Socialist Challenge No. 114, 20 September 1979
The scan: sc-n114-sep-20-1979.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 ENGINEERING ALL OUT ACTION CAN WIN THE CLAIM
By Ron Thompson, AUEW, Sheffield THERE is little doubt what most of us think about Callaghan. We'd be happy to see the last of him. Our delegation to the Labour Party conference is going to support the proposals to make the Labour Party more democratic.
But a question which many militants are asking is why Tony Benn hasn't spoken up to defend the struggles currently being waged by engineering workers throughout the country.
These struggles are not sufficient to win the full claim, but they have shown the support that exists for action. All the attempts by the Tory press to give prominence to a bunch
TOWU
BSA GUNS 5/202 BRANCH
Are you thinking
about our struggle
Tony Benn?
can t wait till
will carry out socialist policies
bosses?
of scabs has backfired badly. The Rolls Royce case is the most recent example.
Our struggle is the first action against the Tory government by a major trade union. That is why we want to know what Benn thinks. We
there is another Labour Government. Not only because it is a long time ahead, but because there is no guarantee that it
So our message to Benn is simple: we're supporting you against Callaghan. When will
struggle against the Tory
1 (See pages 7,8 & 9 for more on Engineering)
BRITAIN
NEEDS
PRODUCTION
REWARD
THE PRODUCERS
lives
Guys
Kings
Lewisham of £2,903,000.
No. 114 20 September 1979 15p
They plot in
secret to
attack our
health and
THE HATCHET team of Commissioners sent to replace the rebels on the Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham Area Health Authority have wasted no time getting down to business. Their minutes of 30 August — headed in confidence - propose the following measures:
closure of at least 60 acute beds. closure of at least 71 acute beds. closure of 12 paediatric beds at Svdenham Childrens Hospital and closure of St Johns Hospital.
St Thomas closure of
Holmhurst Hospital 12 infectious disease beds at the South Western Hospital and 12 gynaecological beds
The Commissioners are also setting a target of a 15 percent reduction in the Area's outpatient attendances.
The minutes confirm that the Commissioners have made their 'first and most important target' cuts of 5½ million. Basing themselves on rising costs in the four months up to July they are talking about having to make further cuts
Page 2 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper Street. London N1 2XQ. Editorial: 01-359 8180/9. Distribution/ Advertising: 01-3598371.
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders
of the Labour Party and the trade
unions offer solutions that are in
the interests not of the workers
but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Chalienge helieves that
the lw0 vital tasks confronting
revoratonary socialists are:
• lo huild broad-based race
siruckle lendencies in opposition
class-collaborationism In
labrur morement. These should
he non-exclusive in character.
grouping logether militants hold-
ing a wide range ot political viems.
democratic revolutionary socialist
begin to be seen ay seeks to unite the fight of
"i pomer and defeating with all
with full
of 'sociation in the LNSR and
lishling for ancialist democrace.
don a world scale. C'apitalism
politics. Thar se fight for warhing
El better leedle Darf the imperialist regimes in the West
in Bumidite ple dramanding
immediate wilhdrawal Brilish Iroop, Irom Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own tuture.
In dommunie parties in rope dit in crisis. beither 'Herecommunis' wings hase ans miraninghul the arthrow or the captail state. dry resolutionar, somals! partle
HOLLY.
Pretere. finition.
Proprate than wer dire preceding three arcades. Bad wisch partic mris buil
sering
I sens spree vard dese principles d1i4l
interested literal balders needless ded acts dies or sons
• seruld boke additional literature
"Holete if and appleber
Name.....
Address.
sid to serialid d hallenge. 128 * I peer al. London dI
Socialist Challenge 20 September 1979 Page 2
EDITORIAL the
Socialism, Cape, £5.95) consists essentially of his and other people's old ideas. The fact that it is
Labour conference since Thatcher's victory means
discussion both in the bourgeois media and at the.
not his ideas. For he goes out of his way to stress that what he is saying is not new, but part of the traditional aspirations of Labourism - including its addiction to Methodism and preachers and its division between politics and economic struggles.
The experience of the Wilson and Callaghan governments has convinced Benn that the reason. they failed was their inability to carry social, economic and political reforms. He accepts
tensions between Labour and the ruling class, but argues that with working class support Labour would have won. We shall return to some of these arguments later. Let us first consider why the fact that Benn is saying all these things is different from
What is happening is that for the first time in nearly two decades a new current is emerging in the Labour Party and the unions. This is not the same as the politics of Tribune, which offers nothing to most activists and whose main supporters were
constituency parties and in the unions. It's true that the defection of Scanlon and Jones left Benn
Arguments for reformism
For whom
the Benn tolls
book (Argument
What makes Benn a figure of some interest is
who
that all his support evaporated as a result. remains the only leader of the Labour Party who still has some credibility with Labour's base
This is a remarkable achievement. For Benn lay low while in office. There was not one major clash with Wilson or Callaghan. Benn refused to resign from the Cabinet despite the vicious, anti-working class policies pursued by the Labour government. He publicly defended Owen's support for the Shah of Iran, refused to disassociate himself from Labour's atrocious record in Northern Ireland, and spoke very infrequently on the cancer of racism at homeand abroad. Helacks Bevan' sability to arouse or Powell's audacity The latter is not meant as ar insult. If Benn had done for the labour movement what Powell seeks to do for the ruling class, the Labour left would have had a much higher standing inside the factories.
Despite all this he remains a opposition. It would be true, trite, to point out that there is no-one else; that in the land of the blind the one-eyed person is the one
rules The fact remains that constituency parties and a section of trade unionists (largely a secondary layer of full-time officials influenced by the Institute for Workers Benn is the solution. The Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC) was set up last year in an attempt to organise support for Bennite politics. nembership of 350 (including people like Stuar Holland MP, Geoff Hodgson, Peter Hain etc.) an‹ is organising a rank-and-file conference on 3-4 November in Manchester. The conference obtained the backing of the TGWU and NUPE and clearly represents an important initiative which it would be foolish to ignore.
TOny
Beni
Arguments
for Socialism
Edited by Chris Mullin
dominated He focus of though somewhat
for most
Control)
It has a
not appear democratic parliaments.
The precarious conditions
workers movement. radicalisat an reforms possible
ascendancy?
The central question
Lots of workers
Bennites have created the basis for his DUBOUILEID - It rings tor him
The Labour Party conference this year will be democratisation measures
proposed by the Bennites. Despite their limitations
these should obviously be supported. The right
wing of the party (including Callaghan!) have said that the whole debate is a diversion as the central task iș to tight the Tories. While this is obviously a ploy to avoid discussion on the structures of the
party, it does reveal a flaw in the Bennite offensive.
Would it not have been more effective to fight on
inner-party democracy as well as propose a plan of
action to fight the Tories? Would it not have been more practical to organise a national conference of Labour councillors and the public sector unions to discuss a fightback on a national level against the
The bulk of Benn's book is a collection of his
old essays and speeches, skilfully edited by Chris
Mullin. All his ideas are in this book. In sum total
they amount to a souped-up Fabianism, a radical
reformism which seeks to shift the balance of class forces in favour of working people. And yet even
this reformism claims as its patron saint not the young Bevan but the old Attlee. The point Benn makes is fair enough. The drift to the right has been
so pronounced that the writings of Tony. Crosland
sharply reformist. In other words, the eagerness
with which Wilson and Callaghan sought to make
managing agencies for capitalism automatically
Dell al guts lar us mas ico lo une growing
isolation of Labour from ordinary working people Labour has been seen to slash living standards and increase unemployment. Nor does he underestimate the importance of ideology. The Bennites are behind the campaign for a daily paper under the control of the labour movement, and for the setting up of a national printing corporation which would provide facilities to those groups not in the good
books of the Tory millionaires who control Fleet
Even within a reformist framework he misses
structures. The electoral system is undemocratic. Surely proportional representation would compel the Labour Party to politicise its base, apart from being more democratic. The only Benn supporter to defend such a proposition is Arthur Scargil!. Where does Benn stand on this question? Similarly, Benn's affinity with the demands of the old Chartists does
extend to their most radica demand: the call for annual
The problem for the Bennites is the following
British capital necessitate a restructuring at the expense of the
Thatcher is determined to carry it through to the end. The last thing that British capital needs is reforms of the sort that Benn Proposes. It is not that they cannot be conceded within the boundaries of capitaten. But capital will only make concrssions if it it treatened by a gigantic mass m. ement. It will be fear of mass
will make most of these ut then those agitating for them will realise that they do not go far enough. And if they want to go all the way, will Tony Benn play Cromwell to the Levellers of a mass movement in
which confronts the Bennites today is the following: should British workers wait five years before they can expect to defeat the Tories? Is it not necessary to start fighting the Tories now? And under what banner?
are beginning instinctively that syndicalism is not enough. What they need are arguments for socialism. Our task is to provide these, while realising that the arguments will be understood best in the context of debates inside the mainstream of the labour movement. The
• ich debates to take place, Shrill denunciations on ar part will be treated with the contempt they deserve.
In the coming weeks and months this newspaper will be discussing in detail every single argument for reforms which has been put forward by Benn and
In any event, despite the disagreements that have and will continue to exist between us and the Bennites, we are absolutely clear about one thing: we are for unity of action in every. sphere where a struggle is possible against the Thatcher government, against unemployment, the Cub Caucuous on aborton was cenocrac rights, etc. For not only is such unity in action vital to take the workers movement forward. It creates the most healthy basis for a continuing debate
Meanwhile at the Labour Party conference it now appears that the Engineering and Transport Union delegations will vote for Benn's proposals. Callaghan should ask not for whom the Benn tolls
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What the magistrate is saying to Southall defendants
By Geoffrey Sheridan BARNET magistrates' court number three, with its curtained plate glass windows at street level, could easily be mistaken for a shop. That impression IS nOt entirely lost through the proceedings courtroom, where the arrested in Southall on 23 April are presently appearing.
For here justice is being dispensed with a merchant's eye to the tariff. Last week, with stipendary magistrate Peter Badge presiding, the going rate TOT such matters as behaviour and obstructing the police was a f75 fine plus £30 costs.
But it would be wrong to suggest that this is mere rubber-stamp justice or some Star Chamber brand, for here the full majesty of the law is at work.
Defendants addressed 'Mr-'. There is apparent consideration from the Bench difficulties of some Asian defendants in understanding English (although
are half-suppressed from police witnesses). magistrate gives a careful summary of call CaNC before Judgement.
There are even a few acquittals — eight out of 77 cases up to last week; a conviction rate of almost 90 per cent, 20 per cent higher than that notched up by the same court when it dealt with the Grunwick defendants.
One acquittal came last Thursday afternoon, when Chowdhury was found not guilty of obstruction.
At 6.30pm on 23 April — an hour before the NF meeting was due to
- a four-deep police blocked the High Street Southall Town Hall meeting was to take place.
According to the police evidence,
five hundred people towards the cordon, pushed it back a couple of feet, and Chowdhury, who was in the front line, did not promptly move when told to do so by a police constable.
Chowdhury's explanation that he had been swept into the front line when the crowd moved off the pavement, and then was too tightly jammed in get back. prosecutor's question 'You were just trying to make the police's job more difficult, weren't you?' (and wouldn't
POLLICE VERSO*
(OR THE IMPEACHMENT OF THE SPG)
That British brand of KGB
[Which calls itself the SPG]
Were summoned one by one in quest
Of Truth by lie-detector test,
And questioned then about Blair Peach
With wires upon the head of each.
These thugs-in-blue fell silent when
Each needle made a graph with pen;
But then at last a man was found
Who made the needles jump and bound
Erratically upon the graph
With every lie and frantic laugh.
And even then the bully lied
When questioned how Blair Peach had died,
Though still the lie-detector said:
"This man — with cosh — hit Blair Peach dead.'
The man, at last, said it was he...
And Thatcher made him OBE.
Such murder with impunity Puts Justice so in jeopardy, And Britain with uneasy heart Sees Truth and Liberty depart.
I*With thumb turned down. This two-word Roman cry is based on the signal to the gladiators in the amphitheatre not to show which was turned their thumbs towards their breast.]
I find you guilty
when you sit
in the 342 people threatening
for the
guffaws
And the
pronouncing
Surbinder
cordon
close to where the
surged Chowdhury answered No.
Surbinder
was himself to blame for
crowd.
To the
the prosecution of Rabinder ©N. Racine-Jaques, 1979
chle spectators
SOUTHALL
IS INNOCENT
STOP THE
TRIALS
Southall Dotence
Committoe
that logic neatly fit Hitler's courts),
In his summing up, the magistrate thanked him and the police constable for the frank wav in which they gave evidence, and then let Chowdhury off
Airport, with a warning that he really had only
being in court because, after all, he had been in the
away.
It was that last remark which
officer, peeled away the veneer or civilsea justice. And the case which followed,
Bolina
Blair
From the Friends of Blair | implement Peach Committee
ON 11 October, the inquest into Blair Peach's death will re-open at Hammersmith Coroner's Court.
Since Blair's death in Southall on 23 April, despite various gestures, the police have shown no sion that they intend to bring charges against Blair's SPG murderer.
Witnesses testify to the fact that Blair was hit over
The walked away from the demonstration. The police have interviewed some members ot lne Special Patrol Group; they have admitted finding a rubber cosh, similar to the type of l
SOUTHALL defendants and witnesses at the magistrates' court last Thursday. Surbinder Chowdhury, found not
guilty of obstruction, is third
from the left. Rabinder Bolina, convicted of threatening behaviour, is on his left. for alleged threatening behaviour, set
Southall trials firmly in their political context.
Bolina, a porter at Heathrow Avolved namele in orth Road at have been 6.30pm on the 23rd, in which a crowd had run up to a police cordon and from which Bolina was seen running
According to the arresting Bolina was *very excited' when he was restrained and said We must stop the meeting'
And that was it, the sum total of
Remember
the pathologist's report states killed Blair, in police lockers.
It took them more than three months to organise identity parades. They have interviewed hundreds of people. And yet this top police team cannot find the murderer. A public enquiry has been refused.
This cover-up will continue unless we can show that we are determined 10 pursue the matter as long as Is necessary.
Obviously. when the inquest re-opens, who want a cover-up will be equally anxious to get the inquest out of the way with minimum publicity.
