Socialist Challenge No. 232, 11 February 1982
The scan: sc-no232.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
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Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge Defend ASLEF against Tories
KILL TEBBIT'S BILL
No. 232 11 February 1982 SMASH ASLEF! That's the cry from the Tory wolves and their friends
baying for the blood of the train drivers. The BR Board is now consider-
suspending driver who takes industrial action. They will only be allowed back if they join the National Union of Railwaymen.
If the Board gets its way, it will be a foretaste of what the Tories have store for all
if and Tane TOnSI when Tebbit's Bill becomes the law of the land.
The train drivers have declared war on Thatcher and her anti-union policies. Gone is
pretence that the ally Tories are keeping neutral in this dispute. They are fighting back with weapon at their disposal.
They have told BR that it can increase its short term borrowing beyond the present €100m 'to ride out the dispute'. They claim Inal a massive culback of BR is 'now 113evitable'.
The train drivers
all they can get from the
The movement.
Yorkshire miners are blacking lorries moving coal normally carried by rail. The miners' union is discussing national blacking this week.
Ken Livingstone, London Labour leader, nas demandea mat London Transport's f1m week teases Teve nue from passengers
by rail who usually go
25p Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
should be handed over the ASLEF.
The train drivers need more of these sort of actions, not the ad vice of 'friends' like Sid Weighell, whose slavish conduct suggests that ne would be more than happy to see the mili-
ASLE smashed. His only response to the Board's threats was to ask for 'consultations' before it went ahead with its union-busting proposal.
Trade union leaders and the TUC should put their money where their mouth is. They claim to oppose Tebbit's Bill. They should put their speecnes into and throw the full
of the labour movement behind the train drivers.
*All goods moved by rail should be blacked. *Railworkers pickets should supported and defended. *Full support for the day ot strike action called by representate Suf rank members on Friday 19 February.
London Transport
should show WORKERS their solidarity with fellow transoort workers and respond to this call Their livelihoods are also under threat from the Tory courts.
Such united action is the oniv wav the train drivers can win. It is the only way to stop Tebbit and the Tories. A victory for the railworkers would be a victory for workers everywhere.
Good - because that's where we at BR want you to be.
Footplate staff have an important part to play in the modernisation of the railway.
They re going to pay for it. Here in Rail House we've dreamt up a way of getting something for nothing. It's called flexible rostering.
Flexible rostering is new. It's exciting. And it's ditterent.
It has lots of advantages. We can mess about with your hours.
It will save us lots of money.
Are you still in the dark about flexible rostering?
buying full-page advertisements in the national newspapers.
for train crews too: (1) a 3%c increase we had
(2) lots of variety - no two
(3) no more letters from
Robert Reid
Peter Parker) has already
week for an extra £12.000 a year.
Split shifts?
Redundancies?
Money we can spend on
rise?
And there are advantages
agreed to pay you anyway
weeks will be the same
rostering means
Part of the BR team (Sir
will benefit agreed to flexible rostering. He everyone has agreed to work four days a
yOu
So what's the probiem?
How do you think vou're going to get next year's pay
And when we've finished chopping up BR. there won't be any drivers jobs left anyway!
That. in ver! piair.
English. is what BR's system of flexible
It is a good one One that
Except
Don't
get
Lakered!
ONCE there was man called Ken Livingstone who wanted to give the people cheap fares. He was poor but honest, and his aim was to give a service, which he did. Starting with the least subsidised transport system in Europe, he got 13 per cent use three months.
Sadly, this was a crime Bromley council sued him the press slagged him, and
Lords stopped him.
Now Sir Freddie Lake: is in trouble, also for g:.. ing cheap fares He is =
pirate, and his was to make mone!. i
did Startine £500,000 01 hs-= fiteering incore £20 million
Nobody sued him. press raised cash for hir. and the Law Lord
Ken to bother suc ourful buccaneer.
Ken's transport emp.: ran up a f125 million de:
impressive, realise it amounts o pounds per user.
Freddie's
Tal million debt - impress: = when you realise this is th hundred pounds per use
Nobody seemed notice that Freddie's corr pany was doing no bette:
than Ken's. (Of course Freddie himself was doir.z fine - nice house, flascar, swashbuckling image and other comforts life.)
But money is mone! and Ken and Freddie ha to plead for subsidies although the press didn: quite treat their pleas the same way. The pro blem was that you car: make profits in a recession by cutting prices, except a: a short-term measure bankrupt your friends breed the people dry monopoly and
This may be slighils unjust poor people can't travel. And it may b inefficient half you: equipment isn't used. Bu: it does keep alive the grea: virtues dashing enterprise, and if people are mug enough to believe you, they might all work for f30 a week like Sir Freddie's employees.
Of course nobody but Sir Freddie's friends would be able to travel anywhere.
BÜT WOULDNT
BE BLOODY STINKING RICH!!
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Can't pay, won't pay
• Editorial
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP
Phone 01-359-8189/8180 (editorial and distribution)
Reagan's Budget
Millions more for
war drive
THE FULL MEANING of this new arms race
has been highlighted by the announcement of
the new United States budget.
ouager proposes.
* $268bn out of a total of $758bn to be spent
on defence
total. This compares with $176bn last year.
* The extra money for defence to be paid for
with cuts in health care, food stamps, social
services for the elderly, housing, and educa-
tion.
* A huge increase in money spent on the MX
missile system, the B-1 bomber, the Trident
submarine and the Stealth nuclear bomber.
More money to be spent on the quick-action
Rapid Deployment Force,
navy and airforce generally.
No one can now doubt that the United
States is engaged in a huge re-armament pro-
gramme. Faced with a growing threat to its
prestige and power from the revolutionsin
Central America and political developments
in the Middle East,
strengthening its ability to intervene.
The key instrument here is
Deployment Force (RDF). The RDF aims to
put 100,000 soldiers in the field within ten
days. The
Egypt involved US bombers flying from Col-
orado to drop bombs in the Egyptian desert
and then flying back again. The training of the
RDF in guerrilla and desert warfare leaves no
room for doubt as to those regions of the
world where it is designed to be used. It is not
for confronting the Soviet Union in Europe,
but aimed to strike a massive blow against
revolutions in the third world'
The defence of the United
and wealth also involves a big build up of its
nuclear capabilities. Since
war the US has striven for 'first strike' capaci-
overwhelming
over the Soviet Union. '
ticularly necessary when the United States
needs to use its muscle
its muscle
In the past six months the United States
has engaged in military action against Libya.
ano upped its threats
Nicaraqua.
Alexander Haig,
has OUTE
against Central America, including Cuba.
Apart from constituting a massive threat
to world peace
gramme is also a
American working class.
ween welfare services and defence has never
been so open.
By announcing these increases in defence
spending, the United States has given its rep-
ly to the proposal by Soviet leader Brezhnev
for a
missiles in Europe by 1990.
For some time the Soviet Union has been
saying that the disarmament negotiations in
Geneva were bogged
United States isn't interested in serious pro-
gress. On this,
right.
This administration,
debates, engaged
military build up and war. Sooner or later all
this armament is going
socialists, to counter
means stepping up support for the activities
of CND and, especially,
in solidarity with the struggles of the peoples
of Central America, fighting US-backed dic-
tatorships. 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 information fill in the form below Name...
Address.
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Union/CLP (if any).
Send to: Socialist Challenge, London N1 2XP.
Socialist Challenge 11 February 1982 page 2
Reagan's
more than one third of the
as well as on the the United States is
the Rapid
'Operation brightstar'
States power
the second world
nuclear superiority This becomes par-
- or threaten to use against all its opponents.
against ana According to Secretary of State
the American government direct
the US s re-armament prosavage attack on the ine trade our bet-
reduction of two thirds in nuclear
down the
at least, the Soviet Union is
despite its internal on a drive towards
to be used. For this military insanity
building a movement PO Box 50,
London fares
Fares policy illegal has thrown the Labour group on Greater London Council into confusion. It has voted for defying the Law Lords as a group, but in council the right voted against this policy. The left itself was split when council voted on the specific details of the cuts and fare increases. The £200,000 campaign against the House of Lords ruling. Fares Fights groups have sprung up all over London launched 'Can't Pay, effect from 21 March, the date the new fares come into operation. spoke to GLC what exactly is going on in County Hall.
Can you explain what the Labour group's position on tares at the present time?
On 12 January the council agreed to comply with the
Lord's decision. 24 LaW GLC members felt that it was impossible to comply with the decision. We were only defeated in the coun-
We have had a further meeung al when we wels asked approve the specitic tares proposals, and the cuts in service Many of us in the Labour group still feel it is important not to be linked to the decision to put fares up and so continued to vote against every proposal.
Consequently the council failed to make a decision.
What would it mean if you voted against the fares increase the budget? There an argument the left put forward, that fares policy is the most popular policy of manifesto, if you don't this one you might down fighting on
as well give up. What do you think?
It seems that if we have a budget without any money
would be illegal. Conse
right would quent v the not vote for the rest of the budget. We would end up not passing a budget. In which case the Tories budget. So we would end would forward up losing control
I am not 100 per cent committed to stayıng this place at all costs. want us to fiant on the fares issue. I'm not sure NOW budget and ending up in opposition would help the fight. The Tories would inen be 1n control; they would • make even worse cuts. The fact is we are using £200,000 in our campaign. It is useful having this building disposal. If were not allowed to do this campaign then maybe we shouldn't be here.
What is the GLC campaign?
The GLC campaign 'Keep Fares Fair' is a campaign of public meetings,
GLC has launched a
and now a campaign is being Won't Pay' to take
Tessa van Gelderen member, VALERIE WISE, on Valerie Wise leaflets, posters on the
and although very wishy, washy. You we run London Transport but we're not allowed te put political posters on
condon Transport. But we are going to be doing lots ot posters for people
put in their wondows which will be quite good. And press adverts.
So what is the 'Can't Pay, Won't Pay Campaign?
The GLC campaign ends on 21 March, whether it is successful or not. The idea
'Can't Pay, Won't Pay', is just in case we're not successful March, some of us feel we must not give up the fight on that date. But you've got to plan for that now
The campaign would involve people paying thi old or the minimum fare and then when they hac completed journey they would give the ticket collector or bus conductor a slip of paper with their name and address, also stated why they refused to pay the increase. is a hast-yich of campaign
IsLand dile will only work if the trade unions co-operate and if a lot of people participate.
We're inviting individuals, the fares fight organisations, rank and file London Transport trade unionists, Left MPs and meeting on 19 February to work out une ccials
It would be great if all the trade unions behaved like all the Chalk Farm bus garage. he workers there voted that after 21 March they are only going to collect 10p fares. That's bet-
than our campaign because that more
Home News
... won't work?
Petitioning against the Law Lords' decision organised.
If nobody does anything, or if the unions just have a one-day strike, fine for that one day but unfortunately it isn't going to win the battle
I wouldn't just take the trade unions en bloc. The officials are opposed to this campaign, know that. If the rank and file were opposed then I think we'd have good cause to be worried. The trade unionists ve talked to so far, via my Labour Party have thought it's a goo idea and do realise that it isn't just their fight; it does rea But it rate and file
But rank and trade unionists don't sup port the campaign it would be very awkward. Lots of people are pooh-poohing it because it's an illegal act. But lots of things are illegal acts. We often advocate rent strike. A rent strike is an accepted tactic It's part of the struggle to break bad laws
But the difference with a rent strike is that it is not isolatea malviduals It is organised through
workers' organisa-
The 'Can't Pay Won't Pay' campaign does leave up to isolated individuals
How are you planning to take up the campaign in the wider trade union movement and also in the Labour Party itself? For example, are you going to go to fac tories and 6•nmitments from trade unionists there and so We're going to write to every constituency party.
We have to organise from this meeting on 19 February We do need
people who will take
back to the trades councils and so on. It will help if we can get some prominent MPs on our side.
we re not interested in isolated individuals getting
think arrested that would kill off the
You'd get a lot Canadas of publicity for those few individuals involved but then.... it is in-
DUL YOS dividuals. The ideal is hav ing the unions involved because it stops being individual actions This campaign is only if they don't do it.
How can you expect to mobilise the labour movement when the Labour GLC did not vote to defy the law itself?
do think that's a pio blem. We are in close cor tact with the officials of the unions. The GLC has a campaign committee to which the union defence committee sends a representative. But I don' think we're necessarily in tune with the rank and file
Next week Socialist
down.
feeling at the moment bably do something before The unions will 21 March The job losses are up t ine unions why they need to be part of this campaign a very big Maybe I'm being unway fair, but just talking rank and file members they're talking about a lot jobs and they don't seem lo be.. you'd have thought already they'd Have WOLKCU out wha they're doing but they haven't People have accused us of not being very quick off the ground but the unions. all those jobs.. they're the people to de fend those jobs. We can give them support, we can act in solidarity.
We can organise as in dividuals, collections for ine workers and so on du they've got to defend their jobs.
Challenge supporters who work on London's buses and tubes will say what they think of the fares campaigns and what strategy is needed to save jobs and keep fares
FARE FIGHT
Lobby
Mass meeting of LT unions Wednesday 17 February 5.30pm
Congress House, Great Russell St
Demand a one day stoppage now!
Unity with the ASLEF BR drivers!
No cuts in services, no job losses,
keep fares down!
Page 3 scan of this page
working
people
described Bernadette Ireland's most
Dublin last weekend.
Bernadette is standing as a candidate sponsored Peoples Democracy, rish section Fourth International, the Dublin North
constituency on February.
endorsement received from Matt Merrigan was the first maior boost for her campaign. As well as being secretary of the countrv's third largest trade union, Merrigan is also chairperson of the Socialist Labour Party whose candidate, Noel Browne, won a seat in the
tuency in the last election seven Switch
This time Noel Browne isn't standing and Merrigan is urging all who voted for him to switch to Bernadette
for one of the four seats which the constituency returns under the proportional representation system
even the most innocent observers of the general elec-
campaign find - it difficult to disagree that all the major ponnical partes are in need of SOMe sustained debunking.
