Socialist Action No. 37, 9 December 1983
The scan: 037-dec-09-1983-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
Reagan's
SociAlist
ACTION
No. 37 9 December 1983 30p
LEBANON
dirty
war
THE AMERICAN air raids in Lebanon and the huge naval bombardment of Druze and Muslim positions have nothing whatever to do with 'peace keeping'. The raids directly after Israeli minister Shamir's visit to the United States, and were obviously cooked up by him and Reagan in Washington.
United States and Israel have a common goal: to keep Lebanon safe for the reactionary Phalangist government of Amin Gemayel, and in striking at Gemayel's enemies, to change the pattern of political power in the Middle East in favour of Western-backed reaction.
Central and northern Lebanon are to be placed under the control of the Phalangist governwhich at present can hardly hold Beirut. To achieve that means defeating the Druze militias, who hold the Chouf and the who hold the Beha'a valley and
NGA
must
win!
try.
come prime region. By
Union cannot militarily, the
The break his
Moscow.
the
compunction America's
well precipitate
pletely
US clients in the region.
Syrians the errand-boys
States
decade. There are not only demanding from the NGA. can much of the north of the coun
Beirut.
The United States has an additional reason for striking at Syria - to attack the last remnants of Soviet influence in the
showing Syrian president Assad that the Soviet
protect him US hopes to ing alliance with
To achieve his political aims in the region, Reagan has no
awesome military might. In doing so Reagan may
La new and devastating Middle East war.
Such a war would have com-
reactionary objectives — to enforce the domination of
In a situation where Reagan is preparing for war, the last pretence that the US and other imperialist troops are 'peace of the keepers' has been exposed. The militia. British contingent are acting as
of United imperialism. They
It hasn't taken long for the TUC right wing to get to grips with sabotaging the NA strike at Stockport Messenger. This is the most vital union struggle for a
writs out against the NGA but also SOGAT '82 and the NUJ for different disputes. The courts are being used to push through anti-union laws far worse than Edward Heath's 1972 Industrial Relations Act. The outcome of the Stockport Messenger dispute is going to affect every single union case that is coming up — starting with the £3 million the Newspaper Publishers Association are
Eddie Shah has all the right wing establishment lined up behind him. An Institute of Directors representative has already announced on the radio that now the NA has called off the mass picket it will never get it started again The Sunday Times, the Times, the Financial Times, the Sun and every paper of the establishment demands the NGA be defeated.
Any judge will decide whatever the government wants on union law. The TUC policy of staying within the law is literally suicidal.
Heath's Industrial Relations Act wasn't changed and defeated by legal action. was defeated through the 1972 and 1974 miners' strikes and through the threat of a general strike • tree imprisoned under the Act. The Industrial Relations Act was defeated when the AUEW simply refused to pay the fines imposed by the courts and brought its members out on strike to defend their unions The courts are now lin. ing up to fine the unions.
Every day the employers are learning they can take unions to court and bust strikes through the courts.
If the TUC allows the NGA to be defeated every union in Britain is going to come under threat.
But the NGA can win. It was the solidarity strike action which broke the Fleet Street lock out. If the unions such as the IGWU which have pledged their support to the NGA mobilise their members the mass picket be reimposed. If the NGA does not lead the industrial action itself Shah will only be the first of a series of union busting employers.
If trade unionism is to survive and do its job the NGA must win.
should get the first plane out of
US-Israeli plan involves attempting to throw the Syrian army out of Lebanon, defeating the Druze and Shiite militias and consolidating the hold of Israel over southern Lebanon. It also involves backthe Gemayel-Phalangist plan to expel all Palestinians -fighters and civilians - from Lebanon.
Since the horrific massacres at Sabra and Shatila last year hundreds of Palestinians have been assassinated or imprisoned by the Lebanese Phalangist gunmen, with the aim of forc ing a Palestinian exodus to the West Bank of the Jordan.
The outline of the US-Israeli plan for Lebanon is now abundantly clear. Israel will hold Lebanon south of the Alawi river through the power pro-Israel Haddad The mainly Shi' a Muslims in the area will be held down by Haddad with the help of Israeli army patrols
Page 2 scan of this page
2 Socialist Action
SociAlist
AGTION
Labour and
the law
Rarely has a more ridiculous been made than that of the Labour leadership over the NGA dispute. We are now informed it has become democratic socialism that the law must be obeyed.
Éxcuse us while we laugh!
If the law had always been obeyed there would have been no socialism in the first place.
What was The act sovereignty of Parliament against the tyranny of the monarchy in Britain? It was simply that Parliament rose in rebellion - totally illegally -and chopped off the head of Charles I.
The American Declaration of Independence starts, 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For the American colonies which became the United States these words meant something quite specific. George IIi, the English king who ruled them, American colonies going to shake off British government for ever.
France the great wasted not one minute in rubbish about the law. Instead it overthrew the only too legal government of Louis XVI.
The English, American, tions are the great foundation stones of modern democratic liberty. All were completely and utterly illegal.
Only too frequently tionably obey the law are enemies of democracy. Hitler perfectly legal way. that Hitler's succession should have been accepted because it was law?
Far better that the German working class had risen up there and then, shattered the law, and saved Europe from fascism and fifty million dead in the Second World War. Aced bat we Topale martyrs that lis advice Tolpuddle general' their attempt to create a trade union shouldn't set one up because it onas against the supported
If the labour movement had accepted the law it would never have existed in the first place. Those men and women who violated the law to create the trade unions are heroes pioneers of democratic socialism. tersley, and those who bow down before unjust laws, are in the tradition of the oppressors. They betray democracy and socialism.
There is one final word on democracy and the law. There are many many countries in the world in. which there is law apartheid system law. So is Israel's oppression of the Palestinians within its own boundaries.
To take another scale of values are we sup
posed to accept that children die of leukaemia
because the law says British Nuclear Fuels has the right to pour radio-active contamination into the Irish sea? Or are not Greenpeace right to
break the law and fight to bring that pollution to
an end? Who is the democrat in that?
But while there are many countries in which there is law and no liberty there is no state at all - whether in the East or the West - in which there is democracy but there is no free independent workers' movement.
It is the power of the British labour move ment, the power of its trade unions - not the power of its courts - which is the sole guarantee
of whatever democracy exists in Britain.
The NGA, the pickets at Warrington,
Greenpeace protestors
hampions of liberty
Roy Hattersley is not just failing to defend the trade unions and socialism. He is not even a
champion of the very causes that created and
safeguard democracy in the first place.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN
Published weekly except two weeks in August and the
last week of December
Signed articles by contributors do not necessarily repre-
sent Socialist Action's views. These are expressed in
editorials.
9 December 1983 exhibition
DAVID FOWLER
principle
democracy and no
that established the was a disgraceful tyrant.
perfectly illegally — were
revolution of 1789
and French revolu-
those who unques. was made Chancellor of Germany in a
Does anyone still believe
martyrs?
concretely
and the Roy Hat-
and no liberty. The vile in South Africa is based on
the agalnst ponuton are
ON 30 NOVEMBER Arthur Scargill spoke at a rally organised by the Triple Alliance at Birmingham's Digbeth Civic Hall. tacked by the press. Socialist Action prints the part of Arthur Scargill's speech on the NGA strike.
The dispute involving
the NGA, who are currently fighting not only the simple single issue of Lne workers but also against the might of the establishment and the Tory governMeN. further analysis from this movement, but it requires far more also.
has to be recognition that what is taking place today is a proposal put into effect by the
EDDIE SHAH has gone back on every agreement the NGA has made with him over many years. But Shah is only the thin end of the wedge of the assault the newspaper owners are unions. With a couple of anti-union renegades to help him Shah hopes to produce his papers cheap labour, minimum of around f120.
New technology in the print maustry means that no great skill is needed to produce Shah hopes to get away with using a few scabs, who can type a bit, and with a renegade overseer to put it all right.
Another renegade can operate the press and train a few more desperate-forwork people — not really scabs maybe to do the dirty and heavy jobs.
Shah has even boasted of getting YTS people in at £25 per week. from the Manpower Services Commission. Instead of paying six Nud lypescuicis a pru per wage, he can take on
His speech, was violently at-
government, on the one hand, to have trade union legislation emasculating our movement and, on the other hand high unemployment so that can say that for every job
people will be desperately queuing at the factory, pit or dock gates.
In addition it is now clear nate coverca intends to take on this noveltil. carefully over the past 4y I have listened
The threat to the NGA
the print
with the NGA
YTS trainees on the cheap He can afford a few hold ups and delays while they
the job. New technology gives Shah that learn choice.
By Bob Smith (Birmingham NGA)
The NGA is probably the oldest, wealthiest and most union in the UK. It has £10
and reserve an income of f130,000 a week. It has a small highly skilled membership of 133,000. The NGA through its tough, resolute
hours to the views of my colleagues in the trade union movement and on the TUC General Council. I take a very firm position.
