harrison
the sound James Blanco White
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solidarity opportunist one. which the Tories could well remedy when they
The concordat is a desperate they attempt by Callaghan and the elsewhere
ruling class that they can still deliver the goods and that the last few
tive.
NUPE militant Ray Varnes spoke for many others when he could be
•We are not sector workers going to be made the sacrificial
weak Labour's election
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will not accept the It's against TUC and Labour Party policy. Fisher tells me to accept the 9
cent I'll reply that we should recall the TUC.
The acceptance by the TUC
of the concordat without any opposition reveals yet again the total lack of a senous alternatve strategy. I the absence of such a strategy we should not be too surprised
low-paid workers refuse to vote Labour in the coming elections
trend could be countered bv Labour councis following the lead of Camden and meeting the full claim. The argument that this breaks the
of the strike is an
There is no national strike. There are only selective strikes. Where these result in victories
show what is possible and demonstrate how effective a national strike can be at the present time.
Fisher rejected that alterna
The consequences of accepting the 9 per cent offer
severe. The public might be first victims of the concordat, out une wumate casually will be the Labour government.
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NUPE leader ALAN FISHER
said he hoped that the concordat would help to solve the current problems in the public sector; he was pleased at the references to achieving fair play to members like his own
without having to hurt the public by going on strike. NUPE district committee secretary for ILEA, RAY
the concordat. It's against TUC and Labour Party policy. If Fisher tells me to accept the 9 per cent I'll reply that we should recall the TUC
D Weppler.
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← Socialist Challenge No. 83, 15 February 1979Socialist Challenge No. 85, 1 March 1979 →