Public attitudes towards the Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Labour Party were graphically mustarea in a public opinion poll whose results were announced last week
This showed that over half those questioned said they believed little or nothing' what the politicians of the three big parties said
The need for candidates like Bernadette and the other candidate Limerick, Harrington. to stand and cut through the apathy displayed in these poll resulls underlined by the similarity of ine ihree main parties
Even though the election has been caused by the defeat of the ruling Fine Gael Labour coalition budget, there is little
A voice for
Irish unity,
a voice for
By Geoff Bell in Dublin
THE great debunker of the charlatans who claim to speak for the working class in this country' - that's how Matt Merrigan, one of Ireland's best known trade union leaders,
McAliskey prominent revolutionary socialist opened her election campaign in
difference in what the three parties are saying economy. by In the North of Ireland as well, there is unanimity with Fianna Fail's Charlie Haughey declaring at the very start of the
concerned 'Northern Ireland is she liot all Issuc But the PD and other anti-imperialist campaigns of Provisional Sinn rein and the Irish Republican Socialist Parmaking stand against such consensus.
The PD election manifesto begins 'Ireland is in the middle of a crisis. The worst in fifty The country economic politically the legacy of partition is coming home to roost. he bare statistics spel out the depth the crisis. Unemployment stands at
at erecent and 17 percent
the South of Ireland's gross na tional product is in hock toreign bankers.
Mess
The Irish dominated as it is by national and multi-national capital, is in Srish a mess rechei Warned that Ireland is in danger of turning into a West banana republic'. tension of trish economic suspension sovereignty tional Monetary over direct contro of the frish economy.
When asked at a press conference last Friday
nadette was refreshingly direct. 'It's the Way organised in this country, said, pinpointing an economy ravaged by impérialism.
spend lily years trying to bake a cake which when you put it in an oven wont rise, ten une
best thing to do is tear up the damn recipe.'
Is lne parunion or Irelana As Bernadette put it,
when dC UVIUCU We are treated as two opposing
pools of cheap sold to the first multi-national speculator who comes along.
on the participation and demands for
DUUST North of Ireland teatures in the PD campaign.
The election manifesto explains that Ireland, 'each spent on security to prop up a border which nobody wants.
the Poverty
of f1m a day is more than is spent on education, housing or the creation of people of the South, partition means they live in poverty while hundreds of millions of pounds Is lacing are squandered to protect the bankruptcy:
power and Northern Unionists
Thi response en Ber-
economic naderle and her election helpers response.
went walkabout shops and pubs of the constiper cent ot
tuency reception was to ancholy.
'God bless
LU SCE YUl were the most common, repeated collicils economy, ingly perhaps the welcome was
wallicol
warned
European
economic the InternaFund taking
what her
Ber-
things
she
'If you
Fianna Fail's Charlie Haughey
Ireland.
Central to the current recipe
rate 'We
labour, to be politicians.
Woke One the are key
the ot up Ireland year £500m is
shopping
dependence. me Bernie, 'This expenditure, in excess
jobs. For the
privileges of the
When
around the
al ine weekend, unen
overwhelmingly
and 'Nice 'Good luck, love' oftensurpris-
older people; Garret FitzGerald
from those who had seen the Ireland they had fought for six- confided, ty years ago turning into a third
speculators paradise; years ago. from those who had seen the dream of a united, free Ireland how cnicallv sold by the big-time else?'
Yet nadette' s
who woman. MUSI have been in her late seventies,
CrOWe around Ber nadette at one shopping centre,
after fifty years
An elderly man at the same remembered his part in Ireland's war of in-
'You don't know but I shot a few
Black and Tans in my time' he
referring the mercenaries of sixty
'You'll be alright, Bernie
could I vote for anyone
it's nol just Ber-
struggles in the North which at-
'She'll fight for ordinary people, that's all I
IRELAND: TIME FOR
TORY POLICIES TO GO
LABOUR MOVEMENT CONFERENCE ON IRELAND
SATURDAY 27th FEBRUARY 1982. THE THEATRE, 309 REGENT ST LONDON W1.
Support grows for Labour Move-
ment Conference on Ireland
OVER 100 delegates have already registered
for the labour
Ireland to be held on 27 February in London.
They represent wide Labour Party and trade union activists. The conference platform includes leading
figures OT the Irish
movements. Among
Inez McCormack, Northern Ireland Regional secretary of the gWu in Durin; and fergict Officer for NUPE:
O'Hare of Dublin Trades Council.
Representing the ment will be Clive Soley, yvise, GLC Councillor and chairperson of the GLC Economic and Industrial along with other trade union representatives The organising committee hopes that Bernadette McAliskey who had agreed to speak will not be too exhausted from her election campaign to also attend There's credentials. Observers also from Labour Movement Ireland, 1 North End Rd. London W14
KnOW was one comment
'I'm not interested politics but I'll vote for you because you're a woman and it's time we women took over
Of course, although man! waited patiently to shake he hand, there was hostility well. A stern-faced
passer t
declareers looked bery tha:
Others looked someone should be talking about British troops in Ireland as if it was a memory they wished to exorcise. Need
But the response during the first fer hours in her constituency wa optimistic.
'If she gets in, she'll give them hell. we need more is: her', was the comment that bes exoressee me hoot nadette's candidature ha
The odds in the bookies' are three to one , against her winn ing the seat, but whatever the
the the capacity of ordinary people organised and fighting for wha
rightfully theirs IS being spread
The election slogans sums up.- 'A voice for Irish unity, a voice for working peopic Money rolls in for Bernadette's campaign THE financial appeal for the in: candidates sponsored by People': Democracy has produced an meulate response. bur more is s:: needed.
Send crossed cheques
People's bemocrac Fund, c/o Plough Books, 15 Cart Street, Dublin or giro direc: :0 Electior rune accour 494/110. Bank monde Quay, Socialist Challenge Tar nove contrious Manchester SC £10; Isingior 50 £40; Wandsworth SC £20; Cole: HOn a LLl AUM I40; Lamze" x £43; Hackney SC £32 movement conference on
cross-section of
and British labour those confirmed are
Merrigan, district
British labour move
MP and Valerie
Committee;
still time to apply for delegates
invited Details Conference on
Page 4 scan of this page
PREPARE FOR ALL OUT STRIKE
'Drivers liaison committee formed'
By D Ellis, NUR member RANK AND FILE railworkers in London have pointed a real way forward to beat the offensive of British Rail. Guards and station staff from over 25 British Rail depots in the London region met on Monday night to discuss how to coordinate a vigorous campaign to throw out flexible rostering in the industry.
It was overwhelmingly agreed after a full discusson to call a day of strike
on Friday 19 February, involving a lob-
Unity House, the read offices of the cutter the National Union of Railwaymen.
•There is lots to do bet-
aned the chairperson. - = me will nave to go
To their depots and win wide support for this lobby.
And, as other speakers agreed, if Weighell's sellau: is going to be overturn-
the day of action and
irst step in a broader cam-
STEVE FOREY is a train driver at Kings Cross station in London. issued a writ against drivers who were refusing to handle the paper because of its scurrilous attack on them, Steve was one of the two rank and file leaders named.
stop British Rail using National Union of Railwaymen drivers at Aylesbury for strikebreaking. next stages in the dispute.
Where do you think the dispute is at?
I think the strike is at a tur-
It's likely that DUllil the Board will this week announce measures which will lead quickly to a lock u: situation. But whether
not it takes this decision, it is s lecessary for us -rike. This is the only way move all-out
The Board is making a -ig fuss about how much it
insing because of hree day strikes. But we
not really hurting
Do you think there is a feeling for all-out strike among the drivers?
eit. the days of strike ac
on in long ended with the posion of two rates of
A dran and one for
Socialist Challenge 11 February 1982
London NUR
members call
strike action
elected, with Was representatives from all ine regions at the meeting. Speaker after speaker stressed that the stakes in this fight are high. Jobs, this year's pay round, conditions, and - in the case of ASLEF the very exs ence o e union will go out the window if BR forces through the new rosters.
The rosters are just the first hurdle. Then the one-person operation of trains the open station concept, and all the other productivity deals Sidney Weighell cooking up with BR will follow.
The secretary of Southend (works When the Sun newspaper
A fortnight later he led a flying picket to
Brian Grogan spoke to steve about the
Then we relied snunters. on single days of action ana we saw how inadequate that approach was. Add to this that today most depots are operating non-cooperation (work-to-
days. This shows that the davs of strike are not in themselves enough. Of course few neonle are openly opposed because they generally follow the Executive Committee. But there is a real danger ot demoralisation Seline
Is there anything you can do to press the ex. ecutive to call an all-out strike?
There oniy one thing that will bring that about: rank and file action have reformed a liaison
Delegares irom seven page 4
committee) made short shrift of the rosters. 'We received them. We didn't even look at them. We just shoved them back in the post box to Unity House. ADO that's what other depots should do too'
There is no local' way out of the rosters. It's true LDC's have the right to reject them. But is this a new found concern of Sidney Weighell's for more ucmocracy al be depols! Far from it.
When the LDCs reject the rosters, local negotiations are then taken by the union's sectional councils.
If, in the unlikely case the council also backs the LDCs, who will be left to tight their battle with management? None other than the national executive committee! And we're back to square one will Sidney Weighell in the driving seat.
At least some members
or eight London depots are already involved. This
all committee to organise support action for any depot under attack and, hopeful-
CLU momentum for coordinated action on
oune. days than those called by the Executive Committee.
-Trade Unions.
of the executive recognise the deep felt hostility Weighell's angry response greeted the announcement that three members were present at the meeting.
Plan Williams, _a left-winger on the NEC, stayed throughout and agreed to answer questions
'Do you support in proposed day of action? the meeting demanded to know. Williams gave clear 'yes' but wanted the meeting to consider using unc union's machinery as well.
In the North West a similar meeting the previous night had agreed to campaign for a Special ucheral Meeting of the NUR _TO discuss the
Support from 200 branches required before such a meeting can be called, according to the union's rule book.
An all-out strike will need the support of the NUR. What chance do you think there is of this?
Weighell is playing a dirty game. He is covering over he fact that his agreement to flexible rostering is go-
Geoff Hensby from Paddington agreed that
every avenue should be explored but told the same
history of his branch's attempts to get the very same
meeting off the ground
hrough union structures
We drew up a circula to appeal to other bran. ches for their support. We have had letters going between my postal box and Sidney Weighell's until I'm sick of it. But his reply has been the same.
Weighell refused to authorise it. It never even got to the executive committee. And if we take that
June bureaucracy will drag us down in the sewers'
As another Kings Cross guard replied, 'We must take the union's machinery to its limits, but when you've got such an undemocratic union and such important issues are at stake, then you are forc-
d to call unofficial actiol
as Wel
'If lan Williams is opDOsCu lO Lae rosters. wa
dony was ge silent one?
water the screws were put on the Kings Cross guards to call off their unofficial action in the second week of th ASLEF strike?' asked other railworkers.
Hazel Macpherson, LDC from Paddington, wasn't happy Williams' 'softly softly' approach
'lan is talking the witch-hunt against left wingers in the union. But the best way to fight the
vitch-hunt is to come ol
penly in support of you memoers materests.
If these left wing
leaders arent repared te
lead openly, the meeting showed just how
ing to cost tens of thousands of jobs.
Flexible rostering means nothing else.
Ray Buckton, our general secretary should should
HOTE about the Weighell is playing. He has a duty to defend his own position against Weighell
Resolution to London LDCs conference Ing.
mass campaign against flexible rostering. This campaign will include:
that day.
group.
action in order to re-assess the situation
many serious rank and file leaders are coming for ward from lower levels of the union
Guards from Cannon Street, Slade Green Streatham Hill, London Bridge and other depots talked about the courageous actions they had taken to fight the new rosters
But they also put the other side the story. They explained how this time round, it would be that much more difficul
get their depots out when little support was forthcoming in their struggle.
Courageous actions, if
they are isolated, won't be enough to get rid of the productivity plans.
anti oing to aruary Furthermore,
until February
and this would allow hin to appeal to the NUI ranks
This is what the liaison committee will do.
What preparations has the executive made for a lock out?
Very little. Although all branches have now been sent cheques to establish a hardship fund, Kings Cross drivers have beer down to the printers, Lon-
1 This conference is opposed to flexible rostering
2 We call upon the National Executive Committee of the NUR to call immediate industrial action, alongside ASLEF, in opposition to flexible roster-
3 This conference commits itself to organising a
a) A co-ordinated day of action on 19 February b) A mass lobby of the NEC at Unity House or
c) Mass meetings in the depots to explain the issues and to mobilise full support for the day of action: 4 For the purpose of organising and coordinating this campaign conference will elect a steering
5 This conference will re-convene after the day of
Already, depot managers have banned rest dar working, in addition to the Sunday . working lilal will doris ded British Rail is threaten ing to withdraw the back pay of the three per cent from last year's pay round until each and every item in the productivity play is agreed to These actions will add fuel to the flames. They will anger NUR members further. Depots may con sider reacting spontan eously.
The steering committee will have to try to harness this anger, convince the workers that a united effort is needed, and to put forward 19 February one focus that can shor Sidney Weighell anc BRB just what we think of what they are up to
don Transport, the coach stations and the transport unions about lorry drivers On the whole we've had a good response But it's made more dif ficult to get definite com mitments by the fact that no appeal has gone out from our executive for blacking action If you do have an all-out strike and go for black. ing won't this come up against the Tories antion secon dary picketing?
In London, and I'm sure in most other places we are quite prepared to face ories over picketing.
It will be absolutely essential to defy Tebbit if we are to have any chance of winning.
You were very involved in the blacking of the Sun. . What do vou think you gained out of it?
