Socialist Challenge No. 193, 16 April 1981

Socialist Challenge · 16 April 1981 · 16 pages, 18,982 words read by machine

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Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.

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Challenge

Socialist

No. 193 16 April 1981 25p Unemployed and strikers 10p BUCKETFULS of rubbish have been talked about the riots by the and Tory politicians. The biggest lie of all is that the were caused by 'outside agitators'.

What Brixton was an uprising by

whole black and white against the theicholice;

sick treated like garbage by the cops, the bosses and their government.

The Tories have cut back social services and slashed government grants to places like Brixton, and

course, unemployment.

Government ministers only express their concern at the fate of unemploved youth when they are faced Will fights back.

There are six crucial lies which the Tories and the media have used to defend the police

Lie 1 It was caused by

Everyone in knows this is rubbish. trouble started last Friday after the police had hundreds of officers in the area.

During preceding the explosion, the a shas be cop ig search' operation in BrixLOI Over a thousand people called

stopped than 100 arrested during this period.

It amounted to an atwhole community, d

Brixton

media

events

happened in

community

a community

of being hiked up

community which

Brixton The

already

the week

'stop flict

'Swamp 81'

and

intimidate

is just part and parcel of their policy of heavy po-

'troublesome' -O1

The uprising sparked off when a youth who had been stabbed was interrogated by the police instead of being taken to hospital that's black youth rescued him and took him to hospital themselves, thus causing a fight with the cops.

More than 95 per cent of those charged during the weekend have addresses in the Brixton-Lambeth area

obviously agitators'

Lie 2, 'It was a racial conflict Everyone was on the streets of Brix ton knows that no hostility was displayed to whites on the streets - just to the police. Many young whites fought alongside youth.

i was lease the cock

Was youth, because they are on the bottom of the pile, the ones who are particularly harassed by the cops. They are the victims of racist attacks, and find it hardest to get a job

Lie 3 "The police aren't

BRIXTON'S

OUTSIDE

AGITATORS

to keep law Nonsense. racist through. was

these laws. why Back outside

Brixton Defence Committee MASS RALLY Sunday 19 April, 3pm Abeng Centre, Gresham Rd, Brixton

'injury' who WILl

arrested black

Wing them. black buildings

Speakers include racist, they are only trying

and order. ine ponce are through

They make regular use ot the Sus laws to arrest blacks who dare to be on the streets of Brixton rew whites are arrested under

people regularly subject to racist abuse from the people

Lie 4 'The police were the victims of violence, doing a difficult job. Every

officer with scratch was counted as an

while many young people went home

bleeding heads without daring to go to a hospital for fear of being

Roving groups of cops in patrol vans constantly harassed the youth on the streets, goading and abus-

Lie 5 "The attacks on hooliganism. The biggest

were two racist pubs, one of which refuse to serve blacks.

The shops which were attacked were mainly the big department stores, not

US HANDS OFF

EL SALVADOR! March and Rally Saturday 25 April Assemble Speakers Corner 12.30pm

Michael Foot and Eric Heffer

All Socialist Challenge supporters in England and

attend the small local shops. justified.' So says and Secretary Whitelaw,

in Northern

are We

fight their

out of Brixton.

The

for

create homeless,

Lord duce

social

the Unemployed

WCIC

ment them

in the courts.

Wales should

Lie 6 'Violence is never

Home William who's quite happy to see his cops use violence, and to use troops

Ireland to keep law and order'.

say violence justified when it's used by the poor and oppressed to

oppressors. If Whitelaw doesn't want his cops to be the victims of it, then he should get them

Tories and the they run leave them no option but to use repression to keep the lic on places like Brixton. the youth of the

youth area - their policies only

more unemployment, make more people

close down more social services, there will be more Brixtons, and more police repression.

Justice Scarman's tribunal will pro-

nothing but more lies. The only way to pre vent riots is to offer youth a future - jobs, housing,

services, not the misery of the dole queue.

And that can only be done by getting ric

Tories the

black and white - are

right to rebel against it.

The whole labour move

should defend against the repression which they will now doubtless face

Page 2 scan of this page

'AN ARMYO OCCUPATIO

police

in surrounding streets.

Transport

and de dca Was cu circled with a cordon of

At the tion 150 police vers and police horsed were parked were held at the ready.

Railton Road, as the Front Line, like the aftermath bombing raid, with burntout cars littered among the gutted buildings. darkness descended most of the street lights turned out, as hundreds of police waited in the side streets.

The police the resulls weekend's conflict. nappelled ana. way

All day Friday tensior infamous

the BBC's

years ago.

cheon'.

weekend Among black eye.'

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981 Page 2

By John East and Hilary Tarr BY late afternoon on Sunday, under para-military occupation. Hundreds of

lined Brixton Road, through the area, while thousands more were

Convoys of police vehicles roamed the area, periodically stopping to charge groups of youths standing on street corners. A police helicopter circled overhead.

had stop-

police stavehicles hundred

known . lookea of

Were The

surveyed of the What

Unauthorised weapons and attacks

on the press

SPECIAL Patrol Group cops in plain

clothes participated in police charges

over the weekend using some of their

'unauthorised

which included pick axe handles and

This was reported by John Clare, community

respondent. It puts an interesting light

on the death of Blair Peach during the

Southall operations by the SPG

Blair was killed as the result of a

massive head injury

have been the result of a police trun-

Several press photographers were

attacked by police in Brixton on the

and cameras them was told Socialist Challenge:

I was photographing an arrest in Brixton Road at 3.30pm on Sunday. The

police told me to clear off. I told them

that / was press and doing my job. As / was holding up my camera / was hit in the face with a truncheon. 'My index finger on my right hand was fractured and / ended up with a

Brixton was

the main road

built up in Brixton because of a heavy police presence At 6.30pm a black youth

stabbed in a Bleeding profusely he was taken to a police but instead of driving him to hospital the police interogated him in the van.

Van

Incensed, black youth attacked the police van, rescued him and drove the injured youth to hospital.

explosion that heavy police presence had threatened to provoke had beeun

On Saturday the police decided to show that 'We control the streets'. Heavy policing was the order ol

weapons,

affairs cor-

'which couldn't

smashed Larry Herman.

drafted al Cas

At driver in stopped;

for fight.

Vall

rate'.

stallull. two

was the local He

the Lambeth.

policing

La long

Act harass

the day, as hundreds were

from oine Brixton Rd was thick with cops.

4pm mini-cab 'Railton Rd was the police sisted on searching his cab

drugs. reacted violently, provok-

That'sit

Fora long tine ed by a whole day's harassment by the cops.

The battle was concentrated on the Front Line, Railton Road, heart of the black community. By Spm riot shields were out and by 6.30pm the first petrol bombs were thrown.

Youth began building barricades along Railton surprised by the weekend's events,

for at least 2½ years

The role of the SPG, operating from a garage at the back or brixion ponce

entailed constant

SPG's blue carriers. Roac

more or nocks were sCLu less at random. The 'stop and search' policy was car-

ried out extensively

searches indicated that the objective of the SPG presence

simply to intimidale community. As a result of the SPG's activity

local council, decided

March 1979 to set up an inquiry to investigate local

The presence of the

SPG was just one aspect of policing in Brixton.

penou un

laws - the 1824 vagranc

- has been used to OCa.

cars alight.

bombardment.

inyear ago.

tle were on fire While the on Railton Rd

Brixton

time ever free out of Brixton

tions Council VOLES LU

withdrawwouldn't, continued.

Brixton

NOT MANY people in Brixton can have been

has been in the frontline of saturation policing

The Special Patrol Group first came into the area in 1978 for a month's stint, the excuse for their arrival being Brixton's 'high crime

cording to this

/ the tent restable offence'

In other

the streets Sus

snow

laws in

in End of London

Balham

South-West For showed 'Sus' charges, wiles. youth, The

Rd and Mayall Rd, setting

Although under heavy

the police were determined not to b

out of the area as they had been in Bristol a

• Soon the George pub and the Windsor Cas-

battle rage Dialk all' white youths began attacking shops in the centre of

the big shops were attacked, but not the small local shops. A youth running of wiin a stered said to us: "This is the first

got anything

During the height of the fighting, people from the local Community Rela-

got black agree that they would take down the bar ricades if the police would

but the cops the fighting

attitude of the police was typified by an incident which took place outside Brixton library. A police van screeched to a halt by a group of black

Brixton

especially black youth. Ac

law it is ai

offence to be 'a suspecte

person loitering with in

words it's a

offence to be black and o

Home Office figure that between 197

and 1979 there were mor

people arrested under

'L' district (th

Lambeth area) than

other area except the We

A recent survey made Juvenile Cour

the main juvenile court to

Londo that youn

blacks appeared on SI

against

racism of th

Page 3 scan of this page

youth. When the police jumped out one of them slowly and deliberately stubbed out his cigarette in the face of a young black. Abuse

On Sunday at least 4,000 cops were Inte area. Tension built up all

Whitelaw and David McNee visited the area. They were met with angry abuse from Lne community •Sieg Heil' they shouted as the home secretary and the commissioner of the Met were whisked into the police station by a side entrance.

After the departure of the top cops fighting flared again. Unlike the plane They red o police had a plan. force people out of the Centre of Brixton with heavy tactics and a corcoll.

But in the side streets they were adopting a soIlly, softly' approach, talking to black youth and urging them to go home.

n the front line Letting McNee, the Met commissioner, know all about it

police was apparent once

1979 aall Januar when a policeme was stabbed Peckham, South London, by a black

wearing a sheepskin The police went Ludl around all colle and harassing blacks, especially anyone wearing a sheepskin coat.

The police raided the offices of the Council for CULLIUEV acations Lambeth, roughing up and holding in cells their workers, including CCRL secretary Ousley. After this both the CCRL and the whole community broke off relations with the police. including with the Police-Communi-

LOISON which had been

of duty in 1978. Six

The SPG were back in Brixton for another • stay last summer. Apart from their usual 'duties', they went into action against the pickets in the Brixton

dole office dispute, enforcing for the first time the provisions of Prior's Employment Act, limiting the number of pickets to Six.

During this stay by the SPG Lambeth Trades Council organised a rally outside Brixton police station addressed by council leader Ted Knight.

few months later, the local police commander, Leonard Adams was evalcu. Loca Deook think that Brixton's polic1ng 15 now directly from Scotland Yard.

Precept

Last year Lewisham council, worried by police tactics, threatened not to pay the precept - the part of local rates which goes to finance the police. Lambeth council's commission of inquiry reported this January.

With studied understatement its report commented: 'It's quite clear that the present way the police operate is not with

the permission under the jurisdiction of the local community' and that 'the community may not survive this kind of policing'

Predictably the police had refused to co-operate with the inquiry.

Inquiry

Brenda Kirsch was the Lambeth Trades representative on the Council of Incully. She told Socialist Challenge:

'Black people see the police as an army of oc-

and their pose is to keep the black BUL

Its place Not only have there been arbitrary arrests. but the police contempt for the

showr violent public arrests. of which this weekend is a classic example.

I've never been Derry or Belfast, but after seeing Railton Road it's like. Now they're go- I can imagine what ing to present Briton as

unpoliceable area justify using more para. military tactics.

