Socialist Challenge No. 165, 25 September 1980
The scan: sc-n165-sep-25-1980.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.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge THE NATO CONNECTION
Our organisation
entirely
the Service of
AS the battle over Cruise and Trident missiles hots up in the Labour Party, the letter we reproduce here sheds interesting light on how the right in the party is organising to fight against nuclear disarmament.
Signed by former Labour MP Alan Lee Williams (a leading figure in the pro-Common Market campaign in 1975) the letter reveals that the Labour and Trades Union Committee for Understanding' is supported by a
Labour Right:
i's • funded by Information NATO.
Transatlantic last
Socialist
wide range of right-wingers inside the party - and is entirely funded by NATO!
Among the vice-chairmen of the committee are MPs Rodgers, Roy Hattersley.
Owen, Roy Manson, Tom Bradley
James Wellbeloved.
Owen, it was revealed two weeks ago by the Sunday Times, was part of a secret committee under the
Labour government took the first steps towards order-
fy (AUEW), William Weighell
David
David
they which
Dear Mr • that wa fourt 1980 ing Trident missiles.
Among the trade union leaders represented on the committee are: Frank Chapple (EETPU), Terry Duf-
Bill Sirs (ISTC), Sidney (NUR), Hector (Blastfurnacemen), and Chalmers (Boilermakers). It is no surprise that this motley crew stand for the British bomb, Cruise missiles and NATO. When
speak up against the resolutions to the party conference on disarmament, we'll know who is
No.165
INSIDE:
Tony Benn Labour Conference Special
Supplement
Demonstrate Against the Missiles:
Blackpool, Sunday 28 September.
Assemble 10.45am, War Memorial
(nr. Butlins Hotell.
Both dune, 1980
reguesting Intormation about the Labour and rade:
Transatlantic Understanding has only just reache we are free to receive donations from individuals and
amount of money carmarked, bet at yet information
Yours faithfully, filen fe Wind Alan Lee will1ams Service.
denouncing 'subverting'
Smith John paying for it.
131 with other Labour Movement... truer word written!
- 25 September 1980 20p Interview with
che amou speaking - the NATO Information
Owen and Rodgers are fond of
'outsiders' who are the party. This letter attempting to subvert the party - and who is
As Alan Lee Williams himself says, 'we are in no way comparable
groups within the . Never was a
Page 2 scan of this page
Moss Evans and the Tories
By Paul Smith
MOSS Evans and the executive
of the Transport & General
Workers Union have
their backing to the 10 October
lobby at the Tory Party con-
ference. the same
Evans announced
campaign to fight
government to curb imports,
with the launch. or a: union
booklet, Import Controls Now.
While welcoming the sup-
port that Britain's largest union
is giving the events outside the
Tories conference, it is worth
having a closer look
motives and policies
leadership of Britain's largest
union.
TGWU executive members
such as Eddy McGarry
have lost their jobs are to lead
the protest.
McGarry worked in Triumph,
and Moss Evans is responsible in the era of cuts
- meets to plan its fight against the Tories.
supporters active in the group. AFTER 15 months of vicious Tory attacks on the working class,
of the Nalgo Group conference must be the unity of all active trade socialists to throw out Thatcher
• De NAILUU execuave shown itself unwilling to lead and fight. Predictably it chose to go to
as your s claim instead of fighting for the full
capitulating emplovers threats to reduce ser vie at pam was increase beyond the cash
Be the fact that the recent u comparadia
more than anvone destroying the against Leyland management.
McGarry's job, along with that of thousands of others in the car industry, time, exist if Evans had backed the TGWU strikes against the for the plan. Redundancy bedrock of the Tories" on the workers' movement; the collaboration of the leaders has proved an essential part of the Tories' offensive.
Evans calls on the government to adopt import quotas, the taritts and surcharges. of the ing that he helps wish to split a united workers' attack on unemployment.
Britain's import would be matched by those of who other capitalist countries, ing prices here. The call for Yet these controls breaks fighting unity of throughout the world, by pro-
Derek Robinson - stabbed in the back by Evans
Organising the Unions
Local government workers
Next weekend the NALGO Action Group — a rank and file group in the local government workers' union
We publish two contributions on the conference, from Dave Weiss of NAG, and from Barbara Leaver and Carolyn Sikorski, who are Socialist Challenge
• Needed: a national fightback
By Barbara Leaver and.Carolyn Sikorski
the his latest f200m cuts Dus Denarites for cash limits, Heseltine has clear that he intends to smash counels willen are resisting culong Joo: has or services. eased: councils such as Newham which pay nave liposed large rate increases and plan to make workers 'cost-effective'
Push
else for
fightback.
might still
Edwardes
is the
attack
union By dothose who
controls
posing to export rais- ment. And on the shonfloor import control arguments feed the off racism.
workers.".
management feels a surge of tionally co-ordinated position to the cuts by councils and the town hall unions.
30,000 jobs have been lost in loca government. that every job is fought for at a local level, it is essential that a national fightback unionists is launched. NAG should therefore make a last minute push for the picket of the Tory conIcience.
Charter
We should intervene around the regional TUC unemployment; build for the TUC and Labour on 29. November against unemploy-
demands on umemployment which will be presented to the Labour Covuillaulld on 1 November; and join in actio with all trade unionists, locally and Hallullally. are loss and redundancies.
'overspending' Decision
made
These cuts are being made while government . off on labour ESbillion on
proposed launching workers Aains Missies ic an ex services dile cellent public sector workers in the wider way to
Calloater akins build for the CND demonstration on 26 October
NAG membets need to build work is essential in NALGO. NAG Local Gavernment in Crisis should take up the TUC's decision
Home News
unemploy-
When Longbridge or Rover Demo
June chance
government.
full support.
Evans and
active op- Unity in
Labour
action
While it is important
By Dave Weiss, all tact NALGO Action
Group
enrecavey tacks.
The union, conterences its 75 years marginal role in class party demonstration
cuts charter vacancies
• Committee conference
alone.
fighting job aimed at resistance.
not the council spending LOWIi lall depots.
Trident missiles. The
of 'cut waste'
actively involve out daily
Roy
cruise. and to beaten.
proved.
pay comparability victory, the first-ever
back
offered. policy on jecting patriotism, and decides to ban foreign cars in the workers' carparks, the racists ask why not ban so-called foreign workers as well. Import controls mean
taking blame for the capitalist crisis.
Labour
At the demonstration outside the Tory Party conference, working class people will have
to •show their strength and defiance of the
Every militant needs to give this action their
ty.
We expect nothing and we want nothing from the Tories
: except for them to get out.
But to build such a movement we need to start by taking on
This friends. Their the
Liverp on.
Greenwich,
the first time Ten vears
members NO activist in NALGO can believe that our union is in any way ready
fight the Tory at- struggle
which for most of Much has played only a
no he ced into theres line waitre. Is NALGO
closures, frozen and redundancies will Tories head on mical figure i lost 000 - according to the latest of-
Many jobs next year in local government
Women have
The Tory laws on picketing are. are
neutralising any The Employment Ac pay. allows striking nursery workers to harmlesslounce theres ire workers, Like
life-lines, the LAC but with
Despite these attacks and the
propaganda churned Fleet Street hacks, Tories.
NALGO members are far from
the government this year has been what 1974 was 1s many NALGO members
collaboration, the miners. Our power has been
ment.
Here are a lew examples: the NALGO
which national action
policies are bankrupt, and their
leadership is spineless.
At the TUC there was little mention of the need for a fight-
prospect of a future Labour government together with a
live-year incomes policy — was all that trade unionists were
Elected
Tory
The 10 October demonstra-
tion is a good place to begin to
build support for a fighting
unemployment, such import . controls well!
taking the TUC motion on the 35-hour week as the basis for a fight now. We should argue for action on the 35-hour week without loss of pay, and full TUC support for any struggle against redundancy.
At the same time delegations should be elected to the
Co-orcinating Committee's trade union conference to take forward the battle for action against the right-wing leaders in the trade unions and Labour Party. Once again the need is shown for a united • organsalon or tne felt in tne unions and in the Labour ParBanner
The Liaison Committee for
Defence of Trade Unions
• Dy us in local government; residen tial workers winning in Camden and Brent; successful industrial ac-
members,
typists in Southwark, alle Hackney are all taking action for
ago such militanc was thought to be only the dreams
in the then newly- now.
day collection sheets for members
given out regularly as payslips.
of the action is sectonalised around regrading claims, yet it reflects the feeling among
members that with the gle. suodort mrom omer dace unionist they are prepared to confront the
factors explain this will crowin of membersnin
now become over half the NALGO membership and
primarily on the 'ghetto grades, doing boring work for low views
many public service they have learned the
with being loyal to their employers,
their strength a development snoo sewares is one result
All this is now threatened by the
We cannot kid ourselves tal a successiul struggle aralis
will be led by a union leadership that is hell bent on
• best awaiting the return of a Labour govern-
menders cannot at ford to wait. The struggle to defend our jobs and wages, to stop the
and the Right to Work campaign and Defend our Unions started the ball rolling for 10 October: The West Midlands automotive group, and a West Midland. regional shopstewards meeting (attended by 250), put Evans on the spot by voting to support the protest at the Tories' conference.
If a national organisation, uniting all those prepared to build mass action against this
government, existed the unions, Evans would face a far more difficult task. The 10 October demonstration about raising the banner for
united organisation as
NAG ANNUAL CONFERENCE 27 and 28 September
Reynolds Building,
University of Man-
chester Institute of
Science and Tech.
Seasiona on the cuts, pay
policy for
power, industrial Betion,
fighting sexism work
campaign, treland, cuts and
new technolosy and more
Dance on Saturdey night,
creche, pooled tara, accom-
modation provided.
from the London area should
Stuart Hoardman
01-886 2022 loves) for details
of the special train at cheap
Further from
Dave Waiss, 01-257 4433 ext
Tories driving women back into the home to slashed welfare system; to suppor oppressed groups -being scapegoats — all this needs action
To make a success of that sorganisation that tion we need an crosses the divides of workplac branches, services, and towns; tha in every office, school or depot is answering the Tory lies, that i carrying on practical action to sup port any group of workers in strug
We need an organisation that
act regardless of what leaders will do or approve whelming need is for unity in action of all those • regardless of othe
Committ defending and fighting for the basics: opposition to cuts in ser • vices, lo ware restral: , to anack: on our union organisation.
There are tens of thousands o NALGO members who do fight, but the lead for that fight will not come from our leaders. We have to organise it for ourselve the present time we cannot affor • divisions among ourselves.
That is why we appeal 1o al NALGO members who are com mitted to fighting the Tories an their policies to join us at the Na conference to discuss how we best mount that fight, and to take the decision made back in to among the rank and file,
Page 3 scan of this page
•Without Gaelic the men would be insane
Blocks at Long Kosh. members
doors.
day a robin redbreast landed in the prison yard.
ONCE a month I took a visit because I'm married, with two children. One of the reasons for the visits have contact with the outside world, so that people, through your own people, could hear what was going on in the H Blocks. •visit do we out you pure. opened your door. on a small cotton towel: it was well above your knees below your belly button, just enough to cover you. And you went up to the end of the wing to a big cell - it's coo knocked into one, and they call it Room 26. This is where mirror is sitting waiting, flash lamp, the metal detector, and this is where all the prison clothing is kept. Degrade
The first thing they do is. 'Towel off! Over the mirror!' And they say to you, 'Squat!' You refuse to squat. Maybe they give you the odd slapping, but they don't want to dõ too nuch when you're going out on a visit. But they always remind you, 'We'll get you when you come back . They always plant this in your mind, it's always a reality, it's a thing you
never forget about while you're on the blanket.
This search is being done to try and get you off the blanket. • It's being used as a weapon to humiliate you and degrade you. And • that's just what it does. You can never get used to it. You can get hardened to it, because you're there because you want to be there, because you're political and not a
After the search I get the prison clothing and put it on. It's usually big. boots are about tens, there's big flaps on your trousers and your coat's massive. We called them monkey suits - something you'd see a monkey wear. Blocked
Then the PO would come out, and he had your book with all your particulars. And he said straightaway to 'Name?? And you give hin your name. 'Number?' And I said, 'I haven't got a number.' So after that he'd maybe just hit you on the nose with book and says, 'Your number is 594, you'd better remember it when you come back.'
H Block prisoner's story
JOSEPH MAGUIRE spent a total of three and a half years or the blanket at Crumlin Road Prison in Belfast and in the H
Roleased on 25 January 1980, he has talked to three
of the Toops Out Moment about those long yoars of dogradation at the hands of Loyalist prison officers.
In this, the second instalment of Joseph Maguire's story, he describes the procedure of seeing a visitor, and how the prisoners in the H Blocks learned Gaelic from behind locked
In the final instalment next week Joseph Maguire relates how he learned 200 books without having read them and the
'When you arrive visit, you sit at one side of the main table and your wife, or whoever was to it might be, side. It's a table that's blocked, sheeted down the middle.
Hit At times I have been denied to have my children on knee, even touch my children, and or hold my wife's hand. At a visit one day I had no contact whatsoever with my wife. couldn't even and of the visit. The screw just
the imThe took it on himself, and I could do nothing about it. If I had objected, my visit would have you been stopped immediately.