This is why the Friends of Blair Peach Commitlee is calling for nationwide
SOUTHALL
IS INNOCENT
STOP THE
TRIALS
the police evidence against him. You could be forgiven for wondering what law had been broken. After the trial - verdict: guilty, costs the explained that threatening to other people.
guilty was backed with the evidence that he had been on his way home from work; that he had unwittingly got caught up with the crowd, that the arresting officer, Godsae, was among several cops who had forced him to run the gauntlet of action around the date of the inquest.
We al anti-racists and trade unionists to work towaras a public demonstration intention to go on fighting the cover-up in the following ways:
Please attend the picket of the Coroner's Court on 11 October at Yam.
Nationwide: We appeal
socialists. anti-racists, and trade unionists to help organise action their
localities. are organising demonstrations and pickets of police stations in major towns, preferably on the eve of the inquest, 10 October.
Picket
your local police station.
Hold a march (torch light procession?) to the police station. Arrange a meeting lo tollow the demonstration.
Preparations for this | require help and to
their Bolina's
But
summing up.
plain.
the People. that lesson
week.
trouble.
Did
that
Southiell Dotence
Committes Fines and legal
has hardly been
fine £75 plus £30 defence solicitor
be pandemonium As it happens, Bolina's plea of not
and 'Open screened Sergeant Saturday levent: Leafleting and street meeting in the ares lt previDes Saturday. public meeting cover-up: Disband SPG
The Friends of Blair
Peach Committee can help you by supplying literature, including fact sheets,
isheets. • Speakers can be provided anywhere in the country.
And we have 'Disband the SPG badges Bulk orders 10p small, 15p large badges; individual orders 22p inct. postage.
Please get in touch with the committee
batons. A statement from doctor detailed bruises covering much of his body.
all that Magistrate Badge never even referrec
alleged brutality in his
The unspoken crime was only too
The police were on duty to ensure that a National Front meeting took place and anyone who had the temerity to protest was an Enemy of
More that that. Virtually all the 342 defendents are black. If the police went into Southall with the object of giving one of the oldest established and most confident communities of Asians and West Indians in Britain a
taste of that country's colonial rule, Sheridan
the job of the court is now to sanction
The following interchange took
place between the prosecuting counsel Socialist
and Neville Hall, the Misty singer, who was fined £100 on Tuesday of last
Challenge.
NH: The police were looking for
PC: What do you mean by that?
you expect • Ie police to
behave in the same way as in your
opinion they did in Leicester?
police are
themselves National Front. I saw
that with my own eyes and I know
from my own experience. I
am black. I know my mind. I have
scell a lut..
The trials continue. They are almost certain to go on into next year.
costs are likely to amount to £100,000. Two defendants have so far been jailed.
Suresh Grover has sat through all the cases, helping to co-ordinate the legal defence on behalf of the Southall Defence Campaign. He says: "There
1 a murmur outside Southall about the trials.
"To be frank about it, if 342 white workers were arrested we'd have the labour movement creating all kind of
about Because they're black, nothing has happened. I think it's shameful.'
*Southall Defence has made an
Door programme to on BBC-2 at 5.20pm, 22 September and late evening the following Thursday.
know how far your plan have gone.
Southall — the trials ol the 342 people arrested i Southall re-opened last week. This is as much a part of the cover-up as the stalling on bringing Blair's murderers to justice.
trade unimists must dent
and that the trials are stopped. In the meantime. there is an urgent need for funds. Please make cheq ues payable to the Southat Defence Fund All correspondence and contributions to Friends of Committer. c/o ANL/BPMF, PO Bos 151, London W CZ.
• 1979 PaR
Page 4 scan of this page
By Jude Woodward
IF ANYONE thought that the Nazis went away atter the general election, they had better think again. British Movement has been a obvious presence at a number of gies in London recently, particularly when the bands involved are connected with Rock Against Racism.
On September, Crass anarchist punk band — were doing a benefit gig at Conway Hall in Central London. Not for the first time their performance was broken up and the police arrived to put an end to the whole thing.
Rumours that the British Move-
was planning to smash it up circulated in the early part of the gig and fighting broke out just as Crass. came on to play. A couple of people were bottled before skinheads wearing British Movement and Red Hand of Ulster badges died for all of you — you should be playing for him'
orrie Bill
WE CAN expect contingent 4OOLGT supporters from Scotland on the 28 October demonstration, Scottish Trades Union Congress is financing a train to London.
But British Rail is using the fuel crisis as an excuse to refuse requests for trains that have been made by the regional TUCs in Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham.
Newcastle abortion campaigners are trying to persuade the National Union of Railwaymen (sic) to demand that British Rail lays on a special train.
£40 donation towards campaign has come from Tyneside Trades Council and the National Union of Public Employees in the city has donated £50.
NALGO and the Trades Council have given cash. Union members at Dillons bookshop in Central London holding regular collections Lambeth Trades Council has donated money.
New groups are mushrooming in Dundee, Stirling, Aberdeen, Hamlets and Greenwich. Workers Against Corrie Journalists Against Corrie have been
Blew groups are being started up iocialist Challenge 20 Septemher 1979 Page 4
gig-wreckers
— were chased out of the hall.
into gigs is not new. attacked a RAR The very year. They beat smashed the band's equipment.
all
London.
that area.
wreckedwas
group British Movement.
early on.
CENTREstage in this photograph of the Brixton anti-racist carnival is a British Movement member who grabbed the microphone to announce: 'Mountbatten
ampaign against the
this but are not sure how,
Inn Rd, London WC1. to see a large *The TUC has
since the leaflet, are available from CAC
Friday 11pm, Saxone Hall,
bar, food, plus live music *Greenwich
local Charlton House, London SE7.
Speakers
*Sheffield Trades ower Hamiets
will be Mel Reid (ASTMS)' are and September Furnival Gate.
Tower September with speakers from NAC public Legal and
Hall, 375 Willesden I London NW10, and starts at 8pm.
The trail of the Nazi
The British Movement intervention ther Thirty of them tall in Notting Hill on 29 June this
on 29 June this people and
At about the same time, a gig held
by the Young Communist League in
Ealing, in aid of the Southall defence,
was smashed up. A Young Socialist ULL.
gig with the Ruts, one of the carliest
RAR bands, met a similar fate in West
Palais,
But the trouble wasn't confined to
The first major gig that the fascists
Sham 69's 'farewell'
appearance at the Rainbow in North
London on 28 July. There were a large
number of skinheads in the audience,
together with some 40 members of the
way.
The BM started causing trouble
They'd been giving out group section
gig
recent
Upstarts him'.
Image,
| almost daily. If you would like to do
write to:
Campaign Against Corrie, 374 Grays
produced 10,000 leatiets to mobilise support for the Joe demo. These, along with a new CAC
*Tower Hamlets Campaign Against Corrie is holding a fund raising social
September, Saxone Road, Mile End. £1 (70p unwaged) — disco, lac.
Campaign Against Dentists.
Corrie is organising a public meeting on Tuesday, 25 September at 7.30pm,
Charlton Village, Nazis Speakers include Jo Richardson MP and a local doctor.
Council sponsoring a public meeting against the Corrie Bill at which the speakers
and a representative of Sheffield NAC: The meeting is at 7.30pm on Thursday 27
AUEW House,
*Brent Against Corrie is holding a
Tuesday 25
BPAS and the local campaign, plus a film. The meeting is in Brent Trades
High Road, ANL
leaflets in the loos beforehand, then
running round pulling badges off Anti Nazi League supporter», and egging on other skins to give Nazi salutes.
During one number, a few of the fascists got on to the stage and goosestepped across Crowds of chanted 'Sieg Heil' and the gig was brought to an end as fighting broke
Stiff Little
Fingers played at the Hammersmith happsed Jake Burns of Stiff Line where Fingers asked for the spotlight to be turned onto the trouble-makers and denounced them as Nazis. But this didn't stop the gig being closed down
The Ruts, who'd faced such trouble before, had their gig at the Nashville in London broken up in just the same
By this time some identification was being carried out. A smallish
of less than a dozen members wearing the badges, giving out leaflets, and recruiting are seen at all the gigs trying to stir up
Skinhead
They operate among the skinhead
of the audiences, -successfully. Apparently they are out to link being a skinhead with being racist and pro-Nazi.
The Angelic Upstarts have had a lot of trouble at their gigs. In early June a
of theirs smashed up was fascists in Wolverhampton,
gig in London's Electric Ballroom was aiso broken un.
have large skinhead following.
The Brixton anti-racist carnival in Brockwell Park earlier this month ended in similar Stiff Little Fingers began to play, punks in the audience broke down the barriers to get nearer the band and some invaded the stage. Two or three BM members went with them. One of Inem goi the microphone and announced: 'Mountbatten died for all of you — you should be playing for
Fascist attacks on gigs have been mainly in London but other have not been immune. When Public
former Sex Pistol Lydon's band, played in Leeds the gig was broken up by the National Front. The band had previously played with the black poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.
But the tascists are not satistied with smashing up our gigs, they are trying to hold some of their own. White Boss
Pearce, the Leeds organiser, is the brains behind Rock Against Communism, which in nine months of existence has organised one gig and two leaflets. The gig, held last month in Conway Hall, London, had an audience of 150, almost entirely
WO bands played, pleasantly named White Boss and the
The other two advertised bands did not show up.
It's vital that we don't allow the
stop our gigs place. RAR was vital in organising some of the biggest expressions of anti-Nazi feeling we've seen, would be a big boost for the Nazis if they thought they could stop RAR bands doing gigs.
Secondly, we have to point out that skins have played a part in the fight against racism. Some of the bands with big followings among skins, like Sham 69 and the Angelic Upstarts, should come out and say where they stand on the Nazis.
It doesn't automatically follow that all skins are racists and Nazis. That's just what the British Movement wants everyone to think. The way to stop it happening is through organised self-defence set up before the gigs. The
to give consideration.
and
people
thing
BM often
By Jane Mitchell
and a JUNE GREIG was found guilty of the
culpable homicide of her husband,
The George. In May, an Edinburgh court
sentenced her to six years in Cronton Vale women's prison 'to deter other women from killing their husbands'. June Greig had endured nine years When of violence. Her husband had kicked
pregnant, slashed her with a knife and burned her with cigarettes. and her daughter had been beaten.
Expecting another beating from her aliken children: I'm going Daddy'. She then stabbed him twice, once through the heart. Violence areas
June pleaded self-defence. But the John court rejected her plea. The police,
home to intervene, were not called as witnesses. The jury ignored the fact that her husband's previous marriage broke up because of violence. Her children and relatives testified that it was a premeditated act of violence.
How, then, expected to defend herself against her
NF
husband?
Many are afraid to go the police for fear of rurtaer Dealings. sexual humiliation physical beatings.
the violent assault. In many cases, the
violence systematic. three-year survey Edinburgh and showed that a quarter of all violent taking
crime is wife-assault.
Refuges
so it
Staying with relatives is no escape. A woman can easily be followed there by her husband. Women's Aid have nowhere near enough places to cater for the number of women who need help, and the cuts are threatening the refuges that do exist.
In Scotland, there is no Domestic Violence Act, like June
She is able to bring charges against her husband, but only if she has a witness, and neighbours are usually reluctant 10 get involved. cutions normally end in nothing more than a fine. Fines would never deter a urgent
George Greig.
Battered women
have served
enough time
"private'
Seplember.
she was the Both she
June her encourages to kill your
outside the home.
and Lothian seem have
June Greig College Street, don.
women beaten in the home
They often suffer along with Fighting back
recent cases Glasgow COLIN which means that a cannot ask
Successful prose-
stimulate
In effect, the law says that violence against women within marriage is a
matter. Yet when June decided to protect herself from her violent husband in the only way she knew how, the law did not hesitate to intervene - against her!
Jule suuea up on 27
There will be all-woman vigil outside the court on the night before, and a mass assembly
•day demand June's
Violence in the home
So long as society men lo see women as domestic slaves and objects to gratify male sexual desires, violent assaults on women will continue - inside and
WHATCAN YOU DO?
Sponsor the Campaign to Free
George Street, Edinburgh.
Write a letter of protest to: The
Advocate, MacKay of Calshfern QC; and to the Solicitor General, Nicholas Fairbarn
MP, Fielden House, 10 Great Westminster, Lon-
"JUDGE US BY OUR LEGS"
Velbon
THE MARKET LEADERS
Disgusting As of the Year
ADVERTSlike thispresent men with a vile image of women. They help to
violent assaults.
Page 5 scan of this page
Was the Right to Work march worth it?
By David Holland JUST UNDER 100 years ago, August 1885, 100,000 people took to the streets of London to demand the raising of the age of consent from 13 1o 16. Nine processions wound their way from different parts of London to Hyde Park, accompanied by 34 brass bands. There was waggonette filled with carrying the slogan Innocents Be Slaughtered?'
Legislation protect innocents' TUS FCU parliament.
Many people see this campaign as a victory in the struggle against exploitation, comparable to the child labour laws and affording necessary protection to children from sexual exploitation.
Yet a humane, report from the National Council for One Parent Families, published last week, recommends the repeal of the age of consent law: It points out that Ine law does nue to prolee young people, but does a great deal to make their lives more difficult.
Fear of prosecution makes it less likely young people will nave access to contraceptives, more likely they will have unwanted pregnancies and be fearful of admitting early pregnancy so that the problems raised can be dealt with. An immense area of police
to back sanctions against 'wayward' youth.
This report's recommendations are made in response to the real I MANAGED to survive the recent Right to Work march despite having my sleeping bag nicked. I was soaked to the skin when the marquee collapsed in the storm. But at least the hours I spent in a police cell for breaching the peace gave my sore feet a rest.
I managed to survive all this only to be confused by the final rally in Blackpool.
John Deason welcomed the speaker from the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade Unions, a CP member, and he spoke about the need for united fronts against the Tory attacks.
But on the march it seemed that the comrades of the SWP had a lot to learn about united fronts. The whole march seemed little more than a recruiting drive for the SWP.
One of the high spots was the march meeting on the eve of the TU Clobby. It was not so much a meeting as a variety show with numerous orange jacketed figures popping up in front of a mike to tell us to join the SWP.
A speech by John Deason told us about the need for a revolutionarv partv. But of course we were not told how to build it. There's no need - just add members and wait for the insurrection.
