Socialist Challenge No. 176, 10 December 1980
The scan: sc-n176-dec-10-1980.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge
HUNGER STRIKERS
TROOPS OUT OF IRELAND NOW!
THREE of the ten strikers in the north of Ireland are now approaching But over the past week support for the prisoners building up.
An estimated 50,000 people marched in Dublin last Sunday in the biggest anti-British demonstration there since Bloody Sunday. 1972.
Thatcher's visit to Dublin makes one thing absolutely clear. British government pressure to agree to the hunger strikers' demands. desperately looking for a way out.
The hunger strike was adopted by the seven prisoners from Long Kesh and the three women in Arman 0 sa useson arter years 'on the blanket' in their campaign for political status.
The prisoners were picked up under special legislation, rogated under special legislation, tried in special victed by special laws.
Before death intervenes...
hunger government special status. death.
has been under
and
Led. inter-
courts and conYet the MAR section of the H Block march in Dublin last weekend
Socialist
STEP UP THE
FIGHT FOR THE
. still denies their
The fight for political status has reached a crucial stage. If it is defeated, not only will it be an important victory for the Tories, it will be a defeat which could set back the Irish struggle for years. It is time for the British labour move. ment to swing its weight behind the hunger strikers.
Last week's march in Dublin was complemented by a number of marches in the north of Ireland, and one of more than 5,000 in London.
But this is only a small fraction of the support that could be mobilis
The message of Thatcher's visit to Dublin, and the wave of protest
12.30pm All Saints.
17 December, 144 Walworth Road, South London.
in the north of Ireland - which far exceeds the expectations of the British government -tory can be won.
Instead of total intransigence, government spokespeople are now beginning humanitarian concessions. Before the hunger strikers start dying and the first could be dead Christmas - the fight for political status must be stepped up.
As the latest statement from the Armagh women your resources and use every possi ble means.to pressurise the British government into just demands before death and all its stark reality intervenes here'.
Demonstrate: Manchester, 20 December,
Lobby: Labour Party national executive,
talk
by
says: 'Mobilise
conceding our
No. 176
John
Lennon
The Luck of the Irish
John Lennon, November 1971 If you had the luck of
the Irish, You'd be sorry and wish you
were dead.
You should have the luck of
the Irish And you'd wish you was
English instead!
A thousand years of torture
and hunger Drove the people away from
their land, A land full of beauty and
wonder Was raped by the British
brigands! Goddamn!
Goddamn!
In the 'Pool they told us
the story How the English divided
the land, DEATH OF A WORKING CLASS HERO
IN THE deluge of coverage of the murder of
John Lennon, we can be sure that the media
will want to bury his radical past.
Socialist Challenge has no intention of.
doing so..
On pages 8 and 9 we pay tribute to him and
recall his stand against oppression - the side of John Lennon that led to some of his best music.
10 December 1980 20p
Red Mole
FOR
THE IRA
AGAINST
Of the pain, the death and the glory And the poets of auld Eireland.
Why the hell are the English there anyway?
As they kill with God on their. side!
Blame it all on the kids and the IRA!
As the bastards commit genocide Aye! Aye!
Genocide!
If you had the luck of the Irish You should have the luck of the Irish You'd be sorry and wish you were dead.
And you'd wish you was English instead!
Yes you'd wish you was English instead!
Page 2 scan of this page
Labour Party-
Editorial
Socialist Challenge
Revolutionary socialist weekly
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Phone 01-359 8189/8180 (editorial and distribution)
THE right wing of the Parliamentary Labour Party were exultant last week atter the results of the shadow cabinet elections. The right-wing saw eight of its slate for the twelve places elected.
Pro-NATO warmonger William Rodgers received a handsome 116 votes, while the leading candidates of the left - Heffer and Benn - were voted out. The Times pointed out that 'the four so-called left-wingers who were elected - people like Shore, Orme and Silkin - 'can certainly be classified as the kind of left winger that the right feels comfortable doing business with'.
It is clear that the PLP right wing, in league with other 'moderates' in the centre . of the party, hope to marginalise Benn and the left advance which he represented at the party conference.
This process of trying to head off the challenge of the left had already been set in motion with the election of Michael Foot as party leader. Foot did not associate himself with the left at Blackpool, nor did he break with the Callaghan camp.
Influential
But as a result of his one-time 'left' credentials a number of influential trade union bosses and other 'moderates' pushed him forward for leader. The party centre saw him as the best candidate around which the trade union bureaucracy and the party as a whole could 'unite', as well as being the best candidate to cut the ground away from under Benn's feet.
As the Times put it, his election was a 'vote for peace and quiet'. This manoeuvre is unlikely to work in the long run. The shift to the left taking place in the party. reflected in the election of Foot himself, is profoundly influenced by a growing radicalisation and class hatred directed against Thatcher's government.
This process, rooted in the crisis of British capitalism, will not be halted by an MPs-only election in the palace of Westminster. It is inevitable that the question of the party leadership and democracy will remain on the boil, especially if Foot is the prisoner of his own shadow cabinet on issues like that of nuclear disarmament.
As Labour MP Reg Race said after the shadow cabinet elections: "Labour MPs have shown that under no circumstances can they be trusted with a substantial voice in the election of the leader.
'Under duress they elected Michael Foot. Théy have now packed the shadow cabinet with Healeyites. Constituency parties should understand the message: Labour MPs are telling
Because of this PLP activity, Socialist Challenge has called on its supporters to support the broadest possible franchise in electing the party leader.
We think that the role of the PLP should be minimised, and that they should have no more say than any other party members. We think that the trade unions should play a role commensurate with their size and status in the party. In other words, we think that conference should decide the leader.
Election
At the present time the AUEW supports giving 75 per cent of the votes to the The General and Municipal Workers Union wants 50 per cent for MPs, while the TGWU and NUPE seem to be backing the one third each to MPs, trade unions and constituency parties scheme put forward by the national executive itself.
If there is no possibility of the 'conference decides' option being accepted, then the executive's proposal should be votea tor.
The lesson of the election for the shadow cabinet is that the right are not at all prepared to give up the struggle against the left. They will try to reverse the gains of the Blackoool conterence. The fiaht for democracy needs to be continued.
Socialist Challenge 10 December 1980 Page 2
'Manifesto' group
them that the truce is over.'
MPs.
Organising in the
unions: vital task for Labour left
THIS weekend sees two important conferences of the Labour left: general meetings Labour Party Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC).
Both these organisations poles important our left. important
The LLro. wiich launcace unt Kankl Committee, is a united cam
question
f democracy; the LCC wa rounded to ugal or a campaigning Labour Party
Organising inside unions is cru both these objectives inside the Dalli At •both erences socaust carena supporters will be proposing motions on the importance of this question.
resolution from Hea Richards stresses the impor resolution TrON tance policyNEC
retreats on
re-selection the Las meetiar yast culik,
Lavour turn executive
which undermines Blackpool conference resolutions on mandatory cociction.
On a proposal from Eric Heffer, the executive decided that mandatory Seeted as being effected by a sort ust or One
nort tone method effectively gives the
'moderates in each constituency the opour Lant
selection process he tater of the takoo DUCe NEC's decision Comerence Becau favour of compulsory re
the annual of the Campaign •for Democracy (CLPD) and the
making bodies diseassing Labori conterences
delegates. undemocratic the block vote is a
spect of the strength of th
ight win
At the LCC conference the resolution from Socialis Challenge supporters points
for the mass campaigning o the Labour Party, and proDoses a senes or ootecove — around the 35 hour week, worksharing with no loss of
and a woman's right pay, work we souls fought for.
At the CLPD ference, Socialist Challenge Michael Foot, right, looking to the future — but does it include Tony Benn?
By Bob Pennington
AFTER a weekend of press speculation that
were afoot for Communist
Party affiliation to
Labour •Party, the
leaders of the
tary Labour Party were call-
ed out to pour cold water on
such a subversive idea.
Eric Heffer, chairperson of
the Labour Party's organisation
committee dismissed the idea
ludicrous and
McLennan, the CP's
secretary: agreed "that
was no immediate possibility
prospect of
development'.
Presumably the matter can now be put safely to one side,
the Labour right can feel a little
sater. and. Mr Mclennan not have to worry about his Eurocommunist 'wets'
supporters will also be argu-
tive of the democracy fight
should be that the Labour
conference should decide
Dolll leader
manitesto
ported against those of the
right-wing, the highest and
most cemocratio
the party is the annual con
ference: it should have the
power to decide
The resolutions to the
LCC conference reveal a
number of problems if the
campaign is to go forward
organisationally, politically, social democracy. moves
storage may the left ParliamenRanks Gordon general
there the right
such Labour
only strengthen
being right wing.
democr
At least two resolutions pro pose inal ine el snould on the basis of support for the Alternative Economic Strategy. Against LIS resolutions IrON Socialist oronnise sup counterpose the evolutionar socialism.
While Socialist Challenge obviously poses the AES and supports ine conent or me socials Organiser resolutions, we feel that it is not appropriat for such resolutions 88 DUL For the united around a mass cam paigning approach, it is no! necessary to have a position
Communist Party to affiliate?
incorporated into
Putting this idea into cold
appeal to refor. bureaucrats such methods do not serve the purpose of turning the Labou Party into a mass campaignin‹ party that unites all those who claim allegiance to socialism.
the
Last March at the 'Debate for he right Tall socialist Sorrel
socialist Ore Diator Party This Could heading
Party. This could
Party, as it would bring into its
tivists and strengthen those in the Labour Party who are wag ing à serious fight against the
on the AES adoption of th , as the basis for LCC will mean simply tha the LCC will be reduced to that those socialists in the Labour Par a wno co not agree will l AES will not participate i thẹ LCC.
The LCC executive ha to make up us anne. ene the LCC can be a small an
exclusive pressure group, can seriously organis forces to fight for a mas campaigning Labour Party
proposal which way they want to go There is no reeason why thi CP, the Socialist Workers Par
Group should dissolve thei
Shoul organisations. They shouk
the rights organise for their ideas as an
tendency inside th Labour Party.
The right-wing leaders
Labour Party from Mac Donald and Thomas to Deaki
Attlee to today's leader always organised
have felt the Labour Party wa
down the . pati socialist policies.
The affiliated organisation would have the • merit of no only organising openly, but
organising fo socialism. And that wouldn' be such a bad thing for a part that claims to be socialist.