All photos: Q. M. COOKSON (Socallet Challer

Racist

murder in

Swindon

A BLACK youth knifed and thrown through a shop window in Swindon last Friday night. Markland Chambers aged died later from his injuries

OSCO when white youth chanted Naz slogans Michael Hobb has heen charged with murder.

On Saturday, about 8 predommanty black youth marched through the The leafleted Swindon foot

around with Anti-Nazi League materia

The youth then

ticket the sa

They were that on the night of the murder the police had tried to round up black

not the whites

bleo had caused the trou

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981 Page 3

Page 4 scan of this page

'Stand up and be

counted' says rail

militant GEOFF HENSBY, secretary of Paddington No

branch Railwaymen, was meeting held on 8 April to defend the railways and build the triple alliance between rail, mine and steel workers.

to stand against Healey:

We'll be backing any move to get NUR endorsement lor Benn's bid deputy enter. The reaction has been hysterical.

After all he's only standing on the basis of implemen-

Labour Party support won't uncritical. well demanding that he aids us in building a fighting alternative, supporting, for ex-

secretary says:

By Geoffrey Sheridan and Paul Smith

'THOSE Labour Party

and trade union

leaders who have op-

posed Tony Benn

standing deputy

leader are promoting

a particular kind o1

unity, says John

Lansman, secretary

of the Rank and File

Mobilising Commit-

tee, which has

welcomed Benn's

decision to contest

the election. "They

want unity on their

terms, which is not

acceptable,' he ex-

plains.

'The CIV for unity'

comes from people who

for the over-

throw the Wembley

conference decision on the

make-up of the electoral

college, he adds. Ovation

There was a sustained

ovation Greater

London Regional Labour

conference

Tally

Tony Banks

point in on behalf of the regional his summing up

Labour Party executive.

La candidate in BaK.

the GLC elections,

directed his remarks at

Michael Foot, Who

Present on the platform.

Why, he asked the part

leader, 'did you invite

members to overthrow the Wembley decision within minutes of it being made?

That's breaking unity.

Delegates Ine conference evidently agreed.

Jon Lansman Considers that the Benn elec-

Socialist Challenge

National Union one of the speakers at a

This is what he said about Benn's decision

ample, our efforts to root the triple alliance in the ranks of railworkers.

The Tories and the Labour right fear that Benn might touch off a big rebellion by the working class, as happened with the miners. Unfortunately this response has NOL countered by the Tribunites. They've joined in the chorus.

R&F Mobilising Committee

*Resolutions for Benn

should be pouring

in for the union

conferences'

R&F Mobilising Committee secretary Jon

tion campaign is an answer to a fundamental problem within the Labour Party.

THE Rank and File Mobilising Committee for Dhosocracy, ampaigning which those democracy in the Labour Party, has issued the following statement on the Tony Benn election issue:

The Rank & File Mobilising Committee welcomes Tony Benn's decision to contest the election deputy-leadership of the Labour ParThe election will provide an op portunity for party members and affiliated trade unions to reaffirm support for the policies to which the party is committed. confirm the validity of the electoral college agreed at January.

We are disturbed by reports that the outcome of the already been determined, because a number of senior trade union leaders nave promised the leadership that the unions will be cast in favour of the

16 April 1981 Page 4

We'll have an uphill battle against the top NUR officials. Sid Weighell

spend much time and effort allans the Tories and the wages board as he spends spitting in the eye of unc

Benn, we'd be well removing on une Way lu Thatcher's crowd.

But Weighell seems to want to whip up witch-hunt in the Labour Party. There are result"

for the union's anL1U11s nual conterence suppor

Weighell's position, and it's vital that these are defeated.

We would very much welcome a statement from the 13 members ot the

executive will recently publicly criticised

Weighell for attacking Benn. the climate everyone should stand up and be counted.

'The democracy issue

was in a sense a neutral

'and the

one, he belleves.

Labour left could go along

will lal.

Soft

'But the trouble with

the right wing of the

- the soft

lett - that it is not

support the

kind of rank and file ac-

tivity that the left is engag-

ed in; the kind of activity

which resulted in the

Blackpool and Wembley

victories.

"Tribunites like Eric

Heffer and Robin Cook

What the Mobilising Committee wants

Labour unites all

for Ane eatenee

It will also help to

Wembley

election

dinaline committee. parliamentary

of their votes

Labour Party

have in effect gone over to the other side in the new division within the Tribune Group. welleye scenes deals of this kind can only br ing discredit upon the labour move-

We call for a free election. We call on all trade union members to ensure that they are consulted as to how the votes of their unions are cast. We call for an open and honest discussion at parties and their MPs on this issue.

to play a full part in utilising sion, and to make sure that this elec tion is conducted in a manner which reflects credit on the labour move-

To this end we shall be conduc-

The Mobilising Committee consists of:

workers Labour Action for Peace; Labour CoorSocialists; Militant; National Organisation of Labour Students; Socialist Campaign for a

Denis Healey, friend of NATO, the IMF, and the bankers

Lansman's view is that the Tribunite right is not primarily worried about its relationship with the trade union leadership, but with parliamentary democracy. Defence of parliamentary privileges is rampant in the

Tribune Group, he argues

'Benn's power base is rank and file. among is

Everyone knows that.'

He adds that if Benn is successful will be because of rank and file pressure, and that same pressure could undermine the trade union bureau-

which is why the union leaders are so upset about the election Chalichec

How to back inal

challenge? Jon Lansman

wants see resolutions

pouring in for the union

conferences.

He envisages valous

demands being raised in

the unions

ecutives to support Benn,

for the election candidates

address union con-

ferences delegate.

are mandated; and in some

cases for the membersh

• be consulted over whic candidate to back.

'One problem is thai the union bureaucracy has the excuse that it hasn't developed any structure for consultation. But this election campaign will force to develop such structures.

'If unions vote against the wishes of the rank and file the pressure will mount against that happening again. Next year the excuse won't wash.'

SOCIALIST

CHALLENGE

APPEAL

We give full support to the

candlaucy or 10m deputy leader of the Labour Benn

Partle believe that the cam-

paign offers the best oppor

tunity to discuss and organise

Will

labour movement needs in ine

ace of the Tory attack

Ve call for every branc

committee, and conference oj

unions and Labou discuss the election

Labour Party. deputy

Lansman is confident that whether Benn wins or loses the election, the campaign will have positive etfects.

"The main reason for the Mobilising Committer welcoming , Benn standing is to defend the Wemble decision the elec toral college machinery i put into operation a lot o

pressure to overturr the 40-30-30 voting patterr will disappear. Appeal

On Benn's tive-poin programme he is not keen He does not consider, to example, that withdrawal from the EEC should be a central issue. He thinks it's unfortunate that Benn was persuaded to leave out the demand for an of public ownership

While the Mobilising Committee is united in its support for Benn Lansman says that it is not the : kind of organisation which can commit itself to a party programme He supports the appeal that Socialist Challenge is circulating to gain backing for Benn

Page 5 scan of this page

'Thanks for your Labour Party coverage!'

THERE is only a fortnight to go for the launch of the Socialist Challenge National Sales Week on 30 April-6 May.

Supporters should by now decided

nave where they will be car-

OUL their estate sales. Next week's papers will carry a full list of sales activities nationwide.

TWO questions have been raised by Tony Benn's campaign. the unity of the Labour Party, and is his programme adequate to meet the needs of the labour movement?

Those like Michael Foot who are most vociferous in their attack on Benn for standing for election under the Labour Party's new rules declared war on those rules from the platform of the Wembley conference soon as they were passed.

Foot wants Benn to stop 'rocking the boat' while he cobbles up a deal with the right wing Labour's solidarity campaign on the right wing's terms.

But the issue of unity is broader than simply the tuture of the the Foot leadership.

united workers' movement nas to be in the face of the Tories' attacks and the manoeuvres of the Social Democrats.

Fight

The workers' movement has already passed judgement on the policies

the Callaghan and Healey government.

The former prime minister and chancellor bear the main responsibilitv for the draining away of working class support for Labour at ine 1979 election. More of the same will encourage no one to ligni for the party.

Thousands of workers are now moving behind Benn. To them he represents a radical alternative to the Tories.

In fact Benn's policies do not challenge capitalism. But his victory in the Labour Party and the massive defeat for the rigni inal ll would renresent would immeasurably strenginen me workcis i their struggles against Tory attacks and open the way to a fight for real socialist policies In the labour movement. Rally

A Labour Party which seemed a real alternative to the Tories would rally WUIKES million. Benn's campaign is a vital step in rebulaing lne unily of the labour movement and guaranteeing electoral

We want to reach as new readers as possible during the

week. With the sales local council elections in tull swina. as well as May Day celebrations, you won't be short of opportunities.

Take the case of one

How socialists

should view

Benn's campaign

Does the campaign break

By Paul Smith

success for Labour.

When the Labour Party has appeared to have a radical programme, as in 1945, it greatly expanded its support among working class voters.

Alternative

Today DOUT tacer the challenge of the Social Democrats. TOO!

Healey want to deal with LOTS bullalg

right not the Social Democrats, have the connoence Dusiness. Meanwhile millions of workers are looking for a radical alternative.

It is foot and Healev who threaten to break the unity and enthusiasm of the labour movement, and

the fortunes of the Labour Party at the polls.

Benn victory, youd rallying the left Live ur among millions of huge boost workers.

Is Tony Benn's prothe needs of the labour

needs of the labour movement?

SUPPORTERS of Tony Benn for the Labour Party deputy leadership have been on the move Greater Manchester. They have circulated labour movement declaration welcoming his decision to stand.

As gams the declaration broadly representative number of signatures it will be distributed to all

new Socialist Challenge reader, Mike who 26 and unemployed. He is going reoole. March for Jobs', sponsored the Middiesbrough branch of NUPE

Mike was on the

His five-point programme is based on selection of policies passed

Labour Party conferences. But they are not in the slightest wav sutticient to deal with the problems facing working class people confronted with une Gole anu Wal stampede.

LUSU Dall Benn's policies rest on the Alternative economic Strategy, although certain aspects of the strategy are left out of his platform, such as the extension ol nationalisation.

The AES, which includes import controls, planning agreements in industry, and further public Divaer shithe ess peration rests one pillar

of bin the imagi

the imaginary world strategy, olet countries will accept huge

Support for Benn mounts

local labour move-

ment organisations,

ana a call will be

issued to pass resolu-

tions backing Benn's

candidacy.

COn-

ference with local

labour movement

tioures and a rallv are

also planned. The

first signatories in-

clude;

Best: Lamond, Oldham

West; MP Oldi

chair, ar Manchester

Labour Party

special train organised last week by the Northern Region of the TUC

lobby Parliament over unemployment. This IS what he said about the newspaper: price lot the educea cuts in their exports to Britain without responding in kind.

The City of London will give up its business secrets. The 'captains' of industry will sit down with the government to work out details of their own take-over. Unemployment and deflation are to be solved by government spending and inflation!

Benn's programme does not deal with how a government based on the AES would protect workers against the ravages of rising prices and tages. In fact both deflation and inflation are symptoms of the same sick system.

