Socialist Challenge No. 195, 30 April 1981
The scan: sc-n195.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge
TAKE THE TROOPS LOUT NOW!
No. 195 30 April 25p
Socialist Unemployed and strikers 10p
The world asks Thatcher: how many more must die in Ireland?
of
BLOCK
- let Irish
Whitehall on Sunday. hundreds of supporters of voices heard in the
THIS WEEK - week 42,393 of the British occupation of Ireland Bobby Sands, Member of Parliament for Fermanagh and South Tyrone will die.
From all over the world calls have come for the British government, headed by the self-styled Iron Lady' Margaret Thatcher to resolve the crisis in the Irish prison camps of Lon
and meet the demands of the political prisoners.
The most recent appeals have been made by the Michigan State Senate, the Massachusetts House
Representatives, socialist parties in Norway and Denmark, and trade
SUPPORT
THE
H-BLUCK
Other die TONGER
STHIKERS
The chant of 'Bobby Sands MP resounded through Kilburn and
Despite the ban on marches and 40 arrests,
the Irish political prisoners made their
streets of London. After a rally in Kilburn,
it seems that
unions in France, Spain, and the United States.
Last week the Scottish TUC added its voice and appealed for Thatcher to concede. Even Ronald Reagan felt it necessary to express his 'concern a DOul the fate COT 'Mr Sands'.
The world is learning what Britain's presence in Ireland really means. For Thatcher, it mattered not that over 30,000 people voted for Bobby Sands in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. For her, Bobby
Photo: PETE GRANT (Socialist Challenge)
unfortunately curtailed as the assembly tried to assert its right to march, protesters made their way to Downing Street where a picket was moved on by police Eventually, the demonstrators dispersed.
Sands remained an 'ordinary criminal'.
It mattered not that the protest in Ireland, organis
by the Nationa H Block/Armagh Committee, was largely peaceful: at the start of this week the British government rested over 20 of the leaders of the campaign.
And it did not matter that the youth of Derry, Belfast, and elsewhere in the North of Ireland took to the streets. Two youths Went mowed down and killed by British Army Land Rovers, and another was murdered with plastic bullet.
Such are the ways of British democracy Ireland, and editorial writers throughout Europ alink their enes, to mates the United States sure what they see is real unable to comprehend the heartlessness COICSSIUL and inhumanity of the British government
But the people of Ireland have come to expect as much. Generation after generation has asked no more than that Britain should leave their country They have been answered by concentration camps, famines and massacres. Mood
And now there is the latest grisly chapter with British MPs - including those from the Labour Party - rushing to con gratulate Thatcher for en
the Bobby Sands MP to break through his skin.
correspondent of Socialist Challenge in Belfast. Gerry Foley, phoned this newspaper on Monday to report 'a mood of tense, grim expectation' in une working class Republican ghettos of Belfast
Republican news. paper has warned: "There will be fire and there will be fury. Let there be no mistake - whatever form the Irish fury takes, it will be understood throughout the world.
May Bobby Sands not be forgotten; the people of Ireland be left in peace, and may Britain do the only thing it can do to shed at least some small portion of its guilt: get its
troops out of Ireland now.
Page 2 scan of this page
On the march
We say...
What we want is -jobs not bombs THE total cost of idle machinery and jobless workers in Britain is a staggering f42.5bn every year. That fig. ure alone shows the complete insanity of the Tories' policies.
The only: explanation for this SASEeSSNESe the government claims it is trying to save money - is to bring the organised working class to its knees:
Jobs not wage rises is the gun being levelled at every worker's head. Well, we want jobs and wage rises and decent homes, hospitals.
. And the longer this government remains in office the threatens to get. By 1983/4 government spending down on 1979/80 figures. Education will go. down 11 per cent, governManer id no houstng will betio per
cent, housing will be 50 per cent down but defence spending will increase by 13 per cent.
Old people die from cold while electricity and gas astronomically under
every minute Britain €15,000 on defence.
The bill for Trident will be f6bn. Yet the cost of marine - and there are to be six or seven could build 100 hospitals, 200 schools and 50,000 houses.
With 2.5 million people registered unemployed it is scandalous people are homeless and wait many months for operations. The TUC and trade union leadership
demand: a public works to meet the needs of working people and to create jobs for the unemployed.
The real figure for those out of work nearer: the million mark. Many school leavers do not register. Over 200,000 workers are on short time which is the equivalent of 140,000 people out of work.
Yet despite the vast unemployed and on short time working, the average hours worked in all manufacturing industries is still 60.9 hours a week. We want work or full pay.
A thirty-five hour loss of earnings would immediately create nearly one million jobs. But all this means a fight to bring down the Tory government.
The TUC and trade union leadership should stop playing Thatcher's game. 'Well reasoned argument' based on profitability coming first will persuade 'change coursé'..
To do that the labour movement has to kick them out of Westminster. That's the only argument the Tories will understand.
information fill in the form below
Name.......
Address..
Age...
Union/CLP (if any).....
2XP.
: Challenge 30 April 1981
at a time when schools. and
worse it
will be 4 per cent orice: rise Tory policy spends
one Trident sub-
that have
programme
MARK Philbin, three been women and NALGO People's
numbers Why are purpose?
Mark: Bein
week without OvvoILulLY positive and political.
scandal and unemployment.
The
the contrary, Tories
What do march will achieve?
Socialist
Challenge
JOIN THE FIGHT FOR SOCIALISM If you would like to be put in touch with Socialist Challenge supporters in your area or would like more
....ts.
Send to: Socialist Challenge, 'PO Box 50, London N1
Page 2
the
Tories
an unemployed teenager from Bury, Lancs, has
S•OLoo•. by his local • to the March Jobs.
Socialist Challenge spoke to him and to lan Stephenson the Bury NALGO branch publicity officer.
you .going the march? What do you see as its
disillusioned with the
oredom of being on the dole it wa.
do something
The purpose of the march is to Scandal andinaste femassive
waste massive
government is doing nothing to help the unemployed. On
its policies have done much to add to the problems.
you hope that the
Mark: We need to get rid of the Tories and hopefully the march will *
suffering economic
Many
to support the comes through the area.
Fairey three-day week,
I ne
join the march.
told Socialist Challenge,
against
do much to bring attention to the Hicatill? Savart policies in climate петроутен However, that doesn't STOCKPORT is typical of many towns
from the government's policies. Over the last few months, 2,500 jabs have been lost. alreadan ed ehe laser ecorees hare larger factories have
People's March as it
Engineering, already on will stop work at 3pm on Thursday 7 May to join the march.
National, Supply Company is sending three coach loads of delegates to
The workers there intend to raise £1,500 from a levy.
Bernard Regan, Stockport's AUEW district secretary, believes that many other factories in Stockport will follow, suit. What seems significant to me,' he
is that some of these factories are on full-time working
¿Reports by Pete Clifford, lan Stephenson, Des Tierney : Tessa van Gelderen, Jeff West and Jude Woodward
LIVERPOOL TO LONDON 1-31MAY
ON THE MARCH
AGAINST
UHE
On the road
40 мes.. Звиес, 3Htute, NO.
3 Ones YES/
deflationary MaSs leaders say.
the toundaton lor a strulig
Stockport builds support
National Supplies has a more than full order book prepared to support the unemployed.
The Tories are trying to divide the employed from the unemployed but it looks like they're failing. to do now is build united action against the government to force il to change its policies or get out.
Stockport Trades Council is organising accommodation and facilities for the marchers, despite the fact that the Tory council is refusing to let them use any council amenities.
Hopefully 7 May, passes through the day when Stockport celebrates the end of lorv rule and welcomes LOTOTA Labour council something for unemployed.
THE People's March for Jobs is on the road. As the five hundred unemployed make their way from Liverpool to London, workers are fighting back against Tory attacks. •, Lee Jeans women in
Wing after twelve weeks.
engineering workers occupied their
Friday. The factory is threatened with closure with a loss of 650 jobs.
are still on the picket line in Salford after nine weeks, fighting for the right to belong to a trade union. These stuggles show that
jobs go to the wall.
through the North-west, Socialist Challenge reports on some of the struggles that are taking place.
vigorous
march?
Mark:
other
support
that we should wait until the next election, no matter what the TUC • Foundation for aa sch nil lnd and yet they are
What we need
• Iccaer march Tuesday
Clicstcl 1 own UVN H
when the march Stockport, will also be
Confed, a vic- UCATT,
that will do Granby Row
town's 9,000 McVities,
No 29A Confed
Greenock, Scotland, are still occupy-
• Laurence Scott Electromotor
plant in Openshaw, Manchester, last
• Royal Pride women workers
workers are not prepared to let their
As the People's March moves
canibala incorporating whole labour .movement challenge the government's policies which are designed to attack the working class.
What will you be doing on the
Apart from walking a long wav. will be trving to convince ma chers that we are not here as publici ty fodder for the. TUC leaders, but as a central focus for a national fightback against unemployment.
I would hope that other marchers would join me in speaking al any factory, Socialist Challenge workers' meetings .on thẻ route of the march.
What is NALGO's policy on th People's March?
Ian: NALGO is also planning to the march, and in branch we have tried to turn pape support into action. well as sponsoring Mark Philbin to go all the way, our vid president, Mark Hackett, will wa from Liverpool to Manchester. will be sending a delegation to Liver poo! at the start of the march a maye artanecu Iul CUdclCS LUKbe London on 31 May.
What's on in Manchester Monday 4 May May Day demonstration te creer mae marea. assennoe ceces neucatk ground. March to Buile Hill Park, Eccles, O Rd for a rally organised by Salford Trade Council. Bury Trades Council is organising
5 May. 12noon march leavi Salford Tech. Ralv Iom Crown Soswa followed by civic reception in th Hall. 3pm march leaves town hall s
Wednesday 6 May Factory gate and othe meetings throughout Greater Manchester o unemployment called by No 29A Confed Thursday 7 May Ipm Mass demonstration 1 escort march to Stockport. Called by No 29 Manchester Trades Counc Mancheste area NUS. Assemb Manchester 3pm rally Stockport Rd March Hollvwood Recreation ground organised by Stockport Trades Counciba
Page 3 scan of this page
Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party, visited Lee Jeans occupation last week and pledged his support
Lee Jeans: "Frontline
troops in the battle
against unemployment'
THE OCCUPATION Jeans in Greenock was the highlight of the Scottish TUC last wook. economic policy and the way to fight redundancies, speaker after speaker drew on the example of
Their action contrasts starkly With the performarice of the leadership of the Scottish trade union movement fighting unemployment in recent years. But promises of action and support for the women were certainly forthcoming at the con-
An emergency resolution was passed pledging all affiliated unions and trades councils to back the occupation. speaker from the transport union, seconding the motion, said that if there were any move to evict the women from the factory, it ILay be necessary to take industrial action, The TGWU was already prepared for this.
Troops
The Scottish miners' union delegate argued that 11 any move was lauc against the occupation, then the working class should be prepared to flout the law. Inese were the frontline troops in the battle against unemployHOL.
Ray Buckton, general secretary of the rail union ASLEF, echoed these sentiments when he said that
MAY DAY GREETINGS
Occupation
WE would like to take the opportunity of
thanking all those trade unions,
organisations, women's organisations and 01
individuals who have supported us so
much in our fight to save our jobs. sla
tory since 5 February, - and we're going to,
stay here until we win our fight.
Ellen Monaghan,
by women workers at Lee
When discussing the Tories'
the Greenock workers would require more than just words to sustain them in their campaign.
Heroic It was left to the only woman speaking on the resontion. from Greenock The heroic til to cat Last Jeans to the other tions where workers were
the shop stewards involved
stressed the importance of at for the women there were leading
since the STUC has been the scene of such an emo-
Applause Let's hope the example of Lee Jeans will followed very soon by other occupations defence of jobs and that the applause of the STUC
from Lee Jeans
political
We have now been occupying our fac-
Sonior shop stoward, Loe
delegates is turned to action.
Sees eas
eing sponsore Office Engineering Union branch Erverpool to" from
the People's March for Jobs. Ian Grant, branch
manner of Metropolitan North West oranch erominee wiss is branch had agreed to sup-
the occupation Greenock.
