Socialist Action No. 52, 6 April 1984
The scan: 052-apr-06-1984-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
ACTION
Solidarity
mAict
No. 52 6 April 1984 30p
THE NUR, ASLEF, and can the National Union of
Seamen's executives have given a lead to the entire labour movement. By banning all movement of coal they have taken the action that can win the miners
win! strike.
By defying Thatcher's anti-union laws they are showing united trade union action can defeat the government's policies and the courts. The rail unions and the NUS are doing exactly what the TUC should have done over the rail drivers dispute, the health dispute, the NGA and GCHQ.
WO
THE WORLD
But there is still a long way to go to win. The police occupation of Nottinghamshire has kept the mines running. By Tuesday all movement of coal by rail had stopped in Lancashire but coal was still moving in Nottinghamshire.
The vital task in the next week is to ensure that all movement of coal in every part of Britain is brought to stop. If that is done then the miners strike is going to win.
The government's boasts about coal stocks are bluff. Once the movement of coal has been brought to a halt then, no matter how long and bitter the strike, the miners are going to
Stop Press
not to cross the picket lines.
of other workers. for confronting the strike will snap. The decision of
can stop the miners can be won to the strike
trade union movement must seize it with both hands. be victorious. Only if the government can keep the coal moving can Thatcher win.
The problem is now to turn the executive resolutions into action on the ground. And to make sure the GWU stops all movement of coal by road.
Union links and rank and file solidarity have been eroded by the recession and by Thatcher's victories. British Rail is backing the government's policy by victimising and sending home workers who carry out NUR and ASLEF decisions. The threat of the courts is still in the background.
What is vital now is to extend solidarity right down to the grass roots of the move- TICHL
In Dundee the Trades Council has called a meeting of all shop stewards in the city to discuss solidarity action with the miners. In Manchester and Stockport support committees based on support from NUR, FAT, UCATT and the Manchester City Labour Party have been set up.
These initiatives need to be followed up in other areas. Local conferences of the labour movement, which can be rapidly convened by Trades Councils and other authoritative labour movement bodies, provide a good means of organis
As we go to press the executive of the Nottinghamshire miners has ordered picket lines to be set up at the Nottinghamshire pits and for NUM members
This decision has been brought about by the solidarity
As Henry Richardson of the Nottingham executive declared it would be a history of rottenness if the Nottinghamshire miners didn't fight when other workers were fighting their struggle for them and were putting their jobs on the line for the miners. The recommendation will also be going to an Area Council on Thursday.
ing to Nin The goernment has come all its cards o
government has put all its cards on dividing the NUM. If that fails Thatcher's entire strateg.
the Nottinghamshire executive redoubles the needs for solidarity. If the labour movement
movement of coal the Nottinghamshire
The recommendation of the Nottinghamshire executive gives the chance to win. The entire Labour and
Wing solidarity. Support committees can be established based on Labour Parties and trade union branches.
There are many things that need to be done. Miners need to be brought to speak to rail and transport workers involved in stopping the movement of coal.
Workplace meetings can be organised. Collections of money, and workplace levies as organised at Scott Lithgow for example — are vital.
Before the NUM executive meeting on 12 April the press is going to be screaming for a ballot and devoting pages of the press and hours of televi sion to every ton of coal that moves in Britain. Thatcher's government is already putting the pressure on Kinnock and the TUC to intervene in favour of the right wing They mustn't get that chance. By the time that vital executive meeting convenes, all movement of coal must be stopped. It must be obvious that the miners have only to hold out and then they are go-
The NUM has thrown down the gauntlet to Thatcher. If it gets the solidarity it needs and deserves it is going to win and the BACKDOIC of Thatcher's government will be broken.
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Socialist Action 6 April 1984
ACTioN SOCALiS
Their fake
democracy
THE DECISION by the transport unions to stop the movement of coal in support of the NUM has given a big boost to the media's concern for democracy.
This concern, needless to say, does not extend to defence of local government or union rights at GCHQ. It is concerned entirely with 'democracy in the NUM'. According to a MORI poll, published on Monday almost 90 per cent of trade unionists think that the NUM should hold a national ballot, and a national Opinion Poll survey published in the Mail on Sunday puts 69 per cent of the NUM in favour of a national ballot.
It is clear that the media will be stepping up their efforts to secure a national ballot in the ten days leading up to the NUM National Executive meeting. democracy for the workers. It is to divide and But the concern of the defeat the NUM.
The reason for the bosses concern with democracy is simple. Faced with one of the most powerful unions in the country, and with the extension of the strike to the transport unions, they are not confident of victory.
Despite the defeats that the working class has suffered under Thatcher, the British working class is still the most strongly organised in the world. If that strength were to be used the Tories would be swept out of office. Thatcher'S only hope is to divide the working class, to isolate the striking miners and then defeat them.
The real weakness of the Tories has been shown union laws against the NUM. This would unite the NUM and could sweep the Tories anti-union
laws away.
concern for democracy.
All of Thatcher's
labour movement have depended on divisions in the class, and the betrayals of the right wing
leaders.
The 90 per cent of trade unionists, and 69
per cent of NUM members who support a ballot
are wrong,
Wales, Scotland and Kent have taken is correct.
A national ballot would be a diversion from the task of spreading the strike and making it effec-
tive.
It is not democratic for miners whose jobs are
safe to vote other miners out of work. It is not
democratic for miners who
money to put other miners out of work by put-
ting a cross on a piece of paper.
The media hopes that a national ballot will
give them the maximum opportunity to influence
the outcome. The present campaign of misintor-
mation has produced the kind of response the
opinion polls have shown. The best answer to-
this is for the miners to build the biggest possi
McGahey has been pressing for solidarity action campaign of solidarity.
from other groups of workers. This, and building
on the transport unions' blockade of the move
ment of coal is the way to deal with the bosses
media. The message
defeated IS the nub
democracy. workers in action defending their jobs, their The essence
communities and the labour movement.
Editor: ALAN FREEMAN
Published weekly except two weeks in August and the
last week of December.
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¿nials darion Editorial at he iame add:e»r
media is not in their unwillingness to use the anti-
• This is the real content of the Tories
successes against the
The action that Yorkshire, South
want redundancy In Scotland Mick
that the Tories can be of the argument on of democracy is
DNa
THE miners strike is well into its fourth week. JOHN ROSS assesses the stakes of the dispute for the Thatcher government and the labour movement. lan MacGregor's declaration last Saturday that the miners dispute is a political strike is just about the only true statement he has made since he became head of the National Coal Board.
The Conservative Par-
politically been preparing for this strike for ten vears. It has been technically preparing for
because the ive veds enormous police operation in Nottingham was not put together Only few months notice.
pne TUC leadership has been preparing for the contronlalion five years also - by trying to ensure it didn't happen.
And Neil Kinnock confirmed direction which he intends to take the Labour Party last week
by blocking with Gerald Kaufmann and Roy Hattersley to veto Labour forcing a debate on the miners strike in Parliament.
Neil Kinnock's politics of the ostrich however will not alter the fact that the
this strike going determine course of British politics in the next five years Tall more than any election or any opinion poll.
For five years the That-
cher government has won almost all the strategic battles for capital.
tion, introduction of anti-
THORAWS,
mass unemployment,
massive reduction of the
Labour Party vote, Cred
tion of a new anti-Labour
Party in the SDP. These
are merely some of the
prizes which the Thatcher
government has delivered
to British capital.
But almost none was
important. as the victory
last autumn over
SOGAT, and the NUJ.
For fifty years, since the introduction of the 1927 Trades Disputes Act, everv arent to Dass laws limiting the powers of the trade unions in Britain has been defeated. The Donovan Commission, In Place of Strife, Heath's Industrial Relations Act all went down to
Cities
defeat amid mass union opposition and a shower of political strikes
The defeat NGA, preceded by the capitulation of the POEU Executive, and followed
the acknowledgement of defeat by SOGAT and the NUJ, showed that the government for the first time had succeeded in im
Posive aris hit in trade
fectivę - right trade unions to defend their members. was the greatest restriction of the position the trade
unions for fifty years.
But the success against
the NGA was only a par-
tia victory for the inal
cher government and the new framework law.
The victory at Warrington
ended the days when
relatively small groups of
workers, or most single
unions. could take on and
defy anti-union legislation
- as the dockers had suc-
cessfully done in 1972 fol
Since the NGA
example.
dispute al! smal! pale de-
the face of court writs.
But defeating the NGA, or the Stockport 6, is one thing. Defeating the NUM is another.
It was obvious even in December that while the government Will LICi backing of the TUCs new policy, could pick off and defeat individual groups of workers it did not have the power to impose the anti-union laws the miners. the Ford workers, or on the TUC unions as a whole.
This is why right from Mith the NUM was abe he strugg far more even than the miners vital as that struggle is. It was about the government's ability to impose entire new framework of law it had erected on the whole trade union movement.
