Socialist Action No. 59, 25 May 1984
The scan: 059-may-25-1984-SA-UK.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
Murray's
No. 59 25 May 1984 30p LAST MONDAY labour movement in Yorkshire and Humberside did the right and honourable thing. As hospital workers, dockers, rail workers and bus workers, joined with teachers and local government employees
supporting the miners they showed how the government and the NCB can be defeated.
By their response to the call of the regional TUCs they also made it clear that they wanted nothing do with scabs like Len Murray, who is more interested in getting an ermine robe than in defending the jobs and conditions of working people.
The banner from the Sheffield trades council spelt out the message that the striking and demonstrating workers wanted to make: 'Support the Miners — it's not just miners jobs they are fighting for'. That's the message that must resound through the whole of the British
Yorkshire strike
labour movement. Not one more job should be sacrificed not one more workers must be tossed on the scrap heap.
It is the message that must be heard and heeded by every trade union member. The miners spearhead that fight for jobs and the right to a future. This is why there must be more Yorkshires and Humbersides because they can mobilise millions of people behind the miners.
The TUC general council instead of keeping Silent about Murray's betrayal should denounce him and start building days of action in every region whilst planning a gigantic national day of solidarity with the miners.
Nothing less will do. If the right wing refuse to act then the left trade union leaders must call national action independent of the right.
Monday's day of action set the trade union movement on the right path now millions more must take the course
ACTION SOCiAList
shame
NOU-TVI
CORTONHOOD
BRANCH CORTONHOOD MINCES AND TACE TRAILIES THANK THE PEOPLE OR - FIFLO SUPPOR
Free Malcolm Pitt SHEFFIELD TRADES COUNCIL SAYS. ITS NOT JUST MINERS JOBS THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR THE MINERS
been
been
STAR
MODNING
freed
Malcolm Pitt
The jailing of Kent miners President Malcolm Pitt is a disgrace. When they can't beat a strike any other way the bosses always turn to their tame stooges in the courts.
The last time they tried to break a strike through imprisonment was with the Shrewsbury pickets. That time round the whole labour movement rose up in anger, and the same must happen now.
The NCB and the government have failed to break the strike by any other means and so they are now relying more and more heavily on the police and the courts
They failed to use the division with the Nottingham and other scabs to destroy the strike.
• They failed to mobilise women and families of the miners against the strike.
• They failed to ballot to overturn the decision to strike.
• The print unions stopped them using the popular press as a pattorm to sande the miners with no right of rep-
• The attempts to build a "back to work' movement in Yorkshire fell flat on its face.
Now all they have left is repression and starvation. The f15 a week cut in social security payments, balanced against non-existent strike pay, hasn't
enough to starve the miners back to work. Now they propose to cul further £4 from any family receiving a food parcel!
And of course since the beginning of the strike they've
stepping up the repres sion. They have used the police in a national military operation against pickets. They've changed the law de facto so that miners travelling along the public highway can be stopped and arrested on the grounds that they might at some point in the future cause a breach of the peace.
They have turned Nottingham into a police state, setuns up rodablocks, imposing curfews, cutting off phones, and raiding homes.
They have dug up medieval riot laws to get round the leniency of present laws. And now they have jailed one of the miners' leaders.
Support committees up and down the country must take rapid steps to protest against
increase repression. Labour councils should follow Merseyside's lead in refusing to pay for the increased policing costs of these military operations. Malcolm Pitt must be
Repression and starvation won't defeat the miners it the rest of the labour movement doesn't let it
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Scabs to the end
2 Socialist Action
ACTION SOCiALiSt
Now stick to it
FRANK FIELD in the Guardian on 14 May became the first Labour MP to publicly call SDP Liberals. for
Even Austen Mitchell, who has been pursuing the lonely Labour furrow of campaigning for proportional representation, has not so far felt bold enough to openly urge a coalition.
More interestingly Field quite explicitly drew
what is by coherent source of ideas for the Labour right Ine writings or cric noosaw ano orners m
answer was clear; political oblective than the defeat of Mrs That. cher and Hobsbawm was prepared to state the some arrangement with the Alliance.
Kinnock's reply to Field on Sunday's Radio 4
tle fad running at the moment.' Labour under his leadership would not enter any coalition with the Alliance. If Labour formed a government but was a minority in Parliament he would demand a new election that would clear up the mess by forcing a decisive result.
There are several points that could be made
fact that capitalist constitutional lawyers have made it clear the monarchy should prevent Kin-
There is no reason to doubt that Neil Kinnock's statement represents his real posita colition easelected sense avoid taking Labour into a coalition -
Labour to the right on policies, rebuild working class support, and thereby making it unnecessary, for the Labour leadership to
But where Kinnock, and his supporters, are wrong is in believing that what they face is 'a litMors Britaie today entrate Field or c tion to a Labour-Alliance coalition are the right wing of the trade significane tracy. Statesaris call for a vote for tharat and Ser appeal of Roy Grantham. Still clearer was Frank Chapple's complaint after the election that the unions had been too 'loyal' to Labour and should have voted for other 'anti-Thatcher' candidates.
The entire 'new realism' of the right wing of the TUC is not just about trade union the ouch the sell-st of the dand rays stab in the front of the miners, bore the authentic stamp of the policy.
The new realism is also a whole political ap the trade unions from the Labour Party. On this
tie due stone here are not of tated to hire
abour Party with the right wing ones that ar
The coherent expression of this alliance bot in politics and organisation is trying to
right wing trade union bureaucracy, in the plans of Alastair Graham, Frank Chapple and their ilk there should be no doubt but that this orientation is now quite conscious. Of course within the bulk of the Labour Party, as opposed to the trade orientation as acte support order such an
rank Chapple. But he rejects the only road tha turn of the Labour Party to the left and placing itself at the head of the struggles which are now Labour recovering from its June defeat but not even remotely enough to win a general election. Editor: ALAN FREEMAN Published weekly except two weeks in August and the last week of December.
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25 May 1984 alliance between Labour and the approvingly noted that 'Hobsbawm's
there was no more important
this mdy involve Was was elected in a sense to Those forces with a line towards coali-
The real battalions with an orienta-
at the last election was the similar one that is based on the distancing ?
not affiliated to the
of accommodation between Labour
At the highest levels of the These are expressed in
sales
-ranied he a stamped addressed envelope
IT'S A NASTY and unpleasant experience watching the right wing establishment joining against the miners. After weeks of sniping and off-
First we had Eric Hammond of the EETPU
expect from Frank Chapple's protegé?
told his union conference
was that he hated to
precis
stepped Peter Shore -
is worth adopting as their
transigence of both sides'
called for a 50p a week levy
miners
donation care of the
the temptation to sell out
which gladdened the heart
yorkonire side regional offices of the
saving they had no
mond.
when the ruling class is gerting more and more ex-
One of the problems
journalist is finding
phrases to describe-
Murray and company:
leaders of the labour movement
Thatcher and the media
suddenly an open right wing
but then what else could we
Supports the strike' but
La situation which the Sunspect of compromise or
concludes that the strike 'offers the chance to
government policy.. right wing are answering
comes, which side of the
Blood and want to see the
tries to straddle the two
Wing 'Mr Murray had merely been fulfilling his
Via! agreed with Mr Shore, but
who try and perform such balanc-
The left MPs and trade
are in the camp of the rul-
else is only to give them a
APIECE Ofhe ACTION
fiend in human
Len Murray, graduated from office hot to scab
Humberside and defied Murray and his friends did the right and honourable thing. If the TUC and the Labour right refuse to give unconditional support to the miners then indepen-
action must organised
More Yorkshires and Humbersides is the answer
the betrayals of the right.
4 Mr. Arthur Scargill, elected leader of th miners...
Meanwhile we have a bit of advice for Mr Murray. Why wait until the autumn - just go now! And a question to Neil Kinnock. Do you remember Neil, how Tony Benn got sacked from the shadow cabinet because he spoke up for Labour conpolicy in parliament?
So why not send Peter
Have you ever considered this:
News
Shore winging back to Stepney with the sugges tion that his local finds someone just that bit more willing to support the miners? People like Murray and Shore have shown once again that the only unity they want is on their terms and is used as a convenient way to attack the left. It never means unity in struggle.
®CORMAC
You can keep that kind of rabble. rousing nonsense for some of your trendy lefty
friends!!
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POLITICAL POLICE
News
THE ARREST and charging of 50 miners with offences under medieval riot laws marks a new stage in attempts to use police and state repression to crush the miners' strike.
police in new ways to break the strike. In the first couple of weeks we saw the police stop Kent miners travelling out of the county through the Dartford tunnel.
In stopping the pickets at Ravenscraig the police instituted a policy of mass arrests of miners on their way to the picket - before any offence had been commalted
Nottingham looks more ane more like police state. Last week Parts ot the Notts village of Blidworth were placed
Areas welc sealed off and road blocks established. People were warned they would be arrested if they left their houses and appeared that phones were cut off IneS went dead atter the first few digits.
excuse for this harassment that familles in the WCIC putting up. Yorkshire miners OE flying DICKel duty 'harbouring criminals'
police preferred to see it.
Door to door searches and questioning 100k place until the NUM was forced to lead most of the pickets out of the area. But the effect has been harden attitudes against the police and the miners.
The police force in Bri-
Photo: Morning Stal
Picket beaten by police
THATCHER'S
From the beginning the Tories have used the
tain has always been an arm of the state and government, never neutral. But the last months have seen steps toward making it directly a political police force. The county-based structure of the police has increasingly been eroded so that it acts
Madonal quasimilitary force.