I'd say it was a draw. That in itself signified a big step forward because normally Haue umonists diways lose
at the hands or heuress
COSt Murdoch thousands of pounds. We showed him that will not always take scur-
Most important of all we have established a dent for the right of reply.
We only 24/1 chi! page. Bur this was unheard of before our action.
Page 5 scan of this page
a fight to the finish
For an integrated transport policy
By Pete Grant, ASLEF The traindrivers' strike has increasingly come to be seen over the last week as a fight not so much with the British Rail Board but with the Tory government. At a mass meeting of 120 drivers at Congress House last Saturday, Ray Buckton, General Secretary of the traindrivers' union ASLEF said that it was 'not just a fight for locomotivemen.
trade union movement Buckton added that in his opinion the government had privately told BR: 'we will pay for your losses if you smash this trade union'.
Huckfield,
Les ASLEF-sponsored MP, carried this theme stating that the struggle was against Tebbitt, Thatcher and the Tory government. The issue was one of the fundamental rights of any trade union negotiate ana organise within agreed procedures.
By R Reed, Kings Cross Guard 'RAIL cutbacks British Rail's response strike.
It is a barefaced lie and a crude attempt to divide the Tories all workers. The
policy, worked before he strike. is based on destroving the railways. A corner of the curtain been lifted on this sordid plan
- of all people management of the West German railways. British Rail has decided to slash three out of tour train terries from Harwich.
The West German railways which carry three times as much freight as Britain, called BR's refusal to invest the
ASLEF strike -
'We are taking the brunt of the attack on the
in this country.
The same techniques were being used by BR as were used by British Leyland to defeat the Cal workers. Other managements were waiting to see if BR succeeds so they can try it on with their own unions. That is why it is important to support ASLEF.
Ray Buckton, speaking are now inevitable'. This is
the traindrivers'
necessary wallch WaS certain to produce a profit, as 'ludicrous'.
*British Rail used to make a lot of money out of Harwich, point out the German bossed "They spent all their profits on road termes and Tated to re-invest in rail ferries' Now, surprisingly, they are uncompetitive.
Lorries
opposed to Thatcherland, West German railways official declared: 'On the continent believe in keeping as many
Les Huckfield the following. day on Weekend World, said the dispute had become class issue, a class strug glé'.
The are preparing behind the heavy lorries off the road as possible.
Thatcher's intentions are those of the madnobse treightliner driver depot plained. 'I regularly carry our 1000 ton limit. We go tor part of the journey along the side of the motorway, and we speed past the lorries, averaging
5 miles per hour
'It would take 30 lorries with 30 drivers, pumping out all the pollution and destroying our
Cilvironment move the same amount of stuff slower unan ine inree people manning the train.
'This is known as "efficiency" by Thatcher and her BR puppets. And let's
Trade Unions
barricades of the BR - ar all-out assault on railway industry They want to hive off the profitable parts and close down virtually all that's left. The only part of the
HUS remember that 70 per cent of all road building is carried by central govellment.
An answer to Thatcher can't limit itself to proposals about the future of
W al we need is an integrated transport system.
recent Socialist Challenge pamphlet, How to Fight Productivity, written by railworkers, takes up this issue: Services Transport is a basic and essential service that has to operate in the interests of working people. It is the life blood of any industrial
network they seem to be wine torun de une com. muter lines into London without which the capita couldn't survive in its present form.
Government supDOrICT alt openly vassing ideas such as turning st Pancras into a large coach and macking the railwav fines to provide a straight route to the North Circular and the M1. Some even go so far as to suggest thai Britain could get on without any railways at all!
Support for the traindrivers has been flooding the union headquarters, and the TUC and Labour Party national executives have pledged their sup
The right wing JUIL however have shown their society.
The inefficiencies and wastefulness of capitalism are highlighted by the present transport system which allows one sectior to compete against another, instead of utilising all the resources as ful-
possible. An tegrated transport system is needed that works for the enerofit people, the the profit the capitalists.
A Labour government would need to take special measures to develop such a system, particular massive programme of public transport, with no strings attached. would also need nationalise the
true colours. The gang of four' in the unions, Duffy Boyd, Chapple Weighell, all tried to stop the from the TUC As this failed they now make scurrilous attacks on ASLEF in the
MPs sponsored by the transport unions appealed to the Labour Party NEC that before discussing sup-
pare evidence from the
evidence from
Les Huckfield told the mass
executive commitLECS especially those
car workers, stabbed workers in struggle in the back. If your E( does any secret your backs, get rid of them.
Party, especially Tony benn, neca lo go beyond their public statements of support and begin organis ing their not insubstantial resources behind the train drivers. When BR lock out the drivers solidarity ac tions by other unions will be the key to success. The left must prepare the
Where's the connection between Mr G
Rail and Sid Weighell, general secretary of
the NUR? Well, as every Sun reader should
virtues of flexible rostering
said: 'It an attemot were made to nut a
strict limit to hours, the railway companies
would be obliged on such occasions either
to refuse to carry the mail service and the
passenger or parcel traffic; or to employ an
immense additional staff of trained reliet
at other periods of the year
Great Eastern, was convinced that fixed
hours for railwav 'servants' was impossible
further, he said that it would be 'the work
ing classes who would suffer if hours were
limited'. The Great Eastern ran 49 trains for
but the margin of profit obtained from that
traffic was so small that any increase
labour costs would force the directors to
'get rid of some of the accommodation'.
But at this point we get a bit of a
the opinion: 'that you might as well have
trade unionism in Her Majesty's army as to
have it in the railway service. The thing is
totally incompatible.' And, as everybody
known, Sir Peter is in favour of the NUR -
he only wants to smash ASLEF!
the rail industry? Order now tivity, Socialist workers. 35p plus 10p p&p
don NI LAr.
road haulage industry without compensation.
Thatcher has sold off the freight traffic that once went by rail to her friends in the private road haulage sector. Industry
Private firms are now legally entitled to operate passenger services while rail fares are deliberately put are travel man! reach and making ine private services look more attractive. All transpor workerr regardless of which sector they work
have no interest-m the privatisation of transport industry.
soclalist unallenge
ground now Mass picketing of the docks and power stations will be short, sharp shock to the Tory The vermicul Tories must not be allowed to starve the drivers submission as they did in 1955
Martin Meteyard reports from Glasgow:
We can't hope to win the next election if the leader ship stands on the sidelines in a dispute such as this.
This Les Huckfield MP brought home the issue to a meeting 100 and other talwine urdues unionists in Glasgov
ASLEF Scottish organise John Walker pointed out tha:
Weighell's statements in the media
Rogers recalled how his unio had had a salar DrODie!! wad her a deal secret. ear!!
orcea nim to reure carly
Findlay, the general manager of the London and North Western Railways in the late 19th century, Peter Parker chairperson of British
know, they all expressed themselves on the
Mr Findlay put it in a nutshell when he men, whose services would not be required
Mr William Birt, general manager of the
workers daily in and out of Liverpool Street
discrepancy. In 1893 Mr G Findlay expressed
Socialist Challenge
PAMPHLET FOR RAILWORKERS
What policies are needed to tackle productivity in
'How to fight producChallenge pamphlet for rail-
Cheques/Postal orders to Cardinal Enterprises Ltd. Available from: Rail pamphlet, PO Box 50, Lon-
The next Labour government should also renationalise all the privatised sectors on rail with no compensation When rail was nationalisea in 1947 massive compensa
Led to the private owners and we're still paying for it today.
But to commit the nex:
Labour government such radical policies mess. a campaign now:rs.c
National waymen, hand glove management instead of the interests of theses.
11 February 1982 page 5
Page 6 scan of this page
Reselection challenge to
RAY DAVIES is a well known figure in the South Wales labour movement. His activities span over 20 years. He has sprung to
Glamorgan county councillor expelled three times from the Labour Group for voting against spending cuts; as the JP bounced off the magistrate's bench for an arrest on a 1980 steel strike picket line; and as a leading member of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation who has fought for democracy in his own union and for resistance to job losses at the Llanwern steel plant where he works.
TV film 'A Question of Leadership' Ray is likely to get national media coverage again.
This time it is his challenge to Bedwellty MP Neil Kinnock at the reselection conference in March. Ray has received backing from an ISTC branch in Llanwern and is canvassing for more nominations in the coming week.
's standing against Neil Kinnock and explains how he sees some of the issues facing the left in the labour movement. 3: welliy constituency has
# supported the idea
• e¡election so it will de a
retreat they ioni accept right to chalienge Kinnock and instead, go for a short
stand will • apreseni the positions of the constituency. I feel my stand defends aucuull:ability that we fought for a the last few years. Tatchell
The constituency party voted TOT Benn and the local general management committee volca lo acicia Tatchell's right to stand tor parlanient.
By Des Tierny
and the outlines of the campaign are clear.
Labour looks set to fight the new
climate established at Bishor
The emphasis wil
JLUILIUIU
oe on une uly vi luc vally,
alternalive
economic strategy, and a clear
from radical
socialist remedy
aish people's problems
David Wiseman. a local
councillor is the Labour can
didate despite his
previous 'left' record in the
party is fitting in well.
SUTeSSES that he
mainstream memoel of the
Labour Party wno boln sup
Benn and the Tribune
Tunis role de is recelvine
the full backing of the Labour
Scotland and the rest of Bri-
lain.
Special
To underline this,
workers' union ASTMS. and
ihe 1lauc for
LaDOUI VICIULY
Present were Alex Kitson.
deputy secretary Ine
rean Sortish President obre
Socialist Challenge
Neil Kinnock E
To follow his appearance in the Ken Loach He explains to Socialist Challenge why he
It was Neil's vote that went against Tatchell the national organisation sub-committee ana ll was his vote that pushed ahead the inquiry into Militant that Neil actively campaigned to deleat Benn at the lasi conference. extremely angry to hear Neil's statement azallisi cxlla vallallicill ary action when he opposed Peter Tatchell.
Neil Kinnock chairs the Chartist rally Wales every year. Doesn't realise the South CHAISE welt thousands of working peoWEU marched KUCC' deep in muck on
Hillhead by-election
Labour campaign - recipe for defeat
THE date for the Glasgow Hillhead by-election has yet to be set. However, so important is this election that campaigning is already underway
general workers and Gavin
They took the opportunity to declare that 'the error of inwallaie Over Even on purelv electoralist calculations their strategy of fighting to hold onto the middle ground is weak. A look at General Election. lasi resuuls saows us
1979 Glasgow Hillhead electorate 39,793 conservauve
Laboul Liberal scottish Nanonal rarty feature of this byelection le The predictable that the Tory vote wil COl-
sufficiently Tory voters switch to the SDP Lake vUlC Labour's last election performance.
If this is so, then the key to a Labour posibe campairy which will
incrcasc SUDOUlI working class people in the area. 11 February 1982 page 6
macked roads from the tops vauevs Newport to be massacred
that people like him can sit in parliament?
Wasn't this extra-parliamentary activity?
I also to campa really committed to
really committed aspects of the alternative strategy like unilateral
and withdrawal from the EEC. Vehicle
Part of my challenge is to weld together the trade unions and the Labour Party into one vehicle
That can only be done by making
far democranc, noi as sonie suggest by giving the trade unions less ot a sav in Labour Party policy and fewer votes
Labour Party
ference need to work out
ways to make the casting of the trade union vote at
more cratic
would around the trade union orancle. level where the active members of our movement meet. Decisions should be given back to them.
I don't think the rank and file can let unelected leaders determine the role and positions of the trade unions on the Labour Party or any other issue
All too often the trade union leaders have conceded everything. . Because the trade union leaders
Fighting the SDP for th middle ground was attemptes
Jenkins (who is the SDP can didate once again) atmosI
enormous SDP at their own game gives their porcies credibinty in Ine eyes or lie voters.
the present time in Scotland
Majo! sections of the coun-
try's industrial base are being Inrealenta
Redundancies or complete
10,366 (34.4%) 4,349 (14.4%) 3,050 (10.1%)
shutdowns have Briesh
acclareu at LIEC
snellel
vergordon, the
Leyland tractors
Bathgate. Plessey
Bathgate and the Lovable Bra
However. workers alinese
plants are fighting back
Aluminium
Plesseys and Lovable Bra
now occupied by the workers
Workers British
balneae are on sinke.
Labour Party
Ray Davies seeks to weld together unions and Labour Party have conceded to Labour leaders in the past, we've ended up with things like Wilson's 'In Place Strife
This has laid the way to Tory. anti-union LUday. When I look back at the last two years it is with sadness.
The trade union movement was warned in advance that the government would take political action to diminish their rights.
The Tories put this plan into action at first at
Leyland's in
This by-election should be used bv the Labour Party to nut torware une Dans to en sure the success these oc-
cupations and to build up sup-
for a mass fight against
Al the mon offerine i9 a
, the best
promise to are ret worst they will be ssen
Al worst tney
by the working class electors
as irrelevant or as part of the
problem they face
It is this weakness which
the Scottish Nationa
looks set to accept
nave taken une ume since une
election to with
of occupying workers.
will come out clearly tor ar
nuclear weapon
they already claim that they
are the only party in this elec
tion which is 100 per cent for NATO
unilateral nuclear olsarma-
ment Ladour Parry com
commit-
ted to supporting workers in
Dullille Il tail
radical social measures io uca.
with unemployment and ine
decline in social services and
novement to remove the Tor
steel
The steel strike had strong politica implications. The trade unior leaders bent over backwards to being political strike,
there ever Was strong feeling on the ground about the need to bring down the Tories.
Change
I joined the Labour Co-ordinating Committee because we need a vehicle lo gel a change or icauel
Roy Jenkins - could win by detault
government would feel little
threat from this direction and
wourd begin mne orebaranol
for Labour victory at the next
Neil Kinnock - a prime mover in witch-hunt against left ship which will implement DONCIC. like unilateralism and withdrawal from the EEC
The message that now seems to be coming tron the LCC is that we should be butting ine vehicle in the garage for the next two
Or if we take it out we should only go at 20 miles an hour.
