Socialist Action No. 92, 8 March 1985
The scan: 092-mar-08-1985-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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AMNESTY! UNITED WE STAND
THE GENERAL
ACTiON SOCiAList
KE
NUM
Inside
A carnival of the oppressed
A new alliance of women
MIND NOT MISSILES
FESTIVAL
The greatest strike in British history
page 3
pages 6/7
pages 10/11 GANISE
SENERAL
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Action 8 March 1985
'Our
go on
•THE STRIKE is over, but the dispute continues.' Arthur Scargill's statement after delegate conference expressed the spirit of struggle that continues to exist in the mining communities. The closeness of the return to work vote - 98 to 91, even after 12 months on strike — was adequate testimony to that. So was the reaction in the Kent and Scottish coalfields and at Armthorpe in Yorkshire.
would make it complicit in the Coal Board's closure programme was correct and necessary. leteriorating situation faced by the strike, and the necessity to return in the short term, it was far better to refuse to make an agreement than to dress up a capitulation as a 'compromise'.
AS ATLAUT Scargill *rote in the Observer on 3 March: "The NCB demanding that the NUM accepts closures on "economic" grounds prior such cases going through the review procedure which means that the fate of these pits and units would effectively be predetermined even before. they enter the procedures.
the Board's annat serent: US ultimatum We
The crucial question
SociAlist
ACTION
fight will
Sunday's special The NUM's refusal to sign an agreement which
Given the
for those who voted not to go back •was rightly the issue ot amnesty for the 700 miners sacked in the coulse of the strike. This struggle is going to deepen.
There are still over cases outstanding against NUM members many on serious charges such as conspiracy and "The NCB will continue use these case. victimise militants. Deof those sacked 1s now a key task of the entire
movement and not just the NUM.
Together with the overtime ban the immediate issue facing the union. Kent, Scotland and Armthorpe in Yorkshire Leo use way with their votes to stay out to neat lor an alliesly
The outcome of the strike is a defeat not just for the miners bat for the
labour Calle But the attitude taken by Scargill, and the NUM rank and file, has created the best conditions posstole for an ongoing struggle.
This is despite the fact that the right has been sitting on its hands and waiting for an opportunity to isolate the Scargill wing of the union. And despite the fact that the South Wales executive decision to recommend a return — with the implied threat that the coalfield would go back wnatever the nauonai conference decided empt the discussion at Sun- eccuvey
JOHN
NUM
No vict day's delegate conference.
The refusal OI the NUM to sign an agreement, to become complicit in pit closures, means that unc ers relurt lo work in a much more favourable situation than, for example, the workers in British Leyland or British Steel -MacGregor's previous two victims. There the leaderships accepted the agreements and effectively policed the run down of the industries.
The NCB tried to force same role the NUM. It failed
Of course the NCB will try to move rapidly now to stamp its authority on the coalfields: to isolate militants, restructure industry, and impose its spurious criteria of protitability. MacGregor has already announced he will
continuing with the closure programme.
But the miners under Scargill are better position to rebuild for a fightback than the steel workers were under Sirs or for that matter the miners would be under another Joe Gormley. This is what makes the Scargill leadership different from anything that has existed in the British labour movement for 60 years. That is, ≥jan intransigent determinlation to stand and fight on the basic issues.
That determination tumed strike into a
that welded the together into class § struggle layer whose growth i and development will continue
LIAISON:
SUPPORT
THE
MINERS
period.
The blame for the defeat does not lie with the NUM leadership The mining communities have given the greatest example of struggle in the history of the British working class Responsibility for the defeat lies with the leadership of the TUC and the Labour rarty tat the December TH As Mick McGahe general council, there were
kinds cadet round the table': the honourable ones who had tried to deliver support and succeeded, the honourable ones who had tried deliver support and failed and ansnonourable ones who had never tried.
The last are in a clear majority the TUC There is no room in the offices of the TUC for a leadershin that stands and fights for its members' interests
The NUM's refusal to allow the TUC to take over the dispute was correct. The decisions of the September congress to give 'total support' to the miners were sabolagea Dy Willi and the majority of the general council
The TUC, no doubt, will use as an excuse the clause that support particularly in particularly had to bewer
agreement with the unions concerned' that from the beginning the general counci have beer more afraid of a Scargill
than a Thatches victory one
To cap it all there can be few more despicable
incidents in the history of the British labour movement than the TUC using last week's talks to bring them closer to the coveralcul
The TUC's treachery is all the greater realises just how little effort was needed to brins power cuts and win the dispule. As few as eight ot the major power stations had to be stopped to bring nationwide cuts. This was well within TUC's
Instead, along with
innock and Hattersley,
concentrated attacking the NUM for so-
trade union movement. ir Britain, with a few honourable exceptions, has left this union isolated. The have not carried out TUČ congress decisions, to their eternal shame.
From Willis through to Hammond, and Kinnock through to Healey. the labour leaders have clearly
to lead the labour movement.
In the present crisis the working class needs leadership that will stand and fight. The miners' Strike has ariven LO1S understanding deep into the trade unions, the Labour Party, and all sections of the oppressed in struggle. That is the permanent gain this dispute, and the greatest guaraniet avolding future setbacks
The centre and right of the TUC and Labour Party will undoubtedly • 1 natener s viciory as ar
News
LIAIS
SUPPORT
THE
MINERS
Photo: JOHN STURROCK (Network)
occasion to try and crush the left in the movement They want the defeat of the miners to be, as CLOC Observer put it last
'the making of Neil Kinnock'. And now Kinnock has announced his opposition to amnesty for sacked miners.
For the labour movement, such a strengthening of Kinnock would be disaster. It would consolidate leadership that betrayed the miners - one that couldn't fight its way our ol a wer baver Dad.
But Kinnock will not have an easy task. The miners' strike has brought into being a class struggle Jave and leadership Britain which is thousands SLOS organised throughout the movement
It has opened a period o
radicalisation and politica suruzue or a kino nor see! in Britain since the 1920 It is a radicalisation that will deepen
The task now is to organise that left to throw out the traitors. It requires a programme for a government as loyal to our class and a fight for the Labour
adopt such a programm
We need a leadershi that Will follow the example of the miners in resisting the attacks on the working class For the working class there is no other road no matter how long it takes
Arthur Scargill put it very well: 'It is on struggles such as ours that democracy itself depends. Our fight will go on.
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The greatest strike in
News
OEFEND
T.U.
RIGHS
THE
INERS
ARRI
THE NUMBER one task facing the NUM is to get its sacked militants back into work.
union and in every area.
Socialist Action spoke Yorkshire, and Nottingham about the amnesty in the pits.
Kay Sutcliffe
Kent Women Against Pit Closures WHEN I heard the results of Monday's mass meeting that Kent would be staying out I was really pleased. Weare all disillusioned here with the decisions of the delegale conference. How can we go back without securing the jobs of those that have been victimised?
The miners haven't committed any offence. In Kent, for example, most of the charges relate to taking cameras down the pits in order to expose the boara s les. Il s sneer vindictiveness.
It's a strange situation. The Board is using thẹ crilelia ot so-called crimes that have been committed. But such criteria never applied before the strike.
Whoever heard of such an laca. Il s simply a cover to get rid of the militants. It simply must be fought.
We are sorry that number of areas have decided to go back. But we
convinccu that
dividual pits will join with
Kent and Scotland in continuing the fight. We don'!
blame those who are going back. e ane oc c!
and the Labour Party
leadership. They did noth-
ing to implement their own
SUPPORT
THE
MINERS
Blass you
That is the fight to be carried out by the national
to militants in Kent,
fight for an
decisions.
The TUC left the matter in the hands of individual workplaces. But this placed the militants in an impossible cialon given the present climate 1 hen ine luc naa ue nerve to blame the rank and file.
But for Kent the fight goes on. So we'll still be asking. for support from TneaDou Movccl LU keep us going: We know from the experience of the last 12 months that such support will still be forthcoming.
In any event, we Kent, especially the women, are still up to our necks in activity.
moment have women touring Germanv. Denmark and the Netherlanas. as weli as Uclz vul and about around the country.
We'll be trying to get as many as possible to the Chesterfield rally in celebration of International Women's Dav
Our feeling as a result of the strike is that the women have to get more involved in other struggles, especially of women. We teel we have a debt to repay to those who have helped Jack Collins,
Secretary Kent NUM
AS FAR as we are con-
cerned the issues facing
miners today are just the same as when we started the strike 12 months ago.
anything the Coal Board evel more intransigent. This is therefore not the time to go back.
We consider the decision of the delegate conference to go back without the reinstatement of the sacked miners as treachery. We ale calling on all mulets throughout Britain stand and fight and not to go back until re-instatement of everyone is achieved.
This morning (Monday), we held a mass meeting of over 2000 miners. This is almost a complete turn .out. Our motion to stay out was passed with only a nanolul nave 40 alains! Here we have miners who have been sacked
The Board has declared that it is unwilling to re instate allyull We Will reconvene in two weeks or after we have had a further response from the Board. Paul Galloway, Thorsby Colliery, Notts THE SCABS may boo and jeer when we walk back - but that's the way they've always treated great people. We go back with our heads
SUA
MIN.
