Socialist Challenge No. 181, 22 January 1981
The scan: sc-n181-jan-22-1981.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge NO SURRENDER TO BLACKMAIL LET THEM GO!
21 FEB GLASGOW FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT
to set up
day.
and blackmail.
left.
their threats.
Control of party DoCv ao o arv eec toral college has to be wrested trom the right willg-aUllllalcu Parliamentary Labour Party, not just in order to enSue tal cel e veria ment implements socialist policies, but so that a massive campaign ol action can De organsed to bring the Lones
That means a battle finish with Owen and Co, even if they leave the party.
Michael Foot wants with the PLP in the name of 'par ty unity', to keep. the right from splitting. Inal s wny Foot continues to support 50 per cent of the votes in an electoral college being given to the MPs.
But we have to learn the lessons of the past year's struggle for
in the party.
The Gang of Three and most of the Parlamen. tary Labour Party will never De reconcied democracy and socialist policies.
The only way to get a fighting Labour Partv. committed such policies and to mass action to kick the Tories out, is to fight the right wing to the bitter end.
LABOUR'S right-wing Gang of Three - Owen, Williams and Rogers - are busily organising with Roy Jenkins
their own democratic' party after the Labour Party special conference on Satur-
The threats of the Labour right are a gigantic exercise in brinkmanship
They hope that by threatening to split from the party they will force a climb-down by the
There can be no compromise with Socialists Lanour rariv avero de. mand an end to Michael rools compromise approach.
Trying to promise with the right over the electoral college is part of the same approach which leads him to tell working people to wait for the next general election before taking on Lilc When are unempioyed such an approach is Useitos.
Michael Foot should not only refuse to comwiin ine he should gIve Labour seafarers' struggle.
He should BL workers continual attacks of Edwardes. He nounce MacGregor's desin Cuon or une steel industry.
A combination of the occasional protest march and compromise with the Labour right is not the way to deteat the I ories Mass action war against the raht wing can achieve the goal the sweeping of the Tories from office and their replacement by government ted to policies.
Socialist
'social
the
2,600,000
right, all-out to the
support against the
snou e ce
and
Labour
commit-
socialist
No. 181 22 January 1981 20p
INSIDE BL POLICE STATE REGIME EXPOSED see page four
Photo: LAURIE SPARHAM (IFL)
Page 2 scan of this page
* The immigrant hostel in vitry. Paris after the CP mayor led a mob in buildozing it to the ground
IT was campaign against Corrie's Dil unat reany changi ed things. We thought
Was 9019 win and when he didn't we realised what powerful allies the pro-choice movement had.
We said then that we had to use this strength not just to defend the abortion laws from at-
but the lack Io change act itself as it doesn't do enough for women.
Jane conference will begin discussion DUSILIVC ToI abortion rights and how
involve the labour movement in fighting for
It already SUODULL from industrial unions like the sheetmetal workers union and
Bill By Davy Jones IT'S OFFICIAL - the British Communist Party supports its French counterpart's against immigration.
Morning Star, French Communists' call for a halt to all immigration. He claimed France and abroad had been 'scraping the bottom of the barrel of anti-communism to smear the French Communist Party with
The main argument of Samson's 750-word article, headlined rrench media smears Communists' was
avoid adding to the 2m French and immigrant already unemployed the French Communists are calling for a halt to immigration in the mutual interests
France, irrespective of their origin.
This echoes the
by George Marchais, the French CP leader, to rally two weeks ago in which he said that it was 'inadmissible to allow immigrant workers into France when we have 2m rrench ana mumigrant people on the dole.
Tensions
Too strong a con-
lthtinued created he con-
Tansions among the population and creased social charges on leaves.
In other
words.
French Communists think that immigrants Cause social put the rates up, and a clavald unemploy. ment. And now the Morning Star defends the French CP holding these views.
of all these positions is the racist claim immigrants are the
NEWSLINE
not racism.
This argument is false and reactionary. We will not mince words: it is the same argument used bv the ex. treme right wing of the
It is true that there is often social unrest Socialist Challenge
sponsor an anti-abortion Bill in the next parliamentary session. This setback for the anti-abortionists follows the success of the campaign against the Bill inside the labour movement.
SteeiworKers.
During the Corrie three UNTOUS MPse to thee isneered NUPE, ASTMS, APEX which challenges the notion of abortion being a matter tor individual conscience.
The fight for abor-
'Morning Star' covers up
for French CP's racism
racist campaign
In a grovelling article in last Thursday's Harry Samson justified the
that the press in
areas where there are many immigrants •aCk people born in France or Britain. This unrest is stirred up by racists.
The way to stop it is not by campaigning for a halt to further im migration but by confronting the Cine their arguments, and by attacking the SOCCE system that breeds unemploybad and poverty.
22 January 1981 Page 2
Build the labour movement
conference on abortion rights
TIMOTHY Sainsbury has decided not to
Corrie anti-abortion
As the Labour Party's special conference
tion rights is bound up with the for democracy in the Labour Party. LARC will be putting case the 14 March conference for the campaign against the MP's free vote on aboron, and tor tne party manifesto be committed to changes in 41 Camberwell Grove, London SES.
Next week: the Tories' Nationality Bill.
Immigrants are not responsible for increased rate charges; nor do they unemployment. capitalism and its CLOROTTIC priorities that produce these and other social ills If the economy was organised the
money would be spent on jobs not bombs, on
Home News
Challenge about the aims of the conference.
the law on abortion.
The free vote is vital.
In 1977 the party took a vote for a woman's right to choose but on a show of hands the motion to so-called free vote was lost. Only on abortion and hanging are MPs allowed the *freeCampaign Against Racist Laws National
Demonstration.
Against Tory
Nationality Bill
Sunday 29 March in London For details write to: CARL, c/o Lansbury House,
Socialist Challenge will be looking at
improved vices interest repayments to the finance houses.
By campaigning for an end to immigration the French Communist Party is whippmy up reactionary sen timent against one of the NOSI oppressed groups in French society. It should instead be fighting for
meets to discuss how to elect the party leader, pro-abortion activists are organising a labour movement conference on abortion on 14 March. Ann Kingsbury of the Labour Abortion Rights Campaign spoke to Socialist
dom' consult their consciences
It was the trade union delegates that voted to relain lne Tree vole so we have to campaign in the caulall abortion political not one of individual conscience. workers' unity against the capitalist class and us •ovemment nea ed by Giscard D'Esta ing, whose economic policies are responsi. ble for the present crisis.
The British Com munist Party's tion completely
The free vote should be opposed because in ef-
fect it means that a small handful of people decide on behalf o the rest of us. LARC will also campaign in the Labour Party lor abortion rights to be an issue for tuency parties in deciding on reselection of their MP. Abortion is a good litmus test for accoun tability.
Now that Sainsbury has cried off because of the 'fanatics' likely disrupt parliament if a restrictive Bill went
we nave be aware of his threat that abuses would be chal lenged in the courts. Part of LARC's struggle for Dosiuve legislation will include the demand for
Morning Star
(Erench media smears Communists
hypocritical. On the
same day Samson's
article appeared, the
Morning Star carried a
front at-
tacking the Tory Na
tionality Bill proposals
as racist. The paper
declared its intention
of campaigning
against the proposals.
But «Ine Morning
decriminalising
Many people still don't realise that under present laws abortion is a criminal act This means that the DHSS has special responsibility for abortion CHICS. giving unem wide power over the charities that carry out about halt the abortions this country.
So changing the law Is very relevant and lmportant to the struggles
We would urge every trade union and constituency Labour parties to be represented at this conference.
For details of positive legislation on abortion
writ to:
NAC/LARC, 374 Grays Inn Road, London WCI. Tel 01-278 0153. Star can't have it both ways. If it is correct to oppose further immigration into Franci because there are 2m unemployed, then wily should soclalists oppose Tory restrictions on immigration and nationality in this country which also
than 2m unemployed?
If the French CP mayor was right a few weeks ago to lead the bulldozing of • an im-
as protest against immigration, then would it be right for British Communists lead similar attacks on immigrant Centres in areas like Southall or Brick Lane?
Questions
ComParty has to come OTT the fence.
Does it support an end to immigration in countries with high unemplovment or not? Does it think immigration cause: social unrest or not? Is it going to continue to sup-
the disgraceful chauvinist and racist wallpal! French CP or not of the
The immigrant communities and the anti-racist movement have a right to know the answers to these questions. Will the Communist Party provide them?
Page 3 scan of this page
US imperialism tries to strangle El Salvadoran
By Davy Jones US Imperialism has shipped a $5m emergençy arms package to the El Salvadoran ruling junta. On 5 December last year the US administration cut off regime's ruthless American nuns.
Now President regime is under revolutionary offensive of the Salvadoran rebels that the US fears its complete collapse. Direct 'lethal shipments are the result.
Imperialism IS also mobilising the other military dictatorships in the region to defend the
Salvadoran The Honduran human rights organisation has announced that 500 Honduran troops not in uniform have crossed the border to El Salvador to
troops. Border
further 3,000 troops are massed on the Honduran border under ine SUDerVISIOR military Last week 500 ex-members of the Somozan National Guard joined the government troops' offensive against the guerillas. Rebels
The European representative of the El Salvadoran Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) told a London press conference last
that WCCA
phe regime ry sud be
regime would overthrown by the rebels within a matter of weeks.
El Salvadoran guerillas during preparation for the offensive
following the slaughter of four
Duarte's embattled such pressure from une
military hardware
Now the barbaric regime. has received its imperialist arms package the vicious fighting will continue and thousands more people will die. Death
The Humar Rights Commission 1980 report
on El Salvador
Elias been released. It claims that the total death toll in
the country in 1980 was
over 13,000, mostiy at the hands of the regime's repressive forces and
right-wing terror groups.
American imperrialism's resumption of
Ine Salvadoran regime was Dastu on tue lase dueda tion that Nicaragua had
support the guerillas. Even Ihe limes has ad mitted that this was a lie.
Support
But in Nicaragua the
tionaries have found sup VOIE quarters. Some 300 American CILiLCils
cluding religious personnel resident the Nicaraguan Cabila. Managua demonstrated OULSIUC the Us embassi on 16 January to protest against their government's resumotion of aid
the Salvadoran regime.
Embassy
And the entire staff
in Nicaragua Dassy nounced the Sallic dat that it had gone over to the side of the guerillas.
International
revolution
Grenadan High Stan Jose Armijo Entrance £1/ All proceeds to FDR in El Salvador.
Ambassador Roberto Castellanos denounced the military men in President Duarte's cabinet as 'assassins and fascists'.
Aid
The fighting in El Salvador continues.
With increasing imperialist aid to the regime promises to continue for some time. Ruthless Now is the time for the labour movement in this country to lend its support to the Salvadoran people against their ruthless oppressors, by demandin imperialist hands off E Salvador.
EL SALVADOR WILL
WIN RALLY Fri 23 Jan, 6.30pm Collegiate theatre, Gordon St, London
WC1.
Vin premiere: El Salvador the people will
Speakers: representative of FDR in Britain,
Commissioner in London,
Newens MP. Salvadoran folk singer
Everyone to Arms!
10 January.
Farabundo Marti
command of all the
the FMLN
of El Salvador:
and women, democrats and patriots
ment
destroyed once and
people's struggle.
destinies of the
mand calls on all the people:
On workers,
teachers, employees,
sectors everyone;
regular troops and guerillas;
combative masses:
Triumph
galn the triumoh ot the revolution
fronts
fight valiantly under the
commanoers of the
perialism.
Everyone to arms
people.
your fellow workers
arrived
brave and heroic
pendence
and self-determination.
American and Latin
world are with us.
Forward, heroic Salvadoran people
victory
United to fight until final victory! Revolution or death! We will win!
Reagan's
bonanza hits the poor By George Reynolds EIGHT million dollars that's how • much money the new American president has wasted on this week's inaugura tion beanfeast.
Those suffering most directly from this ex-
wert the 50,000 local poor people WILUSI cheques were held up by the bureaucratic snar -ur caused by the inauguration week.
