Socialist Action No. 179, April 1988
The scan: 179-April-1988-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
ALTON
No. 179
IT'S LY LIFE
So DS OFF
April 1988
ACTiON SoCiAlist
BUILDING AN ALLIANCE FOR SOCIALISM
Inside
The budget and the crash p2 Fighting Alton p 3 Ireland p5 Jackson and the Democratic Party pages 6/7
STOP
polls showing increased support for abortion rights. woman
40p THE fight against David Alton's attack on abortion rights is entering a new stage. The campaign against his bill has successfully drawn together very broad support, particularly among women and in the labour movement. This has been reflected in the mass actions on the streets, the activity in the labour movement and the support for the FAB campaign. The impact of this is revealed in opinion
The bill begins its vital committee stage on 23 March. It is in committee that an amendment changing the time limit in the bill to 24 weeks is most likely to come forward. It is also possible that Alton's supporters may mov special rules which allow the committee to meet virtually continuously until it has finished its business. If this were successtully done then the work of the committee could be over quite rapidly. The bill would then only face one further decisive stage before becoming law - its third reading in the House of Commons.
Alton has stated that he will not support an amended bill with a 22 or 24 week limit. However he knows that to be sure of maintaining his existing support he will have to make some concessions. His proposals are to allow ex ceptions to the 18 week limit for certain forms of foetal abnormality which he considers serious enough to justify abortion, and also in cases of rape, but only where the
concerned has informed the police. All simply reveals Alton's hypocrisy - he is against all abortion, bu vill play God in determining which women he will allo to have abortions. However, despite the transparent manoeuvring of Alton, these amendments may be suffi cient to secure him a majority at third reading.
The Fight Alton's Bill campaign therefore faces a particularly vital period, which could be as short as a fen weeks, to prepare the campaign for the third reading This time must be taken to maintain the activity of the local groups around the day of action set for 27 April, the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the 1967 abor tion act. A further national action will also be called to coincide with the third reading.
The maximum pressure must be on MPs a the time of the third reading. Above all, it must be brought to bear on the Labour Party and those Labour MPs who did not vote to defend women s rigats In vanuary. well Ain nock's office has recently written to FAB campaigners stating that the party doe not implement a three-line-whip on the abortion issue because of the "personall sensitive issues involved. This gives the lie to those who have claimed that the three-line whip is a purely tactical question, and nothing to do with the 'conscience clause The Labour Party could have stop ped Alton on 22 January, it must do everything to stop Alton at the third reading. The price for failure will not simply be an attack on women's rights but an enormous strengthening of the confidence of the right in society - they will come back for more, and the Labour Party wil sutter as a result
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The boom and the crash
2 Socialist Action
SoCiAlist
ACTION
Murder
in Gibraltar
and Belfast
FOR ANYONE who discriminate attack on the funerals in Belfast of the three IRA members murdered by the SAS in Gibraltar should reinforce the view that no useful purpose is served by Britain remaining in Ireland. itself in seemingly never ending repression, murders and cover-ups.
Gerry Adams has accused the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) murderous attack on the funerals of Mairead Farrell, Sean Savage and Dan McCann. It is indeed almost impossible to see how such an attack could take place without the collusion at some level of the security forces.
Eventually the facts on that will be clear. It took seven years before the truth about the RUC's 1981 shoot-to-kill policy saw the light of day. It was only a matter of days before the truth came that Mairead Farrell, McCann were clinically murdered in cold blood by the SAS in Gibraltar. media about a 'gun battle' with 'armed terrorists' were exposed by the eye witnesses who told how the three had been shot once and then had more shots pumped into them as they lay dying
Although the great majority of people in Britain unfortunately felt no grief for the murdered IRA members, because they did not understand the justice of the cause for which they died, the opposite is true in ireland, Even e cuaratan and 1ndependent had to report the remarkable display of grief as people lined every street of every village from Dublin to the border and as a one mile long column of cars followed the procession.
As the Independent, for example 'There were extraordinary scenes...On every street corner, on every roundabout, and on every bridge, men, women and children stood in silent tribute. Many waved black flags..Thousands more flags were decked along the route...As the cortege headed out of Dublin hundreds of cars followed. Many more joined the procession as it passed through each village. Outside houses, houses, and in lay-byes, cavaicade passed. Near the border at Dundalk vir. tually the entire population lined the streets in mourning.
At the border, imposed by Britain, the first act of the security forces was to demand that the Irish fiao - the tricolour - be removed from the coffins. So much for the Anglo-Irish Agreement's promise of respect for minority in the north. That petty act of degradation excellently illustrated the nature of the Northern Ireland state for the great majority of Irish people.
It would of course be foolish to think that the huge Irish expression of respect for those gunned down by the SAS will find an echo in Britain. But the view that Britain's presence in Ireland serves no useful purpose is growing again. Britain's presence does not bring peace. Propping up the likes of Paisley and the Orange order cause.
The protection of those who covered-up the shoot-to-kill murders treatment of the Birmingham 6 and the shooting of Aiden McAnespie, have increased disquiet in Britain. The new murders will increase it further.
For twenty supported by the Labour Party and the TUC, has
out of Ireland from taking any active form. Th unfolding, futility, and British rule in Ireland must be used to break down that log jam.
April 1988 thinks, the in-
Britain has enmeshed
of collusion in the
out
Sean Savage and Dan
The lies splashed in the
reported: isolated public crowds watched the of the is not a popular
and framed Stalker, the
years the British establishment,
increasing brutality, bof
necessary to repeat the figures
regret its impact.
But the key economic question is how long the government can continue in boom conditions the
ed real wages to increase hv more than 12 per cent since Thatcher came to
provided the Dower alla backdrop to her election victories in 1983 and 1987.
Here the most relevant facts are the rapidly actenoraung situation or the balance of payments
with a record monthly deficit of f905 million in December - and the continuing consequences of October's Wall Street crash. It is the latter which will be decisive and will form the background to the government's economic policy throughout the coming year.
By John Ross
The first phase of the crash in October itself. was the collapse of share prices. The value of world SOCK exchanges £2,000 billion. Its cause was the unsustainable US balance of payments GenC
The second phase, which through November and December, was the rapid devalution of the dollar -
• I occ a huge price adjustment seek to wipe out the US balance of payments
Between September and the end of December the dollar fell in against the yen, 18 percent value cent against the deutsche mark and 13 per cent against the
substantial devaluation that had already taken place earlier in 1987. While the dolla has recovered marginally since its low point it nas still gone through a 10 per cent devaluation against its major competitors since the crash.
The third wave of the crisis, which is just beginning to work through, the effects of the dollar devaluation - although it is still only the effects of the earlier dollar devaluation which are being felt and the consequences of the autumn's fall will come through only later in the vCal
Despite the fact that the full force of the dollar devaluation has not yet been felt, the US balance
payments swinging round rapidly. US exports In volume terms expanaca by 28 per cent in 1987. Calculated parative purchasing
per cent cheaper than those of their competitors. The US trade deficit fell from $17.6 billion in OcLONCE to $13.2 billion November, and to $12.2 billion in December.
Behind Lawson's budget
NIGEL LAWSON'S is the most openly class budget presented in Britain for a generation. It is almost un-
— £1.80 a week gain if you earn f4,000 a year and f250 a week if you earn €100,000 a year. The reduction of the highest rate of tax to 40 per cent, giving Britain the lowest top rate of taxation of any country outside the United States, is so blatant that even Lawson may live to politically
The Cost quence this turn around in the US balance of trade is, however, going to be very different in the differing parts of the world which is what directly connects the crash the deteriorating British balance of payments.
The countries least af-
balance payments are the Newl Industrialising Countrie (NICs) of South East Asia Kong, South Korea, Hong
Singapore and Taiwan. These have been deliberately devaluing met the dollar While thr with the lollai dollar devalued by 83 pel cent against the Japanese yen between Septembe 1985 and January 1988 and by over 50 per cent against the deutschemark it fell in value by only 8 per cent against the South Korean® won 42 per . cent against he against are
per cent against the Singapore dollar and by zero against the Hong Kong dolla The result is that exports from the NICs have represented an ever he vis balanctio OI the U payments deficit - the US deficit with the East Asian industrialising
The JS is now beginning to ac against them with Reagat announcing on 29 January the withdrawal of their tarriff privileges to enter the US market.
The significance of this for Western clear. With the Statest theirs they will States action redirect their exports to Wester Europe and their trade surplus with the EEC already increased by 20 per cent in 198/ the Nics wil be added mon the export competition from Japan which running trade surplus with the EEC at a current rate of $20 billion a year.
The consequences for Western Europe of the
devaluation are clear. Western Europe has DeCI financing deficit with Japan and East Asia by trade surplus the United States thus with the bie trace : surplus with the in 1987 was $24.3 billion The devaluation of the dollar ensures this surplus with the US will disappear
shifting Western Europe, on the best estimates, IntO billion trade deficit next year the so uceLe from Japan and East Asia on the one side and the United States on the other West German will almost end 1988 certainly be the only West European country with a
balance of payments surplus. The rapidly
deteriorating British
OT payments West will respond
crisis is also clear - b recession. The only effective means known capitalist governments of correcting balance payments deficit is to rein
back their own economies The devaluation dollar, and the balance of
deficits it Daylicals produce. means that Western Europe is heading into recession.
For Britain no issue could be more serious. Its trade is increasingly with Western It is in deficit with Japan and East Asia. One of the fev export surpluses it runs ir the world, with the Unitec States, about eliminated by the dollar devaluallon. The oil pric is falling. The Tra t4 projection billion deficit balance of payments next
And the international context is going to get tougher after that.
Lawson is not going to
CHLO an crisis But the forces unleashed by last year's crash are inexorably tightening their
Western Europe and Bri tain.
This budget is going to be very near the peak Thatcher's power.
of
will be on or in the labour movement generally
25p p&p. Reductions for bulk orders. : of
Politics Today
1
WOMEN'S
CHOICE
DEFENDING
ABORTION RIGHTS
'Women's Choice — Defending Abortion Rights' THIS new pamphlet takes up the arguments which have been at the centre of the campaign against Alton, explaining why abortion rights are a matter of principle, not conscience, because women's equality is not possible without control over their fertility.
It is also full of useful arguments against reductions in time limits for legal abortion. A must for every person active in the FAB campaign
The pamplet is available from Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP, at a cost of 75p plus
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Opposition to Alton strikes
Women show labour movement the future
News
TRADE union women at the 1988 TUC women's conference pledged their opposition to the Alton Bill and their determination to support wide-ranging campaigning to ensure it is defeated. The decision included the commitment to 'exert the maximum pressure on trade union MPs to vote against the bill', a reference to the 55 Labour MPs who voted against Labour policy at the second reading of the bill.
the fight
campaign.
conference.
Moving
the and
who
pose all
the facility tion will always necessary,
demanding positive
free, facilities
out the more re-
to surer contracep-
and
the supporting motion, Megan also
inside and labour movement
the colour adverts in
papers supporting THIS year's TUC women's conference was the most combative for many years. Alongside it the campaign against the Alton bill has struck deeper roots into the unions than any previous campaign against an attack on abortion rights. unionists are demanding more, and demanding it more vocally and more determinedly with each year that passes.