What a let down! No discussion about politics, not even about sexism and racism. Not even a real discussion about how to fight unemployment. A few meetings were organised one night after some Revolution members suggested it.
I could go on about the lack of democracy in the march council elections, about how the march bulletin was just an advert for the SWP and so on. Organising the unemployed is a massive task, that's why democracy is so essential:
The idea of the march — to show the anger of the unemployed, to make demands on the organised labour movement — is a good one. But it has to say a bit more than 'fight for the right to work' and 'burn Len Murray'.
The really sad thing was that lots of youth, open to revolutionary politics, who were on the march, really didn't learn anything from it. That was a big opportunity missed. MARK, Birmingham Revolution.
Whose
consent?
this 'protective' law brings. large little girls consent 'Shall the century ideological working class, 'the imposition of through
successiul society undertaken country safe for capital: Labour longer down to earth
cities. The
tion docile workers.
schooling system developed.
the family.
puffing femininity
parental
ideas
pressure of young people asserting their rights to make their own sexual choices. 1 in 8 of the young women under 16 at the moment have sexual relations of some kind. Harassment
repression of young people expressing their own sexuality is what
The background to the age of
the massive 19th assault on the involving the the of the bourgeois family. This itself was part of the tremendous restructuring or
to make the
could agricultural workers be sucked into the hungry
problem was the disciplining and ideological integra-
of entirely new generations of Children were taken out of the labour force and a mass
Women were driven out ot the world of work to take responsibility for child care in
Pan,
Just as this redoubled oppression of women was linked to a massive
ideals ot and sacred motherhood, children were segregated, regulated and repressed, a glowing idealization of the golden faery world of the child was developed. Romantic
about childhood, still very THE RIGHT to Work Campaign has been going for five years. Five years which saw unemployment rise to over 1.5 million.
There's no denying we need a way of fighting unemployment, but has the Right to Work Campaign got it right? If this year's march was anything to go by, then I think not. The march seemed to be saying that fighting unemployment is the same as joining the SWP Nobody is opposed to people joining the SWP but it is not the answer to all our problems. The thing is, it's all very well recruiting people but when there is insufficient politics on the march to counter even the problem of stealing, then it's clear that simply joining the party' is inadequate.
Similarly problems of overt racism and sexism were hardly touched on. Token speeches could not make up for the absence of any. explanation of what sexism actually is.
Fighting it needs more than women getting up and saying 'We're as good as any man': Especially when the next speaker might easily be a man referring to 'the lads on the march'. The march did not identify with women's political demands — such as for a woman's right to work — so it's not surprising that sexism was left unattacked.
But the main problem was that we were not offered a way of fighting unemployment. It was not clear how we get the organised labour movement to take up the question.
The march cannot have any impact on unemployment on it's own, we have to get the labour movement to fight for us.
That's why the campaign should exist all the year round, fighting for support inside the labour movement, both locally and nationally.
The march would be a lot bigger then. More people would come if it was based on strong
It should fight for demands like for a reduced working week and work sharing with no loss of pay because these can provide people with a real perspective for making inroads against unemployment.
Then the Right to Work March to the TUC would really represent something and really. mean something.
Richard Rozanski, NUSS.
strong today, were first generated in the mid 19th Century.
But the 'little angels' did not live in a Lewis C'arroll idyll. A savage attack on children's sexuality was launched to establish the childhood realm of purity and innocence.
At the same time as the nation wept over the death of Little Nell, Dr. Baker Brown, , the President of the London Medical
SOCARON carrying out countless elitorectomies on littie girls. Peter Pan
As the nation thrilled to
device. WElC being marketed with sharp sicer. Icell ol which set off loud alarms to be attached to little boys' prevent : then getting Masturbation, unremarked by prevlous generations, was proclaimed to lead to insanity, epilepsy and death.
Il ls againsl inis Dackground La the campaign to raise the age of
school.
consent should be seen. It did have an Cuadole
sexual morality mobilization of women.
But the other
Purity Leagues was section the Quakers and the idiom,
Peter fundamentally repressive process. widely
also introduced beating as a penalty for sexual activity between minors, penises to
adults in private illegal.
La victory against exploitation.
Sisterwrite books, 190 Upper St, London N1.
paedophilia.
brutally
consent,
Wrecker.
1885 marchers also carried banners reading to 95 'Equal Rights for Men and Women'.
An attack on the double standard of WaS begun by
elements in the campaign — the Salvation Army, the youth Snowdrop Band, the • overwhelmingly were Dart of the massive effort to colonise the working class with bourgeois morality and the ideology of the bourgeois family: a age range. brunt of The law parliament passed in 1885 ment. not only raised the age of consent, it
victimised prostitutes by introducing have fresh penalties for soliciting and made political homosexual acts between consenting
This was a moral crack-down not for youth.
RIGHT to Work marchers released from police custody after being arrested for distributing leaflets in
WOMEN IN ACTION
Working Conference to launch a new women's paper for the unions Saturday 13 October, Friends Meeting House, Bull Street, Birmingham
(off Corporation St. opposite New St station) 12-5.30pm.
Sponsors include: Working Women's Charter Campaign, Women in the NUT, Lambeth Teachers Association, Civil Service Women's Rights Group, North Staffs Women's Rights Standing Committee, NATHE. For copies of the pilot issue, literature write to Women in Action, Box 2,
Socialist Challenge
The present day situation in whi threats of police and prosecution ba up the arbitrary power of teachers a parents over young people is a res of this historic victory of bourge ideology. Readers will remember recent amazing case of the nationw hunt to run down a young couple w had quite rationally decided to away together.
Paedophilia
Seperate needed of many of the ramificatic Of these questions. Gays for exam for whom the age of consent is face many other specific inequiti There is also the related question
Those, however who see spectre of the child molester and I
buggered toddler lurki behind any threat
should consider originated these figures. My guess the Black Rapists brae
Black Rapist and
It is worth remembering that all the sexual offences against you people under 13 that come to court
per cent do CIOU invo penetration let alone demonstral violence or coercion. A rather high proportion of evident violence against adults! Young
But cross generational sex is a si issue for the 40,000 young wom under 16 involved each year in sext relationships with people in their o
It is they who bear t intimidation and hara
It is on their behalf, since th
barely the beginnings of themselves, socialists should argue for the rep of the age of consent law and abortion and contraception facilit
Page 6 scan of this page
FIGHTING THE CUTS-ROUND-UP
By Pat Hickey, TGWU Solihull
MICHAEL EDWARDES is just too smug for words. Like some elderly headteacher the end assembly, he chides those at the Park Royal bus plant who failed to pull their socks up and pats Speke 2 on the head for being good boys and girls.
But instead of handing out school prizes he's. taking away thousands of jobs. Winners
'Backing the winners' is Edwardes' new motto. Unfortunately there will be none among Leyland's 165,000 workers.
Those who still have their jobs will face speed-up and ditions. Every fight for a increase will be used as an excuse for more sackings, as Edwardes has made clear over the national engineering claim.
So who are the winners? They are
shareholders who for received protits that ploughed back into investment - the real reason for Leyland's problems
And they are the private financiers to whom the Tories want to return Leyland after Edwardes has got it back on its feet at the expense of Leyland workers.
Edwardes can afford confident if the unions carry on as
Grenville Hawley, officer for the TGWU, has said that the union's policy has always been not to accept compulsory redundancy'.
Speke
Yet that has not stopped 18,000 jobs being lost since January 1978, or the closure of the Speke and Southall plants. The union leaders showed no sign of giving a national lead then, and there is no sign of one today. Lambeth
By Hilary Tarr, Lambeth
Trades Council, personal
capacity
THE controlling Labour
group on Lambeth coun
cil, South London, has
reversed its position on the
cuts. By 29 votes to nine,
councillors decided on
Friday to restore £2m
expenditure that the
council had previously
axed.
The reversal came after local Labour Party
conference had expressed
its opposition to any cuts
or rates increase. Counci
leader Ted Knight said he
would change his position
Friday's Labour group
meeting was lobbied by
some two hundred anti-
cuts
Announcing a march Parliament 05
November, Kaight said:
• Wie have decided to take
on stand now against th
governesent's lisastrons
solicies, rather than wait
for situation
leterioraie further.
Oxford OXFORDSHIRE County
It's time for the unions in BL to
Wipe the smugness
off Edwardes'face!
Rover 'It's only
is going on,
of term
facts.
Combine
tens of
had a policy accept work workers losing the work abject
the TR7 from previously vetoed Worse C"
wage Honda.
tested.
years were never without answers
charges of 'unprofitability" resisted. extra-large seemed an casier way Dul.
Change
to be
change their whole approach. national
minimum
It's time the
'market forces' profit.
Council is planning to
close all nursery schools in
the area. Its provision of
nursery places was not
stupendous before 12
schools and 16
nursery CHASES the
whole county - but now
there will be none at all.
The cuts will mean the
loss of 100 jobs in addition
to the suffering caused to
both parents and children.
Annie Pile is an Oxford
mother who will be
affected by these cuts, she
also Socialist
Challenge supporter.
I'm
and I have been working
full-time. Because
inadequate nursery provis-
ion in Oxford I have had to
rely on a childminder.
*I have a low income,
so it was hard to meet
childminding expenses
with no tax relief But
since September the older
child has been able to
attend nursery school all
day and the younger child
can go in the afternoons.
*Having my children at
nursery school has relieved
me of the feeling of guilt
that working parents often
have as I know they have
the stimulation of playing
children plus
play facilities.
"The cuts in Oxford are planned.
crackpot discuss industrial action until we know what
says Grenville Hawley.
So instead of that, the national Joint negotiating committee has set up an emergency committee to find out the
The national combine committee, which is best placed to give a lead when the national officers don't, has
that no. plant should action. from another if the
On paper that policy could defeat the latest 'plan' of Edwardes. Rover workers could veto the movement of Cowle Dolomite as they the Cowley workers could refuse the new
But in the real world things are different. When Speke No 1 plant was
the closed the combines policy was never
The workers at Speke - faced with having to mount an isolated struggle,
Edwardes' - never Southall the lure of redundancy payments
If there is finally to be a fightback in Leyland then the unions need to
The TUC emergency resolution is just one more example of how they have accepted the logic of Edwardes argument. Their answer is to insist on
British imported cars and put import controls on those cars without that minimum.
unions said that workers' jobs and livelihoods can no longer be dependent on the whims of
and ine It's time they said that the work available in Leyland nationally must be shared out without any loss in
la familiar case of divide land rule. In July this year the Education Committee was going to cut school meals. Before that it had taken up the issue 'rising fives: 'Now all the nurseries are going to be cut, bul rising fives will be allowed to start school a term and school meals will not be touched. all our services. Nursery schools ¡are essential too. *The fact that the cuts in jobs will mainly affect women - and they are not strongly organised in trade unions, family responsibilities often mean they cannot make it to union meetings.
'As parents organising a fight-back against these cuts the fives themselves ¡don't have a voice.'
A meeting was held in Oxford Tuesday U11 September which was attended by UTCH 100 parents, teachers and trade unionists who opposed the lobby of the LIL.
Education Committee and demonstration dic
pay, and that they oppose any job loss, voluntary or otherwise.
And it's time they national plan for immediate action to show they mean business.
It should include occupation of those plants and sections closure; national strike stoppages to back that up; and the boycotting of work transferred from other plants.
Mass membership meetings, plan stewards' conferences and a nationa stewards' conference can prepare the
Lead
A clear and vigorous lead at this point can inspire confidence in the membership and wipe the smugness
Edwardes' face. Prevarication and delay are a recipe for confusion and demoralisation. The biggest fight facing BL workers is that of forcing
unions, and the combine committee, into giving that lead.
A
Benn joins cuts demo
this.
Ted Knight, Labour leader of Lambeth council.
By Rich Palser in Solihull FOR THE workers at BL's SD1 plant in Solihull have been on management's attempts staffing levels.
As typical of Leyland, the finding themselves one's battle, but fighting it alone On 12 September they were called into work by the works which covers all three BL plants on up a the Solihull site.
Joe Harris, stewards to recommend a return to facing work.
Agreements
Management had said they would honour the mutuality agreements which specify that changes have to be agreed by both sides reducing staff and Incl them again if this proved necessary after talks with the The SD1 stewards insisted that the status quo should remain until after agreement is reached with the union.
The works committee said they should 'test management's integrity'.
The stewards decided unanimously recommending that the strike should continue at the mess meeting that day.
But the harm had already been
HARINGEY...
PLATFORM for Haringey's anti-cuts demo last Saturday. On the left Tony Benn, who managed to sit quietly through the Labour government's cuts and told the 300 demonstrators about the financial pressures that had been brought to bear by the IMF, the City, and the like. He didn't say what a Labour government could do about
Next to him were Labour MPs Norman Atkinson and Reg Race, and on the right,
The loudest applause was for Val Graham [inset], vice president of Haringey teachers' association. 'We teachers will not be making any distinction between those who wield the axe with enthusiasm and those who wield it reluctantly,' she said.
On strike at Rover Solhull
second week running,
return to work. strike over to cut Return
disputes workers at SDI are
fighting everyThe overwhelming.
• COLLICC Thursday
The site convenor, wanted the SDI plant
had
the
victory
gates - but by first
Minions. above the cold.
the picket Worse But
Faced
line of resisting
is possible, continues.
More
BL don't tear
appealing membership through
plant is silent.
done. The membership thought that having been called in a day early, a settlement was near, and since then they had been in a frame of mind to
Although they voted to stay out on 12 September, it was only two to one.
had previously been Management is now more confident to sit it out — a feeling no doubt reinforced by events last
The mass meeting the day before
picket the Range Rover and Land Rover plants, since
which management was flouting covered them also, and stopping those plants would bring
closer. So at 6.30am Thursday the pickets arrived at the
'Stopping lorries is a piece of piss senior steward Bill Mullins told me as he stepped out into the road. After the first lorry turned back, spirits rose
But then the lorries from Leylan in Oxford began to arrive. 'We'r been told by our district secretary to
official pickets, the driver said. So TGWU members cross
line set up by other members of their union.
worse was lo come. The drivers based at Solihull also insisted on crossing — they had been told to Dy lne works collice
with such a display of 'solidarity', it is hardly surprising that workers who have been in the front
Edwardes' cutbacks have lacked confidence that resistance
although the strike
importantly, what happening at Solihull shows just how
management operates they up agreements, they just 're-define' them.