View
It is my view that having a decision of the TUC
carried in this CONDICS movement, to support any union or member who find themselves victims of the Tory government's legislation, there should De calls for restraint on the part of the NGA.
There should be united call from the Trade Union General Council which recognises that this
approach to national and Diall negotiations has some of the highest workers in Britain. It has its Fleet Street vanguard as its force for keeping up wages in the entire print Industry.
In the last 20 years, the NGA has pulled the wage Tattes in the general printing trade to reasonable level despite many closures, redundancies and even with the staffing reductions caused by new technology.
The NGA is one of the few unions to establish the
hour week and without selling breaks and bonuses. operates serious overtime bans after redundancies and ensures an effective training programme for all youth recruited to the industry.
Manning CUCU loyment are negotiated with all technical innovation. The NGA is not perfect, but it's a lot better than Duffy!!
Shah is a leading element in the 'crush Cane NGA' brigade. Already his friends - Robert Maxwell, Bailey-Forman, Dimbleby, assistance of the Economic League nave CescE u rationalised their plants without negotiations. Then they set up scab non-
A victory for this band of employ pick-axe wielding callysicis who thugs from 'security' firms
would lead to a total escalation of anti-union activity in the printing industris
is a tent ne working class cannot afford to lose. If the NGA goes under then nobody's wages and conditions are guaiallictu tionalisers will ine lory la carve up every industry and union in the country.
It's time
to start
fighting'
company is being backed by the media, the establishment and their anti-trade union laws.
We should be mobilising, all of us, the most massive picket ever seen.
time movement recognised that we have determined policy at our annual congress and reaffirmed that policy on two occasions. It is impor tant Lid dedicate ourselves to support those in our movement who find themselves victims, either
Tories anti-trade union laws or at the mercy of an individual employer who is being supported by
weight of the NUJ President Eddie Barrett
ordering to halt Dimbleby's NUJ'S Emergency adopted the following resolution: cedures. junction although in no spirit of defiance.
special delegate meeting'.
News
employer class, either directly or indirectly.
It is absolutely crucial pally and our movement show the same and dedicacomicul tion to the NGA and our class that the Tories show to their class. My advice is to try and mobilise mass support.
For anyone to attempt to divorce the issue that we are discussing, tonight from what is taking place in Warrington would be naive and in my submission, would be politically and industrially dangerthis years Ted, to stop as I said at this years talking and time to start fighting.
NUJ defy court
Last Friday the NUJ voted to defy the court ruling
its picketing David Richmond newspaper group. The Committee unanimously
"Our attitude to the injunction imposed by the Court has been conditioned by the unjust and ill. thought out laws on which the injunction is based, and also by the well established policy of this union on the crucial issue of trade unions rights. This policy was established by the democratic process under our rules by which the view of the member. ship are expressed through delegate meetings. "To defy that policy on such a fundamental issue would be to fly in the face of those democratic pro'We are unable to comply with the terms of the in•We are taking immediate steps to convene a
• The TUC General Council voted to aid the NUJ with its legal costs and to help the union carry out its 'lawful function on behalf of its members'.
Page 3 scan of this page
'It's time for the TUC to pay
News
I RETURNED this morning from the Warrington picket line. Not only have we had to contend with police, but with Mr. Shah's private army using dogs, which in the first week of the dispute were unleashed on the pickets.
broken and was dragged screaming 50 yards by the police. He was taken to a police station and it was an hour before he was allowed treatment.
We went to the journalists, and said this had happened, print it. The next morning the headline was 'Picket
tured ant taken to hospital'. That's the kind of conspiracy we've had to deal with between the bosses, the media and the government to crush the trade unions.
Last night Frank Walsh, one of our officials, was injured on the picket. He's not in good health, coming up for retirement, but he played his part. He was taken ill, and it was half an hour before the police would let an ambulance through.
But at 4 am there were two thousand police forcing Eddie Shah's
wagon through. What kind of society is it that values free newsheets more than human life?
I've seen the tales in the press today about violence on the picket line. Let me tell you what really happened. We had 4000 peo-
there and were con. trolling it from our picket van. The police threw us out of the van and smashed the PA system. They
so we couldn't use it.
Photo: JOHN HARRIS
Battle of Warrington
its debts'
An AUEW member, Bill Trainer, had his hip
Speech by NGA Alliance rally, Digbeth Hall, Birmingham on Wednesday 30 November.
They prevented us from carrying out a controlled and peaceful picket because they wanted riot. Any violence is the responsibility the
I don't have to tell people at this meeting of the Triple Alliance the impor tance of the closed shop. As far as we're concerned it's not just about people who have a job but also
THOSE WIll are unemployed. It enables us to keep unemployment in the NGA down. It's vital to our members.
How can we comply with these anti-union laws! After the support given us tonight by Arthur Scargill and Jimmy Knapp I'm surprised it has taken the TUC three weeks to
We are confisupport Us. dent the support from the TUC employment COLL mittee wil be turned into support from the General Counci. Peonle have said that it's time for the TUC
to come off the fence. But I say it's time for the TUC to get off it's knees and start fighting.
What is the use of the TUC talking to the Tories about the political levy? If they smash the trade union movement there will be nobody there to pay the
Chris Newis, member of the National Council, at the Triple
political levy.
The NGA has got nothing left. Our funds have been sequestrated. Our property has peeI taken over. We are
now. The Na. tional Council of the NGA are preparing for all out strike action. But when we have done that comrades, when we are out on strike, we'll Slave nothing else left. It will then be up to the movenient. It will be up to the TUC to prepare a 24 hour general strike.
On 22 September 1982 the TUC asked us to take part in an unlawful strike
support the healthworkers. We called every Fleet Street newspaper, every provincial newspaper, man shop out in support of the health workers. We got injunction after injunction for it. It's time for the TUC to start paying it's debts.
Tories, and Eddie Shah,
Police in action at Warrington that our movement is not going to be held to ransom, either by Donaldson's court's, or Shah, or Thatcher or by anybody else. What I am appealing for comrades on the platform, is thousands and thousands of people on that picket line.
We need ten thousand miners, ten thousand steel workers, ten thousand NUR members if we are going to block and prevent that newspaper going out, which the
cessful conclusion to the dispute with the Messenger
We can't do anymore. We have to have the support of the movement. So go back to your branches, go back to your people to the picket line. workplaces and
We are doing all we can. It is up to the TUC to prepare the all out action but we have a responsibility to be on that picket line in our tens of thousands to prevent that newspaper coming out on the streets.
Thatcher's
boot-boys
WE WENT up by coach from London - it fook 5 hours and the police tried to re-route us. But it's a miracle we got there at all because the police blocked off the motorway and were turning others away after about midnight.
We thought we were joining a picket to stop the Messenger, and challenge Tebbit's anti-anion laws.
Around oul there was only one thing in everyone's mind that night - the police.
By Steph Grant
The LSE Students Union banner arrived behind the Bradford •Graphical Association. They marched into the picket chanting the workers united will never
reception was fantastic for every
especially Fords
Dagenham.
marched right through to the front line of the picket and from then
Socialist Action 9 December 1983
the college. against trade union
rights.
Led on the college premises.
Finally
departed for home. on we were either surrounded by pigs, running away from pigs, dragging ler peopie tom lue pigs or making way for ambulances
The police smashed up the NGÀ van with all the communication equipment. So the stewards were ent contact, while more and more police appeared.
For a long time they weren't anlg коркю jest dragging them through limes •A friend had his glasses ripped off and literally trowa away, anoller was nearly strangled when they grabbed him by his scarf.
Behind police lines you could expect a few punches pretty bad beating. We saw one guy come back with blood streaming from a gash on his head.
A friend saw someone with his kneecap so swollen he could hardly walk. The only exception was when TV cameras were Then police would shout •We're being photographed' and let
3 RUSKIN students gave CPSA general secretary Alastair Graham short shrift when he turned up to address some of his members on a short course at
Many of the students who had been on the picket line at the Stockport Messenger the night before, had either seen or been subjected to the brutality of the police. They were incensed when at lunchtime the next day on TV Graham denounced the pickets and thus openly sided with the cops
members defending their
An 80 strong picket was set up and the college authorities were told Graham was not being allow-
tracked down in the comfort of the Royal Oxford Hotel but had more sense than brave the picket line which had the support of the CPSA members.
The sneaked out of the hotel and
let you you bout 4 o'clock the
pigs went" wild. They'd managed to take most of the road in front of the Then they divided the picket in half. I thought we were badly off on our side. Pigs in crash helmets and visors, wielding truncheons suddenly attacked the front line. we scattered, and people got knocked over in
As people drifted bacl to the coaches, we heard what nau napocacu on ta other side. The pigs backed Range Rovers full speed in. to the picket to scatter them, then actually chased them across a huge madd field into ditches and drose people as far as the motor. in their raid. It's wonder nobody was killed. let alone run over they leaders who were inciting a Call NGA
riot!