The following is the full text of the call issued by the revolutionary forces in El Salvador on
THE Unified Revolutionary Directorate of the
National Liberation Front which has assumed the general revolutionary armed forces of the five organisations that make up
• addresses all the heroic people
Workers and peasants, revolutionary men
The hour has arrived to begin the decisive military and insurrectional battles for the taking of power by the people and for the formation of a revolutionary democratic govern
Decades of suffering and more than fifty
for all through the
At this historic moment, crucial to the
salvadorar and Centra American people, the Unified Revolutionary Directorate of the FMLN — the general com-
peasants, students democratic sectors, progressive solalers and omnicers, rengious
On the men and women fighters of the
On the revolutionary militias and on the
To immediately launch the military actions of the people's insurrection in order to
We call on the entire people to rise up as one single person, using all possible means of
throughut the le grand bread of the d
tional territory. We call on the entire people to
Borders of their imune oppressive genocidal regime of the privileged oligarchy and of im-
We call on all progressive and patriotic soldiers and officers to join the ranks of the
This is the moment to identify with to turn your arms against the bloody chiefs of the high command and general staff of the conterrevolutionary army. The hour of the revolution has
the hour of liberation has arrived!
The final victory is in the hands of this
who for so many years have spilled their blood for the right to be free, to enjoy democracy, for genuine ind
soclal progress. sovereignly
At this historic moment in which the entire people are rising up to conquer freedom we can affirm with emotion that the people o
not alone: All oul • Central American brothers and sisters are with us. The masses of the entire
To total combat until the final victory, to the decisive military battles, to popular insur
Prepare for the general strike until
Reagan made known that he intended to bring back the pomp and ceremony (ie waste of public money) of the presidency restore pride. And he brought in arch-mafioso Frank Sinatra organise the showbiz side ot the week tor him.
Sinatra currently under a cloud of suspicion over his links with mafia leaders America. Jimmy Grattiani better • known as "Jimm Weasel' was a high flying Mafia boss who has now grass ed on his former friends.
And sinatra is among those he has implicated Kumours that Sinatra Is to be offered the ambassadorshit Sicily were being discounted in Socialist Challenge circles last night.
Socialist Challenge. 22 January 1981 Page 3
Page 4 scan of this page
Edwardes' plans police state plants — exclusive
By Pat Kane ing BL workforce, according to a top
secret document in
Socialist Challenge.
The document, headed 'Directors'
and Per-
sonnel Managers' BriefIng on Discipillary Policy, , reveals that BL's board is planning a new disciplinary code to deal with what the company
describes 'gross
misconduct'.
proposed code will turn every plant into a mini-police state, with security guards and line supervisors having more powers inan ine police and courts. Risks
When asked BL management on Monday
the autlicilticity of the briefing
sounding press officer. Murray Loake, called pack to say: 'This is a confidential management brieting document and we have no comment to make.
The company is well aware or me risks it is running by such policies. The document, extracts of which we publish here, concludes stating that the following points 'will not be easily agreed':
• Exclude the police until investigations are complete.
• Permit dismissal before the results of a prosecution ure known. • Permit
personal sent. • Permit dismissal on 'the . balance of probabilities'.
The document proposes extensive measures
UsleD up security checks, many of which Consulutc an Invasion or civil liberties. It makes clear that usual stalldards of justice are inadequate for BL's purposes.
Guilt
'Courts require the case against a person to
proved beyond reasonable doubt, the paper notes "Inis Is a significantly more str-
which the new BL Ltd policy sets.'
The test of guilt pro-
the balance of posed 1s probabilities' which means that rumour and surmise will take the place of evidence in BL's own court, with
acting police, judge, and jury.
Present BL disciplinary codes, drawn up in consultation with the
worker sacked for actions such as theft, to
MICHAEL EDWARDES, chairperson of BL, comes from the police state of South Africa. Now his management has drawn up plans to impose similar despotic methods on the long suffer-
the hands of
be suspended pending the outcome of any police OTOceedings. Under the new codes the court can tind BL workers not guilty, but by then the workers will already have been dismissed and the case may never go to court. Accused
The document states that 'it is highly probable that the company has no legal authority' TOT the personal searches it plans to undertake.
The company allticipates that it will meet resistance from the trade
It expects strike action after it carries out a sackilig unael lne new code.
'Implementation of the policy will generate conflict The possibili-
industrial action following the implemenSuch cannot be discounted.
could both constitutional and official.
Last month, BL sacked nine workers at the Mini-Metro line Longbridge Birmingham. They were ac cused of 'gross misconduct' when they
Swat" "coated protest against enforced company lay-offs during the nightshift.
Sacking
The company action provoked a strike at the
cost the company millions in lost produc tion. They blamed the strike on the unions, and
possible to present nanagement's view the events.
The confidential document in our possession shows lust how tar BL is willing to go to implement is poncies.
Over the past two years, BL has victimised shop stewards, including plant Conveno Derek Robinson, and sacked thousands of workers. has stepped up intimidation of the unions and the workforce. Retreat
Thatcher's recentlyappointed economic adviser, Alan Walters, who admires Pinochet's Chile, will find much to support Edwardes' proposal to turn BL Into
11S own private laws.
Unfortunately, BL's
senior stewards have done nothing to prepare the fight against Edwardes
Every time the comattacks the workforce, they retreat. They have accepted layoffs, redundancies, low wage deals, increased productivity, and still Edwardes demands more.
After passively accepting the sackings at the Metro refusing to mount a campaign in detence of the sacked workers the senior stewards will find I Cul Stop the company this time.
But the workforce should be in no doubt that any further acceptance of Edwardes' plans will effectively put union activists one barg and tens of thousands of BL workers on the dole.
Home News
Edwardes plots to become judge and jury of BL workers
By Des Tierney
spect for Scottish workers in 1981.
Scottish Council
manutacturing and 60.000 throughout Scotland this year.
Will come from. embarked on redundancy schemes at their plants. British Steel is pushing through its 'productivity' another 700 redundancies.
In the public sector, Scottish Secretary of State, has called for a further 10,000 jobs to be axed.
ple in Scotland Labour leaders, are being forced to act. Following the example of the Labour Party of the Labour Party demonstration on 21 February.
Over march through
SIXTY thousand fewer jobs — that's the pro-
A recent survey by the government-sponsored
(Research Development) estimates that there will be 25,000 fewer jobs in
less Jobs In total
It's not difficult to see where these job losses
BL and Talbot cars have already
plans, and British Shipbuilders is forcing through
Geroge Younger, the
With such a catastrophe facing working peo-
demonstration in Liverpool, the Scottish Council
has called for a massive
100,000 demonstrators are expected to Glasgow to a rally with Tony
What the BL
Briefing says
THE following are
extracts from the
secret BL manage-
ment briefing:
The BL Ltd Board has
decided that at the
propriate time all BL Lto
Companies will seek
Regain the right to
dismiss employee
summarily for theft or
other forms
misconduct) and 10
refuse re-engagement to
an employee so dismiss-
ed.
• Introduce into all contracts of employment
consent personal
The decision to summarily of suspected crimina COCA will future be based upon
babilities as deduced by
manusement Investiga tion, ie not depend on the decision of a court...
Discipline
A BL Ltd personnel
policy has been prepared
discipline which
modifies previous policy
siaiemeriis... It requires, among others that.
to avoid involve
ment of the police unless
it has been suspected that a serious criminal act has
been committed.
to be taken (whenever
possible) before calling in the police...
BL companies to: that security forces are adequately manned, trained,
and equipped, and that
are and laid out so that
security forces may carry
out and record regular searches of male and
female persons and belongings, and of employees visitors, company, and produc-
Bleak prospects for Scottish jobs
Shipbuilders 'work-in' in 1973
Support massive Miners, local authority mobilise their unions' membership. been laid on from every part of Scotland
whole of the British working class,
from various parts of the country
Eric Clark, Scottish secretary
a massive mobilisation of the labour movement to kick out the Tories.
demonstration was demonstration, and was used to win support for as the triple Alliance of steelworkers, miners, and
will be stalled.
tion vehicles • Rebuild plant ex. its and entrances where necessary to permit searches to be carried out. • Improve the training of foremen and lin managers in security and disciplinary matters...
Note: Courts require the case against a persor reasonable doubt before proved De vone guilt is recognised This is a significantly more stringent test than
Lid policy sets, dismissal will be actioned when 'the balance of probabilities suggests that employee has committed a criminal act or another gross miscon-
Employers relations implications: Implementation of the new policy will generate conflict.
This is because both 'ac. tivists! unlu moderates employee representatives will have genuine reservations regarding an initiative by the company to revise existing disciplinary practices and employee contracts..
The possibility of industrial action following the implementation the new policy... cannot be discounted. Search If introduced on gradual basis it is pro bable that an increased intensity of non-personal search would be obtained without generating conflict, though the risk a challenge to the company's legal right to take such action must also increase. Personal search is, however, highly emotive issue. An initiative to introduce personal search into the company will not be without risk.
Demonstrate against
unemployment
Huddersfield, 31 Jan at 11am
Assemble at Beck Road and Cambridge Street.
Speakers include Joe Ashton MP, and Bill Maddocks, secretary of the Textiles Union.
Called by Huddersfield Labour Party and Trades Counci
Benn, Michael Foot and trade union leaders. The demonstration will be the largest in Scotland since the Second World War dwarfing even the 80,000 who marched in support of the Upper Clyde
for the demonstration is already steelworkers, engineers, and workers nave Tinalised plans to Trains have
The organisers have stressed that this is not just a Scottish demonstration, but one for the
and already plans have been drawn up for union contingents
of the miners told a packed Labour Party meeting in Glasgow last week that it was not enough to democratise the party; what was also needed was
He told the meeting that unless the 21 February
big as the Liverpool
railway workers, the fight against unemployment
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 4
Page 5 scan of this page
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Page 6 scan of this page
Set up by the British
By Geoff Bell THE condition of Bernadette McAliskey was described as 'very serious but stable' as we went to press.
band Michael, who was also injured in the attack on Friday morning, are in immediate danger of losing their lives.
Bernadette and Michael severely wounded at their home CoaDstand, Derrylaughlin, near
Tyrone.
Bernadette was shot five times in her chest, legs
She underand went two operations within hours of her being rushed to nosoilal
After the second she wett Illu shock' and her condition deteriorated. But spokesperson ectoria Hospital the Royal
Belfast, where Ber-
now denied that she ever went into a coma.
The attempted assasSiliatlull Bernadette was the responsibility of the Loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association, according 'reliable sources' quoted in the Irish Times.
Army
But if the UDA were directly responsible for the assassination attempt Ine government and the British army did much to facilitate the attack.
Their contribution was three-fold: first, there are
Hally unanswered questions Conceile the role of the British Army personnel who supposedly 'rescued' Bernadette; se-
British ments have refused to
the allow Bernadette means to defend herself; third, British governments have repeatedly refused the UDA, despite being fully aware of its murderous activities.
On the question of the patrol of the British Army which apprehended three men after Bernadette and Michael had been shot, the following facts have emerged.
According to neighbours on lhursday. the day before the attack, a British army helicopter anced near Bernadette and Michael's home and dropped off a number of soldiers.
Shooting
There are no reports of these soldiers being
shooting and the suggestion being made
by neighbours is that the army mounted a stake out'.
The only target for suen an operaton in luc
area Bernadette and
This only ap-
S::: 5: 0-s enge 22 Jaruzer 1981
shot by the UDA
It is believed that neither she nor her hus-
proachable by car via a rutted, muddy lane full of potholes. Maximum
Speed asimatedne has.
estimated 10mph, SO any vehicle using the lane easily spotted, necessary stopped, by
the anvole walkillig house.
Masks
On the Friday morning when the UDA men oroke to we nouse we were wearing woolly IllasKs OVCI their heads. They were the
by Michael McAliskey and SNO. was then fired at him.
The men then broke their way into the house.
Anyone watching the house would have seen this and would obviously have concluded that something was up.
McAliskey's nearest neighbour is Michael Donnelly. He lives 200 yards from Bernadette and her husband He did not hear any shots, which suggests that the soldiers who claimed to have rushed to the house after hearing Ine
been nearer than 200 yards
The British 'security forces' have been extremely reticent explaining what the army was doing in the area at the time of the attack.
A spokesperson for said: pohe patrol was car. the the RUC. rying out military duties', but declined to elaborate. The commanding officer of the soldiers concerned, when asked whether his men nad mounted out' said: can't
was routine patrol.
Cynical
it seems likely that the arrival of the British army on the Illay have prevented the UDA from finishing off Bernadette and Michael. but the questions remain:
Could they have arrived sooner than they did, and they had a Teason to stake our Lue house, why did they not
The maelle and Michael? In other words, was Ine army aware Ilal an attempt on the life of Bernadette was made, and did they allow that attempt to be made?
