Socialist Action No. 61, 8 June 1984
The scan: 061-jun-08-1984-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.
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US out of Central America SMASH REAGAN'S EVIL EMPIRE
ACTION SOCiAList Missiles out of Europe
No. 61 8 June 1984 30p
NICARAGUA
Page 2 scan of this page
Lessons of the strike
2 Socialist Action 8 June 1984
AcTion SOCAiN
Bust up at
the Star
Morning Star
*
ireek disgust as relay starts
Big business
set to douse
)lympic flame
Miner: use of
THE SPLIT in the Communist Party over the Morning Star is now unfolding amid scenes bordering on farce. The Glasgow meeting of the Society — the Morning Star's publisher broke up in disorder.
Tony Chater which controls the Star, is replying to ecutive's instructions to change the editor not by argument, but by ruling the question out of order.
Other sections of the press and labour move ment have also got pulled into the struggle. The lew stalesmon assiduously supporting the Eurocommunists of Marxism Today and the CPGB executive. Ernie Roberts MP has been drawn into supporting Chater Tony Benn.
The attitude the labour movement have is that the more splits in the CPGB the better. The Eurocommunists have no long term future at all. When Chater wins the battle for the Morning Star, and the split follows, the CPGB will doubtless attempt to 'creative application OT Socialism. even the rightest verve of Marxism Today - for there is no future at all for a Communist Party which is far to the right of many members of the Labour Party.
Today's politics would sink without trace.
As for the Chaterites, and the openly proKremlin forces allied with them, they give an image of standing for a more militant policy. that is just the fashion of the moment. needs of Soviet foreign policy ever required a sharp shift to the right they obedient dogs. munist Party politics is of the type which could go from the of the early 1930s, to attacks on 'Tito fascism' in the early 1950s, to opposing a Labour government in 1945 in order to maintain a bloc with progressive Tories' such as Churchill.
The CPGB long ceased to be a party with any historical or political reasons for its existence. is outflanked on its left by tens, and hundreds of thousands of workers in the left wing of the Labour Party. It has been progressively losing its base in the trade unions. It long since ceased to attract people to its youth organisation. Its past is polluted with its incessant manoeuvres and adaptations first to Kremlin's foreign policy and then to its waving of the Union Jack in the nationalist British Road to Socialism. It is a party with nearly sixty years of inglorious past and with no future. The sooner it disappears off the face of the earth the better
Hopefully, Morning Star cess.
ALAN FREEMAN • -ed weekly except two weeks in August and the :: December.
fation's views.
; to prou soldiers People's Press Printing
The faction led by
Communist Party ex-
Guardian been
— as at various times have Tribune, and
should
put into effect its The British Road to We think, however, that it will lack
CPGB committed to Marxism
But If the
would follow like
That particular brand of Com-
'class against class' ultra-left lunacy
the needs of the
and probably, the split over the
will speed up this desirable pro-
contributors do not necessarily repre-
These are expressed in
NCB
Oterton Co LIKE EVERY major struggle the miners strike has clarified the nature of the forces in British politics. JOHN ROSS looks at some of the lessons so far.
had far bigger goals in mind than the rationalisation of the mining industry. She intended to thur Scargill and the left wing of the NUM and thereby permanently forces in the trade union movement.
Remember the immediate background to the dispute. In December the TL C directly sabotaged the NuA siruggie wan Ladie Shah. It was the first time
government peeit able to successfully impose
the 1927 Trades Dispute
Len Murray's open sabotage of the NGA, his famous 'Black Monday' disavowal of the decision to support the NGA by the Employment Committee or lne ill was tne nign point of the 'new realism If Scargill and the L M left could be crushed then the shift to the right inside the TUC could be made structural and irreversible.
No matter what the
the strike Thatcher has already lost that battle. The right wing of the NUM executive collapsed like pricked balloons at every key turning point. Arthur Scargill and the NUM left have established a political hold over the 80 per cent of the miners who are on strike which is not going to be broken.
Instead of Scargill be-
A PIECE Che
Do my eye leceive me:
Look... through that window...
When Thatcher provoked the miners strike she
smash Ar-
shift the entire relation of
ing crushed it is the TUC centre which has collapsed under the impact of the
and GCHQ miners strike — a collapse dramatically symbolised by Len Murray's resignation.
Basnett and Alan Tuffin, pillars of the lud tre', were forced to initiate
TUC'S withdrawal from NEDDY.
Realists Thrive of wae stops the 1C w realist right - • on the con-
the EEPTU is more rapidly signing 'no strike'
and the AUEW has broken TUC
Licht launcy for ballots. But for the moment the most open 'new realists' have been put in the minority.
The miners' strike has shown clearly the conditions in the class struggle have shifted since the strikes of 1972 and 1974. There has not been
then assive sping coas
working class solidarity as in the early 1970s — solidarity has had to be much more con-
Do I see three constables of our wonderful British police force assault. ing a defenceless picketing miner?
sciously organised. would have been inconceivable that key miners leader like Malcolm Pitt could have been held prison without reaction in 1972 or
for more than two weeks.
Indeed one of Thatcher's big gains in this strike has been the abiliti to use a level of repression
difwhich is or a quite ferent order to the earl! 1970s — and one the working class movement is not yet equipped to confront. use as or been able to utilise the Tebbit laws against the NUM.
The miners' strike has
not overturn. ed. the existing relation of forces between the classes Thatcher not strong enough impose the crushing defeat NUM and trade union left she wanted. NUM, and trade union left, is not strong enough smash through the government's policies in perhaps the way Arthur Scargill expected. We continue long bruising war of attrition between the classes.
Sharply
But the miners' strike has confirmed the relation of forces between the classes it has sharply shifted them within the labour movement and to the advantage of the left. Twelve weeks ago,
radio says about it..
when the miners' strike Cared were the first signs of trouble in well SHOCK, reall with the Party
is true. very great opposi-
port Liverpool But this was wise Isouc
Divide
But the miners strike is something else. drawn a real line of divide
berween ninnock and ver.
large of
Parti
file. It has been Arthur
Scaroil and oni Benn who have been the trade
union and Labour Party
Neil Kinnock's prestige
floundering and done
resolutions.
More
ternal of
Neil project. There are onli two
colerent
that
right. To the
distance
Labour and the
To LUTE
miners
coalition the
Let's hear what the
Today a miner was charged with assault after he he had attacked chree...
News
Labour Party and the Alliance.
The second coherent alternative that ad. vocated by Arthur Scargill and Tony Benn: to turn the Labour Party sharply lo le elt ana place ll al the head of all the mass struggles against ThatCher
The line of Kinnock the line of 'I support the miner our i back te rigal in demanding a ballot, 1 support me strongly condemn violent
coherence nor credibility. Kinnock has found him. self squeezed between lef and right.
Inspired
And as for the Labour left the miners strike has given it a coherence not seen since Tony Benn's deputy leadership cam paign. The struggle waged by the NUM has inspired the entire trade union and labour movement left. The greatest ovation this year's Labour Party conference would not be for Veil Kinnock or even for Tony Benn. It will be for the NUM representatives
• and not as individual but for the tens of thousands of miners whe have revived and inspired the labour movement.
The outcome of that will last far ever than the details of the final settlement itself
° GORMAC
well, gee whiz!
That's a relief My eyes aid déceive me!
Yeah... sure
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NO COKE MUST MOVE!
suffer a setback.
we go to press.
tion. to the Orgreave picker? Basically it ment to keep
oroken.
Many
the
stocks and we kneir when they would take any
scrap the agreemen!
a provocation. weeks we anything
police escort right
of call coalfield.
to this provocation?
First
Friday but effect.
the spring
work of
every day.
were from Notts, well as
the coke plant.
about 8000 Notts,
of the area. one day had prioritised plant.
Scargill call
much
trade unionists been
the financial support.
open the way to victory. What was the background
was teraure agreeScunthorpe see works come on a care and maintenance basis was
branches were
first place because there were limited
tn2 ran out BSC sepproductien and
How was this more seen by the Yorkshire miners?
It was quite clearly seen as
had never seen
moured convoys and huge
the Yorkshire
Do wilat was the respolise
picket held at Scunthorpe on the
Then the picke!: bull up al urgrease uncl
bank holiday
Arthur Scargill who was on the picket line
On the Tuesday there
about 8000 of us Derbys, Yorkshire. there was a massive police
dred That was the one day that yorks area had prioritised
On Tuesday there were
of from Derbys, as well as Yorkshire. But there was a massive police saturation
That was the the Yorks area the coke
was right to focus round Orgreave to draw in
from the NUM and other
wno nave looking for ways to help the miners, on top of
Miners'
DAVE PARRY, in this article, explains the problems that the NUM is faced with at Orgreave. He insists, and in our opinion correctly, that unless the pickets are increased on a really big scale the NƯ'M will
This means bringing all the resources of the NUM behind the Orgreave pickets. Now the NUM has called for an all-out mobilisation on Wednesday — the day after
Dave will be pleased about that and so is Socialist Action. It is the way to win. It must, however, not just be a one-day ac-
It must be repeated day after day and it must get the support of every single person who wants the NUM to win. Orgreave can
DAVE PARRY is a member of the branch committee of the Thurcroft pit in Yorkshire. He has beer on the picket lines every day since the strike began.
