Socialist Challenge No. 138, 13 March 1980
The scan: sc-n138-mar-13-1980.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 DEBATEOF THE DECADE
INSIDE: 8 page supplement REFORM OR REVOLUTION? * NAMIBIAN URANIUM - the skeleton in Tony Benn's cupboard (page 7)
'Come on, Bill, let's bring down the Tories'
'Steady on, Arthur, there's another 4 years to the next election...
Socialist Workers Party (pages 10 and 11)
No.138 13 March 1980 20p ON THE WITH ME AND THE *OUR COMMON CAUSE - why the International Marxist Group will be fighting for a fusion with the
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Maggie, Maggie,
OUR POLICIES
Capitalism is in crisis. The leaders uf the Labour Party and the trade unions offer solutions that are in the interests not of the workers hut of the capitalist class.
Socialist Challengi believes that the tasks confronting revolutionary socialists are:
• To build broad-based class struggle tendencies in oppositior:
class-collahorationism in the Photo: JUDE WOODWARD (Soclalist Challenge) labour movement. These should
non-exchsive grouping together militants holding a wide range of polifical views.
• To begin to light for the creation unified democratic revolutionary socialist organisation which can. through
application al tactics. vegin to ne alternative by Tantates workers engaged in struggles.
Such an organisation should be based on the understanding that:
The struggle seeks unite the fight of workers the with that of other oppressed layers of seriel! — women, black people, gays struggling for liberation. This socialism can only be achieved by creafing new organs of power and defeating with all necessary means the power of the capitalist state.
fur socialism 4 HI • intinitely more democratic I than what exist in Britain today. political parties and currents that der not take up arms against the socialise state. The Stalinist models of "socialism' in the look and Fastern Europe have discredited socialism in the eyes of millions of werhers ihroughout the We are opposed to them and will ofter tell support to all those lighting for socialist democrac!.
The interesss of workers and r'apitalists are irreconcilable on a world scale. Capitalism only created a marhet. i1 has created world politics. Thus we fight for working class unity on an international
scale. This unity will in the long run be decisise in defeating hoth the imperialist regimes in the West and the brutal dictatorships they
sustain in Latin America, and Asia.
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 Furope are in crisis. the 'Farocommunist"
the pro-Moscan wings have any
meaninglul strategy for
merthrow of the capitalist state.
dest revolutionary socialise parties
are More
before. Conditions
lasourable than over the
preceding shrer decades. Bur such
parules Lan he huill
rejecting sectarianism and secing
internal democracy not de a luxur!
but as a vital necessits, This means
The right to organise faction, and
tendencies.
I you agree with these principies
The insulted
ittivities ho Socialist C'hullenge
supporters in sour area, Mll in the
tora helen and send it de les.
all. interested
intermation ahout activities in mos
• luould lihe additional fiterature
and endian S0p ie coper crose.
ileele it not applicables
Name...-
Address.
t...
Socialist Challenge
character.
and
front
of bosses
their
surrender'
role of women in the strike. be the steel strip department. all
behind the strike,' Amy explains.
world.
world
picket lines.
all: "20 per cent -
Atrica
of
Neither
nor
the he
strike'
in
drowned out. attack, then let's attack. 13 March 1980 Page 2
HOMENEWS
AGAIN
ISTC
Steelworkers say '20 per cent - No
AMY, Jackie, and Paula are steelworkers for the British Steel Corporation at Stocksbridge in Sheffield, and are members of the ISTC. They spoke about the
Paula works in the typing pool, Jackie is a clerk-typist, and Amy works in
'There are three shifts in the strip department, where we prepare steel for making into razor blades. There are about 40 women altogether, but on my shift there are only 14 women and about a hundred men. All the women are
'About 20 women do regular picket duty in the Sbeffield area. We go down to Barnsley quite regularly, and we do Hayden Nilos, a private steel firm.'
Paula and Jackie went down to Sheerness on the Women Against Scabs contingent and were shocked by the violence of the police. 'We didn't see the anti-strike women through — either they stayed away or the police kept us apart. Before that they'd been down there every day shouting names at the pickets and eyen throwing tomatoes.
'When we heard that we thought we better get some of our women down there to give them a bit of the same. But they didn't turn up.'
Although women from Stocksbridge were behind the strike it had been difficult getting office workers on 1o the picket lines. Jackie and Paula were about the only two who did regular picker duty. Some efforts had been made to contact the wives of male steelworkers but only a few had played any role on the
As to their attitude to the ballot and BSC's latest offer, their placards said it
No surrender'. 'The following is there for a general
CRIES of 'general strike' mounted steadily during Len Murray's speech in Trafalgar Square. South Yorkshire miners and striking steelworkers were in especially full voice as the end of the TUC general secretary's speech was
What sparked off the anti-Murray chorus was a fiery speech, made without any sound equipment from the back of the square, by Johnny Edwards, father of the chapel at Dickenson's in Kirby. Johnny won the ear of all those around him as he persistently challenged Murray's weak-kneed speech.
Later he told Socialist Challenge why he spoke out: 'I stood up there for all the people who'd come down on the demonstration. They turned up in their tens of thousands. We want to have a real go at Thatcher. If we're going to
'But people like Murray aren't being nearly forceful enough. I work in Kirby. It's being decimated. But we don't want funeral marches. We want to do a 1974 jeb when we kicked out Heath. The problem is that Murray's got no intention of calling & general strike. But the following's there.
'I was speaking to show that we didn't come to hear the things that Murray had to say. We've got to build real action.'
THE TUC told the press Sunday's march was a central part of its *Campaign for Economic and Social Advance'. According to the leadership of the trade union movement, marchers were there to call on the government course now'
But contrary wishes of the TUC, the most popular slogan on the march, which took three
ICave Hyde 'Maggie, Maggie, out'.
And when a string of union leaders took the microphone at the rally in Trafalgar Square to put forward their plans for economic and social advance, centring on the need to Tories to talk to them, it was calls for 'action' and "general drowned them out.
The roll call of the trade groups, . marshalled into 20 columns before the demonstration set off, brought home the message -been in any doubt of it the working produced in this country. Celebrity
Unions representing every industry, and service had their contingents and banners. But it was the steelworkers who displayed the most evident sense of solidarity. over the loudspeakers, the mention of "Iron and Steel' brought cheers from the strikers lined up in column seven.
And was the testooned with badges who received the celebrity treatment from on-lookers, column seven marched dropped into red simply 20%
The position of the steelworkers, halfway along the demonstration, spelt out plainly enough the view that the TUC takes of the strike.
ISTC general secretary, union leader to refer to the strike at the rally, and his semi-apologetic speech
Reports by Jude Woodward, Geoffrey Sheridan, and Jonal
that
The
to "change
the hopes and Brass Park, was Maggie, out, out,
persuade the
strike' which
if anyone listening had
— that without class nothing could be
ON
Each time the roll call came
steelworkers, and stickers,
wne applanaed past. Coins buckets labelled
Bill Sirs, the was the onli But there
was the only one to be cheered by the throng in the square.
TUC had announced that it expected a quarter of a million trades unionists to be on the march. On the day they said that 140,000-were there compared to the police estimate of 30,000. A count by Socialist Challenge put the figure at 60,000
There were more people than the 40,000 who joined the TUC-led march against the Corrie anti-abortion Bil last October, but Sunday's demonstra
HUGE
DEMO
AGAINST
TORIES
9 MARCH
tion did not have quite the same vitality. The brass, pipe, jazz and steel bands that accompanied many of the trade union contingents lent a cheery air. And the large number of women on the march made valiant efforts to sing, chant and sloganeer there is no question that women made up some of the most militant sections of the march.
was nothing like the atmosphere that went with the Anti Nazi League carnivals. Nor did the
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laggie: Out! Om. Out!
iberman. Photos by G M Cookson
Normally moderate...
"Normally,' said a
indicating her
daughter, Julia, 'if I say anything
about her she tells me I'm showing
her up. Now look at her.' Julia was
yelling along with the rest of the
contingent of steelworkers from
South *What
want - 20 per cent. What have we
got → fuck all.
*She Was of
disposition,' her mother, Jennifer,
added. Dul sue s becoming
militant out of this lot.
brought her along to the march to
see how we feel. Her husband,
Harold, who is also a steelworker,
about march against shown Heath's Industrial Relations Act.
Part of the reason could be determined from the press Sunday's demonstration. While The Times duly recorded the sustained deckling of the platform speakers, the Morning Star made no mention of it. for the Communist dewspaper, as for the party's organisers * the demonstration itself, the words
the General Council were good enough.
Sardly make himself heard when he The fact is that Len Murray could attempted to tell the rally: nade clear to Mr Prior again and again gur willingness to sit down and talk with him. We are still willing to talk to e government.' Drowned
The opening remarks Avans, general secretary transport and General Union, were drowned out by calls to Stop your lorries' from the thousands do the square who wanted an end to the
The Government must
CHANGE
COURSE
NOW
steelstriker school-student steelworker.
this strike until Jennifer said.
do we go out picketing.
this.' quiet 'You've
all somewhat We «YUl get political change. march against When Ken
secretary of the Services reports of
the square:
Fantasy
Party's daily
The demand
strikers, revolutionary left.
'We have
labour movement
ment, and file ordinate the Thatcher.
of Moss
of the
Workers
beyond.
nodded. Their eldest son is also a
•We live, eat, drink, and sleep
the earty hours, 'We're really quite moderate. but since this has come along everything has changed. We
We'll not settle into a normal domestic life after
become politically aware at last,' Harold said to her,
patronisingly. 'Once
Al which point Jennifer started the chant: "What do we want..'
picket breaking in the steel strike.
Thomas, general Civil and Public Association, told those demanding a general strike that they węre living in a fantasy world, he had nø detectable support from those filling
came from South Yorkshire miners, from among the steel
and from sections of the
But it was evident that if we are to break into the fantasy world of the
leaders, inaction must be a relief to the govern-
we need an alliance of the rank the unions to cofight to bring dowh
The TUC describes 14 May as a 'day of action in the regions'. The objective of all those who have had enough of Margaret Thatcher's policies should be general strike action on 14 May and
theme:
Come and join the working class
clear what they wanted. continuous chant.
'Come and join us, come and join us
Come and join the working class.
We'll tell Maggie Thatcher
To kick Keith Joseph in the... by — virtually every union imaginable was represented.
Square, only to send them back home again.
HATCHER
THE IRON LADY
SHOULD BE
• THEN SHE'LL KNOW
HOW WORKERS FEEL
AS THE marchers wound their way from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square it was
'Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, out, out, out' was the
A contingent of women garment workers had their own version of the same
One section of the demonstration kept up a fairly rousing rendering of the Red Flag — it certainly sounded more militant sung on the way to Trafalgar Square than it does when they sing it at the end of Labour Party conferences.
The biggest contingent on the march was undoubtedly the Transport and General Workers' Union, but the miners, steelworkers, print unions, textile workers, and public sector were also well represented. It was a real parade of the British trade union movement as all the different banners and placards went
But as usual the TUC leaders had marched them all the way to Trafaigar
CAST IN STEEL.
- beat
of the rumba. The badge
The anger policy resulted
the marchers went past.
Left-wing
literature rigorously successfully.
'obstruction'.
The
had come-to town.
was asked if it was true
Hyde Park
replied, 'Yes,
Socialist Challenge
Help the police
yourself up!
WHITE ribbons lined the route of the demonstration all the way from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square to keep the marchers from straying off their alloted ground. But the police did not rely on ribbons.
A couple of steel strikers who went on to the pavement in Piccadilly with collection buckets were pushed back in to the march Moments later two marchers were dragged on lor casous best known lo luc ponce
It came close to a punch-up. The steelworkers took up the picket-line chant of 'Maggie Thatcher's boot boys' , to the tune
which many of them were wearing, 'Help the police - beat yourself up', also became a chant.
at the police's containment the portable "islands' supporting the ribbons being kicked over as
paper sellers were another target for police operations. A ban
Hyde Park . was enforced, though not always Just outside the park, two Socialist Challenge sellers were arrested for
Tories' 'freedom within the law' When a police officer - as rumoured that an army unit was on stand-by in the
underground carpark, be What's you?' The entrances to the carpark were sealed off.
: 13 March 1980 Page 3
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Stop the sell-out and halt all steel!
STRIKE NEWS
Steel for Fords,
courtesyof the
Transport Union
WHY, 11 weeks into the steel strike, is much
Members of the International Group in Dagenham report on how the car company has secured its steel. THERE was a lot of hollow laugnter on une negat salt al Ford Dagenham Wednesday of last week.
Earlier in the evening Ron Todd, Transport General Workers cher Ford workers, had appeared on TV alongside Bill Sirs in a
official union 'soldarity' with steel strike.
It is a subject with which Ron Since the strike began, steel ITOU has beer flooding in to Ford's private dock at Dagenham
ance dave occu as mally as seven boats in the dock in a wèek, instead of the usual one
General service wor ters are worme welve hours day, seven days a week to shift the cargoes. Coils
The steel isn't just for Dagenham. Transferred Ford's own rail system, steel cons are too cu acros.
estate, loaded into containers and despatched to the Harewood Liverpool. The loading courtesy of TGWU members, and delivery ANLET• powered British Rail.