Frank Maguire MP was one of those to express cynicism about the army's role. Not at all they weren't lucky,' he
Page 6
said. "They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Whatever the exact details of the shooting it
indisputable that British have refused Bernadette the means to defend nene
Michael Farrell, leading Peoples Democracy, who was interviewed Irish radio weekend, disclosed that bernadette, Teamine her life, had applied for a gun licence but had been turned down.
What also uncontested is the tolerance that British governments nave shown towares lie UDA. Numerous demands for the banning of the UDA have been made in recent years, but both Labour and Tory politicians have rejected such calls.
One of the latest was
International,
made in Michael the SDLP
that knew that Secretary
telligence indicated
last year other H Block konnie Noel
'Since the start of 1980 alone, Canavan pointed out, 'court convictions show UDA involvement SIX murders, one attempted murder, and five armed robberies.
For its part, the pre-
British government has done its best to cover up for the UDA A statement from the Northern
Office November described the
'essentially
political' But even leaders of the UDA have admitted that this is not the case.
In an interview with the Belfast Irish News in December, Andy commander-in-chief the UDA, said of the killing of Ronnie Bunting and Noel Little: quite likel people from
murders.
Last Friday the UDA attempted to add BerHautllt and Michael McAliskey to their everlengthening list of viCtims. Hopefully they have not succeeded.
Bernadette is a born survivor, and, it seems, even the joint efforts of the UDA and the British government have failed to end her fight for justice and socialism.
H Block/ Armagh
committee expresses
'total abhorrence'
tee, which organised
campaign in support of the Irish hunger
strikers,
rence' at the shooting of Bernadette and
reads:
shooting which is clearly part of a concerted cam-
leaders.
paign have been
members of the National H Block/ Armagh Com-
mittee, Miriam Daly and Noel Little. Three other
leading members of the campaign, John Turnley,
murdered.
British authorities to apprehend their killers.
of political prisoners in the H Blocks and Armagi
has been the victim of slander,
physical elimination from the British
ment and its supporters.
peaceful and legal pressure, its opponents have
not
mination and success of the campaign.
and speaking at public meetings.
Bernadette
kill Bernadette and her husband, we are equally
determined, as she and Michael are, to press this
campaign to a successful conclusion.
pathy goes out to her family, neighbours, and
friends.
Bernadette has
'shown us the way
forward'
THE Irish revoluLonary organisation Peoples Democracy condemn. ed the attempted assassination of Bernadette as 'the latest and most dastardly incident in the catalogue of horrors perpetrated by the British and their Loyalist allies'.
Bernadette a toun ding member of PD retains close links with the organisation, which was the most prominent political organisation to fully • support Bernadette in the 1979 EEC elections.
PD notes that 'the H Block/ Armaah cam-
THE National H Block/Armagh Commit-
the successful
has expressed its 'total abhor-
her husband Michael. The full statement
The national H Block/Armagh Committee is shocked to learn of the attempted assassination of Bernadette McAliskey and her husband, Michael. We express our total abhorrence at this latest
paign or murder against H Block activists and
To date, several leading members of the cam-
murdered, including two
Ronald Bunting and Tony Valenti, have also been
Little or no attempt has been made by the
The peaceful and legal campaign for the rights
intimidation and
While the H Block/ Armagh Committee has used only the methods of
Bernadette is the latest victim of the assassins, obviously because she is seen to embody the deter-
She is Public Relations Officer of the National H Block/ Armagh Committee and, as such, has travelled all over Ireland and Europe holding press conferences
The mass support for the prisoners all over this country is due in no small measure to the efforts of
urging the setting up of local H Block/Armagh groups in every county in Ireland.
While expressing our sorrow at this attempt to
Our sym. paign, a legal and open has had to contend with vicious attempts by the British and their sup. porters to harass, in. timidate and murder supporters of the political prisoners 'There can be no more telling indict. ment against the democratic pretensions of the Six-County Slale el The Catholic minority a id exposed day day out to vicious attacks, both legal and illegal, by the forces of the British crown.'
Strength
PD concludes by saying •emadette has shown us the way forward the Continue Block/
Armagh campaign to a SUCCESSTU COnCIU sion; rely only on our OWI strength and force those who claim to speak in our name to ao as we say 'Whether they be in Fianna Fail, the Social Democratic and Labour Party or in the leadership of the trade union movement, they must be forced to act in our interests. Otherwise we will act ourselves, as we have done in the Block/Armagh cam. paign.
Page 7 scan of this page
40-30-30!
ference. every party member.
fall into three main types.
trade unions,
The
is the best.
MOST
to divide thisayalt
The
duvallare
mentary party, albeit insufficiently
jective.
Reselection of MPs movement's
from collaborating
terests.
ference decisions disarmament
this. anxious
terests of capitalism. Loyalty
They
public
TSHS mean?
leadership battle, have championed a one vote' system because
terests.
ple who argued should be tree
be best as
are arquing
The answer capitalist those people.
methods: an electoral college
The electoral college proposals
are those which give the main say to the trade unions. Those which divide the vote equally between
constituency ties, and the parliamentary party, and those which give the major sovo me recenter carto
'40-30-30' formula, giving ne loue nous le bouest sovi
It is also the single although more trade union votes support the NEC third-third-third proposal
unions the most say is that it tilts the balance away from the parlia-
ano weakens the power of MPs. This must be our main ob-
and right to elect Labour leader is part of the fight to break the Labour Party leadership
with bosses and defending their in-
The Gang of Three and their supporters want to ignore con-
unilateral and withdrawal from the EEC are two examples of
They are not only willing but overturn democratic decisions of the rank and file in order to preserve the in-
claim their loyalty opinion' own consciences, but what does
naving TOSH reselection argument and given that they are now likely to lose the
the right wing 'one person-
responds most closely to their in-
Line rigat wing — tne very peo that parliament of and that only MPs know who will
now completely turned about and
that everyone in the
changed their minds? they haven't.
What they are advocating could well turn into a system or contu sion and even corruption, where anvone can loin the party in order to influence the choice of leader
• and where they are in the best position, with the support of the
media, to influence
Socialist
Challenge
THE MOST democratic and therefore the best way to elect
the leader of the Labour Party
is by a vote at party con-
The 24 January special conference won't have the chance to vote for such a proposal. Instead it will have to choose between two
There
councillor
par-
SPARHAM
giving AURENCE
the
the 1Ke was restricted, the
of
Commons'.
Labour cabinets Tene lies and whose their 'public the
Party activists. it cor-
off about •oscene
pleading have
he's just taken
Grenfell
the former
people democracy
For a vote for
By Carol Turner
Southwark Labour
This system benefits David Owen and Williams because it removes the power from the hands of the people thev most tear, the beoole in the best position to assess and democratically control their performance: the party activists.
As long as
the alie the Times called 'the great decisions
Wert LaKer Cabinet Room and the House of
leaders were accountable -state, service formulates their iture. These are the arms expenditure.
whose opinion the right wing take account of.
not the workers, nor of the unemployed; it isn't even the opinion of Labour
To hear MP Bill Rodgers sound
This conscience
thusiasm for NATO and nuclear
To hear for incomes (which means a wages freeze!) is a sick joke when we learn that
supplement already-enormous EEC pension.
Dr Owen, stalwart defender
and Williams, who includes Reg Prentice in the manv dubious she has espoused - these are the
who claim
The fight for democracy within the Labour Party and the unions is
peobie Shirley party democracy on
right were trom Sundav
...it une
and their
whose civil choices actermines
opinion
run
Rov Jenkins policy
a part-time lob
Shirley
causes
defend
on
a battle over terests.
excluding the cesses Shirley Williams and Frank Chap It needs
ple to police the organisations of the working class them in line behind the needs of the ruling class
to be won, fringe benefit, not an added extra
it's an absolute Socialism depend. on mass participation; it without mass socialist society is all decide how our lives should be
adopts the best available option, our fight is not over. We must con-
manifesto, and democracy issue into the unions.
the right cannot afford it, that is why they are so bitterly resisting even the most tentative steps proposed at the 24 January ference.
not to have it. That's why we not only support these first steps, but give notice that they are only occinie. more to come if the mass of the population are to impose their wil
the handful benefit from this society.
Labour Special
Conference Issue
1980 Labour Party conference platform — now right wing plot split
different class inCapitalism's success depends
working people decision-making propeople like
and to keec
f the struggle for socialism i
democraci is not
essential.
cannot happen involvement. one where we
Even if the special conference
the struggle to control the
we must take the
Democracy is the great divide:
As socialists, we can't afford
La There is much. much
who TUTE and Tony Benn moving conference resolution on NEC control of the manifesto Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 7
Page 8 scan of this page
LABOUR MUST FIG FOR UNILATERAL DISARMAME
Strategies for
Labour Movement
by Richard Taylor
between 1958 and 1965.
were debated in discusses CND and the labour movement.
THE CHALLENGE FACING US IN 1981
JOBS NOT BOMBS
CND labour movement conference against the missiles
against the Missiles is to be held on 28 March this year.
support of all those in the labour movement who support the fight against Tory missile madness, to stop Cruise missiles and the f7bn Trident gramme.
backed unilateral disarmament. Now that has to be translated into action.
held at UMIST Students Union in Manchester, will be accepted from all bona fide trade union organisations Party branch or constituency, trade union branch, trades council or shop stewards committee - at f3 a delegate.
to: Labour Movement Conference, CND, 11 Goodwin St, London N4.
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 8
banning the bomb
The Peace Makers and the
LAST week JULIAN ATKINSON began a threepart review of the new book The Protest Makers
and Colin Pritchard (Pergamon Press, £10) which discusses in detail the successes and failures of CND's first wave
The first article was an overview of the different strategies for winning the campaign that
CND. This week
THE Labour Movement Conference
The conference aims to mobilise the
submarine pro-
Last year the Labour Party conference
Delegates to the conference, to be
and Labour Party two from each Labour
For delegations and further detaits write
The authors of The Protest Makers argue that there possibility of CND winning the labour movement to its ideas in the '50s and '60s. One of the key factors in this, they maintain, was defection of Bevan, the only alternative leader the left possessed.
Toash the queston. lt to
approach the question. mol a issue or predicuon bul Wadl gessons we trom the way in which CND dealt with the labour move. ment and what is the likel response of the Labour lefts of today. never systematic strategy the labour Julian was certainly no
campaign aimed at the factories and the rank and file By Paul Smith MICHAEL FOOT says that he supports unilateral disarmament. Despite this, he has appointed as spokesperson on Brynmor John, who openly opposes unilateral disarmament.
The Labour Party conference in October voted for unilateral disarmament. The membership of the Nuclear Disarmament is 20,000 and rising fast. Canada has already got rid of its nucical wcabulls.
Despite this there labour movement who oppose getting rid of Britain's nuclear arsenal been the case ever since Aneuran Revar said that Britain could not walk naked into the conference chamber.
Socialists have to maintain the fight for unilateralism. arguments which we should take up. Multilateralism doesn't work
The argument of those who say we should keep our nuclear weapons is that the best way to abolin nuciear weapons is through winning main powers to abolis time.
All the hawks, both in the West and the Soviet Union, support this approach. But the balance sheet is crystal clear — it does not work.
In the past 20 years the explosive power ot nuclear weapons has increased a thousand times, and the number of natons which possess them dramatically. It is thought that Israel and South Africa, for example, now possess
was any the
Do Best end there was and
can learn
Labobis Adas sey Copi tee
autumn of 1958 and compris-
like Frank Beswick MP had any John Horner towards Brigades Union. not used to the movement sere
consistent campaigning of the CND. To be less than kind, their major experience had been politicknuclear
shadow defence Campaign for
are still many in the
- that has
There are four crucial
nuclear weapons.
agreement from the
sh them at the same conferences were a farce.
that • time
unlikely to be.
nuclear multiply.