Page 3 scan of this page
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Page 4 scan of this page
Scottish unions call for public sector alliance
Steelworkers
defend jobs
By Clive Tumbull
SHEFFIELD and steelworkers have called a multi-union conference to fight for jobs to be held in February or March.
The decision was organised by the Sheffield steel working party which consists of steelworkers in both the public and private sectors.
According Yorkshire crafts committee, the body which proposed the resolution, the aim of the conerence is to mobilise the against the Tory offensive.
This was necessary at grass roots level as there had been no leadership coming from the top. All labour movement bodies will be encouraged to send delegates.
Joan Maynard, one of the Labour MPs present, argued that we couldn't wait for the next general election to fight unemployment:
¿Democracy isn't a question of putting a cross on a piece of paper every five years. There won't be after the Tories have finished.
All quiet
on the
wages
front?
By Pat Kane On 1 December, the Mineworkers members had voted to accept a 13.8 per cent pay deal. The Tory establishment breathed a sigh of relief. The Daily Telegraph declared that it was 'all quiet on the wages front'. Ted her a nears to be pleased with government's handling first sight the miners ballot ycas result seems to justify her optimism. But this i only tells one side or the story The impact econome crisis on working people can
spoil the
ministers and officials.
1 ake une public sector a Nove ear example On
Chancellor announced • Jubaucel that
firm on its new six ner cen wage limit. Only one week later, the Brigades Union won two-star
cent The FBU secured this deal simply by threatening sunke acuion. -Control
The strin gs contained in the final deal • Have Iosullcu
La tie areas rejecting • Ine' settlewill be storing up big pro
when the Tories will not give anything away.
government. have very little alone control over what actuany Happommy economy. Their wages
Socialist Challange
Rotherham national,
taken at a meeting
to a delegate from South
working class anything worth fighting for
National Union of announced that their
sector workers- and satisfy
Tater "сестет" documents revealed in the Guardian last that the Tories want to impose tch Collay
#BI have won more than this and the
nave submitted claims for 20 to 30 per cent. ine tones lougal tal miners' settlement would act as a dampe other workers, that acical NUM's: lett wing Wone weaker militants in other industries. the industries Howe cut a further som well as social
dustries his 'minibudget, raising the spectre
steen tie •Taw ways anothe This fear lay behind
cept lower wage increa LIC that GOOS save jobs.
Deal But as the failure of the last Labour Dav policy testines: there is a worla or alterence Del ween Thatcher announcing per cent limit and tually imposing it for 10 December 1980 Page 4
Six thousand at civil servants' rally picket line WHO EARNS WHAT: THE arming s 980 (S 242.20-191.70 overine de (8)
•12.10
тор 10% (≤) 375.70 263.50
1979 (S) 175.10 129.30
over 1979 (%) 1980 38.3 48.3 Ave. gross 1975(5) .92.0 86.50
163.3 121.6
JcAt Lwo yeals
employers pushed through a support of deal with thi
and DUDDULE Halula
two years OI tacks from the BL
eyland workers voted by 2 to 1 to reject the
pattern of wage settlements is similar. Unemployment is
used tớ keep wages down. leadership the
Hall cititconti AUNW succeet en driving ; down the national
wage shop
Home News
Thatcher's police — earning their 75 per cent, in dexed linked pay rise on the
172.90 166.80
23.10 2.70 4.80 15.50
230.30 232.30 225.20. 109.20 130.40 127.70 136.60
32.6 30.6 :17.2 19.4
76.20 79.10 80.30 74.50
126.6 110.9 99.4 106,2
stewards in the
settlements at an average of over 20 per cent.
have re jected the 9,5 p •day
and the AUEW forced to cal sanke tion in support of a reduc tion length of Ford's working week:
The Ford settlement will have an effect on the giant Transport Genera Workers Union, whos
lead the negotiation
mense sme been through unemployment and now stand at
driver 180.10 183.00 141.30 118.40 115.20 111.70
4,90 6.80 14.40 15.80
.215 147.50 156.70
128,60113.50 96.30 99.30 93.10
24.5 23.1 20
68.40 61.40 64.30 55.70
TO6:6 92.8 79.2
million
Esso tanker drivers, another portant of the have
JUDI ,01. 14.1 percent.
the recession • bites more are deman dins
rksharing redundancy. Many workers
argumen mat mgact wage. cause unemployment But
ow pa settlements
VULL the loos usabbcal las three years.
More and more. trade union leaders are having to
By Des Tierney
powerful
unions to defeat the meeting of the Edu At the general Institute of Scotland held on
i the nade despite the advice of thei executive, that they saw th way Toward ol • OCOLLISI
being 81.1810C6 with other public sector unions.
Rally
It was the same story at
vants held in Glasgow on 1
Suspension protest
25,000 CAVI 356,000 at thi
West of Scotland attended. 110.60 105.50 97.80 80.20
:11.50 24.10 0.60
142.60 157.20 138.10 | 107.40
94.80 84.10 74.10 65.30
16.7 25.5 32 22.9
56.20 • 54.20 51.50 36.80
94.6 89.9 117.9
face the growing anger of
usel members 2091092-10
creasing unemployment and
productivity.
ment between rail, steel, and
conT
fend jobs and services must
be frightening the Tories
further cut the
nationalised
HOUSECO : 118 higher
wages is increasingly bound
with the fight to save
jobs and both are important
living
way to go to tue ena or Lil roune spring
Anything can happen - - 11! our job to make sure it does
WITH the Tory Government pursuing its attacks on public sector wages and jobs, two calls were made in •Scotland recently for an alliance of public sector Government's plans.
emphasised that they did seeker speaker not see their situation in isolation from that faced b other public sector workers.
join achon to lorce ine Tory government to retreat. Movement
This was expressed most dramatical McLennan of the CPSA: It
vil ent bee in then said.
engage
halt thịs Danci
What is needed is a movement
o was bore are its strategy.
Welcome
¡lo. snow now serious they were in this, the civil sercome to enrapturents servants son, the chairperson Strathclyde FBU.
Although he was talking before firefighters was announced, Ronnie emphasised none of them With inflation were •o per cel. and lus covernment ofering per cent. Dhoto. Inhin Stürrock (Report then all workers are a special case:
Torch
Neither was it enough to concentrate on fighting for wages, he said. This government was intent on reducing
: numbe employed public dramatically and public secFor Hos to earst that there trade off between jobs and Wasca He hoped that it would
the FBU light a torch' under the
which would benefit
However, he warned, if any non me to ace or eac Tories itself • or was not
Boss 'hired
boxer for
assault
on shop
steward'
By John Larkin PETER Howe had an
relations' problem at his small
St Annes, Lancashire.
-So British heavyweight box-
challenger Paul
Sykes to beal up the AUEW shop steward
Howe paid €1000 and shop steward John Turtor
ed near his home with an I OU bai and
ten stitches in his head.
The trouble started after the AUEW, led by
had imposed an overtime bar
September national
Howe was imprisoned for months last week at Preston Crown Court
Page 5 scan of this page
When the Labour leaders and Mr Benn were not afraid to support Irish hunger strikers
By Mick Sullivan, North Islington CLP QUESTION: What have Tony Benn, Gordon McLennan, secretary of the Communist Party, Jill Tweedie of the Guardian, and Bishop Winter of Namibia all got in common?
Answer: They are among the small number of MPs, labour movement leaders, and personalities who signed Charter 80, the pelltion in support of the five demands of the Republican prisoners in Long Kesh and Armagh jails in the north of Ireland
They are to be congratulated in going this far against the grain of anti-Irish opinión in British society
However they will need to go a lot further if they wish to see, in this country, the type of mass movement seen in Ireland in support of the hunger strikers: a marches, meetings and from a whole host of individuals. By Geoff Bell ON 2 October, this year, Tony Benn opened his speech at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party conference with these words:
ly. from Ireland was a crime.'
Benn went on to recount how his father had believed unar brusa poncy in Ireland from 1918-21 was
Tony: Benn: said shared this My view ever altered that and 1 must say quite
Y
O'Brien.
Photo Joanne
hunger-strikers.
general movement built on puduct batchicks in I was brought up to believe, very strong:
my father, that the partition of
clearly have never varied in my view that there was no future for peace and did notion dude and tear not include clear alternative perspective off te unification Tony Bean then said. 1r and:
leo Green
UP TO 5,000 people demonstrated in London on Sunday in support of the Irish
There is no doubt that if Tony Benn, Eric Heffer, and Gordon McLennan were really fighting, day in and day out, on this issue there would be a much better ing the prisoners lives. were saved that would be a step nearer to ending the division of Ireland and British interference in that country.
There : have been developments within the Labour the past year to suggest that there as a grow ng sentiment for ending the British presenc
Ireland. -Both the London and Scottis
I say no more than that 1 will nave aischargea an obngation to my father and to those whom he supported Sch Tony said a great dealin puatic or Benn
BCCE to sued opinion on hunger strikers in Long Kesh Armagh, However, if Tony Benn Waste are soscarine an obligation to his father it is interesting to note that cher-Lather MP was not at all reticent on the subject of Irish hunger
Ireland
And what should
Labour do now?
on Ireland. chance of savAnd if those lives
Treland
cof ty over strikers • citrick. 'tantiv. were the then leaders of the British Labour movment.
The year in question was 1920 there were three separate punger strikes by Irish then engaged in the Irish : War Independence The first was in Aprik 1920 when 60 Republican prisoners m *Dubin,
SHERAID
regions of the party have called for an end to Labour's bipartisan support for Tory policy
Labour's national executive committee has set up a working party to propose policy
and last June prison conditions in the north. .Then, at this year's party conference in October, numbers of constituency delegates supported motion calling for British withdrawal and
credit for developments can be given to the nine-month
days all the strikers were un-
beveral aays Tate 170 Sinn Fein prisoners, held at Wormwood Scrubs another
of these prisoners had been tried before a properly constituted judge and jury.
Rough
They objected to the arbitrary, which they had been picked and to the rough treat
and in pron
arres the hands British authorities
- ie was Pierto switch to Labour, voiced the of the Worm. Mikers: On 13 May, inter Have an onese men ry the Home Secretary, complain ill-treatmen been charged or tried with any offence under law?'
