Socialist Challenge No. 116, 4 October 1979
The scan: sc-n116-oct-04-1979.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
OFFICIA DISPIL •We support democracy in the Labour Party, just as we do in our unions. Each year I have to stand for re-election as shop steward in my section, and then as convenor by a vote of all the stewards. Why should any Labour MP be worried by such accountability?
'Benn and the other left leaders in the party ought to openly declare their support for the engineers' strike, because we're doing battle on pay and shorter hours which they're supposed to be in favour of.
*And they should also support an all-out strike, because the engineering unions are presently leading this claim with their backsides.?
JOHN BLACKLEY, convenor, Rolls Royce Bristol, and chairperson Rolls Royce National Combine Committee.
UNITY IS OSTRENOTH
YOU,
By Geoff Bell in Brighton TONY BENN has emerged the undisputed leader of Labour's left after this week's proceedings in Brighton.
And that is not all. The votes cast by constituency delegates Executive showed that Benn's popularity is far and away above that of any single member of the Labour Party as far as the rank and file are concerned. He topped the poll, increasing his vote from last year.
In short, Benn has now all the support he needs for a frontal challenge to the Callaghan leadership and its policies. The question is: will he now launch such an assault?
The evidence is not very Throughout the brighton conference Benn stressed that he does not see the issue of the Callaghan leadership as particularly relevant. At a fringe meeting on Tuesday evening, Ernie Roberts MP Callaghan. In reply Benn insisted: 'What I say is not about who leads the Labour Party, that is not the question we are discussing.?
But the urgency of that question was never more evident than during Callaghan's address to the conference on Tuesday. It was fitting that he should end his speech by quoting Hubert
Engineers say
WE'RE WITH
BENN-
ARE YOU
WITH US?
should Tony Benn.
for the national for the
encouraging. went outside the law!
argued for Benn to replace
started organising
the Tory government.
And to
No. 116 4 October 1979 20p
Photo: G.M. COOkSON Socials Chattery
Humphrey in saying: *That is my idea of socialism'. Hubert Humphrey was Johnson's second-in-command in pursuing the Vietnam war. By Callaghan's idols do we know him. So
Speaking on Tuesday, Benn said: I am a left talking reformer.' That may explain why Benn in Brighton has largely confined his views of socialism to words. He has not for instance called for a campaign to support the striking engineers. He has not for instance demanded that the Labour conference organise support
demonstration against the Corrie anti-abortion Bill on 28 October. He stayed Silent on the platform as Ron Hayward told conference that no campaign against the cuts would be supported by the Labour Party if it
Tony Benn should be silent no longer. He stands as the left-wing heir apparent to the leadership of the Labour Party. It's time he
— not just for the leadership of the party, but for a campaign to bring down
do that it's time he started organising not just in the labour Party but in the entire working class movement.
Page 2 scan of this page
The Callaghanites must go!
Introducing Commander David Mitchell
Victory for Zimbabweans in Crown Court
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders of ihe Labour Party and the trade unions ofter solutions that are in the interests not but of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that Ine iwe vial contronting resolvnonary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in opposition to cacc-cal aboratonism inine lahour movement. These should
non-exclusive gronping together militants hold ing a wide range of political views.
• In begin to fight for the creation of unified democratic revolutionary socialist truension which can.
application of united front tactics. begin to be seen
the thousands Horkers enguger! in struggles.
Such an organisation should be
The struggle for seeks lo unite the fight of
i workers against the with that of other oppressed layers of' society - women, black people, gars struggling liberation. This socialism can only he achieved by creating new organs if poser and defeating with all reservis, means he power of the capitalist stale.
infinitch mure democratie
I than what exists in Britain today. with full rights for political parties and currents that do nos int
¡are
worker throughout the We are opposed to them and will ofter l support co lighting for socialisi democracy.
3ta went scale Caption, The interests of workers and
on a world scale. Capitalism has not onis created market, if has created politics. Thus we fight for working class unity on an scale. This unity will in the long run be decisive in defeating both the imperialist regimes in the Hest and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America, and Asia.
In Britain it implies deranding the immediate withdrawal British troops from letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communis parties Europe are in crisis. Neither 'the 'Furocommunist' the pro-Moscow wings have any
overlaron of ne captain **
den revelationare socialis parties are necesvar! than
hefore. Conditions indas
favourablo than over the preceding three decades. But sch
The It you agret with these principles
inspired activities by socialist Challenge
supporters in your area, fill in the form below and send it to us.
interested in information about activities in my
area.
• I would like additional literature
and enclose duo lo cover cosa.
(Delete it nod applicable)
Address..
elections. character
against the Tories
through
as an of policies socialism
bosses By Tariq Ali
their appointed Police Hackney, East from the beginning.
ali
world. Mitchell used
Superintendent in Islington,. all those our offices are located.
Restaurant
restaurant opened
world
worid celebrate the event.
were David international
senior police ofticer.
start a conversation.
Africa
The
of Ireland and
was not bothered about such distinctions. "The
the sympathetic to the fascists."
Outrage
pref
Mitchels
built he
stock.
AND NOW in different. tale •Patrol Group
On 29 October
was that he was here to book Rise Up and Walk. more
from an instance
'You don't have to kneel Bish,
the Bishop 1g: lines
Jim Callaghan is right to say that the proposals to increase Labour Party democracy are an attack upon his leadership. They are, and that's exactly what is needed, because Callaghan's policies did not prove capable of fighting unemployment and inflation, of extending democratic rights. They did not prove capable of defeating the Tories in the
That would be reason enough to get rid of him
but there is a more important reason still. •Callaghan stands in the way of an effective fight-
. Proclaiming their 'democratic mandate', he expects the labour movement to sit back for five years whilst the Tories walk all over us. Well, Jim, we cannot wait five years — the fightback must start now alongside the engineets.
Nor can we fight the Tories with the rotten
Callaghan defends. Championing DAVID MITCHELL has just been
Commander in London. The appointment has already generated a
legree of controversy. The Hackney Gazette commented in an editorial:
'Nothing very velvet-gloved about our new police chief. His mailed fist is out in the open for all to see, right
He had told the Hackney Gazette that Sus is 'a very good law' and that 'It is unfortunate that most people who complain about its use are the ones responsible for committing the crimes'... by which he means blacks. Sus enables the cops to pick up blacks at random, and prosecute them.
. be a. Chief where
Over a year ago an Islington
•ach Among. others I was. invited to
There were a hundred people present. Among them
Mitchell and another
On seeing a 'well-known agitator', the two officers were determined to
Both were ov now well lubricated with alcohol.
conversational gambit from Mitchell was character-
stic of the man: 'Why do your lot give us so much trouble?' 1 asked whether he was talking of blacks in general or the ANL. The Chief Superintendent
fine
problem,' I said, 'is the phenomenal degree of racism in the police force. You know that a whole
police officers
superior officer was outraged by this suggestion. He was of Welsh origin, from good mining
persisted with my charge
for something a bit of how a Special attempt frame Zimbabwean activists was frustrated.
last year DIsOos Muzorewa visited Britain. The excuse
launch his
Rumour has it that the title derives where Muzorewa had prostrated himself before Smith
and the white settlers' idol had said: three
ALLYIULC rise up and walk.' But this rumou nas yel to be contrued.
In any event, nearly two hundred angry Zimbabweans and a few white supporters demonstrated outside the
Royal Commonwealth Society where
due to speak. made
unemployment
daily struggles of working people,
and political life.
Unions
have a similar disdain for citing chapter and verse.
Mitchell once
responded in an open and fashion: "Yes, you're right: There is sympathy for the Front.' A silence enveloped the area where we were standing and talking. Everyone was now tense and alert.
Mitchell continued: 'And why not They're the only party
uniformed police officers.
It was only when activities had subsided that Dr David Sanders, who : is involved in Zimbabwe solidarity and Anti-Apartheid activities, noticed a young white woman standing next to him. She looked out of place. She examined Sanders' face intently as if trying to match his face to a photograph.
Sanders started to move sway, but
plainclothes men forward and grabbed him. thought they might be NF Rhodesian Front thugs and began to strugele and appeal for help. He even appealed to the boys in blue, but their response was to promptly clear a path
Sanders was taken to an SPG van, 'Fucking letty aritator,
Grip will catch no-one's imagination (particularly if the Tories backtrack and impose their own incomes policy). In place of social-democratic (that is, pro-capitalist) policies are needed measures which can be fought for in the
and which challenge the capitalists' control over the economy
Callaghan is not alone in the labour movement. In the unions the Callaghanites are many. They too
democracy. They conclude agreements such as the 'twelve month rule' in the TUC General Council after Congress has rejected incomes policy. They refuse to allow a
speaks up for Britain.' I suggested again that Tory Party frank considered a suitable candidate, but Mitchell brushed aside the claims of Thatcher et al to represent Britain.
The conversation ended. However the entire talk had been 'overheard' by two intrepid journalists from the London Evening Standard. The next that morning they rang me up. I confirmed
hoodlum screamed. At Bow Street police station Sanders blacks from the demo who had been arrested. One of them, Sanders talking, said: "You sound as if you're from South Africa.' 'Yes,' a policeman 'not everyone smoked.' This was guffaws of laughter. charged with threatening behaviour'. rushed In May He took or acquitted but Sanders and two others were found guilty.
Of the latter, woman charged with magistrate said: "I accept that she dida't intend to officer.' But he found her guilty of SPG • assault nonetheless.
incomes policy as an alternative to Thatcher letting | vote at AUEW conferences on issues where they
might lose. They must also be defeated.
control of the labour movement. addressing themselves. might Chief saw three
on hearing
responded, there has been greeted with
Sanders' the trial of all the four
One was Justice
one was a black assault. The also acquitted.
assault a police
The vote at Labour Party conference is no small victory. It shows that the desire for a change in leadership is strong. It shows a refusal to accept a repeat of the last Labour Government. It reflects a desire on the part of the rank and file to regain
But it is just the first round in a longer battle. The internal party inquiry will mean that the issues raised this year remain undecided — and they will not be decided in the constituencies aione. The fate of the leadership will be decided in the course of mounting a fightback against the Tories. In the process of that an alternative leadership must be built at every level of the labour movement. That is the task to which Benn and his supporters should be VIEWPOINT THE MAILED FIST TOUGH NEW COMMANDER * TAKES OVER
LOCAL POLICE
that their notes were accurate.
Superintendent Mitchell denied everything, but was clearly somewhat flustered. Soon after he was transferred to Croydon. Now it's the turn of Hackney, an area where there is a strong NF and a large black population. Given Mitchell's forthrightness there is every likelhood that his presence will soon begin to be felt.
Two SPG men, Wood and Fisher, claimed in court that Sanders had said on the demo: 'They don't understand shouting. We want action. Let'strike them with your banners. Hit them with your sticks...'
Sanders did not play any role during the demo, leave alone shouting instruction which SPG scriptwriter wrote. appeal was heard last week at Knightsbridge Crown Court.
Goldstone [not police favourite he] found Sanders not guilty and awarded him £250 costs agains the police. The other appellant was
Good news, sure, but for what's going on in Southall read the nex
Page 3 scan of this page
A Police Federation medal, honorary NF membership, and an Iron Cross
A BROAD array of black people's and labour
movement organisations came together at a
meeting in London last weekend to plan a
national demonstration
coming Тогу measures
and change the nationality law.
The meeting was called by the leaders of the
three major Indian Workers Associations in
collaboration with the Ant Nazi League. Also
present were representatives of
Council of Bangladeshi
Standing Conference of Pakistani Organisa-
tions, the West Indian Standing Conference, THERE IS a crime contempt of court which consists, roughly speaking, of refusing to defer to the legal majesty,
wisdom, and general godliness of the folk who sit in judgement on us:
So here is a question: How is it possible to be anything but utterly contemptuous of stipendiary magistrates Cook, Badge, and
who have presided over the Southal show trials?
Ole Hanson of the Legal Action Group, which represents
lawvers. describes these trials as one of the legal scandals of the century.
Many ol ine attempting to represent the predominantly Asian rounded up by Metropolitan Police Commissioner McNee's thugs on 23 April now despair of being able to mohatever tie deen
Whatever evidence
defendants and witnesses; whatever the cross-examination police brutality, fabricated evidence, and the dearth. evidence whatsoever, it makes little
difference to the outcome of the show triais, in which 86 cases have so far
been dealt with.
Convictions
Stipendiaries Cook, Badge, and Canham, sitting in court, have so fár conviction rate of 87 per cent — some 35 per cent higher than that achieved vy lie usual standards or impartlat justice cases. arising aconstianons.
Each of these acolytes of McNee has found a different reason arriving at the expressed in the timeless phrase: "I find you guilty.'
The fines so far total some £7,000, and three Asians have been goaled; two for three months and one for one month.
Cook is quite straightforward. I've heard the evidence from DIOSCULOUI and the mullers 'Obviously contradiction. But 1 have no reason to doubt the evidence given police.'
He's earned his Police Federation 1 medal.
Badge likes to be a little more subtle. When you listen handing obstruetion and threatening behaviour like some kind of confetti, dealimes apparentatime ha dealing community defending its rights.
To Mr Badge, honorary membership of the National Front.
Heights
Stipendiary Canham, who starred in Barnet for the past fortnight, has leapt new heights of judicial wisdom. Take the prosecution last Thursday of Raminder supposedly throwing a brick at a police cordon.
Sidhu, who works on the assembly line at Vauxhalls and helps his father Tun a restaurant, was arrested five
against the forthlimit immigration
the National Organisations, the
Awards for Southall magistrates
known
impartiality,
next-to-
Canham.
3,500
lawyers who are
342 workers reveais
reliable turn at Barne notched up
from
for
conclusion,
the
defence, he
La
by the
to hum for
is black
crowd of Asians.
Sidhu
considered as sound evidence. But Canham deterred, reaching
All together now —
the Progressive National Party Youth, the TUC race relations sub-committee, the Labour Party, Communist Party, Socialist Workers Party and International minutes after a cop said he saw him with a brick in his hand among a large
The cop, Chief Inspector Purgell, was 25 yards away and acknowledged that he had seen Sidhu for only a couple of seconds.
Sidha's defence counsel quoted the from a legal judgement which made it abundantly clear that an observation in such circumstances could not be
wasn't to be for military
Scrap the Immigration Act!
of Jamaica
Marxist THUG-in-Chief, Sir David McNee, getting the heat treatment after the Blair Peach benefit in July
analogies to tell the courtroom what wonderfully trained observers police are. Sidhu was fined £75 with £30 costs.
Canham is responsible
introducing yet another gimmick at Southall trials sentencing Last week Bhagirath Ramphal and Jargit Samra bound over to keep the peace for a year on their own surety of £100.
Both had appeared to evidence for defendents, acknowledg-
Grothe demonstration is to be held on 2 December, to demand the rejection of Tory proposals on immigration and nationality, the
Wing in doing so that they had taken the part in a demonstration. This was too much for Canham, who in sentencing these witnesses was not to be put off for by the fact that they had not been charged with anything and therefore were not legally represented.