LIAIS
KIlM
AMNESTY!
up high knowing we did our duty to our families and our class.
Our mood is subdued. We don't want to go back without an amnesty for the sacked lads. But we feel that the South Wales headersh op helde gunte heads delegate conference
Declaring their intennon o telia wnate ver loe outcome of the conference played right into the hands of the Board.
Here in Nottingham we'll continue to fight till the lads are re-instated. We've set up a trust fund which will pay the top grade pay to all those who have been sacked until we get them back.
We believe that links Enal nave Deel created between striking miners. their tamiles. the support groups and other trade unionists have got to be continued. We have to form a striking force in the labour movement to drive out the rotten traitors.
ToS o sellie accounts with the scabs and those leaders, openly or not, that backed them. Steve Shukla, Armthorpe Colliery. South Yorks IT WAS clear from
history of the international working class.
It took £5000 million, a
975 res, lic stae.
arrests, and starvallunl. the: effort defeat the miners. In response the miners usec mass pickets, open de-
STURROCK (Network)
fiance of the state ad the law, mobilised whole communities to organise collective provision of welfare raised support and I funds. mobilised thousands of activists in every part of the country
The strike brought into being the most dynamic movement of women since the suffragettes. And the miners supported and were supported by all sections of the oppressed and exMonday morning that things were happening at Arntthorpe. Before light a mass picket assembled. The six cops present weren't expecting us.
The scabs had to be sneaked in through the back door. Morale was sky high. We then went on to a demonstration at Rossing ton. About 1000 miners and inel wive. assembled from the whole ot the Doncaster area
We met the scabs coming out of the early shift. They
them what was coming 1o
And so we went to the branch meeting to discuss the recom mendation to go back to work. The place was packed out. We thought the game was up Decause lere was so man people who'd never been scen on a picker line.
But when the branch committee motion was Dut to reject the recommendation to go back to work, it was passed overwhelmingly. 'So we'll be staying out WILn Kent and Scotland until we get the re-instatement of the lads who've been victimised.
Tomorrow we're bais on the R'c e! 4.30am. how long we wedoknow can
British
history
'THE MINERS returned to work this week after the greatest strike in the history of British capitalism, the longest mass strike in the history of any imperialist country. It is a strike which is a chapter of glory in the
ploited.
They were defeated not bv the Tories ana nel
state, but by the treacher!
of the TUC general council
and the leaders of the
Labour Partv. Ihe Notts scabs, the failure to close the power stations. the lack
national solidarity action, were aue to the divisions in the working class promoted by the reformist misieaacts
The miners burst through ou vears of ciass collaboration with the lorce oi a tornado. In the course of the dispute they have created the begin nings of an alliance of the oppressed which, in the next period, will transform the labour movement in Britain. The labour movement will never be the same ahalll The next years will see
the tight to transform the labour movement, to secure a leadership which stands and fights - as the NUM did
After the miners" strike, British politics will never be the same again. For the first time since the general strike, force genuinely at war with British capitalism has emerged.
From the militants of that strike, and those whe supported them, have come the future leaders ol the British working class No one who turned their backs on that struggle will ever amount to anything.
For monen.
section of the British work-
A scab
to the
end
ONCE MORE Neil
Kinnock has openly
scabbed on the victim-
ised miners, with his
statement that there
can be no general am-
nest!
Over "00 miner bave
bein sacked by
alread! [537 -q
aré laios taze ia Is
Socialist Action 8 March 1985 3 ing class stood up. showed it could remake society in its own image. that could change the world. A[ long last. the miners" strike has produced a leadership that begins to match that potential
Finally, the force that showed itself in the miners strike will spread to the entire British working class. When it does, there is world that will save Brite power in the capitalism. The miners strike is not an end. but : beginning.
Today the militants : : the NUM, more than ar: other union, are engaged.:. a bitter struggle to save their organisation, their jobs, their workmates their communities The:= SnOuC estimate of just how difticult that struggle is going to be.
But Arthur Scargill got it right when he said the greatest achievement ot thi last year is the struggle it self. Thatcher would have been no 'softer' if the NUM had never struck. Out of that fight an entire generation of socialist fighters was Dorg
British labour move poltics wil be r shaped from top to bottom
• as its ettects work them• selves through. For 12 months those who participated in the miners strike made history. The struggle will never be forgotten.
The miners strike will be remembered for what it was. The greatest strike in BrISAnISIOV proof that day the
class of Britain WOLKI will make socialism courts, ranging from
to assault. bodils harm and criminal damast
All These minori
ENi TI
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Rebuilding Nicaragua's ecconomy
International
WASHINGTON'S WAR threats against revolutionary Nicaragua have continued unabated. Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, seized the diplomatic initiative by military advisers to leave the country and declaring an indefinite moratorium on the purchase of new weapons systems. These measures are in line with the provisons of the 'Contadora' peace initiative — blown up by the US on a flimsy pretext.
was hysterically hostile. Nonetheless underline to the world the peaceful intentions of the Nicaraguan government and people. What they need is a breathing space to rebuild their economy.
Below, we Managua by JOSE G PEREZ on a major government message on the economy in which the FSLN outlines measures to meet problems caused by war. The article is an edited version of one which recently appeared in the US socialist paper, Militant. MANAGUA, Nicaragua.
The top leadership of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), which heads the workers' and tarmers government here. issued a major statement
economic policy, February.
The message was read Revolution Daniel Ortha, Commander President of Nicaragua, at an assembly of top leaders ol ine Nicaraguan government, armed forces, and nass organisations. Ortega is one of the nine members
the FSLN National Directorate. which signed
he ape al.
begin con-
-ting the greatest diffi-
m.ues or inese live years ol
evolutionary struggle and
under the weight of and the US military
:wer. the message began.
The statement went
over the many efforts made by the Nicaraguan govern-
during the last Sevelal ycals Locall peaceful, negotiated agree-
ment with Washington, all of which have been answered by escalating US government aggression.
'In recent weeks, statement continued, 'that government has proceeded to blockade, suspend, OI. withdraw from all the
peace-keeping processes
that exist in the region.
"They boast
official document of having "effectively" blockaded Contadora; they have indefinitely suspended the
Manzan|0 1aks nev ave
withdrawn from the World Court at The Hague.
The US government,
the statement reported, is
also making great efforts
prevent 'the continu-
ation of the dialogue
between government
and the Misurasata organ-
which (Washing-
sauon.
ton) has managed to split.
Misurasata
1o a rival
Miskito Indians, led by
Brooklyn Rivera, that has
been part or lne ciA war
against Nicaragua.
Des government my
government
FSLN plans lo continue
the Contadora
peace well
pursuing other avenues of
negotiation with the United
States.
'These peace efforts on'
the international terrain,
the Sandinista leaders said,
are nothing more than the
complement of the battle
for peace that we are also
waging in our homeland
the toreign aggressor.'
Recently
unilaterally asking 100 Cuban
Washington's initial reaction to these proposals
such steps
publish an article written direct from
Washington's
Since the US military threats and provocation. arrival of Mic supres around supposed Nicaragua last November, thousands more Nicaraguans have joined defence preparations here. Civil lefence plans and instal ations have been refurb ished and updated; many thousands of new militia members nave been cruited, trained and armed.
• UnC Patriotic Military Service, Nicaragua's draft,
Ilas been strengthened.
the main part of the message by the FSLN National Directorate focussed on the economic situation. It explained the general principles behind, and reasons for, a package of new economic measures designed to strengthen the revolutoR and better defend the living standards of the nation's workers and peasants.
outline of the measures was announced
president oI the central bank and the ministers of finances, labour, and
This internal announcement immediately preceded the message from the Sandinista leadership. Both that news conference and the FLN statement were broadcast live over radio and lelevision, broadcast together that evening, and published as a special supplement in the Sandinista daily, Barricada the following day
In explaining the deepening probiems of short ages, speculation, hoarding and the FSLN
Nd to De to ate po o-
aggression, which has, in four years, caused losse totalling more than $1 01O1
In addition, Nicaragua, together with the rest of the semi-colonial world, being subjected ever-
growing exploitation by
the imperialist countries through unequal exchange and rapacious lending praclices.
Since 1977 the chasing power of ragua's exports the
world market has beer cut in half. The FSLN leadership. cited one dramatic
example in its 1973 a 100-
whereas in a 100
pound bag of sugar could
uy as much as 10 barrels
of oi todav that same bag
of sugar can buy only one-
of one barrel of oil.
One indication of the acuteness of Nicaragua's
economic problems is that
Youngsters defend the Nicaraguan revolution
its foreign debt has grown
of which fully one-fifth -$872 million interest payments that have become part of the
deb The low prices that we
receive for our export products, the financial obligations that our creditors impose on us, and the economic damage caused by the aggression manifest themselves in a lack hard currency, which, :Luma transales to mit
Draw materials,
aricululal ill puts, spare parts, machinery, medicine, food, and basic goods all basic resources for subsistence and production in the life of the people.
The statement then went over the advances
made since Nicaraguan workers and peasants seized political power five and a half years ago.
Even as the US war of dession has steadily escalated over the past four
the revolutionary government has carried
ent to more than US S lent to more than billion.