The TUC
The 111011
the from September
the its
show an increase
of
which the majority
Wollici. other two
OVel the period are
deep into the unions
the was one
evente disgraceful that
UlIC Labour Dale
against ana luc
voting with
al C
support of woman's
the
She for this
any future voting, and respect party conferences, manifestos, constituency parties unions they are
In the speaker after
LCDICsenting the
tors among others to de-
MPs, and
out March. As delegate from the resounding applause
such bills come
equality seems to an academic
MPs'.
loud apIt appears that women trade
end to the long stagnation and decline in union recruitment since these unions also share a particular concern
workers in different fields. Thev have all engaged in high profile
recruit women workers.
The GMB in particular nas esumated itsell as tae 'women's union' of the future It appears that this is having a pay-off for the GMB.
Also published last week WelC figures which showed that the workforce is projected to continue to 19pS. Of this increase it is expand
De ween, bringing lie
women, bringing up 12.3 million.
the platform, hit out at the undemocratic sanctures within movement which DOLI lel LaDOul MPs ignore policy, and allowed some in the union bureaucracy use personal power to limit sup-
being organised tor AB
The debate had followed a well attended FAB fringe meeting, chaired by Ada Maddocks from the TUC women's committee and at which Bernadette Hillen from USDAW and the TUC general council spoke.
John general scuiclal y GMB, sent a personal let-
of his ter to every memoer executive stressing the importance of mobilising for
This continuing rise in the female worktorce having decisive impact
It underpins the breadth of the response in the unions to the Alton bill.
While the response to Corrie was relatively swift and effective with the TUC calling national demonstration straightaway, the response to Alton has in fact gone
uccuel into the unions. With Alton the national TUC response been rather less effective,
pase LICE unions there is a level of
which bul Jasser previous campaigns.
The growth USDAW membership NALGO and the GMB is sioniiicant LUC just for these unions but for the
future strategy of the labour movement. It is no exaggeration to say that women show the way ward for the whole labour movement.
Winning the support or women is tne key or ut unions to turn the growth
19 March. The GMB has
woman's right to choose. declaration
NUPE and the CPSA
culate Produced
have and cir-
thousands leaflets. Tony Dubbins of the NGA sent a ICLICL every branch calling for support against Alton.
NALGO in particular has actively aided the FAB campaign nationally and
circulated thousands Has of leaflets and posters.
In some unions the anti-abortionists alre organising counter-attack. In the CPSA, for example, where the right
the union Wile ColLI US journal, its pages have been used to attempt : to whip-up backlash
into growth in union membership, and winning women voters is a key to
Labour government.
In this CUllICAl the figures published the Labour Research Department showing 16121 evel among the ten unions with
female membership there is only
improvement the representation
at executive and full time level spelis real problems in the future for the unions.
Of the ten unions only the significant improvement in
of womer on its executive, from 3 per cent to 28 per cent in two years since the last survey due to the introduction of a ba per cent quota for women.
Only NUPE has achieved 50 per cent, while USDAW stagnated 19 per cent, and NALGO al around 36 per cent The TGWU's figure of 5 per
of the most cent is one shocking.
At the level of full time
against the leadership's campaign against Alton.
simply not tolerable the mass of
LO women members to • have anything less than full, active to defence of the '67 Act and SUDOUL l for a woman's right to choose.
The sentiment and decisions TUC women's conference indicate DOLI SOLIC union leaderships and
MPs are being brought up sharply against this reality. It is leading many women unionists to organise ever more senousy challenge those power
which make SUrECLUIC mockery of their policy
is serialy berind will
seriously behind with only 5 per cent. NALGO shows sharp increase from 10 per cent up to 20 per cent, but COHSE is them 02 pest cent to 50 pep the stongest with a (CLE
Alongside this the failure of the Labour Par-
ensile that tali policy of abortion rights is adhered to by Labour MPs is a sympton of the same
Labour Party.
The failure of both unions and Labour Party to really deliver the goods for women callia disregard not just for the interests of women. but o the labour movement as a whole.
The women's TUC indicated that women themselves are less and less willing to put up with this. mon he Haos and tac Labour Party women are the key to , the future un•
fortunately will
be up to women
themselves force the
laboul movement to face up to the challenge.
The pro-death lobby
IN January of this year the Society for the Protection of the • Unborn Child, and other self-styled 'pro-life' organisations ran hugefull colosive adverts expensive iwo page the daily press.
Accompanying the by now well-known picture of a dead foetus suspended in saline 1l t headline read: 'We've abolished the death penally tor murderers and ler rorists, shouldn't him (skel abolish . it tor 100?
The advert was signed Tory MPs. But ot these 47 no less than 39 had voted for the return of the death penalty in either 1983 or 1987 the last
Women demand
Radical shifts 1n the labour market - increased part ume and casual female labour has provided a spur for the deeply ingrained 'male dominated' trade unions
ranks.
Women activists
pressure
funded, high profile department, powerful enough to on cam-
the conference showed exasicill pressure on union
this
Women
continu-
Talways. facto excludes
and well organised employment.
women
profile on
tion the It has
the
unionists insist that these eally are
dealt with health
War made of
and rights.
Socialist Action April 1988 3 two occasions on which it was put to the vote. however us was not
Tory MPS ho vot
when capital punishmen beer voted • on 144 that is 71 per cent, voted in favour of the death penalty.
This is not surprising Anti-abortionist Roy Hat tersley MP, deputy leader of the Labour Party, wher questioned Guests all women wa FAB
died as a result of septic reported responded 'They made their choice.
When will the anti abortionists drop their hypocrisv and stop calling us the murderers. They are quite simply the pro-death lobby
action from TUC
TUC PLANS to set up a new equal rights department came under critical scrutiny from women trade unionists at the annual Women's TUC conference in Blackpool 9/11 March. Anger erupted on the floor of conference as suspicion deepened that the TUC was deprioritising resources for the new department.
and South African rank
struggles seemed odd for collection the South
there. Conterence the collection The and the
- bas-
its commitinternational Hillil solidarity vas snare contested the EETPI The Just
TU which would excluded COSATU for example
formal shape policy, yet it asserted change
however , that might take. 45 per of the female but
position the trade
gencia organisation
problems trade unions made this
most
have place, which
Space.
Page 4 scan of this page
Dissatisfaction with Kinnock in Scotland
4
Shift to the right
at London
conference
hunts organised by the London party Bermondsey party from Tottenham, threatened with expulsion.
The elections the new, smaller GLLP executive also marked a shift to the right. Jeremy Coroyn. was defeated in the election of the chair Glenys Thornton 138,000 to 548,000, and a right wing vice chair was
A numoer or tell candidates in the CLP sec-
regional ecutive were also defeated due to ailed let voter
example. Labour Briefing refused to support the only contested
Cancere Kingsley Abrams. As
through on a lower vote than tuc combined vote for the left.
The conference was effectively stage managed to
image of the London party renouncing its 'leftist' past. So resolutions opposing the inquiry into Bermondsey CLP and Calle emergency debater on the threatened disciplinary action in Tottenham were defeated.
Policies adopted WelC defending the NHS and opposing the poll tax but agreed. NUPE opposed a effective action call for one day strike action to defend the NHS and this proposal was duly defeated. The conference narrowly rejected a motion
for CLPs to be
vote annual party previous years this position has been carried overwhelming.
Nonetheless the GLLP was the only party region
Threat to party
democracy in
North West
THE NORTH West Labour Party conference adopted a statement by the regional executive which gave them the power to bring to next year's regional conference proposals on restricting business matters directly related to the North West.
This mule ria hoe
attack the rights Labour Party regions to debate party
By Cath Potter should be brought to the attention of every party ac-
OnsCussion were outlawed in the
West this WORLD. way them no doubt that exam-
would followed elsewhere.
The regional conterence adopted policies to defend the NHS but sup-
Socialist Action April 1988 THERE was a significant shift to the right at this year's Greater London Labour Party (GLLP) conference on 4-6 March. The whole atmosphere of the conference was marked by the first serious witch
with the suspended and Mandy Mudd,
so far to adopt policy, virtually unanimously, calling tor Labour to impose a three line whip on future votes on abortion.
The left, has suffered serious defeats in London in recent years. But there • are some important positive developments beginning to emerge Ken Livingstone Audrey Wise Jeremy Corbyn, the Black Section. CLPD and WAC addressed the Campaign Group/ Labour Left Liaison fringe meeting. This was the biggest fring meeting even though coincided with the LCC and Briefing meetings.
At the London regional wollels Conceite WAC slate was elected to the womens places on the GLLP executive against Militant allu Briefing slates.
These developments show that the left in London is starting to realign ILSCH WILl Tell and
conally This make tae
marks the end of the period when its relative isolation was made worse by Briefing trying to make itself the umbrella of the lett in position it is unable to ocсиру.
The task now is to inLeciale the London Jell with the national left in the
This val ly. Cal. done by developing links between the national party campaigns in the LLL, the Campaign Group of Labour MPs, the left in trade unions such as the NUM ,the TGWU, and the MSF, and the large number of activists in the London party. port for strike action was not debated. The ference also opposed the poll DUH resolutions calling for a boycott of the poll tax were defeated
The conference voted unanimous ••DOS LON LO the Alton bill. However,
calling three line whip on this Issue anu aranst une cons cience clause were opposed by the regional executive
defeated on a card vote. The TGWU Region 6. NUPE and the NUM supported a three line whip on
The GMB, MSF and USDAW against.
Emergency resolutions against Clause 29 overwhelmingly carried.
The Campaign Group/Labour Left Liaison fringe meeting,
Eric Heffer, are sena Les Huckfield and WAC and
allenucu delegates, was again the largest at the conference.
After laying down the law to the Scottish party at the local government conterence in January, Kinnock's speech to the Scottish conference not even mention the poll tax, devolution or the election result in Scotland.
By Ann Henderson
There was also frustration with the inability of the Scottish Labour Party to take the initiative in the campaign against the poll tax. Constituency party activists from all over
Syll conference from
conference from Edinburgh, called for stronger stand.
Gavin Strang MP called for an effective, collective calli paign, without ruling out llegality. Dick Douglas MP, who resigned earlier in the year as chair of the Scottish PLP, met with an overwhelming response mom concience waen ne said: 'Kinnock says pay. I say no!'
The conference endorsed, by statement on how to fight the poll tax, proposed the Scottish executive. The executive itself had narUWIV adopted the state ment by 17:14 against op
Donald Dewar.
