Socialist Challenge No. 102, 28 June 1979
The scan: sc-n102-jun-28-1979.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
ABORTION: WHO DECIDES?
SMASH CORRIE'S LAW
THE ELECTION of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister was heralded by the bosses' press a victory for women. Now government — almost entirely male - is all set to strike its first major blow against women's liberation.
It is allowing parliamentary time in this session to ensure that Tory MP John Corrie will see his restrictive abortion Bill passed as law.
hoto: ANDREW WIARD (Report)
The Tory victory abortionists a field day in Parliament. There are now only some expected to vote against restrictive abortion legislation, and many of these will have to be persuaded.
But what gives MPs the right to vote on abortion anyway? The only person who should
NATIONAL ABORTION
CAMPAIGN
will allow the anti-
190 MPs who can be
health facilities to back that up.
women's lives.
be in a position to decide about abortion is the woman concerned. All that Parliament should do is legislate women's right to choose, with the
We will have to fight to get this Bill kicked out of Parliament. We have to say loudly and clearly that being elected to Parliament gives Bills, MPs no mandate to decide what happens in
KILLS
No. 102 28 June 1979 15p
If women are not to be forced to return to the back-street abortionists in large numbers, or have to play mother to infants that they do not want, this Bill has to be defeated.
And then we have to say: No more Abortion
and no more debates in Parliament. Instead we want free abortion on demand to all women. It's our lives and our right to decide.
NO RETURN TO
BACK STREET
APARTIONS
FREE!
ABORTION
ON DEMAND
Now
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street. London N1 2XQ. Editorial: 01-3598180/9. Distribution/ Advertising: 01-359 8371.
Of backwoodsmen and back-streets
OUR POLICIES
C'apitalism is in crisis. The leaders of the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in he tres. not ol the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary settallslo art.
• To huild broad-based class struggle lendencies in opposition 10 class collaboranomsm u ut labour movement. These should
non-exclusive in character. grouping together militants hold. ing a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the creation unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through
application of united front tactics, begin thousands an
thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for seeks to unile the fight of workers against the with that of other oppressed layers of society — women, black people, faeration. This socialism can only struggling be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
• Our socialism wil! infinitely more democratic
loday, with full rights for political parties and currents that do not take up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models
USSR and Fastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the world. He are opposed to them and will offer full
support to fighting for socialist democracy.
& 5n4 word cate. Capitalian, The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalism has not only created a market, itmas created politics. Thus we fight for working class unity scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, and Asia.
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate British troops from letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither the 'Kurocommunist' the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningtul strategy overthrow of the capitalist state.
renditions necessary than today more favourable than over the preceding three decades. But such parties can only rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury hut as a vital necessity. the right to organise factions and tendencies.
It you agree with these principles and want 10) be involved
Socialist supporters in your area, fill in ihe darn neow and send cous
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ocialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 2
EDITORIAL
Hi Jeremy,
done old buddy, you pulled it off.
always admired your British justice clothes. bendable, as they say. and
now? socialism
bosses
their
all
be
all
By Jude Woodward
all those session of Parliament.
And in
world
schools and abortion.
for another week or so,
Africa
will
of elements.
Restriction
Pregancy Advisory nOT
the
eyel ale consultative right.
Du be
"social grounds'
This means TULLICI
backstreet abortionist.
right to abortion
Challenge
defended against
govermen. more government,
law:
Weighted
Want aborion
the pro-abortion Parliament.
of its convictions to calling
Only the dogs will bark
I just thought I'd drop you a line and say well
As you know we on this side of the water have
- all those wigs and things. We think it's cute;
You may remember I practiced law myself back in the old days, so I do know a few things about tipping the scales of justice. I mean Jeremy, I have one up on you, no one ever put me on trial.
All the same, Spiro just phoned and said it was one ... (expletive deleted) shame that we weren't born your side of the Atlantic. With judges like you have — boy | like the way they destroyed that Scott pervert - who knows who we would be bombing
Now Jeremy, I want to put a few deals to you. I would be last to hide that our CIA boys have bungled a few things in their time - I mean remember that exploding cigar they were meant to have planted on that Commie Castro?
But appearances shouldn't deceive. Generally IT IS now beyond a doubt that Tory MP John Corrie will be seeking to get a restrictive abortion Bill through this
doing will not displease Margaret Thatcher and the
Тогу press into spasms of baying delight.
It is the kind of measure that will reassure traditional Tory voters, who may not understand the niceties of economic policy, but are quite certain what they think about hanging, public
Corrie's proposed Bill, the details of which are unlikely to be available
will include a reduction in the time limit for legal
almost certainly include a number of other restrictive
status of agencies like the British
hundreds of women who cannot get
It could try to include an element
right', perhaps not so but some
It may try to limit, or more closely
abortion, through tightening up on the »
clause, which allows
Whatever the Bill does, it will be a fundamental attack on the limited
embodied in the 1967 Act, which was fought for by thousands of women, and has been
attempts restriction included in three Private Members's Bills under the Labour
Unlike the Bills under the Labour Corrie's has exceedingly good chance of becoming
The House of Commons is now useful
decisively weighted in favour of the
forces. of the Labour back-benchers who lost their
seats at Easter were the backbone of
element
Furthermore, the Labour govern-
ment, while never having the courage
the whip against
what I can do.
was one sugar many a candy in our time.
speech.
Checkers-
and evidence were forgotten.
book. You see them outside schools, in shopping precincts.
branches, trade councils etc.
invites a speaker and gives a donation. anti-abortion Bills, was never very happy about openly supporting such reactionary measures.
The Tory government has no such scruples. Indeed the Bill gives them a
opportunity to offer electors an ideologically powerful piece of law.
It will rally their forces for the other major attacks on . the working class that will follow close upon this attack on abortion.
The only way the Bill can be defended is by masses of women and men coming together in united action to smash it.
speaking our track record ain't bad and I still have many friends in the right circles. So if you ever want any help in that direction, drop us a tape and I'll see
Secondly, I want to speak to you about your public relations. Now you might think that advice from me ain't worth a bent nickle. But although it ... (expletive deleted) in the end we did Especially I remember the famous Checkers accused of tax middles. if you remember. So I went on TV with this dog called - incidentally l'd never seen the bastard in my life before — and laid it straight down the line.
Well actually, between you and me Jeremy, that ain't exactly true, but that's not the point. The thing is that that dumb dog clinched it for me. The stupid thing's face convinced the US public that l was an OK guy, and all the accusations and facts
Now I think you should take a leaf out of that your problem, Jeremy, is that pervert's dog - Rinka, wasn't it called? My God I thought that would mean the chop for you. I mean killing a dog is bad news as far as the great
CLOSED
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Join your local NAC group. If there isn't one, call a meeting of women's groups, trade unionists, students to discuss how to fight the
2. Publicise the attacks. Get leaflets from the NAC office and use
meetings. Offer speakers to trade union branches, Labour Party
3. Picket your MP — demand they vote against the Bill. 4. Put resolutions through your trades union branch or trades council. Demand that the TUC organise a demonstration against the Bill; that your trade union branch/trades council affiliates to NAC,
5. Remember the second reading is on 13 July. Organise local activity. Get maximum publicity for your opposition to the Bill. 6. In London or nearby on 13 July, come to NAC's meeting, 3pm, Central Hall, Westminster, and rally, 6.30pm, Caxton Hall, St
Contact NAC on 01-278 0153 at 374 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
That means that the trade union movement has to be prepared to take up the fight alongside the women's JITCHCLI and campaigns. the But the trade union movement does not have a very good record on fighting understanding that abortion is a class issue has not been absorbed into the working class and its organisations.
At the recent Local Government Officers union conference a motion sponsored by
way they feel about dogs.
Dig the bastard up, Jeremy, dig it up!
them over.
don't drop out of thin air.
still, Jeremy, themselves, eh?
Yours, Richard free MPs.
Campaign
motion union movement.
Statements that the firmly where they
women have
from the
has taken the abortion towards
fertility.
rights. The We the right
and a livelihood.
The
ten branches of the
Anglo-Saxon public is concerned. You know the
So what you have to do, Jeremy, is get over this dog problem. My advice is take the thing head on.
Then go on TV holding the thing in your arms. Then say a few words (I still got great speech writers) about how sorry you are about the whole damn thing. Most of all, Jeremy, cry. They got these pills now which can make you cry, I'll send
That should do it I reckon and now, Jeremy, the bad news. The point is you still got that £20,000 (I think it's just great that no pimpled ass Washington Post will be allowed to ask you about that) and quite frankly, Jeremy, all these services and advice
So send a few dollars over, Jeremy, eh? I know that you got your fingers burnt over that property firm that went bust on you (and it was smart that no one was allowed to bring that up at the trial) but
bunnies don't go to France by union, read "That NALGO adopts & neutral attitude on the abortion issue and withdraws its support from the National Abortion Campaign'.
The motion was not taken, but the attitude it expressed is common in the trade union movement — abortion is a question of conscience, not of right.
Necessary
It is this attitude which has meant that at every Labour Party conference where it has come up, the block votes of trade unions have maintained the vote on abortion for Labour
Steps have been made to reverse this situation. The National Abortion and Abortion Rights Campaign joint trade union conference attracted delegates from a
The Women's TUC in 1978 passed promising TUC demonstration if there was any effort to restrict the 1967 Abortion Act. This gives us something to build on.
But perhaps now is not only a necessary, but also a good time, to take forward this fight into the trade from Tory MPs technology is not a problem as married women will have to be persuaded not to work — take together with the Abortion Bill reveal clearly what is really at the heart of the
Conscience It is not a question of conscience for the Tory government, it is stage one of a process of pushing women out of the workforce, and fixing them "belong' - at home bringing up children.
We must use the opportunity to • is a right that won, which in the words of the Dal v Mirror. has 'freed women — especially working class women crude • butchery of the back-street abortionist' and which them one step further being able to •participate equally in all aspects of social life.
It has begun to give women the possibility of controlling their own
have to argue that the anti-abortionists divide the working * class, they succeed in pitting women against men in the fight for jobs, pas
fight to defend abortion rights is the first step in the fight to defend all our rights.
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Deportations multiply, killings continue
HOME NEV By Oliver New and Anwar Hussein OVER THE past three weeks there has been an alarming deportations, and one racist murder. There are now fears that the next step will be 'voluntary repatriation'. Just study the following developments:
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
• Tuesday 12 June:
Mazumdar, a 39-year-old worker at the Merryweathers engineering firm, in South London, was beaten to death on: Frances Street,
Only one of the four youths allegedly involved, Archer, 18, has been charged with murder. He is in Brixton prison.
Mazumdar, from had been working at Merryweathers for five years. He was walking home alone when he Was beaten to death. In the same area a West Indian was attacked some nine months ago. A Bangladeshi worker has stopped working on the night shift because he is scared. forced police commander Ted Stori Mazumdar's killing has the head of R Division, to admit: and my senior officers are well aware that racist attacks are possible.' And this in an area where there are dozens of documented cases blacks and where Asian shops regularly smashed.
A local action committee has been set up, and its first public meeting is scheduled for 7 July temple in Woolwich at 7pm.
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
Thursday 14 June: Shiraz Mitha and his wife Noor Jehan were arrested in Acton and deported to Tanzania. This was the conclusion seven-year struggle to stay in country.
Shiraz's parents, Abdul
Gulbanu Mitha, were Abdul, 66, had a heart attack after he heard the news and was taken to St Charles Hospital Kensington. Abdul Mitha is paralysed by heart disease. His wife has arthritis
her and agoraphobia — a fear of open spaces.
She said: "The Home Office has ruined us. I can't go out to get food, we have no money and neither of us can work. I cannot go out to see the
BLACK
PEOPLE
UNDER
ATTACK
growth of nothing left.
Abdul and
the Palak
• Wednesday Woolwich, at white сіпетя in Fred policeman walks displaying West Bengal, initials 'F'.
Unknown attacked and take down Southall Action looking into
the Race Relations Act. finally
of assaut on are
deportation.
Britain in 1975 at the Sikh passed her
mental
hospital.
FREE
of this
and shattered.
ANE
North
suffers from
social security people. If only the SO razment knew how much we need
'I feel dead to the world. There is
Gulbanu broken and ill. They will not live long, a fact that will bring joy to the racists
Home Office who cold-bloodedly 'execute the law."
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
13 June: Blair Peach's body is lying in the Dominion
Southall. Outside to wall 'Who killed Blair Peach?' poster and inscribes on it the
him he is being watched by two Asian women. They
This number. The Committee the possibility of prosecuting this police officer under
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
• S, a Kenyan Asian nurse, faces
Why? She came to to do psychiatric nursing at ot Albans hospital. She
hospital finals last November and was told that if she passed the state finals as a registered
(which she did in January) she would get a job at the
But she was rejected because she had taken some time off when she was suffering from the after-effects of the
ABDUL
LAWS he
order.
MMIGRATION
BADGE available from Abdul Azad Defence Committee (see page 6).
pill. "Good heavens, we didn't think that, was just oile did te rem alks
was just one of the remarks passed.
Now, without a job, she faces deportation. Her parents are here, but at 25 she cannot count as a dependent. THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 1870
Living
in
Anger after Asian dies
fear
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
•A black South African, X, was arrested in North London under the notorious sus laws. He happened to be wearing a political badge. He was ordered to bring his passport, a slight irregularity was pounced upon, and
was served with a deportation
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
• A Cypriot couple in Harringey, North London, lost their fight to stay
ABDUL and Gulbanu Mitha: "The Home Office has ruined us.'
in Britain. Their childrem are British citizens and are at a local primary school. However, as they can't stay without their parents they will have to leave as well.
BLACK PEOPLE
UNDER ATTACK
• An all-time record was established last month. The Guardian revealed last Monday that children were Harmondsworth pending deportation.
Shezad, 6, Naheed, 5, and Sabina, 21 months.
FRI 13th JULY
THE POP GROUP
MISTY
THERUTS
PETE TOWNSHEND
DONE?
campaign (Campaign three Pakistani being held •Make detention Their ages?
