Socialist Action No. 156, 9 January 1987
The scan: 156-jan-09-1987-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Thatcher's nations
THIS WEEK saw the publication of facts which give the most vivid picture SO far of the political strategy of the Thatcher government. They were tucked away in the seemingly obscure figures of the Department of Employment job census suppressed for a year by the Tories, but now leaked in the Observer last Sunday.
The scenario revealed staggering in its clarity. figures show that a total 1,546,000 jobs have been lost in Britain since Thatcher came power. But only six per them have been lost southern part of England: South East, South West, and East Anglia. These counties have lost a
ACTION
BUILDING AN ALLIANCE FOR SOCIALISM
- Scotland, was housing, social The of
cent of tive to in the wages have the
SociAlist
total of only only 89,000 jobs.
Outside the southern triangle
Wales, the North, North West, the East and West tailed Midlands - have lost 94 per cent of all the jobs that have gone. That is over 1.4 million jobs. two.
These unemployment figures confirm what was already known ple. from every other index: on pay,
services. The policy of the Thatcher govern- ty, ment has been to increase every type of differential in society.
Youth wages have fallen rela-
adult wages. Women's fallen relative to men's. The differentials in pay between black and white workers have increased. The gap between
two
unskilled and skilled workers has widened.
Now these new and most de-
unemployment show just how the dole queue has been used to cut the country in
Thatcher's goal has been sim-
She has tried to create a relatively privileged, highly paid, relatively secure section of socie
including a section • working class, supporting Tories and concentrated in the south of the country. And she has financed a large police force to baton the rest of the country into submission. That has been Thatcher's answer for the inner-cities, for the north, for the black com-
• • • The soft left and unilateralism • Labour students
China munity, for women workers, for the unemployed. She has sought to organise the haves against the figures have-nots.
The strategy movement in 1987 - and every year clearly understanding that. It must start by organising the most direct victims of Thatcher's assault: the unemployed, the north, the black of the community, the women, the Irish - all those sec-
tions of the struggle with Thatcher.
It must build on that to create a unity of the Thatcher's Even those sections of the working class which have done best
Anti-Apartheid AGM
Republicanism and socialism
• Democracy demonstrations in
of the labour
flows from
since
inner-cities, millan.
working class in
working class offensive.
strategy.
No. 156 9 Jan 1987 30p under the Tory government are still affected by the crisis and by the attacks which are gripping the whole of British society.
But Labour must do this on a clear basis. Not by a vain attempt to recreate the 'one nationism' for which the economic basis has long
passed - like Neil Kinnock's recent ridiculous praise for the Tory 'one nationism' of Mac-
Labour should have its own -very different - two nations. The two nations of labour and capital. Those are the two nations whose reality is so graphically revealed in the figures published this week That is the basis for socialist
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Labour's Campaign left
2 Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987
ACTiON SOCiAList
An election year
1987 WILL BE an election year. The eyes of millions and millions of workers will be fixed
Thatcher in that election and the victory of a Labour government.
But that brings precisely to the fore how to is the relation of the election to the fight that has • Weaked entits and in short shat should be the strategy of the labour movement. Because an election only makes sense within the strategy of the labour movement, it cannot be a
What Labour's strategy should be is vividly brought home in the figures which we print on our front page this week. They show that Thatcher's entire strategy has been to create two nations - not simply the two nations of labour and capital that have always existed, but two nations
Thatcher has sought every means to divide
revenue fed consumer boom, creating 'core' and 'peripheral' sectors in industry, the use of rate hand-outs. Thatcher has attempted to create on the one side a relatively secure, prosperous sec. tion of society, including a large part of the work-
vote Labour), On the other side she has created a working class of the dole queue and the inner-
of part-time women workers and poorly paid public sector workers, of the unskilled and those whose jobs are under threat of privatisa-
Of course Thatcher has difficulty in applying that strategy perfectly. Even the best paid sec tions of the working class are hit just as much by the crisis in the health service as the poor paid for example. And that is why some of the most explosive crises for the government have come of British capitalism means that wider layers of the working class are progressively hit by the crisis. But that does not prevent Thatcher
The Tory government, and British capital knows what will be the political price of that
Those who bear the brunt of her tacks will rise in revolt. The miners strike, the struggle at Wapping, the rebellions in the black communities are as inevitable as night following
Because Thatcher has nothing to offer these sections of society, she demands support
That is the reality behind the repression the
daily assaults on the black communities
This is the reality that Labour should be ex
with a Thatcher government it is inevitable that
with those who do revolt. It must defend the miners who fought for their jobs. It must defend the black communities whose rebellions are inevitable given the daily brutality to which they are subjected by the police.
That is the relationship between elections and what takes place between them. strategy in an election must be a part of the strategy it carried out every day of every year.
round this year. Because Kinnock stood with the
aw and order' against the black communities, with the forces of reaction against 'loonie' coun cils which showed their 'lunacy' by thinking that women should be given the same opportunities as men or that racism should be fought and not tolerated by a blind eye.
Labour's policy for winning an election has to start now. By supporting those who are fighting against Thatcher now. By supporting now those whose votes Labour wants when that election is
As we said, an election can be integrated into, and flow out of, Labour's strategy. election cannot be Labour's strategy. first lesson the labour movement has to act on in 1987.
which will vote Tory (or at least not
throughout society to hold down
The Labour Party should be saying that
of the miners, with
THIS WEEKEND the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS) is holding a student coucil to select its candidates for the NUS conferences al Easter. Given the overwhelming support for Labour students in the NUS the sort of slate that NOLS chooses will determine the next leadership of the
dominated by the
of removing the Militant
for sitions
the objectives of a lo
by severely undemocratic Pacing them to No
for the expulsion of Mili-
at a time when the Campaign left in the Labour
ship has been more openly shown to be not oniv anti-
Democratic Left in NOLS
Der-
continuing and extenconerence.
Campaign Student is published to help link
the student movement to the alliance for
socialism which Campaign Forum is building in
Campaign Student urges Labour Clubs to
affiliate to Labour Left Liaison, promote
Campaign Group News, and affiliate to
For further information write to Campaign
Student at 51 Grayson House, Radnor Street,
London ECI.
NOLS must support
struggles of women, black gressive struggles and also
dissatisfaction in the NUS
COSTACLO
Startine Calllpaign consistenly in support of the policies it holds on paper. NOLS can either
give campaigning content
› us bondes and ay wi
Io Committee on Ireland is a
their demands. NOLS sup-
NOLS support for lesbian NOLS
call ed bright optomeo
Party and take forward the struggle of students
CLU
failure to call for Britain's
opposition to the Palestine
Liberation Organisation's
cannot resolve the crisis of
step backwards from NUS
Ly.
NUs con
paign forces in the NUS
Liaison and the campaigns
Campaign
Student
the alanes action
Of GIVEN
US THE
RENEUT
NOLS must ally itself with the Campaign left in the Labour
meeting to plan for NOLS • Campaign Student conference on 24 January
UCL Union, Gordon St. For more in-
Black section to run
candidate for Young
Socialist NEC place
paign proper will start later in January.
Last year's campaign
support Kingley Abrams successfully raised
demands of black policy and representation centrally in
youth section. candidate won the support of Youth Action and LCC Youth, as well as sections of the Labour Party left.
Kingsley and other black sections speakers attended a wide range of regional LPYS conferences and addressed a meeting of 200 at YS na-.
conference. The campaign ensured that the argument for recognised black sections was raised in the cr is more tal ever before.
This year's campaign deepen this support for black sections still
opposed by the LPYS and for other policies and alliances of the campaign-
Analysis
formation write to Campaign Student, 51 Grayson House, Radnor St, London ECI.
LABOUR Party Black Section is likely to follow its successful experience of campaigning in the LPYS last year by standing another candidate in this year's election to run as the LPYS representative on the Labour Party NEC. The candidate will be active in the Black Section's youth committee and the cam-
Wing left in the Labour Party. Budget cuts, expulsions ana ine decision of conference to establish a "Y outt Campaigns Committee' have all limited the and independence of the LPYS. But in the face of this the LPYS continues to ally itself with the right isolate itself from the lent. wing issues LPYS branches support the Black Section restations in supportin campaign submitting Black Sections and against the Black and Asian Adnominating the candidate, visory Committee and by inviting the candidate to speak at branch meetings or regional conferences.
• For more details • contact: Black Sections Youth Officer, c/0 Sum merhouse Avenue Heston, Middlesex TWS 90A.
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The soft left and unilateralism
News
IT IS A LAW of politics that it is impossible to stay in the same place. If you do not go forward, you must go backwards. That truth is dramatically confirmed by the response of the soft left to Labour's defence campaign. Launched amid a razzmatazz of nationalism and militarism rarely used so openly by the party, the Modern Britain campaign emphasises Labour's commitment to NATO and pledges that every penny now spent on nuclear weapons will be reallocated to increasing conventional arms.
LCC-sponsored Chartist magazine, 'we will have to bite our tongues' and support the campaign. Tribune was positively enthusiastic: It does not compromise Labour's non-nuclear defence policy in any way whatsoever,' said editor Nigel Williamson, and attacked the campaign's critics in the party. CAROL TURNER examines why the soft left, which was campaigning for unilateral nuclear disarmament and a reduction in arms spending in 1979-83, is now prepared to support waving the union jack and clamouring for more tanks. THE formula the soft left is busy providing to justify support Labour's defence campaign is the time-honoured argument that the party cannot win
PRaHOn on thiblooded programme. Both Nigel Williamson's article in the New Year issue of Tribune ('Anther left myth bites the dust') anel the editorial of the January-February edition of Chartist ('Defence and nukes: winning heerts as wel as minds) are categorical in
that 'you have to start from where ocopic arc al, tut wiicle wo might like them to be.
The ICaDULL the electorate will not accept unilateral nuclear disarmament, the soft lett claim, is because that would 'leave
In the words of the Chartist, Labour's callllarkll 'must be confident, outspoken and combative in reassuring people that a non-nuclear defence policy stands for a stronger and more effective defence'.
The conclusion drawn, therefore, that Labour
HSL Subot a CUnventional weapons build-up.
After the retreat on reselection —
But according to the The question of whether or not that is objectively desirable, Whether it cor responds to the interests of anole considered.
The idea that Labour cannot advocate particular policies because the electorate is not 'socialist' is an old argument of the right wing. "this time round it is
hiddece thet ohat t te
that Labour Party leadership is attemoumg to tit suDDort for unilateral nuclear disarHalcut into political framework that is wrong and makes it impossible to present that policy credibly.
What is happening is that Labour is slipping into a more and more openly DIO-NAIV pro-militar spending role. This is not oniy wrong in liselt oul ll will ultimately undermine TIne party's unilatera ist position
lucical weapons as well.
The Modern Britain campaign is just the latest in a whole series of retreats which started immediately after a two-thirds majority was won at the 1983 party conference, ensuring unilateralism's place Labour's election HaNl-
festo. The first step backwards was contained in the
Defence and Security for Britain document published
Nauenerl pointed that savings trom cancelling Irident and decommissioning Polaris 'will assist the aim of the Labour Party, over time, of bringing Britain's defence spending towards average of our major European allies as a proportion
national income. This could not be achieved in the lifetime of a single parliameul wildout Narol culs u our conventional forces which
we ao not recommend.'
This commitment ConventoN began the erosion of conterence policy. Inanks to a deliberately ambiguous NEC statement to the 1986 party conference, Defence and Conversion Costs, this has now transmogrified into defence campaign which pledges proudly that
penny saved on evely nuclear weapons wik be ploughed into conventional arms. Ihe Modern Britaln campaign even now commits a Labour government
maintaining conventional weapons spending, in rente ms aume ceon 20 per cent increase it has renonce oasis' seven years of the Thatcher Bovenmenl.