When you're sitting on your visit, you're trying to concentrate on what your wife's telling . the yuu. things, she's maybe telling you You're asking news, and most of all you're concerned about your relationship with VOl wite
sits at the other
• 111
kiss ber at the
worried about her. She's worried about enough. the kids. You want to how they're doing, she's making out on her own, with the kids.
But I couldn't do this, couldn't concentrate, because I couldn't stop thinking about Room 26, You're Because I've been through it
International
before.
I just said, I can't pu ing back.' went in
odd times.
the food I was getting.
naturally You're worried about
know want to stand and. how
When they
my trousers were away
and the Circle.
off.
frightened just bone.
Vitabors
Batons
fected me.
Wing about the
after a visi on the visit. I'm think about go
One particular day I was coming back with my mate. He
front of •ine and counted, they hit him I think it was 52 times. And I was hit 40
When I got out of H Block.
I knew I had lost weight, with
But you've never seen a mirror, except the mirror on the floor, and you never ever get looking at yourself. Not that you'd ever and look the H
yourself in the circumstances that you go over that mirror.
gave my rally of the clothing, I couldn't believe it-
OUt And when I got home, I went up for a bath, and I stripped
I'll never forget it, it hates
Party.
prison work.
when saw myself naked in front of the mirror. I was just bones. I was eight stone two when I got on the scales that morning. I had lost about three stone.
My legs now at the minute, there's no thigh there at all. It's just as if they've died. I would be ashamed to pull my trouser leg up and let you see my leg, because it's just white and it's
When you're walking in the cell, you walk four paces, it's not really exercise. And you're just not getting any
your food,
It's hard for me to say to you that I think it's mentally af.
I think it's left a mental scar. I can't stop thin
You see now at this minuie.
and You
Charter 80
backs
prisoners'
those
demands
SUPPORT for the demands of
Block men and the ciples which inform the women prisoners Armagh weekend win see Be inNer che is Trotskyis weekend will see the founding which
Charter 80 campaign in London.
Tony Benn is among the role eight Labour MPs who have
Charter petition along with trade unionists and
McClennan, general secretary of the Communist
The petition calls for the British government to agree to place the prisoners' demands for
The right of prisoners to Red wear their own clothes. WC1.
* The right to refrain from Speakers
* The right to free associa- union tion aniong other prisoners.
it's twenty past eight, they're
only after saying the rosary the door, seand iss to
the door, stands al
door, and one man shouts it
out, in Gaelic. And the rest
answer. And even when they're
saying that, they're harassed
officers
come up and bang the doors
their batons, playing
drums with two batons. And
they've a suction machine that
sucks up the urine from the lan
dings, and they would bring
that in and turn it on, and just
leave it on.
I think that without Gactic the men would be insane. Thes talk in Gaelic, have debates in talk English too, but atic % Gaelic, sing in Gaelic. more widely spoken.
How you learn it is, there's men on the blanket now who served terms in the cages, and they learned their Gactic there. Now they're on the blanket, they just pass their Gacti They start a rang,
• The wing will into three rang. screws lock up.
Rosary and anything metal write
He stands and I would shout out the spellings of say 20 words, a couple of phrases, and you would write ihe spellings down. Then the pronunciation
what it means. And he would go over the pronuncia. tions with you, just like teacher. You go gradually just from the verb to be' right up, until you're at the stage for the gold fainne, when you can b
I became fluent in there. I'm taking part now in a class in Belfast where there are fluent Irish speakers, and when I went in they all understood me. They have books and blackboards: we had nothing. We never saw our teacher, we just heard him.
don't him, he's shouting it out the door.
own educational and recreational facilities and to receive one visit, one letter, and one parcel a week
*The right to full remission of sentence.
The campaign is open to al tomands irespecie of their who support position on other aspects of Britain's policy towards
These are the same prin
very successful National Smash
Trotskyist organisation People's Democracy *plays a leading
Britain's war in Ireland will be raised in the campaign and at a major demonstration on 15 November opposing Tory plans for a handover to the Loyalist reactionaries.
The Charter 80 rally takes
on Saturday Sed men are no Hall,
Lion Square, begins at include Kevin Connell, from the Trish trade
Bishop Winter of SWAPO. and Chri
Page 4 scan of this page
New Polish unions go national
By Martin Meteyard THE free trade unions in Poland have set up a na tiona structure. A• steerina committee was elected from an open conference in Gdansk last week, and congress is to be organised 0 0 d ve
The : 300 delegates representing 35 inter-factory committees and 150 single factory groups - were torn between two dangers.
On the one hand, are acutely aware that the regime will try to cut them off from their base in the factories. Strike leader Lech Walesa told the conference how he had been offered the top post in the official union organisation, and the fear of bureaucratisation Is present.
On the other hand, the
No excuse
for
holding
back on
solidarity
By Brian Grogan POLAND is off the front pages. Heer STreet got communist mileage it could out of the Polish workers" struggle
SHOVe On DastulCo But the need for solidarity remains crucial.
actions of the workers • been Ine arguments for socialism we have nau for a in ac. They are the perfect answer to those who point . 9. Eastern Europe 'socialism equals police dictator
We can point to the full and free debate,
will io backloul all negotiations broadcast, all deciratified (or eected by mhas show
rights, not less; a rising standard of living as the wealth of society is put
proper, olannice USC workers' control; greater rights for women.
Future
Any true socialist must sav in response to the Polish workers' struggle: this is my cause, this is my kind of future.
The programme first developed by in late 1930s response to the degeneration of the Russian worker: state cas sortna to life in Poland. Yet some on the
seem most concerned to distance ulcuserves from the move. ment.
Socialist Press, the paper of the Workers Socialist League, typical "But even while Polish workers cheer
leaders talk of their fight it is at precisely this point
Official harassment attacked
workers have to have a form
of national
which can counter
divide-and-rule
the authorities.
In Kielce, for instance, a
series of strikes have continued over the past week as 10COH party officials
tried to stop the formation of a free trade Lodz, according to the new twice-weekly bulletin of the Social Self-Defence
mittee (KOR), they police have been checking the papers of those who call in at the free trade union office.
Obstacles
The conference adopted CYBI a resolution accusing government of 'obstacles' to the promised
that the limitations of the
and its demands stand most starkiy exposea (ironi page
artice course it en.
course it What do they years of bureaucratic rule in which
class. stifled witn tic arzu party knows best'? But the really striking feature of the workers' up surge nas beer the way in which the Tan ame me tenersno das on the lessons of 1971 and 1976.
Their resolute stand has dealt a stunning blow to the bureaucracy. They have still to overcome their doubts about the possibility of projecting new type
proach means
and CISCUSS Convince about the programme for political
not denounce them.
Polish ror all their weaknesses, they are 'our' people: besi
Activity
Yes, we think that a political party committed to the overthrow of bureaucratic rule and deals, mas. democracy has to be forged. the last way to that abstract proclamation that this is Lee ory soon.
The fight for such a party can only come out of activity as c seizen or me cass struggle wing of the
bureaucracy. through effective solidarity work Can These crucial questions debated out with the rank and file leadership.
The deepest links have to be forged between the new indepen-
Gulen movemen trade unionists Direct contact is essential Clange rangements between car there and car plants here, collections to help the work of the new unions. ane so on
here, confident vanuare mas moand tee Was in organising the independent acion of the working class aganst the VY aiDaV alle cracies. And that's what it's all
organisation
the of
have
union. In
Comsecurity
implementation Gdansk agreement through-. the out Poland. Walesa told the creating
press afterwards have been too conciliatory'. In 1956 the workers coun'cis that were set un were rapidly the official structures. limitations.
been Wichit lal flic pollica.
want
Uncl
new
worker
But
is an
By M Soori
which WAVE
sweeping Sri Lanka. Hundreds movement of workers have been detained,
Only scores of trade union offices closed down, and a series of be anti-democratic laws invoked. This is the response of the United National Party government, headed Jayawardene, to a strike called Britain. by twelve major unions last
month. It comes as no surprise twine ar learn that
plants takes as his model the regimes
in South Korea, Singapore and
The confrontation began in March with the holding of a 4,000 strong ference organised by the Joint Trade Union Action Committee (formed in tacks on the unions). ference drew up demands government.
Thugs
A focus of the campaign around these demands was a national day June. But the government had not been idle. yet risk a frontal assault on the unions. Instead its thugs laid into a small group of pickets with knives, clubs and bombs.
One worker,
International
the day learnt. Says Walesa:
They that we erode we are not firm Discussion
coopted back into ing
ToJayawardene's of repression is
Railway government pected resistance. by
those victimised.
Jayawardene asked for a pay rise rupees
Wing index.
delegate con-
the government. to resist atThe cona ust of 24 put of their.
fightback.
was widespread,
or action on strike.
It could not as
took part in coalition that preceded UNP government) comrade
that lesson has been
are beginning to the accords becuse
weakens us.
This is why we are now say-
"No more", and we will be acting in consequence.
Sun 28 Sept
details Thur 2 Oct
detalls.
Fa 3 0c 7J0pm
Tories back Sri Lanka repression
Somapala, died in this attack:
was to victimise a number of
employees had taken part in the protest Among them were a group of workers from the Ratmalana
Workshop. But the met with unex-
On 8 July all the railworkers at Ratmalana went on strike for the immediate reinstatement of
They also of 300 and a erot histor point increase in the cost of liv-
This was a milestone in the struggle. Public sector workers have been a particular target of
Special laws have been passed limiting their right to strike, and the threat of mass sackings and confiscation
property been headed repeatedly used against them.
This was the first significant
COLLEC
Support for the railworkers
This led to calls for an immediate general
These were mainly advanced by unions led by the LSSP (an ex-Trotskyist party which
the bourgeois the government; and the NSSP (a left-wing breakaway
Round one
to the workers
Sonalist Challenge torums or
1005010942208925
returned from Poland) and Oliver
MacDenald (editor of Labour
HOUNSLOW With Oliver
MacDonald Phone 570 4700 for
EALING/SOUTHALL With
MacDonald Phone 531 $019 for
details
BRISTOL Wah Oliver
MacDonald, Phone Harciet on
LIVERPOOL With Steve
Griffihs. The Bluecoat
pool 1 (behind Linilewoods).
about
the of
J.R JAYAWARDENE from the LSSP which identifies with the Militant group in Britain). They were backed up by unions led by the Communist by Party and the SLFP (the party minister Mrs Bandaranaike). former prime strike.
However the Ceylon Mer-
Union, the Bank Workers Union, and the Estate Staff Union opposed an im- oI the mediate strike on the grounds that it would lead to a disaster unless it was properly prepared. Lanka
These divisions within the Union working class movement only strengthened the hand of the and
and the strike movement ended in defeat. As a result, international solidarity
Tues 7 Oct BRENT Phone Tessa on 359 8371 for details Weds 8 Oct HEMEL. With Oliver Mac Donald, Phone Mick on 41037 for details Thur 9 Oct BIRMINGHAM, With Olive Committee Room 1, Digbeth Civie Hall, 7pm.
Weds 15 Gct COVENTRY, With Stere
WOLVERHAMPTON (lown) Oliver Mac Donald Thur 16 Oct WOLVERHAMPTON Wih Richard Rozanski, Poly Students Union, Ipm. Organised by the
is urgently needed to roll back the repression.
The Tories, for all their talk
tree in Poland, are right behind the
regime in Sri Lanka. That's not surprising, because
aim of Jayawardene's repression is to provide cheap, docile workforce for imperialist capital. In recognition of this the Tories agreed last year to write off Sri Lanka's foreign debts.
Solidarity
International labour movement solidarity can help to weaken the worldwide network
imperialist repression which the Sri Lankan workers. are caught. Workers organisa tions are asked to support the following demands:
*Reinstatement of ~the" thousands of workers sacked-
the government TOI the crime of exercising their right to
*Release of all workers and union leaders who have been
- including Gunasena Mahanama (general secretary
Government Clerical Service Union), Alavi Maulana (genetal secretary of the Sri
Independent Trades Federation), and comrades Vasudeva Nanayakkara.
Wickremabahu (leading members of the NSSP).
*Repeal of all repressive, legislation.
Page 5 scan of this page
Challenge A fighting programme against the Tories
OUR 'NEW-STYLE' ISSUE comes out as the Labour Party holds its annual conference in blackDool. come will be vital to the future of the labour movement. This eightpage special suppicnichl given over to discussion of the policies and issues at stake:
• A torrent oi press les nas surrounded the tortill democracy. It is very simple. The Callaghan leadership pared the way for the Tories. It flouts the decisions of the party. It is accountable to no-one,
Boot
No capitalist firm tolerate a manager who flouted shareholders' decisions openly and blatantly. The only reason they create such a fuss about Callaghan is because he is their man and not ours.
But more is at stake. How can we bring about a movement that get rid of the Tories, impose socialist
on a future Labour government? Is it simply question of internal reform? Power
We think not. We fight for. new policies, and new methods of organising. This supplement has been opened, therefore, for a discussion of what policies, and what methods, the labour movement needs for discussion of the alternative to Callaghan.