Neither meets the needs of the workers. Neither holds off the war drive or the increasing atlacks on working class living standards.

Strategy

And how will NATO react to Benn's defence policy which is "based on a rejection of nuclear weapons'? The Western alliance is built on nuclear strategy. Britain's effective withdrawal from NATO would be an enormous reversal for Western political and strategy. Would generals just stand by?

Tony Benn's programme is weak because i is not based on the need to

in Manchester

Massey Trafford

AUtW dist cute Masters

unemployed! As a fairly new member the Labour Party find Socialist Challenge's coverage of debates in the Labour Party very

honestly think it

issues than the workers' movement mobilise and organise in the workers' movement to fight and defeat the interests of nationals, the City, and those in the police and the army who would plot to defend ousesses and institutions.

We need a programme rooted in the organised strength and power of the workers' movement.

these despite criticisms of Benn's platform MUSI heartedly support his candidacy.

It is increasingly obvious that by challenging Healey, Benn provides focus for all those fighting against the dead hand of Tae national trade union and Labour Party leaderships And the movement behid Benn is building day by day

The Scottish NUM, the Labour Party Young Socialists and a projecter

Mirlees

general

G'' CASA Regiona

Prestwich CLP Mcr Co-ordinating cttee secretary. ASTMS,

Labour Party's own papers!

'Like Socialist Challenge, I support the mandatory re-selection

accommeone

MPs. In my own const

uency of Teeside Thai

we have just Tony Benn on the move. We need a programme rooted in the organised strength and power of the

500 CLPs are in the Benn

camthis is not,

as eric Heffer among others tries to claim. an • issue of the personality of one Tony Benn 1S because campaign takes on the trade union bureaucrats,

started the re-selection procedure to replace our friendly neighbourhood Social Democrat, lan Wrigglesworth

'The ab solutely correct to put forward the slogan Jobs not Bombs. I'm going on the 25 Apri march through Stock ton-on-Tees on that theme. It's the constituency of Bill Rodgers - very appropriate! and enormously aids ali those the workers movement who are forced to do likewise.

throws down challenge to the presen: leadership of the workers movement that desperately required

SIS OOD FOR BRITAIN

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981 Page 5

Page 6 scan of this page

Government reels

THE government is trying to provoke the civil service workers who are taking industrial action for a 15 per cent wage rise.

re-arm the Polaris submarine, Resolution. Margaret Thatcher wants to ensure that the country is properly defended'.

answer on Tuesday, million went on strike for the afternoon.

MacLENNAN, secretary of the West of Scotland DHSS CPSA and a member of the West of Scotland Unions.

The nine unions involved are using selective strikes involving between 3 and 4 thousand people. The strikes are mainly concentrated on areas supplying vital government revenue and defence installations.

The action in the Inland Revenue probably has had the biggest impact. A thousand million Laund head been is taxes a ready This revenue that is delayed and will take them a long time to recover.

The Inland Revenue Staff (IRSF) has traditionally been small, right wing and not involved in major 1H1dustrial action. Now wịth the majority management on strike, including 8 out of 14 region-

controllers, and 30 out of 49 senior collectors, all

this is going to have a profound effect on the IRSF.

The strike having

major effects on Britain's

NATO commitments.

Signals

During the 1979 strike

by civil servants the stop-

City Labour Party, Labour Party, NUM,

Garment Workers, union SCPS.

Trains country-wide.

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981

from Civil

Servants action

On Monday the Navy was used to

when half a

Des Tierney talked to STEWART

branch of the

Council of Civil Service

page at General Command headquarters Cheltenham meant that coded signals about the revolution Grenada were very late getting through.

Delay

As a result of the 48-hour delay, the Callaghan government fulfill its pledge to the Eric Gairy government to send British troops to put down any revolt. The current crisis at Dlydeside Marine another example it is major effects on the Polaris commitment.

The government obviously underestimated the mood of civil servants. of Lacuics suspensions lockouts and so forth have been completely counterproductive.

The mood is the most militant and determined that it's ever been. During the 9 March stoppage we had 90 per cent of civil ser vants taking action The right wing must be very unhappy. National march and

rally against

unemployment

Sunday 31 May

Assemble noon at Speakers Corner,

Hyde Park for march to Trafalgar Square Sponsors include West Midlands, SE and NW regional TUCs. Irish TUC (Belfast), Manchester

NW Regional Council of the TGWU, GMWU, FBU, Engineering section of AUEW, Tobacco Workers d Sheetmetal Workers, USDAW, SLADE, Tailor &

NUPE and the civil service

and coaches are being laid on

Page 6

LIVERPOOL TO LONDON 1-31 MAY

ON THE MARCH

also tell the mood from the financial eves Elm has been collected

we've collected more than has had to be paid out in strike money.

I think that most of the more militant civil conflict with the government: indeed many see

direct conflict with Thatcher, since it's known that she is personally directing lacucs against us

As far as escalation of the strike is concerned,

Bradford march

_ no lead from

TUC leaders

By Patrick Sikorski

TEN thousand

workers, local

workers, teachers,

workers

into Bradford last Saturday for

the demonstration 'culminating'

in the TUC's week of action on

unemployment.

But they hardly got any lead from

such well-known class struggle fighters as

general

Tailor and Garment Workers, and John

Brown, general secretary of the Tailor

and Garment Workers

ween them have presided over 110,000

jobs lost in the industry in the last year

alone

TUC general secretary Len Murray

talked with more hope than conviction of

'the sands of time running out for the

Tories' and the

uncertainty nibbling away at the resolve

Home News

AGAINST

THE

TORIES

I'm noi personally a sup porter of selective action. I don't think it's particularly effective in such a profound conflict as this But selective action has been upheld at the union conferences. left hasn't won that argument yet.

The way we in the West of Scotland are coping with the question escalation is first of all by democratising the dispute.

We are running a strike bulletin and

No way

forward

from TUC

of the Tories'.

Yorkshire miners struck "This demonstration

But the miners, textile government Tories spent building and engineers poured

Never again must fodder for war'

Neither did they fight for Tony secretary

well-paid, John

'gremlins and goblins of Tories.

week we'll be calling mass HICCLINCH of workplace representatives We're also linking up with other struggies - 111 particular Lee Jeans in Greenock where many of the Ministry of Defence workers come from.

There are units at Holy Loch, including the Clyde suomarine base which are vital for the

Only left-wing MP Bob Cryer and

leader Arthur • Scargill an air of reality. Scargill said won't save jobs, and anyone who tells you it will is living in cloud cuckoo land. The only way to save jobs is through direct action'

most prolonged applause came when Scargill said: 'Last year the

tiz.o millon on defence and plan to spend an additional €5 billion on more Cruise and rident missiles

British youth be the an international capitalist

No speaker mentioned the need for a 35-hour week to combat unemployment.

mention the need to Benn's candidacy as a crucial way of securing socialist policies

the Labour Party Murray and his

non-elected full timers have always preferred the road of partnership and collaboration with the bosses.

That's why they call for import controls rather than a fight for the 35-hour week. Nothing frightens them more than the prospect of a real fight because when it occurs the sands of time will be running out for them, just as much as the

The Royal Navy have scabbed on the civil sarvants by rearming Polaris (above). Civil servants in Liverpool (below) picketted Thatcher who was visiting a factory involved in weapons manufacture

CUSTOMS

SVERPOOL BRANCH SYCISE

maintenance of the nuclear warheads and the Tiger Fish torpedo.

The selective strikes there are putting these at risk - vital components have been turned away.

We think that the threat that naval personnel would take over the jobs was made directiv bv the cabinet, but it looks as if they will be extremely

80s

ORWAI

INTH

Scottish strike -

another STUC flop

By Des Tierney

of action day 8 April - was a flop.

and other Scottish union leaders. Forced on them by the growing anger of Scottish working people, the stop page was never organised or fought for by the trade leaders. many trade unions. CHOCIS were given no direction by their leaderships and it was obvious thal shor period (three weeks) which shop stewards were given to build the stoppage was insufficient.

What could have been Scottish-wide general strike for two hours, was partially supported, only and then mainly by the

Photo: NEWSLINE

cautious about doing it.

First, it would lead to total stoppage would be completely counter-productive and secondly the Navy jus doesn't have the skillec personnel to refit the submarines properly The

strike is taking a heavy tol on nuclear capacity!

TUC

Photo: Morning Star

THE Scottish TUC's contribution to the week - a two-hour stoppage on Wednes

The blame can be squarely laid at the door of the STUC itself

white collar workers.

When first announced the coker cacu the proposed stoppage 'Polish style 'strike'. Perhaps there is some comparison which can be drawn between the grow-

• and frustration 01 Scottish workers and inel ronsa counterparls

But there's no comparison between the courageous leadership shown by Solidarity in Poland and the timidity and cowardice of the STUC.

Page 7 scan of this page

30 April-mass picket at Lee Jeans

NUT leaders' curious

idea of 'internal matters'

By John East, Lambeth delegate to NUT conference THE right-wing executive of the National Union of Teachers will be calling on delegates to the ference this weekend to support a vote of confidence in the By Des Tierney

important days of their occupation so far.

Thursday 30 April is the day that the factory officially closes and the workers are made redundancy.

They will then have been occupying for almost LUCC The factory fully

equipped and modern, containing over million pounds worth of stock, yet the VF Corporation who own the factory have refused to discuss the demands of the workers.

The women in occupation want the work shared among all the factories in

In two meetings since the occubaliuli the only

thing the company has of-

tered was all increase in the redundancy payment of half a week's wages.

Police

The workers at Lee's sure of their

response on 30 April

No amount of legal

threats or police action will

affect their decision to oc-

Cup We don't

intend to

quit' says Bridie Bell-

ingham, Lees shop

steward, echoing the feel-

ings of all the workers.

'They would have to

move us bodily.'

To back up these sen-

The festival for women's rights

will

March for Jobs and Lee Jeans' occupation.

TINST TERE

the Tory union's annual con-

executive for THE workers occupying the Lee Jeans factory at Greenock are preparing for one of the most

LIVERPOOL TO LONDON 1-31 MAY

ON THE MARCH

AGAINST

THE

TORIES

timents the Lee's workers intend to show The management how they'll defend their occupation On 30 April they'll be having a mass demonstration of shop stewards with their union banners show how soldiv workers throughout Britain support them.

Already support been promised from Glasgow Trades Council and the shipyard workers at Govan and Yarrows. al a rally support the TUC's week of action, Mr Johnnie Walker, the president of the Glasgow Trades Council promised the full support the Scottish trade union movement if there was any attempt move the workers.

While these preparations are being made discussions are also underabout how the

against Tory have speakers from the People's

FESTIVAL

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

ASTTACKS

MAY™

-BANDS- FILMS -PLAYS•

MEETINGS-EXHIBITIONS ETC

FOR MORE BERMATI CAT IT LANS COMP

upholding union rules.

The motion is an attack on members who wish to build united action by trade unionists against

cuts, such as the six officers of the Lambeth Teachers Association.

Last week the NUT's appeals' committee, consisting of the executive minus the national officers, rejected an appeal from the six.