We're not going to ge verv tar this way and we end up with engine failure
If the LCC is going to be a vehicle change then its got to challenge all the way along the line or be replaced by something else. Perhaps Labour Liaison '82 can fit the bill.
We must challenge for the deputy ¡cauersie else we will condemn peo.
dose of stop-go.
The only part of the alternative strategy the labour leadership will im-
election
Party which
refuses to face up țo the real
plement will be forms of wage restraint and import • controls which are to the detriment of working people. Dropped
The issue of control over the commanding heights oI ine economy will be dropped like a hot potato
think there is little value in what took place al Bishop Stortford. anything, it has placed a barrier in the thrust for change.
This can only work against us in the long run
selling ourselves short if we don't continue
Bishop Stortford has given the right wing the opportunity SLOD progress that has taken place in the last five years to reform our party.
are facing and attempts to
hold back their struggles till a
General Electior 1984 is
preparig hs own acical.
Page 7 scan of this page
-Witch-hunt against Laurence Scott continues -
John Boyd
confronting...
By Pat Hickey
Birmingham on Saturday 6 February.
heavy vehicles division of the company.
The Leyland Vehicles delegates Jim McLean from Albion Glasgow and Mick Coyne, convenor from Leyland, Lancashire — reported that the strike was growing stronger in the tace of management s threats of closures. Mass meetings at the Leyland plant In Lancashire had given increased majorities for continuing the struggle and extending The management's line that the only way to save the company was to accept 1ob loss
speed up has been
Edwardes' plan is facing its first big fight
The job now is to win the whole of BL to support for the Leyland Vehicles struggle. The workers the cars division have to be won to understanding that dawardes nas not ninisned with jobs there either. This unity will be central to a successful struggle.
The company is planning to move engine blocks to the Radford plant Coventry for the Jaguar, and tooling equipment for the Beans Jasual Foundries in engines I be to
This work will taken from the Farringdon plant which along with the
cles plants in Leyland and
Unfortunately these two plants have indicated that they will accept the work.
The Combine decided on a number of steps to deal with STOCHI Moving this work is vital to ine continued smooli production of the Jaguar which is making big protits for the company in the American market at the moment. Fresh attempts will be made to persuade the workers in Coventry and inton to black the equipment and the blocks, and a special leaflet will be distributed at the plants.
By Pete Clifford
made a fresh attack strikers. 2,600 branches, he
strikers back in July.
Boyd concludes that given the executive council's consistent support, at all times when menDers decide to fight redundancies, trust that branches will not be misled into supporting what now an irresponsible campaign'.
He even has the cheek to claim that Scott's strikers are attacking the union's democratic structures, wnen lt was Boyd himself who broke four of
Leyland Vehicles
Support grows
The fight against BL management's plans to sack 4,000 workers in the Leyland Vehicles division took another step forward at an emergency meeting of the BL Combine Committee in
The meeting, the largest for some time, was attended by over 50 stewards from the cars and
The Combine is also to take the struggle to the other car plants. 50,000 leaflets will be distributed to car workers explaining
what is happening and collections will be organised.
addition to these steps, une combine agreea to organise joint shop stewards meetings in plants to be addressed by
uciczales Leyland
Vehicles and a special con-
terence of shop stewards will be called at the Vehicles division's request.
These steps towards unity have long been need-
But the cars division nave lo be preparea lol
strike action to support eviana venices ITs attacks on the worktorce are going to be stopped. Prepared
The ground has to be prepared for dealing with the national trade union
leadership. John Boyd has stated in ine Aucw Journal that the BL Board are Lue Stewares tion's assets' and must be supported. His record in BL is one complete backing for Michael Edwardes and betrayal of the
The Transport Union leadership has been no bet-
When ine company
steps up the pressure,
undoubtedly will
these 'leaders' will be run.
ning for cover. It will take
celeried
the membership to stop Inem
It is essential to impleCombine deci-
sion as rapidly as possible
Around the pay claim and
over the 39 hour week the
car workers have shown a
renewed willingness
take on the company. The
struggle Leyland
Vehicles can be the basis
for building on that.
ENGINEERING union leader John Boyd has
Laurence Scott In a three page letter to the union's
covers up for the executive's withdrawal of backing from the
the union's rules in withdrawing official support and refusing to cooperate with the union's own appeals procedure. Since July, the executive council have organised campaign inside and outside the union against the strikers, culminating in misleading the union's national committee into withdrawing support In contrast, the determination the Scott's strikers to stay out on resolution in an appropriate form.
the re-organisation and redundancy proposals of management
cial and active support
and this Tory government.
culate the collection sheet.
EL
CHEI
Trade Unions
strike has won the support ot rank and file engineer: across the country. Last year a protest resolution to the executive, backing the strikers, , won the endorsement of over a thousand of une unons oralichcs Now the same type of support is building up for the strikers latest campaign. Branch resolutions Irom all over tne country are starting to arrive at the union's national HO call ing for ballot for reelection of the executive council.
The Scott's strikers are not going to away because of Boyd's attacks The same day Boyd wrote to the branches they
Support Leyland
THE Lancashire Association of Trades Coun cils passed the following resolution in sup. port of Leyland workers. Socialist Challenge calls on all its supporters to get their union and Labour Party branches to support this
"This Regional Council of the TUC pledges its support to the LV Leyland workers engaged in dispute against
'Recognising the importance that a victory against Edwardes would have for the whole trade union and labour moment we therefore urge that the trade union and labour movement gives the maximum moral, finan-
to ensure that the Leyland workers are not defeated by the tactics of edwardes
'We call on the North west group of MPs to raise this issue in the House of Commons on an emergency nosis. we can tor unancar supoore inrouenour ine North west for the strike committee and resolve to cirEdwardes faces his first major attack on his plan from the BL workers
drafted out their reply.
Their message was: fight goes on.
Patrick Sikorski adds:
The experiences Scot fish! or jobs
san ine comine barnamen.
against Tebbit's anti-union bill
This is just one of the steps 10 be
want usu result of
nOuse nursoo» wach was arender by among others Tony Benn, Ernie Dennis
Michael Meacher ner, wine unic ne MPs Doncaster ana vor wick in wrose constiluencies inere are orne! factories in the Mining Sup-
and 8r Tony Benn proposed to
BRITISH Leyland plants in Chorley have overwhelming ly endorsed the decision to strike against redundancies. the office staff in APEX.
Arnolen the making the dispute official, SEEKERS record of the engineering union and the transport union leaders
as cerned and 00ams
concerned. have been Combine since 1978
Led until 15 February when
sent their position.
Last weeks were completely abortive with the company seriously discuss side's position proposals in the Alternative. The union side continued to make clear that there will be no retreat
SUPPO
CA 2
OUr
JOB
Issue a statement of s the
truce orne movemen figures. also announced habished bill calling the Scotts nine suoodes imo ine va tional Coal Board.
Both measures are aimed at highlighting the continuin fight the Scotts the workers in Manchester and t
expose ine asser-siripping rou Mining Supplies boss Arthur Snipe • who has made his backs of th miners ana : nationalise 188602 convenor Denis burry ola m meeting, under onou government they would have Scott expected Their jots
and trous nationalsation
Striking for jobs
By Patrick Sikorski Vehicles Leyland and
cies. proposed
So too have from
despite unions are from , the adverts
aware one
were jobs WOrKTOCE lost throughout the
the strikers No further talks are schedul- demands.
the week negotiators will pre
negotiations
the union pickets are and the • broade
Trade Union ment,
absolutely full weight
глого.
MORNING STAR
Socialist Challenge
and
and WUrN
Denis Barry from their demands which in. cludes the complete withdrawal of all proposals for redundan-
The attempts so far by the company to isolate the strikers other WorKers cashire have completely failed the threats closure Edwardes and full page local taken out by Leyland Vehicles management Between 30 to 40,000 leaflets distributed to the whole ane the people Leyland and Preston explaning case and the unior the end of the Leyland Vehicles bosses were having to admit in the very same local papers that there was massive support for the strike throughout the area The support is there and the getting bigger and stronger. But the labour move particularly locally, has vero debrecisco to tarovi behind the workers of Leyland Vehicles. Defend Jobs Support Leyland Vehicle Workers Smash the Tebbit
Proposals
Demonstration
and Rally
Saturday 27
February
Callea Dy Lancashire Association of Trades Councils and the
North West : TUC
LV Leyland Strike Committee; CSEU No 30 District Confed; Lancashire County Labour Party; Lancashire
County Labour Group of MPs
ASSEMBLER 12 noon Leyland Civic Centre, Leyland, Lancs.
Speakers: LV Leyland Strike Committee; Tam Dalyell MP West Lothian; LV Bathgate speaker.
All Socialist Challenge supporters from the Midlands and northwards should mobilise for
this demonstration
11 February 1982 page 1
Page 8 scan of this page
PLANNI
Training
youth
IN TWO YEARS youth unemployment has doubled. Thousands of school leavers head straight for the dole queues with no hope of ever finding work.
In January there were 150,000 unemployed school leavers, another 192,000 were on special unemployment schemes. The biggest is the Labour government's Youth 'Opportunity Programme (YOPs), which the Tories have greatly expanded.
YOPs has let the government hide the real extent of youth unemployment. But there has been widespread opposition to YOPs working conditions.
On f23.50 a week, working with little or no training for a year or halt a year, youth are exploited and have no guaranteed jobs when they finish. A YOPs 'trainee' can be working beside someone doing the same job for twice as much money.
As if this wasn't bad enough, 'On yer bike' Tebbit, claiming to be worried by youth unemployment, has come up with new schemes. 'Young Workers' scheme will pay bosses f15 a week to starve youth. It guarantees low wages, being aimed at employers who pay youth less than uv enveek.
His ' compulsory training' scheme is even worse. If you leave school in September 1983, you face a choice between a training scheme which will pay your parents f15 a week, or nothing at all.
School levers' dole has already been cut and can't be claimed straight away when you leave.
Tebbit is bringing in industrial conscription. It benefits no-one but the employers, who get cheap non-union labour with a f60 million subsidy thrown in.
Sections of the labour movement are taking steps to expose YOPs for what they really are. Fights for wage increases and travel allowances have been taken up by NUPE and the TGWU locally. In some cases YOPs workers' frustration has led to local strike action.
The Party Young Socialists have launched a campaign to unionise YOPs, which will be lobbying parlament on hursday February for trade union rights for YOPs workers.
They call for a decent wage, better job prospects and trade union
monitoring of conditions, as well as
unionisation.
•Ao io Tebbitt's proposals aoe unior rates of pay for YOP trainees 3 nour week and fire weeks holiday "A guaranteed job for all trainees Supporled by LPYS, Luhour Purty und NUPE
Socialist Challonge 11 Fabruary 1962 page &
for the dole
These are positive steps, but they don't get to the root of the problem.
It's no good just 'improving' YOPs conditions and prospects.
We need full trade union rights and rates of pay for all YOPs workers, and a guaranteed permanent job.
The wage issue has to be taken into the trade union movement with these demands. Len Murray's commitment to the YOPs -helps promote - is bad enough.
He lets his own members lose jobs while youth are exploited. But the root problem is that the trade union movement has never really treated youth as 'real' workers.
Youth face the same problems in many other jobs - low wages, no union rights, bad conditions, no training.
Neither will the Right to Work's 'Jobs not YOPs' campaign stop this.
There has to be a tant tor a minimum wage, job guarantees for youth, employment quotas for young people, with priority for young The women and young blacks who are the hardest hit by unemployment.
But this has to everywhere - including in YOPs itself, which employ 50 per cent of all school leavers.
This doesn't mean accepting that YOPs are the answer. Even Tebbit has been forced to concede the failure of YOPs. But his new proposals make matters worse.
The TUC has rejected them, but look for small improvements in YOPs conditions by pushing wages up to £30 per week, and asking for Manpower Services Commission funding for 15,000 apprentice places.
This falls well short of what is needed to actually reverse high unemployment and give youth guaranteed job. The job of the TUC is to ensure that youth are given the chance to fight for their own rights by being accepted as part of the unions with equal rights and pay to other trade unionists.
Training for the Dole - that's what the Tories offer young people.
It's time, alongside the LPYS campaign to unionise YOPs, for the trade union movement to organise for union rights, Unloe r:es massive public expenditure, and place responsibility for youth unemployit belongs - on the hacn anere shoulders of the employers and their government, not on young people who need 'training'.
YOP Trainees Union Rights Campaign
Join the YOPS Lobby
of Parliament
Thursday 25 February
Festival Hall, Belvedere Rd, SE1 (opposite Waterloo Station)
*..-ipm. Speakers include Tony Benn MIP. Dennis kinner MP
save
which he
unemployed in
for Recovery, week. Aimed
672,000 unemployed be taken up
677,000 new jobs.
used tor government, plan the
proposals 101 Their claim
money
The truth ot pav.
Their claim
efficient.
The truth
Their claim
La job.
The truth
and Italy.
TUC to
Laker?
THERE ARE now four million the
Britain, says the TUC's 44-page Programme
launched this With budget, the report says there at the next capitalism',
'unregistered' and calls for £8.3bn to be spent to create
Len Murray calls for the report to
'new deal between TUC and employers to path back full employment'. But despite the TUC's would pleas the report doesn't hold out much hope of a Tory U-turn. The TUC is betting on a new government.
The detailed plan, which includes
youth, women and blacks, extends the TUC's 1982 'Plan borrows! for Growth'. It has been 'lest-run on
Tory lies exposed
WE had to have unemployment because the government was sending too much
EVERY unemployed worker costs the government £4,300 in benefits and lost taxes. The total cost to the government is more than it borrows.
OUR policies are making industry more
EVERY unemployed worker costs the country the equivalent of £14,000 in lost production.