Other aspects of unilateralism, and opposition to conventional arms spending, have equally sulfered. Among the first to welcome Defence and Security for Britan was none other Denis Healey, who pointea out
'define more precisely' what a nuclear base was.
This has been done by the present defence campaign: 'nuclear bases' are now defined as the few that actually hold nuclear warheads, and action on those will only HAKCI after 'discussion with the
NATO's nuclear staging capacity and its ability to
fight a nuclear war from British soil, will be left
Mounting defence ampagu vascu vn suppor or NATO and a build-u] of conventional arms has nothing to do with detending nuclear disarmament, despite all the protestations to the contrary by the sof militarism and une emphasis 'defence on is
nelp mirake Labour's policy more credi-
- quite the reverse. Nor is it going to be an effective
Labour means 0. w slatill an election - if militarism is the card to play, Thatcher is going to win hands down.
But this is exactly the road that Tribune, the LCC and the rest of the soft left are now travelling down. They are doing so because they pose the issue in a way that is hopeless.
Nigel Williamson claims: "The simple truth is that Labour cannot be an electoral party and a party of pure undiluted socialism al oe die tic nie bgc because the electorate itself is not yet socialist' which leaves aside the small ques. tion of whether have to be a socialist ro op realls
pose chauvinist hysteria and building tanks. The Char tist's conclusion that the left must "OILe amounts to the same thing In fact the Chartist editorial doggedly contrives to ignore its own advice thai Labour must appeal to the electorate's 'self -interest'. in order to arrive at exactly the same conclusion as Nigel Williamson's quote above
But this argument is Wrong aL Cry SiCu First and least importantly, far from nuclear disarmament being unpopular and the vote loser that the Labour leadership and the soft left believe it to be, the strength of feeling against nuclear weapons huge demonstrated time and again on the streets of Britain and across West
Europe. That is precisely because maintaining ance t ansens s rorater in the self-interést of the maioritv ot people in this country or for that matter, across the globe.
The great majority of the population of this country have no objective interest whatsoever in maintaining military arsenals of any kind. The military machine does not exist to 'defend Britain' but for quite othel purposes including a present for g tor sini LOSC ion hin third worid liberation in Coulte and for Dal ticipating in a completely reactionary cold war arms bulld-up against the USSR What a state the soft left has been reduced to when 1l considers that it has to sup. port prolects such as reinforcing the British army on the Rhine
For 30 years the ideology of the cold war has been the main way of securing popular support for military spending. Fighting that cold war ideology is the masoc c.n . a fight against militarism The rise of the movement against nuclear weapons is precisely part of breaking down that framework.
Labour's Modern Bri tain campaign is incoherent because it simultaneously proposes nuclear disarmament and goes along with that cold war retoric. Kinnock's emphasis on NATO trips to see the Berlin Wall and similar episodes, actually reinforce that cold war framework.
That is exactly what removes any coherenci from the policy at all - and opens it up to easy attack. If we are really threatened by the 'Soviet menace then it is necessary to have nuclear wcabuls - that is the conclusion the electorate will draw. By adopting a cold war political framework the Labour leadership makes it impossible to mobilise support in favour of unilateral nuclear disarmament. And an incoherent policy undoubtedly policy.
There is of course a way to appeal to precisely the 'self-interest' which in their other writings the LCC and Tribune stress. Socialism, of course, is not something op posed to the self interest of the majority, but is the self interest of the majority. The threat of nuclear annihilation is something very close
indeed to people's 'self-
interest' - and that is why the movement against nuclear weapons has played such a massive and progressive role.
What 1s needed LU UC•
Socialist Action fend unilateralism, however, is to make the rest of Labour's policy consistent with it, for Labour to break out of the entire cold war maanewon Ernest Bevin played dominated the y since
La key role in setting up NATO That Is what the movement for unilateralim began to achieve in the early 1980s and it is exactly what Kinnock 1s now trying to over turn. If he succeeds in that, if cold war nationalism and militarism becomes the rhetoric of the Labour Par-
NCC elections:
Left romps home in
constituency section
Monday.
as the two women's and one socialist society slot.
The Campaign GroupLLL slate Mandy Moore of the Women's Action Committee, Ken Slater of CLPD, Johnny Burrows of Chesterfield Labour Party treasurer of North Der byshire NUM won in the constituencies With 101,000 John Burrows got well over twice the votes of his nearest rival, a right winger Bailey, on the Forward Labour slate.
Buten ties ft to ethe,
constituencies casc. the right wing swept home
and women's sections where the trade union block vote dominates the result.
Owen Briscoe, the NUM's candidate in the trade union section, was • runner up. He lost David Brookman of the Iron and Steel I rade. Confederation only
votes The only left candidate to be elected to the trade union section Was TGWU Alan Quinn of the
Rose Degiorgio of APEX and Dianne Hayter of the Society of Labou Lawyers, right wingers, , swept Lue bodie
the women's section
NCC election:
CLP Section:
Mandy Moore Ken Sater...
Johnny Burrows
Trade Union Section: Fred Binks (UCW)
Alan Hadden (GMBATU) Alan Quinn (TGWU)
John Weakley (AEU)
David Brookman (ISTC)
Women's Section:
Rose Degiorgio..
Dianne Hayter .
Socialist Society Section wiDoolev...
9 Jan 1987 3 ty, then unilateralism will eventually be abandoned as surely as night follows day. 'The role the sott lett ha played in every field is to first accept the framework of the other side and then finally surrender the terrain altogether. This is exactly wnat is being done with unilateralism. By accepting the framework Kinnock's defence campaign, policies are being supported today which are reactionar and the way being D cDalcu tor abandoning unilateralism tomorrow.
THE RESULTS of the election to the National Constitutional Committee, the body established by the NEC to sanitise expulsions, were announced last The three candidates supported by the Campaign Group and Labour Left Liaison swept the board in the constituency section. But the right won four out of the five trade union places, as well
Among the wing standing, Vera Wolle Derer of CLPD polled
674,000 votes and Margaret Vallins Chesterfield CLP polled 330,000.
By Annie Brady
The vote of the Labour clubs ensured that another right winger, Dooley, won the socialist society section Scal WiLil comfortable 27,000 votes.
The constituency section vote is a good result for Labour's left wing - a clear indication that the constituency parties unwilling to see further witch and of the dominance of the Campaigr Group-LLL left But, while the CLPs result is a good one the overall outcome shows the continuing swing to the right in the unions.
The overall balance of te Nue Is predominalli) favour of conținued witch hunts - despite the moral victory won in the CLP section. As the Guar. dian of Tuesday 6 January put it: 'Kinnock gets his purging group'. Successful candidates in
. 135,000 108,000 • . 101, w
5,045,000 5,005,000 3,376,000 3,076,000 2,962,000
2:50000
:. 27,000
Page 4 scan of this page
Stop the Viraj Mendis deportation
Broadwater Farm: "Time that the falsehoods about
4 Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987
In Brief
Black and Asian Advisory Committee
encouraged to use the forthcoming round of
conferences, and
to demand their NEC
the Black and Asian Advisory Committee.
committee from the left. has supported a boycott of BAAC. Former chair
condemned it.
This comes sharp on the heels of Francis LCND responds to Labour defence campaign
without plays Campaign for Non-Alignment conference
ON 24 January a
conference will be
held to give the
Campaign for Non-
Alignment impetus.
'The conference on non-alignment for
Britain, says Tony Benn in the CNA iterature being distributed to Parties early this month, "marks an important turning point in the development of thinking about British foreign and defence policy.
LPYS, unelected. a COSAS
circulation
which The event will be held in Kingsway Princeton
Workshops include NATO and the US bases, Central America, South Africa, Ireland, and 1110C
• Registration costs €2.50 (unwaged £1). Further details from: CNA, c/o Jeremy coroyn, kea nose Centre, 129 Seven Sisters Road, London N7 7QGk
'THE BRITISH government want to deport me to Sri Lanka because of my political acitivities, because of my involvement in anti-deportation campaigns in the fight against racism and the immigration laws.' That was how VIRAJ MENDIS summed up his own deportation to FINN JENSEN before Xmas. On 18 December deportation minister David Waddington rejected Mendis final appeal. Viraj has since taken refuge in a church in the Hulme area of Manchester where he lives.
made in such a wav that i trols, winch means unal tac THE LIES told about black communities in this country must be exposed said STAFFORD SCOTT of the Broadwater Farm Youth Association, speaking at the Socialist Action Alliance for Socialism conference at the end of November. For defending their community, the residents of Broadwater Farm Estate have been subjected to a series of show trials on frame-up charges. tried for murder. But Broadwater Farm is not excep. tional. Its experience contains lessons for the whole
yOu should defend the
dealing COmmunities used on
My was born We get
We opt out of
because not
gressively, act aggressively necessarily are directing a ression against means
our faith.
tion.
We can who want Star Wars what life is about. We don't
We don't walt lucicar walit uprisings in al cas.
Go ask the miners, the teachers, the Wapping. Defending us means defending humanily.
Broadwater Farm not exceptional. If you study the statistics you find out there's nothing
The official reason for deporting me has varied. In
laws I have 'overstayed' here in Britian illegally for 10
that if you have stayed il legally in this country for more than 10 years you have
should be allowed to stay. I fall into that category. But then he adds that one's behaviour during those 10 years should be taken into consideration. Other home
openly userson pental y
tivities as an argument for
persecution and perhaps execution. Even though I am. not a Tamil, as a Sinhalese
many years supported the
black communities are exposed'
Six youth are currently being
exceptional about Broad wallet ann extent mere was death in our commun ity and we decided it could not People
would not system
are he
the youth 52
but also youth.
Eg.
this are not
nithe whole world
The sent 2000
tor drugs,
we know
October.
are being
you how.
frustrated
people
Tamils for self-
• their
in orae
have applied for
tain.
Sale baCK to Lanka,
rights
say the opposite. about it. But when black communities Collie together that's when they took action.
What we have here on BWF is black community. Nothing happens unless the community representatives ale consulted. We make decisions
affect Our lives or BWF and that something that cannot be tolerated. What happened on BWF was
something we
vished had never happen ed. I was there and I know. I saw that the police got a bloody good hiding. I do not want to gloat about that. I has a bloody good lesson
pennes not to doores black people, not to expect to keep us at the bottom of the pile without us fighting
We will fight and we will succeed.
Inousanas or black poopic who should be treated with THE Labour Party's role in defending black people against racist immigration controls came under scrutiny at a recent meeting of the Bangladeshi community in Islington.
Organised by the Islington Muslim
ASSOCIA tion (IMA), the meeting on 21 becameer was al tended by 30 people from North London, who heard MP Jeremy Corbyn and Islingtgon councillor Talal Karim talk of the opera-
of immigration controls and of their : current visit to Bangladesh.
HISTO Y of immigration controls racial mistory discrimination measures designed to restrict the entry rights of black people
me off all the anti-deportation activities. Instead! started my own campaign not to be deported.
My campaign is not just about me, but directed against immigration laws.
Now we are planning to hold a conference againsi deportations here in Manchester U1 11-12 April Some say that we should
/ right to stay in Britain. we have never seen a contradiction between fighting. immigration laws and fighting lor my Icicase we se are conference as a new step in
office.