Illegal
Linked to that however
Even is another sucoun the defeat oI inalviala unions such as the NGA,
vas possible only becaus
the TUC General Counci voted to operate within the
Tebbit laws. The united
weight of the trade unions
easily had the power to
break any court decision
- as the TUC day of aç-
tion on GCHQ, which was
technically illegal, again demonstrated
Imposing the anti-
union laws was completely
interlinked for the govern-
ment with maintaining of
right wing leadership
the TUC which would ac-
cept these laws.
ni cother of the TEC
wing control of the
which in d second
decisive issue at stake for
the government. Scargill's
leadership of the NUM
Thatcher and friends
The strike
Thatcher
daren't
lose
represents the section of the trade union movement most resolutely opposed to bit laces To isolate and
laws. isolate and completely defeat Scargill within the TUC possible within the itself, is therefore the second need of the government
Example
The development of the strike has already created just what the government teared 'The alliance to boycott coal by
the TGWU, the NUR ASLEF and the NUS. is the emergence of the type of within the the government cannot
ford. It was already there around the NGA dispute For Thatcher this left must be defeated now, before it can gain any victories
In that the government has the backhanded, and in some cases conscious,
upport of the right win
of the TU Len Murray
Alastair Graham. all!
Frank Chapple's 'new realism' would be com-
pletely discredited as the
dominant line in the TUC
if the miners were to win.
anonymous UlC
member
Council told The Times on Mat day 'The trouble
Arthur Scargill
wins, it is a victory for the
National Union of
Mineworkers, if he loses, it
is a defeat for all of us.
That is something we must
be very conscious of.
Furthermore behind
Scargill stands all sorts of
forces in the Labour Par-
ty. Tony Benn has plunged
into supporting both th
miners and Liverpool
while Kinnock has remain.
ed silent on the miners and
let it be known he oppose
the poly or Liverpoo
council. If the miners win
Kinnock's position in the
News
Photos. JOHN HARRIS
Labour Party will be weakened and the left wing greatly strengthened
A Tony Benn linked to constitutional the Labour • Party was bac enough. But a Tony Benn linked to victorious miners strike, with massive victory over Thatcher under the unions belt, and with struggle in Liver pool in erospect is nich
ideas which capitalist nightmares are made. Go into next years struggle over rate capping and the big cities wịth that
combination around and the future of the Thatcher government itself would not be a certain one. Laws
For Thatcher she has already cutered tactical setbacks in the strike.
laws still
cannot be used against the
NUM - • as MacGregor's
retreat on court action
the Yorkshire
NUM showed. Scargill has
got out on strike a far
larger
miners than the NCB an-
ticipated
Thoringhamshire toas
of Nottinghamshire
kept the pits there working
CVCl that can be
nullified if the transport
boycott of the
movement of coal can be
made effective
In the fourth week of
the dispute Thatcher's
whole strategy rests on the
right wing of the NUM ex
ecutive, and the right win
of the TUC
irons out and defeating the strike isolating the NUM
If just one push were MacGregor's the
confronta-
tion would come crushing
down and the Thatcher
government's all alcal
with it.
Page 3 scan of this page
The women's army is marching too
News
WOMEN of the mining communities up and down the country have put a nail in the coffin of Fleet Street's attempts to whip up the so-called 'women's backlash' against workers' struggles. These women have shown themselves to be one of the most class conscious groups of people.
that abounds in the labour movement that women workers are an obstacle to struggle.
When women from Kent
are proud to stand alongside our men.' But they were also striking a mighty blow for women.
women are marching, be it for abortion, equal pay or equal rights, we will expect the miners' union to play their part, saying: 'We are proud to stand alongside our sisters.'
JUDE CLIFFE, from Aylesham in Kent, who was at the centre of organising the Leicester march last week.
'The for the march came wen a w women in the village got
OllICI women around the miners'
We held SUIKC emergency meeting and 40
turned up. This was our first surprise as we hadn't expected so many.
.wP decided we wanted to march through Nottingham. So we sav the union the next day. ana iney askea us to suck
Leicester that within Kent area for picketing.
Response
'We called a meeting for the next day to find out who would go. 100 women turned up! it was unbelievable, especially given the short notice. All the women there were realIv keen to carry the idea right through.
'We contacted Betteshanger and stone, the other iwo Kent pits, and a women on those areas joined us.
*Saturday was a terrible day. the weather was awful. was disan pointed that morning as !
one would was sure turn up. I was hoping and praving would as knew that the Press would be there and I wanted it he really successful. But nev all ruined out Songs
'We had decided that we wanted the march to he
women's OlIV march with no men. real
The women s DOLCAL press had already heen asking how many pickets we'd brought with
We'd decided that the miners who were there should stand aside and cheer us along. Our miners had agreed to this.
but wnen we Coalville we. found that some oiner were there, like the Young
and they wanted to join in. We decided it would he too difficult to try and stop them so in the end our miners marched as well.
*Some women came cown irom join us and so we marched
and singing our songs.
Let's hope it also lays to rest the sexist nonsense
marched through Coalville in Leicester last week they explained: 'We
The NUM can be quite sure that the next time
WOODWARD spoke to KAY SUT-
'We marched to the Miners' Welfare Club, and inere were one two
women there who were against us.
'A couple of us spoke to three miners' wives who were there. We got them to calm down and in the end they
Cult pathetic. They asked us to go and have a cup of tea with them.
"They didn't get to the point of saying they would ask their hushands to go
they had never heard our
before. The! hadn't understood that it meant whole areas being closed down with no jobs for anyone in the future. Press
*I think it is really important that women get involved with the strike. For 100 long the women have sat back ana thougni had nothing to do with
whole future of their amnes barsake
'When we started out this village everyone agreed about what was going But since the women have been meeting we've all come to STAR the same conclusion, and it's going to he a ioint ef-
fort We had a
women's committee 1974 strike, but it was small and
thing. At the time it was mainlv some of the wive! with young children who weren't working. had young children then. Now it's different, we are older. we've Deen through hefore, and many of uIs have had iohs ourselves. Future
'In 1974 we were main-
concerned with food parcels. They came from all over the country and we had to decide how they were distributed and whO was ine most needy That will probably he needed again, as the strike is hard and creates need
quickly. 'But this time we've had much bigger response. We've all to get involved. bigger issue. It's fot as it's much
just pay like last time hut our whole future that's al stake.
STREY,
Miners wives in Coalville make their point
STRIKE
SMiroRr
IT Miners wives march in Chesterfield
BLOODY SCAB!!
HEAR INTIMIDATION!
YOURR
MLL-FULL TODA PICKETIN A PIECE OF THE AGTION
J Scab, indeed! h I am merely exercising my democratic right to stab my fellow workers in the back! f LEIR GET
"OURFIGH
IS WE NEED УСИ ment
before the
press
JOHN CONNELL and BRENDAN DAWSON (Allerton Bywater colliery in Yorkshire, picketing in Lancashire)
DEALING WITH the police is like dealing with organised army with our arms tied behind our backs. They can fight us, not allowed to fight back. It's like trying to kick bums when you've only got one leg The strike's been hav. ing an effect, government is keeping a low profile to try and keep sympathy away from the miners. they'll go back to court a
Chesterfield
women
march
MINERS' WIVES marched through Chesterfield Saturday demonstrate their support for the striking miners.
The march was joined by Dennis Skinner MP and Peter showed their support by marching at the back.
The demonstration was organised by the Chesterfield Wives Support Group and ported by similar groups from Barnsev and Doncaster.
A group of wives from Nottingham joined the march too, giving tremendous boost morale.
I And thank heavens we have a strong and determined government which is prepared to mobilise thousands of policemen to defend my freedom of move-
- to protectmy yright to work!!
Socialist Action 6 April 1984 3
Miners'
Strike
Don't cower
bring us all together.
IT they gel us on une run, well then they'll twist ment it would just win us sympathy.
The people • that are determined will remal so. and those who want to go back won't change either. It's those I's count. No one can ale the middle ford a strike so I don't think the hardship will make much difference what anyone decides. But HAHO CHIU long time to save money as work hard for it, so people
dip what they've got in the
But they shouldn't call a ballot. Ihe executive on 12 April will only call a ballot if they are cowering in front of the press
A public meeting has been organised to follow up the Chesterfield march.
Miners' Wives Support
the Strike
Doncaster Trades and
Labour Club South Bus Station
Thursday 5 April 7.30pm
Speakers include: Jack
Taylor Organised by: Yorkshire Miners Wives Support Group
CORMÄG
GEE, THANKS
MAGGIE!
SORRY
TOUCHUCK
Page 4 scan of this page
"Together we can't lose"
Socialist Action 30 March 1984
Scargill speech
from
WC
by
SOLIDARITY ROUND-UP
LANCASHIRE
WHY were representatives
Yorkshire miners sent away from Preston's
Neil Kinnock rally last Friday!
wasn't the local Labour Party didn't want them on the platform. i he executive and the GMC had voted that representatives should be invited.
By Mike Martin, Preston CLP (personal capacity)
It wasn't because there wasn't Time speak. Len Brindle, local AUEW official, agreed to stand down for them.
All through the week in the run-up to the meeting the local Labour Party
NOTTINGHAM
PICKETS travelling into Nottingham twindled last week as police successtully blocked the roads.