Some Ford workers have
said that the covered wagons
are falsely marked to disguise
the origin of their load
with WICI this evidence, Ron Todd said:
I have had no information
given to me about special Tall
arriages or false marking:
we find out that
company USLE
means, there will be
trouble.'
But on the same night as
Todd appeared on
of the TOWU cana branc
were told a different story by
engine plant deputy convenor
Todd did know about the
steel, Davis said, and the
TGWU and ISTC approve
shipment because Ford owns
the steel!
Docks
For 11 weeks there
meant to nave been a ban ou
the movement of all imported
steel. Indeed, on 3 January, a
day after the strike began, опе
boat which docked
Dagenham was boycotted.
But willin a couple of
hours the message came back
from the TGWU to unload
the Dotl
ISTC leadership didn't think
that Ford was involved in the
struggle al lal starc.
National union officials
gave Ford management a
STOP
TREL HER
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980
solemn warning that no more steel would be unloaded on Dagenham. dock if
Carter (REE DEFERE began!
In response to this the 1/1107 branch wrote to the TGWU regional vehicle trade group, and through it to the ULLUM CACCUUJYC. asking for a definite ate TOT TIEN on the movement of steel and in support of the steel strike. This was eight weeks ago. To date there has been no reply.
Cynical
Meanwhile, Ford nuvne every Dece or steel ll
Play hands on, whatever
he price. The company must
now be one of the largest private steel stockholders in
he country. The press shop at
WHICH! bodies are stamped, nas Deci on permanent overtime since the start of the year
In a recent union branch discussion, TGWU official Mick Murphy argued strongly in favour of import controls
foreign-built Ford cars. from Key us
upporter the HOTE
Group, Murphy said: *You've got to have a degree international solidarity. Look
There's more steel coming ever.'
What he didn't add of the TUC, and in particular leaders of the TGWU, are re nongue or s Sleek
The steelworkers need this kind of solidarity like a hole in the head.
No truck
with
scabs
'THE Transport Union needs
to he much more ruthless with
its members who Atre
carrying steel,' cataring a To wu member Chris
who has just been laid off for
refusing to cross a steelwork-
ers picker noe.
Chris, who works
Daniels Transport, 'a small
Birmingham, says that solida-
rity the TGWU has been
'Quite a number of drivers
in the haulage industry are not
in a union. but a lot of inose
who are members
passive. The has
enforce
instructions.'
Page 4
BILL Sirs placards in Hyde Park just before the start of the demenstration last Sunday. He wrote: 'Good luck, Bill
"With his leadership, mented a group of steelworkers, 'we'll need it.' After 11 weeks of non-leadership, Sirs has hatched a sell-out.
Appearing on the front page of the latest Steelworkers reasonable compromise deadlock' is a set of proposals which would wreck workers more effectively than the frontal assault by the Tories has managed to do.
*Practically all the important principals demanded the are poo ges conceded,'
*It will not be easy for us, continues under the sub-heading 'sacrificial path'. It customs and habits. It will mean negotiating away many jobs...
Peace
"These concessions will sides of the Corporation with the springboard from which industry into a period of profitability and prosperity.
Profitability and prosperity for whom? Certainly not for the steel towns of Corby, Consett, Shotton, Hailside, Newport. Nor for the 52,000 steelworkers and their families condemned to the dole for years, or the tens of thousands of workers in. related industries.
Sirs talks about all this being necessary. to save one of 'our' basic industries. But while the steelworkers have produced all the wealth of the steel industry they are being thrown on the scrap heap in the interests of profitability.
Basic
It is not the steelworkers' industry. If it
was, it would be run in their interests. The
workforce would
available work would be shared with no loss
of pay.
Workers have
economy and therefore no responsibility for
the world economic crisis which is causing
the worldwide cutbacks in steel production.
'We have gone as far as we possibly can
in order to reach a compromise and so avoid
the imminent destruction
industry,' Sirs writes.
Yet it is the Tories and the BSC who are
threatening to destroy the steel industry and
thousands of lives with it.
What are the steelworkers being offered
in return?
TORIES
DEMAND
£500m
autographing
comBanner under the title *A end the
organisation of steel-
the Corporation have been
the article
surrendering many
provide both
can launch the peace, growth, grate coll
Port Talbot, kept and the union
control over the forward
the
of • a basic
EXPOSED!
FROM BSC
Noug TRON
вОД LADY
9100
Apart from the fact that it is a blank cheque for job cuts — 'We accept that these deals shall be self-financing and shall fund a
proportion the award' — the claim is 15 per cent for 15 months, equivalent to 12 per cent for the
Blatant
It is already 13 months since the last pay deal, since when inflation has risen by over 20 per cent.
Sirs knows this. That's why he's put together the iron and steel coordinating committee behind the backs constituted negotiated structures of the union. It is a blatant attempt to coerce the democratic structure of the negotiating committee, which threw out the last offer after only 20 minutes.
The conference last week of the steel
negotiating washout. Brian Molyneux, a member of the Torial gorating compose says he por
various proposals withdrawal of safety cover; tightening up of
private sector; contacting • industrial sectors to strengthen picketing.
'In my naivety, I thought it was conference to strengthen the strike. Their reaction was: "This idiot seems to think there's a strike going on"!
The unofficial national strike committee which met last Friday has national rally of steelworkers and organise this itself necessary. committee needs to organise action against
By Geoffrey Sheridan THE Steel Corporation has been told by the government to sell off assets €500m to cut the public sector borrowing requirement.
This astonishing demand is contained in a confidential letter from the Industry Secretary, Sir Keith Joseph, to sir Charles Villiers, BSC's chairperson of the letter, LUI headed Financing regime for BSC 1980/1'
COLL into the hands Socialist Challenge.
The letter states 'We do finance operating 'losses',
retiremente goerms
requiremen
MM
major focuses. national
lobby of the ISTC DOUSLY stockholders.
OI
national
Movement
was
stop the movement of steel.
other
union offices
to cross the picket lines.
threatened. called for
will The unemployment march.
should make a profit in
1980/1. The present round
of closures involving 52,000
' are a conse
quence of this policy.
But evidenily this does
not go far enough for the
government. Having hand-
ed out hundreds of millions
or pounds In tax cuts to lili
rich, it is now looking to the
nationalised steel sector
and other public expendi-
disposal
Josenh says: On disposals
the government are anxious
that of the
proceeds should be avala
ble to contribute to Then
target of by this
means PSBR (public
sector borrowing require-
ment) by a total
the sell-out by co-ordinating the efforts of all the local strike committees around two
There has to be the biggest possible mass
national negotiating delegate meeting which considers any deal arising from this week's negotiations.
Secondly, the strike needs a national picketing focus to regain the initiative for the rank and file. This should be a big target in manufacturing industry to be picketed 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Too much steel has come through the ports and private suppliers to choke off
simply by pickets on the steel
New steel must be stopped going in and finished products coming out. The car industry, large scale engineering firms, and North Sea oil production should be hit.
To make this picketing successful, the TGWU and other transport unions must be forced to respect steelworkers' pickets and
Pickets should be placed on regional
demanding clear written instructions to transport union members not
The fight for 20 per cent and no strings is also a fight to keep the 52,000 jobs that are
The national strike committee should_aim to maintain the strike until all jobs are guaranteed. And it should support initiatives such as the South Wales youth
million."
T's prosperous private steel sector, leeched the Steel the partial nationalisation the industry by the 1964-70 wel comes a hiving off operation so that state-financed Call boost to its profits Joseph's letter goes on to suggest that pari of the proceeds of hiving off assets to meet reden. dancy payments in the firs hall of 1960/01. the workers who created the industrs should now accept the dole laYS queue-in return for boosting private sector profits , while exposes the industry to thi of the capitalis market.
Page 5 scan of this page
REFORM OR REVOLUTION
BATTLE OF IDEAS
Marxist left,
the two sides since 1914.
retormism.
SOCIAL democratic parties have formed governments in Britain, Australia, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Holland cover the past six decades. In none of these (countries have they contemplated socialist measures to bring about a fundamental change in society.
Chile was the only exception. The lessons we should learn from that experience are not that Allende and government went too fast, but rather that they ad a utopian view of the Chilean state and its
apparatuses: the army, police force.
The election of Allende in 1970 was seen as a tremendous victory ov the Chilean working class. Through a series of structural, social and economic reforms, the programme pledged to take Chile towards socialism.
In an interview with the French writer and journalist Regis Debray, rejected the Popular Front Thirties: :.. (in the 1930s) we entered into a coalition in order to form the left wing or tre system - me cuomant system, tar iS. By contrast, today, shows, we are struggling
Our objective Marxist socialism.
In the Thirties the Popular Front had been designed to fight off fascism by preserving bourgeois democracy.
Vichy France were the fruits of that particular enterprise. The changed relationship of class forces on global scale necessitated a new project.
Popular
Popular which excluded the major bourgeois parties. It could be characterised as a reformist united front, which brought together the two major working-class parties in Chile: the Party and the Communist Party. Of the two, the Socialist Party had a more radical stance and its left-wing prevented most attempts to shift the locus of Popular Unity by offering a place to the Christian Democrats.
The importance • of the experience is that its electoral victory provided us with the closest equivalent of a government since the Second World War.
In its first year in office the Popular Unity government carried out a number of important measures, which increased its popularity with the most oppressed stratas in Chilean society. Beginning with the free distribution of half a litre of milk a day to every child, a series of laws was promulgated to develop the social services.
A ceiling was placed on all government salaries; political prisoners were released; the riot police were disbanded. There was a 60 per cent increase in wages and most prices wére fixed. A large proportion of the textile, iron,
DEBATES between the Labour left and the
such as that on 17 March at Çentral Hall, Westminster, are rare events. As such they provide a usetul opportunity to examine the differences that have separated
This eight-page supplement to Socialist Challenge is devoted to a critique of left
Labour has formed a government seven occasions since 1924. Three of these governments had an overall majority, and
West
Never seriously
Popular Unity
and HaYy
Popular Unity
Allende explicitly model of the consciously
as our programme to change the is total, scientific
Franco's Spain and
In the Sixties
Unity was a reformist project
Socialist crossed.
Popular Unity
workers' remember.
out
indemnity
•State
once had bringing
left has integrated.
Forties he
on often automobile, and copper industries was taken into public ownership.
In July 1971 an important threshold was
The copper mines were nationalised, including those owned by the United States. No compensation was paid. The right-wing press węnt berserk and the army exerted pressure, • which Allende resisted. The Chilean President went on the attack:
'Here are four numbers the people should
These companies invested the sum of 30m dollars. In fifty years they have taken
4.5 billion dollars... we compensate Annaconda, Salvador, but the debts of those companies are 736m dollars and it is logically foreseeable that we will have to assume those debts.
'Thus we will be paying
of 736m dollars di companies who over a period of fifty years took out 4.5 billion dollars.
The masses: were convinced. chiefs and the bosses were sullen and the US
Department intensified its efforts to
an overwhelming mandate for ¡about social change. occasion Labour has acted as the collective lieutenant of British capital. Each time the
either been marginalised or
In the Thirties, Sir Stafford Cripps was calling for the abolition of capitalism. In the
was a Labour, Chancellor, preaching the virtues of austerity.
In the Forties, Aneurin Bevan's rhetoric
expressed the class hatred which dominated the Welsh valleys. In the Fifties,
Historyis on our side
was lacking nationalised
In the multinational subsidiary
workers will not or Kennecott, or El the workers' demands.
mills.
an indirect sacred to the copper smashed.
The army
On every 'destabilise' the Allende government.
was workers' control industries. If had established it would have transformed a legal decree into a concrete measure, changing the overall relationship of class forces by drawing the copper miners - traditionally right wing -closer towards Popular Unity.
following year, 1971, companies (Fords and of the Northern Indiana Brass Company) threatened mass redundancies. The
occupied the plants and demanded nationalisation. The government acceded to
In May 1971 the workers seized 14 textile
They were nationalised. The Chilean capitalists were alarmed. Their monopoly in the
manufacturing sector had The confidence ot the increased. tenfold and saw a growing class polarisation in the country.
In the autumn of 1972 the bourgeoisie went 'on strike' by imposing a lock-out. The workers occupied many of the plants and an embryonic
Bevan had made his peace and surrendered
In
conscience. In the Seventies he had become 'darling of the
a loyal supporter of James Callaghan. Will the eighties be any different?
TARIQ ALl looks back on the tragic fate o Salvador Allende and the 'Chilean road to socialism'. He argues that the events 1970-73 reveal that it is reformism which is utopian and Leninism which is practical.
1973 elections
indication that prepared to fight.
and six months died fighting
Popular Unity
But it was too late.
Inevitable
mobilisations.
There was CAUCHIC. reformist workers'
dual power, democratic regime
factories,
other parts of Latin America.
mobilisation of the
What greater. is these
the
been more reprehensible. State
two
exercise real power.
the interests of
been workers Chilean exceptionalism.