We scored a final small victory before we had to leave. People started block ing the road with metal pip ing, fires, and made a fence connected to telegrap wires each side of the road.
Of the pigs couldn't resist driving through to smash it up and brought the telegraph wires down with it in a spec. tacular display
A nice way to go.
Page 4 scan of this page
Tebbits law: Catch 22
THE COURT injunctions against the NGA, the NUJ, and the POEU have begun to show just how much is at stake in the 1980 and 1982 Employment Acts. This scale of attacks on the unions would have seemed impossible ten years ago, labour movement opposition overthrew the Heath government's Industrial Relations Act.
ing. are designed to draw the noose around the neck of the unions.
The legal core of the Tebbit Acts is to make the trade legally responsibly for the breakring of contracts. The catch is that of course virtually any industrial action in-
• technically breaking with employers, suppliers .CUSLOWLICID Almost any union action at can become subject to legal attack under the new Acts.
Before the 1980 and 1982 laws the definition of
What
has in
store
just the opening shots in the Tories war
tober, the Trade Union Bill.
Since 1979 the government has launched major legislative attacks on trade • union rights and freedoms.
Their impact is beginning to be felt as with, for example, the recent court decisions on the POEU and NGA industrial action.
A PIECE HE
- AND MAGGIE THATCHER QUPPED, THE LAW IS WHOLLY SEPARATE FROM POLITICS"! 1Y, HOw h
Socialist Action 9 December 1983 when massive
But the Tory legal assault is still only just beginn-
HILARY DRIVER looks at how the new laws
La 'trade dispute' has immunity from prosecution under the law was any achon simpiy conti
Editions of employment; physical conditions work; hiring and firing; work duties; facilities for union officials etc.
Under the new law an industrial action by union only has immunity if it is 'wholly or mainly' related such dispute. As the courts
Thatcher
THE LAST TWO Employment Acts were
against the unions. Just as the impact of these laws is beginning to bite, a new bill was published by the government in Oc-
Unions Attacked has just been published by the Labour Research Department and gives a blow by blow account of the implications of this new Bill. The introduction to the pamphlet explains the new proposals:
The government's latest proposals are con ained in the Trade Unior Bill. They will have a much more immediate impact on trade union organisation because the legislation Goes rely possibility of legal actions taken by employers of third parties, but instead créates a framework which encourages individual
ACTION
at THE JUDICIARY 15 COALLY POLITICS".
MERRILY!
alone decide what con-
stitutes the meaning of
'wholly or mainly' the ef-
fects are legally
devastating.
Furthermore a trade
dispute is now defined so
that it reters only to an ac
tion between workers and
their own employer.
Under the new Acts all
trade union solidarity ac-
tion therefore becomes il
legal. Strikes against infor-
mal policy
government pay norms in
the public sector could be
declared illegal. Fleet
Street bosses use the rade
'trade
dispute' to sue the NGA
for their losses
"illegal' secondary strike
union members to bring
legal actions against their
own unions.
The law has never been friend of organised
workers. Judges
enormous powers to inter-
DIck laws su as to benefit
employers. The history of
the trade union movement
is one of repeated legal atINDEPENDENT O • SHE JESTED SITCOM
"HO, HO"
WE CRIED!
for the unions
action.
The legality of nearly any strike is at the discretion of non-elected and anti-union judges.
Unions stepping over the line of this Tory legalitv are then made to Day dearly for their sins. They are liable to be unlawful acts which are not furtherance of a trade dispute'.
Unions: can also be sued for secondary picketing, 'indiscriminate secondary action and industrial action "to compel union membership'.
Finally unions can be sued in many circumstances for the actions of their officials — a direct Miners picket to support a union at Grunwick. This is illegal under the new laws.
Stacks on its right to organise effectively.
This new Bill represents a serious new development in the area of legal intervention in union affairs. For the first time it lays down which allows judges, rather than union members, to decide on how unions should organise themselves.
THAT WAS AN EXCERP -ROM NEW ZANY BB
REPLACING " TODAY IN PARLIAMENT"-
attempt to encourage national officials to 'police' shop stewards.
Trade unions with over 100,000 members ale liable to be sued for up to £250,000 for different claim for damages. For contempt of court the tines can be even greater
"amounts. Considerable
Legal and labour costs can also be awarded against a union.
In addition to attacks existing union organisation the new laws make it far harder achieve union membership the first place of nonorganised workplaces very often requires secondary It allows judges pottical decide what is and what is not. It permits Then in erecto deteranc not only how the union should be organised but also where should organise, what strikes it should support, which campaigns it can run.
of state interference in the internal orcallsallull
BY GORMAG 216
SO WHY NOT JOIN US ALL DAY AND EVERY DAY FOR A MILLION BITTER. LAUGHS EACH SECOND IN LA NEW TORY BLACK J COMEDY -
'ORGANISED
(ANARCHY"
JOIN THE TUC FIGHT BACK
AGAINST TEBBIT'S LAW
action to secure victory.
• 1o enorce unese laws the courts are now given not merely the right to fine
CATTONALONENINEWORKERS
KENT AREA
trade unions which has not existed before. measure which needs to be opposed by all who believe in the right of unions to organist the best interests of their members.
The proposals have been presented as an tempt to improve union democracy. A Bill to 'give the union back to its members' is how government representatives have described the new legislation. But the intention behind the Bill is entirely different. The new law would, in effect: • override established
union procedures • force unions to ignore
their own rule books • allow judges to
determine what is fair
and reasonable' rather
than union members • tie up unions in
complicated
procedures which
effectively will prevent
them from taking
action • • limit the political
activities of trade
Not surprisingly therefore those tions who have come out
In the Unions
EVERY LAW
HAS ITS PLACE
IN HISTORY
unions but also power to seize their funds and imprison union officials. wholeheartedly in support of the government's pro posals are the represen tatives iof major UK employers. The Director General of the Confedera-
British
(CBI), Sir Terence Becket hails the Bill as 'fair and reasonable' At the same time they, along with the Institute of Directors and the Engineering
Employers Federation, are
now in the process of en couraging the government
to introduce even further
Fi and are knowi
to favour the outlawing of
strikes where procedure
agreements have been
broken - oy unions no managements of course.
The government •will ASCLES in-
troducing, the Bill as a
light for further,
tougher • measures. Mrs
Thatcher has promised a
new trade union law every
two years. As each new
piece of legislation is in.
troduced trade union
rights are limited further.
• Unions Attacked
Research Department, 78
Research Department,
Blackfriars Ra, London
SEI 8HF, 60p (includes
post and packaging).
Page 5 scan of this page
can ca y de van 0 da c
ÁTuO SI
Supp
James aul. 947 Inoqel
aut i sales per a001 ATTO
sun
u!
suomun
• Kep • Kep
Isnu 15101] Jo 247
эрел TOTTO
TINTIITETTETT ROM SEM
ídoo
ITTANTA ACITE
pue
там в DATOO ur suoun
Page 6 scan of this page
RECT ACTION
meals. Politics is for men - and it takes women acting together, putting the fact that they are women right to fore, for women to conceive of a different role tor themselves. Any women's movement that succeeds in doing that is profoundly positive.
Perhaps the most difficult discussion to confront is that about tactics. Should women to go jail? Is direct action a useful tactic? The argument for direct actions that result in arrests are that the 'proper channels are useless' since the decisions have already been made over most peoples' heads.
This is certainly true, but the argument is not really about legality. Even standing on a pavement can be deemed an offence. The question is what types of action, legal or illegal, are useful for the movement.
There is no doubt that there are two schools of thought on legality within the Greenham movement: Both start from the point of view that the actions have to be continually escalated otherwise the movement will stagnate and die. But one view holds that this means more and more women have to be involved, while another sees this as meaning that the degree of illegality of the actions and daringness has to increase.
At certain levels these are not mutually contradictory points of view. At many points in history a movement has been maintained or pushed forward by the exemplary actions or sacrifice of small groups of individuals - witness the effect of the hunger strikers in the North of Ireland in rebuilding the mass activity of the nationalist movement. Or the actions of the Sandinista guerrilla squads 1n
'What we want to change is immense. It's not just getting
rid of nuclear weapons, it's getting rid of the whole
structure that created the possibility of nuclear weapons
in the first place, If we don't use imagination nothing
will change.
It's as simple as that.?
Lesley Boulton, June 1982
Nicaragua seizing the government building under Somoza and winning. the release of hundreds of political prisoners.
But the vital element is that the exemplary actions have to be aimed at building a genuinely mass movement that all women can get involved in, to any degree.
Sylvia Pankhurst had touchstone for how to judge militant tactics. When asked to burn down Nottingham Castle by
MOVEMENT
Photo: CLAIRE HERSHMAN
Without change we will destroy the planet.
Christabel Pankhurst, she decided against - only being prepared to fling a torch as a symbolic act, accompanied by a large demonstration.
