Socialist Challenge No. 134, 14 February 1980
The scan: sc-n134-feb-14-1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
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Socialist Challenge South Wales' message to the Tories
LEYLAND LAY-OFFS: OCCUPY!
I have never known such venom against any politician as the Welsh people feel for Sir Keith, said John Carberry, chairperson of Port Talbot steel workers" strike committee.
wasn't joking.
Outside three factories Joseph was pelted with eggs and angry workers. Lucky for him that eventually turned tail and fled Wales.
It's not surprising he
nearly lynched.
WES Thanks to the Tories policies there will he minimum of 42,000 redundancies in steel, mining and related industries in Wales. The knock-on effects in service industries will push that figure up to over 80,000. If the Tories get away with it in South Wales, hundreds thousands of jobs will be
takes the breath away.
GET
OUT:
laid waste throughout the rest of Britain.
I ne Wales TUC was forced to take drastic action. First they called for a general strike in the region from 21 January. But they caved in to pressure from the British TUC who were more concerned about trying to head off a potential general strike movement than Welsh workers' jobs.
The fact that such a movement is developing was proved on 28 January where 200,000 Welsh workers stopped work in mighty display of anger and power. A week later Welsh miners' leader Emlyn Williams called for all-out action to kick out the Tories. He said:
If the working class movement in this country decides to fight together nobody can stop us He's right. But the Tory war machine is now BY NOW, nothing should surprise us about Michael Edwardes and the other bosses of British Leyland. But even by their gangster-like standards the decision to lay-off' 50,000 workers for 'weeks rather days'
The company top brass say their cars aren't selling enough. So production has to be reduced. These words come from the same management who for the last couple of years has been moaning on about the lack of 'productivity", saying Leyland's problems have all been caused by the workers not producing enough cars fast enough.
The real reason Leyland has decided to close down
lumbering on from South Wales:
*50,000 workers have been laid off in British Leyland. This is a lock-out of the workers by the bosses to prevent action on the Leyland workers' pay claim or in defence of Derek Robinson, the sacked Longbridge convenor.
*The Tory budget next month aims to slash our social services to the bone.
*New anti-union laws aim to cripple effective шаас unon acuon. Inal means stopping our ability to stop real wages falling, to tient against the cuts and for jobs.
All the separate strug. gles need to be fused together. The TUC should call a general strike to halt the Tory offensive. And that means kicking out the Tories.
in Leyland.
whole plants, or sections of them is found in the workers' rejection of the miserable five per cent wage offer and the decision - reluctant as it was - of the AUEW executive to call for strike action over the victimisation of union convenor Derek Robinson.
In other words the lay-offs are nothing more than a Victorian-style lock-out — designed to ward off strike action on the double issue of pay and union rights. The lock-out is the logical conclusion of the Robinson sacking — the attempted destruction of the trade union movement
Enough is enough. In the past couple of years Leyland has sacked tens of thousands of workers; 25,000 more jobs
are to go under the terms of Edwardes' "survival plan'. But the writing is now on the wall — in big letters; the only way Leyland workers have any hope of 'survival' is for them to take action against the company in the most decisive possible way. And that is the immediate occupation of all Leyland plants.
start to control it. They could hardly do worse than Edwardes and company have done and as far as their interests are concerned it is the only defence they now have against Michael Edwardes and the rest of the Keith Josephite mafia in Leyland's boardroom.
No.134 14 February 1980 GENERAL STRIKE ACTION NOW!
Let those who work, on the shop floor of Leyland now
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Socialist Challenge, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Editorial: 01-359 8180/9. Distribution and advertising 01-359 8371. Why NATO has to go
Fulfilling the Tories' worst fears
OUR POLICIES
apitalism is in cris of the Labeu: Party and the trade unions offer solations that are in
not of the workers nut of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challenge believes that the two vital tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To huild broad-based class struggle tendencies in opposition
class-collaborationism in the labour movement. These should
non-exclusive in grouping together militants holding a wide range of political views.
• To begin to fight for the creation of unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can, through an application of united front tactics, begin to be seen as an alternative by thousands workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle for seeks to unite the fight of
workers against the with that of other oppressed layers of society -women, black people. gays struggling for liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creating new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
I than what exists in Britain with full rights for all political parties and currents that do not take up arms against the socialist state. The Stalinist models of 'socialism' in the USSR and Eastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the We are opposed to them and will offer full support to all those fighting for socialist democracy.
The interests of + - capitalist are irreconcilable on a world scale. Capitalism only created market, created polities. 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 West and the brutal dictatorships they sustain in Latin America,
In Britain it implies demanding the immediate withdrawal British troops from Ireland and letting the Irish people determine their own future.
The Communist parties in Europe are in crisis. Neither the 'Eurocommunist" the pro-Moscow wings have any meaningful for overthrow of the capitalist state. New revolutionary socialist parties
HICLESSAR than before. Conditions more tavourable than preceding three decades. But such parties can only be rejecting sectarianism and seeing internal democracy not as a luxury but as a vital necessity. This means the right to organise factions and tendencies.
If you agree with these principles and want
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Socialist Challenge 14 February 1980
he leaders
T'M NOT here to take Ame
character.
war in American army: and
fiasco,
of
socialism.
bosses
their By Geoffrey Sheridan EDWARD Heath wasn't unlucky. 1970-74 Tory
world. a world
world
international
next round resistance by the working class.
Africa like a mill stone.
Corporation
of
not be delivered over pay.
The steelworkers nor
the them shout
Never are over the have accepted.
The application of built by
strikers. the Steel prune pay and plants, to be raised next confrontation
in working class monetarism at work.
will depend on picketing more
unemployment.
Wing committee
February the nationally. offer, Which
Yorkshire rejecting it.
Page 2..
EDITORIAL
ca's whipping,' said a somewhat confused Muhamn ad All last week. I'm not here to push nothing to nobody? Ali, the USA's special envoy in Africa, evidently found his new role of boosting Carter's Cold War politics too hot to handle. He had come a long way from the days when he publicly opposed imperialism's
Vietnam and refused to enlist in the
Not all of Washington's diplomatic manoeuvres to marshal the capitalist world behind its war threats against the Soviet Union have ended in
Despite Carter's failure to get unanimous response in favour of his call for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow, the hawks of the Western alliance have succeeded in avoiding a serious split in their ranks. They have pui together a package of military and economic measures which increases the pressures towards world war.
The joint declaration by Schmidt of West Germany and Giscard of France followed the Islamic conference in sharply rebuking Moscow for its infervention in Afghanistan. The joint declaration is an ultimatum to the Soviet Union, and calls for the blocking of all progress in detente - including the SALT Il talks and the European Security Conference due to be held later this year — until the Russians withdraw from Afghanistan.
quite Nine months into the government and Ted had notched up the defeat of the postal workers after a bitter strike over pay. Nine months of Thatcher's rule have presented her government and party with a bad case of nerves.
The spending cuts so far ordered are still a long way from the Tories' alm or boosung pronts by truacaung the welfare state. Yet the hostility to the existing measures has installed in the government the fear that anything approaching the f2 billion cuts that the Treasury has suggested for the
would bring united
Meanwhile the steel strike weighs
The British Steel government took us on purposely because of my past record of co-operation,' Bill Sirs, the ISIC general secretary, generous ly acknowledged last weekend.
That co-operation, in abandoning steel plants, jobs, and towns, could
were originally offered 2 per cent. Last Friday, Sirs brought together IST's 80-strong negotiating committee only to have
down the Steel Corporation's offer of 2 per cent plus 12 per cent pay-for-jobs deal which the leaderships of the craft unions
the government's monetarist policies is being tested to the endurance of the steel
The cash limits imposed on Corporation, in order to may well have
in the public sector they will meet a weaker foe. But the steelworkers have given the
ciear picture of
Whether victory is theirs in the end
more their strength if they are to prevent Sirs cobbling together a deal the which does little for pay and a lot for
The formation by the local strike committees of a national co-ordinat-
would greatly strengthen rank-and-tie control over both the strike and its outcome. On 14 Times
CaRE UNTOUS meet decide on their pay should follow the example of the mass meeting in South
Friday
honour their engagements.' more aggressive glebal policy.
national workers movement.
need to defend,
the working class.
STEELWORKERS march through Sheffield on 21 January
The blockade of steel has shown up a critical weakness of cash limits from
government's standpoint. linking pay with jobs, the Cabinet has discovered that a strike over wages carries with it the threat of a collective refusal to join the dole queues. That of course is the pace of developments in South Wales, where the Sunday
says there insurrection'
The TUC General Council, busily seeking to defuse that situation (see page 5), is no doubt aghast that the government does not appear to be similarly engaged. While the labour
A stage two plan has already been discussed by Schmidt and Giscard for a combined military response in the event of further Soviet "expansionism'. It is clear that both Paris and Bonn have sought American collaboration from the beginning and have subsequently 'reaffirmed their loyalty to the Atlantic Alliance and their determination to
These developments have been combined with moves towards economic sanctions in the form of a blockade of the Soviet Union, but not without considerable opposition. Most significantly the escalation of military preparations by the Western powers has been combined with an ideological offensive aimed at preparing public epinion for a
The success of President Carter and Britain's Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, in closing the ranks of European capitalism behind the American Alliance and US policy, is a setback for the inter-
First, it represents a threat to the existence of the Soviet Union, and the advances made by the revolution - advances and gains which socialists
despite the policies of the bureaucratic elite which has usurped power from
Secondly, and more immediately, it is a threat to the revolutionary struggles of the people of the
leaders want to see the return of a Labour government, By removal by a general strike could be very damaging to their privileges.
It's the pace of developments which is so upsetting the government. They were happy enough with the progress of Prior's proposed anti-union laws until the steel strike was extended to near the private sector.
But with picketing now effectively to the fore, British Industry is demanding that the Employment Bill should put a stop any such action.
Howe, Chancellor of the Exchequer
yoke of imperialist domination.
establishment by forces endanger Nicaragua and Iran, not to mention Cuba.
focus attention on 'the enemy within'
perialist centres themselves.
ing of the imperialist military alliances
siting of which has been agreed by government.
allies.
Thatcher's Relations
March against Confederation of
Geoffrey
their worst fears.
Third World and their attempts to throw off the
The 15 billion dollar rise in the US defence budget; the reintroduction of the draft, and the
Washington of special strike the unfolding revolutions in
Thirdly, the developing cold war atmosphere will undoubtedly allow Western governments to
- the left, and the organised workers' movement in the im-
It would be fatal for the working class not to forcibly oppose this escalation in the cold war, for we live in an epoch of war and revolution. The workers' movement must be vigilant and prepared to take any action necessary to halt the strengthen-
The most immediate requirement is for a campaign for Britain's withdrawal from NATO and against the introduction of the Cruise Missiles, the
the Tory
Opposition to the boycott of the Olympic Games needs to be combined with a refusal by the trade union movement to participate in any move towards a trade blockade of the Soviet Union or its
US
NOW
LATER
and architect of the 1971 Industrial Act, has that these legal changes will be made.
Visions of the Heath debacle now loom large in Conservative circles, not for want of history lessons but the dictates of the capitalist crisis. Victory for the steel workers, a huge demonstration on 9 Prior • laws, ensuring that the Wales general strike meets its 10 March date of initiation, and extending that action to the rest of Britain would grant the Tories
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nothing would be
HOMENEWS
on the picket line
LINDĄ Humphries is one of the growing who have decided when their husband do the i
any way I could.'
to provide food for the pickets:
and keeps us in touch with one another.'
that wives and girlfriends should not feel left out.
are getting involved in the steel strike in your aren.
This woman is an ISTC member at the Darnell Engineering firm of Hayden Nilos Conflow Ltd. «We're serious in what me're doing', said a wire department worker. 'We heard there was a lot of steel coming out of the works stopped two lorries but two have gone through.'
behind our husbands all the way.
We all want 20 per cent, the same as our husbands and sons.'
Margaret Thatcher held no charms for these women pickets.
the Iron Lady' badge put it most eloquently: 'We're prepared to stay out till we get our 20 per cent — and till we get Maggie Thatcher
Awoman's placeis
Don steel works to fuel the braziers that keep striking stee workers war.. on the picket lines. 'I couldn't sit at home doing nothing. I had to help in
Marjorie Hill is one of the canteen workers at British Steel Stainless Both her husband and her two sons also work in the steel industry. She • decided to help the strikers by getting the women who work in the canteen
"There's do work now, explained Marjorie, "So we thought we could help out by doing food for men on strike. It also gets us out of the house
So much for the popular press and its enthusiasm to encourage 'back to work' movement of steelworkers' wives. Sue Lawson, the organiser of the women's group co-ordinating support for the strike, says it's vital
We agree wholeheartedly. Write and tell Socialist Challenge if women
Ten per cent of ISTC members
& are women. Many of them receive very low wages working as cleaners, in canteens, as clerical workers and computer operators.
here! We started at dinner time. We
A woman cleaner said: "We're
One woman wearing & 'Smelt
ALL three HAZEL
Hilda
red railway pylons.
ber of women in Sheffield me, particularly week. ber the River
explaned.