The NUT executive has taken a whole page of the union's weekly paper, The Teacher, to pursue its vendetta. It criticised attempts to 'involve branches of the Labour Party' in what it describes as 'essentially an internal union matter'

This is not the view of an increasing number of

workers can intensify their action.

Two lines of action are being considered There is a possibility of a consumer boycott of Lee's products.

Registered

12,350,000

Under 25-54 25 1,100

55+ 350

Women 675

Men 1,675

350

Actively seeking work 1,900

Fight for Jobs

includig teachers

Campaign, 'We don't intend to quit

At the moment Lee's have got a flm advertising campaign aimed at keeping their slice of the British market.

A national campaign, Who is jobless?

Jan/Feb figures in 'OOOs

Unregistered 11,000,000

Age 200

100 700

Sex 100

900

/ Available for full-timework 50

100 6 250

700

Available for part-timew ork

MPs, councillors, Labour Party branches, and a growing number of trade unionists and trades councils, including the Greater London Association of Trades Councils.

It is vital that Labour Party members and trade unionists take up the defence of the Lambeth Six and show the NUT leadership fighting the cuts is a recipe for defeat tor everyone

Messages of support to: Lambeth Six Defence

27 Wheathill London Si Copies to Fred Jarvis, NUT Gen Sec, House, Mabledon Place, London WCI.

backed by the trade unions to boycott Lee's productions could have a major effect on the company.

The Lee's occupiers By Judith Arkwright 'WE'RE not rag trade girls. We are women workers fighting for our jobs with the only weapons available to us. Women's jobs are as important as any other, and we aim to prove that women can fight for them.

Jeans are showing the whole labour movement how to fight against unemployment.

that they have as much right to a job as men. 'Some people didn' think we'd occupy, one woman points out, right to work, 1oo.

raise their demands in the struggle for the right to work. Women's cent since 1975, compared to 61 per cent for men.

It is estimated that real unemployment runs at 3.5m and that most of the hidden million are women.

out of the labour force at the whim of the capitalist system unionists and politicians must be

One way we can do this is by

that its view ol

Hamilton

Support

Lee Jeans

8371 to make arrangements.

Visits arranged so far:

Birmingham/Leicester 14-16 April North-East/Middlesbrough 14 April South Wales: 2-4 May London: 2-9 May Manchester: 4 May

Tailors

are full of praise for the ad hoc boycott which underway.

The second line of action is the possibility stopping Lee's products at the ports.

Docks Lee's multinational company factories throughout Europe.

Four are in Ireland -one in the south and three in the north The replacement the Greenock products must therefore through DOLL dock shop stewards have indicated their willingness to cooperate in any blacking campaign.

Undoubtedly one 01

Women have the righ

to work, too

The women in occupation at Lee

As women they are demanding

'but women have the for this

It is becoming vital that women

unemployment has increased 207 per

themselves.

Women have to show that we are sick and tired of being shoved in and

- trade

shown that we have a right to a job.

Vanessa Wiseman and John Esterton, two of the victimised Lambeth teachers Women workers occupying the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock, Scotland are organising a tour of Britain to win more support for their struggle. If your trade union, Labour Party, trades council or women's group is meeting, organise a visit from a Lee Jeans worker. Phone Jude (01) 359 Messages of support and donations to the Nationa!

Garment workers.

the reasons for the tinuation of the are tion has been the whelming support tha women have had of workers throughout tain.

Money and mes: of continu flood in. Speakers been requested fron over the country with In the next few * this support has to b tensified Arrange tor a de tion to be present on t April picket for Lees workers have come overwhelming suppo and the British working can we make sure th legal measures will them that they can secure a complete vio organising maximum participatior. from women on the People's Mür. for Jobs from Liverpool to Lond: in May. Our demands have to he raised on every step of the march. The south east region of the TUC held a meeting last week ir discuss this. It is producing sticke posters and leaflets taking up women's demands; one leg of the march from Letchworth to Lutor bank holiday Monday, 25 Mar. i. focus on a woman's right to wore The other regions organising : march - north west and west midlands - should do the same Trade unionists locally have 10 i.

In the north west, the march should be led by the women fron Royal Pride. on strike for over !: weeks for union recognition. The have shown how to fight to deter

But, in addition to women's d on the march, our demands haie: be raised all along the route - Le: Jeans women should be asked to speak at meetings on the way. The issues of women's rights have 10 5= raised continuously.

SERTUC claim they need more women on the march and we shou argue for quotas of women black: and youth from all trade unior

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981

Page 8 scan of this page

THE victory

In its 11 April issue it said: The Sands campaign was generally organised by the former McAliskey, who must take Mrs a large amount. of credit for maximising the VUlC

Bernadette people that demonstrated political and their strength

It's ironic that through this election an area such as Fermanagh in particular should take the lead in the second hunger strike campaign, although it was one of the weakest in the first. in the Fermanagh

'extremists' shown up as lies.

issues in

would you paign?

The

politica prisoners, the

achieved une

great deal.

The

twelve years' the original campaign, heavy organisation

Photo: JOANNE O'BRIEN organised masses.

Collullice

there was formative meetings.

mobilising Bernadette McAliskey, 'the heart and soul of the campaign' for Bobby Sands Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981 Page 8

tremendous boast to the Catholic population. In Enniskillen the crowd insisted on hearing Bernadette McAliskey, who was seen as the central spokesperson of the campaign. Even the Irish Times recognised her role.

mid-Ulster Bernadette

Line

told the they had their understanding among the minority in the Six Counties

and

the election

What sort of balance sheet

make of the autumn hunger strike cam-

H-Block campaign grew up around the single issu

status prisoners five demands. Following the end of the hunger strike, by January, it was clear that we had not

five demands.

Nonetheless, we had achieved a

H-Block campaign mobilised the largest number of activists since the beginning of the civil rights movement. We laa me opportunty or a si cond run. We had learnt fron

mistakes. The H-Block campaign was not like

La top with un-

Every locality that was involved had its own elected local

With very few ex ceptions, the method followed was to call a public meeting in an area. If there were signs tha

enough support what we did tirst was hold in

The hunger strike itself was very important as a focus for

people The numbers of people who came out on the streets were much bigger than we had believed

Sands' victory 'compara

of Bobby Sands has given a

For the first time in many decades real political momentum has this as set in a motion forces throughout the impactare indicated od implications the fact that two major southern politicians were drawn into supporting the Sands' campaign -Donegal politician Blaney and Valera, a representative o the De valera avnasty 1 the ruling Fianna Fail party.

On the eve of the election De Valera THE victory of hunger striker Bobby Sands

election is a dramatic demonstration of the continued strength of nationalist sentiment

All the accusations that the Republican movement represents only a tiny minority of

'terrorists'

Nobody in Fermanagh and South Tyrone could have been in the least doubt what the

were knows that until he began his hunger strike Sands was the Officer Commanding the Pro-

possible in starting fact those mobilised in 1968-69

was even greater

had taken,

to its toundations.

Whereas came out this time

ihat remained to be

oppression.

they knew about

stand up

multalle out tens

tional day of action. not in general strike

threw balance.

of the civil rights moveme

went

been

motion the

the Neil Sile De

made a and South Tyrone by-

have

everyone

out, that had

The increase in the political weight of the demonstrations

When people came out in 1968-69, they had no idea of the serious step they

no idea • that they were going to rock this country

the people knew thi price that had to be paid and

paid for standing up to protest against

The people who came on the streets this time knew Bloody Sunday, knew of peo ple shot by the British army

the harassment you face atter you

and let yourself be And yet they came out in bigger numbers.

This time we got the South moving, and that was of crucia

We did not pul thousands workers on the 1 December na-

we wen position to call a

But we turned what had been an attitude of apathy and hostility into one of sympathy, and we began to organise it, including in the workplaces. We

the establishment off

At the height of the campaign, the church was afraid to go against us. The police were

statement indicating support for Sands. nouncement of the victory

out and TV a few hours before the opening of the conven. tion of tianna Hat which is being held in an mosphere of ot a general election.

Ovation

When she arrived or the platform of the con. vention the delegates gave her a standing The more nationalist the two bourgeois parties of the south has obviously been thrown off balance.

The political counter-attack of the bourgeois parties and the British press and politicians has centred around the theme that the Sands' victory represents nothing

THE H

nobody

been

paign.

or in

been

government

times

who of the

cede,

of favour

sort of

the situation

The

then you

leadership union

At a

alternative ward. imperialist

interests,

The an the

over the radio TyI

at- bec

anticipation tio

wh can

hac

pec

ovation. Un gre nat spli bef me Irish bal ty, Lat clai mis

STR

visional prison tory demonstr the prisoners' (

can political' crimi

Below we BERNADETTE drawing from nent role in Sai with Gerry Fol for publicatio phase of the

seriously divided amo selves about how demonstrations.

Dub afraid to oppose the committees politically to maintain a whole pr concern, being readily to the prisoners' relati

Even those who at

hunger str demanded that Britain

that the pris allowed to die, had tu prison reformers by tl the campaign

They were saying had always and ever

of reform, and that this s implemented in order

H-Block could give impetus development of mili rents in the unions, it? You can make through on this is

quickly c against the problem

of the movement cases is pro-imperia

po have to be able to

to mo Moreover, leaders not be very good d of the workers'

especial

Page 9 scan of this page

JNGER STRIKE AND THE JGGLE FOR FREEDOM

By Gerry Foley in Enniskillen

: a continuation of candidate ditional

vulalisai

ermanagh/South who said

TOI Lne

however leaves Sands' e picture both the the only why Sands could that he

the agreed argued

candidate and nationalist people in such large pro- striker

when a low poll policeman.

forecast.

the nationalist have always

having

MP the blow of all evils. The gression ist vote has been hore than. once the Irish people. cven inrougn this tting in Unionists. ough the is nationalist parsocial Democratic had to

Party (SDLP) harassment that

police, in not standing a in Long Kesh. Sands' viceloquently the justice of and for political status -ly believe that could gather 30,000 votes.

blish an interview ALISKEY, who after withelection, played a promicampaign. The interview, has been greatly abridged and centres on the vious hunger strike

em- period of the capitalist crisis. hey was ock The need to offer an alter-

e of native came up not lust

trade union movement. It was posed for Irish society as a tall whole. The campaign

polarising the country.

If anyone ever doubted the had fundamental importance of the L0B- scues

be prisoners, they should into realised it watching the effect d of this campaign had on political

and social life in this country. they There wasn't • In organisation — ison Fein and People's Democracy d be that wasn't rocked to its Dive foundations over the question

of what attitude towards the prisoners. became clear that those who were wrong on the question of the imperialism could not fight efcur- fectively either for the interests dn't of the groups they claimed to ак-

represent. but In the feminist movement, up for examnle. the against feminists who were opade

DUSCU ost and the more they

objected the more anti-feminist you iney became.

It was the same in the trade an for- unionists who tried to argue ого- against support uld

prisoners found Jers more and more forced to resort тіс reactionary

class arguments.

le to the emergence

against Sands, one local SDLP councillor

The was hoping oWeN possible began vote told me that vote meant one in the area claimed knew who still showed that the party should have put up a candidate against the hunger neighbours

was Catholic than 90

Campaigners found that the nationalist people Sands. responded best to appeals to use their vote to strike a

against Brios ane Republican and human national dignity of

that

Harassed

In fact, the campaign against

confront heavy degrade, from the break the British army prisonels and the UDR at every step. The

For example, hussey, (ine spokesperson ol women's issues for Fine Gael, LNe non- imperialist of parties)

H-Block campaign Were being UNCU with politically aware Ireland, women fighting, were being used as a ploy of men.