The executive statement effectively headed off the expected confrontation over tactics in the poll tax campaign agreeing support the 'Stop campaign designca lo Irustrale une registration process, and deferring decisions on a mass non payment campaign and il legality until special recall Scottish conference
DELIN LEAK 1
LIMITTEER
LIN REP
THE SCOTTISH Labour Party conference, 11-13 March in Perth,showed the growing discontent and anger at Neil Kinnock's public attempts to dictate how to fight the poll tax to the Scottish party. The conference was dominated by the debate on the poll tax and the crises facing Scottish Coal and the NHS.
in the autumn. However,
une scollisn execuuve nave already ruled out the most
elective way stop the
poll tax which is for coun-
cils to refuse to implement
it.
resolution from
APEX, ruling out illegali-
ty at the present time, was
callice Lauc
block votes, though it had
been
defeated on show of
hands.
There is undoubtedly
widespread opposition
Scotland to the poll tax. It
appears that thousands of
people Scottish cities
like Glasgow and Edin-
ouron nave nor reasiered
on the electoral roll
because they think
guarantees they will end up
on the poll tax register.
It is clear that the Scot-
tish Labour Party will have
tinue avoiding the issue or
to place itselt at the head
of the resistance
A sign of the unrest in
the Scottish party was the
launch of a new group call-
ed Scottish Labour Action
which i Lies activists.
Scottish activists.
This group had circulated
all party organisations In
Scotland with a statement
which says: *We are resolv
ed to campaign within the
party for a strategy aimed
al making Scotland
ungovernable without the
creation of an assembly. To
this end we call on the
Labour Party in Scotland
to:
Effect Scotland's
right to self determination
on such a basis as tne peo-
ple themselves decide.
'2. Adopt the argument
that the Conservative Par-
-ty- has mandate in•
Scotland and to campaign
on this basis.
'3. To support a policy of tactical nonCoDe duol with une government in the conduct of Scottish business in the House of Commons.
'4. Urge the party to place more on initiatives launchcu Scotland, where the Tories al C cuudlassie minority rather than Westminster where they enjoy suppore mass ci
Support mass civil disobedience in Scotland as a legitimate means of
1Us the Scottish people.
i6. Support, in par ticular, obstruction and civil disobedience in ine implementation of the poll tax leading to a mass campaign of non-payment and to seek early and public declarations of intent no to pay from leading figures
party and beyond 7. Encourage the early establishment of an alternative democratic forum in Scotland.
'We realise howeve that for the party to be credible in this platform before the Scot tish people then a much greater autonomy must be sought for the Labour ParScotland must itself. The party
nave the right to appoint its own full-time officials and must enjoy full policy and organisational Purunch. the party's Scot. tish front bench should be elected the Scottish group of MPs and not chosen by the London aCos McLean, one of
Bob the group's organisers writes the group's
'We veneve
the Scotiss a straten are
group lacks a strategy. are disappointed that the Scottish executive have not exerted a greater influence
events Similar concerns nave been raced leading figures in the Scottish labour movement in
storetary of the STUneral cluding the
He goes on to say: We respect Neil Kinnock, his achievements to date, and support him as the leader that will take the party into the next general election. This perspective, however, is essentially influenced by the England. We understand his position on th poll tax. Civil disobedience over the English poll tax would lack moral force and democratic credibility
argumen Walworth Road and the parliamentar caucasue Scotish for recognition of the
dimension and the internal party devolution that should flow from it!
The new will hold founding conference in Glasgow on 26 March.
Throughout the weekend of the Scottish party conference many calls were made for higher profile action for a Scot tish Assembly
By far the largest fringe meeting at Scottish conference for the third year in a row, was the Campaign Group (Scotland) meeting attended by over 250 people. 40 people attended the LCC meeting
the Campaign Group meeting John Mulvey, leader of Lothian Regional Council, put forward the case for resisting the poll tax and for the Scottish Labour Party IC place itself in the leader. ship of that campaign.
lonv Renn said there. was an alternative way in which the Labour part. can build up its support He said that the party had to support the obviously
popular opposition and resistance to the poll tax. He explained why was damaging the Labour Party NEC had LaNCi all ambivalent titude to strike action by health workers in defence
News
of the NHS.
The Alton bill was the subject of much debate at the conference. Resolutions committing the Scottish party to oppose Alton and for the defence and extension of the '67 Act were overwhelmingly carried.
Margaret Stewart, Stirling wonters council stressed that although MPs had their on abortion: "They are not entitled vote that personal view In parlia ment, making laws tha will deny thousands of women the right to exercise their conscience when th time comes?
Women are under represen ed at every level
Scottish movement. There is only
amongst the 50 Scottish Labour MPs. Scottish WAC are calling for more representation for women and for the 2: Labour MPs in Scotland
14 per cent of the Sco
ish PLP -vote against the Alton bill to be faced with this question Maria Fyfie MP, speakin during
the Scottish FAB meeting, distanced herself from the call for a three line whip and from WAC's campaign on reselection.
The adoption by Scottish conference positive policy on abortion was a big step forward.
Overall the Scottish party conference showed the growing frustration in the Walworth Road's failureto Scottish with
aroshowed effectively.
the dis satisfaction within the Scottish party, and the strains this is creating. it the Scottish LCC dominates its leadership
These issues, as well those raised by the policy review and specific weaknesses ot the Scottish party itself - such as its under 1c vicoclitaLIol women will dominate Scottish Labour this year.
Page 5 scan of this page
Labour students prepare for NUS conference
Ireland
THE MURDEROUS attack on the funerals of the IRA members killed by the SAS will increase opposition to the British presence in Ireland. But the contrast between the mass demonstration of condolence when the coffins arrived at Dublin and the gloating by the British, media and government illustrate the sharply different tactics that have to be pursued in campaigning for British withdrawal in Ireland and Britain.
The Labour Committee holds AGM on 9/10 April in Manchester. The National Council are proposing.
departure to signifinew cantly broaden the movement for withdrawal from Ireland.
By Redmond O'Neill
After the Enniskillen bombing Kinnock tried to outiaw British withdrawal the policy within of
the Labour Party. But this failed. the PLP discussion which followed Enniskillen was best
on Ireland in the Instead of ostracising Ken Livingstone it established the
legitimacy of the minority
which argues for
British withdrawai.
Having weathered that storm
movement now has to face
hard choices in
broadening it support.
The basis
step forward has been laid
by the work of the LCI in
the labour movement since
1981. The NUR, the NUM,
the Group.
Labour students, the Na-
THE CONFERENCE
the National
Organisation of Labour
Students took place on
5-6 March. The con-
ference clashed with the
TUC march to defend
the NHS. Delegates
voted overwhelmingly
to attend the demon-
stration and much
business was lost from
the agenda.
As a result, the discus-
sion on Ireland, to reaf-
firm NOLS' policy of sup-
from Ireland and aralia-
Ireland and affilia-
tion to the LCI, was not
taken.
By Polly Vittorini,
President SOAS
students union
(personal capacity)
The conference did
discuss the Alton bill and
the poli tax
On Alton the incum
bent leadership of NOLS,
the Democratic al-
tempted to defeat a call for
three whip agbinst the Alton bill. But Labour vote
in spite of the Democratic
Left's big majority In the
conference, delegates
voted to support a three
line whip. Similarlemocratic Left
tax, the Democratic 1
organised for the adoption
of support for the Scottish
Labour campaign of en-
couraging individuals not
Withdrawal movement
plans to broaden support
tional Union of Students, the women's organisation, London Labour region, a probable
CLPs and Labour Left Liaison have called British
the trade Ireland
ed. Trade HaVe started to such onestors
LICS and. one or two
There also been
ingham provoking very political they were to stamp
cultural political
the
Irish the the and the
murder the
members at Loughgall last
year ('kicked down and
councils
who refuse
demon-
Labour
Left
though re-elected
reasons.
Student were
Their lost' at
Labour
Cual leis
oppositión the
Democratic in the
NUS,
failed Ilas NOLS. The
combined of SSIN
each others' candidates in
over in NOLS
primarily they
the official
the fight to official can-
their
cies. oppose
policy British
shot in the back of the head').
It is not yet possible to win majority withdrawal in the British labour movement. But what is possible is to make withdrawal much policy of the left as, for example, support tor Black Sections and the represenTaLO Have become. requires
Group, forces and going
Irish
tivity, British withdrawal.
But this
interest Ireland the labour
LCI joint
the Čammeetings paign Democratic Labohis Scottish
STUC conferences.
work for
people like Clare Short
call for vote
Anglo-Irish
against
Agreement
to
work with those
Sinn Fein.
withdrawal Ireland
racism of
February, official
Labour for
no Militant
of Labour which
from
25 clubs, political
descriptions other than
ed out.
indeed all
the
reduce against
them. But was not
than
last yval.
The executive.
students, doing
leadership places
bourgeois
Britain. Opinion polls con
jority of people in Britain want Britain leave Ireland. But support for Sinn Fein is virtually non existent. The minuscule 2
supporting hunger
far less virtually
BITSE the
three IRA members Gibralta:
Monday That
for the LE C
to Britain remaining. Ireland and
The National
full
steering
twentieth
movement
will in a national and
August 1989 with the twentieth of
troops in the six counties. only to stand in addition to NOLS candidates, but against them, in elections where Tories and Alliance
stand. This is
opposi-
Democratic Left leader-
taking a
campaigning
candidates VUS wit]
the help reactionary
'Union Jewish
Students.
full slate; NOLS
candidates stand they
should be but
where does
didates,
given
for candidates
against Tories and
ditional can-
candidale.
The issues
which have to be con-
conference are
• as c
The year of action will highlight the continuing injustice, discrimination and denial of civil liberties in the north of Ireland and call for British withdrawal It will be organised around
charter British
The steering committee Co-conne the ycal d
events is beinone or
Short Preparatory meetings have beer attended by John McDonnell, Peter Hain, Maeve Sherlock the Labour: president of the NUS and individuals from the Irish community and radical The steering committee will in clude Ken Livingstone and leading trade unionists.
The aim is through the year of action to extend an understanding of what is taking place in Ireland
why Britain should leave tar wider areas than previously been national union and how to defend the interests of all students against the
dee penis will be resol
will resolved not only through policy
adopted but in the leader-
ship which emerges at con
ference This leadership has to be a Labour leader-
ship if students are to gain
the support of the labour
movement. It also has to
be one which campaigns in
support of those in strug-
worldwide against
THE first ever con-
ference of Campaign
Student was held on
Saturday 12 March at
the London School of
Economics.
By Polly Vittorini
The conference opened
with a session on Building
an alliance for socialism
WaN addressed by
Ann Pettifor of the
Labour Women's Action
Committee and
Younge, NUS vice presi
dent education.
Those attending were
told or Ine need for the
labour movement to take
up tne acmanus or wollen.
and for the TUC to active-
the struggles of
students in defence of
education and for students
as a whole to become part
Socialis: :
possible. This will then
the festival cumulate and, DC. the post war
instead broad
the Labour
ac-
memoration.
the to
from Ireland
Labour Women for
already 1n011
broaden thereve movement Britain. In Thatcher and her im-
he listeres and defende
interests oppressed.