Manchester city council,
ple in
ty council money
support any anti-
they know
Many
given their thousands of black
chance.
son the treated worse than Bernie has
X once said that Republican Party dealt
down, the Democratic Party dealt
son down
tokenism. is what we've coming
black you
We are not
Labour MP investigates visa
controls in Bangladesh
in Britain.
These legal measures significantly reduced the numbers of black peopk who have rights to be in this country and laid the groundwork for the discriminatory practices that the home office use to further restrict the rights or Diack people wno are able enter under the legislation.
The introduction of visa controls last October for Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Ghana was a further step down this path.
Imposed only on people living in black coun tries, it is now a require
boarding a plane to Britain
Already accounts are reaching Britain of long waits for interviews, which
News
result of the miners strike people's attitude to the police and the state has changed. They are now will ing to listen to criticism of the immigration laws.
The nome office wil not change its mind unless we have heavy ammunition. The wing Labour Party is afraid of fighting racism becaust they think they will lose
Others say the labour movement has to stand up
I01) racism. The best way to show it now is to oppose • deportations. We will force the Labour Party Jereme to me. clear stand on this and make their stand public -because we have to put our lives above the election of a
Mendis Defence has
The stays paign, c/o Hulme
: Crescen MIS SAI that you have a moral obligation to defend what is right. We who fight the oppressor are right.
• Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign can be contacted 12-16 Tangmer: BWF London N17 (01-885 3752, On Saturday 10 January the defence campaign holding Jund-raising dance with Quadrophoni sound-system, in aid of the defendants and their
he Black Woman's Centi Lordship Lane, Tottenham, London N17. • Tickets cos £4 at the door (UB40s £2)
• The next mass picket ir support of the BWF defen
outside the don WC2 on Wednesday The Strand, London
January, between 12.00-2.00 nearest tube St Pauls). when they take place are designed to 'catch out' the applicants.
Jeremy Corbyn and Talal Karim are taking a number. of cases to examine and will visit familes and the British High Com.
Bangladesh to collect evidence on how the visa system is working.
The IMA meeting felt strongly that the Labour Party should be prominent in their defence of black people's rights to enter this country. The Labour leadership should not conceed one inch on the ques tion of racist immigratior controls.
The material collected by the two-person visit to Bangladesh should be used by the Labour Party to highlight the racist prac tices of the Tories and the immigration service
Page 5 scan of this page
Republicanism
Politics Today
JUST PUBLISHED by Brandon Press is a new book by Gerry Adams, The Politics of Irish Freedom. Socialist Action urges all its readers to buy this book which is the clearest exposițion there is of Ireland's struggle for independence and the role Republicanism. As a trailer, we
reprinting here the book's central theoretical chapter entitled 'Republicanism and Socialism'. We will be carrying a review in our next issue.
The cause of Labour is the cause of
Ireland
The cause of Ireland is the cause
of Labour
James Connolly
YOU WANT to talk about socialism in the Irish context you cannot divorce the socialist aspiration from the aspiration national dependence. This is the big lesson of the Connolly experience. norser le bring about a socialist society you must have real national independence. To use Connolly's phrase, this requires the reconquest of Ireland by the Irish people, which means the expulsion of imperialism in all its forms, political, economic, military, social and cultural. It means the establishment of a real Irish republic and the organisation of the economy so that all its resources are under Irish control and organised to bring maximum benefit to our people in a 32 county state in which Irish culture and national identity are strong and confident.
Real national independence is the prerequisite socialism. understanding of socialism is that it is a definite form of society in which the main means of production, distribution and exchange are socially owned and controlled and in which production is based on human need rather than private profit. Socialism is based on the most thorough-going democratisation of the economme system, side by side with the thorough-going democracy in politics and public affairs. Socialism includes and stage advance republicanism. British colony sha as exists in the a You cannot have socialism counties or in a neo-colony such as exists in the 26 counties. You must have your own national government with the power to institute the political and economic changes which constitute socialism. Furthermore there cannot be a credible movement for socialism in Ireland while the British connection divides workers in the 6 counties and while partition prevents a unity of working class interests.
One does not become a socialist merely by calling oneself that. After all, Hitler's fascist movement called itself National Socialists, the Nazis. such politicians as Neil Kinnock, Roy Mason, Harold Wilson, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and Mikhail Gorbachev call themselves socialists. Nearer home John Hume, Tomás Mac Giolla, Dick Spring and Michael O'Riordan call themselves socialists also. socialism is what socialism does. means different things to different people and nothing to most people and is second only to republicanism as the most abused political description in Irish politics
The acid test of commitment to
socialism in Ireland (and Britain as well) is to be found in one's attitude to the issue of Irish national determination. The correct socialist attitude to Ireland must be an interna tionalist one. You cannot be a socialist without being a separatist. You cannot be a socialist if you condone, support
ignore the colonial stranglehold which the British government maintains over this part of our country.
There cannot be such a thing as "Ulster Socialism'. Those who profess to be Northern Ireland Socialists' are involved in mere parochialism of the gasworks and waterworks municipal variety. Neither does one become socialist by abandoning nationalism and republicanism and replacing them
'leftist' Sioganising like Workers' Party or by becoming antinational like the Irish Labour Party.
•of
E POLITICS
DF IRISH
FREEDOM
GERRY ADAMS
There are other international' socialists who support the legitimate TELLS people America, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere to engage in struggles tor naMy tional freedom. They are hypocrites if they do not assert the same rights for the Irish people.
The Irish nationalist movement played a leading role in the development of the world-wide struggle to overthrow colonialism and throughout its history republicanism has been strongly influenced. by movements in other countries. ideas of the American dependence and the French Revolution were those which inspired the United Irishmen. Irish emigrants eading role in the American War of In dependence and in the struggle against Portugese and Spanish colonialism in Central and South America. In India and Africa the Irish tradition was one of the strongest influences in the movements. Even in Britain the Chartist movement and the whole development of British trade unionism owed much to leadership from Irish radicals.
In more recent times internationalism has been an important element in republicanism. Certain self-proclaimed socialists who are implacably opposed to the struggle for independence in their own country proToday fess a kind of internationalism which engages in long-distance support revolutionary movements, provided of course that their struggles are in other countries. John Hume, for example, is a sponsor of the anti-apartheid movement. as was Garrett FitzGerald until Clearly recently. The anti-apartheid movement, supports the right of the African Na-
aims by means of armed struggle. John Hume and Garret FitzGerald'S views on
known, as are those of Neil Kinnock who applauded and embraced Oliver Tambo, President of the British Labour Party Conterence when self- Tambo spelt out the need for an intensification of the armed struggle and the probability of civilian casualties.
Irish republicans, hand, have a natural, instinctive and deep affinity with the ANC and with the black majority who are oppressed in South Africa. solidarity slogans or vividly painted murals on gable walls throughout the nationalist ghettoes of the 6 counties is but one example of this identification with liberation struggles throughout the world. The indignation of ordinary nationalists the six Reagan's attempts to bully or undermine the government of Nicaragua, The and their obvious sorrow at the forced eviction of the PLO from Beirut, provide ample evidence of the strength of
their anti-imperialist tionalist instincts.
Central All socialists
and class in Ireland.
only tionalism
progressive
The War of In- gling people elsewhere
am a socialist played a republican.
sides of the one coin. tional dimension revolutionary reasons, been the
anti-colonial
Licite sistently been philosophy.
Republicans
struggled
liberals and
Irish
end to foreign interference affairs.
(ANC) to pursue its
are well
class
socialist state.
the other
The appearance of
Ireland who
counties
promising republicans.
In all of
socialism
&socialism
and interna-
must be interna- some, tionalists and anti-imperialists in a defunct meaningful way. Long distance revolutionaries' will not help to free the oppressed peoples of the world if they cannot help to free their own people
A only ceracepion et interesa.
conception internaworth struggling for. So socialists must struggle for freedom and political power in the country in a republican. which they live and give a lead to strug
For all these reasons and because I
I continue to be a Republicanism philosphy in which the national and the radical social dimensions are the two term is
While the nahas, for historical most dominant republicans tendency within the republican move- However,
Irish republicanism has radical political
have persistently, against great odds and often alone,
imperialism. The republican movement has many inadequacies but it remains the major, many would say the only, anti-imperialist force in Ireland today. Despite the best efforts of the Fianna Fáil, SDLP and homes. Fine Gael leaderships to distort its meaning republicanısm is a concep easily understood by the majority of
people to mean national independence, unity, sovereignty and an
You cannot be a socialist and not be a republican. Socialists will want an independent republic because it is a good thing in itself as an advance from today's situation and because it is an essential step towards socialism. This will only be achieved, however, if the struggle is led by the most radical social groups and in particular by the working identity.
wilhout whom it cannot suc ceed in developing the conditions for the establishment of a democratic and
Such a struggle for national independence needs to encompass all the social elements in the nation which are oppressed or held back by imperialism. Independence struggles whch are led by the conservative or middle classes, as in irelana in lyzi, lena to compromisc with imperialism because their leading sections benefit from such a compromise. That is why those on the left in
regard themselves as socialists and as representing the working class should be the most uncom-
this the question of socialist republicanism or republican
one for
Socialist Action radicals in Ireland today. The term 'republican socialism' has been used by
for example the now almost IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party; but strictly speaking it is a misnomer. If you say you are a republican socialist you are implying that there is such a thing as a 'non-
socialism is used in the classical sense of the term defined here.
One cannot be a socialist and not be
Connolly, as usual, indicated what the correct term was wher he called the party he founded in 1896 the Irish Socialist Republican Party. I follows that if a republican wishes to use the term 'socialist' in defining his ol her political position today, the propel
'socialist republican and "socialist republicanism', in order to distinguish oneself from non-socialist
This is perfectly valid the . republican struggle should not at this stage of its develop ment style itself 'socialist-republican' This would imply that there is no place in it for non-socialists.
Irish republicanism is not and never has been a static concept; it is a living and developing ideology. The first declaration of its principal elements is contained in the 1916 Proclamation, which has pride of place in many Irish
Later, with the emergence of the Young Ireland movement Fintan Lalor gave Irish republicanism a new base. He wrote: "The entire ownership of Ireland moral and material un to the sun and down to the centre, is vested in the right of the people of Ireland. They and none but they are the land-owners and law makers of this island, that all laws are null and void not made by them and all titles to land are invalid not conferred by them.' The Young Irelanders also reawakened a sense ot national con sciousness and awareness of national
The next influence was the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or the Fenian movement, whose rise accompanied a great national revival and the foundation of national sporting and cultural organisations such as the GAA and Conradh na Gaelige. This nationalism was not chauvinist — it was not the nationalism of imperialism - but was progressive nationalism expressing a belief in culture and identity as well as in political independence.
Although there was a progressive social element in the writings of all the generations that have intluenced Irish republicanism, and although in their own time these were radical revolutionary movements, James Connolly's writings on the social and economic aspects of the struggle for Irish independence were to have the most
9 Jan 1987 5
significant effect only, in it literature but on the thoughts of othe leaders.
All of these elements were crystallis ed in the Proclamation of the Republi in 1916 and developed further in th Democratic Programme of the Firs Dáil. These documents have neithe been implemented nor updated to mer modern conditions, yet they are as reit vant today as they were when their basi principals were conceived.