By Jude Woodward
Hampshire police were 'air-lifted' into Nottingham, by plane in a nationally co-ordinated military-style action against the miners. Like the the North of ireland. of occupation in the Nottingham is occupied by the police force from all corners of the country.
Nou a new stage has epened with the use of an-
miners carrying unlimited tines and sentences. The value to the government of these laws is that the hearings are before a judge rather than local magistrate.
It seems that the bosses are turning to their time-
honoured tactics of using prison sentences to crush the strike. If the existing law doesn't serve their purposes then they just dig up an old one or the judges make up a new one.
That's what they did with the Tolpuddle tyrs, when they used a law dillicu de tion in the armed forces to deport the early trade unionists. And that's what they did with the postal workers when they tried to support the Grunwick strikers six years ago. The clauses of the law they us-
were originally aimed against highway robbery.
thev aim to use medieval riot laws against the miners.
If miners are sent to jail Whose labour we'd ever been on -
with the 10-week old miners strike.
As women trade
wildl had pressed us most was the thousands organised the wives support groups the march. There had been little obvious police presence on the demon-
nothing like we've got used to in recent London demonstrations or at Greenham.
The only aggro we'd had was from some of our brothers' sexist slogans But us women tried to put an end to that with some success.
We came to the main shopping precinct,
nead Ing for our The
police. As we got nearer to where Ine coache. WCIC waiting, long line of police. al ill linked, greeted us. Behind them
THIS IS AN
UNOFFICIAL PICKET
LINE
morement has to respond.
They're tried before » hen the! ient the Shrewsbury pickets to jail, using imprisonment and repression to smash the workers' movement.
The miners have shown that attempts to divide the labour movement, attempts to starve them back work, attempts to mobilise accus them, attempts to slur and slander them (like with the 'Mine Fuehrer' picture of Scargill) won't work.
Now we all have to show that police repres sion and prison sentences won't work either. As the Shrewsbury pickets' banner said: 'if they take you in the morning ... they will be that night.'
Thugs in blue
WE'D JUST HAD a cup of tea in Littlewoods, after one of the biggest most determined demonstrations,
Mansfield, 14 May, where 40,000 miners. womens support groups and other trade unionists had flocked in to show solidarity
scores of SPG vans. They were raring to go. I was terrified.
Eileen Stanford, chair, TGWU 1/208 branch
They charged into the growing crowd understandably angry demonstrators. The police was beat us down. round and beat us small snatch squads.
Next to me a member of my union was grabbed and we tried to help him. ourselves dragged and kicked by polte was hit on the back of the head by a foulmouthed thug in blue uniform, and ended under
nothing new
new experience for JOEL TGWU. He told Socialist
should surprise no one.
THE EXPERIENCE of communities Newham, Brixton, Tox-
and St brutal mixture of high unemployment deprivation and violent
aust with heavy-handed policing. The history of Britain's black community over the last 30 years is littered WIlN instances of racial attacks.
During the 1970s white housing estates became centres of National Front activity. In the early '80s
нете murdered in broad davlicht in busy streets.
For years now blacks have warned of the tren‹ towards increasing misuse and police powers.
Sadly, these warnings have not been heeded even after such monumental evenis as ine Swamp '81 police operation which led to the Brixton uprisings.
Blacks find it disturbing that white activists are sometimes surprised at the a pile of bodies. . The police arrested my colleague, he's
of the peace and rioting!
Minutes later I saw a
beaten by five policeman His head was pouring with blood. nearer he was encircled by As we tried to
more police to stop us seeing. We walked away shaken towards our coach, only 10 find even more police with batons, some on horses.
They were taking it out
for being on a sucon us, cessful demonstration for
cause the police will never understand. Still, it's what they are paid fo
be it in Mansfield, Not thern Ireland, Greenham
Over duc a coul have been charged with
several with grevious bodily harm. No police have been charged for the intimidation and brutality inflicted working people defending their right to a job.
Police violence is
POLICE VIOLENCE AND intimidation is not a
Britain's black community.
O'LOUGHLIN is a black member of the Action why police behaviour during the course of the miners dispute
'new methods' employed by the police to defeat the miners strike. It is tragic see labour movement activists caught off of snatch squads, plain comes ponce, no gear
ROACH
independent Enquiry
NO COVER UP
ment continually
Socialist Action 25 May 1984
and so on.
At the same time, are baffled at the lack of opposition to the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. Once passed it will give police even widerranging powers, which will be used to crush working class aspirations and ter rorise communities.
Colin Roach demonstration: black people face harass-
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Women join the picket lines
Socialist Action 25 May 1984
South Wales
AS THE MINERS' strike goes into its tenth week women's support committees across South Wales. Now virtually every lodge has a women's committee.
welfare service, but now many of the women are actively spreading the strike and getting involved in picketing.
By Carol O'Byrne, USDAW shop steward, Smiths Foods, Swansea
Hirwaun small mining community not far trom Aberdare, where the Tower colliery is the chief employer. Women there have been doing about 110 food parcels a week.
One of them Barbara Taylor, explained: 'We're irving to make sure that everyone gets eggs child meat. One egg per
per wenk But stree
give out SOlIC parcels without either.'
But this isn't all they're doing. 1 welve the women came to Labour women s terence Swansea and spoke at a Labour Briefing social and to the conference.
At a social in Hirwaun organised by the lodge
club women explained: 'We've got lo get rid of that Thatcher. She's no good TOT people. She's tried to grab back everything WC VC gained. And Neil Kinnock will have to get off the fence if he's going to be of any use to us.
Last week women from Maesteg were picketing, the Margan entrance to the Port stcciwolk.. Women from Hirwaun went up to the Point of
Ayr or Point of Shame
it is known attempt to stop the 60-odd colliers WIlU al c still
working
At Point of Ayr the
trom HOLICHI the police: received 'Welsh
slags' and monkeys' were the taunts.
One man told us that our
mouths made up for our
said Barbara
Tavlor. But despite this
women will be going
back.
elected him'
AFTER 11 weeks of the
dispute the mood of the
pickets is as strong as
ever, despite the claims
of the Tory press. Sup-
port from the rest of the
labour movement has
gathered at a rapid pace
and for us the response
from Merseyside and
Manchester has been
fantastic.
Rank and file trade
unionists and Labour Par-
Full well that if the miners members understand
were to lose this fight then
our class would receive a
great setback.
Even pensioners, the
least well off, are giving
isod parcels. The loca
Labour Party in St Helens
Has now set up a centre for
ine distribution of food.
Despite this solidarity
are springing
At first these were seen as simply providing a
WeeK special women's picket is planned
women and health workers.
The local leadership of the NUM has backed the women, * we president of the food parcels
the South tomas. vice president Wales NUM,
was asked what hethe unhe
women joining pickets: 'I'm all for it', he said, 'We couldn't survive without the support of the women.'
Hopefully the NUM backing will be extensed and we'll see more women on NUM platforms. sexism on picket lines and demonstrations MUSL publicly challenged. In Mansfield were chanting the rughy song: 'Get your tits out for the boys. This is hardly the way to win women's
support for the strike
The Tories want to weaken and divide us. If the strike is to be won it is vital that the NUM does not play into their hands.
MacGregor watch out! The women's army is marching and have the
NUM on our side!
By Ann Talbot, Bold
Miners' Wives Com-
mittee
SUPPORT for the wives'
committee is building up
and after three weeks there
are more than fifty women
involved between
ourselves, Sutton Manor.
and Parkside.
For too long in this
'Kinnock should
remember who
that exists in the move-
ment, the leader of our
Party to sell u:
out. Neil Kinnock should
Tememoci that was
elected with the full back-
ing. the NUM, and
without that support he
wouldn't have got the job.
By Colin Lenton,
branch treasurer Bold
NUM, Lanes
He's sat on the fence
worrying that give
support would lose him
popularity and votes to the
SDP in the Euro-elections.
I say this to Kinnock the
only way to move Labour
forward is to come out on
the side of the miners, 100
per cent. And that means
io join us on the picket
LAST Saturday labour the convoy to Kent.
'I'll live in a
strike we have been tied to
and feeling ine pinch. The money stretched but the support that's coming outside IS tremendous. People are donating plent! of food. but we have to be careful.
If the DHSS find out
parcel they deduct f4 off 11231 you've received lines and to speak at our rates.
At our area meeting in Bolton last week it finally
came to light what we a
Bold have known for a long time.
Agecroft are now on more bonus than ever before, and this in the middle of a bitter fight to save jobs.
They are getting backhanders for crossing our lines.
But what thev don't
realise is that they are do
MacGregor's job for
him helping to destroy our industry. They think their
jobs are safe, but no-one's
are.
Agecroft is now the on
ly pit producing coal. With
the help of the other pits in
Lancs who've now joined
the fight, and the Durham
and Northumberland lads
down here, we'll stop
Agecroft too.
South East London organised a 'food convoy for the Kent miners. Women from the local unemployed centre had been centrally involved in getting the food collec-
Tricia, one of the Kent miners' wives, explained how, on the Friday before, she had been involved with women from the local urea in going into the local Coop to spend €2500 on food. In the end 500 vehicles were involved in
tent if I have to'
your social security.
One woman from Bold has five children and one more on the was. All she gets is £12.60 social. But despite these pressures our resolve is strong.
If I'm evicted personally am willing 10 live in a tent. There's no way they'll break me.
Greater Manchester Confed Daytime shop stewards Friday 25 May 10am Friday
Salford U'niversity
Speakers: Mick McGahey, Sid Vincent (sec, Lanes NUM).