SOUTHALLKIDS
ASWAD
THE RAINBOW TICKETS £3
AREINNOCENT
WHAT CAN AND SHOULD BE
ANL activists in the locatities should take up deportation cases and wage a
around them. CALL Against Immigration Laws) is organising a national day ol action against the laws which mal black people's lives a living hell
On Saturday 7 July, there will be a national picket of prisons where immigration law prisoners are being held. For further details ring Bol Swart on 01-769 1160. papers. Send in all clippines relate sure read your to deportations and immigration laws to Socialist Challenge so that we cas help spread the information.
SAT14th JULY
THE ENCHANTERS
THE CLASH
THE MEMBERS
FROM THE BOX OFFICE
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 3
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If you fight you can win
By Stephen Marks
A DETERMINED national lead in the fight against union-bashing plans came from 1,100 delegates at last Saturday's 'defend our unions. conference Manchester.
"This conference cheers me up', said Sandersons strike delegate Phil Gilliatt in words that summed up the feelings delegates. 'It's rare to see so many trade unionists together, standing 4p and saying "something's wrong'
Declaration
Delegates voted overwhelmingly for what amounted to a 'declaration of war' on the Tory government's programme of anti-union laws. is the first against Thatcher to be issued in the labour movement since the election, and one much needed unholy combination of grovelling and wind that from most of the TUC General Council since.
In particular delegates called for a programme of action: against talks
1. No crossing of picket lines.
shop.
procedures — no enforced secret balløts.
carried nut.
picket».
decision making hy.
List Challenge 28 June 1979 Pags
'Defend our unions' conference says
against cuts and closures.
Thatcher's for a 35-hour week.
Trade Unions. committee Most backed a Code O THOSE
betrayed
The
workplaces and campaign around This action political problems
were not really conference. the given Speakers silence, has come Roneo Vickers (Kirby), omist bookshop, Post, Dunlop
We need a fighting
code of practice
CONFERENCE undertakes to campaign for as many trade union organisations as possible, including those we represent, to adopt the following Rank & File Code of Practice for disputes, to be adhered to irrespective of proposed Tory anti-union legislation. undertake to campaign to make this Code of Practice official policy in
RANK AND FILE CODE OF PRACTICE FOR DISPUTES
2. Forthe establishment and defence of 100 per cent closed shop. and for sanctions to he applied against any individuals breaking the closed
3. for full rank and file decision making by traditional democratic
d. Strikes to he run by elected strike committees and pickets to be positioned at whichever location necessary to win the dispute, and in sufficient numbers to ensure that the picket line is observed.
All appeals for blacking, and financial assistance for disputes to be
Mupport calls made by strihe committees for mass sympathy
he selllement at disputes without full reports bach to.
the members concerned arauration or entorcea otal sentements
with the Tories, for union democracy,
policies and productivity deals, and
They called for support for a united lobby of the TUC on 5 September, for a Right to Work March to reach Blackpool on that day, and for united action with the Liaison Committee for the Defence of struggle
important all, they of Practice for disputes which defends the basic trade union principles the General Council
Callaghan the Concordat and is now in the process of betraying again to Thatcher.
decisions, and especially the Code, are a good tool
organisations, to In ine months ahead. But in doing so, a number of
will arise which with at the
brought delegates the experience and lessons of a number of key disputes, including Sandersons,
the Econthe Nottingham Speke and Birmid We further
wing'
Avtar and enforced
Qualcast (Smethwick) — many of them struggles for the basis right of trade union recognition.
As Phil Gilliatt pointed out, in all too many cases our 12-million strong trade union movement cannot even win recognition. In the course of the
•half year Sandersons the longest running current dispute in the country - he often found that 'It's hard to get past the in-built resistance from who've been organised for years and don't need to fight for it.
Speakers agreed that, in the face of successive defeats and demoralisation, it was necessary to reaffirm
principles of militant unionism. 'If you fight you can win, if you don't fight you cannot', said A.Todd from Dunlop Speke, whose detailed account of the fight against closure at the Merseyside tyre plant was heard attentively by delegates.
Picketing
"Given effective picketing blacking win; without effective trade union support we will lose', said Marcus Ravel from the Economist bookshop.
Bakers Union delegate Albert Derbyshire summed up the mood of many when he claimed to have the letters MA after his name. It doesn't stand for Master of Arts, it stands for Militant and Argumentative. what you've got to be. If you're not you're lost.
Ken King (Leyland Longbridge joint shop stewards committee) went
*It's no good us putting up all the fight in the world when people like Duffy can stab us with the stroke of a
We must get at the leadership. We asked for the Tory government when we didn't get at the Labour right
Review And Jawidely armlauded spleast,
(Birmid Qualcast, Smettiwick) stressed the need review the Labour policies that paved the way for the Tories. 'If in the course of the struggle we topple the Thatcher government, we should be prepared for that and organise so that the next government represents just social democrats but the workers of this country
To the biggest applause for any
peake so far he attacked
Chapple/Gormley/Callaghat against political strikes. "The trade unions are not just to defend the economic interests but all the interests of the working class in this country.'
Sadie Blood district committee) detailed the effect of Newton-le-Willows had a population of 22,000; after through 20,000 and now they're trying to close ine railway stanon • She youth left without don't organise the unemployed no those bugger's going to help us — we must
get down organise Right to Work march.
confrontation, trade are doing. In St Helens a rank and file
delegate committee atives from branches, workplaces and
and That's
to
not
real
the
line
Val Dunn, Bakery Workers Executive.
Sarey School
can help,
(Newton NUPE You're employed the community. us.'
closures, it had fallen o,ta jobs lost to Applause
pointed out the impact on Vishnu a future. If we
the release to the dole queues •and the unemployed for the election meeting.
We should prepare for the coming
just as the employers
with representAvlar Joul, Birmid Quakast, Smethwick.
the unemployed has been set up.
Desai (National Union of Students) reinforced the point. 'It won't take long to form an army of scabs from the unemployed; they're pissed off with having nO
'Only the trade union movement
by banning overtime and fighting for a shorter working week.
the generallon of the Unless you organise alongside us, you will lose as well as
The biggest applause came for
Sharma of the Indian Workers Association (Southall), who appealed to delegates for support for
of the 342 arrested at Southall in the police riot during the protest against the National Front
He called on delegates to get their organisations to protest to the Home veterary agalst te cover-up over the murder of Blair Peach - 'We all know he was murdered by the police'.
Page 5 scan of this page
Thatcher's offer to the elderly -drop dead
All charges against those arrested should be withdrawn.
In wallicuar he then-Home Secretary Merlyn Rees' talk about 'outsiders' in "This is all rubbish; 90 those arrested in Southall were local people.'
Welcome
But, those from outside welcome. 'He is trying to say
not unite and solidarity. We are grateful to those who came under the banner of the ANL, SWP, Socialist others.'
ane only sour note conference resulted from the clumsy attempts by the platform to prevent debate on amendments. these had arrived late as the draft declarations were not sent out in time to be discussed by delegating bodies
By Geoffrey Sheridan
YOU'LL KNOW about cuts affecting.
general hospitals.
Government picked up the health axe in the
mid-1970s, there have
campaigns to save casualty departments and
small hospitals from closure,
80,000 strong demonstration by public sector
workers themselves, almost three years ago.
• Just last month there was a march in Hemel
Hempstead to demand a general hospital in the
towll, Which had been promised ages ago. Ten
thousand demonstrated, closing
local factories. In London the EGA battles on.
But there are sectors of health care which
make the news only
uncovered, and don't often catch the attention
of anti-cuts campaigners.
• Yet even the official government reports
describe geriatric and psychiatric care as the
'poor sisters' of the health service, and the
Tories' policy of boosting private medicine at
the expense of the NHS will help the authorities
to ensure that the elderly and the mentally ill
continue to suffer and die invisibly.
So, with Fightback's
conterence taking place next Saturday, a few
facts and images
neglect of many of those whom this society
would like to bury.
Blake a couple of common
among the elderly
severely affect eyesight,
which make it painful to stand. Both can be
treated by simple and inexpensive operations,
yet the queue for health care means a wait of up
to two years.
Part of the reason for this is that many of
the geriatric beds in hospitals are occupied by
people who could manage in an old people's
home or, with help, in the community. In spite
of the fact that the population is ageing,
DEFEND OUR UNIONS
RANK AND FILE CONFERENCE
Phit Gilliatt (standing): "This conference cheers me up'.
point (TGWÜ. Rover rejected the Conference Southall. Committee report. per cent of
Trade Unions conference occasion were we platform. express
Platform Unity and
in the
Inevitably, that makes
Stop the health cuts
the Since Labour
been many local
as well as an
most of the
when scandal 'Health — not cuts'
to ilaminate the terrible
- cataracts, which can and varicose veins,
1420 e by Pat Hickey Solihull) successful attempt to move rejection
Arrangements
Pat also pointed out the irony that
was last in this situation at the Liaison Committee for the Defence of
- on that fighting shoulder-toshoulder with the SWP and Rank and File comrades who were now on the taken
that various currents were heard at the
It is to be hoped that the platform will take to heart the lesson delegates Lauğll ll, and láke care that future basis conferences are organised in a way
real discussion in the delegating bodies, and the expression of different viewpoints, a realistic
cuts have ensured that neither of these facilities is anywhere near adequate.
There is another reason. Small hospitals have been the favourite for the axe. In London, for example, they will take the brunt of the 35 per cent reduction in beds that the health authorities are aiming for.
Yet it is the small hospitals which care for those who need nursing technical treatment, and their closure means that the elderly have to compete — usually unsuccessfully — for the shrinking number of medical and surgical beds.
Even toe nails can be crippling. They gel tougher when you're old, and you're likely to find it hard to bend down to reach them. But is there adequate chiropody for the aged? Is there hell.
When elderly often to be told: 'Well, it's your age:' Often, it isn't. It's the overwork, rotten housing, and the rest of the lousy social condițions this society flings at them. correct none of this, but they will do their best to cut what little health and social services have A similar story can be told of the mentally ill: over-crowded, under-staffed Victorian piles in the middle of posing as psychiatric hospitals; shrouded in breaks to expose a tragedy of patient abuse. 'The Way Ahead', an amusing document produced by the Department of Health in 1977 to spell out the priorities for the NHS, geriatric and psychiatric care at the top of the list. So much of a priority, in fact, that their share of the health budget was to be increased, respectively, from 13.6 to 13.7 per cent, and from 7.5 to 7.9 per cent over the succeeding four years.
Meanwhile, Thatcher's promise of paying for the increase in wages for NHS workers by
possibility.
It can only weaken any rank and file movement if its own proceedings are conducted in a way sometimes reminiscent OI the trade officialdom it criticises.
Votes Amendments received on the day were not submitted, but votes were on two clauses in resolution from Manchester USDAW branch - on the slogan 'open the books' (narrowly rejected by delegates) and on the need to build international rank and file links and Import controls whelmingly carried).
The conference decisions are a for preparing response to the coming Tory attacks, long as they are taken up delegates and acted on by organisations. This is especially true care rather than people visit their GP, it's
The Tories, of course, will
under-funded,
Silence until another scandal
put
of the Code of Practice, which can be basis for including Labour and Communist Party supporters, and leading to local
union trade union defence committees
will come up against a number of political problems conterence, with its rally atmosphere and harking back to 1972-74, tended to gloss over.
long
Problems Many militants will be asking how we can make sure that we don't have a simple re-run of the 1974 experience, (over- with another Labour
following in Callaghan's footsteps. This is especially serious because, fighting John Deason
Campaign) put it, 'the price we've had by to pay for the Labour government is
their that many Tory
conceded in slashing the cash limits for the health service will close more hospitals, put more staff on the dole queues, and leave more patients on the waiting lists or in the wards to rot.
How to reverse these cuts and fight for a socialist health service is the task that the Fightback conference has set itself. Be there, on Saturday 30 June, 10am to 5.30pm, at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1. There is a social in the evening beginning at 7pm.
ishnu Sharma: stop any cover-up of Blair Peach's murder.
movement.' united fightback
But in fighting for this militants What
which
experience
since comrades.
government
(Right to Work
arguments are advance by Our build. 7-15 JULY.
HME NEWS
John's answer was simple: : "The movement that is capable of kicking out the Tories is a movement capable of beginning the fight for socialism.
kicked out the last Тогу government was a wages offensive The anger is there; what is lacking is organisation and confidence.'
On that showing, Thatcher and Co. seem to have learnt more from the
of the last Тогу government and all that has happened
than John Deason and his
Without organisation and conf dence we are certainly lost. But we must also think of how to develop and present a workers' solution LO the crisis, in a way that can be taken up by
organisations. Otherwise the confidence will be harder to maintain, and the organisation will be harder to The top theoretical ovent in the Marxia Seng offered ore and at time
Further details from CUL 11, 16 King Street, London WC2
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
HOME NEWS
Photo: JOHN OWEN
Defend
Abdul
Azad
WILL detention without trial and
legal advice introduced in Britain? The answer is that it's here already.
It vou 'suspected illegal immigrant' you can be
indefinitely without legal rights, and deported with no right of appeal. If you're black and living in Britain, your life can become a nightmare any moment.
Take the case of Abdul Azad from Oldham. First came the horrifying
that his mother murdered. The police investigated. They took blood tests.
Then came their conclusion that Abdul was an illegal immigrant. What happened next has been spelt out by Abdul in an official complaint to the police:
"They kept me for eight days in the police station.
'They did not tell me what my legal rights are.
"They did not allow me to see my father and brother for six days.
*They did not let me see a solicitor for nine days.
'They forced me did
which understand.
'They beat me up, threatened me and said they would kill me and made me scared.
*They did not let me have any food or drink for at least 24 hours. Defence
Since then he has been detained. three times at Risley remand centre.
Because the threat of deportation still hangs over him, the Abdul Azad Defence Committee is preparing an immediate response to any tation order. A meeting of 150 people in Oldham on 20 June supported a call for a picket at Risley on 7 July.
This will be just one of many such pickets up and down being co-ordinated by the Campaign Against the Immigration calling for an end to the racist and anti-democratic 1971 Act.