Kathleen,
over it.
killed!'
pittance.
WOmen. picketing since the end of the first week of the strike. Pauline told as why:
'We have the same interest in the strike as the men. We want 20 per cent without any strings. So we've been on flying pickets to Birmingham and London. We went on the demonstration to J
produced
ALLEN, Kathleen Barker, Pauline Sendrawich and
Banks work production line as table drivers in the Cargo Fleet steciworks Middlesbrough. Working
Shot metal they prodace lines, It's a dirty, Brian Grogan talked to Chers on the picket tines in Teesside las
"The work is not what is typical of
WOmE have traditionally done t my mother did it before ne',
•We find few proo working alongside men but me l
work the three shift systemE including nights."
"The heat can be terrible', added
'the red hot metal passes underneath 'is and we have to step
We have to concentrate -and you could
Despite the dangerous conditions and anti-social hours the 24 women who work as table drivers receive a
'We take home between £40 and f45 per week. This includes a bonus which on average is between t/ and f9 per week.' This is nothing like
above have been involved in the
ard Denning's offices. It was
Without us
the men's take home pay.
The maximum bonus the women can earn is 50 per cent while the men can push their bonuses up to 175 per
iR cent.
Complacent
with
Management and union officials alike Comp acent blatant women. Despite equal pay legislation worden are kept on low pay scaks by ensuring that their alongside the lowest grace for men in the factory.
aiegory, although it's equal work tr the met's Jobs , "Thart are of course sonne jobs un conkin't do, but our lowest in the factory along with the "utility sparehand" the women are off sick the men in this grade refuse to cover for them because of the low bonus rates.
get 'We have raised the issue in our
union branch and we've been told that the difference productivity. The men sold more jobs than we did so they get a differential for whether this is true or not because it all happened before I started here.' The
tremendous.
meeting letting Bil! Sirs know that we wouldn't settle for
anything less than the full claim.'
line. Everyone treats us seriously, although many met
can't believe we're steel workers.'
demand
about such discrimination against the
years and we've
jobs are grader
woren picketing. in its orin would Haze explained.
per cen grade is the
grade." When
are thinking
due
Without produced.
because they've haven't. got any
'Before that we had been picketing the ISTC exec
'We haven't found any discrimination on the pickel
special demands themselves. 'Some of the men on the lower grades only take home £40 odd a week. But if we had a special increase for low-paid workers then the higher grades mould restored. Hilda thought it world be their differentials a good time to press home some of their own demands though. and een ve never been for 1 26 Dever beca get the women togethe the three shift system. Most of the are active . Nos I've beta mad the for together. Were all in fence of 2 good
Organising
'If we just gor a with the men it wood How then me get back a a bor to get all the women belind is aad al the men because they'll be affectod nothing would "The men say they'd support us seen how pulled our weight in the strike.'
Socialist Challenge : 14 February 1980' Page 3
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Brian Molyneux calls for National Strike Committee
'It'sdisgusting Sirsplays squash with
SUPPORT THE STEEL STRIKE
STRIKE NEWS
Tories
take on
student
unions
By Mick Archer EIGHT years ago, NUM general secretary Laurence Daly wrote to the National Union of Students after the miners' victory
'next to the movement, the support that received from student unions, the NUS, and students generally was the most important during recent strike'.
At that time the Tories were proposing to tighten control over student union expenditure. The mass campaign launched then to defend autonomy showed that the vast majority of students saw the need to take on the Tory government. Support for the miners was part of that stand. Today
Today benefits and collections яге again being organised colleges • for: the steel strikers. Flying pickets have accommodated and helped out by students Manchester Birmingham. And once again the Tortes are proposing changes in the procedure student unions.
Tory education minister Mark Carlisle tias insisted that the main aim is simply to establish greater accountability. But at the same time he has referred to abuses in expenditure such as the sending of student union coaches Grunwick mass pickets in 1977.
At the moment the yeurly payment to student unions comes from the local authority pays the student's grant, In future the fee Wil be paid authority responsible for college. This will have effects.
Compete
*Student unions will have to compete WILH other education facilities for their share of a diminishing cake public expenditure cuts go ahead.
*With the real income
student unions falling under the impact of inflation, there will be increasing pressure from the right. wing SAve disaffiliating from NUS.
*Local authorities will try 10 determine how the fee is spent.
Oxfordshire has already written to
Oxford Polytechnic student union
asking them to about their affiliation fee to NUS.
Tory attacks on higher and
further education can only
resisted by student unions that are
powerful and independent. Given
the chance, the government will
deal with students as ruthlessly
it is trying to deal
steelworkers.
Choice
The choice for students today,
as in 1972, is to line up with the
Tory union-bashers or to
alongside the organised
movement. Socialist Challenge
supporters in the colleges will be
waging & determined campaign
for the latter.
Cialist Challenge
lo say
labour
We
our
financial
been
and
financing to the
which in the. 'B'.
the last week.
three
nowt',
but he backed down. and Disgusting
of of the BSC thought that people strike,
people.
lost so much paying strike pay is disgusting. something 'I've
A lorry:
be There
window. The
nothing. as with the
Militant
'There
that are on the line. They fight enthusiastic.
labour closed - we didn't.
ISTC has
on the flexibility deal and more to come?
BSC chiefs
JOHN CAMPBELL, a fitter's mate
Mill, Lackenby on Teesside, has similar views to Brian Molyneux. He talked to Dave Carter
'The latest offer's a sell out. I was in London last Tuesday to lobby the executive; Sirs told us "20 per cent or
and everyone shouted nice one Bill'. Then he said he'd go to jail,
•I never thought I would last five or six weeks. The strike has opened my eyes to what goes on. I think it's disgusting that Sirs plays squash with
chiefs. Before, were daft to but now I understand what makes them. It's changed a lot of
I'm more determined now than at the start of the strike because I've
money. ISTC not
lot. went lo Birmingham to picket at Bore Steels.
came out; we said to the
argument brandished a pipe out of the cab
КОНА E Y! were tormenting him and would do
were lads from Corby there. I felt like crying when I saw the Corby people because they were more militant than us and it's their jobs
were really They got Bore Steels
I don't agree with the way the
been negotiating away strike jobs. Sixty jobs have gone in our mill
there's
Dave Carter asked John what he
STEELWORKERS' mass picket at Hadfields, the private steel firm in Sheffield where ISTC members are now defying the national executive's instruction to join the
thought about a national commitlee to take control of the
out of the hands, of the officials. I'm all in favour - so long as we ean also have our local one'
This was one of the themes of a Socialist Challenge meeting
BILL Sirs, the generad secretary of the Iron & Steel Trades Confederation, is a man under a lot of pressure.
After attempting to stop the private sector steelworkers support of the state-owned sector, many rank viewed him with suspicion. than 20 per cent' and 'No strings' are common demands raised Bill Sirs goes.
But nowhere is the pressure more on Bill Sirs than in South Yorkshire. Right from the start of the strike, steelworkers here bave realised that rank and file control is crucial if mass picketing is to be effective and the strike remain Turnbull talked to BRIAN MOLY• NEUX, ISTC branch Stocksbridge South Yorkshire who ha national strike committee.
way Bill dispute. putting pressure on him not to allow any escalation. We obviously take the opposite dispute to escalate into a general strike.
We need a committee so we can have a common national policy in order to be more
-steel worker
strike Teesside last Tuesday. John said he
enjoyed the meeting:
"The speaker reminded me of our
convenor ÷ full of controlled anger. I was interested in what he said about
the Welsh strikers. They're on more
money than us, but then they're more
with no strings.
out in have a
and The workels waye
«Not less
wherever
The
solid. Clive
and a member of the strike put forward the idea of a
about.
We're not happy with the
Sirs is running this sell jobs, Len Murray and orners alc
view. We would like the су,
national strike
that support.
East
secure the scabbing. about
8180/9.
effective in winning this dispute, obtain 20 per cent for our members
We understand that other areas
bigger fight on their hands, other than the 20 per cent pay increase — that is closures. We want to know how we can assist these areas.
Weare obviously very suspicious of the tripartite meetings of the other unions involved in steel, that Bill Sits was on the same trip as Bob Scholey, chief executive of BSC, and that they are having secret meetings.
reason we members should be more involved is that it isn't good enough for national officials to say members are selling jobs and then
They should be responsible to communities and the savour movement as a wnole.
Midlands; it's people you're talking Corby isn't just a town • 11
Even if in Stocksbridge melting shop the members wanted to
couldn't accept that because of our wider responsibilities.
There are a number of reasons for members wanting to take redundan-
but mainly it's frustration having to fight on their own. They need support from other areas, from so called viable plants. That's why we necd a national meeting to get y
Hecla
strike. Police reinforcements this week did their best to
militant aren't they?
Send in reports from your area
the steel strike. Phone
Socialis Challenge on 01-359
Page 5 scan of this page
BUILD NOW FOR
"People want a general striké'
HOME NEWS
By Patrick Sikorski
MASSIVE 10,000 demonstrated in Port Talbot, last Thursday support striking steelworkersg
As well as the strikers themselves there were miners. ral and transport workers, delegations from the Labour Party and Сутги, workers and building workers. The whole area came to a stop for the morning.
The 200,000 who took part in the Wales general strike on 28 February show the depth of the feeling about Tory plans to lengthen dole queues in: Wales. Support for all-out indetinite strike action against steel closures on 10 March overwhelming. question now being asked is: what is the British TUC up to?
Slow
ine answer nasn t Deen sow coming. The leaders of the TUC are. running round trying to get 10 March Cilen off. the CUSY Congress House they do not welcome DON HAYWARD is administration officer of the National Union Mineworkers in South Wales. He talked to Challenge about the towards general strike action in Wales on 10 March.
*THE South Wales miners have been geared up for strike action since 21 Ляпиягу. We only agreed to hold
SO that we collu KEep movement together. We have had two delegate conferences and a lodge vote, so we nave a ceg all-out action on jobs whenever we
'We are very disappointed other unions in the not fuly committed to going with strike action. We hope that the Weish recall TUC on 27 February will come out for clear action. steps back then we will go ahead on 10 March. We may eyen take action earlier than this.
10 MARCH
the UI US DCCL thousands of people against the Tory government. Wales ..the
TUC had to
But as General _bakke George Guy Platitudes But
The little time for such sentiments.
our families believe one platitudes', he said.
in
world of catastrophe to constitution.' the
of
Socialist moves mandate to take
DON HAYWARD that Wales TUC are •The TUC has
ahead
But if it
of hundreds of workers strike
Their attitude was summed up at chelast meeting of the TUC general concil. Some members said that the
"take the reins' and control the militancy shown in Wales.
Council member was reported to have remarked, 'If they take the reins they will have to ride the bloody horse. They can't take it back to the stable.
at the Port Talbot rally Emlyn Williams of the South Wales National Union of Mineworkers had
*When the right to work and right to bring up
is threatened I don't day •ELME and
'As far as I'm concerned we should not be channelled into a cul-de-sac by the constitution of this or that part of the movement. When it comes to a
Shell with the made Inreais oE
"drastic action" if the governmeni
loesn 'T come up with a satisfactor eTSanswer to their request on Welsh jobs. If the TUC called a general strike it action woul soire our prooiens ou weka and jobs overnight. Mind you, we have to keep the lesson of the 1926
THE Tories' "entition to fob
losses in Wales is a body called
the Welsh Devele ment Agency.
A further grant bO EWDA ofg
$48 million bäs just been an-
nounced. But that's a drop in
the ocean.
Two ye rs ago the WDA was
given £12 lion to cover the
johs lot in s eel clostres at Ebbw
Vale and E Moor in Cardiff.
A5 many were
planned. Bu these, it was
estimated, anly offer a
KUH OSN
As it is, t of these fac-
tories bave to be buit. In
Cardiff, ever ere these plants
do operate те яге jobs for
only 1,100 workers. On these
figures, an ig inflation into
account, tt st grant to the
WDA wil BrOVide & MOxHAOM
of only 8,000
On 27 February the Welsh TUC meets. The miners shoutd take their arguments about the future of Wales to every steelworker; every docker,
делета]. strike remeraber nioe laen obe Tinc let sne movement down.
'If Wales came out ou strike, we d expect solidarity strike actien from the rest of Britain. And we won't accept any argument that action" means a one day strike. Wales the magnificent day of action
28 January was ouly to test people's feelings.
'Where I live the ledges went fo local factories, the werkers there held quick meetings and agreed straight away to come out for the day. It seems to me that the problem is not with the people themselves. It lies with the leadership.