This year students will have the chance to vote for a current which is standing
support of these prin
ciples in addition to, not against, official Labour candidates: the Interna-
tionalist Alliance for
Socialism, WiCH Coll
prises candidates from
Students for Palestine, the
Nicaragua Solidarity
Campaign Student conference
of the alliance for
socialism being built by the
Campaign Group,
Left Liaison and its allies
Workshops were : held Winning the majority
on
Labour's poncies for
women with FAB and
LWAC: Lesbian and Gav
Liberation' with the Stop
the Clause campaign;
'Black self-organisation
and self defence with the
Black Section and Broad-
water Farm; 'British
repression Ireland
the case for withdrawal'
with the SICI: 'Solidarity
with the Palestinians' with
Students for Palestine; and
on the Sandinista revolu•
tion with the NSC student
network.
way For NOLs with SSIl debate "Which
participating concluded
that NOLS should stand a
HEALY BELFAST coincided with a clear political change direc tion at its recent AGM
Enormous problems remain. Most unions will members in the six coun ties continue to avoid th issue of partition.
Freeman, Northern
of the TGWU has even tried to claim in a letter to Marxism Today that the proven
religious and political discrimination in the six counties can be ex plained away in terms the geographical distribu tion of jobs SOC mS that not even the govern.
Dawa Will Negotiating these
obstacies to winning trade unions like the TGWU to
withdrawal and
building a popular move
Linking the Irish ICHI community and the left of the abour movement are the issues that the LCI Will address in the coming year. Campaign Student Net work, and Campaign Stu dent. Candidates standing at both NUS and NUS Women's conference
Such a current in the present situation has the potential to draw together
campaigning on the leadership of NUS
and break up th cipled NOLS-CP-SDI alliance which currently controls the executive of
majority slate for NUS
When, as this year,
stands a minority slate, in. dependent Labour can-
didates should stand in addition to official can-
didates, so that students have the opportunity
voting for pro-labor
Never.
election
Support was expressed
for the Internationalis
Alliance for Socialism' -
slate, standing for NUS in
order to draw together a • campaigning majority on
NUS executive
The latest Campaign
Student bulletin can
ordered at 20p each from
Campaign
SOÁS students union
Malet St, London WCIÉ
7HP.
ference unre s martied
nference was
Page 6 scan of this page
JESSE JACI AND THE BREAK UP OFTHE DEMOCRATIC
Socialist Action FOR ALMOST four decades, from Roosevelt's election in 1932 until Nixon's victory in 1968, Democratic Party dominated US politics. It held the US presidency for 28 out of 36 years. The only Republican president in that period, from 1952 to 1960, faithfully continued the policies laid down by Democratic president Truman and was succeeded by Democratic president Kennedy. During four decades the Democrats trequently controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives
and continue House of Representatives today. All essential parts of the labour notably AFL-CIO, the US equivalent of the TUC, were tied to the Democrats.
The corollary of supremacy was the political backwardness of the US working class. The US working class failed to form any mass working class party at all. Furthermore, in a certain sense, it regressed. Prior to World War I a small but significant Socialist Party existed. Its presidential candidate Debs secured 900,000 votes, six per cent, in 1912. Between the wars a working class party, the Farmer-Labour Party in Minnesota, could win seats in the US senate and House of Representatives as well as the state governorship.
Roosevelt
This derelopment of the US working class was brought to an end first by repression following the end of World War I. ther capitals SurE final!
and the cass workers voted Democrats. US imperialism from World War Il not merely in the strongest position any capitalist power has ever occupied accounted for one half of the world's.
April 1988 the completely beginning ot the
working class
trade union organisation of Eisenhower
dustrial
seemed further away than ever. that
control the
American
the
and CIA in international affairs ing funds labour movements
Democratic
CIO gave it unstinting support had earlier the Korean war.
struggle throughout weakened -
United States.
of the American Above all it started
smashed segregation, of U'S transformed US :92% and her
Vietnam ====*
the United States
PARTY
output - but with the American working class more politically integrated in US capitalism than ever before. By the
1950s independent political oreansalon had been eliminated as a significant force in the US. The problem of mass cynical
the US workers was solved during the 1930s with the rise of the Congress of in.
Organisations (CIO). But
political independence of US workers
By Mick Marratt and John Ross even
This lack of political organisation of American workers weighed heavily, and adversely, in the international relation of forces after World War II. The AFL-CIO functioned as almost a direct arm of the American state department
- US' split the of other countries and preaching a full blooded cold-war While line in the US itself. When the Vietnam war started in the mid-1960s the AFL.-
- as 1t Without level. even a reformist political organisation of the American working class every
the world was • because of the role played by US imperialism in the world, there is called no international class struggle which does not rapidly need assistance in the
the
When opposition to the policies of the US ruling class did start after World War Il this commenced outside the core
aDouT movement with the Black movement in the 1950s and 1960s
apart legal racial •Jim Crow', and DOnLICS But that scruggle was not organised through the policies - the anti-Vietnam war rese ment of the 1960s and early 1970s. This rocked the United States, but its driving Party
force were student mobilisations. The great bulk of the white American working class, while increasingly opposed to the Vietnam war, still remained locked firmly into support for Democrats or, increasingly, became apathetic
about any of the major US political parties.
Given this decades long hegemony of the Democratic Party over the US working class few events in the world are therefore more important than the cracks in this supremacy which began to appear in the late 1960s. They
more striking in the presidential election of 1988.
Cohesion
The first crack in Democratic supremacy was the decline in the electoral support of the party itself. After winning seven out of nine presidential elections between 1932 and 1968 Democrats then lost four out of five.
Democratic communatol
politics in the states has even increased it is clear that the Republicans nave achieved dominance ai the presidential
Coupled with this has been the disintegration of the internal cohesion of the Democratic Party. This has now reached farce proportions with the so
'seven dwarves' running Democratic presidential candidate, the 'on/'off/on/off' candidacy of Hart.
clash between the politics ACKSON and southern Conservative Gore, the fact that no candidate is likely to have a majority at the Democratic convention, the refusal Democratic leaders such as Cuomo to stand and so on.
The break up Democratic
in fact inevitable. The Roosevelt coalition was built on a combination of support from northern labour and southern white racists (the •Dixiecrats') under the hegemony of the
capital. but with increasingly great
demands from it. The final symptom that was the campaign of Jesse Jackson ТО П Democratic president in 1984 campaign for the presidential nominaand tion by a black
capitalist party in history.
The Democratic consensus is now disintegrating in three basic directions. • The first, US capital, is so called 'neo-liberalism' 'neo' because it is not liberal at all, promises no concessions to the working al C class or oppressed, and wraps rhetoric
in few individual issues with acceptance the basic economic policies of Reagan. • The second is the attempt to forge a closer alliance will bureaucracy and around a chauvinst platform of protection of US industry. This is the policy advocated at this election by Gephardt — but it is not a policy, at least at present, acceptable to the US ruling class. the • The third current is that of Jackson
- wiict carlol will Given that no serious current in the Democratic Party is capable of gaining a majority will nominate Dukakis, for president almost equally certainly be defeated by bush. Inal will make lve wellocram losses in presidential elections out six. The travails of Gephardt, Dukakis et al need not detain us, significant development in the election is Jesse Jackson. of had an impact in US politics far greater
than any impression given in the British Dress. Here Jackson is presented as the 'black candidate. But the truth is that major
much deeper than previously into the white population and the white working class.
Minority
In 'the whitest states in the union, That Maine and Vermont, Jackson won 28
and 27 per cent of the vote in the Democratic primary. •hoe he minority populations as a • eat: ==]
in the trade union stronghold of Min-
nomination the first major
candidate in a US
that most clearly tied to
labour aristocracy
population,
day',
almost certainly nonentity, Michael
who will
, but the really Americans.
states
Fi has beer eating
Jackson
In Minnesota, and fairness'. powerment can: at the =:3e
neapolis. In Iowa, heartland of the midwest, and a state with a negligible Black
Jackson quadrupled his 1984 level of support. On 'Super Tues
in 21 primaries and caucuses, Jackson won a stunning victory - with 31 per cent of the VULC beating his closest competitor, Michael Dukakis, by almost five percentage points. Ever in the South it is estimated that 10 per cent of white voters supported Jackson.
Racism
All this is on top of the overwhelming support Jackson has among Black
He received over 90 per cent of the Black vote. For a Black candidate to win the Democratic primaries
such Mississippi Alabama is to indicate that a political revolution has taken place in the United States in the last thirtv vears. But int fact that Jackson's support is also cựtling into ine wnile workig class lil dicates a still deeper political process — particularly in a society which is one of the most racist in the world.
gaining support by presenting politics far to the left of any other Democrat. His rhetoric is that 'economic violence is the critical issue of the day, and that "beyond social justice is the quest for economic justice
He argues for black emthrough local control of government and the community and for a woman's right to choose
Jackson gives particular emphasis to foreign policy. The 'Jackson Doc.
Page 7 scan of this page
trine is support for international law, respect for the principle determination and human rights, and international economic justice. condemns the invasion of Grenada and the bombing of Libya, supports the Arias peace plan in Central and the right of the Palestinian people to a homeland - although within the limits imposed by a "two state' solution. Jackson was a prominent speaker at the 200,000 strong march for gay rights in Washington DO was conspicuous for
presidential hopefuls which Jackson went out of his way to ublicly hug people with Alds. Jackson Mallitalis rhetoric against business, condemning corporate merging, purging and submerging Dispossessed
Jackson's avowed attempt to build a coalition of the dispossessed' enjoys support from population. These devase those of isgling against the devastation family farm due to the policies of the Reagan government, through Chicana cannery workers in Watsonville California, to organisations actively engaged against intervention in America. Jackson has not shunned such support but has appeared picket lines and has actively intervened against attempts to foreclose family
farms.
Jackson has also attempted to pre-
sent the mythology of the American
SON:
of self-
He an White House.
Amenta
woollaile
lesbian and
— which coalition' in the absence of
and
big Liberalism
The power supremacy of the
perialism during
sectors of the
Stance, without
Central
overtly Vicious McCarthyism in the fifties), American
Dream - of fairness, equality and the ability of anyone to 'make it', given half a chance. Indeed, this is summed up in his campaign slogan: 'I was born near
outhouse, and I'm headin' for the
All of this is of major significance for US politics. It represents a churning up of key forces which have supported the Democratic Party. But what is the
and dynamic of Jesse Jackson's campaign, and his rainbow
American politics? answer that is to see one of the most decisive political processes in the world.
which made the Democratic Party possible was the gigantic rise of US im-
and between the two world wars. FDR's 'New Deal' worked because US capitalism recovered from the capitalist economic crisis of 1929-31 and was able to make concessions the most important being the accepeliminate it, of the mass unionisation of ally real attempt the American working class. On that basis the power of US imperialism, then approaching its zenith, was able to integrate the majority of the working class into support for the Democratic Party. The Democrats, capitalising on 'New Deal' liberalism (which had its
such remained capital's party choice from the 1930s to the late 1960s.. The
decline of US imperialism is bringing down the Democratic Party with it.