The proper description for this were kind of procedure witnesses. To Mr Canham, fond of referring to battlefields, the gIve Iron Cross.
All this in addition to the fact that
20 October.
The Joint Council for the Immigrants and
• sponsorship for the march.
Crown
day of their trial.
the defendants
with 14
of charges Thugs
communiti
Campaign's
trials. decided to smith, Leicester, Wolverhampton
end.
Park, Holloway.
intimidating
IS
repeal of the 1971 Immigration Act, and an end to racist measures against overseas students. There will be a mobilising conference open to all organisations supporting these demands on
Welfare of the Campaign Against Immigration Laws, who were also present al the meeting, welcomed the unity for action achieved there and pledged that their joint fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference would make its major objective winning further
the trials are deliberately being held in Barnet, 20 miles from the Southall community which might have directly challenged this kangaroo court; that appeals will go to the St t Albans Court, notorious for addiction to sticking to magistrates' decisions; and that the police are obstinately refusing to disclose their case against defendants before the There's a lot more to come. Most of dealt . with so far have not been political activists -their turn comes shortly.
On 22 October, for instance, there will be a group trial of six Southall Youth Movement members charged assaults, six cases of threatening behaviour, and a bunch of possessing offensive weapons. On 9 October, . Tariq Ali comes up at Barnet before stipendiary McDermott, at the mention of whose name defence lawyers tend to throw up. Jail sentences are anticipated.
This then is the British justice that is being dished out to the Southall operation after thousands of MiNdeD mopping thugs went in with coshes on 23 April. A simple lesson is being learnt in that community. Ivan Johnson, a West Indian in Peoples Unite, put it this way in the Southall Defenc Open Door TV programme: We'll die trying to deal with this sort of situation peacefully. We might as well die fighting. Next time we'll be armed.'
The labour movement has still to make even a protest against the show The Anti Nazi League has organise meetings in several cities, in order to start building the broadest possible defence.
The immediate task is the call that has gone out to all ANL branches to organise pickets of police stations on Wednesday, 10 October, the eve of the opening of the Blair Peach inquest at the coroners court in HammerWest London.
*Pickets of police stations on 10 October have so far been arranged in the following towns and cities. Make sure you're there Nottingham, , Liverpool, Cardiff, Swansea, Canterbury, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Oldham, Brighton, Bradford, Sheffield, Durham, Preston, Colchester, Luton, Swindon, Huddersfield, and SouthIn London, police stations to be picketed include those in Southall Dalston, Kilburn, Lewisham, Queen Harlesden, Hornsey, and
Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
ENGINEERING STRIKE WEEK6
By Ron Thompson, AUEW steward, Sheffield
THE CURRENT engineering dispute has made the issue of trade union democracy one of the most debated questions in the industry: capitalist press and the right wing in the union have not been slow to point out that the membership have not voted. for the strike. 'No vote strike' has been the rallying call of the "return to work' brigade.
We need not concern ourselves too much with the hypocrisy of the press, whose concern for union democracy only seems to emerge when there is a strike on. (Can anyone press outrage when the policy of the AUEW delegation to last year's Labour Party conference and refused to cast a vote for the automatic re-selection of MPs?) Membership
But the fact is that the calling of a national strike without any say in the matter by the membership justifiably against many rank and file members of the union. This is particularly a problem
the Amalgamated Engineering Workers, where there is. something of a tradition of
— at least at a formal •collary level.
All full-time officers are elected by the membership for limited periods of time, and the policy-making National Committee consists mainly of rank and file members whose decisions are at least theoretically binding on the Executive Council
In the current series of strikes the membership have not denied a vote, but their involvement in general in the struggle has been very passive. All the decisions concerning the claim and industrial action taken by full-time officials. All rank and file do is withdraw their labour on the dates announced.
Embrace
It is not sufficient to denounce as • reactionary everyone plains about the lack of a vote, or simply to quote the rule book as many
Communist Party militants seem to
be doing. Our answer to the right wing
must embrace the
democracy general
whether there's a vote on the two-day
strike.
One of the factors that continues
THEUSE of the lock-out is by no means a new
tactic of the engineering employers. In 1922 the
Engineering Employers Federation organised a
national lock-out which developed into a major
of strength with
Amalgamated Engineering Union [AEUJ. The
half-hearted response of the union leadership
then led to a major defeat for the union. It also
paved the way for an employers' offensive over
productivity
redundancy.
War had allowed the unions to
offensive. In 1920 the engineers had won a 15
shilling increase in
agreement which gave the unions considerable
control over overtime working.
ever, hit the industry hard. From December
1920 to July 1921 the number of unemployed members of the AEU rose from 114,684: At the same time organising.
ocialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 4
Democracy-
an excuse for
scabbing?
The
no ACCLOC Scanlon ignored
TERRY DUFFY
goes grain with officials.
question of Union of about the
conscious about democracy then. let question of the 35-hour week.
Settlement
only been
to 39 hours as Duffy
are the and down the country.
I ne
COLL meetings
rejection. question not just But this
vote — no strike' brigade. newly formed
through speed-up and
The economic boom after the First World
go on ta
basic and an
Increased international competition, how- di
19,976 to the bosses were
to undermine support is the continua. watering down of the claim by the
What about rank and file control over that? What about the crease.
dispensations companies that have 'settled'? What
alternative stoppages, such as an all-out strike?
The demand for a vote needs to be put in the context of the demand for rank and file control over all aspects of the struggle. For those who are so WILl
the week. us begin with the tried
SI COL
Let us put it to the membership -should we be fighting for a 35-hour week now or should we water it down the
has done?
Let all views be canvassed and the membership vote in mass meetings up
Rolls Rovce workers have called for all-out action. This call was repeated by our stewards quarterly. If the capitalist press would like the
let those in favour of ending the action and those who want all-out action speak to mass
throughout the country.
And before there is any settlement let the membership vote on acceptance or
Perhaps this is not the sort of democracy Fleet Street have in mind.
campaign for if we are to beat the 'no
By 1922 (wo thousand firms had joined the Engineering Employers Federation. The defeat of the miners in 1921 encouraged them to go on the offensive and demand €50 million. After two ballots of their members the unions gave up without a fight.
But the employers raise productivity rapidly they needed to break strength particular they had to re-assert control' in the workplace — and that meant ending the national agreements overtime working. What is more, they knew that the engineers' funds were low, and they could not hold out long if left to fight alone. So they gave the AEU an ultimatum accept a new agreement or there will be a
Edinburgh
By Ralph De Santes
TOTAL of 2,500 engineering workers at Edinburgh's Ferranti factory have been on strike for eight weeks for a 25 per cent across-the-board
Despite management manoeuvres, support for the strike is rock solid. If won the strike would give skilled workers £84 (compared with f67 now) and the labourers £60 (compared
£48) for a 40-hour
Management ‹ ve
various tricks smash the strike. First a
campaign was launched • shop convenor Dougie Roonie, alleging that he was using
strike to seek high is office in the A maganering Union Engineering Workers.
When the smear fell flat, management changed its tune and said that in fact Roonie was about
bought off by management. : But that slander too had no effect.
As for the claim itself, management's first tion was to treat it with contempt. Then an attempt
mauc lu divide the strikers by offering different increases the skilled workers and the labourers although both offers were small.
Lock-outs 1922 style
wage cuts totalling
were not satisfied. To
organisation. In even more
'managerial
covering 'mediate
unions.
OSTRIKE NEWS
The rejection of this offer led to proposals for ingradie. This offer and bonus increase. was sent out to every striker accompanied by a letter warning of all sorts of nasty things if the offer wasn't accepted. The workers posted back the letter to management.
The strike has been officially supported, and the workers say that if they win this particular dispute they will gladly come out again in of the national claim. There particular enthusiasm for campaign for a 35-hour week.
York By Lewis Emery
RUMOURS circulating in York would have it that the engineering strike will end on 4 December. That what *non-union sources' told workers at Vickers As the Vickers workers point our it wine not bat first time that management and indeed everyone else knew what was going on before the rank and file workers.
A toughening up of the strike is now very much needed if it is not going to tray edges.
Although the strike Vickers remains 100 per cent solid, the trend in this isolated and largely nonindustrial town is towards local deals. lock-out from 11 March 1922. The union's executive recommended acceptance membersbip refused. They knew that it was crucial to retain control over overtime working with unemployment rising.
The executive recommendation encouraged the employers to stand firm, but the response of the rest of the labour movement leadership was
The 'National Council of Labour', involving both the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress, offered actions and fundraising instead of organising solidarity proposals for ending the dispute which would anu came out will have amounted to virtual surrender
In May the employers extended the lock-out
Last week, workers al the smaller the two Armstrong plants decided to end the action after hearing that the main plant was not taking part in the strike. Adams Hydraulies foundry workers have accepted management's offer of an £80 minimum for skilled workers without any concession on
Amongst the weaknesses the action mentioned to me by strikers have been. the crossing of picket lines by members the union's white-collar section, TASS, the lack of strike pay [making all-out action a difficult step], and the inadequate involvement of apprentices.
Another important influence on the strikers has been the failure of 10 weeks •of action by German steelworkers to
35-hour week.
WY:|1 Clearly Europe-wide fight for 35 hours with no loss in pay is needed.
Vauxhall
By Rob Stoddart
FOR THE last week
workers from Vauxhall's
Ellesmere Port plant in
Merseyside have been
sending flying pickets
far away as Essex to win
their six-week-old strike
Their battle with
General Motors is over a
claim for a 25 per cent
increase pay index- but the
the engineers to fight alone, leadership had done nothing
non-federated
Joint
the employers as scabs.
lost members la quarter
by the
Never before.
linked against inflation, an end to the company's new penalty clauses, and shorter working. week of 37½ hours as a first step to 35 hours, Despite the acceptance of the company's 13 pe cent offer by the othe Vauxhall plants at Dunstable and Luton, the Ellesmere Port workers remain militant and determined to win.
The pickets are aimed at halting the import of cars and parts from the continent. The main picket OI nearly 100 Harwich, although the company has tried to use including Duc.
Ipswich, Felixstowe, and Sheerness in Kent.
Thanks to the solidarity shown by dockworkers at these ports only token pickets have proved necesT&GwU convenors have . The AUEW and been checking other ports to make sure they stay one jump ahead.
Last Saturday the Special Supplementary Units (local SPG) appear ed on the picket line for the first time, and for the first time there was trouble The police waded into the pickets as they checked a wagon which was suppos edly empty, arresting 10 for obstruction and charg ing one with assault Despite these arrests the strikers remain un daunted, in part because of the support and solidarity they have re ceived so far.
to all the engineering unions, not just the AEU Within a month the rest capitulated to the employers, leaving the AEU on its own again apart from two smaller craft unions. With union funds having dropped from £3,250,000 in 1920 to virtually nothing, the membership voted by two to one to go back to work.
The rest of the labour movement had left
AEU to break out of this isolation. None of the AEU members in
firms were called out solidarity, and the leadership refused to allow the unemployed to be involved in the struggle
even though they might have been used by
Two years after its formation the union had suffered a major defeat, resulting in 333,123
and speed-up, victimisation and wage cuts in the factories. The employers' organisation, on the other hand, was stronger and more united than
Page 5 scan of this page
ENGINEERING STRIKE WEEK6 The Broad Left put Duffy on the spot, but ... Are they playing with fire?
Cutting their way through our lives
By Pat Hickey, Deputy Steward, Rover Solihull
ON THE DAY he President of the AUEW, Terry Duffy made it clear what he thought of industrial action. 'The strike is a very delicate weapon. Sometimes a good sharp strike is a good safety valve. But long strikes are of no use to the union or -nation. I will strive to reduce them."
In the last few months Duffy has been singing a different tune. Whilst warning that 'We cannot discount a prolonged dispute', he declared in May that someone. somewhere. has got to take on the employing class on une snorter working week.
A change of heart? No. Within a month of that statement he waa trying to get the June National Committee to reduce the demand for working week from 35 hours to 39
and the claim for £80 skilled 1UUS. minimum to £70 skilled minimum. Only the Broad Left majority of 27 on
national CHILLIC prevented a complete sell-out.
Duffy has been put on the spot by the Broad Left. He has been forced to lead action involving the membership elections next year, failure will be remembered by the rank and file.
It would be tempting for the left to let him stew in his own juice. on the basis that if he loses the fight over the claim he loses the election also. That would be a fatal mistake.
defeat in this weaken not Duffy but the left in the engineering industry
and in the workplace. defeat for the union will workplace organisallon, weaken tue self-confidence and involvement the rank and file, weaken our calls for
Educational
TV to go
By- Ross Keith, ETV Action
Committee
A MASS meeting of the unions at the
Inner London Education Authority's
Educational Television Centre last
Thursday voted unanimously to fight
the authority's proposal to close the
centre.
Taxing results
decision of the Labour-led ILEA to
implement the
cent education cuts in 1980-81.
A joint union action committee at
the centre, involving
ABS, ACTT, GLCSA,
NUPE, will oppose the
together with all other education cuts
in the Inner London area.
The Education Television Centre
has produced multi-cultural material
for use in schools,
regularly attacked by the National
Front. Now it seems that the Labour
Party is intent on doing what the NF
has failed to achieve.
As well as a fight,fo save jobs,
opposing the closure is also a battle to
defend progressive education against
The action committee has made
public a confidential ILEA document
proposing £4.4m
Although Sir Ashley Bramall, leader
of the authority, has
redundancies of full-time staff will be
avoided, the secret proposals tell a
different story;
With cuts scheduled in everything
from school cleaning, maintenance,
and adult education,
Senior
was elected
6
a snortel
of 52
whole
with new his success or
That is why the
responsibility.
struggle will out action that's needed,
what the Broad both fighting to initiate. The shop weaken recalled of Birmingham. trom the CP
government's 5 per
which represents
members or
NUT and closure, Meetings counci tend to be
sub-committees,
which has been
unions. But president and Communist
next
disallowing the proposal. said that
However,
Sackily) are votes to 34.
Broad Left's present position is a betrayal of their
They have forced the union leadership into leading official action but are not taking the steps necessary to ensure victory. It is all-
and that is Left should be
stewards conference
Dren recalled for to ron
October
Good. An authoritative meeting of the rank and file leadership is just inevitable, particularly among part-
WIII
A lobby of the ILEA education committee against the cuts will be held at County Hall on 9 October. For
Television Centre closure, contact the Joint Union Action Committee, ETV Centre, Thackeray Ra, London SW8
Tories can thank
IT SEEMS that the Broad Left in the Inner London Teachers Association
14,000 NUT members, will stop at nothing to halt effective action against the cuts.
of the association's dominated by discussion of vacuous reports from its
prepared bi fulltime union officers. In order to cut through this bureaucratic fluff, it has been the practice on the ILTA council to allow delegates to put amendments to the resolutions that are presented.