Benn knew that none of the prisoners been charged: his question was a •means or exposing as much
Inquiry
Five days later William Benn was on his feet again
into the circumstances
torthcoming SO, ane following month . when the strike had been gọ. ing a couple of weeks, Benn ahalll Talscu
He asked ther Home whether been
against them and, their
ment do?'
The pressure applied by Benn ment and more dramatically a 10.000-strong demonstra Wormwood Scrubs had their effect: all the prie t were released third, alle KUS
Terence McSweeny, the Lord Mayor of Cork, arrested ..wa the British in August 1920 Wa. transferred prison and after being brought before military court, hé went on hunger •SUIKC again William
benn. raiser re issue so tae Commons. On 20 August he demanded to know from the prime minister, for what
13 December,
March:
At make Charter
make to the national partv. It also
on behalf of the prisoners. This involves
trade unions and the party itself. Among the condemned Labour Party executive
CHEN OWI large
and Heffer
these
pass.
Terence McSweeny, the Lord Mayor
of Cork offence the Lord Mayor has occl what • 15 11S •resent sure or rene. when will he be brought to public trial?'
The British government never had any intention of
McSweeny judge and He con
and, aller is days, ne aled But during those agonising movement threw its support behind him
the following telegram was sent to the prime minister:
'The whole of organis ed British
to Government's decision
'the Lord Mavo
release him. His suffering
reater than lengthy im HoURICITE will make Irish more remote. Appeal you to do the big thing'
J. H Thomas by We Adam. a signed
chairper-
SOl • Le
secretary of the PLP
chairperson of the
te TUC. CW Bowerma
Socialist Challenge
old Labour Committee on Ireland which, on
is holding its first national meeting since its founding conference last
that conference delegates voted to '80 high priority, and : although the main aim of the meeting on 13 December is to discuss what submission to
executive's working provides an opportunity discuss what Labour Party members can do
• winning support for the prisoners' demands in the leadership of the
proposals likely to be floated are for an LCI-sponsored lobby of the next
and for the LCI to rally on behalf of the prisoners; inviting the participation of Benr
The LCI's influence and credibility give it an important role in building such initiatives It would be a tragedy to let the opportunity
secretary of the same comAG illitice of the
Son his was ot the only c
Figures in the British Tabou fort moverten Sweeny. On 1 September th South executive of f the
Mineworkers unanimo
for his release Then on 3 September described
includin George Lansbury and Erni Bevin, launched a fresh ap peal.
Voices
All these efforts failed but at least the leaders of the British labour movement -ana the rather or one ol • today's leaders let their voices be heard on the issu The hunger strikes Kesh and Armagh may no be an exact parallel with those at Wormwood Scrub an, as then, the prisoner
Now, as ten, tney are sub jected to brutal treatment
PRice Now, as ten,
conthen, thei cause is the freedom and in dependence of Ireland.
Sadly, the similari ty ends when it comes nions and actions the leaders OT the British labour move ment. • In 1920 there was solidarity with the Irish hunger strikers; today there is silence. 10 December 1960. Page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
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Page 7 scan of this page
BAD
CORMAC Atkin's
plan only
cosmetic TOM Marlowe's article on the demise of the Atkin's Dian Was onte extraordive that Does he_really believe
theo noroi of serangy
north Ireland
believe it was a revamped Sunningdale, and that the
ruling class in the world has growr
reDeal mar ceace
The reality is a little different I think imperialism only well LUC
ELICIC Donatal SOULOT TOI
hecause it knows than that strong native bourgeoisie to which it can
party designed to tie the working population to
tructures there's Chalice
The Atkin's plan was a
Tom Marlowe forgets this plan was first announced in the UNA une british ambassador at a time when Edward Kennedy had tem porarily ediscovered vote-winning power of the arish ouesdor.
The Social Democratic and Labour
anlics ended the ATKIn's plan compliery nto hide
complicity
o course centree neil row on tne H Blocks. When
Tom Marlowe gives them
redit for wrecking
whole political strategy' he unintentionally aos une orotecis or une collaborators by spreading illusions about them
think Tom Marlowe underestimates the importance • naugney s mena comble e v fails to understand that the
tion southern irish wur Kille class accisive 1n lnc 10R8 lerm. dul aiso une immente struggle for political status:
Socialist Challenge
immediately comal Licic on crisis soulier une border to
impressions in Tom's article. AILEAN O CALLAGHAN, London
Watch out, there's a red pencil about
All the letters on this page have been editeep letters to 30% edited...so, please words.
YOU MAY HAVE
NOTICED THE ABSENCE
OF A COMK STRIP IN
THIS PAPER RECENTLY TRADITIONALLY Zionism
itself alstinguisnec forms of racism by having both a right and a left wing. The left wing
an wucu voulo orner se nove been branded as reactionary and racist.
LIONISI Israel is there for all to see,
defend Zionism by an appeal
from Tine Jete Rosenburg (20 Nov) of the Jewish
Group Solomons (6 Novi. While proclaim themselves Zionists (and Mark appi
thesis contrai Zionism: that There people and hence an Israeli Jewish
minority!).
is a religion,
nadons une consan 1s doctrine. Hence the racial discrimination Israel
Jews JAZZ music originate in the courts of kings or the parlours of the privileged. oppressed black populatior In Amerc which nas con. tinued to be responsible for all its stylistic innovations.
When Bell (letters 3
Nov cass KONCE 'loonie' for pointing out this
white critic Deo
record Lull Dallics. vou car sec wayar radicals are often suspicious.
ELSE has
tional minority. order ideology
the Palestinians. solomons
out-
the Arab world.
sent out to 1948 in atmosphere
Dave • Populations.
planted bombs
neither did likewise.
Their
resignation in the early 1950s Israeli Defence Lavon.
Far : from Jewish of different
country. Zionism racism
Black asnKöndzi
PLan der
of the left.
Bell's hero Leonard Feather Shepp, whom supporta ror Maicoim en support for Malcolm pain estant chache white establishmen owns we make it. r'callier aDoll WROD ote can read at length Frank Kofsky's book Black Nationalism and the Revo Music* illustrates this completely Dolphy was
alie maine bande in
'anti-jazz'; joining
Letters
.BUT THERE'S THIS
HUNGER STRIKE, Y'SER.
...AND IT'S HARD TO
THINK ABOUT ANYTHING
*Zionism a form of racism
(western) Jews. Israeli Jows are however no more an Arab minority fighting than Afrikaaners are an African na-
They are settlers and exploiting digenous population - in this case
referring to Jewish oppression in
It was precisely sion that Zionist emissaries were LIVe
Israel to Iraq and demned of fear in their Iraq the) the Masuda Shemtov synagogue and in Egypt It
activities were coordinated at the highest levels of fighting the Israeli state and caused the
of the minister, Pinhas
Zionism ILs centre tomnezont against fascism and racism in this
maintains that ana ant oenusm herent in any gentile (non-Jewish) society and its conclusions from In defence of the jazz radicals
vicious callodell in macazane against the jazz revolution starting at that time.
But when Dolphy died Feather picked up une com.
MISSION TTON •memorial records for the album.
This incident behween
McCoy Tyner, Pianise in ten incident John Classic Coltrane Quartet, and Kofsky'sums it Tyner: 'That's what I'm
IT'S NOTHING UNUSUAL,
OF COURSE.... A FEW
IRISH MEN AND WOMEN
POSSIBLY GOING TO THEIR DEATHS.... this are that Jews should therefore run away from racism instead of
it alongside the left and the working class. It is this that explains the passivity of Jews in this country in the fight against racism •not the ant-Lionism of une lort
Finally it is a lie to state that the PLO had links with the Nazis in the
in the mid 1960s. It is worth poin
that Menachim Begin, Israel's Prime Minister,
as alterite
and in Zionists who had the closest links with the Nazis.
pity that the Jewish Socialist Group dévotes its time to whitewashing Zionism instead of
this reactionary ideology people. Socialist Challenge would not have printed a letter seeking to whitewash apartheid; inis is due to a general cort fusion and ambivalence on the left. about the subject. Can I suggest a tull page article on Lionisin is te least you can do to help rectify this situdlior TONY GREENSTEIN, London
lalking aboul. rnal s some And i mean after dies (they) put him in the Down Beat hall of fame. 'The same people who put him in poverty.
Tyner: mean, see, he couldn't work
• 002 Dolphy recognised - • 16 years after his death - as one of Jaz music's greatest innovators.
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Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
DEATH OF A WORI
Woman
is the
Nigger of
the World
Lennon/Ono
Woman is the nigger of
the world Yes she is... think about it Woman is the nigger of
the world Think about it... do
something about it.
We make her paint her
face and dance If she won't be a slave, we
•say that she don't love us If she's real, we say she's
trying to be a man While putting her down we
pretend that she's above us
Woman is the nigger of the
world... yes she is If you don't believe me, take a
look at the one you're with Woman is the slave of Ah, yehi... better scream the slaves
about it.
We make her bear and raise
our children And then we leave her flat for
being a fat old mother hen We tell her home is the only
place she should be Then we complain that she's
too unworldly to be
our friend
Woman is the nigger of the
world... yes she is If you don't believe me, take a
look at the one you're with Woman is the slave to
thè slaves Yeh (think about it).
We insult her every day on TV And wonder why she has no.
guts or confidence When she's young we kill her
will to be free While telling her not to be so
smart we put her down for
being so dumb
Woman is the nigger of
the world Yes she is...if you don't
believe me, take a look at
the one you're with Woman is the slave to
the slaves Yes she is... if you believe me,
you better scream about it.
Repeat:
We make her paint her
face and dance.
We make her paint her
face and dance.
We make her paint her
face and dance.
Socialist Challenge 10 December 1980 Page 8
JOHN Lennon was one of the most talented of Britain's postwar musicians. hands of a young lunatic will probably force some contemplation by those normally complacent of the deep-rooted cancers which exist in American society.
is as much a reflection of the sickness of American capitalist values as of the individual in question.
In his short life John Lennon
Klanners, officers in Aldershot, from religious maniacs. expect was at the hands of a
of achieving fame.
In the late '60s and '70s, John Lennon was part of a radicalisation which affected millions of young people. radicalisation and revealed him as
His murder at the
The derangement of the assassin
received many threats: from Ku Klux
from racist British army.
The one death he did not
mindless assassin, no doubt desirous
His finest songs fed that
someone who cared about the world John Lennon carrying Red Mole, predecessor of Socialist Challenge
and its problems. In 1969 he returnec the MBE he had been awarded four years earlier, as a protest again British policy in Biafra
The extracts published below are from an interview which Robin Blackburn and I conducted with him for the Red Mole in 1971. We discussed everything under the sun and the final published version was greatly shortened.
