Socialist Challenge No. 237, 11 March 1982
The scan: sc-no237.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive)
Uncorrected machine reading of the whole issue. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from the scan and has not been corrected or cut into articles. Each page gives the headlines first, then the columns in order, so one article runs on into the next. Expect misread words. Use it to find things; quote from the scan.
Page 1 scan of this page
Challenge The butcher Di El Salvador
EL SALVADOR SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION SUNDAY 28 MARCH HYDE PARK LONDON
o. 237 11 March 1982
HIM
OUT
VASS MURDERER and JS president Ronald Reagan should be kept sut of Britain. His inritation to address both touses of Parliament is in insult to the labour novement and all the working people of Briain.
It is Reagan who is slanning to station Cruise across
is Reagan who is presiding over the most nassive CaTCHICITE programme history
welfare serrices and living stan-
25p Unemployed and strikers 10p
Socialist
KEEP
dards of American
workers decline.
It is Reagan and his
administration who are
pouring millions of
dollars of military aid in-
to Central America to
support the corrupt and
brutal dictatorships in El
Salvador and
Guatemala.
Every day more
evidence emerges
ne arootes
ted by the US-backed
Salvadorean army
against ordinary
villagers and workers of
the country.
Delegations from Amnesty International, the British Council of
the US Congress all say the salane thing: mass murder is being carried out by the military junta and its death squads.
Raining Salvadorean peasants from helicopters, and Spendi Tride billions Cruise, missiles is what Reagan calls 'defending freedom and stopping communism. In reality
at defending American
interests. Reagan is the enemy of the people of Britain and of the whole world. The Labour Party snould demand that he is kept out of Britain.
If he does
COFFE Labour MPs shoul boycott all the ceremonies marking his visit, including his ad dress to Parliament.
Every trade union branch,
every Party constituency and every trades COUNCI should say it loud and clear: the people of Bri
tain don't want this barbarian in the country
But in all probability the Tories will go ahead with their invitation in the face of mass opposi tion. Reagan will then be in Britain on Monday 7 June and Tuesday 8 June. CND have changed their demonstration on 6 June from Greenham Common to London.
Hundreds of thousands must come OUT OTtO the SUTCET behind the slogans No Cruise. Trident,
INSIDE
A BUDGET FOR
THE RICH
Hands off El Salvador!'
But before Reagan arrives we need a huge turnout on the demonstration in Lon don on 28 March called by the El Salvador Committee, at which Labour leader Michael Foot will speak.
The freedom fighters of El Salvador have just launched a new offen siallenge reader hold Every Socialist be on the streets in London on 28 March to sup port their struggle and keep Reagan out
Why we
defend
Militant
IT HAS been a good week for hypocrisy. Pat Wall of Militant has made an attack on democracy - by warning that the state might be used against socialists
Mouthpiece of the counter-attack is the Sunday / ime. with
evelations clipped fron Militant's pages. The Sunday Times is accountable
globe-trotting millionaire.
Leading the counter-attack is Labour's right. They want a cabinet accountable to the Bank of England.
Behind the attack are union leaders who hardly know what a ballot is unless it's paid for by the Tories.
This dispute is not about parliament. In case you haven't noticed, Militant is searching for socialist parliamentary
elected through the Labour Party. Whether thev also demand flying pigs is not recorded.
the dispute is about the fate of guardians of freedom like Judge Denning. who was elected by no-one and publicly proclaims his right to overrule parliament.
Clean off the bullshit. and what do you find? You can't be "democratic if you defend yourself
So can we expect an inquiry THEO the Labour
illegal strike to free five dockers
19722 Will SOGAT'S Bill Keys, who calls on trade unionists to break Tebbit's law, be up for the third degree? Well, maybe.
For a battle for Treedom is going on - led by the workers of Laurenc Scot and Plessey; by black youth and women; by everyone fighting oppression. The Tories are throwing the state's full weight into this battle with laws that would look mild in a police state.
The rich want a safe Labour Party. They want it to abstain from the fight tor freedom and bow to a
pet cabi Sunday
Times, speaking on their behalf, is
elling the Labour Part that only on this basis wil their presence in government be tolerated
That is what the witchhunt against the Militant means.
The Labour right is saying "we accept. That is what the "truce ACCES
democracy fest about sav!
freedom. have message for them. want freedom and democracy: We want socialism
We defend Militant
Page 2 scan of this page
-Editorial
Budget for
profits
and create jobs'. oriented to helping however, had no creating jobs.
By term financial that unemployment is
wants.
ted, were to
mechanism into the determination
slave-labour
mechanism for
through the pressure of mass unemploy-
ther 10 per cent cut in wages.
of 100,000 'community jobs' plays an ex-
actly similar role to his youth schemes.
hand-outs to industry. The main items
were:
*E1bn from the one per cent cut in na-
tional insurance surcharge
*E250 subsidy through
and coal charge reductions.
0.4 per cent who run industry
who earn more than £27,750 a year. He
had handed out £344m to those in his
previous budgets. In fact he promised
those people more
presents. £500m more
property is to be sold off to those sharks
at bargain basement prices. For the rest
of us taxation was increased.
about 14 per cent was presented as a
generous gesture. But the extra £1.50 for
the single person and the £1.79 for the
married man that this could mean will be
almost exactly matched by the higher
national insurance
now come into effect - imposed at the
time of the 'mini' budget last November.
Overall, therefore, total stoppages con-
tinue to show an increase from just over
a quarter of take home pay when the
Tories came into office to nearly one
third now. 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
Age..
Union/CLP (if any).
Send to: Socialist Challenge, London N1 2XP.
Socialist Challenge 11 March 1982 page 2
PO Box 50, London N1 2XP Phone 01-359-8189/8180 (editorial and distribution) The Chancellor Sir Geoffrey Howe dubbed his budget as one 'to help industry
It certainly was industry. This, connection with
maintaining the same mediumstrategy. Howe knows bound to continue to increase. And this is what he
He gave the game away with his talk in his budget speech about the purpose of his youth schemes. These, he admit-
'introduce market
wage rates'. In other words, to use the
wages for youth as a cutting wage rates
ment. As his favourite economic agency, the London Business School, recently argued the Tories are aiming for a fur-
His pathetic proposal for the creation
Talk of creating jobs is just a cover for
gas, electricity
Chancellor Howe left untouched the
those
Amersham-type of nationalised
His raising of the tax threshold by
contributions that PO Box 50,
SUPPORT is growing for the 2000 Islington NALGO members on strike SDP Council. Camden NALGO E2000 to workers have refused to cross the picket lines. The SDP Council has responded by employing a scab firm, White Shield, to do the work instead.
The strikers have voted to stay out until all the members are guaranteed a job and the threat of closure against a children's home is lifted.
The media has had a field day. The Sun editorial described the residential workers as monsters for taking strike action to save their jobs. The reponse of the kids at
Vicious
union
By Davy Jones
Islington council. few weeks have fully confirmed this view.
In just three months the SDP council has carried out a number of attacks on local working people. It has decided to sell off some 50 short-life l properties.
it nas cur grants anc allowances to voluntary 02alSau0ns altogether to fund the Islingion Area Youth Com. mittee and the Islington Action Group Unemployment, in an area
unemployment. it is plan- CCHI ning further cuts in ser vices and redundancies of local government staff for 389e forthcoming year's budget. Dispute
It has also provoked a bitter dispute with the local government workers in an attempt to smash the union, NALGO. refused to honour the contract of one of its employees. When this KOD was Webb. clearly
shown be illegal by the Council's own disciplinary hearing the SDP coun-
shut down children's home deliberately prolong the strike.
On 1 March they ever threw out ACAS backed compromise formula to end the dispute so that they could pursue their confrontation with the union.
Such reactionary atutudes are not so surpris ing when one recalls the history of the SDP councillors, before 25 of them defected from the Labour Party. Councillor Bill Bayliss was always notorious for his hostility to the unions and Labour Councils under his leadership infamous for their measly housing programmes.
Perhans the most
Support Islington NALGO
against une donated the strike fund and Securico
dispute.