The new Tory government made an election commitment to action against illegal One possible form this could take is the proposed EEC legislation making it a legal offence to employ an illegal immigrant.
Black people would then not only have to face indiscriminate searches and detention without trial — they would have to take their entry papers dlong to every lob interview
The nightmare of the immigration laws must be ended. These laws exist for one purpose only black. Those detained ender them are
Those detained under them are
"illegal immigrants' prisoners Ol lace. socialist Challenge : 28 June 1979
Cycl be
six months, the held in Patrol Group
Coleherne,
black people in London.
gays? been The sexuality originate Criminal Law
OUT the new contact between lesbians were not mentioned.
Vagrancy
The laws against soliciting first Vagrancy Act of 1898.
sign not the nineteenth century. From the 1860s
developed. Its allowed
house' for women.
required by
depor-
cally enforced class.
the country
role as head of the family.
Laws,
which the laws Immigration developing
firmer methods of social control. WHUP ALL
Many person could commit.
Disease
The new category 0f sexuality is seen as a crime.
The term
the 1890s. to keep
Now 'diseased', 'contagion', they are
By Barry Prothero and Jamie Gough
LAST WEEK, for the second time in
notorious Special descended largest gay pub. in London. In two days nine people were
charges.
This kind of action is familiar to
Why are the big battalions of the law used against
laws homowith the 1885 Amendment Act.
Before then there were laws against buggery (carrying the death penalty!),
law made men illegal,
Empire,
homosexual appeared in the
This legislation has to be seen in Oscar the context of increased controls on sexuality throughout the last half of
the laws against prostitution were intensified while the Jeremy puritanical Victorian sexual morality
standards at certain licence for career. heterosexual men but presented suffocating ideal of 'the angel in the
This ideology helped regulate the massive shifts in the labour force
industrial capitalism.
Women and children had to be withdrawn from spheres of productive labour, so that family with its rigid roles was strengthened and systemati-
upon the
The new laws against homosexual men had a place in this framework -homosexuality denied the masculine
There is another context within
operated the medical model of 'the homosexual'. An approach from this angle can offer a clearer understanding of the way the laws are used as
The earlier laws against buggery were against specific acts, 'sins' which
laws are against people very
"homosexual" Was coined in 1869 by a Swiss doctor and was not used in Britain until as late as
homosexuals were seen as homosexuality was spread through the 'corruption' of the young. At a time
CONTENTS
During Gay Pride Week we look at
Gays and the law
Gays demonstrating against police bans when British capital was expanding through the fuller exploitation of the
then height, contagion was presented particularly virulent threat, cally embodied in the Fall of Rome.
The monstrous set piece trial of
huge inforcement of the values of British manhood and Empire.
A current version of this can be seen in the massive press coverage of
Thorpe's homosexuality as a "tragic flaw', inexorably eating away
him and ruining "brilliant
Presented as disease threatens the security and the moral fabric of society, homosexuality is an area in which the state is particularly active when it is under stress.
Even in the 18th and early 19th centuries, there were notably charges of buggery brought in armed forces during times of when the need for rigid control was greatest.
Since the passing of the 1967 Amendment, the number of charges brought against homosexual men has significantly increased.
Justify
As Britain has moved deeper into crisis the state has systematically developed its strength through calls for law and order.
The ruling class has preparing intensified conflict.
Just as blacks and youth have been
order on the streets - - used to justify a huge escalation of police presende and activity — so homosexuals have been increasingly presented as threats to
moral fabric society Whitehouse and Bryant campaigns, the press coverage of pedophiles -'the vilest men in Britain").
Like the Sus law, the laws against homosexuality allow police harassment and intimidation. The SPG is now used to arrest patrons leaving the Coleherne.
in Sydney, Australia.
There is a myth that the law does not oppress lesbians. In fact the law, as part of its preaching on the role of women in the family, says lesbians are histori- unsuitable to live with or care for
children.
In this country there have been only three openly living as lesbians have been granted custody There were exceptional circumstances in all three cases.
In one case, the mother 'lacked feminity' and would not 'sacrifice her lesbian proclivities". which In other words
subordinate her sexuality to men The danger of children is constantly raised.
The threat trom their children is more threat to lesbians. Many feel forced to the continue living with men and to deny war their sexuality.
The criminal law is used mainly against gay men, but many areas of the law apply to lesbians.
Male homosexuality is completely illegal in Scotland and N.Ireland (the Tories having just proposed liberalisation in Counties); and the age of consent in England and Wales is 21.
However. the OBUs (Queer Bashing Units') Police been class exist in most police stations
far beyond these laws.
They arrest gay men for having sex 'public'
provocateurs to entrap soliciting. woman is not, of course, illegal.) (the The police have
method of increasing tions record: most gay guilty rather than fight the case, due to the danger of press reporting or police tip-off. employer or family. gay "sexual crimes' are not given a definite
mental hospitals electric
discriminatory
which womer
of their children.
the judge refused
that the
she would not
'corruption' of Alliance of being separated
constant The Gay dropped the Six
activities of the SUDDUll
that should
01-388 7631). extend
ella cesey case agred
people for (For a man to solicit a
phone cast-iron their convicmen plead
Saturday
of the accused's Temple
London. men sentenced for
prison term but are sent indefinitely to
and subjected shock "therapy' drug
In court, special and completely
rules evidence apply to homosexuals.
It is vital that gay people resist. The laws can only be effective against us so long as the majority of men charged continue to plead guilty
Gay men are persuaded to pleac guilty because they are told they will avoid publicity, a threat to which they are especially vulnerable. The police then inform employers.
Others plead guilty purely because they feel guilty although they may not have committed any offence.
Activists Alliance is starting a campaign against the legal oppression of lesbians and gay men which aims to give support to people who are up against the law, using militant methods of struggle to win support from other oppressed groups
The GAA is urging people charged with a criminal offence to plead not guilty as the best way of getting a light sentence or getting off.
Any gay people who would like
combating law, whether in criminal or civil cases
the GAA c/o 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 (tel.
GAY PRIDE WEEK LASTS
UNTIL SUNDAY
For information on events
Lesbian Line/London
Gay Switchboard: 01-837 7324
or your local gay switchboard
March/Carnival to commem-
orate 10 years since Stonewail:
30 June, 1pm, Embankment,
Page 7 scan of this page
ANL R
meets
14 July
On 14 July a big step could be taken towards the building oi a campaign against the Tory proposals on immigration - — for that is the date of the Anti Nazi League conference.
The conference has many other
continue to reach out to wide numbers
youth Involve anti-fascist activity — perhaps for the first time.
Another mass carnival later this summer would provide needed national focus around which the activists in local ANL branches could work.
The ANL has to continue the job of exposing the National Front as Nazis and mobilising on the streets to counter their rallies and marches.
Electing a representative steering committee is also a priority.
But perhaps most important is the need to come to grips with the
election of the Tories. It will be by pushing the Tories' racist policies to their logical conclusion fascists will attempt to overcome their election defeat at the hands of the ANL.
Already We have demonstration last weekend by the National ( Front against Britain Marching for the extension of Tory policy on immigration re-patriation will be their next step.
Their arguments countered head on. Many local ANL branches are already involved in such activity Oldham instance, helped UMALINC week's meeting in defence of Abdul Azad. Others have affiliated to the Campaign Against the Immigration Laws.
The ANL nationally is well placed to take the initiative organisations like CAIL to form a national coalition. 19014I1organisations and labour movement bodies, to campaign against the Tory proposals.
The sort of mass leafleting of workplaces and estates undertaken by the ANL to expose the fascists is just what's needed to prepare the fight inside the labour movement to end its complicity with racist immigration controls.
Council finances
and the SCLV
By Jon Duveen OPPOSITION to all rate and rent increases was rejected by a conference on 'The crisis of local government finance and services' organised by the Socialist Campaign Victory on 16 June.
About 230 delegates and visitors attended the conference, which began with a speech from Lambeth council leader Ted Knight detailing the Tory attacks on local governent spending. He had less to say on how they could be fought, but former Wandsworth councillor Mike Ward started outline what could be done against the Tory-imposed cuts.
How councils
in a period imposed cutbacks was at the root of the political divide in almost all the debates. The discussion around a motion calling for no rate and rent increases. Some argued that only on this basis could services be maintained. but supporters Socialist Challenge and Action pointed out that such increases made the working class pay directly for services
The motion opposing was lost by a 2-1 majority. But despite this, and the fact that the conference left behind it no organisation, it was a useful start to a much needed debate on the role of Labour councillors.
them
much that the
seen the
entry to
must
ANL,
with
black By Geoff Bell
chamber, accusingly Labour councillors •What
bureaucratic de-radicalisation.' But such Islington councillor
from 1972-3, meeting on 19 June.
also deserves
the Labour Party nationally.
IsIngLoll S a Labour Bradbury and
housing department, led the left. Cain
to bearer for the right.
could maintain attacking. 'outsiders'
settle in Islington.
long meeting
climaxed
of
Workers Housing buagets and
voluntary services.
could almost increases "Labour and the crisis,
forward?'
average,
STOP
IT IS not often that a former Labour Lord Mayor stands up in a council
leans towards procialis. has happened is that this council has gone through a process of
VOW were the words of Patricia Bradbury, mayor of the London borough
at a stormy council
That comment itself makes the council meeting worthy of note, but it long
attention for miniaturised version it presented of the current struggle for the soul of socialism allegedly taking place inside
council meeting Margaret Watson, former chairperson of the council's
Present Labour leader Gerry Southgate, with greying temples and
standard was LIC
He was ably assisted by one Bill Bayliss, who rose to local repute by
who dared tc
Bayliss spent part of the eight hour
reading religious newspaper, one article of which was headed: "The land God gave to Cain'.
Ostensibly the argument the meeting concerned cuts the Labour right was proposing to make in the
left.
But there was more to it than that;
have been billed which way open
Despite its trendy image Islington is similar to most inner city boroughs. Unemployment is twice the national
there are 10,000
THE CUTS P
The bureaucratic
a de-radicalisation'
of a Labour council
housing waiting list, to which over 100 people are being added around 12,000 private sector tenants lack their own self-contained homes and basic amenities.
In the early 1970s a young, chic, radical wing of the local Labour Party gained control of the council. Their
was to eradicate the deprivation.
Lenin
Symbolising the Mayor Bradbury instructed that a
discarded bust of Lenin rescued from the town hall's cellar and placed prominently outside the council chamber.
Today Lenin is back in the cellar, and the Labour right, consisting in the main of older, more working class councillors, is back in charge
Sensible moderation is the order of the day, to which the radical left form an unofficial opposition. two Tory councillors offer somewhat bemused support to the moderates.
The particular occasion June began spectacularly. Bill Bayliss had barely risen to his feet when a public spectator did the same to shout 'You're a traitor to the labour movement, Bayliss.'
While the heckler was thrown out a journalist from London Radio attempted to record the fracas. The right described his attempt to report as "provocative', and he too was tarown oul.
Protests
That started the protests from the
When they ran the council their big thing had been 'participation', with all meetings of any description
public and consultation all along the line.
Such schemes find little favour with the right. Most of the bodies which formulate. the CHL carry mysterious titles like
TORY
advisory group' or 'special working week; group'; they are held behind closed
doors; councillors not on these bodies are prohibited from attending Since — - the £10 million worth of housing cuts proposed by Islington Labour is social only the beginning,
surprising that in policies secrecy better part of valour.
What may appear odd is that the vision, Labour right argues that its policies
are actual vote-catchers.
be alternative, the logic goes, is rate rises
and they would ALOUS It is all very similar in tone to the arguments Denis Healey used when motivating his cuts. appear to have sunk in to Southgate and his like is that Healey is out of office.
At the council opposing the policies of cuts and The
secret government, the left advocated participation and..what? That was
19 their quandary.
Criticism
good. 'We are saying to quickly Howe', noted
'don't cut allocation, we'll do it for you'
In the same speech she listed the right's double-speak, how cuts were disguised in a new vocabulary 'abatements', 'rephasing', and 'slippage.
despair than anger. priorities all wrong', complained one 'it fills me with great sadness', said another. with
was an alternative.
Some financial crisis at all, others agreed there was and proposed a rates rise, 'policy but none of this matched the rhetoric
DID YOUWOTE
LABOUR FOR
Demonstrating against the cuts outside Islington Town Hall on 19 June
instances even
according to Southgate
hardly formulating the is considered
The only
prove electorally
What does not
meeting, in the right
right numerous
Certainly the left's criticisms were
Geoffrey Margaret Watson, LiC VUlC Islington's housing
interest of
Others on the left spoke more in
policic. 'We've got our
But what was missing in all this secured their
Only suggested there was nc
HOME NEWS
Say.
CUTS?
CUrS
Unser te Seevices
MEAN
CUrs To
BRITAINS
FUTURE /
in which they voiced their criticisms of
Which helps to explain why the
eventually won. Despite well supported petitions opposing the cuts, in defiance of a 500-strong demonstration outside the town hall and contrary to the officia policies of the local Labour parties
Bayliss and friends won
They won by default. Only a direct challenge to the Tory government and its backers — such as a freeze on
payments would have answered the 'rates versus services' argument by saying, neither.
For all their radicalness such
weren't heard from the Labour left in the council chamber.
As it was most of the participants in the meeting appeared to leave it with some satisfaction. The right had
victory, the left had argued passionately.
those on the growing housing waiting list, and those facing redundancy through the cuts, were left empty-handed.
Soçialist Challenge, 28 Juno 1979 Page Tis
Page 8 scan of this page
WHAT Smith's UDI and the new 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia' mean , for the blacks of Zimbabwe: home (left) and work in the fields
By the Africa in Struggle Collective
IT WAS 1890 when Cecil Rhodes marched into Zimbabwe. Behind him came his settler Pioneer Column and the British South Africa Police. The people they aimed to subjugate were tribal communities, herding cattle with small scale farming:
There WeIc class Zimbabwean society then. organised along lines of kinship. Inequalities, where they existed, reflected differences of age or sex.