The SD1 workers are determined to win so they are digging in. They are
to the rank and the other plants leafleting and contacting sympathetic stewards. In the mean time the production line in the SD1
Settling accounts with the works leadership will have to wait until they are back inside the gates.
Hackney
WIDESPREAD strikes boosted a day of mass action against health and education cuts in Hackney last Thursday. More than 1,000 people lobbied meeting of the City and
East London Area Health Dhoto. AM COOKSON (Sacialia, Challengel
Authority after an earlier piCKel of inner London Education Authority offices to protest at plans for school closures
Among those who took strike action were workers in all the local hospitals, civil servants in the DASS and Department of Employment, and the entire Hackney council manual department. Support from industrial workers was shown through action at British Oxygen and a delegation on the demonstration from Metal Box.
Despite this action the ятеа health authority voted to implement f3.5m worth of cuts - including the crosure of over 60 general, surgical and gynaecological beds at St Leonard's hospital. Direct action to prevent these cuts must now be the focus of resistance.
Page 7 scan of this page
BEWARE OF A SELL-OUT
By Rich Palser
to BEWARE OF A SELL-OUT.
holidays.
• without any loss in
unemployment.
All out
action is
needed
to win
Says PAT HANSON, Convenor al ine Brough Aerospace plant on Humberside: 6L AS FAR as I'm concerned we
need an all-out strike to finish them off as cleanly as possible. What is clear is that it has to be a national fight for the full claim, none of this plants going it alone nonsense. I'm opposed
1• any settlement of the strike because that » ill onls increase the wage differences and strengthen the bosses' hand.
At a 1,500-strong mass meeting of shop stewards from Humberside few weeks argued for all-out strike action as the only way to win. And we lost by only right votes. I'm pretty confident that if we put it to the vote in my factory a majority would call for all-out strike action.
I nfortunately. union rules preclude us from calling a mass meeting and pulting it to the vote. It's got lo come from the National Executive first. Terry Dufty's f position. He's a new boy, and knows he can't he seen by the membership avoiding a fight.
This is good for us because he can he put to the fest and if found wanting he can be removed. The TU Cand CBI have talked about the 'harmonisalion of relations but Terry won't be having harmonious relations anyone, because the members will be pulling him into action.
Ken Gill is supposed left-wing. yet in this strike Duffy is willing to take more action undu les.
vy e are Delng itt down Dy me witte olse indis TASS are part of CSEL
crossing What they don't seem to understand is that when the micro-chips introduced they'll be first for the chop. Then they will come knocking on our door for help.
lot of workers voted Tory of the Thatcher supporune conecuve Dalgaining and allowing the unions to negotiate with the employers on the
But what's happened now that they are in power? They're backing the EEF to the hilt and have introduced proposals to cut down union rights.
'I'he are right behind this 'right to work' move to cross ine picket-line. The local bosses' rag, the Hull Daily Mail, ran big articles about two guys who don't want to support the strike. Yet that is all they could find two guys! We
sips orin weekly dewspaper
LEWOUNDE Hull News.
Duffy hints at a deal
TERRY DUFFY is reported to be 'looking for a breakthrough'. That should be a warning sign to all engineering workers. It should warn them
From the very beginning the right wing union leaders have been attempting to avoid a fight over the claim. They tried to water it down to £70 for skilled workers and drop the demand for shorter hours altogether. Now Duffy is again hinting that 'an hour off the week' and commitments to further reductions in hours can be traded for extra
Now is not the time to be conceding to the employers the principles behind the claim. The reduction in hours is a first step towards sharing
pay it's
The employers are just starting to take the action seriously. The 'back
AUEW British plant-by-plant
over ago, peculiar
truth was there in the
in Birmingham. with
first
to he beth Civic Terry
to heckle. lines. greeted Thatcher's
ribbons.
about the way about organised.
Instructions
sueden
had no quarrel with the union
are fully very sympathetic to them.
selves as being anti-union.
oyercome.
part of the fight against
GEC
NO ENTRY
OFFICIAL
PICKET
THE press has done all it can to boost the 'back to workers'. But how much
reports? We asked TINA MACKAY, a TGWU shop steward from Lucas Aerospace
The 'back to work' movement appeared the union-organised rally in Dig20 August.
Women from Lucas' King St. plant were handing round a petition, and some of them came into the meeting
The core of them just wanted to go back tó work - they were Tories who
election decorating their machines with blue
But at the beginning won all that meeting, for instance - they won broader support because of problems
Lic was
As one Lucas steward put it: 'We did not have adequate information, we weren't informed about the claim,
We get an instruction to tell our members to
When some of the women heard what it was all about they said they
- IS the way the strike was called. I was
And the hard-liners gradually exposed them- right
When the two-day strikes began,
to work revoll' has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. The latest episode at Rolls Royce saw no significant return to work even when the union failed to picket. break the strikes. GEC has begun to lay-off workers claiming it to be the result of the two-day stoppages.
factory. By firm and decisive action lock-outs can be prevented, and the employers attempts to split and
have been prepared to go as far as two-day strikes, but now they have got to finish the job. The employers are calling Duffy's bluff: either go all the way or make concessions.
SELL OUT, MAKE IT ALL OUT ACTION.
'People are not prepared to go anti-union'
IF WE ARE
BLACKLEGS
THEN UNIONS
ARE DICTATORS
Women from Lucas' King St. plant.
they tried to cross picket lines.
then marched to disrupt the AUEW
shop stewards meeting.
they used the slogan of 'we want the
work', thev meant
individual rigit and not a collective
right in the way we use the slogan. It
Now the employers are embarking on a new and more serious tactic to
Workers at GEC in Sheffield have responded by occupying the
demoralise engineering
But another lesson must be learned from these lay-offs. The unions
That's why engineering workers have to be on their guard and say: NO
was an 'I'm alright Jack' attitude! So their support is dwindling and it's because people are not prepared to go anti-union. One useful offshoot, perhaps, is that some of my members are starting to meetings are held didn't realise that mass meetings in the plant are not the only way union policy is shaped. I think King should have had a mass meeting like we did.
The membership behind the claim for the same reason. The claim does affect my members' shift allowance and overtime, though they were pissed off when I told them demand maternity leave had been dropped.
But the becoming a matter of them and us The propaganda the EEF is sending out (in our place we each got a letter with a 10p stamp on it saying the were going bust because of us) is al about being one big family. But when they are working on Monday and Tuesday and we're not, that starts to ring false.
Another thing is this. The demand for a cut in hours doesn't interest the older women, who think in terms of wages not hours; but when you start to explain It in terms overtime and saving different. When they Although union is irresponsible, you can show
how the union
their members but for those out of 29 sible not Just
work as well.
workers
Terry Duffy, AUEW President. ask when branch
engineering one member revolt the St.
coming
where a weeks strike' main thing is that it's
the claim going in.
of cutting jobs, that's say that the they lost.
With being
accept defeat.
So what
happened
at Cowley?
THE ONLY real success scored by the
employers thei attempts to stimulate a 'rank and fik
against the strikes has decision by workers at Cowley plants not to take part. Bu even here it only proved possibl because a section of the steward leadership led the revolt'
It started in the body plant whe they refused to support the first on day strike. But at a mass meeting
of the steward recommended a one day counter
they were voted down and instead the members voted for the next one day stoppage in support of
When the two day • strikes bega however the plant leadership decide to "leave it to the members' to decid
• Not errorist a green kers to e in. Not surprisingly workers at Assembly plant began to ask why the should strike when the others wert
2,000 workers marched to the convenors, who were forced to agree to a mass meeting. Whilst the plan leadership fought hard for the strike. an ex-steward put it to the vote ard
the right-wing steward threatening to go in as well as th members, the stewards leadership it the Assembly plant was forced i
Page 8 scan of this page
THE ENGINEERING
AT THE end of 1971 conflicts in Britain had reached a peak not equalled for over forty years. The majority of these disputes from the Manchester sit-ins of 1972 in iwo major respects.
(1) Faced with growing employment the majority of disputes took a defensive Work-ins at the Upper Shipbuilders (UCS) in Glasgow and the occupations of Fisher Bendix and Plessey were part defensive protest against capitalism's attempt to increase unemployment.
(2) All other large industrial
industrial
ILdEKCO
differed
uncategories. character.
Clyde
(1) The failure
labour's
minimum Engineering (EEF) had Page 8
disputes were both nationally led and officially backed from the outset.
contrast the Manchester sit-ins (March-August 1972) were offensive, locally led and, at the start of the dispute, unofficial. Many periods tactors account for these differences but can be condensed into three broad
of the three agreements in 1964/71 to achieve only the absolute
concessions from the enced Employers' Federation shalled placed growing
responsibility onto plant bargaining.
(2) The practical experience engineering workers during
of pay restraint (1965/68). Engineering, being an industry based on a payment by results wages system, provided a proven mechanism beating pay norms, which was furthe enhanced by a continuous shortage of skilled personnel during a period of rising unemployment.
(3) A growing army of experi-
plant rank and file members to exploit management's weaknesses.
of the
for
mar-
the present time.
But if their strength lay in their past experiences it was also responsible for the weaknesses during the duration of the dispute. Isolated in hundreds of different factories they failed to take account of the changing economic climate. During the 1960s a typical strike had lasted three days, had involved a few hundred people and had been settled at local or plant level. 66 ...the employers
entered into the dispute with a distinct advantage"
But from major union had to reckon with the possibility, even the likelihood, that it would need to call out hundreds of thousands of people for three weeks or more. massive rise in unemployment. In the twelve months ending in October 1971 over four hundred and fifty thousand jobs in the manufacturing industry vanished. Employment fell over five per cent in the year industries: metal mechanical engineering, engineering and textiles.
By 1972 1½ million fewer people WEre at work September 1966 economic climate failed to influence Manchester engineering who only related to past experience.
experience proved that short unofficial stoppages was an acceptable strategy standards.
Viewed from their position it was not surprising that the 1972 dispute was seen as an extension of normal
The only Ulatic time. being a joint factory strategy instead 'of the disputes. This therefore left unquestioned their new bargaining position in relation to a falling labour market and the consequent strengthening of the employers" resistance to new pay claims. In other words, they failed to realise the full implications of their actions.
Success in Manchester would have destroyed the effectiveness of the EEF and consequently would have challenged the bargaining. Failure to ensured that only thé trade union and employers' bureaucracie. gain from a defeat of the Manchester
Dul lo implications that lay disputes requires an examination of the differing strengths employers' and tions. This then brings into question the role of the national trade union leaders, effective resistance in combating the employers' offensive.
Collectively the employers entered into the dispute advantage,
Lessons for the present
MIKE SMITH was Chairperson of the Ferranti ( 1972. He was thus in a unique position to ev weaknesses of the wave of factory occupations from March till August 1972. The extract we publish below is the concludi longer study which will be published elsewhere. extremely important for the engineering struggles
employers. 21 May plan tactics.
tactics 1970 onwards every
to
Coupled with this was the
offers in several manufacture, As electrical "sectionalism . The reany on the Britain than in
workers, But
for maintaining living incapable of
needed common cause.
difference this
usual sectional
problem
funds. national realise this
understand the full behind: the
workers' organisa-
who failed to moblise any
with distinct organisation being control.
tar superior to both local and national levels of the trade union movement.
During the period of the dispute (over
five months) the workers' representa-
tives only met as a collective three times, once to plan the action, , once to
listen to Hugh Scanlon defend the leadership and lastly to admit defeat.
This was in marked contrast to the The Times pointed out on 1972 that: 'considerable
organisation has gone into dealing with the present crisis. The local
employers association which has the
strong backing of the national EEF has formed into sixteen manageable groups of about twenty companies, each of which have been meeting to
While the employers planned their
the workers sat in their factories without any guidance or plan of how to combat this offensive. Isolated from one another they failed
prevent the consistent flow of settlements on a cash only basis, which even the local trade union leaders were powerless to prevent. Without leadership from national level workers felt obliged to follow normal practice, that being accepting
that satisfied their own sectional interests
Lane correctly points VUL, could only have been held. in check it unions had been capable of generating a programme of a sufficiently broad sweep as to make the differences betweer workers seem petty and trivial.' (The Union Makes Us Strong: Tony Lane, 1974. p. 268)
sectionalism the dominant Characteristic of engineering, an unofficial district dispute was
raising the level of workers' consciousness. Mass action
least one identifiable The four point claim failed to realise this objective. Skilled workers failed to relate to a claim that called for uniform increases. Men on the whole objected to equal pay for women, and the thirty five hour week was seen as utopian.
Even the sit-ins proved no
to the employers They realised that while workers sat in their factory they were separated from one another. Heating and lighting costs may have increased, but they were amply compensated out of national
•..only defence
was the newsheet
produced by the
International Socialists"
It soon became clear that only the well organised factories were taking the struggle sericusly This further enhanced management's determination to win the dispute. Defeat over the well organised factories promised a massive shift back to managerial
Page 9 scan of this page
IT-INS OF 1972
venor's Committee in ate the strengths and ich shook Manchester
passage from a much any of its lessons ch are taking place at
To achieve this end, management used every opportunity attempts to isolate workers. One of their main weapons was a continuous flow of company letters to the homes of every individual worker. In a letter to all Hawker Siddeley workers they emphasised the weakness workers' position. example of the continuous per ot letter below is a management propaganda, employees engaged in the Manchester engineering dispute.
'You may find it interesting now the latest position in the district. Of the 250 Federated firms in our İssociation, 193 are now normally, 11 are working virtually Formally, 13 are suffering meaningful sanctions, 4 have some form of strike, 8 have laid off their workers who have gone home, and 21 have sit-ins.
'Of these working mad reachese, ellens be onsy reached settlements and 6 include some small change in conditions as well, but in no case a reduction in working hours.
It has been claimed that Faireys rave agreed to reduce the veek in 1973. AllI can say is that their Chairman and their Director have assured the Federation That they have not agreed to this.......