All of the movements and leader that shaped the republican philosoph were also internationalist in outloo and considered and engaged in physic force as a means of advancing : th struggle. If we compare the politic positions those politicians an political parties that pretend to b republican with all the elements of Iris republicanism we discover how shodd and superficial their pretence actuall
In Ireland until partition is got r of and a united Ireland established, b ing genuinely left-wing is to be an ou and-out republican. This was the k lesson of James Connolly for socialis in Ireland. That is why he was led, as socialist, to join Pearse and the othe radical republicans and democrats in fight to establish an Irish Republic
If that fight had been successfu Connolly and the socialists would the have been in the best position to a vocate the economic and social chang which constitute socialism. They woul have proved themselves by their leade ship of the independence struggle. Thi
why it is a political mistake counterpose republicanism socialism in Ireland as if they were of posites or antagonistic.
The true socialist will be an acti supporter of the republican charact of the national independence mon ment. She or he will realise that unle this character is maintained and unle the most radical social forces are in tr leadership of the independence strugg then inevitably it must fail or con promise. This classical view of the ma ter contrasts with the ultra-left vie which counterposes republicanism ar socialism and which breaks up the un ty of the national independence mor ment by putting forward 'socialis demands which have no possibility being achieved until real independen is won; the result is that one gets neith independence nor socialism
To ignore these lessons of histor to repeat the mistakes of the past. Wh is needed in Ireland, especially in the counties, is the development of an an imperialist movement. Such a mos ment cannot be built around the sloga of socialism until socialism comes the historical agenda, until a distine Irish form of socialism is developes meet our needs and conditions and u til a majority class in Ireland, the wol ing class, actually understands that th is in their interests and is what th want
If such a mass anti-imperiali movement, with pea sections of Irish society, could developed, and this is the urgent task all socialists, nationalists republicans, it would fuse together fected by imperialism and would sho people the connection between the localised and special grievances and t imperialistic domination society.
The programme for such a mos ment would appeal to all those capab of taking a national stand and wou require a multi-sided campaign of n tional regeneration a new Ireland movement to offset, especial in the 26 counties, the neo-colom ethos and mentali which exists there And such a gramme would, by its very nature, be the left of what passes for 'socialism Ireland today.
Connolly held that the nation revolution was the pre-requisite of d socialist revolution. All of us who pr fess republicans sociali would do well to study his writings Desmond Greaves has written. Coa ly held that the political and econ
the two stages democratic reorganisation of each involving economic which it is the function of pr change to promote. We who attery follow in his tradition must recol that truth.
Page 6 scan of this page
What alliances fe Anti Apartheid M
A
A
THE Anti-Apartheid Movement AGM meets on 11/12 January. It comes at a time when the attention of the world is fixed on the struggle in South Africa and Namibia. REDMOND O NEILL looks at the choices facing the AAM
WHEN THE Movement AGM meets its chief task will be to map out a programme action against theid, and British support for it, in 1987. For this it will be necessary to extend even further the mobilisations which the Apartheid Movement (AAM) was able to lead in 1985 and 1986. The demonstrations of 1985 and 1986, inspired by the rising struggle in South Africa helped transform the AAM into a mass movement.
In 1987 the AAM can be extended still further by building the massive support for it, and for action against apartheid, in the trade unions and labour movement and by develop-
alliances with the black munities, the student movement, local Labour councils and youth. These are the key areas for building the mass action needed to deliver support to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. They will all be subjects for discussion around resolutions at the AGM. Manifesto
The growth of the against apartheid has been reflected in increasing support for the AAM. There are nearly 200 local Around 8.5 million trade unionists are affiliated. It is the development of the AAM over the last two years lniu a mass movement which is summarised in the AAM's National Committee document Challenging Apartheid.
This explains how the movement plans reorganise its structures in line with its growth. place of a national AGM every one of the AAM's 10,000 national members can attend, contribute and vote - ine aocument proposes representative delegates be elected from local groups and affiliated organisa-
ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT AGENDA FOR ACTION IN 1987 JANUARY: Launch of a Manifesto for Sanctions JANUARY/FEBRUARY: Local Sanctions Co-ordinating meetings MARCH: Month of Action for Peoples Sanctions MAY: Week of Action against British companies in Namibia JUNE: National Convention for Sanctions OCTOBER: National Demonstration for Sanctions.
Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987
tions.
tional and local members.
local groups students. In youth CICSLEE
trade union action Anti-Apartheid
South African products.
apar-
workers Ford's
huge ponents from
Anti-
Sporting these actions.
Dorall steps
through its campaign, South Africa Railway and
already
coal.
Inspired
com-
Last year's
theid in the workplaces.
with the black workplaces and movement workers who are
groups.
out of the shops.
This dramatic growth, political
membership
taken.
where
Sanctions. parues Sanctions. ly those August last year by
agreed by the EEC.
the movement
links with apartheid
coming year.
majority
In place of the system where members of local groups are not national members of AAM the document proposes an integrated system for na-
A further step being considered by local groups to organise youth and
organise youth Birmingham and Mansections of the AAM have been set up. In London students have coordinated across the colleges.
In the last year there has been more
starting with Portsmouth health workers boycott of
Miners in South Yorkshire are organising againsi coal imports from South Africa and car
Dagenham plant have called for a boycott of any com-
South Africa. AAM groups have played a key role in sup-
Unions nationally have taken im-
SUCE as the NUR 'Rail Against Apartheid' in aiding its equivalent in the South African Harbour Workers Unions. The NUM has taken steps to secure agreement through the International Miners Organisation for an international embargo of South African
TUC conference reflected this movement by agreeing to defend boycott actions against apar-
Central in winning active mobilisation by the labour movement is the need of the AAM to deepen its links
community. In the unions black most inspired to isolate aparthied. The black communi-
launched an effective Apartheid Free Zone to clear the goods of apartheid
Strengthening such steps will be key to the AAM's future.
organisational poses me quesuon of what perspectives the movement should have. Here clear choices must be
The AAM's national leadership is proposing to knit the year's perspectives together around a document appropriately called A New Offensive for
This outlines an agenda for action in 1987 culminating in the excellent proposal for a mass demonstration in October. The political proposals for the AAM, including in the general election, however still combine the proven success of a priority of a mass action, and the mobilisation of the labour movement, with an approach centring on lobbying individual candidates
around a Manifesto for
The stated aim of this is to win a
'parliamentary majority committed to the policies outlined in the manifesto'
- which in the Manifesto's first draft are ending the British veto on UN sanctions, for Britain to carry out essential-
sanctions already agreed in Commonwealth leaders, and to implement the sanctions
A campaign around a 'manifesto
for sanctions' as a way of mobilising
- especially if it called
for the British government to break all
- is something
that local groups will respond to in the
But the political perspec-
tive which is behind this 'parliamentary
committed to the policies
SOUT-
In 1987 the AAM can be extended still further by building the already massive support for it, and for action against apartheid, in the trade unions and labour movement and by developing alliances dent movement, local Labour councils and youth. These are outlined in the manifesto', at least on the basis of the first draft, can only be assumed to be the code words for the orientation to the SDP, Liberals, and even sections of the Tory Party, which is espoused by the Communist Party. It
aenderattly designed CLU . be biguous on the crucial question of the attitude to the Labour Party.
Laboul the only party policies even remotely approaching effective measures against apartheid. only useful vote by an opponent of apar-
AFRICAN
LATIONA CONGRESS
with the black communities, the stu-
theid would be a Labour vote. for individual politicians in the SDP, Liberals and Tories is hopeless as their parties have no interest in meaningful action to destroy apartheid. The central political orientation should be towards the Labour Party, alli not lobbying the SDP, Liberals and
"progressive' Tories. with A manifesto for sanctions could be a useful tactic if it called for a British • The government to break all links apartheid
EDINBURGH
STUDENTS
ADADY
the key areas for building the mass action needed to deliver support be ste ants or incision are in rest tina tee AGM.
Support
the AAM
with and thereby exposed the would
MAPcI
I all be subjects for discussion around resolutions at the
reality that the Tory, SDP, and Liberal Parties have no intentions whatever of serious action against apartheid. But there must not be illusions in the role these parties will play.
Challenging
Even with Labour it would be a foolish mistake, contradicted by the shameful record of every •Labour government, to believe that Kinnock
honour his anti-apartheid
Page 7 scan of this page
es. A government led by Kinnock
take even minimal steps gigantic pressure Its alles in tne
communities, the student move-
and elsewhere.
British capital and the British state
with the United States, the single
decisive props of the barbaric
m of apartheid in the *llenging this source
Ets will require a colossal mobilisaa of social forces in Britain. The responsibility of the British d-Apartheid Movement is necessarito create the broadest and most ular possible alliances for action to
Britain's decisive support for aparad. But that requires alliances with
se prepared to fight apartheid not
who profit from it
class, and in some cases the com-
who finance the Tory ₽, and Liberals.
The first such alliance for the AAM self-evidently with the trade unions * Labour Party - but above all se, like the miners, prepared to take
through these organisations. ondly, the decisive role of the black
• munity as been under-estimated the AAM in the past.
The black communities of Britain ve already demonstrated their deterration to fight racism in this con-
They are the section ediately identifies with and supports which most easily struggle of their brothers and sisters South Africa. The 2½ million black ple in Britain are a vital part of the i-apartheid alliance.
astinctive Thirdly, young people, including in sticular the one and a quarter million Aot be directly mobilised to translate student movement, r instinctive moral hatred oi aparid into action.
Fourthly, the British state operates own systematic form of discriminain through the sectarian structures of
artiticial statelet in the North of land by which Britain maintains a lonial toehold, and domination, over • whole of Ireland. The nationalist immunities of the North of Ireland sily understand and support the antiartheid struggle and are beginning to •ove one of its most consistent alles.
Radical Labour councis arted to turn a little of their resources
educating and mobilising against artheid. They too can be part of the ti-apartheid alliance needed in 1987.
Women have been to the forefront every struggle in the 1980s. This can so be so in the fight against apartheid. It strategy of obilisation of the labour movement,
black communities, youth adents in mass action against apareid which is the way to carry out the AM's responsibility to fight
ns the government. Any at action against apartheid will only
a by-product of mass action and
lisaster
The alternative perspective to mass ions was pursued by the Campaign * Nuclear Disarmament leadership in -last general election. It proved to be
isaster for CND - contributing to
ermining the mass action approach
h had built it into the largest mass wement since World War II.
Politically the key orientation for
AAM Is to une labour movement l its allies - including taking up the
icies of the Labour front bench.
the
vement?
June cluding support
with the apartheid regime, world. Labour Party conterence of immense
steps without a mention
This is not acceptable.
Vegetables
- including The movementl
Party
including the
complete Haae be necessary to police these.
of British
and im-
paign which finally forced the
South African fruit and
the sanctions movement must have.
launched
can and
Namibia
Ine congress Unions (COSATU). non-racial COSATU, the
have
be opposed.
Chimera
broadening South Africa,
and continues to rise.
for
whoever
govern- commitment to sanctions
build the AAM.
fighting and dying
against apartheid, movements should be dropped
black communities,
Apartheid Movement in 1987.