*Wher George Wright [Wales TUC secretary] says he is not proposing a general strike I think be is talking a cross purposes. If miners, steelwork-
and transport workers are strike and there is a call for solidarity
from other workers then ! don't see any way round calling this & general strike. The TUC should make sure this is backed nationally
every railwayworker and lorry driver in Wales.
George Wright, Secretary of the Wales TUC, must not be allowed to back down on 10 March as he did on 21 Januarv. the pressure of the British TUC and refused to call an indetinite generai strike in Wales.
Fighting
Catastrophes need to be organised against. For the would mean fighting for a national meeting of strike committees to ward off any sell-out attempt. For all trade unionists in Wales it means insisting tnal tere de no backtráckmng on te demands for a general strike, and for spreading beyond DOLOCS
Socialist Challenge supporters will
campaigning labour movement for both the British anolehearted backing to the stand of Welsh TUC the Welsh miners on 10 March for a general STEKE offensive. The feeling is there. So let's organise it. all-out acton around the country.
"The medis are trying to say that we
motivated opposition to the Tory government. We say that if the Tories gave us what we wanted we would not need to take "drastic action now. But of course we all know .LE it is a political fight.
'If the government is forced out as a result of our strike action that wonid be a great bonus for the movement. I am totally committed to getting the Tories out.' with
of the
OVER half
two-thirds
would mean
piaal
Vale,
group,
will be immense.
Tories" when he succumbed to industry,
obvious: uncaring SLCCIWOIACES that LULUUE removed
begin
the Welsh in this fight.
very Effective their consistently
leaders. against Tory movencl
in the end
West Belgium,
subsidies
The
generation, mannenanict
But
HOW MANY jobs in Wales will be lost if the Tory cuts and clost, ts go through? Ian Kelsall, of the Wales Confederation of British Industry, has claimed that ao more than 30,000 redundancies are involved. But the Wales TUC has said:
*20-21,000 jobs in the steel industry will go.
*15-16,000 in the coal industry, including pit closures and job losses throug the reduction of coking coal producing. And this does not include the threatened closure of three pits through a fast-off in coal demand and BSC clostres.
*6,000 in related industries such as rail, road, docks.
*30-35,000 indirectly affected in service and retail Industries.
The Wales TUC's total estimate: anything up to 81,000.
Socialist Challenge
ROGER TOVEY
Tories are
callous
By Roger Tovey, member
'Blastfurnacemen's Union, Llanwern.
the populatión of Chepstow would be directly affected by the Steel Corporation's planned cutback st Llanwern, together with
of those who live Caldicot. That's just part of what it
to balve the 9,000 workforce al this South Wales steel
The people affected moved into the area in the early '60s, from Ebbw
• West Wales and the Midlands
- all from plants that had shut down. They are now in the 35 to 45 age
most with families, so the social problems of being unemployed
The Tory government has shown
disregard consequences of the orders it has given to the Steel Corporation. On the EEC's: council of ministers, the
representative vetoed the toum dyaladic l aid to the steel
Decause this sum would have to be matched by the British
What action is required to halt the lunacy of steel closures? The answer
the war-mongering. set arch-T'ories who the government must be from office before the people of South Wales can live again.
The general strike in Wales set for 10 March is a must, and it should
even because CE TH •strikers are not robots + we have human needs which we are sacrificing
The official union approach is
WorrDg to all concerned secondary picketing undermined by the compromises sought by the national
sell-out could lead to the throwing its own leaders, although one hopes that Bill Sirs and Hector Smith will see sense
The kind of solutions necessary A are available to the government in the form of the measures taken in other
European countries. ln France, West Germany, alla Luxemboug: stecworkers can retire with good pensions at 55. Com
12 to 27 time higher than in Britain.
development of local industry to meet the needs of the nem
together with the of coal and steel production, is essential.
all this beyond the dogmatic policies being pursued by the present government.
14 February 1980 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
question of power Preparing for a
STRIKE NEWS
slipping out of its hands.
etc. The fact that MacDonald and Thomas
reyolutionary class up against the
depriving it of its power.
the bourgeois stale... change them under enemy fire.
and the trade unions...
can industry, especially in the world market, This
the question of power...
it shakes the foundations of capitalism,
reaction to go over to the counter-offensive, the fight.?
is Britain Going?, written on 6 May 1926.
Onday 14 FeRre
1926 and the
"THE TUC Generad Council started out with the ridiculous declaration that the General Strike was not a political struggle, and in any case not an attack on the state power of the bankers, the manufacturers and the landowners, or on the sacred British Parliament. This most respectful and submissive declaration of war appeers, however, not to have convinced the goverament at all; it felt that, through the effect of the strike, the real instruments of power were
"The power of the state is not an "iden", but a material apparatus. If the apparatus of administration and suppression is paralysed, the power of the state will also be paralysed. In modern society, no-one can rule without controlling the railways, shipping, posts and telegraphs, power stations, coal,
political sims characterises them as individuals but by no means indicates the nature of the General Strike, which, If carried through to the end, brings the
task of organising a new state power.
'Nevertheless, those who by the course of erents have been placed "at the head" of the General Strike are flgating against this with all their strength. And this is the chief danger; men who did not wish for the General Strike, who deny the political character of the General Strike, who fear nothing so much as the consequences of a victorious strike, must inevitably disect alt their efforts towards keeping the strike within the scope of a semi-political half-strike, i.e.
"We must look the facts straight In the face; the chief efforts of the official leaders of the Labour Party and of a considerable number of the offictal trade union leaders will be directed not towards paralysing the bourgeois state by means of the strike, but towards paralysing the General Strike with the aid of
'Success ls only possible in accordance with the degree to which the British working class, during the development and the intensification of the General Strike, realises the necessity of changing its leaders and succeeds ta doing so. An English provert says that one must not swap horses while crossing a stream. This practical wisdom is only true within certain limits. It has never yet
cen possible to cross the stream of revolution on the horse of reformism, and he class which has gone into battle under opportunist leaders is compelled to
"This determines in advance what the really revolutionary elements of the British proletariat must do — above all, what the communists must do. They must support in every way the unity of mass action, but they cannot permit even the appearance of unity with the opportunist leaders of the Labour Party
"The strike in itself cannot alter the position of British capitalism or of th
of the whole of the British economy. The strike is only an emphatic expression of this necessity. The programme for the reorganisation of the British economy is a programme for a new power, a new state, a new class. Herein les the fondamental significance of the General Strike; it brings forward sharply
"This by no means implies, however, that the present strike is faced by the alternative of all or notbing... The more widely it develops, the more vialently
treacherous and opportunist leaders, the more difficult will it be for bourgeois
orgenisations suffer, the sooner shall we reach the next, more decisive stage of
LEON TROTSKY, from the preface to the second German edition of Where
deny on oath that they have aay
have
up to
Requires the reorsanisation
strike.
the more completely it sheds the
will the proletarian do ISTC,
the
By Martin Meteyard
MILITANTS are inning to da into waldug calen the digs of action against 11
dread there February
Yorkshire ani lorth-West), March ITUC March (start of nite action to save jobs in Sou les), and then - suitably far o •TUC's own day of action of
No wonder, general strike is
Fi together gainst the boss seir govera-
Oral strike
• tinse by the kind of sell out that d in 1926?
The people who are in a position to organise a general strike are the TUC leaders - the general staff of the labour movement. Determined action on their part could already
brought victory in steelworkers' strike.
The TUC General Council was set
Glad - not sit about on the complaning how unfair the Tbat towhy union bran. sy ctc. should be doss now demanding TUC organise a general
Calls
But at the same time it's not enough to make calls on the leaders. A confrontation is the last thing they want. Even if they're pust ed into it they will try to call off ac tion at the first opportunity.
This means that the working class must make its own preparations.
organise its ground, develop its own channels of communication and coordination.
The steel strike is an example of why this is necessary - and what to
The of forced into action by the rant has done nothing to make strike effective. Bill Sirs has sought every opportunity to
general strike
ant up. can we the
hold back the struggle - kowtowing before Denning's even trying to delay calling out the private sector again after it had been reversed. done what the executive has failed to local strike committee do. They picketing to stop 'secondary produc tion', and while the refused to cal on other unions for help, they TUC reticence.
The strike support committees set up by trades councils in Camden Wandsworth, "lower - elsewhere have been the vehicle for organising local steelworkers and explaining the issues the involved. Developing such bodies on
La more permanent basis, to prepare the way for the emergence of all embracing representative Councils of Action such the strike in many areas in 1926
necessary part general strike today Among the tasks of such bodies ty to will be to prepare the defence of the
struggle against the repressive actions of the state. genera strike -every opportunity workers' unity and enforce capitalist order.
Power This is what is meant by saying that a general strike poses the question of power. To make its struggle effective, the working class will have to take over more and more aspects of the tunning of society.
In 1926 several Councils of Action established workers' defence. Emile Burns' book General Strike — Trades Councis in Action describes what happened in Methil in Scotland: ang, the Workers' comprised 150 men, but this rose to 700 after police charges on pickets. The area was patrolled by the Corps, organise in companies NCOs, and there was no further, in terference by the police with pickéts.' ine organsauon or hyllg pickets in the steel strike shows how it is possible prepare Systematising this through organised picket pools in every area would be a further step forward Equally, however, a general strike Doreeni has to arm
Troops marching into London's East End during the 1926 General Strike 'The power of the state is not an "idea" but a material apparatul" Trotsky
judgement and runs society mediately
have organised effective
day executive has
have shown no such
Labour
Hamlets and
support for the Ranks
that ran is a
of preparing for a
'owni
This
The police and • In a
the army will seize to break up tors.
sub-committees for
'At the beginn• Defence • COrD: the
18, under ex-
Afghanistan.
such defence.
Or Lo Tor
the working
class about what is involved political. ly. If the question of power - of who
- is posed, that imraises the question One of the failures of the Communist Party in 1926 was That it didn't make this central.
Preparing for a general strike to-
means preparing a movement with the clear objective of kicking out the Tory government that is responsi ble for this offensive against workers' rights. We call for its replacement by
government not to demobilise the struggle but so that the leaders of the working class are forced to stand naked before their
But that in turn implies the construction of an alternative class strug gle leadership based on the ranks of the labour movement. It has to fight to drag the present leaders into united action, but also be capable of taking
initiatives to counter a 1926-type sell-out.
means developing and encouraging local, region, and national meetings and conferences of workers in different unions and sec-
The recent LCDTU conference could have played this role had it not been under the tight political organisational control of the Communist Party, which is tied to the coat-tails of the union bureaucracy which the Minority Movement launched by the young CP briefly played in the years leading up to 1926. We will be looking at the lessons of this period in future issues.
Intercontinenial Press
combned with 1X ERNEST MANDEL writes on what lies behind the soaring price of gold
latest issue of the weekly Intercontinental Press/Inprecor (Vol
, No 5). And 'Selections from the Left' looks at the reaction of the Trotskyist movement to
Individual copies cost 30p plus 10p p&p, but subscriptions work out much cheaper at fl! for one year (48 issues), £6 for six months (24 issues),
10 weeks. Please make cheques/POs out to Intercontinental Press' and send to: IP/I, PO Box 50, London NI 2XP.
Page 7 scan of this page
South Yorkshire prepares for day of action
HOME NEWS
By Ron Thompson
Chairperson, shop stewards committee,
Eclipse Tools (James Neill Group)
SOUTH Yorkshire promises to come
close to a standstill on 18 February - the
day of the all-out strike
South Yorkshire Association of Trades
Councils protest
government's spending cuts.
At a meeting
Confederation of
Engineering Unions (CSEU)
support for the strike. Already workers at a
Photo: GM COOKSON number of engineering factories ih the area —
such as Shardlows and Eclipse Tools
voted to come out,
has promised full support for branches and
individuals who: strike.
promised from • local
branches.
Sheffield last Friday when an estimated 2,000
demonstrated against
NUM president Arthur Scargill captured the
mood of militancy when he told the meeting
after the march: We are witnessing the most By Alan Turner THE executive of Amalgamated Union Engineering Workers decided on Wednesday last week to back the demand for reinstatement of Robinson, the convenor British Leyland's Longbridge plant.
But the executive little enthusiasm for the against Robinson's victimisation. Se wishy-washy is the AUEW's report that Leyland management have •been able to use portions of it in a propaganda war. As a result the strike action recommended for Longbridge by the union executive has postponed.
Robinson was November supposedly signed a booklet issued by Leyland
management's sack 25,000 workers recovery plan' of Leyland boss Michael Edwardes.