Our goal is a government that will release all the enormous untapped resources of the economy, both human and
placing power in the hands of the working class. It must be a governBy Oliver MacDonald (editor Labour Focus on Eastern Europe) & Steve Griffiths (AUEW convenor Rover Solihull)
DEBATE at TUC dominated by the Polish events, and they will cast their sadow on the Labour Party conference. The TUC General councits cmoarrassing suence has allowed the right wing to ahed some crocodile tears.
But a glance at the Polish workers" demands shows that their struggle deserves jualified support, and that it has nothing in common with the practices of the Chapples and Duffys of this world.
unc Ham Issue is cne aemand for independent unions. But this has risen to the fore for
much more basic reason: the
issue: would
SO
out
ment which breaks the grip of the tiny minority parasites that run it in their private interest, replacing the profit motive by planned production for social use.
KICK
Outthe
orie
Solidarity with Polish workers
workers are denied any control UVCL their political economic institutions.
It is rank hypocrisy to support the demand for free trade unions and oppose democratic control of the British Labour Party!
The existing Polish unions serve only as a transmission belt was for the state and Communist
Party bureaucracy. tion of an alternative is neither anti-socialist nor 'trade union' demand. but is ultimately bound up with the need for a democratically planned society, where the great mass of people are excluded from the decisionHIt• making process.
The Polish workers clearly understand when in hey call for
circulation of all the facts on the socio-economic situation in Poland, and the granting to all social layers and currents of opinion of the possibility
Socialist
WORKER'S
CONTROL
We stand for planning and of rich workers' control; for an inter-
breaks with NATO EEC, supports liberation and up madness; for support for all the oppressed -gays and national minorities.
To achieve this goal, we say a fight must begin Labour Party and the unions should link up at rank and file level to fight the Tories -they doing missiles, as will happen at the national conference local authority cuts called by take part in a programme of and reform', the basic means to bring the political institutions of Polish
control: the right to be informed, and the right to formulate and campaigr plans and solutions.
A whole series of demands relating to the Ine crea- linked to other demands which
are clearly bound up with the
purely sources of the bureaucracy's
special privileges: for example the suppression of 'commercial' prices a situation capitalist demand!) and an end
to the special privileges of the police, security forces, management and party members.
The level of accountability they want is much greater than they call for that granted by many British
union leaders. Can anyone imagine Chapple or Duffy consenting to televised negotia tions with
They
the
work;
against racist
SPG and rescinding the and conspiracy PTA
unity already
defence cruise
opposing:
missile.
Streets
that and the
workers and
tary and to nuclear
blacks, women, taking the
streets.
now. The Cruise.
as
over Cruise
September as the against fightback took off. they are demanding
Wales; when
direct workers'
for alternative
économy are
(hardly proThatcher or
Lambeth council and unions, in the LCC conference against unemployment, and a growing number of other campaigns.
should develop fighting programme of action against the Tories immediate attacks: against Cruise missiles; for a 35-hour week and an over time ban at no loss of pay; for
and File Code of Practice against the Prior Bill; for immediate withdrawal from Ireland; for a woman's right to choose and a woman's right to
support national liberation movements and promote international solidarity;
laws and for black self-defence; against the strengthening of the repressive SPC sad rescinding the ste
laws and the
The basis for much of this
exists. Conference is debating 131 motions
overwhelmingly missiles Regardless of its outcome, let us follow the lead of Man chester Against Missiles and build up a huge campaign to stop the siting of a single Cruise
Let us combine parliamen-
extra-parliamentary action, forcing our MPs to take a stand as we did with Corrie,
issue OlILO the and organising trade union boycotting of all work on
On all the other issues facing conference, the germs of such a movement can be seen: in these pages we try to show it as it is born. Let's remember
month the
But just as important are the methods they used. How can leaders of our movement. champion a general strike by systematically Polish workers when they did everything in their power to the Tories? stymie the steps towards one in
they refused to INNG
Labour
Party
Supplement
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organise proper solidarity with the steel workers throughout their strike; and when they have
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Neither the hypocritical use made of the issue by the right
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wing, nor the bureaucratic way
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dispute with Chapple, should
blind us to the basic issue at
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and democratic planning, and
deserve our full support.
INAC
ISOLIDAR
POLISH
WORKER
ARITY
Page 6 scan of this page
'Why we're marching against the missiles'
ANYONE hoping that this year's Labour Party conference would slip by without a real debate on disarmament is in for a rude shock. If nothing else, the demonstration and Against Missiles in Blackper organised Manchester on the eve of conference will. make sure that everyone knows it's an issue.
We stalked to WITHECOMBE, a member of Oldham West Constituency Labour Party and a organiser of the Manchester campaign, about the lobby and what he hopes to see out of this year's conference.
How did the lobby come to be organised?
MANCHESTER Against Missiles was set up at an EP
so we can start the war".
Thompson meeting, attended by 800, all of whom voted for the setting up of the campaign with only four votes against. Since then the campaign has grown with more than 10 subgroups in the surrounding area:
We decided to lobby Labour Party conference in support of the vast number of resolutions missiles and for disarmament because we see winning Labour Party to a commitment to cancel Cruise as one of the crucial ways to defeat the Tory warmongers. The Party memo and trade
members unionists involved in the cam-
We approached CND, which has usually had a march on the Sunday at the beginning of the conference, and found they had no plans for this year, so the idea of a lobby rapidly turned into the reality organising a march.
We produced a sponsorship leaflet and were immediately surprised by the floodtide of response. Almost over the march had been taken up by
Labour Action for Peace,
Thompson, the secretary of the
North-west TUC and many
Labour Party and trade union
officials and many others.
Nhy do you think that the
disarmament
once more at the centre of
discussion in the labour
movemont We need to look at what's happening . internationally, moves by Carter to step up the US's ability lobby against
disruption of the regimes that they support, such as the Shah of Iran, Somoza in Nicaragua and so on. There are moves to create a war hysteria akin to the DICK "cold war" of the '50s.
Part and parcel of this is the Tones agreement to site 42 American Cruise missiles in this country and to on Trident. Thatcher's foreign policy is clearly about tying Briup economically politically with the gressive American policy.
There is a huge feeling of resentment in the working class "We're trying to get the computer to mal-function
against these moves towards a World War This is especially because of the experience of Suez, CND, Vietnam and our own Ireland. People realise that we have to build the strongest fight the against Thatcher's
mongering.
Cruise
was
trade
. of
night
What would you like to see coming ference?
Winning the party to a commitment to cancel Cruise, along with mass protest and trade union action, is one of the main ways to stop the missiles. We're already demonstrating breadth of support for this party supporters of the paign.
Winding süpport June
with
intervene
popular spend billions
and new ag.
foreign
on nuclear bases, dockers have refused to land the missiles. see Labour Party support for groups like Engineers Against the Missiles and for labour movement conterences of activists give the campaign a massive boost.
What would you like to see on the missiles in the next Labour Party manifesto?
We should draw from this year's TUC. Despite huge missiles the final motion that was passed - to call on the •genera council trade union movement and the publish: off the need to abolish nuclear weapons and cut arms spending — did not give a clear lead for trade unionists to take Three situation. action.
wing leader of
role in said:
'While creep in when motions were composited, there was no amwarbiguity about supporting world peace.' the the
ference. peace means missiles as a first step. So I'd like to see a coming out of the conference focusing on missiles. the Other issues there will be big members
cam- future such from NATO therefore be put in the form of amendments or separate moin the tions. as is particularly it-
The
Supplement
and some of resolutions -
We'd also like to
all of which would
some lessons
opposition to
to alert the As John Boya, the right-
the AUEW
ambiguity might
THE Cruise and
the Labour Party.
defence
tain's nuclear weapons dent missiles.
Trident,
whole
September.
initial We want no ambiguity at all
Party con- under the
Preserving world
stopping the governmen of Denis clear resolution Owen, and Fred Mulley. stopping the words,
•aVI which fights in the as withdrawal have Trident. • should
Rodgers,
it showd be ver
Led for thi
clear focus lest the large range.
from END and supporters of multilateralism, through those simply call- the issue.
Cold Warriors
campaign against Trident missiles has smoked out the new cold warriors in
Bill Rodgers, shadow ding'.
minister, the champion of Cruise, but
Terry claims to be opposed to the modernisation of Bri-
submarine Is an - the new Tri-
But his opposition to
and indeed the caution expressed by the
the present Labour Party leadership on this question, is put in the party doubt by the revelations in 1960s, the Sunday Times on 14 organísed the
It disclosed that the
decisions to purchase Trident were made disarmanent.
last Labour by secret sent day consisting Committee', Healy, David without James Callaghan funds.
In other we still the James Callaghan in office, escalating we would still have had Cruise and we would still alarming rate.
David Owen's partner in the Gang of Three, Bill
currently complex
ing for 'peace', to those sup-
porting unilateralism and Bri
tain out of NATO - obscure
"MISS POTTER!
APPOINTMENTS "FOR TOMORROW."
BCOBB
American
These
engaged in constructing a new cold war organisation in the labour movement, the 'Labour Committee for Trident we Transatlanțic Understan-
This committee has as its secretary and treasurer In
Duffy and. Frank Chapple. The organisation
open recipient of this money from NATO - SC Shut cousy when Rodgers gets up at
Labour conference and defends Cruise, you know who is speaking! change.
When the debate over nuclear disarmament split
the early conference the • Gaitskellites race.
'Campaign
for Democratic Socialism' to fight to reverse the 1960 dent expressed, vote in favour of unilateral conference
against the
The CDS, like the pre-
Transatlantic not was considerable
The United States and flouted
NATO countries are government their rearmament programmes al an pledge
• Apart from Cruise and Trident, the US
constructing mammoth underground missile
the no Trident!
Scottish
missiles
march
By Andrew Jackson Soland baldie le Scotland Jor demonstration being orgunised in Glasgow for Saturday 25 October against Cruise and trident Welfare NOt Worfare - во 10 Cruise and no to Trident is the main slogan of the march being jointly organised by the Glasgow Trades Coun ell and the Glasgow and District Lobour Party Already lorge number of labour move ment bodies have given their support -to the demiansiration, the lutes: being the Scottish council of the Labour Party In the build up 10 the demonstration there will be a meeting showing The War Game and a social in the Star Club, Carton Place, Cluscow The night before the demonstration The demonstration some i som starts Blyins wond For further informe stan Martin Hilland Glasgaw Labour Pet Clare one Glasgow G11. 025214:5 0484339 8004
desert which will cost over $100,000m.
moves will inevitably lead to a Soviet counter-response. Once again, the arms race is getting out of control.
By stopping Cruise and
can. begin to break out of the vicious spiral that the cold warriors have got us into.
the Labour Party, since the right wing has chosen to make a stand on
question, we can strike blow at those who oppose democracy and any moves in the direction of socialist
A total of 131 resolutions has been put before
the We have to ensure that not only are good intentions on Cruise and Tri-
but that comes out nuclear war alliance - NATO.
Above all, the rank and file of the party has to do everything possible to ensure that its will is not
again by secret committees In other words, we must
the next Labour government to carry out what will undoubtedly be the overwhelming view of the party — no Cruise and
Page 7 scan of this page
By Tony Banks, Tooting CLP, member of LCC executive
FEW on the left outside the Labour Party dispute the importance the struggle within the party to secure democratic accoun tability of the leadership to the rank-and-file.
three issues of mandatory re-selection, election of the party leader on a wider franchise, and the NEC being responsible for the election manifesto are not arid constitutional wrangles. In essence they represent just part of an ideological struggle inside the Labour Party, the out-
will detercome of which mine the entire future direction of the socialișt movement In Britain. Crutch
There ample historical evidence and theoretical to demonstrate that British capitalism, in order to sur-
needs reformist parliamentary 'socialist' party. OT Its history the Parliamentary Labour Party, dominated by the right, has provided the necessary crutch for capitalism.
Using. the rhetoric of socialism, it nas overed the energies of the labour movement and acted as a political safety valve when the demands. for fundamental change in the system looked like gather: ing momentum. Side
It was because activists were sickened by this con-
Deltave parliamentary leadership of the party's socialist demands that the campaign began to change the nature of the relationship between leadership and rank-and-file.
"If the Labour left succeeds in establishing the gecessary condions and commitment to a genuine-
socialist programme which effectively challenges capitalism, then a numer or acvelopments are likely.
die for Thatcher
MISSILES
• STILL AVAILABLE:
20p plus 10p p&p.
post free.
The ruling class will prepare
for all out struggle
First, significant elements of the parliamentary right will move out into a new social democrațic Secondly, radical Daily, elements at present outside will love naturally towards the Labour Party. Thirdly, the ruling class will prepare itself for all-out struggle in the event of a socialist government being elected.
Peaceful
This last possibility is one which many comrades within the Labour Party have not really begun to consider. No capitalist system has yet been simply
aegislated out of existen ce,
and although theoretically possible to talk of a parliamentary Toad lo socialism there seems little chance of the ruling class permitting such a peaceful transition. I believe it is only a socialist Labour Party that can prepare the working class for an open struggle. does through its historical ability to com• class suDport and through its ability to radicalise the policies of the trade union movement.
In either case a prerequisite is socialist policies and commitment within the Labour Party itself, which brings me back Tone o Cine evers The proposals for workplace branches are highly significant given their likely impact on both the party and the unions.
I won't
STOP • CRUISE
the badge that shows where you stand on Thatcher's warmongering.