Inis has increased the HILDSUIC on Nottingham
miners WHO
Strike to go back to work.
come miners on strike are
being threatened WItH
suspension from their
trade union branches. One area council delegate faces
a motion or no connucace
because they refused
cross picket lines.
But pro-strike miners
in Nottingham have begun
10 organise. mobile
picket nas been sel up Dy
miners at Ollerton colliery
ARTHUR SCARGILL addressed a packed meeting in Doncaster last week organised by the local trades council. He explained the significance of the current strike and what is needed to win. We reprint here the main points from his speech. 'WE MUST TAKE a lead
Margaret Thatcher.
The next time that Labour becomes the government
must show ine same class loyalty to our people as she shows to hers.
"I nis alspute was lot created by the NUM, but
MacGregor's decision to close the pits. It is a sick society that condemns as hooligans people who take strike action to save and the industry. When MacGregor creates permanent unemployment that's described as good business sense.
I would like to have a nanona baliol. ne question would be "Do you agree Will the ment of lan MacGregor as Chairman of the National Coal Board?" he accept the result? The Tories talk aooul democracy, but they don't understand the meaning of the word.
'Miners are fighting
for the right to work. Why don't the police protect the
half million unemployed? If they
union funds, that will take us back to
of situaliuli treasurer, who WaN organising, the meeting, was placed under tremen-
dous from
Walworth Road that would be unwise to have a miners' speaker.
By Thursday it finally settled that a miner would speak and the Vice President of the Yorkshire NUM was invited.
But ten minutes before the packed meeting was due to start an officer of the Regional Labour Party decided that no miner could speak. 'We might lose the affiliation of the Lancashire NUM', he explained.
The miners were packed off back to Yorkshire And Neil Kinnock spoke at the meeting without the unwelcome intrusion the miners' strike.
to take over from pickets who are no longer able to get in. They are trying to ink up with other prostrike miners in the coun-
Independently of this 70 miners at Cotgrave colliery in South Notts walked off the job last Thursday night. Colin Atkins, the Cotgrave miners leading the action explained what happened:
'Ever since the ballot the atmosphere in the has been changing. the Notts miners are beginning to see unrough
Tolpuddle Martyrs, who established the movement with no money, but with only their commitment.
'Yesterday's meetin
with orner boors saoul not be misunderstood. was meeting. The decision was taken not merely because they sup port the miners, because they recognised 1 was their fight, their Jobs would under attack next time. We are beginn ing to learn this lesson That's why the media is baying hysterically
'The greatest victory of the 1972 dispute was not winning the wage claim in full, the additional items. he real victory was restoring the faith, loyalty and commitment the union. Larse your now. We are fighting to save the pits. not just to save jobs and vour lululc. but to retalr democratic and free trade
'We are fighting for our rights as citizens and our dignity as human be-
It's time to get off ines our knees and fight. If we do, together can't lose'
Tories' lies.
"The fact that the coal
stocks are dwindling; the
police violence they see on
the lines and in the com-
munity; the fact that other
trade unionists are coming
to our aid and that other
NUM areas have changed
their minds and come out
on strike - all these things
combined to make
the local miners see that
they must make a stand. Mood
'The mood Wa.
building up in the last few
days and it came to a crunch on Thursday night. We had a meeting at work and 70 of us decided to
come out. We immediately set up our own picket muc About 400 miners on the dav shift decided to supmassive shop of solidari- port our picket ty.
'We are confident that the rest of our pit will see through the Tory lies and support stand. And then we will be calling for support the rest of the area to stop Notts from being a min
OXFORD
SUPPLIES of coal to Didcot power station near Oxford have been badly hit by flying pickets. miners began a 24 hour picket of the power station last week, and nave now been replaced by miners from South Wales.
The usual 20 trains that take in coal have been cut to less than half a dozen. Even this trickle could rapidly dry up with the
from renewtu ASLEF and the NUR nationally. But SLUCKS are high and the pickets are prepared for a long stay.
The pickets are being put up by workers at the power station, whose AUEW convenor chaired
solidarity meeting Didcot last Thursday. It was attended by 100 people. The miners were over whelmed by the support they received in This will be extended when Oxford trades council hold a support rally in the Town Hall next week.
police state.
'We will go and beg the
miners from other
pleading for support to
save the NUM the
butchery of the Thatcher
government. Next
At the next
meetings the Cotgrave
miners' pickets are putting
a motion of no confidence
in tner branca commate
for crossing their own
picket line and not suppor
ting the strike.
power stations and steel works. week's supply left. of Port Talbot steel
wanted coke stopped as well. after a picket line went up
The strike is biting in
Wales NUM)
pickets without numbers on their
sion they are supposedly from.
They've taken cove
ing used on picket lines against the miners. in 1981
60 -but they won't get it out
DERBYSHIRE
biggest pickets in ed, including some from Kent and South
the police brought in reinforcements.
council, explained their new tactics.
turning back trains and lorries
We're looking forward to a good week.
Club. Full details on tickets.
CLPs in Hackney
Newham NW
İslington Sth & Islington Nth CLPs.
News
"Miners'
Strike
SOUTH WALES
ATTENTION has switched in South Wales to the
Following the refusal by the boilermen's union
steelworks, the miners have threatened to pickel all supplies entering and leaving the works. The mass picket of the steelworks last Wednesday was
On Saturday a rally in Blackwood. Gwent, was clapped and cheered by shop workers and passers
Derek Gregory, NUPE Wales Divisional Of-
with a cheque 101
coalfields to take action in support of the miners: "There's a greater law than transient Tory law', he said, 'that's the law of trade union solidarity.
Nearly all coal movement in South Wales has
One train a day carrying coke was moving divisional officer had instructed his members not to move coal. He said he hadn't realised the miners
That was changed
Fi other areas too. South Wales police were forced to call off last weekend's rugby match as all the team were on picket duty! TERRY THOMAS (Deputy President South
WE'VE SEEN hundreds of police on duty at the
uniforms there's no way we can identify which force or divi-
barracks in Nottinghamshire for the police. I believe that one of these barracks Rutherford barracks is housing army personnel. I believe that paratroopers are be-
I very much regret voting for a return to work
without sufficient guarantees Everyone has got to understand the importance of united action in this dispute. There can be no going it alone The Notts miners must understand this and if they
- well they can dig as much coal as they like
LAST WEEK North Derby miners launched the
South Derby so far, at Rawdon and at Cadley Hill. Over 1200 miners were involv-
Wales.
Initially this allowed very effective picketing, but
Wednesday there were about couldn't
•After the police blocked our major pickets in
South Derbyshire we decided to change tactics We're splitting people into small car convoys and spreading out to cover depots, power stations as
We're scoring some
This has been very important in maintaining the morale of our lads. It looks good with th transport unions' decision to stop coal movement.
EAST LONDON LABOUR
MOVEMENT DELEGATION TO
THE KENT COALFIELD
Saturday 14 April
Coaches leave Islington, Hackney and Stratford in
the late afternoon for Betteshanger Miners' Social
Sponsored by: Harry Cohen MP; Jeremy Corbyn
MP; Kent Area NÚM; TU Liaison Officers for
Nth, Hackney Sth, Leyton, Walthamstowe and Islington Nth.
For tickets ring 01-558 0069 or 986 6439
Page 5 scan of this page
campaign needed
News
The Hem Heath
stay-down
•The biggest
put-up job we've
ever seen'
behind it.
Four of the men came up last. Friday after their LISTOU was threatened if they continued There are still iwo -in the Central Stores.
The four who were GOWn Ine pit are all nightshift face workers
the Kagman seam That shift is known as a moderate lot. They get plenty of overtime and are well in with management
TOtE verv shallow people who wanted to steal a hit of the limelight. They said they'd heen
Shut that's ridiculons. hree of them are very big blokes. One of InCl. Jimmv Yates. was
10 intimidate saving: 'You won't always have the police here to protect vou.
The media blew it up out of all proportion. When the Dail! Express reporter came up he said that it was the biggest put upejob he'd ever seen.
The NCB put them up to it. It is illegal to stay down a pit for more than 9 hours. When Monkton Hall staged a stay down on overume mne oa podu forced the men out of the pil ov sename ine ponce l0
Scotland
MICK McGAHEY, Scots miners leader, called for sondarity from other unions 'whether it is for two hours or one day'
He made this call at a 300 strong rally in Dundee on Thursday night. Dundee Trades Council has already responded to Cais call e Tor all Dinge convening shop stewards' to decide on solidarity action.
The. 1000-strong workforce Kestrel Marine, a nearby oil platorm corsrucion works. have already raised a f10
HEM HEATH colliery is the pit where six miners were staging a sit-in against the miners' strike. ROB ANDERSON, who works there, told us what lay
aare tore mote ree and
HILCO another for the Hem Heath scabs
Hem Heath stopped three weeks ago when the Yorkshire miners first came out. We were workzondav Dul went down the pit and persuaded the lads on my shift to stop. That had a snowball effect and hy Wednesday
had stopped. They haven't drawn a cobble from here since then.