The structure Roosevelt built first began to come apart with the economic and political strain of the Vietnam war - the war being launched, of course, by a Democratic president. The Rooseveltian consensus collapsed completely with the worldwide economic crisis of the seventies. Suddenly Democrats weren't able to offer working class such things as wage increases anymore. And when no one is offering you anything, you begin to lose interest in an electoral system in which your interests aren't considered.
The result was the growing abstention by American workers from electoral politics. By now almost 50 per cent of the American population, and a higher proportion of the working class, do not bother to vote in presidential elections. The working class support which kept the Democrat's in power is evaporating. This is why the Democrats have won only one presidential contest since 1968 - Carter's in 1976
Failure
This crisis of the Democratic Party becomes still deeper as its leadership responds by moving progressively to the right - can Party in vo settisonine Republican jettisoning
'special interests for which
Blacks, women, and labour). This electoral policy has met miserable failure — and will continue to do so.
But in particular for the mass of the
US Black population this road to the right is not open. They are at the bottom of the heap of American capitalism - and also are the most advanced section of the US working class. Neoliberalism', abandoning old terests, has nothing to offer them. They are consquently no longer prepared to accept the law being handed down by white Democrats who policies both in the United States and regular internationally and who now have no concessions offer. historical threat of a break with the Democratic Party population.
Discontent
Jackson's role is to attempt to maintain the allegiance of the Black population to the Democratic Party by another means. He is attempting to revive the Democratic Party by bringing back into active politics been excluded from voting or fallen into greater and greater years. Jackson's campaign can be clearly understood if one grasps it as an attempt by American capital to head off the murmurings of discontent from the dispossessed of the world's most powerful nation from women, gays and lesbians. A last ditch worker and
read attempt to bring discontent, once more,
into the welcoming
Democratic Party.
relate not just to the Black population
Socialist Action US working class
Hormel,
for gay thousands
independently
do, if they labour
situation. of the real situation.
defeated,
the 'special for five
class
It raises the
off. But by Black
surdity of the
those who have either
Party apathy over the
of American - from Blacks, Hispanics,
farmers, trom
the misunderstand To recover these Jackson is forced to
JaCKsUn.
April 1988 of the United States but also to the signs of rising discontent in the white
- a working Class whose real wages have now been stag nant for more than a decade. These elements of discontent are shown both negatively in the rising electoral abstention and positively in events such as the
Minnesota, meatpackers strike, the Watsonville, California strike of Chicana cannery workers, the march of 200,000 people in Washington DC
and lesbian rights, and the and thousands who are working daily for peace and justice in Central America. It is necessary for US imperialism to attempt to prevent these forces organising themselves political!!
of either of US perialism's twin parties. Because if they
created even a reformist party, would drastically weaken the position of US imperialism and its room for manoeuvre. It would be a turn in the entire world political
Jackson's mission is co-opting the discontent that is beginning to manites! itself in the US. And, obviously, he is proving to be remarkably successful. He is putting forth a series of demands that are obviously resonating in the ears
American working class which is the real significance of the fact that he is now getting support well outside the Black population. Significant
Yet Jackson also understands the He knows he has no
chance of being selected as Democratic
candidate for president. And once he is
and white racist
capitalist is selected, Jackson will duly
call for a vote for that candidate. Hav-
ing marched people up to the top of the
hill he will then urge them to support
candidate sallic racist
capitalist party they have been tied to
decades. road.
remobilise forces and then to push them
once more behind the Democratic par-
ty, is Jackson's historical role. He is not
a step towards independent working
political organisation the
United States but the attempt to head it
what interesting,
historically profoundly significant is
that US imperialism is now forced to
use such methods to attempt to head
off even potential US working ass and
Black political action
In the United States today, the ab"seven dwarfs'
for Democratic candidate, in
verve and success •OI Jesse • ckson's
campaign, one of the greatest a amas in
world politics is beginning to unfold
This is the break up of the Democratic
and the first steps of the US
working class towards creating an in-
dependent working class party. It is a
drama that will take decades te unfold
But as it does so it will affect e ry part
world politics. And the working class form
such a party the entire politi Situa
tion on the planet will be tra
from top to bottom
Don't be put off by the ab:
some of the bit players - = =0=:
But this is one :
stories of world politics.
Page 8 scan of this page
8 Socialist Action April 1988
THE STRATEGY of permanent revolution implies that Marxists learn to take advantage of all the hesitations and uncertainties of the bourgeoisie in order to win over the popular and peasant masses and advance the revolutionary in an rupted manner toward socialist objectives. In other words, a combined democratic-socialist revolution, under proletarian direction, is an objective possibility in the peripheral capitalist regions, and this possibility does not depend on the prior achievement of the bourgeois democratic revolution (the classic stagist doctrine of the Stalinists). On the contrary, depends on the partial or total success in accomplishing tasks, and/or the capacity of the proletarian vanguard leadership of a block gressive forces.
In caragua as in Cuba, the economy before the revolution was based principally on cash crops for export: cotton, coffee, livestock breeding. The development of capitalism in the countryside since 1960 — notably the cotton boom — had signified the displacement and dispossession of small producers of corn, beans, rice and sorghum. This capitalist 'process' contributed to the growth of poverty. Likewise, it had two important social consequences:
1) the development of an enormous mass or rural workers into proletarianised or underproletarianised conditions, in which many only worked during the four harvest; it is estimated that 78 per cent ot the rura labour force such a proletarianisation;'
2) a vast process of rural exodus that saw the victims of 'land clearings' for cotton and ranches leave for the towns. However the urban industrial development remained too limited to absorb the mass of displaced people; they were therefore condemned to a miserable life of underemployment, surviving day to day in the shantytowns.
According to Orlando Nunez, one of the leading theoreticians of the Sandinista 'masses letarians who are not organically integrated into the centres of productive capital, and consequently their meagre pittance in the margins of the sphere of circulation' are found in these shantytowns.? Contradictions
The combined and character of capitalist development in Nicaragua had the result gravating the social contradictions in the cities as well as in the countryside, leading to the formation of an explosive mass of poor unemployed (or underemployed), oporesscul of which the industrial working class was minority.
To this it is obviously necessary to add the 'gangster capitalism' Somoza and his band, marked by corruption, nepotism and violence, well as the traditional political and military dominance of the country by US imperialism.
Important SCULUIS Nicaraguan bourgeoisie
but without the least intention of setting off a popular insurrection against the National Guard, or of struggling against hegemony.
It is probably in comparison with its Cuban predecessor that the particular dynamics of revolution in Nicaragua can best be illustrated. First, we note that the San-
expecte reproduced number of familiar cuban revoranon. 1) une rormanon of a radical anti-imperialist movement under the banner of a legendary Jacobin revolutionary
uninter-
it
these
win
of pro-
sugar, months of the
experienced
pro-
must earn
revolutionary socialist unequal has carried of agdemocratic measures,
- landless,
small SniD supported by (Batista, of the old state as repressive organs
economic,
the the opposed Locional
American
foreign capital,
permanent
to the Jass camp
motifs of the Nicaraguan
leader (Marti,
THE revolution in Nicaragua is full of theoretical
implications. The revolution itself posed crucia.
questions of the relations between the FSLN, a
organisation,
political currents. Since it came to power the FLN
through a more radical than in any
Sandino); 2) a movement (the July 26 UDEL Movement and the FSLN) which led the struggle against a brutal dictator-
US imperialism Somoza); 3) by a combination of rural and urban insurrections,
avalalus and the "sterile welc completely 'Maoist destroyed; 4) a new revolutionary army was organised based on the unity of guerrilla and popular militias, but
government remained a coalition with the representatives of the an-
bourgeoisie (Urrutia in Cuba, Robelo in Nicaragua); 5) as the did not masses are mobilised and armed and the revolution takes more and more radical measures (beginning with attacks against the rural oligarchy and
the coalition disintegrates and the bourgeois torces
counterrevolutionary
Like their Cuban co-thinkers, the
Stalinists the notably Nicaraguan Socialist Party (PSN) - schools participated very little in the revolution. The PSN participated in the opposition of the bourgeois coalition,
PERMANENT
REVOLUTION
the Nicaraguan Experience
and other of the Nicaraguan
and other
(Democratic Union Liberation), stressing that the revolution against Somoza had a uniquely democratic and nonsocialist character. They objected to strategy of the FSLN as 'ultraleft', as
adventurism' marked and almost Trotskyist . Even after the launching of fluences the 1978 insurrection, they still considered it as 'premature insurrec tional act of well-intentioned young patriots placeu primacy on the armed struggle that
correspond to the concrete reality of the country.
The social composition of the
movement resembled revoluolary that of the Cuban process: The Sandinista base as well as its popular support was made up especially of poor peasants, workers, the urban poor of
of students and of intellectuals. The youth
students from secondary were perhaps the most of the popular much that the muchacho (young man) became
other country of Latin America apart from Cuba. Yet these democratic political tasks were carried through by political power passing into the hands
working class.
MICHAEL LOWY, author of a notable book on Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution, looks at the lessons of Nicaragua.
for quasi-synonymous during the years 1978-79. When they attacked certai neighbourhoods, Somoza's National the Guard automatically considered the whole population between twelve and twenty-five years old to be suspect of in- Sandinism.
It is, however, important to note several ditterence revolutions. The FSLN, for example was from its origin in 1961 endowed with a clearer tion, more to the left than the July 26 Movement at a comparable stage in its development (between 1954 and 1959). The two founders of the Sandinista Front, Carlos Fonseca (killed Tomas Borge current minister of the Somoza's troops in interior) were Marxists who had quit the Stalinist Nicaraguan Socialist Parand ty in protest of its retormist orienta lion FSLN strategical document published in Cuba that: 'Our goal is the socialist word revolution, a revolution that aims to defeat Yankee imperialism
local
opposition. submission to Wallac easily
COSS fected remained itself
in democracy,
the revolution.
repressive
Defence anti-Somoza
the Sandinista In this article with Sandinista
countries, equipped, perialism
following political the two OCLWCCIl
religious
programmatic detini- ficers
paramilitary
tional In 1969 Fonseca wrote in a kej
Nationa and its dismantled
International
agells ... We MUSI guard against the danger that the insurrec tion will be manipulated by reac tionary forces within the anti-Somoza
The objective of the revolution is a double one. One part of its task is to break the power of the criminal and traitorous clique that has usurped bower over the vears The other part is to stop the capitalist component of the opposition, whose
imperialism is well known, from taking advantage of the crisis to seize power In its own malle
Another distinctive trait of the Nicaraguan revolution is the relationship between the respective roles of urban insurrection and rural guerrilla
The decisive political/military moment in the destruc-
somoza's well-oiled wal machine was the massive armed upris ing of workers, the urban poor and the youth of the towns - first in the provincial centres (Masaya, Lyon, Esteli), then in the capital (Managua).