The AUEW leadership responded to the spontaneous strike wave which broke out after Robinson's sacking by ordering their members back to work and inquiry into Robinson's While last week's report declared that. Robinson should be reinstated, it also provided Leyland management with enough ammunition to argue why he had to stay sacked.
inquiry criticised Robinson for action', said he had no right to sign the combine booklet on the 'recovery plan', and concluded that he had been guilty of 'serious failings and lack of responsibility in relation to his duties' as a convenor.
called by the
Tory
Monday, Sheffield's Shipbuilding and confirmed its
- have
Yorkshite miners could be out as the NUM
Backing also NALGO and NUPE
A foretaste of 18 February was given in
"the cuts. Yorkshire
STRIKE
NOW FOR
ROBBO
These
the of
strike action the Derek at Reflecting
showed battle other plants: all a foregone whole refusal of Michael Edwardes
been
sacked last because he this view. the The district committee promised plane - the so-called to be taken to the shop floor in Longbridge Leyland plants. strike action
to mass meetings. their UWi The activities. contied
'disruptive Derek prospect of the dole queue, trade
ARTHUR SCARGILL: calling for all Labour-controlled councils not to implement the cuts attacks have now been reproduced in management notices given out to Leyland workers in an attempt to fuel a shop floor revolt against the union executive's call for
at Longbridge. The inquiry team hardly helped to build support for a strike when it noted that such action would be 'extremely damaging' and a 'drastic step'.
such attitudes, the AUEW executive limited its call for strike action to the Longbridge plant itself, whereas the initial strike wave in November spread to a number of
What this means is that it is not at
conclusion that Robinson will get back his job: The
to -re employ the convenor is based on a gamble that Leyland workers bave no stomach for a prolonged fight on this issue. The postponentent of the strike call by the AUEW district committee appears to give some substance to
committee has build support for Robinson with the utmost vigour' To be effective, this campaign needs
- both and at all other The date for all-out should be named as soon as possible and should be taken
victimisation of Derek Robinson raises issues which are not
to the Longbridge plant. Involved is the basic right of trade unionists to elect their own representatives, and the right of those representatives to carry out their work free
Robinson faces the but all anionists at Leyland face the prospect of a severe wounding of their union organisation. It is a fight not one worker at Leyland can afford
have ever said:
dealing with Everyone
Thwaites
government.
Trades
• The
May.
MICHAEL EDWARDES, Leyta refusing to fight for Robinson
orchestrated campaign against the working class and the trade union movement that
witnessed in the history
Scargill called for all Labour controlled Councils to refuse to implement the cuts. added that the cuts, the steel strike and the Derek Robinson victimisation were all part of one campaign against working class people'
Roy Thwaites, leader of South Yorkshire County Council, took up this theme when he
This march and rally has shown clearly that coüncils and the private sector are not
these problems in united shoulder to against what this government is doing'
added that the protests would continue until the country was 'rid of the Tory
The call for strike action on 18 February was made last year as part of South Yorkshire
the campaign for 'economic and social advance'.
TIC itself has done little campaign, although somewhat belatedly it has now called for a national day of action on 14 An estimated 1,500 people demonstrated in Middlesbrough on Saturday 9 February against the cuts and steel closure:
we of the Already. the South
experiencing engineering due to the lack of steel. A further problem the imposition of
isolation finished. shoulder
"unrealistic'.
To make 18 February success more campaigning
TUC far.
UCHS strike in workplaces.
agairist the Tory government.
SNATCHER
IS EVEN KIES MILK
London
Socialist
Picton,
opponents.
Rank
executive by 200
The
patters Cats
the
The effect of the strike on 18 February may be a little confused if the steel strike is still on.
Yorkshire area of • lay-offs
is that there is no concrete focus for 18 February — unlike the Wales day of action on 28 January, which was specifically called on the issue of steel closures.
An attempt was made at a Sheffield CSEU
4 February to link 18 February more directly with the steel strike by calling for
La boycott in engineering plants of all steel goods except those entirely
This would have meant that even nuts and bolts would have not been handled. However the Communist Party-dominated leadership of the CSEU rejected this demand, saying it was
outstanding Is necessary rather routine approach has been adopted so
Apart from the issuing of thousands leaflets; little else has been done to build the
Nevertheless 18 February should still be South Yorkshire's most militant stand so far
THATCHER
Leftgains
inteachers'
union
By Bernard Regan
LEFT-wing teachers scored a notabi victory in this year's elections for th officers of the 15,000 strong Inner Teachers Association (Nationa] Union of Teachers).
Teachers Alliano candidates Mike Lossely and Dan standing for vice-presides and treasurer respectively, defeater their Broad Left/Communist Party
Unfortunately Amanda Leon el and File lost to nationd member Bob • Rickardo the cector fo generai secretary broad hated cort als beft victory and File refused to st with the • of 4 Forumy Bal Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
ABADWEEK BUT A GREAT
Socialist Challenge
CHILD A
advertised various brands of gin —
Abortion Act, usually with little result other than nausea.
Raeburn and Margaret Drabble.
SULT
recent opinion polls.
do seriously try to organise.
14 February 1980 Page 8
SEXUAL POLITICS
TOMAN'S
TUESDAY 1pm: A petition signed by over 200,000 people was presented to anti-Corrie MPS including Jo Richardson, Ian Mikardo, Willie Hamilton and Donagh Macdonald. The petition forms were carefully packed into boxes that
drinking a bottle of gin in a hot bath was supposed to provoke miscarriage. Many women must have tried it before the '67
The petition was presented by a number of female writers, including Anna
By the time that the 10,000-strong NUS-organised demonstration reached Westminster the numbers who had turned out for the mass lobby had reached at least 20,000. Mny queued up to see their local MI's to express their views in per-
The massive support for the lobby, organised by the Campaigo Against the Corrie Bill, showed the huge shift in public feeling on abortion, reflected in
The area around Westminster was milling with people; it looked like some expression of popular power. If someone had said the area had been taken over you'd believe it. The anti-abortionists have never been able to mobilise such mass support for their lobbies, and Parliamentary lobbying is one activity they
of sevard Ishor he at the rally, but lat was the only one to dram Ications of the fight against the Bill. He I to the otber attacks on women's position in socięty
RIGH
unlike
Tory themselves
their words.
Last
become law.
Bill. carried it in. men
This continued
favour
only
OUT THE CORRIE
words by com mitting lineself to fight se cause which alows Labour MPs to p before party policy.
JOHN CORRIE and his anti-abortion Bill have not had a very good week. On Tuesday 5 February about 30,000 students and trade unionists beseiged the Parliamentary lobbies to protest against his Bill. On Friday the debate in the House of Comihons if anything strengthened the hands of the pro-choice MPs and virtually sealed the fate of the Bill.
PARLIAMENTARY | debate is a spectacle quite
anything else. It's hard to believe that this col lection of grotesques and fools (particularty on the
benches) can take seriously, let alone expect us to respect
Friday the whole thing would have been funny if the subject under discussion had not been abortion, with the threat that Corrie's anti-abortion Bill might
The debate on Corrie's Bill began with the presentation to
House 200,000 signature petition against the
Oonagh MacDonaid escorted by two in black breeches and stockings striking just the right note of antiquated ceremony.
gothic note was throughout the morning's proceedings, espe cially whenever Bernard Braine more got up to speak - which he did with amazing regularity. Braine
the Corrie Bill (Corrie himself got up to make contribution all morning. fairly irrelevant n to the attacks on the working class as a
promise any particular aceir prejudice
Bernard Braine is caricature of the bigoted Tory-he even looks like something out of Dickensand he held forth at length on questions of morality and murder. 'It's the pregnant woman who wants an abortion or the innocent child,' he said. Or, more revealingly: "Medical opinion that approved of the '67 Act was of the lowest ethical and moral standards. I want to take a higher view.' Green form
Braine claimed that the '67 Act was continuously broken to allow abortion on demand, and held up a green form which, he claimed, authorised an tion on the signature of only one doctor with tane reason given as 'unwanted pregnancy'
'This is disgraceful, illegal and happens every day of the week.
'A law that is broken every day of the year cannot be good law', he concluded. One could only agree, but not when he argued that this was a reason for introducing a law that even
women doctors would feel compelled to break.
The only debate with any intrinsic interest in the whole
was that on amendment introduced by Jo Richardson. Her amendment
Students explained
younger women.
If it doesn't come to a vote this Friday, 15 February, it is unlikely to ever become law.
gathered in Central Hall, Westminster to show their anger at what certain male MPs were planning to do about women's rights. Some of them beseiged the House of Commons when they heard that women whe
the allowed for one doctor
authorise menstrual extraction ~ to the sixth week pregnancy with full immunity -in other words abortion on request for the first six weeks.
Her amendment also suggested that as long as there was medical supervision it did not necessarily have be performed by a doctor.
This amendment raised the wrath of Jill Knight formidable and pedantic Tory matron. Her speech explained that doctors cannot determine whether a woman is pregnant at S1X weeks; that menstrual extraction is a very serious, very painful and quite dangerous operation; and that painful performed on a woman who is not in fact pregnant!
She produced no evidence for her assertions, which were rapidly refuted by the large number of members of the medical profession who seem to have made it into the House of Commons.
Morality Her concluding remarks were that the provision menstrual extraction
be a 'gross waste of public money, which brought jeers
CAMPAGH
AGAINST
CORRIE FRIDAY 2.15pm: A large assembly of women gathered in Central Hall, waiting to hear a report of what happened in and eager to discuss the next steps for the
the feminist folk singer, entertained Eke 'The right to choose' and '1 want auline Roe from the National Union of
student women had built the campaign and what the effects of the Bill would be for
On the same day several thousand women to| from other MPs and fron gallery. of However on the po side, the debate on day raised some of the really ce questions about abortion shitted the discussion. from 'morality'.
Dr Roger Thomas, fron Labour benches, talked a the problems with the pill had led thousands of wom
Just you wait, Mr
You'll be sorry, bi late
We won't tolerate
You'll see how str
Ha ha ha Mr ( Ho ho ho Mr ( Just you wait
give it up over the last yea
said that the question of pregnancy was one that w
look at seriously future.
Gwyneth Dunwoody p out that the real issues tha of should be addressing
'Why are so few •abo performed on the NHS? said the amendment designed to force the Hor
Eileen Fairweather would happen if Corri more conventional e backed up by 'self-hel wait for the Act to be never become law.
Outside the hall of stalls with lite organisations and tea and coffee white
Page 9 scan of this page
FOR CORRIE WEEK FORUS
had protested from the Stranger's Gallery
marched by torchlight through central
of their songs were not complimentary. Earlier in the week Panorama produced a
consider very and that MPs could not have it both ways. They use horror stories to oppose late abortion but the same ones oppose NHS day-care for early abortions as well, she said.
But it was Renee Short and Jo Richardson who really put the boot in. Both denounced male MPs for thinking ther knew more about abortion than
de, just you wait in tears will come too
ve are, you will
Renee Short was particularly
agalst men WIld worrying about the guilt that women felt after abortion.
# the guilt that men always say they suffer. Women take different view. It is women who
become pregnant and who seek relief and who don't feel guilty. "ney are aso accused of not taking enough care
JUDE WOODWARD (Socialist Challenge)
*e Rib, talked about what
ne law. She insisted that activity would have to be for woinen who could not
pefully Corrie's Bill will will not have to be made. red up and down the rows
bus abortion campaign
Or they queued to buy
were being held 'at the Speaker's pleasure'. Then on Friday evening aver 5,000 women
London. They were singing and shouting — a defeat for Corrie in sight - and the words
early abortion,! contraception. • This
strikes me as a particularly male attitude?
It was also Renee Short who caused the most red among the poor, innocent male MPs. Referring to menstrual extrachol, sule sald Wlal il was a very simple operation and one LOrE women may eventually want the right to do for themselves. 'I don't fancy the idea much myself,' she said 'But if women want to do this who are we to say no?'
The very idea of referring wombs even if they weren't Yallas. mentioned by name, quite a number of male MPs look green around the Others obviously thought it was sacreligious and tried to look as though they hadn't heard.
Jo Richardson was on the right lines when, later on in Central Hall, she seemed to be saying that as long as the Bill didn't get through she didn't think it was at all a bad thing kept that the subject was airing. Many MPs, maybe plump for an abortion position on moral grounds, were brought face to face with some of the real issues for the first time.
The most significant aspect of the affair was the extent to with which, willy-nilly, abortion is Bernard Braine', she said. 'He spoke for at least 55 minutes.'
fight to abolish the 'conscience'
hope so.
demonstration.
¡ affair. There were one or two CANCIN benches, and faces versa, but they were very low key. Pressure on the Labour Party to take a clear position in manifesto establish this once and for all. well
explicitly and
made
gills.
JOHN CORRIE: his Bill looks unlikely to make it as law but a deal could still be patched up getting a The real highspot of anti- morning's debate largely anything to do MPs had to say. It came when a number of women in the public gallery began to shout out for women's rights, and threatened would not ober i restrictive laws. A long banner l FRIDAY 3pm: At last Jo Richardson arrived from the Houses of Parliament to bring the good news that there had been no vote on the Corrie Bill. She was cautiously optimistic that the Bilt would not go through at all.