Florence, another North Statts pit, was stopped by last Thursday, ano une ares executive made it official
South Staffs 15 the trouble nou don't have enough liaison at any level ared South Wales miners put us
Stanic. I hev' ve 20L minibuses organised, while we rely on our own cars and our own petrol. We'll need concerted mass pickets like Yorkshire to get all the pits shut.
The government is using the police as paramilitary force and playing it hard. The only way 1o respond is to do the same.
They'! find hard
iail 200,000 miners. per head levy.
In Aberdeen the trades council is planning a major rally next week Glasgow local Labour Parties are calling on ine trades council and district Labour Partv to organise an emergency conference to discuss davs oi action and oith aol tae corrish
With all the pits closed miners have turned their attention the other secto rg, industry moving using coal. Imports of coal through Inverness and Peterhead will be a major target coming days.
in a number of ways.
Firstly because the DouT Party's support in the unions in the 1983 General Electior has severely threatened the party's claim to speak on behalf O1 the working class.
because,
seconel since 1978, the number of
the pontical levy has fallen from 82 to 77 per In a
Coll. union like the AUEW only 65 per
Lulil of members pay the levy.
Thirdly because
government's new Trade Union Bill, designed weaken the finances of the Labour Party, will subject pontical runas lo a Dallo. of union members every
vears. starting in early 1986.
How do we respond to these combined threats?
thusiastic and effective DolICa Camodel desperately needed. But lucre are grouus lo collcern that the TUC General Council's agreement with Employment Minister Tom King will be seen by some as thẹ end of ilenge eis real challenge government-imposed 1986 Three ships carrying coal have already been turned awa. The effects of stopping
these imports will starve kavenscraig steel or coal and reduce InHaH U DOOCOn
Mick McGahey also explained that it was the aim of the government to eliminate the coal industry had wo a Scottish assem bly Scotland. "Let me io defend the Scoitish people thes would not be ger-
chei are doing io ire Sarie
indusir lodal. he added.
Enthusiastic
THE POLITICAL and financial links between the trade unions and the Labour Party are under attack
ballots are designed IO take advantage of a situa• tion where trade unionists
LOnZe automancally support the Labour Party.
By Derek Fatchett MP
The. only effective response must political campaign. But it is also amusing to note that this campaign will in evitably draw attention to Tory Party finances, and in particular to the limited legal contro! over the
pan dulatiuis
Tories Maybe trade unionists will not only
unequal way in willci unIons COm. panies are treated, but also 1 cluzllist the fact that employers are eager to finance a party of capital to secure their own class interests.
We have been told that traue #HOnISTO and politics are separate tivities. Indeed many trade union leaders have subscribed that division This naivé and dangerous dichotomy must be abandoned.
it now looks especiallv false when employment is threatened in the pits due
Doncaster demonstration and rally
SUPPORT THE MINERS
Saturday 14 April 1lam Coal House, Doncaster
Speakers include:
Dennis Skinner MP
Organised by Doncaver Trade.
Council
political decisions; when jobs will be lost because of the abolition of the Metropolitan Councils: and when the wholt philosophical basis mHouctaltsll begins undermine the social and welfare gains of the labour
This list of political unted Lo urade utonsl and their families is almost inexhaustible •I his 15 • t|1( seed corn of the political
campae esenced.
of the coscuc campaign must be to proclaim the natural political links without embarassment at all levels of the
It is not sufficient ululs. simply holding special conference of executives,
sending circulars local branches. It is in the worko aces activist rank and file
that the Hclci . arguments must be taken.
This means the campaign cannot be the property of general secretaries
ui-me must belong to the acOVISIs. gain strengll and commitment accordingly.
Our task is to ensure that each individual trade union organises: such
The unity must calivalsil be broad, as the threat to the political arm of .the laDou neoverenI fundamental.
Public meeting
'NO TO PIT CLOSURES'
12 April 7.30pm
Albert Hall Institute,
Nottingham
Speakers include: Ken Coates (Notts Euro candidate) and Gordon Skinner ' Gedting NIM.
Orgaaiet p: 140
Irades Consci am Nott East LP
of Notts miners ballot against company unionism
Charter
ported by Socialist Action.
hevery level mo tns cn we call lol
union rights.
for Labour at workplace level
Launching sponsors:
Tony Banks MP Tony Benn MP & David Blunkett N Ken Coates Vladimir Derer Jack Dromey (TGWU)
Peter Hain Harriet Harman MP Eric Heffer MP Ken Livingstone Mick Martin (TGWU)
Michael Meacher MP Bill Morris (TGWU)
Alan Sapper (ACTT)
Sagl!N!
Socialist Action 6 April 1984
CITY• SHEFFIELD FALLOT BOX
Labour Party
and the unions
The Labour Co-ordinating Committee has launched the following charter for a campaign to win the ballots on the political levy. The campaign is sup-
It is vital that we defend the partnership between Labour and the unions and indeed strengthen it at 1. Active opposition to the Tory assaults on trade
A campaign of activity and education to win the argument for trade union affiliation to the Labour 5. The promotion of socialist policies and support
The strengthening of local union/constituency Labour Party links and the formation where ap propriate of Labour Party workplace branches
Page 6 scan of this page
WHERE ARE emonstrations in astern Europe?' is a Bost CND activists are only too amiliar with. The simple answer, & course, is that they do exist - in Moscow, Prague and East Berlin - but that they have great difficuly in making their voices heard in ace of the repression against them. Diga Medvedkova of the Soviet Trust' group has just gone on rial; the Hungarian roup has been forced to dissolve self; members of Charter 77 have een detained for intitiating pro-
against the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles in Czechodovakia; and East German peace ampaginers entenced and expelled to the West.
But this simple answer, true so far s it goes, would be misleading in one rucial respect. ine casu beace movements which are independent of the party and the state, are not imply extensions of CND beyond the Iron Curtain'. similarities, such as eu cold war and the prominent role of the Church in some of them and the adoption of certain bloc-transcending' dogans.
But in another way they are very much the product of the internal contradictions of East Soviet society anderstood in terms of some spurious East-West symmetry.
3y Günter Minnerup
By far the largest independent peace movement in the Soviet bloc, and the one which most closely resembles those of the West, is that in and around the Protestant churches in East Germany.
Almost every major town and city in the German (and many minor ones) has its group of predominantly young people meeting both within the structures of the churches work circles of friends to discuss questions of war and peace. on. books about, and experiences with, militarism, musical and theatrical performances, and peace services.
Many of these groups do not remain content within the confines church and seek reaching a broader audience: culating petitions, demons tranve vigils, open workshops, art exhibitions) c: daubing slogans on walls. Such activities tend to get them into conflict with the local police as well as, all too eften, the church hierarchy - which is nervous • of 'provocative threatening its relations with party and
Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov
6
the peace Russia and question 'Dialogue' have been arrested,
european
There are of course
opposition to the arms race, the
symbols and
European cannot
Democratic Republic
and in informal
They exchange views
organise poetry readings,
ways by cir-
(candlelight where
excesses' public Solidarity ment,
kind
NevCI openly.
Socialist Action 6 April 1984
The sharpest conflict so far took place in the industria..
especially cautious church pushed the 'Jena Peace Community' into particularly bold public activity: marches under their own banners, demonstrations in the city centre,
expressions of in Poland. Most members have now been arrested and expelled to West Germany.
In East Berlin, where the church is more supportive, open air workshops attracting thousands of participants have so far been possible without provoking a repressive reaction on this scale. But there have been some arrests, in Weimar, Leipzig, Cottbus and KarlMarx-Stadt.
Greens
Much of what goes on in these East German groups would be very familiar to any CND activist: the serious discussions of international politics and the technology of the arms race. cern not only with peace and disarma-
but also with Ten suc In the GDR, where West German
television and radio can be easily received and where most people have some
link with relatives and friends, the influence of
Western peace. and movements and especially of the West German Greens play a major role.
The 'German Cuestion'
far below the surface: the demand for a withdrawal of all foreign troops from both German states and the creation of a nuclear-free zone in Germany, with all that this would imply for the status quo in that divided country, is occastonally
What is the
movement? Although
PiT
HALI
CE
ENO
FRE
beyond the
Berlin Wall
Jena ches, local
supervision.
sympathy with
of East German youth dent peace
escalon
their the con-
ecology and
expression of East
students women's formist
itself is tion.
SED.
articulated quite
significance of this
closely in 1976.
Peace
associated with the Protestant chur-
is certainly not a religious revival movement. The churches simply provide a space which is relatively free
otherwise all-pervasive ideological regimentation and
The pacifist implications of some Christian teaching articulate the widespread antimilitarism among
A religious motivation is the only one accepted for conscientious objectors to military service, who serve in unarmed but uniformed construction
Such former objectors often provide the backbone of the indepen-
groups Conscription, together with the compulsory military
in schools introduced against a wave of protests in 1978 are
main practical concerns rather than nuclear missiles as such (although that may change now that the Soviet Union is deploying them, for the first time, on East German territory).
Military service and the education system are also, of course, the main points of contact between young people and the authority of the state. than just a single-issue peace movement these groups and their activities are an
of a broader German youth from 'workers' and farmers' state'.