Aneuran Bevan with Harold Wilson
was
set un the right
ed left MPs and union leaders
and the Fire view with They were open Illas. tance movement sulalegy figures Michael Foot leads CND march in 1959
The furthest that the world has gone towards mutual disarmament has been the SALT 1 and 2 conferences. Yet these
SALT 1 did not deal with the main breakthrough in weapons technology at
- WELC walled. as MIRVs, on one rocket SALT 2 has not been ratified by the US Senate, and is
While the USA and USSR have spent 10 years talking in Geneva the number of
warheads has continued to The SALT conferences have acted as a cover for doing nothing.
of
COIt
smith.
ing in little rooms during the Bevanite revolt and then being thrashed by Gaitskell and bomb.
lan Mikardo expresses the blinkered view of much of the Labour left when, in an inter-
Taylor and Pritchard, he dismisses the impor- such
CND as a mass as against the of winning key in the organised
LONDON
ALDERM Britain doesn't have an independent nuclear deterrent
The argument that in a nuclear world Britain is defenceless dependent deterrent fact that Britain would never use nuclear weapons independently States.
In the event of a conventional war in Europe, NATO is committed to some form of nuclear response.
DUSSCSSIOl nucled
membership of NATO could easily drag Britain into the American's nuclear war.
labour movement:
'Another 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 non-political people don't compensate for the loss
those who can exert political pressure at the point of action
CND's work in the unions was sketchy. Far more was
by pacistcontrolled Direct Action collice whose spokesperson was Pat Arrow-
The aim of the DAC, a few local CND trade union committees and, later, the in. dustrial sub-committee of the Committee ot 100 was to popularise and agitate for in dustrial action against the
In 1962, the CND conference passed a resolution, in opposition to Michael Foot and the rest of the executive, for a campaign in favour of
industrial action. The EC refused to implement the
policy and Arrowsmith and
vichaer con resigned
Some industrial action did
With th Britain, wh and contro last remnar rent disap! tagon and i trol over th
ignores the basic Even b
hand and the United strategy. Fi friend of
contes lat
Britain's
weapons and would be t
Soviet Uni pallal
Page 9 scan of this page
ake place. In 1957 it was anounced that missile site as to be built on the East oast of Scotland The Dundee rea of the Building Trades peratives came out against le base:
'Not a pick, not a spade, ot a trowell will be used for
establishment rocket tes in the area.' The proosal was withdrawn.
In the summer of 1960 ere was a two-month camign aimed at Bristol Sidelev engines which culmin. ed in a token stoppage callI oy lic sloo slewares com ittee. In the autumn of 1961
pallas of LOnGOI ockers refused to handle irgo for Aldermaston.
Merseyside, at the etrochemicals site at Carrgton, the workforce of 1000 ld a one-day strike on 14 ay 1962 against the resumpon of surface nuclear tests America do kussa.
The actions small. ney were token. But they in-
of Cruise missiles in l be targetted, serviced y the United States, the an 'independent' deter-
Wall Street, the Pend Reagan will have confear weapons in Britain.
Cruise, Britain was tied
US's nuclear larshal Lord Carver (no ar disarmament) comthat Britain would never
contact without
'the risk to ourselves whereas the risk to the buld be great but only
dicated a potential that the CND leaders and their labour movement friends in places refused to explore.
The mass movement CND and pae no have an impact on unions and amazing places. In June 1959, the General and Municipal
outraged leadership was thus put to the bother of having to amance recall conference and bully the delegates into getting it right in time for the TUC.
TGWU Inen
unilateralist. Right-wing commentators normally write this off as a result of the can mence or ene general secretary, the winger rrank Cousins. this explains the G&M and, ollowing year, the AEU USDAW, NUM and a host o smaller unions is not clear.
In reality there was a big shift of opinion Then working class.
The cost of nuclear weapons is appalling
the replacement for Polaris is to cost £5-7bn. One Trident submarine will cost the equivalent of 100 hospitals, 4,000 houses or 1,000 schools. when resources are desperately needed for precisely such things; when massive cuts are being made, the economic waste involved is appalling.
It is arguable that the political and military cost Britain's weapons is even higher than their purCHase SACC The United States appears to have decided that it can win a nuclear wal the 'theatre'.
undeniably hastened the process was the decision in 1960 high oine Communist
support CND
ot
unilateralist resolutions Before May
Do the May 1999 c
the May 1959 editorial in Unilaterialism divides the diverts attention from the real Issue. Hainely, agreement to weapons.' By the time of the LP conference, a majority of went union votes had been won for
unilateralism.
There bureau- advance in the influence new unilateralism
left In 1957 66 unilateralist resoluHow tions went to conference. This
, in was partially a response to the
British H-bomb Christmas Island. posite resolution was moved by Harold Davies seconded ov ine What Vivienne Mendelsohn.
other European nation. primary target,
unlike the Swiss, At a time lack
Enemyer
rest of the world
nuclear
European
Party to the right and to reverse spasm' 1960 the CP expressed
only anO
The lationa ban nuclear
Hugh Gaitskell The defeat had been a steady 5,836,000 to 781,000 tially due to the within the LP votes unions.
test small advance The com election year
MP and Icience.
Trotskyist was on in the unions.
Per head of population, Britain has more nuclear bases and devices than any
It would be a the first nation to get ally for example, whose or nuclear weapons Wlakes
Getting rid of nuclear weapons is not primarily a moral gesture aimed at the
it is a very practical step aimed at securing our own existence. It is a myth that the Soviet Union iș preparing to invade Western Europe.
Defence thinking in the West
was the moment when Bevan made his move to
and savaged the resolution as an 'emotional
but to get
send it by
than real.
was huge was not • parimpact of Bevan and partially due to the was,
of the CP-influenced alliance.
The '58 Conference saw a
the uni- the lateralist vote and '59 was an Labour
with no con- The swing This was helped by the cancellation in
dominated by crude ideas which sunDose Union aims for world domination, and is preparing for an assault on West Europe through the 'central front' in Germany. Yet the bureaucrats who rule in the Kremlin are defenders of the status quo; they seek Loreserve men Twice in this century — in 1917 and 1941 — the Soviet Union has been invaded by the world capitalist powers.
The Soviet rulers must know they have no hope of -and for that matler any reason for - dominating Europe militarily. They have difficulty enough controlling East Europe.
An overview of the disposition of the military forces of East and West shows
April of the production of the proposed Blue Streak : missile
own, inTory Labour leaders had British H-bombs
them to Moscow they would be forced to in. novate the Busby bomb and
parcel post. confusion was more apparent and some of the left didnt. What Gaitskell was that it was not particular missiles that were crucial but allegiance to the foreign 1 and military policy of NATO. It
Blue Streak, nor Thor, nor Skybolt - not ever Cruise - thạt was central. It
and is, NATO
The 1960 Scarborough conference should have been
greatest victory left had ever won. union votes were there but the proposing speech of Cousins was lack-lustre. The response of Gaitskell
anti-communist
that the soviet States and
race.
own rule ner.
that
west The Tories'
full backing to CND.
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981
electric. He rejected unilaleralisin and would • 'fight and fight and fight again to save the party we love.
Many of the Labour left leaders listened with a sinking feeling The issues were now wider than mere nuclear an nihilation the party could split and the next election be lost. Another worrying feature of the victory was thai the constituency parties sup ported Gaitskell by 512,000 to The right wing prepared to wage a counter-attack to reverse the decision.
The problem was whether the seize the icer pared o seize victory Aldermaston marchers had pul into inel nanas. Their proven specialism was gallantly losing and remaining a critical but loyal minority Would the Lefts have the wil political ability to fight again?
Next week: CND's defeat and its lessons for today. clearly that it is the forces of the United
NATO which surround the USSR and not the other way around
Both in numbers and technology the USA is way ahead in the nuclear arms
In a nuclear war there will be no win-
Strategies based on nuclear war are built on quicksand. We can start to fight the danger of nuclear war by disarming our own rulers. There is little chance that it can be stopped by discussions at the conference table in Geneva.
missile policy can and must be stopped. A mass movement bas ed on unilateralism can stop it. Michael Foot should sack Brynmor John and give
Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
By Pat Kane THE recall 'Local Government in Crisis' conference held in London last weekend gave backing to the anti-Tory strike called by Lambeth trade unionists for
first week February.
Though smaller than last November's conference, 430 delegates from trade union and
Labour Party branches
the country attended the 18 January conTerence
Since November Tories have continued their vicious attacks on all aspec"s OT the welfare state. The latest measures by the government aim to slash local services withholding government
and restructuring
the rating svstem to en sure that local councils strictly conform to Tory policies.
Fight
Peter Coles, TGWU branco secretary Lambeth, told delegates that he had come to the conference to look for sup. port for a fight against the
SCle
without support
TEne ones will be able to defeat Lambeth, and any group
workers who fight.
The Tories frighten people,' Cole told the conference, 'but they're going to frighten us. Some Lambeth council raises
the rates to save Tories
By Graham Norwood, Norwood Labour Party, Lambeth TED Knight and most of Lambeth's controlling Labour group voted on 12 January to levy a supplementary rate of 20p in the pound in direct opposition to the Lambeth-inspired 'Local Government in Crisis' held last November.
Knight, the council leader, accused LOOSE Labour councillors who wanted fight
LIC Tories by refusing to implement cuts or raise the rates 'not being socialists',
In a bitter exchange at the end of a special council meeting. • Knight said that the call for direct fight with Thatcher and Heseltine, which would be an inevItable result or not raising rates, could not be supported by the majority Lambeth councilors because it 'has no backing whatsoever IrOm the national Labour and TUC leadersnip.
The council meeting was a set-piece argument
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2XP Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 10
in the
by
people have said we're jumping the gun by and caring strike action
February, but fight we won't have a job left anyway.
'Heseltine can
who he likes into Lambeth commissioners or even Maggie herself not won't find anyone to work
with them. conference
between the Tories in op-
position, and ine bulk of
the group.
wingers spoke against the
Not no cuts
isting services, and three
abstained in the fina.
vote.
But the key political
debate - short as it was
concerned
by four Labour coun-
cillors to seek 'reterence
back' of the proposed
rate rise on the grounds
that such a rate burden
would fall mainly
working class people in
the borough. It would ef-
fectively be a cut-by-the-
back-door.
Moving the reference
back, Neil Turner said
working people would
suffer from the rate in-
crease because i would
Lambeth conference
votes to fight Tories
Delegates attending the 'No cuts, no rate and rent rises' fringe meeting
that The conference agreed
„LO organise solidarity if we don't week of
begins on 2 February, and to support the demonstrastick tion called for 4 February.
Many but they cluding Ted
Lambeth, had voted at the November conference for
not be completely covered by rate rebates.
In political terms, he arguca, me rale increase would offer greater
the COntinued existence of the direct labour tion in Lambeth.
Both Turner and Steve Stannard asked the council leadership to say
would whethel incl simply keep increasing LIc lales to compensate for Heseltine's reduced rate support and block grants, weetner the much-rumoured
CUS would CUlC about in April 1981
Ted Knight refused to say anything in reply except that Lambeth had resisted making cuts far, and would not refuse this rate increase because the alternative would be
take over the running of
council.
He made no effort to day Wildl Sudan would be, nor would he comment on the political alternatives outlined the debate.
Neil Turner had argued that with Heseltine forcing Lambeth council to attack working class peoole rouga rale rses. li was time to take political
via resignation. or bankruptcy, or refusing to down and
their commissioners in to
covericals work.
The main issue now is how the unions mobilise in the proposed week of action in the borough in rebrual y Support within the counci Jumited: the leadershin refused to comment on the likely prospects tor the strike when questioned by both Labour and Tory councillors.
Labour Party
support and tor the lambeth Since then action which
the conference.
Labour sold councillors in- VCeS. IT S
Kniaht from unionists
fices in the
Stop
CUTS
Wandsworth workers picket council
By Dave Benlow Wandsworth NUPE shop steward WANDSWORTH council in South London was brought to a standstill on Wednesday of last week.
Michael Heseltine has achieved what the discontent' and TUC's Day of Action last May did not bring about unity in action white and blue workers.
Uver the past two years a thousand jobs have gone from the And thanks to the new system of government rate grant, by wnich pooret will be under-financed, worth been told to
of
The
government, nand anyone resolutions to oppose Tory Heseltine or local government poncies. he
they have Knight, tlaunted the decisions o1
rate rises, councils have tion council houses increased rates, and cut ser- president
Trades to make sacrifight the Tories, but according
f20m off this year's budget.
on local services. additionally bank interest charges.
nounced their
La fortnight ago. jobs would go; f7m 'winter saved through the * rent and rates creased.
between collar rise in rents tenants.
had begun
strike fund 18 months ago. support had areas • Wandsment.
gle
Vanessa Wiseman to Ted Knight councillors are exempt from the hardships of the class struggle.