'In sum, if we had to point some economic error as the basic one, it is lal we cu to cover Lou much at the same time. In reality, we have done more than we were able to do
with our limited materia resources. And all this despite the enormous degree of destruction we inherited from the Somoza
the actatorsnip, anu destruction that foreign Preparation for a US invasion: women factory workers in Managua learn how to use a rifle
aggression continues to cost us.'
"Today,' the statement continued, 'the quantity of
that wal demands ever growing. Forty percent of the national budget destined for defence.
"These tremendous expenditures,' the statement continued, large degree explain the problems of shortages price rises, inflation, and specu-
we are con fronting and that we are going to combat.
Calling merchants who take of the situation to make profits through speculation 'a
parasites', the they have 'stolen thousands of millions of córdobas from the people. Speculators sometimes manage to create shortages that tem-
godly double triple or
quadruple the price goods overnight.
One of the main aims of the economic measures announced by the government is to 'regulate demand'. . One • way Inis Is being done is by • holding
the COW coveranci budget and reducing the budget deficit. Another way, combined with the first, is to increase taxes, targetting especially the informal commerce sector where billions upon billions of córdobas are being
New luxury taxes, income-tax reform, and capital-gains tax are expected to increase revenues DV 2.5 billon córdobas, largely out of this sector.
Government subsidies of basic consumer goods like rice, beans, and cook ing oil will be eliminated The official prices of such goods beef, chicken,
La certain degree these increases in official prices merely reflect ones that have already taken place. Beef, for example, was already selling for
more thar double its official price in many place. before the recen increase. But the price increases are also aimed al transferring money from the commercial toward the productive sector, both public and private
The aim of the new pricing eliminate the gap between the government-determined prices and the free market price. It is this gap that has allowed peculator
specially the 're-sellers' -to make millions córdobas at the expense of working people.
Instead of going to speculators, the income from the higher prices will now go to the government, the producers, and hones! merchants thạt is, those
who play a necessary socia role y distributing good to the population, who are not simply parasitic intermediaries or 're-sellers'
The official córdoba exchange rate which was 10 to 28 córdobas to the US dollar - will rise to 28 to 50 córdobas to the US dollar. Prices goods involved in the government-controlled importexport trade will rise. addition, hidden subsidies implicit the rules governing tales nave oech cummilaice
"Together with the measures to regulate demand, measures that In crease the supply of food and basic goods by stimulating production necessary. the National Directorate's message explained. These measures include higher prices to agricultural producers and factory owners; a more favourable credit policy, and ensuring that foreign currency allocated to buy spare parts, machinery agricultural inputs, and industrial raw materials is in fact available. In add ition a system of bonuses paid to workers who meet or surpass production
4 Socialist Action 8 March 1985 quotas will be implemented.
'For workers there will be periodic readjustments of their wages so that they can buy those products at the . prices. and guaranteed supply of such products at official prices through secure channels.?
The purpose of this is not only protect working families against innanon. our diso lo sulli ulate the return productive labour of workers who have become small merchants because this is more lucrative
The FSLN message emphasised that top priortv for getting wage increases and scarce goods manual workers productive
• LAOSC
creatories and ealds who
create wealth society. Already an initial wage increase has been put through under this policy compensating non-agricul tural workers for inflatior during 1984. The increase at the bottom of the scale
for wage levels of manual workers nearly 50 per cent, but at the top the scale managers and adminis trators are only receiving 13 per cent increases.
'On this we are clear and we do not make false promises nor feed expectations, the National Direct orate declared 'When re adjustment of wages posed. unis aoes not nical that a worker will be able to buy more goods than he presently gets, but rather
that his salary is being protected against the inflationary process that affects our economy.'
The FSLN leaders ex plain that neither this nor any other set of economic measures can conurc awa Nicaragua's economic crisis.
will succeed overcoming the crisis in the medium and long-term to
the degree that we defeat imperialist military aggres-
sion and we increase the country's total production.
Page 5 scan of this page
Arafat's road: a sorry end
Israeli torture on West Bank
International
LAST WEEK'S joint statement by Yasser Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan calling for a Palestinian 'state' on the West Bank and Gaza, federated with Jordan, marks the abandonment of the PLO's historic goal of national liberation for the Palestinian people - 'a democratic, secular Palestine'. The statement is the culmination of a process of redefining the PLO's objectives which started with Arafat's 1974 call for the establishment of a West Bank statelet.
Ironically, the proposal for a Palestinian 'entity federated with Jordan identical to the proposal DUE forward Israeli prime minister Begin in the mid-1970s, position zzncnenen e s!
Israeli of Lebanon in 1978
The crucial operative part of the bact signed bv Arafat and Hussein is the proposal that a Palestinian 'entity' federated with Jordan be exchanged for 'peace' in the Middle East
Ulilcl words the recognition of the state of Israel by the PLO. The Husse n -A ramal Intiative
been cooked Saudi gelnel willl une THE INTERNATIONAL Commission of Jurists (ICJ) of Geneva has accused Israeli occupation forces of torturing young Palestinian detainees at the Al-Fara a concentration camp near Nablus in the West Bank. The ICJ released a 56-page report Geneva.
Neil wc ermon. Secretary-General of the ICJ and former SriSE Wandslel said in an with the KIKUU World Service programme 24 Hours on 31 March that it nan neen compiled by our affiliated organisation in the occupied West Bank, which is called Law in the Service of Man (LSM).
In the same programme Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian lawyer in the West Bank and a member of LSM said that 'the trend has been concentrate ore on pysch logical tortures such as deprivation of sleep, keeping them standing for a long time, putting them in rooms with water, some beatings which do not leave marks, treatment in an inhuman
esls he is below a hemar
eels he is below a
keeping them crowded conditions and with depriyation of basic services.
He added: 'We did treat in the report certain specific aspects which we have felt the dá cimor medie such as
Black medical care, and the fact that people who complained to the delegates
Red julcilalulal Cross have had action taken anaISL them making
period 1932-r9 a connined com phe res trt coveries.
covering the
I former detainees' case aged from 15 to
The report said: Detainees at the are made to
Calllt stand naked freezing weather, and psychologically
PLO abandons national liberation
Arabian monarchy. - paymasters of both Hussein and Arafat. week King Fahd issued a joint statement with Reagan canng lor secunlty 10l all states in the region and the excrcist ot the icalllale rights of the Palestinian people'
By Phil Hearse
:Evidently the objective of Fahd and Hussein is to attempt ILLISG Lne weight of the United States
pressurise s aells into talks. But it has to be said that despite the utter reliance of the crisis-ridden Israeli US
clouly 30 January in
humiliated.' It also gives details of prisoners being forced masturbate
fronto iarara, tors.
Fara'a, former British and Jordanian camp is situated about 12 miles north-east of Nablus. During the widespread demonstrations and protests in the West Bank in spring 1982 Tine Israelis SON ak detention camp to intimidate young Palestinians and to discourage unrest.
Al-Fara's camp
divided into two blocks. The first block khich is divided called The Stables, into individual horse pens in which as many prisoners are put. Inside the sels tasre i toilet at used as a Famil members and Red Cross officials are not allowed t visit this block which is use
for new arrivals
second is for thos from the LECHE West Bank and Gaza Strip. with by the he cases dealt
ICJ is that of an 18-year-old construction
worker who says he forced to stand for two days nootel handcuffed and
toilets before r is.
nterrogated.. Another
They beat caL-U student me with elec. said: tricity cables and ordered
support, political factors in the United STates make it extremely difficult tor any Us government to impose policies on sTaes
Just a month before the
with BOIN cecarauon Hussein, Arafat proclaimed ois conunucu comnnuncul to the 'armed struggle'. But
that with cvc volc Kuuws the dispersal of the pro•Arafat fighters to eight Arab lands, and the devastating split in the
Arafat has fighting forces in a position to engage Israel.
The largest concentration of Fedayeen fighters is the anti-Arafat forces in Syria - and the Syrians have no intention whatever of letting them anywhere near the Israelis.
The one factor which might encourage the Israelis to seek peace talks is tne continuing strife _oT eD
where their troops allvl! nave Deen ooracawi. harassed by Shiite tighters
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
me to turn round and round for a long time so that I got giddy and nauseous'. A third student says that interrogators beat him around the genitals and extinguished
ci aret espor states: Deten-
The report states: tion at Al-Fara'a should be understood, we believe, in Tne context of atensinre aimed at controlling the
West Bank population, sucl as curfews, house demolitions. and withdrawal of basic services from whole
Hussein as they withdrew to the Alawi river, and where the Israeli puppet 'buffer forces', the South Lebanese Army, has collapsed.
But for the Israelis the OuTV worth while settlement in the Middle East would be one which volved general recognition of Israe by all the Arab states. Such genelai neighbourhoods.'
KUNA reported tron
young Palestinians who reside in refugee camps and 64
percent of those who reside
have been Cues arrested since 1967. Among them were children of 7-1 yea rs. and 73 percent them were sentenced to bet ween month 90 years imprisonment. . In the
Israeli
Army arrested 2,680 young
women and 2,000 of them
PRE:
Arafat peace could only be delivered with the participation and agreement of the Syrians. But Syria's Assad, who still holds the whip hand in Lebanon, ls implacably hostile
Arafat and aus selr anu will not go in behind any initiative of theirs
Assad is desperate for US recognition as the key were imprisoned for between one month and 1 25 years.