Gerald Kaufman MP
(jointly orgunised with North Hest TUCI
Major Public
RALLY
Women join the
picket lines
AMONG the impressive display of banners swayin above last week's NUM demonstration Mansfield was one wile wa not welcome. Above a picture depicting a shouting
threatening 10 cudgel a miner with a roll- wOlllall ing pin. were the words: The force that kept the Notts miners at work'
where there
in Notts are some 12,000 … or ine coalfield's 30,000 workers on strike the truth is very
Having to cope with the Stress of living in divided communit! getting little or no support from the local NUN! of ficials - some of whom are still at work • joining the men on the picket line. and at the same time trying to scrape together the next meal has made life harder for the Notts' women than anyhody else.
As soon as the first strikers out the women started organising. They occupied community centres turning them over to feeding the strikers and their families. Then they went out collecting door to door and set up stalls in the
They town approached the local Lahour Parties and now many of the wards have 'adopted' a pit
Women well-established groups have
one go her arear t
suppor: LOT -mittees ¡i a resull iner: are now regular meeting
Notts support groups. Last Wednesday
from Notts and women Barnsley picketed the mor ning shifts at Sherwood and Silverhill collieries.
were arrested at Sherwood when they blocked the pit enIrance. . When others were leaving the Silverhill picket one woman was punched in the face and four others including scargili were arrested she had obviously been picked out for arrest.
The police were determined to show that they don't dea lightly with women, either • at Greenham or women who give militant support to ine miners.
But later that aftereven more women nOol
turned out on the picket
aMiners'
Strike
Miners' Support Committee
Bristol c/oluwu, Iranspor Room 1, Victoria S rouse
Tel: 0272 293001 ex 55
Manchester c/0 FTAT. 37 Anson Rd victoria Park, Manchester
Preston c/0 John Parkinson, Trade Union Centre, St Mary's Si North, Preston
Huddersfield «lorrendiv and llauc Club. Northumberland St
Huddersfield
Vauxhall c/o Joan Twelves/Gre Tucker. I Alverstone Hse Kennington Park Estate, London SEll
Southall c/o 14 Featherstone Rd.
Souz Londo
Birmingham i n Trade Linion Rescource Centre.
Frederick St. Hockley.
Ealing c/owes london stad Union Clut, 33 Acton High St. London W?
Southampton : o NUPE District Office. 43 Leigh Rd, Eastleigh.
HantCardiff Room 219, Transport House, 1 Cathedral Rd Cardiff. Tel: 0222 31176
Hounslow c/o lan MacDonald, 220 Wellington Road South Hounslo Middx. Tel: 01-577 3429.
Medway c/o Vince Drongin. Med way Towns Trades Union Council, 19 Randall Rd Chatham, Ken
Bury c/o Brian Marden, 061-76 9648 Oxford c/o Claimants Union.
Princes St, Oxford Leeds dio Distric Lahour Party. 9 Queen Su. Leed 2.
Support the Miners
Rally
Speakers include: Peter Heathfield (NUM General Sec), Jimmy Knapp (NUR), Ron Todd (TGH U). Dennis Skinner MP. Ivor Braggins (Convenor Cowler Assembly Plunt). Kathi McKar (Sheffield Women
against Pit Closures)
Tuesday 5 June, 7.30 pm Oxford Town Hall Organised hy Oxford District Trades Council
Page 5 scan of this page
In the Unions
RAIL UN Rodney Bickerstaffe, NUPE general secretary
NUPE in
conference 1984
By Dave Benlow, Wandsworth district branch secretary
TWO GROUPS OF workers both in struggle, dominated NUPE's 1984 national con. ference — the miners and even more so the striking cleaners at Barking Hospital. their delegations got rapturous applause and bucket collections were organised for them.
As conference progressed we found that Barking was synonomous with 'fighting' and the executive visibly flinched whenever the name cropped up.
NUPE's leadership Bickerstaffe and Ron Keating, the left of the TL C. sector has hotted ur natenail!
the! campaigns of ac:ion against cuts, privatisation and pay, preaching council and hospital workers' national strikes of 1978 and 1982.
This year, were blessed by the executive, so maintaining the union's left stance.
Direct action was called for to support a campaign to counter government nuclear war" propaganda and against the coercion of public authority workers into civil defence preparations. The executive was also called on to lead vampalgni the Lagreur Party and against the current witch greater membership hunts.
But the leadership': displayed whenever actions around public authority and industrial relations problemi. Frank rallan. argued down a motion from Camden calling for supportive action tor Liverpool, saying: should have the 'bottle"
Criticism of the TUC for its role dispute were attacked as 'divisive'. crucial Issue of privatisation expressed the leadership's drift.
On Sunday, the Barking strikers won their call for supportive national industrial action with no hand or voice daring to show against them. Yet the next day, a resolution from Wandsworth calling for national action to beat off the privatisation threat to all sections was branded by Keating as 'extremist' and 'impractical'
He was assisted by anti-Wandsworth slander from some delegates in the Scottish Communist
This resolution dulv tell. douht the seriousness with which the union will treat the support for Barking voted the day before.
The executive also succeeded in introducing a new conas brocedure.
of expelled members conterence. and reading inore like an emplover's handbook than an amendment to union rule.
However the real left wing can emerge witn credit and hope from the conference. VUPE branches, the left is seen to provide answers to the practical problems members face.
Its intervention forced, for the first time, a leftposing leadersmp no an unnory allance win lne rightist Communist Party,
The conference also saw the establishment of lew, non-sectarian national Broad Left. and mo co-ordinated wing activities and policy than ever before. If developments continue in douht that the hak! EC/CP alliance can crumhle and important public ieutor victories can be won.
V FEDERATION Both represented by Rodney
are seen to he on
conclusions trom the
a number of left-wing resolutions
involvement
rightward shift was
called for specific
for the EC.
"Councils
to put up the rates.'
in the NGA But it was the that most clearly
withdrawing existing
appeal 10
For man!
which was almost
interventions. support
these
practice there is no
A NATIONAL OVERTIME BAN and work to rule begins on the railways on 30 May. This is the first industrial action by the (ASLEF and NUR) and marks a historic step away from the defeats of 1982.
pay offer which is dependent on big cuts in train crews jobs. The British Rail Board (BRB) wants to take guards off freight and passenger trains and to do away with the jobs of driver assistants. NUR and ASLEF are demanding a 'substantial pay increase' along with a 35 hour week plus increased holidays and a separation of pay and productivity. The last AGM committed the NU'R to no further talks with the BRB on productivity.
Like the miners. railworkers are experiencing Tory vandalism on a massive scale. Thirty nine thousand jobs have been lost to the industry in the last three years. and the BR Corporate Plan pro poses the loss of another 15.000 jobs in the next four vears.
This will include 1036 signalmen, drivers. 2372 guards, 2188 other Conculatol grades and 6000 salaried staff. Four thousand jobs are to be shed in the rundown of Swindon BREL works (British Rail Engineering) and further 878 jobs are to go in the regional workshops.
The BREL workshops have been decimated with the closure of Temple
East London.
Horwich. Shildon and now the threat; to suin. don and Glasgow works.
Since 1979. investment Ir BR has been reduced by 36 per cent and the government grant for passenger
25 per The BRB has ending list of productivity schemes effecting all grades and is going ahead with wholesale privatisation and sale of ariels. BR as a nationalisted public
system is being hansoll smashed pieces and users will get an even rawer deal than now.
The overtime han must make way for an all-out THE MINERS' MOOD is catching! Now teachers are taking strike action, this time over pay. teachers unions have unanimously rejected a 4.5 per cent offer. and 2, earning an average f7,895 p.a. Earnings have declined by 31 per cent compared to other similar workers since the high-point of 1975. and by 26 per cent in lerm; of buying-power. Sir Keith Joseph's opinion is tas! reacters' of sappt! LIVE IN TESTON
Strike now with
the miners
Rail Union Federation
The federation has turned down a four per cent
sion which can hall the
tion which halt destruction of jobs and public services. Every effort should be made to bring London Transport tube workers and the TSSA into the fight. In his letter to branches explaining the ban. кпарр, NUR general secretary said that of the federation was considering how to extend the action. must call for railworkers to strike alongside the miners.
Railworkers are
already linked directly to the struggle being waged
Teachers strike over
4.5% pay offer
The
The majority of teachers are on Scale 1
¡alaries must obey the las
country. with arten as mili-
3 special
-ra: and the =3:0r
Citation
727) athe: =21= Tade
oy lne miners brough the success of the 'no move-
The BRB have admitted that ess than 10 01 coal moving.
are Strike railways will increase the Slakes , in the miners tighl and force the Tories into a retreat. It is also the onl way to save rail jobs.
By Rose Knight Kings Cross guard
Ray Buckton and Jimmy Knapp have said that Tanworkers have contion cause with the miners. In the May issue of Transport Review, Knapp said stand aside and see then smashed for lack of sup-
would OOHI Ullforgivable and invite more of the same for our own industry. a test of strength conviction that decide the longterm future of both industries.
If the miners get beaten, then, sure as night follows day. many thousands of NUR members will also go to the collections and donations.
The NUT leadership plan selected three-day strike action throughout the country over the next three weeks. But they are only allowing a maximum of 18.000 eachers out of a
B! Rex Haicze
230.00010 :24;
Teachers
ILT.
aside
0IS 02:2.230:
Tres bridge towards real strike action. In their opinion the he way to do this would
Socialist Action 25 May 1984 wall. Hence our commitment to the NUM's struggle.
NEC's of both
I ne unions nave called for joint ASLEF/NUR action committees at local level and special branch and district counci meetings They must go further than this and build las. meetings of railworkers in every area with federation and Triple Alliance
These meetings SocaKeIs should be open to all transport workers, and TSSA workers many of whom are against the divisive stand taken by their NEC.