She pointed out that there was no way that the pro-choice MPs could be accused of filibustering the Bill — they had attempted to discuss the real issues raised in a serious fashion. 'If anyone is to be accused of filibustering it is
Her speech was greeted with enthusiasm. Whatever may be said about the wabour Party and Parliament, Jo Kichardson has to be congratulated for her determined fight against the Corrie Bill. But will she be as determined in the
clause for Labour MPs.and to get a clear position on positive legislation in the next Labour manifesto? We certainly
programme which was subtly anti-abortion and The Times produced a leader that was explicitly so. But these had no effect, and by the end of the week even the Daily Express was sympathetic to the anti-Corrie lobby. JUDE WOODWARD spent some time in the House of Commons and went on the
always becoming a party political was unfurled before they were
hustled away and the questioning. Later a number of vice women stormed Parliament in attempt to release. should Danger Although the consensus now seems to be that the Bill will be talked out of time and not make it on to the Statute book, this is no time for the movement to sit back.
David Steel Corrie Bill, but encouraged the government to introduce own Bill, reducing time-limit to 24 weeks, session of A number of Labour speakers also said they would welcome a reduction in the time limit to 24 weeks. A bill of this kind now becomes a real danger and, with many pro-abortion prepared to accept it, choice movement will have its work cut out to prevent it.
We have to start defending the 28 week limit right now, and was go on the offensive on the with what the question of 'viability. It is not whether a foetus could survive that • should : determine debate, but woman, already engaged "surviving' in the real world, can do without abortion rights.
heldto
their
pro-choice
opposed the
its
Parliament. women left the Hall.
would be released before long.
MPs the pro-
trapped in an inner lobby. whether the
in more traditional: Not the Church, not the state, women must decide their fate'.
Socialist Challenge FRIDAY 3.45pm: Hearing, that eight sisters who shouted from the public gallery were still being held in the Houses of Parlaiment a number of women proposed that the Central Hall meeting should move to outside the Commons. After a confused discussion — when some women seemed to imply that to question the wisdom of such a move was to be anti-feminist — a few hundred
Most women preferred to stay in Central Hail and attempt to discuss the way forward for the abortion campaign. solicitor, who had been to see the police at the Commons, who said the women
Outside the Commons it was not long before scuffles broke out. Am attempt to storm the building to win the release of the women inside resulted in a few women getting past the security checks on the main door, only to be
The police violence rapidly escalated as the women were ejected and others were pushed away from the doors. Tempers rose even higher, and before long a few women were arrested and taken away.
The question whether the move to Parliament was justified has to be asked, especially when its main effect in the end was to disrupt the meeting in Central Hall. Jude Watson of the National Abortion Campaign was kalfwas through an eloquent speech describing the plans for the campaign when meeting was disrupted. It was unsisterly to ignore what she was saying was a shame her excellent speech did not get & greater response.
FRIDAY 5.15pm: Over 5,000 women assembled at Temple Place on London's Embankment. Waxed repi torches were sold and a jubilant procession moved off down Fleet Street. The defeat of the Corrie Balb in sight and this was reflected in the uncompromising lyrics of the songs, the laughter, and the confide the chanting. 'No ifs, no buts, kick Corrie in the guts' was chanted by one group of women, as well as th
One striking feature of the march was the generalised respect for the National Abortion Campaiga. L conjunction with other abortion campaign groups under the umbrella of the Campaign Against Corrie, 4 has organised a campaign that has provoked a mass response. It looks like achieving its ends in stoppi Corrie, as well as putting the campaign for positive legislation on a firm footing for the future.
It is a pity that no demonstration has been called for 15 February, but it is quite likely that one will be organised before then. There will certainly be some events on that day. If Corrie is defeated me bare to make sure that there is a real victory march through the streets of London! Ring NAC: 01-278 0153
14 February 1980 Page 9 The meeting was reassured by a
th
Page 10 scan of this page
WHAT SENSE OF IRELAND?
IRELAND
By Marie McAdam AT FIRST glance 'A Sense of Ireland, the six-week London Festival of the Irish Arts; seems like the Irish holding up a mirror to their counterparts - that way at least they can hope for a spark of recognition, if not outright approval.
The stated aim is to make an important contribution to improving understanding and relations between the people islands'. Given the reality of those relations political and economic - today no less than in the past, and the one-sided cultural 'exchange' which imperialism dictates as part of those relations, certain themes might reasonably be expected to form a large part of any effort to redress the balance. In this respect "important contribution' has some huge gaps, and those gaps neatly coincide with the still sensitive areas in relations betwen Ireland and England - and for that matter between the fast developing Irish working class. Action Space
When Ireland is presence there is the first thing that comes into most people's minds. devoted its whole involvement in the festival to the 'State of Emergency'. photographic 'examination' of the Falis and Shankill, pertormances Property and various Belfast punk bands, an 'art performance' Echoes of the North, theatre by the Camouflage Group, video film about Belfast (more new-wave bands), and showings of The Patriot Game, Ireland: Behind the Wire and Home Soldier Home.
In a series of seminars at the ICA we have two on the North - 'Northern Ireland and the Modern British State' and Loyalism'. The oppressed nowhere be heard speaking for themselves. On the other hand we have a mirfor bureaucrat on "The Trade Union Movement'. Many of the seminar titles seem to pitch things at a very academic evel "
Southern State and Economy' and "The Social Foundations OI Irish example: In this company, 'Women' signals tokenism, especially when the speaker has not been active in the Irish feminist movement.
Larkinism
One of the plays being performed at the ICA will certainly be Risen People is about the great lock-out in ON Wednesday 20 February a most unusual event will take place in London demonstration calling for the repea! of the Prevention of Terrorism Act organised by the National Union of Students.
Unusual because for the last five years the leadership of the NUS has done all in its power to suppress a genuine debate about Britain's role in Ireland, let alone organise any action in opposition to it.
Many students have consistently argued a clear stance by the NUS, for the position of "Troops now" and determination for the Irish people'. Time after time we were told that we mat out of tune students in the North. Instead the NUS promoted the 'Peace, Jobs and Progress' campaign
abasised the need for an end to the aBcd strage and for social recon-
zaad wtich простій то and the question of
bourgeoisie English
of these two this
capitalism and the
mentioned, Britain's
Action Space has
The result
People of No 'Northern Irish minority
*The Restructuring of the
Nationalism', for worth watching. The
opposition to the PTA in resolves this problem.
-members of the Northern
(PTA) motion being passed.
Submitted North of
colleges in the North.
the NUS, Ireland, anti-imperialist Region.
'Self-
No picket
of The political
Tween which
of their nu ignored the
good. tio speaking
PTA demonstration on 20 February
- but you wouldn't know it! By Mick Archer
no way Nevertheless the constant harassment of union officials and tne detention of two
Ireland delegation on their way to the last NUS conference led to an emergency
main by the Ireland colleges and the Socialist Students Alliance, the NUS Executive was forced to support it or risk a breach in its relations with
The motion called for a national demonstration, a picket of the Home Office, and a major campaign organised jointly by lines
the Union of Students in and the Northern
problems this presents for the NUS Executive have
expucil in te last two every months. Already they have seriously
Faber argued that a demonstration mould do more harm than
10. so picte
mention of a major campaign has been made. Even the demonstration
been organised to ensure that non-student involvement is kept to a minimum. The NUS Executive has decided to exclude all but student union banners, and placards are to be in line with NUS policy The whole tone of the demonstration has bees to focus on the harassment of NUS
arld staff engaged "normal' political activity, and on the 'abuses' of the PTA.
But the NUS Executive has: no authority to bureaucratically exclude organisations or alternative political
from this march. conterence laid down no criteria as to who could and could not participate in the demonstration.
Every activist should build this march, they should build it amongst any and every layer where they can attract support. At the same time it should be clear that within the context of opposition to the PTA
individual and organisation has the right to raise any position they like. That right will have to be defended on 20 February
The desponstration will assembly a Packlington Colegs, Paddingion Gical a Ipe aud march 1ọ Hydi Park for a rati.
HBLOCK
PROTEST
NUS
FOR
BRITAIN
By Ronan Brady IN 1972 the every
prisoners convicted of political offences in the North of Ireland were political granting them "special category' status. part of the
Dublin in 1913, when employers
secondary picketing)
fiery baptism
Only consumers
same period).
whole programme
spheres in
in mind at consumers.
This fact,
La group of people to event'
Town Hall on 1 March.
Racist images
Throughout exhibitions, music,
the "Relatives Action Committee,
with Christy
of the gaps
England.
The official ringing 01-493 3201, contacted for events.
government's
But
frequently
prison work.
association They
protests regional centres.
demanding they
British (Tory) conceded that
prisoners by Thornett
Relatives Action But on 1 March 1976, as
(Labour)
- outraged at the use of the 'sympathetic strike? (shades of
united smash "Larkinism'. Workers and their families were helped by food parcels from the British labour movement and the suffragettes were involved in a plan to take Irish children to England to save them from starvation. The lock-out was a
• for the members of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union, , and the bitterness they felt when the English trade 'union movement refused to support them with _strike action is still referred to today.
The Risen People was written by James Plunkett (whose novel Strumpet City covers
The production was sponsored by the Workers Union of Ireland (the union founded by James Larkin), a fac not mentioned in the festival brochure. emigration and the part the trish in Britain have played in both the cultural and economic
both countries. If the organising committee had the Irish community in London
all it was obviously only as
together with general disagreement with the glamorisation of Irish
wthout reterence to the social and political conditions in Ireland and Britain's role in relation to those conditions, prompted
organise "counterThis will take place in Hammersmith
the day there will be films, theatre. Speakers will include Irish women talking about their involvement in strike action, a speaker from
and video interviews with ex-prisoners from Long Kesh. There will be an exhibition of racist images of Irish people and of course traditional music
• Moore, Shegui, London bands. This event hopes to fill many
left bi ornea resuval especially in relation to Irish people living in
programme can be had b and the venues can b up to date information
campaign to present the war in the North of Ireland as a 'war against crime', this status was removed. the prisoners still
basis 'confessions' obtained under torture Now some 400 Republican prisoners in the H Blocks of Long Kesh are refusing to wear prison clothes or do
Known as the blanket men', they are locked up 24 hours a day in filthy conditions, denied physical exercise fresh air, recreational facilities and with other prisoners: are also subjected to humiliating treatment and brutality. On the fourth anniversary of the removal of political status the Troops Out Movement is holding a series of London and other
In London on 27 February there will be a march along Fleet Street for which demonstrators are asked to wear blankets. Letters will be handed in to the editors of major newspapers "break the wall of silence on the H Blocks'
The march starts at 6pm, outside the Law Courts. It will be followed by a rally at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square at 7.30pm. Speakers invited Arrowsmith, Des Warren, Paul Foot, Tariq Ali, Alan and speakers from the Committee, Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Socialist Party and ZANU.
Page 11 scan of this page
Women have paved their own way
Zimbabwe led by Joshua Nkomo.
1961, and helped to form LAPU.
women's liberation.
The colonial phase southern Africa has done quite a bit of damage to women, just as it has damaged all our people. In the case of my parents, mother because if my father work in town or on a farm she remained at home.
When the colonialists started destroying their fields and cattle and removing her from one place to another it was my mother who carried all this burden of seeing the destruction of her little bit of property.
are reactionary facets in our tradition, and this has quite a part in suppressing us. since the bolitical country, even before the struggle, wonel thinking and understanding rights.
Before that it wasn't easy woman to get any education. She and her parents agreed that the boy in the family should be given education and he was treated like a little king. Even if they he privileges, much more than the girls.
Ilhe that my father teacher played a part in my being sent to school. By then quite a number of parents were really awake; although my mother was one of the very few who could read and write.
Curriculum
Women have paved way. have not seen seriously say: *You join
From school I was not very happy wher went separately from other children. I was not craving to be in the same school with white children, but I wanted to know if we were having the same type of curriculum. Nobody could give me tHe answer.
INTERNATIONAL
ZAPU leader tells how..
FOR the past 18 years, Jane Ngwenya has been the only woman on the central committee of ZAPU, the wing of the liberation movement in
Her political involvement began in the 1950s, when she became a member of the African National Congress, which was banned in 1939. She then joined the National Democratic Party, which was banned in
Here JANE NGWENYA describes the problems she has faced as a woman in the struggle for national liberation, and her views on
in
my affected went to played Jane Ngwenya But struggle in our When armed SECO their
for a
got his re. their the men Mugabe's house. in Ene
their country.
must spoke
started happened to be one of those elected
the delegation of the African
Muzorewas violent persuaders
WITH » fortnight to go to the elections in Zimbabwe, violence, is inereasing. Lord Soames, the British-installed governor, has implemented measures which
ble hima to prevent candidates standing for political parties that he deems
onsible for the violence.