WORKERS are pricing temselves out of
BRITISH wage levels are now the lowest in Europe after Greece, Spain, Portugal
WITH three weeks to go to the budget, the
economy. Its Programme for Recovery is a
Labour Party conference.
nent of the fight for an alternative to the
government.
proposal for planning should be discussed seriously.
La plan could be developed.
government's own forecasting model, and the TUC claim it will cut government borrowing by £28m and raise inflation by only 1.1 per cent.
its 'Plan for saving as the New Statesman slightly cynically dubs it, the TUC sets out some pretty thorough homework to convince Britain that there is an alternative to Thatcher
result is a damning indictment of Thatcher's policies and with u une cra ogc or uncuioovuc li Productivity, which she says she will raise, has fallen. Inflation, which she
double figures.
Remember the tax cuts? Taxes are higher than ever except 'for the very rich'. Investment is 21 per cent down and unemployment is costing the covernment toso - more an ı
Unemployed workers with no
TUC has produced its own proposals for the
44-page, detailed plan which is likely to be a major topic of discussion in the run-up to the
A fight for a plan is an essential compo-
policies of both Thatcher and the last Labour
Despite our strong disagreement with the spirit of the TUC's policy, we think that any
This week, therefore, we assess the TUC' plan and explain how a fighting campaign fol
money, and idle factories that can't sell their product - this is the vicious circle the TUC wants to break by spending in the public sector so as to expand production by four per cent.
Expansion always causes inflation and hits the balance of payments, so the TUC proposes import control: and a 'National Economic Assess ment' to regulate costs. This should 'take a view on the movements in costs and prices which will support and sustain expansion', and try to iron out inequalities.
In 1975 the employers said that wage cuts were needed to sustain expansion - but what should be done if they make the same demand again the TUC doesn't say.
However, since they wall mutual agreement with the employers and the government, and since the employers can sabotage the economy if they choose, we won't be giving out prizes for the answer The real problem, however, what happens after the first year. alicliD deal with unemployment by spending mones since 1964 has fondered on British industry's failure to invest. The core of the report deals with this problem
The TUC's package fo 1982-3 Programme 1982-83 cost (Em Public sector investment 2,10 Education and training 1,70 Industrial strategy 60 Nationalised industries' current spending State pensions Social benefits Local authorities Extra health spending VAT reduction to 12.5% 2,00 Total cost 8,30
The TUC proposes a 'five yea strategy' and devotes eight chapte Assuming Is 35-hour wet target is met, it claims a growth rate o four per cent will cut unemployme below a million by 1986.
To achieve this calls 'economic planning on a large scale order to regenerate the economy', r asserting the TUC's demand for f on of public sector investment i cluding a million new council house rail electrification, Telecoms inves ment, new power stations, roads at sewers.
Such a programme could inde
Page 9 scan of this page
NG FOR JOBS Fighting now for jobs
THERE are two things the TUC says that everyone can agree with: Jobs must come first; and the economy needs plan.
The report proves beyond any doubt that controlling the money supply won't stop inflation; profit isn't the key to efficiency; and holding down wages doesn't growth.
EOLALOPPORTON
The crazy logic of
unemployment
The idiocy of a system under which it is 'efficient to have four million people out of work: Unemployment is party of a vicious spiral in which falling profits lead to wage cuts and job losses;
unsold, leading to factory closure and further sackings.
There is no way out while investment is still controlled by private owners looking for the highest profit. Only planning can end this insanity. lead to a big expansion of jobs and services. The problem is how to do it, how to overcome the employers' resistance and how to stop any future
giving in. wants a revitalised National Enterprise Board' to act as a public sector holding company.
This can be used to lead and direct' investment in the rest of the economy.
The problem is that this is just what the Wilson government was asked to do by the Labour Party. What should be done when the bosses refuse to play ball? It is here that the report dissolves into the same vague carrot and stick' proposals that shipwrecked the Industrial Strategy.
'government incentives'. 'more democratic
forward an alternative?
La
ficient to have four million with no work to do.
improve workers cannot then purchase goods which remain
the
TUC ine working class itsel
the report -doesn't draw. save
tain logic has created this mess.
When planning
profit, the TUC
Wing.
How can we begin to put
Thatcher says Britain needs effi- sense. cient and well-organised industry Well, so do we. But we have a different idea of efficiency. Along with nearly everyone except Mickey Mouse and the Tories, we don't think it is ef-
people
The starting point of any government policy has to be the idea that everyone should be allowed to work. ment' and special government agencies, but doesn't say how to organise
one special government agency which could implement a serious plan to save jobs and living standards -
One glaring conclusion leaps from
La conclusion the TUC If the bosses won't in- Item
jobs then workers themselves must take over their factories and banks, so that they can themselves plan for their own needs and for the needs of everyone in Bri-
- except the rich whose crazy
IS O more and more urgent demand for those whose lobs are daily sacrificed to the god oj Total
"'s proposals risk being little more than another burnt offer-
This isn't just a basic right — it's the only thing that makes economic
Why isn't this happening? It is because of the crazy logic of profit and the market economy. Only such a stupid system could SaCK worKers because it can't sell goods that the
because they haven't got any work.
Investment decisions — including employment - are in private hands. A handful of investors, commanding TUC proposals for public sector investment
Cost (fm)
House construction and renovation Nationalised industries Energy conservation Road building Education capital spending Health capital spending Urban programme
billions of pounds, squandered investment resources in pursuit of quick profits to create this crisis. They do not have the right to own or control the wealth that we produce.
Even the nationalised industries are being forced to adopt this logic. 'Commercial' decisions have thrown 30,000 British Leyland workers on the dole and forced the GLC to drop the first half-sensible London transport system since the horse.
d.d. GALLAGHER W
The proper way economy's resources is to plan — not with bureaucrats, but by letting working people themselves decide how to use the factories they work in and the wealth they produce Can it be done? Using the government's computer, the TUC has proved the obvious: that the resources are there if we want to use them.
So aly proposal limited resources and get them out of private hands should be welcomed A plan should scheme the Workers facing the sack need to show how their jobs could benefit society, expose the criminal waste of closures and put forward serious alternatives in order to win support. like Aerospace alternative plan.
The limitation of most 'alternative plans', however, is that they deal with one sector of the 1,000 either give in to the argument that 'there is no demand', or fail to link up 500 with workers in other 125
50 What is needed from a plan is an
65 account of how production and use in different industries fits together.
60 300 For example, 2,100 how many buses would be needed in a
proper system of subsidised port; how much steel is needed for the buses, how much electricity and coa
By Alan Freeman
have wilfully
on.
job benefits.
Conversely
resources
steel,
back on import a proper plan?
workers from factory that
use the Clearly
for a struggle?
however to take control of these
not be a wild
future.
exactly This is the under the Lucas
economy. They
from.
parts of the
should know
trans-
the fight.
Socialist Challenge
for the extra steel and buses — and so
If this was known there could be a proper campaign for transport subsidies in which workers in all these industries could be made aware of the
British Leyland workers now fighting for jobs need an alternative that shows not just where their product could be used, but what other work would need to be done elsewhere to make proper use of their
But this is just where the TUC plan falls down. It doesn't set out to give this kind of lead. For example although it calls for 1,200,000 new houses, it doesn't explain how much
concrete, glass or paint this would use. Indeed, it is forced to fall
controls precisely because it doesn't foresee taking any detailed control over the economy.
But this kind of information can be obtained. During the 1974 miners' strike, for example, the Labour Party set up a special monitoring service to gather information about stock levels and refute Tory lies about the fuel crisis. Why not do the same thing on a much wider scale as part of preparing
No-one knows better what is hap
If the Labour Party were to get shop-floor
different industries together to help draw up detailed proposals, even for the implementation of their own plans, , it would have a tremendous impact in building a campaign for the right to work because it would prove, in every industry and
was affected, just why jobs should be preserved.
campaign like this, which would have to mobilise the resources of the Labour Party and unions at every level, would need a simultaneous fight over information
But what better context
The problem is that this is clearly not what the TUC has in mind. The whole idea of a 'new relation between government, unions and employers' rules out the idea that the labour movement should fight. In 1974-79 the employers simply refused to cooperate with the government until it dropped its industry proposals
This is why the danger in the TUC proposal is that it will open the way to
the same sel-outs we saw Wilson the 'National Economic Assessment' will become another incomes policy, 'saving the pound' will be the excuse for cuts and unemployment without end; and the plan will go back on the shelf it came
The TUC wants to use its plan just as the New Statesman claims save capitalism. The labour movement should demand that the TUC and Labour Party take steps towards a real plan by bringing together shop floor workers in all the affected industries, not to arrange discussions with the government, but to discuss action to save jobs and the production of a detailed plan as the spearhead of
11 February 1982 pages
Page 10 scan of this page
Solidarnosc - new national resistance
A NATIONAL commission of resistance has been established in members of Solidarnosc who have escaped the regime's military meeting in Gdansk one month after the imposition of martial law the twelve most senior members Solidarnosc still Poland set up the new commission.
In aocuments recentiy released to the West the commission reports lat Il will •act as the chief
body Solidarnosc until:
The withdrawal of martial law and the restoration
full of stalus Solidarnosc; * All imprisoned and interned Solearnese members, students and inlenecluais are necu. * A meaningful dialogue Is undertaken between the ruling body and SolidarAUSC under the leadership of Lech Walesa.
'The Solidarnosc Resistance Commission is the natural progression of the National Commission convened in Gdansk and
upon itself the :esponsibility IO coordinate the conspiratorial
throughout Poland.'
There ai c further
= a growing resisIn
on a go-slow an rridav 29 Januarv to =.a:est the proposed price
=. 13 January, one month amer martial law. WULKELS = he Elwro plant observei one minute's silence.
The authorities have sentenced more than one hundred persons for their participation in the riot in
. New information on the riots reveals that more than 3000 mainly young people took Jall. throwing molotov cocktails at the riot police, who 300 march in Brum for Solidarnosc Some 300 people marched through Birmingham last Saturday to support Solidarnosc. There were contingents from several Labour Parties, from COHSE march ended with a rally chaired by Roger Murray of Sparkbrook Labour Party, Paul Mackney of the Trades Council pointed out that we naa to support against Tebbit if we are to support the Polish workers. He read the 21 points of the Gdansk agreement, and pointed would be acceptable to Thatcher!
He was followed by Les executive member of ASLEF who presented the ASLEF strike as a symbol of workers' struggle in Britain. members the Polish wanted to know what this had to Poland. Next came Piotr Kozlowski from the Solidarnosc trade union working group. do not want a capitalist system in Poland. We want rule by the workers, He received a standing ovation. the Polish women's group on the position of women in Poland and a vague speech about freedom from Ernie Hunt, district secretary of the AUEW, the final speaker was Marek Garz tecki.
in Britain, reading Solidarnosc for an end to martial law and for the prisoners to be freed.
Socialist Challenge 11 February 1982
Poland by leading
crackdown. At secret
at liberty in
responded with water cannons and tear gas.
The clampdown continues in the universities. The students who have been allowed back to college face extremely harsh new regulations aimed at
position Students now De liable to lace lustant call-up to the armed torces at any time. and expulsion from the college on missing just one class without medical tificate.
The ruthless purging of dissidents is continuing in every workplace and within the Communist Party. Officials have admitted that at least half a million members have lett the party in the last six
of martial law.
Hardliners
LIll Dal ly grouped around Stefan Olszowski and Albin siwak are orcnestraling a purge :o remore anyone WILD evel crace 'liberalism' such as deputy premiers Barcikowski and Rakowski.
Despite the appeals from Archbishop Glemp for 'moderation' the Polish workers are under no illusions: the regime has
Interon allowing Solidarnosc to re-emerge
independent movement. It will the
Lake strength ( of the internatonal labour and the unstinting resistance of the Polish workers to force them to back down. and NATFHE. The
where
the struggle
out that only six
renon, national
He was interrupted by
community who do with
VVE
democratic rule.
After a speech from a representative of
He spoke about the aims of the movement out the demands of
page 10
formed -
the security police By Val Coultas and Chris Palmer
Birmingham, and representatives, sus tractor
fresh from their tours Scotland.
The Manchester Massey Ferguson plant had passed the same resolution as at Coventry where the workers have agreed to black all spare parts coming from the UrSUl Dlalll Evening Mail correspondent asks
is supporting the workers
this acuO replies that he doesn't know, but wouldn't it be a
food dante in Sane
Bathgate® land instead which they had just visited.
The Socialist Challenge and Revolution press representative points out that unfortunately Britain doesn't have a planned economy, so the bosses can do what they like here. The Solidarnose representatives stress that they are collecting money not just tor human aid as the of. ficial agencies are doing
ternees who are not receiving any help in Poland.
They out that these families know that
Miners carry out a dead comrade from the Wujek
in December Martial law announcement poster defaced in a Warsaw bus shelter
Solidarnosc visits Brum
IT IS Thursday morning at the Grand Hotel in
the two Solidarnosc Piotr Kozlowski from the Urplant and Marek Garztecki the deputy chairperson of the Polish jazz association, have just arrived for a press conference
of Manchester and
the word Solidarity really means something. Marek explains why they are asking trade unionists to support them: 'We are not politicians, we are not askune LICHI for support as Laut Our general aim is simply for people to be released and allowed to operate. *° for Solidarnosc be Asked about their views on Reagan's satellite show, Marek replies that the Hollywood bonanza does not have a single person from Solidarnosc on orocratille Solidarnosc was not asked if it wanted the
*W Shavade ped Turkey
El Salvador Turkey and martial law is a bad thing wherever doesn't matter who makes the guns.
Referring to the resistance movement they point out that Solidarnosc Delle organised underground than many people think. timists' explains Marek 'The military may be good
By Davy Jones mine, murdered by at taking power but they're no good at producing. They're desperate to find someone from Solidarnosc to talk to them. They've not been able find single member of the Solidarnosc executive that's willing to.