Sylvia explained: '1 regarded this new policy with grief and regret, believing it wholly mistaken and unnecessary The old, defiant, symbolic militancy performed in the sight of all, punished with a severity out of all proportion to its damage, if damage there were,
had roused an enormous volume of support; had brought the Cause to the fore and would keep it there. What the movement required, that it might reap what it had sown,
people confident appeal to was, in my opinion, a broader and
HOIC the
We should apply the same measure to tactics at Greenham. Otherwise women will go to jail or pay heavy fines and the sacrifices will have been in vain. The story of the violence that was inflicted on the imprisoned suffragettes is not just history. When the state is determined to halt a movement it will use any force, any Violence, any expense. The only counter measure we have is our massive numbers. A few can be picked off but a majority of the population raised in protest is a force ignored at a government's peril.
But if we make this judgement about tactics, we should not be led
world,*
Gwyn Kirk, April 1983
to dismiss all illegal actions. The cutting of the Greenham fence on 29 October was an inspiration and few voices could be heard condemning it for illegality.
The government simply warned about the use of troops, and the possibility of demonstrators being fired on as a result. Fear tactics used by the government only succeeded In winning the Greenham women more sympathy.
1913 George Lansbury (hardly a revolutionary) said of the suffragettes:
'When you are tricked and deceived, when Parliament betrays its sacred trust, you have the right to rebel. It is the only course left open to you. I ask that all of us here will stand shoulder to shoulder with the * militant women; hold them up in the fight they are waging. Let them burn and destroy property! Let them do anything they will; and for every / leader that is taken, dozen step forward to take their places.. this is a holy war!'
It would be nice to hear Neil Kinnock say the same about the Greenham women today.
In the name of sterile, meaningless abstractions like patriotism and duty, mothers' sons are sent off to murder other mothers' sons. The police, the armies and the courts are all "only obeying orders". People in Africa, India and South America starye while these same continents export shipload after shipload of tea, coffee, meat, exotic fruit and vegetables to the rich countries of the world. This is "civilisation as we know if", the "peace" they are so proud about. We are left in isolation to deal with this system, this outrage, with its privilege exploitation and rape. If we can't cope with it we're made to feel that we're weak, inadequate, over-sensitive The world is run by a handful of mad old men, indulging their ghoulish, expansionist fantasies. Disenfranchised women, despite the vote, we are campaigning against cruise missiles, but in doing so we are also taking on the
GREENHAM
WOMEN
EVERYWHERE
ALICE COOK & GWYN KIRK РИЛО 4 PRESS
The pictures and quotes from Greenham women on these pages from 'Greenham Women Everywhere' (Pluto Press). Copies ITOM Bookshop, 328 Upper St., London N1, price f3.50 plus 50p post and packing.
Socialist Action 9 December 1983 7
Page 7 scan of this page
WOMEN'S DI THE PEACE
AND
THE WOMEN'S peace movement is a year old this week. The peace camp at Greenham Common itself has existed for considerably longer. But the movement really came to birth on 12 December last year when 30,000 women surrounded the perimeter fence and decorated it with photographs, letters, dreams and momentoes.
Even the most hostile sections of the popular press had to find something good to say about Greenham that day. And they've been trying to find ways to discredit the movement ever since.
By Jude Woodward
It isn't just the popular press that has peddled misconceptions and confusion about the movement. It's also sections of the lett itsell. After the action last December some purists decreed that it was 'anti-feminist' women to hang nappies and pictures of their children on Greenham fence.
Not all women did that. But those who were there for the sake of their children renewed a consistent theme of the way that women have been drawn into movements and struggles.
Women in Russia started the 1917 revolution calling for bread and an end to war, because they cared for their starving children and dying sons. Even when the struggle was for women's own rights, for example the Suffragette movement, the testimony of many working class women indicates that they saw the fight as simply a first step to place themselves in a better position to improve the lives of their families and communities.
We should have no fear of this, either as feminists or as socialists, because in the course of the struggle other questions become posed
How many suffragettes first forced their husbands and sons to take more responsibility because they wanted the time to go out and fight for the vote?
And in the Greenham movement perhaps the perience of Helen John best sums up the transformation in women's lives through engaging in the struggle at Greenham. left her husband and children live at Greenham because as she
6 Socialist Action 9 December 1983
GREENHAM:
education.'
Sarah van Venn, March 1982
Greenham
the
mass
Photo:
at home, for their future.
that themselves a bad thing personal ex- posedly not
feminist. many one hoary old argument.
Helen
*The camp itself is a permanent reminder to the govern-
ment that there are many people who don't want to be
part of the nuclear arms race. We're not just a bunch of
women sitting around a base.
thousands of people who don't want cruise missiles sited
here. It seemed a strange kind of democracy that a deci
sion could be taken without even parliament being con-
sulted, let alone the public. I sensed this sick mentality all
around me that was motivated not by the sacredness of
life but by fear that was feeding the arms race. It seemed
crazy to me that the government were pouring our
precious energies, our resources, billions of pounds, into
something that was for mass murder, instead of this
money going towards our social services, our health and has explained, she cared for them.
She broke with her family to fight
A parallel argument has been
women-only actions are in supsocialist and too 'You can't involve the unions in women-only actions' is
Apart from the fact that this increasingly simply isn't true, it is also the case that our job as socialists is to argue
We're speaking for in the unions why they should support such actions.
The record of the labour movement in this country on supporting the fight for women's liberation doesn't bear close examination. Undoing that bad history demands that the labour movement itself makes the first move.
The overwhelming majority of women still see themselves as hav ing no role in life outside work -bar changing nappies and cooking
Page 8 scan of this page
8
go out!
JUST WHEN the team
of West Indian cricketers
WCIC supposed to be
cleaning South
Africa's multi-racial im-
age their fast bowler Col-
in Croft had to go and
spoil it all.
Croft made a train
journey and very
foolishly got into
only compart-
ment'. Along came the
inspector and Croft was
despatched off to the
sevregated black COLLpartments. Bit funny
when you think
Croft along
mercenary team-mates
had been given all that
money to play cricket
white South
Africans.
But Croft probably
hadn't realised that the
cricket matches WELC
inanced out of govern.
nent funds to sell Soutt
DIARY
(These listings are free for all major labour movement and
maimum of 50 words-Semidisplay advertisements cost 5o per word and must be paid
nowance. sente. Diary, Sacialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London NI 2XP
Thursday, one week prior to publication). international
• The Politics of Health in Tababwe Hour long video
functions. £10 (payable in advance). Send to Books for
50, London N1.
Sri Lankan Research & I formation Grous will provide speakers on the current situation there
Write to 9 Gray Inn Buildings, London EC1. Contral America. No Intervention in
and the
broad based coalition of solidarity groups, human rights orgs, 200 political parties. More details rom NICAC 20/21 Compton Terrace, London N1 01-226 6747. • Hounslow Socialist Form last of a series of meetings on the eternationalisation of the world economy and of
orchestration of violence and repression with speakers HOW SOULACEI Africa Latin America & Palestine. All meetings Sundays, 7.15pm, George IV pub, 185 Chiswick High Rd, W4 (Turnham Green tube).
From War in the Third Ford to the Third World
new pamphlet published by El Salvador abidarity Campaign, 50p
AcTioN
Join the
fight for
socialism
Socialist Action 9 December 1983
Avoid apartheid - don't
Avoid apartheid - 'stay in'
Africa abroad. Now at
home things are a bit dif-
RAIR DIRTIARI
these blacks going where
they please, even if they
are cricketers. Next thing
you know and the locals
will start thinking they
can do the same.
Croft has been
assured that won't
happen again. That is as
Islington Park St, London N1 01-359 3976. ELSSOC have also produced a 1984 calendar snowing scenes from life in the liberated zones, £3 from same address. • Central America and the Caribbean A series of open educationals with videos and speakers at Peckham Labour Club, Lansbury House, 41 Camberwell Grove SES: 6 Dec Cuba; 13 Dec Nicaragua; 10 Jan Guatemala; 17 Jan
Salvador; 31 Jan Grenada; 7 Feb Evening of Central nurcican culture • HISSIOn £1/UB40 free. Organised by Sth London Central
contact Edwin 01-733 7706 for details.
Reagan's war plans in
Caribbean Sth West London Socialist Action forum, 8pm,
Community Project, Venn St, SW4 (Clapham Cmmn
rurtner detalls Irom Carol 01-359 8371.
Ireland • 'Cause of Irelandi London premier of the controversial film, plus Countrv'. 7.30mm. Weds 7
Brixton Ritzy cinema,
LuDC. Entrance £2.25/1.50 UB 40 or NUS.
Labour Committee on
- meeting to torm a South London LČI, 8pm,
Checklist against
the Police Bill
• March and rally against the Police Bill. Satur-
day 21 January. Assemble Brockwell Park, Brix-
ton. Noon.
• Next meeting of the National Council of the
Campaign Against the
Manchester. For details contact NCAPB c/o Rec-
tory Road, London
• Defend the Newham
December. Old Baily, St
Name
Address
Tel
Age Union/CLP (if any)..