Since 1967, the Israelis have put 3,027 cities and towns under curfew, and on 12,640 occasions the Israeli army opened fire on demonstrations and 638 Palestinians have been killed or injured. among them more than 100 women and children.
Israeli settlers
pened fire on Palestiniar
es as a roul which 314 were killed or injured.
leader of the Arab world and the diplomatic mill tary and economic advantages which would accrue to him Crom suco a recog. niuon. But to keep manue as , the tront line Arab leader, and the subvenuon - OM the Gulf states and Russia which mantan as cosav armv Assad cannot possibly b seen as the leader eager t settle with Israel.
Overall then the dream
Arab recognition. Israel seems far off. Israel has little interest in a deal with Arafat who has nothing to trade with. Why bother give an inch of sraell-held territorv in ex
changeyo rexes tye Pales
doe. the Palestinian movement find itself
this with
liliass Arafat dragged along by Hussein and Fahd and the opposition beholden to the Syrians? The decline of the PLO as credible force
1970 win en KiSe Ptussein
wnen kne nussel now aaace with
On 17 January, Israeli prison guards injured Paecnian orcones wie hundreds of them stormed Jneid Prison in Nablus. Ihi 800 prisoners were protesting against the measures of the prison administration. Israeli lawyer Felicia Langer visited the prison on
January and met with se Aa risad ne spaper p to Al-Ittihad newspaper, January, Langer learned that prison authorities are following ponc, of granting empty promises Teenns u boomuoe lldui to prisoners during the twoweek strike in
aulcci October last year. The cells are still overcrowded and proper medical treatment still rarely given
June masoners presenter her with a list of 120 names
need immediat medical attention. Cases included suspected cancer, eye diseases and psychological baaesses
Last year many prisoners died in Nafha Prison near
strike improve conditions inside the prison.
According to the Jerusalem Press Service publication Al Awdeh, • Janua Israel
holding 4065 Palestini andong dhem ilap rison ers and in the Ansar prison camp in south Lebanon
reported shat ter peorle
haperbeen served wilh tople restriction tor s4 since 1980. of whom were Isaklis, 93 froronhe West Bank, Jerusalem, from
Strip and 9 from the Gaza Golan Heights. They included mayors, journalists, doctors, lawyers, trade unionists, writers and students.
Socialist Action 8 March 1985 5 tamed Arafat, launched his bloody attack and drove
Palestinians 11 U1l Jordan.
This episode showed
ACne see ol Ene PLO, its dependence on the reactionary bourgeois and semi-feudal Arab rulers
Without strateg! wnIca based itselt CO 0 strategic alliance with the workers ana oeasallt the Middle East. which would have meant fighting against imperialist-backed
Zionism and all forms Arab reaction, the gambled on being able to out-manoeuvre reactionary backers. Sacrificing
independence. suct became increasingly difficult
Despite the leftis: demagogy of leaders like Hawatmeh of the Deme-
Popular Front fo: Craul the Liberation of Palestine (DPFLP) and Habash e: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), CIN C PLO
has never above bourgeois and ner bourgeois nationalism has never been the kind movement that could buric an alliance of the expl ited and oppressed Middle East
The proof pudding is in the eating. I:
Lebanon the PLO built = vast bureaucratic apparate: awash with Saudi mone:
Despite the personal her:ism of many PLO fighters the movement acted a mosI autonomou
apparatus with Suale
and •ureaucrall CUlII
mandist attitude to the
FoI
Lcualicsi Illasses
Lebanese worker:
the PLO were the tax col lectors and local bureau-
The bitter truth is clals that many the Lebanese left regarded the PLO apparatus with host-
ility The old" PI.O strateg)
of military struggle with the tacit approval of the Arab governments coulc never work. Arafat's 'new road one craver capitulation to the Hashemite monarchy and imperialism None of the other wings of the PLO can put forward anything better, other than rote repetition of the old strategy
Only the rebuilding of the movement on a completely new political bası
can rearm the Palestiniar res staice Whatever Arafat and Hussein think, the Palestinian masses will never accept the existence of the Israeli state or tne fate of being herded into Jordanian 'Bantustans Iveltner will ine mass or ln Arab people accept such a total capitulation to Zion ism.
Ever •since the ation of the PLO from eval Beirut the HO VC ment has been debating the way forward. Answers car only come on the basis of a
reappraisa of the whole history and strategy of the PLO Arafat's road has come lo a soruid and sort. end.
Page 6 scan of this page
Socialist Action 8 March 1985
THE YEAR of the miners' strike has shaken politics to its foundations. But what forces have emerged from it? And how does the strike and its effects fit into the long-term development of British politics? JOHN ROSS puts the strike in its historical setting.
THE simplest way to understand the long-term impact of the strike on British politics is to take the comparison which makes for the strike - that of the events surrounding World War I. The huge CUSS CUSS of British capitalism which culminated in the perialist world war, and which was ended by the defeats of 1926 and 1931, was the product of decades of rising class struggle. The key dates in this process stand out clearly.
In 1874, preceding the beginning of the crisis in Britain itself, Home Rule candidates acheved their first malor electoral breakthrough in Ireland inaugurating an open crisis which culminated in the pre-World War I fight for Home Rule, the 1916 Dublin rising, and the Irish war of independence. In the 1880s, under the impact of the long economic recession. first Marxist and socialist grouplets began to form in Britain.
In 1889 the modern mass trade unions were born. In 1900, directly as a result of the capitalist counter-offensive against the unions, the Labour Party was founded. From 1909 onwards a mass strike wave began to unfold - the high points being the 1909 South Wales miners' strike, the 1910 miners' strike, the 1911 dockers' and railworkers' strikes, and the nauona miners suke
The third decisive social force thrown into the struggle was that of women. In 1903 the Women's Social and Political Union was founded. From 1905 onwards it launched a militant mass campaign for the vote. From 1905 until war broke out, the combination of the Suffragettes, the struggle in Ireland, and the tumultuous strike Logeuner dominated Illass politics.
Finally, in 1914 a still greater force — World WarI - shattered the existing framework of British politics, forming everything it touched. That war Police attack strikers in 1926
had been boiling up over the preceding 10 years.
British our or une war
October Revolution in Russia.
Communist Party was born, at that time a revolutionary organisation.
This entire Britain culminated in the general strike of 1926.
Seeing this period of class struggle in its entirety is Vital because it completely destroys the economiste interprelanon or ponucs, wnien major parts of the British left like to miners' pass off as 'marxism'. The crisis which led up to, and sur-
rounded, World War I now parably the greatest social upheaval in
the history of British imperialism. Precisely for that reason, it showed the hallmarks of similar crises in every country. first im- A socialist revolution,
social crisis, is not as the British left would have it a 'strike writ large'. It is, in Lenin's words: oppressed'. Every single group that has been exploited and oppressed rises up and seeks the opportunity to inflict historical vengeance on its oppressor. A great political crisis concentrates the most apparentiv single centralised and combined assault on the capitalist state.
In Russia itself the revolution was not the product of economic struggles. It was a total crisis of the entire society. Russia, serious oppressed nations, economic struggles,
the fight for political democracy, demand of peasants for land, the fight against anti-semitic struggle against rising economic chaos, were all fused together in a vast political convulsion — a convulsion which alone had the power to overthrow capitalism. The historical concentration of the British labour movement on economic Durham questions, including after
Vol back waraness 1912 nature of the labour movement. It is the
violent convulsion around World WarI — the simultaneous explosion on to the political scene of mass struggles, of the fight for Irish independence, of women's struggles battle for democratic rights, of the fight against the war threat main characteristics of any It marks out the period of the first wavc imperialist war, without comparison, as British une greatest crisis in the history of
British imperialism One of the characteristics of the period of defeat after 1919 to 1926 was precisely the collapse of the struggle into a far narrower field. That
came the
1 ne period.
The political cycle of struggle in
in particular and higher level
was com-
was also a precondition for trating its working class
or a deep Since 1968
*a carnival of the
struggie has given rise, in une form or
base in the whole of Western Europe. diverse crises into a imperialism
struggle factor of British politics for 50 years,
the liberation movement in the late 1960s
DOLLOIS.
than prior to
1926, is a sign • not of the advanced
trade union
of the
- that shows the social crisis. developed now as a cutting edge of every
mass struggle.
communities during the 1984 strike has ever been seen in British history indeed in any women of Illas.
HOSU
National Abortion Campaign is probably the most continuously successful united front campaign seen over the last
the most advanced expression of deeper developments in women's position in the labour movement, in the working class, in society, and in politics.
The women sformal political equality right to vote -by a higher level of demands for the full political, economic, and social liberation of women. structure of society.
At the leve struggle, the 1984 miners' strike, apart from the general strike itself, is the most important and Dilus mastory. I eenpses une six-mon tn miners' strike of 1926. The 1984 strike is the longest mass strike ever to take place in the history of any imperialist country In its conduct Scargill wing of the NUM has employed methods beyond those of AJ Cook and his supporters militancy aneve mass trade union leader the
current strike secret negotiations OWlIcis ala Cols sicHLivICLusculo wIlldraw safety cover during the dispute
calest mass urauc union caucn ur history of the British working class -the most authentic expression of the most militant sections of the working class. The Scargill current of the NUM is the greatest militant force seen in the British labour movement since 1926.