They also enlarge or the resistance going on ir
lactories Two days before 18 January no cars werc produceu al all al ine Polish Fiat car plant. Then on the third day up to 150 were produced. Kawenka
from Fiat, soit seems they
Kawenka to make the cars. When you buv a Polish Fiat you're buying some part of slave labour
Finally the Solidarnosc representatives are asked
• Socialist Chalenge it they think free trade unions will emerge in orner Eastern European states
Marek says that Polish people know that strikes have been going on in the Soviet Union since 1 st sulllllici. One third Polish territory has become part of Russia. 'We have lots of Polish relatives the Soviet
As long Union. as the working class exists the workers will demand their rights. I hope Solidarity is cullazious
Solidarity Solidarnosc
11. Ring 021-773 5396.
041-632 1839.
Crete St, Oldham, Lancs. Ring 061-620 2885. Drive, London NW11. Ring 01-458 1501. Kingsland High St, London E8.
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Oxford labour backs Solidarnosc
Solidarnosc in Oxford
group and a shop steward from near Solidarity Campaign and the Trades Council.
workers in the big
nuclear arms race through
Kremlin and Warsaw Pact bureaucrats
Polish student union, the NZS.
Committees with
Birmingham Polish Solidaritv Committee, c/o Roger Murray, 28 Blackford Road, Birmingham Glasgow Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o lan .McCalman, 18 Mossgiel Rd, Glasgow, G43. Ring Greater Manchester Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Jon Silberman, S! Montrose House, Eastern Europe Solidarity Campaign, 10 Park Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, Box 23, 136 Polish Solidarity Campaign, 69 Edinburgh Rd, Solidarnosc Trade Union Working Group in UK, 64 Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court, London
Solidarity Fund,
on Poland, 468
SOLDARTY
with a
SOPRANOS
25p Socialist Challenge PAMPHLET 2000 copies sold in first week! Order your copies now of the second edition Just 25p or 20p for sup porters bulk orders. Solidarity with Solidarnosc Open annual general meeting of Lancashire
County Association of Trades Councils
Saturday 13 February, 1.30pm
Speakers include: Piotr Kozlowski, Solidarnosc
trade union working group in UK and Oliver MacDonald, Labour Focus on Eastern Europe.
Revolution/Socialist Challenge
Solidarity with Solidarnosc
Huddersfield: Thur 11 Feb, 8pm at Friendly & ALMOST 200 people attended a rally in defence of
21 January The meeting, called by the Oxford and District Trades Council, was addressed by Michael Koslowski, a member of the Solidarnosc trade union working
Warsaw.
There were also speakers from the East Europe
The speakers stressed the importance of the
British Leyland car plant in Cowley to establish links with their fellow workers in Poland. They also emphasised the need for unity in action between those fighting NATO and the
CND, and those fighting to defend the Polish workers against the
The rally established a local defence committee, the Oxford Labour Committee on Poland, and called for a demonstration in the town for Saturday 20 February. A tour of the Oxford colleges is planned for a member of the now banned
Solidarity with Solidarnosc Oxford 20 February 2pm Cowley Rd hospital March to Ruskin college for rally
Page 11 scan of this page
with democracy'
PIOTR KOZLOWSKI and Marek Garztecki have spent the last few weeks touring Britain to build support for Solidarnosc in the labour movement. Kozlowski was a senior steward in the Ursus tractor plant; Garztecki a journalist and broadcaster with Warsaw Radio, and also a shop steward.
explain is that Solidarnosc was a genuine mass workers' organisation under the control of its members. by anybody.
and development of Solidarnosc in an inter-
with DES METEYARD for Socialist Challenge.
Piotr, can you explain how Solidarnosc came into existence in Ursus?
PK: Ursus is about eight kilometres outside Warsaw. so in one sense it is a bit cut off. But Warsaw, although it's the capital, has never been a main centre of working class activity. Il was actually from Ursus that Solidarnosc sprang up throughout the central Mazowsze region.
You have to go back to the 1976 strike, in which workers trom Ursus played a leading part. general. Solidarnosc took root most quickly where these problems already been aired.
Another thing yUU should know is that we were all pretty young at the time of the 1976 strike. We
DeaT many years of repression, and so we were more prepared to do something ADE HE
There were a group of us wno started to meet tor discussion. People like Zbigniew Bujak, who became the regional chairperson of SolidarROSCA Loignlew Janas, lne head of Solidarnose in Ur-
Czerwinski; as well as myself. We KOR. literature through the
COMITTE
Solidarnosc
was 'obsessed
One of the points they are most anxious to
As such it could not be manipulated
This is how they described the emergence
TIERNEY and MARTIN
Strange Sa ihings the most important KOR gave us were official documents like the Polish constitution and the Labour Code. It was the first time we'd been able to read Lena authorities Just used 1o quote extracts at us out ot context. This was the first chance workers at Ursus ever had to find out about their real rights. We also
leve or official our the
‚official tion, Poland's debts to the West - that kind of thing.
So a lot was going on at Ursus well before August 1980. For instance, we had three strikes earlier in the year which reported. We held meetings during the stoppages, from talking 1D0BL basic living condi tions we rapidly got on to more political questions.
He merla one course, was who was selling out Poland.
When the workers of Gdansk went on strike, we were organised enough to Ine probiem unco-ordinated stoppazes. musicau we sell! delegates to Gdansk who took part in the Hiccus that agreed the 21 demands. We decided to wait for them to report back before going sirike use threat was enough.
POUSH
SOLIDARITY
Kozlowski, third from right, links arms with Ellen Monaghan (Lee Jeans)
After the Gdansk Agreements were signed, it was suggested Inal ine right to form free trade unions only applied to the Baltic Coast. That's when we had to act quickly.
war we ala was to sel up a 'Founding Committee' for the union. Our small group went round the whole factory - that's about 10,000 workers and in each section we addressed mass meetings to explain the situation. Each time we asked the meeting
select three delegates (depending on the size of the section) to go to une mounang com mittee.
One thing we asked them to make sure was that these delegates had not been involved in corruption in any way; also,
Could be people linked to the official unions. so most of them turned out to be very
Jallas tor stance, whom I mentioned
, is only 28.
Within couple of days the was together and functioning. We had to do it very quickly before the government had a chance to react and clamp down again. So that the union existed.
How the union develop then?
MG: After that the crucial thing was waiting to see if they would register the union official-
and recognise statutes. As you know there were a lot _oI propens - but finally it was done.
PK: In Ursus we set a date in mid-December 101 0i U per union elections. Each section held meeting to elect representatives to function at three separate levels: the sec-
tion, the department, and the factory as a whole. So the committees at each level
were all made up of directly elected representatives, and no one could hold a
more than one level. here was too muc! work involved for anyone to do more than one job properly.
instance, each departmental committee had separate commissions
deal with health and safety problems; pay and conditions;
culture allu sport; and housing. And che tactory committee had no less than twelve commissions dealing with specific questions. Then inere were hic sions, which meant you had to go to the regional office in Warsaw.... MG: It was the same with us. was on comas. Sion dealing with music alle Lidl
the whole evening
What happening with the old official unions while all this was going on?
MG: They still existed. After all, they had a huge ap pracus with hundreds
paid fulltimers, and
told weaton and resoures.
wealth and resources
PK: We didn't have a closea snop, our 1 represenice
1,180 of the 1,200 WORKCH department. That's quite a few CIA agents, isn't it!
Overall would say that around 15,000 out of the 18,000 workers in Ur-
Solidarnosc Sus and many weren't in any union al all. by last sum mer perhaps 500 were still members of the official union. But of course Ursus wangh old of the working wasn't class.
In smaller factories the official unions were
stronger. As general rule, you could say that the bigger the factory the more support there was for Solidarnosc.
MG: That really underlines the character of the union. I would say that
90-9S be cent of industrial workers
were members of Solidarnosc. But the proportion
much less among was white collar workersperhaps only a half.
How did you make sure that bureaucracy developed Solidar. nosc?
PK: We did everything we could to make the elected representatives responsibie at all times to the members of the union. . So no one could hold office for more
Piotr Kozlowski than two two-year terms. • Or une tirst you could not be declared elected it the position hac been uncontested And you had to win fifty per cent of the votes plus one to get in. ror a secon term, you had to get seventy five per cent of the vote plus five
We could get paid time off work for union business, but this certainly wasn't a privilege. For example, as a representative at the denartmental level was paid by the company
SALI hours UHOE work a month. The rest of the time I did my job as normal.
But my wage dropped didn't quality for bonuses quarter because or anything like that. In fact some of my colleagues who worked quite a bit of overtime ended up with almost twice what I got.
There were no perks, ochieve me
One other thing should mention: al every
Continuing our extensive coverage on the
this weekend in London.
Topics include: * Solidarity tasks with Solidarnosc * Political revolution in Eastern Europe * History and future for Solidarnosc
details or ring 01-359-8371.
level we also elected a body known as the review commission which acted as sort of watchdog on behalf of the members. It had free all documents, books and so on. This was true even at a national level The nacommittee had to make available if just one of the documents fourteen regional review colluss ons askcu lo m spect these papers.
MG: myself was member of such a review commission. was elected mid-term the old review Was recalled and replaced by the members.
PK: That's another point • elected bodies at every level could be recalled on the demand of only twenty five per cent of their electorate. That's because thought that making it fifty per cent would make it much easier tor deople lo
Socialist Challenge
Poland School
Polish events, Socialist Challenge is holding a special educational school for supporters If you would like to attend the school, ask your local Socialist Challenge sellers for
Solidarity with Solidarnosc
13/14 February in London
take advantage of apathy to hold on to their positions. It would have made the union vulnerable manoeuvres.
Of course, you can say that perhaps we were tak ing things a bịt too far. Bu: after thirty-six years of no democracy all, wanted go as far possible towards total democracy.
MG: It had some fairly startling results, 100 Three months after Solidarnosc was formally established, no more than fifty per of the Their posts. If they did the been elected still held
slightest thing he
wrong the! were out. workers simply weren't prepared to settle anything Besi than total democracy
Elections were held on the basis of who would best defend workers
CY O1 presented yourself and would then be grilled on all sorts of questions sometimes very personal. such as vou drinking habits! It would take up at least an hour of the mass meeting.
In some ways Solidarnosc was obsessed with democracy The smallest question could lead to a meeting lasting hours People were tasting freedom at last, and the! tended to go overboard bit. It was a reaction to the Jast ror instance. Wilci decisions about strategy WCLe passea down from the regional committee the normal reaction was to reject them and make your own decisions!
But all in all I think the democracy of Solidarnose was a very good school for the people, because taught them how to exe cise their rights. That's something ther forget no matter how hard the repression Socialist Challenge 11 February 1982 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
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alisa Challenge an Open to all Socialis
Socialist Challenge 4 February 1982 page 12
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CIALIST CHALLENGE RALL
NAJIUNA den tre.
RALL
Joyce:
'The finest
- Irish genius
that no one
can read'
By Terry Eagleton
'CAN YOU not see, James Joyce wrote to his brother, 'that a deferment to the emancipation of the proletariat, reaction to clericism or aristocracy or bourgeoisism would mean a revulsion to tyrannies of all kinds.
These words weren't exactly over-quoted in the carnival of media adulation which last week greeted the centenary of Joyce's birth. For the cultural establishment; Joyce is a precious example of the writer's remoteness from politics
a high priest of art, cloistered and esoteric, WIlOSe incomprehensible
provide intellectuals with a rather more elevated version of the Times crossword puzzle.
Since he also wrote about Ireland, this snobbery can oe mixed in win a good dash of patronage. Earthy, drunken Irishmen with thick
brogues fall amusingly around in his books, and he wasn't averse to a quick tipple himself.
The Ballad of James Joyce By Terry Eagleton
To the tune of Home Boys Home
Chorus:
Well it's Bloom, boys, Bloom Bloom I'd like to see Tucked up in bed with his sweet Molly
Made his life a hell in the south country Chorus
It's a pity he didn't fit the stage- rish bill more exactly by actually dying of drink, but he was certainly a treak. how could any major artist pro. duced by tin-pot Te are not be? He did however have the good sense to CaVe his clodhopping compatriots to their bacon, and cabbage and head for the high cultural centres of Europe, where, the Icol humanity he holed himself up with a typewriter dull produced two enormous novels, have read but which all of us agree are, not least for a peasant, superb. Different The real story of James Joyce is rather different.
Born into a Catholic lower middle class Dublin family in 1882, he was part of the Cass which spearheaded In e Republican MOVement. But when he wrote of the need for a deferment to the proletariat', he was criticising, socialist internationalist, the most negative aspects of Irish Republicanism.
Well now who'd be taught Jesuits, unless you have no choice But that's the fate that lay in store for little Jimmy Joyce They lashed him and they smashed him though he could hardly see Until he turned around and said 'two fingers Lord to thee'
For the Popes and the dopes and the petty bourgeoisie
Well Jim's daddy was a drinking man who idolised Parnell And his mammy was a pious lass who lived in fear of hell But neither hell nor Parnell struck Jimmy as much cor Compared with Nora Barnacle but there I'd better stop
Well he had a spree at TCD proclaiming Ibsen trumps Till pious professors landed him some spiritual thumps 'You're a traitor to your country Sir and your religion too' So Jimmy turned and growled again 'two fingers Sir to you'
What with clerics and Sinn Feiners our Jim was in a mess So he upped and off to Paris and to Zurich and Trieste With love and hate for Ireland at war within his heart He learned what can't be done in life can still be on in art
Review
masters of English prose,
works during his lifetime.
From adolescence, Joyce struggled against the stranglehold OI religion, sexual repression and sen timental nationalism over his country, and saw just how these were entwined with Republicanism. He satirised the Church relentlessly, debunked the pretentions of upper cias: Irish patriots who idealised the "indomitable Irishry', and scandalised Trinity College Dublin, fiercely defending the radical, sexually candid art of Europeans like Ibsen
Lilc DIOUS which the Irish censorship allowed.