At the last meeting of the council, on 18 September, delegates wanted to
have the cuts involving all the public sector
Vera Woods, ILTA both member of the Party, ruled that amendments could not be put, thus
A challenge to the chair's ruling by Bernard Reagan of the East London Teachers Association was defeated by 32 votes to 31 on a show of hands.
recorded vote then showed the challenge carried by 37
65
64
what is needed. But that must lead the call for national strike action. As yet there is no sign the Broad Left intend to fight for that.
Engineers Charter, which had a meeting of su people two weeks ago, should make a national mobilisation
This was too much for the Broad Left, backed up by their right-wing Irenas. neatner wickay, ILLA vice president and a member of the Broad Left; refused to accept the vote, and duly closed the meeting
Dealing with the Tories' education cuts evidently means getting shot of the Broad Left, too. A number of London NUT associations are now calling for McKay's resignation.
Building for
By Tony Young,
By Tony sTer and TWO building
MASS pickets vital to the defence of direct works throughout the country will take place in Wandsworth, Londog, next Wednesday.
Two sites are to be picketed — the location of Wandsworth housing contracts, which should have gone to the council's direct department.
The department is one of the largest and most efficient country, yet with the election of a Tory council these and other sites
been handed contractors, notorious orre and Turriff,
for their use non-unionised lump labour.
The sites have been shut by union action for some months, in spite of desperate attempts by the council and the contractors to defeat the pickets
building workers and local trades unionists.
The Wandsworth Tories want to entirely scrap direct works, hence the importance of making the pickets on 10 October as big as possible
to fight for an all-out call to come
from
Challenge supporters should attempt
to get delegated on that basis.
The pickets are at 7am at the Croudace site, Upper Tooting Park,
Balham Five down below THE TORIES' cuts do not stop short of fire fighting. In Lancashire 75 jobs in the fire service are to be wiped out, | including
Workers at Attwaters engineering firm in Preston, where two were killed and seven badly injured in a fire last month, are joining
Association for Health and Safety in sw opposing these cuts and demanding sate workplaces.
The first step Lancashire county council at County connei Hall, Fishergate, Preston at 12.45 on works 11 October.
Paddington stops
By Peter Grant, Paddington branch, ASLEF
BRITISH Rail wants to get rid of 35,000 workers, and the present battle ground for this 'pruning' operation, linked, of course, work-loads, is Paddington station in London.
When parcel porters at the station refused to work new rosters three weeks ago, management locked them ULL. The NUR leadership has made the dispute official, calling a one-day strike at the station last Tuesday and I the previous Wednesday.
conference. Socialist
employers.
instructed
tube. and the Bellamy House, Garratt Lane,
By Jane Fox
mainly manufacturing
fire prevention
with the local
and the North-west
is lobby of But
homeworkers gaining nothing
increased
from
London W1.
it is essential to make every effort
to step up the fight now — we cannot
afford a defeat at the hands of tbe
The strikes have been solid, and would have succeeded in shutting the station completely if the NUR had
its members at the Old Common Panell signal box to come
Homeworkers'
conference
• THE 250,000 homeworkers in Britain
women who carry out work in their back room — are so used to appalling wag rates and conditions of employment that having the Tories in power might not seem to make any difference.
with the Employment Secretary's plans for whittling away exsung legislaton protecting jobs,
be certain , from this government. Hence the importance of trade union and community action to take up the homeworkers' case
This is the aim of a conference to be held by the National Homework. ing Campaign on 13 October. It's
Llam to som at St Pancras Church House, Lancing St, London NW1. Further details from: Simon Crane, Low Pay Unit, 9 Poland St,
Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Pope John Paulll hedges his bets
Break the Union says Tom Litterick
By Geoff Bell" 'IKNOW nothing at all of politics', Pope John Paul II was reported as saying to a group of British journalists shortly after he landed in Ireland last weekend. Nevertheless the Pope,
This much Drogheda, displayed all the which have made the Catholic Church one of history's great survivors.
Of course he condemned "terrorism'. The Catholic Church in Ireland condemned the Young Irelanders' rebellion of 1848 the Fenian Rising of 1867, and the Easter Rising of 1916, and it would Have been unrealistic to expect John Paul Il to Equally predictable was the Pope's call to 'all men and women engaged in violence to return to the ways of peace.
But contrary to the impression given British media reports, that was not all the Pope had to say. He emphasised the fact that 'I want to speak to politicians with the same intensity
which I have spoken to the men of violence...do not cause or condone or tolerate conditions which give excuse or pretext to men of violence'.
In demanding also the 'victory of justice, John Paul Il commented that it was up to the politicians to 'show that there is a peacetul, political way to justice. You must show peace achieves the works of justice and violence does not.'
Echoes
In other words, the Pope was saying that the politicians had singularly failed to show that there was a peaceful road to justice. He went on to condemn the 'political vacuum' in the North of Ireland, adding
to nose alrcaly American politicians.
Finally, in an implied reference to the British administration in the North of Ireland, the Pope said that 'human rights...cannot be set aside...by the state itseif, for any cause, not
even for security or in the interests of taw and order'. He also referred to "social and religious discrimination'.
Such remarks brought howls of outrage from Ian Paisley, who interpreted the Pope's words
By Tom Litterick, former Labour MP
for Birmingham Selly Oak
THERE are four resolutions
Northern Ireland On
Labour Party conference agenda, all te prais of abour's Trish policies. of them calling for
amendment
Hempstead's resolution calling
British withdrawal, Brent East CLP
asks for an end to what it calls the
*bipartisan policy' noW
followed.
This bipartisan policy is in fact a
tripartisan policy shared
Labour and Tory leaderships with the
Ulster Unionists.
the tripartite Irish policy is vividly
analysed in a new pamphlet,
Labour and Ireland
Geoff Bell, an Ulster born journalist.
This provides a plentiful supply
ammunition to any delegate wishing
to take part in the debate on these
resolutions, if a debate is allowed.
Stormont
We all remember that the present
conflict was sparked off by the civil
• rights demand for equal treatment for
Catholics, an end to discrimination.
Britain
abolished Stormont, the sectarian 'B'
Specials, the
hated Special Powers
disarmed the RUC. We also abolished
local government,
avoid discrimination in housing and
orner mallers.
But the 'B'
re-formed the Uister
Regiment, as sectarian as before; the
RUC, as sectarian as it ever was and
responsible for the widespread torture
prisoners, was
Special Powers Act was replaced by
the Emergency Provisions Act and the
Prevention OI Terrorism
imprisonment
Socialist Challenge
publicised speech political skills this tradition.
by criticisms of British made by on this year's
and
гасиса!
Hemel for
being
by Tne
The development of
British 1969-79, eventually multiple vote and the
Act, and
supposedly to
Specials were Defence
re-armed; the request.
deportation without trial.
Act; replaced with without trial, indet-
4 October 1979 Page 6
as 'giving comfort to the IRA'. This conclusion says more about Paisley's paranoia than about the Pope's remarks, but it is true that the fact that John Paul Il more or less admitted that there was some justice in the cause of the
British Labour
land: 1969~79
Partisanship the case for troops ou
by Geoff Bell
À new pamphlet by Geoff Bell with cartoons by Cormac, which analyses the costs of bipartisanship over the last ten years. Available from The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London N1. Cost 40p plus 10p post. Bulk rates on inite imprisonment on remand', and
And as if all that wasn't enough, we gave the Ulster Unionists extra seats at Westminster; there are now three
Catholic cartoons by mac
times as many people in prison in Ulster as there were in 1969; last year Roy Mason announced his intention of selling off one third of all the council houses in Northern Ireland;
You heard what
the pope said - so
lay down your weapons
you fenian sartards
• minority in the hardly reflects the usual British evaluation of the IRA as 'gangsters' without a political cause. This is not to imply that the Pope of Rome is somesort of pacifist Irish Republican intent on
and unemployment is as high in the Catholic areas as it was during the great depression.
Mr Bell is, ably, very hard on the Labour Party when he attributes blame, but the fact is that the Labour Party has never been consulted on any of the dramatic policy 'U' turns on Ireland during the few years Parliamentary Labour Party. All the vital decisions have been made by the Labour parliamentary who have shown, as Mr Bell rightly points out, more anxiety to get the approval of the Tories and the Ulster Unionists than that of any section of the labour movement.
Troops
case 101 Ireland now, Bell I don't think he has done this. He has given us clear proof, if such proof were needed, that all British policies in Ireland have failed abysmally their own stated argument forces us to the conclusion that the cause lies in the nature of the union of Britain and the Protestant statelet as it was defined in 1921. But that is a case for ending the union, not immediate forces.
British troops would not by itself end the conflict. discrimination and the conflict lies in the guarantee that British sovereignty ovel the Protestants that whatever they do
to the Catholics will be backed British military power; that is what "sovereignty' military withdrawal would inevitably result in the further militarisation of the RUC and an Ulster Defence Regiment, financed by the British tax payer. provide a strong
driving the • Brits
the dangers for
imperialism.
talking for 'justice in Ireland'.
Dogmas
time when it
Catholic bishops
statements.
In lne South of
challenging some
for the Catholic launched
condemnion false
condemning freedom, the
sexuality.
The Pope's visit
movement and
is unlikely to be seriously hampered.
'peaceful road' then it may
North right down
Ireland.
perhaps understand-
Only sovereignty
Orange Order Not
leadership, of
Harcourt
The pamphlet sets out to prove the pulling the troops out but with respect to Mr
only govern
on all. terms, • and his
British
The point is that the withdrawal of
•The root cause of the
Northern Ireland provides for
by
simple
extension of the
This would reason -for the
out by appeals to their morality. What it does show is that John Paul Il'sadvisers both in Rome and in Ireland realise
Catholic Church of performing like some toy poodle of British
The Catholic Church expects to be a force in Ireland long after the last British soldier has left. It would therefore be downright foolish for the Pope not to establish a record now for
For what the Pope was up to in Iretand was to look after the interests of the Catholic Church
is experiencing some difficulty. There is evidence that attendance at mass has dropped in the North of Ireland during the last ten years. At the same time there have even been pickets of the offices and homes
staged Northern Catholics in protest at various anti-Republican
Ireland the growing movement for women's liberation is seriously
most cherished Catholic dogmas. In this respect the Pope's remarks in Dublin have an equal importance
hierarchy. John Paul II thinly veiled attack divorce and abortion, practices concerning sacredness of life, the indissolubility of marriage, the true sense of
will no doubt help to re-establish some of the lost authority of the Catholic Church in Ireland. But in the long term the developing confidence of the women's
determination of Irish Republicans and socialists to drive Britain out
And should the Pope continue to stress the
worth reminding him of the bit in the bible which goes on about 'first take the beam out of your own eye'. The Catholic Church, from the crusader
the American Cardinal ,:Spellman's support for the Vietnam war, has 'blessed' more weapons and called for more "just wars' than there are blades of grass in
Provisional IRA to stay in the field since, once again, all the forces of "law and order' would be in the hands of the Protestants. with everything that has meant in the past. by ending forever British Northern Ireland can that guarantee be removed and be seen to be removed. Only then will the understand that their dream of 'a Protestant state tor a Protestant people was a hideous delusion sustainable only on the basis military power, British taxes and British blood.
I hope conference delegates and Labour Party members generally will read Geoff Bell's pamphlet; it is a reminder of what Lord told Gladstone in 1883: 'We hold Ireland by • force and by force alone, as much as in the days of Cromwell... we have never governes and we never shall govern Ireland by the good will of its people.' If we can wortner Ireland by force we should not be governing it at
Dundee
Demonstration In protest against the training of the Ulster Defence Regiment Sat 13 October, 11.30am.
Assemble: Tofthill car park, Lochee, Dundee.
Page 7 scan of this page
WORLD WAR?
THE MEN who wrote The Third World War: A Future History are not cranks or harmless speculators. The chief author is Sir John Hackett, once Commander in Chief of the Army of the Rhine, foremost military historian. collaborators this professionally written book include top NATO figures like Air Marshal John Brigadier Kenneth Hunt, Admiral Sir lan McGeogh, and Major General John Strawson. Macrae. deputy editor. Economist, is also one of the authors.
In the 1960s the Americans, aware that the Soviet Union could rival each US advance in nuclear adopted a policy of flexibleresponse'. The opening of hostilities should not have to trigger an escalation to all-out nuclear war — the "trip-wire' theory.
Limiting the growth of strategic arms, through the SALT talks, the US is building its conventional armoury, and encouraging its allies to do the same. Hackett's book explains what the "non-nuclear variant' would look ilke in practice
In December 1984, riots break out in Poland and East Germany. These revolts have been encouraged by the campaign carried on by President Carter since 1977. Fearing another Hungarian style uprising, the Kremlin sets out to unite East Europe against the common enemy and humiliate the Americans.
Tothisend, Moscow stages a series of provocations, the most serious of which is a Soviet-inspired coup Saudi Arabia that tips the balance in OPEC towards the results in an oil embargo on the West. Stabilise
Although the Soviet and US navies clash in the Gulf, Moscow joins with the USA in a fresh round of detente after managing stabilise Europe.
But a few months later, in July 1985, civil war breaks out Yugoslavia. The Kremlin supports the pro-Soviet faction.
Ical surprising 'non-nuclear variant' itself.
The USA invades Yugoslavia -to defend 'human rights', With that move America has started World War Three.
Toremain suitably anti-Soviet, and no doubt to avoid offending American colleagues, Hackett not probe the motiyes behind this US initiative But an action such as invasion of Yugoslavia bound to lead to World War Three: it leaves the Warsaw Pact no choice but to invade West Germany in an effort to remove the threat of NATO from its borders.
On D-Day, 4 August 1985, the Pact announces its war aims. It will fight its wayto the Rhine. There it will halt and demand the disbandment NATO alliance. France will not be invaded, and nuclear weapons will not be used, except in retaliation. Convoys
If Western figures can be trusted, the Warsaw Pact has three times as many soldiers and tanks as NATO and about twice Wall However, this takes into account only the NATO forces stationed in Europe. The principal member of NATO is the
British and Britain's
His
vivid and
Chief Barraclough,
Vice
Norman of the
immediate
anti-Soviet
'human rights'
and East America in
What happens
as the
the Free world Is saved.
of course. Hackett
outcome depends, things,
does welfare and the
would be
explains should • be spent.
1980s, the book adds. Retaliation Following the Pact the the West prepares military victory. aircraft. Moscow
war unthinkable, impossible.
respective allies in Africa and the Middle East.
DAVE BAILEY discusses this bestseller.
United States and in Hackett's war,
quickly flies or convoys across the Atlantic the planes, tanks, and soldiers to make up the shortfall.