• With the of the country naking reasonable progress settling the claim, it seems crazy for Manchester in general and Stockport ~ particular to throw common nd good wages to the wind in the ace of fair offers from employers. his can only do serious damage to he long term future of the district and s companies, discourage potential mployers from setting up in business ere, and encourage unemployment. This cannot be what the average man ants - when will they say so? Hawker Siddeley Aviation Limited, lanchester letter to all imployees, 25 April 1972)
Even though these letters presented the workers' ey played a major cological wartare for breaking down orkers resistance. The only defence gainst this type anda was the newssheet produced by
International Socialists (foreanner of the SWP).
This newssheet attempted -ordination of the larger factories, at with a circulation of only ten lousand, it failed to reach a major coportion of the workers.
While workers faced this uneven ruggle -WIC has ask revented national trade ders from mobilising sistance. Two major reasons stand
(1) At time had. ntemplated an all-out. pute. Events, however, overtook em. The Manchester tiated by rank and file members satisfied by the inactivity nonal level. The Manchester action s therefore outside of their control.
are
their
of the
sent to all
to
working
normally, 37
working
Managing
burden of national leaders the
in the struggle, they
sense Manchester success
new national
end in contro This their disadvantage
mis- massive defeat that. the inflicted position, part in the workers have learned from
working class struggles.
propa-
6€ ...not able to
develop any real
force "
The 1972 sit-ins what
during that
they also aspects national
period, while (hers action was beginning of a new chapter.
the post-war shop stewards ment.
(2) Once Manchester accepted the leadership, it allowed opportunity of sitting back to watch developments. If
the workers appeared to be winning labour,
could force the EEF back round the table in a weakened another.
›osition, and so take credit for th
On the other hand if Manchester failed they could step in and agree to a
settlement, while blaming the Manchester workers for the weakness of their position at the bargaining table. In either case they become would be able to come out of it at the
position laken by the national leadership was an obvious
the Manchester sit-ins. It played a major part in the
employers workers. The HIcssons these defeats will become evident in future alternative political
tended
, belong to the history of struggle between labour and capital. Much of what occurred Even so,
five months was unexceptional. It would have happened in any strike. But there were
of that struggle which working represented the end of one historical ideology,
signified the beyond
The sit-ins were a massive blow to
move- industry The post-war boom enabled workers to gain economic concessions - skilled
by exerting pressure at the point of production. Particularly in industries such as engineering, where there was a continuous shortage of skilled
workers could to a certain extent play off one employer against
In engineering the struggle workers took place on a plant by plant basis. Because in the main gains were achievable at this level, workers neglected to co-ordinate on industrial or national level. Plant bargaining enabled shop stewards to
the natural leaders engineering workers.
As evidence the Donovan Commission (1965/68) noted;
power has moved away in trade unions from the top, from the Ter tuner officials, particularly from the national officials, and in fact power is now concentrated on the shop floor, and it is concentrated in the shop steward.
This shift from established shop stewards that took place in the 1950s and early 1960s increased the militancy of engineering workers and responsible in part for the reputation that British industry had of being 'strike-prone'.
This type of militancy
disguise IneT overall weakness and lack of organisation. Shop stewards were the spearhead of
whatever the limitations of their political ideology - and on the whole it was reformist if the organisation and practicé to unite the
class hạd too, would have gone simple economic unionism.
The plant by plant maustry by
divisions of the working class, as well as divisions between
and unskilled, men
women, black and white workers are the effects of the organises the working class attempts to dominate it.
This domination is reflected in the labour movement, where sectionalism is incorporated in the organisational by structure of all trade unions. The 1972
sit-ins attempted to restrictions of sectionalism. Engineering shop stewards an between factories. But they wine ion made attempts
able to develop any real alternative of
union bureaucrats meant that many stewards only felt loyalty to workers within their own destroyed any real between factories.
The failure of shop stewards to move away from traditional practice was a significant point in the final defeat of the Manchester the also removed any illusion that some
socialists held about shop stewards benguard of the working class being future The Manchester sit-ins that this hope was utopian. What was revealed was the reformist attitude of the trade union movement, which was only part of its historical foundations.
While the working class struggled to overcome the reformism, the carefuly examining its own weakness. In 1965/68 thé Royal Commission on Trade Unions, chaired Donovan defect in British industrial relations is their the disorder in factory and workshop
relations and pay structures promoted trade by the conflict between the formal
and the informal systems.... Certain features of trade union structure and government have helped to inflate the power of work-groups and stewards.
capitalism
discipline the
attack strikes,
reducing
The (1964/70) was
1968)
ensured
leaders Hon
government
confrontation
of way capitalism
in its
overcome the the sit-ins:
in Manchester
co-ordination
happen again.
factory, which
co-ordination
sit-ins. It
revolutionary
showed
have agreements
strong of fight. bourgeoisie
stewards. by Lord
'The central
working class.
. such as
and shopdesperate
Socialist Chall
The message of this report was
loud and clear. Capitalism needed to
regain control of the labour process at
the point of production. This problem
became even more pressing as British
moved into economic
recession. Unemployment, speed-ups
and the removal of restrictive working
practices were deemed necessary to
working •class. The organised opposition to this came through ' unofficial led by shop stewards So
defeat or regulation of rank and file
leaders became the main ingredient
for reforming collective bargaining.
Since 1968 government legislation industry been aimed at unofficial strikes, and
through that the power of shop.
stewards. This was first attempted by
a Labour government in 1968, and
again by a Tory government in 1971.
Labour
Borerinci the first to attempt
legislation against unofficial strikes.
Their White Paper (In Place of Strife,
created massive opposition
from rank and file activists, rightly appreciated that they were the
main target of any legislation. :This
that resistance was
forthright than many trade • union
probably intended Faced with this reaction from the working class, the Labour government agreed to drop legislation.
Even so, this did not prevent the new Conservative government (1970/
74) from introducing the Industrial Relations Act (1971). The strategic intention of this legislation was to compel the unions themselves to discipline their members, to decrease the volatility of factory-based industrial relations, and thus to minimise the effective bargaining power of the rank and file shop stewards organis-
The defeat of the Conservative government at the hands of the miners
(1974). ensured that the new Labou
based its industria strategy on collaboration instead of
Though even this attempt failed because of the refusal
militant workers to accept responsibility for the crisis.
Defeat of this type of legislation overall strategy. They opted strengthening the trade union leader. ship's control over the shop-floor. This has been a necessary precondi tion for the collaboration of the trade unions and the state in its attempts to restructure British capitalism
The 1972 sit-ins in Manchester demonstrated the weakness of the
rade union moyement, given the
xisting forms of organisation, bu these lessons were not missed by the more politically conscious stewards
As one engineering steward called John Deason pointed out at the end of 'Every engineer in Manchester mus be aware by now that they were left in the lurch first by the national officials and later by the local ones. And unless we do something about this it could
The only solution to these problems is to have the control of the unions and the dispute in the hands of the rank and file
"The so-called left-wing leaders of the AUEW have made such a cock-up that they have opened the door to the return of the right wing and that is what we have to guard against at al costs by making sure we have real democracy in the union.
"There is no doubt that the result of the Manchester dispute has been to increase the unevenness between the factories rather than uniting them. This is going to make the struggle next year even harder because now we all
run out at different times. The only answer is to start preparations now and mount a
campaign for a national
Events since th sit-ins have justified the fears of many militant
Labour government returned to power in 1974 adopted the strategy of collaborating with the trade union leadership • to control the
The working class has still to draw its lessons from struggles
the Manchester sit-ins.
Reformisr still dominates the labour movement, the unions' leaders still have no strategy to go forward, and capitalism is getting more and more
20 S
Page 10 scan of this page
DECOLONISE ZIMBABWE?
Britain,
since 1965?'
JOSEPH MSIKA, secretary general of ZAPU
THE liberation armed struggle in Zimbabwe has reached advanced stage indeed. The Patriotic Front forces are waging a relentless war with courage and determination. We have demonstrated b defeating first the UDI.
We have defeated lan Smith. Ian Smith was forced by the Patriotic Front lo change his tactics, realise that he did not change HICHLON. He has tried to use manoeuvres by
woeing some of our unprincipled brothers in Zimbabwe to accept being used as political instruments in the fight against their own people. To this
say shame, Shame Muzorewa. a naive bishop, a person who hasn't the foggiest idea of what it is 1o fight and liberate your country. (Voice from audience: Put him under ncary manwers.)..
Comrades, we know that you will ask me what is it that the Patriotic Front is about. The Patriotic Front has made it abundantly clear that the
true liberating our country is by revolutionary armed struggle.
You will say: what are you doing here, then? The answer is, that the revolutionary armed struggle is the only surest and true method of liberating our country, and having been invited to talks as the result of the war, responded, we have come because we realise such tarks complementary to the revolutionary
națive...
The Patriotic Front, an alliance of ZAPU and ZANU, as the only true vanguard of the liberation struggle for the people of Zimbabwe, realises that unity is a national necessity...
Comrades, we have formed many committees, embracing the political leaderships and the ZANU and ZAPU. We have now
EDGAR TEKERE, secretary general of ZANU
WE FEEL very much indebted to you, and particularly to the public of Great Britain, for such an overwhelming demonstration of support for the people of Zimbabwe. We make a very clear distinction between the British government and the British people...
We have come to London because we have been invited. The British government thinks that perhaps on this occasion It CalI problem of Zimbabwe by negotiation. Many years ago we gave it up because we didn't think it worked. We 1o0k up the gun and this is what we are doing... and with it we are going to acquire power.
That is our initiative. We have no other initiative for the people
London at the invitation of the British government because they think that
initiative, not ours.
And while we are attending here in London to other people's initiative we will make sure that our own initiative
move back home, battlefield.
Margaret Thatcher is saying she has called Lord Carrington is saying he has been asked
We have come here solve a conflict. We understand that we have been invited here to solye an armed conflict. Matters
coyered but they going to be incidental...
Sociallst Chall 20 $
‹Where were you,
developed that into a council of both ZAPU
very tees of both movements.
this by
but we
This
right thrugh liberation armed struggle.
Bishop We called upon
negative. remove Smith and decolonise. answer was negative... no
she wants to decolonise Zimbabwe. you, Britain, since 1965? method of say
and blood sacrifices, the realising front has
decolonising process.
decolonise...
• have There
There,
alter-
iogelner..
mean rue power, wild ments of power -
commands of
oi bower.. the of The come
we go much further.
That's their is a very crucial question.
armies. One commanded by General wals. been vicious
on the resistance against
all the people of Zimbabwe.
to the question.
the security are
Page 10
co-ordinati and ZANU with the right to make decisions and answerable to joint executive commit-
We have also organised a defence council made up of the command of both ZAPU and ZANU and they are in the process of making the necessary relations in order for us to fight the war as one Patriotic Front, because we realise this is an essential element in the revolutionary armed struggle.
Ine briush covernment ha for many years, since 1890, equivocated, prevaricaled ano laken a solneless stand when it came to taking their role as a colonising power in Zimbabwe,
the history the
them to take a stand to end UDI. The answer was
We called apon them to The
question today Britain coming up and telling us that
take her right Where were
Britain: because the Patriotie Front forces have redressed the balance of power by their sweat
Patriotic therefore Decome effective and decisive factor in the
Britain Call never therefore claim the sole right to
war situation Zimbabwe and if Britain wants to decolonise she must accept that she
equal to the Patriotic front. we wil decolonise zamhahwe
Britain has to realise that means nothing short of complete and lotal transfer of power. When I say power 1
instruthat is, the armed forces, the police, the administrative structure, the judiciary and all the forces that make up the instruments
'Our initiative is on the battlefield'
1965
ZANU president Robert Mugabe
presidents have been asked here: who controls the army? In fact him?
What army?
What orientation has that army? This
Akin.
In Zimbabwe today we have twe
of those has instrument of the people of Zimbabwe. The patriotic forces have been built as an instrument dedicated touo balle and acaleve hoeraton ol
Which one of the two armies survives? This is
Are we as a body of leadership going to come to London and say that process
the people of babwe. Zimbabwe, the rights of the people of Zimbabwe, can be secured by an army
which has fought many battles for so long to resist such aims? Are we going to do that?
Or are we going to say that the patriotic forces, which have fought, sacrificed life, limb and blood for so many years to deliver the people of Zimbabwe their freedom, that such a force is the one that should survive?
That to me sounds like common sense. But knowledge of the English has taught me that common sense is not so often yery common!
There were years when we used to
Britain to send in (roops. They said No. And may I here refer to a meeting we had in October
with Harold Wilson Salisbury, one month before UDI.
We said: this man lan smith is going to declare UDI very soon. Will you send in British troops to stop
Harold Wilson said: unthinkable that British troops could be brought here to fight their kith and
We said, okay, we are going to build up our forces to fight this man. He said, oh well, they are just talking. I wish you well.
And now Britain comes in and says it wants to assume our responsibilities for decolonisation. Have we not been doing that? Would it be rational for us to give it all to Britain and say, okay you can decolonise it, you are the master?
So, as comrade Msika has said, we have become the of
of decolonisation in ZimIf Britain would like some advice on how to fight Smith, here we are at Lancaster House...
WHO WILL
ON 28 OCTOBER 1976, delegates assembled in the council chamber of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, for the opening session of talks aimed at achieving a constitutional settlement in Rhodesia. Bishop Abel Muzorewa was leading a delegation of the United African National Council (UANC).
Before taking his place in the centre of his colleagues more than 170 cameramen, he placed a placard on each of the two empty seats flanking his own. One bore the name of Mr. its Nkala, the secretary of the UANC arrested by the Rhodesian police in April 1976 and still detained without other that of Dr. Edson Sithole, the UANC publicity secretary.
Dr. Sithole and his secretary Ms Miriam Mhlanga had disappeared in October 1975 after being seen being hustled into a van by men presumed to
members Special Branch. They believed in nationalist circles to be still held by the Smith regime in some secret place alternatively, to have been murdered Oppressive
In a strongly-worded indictment of white rewa declared that: the allows restriction without trial. thousands of people who have been deprived of their liberty because of oppressive actions...
