Socialist Challenge No. 106, 26 July 1979
The scan: sc-n106-jul-26-1979.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
MURDER
Cabinet gives
go-ahead for
Even before the latest round of Tory cuts the prospect facing the old, the sick and the poor is frightening. Details of what the cuts will mean in practice in just one borough have been revealed in the report prepared by the District Management Committee of the London borough of Hounslow. The Committee says that the health cuts will mean:
Closure of Hounslow Hospital : Closure of 25 percent of all family Closure of Hounslow chest clinic planning clinics • Closure of Perrivale maternity hospital
Closure of Teddington dental laboratory
Closure of the surgical unit at West Middlesex Hospital
Closure of the child unit at West Middlesex Hospital • Closure of the physiotherapy day hospital and the rheumatology unit at West Middlesex hospital
• And many more cuts in services and sackings.
SUDDENLY, after all these years, the ruling class and its media have discovered that the Rev Dr lan Paisley is not a very nice person.
His outbursts at the European Parliament and now his vow to keep the Pope out of the North of Ireland neve brought an avalanche moralising lectures from all manner of hypocrites and buffoons.
But when Paisley describes himself as 'the leader of the Northern Iréland people' he is not fantasising. The 170,000 votes that he received in the European elections do prove he is the undisputed leader of the Loyalist minority in 32-county Ireland.
Ten BY CATS ago, when British
£4,500m cuts
psychiatry
Never mind the Pope, get the troops out
troops were once again sent onto the streets of the North of Ireland, Paisley was no more than a fringe figure in Northern Irish politics.
He has grown in popularity since 1969 because of the role those troops have played: the maintenance of the link between the North of Ireland and Britain. the continua denia of the right of the Irish people as a whole to rule themselves; the murder repression of those who fight for that right.
Paisley Is a British creation, because he is the foremost advocate of the British presence in ireland D which he is sustained and on which he
depends. There will be no end to Paisley and Paisleyism until the cause he advocates is crushed.
The chief guarantors of that cause are the British troops
It is they, not Paisley, who are leading the military campaign defeat the latest stage in the Irish struggle for self-determination; it is they are the real prop loyalism, the real enemies democracy and freedom in Ireland.
Which is why we say demonstrate in London on 12 August, the tenth anniversary of British troops going onto Irish streets. Make it the largest Irish demonstration seen in this country for years. Never mind the Pope, no British troups in Ireland!
Assemble 2.30pm Marble Arch: 12 August, London.
IT'S BLUE
people.
must suffer.
Cuts in
malnutrition,
world recession.
county co-ordinated against the cuts.
of of
No. 106 26 July 1979 15p IN TRUE blue Tory style Margaret Thatcher and her ministers have launched a frontal assault on the living standards of all working
The Tory message is quite simple: The poorer you are, the more you
public expenditure will total four billion pounds. This will mean more unemployment, more
more deaths for working class families. The effect of the cuts will be made worse by the
An insight into Tory thinking was recently provided by Brigadier Roger Stretfield, chairperson of Oxford
council's education committee. He told the Oxford Journal: 'A school dinner of just soup and bread should be sufficient.'
The Brigadier further suggested that primary schools should close at
When it was pointed out to him that this would hit working women, he stated: Schools are not meant to be child-minding on the rates. Being a mother should be a full-time job until a child is at least 10 years old.'
The Tories have declared war on working people. Our reply must not be the usual pathetic refrain of It's
Our reply must be to begin the
happening locally. But the need is for
The annual congress of the TUC in Blackpool this September will be the first major assembly of trades unionists since the Tories came to office. We must mount a massive lobby to ensure that the anger of the rank-and-file percolates the Winter
• Join the Right to Work March
...••page 4
Page 2 scan of this page
Patronage, the Labour
Prior's cheeky 'stab at
OUR POLICIES
of the Laboit Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in the interests not of the workers but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that
revolutionary socialists are:
• To huild broad-based class struggie tendencies in opposition to class-collahorationism in the labour movement. These should
non-exclusive grouping rogether militants holding a wide range of political viets.
• To begin to fight for the creation of unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through
application of united front taclics. begin lo be seen
Why thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle secks to unite the fight of
workerk againsi le with that uf other oppressed layers of sociely trugging acor their
struggling liberation. This socialism can only be achiered by creating new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist start.
Dur socialism
I than what exists in Britain todas. political parties and currents that do not take up arms against the socialiststate. The Stalinist models of "socialism' in the dSSR and Lastern Furope have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the world. We are opposed to them and wil! piter fui sunpor tu all those fighting for socialis democracy.
The interests of workers and
on a world seale. Capitalism has not onls created a market. il has created world politics. Thusweäght for working
international stale. This unit! will in the long run he decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the West
sustain in Latin America, Africa
In Britain it implies demanding the inmediate Brilish irnops from Ireland and letting the Irish people delermine their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither the rarocommimisi the pro-Moscon wings have any meaningiul strategy overthron of the capitalist state. Nen resolutionary socialist parties are more necessar! than ever belore. Conditions todas more latourable than over the preceding three decades. But such parties ran oni! he bullt rejecting sectarianism and sering internal democracy not as a lusury huras a vilal necessits. This means the right to organise factions and
It you agrce with these principles and want InvO Ved activities by Socialist Challenge supporters in your area, till in the torm below and send It lo us
am interested in intormation about actisities in my area. • I Hould lihe additional literature and enclase 50p to cover costs. frelete d ave applcanie;
Name...
Address..
send in Socialiss (hallenge, 328/9 I pper si. l.unden VI.
EDITORIAL character,
important party reforms.
and
accepted by the party conference. as an
should all be curbed.
bosses
rather than politics.
Some will structures
government. world
By John Ross
THE MEETING of the
national press
worth remarking.
TUC unveiled abandoning the government's anti-union proposals.
problem 21007
пОГ
proposals or not.
the
intention of fighting against them.
Prior attacks
are essentially policies Duffy, Jackson and pursuing for years.
Prior's laws, not.
more
of its executive
and amalgamation of branches.
Corumulce sas
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street. London NI 2XQ. THERE IS a curious battle taking place inside the Labour Party. It is a fight to see who can line up the block votes of the unions in order to push through (or not as the case may be) a number of
The National Executive Committee of the party has authorised a re-discussion on the thorny issue of mandatory reselection of MPs, and there is a real possibility that it will be
At the same time, new proposals for electing the leader of the party will also be discussed. This has become Tony Benn's personal campaign. He has concurrently attacked the Prime Minister's powers of patronage and has argued that these
That reforms in the Labour Party are long overdue is beyond doubi. That they will solve the central question confronting the party, namely what political line it should pursue, is very unlikely. One could be forgiven for believing that the struggle taking place is for positions
argue that the debates and the constitution constitute a major diversion when the workers' movement is beginning to feel the first effects of the Tory
Surely the central political campaign which should be waged by the Labour Party is against
the guts
TUC's inflation Employment Policy and Organisation VOLAS Committee last week did not make the
headlines. But for every trade unionist it was an occasion
It was at this meeting that the leadership of the
plans millions. fight against
Ever since these were announced, the TUC General Council has had a
what Prior's proposed laws. This difficulty was never over whether to oppose the
Despite talk to the contrary, the General Council has never had any
How could they? The laws of
on pickets and strikers, secret ballots and all the rest
the same the Bers hace Chapple, others peci
in fact, are little proposals different in content to the Concordat which the TUC leadership offered to the Labour government. The problem for the General Council, however, is that while they are prepared to accept Prior's proposals, their members are
This has already been a vintage year for defeats of union executives at their conferences. In the UPW, Tom Jackson and the rest of the postal workers' executive were censured for their handling of the last pay claim. The GMWU conference voted for a £65 minimum wage against the policy
In the electricians' union, Frank Chapple suffered his most significant the defeat for more than a decade with a condemnation of the policy of closure
The NUPE conference voted against Alar Fisher for militant action on pay bed.
The engineering union's national
been forced into al least token action on the national pay
At the TGWU conference, a
Party and socialism
the social and economic policies of the present government? necessity, involve industrial action sooner or later. And this is the test for all would-be leaders of the Labour left.
cry to be taken uip by the right-wing of the labour movement will be: 'Undemocratic'. government', etc., etc. arguments needs to be carefully thought out.
better to extend his vision somewhat to incorporate some of the democratic demands of the Chartists such as that for annual parliaments.
by next June this could well be multiplied.
going to be raised every day is the following: What are the real alternatives to the crisis? There is a burning need solutions. Now that the Tories haye come out in their true colours and are threatening trade union rights, women's rights, blacks, a fully worked-out socialist counterblast is needed.
Party conference. Socialists active in the Labour Party must ensure that this does not happen. motion calling for automatic cost of living increases to compensate for
was deteated by only
This year's conferences shown the most militant mood among veces for veda - a mood waicr is likely to be reinforced as tens of thousands of militants, and possibly
of workers, • find struggles to protect living standards,
seryles. and jobs directly threatened by the Tory attacks.
In this situation it is clear to even the most right-wing TUC leaders that they cannot openly support Prior's proposals. Their problem is to find a way of appearing to counter government's union bashing.
The TUC Employment Policy and Organisation Committee revealed the plan that has been formulated. It was leaked to the press even before the committee meeting that it had been 'discovered' that the Prior proposals were much more serious than commonly thought:
fact, was claimed, would almost totally eliminate the right to strike by making workers legally responsible for losses
comodine The Employment Policy and Organisation Committee volconsu recommena continuation of the talks with the government and to make this issue the centre piece of their campaign
It was let out that the mood of the committee had been 'very angry' about this dire threat.
Immediately the government, led on this issue by "reasonable?
Prior, rushed to take up the matter.
According to the Financial Times, official insisted last night that
TUC could demonstrate far-reaching consequences follow this change (in the law), the government was open to persuasion.
The meaning this rigmarol is not hard to fathom doubt the Tory government would like to totally ban the righi to strike. But both they and the TUC know that is imposible in the present situation.
Editorial: 01-359 8180/9. Distribution/ Advertising: 01-359 8371. campaign would, .of
At the first signs of working class action the
Tories and the
'This elected The answer to such
Tony Benn would, in that respect, have done
of democracy
If Labour has a lead of 6 per cent today, then
More importantly, the question which is
for socialist
and deporting
There is a real danger that politics will be relegated to the back seat at the next Labour
OFFICIAL
\PICKET
have
their the the The aim of Prior's proposals was accurately described Economist magazine: 'A libertarian flourish, an optimistic feint, then a stab at the guts. That is the measure of the British reforms of trade-union law. "The key changes the government wants to make concern picketing.' crushing struggle and pushing trade unionists more firmly under the control of the bureaucrats, Jim abolishing the right to strike, that is the Tory goal at present. It is that real which intention of fighting against The TUC leadership will launch a verbal and press campaign would 'threat to the right to strike'. government will not involved and the TUC will claim it has gained major through its 'fight'. Meanwhile the real Through attackin pickets, vile through with
That is how the General Council
by the
government's proposed
secolical contrary, militant union strongest
not the aim of totally call
TUC no
and File on the The 'clarify' that this is
concession Prior struggle. serious
will give the appearance of fighting Prior while in fact trying to there is no serious struggle against his laws. Anyone who relies on the will of the TUC to fight these proposals is in fact already letting them become law.