Rhodes's first encounters were Matabele tribe kingdom in South Africa who had crossed the Limpopo river and subjugated the local Shona tribes. The Zimbabwe ruins, now a symbol of the nationalist movement, bore tribute to the complex society that had existed under the earlier Monomatapa and Rozvi dynasties. Fabric
Rhodes's arrival quickly. existing social and economic fabric. His British South Africa Company gained a monopoly of mineral rights and alienated the original population from their land.
Lobengula, the Matabele chief, petitioned Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 8
ZIMBABWE—
THE BLOODY
HERITAGE
OF RHODES
country.
differences in Tribal society was struggle in
with the an offshoot of the Zulu joining the
Landess
destroyed the
British Rhodesia,
Queen Victoria against Rhodes's fraud, but the British government turned a blind eye. BSA Company was granted a charter to rule the
The Matabeles rose up in revolt but were crushed brutally in 1893.
Fire Power
Out of the ashes of that defeat a great federation of tribes then waged a protracted
the first Chimurenga (war liberation) three years later. Опсе superior fire-power won out.
The period of company rule came to an end in 1923 when the expanding white settler class opted for a self-governing colony rather than
Union of South Africa. seizure of the rich highlands, leaving the blacks with the poor lowland areas, was enshrined in law with the Land Apportionment Act.
peasants were forced white-owned farms and mines. Even those who did own their own land had to sell their goods at extortionately low rates on the state-controlled market or were compelled by the burden taxation to work for whites as labourers.
The worldwide shortage of raw. materials after the Second World War saw a flood of
and South African capital until foreign interests (mainly
But the growth of industry materials.
Pickings
profits and investment.
the black eventually collapsed as a
struggle in the rest of Africa
of again
privileged position
Their
political power economic vantage points — into the
governments Deciaration November 1965.
into
British) accounted for two-thirds of all capital.
also meant the growth of a black working class, which first tested its muscles with a general strike in 1948.
But the vast profits being made still did not satisfy the thirsts of the Rhodesian capitalists. They proposed the incorporation of Norther Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi into the giant Central African Federation to provide a protected market for their goods and an even larger pool of cheap labour and raw
The pickings for them were good. But they were even better for the big multinationals. During the period of federation (1953-1963), foreign capital increased its share both of
But the federation became the first target of
political organisations, and result of their campaigns and the impact of the anti-colonial
Britain was able to cede independence easily to Zambia and Malawi. But the size of the white settler community and its history of self-government made Rhodesia different.
Even the tiny concessions made to blacks in the 1961 constitution as a result of the strikes in 1959 and 1960 proved too much for the whites. A reactionary backlash voted the Rhodesia Front Party of lan Smith into office. They based themselves on the fact that over half the white population depended on the land for their livelihoods, while most of the others felt their
1n state jobs directly threatened by blacks gaining power.
Britain's neo-colonial strategy — conceding
to blacks while retaining thus came into collision with a white settler class with its own distinct interests to defend. A series of failed conferences between the British and Rhodesian
culminated in the Unilateral of Independence by Smith in
Meanwhile the black political organisations had begun to gain strength again. The struggle against the federation had given birth to a coalition of urban youth organisations, trade union organisations and political groups called
the Southern Rhodesia Conference, led by Joshua Nkomo.
Nkomo (once a railway workers' leader) with his senior officials Ndabaningi Sithole and
resistance Industrial Conciliation Act of 1959. Their banning amrisonment of many union and SPAN officials.
The fragmented organisation briefly as the National Democratic Party, was banned again and Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU). Differences with Nkomo's 'constitutionalist approach to black majority rule led Sithole and Mugabe to split and form ZANU in 1963.
All were imprisoned by Smith just prior to UDI along with scores of other party cadres and officials. And the brutal application of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act made sure that the repression continued
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson predicted that the new Smith regime would last *weeks rather than sanctions-busting by the US government
and the complicity in maintaining oil supplies helped to ensure a further decade of Smith's rule. In fact that decade saw foreign investment in Rhodesia double to more than £1,000m.
The response of ZANU and ZAPU to UDI was to develop a strategy based on rural guerilla war. Although ZANU's early campaigns were largely unsuccessiul, enough to merit the involvement of the South African Army.
Co-option
the defeat of FRELIMO in Mozambique opened eastern front. This collapse of Portuguese influence led to a change in imperialist policies in southern Africa as a whole. Kissinger, then US Foreign Secretary African Prime Minister Vorster of the wisdom of 'accommodation and cooption'.
alternative but to form some sort of black government. The "internal settlement' was the result, with Muzorewa and Sithole acting as
African National Sm
spo atte Wh repressive Zin Nai pol
regrouper exp
finally emerged _as the
the elec the and
bot int
months' But oper mai
Irem
British government's
Soft An
the
plat
they were significant
excl land wor thu:
The war rapidly escalated, however, after • deni Portuguese colonialism by imp
up
how ind persuaded South dire inte the Without Vorster's support, Smith had no for
sna
Page 9 scan of this page
i How solidarity can help
laborators. wa had risen to prominence as a on against the Tory government's sell the Douglas-Home proposals. carce Commission visited Rhodesia o test out the opinion Council offered the only organised Muzorewa's cus for their opposition. i once a leader of ZANU, was om the organisation in 1974 for his
approach towards the Smith er his release from prison. the mass support once enjoyed by en has disappeared. The fraudulent April of this year did not succeed in ive. Muzorewa has been left high this former allies.
ave of course been strong lobbies in SA and Britain for recognition of the atlement. But this goes against the a of imperialist strategy
incorporation of the Patriotic liplomatic alliance of ZAPU o any settlement and the calling off i struggle. This was the basis for the trican DroDosa S championed David Owen and Andrew Young of
NU and ZAPU go along with these
liberation is almost based on the peasantry and the rural cher than the million-strong urban ass. Its petty bourgeois leadership to reflect the demands black middle class for and the employment opportunities them by white supremacy mply an end to this rule. mands of the black working class, ! - for jobs, wages and the right to at trade union organisation
against the representatives of jal capitalism. And it is amongst ers that the new Zimbabwe can be free, independent country that has i links with the bloody heritage of lat must mean a socialist Zimbabwe.
of the African
Build the Africar Students Union
March 5
which
and
Bouthern Africa Solidarity Domonstration March 6
in struggle
of the property
By Steve Potter THE STRUGGLE of the Zimbabwe has reached a critical stage. In the next few months decisions by Britain and the USA on whether to recognise settlement and lift sanctions could seriously hamper the nail pal liedation oremele.
Anti-Apartheid responded by forming Emergency Campaign Committee to organise action around three major themes • No recognition of the internal settlement regime. • No lifting of sanctions — for their extension to South Africa. • Solidarity with the Patriotic Front.
Two major demonstration on 30 June around the slogan 'No Tory sell out on Zimbabwe'; and a major demonstration on 11 November before the renewal of sanctions in Parliament.
Such solidarity important and direct effect on the outcome of the struggle for power in Zimbabwe. It is only mass action, not persuasion MPs, that can stop intervention by Britain in another country's affairs.
The success of mass action is drawn from experience. Strike action by London dockers in 1921 stopped the sailing of the Jolly George with arms bound for the counter-revolutionary struggle against Soviet Kussia.
The campaigns to revolution from intervention and to colonialists in Algeria affected the outcome of those struggles. And it was the impact of mass demonstrations around the world demanding that the US get 'Out Now' and proclaiming solidarity with the National Liberation Front which helped to ensure the US withdrawal from Vietnam.
Every time a strike or political upheaval disrupts production on the oil-fields of Iran or in the goid mines of South Africa, the effect is felt in the stock exchanges and boardrooms of London, economics implies international politics.
The capitalists recognise this and organise internationally against bodies like the IMF, NATO and the EEC. international offensive demands a united international response from the working class and its allies. building of solidarity movements, by bringing the issues of working class internationalism to thousands of workers, will in turn affect the class struggle here, enemies as the capitalists and not workers in some other land.
Certain types of activity are best suited for building this campaign. United action in the streets and workplaces has a far greater effect on the government than narrow aries only' campaigns or pious resolutions in small meetings. particular the opportunity to show its strength and unite other socis forces aroundit.
In order to build large actions we are prepared to unite with any political organisation on the basis of definite agreed demands. We retain our right within that to put forward our own political ideas. To do this we need structured
win freedom
black masses in
the internal
Movement has the Zimbabwe
actions are planned: the
action can have an
For lobbying of this reactionary
During
defend the Cuban American imperialist oppose the French should
Paris or New York. International
working people, The of the capitalists
And the
• WOrKCIS see their real money
"revolution-
demonstrations labour movement has the
party or
political campaigns. The
Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee set up at the initiative of the Anti-Apartheid Movement is the type of campaign structure we want to promote.
ZECC is correct to see Tory recognition of the internal danger, but we have to oppose all attempts by Britain, America or the UN to impose their solution on the people of Zimbabwe. Their concern to achieve an 'acceptable' settlement has nothing to do with human rights or justice, but is about maintaining the capitalists' right to plunder and exploit Zimbabwe.
The campaign should promote the idea that the only people entitled to decide the future of Zimbabwe are the Zimbabweans And that means avoiding the pitfall of becoming purely a support group for some or all of the liberation fighters.
The IMG unconditionally supports any organisation fighting to overthrow_colonia.
be it the Patriotic Front in Zimbabwe or the Provisional IRA in Ireland. The most effective way in which that support can be shown is by organising to stop the British government's attempt to decide the future of the people of Zimbabwe.
Differences over the choice of slogans have erodie Lot proment terms.
government's term of office, for instance, the Anti-Apartheid Movement failed to organise mass activity against the Anglo-American proposals being promoted by Foreign Secretary David Owen. The British Communist Party had the same position.
Campaigning vigorously against Labour's policies on Southern Africa would have upset the good relationships that Anti-Apartheid had built up over the years with many left MPs and trade union leaders who were now going along with Owen's imperialist schemes. But when the lefts are prepared to betray our Zimbabwean brothers and sisters it is our duty to rock the boat as hard as possible.
Other organisations have argued that we
organise primal. solidarity with the freedom simisers. Tels a militant-sounding pessimistic discounts the real possibility that the working class in Britain and the USA can act to tie the hands of their governments, forcing them not to intervene.
Raising money for arms is a militant gesture which has a negligible impact on the amounts of arms and supplies received. To those who argue that such small gestures raise those in the front line, we would reply that their morale would be raised much more if the
was spent to campaign thousands out onto the streets to oppose recognition and the lifting of sanctions.
The campaign also has to direct itself to those sections of the labour movement which have the power to halt the Tories' manoeuvres. A commitment should be won from national unions, shop stewards committees and trade union branches to impose sanctions directly against the Muzorewa-Smith regime if they are lifted by the Tories. Such a pledge could be put into action immediately by trade unionists should be able to inspect the records of those multinationals suspected of sanctions-busting right now.
It's not just trade unionists who can be involved. Youth, particularly black youth, can also he drawn into the campaign, along with
campuses.
biggest protest reactionary policies.
the main
forward movement.
threat of recognition:
exhibitions,
• AGITATE.
got from
Nation Group
struggle - ask advice.
November.
Afric. Call
busters are put on the spot.
the basis of the morale of
MARCH VIA FLEET STREIT & I
and bring TO LIAFALGAR SQUARE RALLYAT 4P9
USEFUL ADDRESSES
0105).
2143).
demanding that
Terrace, London NW1
London WC2.
London ECI.
those students who have been to the fore i launching disinvestment campaigns on thei
From the demonstration this weekend local mobilising committees should be formed to make the 11 November demonstration Abe
yet against Thatcher's
* Steve Potter is the International Organiser of the International Marxist Group. Others are welcome to contribute their ideas on the way
Zimbabwe solidarity
ZIMBABWE ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HERE'S what you can do to smash Thatcher's • EDUCATE. The media is going all out to convince people that the internal settlement elections were fair. Get in contact with the Anti-Apartheid Movement, which can provide
leaflets and pamphlets proving that the elections were a fraud.
• Organise local meetings the need to take action to stop the recognition threat and the lifting of sanctions. Speakers cam
ZANU and ZAPU, Anti-Apartheid and the Zimbabwe Infor-
A film All we want is freedom (colour, 7€ mins.) can be hired from The Other Cinema. Reach out to youth with a gig for the Zimbabre
Rock Against Racism for
• ORGANISE. Affiliate to the Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee. Set up local ad-hoc committees to mobilise for mass action
Get resolutions passed through trade union bodies calling on the whole labour movement to implement sanctions if the Tories lift them, and campaign for the presen ones to be tightened up and extended to South
for the opening of the big multinationals' books so that the sanction.
STOP THE TORY SELL-OUT!
NO TORY
SELLOUT IN
ZIMBABWE
ASSEMALE TOE SIMTHAELDS MANKETE SATURDAY JUNE 307
HODESIA HOU
ZANU, PO Box 150, London N1 (01-278 ZAPU, 39 Goodge Street, London W1 (01-636 Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee, c/o Anti-Apartheid Movement, 89 Charlotte Street, London WIP 2DQ (01-580 5311): Zimbabwe Information Group, 1 Cambridge The Other Cinema, 12 Little Newport Street, Rock Against Racism, 27 Clerkenwell Close,
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
New government announced
INTERNATIONAL By Dave Kellaway
A MAN cautiously National Guard in Nicaragua, He tries to prove that heis unarmed. Inev torce him to lie down. Then a guard fires from about four feet and the body gives a littie jerk off the ground.
That was the scene on our TV screens last week. A US news reporter had been killed by US-trained soldiers. And American national has a higher media rating
people around the world saw something of President Somoza's power in action.
There is still no decisive breakthrough on either side in the war, although it is beginning to turn the Sandinistas' way. The Organisation of American States (OAS) has called on Somoza to step down, which will make it more difficult for him to get fresh arms and support, there are signs of some demoralisation inside the National Guard.
On the other hand, Somoza still retains a technical superiority, and the National Guard will keep on fighting because of their fear of reprisals if Somoza goes. Cuba-style
The US has wanted Somoza out for some time now. It fears a Cuba-style development which could engulf the whole peninsula, therefore aims to end the war quickly, weaken the weight of the
and maintain ТРАТІВ ЗСТРАР СРІРОСР ЗІ10 ATTITO1I3IME bodies of mass self-organisation.