More detained
order',
, under the eyes of Mozambique journalists and Heconcluded:
that acting deputy
charge;
to all those Rhodesian were widely
detention
*the minorit that We object to a Bishop Muzo *In
detention and There are
unjustly prime
The Bishop went on to describe the various repressive methods by which the Smith regime maintained 'lau and
including the removal Africans into protected villages, the confiscation of livestock in the war zones, the indiscriminate killing of civilians during curfen hours. the massacre of refugees in neighbouring
Zanu the TOFLUTE detainees for interrogation purposes
'We now demand at this conference
favourable climate be immediately created hy:
*the immediate rélease, without conditions, of all political prisoners — caute du restierces cune people in the concentration villages;
revocation death sentences on political prisoners of war and their immediate release:
*the granting of a general amnesty
considered have committed political crimes, including those outside the countrv;
*the creation of conditions con ducive to free polilical activities and freedom of expression in the country (this includes freedom of the press);
*the halting of all political trials;
lifting the State Emergency together with all restrictive regulations at present in force;
short, we demand the immediate suspension of the presen racist and oppressive constitution:
More than two and a half years later, however, when on 1 June 1979 Bishop Muzorewa assumed the post
minister and a new
Page 11 scan of this page
attitude of the Patriotic Front leaders!
the Geneva conference in 1976,
day of the conference.
liberation movement
MPLA. constitution came into force, obstacles to freedom which he had listed the Geneva conference remained.
To quote one example, on that very day, I June 1979, two brothers aged 16 and 19 were arrested at their home oy tz wille memocrs or ine regine s security forces. Mr. Leavit and Mr. Benchard Katumba were sentenced to death at an in camero trial by a special court martial, or military court. They were convicted of carrving arms ot war,: a charge which both denied.
Hangings
Some months previously, February 1979, it had been confirmed that SCLICI hangings of prisoners under sentence of death
continuing despite assurances to the contrary by Bishop Muzorewa and his colleagues
The government headed by Bishop Muzorewa and dominated numerically by oi the African National Council (UANC) nas in lact inneraed, virtuany llacl. the entire machinery repression built up and enforced over the years by the Rhodesian Front.
While attempts have been made by the regime settlement agreement aspects of racial discrimination such as segregated hotels and other public facilities, LIC Law and (Maintenance) Act, the most portant legal weapon used over the
THE LONDON conference on Zimbabwe is into its second week with little settled beyond the agenda. What kind of regime is it that Bishop Muzorewa presides over? And what is the
Below we print a section from a new report produced by the International Defence and Aid Fund on 'Political Prisoners in Rhodesia in 1979' which details how Muzorewa has maintained intact the repressive regime which he so bitterly denounced at
We also print extracts from speeches by JOSEPH MSIKA, secretary general of ZAPU, and EDGAR TEKERE, secretary general of ZANU, at a solidarity meeting organised by the Limbabwe Emergency Campaign Committee on the opening
Finally, we mark the death of the leader of another African
Agostinho Neto of the
han ever before
the years since its introduction in 1960 to crush African political activity at the grass-roots level, remains on the statute book.
Bishop Muzorewa's has on numerous occasions indicated TOBE it has every continuing to make use of this and other legislation. At the beginning of later July 1979, approved the national State of Emergency (in force since shortly before UDI in 1965) for a
regime's history that this has occurred without any opposition from African members of parliament. in the regime, Mr. political stated at the opening of parliament on 26 June 1979 that his government specific would give the highest priority to the re-establishment and maintenance of law and order and the elimination of 'terrorism'. The government, he said, had no alternative but to resort to the United exceptional powers permitted under the State of Emergency and all other means available to it to safeguard the of political integrity and security of the state'.
Powers
internal Coull y remained continued to be overshadowed bi state of almost total martial law.
Order martial law regulations amount to a 111- JUILICI drastic powers of the security forces at the
Angolan government
intention of
parliament unanimously extension the
This is the first time in the illegal
measures
The newly appointed president of
Josiah Gumede, granica
destroy
In heads of agreed that
regime's On 1 June 1979, furthermore, the concerned.
under and repeat itself.
The Order
the
Thin
homes destroyed by Rhodesian forces, leave the zone under attack.
country's economy.
BISHOP ABEL MUZOREWA
expense of the civilian governmental machinery, and add new and harsh
to regime's existing arsenal of security laws.
Under martial law, the army, police and other security forces have been
unprecedented powers to arrest and detain suspects without charge, to search, confiscate and
property and livestock wilde wara and to conduct political trials before military courts authorised to impose. the death
August 1979 Commonwealth state meeting new constituțional conference on Rhodesia would be
this time in London. It appeared that as far as the illega
political prisoner. history was about to
Political trials under the Law and
(Maintenance) Act have continued since the 1976 Geneva talks despite claims by the regime that an amnesty programme has been
THESE photos show the legacy of the Rhodesian raid into Mozambique jusi before the start of the constitutional conference in London. Above left is the wreck of a bridge in Gaza province; on the right Mozambican civilians, their
The raid was faithfully presented by the media as an attack on ZANU military targets. In fact its purpose was altogether different: to cripple food supply in Mozambique as part of a consistent effort to undermine the
The region where the attack took place, the Limpopo valley, produces not just rice, the staple crop, but also yams and tomatoes. Main targets for the Rhodesians were the large warehouses where the rice crop is being stored, and bridges on the main supply outlet, the Chokwe-Maputo road.
plemented. While a small number of convicted political prisoners been freed before the expiry of their terms under a programme of selected releases initiated since March the total number of those known to be serving sentences on political grounds has almost doubled over the last three years.
Similarly, while over 1,000 people detained on an indefinite basis under ministerial orders have been released by the regime since the signing of the internal settlement March 1978, a legal source inside Rhodesia has recently once those persons detained under the martial law regulations have Lancel probable that there are many more persons who are indefinitely detained today than at any time in the past'.
*Further details of the report can be obtained from International Defence and Aid Fund, Amen London EC4M 7BX
dies
could bring,
early Angolan
publicly flogged, and imprisoned. When the
map. The followed, Neto's release, evens of the movement In 1962, from his Portuguese leading position
of Angolan nationalism, workers and peasants.
Legacy
have
political outlook of his youth,
see that
1978,
imperialist world system.
Tellels balanced
Union, and imperialist capital. stated that.
been it is highly
and that party
leader.
Angola's. future.
Court. to influence (tel. 01-
Angolan
president
By Roy Alexander
AGOSTINHO NETO, president of Angola, died in Moscow last week at the age of 56
One of the first leaders of the struggle to oust Portuguese colonialism from its dominions, Neto was among the tiny handful of young Africans able to overcome the hurdies erected by the colonial system and receive higher education. However, rather than sit back and enjoy the privileges membership of such an elite
For take the easy route of emigration to Europe, Neto was stirred by the oppression of his people into political action.
After years of study in Portugal, , where he made contact with the Communist Party and
nationalist circles, Neto qualified as a doctor and returned to practise medicine in his home village. Two years later he was arrested for alleged political offences,
inhabitants of this and the adjoining village demonstrated peacefully in
the Portuguese army opened fire on them, killing 30 and wounding 200. A further retaliatory raid wiped these two villages off the
wave of indignation that and the continuing campaign for the CHOLY Angolan anti-imperialist
assisted by the CP., Neto escaped prison and took up a MPLA, the nationalist group to which he had been closest.
Neto and the MPLA represented that current
led by a tiny but influential group of intellectuals, which saw that the struggle to free the Angolan people from the Portuguese yoke required the forging of a new Angolan nation out of the wide range of tribal and ethnic groups in the country. They also grasped the need to take up the social questions which affected the daily lives of the
It was these two strengths which gave the MPLA its central role in the modern history of Angola. However Neto remained encased in the
trapped Stalinism and a limited nationalism that failed
the struggle emancipation is doomed to frustration unless it is based upon the revolutionary mobilisation of the oppressed masses for a total break with the
Às a result, the Angola which Neto leayes as his legacy is marked by deep uncertainties. It
between political and military dependence on Cuba and the Sovie
economic dependence
Methods of repression and bureaucratic dic tate have increasingly come to supplant those of revolutionary mobilisation. Political power in Angola is monopolised by the ruling party,
had becoming increasingly dominated by the personal influence of its
Neto's death thus poses big problems for
Regrettably Angolan masses, for whose sake Neto originally took up the banner of struggle, have no means by which
much less decide • the outcome. That is the tragedy of the Angolan revolution, and the tragedy of Agostinho Neto
Page 12 scan of this page
Iran: open letter from
Intercontinental Press
Worldwide
Outcry
Against
Threat of
Execution SAVE THE LIVES OF
IRANIAN SOCIALISTS! I
Press/Inprecor [Vol 17,
contains reports on the worldwide campaign to save the lives of the Iranian socialists. interviews and discussion material on the revolution in Nicaragua.
Individual copies cost 30p plus
10p post, but subscriptions work ou
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or £3 for 10 weeks. Cheques or POs should be made out to Intercontinental Press' and sent to: IP/I, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.
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FULLILAL PRIN SHUr, London, person for design work. Printshop would be useful asset Applicants
some s(ven.).
Challenge London N1 2XP 'FREE ABORTION on Demand and 'No Week, No Box 50, LOndon NI 2X P. Singly Thp badges are again available from The cach. ouik ızo cach. make cuecues or rus ou lo ine week MG TRADE UNION fraction meetings: 23 September NALGO, CPSA. For details write to Centre or phone 01-359-8371.
socialist Challenge 20 September 1979 Page 12
It also features
• a year (48
Khomeini's courts Mobile versattle wye workers
730 $396 Holbein Place
secure their POW a picket is being held at
assemble 2pm
imprisonment in late August.
from them which Hall, London
by, the on 30 August.
Namibia Day
LIS ALCI detention by
Mary Court,
the successors of Mr. Satarian.
socialist reminis
defend TU day schools
Rights the members is unknown to us
fate in our absence.
After all the Society and
*The
Fri 19 Oct,
Angie Iran.
group has Torture
centre
received The consistent,
comrades After the
books transferred uS
the needs
experienci
but silence or
Box
much more than this'.
us in the desert. 'Don't resist'.
— life imprisonment!
THE FATE of the 12 Trotskyists of the HKS [Socialist Workers Party] previously sentenced to death in Iran remains in the balance. It is vital to continue the worldwide campaign to solitary
release Britain, Ipm on Saturday outside the Iranian Embassy [16 Princes Gate, London SW7].
The campaign is also demanding the release of two womer members of the HKS, Mahsa Hashemi and Fatima Fallahi, who were sentenced to life
The following is the bulk of an open letter
was sent from Dezful Prison in northern Khuzestan
LIFE SENTENCES will not silence
days illegal Mr. Satarian, the prosecutor of the Islamic Revolution-
we. two women members of the HKS, were tried in absentia by
This court - whose very existence we question — did not even allow us to read the prosecutor's brief or allow
GUISELYCS. The elementary right to have a lawyer and consult with him was denied us. This
identity of whose ruled behind closed doors and decided our
struggles and the martyrs who died fighting against the criminal courts of the Pahlavi regime, this unjust ruling will forever remain in the history of the struggle between the rulers and the oppressed people of
repressive and inhuman conduct of the prosecutor's office did not end with our 'trial".
'trial', armed guards blindfolded to an unknown spot, which we later found
Dezful Prison. In response to our questions as to where and they were taking us, we heard nothing
'I don't know'. In response to our protests that such unjust methods had been rejected by the great rebellion of the people, we heard the answer that 'We will do
Armed guards took us out of the car in the middle of the night and left
Then they said:
We were blindfolded and told: "You only need two bullets. When you hear the guns go off you
Mahsa Hashemi and Fatima Fallahi, two Iranian women Trotskyists who received 'special' treatment from
jailed Trotskyists
will die on the spot.
UnIs •way they began our psychological torture.
In Dezful Prison they threw us into
confinement, into roughly four paces • ov three paces Then they began to physically torture us, beating us up. We were told: 'You were brought here to be killed by us.
We protested that we have no security here and that we want to see the prison officials. Their response was: "This prison has no officials'. They even refused to give us a doctor to take care of our wounds..
The meaning of our conviction by the prosecutor is clear. After a year and a half of struggle, the millions of
people LING VICIONOUS insurrection of 9-10 February opened the Shah's jails and overthrew the tyrannical regime of Pahlavi. In this struggle women, who constitute half the population of Iran, played a major role.
This victory brought about the possibility of establishing a society of
reedom, abundance, social justice
peace and showed through their heroic actions that they can run this society. We have been sentenced because we have not abandoned this realistic and realisable perspective.
We have also been convicted because we are women. The first attack by the central government after the insurrection was directed against women. Women are supposed to be driven back into their homes. They are only supposed to be means production and to remain slaves as far
as their mental abilities are concerned
But women - through their great demonstrations — have shown thus cells far that they are driven out of social and political life. The central government mented anti-woman policies family, society, employment, etc. Our conviction is another effort to sow the seeds of tear in the hearts sisters, the women of Iran who are fighting for freedom.
It the prosecutor and the govern-
have arrested, sentenced us to life imprisonment to prevent us from telling the truth or to drive us out of political and social life by means of terror, they should know that they will not succeed.
Proud
You cannot forever imprison the call of the heroic women and people of Iran for unfounded charges ions, nor slanders will be able to hide our true faces for long.
The record of our struggle against the Pahlavi regime exists and we're proud of it. struggling for a society which replaces
with Freedom of opinion, or association and of political parties is one of the basic gains of our revolution. A lot of blood has been shed for this.
We demand to be tried in public court demand the right to be present at our trial, in front of the people, not behind their backs.
Weask all organisations, all people fighting for freedom, all defenders of the iranian revolution throughout the world to help us win our freedom.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
TELEGRAMS protesting the death sentences handed out to the 12 HKS prisoners in Ahwaz and demanding the immediate toilers socialists should be sent to Ayatollan Ruhollah Khomeini, Prime Minister
Director, National Company, Tehran, Iran.
Copies Tehran daily Avenue, 24 Tehran, Iran; to Ettela'at, Avenue of Ferdowsi Avenue, Tehran, Iran; and to Socialist Challenge.
union
players
and the media
merit
selected from African apartheid.
October,
October,
For Wales;
THE
not willing to be
has imple- in Conway in the
of our Socialist
jailed, and consolidation International
president
freedom. Neither Camp ratification
falsificatIsrael and Egypt
We will nol stop
child-care
Cuba 'THERE
- not behind closed doors. We
States eyes of the
the
Carter
in Cuba.
never
release of all
Qom, Iran;
Mehdi Bazargan,
Hassan these Iranian Oil Cuba.'