The relative maturity of the FSLN
understandable since Nicaraguan revolution took advantage of the Cuban revolutionary proTransition
On the other hand, the transition to a collectivised economy after the overthrow of the dictatorship was et
much more slowly in Nicaragua than in Cuba where two years after the victory of the insurrec tion capitalism had been completely uprooted. It would be false to draw the conclusion from the prolonged character of the transition that the Nicaraguan revolution had taken no anticapitalist measures or that it had
prisoner the "bourgeois-national stage.
Paul Le Blanc, author of one of the best revolutionary Marxist studies of the process in Nicaragua, justly remarked: rrom the beginning Nicaraguan revolution did not limit
"bourgeois-democratic" tasks. To the contrary, it dismantled capitalist political power. It was only
crossing the limits of bourgeois
in effecting changes going in the direction of socialism, that it was possible to put into practice even the "minimum programme" of
The first element of this 'transgression' is therefore political: the Sandinista revolution destroyed the
bourgeois apparatus and established a new revolutionary state, popular militia (worker and peasant), Sandinista unions , and local popular
(CDS Sandinista Committees). Though the bourgeoisie still participated in the government for a year or two, real power was in the hands of
insurrectional forces from July 1979.
Popular
It is perhaps useful to compare these events to those happening at the same moment (1979) in Iran: in both
armed powers wellSUDDULLCU by US - had been defeated b vast popular insurrections in whick the proletariat and urban forces played a decisive role. Soon after, however, their trajectories diverged,
two radically distinct projects: Sandinism and
Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian
nationalists executed *police of. number of generals and
and organised new force (the Pasdaran)
but they did not destroy the Shah's old Imperial army. Today, this tradi-
military apparatus "rehabilitated' by the war with Iraq, is
Khomeini and his regime (with the support of the Pasdaran) to break workers' combativity, oppress the Kurdish people, and massacre leftist organisations. In Nicaragua the contrarv, there were no execution (the Sandinistas abolished the death penalty) but the Somozoist army, the
Guard, was entirely and replaced by the
Page 9 scan of this page
International
revolutionary forces and the armed people (in militias).
As for social measures, the first great nitiative revolution was the agrarian reform. Even UNIS Somoza and his accomplices estates comprising more than 20 per cent of the arable land in the country! - it was soon extended, especially atter 1983, OWLICIS productive latifundias' propriated. Whereas before revolution, 37 per cent of the land was part of large landed property (more than 350 hectares), this percentage fell TO' 12 per cent in 1984. respects, the collectivised sector made up of state farms and cooperatives reached 37 per cent of the land that
Certainly, the majority of the land remained in private hands, but the peasants union (UNAG) and
agricultural workers? (ATC) severely limited the power of the rural bourgeoisie.
Other economic measures led to 810 Li inconsequential incursions capitalist property: from 1979, new revolutionary power numerous enterprises belonging to Somoza and his gang — which made up the nucleus of the first Public Property Sector (APP) - the banks and ute sire natural resources; foreign gradually nauonalised. and the first moves toward national planning begun. In 1980, violations of the laws against decapitalisation and economic sabotage allowed for the The urban and rural workers' unions (CST Sandinista Workers' federation and the ATC - Association of Rural Workers) acquired a very important role in the application of this legislation, leading to a continuous chain of expropriations of counterrevolutionary capitalists.
It was in order to araw tie lessons of this contradiction between political nature of state power and its economic structure that a document on Nicaragua, issued by the Fourth International, considered July 1979 as the first stage in which the construction of a new workers' state, in which the expropriation of bourgeois and imperialist property would signify its consolidation. The contradiction bet. ween the socio-economic content of the property forms and the class content of the revolutionary state is 'contained in the straightjacket of the newly installed power.'
Tensions
In not less than seven years after the victory of the Sandinista insurrection, tne largest part Nicaraguan economy private hands. In previous revolutions (Russia, China, Cuba, etc) there was always a period of several years between ine conquest of revolutionary power and the transformation of the economy, but this transitional period was never as long as in the Nicaraguan case. Elsewhere. leadership has underlined on several occasions that, until the new order, it wanted to maintain a mixed economic system and that it did not intend to collectivise production In future. These politics flow from objective conditions: the impossibility of the revolutionaries management factories their own hands, the necessity avoiding a catastrophic interruption of production, the lack of technical cadres, weight medium producers in the rural and urban economy. Certainly, this contradictory situation creates tensions, economic problems (the noninvestment of private property, flight, speculation, etc), and permanent conflicts between the private sector - led by COSEP (Superior Council of Private Enterprise) and adversary of the revolution - and revolutionary forces (the government and the unions).
Let us underline however that the Nicaraguan 'mixed economy' nothing to do with the way the term is usually used (notably in European social-democratic programmes). Far from describing a friendly division of
scious struggle Sandinista forces
ATC) to control SLUCK economic
of the republic since 1984,
of "un- 'LaC Sandinista were ex-
the ment, the fabourable project. We
SUE. other
mechanisms of implacable reproduction
intact. economy union private • economy
into responsibility the seized Jurisdiction
and the trade was
economic
form: though bourgeoisie propriated, and land.
Con-
COCONS
• banks. all . the the prietor, time the Nicaraguan private
Sandinista
the COSEP remains
tion plans.
Marchetti, in the First Amanal Kelorill Perspectives, spring 1981, pp: 2 Orlando Nunez, Sandinista
Revolution in
the near published Gerard de by Sede,
menace'
October-November 1983, p. 131. taking 4 Carlos
heure of October-November 1969, pp. 5 Paul Le Blanc, op. cit., p.20 6 For small and Nicaragua and Iran.
Mora, 'Populisme manente', September 1980.
capital
raris
9 John vincour,
16 August 1983, p.4.
has
of Marxism, March 1988.
labour between the public and private sectors. It si a question nere or a con-
of the Sandinista (including the CST and the and limit the power of the bourgeoisie, and submit the entire economy to a new logic, the logic of the people's interests. Sergio Ramirez, vice president
explains the following terms: 'At the present mo-
revolution remains to the mixed caullully don't mean this as a ¡ustification of two economic modes. in which one stands for the same old
Capilalisi if the popular revolution allows a '"free zone"" for a private capitalist system, archaic and
It is rather that the mixed must begin with the har monous and limited insertion of the
into overal strategic framework of the public property sector. To the latter the political
back leading the national economic system towards change and towards the production and distribution of wealth."
The process of transition toward socialism therefore takes an extended
the mass has not been excontrol over the economy has steadily declined since 1979. John Vincour, a journalist for the New York Times, has offered the following sombre reflections on the
"free enterprise Nicaragua: 'It is estimated that nearly 60 per cent of the economy remains, at least nominally, in private hands. But as the government controls all the
of foreign trade, and has total jurisdiction over imports, and that it fixes production quotas and designates priorities, the entrepreneurs are hardly agents of the crown which the government can con trol with the payment of salaries. The spokesmen of the Nicaraguan bourgeoisie utter regrets similar to Enrique Bolanos, a rich landed pro-
capitalist and president of COSEP: "The State tells me what I must do, what I must produce and controls all the routes of distribution. Is that a mixed economy? What does that mean in these circumstances.'"
It is difficult to say for how much sector will accept the rules imposed by the
revolution; the bourgeoisie is more and more divided among those who are disposed to collaborate and those — represented by
— wno put all tell nopes I the contras and in Reagan's interven-
1 See Carmen Diana Deere and Peter
"The Worker-Peasant Alliance Year of the Nicaraguan Latin 4Z-4>. "The Third Force ir National Liberation Movements', American Perspectives, spring 1981, p. 7.
termanen Nicaragua, NeW York: the 1984, p.7, and •Nicaragua Politique Aujourd'hui, Paris:
Fonseca Amador, 'Nicaragua ricontinen ale INO 40-47.
interesting comparison see Manuel Aguilar revo ution perQuatrieme International, July-
7' La revolution centro-american, resolution adoptee par le XXIle congres mondial
de la Quatrieme Internationale' (1985),
Quatrieme International, special
issue 17/18, January 1985, pp. 92-111.
8 Cited by Paul Le Blanc, op. cit., p.20
caravan CUT-
respondent's Portrait', New York Times,
10 Marcel Niedergang, 'Le Front est par-
tout', Le Monde, 3 November 1984, p.4.
The above article, newly translated by
Keith Mann, is reprinted from the US
socialist journal, Bulletin in Defense
including
crisis
local and foreign the and
President Eric del Valle most
US decided to General Noriega
by Noriega
after which he underground
of the to Noriega
blocking of held in
taken by the
Security - which includes
Colin
and defence
has also sanctions
Panama by
Call
Meetings have
beleaguered
monpayment OI
Panama for its
US's to
agreement over
doubtless pro-
Noriega and Reagan. But
really lole term consideration on the part of US imperialism.
key cause of the confrontation is based on the importance that US imperialism taches to developments in Central America, especially regarding its policies vis-a-vis Nicaragua Panama would provide one of the strategic military points from which to launch an invasion. bul Noriega alu the decisive sectors of the aria welche forces for their own reasons
prepared along with such a policy. It
this relative independence is acceptable to US imperialism.
Noriega descends from a somewilal unusual in of populist Panamanian generals who have tried to made some improvement to the humiliating position they find themselves in in relation to the US. Their authority ritten Panama seriously impeutu by the presence of 10,000 American troops garrisoned bases within the country,
The US have been busiIncling politicians to engage in
Call paigns which would create the conditions tor ousting Noriega and drastically
the power of the Panama Defence Forces historically, the effective driving force pennal various populist regimes
The strategy is aimed at enhancing the position of civilian non-nationalist bourgeois politicians (like Panama's Christian Democracy) and turn the country Into a version or Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico
"Hree
Associate State' within the political system of the US (an association described
'neck and rope' by Cuban poet Nicolas Guillen).
The latest move against
A
Noriega has come from the church, whose leader, Archbishop Panama, Marcos McGrath, tral issued a communique on behal of the Panamaniar Catholic church, demanding that the armed forces subordinate themselves to civilian power and proposing the formation of government of 'national reconciliation led by deposed President Eric Arturo del Valle.
The church's position has been endorsed by the main right wing political parties, the Christian Democracy, the Authentic Panamanian Party and the
The latest nail in the coffin peel put bi Felipe Gonzalez, leader of
Socialist Action April 1988 9
m
the Spanish Socialist Part! and Spain's Minister, whose ad ministration Has gracke ly offered General | Manuel Noriega asylum in Spain 'as soon as its is requested formally:
Us claim to b defending 'democracy and 'civilian mule Panama is a straightforThe British labour movement should Wall for US hands off Panama and an end economic sanctions against that country ease with which a crisis ha been provoked in Panama simply reveals what the I'S and Britain could and should be doing to over throw the apartheid regime in South Africa.