The peace activists tend not to be who nave privileges to lose and are generally con-
- but young workers whose first clashes with authority may have been quite unrelated to the peace ques-
Most of the members of the "Jena Peace Community, for instance, saw
themselves as to the left of the ruling
Some had links with the long-
established 'dissident' current in the
town which had already been involved
in protests against expulsion ol communist songwriter Wolf Biermann
party
East German
and others Europe).
Rather The slogan
shares' alienation
their the Soviet Union -
many
labour without fear of wars.
tional support.
GEOFF BOYCOT
МЖк. HONE
Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia 1968
There is nothing pro-Western in these activities. Those who persistently seek to embarass CND by asking ahout the demonstrators on the other side of the Berlin Wall would get little solace from a conversation with any of the
peace Canvalen recently expelled from the GDR (and. incidentally, little more from Charter
elsewhere Eastern They do not demand surrender to imperialism, but a surrender to the people; not the reintroduction of the capitalist market, but an end to the political monopoly of the bureaucracy
of the East German peace movement 'Swords into Plough-
— a biblical quote, but taken from a sculpture donated to the UN by
does not translate into naive unilateralism, but into the desire for a world-wide order in which humanity can reap the fruits of its
fundamentally democratic and socialist in content. It is the duty of all socialists and peace activists in the West to give this movement their full and uncondi-
Labour Party und CND, and un editor Günter Minnerup is a member of the of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe. which provides in depth coveruge of the Eust European peace und dissident
Red Square
Page 7 scan of this page
P THOMPSON's notion about Exterminism' - that there is a war rive that has nothing to do with te logic of capitalism but has a homentum of its own — has right-
been attacked from uarters on the left. But much of his attack focussed on the aciological roots of the arms race. Too little attention has been paid to ite foreign policy aims of Vest's military build-up, in other words what kinds NATO is trying. vithin the USSR itself.
Too often people fail to realise hat weapons like cruise and Perhing are not just for use in a war. They are already in use at this very moment, as foreign policy ruments for changing realities inside the USSR. The growth of the US miltary budget over the last three years is exerting side the USSR and Eastern Europe. profound political influence intrying to push these societies directions that correspond American interests.
And as ideas spread in and around the peace movement about 'alternative defence policies' less reliant on nuclear weapons, ine Americans
even tactical
ment in Europe.
ments OYCL defence the
changes DrIng aDoul policy aims we
Europe. inBy Oliver MacDonald staggering
aims towards the
in would to main goals of this policy.
are resoul-
Vietnam, The
DOlI carrots and Sticks
Soviet economy to the West.
prevent any strengthen the tions of the Soviet state.
The foreign policy
permanently military arsenals.
ding with new strategies of their own, such as AirLand Battle which could in the future replace battlefield nukes and
nukes with conventional weapons that would achieve these same foreign policy goals, perhaps even bet-
existing nuclear deploy- In
For the Labour left to be able to fight the Reagan and Thatcher govern-
policy must therefore raise its own discussion away nately simply from military hardware to dealing with the left's foreign policy aims towards the USSR. And by foreign
do not JUSI phrases like 'restoring detente' or 'improving relations with the USSR. We mean also changing the internal course of events inside the USSR and Eastern
more
For many decades, bourgeois circles in the West have had a settled set of
USOK. long-term goals for changing Soviet society, and for preventing other changes in it that
harm capitalist world. We can briefly list some of the
The first and most obvious aim has been to undermine those features of the Soviet state that makes it inclined to support revolutions in the third world the aid it has given to Cuba, Angola,
Nicaraoua and So doesn't take much imagination to see that what needs to be broken in the USSR for this purpose is the planned ing character of the Soviet economy and te ideological commitment wal cor responds to such a fully nationalised
West has therefore sought to bring pressures to bear on the USSR
- that would lead to the opening up of the Soviet
Western capital, would marketise the USSR, destroy the monopoly of foreign trade and tie the
A second great NATO aim has been positive political development within the USSR or any big advances in the social position of the Soviet working class, changes that would make the Soviet Union more attractive to workers in other parts of the world. It thus exerts pressures designed to limit Soviet social spending and to
authoritarian
foos of this NATO are and economic. Since the end of the war, the USSR has been ringed by many hundreds of American bases and has been
threatened by huge From this starting
point, the West can then influence internal Soviet developments by either increasing the military pressure or offering to ease it in exchange for the changes in Soviet behaviour that the West wants.
the economic field, Americans have organised all the main capitalist states for economic warfare against the USSR - through such institutions as Cocom. It can thus alter-
offer attractive economic packages that would stimulate Soviet economic growth while making USSR dependent on Western capital, or it can close off economic links, trying to hit the bottlenecks in the Soviet economy especially hard.
Thus, at the present time, the US administration using massive military build-up and economic warfare to ensure that the USSR becomes
tiental authoritarian repressive and to hit the living conditions of working people in the USSR and Eastern Europe.
There is remarkably little discussion
what active aims it should have for changing the USSR. Too often discussion gets bogged down in interminable debates on how good or bad life is in the USSR or on how 'friendly/unfriendly' should towards it. But a serious policy discussion must start with a different question: what features of Soviet society do we wall u strengthen, what do want to undermine. and how do we achieve these objectives?
On any sober assessment, the USSR is an extremely authoritarian state lack-
Many authentically democratic mechanisms of popular control over the government. It must be a prime ob. jective of the left to seek political changes that enable the working people of the USSR to strengthen their control over the affairs of state. We want 10 achieve this not only as a matter of principle but because of the enormous practical impact of such changes on
the the and we
The left and
the USSR
world politics.
It is surely an ABC of politics for socialist that such democratic development is a matter of political pressure and struggle by the working people of USSR and everywhere can best exert its power in politics when it is in the strongest possible economic and social position.
Rights
This means that the left must want strengthen social and economic rights that working people in the USSR possess: full employment and cheap food, nominal transport plentiful and cheap cultural facilities, an ambitious housing programme, rising wages, egalitarianism distribution.
The point is not how fully all these points are at present implemented or • high living standards are at pre sent. strengthen these things.
Again, this is not only a matter of general principle: the more these social rights are strengthened in the USSR, the greater difficulty the bourgeoisies in Western Europe obliterating what welfare rights exist in the capitalist world.
And Soviet aid to those in the Third World trying to break out stranglehold of imperialism to be creased and not diminished. And this too depends upon pressing ahead with policies designed to positive domestic features of the Soviet Union.
So how can the left achieve these aims?n the first place DI tooth nail against
mia pressure of theS the
structures domestic policy and policy towards
Leon Trossky, theorist of the degeneration of the Soviet state
working class maximum the
economic security,
prices, nominal fuel bills,
income
and
The point is that we want to
mile and
have
the left must want be taken up bloody ment. in- so-called provocative'
strengthen the
fighting the NATO about
buttressing posed of Soviet
Eastern Europe. In the second place the left must break up the machinery for
wartare against the USSR work OUL programme for massive, planned trade between Britain and the Soviet Union. There is enor. mous scope for a huge increase in trade. provided that it is organised on a long term planned basis. Thirdly, the left
maintain its ideological debate struggle against authoritarian. bureaucratic models of socialism.
Such a programme could meet with • very wide support within the working classes of Western Europe and should
within the peace move And those trying to construct 'constructive, 'non defence. strategies
NATO should be forced to answer the basic question: what political aims do
want NATO to pursue towards the USSR? When the discussion moves onto this ground, the absurdity of notion fashionable in the Labour Party now
turning NATO into "progressive' alliance can be easily ex-
• Oliver MacDonald is the editor o Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.
Socialist Action 6 April 1984
Page 8 scan of this page
A cottage in Wales
8 Socialist Action 6 April 1984 driving might lose a driving license, By Peter Purton
accounts.
Parliamentary
(for the time being) to keep Lne
Roger Thomas is no Peter
ty leadership which under-
GAY
gay witch-hunt
'THIS EVIL man'
screamed a headline
of the 25 March edi-
tion of the Sunday
Mail - Scotland's
largest circulation
newspaper.
This 'evil' man
was Ian Dunn, editor
of Gay Scotland and a
leading Labour Party
activist.
Buried beneath
diatribe against lan was
one fact
ed his address to be used
as a contact address for a
paedophile group. The
only thing the paper did
isolalls HiCh Have 110
Not
No 13
SCOTLAND
Labour bows before
admit in an otherwise of-
fensive article, was lan's
denial that he was
paedophile.
Naturally the
seized on the fact that he
editor of Gay
Was
Scotland and
employed by the Edin-
Durga
Unfortunately his local
Labour Parti has
been supportive but has
forced him to resign as
party agent for the com-
ing elections. The com-
mitment of sections of
the Labour Party to c mind
liberties, never
radical sexual politics,
seems to be paper thin.
They serve too to reinforce Ine
criminal. And they give an
acures. ane abour rary do not do so because of ar and have the sort
lake lol granica.
hypocrisy to endorse prosecutoas cottaging
LICi
MARCH/APRI
In February the Scottish LPYS amended resolution on gay rights
calling for positive images of gays and lesbians in the media.