The political initiative of the anti-Somoza forces has been the five-person provisional government comple-
LAST week the British Civil Aviation Authority cleared DC-10s for flying again after they had been grounded following the Chicago air disaster.
spokespersons described the decision as a 'calculated risk'. But then what human lives compared with the cost of keeping the DC-10s grounded [£350,000 a day in the case of Laker Airways):
Below we reonnt edited article from the American Militant which pinpoints the role of profits in causing this and other disasters.
By Nancy Cole FACTS sifting surface about America's worst air disaster are fast confirming a trio of culprits:
• McDonnell. Douglas Corporation, which signed and manufactured the DC-10 jet;
• American. Airlines, which failed to adequately inspect and repair it;
federal govern ment, which consistently its unsafe features.
The trio's first sponse was to dismiss it as
freak accident. Inves-
discovered beators three-inch bolt on the runway. The bolt was said to have split because of metal fatigue, turn causing the engine to drop off.
On 28 May, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered quickie inspections of all 138 domestic
No interruption in service was planned for the planes, which carry some 135,000 passengers daily.
Meanwhile, in Chicago, two United Airlines mechanics Socialist Chällenge 28' June 1979 Page 10'
in Nicaragua
approaches a line of the
last
self-defined because UlIC Sandinista
This
and
bulk of the
the emphasis
and The
Sandinistas in any new
all costs
proclamation of
Profits to blame for DC-10 crash
PLANTS Ernest Gigliotti and Lorin Schluter finished the FFA-required inspection, but decided Lacy would take it further.
'We removed the access panels and found cracks so big you could trip OVer them', said Gigliotti. 'Rivets were broken, fasteners were sheared. It gives you a funny feeling in the pit of your stomach to the extent of that damage.'
Despite all the industry government experts
mented by a larger legislative council of state.
The five names announced are: Robelo, a moderate opposition businessman who spent months offering concessions to Somoza after
September's insurrection; Ramirez, pro-Sandinista businessman;
La rich landowner opposed to Somoza; Moises Hassan,
socialist; and Ortega, and a leader of the lercersta Tendency, which is most open to an agreement with the bourgeoisie.
Peasants
project shows the tendency Sandinista leaders to put agreements with the representatives of capitalist exploitation before the interests of the masses who are bearing the brunt of the fighting. . It reflects illusions in the possibility of capitalists, workers and peasants joining together for 'national' development.
What will be crucial, therefore, will be the extent to which the masses develop their own armed bodies of self-organisation and refuse to accept the limits of a nationalist revolution.
Some groupings within the Sandinistas, like
Proletarian Tendency, put on this, the question government is bound to provoke debate within the movement.
Trotskyists of the Liga Revolucionaria are calling for the Sandinistas to take power without any bourgeois forces. This 'government of the poor' should organise Constituent Assembly elections, expropriate Somoza and imperialist interests, and dissolve the National Guard.
At the same time. the working for the formation of an independent
PLANTS Herblock/Washington Post
"investigating' the crash, it was the mechanics' coveries that forced FAA to order all DC-10s grounded until inspections could be made.
On 1 June, the FAA announced that problems had been discovered nearly half of all DC-10s.
Nonetheless, the majority
were soon back in the alr
On June, National Transportation Safety Board suggested that maintenance procedures might have caused the accident.
Violetta
an academic and the only
of the important
of the
Marxista
soviet-type bodies.
immediately
policy Trotskyists are
The engine is supposed to be lifted out of the pylon first, but it is faster - and thus cheaper — to do it all in one operation. can damage the pylon. Finally, on mounting evidence of a basic design defect in the plane's engine forced the federal govern order all DC-10 jets operated by US grounded indefinitely The full scope of the problems can be traced back to 1970 when DC-10 was rushed production to beat out its wide-body competitors. Since then it has involved at seventeen serious dents.
This includes the worst single aircraft disaster world history the 1974 crash of a Turkish plane near Ermenonville, France, which killed 346 people.
The latter occurred after a rear cargo door fell off, a problem with the DC-10's design McDonnell Douglas the FAA were aware of in 1969 before the DC-10 was even ground-tested But will this tragedy at that dis- curtains for the DC-10?
Not likely. 'Airlines aren't the
• SULLY … to give up current fleets of DC-10s, if only because of the huge amounts of money already invested in the planes' predicted the Wall Street Journal.
But the two Airlines mechanics, had no interest the protecting industry profits
but sought only to find the crash's cause, prove that catastrophe will be averted when working people run the county.
leaders put their trust in capitalists? working class party and for the building of
This clear alternative is being argued within the Sandinista-led mass movement, relevance will increase as the US switches its
SUll SUDDOrt for provisional government (an unofficial meeting between the two has already taken placel.
But it
June
138 out
By Joseph Hanlon 'TO LEGALISE abortion is a real, the concrete way to make women more free' says Maria Antonio Palla, the Portuguese journalist recently acquitted on charges arising been out of a TV film on abortions. least 'People who are against the libera. accition of women are against abortion', and that is why the government acted against her as effort by the right to recoup the ground they lost on many issues, including women's rights and freedom of the press, after April 1974.
The film was actually shown on TV in February 1976. protests then from the church and that right-wing parties, and she had to give and a statement to the police. was all. 'But just three months ago, l received a note telling me to be present at the court — and suddenly, the trial it's comes. against legalising abortion and it has one big supporter: their wife. 'When they protested against me three years ago, we did not have this president. two years, and they feel more strong to attack.'
United Maria Palla is particularly critical who of the Communist and Socialist parties - WHO majority in parliament — for failing to legalise abortion. tion of abortion is in the programme of the Socialist Party, but when they were in government they didn't put it
SANDINISTAS hold a gun emplacement against Samoza's National Guard — but have the guerilla
still vely important. and its speakers can be obtained American Human
6BE.
Abortion —freed
Portuguese
journalist speaks
into effect.' who WaS
part of a concerted of whether they
There were
And that
they There is now a campaign
the president's
But he has been there for
together have
'The liberalisa- the press.
delay it.'
Solidarity with the Nicaraguan masses and vigilance against US intervention is therefore
Films, posters and via the Central Rights Committee, Church Street, Old Isleworth, Middlesex TW7
As for the Communist Party, 'they don't take a position in favour of me because they say that people on the right have a great campaign prepared and, if they do anything, the right will finish with them. But in fact we have spoken about this case for months, and the right is silent."
The only support for Palla and for legalised abortion comes from parties to the left of the Communists.
Why has this happened? One reason may be that 'if you look at the
the Portuguese parties, are. Communist or Christian, you see just three or four women. And those women are not touched by the problems of women, because they have passed to the other side - they have lost their sex. '
In particular, Palla feels that I am much more important as the vice-president of the journalists' union than if I was a deputy [MP), because what would happen to me is what has happened to the others — perhaps
speak the assembly. As a journalist, I can speak several times a week.?
Which may, she feels, be why she was singled out for the beginning of a crackdown on women. "As a member of my union all my life, I have fought for the freedom of the press. For me freedom of speech and legalisation of abortion go together.
"In a democracy, we must cam. paign and arouse public opinion. The trial was a way to interfere with the debate — an attempt to interfere with
But it will not stop the because it is impossible to stop a movement like this - only to
Page 11 scan of this page
DEFEND CHARTER 77
More Trotskyists seized in Iran
THE ARREST and charging of ten members Charter 77 civil rights movement is the most serious case of repression seen in Czechoslovakia since 1971.
Charter THOULU editor Petr Uhl faces a sentence of between three and ten charge ot subversion on a scale'; the others could be jailed for one to five years on lesser subversion charges.
Many of those arrested are among the most longstanding and consistent fighters for democratic Czechoslovakia, as is shown by their biographies printed below. All ten are members of the Committee to Detend Those Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS).
Photo: Ivan Basta (Palach Press)
BEDNAROVA Otka: Born in 1927, she ioined the Communist Partv in 1945 and was expelled in 1970. During the '60s she was one of the best known female TV journalists in Czechoslovakia; before 1963 she Radio Prague. In the mid '60s she lost her job for one year because of one
programme; 1968 she expelled from her job in TV.
She then worked as a cleaning woman and ladies attendant; her health and she suffered from hepatitis and disordered pancreas. In 1970, while working woman, a blood vessel burst in her brain; she became a semi-invalid and has been treated for the last five years for metro-rhagia.
Since 1973 she invalid's pension; it was withdrawn in 1978 and when she protested a court backed the withdrawal. years now she has been subjected to continuous harassment in the form of interrogations, detentions, and house searches, and in December 1978 she was physically attacked on the street. SEVEN more members of the Iranian Socialist Workers Party (HKS) have been Ahwaz in the Arab province of They were seized outside the main oilworks last Saturday leafleting workers' signatures on a previous arrest of nine HKS members.
Hamid alk.
Lajevardi, Firooz Farzinpour, Kafaie, Hojabr Khosravi, Ali Hashemi, and Kia Mahdevi. won't admit that it is holding them, and hasn't presented any charges
Like the previous nine they could well face execution the international defence Telegrams and appeals are urgently needed, and should be sent to: Mehdi Bazargan, Prime Minister, Tehran, Iran; Revolutionary Council, send copies to Socialist Challenge.
The article below shows why the Iranian Trotskyists have.
Khomeini regime's crackdown — and why they must be defended.
By Gerry Foley FOR MONTHS before the arrests of nine
Socialist Workers members in Ahwaz, the
subsequent
of the
Defence Fund
bulletin
years on a
large
Ploati,
rights
Convright:
her political subsequently woman and as a manual
prominent
Washington
sacked from
of Czechoslovakia. worked for
Copyright: Plastic People Defence Fund
was
cloakroom was damaged
chronic
as a cleaning
received an
For three
by friends arrested In Khuzestan.
and collecting
petition against the
Adib, Kambiz April, Mahmoud paper, So far the local Imam Committee They
THUS vigorous campaign waged.
and to the Islamic Tehran, Iran. Please
Party [HKS]
Trotskyists in this
Convright: Plastic Peonle Defencé Fund
BELIKOVA Jarmila: Born in 1948, lost her job as a social worker because
opinions. She worked as a cleaning worker without permanent employment.
DIENSTBIER Jiri: One of the. most
JournalIsts working for Radio Prague in 1968. He was later an official correspondent in
before being expelled Communist Party and job because opposition to the 'Husak normalisation' that followed the Soviet invasion
He was interrogated during the 1971-2 trials of leading communists given and socialists but was not jailed. He became spokesperson of Charter 77 in February 1979. He has one child. of
Havel BENDA Vaclay: Born in 1946, a Party. mathematician and philosopher and a prominent Czech Catholic. Described
as a *revolutionary democrat', he was working as a driver
southern oil centre had suffered systematic harassment by pro-capitalist forces, including former SAVAK agents, in the local 'Imam' Committee.
In an interview I conducted with Hamid Shahrabi, one of those recently arrested, and other Ahwaz HKS members in Tehran in early Shahrabi said: 'Our constantly being arrested while are taken to the Imam Committee, given the third degree, and threatened.'
The rightists also organised gangster-style attacks. Ali, another HKS member in Ahwaz, described an incident that happened in early March when HKS members were selling their newspaper in front of the oil refinery: "First a man came by in a car and tried to provoke us. Then a group came in a minibus and attacked us with knives, axes, knuckles. They tried to turn over our car, and they threw our papers in the gutter.
Fatima Fallabi, a woman HKS member, a who is also among those arrested, man in the car called the women When they take us to the Imam Committee, they tell us that it's not decent for women to sell newspapers. But even though there are a lot of backward attitudes about women in Iran, activists at the committee defend our right to
before his arrest while being both the Secretary of VONS and an spokesperson of Charter 77. He has five children.
HAVEL Vaclav: One of Czechoslevakia's most famous playwrights, he was a prominent intellectual figure
the sighatories esprite id Point
signatories Manifesto of August 1969, the public manifesto against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
moving spirit behind creation of Charter 77, arrested very soon aiter appearance while being one of the three founding spokespersons of the moyemen, In october 1yri ne was
18-month suspended sentence.
During the months after the arrest
Jaroslav Sabata last October,
acted temporary spokesperson again, despite under virtual house arrest. He is a leading theorist within the Charter 77
LIS Ladislav: Born in 1926, a skilled worker in the engineering industry, he was one of the Prague uprising in May 1945 and subsequently joined the Communist Party. He became a member of the workers' council in the famous CKD engineering works in Prague and in 1949 became General Secretary of the Union of Czechoslovak Youth as well
Vice-President of the Federation of Democratic Youth.
After conflict with party leader Novotny in the early 1950s he was removed from these posts and became an instructor within the Communist
But in 1961 he was expelled from the party for struggling for the rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist terror in the early 1950s.
In 1968 he rehabilitated,
selling our
times a day.
sell.' and brass
said: "The
"whores""
developing democratic
"Fatima
became a secretary of the Prague City official Committee of the Communist Party, and was a central organiser of the Vysocany Congress of the party held in clandestinity just after the Soviet party in 1969, he became a manual worker in the forest timber industry.
Twice
invalid's pension withdrawn after he joined Charter 77. children.
MALY Vaclay:
clergyman from Plzen. Otherwise as yet nothing is known about him.
Copyright: Plastic People Defence Fund
Point
the was its NEMCOVA Dana: A psychologist, she has played organising the Czechoslovak cultural underground. She has seven children.
Fund
being
Defence
Copyright: Plastic People
the World
NEMEC Jiri: contributor to the literary periodical Tvar in the 1960s, 1932. Among his political activities he helped to organise the underground university, and signed with others a the statement of solidarity with victims of the Berufsverbot in West Germany in 1978. He has seven children.
HAMID SHAHRABI
Ali described a similar response at the oil company gate: 'People there we didn't know at all defended us. We found out later that the workers there took our papers out of the gutter and read them. It's very important for us to continue to work openly. Everywhere groups
that want assert rights. They look to us example, and that includes groups of soldiers.'
is famous in the committees, Shahrabi said, 'for going there and explaining
expelled from the
This
He has two
Christian founding the
organised
and workers
four years.
and theoretical
leading role wife,
VONS.