The hidden
history of
Zionism
by Ralph Schoenman
Available from: Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Price: £1.50 plus 50p p&p
Page 10 scan of this page
Botha clampdown — sign of weakness
Abortion rights victory for Canadian women
Socialist Action April 1988
The hidden history
of Zionism
RALPH SCHOENMAN'S history of Zionism is compulsory reading for anyone interested in the current uprisings on the West Bank and Gaza against Israeli occupation — which should be everyone. It is the best factual indictment available in a compressed form in English. Perhaps its only weakness is that it is so damning that some people will simply find it impossible presents. he was in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps on Lebanese militias, guided by murdered up to 3,000 Palestinians. And that experience is enough to permanently shape
What Schoenman reveals is one of the worst ironies in history - that the Jewish people, who suffered the holocaust at the hands of the Nazis, should be the bulwark of a state whose methods are now among the most barbaric and horrific in the world. That is the degree of corruption which Zionism has led to.
The catalogue overwhelming.
First how Zionism, by its nature, lead its supporters from the beginning to cooperation with every form of imperialism. the approach of Theodor Herzl to the Ottoman Empire for a Zionist state in Palestine as a bulwark of that Empire against Arab revolt. As Max Nor-
La prominent Zionist leader, Turkish government may feel itself compelled to defend its reign in Palestine and Syria with armed force...In these circumstances, Turkey can be convinced that it will be important for her to have in Palestine and Syria a strong and well-organised group which...will resist any attack on the authortty of the Sultan and defend his authority with all its might. The road from there to a puppet of US imperialism was straight and narrow.
Collaboration
Second that direct collaboration with imperialism was inevitable given the aim of Zionism to crush the Palestinian. wrote: escapable meaning understood by every Jew and every Arab ... It has been necessary to carry on colonisation against the will of the Palestinian Arabs hope for the Arabs to impede us, they will not sell these hopes tasty morsel, because this is not a rabble but a people, a living people. And no people makes such enormous concessions on such except where there is no hope lett, removed every opening visible in the Iron Wall! Schoenman makes clear the methods to which the Israeli state resorts to ensure 'there is no hope lett. The history of aggression, massacre, and torture in the book is not easy reading.
Finally the logic of Zionism leads to contact with the Jews' greatest enemy the most disgusting episode recorded in the entire pamphlet is Kastner the Budapest and the Nazis whereby Jews were to be saved on condition that silence was maintained about the
Hungarian Jews. general Kurt Becher, is now head of a German company wnich trades will Islae.
We don't agree with all political analyses in Schoenman's pamphlet. But as a factual exposé of
Zionism it is truly devastating. widest possible circulation.
Ralph Schoenman, The Zionism, is available from PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Price £1.50 + 50p p&p.
den
The hidden
of Zionism
believe the factual picture it But then, as Schoenman explains,
day that Christian the Israelis, Schoenman gives is
we need by Hole
'The people. As Jabotinsky 'colonisation has its own integral and in-
... as long as there is the faintest spark of
not for any sweet words nor for any
fateful questions, until we have - Nazism. Perhaps
the secret deal between Rudoloph committee 600 prominent
massacre of 800,000 A Nazi negotiator of this, SS
It deserves the
of The Other Bookshop,
ON 24 February, the South African regime banned 17 anti-apartheid organisations and 18 of their leaders. This was primarily aimed at the three million strong United Democratic Front and the township based organisations affiliated to it. It also covered AZAPO and Detainees commit-
While allowed to for. mally exist, the banned
forbidorganisalols
from 'carrying on or performing any acts whatsoever.
the main trade federation
other than
jated UDF and adopted Freedom
thereby clarie.
calling for sanctions, 01
detainees, of
political
in-
versarcs In the year the
presen-
scal. mass
In the UDE
established the
gress, and
clashes Natal with
sation
making in-
roads into the base
Botha's black
Last COSATU
resul-
involving
263,000 six
None of
All repression
ON 28 January this year the women of Canada won a
long awaited and decisive victory when the Canadian
supreme court ruled that the existing abortion law
was in breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms.
The ruling stated that:
'Forcing woman,
tion, to carry a foetus to
term unless she meets cer-
tain criteria unrelated
her own priorities and
aspirations, is a profound
interference with
woman's body and thus an
infringement of security of
the person.
Justice Bertha Wilson
put _the case even
strongly in her contribu-
• ton to COUrI
She the Charter
to crush It.
sand members were NUM are death row.
ed with rail last
a bus arter
shot at.
Nine Wan
ing their The national of COSATU blown up
Local union
of anti-apartheid anu
unionists really
vigilante By the
only two
had been banned arrested.
measures
since
1960s.
against apartheid
UYCILUC
Many of the affected
space for a
regime In townships
uprooled
coun-
Further elections
tober. feared
mass
and its tri-
The issued
INSTEROS
Fearful resis-
'guarantees in-
dividual a degree of per.
sonal autonomy over im-
affecting
private life. Liberty in a
free and democratic socie-
does not require. the
state to approve such deci-
sions, but it does require
the state to respect them.
By Jude Woodward
This ruling also
brought to an end the 20
year long campaign by one
doctor, Dr Henry Morgen-
London protest against Sharpeville hangings
tance will once again reveal the hollowness of their co-optive efforts, the regime is trying to disarm the resistance before the battle can be joined!
However, the prospect of a rehabilitated layer township collaborators is not a bright one for the regime and the boycott of elections is certain 10 go ahead and stick.
At the same time. the regime has left a space for
formidable opponents. NACTU, the union federation that unites the old CUSA and the Africanist AZACTU does not suffer the same restrictions that COSATU does.
NACTU is affiliated to the ICFTU, along with the
AFL-CIO and the British TUC. non-aligned. Bishop Tutu, despite the banning of his own organisation set up to protest at the banning of the 18, will still have scope to search TOT peaceful change I rest oh the churches. HE CE
taler, to win the right to
perform abortions
women Canada. Dr
Morgentaler began his
campaign June 1968
when he performec his
first illegal abortion in his
Montreal clinic.
In 1984 the Ontario
Supreme Court rejected
Morgentaler's ComteRLOl
that Canada's abortion
law violates the country
Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, yet the Supreme
Court jury acquitted him
of breaking the abortion
aw, despite his open anc
stated defiance of it
verdict was ap-
pealed by the Crown
that is the British Crown!
- and it is judgement on
inal appeal willell was all
nounced on 28 January.
APARTHEID
EXECUTIONS
SHARPEVILLE 6
breaks new ground in judicial murder. They
councillor, demonstration.
demonstration.
This is naked state terrorism.
ple of South Africa
banned.
the movement does not have that opportunity.
Botha is not in a strong position. His army is suf fering losses Angola The banning orders did not prevent his National Party's jittery base shifting towards the ultra-right Conservatives and the
Prior to this decision abortion in Canada could only be carried out subject to a series of punitive conditions with the decision being naur ov hospital abortion committees which excluded any doctor who actually performed abortion, with the opera. formed i specially ar formed specially credited' hospitals
This system meant that access legal abortion
was denied to thousand
of Canadian women, an predictably provisior varied enormously from one state or one area to another.
response to the court decision was one of
tremendous celebration DI
Canadian women and pro-
campaigners.
International
EXECUTIONS
THE DECISION to hang the Sharpeville 6
have been condemned for having common purpose with' a crowd that killed a township
after he had shot their
Justice Botha admitted that the 6 themselves did not do it. They are being hanged because they were there, they are black, they happened to be the ones arrested. It could have been anyone on the
"The government has declared war on the peo-
Albertina Sisulu, executive member of the UDF, one hour before being
fascist AWB. That the AWB's gollertame rung solution of restoring the nineteenth Boer republics as a last laager of white supremacy has got any credence at all is clear evidence that the white racists are starting to Hose men conlucuce Predictably the response of the Liberal government was one of consternation. with Barbara McDougall, Minister Responsible for the Status of Women arguing that There's not a consensus among women the role of the state on this issue, so she would be consulling with ner colleagues in the government.
The governing Liberal Party upheld January law, the Conservative Party. Only the New Democratic Party met the ruling with unequivocal approval, calling on establish non-profit makclinics in every state, so that 'people have access so they can ex ercise that freedom' decided by the court.
Page 11 scan of this page
In the Unions
abolition d the ThE A will
meon a poor standard of education for HACKNEYS CHILDREN Teachers
FOLLOWING lengthy court procedures, the officers of the NUT have been forced to re-admit both to membership and to office eight members of the Inner London Teachers Association (ILTA) who were suspended or expelled from the union a year ago. These Regan and ILTA general secretary Mike Loosely. included NUT
The court action arose after the NUT leadership's original attempt to get the eight ILTA members suspended expelled was overturned by the discip linary tribunal. The NUT leadership then used the union's own appeals hese cudure sentences overturned and the Ongilal ones reimposed.
By Ray Sirotkin
A test case was taken to the courts. which has now ruled that the right of appeal was inserted into the union rules for the use of defendents only, and therefore could not be used by the prosecution - 1N this caser the union leadership - to seek a harsher sentence.
However, much more is involved this verdict than concern that justice is finally reached.
NUT always
represented some of
worst traditions of the
British or overcal
chauvinism, elitism,
sectoralism and profes-
sionalism. The 70s saw the
of currents
deve donicul
within education, par-
tiuclarly on the left of the
NUT, which started to
challenge this approach.
The early 80s were
dominated by and large
with pay struggles, and the
NUT started to emerge as
prepared
an active union,
to engage in industrial ac-
tion on a large scale.
But the "new reallst was well
represented on the NUT
executive - and it still is.
In particular, this current
always opposed advancing
deserve a tair
education
ILTA officers re-instated
executive member Bernard
on social questions using the 'aims and objects' the union rules as a pretext for preventing the union supporting the National Abortion Campaign, LND ana so Un.
What now the 'Broad Left' - comprising Labour right wing and Cl
usually capitulated to this pressure. The Broad Left has always been more concerned with an alliance with the right than with the left.
When Kenneth Baker threw down the challenge with his legislation on pay and conditions, the NUT leadership either fight or apply the 'new realist' approach. They chose the latter. They had already scaled down the industrial action and welc Baker type agreement with around local authorities.
They restricted the
fight against Baker to pro-
paganda and grand lobby.
ing of the House of Lords.
Inner London, the
NUT, in ILTA fought for a
strategy to defend the in-
terests or leacners while
NUT nationally was
LiC
backing down.
There was mass
response of London
teachers to the ILTA call
for action in January 1987.
The success this
measured by the fact that
the NUT leaaelsilp Was
forced to call for official
action after this date,
though never enough.
Baker imposed his condi-
tions on teachers.
Given need to
mobilise the maximum
fight against Baker's new
proposals the
Education Bill (GERBIL),
London's childrenal
Fight for the LLEA
we would expect even the most hesitant bureaucrat to give reluctant support 8 mass March, when all other IL- actor.
EA trade unions were on strike, when parents were mobilised for exactly the sort of alliance teachers need to make with parents one inal volves action the NUT refused to allow ILIA to
ballot the memberevCl ship for action.
Not only that, but Fred Jarvis, NUT general secretary, went on local radio to explain that NUT members were being told
take action but to work normally, crossing picket lines.
As it happens, many schools in Inner London defied the instruction from the NUT leadership. There were an estimated 15,000 teachers, support statt,
schoolkeepers, Cleaners. parents and Laud
unionists who marched that day.