SDP in council
bashers
IT WILL be worth keeping an eye on the SDP's first council: it may be a foretaste of things to come nationally, said Socialist Challenge last December after the SDP had seized control of
Dramatic events in the last
notorious of the SDP's reCentees s neon 19 Michael O'Halloran MP, US ORIOL rigging and bogus delegates. It is no that he followed the defecSDP to retain his political COUNCHOR base. The councillors had defected when they did try to ensure selection councillors by the local SDP, as most faced the CHOD ITORS the local Labour Party The ballot-rigging past of these democrats has followed them into their new home. The Guardian reported on March that the national SDP is to set up an inquiry into allegations of impropriety in the recruitment of members in the Islington SDP.
Forms
cillor Bill Baris aroun
the national headquarters on 8 December last year with 145 application for membership forms. Coincidentally that was the final day for new members to qualify to vote in the Spret ballot to select the candidates for the local elections in May Head office refused to ratify the members voting rights and some 50 enraged local SDP members, again including many of the recent SDF councillor converts, have called for a special area meeting to enfranchise all local members.
have not the publication last week OF as Aims of Industr pamphlet by another SDP councillor, Roger Roswell, snappily entitled *Dealing with the Marxist threat to industry. In a fanfare of Rosewell announced that: *The ac-
News
the home was somewhat different.
In a letter to NALGO they wrote: 'It is Islington Council who are the monsters, not our staff. We want our staff back but only if all our homes can stay open. Thank you to everyone who has supported the
The strikers have also leadership to deal with. NALGO executive appointed a subcommittee of three to oversee the dispute who decided not to pay the paltry f20 per week strike pay for the first two weeks of dispute. Fortunately last Friday's national Local Government Group meeting of NALGO overwhelmingly recommended to the executive to over-
tivity of extremists threatens the future of астостасу, of economic growth and the freedoms of working people Rosewell explains in great detail how the ev tremists know how to discredit and foreclose any alternatives to strike ac tion. . they believe in conflict. One might think he was talking about his SDF colleagues In Islington Council, but no. he was referring to "the Marxists'
The local scab local paper. Islington Gazette.
turn this decision.
The executive
biased'
had the union
satisfactory negotiated?
labour movement.
NLP students union, Highbury Barn, London N5. John Grant, SDP MP for Islington Central, raking some muck. itself currently blacked by the NUJ, the local unions and the Labour Party over en forced redundancies,
echoed the themes Rosewell.
It has exposec agitators undermining th SDP council which the Is ington Gazette backs to the hilt Allies
This ugly unionbashing crew has more
have now enforced secret ballot on the dispute despite i
per cent support for the strike.
ballot asks the strikers: On 1 basis of 20 a week strike pay are y prepared to continue strike action unti
return to work has be
The strike needs more support from ti
Send resolutions a money to: Islington NALGO strike HQ, c
Ladbroke Hous . One of three members reponsible dealing with the Isling dispute is none other th In Mike Blick, a trade uni advisor and member of t SDP!
Ballot-riggers, Aims Industry, scab journ ana amon-basners: tna the Islington Soc Democratic Council a its allies. Remember ti TICA umic somcone t you they are fed up w extremists and support t "moderate' SDP
Page 3 scan of this page
The lost budget speech
The budget: a
socialist answer.
Those who bothered to listen to the
debate on the budget no doubt fell
have been different. the speech that Michael Foot could have made - if he was a socialist.
Who will the chancellor help with this budget? He will, course, do nothing for the four million unemployed.
On the contrary, their
continue to fall from their present level
already lower than at any time since 1951.
He will do nothing for wage earners, whose take-home pay
nas risen percent while the Tories own price index shows their living costs to have risen by l per cent.
He will do nothing to halt the wholesale destruc-
productive resources of this country. Hatred
His true BUT BUSE revealed by the scandal we
last week, which his friends made E24 million in a day from the SalC of EDICCIOUS public
The chancellor's budget confirms for the whole country that this government, government of partisan class nauco, nas no legunmate claim represent or-
to continue in office. This budget is a budget for the rich.
We expected nothing else from a cabinet composed, in its majority, of millionaires.
My party intends to
to drive it out at the earlest possible oppor-
What will we do on arriving in olice. Let me first explain our priorities
opposite of the chancellor's.
Work
Our first aim will be to restore full employment. We say this because it is in our belief a basic right of the British people, but because it is obviously the most effiCICI way use our resources. Indeed we shall Taise cruciency a lew rurther meagre percentage points by Cachee Lass
The Lords one Free,
the Lords,
DEESCTH boards of the nationalised industries and over 50,000 idle shareholders.
There is plenty of work to do. we wu immeciately double the level of house building to 1,200,000 year; we will spend £60m on health, £65m on education and a further £300m on urban renewal. To ensure the necessary material
forthcoming we shall mobilise the public sector industries and gear them for full output, injecting a further t2.i billion in new capital.
posals, which the and our Party have outlin-
broadcasts of the House of Commons asleep like the rest of us. But it could Below we print
IT HAS been the custom to address members of the House as honourable. I have no intention of continuing this tradition in respect of the Party opposite. ed, will demand initial SOYCEECHE £9 billion expenditure and will
restore work to 800,000 people.
However I must now come to a number of further proposals which, 1T01
unaccountable reason, I have previously failed to mention.
Firstly, we allow the scandalous situation to persist whereby those in work are forced to accept longer and longer nous wane ner comrades are denied work. Jointly with the therefore be campaigning To now on or ac does tion of all overtime create a further 880,000 jobs and the introduction of the 35-hour week, create million jobs. Our government will TEN CES compulsory.
EnIS should panied by any fall in the real income of working people and we will legislate to empower the unions to ensure that their members are paid, for a 35-hour week. the now receive for an average working week with overtime. We shalage cand
wages
Crisis
The introduction of an immcclare programme or positive action for women and black people and the introduction of equal pay will further extend right of employment many now unfairly denied
The costs of these
amount to around €12 billion, will of course employers, as I shall shortly explain.
Our opponents argue that the level of government spending we propose is utopian, and will provoke a crisis. A crisis will be provoked, but not for the reasons suggested. . The money we spend will, of COUTSC. saved by the enormous drop in the COSE benefits, and by increased income tax, which will put the government E3 billion in the black. We shall supplement this by a 100 per cent tax accompanied by suspension of tax rebates
incomes all capital gains will be on
purchasers entishares ill
purchasers shares public companies sold by the Tories.
Further immediate savings will be made by scrapping nuclear and overseas military com-
No. the problem is a different one.
The cost of absorbing with their
unemployment should be met the employers, shareholders and financiers of this country. This
STICED E perfectly possible: a study of their
accoun reveal that industrial and commercial distributed no less than E8 billion to Mr Howe's friends last year, and that the financial institutions
post-tax profits of £4 billion. cidence these sums will ex- By a remarkable actly pay for the right to work, even leaving out of account the enormous benefits to the country of full production.
The problem we anticipate this will
the chancellor's friends with no profit at all.
To be blunt, we do not
with their money pare
Michael Foot: the speech he ought to make believe them to be a corTUDL and parasitic clique who are now desperately frightened because fraudulent claim to represent the nation's interests is now exposed for the miserable deception that it
We believe they will stoop to every means at their disposal to prevent their wealth being applied TOI socially necessary ends. chancellor's colleague Mr This why Tebbit is preparing an un Just and violent law with which to bludgeon the unions into submission to ine emp overs demands; that is why he is endeavouring to bin the blame for the present unrest on young people and on the opposition benches, particularly my good comrade Mr Benn.
He hopes a law and
ed to justify a despotic attack on ordinary people who are doing no more than defending their rights against a tyrannical regime
whose true colours,
add, amply attested by its disgusting SUDDOR. alone amongst European governments for the brutal Salvadorear dictatorship
I warn these gentlemer now that we will stand shoulder to shoulder with British working people in resisting, quite regardless
any attack which seeks to use the law to deprive them of their basic rights
It is now clear that the party opposite, and those they speak тог have respect neither for law nor human dignity. Our government will therefore be obliged to take specia measures to defend those
order' campaign can be us- it represents, when next it takes office.
We anticipate that our policies will be the occa sion for a considerable campaign by the employers, who will use
an excuse withdrawing capital, and will seek to use the courts and police against all those who resist this . 1 have i1 mind the fate of the valiant workers Laurence Scotts, which our friends would like to see repeated he has misinformed across the country.