This doesn't mean that the TUC should be let off the hook. On the
there needs to be the possible fight to demanc that the TÜC and union leadership end talks with the government and
industrial action to stop all Prior's proposals becoming law. . Bul no reliance can be placed on the TUC
This is why the Code of Practice campaign launched from the Rank
"Defend our Unions conference is important. It is smal compared to the size of the trade unions or the forces at the disposal of Len Murray and Co
But it is a real policy for fighting
and not for abandoning that It has the most forces around it committed to that fight. I should be supported and built by every militant and socialist.
Page 3 scan of this page
Women do not need a viability limit
values human life.
HUMAN life begins at conception. Hence all abortion is destriction not of potential life, but
That avoruodisis Deleve.
Women see the existence of the conceptus or Toetus as their own lives. So attacks on a woman's right to decide have been concentrated on the later stages of pregnancy when a foetus could be 'viable", and on late abortions.
The crudely orchestrated stories foetuses'
Corrie'ș Bill, are one part of this approach; the propaganda leafets showing still birts and late other insidious aspect, is the loeluses.
The majority of abortions take place under (welve weeks. The foetus is then minute in size and no different in appearance from the foetus of an ape or pig. relating all abortions to creatures looking like babies helps to win them support.
The same manipulative technique is used in SPUC and LiFE slide accompanying tape of a foetal heart beat and the subjective language used to describe the foetus at its very earliest stages: '...by the eighth week you stroking of your chin and would have grabbed an instrument placed in your hand...' Pregnant
Arguments about 'viability' are used by the anti-abortionists to deny women rights at all stages of pregnancy. It is simply a description of the stage when a foetus could survive, with the aid of sophisticated life support systems, independently of the woman.
Before this point, the foetal łungs are solid and it can not breath outside the womb. It is ImDos ole to development occurs because conception itself cannot be accurately dated. However, it will noi occur at progressively earlier stages as the anti-abortionists would have us believe.
What is changing, however, is the ability of the medical profession to resuscitate premature births, and to begin to create the conditons of the womb artificially. Conception can now take place succassfully in eventually be possible to create an artifical placenta. If women accept that our rights to
CAMPAIGN NEWS)
A WOMANS RIGHT TO CHODSE.
BROAD CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED
OVER forty people national meting on 17 July to form a broad-based committee to campaign against the Corrie Bill and build the fargest demonstration autumn;
Present were representatives from the Communist Party, Workers Party, International Marxist Group, Abortion Law Association, and the Abartion Campaign. There were also
many local campaigns.
The committee will concentrate on jublicity and propaganda campaign from OmeR HOY. wals, labour imoyement bodies, and so
The Campaign Against the Corrie
il will use the offices of NAC at 374
rays Inn Road, London WCI. The next meeting is on Tuesday, 31 July,
JOHN COKKIE, the MP who wants to send women to the backstreets for abortion, is at least a consistent reactionary.
He voted for capital punishment in the recent Commons' vote. So pro-abortion campaigners are now aware of how much Corrie
Meanwhile a press campaign against late abortions has developed to further boost the Corrie Bill. ROSE KNIGHT of the National Abortion Campaign disentangles the myths from the realities and answers the anti-abortionists.
what anti-
abstract compared to the reality of
rights
of 'living which preceded the introduction of
use ot
But the emotive effect. of
shows,
woul have reponded to gentle determine exactly when this ats-lube. may
Malet Street, 7.30pm.
CORRIE
TWENTY FIVE attended a meeting NAC/Labour Campaign:
the Corrie Bill.
The meeting attended next General
Never for the October.
30 July at 7.30pm Socialist FORD WORKERS ACT Reform National
abortion
for the Corrie Bill.
encouraged to
abortion are conditional on the 'independent' life of the foetus, then the way that this would be translated into law would be if the upper time limit for abortion was the very lowest age al which a foetus could survive and develop outside the womb. ruture develonments birth technology could mean. that based ot InIs principle non-existent.
ROSE KNIGHT Abortions are performed very late in pregnancy when the possibility of the foetus being viablę are rare (0.2 per cent or a total o ID4 vÇ vçç [ ıdı [ They are done for women whose lives are at risk or who have severe medical conditions: Chid incest, rape or montrousiy delormec l'oetuses. There are one or two cases when traumatic social circumstances are taken into consideration. Women do not seek out or late late abortions. Late temselves be a good thing.
They are often the result of factors over which women temselves have only limited control at present: the lack of NHS facilities for early safe abortion uniformly available across the country. This means delays.
The hureaucracy and red Abortion Act itself, plus the fact that doctors,
at the University of London Union,
London WC1 at
TRADES UNIONISTS AGAINST
trades unionists called by the A hortion Rights trade union liaison committee to discuss how to organise within the labour movement against
It was felt that while the TUC's sing. call for a national demonstration was very positive, the question was how trades unionists were to be mobilised.
organised delegation to visit the TUC before the
Council meeting 10 NAC's proposal that the demonstration should be held on 27
Next meting at NAC offices on
THE 1/1107 branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union which organises Ford Dagenham's (all male) engine plant and the paint, trim and assembly plant is to write officially to all T&G sponsored MPs and local MPs urging them to vote against the
TO will be write in. The motion was carried with none against after being proposed and seconded on the basis that it is a woman's right to
Evo that as
anti-abortionists. abortion would be abortions can never in
tape in ine
choose whether to have children, and no one else's.
HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD JOHN CORRIE?
A CAMPAIGN such as the one now under way against Corrie's Bill needs a song. Socialist Challenge hereby launches a competition for the best anti-Corrie song.
Send us your songs, we'll print the best ones and the campaigners can temselves decide which they want to
TOWER Hamlets Trades Council public meeting on abortion. Defeat C'orrie's Bill. Aug, Robert Montefiore Centre, Deal St, London E2.
Nearest tube: Whitechapel. Speak-
Wendy savage (mile (linic), Dr Berry Beaumont (NAC), Jane Foster (Sex Education for young people).
SHEFFIELD: a public meting is planned for 23 August. Details from the Sheffield IMG, tel 0742 385 983.
ENSURE details pro-aboruon events appear in this colmn, ring or write to Socialist Challenge:
not women, make the decision so that women are rejected, means more delays. The lack of reliable tests early in pregnancy to detect gross foetal abnormalities. The absence of publicity about tertility control in public places. arc also other factors, in themselves rooted in a repressive and sexist society: young women have late abortions because of the fea admitting their pregnancy in a society which does not accept the sexuality of adolescents.
Woren do not need a viability limit, or any other restrictions on their right to choose. need total control over our bodies so that we make difficult decisions late in pregnancy, and
far as possiole we can reouce Ine incidence of late abortions.
Being defensive about 'viability' abortions is to accept the stunted logic of the
NAC rejects this. from the basis that it is women's rights that matter. We are capable of making informed decisions about all stages of our pregnancies, that state intervention in decisions about own
self-help
Dear SC:
I have been reading with interest the articles you have been carrying on the abortion debate and in particular 'the butchery of back street abortions' (SC 12 July).
awful ' experience abortion, I feel that the implication that all illegal abortions are unsafe is mistaken. 7pm, For example abortion laws are repressive than here.
End abortions are carried out including by women's self-help health groups.
In fact the menstrual regulation methods used by these women are far less traumatic for the women than many hospital abortions which take place later on in pregnancy and are accompanied by disapproval.
It is important to your between illegal perform abortions profiteering HUlYE women who perform them as part of their committment to gaining controi over their own lives and fertility.
bodily processes is totally
There
judgement'.
We abortion, SO
believes that the legal and late
OCA ex sence We start
should cashed in at birth.
ACILITES
Don't underestimate
untraumatic
practice.
Whie sementhising with Jeap's
illegal
the right to choose.
in Italy where Even
even 1101C many illegal
the fession.
Maria Fubini
much moral
dIsungulsT abortionists
of shees
CULL
and those
unacceptable, and that human rights are not based on biological facts about conception or 'viability'.
If "rights' are given to the unborn foetus, then who decides whose rights take precedence? The present Abortion Act, whilst not giving the foetus legal status; allows the doctor to make th decision about abortion. Corrie's Bill begins the process of tighening up the area within which a doctor can exercise his or her "clinical
It does this by changing the grounds for
that, implication, foetal development at its earliest stages is , seen as aud neds om tre mporn coban et. NAC and needs of the woman concerned
stalus or ine foetus should match biological facts, since it has no
Whilst the foetus is undeniably a potentia human being in its normal state, it is dependent on, and part of, the mother's body. Its rights
therefore be potential rights, to be Women learning to do safe and abortions very important bart of teminist political Obviously the state . will make sure that this remains illegal as it does with other political activities that threaten its power.
Although I fully support the campaign for abortion on demand on the NHS, I find it difficult to imagine state ever allowing women the
while the state permits abortion it gives doctors the right to decide who will have abortions and how they will be done. By learning to abortions ourselves we reclaiming control of our bodies from male-dominated medical pro-
Terne
Page 4 scan of this page
Everything trade unionism is'
The closed shop-
By Adam Turner
'FOR defence of a 100 per cent closed
shop and for sanctions to be applied
against any individuals breaking the
closed shop' - - that's how point two
in the Rank and File Code of Practice
reads, and iwo local newspaper
disputes currently taking London are giving a practical example of just how important the closed shop
The first dispute
members of the National Union
Journalists employed by the Stratford
Express and the Greater London and
Essex Newspapers Group (GLEN).
For some time journalists on the
Stratford Express have enjoyed what are among the best pay and conditions in the local newspaper industry.
Earlier this seven-week strike against threatened
•won a promise or a guaranteed staff level of 35.
Shortly. arterwaras ine
war take sure or has and
workers. conditions than their counterparts on the Express. Since the
been remain unfilled.
By Johann Schweik
TORY-controlled council in South London can't wait tor tae severament s anon-vasaug laws to go through. It is probably with justification, that the courts will do the necessary now.
As Socialist Challenge press judgement is expected on a writ asking for a cessation of picketing brought by the council against Lou Lewis. full-time official Union of Construction, Trades, and Technicians.
The problem for the Wandsworth Tories is that they have vowed to axe the council's direct works
but the council workers aren't having it.
UCATT
sites handed contractors last year, in one case for
Letter
Dissent on
NALGO
I WISH to dissent from the letter you published signed by NALGO members (5 July), support the perspective Burn's report on line conference, that NALGO militants should support the Nalgo Group.
My position is illustrated by recent debate in Liverpool NALGO branch, in which Nalgo Action Group supporters put forward
for industrial under the control of the rank and file
win NALGO's 15 per cent pay claim, against the national executive which proposes to accept 9.4 per cent now with 'comparability' next year.
IWo of ine signatories letter, supporters of the Nalgo Left in Liverpool, motion which wild in effect leave forward
any action in the executive itself. This was almost unanimously, abstention. (Could this have been Jack Meek, NALGO's president, who was present?)
The NAG motion was defeated, with Nalgo Left supporters against. A fine way to fight for class struggle policies in NALGO! JOHN STRAUTHER (Liverpool NALGO)
Socialist Challenge
to resign from the NUJ.
place of the house
involves une union general
relatively
successful
Express members.
takeover that if any
and 'abusive the workforce will be sacked.
Courting pickets
as long as four months.
The council Wandsworth
cramung
hoping, trade dispuțe, furthered by picketing. goes. to
'If they're
of the Allied on this.
depart- frighten us,' he adds. building
will not get them very far. private Challenge.