Soames blames Robert Mugabe's ZANU party for this activity, but the TV Eye programme shown here last Thursday: revealed that the main violence in the areas visited by the camera team was inflicted by the auxiliary forces. They were previously the private army of Bishop Muzorewa, and are now organised as part of the Rhodesian security forces.
The programme showed the auxiliaries raiding deserted villages, and arresting two guerilla suspects. One was shot an hour later for running away" and the other sent to an interrogatioan centre.
Would Soames ban Muzorewa? Of course not, despite the fact that the same day Soames made his announcement a hand grenade attack was made on
The British are not in Zimbabwe to act as umpires but to hold together the rotting fabric of white racist society. That's why Britain should get out now and let the Zimbabwean people decide for themselves how they want to rún
* The British Labour Party is backing both Patriotic Front parties, ZAPU and ZANU, in the elections. In response to the 'Back Muzorewa' campaign launched in South Africa, the Labour Party's national executive has decided 'to'organise a fund drive to help pay the election costs of ZAPU and ZANU.
Teachers Association, and so attended a conference.
I had thought that when you grow up to a mature age if things are wrong, you muş something.
¡criticise found that the lea a or the teaci
could not accept criticism. I was expected to nice and be English-mannered, being submissive.
I didn't want to lose my job, so I went softly. I went back to school. I continued to go to church person brought up Christian home — I got married in church. But I still was not very happy, because there was never a place for questions.
Arrests
When: I attended a moching sometime before formation of the African National. Congress, I felt I had found the right thing that I wanted. These others
of the same things I had doubted in my mind for a long time
My husband was not happy at all about my political involvement and this brought serious unhappiness in the family, to such an extent that we separated.
My husband was a supporter of the political movement, but he didn't like my taking a leading part, because
that meant arrests. I was arrested for • fiTSI time
had swept the whole of the Central You
people couldn't distinguish between speak by
surrender my own political be think he would have accepted very nicely, or as long as I continued to be arrested and continued to believe what I was doing, he preferred to be
political the baby — my little girl was five months
In all I've served jail sentences tive times. others in Gwanagwazingwe and Wha Wha for nearly ten years. Eight and a half years in one stretch. finally got out the last time in 1972, 1
culture. Some parts of our tradition we shall keep, and those reactionary ones of course we will not keep, those which we think are suppressive to the
natural thing that one must do, get a family nicely, bring up these children
OUl
La lot of change. In the most recent struggle, the armed struggle, where
conflict, there is so much change. Men really understand and see the
interview with published magazine. The magazine is available from bookshops and from: Southern Africa Committer, 17 West 17th St New York, NY 10011, S1.
settlers?
One Peace grazing Mount Goors
of army
were scared.
said most
the de arrested When I was arrested in 1959 l
YET. representative;
Followed
Jane Ngwenya Southern
Tickets dance, USA. Price
A death
in the
afternoon
WHY do hundreds of thousands of black Zimbabweans turn out to cheer the leaders of the national liberation movement which has fought to free their country from the rule of white
murder, that of a young woman in the Shamva district in the north of Zimbabwe nearly five years This provides glimber dealt we.
…her denta recorded in a report by the Rhodesian Catholic Commission for Justice in
Helicopter
• Lem the father of the deceased
Erina Muzavazi, female, aged 17 years. I am about 65 years old. Erine left home at about 8am on 20 May 1976 to go and herd cattle to the
lands in the footbills
At around midday I noticed a lot
helicopters flying around Mount Goors and I thought there
something the soldiers were looking for. Most tribespeople left the fields around lunch time as they
At between 2.30 and 3pm my wife
of the cattle from 1 our protected village had come back from
grazing land and all the people who had herded them were missing. Loudspeaker
home and wait as they were going to investigate. The next morning i went to the office to find out if anything had come up, but still there was no
At around 3pm the following day I heard the loudspeakers around the
district immediately left what I was doing
asked me to identify my daughter's
other, with their heads to the back of
except for her pants, and she had a
which showed she may have been hit by a rifle butt. I later learned she had a bullet hole through her left buttock to the midole of her legs. I could nol look much longer as I was alread
Sheen f
dispersed to our huts. After about an hour the same jeep with the bodies
bodies at a time to the burial ground. Up to now I do not know why these people were killed and we never gol
how and why they were shot.
RALLY FOR ZIMBABWE! Saturday, 23 February
Speakers: Alex Lyon, Labom MP; International Defence and Aid
representatives of ZANU (PF) and (PF) ZAPU.
by music by (black South African jazz band) aa Immigrant. Bar and food available
From 6.45pm to 12.30am, st the National Liberal Club, 1 Whitedal PlaTecked Sp for rally, s2 fo ZEE, 89 Cartore St., Loade £2.25 for both
V71.
Tel 01-580 5311. inciatest Ceasterage 14 Feboreary 1906 € 11
Page 12 scan of this page
HUGO BLANCO TO BE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Peruvian left
ON 18 JANUARY, as night was falling, an crowd of several thousand people from the factories, the university, and the 'pueblos jövenes' , the immense belt of impoverished surrounding the capital, gathered in front of the National Election Court in downtown Lima. come to show their support for a new electoral bloc, made up of nearly all revolutionary and struggle forces, registering for national elections in May..
With chants of 'a government without generals or bosses', crowd greeted the representatives of virtually the entire Peruvian left who had come to file the papers to register the (Revolutionary Left only moments before the legal deadline. 'Yes'
ARI, which means 'yes' in the Quechua Indian language of Peru's highlands, is running Hugo Blanco for president. Blanco is a leader of the PRT (Revolutionary, Party), the Peruvian Fourth International, and is the best-known and most respected figure on the Peruvian left.
Blanco's candidacy support of the forces in the workers movement and in the organizations that have carried out the mass struggles of recent years that forced the military rulers to begin to prepare for then retun to barracks. He is the candidate of those who are actively fighting political and organizational independence of the workers movement.
The fact that Blanco's campaign has received nearly support from the left and from much of the organized labour movement is of tremendous significance for all the workers and exploited of Peru. It is also a-major breakthrough for the Peruvian left, which has characterised by a long tradition of being extremely divided atomized — and sectaran.
Jeopardy
Just a few short weeks ago, when all the workers organisations were still debating what tactic to adopt for the 18 May elections, even the most determined supporters of broad unity behind Blanco's candidacy would not have dared predict this success. It even semed, in fact, that the gains that had already been made
you brackets on the list) - LD|-A WAR IN AN IRISH TOWN by Eamonn McCann (£1.
COME CLOSE Poems by Nigel (E1.20) Linocuts by Ken Sprague
• LIST R
LIST C DEATH ON THE JOB:
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND S by Daniel N NAMAE ADDRESS
Socialist Challenge
INTERNATIONAL
enthusiastic
shanty-towns Peruvian
They had
of P'eru's classthat was the coming
the
ARI Alliance) . Workers section of the
has the
peasant
their
for the
unanimous'
in the Assembly in been jeopardy:
Despite character of those FOCEP Cheaded by leading leftist degree of
per cent
•Bookmarx Club
The Bookmarx Club is now an established method for socialists to get the
ışıı delke ęu lo youl aool HOW IT WORKS. You send us £4 50 for which vou will receive the books or List A elW Dils Cese om one omer st or vobr ce de de o eac con r olay sena in ene Torm nov
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LIST
tanted intus THE WEALTHY by CIS (85p)
A BRIGHTER SUN by Samuel vcvn cc. TOBY BY TO , to manhoad in Tr:
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.• wish to join/rejoin Bookmarx and enclose 1.4.50 (*Ik.5u tor each extre ist?
•• Send to BOOKMARX CLUB, 265 seven sisters Koad, London, N4.
14 February 1980 Page 12
unites
elections for the Constituent 1978, with the per of FOCEP and the UDP — two left fronts - might be in
the undemocratic elections, the Blanco) nearly 12 per cent of the vote. It would undoubtedly have done even better if illiterates and Indians who spoke no Spanish had been allowed to vote, if the lefs had had equa. coverage in the mass media, and if
candidates. had not been deported prior to the election.
The UDP received a little over 4
of the vote, while the
VUINICH QUARTER 1980
Wi you Please send lst A + LI5ls) l .
for elections
A small part of the crowd that came to hear Hugo Blanco (centre) during the campaign in southern Peru Communist Party received nearly 6
cent. The three working class slates, therefore, received 22 per cent of the total vote.
FOCEP made a deep impression on the most adyanced sectors of the workers movement and the organised peasant movement, which continued to support it and identify with it after the elections. But the preparations for the presidential election led to a be fato noti. hol the Cena
known Ledesma, together with a small group of supporters, broke with FOCEP's
working class independence from bourgeois political forces to consummate an electoral alliance WHAT'S LEFT
Be ae ondia etle a e ca a
SOCIALIST STUDENTS ALLANCE NATONAI
inspoton, Oxford Ra Fl-Spa for pabu siy and futbe unso : 0de-7 sta.
Hre-ies on Hopal, Sopa, Sirene Cer2
Curphy on the birth of their daugtie lessica NEW issue of REVOLUTION out now/ Copies from Red, Jude or Mic on 01-359 8371
ESTEN
By Jean-Pierre Beauvais with the CP, nationalist PSR, and several smaller groups that have no real political weight
Ledesma's splitting could have consequences.
Maoist groups, both inside the UDP, had come out in favour of candidate who would narrowly represent their current alone.
Genaro Faced with Inis PRT and Hugo Blanco came out for setting up the electoral front, within organisation would have the right to present all its positions. But this front
Abortion:
Our struss
for contro
LOOK WHOS
CHOOSING
FOR US!
nd Mil
New pamphlet from the National Abortion Campaign, 25p not including postage, fromNAC, 374 Grays Inn Rd, •London WCI.
possible to
present period.
compromises programmatic separate
Instead, should
positions
united struggle.
how
Chants
force November successful
At each
candidate.
class
and the MIR
the bourgeois-
alliance. discussions
operation PRT's initiative. very serious Already several
outside
'Marxist-Leninist'
greeted
situation, the
broadest
each
rank-and-file
due llct
Support
In
the
The
main bourgeois historically
August
ARI and forward the
Peru.
wil
would have to be explicitly, and in practice, a vehicle for expressing the need for political independence of the working class. And it would have.to be an instrument that would make it
UlUYe LOWAEN COHSICIr realisation of that objective in the
Such an electoral front, the PRT felt, should not try to use muddled
to resolve the deep differences that the various Maoist, Trotskyist, and centrist organisations and curients making up the front.
they argued, CEOIE recognise that these differences exist and should allow each of the organisations in the bloc to put forward its whole range of
The front itself, however, would be based on an action programme that responds to the immediate needs of the masses and to their desire for
Being the electoral expression of the independent class mobilisation of the masses. the tront wond have to exclude any bourgeois organisations trom participating in it, no matter
small they might be. And it would have to reject any accord with bourgeois sectors or forces, however marginal they might be.
The PRT's proposal was, in fact, a response to concrete demands by the masses for unity. These demands have been. expressed with growing
in recent months. In late and December speaking tour southern Peru was organised by the PRT and several groups in the UDP.
stop along the tour the crowds broke into chants in favour of 'left unity for a workers government, without generals or bosses?, and for Hugo Blanco to be the presidential
• Because the proposal of the PRT was rooted in the present reality of
struggle, made rapid headway. Very soom-there was an initial discussion between the PRT
(Movement of the Revolutionary Left), to lay the basis for a draft platform for an electoral
This was then followed by with all the component groups in the UDP, again at the
the meantime national general assembly of the UDP was held. At that meeting there was a last-ditch attemipt to block unity. But the acclamation with which the assembly
Hugo Blanco who was litterally carried around the hall on the shoulders of the crowd when he artiver to oring greetimes trom tre PRT and express his party's position OLe ReNAO SONee Ro oRer these sectarian tendencies were. The
UDP delegates had dramatically expressed the desire of all the Peruvian masses for unity.
Finally, on 17 January, the day before the final deadline for legally registering slates for the election, an
concluded between the PRT and all the components of the UDP, establishing the ARI.
several weeks the election campaign will start in earnest. It will be waged in a context where the crisis of the present dictatorship is forcing
military officers to relinquish their hold on the government at a time when the bourgeois alternatives are weak and divided
People's Revolutionary American Alliance (APRA), the
party which has had big following among sections of the masses, has gone through severe internal conflicts since the death of its historic leader Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre last
This is the context in which the
Hugo Blanco will put alternative of the working and exploited masses of
Latin American . revolutionists and internationalists throughout the world. should support this campaign and give it the active solidarity that
enable it to develop to the broadest extent possible.
Page 13 scan of this page
Labour right wing ponders
ABOUR PART
HOME NEWS
SOCIALIST Challenge has received a big boost during the steel strike. Sales throughout the are increasing, as the figures in the graph show.
South Wales Socialist Challenge sellers report record results. On the day of the Welsh general strike on 28
they sold 300 papers in Cardiff alone!