The day following the interview I received a phone-call at The Rea Mole's offices on Pentonville Road. I was Lennon. He wanted to say how much he'd enjoyed the interview and then came the bombshell:
'I was inspired by that talk to write a marching song for our demos. Do you mind if I sing it to you on the phone.' He sang the words of Power to the People without musical accompaniment. We then discussed the tune and the same month he released it as a single.
Following that Lennon and Yoko Ono came on a number of demonstrations and he normally
Red Mole
THE IRA
BRNISH
a good thing...
establishment.
male chauvinism.
songs.
TARIQ ALI somewhere. acid days; that would be around '65 or
repression.
way, you know
in a sort of Joycean gobbledegook, there's many
capitalist. Hurricane
used to write magazines in
and I knew about the class
got lett out — I got fartne George and I said Listen, when they ask next time
like that war and they should get right out.
that time this was a pretty radical thing to do,
But you've got to remember that repressed. We were all so pressurised that there was
insisted on holding up a copy of Red
Mole, though in private he used to
say: 'I can't understand half the
articles in there, but i suppose that s
Unlike many others like him
Lennon never forgot that he was of
Irish and working class origin. He
had a deep contempt for the ruling
class and its ideological and cultural
Even though his departure to the
States heralded a flight from politics
and commitment he never became a
spokesperson for the other side. In
his most recent interview he
stressed the necessity to combat
Others will pay their own
tributes. Ours is to reprint an extract
from the Red Mole interview as well
as the words of his most political.
This was Lennon at his most
powerful and for that reason the
Lennon that will always live.
I'VE always been politically-minded, you know, and against the status quo. It's pretty basic when you're brought up, like I was, to hate and fear the police as a natural enemy and to despise the army as something that takes everybody away and leaves them dead
I mean, it's just a basic working class thing, though it begins to wear off when you get older, get a family and ge swallowed up in the system
In my case I've never no been political, though religion tended to overshadow it in my
'66. And that religion was directiv the resut of all that superstar shit -religion was an outlet for my
I thought, 'Well, there's something else in life, isn't there? This isn't it, surely?'
But I was always political in a
In the two books I wrote, even though they were written
knocks at religion and there is a play about a worker and a
I've been satirising the system since my childhood. I school and hand them around.
I was very conscious of class, they would say with a chip on my shoulder, because I knew what happened to me repression coming down on us - it was a fucking fact but in the hurricane Beatle world it away from reality for a time
We went to America a fev times and Epstein always tried to waffle on at us about saying nothing about Vietnam.
So there came a time when
political bits we're going to say we don't
we think
That's what we did. At
especially for the 'Fab Four'. It was the first opportunity I personally took to wave the flag a bit.
war was ''d always felt
hardly any chance of expressing ourselves, especially work-
POWER TO THE
Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people
Say we want a revo We better get it on r Get on your feet And into the street, Chorus... Powe
A million workers n You better give 'em We gotta put you d When we come into Chorus... Powe
I gotta ask you com How do you treat y She got to be hersel So you can free you Chorus... Powe
1g the
flu
ing at that rate, touring continually and always kept in a cocoon of myths and dreams.
It's pretty hard when you are Caesar and everyone is saying how wonderful you are and they are giving you all the goodies and the girls, it's pret ty hard to break out of that ha to say Well, I don't want to be king, I want to be real.'
ba be
So in its way the second political thing I did was to sa!
'The Beatles are bigger than Jesus'. That really broke the scene, I nearly got shot in America for that. It was a big trauma for all the kids that were following us.
Up to then there was this unspoken policy of not answering delicate questions, though I always read the papers, you know, the
The continual awareness of what was going on made me feel ashamed I wasn't saying anything. I burst out because I could no longer play that game any more, it was just too much for me.
Of course, going to America increased the build up on me, especially as the
going on there. In a
way we'd turned out to be a Trojan Horse.
The Fab Four moved right to the top and then sang about drugs and sex and then
Page 9 scan of this page
ING CLASS HERO
OPLE
it on
away
H40.. the people
ing for nothing at they really own
in; singing... the people
es and brothers own women back home
the people
ato more and more stuff and that's when arted dropping us. as very miserable. I apart from the first f making it - the thrill first number one the first trip to first we had some sort ective like being as big s- moving forward e great thing, but ac attaining it was the big wn. I found I was havntinually to please the people I'd always then I was a child. si began to bring me
reality. I began to that we are all oppressich is why I would like something about it, b I'm not sure where my Then I started, Rock and self was the basic tion to people of my age tuation. We needed ning loud and clear to through all the unfeelid repression that had coming down on us kids.
change were a bit conscious to with of being imitation cans. But we delved into asic and found that it alf white Country-andi and half black on and blues.
st of the songs came Europe and Africa and hey were coming back to iny of Dylan's best eame from Scotland, a or England. It was a
cultural exchange
bugh 1 must say the
interesting songs to me ne orack ones Occause
ere more simple. They I said Snake your arse, ur prick, which was an aton really.
id then there were the
mainly expressing
in they were in, They
t express themselves in-
ally so they had to say mang to them. few words what was
And then
vas the City blues and a
that was about sex and
lot of this was self-
on but only in the last
ars have they expressed
jes completely Willi
Power, like Edwin Starr
ng War records. Before
that many black singers were 'still labouring under that problem of God, it was often "God will save us..
But right through the blacks were singing directly and immediately about their pain and also about sex, which is why I like it.
To begin with, working class people reacted against our openness about sex. They are trigntenea or nually, they're repressed in that way thought 'Paul is a good lad, he doesn't make trouble
Also when Yoko and I got married, we got terrible racialist letters — you know, warning me that she would slit my throat. Those mainly came
people living in Aldershot. Öfficers.
Now workers are more friendly to us, so perhaps it's changing. It seems to me that the students are now halfawake enough to try and wake up their brother workers. If you don't pass on your own awareness then it closes down again.
Convince
That is why the basic need
is for the students to get in
with the workers and convince
them that they are not talking
onnererook Aco cour
t's difficult to know what the
workers are really thinking:
because the capitalist press
always only quotes
mouthpieces like Vic Feather anyway.
So the only thing is to talk to them directly, young workers. start with them because the know they're up against it. I'd like to incite people.to break the framework, to be disobe dient in school, to stick their tongues out, to keep insulting authority.
Students
I think it wouldn't take much to get the youth here Teary colle. give them free rein to attack the local councils or to destroy the school authorities, like the students who repression in the universities.
It's already happening, though people have got to get together more. And the women are very important too, we can't have a revolution that doesn't involve and liberate women. It's so subtle the way you're taught male superiority.
It took me quite a long time to realise that my maleness was cutting ori certain areas for Yoko. She's a red hot liberationist and was quick to show me where! Was all Wills it seemed to me that I was just acting naturally.
inat's wny terested to know how people who claim to be radical treat women.
especially the
We've got to a wonderful free-
country, they've got tellies
school.
their own.
are being You'd have to next.
Aware break up the
Like Marx said, cording to his need'
filtrate the army too,
oppressed.
your
even though
I'm always in-
living wage.
We have to make the workers aware of the really unhappy position they are in breaking the dream they are it
• speaking cars and and they don't want to think there's anything more to life, they are prepared to le the bosses run them, to see their children fucked up in
They're dreaming someone else's dream, it's not even
They should realise that the Blacks and the Irish
harassed and repressed and that they will be
As soon as they start being aware of all that, we can really begin to do something. The workers can start to take over.
"To each acI think
that would work well here
But we'd also have to inbecause
they are well trained to kill us
all. We've got to start all this
from where we ourselves are
I think it's false, shallow, to be giving to others when
own need is great.
The idea is not to comfort
people, not to make them fee
etter but to make them tee
worse, to constantly put
before them the degradations
and humiliations they go
through to get what they call a
Working Class Hero AS SOON AS YOU'RE BORN THEY MAKE YOU FEEL SMALL BY GIVING YOU NO TIME INSTEAD OF IT ALL TILL THE PAIN IS SO BỊG YOU FEEL NOTHING AT ALL A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
THEY HURT YOU AT HOME AND THEY HIT YOU AT SCHOOL THEY HATE YOU IF YOU'RE CLEVER AND THEY DESPISE TILL YOU'RE SO * CRAZY YOU CAN'T FOLLOW THEIR FOOL
RULES A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
WHEN THEY'VE TORTURED AND SCARED YOU FOR
20 ODD YEARS THEN THEY EXPECT YOU TO PICK A CAREER WHEN YOU CAN'T REALLY FUNCTION YOU'RE SO FULL
OF FEAR A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
KEEP YOU DOPED WITH RELIGION AND SEX AND TV AND YOU THINK YOU'RE SO CLEVER AND CLASSLESS BUT YOU'RE STILL * PEASANTS AS FAR AS I CAN AND FREE
SEE A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
THERE'S ROOM AT THE TOP THEY ARE TELLING YOU STILL BUT FIRST YOU MUST LEARN HOW TO SMILE AS YOU KILL IF YOU WANT TO BE LIKE THE FOLKS ON THE HILL A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
YES, A WORKING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE IF YOU WANT TO BE A HERO WELL JUST FOLLOW ME IF YOU WANT TO BE A HERO WELL JUST FOLLOW ME
SUNDAY
BLOODY SUNDAY
Lennon/Ono-Feb. 1972
Well it was Sunday
bloody Sunday When they shot the
people there The crys of thirteen martyrs Filled the Free Derry air.
Is there any one amongst you Dare to blame it on the kids?
Not a soldier boy was
bleeding
When they nailed the
coffin lids!
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
You claim to be majority
Well you know that it's a lie
You're really a minority
On this sweet emerald isle.
When Stormont bans
our marches
They've got a lot to learn
Internment is no answer
It's those mothers' turn
to burn.
Sunday bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday's the day!
You anglo pigs and scotties Sent to colonize the North You wave your bloody
Union Jacks And you know what it's
worth!
How dare you hold to ransom A people proud and free Keep Ireland for the Irish Put the English back to sea!
Sunday bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday's the day!
Yes it's always bloody Sunday In the concentration camps Keep Falls Road free forever From the bloody English
hands Repatriate to Britain All of you who call it home Leave Ireland to the Irish Not for London or for Rome!