If you want more information about Socialist Action or to be put in touch with local supporters send this form to Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1.
long as he eats in black cafes, only use black loos Bad keeps taco white bars. fact he and his team-mates simply play cricket then go back to their segregated hotels and lock themselves in until the next match they have been assured there is no chance of them being abused by apartheid.
Tue 6 Dec, Rm 31, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton
with LP card only). Further information 01-737 1968 (eves).
Disarmament
• 'Sound around Greenham' 11 Dec. National action at Greenham Common, women only. For details ring Manchester 061-225 7352 or 236 3112 or London 01-251 3133/226 6258.
Lesbian & Gay Liberation • London Lesbian & Gay o bosss meer every four weeks on Sundays at 6pm, Marchmont Commercente Marchmont St, WCI. Next meeting 11 Dec. Further details from Martin 01-263 9484. • Gay NUR group just
. For details of inaugural meeting write to Gay NUR c/o 119 Southwyck, Coldharbour Lane London swy. • Nottingham Labour Campaign for Gay Rights meets montav. Next meeting 21 Dec. 8pm, Salutation Inn, Maid Marion Way. Details: Chris Richardson. 21 Devonshire Promenade, Lenton 0602 780124.
Police Bill. 7 January,
N16. 01 8334
HaNS picket. 12 Paul's London. 9 am
Sold short MR ALEXANDER FLETCHER now Under Secretary for Trade and Industry was promoted from . being Scottish Education Minister because he obviously has lots of business sense.
When they closed Hamilton College of Education, near
Glasgow he quickly flog-
school and some
property developers for a
tasty £680,000. The person who was
chief valuer tried sticking his nose into Mr Flet-
cher's deal because he valued it at f6 million.
But Mr Fletcher wanted a quick sale sc naturally he wasn't going to waste time quibbling
measley
,320,000 after
all is only public money. Hands off Grenada!
The New Jewel Movement and the Grenada Solidarity
Campaign appeal for support on pickets every Tuesday and
Inursday. 5-7pm. These will take olace al
Eastern Caribed onion Wig 0 kensington t. US Embassy.
Barbados embassy, 6 Upper Belgrave Si London SW:
• London Labour Campaign for Gay Rights new office at 39 Chippenham Rd, W9 2AH 01-286 9692, open Tues-Thur Ilam-7pm. (Westbourne Grove tube. Bad access, help available). Next Londor LCGR meeting at the office, 11 Dec at 6pm. Details from Mike 01-659 2938 or office number
backtrack on Lesbian and gay rights Islington Labour Brenng meeling witn reter Tatchell, Fri 16 Dec,
.45pm, Rm 5, Islington
Dec, 7.45pm.
London Briefing Xmas
N19 (off Holloway Rd),
Anti-cuts campaigns • London Health Service Campaign 34 Dalston Lane, London E8 3AZ 01-249 8080 • Hayes Cottage Hospital Occupation Cttee, Grange Rd, Hayes, Middx 01-573
Miscellaneous • Films at work - - a series or umas a Jacksons Lane Community Centre, 271 Archway Rd, London N6. 1 Dee WR — Mysteries of th Organism; 19 Dee Days of Hope. . All start at 7.30pm, £1.50/80p
• East London Socialist Action New Year's Eve social Sat Dec 31, 7.30pm-
London 328 Upper St. London N1
telephone 01-226 0571
Open — Mon, Tues, Sat, 10-6 Wed 12-7
Thur, Fri, 11-7.
Birmingham 137 Digbeth Birmingham B5
telephone (021) 643-5904
Open - Mon-Sat 10-6 Closed Wed.
Mail Order Service - Add 20% for P&P
• Advertisement
NGA
THE NGA were always
assured of one thing where the Master orred when appearec
Rolls Johr
Donaldson - he would
have very firm opinions about trade unions.
None of this
the arguilt hsidense
nonsense
for Sir John. After all he had been busy advising
the government on in-
lustrial relations and th midnight. Buffet, bar and disco. f4/£2 unwaged. For uckels prone Irina vl-19 0037.
Ealing/Southall Socialist Action Xmas social. Fri 9 Dec, 8pm-midnight, Featherstone Arms, Featherstone Rd, Southall. Food, music, bar extension. Entrance £1.
Civil Rights
Campaign against the Police Bill National march and rally Sat 21 Jan,
Details of these and other events from NCAPB, Rectorv Rd. London N16 01-249 8334
For a Reagar-free Caribbea
Reagan Free Caribbean
and red. 25p each (plus
postage); bulk orders
With orders
to PO Box 36, 136
Kingsland High St
London E8. Cheques/POs
payable to Hackney Book
Club.
For Marxist
books, posters,
postcards, badges
Feminist literature
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
introduction of legal
restrictions on the right
I sunke
He is against unions
having the right to strik
once the courts had ruled
on the issue - ie. people
Ike nim have decided.
The Master of the Rolls
also employers
should be allowed to
selectively dismiss
strikers and all workers on strike should be sack-
ed if the dismissals are to be lawful.
John is also decidedly against outside interference in strikes.
LUK
One-sided
history BOB Pennington's 'sordid history' of the Communist Party of Great Britain is one-sided and therefore
SY ouns Communist League member in the sUs and a party activist until about six or seven years ago, and now sympathetic to the politics of Socialist Action rather than the CP, may I remind him of a few facts.
In industrial Fife, that could boast of a Communist MP, it was not un til the mid-60s that I me
CTOISKVISI Fourth International did not except in text books. How did this come about Bob, scenario made us out so wrong?
Let it be perfectly clear that in Fife until the present day the dividing line
Defective
YOUR obituaries of Farrell Dobbs because you do not explain that his career invo ved the most catastrophic political
committed the Fourth International.
As a result of his work in Duraing ine camster Union, Farrel Dobbs became a leader of this key union. One would have
tionary group would have
of its members in such a position Ners Party Sosia, the Socialist Workers propaganda group afflicted with delusions of grandeur They made Dobbs resigı his position
fulltime them.
In this way American Troskyism lost its only major position of influence in
News
He points out it is different for him — he is inerfering from the insid - he did help to fram the law at the invite of Sir Geoffrey Howe Nobody ever invited the NGA and the pickets to interfere in the People like Sir John know that the plebs' job is simply to obey the law made by their betters Moles Eye View is compiled BUB FENNINGION Contributions should be sent to arrive by Thursday am.
KIMNOPORSTU
IJKLETTERSTU
LMNOPORST
between reformist/ careerist socialism and revolunionary socialism was, and still is, the choic vetween lne wabout rarly and the Communist Party Crossing the Rubicon from one to the other in the eyes of the ordinary worker.
True few i read in around, read that the banner Marxian Trotskyist was sight.
join the Party knowing first han experience sordid history elsewnerc
Glenrothes
ment condemned itself continued narginality this only a
Dobbs still been around Hoffa
the United
To astonishment the International has still this lesson. Frank and co deci
leaders the Socialist
What a miseducation
Brighton
Write to us!
This is your page. Send us your comments, criticisms or even congratulations. But please be brief -letters over 300 words will be cut. Write to: Letters, Socialist Action, 328 Upper Street, London N1 2XP.
Page 9 scan of this page
THE ACTION INTERVIEW Eyewitness in Grenada
Interview
A FEW DAYS after the US invasion of Grenada DAVID HASLAM, the vice chair of War on Want, went on a fact finding mission to the island with two representatives of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Ioan Evans MP and Nigel Spearing MP. In this interview with Kathy Kirkham he records his Impressions. In addition to being vice chair of War on Want, David Haslam is a Methodist Minister and a member of Brent Labour Party. His trip with the PLP mission was his third visit to Grenada.
What was your impression of the fighting and the casualties during the invasion?
A lot of reports on this have been nonsense, part of the American disinformation campaign. tainly the Grenadians fought back; the Cubans were only involved in as much as American marines attacked them at the airport.
major force Americans had to contend with was the Peoples Revolutionary Army. The PRA did SCLI aulte a bit of resistance, although it was nothing as strong as it could have been if the army and militia had been united. Because of the previous divisions in
NJM Central Committee militias were very suspicious of the PRA - that certainly weakened their fight back considerably.
One report we heard was that there was a counter-attack on ine evening of the US invasion in which.
armoured vehicles nearv got onto the airstrip. In fact we saw them, they were stopped 100 yards short.
A British observer told us that if they'd got on the airstrip there might have been casualties. ( We were also' told that there least 12 American helicopters shot down, and that suggests a much higher casualty rate than ne amencans dotul.
The anti-aircraft fire didn't cease till Friday night, that was four days alerte Invasioll, ana Wnree days after the Americans said everything had been tied up.
What about Grenadian casualties?