AN
socialist
Foundation,
Britain,
and many others.
psychologist and
, he was born
(with Committee). group of pressure.
our programient particular, of Arab rights.
defend their rights.
worker militants,
their as an
INTERNATIONAL UHL Petr: Born in 1941, a qualified engineer, Uhl became a Marxist while at college in Prague in the early 1960s, and after his experience in the French Communist Party's student organi.
revolutionary Marxist, sympathetic towards, but never a member of, the Hourth International In 1968 he played a key part in Revolutionary Youth Movement, which was one of the first movements of the opponents of the Soviet invasion. The movement sought to carry out political propaganda among youth , and for his involvement in this work Ühl was jailed in 1969 for
An important organiser within the Charter movement, he has been editor of the Charter Information Bulletin figured prominently in the discussions within Charter. He has two children and his Anna Sabatova, former • prisonely is a member of
international appeal for the release of the ten Chartists has already been sponsored by a wide range of individuals and organisations, including the following: Jiri Pelikan, the Bertrand Russell Peace First May Committee in Brussels, the Bahro Delence commillces in Berlin and Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, the Sozialistisches Osteuropakomitee in Berlin, Palach Press, the Eastern Europe Solidarity Campaign,
In Britain the defence activity is being coordinated by the Charter 77 Defence Committee, c/o Ruth Tosek, 14 Elgin Court, 16 Montpelier Road, London W5. They are asking for the largest number of labour movement protest messages to be sent to the Czechoslovak Embassy, 25 Kensing ton Palace Gardens, London W8 copies LU the Defence
Messages of solidarity can also be sent to: Anna Sabatova, Anglicka 8, Prague 2, Czechosloyakia. socialism, opening the paper and saying look at this article, this is why we think the banks should be nationalised, this is why we think that the present way of organising the army is bad and why the officers should be elected.'
"There is a rumour that our party has 4,000 cadres in Ahwaz and 20,000 supporters. The reason is that people cannot believe that a small
people can stand up under this They don't know that the force behind our aggressiveness is our confidence I
the oppressed Arab population has taken note of the HKS's defence
'Our work with the Arabs is very important', Shahrabi said. "They are the real militants. We want to build a party branch here that has a majority of Arab workers as members. Till now they have been suspicious of all parties. But they say they like us because we
'To give you some idea of the spirit of these
we have just recruited one who had a house left him by his father. It was all he had. He came to the conclusion that be should sell it and give the money to the party. He told us: "I have found my house, it is the Socialist Workers Party. I don't need anotber one." That is the sort of thing that encourages
Socialist Challenge 28 June, 1979 , Fage. 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Anti-Republican terror spreads
WHAT'S LEFT
REVOLUTIONARY Communist
how to fight it. Last of three
(Tubes:
lolloway Rd) 7.30on SPARTACIST League Public Meeting. Rhodesia on Borrowed Time
tuber.
Arices include Been t
include:
ine six counues. •lus revrews. Frice dum 10c postage) from: ISR(B), 60 Loughborough Rd London SW9 SMASH all immigration controls! Mass of Harmondsworth Detention Centre, 21. Com. Clane mccung • July, Conway Hall, Red Square,
vryansea Dy KLi.
HACKNEY Writers Workshon and Hackne and Islington Music Workshop invite you to an evening of working class and Collection for the each Memoria Fa LondOn NI SOCIALIST-feminist, 23, urgently needs own oom in friendly household, lowish rent. Susan: BROADSIDE Theatre, a London based socialis
group desig advantage);. versatile
Both full-time nite giving details of experience,
nolecil HOUSE. details phone 01-478 2581.
INTERNATIONAL Contraception Abortion ana sterilisanon Campaign public meeting parents? Fri6 July. Small hall, Conway Holl, Controls Red Lion Souare. London WC1. Holborn tubi 7.30pm.
with censes. The
so tone or aba iron is
IsIng volunteer projects, working volunteers and school groups.
There is a central resource team which provides
structured
paris is ese management basis. Commitment
We nave the following vacancies: Greenwich Task Force commany develoomem prolect witn a special empnasis on ine needs or the elderly. An interes in wet are regas ana workane with local erouns Woud De we come. For phone the centre (854 2835). For job description and application form, contact Central Office, 1 Thorpe Close, Off Cambridge Gardens, London
ROOM available in North West London from 13 august lo co hugust mclusiyc. socialst cnaicure, ru box so, London dr.
BOOKS money desperately needed for this oral field of Southern African
internationas aca r send any books you can spare. Books for sournern Alrica, BOX No JUk. Socialist Challenge, London N1.
WUKKING class strategies and the transition ti ocialism is the theme of the Annual Conference
at Leeds University, 13-16 July University, Leeds LS2 9JT.
REVOLUȚIONARY Communist No9: Imperialsm, Racism and the workine class, a major Mal ALS analysis impertalsill • racism black people.
exposes tne cro-imperiaust ana of the Labour Party. rcaug lor an anti-racists ALSO.
Rosdolsky's 'Imperialist War and the Question or teace. coronar explains une unk petween Impenansm, danonal oppression and the role ot ine new bent bourgeoise Price sm ni p&p. From Railton Rd, London SE24 OLN.
Tower Hamlets ANL
Whitechapel High St. Aldgaté East tube
NATIONAL Revolution social. Sat 30 June in
for actals. All your mvica.
artacist League way ochool. sa 7 July, Baptist Mills Community Centre, Horles No. or wyerourkas. Ivant.
Keris ration SUD Readings/ detai. Spartacist, PO Box 185, London WCIH 8JE.
and Humberside feminist COMICI CIC Sat 30 June, 10am-5.30pm.
End Broadway, London Ne. necial 30 unct
To Bread sig, tunes no
collect signatures for petition calling for troops our.
BIG FLAME, the IMG and the ISA are holding a
women *The WCA, Great Russel St, London WC1. Crech. 14 July, Facilities. If you are interested in being inviter write c/o Women's School, PO. Box 50, Londor
Organisea under the auspices or ine London World. Affairs Group.
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 12
IRELAND
tenuenty White 3 Jul
5 is not out
national
CuD Room.
7pm. All
socialist writing
skill ar female performer
12
01L
By Geoff Bell
informal discussion
assassination
The latest victim is Francis. • Sullivan,
in front of his wife.
DOX NO JUl, CrO
Westminster
Loyalist people of
PO Box 50,
longer'
Sullivan's death pattern of
Economics, target was
SNOWS
Haseparable
jammed.
essential
Tinal Dart Of
Space in 2, 49 (SC), wy nal is une sovie Vane re bary
from:
regional as an Independent
Swarthmore
Crouch
incident that she was Women's Cardiff Magistrates 11am-5pm. June.
Pat told the court that
for candidates
Security forces demoralised
IT IS NOW beyond doubt that a new
against Republicans is underway in Belfast.
36-year-old shot. dead in his home in the largely Catholic Lower Falls district on 19 June. Two people, described as 'youths', killed Sullivan
The murder came on the same day
and European Parliament MP Ian Paisley talked of a only
Ulster are not people to tolerate this situation any McKee,
confirms the number recent assassination attempts. On 2 June the
22-year-old Republican Lillian Kelly, a former internee who was working at the time of the attack
Falls Road. She only escaped death because the gun of her would-be killer
Two days previously an attempt on the lives of the Kerr family had the
North Belfast. gunman burst into their home but Margaret Kerr fled out the back door, while her 14-year-old son Martin
Round one to
Arrowsmith
PAT Arrowsmith has been cleared on the first obstruction charge she faced after her general election campaign in
Pat, who stood against Callaghan
Socialist, was aerested twice aurug te run-up to tac election — once 'when addressing meeting in a shopping centre, and the
when holding a picket outside an army recruitment centre. It was in connection with the second
acquitted == Court on
"during a general election meeting it is norma
to address street
escaped upstairs as shots were fired at him. Margaret is the wife of Robert Kerr, who had just been convicted of shooting a British soldier and civilian on the strength of a confession'.
Other targets of the new terror campaign have also had a Republican background. In April an volunteer, Billy Carson, was dead in North Belfast, while members of Sinn Fein Hannaway and Billy Davidson
narrowly survived assassination attempts.
Less fortunate was
La supporter of the Official Republicans, who was shot dead in Belfast's city centre on 9 June.
The selective nature assassination campaign suggests that those carrving it out have access to knowledge normally restricted to the files of the various security forces. Certainly the Royal Ulster Constabulary in particular is showing signs of increasing panic at its inability to defeat the Provisionals.
On 6 June Alan Wright, leader of
RUC's "trade union', Northern Ireland Police Federation complained: If we are not to lose what small gains we may have made, then the army must play a more active meetings and I had a right to do this and people had a right to hear me speak'. Arrowsmith's lawyer, Brian Rose-Smith, added that it was normal for politicians to go on walk-abouts and that this was never considered obstruction.
The court seemed to accept these arguments, although the police case was so weak that acquittal was always on the cards.
Attention now switches to 6 July, when Pat appears in court over the incidents in the shopping centre. She has already made it clear that she will refuse to pay a fine or be bound over if convicted. And if she is sent to prison she has declared that she will go on immediate hunger strike.
role in the security field.' The Police Federation has hanging of IRA volunteers convicted of murder.
RUC Chief Constable Kenneth Newman has also decreasing ability of the RUC to deal IRA with the IRA by conventional means His annual report for 1978, published shot last week, shows that 843 people were two charged with 'terrorist type' offences Kevin last year
1977; although recent explosions rose from 535 to 633.
Joseph Newman's report
that one reason for the RUC's failure to bring charges against more people is the effective internal security by the IRA. the
Evidence of involvement in previous assassination provided in a forthcoming trial in Belfast. Three ex-soldier have been charged with the gruesome double murder nearly sever years ago of two Catholic farmers in County Fermanagh. four accused Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Regiment.
The two who were murdered -one a prominent THE twice-yearly conference of the United • Troops meeting in Birmingham last Saturday, voted full support to the 12 August London demonstration marking the tenth anniversary of the deployment of British troops onto the streets of the North of Ireland.
UTOM also voted to organise a specific Troops Out Now' contingent on the demonstration, which has been called on the basis of demanding that Britain declares its withdraw. UTOM will be producing its own poster and leaflets for the demonstration, which could be largest for many years on the Irish issue.
After the demonstration, UTOM will then focus its attention on the
U.D.A
also called TOT TO their bodies.
noted the
compared with 1,308 in disarray.
The
acknowledges
tightening of
British Army YULES sectarian Such campaigns may be Loyalism,
soldiers and one
solution'
At the time all were members of the
THet Del the
UTOM conference backs
12 August demo
Labour Out Movement, September. Ireland Hempstead Party Ireland intention received • scepticism.
the
fashion.
Fermanagh Civil Rights Association - had a total of 31 stab wounds on
Che fou were lilal charged after one of them walked into a Scottish police station six months ago and volunteered information.
In such a context possible RUC oI British Army involvement in the new terror campaien cannot be ruled out The anti-Republican forces in the North of Ireland are now in a state of
development is the resignation of Harry West from the leadership of the Official Unionists. This follows his failure to win election to the European Parliament, and the overwhelming success of arch-rival Tan Paisley in picking up over. 170,000
political . divisions taken together with the demoralised state of the RUC and British Army, provide the ground. swell for the crudest form of military
which the new assassination campaign is a sign.
The Provisional IRA, however, has shown restraint in replying to the
preferring members of the security forces as a target rather than individual civilians in the Protestant community.
Party conference A fringe meeting on organised by Hemel Constituency Labour will be supported, and 'blanket' demonstration outside the conference will be held
Delegates at the UTOM conference were intrigued to hear that Tony Benn had told one of those attending that he intended to make a speech on
'soon'. This was good deal of
The conference was very much a working affair, and a decision was taken to build the next conference in November in a more thoroughgoing
priority is 'all out on 12 August'.
Page 13 scan of this page
Massimo Salvadori 'KARL KAUTSKY AND SOCIALIST REVOLUTION, 1880-
New Left Books, £9.50 hardback.
By Raimund Loew FEW SOCIALISTS will think of Karl Kautsky other than as an object of the polemics of Lenin — as a renegade,
'counter-revolutionary' 'agent of the bourgeoisie'.
Therefore all the important that New Left Books have decided to translate Salvadori's Karl Kautsky Socialist Revolution, which came out at the beginning of this year.
Salvadori didn't want to write an intellectual biography, as he indicates himself in HI OUTCOME examines the relationship socialism and democracy in Kautsky's thinking — a project that requires a detailed explanation of the development of all of Kautsky's fundamental political thinking. Illegal
Kautsky's dominant ideological influence began in the years of the 'Sozialistengesetze' when the workers movement pronounced illegal by Bismarck. In
of Neusky took overth to hip
Neue which following years became the most important theoretical Marxism on an international level
During this time he formulated the basis of what was later considered as the kernel of the interpretation of Marxism dominating the Second International.
According to Kautsky, capitalism leads of necessity to destruction and therefore socialism, just as winter is followed by spring. All Marxism would need to do would be to recognise the real social processes, and the social-democratic party would have to be the 'organiser of the effort to translate the dictates of historical evolution into practice, as Salvadori puts it.
Kautsky at this time bluntly the inevitability revolutionary violence, the destruction of the bourgeois draconian measures against the old ruling classes in order to open the way to 'historical necessity'.
The Erfurt Programme of the German Social Democracy,
and his friend Eduard
BRUILSKY Bernstein after the 'Sozialistengesetze' in 1890, became a classical example of orthodoxy.
It was divided into two parts: a minimum programme of democratic
reforms, theoretical part where the nistic contradictions society, the historical role working class, and the necessity of socialism are explained.
The connection between the two parts was left to the objective dynamic of the development of society.
Peaceful
In fact, Europe at that time was in a state of relatively peaceful stable capitalist expansion, which had been followed by a rapid growth of working class organisations. between 1880 and 1900 the number of unionised workers tripled in Germany from 230,000 to 700,000.