By Geoffrey Sheridan
LABOUR-controlled
five Liverpool
and harassment at work
of Dave sacked.
NALGO
Action
beginning of June.
action assaul and action harassment development,
job in disgust.
of your The sackings
after secret another
hands of the of which have
carried
with one
on the women.
The view
voting
demonstration
full reinstatement and an
26 July 1979 Page 4
The crunch came when management started moving non-union staff into the Express and encouraged three senior members of the editorial staff
notice.
These moves were a direct breach between the union and management, a clause of which guarantees the closed shop.
NUJ.
This clause has been described by secretary as major breakthrough', and there is no doubting the connection between this 1974.
closed shop agreement and the other
good conditions Stratford Express workers in the past.
NUJ members employed by the Express and GLEN groups have been on 'official strike since 4 July. Eight union members have now been issued with High Court libel writs arising out of strike bulletins issued by the union
Management has also threatened orner strike vulctin entire unionised now wants court backing to stop picketing of two sites
action furtherance of a political rather than a trade dispute, and that even if it were
it would not be
"They're trying to narrow the basis of both definitions,' says Lou Lewis.
successful it will implications for the whole movement, so we're hoping for broad support
*As far as we're concerned, there will be no use of private contractors on council land. Injunctions won't
also claiming damages from Lewis, which he says
•* haven't got a pot to piss in,' he told Socialist
Brent women humiliated
and trivialised
along
Brent council has now made it plain how it will treat women emplovees who allege sexual
they will be
At the beginning of last week, the secretary to the council's director of development received her cards after her pay had been stopped since the
She was among three women who had made complaints alleging sexual
Storms ot sexual the director of Beckett. The second woman, who is secretary to the feel council's chief engineer, is suspended from work, and the third has left her
have taken place inquiry by eight councillors in the North-west London borough. The inquiry, the procedures
never been made known, concluded that the allegations were unfounded, but placed no blame
taken by the Brent council, NALGO branch is that the women are being punished for complaining
The posts held by the complainants are now being boycotted, and a
took place outside Brent town hall iast nient to demand
inquiry states.
The other, London newspaper dispute involves the Camden anc Hornsey Journals whose staff have been given the go-ahead by the NUT executive to issue a 28-day strike
Again the clash is over a threat to
closed shop, caused decision of one journalist to leave the
The individual 1n question, Peter Brown, has a history of hostility to the union, having scabbed during a strike involving another newspaper in
Hornsey Journal reporter Sue Landau told Socialist Challenge the issues involved: 'If we lose the closed shop we stand to lose money, jobs and everything trade unionism is about.
'Our chapel has not lost a single job in six years, and we were one of the first to take a stand against racism in the media - that's an indication of our strength, and that is what is now threatened.'
From both disputes the message is the same: the union keeps us strong, and the closed shop stronger still.
judicial lines into
NALGO's law and parliamentary committee, will gave las • backing several months ago to writs alleging defamation taken out by against two local union representatives, has now agreed to pay the legal costs incurred by these representatives who sought to take up the complaint made by the women.
The union at national level thus finds itself in the curious position of supporting both sides in the case
A leaflet signed by 11 women in the Brent NALGO branch asks: 'Can we as women in Brent NALGO ever
safe again about making complaint?
'Had the complaint been from a man alleging, for example, physical violence or harassment from a senior officer, we feel sure that it would have been treated very differently.
"There would certainly not have been a slur on the character of the person who complained,' the leaflet adds. The writers say they are angry about sle TaKen by
colleagues, and NALGO. They quote a male member of the branch executive, who is said to have remarked: *There but for the grace of god go l'
*These attitudes have humiliated and trivialised all women,' the leaflet
Code of Practi
1 so con the 72, For,
6
Rank and File Code of Practice: 75p per 100, inc. postage, from Defend Our Unions, 265a Seven Sisters Road, London, N4.
THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE THIRTY YEARS ON
you can't have it i you let them eat it the
By Martin Collins READERS in the South may have Beckett Tougn Inat une dark satanic mills
had long since disappeared. But for Asian workers in Oldham, 12-hour shifts with no breaks, they still loom large.
Their union connives and schemes with the mill owners against them •union whose secretary there is enough of money invested in Courtaulds (the main employer) to carry on paying its staff if all its members were to expelled.
It is a union that does not allow the election all-black shifts.
Last week, in a grey schoolroom — community centre of sociat securiti leaflets, carptets, and a typewriter — Asian workers met to organise. the First six, then eight, twelve, Brent fianlly over 20
discuss a series of demands that could be used to change their union and stand up to the employers. •Why must overtime?' without warning?' 'Why are so many men constantly off sick?'
NUJ is again
celet col
the union seven-week provincial so cott Canic! tutional'.
strike,
the strike.
'as a
trade unions
Satanic racism in Oldham
sub-continent.
shape. working The
textile Courtaulds in
boasts that his members' membership. Ine aim
denies the
of black rebresentatives for
control
only by the advice was threatened
and The workers arrived to
against
we be forced to work Provincial
we Allied District Association
On another crucial aspect of trade union strength, the right to strike, the
being treated to foretaste of the Tories' policies - the
Last week in the Appeal Court,
was told that the strike by local and newspaper journalists this yea! 'unconsti-
This ruling, by Lord Denning, is in defence of journalists in Coventry and Birmingham who scabbed on the
who have since been disciplined by the union.
Denning, supported by two other appeal judges who sat with him, told the NUJ that according to its rule book a ballot should have preceded
General secretary Ken Ashton said that the union regarded the decision
threat the traditional democratic and hard-won right of all
and their resort to strike action if necessary'.
Denning's thinking is, of course, in close record with the other Tories now in government.
HEALTH BEFORE Punjabi and other languages of the
Questions were asked, grievances aired. A programme began to take
decided to organise a mass meeting of all Asian
workers employed by Oldham order to launch a campaign to democratise the union and make it responsible to the
campaign which confronts racism by making the union affairs accessible to the workers, and
hire and fire at will
'It is the union that can make us strong, but first of all have to corkers in Oldham have taken a fist union. Black step in gaining that strength.
The defence of Abdul Azad, whe
with deportatien, started in Oldham and has shown what can be done through resisting.
next plast of struggle involves black workers fighting back
which lurks in the unions and management The battle begins with the Öldham
Union of Textile Workers, and ta Oldham Weavers and Winders
Page 5 scan of this page
Why the bosses aren't breathing heavily over engineers' national strike
International scandal looms for TUC
By Ron Thompson AUEW, Sheffield
shipbuilding industries will begin a national overtime ban. Three one-day
Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions in pursuit of the national wages and.
One might have thought that the prospect of such a huge and decisive section of the working class moving
and witch-hunts in the mass media.
But none of this has happened. The possibility of confrontation has
casts, no emergency cabinet meetings and not even verv much oublicity.
In fact, large numbers of workers throughout the industry will only just be finding out now that a claim has been submitted at all! How is it that
One of the main problems with the national engineering claim same proolem that arises every year is that the overwhelming majority of
would. benefit from the monetary part of the claim, even if it were won in full.
The central parts of the claim are: an £80 minimum time rate (MTR) for skilled workers with increases for lower grades; a 35-hour week, and two days extra holiday per year.
Minimum
The MTR is a minimum fall-back rate, and would therefore give an increase only to those who are below it. The only other difference it makes is to overtime rates.
It's true that any increase in the MTR could have a 'push-on' effect in the localities by reducing the amount
incentive However, this possibility immediate enough to motivate the workers to rally behind thẹ claim.
The demand for already watered down to weekly cut of one hour this year, with progress to 35 hours by 1982. It is hardly therefore, there is not a great deal of enthusiasm amongst engineering workers for the claim.
This situation is not accidental, It has always been the conscious policy of the leadership of the engineering unions avoid confrontation with the employers on
Even in scanlon's By a special correspondent
LAST week Len Murray and fellow
TUC (ouncil, Tom Jackson, Chapple and Alan Sapper, back in London after meeting in the United States with the TUC's American AFL-CIO.
No statement was issued giving details of the meeting and the TUC press office was unable to information of the outcome. And yet behind the meeting was a growing list
charges the international wark and its collaboration with the CIA and the British Foreign Office.
These charges could well mean that the international debate at the TUC conference could prove one of the most heated lor many Already the SW regional council of
to have the minimum wages.
for a struggle is the 35 hour
year, this interests of realism'.
BOB WRIGHT
the workers thrown week without
direct 'unrealistic'
by mobilising
proportional
CIDIUYCIS position of strength.
full strength
heavy blow.
like are Talling over
productivity industrial action being taken
is not recommendation
executive council
35 hours haş
union's national committee, votes to 25. that the signal for an all-out
the national seriously
full-scale If anything,
such ineffectual demoralising effect the TUC has
allegations or General labour
Frank Third World
organisation, arrived a four day
in Chile. the
provide
the charity published by them
TUC's Were You Brother?
General Council Committee.
Secretary Alan
years. asked
document,
day, the claim was always formulated
impact on
The one part of the claim which could really unite engineering workers.
week.
That is why the leadership is always so ready to water it down or drop it altogether. This year, as in every other
been done in the
Apparently, it is 'realistic' for the union bureaucratsto see thousands of
on the dole every biting a finger opposition, but to fight unemployment strength engineering workers to win a shorter
claim. weak-kneed leadership that allows the engineering
negotiate
The employers know that if the
of the confederation unions was used they would receive a
They are also aware that AUEW president Terry Duffy and his
make sure that this doesn't happen.
As recently as last week, Duffy was floating the idea of a national unity
deal avoid any
The fact that any action is being taken at all is due to the fact that the
by the AUEW's to accept the employers' latest offer of £10 and refer all other issues to a working from party was narrowly rejected by
by 27
But that victory by the left was not
struggle against the employers. There is no one
committee who believes that an overtime han and three one-day stoppages will force the employers to concede.
there is a danger that action will have a on the workers passed a resolution calling on the TUC to answer various
working with CIA front organisations the
ORIT, which helped to bring down the Allende government
The regional council, like union branches in other parts of the country who have acted similarly, say they are still awaiting a satisfactory answer to the various allegations first made by
War on Want in a booklet last year, Where
Inside the TUC itself the various clarses mave been debateo botady lne
International TUC International Hargreaves prepare reply. The 11 pages long,
and actually weaken the struggle. This is exactly what the right-wing is hoping for.
Any sign of wavering of support for the overtime ban or the one-day strikes will be seized upon by Terry Duffy to call off the action and accept the employers' offer
The ability of Duffy and friends to derail the struggle has been fac...tated by the utter inadequacy of the left in
engineering aelegates on ine nanonal committ who voted against the executive's
employers'
of the influence of Communist Party and its Broad Left
opposition always stops well short of fighting for an all-out struggle against The sunses.
Strategy
There was never
give substantial immediate increase to the majority of workers in the industry. The left also went along with the watering down of the demand for 35 hours.
The support for timid industrial action is not a conscious act 'betrayal' by the CP. On the contrary. many CP militants would like to see a much more aggressive struggle for the
The noblem is the strategy of the CP
Everything subordinated building a broad alliance with 'lefts' of albatrades, in particular officialdom. Majorities on committees are seen as the most important objective.
The whole emphasis, therefore, is laid on giving the union structures a 'left' complexion, even if this means compromises and limiting struggles.