This has spurred supporters into increasing their regular sales on the streets, in pubs and particularly
on local steelworkers' demonstrations in Newport and Port Talbot.
Steelworkers In South Wales showed a lively interest in socialist politics when twenty of them turned up to strike support meeting organised by Socialist Challenge supporters on 30 January.
Speakers included Ray Davies (Lianwern steelworker), Hayward (South Wales NUM), and Raghib Ahsan (Rover shop steward).
speakers agreed that strugle to save jobs in Wales was crucial. A general strike was needed to get rid of this government, Ray Davies told the meeting.
Rab Bird
In Middlesbrough, Rab Bird, a shop steward from Hadfields, spoke to steel strikers on 5 February at a meeting organised by Teesside Socialist Challenge MENJUICES. By David Wax WHILE the Tory press has been devoting an enormous amount of space to witch-bunting the Militant grouping, right-wing plans to launch a new party are proceeding apace. Ever since Roy
last November, the Labour right has been very busy.
Bill Rodgers, one-time organiser for the late Hugh Gaitskell, has been soun ding out over two dozen MPs as to what could be done if the next Labour Party conference takes the party further to the left.
What has upset the right the mest has been the vexed question of inner-party democracy, to make Labour MPs accountable to their party organisation has led to increased enger on the Right.
Neville Sandelson MP (Hayes and Harlington) dectares that his loyalty is
his electors rather than the Labour Party. It is a theme dear to the hearts of Tory leader writers. The last MP to utilise arguments of this sort was
Sits on the Tory front bench!
If the Bennites manage to do a deal with the trade unions and win on the
of electing the party leader, there could well be a break-away from the Parliamentary Labour Party. But it
unless the elec-
representation: The Tories are, ; at the moment, strongly opposed to PR (and for roughly the same reasons as Labour) and it would need a total vic. tory for Bennism in the LP and the unions to make change their minds.
Meanwhile the Tory onslaught against the working class and its organisations has resulted in a sudden increase of the Labour Party membership. And despite the attempt to pre Steadman skills as a caro mist whati victory Ralph reflects is a desire to fight back against the Tories.
The Labour Party claims that it has
total of 284,000. Even though this is a more realistic estimate than the usual figures of 600,000 and more it is still
Relaying the lessons of the militant Sheffield strikers, Rab told the steelworkers on Teesside how to get the control of the strike out of the hands of the full-time officials and into the hands of the rank and file.
First
The meeting agreed that a strike bulletin would be a good first step to building strike committee Teesside that could keep the strike solid and counter the propaganda of the popular press. The graph shows that Socialist Challenge SUOJUIICIS here have doubled their sales target.
Socialist Challenge has kept up with the latest developments in the steel strike. It has argued for the full 20 per cent with no strings, pointed out that jobs are crucial, explained the importance of strike committees and strike bulletins to cusul c maximum involvement in the strike.
We've argued that this fight is with a Tory government that will only be moved by the most massive solidarity action, including general strike action.
In this issue show the importance of involving every single
111 the strike by interviewing women steelworkers
centreparty
NOC
undoubted exaggeration
were to count the number of activists the Labour Party on the basis of those who attend an average of party meeting a we figure would be near In any event the figures pathetic the Tory Party,
offensive becoming more ordinated. William Rees-Mogg of The
STRIKE SALES BOOST
who point out the specific problems they face in such a male dominated union.
Socialist Challenge has also stuck its neck out by arguing the case for international unity in the steel strike. Jakob Moneta, former editor of the steelworkers union paper in West Germany, and a member of the Fourth International there, found a willing audience for his ideas as he toured the country.
He stressed the importance of steelworkers and others throughout Europe uniting together to unemployment levels totalling 17 million people so-called "advanced' Europe. Bennites
Socialist Challenge does not confine itself to covering trade union struggies, however. The world crisis
Iran, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe has also been a central feature of our
Next week. we will be explaining in detail why Socialist Challenge has come out against the call for the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan
Socialist Challenge's decision to make the campaign against John Corrie's anti-abortion Bill a number
one priority has already been vindicated. The opposition from women, spearheading campaign: throughout the labour movement, makes increasing y likely that Corrie will meet with defeat.
The Tories, with their vicious attacks on working people, are giving Socialist Challenge plenty opportunities to win new readers. Make sure your branch is taking advantage of them
TARGET No. 133 Aberdeen 75 Daslusstuke 35 Bath 40 Bedford 50 Birmingham 300 325 Bolsover Bradford Brighton Bristol Canterbury Cardiff Crawley Colchester Coventry Dundee Edinburgh
• Glasgow 140 80
UPSET
Socialist Challenge
Hemel Huddersfield Hull 140 Leamington Leeds 100 Leicester 70 Liverpool Manchester/Balton Middlesbrough Newcastle Norwich Nottingham •Oxford Portsmouth
Reading St. Albans Sheffield Southampton Shrub Hill Swansen Swindon Wakefield Brent Camden Hackney Hammersmith Haringey Islington Lambeth 170 Newham 50 Notting Hi Outer West 200 S. East Tower Hamlets Wandsworth UCL
Totals 5000 4557
Times, Peter . Jenkins of The Guardian and Mike absent
14 February 1980 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS 328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON NI
Torture teaches
1 HAVE just read in the Guardian (23 January) how the British Nilmstry or welence trails Its fighter bomber crews and SAS personnel. Apparently as part of Inel taming our Drave lads. undergo 'inhuman and degrading' treatment — as first practised in the north of Ireland — at the hands of their military superiors.
Of course, it's strictly voluntary, but it gives an indication of the qualifications needed to gain promotion in Her Majesty's Forces.
Traditionally the army has demanded that recruits should be stupid, gutless, and without character; that they should suspend disbelief, accept brainwashing and humiliation without flinching; run like a dog behind their master, and if necessary kill without thought or feeling.
Now there is a new twist. To qualify in the SAS (shoot first, ask questions later) you are now expected to shed every last trace of human dignity, and voluntarily submit your mind and body to inhuman and degrading torture.
As the 'Great' increasingly appears small and mediocre, and stirring watchwords like national interest lose their flavour, the enemy within appears a greater threat to capitalism than the
emphasis on counter-insurgency techniques.
The military experts reason this way: if soldiers are treated like animals they will behave like animals, obeying the most brutal commands without question. This is the kind of specimen that is 'keeping the peace' in thé North of
Human values and rational thought are enemies of the professional war machine. The latest evidence confirms the complete moral bankruptcy of the British state and the ruling class which it defends.
DAVY SHILLINGLAW, Aberd Are we too
pro-Soviet?
DO YOU or do you not support the
hint. We learn that Sakharov has
that 'he has not been
Sciences', and that this treatment is 'extraordinarily mild'.
accompanying article on the round-
"dissidents', whoever wrote the
position on this 'extraordinarily
Are Sakharov's politics not to
left, recognised that socialist
11-12.30.
availabic trom Fouri Idea
: For more info phone Nick, 605052.
Falmarks, 110 Cheltenham Road, Montpellier, Briscol
Gc 13 shop. For SC availabh from Dundee Boots, Thursday 4.5.30pm,
Here Hill British Rail at kiosk Brixton and Tetric Books
our on sale 11-1 every Sar., Regent St Cot sad a Lists pe Road, Meddless rough, and at sales: at Socialist Challenge
democracy (like national self-determination) applies irrespective of political views. now find it prudent to retreat on both these issues.
I am taking out a subscription to Soviet Weekly — a cheaper way of reading the same views more honestly expressed.
RICHARD CARVER, London SW2 Getting industrial jobs I SEE the IMG wants to get its members into industry (24 January). In my naivety I might be tempted to call this opportunist. it it wasn't for the fact that there are 1.5m people unemployed and hundreds more being made redundant every day.
I'm sure there must be plenty of eager to get into industry, or do the IMG cadres all have special skills greatly in demand by the bosses? GUSTAV LINDSTROM, Wallsend Marx Library appeal THE MARX Memorial Library was founded 46 years ago as a reply to the burning of Marxist and progressive books by the Nazis. Nationally-known figures from all secuous or lue working-class movement were among its founders.
Our aims now, as in 1933, are: ...the advancement of education, learning and knowledge by the provision and maintenance of a library of books relating to all aspects of the science of Marxism and the history of socialism and the working-class movement.
We now have a splendid opportunity to extend our work. We have taken over a wing of our building not occupied by us previously. Our decision to expand into the whole of our historic building which housed the Twentieth Century Press, first socialist press in 1893, is a momentous one.
Recently, we have had a number of important book bequests, including an invaluable section from the vast library of James Klugmann. Our lending section will be increased to about 30,000 volumes. Our research section, which at present houses about 30,000 pamphlets, rare archive material and penuucas, will be enhanced considerably by our new and rare
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE EVENTS
Greens Bookstall, upstairs in Spencer Market, Stockton TOWER HAMLETS: SC supporters Whitechapel tube, Sunday 10.30-12.00 Brick Lan
Mecting.
ories, Thurs la Fe
ni every set 1030-120pm
14 February 1980 Page 14
• BUT NOT UNTIL MAJORITY.
FOR IT'
AND NATURALLY WEATOLD UNITED IRELAND• acquisitions.
Evidently you you to help us to raise £50,000, the minimum required to do the work effectively. charity, and rely entirely on voluntary support. valuable service to the labour movement during the past 46 years. To ensure that our work continues and expands, our Appeal must succeed. Please contribute a generous dotalion MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY EXPANSION APPEAL 37A Clerkenwell Green, London EC1. Hello, insurrection... SOMEONE; somewhere seems
calls, to judge by the technical LOVELY I SUCHE ICCHKIC possible by computers which can reportedly ideatify key words and print out rele
in any way.
For example, if mundane conversations were to begin with a
'bomb', or "Soviet intelligence', With a heap
such as 'hullo and 'goodbye were substituted fol the kind of things that the police are interested in - strikes, demonstrations, meetings, and the like - they would have an enormous printout if they programme these 'key' words into the computer.
I SPY, London N1 Trotsky only aids
THE PRESENT dispute about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan clearly reveals the inadequacies of Britain's the traditional Trotskyist position demand for the withdrawal of Soviet troops is entirely consistent of that does not change it
Soviet invasion have demonstrated the confusion engendered by their
letter. To quote at length from
Soviet bureaucracy but on the scil papers eve
Charlie tells us that we can
join in the chorus of imperialist jackals' by calling for their
"imperialist jackal" or not.
such a demand. We still have the
VOTE
CHURLISH
HAVE
With confidence, we appeal to
We are a registered We have given force of arms. likely to be listening-in to our phone
Vant conversations.
It would be most unfortunate if these processes were to be disrupted
mention of the words 'insurrection',
MIS would presumably, be presented
Of winteresting other.
And if frequent phone words
"lunch', "bad hne the slogan
Afghanistan.
with a Marxist position, and abuse
All thöse Who have defended the
This was most clearly revealed by Charlie Van Gelderen's
Union.
The whole thrust of what is quoted from Trotsky shows that he ascribed no revolutionary role to the
Yet, once this counter-revolutionary
territory we are apparently to accept
condemn the policies that led up to
class struggle.
says the Afghan people can call for seem to be an accident of geography
is the matter of the ability to voice
YOU'RE DELBERATELY MISUMDERSTANDING ME! WAS REFERRING MAJORITY IN COUNTIES! opportunity to exercise some democratic rights and can demand the withdrawal of the Soviet Army and the British Army from Northern Ireland. The Afghan people will not have the right to do either while under the heel of an occupying army, other than by
Did the fact that the capitalist states demanded the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968 stop socialists also saying the same thing? Obviously not, since we cannot let our views be determined in such a manner. he tact that Carter has seized upon the Afghan issue to bolster his flagging electoral fortunes should not deter socialists from taking a firm stand.
The nub of the dilemma resides in the continuation of the view that there is something residually 'socialist' in the Soviet Union, a view that is becoming less and less tenable. It is high time that some socialists stopped using their sentimental attachment to October 1917 as a prism through which to view the present day world.
The Soviet bureaucracy is just as big a block to socialism as is imperialism, and to condemn the actions of one does riot automatically align one with the
The issues should be relatively simple, do or do not socialists stand for the democratic right of self-determination of all people? The fact that in some cases this will result in a regime not to our liking should not be a reason to 'weasel' out of this simple proposition. KEN TARBUCK, Hove "Troops out' not
I AGREE with the main arguments of Charlie Van Gelderen and Tony Vanzler (31 January) on
We condemn the invasion' by the USSR because it enables obstacles to be placed in the way of the Afghan masses embracing socialism. But we also see that the chief feature of the new political situation, provoked by the blundering of the Soviet bureaucracy, is the war threat of imperialism. Our number one responsibility is to defend the Soviet
Secondly while we continue to uphold the right of the Afghans te self-determination this is not presently expressed by the slogan "Troops out now'. Those who would fill the power gap are no respectors of any democratic rights.