OR make monev for vour local campaign/organisation by ordering 20 or more at a bulk discount rate of 15p per badge
Tony Banks speaks with Benn at Mobilising Cttee Meeting
Aid the demand for the Labour Party to be more closely identified in extraparliamentary campaigning continues grow rapidly, as it must if we are tọ mobilise the strength of the Jabour movement to overthrow capitalism.
The struggle democratise the Labour Party and thus make more socialist in outlook will have an important test in Blackpool this coming week. The campaign for accountability of leadership is not confined to the
The case
for a
united
class
struggle
left
By Alan Freeman
CALLAGHAN'S , grip is
The media, of the trade union block vote, and the majority of the parliamentary Labour Party are behind him.
Benn argues the case for an organised and grass-roots left in the party.
But what kind of left should this be? Under the
the
Tribune group shut up shop and became a sales rep for the Social Contract. Seeing the working
class as an 'added extra',
Tribune was reduced to an impotent parliamentary
Link
Socialist Challenge
argues for a class struggle
left: one that will link up in
action with the rank and
file in the unions in a fight
for socialist policies. There
are three good reasons for
this.
First, we can't afford
to wait four years until the
and five -years until the Labour
Supplement
party alone; it extends throughout the movement, perhaps explaining
of the hostility towards our demands from certain trade upion leaders.
Cosmetic
Whatever the outcome of events al conference, the campaign will continue until it achieves all its objectives, since we are seeking a fundamental realignment within the labour movement and not simply a few cosmetic changes.
Party is reformed. We have to fight the Tories now or there won't be a
and there won't be any democracy either. Secondly, the best chance imposing socialist policies on future Labour government comes from an organised mass movement. If Benn had resigned from • the Cabinet in 1974 and led a mass movement to fight for socialist policies, might be living in a dif ferent Britain
Thirdly, it's the best way to win the democracy fight. The block vote works against democracy because the union leaders are not controlled by their
own members. Chapple has the cheek to pretend to support the Polish workers when half their demands would be ruled out in his own not Cosy
Chapple rules this way because he doesn't want to fight the Tories.
The best way to reach out to the union rank and file against the Duffys, Chapples and Callaghans of this world is to join the rank and file and support licil struggic
The prospects for building. such a left are remarkably good. The Rank and File Mobilising Committee showed the
potential that exists. Mass campaigns and trade union struggles have been forging socialist policies
More significant still sections of the parliamentary left have been forced to take a stand, moving out of the cosy retreat offered, by the alternative economic strategy.
The abortion campaign and • 400 •Labou Abortion Rights Campaign spelled out the principle that MPs have to follow the mass movement and not their whims.
Tony Benn has broken the PLP's deafening silence on Ireland. MPs Stuart Holland and Reg Skate went ox ton to defend the right to
picket - and the Tories fury showed they were hitting where it hurts.
Every chance for united Labour Party-trade union mass action should be explored and built. The umbrella left-wing organisations the Labour Party have to be won to back these actions, and the demands that are raised, and they have to take their own policies to the union rank and file.
The unity created the Rank and File Mobilis ing Committee should be extended to as many issues as possible, to lay the basis for a genuine class struggle left; a vital and radical new departure in British politics.
Page 8 scan of this page
INTERVIEW WITH TONY BEN
Interview by Pat Kane and Hugh Richards
WHAT do you think of the chances of success on the three issues on democracy at the Labour Party conference?
I'm not in the business of counting the votes. One thing that I'm pretty sure about is that if the delegates who come to the conference - the trade union and constituency delegates — had an absolutely free vole themselves on all these issues, there would be overwhelming support for the three changes. I've little doubt about that..
But, of course, it's not quite as simple as that. You're dealing with the way the trade union vote Will be exercised. My own belief is that this argument has been won in the minds of active people, but that is not the same as saying that it will produce an immediate electoral victory for those who hold that view.
Whatever happens at conference we mustn't get hyped up on Blackpool 1980. The campaign for democratic reform will take a very long time.
Mandatory re-selection seems the most likely issue to succeed, since it has been going on now for nine or ten years. The other ones are in an earlier stage of development. They will all be won before the decade is out, and I would think before the next five years are out.
What effect do you think this will have on the party itself?
I don't believe institutions of themselves solve problems, because institutions without analysis, or without campaigning or all the rest of it, can become empty vessels.
But if you have, as you do have within the Labour Party, a genuine socialist party that has been trying to get out for a long time, then if the institutions are blocked this is never reflected on the parliamentary side, or indeed on local government. If you can clear the blockage out of the way the party would be what it is, a genuine socialist party.
I've never had any doubt that it does contain the genuine instrument for socialist transforma-
That is the way that clears the blockage, but what comes through the pipe depends on what there is at the active end of the party.
"The
against the changes will be voting
to neutralise the influence of trades
unionism on the Labour Party'
Do you support the TUC-Labour Party Liaison Committee?
The Liaison Committee was set up in good faith, and it took us 2½ years to set it up.
In 1970 the unions didn't want to know the Labour Party, the parliamentary party, after all the things that had happened. Finally we got it set up in February '72, nearly two years after the election, and I think that the original concept of
PORKERS the Social Contract - the phrase has come to mean wage controls - but the original concept was of a joint programme for the transformation of our society by collaboration between the unions and the Labour Party.
There was never any reference to wages in it, and even in the October '74 manifesto there was a phrase which I drafted myself which said that the Social Contract is not solely nor primarily about wages, it is about a change in society.
As the manifesto was ditched and reversed by the Labour government so increasingly we got back to the old scenario, that it was all due to the trade unions, and the thing ended up with a rigid 5 per cent pay norm.
But there is no reason why that should be the case, As Bob Wright said, people would make all sorts of sacrifices for socialism but not for our present social structure. I think that's quite right.
It's a pity the term Social Contract has been union leaders who vote lost because in its original formulation it was absolutely correct. It is an essential element for another Labour government in its work of transformation. Without it you are in difficulties, and I wouldn't like to see the Labour Party and the trade unions become separated.
By that I don't just mean contacts between Cabinet members and the TUC. General Council. It has to be an integration of activities right down
the line to workplace branches and all the rest of it. The relationship has become very centralised and that's one of the strange reasons why the trade union leaders are supporting the Parliamentary leaders against the rank and file. There's a move to democracy within the Labour Party. Shouldn't that also apply to the trade unions?
I think the two go side by side. Frankly, unless you win the argument in every trade union as well as in the Labour Party you'll be frustrated when it comes to the exercise of the vote at the Labour Party conference.
I think that process is already underway, and it will intensify and become more urgent if at this year's conference it appears that the trade union vote is being used to frustrate democracy in the ¡party.
The paradox is that the trade union block vote would be used to prevent the trade union influence from being exercised on the Labour Party: The trade union leaders who vote against the changes will be voting to neutralise and negative the influence of trades unionism on the Labour Party - the very opposite of what it would appear to be.
You have spoken at meetings on the role of the Rank and File Mobilising Committee in the Labour Party. Can you say what your position is on that.
The great weakness of the left has been its traditions. Both outside and even inside the party there has been a great splinter activity: the Women's Fightback, the Socialist Campaign for • a Labour Victory, and so on. What to me was extremely pleasing was that so soon after that Central Hall debate in March on the future of the left, which wasn't particularly good, the left sud. denly realised you're fighting in penny-packets. You've got to come together.
All of a sudden, and very much to my surprise, there was the development of the Mobilising Committee in May.
Two years earlier the Labour Co-ordinating Committee was intended to do a similar thing, and it did meet a great response. It's rooted in the grass roots and not in the Parliamentary faction, which is very important because the Parliamentary side, without roots outside, is weak and to some extent ineffective.
When the Militant tendency came in to the Mobilising Committee, which I think is important, all of a sudden it began to come alive. This is the process of building the general coalition of the left, with the women's movement, the black groups, the ecological groups, the peace movement and so on
It will be needed first of all within the Labour Party and the labour movement, and it then becomes the launching pad for carrying this outside the Labour Party to win support. It would be a terrible pity if this process were to be brought to an end by the Blackpool conference. It's a process that has to be encouraged if it's going to continue. I think it will continue...
What would be the ingredients of a new common programme between the unions and the par ty? These would be the policies which have emerged from the trade unions and the party,
Supp
which have been very radical from ?72 onward and are much more radical as a result of the ex perience of the past six years. PotS Gonna ple of that
General Council's compor which was adopted with the support of th Engineering Union and the Transport Unlo included the demand for a 35-hour w without loss of pay ...
That has been emerging for some time, and eve the engineers' strike last summer, which thi AUEW was drawn into, was about hours. t wasn't successful, but it was about the rig issues.
I think this will emerge very strongly a don't believe formulation ano manifesto - particularly if it is drawn up the we want, a rolling manifesto that goes beforet conferences before it is put to the public don't think it could fail to demand that elen in it.
Obviously, between now and 1984 the tr
Page 9 scan of this page
ment
ns won't sit back and wait. they won't. But on the other hand I don't the view, and you may not agree with me it this, that there is a short-cut by the exercise dustrial muscle that will carry you forward cialism without the process of persuasion. I K you have to deiend the trades unions and ublic services in their individual battles, and
ich from it and learn from it and win a
don't see the answer to this as lying in the fer by the exercise of industrial strength without persuasion, beçause I'm not sure such a victory — were it to be possible to ve it would have paved the way for the of support that would be needed to carry
h the alternative socialist strategy.
mentioned earlier the necessity of ex-
ng the Labour Party
roots. Do you think that Labour Party
uters in the factories
rds committees should actively cam-
as a party in support of events like the
s' strike?
rongly. I think there is a slightly artificial
Cancel
and grassroots industrial politics. We
re both.
Jon Lansman,
retary. Rank and
Mobilising Com-
se for Labour
Mocracy of the Labour left justification for the er the party's constitu-
government Otters a
what is going on, mine ine way
it has failed in its historic purpose. has to do so in the future.
You spoke
would be the basis of this? cluster of resolutions.
all the rest.
Warsaw, back into the
and the shop
are coming together.
parliamenlary
bour Party democracy - Why bother?
genuine socialist alternative to
Ine ones.
Labour's parliamentary leadership cannot be expected
to provide such an alternative
unless it is made accountable to
the party's rank and file.
But the concern of the abour left is not limited to th policies of tne next Labour
government. The vital task is to
I've never believed that change is triggered off at the top. Change always begins at the bottom and permeates through to the top.
The votes in the House of Commons indicate
but they don't actually deterissues develop. Insofar as the Labour Party has become an electoral organisation through revisionist leadership, to that extent
The combination of industrial and community activity and struggle with a process of persua-
I've never believed that change is
triggered off at the top'
sion that leads to a parliamentary majority is the historical method by which the labour movement has advanced in the past and the way in which it
about regroupment and unification of the left in the party. What
A lot of people would be involved simply of the issue of democracy. I think this is why the Labour Co-ordinating Committee began to wane in terms of membership, although everyone in the constituencies supported it.
• The party isn't only interested in democracy but it has reached the point — and I have myself, where I've lost interest in producing policy statements and getting them through conference and then finding that they're not done. Until there is some credibility restored to the policymaking process, policy as such becomes just a
But I am very pleased that this year the conference should be dominated, as it is, by the whole question of Cold War, re-armament and
'After 20 years
socialism you can't short cut it by
industrial muscle'
I think what's happened in Poland is relevant here. To take it at its lowest, if I were asked what was me vest acience sulategy 10! Dlllall, Dy. coll paring the siting of Cruise missiles here, targeted
with the development of the democratic movement and the trade unions in Poland, there is no doubt that the latter would be a better defence strategy. I think all these things
I don't know what the conference will actually decide but I imagine that it would reinforce and deepen the basic arguments that were set out at the one-day conference at Wembley.
•If that became real, and if that were ad-
confidence In lne Labour Party as the political instrument working • class.
Only then can the party campaign to mobilise support for its policies.
That mobilisation of supnot only to defeat the Tories at the polls and elect a Labour govern-
vocated in the House of Commons
parliamentary spokesmen, which it is not, and if
that were in the manifesto, and if we won an eled-
tion, and that were done that would be a tremen-
dously significant change
the policy arguments plus, democracy
taken together, and campaigned for vigorously
by the Mobilising Committee, represent the best
hope we have at the moment for the Labour Par-
ty to revert to what it is all about and what it was,
meant to be about.
Apart from Cruise, what issues should be
campaigned around?
A return to full employment and how to achieve
it. It means dealing with the multi-nationals and
much stronger policy
Monetary Fund.
If you look back on the IMF episode, the idea
that four years ago the pound might have been
weakened when one of the factors that is wreck-
ing our economy is the strong pound by returning
to the gold standard, which is what we've really
done; the weakness of that Cabinet in facing that
pressure is inexplicable, except in that a majority
of that Cabinet really agreed with the IMF.
When we look back on 1976, if we had told
the IMF to go away, I don't think it would have
had the will • or the capacity, to damage
economy. We would then not have had the
winter of discontent and we might still be in
power. We would have been in a position to
mobilise an awful lot of public support.
My criticism of the last Labour government,
and I was in it and I am responsible for what it
did in that general sense; my criticism is not bas-
of silence
ed on the fact that it couldn't necessarily do more
in parliament — it didn't have a majority — but
we didn't even argue that case.