Since Baker's victory,
teachers have been on the
defensive. The
under Neil Fletcher's
leadership has pursued a
strategy that befits retreat,
including a cuts package
of €93 million - although
only with Tory support. In
NUT
this situation
leadership is quite of the
of
to see a talke vail
in the Inner London
NUT wiped out by whal
Baker and LIC ILEA
throws at it.
It is therefore ironical
that the courts have helped
put a break on this retreat
insisting that LAC
disciplinary measures
taken against the ILTA
eight were unlawful.
The challenge for the
left at this Easter's NUT
conference is whether this
legal victory can be turned
to assist the more difficult
task of getting the union to
mount a serious campaign
which goes well bevond
propaganda fight
GERBIL.
THE 7,000 workers at Rover's Solihull plant are still on strike. Now into their fourth week, they are dogged in their determination not to go back to the wages and conditions being management on behalf of the government.
After eight years of
the thought of rebellious action by workforce was nearly
SUNKCIS Most pickets would say cats whisker a small concession, The negotiations would have tinued eight ycals peace.
By Steve Griffiths
The absolute intransigence and arrogance of Rover management, order to • in prepa "profitisation' preparation for a sell oft. underoins the company's refusal to talk The strikers realise that the management want to im pose another eight years of
allO tinuous production.
on Mondays' mass pickets
Thorn-EMI
MARCH of 500
healthworkers and their
supporters would be im-
pressive at any time. But
the 500 strong
demonstration in Stret-
ford Manchester on 8
March was particularly
special.
It took place outside a
factory, not a hospital, and
support of
engineering was workers,
rather than workers in the
NHS.
However the demo was
still part of the campaign
in defence of the NHS
or rather it was to defend
the right of workers
side the NHS to take in-
dustrial action in support
of the health service.
Thorn-EMI strenore
issued threats of dismissal against GMBATU CULL and Keith Davenport and Hodgkinson,
Support the Rover strike
operated by Land Rover
is defiant. No one is allowed to pass unchallenged.
UCV workers and the old hands, are drawn together to show the company 4081 eight years of Land Rover peace 1s ovell
There widespread support. For instance social Wood, dormitory town In the East Birminghan area, arousand people last week attracted
demonstration solidarity and ot people anxious to know what's happening
The Leyland back to work movement has tried to get organised. There have been fascists promoting it. . But it has beel confronted by the Families
movement TOT with women in the lead.
Strike activists on the pickets are looking for a
Victimised for supporting the health workers
Kevin Frisby, GMBATU
and AEU stewards, for ig-
noring a court injunction
and organising a strike of
workers
February in support of the
health
workers' day of action.
By Geoff Ryan North Manchester General hospital
The three were also threatened with legal acreclaim £45,000 tion Thorn-EMI say they lost in production because of the strike Writs also threatened against Bill and John Edmonds, general secretaries the AEU and GMBATU On hearing of the Thorn threats management Greater Healthworkers Shop Stewards
Socialist Actior.way forward. It is felt that supplies to the Sherpa van site, and to the car body taxi building firm, should be halted effectively.
The tough nature of management has posed a difficult problem for Land Rover workers to solve The TGWU and its local
ort ala being call sear
discipline statement to be made to all those who are sale wanting return to work.
tremendous
aren
Committee decided
organise protest action.
The of 500
testimony to the need that
healthworkers see to de-
fend other workeers, and
their ability to mobilise
After seven hours of
secret EMI, John talks Tocher, with Thorn- divi-
siona organiser of the
AEU, hatched up a deal
which involved: final war-
nings for Dave Hodgkin-
son and Keith Davenport,
and an official warning for
Kevin Frisby
While this represented retreat initially
managemell,
included a major threat to
organisation
in the plant that
Thorn's managment
would 'review' the position
of its fulltime convenor.
Thorn-EMI one of
the few plants in the Traf-
ford Park area that has a full time Convent, therefore the 'review' was a
response auring this last week. starting on March. has shown that the officials could not get awa with this sort of statement.
Bul Land Rover
workers also realise that the stakes are high. If management's strategy is to sit out the opposite MUSE , be thi • case for the trade unionists at Rover.
movement to open up an offensive againsi the company, and to gain the support of other workers, is an absolute necessity.
AHEDIAL
PUBLIC EM
(West of b
clear threat to get rid of it.
The AEU locally has
not confined itself Borore the 19 February day cooking this deal.
of action the Manchester
Confed unanimously
decided on a one day strike
support of the health
service, but then did
nothing whatsoever to win
support for this.
Only two factories
Massey Ferguson and
Thorn-EMI decided
carry out the Confed deci-
sion, and both were met b!
injunctions from the
employers. The Massey
• workers backed down, and
Thorn workers were lett
isolated
However the unity of
the Thorn's workforce and
solidarity tron other
workers have achieved vicThorn-EMI tory, occause management have now forced to withdraw occ. their threat to the full time convenor position.
Page 12 scan of this page
For a national day of strike action to defend the NHS
defence.
Unfortunately, rather than using these actions as
for a serious fight with the sne Tune and the health
TUC and the health service unions, NUPE and
have altempled to play down and limit the
have already called.
Neither Rodney Bickerstaffe of NUPE, nor Hector Mackenzie of COHSE supported the call by nurses to be allowed to address the March demonstration. The reason was simple. Any purse who spoke would
•chanengea tem 1o strike or ra rapur, genera).
action COHSE.
By Geoff Ryan
NUPE, Central
Manchester Health
Authority
COHSE itself has been in retreat since calling for
14 March, that in areas in the end all COHSE proposed was lunch time vigils outside hospitals. in this ther have been ably assisted by the NUPE leadership, which in some cases refused to back even COHSE's limited action.
And despite his call to 'Make budget NHS day', totally silent on Neil Kinnock how was
force Lawson to come up with the funds the NHS desperately needs.
But the problem is not confined to their silence on how to actually win the
cant piece of scabbing
scabbing South Yorkshire went out of their Name
Address
I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action for £ Send to: Socialist Action Subs, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP. Registered by a rema Beerit eh. PO BoX 50, i.
THE demonstration for the national health service on 5 March, and the response to the call for a day of action on 14 March, were magnificent. They gave a small indication of the breadth of support for the NHS and the potential for the campaign in its
their decision to strike on
14 March in support of the ' health service.
Now all the leadership is offering is a series of
selective actions, accompanied by une usual inand CONSE. between NUPE and The health
service campaign faces a
crossroads. Either this lack
leadership will wear
down and demoralise the
fight defence oine
NHS or •ways will have to be
"revue une
There has not been a consistent national response the various
calls for action on the bealth. some
where there have been suc-
cessful actors recent weeks, there was probably a slight decline in support
Tora March.
Nevertheless technical staff at Manchester Royal Infirmary took hour suike action, will broader strike action at other ManChester hospitals.
In London there remals a lga lever or support for strike action in the
hospitals. with support be ing won from bus drivers Heathrow and [ram orivers at Cross. Unfortunately London NUPE
callca Ior action on 15 March thus splitting the movement.
In areas where action recently has been MOre limited, such as Sheffield and Newcastle, 14 March showed stepped up volvement.
The level of organisation among those who walt lignl higher already than it was at any DUlll une 3982 campaop Stewards restrike
stewards SURIKO committees bring together
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upport yo
NHS
stewards and activists who want to beyond the limitations imposed by the labour movement leadership.
Alongside these there are bodies such as London Health Emergency with more than 220 affiliates in Lace union, labour and community groups. Similar bodies are now being set up in other areas.
This type of campaigning organisation, together with the organisation 01 hospital stewards and activists, can be a real point of pressure to prevent the backslıdıng from the leadership.
• A national health shop stewards conference volving these committees coula nelp araw in those areas which have so far not
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been so well organised. A
properly built national
conference with delega-
LIONS trom the hospitals
and the stewards commit-
tees could ex-
change useful information
about what is going on in
other areas.
Nevertheless neither
these committees collec-
tively, nor such a national
official cally for inated
official action
from the unions and the
labour Move leil
whole.
The unprecedented
level of activity that has
already taken place in the
hospitals, despite the dif-
ficulties of large scale
action the
hospitals because of the need to provide emergency READERS have responded immediately to the launch of our €8000 publications fund drive in the last issue of Socialist Action, by sending in donations large and small, well as promises of more.
Donations received So far amount £510. order to guarantee the production of Socialist Action this money needs to keep coming in, We feel confi dent that the goodwill and support that Socialist Action has built up on the left will ensure that this target is met.
cover, has indicated the
willingness of health ser-
the NHS.
Busworkers, train
drivers, miners, groups of
engineering workers, have
all showa Ina. the whole
working class prepared
to defend the NHS despite
the obstructions of the na-
tional labour Lovemenl
leadership
There can be no doubt
that the response to a clear
call for one day strike ac-
from the and
Labour Party would be
overwhelming.
The coming nurses pay
revIeW ancillary workers pay claim, That-
cher's 'review of the NHS',
the fight against privatisa
tion especially in Scotland
as well as the continuing
Publications fund drive
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The left press has only this support to rely upon. There are no Maxwells or Murdochs crying out
personal fortunes into this paper - for which Have grateful! It is produced b a lot of hard work based on a commitment to defending the interests of the working class and looking for every opportunity
struggles both Britain and international v
The support the paper A baCk called cree than the degree to which it succeeds in doing this. Not
rhetoric though that is often tempting and Socialist Action is
INHS
VHS
DAY
overall crisis of the NHS
will ensure that
tinues to be a major issue
in the next few months
The argument for • the
TUC to call day of
general
part of an escalating cam-
paign of action in defence
of the NHS as the only wa
to force the Tories to back
down has to be stepped up
The failure of Neil Kin-
nock and Robin Cook to
clearly endorse nurses' ac-
tions has undermined the
campaign of both the
health worker and
Labour itself in defence c
the NHS.
The opportunity of
the local elections
MOUS now be taken to turn this
around. But not in empty rhetoric, the real anger among health workers, no more immune to this danger •than the many other dangers that beset the left tempting to explain as accurately we can what
be achieved, and above all what can be achieved.
One thing which we think needs to be achieved is to maintain the regular production this paper, which we think is useful to the whole left. And fund drive can and will achieve this.
Our thanks to all those who have sent donations
gical hope that the issue can record as satisfying a response.
and health service users
must mobilised in
serious challenge to That-
rundown of the
health service
Now that Lawson has
shown that he prefers to
give tax concessions to hi
rich friends rather than
the NHS Labour
should now change the
terms of the debate. Rather
than the '2p for the NHS
campaign, the issue should
focus enormous
spending on Trident, and Othe weapons systems, calling for transfer of this spending to the NHS.
Alongside the call for a
one day general strike, this policy could unite the whole working class in a real campaign in defence of the NHS £8000 £7500 £7000 £6500 £6000 £5500 £5000 £4500 £4000 £3500 £3000 £2500 £2000 €1500 £1000 ₺500
← Socialist Action No. 178, March 1988Socialist Action No. 180, May 1988 →