THE
rally
The Labour Party must be organised from top to bottom in active support of the campaign for sanctions - in-
for the national demonstration in October. This has to be combined with a campaign to secure a clear manifesto committment that Labour, if elected, will break all links
fer last year's focused on the responsibility of the UN, the EEC,
steps without a mention of mat a
Sebsur gover ment tould do itself. what
This is also the perspective which must lie behind the campaign for sanc-
'People's Sanctions' is not an end in itself, but a strike. lever whose goal is full government imposed sanctions against south Africa
withdrawal of all tinancial loans and assets as well as a
and diplomatic embargo. Trade union action, or workers sanctions as some like to term them, as well as consumer boycotts and the like, cannot in and of themselves be fully effective. The goal must be government sanctions - and trade union action will
In Ireland for example the heroic action by Duane's workers to bovcott South African goods did not in itself harm South Africa economically. But it
stand acted as a powerful focus for a cam-
Irish government to ban the import of all
vegetables. 1 his Is lne type ur ponucar perspecuve
Finally, increasing attacks are being
those leading the struggle in South Africa and
— the African National Congress (ANC), the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) and
of South African Trade For example, while the US Congress passed a bill for limited sanctions against South Africa last year the bill was also part of a cam-
black paign to undermine the ANC and aid alternatives to it. Whilst in Britain last year's TUC agreed to recognise the new
union federation, TUC international department continues to bolster alternatives to COSATU. These attempts to
uild up a 'pro-western' alternative to
he ANC, SWAPO and COSATU mus
The struggle against apartheid in
Photo: IDAF
IntenaDona solidarity movement with that struggle,
A general election year can be an occasion to reach a much wider audience with the campaign for sanctions. It can be an opportunity to harden out the Labour Party's policy
including the demand that a Labour government break all links with apartheid. It can
Pursuing the chimera of an alliance of Labour the SDP, Liberals and Tory wels agalls apartnea won t acmeve any of those things. Most important of all, it won't do anything to help those
for freedom South Africa today. Formulas such as 'a parliamentary majority' for action
which mislead the
Mass action, at orientation to the labour movement, an orientation to the
youth and students, must be the basis of the Anti-
CAMPAIGN Group
Labour MPs and the Labour Party Black Section are working together to build what will be the first public
of the Campaign established at Chesterfield September last year. Taking place at Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton, on 16 February the rally will be chaired by Linda Bellos, Vice Chair of the Black Section and leader of Lambeth council, and speakers will include Arthur Scargill, President of the NUM, Bernie Grant, leader of Haringey council, Campaign Group MPs Tony Benn, Eric Hef-
and Dennis Skinner speakers from the Black Section and the Labour Women's Action Committee.
A central theme of the meeting will be the defence of the black led London councils, the leaders of two of whom will be on the platform, who have faced a vitriolic attack from the press and Tory government.
The meeting follows the close links established between the NUMand the slack command doris the Arthur
follows Scargill's defence of the black communities against police and the NUM and the Campaign Group's support fol the constitutional demands
Black Section. It will Lavour rarly represent a step in the fight against racism by the party and taking up the job the Labour front bench have been doing in defending Labour councils under attack.
The rally follows the January edition of Campaign Group News which took on the Tories' racist attacks on Bernie Grant and Brent council with a front page article by Bernie Grant and a piece by Merle Amory defending the
OI Brent council McGoldrick case. This contrasted with the silence from much of the left - and the capitulation of the front bench to the Tories' attacks.
Bernie Grant spelt out in Campaign Group News: 'In London Ministers have targetted the councils which have black Labour leaders. The Tories have a clear and overtly racist strategy of trying to isolate black Labour leaders, and trying to make them appear unfit for high office.'
He also explained 'These councils are singled out for attack because their policies of fighting low pay, defending jobs and services, and tackling areas of
disadvantage like pensioners, and minority ethnic women and lesbians and gays are genuinely popular and build up support for Labour. Grant pointed out that by refusing to defend Labour councils Kinnock and Cunningham are: 'doing a enerous disservice to councils and the whole party. Tories tactics are to frighten people The party should reply with the truth. They should tell people the good things we are doing.
Grant explained that despite a vile and racist local campaign against him personally the Labour majority Haringey council had increased at the last local elections trom 13 to 25 seats 'We found that those who were not Campaign Group News Defend Labour Breat, Harina councils
Campaign Group and
Black Section call rally
of
Forum
in
and Arthur
of the
should groups,
Labour
The prepared to vote for us were more than equalised by new young black people wno lau before, by the support of all minority ethnic groups Asians, Cypriots, Irish, Jewish people and so on all of the people who make up a majority in this part of London.'
Grant summarised the position very
by never voted
Afro-Caribbeans, we represent.' — by lesbians and gays and Black
Campaign Forum Rally
Speakers include Tony Benn MP • Bernie Grant leader Haringey
Council • Eric Heffer MP •
Arthur Scargill • Dennis Skinner MP • Labour Party Black Section • Women's
Action Committee
Chair Linda Bellos leader Lambeth Council
Lambeth Town Hall, 16 February
Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987 7 clearly 'People want a radical socialist Labour Party. And, of course, that is also what the Tories are frightened of. We are under attack because it's what
Drawing together the Labour Party
Section and the Campaign Group on a principled basis the Campaign Forum rally will be a major event for the labour movement.
Page 8 scan of this page
hegemony
8 Socialist Action
SO ONE army lines up in one
place and says, "We are for
socialism", and another,
somewhere else and says,
are for imperialism", , and that
will be a social revolution! ...
Whoever expects such a "pure"
social revolution will never live
to see it. Such a person pays lip-
service to revolution without
understanding what revolution
is. — Lenin, The Discussion on
Self-Determination Summed
Up.
SOCIALIST ACTION gives tremendous emphasis to the international class struggle, the struggle of women, the black community, and all sections of the oppressed as part of working class politics. But it does not treat these simply as individual questions — vital as each is separately. Socialist Action seeks to integrate them in a hegemonic strategy — that is one in which the labour movement champions the demands of all the exploited and oppressed. Such an emphasis is not a peripheral question of socialism but at the core of Marxism. JOHN ROSS looks at the origins of the idea of hegemony in the views of Marx and its place in socialist strategy.
It was Lenin who first made the issue of hegemony a dividing line between political strategies. He wrote: "The proletariat is revolutionary only insofar as it is conscious of and gives effect to the idea of the hegemony of the proletariat. The proletarian who is conscious of this task is a slave who has revolted against slavery. The proletarian who is not conscious of the idea that his class must be the leader, or who renounces this idea, is a slave who does not realise his position as a slave; at best he is a slave who fights to improve his conditions as a slave, but not one who fights to overthrow slavery.'
Lenin violently attacked those who counterposed the idea of 'class politics' to the fight of the working class for hegemony. He wrote: 'the famous formula of one of the young leaders of our reformists Russian Social-Democratic (Marxist) who declared that the Party must represent "not hegemony but a class party" , is a formula of the most consistent reformism. More than that, is a formula of sheer renegacy.
To say "not hegemony, but a class party", means to take the side of the bourgeoisie, the side of the liberal who says to the slave of our age, the wage canic.. Fight to improve your conditions as a slave, but regard the thought of overthrowing slavery as a harmful utopia"! To preach to the workers that what they need is "not hegemony, but a class party" means to betray the cause of the proletariat to the liberals; it means preaching that Democratic (Marxist) labour policy should be replaced by a liberal labour policy'
Lenin insisted that as long as the working class did not fight hegemony it had not developed a class position at all — it was simply a collec-
tion of trades or guilds: "From the standpoint of Marxism the class, long as it renounces the idea hegemony or fails to fight for it, is not a class, or not yet a class, but a guild, or the sum total of various guilds. stated: 'it is the consciousness of the idea of hegemony and its implementation through their own activities that converts the guilds as a whole into a
These concepts of Lenin, of the hegemony of the working class, were
9 Jan 1987
Marx on
'We
Barricades in the French revolution of 1848
however completely rooted in those of Marx — although it was Lenin who attached the specific term 'hegemony' to them. Marx stressed from the beginning that a revolution never develops in the simplistic form of 'one class against another' but through a process in which Social class leads all the progressive
developments of society. words in The German Ideology: "The class making a revolution comes forward from the very start... not as a
for class but as a representative of the
whole of society, as the whole mass of society confronting the one ruling class.
so To be victorious a class must
of necessarily represent not merely its own
but wider interests of society: No class of civil society can play this role (of He leader O1 Ine revolution)
awakening a moment of enthusiasm in itself and in the masses: a moment in which this class fraternises and fuses with society in general, becomes identified with it and is experienced as its universal representative; a moment in which its claims and rights are truly the
of society."
social reality. In terms of its ideology
In Marx's lay cain to unersaily mina clas
universality for
for freer development.
their liberation.
also) to property"
ward from the
non-ruling therefore, history
universality
ruling previously." ly Family bourgeoisie rights and claims of society itself and in *failure on "Won" which it is in reality the heart and head "failure"
This poses the universality of a mass class in terms of its ideology and of
'Only in the name of the universal rights of society can a particular class society.
Tallure, class. however, is not simply, or mainly, a question of ideology Marx stressed: each class could actually overthrow its predessors only by liberating the in- was dividuals of all classes from certain regards the great bourgeois revolutions terest
from Revolution."
petition was, of course, for the eighteenth century the only possible way of offering the individuals a new career
To achieve a social revolution a class must therefore not simply present its humanity. ideas as liberating all progressive sections of society from bonds which bind them. It must in material reality aid
. Thus for example: 'Liberalism, ie liberal property owners at the beginning of the French revolution... were compelled not only to give the mass of the French (rural) population the right to seize property, (but
let them seize actual
A class can put forward universal goals only if its interests in reality coincide with those of wider strata of society. To complete a passage above: "The class making a revolution comes for-
as the representative of the whole of society •..It can do this because initially its interest really is as yet mostly connected with the common interest of all other
classes Its victory, benefits also many individuals of other classes which are not winning a dominant position.
The specific role of the working class is arrived at by Marx through this concept of the universality of a class. Marx noted at the level of ideology that each of the class views put forward in history is of increasing universality Posed purely in terms of ideology one could analyse the development of socie-
... in considering the course of history we detach the ideas of the ruling class from the ruling class itself and attribute to them an independent ex
then this conception of ... will necessarily come up from against the phenomenon that ever more abstract ideas hold sway, 1.e., ideas which increasingly take on the form of therefore, achieves domination only on Every new class, a broader basis than that of the class
It is this fact that every new class comes to power on a broader basis than of the one previously which gives practicalilty, as well as legitimacy, to the drive of the working class to socialism. Posed in material terms each previous revolution had stopped because of its limited, that is non universal, social base. For example, replying to Brunc Bauer's cynical idea that all revolutions necessarily fail, Marx noted in The Ho-
that: "The interest of the in the 1789 (French) far from having been a everything.
Revolution was a "failure" only for the
whose real conditions for emancipation were essentially different from the conditions within which the bourgeois could emancipate itself and
If the Revolution. Was C it was so because the mas
within whose living conditions it essen tially came to a stop, was an exclusive
mited mass, not an an emoracing o
Of the Revolution was a failure because the most numerous part of the mass, the part distinct from the bourgeoisie, did not have its real in
principle of the The working class is the mos universal class in history. because it goals cannot be the liberation of one class, and the contirration of the oppression and exploitation of another
but the liberation of the whole of
The working class therefore in the terms developed later by Lenin, the class capable of the
In Depth
Marx outlined this in the very phrases in which he announced for the first time his view of the proletariat as the bearer of a future society. tegrating the tasks of the developing German revolution he faced at that time Marx noted: 'where is the positiv possibility of German emancipation? This is our answer. In the formation of a class with radical chains, a class of civil society which is not a class of civil society. A class which is the dissolution of all classes, a sphere which has a universal character becaus universal suffering and which lays claim to no particular right because the wrong it suffers is not a particular wrong but wrong in general; a sphere of society which can no longer lay claim to a historical title, but merely to a human one, which does not stand in one-sided opposition to the consequences but in all-sided opposition to the premises of the German political system; and finally a sphere which cannot emancipate itself without emancipating itself from
and thereby emancipating all other spheres of society, which is, in a word, the total loss of humanity and which can therefore redeem itself only through the total redemption of humanity. This dissolution of societ! as a particular class is the proletariat: The victory of the working class is, in Marx's words, the necessary step ir 'universal human emancipation.