Knight argued in favour councillors implementing Tory policies such as the sale of council houses. fear of isolation from the corridors of local possible surcharging by the • Tories if they refuse to implement cuts, has led the Lambeth council leader away from policies which can defend jobs and living standards.
Control We intend to stav control in Lambeth and not over contro either to • the bankers, said. But despite the conference Tene one Cuts. no no sales' posi-
Vanessa Wiseman, of Lambeth Council, outlined why everyone should support the stand taken by the Lancers unions. but she
Wandsworth fights the Tories
This amounts to a third of what the council was spending
plan The council meeting spends £33m on
The Wandsworth Tories an- action
proposals for cutting local services and jobs
Just over 700 stewards would be job loss, and were to be in action to Meeting the government's requirements will mean a 40 per cent rate rise and a f6
for council possible
The response of the NALGO branch was particularly rapid bine
compulsory branch levy to establish a local
auSU plan of action if the counci the broke the redundancy agree
also criticised Knight for
coing utte to make suce
that the Lambeth Labour
group were active in tne
struggle
At a lunchtime meeting
she pointed out that it was
not good enough for coun
cillors to pretend that they
not implementing
WEIG
Tory policies. She argued
that councillors should
play their part in the strug
and share the hard
ships too. Prison
'Of don't want to go
Vanessa saia 'but if you are ana vol
Trades
lines have be to
Many were
Wales Ray
done
stand. Like Cross
whole
the Tories.
Despite of and his
planned of action
sacrifices to
Photo: NEWSLINE
Four days after the olitemen of the cuts, this
was activated at a mass members.
They voted for a day of all-out sunke acton vor 14 vanuary, Te be followed by selected strike
A liaison committee set uf between NALGO and the shof
committee of the manual worker's unions voted on Monday for a programme of
fight to defend services and jobs.
Wandsworth trades unionists know that it is im.
fight the cuts borough by borough. They are supporting the call for a com-
committee meeting for local authority shop stewards
Camden Town Hall on 29 January. And part of
week of action called b Lambeth local authority trade
Page 11 scan of this page
THE annual march commemorating Bloody Sunday is due to take place this Sunday, 25 January, in Cardiff.
Both the Nanonal British Movement are believed to planning The Anti Nazi League mobilise in march to take place.
The march is called by Sinn Fein and marks the ninth murder of 14 demonstrators by Derry's Bogside in 1972.
THE Northern Ireland Study Group, set up by the national executive of the Labour Party, has just produced a consultative paper entitled, Northern Ireland, the next step?
full discussion on the paper's contents in constituency Labour parties and affiliated unions.
By Mick Sullivan, North Islington Labour Party and Labour Committee on Ireland.
THE 1920 Government of Ireland Act which established the partition of Ireland was, at the time, opposed by the Labour Party.
In January 1920 the Parliamentary Labour Party published the report of a special Commission of Inquiry into the Present Conditions in Ireland, outlining what the party policy should be. Malady
The commission began its report by declaring: 'Ireland is suffering today from malady which has many civil effects, but only one cause.
The frustration of national social as well as political alialls has produced feeling of bitter resent-
transmitted from one generation another, against British
The commission went on to detail the justifica-
noted, for instance, that the British 'civil and military authorities be-
dave destroyed practically all the safeguards political and personal liberty'.
Majority
The views of the Irish people themselves were
then recorded. The ma-
wOll the Fein in the 1918 election Republican Sinn was referred to and the commission concluded
'The country is overwhelmingly opposed the present political
and the maiori. ty of Irish people are not happy under British rule.
The 'principle of selfdetermination', said the
Front
be attack the demonstration is expected to sunport of the raht of the
Wales,
anniversary the always
building anti-internment British soldiers in resistance.
Labour and Ireland:
the next step?
The Labour Party has asked for a
The background
SINCE 1921 Northern Ireland has
been part of the United
Tollowing
Ireland Act, which
separate parliaments in Belfast and
Dublin. This Act also
Council of Ireland to deal with mat
ters in which both parts of Ireland
had interests. It was hoped the set
ting up of such institutions would
lead to a united Ireland.
In 1949, however, Parliament
Ireland Act which said that no part of
Northern Ireland would break away
from the United Kingdom without
the consent of the Northern Ireland
Ireland Parliament was prorogued in
March 1972. and direct rule introduc.
ed, he Us Pariament dowers were cansterreas li
The 1973 Northern Ireland Con-
stitution Act later repealed the provi-
sion in the
change in the constitutional status of
Northern Ireland. Instead
down that 'in no event' would Nor-
COMESS ON meant. the
*right of the Irish people
to determine their own
future' As far as the uni-
Not ireland COL-
cerned, 'the Labour
ly to the conclusion that
parton is n remedy
The solution the
commission did offer
was that Ireland, as
whole, should be given
independence but
the British government
snould ask ine country lo
remain within the British
emoire
But, said the commis-
sion, it believed the final
decision should lie with
'an Irish constituent
assembly representing
the whole Irish people'
Loe event the
Labour Party of 1920
By Larry Herman
SEVERAL media unions are
supporting
which will discuss coverage
uf Ireland. Thetconference,
to be held on 28 February at
the Digbeth Civil Hall, Birm-
ingham, was initiated
the National Union of Jour-
nalists as a result of a deci-
on 25 January
This is the first time a major Irish demonstration has been
although socialists together with Welsh Republicans have
shown all active solidarity with the
The fascist threat against the march
series of articles taking up the five
paper. commentary the introduction tative paper, which is also reprinted below.
United Kingdom
Wing there Kingdom Government
Northern
established a
Kingdom.
and Labour and Republican the WestIn late
passed the
Agreement, establishment Ireland, had plemented Assembly Nortern ecutive.
184 08 d scorc strike Protestant unionists.
Act regarding any rule.
paper
was unsuccessful securing these demands.
Partition was imposed on Ireland by the British.
The Council of Ireland, established by the Government of Ireland Act, never met But least the Party had established the principles by which the 'Irish problem' should be resolved. Partition Unfortunately these principles were overturned by the Government of 1945-51 The Ireland Act of 1949 rather than challenging partition strengthened it.
It gave the Unionist
Media unions to hold Irish conference
sion taken by last year's annual conference. conference
has come from the televisior BBC staff union ABS NUJ assistant by Bob Norris has said: tent fears have been expressed about our
Ireland
Bloody Sunday march
planned for Wales ch,
IntereST Irish
aid to this discussion, Socialist Challenge will be running a
questions asked in the consultative This week we begin with a
tion The Bae consul-
consul-
thern Ireland cease to be part of the
without the con sent of the majority of the people liv-
On 8 March 1973 voting took place to determine the views of the elec torate on the constitutional status of
Ireland. Some 60 per cent
600,000 in all voted; and 99 per cent 57 per cent of the electorate) voted in favour of remaining in the United
However poll was
Party and by nationalist ore anisations the Sunningdale which included the OT Council started to be with the election or ar and a power-sharing ExHowever, TAIS Executive was eventually brought down in May
province wide organised and led by militant trade Since then alie Northern Ireland has been governed by direct
From the Labour Party's consultative
majority in the north of Ireland majority created out of the partition settlement originally opposed by Labour — a permanent right to veto the ending of partition.
At the time this met with some opposition in the Labour Cabinet.
Lord Longford then Lord Pakenham and
tion, wrote to Prime Minister Attlee to object:
The record of the Northern Irish ments since 1920 has revealed an attitude to freedom of speech, (to) a fair delineation of consti tuency boundaries. and democracy generally which quite OUI of keeping with our Labour Northern Other media union support
specific
ship involved.
Details
secretary movement, 'Consis- no vies.
members'
CA-
needs to be taken seriously. The NF and BM have publicly vowed to stop the mar-
with the NF planning a counter-demonstration to take place a couple of hours before Sinn Fein's is due to start.
The NF is then planning to disperse in time for its members to secure vantage points against the Bloody Sunday pro-
E BACKGROUND
E 1921 Northern Ireland ha part of thian Governmen pine Act. which ate Parliamenis • in Belliso nished a Council of ireland tr
with matterhad interer suc
stitutions would lead to a united etting up o 1944
consent of
Northerr lan 192 s and duced the UK Parliament Norther tutional status of Northern ovision in change any sd. Instead it laid down that ercu i cease naiority of in March 81973 vovie ton there
No in al ored and is per
ideas.'
Longford concluded satisfacyory saying the one solution of the 'Anglo-Irish blem' was 'the political unity of Ireland..the end of partition' his trice deal Longford Attlee with not the political principles behind
perience in reporting events in
Ireland The con-
ference takes place with no
prior assumption
about the nature of the censor-
of the conference,
which is open to the labour
from: Ron NUJ, Acorn House,
314 Grays Inn Rd, London WC1.
Tel 01-278 7916.
testers.
Originally these consisted of
sible course.
Able at 1.30am
Kings Cross at 9am.
memory in me city centre
Northern Irelan
he next step
cent (57 per cent of the electorate) vote United Kingdom the oll was be Democratic
repunlian organisations.
THE DILEMMA
In late 1973 the Sunningdale Раза но which inclu Council ded the
of a with the election ot
an Assembly and a po. this Execu
and led Protestan Since then Northern been governed by direct rule. • ireland fia were
How Paper: Form a working party to straty
By to the Enviea Group Offices the quesion
arate re Executive Commi views of + Respond by March 1981.
A LABOUR PARTY CONSULTATIVE PA'
Longford's objections but rather how partitior was in the interests of Britain.
War necessity Northern Ireland's continued adhesion to the WHELCO Kingdom for defence purposes' The ditching sereprinciple determination has informed Labour governments' attitudes to Nor. thern Ireland since Attlee's fateful moves.
As partition designed to ensure a majority inside an artificially created state, it is obvious the voting inside the North of Ireland would reflect that ma. joTthenever
the Unionists have felt that the views of their majori-
The ANL is still discussing its plans
march adainst the NF counter-demo. but it mar be that these may now be dropped in favour of protecting the Sinn Fein march This would certainly seem the more sen-
The Bloody Sunday demo will assem-
at Fitzallen Place. The Troops Out Movement will be running coaches from London, leaving York Way.
, Coaches from Birm. ingham depart at 9.30am, from the Hall of
and
Questi
THE PROBLEMS
Ireland are appalling economic exacer er-sharing * Unemploym I was ne * One third of
unionists
* Northern cent dependen coal 10 per Consulatin umland does Britain's natur One measu however, specifically
What extra adopted Should Britain Northern were not being adhered to strongly enough they have reactec violently. The 1974 Loyalist strike which brought down the power-sharing Sunningdale settlement was one such occasion.
companied by a Loyalist campaign violence which left 43 dead. The government's reaction to this strike was timid In his book The Point of No Return Robert Fisk of The Times has shown how the Labour government take the necessary steps to break this strike At no time since 1949 has any Labour government challenged 'right' of the Loyalists to malala user slatc dill the partition of Ireland.
Socialist Chällenge 22 January 1981 Page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
SC Sales
ABERDEEN: SC sold Saturdays out
— for more into ring ColBATH: SC on sale aa turdays 2pks:
It 10-4. For nore into phone BRADFORD: : SC
Bookshop, BRIGHTON: SC sales regularly every
outside
1 More • Fullmarks Cheltenham Rd, Montpelier, Bristol sunNer: se on saie every s MADE Sales Newmori
sales Newport Cardie ''s 11-12.30.
Marketplace Sor
Vities phone 461138 from Dundee City Square outside Boots
11-4pm. 4.30-5.30pm ala Sat To Also
Stre Book Cente Lane Hope i morning at Ride kate HAMILTON: SC on sale 8.11 ever
outside
i7 Clyde View or John ai 54 Eliot St
pm. The Pazza. SC also available a (evening, 2% 490 lan. 483 3905 SWINDON: SC on sale IT-l every
La Midand outside Woolworths
1. 30 pm. an anurdam ear Beatries, above? if not and in details to his sales column
SC Events the Labor Part. open whe porters only. Details pol
10p
Socialist Challenge London Day School
Sat 24 January 10.30-4.30pm
East Europe and Poland
Speaker: Oliver MacDonald
Open to Socialist Challenge supporters Admis
Stance f1. Venue: St.
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 12
International
Marxist Group
notices
ENGINEERING: National traction
National fraction nor ta is Feb. Ring national centre for Branch leaderships meeting on
ire. Arena issiles chester nee.