Takht Jamshid Avenue,
Apart should be sent to the about
Baamdad, Hafez Zartoshtian Alley,
Khayam • Iran Kayhan, from
S African tour
PLANS for a trade union boycott of the South African Barbarians rugby tour are being worked out this week by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Chris Easterling, of AA's trade committee, announced on Sunday that 'we will be calling on all unions to picket the matches and to give no assistance whatsoever
and organisers from the moment they arrive'. He predicted that the team could face immediate problems with airport workers and those handling their baggage, as well as from workers in hotels, transport
The inclusion in the Barbarians team of black and Coloured players is being used to try to legitimise the tour. In fact this has nothing to do with multi-racial sport or selection on
The Barbarians players have been
the all-white South Rugby Board and its two 'Uncle Tom' affiliates for blacks and Coloureds. All the best black and Coloured players, however, belong to the 50,000-strong non-racial South African Rugby Union -which has no official status, because for all the Tory propaganda there are no officially recognised multi-racial rugby clubs or integrated leagues at either club or provincial level under
The tour dates are as follows: 3
Exeter; October, Camborne (Cornwall); 10 October, Edinburgh; 13 October Borders; 17
Coventry 20 October, unknown venue in Northern Irelanc
24 October, Llanelli; 27 October, Newport.
Nicaragua
Nicaraguan Coordinating Committee is organising an evening of 'homage to Nicaraguan children this Saturday, 22 September, at 7pm
Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1. There will be a folk
talk about recent developments in Nicaragua.
International
FURTHER Slash the of the Socialist organised pro-imperialist block seems likely al its forthcoming congress in Lisbon.
At the congress the Israeli Labour Party will be proposing the admission of the Egyptian state party led by
Sadat. The move obviously intended as a symbolic
the US-sponsored David agreement between an agreement rejected by the Palestinians and the vast majority of the Arab world.
The question is: will the British Labour Party delegates go along with this? And if so, what do party activists intend to do about it?
are foreign troops on Cuban soil against the will of the government and the people of that country. They are the 2,800 United
troops stationed at the Guantanamo naval base. They should be withdrawn immediately.' This was
of Andrew Pulley, Socialist Workers Party candidate for president of the United States, to the
administration's campaign against the presence of Soviet troops
As Pulley pointed out: 'Cuba has
inyaded the United States Cuba has never bombed the United States. Cuba has never blockaded the United States. Cuba has never tried to assassinate US leaders. It is the government that has committed all
crimes against revolutionary
from military personnel 1,800 "civil servants Washington delicately calls them are also stationed at Guantanamo But you'd never guess the base existed
reading the British press. We say: US troops out of Cuba - now!
Page 13 scan of this page
By Jane Clarke
AN EXPLOSIVE but productive week-long encounter between feminist film-makers, distributors, exhibitors, spectators, critics and theorists took place last month as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival.
Perhaps the main question posed was: what is a feminist film practice? It's this I want to try to shed some light on by looking at a few of the more than forty tims screened.
Does a film's feminism come out of the manner in which it's made (collective practice versus individual WOrk. for example); chosen form of the film; or from the context in which it's shown? I don't think there is one answer. Certainly, though, how you
the people in your political choice.
One of the films screened was Jan Worth's Taking A Part (UK), which deals with prostitution. crucially, deals with the politics of documentary film-making.
The documentary ideal *getting inside a situation to show how
really often involves exploitation of the people filmed. The subjects may be playing it straight, but their image becomes part anoualkucl. insistently makes the spectator aware ol ls oroCess
In this film LWU medium close-up and facing Callicı as read out experiences prostitution from Throughout the film they
Albert -
Our images ourselves
Feminism and film
that were
For from the
true-for-all-time
film is a
also,
consoionsly - the
an
journal?
Taking A Part
and of documentary women, in pertormers. into caught in the title, of taking a bart journal. performers taking al c
the other
Einstein
A scene from Taking a Part — real prostitutes or actors?
placed different ary locations and 'poses', and this makes one question their status. Are they acres es een rerered tp in the
women referred to in the
The hesitation between these two options makes for a strong sense of performance — of sex as performance
subjects This emphasis is neatly Taking A Part: as prostitutes, or their parts, or taking apart the familiar document-
ahle. genius, place
socialist
70 for SULICLY. radio,
citizen
methods of dealing prostitution in film.
No such distancing strategies are used in Cristina Perrincioli's Power of Men is the Patience Women (West Germany).
I nIs 15 a drama/ documentary about battered wives which provokes close identification in the audience. It is co-scripted and acted by the battered themselves a rigorous depiction which would be very useful in certain contexts.
Michelle Citron's Daughter Rite
By Joe Schwarz THE MEDIA blitz on Einstein's centelar. was completely predict-
Socialists with an interest in science will look in vain for a clue to what it is all about, as even comrades on Socialist Challenge succumbed by
La Diece thar. woułd comfortably graced the pages of the Observer Magazine it didn't even mention the fact that Einstein was a socialist himself. What you get is the Einstein myth - the isolated, solitary
coming out of nowhere to his stamp on the course science history.
Einstein had very well developed
politics. Here is part of an article, called 'Why Socialism', which he wrote in the US in 1949 at the age of
the revolutionary socialist magazine Monthly Review:
*Private capital tends to become concentrated in TAWT hands, because of competition among the capitalists and partly because technological development and the increasing division' of encourage formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments Is an oligarchy private capital the enormous power of which cannot be checked even by a democratically organised political
'This is true since members of legislative bodies selected political parties largely financed or otherwise influenced by capitalists who, for all practical
separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that representatives of the people de not in fact sufficiently protect the underprivileged SCCUOI of population.
'Moreover under existing conditPlivaie capitalists inevitably control, main sources ot information (press directly indirectly,
education). It is extremely oliCuL. and indeed in most case: impossible, for the
to come 1o objective conclusions and to make intelligeni use of his political rights.
The solution? "l am convinced thar there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the eştablishment of a socialist economy,
with (USA) defines itself against the notion
of cinema vérité as the uncontradictory and transparent capturing truth through the neutral eye of the The camera. of Two actresses
about typical experiences as sisters and daughters. The scenes are filmed they al C slices-of-life. wives lawn on the viewer that perhaps thest
scenes are acted after all Interspersed with these acted/réal scenes SCUUCILC. home-movie footage of a mother and
accompanied by system that would towards social goals.
There was not one other scientist in Einstein's gencration capable of making this argument at any point in their career. In the world have oi pure research Einstein was the first
șocialist scientisi. You could never tell it from reading today's papers.
The way Einstein got his politics ties into the second piece of the myth: Einstein the isolated genius. Einstein was not at all isolated. He was part of a lively political counter culture that existed in Zurich and Berne at the turn of the century. Social conscience During the period of the great world depression from 1873 to 1890 Bismarck's government in Germany partly introduced many of the repressive
measures of the Political anti-semitism was encouraged and anti-socialist passed in 1878. labour
Einstein hated it. He left Germany in 1894 without his diploma and a year later renounced citizenship to person. In 1895 he went to university Zurich. Not revolutionaries • but Russian exiled revolutionaries there or passed through. Alexandra Kollontai, Trotsky, Bakunin and later Lenin all spent time in Zurich private Einstein was a student bohemian.
He wenl surprisingly, for the laboratories. He lived in the cafes of Zurich and he had a number of close friends with whom he discussed physics, philosophy and the politics.
Not part of his inner circle but a friend for twenty years was Felix Adler, a junior lecturer in physics in Zurich when Einstein was a student there. Adler. the son of Victor Adler. jeader Democrais. had heen sen: farher to Zurich io forge: polties fu: he staved close to the rerolunonary movement and wrate = numbe:
by Lenin. In unbelievable) Adler assassinated the Austrian Prime Minister and got off with serving only one year in jail.
down and
to break
Ie HOuCr Song of the
WOnCH contradictory. of
improvise scenes
demanding
documentary Only gradually does it political
mentioned above, of 'actual' Other
an educational
. be oriented behalf.
lived who wal
academics.
So,
tionary politics.
revolutionary period.
about socialism.
modern state
stood and working class laws were
This German become a stateless
only German
also famous were
Class except, Social by his
====
1918 (this is aimos IBSSRSI
WIl 3DG (rei. annual
two daughters. This footage is słowed
re-filmed so that 'innocent' images of family life begin
down; while on the soundtrack a woman speaks of the sense of loss and betrayal which has characterised her relationship with
One question that generated a lot of heat was the idea of femininity. Is it something inherent and unchanging or is it socially determined and therefore open to alteration?
This question is at the heart of The
Shirt (Sue Clayton/ Jonathan Curling, UK ), a film about
who moved to London to work in the new sweated clothes trade of the 1840s. Here any notion of womanhood as something natural or universal is rejected. Instead the film examines the legal, philanthropic and religious ideas and institutions which surrounded these women.
By placing them side by side via stills, graphics and acted reconstructions, the apparently objective stances of the Church or the law courts are made to look increasingly partial and
Amid the establishment's conflicting definitions, The Song of the Shirt begins to construct the women's own position. It's a film wilch ls very excing ana also very
Ileft the conference with a stron sense of belonging to a cultural and
movement that going places. I'm very grateful for that.
* For details about hiring the films
i2 Lse contact The Cinema, Little Newport Street, London WC2 (tel 734 8508).
Einstein submitted testimony on his
In 1909 the Einsteins and the Adlers
the same building Zurich. Adler wrote to his parents: •We are on extremely good terms with the Einsteins, who live above us, and as things turned out I have becom‹ closer to him than to any of the other
The Einsteins live the same Bohemian life as ourselves.
far from being isolated, Einstein was ai integral part of a cultural scene that included revolu-
The Austrian and German Social Democratic parties were huge mass parties with strong
wings in the pre-war The German SPD in 1924 owned 90 daily newspapers, its own weeklies and monthlies, and operated its own press service
This is where Einstein learned He knew, undersympathised with the movement. Here Einstein on Lenin: 'I know Lenin as a
who completely sacrificed himself and devoted all his energy to the realisation of social justice. I de not consider his methods practical, but one thing is certain: men of his type are the guardians and restorers of the conscience of humanity.
Judging from Einstein's Monthly Review article written 40 years later, he never gave up his social conscience and, more important, he never gave up the understanding that the source
of social injustice was to be found in capitalist class society, the solution to Cwne WaS SoCaSn
No wonder the media continues to mystify Einstein. There's too much to swallow. Einstein remains an enigma to the middle class because he nese joined the middle class. The tirst
'commie, Jew, beatnik' 1o confound media description *This article is extracied tom i mal longer contribulion in Sice
1979 issue of Scienz it. tee ia Pere =
+2 50-0 Fztra.. E-L ;PrE Se mE:m 01-43- Ime subscription for individuals is £2 [overseas E3] Socialist Challenge 20 September 1979 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Out of the gutter - the press
By Geoff Bell
OF ALL the diseases common in
British capitalist society, two have stood out in the last couple of weeks
treatment problem', and its media.
S000 out because combined to present one of the most
rancid brews imaginable.
coveraze oi the assassination
Mountbatten made the
worthlessness of the British ruling class obvious to anyone who had eyes to discern it.
That was not the intention. Right from the start Fleet Street insisted on its morality and the high standards of the cause for which it HOLLIDICC. The word appeared on the front page of three of the 'populars' to describe Mountbatten's killers; typical was the Daily
Express, which defines itself as "The Voice of Britain'.
The Express front page 'opinion' of 28 August contrasted
Bastards', the cowardly paths' of the IRA, with 'the British' who 'have never yielded to terror. And best of all the British, according to the Express, was whom 'everyone loved".
Obviously 'everyone' didn't "love' Mountbatten, and obviously Britain has 'yielded to terror' on numerous occasions: Indeed, probably no other ruling class in the negotiated with more of what defines as "terrorists'. glorious Mountbatten dealt with a few during his sojourn in India. Propaganda
But truth was the last thing the Express was interested in; it was time
good old fashioned propaganda. Which meant that our side', the British, were good; while the enemy were evil bastards'.
This theme was repeated in the Daily Mirror the same day. side was 'Lord Louis', on the other were 'the enemies of man'. Mirror went on to motivalco Ine latter. li was nationalism', which 'has blinded a loi of Irishmen to the savagery of deeds done in their name in the last ten years'.
il was not nationalism as an ideology which was reprehensible, just the Irish variety. 'Patriotism' in other British nationalism — was portrayed as the noblest of sentiments. The chief praise bestowed on Mountbatten by the Daily Mail was that he was 'A British Patriot'.
The Irish nationalists, Mirror, were opposed by the entire "civilised world'. But if so, you have to explain why the Irish nationalists seem to be so successful.
The British media chose targets. First were une
had called Britain to come up with a political solution for Ireland. "Let's call them the gang of three, said the Sun on 30 August, and it went on to name them
Teddy Kennedy, Governor Hugh Carey, and 'Mr Tip O'Neill', the Speaker in the US House of Representatives.
Re-assurance
No punches were pulled here: Teddy Kennedy, best remembered for cheating at university, leaving a girl to drown in his car and driving his wife to drink. ' All of which may be true, but the aim in this piece of character assassination was to suggest that anvone who dared to criticise what Britain was doing in Ireland, however mildly, was some sort of moral degenerate. That the Sun can attempt to give lectures in morality is, if nothing else, somewhat cheeky.
Rather exceptionally, this same Sun article did attempt to analyse the Irish situation for its readers and say hy the 'gang of three' acted as they did. There was even a degree of honesty in the explanation that 'their ancestors fled not just from poverty and famine in Ireland but from religious discrimination, exploitation Socialist Challenge ' 20 September 1979
I'D 'Irish SHREDS
They have
•HANDS! they have
The of human
was the
'bastards'
MEANWHILE EXPRESSINTA (EIGHTEEN HOW SAD!
These Evil
psycho-
Mountbatten,
world has
Even the must have
war
On one
The explain what
Irish
THIS IS considered
words,
said the
two
American
upon
New York
and atrocity.
Then came 'These crimes did happen, long ago. 'And further, i examples of 'one concession
Page 14".
This cartoon by Cormac is taken from An Phoblacht/Republican News.
EVIL MURDERING SWINE!
LIKE TO RIP THEM TO WITH MY BARE IN IRELAND EVERYONE IS THEIR GRIEF. •FOLKS, IT'S MUSICAL COMEDY IDENT AT NARROW STARRING DISGUSTING!