Power
The power of the the Triple Alliance must now be harnessed o aid both miners and railworkers and defend our industries and public services. Alliance committees should be formed in every area to involve any union prepared to take united action defence of the be that every school whose members vote by a two thirds majority, should take three-day strike action. Besides this we need another national strike day or longer plus immediate ex ended strikes in the =23:
Pressure
VLT ..... -Ui 3e:= the! ...Ci. dill
....cant. au: the ap
enough pressure push the government into conreding arbritration. The JIA oppose arbitration, but they were defeated at
5
I FEDERA
miners and the railworkers.
Triple Alliance delegate conference should • caned o • СО ordinate all-out strike ac tion and to plan a national demonstration this summer. These initiatives could give other workers the confidence fightback and bring down the Tory government. Appeal
An appeal should also be made to rank and file steelworkers. The ISTC agreed in April 1983 to a nine point Triple Alliance plan which said that joint industrial action would be consiacred matter involving any one
arises' (Coal. Rai and Steel - Fighting for a
available from ASLEF, NUR and NUM).
Now is the time to put the committment of 1983 into action. As Arthur Scargill has said, 'if ever there was a time to join in. that time is now' conference this year this ISSUC The leadership say we can get what we want through arbitration.
A figure of 12.5 cent has been named STA : agung:
unless have alread: made a substantially IT.creased offer as a starting point — at least making -= for this year's IC.T.
parabilli short-fall
15 per cer - and urie! all matters of conditior: : service and restructuree of pay-scales are excuse:
In addition. areas tual settlemen! alstnduled or = basis.
Page 6 scan of this page
The future of Eur
6 Socialist Action THIS WEEK sees the final publication of the major party manifestoes for the Euro-elections.
ROSS looks at the issue Manifestoes don't discuss. The real future of Western Europe and the tasks of socialists within it.
Since 1975, perialist centres of Japan, North capitalist state the America and Western Europe have been hit by the economic recession since the 1930s.
In the 'third world' - in the states dominated by imperialism - this crisis is beginning to be an element of really fundamental social dislocation.
In the last ten years revolutions or wars overthrowing capitalism, replacing directly
have taken covernicals. Ethiopia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Angola, Afghanistan, Iran, Grenada and Nicaragua. Full scale civil war is underway in Salvador discontent is rising in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In Latin America the dictatorships of the and 1970s either been overthrown or are facing Argentina, Uruguay, Chile swelling mass social opposition
In the Philippines the beginning o!
he break up of one of the longstanding
Isian dictatorships is underway.
In India the violence in the Punjab,
and now around Bombay,
beginning of the break
stablility in the most populous state still
under capitalist rule.
In the Arab world the last three
working class and poor in Tunisia and years. have seen huge actions of the
Morocco.
Capitalism, in short, is showing its
classic pattern in any
'disintegrating from the edges'
that open crisis then
penetrating into its centre.
development is only too familiar
The seizure of Korea and taiwan
clashes between Britain and France in from Japan
central Africa in 1898-1900, the war of
Italy and Turkey
Moroccan crisis 1911-13, and the Balkan between
Germany In
1912-13
Wals series of events that led to the cataclysm
which in 1914-18 broke out in Europe
itself.
Frightening
The Second World
preceded, and
Japanese attack on Manchuria in 1931.
the insurrection in El Salvador in 1932,
the uprising in Cuba in 1933, the Italian
invasion of Ethiopia in 1935
finally the crisis which had been gather- Spanish Civil War
ing its power in these events errupted
with its full fury in the centre of Europe
and Asia in 1939-45.
Every capitalist crisis
has the same overall
although the specific details vary enor-
mously. Open crisis and disintegration
commences in the periphery
system and then gradually penetrates
farther and further into its centre until
culminates in a shattering
irisis of the system. This pattern is what
te are seeing within world politics toWithin this general development of
world politics
colds specific
multaneously one of the
Links of the world capitalist system as a i hole — capitalism is far more strongly entrenched in Western Europe than in the 'third world' countries nevertheless the weakest link within the imperialist centres themselves.
The strongest fortresses capitalism today are the United States and Japan. The US and Japan have the fastest economic growth, the decisive the most vanced industries and labour movements.
Whereas since 1968, and that now means for sixteen years -waves of working place in such equivalent scale taken place in the United States and
25 May 1984 JOHN the
major
great im-
greatest pro-imperialist
place Laos,
Zimbabwe,
and
Brazil, have
shows the of social crisis. It is first
Will
progressively
The trend of
Japan. 1894, the
independent Democrats and Republicans.
1911-12,
Britain and Furthermore fundamentally were the mounting
Japan.
non-capitalist someties.
USSR. is today, War was Europe
and and the Greece, Spain, of 1936-9 before
the weakest of the
necessarily cnaraciel
the
overall
Western Europe today
place. It strongest
DUl
of world
technologically ad-
the weakest successive class struggle have Western Europe.
of struggle has
In the US the working class has still not set up a mass working class party
the capitalist within Europe itself there are a series of cleavages which
weaken capitalism that continent compared to the L'S and
Firstly Europe is split in two her. ween a capitalist west and a series of
workers states. in its east. A non-capitalist society, the
and in contrast to 1939, the greatest military DOWCI
Furthermore capitalist Europe itself significantly divided between its northern heartland and its southern
Ice Spain, and Portugal are the south weakest imperialist powers and Italy
industrial states. To the west Ireland is not an im-
Italian workers demonstration against abolition of the
perialist state at all but a fundamentally neo-colonial society. e, here is st tonesoled nationa.
is an unresolved national question right through the heart of the most central, the most populous. ine most tion of Europe - the division of Ger- economically developed na-
hetween its eastern and western mans part: in short despite its high degree of imperialist development, Europe riven by fundamental contradictions which render its societies strategically weaker than Japan the States. These contradictions are going to be more and more exacerbated as Western Europe is drawn into maelstrom of world capitalist crisis.
The trends of development are in fact already clear over the sixteen years șince the May/June 1968 general strike in France shattered the post-war calm of Western Europe.
Permanent and acute political crisis
sliding scale of wages.
WORKERS
OF THE WORL
UNITE
YOU HAVE NOTHING
TO LOSE BUT
THATCHER
has gripped the North of Ireland - giving rise, most advanced mass political force in capitalist Europe From 1968-75 in Spain. Italy and Portugal the higgest ware of working class struggles since the Second World War occurred. class shows a continuing massive abill! thoroughly rotten Christian Democrat struggle against dominated political establishment. calmly through the wave of struggles in United the rest since 1979 West Germany has been increasingly shaken firstly by the sheer size of its anti-missiles which flowed from place in the front line of NATO now week West European capitalist society are increasingly coming out in the open.
Given this , in Provisional Sinn Fein, to the
The Italian working what is now
Western Germany passed relatively
Europe from 1968-75. But Britain,
movement Cruise wesl Germany's largest - and since the the struggle for the 35 hour All the fundamental cleavages in
nave reci
change.
The reversed capitalism agenda.
May
cess finally capitalism
UNIONIS
RADE
situation what are the tasks of the West European left, not simply in the next few weeks of the Euro-elections, but in the next ten years of European politics?
The overall character of the situa tion can really be summed up in two fundamental features. Firstly there will he no return in Western Europe to any situation of stability of the type that characterised the 1950s and 1960s
The great wave of working class struggles which started after 1968 itself suffered severe setbacks after 1975 in
Portugal, France and Spain. But this decline in struggles was followed after 1979 hy the movement against
and Pershing missiles mass movement on any Second World War. hen from the end of 1983 onwards, a new wave of working class struggles against austerity has begun in Western Europe
Furthermore these largest clashes
accompanied by ongoing mass struggles against women's oppres sion. racism. national oppression, and io defend the environment.
While the forms of struggles wil
basic underlying social in stablility has heen unleashed in Westerr Europe since 1968 which is not going to
However these struggles are not, it any short or intermediate term going! result in the overthrow of capitalism it any West European state.
One of the reasons the 'extreme left broke its neck in lies that tre fran
was its belief that general strike of that year had opene up a period when the overthrow
immediately The extreme left confused th was beginning of a process with its end
1968 and wha
followed in the rest of Western Europ
was the announcement that the era
post-war social peace was dead. It ar
nounced the heginning of the long pr
struggles and cleavages place the overthrow in Europe on the agend
But it was the beginning of the proce
- not its end.
Outside a catastrophic collapse
the world capitalist economic system
which cannot be ruled out but whic
would in any case require a revising
single political perspective
Page 7 scan of this page
ope
such an overthrow of capitalism Europe is not going to take place in the next e cals.
What then are the perspectives for which socialists must going be a prolonged
gressively deepening crisis in capitalist
curope. tney can oe summed up i six points although of course others could be added.
Firstly, and most continuously, is the struggle to smash back the austerity
offensives of the bourgeoisie. struggle for the shorter working against unemployment week, the fight against inflation struggles such as in Italy to defend automatic cost of living against price rises, the struggle to de-
fend the welfare state damental bedrock any perspective in Western Europe.
Second'v the West curonean working class must link up with the interna-
CONCE struggle acallls!
While capitalism is not overthrown in Europe in the short term
directly threatened
America and a series of other countries.
Linking up with, and carrying
solidarity with these struggles, is a fundamental international perspective of
the European working class. plies also to the struggle of the working
class in Eastern Europe — which opens up also the struggle for the socialist unification of Europe.
Thirdly, and integrally linked to the previous point, is the struggle against
not simply in ine cor onial world but also against the nuclear buld up inside curone against nuclear weapons not simply of he United states but also Britain and France. This involves also the damental and basic struggle 1o smash the NATO alliance.