As regards the nothing prior to 1914 can compare with either the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign of the late 1960s Campaign for
struggle itself, of course, was at a relatively lower level than the preceding
forces developing within the British state today bear ar uncanny resemblance to those which emerged in the great crisis surrounding World War I. The difference is that each struggle has now been raised to a new
By 1921, the demand for Home Rule in Ireland had culminated in the independence of 26 of the 32 Irish counties.
Cutting its losses, and abandoning a large part of the Irish state, had been a precondition for British imperialism to resolve the crisis in its internal colony. It
concenenergies against its own
new struggle has erupted within the Six Counties, continually threatening to spill over into the rest of Ireland and the British state. This
Sinn Fein, not merely to a struggle for national independence but to the most advanced political force with a mass
was equally forced to defuse the Suffragette struggle by granting women the right to vote in 1918, and extending it to all women over CND. 21 in 1928. A truly mass independent In addition to women's movement was removed as a
until the emergence of the new women's
That women's movement has again emerged as a tremendous force. As with Ireland, it is at a far higher political level qualitatively
World War I. The
'The crisis which led up to World War I was incomparably the greatest social upheaval in the history of British imperialism'
independent organisation of women has
Nothing like the scale and role of mobilisation of women in the mining
other country. The Greenham have been the higher level consistent activist force in the around the 1910s. struggle against nuclear weapons. The A comparison
not simply
10 years. In turn, these movements are
revolution.
from the WOHICIl for tradition of the struggle for - Enf has now been rejoined
This is shaking up the possible
of the trade union
strike In
1926 of the dispute the
1926. For all his was the greates British working class had produced before this. right are peddling.
Cook still engaged in with the mine
Arthur Scargill is with out doubt the
1920s and 1930s.
even the threat of war, basic
Nuclear Disarmament. Cessiulls
Only the struggle against British intervention in the Soviet Union in 1920 stands on a higher level than the VSC or
movements which have a continuity with the World WarI period, new fundamental forces have emerged in British politics in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The black community in Britain is larger than it was at the time of the first imperialist war. Its struggle is
more advanced. The struggle of the cities was prefigured in image
Illass
the
the early 1920s by George Lansbury and Poplar council but it cannot compare in size with that of Liverpool council or the stakes involved in the fight against rate-capping. The crisis in the education system, of local government workers, civil servants, and the campaigns for democratic rights, are also at a far
than any equivalents today wim phe period oWorld Par lis of British emergence of the fondamental serre- analogy. It is the retural components of the British socialist
The struggle of Ireland to free itself
British state, the fight of their liberation, Hiasi strikes, the fight against the war drive, the struggle of the cities, the defence of democratic rights are key components of the 'carnival of the oppressed' out of which a socialist revolution alone is
Equally, the miners' strike is not simply an industrial struggle or a 'big strike'. It is the highest development since 1926 of a vast social and political movement which ties together every section of the exploited and oppressed. Apart from World War I, the miners' strike is the greatest class struggle of any type since
But while the analogy with the crisis surrounding the first imperialist war is useful, there is a fundamental difference •in the political perspective it opens up
barucuarto une rase analogy will 1926 which the press and the Labour
The strike of 1926 marked the end of an epoch. The strike of 1984 marks part wave of of a beginning — a struggle which will continue to reverberate through every section of society. To see the difference it is useful to compare the situation of British capitalism today to that of the rapid
Drush Imperansm emergea Tron the crisis at the time of World War I not
simply, or primarily, by repression. No
defeat of 1926 wa: fundamental enougn in unal respect. Ine
mechanism by which British period. imperialism kept stable in the mid-war period was still its ability to give con-
sections of the economic
Acarn
the op
population
Although the repressive statelet in the northern Six Counties of Ireland was created in 1921, 26 out of the 32 Irish counties gained their independence from Britain. Women did win the right to vote. Although the trade unions were weakened, compared to their peak of strength around World War I, the were still far stronger than before the beginning of the labour upsurge.
In the field of the economy the
of the "hungry thirties is only part of the truth - despite the defeats of 1926 and 1931. The 1930s were a period of sharply rising living standards for the majority of the working class in employment. The 1930s were a period of housebuilding boom, of the beginning of the
production - mOtOr cars. cheap food and of the development of modern consumer industries. Although
suffering of the unemployed rightly regarded as the symbol of the 1930s, political stability was achieved, and Conservative Party dominance secured, through substantial increases in living standards for the majority of the working class.
Internationally the 1930s were a period of dark reaction, with the rise of fascism and the greatest working class defeats in history. It was this combination of factors that made 1926 such a definitive defeat - one closing an entire epoch. It was the combination of re pression and concessions which enablec British imperialism to inflict such a crushing long-term defeat on the labour movement
No such possibilities of concessions are open to British capitalism today -politically or economically. It cannot afford to be seen to be driven out of its final toe-hold in Ireland. British capitalism is taking away, not adding to, the rights which women won in the 1960s - and early 1970s. There is no prospect o any economic growth which would lead to an increase in living standards - on the contrary the long-term decline in the exchange rate of the pound, and the absence of sustained economie growt) is going to erode living standards ever
Internationally, no defeats whateves are qualitatively comparable to those suffered by the working class in the mid'20s and 30s. Domestically the outcome ol ne manesse cannol ven re motely be compared to that of 1926 -none of the conditions of stability of the 1920s and 1930s exists
Behind all this lies another feature which dominates the situation. From 1931 onwards, almost uninterrupted for 40 years, British capitalism experienced
- as well as a hug industrialisation during the 1s a 1940
The recovery from the slump of 1929-31 was in reality - and contrary to popular belief — a period of the most
econo mic growth in British Startling as it may seem, the British economy expanded by over 25 per cent between 1931 and the outbreak of war in 1939 - an average rate of growth of three per cent a year. Unemployment fell by a third in the same
No such prospects of economic growth exist today. The most optimistic
torecasts are simply
Declaration of th Irish Citizen Arn
Page 7 scan of this page
ival of
unemployment will not rise substantially. - and that is undoubtedly too favourable an estimate. Ihe tvpes or concessions in the economic or social enneres waich srise imber ausm was able to make to contain its position after World War I are simply not available today.
This is precisely why the struggle in reane or ne sruge o women. was not able to be removed by the bourgeoisie as an element in the situation before the miners' strike had to be conTonted. he internationa context is totaly amerent. ne labour movement is equally nowhere as weak as in the 1920s.
For all these reasons the miners strike of 1984 occupies a quite definite place in the process of political radicalisation: not the end of an era, but a link
development. The social and ponucal radicalsa ton deepen, and not diminish, as a result of this strike.
British imperialism today does not have the resources to buy off the struggle in Ireland, of women, or the crisis in the cities. These radicalisations will continue TO deepen; their consequences will extend further into the abour movement. So too the international crisis of imperialism.
While the NUM will take time to recoup its strength, the idea that the trade union movement in Britain has passed through a new 1926 is simply impressionist nonsense.
The miners' strike - the greatest strike in the history of British capitalism. the longest mass strike in the history of any imperialist country - is not the end of an epoch. It has given us the greatest glimpse so far into the future of British society.
We stand today on the threshold of a new radicalisation in British politics — the opening of the greatest crisis in the hustorv of British imperialism. carniva of the oppressed" beginning.
"Our Freedom must be had at
All inquiries to be addressed to:
HON.
Socialist Action 8 March 1985 7
pressed
ULOVE
The IS Just co the People or Ireland!
hazards. Wolfe Tone. "Che Price of Liberty is
Eternal Vigilance."
THE IRISH CITIZEN ARMY
Theobald Wolfe Tone died, and John Mitchel suffered AN INDEPENDENT IRELAND
Lishmen! Join the Citizen Army NOW and help us to bulld up an Irish Co-operative C
SEC., LIBERTY HALL, DUBLIN
Duscail do Dhisneach, a Bhanba! 1911 dockers strike
Page 8 scan of this page
Rebuilding the Grenadian revolution
8 Socialist Action 8 March 1985 IN THE WEEK leading up to the United States invasion of Grenada, the People's Revolutionary Government of Maurice Bishop was overthrown by a wing of the New Jewel Movement led by Bernard Coard. Maurice Bishop and other leaders of the Grenada revolution executed, and a military government
The United States used this as a pretext for its long planned invasion in order to roli back the revolution which had become a source of inspiration to the workers and farmers of the whole Caribbean.
In May of last year a new party was formed in Grenada, the Maurice Bishop Patriotic Movement, pledged to free the country of US domination and defend the gains of the revolution. One of its founder members, GEORGE LOUISON, who was a minister in the People's Revolutionary Government, recently completed a European tour explaining the situation in Grenada today and the goals of the Patriotic Movement. RICH PALSER and BISI WILLIAMS spoke to him when he visited Sheffield.
Holland, the Federal Re- in the country, against
Swe- another oI the ten and France, with three leadership , of the party.