We do not consider the chancellor's friends to be the legitimate inheritors of
USOV own. These resources were produced by the sweat of the workers of this coun try. and their DECOCHIE owners have shown themselves unfit to dispose of them. We will return new control of these resources to mose wao producea
Socialist Challenge
By Alan Freeman
them
We intend to see that the productive resources of this country are defended against the deprada-
For me chancellor s friends and brought back SUREL by those who work in them. We shall therefore legally empowe the workers of any • firm failing to meet its social obligations to the community to seize the assets of that firm.
In order to ensure that financial well physical assets are secure
nationalise the banks and publish, for the scrutiny of the unions, the accounts transactions and assets o every firm in Britain
In order to initiate the planned use of these resources we shall be organising and down the country, of meetings,
Labour Party and union members to conduct an in. ventory of the resources at our disposal and prepare
national plan. Our first step will be to contact the in every public sector industry to discuss the im plementation of our proposals in that sector.
Loyalty
I have to confess that we not feel confident that the loyalty of Whitehall, the army or the police can be relied on. Judge Denning has made it clear that he will outlaw parliamentary decisions with which
disagrees, doubt with the same contempt he has shown for the people of London In our last
of office LICITE finally convinced that Whitehall is a class-ridder bureaucratic anachronism, and we frankly place no trust in it at all. Most ominously, Brigadier Kit-
considers the army should be ready to step in, in the event of such a conflict as we anticipate our policie. will provoke. Ashes
I must therefore say we shall find ourselves oblig cate make some revisers to the Home Guard which the innovative Mr Nott has proposed. First we believe he misinforms the public as to what national wealth should be protected: want to protect the very factorie and buildings which his governmen presently engaged ir wrecking. Secondly, we cannot understand why h wishes to contine member so the chen and br ship of the
trary establish a guard compris ing those very union members who have So steadfastly defended our democratic rights agains the depradations of his party for so long.
And finally, we think
the public as to the enemy to be fought. This enemy is
distant found in a his
distant
COLLEY. enemy does not speak a foreign language
Members of the House, this enemy is sit ting opposite tanty will not rest until le me.
is utterly defeated and a
social order built the ashes of its failure.
11 March 1982 page. see down?
Page 4 scan of this page
LONDON TRANSP
NOT A PENT
Young Socialists
conference
Time to change
course By Paul Smith
'FINALLY Conference recognises that the
only solution to the problems facing working class people will be the nationalisation of the top 200 or so monopolies with compensation only on the basis of proven need..
Guess who? The answer is Aberavon YS resolution to the Young Socialists conference.. and mmetimes themoncerns shift. This year the many more! slateels a menton ... calls upon ine next Labour government to abolish the monarchy because, while we have a monarchy with the power to dissoive pariament inev woule use this power to stop a Labour government im. plementing a socialist programme. (Ormskirk.)
Our old friends 'the workers in uniform' turr upid grace one mildest bad you the would grace the mildest Labour lefty. we are ritually warned that only socialism wil guarantee peace: phraseology designed to
justify passivity in the face of the task building CND now
vear /witant uses the LYS Con. ference, which takes place at Easter, to pass its programme. This exercise in sterile dogmatics is me polar opposite or the role youtn nave played in the class struggle in Britain and internationally. But only in odd nooks and crannies or the crowed agenda does tat impressive role find a reflection in the resolutions
Last summer British cities erupted in youth rebellion against unemplovment racial harassment and the government. Youth
vital part play in the struggle for The LPYS s exact Ine fighting organisation that could channel their struggle to give it political voice.
In October two million, mainly youth, marchec across europe protesting
march in London. Yet resolutions from Brent East Dearne Vallev and others are required to call the leadership to around implementing a practical campaign in line with last vear's conference decision to af filiate to CND.
in the fight acainst iob loss, the unemplov. ment marches, the youth jobs train and now the campaign against Tebbit's proposals on YOPS conterence wi debate cemanos on a tuture Labour government. But desperately needed proposals for a campaign of mass acon oy you now.
Younger workers are in the lead in struggles like Laurence Scott, Plesseys, even cent unotticial action of railworkers following the wain ervers strikes. nere are the proposals to continue the reform movements in the unions which have grown up around those struecies, acainsune oureaucrats.
Thousands of young women will mobilise for the Labour Party's Women's right to work festival. Oxford LPYS calls for commitment this campaign, and takes up the call for the im
the posive devon or women. wantinos user
positive therefore in no position to give a lead to young women onuing tortoos Poland shook Reagan, Brezhnev and the word. Last year revolutions in El Salvador nuke me chauvinistic leaders or ine british labour movement, forces behind building a mass solidarity ment. wwortunately resolutions Reading YS which believes 'that it is vital that the future course of the Salvadorean revolution IS .. • Dased on a ciear socials proaramme. not aid this process. The sectarians turn the world on its head
What is needed is a massive call to action by ine britisn labour movement to stav Reagan s and Thatcher's hand from an orgy of blood letting, not a breathtakingly ignorant discourse on
NoT ine ron
West Stirlingshire YS provides a similar 'service for the embattled workers of Poland. Its resolution is a ready-made programme for the
workers and little else. mightiest events of the international revolution are mus umpea perore tne task or detending Militant's programme.
This reaches its height Birkenhead's resolution on Ireland which sees the fight as one with 'Orange and Green Tories'.
Unfortunately a majority of the resolutions to LPYS Conference clearly reflect the line want whose aims to turn a vita weabon tor
get represented betarian instamir oriny
threaten to cut the YS off from the living movements and campaigns of youth both nationally and internationally.
our mere are sions OT a Tigni to change course. Resolutions from Brent East and Aberdeen lay out a fighting policy for the construction of a mass youth wing of CND
xrora and newport resolutions survey the problems facing women and employment pointing up the central role of mass action aimed to Torce a programme or positive action on a future Labour government. starting from the commitment to build the Women's Right to
pune
Birmingham Edgbaston's Ireland re-asserts the ABC of socialist principle ot support or a national iberation struggle
Behind these type of resolutions,
thousands of youth who are battling with the Tories. Time is running out tor the sectarians.
Socialist Challenge, 11 March, 1982 page,4.
the boice.
sort
nuclear
the
there-
By Tessa van Gelderen
for LAST December the Law Lords ruled
that the Labour GLC's fares scheme was illegal. Workers know whose side the Law Lords are on. Unfortunately, over the past period they haven't been too clear which side their Labour GLC councillors are on. The Labour Party will be judged again, mOVe coming May elections. The working That class has good reason not to trust
Labour's promises. The GLC stands indicted: 1. You neglected to mobilise the workers of London against the attacks you faced from this Tory government. In so doing you played into the hands of the union leaders who are not prepared to lead their members into battle against the Tories. 2. You failed to act in the interests of the working class when you refused to defy the Law
The Lords. Voting for cuts, loss of jobs and fare in-
creases was against your election promises. 3. You tried to carry out your promises by inercasing rates. could not carry out your election promises by WITH
making the working class pay for it - and expect support for your actions.
It is not too late to redeem yourselves and fight back against the Law Lords' decision. Your fares policy is the most popular decision Londoners have seen for a long time and given the right lead the working class of London will be right behind you.
the
SMK 679F
The response of the GLC
from London Transport.
in the forthleaderships.
Hay LaNC
should organise
the workers are You failed to realise that you
government, lock, stock and barrel.
on the fares!'
The Labour GLC therefore has to: 1. Openly declare that not one job will be lost
2. Tell London Transport Executive that the GL.C is in charge. No worker will be victimised and no prosecutions will be made in the event of any industrial action taken. GLC leaders should make it clear that they are in favour of workers defying the Law Lords by non collection of tares under the direction of the union
3. Throw open the doors of County Hall and the GLC facilities to workers in struggle. County Hall should become a centre of workers" resistance to the Tories and the GLC should provide legal and financial assistance as well as full solidarity for any action transport workers
COOKSON (Socialist challenge
4. On 21 March, the day the fares are due to increase, you, the GL.C, together with the unions.
massive demonstration through the City of London - past the Law Courts. past Fleet street past the Bank o England — to highlight who the real enemies of
The suceess of carrying out these proposals will lay the basis not only for overturning the Law Lords' decision but for taking on this Tory
Failure to do so will be judged throughout London in the May elections as the workers take on the burden of paying for the crisis.