Exile
Forced into defiant exile, by the bigotry and oppressive backwardness his own nation, Joyce did indeed trek to the high cultural centres of Europe but his early friends there were often enough socialists in exile from
Chorus Chorus Chorus Chorus
Chorus
The Frist Times.
James Joyce was born 100 years ago last week. He is one of the great
novel. The setting for his writings was his native Ireland which banned his
their own countries, and he praised the work of the Italian Marxist Labriola.
Unable to overcome contradictions of Ireland in political action, he proceeded to lay bare those contradictions in his art.
His two great novels, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, mockingly undermine the sedate realist fiction beloved of bourgeois England. They play havoc with a language - English - which was not originally that of his own people and rip apart the assumptions of conventional middle class readers Ulysses which was widely banned obscene, both blistering satire of Irish provincialism and in its Leopold Bloom, celebration of those who refuse sucn limits. Hin. negans Wake, which the Daily Express of the time describes as worse than a journey through the 'alien territory of Soviet Russia', respects 110 linguistic
So he settled down in Trieste town and produced a mighty tome It's all about two geezers one a Jew and one ex-Rome And a buxom lass called Molly who's quite a little duck But the High Court didn't like the way she kept on saying...
Well one day there came his way, a catchy tune from Dublin town About a man call Finnegan who's dead but won't lie down Now Jimmy said to Nora 'well the air is pretty rough But it would make a dandy piece of writing sure enough'
So he took ten tons of paper and twenty parts of ink And he took the Oxford dictionary and flushed it down the sink And he wrote the quarest book Sirs that you will ever find Two sentences are quite enough to make you blow your mind.
Well it's mostly 'bout this woman called Anna Blourabelle But it might be about Mao Ze dong for all that I can tell It's the book of books, the myth of myths, it's really rather fur It's the English language rolled into one great stupendous pun
Well now since Jim went to heaven his fates been sad indeed He's the finest Irish genius that nobody can read
But he took old Ireland by the scruff and put her on the ma
And there's few of your Sinn Feiners that can say better boys than tha
who revolutionised the form and structure of the
boundaries and strikes against the power of patriarchy in its subversive explorations of the conscious.
Inertia
Joyce was dalt enough that the stagnancy and spiritual inertia Ireland were the products of British imperialism. he sansee ma concluot ne also the comic humanist who affirmed what was still vital in Irish culture If he retreated from Ireland to exile, he also kept in the closest touch with political developments at home. If in the end he had nothing left to him but his typewriter, the fault should be laid finally not at his door but at that of imperialism and the Church. Joyce wrote part of the real history of his nation, and by leaving Ireland, for literature put his country indelibly on the interna tional map.
Page 13 scan of this page
Changes in rape laws
The political formation of the bureaucracy
theless ranks as movement. Repelled
the Soviet workers state in the world war which he (unlike Stalin) could see was approaching.
provided key information about Nazi plans which, despite the criminal bungling of Moscow, the halting of Hitler's offensive against the Soviet Union, and thus
history in favour of the working class
humanity was to be
return. In criticising the bureaucracy for its
errors, Trepper had been
workers state. Only in 1954 was he released.
(Available as Sphere
fascinating account
militant survived and
knew the betrayal of the revolution by the
Stalinists: It should also make us proud of our
own movement. In Trepper's words:
Stalinist machine are responsible, collective-
ly responsible. I am no exception to this yer-
dict.
rose up to voice his outrage?
The Trotskyites CalT
honour. Following the
leader, who was rewarded for his obstinacy
with the end of an ice-axe
Stalinism to the death, and they were the only
ones who did...
cuse those who once howled along with the
wolves. Let them not forget, however,
they had the enormous advantage over us of
having a coherent political system capable of
replacing Stalinism.
cling to in the midst of their profound distress
at seeing the revolution betrayed.
programme today in the spirit of the Trot-
skyists of the 1930s is the best tribute we can
pay to the memory of Leopold Trepper. His
struggle was not in vain!
TOM MARTIN
Scotland
By Ailean O'Callaghan
Last week we established the
existence of the bureaucracy
layer with its own against those of the working class. This week we look at
the political background to the emergence of bureaucracy.
Freidrich Engels wrote labour aristocracy to Marx in 1858.
He said, 'The British working class is actually becoming HOTe bourgeois so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimatev the possession bourgeois aristocracy and a bourgeois Di viclallal as well bourgeoisie. Of course, this is to a cerlali extent Jusunable tor a nation which is exploiting the whole world'.
It was with this labour aristocracy that the political traditions of the
bureaucracy born. The skilled WULACES remodelled their own family life in imitation of the capitalists, who made a national chauvinistic anil-irish racism part of neir own ideology were the same ones who formed the first, really stable trade unions, great Societies" and "Friendly Societies of the last century with their large and compacticave penera senemes ion
The motto societies was Defence Not Delance"
AS !! affairs. politics. Their
iphans pares, usual not crais.
Aul
Leopold Trepper
I WAS disappointed to see no mention in the paper of the recent death of Leopold Trepper.
Trepper, although not a Trotskyist, never-
of the heroes of our by the of Stalinism in the 1930s, he did not desert to imperialism but instead rallied to the defence of
As head of the 'Red Orchestra' spy ring he
war
basis for the eventual
changed the course of
His reward from Stalin for this service to
thrown in jail on his
too loyal to the
Trepper's autobiography, The Great Game
paperback), OT how a communist resister as best he
All those who did not rise up against the
'But who did protest at that time? Who
claim to this example of their
they fought
'Today, the Trotskyites have a right to ac-
that
They had something to
Continuing to cling to and fight for that
labour ing class and a privileged closely. interests
this
the
and more WCIC
outlook and
'Amalgamated
upper these
4) 111 allegiance were some exceptions.
conduct
JANUARY 1982 has seen unprecedented media coverage on the question of rape on television, radio and in the newspapers.
In Glasgow 'the rape case' where three youths charged with attempted murder, have escaped prosecution. the papers have led with the story for about ten days.
It is not enough for us to be outraged and appalled fairness of the Scottish legal system and there are important dif-
franchise to the labour aristocracy
and no further, cemented this alliance
between ine lop section or ine work-
the employers 1HI0IC
Disputes did occur and strikes did happen, but by and large negotiations were enough to get a settlement for
from laver. C'onsequently although these unions bad salaricd staff thet were simosi entirely for the
henefit and lactor" financial affair of the unions. There
Those union which employ i salaried caft for the
disputes marked hopsches oft trom the rag
Letters
ferences here). We have to say what we want done The Women against Violence Women group picketted the Fiscal's (the public pro. secutor) office
Letter!
Glasgow on Friday 22 January, and got favourable coverage. and served as a prototype for the organisation of the later general
The number of full-time trade union officials is tiny and insignificant in relation to the vast army that is the British trade union movement, two or three thousand bureaucrats in relation to some twelve organised workers. The strength of the bureaucracy is not its social but its political weight as a transmission belt for the pressures of the ruling class into the working class.
The historical basis for this is a split in the working class developed in the second half of the last century, in the second phase of the development of capitalism. In the preceeding period the bosses tracted surplus value by driving down the general conditions of the workers.
Workers were forced to work very long hours for as small a wage as possible. All available labour power
utilised labour outside the home became exlensive for the first time. Exhausted or sick workers were simply replaced
the vast reserve pool unemployed agricultural labour
Wages were clawed back by the "truck system in which the employees were forced to buy their goods from cores owned by their bosses at vastly inflated prices. fines whereby. for example, a worker could be tmed half a day's wages for being "diny'... or for washing in the
All attempts to combine against these barbaric conditions were met wilin the most sicious state repression.
worker that in a period where the
We were asking the basic question, still unanswered why were the charges dropped?
We have to be very in supporting the changes in the law which have been
Letters AtterS TiERs
gested by
might first dispose of one option -that of a private sent secution. resent the steps are being taken for the woman - Carol X - to pursue a private secution against the accused youths and
py if she succeeds although very dubious whether the youths could now have a 'fair trial'.
Summary justice has already been dished out to one vouth. who had his ear cut off.
A private prosection costs an enormous amount of money (although I am sure this will be forthcoming
sources ) but it will only ficu cannot be used as legal precedent.
Another option, supported by Judith Arkwright in Socialist Challenge 231, for minimum custodial sentence for rapists is very much on the wrong
'nation' grew enormously rich, a male worker in 1850 could only buy 90 per cent of what his ancestor could buy a hundred years earlier.
In these conditions there was a general levelling down of wages. In the advanced and dominant industry million wages fell faster than elsewhere,
this created the basis for the mass politicisation of the working class. During the last decade of this first phase, the infant trade union movement and the which Radical movement led by bourgeois
Emerged great, revolutionary Chartist movement. Strikes were transformed into political rebellions. It called strikes in support of political movements, and conceived the idea of the political General Strike, and sought political revolution.
The political tradition child labour bureaucracy
born in the succeeding period, the second phase of capitalist development and as the polar opposite of revolutionary Chartist tradition.
Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 which ushered in an era of cheap food first stalled the revolutionary movement, and then new methods labour exploitation
extended to industry in general. division in function berween a minority et highly-skilled workers and the unskilled mass lay at the root of the development of machine-based production in iron, steel and allied industries. the work pace of the majonty and through a sysiem of pay differentials
track. Her reasoning is
that, We sup-
port changes in the law.
including the ones men-
tioned for a minimum
custodial sentence
protect and benefit
women.'
In fact, if there were
etters
to be such a change in
the law, juries would be
less likely to convict
the
KnOWING
would definitely go to
jail.
And it means
'bargaining' could
done, whereby the ac-
cused could plead guilty
lesser charges
say serious assault.
gives the
police another lever to
dissuade a rape victim
from pressing charge. It
also centres the discus.
sion around the accus-
ed rather than
concentrating our ef-
forts on making the
ordeal of reporting
rape easier for the
woman.
Another suggestion
for changing the law is
that the woman
to give
evidence in writing.
This is a very delicate
situation
The only courts
which allow
evidence just now are
the Diplock courts
Northern Ireland - and
this facility is abused all
the time by the police,
since no cross examina. most technically
material
were used
to form
June mines.
As the
aristocracy
consciously
of the was however
The
The
of undermined The factory system was
British capitalism,
The skilled workers dictated workers
Socialist Challenge
tion is allowed.
But there is no doubt that number of women do press charges because they cannot face the ordea of the court, especially the otter brutal cross •examination.
There is surely a case to allow the woman to submit her evidence in writing and any cross examination would be COntret only the judge and jury present clearing the court of press and public.
We must always remember, however, that the most disturbing factor in vase cases l that only one in four women ever reports her rape to the police and substantially fewer CASe ever come to court.
The Rape Crisis Cen tres have called for changes In the procedures in treating who have been raped. We must con. tinue to publicise the way rape victims are treated and try change attitudes towards women who have been raped assaulted. amount changes in the law will Chande a societv which treats women as cona class citizens and somehow responsible for the violence perpetrated on them by men.
These kinds changes will take far than tinkering with the law.
MARION KEOGH Glasgow
ARGUMENTS for SOCIALISM
by the bosses to establish work discipline in the factories and
metal-working trades became the dominant industry the ruling classes developed this labour
as an instrument general social and political contro The bosses encouraged this uppe stratum of workers to believe the
more in common with the employer than with the working class
protits the capitalists were deriving from their monopoly position in world markets and their superexploitation of labour in their vast colonial possessions gare them the capacity to create a privileg. ed minority whose loyality could be. quite literally, bought.
Pioneered in the organisations oi the labour aristocracy, the emerging trade union bureaucracy learned how to organise, and learned its collaborationist politics at the same time, Next week we will look at the third phase of
when Brian los its monopoly position, the unskilled
and the bureaucracy became practiced in the
11 February 1982 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Cuba and
Nicaragua
back Polish
By Phil Hearse
In the wake of the declaration of martial law in Poland, the United States has been quick to seize on the events to whip up anti-communist sentiment. Reagan's shows this clearly. degrading spectacle was made clear when the filmed contribution by the pop group Abba was taken out because they tervention in El Salvador as well as the clampdown in Poland.
bellicose response to Poland are the developing revolutions in
and Nicaragua have
tions of the Polish bureaucracy.
Immediately. after the Polish coup both the
and Cuban Nicaraguan press confined themselves io reprinting the. despatches from the Soviet news agency Tass. But the Cuban paper Granma of 27 December referred to
...measures adopted by the Council of State of the Popular Republic Poland, conforming to the constitution, OUCI get the country out of the economic crisis in which it finds itself, defend
and re-establish leganty public order' This quote reters LIC military takeover!
An editorial published in the weekly Bohemia, written the official Cuban press agency Pren
Latina talked of the
'subversive CULILCI
revolutionary activities of
that "parallel union • manipulated by
cabai or extremists to pro-
voke economic, social and political chaos with the
single and obsessional aim
of seizing power'.
Cynical
Prensa Latina, in the
issue of Bohemia dated 2:
December went stage
further: ...the leaders of Solidarity Have
scruples and other illegal creasells
their destructive activity.
of these
elements has claimed
first victims. On 16
December seven people
were killed and thirty nine
were injured in the Wujek
coal mine, when the forces
of order
resist the attacks of pro-
who
vocate elenicul
were attempting to prevent
the workers trom going to
WULK. Thus the cold-
blooded murder of strik-
ing miners cynically Socialist Challenge
clampdown
crude TV spectacular The meaning of this
denounced US in-
Menaced most of all by the United States'
Central America.
Jaruzelski's military coup makes it easier for the United States to take military action, even if by proxy, in that region. It is therefore ironic and tragic that both the governments of Cuba
Chosen firmly ally themselves with the counter-revolutionary ac-
justified phrases reminiscent
If this
aCuUll.