WOMEN'S LIBERATION: National
RISH
• as 3. enue next week in a early y ed
yet rical posts in
meresica ung renny or
What's Left
mores to wrote me
to publication
No. 8: the trish War - What is to
Ford's amirish
Labour British
perrer news and articles on Brianan
RC poil 20. 42 film
'niversity p. Woodhouse one
BLOODY Sunday tit organic by Sion remin car remoration
ondon (e4 retural. Coventry, Man
Canterbury organised by ondon Poly
Poly. Ken own site TV room 30pm N
dick, Guardian y Coreron 102. Fur Ve am, oregon The Mall, London Swa.
Revolution
Youth notices
AnnAlix 01-359 wanting copis or he new gon
I won't die for Thatcher A STOP •CRUISE MISSILES
STILL AVAILABLE: the badge that shows where un you stand on Thatcher's war-mongering. 20p plus
Up&p. Send Hackney Socialist Education Group, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP.
Matthews, Brixton (2
By Davy Jones
ONE of the most important battles
against the US
government's at-
tacks working people America
will begin on 16 March.
That when the lawsuit against
govern
ment spying, alsrupuon, and harassment filed by
the Socialist Workers
Party and the Young
Socialist Alliance
- WIlL
politically support the
Fourth International
comes up in court.
Spies
The lawsuit against the FBI, the CIA,
Galle other government spy
migration Natura lisation Service (INS) aims stop further harassment SWand Yasainst the
The organisations also want to recover all the spy agency files on harassment, and to seek compensation for the disruption suffered up to
The government already admits that its 40-year investigations of the SWP and YSA has revealed no illegal activity. I ne socialists were harassed for their legal activities.
Unpopular
The SWP and YSA have been prominent in opposing the dratt and the Vietnam war; in ad-
organising against racis
police and Ku Klux Klar terror; in supporting women's equality; organising solidarity with the revolutions in E
By Toni Gorton LARGE-SCALE money gathering is a very serious business - ask any capitalist. Supporters of Socialist Challenge, however, can't invest money to make money, or finance TV time for a personality to appeal for funds for the revolution.
We have to do it the hard way - penny by penny, pound by pound. Because we have such limited resources we have to think out seriously what we are aoina tc do and how we are going to do it.
Big opportunities are opening for radical ideas in Britain today.
To be part of this ferment and an effective part of the strug gle against the Tories, we need some basic facilities.
To print our pam. phlets, to send journalists around the country reporting first hand on the latest developments, spend time working with activists on their pontical lasks ana pro• blems all this requires a professional apparatus.
Socialist Challenge News
Salvador and other countries.
The Reagan administration like Carter's, will need the secret police agencies
Funds for the revolution
It means type. writers, paper, ink, phones, train tickets and printing presses, collators, and photographic plies.
'Raising money is a chore, to be finished with as quickly
the real politics
idea. 'Real politics' is taking serious
proach to all the ques
tions that are throw
ip in the proces: of
ighting for your idea:
Every task can benefit us if we look at it politically. When we
organise a jumble sale
a disco or a raffle
we increase our organisa tional skills and get a chance to work with people we don't ordinarily.
When we sell badges against Cruise missiles, against the Tories, and
our ideas hold a banquet with a speaker Grena da, we inform and in spire people and help
organise the defence of the Central American/Caribbean
Socialist Challenge
supporter
Hackney, for example will be dropping their pennies into piggy banks every night as
News from the
Fourth
International
SECRET
POLICE
ON TRIAL
SOCIALISTS
VERSUS
FBI, CIA, INS
because the new govern-
ment knows that its
policies of inflation,
«NOT busting, cutting social
attacking desegregation, and
part of their efforts to raise over £1,000 the paper's fund drive the end May They have promises o to as a result or one night on the phone.
A whole series of events and ongoing projects NAVE planned with organised around each one. They collecting goods posters from Solidarity in Poland which will be framed and auc tioned at a social.
Two raffles under • way one for a pair OT Who concert tickets and the other for large sum money.
Socialist Challenge is asking for €20,000 out of its f100,000 fund drive target from this sort of local activity To reach our target by May, we'll around ever month. all sup porters follow Hackney's lead, it can be done December got off to a good start with nearly £1.000 I in fund 'rolling in ove But so far in January we've onl another €161 now's the time to start pulling out all Seceived 15,692.57. stops. we've
undermining safety conditions with most working people.
Successive American governments have resorted to wire-tapping, surveillance, harassment fighting to win new regular
are
are
of had
So
the
and violence in order to intimidate and disrupt any groups or individuals who oppose them.
lawsuit , filed in 1973, has forced the government to release tens of thousands pages official documents.
Illegal
These show how the FBI plotted against the black movement; how it ined anve UTON militants from their jobs; how it sought to discred11 the women's rights movement: and now tried to prevent the rise of a massive movement against the Vietnam war The reveal the sysicillalil the 2ve call of burglaries, inwilclau formers, and other illega
Under the pressure of widespread opposition to the FBI spy operation, the government an 1976 that 11 was ending its investiga CHOl the SWP and YSA. That was a lie.
Trial
Last the SOCaust uncoverec six-year investigation of iviarlan BustIll coal miner in West Virginia and SWP and YSA. The INS Hen De the
visited Helenoours relatives, and landlords to iry to tina grounds to deport her because of her political views. overnmen is at war with working people home abroad to defend profits. American socialists are putting the government itself on trial. Socialist Challenge will be following the case in future issues.
Socialist Challenge
National
Sales Day
Sat 21 February On every coach and train to Glasgow Socialist Challenge sales teams will be out
At the demo itself we will be
readers and subscribers. Make sure you're in Glasgow on 21 February selling Socialist Challenge!
Page 13 scan of this page
By Geoff Bell COMMENTING on the planting bombs by the Provisional Belfast's city centre during the early 1970s, the narrator of the fourth part of The Troubles, to be screened on ITV next Monday, says the bombs were for 'defensive purposes'.
The narration goes on to explain that the bombs were designed to occupy the attentions of the British Army while the IRA organised Catholic ghettos. What is remarkable is that a documentary on Ireland, a British TV company should choose to relay this fact.
Equally abnormal, part four of The Troubles describes the policy adopted by the Tory Government in 1970 in Ireland as one of coercion.
For those who have watched the first three parts of such descriotions, accurate as thev are will not come as much of a surprise.
The series nas which means more pro-Republican as it has progressed. on the first 50 years of the Ireland state. was the most forthriaht ex posure of the policies of that state that By Paul Gilroy YOU HAD better go and see Babylon before it disappears. There is every reason to suppose that even the mild version of racism the film uncovers will be palatable exaggeration by many.
The unprecedented complicity of the censor and the Commission 1U1 Racial Equally. resulling aware or an x ceranicate or political reasons, is alarm-
Then there Horace scarcely shown 101 lour ycars aller it was made, as a reminder or une 'sensitivity' of the subject matter of racism
Rosso, the director of Babylon, focuses the ress ance and strategies group young men who run the Ital
sound run-up competition with their arch rivals Jah Shaka i le (CHura craracteris me. me.
introduces and interrupts their selection music with rhyme, and political commentary.
We see him fired from his mechanics job, brutalisSocialist Challenge 22 January 1981 Page 13
of IRA in
Stained
Michael, defence of the
made by
Loyalist
The Troubles, the use of
steadily better, tion of
Last Monday's episode,
Northern
incidents
"Babylon' - see it!
considered an un-
ed by the police, sent pack-
companion ol peine unreasonaby possess
ive, and finally to
who wrecked sound's elecof the DUl ally UnC
sound's followers could tell
a similar story, and Rosso is
less concerned with the in. solution political problems than with emerging
solution, visible in the con-
sciousness and organisation
dance-hall words: You think the walls
by just one man?'
The talents and wit of
the black who
obviously improvised much the dialogue. Hake unc
tillery
Their influence is also detec-
table in the skilful way the
has ever been put on film.
Und in michae harris on The
Michael Farrell's Orande state as well as interviews with
the film underlined repressive policies of the Unionists, their use of discrimination, and the apathy and censorship of the British governments.
One criticism that can be made of this evisode is the use ot Glen Barr. as the
'expert' chosen to Michael Farrell. Barr is no fool, and as the leader of the Ulster Defence Association he could be considered enough representative of the Loyalists.
The content of what he said on Monday suggests otherwise. His condemna-
the Unionist times, as harsh as Michael's; especially his comments on the 1932 unemployment demonstrations and their aftermath. And vet the opinions Barr expressed on such
show just how involved realist rebreseniadon or orack Deople.
At last on screen there is a black usehold in and child pal col stand •visibe acaost ne bonce and where the pressures of to the •lallitu reicience back culture genera tional conflict.
Culture Though poorly DHOLO-
rest of the film, and conveylg lulls or a rcal evell. use cance-nal scenes present black culture altogether different light, revealing the sound system institution as a vital cultural
heart of resistance, with dub nusic its pulse Bob Marley's rise to stardom has confirmed the Lial cuture ousiness TOr Ine white capitalist. Though the record industry has been
Under Review
The Troubles continue
appears to be. book
the divide media and riddle. How s
riddle.
sciously
COunter
JOSI be a fair
Is this barrs
government was, at
tual with the colour-supplement glamourisation of Rastafarlansin wilcuis aline cente of marketing reggae.
Unlike its predecessors
The Harder They Come and Rockers, this film is an extended colicicid „stano recores There is an explicit challenge white consumer'
racist atrack
Ejected by the others rils presence tant because it neips kosso emphasise the class sub-culture, so that race and class consciousness are secr as inseparable aspects of the same dynamic process. ; together' format rapidly becomes a fetter
women which follows from tion, needl lessly opening the LUNL those WIlU black culture herently more patriarchal
ha he him has been
photographed, corregated 11 U1 By Bob Findlay and Paul Gilroy FEW readers will be unaware of the arrival of Winston Churchill black TV detective. The build-up to the fourpart film serial screened last week made it plain that he has a rosy future.
The implausible, coherent, and eventually amateurish portrayed Wolcott's lone struggle against corrupt colleagues, the rather half-hearted racism of his brother officers, and the apparently unreasonable contempt of other blacks who felt that he had no business policing them and should therefore be regarded as a traitor.
Symbol
Since there are only 80 black officers out of 23,000 in the Metropolitan Police, you may wel query Wolcott's validity as a symbol.
As he conscientiously prises apart warring
anti-racist militants in streetmarket battle, you ocal to clause me kine of symbol he is for a sup-
tative of Loyalist opinion he is, or at least
If it is the case, as Barr suggested, that he is fully aware of and opposed to the attempts of the Unionist leadership
and rule the Northern Irish Inen tnere Is an obvious come that Glen Barr heads UDA, adopted and still follows policy ot assassination acainst Catholic. in general, and more recently against the
socialist ¡caders imperialist movement?
path to workino class unity? Is not what he is involved with merely carrying on, indeed intensifying, the practices he condemns?
The answer to this riddle is that Glen Barr is a hypocrite, a liar, and an intellec
confidence trickster. He loyalty to the cause of a united Northern Irish working class within the UK, and
i a comedy sack rice
comedy scenes give way gradually to an intense and optimistic chmax
no sues chant or' we car' take no more of that' as the and break down the barricaded doors of the hall Cannot SOlVE the political crisis of the movement no1
consciousness black who reconnise mer exoerence. in the screen version But these are not the tasks that it sets out to accomplish.
Education
It is a first rather than a final step.
Incomplete it may be but will be entertaining for blacks, men commun sensitivel depicted. And it is a useful zeal is yei mary howledge of the brutal matched rudimen-
sullerea •y ine olack.
Wolcott, Britain's first
posedly colour-blind law.
In four hours there is HO I single black character of any worth, depth, dignity. programmes present instead cavalcade OI cardboard cut-outs, radiating racist stereotypes with every twist of the meandering plot; the drug dealer, the mugger, Kasla, rapist, the politico, the il Iegal ligtant, and ine helpless shopkeeper who pays procton money Self-help projects and the Rasta movement, which are in reality organs of black resis tance, are associated with a variety of criminal activities. The leader of the black gangsters describes his drug racket as the 'revolution and cannol decide we nel to be Malcolm or Fagin'.
Ccoo antentions
nadette McAliskey. would of
justify the
defend the indefensible.
next Monday's episode,
governments.