They executed Maurice started. Bishop, several leading
The first was to re- members of the party, establish contact WILD and top trade political parties through- union leaders. out Western Europe which They broke the sacred had developed over the promise of the revolution ›eat› ws lne pally was and turned their guns on c the New Jewel Move- the people. They then went
We wanted to dis- on to impose an around the mcill.
with the social- clock, shoot to kill curfew.
In all they established a democratic parties about he whole issue of re-entry reign oI terrol over the
the Socialist Inter- people between 19 October rational, and contact and 25 October. Of course
communist parties the people recognised the with whom had other wing of the party led lations, well as other by Bishop as the leadership political movements which had given solidarity to The of the rection in Grenada both betore and power after the revolution. colonialists
Our objective was to bring the inter- None national communitv up to date with the situation in years Grenada, so that there can the clique any be assistance and a propa- wily we was the ganda offensive for the re- revolution.
mom Grenada nich is
Grenada; which something our party actively engaged in work- ation. He ing for. October. vigorous
The third aspect was to colonialism reach the trendship societies and the solidarity what the
which have New Movement West Indian Hovelleill given Grenada support over the years, and to reactivate. them those remained forms of political, social and economic assistance they have given the tablished Grenada revolution De Coard fore. At this stage in the lour we can say we have Movement allve But achieved some important contacts and been able to on really re-establish our still hold position international work.
statement made in Grenada you said that the New Jewel Movement was now dead and the Patriotic that he led one
Movement was the continu- the Movement ation of that movement. at that time. Laa you explai LuIs. rated to
show. Can In essence and in practice 1937 led in Grenada there is no New lewel Movement. The pasm toe post that mes very well known about from the that the Grenada is that resistance
LICIC. events of October — ana has gone back well over 19 October in particular - years. In the case smashed the party 4wu. one who became a free two
There was one wing of coloured, and, being- init that carried out the most fluenced by the French comes ierrible, horrific and brutal revolution, he led an insur-
take The British
abolish
capital,
the British
Grenada
come
launched
against West ano
consistently
lic wo babel.
Grenada
to
behalf
biggest
mig-
great oil
led to of the oiltrade union
Grenada
among
movement
speaks in Sheffield How Patriotic
presence?
debate.
based seratoni selves
because
to
to even struggle
was no
invasion.
revolution
choice,
that the
successful was the Movement in using the recent elections in Grenada to oppose the US
were
was
our dewas major con-
form of
progress-
was the
the
forms of have been
of the for. We
knew they
'the!
Lial
We openly
the
duce a
active once again,
people
a group
be part
CENS
movement.
election finished we should party inal
ob-
oul
welc of of thi
the suc-
struggle
had
active
and
new party.
were able
, but with have
International
What about after the left and progressive moveelections, what terrain for ment. The Grenadian revthe struggle now? shining
But as a result of the It is very important to give you an idea of the political wav the COl-
Elapsed - through a split in problems that surround the invasion to answer this the party - ine exampl
The has not only disappeared terror that was unleashed avsulul. but disappeared in a war
which the right wing has on the people by the Coard
been able to take advangroup on 19 October made
people of Grenada tage of. They you see what happened in say: 'Look, want to identify with any
Grenada when they deforce whatsoever that cided to go left they just could get rid of the Coard
ended enother."' killing one group
So when the Americans The right wing and the invaded in a climate where
US took the offensive in
people wer to They have
• even if spent over $21 million in they came from Mars
militarising the region anc who could get rid of the
been able to get away with Coard group, there was arming the police in the nue resistance to me ma region. They have gone vasion. That has posed a into the most virulent antiditticult task for the gressive movement. In the COTO com minist of anything left that raises denunciation
past year we have had to struggle to point out to the And in addition to all peoplest num ence acts
of that, the left itself split once again over the Grenada quesbring to their minds all that
tion, with some sections of the revolution had already pointed out • that the US it backing the Coard group initially. Even those who
could not back the Coard long time and that this was group were confused betheir opportunity. Seconc cause they had no knowthat the invasion was ledge of what happened in
of banditry. it was Grenada given the fact that criminal, and it had vịo-
it happened so suddenly. lated • known prin- Now the left and prociple of international conduct cess ve movements nave
Third that the Yankee begun to discuss the issues presence would not bring thoroughly again, all benedina destr there have been two meetbut would in ings in the past year
which Ine benells inat the revo lution had brought. Be- gressive partie
present. I think now ever Cause contradiction in the minds there Was single party in the Carib-
ot the people. Ihey naively Deal accepts what held the view that once the happened in Grenada was Coard group was removed a complete and total aberthey would be able to just ration from marxism-
the Coard group, and is therefore pre
Yankees But of course different the Coard group pared to recognise that th • was respon
sible for the collapse of the archlud. they have Grenadian revolution moved to I think the only
pari So in that had some difficul
was the Workers' Party of Yamac ollT they have
ment was now come out and at least
to However what we have where found with that party and with people here in Britain is that • some people nan: on to a new position in order to Keen the Coard group in the news for their
Against this back-
They cove their position under Human Rights Committee This is a complete mis application of the sacre principle of human rights what really they lla vt is a Free Bernard Coard committee. Both objectively and in practice that is how they function. rebuilding political
think tha those knowing and understand
Grenada events have to be very forthright in pointing out to honest people that really what they are getting been dis- involved in is nothing but a Free Bernard Coard com ments the • mittee 1hat 11 has ab-
solutely base viellada ana no possiollily of helping rebuild the pro. a new Grenada.
Page 9 scan of this page
POWELL BILL
Women
THE POWELL Bill represents the biggest threat to abortion since the 1967 Act was passed. The White, Benyon and Corrie Bills would have severely restricted the Act. Powell's Bill potentially goes much further because, for the first time in our law, it gives legal status to the foetus.
There are only three other instances where the foetus has been given such following the constitution- legal right: Ireland, al amendment in 1983, and fascists were in power.
Every mother a willing mother, every child a wanted child
Model resolution
women's rights and must be opposed, because:
secretary of state doctor-patient confidentiality.
not allow abnormal embryos to be rejected.
post-coital contraception and abortion.
We therefore determine:
the Bill 2. Affiliate/ donate to/support NAC
plications of the Bill
on n maren
Further attacks on abortion rights
FIGHT THE
The supporters Powell's Unborn Children (Protection) Bill made it clear during the debate on the second reading that the title is the most important the Bill. For about them it was but a prelude This (organisation) believes that the Enoch Powell Unborn Children (Protection) Bill is an attack on
1. It requires that the names of individual women undergoing treatment for infertility are sent to the
an invasion of privacy and
2. It will restrict research into the causes and treatment of infertility, foetal abnormality and miscarriage, and into the development of contraception. 3. Because it restricts the number of fertilised ova that can be implanted into a woman to one, it will reduce the effectiveness of in-vitro fertilisation and will 4. It gives, for the first time in our law, a legal protection to the embryo, thus opening the door to legislation outlawing certain forms of contraception,
1. To write to our MPs outlining our opposition to
3. To organise a local meeting to explain ine im4. To send a delegate to the meeting called by NAC
to banning abortion and post-coital torms of contraception.
The Bill sets out to prevent an ovum fertilised invitro from being used lor anything other than being placed in the body of named woman quirement that Leo Abse described licensed motherhood'.
If the Bill is passed the immediate consequences
that all résearch will
ANTI-ABORTIO
AND NOW POWELL...
By Leonora Lloyd, NAC Steering Committee (personal capacity)
using fertilised ova will cease. This includes research into contraception causes of infertility and prevention of handicap At the moment three or four embryos are placed in the woman to ensure that at least one will implant. In a series of cases where only CUDI VU Was planted, one out of twenty-eight women became pregnant. Even using three or tour the rate is only one ir ten. When in-vitro fertil-
isation is used, several eggs are taken at a time in the nope Inal one will oc successfully fertilised. Under the Bill, if more than one is fertilised the doctor will be made to impostell Underlying the Bill is the idea that at the moment of conception a full human exists, with all the rights of born humans. It is unsurthat Powell and other extreme right wingers have this philosophy. They believe we are our genes, that the environment is immaterial.
Anti-abortionists claim
SMASH THE
WHEE
BENTON
CORRIE
BILL!
that science proves we are human from conception. science certainly has proved the importance of
environment even before birth. Drugs, radioactivity, alcohol can all damage the foetus.
Science has also proved that about 60 per cent of all conceptions are lost at a very early and a further 15 per cent are spontaneously aborted. Presumably these • are "human beings' too.
Unfortunately : Tories Was not just right wing Forly Your Labour MPs voted Powell. did too — and only 41 were there to vote against. One hundred and twenty did not bother - or dare - to anena We must fight Powell
and nail, and LOOLE without delay. We have onlv a lew weeks to mount a massive national
• Act Now! Send a dele-
sate he harmeet tortion
the National Abortion on Saturday 9
the Powell Bill' bulletin, 20p (plus 13p for postage). They can be COR-
tactea 01-405 4801 or 01-993 2031.
WHAT DOES
HE KNOW
ABOUT
ABORTION?
The debate in parliament for a Friday
foetus.
Enoch Powell "The bill has a single and m? it unlawful for a human eme fertilisation experiment..