Fourthly the working class has to champion the struggle and demands of every layer of the oppressed in Europe women's uperatona racism and for black organisation, the national liberation of Ireland. the Basque country, and other nations - in-
cluding, reunitication of Germanv
Wing class and its allies.
in what is
Droof democratic
lilaly
against ine cines to sec lal.
The which socialists are engaged. week - the 35 hour Sixth the
increases
was the lett morement organised. are the fun-
sovialist
organisation to achieve it.
The right
capitalism. going to be
Central
out
This ap-
solidarity
fun-
from a different angle the — are tun. ed damental tasks of the European work- Craxis
even
Fifth the struggle for democracy.
Every single attack being carried out by capital in Europe requires the erosion
freedoms you need only to fook al i nainer s achons in lne North of Ireland, the miners strike, and
gle to defend and extend democracy is
european lett must be organised. In 1914 the European working class suttered catastrophe because fend in only one country in Europe - Russia
the workers In Germany international socialists such as kosa Lux emburg and Karl Leibknecht fought against the cataclysm of war but had no
wing the workers
Making the EEC work for us
Every cut in services hits women.
Hard.
And the government has done nothing to help.
The new Kinnock line - reform the EEC, don't fight against it A co-ordinated European military effort is increasingly on the agenda.
movement in Europe is already organis-
The Mitterands, Soares's internationally cooperate finance each others' operations. The left wing must be organised both in Europe and internationally. The fate of curope many will be declaca or now much that task of organisation can he carried through before crisis which is gripping European society reaches its head.
Those six tasks - the fight against austerity, to defend the working class struggling throughout the world, fight for peace, to forge an alliance of all the exploited and oppressed, to de-
extend democracy. organise the left both nationally and internationally - are the kev tasks of socialists in Europe
They should and must form the core of any real socialist manifesto for the European elections. They are policy for participating in the EEC but for fighting to destroy it.
and and
elki
not a 35 hours
THE FIGHT being waged by West Germany's giant engineering trade 35-hour week with no loss of pay is escalating rapidly. week the employers' federation, the DGB, intends to lock out tens of thousands of workers in retaliation for the IG Metall strikes.
have threatening a one day general strike in the industrial regions.
The struggle for the 35-hour week
— a reduction of five hours — has been launched by the IG Metall leadership to
moving towards three million in West Germany. Led by the union's new vice-president Franz Steinkuhler, the union has argued the case for the 35 hours on an explicitly anti-capitalist basis. By Phil Hearse
Faced with total intransigence trom the employers, who refused even to negotiate on the question, the union has responded by carrying out a series of ballots among its membership for strike action
Under West German law need a 75 per cent 'yes' ballot to go ahead with a strike. In its first ballot in
industrial are Wuttemburg around Metall got over 80 ballot in favour of a strike.
As a result 60 thousand workers in the region, which includes several large Cal including Daimler-Benz network, strike for nearly two weeks.
A total of 14,000 workers in the car and car components industry are on strike in the region. The employers, and especially responded by they will lay off thousands of workers in plants outside the region who will
no components Daimler Benz intended 21,000 workers at their Sindelfingen plant, but a total of 65,000 workers could be affected by the lockouts.
Already workers have been locked out of the BMW holding a demonstration plant on the slogan deserves to be locked up'.
The right wing Helmut Kohl has intervened decisively on the side of the employers by getting the Federal Labour Office to announce that workers layed off as a result of the strike would not receive unemployment benefit. This, said the Labour Office, 'neutrality' in labour struggles!
The second of IG Metall's ballots, in the Hesse region around Frankfurt, also produced an 80 per cent in favour of a strike. From this week 32,000 workers in the region will be out on strike, including at the Opel car factory. As a result of the strike in this region, lay off an incredible 60,000 workers from this Wednesday.
All in all, with the support of the printing union IG Druck, hundreds of thousands of workers will be affected
Socialist Action STREIK
Dieser o wird bestreifes
Fighting for
IG Metall union for
Starting this
The responded by
rapidly unions
of BadenStuttgart, IG
LIRI huge have been on
German
Daimler-Benz have saying that next Week
Leaders
lo lay off tion'
symptomatic
plant in Munich, left. , outside the 'Who locks out
government of The
widely
new tradition
majority
Wing Volkswagen are threatening to
25 May 1984 7 STREIK
Dieser Bett.co
wird bestreikt
German workers strike for 35-hour week.
35
by lock-out and strike. The toughness
empioyers reflects the huge stakes involved in the struggle. The granting of a 35-hour week to combat unemployment will represent some sort of admission that the workers are not responsible for the economic crisis, but much worse will significantly lower the productivity of West German industry. Moreover, the employers realise that granting a 35 hour week to IG Metall will have a knock-on effect throughout
mousury. A success for the workers would result in a rash of demands throughout German industr! and the rest of Europe for a reduction of the work week.
of the SPD. Germany's equivalent of the Labour Party, have been calling for a 'compromise solu-
at their annual conference Essen. The appeal for a compromise is
of the desire by part! leader Hans Jochen Vogel to 're-centre the party after its recent swing to the
Vogel has called for moderation to win back middle class voters to the party. Only on defence has the SPD leadership maintained a left-wing position.
leftward move of the SPD leadership in the last iwo years was
interpreted as an attempt to head off the development of a left wing at the base of the party. Whether this
'moderation' will rebellion at the base has yet to be seen.
The big German companies are now saying that they are not prepared to give a single hour off the working da but are prepared to offer 'work-time flexibility' on a company by company basis. It seems certain that this would not amount to any reduction in work
without loss ot pay, but rather shorter hours in return for a wage cut as proposed in Britain by Len Murray.
With hundreds of thousands of workers on strike or locked out, the IG Metall leadership could not easily ac cept such a climb down.
Page 8 scan of this page
Marcos regime under threat
8
repression
VILMA SOTO CAMPOS, the European representative of ANDES, the Salvadorean teachers union, was in Edinburgh two weeks ago. GILL LEE spoke to her.
Can you describe for us. Vilma, the conditions which exist for children in working class schools in El Calvador?
The conditions which exist ir. Salvadorean schools are serv poor and very, very sad. Our schools lack even the most basic teaching materials. here al C schools which don't even have desks at which the enniaren call Sit and we have classes of 40 or 45 pupils, packed
that they can't OCCLICI even write.
teachers have to work in really very difficult conditions. In the first place the salary is very low and so doesn't cover their basic needs. SecondIy, teachers are faced with great pain because of the
face for the very fact of being teachers. They constantly nave l0 take security measures just io survive.
Salvadorean teachers must avoid establishing a
their work.
Each morning they must arrive school five minutes earner or five minutes later because the army watching them. There have been several cases of teachers who have arrived at school every day at the same time and have been assassinated.
Teachers do not sleep
reacefully at night it's
quite usual for the military to come ana lake you vul
of your house at night and
simply dissap-
Can you tell us about the
ANDES, history June and the work that it
does?
ANDES was founded in
1965 and since the beginn-
ing one of its aims has been
o gain for teachers the
dignity had been
denied us and to establish
rights teachers But
ANDES has always been
conscious of the need not
o forget the problems of
he people. Teachers in El
Salvador are not a privileg-
ed class set above the peo-
Fie.
We come from families
af peasants and workers
and so we are well linked
the people. In our
history these are the dates
of the two national strikes
of ANDES. 1968 and
1971, are very important.
On these dates the teachers
Laught the Salvadorean
people very important
practical about
organisation.
We taught that the way win our rights
through organisation,
even though this has cost
dearly. 327 teachers
have been assassinated. 54
have disappeared. Seven
reachers are in prison and
more than 3000 are in ex-
Le.
Socialist Action 25 May 1984
Salvadorean
teachers fight
The price has been very high. But teachers are conscious or lne neca lo go on fighting.
How do unions organise under the extreme conditions of repression which
workers, and
union
tact and charge
careful keep the
tain union activity and keep the con-
How for ANDES international
Campaign?
solidarity
support by
government the Minister of Education.
is For ex-
ample that the
which can
learn.
doesn't have the
position
Wat •
We don't ally
people.
The Salvadorean
represent any kind of solution to the problems because the problems lie much deeper.
Duarte already been in power as part of the junta and in that period the most horrible crimes were committed and there were large numbers of deaths. Duarte did nothing to stop them. he is unconditionally at the service of the United States.
The solution in El Salvador dialogue. I nis snoulan l De secul a. being just between two sides, the government and the guerrillas. The whole of the Salvadorean people, the oppressed the working people are struggle, not just a group. In the meantime. until we arrive Recondlily solution, we have to continue on the military road, in which case the people have to continue fighting.
by political and economic crises.
outcome of the elections is unclear.
political turmoil since last
try the Marcos regime is
At play in Chalatenango province US administration desperately trying to bolster up the Marcos government and restore some stability to a regime hard hit fort the US actively promoted elections for a National Assembly which took place on 14 May. The
As in El Salvador a major target of the exercise is improving the regime's international image par-
assassination and the bla-
By Joe Hampton (Philippines Support Group)
Aquino's funeral September 500,000 joined the country's largest ever
it is expected that well over
hal: che population will horce!! the elections.
Since lar! August the opposition has become in.
and Creasing "Old radical in its political demands. Major sectors of even the middle class opposition now openly support the underground left's demands no only for the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship
military bases economic domination.
This shift to the left has been fuelled by the consistent backing Marcos given by the Reagan administration. Aquino and others had hoped to per suade the US to transfe allegiance 10 them. But before, and even since the killing the US Government has made it clear tha
it continues to back Marcos. He is the only person able to hold together the military and so defend US interests.
In a recent speech to a Manila Dusty club American Ambassador
Armacost refered to US private investments worth assured his audience and billion
have a large stake in the
Vol this country'.