This line oi 'comoromise
was demonstrated at national conference of anglice me shop stewards in Sheffield on 7 July.
The conference was called by 17 stewards' committees in Sheffield in order to discuss the campaign for the national claim, and over 260 delegates
shop stewards committees throughout the country attended.
But the great potential of this conference was blocked at the start when the CP-dominated platform announced that there would be no
Many conference thus turned into talk-shop, with two and a haif hours of fiery diatribes against the Tories and the need to work even harder to get 'lefts' like Bob Wright elected to
he union leadershi
This was the CP's perspective. I astonished members of the International Committee.
of the including that of extensive Foreign
connections, Instead the reply read
precis of the War on Want bookle!
Hargreaves' document
tabled but not endorsed.
General Secretary Len Murray now seems to have taken over dealing with the criticisms. He has replied to some branches that the booklet was a tissue of innuendo and smears.
Some unionists, however,
those in the South West Regional
Council, are refusing to accept this as a reply. "They will have to answer the
specific charges,' one member of the
regional council has declared.
meanwhile,
serious
and
of
to
within
was announced that a national shop stewards co-ordinating for would be set-up in the near future the But it was made quite clear that
this would essentially be a pressure group in support of 'left' bureaucrats The CP has learnt nothing from it: disastrous affair with Lord Scanion (RIP).
Despite the weaknesses of the claim and the inadequacy of one-day strikes as method socialists must be in the forefront of the fight to ensure the success of the
actions would demoralise thousands of militants throughout the engineerThe ing industry. The only victors would
be the employers.
Whatever struggle, socialists in the engineering industry must begin to come to grips with the more long-term problem of organising within the industry. made it fairly clear where they stand on the issue. At last month's Congress of the Miners' charges, federation
unanimously backed denied. resolution
investigate all sources of government funding going into labour circles and complain at source if need be whether AFL-CIO, TUC or any of the three world internationals.
And at the conference in Jersey referred to the various allegations and like said. the miners
associated with certain parts of thi TUC's overseas work.
President Joe Gormley could only reply that members International Committee
committee recognise Engineering struggle constructive the Broad Left.
failure of the limited be
militants periphery of the
make some impact
International Madrid, delegates
an NUM "defeated
international
it be the US booklet, week,
including recent NUM delegate ULC
shouldn't De
TUC
Socialist Challenge
A useful starting point would be to
how weak Charter and the comrades behind it should recognise that there is no way in which they can pose as an organisational alternative to the Broad Left
What is vital is that all socialists should organise a collective discus sion in order to draw up a serious and
political alternative to
A useful step towards this would
convene a conference elaborate such an alternative which would, hopefully, attract a layer of
beyond our immediate
Compared to the Broad Left, such
would represent tiny forces. But it would be an important step forward for al those who ar alienated by the Broad Left yet see no other vistas on the horizon. busy union General Secretaries and didn't have the time to investigate everything that was going. on.
But interestingly Gormley was
when he stood for the NUM's international delegation.
Co-author of the War on Want
Don Thompsen, said this "The heart of the matter really quite a simple one. The TUC is spending about 5600,000 a year -
£180,000 they receive annually from the Foreign Office -on overseas work.
"It is a perfectly proper demand by trade unionists to ask how this money is spent, and who benefits. So far the
has tailed make this information available.'
26 July 1979 Pages
Page 6 scan of this page
NICARAGUA A
Somoza
By Dave Kellaway
AFTER over 40 years of dictatorship Somoza has crawled away to exile in Florida. In
AHENI happened to the Shah didn't happen to him — he was allowed exile in the USA.
His last pathetic manoevres maintain his regime, and to hold off the Sandinistas until 1981, ended up
comic interlude. appearing to have the technical means to hold onto power, his regime was defeated by first
the popular uprising for 20 years in Latin Hucuti.
Like the Shah's highly-skilled army, the praetorian Somoza National Guard incapable of defeating a whole nation in arms against it.
How had the political relation of forces changed so drastically? Only 4 years ago Borge and his team of gerillas in the north were a mere irritant to the recime. named the new Interior Minister, and the FSLN have the sympathy of the overwhelming majority of: Nicaraguan people.
There. are two sides 10 disintegration of Somoza's regime: the conflict of interests between the regime and large sectors of' the national bourgeoisie and imperialism; and the rise of the mass struggle and consequent growth of the FSLN.
'he very nature of the recime -what the Daily Telgraph moniously called the greed of that abominable man' -excluded the other bourgeois sectors from the most profitable enterprises.
Instead of developing a MIHIR regime, differences between yarious geois forées could be more rationally worked out and the economy more logically organised, the regime totally subordinated to securing quick wealth for the Somoza family:
This Simultaneously both the normal functioning of the political process and the integration of middle class and intellectual layers as "supports" fer capitalist development.
This came to head with the scandalous way in which lined his pockets out of the earthquake disaster Managua at great profit on his own land and grabbing the aid money.
WAS peTJOu
business interests began to openly oppose Somoza and later the Group of 12 declared for an alliance with the FSLN.
1B23: Independence from Spain. 1893-1909:
LIDEidl WaS DJUONT inenenton orine ds 1925-1927: Liberal uprising
exception was started guerrilla memes ano e 1550.
head 1934: Endin do era itsaci ties
1504 rormaton
1967: Somoza elected
Presid leSDeNT 79841 force release of
Socialist Challenge. 26 July 1979
The fal/ of
into Althouch somoza lovally supported its interests for 40 years, the regime was storing up trouble for US strategy by whole of Central America.
La moderate alternative that to head off any mass discontent. A year ago the US stopped arms supplies to Despite Somoza. "demecratic'
American regimes such as Venezuela,
successful
Costa Rica and wanted present anti-imperialist in technological,
people and shared US concern about social explosions was their countries if the gangrene was allowed to tester in Nicaragua.
Hence these countries arms and materials to the FSLN, particularly BULE Nicaraguan national openly supported the Sandinistas.
factor the the culminating in armed insurrection. •IMass demonstrations the beral vourgeois oppoltil, morro, in January 1978, This. insurrection im Massaya in February and suppert September 78 insurrection.
sancti- •a vanguard role in all these struggles the "avarice and TORELILE
Levent
bloody reprisals following the defeat modern of the badly coordinated September • LIC adyenture, bour- FSLN saw its biggest influx after that defeat.
was new tendencies in the FSLN awas
towards urban
prevented rectional strategy.
the tendencies of the FSLN, and their support from Panama and Costa Rica rather than from strengthened their forces.
Somoza Dy olaer seclors 1972 and the middle class,
rebuilding mass insurrection,
between himself and defeat. that
with new arms numbered.
Its downfall
evermenl
aDOUTOV InE •ITeCl
caused Us troops to bere-called. Liberal leaders signed is General Sand o i he us atanal
National quard formed and trained by the US torces anasiasio somosa Is choseo as s
Is acreba u tricked assassinated by somoza after a dinner.
Tite n ste Natonal
president in fraudulent
and Social Christians make pact vallres with Somoza which allows Somoza a further
laliutial budle chicl all.
aLN make success u anack ın wanaua
prisoners and ransom
Pazeб
"American imperialism also came
contradiction with the regime.
threatening the stability of the
A Somoza-type regime didn't allow
could
The regime also antagonised other
For 'progressiye' Latin
Рапатя. They
front their
spilling over into
supplied
sections the bourgenisie
On the other side the uninterrupted rise of mass resistance was the decisive
lall : 0i Somoza,
and strikes greeted Somoza's blatant murder of a
Cham-
semi-spontaneous
for the defeated
Although the ESLN. played the
retained its indendent semi-spontaneous character.
dead,. etne lle
couldn't smash this. The
These actions of the masses moved
frem the rural 'foco' perspective and
based insur-
The unity pact signed between all
Cuba, further
Rejected by imperialism, deserted
of the hourgeoisie , confronted by a ony the brute force of the National Guard
Once the ammunition ran out and no reactionary regime was prepared to displease the US by supplying him
days were tendency).
1977: FSLN attacks barracks in San Carlos and Terceristas born 1978
Murae! massava Insurecion August. nostage CU MPS. holding hostage 60
Sept Generale sand big tans m-
seae such s Lon ard Eseli are boltay General Managua wallicularty
repressed 1979 Somoza rejects ission proposais for a transition.
FED US suspends arms supply HOTI May bom dolars ham dellars the Shah won't happen to him north. south and Managu June everen 17 July: President Somoza leaves
Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica.
on the agenda.
impact on the United States.
Will El Salvador
go next
THE British press taiks about El Salvador only when British businessmen are kidnapped. What exists is a. COLLLT 4.5 stretching over 21,000 square kilometres. Over 50 per cent of the illiterate; average life expectancy is 54 and rural unemployment is over 52 per cent. The country is ruled by 14 families who own the country's coffee, cotton, maiże, sugar and rice and sell it -to the USA and Western Europe.
Ine army controls the President, Ge. Romero, is a butcher in the Somoza mould. A few months ago Western TV YItWels saw army demonstrators on the Cathedral steps of San Salvador and killing 23 people.
The Sandinista victory will be seen by the Popular Revolutionary Bloc (PRB) as a big leap forward for their own struggle. The PRB is very Sililar (a politics and FSLN in Nicaragua. The Salvador CP is well entrenched in the organised labour movement in the towns.
With the fall of Somoza it is El Salvador that becomes the weak link of imperialism in Central America.
WITHIN the new government and
base of the local committees there are iwo main tendencies, the Group of 12 and the Terceristas (the main FSLN
They will argue for the strike protest
the National Palace WIn release of
the
FSLN take Esteli and then lose it with US aporovai lend Somoza
. somoza says wnal nappenec to
New oftensive by the FSLN in the
La provisiona
THE fall of Somoza represents a setback for American imperialism. Its impact in Central America will be to 'destabilise' the existing regimes and provide a boost to all those struggling against the dictatorships in El Salvador,
The success of the Sandinista operation will not automatically ensure a transition to socialism. The revolutionary process will, as Iran shows, be far more complex. But the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship has put socialism
DAVE KELLAWAY discusses the likely evolution of the struggle and its
people
population is
countrv and the
shooting down
composition) to the
7070
expropriation of Somoza's property, perhaps Somoza's holdings and 'inefficient' land, and establishing democratic and social rights.
The more Castroist essentially Prolonged Proletarian FSL.N tendencies — argue for a more radical land reform, expropriation of US interests and for links with 'socialist' countries.
This second IcuucuL y necessarily decisively break with the Terceristas and the 'progressive' bourgeoisie and instead may argue for a prolonged democratic consolidation.
Revolutionary marxist
will alse participate in the debate such Liga Revolucionaria (Trotskyists).
VICIU democratic' forces defeat of the masses insofar as the mass mobilisation and the armed committees will have to end. It will not
Pedigree of ti
material basic
elements favours and solution will Rivas
ILTA not
Arturo
stage of
currents
Marxist
"social will inyolye the
necessarily mean social democracy as we know it because of the lack of
, that can be permanently made to the masses.
The composition of the Cabinet
the "social democratic
The minister of the economy will be
Casteazorro who is Social ex-president of the anu Chamber of Commerce.
New Central Bank Governor will be
Cruz who worked at the World Bank in Washington. Minister of Agriculture will be Manuel Torre who is related to Violetta Chammoro a junta member and big land owner.
Responsible for land reform will be Ceronel Kautz who is a sugar refmer! owner and landowner.