'The workers at lee Jeans are showing the way
fight Women are particularly vulnerable to attack from this Tory government so it is especialy important tha trade unionists give them as much support as possible. victory for Lee Jeans workers is a victory for the whole labour movement against the Tories.
Lee Jeans London tour 4- Ipm Blackheath.
restiva with Benn in
celebration of 1381 Peasants
Revolt 5 May Tower Hamlets Trades
Coe Mary Cole Bancin Council
Hackney Council; NUJ Book branch
Women in
9 May Festival for Women's
against Tory Mi. Workers Transport and General Union
WOTK If you want to arrange a visit from the Lee Jeans
movement meeting, phone Jude (01) 359. 8371.
Messages of support and don treasurer sent to
Treasurer, Lee Jeans snor stewaras committee, 45 Brougham St, Greenock Scotland.
WOMEN WORKERS
SHOW THE WAY
: union Pride Novack materials out of the fac tory and threatening close it.
The women realise that they can't win their fight alone. So they're organisManchester and a member ing demonstration of their strike committee, Elsie, is being sponsored by her union, Timber and Aílied Trades March for Jobs. the As the leaflet women have states: 'We're the edge of the wedge'. Each group of workers previously had to fight on Manchester engineers
occupy to save jobs
ing to attack its most organised workplace.
for the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines chester Labour MPs,
shaw, Manchester 11.
Royal Pride: 'We're the
thin end of the wedge'
WOMEN WORKERS at Royal Pride in Salford have been on the picket line for nine weeks. demanding the basic right to belong to a trade Royal tride voteen sacro boss, its own but, as their leaflet moving points out, what Pride workers need is the to strength of the 100 c Messages of support and donations can FTAT 37 Anson Rd Manchester 14.
No Grunwicks in Manchester Furniture, Defend Royal Pride workers People's Demonstration 16 May 12.30pm the All Saints, Oxford Rd distributed Manchester. thin Sponsored by Salford Trades Council, Manchester City has WORKERS from Laurence Scott Electromotors occupied their factory last Friday. The plant is under employer, Arthur Snipe, wants to transfer work to
In the view of Bob Penchion, the union con-
company is 'asset stripping' and is try-
motors on contract to the National Coal Board and
workers are now getting down to the task of building support for their occupation. The facwork from Manchester: The group has other plants
The occupiers will also be looking for support or the People's March and on the 16 May Mancheste
The firm has been benefitting from the govern-
working scheme and two ManCharles Morris and Kenneth Marks, are demanding to know why, after receiv-
Louisa St,
this man?
hearing figures, Photo: about them, the press:
Today's Katz dismal tion policies grow The hammered home alternative docline
answered.
retreat.
They are
Royal a stroke whole
be reduced by 10 sent c/o
worry.
jobless statistics 2 Saturday have jobs.
Thatcher!
Socialist
Colin Herd (steelworker) Bob Anderson (miner).
on the left - it's as easy as that, isn't it.
'What's been good recent'y are the
specials - the in-depth news about
have been useful for militants to learn
something from.
work. This is crucial for a socialist
strength.'
Dave Ward (Branch Secretary, Crawley POEU;
Secretary, Crawley Trades Council; South-east
Regional Council of the TUC.)
Have you seen
LEN MURRAY, rumoured to be TUC general secretary, was too upset, on the latest unemployment to issue more than a few words of comfort to the two and half million unemployed.
In case they think he's forgotten Socialist Challenge is reprinting his complete statement to
figures set another and depressing post-War racord. As the government's isola. increases opposition to their TUC's Week of Activitias that there is an to these policies of and despair. The People's March for Jobs - starting in Liver pool on May Day - will provide yet another compelling call for compas sion. These pleas for sanity must be
The issuing of such a dynamic statement was too much for Lionel Murray OBE. He has returned to his
Tories to cut unemployment at
UNEMPLOYMENT figures will soon per cent, if the has its way. Has the government had a change of heart? Is it intending to build much-needec hospitals, schools and homes? Don't
A quarter of a million people will no longer find themselves part of the - but they won't They are the poor unfortunates who have to sign on at the dole office every fortnight although they are not entitled to any benefit, such as those who have not worked long enough to qualify The government wants to count only those who receive benefit in the figures of the unemployed. Nice one
Challenge
'One of the most readable left-wing papers for working class people produced today.'
'I think Socialist Challenge is the best paper
industrial struggles and situations - which
'Usually, the left papers just comment on the industrial scene but Socialist Challenge is now able to aid militants at their place of
newspaper and Socialist Challenge's major
Page 4 scan of this page
Lift-off for Benn in Manchester
wins first victories
aS is how Michael
cher MP launch-
campaign in sup-
of Benn's candi-
at a press con-
ace in Manches-
ast Thursday:
We are supporting
Benn for deputy
r of the Labour Party
The stands by the i of the last Labour
omic strategy
to end
loyment quitting : EEC, rmament.
*Denis Healey opposes
decisions, cher added. 'Benn's didacy is designed to Des Tierney and Steve Potter
powerful speeches at the
ning of a break-up of the initial near-
sally
rs to Tony Benn's bid for the Labour Par-
aputy leadership. TUC chairperson Alan a set the tone on the day of the congress. While formally bring the greetings of the : General Council, he
the opportunity
an anti-Benn ch by Helen Liddell, Scottish Labour Party
deferring to her appeal anity in the face of attacks, Fisher askUnity for what?' ile went on: 'How did set a Labour governwhich was committo an irreversible shift
calth favour king people when dected, and yet at the of five years per of wealth producing is were still owned by cent of the popula-
last
her We must not have ce and simple unity,
continued,
must be debated.' iter his speech, Alan
told the press that
sonally supported
's candidacy and that
the fourth largest
with 600,000 votes,
also be likely to
Benn in a straight
with Denis Healey.
Fisher was too polite
Benn in his speech
delegates,
the Scottish
president, felt no constraints.
cGahey
thunderous
he declared: I'm Tony Benn. The issue
next
government.'
cognising the mood
overwhelming ma-
of delegates, Foot scrapped
of his scheduled being
on devolution and
30 April 1981
ensure that next time
round we have a leader-
ship of the Labour Party
committed to carrying out
these policies.' Press
Other speakers at the
press conference were Bill
Daly, president of the
Greater Manchester Con-
federation of Shipbuilding
and Engineering Unions;
Arnold Spencer and Val
Stevens of Manchester
City Labour Party; and
Mick McAuley, chair-
person of Ferranti Hollin-
wood shop stewards' com-
mittee.
Scottish
hostile reaction by trade union
Alan Fisher (above left)
mas sala wurt is lkery to
back Benn. Scottish
miners leader Mick
McGahey (above right)
rotovee meaner.
gress when he declared
hintu Peter ren
Shore (right)
took to the streets
well, a street to brand
the left with the crime of
asserting the supremacy.
of the party over the
supremacy of parliament"
addressed himself to the crisis in the party.
The Labour Party leader claimed he was 'the
person in the argue for suppression of debate. But he tempered this approach by returning to the theme of unity against the Tories
It was as much for this fine balancing act and for
fact that he did not criticise Benn's candidature that Foot earned his standing ovation
The shift to the left in the STUC was followed by another bombshell for the right wing on Friday when news broke that the leadership of the Transport and for General Workers Union • has shifted from its position of outright opposition to Benn's campaign.
Some motions being considered for the union's biennial conference this summer promote the idea of a vote by all affiliated members in their branches and a national count to determine the attitude of the union's delegation on the major questions at the Labour Party conference.
Jenkins
A similar proposal is considered by tivists in the white-collar
*Back Benn campaign in launch of this Manchester followed wide circulation the. local labour movement of statement which welcomed Benn's decision to stand.
Bill Daly explained the need to take the campaign to telencove
"It's undemocratic SOLIC DC declaring the media which way their union will voLe. We should be campaigning for that decision to be made by union conferences.'
Michael Meacher out-
Benn campaign
ASTMS. Clive Jenkins, the union's general secretarv. was thi irst to attack Alan Fisher
speech the STUC.
The credibility that Jenkins won in ASTMS because of his support for the 40-30-30 election formula statullig evaporate with reports that he would back Healey in a straight run-off. The left in the union pians to have Benn address a fringe meeting at the conference.
big eve-ofconference rallies with Benn speaking feature of the conferences Distributive the Union of Shop
and Allied Workers and the white-collar union APEX this week.
Labour Party
lined plans for the campaign in the run-up to the October election.
'his includes asking al
constituency Labour Par ties to invite a speaker on the candidacy and to nominate Benn; requesting the
ask Benn to speak or to
fringe meetings, rathe around the coupr. and support Sign
Additional signatories to the support stacclichl are: Bob Cryer, MP; Bob
Screwy Wright, assistalli AUEW; genera and
And the Broad Left in the Post Office Engineering Union CAUCCL hun dreds of delegates to attend a fringe meeting for Benn at the POEU conference this summer.
Reply
Rank and file militants at the union. conterences will be replying to the right
Benn who have been the most destructive of unity against the Tories with their failure to respond to Tory attacks, particularly unemployment.
And to the right's claim that i lead to furthe vote for
Line. Social Democrats, militants will be arguing that no conces
Bob Wright Steve Wright, Manchester district cttee. AUEW. sions should be made to blackmail OI this sort, while denouncing any such split as a treacherous attack on the unity of the working Class
The strongest guarantee against a split. in the Labour Party is a strong Labour left which understands and bases itself on the struggle in the unions.
The best guarantee of denying Weighell, Sirs. Chapple, Duffy and the rest of the right building of a left wing the unions taking home the struggle
and their counterparts in the Labour Party
The STUC congress showed the effect that the Benn campaign can have in building such a left wing in the labour movement.
'Champion of CLPs'
didacy will reinforce it.
and file!
Support for Benn as deputy leader.
unions. than a stitch-up by full-time officials
Labour Party. should be.
He
poltical unions.
Count me in, says
Transport Union leader
Socialist Challenge:
ference that there should be leadership and deputy
without candidates. decide to stand for the leadership, too.
support Benn qualifications.
in wages; anti-nuclear, and for accountability makes a recommendation on Labour Party issues, then the Labour Party conference delegation of delegates from the union's regions, would have thi right to make is own decisions.
known.
Journalists' leader backs
JONATHAN Hammond, vice-president of the journalists' union, considers that far from going against the unity of the Labour Party, Tony Benn's can-
'Benn is evidently the champion of the constituency parties, ' says Hammond, 'and he will help to build unity in the party by giving a voice to the rank
The adds, should be raised at the conferences of all affiliated
'The conferences should decide, rather
The NUJ, like the teachers' and other white. collar professional unions, is not affiNated to the
Hammond is concerned that it
mentions that at a recent conference on unemployment, TUC chairperson Alan Fisher said that we could no longer afford the luxury of 'non-
CE CREAM
WALTER GREENDALE, an executive member of the TGWU representing Region No. 10, told
The decision was made at the Labour Party con
elections for the party leadership. • You can't have an Perhaps someone will deputy leader without I think he's very sincere and like the policies he advocates. They are in line with the TGWU' own policies: anti-EEC, against government interference
"The usual practise in the TGWU is that the executive
I think that the activists in the movement support Benn; it will be the activists who make their views
Page 5 scan of this page
Labour promises a campaigning GLC
Working class. are facing massive rents c
rates rises. Won't the Labour Party's proDosals further raise rates to pay for your programme mean a biggor cut in living stan-
and demoralise working class people?
The raising of rents by borougt councils pensate WI cantral ment chris table. ment has failed to unité local into cohesive force against the Sorelic.
•Much of the 1CSU1l sibility must lie TÚC and the Labour Party national executive.
deliberately not coordinating national tion.
THE Labour Party's manifesto promises
paign against the government.
:They said they would support local authorities in dispute with the ment, but they haven't attempted to lead that strug
.The GLC is a huge local authority, so an ag gressive administration could be very effective in mobilising support throughout London in defending local govern-
services and campaigning against the Tories in Westminster.
Tories lose their majority on the Greater London Council on 7 May, the council will be in the forefront of a cam-
local authority
shreaucratic pola semay
bureaucratic simply dummins ching services Problem Labour-controlled GLC should be providing for those strike, campaigning agnuclear weapons, creating jobs through public spending, cutting the price of school meals, publishing a campaigning newspaper, and soon.