Sunday bloody Sunday Bloody Sunday's the day!
Socialist Challenge 10 December 1980 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Building the Party IN January the second phase of the renovation of our national centre begins. Phase one Dowv work completed on the bookshop, and communal areas. Phase two will involve fitting out the meeting rooms and offices including building an notary.
make is to provide us with the materials. We need all the following: timber (especially 3 by 2), plasterboard, cement, bricks, 2.5mm and 1.5mm), fluorescent light fittings,
stacking chairs, nails, screws, and shelves.
collect. Phone us on 01-359 8371 and ask for Nick or Alan.
- or more into dine on gore info ring Col
detaian Baths. Phone 140 10 4. For BRADFORD e available from
Idea. BOOKSHOD.
La St James s sale CADE!
outside woo
• Satur
-461138.
Saturday 1i-4pm
Better 301. F 3 a Vie or john at diese
available Streatham:
Oval tube kiosk. A nam to moon, saens darker,
1 Parkon, queen s OLDHAM: SC sold every
about tale. supporters sell every every Sat * 10.30-12.30pm in Corn
Students Union and British 4.30-6pm; an Saturday near Beatties, cow caste dom last apar
this sales column.
REVOLUTION
FOR A UNITED REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH ORGANISATION REVOLUTION HAS A NEW PHONE NUMBER 01-359 8301
FUNDRAISING: All Revo branches REVOLUTION Youth and IMG stuto orgamise Xmas parties and otner Tundraising events.
Socialist Challenga: 10 December 1980 Page 10
printshop.
archive and A very simple contribution our readers can
cable (both
woodchip paper, paint, So turn out your attics and sheds! We can
internatlohal Marxist Group notices RAIL FRACTION: Sat 13 Doc,
G MEMBERS: We urgently ne
cancies in a varie posts nterested ring Penny or
/18(197
ISSILES FRACTION: Sat 13
I Archway Tube, Nih Con
The Tory Press
Ference, and thri decisio en
10 Sins: m tiple orders a pus
From: Socialist Challenge, 32
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SOCIALIST Challenge supporters have found badge sales a very popular and effective fundraiser.
Hackney supporters have copies of h n't dinfor The
AT XMAS
LAST month we launched •Fund Drive '81, a national fund appeal linked to a huge sales and subscriptions drive.
We've made start. Since last week aur. total up es allu 22,318% Xmas
branches i London
How about
responded to our appeal to
tary contributions. Over 20
Ches have raised thei €400 in November:
The fund mone we have received so far ha Deci materials for our printshop and to help buy Xmas stock need to reach £8, enol of £15,000 by the end antars money will be used tor essential work our nationa centre. Turne capital for our printshop, and for vital campaigning activities the These include maior drive leading un to the recal Lambeth conference against
order form
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Socialist Challenge News
Kick
Outthe
Tories
said 12,000
do out me%
- REMEMBER THE PARTY
thou name che
aralist me missue. in March.
Socialist Challenge also - planning extensivę special 24 January Party *COR terence. a: We as SECODI
the Irish hunger strikers.
How we aim I Tr get the money tional events activities is £80,000. va ta Bet mcals we want to Del ween now and May irom our supporters and through local activities.
The graphs below show: our monthly target between now and the end of May foi drive,
False include target district and want porters to draw up plans for meeling these • Largers enda month between and
Mol become Neatind
think reach £2,000 from local supporters before the end of the month. So far you have sent us £1.018 out of our €2,818 overall total So need a further €1,000 this month really useful Xmas help raise a thousand pounds fo Socialist Challenge to finist
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* AND DIRENJORY *
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I would like a year's sub to Socialist Challenge and a free 1981 Big Red Diary (for £12.50)
Box 50, Lon-
on the 29 November Liverpool demonstra tion
And the Tower Hamlets supporters' Jobs not Bombs' badge is going great guns (sic). With the rise of the British Movement and the relaunch of the Anti Nazi League, now is the Ume to sell the 'Fight Racism' badge too.
1 All these badg ly oria bailk. 20 f2p each for bulk piders.
FUND DRIVE
£100,000
90
80
70
60
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20. 22
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Nov Dec Jan Feb
LOCAL SUPPORTERS
£20,000-
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16,000
14,000
12,000
10,000
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6,000
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Dec Jan
10% 20% 40% Branch Targets East London Outer West London Brent North London Lambeth Other South London.
West of England South Wales South England West Midlands East Midlands North West North East Scotland South Yorkshire West Yorkshire
is are obtainable indivi • 120 post and packing,
payment. in ad PO 50. London Mar Apr May
Mar April Ma
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Rotherham steelworkers
give us £25
BERNARD Connolly, BSC Joint Crafts Committee convenor, recently moved a resolution for financial support to Socialist Challenge explaining that it was 'in recognition of the sterling support received from the IMG during the steel strike.
In view of the tremendous amount of assistance we received, it was agreed that it was M the interests of the working cless to suppor Socialist Challenge financially in this way.
'We were given a national and international base which was of vital aid when we were in conflict. This was particularly important for the steelworkers in the absence of the leaderships of our unions doing this job "The f25 is not a
once and for all pay ment. as we were low or funds at the time, and we will be reviewing the situation periodically.' Socialist
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including 800 subscriptions, by the end
So how about a little extra effort beTore vO relax over Xmas? Wellb losing on sales over Xmas so Lewisialu susporters art organising • STUdenT porters to put in an extra sale dole queues and estates to win new Todders tor the daoor
There's no better time to win new subcriptions for the paper than Xmas Fight commercialism anc send your friends a sut
every yea subsCription secures a free copy of the 1981 Big Red Diary.
Page 11 scan of this page
Poland - A decisive showdown is inevitable
By Davy Jones
'IF the threat to socialism was real, Polish communists would have a right and a duty to ask for aid from other socialist countries.
With munist Party member responsible for the
made it clear that sections Polish party are prepared to support a Soviet invasion if their power is threatened.
Last week's threats and intimidation by the Soviet mon due tier suboorers within Poland have already had the desired effect
Solidarity, the independent trade union have cal-
" OC demonstraor planned for 16 December in Warsaw to
commonorale the deaths of 1,000 shipyard workers 31 • fre
similar demonstration Gdansk
million people.
Invasion
At the Warsaee December Pact and Bastern European. leaders
expressed their
the Polish people will be able to overcome the pre-
. alcules. But threat of invasion still hangs over Poland.
Soviet Union presence in the already has vast military respective military build-up around its botders. There are some 57 major Soviet
Poland where 23,000 •soldiers and
as 340 fighter planes.
But Union® wants to use military torct Vily as a last resort know that bloody fighting would result. Already Polish generals and staff officers have handed in
Communist Party saying
such h cameras ton would be act of
At this stage the Soviet Union aims to use threats of military intervention com-
with austérity to force
pectate
their police their way inev hope in time to roll back the gains of the Polish workers.
At every step the incom patibility
independent iate one-party state becomes clearer. The Polish
know it, bureaucrats know it and in. creasey Ene workers organised in Solidarity are learning it.
Monopoly
When the unions have opposed price rises on essential goods tne regime nas citec
he crisis of the economy
son on conome out! withol
monopoly power Premier Kania has already warned against the develop
nent of 'dua When dissident intellec
uals have given support to Solidarity
Have OcCI sarance security forces. The Polish rulers cannot allow the genuine in-
these words Jozef Klasa, Com-
of the
Solidarity with
Polish Workers
Messages of support to the independent ane soncarity. messages against any outside inter, Hotel More, 103
MKZ, Morski,
Grundwalska, Gdansk'
Cooles or the artich labour movement darity appeal, which calls
funds to send a smail printing press to at tue new atontour Val, .. Can
Steve Griffiths, Polish workers' c/o 137 Digbeth, ingham B5 6DR.
quiry into the security forces Witt the demanding. for fear revealing the scope of their
And the development of free trade leantons has in-
calls
French CECI
Dave Le Monde some sixty per cent of the worker members of the parSolidarity now members
With the calling of the special for next March
within Com Party cal pected to hot up. Alreadi
• conterences • neia in early November witnessed flowering of internal
oppospion to the party leader-
tion cells have appeared and 14 Collates on
Run to develop powerful and file coordinatior outside party hierarchy. • some area: they have managed to oust the party's intermediary Solidarity leader,
Politbureau.
leadership. Others
motions which they inten to submit to the extraordinary party congress.
The tank and file coordination in Torun for exam. ple, whose leaders was expelled last week fo Tachonalish and clericalism'. ward a platform which com has
prise: new elections at all levels the •pally; 'de-
the party by means of more regula meetings of its members
take party and thus of power,
In Lodz the local party jour-
Glos• Robotniczy Whe workers Voice) has Lech Walesa, right, signs the Gdansk agreement with Mieczyslaw Jagielski of the Polish
International,
Polish shipyard workers — will they have to face Soviet troops?
published local factory TOO LOTS cells of the party which go far the accepted Lie manded luc ally.
Through this they claimed the party could
.cured of the incurable which whi TineS its expression u lack of confidence in .the people its any form of autonom!
formation and monopoly of
The resolution goes on
to propose that Dower be Shared jointly with two other legal parties peasants democrats parties. ine resolution con Cute aemanding
"authentic SOURISH dictatorshin tariat must not be the die- the
tatorship against the pro-
letariat
rified party chiefs ene Territied these developments to head or heir
radicalisation . have
reforms. The recent central committee voted to draw up
*prehensive Toors to de pur to pudic discussion, together with immediate moves to decen tralise control • of Collully
The Polish crisis is far from The showoown is salto comf between the new power embodied in Solidari-
ourcaucrau rulers.
statement from rectors of
statement from Solidarity Bulletin No.8, reproduced in the latest Labour Focus on Eastern Europe. It shows how dependent unions are beginning to challenge fundamental aspects Polish society.
We consider that in the present situation there is no problem which is strictly economic, even when it's a question of technical or immculate marlers..
'We know the world political situation; we Know inar we nave dunes unkea io. our membership of the socialist camp Warsaw Pact and that we have to stay loval to them.
'Our demands are designed neither to put
regime in our country, nor its position in inter-
LABOUR FOCUS ON BASTERN POLISH FREE TRADE UNIONS
'In the present economic
situation there is no problem
which is strictly economic
editors
pose mem... far the ininterest in economy... of
cannot get
and the
try.