This type of pedigree indicates thai socialist measures are not very likely despite the inclusion of figures-lik Borge (leader of the GPP tendency) a the Interior Minister.
Page 7 scan of this page
FTER SOMOZA
The key guestons of land. purging of Somocismo, the formation of the new army ano reorganizaton of production will not solely in the cabinet but affected by the relation of forces in the mass movement. atri the northern towns there is a high evel of popular organisation. Radio Sundino talks of these committees as focal expressions of the government of national reconstruction', political level of this self organistion, and the terms of the debate going on, cannot be easily assessed.
Orthesouth, in Cardenas, there has tready been distribution Somoza's land and the organisation hewcooneratives
Commandate Alvaro, leader in the Mothern front, however, lalked of
y a very limited reform of the land
e Monde, 18 July).
sor fit debate are me saltients
many of the fighers like
Triewed by the Colombian paper
new regime
the El Socialista:
he decided
will be A nev
the workers. so the Constituent
of government
What sort revolution ries be
On the other
*Dissolution Tania to defend the revolution.
•We can only_guarantee that the government carries out what we are fighting for if we continue to struggle.
governed waica gives some liberties is not a guarantee for the people. The only way of defending democracy and our liberties is by government of the workers and only
The new government is pledged to call municipal elections and later a
Assembly. The possible outcome would be if those forces within the ESLN favouring a socialist solution formed an electoral front based on the fight fora workers'
based local committees and the armed militias.
of tasks should putting forward now in Nicarague in order to ensure the permanent victory of the masses?
of the National Guard, formation of popular militia
*Freedom for all the prisoners.
*Establish full democratic rights — elections, free freedom organise.
*Denunciation of all economic and military pacts with the imperialist powers and the OEA.
*Annul the external debt. Break
vith the IMF
Expropriate all Somoza's holdings the imperialist interests and national capitalism.
*C'arry out a true land reform.
*For a workers government based on lhe mass organisations
Only the winning of the masses to such a programme will prevent a repeat of the tragedy popular revolutions in Latin America such as the Bolivian MNK-led revolt of '52, which defeated a dictator and Then degenerated into a pro-bourgeois regime in which the interests of the masses were not met.
It is not the first or last time that the massesia, Latin America have fought an armed struggle side by their own bosses and then allowed the latter to control the new situation — neighbouring Gautemala through a similar experience in the 194Us and the masses lost the second round.
for
Nicaragua appears to
imperialism.
the faulty intelligence reports or other • subjective errors.
mental cause of the Us malaise is a
of the colonial masses.
Added to this is the growth
competing imperialist powers, such as
Germany or Japan which
imperialism
order later
of the US.
role as a "relay'
West
1 tendencies in Latin America.
Kissinger
unco-operative dictators
exposures.
Kissinger as
succinctly the
imperialism
interview:
move to replace Somoza
moderate element. but this
have required the
action so much decried today... My
impression 1S
put
alternative if there is one.
Whirtwind
the Sandinistas,
dominant in political Mexico will feel the pressure.
'We should
alternatives
tudes like 'sticking to Somoza'. to
nave no mission
an outcome
values and
responsibilities."
of very difficult
human rights policy
with other imperialist powers,
dependent capitalist
there.
Unstable
The side wiln expenience
revealed all these problems. The US
stopped arms sales a year ago when went the regime became unstable as far as
US interests were concerned, but then
it supported Somoza's crushing of the
September 78 insurrection because no
A disaster
Imperialism
AFTER Angola, Vietnam and Iran,
be another bungled foreign policy disaster for US resistance
weakened.
The American press speculates on
But the funda- split opposition growing structural weakness caused by the recent anti-imperialist victories
of the US - while not Organisation breaking with the overall interests of
will support certain Somoza out, popular front liberation movements
lucrative al dily development contracts at the expense
Cuba
Social democracy often plays a key
for this imperialist German SOCC democracy has been instrumental in trying to resuscitate social democratic and
that
It is no longer possible for the US to send in troops whenever it wants - it would have to contend with massive internal and world wide opposition.
Similarly it can't so easily remove
in covert CIA operations after all the recent
gringos and usual expresses dilemma in a recent Guardian
I could have understood a decisive Finally
with would government kind of covert Somoza's we did enough to unsettle the existing governent but not
La moderate
'If the sole alternative to Somoza is
we may whirlwind. If the radical left becomes that the new
Central America. ever
define by platiWe change every Soviet bloc. unpalatable ruler; but if we attempt it we must assume the responsibility for
compatible with our our international
The dilemma for the US is that it is
implement and to get moderate alternative that can hold down social explosions when it cannot the intervene freely, when it is competing guarantees
when the colonial masses are moving, when
regimes Results oppose particular US plans and when the world recession means the money for reformist experiments is just not
there
between
interests. of Nicaragua democratic
| adequate alternative was available and it was advantageous for the mass
and the FSLN to be
In fact the defeat had the reverse effect. The US redoubled their efforts
off the HOIC moderate forces like the FAO (Broad Opposition Front) from the FSLN but this failed mainly because of Somoza's intransigence.
Faced with the June insurrection
attempted get the States (OÉA) to impose a ceasefire and force
preventing an FSLN victory by the intervention of an OEA
For the first time in its history the OEA decisively defeated a US plan
voted for the unconditional resignation of Somoza
Unlike when the OEA voted for a bovcott of Cuba it is no complete lapdog of the US. It shows
. The national bourgeoisie dependent capitalist countries will • still from time to time take positions against US imperialism
This is the : case particularly where there is populist pressure within their own countries to stand up to the
where the liberation movement they are supporting is not clearly socialist and therefore not a threat to their own regimes.
the US forced to negotiate directly with the Provisional
and the didn't stop them privateły welcoming
genocide in Managua prevented rapid and dangerous FSLN victory.
The original US proposals, for extending the provisional government with the inclusion of several moderate figures, was rejected. A day later it was reported that there was now an agreement. The US appears satisfied
government does no represent an embryonic Cuba, and they intend to back up this agreemen with significant aid — the lessons of Cuba was that the boycott helped push the Cubans into the arms of the
Ramirez, a member of the Junta has said that either the US gives aid or
The US intervention will not be restricted to aid. Their hopes about the "social-democratic" credentials of
new government not that the process of permanent revolution can be halted.
The US navy is off the coast and
still great danger of intervention if the inevitably split
the pro-socialist and social democratic forces threatens US
Intervening to defend a "social
government against a Cuba inspired revolt is much easier than intervening to save Somoza.
But will the new government drift toward a Cuban solution or will it stabilise a new bourgeois regime...? Socialist Challenge 26 July 1979 Pare 7
Page 8 scan of this page
Education under attack
Transport leaders — big words,
Right to
work march
By Sylvia Bliss
UNEMPLOYMENT has gone over one and a half million according to the official figures. And over half & million school leavers will swell that number eyen further by the end of the summer.
Two million unemployed by wiuter is no longer an uneasy estimate buta fact.
The Tory government's cuts will make this situation even worse as local authorities, the civil service, and health authorities are forced to make redundancies and limit jobs.
rete ones are aiming between 150,000 and 200,000 jobs in education alone.
High unemployment enormous danger to the working class, not just those who are out of a job. Traditionally it has been used to push down wages and weaken it by creating a reserve labour.
It splits, divides, and hence further weakens the working class by playing off one section against another.
Even in the labour people seriousiy argue should be taken away from rather than men, blacks rather than wiles, young workers rather older workers with responsibilities.
The whole approach of last in, first out, discriminates against younger workers.
The Tories thrive arguments, playing off one section of the work force against another. trade union leaders who voluntary redundancy and
fall into the same trap, and simply help create a situation where more and more young workers cannot find jobs at all.
These divisions must be confronted head on. Positive discrimination in the employment of women, and young people is the way to take up these divisive responses.
We also have to fight for demands like a 35-hour week and nationalisation firms redundancies, which ensure that the work available is shared out between as many workers as possible.
But WC also have movement, linked to the trade unions, that will fight for a plan to defeat unemployment as a whole.
The Right to Work good place to start building such a HOYCHELL.
As in previous years, there will be a march and lobby of the TUC at the beginning of September. This year the TUC meets in Blackpool, march will be going there Liverpool. Campaigning for local branches of
trades unions to sponsor marchers helps between the unemployed labour movement.
We need an unemployed workers' movement that fights for a place to meet, has clear demands, and which breaks the isolation of the dole queue by seeking to unite the unempioyea with the trade unions.
This is what Socialist Challenge supporters should be arguing for on this year's Right to Work march.
For details of the Right to Work march, sponsorship forms unionists, collection sheets and letters appealing for support write to: Right to Work Campaign, 265 Seven Sisters Rd, London march: 50p.
TIVERPOOL DO
MARCH
FOR THE
RIGHI TO
WORK
Ist- 5th Socialist Challenge 26 July 1979
A FEW
over
educatior
years. The
dead letter.
selective
an whole
Glyn Ford
army of
Committee which selection
movement,
unlikely to that ODS assault to
schools and the eleven plus. than
'parental development schools; grading. these wetl-resourced
The which are moderns. public campaign comprehensive
parents.
Throughout blacks number of: themes
declaring
build a
campaign is a By Pat Sikorski
DURING the conference General Workers'
the from and the way in
leadership. response links
and the
secretary, Harry special visit to standing orders. special legislation.
September, file. for local trade
mobilise maximum Registration for
rights.
BTACKPOOX
conference floor.
day Costello, the
has
Correctly. must
Page 8
Teachers conference
weeks ago the Socialist Teachers Alliance and Rank and File Organised a conterence on education in the Midlands. It was attended by
40 people and marked a solid beginning to the fightback which will be necessary in education over the
Ken Jones (STA) argued that Tory
programme of cuts. It is an attempt to
to attack the advances of the past few
ideas of "equality of educational opportunity are now a
Positive governmental support for
education, the likely introduction of widespread testing, the educational effect of the cuts — all these point to an educational policy in which the schools play a role as the * legitimisers of success and failure.
(Labour' Councilior and member of Tameside Education
spoke about ways introduced through the back door. The pattern in areas which were already comprehen- and
be a head-on re-establish
More likely we will see through the
cuts. publication of exam results and use of
choice, the gradual of hierarchy down from suburban schools which are grammar in all but name, throuch to inner city "sink' schools
essentially secondary He argued for a massive to explain the layer ideal and to win positive support from working class
the conference evident.
Firstly we have to combine defence
small actions
biennial delegate of thie Transport and Union earlier this month, two incidents illustrated the present strategy and tactics of the Communist Party in the trade unions,
which those tactics neatly dovetail with those of the union
the Tories' anti-union proposals, five branches had put up motions to protect the right to picket. The TGWU's general
Urwin, payed a
His message was this: withdraw your resolution in favour of the general executive council's emergency motion on the defence of trade union rights so that we' will be able to go to Prior and say that there is no case for
'We' have our own codes and can police 'our' rank and
The result was that these branch motions were withdrawn in favour of the executive's call to urge the TUC
trade resistance' to attacks on basic union
The CP mounted no opposition to this, either in standing orders or on
It was two days later, on the last
conterence, that CP's industrial organiser, wrote in a full-page article 'notice' in the Morning Star that 'the lessons of the fight against previous such laws
more than voicing demands on the TUC is needed.'