We never went to the public and said: 'We are
under threat from the EEC here, on our food
policy, on our industrial policy, we're
threat from Chrysler there, we've got the bankers
round our neck, NATO is pushing us to bump up
our defence expenditure, we want enough people
to support us in the election to see that we have
enough power to see that that doesn't happen.'
The argument was absent.
To come back to the question about how you
ment, but also to mount effective resistance to Tories now and to provide the next Labour with the organised rank and file support it will need to put its policies into practice.
In concrete terms, we will probably not win an outright victory this year, although we will certainly have made signifi-
by the
port is there. on the International
: our
on cant gains. It's been an uphill struggle for constitutional change all along, but we have perseverea ana are not going to give . up until do win outright.
That has been the message from the left political leadership on Labour's national executive and from union leaders. Tony Benn, Eric
get rid of the Thatcher government - after 20 years of silence on socialism you can't short cut it by industrial muscle. You've got to tackle the yreal argument, which is that these arguments have to be injected into the public consciousness and then you have to build support. That sup-
The trouble is at the moment the media won't allow an alternative to be presented, because they re afraid it would be too popular. One of the greatest tributes that Fleet St pays to the Labour left is that it spends so much time trying to confuse, to divert ... Because they know in their hearts that if we could get this across there would be support for us. And there would be.
Next week: Tony Benn's views on the
United States after a recent visit.
Heffer, and Bob Wright have all clearly stated this at rallies held •by the Rank and File Mobilising Committee for Labour Democracy.
The Labour left is stronger and more unted now than it has ever been. To build on this strength and unity should now be the main task of the left in Britain.
Page 10 scan of this page
conference aims
to launch cuts
fight
By Clir Carol Turner (Southwark
CLP) and Mike Tichelar (Lambeth
NALGO and a member of the con-
just another
£200m local
authority spending.
cils, poo!
of Lon
don,
field,
penalise
ing' make
services. penalties
already
Heseltine's
months Lambeth.
Counci Lambeth
Joint Stewards
tiona. In
November organise
from Britain
By Jerry Hughes (joint secretary Chile Solidarity Campaign)
GENERAL PINOCHET
Unile chose 17 September this the seventh anniversary
the military coup which overthrew Allende's Popular Unity government, to bring in his latest attempt to nion. Under threat ori fool international sixty-day prison sentence, Chileans went to the military-controlled polling stations to vote for a new constitution.
This constitution has been met with the international derision deserves. It Pinochet in power for at least the next eight years, and allows him a further period of office UP LO 1997. the eight-year "transition period to democracy. Pinochet . can veto any decision of Congress, or dissolve Congress, or simply rule witnout it under a 'state of mobilisation' 'state of siege', 'state of emeraency or 'state of catastrophe'. Torture
International HOne demnation of this constitution, and of the increased repression in Chile over the last six months (highlighted nere bv the torture 01 British student Claire Wilson), is important in showing Pinochet that his cosmetic trappings of democracy' cover for a dictatorial regime.
Following nouncement of the now He stated th
Local government
ference organising committee), both
local and jobs
action
have been sent all
Labour local
authority shop
stewards committees,
The has.
tion,
action, govern-
ment cutting
«Liones and unions noW
NUPE will national delegation Fisher.
Scottish London
Pinochet isolated except
constitution on 11
August, new
dinating committee
was formed of the left
parties with the addi. tional involvement of the Christian Democrats. •Through this unity, major demonstrations of pro-
test at the constitution
and Pinochet's rule
took place, with the
largest. demonstration
since the coup at the
end of August when
Christian Democrat
leader Eduardo Frei ad-
dressed a rally of over 6,000 further 30,000 people filled the streets outside.
A major anomaly in Chile's situation is the position of Britain, now Pinochet's • greatest Western friend. Nicholas Ridley, Foreign Office Minister for Latin America, has repeatedly demonstrated the extent to which Britain will go in efforts to improve relations and opportunities with Chile. Claims
Throughout this year he has contradicted the evidence and claimed that? the human rights situation the an in Chile has improved.
districts of NALGO will be , sending. delegations. Many local authorities and local authority trade union branches will also be taking part.
A fringe meeting has been organised at the Labour Party conterence to mobilise for the Noverher conference this is taking place at Tiffany's Ballroom on Tuesday :30 September, with Dennis Skinner and Alan Fisher the main speakers.
The 1 November conference organising committtee recognises that only a joint national campaign of action, maximum solidarity from other public and private sector trade unions, will be effective in reversing Kucutien policies.
‚ocal campaigns are no longer sufficient. Suffer
Putting up the rates no longer seems a feasible option, as it did for many last year. To maintain serVICCS in big city alcas the present levels would
enormous rate increases next April, which would not only be politically unacceptable but would be very difficult to collect.
In residential areas like not believe Sheila
was tortured, and now ic excuses the torturing OT Claire Wilson by saying she is only 'accidentally British' (she English father but was born in Chile).
The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party has declared that the next Labour government will reimpose all embargoes
sanctions against Chile until democracy is restored. is not enough. We should not be prepared. to spend the ot the Tory government being
supporters of Pinochet.
Arms
The Labour Party must make a positive move against sales to Chile by saying contracts signed will not be honoured by the government, and as trade unionists we must
that we will not manufacture or handle arms for Chile. It comes as surprise that there has been no condemnation of Pinochet's constitution from the mouth Nicholas Ridley.
Supplement
Micheal Heseltine, Lambeth, for example, there is no difference in practice between increasing rates and making cuts
Campaign)
IN A
violent repression, Nicaragua as beacon
the year
tatorship, the mass
•have
power.
The Sandinista
and the
dustry owned by and his
the state of the economy St Benedicts
fights on
By Nick Williams Sec. Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Council. Last health authority finished Saturday the aren
moving all the patients al •St. Benedicts's in Wandsworth, in its bid to close down the hospital.
Tory minister: of cuts
either way working people suffer the conse-.
quences. Big rate nises wil not save the thousands of
The Labour movement
and Nicaragua
A six-month national
Literacy Crusade which
mobilised 200,000
students, schoolchildren
and other young people as
• voluntary teachers has vir-
tually eradicated illiteracy.
The Nicaraguan
revolution must not be
allowed to be isolated in
the same way as Cuba
once was. The Labour
Party's continued and
consistent support for the
FSLN, particular its
principled stand within the
Socialist International, is
to be applauded. In this
framework, dive linke
must build direct
with the Nicaraguan peo.
ple at all levels.
We must work for a
labour movement delega-
tion • CO Nicaragua,
preferably as part of an in-
tegrated visit to the whole
of Latin America, in order
to set to rights the TUC's US Marines
sadly misintormea state-
ment on Nicaragua.
Such a delegation
The authority had said
that the Bolingbroke and other hospitals where the geriatric patients are being
adequately equipped, yet on Saturday it removed a large amount of equipment
Benedict's. The hospital
committee picketed
In the fight to prevent the closure, the support committee picketed the hospital every day last week. On Hednesday 19 television on Friday evenpeople were arrested outside the hospital, one charge with assault, the others with obstruction.
ONG
jobs threatened in direct
labour departments, or in
architects and engineers
departments which are
financed directly from
central government
grants. These malls alc
being cut • to the bone.
Reductions in the Housing
Investment Programme
Have a heron meant big
lay-offs among building
workers, and there will be
more cuts next year.
Finally, the govern-
ment has carried out its
threat penalise local
councils which put up
rates drastically. Rate in-
creases are no longer prac-
tical, let alone in the interests of working people.
should cement the links
with the trade union and duran armies.
popular movements
throughout the whole
region rather than treating
Unle Nicaragua El
Salvador and Bolivia
separate issues.
Alongside this, we must build up grass-roots links between union branches in Britain and
Nicaragua, and with the prospect of 2.5 million unemployed, the call for a boycott of goods for Chile can be complemented with a campaign to work for Nicaragua instead.
Defending Nicaragua from the threat of foreign intervention. is vital. • US support for the military-civilian in Salvador and its war of genocide against the people may well lead to direct intervention, either by the
through the provision of arms finance and political support for an invasion by the
One of those arrested a worker at George's Hospital, was suspended by the AHA but later reinstated after the intervention of COHSE.
The completion of the evacuation of the hospital evidently opens stage in the struggle. The St Benedict's Committee and the trades council are carrying out a campaign to draw out the lessons of the closure.
On London Weekend
ing AHA chairperson Alison Munro inadvertently referred to the closure of the 'Bol-
What are the other op tions? In fact the options boil down to either carry-
through the cuts
with huge redundancies and loss of services — or a massive campaign to force a change in policy.
This year's Labour Party conference must actively the November conference and commit the next Labour government to a policy of full restoration of all cuts and the development of local services to meet, local needs. Without such com mitments it will be ceedingly difficult for joint • national action to •succeed. •Guatemalan and Hon-
This would inevitably ead to an expansion of the conflict throughout Central America and provide the United States ethan destroy to he
destroy Nicaraguan revolution and return to the status quo
If the USA is allowed to intervene in Central America and allowed to overturn the hard-won victories of the people of Nicaragua, it will feel able to do the same throughout the rest of the continent when the time comes. . On the other hand a defeal for the United States in Central America would be a victory for the workers throughout America.
BUILD LINKS WITH THE NICARAGUAN PEOPLE!
STOP US INTERVENTION IN EL SALVADOR!
ingbroke, rather than St. Benedicts. This seems likely to have been a Freudian slip. It is widely suspected that •St Benedicts is jusi
first the health authority's 'hit list".
A total of 23 people have been arrested durin Benedict's. Financial help the picketing St. for those arrested urgently needed. Please send contributions to: St. Benedicts Defence, Trades Council, 19 Auckland Rd, London SWII. Cheques should be made out to Bat• tersea and Wandsworth Trades Council.
Page 11 scan of this page
LLANWERN Steel Action Group are holding a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference discuss fightback for jobs. We asked them what they hoped to get out of it.
Ray Davies (Sec, Llanwern): The basis of this meeting is the need for action now to defend jobs. We want the king of meeting that has not taken place at the Labour Party conference for 20 years.
How many millions will it take before the Labour Party stops cooperating Tories? We have to take the fight away from the Parliamentary Labour Party and into our own hands. Will it be 3, 4 or 5 million unemployed before the TUC declares war and calls national strike action?
Wyndham Conniff (ISTC):
We demand action now; it may
aiready. too ate. look
what's happened in the last 12
months and since the
"strike.
Rodger Tovey (NUB): Since
the strike, unemployment
Caldicot has risen from 800 to
1,800 - that's a rate of 14 per
cent and the forecast is 18 per
cent by the end of next year.
Two-thirds of the population
of Caldicot depend
Llanwern one way
another.
Sixty people have been laid
off at the Severn
railway yard as a result of cut-
backs in steel. We have to
discuss occupations and other
forms of action to stop this.
terence
Speakers include:
lales)
Llanwern Steelworks
We need a fight on unemployment
Garry Finch (ISTC): We have a ridiculous situation in the finishing end at the moment: the packing been transferred from one section to another, so that while one group workers sit around their heels, others are doing ISTC overtime. This has to stop we have to argue for an overtime ban to start with.
Wyndham Conniff: The action group was formed out of across union barriers to keep Tene chaos of the steel strike alive the militancy to organise a fightback.
Ray Hill (redundant steelthe worker and Sec, Monmouth CLP): we have, politics to the fore. Politics is only effective in the class struggle. This is the socialist movement.
The Labour Party steel
WHILE interviewing Llanwern Steel Group we took the opportunity to discuss with them the Labour on Committoo Rank or Trade Union and how it features in their Tunnel plans to fight ment in South Hill pointed out the inettec. tiveness of the trade unions and the lack of cooperation party and trade unionists, at local level.
Activists Wyndham: Conniff felt this was tance of the LCC, could bridge that gulf and coordinate the movement at grass roots level. together activists in the Labour Party and the unions.
During they had suffered from in-
'NO TO CLOSURE AND REDUNDANCY Public meeting at the Labour Party con-
29 September, 7pm Cliffs Hotel, Blackpool
Emlyn Williams (NUM President, S. Wales), Dennis Skinner (MP), Bill Sirs (ISTC), Llanwern Steel Action Group. Alec Jones (Shadow Secretary of State for
respectable; there is not enough involvement union branches would like to see strengthened at of That's might be a good idea.
kicking
CLPs getting supporting the Llanwern Steel Action Group, and the Right to Work March.
Also when
picketing in Bristol South East, there were members of the constituency line with us.
There should be joint action committees formed so that, in the event of the dock strike tak-
the only
to bring ing place, we
organised members, miners, workers and steelworkers with crux or lac the dockers to wage the most
is too effective struggle.
Steelworkers back
LCC Conference
the competent Action which had
union and Co-ordinating ment,
File against plant.
Conference,
Drier
unemploy- rank and •Wales. Ray Sheet sees
union towards
members. for united action.
Llanwern Group is LCC, and members are
the impor-
that it having back. bringing the rank and file Foundation
the steel strike,
Party.
be worl
The was thrashed Llanwern
steelworkers against job loss.
Tories.
Supplement
between trade and CLPs. British these links local level.
why factory branches face : up
responsibilities 'Ireland. involved, 20 Britain's role in Ireland -we went British
party on the picket the conference
debate for Wednesday.