JOHN KIRBY talked to him about the picket at Orgreave and what is happening in the strike.
tories small.
big
Well.
and picking It pickets. uay. picket,
arsent to Notts.
The is mobilise
the have
The
negoulalvis priority negotiations Dace we
But
event. involved continual
others
world.
Strike
There have been tew cuations where we have
could be ettective Wese decie
4...... 4..-
far have
We desperately want a
victory. could provide such a focus and give a boost to morale.
If Scargill's view is for a big mobinsanion inen wnal has happened?
the down Scargill was So On the the day after the big everybody pected to go to Orgreave and there was real disappointment when we were
Scargill is all for a major effort at Orgreave but
not in a position
NUM without a call from
Yorkshire area. the organisational capacity to make a much bigger effort which has not yet materialised.
only van be ma some o le leaders of our union the
have over time are neca lo slep the picketing and make it
It's very dangerous to play the Grand Old Duke
York game, demobilise the blokes who are looking for the opportunity to make Orgreave into a massive successful
What is the situation today and how can the NUM win the battle for Orgreave?
Most people on the picket line accept that we are now
operation. Some say it is a
lo ine government. this to make this oke that the most expensive in the
Building the picket up
in a war
Green
Orgreave Poverticall the gauntlel
all for
were the
Wednes-
the
We
explanation
lakel
picketing.
whel taking the up
and holding
embarassment
wale
to the numbers present at
beginning needed. rank and file involvement ike me yorkshire Miners Forum that revive the strike began.
organisation we could then organise maceendent! In situations like ihis. 10 put pressure leadership to get the picker out up again.
salon itself, and not just orders
Barnsley.
But support the position taken by Scargill mass picketing, on the national resources
Ene union, resources of other unions, trades councils, Parties and so on.
Socialist Action 8 June 1984
The Battle of Orgreave
what's wnal we need 15
we tried some me belie
It we had built such an
the area
We need more organ-
on the picker line
we really need to
and prioritise drawing
and the
Labour
Page 4 scan of this page
Women against
Socialist Action 8 June 1984
Barnsley
• WE STARTED organising at the beginning of the strike. One or two of the wives got together, initially to write a letter to get published various newspapers because we d been so angry about the COverace.
'The letter was published. From the publicity around this letter we got things moving and decided 1o form a support group. So we advertised that we were holding weekly meetings.
•We had meetings in Barnsley and had women
arcas all around Barnsley. So we helped them set up their
Westminster
Fighting 'new
realism'
THE MINERS'
dispute is a fight for
the soul of the labour
movement. Since last
September's TUC the
right wing forces of
'new realism' have
been calling for
accommodation with
the Tory government.
Essentially they're
calling for coopera-
tion in the destruction
of the welfare state
that the government is
trying to carry out.
But miners are not pit losures sell off the jobs of young miners.
hey're fighting back.
And every cause the labour movement holds
tear is at stake in this
strike.
Some unions have
made Ceci uncl
realism' is unacceptable
ЗАРІІ СОВ 3P1191 —
a right to defend their
members in Wav
pit closures
own groups in the various areas.
Lorraine Bowler, Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures
'At least 30 women are now organised in Barnsley and surrounding areas. We've got a kitchen set up in the Civic Hall to feed the miners and kids. Women also organise welfare rights sessions in each area. and we put on Easter parties for the kids.
'Then
well demonstration Notts and we saw there were a lot
The view from
necessary. The miners'
dispute is getting support
from left-led
INSTOS.
By Jeremy Corbyn,
MP for Islington North
They are getting very
considerable support,
for example, from my
own union NUPE,
have given £55,000 na-
tionally and will be giv-
ing more. And that's not
just because the
leadership. among the grass rolls It's real feeling
membership
miners supported us in
1982, we'll support them
This isn't returning
LUW.
favours, it's recognising
the unity of struggle
The TUC leadership don't want to hear talk. of the dispute.
of honourable set-
tlements, I want to talk
about an end to the pro-
of women there, but split up behind each banner, so
looked like women weren't represented.
'That's why we decided to hold a demonstration in Barnsley, to show just how many women were organising around the strike. We wrote to the NUM to ask TOT speakers and Scargili and others came.
'The feeling that day was incredible, I don't think it will be recaptured for a JOLL time. The Notts women in particular got a tremendous reception.
'We've also been on picket lines. On one occasion some women went down to Notts and found
gramme of pit closures.
Statements like Eric
Hammond's recently
give the media a field-
day. This same union
the
deliberately pursuing an
ann-Laboul Party
course. It's trying
reduce affiliation to the
party to minimum
SDP
people within its own
This the first
serious attempt in this
country follow the
'non-political' course of
American unions.
union which
doesn't have regard for
the feelings of the rest of
the trade and
labour movement is in a
'ollow private medicine
TOI its members (an
anathema own
and such things
as no-strike clauses with
companies
wishing to set up shop in
The parliamentary
leadership of the Labour
Party should have come
out at the very beginning
of the strike and givel
unequivocal support to
the strike. They should
have forced a debate in
the House of Commons.
They should have
mobilised much Hall C
clearly in support of the
dispute.
Despite this, local
Labour Parties are
the others hadn't arrived. They went the pit
but WCIC rounded by police and were a rescu.
'Some women were kept in custody for 12 hours. In that time they weren't even allowed to go to the toilet. One woman wet herself.
'Another woman had knocked a policeman's helmet off and was put in handcuffs for assaulting a police officer. cuffs were so tight that her wrists were Diceding
'I can honestly say that I have never seen so many women politicising as fast as I have in the last few weeks. mobilised: they dom-
financial
tary Party were
ed in This
be for the tirst time.
There shaky
when the NUM were
We must
said they
continue area-by-
decision. choice was right.
al.
hungry. they're
to defend the state.
me that 50p per head per
from every trade
week
union member will keep
strike going for long as it takes. The resi
of the trade union move-
ment must wake up to this.
We're out 'till
we win
THE Coalboard's workshops in Walkden,
crossing the picket line.
Yard strike committee.
We've been out since 22 May when the strike was declared official but even before then many of
refused any picket line that was put on
Now between 30 and 40 of us are out and we torm our own picket line
Our workshops are on the cards for closure. They've been transferring work from here to other yards and they've lowered the voluntary redundancy age from 55 then to 50 and then to any age. A copper asked us on the picket line: Why are you bothering? This place is closing soon
That's why we're on strike for jobs, and against all pit ana workshop closures. A lot of the 170 men still crossing the picket line here don't realise yet that the only way to keep our jobs is to fight for them.
We are staying with the NUM, all the way 'till we win. Our coming out has already stopped redundancies; none have been discussed during the strike. Women's support
office opens in Notts
THE NUM women's support group in Notts with
he cooperation of NUPE now have the use of an olfice. The organisation and
of the Ilutual group is already tremendous.
The office will be used to strengthen this by help-
MINERS STRIKES
MAERDY
1954
SOLIDAR WIVES
-SAVE THE
• PITS
Lancs workshops:
Lancs are on strike, but the NUM branch officials are
We spoke to COLIN CLOUĞH, secretary of the newly formed Walkden
We've had overwhelming support for our stand; from other trade unionists, support groups and the local community It s out to sname some oi our own members who are still working.
We've begun organise factory tours. precinct collections and WIlC get involved too We're new to this but we're learning all the time and we intend to win.
Manchester Central Euro-Constituency Rally
Jobs Yes! Bombs No!
Speakers:
Eddie Newman, LP candidate IG Metall speaker NUM European peace movement.
7.30pm Friday 8 June Manchester Town Hall ing the women liaise, print leaflets, and most important, raise material port. tacted: They Notts can be NUM con
Women's Support Group c/o NUPE, Sherwooc Rise, Nottingham phone Nottingham 603522 ext 29.
News
Miners'
Strike
Miners' Support Committee
Bristol c/o TGWU, Transport House, Room 1, Vietoria St, Bristol BSI
Manchester c/0 FTAT. 37 Anson Rd. Victoria Park, Manchester
Preston c/o John Parkinson, Trade Union Centre, St Mary's S Norin. Preslur
Huddersfield c/o Friendlv and Trades Club Northumberland Si. Huddersfield
Vauxhall c/o Joan Twelves/Gres Tucker, I Alverston Hse. Kennington Park Estate. London SEll
Southall /o 14 Featherstone Rd. Soullai, 1.onaul
Birmingham «/o rade noo xesource Centre, , 7 Frederick St. Hockley
Ealing •/o West London Trade Union Club, 33 Action High St, London W3
Southampton •o lUPE District Office 93 Leigh Rd. Eastleigh, Hants
Cardiff Room 219. Transpor House, 1 Cathedral Rd. Cardiff. Tel: 0222 31176
Hounslow
i'o lan MacDonald, 220 Wellingion Road South, Hounsion . Middx. Tel: 01-577 3429
Medway c/o Vince Drongin Medway Towns Trades Union Council, 19 Randal Rd, Chatham, Kent.