Labour Party -
that if the
implemented.
One problem is that the Labour group on the GLC has acted as élite, divorced from the labour
meier, When Should be movement.
be recorded at its
open representatives from the party and the unions.
All candidates signed a
pledge agreeing to abide
by the manifesto
Resistance to ployment has to be at
How to flatten
By Geoffrey Sheridan
are as high as 50 per cent.
and rates rises to save
council jobs and services.
Their argument :is
simple one: Blame the in-
creases the Tory
government. There's some
truth in that
While the axe on coun-
cil spending began under
the Callaghan govern-
ment, has set
bout sharpening it with
vengeance. in 1980-8 the
Tories aimed to cut back
local authority spending
by over 5 per cent
pared to th previous year.
For 1981-82 they want
further cuts of 3 per cent in
current expenditure, 3 per
cent in housing
ment, and 7 per cent in
other building projects.
Government ministers
haven't just made these es appealing for
cuts. They lave
brought legislation
changing the •basis
which councils receive cen-
tral government funding,
and enabling Westminster
to keep tight controls on
local authority spending.
The system is now rigg-
ed to favour the Tory
Tessa van Gelderen asked JEREMY CORBYN, a Haringey councillor and executive member of the London regional Labour Party, about the way he sees this being
the centre of the fight to get the Tories out of government. Yat the trade union merely argues the government to change course, while the alternative economic • strategy. doesn't answer the problems.
Are you in favour of a fight for the 35-hour week? How do you see a Labour GLC taking it up?
It's nonsense to think that the kind of campaign the
high-rise rents
and rates
(without
cuts)
WITHIN days of the 7 May local electiona, many working class people will have received rates rises which in some parts of the country
Rents on council houses have also come in for high-rise treatment, and it's Labour coun cils which are to the fore in this cost-of-living escalation, a number of them choosing rent
- or partially save
shires, while central government runas to tic deprived inner-city have diminished.
Councils which
defied the Tory dictats or cuts have been penalised even bigger axe on what they from Westminster, / and
TUC is running against unemployment could be successful. We've seen the
approach before over racism, which nored its causes.
It's the same with unemployment. have to be stated the
of contro over capital, and the fact that more money is to be made by speculating than producing.
Thatcher wants to divide the labour movement by saying that wages cause inflation. The cambeen threatened with a sur-
charge on their personal
So the Tories can cer-
changing the rules of the
that it's a game only the
wealthy can win. That's a
vote
haven't
Tents cad:
based on
assumption that the
answer to local need lies in
the pockets of the working class. It hards defiance of the Tories
Yet this has been the
policy advocated by left-
wing Labour councillors,
while the Labour right has
thrown. in a package of
cuts, too, encouraging the
Tories to push their luck
still further next time.
If the Labour left be-
lieves it is following
lesser-of-two-evits policy
many working class people
disagree. In Scotland ten
of thousands of council
tenants are on rent strike,
and underway Engernd and Wales leslie parts are of
There is one way that
Labour councils can gair
working class support and
hasten the end of the That-
cher government. That is
by refusing to make any
cuts, or to increase rent or ..
Tales.
Socialist Chi
against unemployment has to be linked to
and
A Labour GLC has to support the unemployed in
not through recreation centres, directly through trade union organisation We also have to create jobs, by creating industry and suD port for workers co-operatives. and by fighting to get rid of the Tory govern ment. Unemployment
cornerstone of ever Tory policy.,
The May election isn't simply a council election. It's against the Tor) government, and if we win
we must palen to ge rid of the government. The GLC has to be committed to doing that in everything it does.
It is not a novel idea. It was among the proposals adopted at a conterenc held by Lambeth council last November where over 600 labour movement organisations were represented. But it does re quire real defiance to im plement the plan.
Labour councillors ask where • money Is sup posed to come from if rent and MalC aren't raised They should take a look al the baoks. In 1979 the bie made b BOU banks totalling f1,562m notched profits
and with sky high interest
they have been rak-
ing it in since then.
Pay
Some 50 pet cent of
parker, and se
years when it cost an
incredible £120,000 on
average to provide a coun
cil home, 88.3 per cent of
this sum went on interes
Charges
Refusing to pay the
money lenders would be a
stride towards nationalis
ing the banks and finance
houses under workers
control, a policy which the
Labour government
should be committed to
-If, probable
Labout councillors would
be farids game they wi
the Tories' game,
need to summon mass sup
port to mount buc
resistance the government
can be forced to bow to.
pit
closures quickly enough
when miners took to
the picket lines.
Poplar
• Left Labour •COMI
cillors claim that that seep
port wouldn't be : thate
How ther know
they've never called for
is one of the mysterie
our time. They prefer la
recall that
come out on to the street
Poplar in Support
jailed councilors th the
.1920s. Labour next Thursday a Sweeping
Toads from Westiner
Tories from
and defiance from Labor
councilor! many
he 192 elections
whom
before the
would bring the kind o
mass action needed to ca
sure that development.
Out soon:
Socialist Challonge
pamphlet on no con
, and No ront or rates
Page 6 scan of this page
Black self-defence patrols needed
Racist murders in Atlanta
Deptford nquiry police n the spot y Toni Gorton S THE official inquiry
the Deptford fire into its second ok, the police and the oner are trying to pro-
that the fire which imed 13 lives was the ult of a fight within
house:
According to John Larose,
person of the police have deliberately not ice any other fnes of in.
gation such as the fire becaused by a racist inspired bomb.
The police and the coroner comere at the prity thee
were at the party. y Rashid Meer in the USA ( IT A time when America spending $10bn on the
co shuttle and giving • junta $45m, a serious murderous Salvadoroblom here goes un-
solved.
series murders lanta Georgia, was found.
of cist violence that is part
parcel of the daily lives of
de of colour living in the
"sod' world.
the Federal of Investigation, and
cians in the White House
added to the grief of black
their theories on
motives for the murders.
They suggested that
dain youth were child prolutes, mentally retarded
they were 'street children'
family life and esumably 'deserved their
The official theory on the
IS equally nsulting oice have repeatedly stated
the killer is a black male. o black men are being harass-
One FBI agent has claimed •t in tour of the deaths the rents were the killers and in
the killer was a amosexual black man.
Black people have refused
take this sitting down. Froups set up by blacks across
•steinsed
es that have brought tens of
sands on the streets
nding that declared state
be This would bring
ral funds to be used in the
ch for the killers).
Camille Bell, chairperson of
Murders,
er of one of the murdered
s, spoke at a recent local Uncle Tom
She emphasised that the oblem was not restricted to
could
ened by Reagan's propos-
budget and cuts.
She stressed, too, that even
ugh the mayor of Atlanta,
ard Jackson, was
ro' he was not black. 'He
efused to take up the cam-
does not see it as a
I attack.
Camille Bell spoke about
need for black people to
lise that Uncle Tom and Un-
She said trom the
lle-class blacks was disap-
ing and that more support
Chatton
refuse to allow the families' lawyers to call witnesses, such as the father of a policeman who was actually in the house as the fire started. awav to the local police station without saying anything to the people there.
John Larose adds that the families are able to put a fight at the inquest because of the fact-finding commission which the community up mediate v the fire. we relied on police information then we'd in the same posidon as all orner suca moulrics.
'Our campaign and Black People's Day of have been important to our case.
The pickets of the court continue as long as the inquiry continues. County Hal London 9.30-/mm. or tenes mo wurther information contact the New Cross Massacre Action Committee, Sea desp8a72R8. Road, London SE24. of in had come from poor whites.
This is definitely reflected in the local which predominantly black and supported by local white trade unions.
While the situation Atlanta continues to look grim, national support for the Atlan-
awareness that the killings are tied in with black people's basic struggle to survive in an era of
He went
By Anna Reese
The Campaign Racism, involving wing 'Had been set
murder. It is urging support for Satnam's funeral and demonstration
the racist attacks on 23 May. Action
series of racially motivated at-
Beaten
Join Court fortnight Ye. from Sheema was
sickle her black youths have been beaten up; and Asian been spat on and pushed. cutbacks and growing violence.
JP Blair, a black mother of
are four, said during a memoria
service attended Washington DC: 'I think there. omething racial going and it doesn't stop in Atlanta *I really think there are peo. and they lie hate backs and they believe destroy us it, but that is my honest feel ing.
Anti-racism
SATNAM Singh Gill, a 20-year-old student from Henley College was brutally kicked and stabbed to death by racist thugs in Coventry Precinct on 18 April.
against black and organisations, has up in response to the
procession against Susan try 101L1 Ca attacked. with a Young Socialists. father's shop;
women have itiateR patrols Precinct. stop the murders
racial arrests. 'If the police
by 2,000 protect it on DIULCCUIL On tion they patrols.
God I hate to say baseball bats
black and green.
in the ford to
Coventry racist murder in the
Since the murder at least ten more attacks have taken place.
Create
in a further response. over 400 black workers and youths discussed black self-defence at
Labour Party
They decided to build antiracist defence squads and to in-
Coventry
MILLIONS
7474khl
KILLER MISSILES
NOTHING TO FIGHT
CHILD KILLERS
By Tom Fiske in the US weekly newspaper The Militant BLACK residents here are determined to continue self-defence patrols despite arrests and harassment from city officials and the police.
self-defence patrols were established v the Techwood Homes Tenants Association because of police failure to
disappearances of black children.
The cops have made no
Mayor were doing their job we wouldn't have to antes president, Israel Green. "This is do this, explained the THTA police
tolerated'. our community and if we don't
nobody's going to defence 20 March the associa- 25 people the participants. outsiders' Most were armed with Tenants black liberation colours — red
Kermal Johal, a bus driver, sure be meered 'We
Asian community have taken the lead. We cannot af-
wait for the labour movement to protect us.
'We have taken a lead on this issue and we must and will fight in the labour movement,
trade unions and Labour Party for support. This way we will win.'
White youth must be won away from racist ideas and ac. tions. It must be explained that it is Tory policies which create the social conditions that make life so miserable, not black peo-
It's a pity that the national
Atlanta Blacks assert
right to self-defense
Hank Aaron Crime Stoppers bats known (Aaron was a top baseball slugger). Patrol organisers decided that a few participants shoulc jects also carry unloaded guns.
Maynard Jackson branded the patrols as 'vigil- ject
and leclared that patrols did not work with the
they will not
The police smeared the self-
units as the 'work of ana arresica lour or
reacted angrily, saying: "The Ku Klux Klan has
Peoples Marchant Jobs have and local organisers not taken up this issue
But in Coventry black people are assembling a black contingent on the march under ine: banner 'No to racist attacks, no
They have also called a public meeting on 20 May on these demands.
Campaign
Against Racism Demonstration 23 May Assemble 1pm Edgewick Park
and march to Coventry
precinct
normer tons commen
singh, Nanak Temple,
Harmall Lane, Coventry. get labelled vigilantes. We get labelled because we are black and low income
Other tenants' associations are selling up palrols. Ine us Veterans, black veterans' U gallsalion, talking residents in many housing pro-
organising self-defence.
The group calls for a Pro-
Watch to safeguard the streets and stop kidnappings of black children. 'We want the
city to be one massive patrol, said Commande Anderson of post 7 of the US Veterans.
We are glad to see people willing to come together to pro.
We wil branch out particularly in areas that have been victimised.
'Black people have to rise up to protect themselves.
Page 7 scan of this page
Tory law and order'
By Toni Gorton
Deptford, the story is the same
violence against black people.
black people
They're organising self-defence,
and they're organising politically.
William Whitelaw says
that 'mob rule myst end'
and that he will propose
stronger measures to
achieve the law and order
he and his party so devout-
ly desire.
we can only ask, In
whose interest does the law
operate and what sort of
'order' is envisaged?
According to their laws
police have the right to ter-
rorise whole communities
as they did in Brixton; to
harass young black people
through the "sus" laws; to
raid factories and homes in
search illegal im-
migrants', and to deny
A FIGHT has been raging for over four years in
Brent Labour Party in NW London in which the racist views and policies of the local rightwing leadership of the party have become a
major issue.
The struggle is now reaching fever pitch as the party members
candidates for the 1982 council
Such is the change in the party that the leader of the coun cil, John Lebor, has not even been nominated by his own ward.