There have been widely divergent reports about this, and clearly the Americans have been blocking reports of Grenadian casualties. would certainly have to discount the talk of between 1000 and 2000 dead. On a small island, with that extent of
everyone known. The best estimates we heard were that there were about the same number of people - perhaps 100 killed during the invasion as on October 19, the day Maurice Bishop and the others were executed.
Did the people you talked to give you
impression political ferences inside the NJM Central Committee or was it just a personal power struggle?
I think it was both. I think there were personal amoltons mvolved seems that the Coard-Austin faction had a 'harder left' political analysis of the rate of change that should go on in
Photo: WAR ON WANT
David Haslam inspects the ruins of Cer-
the
the society. The Whiteman group felt should go more slowly and that the divergence between what the Central Committee wanted and masses would accept, should not be allowed to get too wide By the end it had become a very bitter struggle. You don't go ordering the execution of people you have struggled with for years, decades, without the rift being very deep.
I'm not saying we know who gave any the order for the executions. I doubt
that it was Coard didn't strike me violence. But there were people there who were younger, more hot-headed and less politically experienced.
What evidence did you find of US intelligence involvement in the split in the NJM?
Inside the island, very little. An Antiguan left wing paper Outlet carried dif- evidence of US
cussions at the verv highest level oI the army and governmemt. Whether or not those people were agents in the sense of actively trying to foment a split, that is not yet clear. My impres But it sion is that the Americans had very
good information on the split in the leadership, OUL CHAL island didn't realise it.
Of the mental hospital bombed by the United States.
Bishop-Louison-
that things
vosualol. what the the Coard-Austin
port?
sometimes the execution of Bishop, others.
ty determined to pursue its line, - having met him. the masses.
man of
to liberate Bishop
sand.
The bourgeoisie
knowledge of dis-
This supporters.
people on the
You say in your report to War or Want that the invasion seemed to be supported by up to 90 per cent of the
This seems to imply that faction was CAtreme v isolated in terms of mass sup
invasion.
I think it is more or less accurate to say that the Coard faction had very little popular support, certainly after
Whiteman
developed the line of a vanguard par- think they had Lowson
respective of its communication with
When
That became cear when. on 1y October, 10-15,000 people came out
that is 10 per cent of the population of the island.
The population of St Georges for example is only seven and a half thou-
created. live in si Georges, and there was quite a lot of disaffection with the PRG there, and that is where a lot of journalists got their interviews with people saying they supported the invasion. My impression is that in the countryside there was a lot more support for the ding PRG, and especially for Bishop and "processed'.
One small piece of evidence for that is that we drove across the island former PRG ministers, and saw a lot
of people waving and greeting them, but the nearer we got to St Georges the less this became. It is possible that if the journalists had got more out into the villages and countryside they would have found less support for the
TA),
Most of the people we talked to the did support it. For example one person who was very close to the PRG before said that he regarded it as a necessary evil. Ken Radix and George
both ooposed it. because although it probably secured own safety, in the longer term it will have bad repercussions.
we interviewed Kendrick Radix while he was still boxed up in the Cuban embassy, he described it as Grenada's darkest hour. He thought ple. it would be a long struggle to get out of the situation the Americans have
Did you get the impression that sup. porters of the NJM were being round. ed up by the Americans, irrespective of their support or otherwise of the "Austin-Coard coup?
We saw queues of PRA people han-
Ralis and being We also saw the internment at roll sallnes alrport. It wa. early days when we were there and the cages hadn't been built yet. We heard of two or three hundred people being detained while we were there, some of
Socialist Action 9 December 1983 9 liké officers in the army or members of the NJM Central Committee were being detained for longer times.
We saw people being picked up by the marines and taken away. The official position now is that only about 50 people are in detention. But the US troops are still going around and picking people up and holding them for a few hours. I talked to George Louison last week and he has been arrested three times in just over two weeks.
So that kind of harassment is continuing of the people who were not involved in any way in the events of the 19 October. That kind of pressure on all people associated with the NJM is continuing. The other factor is that many peoplę were not Grenadians, working on different programmes, have been kicked out.
What do you think the future of the trade unions will be?
Well there are three different kinds of unions in Grenada. There were those that support the PRG, like the Bank and General Workers Union led by Vincent Noel and the Agricultural Workers under Fitzroy Bain, both of whom were killed on 19 October. There was another group which was neutral. And there were one or two unions which opposed the PRG, for example the water front workers.
I think that the latter will have welcomed the invasion and will want to collaborate with the Americans. Some of the middle unions will along with that, although some of the younger members will oppose it.
What will happen to the pro-PRG unions is difficult to predict. They've lost their leaderships. There will be an ongoing battle in the unions between those who • want keep alive the memory of what the PRG achieved, and those who want to go along with the free enterprise economy that the Americans will seek to introduce What do you think are the prospects for the mass organisations? Very difficult. There are reports that we're getting that they are being closed down. The National Women's Organisation and the National Youth Organisation have been closed down. It's not yet clear whether and in what form the Centre for Popular Educa tion, which has done much to combat illiteracy, will be allowed to continue
I think the big battle will centre round programmes like the National Association of Cooperatives (NAC.
the food agro-industries programme which bought up farmers spare produce, the Productive Farmers Union which had about 1400 small farmer members. This is the sector where the PRG made their major thrust.
It's pretty clear now that the US AID programme is preparing plans to return Grenada to dependent cash crop economy which produces crops for export, rather than one which produces food for the needs of the peo-
Overall, do you think the gains of the revolution are lost?
I think in the short term the gains will have been cancelled out. As Castro said, the revolution was destroyed when Bishop was executed. What the invasion mav have done is resurrect ¿ symbol, in the sense of maybe in the longer term re-awakening the consciousness of the people. I think that consciousness is there, particularly in
That will ree vole centration surface over time, particularly if the Americans are ham-fisted and insensitive in the way in which they pro. ceed.
Page 10 scan of this page
Mass pickets win the day
10 FROM 1970 until 1972 a Tory government was riding high. The power workers had been defeated as had the postal workers. Only a strike at Fords and the occupations at the Upper had done anything to hold the line. The Tories then decided to go for the kill and break the back of the unions by crushing the miners.
• The Times reported: 'Coal stocks away from the pits are large enough to
Sake TOT weeks, spread... If i dess not
spread' were TuCe key words. The meanwhile did nothing to make sure the strike did spread.
reused Call meeting of transport
to solidarity. The Seamen's Union, when asked to put an embargo on the import of coal, turned down the request saying 'our members are. on articles when on board ship and they cannot break these.
The EEPTU and the GMWU both made pay deals for the didower workers which not help the miners' case.
From the very beginning the coverintent got tough. cut power supshid framied this on the plies whicl scalianeminers. Agecroft power
shut down although it had 17 days •ocl SOCKS.
The employers and the state banded together to bre. Tne miners' resistance. At Dover scab on over wee boo ca
day equivalent around £85 to drive through icket lines Although the drivers were armed with iron bars the police chose to igriore their weapons. At one [Irm picket had his foot crush-
When someone sent a
SOCIALIST ACTION
faces the hardest
choices it has ever had
to make. The facts are
as follows.
• One year ago our
landlord demander
fourfold ( increase in our
rent. Despite months of
negotiations and appeals
Socialist Action was still
hit in June with a stagger-
ng 80 per cent increase
in rent. have been faced with ers socialist
creases ee and al
prices, postage and
other essentials. But
there is no way we can ab-
sorb this huge rent in-
crease on top of the other
costs.
€ Immediately after
June able
eep going because of the
much higher sales
created by the general
Socialist Action 9 December 1983
1972 Miners strike
Clyde Shipbuilders
newspaper photograph to
the Director of Public Pro- secutions which showed a
SCaD Caven wielding iron bar he explained he
did not intend to take any action!
Dennis Skinner the Labour MP for Bolsover revealed that the cops were
couragin drivers to go
of 40 hour driving at the picket lines . rrom the start it was obvious the government
win and they had no inten-
tion of fighting according to the Queensberry Rules. Miners
But the miners also decided to make their own rules Unlike Joe
f the NUM
complained that his members
are being a damn sight more militant than would want them to be they did not restrict their pic miniono toes its. With
million LUIS of coa stashed away who cared if the lorries
miners spread their pickets London. Miners set out for East Anglia. Students and miners occupied Essex University and an action committee of miners, students and unemployed worker was set up watch over the ports for the movement of coal sup plies.
Fight for your paper
election. We also receivfrom entrease rs. generous donations
But although our
sales, and income from
sales, are today higher
than when we launched
Socialist Action the ex-
ceptionally big increase
in orders created by the
election has now tailed
off.
Thatcher's election victory directed some
as created some
demoralisation in the left
and a fall in sales.
• The result is that
more and more of dona-
tions from our supporters
have simply gone into
paying running costs.
This is a disastrous long
situation.
swallows up basis to and
allows basis
pand. it does not even
replace the high costs oft.
modern equipmenț.