The Americans also have major naval airbases and more than 1500 troops stationed there
Since the killing the US has atat through his wors also Marcos
ever financia! crisis. devaluations in six months dropped the exchange rate from nine pesos 10 16 pesos per SIUS. December the Philippines defaulted for the first time on even the repayments of its $25 billion foreign debt
Yet also in December the World Bank released $350
millions emergenc! loans.
Because of the default on payments the IMF due reschedule repayments and impose a stringent package economic measures. This will almost certainly clude further devaluation. However help regime the package will not be announced until after the May elections.
Through its support
for elections the US now
hopes to rebuild some of
its links with the elite op
position and wean them
from their alliance
away with the left. This policy
has met with some success
some
associates of Aquino lo
add credibility to the elec-
tion by running against the
government party call
didates
International
But this does nothing
blem for the US posed b the rapid expansion of the revolutionarv forces. The len Peoples Army, has strength in the last years and by the end of 1983 had 16,000 full time guerrillas operating in 45 fronts in 56 out of 73 pro. vinces.
In the clues revolu tionary underground networks are also growing rapiary. un te inausind front economic recession is being met by increased workers militancy. In October 1983 union busting activities and attacks on pickets in a British com. pany (Astec Electronics, a subsidiary Midlands based BSR) led general strike of 14,000 workers in the major Free Trade Zone.
Recently the US has given signs that prepared become 'militarily' involved. The 1983 renegotiated US bases agreement provides for Us troops to engage in military operations even outside the perimeter their bases. Also in 1983 the US and Philippine Armed Forces engaged in joint military exercises in volving more than 15,000 troops.
The Philippines National Democratic Front that represents the revolu tionary Torces anu olic. opposition groups have appealed for international solidarity and action
the discredited Marcos regime particularly by ending the military and economic aid which it depends
Philippines Support Group write to PSG , BM BOx 758, London WCIN 3XX.
Page 9 scan of this page
News
PRESIDENT REAGAN's visit for the World Summit on 9 June has helped bring about a determination and unity in the peace movement that has been missing for six months. Coaches and trains have been booked by CND groups and regions around the country.
All socialists committed to huilding a mass campaign agains? nuclear "еароп» mus: throw nemase les massive demonstration a building June opposition Reagan's Furo-missiles and tor nuclear free Europe. But
demonstration has also shown the deep crisis of strategy thal nas hit the peace movement.
By Dick Withecombe. CND national council MeemDer (personal capacity)
held The wicel sentiments against US foreign policy has prevented a decline in the
fact movennent.
Easter actions against Us nases helped to mobilise tens of thousands of CND
But the hig question being asked around the country is what do we do now cruise has arrived?
CND's leadership has floundered for months. They understand that will take big social forces
get TIO CruIse.
However aren' the radical the forces they ook lo
wing labour movement hut the 'broad
SDPl L'alral and Tore
Liberal and Tory
wets of Professor Eric
Hobsbawm.
Fortunately the peace
movement inrew out the new realism of a freeze at
CND conference in
December. Since then the
right in CND have been
regrouping. hese discussions will slowly
emerge in the build up
this year's CND
conference.
For the last six months
however, CND's leaders
have simply failed to lead.
The response the
movement of the cruise
YOU
COULI
bENEXT
Out with US
Euro- missiles!
and LUlIVUY. evictions from Greenham
Commor has neen un oordinated. Worse. CAD: Janudrl national council decided not
protest U allisc ally against Reagan's visit.
Pressure from CND groups, Action '84 and, in particular, London region CND's decision organise a demonstration on June eventually forced a reversal. li was only in April national demonstration was decided And national publicity has only heen available since the heginning of May.
As a result it is likely that 9 June may well he smaller than the quartermillion cemonstauon during Reagan's last visit.
Peace movement
tivists have scored big success in fighting tor the future of CND by this demonstration But
must not stop there. It will
be in the CND groups that the march will be built.
And the future policies ot
the movement must he oecoec ov
ivists as well, not in secre
Goodwin
ICCEle
Street, or the edited pages
of Sanity.
It is the mass sentiment
against US foreign policy which is understood by
millions as bring a nuclear holocaust closer, that fires
CND's continued growth. Further actions must key
into that sentiment.
Al ine same tine,
have no interest in replac-
ing US Euro-missiles with
force de frappe and in-
dependent turopean
nuclear deterrents. That is nuclear eree Europt from slogan
will
Portugal to Poland' is now
one that must be taken up
by the whole peace move-
ment.
DON'T
Next Week
NUM. continues Labour's alliance for socialism.
NCB WN: 3
OüR BL000 Kent miners wives who visited Greenham last weekend
YANK'D
Jack Collins, secretary of the Kent
the debate on
never visited Greenham mediately struck by the militarisation of the area.
'It's like the Berlin wall,' was the response of Tricia, one of the Kent v'omer shocked to Others see soldiers were
carrying rifles patrolling the gates seems unbelievable that this is happening in Britain, they said.
Sue addressed gathering of older women who had come down Greenham for the day. 'Grannies for Peace' was the theme, though some of the women objectec this: I'm not just grannie, I'm a woman in my own right.' Sue told those gathered to meet the Kent wollch. 'Mining
Westminster
THE MINERS strike
is leading a whole lot
of challenges to the
Thatcher government. The NUM is fighting
to save jobs, pits and
mining communities from the decimation
that the Tory ag-
gressors want to impose.
Closing Cortonwood colliery only five days altel assulallcs were given that it would stay open was a provokation. part of the Tory plan to inflict a quick defeat on the miners using police intimidation press vilification and attempts to starve the miners back to work. It has talled. The government getting, desperate while miners' morale is high, and solidarity is growing The latest figures show 8 per cent of miners out on strike. Even areas w hich SUIC originally like the Staffordshire miners who came down to my constituenci recenti have come out Morale high because the miners can see that the government is rattled: the fact that thes won't give coalstock figures, that more and more imported oil is having to be burned in Hence OWC SLalIUIS the latest attempts to present Arthur Scargill doing a Nazi salute, and the of the riotous USC assembly charges.
Throughout all this
ficia o stance no's
stance non-interference has become ridiculous. MacGregor has slipped out of the pic ture. It's more and more
Socialist Action 25 May 1984
Mining women
visit Greenham
KENT MINERS' WIVES visiting Greenham Common last Sunday met with an enthusiastic response from women at the camp and others down for the day. The women from the mining communities had
before. They were im-
WIlcI and Greenham women are fighting for the same thing a future for our children.'
Later in the afternoon the Ken1 wullicil participated in spontaneous sit-down front of the Orange gate Women sang songs inal have become traditional at Greenham, until some 01 the asked the miners' wives to sing one of their songs. ever yone joined in as they sang: 'We're fighting for the miners' jobs tarrah, tar-ran/ We're fighting for the miners' rab We'll pickel and we'l lar-rah,
The view from
obvious that he's doing the government's bidding By Harry Cohen (MP for Leyton)
grass rools leve. the constituencies are ne ne ul l a vizway But there hasn't been enough support in parliament. The Labour front bench have shirked getting a proper debate on the dispute. There hasn't been one in the 10 weeks of the strike. desperation the Campaign Group has tabled a resolution givıng full support to the NUM In its justified dispute and saying we have no confidence in the governis ment's handling of it though deDalt unlikely because of the House of Commons' ridiculous rules. This has been supporiea Dy ovei 60 Labour MPs Campaign Group has made all the rulilll, parliament.
We discuss the dispute at our weekly meetings, and regularly have miners Icaucis along. We have imposed a £5 a week levy members, and ULI have successfully fought for the whole Parliamentary Labour Party to do likewise.
The fact is that the dispute escalating.
And the miners' determination is having its effect throughout whole labour movement. ace use tenes ol example, coming out for their justified pay claim The original offer was inlNS uCI ay 1 1111 behind the 1974 levels o the Houghton Report They're suffering job
Oxford Rally Cruise Missiles Return to sender
Speakers, Pat Arrowsmith, Helen John, Ernie Roberts MP, Tracey
Doyle (YCND), Chair: cllr Phyllis Starkey Wednesday 30 May 7.30pm Oxford Town Hail Organised by Oxford Reagan Reception Committee
9 organise/The bosses won'l believe eyes/ The miners' wives will organise/To kick MacGregor out, to kick MacGregor out.
Women staying at the Orange gate callls explained they were
half the mone! senoils they received to the miners and other groups struggle: Offered blankers they said: 'Send them to the miners, they need them more than us
The visit, organised b! Labour • womens sections. will help draw out
links between the miners' fight for jobs and the other struggles against the Tory government. including against the missiles Now the Kent wives will help fight for a big contingent ot on the CND march against Reagan on 9 June. losses as well because the government schools up and down the country, instead of taking advantage of falling rolls to improve educa tion by better pupilteacher ratios.
The teachers' action unusual for them..
Their militancy in-
creased. It's the same
with the rail workers
claim, and with opposi-
abolition and
local government cuts.
The working class is won't be
baylllz
legislated out of a job.
we won't be put under
Thatcher's iron heel: we
will resist
The Tories might
have won some tactical
worrins class right
working class
against enforced
unemployment, against
cuts pudic scl viles
against the decimation of
wnole communics,
short against the
redistribution of wealth
from working people to
the rich will continue
and intensity.
During these strug
gles we've got to begin o
win people over to the
socialist measures vital to
turning the Tory
Now we've begun down
the road sweeping
away the Tory myth that
theirs is the only solu-
tion. They've got away
with it for too long. Soon
they' re going to get their
come-uppance.