Allende. Revolutionary
That is the lesson of Chile.
the Sixties, Michael Foot was the
radical
On the first page of this supplement
of
dual power came into existence. In the March
Popular Unity obtained 44 per cent of the vote, a clear
the working
The military were disgusted with the results
later they attacked. Allende Within fortnight 30,000 workers had been butchered in cold blood. Only a week before nearly a million supporters
past the Moneda Palace chanting: 'Allende, the people are defending you. Hit the reactionaries hard.'
Was Allende's defeat inevitiable? No. What was inevitable was a settling of accounts with the armed might of the Chilean state. It was not inevitable that the generals should have had the
fact the reactionary offensive could have been contained much earlier by a combination of economic measures and mass
another novel feature in the We saw how the existence of a government within bourgeois state unleashes a more far-reaching extra-parliamentary mobilisation of all social classes than does a strategy of direct moves to
short-circuiting bourgeois
Thus the occupation of over a thousand
of popular • supply committees, and the participation of the masses were far more adyanced than anything seen in
The situation was far more precarious than in France in May 1968; the extra-parliamentary
bourgeoisie was much facts which make the strategic errors of the workers' parties all the
We oppose the bourgeois state in all its forms because it maintains the class division of society. That is its main function. Within its framework the majority of the people can never
Any political party which implements structural reforms which damage
capitalism finds itself confronting the armed forces of the state.
The revelation that in 1974 there was open talk among senior British army officers of a coup should give the utopian reformists some food for thought. There is no such thing as British exceptionalism any more than there is
History, despite all its detours, is on the side of Lenin and Trotsky rather than Dubcek or
Marxism more practical than even the most radical reformism.
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980 Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
The Labour left in the Eighties 1
The Labour left in the Eighties 2
The Labour left in the Eighties 3
BATTLE OF IDEAS
By Celia Pugh IN 1932 the left Labour Party founded Socialist League. It called for 'the immediate nationalisation of the banks, land, mines, transport, iron and steel, cotton, and control of foreign trade'.
The leader of the Stafford Cripps, proposed to the 1933 Labour Party conference party's national executive should be instructed to 'specify the means to be adopted by next government' to ensure that 'a rapid transition to socialism may be carried through constitutionally, dictatorship avoided'.
The Socialist League thought that the anti-working Government would inevitably fall in the next election. Accordingly, it saw no need to link up with mass struggles against the National The league did not National Unemployed Movement and it failed to fight the By Alan Shevek THE LABOUR Party is racked by internal struggle. media full of 'Marxist left's bid for power'. Would left takeover anything?
One answer comes quickly to the lips of many workers memories Oi the gevernment- - if the left do what they Ole M the last Labour government, the difference will be hard to notice.
But this quick answer isn't good enough. A new left is emerging.
It claims to have broken with the. past. It wants a new alliance between the unions and the Labour Party lefts; to break the stranglehold of the block vote and the Parliamentary Labour Party; and to pave the way to a new beginning.
Where does this new left come from, and what can it do?
Its best-known new. "tony Benn. been around a while. But for the past ten years he has been trying to forge a
which combines parliamentary legislation with what he calls
'workers democracy'.
TONY BENN is not the only force on the Labour Party left. A whole gamut of left emerging.
These include some like the Labour Co-ordinating mittee, serich are tendea of more seriously
mobilising the working class for action.
They call for the Labour Party to become a campaigning party, and to develop direct rank-and-file links between the trade unions and the party.
In a sense this is a backhanded compliment to the revolutionary left.
We showed why and how to fight the
capitalists last
government. The Anti Nazi League,
shrugbor untheir leadershis
found the ot the
Party.
The Labour
Committee acknowledges this when it
debates us.
At the centre of the left's strategy
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980
wing of the
the
League,
that the
Labour
and Stafford Cripps National Labour united front against fascism.
Government.
back the
Workers'
The mass should take
decision-making. reports of
"planning agreements' change share power.
bitter supervise Wilson-Callaghan extend public ownership.
capitalist hysterical. retreat. exactly one
of taxpayers' money.
The new figures aren't so who heads it, has
that the bosses effect on workers' actions
feared that vary from the TUC'S forces is radical versions such Labour MP Stuart Holland.
Com- However,
The core economic
governments build up
Labour
the 1974 programme leadership Labour not carr! out
Co-ordinating accept it
capitalists could
Page 6
the unions.
in 1929.
Party's refusal to join a October,
Cripps and friends thought their role was to give Labour a left-wing manifesto for the day it came to Lave office. That day never came. In the 1935 general election there was a Tory
When he was Industry Secretary
sLabour government, Benn's basic idea was that workers
part in
The government would conclude moves.
with firms in which unions and management would
new body.
National Enterprise Board — would
planning agreements and
class went It forced an immediate moved …to the Department of Energy. All reference to compulsory planning was dropped.
The NEB was put in the charge of Leslie Murphy, a merchant banker, who said its function was to 'supply finance for industrial investment'.
And the government concluded
planning with Chrysler UK, which reneged two years later and pulled. out with £37m
left argues that this shows planning agreements-worry the capitalist class. But it was not Benn
feared. was his bosses
After three years of occupations and a near general strike, the bosses
workers would take
today is the 'Alternative Economic
Strategy'. This covers policięs which
'campaign for
economic and social advance' to quite
those
the proposal is
misnamed. It is not an alternative; it is
not economic, and it is not a strategy.
of - the alternative strategy LOLLO
intervention into a 'mixed' capitalist
economy. After the war, all Western
used these Dolicies welfare services, and to
overcome the worst effects of slumps.
Today the alternative economic
strategy is proclaimed by Holland as
'the basis of the 1974 manifesto'. The
only real change from pre-1974 policy
'planning agreements'. effect,
the new left is fighting to implement
But why did the 1974 government manifesto? The
reason is simple — capitalism canno
in a period of economic boom the
encourage the welfare state. But the
landslide victory
The Socialist League was only one of a long line of left social democratic groupings which saw parliament
only road change, therefore subordinated mass struggle to inner-party manoeuvres. Not all Labour lefts have taken this road.
In the 1920s the National Left Wing Movement was set up to fight the drift to the right and the expulsion of Communist Party members. It had clear class policies and active links with the Minority Movement in the
The National Left Movement refused to compromise these principles, but sadly suppressed by the Communist Party
Will the Labour left of the 1980s draw any lessons from the past?
In an interview in the Leveller last
Tony Benn remarked: 'When they accuse me of being a left talking reformist I plead guilty.
denigrated the exceptional radicalism of reform. The problem is we have not reformed enough.' matters into their own hands by occupying and trying to run industry themselves just the Chilean working class did in 1973.
Benn never fought for such
He refused to leave Cabinet and campaign for workers' action in defence of their rights. Amid
unprecedented economic political attack by world capital, the government just wilted.
Nor was this a tactical choice on Benn's part. It was built into his strategy.
He hatched elaborate schemes for sharing power owners, and the state. He was looking for a partnership between capital and labour, overseen by the state.
These schemes absurdly undemocratic. They put 18m workers not to mention the rest of the working class on an equal footing with a half million owners, top managers, civil servants. And they are utopian. The bosses accept participation under their terms.
Benn had two choices: accept the
terms, fight explaining what was at stake to the working class.
Instead he moved quietly on to the Department of Energy.
Eric Heffer
boom has come to an end.
The 1974 government
rocketing inflation, tremendous
trade imbalance, and the
boycolt and sabotage by
finance.
So what would confront
government committed to the policies
of the alternative economic strategy?
Others are more radical. Francis Cripps wrote in Labour Activist. 'The central point about the alternative as strategy is that it requires a seizure of
power by a democratically elected government from institutions like the IMF, the EEC, and foreign companies and banks.
will be seized by fighting the next election on the basis of the Alternative Economic Strategy. What do we do in the years between? What do we do now?
It is mass struggle not elections Wing which decide whether
fall and power passes class hands. This is what finished ofi was
Heath. This is the test that awaits the Labour left.
Can they throw Party's resources into the struggles against the Tories, be they on the issue of cuts, the defence of union rights, the mounting campaien tor brush They from
pressure for general strike action? There are indications of a desire for change. In a paper the
and and
them, refusal to invest. Hot money would The first response rush out of the country. Money that stayed in would Internationai refuse credit.
be active sabotage of plant closure, government would control the economy because it could not force the capitalists to invest or produce.
The revolutionary discovered by the Chilean economy minister, Pedro Vuscovic, in 1972.
government done anu over l factories disband the hierarchic and corrupt state apparatus, power the faced neighbourhood councils.
Vuscovic called
spectre of government world mobilisation
concrete objectives to control the production apparatus and to prepare themselves confrontation between classes.
ordinating argues:
international
solidarity COUL ALL bowel
the Labour Party workplace
community campaigns rights
•governeal
unions.
the Labour
Ireland, the Wing
for its 22 manoeuvres would be Do
remain idle. moneylenders would
force The next stage, as in Chile, would
production, GRASS and profiteering This
be unable to identifies apparatus
was by TUFI
He said that the Popular Unity
the workers council,
and hand over state
workers' and The on the 'initiate a huge Whitehall. of the masses with
military hands.
March conference, the Labour Co-
Committee's executive 'We believe it is sufficient to rely on electoral politics alone to win socialist advances.'
emphasises the need for and strikes against Tory policies; the setting up of
branches of the Labour Party; the use of party offices as
action centres and women's and black collaboration with the women's and black movements.
Plans are a so afoot for a rank and file movement at the base of the
These steps should be welcomed. But vital tests confront the new left forces. Will they be compromised by inner-party diplomacy in other words bow to the party bureaucrats
- into avoiding active unity of all working class forces?
Or will they, like the National Left
Movement, decide that class unity is more important than party
He was sacked we have to wait five years
before the Labour left learns the same
lessons, and meets the same fate? We
can learn these lessons now. The only
in which we should place
confidence is the organised working
is what the alternative
economic strategy fails to do. It still
the capitalist state the main policy
instrument, in spite of the fact that no
one elects this apparatus and that it is
clique of powerful are dedicated to
private interests and to profit.
The state apparatus has blocked
working class advance under every
reformist government. The left's own
book, What Went Wrong, is full of
testimony to state sabotage
real government of the
country was never parliament. It was.
Yet the Labour left still asks us to
put our heads on the chopping block
We say, No. It is time for workers tr
take their destiny in to their own
Page 7 scan of this page
NAMIBIAN URANIUM The Skeleton in Tony Benn's Cupboard
By David Wax IN 1966 the UN voted to end South Africa's mandate to govern Namibia. Member states were recognise South' Africa's presence as illegal and 'refrain from any acts and in particular any dealings government of South Africa implying recognition of, or the legality of, or lending support or assistance to, such presence and administration.
wealth were prohibited International Court.
The British-based multinational, Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) defied the UN. Tony Benn; Minister of Technology in 1969; secretly authorised RTZ to supply half nf uranium imports from This, the largest single investment in Namibia, aids the illegal and brutal occupation of the country. Open government?
Benn did not disclose the details of this. controversial deal, Cabinet thought that only one, rather than two, contracts were involved.
In 1970 "Overseas Policy and Committee' (note the mix) met to reconsider the deal. Its results were not disclosed. A 'secret inquiry' was conducted by Barbara discover how the Technology had 'authorised contact.
No reasons were continuing the contract, indeed it was specifically decided to keep it under wraps during the 1970 Election:
In 1976, when Benn was Secretary of State for Energy, he refused to disclose details regarding the supply routes and payments on the contracts. After all it would have been a breach of the National Security Acts of the apartheid state and the British Official Secrets Act! Labour Party democracy?
The contract finally public under the Tories! A campaign was mounted in the Labour Party for termination of the contract and the 1973 Labour Party promised to end the contract. surprise, surprise, it was not included in Wilson's election manifesto.
After a few inquiries, the issue was relegated to the party branches. 1976 the Labour Party characterised the contract "shameful", "illegal' and called for its termination. The Labour conference cnqorsca (ne call. The Cabinet refused to give way,
despite RTZ having broken price and deadline agreements.
Even if Benn was 'outvoted', certainly did not make public chain of secrecy, the manipulation, the subsidy to
African regime, sponsorship of the RTZ monopoly, and so on. He certainly did not consider the flouting of international law and LP conference decisions as a sufficient reason to resign. Socialism?
The national liberation movement in Namibia is led by the South-West African People's (SWAPO). It has been engaged in a bloody and escalating armed struggle
BATTLE OF IDEAS
with the
Any
by the
Britain's Namibia.
Even the
Labour Cabinet's
Business
Castle to Minister of
the
given for
Géneral
use,
Swakopmund ATLANTIC OCEAN became
Manifesto
But
In
executive
6 só 100
The the for national independence. service the martial law. the Tony responsible,
regime.
could never have
British Nuclear
Organisation vital natural resources.
Profits will be nearly f65m a year.