Step could have Party railway
for 'animal welfare
important founding leadership. six and nine. defended the 'establishment' of the trade
labour move with plant being set "The trade has union bureaucracy is a bar,
aspirations'. The graphs.
Steel the LCC trade conference as a step challenging the 'cold hand of the leadership' and setting the foundation
Steel Action affiliated to the two of their on the executive of the Welsh LCC because they believe that 'it would be no good having a general strike tomorrow if it
Callaghan
For this reason they want to see the foundation of a national left in the Labour
The fight for jobs cannot
without taking up demands in a concrete way.
Charter out by Steel • Action Group during the aftermath of the steel strike and is being used as a focus for all
fighting back
A similar set of demands
is necessary for the whole of
the class to fight back now.
This could unite the whole
of the labour movement in
organising to kick out the
on Ireland
By Mick Sullivan (GMC, Islington North CLP, personal capacity) AFTER 10 years of war, 2,000 deaths and the collapse of one
'solution after for the another, there are signs that the Labour Party is beginning Ireland.
to its socialist towards first time parliamentary CLPs have submitted 'bipartisan' resolutions or amendments on Ireland.
- the vast majority of them call for TOTAOIS
withdrawal and the right of the people of the whole of Ireland to work out their own future. And it seems that Kesh.
arrangements committee has timetabled a full Issue
the This is a big step forward from last year when only after a week-long petition campaign
was a brief debate forced on
the last morning of conference,
in a session originally set aside
Ireland.
The past year has seen an development with
March of the Labour Commit-
tee on Ireland. The conference
had 44 CLPs represented from
LAWS NOW!
By Davy Jones, Treasurer, Campaign Against Immigration Laws ANWAR DITTA was born in Birmingham and brought up in Rochdale. She married Pakistan and had three children, aged now berween black She came back to Britain in 1975: but the Home Of. fice won't let her kids in in spite of the fact that she birth certificates, medical records and photoThis is the inhuman and racist effect of the immigration laws which a Labour government brought in, and which the Tories are glee fully strengthening.
Why Labour must take a stand
all over Britain. And it is the LCI which must take the credit
which have. morons been submitted on
In June the NEC for the
broke Will the leadership's approach to They condemned the "repression and torture' in the
of Northern Ireland, and a delegation led by Joan Maynard and Alex Kitson tried some to visit the H-Blocks in Long
proach
Both the London and Scot- 10 tish regional conferences, and
'Northern Ireland Group' of Labour MPs, have called
for an end to bipartisan support for the Tories on Ireland and the NEC has set up working party with the object
formulating policy on The
Now Tony Benn has agreed to be the main speaker at the Labour Committee on Ireland the fringe meeting.
But the issue is far from won and there may still be at-
SCRAP THE IMMIGRATION
• Labour must be commit-
ted to scrap all racist and im-
migration laws, and active
solidarity is needed for cases
like Anwar's to help
community defend
itself against the state's
racist attacks.
The committee • to de.
Send Anwar Ditta is holding
demonstration
Rochdale on IS November
12 noon and asks the
labour movement to give its
support. Financial support
is also needed to help pay
for an investigator to go to
Pakistan.
Anwar will be speakine.
tempts to stifle debate at the conference by referring all motions to the NEC working par. ty which is not due to report for another year.
Also it is known that sup porters of the Campaign for Labour Representation in Northern Ireland which wants the Loyalist dominated Northern Ireland trade unions
build a Northern Ireland Labour Party - have secured
hutuence among NEC working party.
A policy based on that ap-
would be disastrous since it would . commit the Labour Party organisationally
trie artificial division of Ireland Major
The Tories now intend to complete the circle by restoring
Loyalist dominated assembly in Northern Ireland.
Labour Committee Ireland will be fighting hard to build a big Labour presence on
major demonstration against the Tories' new plans called by the Committee for
Withdrawal on 15 November.
at a fringe meeting organis
ed by the Campaign Against
Racist Laws and trying to
get MPs, and trade
union delegations to take up
the case.
Contact the defence
committee at 127 Crawford
Street, Rochdale, Lancs.
STOP •PRESS: Anwar
Ditto has been refused
leave appeal agains!
the Home Office's deci
sion This makes the
noad for action over
moro urgent
Page 12 scan of this page
Women demand positive action now
Women's worldwide fight for industrial jobs
clear that the Equal
are inadequate.
actually
TUC's position is implemented.
current thinking.
THE TUC has produced a very
good paper on positive action
which sets out the sort of things
which are contained in positive
action
United States.
Affirmative or positive ac-
tion is legally enforced there.
Companies
'all
By Colleen Levis
ANNA Walentynowicz. is
50-year-old Polish woman, the
mother of children,
political activist,
leader of
workers' uprising in her coun-
try. A crane operator, she has
worked tor 30 ycars
Lenin shipyard in Gdansk.
Today more and wornes the advanced
capitalist countries fighting for access to such jobs.
In Italy, in a little less than three years, some women have been successful in getting jobs.at the giant Fiat industrial complex, employs 250,000 to 300,000 workers in Turin.
At the end of the 1940s, Italian workers fought for and won legislation stipulating that hiring in unskilled jobs be done through lists set up by
administration and under the control of the unions.
For a number of years this law was dead letter. around 1974, in the face of a wave of factory closures, unemployed youth began soil of occupations unemployment offices and held demonstrations in the northern part of the country to force implementation of the law.
The victory thạt resulted not only established hiring lists controlled by the unions; it also prohibited sexual discrimination. But in order to make the victory real, the women had to
TUC endorses vigorous campaign
THREE WEEKS ago the TUC Congress resolved 'to pursue vigorously a campaign for real equality for women ... as an integral part of the trade unions' fight against the industrial and economic policies of the Tory government - In order to prevent women taking the brunt of the current recession'.
It endorsed moves 'to investigate forms of positive action in women's education, training and omployment as a means of shifting ontrenched patterns of discrimination', and called on the TUC General Council to present detalled proposnia for positive action' to the 1981 congress.
in November the TUC will be holding a conference to draw up model agreements for use by trade unionists. It is
Pay and Sex Discrimination trumpeted by the last Labour government as the solution
Since these laws came into effect, women's wages have
declined by 2.1 per cent in relation Women are losing jobs at twice the rate of men. Positive action is needed now in the workplaces to make sure the
Here ANNA COOTE, who seconded the TUC resolution on behalf of the National Union of Journalists, explains its
employing CONCE with the government have to analyse their workforce at all levels in what is available in the local labour pool.
If the two are not in line then the company has to submit plans to remedy the situation.
Its federal licence other withdrawn if it
they were not out to steal their jobs.
The bosses discourage the women by givmili- ing them the most difficult and the dangerous workers then convinced their to demand al lne dangerous work for both men and women.
When the Unidal food proHOTe cessing factory, employed a large majority of closed down. women won the collective right 10,000 to be hired in car and steel plants.
In all the capitalist counwhich tries, the vast majority women are channelled into industries like electronics, tiles, and sub-assembly in steel and other basic industries. Now they are beginning to win laws would that recognise their right to all kinds of jobs.
A new Swedish law which went into effect on 1 July bans
But
Acts organisations that
comply.
discrimination you class action action for a whole group of women who could be discriminated against does not
sexual discrimination in hiring. Women's equality committees tried to. exist in several unions. Women
working in the have led a struggle against porThe women nography in the workplace.
With the current recession, less the gains won in the United States and threatened. pushed completely out of certain industries discriminatory 'temporary' layoffs, many of which become permanent.
Obstacles
But experience shows that the fight by women to get into heavy industry and to stay there is part and parcel of the fight by the working class as a whole
which against unemployment and ar-
bitrary sackings. the • In Canada, unemployment, a big campaign led by the United Steelworkers in Hamilton forced Stelco to hire some 40 women in a plant of of 10,000 workers. of railway and other unions
tex- and the New Democratic Party
are supporting a campaign in Winnipeg for women to get into skilled 'non-traditional' jobs in the Canadian Railway.
The fight for access to jobs in basic industry deepens the
Supplement
It is also written into the law that if you have a case of sex. voluntary
can take negotiated - in other words unions and
have been
At the moment the TUC
fight for
the obstacles metal industry
elsewhere are
Women are being
by despite high Lack of
facilities
A number blocks abor-
tions
National
By Anne Kingsbury, LARC THE Labour Rights Campaign considers that the most serious problem facing women seeking abartion is the lack of NHS facilities:
for parliamentary initiatives to alter the law and make the provision of facilities mandatory authorities.
step towards laws to give access available legal abortion:
and the National Council for Civil Liberties are going for
alculen between trade factory that would be within the scope of specifically the Sex Discrimination Act.
This could include special
other feminist demands. In order to overcome maternity
ciccica. by lne employers, women fighting for such jobs have to struggle for other demands like the right to
fullest debate Labour
National
labour ference next
We hope
the policy
Abortion TOT this practice drawn.
activity in
The campaign is pressing
health - Still make urel
LARC sees this as a first circumstances.
to freely the Labour
For the first time: a Labour Party manifesto at 5.30pm.
foot the visits to schools to meet groups of girls on their own to tell them about jobs in an engineering or Int like; advertisements in publications with a temale readership saying that female applicants espécially welcome; en-
apply
Union abortion, day-care, and paid • leavi against at- and
tempts to keep women outside Public
•the unions by giving them part-
time or temporary jobs. contains a reference to abor. tion. We are anxious for the
before government legislates to give women an 'effective right to choose'
In collaboration with the
Abortion Campaign, LARC is organising a
movement conMarch, discuss positive legislation.
tha unionists will seek to change
on MPs free vote, so that union support
is with-
In the coming year we will be seeking initiatives in parliament, and promoting
the constituencies, towards Labour Party policy for better abortion facilities and for the repeal of the iniquitous laws which
abortion criminal offence in certain
The LARC meeting at
Party conference, to discuss positive legislation, is on Wednesday
to get their friends to apply;
and so on.
You also have to ask if the
qualifications required for
job are really necessary. The
Greyhound Bus Company
the USA was taken to court because employees had to be 5
inches tall. This
qualification was clearly
discriminatory and unnecessary, and as part of the settlement they had to agree to a positive action alming to get 25 per cent of women drivers in their training schools within five years.
This is just one example
progress towards the declared goal would then have to be monitored.
Most people campaigning on positive action have decided that there is not much point in changing the law at this stage. Right now it's better to get union agreements. Principle
We also have to be aware that while the unions may agree to the principle of positive action, the men aren't going to bother unless there is pressure from the women. They have to
the principle to themselves
The Transport & General Workers Union and the General & Municipal Workers
are setting up anti-discrimination committees
the National Union of Employees LUW has seven women on its executive. These may be small changes, but they are a start. DOIN
THE LABOUR
ABORTION
RIGHTS
CAMPAIGN
LAB
Page 13 scan of this page
Listen to
The Beat
I HOPE the 'new look' of Socialist Challenge is going to extend to the Under Review page. We need more on the forms of
people
on ignoring
the '2-Tone' called The
out now a track group's 'We beneve
The working
giyen
It's time to
Their singer, Pauline Black,
tion
We- need aave
÷ Where these
Daily: Star. wasn't
Our
By Paul Lawson
•sixteenth century
Europe, capitalism,
its early form of mer-
chant capital, was begin-
ing to struggle against all
old fetters of
feudalism.
~ Por the emerging
tew class of capitalists
- the rising bourgeoisie DOWCL OI the 181 6)10 Church was
suffocating. The Church
huge areas d. preventing the exion of capitalism inthe countryside and
nhibiting the forced
Movement OI peasants
fom the land to become
rkets in the towns. * hrough LACO and e sales of indulgences pieces ot paper which clally forgave sins -Church enriched *al tne expense oi people. became rand despised by the impoverished vand the pro-
Much
appreciated
l'VE appreciated very much having Socialist Challenge to read over the past several years, especially your international coverage, and your openness to discusion and debate. Your Irish coverage, I might add, has been an extremely imporrock tant contribution.
I hope you will continue to build on the better qualities of the paper even as you try to reach new layers of worker militants and other readers in a one of more "popular" way.
ROBBIE MAHOOD, Regina, Canada called - it's
FRED Kingdom September) raises an important point concerning democratic rights socialist parties in a society run by workers. Can 1 reter him tc the resolutions of World Congress of the Fourth International - for once the FI is not only clear on this issue, but 110 per cent right as well. The resolution distinction berweer ideologically opposed
workers power, and those ac-
tively sabotaging it. To quote:
"Without such unrestrained by while
restrictions, there can be no genuine, democratically elected workers councis. 'lhus restric. tions of that freedom are not restrictions of the rights of the class enemy but restrictions of the rights of the proletariat...
quotes
AOS tenOr. LIC workcIs state defends itself by repression. Against policies and ideas, it defends itself by political
History
Thomas Münzer: 'The
People Shall be Free'
gressive bourgeoisie.
This situation provoked a movement that challenged the power of Rome — the demand for 'reformation' al vsc within and outside the Church.
The rumblings of discontent wilh KOinf WCIC given dramatic focus by the actions of Martin Luther, a dissident Catholic monk. In
The nailed his 'theses' against the sale of indulgerices to the door of the church in Wittenburg. Luther particularly attacked the 'misuse of induigences by a 'star' seller, Tetzel, who was operating in the nearby town of Juterborg.