These phrases of Marx, in which are contained the entire core of the hegemony of the working class, have nothing to do with empty sentimentality. They directly guide the working class. They mean, in the words of Lenin in What is to be Done?, that: 'Working class consciousness cannot be genuine political consciousness unless workers are trained to respond to all cases of tyranny, oppression, violence and abuse no matter what class is atfected.' And in the equally famous phrases of the same work: "The Socia Democrat's (marxists) ideal should no be the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people, who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression, no matter where it appears, no mater what stratum or class of the people it affects.''
It implies also the relation of Marxism to the whole of human culture and
Again in the words of Lenin: 'Marxism has won its historic significance as the ideology of the revolutionary proletariat because, far
rejecting the most achievements of the bourgeois epoch, it has, on the contrary, assimilated. and refashioned everything of value in the more than two thousand years of the development of human thought anc culture. '14
The working class is the most universal class in history, that capable
the greatest hegemony. Simultaneously without taking every demand of the oppressed and exploited, without in Marx's words coming forward 'as a representative of the whole mass of society confronting the one ruling class,' the working class is itself incapable of victory.
That necessity for a hegemonic strategy for the working class is the core to its politics. It is why Socialist Action gives such emphasis to internationa politics, to the demands of women, of the black community, and of all the op
pressed. In Lenin's words: 'the class, s long as it renounces the idea hegemony or fails to fight for it, is no
a class, or not yet a class, but a guna, '
he sum total of various guild it is the consciousness of the idea hegemony and its implementatior through their own activities that con verts the guilds as a whole into a class.
1. Lenin Collected Works Cated 15o5
Marx and Engels Collected
(MECW) 5 p60 3. Marx and Engels Early Writings MEEW
MECW 5 p60
5. MECW 5p290 1200 p60 MEEW p254 MEEW p253 412 and 422 p317
Page 9 scan of this page
Why Reagan is in crisis
International
MANNE DIPICO is a South African Nati Unlon of Mineworkers (NUM) agional org He was the second meraber, wit
plained to Socialist Action the conditions in Soci
printing the first part of the interview this week. W will be continued in our aext issue.
Is worse than any country.
When
South Africa South Africans. im-
ple, to these minerals.
were allowonly manual labour
or to the mines themselves. The 101-
their COUL tries. So was
forcing us to on
the mining
They the
You hane ere yare 15
time ther everyone was rushing to the mines. There was no alternative source of income.
The mines were the only source of employment.
In going to the mines,
where. they and their families lived. Labour legislation was introduced
that the men tion of the Iran arms sales.
If the US goverment is plunged into its biggest internal crisis for six years it is for quite different reasons than the officially publicised ones. If section of the US Congress and press are now making scandals around the Reagan administration and they are - It 1s nol because they are shocked abetion an eleranian with sections of the government, or because of reactionaries fighting the Nicararaguan government anymore than Watergate was about the fact that US politicians were shocked by the fact that Nixon bugged his opponents phones or carried on illegal cover ups.
The real strains now wracking tale US 40 -ministration may be seen
LOOKIN how the crisis developed - because It is clear that the political crisis broke out before the revelation of the arms sales to Iran.
The crisis was already clearly registered in
union pr doxlatsi, of the NUM's delegation to al Mineworkers Organisation confere at the end of November. Dipico vividly co
Africa's mines and the strategy of the NUM. We are
The govern ment the hundreds of Wasted for months contract. political
and the
bound boomerang So they destabilised the family
who learn
the handed
the
dog or
twenty and
There is no privacy The
Diseases not even FORGET THE rhetoric that the Reagan administration has suddenly been plunged into crisis by revelations about the illegal supply of arms to Iran, or the legal funding of the Nicaraguan contras. The US ruling class has its own way of dealing with that type of everyday scandal if it wishes. The world already knew the contras were being funded illegally anyway - it has been in every newspaper for five years. A few heads could have quietly rolled over the revela-
mid-term congressional elections. In these Reagan staked personal prestige and campaigned the country. outcome ves that the
totally iden/ Reagan, suffered ti worst cieciorai defeat for six years - being reduced to a minority not simply in the House of Representatives but in the Senate. The crisis over Iran then blew up in the month following the election.
The unpopularity of the Reagan administration's policies other words preceeded the revelations over the Iran arms sales. Iran ne crisis occassion fo crisis rather than its cause. If there had not heen the crisis over Iran some other pretext would have been found.
The most powerful development now weighing down the administration, feeding the
South Africa's mines
The only way describe the food is junk'. People eat juid to fill their stomachs not to get nourishment. The food is such low quality.
With such appalling food BO-CONCIL medical facilities, disease and il health are common.
The working conditions are equally bad. On safety, most of the accidents are were never recorded. People didn't know he canes through which to take them cidents evere un recorded. It муси усту schous vou said vou were insured. the employer would vou somewnere out of ine way to keep you quiet. If you said you wère satisfied they dismiss you. It's as simple as that. Th employer had total control and kept the mines closed to
an Europe, and waderly for a trade wa
defeat rapidly deteriorating international position US economy. The Reagan
have greatest period economic ad US history. The economic chickens are now coming home to roost. It is that which is now provoking a crisis of the Reagan administration.
The driving force in the expansión the economy under Reagan has been the rapid rise in military spending. Following the disasters of the Nixon, Ford and Carter
rears — with the defeat i
vietnam, the overnrow o Portugese rule in Southern Africa the overthrow
Shah of revolution in Nicaragua -Reagan set the US course to try to revive its political position massive increase in military might. The problem was that neither the
- the tolera houses make the miners pay
gave
forces in the United States build up to be paid for by r by
to Sz2l billion last rare. - last year the US became
capital in the US the dollar had to be maintained at a
exports
any country in history
industry are being crushed by international competi-
families and at the same
In reality, the man is not in a position to teed his
to say to his children? Why
With no way to express
beaten into submission, to the first time for six years
divy.
papelarity of Reagan's
before were desting
revalanlon.
Iran and Nicaragua,
to come out of the present
wil
rese Winer foreign policy needs.
But the economic crisis
SCTIOUS ICasUl.
Democracy
China
at stemming the tide of the street actions. nine non-students are still being held port for the 'reform' toll on irrigation channels,
Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987 9
demonstrations in
For four weeks students across China have gone into the streets to express their demands for 'democracy' and 'press freedom'. The protests started in Hefei on 9 December. They spread to Shanghai - where tens of thousands took to the streets — and to eight other cities. On 23 December 3,000 marched
Shanghai colleagues. Some wall posters put up in Beijing originated in Hefei, suggesting a degree of coordination between quite dis-
The student movement has been criticised by
People's Daily. The authorities in Beijing and Shanghai introduced restrictive regulations aimed
He Donchang, vice-minister of the Education Commission, appointed to lead an investigation, told a press conference on 30 December that most of the students who had taken part in demonstrations had been patriotically showing their enthusiasm for reform, that no students had been arrested and that none had violated the constitution.
Twenty-four students who were arrested in Beijing on 1 January were soon released, though
The background to these events is clear. The
upsurge has its roots in the shift in government leadership under Deng Xiaoping, ten
Central government investment in agriculture has been reduced by 50 per cent since 1978 and private production encouraged. During the same period there has been a 35 per cent in-
In October 1984, associated measures were in. troduced into industry. Statistics for the first half of 1985 indicate a 23 per cent increase in industrial
Simultaneously with this the government opened China up to foreign investment, expanded trade and accompanied this with an openly reactionary cher and the EEC, for a period for the Pinochet regime in Chile, and included China's brutal inva-
Internally, the economic measures were accompanied by a certain controlled liberalisation' moves were resisted by sections of the bureaucracy which favoured more centralised planning. is also evidence they were far harder to apply in in-
- where their consequences would be unemployment, and increased differentials within
The student protests have expressed their sup-
measures and lor himself. According to John Gittings in The Guardian, 3 January, the early protests at Hefei were associated with Deng's trend within the Party.
In addition to pro-Deng slogans the students have demanded that the democracy be real. They have also raised demands against the system where in them ployment and demanded
Deng's opponents are openly fighting within the party, pointing to popular dissatisfaction caused by increased wage dullerentials, corruption, and
policies; to the massive $7.6 billion trade deficit, caused by the influx of foreign consumer durables They also point to the problems in the previously successful agricultural sector which for the first time is seeing a decrease in grain production as peasants switch to more protitable produce, decrease in central investment which has taken its
Becauselor smaller household allotments become basic pro-
'Conservatives' have been prominent in opposing the students in the press - which has prompted the ritual newspaper burnings.
government bureaucracy are looking to the CCP's thirteenth party congress in October of this year, which will assess the last ten years successes and failures and plan for the next decade. Both certainly oppose street mobilisations which escape their control -and most of all demonstrations which may link up
Page 10 scan of this page
10 Socialist Action FIFTEEN years after the maccabe occcr Sunday in Derry when paratroopers shot dead 14 unarmed demonstrators, Most omne Sunoe demands of the civil rights' movement remain unfulfilled. Nationalists still face discrimination in housing and jobs. The North of Ireland still suffers a perverse system of justice known as the Dipiock systell.
Since 1972 repression has greatly increased — the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Emergency Provisions Act, the use of plastic bullets, stripsearching, and shoot-to-kill
peperations, to name but a
In the last year the number of soldiers operating in the North of Ireland has increased. The number ol sectarlan killings has increased. Along the border with the rest of Ireland fortified watchtowers are being built at an alarming rate.
Alongside this, poverty has worsened. The number of jobs available for all sections of the community has declined. The economy is almost Luil otelll.
tsere cernom the above that Britain has no positive tole lo pldy ll Ireland. The restoration of some sort ot normality in that country begins with the withdrawal of all British troops whether soldiers, the Ulster Defence Regiment or the RUC; and self-determination for the Irish people as a whole
We urge you to support the demonstration we have called on 31 January in Sheffield by coming, sponsoring, and sending HONCV EO COVEL LIC CUDO. Leaflets, details of buses for the JUsLeis allc
demonstration are available from CBWI, Box 353, London NW5 4NH.
John Campbell, Committee for British Withdrawal from Ireland
Ducking the
issue?
THE article in Socialist Action before Christmas ovud unic Culicu Why NATO needs the bomb was untortunatelv marred in not placing the question in the framework of a working class response to the bosses war drive. Whilst correctly calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament, it incorrectly argued for it within the framework of an implicit neutralism.
A socialist reply must begin from an understanding that the cutting edge of the warmongers offensive 1s their attempt to throw back the colonial revolution and prevent any extension of the socialist revolution. This not only involves the biggest imperialist power, the United States, but also the second biggest, Britain.
The armed forces of Britain. both conventional and nuclear, play an active part in this process. It 1s the 'conventional' forces that hold in subjugation the risen people of Ireland. It is the nuclear forces that act as a threat, hanging over the heads of
9 Jan 1987
Bloody Sunday Commemoration
Student rebellion in France
IN Socialist Worker 13 December 1986, Mike Simons wrote:
'Unfortunately
France's revolutionary
organisations are still
virtually invisible to
most students.
"The two main far
left organisations, the
LCR and Lutte
Ouvrière, are actively
involved in the student
movement but neither
has an independent
presence. Neither had
paper sellers on
'hursday's
demonstration, nor
were they present on
Saturday's memorial
march. all those fighting for freedom, of the lengths the imperialists will go to to ceremo mer me ess Over both Cuba and the Inladie bast tney nave shown they are prepared to oring une world lo tile edge of the precipice in defence of their right to exploit.