Those women didn't have the political intelligence to see what they were doing. last tually said Inal the women cam- Armagh prison were only going on hunger strike to emulate the men, that they

international ordered onto it by the men

Here was a woman who had been árguing all her life that women were intelligent human beings. And then she fell back in the on the argument that the reason Mairead Farrell was on hunger strike was live without McKearney.

Tommy McKearney's going to die the Armach brison. out of dumb have loyality, and die with him Then you Burcas single «enuncan excer no became

outside of Sinn a consuled out ve arguin

pulled out the inal tne source or violence is ine male ethic. It has no basis in opto take pression, slum housing.

And it and women nothing to do with it. want to go off and kill them. selves, we should have nothing to do with it. organise themselves against all violence. we natue

Line trade-unionists wno aid not want to support the prisoners turning to class-collaborationist You're dividing the workforce, Those trade setting worker against worker in this factory. for the themselves this discussion, the workers are arguing at their machines. anu-working level or procucuvity nas Tallen They would

As soon as it became victory clear that they were losing the Unionists of all shades

warning that this trouble. They arrest of 9 of that the result the Catholic population supported the tion. murder of their Protestant rumblings

and issued to condemnation of the more really

Catholics who voted for per cull of the Catholics

again.

The truth is that the Crisis spokespersons. who might have been strongly tempted to claim The

means the VULC Incalli popular support for their emergence

stressed that they called only for a vote the late 60s.

the allclIDl humiliate and the nationalist

fact that Sands'

Gemma

were doing relatively more pro the bourgeois told me that in the not our concern.

women The women In were

us jobs.

She aclevel of productivity.

and creating had been and is not conditions,

no jobs. was that she didn't want

Tommy

and his sweetheart in

to be class iș going to lie down

ported the prisoners. had Mairin De former Official the Socialist

argument will make

unemolovincil.

Violence is the male ego, democratic

should have it mer support it.

Women should

On the other hand, you had together

the tactics hunger strikers?

They said:

The started off by Since we've had to take up

The political. argue that while

quickly followed by an attack on Block demo Belfast on 11 April and the its leaders points to the dangers facing the nationalist populaWhat the Unionists' about 'threats community relations' is oppressed have stood up and must be beaten down

Sands' victory.

of sallic as the Civil Rights movement did in And in the same way it can touch off a violent crisis of the system. jobs were being wiped out in the North by the recession, we. the undefined Southern nation

well, and the problems of the North were

It's not good for us to be divided over what was going to happen in the North, that is not good for the national interest.

People had come in here and Sands. built a factory and were giving

And in present recession keeping these jobs re-

maintaining a certain

And you're coming in here

the prisoners. you're dividing our workforce vil sulliculllie tilal Is lut warc and if prisoners

you continue to do that, then at the end of the day, you will anger our employer, and if you

own prisoner. factory away, and we will have

Then you'd get the other side of the coin. Look at the people people who support you, have Fiana Fail, it a bour them. The

geois party. We were supposed

collaborationists because Fianna Fail people sup-

We got their argument from

Workers Move- munity ment. We cannot support you unless you raise a demand tha

it impossible for members of Fianna Fail to support you. The slogan should be 'We support the prisoners and

workers control'.

That way not terrible people like Fianna Fail will be able to

people in their

How did the various political groupings manage to work

in the campaign? Donognmore, What did you think about

followed by the careful

What he hunger strike was seven men and three women. I think that they way they were chosen on the inside was very effective and very gesture, it

showed great political ability on the part of ment.

Campaigning for Bobby Sands The hunger strikers the second time "This round (from left to was right) Patsy O'Hara Frankie Hughes, Ray saying McCreesh and Bobby

The ones chosen were with out doubt the best men. The

were selected to represent the various areas, and there was a great affinity of people in these areas with their

This gave the lie to all the propaganda that the Provos were a military parasite, that was

afraid of prisoner from this area was Tommy McKearney

were very Tew people who didn't know him, didn't know him as a very good per-

SOnSo, there was a great com-

will

WILD une prisoners. Moreover, the herosmore prisoners was all tiportant factor. I don't think that the people would mobilised without this example. The emotion and the nationalism it drew out of the people frightened the establishment.

was remarkable what • own small way were ready to do. It came to the point that people were fighting for the right to pray. We had one of the local clergymen up in

publicly stated that people should be

how and when they prayed during the hunger strike in case it was construed as support for the prisoners. that

was sayıng was 'You are not allowed to stand in the street and pray for the prisoners because it may be construed as an anti-imperialist

might be construed as part of the resistance move-

VOTE ANDS We had a serious discussion in this town about whether we should put up a picket line on the church with signs saying,

organisation does not SUDDOIL the prisoners' That

because the priest had refused to lead the people in

the Rosary for the prisoners.

It was the ones who wanted the participation of the clergy themselves who wanted picket the church.

Well, do you think that the country was on the verge of a revolution or not?

There was a feeling in the meetings, not that we would Tree Ireland by caristilas Du that we were on the start of something, the end of which

freedom and a united He ano. sere was alone rodu between here and there but that we had started on that road again and we could see the end ot it in our litetime It was a feeling that you could actually

It's like my experience in elections. You start out thinking you don't have a chance of winning, it's just to get your positions out. And then you begin to see that you can win. It's like the first time I ran for the mid-Ulster seat.

It's like the beginning of the civil rights movement, when people felt that at least they had ended forever the days of quiet subjection

I don't think that this is something that can be underestimated. layer of people who would be with you, if they thought you had a chance of winning. As long as they are not convinced

you're winning, they wouldn't touch yOU. They don't want to get involved.

We had begun to pull people like that over to our side, not because they supported the prisoners particularly but because they gave the impression of being people who were

Socialist Challenge

Dha. DEDURICAN NEWC

confident and determined and could win a lot more than they were asking for. who dise need this and made There were some jokes that we were trying to drive the people into the bost. office, that is to an insurrectior like 1916. •was saying toward the end of the hunger strike that we had to be pre pared for all the possibilities.

One possibility was tha Sean McKenna would die and he followed within a tew days Peeling of the people our The Tommy McKearney The area of Tyrone is an indication of the sort of emotion the National Committee would have had to deal with.

The local committees were saying that if McKearney died they woe marc …Long Kesh. And come hell or high water they'd go through her They'd go through the wire Now nationally they said tha was madness. i can see that 1l was madness. But we couldn't have stopped it.

It was quite possible that several thousand people would have marched into a situation where they would have been massacred and we could no have stopped it. If that had happened it was very difficul to say where you went from there

My argument was that if something like that happened vou had to bush it on Any other position would mean retreat. it was an indication that people were going to drive her beyond the bounds of what we were discussing, which were shop closures , days of mourning, or the closest thing to a general strike we could get

It was quite possible that we could be in a situation of a general explosion and if we backed away from it, if we could not handle it politically then we were lost because it would swing against us.

The atmosphere in the country on the fifty-first day ol the hunger strike was electric -the hunger strike ended two days later. We believed that anything could happen.

16 April 1981 Page 9

Page 10 scan of this page

Socialist Challenge International Ten-year sentence

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Not only did we take a lot of organisational responsibility but we had plenthe samas mey

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It's Socialist Challenge that has been promoting the Jobs not Bombs slogan and East London supporters have sold thousands of Jobs not Bombs badges.

It is important to show there is an alternative to arms race expenditure.

How can the Tories justify the billions of pounds spent arms when over three million people need jobs, and millions more need homes health care and schools?

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Another crazy thing ie that newspapers Socialist Challenge that actually fight for and express the views of millions of people have no money; yet newspapers that press the views of warmongers have plenty.

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month to Watada Japan Revolutionary

Watada and thirteen others (mostly JRCL members) were being victimised for their part in the massive demonstrations against Narita airport on 2o vacy The other defendants received sentences or bel ween four and nine years in prison Construction of the airport has been delayed by DIOLCSLS and demonstrations ever since the plans were announced in 1965. Although now officially open, it still has onlansported to it by rail ly one runway, fuel is rather than underground pipeline. , and security is so tight that all departing passengers are bodysearched and well-wishers are prohibited On 26 March three years ago, thousands of demonstrators gathered at Narita to protest against the impending opening.

Despite the largest police mobilisation post-war Japan has seen, about a thousand demonstrators succeeded in occupyin, the airport, and a handfu gained access to the control tower and, to the jubilation masses, *rained hammer blows of class anger down air traffic control equipment.

Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested but these fourteen were singled out for particularly vicious sentences.

By arguing that the ac. tions of the demonstrators endangered aircratt sate. ty, the courts were able to invoke a law designed for prosecuting hi-jackers, wilch carries a particulal• ly heavy sentence This was in spite of the fact that the airport had not then opened and no flights were scheduled.

The prosection naturally had a hard time explaining how an airport

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Page 11 scan of this page

The ban on NF marches in Tameside didn't stop Martin Webster getting massive publicity for his Nazi views labour movement

Photo: JOHN SMITH (IFL)

THE National Front are threatening to call local demonstrations across the country on May Day. police into banning labour movement May Day marches. Until last week demonstrations were banned in areas covering eight million people.

DAVY JONES was on the steering committee of the Campaign Against the Ban on Marches in London three years ago. lessons of that campaign and argues the case against bans on fascist marches.

In February 1978 the National Front called a march in Ilford to support

oy-elechol didate. The Anti NaziR League called

Coulllel mobilisation. The police stopped them both through a month-long ban on marches throughout London.

The ban did not stop the fascists They still assembled in Il-

distributed LUpaganda and intimidated the local Jewish and black communities. It did stop the anti-fascists from an effective show of strength against the NF and in support of the local communities.

Furthermore five demonstrations in the capital were banned, rang.

Ing trom a student grants' march, anti-apartheid and Friends Earth demos, and a h. Tre in. anti-racist march. The ternational Women's Dav march ignored the ban and demonstrated anyway

The contrast with the situation today is striking.

Important movement figures and bodies came out strongly agallis! the 1978 ban. The north London district committee of the AUEW the London Co-op political committee, numerous ort)

Labour MPs and councillors sponsored activities (Rep tobe tor pariamen National lobby parliament against the ban.

Casualties of the latest round of bans include the first day of the cross- ANDREW Pennines CND march, the Scottish TUC demo on 2 May in support of the Peoples March for Jobs

(hit by a three month ban Photo:

in Glasgow), and a Dudley Trades Council unemployment march banned because the police say it

Police bans hit

The purpose is to provoke the

He recalls the

would be 'inconvenient to shoppers'

But where has been the labour movement response? The TUC and Labour Party leaders have either remained silent or

NEVER

AGAIN!

The way to stop Nazis in Ilford was not by bans

have welcomed the bans. The NCCL have attacked blanket bans and called for them to be more selective.

Banning marches has a number of useful sideeffects for the police and local authorities. First it saves Hulley Massive policing of fascist marches

costly business.