The lan Dunn case shows what a regrettable error this was. labour in Hainburen re mains silent agianst the witch hunt of gay people and removes an election
becaust of the witch hunt in the Tory
• Messages of solidarity
Dunn Gav Scotland, 58a Broughton Si, Edinburgh EHI.
ground that thev are pure ly 'personal' and therefore not the concern of the Party is wrong. Not only does it ignore the fact that the oppression of lesbians and gays in their everyday lives is a political question of
first order around which the Party should be campaigning, it also stores
ammunition for the right wing and the media, woo gave never snown any inhibition about exploiting 'personal questions Two other Labour MPs in re. cent years fell foul of the fate of D Thomas, but with the full backing of their local Parties they held on.
Period
In a period in which further advances for those struggling for lesbian and
rights has been confirmed by the massive vote for a gay rights resolution
the Greater London Labour Party conference,
sad case of. Roger Thomas nas Showa lial neither the Carmarthen Party the Kinnock team have understood the issue.
By doing they have brought about a ma-
labour movement, and for #nose lesbians anu cavlicl who have turned to it for support in their battles.
Deported?
YEARS AGO when
Britain had an empire -
the upper class used to
send any of its sons who
had blotted their copy
books out to the col-
onies.
Now Il nas lo pust
them off to some car lot
Mark Thatcher is not be-
Representative with Mi
representative
David Wilkins
Lotus car company. This
is because Mark is highly
qualified and has
nothing to do with his
family.
The fact that daddy is
deputy chair of another
of Mr Wickin's COMI
panies is just coin-
cidence. The firm claim
that Mark knows a lot
about cars and so he
should, he has got lost in
enough of them! They
also polnl
requires
business
finance and as Mark fail-
ed his accountant's
ams he fits the bill
treat.
Lotus is at the mo-
ment having bit of
trouble with its figures.
The Inland Revenue
chasing them for £85
million — an assessment
great dollops of money
missing from the failed
De Lorean car venture.
Clearly Mark had
better not take his new
boss to see mummy when
Nigel Lawson is having
dinner at number
Mark says he has severed
his links with his old firm
ted he was a bit 'naive' in
some his business deal-
Mark: deported to an American car lot
ings
I suppose it was a bit naive letting those reporters catch him chatting to mam, just when she was batting away for that nice contract. Who leaked? Di: who sold the info?
BOOKIES got suspicious when chinless wonders started wandering their betting shops and having scores 'monkeys' (£500) on
The scriptures forbid you to
touch pork & shellfish -
and inthecase of you homosexuals
KOSHER
CRISPS
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
On the beat
ALL YOUR friendly neighbourhood cops did was break the door down. Well, they • had to get in and woman
who lived there was asleep in bed.
They had gone
When she told them he
else could they do but holo
her to the radiator belt her? She could have been lying, couldn't she?
the hallway bruised with eye and DOU.
What you cop knockers must understand is that women like
Lady Di having twins.
the odds From JU- tumbled and against
can't get one HOW penny on two more royals turning up. Along with the big scandal the horse racing. world where three top Jockeys have been accused of selling HO MALUI this last leak has rocked the
A full scale enquiry will be held into the royal stables which will take in
Sexual Politics
- each other.
We will now turn to
'Him number 6)
46-year old Mrs Clementine George could intimidate our police when
So taey did their duice
they no choice but for four of them to beat the truth out of her. There is only one Snail excuse' to arrest had her son in the first place. They had evidence he had played no part in the alleged offence OK. they made mistake and now they art forking out £8000 com. Well, truthfully the ratepayers are forking it out and the lads are free to deal again with dangerous people like Clementine George.
gyneacologists and even Charles, who may have flogged the information to get a bod or two on tne side.
Me, still think Richard the Third got it right.
Moles Eye View is compiled Bob Penn. ington Contributions should be sent to arrive by Thursday am.
Page 9 scan of this page
5. NOT CAMP-
News
Bailiffs
A MOBILISATION prevented the threatened eviction of the Greenham peace camp last Monday, 2 April. The bailiffs were threatening to remove the women in order to make way for a road-widening scheme to make the passage of cruise missile launchers easier.
had packed up their personal belongings in full expectation that the bulldozers would move in, but in the full glare of press publicity, and with Glenys Kinnock among the supporters at the bailiffs and the Under-Sheriff of Berkshire declined to act.
At the end of the dar 80 women with their benders were stıll firmly ensconsed the main gate, with smaller numbers at two other gates.
By Kathy Kirkham
Women at the smaller camps have been harassed almost daily by the bailiffs over the past two weeks.
They take down their tents them backup at night. But during the day and last Monday their spirits were blossoming as much they've planted at the flower garden
Violet Gate, as the news of hundreds of supporters at the main gate filtered through.
While everyone neuterer ov ite they all stressed the need
ment to keep the camps in-
The rapid mobilisa-
VICT
thwarted at
Greenham
of hundreds of women
The women at the main gate and two other gates
main gate, the
tion which tracked and harassed the second missiles convoy to come out of the base ten days ago nas also boostea tell spirits. But nobody Greenham doubts that the bailiffs will return in force
benders. When that happens the women will continue their struggle by Gortex bags and re-erecting their tents when it becomes imposs!ble.
Last Sunday's server quoted Greenham office as saying COll cidence' that the trial of 15 charged with criminal damage at the was opening Reading Crown Court on the very day of the threatened evictions. é he trial the first of Greenham women to take place before a jury, and
stems from the fence cutting incidents in July last year. he coln was backed with women supporting the accused
Many of the 15 women are defending themselves. After defence objections to the jury, the majority of jurors are women. The police have until now been reluctant take
arrested to jury trial precisely because they know they can secure con-
LICi magistrates. The trial
_LO continue for a least another week.
GREENHAM COMMON Airbase is protected by some completely barbaric technology. Bob Clay MP described what he had seen on a visit to the base to a 60-strong meeting organised by the South East London Greenham Group on 21 March. The meeting was organised jointly with the Peckham Labour Party and CND.
Bob Clay described the layers of traps around the silos. There is simulated rifle fire if you get close
probably triggered off by some women
followed by razor edged wire: nerve gas; knite edged wire; and if vou're not dead already.
Get to Labour
THE LABOUR CND conference on Saturday 28 April is of vital importance. new Labour CND committee must come out of it that is as committed to an uncompromising stand on unilateralism as its predecessor.
By Walter Wolfgang
To achieve this attendance of every activist in the Labour Party will be crucial. To attend the AGM you have to be a member of national CND
Greenham women
are everywhere!
you're finished off with automatic gunfire in the mone curce
By Elaine Hume (South East London Greenham Support Group)
Inside, where there's the button that says 'execure carnatal orders come from NATO and not trom 10 Downing Street.
Helen John, another speaker, explained that she thought the government's military manoeuvres were backfiring, because they simply inspire more women to fight against cruise.
Angie Low, from the
Greenham Group, described how our activities have grown over the last year. Starting with
CND's conference!
and the Labour Party. So if you are planning to go you should check that you are a current member of national CND.
The AGM will place at the University London Union, Malet St, London WC1 and will start at llam on the Saturday morning.
Registration forms for the conference can be ob. tained from Duncan Rees Labour CND. 11 Goodwin St, London N4 ЗHQ This is also the address for national CND where you can check your membership.
Make sure you register — your attendance may be vital.
Socialist Action 6 April 1984
CRUISE
a few women we now have over a hundred involved The ordanised benefits of vo aerial the actions SuDDUll base. We're out on the Old Kent Road every time the Convoy Core oul We are now involving a
lot of working class and older women in the group and we're endeavouring to involve 11010 black women. Our support from the labour movement is growing.
At Southwark we were given exemption by the
SARAH TIDALL has appealed against he
cruise.
rally and march to Holloway
Tweedie.
NALGO picket to hold the meeting in the Town Hall.
NALGO is one of several unions in the area who have supported SOGAT gave us £500.
Every trade union and Labour Party should be raising Greenham, making political connections and getting donations for tents and equipment.
• Find out what you can do for the Greenham women by fices on 01-226 6285/6980
Fight for the right to know
FREE
SARAH TISDALL
RALLY
Thursday 5 April 7.30pm Conway Hall Red Lion Square London WC1
Followed by
A march to Holloway Prison
entence of six months for giving The Guardiai a copy of a document concerning the arrival of
In the last week vigils have been held outside Holloway, calling for her release. On Thursday the Socialist Society is planning a major London
prison. Speakers at the rally will include NCCL, Duncan Campbell (New Stateman), Paul Foot, Anna Coote and Jill
Organised by: Socialist Society, 9 Poland St,
London W1
Page 10 scan of this page
TU VOTO NO VALE
Bombing offensive after election fiasco
10. Socialist Action 6 April 1984
Italy - one
million demonstrate
against austerity
ON 24 MARCH the centre of Rome was awash with red flags and workers' banners as one million workers descended on the city in protest at government austerity. 5000 coaches, 40 special trains and two ships from Sardinia were cavalcade of transport bringing the workers to the demonstration.