THE LABOUR Left is today without a foreign policy. Instead of even attemr ting to develop an internationalist strategy, the left in the last Labour Cabinet defended the Foreign Office and the interests of British capitalism.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in Namibia. And no Minister was more involved than Tony Benn. The inside story
LOCATION OF ROSSING
MINE IN NAMIBIA ANGOLA Rossing Mine Walvis Bay 200MLs
80 per include cent of the population is under white
Benn has been primarily behalf of successive Labour governments, for providing £150m of public money to lowest assist RTZ and the South African
Without the two contracts RTZ
raised sufficient Greene, finance to develop the Rossing mine.
Fuels, which later
took over the contract, paid £159m, which will go towards mining costs to help remove one of arid Namibia's now
for foreign shareholders These
(CANUC). It shows how government', 'socialism'.
NAMIBIA
Windhoek Lord Carrington. monies will be paid in taxes and duties - a high proportion of which is spent by the South Africans on maintaining its 70,000 strong occupation army
The 2,000 black workers are the
paid mine country. Is this what is meant by 'socialism', planning agreements' and 'worker directors' (Lord Sidne
La former TUC bigwig who sits on the RTZ board!)
What would the workers Rossing make of this 'socialism'? Those who used to work in Rossing's
derelict 'Wedgewood Shaft' issued a statement recently.-It
'As the illegal exploitation of our
of Britain's secret contract for Namibian uranium is told in 'The Rossing released this week by the Campaign Against the Namibian Uranium Contracts
makes sorry reading.
Benn disregarded 'open "party BOTSWANA SOUTH AFRICA
Other mineral resources continues recommendations, lifting Windhoek to Britain is unseen, while SWAPO of Namibia is waging an armed struggle and at the same time mobilising the Namibian wasses... ner enors are twared Di your share in this illegal operation.
Consequently you are enriching racist South Africa... while at continue to exploit Rossiag uranian mine, black wOrkeTS exploited...
Benn •Working in the hot san,
to the ever-present cyclonic wind...
File, Swakopmund...
It
democracy' and hospital,
privacy and discuss
Our fire
the Labour's
course,
Minister,
ZAMBIA
decisions. separate
"unlawful', facto". 70,000
obscenities
Callaghan agreed to the of handing
out plunder...
Product
the Cumbria
with
Benn's British Labour Namibia,
After
from Namibia defiance of- UN
your large scale Namibian uranium from
not going South
country.
the British again beavily
"The in the dust prodaced by the 1
Socialist Challenge
our bodies are covered in dust and one can hardly recognise us... the nearest clinic is 130 km. to and from
and... is very complicated to be consented to absent from work for medical purposes.
'We are accommodated eight to ten people in one cell... there is no transport to the clinic... there is no
bathing... or any recreational facilities. There is no
we are not allowed to interest... we the workers of Namibis lodge our appeal to you to cease your lifting of uranium to Britain.'
We have concentrated our fire on Tony Benn for one major reason. He
most important leader of left-wing The chief architect of Labour's policy was, of
James Callaghan, first Foreign Secretary and later as Prim
Callaghan and the French decided to reject International Court ruling and the Security Council resolution.
Callaghan explained in 1974 why Britain did not abide by the UN
He brushed aside six judgements by the International Court on Namibia and countless UN resolutions.
The leader of the British Labour Party explained that while the South African occupation of Namibia was
it was nonetheless "de Compare the acceptance of South African troops Namibia to the hypocritical howls of outrage on Afghanistan. Callaghan's
encountered opposition from the Labour left.
After a trip to Lusaka in 1974 where he met some SWAPO officials.
claimed that ther had contracts. SWAPO issued a series of virulent denials. But Labour ministers continued to these lies to justify their illicit trade.
In 1919, a Russian revolutionary leader, V I Lenin, stated:
When they (the imperialists) talk
mandates for th administration of the colonies, know very well that it means handing
mandates for spoilation and
Since 1945 over 35 per cent of Namibia's Gross Domestic Product has seen sent abroad British government publication lists Namibia as having the highest rate of profit.
In 1977, Tony Benn threatened
striking Windscale workers with the use of British troops. Their leaders were threatened
prosecution under the rarely. used 1875 Conspiracy Act.
Tanure to disentangle from racism condemned the workers and peasants of Namibia to the iron heel of the soldiers of apartheid.
Mugabe's victory in Zimbabwe, the attention of the West is already shifting to Namibia. The British left needs to focus on Namibia assure a victory for So. an at ensure a victory for SWAPO.
complete the encirclement of
Africa and provide another boost to the black masses of that
For a start Benn should publicly explain his role in Namibia and his supporters should tell us what the will do if Labour is elected to offia
North Gower Street, London NWI. Enclose 60p including postage.
13 March 1980 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
BATTLE OF IDEAS
Labour candidate Maurice Edelman described the 1945 election campaign
'The campaign itself - don't think
hands outstretched to shake our hands, to
gates there were great crowds of workers who came to hear the Labour candidates.
One of the striking things was that the
the four corners and the workers would throw their pennies into the sheets
copper coins and very often silver coins, which in those days represented a consid-
I have fought seven elections, but I have never known anything comparable
campaigned in more recent elections, but his
Lavoul
conviction; sometimes jou know we Labour candidates, we thought we were being loved by
The reason for the enthusiasm was simple. The British working class had just fought and endured a world war, supposedly waged for democracy and freedom; it had in the pre-war
Labour candidate,
Denis Healey,
1945
*The crucial aspect of our foreign policy
should be to protect, assist, encourage
and aid in every
revolution wherever
classes every
selfish, depraved,
decadent. The upper classes look to the
British Army and British people to
protect them against the just wrath of
the people.
not happen.'
y calls suffered depression deprivation; it was determined that henceforth things would be different. The Labour Party election slogan, "And now expressed the common feeling exactly. did Labour's landslide victory.
Statesman first time the popular vote demands socialism'.
Yet, four years Smith was to complain: drive or vision of the end we want to achieve, or how to reach it.'
Roy Jenkins, speaking on the inequality in 1950, despaired: 'We have hardly yet scratched the problem.' From the other side, the right wing Daily Express commented
the major act
Socialist Ch
When left Labour MP Frank Allaun opened last year's Labour Party conference he referred to the Labour administration of 1945-51 as the 'greatest government we have ever had'.
That may be true, but it is only because there is little of socialist value with which to compare that government.
And yet in the last year many left Labour leaders — Tony Benn, Eric Heffer among them — have cited the 1945-51 Government as the example to be followed by the Labour Party in the future.
But what does that example represent? What was the real record of Labour in these years? GEOFF BELL examines its history.
Government, excessively
Outside the factory WILU occaine,
however, that it appears. The country are dissolute and
We must see that this does
treeze was and social
— win the peace'
So too As the New put it on 4 August 1945: For the
Main: We naveno socialist Labour MP Ellis member
A vounger. more radical production. problemaiof
of the 1945-51- cent.
Wage 8
Government: "Mr Gaitskell introduces a Tory
According to the mythology that has since
Up 1945-51 such judgements harsh. Certainly, notable achievements. There was the nationalisation of the Bank of England, of coal, gas, electricity, railways, part of inland transport, cable, wireless, and, half-heartedly in the later
Women - back to the family
The return to 'full unemployment' after
the Second World War was achieved at a
the return of women to their
housekeeper.
industry fell by 670,000
That only 93,000 women were registered
suggests that in just over a year half a
million women were driven back to the
stages of the government's life, of the iron and
National Health Service
housing, education and welfare the 1945-51 Labour administration achieved more than any other British government, before or since.
But none of this represented a basic change distribution in British society. By 1951, 80рег cent of British industry remained in private hands; in 1947, the year which, in many ways, was the high point of the Government's efforts, one per cent of the adult population of England and Wales owned 50 per cent of total
La mere five per cent decrease from The longer Labour governed the more especially in comparison with wage
increased by 22 per cent, wages by 25 per cent, salaries by 27 per cent. Between 1949 and 1950,
profits increased much faster than wages; before tax they rose by ten per cent, compared with six per cent for wages. tax they rose by 16 per cent, compared with 6
How was this profits boom achieved, and why, for example, was there a decline in real wages from 1947 to 1951? One reason is all too
Stafford Cripps, explained "e puration we canner afford to deserte personal income until we get more production and until we pay our own way without gifts and loans from abroad . It is most unfair for those workers who think they can bring some demand increases which can only be met at the unfair, but if such demands were generally indulged in, it would wreck all hope of our
imposing a wage freeze in March 1948; the
'voluntary' but it was effectively policed by the TUC.
Obsession
The drive for productivity became
with the Government Herbert Morrison could tell Labour Party conference of 1947: 'In Britain today the battle for socialism is the battle for
But the figures suggest that if this was the battle, then it was already largely won. 1946 to 1948, production increased by 23 per cent, and the following year by a further 8 per
But for the working class rewards were
Labour
appear there were
After Ireland
For
cease to
Опе
guarantee. record Governments
an Cabinet and to democracy
the ideals.
unity of senior Government
From
not forthcoming. On the contrary. The 1949 budget, with its reduction in food subsidies, 'tended', as Labour Research commented, to
In 1949, the Government strengthened
the 1921 Government of Ireland Act
guaranteeing the partition of Ireland.
first time, British
Government declared that 'in no event
will Northern Ireland or any part thereof
part of His Majesty's
Dominions without the consent of the
Parliament of Northern Ireland'.
Labour minister, the present
Lord Longford, protested against the
He told the cabinet: •The of the Northern irish since Northern Ireland
was established in 1920 has revealed an
attitude to freedom of speech, a fair
delimitation of constituency boundaries
generally which
quite out of keeping with our Labour
Mongford argued for the political Ireland, but he was told by members that the
North of Ireland's 'continued adhesion
to the United Kingdom' was necessary
for 'defence purposes'.
194
THE MYTHOF L
"An avowedly socialist government, with a clear parliamentary majority might well have been expe
- Door
October 1949,
on the NHS.
the Welfare State.
defence ment's later years.
In December
'shows how
community circumstances. blessings
defences.
reverse any redistribution from the rich to th
Then came - and again the territory familiar — the cuts in public expenditure.
£35m was sliced trou th housing budget, f11.Sm from the educatio! budget and charges worth £10m were slappe
The Times editorialised wit pleasure: 'Mr Attlee and his colleagues have a last set out on the right road.' The Financi Times commented: "Truly there has been th first tentative recession from the excesses o
Why were the cuts necessary; why was th wage freeze necessary; where was the mone saved going to be spent? There is no simpl answer, but one major reason was the increas
expenditure during the govern
1950, the then Chancello Hugh Gaitskell drew this conclusion as to th effects of stepping-up defence spending fron £790 to £1,100m: the increase, said Gaitskell
completely unrealistic th continual pressure and demand for highe standards of living — from all sections of th
must be in the presen instead of counting we must count our weatons must turn from dealing with the dollar gap t dealing with the all too evident gap in Europe
Increased defence spending was just on reflection of a foreign policy which, perhap
Page 9 scan of this page
5-1951 BOUR'S GOLDEN YEARS
go several steps further. more than any other single influence, was at the root of the failures of 1945-51. The putting down of the Communist revolution in Greece, the waging of a savage colonial war in Malaya, and the supplying of British troops for Korea,
Nigeria - 21
miners shot dead
Although the Government accepted the
inevitable and granted India indepen-
dence, elsewhere the
imperialist rule was the order of the day.
In the colony
instance, the forces of 'law and order'
shot dead striking
November 1949.
A Goverment report later admitted,
'the only weapons
miners
carry 10г walking
ground.
Labour's colonial secretary, James
Griffiths, reacted to the deaths by saying
al the Nigerian chief of police was to
• permanent leave in Britain.
art just three examples of how the Labour Government became a partner with the United States in policing the
Atlantic same old American Nigeria,
miners in
possessed by the which they always for
the sloping
willing, if junior,
world for imperialism.
In 1952, when recalling his 'iron curtain' speech of 1946, Winston Churchull observed:
The policy which I outlined at Fulton five years ago (sic) was effectively adopted by th United States and the Socialist Party. years later, by the Brussels Pact and the North
Treaty, the whole substance purpose of what I had said was enforced and adopted by. the Socialist today we all respect the courage of the late Ernest Bevin in helping to bring these great changes about.
Part of these 'changes', and an integral part of Labour's alignment with
imperialism, was acceptance of Marshall Aid. This effectively allowed the US to control large sections of the British economy. Even before this, by their own free choice, the Labour Government was by and large content to follow the US lead in keeping post war Europe and elsewhere safe
capitalism. The then US Defence has recalled that Churchill told him in 1946: 'Bevin was able to talk more firmly and clearly to Russia than he (Churchill)
by virtue of being (in) a government.
Being 'more firm' applied not just to the Soviet Union but also to the British working class. Labour used parliament to control the workers in ways that the Tories would have found great difficulty in getting away with.
Troops were sent in to break strikes at the
station
Two
and government's Government and foresight and wise people controlling
years.
DON-Well Britain's
Secretary
could Labour
Docks in 1945, 1948 and 1949, to break a lorry drivers' strike in 1947, and a London powel
strike 1950. One records: 'By 1948 strike-breaking had become second nature to the Cabinet.