Bury
o Brian Marden, 06169648
Oxford comans clone
Princes St, Oxford
Leeds
c/o District Labour Party.
9 Queens Sq, Leeds 2
Lewisham c/o Labour and Trade
Union Club , Limes Grove,
Haringey c/o Unemployed Workers' Centre 28 High Rd Tottenham, London N17 Tel: 801 5629
If your loca! support com
mittee is not included here it means we have no addres: for it. Send it in!
Page 5 scan of this page
Intentions good, but action zilch!
• News
LAST WEEK BOB PENNINGTON took a look at Labour's EEC Manifesto and examined its proposals on nuclear weapons, its attitude to NATO and its approach to democratic rights. This week he looks at Labour's proposals on unemployment and notes its descreet silence on Ireland. IF LABOUR is going to rally voters behind its Eurobanner it has to come across as the party that is speaking up on the issues that concern them. What's more, it must have policies that look capable of solving the problems that plague society right now.
An issue copy ng millions people unemployment. In Britain
there are four million on the dole and the prospect of most of them getting a job mediate, or even the medium term look distinetly bleak. Nor is this a problem peculiari!
British.
Unemployment scourge that is spreading across capitalist curope France, Italy and Germany alone nave over 10 million workless. But CONE get carried awar with the idea that Labour's 'crusade for jobs' is a clarion call 1or international working class solidarity to beat the Cole cucuc
The Manifesto lamely calls for 'all the member THE main reason why President Reagan will be greeted with such hostility when he visits Britain this week will be because of the decision to station cruise missiles here.
fight to draw attention to the siting of the missiles and to mobilise women against them. But lately the women at the camp have been suffering high levels of police harassment determined silence.
going on.
THE WOMEN of Greenham have been doing a lot lately, but the media have not been reporting it. There are over 30 women in prison, 21 on remand for refusing to accept a bail condition to stay away from the camp their home.
On 1 May 23 women rode into the base bicycles and roller skates.
One woman was charged with criminal damage. On 7 May 21 women went into le Dase and painted une
One woman painted on an observation tower (so much for tight security!). Only two were charged with criminal damage.
On 12 May the women held a 'visibility action' cutting their way through the fence to the silos, say-
Labour and Europe
states to work together
with others to pull
Europe out of the siump'.
Such proposal in
Europe torn by
capitalist rivalry is, to say
LooKohl is more
Chancellor
interested in boosting Ger-
man capitalism and mak-
meddled chaipeline • it can corner markets the
other European capitalists
would like, rather than cutting Britain's dole
queues.
al c Mitterrand
and his socialist supporters
1oo keen on helping Bri-
tain oui
socialist leader of the
CFDT, outs competition
above cooperation when it
COHe French
capitalism. He has been
'We are beginn-
ing to see our competitors
Greenham lives on!
The women at Greenham have waged a constant
while the press keeps a
TRACY LITTERICK explains what has been
ing we will not make our
protest against Cruise in-
visible.
The police use the law
arbitrarily and try
trivialise the women's per-
sistent breaching of securi-
ty. Some women were ar-
rested and charged, given
heavy sentences in court,
while others were released
without charges.
Bail
Of those charged, 21
refused to accept the bail
conditions and in
prison on remand. The
women and 'others
have been
charged with over £5000 of
criminal damagek for
allegedly pulling down 81
sections of the tence with
their bare hands on 29 Oc-
tober last year.
Their charge sheets say
they had done f25 worth
producing more reliable cars.' Labour's hopes that the
all going to pull togelner to keep us i work
a futile dream. The european
governments are committed to programmes austerity - Krasucki. the leader of the French CGT,
Mitterrand's damns called plan for steel as an "anti-steel plan"!
Meanwhile Mitterrand is promising to lower taxes
industry to encourage
to invest. In Ine Dosses Germany the austerity programme is summed up Hans Mayr Metal leader
who say. 'high profits for nicalls them and lower purchasing power for us'
Like Thatcher the other governments EEC are out to slash jobs, cut public spending dild reduce living standards — in Germany last year, profits went up nine per cent and real wages dipped by
per cent. year bnusn maustry broke I own record by importing more industrial it exported.
Against this background of accelerating slump and savage government-inspired of damage each, and suddenly the amount was in-
The women were creased. so shocked they elected to go to Crown Court as they did not want to face such massive charges without legal advice. When they go to court they may have a compulsory custodial sentence.
Police
Soldiers and police continue to threaten women, arrest without charges, and use violence against the Woe 1 hours of the day. Soldiers nave Deen unrowing stones and rocks sleeping women over the fence.
A letter has been written to the Home Secretary asking him to take action to stop seems ironic that Leon
strong statements about violence and allegel miners throwing stones, saying DONCE should make very effort to
while this is gobrevell it. ing on at Greenham.
There nas been heavy security near the silos lately, when a Galaxy plane landed and six containers
unloaded into the silos.
ing on and they were warned not to take pictures. A
austerit! programmes Labour': plan for 'new public investment and its offer to help British inour lo will markels home abroad' falls fat. It is a programme that is dependent on collaboration with the capitalists who keep stubbornly insisting on investing their money overseas because they can get a better return there!
There are no suggestions for nationalising the firms where public investment is supposed to go. All the Manifesto suggests Is making the 'institutions of the community' being made 'fully accountable through their own parlament. There are no plans for taking over • control of the banks and thus stopp-
of the country
Even worse the Manifesto has nothing to say about what we should new camp (Emerald) has been set up next to the silos.
Violence
On 12 May 10 women WETE arrested stripsearched after enter-
USAF Alconbury look around and expose the appalling security.
The Greenham women have taken on the malar establishment, faced up to capitalism. media, government, law, police and Now the miners face the same things. Bail conditions too have been similar - stay away from the picket lines stay away from Greenham.
Miners
The miners have given the Greenham women a lot of support and now the Greenham women support the miners in their struggle against profits for the capitalists.
More women are needed at Greenham! Support the women in prison! No to pit closures! • A campaign for those facing heavy sentences has been set contact 01-833 2831.
do in the here and now about job losses. Presumablv we must wait until Labour gets a majoritv in Britain and the curosocialists take over in Brussels. This is why the miners' strike, which has been the most inspiring and determined fight to keep jobs gets no mention.
Ah, , say the authors of the Manifesto, we are In favour of achieving 'rapid
We need
Labour's way
forward
progress towards
35-hour week without los: don t m However they
It make any proposals about building united trade union and socialist action to win the 35-hou week. Perhaps they think the employers can be persuaded during a slump to
• for less pay. Such faith rather touching.
The German working
Socialist Action class, like the British miners, prefer action to faith and have been organising to get a 35-hour
They have rejected week Kohl's claim that 35-hours without a pay cut is 'daft and silly' ana know ina firms like Daimler Benz won't give an inch over what Guardian correspondent Walter Schwarz calls the 'sacrosanct 40-hour week'. The last demonstration for the 35-hour week held in Bonn
attended by over 200,000 people. But Manifesto is coyly silent about linking up with this
opposition to job 1ilass loss just as it keeps quiet
on the miners.
And this will not do. Either Labour stands four square with who refuse to go down the road
' bidding or it al ine bosses restricts its opposition to promises of how life will
better when gets elected. Such an approach will will it solve anything. But inspire no one
it is on Ireland that Labour
mark nought out of 10
As British troops ram page and intimidate their way through the North and the courts dispense a justice that is an affront to human rights, Labour's
8 June 1984 Manifesto stays quiet or Ireland. Yet opinion po! after opinion poll show that there is a majority :! Britain for the withdrawa of British troops and in favour of a united Ireland But instead of building or. this mass support and link ing up with most of the European socialists
against Britain': presence Ireland Labour maintains its bi. partisan policy
It puts the interests of its own capitalist class before that of the Irish
per back what
turn what could mass against Tory policy on thi issue. Even waer is on 1 a winner its leaders
allegiance to British imperialism.
On Europe it ducks the
Nowhere does the Manifesto say it is commit-
of the EEC — but after all that is only a comerence gecisio.
but says it has an 'op tion of withdrawal'
Such an inspiring pro but Labour's enemies. 14 June turns out worse than Labour hopes for then it has only its timid and its impractical leaders to blame!
Page 6 scan of this page
THE REAGAN administration may not be able to handle the Lebanese masses or crush the Sandinistas, but it has certainly managed to run rings around the posedly ever-so-sophisticated bourgeois politicians of Western Europe over the last couple years.
The first phase Washington's drive to re-establish its control over events among the West European states is over now, and the second, 'positive' phase is about to begin. And funnily enough the political leadership that has been grovelling in its towards Reagan Thatcher leadership in Britain — is likely to be the biggest loser in Reagan's new scheme of things for Western Europe.