Finally the banner that should fly above County Hall, for the world to see should be No redundancies. no victimisations! not a penny
Transport
By Mary Jacobs
NO TRANSPORT system in any country in the world is run wi subsidies. Public transport is lit the arteries of any modern city. don Transport has passed on th ing cost of transport to passenge raising fares and by trying to raise ductivity.
All this has done is to create a vicious as fares have risen the number of pass has dropped. And so it goes on. Since 19: tral government has been steadily withd revenue support from passenger tra authorities and has redistributed what re in favour of rural areas.
London has a higher level of fare. most cities in the world, after local wage are taken into account. Subsidies to transport in other cities are much higher t London.
New York has a 72 percent subsidy pared to London's 46 per cent with the
' scheme. After the Law Lords' ru could fall as low as 12 per cent.
The degree of subsidy is a political sovertments make. Tories' Transport Act allows for private intere compete with public transport bus ser While the Tories are so opposed to subsi existing public transport they prepared to offer financial assistance 10 p STINES
The Fares Fair' scheme was a step i right direction for public transpori. But the Labour GLC would be the first to adr it did not go far enough. Nor is it suffici call on the next Labour government to ci the law.
After all, the last Labour governmen.
Page 5 scan of this page
RT: NO REDUNDANCIES!
Y ON THE FARES!
the people
windrew revenue Labour GLC should be campaigning now for a series of demands to be taken up by the labour movement be adopted manifesto that the Labour Party will fight on at the next election. • For a free transport system. • For an efficient transport system that meets the needs of working people. This means expanding the services, running more buses and tubes. More workers should be employed on decent wages without overtime. • Don't make the workers pay for the service. Rates and rents should be frozen - if not reduced. The money has to come from central covetamen. This implies a whole set of difJerent priorities in public spending, where socially useful products are put before weapons of destruction.
Payments of interest on debt have
gone up enormously. It was £2bn in
1970. But this year it was £15bn
which is higher than we have spent
either on national health or on the
education services.
Margaret Thatcher, prime
speaking in the Commons, 4 March 1982.
• Nationalise the banks and finance houses. For every pound the GLC has to spend, it repays 38p to the finance houses in interest. The next Labour government has to tackle the problem of the commanding heights of the economy.
To do otherwise will only tinker with the system. The Labour GLC tried to do so, and failed. An all-out attack on the institutions of the capitalist class is the only real alternative to the crisis.
Jrom London Transport.
FAIR
London's
.20 .30 50
minister
.30 1.40 1.60
Well bus then?
March.
NUR
La
And, word of mouth
January
FARES
Transpor
What the Law Lords mean to your pocket Thinking of travelling by tube? Current fare Min/Max new fares
.40/.60 40/.70 .60/1.00 .80/1.20 .80/1.60 1.00/1.80 1.20/2 .00 .50/2.40 1.80/2.60 2.00/2.80 2.20/3 .00 2.40/3.20 2.80/3.20
That's simple: all fares will double on 21
The response of
the unions
By Martin Eady, vice president, London Transport district council
THE decision by the Law Lords and their Tory friends last December to attack the cheap fares policy of the GLC
blatant attack on the living standards of London workers, and on the jobs, wages and working conditions of London Transport workers.
The decision means that fares will increase threefold by June, that services will be cut, that jobs will be lost.
course, that transport workers will be asked to pay for all this by accepting even lower wages.
There is no doubt that the mass of workers recognised the attack for what it was -Toryinspired robbery of the poor to pay the rich. There was widespread anger and willingness to fight back. A lobby of County Hall in support of the cheap fares policy called at three days notice just before Xmas attracted over 500 transport workers — despite being organised by
The scale of the attack, the anger of the workers, and the wide support in the community demanded a decisive and rapid response. But this was not forthcoming. It was well into
before the leaders of the various unions mer. And then the main line of march was a propaganda campaign aimed at explaining the attack to the public.
While this is very good and should be supported it is not the main task for the union eaders. In a widely scattered membership like thai at London Transport a clear central lead is
Fares Fightback
Calendar
Wednesday 10 March
• One day strike
workforce
Thursday 11 March
• GLC mass lobby parliament
Meetings in Central Hall at 3pm and 6pm
Friday 12 March
• It's worse for women! Special women's meeting or a Richardson MIP: Valerie Nise, LCris Get Central Hall, Westminster, 7.30pm. Speakers:
woman guard; Julia Stone, bus conductor: Sarah
Roeloffs. Women's Fare Fight.
Saturday 13 March
• Keep Fares Fair: rally and entertainment from 1pm
at County Hall
South Yorkshire transport authori-
has, under mass
agreed to keep the fares frozen at
1975 prices. In real terms this is
equivalent to virtually halving the
fares up to 1979. PAIGN
FAIR FARES
London's Transport
essential. But the union leaders are ducking a fight. Aware of the anger of their members they have delayed their response to allow the initial militancy to cool down and leave the door open to management to move and downplay the effects of the Law Lords decision.
Despite the lack of a clear lead from the top the hirst meeting of staff reps showed that thi policy has not succeeded. Held two months after the Law Lords' decision the rank and file call was for action as soon as possible. Under pressure from the staff reps the one-day strike was brought forward to 10 March. In addition there is a lobby of parliament on 11 March and a rally on 13 March. The question which LT workers want answered now is what happens next?
The opposition to the Law Lords in London's working class is massive. The meetings on this issue have been the largest seen for many a day. The unions should give a lead to this opposition.
The first step should be for the union leaders to organise mass meetings in all the depots and win support for a policy of non-collection. Of course this puts big pressure on individuals, but with a clear lead from the unions, and a guarantee of support against any victimisation it can be done. This would need to be backed up with days of action and mass demonstrations.
To organise this the conference of workplace reps should be recalled, to coordinate action and take the initiative from such leaders as Sid Weighell and Terry Duffy. For London Transport workers this is a fight for jobs and working conditions. The time to act is now while the massive public support is still grow-
of London Transport
from 2pm
the endorsement Peter Tatchell.
Ironed out pressure,
Sex Discrimination Act women tually passed on the
party militancy.
tant and
sion were passed.
The composite although turned ITS
to become a
of forces in London.
the Labour Party fight
London Labour
in conference
By Tessa van Gelderen
1 GIVE total support to any industrial action London Transport workers may take in defence of their jobs,' said GLC leader Ken Livingstone denouncing the lies of the Standard at the London Labour Party annual meeting last weekend.
It was a conference where the left quietly consolidated its position in most instances
Attempts by the electricians' union to elect the party leader by individual ballot were laugh. The endorseme to warme not o
Bermondsev candidate
National executive member, Judith Hart, did not endear herself to conference when she call. ed the Tatchell affair a hiccup which could be
Women's issues had a surprisingly high pro file throughout the conference: representation of women in the party, the inadequacies of the
abortion and violence were ail debated. Most con troversial was the proposal which was even
'mandatory inclusion of on all parliamentary shortlists'. There were more women delegates and speakers, and fewer unchallenged, sexist remarks
But as usual at Labour Party conferences when the stakes are high the block vote of some of the trade unions acts as a dead hand on
So what could have been the most impor transport was woolly and next-to-useless. exciting debate on ine issue National Union of Railwaymen had ensured that no meaningful attempts to direct labour movement action to defeat the Law Lords deci
But a debate on how to defeat Heseltine opened up the discussion on the lead Labour councils should give in defeating Tory policies
resolution that was moved containine many important pro was opposed by Socialist Challenge supporters because it stated that Labour coun cillors were not expected to 'embark on any course of action which is clearly contrary to law. Despite the executive's recommendation to support it, many hands were raised against.
It was around the burning issues facing the working class that the conference in the main
attention. Although the Staffa dispute is now over, a resolution to stop the loss of jobs from London was passed.
But as Frank Gorton from Hackney North pointed out words are not enough. 'Staffa failed
central question for the labou movement in London. If the workers had won, he said, "it would have changed the relationship
But as with all such conferences the key thing is not so much what is passed, but how
in London will carry out the Thatche cana the continuing witch-hunt inside the party.