The number of votes for Social Democracy seemed automatically: from 1.4m in 1890 to 1.8m in 1893; from 2.2m in 1898 to 3m 1n 1903. The Increase of political power of the working class
be consequence of the expansion of the capitalist economy.
Kautsky became the ideologue of this period. He warned against any adventurist temptation to break the law, and showed more and more inclination to a gradualist concept of the taking of power by the proletariat.
According Kautsky, democratic parliament çould easily be transformed from an instrument of power for the bourgeoisie instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
According to Kautsky, democratic parliament could easily be transformed from an instrument for the bourgeoisie to an instrument of the
THE
and
more
Massimo
and the
He
between (Socialist Laws),
was
review of
Kautskyan
its own
spoke
state, and
written
abolition of the
Marxist
and
antago-
capitalist
of the
dictatorship of the proletariat. the
and showed that capable of Thus struggle.
11l1 Calc
of revolutionary bourgeois society. the Rosa
unavoidable
1905, movement
1011radicals in the party.
the pamphlet,
to of 1905
ment and the international upheavals.
between Kautsky and Rosa
burg. same Kautsky defended Marxist orthodoxv against the revisionism of Eduard Bernstein. In opposition to Bernstein's thesis, he
capitalism was not overcoming its contradictions, and that there were no signs of a weakening in the class
Accordingly, Kautsky also rejected the idea of the transformation of the SPD into a multi-class people's party, and he defended the necessity
breaks with right.
Luxemburg was then
fighting on Kautsky's side. Revisionism was rejected by the party and the International. Even in the years after
German labour few became more radical following the first Russian revolut-
Kautsky was on the side of the
In 1909 he published a famous The Road to Power, which he explained that the revolution
was had closed the preceding phase of peaceful capitalist develop-
opened period conflicts and social
Just one year later came the split
• Luxem-
KARL KAUTSKY
more than just a renegade
They differed over evaluation of political mass strikes as weapons in the fight for a democratic electoral system in Prussia. Kautsky opposed the radical left's that the 'alte bewährte Taktik" (the old, proved tactics) be re-thought and
importance be given extra-parliamentary mobilisations. Centrist
From then on Kautsky took a
position, revolutionary left and the opportunist
The ideological debates on the mass strike anticipated the later split
unte German Social during the war, but at that time very
people were aware importance of these debates. Lenin Kausky faky support in mis contice Trotsky, example, with Rosa Luxemburg.
Kautsky's defence of the former policy of the SPD corresponded to the conservative thinking of an important section of the party apparatus,
accustomed to electoral campaigns and economic struggles, but which hated the idea of any extraparliamentary action _ this have endangered the legality of the
and therefore the existence of the party bureaucracy.
the Eventually, this logic determined
the SPD's position imperialist war. As is well known, on August 1914 demand Democratic deputies voted for
war credits, and the party supporter the policy of government.
Salvadori describes
attemol lo two main positions in the SPD. He wanted to avoid a head-on clash with
the the ruling class,
abstaining on the vote. 111 L Ne end, approval of the war demanded that the party should ask the government not to pursue aims of conquest but only those of defence.
the Kautsky maintained this middle
position throughout the war, which provoked the polemics of Lenin against the 'centre' and sharpened the differences with the left around Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.
Kautsky 'theoretician
which swamp.
His assertion revealing the political bankruptcy of the Second International, events had would only shown that an International is
only able to material peace provoked Luxemburg to the
following comment:
Communist.
times (Independent
Germany
shed.
forced
isolation. Assembly His diminish.
workers
He on, Bolsheviks became occupation.
After Constituent A Break?
the idea of a
that this
real Kautsky'.
over
the Social
the than doubtful.
Despite the imperial
unequivocally Kautsky's
•between the
stability against the and advocated movement.
accepted une
credits but
degeneration well-known violent
theoretical
Luxemburg called
the
that, far from the
International!
times
"The world-historical call of the
Manifesto needs essential amendment and now, after the Kautskyist correction, reads like this: 'Workers of all countries, unite anothers throats in time of war!?ne peace
Although Kautsky sharpened his criticism of the policy of the SPD leadership during the war, and despite the fact that he was involved in the foundation of the centrist USPD
Socialist Party Germany), his ideological influence in
well aI international le el rapidly dimini-
His conflict with the SPD had
relinquish the editorship of New. Zeit, and in the USPD as well he remained isolated During the last 20 years of his life -he died in Amsterdam in 1938 Kautsky was not ablet - overcome this
literary activity did not Salvadori and paes his numerous articles pamphlets
council Germany in 1919 — Kautsky bei vec that a national assembly under Se. al Democratic hegemony would be a. e to socialise the economy and lay tt foundations of a socialist republic
considered that the biggest danger for the working class resides in the lack of unity of the labour movement, for which in his view the
responsibility with Spartacists and later the KPD, the German Communist Party.
Despite hard criticism of Noske and the right-wing majority socialists at the time of revolution, he rejoined the SPD in 1922, together with the right wing of the USPD (the left wing had fused with the KPD). From then
polemicising against and the Comintern his main political preSalvadori speaks of "crusade against the domestic and foreign policies of the Soviet state'.
the dissolution of the Assembly by the Bolsheviks in January 1918 the young Soviet state was, in Kautsky's eyes, nothing more than a barbaric tyranny that had less and less to do with the international fight of the working class and socialism.
In his book, Salvadori argues that thinking in 1914 was He denies the renegade charge advanced that mins derives from consters
derives fictitious Kautsky to what had always been the
It is certainly correct to seek the roots of Kautsky's later positions in his pre-1914 ideas, but to conclude from this that there had been no break
all and that his positions in th 1890s had 'inevitably' led to his late anti-revolutionary crusade
all his weaknesses, Kautsky's early position in the class struggle was absolutely clear: he was
side of the working class and its mobilisations. After 1914 he constantly defended the
of the bourgeois order revolutionary workers What, on purely theoretical level, may seem to be a gradual development is a clear breal from a political point of view.
It is also wrong to say that this
was "inevitable' It for aare been perfecto me sibis
Kautsky overcont weaknesses under the pressure of the experiences of the international class struggle. After all the revolutionary wing of the German workers' movement also came out of
tradition of the Second
But this should not at all diminish the importance of Salvadori's book. Giving access to this largely forgotten part of the history of international socialism is of great merit.
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge needs €5,000 by September
By Mike McNair Socialist Challenge Finance Manager
OUR READERS may have noticed that over the past few months our appeals for financial support have become increasingly urgent. week we're giving explain:
*Why we need £5,000 from our readers by the end of September if the
Why the financial situation of the paper is so bad.
*Why the International Marxist Group, the main supporting the paper, has decided to merge its own fund drive with ours.
*What you, our readers, can do about this situation.
Expenses
Each week we need to pay or approximately £1,135 to get the paper to you. We spend this, expenses freelance who do a lot of the editorial work for the paper; on bills for the bourgeois press to keep us in touch with their media; on phones — essential to an journalist; for the lawyer who reads the paper for libel; and on rent and voreen of the ottice space we use in Upper Street.
Once we've paid out this much we've got the copy articles you read. But to turn this into a newspaper we have to photos, cartoons, and printing. Even after Feb Edge, printers, have delivered the bundles of papers to us we still have to pay British Rail to get the paper to the sellers in the localities, and for post to send out the subscription copies.
How do these down? Our overhead and essential running costs, including rent, phones, British Rail and postal expenses, design, typesetting and printing costs
for approximately quarters of £1,135 expenditure.
Innocent
Editorial costs, including photos,
other ACCULE about quarter of expenditure. This is the area think we could cut back on. But we are already running very close to the bone, and you can't cut the editorial
weekly income has been a good deal less than this figure of £1,135. Of the
3, pers we distribute by rail, about
supporters at 15p a copy, bringing in £495, and 400 are sold through shops
ponding to 500 sales, from shops that
NORTH WEST MOSS SIDE Socialist Challenge supporters sell the paper at Moss Side Centre, Saturday, 11-1. MANCHESTER SC Centre has Decause of nre damage, our wtll be reopening shortiv. All mail/enquiries should meanwhile he sent via the paper's national office in London. OLDHAM Yorkshire Bank, High St. For further SC sales every
KKHRANI
tunchtime at Cleveland Centre standtime sit Cellor nise vala letter,
Cleveland Centre STOCKTON-ON-TEES Socialist Challenge and Revolution from readers Books stall market, Stockton High St
SCUILANYS
For information about the
vueen or ulascow. Upen wed thurs. Hri an
afternoons. for arrangement (221 748l). Wide range of Fourth International publications.
John Ford, 553. Eliot Crescent, Hamilton.
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 14
This over' a page to organisation
first on
journalists — the stories and
pay for design and
our
and get
break ers, or £50 a week.
threeweekly £945 a week.
that gradually,
the total
some These innocent
for design and even more in
to keep 01
deficit, you might ask?
basis fiscal SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
4400 lor derats
been
St) each Saturday 11am-2pm.
Saturday
MIDLANDS
Blackthorn Books.
BIRMINGHAM
Spencer Hall indoor IOTTINGHAM
Challenge regularly -reathcote St.
LEAMINGTON
paper
YORKSHIRE •colland HUDDERSFIELD
alternative Trades Club, Northumberland St.
Westminster Bank. 12.30-2.00pm.
LEEDS Socialist Challeng солн
SAFETY
we distribute to nationally. We sell about £150 worth of subs every week,
about £20 worth of advertising. We receive £200 a month from bankers' orders from support-
Our regular quarterly fund drives have been bringing in about £1,550, which is £120 in a week; and we make
DaDcI sources. All of which adds up to about
As can readily be seen, this leaves us short by about £190 a week. It's with been like this since the beginning of the year, and before — with the result
week by week, we've been piling up huge debts. The biggest of these is for design etc, for £3,650.
looking four figures mean in the real world that there are problems every week paying
typesetting, and belling lo SCHLICE supplies to keep producing the paper.
Isn't it just a little bit irresponsible
running paper months and months at a £190 a week to try.
We haven't been working on the
irresponsibility and "waitine tor something to come un Keeping the paper going has been and is a political choice based on definite
EDINBURGH Socialist Challenge supporter roup meęts regularly. Phone George at 031-34
outside Boots (corner of Reform sellers
group meets monthly Highfields Community Centre. Paper on sale at
supporters sell outside New street stanon every balurday, Ju-4 Phone 643 9209 for details of SC activities
readers Mushroom buy BOOks,
BRISTOL Socialist Salutady.
eets fortraghtly on Thursdays at the Friendly d
DEWSBURY Socialist Challenge sales regularl on Saturday mornings in Westgate at the Nat
sales every Saturday
SAFETY FILM information about where this deficit comes from. There are two particular problems.
Individual sales by supporters of the paper have fluctuated wildly and gone down quite à lot recently. sales through shops and subscriptions have stayed stable, and if anything gone up slightly. The audience of the
the Sallie, larger anything; our problem is the activity of our supporters.
We've had a very similar problem our regular fund Donations from individual readers keep coming in, but the income from events organised by our supporters has been very erratic. This is why we haven't met our last three fund drives.
If we had f54 a week more coming in from the fund drive which would only be meeting the f2,500 target, and only 910 extra sales by individuals over the whole country, we would be breaking even {leaving accumulated debts). We've assessed that it is possible to achieve these aims, and that it is our responsibility
assessments
political. The finances of a paper like Socialist Challenge matter of business management. believe and still believe that Socialist
Elland Rd - when Leeds Utd are playing at
HUDDERSFIELD socialist Chanenge regularly Saturdays 11am-1pm in the Piazza. YORK Socialist Challenge is on sale at the Yron Community 73.50-1.45) 0 Yor
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FOR INFORMATION on activities
write to koy t? cio rumarks. 110 Cheltenham Rd, Bristol 6 SOUTHAMPTON Socialist Challenge
Socialist Challenge Hole in th all loll Wround, raymarker
Shallenge irom the Shop, can nion StRad
'hallenge from the Oz Shop, 4
outside Macfisheries. 20298 for further details.
Kegent. 3
SAFETY 15A Challenge can and must continue and develop because of the relevance and urgency of the policies it fights for.
We predicted that Labour would lose the election if a vigorous socialist But alternative was not built. to build such an victory of the most reactionary Tory government since the war not only contirms reinforces the campaigning, political, internationalist socialist weekly. drive. The need for Socialist Challenge underpins the existence; if it did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.
We need, essentially, two things. The first is £5,000 by September. This includes £4,350 to let
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To help us achieve this, the IMG has decided to merge its £20,000 fund drive with ours. Most of the organised supporters of the paper members and sympathisers what we'd aimed for, but it's a fact nonetheless.
Since launched, these militants have been faced with competing loyalties. The IMG fund drive has
PORTSMOUTH Socialist Naturaays Precinct. sale.
SOUTH FAST
Nokwin socalist enallenge Sauday Place
COLCHESTER SC ror delals onone sieve on wivennoe 2949
BRICHIU. Tuesdays. Contact Micky on 605052. SC
Ine
fortnight (phone 247
sell the paper every Saturday at noon at junction Portobello Rd/Westbourne Park Rd every at Kilburn Sa. Kilburn High Rd, London NW6
HEMPSTEAD ragtary on sunday evenines. ror derans baon‹ Mick on Hemel Hempstead 41037.
sales Saturday mornings in Times Square.
16A 20 NFORD We-fought
alternative. The best results
it
need for we don't
under. If we do,
the paper developed. possibility of its
the extra money. the end of
quarter country.
We go
gates. movement are IMG not
the IMG fund drive was
gained at the
Challenge Commercia Road
sales "Thursdays at University of East market TOWER
Supporter
• supporteis mec Iccularly
SHALANCI
outside Sainsbury's mornigntly on WIl Saturday, 2.30 Pare
12-2 every Saturday supporters JACC
• Also DaDe.
Crusuits
LouD. Mare surcer. co.