The key target in Reagan's political strategy for pulling capitalist Europe back into line has been West Germany. Barring a socialist revolution in some West European country, the only state in the EEC that could pull the rug from under the Pax Americana is the Federal Republic: it is the strongest power in Europe outside the USSR, the strongest economy and accupies the key geographical position on the contiRen.
By Oliver MacDonald
As the crisis of the capitalist world economy intensified, rivalry between Europe and America grew sharper, the danger of increased political independence on Bonn's part began to seriously alarm Washington.
The cry went out from Washington that West Germany was threatened by •Finlandisation' and it didn't understand the Soviet threat. refused to bend over the gas pipeline deal with Moscow, nounced the spectre of neutralism in the Federal Republic of Germany and repudiated any deal with Moscow over Cruise and Pershing. Feverish German efforts to push Washington in to a compromise were brushed aside and the entire military relationship between East and West was transformed.
Over the last few months Bonn has continued to struggle to keep its links with Moscow, by adopting the guise of •intra-German' policy, Leipzig fair two years running with half the German political establishment and preparing a visit of the East German leader Honnecker to the FRG for this autumn, the first such visit since the наг.
But in the last couple of weeks it has become clear that this game is more or less played out. West German foreign minister Genscher's visit two weeks ago was a fiasco and after it, the New York Times commented (29
sup-
of
so-to-speak
Bonn Kohl has Washington and most sycophancy over. namely the 'Europeans',
their way out
Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg. has pulled off a great victory
more fundamental
military the military Europe and America. the time achieved the and economic protection Di
Europe. Intolerable
When Bonn
Washington de-
the can Europe and prevent the West bourgeois politicians in Europe.
eecorale that
domestic ponies
flooding the
appease Washington
Led, he wants to
Soviet bloc,
to Moscow Socialist Action 8 June 1984
May) that there is 'a growing sense of foreign policy drift and impotence in
'lost influence in Moscow'. Fifteen years of Ostpolitik seem likely to be
And within the Kohl cabinet the
Genscher and Woernel (foreign policy and defence) are on
The rising star America's man in Bonn, the Finance
, Reagan
The true dimensions of this victory can only be grasped by appreciating the complete transformation that Reagan is bringing about in something much
than mere diplomacy. He is completely changing
between cond when the USSR capacity to retaliate against US cities in the event of nuclear war an interminable debate has been going on between the elites of Western Europe and the US. If the US militarily guaranteed Western Europe it risked its own destruction. If it assured its own
doing deals with the Soviet Union it was in effect withdrawing its nuclear guarantee from Western
Reagan has now made that all in-
His entire thrust has been to prepare plans and resources
both ficht war in USSR from retaliating against the US. This military drive is scaring the hell out of serious
But what can they do about it? Tell their
Washington threatening them with genocide? In do that would mean tearing apart the whole anti-socialist basis of their own
What then is the alternative? It is to finds
try bargain. After all, Reagan is no madman, he is after real interests of US capitalism. As far as Europe is concern- ferent
create intolerable economic and social strains within the the
puli Western Europe decisively back under US control and ensure that West European capital does not inflict serious damage on American capital, as it has been doing in various
This then brings us on to the 'positive' aspect of Reagan's plans for Western Europe, so to speak the se-
phase of American organisation of Atlantic relations. There is every sign that Reagan is ready to back a new drive for West European 'unity' hinged on a Franco-German axis. For Washington, 'Europeanism' as an ideology remains acceptable. indeed it is indispensible as a means tegrating the populations of Western Europe under US hegemony.
The debate on this 'positive' phase of Reagan's plans for Western Europe is already far advanced and its results will begin to appear in public as soon as the European elections are over. parallel initiatives will then be taken On the one had there will be the revival of the Western European Union, dealing with defence and foreign matters; on the other there will be the Kohl-Mitterand project for strengthening co-operation within the Common Market. The French and German governments seem to have cleared both these projects in Washington and the! are all set to go.
Client
This then brings us to the increasingly ridiculous figure of Thatcher who
herself outmanoeuvred and staring humiliation in the face. The really fundamental principles foreign policy have not been any dif-
from those of Callaghan in the 1970s. The key idea that has been
*special relationship'
Washington. In other words, the influence of the British state would be maintained and enhanced by being the most loyal client state of Washington. thereby getting Washington's backing
'leading' European ally
cn
getting backing for British capitalist interests Two on a world scale.
Loyalty to Washington has entailed spending more money on defence than any other NATO member in Europe. It policy has also truck with the loose, talk that can be heard now and again in meetings of European leaders. And it has also meant offering the US as many military facilities both at abroad as Britain can possibly offer.
There are politicians tionalist right in Western Europe. lihe Chirac in France. who would like te give Europeanism and savagely anti-labour. political content. very carefully Mitterand and Kohl during their trips to Washington earlier this year to purge of her them of any elements jeopardise US control. Humiliated with
As soon as the Euro-elections are out of the way two Franco-German initiatives will be unveilled: the revival of and the Western European Union, and further measures to tighten West Europeal presented to American initiatives in the
off as much movement's possible. Their real purpose will be to re-integrate Western Europe and the US in a new partnership
Thatcher • has done more: she has trumpetted all the catch phrases of Reaganite ideology on every possible occasion. In return she got her own survival in the thanks to the indispensible US military and logistic support in the Falklands war. Apart from that it has been one long tale of humiliation: she asked for 'dual key' and was turned down flat, her needs were ignored over Grenada, she wasn't allowed to pull out of Belize, she was publically lambasted for doing underhand military trade with Iran, she was threatened by Bush British nuclear
talks between Moscow. watch helplessly does business with France and Germany over the future power relations in the Atlantic Alliance.
Reag
Vici
Washington's
meant refusing to have any
anti-American
home and
on the na-
an anti-American.
But the Reagan administration
vetted the schemes of
might Both will be antimedia to or ine peace anti-Reagan energies as until
all this, and power;
1983 elections,
per cell
tor.
peace with having weapons inrown Her Washington and
And now she is forced to
while Washington
integrating
WE HAVE TOD SOMETHING WITH AlL OUR
"Thank
The British establishment thought
recentis slates America's key partner in Europe was assured by two factors. It could pull rank on the FRG by being a nuclear
and it could pull rank on the French by being firmly entrenched in the central institution of the Atlantic Alliance, NATO. Trident would make the first factor secure, while slavishly following Washington's demands for 3
annual growth defence budgets would shore up the second fac-
Today all that is in ruins. , The catchword in Washington and Europe is for the increasing conventionalisation of NATO in the aftermath of the huge
movemen mobilisations and with American high technology •deep strike' conventional weapons looming on the horizon. Secondly, Washingtor
formalistic as to insist France rejoining the NATO command structure when the task required is t provide a new political framework fo
the people of Westen
Page 7 scan of this page
Europe into the Atlantic system. Thus Thatcherite Britain marinalised in both the military and political new order that Reacan is interested in bulding in Europe.
are passing through the heads of some leading Tories. For example, some, including the Times are interested in pulling the 55,000 strong British Army on the Rhine back home and spending the money saved on Trident and on a strike force for killing people in the Third World: in other words you drive a tank through the propaganda about the Soyiet military threat in central Europe but HALLO) chauvinism back note
America Jolnuy derending West' against the Third World.
On the other side of the debate, the Financial Times, David Owen and the Labour right want to respect the Soviet threat, give priority to the British Army in Germany, raise the banner of European capitalist unity, scrap Trident and spend more on conventional defence
an's
ory
lour
ou, Congressman, for This Truly Wonderful Newo Weap...
becoming justified on denuclearising sulaledy.
But what wid inouguls Reaganauts
Denis a future!
contains blinkered
imperialist with Britain Thatcher Reality.
'the quite TINE
plutocrats
valle
/CHEMICA WARFARE since the US insists on this. It would be
leftist grounds of a little NATO
will persuade the be nice to Western Europe's capitalists and thereby give Social Democratic leaders like Neil and
The answer to this question may seem paradoxical but it
difference between Social Democratic cretins and people engaged in serious politics. The cretins think that Washington will the be nice to Europe if Europe's labour leaders go down on their belly like Len Murray in front of the New Reagan-
The truth is in fact opposite: American will only consider giving a future to European welfare capitalism and social democratic reformism it 11 believes the capitalists of Europe might really go under thanks to socialist ad-
So if we want to give our Neil any chance (and more seriously the Labour
Party any chance) then the left must go
Scargill's way and MacGregor and Thatcher packing to Washington with serious problems to talk about. And this takes us back to where we becan - - to Reagan's inabili-
beat the Sandinistas alle Salvadorian masses, despite mne Dut chery of tens of thousands on the orders of the US. Thanks to the revolutionaries in Central America, there is some future for reformists in Europe. In Mexico and Brazil and other parts of
region. Washington has through bitter experience to understand and respect popular power. The! ave HoH u comemuorue vel-
intrigues and hypocritical doubletalk characteristic of the present imperialist leaders of Western Europe.