Page 10 scan of this page
10 Socialist Action 25 May 1984
GAY
THEATRE
"You can the Special Branch are in — always,
they're the ones
Taking Liberties
Tory MP Keith Hampson did us all a favour by getting arrested for policeman in a gay bar in Soho. Although presumably it was a coincidence that news should break at the same time that the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill was having its Third Reading in the House of Commons, it nonetheless provided a perfect demonstration of the hypocrisy of the British state in all its tawdriness.
Peter Purton
Alliance MPs rapidly cobbled together an amendment to the Police Bill to reduce the powers of arrest that the police have under the 1956 Sexual Offences Act. They proposed that in future only police in uniform could make arrests for 'importuning' or 'gross indecency', evidence would not be admissable unless a third person would testify to having been offended.
Needless to say, the government defeated it. But the debate publicised the widespread and fierce persecution of lesbians and gay men by the police, and the connivance of most MPs of every party in this, until one of their own number fell foul of this repressive and discriminatory law.
Mr Eldon police had any conscious policy of harassing gays. Events in recent months suggest otherwise. Following on from the spate of cases involving the entrapment of gay men by 'pretty police' in Earls Court last summer (most of them subsequently acquitted) there have been numerous other cases of clearly organised harassment, the most significant being the raid by Customs and Excise officers on the London lesbian and bookshop, Gays the Word on 10 April and the descent of 60 police on the gay disco at 'The Bell' in Kings Cross, plain-clothes operations against 'male opportuning' have to be authorised at a very high level, we can conclude only that either the police on the ground are out of control - or that there is a high-level police conspiracy to crack down on lesbians and gay men.
Indeed, the debate that the police will re-affirm their rules against acting as agents provocateurs can only be interpreted as an official admission that such behaviour takes place.
Lesbians and gey men have been prominent in the opposition to the massive con-
solidation and extension of police powers
represented by the Police Bill. If the sudden
display of concern in the House of Commons
wakes up the Labour
threat,
made his best contribution
defence of democratic rights.
off
Bryon mcalliste
tell when pickets dressed as
importuning
the presently
and that the
Griffiths denied the London
community
London. Since
the government's concession in
movement to the then perhaps Keith Hampson will
to the
Black sections
DIANE ABBOT is a Labour councillor in the Paddington area of London, and one of the few black women elected as a delegate to Labour women's conference in Swansea two weeks ago.
The women's conference overwhelmingly endorsed the call to give constitutional rights to black sections of the party. Diane spoke forcefully in the debate. JUDE WOODWARD talked to her about why black sections are so crucial.
'When first " dy Labour selecicu councillor my • area Paddington. 1 was very concerned not to fall into the trap that many other black people elected such Phat is to become cut
from other black people.
wanted be accountable black people in the area. But when I looked at mv local party there were no black people there, even though the majority of voters are black.
'So I organised a black caucus of party members
Paddington was then. The main thing that we tound was that there were actually rather a lot
black Labour Party members. 1 ney came oul of the closet so to speak ana became active tor the first time.
'The organisation of the black caucus helped channel black people into the mainstream of Labour Party activity. People who wouldn't have had the confidence do that without a group of black peopic to relale to.
Since Inen Westminster North, as it
Kollontai:
SO MANY MYTHS surround Alexandra Kollontai.
This edition of Selected Writings, compiled and in-
troduced by Alix Holt, is a very welcome format. helping to guide the reader through her work.
First woman member of the Bolshevik Central Com-
mittee; present at the Reichstag when they voted for
war credits; imprisoned in summer 1917 and sup-
porter of the Workers Opposition. But the greatest
contribution she is remembered for, certainly in
today's womens movement, is her unique writings
on the connection between personal relationships
and social change, and her insistence that socialists
recognise the importance of this question.
I prefer her writings on sexual liberation
women.
and socialism - iney are
VICIOUS and rare, only
achievable the
conditions that were
generated by the Russian
Revolution the potential
unleashed by the working
class seizing power
So I turned straight to
Morality and the New
Society. But for new
Kollontai fans, don't miss
Oll Women and the
Revolution. It contains
Kollontai's pamphlet
Working Woman and
Mother which is simple
and brilliant (a word of
warning though
doesn't menon conud
ception once!) Her ability
to project images of the
new socialist society in easily
accessible propaganda
made her, together with
Trotsky, the most popular
now is, has become one of
formal recent on the
recognition black sections.
'In my view there are four main aims to black
Firstly, I've said, they encourage black
to feel confident and able to talk. Secondly it gives them a framework to discuss and form policy
things of concern to black people. Force
"Thirdly they allow black people to organise to fight for those things in the mainstream of the Labour Party. And fourthly through Cal organise tor more black
MPs, school governors and so on. But
framework where they are accountable to black people.
'I don't think white people are going lo give
people anything in the Labour Party. If black people want power
the waiting for the paternansac wales to gem us as we are constantly urged to do, has got black people nowhere.
"Motherhood not
a private matter"
Kollontai had a very rich political experience.
speaker of all the leaders
of the revolution.
The pamphlet was one
of the gains coming out 01
the Women's Departments
Dovel Russia which
were eventually agreed in
1919, and which organised milion delmen by 1921! 6000 delegates
review by Steph Grant
The message, repeated
time and again, was that
'motherhood
private matter, it's a socia
which this has been
distorted in present Soviet
society, with medals TOT
multiple births, shows the
dangers of this statement,
if 1lUl backed up by
society which guarantees
women equality, economic
'I think it is very important that women's con-
has passed the resolution on black sections. It adds to the force being brought to bear on the leadership on this issue.
'It appears that the leadership the party is against black caucuses. They to be sayIlle they'll be infiltrated by the left. It's funny that Mililant are against them because they think they are
diversion and will be taken over by the right!
Activists
'But the real issue about white power in une Labour Party and people never give up power willingly - whites, men or the ruling class. That's why il is important for black peopie to urganise
"There is a national June for CONC CICe black activists the Labour Party who are in terested and want to find out more about black sections.
'As I said in the debate: black sections are not separatist thing. The idea
black people's contribution the mainstream of polties It is very hypocritical of people who have not been bothered about an all-white conference and all-white CLPs for years to start saying that black sections are separatact. We've goi facto separatism already.
and
freedom of choice.
But back to sex. Her
essays are the best express-
ed ideas of life in a new
socialist society I've read.
She talks of a 'communist
morality' which will derive
from the working class.
the model of relations that
would be in the
of the collective Come destine Prison
comradeship.
ed directly at men i think,
also something
but lt 1s
women will have to build
up, in shaking off the trap
pings of bourgeois morall
ty.
The best, and most
political of her essays
me has to be Sexual Rela-
tions and the Class sirus
gle. It's almost impossible
to describe the effect it has
on you, she has the talent
of asking exactly the same
questions that always
haunted me as a teminist
and a socialist.
She tackles it with a
directness that
refreshing, in the midst of
the first workers revolu-
tion, she saying why
how to 'unravel the tangle'
of sexual relations.
For Kollontai. 'the
ideas and code of sexual
morality that the working
class develops reflect the
demands of the working
'If blacks want
powers, they
should take it!'
FREEDOM
from
POLICE
RRUTALITY
'A forum for black people to form policy
Published by Busby, price £4.95.
class and therefore serve as
a new weapon in its social
struggle She spoke out in
a world that still could not
come to terms with wal
this potential meant for a
le v SUCICLY
It will touch a sensitive
spot in the innermost part
of any socialist
question that socialist
women are begins
confront • how does a
Socials! act their
'private life', , in their per-
relationships with
other people and in par-
ticular, one other person?
Sexual Politics
ROI HE ARGI
HANDS
Allison and
The only real criticism I have of her that she never deals with relationships OCIWCCI women and women, men and men.
But Kollontai inspiration. politically active
Women.
time acute
have it fany coiah. sie
nave it tairly tough.
always have the extra
burden raising Vul
voices to be heard, , to be counted, be taken
seriously.
Page 11 scan of this page
Cracks in government line?
News
Liverpool budget:
BENEATH THE DIPLOMATIC language in which comments on last Thursday's meeting Liverpool city councillors Secretary Patrick Jenkin were couched, some cracks look likely to appear in the government's hard line on city spending. Between now and Jenkin's visit to Liverpool in early June, ment and city council officers will get together to find possible ways of resolving the irresolvable.
They will seek 10 discover 'a way that avoids any ditticulties in relanon to job losses and loss of services' produces *a lawful and
After Labour's recent electoral
Tory vote in local elections
it is doubtful everywhere. that the Labour council is thinking of backing down.
More nkely unal minister Jenkin Is somewhat persuaded to do some backing down himself. In view of the Tories' embarrassment at the local polls and their unsuccessful strategy smash the miners' strike as quickly as possible. government advisors must now be reconsidering the desirability of tackling Liverpool head on at this
The strong stand of Liverpool council has won support from labour movement. This popular pressure has been
enough so far to force the
POLY TECHNE OF MORTN LOMDOM PRIVATE PROPERTY
NO THROUGH ROAD
Patrick Harrington.
ended without any arrests.
The barricades will con-
tinue to go up every me
Harrington wishes to enter
BICI Poly. The college
Directorate still refuse to
expel him, the NF to climh
down or the law courts to
go back on their decision
that the protest is illegal.
Indeed, Harrington is
now moving an injuncon
against the Director of the
Poly, David Macdowall.
for a panic move in which
he temporarily closed the
college last Thursday, thus
also perhaps making him
in contempt court
decision that Harrington
must he allowed to attend
his lectures.
Derweel and Environment
Department of Environ-
Labour Party NEC to support the council. despite leader Neil Kinnock': reserved position.
By Carol Turner
Speaking press following Liverpool's meeting with Patrick Jenkin, deputy leader Derek Hatton described the spirit of that meeting as 'probably the most hopeful yet seen'.