Costello argues that repeat 'dillying and dallying' that the TUC
TACH attack. Defence of educational gains, and continuing the fight for a socials alternative in education. For instance it is not sufficient merely to oppose
We must demonstrate that the implementation of the cuts affects working class children and their education disproporționately.
Secondly; •severity attack over the next period will cause tue brous to become o the NUT. Their traditional ideas and methods of struggle will inadequate. Already, there is a large
of teachers who dissatistied at the outcome of the 'action' over salaries.
There are major opportunities for the left to put forward demands and
which can command support. This will have to stress that exhibited around the Industrial Relations Act.
"To make sure of this,' he wrote, "individual unions and organisations at every leyel must go into battle right
'Battle', however, means giving
of * Resolutions calling for resistance must flood into head offices.'
There • calls for
AL C solidarity now with the members of the National Union of Journalists on strike to defend their closed shop or for mass action to defend the EGA
existing only effective collective action
defend education, and the need for a fight based on
Thirdly, massive working class response to the policies of the Thatcher government Our task is to make education an issue in that tight back. of the constant policy of taking educational
issues working through the unions and through propaganda aimed at parents and the prove community. There is often a naive
bellet among working dos partil highly that the grammar
provided opportunities for individual working class children to 'make it'. This can lead to: opposition to comprehensivisation and progressive wide methods in general. Socialist teachers
have an special task to develop and and other hospitals from closure. We are left simply with putting demands on the TUC Only by a decisive break with the
leadership, fogether with those of the er wiich provide Ine tormer witn a 'left' cover, can the rank and file start fighting back.
A decisive break certainly means mass building the most massive lobby of
the TUC but it also means a lot more. Every fight against speeds up, job loss, closures, for more pay, against attacks on trade union rights comes
I TEACH
HOW NOT
TO REN
AND HOW
NOT
WRITE
1 TECH THE NEW ILLITERAC working with other
there is going to be a national
Rank & File, This means a
clas! both
schools system
contact:
Rd, London N6 For
interyention
In discussion
Get
nothing.
for the supported
Similarly
of the trade union
possible,
getting
CP.
I TE NOT TO SUBTRACT 10 N
THE SENATES
UNEMPLOYMENT. explain educational objectives which
provide real and useful education for working class children.
The next major will be conference Under Attack' being organised jointly
the Socialist Teachers Alliance,
Socialist Education Association on 10/11 November. The main speakers will include Stuart Hall and Caroline Benn. The conference promises to attract over 500 teachers and be a real forum in which to discuss and organise the fightback.
For more details of conference
Education Conference Organising Group, c/o 13 Bloomfield straight up against the Tories. Each and every one of these struggles has to
supported by maximum solidarity by way of picketing and industrial action - locally, regionally, and nationally.
example, an occupation against closure of an firm under the Tories rules out the
of the NEB or any individual entrepreneur. It must mean production under workers' control and a fight throughout that section of industry for workers' control.
the TGWU conference's Moss Evans reaffirmed the union's commitment to unfettered free collective bargaining, but refused to fix any figure of percentage to the claim in order not to tie the hands of the negotiators.
what's possible, in other words, but without the kind of fight needed to ensure that it's not little or
Instead of a real fight against redundancies and unemployment and
35-hour week, the CP the adoption of 'strict selective import controls - thu exporting unemployment abroad in the national interest.
on the cuts in public expenditure, the CP puts forward no strategy for a fight now.
It will be up to the rank and file militants to organise the broadest
democratically-run _trade union based bodies to start the fight back and give a lead to the tens of thousands of shop stewards who are looking for a way to fight but are
no lead from the 'left' bureaucracy and their friends in the
Page 9 scan of this page
Tory cuts
By Tom Marlowe
WALES has narrowly Scotland as the top priority for the Tory axe.
in regional announced last week by Secretary Sir Keith Joseph, 44 of the special development areas development areas to be downgraded are in Wales while 41 are in Scotland.
But Scotland could still come out on top, thanks to the Tories' plans announced on Monday for cuts in the shipbuilding industry. These cuts will
hit the North particularly hard.
Over a quarter of all unemployed shipbuilding workers are found in the North-east, North as whole had downgraded in the regional cutbacks.
Of all the regions, the North has already Ine highest rate, with a June figure of 7.8 per cent of the population unemployed.
The idea of special development and development areas is to bribe industrialists to set up factories in the areas concerned. Under the schemes, government money is available for companies' HICH buildings or new plant and machinery.
For special development areas, 22 per cent of the cost of these items is available. For development areas the figures is 20 per cent.
In addition, removal grants of up to 80 per cent of the costs incurred are
TOM WOOLLEY
preeted with chants of 'No cuts'.
which will hit the old and young hardest.
Fortunegate Road, YW10.
Where the Joseph
axe will fall
available to undertaking into assisted areas. neel
Said the first five Industry
and
as a result of
Labour government England assorted
already unfounded
25 areas aid
profitability employment.
to the wolves by Joseph.
The hope
being abandoned.
The is saying, themselves. And
edly will.
REVERAL hundred people demonstrated against government cuts outside Brent lown hall in Wembley, NW London, last Friday, writes Tom Wooiley. The Labour group on the council was due to meet to discuss how it would respond to central government pressure to cut incal authority spending and as each councillor arrived they were
Representatives of many local organisations spoke from the town hall steps about the need to fight this latest attack on local services
Represented were the NUT, Brent Pensioners, Task Force, the Drop in Club (a pre-school group), Brent Campaign Against the Cuts and many others. The Labour group agreed to meet a deputation, but NIT and Brent Trades Council refused to allow anyone from the Brent Campaign Against the Cuts (BCAC) to accompany them.
Next meeting of BCAC, Monday, 30 July, 4.30pm at 28A
companies moving an
And if the company wants to use a government factory then it can do so free in a special development area for
years, and in a development area for the first two.
The Tory cuts means that in over a hundred areas these bribes are now
It is difficult to calculate exactly what the effect on employment will be
the downgrading; certainly the hopes of the previous
that would reduce employment in the areas concerned to
average proved
Many of the grants went to smail businesses employing relatively few people and the incentives had more of a beneficial effect on private sector
than they had 01
Nevertheless what the cuts do
that the areas chiefly affected are now openly being thrown
of attracting new industries to replace the old declining ones like shipbuilding in areas such as Scotland and the North-east is finally
Joseph's message is a return to the. capitalism of the 1930s; these areas,
must sink or swim by without a determined fightback, sink they undoubt-
yet 2.67m
who,
office.
people
people erished were
poorer.
2. North Unemployment: 7.8% SDAs downgraded: 17 DAs downgraded: 8 4. North-west Unemployment: 6.5% SDAs downgraded: 1 DAs downgraded: 4 5. Wales Unemployment: 7.2% SDAs downgraded: 20 DAs downgraded: 24 7. Yorkshire & Humberside Unemployment: 5:2% SDAs downgraded: 0 DAs downgraded: 3 8. W.Midlands Unemployment: 5.0% SDAs downgraded:0 DAs downgraded: 0 9. E.Midlands Unemployment: 4.5% SDAs downgraded: 0 DAs downgraded: 0 10. East Anglia Unemployment: 4.1% SDAs downgraded: 0 DAs downgraded: 0
Unemployment: 5.4% South-west SDAs downgraded: 0 DAs downgraded: Z SDA = Special
Development Area By Tom Litterick Former Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak NO ONE has been impoverished
by the Tory government and however contident we mav be that many people will be I suggest we wait until it has happened.
In the meantime we have quite enough to discuss of the Labour government's record on poverty to keep us fruitfully occupied for some time to come.
For example, in 1974, there were
people on supplementary benifits in Britain. Ihese were people
in official terms, are sincken anu we call rcasonably lake that figure of 2.67m as part of the inheritance of poverty received by the Labour government when it took
In 1979, there are more than 4m
claiming supplementary benefits, which is one way of saying that during the Wilson/Callaghan administration, something like 1.42m
impoverished.
Impoverished
We could reasonably ourselves who these newly impov-
people are and now became impoverished and what the and the policies pursued by ete and the policies pursued Labour government
Secondly, 1974 there were, approximately, 500,000 unemployed. In March 1979,
almost 1.52m people play during he nelson Callin
during the Wilson/Callaghan administration, a million people were made unemployed and, presumably,
Thirdly, we know that three of the five years of the Wilson/
1. Scotland Unemployment: 7.3% DAs downgraded: l DAs downgraded: 40 3. south-egst Unemployment: 3.5% SDAs downgraded: 0 DAs downgraded: 1
DA = Development Area
„and don't forget
the Labour axe
Callaghan administration, real wages fell, which during most of the life of the last Labour government the standard of living of the working clas particularly that of working class — gol povies We know that this was a deliberate result of policy decisions made by the last government.
However bad the Tories may be, they have a long way to go yet before their contribution to the sum total of human misery equals that of the last Labour government. poverty Crime
Nor should we forget that every time we accuse the Tories of some unspeakable crime working class they point to the record of the Labour government by Me-too-ism' weapon and it will be brought into play against us.
If we allow our diverted into simply Tory bashing we will damage ourselves in several ways. In the first place the public, who are not stupid, will recognise it for what it
ask is; the kettle calling the pot black and
they will properly despise us for it.
they Secondly, we will,
allow the right wing -forget, controlled the last government to represent movement and to the people as the friends of the down-trodden and the people exploited there unem- Reidentify
This, in turn, will enable them to reidentify themselves with the Labour Party, whose cally repudiated during office.
It will prevent us examining the
PIERS HIM OUT
THE
paign Court.
another, 'Criminal record that bay
and government's the low-paid was reduced. They understanding
taking
gramme against enough.
can now simply
Pathetic double edged
candidate energies to be
experience.
default, - who. let us no convictions. themselves the prepared policies ney empiall- Weekly®
they held
CORBYN - KEEP
appeal of housing
militant Piers Corbyn against a
28-day prison sentence passed
on nim lor his part in
Huntley Street Defence Cam.
will heard
Knightsbridge Crown Court,
Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge
on Tuesday, 14 August.
'Piers' co-defendant, Jim
Patton, has his trial on 2 august
Marylebone Magistrates
Strong pickets are required
to stop one jailing, and possibly
under the infamous .Tresspass Law'.
Both pickets start at 10am.
of the Wilson/Callaghan governments and of the individuals who made up those governments. It is
subjecting the Labour record rigorous scrutiny that we stand any chance of
Our mistakes anc steps to prevent another repetition of these mistakes
If we allow ourselves the brainless indulgence of 'ya boo we are in Opposition we will certainly go into the next election with a pro
dictated by the leader, whoever he or she may be, which is to say we will be going into the next election unarmed and hoping against hope that the Tories will win it for us, with nothing to offer the people but a variation on the clapped out theme of "Jim Will Fix It'. That is not good
Having fought one election as a
apologising social democrats and being forced to use the pathetic argument that it would have been worse if the Tories had been in power, I have no wish to repeat the
It is time the party woke up to the fact that most of its unelected leaders
convictions. it ure porth is nos
If the party 1t must bi prepared to accept that Labour's next victory, when it comes, will be as big a disaster as its defeat.
This article is taken from Labour
Socialist Challenge 26 July 1979 Page)
Page 10 scan of this page
British Army morale TRoOPs OUT
Peoples' Democracy to join Fourth
EVENTS
advertised in this colur events
column. Deadline: 5pm Friday
HACKNEY SC group meeting: 'Defend Charter
26 July, 7.30pm.
Street, EB.