This new Rengan-ite order Europe could still be undermined by further peace movement actions the blocking of cruise in Holland. But the ciminal refusal of the leaders of the Socialist Parties in the EEC to turn the Euro-elections into a great mobilisation
against nukes and US bases has been a grave blow to the anti-war struggle. The order may come from a longer-term challenge that is now only beginning to appear on the horizon. Reagan has kept the political legitimacy of Atlanticism through the electoral victories of Thatcher and Kohl and through Mitterand's willingness to sqander the resources of the French left on a wild turn to the right. have been heavy.
send
Ugly
EI realities of NATO capitalism has arisen
amono the peace movement and the socialist activists in forces are now beginning to regroup for a new and much native to the crisis than the slogans of the Social Democratic leaders used in come the boom vears
This challenge Reagan himself. He will be buried soon enough. But in historical terms the challenge is very great because the longterin vasis or post-war Allanlicısı was never the traditional parties of the right in in Europe but the social democratic
labour movements. like Callachans and Mitterands rested os, the
something very real, things like full employment, expanding welfare rights and growing prosperity.
real threat to Reagan's new But the costs of this operation
And as
A new awareness of the militarist
Europe. These
more radica alter would. ideological Sovietism:
need not •all
Germany
, And the ascendan- hysterical, Wilsons, Schmidts,
US capital did much to create all this after the war. But now the l capitalists are in a very ugly mood and the big question, now that Reagan has re-asserted US political control over Western Europe is whether US capita! will go in for the kill on the economic front. More and more, US ascendanc! is going to drive European capital into an ever more desperate struggle against the workers of Western Europe to keep their end up against the Americans. destroys and hah lens ela for old- that happens welfarism style Social Democratic politics, and in. deed democratic rights as well.
Reaction
This destruction of welfarism, full employment and democratic rights
of colse destroy the basis for NATO's antiWhat would West German workers think if faced with a choice of
with unemployment and no welre elt and another authoritarian state in East
with full employment and welfarism? Thus to carry through the destruction of 35 years of working class gains would require quite a new form o!
right-wing reaction Western Europe. But if profit rates cali for this, it will start to raise its head.
Oliver MacDonald is the editor o: Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.
Socialist Action 8 June 1984
Page 8 scan of this page
8 Socialist Action THE RISE of the Green Party in West Germany has inspired peace and ecology activists in other countries to try to emulate their success. In the forthcoming European elections 'green' movements from all EEC states are putting up candidates on a separate political platform, which in Britain is represented by the Ecology Party.
gaining any of the British Euroseats or even winning more than a derisory 'fringe' vote, the growing influence of the green current among a certain layer of radicals both within and outside the Labour Party, and especially in CND, demands that socialists pay some attention to the lessons to be learned from the German Greens.
There can be no doubt where on the West German political spectrum the Green Party located.
The main body of its members and drawn from the traditions of the student movement and 'New Left' as well as from the feminist move-
ment. Its programme
and demands are in the main unequivocally anticapitalist and anti-imperialist.
Their success in the March 1983 federal elections, when their vote of just over five cent secured them 27 parliament under the West German system of proporfiona. representation. was widely hailed as the first ełectoral breakthrough in Germany of a party to the left of the SPD since the collapse OnCe powerful German Communist party in the early days of the Cold War. Missiles
The gains of the Green Party were almost exactly equivalent to the losses of te SrD, and I was cital that. among young voters,
particular, the Greens bad made very heavy inroads into traditional social-democratic strong-
This success was due to the principled stand of the Greens on the issue of nuclear disarmament.
Although the SPD did ander the pressure of its rank and file and after the break-up of their govern-
with the
cal coallion
Liberals eventually reject the deployment of Cruise and Pershing
missiles. it was the Greens
who had made the running on this issue. Hundreds of lousinus or young voltas
8 June 1984 Although there is no prospect of the Ecologists had come to regard them as the political wing of the peace movement.
By Günter Minnerup
The impor-
Greens had per
power of the late 1970s.
ogical'
Greens' success
a similar
OCCIC in SupDOrICIS of the British
ceded
post voting system. reality,
is not the
real social political
project.
Blush
In West Germany, the SPD has been in government 1966 until 1982, in coalition first with the Christian Democratic CDU and then the business-oriented liberal FDP. Every generation of young left-wing &. ment militants since the
had to confront the SPD as a government party practicing right-wing policies of the kind that
Chancellor Minister), Schmidt,
persuading NATO deploy nuclear
Westerr Europe, remained
This support for NATO rearmament
1982.
The German trade-union Tene lon DGB supported
ing
individual member from mobilising huge peace rallies political
man and the and Hostile
In Britain, where the defeat of the Callaghan government in 1979 initiatied a deep upheaval in the Labour Party. walere the mainstream labour movement is committed to unilateral nuclear disarma-
and hostile to nuclear power, where the major industrial unions are affiliated to CND and HOSANIS of (SERA) and feminists active in the Labour Party and TUC unions, the picture is very different.
Here the Ecology Party at best, those activists who alt still suspicious of the genuine nature of Labour's conversion to the causes of saving the natural environ-
and abolishing nuclear they are simply hostile to the working class movement. Either way represents a cop-out from
harness power of organised the
vival and sectarian
individuals.
The Greens
ing that organised
be The SPD in
tion from SPD in power. consolidated its anti-
its nuclear
must
refusal their NEC
APEX the
bow to strikers' demands, would
annual conference.
Islington
pienie
The Islington council invited a deputation from • Women I Support oI the Miners' to have tea with last
Children's
Instead nave wItn
steps polite people the mayor, and local
mayor Labour Pat
women.
piled by View is com
piled Bob Pennington. Contributions should be sent to arrive by Thursday am.
22222
energy and other ecology issues, and aligned itself — albeit cautiously trade unions' campaign for a 35 hour week, many Greens lucreably worried about their electoral support drifting back to social democracy and especially its rejuvenated hell wil
Sectarian
Deep have opened up over this in the ranks of the Greens between the former East German dissi-
The cancellation will
cost estimated
€100,000 at least of the
union funds, and the
members will lose their
democratic rights for this
year to decide policy.
ecutive like MacGregor
and Inalcner can l giv
in, whatever the cost,
a bunch of irresponsible
workers demanding
more money.
Fitzpatrick - the army's
answer to Nielson
A GREEN
ALTERNATIVE?
dent Rudolf Bahro whose response is a sec-
O He kind of joint campaigning and political alliances with the SPD, and those - the so-called 'red Greens' who are prepared to enter united fronts and even
to parliamentary
These differences are more than tactical disputes over how to hold on to green vote: they represent deep philosophical and strategic divisions over the causes of the arms race, the threat the vironmental balance, op-
MOLES
EYE
VIEW
Killing your
'friends' -
that's OK
YOU MUST have seen those films about how Britain's "lost army' conducted strategic retreat — ie ran away Japanese army in Burma in 1942.
There they were, thin khaki line, all alone, except for Errol Flynn.
the sweallls a way jungle fighting those savage who didn't care a damn about Curallell alu
values. ds had so do
lads had because weren't they there to save the locals from a ruthless enemy!
Well, in that : heroic rout nobody played more valiant role than the officers who led the retreat from the front.
Take second Gerald Fitzpatrick who noticed one day that the
International
pression and exploitation,
the social and
ideological forces capable
of combating them.
This reveals the fact
that progressive and anti-
capitalist causes do not, in
themselves, make ol
coherent philosophy and
strategy and it exposes the
of
social onesies
much of the youthful
radicalism behind the
Greens' electoral success.
Those toying with the
idea of counterposing a
green political party to the
party of organised labour
in Britain should ponder
these German lessons. Japanese were getting a bit close to a village near where the Brits were camping. Our Gerald
not to take any villagers Lilt might.go and give the came away so ne orderec his men to shoot 26 of them.
He did the first one in by knifing him personally. You might think that a murderous thing to do Well, not really. How do you think the Brits could defend Int zonries from the Japanese if the Japanese got their hands
our lads? So Fitzpatrick 4410 his men had only one choice: nassacre une iucals
You unlike the Germans who broke the military code by killing
enemies, were OK, we bumped off our so-called allies.
Page 9 scan of this page
Surplus Value
THIS WEEK Ann Pettifor takes up the debate started by Tony Benn's interview 'Labour's socialism: Ann Pettifor secretary of the Labour Women's Ac-
Committee which has fighting for constitutiona! change to give women power in the Labour Parly.
THE Labour Party, munist Party and Trotskyist parties are men's parties; the labour movement is a men's movement. These parties, and indeed movement as a whole, achieved their political and industrial power by means 'masculinist' political dustrial strategies: ihe strategies of division.
'Masculinist' strategies of division and re-division have responsible for the gradual extension 2310 i consoldation labour movement's political and industrial power; and are labour's willingness to conform capital's demand for the endless subdivision of our class on the basis ot gender, skill, race, pay and time spent in paid work. Most dangerous of all labour has been willing capital's demand for a division between those in paid employment, and those that are not.