He described: a sense nance, deep and instinc Warnock Report and realis? ever it may be delinea. out... object is that it may be a huma? Jectea to experiment to us destra. pose of acquisition of knowledge
He asked the House to upron: man by giving the Bill a second reside Jo Richardson
on the dignity of women.
concerned'
servation of the human embryo.
the The
tection of individual embryos. Norman St John Stevas
fessor Jerome Lejeune as his authority. Clare Short
passed years ago
contradiction at the root of the Bill.
later stage of pregnancy abortion'.
that parents
their minds about the Bill.
Sir Bernard Braine
and killing human embryos..'
Michael Meadoweroft
solely from a theological standpoint'.
actuality of life..?'
research.
Leo Abse
motherhood' by a
oureaucal
habits.men who
Enochs in the House.'
Kenneth Clarke
Socialist Action : Ma:::.
afterminim H'N unusually full. Below He quite for - *let on the Powell Bill. MPs dearly +2m it mak k the rights of women versus the richie in t asked the House to consider the effects of the Bi.
The provision for the names of women to go to the secretary of state was a 'serious threat to the civil liberties of the women
"The criminal offence hanging over the medical profession will literally mean the end of the ob
Questioning the moral arguments for the 'protection of the embryo' she pointed out that millions are lost naturally and others destroyed by the use of
well-being COT children. should take precedence over the pro-
thought the interests of the 'unborn child' must come first. 'The embryo is a unique form of matter it is human and alive. Such Brave New World' technology was not necessary to relieve the tragic predicament of infertility,' he said quoting Pro
disagreed, pointing out that if the Bill had bee
"developments in in-vitro ferti isation would not have happened' and this was i
"Genetic defects at an early stage of conception could not De screened out' and "couples would have to wait till a
and then have
When people realised that the Bill would mean
who desperately wanted childrer would not be able to have them they would change
did not trust the scientists and their monstrou new techniques for freezing, cloning, manipulating
pointed out that the house 'could not legislate
"There was a difference between the potentiality of life and the
He found it 'astounding that a Bill can come before this House in 1985 which forces a woman requiring assistance to conceive through IVF to have to get the approval of the secretary of state.
Women had willingly donated eggs to help with the
struck out at Powell's Bill as 'a recipe for licensed
faceless and
'He is interested in birth...He has always been interested in the birth of blacks. His interest is founded on his prurient curiosity about their sexual
are not confident their
sexuality fear in-vitro fertilisation. If there were fewer eunuchs in the country, there would be fewer
said that the government was neutral. He would vote against the Bill, but there was a free vote.
Fight Powell
Meeting on Saturday 9 March
Wesley House, 70 Great Queen Street,
London WC2B 5AX (near Holborn Tube) Starts: 10.30 for NAC affiliates, 2.00 for open
meeting We only have. a few weeks to mount a campaign against the Powell Bill - potentiall!
the most serious threat to abortion we have
faced
Page 10 scan of this page
A new alliance
'Proud of our struggle'
Socialist Action 8 March 1985 ITERNATIONAL WOMEN'S Day will be celeared differently this year than at any other time in the * 17 years. The centre of the activity will be the 9 arch rally in Chesterfield organised by the Women ainst Pit Closures movement. This is testimony not
to the key role that
en have played in sus-
ing their communities
participating side-bywith the miners in every ect of the strike over the
* stage in the upsurge of
tue ement.
The Women Against Pit
movement is the st powerful expression of rocess of radicalisation
ag working women that been developing over the
wo decades in Britain. when the Hord machinist: act for equal pay in 1968
this process. working followed. At SEIS.
Hoover's and
LILS year
the battle over equal
regrading Women fought for
recognition at GrunGoOD 0, «ı
Jeans and Timex and
of school meals and Casure of hose
battles reflected •at wouch were ing the gains of the cars be taken them easily.
social position had
ed and they were not
to allow their econ-
independence to only
pear without a fight.
Women did not wish to
a to the kitchen sink I they could not afford to. easingly ene women
only dwinners, welc their and
breadvital to their WAS This propelled them
the trade union ement to fight back.
But when agaret Thatcher came to just
quantauve leap took place among Womer were ate in the simply trade on
walt
and fight back on a
basis. Women expression for
demands in the left-
one bour ray
: the Debate of the ade in 1979 Tony Benn
Audrey Wise urged
m to join the
They did. They the wonels and turned them
the most left wing
inside the labour
ment.
most left wing on
on Ireland. The ' 60s
t wing oute perce
Far to the left of the
•Party Young Social-
ference whose plati-
about socialist have ramme mask accom-
British nialism. time
took up
te banner of account-
and made it their
The labour movement
represented women blacks for decades.
become more ac-
sate to these groups as as to the rank and file.
of women
The Women's Action
Committee spearheaded this
HONE 3O Г positIve action,
winning the overwhelming
suort or mie ravour rare
women's conference for its
demanus.
But it has been continually thwarted by the maioritv of men in the Parliamentary Labour Party and the trade union delegations to Labour Party conference.
The support that the Campaign Group of MPs, the left Labour Councillors and the NUM have given to wonel s demands broken through that trad-
whert women's allegiance has to
wilt lue ter. wing emerging inside the apon movemen tony.
The Women Against Pit Closures the
movement. organisation of women in the peace movement, in the trade unions and the black sections has greatly deepened ts process to longer possible for the labour movemen militancy and the demands O1 wonel.
This radicalisation and politicisation of women is a mass phenomenon and flows directly from experience of this govern-
and labour movement. The Tories can
solve the crisis of the Britch economy they decimate the living standards of the British working class.
This is why. they wish to dismantle the welfare state
privatise the Hallola ised industries. In doing so thev have to attack women because women are highly dependent on these services
Thus Thatcher forces women to become political
like she forces politics
the miners and other
Right now the Tories aim to deepen their attacks
women. The Gillick victory against the scription of contraceptives
under 16 year olds and the huge vote for Powell's bill to restrict experiment0 on emora posen principles that the moral majority will use to further attack women's rights, abortion rights and sexual rights in general.
with the
Juneva reactionary 'gay plague' campaign being initiated by the press around AIDS, are aimed at turning the clock back from the gains of the
and '70s. Forty four MPs voted Powell's bill. If the cause of
is really to be cause of women these MPs
no role in represent. ing' the labour movement.
Now is therefore the
consolidate the alliance between and labour. It must be consolidated In action
and againsi these reactionar attacks sexual and abortion rights.
members Labour Party to ensure that their
Women Against Pit Closures rally in London, August 1984
concerns are acleu on
Women from WAPC. from CND, from the trade unions, from the black struggles and the abortion movement join the Labour Party to participate BETTY HEATHFIELD is a member of the Chesterfield Women's Action Group that is organising the rally this coming weekend, 9 March. She is also a leading member of Women Against Pit Closures.
made at the LCDTU-called demonstration in support of the miners on Sunday 24 February.
SISTERS and brothers and friends, I think the doom merchants the mass media have excelled themselves in a last ditch attempt to persuade everybody that the miners must give in and go back to WUIN
I've been going round the coalfield areas these past few weeks speaking at meetings that were packed out, crowded. The lads and their wives were saying to me: 'No surrender.
I think that we can congratulate ourse ver because we've won many viclones up till now. despite the wealth, the power, the resources and the relentless
ampaign against us
Ne've stood out for almost year. we've helped to wake up this slow ana laborious trade union movement of ours.
Where else can you get people coming to meetings, meetings about trade unionism, about
Nevel before since World War II have you had such large meetings. And we've done that!
Never since have we got people talking abou lalking about trade unionism
actively in the fight to build a left-wing inside it.
Women have shown hou they fight Thatcher. That must not be lost.
If women want a Party of Labour that consistently We reproduce below an edited version of her speech
saying our lives must be aDol people. anu about wealth and not about power. It's taken us a long time to wake you up but that's what we intend to do.
Make no mistake, Ine ve come everything. First we had the ballot and that died a little death. But we're still getting it every so often.
Then had the volence ano e coon | believe the things they were telling you about us. I hope YUU didn't believe them either.
They had to drop that one when it became very clear that there was also a lot of police violence. And it wasn't all from our side.
Quat a al tried to se-
funds. our wav they thought they would destroy union. Thank God we've got some thousands of supporters that didn't let us down and kept the money flowing.
We need that money. We need the support. We need help and we need solidarity and it's got to be in a much more tangible way than you have done up until now.
Sisters and brothers,
chamen and ath the experited champions Caust and oppressed they have to
enter the Labour Party and fight the right wing.
This is our message for
International Women's Day. I'm saying to you let's celebrate the victories we've already won.
The young miners going back to work are very different from the lads that came out on strike. Highly articulate, intelligent and knowing everything they need to know about trade unions, political parties and this government.
The women have had the and social and political edu-
cation that they could ever have. They would never have got that through meetings and books and
conference
MINERS' wives and women in support of the miners have made close links throughout this strike, which they do not intend to give up.
Very early on in the strike wome from mining communities visited Greenham Common to show active support for the struggle against the stationing of cruise missiles in Britain.
on, two Mine. not Missiles marches were organisea Jomuy by womel
Hackney
Benefit
HACKNEY Miners' Sup
port Committee is organ
ising an evening of enter-
tainment for Wole
Saturday 16 March to
celebrate International
Women's Day.