Brent blacks and Asians have been joining Labour Party and uniting with the left.
Ronan Brady, of Brent East CLP, spoke
Brent councillors AMORY and MANUBHAI PATEL Merle is the first black women councillor in London and Manubhai is a founding member of the Asian Labour Party Alliance.
MERLE Amory joined the Labour Party in 1976, the year after she left school.
'I went to a demonstration against the National
FROM Atlanta to Coventry, from Brixton to
- increasing
are fighting back.
they're protesting, challenging the police and the courts,
people like Anwar Ditta
Their own children. legal system
they can arrest people
suspected of terrorism and
keep them for seven days
legal advice. In
the north of Ireland they
can try people in no-jury
courts and
put tnem
concentration camp condi-
tions of the H blocks and
Armagh jail.
Their laws permit them
to ally all of us with the
repressive regimes EI
Salvador,
Africa,
Saudi Arabia and Chile.
Their idea of order is to
Blacks fight labour right in Brent
Front in Wood Green,' she says, 'and thatdecided thạt if the Labour Party was taking up issues like this it couldn't be a bad thing.
The Asian Labour Party Alliance aims racism in the labour movement and to organise equal opportunities black
It has branches in Har ingey, Wandsworth Crov.
ton, Camden, sirenon. Lameel. ter tester. Birmingham, Bradford, and tact ALPA 1 c/o Brent Indian con
issociation, Ealing Head. Wembley, Mid dlesex.
Merle
ICOICSCHEs Stonebridge, dominated by high-rise council flats and she sees housing as the major problem.
Manubhai Patel, whe; came from Uganda 1961, joined because 'the Labour Party first freedom to the colonial
keep people deprived of
the basic necessities of life
and to ban public political
dissent about it.
For the Tories order'
consists of hammering
black and white workers
ILlLO line through
Ployment, threats of repa
triation of blacks, allo
paws that restrict
democratic rights.
Voting Labour will
striké a blow against Tory
policies and give strength
to all those fighting against
racialism and jobs
HOUSINE schools and
hospitals
GIVE US
YOUR
SUPPOKI
N28 for
people.'
He is excited Asian growth Asian
zaDOlT Alliance (ALPA) 'It's catching on all over - like Asian flu!'
Manubhai produces a letter from the Greater London Regional Council of the Labour Party welcoming the formation of ALPA and promising to publicise it. 'One small sicp...
Next
For both of them, the Nationality Bill is an attack on black people and should be got rid of by the next Labour government.
'Until we do that, says Merle, 'a lot of black people will feel cheated and the Labour Party will be treated with mistrust.
Manubhai says that. the Labour Party at a local level must 'show its com mitment to the multi-racial society'
He points out that 'only 4 per cent of Brent coun cil. houses go Asians who make up 20 per cent of the local population.
Anti-racismi
must go
Vote Labour on 7 May
We say...
• 'that black people have
the right to form organisa
tions to defend their com-
munities and fight for their
demanas. The labour
movement as a whole has
the duty to support them
• that the Nationality Bill
and all the immigration
laws should be dumped.
the Brixton
defendents should have all
their charges dropped. For
labour movement
TUR
/ Hrs The Grunwick struggle marked the beginning of an alliance between Brent Asians and the local labour movement
Merle says that racism is more evident in the trade unions than in the Labour Party because being member of a trade union doesn't necessarily require you to lave lic same pollțical consciousness as being a member of a political party.
"One long-term solution to racism in the labour movement Wold • be to have masses of black DIC involved in these bodies. As a step to this, Merle adds, 'the party has to accept the right of black
organise dependently.
MERLE AMORY
We say that the Tories have to go!
quiry ]HTO Brixton.
Boycott the Scarman in-
quiry. The Special Patrol
Group should be disband.
ed.
• that the labour move-
ment must campaign
against the bans
demonstrations. Right
wing groups should
cleared off the streets
through mass action.
, that the conspiracy and •should
abolished And so should
the Official Secrets Act
the Criminal Damage Act
and the Public Order Act.
LONOPOLA
ID LA
'It's the strength of
black people in the move-
ment lal will torce wnite
peopie to contront their wWil
Manubhai agrees: 'We don't want to be used as mascots.'
Women
Merle has been campaigning for a town-hall
• tha1 young women with children can
local politics.
"The problem is even greater for black women, she says. 'Because of racial
and Calle traditions they have further barriers to playing a full role in society.
Both Manubhai and Merle strongly favour of the right of women to decide on the question of abortion.
Manubhai extends this propic to une right or tat Irish people as a whole to determine their future 'Labour-Tory bipartisan policy . al abomination,' he says.
Big
favour of selective bans? Should
Whitelaw?
area of Scotland.
centre of Glasgow
CND national
bans.
CND.'
the hard won right of assembly.
be - to make demands.
be
our rulers are doing?
challenge the bans.
the streets. This
the police and the working
labour movement.
trade unions and Labour Party
for bans not against.
mine the basis of everyone's rights.
Right now the
starting
bans
or campaigning organisation.
others
danger of being denied.
initiate campaigr democratic rights and fight the bans.
publicity, funds resources it requires.
Socialist
'The thing that strikes me about Socialist Challenge is that I find it
the left. of Irish issues.
'I also like its coverage of the
and race."
social
Editorial-
Organise now to fight the bans
THE TIME has come to call a halt to the
blanket bans that William Whitelaw has been
placing on the right to demonstrate.
questions are before How we
should fight these bans? Should we be in
we defy The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
has declared its intention to oppose the three
month ban on all marches in the Strathclyde
CND had planned a major demonstration
to go from the Faslane Polaris bases to the
organiser, Sally • Davison
warned 'A lot of our limited resources have
been put behind the march and we fear that if
this march is called off it could lead to future
That would effectively be the end of These bans won't just be the end of CND unless challenged they could seriously erode
It is one of the most vital of political rights
we have - to take our views into public, to
march, to protest, to challenge government
In this period of soaring unemployment, of deep social crisis, of increasing racial at. tacks, of the race to nuclear extinction, how can we throw away our right to protest what
The National Council for Civil Liberties, The Trades Union Congress and a fow other bodies have denounced the bans. This is good but more is needed. We should organise in the labour movement to build a campaign to
Is it possible to defy the bans? The bans can only be defied and defeated with the full involvement of the labour movement. But for this to happen political clarity is needed.
The battle to win the democratic right to march and to demonstrate must be won on
can only happen if the balance of forces between the government,
class and the social movements is shifted in favour of the
This change can only come about as a result of debate and discussion within the
At the present time the leaders of the
and campaigns like the Anti Nazi League are arguing
While their arguments are aimed at getting the fascists off the streets they under-
National Front with the connivance of Whitelaw and the police is
to determine our right of political protest. There is no such thing as 'selective'
We say: circulate the following model resolution in your trade union, Labour Party
• We call upon the government to lift all bans on demonstrations and not to impose
• We call upon our Member of Parliament to raise as a matter of urgency the democratic right of people to assemble which is in grave
• We call upon our executive committee te
structure to
• We declare the intention of this branch par ticipating in such a campaign and will give it
and whatever other
Challenge
refreshingly open minded and not as rigidly doctrinaire as other papers on
Jacob Ecclestone, Deputy General Secretary, NUJ 'One of the reasons why I appreciate Socialist Challenge is its good coverage of CND. The paper has always been unequivocal on its policy of Troops Out of Ireland and has had good coverage
economy and the workers' movement and its policy on issues such as women
Pat Arrowsmith
Page 8 scan of this page
WHY THE IRIS KEEPON FIG
newspaper.
done? Socialist Challenge gives the What are the Irish fighting about this time?
The latest street-fighting has been sparked off by the spect of the death Bobby
and other hunger strikers.
Bobby Sands was elected a couple of weeks ago as an MP
South Tyrone. He received just over 30.000 votes
By then, he had been on hunger-strike for 40 days and his election showed how much sympathy there was for But Thatcher refuses to no
Thatcher refuses anything to try and solve the prisoners' issue.
She says 'a crime, is a crime, is a crime' and that Sands has to be treated as ordinary criminal.
What has inflamed situation further, especially in Derry where the rioting been particularly fierce, is that
British government shown that when its soldiers
'a crime it is judged Conl
very dien ently.
were meowed don and killed Derry by an army Land Rover last
'We will never allow ourselves to be criminalised, nor our people either. Griefstricken and oppressed, the men and women of no property have risen.' Bobby Sands, MP
week, the police said they were treating it as 'an ordinary traffic accident'.
Can you imagine that when the IRA sets off a car bomb the police would treat that as ordinary traffic accident'?
That's all very well, but how can all these people vote for Bobby. Sands? He's rorist, isn't he?
Well, he's a member of the IRA. But what is a terrorist?
cialist Challenge 30 April 1981 Page 8
THE scenes that have appeared on our television screens over the past weeks are familiar. British soldiers being pelted with all sorts of missiles, massive funeral marches, riots, hijackings and burnings.
Ireland is once more in the headlines and on the front pages of every British
Why do the Irish keep on fighting? When will they stop? Can anything be
answers to the questions being asked this week in the factories, shops, and pubs.
Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwé used to be called a terrorist.
Then, after he won an election, pro- just as Bobby Sands won his, Mugabe was transformed overnight into a respectable world leader.
Or take another example. in the last war when the Hrench underground movement blowing up trains,
There is but a single him issue at stake: the right of human dignity for Irish men and women who are imprisoned for taking part in this period of the historic struggle for Irish independence.'
Bobby Sands, MP the
has German soldiers has they were called 'terrorists' by the Nazis, but for most of the
Many use violence they've no when the normal channels of democracy Look at Bobby Sands' election. We used nobody supported the that only a tiny minority backed the hunger-strikers.
The votes in and South . vrone that myth. But when the electors made their wish clear, did that change the attitude? Not a bit : of it.
But that still doesn't explain why they all voted for Bobby Sands.
Obviously, people vote a certain way for different reasons. 'an Some thought Bobby Sands would save his life, because it would force the government to admit he was a political figure and not an 'orter- dinary criminal' keeps claiming.
All those who: voted for Sands must have agreed with the demands of the hunge
strikers as that form on which he stood.
Another reason that people voted TOT many support the aims of the SIKA British
was snooling
IRA, why
tions, shooting, rioting?
They did try that, and were suc cessful, fective. the British 1918. Now that's going back a bit, but the roots of the present TAII MANITO AIAM AIARATE Britain
Ireland in those days and in the and so on, 1918 election over
of the Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA. ding in support of an independent Irish republic, a Ireland free presence.
No candidates in that election stood on a platform which
Ireland, but partition is exactly told what the British established.
IRA, When a majority of Irish
MPs refused to accept this and set up a republic in Ireland the Fermanagh dispelled smash the republic.
So it's all very welt talking about democracy as opposed to government's violence,
violence which suppressed Irish democracy in the
Yes, but that's not the situation today. the people in Ireland want to stay with Britain. voting for That's true, but how was the
majority place? The constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone is a good example. as Thatcher It's on the border with the
south of Ireland, the majority want to be Ireland, so why were they ever
was the plat-
united irelana and
dI CON south.
But the north would
the grab
в/всof all this and jority.
was erected in Ireland. but it didn't prove ef- CONCOCT The best example was
general election ority which
controlled all of
70 per cent Irish people voted for
Sinn Fein was stan-
united of any British
partition -• of my workplace at
was sent in to Bobby Sands, MP
WON so that wanted to side, join the south.
The majority of On Northern
created in the first
give a third
control of Britain.
part of a united
included in the northern state?
The same can be said for
Not county Armach and all of Ireland. the city of Derry. If you were it would be logical that all these
would be part of the socialist Loyalists in the ICCI have being. swallowed that. Their aim was Britain.
Ireland as possible, as long as That within that area they could ex- point. pect to have a comfortable ma-
That was the undemocratic basis on which the border
talk of majority rule inside the north tionalists? of reland is to talk of a mai- Of
was artificially created. It's like saying that if 75 per cent of union members disappear, vote for strike action, the 25 per cent who voted against have the
concerned. right to cross the picket line.