What the Labour Government of 1945-51 did was to keep Britain safe for capitalism. Perhaps there is no better example of the
opposition to, abhorrence of, the very concept of working People controllation poor deserter
THIS COLERY IS NOW MANAGED BY THE NATIONAL COAL BOARD ON BIA OF THE MORE
Prior's
The 1945-51
that Tory
In July
not relating
achieve
open conspiracy.
readers that:
government,
several steps further. professor of
leaders. 1946:
government/TUC
even communist dockers. TUC
unions,
trade union
historian
by all trade unionists.
indeed enterprises...
Yes, carried
prodactivity drives, and of strike breaking.
capitalism.
like enthusiasm
than the Tories,
Webb,
yet within miles of socialism.
First, there was the very limited nature of
that programme. So much so that when the predecessors Labour Government repealed the 1927 Tory law outlawin general strikes. "But, at the same time, i tried to stop the sort of political strikes Employment Secretary Jim Prior is trying to ban today. 1949 Labour's Attorney General declared: "A strike which is not confined to industrial objects, which is to some berline trade dispute but which is designed to subvert the Government and overthrow it to political results... would unquestionably be illegal and those who
proved to have participated in it would
to a charge of seditious A year later, the Government proved
as good as its word, when ten striking
gas workers were taken to court under a
piece of war-time legislation that had
limited the right to strike. The workers
were sentenced to prison, but an appeal
court reduced this to a fine.
Government's plans were first announced, the Economist of November 1945 reassured its
'An avowedly socialist with clear parliamentary majority might well have been expected to go
Second, there was the way in which the government implemented what nationalisation there was. The National Coal Board provides a good illustration. First established in 1947, it was chaired by Lord Hyndley, a managing director of a number of private firms. The rest of the board was made up of two high level civil servants, two trade union leaders, two former bosses of the private coal industry, one
physics and one hish-leve accountant from the City of London.
The idea of the workers actually controlling such industries was an anathema to the Labour
As Stafford Cripps said in October "There's not a very large number of workers in Britain capable of taking over large The witch-hunt
Playing its full part in the Cold War, the
Labour Government launched an anti-
communist witch-hunt at home. March
1948 saw the launching of a purge of
communists in the civil service.
backed up by offensive against
communists in the unions. The govern-
discussed deporting For. its part, the October 1948 urged the
executives of all affiliated unions to:
'Counteract every manifestation of influence within their and to open the eyes of all
workpeople to the dangerous subversive
activities which are being engineered in Keep one world der ted, police is ed
impoverished
and in constant dread of a third world
war must be condemned and repudiated
until there has been more experience by the workers of the managerial side of industry I think it would be almost impossible to have worker-controlled industry, even if it were on the whole desirable.
valuable, beneficial reforms Wen 1945-51 Labor controlled the working class în the interests or
The elections of 1950 and 1951 saw nothing
campaigning class entreased its total vote and had more vote
the Tories were returned to power by an electoral quirk. The legacy left to them was aptly summed up in 1947 by Maurice
Partiamentary Labour Party: "The plain truth is we are not
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Anti
Lea
SHOULD socialists work Labour Party, or stay outside it?
That question has been asked and argued about for years. Often it is discussed in terms of which is the lesser evil. Enter the Labour Party, bury yourself in it so become part of the problem? Or stay outside and remain isolated?
Not an attractive choice, but there is a third
An alternative instance, by the early Great Britain, who, under the guidance of the Third International, argued that a fight should be made to transform the Labour Party.
Their reasoning was simple.
Party bureaucrats and careerists who ran the party in WaS controlled •by the interests of capitalism. On the other hand, Labour was more a federation than a political party, and it was based on the trade unions,
TOSt posserful *TimE sa had In its possession.
maintain existence, but insist on the right of all working class organisations to affiliate and be part of
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980
Nazi
OP
Labour Party — in or out?
inside the
party, party apparatus.
that you too early days.
party chiefs. on the unions. adopted,
Communist Party of
waging.
The Labour own bunch of
organisations that
independent
Page 10
ER
STOP
TH
ANIT
the Labour Party. Encourage all sections of the workers' movement to try and control the
rather than being controlled by the
There have been many changes since those
The most important is that bans and proscriptions have been imposed by the
But the Labour Party is still based It still claims to represent all streams of working class opinion. the fight for affiliation remains a battle worth
This is not only a worthy principle in its
right. rank and organisations, single issue campaigns, and all working class political parties had the right to affiliate it would bring the experience of class struggle into the Labour Party.
As It 1s the reverse nappens: generamon after generation of honest socialists have been swallowed up in the daily grind of electoral life, unable to influence the direction of the party. Until this situation changes the tail will continue to wag the dog
above criticism. conference. today essentially
Those
and so on —
on the
Seventies
of the
revolutionary
irrelevance.
of the grouplet stage
would not
WUIKILY revolutionary politics.
That is why
union
OUR
CAUSE
the women's movement.
it had first elaborated at its 1978 conference.
Revolutionary unity:
an objective need
FIGHTING for revolutionary unity in Britain
means fighting between the Socialist Workers Party and the International Marxist Group.
who believe that revolutionary organisation can be built outside the existing groups — through socialist centres
• are living in a dream world.
Similarly those who imagine that because the SWP is the largest revolutionary group in this country that it can by-oass the others, becoming the sole revolutionary force simply
of its size, are likely to b disappointed in the Eighties as they were in the
A fusion between the forces of the SWP and the IMG would change the whole appearance
British left. 1t would provide automatic answer to the question of which
organisation to join groups would be forced to come into the fused organisation or else face a future of increasing
The numbers of the unified organisation would take the revolutionary left decisively out
— the size would be al least 4.500 but with the many new members that would join the united organisation its size would rapidly grow to at least 6,000.
A fusion between the SWP and the IMG
only represent an organisational advance for the revolutionary left in Britain, politically it would be a big step forward towards our strategic goal of building a revolutionary party — towards winning the
class away from reformism Labourism can not be wished away, but we can displace the CP
WHETHER or not the SWP and IMG unify our tasks are the same. Ultimately we have to challenge the Labour Party for the allegiance of the mass of the working class.
But, with or without fusion, we cannot do this yet. The Labour Party regularly wins 11m votes; it has 6m affiliated members and block memberships of the majority of trade unions. It is on a completely different level to any other working class political organisation in Britain
COMMON
Why we'llbe fighting for unity
with the Socialist Workers Party
REVOLUTIONARIES on the British left are clear in their criticism of the politics of the Labour Party, but revolutionaries themselves are not
'Which of the 57 varieties of revolutionary group do you want us to join?', is the jibe on the lips of social democrats, and a serious problem for many independent revolutionaries in the trade unions and around
At its last conference the International Marxist Group reaffirmed its position in favour of a fight for regroupment of all revolutionaries which
It also took a decisive step forward along this path by placing especial emphasis on the need for a regroupment between the Socialist Workers Party and the IMG. The following article is based on the document 'Why fighting for a joint revolutionary organisation with the SWP (UK) is a major task of the IMG' by Alan Jones, that was passed by the recent IMG
to outrank the
unions. enhanced with a fused organisation for unity
united reformism in the working class.
It channels
leftism
Socialist
an
Other
go back to the Labour Party Either way around,
As radicalise
enormous policies of past it
militants has
is still significantly
Unions.
late '60s,
This is not the case with the Communist Party. Revolutionaries have already been able
CP gains at its expense, both on the electoral level and in some
These possibilities would be greatly
The objective role of the CP, since it stopped being a revolutionary party , has been to bolster the hold of the Labour Party and
those militant workers who begin to break with social democracy back into the ambit of the Labour leaders. Moving to the CP for socialist answers they find it tailends the Labour lefts and endorses their approach.
Between lyly-s I was le CP's ultra-
- its refusal to contemplate united fronts with the Labour Party, its analysis that it
Worker
was 'social fascist' — that led many militants to
, ultra-left or tailending the reformists, the CP's role has had similar
the working class due to the crisis of capitalism or the policies of the Labour leaders - and move to the left away from the policies of the Labour Party, they find the Communist Party. The
the Communist Party generally succeed in doing nothing more effectively than reinforcing the hold of left reformism.
The politics of the Communist Party have acted as a powerful block to those workers breaking with Labourist politics. But today it is within the grasp of revolutionaries to displace the CP as the main force to the left of Labour.
The CP is already much weaker than in the
admits to a 20 per cent fall in membership and it is clear the real fall is much higher. The loss of a series of its working class
undermined its traditional strength in the trade unions. Although the CP
stronger than the revolutionaries in the unions it has begun to come under some pressure from the far-left as was revealed at the recent conference of the Liaison Committee for the Defence of Trade
It has been broad united front campaigns like the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign in the
more recently the Anti-Nazi League and the National Abortion Campaign
Page 11 scan of this page
that revolutionaries have put the CP under most pressure. Acting in a united fashion with the Labour lefts, the distinctive class politics of revolutionaries have outflanked the CP which fails to distinguish itself from the politics of LAD FIT
Revolutionaries have defeated the CP in elections — in most places where the CP stood against Socialist Unity in the last elections we
organisation involving the SWP and the IMG would have a smaller paper membership than the CP, in terms of active membership there would be little difference.
Of course such a united organisation would
compared to the CP, but the attractions of a single revolutionary organisation would tend to counteract this over time.
Such a united revolutionary organisation would have a range of activity and resources that would compare well to those of the CP,
that is a clear alternative pole for thosé workers moving leftwards from the Labour Party — the decisive step towards the longer term goal of breaking the hold of the Labour Party itself does. he within
Creating such a clear revolutionary pole is also the precondition for chailenging Labour's hold on the working class. Union between the forces of the SWP and the IMG is therefore not just an abstract idea but a real objective need on the road towards a mass revolutionary The obstacle to unity:
internal democracy
BUT of course there are major achieving a unity between the SWP and the IMG, particulary if that unity is to be lasting and strong. It would be extremely foolish to ignore them.
Two points need to be made at the outset. In fighting for a fusion with the SWP we would not dissolve the key political between us — a polemic on our positions on the
TO HIL movement and so on will be conducted before, during and after any fusion.
equal importance is the question or internal democracy — without a resolution of this problem no unification is possible.
The SWP does not have democratic internal regime. For example, at its
ConCeite minorities Jeffries and others won 30 and 40 per cent of the vote on some questions, bul lncy initially excluded from the leadership bodies that were elected. Only a rank-and-file revolt ensurco sennes a place the Committee.
This attitude to minorities is made even worse by the SWP's ban on the formation of t tendencies and factions on any questions of difference outside the few months of a pre-conference discussion period. within the revolutionary organisation cannot confine themselves to the routine of bi-annual
conferences. Discussion differences arise if they must.
Party continually developed
factions as part of a healthy internal political
Any attempt to forbid the elaboration of political differences is contrary to the positions of a working class Leninist organisation. The right of tendency and faction, not the tin-pot
committee, is the precondition for developing a stable and lasting revolutionary organisation This is even more true in bourgeois-democratic No organisation, even with a few hundred let alone thousands or tens of thousands of
pressures that are present within the working class. Anv attempt to create a nomorenous organisation will fail to produce politics arising from the real Lives of revolutionary workers
The fused organisation that we are fighting
debate and disagreement but capable of acting together in a firm and within the class struggle. Such an organisation depends upon an internally democratic regime. Internationalism & the International
IN a country like Britain, where imperialism has helped establish a deeply insular tradition
internationalism is more vital than ever.
Both the SWP and the IMG are committed, on paper, to the building of an international revolutionary organisation. The ruling class is thoroughly international in the way it operates obstacles to
of bourgeois leaders. tionally and has to respond to, equal and go beyond the international organisation of the differences working class organisation is, and always has
Over a period of 30 years, the SWP has not been able to make one serious step towards estabusning sucn a revolunionary micrnanonal
national'organisations and then link them up internalionally
by Steve
further apart, not bribuilding ser Fourt were
sections has not been an untroubled one, but National the balance sheet is clear. It is not only the
International that is stronger today than in the past, but its national sections have been aided by their connection to the FI, not hampered by it. The reason that whole national sections of
Differences Mexican and Swedish sections are examples
is because the weight of the International was used, together with existing strong organisat-
must be ongoing,
The Bolshevik tendencies debate with
this discussion. reasons which
However, affiliation to
alternatives are open, committed manner
success. that it is possible to first build
leaders and the like.
Line green light
proportions.
approach
false choice
include the reformist leaders?
skip
Attempts
leaders, 'Rank
strikes.
choose.
ANL
activity.
ions in other countries, to assemble forces.