After a ferocious land, air, and sea battle lasting almost three weeks, the Pact concedes defeat and withdraws in good order. It's a close run thing, but
insists that this happy among other a change in the moral climate in Britain between now and 1985. Herein lies the message of the book. Britain must cut back on social
raise its defence expenditure from 5 to 9 per cent of the Gross National Product, and the book
in detal how the The USA must • re-introduce the draft in the early
withdrawal, according to the WWIII scenenario,
exploit its
Hackett would oppose an invasion of East Eutope at this point. It is sufficient to let the peoples of East Europe, together with the oppressed nationalities within the Soviet Union itself, see that the Red Army is not invincible. With that; they will revolt.
accelerates the centrifugal forces by its activities during the closing days of the war. In a last minute bid to persuade the US to recognise the
484
ATHIRD
MOST people believe that there can never be another world war. The possession of nuclear weapons by both East and West makes another world
A recent book, The Third World War: A Future History, undermines this assumption. It describes a future world war, fought largely conventional weapons, involving NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and their
Soviet sphere of influence in East Europe, the Kremlin launches a single nuclear strike. Birmingham, England, is obliterated.
NATO retaliates by destroying Minsk, a city suitably situated not too far from the Polish border. Angered by Soviet unilateralism and keen to avoid nuclear attack, the governments of East Europe : and those of several Soviet republics (the Ukraine in the West and those bordering on China ir the East) now secede. The defeated Soviet troops are forced to leave East
Europe, and the Warsaw Pact is at an end.
Hackett recognises workers of East Europe do not reject communism, tion. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact - together with the rolling back of Soviet . influence in Aimci Middle East — satisfies Sir John, who is writing his history in 1987, just after the event
In Hackett's world, warfare ceases to be an apocalyptic or irrational act of mutual annihilation. The war is fought according to to say, in order to achieve limited and rational goals
The outcome of war may alter the course of history, but it has nothing in common with genocidal destruction. In WWIII, Moscow fights to save its bureaucratic satellitestates and NATO to achieveits long cherished aim of breaking up the Warsaw Pact. Predicted
Are the leaders advocating Hackett's scenario? Does the book reveal, for instance, the true meaning of SALT and Carter's human rights agitation?
Marxists have always said that if revolution does capitalism in the West, a Third World War is inevitable; though, of course they have never predicted when it will happen. In the
dispelling
First, Vietnam.
foment
fronts.
Europe,
US influence penetration the ranian
Pentagon,
strike.
conventional
Hackett European
defence'.
attack
that the
only Russian domina-
curocommuttists Communist and the
However,
Clausewitz; that
of West Europe.
Despite domination over its
191r anc
war
of the West
not overthrow History,
past, capitalism paperback.
invariably tried to solve its problems by war. Its growing difficulties today are well-known. Hackett's book, by
the myth of inevitable exchange, seeks peopie think once again about what has long been unthinkable
Since Hackett wrote his book, in 1978, two important developments have taken place.
the Chinese invasion of . This, the first war between wolkcoslalo. warl ballaDioxy wa between China and the Soviet Union
US friendship with the Chinese and the sale of arms to China (through Britain) are undoubtedly intended to
Sino-Soviet war. In Hackett's book, Moscow has to fight World War Three only on its Western front. Perhaps if he were writing now, he would have it fighting on two
Secondly, the Iranian revolution has occurred. This is a massive blow to US domination of the Gulf.
Triumphs
Hackett insists that to fight a war in
NATO SHIUS supplies of oil and minerals from Alrica and ine viacle cast. Loss or
and growing Soviet of these areas threaten both. Perhaps this is one reason why
revolution produced reaction among the hawks in the
calling for the USA to knock out the USSR in a nuclear 'first
The advocates of the non-nuclear variant. on the other hand, will want to bring forward the
war before things deteriorate further.
says little about the working class. One advantage of prodding the Pact to invade West Germany is that NATO can present the war as one of 'national
In August 1914, the European socialist leaders supported the imperialist war with the excuse that each country was defending itself from
But NATO would do well to beware of. this historical precedent. Hackett, for example, placing no faith in the anti-Soviet declarations of the
Italian Party inviting Russians into Italy. That is a move that could only lead to civil war. In France
elsewhere the pro-imperialist position triumphs.
the fear of war, especially of nuclear attack, would be
revolutionarv distur bances would break out in many parts
The working class parties would have a duty to launch an insurrectionary bid for power and pull the armed forces out of NATO. Only
revolespite restoms leaders,
reformist the working class invariably turns co revolution in time of war. The two greatest revolutionarv waves of th European working class - between
1923, and again between 1941 and 1947 — were brought on by
We must make certain that nucka escalation is not the only danger that the NATO war-mongers have to take into account when making their plans for World War Three
August 1985 published by Sidgwick & Jacksor 1978, at £7.45. Republished by Sple Books in September 1979, at £1. 75 l
October 1979
Page 8 scan of this page
DEMOCRACY IN TI
By Jude Woodward
SHIRLEY Williams has said that the current
fight over Labour Party democracy and the
leadership is like the crew of the Titanic having
a punch-up in the engine room.
But are questions of democracy irelevant
to the fight to rebuild the Labour Party and
bring down the Tories?
Shirley Williams clearly thinks that they are
and so does the Daily Mirror: 'As we head for
new heights in post-war unemployment the mut-
ineers talk only about who's
manifesto (which isn't going to be needed for
years anyway)."
Callaghan has tried to convince us it's not
relevant - "we shall let
hook'. Unfortunately the Tories aren't on a
which 1s mainly
himself, who says they have a democratic
mandate.
Some are convinced that the proposals on
democracy in the Labour Party are positively
dangerous, mainly actually win. Power politics
The Campaign for a Labour Victory, which has support from right-wing Labour MPs and union leaders, summed it up like this: the NEC wants us to believe that 'millions of working mc ana women went Margaret Thatcher and the most right-wing and anti-trade union programme put to the nation since the 1930s because Labour's manifesto wasn't left-wing enough'.
They go on to say that what the left is after is not democracy but 'naked power politics'. This alone should convince us that the question of democracy is not a side issue -afraid of it want to pretend that it is.
Roy Hattersley really went to the root of the matter, however, arguing: become all-powerful, established rights of the Parliamentary Party, then the battle to control the NEC will be fierce and continuous. If we college, rival groups with different views about the leadership will compete for à majority
Hattersley continued: If an MP is obliged constantly to contest nomination with lutiey unrepresentative ElUDS formed both for and against.
Consensus
Oh, horrors! If the Labour Party was more democratic we might find we don't all agree on everything! We might find that rather than the consensus view of Callaghan and Healey there is the right-wing view of Callaghan and Healey and an alternative left-wing view.
We might find there was a real debate over policy and strategy inside the Labour Party, and if there was, then Roy Hattersley might find himself on the losing side.
As socialists we are quite clear on the issue of democracy in the Labour Party -it, and for as much of it as possible. That is the way we can have a real debate about the way to fight the Tories and about Labour's alternative policies.
Of course, after the debate there has to be some kind of decision so that everyone can act together to take on the Tories. But how to fight and on what policies has to be in the hands of the members of the Labour Party. Defiance
An article in Labour Activist, the bulletin produced by Benn's supporters, put it like this: 'Take for example last year's 5 per cent limit on pay increases. The repeatedly warned by trade union leaders right and left — that a 5 per cent limit would spell disaster...
'One purpose of making the Labour Party more democratic would parliamentary leadership imposing policies in defiance of the movement.
The article goes on to say that it isn't just a matter of incomes policy. Indeed it is not. Right
ls question Parliamentary Labour Party gets away with leaving the fight against the Tories until the next election or whether it tries to lead a fight against them now.
The engineering strikes, the action against the Corrie Bill, and the widespread activities arainst the cuts labour movement to begin the fightback now. Increased democracy in the should ensure that decisions made by
Sacialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 8
to write the
the Tories off the
due to Callaghan
because the left might
out and voted for - those who are
If the NEC does sweeping aside the
vicai dl clectora
This small, be - we are for
The Executive
government was NEC
be the stop incomes
of whether the
and decide.
reveal a willingness in the Labour
Labour Party this is reflected in the bagovernment conference and in the
activities of the left when it is over.
But the Benn proposals do not go enough. There is a proposal that the leader of the party should be elected by an 'electoral college' consisting of one third MPs, one third constituency want llcuben. trade union delegates This democratic than the present situation where the leader is elected simply by the PLP, so we should be in favour of the change.
However, electing the leader at conference would be the best and most democratic method.
electoral. college simol exaggerated power of the PLI attend the conference then they should vote there; they do not make up a third of. the Labour Party.
It is also proposed that the final word on the party manifesto should rest with the National
Committee rather Prime Minister . and Cabinet. proposal is a step in the right direcetion as the
elected conference ICHICSC ANVe from trade stituency Labour Parties and MPs. Guidelines
But the best system would have the manifesto drawn up strictly within guidelines laid down by the conference conference is sufficient to ensure it is up-to-date with events. Day-to-day decisions have to be left to the party's leaders, but broad statements of policy are the job of conference to debate
The final democratic proposal going to conference is on the mandatory reselection of MPs. This would be an important step on the road to abolishing power of the parliamentary
Party to ride roughshod conference decisions.
Would all the MPs in the last Labour
have cheerfully Callaghan's view that a further round of pay
Toný Benn and Eric Heffer have said that this Labour Party
conference is the most important since the war.
This is because they believe that their proposals on
constituțional change in the party will make it 'more
democrațic, strengthen its unity and increase its membership'.
The debate is about the whole future of the Labour Party,
far parties?
and one third is clearly more 'MPs cae the
than with the Kamsay MacDonald Again this Clearly,
unions, con-
an annual likes;
not the case
undemocratic.
OVCr
accepted
restraint was necessary if they knew they would have to explain themselves to their constituency
The reselection proposal was defeated last year by 'Scanlon's mistake', a useful error for the bureaucracy as the engineering union had
- crossing the House. mandated him to support reselection.
Lial! features conference Prat coreo tanarioo bei dor resure
tunctioning democratic Scanlon should not have been able to get away with such a gross breach of mandate; delegates should not be bullied into remitting contentious motions; the three-year rule on debates should be abolished, as conference should have the right to discuss whatever it likes whenever it
procedure for 'compositing' should be improved, and so on
Some people have suggested that the block votes of the trade unions are an undemocratic feature of the Labour Party conference. This is
they are only undemocratic insofar as the way the mandate is decided is
To a considerable extent, democracy inside the Labour Party is dependent on democracy within the trade union movement. Calling for an end to trade union block votes is just a way of not dealing with the question of democracy within what has to be the major organisational base of the Labour Party.
Labour Party -
democracy in all movement.
Parliamentary Labour Party. be the ideal situation. step to take to alter that structure.' Structures
starts with representation'
1s inat representative democracy party to control elected MPs HUOLC Labour
about it. MPs are
are not recallable
prevent
with notions of
Party is arguing for that.
its falling membership whether Callaghan and It's not just a deba
equivalents of Callagh
movement in the figure rank and file level.
Closer involvement of the trade unions in the Labour Party at a rank-and-file level through building workplace branches of the
- can bring together the fight for sections of the labour
Yet all the changes in the internal structure of the Labour Party cannot get round one very fundamental question - the situation of the
One of Callaghan's supporters, David Basnett, general secretary of the General and Municipal Workers Union, said this: Parlamentary representation had a adualf structure to the party, with the Parliamentary Labour Party autonomous and separate from the structure of the party as such. This may not
But it is a very serious
Basnett hits the nail on the head when he
'the early days of Parliamentary - it is not that the Labour Party decided to have two separate structures
the Parliamentary system of does not allow the
MP Is nol responsible accountable to his or her constituency party. If an MP breaks with the party manifesto, even if s/he crosses to the other side of the Commons, there is nothing that the Labour Party can do
supposedly there personally represent a community, not to argue for and act on a particular point of view. They
The only way that the Labour Party can
Ellaghan/ Healey bariamentary dy mreakan. repetition
democracy.
Unfortunately hardly anyone in the Labour
Page 9 scan of this page
IELABOUR PARTY
enn. making myths not policies
ABOUR Party Conference opened on y with talk of revolution in the air. At a ference meeting on Sunday evening left
MP Heffer Jeader George Lansbury: cialism is inscribed on our banners. We
government not for reformist but for revolution.' fer interrupted this quotation to add his Mation: 'That wasn't on, maybe he did go a bit too far, but he "Trimmers, compromisers oks or we must quit them"? Later on citerated his point: 'We have a hell of a ¿ support for the socialist revolution.'
ore mundane aim of getting support
lerence resolutions on Labour Party
what many delegates had in mind as
rence assembled. Che first steps to the
revolution were the three big issues
mainated the run-up to the conference
tion of MPs, new methods of electing
, and national executive control of the
nanifesto.
ty chairperson Frank Allaun, these
to the very heart of the failure of the
bour government. Opening ce.he declared: the time last winter was upon us the government had rejected our pleas and
VI tae rade union movement
restore full employment and to reverse
i public spending. This is the real issue
reforms How do we see that this does not insisting on greater respect for decisions by the Parliamentary
such constitutional changes
Individual Members Votes (as % of electorate) 40%7
35%30% -
27% -
1945. 1950 1951
d its election failure, and about aley are the leaders who are needed. or Labour Party members — the nd Healey exist in the trade union
7 Chapple and Duffy, as well as at
step'. quoted old-time
they were arter significance of bloody agall beal year
must quit In the meantime by Party left
industrial
The latter, fashion, would
'there no aspirations and the
for
new saciety before explained.
Full-time Agents Votes 1955 1959
revolution. ended te the bear aler
leader elected by a more representative body was, stressed Allaun, 'not such a revolutionary
That in a nutshell was the problem the Labour left faced as the conference proceeded. By Monday it seemed likely that the reforms
would be WOn.' But the such victory is largely symbolic. The changes will be up for discussion
the union-sponsored enquiry into every aspect of Labour Party organisation will be submitted.
choosing to focus attention on the internal reforms the Labour
leaves other things unsaid. subdued Tony Benn pre-conference question and answer session reiterated familiar themes — calls for increased
democracy, long term economic planning and import controls.
said Benn, in good, British 'protect our workers from foreign competition'. It was all very general, unspecific and rhetorical. Benn made the point
point having marvellous expecting down-beaten capitalist system to meet them.'
Norman Atkinson, another left member of the NEC, when asked if he supported a mixed economy replied: 'No, there will have to be a fundamental change in society.' But how this
would be achieved was
When the Any Questions session: produced an inquiry as to how the NEC would fight the cuts and whetner it would bear the struggle of Clay Cross in mind, Labour general secretary Ron Hayward replied: 'We are not prepared to
1964 1966 when it means discussing Ireland or abortion.
Individual Members 1970 Feb 74 740ct On these pages JUDE WOODWARD looks at the constitutional proposals to see just how democratic they really
are, while GEOFF BELL, at the conference in Brighton,
discovers that Tony Benn may be hot on démocracy but not
Benn put it Labour governments
Benn.
introduced vast reforms', Wilson-Callaghan years, conference falling disassociated from.
angry tones during.
the alternative was to resign.'
generations ago participation in recent vintage.
their fight against this government
claimed Allaun.