The only criticism I would make of their positions is that neither raises the key demand to advance the rights of the Afghan people — the immediate convening of a constituent assembly
Richard Carver's letter in the same issue attempts to raise 'self determination' above the worldwide
Lenin was clear on the subject:
In contrast to the petit-bourgeois democrats, Marx regarded all democratic demands without exception, not as an absolute, but as a historic expression of the struggle of the masses of the people, led by the bourgeoisie, against feudalism:
'There is not a single democratic demand which could not serve and
AH!
MODERATES.
TO THE WHAT DEMOCRATS
THEY ARE!
EXCUSE ME • WHILEGO AND GROVEL AT SHOW MY GRATITUDE!
has not served under certain conditions as an instrument of the bourgeoisie for deceiving the workers.
"To single out one of the demands for political democracy, namely the sell-determination of nations and to oppose it to all the rest is fundamentally wrong in theory
"In practice the proletariat will be able to retain its independence only if it subordinates its struggle for democratic demands, not excluding the demand for a republic, to its revolutionary struggle for the overthrew of the bourgeoisie."
Socialist Revolution and the Rights of Nations to Self Determination.
If Socialist Challenge does hold the positions attributed to it by Richard then it has learned, while he has not, the lessons of all historical and recent experience. Among these it is interesting to note that the 11th World Congress of the demand the immediate withdrawal of Vietnamese troops from Kampuchea as did the USec resolution of one year ago.
Socialists have never demanded 'out now' of a worker's state engaged against alien class forces. AILEAN O'CALLAGHAN, London NWI0 Iran: real fight is at home
IN HIS article, John Leadbetter (7 February) seems to be saying that since a majority of Iranians (in fact the majority of Persians) supported the Embassy take-over, and since they thought they were engaging in some sort of anti-imperialist struggle, this means that in fact the Embassy siege represents an advance of the class
The main point of my contribution was that to judge such a question we must ask ourselves not what the Iranian masses think they are doing but whether a given mass action does in reality bring the masses closer to socialism and a conscious take-over of political power by the working class and its allies? This question John Leadbetter finds irrelevant.
Instead he implies that having a critical outlook on what the Persian workers and the urban poor are engaged in at present means 'abstaining from any arena in which the proletariat is struggling'. This is
. The point is not to abstain or to participate. That is rhetoric and demagogy.
The real point of difference lies in what we say and how we participate. John Leadbetter thinks we should have participated in the anti-American demonstration cheering along the 'anti-imperialist masses, and encouraging them to do more of the same
My point was that our message should have been that the real fight is at home, against the excrescences that imperialism has thrown up in Iran; against national oppression; against any infringements on democratic rights; against oppression of women; and for pulling the country out of its economic and cultural backwardness.
If we want to say these things, we will have to face up to and prepare the working class to fight the Imam and Islam head-on, because they are exactly what is suppressing this real struggle today in Iran.
AZAR TABARI, London
Page 15 scan of this page
JamesT Farrell: The last of America's major left writers
ROLL ON FOUR O'CLOCK
UNDER REVIEW
ROBERT HOUSTON, author of the recently published novel Bisbee 17, writes on the death of a neglected American novelist.
LAST Angust, James T Farrell, America's major writers on the left, died in New York at 75. He died in some financial ease at last, pleesed in the knowledge that bis work was being "rediscovered'. In the last year of his life he saw a new novel published, saw his most famous work, Studs Lonigan, produced on American television, saw an important book of criticism on his radical socialist years appear, and received the prestigious Emerson-Thorean Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. America dusting bis book: vif and disinterring his name from the indexes of literary anthologies.
A few years back it had managed to furnish him genun income thousand dollars. Many who noted his death would have been surprised ten years ago to find he was alive. For a great period in the '50s and '60s, he practically gave much of bis work (his novel output alone was 52 books) to small presses just to see it
Most American writers are liberals. Most younger ones nowadays come out of the quasiradical tradition of the '60s. actve involvement in traditional leftist (ie. Marxist working people's) movements. Causes and community action involve them instead. Spiritual poverty
Not so with Farrell. Although he insisted his work dealt with "spiritual poverty" before material, he was one of the major Intellects on the left during the '30s and 40s- and would perhaps have continued involvement had not the left itself, hounded and fragmented, abandoned the field to the Stalinists after World War Two,
Yet never did he give himself to the excesses of the naTTow partisanship fragmented and immobilised the American left througbout its history. He never claimed to be any sort of "-ite', most clearly with Trotsky. In the John Dewey led a commission to Mexico to 'try" Trotsky on Stalin's charges, the young Farrell was with him -others to acquit. But when he spotted cant, falseness, or excessive authoritarianism in any
the last of was noticing him again,
of just. over
in printh
But few show his leading James Farrell: When be
that bas it: He was his literature,
though his sympathies lay
$30s,
called and voted with the maverick in
died at 75 America was just beginning to notice him again.
of his political allies, he never failed to attack
own man, in politics as in
It was that intransigence that accounted for his eclipse in the '50s and '60s. He wrote what be felt he had to, regardless of fashion. His style remained 'cinder block', as one critic
And he continued his role an age of literary 'experimentalism'; although he acknowledged his place in the realistic/naturalistic tradition,
he bristled at any attempt to label him. (Some of lot characters are Irish, yes. But some are Jews and Potes and Italians. So how am I an "ethnic". writer?') He remained true to the notion that content in fiction was primary, anathema in a period when word-game writers were ascendent.
There was, I believe, some satisfaction to bim in his later years in seeing the incipient return to ДинУ DO SOk Ш fiction. Things mattered to him; the writer's profession for him was the highest calling he could have accepted. He could not betray it by engaging in тете artistic frivolity. In Trollopian volume work, he never failed to be the artist, the humanist, the understander. Baseball and politics
As a man, he was tough as his native Chicago — with & great streak of tenderness and as American as any writer the century has produced. His passions politics. Engage him in conversation and he was as likely to tell you all about what a fine surgeon his son was as to talk about his books. Yet be could never resist the opportunity for a political barb. (Lillian Hellman? What she's really best known for is defending more Stalinist crimes than any writer in America.! Withal, he was eminently accessible — wry, sincere, a faithful friend and •a sharo coemy
A short while before his death, kuowing he bad had a heart attack last winter, and that he had thrown himself into revising his mammoth 'aniversal novel', I begged him to slow down. In his last letter to me, within two weeks of his dest he wrote:
Healin. The worst that can happen is that I will die. That's happened to doesn't interest me.' The ultimate most darning grounds he could imagine it mas a cliché.
Read him now after his death as before. Even when his work is weakest, it matters. As James T Farrell did.
*The only readily available work by James T Farrell is Studs Lonigan (Panther, £1.95). This was also scheduled for screening in ITV's 'Best Sellers' series until the technicians' strike Intervened; ITV now say that it hasn't been decided when or whether it will still be shown.
THE Forum stole the show.
school system
as 'failures'.
is savagely mocked.
A youn
паку рак Latiner.
The i embarr
many otber areas.
intellectual were baseball and
human. and
'Don't worry about my)
people. It writer, the By Tariq Ali
working class suburb in Manchester. It was here that Colin Welland decided to stage 'Roll On Four O'Clock', a play written and directed by him and based on his teaching experience in secondary modern schools.
The audience consisted essentially of those who inhabit Wythenshawe's council estates, a sharp contrast with the trendy glitter of London's West End. And they loved the play. They laughed, joined in the school assembly, sang hymns and applauded the fifteen school students from the local school who
Welland's play highlighted the iniquities of the pre-comprebensive Englist
between those who were classified as 'successes' and those who were classified
He provides us with an anatomy of a secondary modern school: its crade indoctrination, its staffroom conflict, its blatant class bias and its paternalis
At the saise time Wellard does not restrict himself to stating the abrian. He broaches taboo subjects such as incest. One of the central conflicts in th play is about homosexuality.
schoolboy, Latimer (superbly played by Nick Camphel tormiented by his fellow-stadents for not being 'a man'. The dispate pol the staff-room where one of the teachers (himself » 89y) attacks th and confronts the two teachers who racourage the
Sach events of
Large numbers of school teachers, abool stadits and barcats in li Manchester aren have seen the play. It's a play that would r
Socialist Challeng
THE OTHER BOOKSHOP CAPITAL AND LABOUR by Theo Nichols Fontana, £2.95 THE EDIBLE WOMAN by Margaret Atwood Virago, £2.50 THE CHEAPEST NIGHT by Yusuf Idris Heinemann, £1.35
328 Upper Street, London N1 2XQ
(Tel: 01-226 0571)
WYNDHAMS
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Theatre is part of a community centre in Wythenshawe, a - a system which divided children up at eleven years old
delight
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge The whites will stop at nothing to get rid of
WHAT DO you represent an imperial power trying
pecvent.& conutry with su overwhelmingly black population
ment which coukd the profits you've tooks set to ..win the namber ef votes in the election to be held on 27-29 February,
For the white settlers and the Western powers who have thrived off the subjugation Zimbabwe masses that election result could be disastrous.
Their response has been in the shape of terror and threats to ban ZANU (PF). On • Sundav. Matroly escaped deat when 9016. 0 Mugabe, leader of ZANU TNT blew up under a convoy of vehicles in which he was travelling. * Grenade
Four days earlier a grenade was thrown at his house in Salisbury,
One official of ZANU (PE), Sango Tafirenyika, and his wife were killed on Saturday when four grenades were thrown into their home. officials of ZANU (PF have been
attacks over the past
Nine • ne 12 prominent political figures in recent weeks have been against Mugabe and his officials.
ZIMBABWE PICKET
End British collusion!
Saturday, 23 February
Foreign Office, Downing Street
London SW1 1 - 2 pm Called by
Zimbabwe Emergency Campaign
Committee
degistered with the Post Office 2s a nems,
Mugabe
do if you
largest
of : the
LORD murders Robert
who has said horrified' at these attacks. yet soames and the
the "official auxiliary Muzorewa, the installed 'Other senior white settler regime.
fortnight. attacks
Britain:
Abroad:
Name
Address
Tunis thugs of his banned party
Africa
SOAMES: supervising
Overseeing the election campaign is Lord Soames, the British governor.
The is 'shocked and
British and Commonwealth troops he commands have given free reign to the terrorist army established by lan Smith, and to
mercenaries who, make up the
force of Bishop puppor politician as prime minister by the and
The TV Eye programme shown here last week revealed the style of the
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¡ enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of -Socials, coing Monox orders stout be made payable to
Complete and return to: Socialist Challenge, 328 Upper Street, London N1.
paper. Publisbed by Relgocrest Ltd. for Socialist Challenge,
•lectini eing mounted by mercenaty
openly boaster that he could
uarantee the Vote for Muzorewa i hree areas under his control.
Ther now that if they don t vo
or him they'd be babies down d well, the mercenary added, leavin viewers in title doubt who would pu then the these
When
to a village which supports ZANU
whero everyone joined political songs a In case bomba terror are not
nah to mop
choosing. He has alread
bala, from all ture part atol
election: campaign naking 'înflammatory' statements
Murder
On Sunday, Mugabe warned the British governor that any ban on his
would be tantamount to a resumption of the war.
Mugabe said that Britain, South
and the white Rhodesian establishment had worked out strategy to disable his party in the
That strategy, he added, embraced the murder of the party leadership, the arrest arid harassment of candidates, and general obstruction of the party's
The reign of terror. unleashed under Soames' supervision makes civil war a possibility even before the election takes place.
Every obstacle in the way of the Zimbabwean people determining their own future has to be removed now, and the first of these is Lord Soames
This retinue of British Commonwealth troops.
*Women: in the Zimbabwe liberation struggle, page 11.
£12.50
£18.00
white Enols and
Our
Fund
Drive
NINE more comrades sent us & fiver to fight the Tories. That makes 164 so far. We're almost halfway through our fund drive appesi for this quarter and going strong with almost £1500 in already.
But we need more. If we are to help steel strike committees that mcans sending organisers and
ROBERT MUGABE: narrowly escaped death during election campaign
Around the
weeks this week. appeal too
fund!
Brent IMG
Newcastle IMG Oxford IMG Camden IMG
Total Cumulative Total build the national meeting of Camden IMG reporters 328/9 Upper St, London NI. Printed by East Ead. [offsel] Ltd. PO Box 82, London E2.
dram support. It means selling nore copies of the paper to steelworkers at enr strikers' redaced rate of 5p.
Sales have shot up in the last few
- see elsewhere in the paper Let's boost the •fund organise socials and collections for the anti-Tory fighting
Our thanks this week to:
Wolverhampton IMG
:480 £29.30 f21 E10 Plymouth supporters EI0
£165.30 £1473.30 Omitted in error last weeks
$55 Tower Hamlets IMG 150
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