The immediate reason for the protest was the plan proposed by the coalition government of the Socialist Party premier Bettino Craxi to put a 10 per cent limit on this year's scala mobile — the sliding scale of wages which guarantees Italian workers automatic wage increases to compensate for inflation.
By Paul Lawson
This year's inflation will be well above the 10 per cent mark — probably nearer 20 per cent. The scala mobile was won during the tumultous working class upsurge in 1969
The main organising force behind the last Saturday's demonstration were the CGIL. the Communist Party dominated trade union federation and the multi-union factory councils. Their decision to mobilse is in snarp policy of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in recent years which has necessary. This policy during the period 1976-1979, when the PCI effectively participated in government under the aegis of Christian Democrat Godfather Aldo Moro, through a host of joint parliamentary committees with the DC.
The CGIL's decision to fight the attack on the scala mobile reflects a growing movement ol discontent in the January, reflected in a new growth of the factory council movement.
In January 120 councils, embracing delegates from the three major union federations, held a meeting in Brescia which appealed to the union leadership to take a stand against the new attacks on the sliding scale. This was immediately followed by assemblies of factory councils in all the major industrial towns, and demonstrations of over 100,000 workers each in Turin and Rome.
In the face of the united factory council movement, the leaderships of the three main union
the CISL and the Socialist UIL have each manoeuvred to split the movement, to demobilise bryonic unity of the factory councils.
In particular the PCI and CGIL organised their own local strikes and demonstrations on 6 March with the objective of taking the initiative away from the councils, delegates from all the federations.
On the same day hundreds of delegates met in a national assembly of the councils. In addition to mobilising for the demonstration which took place last week, assembly for 30 March which will discuss following up the Rome demonstration with a general strike.
UNA
measures.
part of the huge many the famous 'hot
contrast to the
sanctioned austerity was particularly marked workplaces since the end of PCI-led CGIL, the Catholic
the em-
which involve rank and file
the delegates decided to call a new
US OFFICIALS are Salvadorean elections a major success, but they and everyone else know catastrophe. ! tion as compared with 1982, despite the fact that voting is compulsory much larger area of the country is under the control of the FMLN guerrillas.
The voting was marked by administrative chaos in those areas where it did
place, with many lanc aspirant voters unable to cast their ballot. After all Le con usion CUll polling day, the super-technology supplied by the United States proved useless and a
of polling boxes have still not been claricu the scrutineers. Nobody seriously believes the elections were tair or in any way meaningıul.
By Paul Lawson
Still, the United States looks have gained something from the elections the checking of the political advance of Roberto
ARENA party, a fascist organisation, which has gained mounting support among
middle DrUSOCIOUS classes.
looks D'Aubuisson has received less votes than Napolean
Christian Democrats, and that there will have to be a run-off between the two in May, when the third party, the National Reconciliation Party (PCN), will drop out. Duarte will favourite to win in May.
Elite
The halt of ARENA's
advance is easily explained. Despite D'Aubuisson's growing suport among the ruling elite in El Salvador, large numbers workers and peasants voted tor Duarte. rorced to vote by law, and in a situation where the let and the opposition parties could not participate in the
elections, the poor voted
for Duarte to keep oul
D'Aubuisson but not
because they had many il-
proclaiming last Sunday's
that the elections Many fewer people voted in this elec-
- reflecting the fact that a
lusions about Duarte.
I or press dristia.
tions Christian Democrats as 'centre-left'
wildly inaccurate. In Napolean Duarte really will prosecute Ine Wall against the FDR/FMLN guerrillas with American aid, just as he did when he was president years up to 1982.
Unit
Serious negotiations with the guerrillas are extremely unlikely. The ad vantage TOT the States is that Duarte's fake "moderate' credentials will make him a more acceptaole figure to international public opinion.
The US has been busily stepping. up lts military • coal aliuls. a sure sign that not seeking negotiated settlement. At Palmerlo in Honduras the 224th Military Intelligence Battalion has established a 300-man base in a strictly
for-
bidden to all other US personnel. This unit is charg ed with flying Mohawk and Beechcraft aircraft over El Salvador in the attempt to track down guerrilla columns and summon up air strikes.
Raids
There is evidence that the United States is urging a new bombing offensive
against the guerrillas. • One or une obecave.
an offensive would be the
bombing
salulalu!
towns known to be sympathetic to, or harbouring
guerrillas, with the objec-
tive of forcing the civilian
population out
rilla-held territory. This is
exactly what the US did in
Vietnam.
Another proposal is that the United States
Napolean Duarte
should supply CIA pilots for air strikes. they have the capacity to use their facilities in Honduras to mount such air raids On April a majol new military exercise involving upwards of 5000 American troops starts in
- Grenadero 1 If the US intends to start
sonnel, openly or covertly, to the Salvador war, then they will certainly Come from the thousands of US servicemen in nondulas
Last week 250 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division parachuted into Honduras from C-130 transport planes. Whethe
were training for E Salvador or Nicaragua
certain. What wasn t certain is that the increasingly huge US commitment to Honduras is not there for show.
Soviets offer
to Holland
the proposed missiles on Dutch territory.
The Christian Democrat party, Holland if the missiles are not deployed.
missile demonstration in the Hague,
International
FMLN slogan: 'Your vote doesn't count
'no attack' deal
CASPAR WEINBERGER, the US Defence Secretary, flew to the Hague last week to put pressure on the Dutch government to accept
deployment of cruise
which is the dominant party in the ruling coalition government, has been badly split on the issue of deployment. The Liberals, the other coalition partner are however strongly in favour of deployment. (?)
While US pressure on the Dutch government has increased, the USSR intervened in the dispute by guaranteeing never to make a nuclear attack on
The Labour opposition is totally against the deployment of the missiles, and there is no douht that they represent the majority. Last Octoher more than 500,000 people turned out for the anti-
an extraordinary number for a small country like Holland.
Page 11 scan of this page
Campaigning for Jobs & Services LIVERPOOL-A SOCIALIST COUNCIL
All the way
with
Liverpool
THE LIVERPOOL CITY council meeting last week is a beacon on the dark sea of Thatcher's punitive local government laws — a symbol of Democracy Day 1984.
pool's Liberal and Tory parties alike, and capitulation from the top ranks of Labour's own leadership, , 42 councillors stood firm on a budget to fulfill the necessary and popular promises which brought them to power last May.
The city is rightly proud of its council's stand.
Offering a lame amendment to bring the budget. into line with Tory restric-
Liberal Sir Trevor Jones called Labour's proposals 'a propaganda exercise' and an expensive charade'. The Liberals led. a miserably unsuccesstul attack on the Labour councillors drawing council allowances to the "tune of £7000 a. year'.
'Derek Hatton was the best paid Marxist in the country claimed one Liberal. 'Aye and he phen is. worth every shouted a woman from the public gallery to the cheers
the meeting. 'The Labour Partv Liverpool today the Labour Party nationally in 10 years' another Liberal claimed. This 'prophecy' brought Ovation from the public gallery.
Despite the obvious support for Labour's proposals, Labour renegades the seventh was 'sick' that day — one peral. and the lories supported an amendment to deter the decision and reconsider 'making a legal and acceptable rate' which would allow the council to re-open futile discussions WiTh the Departmenl the Environment.
BOLI Liocials and Tories have requisitioned a
special council meeting to re-discuss the budget. This obliges Labour to set a date for that meeting within seven days. But it allows the choice of when it takes place
Confident the
Labular of hit fires
meeting. after this year's
elections. Labour candidates are already pledged to supplith that same budget. authority of public opinion behind them the new council will be in an even
SUPPORT
Despite government threats supported by Liver-
stronger position to stand out against government threats.
So far Liverpool lacks the whole hearted support it deserves. Many promi-
photo:
nent caooursens Tentall
fer sive a moral Support:
weak moral support But they are quick to point out there is nothing practical they can do. This 1 not true. It leaves them an avenue to retreat when the fight starts in earnest.
Liverpool doesn't get the support of all the labour movement it will go down. Derek Hatton, Labour's deputy leader in Liverpool summed up this position when said: 'When they came for the Jews I did nothing; when they came unionists I did nothing; when they Cane lor there was no one left to protect me'
Front-line Labour councils next year will be facing what Liverpool faces today. Without the resistance of all the labour movement they will go down. Between now and the local elections it is in
their interests that Labour oullas me maximum support for Liverpool.
parties, local LaDOU!
authority trade unions and local Labour council
groups acting together can
bring the needed pressure on ine Labour make it act against Party all
Thatcher's anti-working
Legislation ant is means
legislation.
supporting all those in the
who have stepped outside the
Tory laws to defend their
interests and their
democratic rights,
It means support for the miners' pickets
relass to move hose
refusing move
coal. And it means going
down to the end of the
with Liverpool city
TOXO
council.
LIVERPOOL
LABOUR
COUNCIL
fallen on money vital to the city.
ched round the city.
The bulk of the city council workforce took
action Democracy Day. They were joined by contingents of county council workers and a large delegation of Liverpool dockers, 2500 of whom had struck in solidarity, along with representatives from local car plants. Printworkers engineers and electrical workers. Two delegations of miners from Lancashire and Yorkshire also joined the demonstration.