Let me hastily correct any impression that i am referring here only to the industrial strategies of the labour
Labour's strategies of division and re-division (which of course have advanced the
male workers considerably) are informed by the 'masculinist political strategies of the parties above.
Ironic then, that these same male political parties and strategists should be intiating a debate about Labour's Alliance for Socialism'. And in doing so begin the debate by making over-
to those they define as the 'dispossessed' fortunate groups who are not part of the men's movement. Black
Women and blacks view all this talk (and writing) with deep suspicion. They rightly see that white men
as ever, more concerned witn dalliances than with alliances. That as ever, the terms of the debate are being defined by men already deeply entrenched in the politics and strategies of division. And that as ever, this debate
more about finding a role dismossessed munist Party, the Labour ordinating Committee. Parliamentary Party and Socialist Action - than it is about empowering the already powerless.
But let us generously put these (admittedly considerable) tions on one side for the moment and consider what is on offer from our brothers.
On the one hand we have iony Benn arguing (in Socialist Action 4 May 1984) that he 'personally and for a very long time has seen the Labour Party as the true alliance of progress and has tried over ten years or more to get the Labour Party to open itself to affiliation from other groups who
represent different interests
women's movement, the community groups and so on.' (My italics).
Analysis
There are some interesting, if un-
COSCOES ment and analysis, throughout SA's interview Benn. The first is inherent in Benn's view that the Labour Party is
alliance, which nevertheless has failed to ally itself with interests different from those of the organised, white, male skilled and manual class. In other words the Labour Partv is an alliance of 'progressive men (between whom there may, admittedly, some differences political perspectives etc who have failed to ally themselves with other
alliance for
been
the Com-
the have
of
and in-
been largely
based on
to
to accept
industrial
mentioned benevolently
- the unin the Com- "progressive forces'.
Co-
particular 'alliance'
be interpreted and used.
New
There analysis. with, and including, Tom Paine (of - the male heroes
interests
those
which surface
with cidentally, by virtue of his belongs. an
working
in skill, class;
What Tony Benn offers here is an admission of how narrowly based this
Is. and indeed how narrowly the term 'alliance' can
More disturbingly, we have an admission that the interests of women are 'different' from those of the organised male working class; that in effect women are not part of that class.
is nothing new in this men, beginning the Levellers, *Rights Man' fame), the Chartists - through to the
of our time have always had difficulty in aligning their
with the interests of the women of their class. Tony Benn, one of the most admired and progressive
Labour's Male alliance, can only define women's interests as 'different' from those of the dominant group; to which he,
gender,
Here we have the politics, the ana vsis. the strategv of division wril large. For these are the politics, and this is the analysis which cannot conceive of the working class as anything other than narrow, divided and male. Which is therefore unable to devise g strategy which will unite the working
but most disturbingly 0I al which cannot conceive of, or imag:?: an alliance which is an alliance of the
Alliances or
dalliances?
By Ann Pettifor
whole class.
However this at least, is an improvement on Eric Hobsbawm's and the Communist Party's offer, clearly expressed by Jon Bloomfield in April's edition of Marxism Today. There Bloomfield argued openly and in unison with other prominent Marxists, that the women's and anti-racist movements are not part of the working class. However, ne added con descendingly, the Communist Party
'to courant movements to have a close, mutual relationship with the working class movement, which for theoretical and political reasons' (he might have added 'white male-centred' reasons) 'the party rightly considers the fulcrum of an alliance for progress.'
Women
He went on to assert that women (we, who conveniently are all thrown together into one pot, in company no doubt, with Margaret Thatcher and Baroness Young) 'are people's rather than class-based movements (and) it is inappropriate to seek to attach them organisationally to the Labour Party. In this sense', he added emphatically, just in case not all of us had been able to sweep aside a vision of 9 million working women, 3½ million of them
this women's movements are clearly different from trade unions.'
Now anyone who has ever had the privilege of survesiag from a bakos!
the endless rows Labour Party-tied men that occupy the trade union benches at Labour most party conterences, never-ending rows of men that line the floor at TUC congresses; anyone who has had the privilege of access to such a balcony for a survey, will be in no that represented at these conferences can in no sense be identified with the
these
Unions
field is right. Where he is profoundly Willed rogant, men, this 'trade unionism', this grand alliance, constitutes class.
was endorsed again by Peter Hain in the 11 May issue of Socialist Action. Hain argued in his contribution that the Labour Party has to find a 'way
rebuilding class base and integrating the "new politics" groups which have grown in importance this past decade; women, black people, ecologists for example.
"traditional class base' and women are
of the 'ne» part ecologists. discorered bs young men like Peter Hain."
Socialist Action 8 June 1984 conesion. keep willel.
break
and unemployed,
BOSC
Dhoto
are shed
For similarly the
'trade the party.
In this respect at least Jon Bloom-
party and indeed disturbingly ar, is in his assumption that these
the working our class?
It is however an assumption that
class.
In other words: men constitute the
politics. Like been hand
9
It is clear that all these men are talking about dalliances not alliances That they remain entrenched within their divisive politics; and that what is not on offer is the genuine consolidation of our class — on the basis of the unified interests of the black and white men and women within it.
But then what more could one (a woman) expect of a dominant alliance whose immediate and particular in terests would be severely undermined if they were to be subsumed beneath the interests of the whole working class? I suppose one could expect these mak heroes to understand that there are more valuable, long-term interests for the class as a whole, if we had at last an end to the politics of division and embarked instead on the politics of Strategy
Political strategies which would begin to genuinely empower the ma. jority of our class — instead of enfor. cing upon it vertical stratification by gender, skill, race, time and pay Political strategies which would not
women and blacks at аги. length, but which would include them in the mainstream of our parties, our movement, the organised forums of our class. Not just as 'the affiliated
bue i emease the stroll capin.
immense power capital. Political strategies which would and here comes the crunch — disband the dominant alliance of men, and replace it with an alliance less narrow. but which empowered the majority
Such an alliance would begin to
down the divisions which elevate the employed, skilled, highpaid, full-time workers (mostly men)
divide them from unpaid, downgraded (mostly women) and would lead to the development of unified class consciousness that could
most formidable threat to capital. More importantly it is the on
strategy for WiLl radically divisive tacties of Margare Thatcher's government. Alliance
Sadly, the prospects of such ? ge nuine allance developing within ou class are dim. Men in the Labour Par ty and trade unions are reluctant t permit women to make even the mos modest advances. They will not, fo example, allow the 650 women tha attend the National Labour Women' Conference to submit five resolution to the men's conference — the Party' Annual Conference. They continue t insist on exercising their right • or behalf of the women absent from th men's conference of electin the women's section of the NEC o
They will not agree to this powe being conferred on a body which is fa more representative of the women o our class, where trade union wome
represented the Labou Women's Conference. Nor will the even consider the structural change necessary if there is to be a transfor mation of the parliamentary labou
overwhelmingly and op pressively male.
If these modest concessions can'
be made by the dominant alliance
поре • is ther of a genuin alliance, a developing cohesion withi
Precious little. Margare Thatcher Rules. OK? *Can I, in passing, refer brother
Hain, Benn and Bloomfield to thre
books which might help them unde
stand the role of working WOMe within the political struggles of ou
First, Sheila Rowbotharr.
'Women, Resistance and Revolutior
(London, Allen Lane, 1972); secono
Barbara Taylor's superbly researite
'Eve and the New Jerusalem: Saraz
and Feminism in the Ninear:"
iurt London, 10Z:
:hird. Liddinglor ="s
Tried Virago, 1978).
Page 10 scan of this page
Hodgson's Choice
10 Socialist Action GEOFF HODGSON has been a member of the International Socialists and several other far-left groups. He was active in the early days of the Conference of Socialist Economists.
More recently he stood as an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Labour. He now plays a leading role in the Labour Coordinating Committee ramoured to tutor Neil Kinnock in economics.
JOHN HARRISON reviews his latest book, The Democratic Economy.
I STARTED this book journey through the Midlands, hopag it would innoculate me against the borrors of the industrial graveyards rattling past the bour later, I was wishing I'd brought
Agatha Christie.
disagreements prompt such a morbid response. chuckled with admiration at Kitching's Re-thinking Socialism and I would give Crossland's The Future
Socialism the Booker Prize day. Nor was it Marxism (with capital Ark, as Dury might say). This is the first time Geoff has explicity abandoned The Creed.
I've outgrown knee-jerk reactions.
No. The real culprit was Kinnockspeech: old ideas regurgitated in prose style edge. The sub-title — a new look at
lanning, markets and power - must contravene the Trades Descriptions Act.
Enough self-analysis. What does abe book say? Well, it beats me. Every statement is stitched up qualifications to straight-jacket any Bormal brain.
The general drift may something like this. A brapch of the thought police, popularly the Wrong. Question Brigade, shunted debate about the kind of society we want off into a rusty siding. Counterposing markets central planning is silly. both.