Luther's action detonated an explosion.
Line terment or lne déveloping Reformation gave rise to currents of a' much more democratic 980.* SeVOIROIKIM
Socialist
Feminist
Confer-
Hence
THIS year's Socialist Feminist National Conference has tre theme 'Women's Oppression and Imperialism'
British women's liberation movement, it has become apparen mnar our campurg'es and discussions have failed to include working class, Irish, black and immigrant women.
Many of us have been asked .why, for example, immigrant women and women in nonono wermion movemenes do not look to us for support.
Workers' democracy Socialist
(11 ideological struggles.' answers about fascist parties. Genuine of anul- fascists, I would hope, will get
themselves arrested defending capitalism and their the 1979 misguided
aside by the flowering of ideas political emerging workers represent. makes
UIOSC positions of the FI on this issue to reflect, in my view, a fear that the working class is unable to mauk devouuoldy col-
freedom, ideological
the Polish workers have in fact.
Only the views expressed by the FI resolution can stop this and
ponuical
other revolutions from embrac-
political ing social-democratic or right-
tises of revolutionary Marx-
reactionary
and MIKE HOLBROOK, Durham
Letters
broader conext
perialist country.
In the recent history of the
our consciousness.
election
cam-
or killed paigns
followers
strength the Slalc - the best defence
What the FI has in theory
more than character than Luther himself. chief representative of these earth' Münzer
OuICI munisin. existing powers,
thrown.
They
Not ex-
justice and
After the last conference, growing numbers of socialist feminists have felt the need to look at our struggles in a
• by creating a framework which allows us to look at our situation on a world scale, and the implications for socialist feminists living and working in an im-
Women who have been engaged in campaigns making mainly reformist demands on the state, which are being undermined by the present imperialist crisis, are looking at the successes and limitations of such strategies. As don NWI, these questions are being raised, we must recognise how changes in the international economic and political situation affect our lives and shape
The conference framework attempts to provide a number you. of ways of beginning to look
policies.
Britain
TO judge by the US presidential election, bourgeois politicians in America submerge their policies in cascades of razzamatazz and populist bull-shit to such an extent that you have to be a cipher expert to work out what they stand for. It's a welcome relief that there is at least one left-wing candidate who is
PULLEY
for President
tion, and the restitution of woods and pastures taken from communities and individuals All the forces of reaction united against the peasants - both Proteslal piulcas .and Catholic princes, defenders of the old order and proponents of the new capitalism. Martin Luther, despite his conflicts with the Emperor and the princes, rallied to the old order. He published a venomous pamphlet 'against the robbing and murdering peasants' urging that they be butchered By contrast, Thomas Münzer stood with the peasants. He established .Conulunc Mulhausen, which stood
at these questions. There are three general discussion areas for the weekend's scheduled block workshop periods: (1) differences and similarities 0182. between women in developed capitalist countries and underdeveloped countries; (2) imperialism and women's oppression worldwide; (3) political implications for
mulelsoersed with these will be films, and time for workshops and campaigns on specific topics.
The conference will be held at Sir William Collins School, Charrington St., Lon-
. on Saturday/Sunday 25/26 October. There will be a plenary session. A full conference outline plus a resource list of useful films, books, etc., and registration forms are available from Socialist Feminist Conference
Gc/oa woman's Place 48 William IV Street, London
putting forward clear socialist
bul your coverage of the Socialist Workers Party candidate, Andrew Pulley (18 September), would suggest that there are differences between the SWP campaign and socialist election campaigns in
Pat Kane ends his article: 'Andrew Pulley won't be the next president of, the United States. But it would be a better world to live in if he was.' The implication of this, that Pulley can solve the problems of the American working class, is reinforced by the election material you illustrate, which tends to project an 'image' of the candidate.
•Since the electorate has to mark a name on the ballot paper, it's obviously necessary to get across the identity of the candidate. But the em. phasis of the Socialist Unity campaigns in Britain was both to project policies and to argue for and help to initiate the actions needed to win them. Candidates were at pains to say: 'Don't rely on me. Rely on yourself.'
Most importantly, •Socialist Unity was not a
at the centre of the When the arDlliccs aoi :Münzer and SOTS went where stood to fight.
and lacking the of the princes' army, 8,000 peasants were buthimself was tor-
armies were and
Over 100,000
Owed by i of the who them. The religious sect, whom comsufcution.
Münzer's views were cloaked in religious mysticism. His project uLODall But he stands with the leaders of the English peasants, revolt in 1381 as one of the important forerunof COmSI ideas. His - overriding passion was summed up in his slogan
WC2. We need workshop coordinators — if you are interested please phone Annie/Sy/via/Jude at (01) 388
CONFERENCE PLANNING GROUP traditional party-building exercise but an attempt to draw together all those seeking a socialist alternative in a united election campaign. Since one of the main planks of the SWP programme, quite correctly, is for the formation of a labour party, perhaps your future coverage of the presidential elections could include any practical moves the SWP is making in the campaign for a labour party; how the SWP is using the election .to build struggles; and mention of other left-wing election campaigns HENRY FELIX, London N16 Hands off! ON 28 August, iwo sup porters of Hands off Ireland! and Gerry MacLaughlin of Provisional Sinn Fein were found guilty at Cardiff magistrates court of distributing 'abusive and insulting' literature. and of obstruction of the police.
Their crime was to sell Hands off Ireland! (published by the Revolutionary Communist Group) ana Republican News at a streel meeting in Cardiff in September 1979. If this harassment goes unchallenged, where will it end? Cardiff is not an isolated example. Twenty-two supporters of Hands off Ireland! have been arrested in the past year.
An appeal will be lodged against the Cardiff magistrates' decisions. Donations for the defence fund should be sent to: 49 Railton ROBERT LAUNCESTON, Bristol
Socialist Challenge
BENEFIT with RED RINSE OXY & THE MORONS and disco Food available bar extension applied for
SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER
METROPOLITAN pub, Farringdon Road, EC! (Farringdon tube)
Admission £1.50 (E1 unwaged)
Page 14 scan of this page
act on job loss
By Patrick Sikorski_leading WORKERS British Oxygen are fighting back. At national stewards combine meeting, the first since the victorious pay struggle in 1977, delegates from BOC depots throughout the country voted for nationwide overtime ban from next Monday.
This is the first step to make the company with• araw its 'slimline' proposals which, according to
Royton
lends its
support to
March
against
Missiles
•OVER 250 people from
small of
Royton, near Oldham
against the
Tories last Saturday.
Ine demonstration,
called by Royton and
Heywood Labour Party,
was in protest al ene
government's cuts
scial services and its in.
tention to spend millions
on nuclear weapons.
Speakers at the rally
after the march included
MPs Dennis skinner and
Stan Orme. But the most
moving speech came from a disabled pensioner, Mrs Langley, ( who described how the Tories' cuts will lead to great personal suffering for her.
Stan Orme made an appeal for everyone present to join the March
Against the Missiles on the eve of the Labur Par-
conference in
Blackpool. All 50 tickets on a coach to take protesters trom Rovton to the march have now been sold.
Gardener's
workers prepare
for jobs fight
By Bob Murphy FIFTY workers from the Hawker Siddeley firm of L Gardener & Son were the largest of demonstration against unemployment in Eccles, Manchester, on Saturday.
It had been called by the trades council to bring to the attention of the local community the threat posed by the announcement of 590 redundancies at Gardener's, the biggest and best-organised factory in the area.
With only four votes against, a mass meeting decided to resist the redundancies with industrial ac1011 iCesary. Gardener's workers lobbied the final stage of the negotiations over job cuts earlier this week,
Increasingly attention
British Oxygen workers
stewards, could
threaten up to a half of the
3,600 workforce.
The meeting also voted
for a fight for 35 hours
retirement for all ery
retirement for
with no loss of benefits,
and full replacement of all
vacancies crcalca by In-
troducing these measures.
Open
The delegates launched
a fight to keep open the
BOC depot in Corby by national coral
national boycott
work and from the
Derby depot, where Corby
work 1S expected to
The Corby depot has
been affected by the
closure of the steelworks,
but it is still viable as a
distribution park and the
disastrous effect of the steel closure on the town
DAY-care workers in the London borough of Ealing been on indefinate strike since last Friday.
Approximately 100 workers are involed in the action, which has been made official by the National and. Local Govern-
Officers tion.
Nurseries and daycentred for old and handicapped people are among the services hit.
ine strike lollows a breakdown in negotiations
and the union tor better conditions, improved staff/Client regrading, and
IMG/RY Notices
REVOLUTION YOUTH 28Scpt, 2p
25 Gower
STUDENT FRACTION for all RY and required. 'We'll have to sit
the response many workers on the demonstration.
Another factory in the Hawker Siddeley group, Mirlees • Backstone pledged full support for a fightback. Best of all, the local Fire Brigades Union has decided to donate £80 a week if the Gardener's workers take action.
The Gardener's workers have
For gallisca delegations the Engineering Union head office and to the union's national conference.
Bob Wright, the left candidate in the AUEW presidential election, has made the demand for the 35-hour week • lila Ul plank of his election campaign. That pledge should now be transtorned into an action campaign
means that every remain-
ing job has to be fought
for.
Date boycott, management had To try to prevent
threatened workers in Der-
by with the closure of their
depot. The boycott
only be called off when
threats and
are withdrawn and all
Ban
Both the national over-
keep Corby open are now
part of a fight by the com.
bine to protect every Job in
BOC and for the introduc-
without job loss, of
the 35 hour week and early retirement.
removal of agency staff.
When the demands of the workers, designed to improve under-staffed chronically
service, were turned down, a ballot produced four-to-one majority in stavow limited industrial action.
Last management took disiplinary action against three members of staff. An all-out strike is the result.
So far, two-thirds of the council's 17 day-care establishments have been closed by the strike,
010 h with strike pay at only £4 a week support is urgently needed. - Contact: Ealing NALGO branch, Town Hall, London WS. Tel. 01-579 2293
359 8371, for more informa Sat 27 Sept, FRACTION. Sept 28 Sept,
All 'odes in CSEU union.
NATIONAL FRACTION MiSSILES Ring 01-359 8371 Special maling it the papers naay 1z Uctobe
No missiles here,
thanks
GREENHAM Common, for Cruise missiles, Sunday. had marched Berkshire.
work. on missile sites.
issue campaign.
political aseendancy.
Three at Blackpool, she added.
Home News
campaign
By Erica Flegg
tional
was held
will agencies, other liberation and solidarity express support SWAPO (South African People's Organisation) the
the Namibia's mineral wealth by the Western
tions
October to of Adwest strikers
rests at a mass picket of Adwest on 14 July, and a further two pickets were arrested outside the plant last Monday.
The strikers are fighting to get their jobs back.
Contributions to:
Adwest Defence Committee, 46 Berkeley Avenue, Reading, Berks. one of the proposed sites was 'visited' by 2,500 people on from. Newbury
Derek Shepherd, UCATT regional organiser, said it was the policy of the building workers' union not to
The speaker from Bewbury Against the Missiles spoke of the need to build a single
Joan Lestor MP called for more accountability from our public representatives. She said that the argument was not about peace but about power and
It was necessary to change the views of politicians like Callaghan and the Gang of
Conference on Namibia
launches international
of the con. ference, included
wing countries
from in Such from DONE
from Western powers came negotiating settletheir
the
to settle the
the Nations
tlement
Transport House occupied by
There were 26 ar: DEMANDING that their
three-month-old be made official, two Adwest workers and a Supporte in Transport and General Workers' Union went to Transport House, the union's headquarters, Monday and remained overnight.
They said that they REVOLUT
and Strauss in West
many - shows that the solidarity campaign
urgently needs to be step-
ped up.
In Britain, a campaign
co-ordinating committee is • sup- being set up to implement
a solidarity campaign dur-
ing the next few months
Send a representative from
your organisation to at-
tend the campaign
meetings, or contact the " LO Namibia Support Com-
mittee for details of plan-
ned activities
In the North West, the
dayschool and demonstra-
tion to stop the import of
Namibian Haul Is
example of how effective fore
. against
•noon, Preston
Polytechnic March
day-school
Preston 73109. details would not leave until the decision of union's regional mittee, which has ruled that the Adwest strike
unofficial, reversed. The committee said that members at Reading plant were out of benefit, but f250 has since been paid into union funds. list Challent
SC Events
BRISTOL: SC salc I-l, 'Hole o Fullm ham Rd, Montpelier, Bristol 6
Cardiff British Home Sto Ger-
• avallable from Nels ondon Rd, Enfield Tc sell SC norning
available tside the central refer Mic Bank, He Sure For
Fing
What's Left
• What Next the
Theobalds Road, Ldondi MCLaNT HoDorn tu
the
Page 15 scan of this page
By Phil Hearse I CLEAN I1 rooms a day for which I get £36 gross, for a
week and a . TOOK which I have to share another girl. Whether we like it
we are made to clean two extra rooms a day... for just 40p for every extra room .." (Chambermaid, 1980)
We treat our people properly, are generous to them and recognise them as people. ' (Sir Charles Forte, 1980)
These two quotations indicate the reality behind the respectable facade of Britain's hotel and catering industry, exposed in the new CIS report Hardship Hotel.