B'ham LP Public Meeting
Wednesday 24 March Digbeth Civic Hall
Stop the witch-hunt For a Labour victory
Speakers
Albert Bore, prospective MP for
Ladvwood Tariq Ali, Peter Tatchell and PWA representative Socialist Challenge 11 March 19
Page 6 scan of this page
WOMEN MINERS CAN DIG IT, TOO!
USA, speaking tour sponsored by Socialist
WHEN I got hired, there were stre are ver 30 women and 500 men 30 nO W there OYCE Bethlehem's No 58 mine.
Women Ine mine perform all kinds of jobs, from mechanic and root bolting to shuttle operators and general labourers.
Most of us had to fight management receive
training and get the oppor-
tunity to run various kinds
of machinery.
We found that while,
at first, some of the men
were skeptical the union
and our brothers in the
union have proved to be
our biggest defenders
harassment. against any company
Over 3,000 women are
now working underground
Plessey action
By Alan Freeman
port of the
Bathgate factory.
The support strike
followed the victory
scored by the occupying
workforce in defeating a
court order requiring them
to leave the factory. This
was followed on Monday
by a national demonstra-
tion outside Plessey's Lon-
don headquarters and a
lobby of parliament.
Militant action of this
kind is what has led to the
court victory. The judge
who withdrew the court
order - Lord Kincraig -
was the issued it in the first place! same One who
The company is appealing
against the judgement
Although the verdict
was an important victory, Peter Huntingford speaks out
the investigation
spoke to Peter about the interpretation of the 1967 Abortion
JA: Why do you think the Director of Public Prosecutions decided to back off?
PH: They didn't think they have a chance of succeeding with the prosecution. I have always felt that my defence was strong never broken the regulations.
They tried to test a statistical argument and they failed. That is, that it is always two to three times safer to have an abortion than to continue a pregnancy. They couldn't refute this
fa They've tried to whitewash this.
They've tried
Socialist Challenge. 11 March 1982 page 6.
against the company'
AS Mary Zinns, a woman miner from the
goes around the country as part of a Challenge and Revolution, the socialist paper for youth, she spoke to Judith Arkwright about what it's like to work a 'man's' job.
in the States. The reason underground is the saing reason men do — to make a living.
All kinds of women have jobs the mines some are just out of high car and some grandmothers: there's married women and single women; children women without children; small than 90 pounds and large women WRO weigh women.
It's a very real cross ection of the women who live in the coal fields.
In those coal fields where the companies have consciously kept out other industry, fewer women have jobs than in other parts of the country. MORE than 12,000 Plessey workers took part in a one-hour stoppage last Friday 5 March in sup-
occupation at the company's the judge used the occasion to demand changes in the law of the kind being proposed in Tebbit's new Employment' Bill. political courts! As much TOT *nonvenor George Wilson COnpoints out, the battle wil be won through the dustrial struggle, not relying on any favours from court officials.
Plessey is set to make big money from the electronics revolution - and from denationalisation.
million in profits. Yet it is Last vear Indee €100 one of 25 companies which have been urging Thatcher 10 reflate the
'I'm for women controlling their lives'
General's decision, but how can he say there was a medical justification written on the form when there was There could be a bill to change the grounds for abortion as a result of this - but I don't think it would be successful even with this parliament.
If they can't get changes like time
- I have
press you have claimed that the means that you can operate aborthink that abortion on demand exto say | recanted..! paign has always argued that a
'We'll all fight together
The only jobs available for women are minimum wage Joos, working in a restaurant, a sewing factory or as a store clerk.
Some women their way into the coal CIOULT mines to make a decent going wage.
The first women were hired in 1973. Many people at the time said that these women were stealing jobs from men and that they should stay home.
But you don't get any discount on your rent, ga with food or electricity because you're a woman. less mines were too dangerous It was said that for a woman to work in But if the mines were too dangerous for women they were too dangerous
Now that women have been working in the mines, establishing ourselves as a legitimate part of the workforce, that
PLESSEY
photo
Its actions give the lie inat unemployment is needed for vival. For lesseye k. economic sur-
ment and their unemployment a
the challenge is because I am not surprised by the Attorney
can do unis
limits through parliament then they women doing what they want to do
although there's no doubt they'll keep to, controlling their lives.
tion on demand. But do you really someone else would have had to
Women's Rights
we can do the work and we need the work to survive Just like the men.
In 1979, the United Mineworkers of America finally recognised this, and was the first industrial union in the country to hold a national conference of its women members.
This conference reflected the that women were an important part of the union, and that women were accepted as co-workers by the men in the mines. It also showed that the bosses - who had not wanted to hire us in the first place - continued to harass and discriminate against women on the job and consequently one of the duties that the union for assumed was to defend all its members.
Instead of the men against the women, whites against blacks we would all fight together against the company.
UNTE
weapon to defeat their workers.
The which brought a 100 per cent sup port from Plessey's Not tingham and plants, is to be followed up PH: I don't believe that any law will Women have to control bodies. But I can't persuade other
only women themselves
I think the law gives abortion on demand - if it does not challenge me and prosecute me in what I am doing.
•TOr - having children when they want JA: How do you feel about those who criticised you for taking the
prosecutions PH: I did what I felt | had to do - it's that
just my job. If I hadn't done it then because the wedge would have been
When in the next session of parlia- and without naming the woman.
BEESTON
SUPPORT
RATHGATE by further solidarity action.
Send donations and Mary Murphy, Hessager suppor 30 Main Street, Fauldhouse, West Lothian.
abortion bill (as I'm sure they will do) then they'll do it on the basis that I got away with too much.
But our side is stronger as a result of this. In my mailbag the pressure on this issue has been huge. I have had fetting me what they resong groups telling me what they're doing will all be saved up on our side. JA: Do you see the outcome of this as a victory for our side? PH: It's only a partial victory in the sense that the powers-that-be have not admitted openly what they are doing. It's a real Kafka situation an the aim is to confuse
Hower, I would have thought notification for regulations abortions is in tatters regarding for the form to be filled in. They claim - there is literally no point in asking ed they needed it to collect statistics but they could do this another way
Left: Mary Zinns. trom a calendar
pit in Rotherham.
be discussing
Yorkshire. following events.
EDINBURGHcentre LONDON
cras Station. See ad this page MANSFIELD Lounge at 3.30pm BARNSLEY at hom SHEFFIELD -clude Blanche cil. Wednesday 17 March, Burn Greave SOUTHAMPTOI ference Room, Civic Centre at 7.45pm. BOURNEMOUTH meeting at Women's TUC For 01-359 8371.
Open to all Socialist Challenge supporter
1 Arkwright, PO Bos 50, 1 ondon NI 2VF
produced by the Coal Employment Project. Coalmining Women 1982 Above: women miners
Meet Mary Zinns
GREAT interest has greeted Mary Zinns as she started her tour of Britain discussing her fight to become a woman miner and the right of women to break into so-called men's jobs
Mary is planning to meet miners arounc the country and will be going down Maltby
She is lined up to talk with Joan Lestor, Shadow Minister for Women's Affairs and other MPs at the House of Commons and will
with miners leaders in
Make sure you meet Mary at one of the
Edinburgh University, Brista St at 7.30pn •Thursday 11 March, Chaplainc • Friday 12 March, Camden Centre, Bid borough Street, off Euston Road, opposite St Pan
Sunday 14 March, Civic Theatre - Monday 15 March, Northern College Work Rally, 7.30pm at Victoria Hall, speakers in Tuesday 16 March, Womans Right to womens subcommittee of Sheffield Trades Cour Flannery, secretary of working
Vestry Hall, Burn Greaves Road , SC Forum at 7.30pm a Thursday 18 March, Con Friday 19 March, fringe
further details phone Judith Arkwright at London Rally for International
Women's Day
Speakers
Mary Zinns, United Mineworkers of America and member of the Socialist
Workers' Party, USA
From the Nicaraguan women's morement From the Fourth International including Ireland
From the campaign for abortion rights From the Action Committee for & Womans Right 10
Work CAMDEN CENTRE Bidborough Street, off Euston Road, op-
posite St Pancras Entrance f1 and 50p unwaged
Socialist Challenge/Revolution Youth
weekend school Women's oppression and the fight to build a women's movement 13/14 March. Countr Hall. Waterloo. SEI.