'I was born in Rathcoole, a predominantly Protestant area of Belfast. I was keen on sports and won a lot of medals for Protestant clubs.
'In 1972 my family was intimidated out of our home and we moved to Twinbrook on the outskirts of Belfast. Soon after this I was intimidated from
Shortly after this Proined the Republican move. ment. I had seen too many houses wrecked, fathers and sons arrested, neighbours hurt, too much gas, shooting and blood - most of it our own people's.
Maybe one solution would be to redraw the boundary
those areas which would be allowed on te пошлети to
practical level that wouldn't work. Take the exam- ple of Belfast. Around a third support
of the population there sup ports a united Ireland, but you of the
govern it to the south and leave the rest under the
Anyway those in the north people. of Ireland who support the ending of partition don't necessa- socialise rily just want to be transferred
into the south, They want a united Ireland, and that means
Many are also critical about the type of state the south has become. For example, the Pro-
say they favour a republic and the south of lre and is as far from be
socialist as Thatcher's
brings another All this talk of Irish unity ana insa nationalism why should socialists be in-
such things?
Aren'tsocialists meant to be imeramonansts not na-
course, eventually the socialist vision is of a world in which national boundaries will
but that should be the free choice of the peoples
And certainly Britain is not
tain in Ireland for internationalist reasons — it is there to defend Britain's own national interests and those of its Western allies.
Socialists say that in a contest between British nationalists and Irish nationalists we should
the Irish because or the tools on insanito
Ireland to own country, while British nationalism aims at repressing that right
It is the British state which is the aggressor against the Irish
second point is that in Ireland is only the
possible, once there is the prospect of a united working class. and the working class in Ireland are permanently divided by the border.
But why is Britain in Irelandi The only thing we seem to
gettin out of it is
trouble Ideally, Thatcher and. the Tories would like to get out. O at least they would like to be able to withdraw the troops and see the north return to some degree of normality. They might even put up with a united Ireland if stopped 'the • troubles'.
But a number of conditions would have to be met first. They would need to be sure that
united Ireland would be friendly to British interests; that Ireland would join NATO for example
They would need to know that British investments would
Many unica Ireland. and that British companies and financial institutions would be free to continue to exploit Irish workers
None of this would be at all certain if Britain got out now which is why British governments have always felt obliged to stay in Ireland. The dilemma they face is that the longer they stay, the more opressive their presence becomes and the greater is the anti-British feeling in Ireland itself.
In that respect, it is very diffaint to the rout casteland
Ireland because it • cannot be certain of what it will leave behind
But surely, were out,
First, let's appreciate the role of the troop and the aim of
Britain's whole security policy The troops are all stationed ir Republican areas.
They are supported by the Army-controllec ence Regiment, over 90 per cent of whose membership is made up of Protestants. The IRA is an illegal while
Loyalist Ulster Defence
Page 9 scan of this page
SH
ciation, who openly admit ndering Catholics, is not. n other words, the troops not there olics and* they are there to h the anti-British rebellion.
Britain's g the troops are essential that role, n't there the whole nori state val atself and the Loyalist
not maintain their
m× nomena counces.
Loyalists
this, that the troops have to cause would be lost if Brir withdrew,
British weren't them up. - would be aid. i the short term, there may andr that Ecome from the Loyalists, ed arainst Catholics et it is in those areas where alics would
30BBYi SANDS
talist Republic -out - 15p ward to new victories! aple's ange Fitt and Devlin at alls
ons of the struggle
of PD
nors or Partition' able from hist Challenge seller Other Bookshop,
Street,
it from PO Box 50 Lon17 25p inc pap
ITING
keep the Protestants WUt
poll
because if they
would collapse; the
• hold
themselves which is why they
they know
the
there
increase in the violence
be
HUNGER STRIKER
DON TLET HIM DIE!
Democracy
pamphlet
your
328 London N1.
tionary spirit of freedom.
Bobby Sands, MP
vulnerable to Loyalist attacks - the working class ghettoes where the call has been loudest for Britain to get out.
The people there know that the sooner greater the prospect will be for permanent peace in Ireland.
So So Britain should get out
Yes, and not just because that is
most practical The Irish people have a right to Tute their own future their affairs terference of what most of the population regard as a foreign government.
The people of Ireland have been fighting the British in their country for over 800 years, and all the signs are that they will keep on fighting until Britain leaves.
That is why socialists in this country call for
and self-determination for the His peopic as a wilbic.
So what can people do who support these arguments? First of all they should win the broadest the H Block/Armagh prisoners inside the British and international labour movement. there are also a number of difterent country who are active on the Irish question, support of British withdrawal.
The largest is the Troops Out Movement which has locki branches in 1 many country. The TOM is open to
'I was only a working class boy from a nationalist ghetto, but it is repression that creates the revolu-
my country, until Ireland becomes a sovereign independent socialist republic.
We, the risen people, shall turn tragedy into triumph. We shall bear forth a nation.
Britain leaves, the
solution.
themselves, to determine
to sort out without the In the immediate British troops,
support possible for
TICH
this
parts of the
I shall not settle until I achieve the liberation of
agree demands
troops.
by phoning (01) 267 2004.
conference and
fice, don SW1.
For those in Party Committer
terence called upon Labour government mediately begin the process British withdrawal can be contacted ford Hill, Londón N16.
Socialist
'I went to Socialist Challenge to tell what
do support.
It's the only left paper I read and feel at one with.
Michael McAliskey on why he loRt une story
Bernadette McAliskey were shot.
• self-determination for the Irish people, and the immediate withdrawal of British
The TOM can be contacted
There is also the Committee for Withdrawal from Ireland which has organised meetings,
demonstrations. They can be contacted by writing to CWl, c/o Youth Of-
Whitehall Place, Lonthe Labour there is also the Labour Ireland whose motion at the last Labour con-
the next … to 'imof The LCI c/o 5 Stam-
Challenge
really happened because the truth of the matter is that it is the only paper !
Socialist Challenge 30 April 1981 Page 9
Page 10 scan of this page
Wales?
AST month a consultative document, the ales TUC Social Plan, was issued for discuson at this weekend's rence. As an alternative to
between
leration of British Industries (CBI) and the
ct Labour government. PAUL HIGHFIELD
• BARRY WILKINS argue that the strategy 'the Wales TUC is no way forward for Welsh orkers.
Welsh working people ed by Tory garment been hit partıcularly
and the economic Tone year arm from 1980 unemployment rocketed from 000 to nearly 147,000 a staggering increase of 000.
South Wales miners bently showed how ht back with the agnificent defeat of the fries closures.
that the
ernment can be beaten
thee tole jobs TuC
The Wales ould give working peo-
the inspiration and roction to learn from the
bs and living standards.
Unfortunate v there Is obstacle to this: the cur-
leadership of the
TUC and the ficies they support.
Their approach can be umed up as follows: to
new jobs Wales ds new investment; to
this investment must show that it co-operative and
militant
demonstrations
and everything proceed otiations and collaboon witn employers and ornment.
The Wales TUC Social • is a good example of
be
strategy. Its centree is a utopian 'agree-
between the trade
the next Labour The Finen co ate ok. government and CBI would agree to in-
Socialist
Challenge
Which way
orward for
workers in
Wales TUC conthe Tories
the trade unions,
creased social spending, the expansion of employment in the service sector, and reduction • OI the basic working week to 35 hours.
They would also ensure wages kept pace with inflation, and set a minimum wage level at not less than two-thirds of average earnings.
Wales TUC
public fringe meeting
1pm Sat 2 May Marine Hotel
Speakers: Lee Jeans occupa
Tion, Port Talbot and
Lianwern Action groups,
South Wales leg of People's
March, Also invited: NUM,
NUR, British Aluminium
Resolven.
The trade unions for their part would accept the inevitability cies in manufacturing industry, confining their response to negotiating better redundancy payments.
They would also allow manpower restructurig meaning more shift work,
intensive working practices, and more flexiole use of the workforce along with more control by the trade union leaderships over the rank and file to smother unofficial action.
The Social Plan should
thrown out by the Wales TUC conference. It says nothing about what working people should be doing now to • I is the Tory onslaught. absurd suggest CBI would ever volunteer r of crafis, Yortstire ESC
Page 10
to let wages keep pace witn inflation unless forced to by the labour movement.
Further, the Social Plan disarms Ine trade union movement in advale ov rejecting any militant struggle. It binds and gags the union mem. bership order to • Will agreement with the CBI and the government.
This strategy of open collaboration with the bosses dangerous for working
the militancy of the miners which saved their jobs, and the 'reasonableness' of ISTC leader Bill Sirs Wales general secretary George Wright steelworkers theirs.
Lastly, the Social Plans pushes idea of: cof
According to George Wright, significant emplovment opportunities can be provided in Wales on the model of the Mondragon co-operatives the basoue country.
But it took 25 years to create 18,500 jobs in these Basque co-operatives. And this was helped by the boom years of the 1950s and 60s. That many jobs (18,500) were lost in Wales in just one month last year
the government ran down the steel industry!
win total unemploy ment 47,200 (1) (13.6 per cent of standing
the workforce), and in the depths of an economic slump, Welsh eratives could barely begin to meet the massive need for jobs.
Problem
The proposal for co operatives does not tackle the basic problem defeating the Tory government and resolving the economic crisis in favour of working people rather than the bosses.
Opposition to the Social Plan has grown inside the labour movement over the last month. It 18 rumoured George Wright may withdraw from the wales luC con ference agenda because he is afraid it will be rejected!
In the wake of the miners' victory, militants argue that to defend jobs and living standards working people must use the on-
we have: our
and labour
For pay. ad with a vigorous campaign against Over-
News
COLD STEEL TOR
NOTI IRON
dod LADY
TRIS (TOO
labour movement
Wales TỤC leaders:
how not to fight back
Action Group
FIGHTBACK FOR
COBS
time, would create hundreds of thousands of ness 10cs.
get determina Jes is Tout al
regional mand major capital invest and steel: Such a building national _strikes,
INT
To defend jobs and living standards the only weapon we can'
WE have become a respected part of the Welsh establishment' general secretary George Wright's view of the role of the Wales TUC. It explains the leadership's record of hesitancy and inaction.
During the 1980 steel strike they twice postponed the call for out industrial strike resulting IN much bitterness and demoralisation
When Thatcher visited Cardiff in December 1980 the Wales TUC half-heartedly called for a picket, nothing to build it. returned in March this year, it refused to do anything, and left the job to the Cardiff Trades Council.
The Wales TUC's main contribution to the British TUC's 'week of action' in April was a 'gala', rather than a demonstration, which proved a total flop.
The only time that the Wales TUC has given leadership January 1980. Under Steelworkers picket Margaret Thatcher's visit to Cardiff last December. ment in the Welsh pits, railways and steel.
The beading as and 21*a hospitals schools would not only
building workers and fill a crying social need, it would also mcrease demand lor cod
STRIKE
COMMITTEE
STOP
pressure That's
startling steelworkers' jobs. It was with
in Wales,
to back down but did plans, the And when she
fair is illuminating.
was on 28 January,
was on 28
massive programme could be paid for by reducing the massive arms ball, in particular cancelling all nuclear weapons.
The powerful mili. tancy of the Welsh workers should be used to spearhead industrial
use is the organised strength of the
from steelworkers it called a one-day general strike and demonstration in support of the steel strike and in defence of
La tremendous success, nearly a quarter of a million Welsh workers on strike, and the biggest demonstration Cardiff has ever
Instead of developing this action to force the British Steel Corporation
on their redundancy Wales TUC stifled it.
George Wright's comment on the af-
He told the House of Commons Select Committee on Welsh Affairs: 'There has only been one hiccup in industrial relations in Wales since the Wales TUC was. created, and that
one hiccup in seven years.' He was also the author of the famous remark: 'Always keep. ing people employed in the steel indurstry, that is not practical.'
PEBLICSERVICES
STEE
Defend our unions
No Reduadancie
General Strike
KICKOUT THE TORLES action to get rid of the
Labour government committed to socialist policies. step in that directior would be for the Wale:
TUC to throw its weight behind Tony Benn for deputy Labour leader.
Page 11 scan of this page
Women beware this Tory government!