Full 1,000,000 time Agents
г 300
800,000-250
600,000- - 200
-150
400,000 -
300,000- -100 70
1979 encourage our people to break or defy the law?
In most instances those who called for, as
radical transformation of society' were left to bistory. They offered pasi
• 825 mytin of great socialist achievement. 'We are only relearning what our forefathers in 1918 learned', said
'Tam thinking of the 1945 manifesto which
said Allaun, and referring to the 1945-51 Labour government he emphasised, 'I am not looking so much for new policies, I want the old ones to be carried out'.
How such limited aspirations were related to the issues of constitutional change within the Labour Party was not explained. Äfter all, the
the same methods of electing the leader applied in 1945 as applied in
which Labour
But as Shirley Williams put it in somewhat
her Any Questions pre-conference session: 'I was a member of the Cabinet, as was Tony Benn, which accepted the Bill. public spending cuts. Let us be quite clear, if one did not accept the policies of the Cabinet
Tony Benn and the rest of the Labour left stayed silent on that one. It is much easier to create myths concerning Labour governments
than is defend such governments of more
• Still the victories which Benn and the left seem likely to win in Brighton should at least allow attention to be focused on issues that
MPs. have greater relevance for working people in
The conference is 'not a debating society",
We shall see.
Why
there's no
debate on
Ireland and
abortion
By Geoff Bell
LABOUR'S national execut-
ive, at its "pre-conference
meeting last Sunday, decided
that delegates would not be
allowed to debate either Ireland
Or aDordon
Instead featured debates
include 'animal welfare' and
'vagrancy'
The veto on Ireland WAS imposed despite four motions and (wo composite motions on the subject. Eric Heffer MP described the veto as 'outragcous'.
revealed how the
censorship occurred:
'We did have a discussion en the national executive and one or two of us felt there should be time to have a debate on Ireland, for we haven't got a clear cut policy on it. But the overwhelming feeling executive was that we should let Jim deal with it in his speech on Tuesday.'
Disaster
Even the star of the Labour right, Shirley Williams, admitted: 'It's true we haven't got a policy on Ireland and
Left MP Norman Atkinson described the decision not to debate the subject as 'disgrace ful'. He also said that what
needed was fa clear understanding of the need for the reunification of Ireland'.
A similar remark was made by another MP, Alex Lyon. Al
. fringe meeting on humen. rights Lyon said that he'd kept silent on Ireland for ten years, but that now he too felt Labour should adopt a policy for a reunification.
Thanks to the NEC's decision such views will not be heard at the conference proper. Two delegates interyened at the conference on Monday to demand that a debate take place Fringe
No vote even on whether Ireland should be debated was allowed. There was considerable opposition on the CONCeNCE floor this
Conference delegates will also have to fringe meetings to hear their leaders' views on abortion.
Tony Benn stated this on Sunday evening. • He explained that he had missed the vote against the Corrie Bill because of 'a technicality', but that he was resolutely opposed to the
However, he dissented from the view that MPs should abide by conference decisions on it.
Accepting the principle of a free vote Benn said: 'we have t accept there is a conscientious problem'. So despite his much heralded demands for democracy in the Labour Party, as far
that party's policy abortion is concerned Benn has said that it shouldn't matter to
And as far as the national executive demands for 'accoun-
democratic discussion' go Ireland need not
Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
ALIEN...ATION
FOR THREE DAYS ballet was the
flashpoint 01 cast-Wes
The defection of Bolshoi
dancer Alexander Godunov
chain a series of hizarre events which
culminated in his wife, the ballerina
Ludmila Vlasova, being trapped on
her plane for three days.
She was the victim
kidnap by the KGB
whisked her to the waiting plane, and
the CIA who refused to let the plane
take off. Eventually
allowed to return to a hero's welcome
in the USSR - having rejected the
decadent West!
Alexander Godunor now
string detectors
USSR who include Rudoiph Nureyer,
Natalia Makarova, Valery and Galina
Panor, and the great
Baryshnikov. All are portrayed by the
Kremlin bureaucrats as traitors who
have soid out to the West for vast
financial rewards.
Big names
But while it is true that fortunes can
and Baryshnikos are examples.
is not the mitin reason why ballet
dancers defect. Aller all.
Alivander Godunor was one of the
Bolshoi's three principal dancers. Iw0
other less well placed dancers, I conid
and Valentina Movior, also defected
during their American tour.
Russian ballet
world's thinking on dance during the
first three decades of this century -
not merely its long history and the
lyIn century development of
classical ballei, such as Swan Lake
and the Sleeping Beaury, bur also its
experimenta. aspect.
further under the
great Diaghiles,
encompass the great dancers such ar
Kurdis Viinksi and
HOTE with Folkine arid Isadora
Duncan.
Tothe kremiin today such freedom
of expression in the arts is anathema.
The creative arts
struggle for human
political ircedom. Every
newness or experimentation
becomes for the
the
Stalinists have created.
Status symbol
Part of ihe consolidation of the
bureaucracy wasthe attempt in freeze
society and
Russian ballet went from being one of
the most experimental and exciting in
the world to a situation where today it
has only small
provides little room
development of the individual artists. FROM the moment conceived the idea of Alien it was bound to be & success. Mix two themes which invariably do well at the box office — space and horror — and for some reason moviegoers will flock to see the result.
And having conceived the idea and secured the necessary actors, technicians and effects, the makers of Alien could have sat back and played safe in the security of a sizeable return on their investment.
Surprises
The publicity for the film suggests that such is indeed what happened. 'In space no-one can hear you scream', say the advertising posters, and even before the opening credits slowly form themselves on the screen the audience have almost been scared into silence in apprehension of what they are about to witness. Then the surprises start.
The opening conversations concern the lousy wages workers themselves are a scruffy, bored lot, and their spacecraft Is an
Allen has none of romanticism of Star Wars, none of the awe and Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 10
Ballet set in
of a double
who had
Vlasova was
Joins from the
*Misha'
Nureyer • this
while
dominated the This was taken guidance of the
able
Misine. and
symbolise the
social and sign thus Kremalin a deadiy political order the
SOCWICIO
power abroad.
culture. Thus appears as
freedom.
people as repertoire and Tudor. MacMillan,
for the some bright spark
The receive.
ugly, rounds. the space
Instead of being an art form, the
status palet nas become merely a symbol for the bureaucratic dictators
take foreign dignitaries, a representative of Soviet
To Russian dancers, the 'West'
heaven of They development of new ballets by such
Robbins, Balanchine, and Petit; the existence of companies like Martha Graham's; and the diverse repertoires
Sigourney Weaver plays Warrant Officer Ripley wonder which accompanied Close Encounters of the Third Kind - there is even none of the bigothic horror of the various Draculas doing the
Nevertheless the plot as it unfolds seems fairly routine stuff, of the type much favoured.
The big leap to the West
By Paul Laurens
of all leading 'Western' companies -whether be the London or the New York City Ballet.
The life of a dancer is short, reaching its peak between the ages of 25 and 33, and this adds urgency to Russian dancers who see themselves being by-passed bytheir art while they remain in the Soviet Union. On the olher hand, the 'security" looked after lor life in the Russian companies contrasts lavourably, course. with the was by Star Trek: the spaceworkers unknowingly transport a monster aboard from an apparently long derelict planet and the rest of the records the battle for control of the craft between the monster and the workers.
Yet that is by no means the whole story. For
bringine in the money
"free market'
the "West'
La Baryshnikov
plain: Box office
over
and S250 seats
dynamic
The mobilising warning to in
"serve the people'
Trapped
Yart's sake!'
well be
straitjacket Royal Ballet
the cash register
turn their
masters.
audience.
of being
which outside. and foresees it all.
Subversive
after all, more to sensationalism.
IDE CSSI
that when
nasty things happening in space.
is over-intellectualising.
but also splendidly subversive.
capitalism will only pay when you're
This consideration is said to have influenced Ludmila Vlasova's decision to return home; she was older than Godunov and had less io gain on the There is of course the other side of Undoubtediy every defecior of the quality of a Nureyer or sees impresarios the world nver rubbing their hand in anticipation of the box office receipts. Ballet is hig business. Alan LeMond's book Bravo Baryshnikov! makes ihis
'He was hox office. Only a little month after his arrival (detection), all his performances were sold out, some even before the flyers were printed. The S15, $25, and $35 seats were gone first. Still available -for a shori while — were the $50. $100 the ones the general public could seldom afford.
It is a terrible reflection on the nature of the Soviet bureaucracy that it has been unable to create a more society, culturally and otherwise, than decaying capitalism. possibilities that exist for resources mean that Russian arts should stand head and shoulders above those of the 'West'. Instead the narrow-minded bureaucratshave attempted tocutthe lite our of the creative arts by tying them to serve only their interests - that is, remaining in power. This is a terrible those sociansis who 'proletarian culture' or 'socialist realism', or making the arts
In fact only a socialist economic system will make realisabie the only principle worth supporting - "art for Alexander Godunov and Leonid and Valentina Kozlor may lionised and hecome superstars of the Nureyer category, but you have to keep on being 'how The Soviet hutcancrane sapitaim by the insplant tinkle et replaced
Both trap the artist, making them pertormance from the audience towards their rea!
Neither
nor capitalism can fulfil the artist or the overthrown, decaying capitalism will until both continue to exert a big pull on Soviet artists who see the very real wider degree of artistic freedom that exists capitalist plot. For instance, the film's hero is one of the two women workers who fulfils the role invariably allocated by Hollywood to a
- the person who thinks best, fights best,
These (wo examples suggest that there is;
Allen than shock-horro The general atmosphere depicted within the spacecraft reinforces that
The continual complaints about wages and conditions, the starkness of the sets, the bavoc
the computer [called 'mother'] doesn't do what the workers ask, and : a scene of violent frustration from the worker when they discover a robot in worker's clothing — all this implies that Allen is not resily about
Then there is the title. Look up "Teach Yourself Marxism' and there you will find the word and the concept 'alienation'.
Maybe this is all wishful thinking. Maybe it
But if Alien is, seems possible, a parable about capitalism in the future, it is not just a brilliantly made film,
Page 11 scan of this page
No
return
to the
kitchen
sink!
By Valerie Coultas
THE TORIES are limbering up for a new attack on rights.
Secretary James Prior, who is in charge of Social Services, want to see women give up their jobs and return to the kitchen sink.
Rising crime, industrial violence, and terrorism are the product of the 'traumatic separation'
during Second according to Jenkin.
Prior has therefore come legislative goods. workers will be allowed to Employment Protection proposals go through. Female workers will be denied the automatic right to return to work after having a baby.
Small companies, which number about a million in Britain, will employees at any time during their first two
JOURNALISTS Against Corrie has |
sparked a new trade union initiative in
the fight to protect women's abortion
rights. Women media workers are
attempting to raise awareness in the
National Union of Journalists about
the grave threat posed by the Corrie
Bill.
'All the media's recent abortion
horror stories have been discredited
by DHSS inquiries. Journalists ought
to be concerned with fact not fiction,
said Sue Landau of the
Journal.
The group has produced a special
information pack for news editors on.
all national and morning papers.
explodes myths, spells out the positive
effects of the 1967 Abortion Act, and
puts the case against restrictions.
To build for the 28 October demo
JAC, along with the NUJ Equality
Working Party and Fleet St Women's
Voice, is holding a public meeting
aimed NUJ and
members. The meeting will take place
Wednesday
Brides' Small Hall, Bride Lane, EC4
at 7.30pm. For further info. about
JAC contact: Jenny
Hillmorton Rd, London
01-607 2117) or Sue Landau
01-340 2424]. Students
STUDENTS Against Corrie has also
been launched.
students representing different politi-
cal tendencies in the National Union
of Students have decided to mobilise
support by producing an action pack,
badges and posters for distribution in
the colleges as the new academic year
begins.
The 'SAC' badge will carry the
slogan 'Free Abortion on Demand' as
this has been the policy of the union
for a number of years. Any
Here cr booking
should write to *Students
Corrie, NUS,
London WCI. Preston
PRESTON Trades Council has taken
advantage of the specially produced
Employment and Patrick Jenkin,
disruption,
of children from their
World War,
up with the with 20 escape from the years of Act if Prior's
be allowed to sack
Hornsey where numbers.
Hackney
NATSOPA
Öctober in St. mailing to local trade unions.
Glasgow
Vaughan, 13
N7 tel. GLASGOW [tel.
familiar pictures They found
wide range campaign,
demanded to know if their
Trade campaign is strong in speakers the
college Family Planning Clinic. speaker Against Endsleigh St, Greenwich
trading. A worker who has the audacity to bring a case agginst an employer which is not proven may be faced with a fine. Schedule 11 of the Act, employers to eliminate pockets of low pay, is to scrapped. And just organisations might upset this field day for the bosses, it is also suggested that the law which
CAMPAIGN NEWS! said Jo Richardson, MP for Barking
A WOMANS RIGHT TO CHOOSE
TUC leaflet to order 5,000 to be sions. distributed to factories in the area
women work in sizeable
HACKNEY NALGO has decided to mainstream foot the bill for the CAC group's
Corrie.
National Abortion Campaign found their public meeting on 20 September interrupted by five male SPUC supporters with the now
of dead themselves roundly signatures condemned by two women new to the
who accused them caring little about women's lives and
moral qualms about abortion extended to cases of rape. Predictably they got no
union support for the Scotland meeting include women from Glasgow Trades Council and the Scottish TUC, as well as Dr Elizabeth Wilson from the Glasgow
Support
•IT IS ALMOST impossible for woman in the West Midlands to get an free abortion on the NHS simply because the most senior consultant in the area happens to be an anti-abortionist,
EIVOMEN
MORE
forces should be relaxed.
which urges
case ) workers'
speaking to 60 people at a Greenwich Abortion Campaign Against Corrie public meeting on 25 September.
Glenda Jackson has donated £90 to the local campaign and local MPs Guy Barnett and John Cartwright have also expressed their support.
IGWO RATHER disheartening news from the TGWU conference [the largest trade union in Britain]: the abortion resolution was not taken although the chair did allow 22 speakers on a non-contentious motion about pen-
We urge abortion rights suppor!ers in the T & G to get moving and send a letter of protest from their branch, supporting Branch 6/522's motion and forcing the leaders of the TGWU to get in line with the
of the trade union movement in the Campaign Against
Next?
WHAT NEXT? Socialist Challenge wants to hear from your trade union, Labour Party, women's group and we'd particularly like to find out how you're going out to get
for the CAC petition against Corrie. CAC's target is half a million — so you'd better get moving.
After the demo on 28 October (assemble 11.30am Reformers Tree,
Park, lor march lo rally- al Trafalgar Square at 2.45pm) the next big national event will be the mass lobby of the House of Commons on Tuesday S February - three days before the third reading.