Central committee purges
Gierek
team
THE Polish Communist Party central committee meeting of 1-2 December purged the Gierek faction
posts. Four his leading supporters were all dropped from the political bureau Piotr Jaroszewicz, prime minister under Gierek, was purged from
and may face possible ex. the party after a special party cor 'trol commission inquiry.
LOO has stripped _posi The resolution him 'The major was and methods of functioning
leadership went against the principles o . He created an at
substituted appearances For that reason relieve him C• post.' He was further i attackód Tor Taling promotions the party political bureau Laceus riszbach, ine party chiel ed red dangue to plead dialogue with the ndependent throuahout the summe crisis. His appointment is seen as directly reflecSolidarity. the pressure from
EUROPE
2 B8rs 07 8783 606. Bu
Now 64-page special issue on Poland of Labour Focus on Eastern Available from: The Other Bookshop 328 Upper St London N1 national relations, and we support no one who wants to exploit the present circumstances with this aim: on the contrary we would op
'We believe that none of our allies has a
Organised,
It is important first of all to create condi.tions which will guarantee that losses (due te bad administration) will not be repeated. One
without • decentralising without creating the conditions which
knowledge of scholars and the collective in
working class:
programme which includes our participation in decisions... creating the conditions for th participation of all those who work and who
tivity, in working out the destiny of our coun-
Sociallat Challenge 10 December 1980 Pago 11
Page 12 scan of this page
Abortion campaign calls labour movement conference
By Trina Shane
ONCE again we may be forced to defend the 1967 Abortion
Act.
Timothy Sainsbury, Tory MP for
Hove, who came top in the private members' ballot, has suggested that he may introduce a bill to lower abor; tion time limits and to tighten the conscience clause.
How much longer will we have to defend what is itself an restricts a woman's right to choose?
The National Abortion Campaign (NAC) has always fought for free abortion on demand and for a woman's right to choose. these principles will never be achieved if we are forever fighting new anti-abortion legislation:
That's why this year's NAC conference launched a campaign for positive legislation. aimed at winning the labour movement to support a woman's right to choose. TUC's call for the 28. demonstration against the Corrie Bill was the high point of the broad labour movement support for NAC's anti-Corrie campaign.
The defeat of Corrie represented a major victory for the pro-abortion movement and NAC's strategy of fighting for support from the labour movement. It aided the fight for other feminist issues within the labour movement.
The National Abortion Campaign helped to set up the Labour Abortion Rights Campaign (LARC). In 1978 NAC and LARC held a successful joint trade union conference
The Women's TUC -
a useless diversion or
an aid in the fight for
women's liberation?
By Denny Fitzpatrick
relegates them to insignificant bodies out of the mainstream of decision-making. That's the argument made unionists.
My own union, the
create ans
from
Vomen's TUC in 1976 and
June
argued that we're all equal
in all LULCO the trade union
The facts don't bear this out. There are no women on the POEU executive and only 6 out of 49 on the NUT's exccuuve. Inere Is very nitie DovIsIon lo lakc to Issuci elating to women.
Many ULIC unions disagree with this approach ano nave advisory bodies and women's officers. The AUEW also ha conference, and the Jourlalists' union (NUJ) held its
vern BOLO unese unions support the women's TUÇ.
It is because women's in terests have been neglected that wowen nave rouse i necessary organise nake sure that their voice
organised jobs with little in. dustrial power.
Mac. 01219g Women's self-organisation in the unions and within im-
given
Union
bankers. insurance
& Finance Union
Nat Union of Hoisery
& Knitwear Workers Vat Union of Tailors & Garment Workers
Conted of Health
vervice vorKers
Union of Shop, Dist
& Aired workers
Socialist Challenge
inadequate Act which
. But The October 1979 'The Women's TUC ghettoises women and
by • Fitaly: trade
has also resulted in the TUC
drawing working
women's charter and more
recent Charter TOT
Equality in the unions: One on or shes is the
special . UH
The Women's TUC has
campaigned for these
Special measures as well
fighting for the TUC to de
Ten aborton monts.
year recommended
positive action women
The 1UC
Ine women's lue will ree to the 198h 81S rad:
ference
Union Congress
for positive ac through
agreements and a vigorous
Callyau force
employers law to
goals and
for enter
wormalca mausures. muese
season ant to pay tor
towards énding
Motions to the Women's
TUC have to be submitted
by 2 January: ary and deares
Hollous sud
borne suve achon and
sure your union
branch sends a delegate
WOMEN AND THE UNIONS
Women Size of women on Nat Exec Members Nat Exec
72 21
90 10 December 1980 Page 12
which helped spur the TUC into taking up the issue. NAC and LARC have a joint trade union liaison committee fighting for labour movement action on abortion rights.
LARC have drawn up a three point plan for abortion legislation. Firstly they aim to build a campaign for adequate facilities, making their provision mandatory Secondly they want a bill to decriminalise
EMAND ®
EN D TO RAPE-
AND FO
SEXPLOITATION
The Ripper, feminism
and Mary Whitehouse
Mustbe rese dress mister eats
must be yes and no must be no was the message from women to the National Union of Students (NUS) conference last Monday. launch an action campaign round the theme, 'Self-defence is no offence'. Students will demand better lighting and transport facilities around colleges. Valerie Coultas looks at violence against women.
two young me, inrew me into the back Vali and arove
Assoc of Professional & Executive Staff 50 Civil & Public Service AssociaTion Equity 47 Bakers' Union 50 Nat Union of Public captovees Tobacco Work Union 66 Transport & General workers Union 15.9 Amal Union of Engineering Workers. 16 Nat Union of Teachers 70 (source: Guardian, 10.3.80)
Sexual Politics
MAKE IT
LEGAL!
abortion legislation.
under law.
The conference voted to
Below
going to be raped. In fac they drove me back to the ..it was only a joke t each me not to be strope Was very frightened and I hated not only the men
14
29
18
18
abortion by amending the Offences Against the Person Act and the Infant Life Preserva tion Act. Finally they seek the introduction of a woman's right to choose Bill to give positive rights to women and to repeal all existing
It will not be a Tory government that will introduce positive legislation. It is therefore essential to commit the Labour Party to incluWomen throughout the country are fighting back against violence against women
but every 'ACTSO! unne stree. woo lonored. mv an duction, Their reaction was public's atitude to attacks on wome barucular fune seems to know the men involved.
In all the massive press coverage of the Ripper case
one • Teministe have responded with a call for a curfew on the men al c potential rapists.
Dull murvlaudi men are
a curse women not opat
Why not longe prison sentences for Jabislo perhaps the penalty. These remiss say away from such demands because thes know that the government, courts and police are not im. partial.
Repress
The state and its institufar from protecting women and other opprese groups will repress any challenge to its autone coine womer or blacks organising , to de fend themselves can trust ir force of law and order' to protect
Blaming individual met detracts from the role of the state and surica
BENYON
CORRIE
Sainsbury's
tion rights.
Grays Inn Ra, London WeL.
Women fight back
Margate
Kill.
residence won the right to free alarm/ torches.
York
transport: home after
as free torch/alarms.
tion on women and violence.
Violence The ecueation system, newspapers
and the lar the land all incite men to regard women as objects of sexua gratification abuse
•A change in the law to allow wives raped by their nusodies lo take men court, stop judges dragging up a woman's sex
rape would do more to change at baaes tan any number or curfews on men.
Progressive sex educa tion would do more to stop men wanting to go to porn movies loan increase con
-wateroust supporters have already op portunistically pointed t possible
WHAT DOES HE KNOW ABOUT ABORTION?
SMASH THE
BILL sion of such legislation in its manifesto. The labour movement conference called by NAC and LARC for 14 March 1981, will begin that fight to commit the labour movement to abor-
NAC/LARC Conference is open to all TUC affiliated unions and Labour parties, It will be "held at Starcross School, Rising Hill St, London NI. For more details write to: NẠC, 374 0 - women protesters forced cinema management to stop showing the film Dressed to
Cardiff - university women students in halls of
- women university students won free late lectures as well
Manchester - 200 women held a protest picket on 28 November against violence against women Bristol - university students held a week of ac-
'women's libbers" against
thought : that his murders had forged an alliance bet whitehense Mary laught over • his worter-alile act In the long run only a society womer from exploitation and sexual • oppression will be socialist sucicl able to establish full equali ty and freedom between men and women.
But right now women should demand better stree alle night transport as well as taking
canace and harassments
to the labour movement.
Page 13 scan of this page
By Pat Kane Right-wing terror continues to sweep the Central Ameri can country of El Salvador.
The latest National Guard
National country s
Catholic nuns who were engaged in social work in the area north of the capital. ball darvalul
the assassination of the leaders of the Revolutionary Democratic Front the country's main • oppostTon. col I ne Icducts were seized during an
committee meeting
one aest killings bring the total number of political
since the beginning
Despite the terror
vul Wilci alt and the FDR continues to gain popular support.
The US. Congr ess approved further $5.7 million ald, perore carter's recen nouncement that US aid was
murder doubt aid will now be chan nelled to the regime under cover.
Within the regime itself there is a growing opposiIN LAST Sunday's presidential election in • Portugal, the incumbent president, General Eanes, won a decisive victory over the rightwing challenge of Soares Carneiro. The PSR (Revolutionary Socialist Party), tuguese section of the Fourth International, supported the candidature of Otelo de Carvalho whose vote, at the time of going to press, is not known.
• Otelo played an impor-
tionary events 1974-5.
The decision of PSR to country into political crisis
tion calling for CHICH
El Salvador Solidarity Comrevealed that this has produced. position 1 10 documenta es meroor. ing admissions: * The US is stockpiling the Pana one for use in El direct
aiready been made.
The Salvador regime
without maste Us aud
victory or bosual lurces U curring ocrore tne us ciec tions, Carter nas poured aid into El Salvador lnan has been devoted CrISIS LIC hemisphere since 1965.
The training programme for Salvadoran officers the biggest ever sponsored
Portuguese elections
Why Trotskyists
supported Otelo
the Por-
support Otelo arose from
tuguese the Communist Party WOrKerS' parties and Prime Minister, Sa Carneiro, died in a plane crash last week throwing the
International
El Salvador: as
right-wing terror
continues, the
opposition grows
for Lain American country in one year.