Traffic was forced to a halt as the march snaked its way around the shopping centre, forming at one point circular cordon
embraced Lime Street and the St George's
Liverpool rallies
behind
its council
THOUSANDS OF LIVERPOOL workers marched on the Town Hall last Thursday in a tremendous show of solidarity with the stand of the City council against the Tories' local government axe which has
Hundreds of local trade union and Labour Party banners were on display as Liverpool's Labour MPs and city and county councillors, arms linked, mar-
precinct before moving down Whitechapel for 1 all Hall outside Députy the Town
La cere Dee condon Tone cheenie crowd Labour Party isn't here to do Thatcher's dirty work for her. Liverpool MP Terry Fields likened the council's stand to 'that taken by Poplar in the twenties'
By Tim Rigby
Referring to Neil KinHOCKS strictures L slay within the law, he remind ed the rally that such a plea was 'as bankrupt today as it was then... Eric Heffe another Liverpool MP and
UAZOLAGTION
OFFICIAL DISPUTE
23 MARCH 920
WOULD MEMBER
OF ALL UNIONS
AFFICIATED TRO
ATTUC PLEASE O
THE PICKE TALIN
chairperson of the Labour Party echoed the same sentiments when he promised to fight for full support for the Liverpool city council ine next NEC. 'The miners are situation as Liverpool city council' said Frank Kane Yorkshire NUM area official adding 'it's time to get off our knees'.
And that's exactly what Liverpool did wher the council meeting was presented with Labour's 'illegal' budget later that day. Over nine hours later at the end of the council meeting a solitary group of Labour Party supporters still maintained the Town Hall vigil, banner erect. 'It's been worth every minute sala one womal and 'we will stay here until the next council meeting it Who can doubt such resolve? Liverpool's policies have won admiration and wholesale support of great numbers the city's population.
London says:
Take the
Liverpool road
JUDE ARKWRIGHT a member of Finsbury Park branch of the NUR and PATRICK SIKORSKI a member of that union's London district committee, tell Socialist Action what happened on London
they think should happen next. Both are speaking in a personal capacity. THE STRIKE 28 March had much wider support than people expected. Why was this?
Judith: There has been a build-up of dissatisfac-
Li over the last or SO. We have a much more aggressive management who take lots of petty disciplinary action. growing feeling that this is due to •the preparanon for the transfer
Under Weighell there was no leadership. Since Knapp was elected the activists have had more confidence and have begun to come to the fore. We have a left-led District Council which has given a lead and fought for it. The DC has DILL ll as. organised flying pickets, anu so vil
Patrick: Since the defeat in '82 there has been a big reorganisation of the unions. With Knapp, there has been a real development of cooperation bet ween the unions in Ll This the first year that the NUR and ASLEF have made a joint submission on the pay claim.
There have been joint branch meetings, and cooperation between mulilalits The London at the Transport depots.
Trade Union Committee which embraces all the L1 unions, has been set up The main political reason hagenda campaign pris paganda campaign made 16-20,000 jobs were under clear that
threat. And promises about no compulsory redundancies were wOrthless.
Judith: The GLO leaders …ody that some things are matters for the
unions. This is a cop-out.
It should give a clear lead
to the unions. It should
take int road,
and involve the , Labour
the Regional LP,
Group ficularly he rank and file and the unions
leadership.
Now what?
Judith: LT gave a clear Tene outes of the strike
success the strike
has been a big boost tor
the unions. The next step is
for the different unions
the GLC to get together to
vlall out strategy
defending London against
the Tories. I think such a
conference needs to adopt
the LTTUC policy of oppiss and break up
and break
GLC.
Patrick: This should
be the basis for
ference of all the unions
Transport around the Day of Action and say what
affected by the Tory plans GLC, ILEA, local authorities, LT to defend jobs and services.
La resolution
nere from the NUR DC (LT) at Ine regional executive of
terence cline Landon
London labour movement 1 nIs needs to be pushed in every area.
The DC reorganised in this period. It used to be a very routine body, a bil like a glorified branch. It has drawn built shop stewards system, and it has cam paigned for recruits to the
Party Inis na. given the membership con-
Judith: Some of the response was due to the Tory attacks on the unions. There was an ele ment of loyalty. The Vic toria line has never beer Saul COWI betore in strikes. We used the ScottLithgow example Ic plain that they would be the first for privatisation This had a big effect.
Did the GEC • campaign around Democracy Day have much effect?
Patrick: The members
saw the GLC policies over cheap fares as reversing a
long decline. Cheap fares has
passengers, and this has ai
least given partial protection to jobs.
Judith: The strike call
was seen by the member
as tied up with the GLO
and was easier
o build for that reaso
and routes that
would be lost helped to
build up the feeling of
wide support.
The initial call was tol
strike on thẹ 29th, but the
rUC stepped in to chang
that to the 28th. I think i
should have been the 29th,
because only strike action
will defend jobs and ser-
vices
The GLC campaign
has big impact. The
building of local
branch leadership: was
also essential. At Finsbury
Park we got Ken Liv
ingstone to speak. He had
a big impact.
Patrick: Under the
GLC there has been an
erosion of jobs, with one
person operation on buses
and tubes. The GLC ha
mainly concerned itself
with cheap fares. This is
tect jobs.
to defeat the Tories, will
need to rely on the work
force.
Page 12 scan of this page
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ACTION SoCiAlist
John Hamilton speaks for
Liverpool
LIVERPOOL'S COUNCIL leader
JOHN HAMILTON told the council
we are to maintain services, avoid
redundancies and at the same time fail to levy
the income by applying heavy rate burdens to
us expenditure we are told with all the nd majesty of British law that this is il-
government can arbitrai of crants trom this city since 1977 and and justified O relieve
or other articles on Liverpool see page
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Greenham
BAILIFFS WERE successfully turned back from their attempt to evict the camp at the main gate to Greenham Airbase last Monday. But that doesn't mean the threat of eviction has gone.
to make the eviction on Monday if they had wanted to. It's clear the decision to back off was essentially tactical. They didn't want to be seen camp to pieces under the eyes of the world's press.
There were more than 200 women at the main gate ready to resist the eviction and that would
the police for large scale arrests. Again not something they wanted to do with too many people looking on.
The response to our appeal for the fund drive two weeks ago has been good - but it needs to be stepped up. Sales are beginning to increase and many areas are asking for more papers to sell on the picket lines, at Labour Party meetings and trade union branches.
The next week will be crucial for the miners strike with six other unions pledging solidarity. We've covered the key areas solidarity reports have been coming in as we go around the country the miners. But money from sales is not enough.
We need commitments from readers regular basis. If the Guardian is worth 23 pence a
Evict cruise
not the
peace camp
The bailiffs had the equipment and the back up
pulling the
But they will be back. So the mobilisation women down to the camp has to be kept up over the coming days.
Of course eviction won't end the camp. There have been evictions before and the camp has surviv-
day — look what it did to Sarah Tisdall surely we are worth a £1.15 donation! Money is a problem for us its no problem for the Tories forcing local authorities to finance thousands of para-military style cops to defend right of scabs to work. No problem there about coun cils overspending.
There's no need to worry about wilal nappens to your money when gues to us. . It goes to improving and devloping our
La paper written for and supported by the labour movement.
Support Socialist Action. Help us to continue fo. reach the people who matter.
scription to add to those
we've had this week. Send your money-today.
ed. This time will be no different.
Women have already said that they are prepared to stay Gortex bags until the benders can be got up again. And with the weather improving it will be possible to maintain the camp.
But they are bound to step up the narassmenla. -The success of women at the camp in disrupting the cruise convoy last week in-
Nowalcates ine that cruise is there the camp becomes much more potentially disruptive their plans. The pressure is
Birmingham £200.00
22.50 Brent Dall 475.00 Bristol Camden 436.00
199.49 Coventr!
Ealing 162.00
Exeter Glasgow
Haringey Hemel HOUTSOW Huddersfield Islingtor SW London 227.00 Leamington 27.50 Leeds L' pool 50.00
53.50 Middlesborough Preston 50.00
Southampton Swansea 95.00
4.00 AG 30.00 M Coulson
3.00 • relast
pile onto the golg camp from all directions
That's why all possible support must get down te the camp itsell - women also may he protest a materials. And it's tions round the country must be stepped up.
london WORLE who want to protest against th
should get to Leicester Square for 2pm on Saturday 7 April. Greenham group or CND Contact your local to find out about transpor to the camp and local actions.
The camp must stay!
J Ferris P Stanton 10.00 M Silver 1.00 G Stewart 3.00 R Rae 4.00 J Hartley 5.00
O.U C Potter 15.00 Derby 40.00
1.00 G Monks
: Arthur
5.00 in avid P Holbourne 6.00 Anon 7.00
G Carey 2.50 Wrexham 3.00 S Field
5.00 C Canoford I Blunt 5.00 NLON 5.00 D Burr E Griffiths 5.00
27.00 D Draycott 3.00 S Boyle 10.00
40.00 Stoke
← Socialist Action No. 51, 30 March 1984Socialist Action No. 53, 13 April 1984 →