A mass lobby means beginning the campaign now in your trade union for
for the lobby and strike action on the day. Socialist Challenge supporters in the health unions wil he urging their executives to initiate the call for strike action as the struggle for
abortion facilities for should be seen as part of the fight to stop the rundown of the NHS and its 'hiving off' to private enterprises.
NEED THEIR
NURSERIES
employers to recognise trade unions
Women, concentrated in low paid jobs in shops, laundries, hairdressers and the catering industry, will be clobbered by this legislation if it goes through. It will rob them of the minimal rights that they have won as workers.
Not that these rights offer much protection.
on the walls.
and they
Act.
Like Jobn
ruling class values. Needed domestic slaves alleys of powerless tribunals.
rank and file workers to women.
The Tories'
women have for positive segregation,
In short.
workers' wages.
Keep your eyeballs
off our bodies
WOMEN workers at a council union did depot in the Midlands got fed taken down. up with the nude pictures that male workers kept plastering
They complained to their union, the TGWU, saying that the pictures degraded women
wanted. them taken down. Surprise; surprise, the
Women have been increasingly pushed into part-time work over the past decade, because of lack of provision for childcare and domestic responsibilities, and many part-time workers are not covered by the Employment Protection
Bowiby's theories of the importance of the biological mother which appeared after the Second World War when women were being asked to hand their jobs back to men, Patrick Jenkin's views on the importance of motherhood are a little bit transparent. They neatly expose the zig-zags of
When women are needed in the workforce cheap later maternity leave and so e
- even to maternity leave and some limited access to birth control. But when a major economic recession occurs, the bosses government will ruthlessly scrap those 'frills' and urge women to return to the home a
Thatcher's mob are likely to have their time cut out, however. Women are clinging to their jobs, even if only as pari-time workers, because they can't survive without them. And they are also turning to their unions to protect them. Since the late 1960s, the number of women in trade unions has increased by 91 per cent.
Under the Labour government, womer began to fight back against the cuts and in defence of their living standards, despite the attempt to divert their struggles into the blind
1 Де abortion struggle has begun to change attitudes among
new proposals have thrown down the gauntlet not only to women but to the whole labour movement. A defensive strategy is not enough. In addition to the right to work,
the right to a decent living standard and that means an offensive struggle
action break job give preferential training, and to ensure childcare provision.
we hope to ensure women a permanent place in the workplace so that they cannot be used again as a 'reserve army' by the
order to depress the level of all order them to be
Spurred on by this victory, the women went on to tackle the bosses by threatening that they removed their insulting portraits of women, 1o0, the whole depot would be covered with male nudes!
... Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
A SERIES of letters from the Iranian Ministry of National Guidance have been appearing recently, Signed by Majid Rahma, the Director of the Foreign Department, the letters themselves to correcting aspects of the Guardian's coverage of events in Iran.
For example, they Khomeini has ever threatened the Kurds. "The Kurds are Moslem and committed to Islam. There is no war between Moslem and Ayatollah Khomeini and the Iranian people have nothing Kurdish brothers. 'They are equal to
other ramian eiizen. differentiate between Kurds members of the Kurdestan cratic Party'
No doubt the inhabitants Carna 1l west Azerbaijan relieved to hear of this •Moslem brotherhood'. In early September, 46 Kurdish people from the including four
massacred by Islamic militia. Among the dead was Mullah Mahmoud, the village leader of Friday prayers, was found with a copy of the Koran by his side.
Helicopter
Little differentiation between Kurds and KDP members during the air raids by fighter planes and helicopter gunships LOWI of Paveh during the summary executions which followed the capture of those towns. And the executions of non-Kurdish medical teams who were tending the Kurdish wounded what is meant by the Iranian citizens. All who stand in the way of Khomeini's programme for an Islamic Republic are equal fodder for his goon squads.
The letters to the faithfully reflect Khomeini's plans for national reconstruction.
material basis ally struggles which overthrew the Shah,
provision overcoming the appalling conditions of poverty in which the majority of Iranians live. "The struggle was waged for Islam'; says the Ayatollah. inconceivable that anyone would have sacrificed his son for a cheaper melon or house.'
The draft constitution of the Islamic Republic, nOW end of Its passage through 'Council of Experts'
programme: assertion of the unity of all classes of Moslems against the infidels and their foreign ideologies; sanctity of private
popular control fundamental decisions life; institutionalised male supremacy and the extreme oppression
Kaminis assertion fundamentally Islamic character the February uprising, insistence оп the necessity defending the unity of the revolution, are a smokescreen designed not only to obscure the class conflicts which haye emerged, but also to deny the ethnic and linguistic differences Iran, which are one of the channels through which the class flows. While the ideological content of his nationalism differs from that of the Shah, the underlying motive is the
Language
Iran has been not so much a nation state as a state made up of different nationalities. Although Persian, an Indo-European language, is the most widely used throughout the country,
population. provinces lve live immon auras, wao form one part of a distinct nationality which stretches into USSR, Iraq and Syria. In Iran, the Kurds form as much as one sixth of the population.
An even larger percentage of the population made up speaking Turkic. Neighbours of the Kurds in the north are the Azeris, of whom about ten million concentrated in the Azerbaijan. The Turkomenis,
Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 12
Press address various
deny that
Moslem
against their
And and Demo-
of
village,
and seven
was made
.on the Saddeg,
clearly illustrate "equality' of
national
Guardian
They deny
"It is
Linguistic
groups nearing the
the , contains all the
• Khomeini's
property;
of political
of
of. the
of and his of
along Caspian sea.
struggle
At. neighbouring
the Caspian, linguistic cannot be regarded ethnic stock.
The relationship
tbe Pahlavi uneasy one. weak Qajar
western
country had reached in 1921. Turkey, the of
of those and weight of Americro weight are behind the Pahlavi state. provinces of
1 foreign LIVEOLLICUL.
Nationalities in Iran
PERSIAN TURKIC
KURDISH BALUCHI ARABIC
also speak a variety of Turkic, live
the strong
Arabs form a majority in many of the towns and cities of Khuzestan, while almost one million Baluchis in south-east Iran come from the same grouping as the ten million Baluchis need
Pakistan:
Gilani, in the Gilan mountains near
form another large although they separate
of these nationalities and linguistic groups to
WAS always latter The overthrow of the dynasty and replacement by Reza Khan, first of the Pahlavis, was made possible by the state of disintegration which the
The large regional movement among the Gilani led the British to sponsor Reza Khan's coup.
Similarly, the establishment of the autonomous republics in Kurdestan
Azerbaijan after the Second first brought the full imperialism
The sale of oll, the growth of
and the
The victims of the
Moslem brotherhood
geopolitical location of Iran in Asia meant that internal "stability'
central control was important for imperialism as it was for the Shah himself. The political and military alliance between Iran and the USA was motivated by th
to keep the lid on disparate population much as by external considerations. Persian
National unity, however, was not maintained merely by outright repression, even it it rested on
in the final analysis.
Pahlavis built up a whole ideological superstructure based on Persian chauvinism which permeated
aspect of life in Iran. officials of the Pahlavi state were drawn exclusively from the Persian sections of society only about 17 per cent of top officials spoke a local language other than Persian.
Hand in hand with this went an attempt to purge the Persian language of foreign words- - especially Arabic and Turkish ones - - and to introduce a 'pure Persian' speech. This was transmitted to the national minorities through the paramilitary Health and Education Corps which went to the
By John Leadbetter • 0
200 km villages as part of the land reforms of 1963 — ostensibly to promote literacy and teach health care, but in reality to the landowner: dominant power in the countryside and to implant the state's ideas in the villages.
Iran's
as
The effect of this has been a severe impoverishment of the cultural life of the nationalities minority languages was banned, and very few were available inside the Persian the only The government, law and education, the
Possibion-Porsians ial a airement
Great non-Persians
limited.
Colonisation of national minorities another way of maintaining Persian superiority. The is s one examples of this policy. Khuzestan -or Arabestan as it was then known -was almost entirely Arabs until the time of Reza Shah. It was also one of the least urbanised parts of Iran.
The development industry led to the creation of eight separate new towns.
hand
lowest levels of
Line use
tunities existent. discriminated
development
cent
The
and
200 miles
representatives
and welculare
the constitution. autonomy
the Kurdish
for the Kurds'
assaults nationalities
the Abadan.
Islamic
peace'
the
last.
their
Secession
the
unequivocally socialists.
Teaching the framework.
Only non-Persian publications which
Iran. With
language of
Turkomenistan.
were extremely
areas where
live has been
province of the clearest and a planned
populated by
cities.
Cratic of the oil
This went hand
policy 'de-Arabisation'. Large numbers of Persians were brought into the area, and Arabs were pushed down into the
socicly. Iney were forced to adopt Persian names and
of Arabic was •severely curtailed, making educational oppor-
for Arabs almost nonToday, more than 50 per cent of Khuzestan but only 5 per cent of university students and only 1 per cent of university teachers are Arabs Casual work
Other nationalities have been against through the conscious underdevelopment of those regions which they occupy. The almost complete absence of industrial
the of Baluchistan and Sistan - only 1 per
industrial units the country are situated there - has driven many Baluchis to find seasonal work or jobs as casual labourers in other parts of Iran.
overthrow of the Shah has inevitably led to demands for national
cultural rights from the national groupings. In Khuzestan, the Arabs put forward a programme for positive discrimination to overcome the years of oppression. This included official recognition of Arabic as the first language of the Arab people,
in the constituent assembly and on all local, regional
national councils, use of of revenue for development of Arab education and
Khuzestan area, TOT incorporation of these demands into Autonomy
Similar demands came from the Turkomeni people, who also pressed for a single Turkomeni province with
governor-general. Local was equally demand of the Baluchis, and of the Kurdish people. The main slogan of
Democratic Party 'Democracy for Iran — Autonomy
The recent all-out war against the Kurds is merely the latest in a series of
launched against the Islamic Guards naval torpedo boats were sent against
Arabs in Khorramshahr alil Government troops and militia were sent to Turkomenistan to safeguard 'the
While Khomeini claims to support the national liberation struggle of the Palestinians and denounces the racist regime in South Africa, he denies even
existence of grievances among Iran's own oppressed nationalities. They are treated as Moslems first, Iranians second, and Kurds or Arabs
The demands of the nationalities for cultural and national rights and for greater control over the affairs of
own regions are democratic demands. But democratic rights and autonomy within a federal republic of Iran will not alone solve the problems facing them.
Their right to self-determination, even to the pomt of secession. must
be defended by all But the social and economic backwardness of many of the regions they inhabit cannot be
within capitalist ail?
La thorough land reform gives land to those who • till it can solve the unemployment crisis in Kurdestan, Baluchistan and
Only public ownership of the oil industries can ensure that fertilisers and fuel for machinery reach those who need them, and not merely those who can afford to pay for them. Only the abolition of the private ownership of the means of production under workers control
employment and a higher standard of living to the destituțe, both Persiar and non-Persian, of the towns and
The material needs and democ-
desires which led all the oppressed peoples of Iran to rise up so successfully against the Shah will only be realised by the socialist revolution.
Page 13 scan of this page
Front-line states behind
Why France got rid of Bokassa
BAD
TASTE By Roy Alexander
LAST WEEK a senior member of the Zambian government told a visiting delegation of Commonwealth politicians that the people of Zambia were fed up with bearing the costs of the war 1n Zimbabwe. The Front should hurry up and reach a SOLC ICIN that situation in southern Africa could get
This cynical view shows the sort of pressure that the "front line states' are putting on the Patriotic delegates at the London conference on Zimbabwe.
It was their pressure which forced the Patriotic Pront into the lion s den of the constitutional conference in the first place. The whole assumption of
sah an appr findinthat ite usta
matter finding constituțional formula and all will be wei. Power
In reality, of course, the decisive factor is not what is written down but who holds powers. constitution could lead either to a committed anti-imperialist ment or to a right-wing calition of pro-imperialist black politicians and representatives of the white settlers By Richard Carver and Brian Slocock FOR someone who was so universally reviled, Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the happily dendida Centra Empire had a good many friends.
*Zaire, for example, provided opposition demonstrations.
*South Africa, which offered to build a rail link to the floated the possibility of $250m worth of trade and investment over the riext ten years.
* West Germany, which was already collaborating on a coastal rail link.
*Libya, which had just embarked on a programme of aid to the Empire.
*Even the Soviet Union maintains a large embassy and hundreds of Onbanguians each year.
Fortunately for Bokassa it was his closest friend of all, finally removed him.
Central African Republic or Empire
kept afloat by development aid from Paris. Massacre
Not even the widely
of schoolchildren HIRNAC this year could dampen enmustasiu. equally reported decision to cut off military aid meant nothing supplied no military aid to speak of!
Whạt did sway the however. was the tear that Bokassa would be toppled by mass opposition. The massacres January were answered by demonstrations and strikes whica would unthinkable in, say, Amin's Uganda.
I'M WORRIED ABOUT
KITH AND KIN IN
new concessions
Patriotic By SORROM EREIE, Policat Fitl
CULuL,
Front (like the which does nothing to
the majority.
decided by such controls the army and
to be
The same written. and won a n Del
guvelil forced the African
which down
coast and eleteN
France, which For years the
French in a state of near insurrection. occasion
reported were confined earlier French did not trust widely army
for France assassination attempt in April.
French,
victoty began . student public service
been before the seizure of power.
CERTAIN ELEMENTS
ATES PREPARA TIR
FTwo Presidents
to the rescue...
They force Nkomo and Co to make whites an offer government) change the reached. harsh realities of life in Zimbabwe for
on
Which will be the outcome will be
things who police, who runs the courts and civi service. and whether or not the economic power of United white farmers and businessmen seems election
out, while this constitution is being implemented.
The Patriotic Front started out with a good understanding of these facts,
DOLARI diplomatic victories at the beginning of the conference. In particular, they
British that other constitutional questions couldn't be considered sewn up until agreement New President David Dacko, implicated in Bokassa's worst excesses.
At times the capital of Bangui was
On one 100 Imperial Guards were kiled with noisoned arrows as thev tried to restore order. Regular troops
these disturbances, as the Emperor
the army and had earlier. disarmed a large proportion of it. The
reportedly behind an
So the French decided to utilise military discontent to ore-emot the
of the popular opposition. the French troops seem to have played a major part in the coup itelf — Freneh aircraft were concealed at the airport interest.
The timing of the coup to coincide
IT WOULD BE A SAT DANTE POPULATO SACKITILA» Ww Sl'
SADDER - MICH SADDERSie enseta ti te
over the 'transitional provisions' was
Since then, however, the Patriotic Front have slid backward, conceding
such issues ConHTe representation of whites in parlament as a special group (rather than the
one vote") principle of 'one person, and coming up with a scheme for
Nations policing of
Probably these concessions being made in an attempt to expose Muzorewa and Smith's stubbornness and demonstrate to the front-line states that the Patriotic Front is being very reasonable, with the expectation that they will not be accepted by the
side. But this is a very risky gamble: -having once offered such concessions, the Patriotic Front will with Bokassa's absence from the country suggests that the French may even have. warned him what was in store. Certainly his old ally Mobutu of Zaire seems to have been in on the
the President, David Dacko, only three
The French aim - - so far successful
was to maintain the political stracture of the country unchanged. Behind their concern — as well as recent South African overtures - are important uranium deposits in which
French Atomic Energy mission (headed by President Giscard d'Estaing's cousin) has
Although Daeko was ousted from power by Bokassa in 1966 he was
ALTAR OF EtL. Ett find it difficult to withdraw them.