....but we're fighting back
The hidden unemployed
Nearly half a million women want jobs but are
not registered as unemployed. They are labelled
past or plan to do in the future. In addition
tain. Young and black
increased by 605 per cent. Black women's went up by a staggering 1,110 per cent. A survey of youth unemployed in South London showed that
70 per cent of young black women had no job since leaving school compared to 20 per cent of white formale school leavers.
In the unions
Nearly one-third of Britain's trade unionists are
women and the numbers are growing every day.
In the last ten years the public employees union,
NUPE has increased its female membership by
236 per cent; the white collar union, ASTMS, by
union, AUEW by 52 per cent.
CISREPORT
WOMEN
INTHESOS
Most of the facts here have come from the CIs
Report. It is crammad full of useful data and looks
at every aspect of women's lives.
The Other Bookshop 329 Upper St, London N1. 95p
plus perp.
as housewives whatever work they've done in the
200,000 to 400,000 women are home-workers, probably the most exploited group of workers in BriBetween 1973 and 1977 white female employment 721 per cent and the male dominated engineering
Available froth
(REGISTERED)
been a sharp acceleration Oil Crisis 73 ia 75 1972 Jobs: The first to go
Women's unemployment has risen sharply as a
direct result of government policies. For the first
time since the early '50s the number of women
employed dropped drastically. Since 1975 female In the workplace At the Festival for Women's
Rights against
Tory attacks Women from Lee Jeans occupation, Royal Pride factory dispute in Salford will speak at the final rally.
Jo Richardson MP, will talk about the fight ahead of us for improved abortion facilities.
Let's halt the onslaught.
WOMEN'S UNEMPLOYMENT (GB)
The number of unemployed women rose steadily
in the 19703. Since the end of 1979, there has 76 78 Women workers occupying Lee Jeans factory in Greenock are jighting for the right to work
FOR WOMENSAIGHTS GAINST THE TORY TACKS
19
FESTIVAL
Thatcher
30
September 1979 and September 1980 every in-
cut the number of women it employs.
shopping centres
MAY
the Festival. • IF other
leaflets also available.
students
unemployment has risen by 207 per cent. Betweon
dustry, except insurance, banking and finance, has
• think wed dof -He
СлеН
What did they expect P
Go doun to the broo?
Will us body heck!
We wil occupy
That s why we cry
Dont shitup-s-do-pace Checklist for the Festival • DISTRIBUTE leaflets in workplaces
Ask for speakers to adver tise festival at oll Mav. Day events • IN the run up to the People's March for 'Jobs, make sure there are speakers on women's riehts and remember to advertist
women in your area would like to come why not book a mini bus or coach? • IF your organisation wants a stall at the Festival then contact us at 374 Grays Inn koaa, Lonaon wul. Lickers, bosters ana
Feel like relaxing after the rally? BOP AGAINST THATCHER Women in Action and Women's Fightback Benefit. Bands and disco. Entrance f2 Saturday 9 May UCL
union, Gower Place (off Euston Rd) &pm till late
Socialiss Challonge
Our rights attacked Unfair dismissal: under the Tories 1980 Employment Act all workers must have workea vor at least one year to qualify for protection from unfair dismissal - two years for those who work in firms of 20 employeos or less. This affocts many jobs mainly done by women. For example: 76 per cent of the workforce in clothing
women and 61 per cent of those firms employ less than 26 Deople Matamity: An omployor is now under the Employ. mont Act only obliged to give a woman he old job back afte prognancy if it is reasonably prac ticable'. Only 12 per cent of apparently eligible worten who worked in firms of less than 100 omployees actually received their mater. nity pay Government policy on social socurity provisions, matornity benefits, taxa. tion and so on, is designed to force women back into the home. Socialist
Challenge
'Socialist Challenge has been a great help to us in getting nows out about our occu pation. The maro people that read it the better!'
Ellen Monaghan (Senior Shop Steward, Lee Jean Greenock)
30 April
Page 12 scan of this page
policies in industry
Where you can
buy Socialist Challenge
Scotland ABERDEEN: SC available at BoomWales So A rain de Bus Down,
No i: eVery Sat in town centre sturdy Obtside a arent MANSEA: SC sales outside Co-of England Lation SCad, and Saturdays 2pm
utside the Roman Baths. Phone
For 130-5.40, Sat loat Tor
FoRD: So avail
outside Open Mare, Londo
into Cedenham Ra, Montpelier,
It James St. Sat
STERFIELD SC S Mac splace sa tell
HEM STEAD SHE Saturdays
ERSPELD: • Saturday Dram
• per as ato databeat
van baturday 11- Pedestrian Precinc
SC Events
What's Left peared or El per col. tinct ch. Deadupe
advance. Phor of money in th International Marxist Group notices
Revolution Youth notices
Der's fraction on 16
Noned For 17 May speapon-
May Day Greetings
Codas, Seretary D. MoNelson Al or tro
Geori Walker secretary? Pat Hall president
st Challenge 30 April 1981 Page 12
orkshire Bank, High St; at BURY in
061-236
Info ring Ph
Arms and 11 Con-
Saturday, every Satur shone 483 8909 POS (day). : 11-1 every
TON: SC sale
ties, town centre from am 2pm. DCal
London seen fun to erer tell at HALING: SC SC fine road way ever. 4.30-5.30pn
HILLINGDON: 10.30-12.00 outside Woolworths, da
Kilburn Square,
e Book, Stratiat
Bitton, Ovi or Kiosk. A 30
5.45am a
above? If not t. band in datels to hia sales column activities from Red Spoke, PO Box 32, London E
Mike Rodney,
April, 7.30 Rd
and Time is Ru
TOM Coo.
SOCIALIST Students AN
on Sat 2 May
Poly at 021-356
lay, - -Spm at UCL students in Mane hester
KICK out the Tories in the GLe elec JONs Sav GIC & ILEA NA GI •UNITE to kick. out the Tories: May Wanderer do i. Battersea
By Brian Grogan SOCIALIST Challenge supporters have called a conference in June with the youth paper Revolution to discuss the fight for socialist policies in industry.
The recent victory of the miners against the Tories over bil closures starkly revealed the strength of the industrial unions. If that power can
mobilised no 'strong government' can stand in our way
The depth of the crisis has forced militants in industry to start thinking about overall social problems and to act in a political way. mobilisation of the Tuc was. the historic which crushed the Corrie abortion bill. And the steelworkers' sheet meta workers sponsored the recent labour movement ference on abortion rights.
Even on Ireland, which has long been a difficult issue to take lED. In lne unions last week the Scot-
TUC backed demands of the Bobby Sands' campaign.
Fund drive:
By Nick Robin ANOTHER £1,000 rolled in to our coffers this week towards our £100,000 fund drive target. Fund raising becoming political diet.
Islington supporters raised over £120 at -an African evening last weekend, and it's rumoured that an Australian cultural evening may be in the
Laoour rarl)
Sat/Sun 23/24 May Day 1 Formation of LP & developments to 1945/ Election of 1945 Labour govt and rise & decline of Bevanism Day 2 Rise of new LP left & Bennism/ Tasks for socialists in LP now Workshops History of LP women's sections/ 1931 LP split/ Labour League of Youth in 1930s/ LPYS in 50s & 60s School open to Socialist Challenge supporters. Admis sion by ticket only. Price £2.50 for both days or f2 single day. Limited places available so apply urgently to local Socialist Challenge organiser. All application nust enclose payment, cheques to "The Week
Forum Socialist Perspectives for Europe Fri 22 May at 8pm Camden Town Hall, opp St. Pancras station London Speakers: Ernest Mandel, Ken Livingstone, prospective GLC leader
Hall opens at 6.30pm with displays on women's move-
¡cut, all mucicar suruste. misn noeranon shuage. struggle of youth; Polish crisis; El Salvador and Turkey.
Buffet available with rolls, cakes, tea and coffee.
Fight for socialist
The scope of the economic crisis forces the workins seek overall , political Many industra mintants are beginning to put their heads into the Labour Party while keeping thei feet in the unions. This ex plosive mixture will come to a head in Benn's campaign for deputy leader of the Labour Party.
Need His candidacy raises the need not only for a Labour replace the Tories but the should adoptories policies that government The have thrown everything at the - Socialist Challenge/Revolution conference The fight for socialist policies in industry June 27/28 Entry by ticket only from: PO Box 50, London N1
thanks a thousand!
socials and dinners are fast a staple part of our supporters'
pipeline from other supporters!
We also received another trade branch honorarium this week from Hackney
›cnool
Socialist Challenge News
working class without breaking its resistance. As the light begins to emerge AUEW
supporter keep that money rolling in We want our supporters L have sent us £20,000 from local fundraising end of May So far we've received f6,000.
On May Day we'd lik
rades round the country who have been working flat-out to raise the money to buy us a computer, our building, and all the other necessities of a weekly socialist paper.
Times may be hard but an investment in Socialist Challenge is one of the only guarantees you have of a better future. Help us help Toriesy°" kick out the
Our thanks this week to: Swindon £4.00 Hackney supporter 6.56 Hackne! 100.00 Nottingham 9.00 Preston 20.00 Glasgow supporters 70.00 OWL 100.00 Lambeth 4.00 Southwark 25.00
Brent 94.00 Haringey 20.00 Cardiff 80.00 J. Nudger 0.50 Standing orders .00
Wandsworth 48:00 Anon Paris Gang of Four 60.00 DR Allen Cardiff supporter 2.50 i seventee 1.00 Save World History 5.00 DEW Power 2.00 Leif Wadstadt (Sweden 1.50 Islington supporters 120.00 Total £1027.06 Cumulative total 19457:03
Miners brought their industrial muscle to aid their sisters and at the end of the tunnel a growing number of
disputes broken out The women workers of Lee Jeans are a beacon for the whole class in that fightback.
conference fighting for socialist policies in industry will centre on the need to build a new class struggle leader-
new readers to Socialist Challenge.
Rail over thé country
aiming to increase their sales by
while
, ш8 local elections.
already sell a few copies, sell more copies!
(real value £3.15!)
Andrew Glyn and John Pluto Press (usual price £2.95). 12 months: £14 plus free copy of The British Economic Disaster 6 months.rt. 10 issues for £2 only
£17.
Othe air mail £24.
Delete as appropriate.
Name...,
Address
For multi-reader institutions double the above rates.
NATIONAL UN MINEORKED
MENT AREA brothets at Grunwicks ship inside the unions and the Labour Party.
New militant leaders are emerging inside the stewaras communees the Labour Party. Revolutionary socialists have to place themselves at the nead of this process This conference will be a smal step on that road.
Socialist Challenge Sales Week!
• THE best way to raise money, morale, and the
level of the class struggle, is of course to win
That's what our supporters will be doing
this week: Socialisi campaigning to kick out the Tories per cent May o, Yi this is the first time you ve booght People's March for Jobs, and celebrating mobilising the
Socialist Challenge, buy it again or take out a
subscription; if you read Socialist Challenge
regularly, try selling a fow copies; and if you
SUBSCRIBE TO SOCIALIST CHALLENGE For new readers we are offering TEN ISSUES ol Socialist Challenge for the incredibly low price of C
With 12 month subscriptions we are giving away a FREE COPY of The British Economic Disaster by
Harrison, published by
Complete the form below and rush your order to Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. Cheques and POs payable to 'Socialist Challenge'
SPECIAL OFFER
Overseas: 12 months - Surface mail & Europe air mail
Page 13 scan of this page
Here's a £1...
+ HAVE been reading Socialist Challenge for the past two years but ! have never plucked up the courage to write to you before, because until recently a lot of the articles were 'over my: head'
I did not think that. you would publish a letter from someone like me. But recently I have noticed that the paper has got a lot easier for to read and discuss Now to
- fully support the AGEE Loe Jeans • occupation and I like the way your Duver neids me to the lads on the floor explain Photo: JOYCE A
the way this links up with the struggle to get the troops out of Northorn treland.
I enclose f1 - probably a millionth of What's going into the royal wedding. Keep up the good work!
BILL BEVERIDGE APEX shop steward, Lucas Aerospace, Coventry
Keep Youth
CND young!