Nutters
The New Right are nutters who expect too much from markets. Marxists are mirror-image loonies who expect too much from planning.
organise labour distribute products in more ways than one. Enter the 'impurity principle' tbeoretical star of the book (I vote for Jack Nicholson in the movie.) This screaming banality is justified by a quick run through civilisation and its deviations (Roman empire Stalin) and a theoretical aside on cybernetics.
The way out of this cul-de-sac is sign-posted Democracy especified). The notion cconomic crisis renders capitalism and democracy increasingly incompatible (the best idea Benn ever borrowed) is naive. Democracy and BigC interact is a more complex fashion *elucidated via the cliché metaphor of
stormy love affair). So socialism and democracy are separable, though equally Cue for a fashionable left shopping list. Greenham and Citizen Ken: of coarse. Gay rights: by all means. Nationalisation of the beights: well... that denends. stuff of which dream made.
This may be unfair, but I doubt it. I've waded through the book twice and the index is useless). Anyway, let's assume I've got the general idea,
8 June 1984
and is on a train
Half an
Gavin But I think
my teeth on in enough
run
known as
We need
published at £3.50
see what we can make of it.
Hodgson
All caricaturing their ideas and
that drink?)
Joe Captain Birds
tion job.
(distance
that
Pinkos
that markets organise all human
'anarcho-capitalist'
commanding
tickets are cost-effective body
conscripts).
New relations
The Democratic Economy is a Pelican Original,
sit back, pour ourselves a drink, and
makes some correct criticism of the New Right whilst both
letting them off the hook. (See why we need
His good criticisms concern the limits of markets. Some of us enter Sainsbury's with a better American Express rating than others. Nobody's kids would buy fish finger junkies if
Eye had never marketed the product and so on. It is a decent, if fairly standard, demoli-
The caricature is an archetypal New Righter, supposedly convinced
are the best way to activity. Now, nuts do abound. Milton Friedman's son, David — who styles himself as
advocates private armies and legal systems. His father lobbied against the draft in the vietnam war economic weory sug gests that career sadists achieve more
counts than do
But, honestly, Geoff, how many
Righters really want all sexual regulated by the market? Even J. Edgar Hoover once
DEMOCRATIC
THE
ECONOMY
A new look at planning,
markets and power
lamented - in a thinly veiled attack on the pinkos of the Republican administration that 'unfortunately, we of the FBI are not empowered to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy. unless they have somehow interfered with interstate commerce'. "political decisions because they hoe Righters claim imposed by arbitrary coalitions of 'interest groups'. Hodgson accepts this smokescreen as naivelv as those parents who believe their kids are only smoking giant roll-ups.. New Right In fact, the New Right has nothing against politicisation as such. "Taking the state off our backs' is the last thing on its mind, as any NUM picket knows all too well. It fêtes those special never are ps at the cocos powerful. cannot stomach is the labour movement and the reforms it has wrested Hayek, the only really bright and up-front theoretician the New Right has, pulls no punches:
Public policy concerning labour unions has, in little more than a century, moved from one extreme to the other. From a state in which little the unions could do was legal if they were not prohibited altogether, now reached a state where they have
GEOFF
HODGSON
tions to which the general rules of law do not apply. They have become the
government signally fail in their prime
cion and violence ... the whole basis of our free society is gravely threatenabhor ed by the powers arrogated by the
(A Tiger by the Tail, pp. 66-68)
Snide
device for marketing deflation. Surprisingly Bank recently admitted as much: to intitiate (Thatcher's policies - JH) with a familiar 'Keynesian' exposition about managing wards, ... But this would have meant disclosing objectives for, output and employment. This would have been a very hazardous exercise, and the objectives would either have been unacceptable to public opinion or inadequate to ensure a substantial reduction in the rate of intlation, or both. Use targets, for money supply and governauthorities to stand back from output and employment as such.. (Quarterly Bulletin, June 1983, p. 207)
non-state organisation. here
wil cabilal s uniquely privileged institu-
the prevention of coerMonetarism is similarly just a
England of the state, '•.. it would have been impossible
nuttees view. demand down- these days.
Winter alia, 'The suggests,
outlines
of strong intermediate
allowed Well,
So much for the New Right. What
Surplus Value
of the way forward? I doubt if Geoff and i alter much about ine kind o society we want to live in. I certainly agree that markets have a place under socialism. as do co-ops and ołnel
forms of economic Rival political parties must be free to slug it out. I also buy his powerful defence of utopianism. To dismiss questions about the nittygritty of socialism by snide references to 'blue-print deviationism' is tanta-
political amnesia (remember Stalin?).
The question is how can we get there — a trickier exercise than planning my train journey. One issue is the
compatability of capitalism and democracy. Geoff is agnostic
- anything might happen. I am not. I believe that existing democratic gains are increasingly incompatible
needs and will face greer mod age and sociali Battles
democracy and socialism will become less and less separable.
Slippery
democracy, and other working class
economic effects for capital, the net result of which is unpredictable. The argument is an extension of one once made by Bob Rowthorn - that UK
had grown faster (since this would have forced firms to innovate
always hurt capital economically. The
When it can no longer afford those concessions it at-
change. Here I find Geoff very ship thodox Marxist talk of socialism be ing about the dominance in political and economic power of the majority, the working class' is 'a worthy objec-
'hopelessly inadequate' and to reject 'the worker-centred fatalism of the
Mostly he refers to 'progressive forces'. Certainly, he fails a number of litmus-tests of support for the organised labour movement, saying of free collective bargaining, for ex. ample, that 'arguably it has done little to enhance the power or influence of the working class as a whole'. Centrist
Hodgson is clearer on state power. He rejects any notion of proletarian, as opposed to bourgeois, democracy on the slanderous grounds that supporters of the former are inevitably hostile to one-person, one vote national
• On a • more uowu to carl level, he opposes any fundamental reorganisation of the repressive arms
preferring a system of police and military monitoring com-
I take a more traditional So I suspect, do most picket
The cover blurb concludes: "impurity principle", he means that some sort of pluralist economy is inevitable: far from being a centrist, however, he
radical decentralisation and worker participation as the surest safeguard of political democracy, with emphasis on autonomy for individual and community alike.'
yes. Probably. Or something like that. Apart from that bit about not being a centrist,
Page 11 scan of this page
News
A STANDING OVATION greeted miners' leader Arthur Scargill as he entered the Bridlington hall where over 300 delegates and observers from the rail industry assembled last weekend. The miners' strike was a central concern of this annual conference of guards and shunters, the strongest section of the National Union of Railwaymen.
If there was one point delegates agreed on, it was that our recentlyconcluded wage settlement
- an increase of between 4.9 to 5.6 per cent with no productivity strings • was the direct result of the miners' struggle.
By Jane Austin, Marylebone guard
As Doreen Weppler, delegate from West Ham branch, argued: "This climb-down by British Rail occurred because the Tory
Kings Cross station where jobs are threatened
Teachers
back to work, bar around 2½ per cent of them.
These would then be
allowed eren
week for three days. But
not about a fixed wage in-
crease. All they would be
striking for was arbitra-
lon on a yet unspecified
By Rich Hatcher, NUT
MacGregor would roll
OyCl and the
police could go back to
nelping or people across
the road. But believe it or
not this is the plan of the
NUT for winning our pay
claim!
Now halt-term is over
the token three-day strikes
go on anolner Iwo
weeks. All over the coun
try this has caused frustra-
tion and anger among
Guards and shunters conference
Determined to
fight =E
government made political decision that would avoid a united fight by miners and railworkers at any cost.'
Delegate after delegate expressed disgust with the leadership's acceptance of a measly 4.9 per cent for guards. The miners' struggle put railworkers in the strongest position ever to push fight against the drastic drop in
recent years. And union cauc awar golden opportunity to fight.
Out for arbitration?
JUST IMAGINE if Arthur Scargill had called out the miners on a one-day strike, got overwhelming support for more action and then told them to get
teachers who reckon they are being nett back by their union leaders.
Unlike the miners the leaders are nol out to win. They've put their money arbitration. Their aim is to win the majority of the Burnham negotiating committee over. Kut even though the Labour metropolitan authorities are on our side, the Tory counties and the COver mels direct representatives have a majority.
Now the danger is that the NUT leaders will do what the NAS/UWT have done and call off the action in the cities Labour controls - where teachers are most militant - and
But even if a wage settlement has been won, the major battles dustry lie ahead. Management now plan …to orve ahead Prescriaiy exercises. wanl MOre work from fewer workers.
alone. over 36,000 jobs have been lost in the in dustry.
Nuclear
Arthur Scargill explained how railworkers al c faced with the same problems as miners. "The mining and railway industries are inextricably linked and
per cent rail freight depends on the coal
Sala Crossley, Miles Platting
pointed Dranci OU l another common interest concentrate on the tough Tory shires who against arbitration.
The Socialist Teachers Alliance is pressing for a stepping up of action and for conditions to be set on
lo make sure there is no sell out. National
This is a national strug-
gle against
governmen pay policy. Action must
take place in
CyCl alca
before the end of term.