And practice? Most critical observers of the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia April agree that coercion did not take the form of military repression but of the equally powerful that white farmers and industrialists can exert over their this must now be added the influence that a black neo-colonial government can exert over those who depend on it for a living.
Danger
Those pressures would not work ONCC Ш WE MARTde VCTe seen to be soundly defeated; but their mere withdrawal while a few boys in blue helmets. patrolled the streets would not be sufficient to have that effect. It would be very dangerous game indeed.
It's easy enough in this country to the criticise. But we must recognise that the pressures from are states would not effective if there was not a real danger that the Тогу recognise the Muzorewa regime and lift sanctions.
And this threat is so great because the left Britain has mobilise in a massive way against it. hat is the way money where our mouth is.
latterly a counsellor at the imperis court. He is thereby implicated Bokassa's worst excesses. And as if to prove it, he has maintained Bokassa's government intact and promoted his prime minister to vice-president.
Intercontinental Press
GROWING • WORLD SUPPORT FOR PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE . U.S. Blacks Mee1 with Yasir Arotot THE latest Intercontinențal Press-Inprecor (Vol weeks 17, No 35) carries further material on Nicaragua (including an interview with Hugo Blanco) featuring developments Salvador, Guyana, puchea, and elsewhere.
Individual copies cost 30p plus 10p post, suoscripion Com- much cheaper at Ell for a year (48 issues), f6 for six months (24 issues), large 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.
. 50, London N1 2XP BOOKS for eans No' badge
to lhe Week
Tor more details.
GRAVESEND Group meets
conference for șolidarity
EJc1 what would they mean in aneyster
election in
arm-twisting ency_pubi
employees. ' To
'.JUPI, OCDuLI
"THE SPIRAL' -
Oct, at to the side-lines tutuce diyorer.
IOLNe HIE HYU
01-359-8371 SOUTHALL is
the front-line lalil urds be so intense or
gorerliicl could
in Defence failed to
ww must put ou
'Stop the Cuts Now'
(Camden Council)
Hackney to those arrested at Brom combined ih | NI)C'COI
10 Oct Salforu
Sondanty wal ae •beaker
'Engineering
PRESSURE MOUNTING King St (opp Co-op) issue of the weekly
the as well October E
Ireland, Kam-
work. out
WHAT'S LEF1
LIVERPOOL Socialist Challenge grouj Meselside. Donda tins fowards cost of reo. obrained premises for SC centre 1 send o Socialist Chalenge (Box 64), PO Bo gralclal Tecelvet
ot ney i desera ely nedet or ndi anta borck.
al aciir ou serd
102, cialist halleng, PO Box 30, London
TEESSIDE SC group Autumn Fayre, 10am, sal
• Community Centre Jumble required - phone 87699 END THE repression of che 1 ama-socaki
enne o n enke ce cevoo ęd cc l Piccadilly Circus, London — Sat 6 Oct, 2-5pm •FREE ABORTION on Demand" and
Is areagain available from Th London NJ. 2XP. Singly 25 each, bulk 12p each. Make cheques or POs ou
. BATH: SOCIALIST CHALLENGE on sale at 1985 Boøks, London Road, and Satrudays 2pn
3pm outside the Roman Baths. Phone 2029
SOCIALIST CHALLENGI i regularly. Details from Gravesend Gravesend organising womei involved Irish WOTK or interested in becoming involved, to coordinate and develop activitie
10am, Matthews Church Road, W11 Creche
REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST .Tend erines orece nidal int var meeting Anti-imperialism v struggle. Speaker: Kate Marshail.
Road LU41CgL
London. Goodge St/ Warren St tubi RACISM Newham Anti-Nazi League
S rap Sus Camnu Sn
• the definitive film on the he vucut orecucu luc coub in care. al
7pm, 1 Thorpe Close. London Wi( LduolOKe TOve.
Purowed by social. Urganised Dy raddington/
Nir ARNuN racons a oca neml 3 Nov, Rail. For details write to Centre or phone
Trials: Hornsey ANL public meting. Speakers Stop the Shon
Southall c rec aller o LalnDaxn commutce ano• rrienas or Blail reacn cominitee. y ucu Muswell Hill Primary senool, top or muswell nill, Londoc
INTERNATIONAL Women's Forum - uhr are the anti-abortionists? Speakers: Madeleine
Sauare. London WC1 op the Suts NoW Publice on Bs at
John Bloxan . (Lambeth
Farringdon Road. London ECI
Trades Labour Lane, s Q s calsa roll Laycı pool). гтоп opm. Bar extension. Adm, tl. To commemorar the second anniversary of the assassination ol
KAR BENEFIT with Oxy & the Morons, Sat 6 ucl, opm ul lale at Ivddlesex Poly trent Pari site. Adm. fl; non-students £1.50. All proceeds
Southall, Leicester, Wesa
MANCHESTER Hands Off Ireland! rally in Game' and speakers from PSF and HOI. Weds Sunnorl ot iricn Priconers ot war cimaso
7pm, AUEW Hall, 43 The Crescent,
CON S S0. T0an, CA 2 Cr
1.30pm station forecourt assembly. . Called by AN HALANE Doclalsl crdlenze zrowo mecli
revolacion in Nicaragu: l urnOl]. CINIL • FONUL• commurcee recenuvm vcararual , E nur Jo wI om. britannia bud. mare sl, ro HAM bocahst u nslenre oroun meeine the lessons of 1972 for todas
Speaker: Mike Smith (ex-convenor, Ferrantis).
Sergeant-at-Arms pub.
FREEDOM FOR ASTRID PROLL.
Rio Cinema ]107 Kingsland High Rd, E8]
Sunday 7 October, 3pm
This film and video event remembers
Stammheim murders on 18 1977 marks the beginning of the trial of Astrid Proll in West Germany. TONY GIFFORD (Russell Tribunal) will speak on the current situation, and a speaker from the FRIENDS OF ASTRID PROLL will talk about her trial.
For details phone Rio, 254 6677. For hire of FAP video contact Liberation films, 01-450 7855.
Socialist Challenge 4 October 1979 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
El Salvador next to go after Nicaragua?
ONE OF the last Nicaraguan towns to
Sandinistas Chinandegs, close Fonseca which divides from El Salvador.
One reason was the presence of several hundred 'volunteers' from the Salvadorean armed forces fighting alongside the National Guard. The same source supplied Somoza with six T-28 assault planes in the final weeks of the war. The ruler of El Salvador, General Carlos Humberto Romero,
well that & Sandinista victory could only hasten his own downfall.
Romero heads the military government to defend the interests of the 200 ruling families since an armed insurrection led by the Communist Party in defeated with the loss of 30,000 lives.
A state of siege has been in force since shortly after fraudulent election in 1977. Many people have been killed or wounded in
course or a wave or strikes. occupations, kidnappings and peasant mobilisations. At the time of going to press the Labour Ministry was being occupied by 400 militants.
External
Recently two comrades from El Salvador H, an representative of the United Peoples Action Front (FAPU), ombe of the Corred and Monticas
disappeared prisoners passed through London to build solidarity with the resistance against the bloody Romero dictatorship. This is what they told Kellaway.
HOTHE Mothers
organises to protest about the disappeared, the prisoners and the torture. Women come from all over the country centre in capital, San Salvador. leaflets CO ROOSe Several times we flave occupy cathedrals and embassies to publicise our cause internaționally.
The FAPU, like the (Revolutionary Peoples born out of the people's understand. ing of the bankruptcy of a narrow electoralist' road. In both 1972 and 1977 the opposition (largely Christian Democracy and Communist Party) was denied blatant electoral fraud.
From the earlier election FAPU began to be formed out of
By Barry Prothero
AT THE end of August the International Gay
Association
Brighton to prepare for its second annual
conference in Barcelona next year. It was an
important meeting because it saw the formation
autonomous
grouping within the organisation, and it was the
last meeting before the decision of the European
Commission of Human Rights on homosexual
law reform in Northern Ireland is announced
The IGAR has
Usan ations mustralia anan New Zeeland.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Contact has recently been made with gay groups
in Africa and Indonesia. Set up only twelve
months ago, it has maximised the effectiveness
gay organisations
international action, most spectacularly in the
campaign
government from
vicious new anti-gay legislation. It has organised
international demonstrations
persecuțion of gay people in Russia, against the
Briggs proposals in California, and against the
executions of gays by the Khomeini regime in
Iran.
To date the membership of the IGA has been
almost exclusively male -
lesbians at the first conference in Bergen. At
Brighton, women from Holland and Denmark
met to set up a lesbian grouping, with separate
meetings from the men, within the IGA. At the
Barcelona conference the IGA will change its
name to the International Lesbian and Gay
Association.
The women explained the significant
Sacialist Challenge 4 October 1979. Page 14
the Gulf of
Nicaragua seventeenth
1932 was
Romero's
external
and K.
Dave
Committee
test el the We put out
people.
helped to
Socialists, Marxists,
BPR Bloc), socialist.
Our aim
the
victory by
the people's interest first. the informal meeting
international lesbian
membership of 28
through coordinated
which successfully prevented the
ahead with
against
- there were only three
custody —
children.
the
Romero's torturers' speciality is to tie dynamite people wanting new forms of struggle outside parliament. We became more homogeneous as a party from 1974.
The FAPU is composed of Christians,
workers, peasWe do not define ourselves officially as
are revolutionary popular government. We fight for the strategic allance of the workers and peasants. At the same time we will make tactical alliances with progressive middle sectors, but always we put
It is different in some ways from all the Nicaraguan experience. Here the
Gay international on alert
advantages of coordinating activity in many areas, me most oovious exampie being chila • organising a general campaign and providing support and assistance to lesbian mobbers who have to move abroad to keep their They thought that lesbian groups would be strengthened through international association. However, apart from making use of system of communication
next to the victim's head so bourgeoisie is much more implicated in the Romero dictatorship.
Our differences with the have to do with their inclusion trade unions within the party. think that is a wrong relation between the party and the trade unions. There
also different analyses of the oligarchy.
However, with the rise in the resistance and the lesson of Nicaragua we are all working for a united offensive and we prefer to emphasise externally our growing unity. At this moment we are discussing the unity of
revolutionary and democratic forces for the overthrow of Romero.
CAY PRIDE
together:
organising for
and
L Santa Ana
Sonsonate ISAN SALVADO
-OCÉAN
km 50 -PACIFIQUE that the Christian Democracy falls into this democratic category.
BPR Within the oligarchy there are two of currents representing different ways We of avoiding a people's victory. first, backed up by US imperialism, is for a controlled democratic opening This will mean the return of partial land reform, new elections and certain limited democratic rights. In fact, municipal elections have been called for 1980 and presidential ones in 1982.
The second current, very strong conomcany, sets we only way as a repeat of the 1932 bloodbath when administration which the IGA has developed,
areas, such as education, where it would be to the best adyantage for the women and men to work
At the present time the women in ILGA are
the lesbian meeting Barcelona conference next Easter. They are writing to lesbian groups throughout the world
HONDURAS
in the street.
feel the
favoured have any
on class lines.
the lessons
There is the people
our attacks
have disappeared cannot be propaganda.
Solidarity
building
The
controls
exiles,
recently.
Mothers
have disappeared. address. lesbian groups
Amsterdam.
Council of Europe committees.
The
Rights.. NIGRA
The British
of Ulster MPs. reaction.
countries
should be preparing for it now.
30,000 were killed. At present the regime expresses this contradictory combination — asking for a national dialogue while shooting people down The process can be accelerated in either direction by a coup d'etat. They are very common in our country. We next step be one intended to speed up imperialism's "democratic opening Romero is unlikely to resign willingly.
Insurrection
The victory of the Nicaraguan revolution was received with great joy. Before it was almost inpossible to believe that dictatorships could fall in Central America. Now after the fall of Somoza everything is possible. We received more support and members in the last few months than in the whole of last year.
However, be careful of simple comparisons. Our five million people live in a much smaller area — we are the most densely populated Latin American state. Also we don't have mountains. Therefore the struggle is predominantly urban and the situation is much more polarised Imperialism, although learning of Nicaragua, doesn't have a lot of room for real possibility of insurrection in the next six months. Since 1970 the people and popular organisations have been preparing. We have passed onto the offensive. Liberated zones have been created for several hours at a time to educate about the coming offensive. The people have applauded on barracks and the disarming of certain army units and enthusiastically taken our
People in Britain can help best by solidarity. Both publicity and economic help is vital. The regime all the means of communication. Cronica Del Pueblo - the only paper willing to publish opposition material — was burnt out
We need money for the resistance and for the defence of prisoners. The Committee has a specific project to get help for the thousands of children left abandoned by families who are prisoners or g
but are concerned that there are undoubtedly many groups for which they don't have an
Interested lesbian organisations of within women's organisations should write to Sylyia Borren and Traus van Bueren, c/o COC, Frederiksplein 14, 1017 XM
The Brighton meeting reviewed the progress of projects which the ILGA has undertaken: lifelines for sexualrefugees —numbers of whom approach gay groups in several countries; third world gays; and work with international bodies like Amnesty International and various UN and
next major event coming up for the ILGA is the announcement of the decision in the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association's case against the British government, which is now before the European Commission of Human
argues not only inat ine amendments adopted by Parliament must be extended to Northern Ireland but that there should be parity between homosexual and heterosexual ages of consent. The case is of major importance to gay groups throughout Europe.
government's response was prepared before the elections and implements Callaghan's disgusting deal to gain the support
Whichever way the decision goes, the ILGA will be coordinating demonstrations in member
- either against the decision or calling upon the British government to extend the law immediately. The decision is expected sometime in October and will require a rapid response at short notice. Gay activists, especially in Britain,
Page 15 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge-what the changes mean
Women's Voice MOSS SIDE Women's Voice was set up in July, myorving supporters ol the International Marxist Group, Socialist Workers Party, Workers' Action and several members of the Labour Party. We were all confident that in an area like Moss Side there was real potential for building a healthy branch. After two organisational meetings and one public meeting, SWP supporters informed the rest of us that we could not join Women's Voice on the basis that we did not support the politics of the SWP.
This was the first we had heard of
although our political affiliations had been known from the start. In fact the SWP supporters were initially keen to start working with us (it was our initiative to start the branch in the first place), although they soon began to manoeuvre against us when their political domination was threatened.