OLDHAM SC group meeting Thur 26 July at Arms Middition Road, West ood. hine etruggle in texales are caramers
NALGO Nanonar meeung tor armin members and soclanst & nallenge supporters (by Invilaron, i tie unton. Mancheter cat 1y and Sun 16 Sept (till 2pm Sun). Pooled fare. Venue to
arranged. Urther details Briefing. or rine the Centre.
NUPE NATIONAL Aggregate -members: including Scotland. Sun, 9 Sept, noo al National Centre. Pooled fare. Further details in Natnal Brenng or ring centre.
Newcastle central station 6.30am
Middles rough
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST Tendency
"The Irish War In Britain.
- monore: man Hardy
Dalston Labour Club, Dalston Lane, London Li. tsull.
photographers' club or association with a view to WOULD anyone interested in formi
onoto tabas lie cass sruggle.
High street, birmingham .
Tanical
left-wing type jobs. Anything from a. Contac Dave Stringler 8869)
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S Forums: Fri 3 Aug:
ON A DOTEOR KIDS
Lon London International contracention.
Sterilisation Campaign.
•PATRIOT GAME' Thurs 9 Aug,
(Clapham Common Side) Adm: 75p. Organised by Soutn London UTOM.
ROOM AVAILABLE in North-west from 13 to 28 Aug (inclusive). Reply to Box 1866, Soc Chall
BOOKS for rately needed for this vial eid of money desperately internationalist activity. Or send any books you
for Southern Africa, Socialist Challenge,
ENTRIES 5p per y 42 per
Friday Payment in advinci
AFRICAN
STUDY GROUP
•| Nº4
AROAN ARUST STE SAME TRADE
co vr DeVeLOPMENT
THE NOVELIST & CLASS CONSCOUSNESS 24
POSTSCRIPT-APRI
Copies from: African Study Group, c/0 Housman's Bookshop, Caledonian. Road, London N1. 40p plus p&p or f2.10 UK individual subs.
THE FI DEBATES INDOCHINA:
GET YOUR COPY NOW Has Ernest Mandel strayed away from the camp of the working class on of Indo-China?
Mary-Alice Waters, Horowitz, Fred Felman and Steve Clark think he Why find out Yoursell, Read the special issue of Intercontinental Press which Mary-Alice, Fred, and Steve reply Mandel's polemic appeared on 9 April.
Send 30p plus 15p p&/ to: PO Box 50, London N1
Socialist Challenge 26 July 1979
Britannia pub
for all IMG
By Geoff Bell
and elsewhere collate ladye their or c/o 76b Digbeth
For the troops • to minance oine
on 1o the streets wedding! (021-784
those ten years.
Allakas
Defence correspondents A DOTION Daily Telegraph
military thinking, Clapham
London with the
grips with the number problem No DUR PO Box
Hurone col inch.
pablication.
central sector AGE 5 n. seek membership International.
This
conference beginning of the month.
the Movement
Fourth International.
important role in a
of Ireland. was an the organisation
Gus
has.
for
The march
in
Gus, the Six Counties.
to which
Page 10
All out 12 August
at a new low
10 ON 12 August tens of thousands of demonstrators in Ireland, London,
will be marching cities demanding the British troops to get
themselves, tenth anniversary of their being sent
of the North of Ireland will be marked by the greatest crisis of morale yet experienced in
This is underlined by a report in the Daily Telegraph on 18 July written by the paper's defence correspondent,
of the always have particularly close association with top
level:
Hollingworth's article can almost be taken as an unofficial statement of
Indeed the article in question deals
appointment of General Sir Edwin Bramall as the new Chief of the General Staffs. Bramall; grips with the number one Army
end Northern Ireland'.
The Army's problem is twofold, says Hollingworth: 'First, Nato allies
voices in complaint because Britain is not fulfilling its commitments in the
Western Germany.
'Indeed, Britain's contribution to
international
By Steye Potter and Tim Mohun THE IRISH revolutionary socialist organisation Peoples Democracy is to
of the Fourth from
unanimously-supported DUODULL decision was one outcome of PD's
Dublin at the
It is just nine months since the new Fein PD organisation was established as a fused organisation of the old PD and
for Socialist Republic, the then Irish Section of the
VOLES Since the fusion, PD has played an whole series of activities both in the North and South
initiative of the which led to the establishment, at the turn of the year, of the United Burntollet Committee whose main activity was to organise a march which coincided with the tenth the anniversary of the civil rights protest.
and the committee attracted support from the majority of anti-imperialist organisations in
The RACs are the main focus for the campaigh for political status for the H-Block and other prisoners.
Building the RACs was one of the bernacelle Devlin-McAliskey canditature in the ment.
IS CLOSE DECE Nato is short of anything from 11,000
14,000 men absent on duty in
*But another factor is that the
reportedly growing tired of serving in
"There are now men who have
Northern Ireland and they are not happy about going yet again.'
So 'unhappy' about the prospect
soldiers proved that they have gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid the
December last year demanded to be
sent to jail for a string of motoring offences so that he would be thrown out of the Army.
Parkinson's lawyer explained that
his client 'had two more years to serve but could not face another spell in
There are also increasing signs of
individual soldiers cracking up while
on duty in the North of Ireland. At the
of June, for example,
18-year-old member of the
Battalion the Kings Regiment
taken into custody after going absent
without leave in Belfast's
Andersonstown and shooting
random at a group of men, one of
whom was badly injured.
Another soldier was arrested only EEC elections. PD was the only political organisation to sponsor the campaign, although many
RACs as well as individual Republicans and socialists gave their
to the anti-repression platform on which Bernadette was standing.
Unfortunately Provisional
vigorously opposed DevlinMcAliskey, advocating a boycott.
Despite this, EIC Y RACs established out of the election campaign and this, plus the 34,000
received did more anything to establish PD as a force to
reckoned with the imperialist movement.
The election activities also gave a powerful boost to the PD campaign for an all-Ireland conference against repression.
This 32-county perspective was one of the main themes running through
discussions PD's conference, particularly in relation to the women's movement.
The organisation has fought for a mass action response to the attempt of the government in the South to cripple the activities of the tamov panning clinics in opposing severe restrictions
contraception facilities. PD has also argued for a 32-county wide
of the women's movefederation
•DURING THE CARNIVAL
S CELEBRATING THE I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE.... THE BANK JOBS... THE BREAK-INS.... THE HIT-JOBS ON THERUN ALL THE TIME.... JOE, YOU'VE GOT TO QUIT THE SAS, AND JOIN THE HOLSEHOLD CAVALRY
last week after a 12-year-old-girl was shot dead in her home during a visit by the soldier.
The most famous case death in March this year of Trooper Edward Maggs who was shot fellow soldiers after berserk and fired round after round on his own men, killing a corporal in the an process.
Ist Maggs' father commented: 'I only was would
happened if my son had not been sent back to Ulster.'
To add to the Army's problem, the recent large pay increase has not proved the incentive they had hoped for recruitment. Last month Lord This 32-county approach has also been marked in PD's attitude towards the student movement, in which the Student Campaign against sion had scored significant advances in all the major irish colleges.
HECHIDels nave
contributed to this development. Sinn major discussion
conference was crisis. The main theme of this was the need to challenge the working class's Were reformist leadership.
The main area increased than attention
building an alternative in the unions anti-
wages agreement with the Fianna Fail governet.
This priority was not confined to the South. A rise of militancy was noted Northern particularly those service.
Speaker after speaker stressed that work in the unions had to be on a 32-county basis and had to include, in pride of place, campaign. around such a campaign was the main critique at the conterence concerning the Socialist Labour Party.
This party, ago as a split off from the Labour Party by number including MP Noel Brown and trade
HERDIC ACTIVITY was still was the All by importance he had gone
never have
showing union leader
Repres-
significantly union struggles. the the economic SLP activity
single out for
by PD was Limerick, supported national higher
government
workers,
in the public
the anti-repression The absence of activiti
since the organisation
, established two years
of people suggest equipped to take.
MANIFESTATION WA • RECENT
THE SHANKILL BUTCHERS
OF, IRELAND!
SELF DETERM HIRATLO. FOR THE IRISH PEOPLE!
Strathcona, the Tories" Minister of State for Defence, admitted the Army
experiencing "serious shortfalls' in manpower.
this re-emphasises the of the 12 August demonstration in London.
A large tum-out on the march would not only increase the pressure on the Tory government and those in the Labour movement who continue to back Britain's presence in Ireland, it would also add to the growing demoralisation in the Army itself by
that there are significant number of people who are now willing to take to the streets to demand that they get out of Ireland.
Matt Merrigan, had promise Deggs
Supporters of PD's paper Socialist Republic had tried to win the party to
active role in building action against repression, on ine women s movement and in support of trade
While some of these positions had been formally adopted, in practice the
leaders had sabotaged such in tavour of vote-catching stunts. This strategy failed dismally
It was noted that Socialist Republic supporter Joe Harrington, standing
scored qualitatively votes in the recent local elections than other candidates who had adopted the SLP leadership's approach and who had all received dismally low votes
Accordingly, shortly after the PD conference the Republican Socialist Tendency in the SLP, led by Socialist Republic supporters , resigned from the SLP and joined PD.
Peoples Democracy has increased its size and geographical implantation
fusion, and although the . continues to face problems it also faces the type of opportunities which the confidence and unity displayed at the conference
the organisation is well
Page 11 scan of this page
Facing the audience of the future
-IF YOU were at the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square on the evening of 15 July, you would have been watching some rather unusual gollgs ou.
A reggae band, theatre groups, teachers, militants, residents of Southall, poets took the stage to express their anger in words and music at the death of Blair Peach and the behaviour of the Special Patrol Group.
You would have been forgiven for thinking that the theatre was under occupation rather than that a cultural evening was in progress.
The evening presented a rather different kind of culture than we are used to. Debate, theatre and music interwove resulting in an exhilerating political event, which culminated in a headlong rush from the theatre to burn an enr or męNee boce commissłoaer, SOn Sloane Square.
As the police sirens began to converge on central London we knew we were fighting back.
GAVIN RICHARDS, director of Belt and Braces theatre company, had a lot to do with the NULLOA evening WOODWARD talked to him significance of the event. 1 The winte Rogas oed,
•people in the Royal Court theatre, who were obviously sympathetic towards the issue, approached the management to theatre for benefit for the Memorial Fund.
They were persuaded to offer it to us for one evening free of charge, and the 'Friends of Blair Peach' accepted the challenge.
Basically there were two views about what to do with the evening, though they weren't
complet yo cod adictry
could have done ateiauona-ivoc Deicul. wacke vou elTOl of prestigious people to come and do turns.
The night would be used to draw in the liberal inteligentsia. theatre wịth a strong following in that layer.
We could have done it as a straight money raiser, charging f10 a seat, and playing on the consciences of a rich audience to give more money.
But i think the death of Blair Peach has had a real effect on the people in the ANL. Lots of famous people weren't coming forward to do it. And I thought a lot of other people were really angry.
The effect of his death has been good and bad, making people show where they stand and shocking the liberals.
• wanted a undvng evening to buldoze through the contradictions. well-known people but they had to understand the need, for radical change, humanitarian.
I thought that the main support for the evening would come, not from inteligentsia, but from working class people drawn by Blair Peach's death into taking part.