We think that the SWP should draw out the conclusions of the last 30 years. In the
the SWP International Socialism before the lIth World Congress of the Fourth International, we suggested holding discussions on the issues which prevent the SWP from affiliating to the FI. We still want
We cannot comprehend the prevent the SWP from affiliating to the Fourth International. between
the IMG does not make the Fourth International precondition for fusion with the SWP: Other
such as becoming viduals to become members of the FI. ourselves. The United Front THERE are other differences between the SWP and the IMG — those on the character of the Soviet Union and the use of transitional
debated and discussed in the process of forging unity between the two organisations.
thinks is particularly important in fighting the Tories concerns the united front. Most of the distinctive features of the IMG's and SWP's
The theses on the importance of the united front were first adopted at the Third Congress
emphasised the need to bring together revolutionaries and reformists on the basis of a
This was the character of movements like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
Soldarity Campaign, and the high points of the struggle against the Industrial Relations Act. It was a key factor in their
Sometimes the SWP chooses the method of the united front, as it did with the Anti-Nazi Socialist Challenge
campaign lay in the thousands of 'rank and
file' activists who built and participated in it
locally. But the ANL was launched as a united
front of the SWP, Labour MPs, trade union
It was this combination at the top that gave for the united front of
thousands of local activists at the base which
swept the campaign forward to such dramatic
But the SWP does not always choose this On other occasions it follows a
totally: different tactic summed up by the
phrase the 'rank and file movement'
The 'rank and file' approach starts from a - do we base ourselves on the
activity of the rank and file or do we also
In the words of Trotsky, the author of the
Comintern's theses on the united front: 'If we
were able to simply unite the working masses
around our practical immediațe slogans and
reformist organisations. Whats party or trade union, that would of course be the very best thing in the world.' (Struggk Against Fascism in Germany)
The fact is, of course, that we cannot 'skip over' the Labour Party or the trade unions.
• tO unite rank and file workers around the demands of revolutionaries may attract small groups of militant workers, but will crucially fail to confront the reformist
who will go on misleading without being challenged. The mass of the working class will remain within the reformist fold
The SWP betweet two approaches. With the 'Defend Our Unions' initiative, it has a rank and filist conception of the campaign, but actually builds it as a united front. With the ANL, the tactic employed to launch and build the campaign was clearly that of the united front.
In the teachers' union, the contradictions of the SWP's approach become clear. Despite a right-wing bureaucracy and SWP member Dick North on the national executive, , their
and File Teacher" still fetishises school-based actions and unofficial
Sometimes the SWP can avoid making a practical choice between these two approaches, but on big matters it will always be forced to
The IMG stands for the approach of the
'Defend Our Unions' conference; application the approach of the united front to all fields of
This is particularly relevant building mass opposition to the Tory government. Scargill, Benn, Moss Evans and the rest can mobilise huge numbers against the Tories
we must lend our weight to forcing them to do this, not let them off the hook while revolutionaries try to go it alone. Naturally, inside the united front we never abandon ou political approach. The next steps towards unity THERE are no • short-cuts to a lasting unity
the SWP and the IMG. We are interested in the real step towards a mass, working class, _revolutionary party in Britain that would be represented by such a fusion. We are not after a cheap entry raid to win a few members, and wreck the SWP, or perhap
Such a move would not solve the problems of creating a revolutionary party in
There are no short-cuts to unity, but there are steps that can be taken to advance the possibility of an understanding between the
A public discussion of all the points that
It would
preclude unity; it would combat suspicion between our memberships; it might even allow members of both organisations, and other groups and individuals on the left, would be come clearer on the need for unity and what
It is vital that any debate and discussion is public — no points of significance can ever be primarily decided by small closed discussions.
Clearly any steps towards unity would have to be tested out by a period of joint work. This would demonstrate whether a principled basi
whether the two currents could productively combine to form one organisation in practice
are opposed to a now-or-nothing fusion. Even more are we opposed to a fusion where one side call the other 'centrist' rather than 'revolutionary", , as with the 1968 fusion between IS and Workers' Fight.'
Joint work would reassure both sides that internal democracy differences would be approached construct-
that debate, though firm, would be comradely and not at all a dialogue between the deaf.
The path to unity will take time and will not be easy. But if successful the end produc would be something of real importance for the
the working class movement in this country.
Let us echo the words of Lenin when he
any promises about setting aside differences we are working together for a common cause.
It is this common cause that we share with the SWP - the world proletarian revolution
which makes the IMG commit itself to forging unity between our two organisations The fight has only just begun, but we are confident the future is on the side of both our organisations. And it is along these lines thai we shall approach the SWP leadership to
Socialist Challenge 13 March 1980 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Why Ireland is still the acid test
International Women's Day, Belfast 1980
BATTLE OF IDEAS
TAKE a look at this trade union banner, It is rather exceptional in the history of the British working class. It takes the side of the struggle of the Irish people against British imperialism.
For there along with Lenin, A J Cook, Keir Hardie and George Harvey, a local miners' leader, is the face, on the top left hand corner, of James Connollý.
James Connolly was the greatest socialist the islands of Britain and Ireland have ever produced. and theoretician, he made contribution socialist because, as an agitator and activist, he was an • outstanding revolutionary.
Painted
Connolly's face was painted off this banner in 1947. By then he was over 30 years dead, having been shot by the British Army for his part in the Irish Rising of Easter 1916.
In many ways. stayed for so long, labour movement's attitude to Ireland is a dark, dreary and squalid business.
No more so than the last ten years when the Labour Party,. cheered on British imperial the internment camps, the H blocks, the police
the no-lur machine of the British Army.
it was icit to ollels loprotest, dmesty International, the Rights, Irish cardinals, even Us politicians. But not, or at least not in any substance, the Labour left.
When quizzed on this, most of the Labour left produce a variety of excuses. 'It's a difficult question', they say. women's 'H block'.
them. 9.20pm Friday THE boat leaves Liverpool docks. There are women from many student
from Manchester, and Birmingham Sussex Unlyersity, from Bradford, and Leeds. Gay women are prominent among them.
Many are quite young. Some are revolutionary feminists, socialist feminists. The delegation is broadly representative of the British women's movement.
Belfast 7am Saturday WE pile off the boat to be welcomed
demonstration Women's Day last year and a member of Peoples Democracy.
We are driven through Belfast.
The city is deserted apart from a couple of soldiers at a security check
barbed wire around them, windows are broken or boarded up; SOlIC buildings have wire around them. Many are demolished. There are few new buildings. This really is an occupied town. 12pm Saturday WE arrive at Sinn Fein headquarters in the Falls Road. There are boulders in front it it, apparently to stop cars stopping to throw bombs. taxis' drive up and down the street they are the only form of public transport in this area of the Loads of people pile in; a ride is only 20p.
Sinn Fein's headquarters are very busy. Women control, organising the stewarding. The men are playing a backseat role, belping by testing out loudspeakers. 1.30pm Saturday SIX coaches full of move off. We are told that if we are stopped we should give the army Sacialist Challenge 13 March 1980
But, Great, because, as Marxist writer an outstanding It is a thought. Great,
British guns.
it is remarkable his image for the history of the British
economic whether in government or out, democracy. policy in Ireland:
courts and the death
European Court of Human
Gardens,
'We may do more harm TWO hundred and fifty British feminists went to Belfast last weekend, on International Women's Day, to show their solidarity with the prisoners in Armagh jail - the
VALERIE COULTAS and PAULINE ROE were among
The stewards
Coventry Polytechnics, in protest.
London, some woleh are
others are brutal than the men. 2.30pm
Protestants are hanging around.
yards.
International many 'Peoples'
city.
much
people finally
women prisoners Page 12
than good by speaking out?, they argue. 'We can't support terrorists, they explain. the 'terrorists' of the Irish Republican Army did not exist when Wilson sent in the troops in 1969; in this context the Provisionals are no more than a justifiable reaction to British policy.
Silence What has their 'not speaking out' led to? A total of 2,000 dead. Words, it is said, can kill; but so can silence. "difficult question' starting point is other than the right of the Irish people to décide their own future, interterence from British
The simple fact is that as far as Ireland goes the Labour left has not only proved part of the British problem, it has been part of the British oppression of a people, who, taken as a whole, demand no more than self-determination. Reluctant That is why we can argue over the tactics for
strategies, Labour But until the Labour left take a socialist position on Ireland, we shall be most reluctant to say that they are comrades of ours.
*For further discussion on Labour Party policy on Ireland come to the Labour Committee on Ireland Conference at North Library, London N7 on Saturday 29 March.
Details: 5 Stamford Hill, London N76. Labour Party members only. politely
nothing but our names and addresses.
meeting has decided that if we are stopped for over half an hour we will sit down across the road
She
No-one disagrees with this, but
quite nervous. woman from Belfast points out that the women in the army are often more
WE arrive at Armagh jail. The RUC is waiting for us to arrive and a few
We leave the coachés and march for a few Male wardens from Long Kesh have now been brought into Armagh to beat
only if your
without Manor
When we reach the jail we spread out across the road and the RUC
for them. scuffles People were quite amazed by this but the KUC were behaving their best.
The chant goes up from Women Against Imperialism 'What do want? justicel What we Torture!' The Sinn Fein contingent also kept on shouting for political
Marie Maholland from Against Imperialism makes a speech.
calls political explaining how the women were beaten by screws from Kesh on 7 February this year due to their continued demands for political status. Now they are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day and are refused washing and toilet facilities. They are being refused adequate sanitary towels, are subjected freezing cold, and now they have no option but to begin a similar protest
ORYAM MINERS®
to the men in the H blocks , very throwing excrement on the walls back International
clearly had a special significance when women stood shoulder to shoulder with men in the struggle for national
we liberation in Ireland. get? authorities made
except to use women's sex against them.
Women from Women Sheffield, Manchester
expressed their solidarity They promised to return "1, 2, 3, Long door, 5, 6, 7, 8, Open up the Armagh
Gate.' Doors were banged inside the jail and a roar went up. learnt that the women to cells where they would not hear the protest. 'SS, RUC,
to popular chant.
shock for the Protestant gathering in distance must have singing of the marching'.
But it was Republicanism that had the last word in song.
The female stewards had some difficulty in restraining the Armagh youth, both male and female, from going and. taking population on singlehanded. 11.30pm Andersonstown THE community Andersonstown is packed. seen a play about Armagh Marie Maholland points out how great it 15 lo see so many women. but she wishes that she had seen us ten years before. She receives a massive roar of approval.
Sunday morning, murphy community centre THE room is packed with women only women. An place between a Protestant 'socialist feminist' and Imperialism'. The Protestant women is pointed out, their poverty should be understood. But it is pointed out that they do not have the continual harassment of the army to suffer as well as poverty. One woman explains how when Protestant support the Armagh picket they said:
BLENDER
Women's Day in Antrim
Feminism The prison distinctions
Dublin, from rating with it. and London Anne with their
4, Open up the H Block
British
Later we moved the concrete focus
SS, RUC' is another
4pm Sunday But the most amazing
been the 'Women's army member
campaign. the Protestant April Southern centre in We have on trial at all.
British
them!
BallyMarket Social
argument takes for coming
'Women Against
of them explains: plight
is time go.
were asked to
SOCIATON
'But they're terrorists".
Marie O'Brien, a Protestant living
and a member of PD, how the effects everything and everyone in Ireland.
has tackle the anti-imperialist issue if it is to build itself among the mass of women. Women can't avoid choosing the side of those fighting imperialism or those collabo-
Speed, from Dublin and PD, explained that: "This is the most heartening event for Irish feminists in the last ten years.' The solidarity that
feminists had shown with women in Armagh pointed a way forward for Irish feminists, both North and South to unite around a
- Armagh - and to unite anti-imperialism with feminism.
WHEN it came to concrete proposals there were tons. Pauline Roc, an IMG
on the NUS executive, explained that, despite censorship by the NUS leaders of her mailings to women students, she was still going to make this a priority and fight for official support and resources to the
A tribunal is to take place on 9
with prominent British and women acting judges. The Armagh 11 have decided to boycott the court that day as they do not see that they should have to be
A delegation is planned to visit Armagh Prison and investigate the conditions — if the North of Ireland authorities dare to let women
AS we leave the Republican pub to catch the boat men two men thank us
and ask us • LU 'You've had an amazing impact', one
5pm Monday Euston station ALL we can think is that we are lucky not to have to live in Belfast. It really
— Britain's last colony must
Women Against Imperialism, c/o 52 Broadway, Belfast 12. Pauline Roe can be contacted at NUS in London.
Page 13 scan of this page
HOMENEWS
MANCHESTER
LABOUR FIGHTS
CUTS - AND
IMPLEMENTS
THEM
By Dick Withecombe, Ardwick large turn out.
But at the same time the Labour controlled local council is set to make £12. 5m worth of cuts of its own -
and raise rates by 29 per cent.
LICH Ludl Manchester Labour Party 1s in a state of turmoil.
Labour councillors were informed by valuals the city treasurer that a rate rise of 49 per cent would be necaed to maintain current services. The Labour Group leadership then ceccee implement cuts of f13m in order bring the rate increase below 30 per
Since then revolutionaries
the Party militants in the rank and file
CHES campaign have been arguing for a policy of no cuts, no rent increase, 1o rate mercases. it has been stressed, could be financed by refusing LU DaY
lenders interest payments.
For the moment these arguments have been defeated in the City Labour Party
Unions Refuse to
Back Occupation
THE occupation to stop the closure of Stone Platts in Oldham continues. reports on the latest particular the fight for official recognition.