Kent miners in action
London 'naval blockade' was established wnen miners took over a pleasure boat and went down the Tivel Wilt loudhailers stopping coal being taken in by boat to Battersea power station. No the stoken ears ine
pocket landlord.
• The only way out is the one Socialist Action has begun. We have started Tooking for new premises. Meanwhile we have taken every step to cut our overhead costs.
this is why we have reduced the paper to 12 pages. We have made big cuts in staff.
If we don't do this money will, continue simply to be drained away In a capitalist socieha to to spend some. save money you
To berty, and me perty, and move our existing one, will cost tens of thousands of pounds. do not make drastic cuts now we
STIONAL OS MINEWORKERS
ORS KENT AREA
The clashes on the picket lines even fiercer.
One miner was killed by a speeding lorry.
But the miners hạd more sense than rely on the law so cherished by Murwill not be able to build u the cash to move our of fices.
Cuts on the paper will then become permanent
• We need to urgent-
ORGANISE
rend their rights. Workers- to deICHU LACRORES self defence was used with good effect. Scabs were pulled from their lorries and dumped on the road At Kersley the floodlights were shot out with an air drive store from this
income. From this month we are asking all our supporters to in-
crease their regular con tributions to the paper.
rifle, the junction box for the lights was smashed with a sledge hammer I nails into heve six inch into the road aner sir sa broken glass over lorries ripped their tyres. At Longannet
But to drastically cut our overhead costs, make a major saving, we also need to £30,000 minimum for our ises. When that „tor new premises. is done we can take paper. We will also have paper back made a major saving ir costs that will safeguarc the long term future of Socialist Action.
• We know that raising this large sum of money is going to be more than a campaign of a few weeks. . But without it losses will just mount.
• We will beo raise af
detailed plans to raise the money we need in the new year. But the most important point that our readers know
their paper and what we
News
su ava boa were user
to take oil in and specia
'hard squads' of police
used against • the
pickets. Over a thousand
people were on the picke
line every day, miners were slung in jail without bail or
trial and 13 pickets were
arrested and kept in hand-
cuffs
Then at Saltley coke
depot the miners won their
biggest victory. For a week
600 police fought to keep
the depot open. After four
days of pitched battles bet-
ween police and pickets,
the Birmingham working
class stepped in. Two hun-
dred shop stewards from
all the major factories in
the East Midlands district
of the AUEW met. The
next morning further
police reinforcements
moved in and six lorries
got out of the depot. Stewards
Forty thousand
workers in the factories
answered the summons of
their stewards and came
out on strike. Then 11,000
of them poured down the
streets onto the picket line
Like straws in the wind
the police were blown
aside 10.45 the 1902 the of 10 February
1972 calc the
Saltley coke depot were
closed and they never re
opened until the govern.
ment had caved in to the
While the TUC and the
Photo: JOHN HAPPIS Labour Party leaders had
nervously droned on
about the need to respect the law gazing with
transfixed HOTO workers defying it, the government and its sup
porters could read the
writing on the wall and moved settle. ment.
As the Tory MP William Deedes put it: "The like Saltley was not how the law was interpreted but how. it could be enforced It was not doubtful law but numbers which held the police back.
intend to do is safeguard Its future
The £1, £5, £10 you get for Xmas, can make a tremendous difference to
If every
eaders gave £5 we ca even more a house make our we welcome just as much contributions from those who can give far less
have real confidence in the future of Socialist Action. In 35 issues it has established itself on the left. With help now it can expand much further in the future.
But first we must jump the 430,000 hurdle of raising to safeguard our long term future. We appeal to our readers for urgent help.
The Editorial Board
Page 11 scan of this page
Where now for the POEU?
Labour women's conference 'insult'
People with disabilities get kicked by Tories
In the Unions
THE SELL OUT of the POEU dispute by the decision of the Broad Left majority NEC to comply with the high court injunction to connect Mercury and to call off the industrial action resisted in the branches. secretary of London reasons for the betrayal and the way forward for the POEU membership.
What was the state of the industrial action up to the November reconvened conference?
Vur industrial action
going well up November. We had built up a feeling in the national membership that was Ce emmae• win. We have the capacity to win under this Torv zoveel-
but means no ICLICaL.
What started the retreat?
The injunction on November instructed the uni oproeit the black ing
Project Mercury private Te omanic tions firm). members
refect the injunction. Bat
reject the injunction. later that night the NEC injun to comply with the IarCOR. Haunled conference decisions and decided to connect Mer-
NALGO
members
prepare
local gov't
defence
NALGO members from authorities threatened with grant penalties and 'rate-capping' legislation met on Wednesday 30 November to discuss developing a national strategy against the cuts.
Speaker after speaker solidarity with Liverpool Council who at present are standing firm against government pressure.
Two years ago Lothian Council shaped up to take on the Tories in Scotland and then made humiliating climb down resulting in a loss of over, 4000 jobs and enormous service cuts. experience showed that no local authority can fight alone.
By Bill Hamilton
The NALGO delegate meeting, which was unfortunately or an 'advisory' capacity only, passed two important motions. First,
Treeclc LACLO of councils raising rates and rents to buv their wav out of the cuts and, in the words of the resolution 'thus increase the already heavy burden on working people': The motion went on to give support to any local authority which refuses to cut jobs and services and increase rates and rents above the level of inflation.
The NALGO national leadership was also called
has been strongly
JOCK CAMPBELL City branch explains the
cury to BT lines.
Certain NEC members were content TOr the membership to put their oos on mne mie our me were not prepared to make the
sallic ConiLuCu themselves and buckled under.
TeNl l of the defection of the four SO-called NEC members, the right wing gained control and we now see a change of direction with the emphasis being on parliamentary representation and leafleting.
In London City, area llauakc cul have said that they have introduced computerisation LIlLO Broken Warf House, where 90 engineers were
suike WIll result in redeployment of 20 .30 LICHOCIS All strikers will be shown a letter which will tell them if
the 'hit-list' local
massive government
called for immediate
upon to convene a national delegate meeting of all local government NALGO branches January 'to discuss plans for co-ordinated strike ac. tion support any NALGO branch which is faced with cuts in jobs and SC VCS
Finally and very imOU CaluLV the motion was successfully amended to add that the delegate meeting should be held in Liverpool.
The second motion called for the national delegate meeting January to decide to comMCIC A COND SOrV SUIKE levy of all members, order that moner hand before sackings are alluwecu
NALGO branches will have to follow up hard on the decisions of the conference. When asked if he would give his support to the motions, Mike Blick, chair of last Wednestlay's meeting and of the NaOHoo oven meni Committee, answered 'definately not!'
they strike again they will be sacked immediately. This is not ceptable to London City branch. It is now a matter for the mass membership to become involved in this struggle as they did in the 35 hour week.
What should the NEC have done?
The Broad Left majority on the NEC should have voted to defy the Mercury injunction and lead the POEU into struggle. They should have been prepared to defend members lobs even it this meant complete withdrawal of all members and a shut down of the communication system ir Britain.
How can the leadership issue be resolved?
The left must regroup
and arte ainur NaC
TOUI members who sold us out must be removed from the Broad Left slate. POEU Broad Left must have complete теappraisal of whom they support for the NEC and1 hope that out of this will come a more disciplined and politically aware leadership.
Why did the Broad Left NEC fail?
Because certain people
ciples that had to be carried out when the NEC got to power. The Broad Lett, stituency delegation called alternative with its dictated content.'
The theme of the conference was fighting the Tories' attempts privatising nationalised inaustry ana pudlc services, with the bulk of the day taken up by workshops.
The workshops however followed a lecture format and stage-managed penarv session against those who discriminate against them.
Bob Waring's private members bill, we thought, gave us another bite at the cherry but the Tories were already plotting its defeat. Bob Wareing MP for West OCTOV. LOONICeO his Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (Amendment) Bill for its second reading on Friday 18 November. Despite Tory assurances that they would not enforce whips, The Guardian revealed that the whips had been instructed to defeat the Bill.
Many of us welcomed the Wareing Bill. Despite doubts concerning legal redress' of the type used in une race cernons anoser Discrimination Acts, would provided basis for action. Its defeat
POEU members discuss action
at its inaugural meeting, supported all the highest losers that joined them.
That has proved to be classic mistake We lost our purposes for geting DOWe l in the fight to get the NEC elected so when the Broad Left NEC WaN elected it could do nothing with the power but give it back to the right. There were those of us that knew we would have pitfalls and
ANGER, frustration and protest erupted at this year's national Labour Party women's conference held in London on 3 December. The customary 3-day resolutions conference for women clashed this year with the General Election and had to be cancelled. Instead, participants were offered what one con-
'an insulting one-day
squeezed minimum of questions and GISCUSSOS The meeting was billed a a UI-esolo! COEference. Yet very early on the organisers pushed through ready-made Cunicccc slalclcll of opposition to nuclear missiles which tuaged
LAST FEBRUARY, Hugh Rossi, the then Minister against the disabled, put the knife into the Disablement Prohibition of Unjustifiable Discrimination Bill. The Bill was the first attempt to provide people with disabilities with some form of legal redress
with Disabilities - personal capacity)
robs us again the possibility of a legal fightback WV aN people, including socialists, have little idea ot the extent which people with disabilities are oppressed
Sinc e ime eiri nst
the capitalism itself, every aspect of our lives has beei subjected to cruel and callous control. Being excluded from work, forced into poverty and denied the right to love whom we please are just a few examples of this. While the Tories spend millions on
oF
NOS
that we would have to re group but the trouble was, mne pillal lulal Happenca was so important that it War usaslc. LIC members of the union. What can militants do now?