Secondly lt SioDs street confrontations where the police are openly seen to oe protecung une Tascists The police refer their

of the far right Lucialle groups to be more covert.

Finally it strengthens the hands of the police and the state to ban

Home News

demonstrations at the drop of the hat. We can be sure that such powers will be used increasing v against strikers and the labour movement generally.

Bans on marchs, including selective bans, are the thin end of a

against the democratic rights of the working class and the oppressed.

There is an alternative

calling TOI Dolls might more mundane and take more etfort than leaving it to the police to stop the fascists but it's the only way to defeat them

ILFORD

and to defend the rights of the working class and oppressed.

Socialists and anti-racists have to tight to win the labour movement at

Icve support socialist policies which can tempts blame blacks and other oppressed layers for the crisis

And whenever those groups' democratic rights are inreatened by fascists organising and marching on the streets the broadest possible labour movemen counter-demonstration should be built to drive the fascists from the streets.

The first

immigration laws,

80 years ago

By Steve Cohen, Jewish Socialist Group

TODAY new movements

As early as 1895 the Independent (Jewish) Tailors Union sent Cardiff delegate to the Trades Union Congress to encoulage British unionists campaign against proposals tor im migration control.

LIlt sallic vcal Joseph Finn, leading Jewish trade unionist and socialist, wrote a pamphlet 'The Voice of the Alien' and helped to organise a meeting of Jewish workers at the Great Assembly Hall in London lo encourage English workers to support the Jewish struggle.

Energetic

This energetic campaign was necessary because of the disgusting and anti-semitic attitude of the organised English labour movement. For in. stance immigration TUC CUTO Wal official policy ever since 1892 -and this was supported by many trades councils, including London, Leeds and Manchester.

Central to Jewish resistance was the idea of self-organisation. For ex. ample, in January 1902 an Aliens Defence League WaN established with its headquarters at 38 Brick

Lane in East London. Its aim was to campaign against anti-Jewish legislation.

The strength of growing Jewish resistance to immigration control was evident in meeting organised in September 1902 Federated

in London, 'Wonderland' Hall in the Whitechapel Over 3000 people attended the meeting and a large

overflow rally was held on the road outside.

main speakers were prominent Jewish trade SuCh Lewis Lyons. Just as importantly, many dividual English trade unionists felt obliged the first time to come out publicly against CORETO!

Similar meetings were held in the provinces - foi instance in May 1904 at the Labour Hall, Strangeways, Manchester. Just as significant was the shift made by the Jewish establishment. At first

shey were not prepare905,

struggle 1905, however, the Jewish communal leadership under enormous pressure from the Jewish masses, was forced organising rallies and the establish-

Jewish Chronicle was at least encouraging write-in campaigns MPs

The attitude of the ear ly English socialists was, to say the least, ambiguous. Some were more o

openly anti-semitic. Henry

the Social Democratic

Socialist Challenge

Our History

have emerged against immigration controls and nationality laws. We should not forget that similar strug gles occurred at the start of this century. Federation - blamed the Boer war on 'Jewish capital.

Less well-known is the fact that both Ben Tillet and Tom Mann, who en-

TAlK and dockers leaders and socialists, spoke openly in favour of immigration control (see London Evening News of 26 May and 19 June 1891).

Howevel there notable exceptions. William Morris and the Socialist League consistently opposed all immigration CORTTOI though their organisation ceased to exist by the turn of the century.

In 1904 the Independent Labour Party issued a pamphlet "The Foreigner in England' arguing

controls. the same year the established a Mancheste Alien Immigration Bill Protection Committee This held regular city Hiccules aru aucullulsli d tion to Heaton Park.

'The Aliens Act was eventually passed, thougt much modified due to the opposition it received. A1 the same time the Jews were protesting against the naturalisation laws. • These laws made it extremely difficult for Jews to become British citizens. Issue

In 1901 London Jews established a Naturalisation Agency to fight the laws. 1907 mass demonstrations of were organised in Leeds and Manchester allo deputation sent to Parlia ment. In 1908 the Jewish Social Democratic Federa. tion supported a socialist candidate in Cheetham Manchester against Wins. ton Churchill solely on the issue of naturalisation.

Moreover the struggle

against the naturalisation

laws in the early 1900s was over exactly the same issues today. Firstly there

(ther now £150). Secondl!

there were objections ic

internal surveillance and investigation by the Home Office on all applicants

Thirdly inability to ai-

British citizenship

made extremel!

precarious for Jews once

in this country to leave i:

as there was no guarante:

of re-admission.

This particular cam.paign against state

semitism was

cessful. Today we have :: remember it and make

sure that we win the can.-

paign against state racist

as represented by the in.

migration and national:

laws.

For more informatio

about the Jewish

Group write 1o JSG. B.M

725, London WC

16 April 1961 Page".

Page 12 scan of this page

Guerrillas hold regime at bay

BEING US ambassador, particularly in the third world, demands certain qualities. You must have no scruples. You need to be able to organise political assassinations at the drop of a hat.

You must know how to bribe the generals and colonels, and make speeches about defending Christian values.

Dean Hinton, newly

app Satedr asan 10

Salvador qualify on of these

TIOSI counts and, unlike some other applicants, has an

El Salvador — on the scene report

By Lars Palmgren

SINCE the left-wing power in El Salvador sive against the right-wing dictatorship on 10

counter-claims •soul struggle.

Duarte, tries to back up situation is being 'normalised' by saying that 'for the past year the streets of this city have C nOST been streets are full of people shopping

Duarte neglects to menton that due to the curfew everyone has to do their shopping during the same few hours.

But Duarte's claim has been pickea up Dy the intenational press. Is it true, Duarte claims, that the political situation is beginning to stabilise?

true some people say including acting Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas - Inat the junta has been gaining support and the guerrillas losing since the beginning of the guerrilla offensive

10 Januarv?

Was the offensive a big military defeat the revolutionary forces?

Messages

These points are constantly repeated in all the mass media in Salvador. newspapers, radio, and television are InGeT government control. The coveruel Has evel torbidden privately-owned radio stations trom broadcasting the popular teatures in which listeners

send each other Lall hicosazes

The prohibition was not just the

could Loilalll coded secrets for the revolutionaries. It was also due to the fact that people might learn of the real situation in the country.

We should not underenze dee ee on koe intensive propaganda on

especially lic populatloll. since the possibilities for countering it are limited. The opposition's clandestine radio stations

Radio Venceremos and Radio Liberacion — are difficult to pick up.

Danger

Circulating leaflets puts one's life in danger and is only carried out as part of a larger action or Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981

impeccable record to prove it.

From 1969 to 1971, Mr Hinton was the boss of the ARCHICY IOr antenauona Development's mission in Chile. Like his buddies in the State Department, which plays the tunes to which AID dances, he did not like Allende.

Along with the State Department's representatives, AID and the CIA acred ther oen- fighting for

winiling

The head of the military junta, Napoleon

claim that the

empty. But now the

on a one-to-one basis. The circulation of the revolutonary press is too small

Be cCuvev COULLCI government propaganda. Untrue

There has also been a certain amount of fatigue among Ine population After two years of intense repression there hopes that the offensive would bring a quick end to Lne wal

People's Revolutionary Army (ERP) Commander Alejandro Montenegro told me that SOnIC segments Un e population, especially the

bourgeolsle. have been frustrated that the 10 January offensive did not achieve a quick solution and are therefore more prone to accept the government propaganda.

But considering the LyCrACHL monopoly over the news media, it is SUDOSY LO sce now ew people actually believe the

The government's false claims that they have made Sagdend millary a0 -vances are obviously un-

alu alc vine effects on the morale their own troops.

Morale

The troops also know that there is no truth to the

cialis stream of revolutionaries are duceouu me covernment's amnesty offer. Ihev are aware of the high monarem ng the of due lollaries and guerillas' base among the populalon.

Many of the governHicil LIOOS aie boys, some only 14 or 15 years old. Their morale is directly dependent on their superior officers.

This was shown by the vents in Santa Ana on I( January vIIc. Captain Sandoval called on his

Page 12

How to become

an ambassador

distributed the dollars Pos. At first chese we t hn

At first these went ir the direction of the Chrislan wemoc ars wno were fighting an election campaign against Allende. Chile

Unfortunately for Hin-

the Chilean people Loll. voted Ior better wages, better education and a bet-

Left wing guerrillas in action in San Salvador troops to revoll against tne junta, 200 soldiers, willl direct •OnuCal contact with the revoluLollar y g. vups, followed him.

The rest of the garrison simply melted away, fleeing to their homes, leaving the country, or going into hiding.

According to

source.

Revolutionarı Democratic Front (FDR) and the FMLN, the situation inside the armed lorces is very tense. iney maintain that there is also

cusiul within the junta, between Duarte and Col. Jaime Abdúl Gutiérrez and defence minister José Guillermo García.

The TeLUT ITOM broad of the notoriou: ultra-rightist Maj. Rober-

D' Aubuisson CApected to exacerbate these tensions. D'Aubuisson, whose connections with Ine caln squaus are common knowledge, has been calin r ne akar lo seize full control of the

International,

ter health rather

SCrVICe than Coça Cola and anticlil uls l

But Hinton knew that when door closes

Ulic another can be opened. If the ballot box coula not ao it then the carbine could Out WCHlL the Christian Democrats, came the military. Supported,

couraged and financed by the Hintor LUCH like Pinochet recruited an argovernment.

All these factors indicate there no substance Duarte's claim that the situation in the country has become more stable since the offensive.

In fact, what the offensive mainly showed is that the Salvadoran junta totally dependent on US imperialism

The biggest weakness of the 10 January offensive was the fact that with

CCXCDUO Santa Ana, where the offensive took the character of insurrectionary struggle, the offensive as a whole was almost exclusively restricted military operations.

There several

WCIO reasons why the call for a general strike did not get a massive response. There

problems WCIe COOL. dination and an

of the wnucresumaton strength of the enemy's repressive apparatus.

Lowdown

my of murderers and torLureS

Two years after Hinton had left Chile his work bore fruit: Allende was overthrown and a nation was put in chains.

What had particularly qualified Hinton for his WOlk was previous : job as AID top man in (uatemala here he had been on the best of terms with the military

In addition, the planning of the offensive was nol carreo oulm ciose col laboration with the mass vi zalisalluls But tnest problems are now prepara tion for the next offensive

De DOSSDe l the future to arm civilians o a ucale caleltd was the case during the January offensive. sho Wed that ene unity so The offensive the revolutionary forces in the FMLN is now a reality.

though SUllic difterences among the groups remain. Some forces within the FMLN favour a prolonged people's war, while others feel the war needs to be of short duration in which the insurrectional aspect must play a central role.

This discussion, as well as that on the formation of

aneuparty been postponed in favour

working out LOUI" dinated plans for a new offensive.

gangsters who overthrew Joseph ADeN UI E behest of the United Fruit Company in 1953.

With friends like that

keep uppity peasants in their place. But Hinton's education did not end there. Virtues

After his work in Chile he went home to the USA There he worked at the Sulf Ci of chicanery and crookedness as an internaLulal ccono nc dovisor to President Nixon's National Security Council.