Creche provided
schct: E3 for TWD rally and school from
Page 7 scan of this page
For a Reagan-free Europe
By Martin Meteyard
THE TORIES are to
backs? Unfortunately not.
Ten billion pounds could help to rebuild the
shattered lives of hundreds
of thousands of working
people. But intended
use threatens the lives of us
all. For it will be spent on
sne latest and most
dangerous escalation of
the nuclear arms driveBy Bob Pennington THE GODFATHER
the labour movement.
It is certain that when Reagan Germany and France as COeS to
part of the same tour hundreds of thousands of people will protest against him. We must therefore make sure Inat me growing anu
movement in this WE OUT and sisters in Drotners
demonstration of international solidarity
This can spell out a world-wide message which snows inat me
plans of the imDenalISES can not only be resisted, but can be defeated by the organised action of the working class and its
ches.
Last year's CND national conference voted for an international day of action in 1982. Unfortunately, this ended up as march and demonstration on June Greenham Common.
Reagan's visit has overcome the problem of organising coor-
international action, as there doubt that wherever he goes in Europe he will MISDITC the revulsion and anger of millions of people.
Every thinking person knows that Reagan
By Davy Jones TONY BENN has launched a new Bill in parliament aimed at banning all nuclear,
biological weapons from British
soil.
The Foreign Nuclear Chemical and Biological Bases (Prohibition) Bill was
launched on Thursday 4 March. It states
that: It shall not be lawful for nuclear foreign country or jointly controlled, to weapons owned or controlled
be sited in the United Kingdom.
The Bill has the backing of 11 other
unilateralist MPs and of CND, but not of
Labour reader Michael Foot,
the Bill is clearly in line with Labour Party
policy. There is no chance that parlia
ment will pass the Bill which would make
those guilty of operating nuclear bases
able to a minimum of five years in jail. The fact that the Bill has been raised
spend £10 billion on Scotland. Does this mean an end to the present wave of redundancies and social service cut-
Trident.
Trident is four nuclear submarines each carrying 16 D5 missiles, fourteen independentlytargeted warheads. a staggering total of 896 potential COll pared with 64 for the present Polaris submarine. of world imperialism, Ronald Reagan, comes to Britain on 7 June. He must be given a massive thumbs down sign by
is visiting Europe to line up his lackeys. He Wants bigger arms commitmentfrom Thatcher aliC her cabinet He wants more support COUPLETrevolutionary policies in the Caribbean and Central America.
What is more he will get what he wants from the Tory Cabinet unless mass resistance built that can stop them.
Clearly, CND should follow the lead of the European peace movements and switch its demonstration from Greenham Common and set itself the objective bringing the streets of London to a complete halt if Reagan gets nere on une The TUC the Labour Party put into practice their conference policies for unilateralism. They must demand that Thatcher calls or the visit oT this missile gangster. In the House Commons, the Labour MPs
does not come to BriLaIn The TUC should call ONCES airports to put a comDiete emoateo on any plane carrying Reagan
Benn launches Bill
against US bases
chemical and every
Sporting it.
among although
Common sense - and a calculator — will tell you this is a fourteen-fold increase. But the Ministry of Defence begs to differ. According to its crazy logic. the number of 'systems submarines will remain the same so there's no inCreaSe.
Yet at the same time it insists on a seven-fold expansion of the naval base at couport to cope Trident. And it won't hold Reagan's war games threaten us all and his crew. Of course these drastic measures, Mr Foot will probably complain that they are antiparliamentarian. True enough. in parliament at all shows the developing strength of the anti-nuclear movement in
area of life. Even in parliament itself CND now has 95 Labour MPs sup-
And the nuclear-free zone movement
local authorities is developing apace. Some 170 local authorities have backed the movement, its biggest boost with the decision of when recered C/wyd councillors to back the nuclear free zone idea. Their vote meant that every county council in Wales supported the movement, making Wales the first 'nuclear-free country in Europe.
The Labour Party and the unions should be forced to back Benn's Bill and the nuclear-free zone movement. They can make a start by campaigning to keep Ronald Reagan, the biggest warmonger of them all, out of Britain.
Stop the missiles.
Trident can be stopped
11 B00 100 01 because it would be toc long drawn out. So much for the democracy which Trident supposedly needed to defend.
But then democracy motivates Reagan and Thatcher, for their bleatings over Poland. Their concern is to wage war on all who are fighting for an end to the with oppression exploita-
tion of the imperialist But we are going to measures indeed if tie very drastic are going to stop the imperialists trying millions of people to a cinder.
MOLeS S011A7 campaign against Reagan's visit. Let's ensure that if he does come he is greeted with such a show of hostility that he realises his war
system.
The gaff was blown on what's really at stake over Trident by Sunday Times coresponcem Joan connell in a front page article on 21 February.
Connell reported that the US is prepared to make a string of concessions on price and manfuacturing to persuade the Tories to go ahead with the D5 version of Trident. What it expects in return is quite
will be opposed by millions and millions of people.
In every CND branch, in ever trades union branch and trades coun cil, in every Labour Party and every anti-imperialist solidarity committee we must begin to start building a movement that can surpass even the gigantic
HAUNTED BY A WOMAN'S SCARLET LIPS!
HATED BY THE BROTHER WHO CALLED HIM "COWARD'!
HUNTED BY THE MAN WITH THE IRON FIST!
RONALD REAGAN
simple: British support for aggressive policy As one source explain ed to Connell: *This titude of the administrtion...is conditioned the way the UK acts in the wider defence interests of the Alliance and the US More crudely, it put to Connell that the Trident deal meant agreement Britain to undertake other military activities demonstration of Oc tober 1981.
Benn is putting down a Bill in the House Commons for nuclear-free Britain. Good, we support that Let him join building a mass move ment that cal make sure we have a Reaganfree Europe
LAW and
ORDER
DOROTHY MALONE-PRESTON FOSTER ALEX NICOL
which find favour in foreign ministration american ministration and gress at- Mentioned in this
Bri by frigates and maritime crat on patror in Ene of Oman. But exam
abound. The latest is was participation of Bri ships Operation Pass off the coast of Ci
There's just one problem for Reagan
Thatcher in all this: can't get working per to go along with schemes.
The latest public nion, reported by the
brogramm Week
Worla on 28 Febru: shows 63 per cent oppe Sco land, feelings are t buying Trident. ning even higher, with cent poll indicating a jority Loriateral disarmamen favour
get rid of nuclear weap altogether
Organising this ment to make sure Irk never happens is the 1
the Scot Campaign Against Tric (SCAT), set up last yea the initiative of CND tivists to foeus public tention on the issue. stress is on mass and labour movements port, as is shown by two major activities SC is organising in the com MOTERS
The first is a tr
conference Saturday 20 March llam to 2pm in The Halls, Glasgow. . Spon: include the Scottish T AUEW-TASS, the tish NUM, the Royce shop stewards ci mittee, and the Toba Workers Union: and debate will be led off
disarmam spokesperson De Davies MP.
March
All trade unionists welcome, and the in tion is to allow plenty contributions from Toor in order to stimul discussion and organ tion in the workplaces.
Three weeks later, Saturday 10 April, SC is organising its first ma demonstration against dent. This also Glasgow, assembling Blythswood Square 10.30am to march to a 1 ly on Glasgow Green at noon.
These two actions be the first steps building movem which really has the po to stop Trident. Alread further challenge to
ing mounted by the le authorities, who prop to hold their own un ficial public inquiry in Trident in the autumn. itial Strathclydponsors
Region Council, and Dumbarts Glasgow and Renfr District Councils.
I this oppositon be developed to the po where all work on the si is made impossible, th the way is open to inflic stunning defeat on t Tories and their backers Washington
further details cont SCAT 420 Sauchieh Street, Glasgow 041-332 3141).
Socialist Challeoge, 11 March: 1982: RI
Page 8 scan of this page
FMLN
FDR
EL SALVADOR UBHE
What is the
FMLN?
EL SALVADOR's struggle against military dictatorship is spearheaded by four revoluEL SALVADOR SOLIDARITY tionary organisations each of
which has its own armed
DEMONSTRATION wing.