The task of socialists consists of organising opposition to the actual wars launched by imperialism today, whist
Danenv coucau, ou class in the basic questions involved, illuminating, not obscuring, the line of
HOUS ETES FeRTe
RUEL
'The LCR publish a
daily strike bulletin. It
contains information
about the movement
but never argues what
is to be done next. Even
after the vicious
attacks by the CRS (the
riot police) it made no
attempt to explain the
nalate ore ske
In order to encourage
among European Iconolal organisations, we think it is useful to send you the following remarks for publication in your journal.
Several years ago, the LCR set up an independent youth organisation, the Jeunesse Communiste Revolutionaire (JCR) which regularly and actively intervenes in the different social movements of young
march against the bosses. This the Turner article fails to do. The colonial revolution is absent from the article. Instead we are told that the imperialists nave cen weders because they are cheaper!
Instead of explaining that the threat of war todav does not come trom the Soviet Union because o moe rau ol uuc social system that exists there following the overthrow of capitalism, which unlike imperialism nas no inherent need to expand, the lack of a threat is made contingent on the policies of the bureaucrat orDaCrev
Instead of explaining that the Soviet Union has nuclear weapons to defend itself from an agressive West, we are told, incredibly, that 'the Soviet Union has no need of a nuclear arsenal because it is in no position to launch a conventional attack on the West'!
And in the summary, insteda or explalning lle nature of 'defence policies uter subc aloill - that they are but a subterfuge for a war policy - we are told 'Reykjavik gave Labour the opportunity to expound a wholly coherent defence policy, starting with full support
LETP& CORBUSIER
people. The student and school student movement was a huge movement that was independent and wane was dwo cicw generation that abruptly entered into mass political activity. Certainly it lacked experience but it clearly mistrusted the traditional political organisations. Among other things, this movement strongly defended its unity and its democratic functioning.
organisation like the JCR In this context, al. which was very active in the moverent, which had several members in the CAGNO O LIC movement, could not behave exactly like an organisation intervening •i asuoiy orovaralusi way from the outside. The JCk was part oi the movement, its members in
for the goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons' (emphasis added). Try telling the people of west Belfast about the 'coherence of a British 'defence' policy!
The socialist reply to the peddlers of 'socialist (SiC) defence policies' has always been clear — not a penny, not a man or woman to the war machine, the main enemy is at home. Such a policy, it is true wil onv be acceptable to a small section of our class today. But tomorrow, as the class struggle intensifies, it will win new adherents as the course of the struggle itself clarifies things for large numbers of workers
mn une same wav lad the role of the police has been clarified for wide layers in the black Commu ules aie dunes! trade unionists fighting tor their lobs. as thev have been on the receiving end of the naked fury of the statt Socialist Action continues with the line of the Carol Turner article, it wil same aeol Suca developments rather than play a role in leading them.
Pete Evans
Letters
local general meetings and in the national Couluualiuls welt obviously not visible to those who only saw the street demonstrations. Nevertheless there was an independent presence in the sense of independent practice.
Throughout the movement the JCR distributed a daily newspaper, 50,000 copies of which were printed, which was the only regular Jounai lo appeal throughout the movement, which is anther example of its presence
On Wednesday 10 December, the LCR itself also published a special issue of its newspaper for the demonstration that day.
We do not know what Mike Simons means by to argue wnat is to be done next'. You are obviously not unaware ot the problems posed for an organisation with real responsibilities in a mass. movement of this size.
In every local and national structure of the MOvCTICIlL of the JCR daily gave their position on now to continue the mobilisation. This is obviously infinitely more useful than what Mike Simons describes as the need to explain 'the nature of the state. The youth movement learnt in practice what was the apparatus of repression.
To help it reach this stage the priority was to talk 'concretely every day on LOC Oo CLu Voo alu alLiuls of the movement. The result is something quite different from what abstract propaganda would have been.
Hoping that you will transmit our remarks to your readers, please accept our best revolutionary greetings.
Claude Gabriel (for the International Commission of the LCR)
This letter to Socialist Worker has been sent to socialist newspapers in Britain by the Ligue Communiste Revolutionaire (LCR).
Socialist Action
fund drive
now to be directed £10,000 fund
tacts with those
party has already raised f67.
pear in the next issue of Socialist Action. Raffle winners
choice (ticket number 09264).
need to find the cost of the prizes.
E POLITICS
OF IRISH
FREEDOM
GERRY ADAMS
The politics of Irish Adams, Brandon, 176 pages. Available at £3.95
payable to 'The Other Bookshop'. republican. (From the introduction).
Debate
With the conclusion of our Xmas raffle, all energies of Socialist Action supporters need
towards achieving
Our East London supporters have decided on a mixture of initiatives to raise their £1200 target. Every supporter is being approached to donate a days wages. A fund raising badge has been produc. ed. A dinner and dance is planned with the aim of raising a substantial sum and also renewing con-
they have collaborated with in struggle, like the Wapping printers, the miners, anti-apartheid movement activists, those involved in the defence of Nicaragua and active in Irish solidarity. The rest of the target will be achieved through a number of socials and similar projects. A Xmas
Nationally to date, £1384.50 has been donated to the fund drive. A full break down of this will ap-
Gill Crozier from Bristol won the first prize of an Amstrad computer or video in our Xmas raffle (ticket number 01280). Eve Turner from Southall won the second prize of a subscriptin to Socialist Action and a book of her
£1400 was raised in the raffle from which we
, All profits will go to the running costs of Socialist Action. Our goal had been to raise £1500 in profit so we made about two thirds of our target. In general the ticket proved easy to sell given the first prize. However as it was the first tiem we had run such a raffle some supporters started too late in the day. Congratulations are in order, however, to Leamington who made 100 per cent and our North West London supporters who made 108 per cent of their target. We will print a full break down next week.
OTHER BOOKS
freedom, by Gerry
30p p&p from Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Cheques
'This book is neither an autobiography nor a statement of Sinn Fein's political programme. It is an expression by Gerry Adams of his politics. As President of Sinn Fein it falls to him to articulate party policy, but in this book he has set aside the narrow role of official spokesperson in order to be able to explore more widely and freely his politics as a
Page 11 scan of this page
Wapping-all out 24 January
In the Unions
national boss Rupert Murdoch. On 24 January they
huge demonstration of More memories ON SILBERMAN
da Dean, Tony Dubbins, Ron Todd and Tony Benn.
portunity to attend.
SOGAT executive member Mike Hicks was jalled for 12 months, eight suspended, on a trumped up charge. Hicks has been closely associated with the Wapping dispute from the beginning. His jailing was a
ple, as evidenced by the choice of prison. To prevent
demonstrations Hicks has been moved three times from more accessible Wormwood risons - from Brixton to
Normwood Scrubs to The ford in Norfolk and now to the Isle of Wight.
Resolutions and declarations of solidarity calling for the release of Mike Hicks have come from all corners of the labour
including unanimous resolution adopted by the Labour Party NEL. 1ne 44 January demonstration will be an opportunity LO cure test sentiments into action.
A big 24 January turnout would be the best an-
the printers whose resilience and determination has deepened in the course of the dispute. Ever since they overwhelmingly rejected Murdoch's 'final, final ofler in te uctober ballor,
Telecom engineers
start action
ON MONDAY 5 January British Telecom's 117,000 telephone engineers started
policy of 'noncooperation' as the first step in a campaign of industrial action. On 12 January they start a national overtime ban and work-to-rule. They join 40,000 clerical workers who have been taking action since early December. They are fighting against management's proposals to impose far-reaching attacks on working practices as part of their 1986 pay deal.
By Ian Grant, NCU
The proposals will in.
rease 'flexibility', boost. ing productivity and accelerating job loss. They will open the door
attacks Ull the engineers' 37½ hour
WOll through industrial action in 1978.
It is the first time that engineers have taken action nationally since the 1983 campaign against privatisation which colapsed after the union was
with legal under new Tory trade union laws.
BI have recently announced half-year profits of over £1 billion 2100 awarded their chairman, Sir George Jefferson, pay rise of 55 per cent. Since privatisation, BT have doubled the amount
FOR TWELVE solid months the sacked printers at Wapping have been doing battle against News Inter-
have called an anniversary march. Leaving from the Temple at 5pm, the march will be an occasion for a solidarity the labour
Speakers at the demonstration will include Bren-
One of the invited speakers has been denied the op-
SIZC. Since Mike the regular Saturday
Slave been over
quite ex-
resilience
Finan-
Women
ine fortress. 1 ney
Christmas appeal, caused
The
The 24
called of profit extracted per each employee and shed over 15,000 jobs.
Management pressures to boost productivity have led the company report to note a steep in-
work.
of BT's workers to the 1986 'pay offer' has beer
promising In ballots in
November and December clerical and engineering workers voted by four to one take industmal action But the aim of NCU general secretary, John Golding, is to do a deal with BT far short of the members' aspirations.
In th journal NCUS September he bleeted 'it's in no one's intest to have a disgruntled demoralised staff. ' In fact
want nothing more than to inflict a demoralis ing settlement which could act as a springboard to fur-
conditions one limited
conditions. limited campaign for industrial action the Golding leader. ship has launched unlikely to dent BT's confidence the NCU leaders are unwilling to translate their 80 per cent vote into determined ac-
Engineers involved in
the defeated 1983 cam-
panel aware or toe
aware the dangers such half-hearted action. Waging serious fight againgt BT's latest attacks means starting now with a campaign in every union branch and workplace to prepare for a national strike.
for extending the dispute in-
Fleet Street from where it can be won. Support for the sacked printers
Policing gets heavier
FOUR people, including SOGAT FOC, had been arrested as early as nine o'clock on Saturday's march to Wapping. This is just the latest example of a noticeable increase in police heavy-handedness over the last few weeks.
They even did their best spoil the New Year's celebrations held outside the sacked
La symbolic ballots in all major By Bernard Regan
The biggest vote against the deal was registered in the National Union of Teachers where 42 per cent of those voting rejected the sell-out desale amassive campaign by the union's Kinnockite leadership in its favour. Right in the middle of the voting the officers of the NUT, without any reference even the na-
executive of spent an estimated £60,000 on adverts in the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Independent and London Standard. The alleged purpose of the
NUT* NAS/UWT* AMMA
TOTAL
*TUC affiliated
SUPPORT
BRITAINS POLITICAL PRISONERS
FREE
MIKE HICKS
NOW!
from within SOGAT Was shown last year by the election of Mike Hicks and Bill Freeman to the union's na-
Wing fortress.
dards of be distributed, the New Year's completely
that night!
On 28 December, involved mar-
evening marchers
could tube where the
Teachers raw deal
adverts to attack
objective
for the
The gnifica
conference held in
by
that many
to fight.
ACCOL iating committee, due to be scrappea under legislation now on its way to the House of Lords, meets on Wednes day 7 January when it is possible that the Labour-led local authority employers could come up with some
ACAS deal ballots
FOR AGAINST 60,912 44,216 5,178 41,994 32,871 16,747
98,961 102,957
tional executive.
The Dean leadership -which recommended acceptance of the last offer followed its rejection balloting the membership over a 58p levy in support of the dispute. The results of the ballot will be out next week. SOGAT In associa tion with the NGA have announced 27 January as the date for a national lobby of parliament. Brenda Dean has called on the TUC to 'get off their knees' and mobilise solidarity behind the printers.