Reggie Maudling is the section on Bloody Sunday
makers on
ane presented,
British benefit of any doubt
declares real WIl be
•Wolcott' - stop it!
tion from an Asian
supermarket owner por-
trayed here as a teartul
and isolated victim, not
racism
- black people.
Clothes
Wolcott's status as a
law officer does not save
him from sudden lapses
into 'primitive'
behaviour. These are
sometimes accentable -
he tortures the white
gang-leader allu
sometimes not, as when
he threatens to rape the white journalist who has extended hand
friendship
The producer has not
missed an opportunity to
have him shed his
clothes. This may be
stupid but it is in fact very serious
The series opens with the sadistic night-time
murder of a defenceless old white woman by a
black man who steals her This
portrait of the 'mugger'
is already at the heart of
uses this as a political justification for murdering those who reject this schema.
It seems the way to hell is paved with
, However. comfort this week to the friends ; of Ber-
have been better if the The Troubles had chosen someone who would have attempted to
Unionist government.
Perhaps, though, none could be found to
Just how indefensible is underlined in
which also puts under scrutiny the role of recent British
Watch out for the way , and tor
Indeed the technique used by the film-
Bloody Sunday is representative ot the entire series: the evidence is
both sides of the dispute are stated, no final judaement is made. But the viewer is left in little doubt about who was right and who was wrong, and it is not the British Army, the Unionists or the
government who are given the
Which is why The Troubles is not only good television; it also displays a degree of honesty about Ireland which has rarely been seen betore on British TV
is pularsingly central no
increasingly central one way ponce see lie black community.
Wolcott contained an exceptional degree of explicit violence which, like racist stereotyping, insults, and sexual inbecame humorous way of presenlacis popular manner. Mask We have yet to ser how many millions watCheC 'The tell it like it is apattempted pull a mask of credibility over the same old insults. it becomes a series there must be an mediate to have it withdrawn.
If you watched the programme and were as appalled as we , please complain to ATV at this address: welc Jean Morton, Head of Audience Relations, ATV Network Ltd, ATV Centre Kirmingham B1 2JP
Page 14 scan of this page
FREE BRITAIN'S NUCLEAR COLONY
World crisis deeper
than SC suggests
I WELCOME the greater emnnass being even to me economy in recent issues of
feel Brian Grogan overchlorasises role coversmen Done wies ne claims that the sharp drop in
January).
The implication of this is that the lies in change of governmen
alternative policies une answer Labour
Inal we walt undi une nex el echon
KIT HOOT'S hernave is well-known. His own constituency of Ebbw , Vale had
cent before the I orle!
Dower ana benn was in the Cabinet that agreed to close the steelworks.
Brian would doubtless
ment could not agree mal a Labour covern- solve the problems of the British By Dale Gash
SOUTH Africa's sabotage of the latest negotiations Namibian independence, sponsored by the United Nations, ensured that the talks broke up last week without result.
The Tacist regime denounced all the parties to the
UN, the front-line states, and SWAPO, liberation movement.
The problem for the West is that it has nothing on which to base its continued defence of South Africa, and no cover for its refusal to implement
against Namibia which have been laid down by UN. par ticular, the West is concerned
of uranium from the country. Sanctions
After the break-up of the conterence, held in Geneva, SWAPO and the front-line states repeated the call for sanctions and pledged
the armed struggle to end South
occupation Namibia.
From me as centrane Namibians have resisted the ruthless exploitation of their labour and land at the hands
colonial occupiers. rirst the British and then the Germans moved in; after the First World War came the Britishcreated racist MONSter South Africa
For 20 years after the Second World War, the Namibians petitioned the UN for independence.
In the mid-'60s SWAPO saw no alternative but to turn
resistance to the South African occupation. It was then. In October the UN General Assembly adopted resolution which ended South Africa's League of Nations mandate. and placed Namibia under direct UN control. Isolation
In March 1969, the United Nations Security Council declared South African cubanon illegal and called on South Africa to immediately withdraw its administration from the ter-
Socialist Chatrenge 22 January 1981 Page 14.
But this conclucronoly. sion is not that suggested by
which analysis. several grounds.
Firstly, he looks only at the current world recession,
The will mUCI less severe 1974-75'. So why does the unfair ye recit OECD 23m
countries for 1981? will be caused not bi tuc sular diess oi lne curren recession DUE because comes or top Pot world m of the longed crisis perialism
Even in the 'boom' of 1978, Britain had 1.4m
Zanu senousiv expects world unemployment dramatically when this particular recession ends. the inability of imperialism to solve its nistoric crisis that is the most important feature of the economy.
Secondly, in his effort to
Ruacana
NAMIB
Swakopmund!
Walvis Bay
of
300Kms
ШИШИ
ritory. It also called for international diplomatic economic isolation of South Africa wherever it acted on behalf of Namibia.
Since then there have been
many attempts at a negotiated
settlement between SWAPO
and South Africa, courtesy of
the UN.
The aim is for free elec-
tions leading to independ-
prove that Tory policy is the main problem, he minimises world recession I ne following figures for the seven largest capitalist caker from che Economist:
Britain's i eat unemployment rate of pery sapan cent is the highest, and Hiany rave less unan l be
2. The decline in British industrial production nearly 10 per past year is the sharpest, bul Only Jabal las experiencea some decline.
In other , even if Britain's crisis was no wors al is welc still be the best Dall or LI Deoole on ine cole Thirdly, even that part of the crisis which is uniqu in Britain is not only causec
least wo omer raciors are important:
The historic decline of Britain as an 1 imperialist The empire both gave a marker ol
into exploiting the rather than introducing new
Namibia: after the failure of
Geneva conference
authorised secret contracts between RTZ and British Nuclear Fuels. The decision violated a UN Security Council uranium is, quite simply, stolen. Angola
‹ Oshikango i , Ordangwa tV
Tsumeb
Etosha
Pan Otavi
Vzn
: Otjiwarongo, • Waterberg T
Brandberg Mountains WSni
Isn Omarurt Caribib Cl
Usakos Okahandja "
WINDHOEK Rehoboth
Gibeon
Lüderitz
zn Fish River Canyon ence, but although the West and has been willing to make extensive uncessivis racist regime, always backed off.
South Africa has used the negotiations as a delaying tactic, giving those powers which economic interests in South Africa and Namibia an excuse to avoid the immediate im.
International / Letters
Led the decline This s a Bieris Britist compenliveness, wach nas
the Empires explapse ince
the Empire's collapse. delay towards the EEC the problem sales of North Sea oil on the world marke have kept sterling high and further reduced British manutallulls cavila • Kelative Iv lew worker. nave beer needed to achieve high oil sales because a large part of the price of oil is currently
enjoyed by the oil companies.
Government policy Situation and Thatcher has worsened been quite happy to see ris unemplovment reduce the confidence of workers fundamental blem is the crisis of world
build lunary international cava ble of leading the working-class in the struggle against imperialism.
LYN EYNON, Cardiff Benn, as Minister of Technology,
resolution. Namibian
* Runtu
Grootfontein (eetmanshoop,
South Africa
the latter has The
too predictable. per imperialist cluding
nave largeR lailu and
12 the whites.
Redgrave
and Gaddaffi
ERICA Flegg's review of Playing 11S humanist stulemen.
January. out Vanessa Redgrave's perfor and dismisses the suggestion that Redgrave has any truck wIll slar distasteful, "nOT only absurd, but almost obscene' moral enthusiasm could well have been balanc Redgrave's known political connecuons The Workers' Revolutionarv Partv. of which shi is a leading member, has for Month oly
maris Libya
Colone Gaddaffi's Alau Socialist military junta).
Redgrave been
honoured guest at Libyan vuicial celcorallons
man who distinguishes his half
chances:
LI DOUS stationed north
makes
terrorising
Ing
But been SWAPO's Katıma Mulilo Terror Botswana
number groups, vigilante Ral.w.tys Tacisi
DUDUCL
9 snees Sorghur Mille Dentalst Maze- most vividly F-shing Dutch, Diamonds bian uranium The COppe
Lithium managed by Wolfran Venadiun
and
1970
decision vemenanon or comprenen sive economic and diplomatic Under
sanctions against the racists
pattern of landownership in Namibia is only
Forty-three cent of the territory, in. ington. the best agricultural
workers deposits, is held by less than per cent of the population
anti-Zionism Semitism. Last week he add
Cal 101 TavouraDe vlew whom, he thinks, suffers a bad press only because 'It is the allies who hav turned Nazism into a bad wine and nave portayed l
As is well known the call for 'historical revi today'i Redgrave repudiate European Nazi: one WRP's patrons? Unlikely. Instead Gaddaffi's pro-Hitler Newsline carried its Namibians are forced to work in the white areas, near-
under Colital! labour system, and live in heavily policed compounds. Women, children and the old peopic cke vul a micagie ex istence in their 'homelands'.
taking no over its and 1,500 police are in Namibia. The is under martial law, with a free-tire zone along the Angolan border
The South African army extensive sweeps through the martial law area,
population, making mass arrests, tortur-
Joe anees and holding them without charges or trial for indefinite periods.
the racists haven't able hold back growing support Some 60,000 refugees have fled into Angola where their camps have been bombed b the South African Air Force armed with NATO weapons. minternally there are
white private armies. and groups defend interests against any hint of liberalisation from the
Not the South African-backed Demo. cratic Turnhalle Alliance.
Apart from the weapons shipped to South Africa, im-
backing shown by the British, West German, US, and Japanese contracts for supplies of Nami-
Rossing , the biggest single investment in Namibia and source of one-sixth of the world's uranium, is halt owned and
Rio. Tinto Zinc It supplies nearly half of Bri tain's uranium
Contracts between RTZ
British Nuclear Fuels authorised secretly Benn,
violated Security Council resolution
international law the quite simply stolen, the profits going to in
RTZ lemmanolar banks and shareholders like Lord Carr-
Meanwhile the contract
at Rossing live and work under appalling conditions. Organising through the Rossing Mineworkers Union,
Usua OTTICIa handouts glorifying the annexation of and the democratic reform of Office Lloyal (to
enlignter humanity large').
I'm neither Jewish not Zionist But I feel little of Erica Flegg's moral exalta tion when Newsline's advertising (rOn recruiting adverts for Gad colonial army) augmented royalties from Auschwitz. ADAM WESTOBY, London N4.
Turkey Solidarity Campaign Defend Democratic
Rights in Turkey
public rally Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 Thursday 29 January at 7.30pm Speakers from the Labour and Trade Union Movement
branch ot the Nationa Union of Namibian Workers, their wages and conditions have been brutally suppressed b RTZ security guards and South African police.
The Campaign Against Namibian Uranuum Contracts (CANUC) has been working for a halt to uranium supplies entering Britain, as part of the demand for com-
sanctions agalst South Africa.
Boycott
Since 1973 the Labour
Party conference and manifesto have pledged cancellation of the Rossing contract. There is now an increasing possibility of direct
plies and implement other bovcott. alains. South Africa
The two major French union federations (CGT and CFDT) attempted to boycott Namibian uranium supplies en route to Britain, but at the last minute officials changed the route that had been unearthed by CANUC.
The executive of the seafarers' union NUS and the loco-drivers' union ASLEF have asked their members to refuse • to handle this cargo, and the TGWU is considering
a boycott
uranium is taken the BNF plant at Springfields near Preston under strict securitv. and ettorts are unde way to locate the new route.
Solidarity
At its conference • on 2' January CANUC will plan a more intensive campaign
labour movement develop solidarity with Nami-
workers through boycott of the uranium and to stop the renewal of the contracts in 1981.
cluding CND and student's UHOI NUS are organising a national day of local action March, directed at Central Electricity Generating Board depots and offices to highlight this cam-
For details on the conference and publications on Namibia, SWAPO, and CANUC, contact: Namibia
188 North Gower London NWI. Tel 01-38 5539.
Page 15 scan of this page
Fisons fightback By lan Parker and Simon Hampton WORKERS al ine Sons Terilizer niani Catrenown Plymouth, have halted the movement of lor-
bid
120 workers were orven 9u-00vs notice redundancy last spite of evidence plant's economic viability. iney are baraculary aner at having put in long hours before Xmas stockpile
Redundancies have already boosted Plymouth's unemoroyment rate per cent. Hopefully the resistance Fison's workers will help to turn the tide.
Appeal
against
gay
sacking
By Barry Prothero GORDON Wiseman was sacked from his job as lecturer drama therapy, at Salford technical col-
last
'gross indecencv with another man aged over 21.