The NUT must ally
all the other public sector
workers now taking action Ulbay.
The STA is suggesting 11X1 teachers join the
NATHE demonstration on 21 June and then lobby the NUT
cAccutIve meeting at 4.30 that day.
If need be we should take unofficial action to get the campaign rolling.
- opposition to the Tories policy to promote the nuclear industry at the expense of coal.
'The nuclear flasks are dangerous. Guards and shunters have no wav Ol knowing if we are being contaminated with radiation. The results appear only in future years, and in future generations. As long as we can't ensure safety, we should not go near the nuclear flasks.
As Daryl Hillgrove from West Ham branch put it: "The transport of nuclear waste will never be safe. Our safety will onl be guaranteed if the Tor nuclear energy policy is re jected and country's energy comes from coal.
The number one battle for railworkers in the coming months is over the in.
'Driver Only Operation' (DOO).
'productivity
cite threatens the entire claud Working conditions, safety and job losses are at stake The message was: we won't have it. Lobby
Conference unanimously agreed on course of action to keep the union committed to take no part in any talks involving productivity.
Rose Knight from Kings Cross No 1 branch called on delegates organise a lobby of the coming union conterence against productivity talks and DOO. And she called for the guards conference to be 'urgently reconvened should any depot be involved t against productivity schemes'
Cross Strathclyde, Sheffield and St Pancras are all targets for DOO. And Strathclyde
have already staged a 24-hour stoppage in protest.
John Wotton from Marylebone station explained how his depot was doubly threatened Marylebone is the first
mainline station earmarked for closure Guards have been told they'll be transferred to Paddington where driver-only units are planned as well!.
Active support for the miners' strike makes stronger for all our coming battles. Guards are responding to solidarity appeals. A mass picket of Shirebrook Notts, where some railworkers have not acted on union instructions, will be held Inis Wednesday, led by Jimmy Knapp and Ray Buckton.
The response to the miners' and the commitment to fight for ODS I OUE own industry, made this the most determined many delegates had ever attended.
VOTE
LABOUR
THURCHE press conference in Birmingham. The
But, at present, developments are taking place without the blessing, and sometimes with the direct hostility, of the par-
leadership. Roy Hattersley, for example declined to address the conference necause does not support the setung up or black sections
By Chris Palmer, Ladywood CLP
In his letter of refusal, he writes that they would be 'a retrograde step' in his Sparkbrook consulunc of Birmingham. Yet in a
in which 36 per cent of the population we back were are olly e handful of black GMC delegates. The really retrograde step would be 1o keep inal unrepresentalive situation
As Jim Thakooridin, Bedfordshire county councillor and convenor of the black section steering com mittee, said black people have remained loyal to the Labour Party and trade unions despite the fact that they have been allowed lit tle or no imput into the decision making process. rar from being black sections have positive contribution to make to the party, giving black people confidence and motivating them to join and take part in the work of the party.
The fight is not simply for black representation in
Neil Kinnock paramell. may talk about the possibility of six . VI SCYCL black MPs in the next
but as Paul Sharma, black section
pointed treasurer. Vule that figure should be thirty to take account of the size
of the black poe ligion.
Rather, fight
about input into the party at all levels, from ward to the NEC. Nor can it be reduced to concentrating on questions of immigration and nationality. The problem that all
black people is racism al
Socialist Action 8 June 1984 Left to right: Jim Thakoordin, Paul Sharma, Mark Wodsworth, and Billy Poh at the
Black Sections -
here to stay
THE LABOUR Party Black Section is here to stay. That was the clear message from the Labour Party Black Section press conference on Tuesday 29 May
national conference of the black section, in Birmingham on 9 June is now set to be a major success and an irreversible step towards the creation of black sections throughout the party.
work, racism racism entrenched in the
try.
Only if it responds to these and involves black people in the decision making process can the party continue tc command the of black people. At the last election, that meant 12.5 per cent of Labour's vote, one million out of eight million. Narendra Makanji, Haringey councillor and London Region Labour Party Executive member, pointed out that black people are organising themselves to take part in politics. The party must organise itselt to take ac count of that.
On the question of unity, Billy Poh, black section
THE RT HON P
HOUSE OF COMMONS LONDON SWIA OAA Dear Billy Poh,
Thank you for your letter
attend your National 9th June. decline, both because and because i up of Black sections which, in my constituency, step.
Mr Billy HN Poh Labour Party Black Section 63 Chepstow Road
11 secretary, replied to Nei Kinnock's claims tha woud b divisive and potentia minefield. He noted tha the reason for such a div sion would be the racist 2i titudes of white people and society as whole. The party stands is intrinsically racin
Racism
Now the task is! make the black section national movement. Wor is already underway in one hundred constituency ties, in London, Liver Bristol, Manchester DUUk. and Birmingham in par ticular. The national con ference June coordinate these develop ments and organise a con stitutional basis for • fur. ther developments.
The Labour Part: Black Section can be con tacted at: 39 Chippenhar Road, London W9 tele phone 9692 01-221 7050.
KAIIEKSLEY MF
17 May 1984 Conference on inviting me I am afraid that I must
conform to existing Labour f the settin; your aims do not
not support
certainly would be a retrograde
Yours sincerely,
Page 12 scan of this page
FTER a week of relative quiet in the miners' spute ling. novement of coke at Orgreave. And a mass lobby of arliament has been called to coincide with the abate on Thursday.
miners have
Bul x heen receiving the sup-
they could expect the rest of the movement. Last Neil Kinnock a statement conthe use of
encè by the miners on
Orgreave picket. There z no mention of police
presumably L NeN Acunties (as the Sun has atred them), Ine TO! eé and the dogs are all to = expected and entirely ka .iidl.
The TUC and the right ing leaders of many ma-
anions have made sure
solidarity has remain-
imited, and in Nlaly
have sabotaged the
ce by encouraging their
This is
:ase with the ISTC at
There would
a need for a picket at
the steel Scunthorpe RATES:
Inland monchs €8: : months €15 Overseas = months only).
F eropo €17: Air Mail t 24 a uhle these rates malti-reader institutions)
Blame
Adress
Please send me as special offer *›red ac a newspaper with the Post Office ¡asooed bs lardinal Enterorises. PO Box 50. London Nl.
'TiH B1 1a.! End Offset (Tl Ld. London £z.
SOCiAList
ACTiON
Step
up the
pickets
the NUM leadership has done the right A massive picket has been called to stop the
refused to work with scab coke.
But even with this kind of sabotage, the strike 1s biting much harder than etne! NCB the government cares to adJHuL is why there Is pressure from some secLOT. of the Coalboard management to reach a negotiated settlement.
But Thatcher and MacGregor only terested in one thing, and WaLs Dameme nc mcIs to their knees. Even gigantic losses will be worth it it this is achieved, because then the rest of the unions will be easy meat.
That's why it would be wrong for Ine NUI place much hope in what it table. It the NCB manage- negotiating ment are feeling the pinch, then the thing to do is pinch harder.
Now is the time to step
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up the pressure from all sides. Picketing, money, and solidarity actions are
needed CYCll more than before.
Above all the Labour Party has a tremendous responsibility. should steho mourably deserted by into space the TUC and call for a national solidarity demonstration with the NUM straight after the
If Kinnock did this, and urged all the Labour Party's affiliated organisations join such demonstration their thousands, then new life would be breathed into the solidarity movement.
The miners would see that the organised labour movement is on their side, and the NCB wolle oe
forced to concede That's
National wild LaOIS
Executive should do
the resolutions it has received calling tor SUCH
demonstration from party
branches up and down the country.
Special free book offer!
Take out a years inland subscription and we will send you free one of these books: Thatcher and Friends by John Ross
For Over our Dead Bodies Women Against the Bomb
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OUT
THEORET OUT to Thatcher on 2 June
food and catering at a
sions.
Fund Drive - Off we go
PRIDE OF PLACE this week goes to Isiington supporters who have sent us £150 towards their target for the fund drive.
This puts us on the road to our £50,000 target. They raised this money by organising
conference last weekend. This shows what can be done with a bit of initiative. And it only involved a small number of people. Many thanks to the Islington Catering Corps and we look forward to the fruits of their labour on future occa-
Thanks also this week to supporters in Southampton who sent us £10 as their opening offer towards their target. Big or small all denations
QUONAL CONGRESS
Twenty five thousand responded to Anti-Apartheid's call for a massive turn out agairs: the racist Borha's visit
supporter running
send in the money today.
are looking good.
tion even better
are an important step towards our goal. Man chester supporters have told us that they are producing badges and T-shirts for the fund drive.
These are the sort of schemes that local areas can easily organise. Sponsored runs are another way of raising money. Sunday 1 Juty is the day a
Cin the Lambeth •half marathon. Sponsorship is going well and it's still not too late if you want to sponsor our runner-
We have made progress in our search for a new building. We are currently looking at a couple of offers which could suit us. Negotiations to move out of our present building are going well. Things
You can make the prospeets for Socialist Ae
- just keep the money rolling in
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