New atrocities in

El Salvador

(oVes where they

Salvador/Honduras border.

government Teo ess on

caves and other primitive conditions

Honduran

detonating the explosion.

Meanwhile, last Wednesday

another ghastly

Carmelos suburb

Guard patrol.

companied the patrol,

houses to be attacked

Like all those who worked with Nixon he had a chance to learn at first hand all those virtues US CaDilaasu przes SUCI how to exploit and cheat the majority of the humar Lalc

Hinton was reared by US capitalism, trained in the school of Nixon and Luch. by the CIA Guatemala and Chile. No wonder the El Salvador rulers pleased with al C Reagan's appointee, but can anyone seriousiy ex pect anything else from imperialism?

REPORTS from El Salvador tell of a major atrocity against opponents of the regime. Up to 1,500 refugees are believed to have suffocated to death, after an explosion at the

were living on the

All the victims were from the fighting and

Many of the refugees in this area are living in open camps,

Reports claim that both Salvadoran and

security forces were involved in

there was atrocity in the Monte of San Salvador, when more than 30 civilians were dragged from their houses and shot dead by a National

Residents said that masked civilians ac.

pointing out the

Page 13 scan of this page

Hands off workers' Poland

LAST August the right to strike in the famous Gdansk agreement. Last week the withdrew that right for two months after premier unless the measure was approved.

speech to the Czechoslovak party congress last week is now clear. delegation to roll back the gains of the Polish workers, whatever the cost. Jaruzelski's new stand is the direct result.

Solidarity has also speech to secrurity Politburo member, Andrzei Zabinski. Zabinski called for repression against the KOR

Among the places wiere vartv memoers ieu the strikes last August one ole most sizmilıcarıl was Torun. The Inter-factory SLoke commalice (MKS) was led by Zbigniew Iwanow, a party member from the Towimor shipmachinery Dlant (we published an interview win wanow n goclals Challenge two weeks ago).

Movement

When the August strikes ended, Iwanow was elected First Secretary of

vally visalisalvl

ne raclor- He ano ns comrades then launched a movement which spread to thro lehsut the couvry. least provinces

They established Consultative Commission, deriving the idea trom the MKS established in Torun during the strike.

Instead ot the .exclusively vertical links from basic party organisa-

upwards the higher party committees, iney Dulll nonzonlal liks between rank-and-file organisations through the Consultative Commission.

Very quickly one party organisation after another u orun annualeo lo une Commission, and by early this out of 17,000 in Torun city 7,000 members

were affiliated to the Consultative Commission. The

Photo: PETE GRANT (Socialist Challenge

On the march on Sunday

Polish workers won the

Polish parliament

Jaruzeliski threatened to resign

The meaning of Soviet leader Brezhnev's

He told the Polish

exposed a secret police chiefs made by

body has become in effect an alternative leadership to the City Committee.

Crisis

The consultative com-

missions were built in the battle by rank-and-file vally members for an

extraordinary party Con-

(The last Congress

naa laken place only

February 1980, and they

normally take place every

5 years.)

The party rank and file had gone through a pro-

found crisis in August a

they saw the Gierek

seeking to

•reak une mass suake altu

threatening to open an Ir-

reparable gulf between the

maty ran nd find e

ulass full-ally

workers.

So the demand for the

Congress was linked to a

radically reform the party Statutes,

to democratise the party,

and to prevent such

breech with the workers

ever happening again. Violation

The Kania group at first tried to oppose

speedy congress, claiming it would be won by the

confrontationist wing of the party anyway. But in the autumn, the Central

Committee finally agreed lo an exiraoramary coll-

HANDS OFF

WORKERS POLAND

dissidents and advisors to Solidarity, and for a process of corrupting and winning over the leaders of the new union movement.

statements such as that made by Lech Walesa who claimed last week that Solidarity cracked down on its militants.' There is a tremendous radicalisation going on inside Solidarity and the Polish Communist Party, particularly in the run-up to the party congress.

article by Peter Green from the latest issue of Labour Focus on Eastern Europe describing the growth of the opposition currents within the Communist Party.

ress, while simultaneous

y Kania denounced the construction of horizontal links at the base of the pardemocratic centraliom. violation of

On 24 November, the Torun party Control Commission expelled Iwanow from the pary on the grounas enensi dord utlooi challenged Marist-

But this didn't stop the Iwaluw Culli tinued to function as if he was a nartv member. anc the horizontal movement, by now called the AntiApparatus' movement, spread to other centres.

Amongst the first were nearby Bydgoszcz ana Lodz, where two factories, romca ana Marcniewski. were the driving force.

November alul. ding to Le Monde).

Radom, Katowice and Krakow had become involved. The movement alsu spread to Gdansk, Szczecin, Pulawy, Poznan and Pabianice by early 1981.

The characteristic СОШpolichts orinc movemeni have been the large inusurd oranes ano universities and colleges.

By the beginning of March, the factory party organisations around the COVuLEy VUlVCU antl-aparatus movement were planning to hold a

International.

This policy of division is not helped by

'it was time Below we reprint an abridged version of an delegate conference Torun in response to the party leadership's postponement of the Congress (which was originally scheduled for March but is now due in July). Demands

In the end they decided not to call the conference on the could have laid them open zoulus that

capulsiull tionalism'. But during the early months of 1981, the movement has deepened and widened party members have twice defied the Icaueisnp Dal ticipating in big Solidarity strike actions. By the end of March no fewer than Inirteen or rourteen tnou sand individual proposals IoI Change. to the poneed ly statutes had trom the membership; School inself (inked fo while Higher Party

the LeHla now published its own new ComlltiCC. ¡las

dratt statutes Itolig: amongst other things, the legalisation of horizontal links at the base

This 'swelling tide has produced a hysterical reac. tion from sections of the party apparatus, with

(ociolek, the Warsaw Party Secretary, declaring that 'an attack on the ap-

LAST Sunday, five hundred

demonstrators called for hands

off workers' Poland.

A delegation of Labour MPs at-

tempted to hand in a petition to the

Soviet Embassy. They were politely

informed that the embassy "cannot

accept any petition which relates to

the internal affairs of the Sovie

Union. DUlA they

petition concerns Poland. Exactly,

resmed ne emdess!

At a meeting organised by the

Eastern European Solidarity Cam.

paign and Hands Off

Workers Campaign, Frank Dobson

MP gave a message from the Na-

tional Executive Committee of the

'We support the Polish workers'

prese ce tae umons nere

must be freedom from external in-

tervention Poland's

Everyone in the labour movement

should support Polish workers in

their struggle.

Unfortunately,

parent in the meeting that support

from the labour movement was not

forthcoming. The meeting express-

ed its disgust at the paltry appeal

from the TUC for £20,000 which

represents 0.000lp for each trade

union member.

All speakers stressed the need to

support the Polish workers both

paratus is an attack on the party precise TOT mulation of the average consciousness or une paratchiks.

According to George Kolankiewicz (from whom a great deal of the infor mation in this article comes), during the last 10 years

of Central CommitLet members save been drawn from a band of par-

SCCIcLanc and economic managers who in terms or occupation. ac count for only 4.3% of the party membership.

The following demands loom large in the anti-aparatus movement:

'Hands off Polish workers' London march

of support.

Union to intervene.

warriors using Tariq All vointed out

oour movemenu

protested, the

by British fascists.

Polish

peal supposedly for Solidarity. Although

the appeal, from spreading the lie.

MPs it became ap-

dominate.

struggle for workers' democracy.

Twenty one times 'Yes' refers to the Gdansk Agreement's 21 demands

accountability of all officials to the organs that elected them; election of all secretaries the shop floor; abolition of the special career grade of apparatchik; limits on the length of tenure of secretariat posts; voting by secret ballot; the recallability of officials; a free choice of candidates at all levels; at least a 100% increment of candidates „ove posts local level and 50% higher levels Changes such as these if combined with the right to form political tendencies within the party, would bring about a major

materially and by sending messages

Such support would make it more difficult for the Soviet

There was a danger of cold war this campaign, as But that makes it even more imperative that a massive campaign is built in the

The importance of such support was highlighted last week when the official Soviet news agency TASS alleged that Solidarity was financea

A right wing historian, David Irving, had launched a financial ap-

Solidarity leader Bogdan Lis had publicly disowned

this didn't stop the slander machine in the Kremlin

Last week another 'Solidarity with Poland' campaign was set up in London by Tory, Liberal and unfortunately, a few right wing Labour

The Polish workers' don't need this sort of help. But until the labour movement in Britain takes the lead in the campaign, the right wing will

labour movement has to show that the struggle of the Polish workers is not anti-socialist as this riff-raff would have us believe, but a

change in the entire func. tioning DONLICd system. But at the time, the fate of the strug gle inside the party depends above all on the continued strengthening of Solidarity and upon a

for Soldarily wei hin tre

within rank and file of the party

was from the workers' mass action that the anti-apparatus movement grew, and it is by its assistance : to the needs of undeDencenl maass move ment that the antiapparatus movemeu wal ultimately be judged. Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981 Page 13

Page 14 scan of this page

Stop the missiles Home News Space shuttle: Pentagon prepares star wars

Wanted by Plaid Cymru:

By Will Reissner As the launching date for the

Columbia publicity about lue saultle's purpose is focusing on its scientific and commercial potentiai.

The New York Times states that the National Space Administration 'hopes companies wil use shuttle to put factories into or-

bit The article waxes poetical about

the shuttle's potential for building

'gigantic orbiting communications satellites, power stations inat would transmit electricity earth, automated factories where industry

space to make things that cannot be made as well. It at all. on eartn

But that is not the real purpose Easter

Against the

Missiles

OVER the Easter weekend CND will be conaucuing a series or ac tivities against nuciear weapons. partial list of the major activities. Further

of all these acdetals tivities can be obtained Trom END, it goodwin St, London N4 3HQ. Tel: 01-263 4854/8546.

ALDERMASTON: Sat 18 April, southern region CND

•emonsualion outside nuclear research centre.

BRISTOL: Sat 18 April Bristol and south west region CND demonstration to Admiralty For details ring Bristol 32707.

CAMBRIDGE: Mon 20 Trailin ion from RAF tration 11am from Honnington Thetford. Details ring Cambridge 353804 FARNBOROUGH TO ALDERSHOT: 18 April CND demonstration and rally. Assemble 9.15 Love Green Farn. borough.

LONDON: Five local marches to civil defence bunkers at Cheam, Crystal Palace, Wanstead, Dollis Hill and USAF Uxbridge.

MANCHESTER: Mass demonstration to greet trans-Pennine march.

MIDLANDS: Five prong march on Rugby from Birmingham/Wolverhampton, Derby,

Milton Leicester, Keynes, Leamington. Culminate Mon 20 April with march on Rugby. Details Martin Tolman 021-236 9815.

NOTTINGHAM: Sat 18 April. 11am march through Tel Nottingham 582561.