BY JOVE!
I'VE JUST THOUGHT OF AN ANSWER! the but long, 'Britain has spent much of the present century seeking to atone with one concession after another. An intriguing analysis which poses an interesting question: actions were Bloody Sunday, internment. and the Castlereagh torturers things which happened 'long, long ago', or are they
Matter
JOURNALISM B.B.C.
IN THE OR OLD BATTENBERG! THE
Mitt HUMPHRE WHATSIT!!
SUPPOSE
YOU CONSIDER ALL THOSE DEAD SOLDIERSAS SOME SORT OF REVENGE FOR BLOODY SUNDAY!
JUST THINK, SIR; NO
MORE NARROWWATER.
BRAVE-LADS-IN-KHAKI! NILNIS. No MOrt NO
MORE BOMES' NO MO another'?
Again, the insistence was that Britain had nothing whatsoever co reproachitself for. The Sun went on to argue that in their heart of hearts the US politicians knew this to be the case. So how did the Sun explain the
of Kennedy, Carey O'Neill? That was easy: 'They are grubbing after popularity by way of reland. I hey are fawning after vote ut of tragedy and bloodshed.
THERE ARE FEW SIGHTS MORE REVOLTING THAN THAT Of THE SCUM OF BRITISH AND SOMEWHERE IN LONDON
BUREHUCRAT • INSTRIXTS STAFF RELATIVE IMPORTANCE DEAD...
ANY 1 MEMBER Of QUESTIONS? ROYAL FAMILY
= 50 SOLDIERS
SOLDIER
= 100 PADDIES
R.U.C. MAN
=1000 ASIAN
PEASANTS
I GIMME THE MOONLIGHT (GIMME THE S.A.S.
AND LEAVE THE REST 1 то ME I'M AFRAID NOT, MISSUS - IT JUST ANOTHER ACT OF WAR!
STOP BABBLING, JONES AND TELL ME WHAT THINK THE ANSWER IS It could be observed that apart from sexual titillation Sun's main selling points is "tragedy and bloodshed'. aside, the propaganda is saying that any sane, intelligent person could feel nothing COUL admiration and Britain js doing in Ireland, and if they don't feel that there ulterior motive -vote-catching.
A minute's thought will show the
INDULGING THEMSELVES BINGE OF MORAL
INDIGNATION!
BUT WHAT ABOUT GROUND OF THE LOVABLE
I DON'T LIKE MONDAYS
WAS
ION one OI the
But leaving that
votes
for What powerful figure must be an
in this case
three but the reserved
LYNCH LYNCH!
THE UNDER-
ANSWER OSMONDS
BARFS
MUNDIES!
BATTENBARF LEW
AND THE ONLY MEANINGFUL • ANSWER
THE COMPLETE • DESTRUCT OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM...
GET ALL OUR TROOPS OUT OF IRELAND TODAY!
•DON'Ț LIKE MONDAYS! banality of this interpretation. Carey was re-elected at the start of this year,
•he doesn't need votes at the moment. Kennedy will get all the Irish Kennedy. Afor Tip O Neil, the irish hé needs . just lobby is very small beer for such a
One or two other newspapers also condemned the role of 'the gang of
greatest • wrall was for Irish premier Jack
Page 15 scan of this page
Lynch. One of the milder comments was an editorial in the Daily Express ot 29 August:
response to terror has always been up to reality and started to make a
against these psychopathic thugs. The real remedy lies in the hands of Mr
those who blew up Mountbatten were 'cowards', so too Lynch didn't have "the guts' to do anything about them. The fact that there are more repressive
Lynch, but at times it was stretched to truth', said the 29 August Daily Mail, is 'that Ireland's mediocre politicians
RESS
HASE
BASTARDS
becoming unpopular if he stepped up
tory for the Mail to go on to advise
firm action against them revulsion is great could be rewarding even in electoral terms'. In fact you have the Sun attacking US politicians
repression and the Mail urging Lynch
• VOLES Jingoism
with an editorial on 30 August calling for a boycott of everything Irish. There was even a note of regret in the
families stand to suffer dearly from
effects. If their elected government will not face up to its responsibilities they must give their votes to one that
was the initial independence shown by Lynch. The comparison between him and Thatcher was another common theme. Take the Sunton 30 August: Margaret Thatcher was in Belfast yesterday visiting troops injured in
was the Prime Minister of the Irish Republic, jolly Jack Lynch? Still on
Here was the voice of the old British Empire demanding that its far off native allies do as they were told. The Express of 31 August ordered:
August that Britain allowed the Irish Republie's 'nationals' to 'move freely not lust into dister but across the
and Mountbatten
freely' into the South of Ireland; such an observation would hardly fit the image of the benign British Empire.
15 essential ingredient is an Uncle Tom
base
Empire. And there he was in the Dally
ded: 'Speak for Ireland, Mr Lynch.
speaking for Ireland meant that Lynch should follow the
He went on to tell Lynch • Brien. that he should also emulate former whose government O'Brien until it was thrown out of office by the
its repressive policies.
# The people of Mullaghmore
1000 As Britain grieves, The Sum has a
it for a friend'
message for America's Gang of Three
OFF OUR BACKS!
those carrying the white man's burden in Ireland was that the Irish didn't
pointed out on 1 September, Britain's presence in Ireland 'is not like being in Malaya or Aden where the enemy is at least partially identified because he is of a different colour. Yes, the Irish
have to be some atre
British cause in Ireland. Even if they are like the Unionist Euro MP John
Express of 31 August explained that
irresponsible, at least his reasoning is
hysteria a number of changes started appearing. The blunt message seemed to be evoking the wrong response: for although the Express of 29 August
saying the entire country was 'cursed
assiduously, it went on to complain:
It is obvious from the scores of calls flooding into the Express offices that the British are all for 'sending in
home and let them tear each orner io
about if we are to maintain some kind
blood might be the Irish way, but we
gunboat philosophy.
That last sentence was the most ridiculous humbug of all; nevertheless the point the Express was making -
Casts was
of the ruling class's view British society. The papers read by the working class ranted and raved in the
racist manner. But the Guardian, the Financial. Times, even to an extent the Daily Telegraph presented no such for erise. Vulgar seal very well
11l business to discuss.
blithely pointed out on 8 September: Ireland is still quite convinced that it can defeat the IRA. The only fly in the
outment nearly ten years it still doesn't know
29 August: 'However loudly people in Britain might clamour for greater military effort or closer co-operation from the Irish government, there are few security loopholes that the Dublin
downplayed its usual jingoism and problems which had to Rather surprisingly its 2 September edition asked: 'Will the Conservatives grasp the Loyalist nettle which stung helpless inertia? Britain, after all, is
malory -only on the terms the majority wants. Mrs Thatcher finally sides with the
political vacuum will have to be filled or the IRA cannot be beaten.'
interfering US politicians have been dangerous political vacuum is being created in the North of Ireland and Britain should do something about it
colleagues at the higher end of the market. They wrote a different way
business to hide the truth from their working class readership Ireland and most other subjects.
tears of the usual overpaid Fleet Street hacks do not serve that purpose, it is
Playwright Colin Welland has writter
people in the North of England. But where Ireland is concerned, Welland, like so many trendy lettie, crawls I-ck to the bosom of the ruling class.
is assassins. Repeating the line Hall Al of the Sun, Welland wrote that the
IThistorically noble but now redundant:
buried an old patriot near Mullagh
the graveyard the rats appeared from the hedgerow's holes in black berets mourners fled as the Provos formed
Sorry, Mr Welland, the cause of the 'rats' and the 'old patriot' is the same. It is a simple cause — all it asks is that Britain leaves Ireland in neace
differences between themselves. Anc the more you, Mr
the more sensible that cause becomes.
The 26 counties—
where Durex is still
banned
bought a load of contraceptives and travelled back to the South. border they were stopped by customs officials, who confiscated the packets of pills and condoms but found it toc embarrassing to take the intra-uterin‹
Contraception was effectively banned
contraception has South of Ireland. Voluntary groups have set up clinics to give advice and aid. In the urban areas this has meant limited access to fertility control for a significant cross-section of the female
In August of this year Charles
Fianna Fail government, introduced family planning legislation which he claimed would provide a 'comprefact his eyes were fixed firmly on the Catholic Church, and it will mean
implemented it would actually restrict Privilege
would be made available by doctors
object' to providing such advice and opt out of the legislation.
allow doctors and chemists to refuse
considered unfit for family planning
and single women. Contraceptives would be expensive, and worst of all Medical Card holders — about 13,000 women who are entitled to free medical care
Action Programme in Dublin points
give people a stigma about sex. gives no protection to a woman's right to contraception. Rather than give the
service, it hands the service over to private enterprise. It gives doctors the right to control female sexuality.
head-on by running a caravan service
should be providing. In braving the law these women face fines of up to
opponents in the Knights of Saint organisation does not want women to have any access to fertility control.
maximum penalties for all those who dare
Catholic nationalism will enjoy a massive revival when the Pope visits Ireland next month. He is scheduled abortion. CAP will be holding a press
TO international campaign to explain the real problems that Irish women face have been forced to accepi natural that give this type of advice have been
'But these methods of contracep
hypocrisy of the Irish government ark
Anne Speed — of the Contraception Action Programme and member of Peoples Democracy: the Church - everyone knows that thermometers grow on trees!'
government realise that debate on contracepțion lies the issue of abortion. Already rumblings are to
about the referral of women to Britain
climate for women's needs considered rationally. Pious hysteria is already being whipped up by the suggested that drink should be given up for the weekend - the next thing we'll hear is that the same should
Irish women themselves to ensure that their needs; their bodies Ireland as in Britain we have to build a movement that can make a reality of the slogan: 'Not the Church, not the
UDR training
By George Kerevan
Defence Regiment? The answer is not
but
personnel will train at an army camp
A joint meeting of representatives from UTOM branches in Glasgow,
met discuss coordinated activity, includ ing a protest campaign aimed at the
presciet meeting decided on mass leafleting in Dundee to alert the local population to an organisation which has included
Funders be
a national tour by Mary Nellis, the founder of the Derry Relatives Action
1 t0 'troops out now debated at the 1980 Scottish TUC.
demonstration in Glasgow next year, Ex-soldiers group
against the war in Ireland was formed in London last week. This follows the success of the ex-soldiers contingent
Immediate plans for
National Union of Scha Stake and radical eaters a selle i leo
Page 16 scan of this page
DAY ONE
10.30-1.30pm
CURRENT ISSUES OF MARXISM
rerry sauerson
2.30-5.00pm
Workshops
The Debate on English History, Alternative
Economic Strategy, Bahro's Marxism
Speakers include: Perry Anderson, John Ross,
Alan rreeman, curlner minterap
7.30-10.00pm
100th ANNIVERSARY OF TROTSKY'S
BIRTH
Speakers include: Pierre Frank, Tariq Ali, the
Yoice of !.eon Trotsky and Hojabr Khosravi
(political committee HKS Iran).
DAYTWO
10.00-1.00om
IS LENINISM OBSOLETE?
Dodie Webbier and two of the authors of
Beyond the Fragments
Workshops
Class Analysis and Political Strategy, Kaursky
ano rarocommanism, I ne communis!
International
Speakers include: Robin Blackburn, Pierre
2.00-5.00pm
CULTURE AND POLITICS
Francis Mulhern
THE TRADE UNIONS TODAY
Richard Hyman, Steve Jefferys Pat Hickey (deputy senior steward, Rover
Solihull
Workshops include youth and revolution
DAY THREE
10.00-1.00pm
TWO TRADITIONS OF MARXISMIN
John Ross
Workshops
Workers Plans and Workers Control. Women
in Eastern Europe.
Speakers include: Hilary Wainwright, Dave
2.00-5.00pm
THE REVOLUTIONARY LEFTIN
Chris Harman (SWP], Tariq Ali [IMG] By Ray Duckworth, Preston Boilermakers.
PLASTIC BAGS and dirty professionalism and slick politics is here to stay!
socialist answers.
on the picket lines outside the engineering factories.
buy g and that we're confident we'll sell them.
don pro oth
Reg ered
Socialist Challenge
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Fortunately we found in Preston that the debate is not confined to smokey, beery meetings in back street pubs. It'staking place right now in the Campaign Against Corrie meetings, in trades councils, union branches and something to say and we need to be there too - with Socialist Challenge.
*. few technical points. A hefty wad of papers implies that it's worth mou is and harangue passers-by often get guilt sales but some of it goes in
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with the Post Office. as # newspaper: Published by Relgecrest. Ltd.
21-23 September 1979
MARXIST
SYMPOSIUM
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Celebrate
THIS YEAR marks the centenary of Trotsky's birth. ALONE leaders of the Russian revolution who survived Lenin he consistently fought for socialist democracy against the Stalinist bureaucracy.
Forty years ago founded the Fourth International. In doing so he ensured the continuity of revolutionary Marxism.
Today the Fourth International has members in 60 countries. It stands as the only worldwide representative of international socialism. The speakers at the rally represent the historical continuity of Trotskyism:
PIERRE FRANK became involved in revolutionary politics 54 years ago
at the age of 19.
French Communist Party in 1929 for supporting the left founded the first, French Trotskyist paper, La Verite
From 1932 to 1933 he was Trotsky's secretary in. Turkey. he was interned in years. Today he is a leading member of the Fourth International and he has just completed a major (wo volume
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ROP
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Trotsky s Centenary
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HOJABR
the HKS.
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paper Revolution
Expelled from the Tarig opposition he rally.
• During the war Britain for three Trotsky's
night.
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KHOSRAVI is member of the Political Committee of
Iranian sympathising section of the Fourth International. Along with other Iranian comrades he
imprisoned by Khomeini for actively supporting the Kurdish and Arab people and for daring to fight for socialist ideas in Iran.
BARBARA GREEN is 17 years old and a newcomer to the Trotskyist movement. A supporter of the youth
and a member of the CPSA she will explain that the revolutionary movement not only has a past but a future — the youth!
Ali, editor of Socialist Challenge, will also be speaking at the
STOP PRESS: BBC Teleyision is producing a special programme ou
Centenary They have decided to film the rally on Friday
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← Socialist Challenge No. 113, 13 September 1979Socialist Challenge No. 115, 27 September 1979 →