The event will bring
gene women ack•
ney with women from the
contmuntie
Kent, Nottinghamshire
South Wales and york-
shire. Fifty women from
each of these areas are ex-
pected to attend
Hackney IS multi-
racial area, and this will
be reflected in the cele-
bration. The evening will
include exhibitions and
stalls, performances and
short speeches from local
women s orcanisalons
So far the list of par-
ticipants includes: Equity
(women's reggae band);
Shikhisa (African women's talks. They've done it in action and that's how we intend to continue.
Our women's move ment is here to stay. We've got our next huge coming up on 9 March to celebrate International Women's Day. On that day we'll be celebrating those liaisons and friendships have already made because we are the women: movement, montens working class movement pledged to fight in tne struggle dallist every" thing that happens to us in mining communities
We are helping in the
Women's solidarity
from the thA peace me tom and Olit Capenhurst Nottingham, the other from South Wales to Bristol.
A huge women's solidarity movement has been built around the • strike, spearheaded Women Against Pit Closures. many committees women's groups now CAISI
The idea of a women's solidarity conference came
Gist Mineworkers Defence
Conference Camden
WOMEN
AGAINST PIT
CLOSURES
dancing group) Tamil
Women's League (songs
and poems); Stoke Newing ton Defence Campaign;
Kay Kent
Angela (Nicaraguan trade unionist).
Entrance transport and food will be free to
women from the mining
committes HOCa
women • there will be charge of t3 (t].5) con
cessions) for entrance, and a small charge for food. • Doors open at 8pm,
Wally Fosters Community
Centre, Homerton Road,
ry. ror more wormonor
6601 (work) 241 1774 (home). Please note changed date of this event. fight for jobs - JODS IOI everyone, , not just jobs for a few. We're helping in the
peace dispensible to ace
indispensible our Dullesic We're helping in the
local government struggle. against the cuts in education, against the cuts in the health service, against
trans Doll Above all we are helping in
fight for women's equality because we've played an equal part in this
We'r very proud of that, and so should everybody else be.
Town Hall last December. valane. women have •taken on organising it for WHO-HON
The aim will be to draw out the lessons of our dit. ferent struggles and to tocus on joint action in the future.
• An open planning meeting for this conference will take nace on 22 March ir County Hall at 8pm. For further telephone Ellen 0203-395972, Valerie 01-249 2742, or Liz 01-367 0021.
Page 11 scan of this page
Women are on the picket lines'
KAY SUTCLIFFE, a member of Kent Women Against Pit Closures, was involved in the 1972 and 1974 strikes helping to organise food parcels through the women's network that existed at that time. In this strike she has helped organise the first women's demonstration in Coalville on 23 March 1984 to challenge media reporting that gave the views of women in the scab areas and ignored those of women who were supporting the strike.
country, the Women Against Pit Closures movement was born in August 1984, an autonomous women's organisation in support of the NUM. Never before had women in Britain, not organised at the point of production, built such a powerful movement in support of a strike.
Kay's speech below was SOCIALIST ACTION International Miners' meeting held in Penrhiwceiber on Saturday 16 February 1985. THIS government is launls allack not only on the mining communities Dul oll lie worklig class as a whole. You only have to he in tang communny to understand why.
I have a particular sonal link with Penrhiwceiber because TaLner was born here.
Along with many MELICIS trom Wales Scot-
Yorkshire and the Midlands, during the 1930s these men were forced out ot these coalfields to find work elsewhere. Our coalfield in Kent was formed from amongst these men who travelled many, many miles on foot in order to make a future for themselves and their families.
That's why we're fighting IO keep our communities together. Our lorelainers nave loucatior this. These
Our coal field in Kent was formed from amongst these men who travelled many, many miles on foot to make future for themselves and their families.
are our right — we deserve
fight every step of the way lo ensure code co
There is point in saying that there are jobs elsewhere because we know that there aren't any jobs elsewhere. When they have put all the miners on the dole what will be the consequences?
Mv father was a miner and he suffered very
accident at snowdown (Kent) colliery. This meant that ne was unable to work after his accident even though his mind was very active and willing.
He wanted lo go to work but it was practically impossible. and my
waterco arm sunci during his last four years in utter torment because he wanted to go to work.
This is the kind of thing we don't want to see — our
Out of this demonstration and others all over the
made at the Second
young men suffering years anu yeals because they want to work,
wall keep this country alive. They do not wall lO on the dole queues for the rest of their ives. Ihev are not idle mer despite what they would have us believe.
We have seen many atagainst the miners. CONmunities. Many tactics have •cen uscu the Coal Board and the govern-
CUL security payment. The press and the media have been used against us and Arthur Scargill ticular.
He is not the NUM personally, he is just a leader and one of the best leaders that union has ever had. If the rest of the trade union movement naa leaders like Arthur Scargill, we wouldn't be in this position
We've seen a back-to-work movement that hasn't been successiul despite the figures that the Coal Board puts out on the television.
What are these men doing? They are getting paid to sit on the pit top, they're paid to make cups
pea, paid toe not hepit
top. not being paid to work.
It's a waste of time and money. The real men are on the picket lines. They're not scabbing on their workmates.
had the police we ve thrown against us right from the beginning of the strike. Men in Kent have
their civil liberties taken away.
weren't allowed
of the men in Kent have links with men in Leicester
first did their picketting.
Because of these petty restrictions on the move. ment of miners' pickets we
the have SOCI TOICS versed. The unmen. renow on the picket lines and the men are in the kitchen. helping to feed the families.
When we consider the police activity against as — the wav thev iiddle about with film clips to show that it's the miners that are causing the violence — we
Defend
*he
KEEP FIGHTING
Defend
the NUM LIAISON PETE.
SARPORT
all know that it's the police that are causing trouble.
We have got two miners in jail for offences on the picket lines. Terry French has been jailed for
If the rest of the • trade union movement had leaders like Arthur Scargill, we wouldn't be in this position now. five years for an assault on Tarely has got three years police officer. Chris in a remand home for a similar offence.
These sentences were imposed on those lads on ine very same day tnal ine policeman who had assaul-
wite and put her into hospital was fined just £ 100 for his offence
When you consider these charges and see that these lads have been sentenced in the middle of an industrial dispute, they are in fact political prisoners.
We ought take action to ensure that these people are all taken out of jail and let back into society where they belong.
The police activity has been stepped up since the 1974 strike. They have
FIFE
Women's contingents brought their banners to last week's London demonstration in support of the miners
been trained for what they are doing now. They have been trained very hard.
And we all know who unev nave been alrica or and we've stood back and
the black people in this country; the gays and lesbians in this country; the Greenham women and the people in Northern Ireland.
How long have we sat back and never taken up any action for them? None or us nave done verv muco But these people were out on the picket lines, out collecting for us, from day Vilk. They have never turned their backs on us and we should be ashamed that we ever turned our backs on them.
The tactic of the Tory government has always been divide and rule, worker against worker
They know that they will have a hard fight against the working class and the! can't beat us if we stick together.
It's now that the TUC and the Labour Party should be thinking about what action they should take. We don't need Norman Willis to negotiate a settlement for the miners. We've got a good executive that can do that for us.
we need for Norman Willis and Neil Kinnock and others to do is to back us in the actions weve taken
The rank and file have done a IOL picket lines and collections and we are thankful for that.
Socialist Action 8 March 1985 11
TOGETHER CO
But these leaders are there the working class and it's
If we all stick together, we'll win for everyone.
about time they did their GODS it thev were selling paid as working class men
they'd alc,
Inland 6 months £8; 12 months £15 Overseas (12 months only)
Europe £17; Air Mail £24 «onDie inese role: for multi-reader institutions)
Name
Address
Please send me as special offer.
Fife Miners Wives Action Group
fight a bit harder. lhe workers nave produced the wealth of this for and it's about time they reaped the benefit.
We have had a lot of international interest shown in this struggle We'd like to thank them all for the money and the food and even the action they've taken.
From people in Gerthe Nethermarv. rrance lands and the Soviet Union and cven on courtes d far away as Australia and Nicaragua.
KUBSCRIBE
I enclose cheque/PO payable to Socialist Action for £ Send to: Socialist Action Subs, PO Box 50, London NI
ORGANISED BYTHE
WOMEN
AGAINST PIT
CLOSURES
LIAISON
LIPPARTI
We've got the round of pay talks coming up with industrial action from teachers, railwaymen, council workers and particularly ratecapping on 6 March. We've got to use that, use it to fight together, to win for everyone, not just for the mining communities.
If we all stick together, we'll WIT for everyone.
We've got to see unity in the working class in orde get socialism...The miners deserve to win. the communities deserve to win. Victory to the miners. Special free book offer!
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Page 12 scan of this page
INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY RALLY
12. Socialist Action 8 March 1985
Socialist
ACTiON
ATTHE
y Cardinal Enterprises, PO Box 50, London N1. er with the Post Office
SALTERGATE FOOTBALL GROUND CHESTERFIELD GROUND OPENS 10.00am. RALLY 11.30 am. to 1.00pm. Information ring 79729
О 918 19П on the 9th March
ORGANISED BY THE AGAINST PIT WOMEN CLOSURES
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