Socialist Challenge 16 April 1981

of the shuttle. It is a military vehicle designed to orbit and military

use would be icing on the cake

tant to the Department of Defence former staff U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign and Relations, (NASA) Posed Defence ination and the 'Defence

Geopolitics: From the Persian Gulf to Outer Space'

Institute for Contemporary Studies, a right-wing think-tank solar- tremelv close ties to the keagan aa-

ministration, in a book entitled, National Security in the 1980s: From Weakness to Strength.

tle will permit the deployment and servicing sophisticated, satellites which

enD a new role

By Stephen Bell PLAID Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, is undergoing a major internal debate on its role and policies.

respond when the Welsh working class is advancing to confront the Tories?

Plaid has held a commission of inquiry to try and regain the power and perspective it has lost since the general election, and a special party conference 1s to be held this summer.

While the party dominated by middle-class intellectuals and protessonals. two-thirds of ItS votes come from the working class, mainly from skiled workers.

Many of the WelshSocally who support Plaid identify the Labour Party with the hostility displayed Welsh language by MPs like Neil Kinnock and Leo Abse. Labour

Under the last Labour government, Plaid had three Mrs and among the successes of its lobbying was Darlanculary suDDOrl for the Welsh Development Agency and relief for silicosis victims. The minority government and the possibility of a Welsh assembly gave the party considerable leverage.

But the devolution referendum was Osu and Plaid's two MPs elected in

1979 are powerless in Tory-dominated parliament. The party is subdued and demoralised, and even securing the Fourth TV channel for the Welsh language has not revilansea Il.

The commission of inCURV and minority reports, and two groupings have emerged from initial discussions on the proposals. here Is the possibility of a split in the future. report,

The majority supported Datiyd Wigley MP and the majority the 'rightists' in Plaid outlines two main ways of

Page 14

the Pentagon's

tions, collicicid surveillance Т.H.Кemp, a consul- and

member of the

discussed the real pur-

innovation

The article was published by the

earlier years.

WILD •eX-

outer space'

He 'In the military sphere, the shut-

vironment larger, more needs

Cal How does a party based on nationalism

reactivating the party.

First, through campaigns on such issues as muciear weapons anu aunti ping, against government

in support or the Welsh language, and for Welsh self-government.

Illegal

The report suggests that these may require the party to oreak wun Colstitutionalism, by commit-

Secondly the report calls Plaid be 'decentralist socialist' party, seeking new alliances to gain concessions for

Wales

The 'decentralist' plan - as against centralism -opens the way for an alliance Social Democratic Party and the Scottish Nationalist Party, which would seriously

chances returning Labour Career

The majority report

dreams of a re-run of the past 20 years, this time

without return to the well-springs of Plaid. But the party has too many MPs and coun-

cillors to begin anew, and there is now a career structure for ambitious Welsh

speakers within the state.

Anti-constitutional tactics are put forward very ten-

tatively.

The minority report

proposes more

thorough-going challenge

to Labour as the party of

the Welsh working class. It

aims challenge the

Lions: Party barior ises

prioritises

district and county elec-

tions; and proposes the setting up of youth

organisation.

perform a host of tasks including command, control and communica-

navigation, reconnaissance, ferreting eavesdropping, and antisatellite operations.

Kemp adds that 'the impact of

space technologies batmanagement ane suralcal (nuclear) warfare, including antiballistic missile defence, could have as significant an impact as the in. troduction of the telegraph and the wireless had on naval operations in

According to Kemp, 'ultimately, the space shuttle will permit the construction of large battle stations in

continues: 'the idea space will Iorever be a nostle ell-

for military operations carely examinica There is no inherent reason why the

PERCENTAGE FIGURES ARE PROPORTION OF WELSH SPFAKERS

POPULATION OF WALES

2,774,700

WELSH SPEAKING

589,687 21%

80€ 60-

40 г

20.-

1851

The idea is to take over the state in Wales. so tar as this is possible by constitutional means.

Daffyd Ellis Thomas MP supports this strategy, than she minority much further report.

He calls for an all-Wales general strike against steel and pit closures, and for

United States should not be able to develop a superior military capability in space And the best thing about the

whole programme, that it can 'fire the imagination of a new generation of Americans who were too young to have been influenced by Vietnam but who have been raised in the Star vironment It would give country a national goal ...

'In short,' Kemp maintains, 'the United States needs sense of destiny. jingoistic, so be it ...

Despite Kemp's there is no evidence that the dreaded Vietnam syndrome can be away by his Battlestar fantasy. - rom mercontinental rress 62%

100% DECLINE OF A LANGUAGE

_ PERCENTAGES FROM CENSUS FIGURES DYFED 50% POP. 325,600

MID GLAMORGAN

119. POP.537,500

11%

strikes against cuts. He wants MPs to be recognis. ed simply as representatives organised power of the working class.

While the minority report insists that its aim is 'independence' for Wales its nationalism is muted. It stresses the Anglo-Welsh

wars enthe

regain its If this sounds

enthusiasm,

blasted Gallactica

WHO SPEAKS WELSH WHERE

CLWYD GWYNEDD 20%

POP. 385,600 POP. 226,300

POWYS 21% POP. 107,100

WEST GLAMORGAN 11%. POP. 366,600 SOUTH GLAMORGAN

•POP. 390,600

tradition in place of the purely Welsh. Much of the report reads Hike the Labour left in Wales and that is the weakness.

It seeks to promote Plaid at the expense of Labour, out is quite un sure of how to achieve this.

Plaid Cymru has mov-

GWENT 20% POP. 435,900

ed to the left. In the ma-

brity plant to modernise report this is shown

nationalist traditions

wille the minonity repor

tailors nationalism to the

Labour Party's base. It is a

testament to the bruised

bul undefeated spirit of

the Welsh workers' move

ment.

Page 15 scan of this page

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Page 16 scan of this page

BOBBY SANDS MP -SAVE HIS LIFE!

USE YOUR VOTE TO SAVE THE SEAT

By Penny Duggan THE voters of Fermanagh and South Tyrone have inflicted a massive defeat on British imperialism Sands as their honourable member of parliament.

The Tory government and the estaosoment press are snockea. Their campaign brand Republican movement terrorists nes in ruins allel 51 per cent of the voters clearly prisoners campai LUCI

campaign by electing Bobby Sands. on Ireland Don Concan Labour

concall non did everything in his power to sabotage Sands victory. an precedented polling appeal from the House of Commons he asked electors not to vote for sands He claimed it would be a VOLC *tor all the senseless murders that have taken

Northern Ireland place in over the last years.'

Concannon Is an expert on senselessness. He and the Labour leaders have long pursued the same senseless on Ireland as the Tories repression of the Catholic community to defend the artinicial nortner Irelanc statelet. No wonder that

asked the Ene ones Labour leadership to support a joint attempt to expel Sands from parliament. Affront

This outrageous affront to democratic rights, particularly of the people of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, was too even for the Liberal Party to stomach. Aller pressure from left Labour MPs it appears that the

Parliamentary Labour Party also told leader of the House of Commons Francis Pym that an expulsion move was 'not on'.

At a press conference

on Tuesday Welsh nationalist MP, Dafydd Thomas introduced Sand's election Owen Car-

National Demonstration

Support the

Hunger Strikers

Sunday 26 April 1.30pm

Assemble Kilburn High

Printed by East End Offset (TU) Ltd, London E2

Socialist

Challenge

by electing hunger striker Bobby

ron, and appealed against any moves to expel Sands from parliament.

But that is not the end of the story. Sands' life is in extreme danger. alec tion day was his fortieth day on hunger strike. He is not expected to live beyond end ot the month if the hunger strike continues.

Support from the British labour movement

urgent. Benn, Heffer and the Labour left should campaign to save Sands' and the other hunger strikers' lives, and for their right to political status.

Favour

A consistent majority of the British people favour the withdrawal troops from Ireland. Yet they have not supported the Irish prisoners' demands.

The prisoners' case for Prey are ring an TeSt

are fighting against bnusn presence in the six figuing for political ends. Counties

No satisfactory resolution of the situation in tne north of Ireland is possible until Britain withdraws the troops and allows the Irish people to run their own affairs. The campaign in support of Irish prisoners strikes an Immediate blow at the British claim to rule the Six Counties.

That claim will not be thoroughly crushed until the British labour movement mobilses to torce the po entrato me must

withdraw We must grasp hold of every step

hat can be taken towards lal goal.

The priority now is to support the prisoners by coming out on the national demonstration 26 April.

St (Kilburn tube)

to claim victory on

By Gerry Foley in Enniskillen

BRITISH GOVERNMENT.

Friends, I would like

behalf of Bobby Sands'

being counted. I had

county hall.

Since the morning victory for the H BlOC prisoner Bobby Sands had been HOIC and more likely. The vote had been high. The BONSIS admitted openly that they had been relying on a low poll It was obvious that the abstentionist . of the Catholics had not materialised There spoiled ballots and most of them seemed to be protest votes against une oncid didate by more extreme unuses Ballots could be seen

marked 'No Surrender!'

Paisley! and 'God bless The official unionist campaign manager began talk. ing about the possibility of a serious setback to community relations, meaning relations between Catholics and Protestants.

Banner

I went through the hall down the long outside staircase to the courtyard through a line of heavily armed police. Several hundred persons had gathered behind the banner of the Enniskillen H Block youth committee They were chanting the favourite slogan the Ilass demonstrations in support polítical prisoners 'One, two, three, four,

Pipen it seven, eight;

seven, eight, open up the Armagh gate Then one of the Sands campaign observers at the count came running down the stairs to meet crowd. A huge cheer went up. The crowd began to shout for the Sands campaign manager Owen Car-

He came down and said partly the Irish language: 'Ladies and gentlemen, friends would like to claim victory on behalf of Bobby Sands.

Victory to the prisoners in H Block!'

Carron went on to say that the nationalist people had given a clear message: 'It's time for the British to

HIS LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS

vote-SANDS

THE BLANKETMEN AND THE WOMEN PRISONERS IN ARMAGH ARE BORROWING THIS ELECTION IN AN ATTEMPT TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE PRISONERS AND YOUR OPPOSITION TO THE

IT WAS 3pm in the courthouse where the ballots in the Fermanagh South election were

been standing for several hours in the press room behind the

they always should have done - get out. Anthem

The first verse of the Irish national anthem Santed o 'Soldiers are we, whose lives are pledg catcal some nave come from a land across the sea. no more our •an-

shall shelter the despot or the slave.

But the victory was ex. pressed more powerfully by the quiet speeches of Bobby Sands' mother and sister than by the trium. phant shouting and sing

Throughout the paign Mrs Sands had not spoken audience were always told that she didn't feel up to it. Now for the first time she spoke in a calm voice to thank the campaign workers and voters.

That was the measure of the hope that the cam paign victory had giver her. The crowd celebration that I was told would go on all night

I left for Coalisland were urere was to oca vic tory rally at 9 o'clock. As we drove in. the streets o this small town were lined with thousands of people. Band

The local band was ou playing the 'Broad Brimmer of the 1KA' Behind it youths were waying large tricolours, the flag of the double insurrection seen once again to be lifted on the wings of history.

I could see the flames of a big bonfire that had been lit outside the nigr wire fence surrounding the police barracks.

The band went on to play Roddy McCorley, song about an insurgent hanged by the British almost two centuries ago It is also the tune of the 'Ballad of Sean South', an IRA guerrilla killed during the 1956-61 campaign in a town in the Fermanagh/