1 WRITE as a member of Brighton CND; in a personal capacity, concerning Richard Rozanski's article on the conflict betw national CND officers (9 April). being prominent in building Youth CND. So long as winning young people toon trac isad ase ch rosson why it should confiet with strengthening a united front against the war driver about the age limit for YCND. The argument about other youth organisations' having an age limit of 2. is specious.
bacause it's all too easy for the younger members of a youth campaign to be dominated by those a few years older.
Pe It may be that some CND national organisers want YCND to be a relatively powerless organisaton. *Which enables those over 20 to resist this, while
hose under 20 will be docile, you're in for a few sur prises.
IAN MILES Brighton
Unilaterally disarming.
to encourage the others I WONDER what the International Marxist Group of the organising committee at the CND labour ment conference thought sored, on the day to over- achieved when they that delegates recommendation
shout not consider resolutions?
The conference was assembly for any organisa policy-making non, • so resolutions bassca couldn't
anything. 'ine move to take • resolutions and then the discussion and voting on them took up quite a bit of time which could otherwise have been spent discussing BUTEA arising from the excellent morning speeches.
As it turned out, resolutions LOT Al that special. There was one from Sparticists
Own.out), while those which were passed bagely re-stated policy. delegates were
nous. kers Party's tbreat 10 Socialist
Letters
C Outt
orie
gen Revolution Youth and.
I have no argument against Revolution Youth
forcise, there is na
But I do disagite with Rozanskis arguments
Why should YCND follow these prac
Having an age limit of 21 is a positive step
But if you think there's some magic drink
disrupt proceedings if it didn't get its way, Phil Davies and Brian Heron were critical of Frank Allaun's comment that 'Uniateralists •are multilateralists who mean but it seems they missed his point.
There afoot in the media and by pro-NATO confuse people by suggesting that you can support either unilateral or multilateral disarmament but not both. The idea is to END wants Britain to dis- impression that Curio but is in some way against other countries doing the In fact we hope that success for disarmers nere will encourage those else where Torce their governments to disarm Unless the speakers
counties to disarm, Allaun was quite right.
ALASDAIR BEAL, Leeds 8
Women's
interest
I WOULD like to reply to
Francis' letter (19 March), to try to answer the ques. tion as to whether men have a material interest in keeping women their place.
Socialist feminists have always argued against those who say unal women have equal pay then men's wages will be levelled down; or women have jobs, men will lose theirs.
We have asserted the opposite the fight for equal pay can be a spearhead for a fight for better living standards for Men, not just male supervisors but fellow workers, don't always understand
Many white workers
understand why
terests. mean that whites gain benefits from the oppres sion of blacks?
Such a notion falls into the trap set by the capitalISIS - inal, lor example unemployment is caused by black people.
We counter this argument by saying that unemployment is caused by the capitalist market which all sections of society have an interest in fighting. Sian says that the material gains which men reap lie in the "sexual and domestic service in the home'.
THE accusations by the Soviet Press of Zionist subversion (Guardian, 22 April) have an unsavoury pedigree, reaching back to the purges of the 1930s with the then attacks on "cos-
In 1953 the fraudulent 'Doctors' Plot' was a thinly veiled anti-Semitic campased by khrusher at exe subsequently 20th party congress.
After the Polish student unrest in March 1968 Andrezej Werblan penned
Letter letterSETTERS
oppression
is not in men's
Does this mean the family plays some sort of progressive role at least for one section of the population? No! Everyone knows that despite
that of misery,
violence and poverty.
It's the capitalists who beneht most from the family and the role of women within it.
Take the question of the family wage which many trade unionists argue at the moment is a vital bargaining counter in the face the ment's policies.
The notion of the family wage, of course, denies the right of women to go out to work
How against this? Do we say to
• Yes, it really is a sacrifice for you to give up the family wage, but
your so-called privilege?
Or do WC say: family wage is not a family wage? welfare state takes care of many aspects of life, so the public spending cuts lower living standards and it's women who bear, the extra burden.
You LICH have an interest in fighting for women's right to work, or a decent living wage for all. The family wage i
contrick and denies women their basic rights.
an article for the magazine Miesleczik Literati. The gist of this piece of wisdom was that a high proportion of the troublemakers were Jews who were 'particularly susceptible to revisionism.
This campaign led to the departure from the country of many of the re maining 25,000 survivors
Nazi (Poland's pre-war Jewish population was sm)
There appears to be ar interesting congruence of
Letters
Sian questions whether
ae assful as a aerence
userul point for the oppression of minorities.
Throughout its history the women's . movement has been divided along class lines. Thatcher puts her class interests above
Getting rid of class society is no guarantee of the liberation of women or evolt or acmcvilis socialism in the fullest sense. It is merely a precondition for
Of course, men do not always see this reality and will CYCl oppose OUL demands. We as women will have to fight them hard on many occasions
But it is their loss - it weakens their own fight.
And it all ine reason why women should fight for our own demands now.
JUDITH ARKWRIGHT, IMG women's organiser
WRITE TO US!
for your comments, criticisms, oi even congratulations. Be briet, to
leave space for others -
400 words. Write to: Letters,
Socialist Challenge, 328 Upper St,
So East Europeans all want to emigrate to Israel...
views between the hardliners in Moscow and Warsaw and the extreme rightwIng British historian
David Irving. For Irving the Hungarian uprising was a plot by Zionists anc Jewish leaders
The poor unfortunate masses of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary ap parently all really want to emigrate to Israe
Solidarity has dissociated itself from the recent anti-Semitic rally in War..saw and from the obnox-
Coventry conference
wasn't a footnote
I WAS intrigued by Pat Hickey's report the Coventry conference on 'Building working class power' (5 March).
He wrote: "The delegates came mainly from trades councils, public sector, and white-collar in C1012 JODS waste of a day.' Is that juxtaposition coincidental?
1 was: not too umbress But with faimes with the conference.
the organisers, it should be pointed out that the conference was called result of the publication
dustry, which spelled our
type •Labour government could be in power.
How to get from 1981
It was more how to avoid the mistakes of 1974-76. The illusions are being sown again that the Labour Party manifesto is
okay and all need to do is see that it's implemented.
Male privieges
are an institution
'WOULDN'T working class men be a whole lot better off if women liberated? . asks Valerie
her article
Women, Rape and Class. (26 Feb). Maybe Valerie shawle ask most working class men that question.
Don't they realise
coasted their erit so die
cooked their • MCLA
their wasting, cater their
their children, tver cleaned houses, to say nothing o providing sexual services!
Doesn't Valerie acknowledge any problems at all in men giving up their privileges are encouraged by class society? voes she inink we snoula get them all to pui
'demands on the state: for our rights and somehow men will get the message they have to change too?
Such counterpositions as demands need to be
Think of this page as a noticehoard
maximum
London N1 2XP. (tel 01-359 8180/91 ious Irving's attempts at
'aid'.
It is also a matter of record that the hardliners
tong tradition
'defending socialism 'with the methods of the ex-
treme right. Small wonder that after years of
'socialism' in Poland they are an ise cod try any
within country and may ye weed to cal in the own which Soviet tanks to survive. reminded of the Words of They should
That wrong thinking
hat the conference trie to deal with.
Socialist Challen prake
article entitled
Trades Council makes headlines, explaining how
the trade council has brought about a 'flood of
ideas and energy by buy
ng a press, publishing pro
paganda and the like.
Yet Pat Hickey argued that any perspective which refuses to deal with the national orientation of the labour movement and its
leadership is 'all grass and no roots'
John Parkinson, the
secretary of Preston
Trades Council, seems to disagree.
It's understandable if the International Marxist Group takes a pragmatic attitude to the potential of trades councils, but don't
slanaps have sinclar pick
blems
ANDY SHALLICE Birkenhead placed on the state rather
are not useful.
Lagree women's
But privileges
SO many. that
and of that
which not mean demanding higher sen LETICCA convicted rapists
the self-
movement
We demand
And should
fight the for rights
•T010 of their
creates
held on to
Valerie where women no longer
men, will
power and privileges!
RACHEL FARM, East London
the well-known Polish-
Jewish
Luxembourg: "The inter-
national fraternisation of
the workers of the world is
the highest and greates
thing on earth; it is m
principle, ideal and my rea best
fatherland.
I would soone lose
life itself than be disloya
to this ideal.'
JOHN KREEGER,
London NW10
Soçialiot Chaltongo: 30 April 1991, Pago 1ª
Page 14 scan of this page
-Crisis deepens in Polish CP-
By Davy Jones 'EVERYONE knows what it Suslov comes to talk to you, commented one Polish journalist on Soviet ideologist Mikhail Suslov's visit to Poland last week.
Committee prepared doubt reminded his Polish counterparts of Soviet president's Breznhev's warning that they should 'roll back the events of the past months'.
No wonder the Soviet leaders are worried.
Within days of Brezhnev's speech at the Czech party congress expressing COnfidence in the Polish party
Handlls crisis, his hopes were dashed.
First the Polish government caved in after months and recognised the right of the poor peasants to form their own union, Rural Solidarity. This could result in up 3.5m peasants being linked into the national Solidarity movement, controlling the bulk of the country's food supplies.
Secondly, the 'antiapparatus' rank and file movement within the CP held a national conference at Torun University on 15 April. Some 500 delegates from allencca, claiming to represent third of the party's three million members.
The conference organ-
Nicaraguan trade unionists
appeal for support
LAST week saw a visit by a delegation Nicaraguan trade unionists to highlight the threat of US intervention in their country. One of them, ENRIQUE ROBLEDO, the general secretary of the Nicaraguan Timberworkers Union, spoke at a meeting in Glasgow called to organise solidarity with the revolution in El Salvador. This is what he had to say. I want to make known our fears of American intervention in our country:
Today the US government attempting undermine the victory won by our people at the cost of
much suffering on July 1979. They have cut off economic aid and
dIc trying to starve out the people of Nicaragua
The remaining $15m of economic aid promised to us after the revolution has been blocked, and credit for the purchase of wheat and staple food for our people has been suspend-
The US government is also allowing the training
ex-Somoza National Guardsmen camps Miami and elsewhere.
Twelve days au. over 1,000 ex-Somoza National Guardsmen in Honduras after training in the The US government is
content with the 45,000 people it helped to kill and the 150,000 it helped to wound with its aid to the Somoza dictatorship. While the workers in our country are trying to reconstruct the economy, the US is trying to undermine our revolutionary process.
They have been involved in attempts to sabotage
providing the arms with which more than 150 members of our workers' militias have been killed near the Honduran border.
acieliat Challenge
means when
As the Polish Communist Party Central to meet, Suslov no secre Iwanow, an intervie including Zbign-
in Socialist Challenge
recently, claimed the con-
ference was a historic turning point.
There was bitter
criticism of party
leadership. 'we are
fighting for an idea. The top people in the party are only fighting to stay in their positions, said one
speakorse s.57: for the
Worse for
Soviet rulers, was the response of the Polish par-
leadership to this
'unauthorised ference. Three central
tenders
brought greetings to the
conference and the official
party paper, Trybuna
Ludu, welcomed it as part
of the process of 'socialis
renewal' in the country
Such unexpected reactions from the Polish ruling bureaucrats reflect the
the party rank and file for
Our country was ruins in July 1979 Industry was practically destroyed, and the country
When revolution triumphed, 52 per cent of the population was illiterate and our people had access to medical facilities Ours is a small country
of 2½ million people. know what war means as a result of what we have suffered through own flesh and blood. We don't want war. But it the US forces the issue and prepares to invade, then we will take them on.
The threat to our revolution comes not only from the US but from sectors within our own coun try who are being used as tools by the US. We, the you, ese people or ask. , asK you, the people and and throughout th world, to help, to give us solidarity; by denouncıng
the United States.
We know that the reconstruction of our coun-
will be difficult. know that many obstacles will be placed in our way. But our revolutionary spirit will triumph over
Just as the people of El Salvador are fighting for their liberation, So we Hallan OUr fighting; spirit and are ready to raise again the cry we have raised so often before: 'Patria • muerte!' (Free country or death!).
Page 14
change, and the continuing strength of Solidarity.
Further evidence of the crisis within the CP comes from two recent reports in the Polish press.
The newspaper Zycie Warszawy published an analysis of the 455 letters and resolutions sent to the By Megan Martin TWO thousand people rallied in Trafalgar Square last Saturday to demand 'US Hands Salvador.' Labour leader Michael Foot addressed the rally, accusing US president Reagan of 'supporting international terrorism in El Salvador'.