In City we are still arguing for national strike action and occupations of
buildings defeat privatisation. We have
Labour's commitment to unilateral nuclear disarma-
called for flicul. 'unilateral freeze' of Britain's nuclear weapons 'as a first step'.
By Kathy Kirkham
The women who came to me conrerence nom a over Britain needed no CONVIC NS lal privalisd tion is a vital issue. Their readiness campaign against the government was also evident from the message of support the sent to the NGA printers
of destruction, weabo hundreds of my brothers and sisters are deprived of even the basic requirements of survival.
Thatcher's attacks on the welfare state and living
By Bob Findlay (Liberation Network for People
standards, and her promotion ot the halkiands war contribute to the increase
OCODIC suffering disabilities. Who gives a damn for the soldiers and sailors who returned 'home' with crippled and broken bodies and minds? Christian charity begins at home for the Tories usually in the homes of the rich bankers and businessmen they serve. Support for Reagan's war drive essential, £33 milion tor a commissior to protect the rights of people with disabilities is not.
Socialist Action 9 December 1983 also put out a national de mand for the resignation of the POEU officers and the NEC. In this union the n -umme oncer control
the une have to st go
put union into the members' hands and elect and NEC that has the policies and commitment to represent the interests the membership and lead the membership into the fight
and to the women of Greenham Common.
But many felt insulted by what they saw as an at-
the Labour
fodder Labour Party's anti-privatisation campaign, without addressing the main obstacle they face their lack of a democratic voice party. As representative: oi ane CLPD • Women's Action Committee pointed out, even the decisions of the 3-day women's conference still carry no constitutional weight.
A lunen hime protest
The Tories object to rights. Hugh Rossi, shoal idea legal ing his contempt, stated that lt IS impossible to believe that there •wal anything but goodwill everywhere towards peo ple with disabilities. Thus 'education' rather than 'rights' was the order of the day.
Where do we go from here? I believe people with disabilities, and our bonters. must co onme or fensive We cannot for yet another bill. The issue of rights must be raised in both the Labour Party and the trade union Luyciicil Len Murray, for example, remains silent on our needs : in the employment field. Yet we have only a 50 pe cent employment rate and companies such as BL are putting the squeeze on old and disabled workers.
The Labour Parti should take the issue to the
ahead
The union must have a specia conference to decide our Dul ale from now on. The fight for action to beat privatisation has now to come from the membership The left nonl. should lead this fightback the executive
by bringing out minorit reports and attending the national branch leadership meetings.
Vicculk attended by 40 women deplored the way
culecc. Was organised and decided to raise the question in all the conference workshops. They also decided to raise au mer womers secuon. constituency and womens councis the im portance of a full 3-day comercnce nest ycal.
As NEC membe Audrey Wise said: 'I think we have to take to heart the strong feelings expressed that the women's con ference cannot be seen as an optional extra.'
huronean Court of Human Rights. We should demand a public statement
MP, aeroly and director
La Tory and director
the Spastics
society Where he stand With the Society's support for anti-discrimination legislation or with the reac. tionary policy of his own government? He can't do both
Most importantly people with disabilities mus start to powncalty organise themselves. , Crucial is a nationa conterence organis ed and run by us not bs Tory MPs, which is what we had recently. One idea being floated is a 'commis
fion in exlo run by and
people with disabilities. It would func. tion in the manner propos ed in the Wareing Bill. We must organise for our rights and kick out these Tories who refuse = recognise our needs and rights.
Page 12 scan of this page
THIS WEEKEND giant army of women will descend Greenham Common
resplendant air-base, with pots, pans, whistles and musical in-
Inland 6 months E8; 12 months £15 Overseas (12 months only)
Europe 617; Air Mail E 24 (Double these rates for multi-reader institutions)
Name r
Address
Please send me as special offer
Registered as a newspaper with the Post Office
Published bv Cardinal Enterprises, PO Box 50, London NI
Printed By East End Offset (TU) Ltd, London EZ.
Sound around Greenham
STOP THE
NUCLEAR
NIGHTMARE
struments. Anything that makes a lot of noise. Wreeham on the fo Women are to fourth anniversary of NATO's decision to site the new
GON TO
SUBSCRIBE
I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action for f.
Send to: Socialist Action Subs. 328 Upper St. London N1 2XP.
SociAList
ACTION
generation Europe. They' be bring ing mirrors to turn the base insid The Ir and fields that round the Greenham base This action is one year Special free book offer! Take out a years inland subscription and
we will send you free one of these books:
Thatcher and Friends by John Ross Hard Times by Bob Sutcliffe or Over our Dead Bodies -Women Against the Bomb Introductory offer for new readers: Bight issues for just £2!
after women embraced th base, forming 9-mile human chain and hanging drawings, Rid clothes and toys on the perimeter fence in a life affirming protest against the missiles of death.
That initiative was an
whole movement in the rear that followed. And support for the Greenham women has
in the course of the nissiles have arrived, and Secretary Michael Heseltine has already threatened that troops will fire the womer necessary.
Despite the monger's threats slanders, the anti-missile movement has grown Britain, has throughout Europe. At last weekend's annua con ference of CND, General Secretary Bruce Kent nounced that CND's membership had increased by 3,000 in the last few months alone. Far from demobilising the peace movement, the arrival of cruise in Britain has made peace campaigners
SHULE determined than ever to stop the missiles.
Tory smears have fail. ed to roll back CND's support, and Heseltine has even demanded a right of reply from the Indepen-
Broadcasting dent
After (an American film describing the horrors of a nuclear holocaust) is shown on this weekend.
In addition to the action at Greenham, many
on Saturday and Monday. Anti-missiles campaioners must show Heseltine that 1984 will be of redoubled activity against the missiles.
THE DAY AFTER Showing on the ITV Network Saturday 10 Dec at 9.30pm unila conference in Sheffield.
dent, and against a British unilateral freeze.
'There's nothing here that's meant to undermine the US peace mov ent,' said the mover of the
CND amendme which threw the freeze. •We support that demand because mobilises and builds the Us peace movement. But a freeze polic for pulls CND's tree up by its roots.
By Carol Turner, Vauxhall Labour Party delegate
Speaker after speaker affirmed that far from being. first SUCU towards unilateralism, freeze was a step backwards for CND. This was defeat for chairpersor Joan Ruddock and those CND
whose support for
step-by-step approach has been well aired in the last few months.
During the cruise debate, made known its support for the Greenham by defeating a resolution call ing for ČND to organise a mixed action at Greenham. This support was snown ume and time again by the applause every reference Greenham evoked.
Another area attracting overwneling support was this year's labour
tion, calling for CND to approach the TUC and Labour Party to jointly SOULSOL lationa
A film of the aftermath of nuclear catastrophe
100 million Americans watched its first screening, making it the most-watched movie in television history the film will be followed by a live debate with international speakers
No freeze - more action
against the missiles!
MASS ACTION to stop the missiles! No retreat on
teralism! That was the verdict of CND's annual Delegates voted overwhelmingly for more actions to stop cruise and Tri-
CNI
demonstration and to back up their support by effective industrial action. *It industrial possible during the first wave of CND, said John Chowcatt (TUCND), 'how much more possible is it today?' CND's leadership will find it more difficult to sit on this deci-
America
CND's annual conference
speaking
sion than they have in the past.
But not all conference decisions were to be ap plauded anti-NATO resolution was referred back, and one passed which called for th mutual dissolution of NATO and the Pact.
Stop
After a witch-hunting attack on the Revolution newspaper by Dan Smith, conference supported the
youth committee. On the Labour CND closure though, a reference back showed that support for the executive was less cerHowever, in the shor discus possible to refute the executive's sme that difficulties stemmed from faction fighting Despite such set backs, clear note: unity around anti-nuclear /struggle 1984.
CND and Central
*If we are to have a strong and effective peace movement, we have to broaden it out and extend it back to its roots. The peace movement of today is the anti-imperialist movement of earlier years. So said Tony Benn at the Tribune fringe meeting a
These sentiments were echoed by over 100 delegates and observers who attended another fringe meeting organised by Sheffield CND, 'US Intervention A Threat to World Peace', where Francisco D'Escoto, the Nicaraguan Ambassador, was
← Socialist Action No. 36, 2 December 1983Socialist Action No. 38, 16 December 1983 →