A baramary "strike
ready intervene It consists of Guatemalar Nicaraguan Na-
Cubans and mercenaries of are alone of such ups are without all cave to Unt their malarice. ences an ave are know The :US deliberately media coverage of El favourable of coveral forces and criticism of the junta El Salvador continues to move towaras a showaowi between the popular opposition and the The Farabundo Marti Libera. the Socialist Party, to stand
has presided for several years over capitalist austerity measures The Democratic Alliance. the grouping right-wing. watch won a decisive victory in the parliamentary cloud, vul up is Wil call soares carnelo, d former fascist The CP and SP, instead ot putting torwara a can •care to man tor workers
March against US
military intervention
in Salvador
Speaker's Corner
Starts at noon Called by El Salvador Solidarity Committee 29 Islington Park Street, London N1
Otelo de Carvalho, candidate of
the far left in Portugal, stood on a platform against capitalist austerity.
unity and independence
ainst chose back Eanes as a lesser evil to
This attitude was only finalised after considerable in-fighting in both organisa-
Socialist Party leader was • backed tions of the SP leadership as a candidate, but this option
tion Front now claims 5,000
position has countless organisanons airy milla
With the continued forward march of the Nicaraguan revolution, imperialism and the local regimes know that stability in
Salvador is essen tial. But the heroic struggle of the EI Salvadoran people is denying them this luxury.
Sunday 14 December was defeated by the party's national council
The CP initially put forward own candidate
Brito, bu latel withdrew favour males
Otelo was sponsored by thon, which dear nice FUP Unity DOlL agreement with
PSR The agreement cludes:
*opposition to austerity *defence of the gains of the revolutionary events 1974-75, including the agrarian reform;
of the trade unions and defence democratic rights
are over throw democratit the new
Alliance and for
the working class.
The other left-wing candidate was Aires Rodriguez WHU Wan backed EW C Aires because of his port Aires because Socialiste
ary deputy, and because ( • coe scamont aroud as candidature.
Timidity
It is alleged that his sup-
signatures to get Rodriguez on the ballot by asking peo ple to sign for a competition
sion, or alternatively by posing as investigators survey about cigarette
Otelo is the best known leader or tne rortuguese tal
His candidature provided the best he being porn for the Portugal to express their op no on to ances acc the cowardice and timidity
of the workers' parties
Do the bosses care
about unemployment?
By Brian Grogan
as the party of unemployment.
foderation of British 'Heath's attack and unemployment figures 'devastating'.
These the TeC that heartened
common approach to the Government to ask it to cu unempioyment
The ignored the awkwara fact unal i erence Beckett's alternative is for even more cuts in public ex penditure — a proposal tha would increase unemploy-
the time Beckett's former firm, Fords For as hour weed, sayin
week saying
the present economic situa
Both Fords and Beckett a • aware that a na tional cent, thereby wiping out the
mut me bosses and the Tory politicians, he t hike Heath Thatcher, unemploymen The sion has two effects. Firstl • 1l concealala
more efficien
weak and inefficient to the wall.
Secondly, it creates
reserve • Thich unemployed th
osses hope to use to kee
in une However. ever real unemployment at three
limited effects worker now only multancy
thought that the workers at Leyland had been well and truly cou
redundancies working when me neare ortie su cess of the Metro, they soon showed that they • were will-
to fight back against a wage e cuts.
This is what the bosses
first sign of an upturn in the
the workers wil use their losses they have back any
00
ARGUMENTS FOR
SOCIALISM FORMER Tory Premier Edward Heath made a bitter attack on the Thatcher Government last week for making the Tory Party 'appear
Terence Beckett, leader of the Con.
Industry, echoed called the latest
suffered in real wages. the Tories have made sa vage CBI aware thạt cals in the puduc sceror and ruthlessly imposed cash limits. Ws that th thei noses government- nas able, • Icall slash public sector workers wage packets
many of complain are bron
conccillalca O calla penalture Wilc hits thei friends in the building trade and manufacturing. monetarism has also had the natchers its concentra suppl i stronger and comicitry. com Cao lasts art predicting a temporary eas ing of the depression by the of having to compete with worried at the though foreign firms at a time whe
then up by ban brin
bank charges and high interest rates
rates have sent up the valu Blith goods the pound made more costly tsus profitability I shortem Basis It i These side effects •short-term basis eventual prize was to be a weakened Tories wasted class Now as the ories comes towards its end growing disquiet employers and some Tors They are angry that in. stead of the workers paying all the costs of the recession are The TUC pay their share. The 'shoud be reprimanded fo seeking those quarters which are just anti-working class as That cher.
Socialist Challenge 10 December 1960 Page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
IT'S UTOPIAN!
The Tory Prese
to tight it
Labour's industrial
policy: a
workers autopsy
By John Harrison ON TONY Benn's first day at the Department of Industry he was greeted by Permanent Secretary Sir Anthony words:
don't intend to implement the industrial strategy in the Labour Party's programme.'
This story - which is
- 1S an. excetent • DOOK called State Intervention in Coventry, Liver castle and North Irades councils, price z4. of a workers inquiry conducted by these trades coun cils - looks at just what did happen to this strategy
*story of high expectations turned sour, turned control leading of hopes, of
the cannes or closures... Learn
But the report is more than just a story: it is an attempt to learn from the exbecause much of the labour Hovercal himself, remains committed to this approach.
Anthony, for his Part get it? has quit the Department of Industrv.
time and pockets by sitting on tas industr dir boreo
1s rectal
savoy Hotels, and o
I doubt if he has changed his vicws mucu.!
ne best ning about the book is the way it links na.
hose in local labour move. done so well before, and I dorkers nair could do it doubt
good example is the way autopsies local struggles snow now ene Dartenance blinkers worn the Labour weakened both
nportantly, the rank the muustlal sulalegy was
lo acall witnout ever reav•g lie corndors or. westminster.
Inquiry
The Labour Party did not hold a single day-school
industrial policy in 1973, the LIC strategy Was crawn us one c was no better. Jack Jones, leader of the and General Workers Union at the time, told the inquiry:
...1 aon I think there was enough understanding of planning agreements an
the SHID economic keview. (is not) read most of the members - this
Socialist Challenge ~ 10 December 1980 Page 14
By James Curran WITHIN a month of the Campaign for Press Freedom launching its right of reply campaign, the policy. whelming support necessarily the same thing as positive action that gets things done.
This is why the CPF has followe
publicity with within trade union acuve support for tne righ of reply campaign, so that bias and distortion in the
Part with these
'1 presume, Secretary of State, that you Jack Jones, architoct of Labour's Social Contrick'
who wrote the review. Maybe not but isn't it a criticism of you, Jack?
rank and file activists knew little about the radical new proposals. So there was little mass pressure defend them against Labour
Harold Wilson's lalC Dulcacy. ATIO failure of the Parliamentary Labour Party left to come out against Wilson's tions leit many workers who had supported the strategy unaware that had beer decapitated by the time of
Industry Act.
Lesson
As a member of the works committee at vickers Scotswood put
and the left dic support the Industry Bill Licie must Have ocen some
• 11S' That something turned out to be
queue; Scotswood was closed
une programme W20 resented and fought for. The most
Inadequate. As a Liverpool Trades Counci delerate out it:
'What the whole experience of the NEB and planning agree-
confirmed for me is that you cannot plan what you do not control and VOU cannot control what you do not own:
Right on.
This book is from The Other Bookshop, a vaniante
upper sireet, London vi. or trom tho Newcastle Centre for the Unemployed 5.Queen Street, Newcastle l. Price €2.32
I or more copies for £1.50 each.
It's your right to reply!
demand became official TUC But a motion passed with over-
at Congress is not
media does not gọ . unlaliswCrCu.
sponsored by. the London his year. Gerry Kelly reviews it for us From Plato's vision of a Slaver owning parddise to coan Russ's dream of world without men; from the sim pleasures enthe poor 14th • ballad valenbach 8 elaborate ecologically balanced Ecotopia' wonders of the many imWoreS •that human beings have
Under Review
NUJ, SOGAT, NATSOPA, NGA and SLADE.
The be held early 1981, will discuss how and in what circumstances the right of reply should be enforced
CPr produced a earlet 1o Ene Region guestin That an you do if your activitie are ignored or distorted by sionpress, radio, or , televi.
The leaflet urges trade unionists to monitor me The Big Red Diary takes utopias as its theme
thought themseives are detailed.
Not have been mere wishes, some have tried to put thel utopiar ideas into practice. Ger-
rard Winstanley's Digge
living: It died, as all such
axperiments have but it Provided lasting inspira
examples followed. The Tavouron was the first occasion in history when the oppressed classes of
power.
That revolutionary socie. ty aiso parisnea, but, on d larger scale "utopian ex ip to trans on
Tallo. unan a sman cuater or it prompted workers over the world to take
coverage and contact trades unionists in the media over instances of distorted coverage
This theme is developed ma crrener now pena prepared for mass distribu-
Research
tion. This sets out what you can do to sccure your yel to reply, and specincs wild should be contacted in the
media
NATSOPA and NGA assisted with research for the leaflet by requesting similar action.
Not all utopias have held out for humanity. George Orwell
book had its forerunners in Aldous Huxley's Brave Now World and Evgeny Zamyatin's We.
Zamyatin his book 1920, three years after the victory of the Bolsheviks. He paints a pessimistic
all their Fleet St chapels to submit details where their members ha occu the right of reply. number surprisingly large
have come to light, many of them previously Among those who have won
to answer back are
takers, • train alives. andrines Brunwick people, une strikers.
Sonin this and and
unco-
ordinațe activity
prospect T081 right of reply campaign now that it is backed by th
ITS OOOK ne returned
picture . the future, ww humans tooled o the level of machines.
And there are reactionary utopias. two-best examples of this
Henry Ford's tribution to a capitalist
with his MOTO for the multitudes and The Blazing World of Margaret Duchess Newcastle tury at the defeat of the LOVESTS England's civil war.