Support for that charge has increased as more evidence has Salvadoran and Honduran forces recently massacred up to 1,500 refugees sheltering in retreats near the Honduran border.
Eric Heffer and Joan spoke at the rally from the Labour Party international committee and national executive. Trade union leaders Alan Sapder, sen ull ana road sunivan adaress d the rally as well as representatives from and the a Salvadorn era. from the
The speakers were unanimous in their.
International
Many working class members are leaving the Polish CP
party central committee from party since last August's strike wave Of these resolutions, 438 demanded a full explanation of the country's socio-economic crisis and the names of those responsible; 255 called for punishment of those
US HANDS OFF
EL
SALVADOR!
Solidarity with the
people of El Salvador!
La repressive and does not represent the off El
JUal
pointed Reagan's
emerged that security people
underground in that direction, Lestor also the appalling weather
march.
company
decisions 203 demanded a responsible wrong aude 06 corried elements called for abolition of privileges for officials and certain other groups Last week too the party headquarters announced that 216,000 members had left the party in the last six
TEL SALVATIA
JILL description of the junta in El Salvador as
bloody regime which El Salvadoran
econome military aid to the barbaric regime.
Lestor Thatcher's pointed ith Real she raid agreed no
out that agreed proposal that the British government should supervise elections in El Salvador in 1982. The rally concluded
El Salvador into the trade 'unions and the Labour Party.
The rally was an important first step
especially. constachl: : and the disruptive effect of the police ban on the planned
Police harassment of the rally went so far as the police ringing up the coach
people rally to cancel the coach, threatening arrests if the coach tried to go ahead!
months. Other SOUNCE suggest that a high proportion of these defections come from the party's working class base.
At part! meetings across the country ran and file militants have spoken their minds directly to the leadership. Staring directly at party leader Dr Salvador Moncada from the El Salvador FDR (above) porters at Trafalgar Square rally
Here comes
summer!
Show where you stand
with one of our nev
'Solidarnosc' T-shirts,
only f2. .99 including
post and packing. Size
nedium and larg
)rders to: SCD. PI London Ni
2XP
Bulk oraci prices on foolest
Stanislaw Kania, one Gdansk shipyard worker declared that the leadership's actions 'were so dif ferent from our expectations, it's almost as if they Were an a, different party, not ours.
Purge
Since August only 13
of the 140 Central Com mittee members have been purged. But if a demo. cratic party congress were allower this sumnie wholesale changes would
have a lot to worry about!
While the struggle within the Communist Party hots up other con flicts are taking shape Hardliners within the party are likely to organise: furthe provocatio
hey did in Bydgoszcz la • month, to test the new two month ban on strikes im posed by parliament.
Such a provocatior would also be likely to deepen the divisions emerging within Solidarity itself. Increasingly, this division between Catholic advisors and theil supporters ranged against the working class base of Solidarity, The coming weeks could see dramatic see development ork the struggle workers and Socialist Challenge sup
Page 15 scan of this page
Sheffield employers on the offensive By Rab Bird, AUEW shop steward, Sheffield HADFIELDS. the
steel company n Sheffield, is planning to sack 1,900 out of its 2,600 workforce.
The steel plant, which is owned by the giant Lonrho corporation, is reported to be losing tim a mont, yet olly last year Hadfields made etforts to buy the doomed Shot-
elections
By Phil Hearse AFTER the first round
the French presidential elections
ast Sunday, it's still on the cards that Socialist Party candidate Francois Mitterand could win. vote and that ow The between his
incumbent president Giscard D'Estaing is much nartower than between the left and right in the 1978 totes 10 be realistributed than cent of the on the second round next weekend.
victory for Mitterand would lead to the dissolution of the Assembly, and a new general election.
Collapse
The most remarkable features of the election were ine size of tue vorc for the extreme left and the collapse of the Communist Party's vote. million people voted for Laguiller of the Trotskyist
Lutte Ourvriere, and for Hugette Bouchardeau of United Socialist Party (PSU). Arlette alone gain-
more than 650,000 votes.
The collapse of the vote for the Communist
candidate George Marchais - down to just over 15 per cent of the vote as
against around 20 per cent
LIMOUSINE IVORY COASTERS
Sounds by The ORGANISER
Camden Town Hail,
Euston Read ww1.
Friday May 1st 7.30
Tickets £2
unemployed with card C1
suggests Dany Is faced with the huge financia claim, in a spectacular tur hro offered Hadfields to BSC
The antiquated machinery
. reason coat BSC meant that
of the Had workers fight back has been undermined by the
A million votes for
far left in French
Georges Marchais
last time • amounts to rejection of the political line of the Communist Party by many workers.
Since the break-up of the Communist-Socialist "Union of the Left' in 1977, the Communist Party has been on a sectarian binge.
At every level, especially in the unions, the Communist Party has attempted to divide the working class movement, refusing all united initiatives with the Socialists and other left wing forces.
CALLING ALL SOCIALISTS CALLING ALL SOCIALISIS Don't wait for the Tory' Bank Holiday. MAYDAY is Friday 1 May.
CELEBRATE MAYDAY!
'SOCIALIST
failure in Sheffield • or two olner disputc.
At both Plansee Tool and Snows the whole has been sacked after on strike. At Snows, this was
attempt smash the strong union organisation, as
transferred parts of the Elliot and the TCCCSS OI mounting unendoviet figures have given the green light to the bosses , and
The failure of the 1UC otter a nanonal respons
tactics costing the workers dearly in areas such as Sheffield. the Communists' calamity
It's an open secret that
Com munists would rather see Giscard back power than a Socialist win the presidential election.
• The tactic of division is
being used by the CP to tr
o defend its positior the most powerful
workers' But this tactic has now boomeranged against them.
In the run-ud to the elections the Communisi
Party particularly disgrac
trying to pick up votes by an antiimmigration Call balzil.
Marchais, words reminiscent the Nationa. Front Britain,
sala now can we toictale
more immigrants when there are 1½ million
French people ployed?'
Mitterand's chances of would be much
willil! enhanced if the CP now
put out a clear call for a
vote for him on the second
compaign the clas
refused to commit itself to
this. Once again, the
policy
could harm the whole left.
District
A million votes for
Lutte Ouvrière and the
PSU illustrate that a large
of French
workers distrust both the
CP and the SP leadership.
This the best
guarantee that if a left
wing government does
come to power in the near
future, the workers will
demand real moves
towards socialism,
government of class col
laboration.
Home News
back
By Hilda Keen MANY delegates went to last week's conference of the National Union of fearing that the union leadership would succeed in launching a witch-hunt against the left. But they went away much more hopeful, keen to carry on building a broad opposition to the executive's policies.
The executive leadership of the Communist ty's teachers' advisory committee to which many rank and file militants were utterly opposed tempted to isolate the
been suspended fighting the cuts.
They failed utterly, media reports suggested otherwise.
Opposition to the executive's attacks on the membership and its capitulation to the
came frøm all areas of the country
day
By Bob Pennington
The first nine hours coverage will begin cornflakes, when the obsequious Alastair Burnett and Ronald Allison start off the horrendously boring experience
The first part of gramme starts with describes as 'an exciting build-up and reaction to the big day from all over the country!
Informed circles suggest that spontaneous
youth in Deptford
to ask Arthur Scargill what he thinks of the young couple. The cameras are certain, to beam in on lots of ladies and gentlemen from proletarian cen tres like Cheltenham and Torquay
Judith Chalmers,
Witch-hunt of
kneed postion on from outside such areas as Avon
tion.
Borders to introduce a gratulating 'protect the those who showed contempt union rules Teachers
opposition. minimum
oeuvre by refusing to debate. and Classroom
aided by the for the left.
Par- CND was not ference did CP about peace in the classroom left and sup By
although carried out.
isation at conterence Charles Windsor and horse - Mr Windsor is the one on the ground.
Switch off on the big
Lowdown
ITV does not intend that the great British public should miss one tiny detail of the Royal Wedding on 29 July.
of its Barnes, with your suitably Judith Chalmers. prattle on quined pink the what ITV Paddock news noyal meeting, be reverential ang also.
and Nor is ITV likely that
Selina,
however, obnoxious should be more than Charlie's Carol repository for his genes.
teachers rolled-
Critics of the leadership weak-
cuts come
and • Barking BOSL where the union had sanctioned ac-
The conference began with the executive trying to suspend standing
motion con- on most itsell In Its efforts membership' against for a move to ram home the attack on the Lambeth teachers, as well as to give the impression that although
executive was
Conference rejected the man-
Kings took
There were significant victories
Although affiliation to discussed the con- on women In overwhelmingly reject the executive's alternative — talking
next a majority of 5,000 it was agreed to instruct rather than advise members to take strike action, providing the normal procedures were
On many issues card votes were necessary, which reflected the polar-
Affiliation to the Labour Party received creditable support. On comprehensive educa union.
Kings.
whole
can and Selina Scott will be reflecting what ITV describes as 'the strong women's interest...
who used to about 'delightful segowns' Come Dancing, and gush in the Ascot
the creations worn by wealthy ladies for the
is guaranteed to about Di's wed- day.
Carol, will have time to retlect thumbers of women who ind those
they that even Lady treated as nothing decoration on suitable line * Sacialist Challenge
tion, racism and sexism motions in
Socialist Teachers Alliance and Rank and File were
but the position of the executive moved to the left unde pressure. For instance, it was agreed to re-affiliate to the Women's TUC
The executive did win the vote
issues, but didn't win the arguments. Teachers knew what the alternatives were taking strike action, organising with other public sector unions, ultimate. ly taking on the government - and
the majority • weren't prepared for these, as vet. It was recognised that the executive was not protecting jobs or wages.
Several important fringe meet-
place: a CND meeting attractea zov, a similar numoci calk to one on El Salvador; 300 backed a
support of the Lambeth teachers; 100 attended a discussion
the NUT.
The witch-hunt was not quash. ed, but it was rolled back. Over the
monuns a strong united opposition is vital, and already a con ference on fighting the cuts nas beer arranged by Haringey NUT
The Socialist Teachers' Alliance will be backing all these moves and can be contacted via Dave Lister, 143a Ham Park Rd, London E7.
• A future article will deal with new developments in the left of the
Until two o'clock, Alista
and Ronald will guide us throug
hushed tones,
betraying just a teeny bit of es
they will announc
that Charlie and Di are on th
balcony at the Palace.
But don't breathe a sigh c
relief and think, thank Christ it'
all over. At 4pm the damn sag
again when
transfixed while they go off fo
their honeymoon. Even then it
All evening television be punctuatel
highlights of the day's happe
the unemployed,
sick and the aged, who are su
fering the attacks of Thatche
cut. backs in: expenditure.
show will probably a
pear as obscene.
Bonanza
But where some lose, othe gain. Wedding time
bonanza time for Di's mum an
dad. After all, it's not all the tin
that you get 900 i people a de
get in
your pad. At Althorp Hall, sta
ly home of the Spencers,
charge you to get in and mal
you pay for taking pictures
very indignant Lord Spencer e
posed the film of some boun
taking unauthorised photos.
can even have a m
with the Spencers • T8 a b
price. Di's parents know that
nese noe you have
make a fast buck
whenever you can. Whether I
will agree that the page boy
bridesmaids should wear
and blouses advertising Ald
Hall is a moot point.
dreading the don't give o the w • hope
Three days before
Charlie is away in Spain c
record at falling there is a good cl might be forced to
pone the big day.
And who knows? Maybe
horses could resolve one ane
all the question of who is nex!
Page 16 scan of this page
Challenge LOCAL ELECTIONS 7 MAY VOTE X LABOUR KICK THE TORIES OUT No cuts, no rent or rate rises
INSIDE Unemployment -the Peoples March pp 2-3 by Eas Ena Orse Til tid London: London Ml
Socialist
Rent and Rate increases p.4 Tony Benn's campaign p.5
Ireland - why the struggle continues pp. 8-9
JOBs
NOT
BOMBS
Racism, Law and Order pp. 6-7
← Socialist Challenge No. 194, 23 April 1981Socialist Challenge No. 196, 7 May 1981 →