As the occupation of the Oldham rextile machinery
the occupation committee's y plans for extending the action
Failure of the Engineering Union to
111C second time the national executive meeung or the AUEW, the largest union in the plant, nas deferred. a decision, despite the fact that the Sheet Metal Union and the LICC start unions TASS, APEX and ASTMS have all made occupation
lAe
Delegation
A delegation of StonePlatt workers to the AUEW nene a waters cor than the foyer and a chat with a personal secretary.
Harold coolason. person the strike committee explained:
"We're ready to move -this deferment cramps our stand, its stifling our ability to
underWill. particularly mines attempts to spread the dispute to other plants in the one call Accrington, Bolton and Crawley.
the TUC demonstration Terry Duffy, General Secretary of the AUEW told Socialist Challenge that it was up to te executive member official. Bat Gerry Russell make weed memberone executive - claims it is up to
national executive,
Backing
Russell has promised to fight for official backing, but far more was expected from
leadership the
Manchester Constituency Labour Party. A DAY of protest in Manchester against central government cuts is planned for 29 March. The Campaign for Manchester, a Labour Party inspired cuts campaign, has organised a demonstration which is likely to attract a
where, for mas ance supporters of the left wing Independent Labour Publications have described
'utopian' • and a little illegal. But a motion was
Passey at the
Chernary that called for no cuts in services in 'real terms'.
'savings' being proposed by the council include the of hoing job vacancies, cut on jobs, delays
arecI WOrK maintenance, of f5.7m from education - and £3m from housing.
The proposed chopping of
Said centres and the city's
reversed after protests from the women's and
With the planning of such cuts, what really does seem
Tor a Labour Party which while condemning Tory cuts goes all out to implement its own.
SUE DEARDEN developments, and in
Engineering Union in the Manchester district, particu-
wave closures in the area.
MP, Michael Meacher, has offered his support, and at a mass
promisca Taist hell in the House'.
The strikers want him to find out what happened to the £2.4m from the government given to Stone-Platt under the
scheme. They want to see the full accounts of the company.
COUC MOre than raise hell in the House'
how about raising "hell' in
LOULing factories, and mobilising real support for the occupa-
Despite the shortcomings of the AUEW leadership, the workers remain resolute. Ted brennan. representative, told Socialist Challenge:
Closure
"We're after the closure notice made in February and withdrawal of the inamedate recleane, notices to 117 workers plant will remain closed till we gel Inal
the weeks the entire workforce needs to be ortanise• around chule lo solidarity action from the other Stone-Platt plants and
lactalle in the area. Ana inis necas lo De
basis coordinated demands any job loss, for the 35 hour week without lostof pay, and
of the labour movement. Donations and messages of support Eddie Holland. Stone-Platt Dispute Fund, c/o 70 Lord Street, Oldham.
THE fiftieth Women's TUC takes place in weekend and 250 information centre have been mostly women, will discuss the issues that concern women trade unionists.
Although decisions taken at this conference are not binding on the General Council of the TUC, a 1978 resolution calling on the TUC to organise a demonstration against restrictive abortion laws led to the highly successful demonstration on 28 October last year.
Holman, OliC delegates fróm the National Union of Journalists, spoke Challenge about this conterence.
"The attacks on women's rights by the present government will be an important issue. Many facilities that women have won over the last decade are being taken
the Employment proposed by the Tories, law it will be much more difficult for
return to women to pregnancy. Bering the sack simply for being They could
pregnant if they have working in that job for a short while.
*They intend to previous six months regulations that TENLIICES dismissal, including on grounds of
Women particularly affected by this change as domestic responsibilities they are not as likely to have such long service records as men.
LICW technology. The workshops on the technology,
its economic technology.
sympathisers
Alan on 01-359 8288.
150th WOMEN'S TUC
Brichton nex Women in delegates, ACTION anti-Corrie Is thls loser
of two =
Socialist year's
of the from Sisterwrite Bookshop,
25p.
Bill, becomes
work after end the grounds of
only been the conference,
double the born in this country. service Protective unfair 'protects' women certain jobs, would debate. Many trade
mean which Opportunity proposed. laws, NEW TECHNOLOGY Day School The IMG is holding a day school on the new
agenda will include car industry, office telecommunications, and programming. Plenary sessions will cover the general implications of new technology,
implications, and nuclear
The school is open to all IMG members and
and will take place on Saturday March 15th. Further details from
affirmative
Against the Tories
forcing
employees,
from
WOMEN IN ACTION: A newspaper technology for women in the Unions. Orders
190 Kate Upper Street, London N1. Price
which encourage discrimination on before.
sex, colour, are also to be discussed at
particularly with regard to the proposed exclusion of husband and fiancés of women not
Given legislation, which from doing will also be a big unions are an opposed to the repeal of protective
Equal You Commission has St,
Kate does not think that the only
British Rail demand 'sale
of the century'
By P M Grant, ASLEF Paddington DON PULLEN, assistant general secretary of the rail told a 100 of his unior members on 23 February that British Rail was saying that
'sale the century" service would made finance a pay settlement.
Pullen was speaking at a Inas of ASLER's London District No 1 council.
He explained the British Inte '80s' plan
proposed a condi onanies
working conditions which wow do le laree scar redundancies. For instance all driver's assistants jobs • were 10 0.e ASLEF assistant general secretary went on to say thal Brinsn Kail was deing
reason for this is because the trade union leaders are out to protect men's orivleges at the expensevo women — though this clearly part
'If you take the example of
action in America, where women have been fighting to work in the mines with materials like lead because these are the higher paid areas, then I think there are some problems.
'The emphasis should be on
employers to improve conditions of work and pay for all
women having to enter those dangerous
jobsEveryone should be st. They
going down the mines should be fully automated. Money should be invested in using new
to cut out doing hazardous work entirely.'
Holman will be selling Women in Action at the conference a new newspaper • aiming to take feminist issues to the factory floor.
'A paper for working women in the unions has never been tackled
It's very important that women should have a paper that represents their views, where they can exchange experiences at the base of the trade union movement, and find out what the officials think.
the interest working women have shown in the campaign against John Corrie's anti-abortion Bill Women in Action should find
enthusiastic audience women in the labour movement.
can order copies from Sisterwrite Bookshop, 190 Upper
London NI if you're not going to the Women's TUC.
Pegged on in their attacks on railworkers by ine Tory government and that interion sondarily was esschlai if the attack was to be beaten off. Unfortunately it seems that the National Union oi Railwaymen have accepted arguments and prepared to talk productivit to get money on the table. meeting Tony West, driver from
both the wages and cuts struggle were political struggles. Any sellemen under 20 per cent, said West, cut LIVILE standards West most enthusiastic reception of the SCUL evening wnen ne sald Asker should have no truck with OMO operated trains.
DEMAN
Corrie
- it's
not over
yet!
JOHN Corrie's Bill may still wangle it's way
Parliament on Friday 14 March.
The Youth And Community Bill which pro-choice campaigners hoped would be debated instead has not got ou of committee in time.
Robert Tory MP for Croydon North east, has Private
Bill on child maintenance debated on Friday, but since he is a confirmed antiabortionist nels key u drop his Bill or hurry through so that Corrie can get more time. Vote
Given last Friday's vote
include the phrase 'substantial risk of injury to the woman's healtn i the grounds for abortior POTO-CHOIC valague. cannot afford complacent
The votes of male.MPs in Parliament cannot allowed to cause suffering
will turn to backstreet abortion. Pro-choice
should tun out this Friday to show once more their opposition to
the very last time that John Corrie's controversial Bill
allowed Parliament.
Sponsor
That the Tory Party reluctant to particular Bill, SECESU and has this
refused it government time shows that organised to fight are powerful force
Over the past tive vears the mass campaigning
the streets, in the Lactoric housing estates, has won the debate on whether
• the wollall choose whether or no have a child
Opinion
It is this long-term fight Ca that that has changed the National Abortion public opinion on the issu of abortion and has altered the attitude of trade unions and _Labour Party.
has even caused divisions in the ranks of the Tory Party itself over Corrie's Bill.
DUl the -Tory Party : would not be divided if the Bill simply sought to reduce the time limit to 24 weeks.
Not only ones. many people in the labour movement are vulnerable to the arguments of the ant abortionists on viability of the foetus.
rights will not recede • if Corrie's Bill fails on Friday. That's why building the National Abortion Campaign is crucial
Page 14 scan of this page
LETTERS 328/9 UPPER STREET LONDON N1
Afghanistan: our wishful thinking Steve Potter's article on Afghanistan (21 February) is both confused and
If the Soviet troops are not there
socialists choose between a Soviet-backed capitalist government and an
capitalist government in Afghanistan
But fortunately this is not the
Union it could have been countered
peasants in favour of the reforms to smash (!) the conservative alliance of
Now who are these workers and peasants who could be mobilized' third camp exists between the Soviet troops and the imperialist-backed
criticise, as he does, the Italian and Spanish CP for not calling for an
such camp exists?
the article, joined the trade unions during the first year after the PDPA came to power? There clearly is a third camp in Afghanistan and Potter's difficulties stem from the need to find some justification for supporting the military occupation, even if it contradicts his whole
The fact that the Soviet Army's fight against the rightist guerillas "temporarily coincides with the interests of the workers' is quite irrelevant. The Fourth International called for a withdrawal of Soviet troops from Eastern Europe after 1945 in spite of the fact that the Red Army actions against the capitalists and landlords temporarily coincided with the interests of the workers.
incompatible with independent revolutionary class politics. One or the other must go. Potter and the IMG resolve this by wishing the Afghan workers out of existence. But real life in Afghanistan will soon
thinking of Upper St.
USSR still an
'espisodic
relapse
I READ Vladimir Derer's letter
(Letters, 28 February) concerning
Trotsky's remarks on the nature of
the Soviet Union with some alarm.
His argument centres on
Trotsky's conception that the
bureaucratic social structure of the
Soriet Union was transitional.
Wadim argues: *The fact that
the iransitional regime has continued
ie exist despite the absence of
moiran re olutions in the ties
Or ameri • 40 rears Tates a
sarato a jong overdue task." To support this thesis Vladimir
quores Trotsky saying: "If it is
sotaoded that the present war
(Second World War) will not
prosoke rer olutions... then it would
scablish that in its fundamental
traits the present USSR was the
precursor of a new exploitative
regime.
This is a misquotation of Trotsky
by taking his words out of context.
True, Trotsky believed that the
Second World War, because it was
an imperialist war, would provoke a
Socidist Challenge *i3 March 1980
proletarian revolution in the
the overthrow of the Soviet
Trotsky argued that if this whether the bureaucracy was a class or a growth on the workers' state would automatically be solved. It
revolution the Soviet Union was
USSR was shown to be a precursor of new exploiting relations'
What rotsky in fact argued
it, and surrender it, as in the USSR, to a privileged bureaucracy, then we would be compelled to acknowledge that the reason for the bureaucratic relapse is rooted not in the backwardness of the country, and
but in the congenital incapacity of
retrospect-to establish that in its fundamental traits the present USSR
exploiting regime on an international
• Soviet Union is not dependent on this or that imperialist war, but on the nature of the world proletariat.
Thus Trotsky goes on to conclude that: 'If the world proletariat should actually prove incapable of fulfilling the mission placed upon it by the course of development, nothing else would remain excent onlv to recognise inal the socialist programme based on the internal contradictions of capitalist society ended as a utopia.' STEVEN ARCHER, Brighton Front page not the best DESPITE agreeing with your front page general strike demand, I found the way in which you said it somewhat lacking, shall we say.
If there is to be a general strike, can you please ask your 'designers' to get back on the job until the rest of the class is ready!
WHAT DO WE WANT?
A GOOD PAPER HOW DO WE GET IT?
NOT LIKE THIS.
UNA ONEILL, London NI
Poser
YOUR COVERAGE of Zimbabwe
last week was somewhat marred by
Richard Carver's 'Will ZANU make
room for capitalism?' It is not that
many of the questions that Richard
poses are incorrect.
It is simbly that to pose them the
day after Mugabe's victory is like
calling for a political revolution to
overthrow the Vietnamese in the
week after the fall of Saigon.
The objective impact of Page 14
Mugabe's victory in South Africa is already being felt. The mass meeting of blacks in Soweto to celebrate ZANU's triumph is only the first indication.
Socialist Challenge explained what Trotskyists would do if they were leading ZANU? Or is that a contradiction of itself, SAM HARTNELL, London.
Too rosy a view
and 4 May. We especially like her
Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, etc:
detailed tactical prescriptions) and a break with the sectarian traditions of some Trotskyist organisations is vital. The LPYS is the child of
LPYS slogans on the big TUC march last Sunday were disgusting. Socialists (young and old) should not chant: "Ditch the Bitch', 'Milk
SCEVENTS
speakers. Wed
I the trade union respo
061-236 4905 1
BRENT SC
11-12.30
these slogans.
But it would be far more use if
conference.
London.