And people did come from watch and take part. Misty, the reggae band, brought some of their following. support from Hackney and the East End, where Blair worked.
Also we brought events more in line with the CONCHI the Rainbow Saturday, so it stood as a whole weekend rather Inan a one-ol callural evening at lne koyai Court. I think that was important.
What we did in the end ran right across the spectrum. It became an event rather than a traditional theatrical evening.
IHD-CLANCG thus is demonstrated thạt normal culture break down as the polițical climate hots
You find willeis, musicials, .responding Kotelner generate the energy required by the situation. They can't do that on their own at home being a writer. or in a lazz club just Dlavıng lazz.
And you find that a building that for years has had a very elitist following can suddenly be expropriated and used by would never normally find there.
In Paris, in '68, Barrault's theatre thrown open to the demonstrations emanated from it. It became a cultural meeting house.
Culture and debate can cross over and the debate determines culture. determined from on high democratic forum. Ihe most democratic torum you can find.
It's how self-expression happens among the mass of people there. It's culture not packaged and presented, but coming out of the situation. e
That was there in embryonic form on Sunday night.
Those companies that are basing themselves among sections of the community in active
After the Royal Court Theatre benefit
Wriers ald JUDE about the
when some
offer the Blair Peach
an Amnesty
The Royal Court is a There were some
not just be
the liberal
Southall to
We got
Friday and there's a demand for us.
left isolated to
that
definitions of
an intense
aLLOS CLO Grunwicks.
reggae from Misty. that there was a jolt. together.
people that you
trom Ealing. was
students and
When it is not them
becomes the Cotili C encampment.
Severing.
Politically it was
Misty at the Royal Court. Inset Gavin Richards. opposition to all kinds of oppression have to break down definitions of culture.
We're just artists and we have to respond in the forms we can best communicate in because
When the demand isn't there and we are
define our own forms of self-expression obviously we find those forms defined for us by bourgeois forces.
So on Sunday night there was Lynn Farleigh - a very accomplished actress performing
dramatic monologue requiring silence and concentration. It came after a very
uplitting speech by Paul Foot, coming after six minutes of film of the police at
That had followed 20 minutes of tantastic
And there was no feeling Those things belonged
A highly regarded writer like Edward Bond was speaking his own poetry after a 13 year old
Again that appeared to be natural, which of course it should be, and is, but generally it wouldn't appear so.
I should mention the contribution of the witnesses from Southall. 20 people or so sat on a stage relating things that had happened to
and describing, more articulately than any trained speaker, what it's like to be living in
of an aggressive, military
Who can tell me whether that was theatre, news, propaganda or what? What you must say is that it was what we needed to know and again it didn't appear unnatural in the context of the
also important as evening as it signalled the end of the mourning
for Blair Peach and brought forward the demands for the disbandment of the SPG and an end to the show trials of the Southall residents.
It's all part of the fight back against the terrifying growth of the country - the speed of it.
Blair Peach won't have died in vain if the fact of his death helps to mobilise people sufficiently for a few victories that stem that tude.
A £1000 of conscience money is not so important as raising political demands in a cultural context.
If culture is pushed aside as part of our general response it's of great assistance to the growth of Stalinist forms of struggle. That's because culture is the chief guardian of real socialist democracy
It's value should be recognised by the left.
In the future we'll be battle against the Tory anti-union laws. In this context culture must be used.
Culture can teli the truth guardediy than in a straight political context. It can be controversial and alienating.
For Sunday night a lot of friends got together to help organise it. It was a real collective thing. It was mainly people around Belt and Braces and connections through that.
We contacted the writers, who'd also been contacted by the Committee. Collectively we decided on what kind of political issues and demands we wanted to cover and take up.
People were left to make up their minds about what they wanted to do — skits. seriors
drama, music evening niusic.
capitalist skills to meet this.
CHICCILS
Russians. Joan Littlewood TOSLUCK. the West End. coachloads of miners. brought down Heath.
energy now
Against Racism.
strong state in this
they did the acting. fighting a massive
much less
усь much less
Name Address
We settled on a strong finale, with Mike Carver doing his song about Blair Peach with the Belt and Braces band. i ney hadn't met before, but they got on and gave it a strong end.
Basically I decided to give a lot of time to the witnesses, to let the wholé thing run over time, I made all kinds of decisions which you don't normally make, giving the audience a hard time, disregarding style and expertise. It was an event rather than a neatly constructed theatrical
In a way that comes from my experience with this company and other companies before. We've played to a whole lot of different kinds of polițical audiences and situations — a trade union, trades council, a women's group.
You realise how narrowly defined normal political theatre is. It's a real shock to come uf against other forms of self-expression like rock
We have to use people who have more experience in 'Variety" more than people with experience of straight theatre.
When you put yourself in opposition to
society those categories become meaningless, and when your audience is in opposition too they make big demands which conventional theatre can't meet.
If you face the audience of the future you have to have a whole different set of skills. You are not talking to a roomful of specialists but large numbers of people. You have to have the
You end up thinking about circus and rock
- the politics of spectacle - aLIa . than introspective thoughts about psychology.
Spectacles — that's the path that so many have gone down. That was the early training of Brecht, the German producers of the 20s, the
she finally came or at least her company drifted into
She came at a time when the working class movement was at its lowest ebb in the fifties What she succeeded in doing at that time was monumental when you set it in context.
So it's a well trodden path when you're facing large conscious audiences.
It's ten years since Alan Plater and Alex Glasgow (who was at the Royal Court on Sunday) put on Close the Coal House Door for
That movement is more disparate now but is still widespread. It depends on whether the political movement picks up and gives that disparate movement some conesion
There's a real sense of flux going on in the touring companies because the energy that brought them into existance was the energy that
Five years of demoralisation under Labour virtually drained that energy away. But small groups, particularly of women are making the running in this area. And Black theatre groups doing plays about Sus, and the PTA. That's the
It's appeared in music too, notably in Rock
The burning effigy of McNee in Sloane Square, that stunt showed that theatre can carry on beyond the walls. I think people felt really liberated when they got outside. We weren't determining things anymore, it was theirs. We gave them the props and
MURDER OF BLAIR PEACI
To: SW Recordings,
265a Seven Sisters Road, London N4 2DE.
Please send ..... record (s) at fl.I0 each,
at least. I enclose cheque p.o. for f...
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Page 12 scan of this page
Southall show trials- should the defendants boycott the courts?
THE man who killed Blair Peach roams the streets a free man. He wears a police uniform and continues to defend 'law and order'.
The British experience of cover-ups, is soon going to say that it can't identify the murderer. Or, if the going gets rough, name the killer and talk about 'rotten apples'
But for the people of Southall the agony they experienced on 23 April 1979 seems to know no end. The trials of the Southall 340 have been transferred to Barnet. The Defence Committee is convinced that scores of people will be sent to prison and fines and costs will total £75,000
This is Hammer McNee's way of teaching the Southall blacks a lesson. Meanwhile many defendants and their lawyers have been totally shocked ay the way the magistrates court operates. Most of the political prisoners have never seen the inside of a court. Some of them had a few illusions about British justice. These are now being rapidly dispelled.
money
Who dares now to doubt that the Western World faces an economic depression the like of which hasn't been seen for 40 years
The final, conclusive, overwhelming proof came last week in the US of 4.'No, creeping insanity of the peanut president, not even the news of impending crisis in the Florida tomato industry; no, the final proof came in the death of Carmine 'Lilo' Galante, slain with a
cigar in his mouth while lunching in a backyard
of a Brooklyn restaurant.
Our first reaction to the death of the Mafia boss was that the armed struggle had finally arrived in New York and that justice had caught up with Galante for his killing in 1943 of the anti-fascist newspaper editor Carlo Tresco. But all such ultra-left fantasies have now been dispelled enabling more conjuncturall! correct analysis to b¢ drawn.
This being that, as we all know, watchine oid movies. such killings trademark of the years of the last depression and that accordingly history is repeating itself:
Mafia killings = depression.
And if that doesn't strike you as scientific enough, well you have only yourself to blame.
Registered with the
Socialist Challenge
state, with a centuries-old murder.
attention
OUR FUND DRIVE
Lilo Galante and your
Those of us on the paper explain the ways of the world to our audience are suffering from an acute, even desperate lack of resources. not the We need money like we have never needed it before. not least to assure our relaunch as a 16 page paper in a couple looking at you kids, make us an offer we can't refuse.
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The magistrates virtually ignore the evidence of the defence lawyers. They are there to punish the defendants. The total lack of publicity by the mass media helps them to get away with
If the Daily Mirror and The Guardian were to send reporters to cover the trials and simply report the arguments of both sides it would make some difference. But the media is closely linked to the establishment and more often than not, prefers to keep quiet.
Meanwhile, a whole group of defendants are seriously discussing whether it makes any difference to hire lawyers and go to the trouble of getting witnesses.
There is a growing feeling that a boycott of the courts might well be a useful tactic to draw
to magisterial police-court collaboration.
At the same time money is desperately needed by the Defence Committee. Speakers can also be provided to speak at meetings. For details ring: 01-574-4920.
Stirling University. For been wetnised. from the I niversity. worrying _ in lhe
University's
It's your money or our life.
attempt 1o
So here's
€ 5.00 Name.. 25.00 15.00 Address
888
10.
53. 10. 00 5.00 31.04 £187.09 £10,692.35
tyranny and
Southall
Defend Bosco Fernandes!
BOSCO is a member of the Socialist Workers Student Organisation (SW'SO). He is also an official of the Overseas Students' Society at
both reasons he has this case.
The following letter has been sent out to all
Careth Allen, Overseas Students Officer at Stirling University:
"I am writing to you because I urgently need your help in a particularly disturbing case that has deeply shocked the students and many academic staff here at Stirling University. The last term has seen an unprovoked victimisation by the U'niversity authorities, of a prominent overseas siudent. Bosco rernandes. which ha. resulted in his expulsion from the Degree Programme and therefore effectively Honours students:
The implications of this case are all the more 2.
light of the University's decision not to admit any overseas students for
The disturbing racial overtones revealed in
decision regarding Mr.
Fernandes and the circumstances surrounding his case are a national scandal and will certainly be a major issue in the coming academic year.
Mr. Fernandes' case will play a critical role in
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Vishnu Sharma, President Indian Workers Association - wants the trials stopped.
the national overseas students campaign and is
a vital test case with regard to overseas students
righis. Therefore, it is imperative that we win
It is now clear that the campaign to get Mr. Fernandes re-installed can only he successful if it is waged on both a national as well as local level. NEIS hastaken up this case hut we cannot win without the help of individual colleges.
# is vital that you help us apply pressure on the U'niversity and i therefore urge you to either send a lelegram or write to: The Principat, U'niversity of Stirling,
Stirling FK9 4LA to express your condemnation and concern about the U'niversity's barbarous decision on overseas
Not 1ø admit any incoming overseas students for the next two years.
The disturbing implications and unacceptable circumstances surrounding the expulsion of Bosco Fernandes and to demand his immediate re-instalment into the Honours Degree Programme.
It now does appear that in the coming year Stirling will become a focal point, a test case, as rar as the overseas student issue is concerned. 1 will keep you informed of any developments."
East End (offset) Ltd, P.O. Box 82, London
← Socialist Challenge No. 105, 19 July 1979Socialist Challenge No. 107, 2 August 1979 →