2nd Party in Havana
of Poland, he argued that:
provocation directed
and that about ShoutesI
in-
COSTS onslaught.'
The of the is being repressed counterelements who deliver Poland to
What
regime the
The elements of should be stressed
The Sandinista newspaper Barricada states General
new policy •reserv socialișm' against the plans
11 February 1982
Fidel Castro
the Nicaraguan
lead trom Cubans in adopting line on Poland.
of
tation by Fide
2nd Party Congress sees the world 'camps' the one
tries, the 'progressive countries national liberation and other hand
led by the United At the
revolu
Bloc
Among the countries which 'opted socialism
Congo-
Benin, Sao Tome. Algeria, South Iraq, Syria
The optic seeing or thin
struggle two "camps' to the
of regimes led by bourgeois or petty. bourgeois
class.
the once rather than working class is as the main ourwark azallis perialism, anything
HO I only disarms the Cuban when paced
movements
tor of the world revolu-
International,
tions and
countries'.
is no He chose them
pro-Soviet, most
Aims
policy two-camp theory,
They albeit
best way. break their own the region.
tradiction with the framework of Soviet
peaceful coexistence • which aims
back
The
the upon and the
ideological
economy that dependent the ald
Soviet UNO. DOS LON
mind.
Aid
The material dependence of the Cubans has had a profound impact
on their ideological evolution. The close Hes will
the Soviet Union has more
and more made its mark
on the way the Cubans see
the world
It is because
process that the Cubans
have adopted as their ideological framework the two-camp world outlook It is also why they have adopted positions on major questions of the world revolution that are
the Kremlin.
But because the Cuban
sortership is area thratised
bureaucratised leadership that exists in the Soviet Union. or Eastern European states they take positions favour of the promotion of revolution in Central America which they see as the best way of extending and defending the revolution in Cuba.
Therefore the Cubans take a revolutionary posttion in relation to Central America, seeking to defend and extend revolution. But same time do not take a revolutionary position relation to all questions of the world revolution. They do not provide a revolutionary leadership on a world scale.
Since the Cuban leadership is not complete-
suborallale Soviet bureauracy, and inoleec supports socialist revolutions in Central America against the line of the Soviet leadership, would be quite wrong to define them as Stalinist. Nonetheless, they have in-
ternalised a crucial of ment of the Stalinist work view the two camp' theory.
Thus on Poland, the is influence counterrevolutionary has succeeded in splitting "morian elements ouc leaderships of the crucial arenas of the world revolutionary process. Revolutionary socialists, in tne tramework or com plete solidarity with the
and Nicaraguar revolutions against world imperialism, will
flinch from criticising their DO LOTS on Poland. The
ine of the Cubans and Nicaraguans represent. blow not only to the Polish workers but also to the workers Central America, and a grave step in ine pontical evolution of these leaderships.
El Salvador
By Megan Martin THE Salvadorean junta hold elections on 28 March.
toll in that country. the far right Democrats over the electoral law.
tion commission and that this,
identity
the army, elections perpetuate a fraud.
results never even announced!
that any
in
The proposal to
the
the international
ta.
which the
and in particular tion of the FMLN the
to discuss the
put forward by the FDR/FMLN.
Wing for a
impossible to midst of a civil war.
to legitimise its operation.
ele- Our
government to
Rican governments
two HUE
elections fraud
UNITED STATES and the are planning to But no one should believe that these elections are honest or fair, or that they will put an end to the grisly daily death
The only parties 'campaigning' in the run up to the elections are the ex. treme right wing parties led by people like Major D'Aubuisson, notorious as a leader of El Salvador's death squads. Some squabbling is going on between
and the Christian details of the
The far right complains that the Chris. tian Democratic Party dominates the elec.
together with the decision not to use the 1978 electoral register but instead to rely solely on
leaves the way open to massive fraud by Christian democrats
Other observers have pointed out that
which will be supervising the position to El Salvador has a history of electoral manipulation the
of the last election in 1977 were
The present electoral system requires
ponucal party wishing to participate in the electoral process must pre. sent a list of 20,000 members. For anyone but the extreme right wing this amounts to giving over a 'hit list' to the death squads.
hold elections has clearly nothing to do with any 'transition to democracy'. It is an attempt to convince
community BENE the situation in El Salvador is 'returning to nor. mal', while at the same time the US pours in massive military aid and re-arms the jun.
The only resolution of the conflict in
United States is interested is one in which the popular organisation -
the guerrilla organisas are destroyed. Thus the United States has consistently refused
all proposals for negotiations
The United Nations general assembly voted on 3 December for a resolution call-
negotiated solution to the Salvadorean conflict before elections are held. Even the former US ambassador to El Salvador Robert White has said that it is
discuss eiections in the
Britain abstained on the UN resolution, and it seems likely that the British govern. ment will send official 'observers' to the elections - which will be used by the junta
aim must be to force the Tory end its support for American foreign policy in El Salvador and follow the example of the French and Mex-
in recognising the FMLN/FDR as a legitimate political force.
Page 15 scan of this page
NUS elections: which way for left?
By Neil Cruickshank ON MONDAY 25 JANUARY, the workforce at the Plessey plant in Bathgate, West Lothian, responded to the company's intention to close the factory by occupying the premises. But on Thursday 7 February the Plessey company took the workers where they were granted an order to end the sit-in.
On Friday, mailed to the factory gate by Sheriff officers so that all those occupying would know of the court's decision.
Plessey multinational firm, which produces components for electrical circuits, with plants in Italy, West Germany and the USA.
Despite the world recession, Plessey's profits are still very high.
The Bathgate plant once employed 2,300 people, but now onlv 330 remain
- including management.
By Ann Henderson IN THE PAST YEAR, students have been involved in campaigns to defend their right to organise, against the education cuts and college closures, and for a deCell Thousands demonstrated against nuclear weapons, joining with young people and trade unionists who have marched against the Tories' policies.
quite independently of the leadership of the National Union of Students, Party/Liberal bloc.
ago, Inis leadership forced through the
born that he
primarily concerned with
this way iney cut uneaselves or rom many of the most important campaigns of students and othehe
bloc walls strategy based negonlanon ana com promise the Tories, which inevitably means
and acceptance some aspects of the lories atlacks on eaucanion. it has prepared the way for imporsand de union antinuany and defeats particularly
Ims year s elections for
clearly illustrate the options.
The Communist comply decline y
support among students,
OUSL President Ineir 'Left Alliance' slate.
The Alliance still involves the Union of Liberal Students
hallullal level, willi wants to continue une Done of compromise and 'negotia
Last year the CP duly
auring errory
capturing the votes of students ana aole disrathin themselves nossible distance from socialist students. NOLS
An important element in the elections will be the role of
LaDOuI which is gaining support the colleges 9000
oined Labour clubs last year
VOLS candidates dic sallone ror some or ine execuave posts - including President
and have a real chance of
However, the role of the NOL› leadership over the las yeay will orgauare ar thad
will organise around socialist policies.
Plessey workers
defy order to quit
occupying the plant to court
a copy of the court order was
75 per cent of the workers and 90 per cent of those involved 1n the sit-in women. The factory does not have a militant tradition but now they are determined to fight to save tael jobs. Mountng lactory closures in the area uncalcued closure of the British Leviand tractor Bathgate where the students have
But much of this activity has been undertaken
dominated by the Communist students alongside the labour movement in fighting back against the tional level NOLS ha: ; unfor tunately maintained some level of contact with the Left Allance ana WIll SUDDONI some or ineir candidates in the executive elections inte
S
Mass action way forward for students
that there will be no other
Jobs tor them to go to
George Wilson, the
TASS convenor at the fac-
tory. told Socialist
Challenge that although
they would have fought
for their jobs anyway, the
victory of the Lee Jeans
workers was morale
pooster or mie workers a
the plant. He acknowledg-
euse never
Lee Jeans workers had
given to the Plessey Action
Committee.
Decision
He also told us that the
determinat on of the
Plessey workers to fight
for their jobs had been
strengthened by knowing
that many of those who
had accepted redundancy
elections will be the rise of the
Social Democratic Party
(SDP), . The SDP have gained
rapidly
students, capturing a simila
Allance. Inev will oe bulling
up a slate of candidates
the election, and this has split
Liberals. Some want
continue to participate in the
with the SDP. One member of Aulance some lo ali
SDP slate be
Liberal.
In any event, it seems like
ly that the policies of the CP
dominated len Amance will
not be much different from
that of the SDP.
In this situation the NOLS
leadership must make a clear
EL BRUNEL UNIVERSITY
STUDENTS UNIC
LONDON - ACTION
COORDINATING ENTEE
FIGHT THE CUTS
SPREAD
OCCUPATIONS
News
at Talbot, Linwood now
regretted their Diners decision.
Redundancy for the Plessey workers would all have gone after 18 months, but finding another job in the area — where there is 30 per cent unemployment would be next to impossible.
Plessey workers met last Saturday to discuss the court order, and it was decided overwhelmingly to continue the sit-in. watch had the backing of the maor union. at the lactory
is clear that the workforce will not be divided or intimidated into submission.
As George Wilson told us, the workforce has shown remarkable break from the policies of the Left Alliance the SDP
This means NOLS fighting on
me bass or socals policies
Tory attacks on education,
and for NOLS
leadership Challenge union
Socialist
kevolunon yourn supporters in NOLS will fight for the
adoption of these policies.
Moreover NOLS should
be fighting clear
of alliance wịth the class, and against all class col-
laborationisl Ironis winne
Liberals and lories. it means
break
port any of its
A woman's right to
work...
Women workers are fighting back
up and down the country..
* In Plessey,
have voted to detv the iniunction granted
to stop their occupation for jobs (see the
LOUS page):
declared that laws which prevented oc-
Cubalous were ol
needs of working people'. These women
Ike their sisters betore them at Lee Jeans
are fighting to win. Well women at the Loveable bra factory •Underneath they're
in Glasgow are showing just how wrong
LAIS IS. , They're fighting back to save their
jobs and they're certainly not meek and
mild.
* Divide and rule tactics by manage-
ment must be fought.
Hoovers factory in Merthyr
their case
won against
lay-offs —
who are doing nothing to fight the redun-
dancies are stirring up the male worker:
against this decision; a thousand workers
went on half day strike in opposition to
the Equal Opportunities
courage in the face of in. timidation. One the women workers, Karen, told us that they were new to industrial action of this with such policies as well.
and Revolution Youth supporters In NUs believe that the besi way to promote ine nent lor a socialist leadership
to link with the ir the labour movement. all le oreak win all colaboranonisi alliances, , is to be part of the
Labour Students, to fight fo
to camoalen • or l to aaoDi socialist policies. Growth
We think that the student supporter: the SWP (SWSO) and the students who
outtails Students Allance (SSA). bot
are standing their own candidates themselves off from the most important development in the slunch. movemen the growin or Labour Clubs
We believe that their 'independent' stance We shan her tore At th and the Left Alliance. fight
candidates, except ' where NOLS candidates not standing In those
we shall support the
to save jobs
By Jon Lovibond
ned for the end of March.
The factory divided into two sections • rusk production and seasoning
is part of the massive Dalgetty-Spillers corporation.
Management intend to close down Tne whole Kingswood rusk operation to clear the way for the opening modern replacement plant at Birstwith near Harrogate,
probably O It third or less of the present numbers.
Women fighting back..."
last week ships fighting the
, Bathgate, women workers diary The
Shop steware Trade unionists,
step with unc
this century
WC1 Loveable'
choose...
Women at the tors for giving Tydfil have discriminatory rights
• in law. But the union chiefs
on February represented
Commission campaign.
kind and were learning as they went along - but tha made them all the more determined Money is urgently needed. ment for a Wormwood Scrubs prison.
In an unusual friends, who
bail pending appeal.
in open court on 8 and 9 March.
Bristol millworkers occupy
ON FRIDAY 5 February the workers in the rusk mill of the T Lucas factory in Kingswood near Bristol occupied against 53 redundancies plan-
T Lucas showed over £2m profits in their October 1981 accounts and a 20.1 per cent return on investment over the last financial year.
Transport union convenor Colwyn Jones described the situation: 'This spice built up by wages high investment and -nour days, unen mikea ars by old man Lucas; they're trying to •do the Socialist Challenge
decision against discriminatory lay offs
It's a pity the unión leaderput their energies into redundancies instead of fighting the women workers.
* 20 February is a day for everyone's
action Collullice woman's right to work is holding a planning day to build for the 5 June Labour Party day of protest on women's rights
Labour Party and women's organisations will all be represented on 20 February, helping to plan the biggest event on women's rights
The planning day is at the University of London Union, Malet St,
- starts at 10am.
A womans right to
The threat of prosecution against two doc-
"illegal' abortions is just line of attacks on democrati Women are already organising uf and down the country for a day of action
at the CLAR/rade
union meeting at Conway Hall, Monday 22 February to plan the next stage of the
Send donations to Plessey Fighting Fund, c/o Mary Murphy Main St, raulanuuse West Lothian.
OVER one hundred supporters of Newton Rose, the black youth in London sentenced to life imprison
didn't commit, picketed
development Rose and three were sentenced to six months for perverting the course of justice have been granted the right to appeal and the three were released on
Rose and the others will have their appeals heard
sameth nge ain,
'It's typical old capitalist game All the right wing media - EvenPost, BBC Bristol, distort the picture. We need to pul over the workers' case and spread the dispute to-al Ine mouse a casswoo‹ and Bristol. Our struggle today is theirs tomorrow
It's all part of the Tories' picketing Blli fighting unemployment and building a socialist future
Socialist Challenge supporters in Bristol are organising solidarity meeling with Tony and leading Bristol militants to build city-wide and national support. 11 February 1982 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
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← Socialist Challenge No. 231, 4 February 1982Socialist Challenge No. 233, 18 February 1982 →