It is a dreadful story of an increasingly monopolised dustry, making huge profits or the basis of the misery thousands of pitifully paid and shabbily treated WULACLO among whom immigrant workers and women represent a large proportion.
Many people realise that the hotel and catering industry is
notoriously low-paid and hard to unionise. But the full extent of the misery and sufferwing in the industry, a scandal and affront to all working people, is graphically brought out
in the CIS report.
While the findings of the report apply to the whole of the catering maustry, the report centres on the hotels.
Who owns
the hotels? thousands of st There small hotels ase
over the country: But there is a
growing trend of monopolisa-
1302 At the top of the pyramid
Trusthouse
Porte, with well over
hotel rooms, and
Metropolitan, WIlO
10,000. The number of small
hotels is falling
redevelopment, growing costs
and the more. regulations have put many out
of business.
the slump
developed, firms which
been hit have often sold hotels
to help their general problems.
The classic case is J Lyons,
which sold off its hotels
cluding the
Cumberland and the Regen
alace hotels in London - for
Pittance. The buyer
Trusthouse Forte.
Despite the
economic climate, the Care huge (see table).
profits are born of one thing
only exploitation on a vast
The Insane Society
Hardship Hotel
with
1946.. Savoy Hotel workers on strike
Wages and
Conditions
In June 1978, London's Grosvenor notel
in- dismissed 30
Fifteen had been living in, one
of for 19 years and two 1o11o
They were all given 48 hours to leave their rooms.
This kind of behaviour is just one aspect of the tyranny which hotel owners often exert Hotel chambermaids earn a pittance — at the beck and call of the employers
over their workers. Apart from the pitifully low wages, hotel owners try to secure maxCOLTOE OVeL workforce.
Most hotel workers have extremely unsocial hours. Many have split shiftsworking early then in the evening.
Many are asked to do extra duties at short notice.
This system labour flexibility is compound-
course
By Alan Freeman GIVEN the political will, we could have a government tommorrow would: 20,000 house building by 75 per cent; Grand expand education
over by 25 per cent; boost pensions
by 50 percent; guarantee fullurban time
women and men; and still have
fire the resources to spare to in-
productive by half.
has This is the
have reached. by economists
Harrison and Andrew Glyn, in new BOOK Economic Disaster
- In- £2.65)
These paid for simply by employing 2m unemployed workers on the
was machines left idle
were flung on the dole. general To release these resources;
But the STELLA plan unde the govert workers'
motive: 'Once investment deci-
workers who live in (low wages are often justified on this basis and by taken on to fill the gaps. summarily Immigrant chamber maids,
workers
workers and restaurant workers are overseas their
working
and This effec-
of unlimited
Planning; what it could achieve
sions were capital's hands, production yielded only a small surplus for expand would economic disruption.' and health be controversial. they show that the present crisis £105 rooted 1n throughout the West and above Drilall investment classical Marxist there . 1s an conclusion towards falling profits.
John ditions, arinsing The British nature of the postwar boom, (Pluto, have produced the crisis.
measures could be agrees with them, their case is
backed with a wealth of facts that will be invaluable to conwhen they vince others of the need for socialist planning.
The authors ament would daye lo inarcherisin
control, choice that the ruling class has instead of relying on the profit made: an attempt to use the
: Teession
Under Review
Company
Trusthouse Forte Grand Metropolitan Coral Leisure Rank Organisation EMI (now Thorn)
Comfort Trafalgar House British Transport Hotels Rowton Savoy
15
HOMELESS
by the large number of
casual workers being Company Trusthouse Forte Grand Metropolitan Coral Leisure Rank OrganisaAround 14 per cent of hotel tion
25 per cent of EMI (now Thorn) Trom Comfort the industry Trafalgar House British Transport Hotels ROWO Savoy
* Trading profit
ones are Filipinos, tuguese and Ilallalts.
SOLID FOR VICTORY
taken out of the fact that
accumulation enough. longer lead to They ington's Much of what they say will
Although unions technology falling profits and power, they deny thesis that the inbuilt tendency
They assert that special con-
from the
Whether or not the reader improvements,
fails show that political political
smash working, intrests of workers.
Who gets what - the pay league Top director's weekly pay
1,029 969
1,000 .977 398 1,346 n.a. 290 290
* Average weekly remuneration per employee The unskilled worker's basic weekly wages given are examples; rates vary from job to job and between hotels.
London's top ten hotel companies Ranked by number of beds.
Pre-tax Sales profits 1979 1979 Em £m 721.0 68.2
2,170.8 -:139.0 -366.0 24.8
537.8 43.8* .869.5 10.8 18.5 2.5 946.1 43.7
38.7 0.3 5.3 1.4 27.1 0.5
* Source: Vickers da Costa
employs a higher proportion of the worst jobs, such as washing
immigrant workers than any
The main nationalities Spaniards, Por-
A large proportion of them are working in jobs that involve
no contact with the public class organisation and restore capitalist profitability. It can be defeated if resistance is strong
quote Lord Carrsecret memorandum to the Tory leadership: Strong
and advanced operated by their particularly in fuel mean govenment these days can 'win'
Mr. Baldwin's Cabinet triumphed during the General Strike of 1926 by maintaining supplies and services.'
Discussing the Labour left's laternative economic strategy, they conclude that it promises
while not disrupting present economic arrangements as thoroughly as a genuine socialist plan would.
But it has a fatal flaw. acknowledge the need • IO launch decisive attack on the power of capital if investment and pro duction are to be planned in the
that
Unskilled Yearly worker's profit per worker wage ing 60 947 62.5 1.171 57 1,727 large 1,206 227 2,109 1,093 73 l.d 35* 1,649 63* 149 Profits* Profits increase hotels Landon 1978-9 (approx) beds
23% 73% 6,501
20% 8% 6,455 14% : 12% 2,175
12% 6%
- 58% n.a. 1,745
1,545
- 28% 4% 972
- 66% 100% 968
22% 65% 899
- 53% :895 up, as chambermaids, etc.
workers are often in the worst position vis-a-vis their employers. Many of them are illegal' immigrants or without proper work permits.
FABLE
Once upon a time there was something some people had invented that could kill everyone and destroy the whole world.
And I decided I was someone who could decide on behalf of everyone else whether this should happen.
And I didn't know much about what this thing was; but I decided I wanted to be Leader and decide everything for everyone else.
So I saw to it that I got appointed. And in my name I allowed other people, who knew more about annihilating than I, to destroy the whole world and everyone living on it without consulting them. Pat Arrowsmith Written after watching Panorama re the US Presidential election - 7.7.80,
They are prey to every demand
the employer wants to make on them. , Their condition is simply that of slave labour.
Organising
Because the hotels are deal-
with lac • most Oppresser and the most vulnerable sec tions of society, and with
of casual workers, it is notoriously difficult to unionise them. Union membership in the industry is
cent of the workforce. Both main general unions - the TGWU airl the GMWU - have made sper dic attempts at unionisation vith uneven results.
As the report points out, conditions for hotel and cater-
as the recession starts to make things more alnicult lor une employers to sustain their luxury' profits. The need to push forward the unionisation of hotel and catering workers is urgent.
Struggles like those with the Garners Steak House chain, the Trusthouse Forte 'Night Out' nightspot in Birmingham, and Grand -Metropolitan Hotels show that such unionisation battles will be long and dif-
Since they will be undertaken by groups of workers who are the most vulnerable to state and employer harassment the maximum solidaiit! TrON other trade unionists will be required.
Page 16 scan of this page
IRAN!
By Brian Grogan AS WE go to press, Iraq has launched an invasion of Iran 'to occupy key strategic installations'. All socialists must condemn this attack, aimed at rolling back the gains of the Iranian revolution.
The Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein is in crisis.
Muslims, who make up 50 per cent of the population - and predominate in the poorer sections — have openly identified with the Iranian revolution.
In-fighting within the Ba'athist party has further narrowed the base of the regime. An average 100 political executions a year over the past five years are reported by Amnesty Twenty top members of the regime were executed last year for plotting ot overthrow Hussein.
Finally, a shift in Iraq's international alliances has led ot an attack on the Communist Party, which at one time was part of the ruling coalition. The CP has now linked up with the Kurdish resistence, constant threat to the regime over the past decade.
Iraq and Saudi Arabia have been moving steadily closer together, changing information and concluding an agreement to aid each other in combating any revolutionary activity in their respective countries.
Iraq has not yet taken the final step to align itself openly with imperialism. Nonetheless, only imperialism can gain from this invasion. patrolling in the region ready to take advantage of any opening to regain their previous positions.
Thus, while socialists cannot defend the 1975 agreement imposed by the Shah which defined the border in Iran's favour, this is not the essence of the conflict.
Iranian military strength has undoubtedly been weakened by refusal of the USA to provide spare parts. But the biggest weakness is not lack of hardware, but the continued ex-
WE'LL SHOW the Tories we mean
business! That's the growing mood
in the build-up to the demonstra-
tion and picket at the Tory Party
conference on 10 October.
The demonstration, jointly call-
ed by the Right to Work Campaign
and the Liaison Committee for the
Defence of Trade Unions, is now
supported by the executive of the
Transport and General Workers
Union and a host of other labour
movement organisations.
The decision of the TGWU ex-
ecutive to support the demonstra-
tion, coming hard on backing from d
the South Wales miners, the West
Midlands automotive group of the
Socialist
Challenge
HANDS OFF
which is
The Shi'ite International. which has been a US warships are
nian revolution.
the
Oct 10-support builds up
TGWU,
ment.
doubtedly congratulation.
Wing with unemployed.
the adulation
union laws
Published by Cardinal Enterprises P.O. Box 50, London N1. Printed by East End offset (TU)
istence of a military hierarchy whose only interest is to plot coups and armed action to turn back the gains of the Ira-
The call for general mobilisation could lay the basis for an invincible fighting force if this meant a militia based on democratic forms of organisation, with the reactionary generals under the control of the ranks.
Equally, a call to defend the Iranian revolution would carry more weight if
and a mass meeting of West Midlands shop stewards, 'is an extremely welcome develop-
The Tory conference will unbe an orgy of selfThe resolutions reveal that the only complaint of the Tory faithful is that the government is not ruthless enough in deal-
the trade unions and
Thatcher and Joseph will use of the reactionary rabble to re-affirm their determination not to contemplate 'U-turns'. They will beat the drum of anti-
and monetarist
SOCIALIST
CHALLENGE
FUND DRIVE
£200 for the new-look paper
- that was the pleasant sur-
prose we received through
the OOST today. Our
anonymous supporter was
so impressed with the pro.
posed changes with the
paper that s/he sent in their
recent back pay award.
And our fundraising Khomeini's present attack on the Kurds was called off and national granted to them and the Arabs of Khuzestan.
The counter-revolution in Iran will be looking to this invasion as an opportunity for further coup attempts and the chance to forment civil war. The allies that need to be won to revolution are the Arabs and Kurds.
It is on this basis that we demand 'Hands off Iran'. savagery. Once again they demonstrate their complete utter contempt for unemployed.
The rantings of Thatcher and her neanderthal cohorts will doubtless be received with rapture by Fleet Street. The demonstration on 10 October is a chance to show how unrepresentative they are.
All socialists and trade unionists should make sure that the Tories beanfeast is interrupted and that the fight against unemployment is not forgotten. Tickets for special train from London on 10 October are available from 265a Seven Sisters Road, London N1, price £3 return.
social in London raised a further £163 to add to the £100
La group or sup porters who recently toured the Soviet Union.
All in all our new-look paper received a tremendous boost this week from our supporters.
If you think Socialist Challenge is a vital weapon in the class struggle, if the coverage this week is an important contribution to the debate on perspectives inside the Labour party then rush us a donation straight away. Help make Socialist Challenge the best paper on rights By Patrick Sikorski
docks
the first round.
the
workers
will
and
the
bosses"
other firms
the
accept
the left, the paper that every militant worker wants to read!
Our thanks this week to: -A. Tortorella £3.0 Wolves IMG dry out 14.95 Swindon IMG 8.00 USSR tour group 100.00 Sheffield IMG 5.00 G. Beagley 5.00 Al Walker 5.00 P. Browne 5.00 Anon 200.00 SC social 63.14 MM + JB (Hackney) 12.01 TOTAL £521.10
DOCKS
IT was a straight fight. The dockers versus the Liverpool and national
employers. The result: knock-out victory for the dockers in
The docks employers were trying to push through Tory policies
On any one day in ports around the country thousands of dockers have no work. Under the 1972 JonesAldington agreement they remain on the register with full fall-back pay of €78.50. Hardly Thatcher or Joseph's dream - of ruthlessly cutting their version of surplus and overpaid"
In refusing to allow the agreement to be broken, the Liverpool dockers, with strong national backing, would not accept responsibility for the lack of work caused by the
slump. The 178 dockers employed by two bankrupt companies will now be given jobs with
A national organisation, firmly under the control of the rank and file, was able to brush aside the dire warnings from the media of a national disaster if there was a strike, and to reject the carrot of bigger redundancy payments that TGWU officials would have been happy to
← Socialist Challenge No. 164, 18 September 1980Socialist Challenge No. 166, 3 October 1980 →