To coincide with the gove mment's The armed forces of the revolu-
fraudulent elections Marti National Liberation Front. The non jointly make up the Farabundo Sunday 28 March three strongest revolutionary organisAssemble Speakers Corner 1 pm which have carried the main March to rally in Trafalgar Square responsibility for the struggle, are the
Revolutionary People's Bloc (BPR), United People's Action Front (FAPU), and the Popular Leagues of 28 January (LP-28).
Their armed wings are respectively the Farabundo Marti People's Liberation Forces (FPL), the Armed Forces National Resistance (FARN), and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). The fourth. smaller revolutionary organisation is the Central American Revolutionary People's Army (PRTC).
In addition to these forces the National Democratic Union, the legal front of the Communist Party, is integrated into the FMIN after having previously supported the Duarte junta. The most prestigious leader of the FMLN is Cayetano Carpio, one of the signatories of the letter to Reagan published on these pages The FMLN has formed a political front against the dictatorship with other forces including the social democrats and progressive sectors of the Christian Democracy called the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR). But the forces doing the fighting are the revolutionaries of the FMLN The revolutionary character of the Salvadoran leadership is confirmed by the main points of the FMLN'S These include the nationalisation of the main means of production, the disbandment of the army and the creation of a people's army, expropriation of the big landea estates anacine democratic self-organisation of the masses edom fighters of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front
alist Challenge 11 March 1982 page 8
A lett
The following is a letter sent
by the Farabundo Marti Na-
tional Liberation Front (FMLN)
of El Salvador to President
Ronald Reagan on January 18
The translation is by Intercon-
tinental Press
Mr President:
We have read with care your year-
end message to the American people
in which you refer to efforts toward
world peace, and more specifically to
the fact that our hearts are anguished
for those who suffer oppression' and
that "Americans begin the year with a
renewed commitment to our ideals
and with the determination that peace
will have to be preserved and that
freedom for all men will prevail.
We would like to point out to you,
Mr President, that we Salvadorans
have suffered centuries of oppression
and are suffering right now from
repression by a military dictatorship
that has been in power, without inter-
ruption, for more than 50 years. Our
struggle is against that dictatorship.
If your heart is anguished by op
pression, we cannot see why it is
precisely your administration that has
become the principal support of the
military/Christian Democracy regime
in El Salvador.
Far from aiding our people's con quest of freedom, your administra
tion has chosen to support a government that is responsible for more than 30,000 deaths in the short period of two years.
Who v
TODAY in El Salvador the armed fighters of the popular movement against the US backed government call themselves the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).
Like the Sandinist revolutionaries of nearby Nicaragua, the people of El Salvador have named their movement after heroes of their national liberation struggle.
It is just over 50 years since Agustin Farabundo Marti was executed, at the age of 38, as the central leader 01 a general insurrection throughout the country.
Born to peasant parents of modest means in a remote mountain region close to the Pacific Coast, Marti's carly friends were the children of the workers on his family's farm,
Recognising their son was a bright child, Marti's parents decided to send him to school in the town of Santa Tecla. He was an excellent student and graduated from high school in 1913 to go on to university to study law and social sciences.
Alienated from most of his fellow students at the university, most of whom came from wealthy families. Marti began to seck out the company of workers and to study the writings of Marx and Lenin. He became a revolutionary.
He took up the fight against the despotic rule of the Melendez. Quinones families who were in power between the years of 1913 and 1927. He preached the need for political unity of the peoples of Central America and carned a reputation as a
and spokesperson in every struggle against the dictatorship.
Before long he found himself in prison. When he was offered release. he refused to go free until other opponents of the regime were also released. Finally the government deported him to neighbouring Guatemala in 1920.
There he spent seven years in exile. But he spent this time participating in the revolutionary movement in that country, working often as an agricultural labourer. Wherever he worked. he was a tireless agitator and socialist propagandist.
Page 9 scan of this page
er from the FMLN to Reagan-
vas Farabundo Marti?
Grenada: three years of revolution
seek, if at the same time you offer military aid to a repressive government? The military assistance your government has provided to the Salvadoran junta has brought about, among other things, the prolonging of the war and the entrenchment in the seat of power of the most repressive elements Salvadoran government - those who do not even respect the lives of US citizens, as demonstrated by the murder of the four women religious workers in 1980.
The recent agreement to train 1600 troops from the junta's-army at US bases confirms to us that your objective is not peace, but war - against our people.
Your administration has not only SCLE Wal material and military advisers, but is also helping to plan the strategy of extermination being carried out against our people. This is exactly what Under-Secretary Defense Ikle outlined in his recent testimony before the Senate committee on Inter-American fairs.
As part of this scorched earth' policy, the population itself becomes a military target, especially those who live in areas near the fighting. And the painful experience of many massacres shows how little the sex, age, religious Deners. these victims matters.
Barely December 7 and 17, in Morazan pro-
In 1926, less than two years before his return to his own country, Marti participated in the formation of the Communist Party of Central America which drew together many worker and peasant leaders from Guatemala Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador.
Bv the time he returned to e Salvador in 1928 there was a war raging in Nicaragua between the popular forces led by Augusto Cesar Sandino and troops of the United States, backing up the ruling oligarchy
Farabundo Marti and a handful of other Salvadoran leaders went to Nicaragua to fight with Sandino, known as the General of Free Men, and inspired many other Salvadorans to follow suit.
Marti became Sandino's personal secretary and a colonel in his general staff. He was responsible for writing to me govemmems or many Lann American countries and publicising the aims and intentions Nicaraguan revolutionary fighters.
Much of this work was done in the field and amid heavy bombing by US planes. It was here that Marti often switched weapons and made famous the phrase: 'When history written with a pen, it must be written with a rifle."
Meanwhile the situation was com-
THREE YEARS ago, on 13
March 1979, the people of the
Caribbean island of Grenada
ended the brutal dictatorship
of Eric Gairy and began the
construction of
Grenada.
Under the leadership of the
New Jewel Movement (NJM) the
people of Grenada for the first
time in 400 years finally took their
destiny into their own hands.
Grenada
with a population of only 110,000.
It faces many difficulties -
economic backwardness and the
hostility of US imperialism. But
the achievements of the revolu-
tion neVe aircaoy
midable.
Since the revolution the self.
more than 1000 peasants, women, and old people. and political
Led alive by
tion.
The Salvadoran people,
of the greatly admire the
United States,
cannot understand
respect for human rights.
ment and that of the Soviet
the reality
of because of the poverty and repression inposed on Subthem by the oligarchy Aiand the military.
We have taken up arms nou
because one military
rebellion.
ago, between It is the
that time. Marti returned.
and El
back with savage
movement.
revolutionary
of the
Can i be
developed apace. mass
free Foremost
'people s
of their country.
is a small country revolutionar
• both Recognition Act.
Led the trade unions. mmediate been for-
children, They were
the Atlacatl Brigade, which was trained and equipped with the military aid from your administra-
who sc progressive and democratic ideals of the people of the
understand Cahillo why you insist on pledging your support to a genocidal government. We
why the hard-earned dollars of US tax-payers go to support programmes of extermination instead of furthering peace and
Your claims that the war in El Salvador is simply an aspect of the confrontation between your govern-
Union seems to us to have nothing to do with
our country Salvadorans have joined the struggle because we love war, but rathe
regime after another has closed off all democratic avenues for change and has forced us to make use of our legitimate right to
Salvadorans and Salvadorans alone who struggle daily ing to a head in his own country with the plight of the population worsened by the onset of the severe economic depression in the capitalist world at
workers and peasants began to revolt, the government hit
repression persecution of the leaders of the Salvadorean 'defence' minister (centre) Garcia after helicopter raid
organisation of the masses has Among the organisations that have been established are the National Youth Organisation and the National Womens Organisation. has been the establishment of the system of democracy which allows the vast majority of Grenadians to participate in the running
One of the first actions of the The passing of tve Trader was the Trade Union Now, about 80 per cent of the workforce has join-
measures nave been taken to raise the living stan. dards of the people. The cost of basic tood items has been kept
change the old and unjust social struc-
The 30,000 dead were neither Kussians CHOl Cubans. They Salvadorans who yearned to live in peace and dignity
The only outside torces 0 801 conflict are the Us advisers your government has sent. Portraying our war as part of an East-West conflict can only lead to its regionalisation and to a growing intervention by your
This would cause still more COULICEY suffering for the Salvadoran people,
Marti was arrested for his work at this time and along with another revolutionary leader, Ismael Hernandez, went on a hunger strike.