This was reinforced by newiv-elected Councillor Tony Mulhearn who said:
that the electorate has the most overwhelming victory the May elections. There was a definite spirit to find a solution. But we made it absolutely clear that the position regarding any further redundancies. any further Cus in public services are grabs as far as Liverpool Riot squad police prepare to escort NF student Patrick Harrington through mass pickets
The Nazi at North London Poly
LAST THURSDAY 200 police, many in full riot gear, stormed into the Polytechnic of North London's Kentish Town site over barricades of tables, chairs and lockers put up by students protesting at the presence in the college of a top NF organiser,
This attempt by the police to bring to a head three months of peaceful picketing of Harrington's lectures by the students fortunately
Harrington first attended PNL two years ago Cule v his NF connections were discovered. Picketing then brought about his swift departure, but last March he returned, granted readon a philosophy course by the director.
The pickets, which like the barricades, were drawn from a wide section of stu-
By Jan Gorvett (PNL Labour Clab)
dent opinion were then brought before the courts by Harrington's NF
city council is concerned.
Alter all. whv should they be? Liverpool's stand
The council has always said it is prepared consider anything beyond its hottom line: no loss of jobs
and allu friends who sent a photographer the picket line to help them identity those prominent in the
— 20 photos evenDIOLCSI tually being produced. However, due to the sudden amnesia of many lecturers asked to identify the students by the court, only two students have so far been named by rightwing, non-union lecturers.
20CEOu two, all 13 members of the students executive are to have injunctions
served on
organising the protest
successful
here would lead to the se
questering of union funds
and thus the collapse of
Faced with the pro-
SOCCI ot arrest and six
months imprisonment for
obstructing Harrington (Justice Mars-Jones had
specially cleared his court
of business last Thursday
to deal with the expected
Eric Heffer with council leader John Hamilton on 29 March demonstration
massive rate increase.
Left Labour councils can practice diplomacy
Liverpool have held off selling illegal budget for which they now have a clear manly, lo make perfectly clear that COnCessons must come arrests) the students had no option but to barricade themselves into the Poly when Harrington peared last Thursday and provoked the ensuing chaos. WITN a personal police bodyguard of 20 and with all the students shut off in a different part
Ine ounding Harr ington did finally make it inside to sit in the library for 20 minutes.
Action
The police action and the threat of arrests has done nothing to deter the students though from their
Mass meetings at Kentish Town have consistently voted by overwhelming maonlie. continue the action despite
judicial uner threats. It seems then, that
student and staff solidarity, student action,
petence and draconian
VICTI TO TI MINE from the originators of Liverpool's current problems a Tory government hell-bent on squeez. ing the poor by cutting public service funds
those local councils they can't control. police measures the dispute is set to continue and escalate with the possibility of violence and mass arrests coming ever CIOSCE.
In these circumstances the students need as much support as possible in their efforts to deny this person a platform to spread his
wisted views through the Polytechnic. Mass actions are now planned for every Tuesday afternoon and Thursday morning when Harrington is due to turn up for his lectures.
There are wide-ranging implications not only for the student movement but for anti-fascists and anti-racists everywhere in this dispute. If Harrington is successful he could easily bring down a Students Union and send many of his opponents to jail quite possibly in line with his origina intentions when seeking readmission to the Polytechnic.
Socialist Action 25 May 1984
Manchester
Labour Group
FOLLOWING the national executive decision to reinstate Manchester city councillors expelled from the Labour Group, party chairperson Eric Heffer last week convened meeting of the new, official Labour Group of Manchester city coun cil.
In line with city party policy, the meeting nominated Cllr Graham
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
Policeman
gives to
strike fund
THERE they were on the
picket line at a midlands'
pit. The branch chair of
the Welsh i miner's lodge
doing picketing
noticed the fair-haired
young picket with an im-
pecabble Welsh accent
buzzing around like
busy bee.
Being a friendly chap
he asked the lad where he
came from and got the
reply lodge
which oddly enough was
where the chair was
from. Our picket when
asked couldn't
remember the names of
any of 'his' lodge of-
ficials, 'I am too tired to
remember' he explained
The other pickets im-
mediately did a 'workers
enquiry' in to the matter.
He was stripped of his
clothes, turned
warrant card, his wallet
was lakel over to help
the strike fund and he
dipped into the
canal
As far as I know he
hasn't asked for his
money back nor has he
reported the 'assault' to
superiors! The
branch Chalt апа пІ
helpers are too modest
about their fund raising
activity to let us publist
their names and lodge.
The wel and skint
'picket' is also too
modest to want his name
published.
Top Stud
Farm
IT HAS now been of-
ficially confirmed by no
less an authority than
11
Right wing boycott
Stringer as council leader and John Nicholson as hi deputy. Nominations for committee cans and vee chairs were likewise those agreed Dy lie cily Lbaoul Party.
will be decided at the full
this Wednesday. As only seven of the right wing Labour councillors turned up for the group meeting, it stil remains to be seen how things will go on Wednesday.
Burke's Peerage, that all Inost Chines. wonders aren't human beings at all.
Mr Brooks-Baker the publisning director Burkes describes them a 'blood and gold stock because they guarantee ancient lineage. lots money or both. Apparently our peers have cottoned on that Burkes
'continually getting requests from Europe
United well the States and Canada' about marriagable 'stock'. What the enCHICH Wall are 'the most eligible wealthy
and unmarried ne resse heirs to titles'.
Robert Sangster who has made millions by buying brood mares and stallions in the horse racing game, Bri tain's aristocracy are turning their stately homes into a stud farm with an eye to flogging off their siblings later on the international marriage market. I am sure under socialism will put these lads and lassies to far better use, than simp ly being marketable commodoties.
RCP speaks
the truth IN ITS May 1984 edition
the Next Step paper of the Revolutionary
munist Party says: 'The
left met the RCP's call for a national campaign to win a ballot for an all-out national (miners") strike with derision.'
Who am I to quarrel Will a profound comment?
Moles bye view Is com.
piled by Bob Penn.
ington Contributions
Should be seal to arre
by Thursday am.
Page 12 scan of this page
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against
Botha
South Africa.
apartheid boss.
Whatever the official position, of course. South
the Western alliance. But under and Thatcher there has been a strong push by the leading Western powers to give much more open support lo South Africa. Botha's risit is symbolic of this
bring In t apartheid regime hack into une nemauona od
By Phil Hearse
During Botha's visit there will be discussions
the British government 1io South Africa, arms
especially anti-submarine Dialics Also under discussion Will be South Africans' request
ANC office une London be thrown out by Thatcher on grounds that it Wher "terrorist' office. her the aftermath
Libyan Thatcher will be prepared
along with this demand remains LU be seen.
Botha's request on the ANC office is highly ironic
light of the proved activities carried out trom the South African embassy in Trafalgar Square. Two years ago the ANC office in London was bombed an ait which was widely suspected of having been organised by BOSS the South African security service.
Other dirty tricks organised from the South African embassy include a series burglaries organised against anti-apartheid of documenss
he theft documents trom ine Anti-Apartheid movement and the ANC and SWAPO offices; and the organisation of illegal arms shipments to South Africa.
Activities
The Foreign Office and the British government as a knole know dul wen. thal these activities have been
nothing to stop them.
Botha's visit comes at a time when the full meaning of the apartheid system is becoming even more apparent through a series of utterly barbaric moves by the South African govern. ment. The 'Bantustan' system of internal exile for "surplus' blacks is now being rigorously enforced. In
ON 2 JUNE the South Africa prime minister PW Botha arrives in Britain for his state visit organised by Thatcher. The same day the English rugby team plays the first match of its South African tour another sign of the changing official attitude to
This is also the day on which Anti-Apartheid has organised its protest against Botha's visit — a protest which must lead to a huge repudiation of the
effect, this means that blacks other than those needed the white employers are heing shipped hundreds of thousands to impoverished black 'homelands'.
in most or inese area. the women, children and
Teauves on black workers are left to scratch hopeless istence in areas without the most basic resources and
In Natal, the police and LOICES are removing 100,000 illegal' soualie.
Ladysmith area. A total of 3.5 million people are being transported in the trankiv-named *Surplus People Project'.
At the Cross Roads squatters camp near Cape
Town — a town of homes made out cardboard and corrugated iron - the tens thousands residents have heen sub. ject to constant police al-
lou the camp is to he bulldozed and the in habitants transported.
Symbol
Cross Roads 1s svm. bolic of the fate of black
South Atrica
Harassed and constantly attacked, they only have use if they can find the kind of jobs that the whites will give them and if not are left in the wilderness to starve.
The Surplus People' project is reminiscent Nazism and the transportation of the Jews. But its overlord is fêted by Thatcher as a staunch western ally
Externally: the apartheid reich is engaged in a
Call alyll destabilisation of its black neighbours. With military
West and especially the United States and Israel, South Africa wants to cow its black neighbours into acceptance of apartheid and Laks measures against exiled South African freedom fighters.
Despite the enormous police and army repression, black workers are beginning to fight back. Over the last two vears. ac cording to the ILO, 200,000 workers have been involved in -730 strikes
The South African regime is one of the most evil on the face of the earth. The British labour
South African prime minis movement has a particular reponsibilit! fight given the huge amounts o British investment in tha country. 2 June must be ine occasion • huge turnout to show that PH
rro
Botha :: ne: wanted here.
Among the speakers at the demonstration will be held in South African jail for 18 vcar. supporting the ANC March against Botha
Saturday 2 June 11.45 am Assemble Hyde Park Corner — march via Downing St and Whitehall to Trafalgar
Square
RETURN TO SENDER
LONDON DEMO
JUNE
CND
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