The layout of the diary
lincolneve in some of the graphics are stunnat There There is also, for the
La directory of and organisations ranging
print unions and the TUC will start to dramaticall auval public decess LO. tH press:
This article is taken from 'Free Press the bimpany bulletir Campaign Press bulletin contains news on press freedom develop information media bias and debate oi the kind of fightback that's needed Single copies are multipl orders at Sp a copy post frei - ask your trades council, trade union or Labour Party branch to order copies nov from: CPF 274-288 Lon don Rd, Hadleigh, Essex Louis senasten Mercia was one of the few utopian
Pd rather quicker than he expected)
• Tie lails asleep in 1768 at the age of 28. When he wakes up it is the year 2440 and he is 700 years old. Louis XXVI. a philosopher king 'more desirous of the
than the illusions of power
easily na
been demolished, Versailles Hes in ruins. Usterilalor Ras cone with OsOlUESTI me onivmak orelsuncion is an embroidered hat
In real life, Mercier was expelled from Frar
revolution broke out anc member of the National
TrON animal liberatior through socialists to left organisation pressure isn't there, it probably doesn't exist.
And in case you stil wonder why so have spent their ume creamine evere an troductory section called 'Britain Under Tories'. Need I say more?
You can get your copy of the Big Red Wlar 12-month subscription to Socialist Challenge Why not send the offer Xmas present? Fill in the form on page 10.
Page 15 scan of this page
THE OTHER BOOKSHOP
Other Bookshop, London N1.
ed secular greeting cards.
the big chain stores,
help the anti-capitalist struggle.
Diaries diaries this year. Pluto's Big There good nea blary (£2.00) takes utopias as its theme and is reviewed more fully on page
At £2.50 the Spare Rib diarv is a bit dearer but it is full of useful information
complain so the start
how cornold Licule about sexist and how lobby your MP.
It also contains numerous addresses of women's
campai and so and an often a menstrua calendar
amusing and cal toon tor eacn week.
Books
Bombers and Mash by
Piano at so, lists o
tells the sor orme aves or womer
the Second World War coped evacuatoli JOng nOurs the •lactories and endless queuing inclusiose useful feature is the
of some war-time recipes lilal proviuca cucas.
meals Ener could come in handy
of us feeling the 'pinch' today!
Minns looks beneath the suriace al une impact ol le war on womens needeneence, marise ind and sexual
materíal, photographs. literature, songs ghos and the voices ana women themse ves. … bomb. ers and Mash provides a
The Harder Come by Michael Thelwel
Pluto Press CUSS author explains: There is ar Alrican tradition in which. an artist is merely a man the culture orking in the culture, refining
octliaos. certainly reflecting thi collective cultural experience'
Why we oppose
• votes for men ecause mar's place is in the army settle any question of erwise than by fight te
methods women i a danger or up e
nen will lose their charm it the
step out of their natural sphere and interes
Aware tian casses
are te while thei snows
Alice Duer Miller, 1915
Alice Duer Miller, the American novelist and
Xmas at
THIS Xmas why not treat yourself, or your friends to a present from The
328 Upper Street, The Other Bookshop stocks a good selection of books, posters, calendars, diaries, badges, feminist symbol earrings and pendants, as well as attractively produc-
Instead of boosting the coffers of
do your Xmas* shopping at a socialist bookshop and
Rib
Women's Liberation Diary 1981
SOMETIMES I WISH / COULD READ!
Sounds long winded perhaps, but it's the author's of what makes The Harder They vulne a velv good OOUR ll leus une uck and hard luck story of a young Jamaican up from the try trying to make it as a regsan sia capital. singer Kingston. emotional to vot
It is immediate, exciting, hard-hitting as well as bein vivid and warm. It is about curlier. DullI and snattered ov me con tracienons of Jamaica today. Read it, enjoy it, and learn from it.
novel makes good reading is Ber
Dubin'
Lives, published
£1.75.
THE HARDER
THEY COME
La noverby
MICHAEL THEL WELL
Plate cessful, middle-aged , biographer seeking increased accomplish ment and his secret. self Malamud has produced one of his best characters.
His novel is a compas sionate and wry tragedy discipline, man lives thal love,
fidelity and his passion for WOrk. As In one or nis Other The
a suc-
Poplarism by Branson. nunished Lawrence and Wishart at €2.95.
well-written account of the revolt of the Poplar coun cillors during. the
state and defying the law in the interests of working people course their aroused the wrath of the rulIng class and ine anger o the Labour leaders. Shirley Williams not own the
king ch become a Labour minister. was quick to denounce the Poplar councillors This is more than an in teresting book; it has a lot to Labour authorities are con fronting the choice of doin
living standards of the people who elected them In Readers and Writers' Trots Ali and cartoonis, for Beginners, Taric Phil Evans try to unravel th story of the man who fell, in the space of a few venis. mom beng one orine world's most figures to being one of its most reviled Fixer They trace
Carcel! leadership of the Red Arm from prison
Noreen
. This book, a snip at
historical period, touching on une woneavals in kussia me seamuse revolution. ine rise of Nazism. It is not only good for beginners. also excellent for every mili tant and socialist What makes hundreds of men and women live naked in conditions of horrific action
leath in a real masterpiec
of investigative journalism.
story On the (Quartet Colage with all hou £2.75) sions, but you will makes people taki such when and support
hunger strikers blanket prisoncis Is growillg
POPLAR
BOROUGH COUNCIL HIGH COURT PRISON
ERASEN PATES
POR BON,
shor
powerful
Trotsky's
but is
After Blanke
Angron Victor
0
and 17 • 19, 73,38 take you almos and th to the door 13e shop is open on days
George Lansbury
land the
Councillors
Revolt
POPLARISM 1929-
Noreen Branson
For Xmas - solid silver women's symbol earrings or pendants, only £2.50. Available from: The Other Bookshop
LAGREE WITH KAMENEV!
Eve
and 30,4.4
from
Socialist Challenge 10 Decemb
Page 16 scan of this page
TORY MINISTERS IN
By Phil Hearse
swindle £1000m worth of tax revenue.
'World in Action' which showed that finance minister Peter Rees (responsible for Inland Revenue!) and trade minister John Nott had : been involved with a minster, which exploited legal loopholes to prevent hundreds of millions of pounds being paid to the treasury.
involved with Rossminster Peter
WELC wanker
agriculture who count for
Abingdon, who touted
penal.
Among Rossminster's clients were National Car
building George /imper together Harrison and Led Zeppelin.
T'OL LIC Torie! nave campaignica 'scroungers' who 'swindle'
so it is worth
friends have been getting up
operation, run by two men called Tucker Plummer, in-
Ical Ocaand mythical purchases to evade tax.
The nature of the "services' which Rossminster colle clients was revealed by the case of George Miller Newcastle property dealer.
Mule sold a piece of
for £1m naking whacking £650,000 Most of that had to go in tax, but Miller
contacted him in touch
then proceeded make Miller "loan' and charge myrnical Interes
uns one amountee £2¼m, but Miller only held the cheque in his hands for a
seconds. that loan was of course huge JOHN NOTT
Socialist
Challenge
WO top Tory ministers helped tr the government out o
This was revealed last week on ITV's
firm
against tax. Miller kept his
During the course or le operations Rossminster set
1000 subsidiary comvales money aronna. ver 4ou or these were set by one Rossminster's associates
Halliwell, boilalli
Hally them
law's cottage in Kent.
Manv or kossminster's other firms were set up in
the
slands • ОП Guernsey and
with DarK Douglas on the Isle Mann
the course
ossminster's operations i
reckoned that
OCLWCCH them cleared ism. A Slush fund
Deode uke 1101 Benyon and John Nott was
set up wealthy are the peo
ple involved that they
Ine associates. A rinur Lewis
£125,000 to keep and refuse cowith Inland Revenue investigators.
Social security fraud is reckoned to cost about £15m a year
less than unclaimed benefits. For people like the Rossminster clique. who are just the tip o1 the top people's tax evasion iceberg, figures like £15m are hardly worth bothering about.
50, London N1
PETER REES
Mirror y the then Labour Government to claw back the money lost to Rossminster lo most people, tax avoidance is im ral and distasteful as the Vestey mily found out recently. sulestion that Mr. BRees did any-
This position is embar. imnossible and he ought
SCANDAL
he only way..OUT
to resign. That is what the late Reginald.
Maudling did in similar circumstances, while the police, for which he was responsible as Home Secretary, investigated the affairs of his former employer, John Poulson.
If Mr. Maudling hadn't resigned Mr.
Ets: The doher can be no tas ken t.
But there is uphold the standards of public life. i latcuer can ce no
Mr. Rees should go of his own accord.
If he won't, remove him.
British Leyland: more shop stewards sacked,
£1,000m TAX
less keen to
Mrs. Thatcher should PETER REES
Rover workers fight back
Britain: 12 months £12.50; 6 months £6.50 Abroad: 12
Name
Address
I enclose a donation for the Fighting Fund of
By Pat Hickey,
Rover Solihull
TWELVE workers have been disciplin-
ed at Leyland's
Longbridge plant in
Birmingham. Five
are shop stewards, including sup-
porter of the Leyland Action
Committee.
They were sacked for Phe new Metro plant to
new Metro plant LWU
weeks aco wien autoreds of workers from the trim
and comb plane to tro
company compast bring laid-orr
without bay
gestue meca stones to
the contrary, there was virtually no damage done and production to
is thost sacking
militant shop
w all muculale walkour or
Involved In tne
original dispute
It is a repeat of the situation plant
Derek Robinson was in last vear waen ne was sackeo or
the Leyland's
Trenchie Transport and
General olanned angineer! Union for not giving a lead in the defence of Robinson
This time they have no such causes because tic mical l voice are Is owli michiocis.
The Leyland Action
Committee will be organis-
lil a calvare aralist une
company ana Ine weakness
of the present leaders.
BL still pushing.
ahead with their master plan
now aclanelle a nurser
30U rectances Kover solnut nant and the closure of one assembly line
Christmas
jobs through the plant lost lal. But this ume me convan conle on-
Tina 100 volunteers reflection rising
unemployment in the West
Midlands Leyland have
announcea that tney will be selecting those who
will get the sack
same time Leyland declared their inlennon to speed up tne re
maining lines by 20 to 30 per
response to this, the kover shop stewards comlitice las vulce to voDos
recumc ancies.
occupation of the
This was 2,500 workforc meeting of all the
determined
Leylalit alc to push ahead. It Rover gets the kna or weak leadersnir that led to the acceptance of the 6.8 per shed gs at Lonpari
Longbriage, and a host of other setbacks, the sualon Jooks Deak
the shop stewards' attitude that 'enough enough', they have taken a big step towards fighting •to save jobs.
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← Socialist Challenge No. 175, 3 December 1980Socialist Challenge No. 177, 17 December 1980 →