The fight must now be extended to get leadership backing for the mobilisation of Fleet Street behind the Wapping dispute. Such a course would also provide the opportunity for Fleet Street printers fight against their own attack: destine teet of raph recent workers.
And it would to hand in hand with the campaign launched by the printers for a recalled TUC congress to ensure the implementation of the Brighton congress resolution which the general council refused to carry out by 2-vote majority.
renewed their
heavy-handed behaviour.
"The police action is ar answer to the resilience of ine printers. I nere's also been a noticeable increase in the number ot womer arrested since the launch of WAM
Arrested marchers and pickets report serious har-
attempts timidate those they've arrested with boasts of how many arrests they intend, and anti-red and anti-Irish jibes amongst their favourites.
further deal in an effort to persuade the Tory govern ment to drop their bill. Sucl a deal is bound to be worse agreed. The NUT leaders than the already know that they have virtualiv no room tor manoeuvre — the members will be watching their every move.
A special conterence ot the union should be called
' wage claim for April joint campaign should b built with National Association Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers.
Teachers in Inner London and leicester have call ed for strike action on 13 January begin fightback. The right wing leaders however have done everything to scupper such
move and could well launch an attack on the left in the union as a cover for their own lack of leadership. Other trades unionists and Labour MPs are being invited to the rally whicl will take nace in Centra Hall, Westminster at 1pm and other areas are being invited to send expressions of solidarity.
The Local Association Pay Action Conference will
reconvenica on January at University o London Union to discus the next stages of the
Inside
the unions
Storm clouds on by
the tube ...
Waterloo station
RIS and
transport has Management have a policy
own work'
table.'
•..and in rail
Agreement.
Drivers' Assistant,
jobs.
fight, by agreeing to the proposals.
ballot.
Service Obligation' grant to BR
tant into the
driver.
cent these pans
plans.
Socialist Action 9 Jan 1987 11 IN THE face of continued government attacks on jobs, conditions and services in the rail industry, industrial action is planned by drivers in the Southern Region, by guards at
and on the London underground. NUR members, CHRIS MOR-
LARRY HERMAN explain the
Workers on the London Underground will be This follows their four to one ballot vote in favour of taking industrial action. It follows a successful boycott or canteens last month, the vote expresses the deep-felt opposition to management privatisa.
cost-calling threaten the jobs, wages and conditions of service
The NUR predicts that they will also mean deteriorating safety conditions as well. The old
separate units with the stricture that each must be
In their thirst for profits and higher productivity, hundreds of workers in the building department have been made redundant, contract cleaners have been brought in and catering statt are threatened with changes to their conditions which could mean
weakest sections first. Meanwhile they are refusing to
Vernon Hince, the assistant general secretary of the NUR, said 'Underground workers are being placed in the unreal position of having to tender for their
Jimmy Knapp, the General Secretary of the NUR, called at a rally for tube workers for 'a massive YES mandate to bring LRT management to their senses and strengthen our hand at the negotiating
Drivers on Southern Region are planning industrial action against the Easement of Manning
As well as abolishing the grade of inis agreement increases ine number of miles and hours a driver can work each day, and weakens the entitlement to a meal break. This would mean worse working conditions and more accidents, and Will lead to the loss of drivers
ASLEF first said that BR's proposals were totally unacceptable. BR replied that they would impose them without agreement if necessary. ASLEF's NEC then discarded drivers' hard-won rights without a
The guards in Waterloo NUR are planning an unofficial one day strike in protest against the imposition of trials for driver only operation of empty trains. Management deceitfully claimed that emp ty movements were included in the existing DOO agreement, which was adopted after the loss of a
attacks launched by BR in a process which is design. ed to decimate jobs on the railways, undermine the wages and conditions of the remaining workers, deu nionise the industry and prepare for privatisation -and to obstruct the right to travel around the coun try for all but the wealthy. The government has announced a twenty-five per cent cut in the 'Public
Meanwhile the January issue of BR's company newspaper Rail News announces that BR is intending to merge the grades of guard and driver's assis-
new grade of trainmen trainwomen. Staff in this new grade will compete for promotion to conductor and senior conductor or
The action by the Waterloo guards and southerr drivers shows that railworkers are not willing to ac-
The government's legislation on ballots aims c undermine these actions by undemocratically givir. a veto to sections of the workforce who believe tha: they are not immediately under threat. A strategy o: repeated ballots is not a way to defeat managemen:
Rather it will be determined action by rai workers backed by the labour movement which wi be key. East London District Council of the NER have submitted a motion to the London Labour P= ty's regional conference calling on the net lair= government to legislate for a guard on even Fa. Such motions can be very usetul in brossem labour movement support, but fighting back o will be the best way to ensure the best possibi measures by any future Labour government.
Page 12 scan of this page
AFTER ALMOST two years the Silentnight strikers at Barnoldswick and Sutton in Lancashire have been kicked in the head by the national leadership of FTAT. The kick came just before Christmas when the general executive council under the leadership of the new General Secretary, Colin Christopher, declared the strike unofficial.
This is the same Colin Christopher stated From the beginning, our eneral executive council has supported our members in what is clearly a Just struggle And the same COll Christopher who stated, just last November
... the strikers are suffer. ing extreme hardship. It is essential. that the entire movement rally around and provide the maximum support.'
The reasons for declaring the strike unofficial were given in a burst of cor. respondence to the strike committee in the week before Cherylicy The Silentnight strike 'drain' on the imances the union, it took up too much national meetings 'unwinnable'.
So for the first time due ing the whole dia nate the executive have written ties, trade unions and re. hundreds of Labow councils letting them know that the strike is officially off. Most of these bodies hadn't even been officially notified that the strike was even on.
attempt
'sweeten' the bad news, the
Name
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MAtAraT AA & NeWBORDer WIL We rOoL UA
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Silentnight strikers won't go away'
general executive council had even released money from London that had been donated to the strike fund, but 'held up' for several
By Paul
These welcome gifts
taste The remaining strikers were understandably sickened by the decision, but remain as committed as ever to carry on and to win.
As Trevor King Silentnight said we don't want a union that packs in when things get tough We have made sacrifices, not only for ourselves but for all trade unionists. People up and cowa mic country Have sup
our icers drop us. want us to go away so they Calle on with business usual. asay. We will use all the in But won't
fluence have made to launch an appeal reverse ecutive's decision. Once they sell out one group of workers it becomes much easier to sell out others, like at Hanger's or Morris's'.
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As another Silentnight striker said about disputes at Hanger's and Moris's our solidarity with these workers has started to acycop. the best thing we can do for them is to HICH know about the lessons we have learnt and
trust the national JHUL leadership.
The strike committee at Silentnight will culating their own letter to Labour Parties and trade union bodies in the new year to counter the one of the general executive council. It will call on people to reaffirm their support for
and ask practical action.
One spontaneous move came from FIAT members at Bouyant Upholstery and G-Plan factories in Nelson, Lancashire who are holdins back monthly dues to FIAI
show disgust the leadership's actions.
Practical actions for all trade unionists include the raising of funds, stopping the sale of Silentnight beds and an increase of the picket lines at Barnoldswick and Sutton. The regional Labour Party conferences in tha spring must be used to full advantage by ensuring that emergency motions for support for the strikers are passed and acted upon.
• Silentnight strike fund,
Street, Bar. noldswick, Colne, Lancs. Tel: 0282-816709.
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JUST TEN months after it was elected the government of Jacques Chirac has suffered its second big crisis. Last month it was humiliated by a massive wave of student mobilisations which defeated the proposed attacks on education, the Devaquet Bill. Now the railworkers have taken up the gauntlet, frontally challenging the government's three per cent publi pay ceiling. JON SILBERMAN reports
Chirac cancelled January's emergency session of parliament and froze measures such as privatisation of prisons and the new racist nationality rules (which would deprive children of immigrants of their present automatic right of French nationality.
Writing in The Observe on 14 December, Robin Smyth explained: 'Chirac hopes that three quiet
the political front will act as a firebreak against the resentment of the student demonstrators'
But the government's hope for a peaceful new
Christmas many train drivers across France celebrated in signal boxes they'd occupied.
Railworkers have huge prestige in France. Their reputation stems back to World War Il where they played a significant role in the resistance struggle. The were rewarded for their ef forts by a pay structure quite abnormal for industrial workers. Like that of civil servants this included a strong service element
pay increasing according
tac number employed, and promotion based on seniority.
But years of government austerity have cut into the wages of railworkers.
Added to this, they face excessive hours long distance drivers can often expect to do a lov-ou.
fortnight while their stop-over hoste rangements are unsatisfactory. Jong ana unpredictable hours mean that workers in the rail industry have the highest divorce rate
in France and railworkers
have an average life expec-
tancy of just 58 years.
The movement started
when the workers proposed a 35-hour week, increased rest days and holidays, improved stop-over
Seafarers take solidarity strike action
Railworkers
shake France
Following his defeat at the hands of the students, rangements, pay increases restoration of a £30 weekly
which they'd lost, and number of other demands.
The SNCF the French equivalent to British Rail — responded by offering 2.8 per cent and a complete restructuring of pay including replacement promonot according to seniority with what they call promotion according 'merit'. The workers have said that 'merit' is simply another for favouritism. As one rail worker put it • the : Tittle chiefs already decide who
What do get tne bonuses
you think they'd have don
f they'd got their hands or
oromoting their
¡avourites?'
The determination of the strikers forced the management to back down on its restructuring pro. posals at the end of December. The government and • SNCF called on the workers to go back to work in return, which time further negotiations on conditions could continue. But transport minister, Pierre Méhaign-
emphatically ruled
'there is no possibility of
negotiations on pay The railworkers refuser to return to work.
The government is presenting its case as a fight against its version of Thatcher's 'enemy within - In
this case, the target is the CGT, French Com
Sine munist Party-led union federation.
But the strike was by no
means initiated by the CGI
CRS riot police move in on rail strikers Quoted in The Guardian on 3 January French industria. specialist, Henri Vacquin, commented For the tirst time since the war, a desire for grassroots organisation on a national scale has appeared. The unions are be ing forced to support a pro-
not the other way round There is pressure for a new type of trade unionism'.
Certainly the strike • started spontaneously, led by drivers at Paris's Gard du Nord (North Station) and rapidly spread to involve the whole of the northern region — which remains the centre of the now complete ly national strike. Many of
workers who initially walked out were not even members. of trade unions in France a significantly smaller proportion of the workforce is unionised than in this country.
The strikers established a strike coordinating committe involving the CGT, the trade union federation aligned to the Socialist Party - the CFDT, the
Federation (FGAAC) and non-
Comparisons have been made with the local coordinating bodies that led the student up.
National negotiations are organised by representatives of the three
union federations which represent 82 per cent of railworkers.
There are other parallels with the student struggle notably use of the CRS riot polic - who were responsible fo clubbing student Malik ROSCHIC death -against the railworkers.
Also like the students' mobilisation has been the popularity of the railworkers' struggle Try as they might, the media nave been unable to whip up a serious campaign' of irate travellers against the strikers. The support from industrial workers won by the students when signifi companied tope es ac companied • mass demonstrations has been mirrored in the extension of the strike to other sectors.
This week, workers in the Paris underground, seafarers, workers in the ga and electricity industry wil all be taking strike action in
movement against the government. 'Enough is enough' Is a growing new year sentiment
in France.
• Messages of support and financial assistance to: Co condine ed
Conduite Gard •Nord, 75010 Paris.
← Socialist Action No. 155, 19 December 1986Socialist Action No. 157, 23 January 1987 →