ILFORD
expense of ours. Now the IMG has recognised that if Socialist Challenge fails it stands to lose as much as any of the paper's readers. A common effort for £20,000, of which £5, 000 will go to Socialist Challenge, will bring in the
You, the readers, can help us keep afloat with your money. Over the next weeks we'll be depending on you
get the money in we'll go and then meet our fund drives regularly every
re-stabilised and can be If we don't meet these targets we will end up having to raise the price of the paper in order to get in
A thousand extra sales isn't such an immense target over the whole
know many areas have reduced their orders for the end of the student term. We need them to seek out new sales, on estates, at factory
shopping Calle labour meetings. We'll be publishing targets for a sales drive in the next few weeks.
Sales kits, posters, and suchlike distribution office. available from the paper's
Take advantage of them — and if you've any ideas for boosting sales, write in and tell us. But above all — get in the money.
WALTHAMSTOW readers can buy Socialis
Sheridan's News
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Also available at Oval tube and Herne Hill BR kiosks S.E. LONDON SC group meets. note. Watch this spot for details of nept st in market. All local supporters pleas
HACKNEY SC group meeting "No to school
Speaker Mike Colley (NU1 , Clissold 28 June, 7.30pm, Britannia
Page 15 scan of this page
The poetry of Radio LKJ
Sledge
hammer
rock
By Mike Simpson
THE CRASS - new wave, nihilists - were supposed to appear at North London Poly as a benefit for Persons Unknown, but due to various official
the gig Was Conway Hall in Red Lion Square -not the best of rock venues.
I awaited *eir arrival on stage with not a few misgivings, heard that they go in for some very profound heart-searching stutt. For example, 'We're saying to people. why are you standing being and audience?'
While the gear is being set up, a film is projected. It lasts 20 minutes and is unutterably tedious; a collage of clips featuring shots of airliners (yawn), tower blocks (oh, god), blue movies (naughty), newsreel footage (snore). Sixties junk dragged out of retirement and dished political statement. Hah.
Now Crass are on stage. Dressed completely in black, dith stork a sinister asseudo-Nazi drop Sisten symbol (circle, cross, outlined in black and white.
It's a powerful visual effect, added to by the presence of two large mean-looking guitarists who stand stock still most of the time. They play fast and loud, only pausing between numbers.
The vocalist gets to shout a lot. The band • launches into a series of songs that are bitter, vitriolic attacks on religion, war, consumerism and the likes, but it's a pity they don't vary their delivery a bit more - playing at the same speed all the time makes for TONGLONY.
Aș for such bourgeois concepts as tuning
Crass do neither. This results in an act that sometimes is more reminiscent of a cross between a waxwork tableau and amplified scrapyard than a rock band.
If only they'd pay a little more attention to making their music more accessible, they could makings of a fine band.
Their sledgehammer certainly has its moments, though, as in 'Asylum' — a devastating attack on religion and male supremacy spat out with icy, calculated hatred, stunningly effective. So effective, in fact, that when it was put on record the workers at the plant refused to handle the record unless the song was taken off.
Another victory for moderation.
I found it difficult to sort out one song from another, effect is of a grimly determined band of musical guerrillas steamroller over their targets.
Crass do not go in for subtlety or understatement. Worth seeing, don't cosy entertainment: Crass are out to shake you up. And they do.
EMPORARY
HOARDING
OUT NOW!
Issue No 9 25p from RAR Box aMr 27 [lerkanwell Cise, London, E.Cala (Please send large S.A.E.)
switched to
having
down there
out as a
lit from below
pseudo-Nazi diagonal line)
occasionally playing in key,
an
have the
approach
which is
mindless
but the overall
driving
but evening's By Clara Howard roughly
not far from the Dominion. The police three for scribbling, the
and anti-racists.
on the beat' (sic).
The attitude Nazis. For difference
WHEN Blair Peach's body was 'lying in state' at the Dominion cinema in Southall, thousands upon thousands of. Asian men and women were filing past to pay their last respects.
the same time, a police constable from Southall police station was seen defacing a Blair Peach poster
(see page further details) was initials This trivial and not unsurprising incident highlights the deep hatred which is felt by many police officers for socialists
The Southall copper was not a member of the hated Special Patrol Group. He was just an average 'cop
of the media was (with the exception of the Guardian) much the same. The Express and the Mail hated the funeral. The Telegraph ran a piece by Christopher Booker (a
ecologist) consals Blair Peach to Horst Wessel, and by implication the SWP to the German
Booker there was between the Nazis and
An evening for Blair Peach
those whom they seek to victimise.
Given the general climate in Britain it is, , therefore, a bold step by the Royal Court theatre to offer its premises for evening so that a tribute to Blair could be organised.
The idea was first discussed by the 'Friends Blair Peach', gradually the importance of such an evening began to be appreciated. It is to be a combination of culture and politics. But everyone was agreed that the function of such an evening woulc be to provide an answer to question: Who killed Blair Peach?
"There will be music, reconstructions and a lot else besides,' says John Ure, a member of the committee organising the evening. " The aim is not to get over-emotional or indulge in nostalgia, but to explain the meaning of what has happened and is continuing to happen in this country.'
Plans are still being worked out, but Belt and Braces are co-ordinate the evening. Misty, reggae group from Southall, manager Clarence was nearly killed, will also be there.
The distinguished Marxist play-
wright Trevor Griffiths is writing a ideological special sketch on Blair,
Bond has offered to help. Glenda Jackson will also provide her talents for the evening. In addition there will be Paul Foot, Tariq North to discuss the SPG, Southall, and racism in education. and The proceeds between the Blair Peach Memorial Fund and the Southall Defence Fund.
The latter, in particular, is extremely short of funds. supply, so book early. the
sketches helping to
the Memorial Fund. whose
By Anthony Francis
oppressed black masses
estrangement.
phase of capitalism reality. His
1980s.
inere are ine millais
music: rhythm,
heat of the dance
clarity of Jamaican patois.
feeling constrained by There is an anti-sus poem.
killed a upon his brother.
Intavenshan'
people to 'ride the storm'.
He says:
people in politics.
them.
violence of tne
_ the titte track
finally engulfed Bob Marley.
label. and Edward
Ali and Dick
will be divided
Tickets are in short
Who killed Blair Peach?
— a political answer
At the Royal Court theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1
Sunday, 15 July, at 7.30pm All proceeds to Southall Defence and the Blair Peach
Tickets, £2 School, Bow Road, London E3.
LINTON Kwesi Johnson is the bard of the
• in Britain. He has re-constituted reggae with a particularity which is angled essentially at the harsh political facts of Britain today: Thatcher's Britain. A Britain whose ruling class is increasingly alarmed by its ailing capitalism and greater and greater class
The agents of repression have turned with violence upon black people. We are at once seen as a major cultural threat (eg reggae, carnival) and also as a necessary sub-proletariat essential for the continuation of this last most grotesque
Johnson declaims to his people this vicious
reggae purged back-to-lithiopia idealism and he has made his lyric focus sharply upon this Britain of the
The image on the cover of his latest record Forces of Victory, is an old-fashioned radio microphone. but instead of the initials 'BBC
'LKJ' - Radio LKJ making its intervention into mass commercial culture - saying the things that aunty BBC in the name of balance will not mention.
On this album are eight poems that are set to
melody, and words are an integral part of the whole musical design. In the
floor, even, Johnson's intimately modulated voice is right up close to
ear with an unmistakable clarity • the
The first song is about wanting to rave
poverty and having to report to the police station at 6pm every day.
The most dramalic piece is in the form of a letter from a youth in Brixton prison to his mother in Jamaica; he tells her of how he became invoived in a fight and
policeman after they arbitrarily set
For white readers of Socialist Challenge, or indeed any politicised white person, pointed criticism will be found in 'Independen!
where CRC, TUC, CP. IMG, SWP, Labour Party all by name; he castigates them for their history of opportunism and patronage towards blach
•What a cheek, them think we meek and can't speak up fe weself". This is the legitimate and general position of most black
Legitimate because until these organisations prove in practice to be non-opportunist we cannot put any trust in
But to say 'ride the storm' does not answer what active response we should make to them
The album closes with a call to meet the the violence self-defence (no wonder the BBC postponed the film about Johnson until after the election). and he ends a million miles from pessimism or idealism on an up-note with 'Forces of Victory
The Hampslead Liberals will not be able to listen to this as easily as they gulped down the romanticism-for-the-scars-of-colonialism that
• Forces of Victory is issued on The Island
WHO KILLED BLAIR PEACH? Demand an independent public engi in — s.a.e. to: Benefit, Phoenix
Socialist Challenge 28 June 1979 Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
IMPERIALIST HANDS OFF ZIMBABWE!
By Martle Meteyard
BISHOP Muzorewa, the new black prime minister supposed to be different from his white predecessor, Tan Smith.
After all, Smith used to send the Rhodesian armed forces on regular raids into Mozambique and Zambia. Whereas Muzorewa. in of Lusaka Just bomb the Zambian
opening the parliament on Tuesday.
ядяів, popping off to see his South Africa! chums for advice. Whereas Muzorewa weekend belore last Yes, in Pretoria where for discussions with South African premier P. W.Boths minister Pik Botha. cooperation is believed to have been on the agenda.
Muzorewa, in fact, is the happy. prisoner of the white Khodesians. No amount of Tory propaganda can alter
Car facton fond co
Carrington Tories' special earoy, Lord Harlech, eported unİversa
ther Afriess c states recoznition of the regime,
Buy off
cade of ile behind the eategy devised by Owen Young: the guerrillas can't be defeated, only chancels to try to buy off some of taeir lenders.
That, if you were wondering, what lies behind the defection last week of eight MPs from Muzorewa's party, the United African National Council, to form a new group which. another five of Muzorewa's MPs are expected to join. Leader of the new
Party, is former UANC vice-presiden
By Redmond O'Neill
THIS Sunday school students from all
over Britain will be
abolition
punishment in schools.
The demonstration is organised by
the National Union
Students. follows
mounting action by school students
against the cane,
uniformsand the denial of democratic
nguts al school.
Thereisa widely held myth that the
Tillic and bet are on the decline
fact Britain's schools are amongst the
most barbaric in the world when it
comes to discipline.
A few figures-easily demonstrate
this:
1958
year-olds were at secondary schools in
England and
1977 In Scotland over a third of
all boys aged 12 to 15 were beaten
once a fortnight on average.
1976 The new Avon Education
Authority re-introduced
MILO
schools for the first time sine 1905.
1976 Newcastle authority intro-
duced a heavier strap.
potted with
Rhodesia, is
.. ordered troops
capital hours before the
new Rhodesian
Smith was always
and foreign Militarý
secretary Lord:
hostility from to any
Smith/Muzorewa
Patriotic Front
and the
is James Chikerema.
should do.
Democratic
Cane mutiny
marching corporal defeated.
year the "problem' compulsory dole SCROOL.
from
countries
paris Russia 1917.
Eighty per cent of alf 16-
1933 Wales using corporal
movement, corporal infant Lancis
Sunday I July.
the Post Office as a
Socialist Challenge
ANOTHER round in the his South African counterpart
It's here that the plot thickens. Before the split, Chikerema flew to London to seek advice on what he
I'he main person he met was "Tiny. Rowland, chief executive of the multinational Lonrho group.
Rowland is a figure who just keeps
Private Member's Bill introduced in the last parliamentary session, which called for a ban on the cane in homes for the mentally and
handicapped,
The reality is that the use of the cane and belt is increasing in British schools. Discipline is an easy anwer to
of controlling school students who know fhey'l be on the
whatever they're taught
The cane and belt are hangovers
Britain's imperial The South of Ireland is the only other state in Europe to use them. In most other
they went out with the thumbscrews and the rack: Austria
France Holland Only one country ever reintroduced them - Germany
The NUSS demo is a first step in
must be major national campaign to end this aspect of British barbarism for good. It deserves the support of al sections of the worker
bot above all of those unions arC LIE defenders of beatings at school
• Assemble Speakers Corner, 11am,
newspaper.
Botha in London fast week
Zimbabwe.
Lonrho's considerable other African states.
building up
OUR FUND
DRIVE
Turn to page 14 for a full report.
Meanwhile, week's contributors:
A. Lenton R.Herbert •R. Winn (sponsored walk) D. Vulliamy Walsall SC supporters Oxford IMG S. Raithatha.
Supporters Mozambique Weekstota Cumulative total
Pubblebed by Relgocrest Lid.
BoYer Zimbabwe: Tory forei
cropping up whenever the subject of
mentioned. It's not surprising, really, because Lonrho has major interests there (39 companies in 1974). An internationally recognised settlement would not only free the massive profits which have been tied up undersanctions, but would also aid
business in
Rowland has made a point of
personal contacts with African politicians in Zimbabwe. One of the most prominent of these is Joshua Nkomo, a leaderof ZAPU and the Patriotic Front, for whom Lonrho provided legal advisers during the 1976 Geneva conference. Nkomo, also, has recently made a secret trip to London. SOCIALIST Challenge is launching a special fund drive for £5,000 to make up our increasingly worrying deficit.
our thanks to this
£4.11 5.00 15.00 1.00 21.00 30.60 10.00 working 10.00 96.71 £1,525.19
Lonrho's central in the manoeuvres over the future of Zimbabwe underlines that what is al stake is not 'justice' or 'human rights' safeguarding of imperialist profits.
That in turn makes clearer: to build a solidarity campaign based on mass action which does not
up efforts antil imperialist is kicked out of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabween people are left free to determine their own future.
• 'No Tory sell-out in Zimbabwe' All out assemble 2.30pm Smithfields Market (Farringdon tube) for Trafalgar Square.
Anti-Apartheid.
Domestic: 6 months, £5; 12 months, £10 Abroad: Airmail, £16.50. Surface, £10 per annum. Multi-reader institutions: double individual rate
Name..
Address -
Lenclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of .
'Socialist Challenge'.
for Socialist Challenge, 328/9. Upper St, London NI. Printed by
involvement
straightforward
our task
last
march to Organised by "Tiny' Rowland of Lonrho.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
Cheques, POs and Money Orders should be made payable to Complete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328 Upper Street, London N¿.
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← Socialist Challenge No. 101, 21 June 1979Socialist Challenge No. 103, 5 July 1979 →