Astonishing arguments were given for excluding us. Firstly, those of us active in the Labour Party were automatically branded as "reformists'. They only wanted to work with revolutionary women and maintained that It's up to the SWP to decide what's revolutionary and what isn't'. Secondiy, they felt that as some of us differed with the SWP over the nature of the Soviet Union and how to build the Rank and File Movement, it would be impossible for them to work with us. Such political differences would, they claimed, turn Women's Voice into a 'talking shop', and democratic rights for tendencies could only aggravate this.
SWP supporters in Moss Side see the function of Women's Voice as that of a periphery organisation for SWP members and sympathisers. We believe that Women's Voice should By Mike Last
FLEET STREET claims that papers like Socialist Challenge incite class hatred and undermine democratic institutions in Britain.
But Maggie ladies government is doing our job for us. The Tories have incited more class hatred in five months than Socialist Challenge has managed to 'stir up' in (WU bashing, lengthening dole queues, driving up prices, carving up the NHS, selling off the parts of public enterprise that do make a profit, cutting taxes for the rich, and viciously attacking people alu wowell,
Accessible
Under right-wing government bocialst Challenge saw its main task as fighting for a socialist alternative lo carragnan ano co. we still see this as a major job under the Tories, because we don't want that lot back again. We still think that means not only uniting in the struggle but building a single unified revolutionary organisation in Britain. And our pages and supporters groups remain open to anyone who agrees with us about this.
But this Tory government is seen by
include reformist working class women, many of whom could organise militantly around a broad programme of "fighting for women's rights and socialism', and that revolutionary women should fight for their politics within the organisation. We maintain that unless Women's Voice becomes a genuinely democratic, broad-based organisation it will be unable to take the struggle for a working class women's movement any further.
We have since been informed by the SWP supporters that they could not confirm our exclusion from membership and that this was now a national Women's Voice decision. Although after three weeks this national decision is still not forthcoming they are persisting in excluding us from their activities. It is likely that this whole matter will be. debated at the coming Women's Voice conference. Weask women to pass resolutions at their Women's Voice branches calling for such democratic rights as the provision of a regular internal newsletter, 'guaranteed poltica rights tor tendencies, and for the magazine to express ditterent political viewpoints.
Similar letters have been sent to Workers' Action, Socialist Worker and Women's Voice. For further information contact Anna, 39 Mallowdale Close, Hulme, Manchester 15.
Vicki Anderson ASTMS, IMG). Rachel Wolstenholme [APEX, Moss Side CLP, Workers' Action supporter], Louise O'Connel [NALGO Moss Side CLP], Frances O'Grady [Moss Side CLP), Anna Twentyman [NUPE, Moss Side CLP, Workers' Action supporter] Dylan
dead for
years NIGEL Hamilton's little article on Dylan (27 September) was certainly overdue. However, the point is not that anyone expects Dylan to become a socialist, but simply that one at least expects him to produce good music. Socialism and good music are certainly not incompatibie. but they don'talways go together. The Transitional Programme, for instance, could not be set to music.
Nigel's last paragraph, however, gives the game away. He still nourishes an illusion. He hopes this phase won't last. That this is ludicrous is obvious from his own article, which details Dylan's gradual decline. I think Dylan is finished for good in tact i am so disgusica lal l can't even listen to any of his old records.
Pauline Harbour, East London. many people as a naked weapon of class rule. Socialist Challenge will be able to reach an even wider audience as more and more people realise that they're going to have to fight - and fight hard alacks. That paper more accessible to new readers.
Politics
We've no intention of dropping our politics we'll still have international coverage, strategies for socialism, coverage on racism, sexual politics, black what the bosses are up to — but we are making some changes in the format of the paper. We're adding new regular columns and changing what goes in old ones. We're aiming to make every article easy to read.
Labour struggle against the Tories to speak out in the paper. We're going to look
design, and carefully and make sure we're getting the most out of our designers and journalists.
But the • rest is up to vou — our eaders We want you to write more or us. Send your letters and article in to us — don't be shy. If you haven't time to write yourself, send in a local newspaper report, distributed. Take Socialist Challenge down to the engineering strike picket
Kampuchea
neither fish
nor fowl
JOHN Pilger stated in the Daily Mirror that the Pol Pot regime was a
Turnbull argued in Socialist Challenge last week that Pol Pot was
different ways both are correct. The question that arises, however, is the
regime, the subsequent invasion by Vietnam, and what exists today.
Trotskyist movement that the class character of a state can be easily ascertained. It is either a capitalist
course, this is correct. But history can, on occasion, be cruel.
Exceptions, albeit of a limited and temporary duration, can exist.
under Pol Pot was neither a capitalist state nor a workers state. It was a historical aberration and its future was always unstable. If the Vietnamese had not overthrown Pol Por it is very likely that imperialism (utilising the refugees and Thailand) would sooner or later have made a push in that direction.
It is true that Pol Pot was not creating a capitalist state. Everything was taken over by the state (including personal belongings). It is also true that the means of production and the working class were smashed. Stalin's. atrocities did have a rationale: heavy industrialisation, i.e. increasing the weight of the working class. Pol Pot destroyed the tiny working class as a social class. All human rights were in order to stop these
at bus stops; aking
ward meetings group.
lots of papers a week debates Challenge supporters
analysing
underestimated hate the Tories Aberdeen Basingstoke Bath want the Bedford
Birmingham Bolsover our Bradford
Brighton Bristol Canterbury Cardiff Colchester Crawley Dundee Edinburgh or a leaflet you Exeter
Falkirk Glasgow:
Children in Kampuchea — waiting for aid that doesn't come
taken away product of imperialist savagery. Clive
the product also of Stalinism. In their
went down himself.
It is widely accepted within the
state or a workers state. In general, of
with Clive that
I would maintain that Kampuchea
Little angels? lines and while you're there find out Guildford what the pickets feel about how to win Hemel Hempstead
Huddersfield
The biggest boost you can give to Hull your paper is to take it everywhere Leamington you go and sell it. Sell it at work, sell it
Leeds sell it shopping Leicester cctres, go round eslates will l, lake Liverpool it to union meetings, Labour Party Manchester
and your women's Bolton Middiesbrough
Our target is to distribute 5,000 Newcastle
through Socialist Newport alone Your Norwich group's target is below. Let's hear Nottingham from you soon telling us that we've Oxford
how much people Portsmouth in your area. Preston 75 Reading St Albans Sheffield Southampton Stirling Swansea Swindon Wakefield Wolverhampton Worcester York
LONDON Brent 150 Camden 10 Hackney 10 Hammersmith 140 Haringey
It wasn't a case of substituting politically for the working class as the bureaucracy normally does. It was something completely different, which defies characterisation in terms normally used on the left. It is easy to sit back and say that it would have been infinitely better if Pol Pot had been overthrown by the Kampuchean masses. It would have been However, there is a danger that Pol Pot would have exterminated what was left of the population before he
So we should admit that the Pol Pot regime was neither fish nor fowl. And as such it was characterised by an
barbarism. Its overthrow. was a tiny step forward for the Kampucheans who are still alive. And one can agree
pressure should be built up in the labour movement to press for all forms of aid.
TARIQ ALI, North London
IN AN article generally favourable to kids, David Holland's Whose Consent?' (20 September) was remarkably weak on paedophilia. To say that cross generational sex is a side issue...' (rather a silly euphemism for paedophile sex, aren't sexual relations between a girl/boy of 16 and woman/man of 60 cross generational?) is plainly incorrect. Daughter/father relationships, lesbian/feminist custody cases, and child/mother relationships all in their various ways proclaim the prolific nature of paedophile relationships.
I find it amusing that David
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Holland should quote Lewis Carol or Peter Pan as a little angels wil in contrast to the 'savage attact: on children's sexuality taking place outside the playhouse. Both J.M Barrie and Carroll were paedophiks, and tolerated as such as the medium by which the Victorian middle class cameto termis with the existence of, and their cravings for, sexual children. Under age sexuality was recognised and wrapped up in a cloying innocence. Embedded in Peter Pan is the image of the paedophile as an immature adult, 'the person who never grew up', and that image embodies many deep felt - be denied — fantasies that adults have for children.
Paedophiles are adults who love children. The number of adults who love children is immense. But the number of paedophiles...?
Well, just stop for a moment and muse over parent/child relationships. Pretty mundane, you might say. But if 1 were to turn up on your doorstef dear (adult) reader, and strike up a similar relationship with 'your' child how long would it be before I was being carted off to the local nick with perhaps ten years (or much more) inside after the court case!
And what if dear 'little x' decide to go to Paris with me for a dirty weekend? Or forever? So much for biological parenthood. (This paragraph constitures a Conspiray to Corrupt Public Morals, so please regard it in a hypothetical light... until it happens.)
Show me an adult who is Doc a paedophile. Then l'll join Mar! Whitehouse and betiere in immorality. Ser with children is wonderful and can be biett recommended te all SCreates. (Oops! Anorber Consper aT 10 Corrupi.) Cribtrez are soadets a they should not be subjected to zay kind of guilt trip of legal shit abo their bodies and their serman. Is theirs, and robout che's.
TIM BROWN. Le Sanctions RON Todd's pledge that the Transport and General Workers Union will impose sanctions on the Smith-Muzorewa regime if the Tories lift them (27 September) can only be welcomed. However there is a small problem. In order to impose sanctions the TGWU will have to win the support of its members. And there's the rub.
I wonder how many of the white airport workers who welcomed Smith at Heathrow were members of the TGWU. The fact that racism is so widespread means that the TGWU leaders will face some problems. The should be aware of these before the launch any campaign.
Asha Patel, Ealing
Islington Lambeth Newham Notting Hill Outer West South East Tower Hamlets Wandsworth Why our price has gone up
of this issue your of Socialist Challenge cOsts Another wave in the rising tide ol prices. At the same time our subs rato are going up to £12.50 a year i Britain and for surface mail, £18 for
The image of a wave in the tide b quite apt in describing why we've had to raise our prices. Canute coulder hold back the tide and neither can ve
our orice has been the same lo two inflationary years, while the cost of design, print, paper, telephones electricity, and the cost of living for our staff has soared
As regular readers will have sca from our fund appeals, the tide of
prices Deal drowning us. We won't be i profits off your extra 5ps, but might just keep our head abome!
4 October 1979 l
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge
By Rich Paiser
THETORIES would have it that they are neutral in the engineering dispute. Industry Secretary Sir Keith Joseph insisted that' we are not taking sides in my way'. same repeated by Margaret Thatcher in a speech last week at Milton Keynes.
All of which, of course, is sheer bloody nonsense!
The Tories wall caployers John Nott, Trade Secretary, as good as said so on BBC radio when he cagineering unions of leading their sembers down cliffside berumings to their own destruction'.
Why did 76 engineering firms last year make contributions $120,300 direct to the Tory Party, if not because they could rely Tories to back them against mions?*
Just because the Tories have not (as yet) imposed an incomes policy Registered with the
Engineering dispute
Our class
against
theirs
intentions quite clear in the things she
thing
other words, rocket.
Meanwhile see their
accused the attempts to defend jobs.
concessions on the unions' demands
totalling That is why strongest employers' on the taking the the confrontation undermine
escalate. And Post Office as a newspaper
does not mean they are doing nothing.
Far from it. Thatcher made Tory
other said at Milton Keynes, when she said that unless there is higher productivity there will be fewer jobs. But higher productivity in their books means fewer jobs anyway. In
unemployment Some Engineering Employers' Federation is taking the lead for the bosses in resisting union
Above all, the employers are determined to give
been engineering shorter working seek without loss in pay.
biggest and •federation Led sing lock-bing in provoking to the lactic of two-day class. stoppages and force the unions to
that's why the Confederation of British: Industry
has thrown all its weight behind the
Have no illusions, the houses and banks will be doing their best to see that companies hardest hit by the strike get enough credit to sit it out. Their side will be exercising their own class solidarity.
There are cracks in their armour.
smaller firms deserted the EEF and settled. Those employers who can keep production on a three-day week are less keen on lock-outs and lay-offs than Rolls Royce: Most dramatic has
disclosure that Weinstock intends to pull GEC out of the federation after the dispute is over
is the second largest company in the EEF.
Those cracks must be turned into gulfs. Make no mistake about it — this dispute is our class against their
It may be the engineers doing the fighting, but they need us behind them all the way. *Facts from Labour Research
Lid. for
By Martin Meteyard
surprising,
apartheid lines.
Britain.'
- he's also Co-optimists!
The extent motion. Stephenson, TGWU Hall, Cardiff. finance already Britain:
Abroad: 12 months -
Arnold Name.
Address
'Socialist Challenge'.
Socialist Challenge. 328/9 Upper St, London NI.
Police line up
with Barbarians
THE POLICE are protecting the South African Barbarians rugby team with the same relish as they harass black people in Britain. Which is not
because the Barbarians' cosmetic job designed to win international recognition of South Africa while sport — and society as a whole — continues to be organised along
Opponents of the tour were banned by police from demonstrating against the Barbarians' arrival at Heathrow. Anti Nazi League organiser Jerry Fitzpatrick was arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour after shouting: 'Racist Barbarians go home. Wedon't want any racists in
In Exeter, where the tourists were playing their first match against Devon on Wednesday, police took the trouble to mount a 24 hour guard on the City Ground with dog patrols for several days beforehand in order to ensure that the game went ahead.
In Scotland this collaboration has gone even further. The Lothian and Borders chief constable, Sir John Orr, is not merely responsible for police arrangements for the Barbarians' match at Hawick on 14 October
president
to which the British hand-in-glove with apartheid was dramatically shown on Monday when the only black member of the Sports Council, Paul Stephenson, tried to put a motion to withdraw the council's £200,000 annual grant to the Rugby Football Union, which has sponsored the tour.
The other members of the council flatly refused even to discuss the
who described the cosmetic' for apartheid and a 'public relations stunt', walked out and will confront Tory sports minister Hector Monro on Friday.
On Friday also there will be a public meeting against the tour at the Polytechnic of Central London (New Cavendish Street, W1) at 7.30pm. The main speaker will be Peter Hain of Stop All Racist Tours (SART). Afterwards, at 10.30pm, a coach will be leaving for the second tour match the following day at Camborne in Cornwall.
In Wales, where the last three matches are being played, South Wales Anti-Apartheid and Cardiff Trades Council have jointly called an emergency conference against the tour on Saturday 13 October in the
The National Union of Students is also taking up the campaign making its main focus the Coventry match on 17 October. All Socialist Challenge student supporters in the Home Counties and Midlands should fight for their unions to organise coaches on that day.
The full tour schedule is as follows: 6 October, Camborne; 10 October, Galashiels; 14 October, Hawick; 17 October, Coventry; 20 October, Maesteg; 24 October, Llanelli; 27 October, further details ring SART c/o Anti-Apartheid at 01-580 5311.
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multi-racial composition of the team they're playing, the Scottish
establishment is working
Barbarians as a 'sporting Newport. For Priated by East End (offset) Ltd;
← Socialist Challenge No. 115, 27 September 1979Socialist Challenge No. 117, 11 October 1979 →