Revolution conference planned for 3
a quick look at the latest issue of the paper Revolution tends to contradict
This is in sharp contrast to the men.
to reflect a real rather than a formal or organisational independence, then
children of the SWP, and so on. We
By the way we thought that the ENTRIES are 5p a word; semi-display £2 a column inch
Deadline: 5pm Friday before publication. All payment:
London branch TACOS Typing dupled 1o
WHAT'S LEFT
FON: 'The Prior propos * Vomity
XFORD SC supporters sell evety 10.30-12.30pm r mort
Tous come store Books, Salisbury
available from Fourth Ide
the Cow' and carry placards with
Here we have the sexist and male-chauvinist politics of. the parents and grandparents of the LPYS (The Militant group) revealed in all their hideousness
See you at the Revolution
PAM GROVES, FAY HODGE, Proud of my sex Although I agree with Valerie Coultas' conclusion in her critique or susan contar's views on Margaret Thatcher (6 March) -that Sontag's feminism is redundant without a class perspective - I feel that along the way she misses out on some interesting points.
When I was at school I would often respond to attempts to put down my sex with the fact that Indira Gandhi was a head of state so women were clearly as good as
I was proud when a woman won a Nobel prize for science, and so on.
Of course we do not endorse the politics of an Indira Gandhi or a Margaret Thatcher, but Susan Sontag did not suggest that we should in her article. She said it would be "pointless' to support the candidacies of women like these.
What Sontag did say is that such women are of 'interest' to feminists. With this I agree, and I think that Socialist Challenge does too. Why 'else has the paper carried articles on Margaret Thatcher as a woman or more than one occasion?
Where Sontag is completely
more info contact NDON: SC on sale 11-1 every Sat., Regent St
TEESSIDE: SC sales: at Newsfare shops in Clevelan
Centre and on Linsthorpe Road,! akstall, upstairs in Spencer Market, Stockt
hitechapel tube, Sunday 10.30-12.00 Brick L
NEn i Cal unry saturday, am to noon.
Body Plant, Dagenham
wrong is that she doesn't understand what power 1s - it can't bi "shared', 'seized', or 'acquired' or 'transferred' she says. But she does think that the quality of power can be changed or feminised. It would be a good idea to explain in more detail just what is wrong with this analysis.
JOANNA MOORE, London NI We need Le Monde YOUR PAPER seems to assume that a 'labour movement' daily would be a good thing.
But it would be utterly dull, unimaginative and right-wing. It would probably have its own 'Page 3'; it would be typically patronising to blacks, ignore gays and only back official strikes
Now it could be argued that the daily paper of the French Socialist Party, Le Matin, is none of these things. Furthermore it also produces special supplements on Trotsky, the Russian Revolution etc., which are a visual treat. But the argument wouldn't hold up because the political level of the French working class is somewhat more advanced.
In a British equivalent we would probably get a supplement to mark the centenary of the birth of Clement Attlee, who is fast becoming a cult figure on the left of
the Labour Party.
In reality what we need is a newspaper more like Le Monde in which serious analysis mingles with an in-depth cultural and literary coverage. The trade unions and the labour Party should tiance the establishment of a Trust to set up such a paper.
JONATHAN HITE
Luise South Lambein Estate, Meadow R
SPECIAL OFFER TO SOCIALIST
CHALLENGE READERS: 'Russia's
*Behind the Kabul Corps *Don't join the imperialist outer *Afghanistan: What we think
Trotskyist movement's
Russia's occupation of Eastern Europe
postage) from: WA (special offer), Pi
Box 135, London N1 ODD
THE OTHER BOOKSHOP ALEXANDRA KOLLONTAI by Cathy Porter Virago, £4.95 WHAT WORKING PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE DANGERS OF NUCLEAR POWER By Fred Halstead Pathfinder, 50p WORKERS' POWER, NOT NUCLEAR POWER by Mike Simons Socialists Unlimited, 50p 328 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 2XQ (tel. 01-226 0571)
Page 15 scan of this page
From the bullet to the ballot
EDITORIAL
FOR EIGHT whole years the Patriotic Front waged unremitting armed "gainst the settler Robert Mugabe's guerillas bearing the brunt of the fighting.
Despite the propaganda of the South African, Rhodesian, British media, the support for the freedom fighters continued increase. The black preferred to put their faith in the guns of the Patriotic Front rather than the promises of Muzorewa •ог British leaders. And events have proved them right.
It was the armed struggle which forced lan Smith : House. It was the eight-year which convinced imperialism that a black government was necessary disasters. But different things expected from the Lancaster House agreements by the yarious powers
The South Africans white supporters Front thought that sufficient money could buy votes for their favourite pawn, Bishop Muzorewa. ,
Thuggery
After all, they auxiliaries could be hired to engage in acts of intimidation then a combination of repression, patronage and money misht do the
all struggle leencos SSaleZANU with
for and multinationals.
to Frontline population Robert were not in the Bishop political
hinterland for fighters. lancaster wall Anglo-American • ZaCCLCI:
stave off bigger of large-scale
were intimidation. the
and their Rhodesia
seem.
revealed hundreds of reasoned, if his
and thuggery Bishop's. paid
trick. This view fitted in well with their overall conception of Africans.-
and the British understood that Muzorewa was a bad bet and staked their cards on Joshua Nkomo. The aim was that he could become the Kenyatta of the new Zimbabwe, and keep the country sate
imperialist investment and the
(tl Mugabe's main backers final West, but in the frontline states of Mozambique and tanzania. I nelr inniucnce was duc lo the fact that they had provided a vital
the ZANU guerilla
It was they who pressed Mugabe long not to boycott the Lancaster House
it was tnev wno were most concerned about the likelihood
election rigging and
event, everyone was surprised by the scale of the victory. Writers in our pages had visualised a different scenatio. They had thought that there would be a massacre of the guerillas in the assembly points. This was not as foolish as it might now
All the reports during the tense weeks which preceded the elections
provocations and acts of violence by the white Rhodesian security forces and the
hoodlums. Ten thousand members of ZANU were arrested during the campaign itself.
The Selous Scouts (a semi-fascist special militia) tried to assassinațe NugaDe. But ZANU won despite all the
harassment. This victory was triumph .for the black liberation struggle in Zimbabwe. The disbelief on the crestfallen face of white Rhodesia must have brought joy to the majority Zimbabwe.
The public jubilation delirious celebrations which we saw
television screens gave the lie to the imperialistorchestrated metla spearheaded by the BBC for the past eight years.
It was shown that the 'terrorists' had mass popular support. ZANU's victory was the final outcome of the
civil war. Zimbabwe defeated Rhodesia and, there was no such thing as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. Only the most dead-end left sectarians could fai to be moved by what had taken place in Zimbabwe. Victory
We have no hesitation in greeting the victory of Robert Mugabe as a giant first step forward for babwe. This is regardless of what may or may not follow the victory. What we are seeing is the birth of black power in Zimbabwe, and for a country which has been dominated for countless decades by a smali banc of white settlers this is no small achievement.
Regardless of any.
concessions (Walls as army chief, white settler ZANU aim is to achieve a completé decolonisation and state power. Who can deny them the urge to complete this process without visible precipitating a
lead to further loss of life and invite South African intervention! of black Cheer-leaders
and the However, it is not sufficient for
revolutionary Marxists to act simply as cheer-leaders. eno wiln nanora. iоеpепис.cс. campaign social and economic transformation
of Zimbabwe is vital for the process of liberation to be completed Land in particular question for 80% of the population Through the Land Apportionment
had Act and other
settlers have occupied for decades the best farming land in the country.
Sooner will demand
Zimbabwe will uprooters themselves are uprooted; that the handed back to those from whom it was stolen.
The ZANU combination of populism. It states that 'in as much as
Zim- the country belongs to the whole of
our People or to our People as a whole, the resources of our country such as land, the rivers, the minerals, the forests the beasts, the birds and even insects are ours together...' the divided. The rast tacțical peasants. As the ZANU DrONI
the cabinet) still
exercise total
confliet that could
conflict
British-based
Our fight cannot
The fraternal
and is a burning
levers of
devices, the white
take people that the becore clearer victory which they stole
despite the
programme is
bationatism and
the appressed treat it as mountains, of the ZANT fek.
Deople theazschves art
ajarit) from cray sid
admits: "Today, most agriculture is
European agriculture? And tomorrow? Clearly the majority will demand ifs economic rights, General Walls notwithstanding.
UPYC LIECHL capital another important arena of potentia!
The country's industry totally dominated by the settlers and
multinationals. To what extent will they determine th economic and foreign policies •of the new government? What are the options open to the new governn ne srale or socie e pose these questions
comradely
the struggle for socialism is a corsy
•tortuous process. Bur questions must be posed, orber Robert Mugabe will find that the
DOWCI WIl DO hands of ZANU
The direction in which ZANU
Zimbabwe into the with every month and year. But the impar
should be in ultra-careful firse ments of its leader
The victory of ZANU bas i ed the noose around the neck
Africa SWAPO freedom celebrating in the 1 ZANU victory, # Souts 407-
Pare 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Socialist Challenge WELSH VALLEYS FACE DISASTER MARCH FOR
by Relgocrest Led. for Socalist Challeage, 328/9 Upper St, London N1. Printed by East End (offset] Lid. PO Box 82, London E2
SOUTH WALES youth will be s marching for jobs in April this year. It will be the march through the Welsh mining valleys since the '30s. It will be calling upon the organise united action to stop closures nd redundancies.
Already the march has the support of the South Wales executive committee of the National Union of Miners. the Port Talbot joint committee and Alan Fisher, secretary of the National Union of Pablic Employees.
'No Return to the '30s' has a real meaning for young school-leavers towns Talbot, Newport and Pontypridd.
Last week's Economist very clearly explained how the ruline class sees the devastation of
as a result of closures redundancies:
*When region, includes most the nation, is hit at once by cyclical and structural economic disaster, there is nothing to do but hand out some cash and hope it stays alive.
The cash The moaning about amounts to just £48m - barely enough to cover the dole money for the 32,000 men and wolen
will signing on if the redundancies in steel, mines and rail go through.
But the youth marching from Port Talbot to the Wales TUC in Cardiff will be explaining that The Economist gets it wrong. There is an alternative perspective
Wales 'stays alive'.
This alternative is seen in the kind
THE TORIES
TENS - of thousands
demonstrated their h
siomists fox this Tory government as alicy
ched through the
London last Sunday.
pated by the TUC they waleed
demands:
Pay the steelworkers
No cats
Hands off the unions
No rednadancies
are bot
YOUTH
JOBS
first such
Wales TUC to
steel strike general
workers and like Port
of The
and
which also people of. a
Economist: is
the year. 60,000 already national,
Welsh youth. can make. sure
AFIVERTO FIGHT
of
streets of anti-Tory movement.
for your money
drive total
contributors other supporters?
Dover Fight the Tories.
By Redmond O Neill UNCONNER of united strike action which first emerged in Wales at the beginning of
This is not an end in itself, but is a decisive first step in forcing
joint action against redundancies and closures.
Trade union leaders speaking at
policies They are now being asked to recognise that this is the very reason why youth have a big fole to... play in the fight to defend jobs. the unions and the Labour Party to throw back the Tory offensive.
Socialist Challenge aims to build a revolutionary party within the mass
We make no apologies for asking
help build tha movement and that party. Our fund
this week is very disappointing. Thanks are due to our
bat where are
Help us in the next few weeks to reach our 22,500 target with a Fiver te
That also means throwing out all the latest 'compromise proposals for settlement of the steel dispute. The latest issue of Steel Workers' Banner,
ISTC CASES explains why. 'Practically all of the important principles demanded by the
Corporation have been conceded, it
explains, negotiating away many jobs'
United action in South Wales can defend jobs. But to be successtul it also means buildingla movement that can throw out those leaders of the ISTC who sell jobs to stop strikes.
Animated
The South Wales Youth March Against Unemployment small but important step in the right direction. Youth in the rest of the country should support this initiative as well as in South Wales.
Revolution youth, who played an important cole in march, will be arguing that the fight for jobs doesn't end with the march. In particular we will be campaigning for all the existing campaigns against unemployment, animated largely 'the. Young Communist League, 'Labour Party Young Socialists and the Socialist Workers Party, to unite in action to fight for jobs.
That means supporting the march to the Wales TUC and planning a united march on the British TUC in the summer. The theme of both must be the call for the organised union movement to launch united action to stop all closures and redundancies.
The cathe master stone role tee
vay nay can hap bra ho solation youth
secțions. threatened by job-cuts.
The march organisers appealing CLOT labour support and sponsorship of marchers. For details contact March Against Unemployment, 17 Chaddersley Terrace, Pleasant, Swarisea:
£5
Our thanks this week to:
Newham IMG Hackney IMG Tower Hamlets IMG Stamps (SC office)
E Mahood Anon
Total this week Cumplative total
clearly
mean
will be
launching the
by the trade
stopping
workers
are
HOVENCHI
South water
Mount Britain:
Abroad:
Name
Address £26,00 5.00 :10.00 2.50 10.00 1,35
£54.85 £2072.35-
HUGO BLANCO
IN LONDON
HUGO BLANCO Speaks at London rally FRIDAY 21 MARCH 7.30pm, Friends House, Euston Ra, NW1
Tickets (£1 and 50p wageless) in advance from
The Other Bookshop, 328 Upper St, London N1.
SUBSCRIBE NOW
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I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of
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