By a majority decision, the dismissal was upheld by
employment tribunal, and the case is now being taken Appeals Tribunal, where it
MONTO
It will have serious consequences for the employment protection
gay
Gordon was dismissed in spite tact that his choloyers Had recciveu no complainis, and inal a large number Kenners and theis work and others
Sheila Egan, tar yormer
sericlal y
ther caucalon leacners. was
issculine member Ine employment Tribunal appeal. She said that Gordon's dismissal was tantamount to sacking him for sonciting and promiscuity. but that a heterosexual was most unlikely to be sacked for this reason.
She oncluded: 'In treating a homosexual man more Marshiy because or aIs homosexuality, the governors had shown themselves
unpre minded", law lal.
LIC National co ant ro the National Civil Liberties is holding a
public meeti nine
le Issue. 7.30em. Conway Hall, I alstu case.
Red Lion Sq, London WCI. ont pay the
SNAPPY one-inch badges in black, wnite
Vital wear for anyone faced with Tory
attacks on the public sec
15p each 10p each for orders or ou or more
Available from Badges, Ideal Design Ltd Southall, Middx. All pro-
Socialist Challenge.
By Celia Pugh in Cardiff OVER a hundred ships are now out of action as a result of the industrial action being taken by the National Union Seamen.
The union is demanding a 25.7 per cent wage rise and in. creased overtime This week, however, the NUS executive decided escalating the action to a twoady all-out strike
The union's Cardiff branch was the first to begin industrial action when it refused to allow the Texaco Gloucester before and more ships over the New Year period.
The militancy of the South Wales seafarers was evident at the first mass meeting of the Cardiff branch on Tuesday of last week.
Full-time area official Tommy Hanley told members: government behind Inev want shipowners follow others like Michael Edwardes ana vorce us onto our knees. But we'll win by sticking togetner.
Mobilise
The meeting adopted a resolution calling on the NUS executive to drop demand for arbitration and instead mobilise the membership to win the full pay claim. meeting also pledged itself to a fight for jobs.
Tommy Hanley "The changes that have taken place over the past 25 have benefited the owners, not us. The NUS has lost 155,000 members in that time.
'Bigger and bigger have been introduced but with sinailer crews. Our membership has been reduced around 30,000.'
Musa Nogan, NEC member, backed this. He TOIC the meeting: 'Since war we have seen owners trying to keep declining market by fewer workers produce more.
'West Germany and Japan have come into with Britain and the successes
national movements have meant declining piece of the cake for the owners.
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Unofficial Committee of Enquiry The Death of Blair Peach NCCL, £1.50 This supplement events in Southall on 23 April 1979 compictes the work of the unofficial committee and reinforces the criticisms made of the police's role.
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Escalation not arbitration, say
South Wales seafarers
of
payments
against
sail four 'The this to
unanineusly
its
The
explained:
calo
pose ships
the
making ward to victory!'
competition
liberation of political and philosophical
Not lett of the
psychoanalysis to the
328 Up.
Tel 01-226 0571.
Home News
Jim Slater at NUS Executive meeting last week
ficials fell for the propaganda provide of politicians and academics by bulletin, accepting demanning and proto rescind these "General Pur-
Interdepartmental TGWU, will give us a chance to keep jobs, cut our hours and employ
ecutive demanding such action
COUNTRY Denmark USA strength and resolve to go for- Norway
W Germany
To demonstrate this point, a Japan
Holland Liberia meeting, which also agreed to
Britain Greece weekly mass meetings and to Philippines
Anti-nukes demo at airforce base UNDER the banner of Wycombe Students and CND Your a hole pres outside the gates of an American Airforce base just before Xmas The base is to be the site for the back-up The long wait for a Bristol bus By Chris Nash TGWU 3/111 (personal capacity)
THE Bristol bus company does things by halves, literally just announced 50 per
ments wants to sack 540 bus workers, close your aepots a total ban on
regular information through a disputes committee
The Welsh Seaman
Successes already notched up by the disputes committee include solidarity and financial pledges from the Welsh TUC
NUR, NUM and local trades councils.
Seafarers' pay in the
West $ PER MONTH 1139
968 922 836 799 674 575 430 200
system for Cruise missiles.
One of the demonstrators Lorraine Edwardes, said We were amazed with une support we got. We were loaned aulu given tents heaters, hot water WULLICO food and drink. Loads of people stopped they were so glad that someone was pro. testing' Support also Callie from black Gis in the base.
The Bristol bus service will be devastated when the cuts come into effect in late
The busworkers have re lected unese proposals mass meeting Wed is week thes structed see to build a publicity cam
The meeting moostecide meeung decided not to implement fare rises set for next month TGWI regional KOn Nethercoti
vc no maastilal aclun. Du a strike response is une oniv way to rally busworkers in strum emeral detent struggle, and draw the bus service.
Nuclear free zone on
Tyneside
By Phil Dexter West Newcastle CND
ment.
80,000 leaflets Sunderland.
want unilateral disarmament.
such as South Yorks in declaring
bomb group has been formed. save newspaper JOURNALISTS fighting save the
Camden Journal from closure had their first taste of victory last week when print union support prevented publication
the Hornsey Jour-
and Islington Gazette. The three papers are within the same North London group.
The solidarity from the London Central Calle committee or ine distaouSteel union leaders
back MacGregor's plan
dancies and a month-long pay freeze ding backing that he has claimed
Almost half the employees plan or abstained. plan, many were plastics and engineering
tional leadership,
against MacGregor. been left to local areas,
over the details of the plan.
For information,
4PX
Socialist Challenge 22 January 1981
THURSDAY night is normally tranquil in Newcastle. This was not the case last week when 2,500 took to the streets behind the banner of Tyneside for Nuciear Disarma-
The torchlight procession was part of an ac. tion week which included the distribution of 3,000
and march in
At a packed rally after Thursday's demo, the message was: We don't want Cruise, and we do
Tyne and Wear county council has joined areas
itself as nuclear-tree zone. We now want the counci to refuse to take part in so-called civil defence exer. cises and close down the bunker in Sunderland.
The weakness of the Newcastle demo was that there were no trade union or Labour Party banners, which is why a labour movement antiPrintworkers back fight to
tion union SOGAT. But the the • decided to lake no supporlive achon The striking journalists continue to local
sold 200 Camden people involved in distributing it : was held outside the Camden Journal ornice. vesterday •ane local demonstration is planned for in opposition to cut. and , as wel as lie newspaber closure 'THE ballot of fear' was how the union leaders christened the British Steel Corportation's ballot on a package of 22,000 redun-
Steelworkers had received three letters from BSC boss lan MacGregor, which said that there
unless they accepted the plan. This blackmail was also illustrated by a video film and glossy leaflets.
National leaders of the craft unions and the National Union of Blastfurnacemen caved in from the start, informing their members that acceptance of rationalisation now could save jobs in the future. Although the main steel union ISTC called for a rejection of the plan, it failed to specify any
Not surprising, MacGregor has secured a Yes vote from BSC workers but without the resoun
• voted against the Of the 63,237 voting for the non-BSC subsidiaries in
ISTC's own ballot of its members showed that despite the corporation's threats and the puny na-
large of prepared stand up MacGregor. A total of 18,392 steelworkers voted
Opposition to closures has , with the national leaders rejecting strike action in favour of negotiating
Trades Councils Conference on
BUILDING WORKING
CLASS POWER
Sponsored by Coventry, Newcastle, Liver-
pool and North Tyneside Trades Councils
and shop stewards committees from
Tyneside, Merseyside and West Midlands
Saturday 28 February, 11am-5.30pm Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry
Delegations: from all working class organisations
delegations write to: Coventry
Trades Council, 31 Stepney Rd, Coventry CV2
Page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
By Tessa Van Gelderen
the NUS and win their demands.
Their claim is a very modest one. British seafarers earn £238 month compared, for example, une £472 month earned by their
The basic weekly wage here is f64 and overtime is worked at the discretion of the ship's captain.
In practice, seafarers are 'prisoners' once on board ship and they work extremely long nours. The NÜS says that overtime averages 24 hours a week.
The seafarers' demand for a 16 per cent pay MIse nius overtime payments is not only tor a decent living wage now, but is also a move towards the reduction of overtime.
The long hours worked take their Billy Kerrigan from the Liverpool disputes committee
s convinced that the conditions contribute to the high casualty rates of seafarers, which are 5 per cent higher than in the mines.
Reduction of hours will also go some way to providing, jobs for the
thousands seamen and women who are unable to get work ed the shipping in- has affected the
do the work of many
work of many smaller ships, often with a smaller crew.
Standards
Not is the industry immune from cuts pamphlet just published by the four main civil service unions* claim that existing standards checking. on crew levels
maintained and will result in 'an almost total absence meaningful spot checks on ships'.
At present 70 infringements are uncovered a year, the biggest category being 1N -restation weevils, geetes. and maggots In cereals or meats. Those responsible for ship safety cannot cope with their existing tasks.
Bitter
Conditions for seafarers often sound
Loose on Ine Potemkin the Tsarist ship which mutinied in 1905.
In Liverpool they are
for bitter
ight with the employers. Many
were the 1966 strike and they know that the emplovers
Paper with the Post Office.
Socialist
Challenge
BACK THE
SEAFARERS.
ALL-OUT strike action by seafarers is needed to unite the various sections of
will stop at nothing. 'It'll "Reds under the beds", as in '66, says Billy Kerrigan. But they are standing firm. the importance of solidarity trom other sectIons of the workforce and are confident that they have the support of the dockers, tugboat, and
TOWNSEND THORESEN
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other countries are turn- Seafarers' unIons in ing back ships diverted by the employers foreign ports.
As Billy Kerrigan says. 'We win unless the trade union movement gets behind us. They can't afford to let us lose.
Cardiff NUS branch ups the stakes, page 15.
*'Marine Services Without by CPSA, SCPS, IPCS and
Twice these rates
form Socialist
before being shot by Loyalist thugs remained in a serious condition' Socialist Challenge went to press.
Her condition is now said to be stable' there appears no mediate danger to life Michael is said to be 'improving'.
The attempted tion of Bernadette and her husband last Friday is a chilling reminder of the dangers which Irish socialists face every day To be part of the resistance is to be a target for killers in and OUL of uniform.
For the past 12 years Bernadette, more tnan any otner single individual, has identified with that resistance. She #spired others to take up the struggle for Irish freedom and justice, either in Ireland itself or in the many countries to which she has travelled
In that respect she has proved one of Britain's greatest enemies in the war, just as she has been one of Britain's OSI steadfast and
Bernadette McAliskey speaking at H Block/ Armagh demonstration - her last
FIGHTS ON!
'very streets and Ireland. as as an MP ten years ago, nadette has
and minority in im- Ireland. her Energetic McAliskey
Although
assassina-
retired from energetically the many struggles thrown Irish course British imperialism British
ment. The been supported by
countless
cracy, socialist sympathises International.
votes in the campaign,
Irish political prisoners.
propaganda
strike bv these orisoners. Ber. nadette emerged as the leader of the National
BERNADETTE
barricades of again take versate She was Recar Berarticulated the member feelings and interests of the op pressed and exploited Catholic cracv
the North of
one
she lost her parliamentary seat she never throughout
politics. She participated campaigns and up in the of the fight against publicly
In 1979 she stood as a can. didate for the European parlia-
campaign boycotted by the Republican
but most actively Peoples Demo- with the Irish revolutionary individuals organisation which with the Fourth
Bernadette received 34,000 recovery.
which helped to build support for the ford to lose
With the start of the hunger
page 6.
H Block/Ar-
Dhoto. INANNE O'BRIEN
and once inspired thousands to to the streets against British policy.
Bernadette has been a
of Peoples Demothe Irish Republican Socialist Party, and the short-
neesencen Socialist Party. Today she is outside any
organisation but her closest links are with PD
She has spoken from many Fourth International platforms
the world, especially in the United States, Spain, and the Basque country
During the 1979 general election in Britain she came out
favour 01 Socialist Unity candidates.
Recovery
Socialist Challenge joins
many other socialist newspapers, organisations and
throughout the world in wishing Bernadette and Michael a full and speedy
Her inspiration is something the frish resistance can ill af
Background to the shooting,
← Socialist Challenge No. 180, 15 January 1981Socialist Challenge No. 182, 29 January 1981 →