Because the government feared the repercussions if he died, he was once again deported and, because no other country would accept him, spent several weeks aboard the steamship "Venezuela'.
down. Cheap fertilisers have been provided for farmers. materials are provided either free or at low interest rates to workers and farmers The condition of women has been rapidly improved: they receive equal pay for equal work and paid maternity leave.
Like the Sandinista government in Nicaragua the New Jewel Movement recognised education is a vital part of the
polical mobnisation or the peo
ple. The newly-established Centre
for Popular Education mobilised
thousands of volunteer teachers
to wipe out the remaining
literacy. shew
scheme of adult education is well
under way.
Despite these advances, the
as well as for the people of the United
States.
Your claiming that the solution to were the Salvadoran
elections in March also has nothing to
do with reality. How can a democratic
process be guaranteed amid indiscri-
minate repression? If you are the one
who decides the destiny of the United
States, it is because you are in office
by virtue of free elections. Americans
went to the polls in peace, and this is
people to be able to elect its leaders.
The Salvadoran government, far
from creating the indispensable con-
ditions for achieving such peace, is
pushing ahead with a war of exter-
mination against our people. These
elections, then, are no solution, but
are simply one more farce that the
military government has imposed on
our people.
Mr President, the confidence your our Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front has made a public and generous ofter to undertake
order for all Salvadorans. The great
majority of the international com-
He jumped ship in Nicaragua, and
after swimming ashore, finally made
his way back
February, 1933
Within three months he was on
hunger strike in
time sparking off
and demonstrations for his release.
Many of these protests were savagely
repressed and Housing remain very grave.
attempt to tackle this,
idle hands scheme'
newly-formed operatives
that
were opened
il- health care and nationwide
government.
As the
conflict is through precondition for a
solution.
What
message expressed preserving world peace neus to take concrete exPression In El Salvador,
peace talks that could lead to ending the war and building a Sincerely,
democratic and just social By Nita Keig
deaths He CaVasel blindfolded
ly returned. prison again, this massive protests
side resulted in many The
extreme the courage,
freedom. economic difficulties of the island
When Gairy was overthrown unemployment was about 50 per cent. As a first
Grenada has developed the idle lands for
cultivate unused land. using agricultural co-
Last year the first fruit canning plant and a fish processing plant
One of the most ambitious projects is the building of the island't first international airport. Much of the aid for this project, like the aid for the free
other projects, LIONS has been provided by the Cuban
people of Grenada celebrate three years of progress ple.
munity has supported our proposal for a political solution, as is shown by
French-Mexican communique and the motion adopted by the UN General Assembly last December 16.
Our proposal calls for negotiations covering all topics. We are ready at a moment's notice to begin working out an agenda mutually agreeable to all parties, without any precondi-
in the presence or witnesse from other governments, and with the Salvadoran people fully informed about the progress towards a political solution. This is our contribution to peace, but we have noted your administration's opposition to a political
we have said leads us to respectfully request that you change your policy toward El Salvador. We only ask for the right to resolve our own problems by ourselves without foreign interference.
If, in this new year, your government is interested in and willing to pursue peace in the world, it has the chance to achieve such peace in E Salvador by dropping its opposition to a political solution and instead seeking friendly and just relations between our two peoples.
Salvador Cayetano Carpio, Joaquin Villalobos, Ferman Cienfuegos Shafik Jorge Handal, Roberto Roca
was released and deported and barefoot, to Guatemala from where he immediate-
He even went back to the garrison where he had been imprisoned to visit and give heart to his comrades still in-
mass dissatisfaction and anger had reached a high level by the beginning of 1932 resulting from the
poverty, hunger and unrestrained massacres being carried out by the dictatorship.
A call for a general insurrection was made but days before it broke out Marti was arrested. Along with two other comrades he was sentenced to death and executed on 1 February.
The rage of the Salvadoran people overflowed. The insurrection was put down at the cost of over 30,000 lives.
This is the struggle that is being continued today. Fifty years later the struggle in El Salvador is being carried on by sons and daughters of Farabundo Marti who see in his great example
daring, and resolution that is necessary to finally win their Reprinted from the Australian Trotskyist paper Direct Action.
By Paul Lawson
of their revolution, they designated 1982 as the *Ye: Economic Reconstruction'. workplace will be setting up duction committees to set up monitor production targets Hand-in-hand with the s gle for production is the nee defend the revolution. Gre has been the target for nume threats from the United St Imperialism regards the exal of the revolution as a threat 1 hold over the Caribbean That's why the people Grenada are spending the w before the anniversary cele engaging in trai manoevres to ensure that an vasion will be met with the ur resistance of the Grenadian
Socialist Challenge 11 March 1982 p
Page 10 scan of this page
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Page 11 scan of this page
struggle continues'
HREE MONTHS AGO the Polish authorities loved to smash Solidarnosc and bring an end › the independent workers' movement. DAVY ONES assesses the outcome of the recent entral Committee meeting of the Polish Comunist Party which discussed the next steps of onsolidating the rule of the bureaucrats.
*Stabilisation is setting
nues: this neat formula
General Jaruzelski hen he met President rezhnev in the Kremlin
week. sums up the ate of the contest beteen the bureaucrats and
workers in Poland.
latest efinitely gone the ureaucrats but they know at the outcome of the ght as a whole is still ncertain.
The Polish CP Central ommittee - every shade f opinion, hardline and beral backed martial law and the repres-
Solidarnosc n 25 February. Two CC embers who might have bjected were convenient-
expelled Marian trendi from Torun for pposing martial law at a ublic forum, and Jan Malanowski from Warsaw /niversity for retusing to eave Solidarnose.
Plank
Purging the party has merged as an important lank of the bureaucrats rategy.
deputy 160 UVOTIONS. nd heads of rural communities have already been acked. Regional and epartmental committees ave been told to end all extra-statutory" norizontal structures and ctivities by the end
and hardliners uch as Albin Siwak of the 'olitburo and Kociolek of ne Warsaw party have alled for a 'purge of the arty from top to bottom'
The bureaucrats have ried to win over the easantry as a new base of upport. I ne 311reased the maximum perarms from 50 to 250 acres SIZE Or Vale
attempt to undernine the solidarity betveen the poor peasants irganised Rural ¡olidarity and the vorkers movement.
HARDS
OFF
Badges: 20p +
p&p. Bulk rates on
From PO Bos oncen
Enclose
ques peewar order man
out Socialis
Challenge.
SOLiDARNOC: the
The repression has also been noticeably softer on the academics and the oeral proressions unan on the workers, in an attempt to solit the intelectuals of from Solidarnose.
But the kev lever tor the bureaucrats to complete the DIOCESS of defeating Solidarnose the role of the Church Since the imposition of martial law the Catholic churen nas actea as a con sistent brake on the development of opposition to the repression. It is now putune chormous pressure on the Solidarnose leaders both those interned and those still free, to negotiate a 'compromise with the authorities. Terms
The terms of such a
compromise were spelt
out vice-premier
Rakowski's draft proposal on trade union law published two weeks ago.
It envisaged unions which
explicitly rejected
role, which
agreed to the leading role
of the party and the Polish
constitution, and which
were not
geographical basis.
had
any illusions that this
might have
resemblance to Solidar-
Jaruzelski's COLL
munique after his talks
with Brezhnev added:
'Any attempt to resume
actions aimed at causing
economic
resumption of anarchy ...
cut
resolutely.
Advice
The are
desperately trying to per-
suade union leaders
heed ch hierarche and see- advice of the
Church
tions of the intellectuals to
accept this "new role' for
the unions. Those resisting
these pressures, especially
those workers building the
underground oposition,
SOLDARTY
Socialist Challenge
PAMPHLETI
2000 copies sold in firs
week! Order your copies
now of the second edition.
Just 25p or 20p for sup-
porters groups bulk
orders.
are dealt with ruthlessly. Hundreds of Solidarnosc militants have now beer jailed either for their activities before martial law or since.
The authorities launched a major intimidatory clampdown at the end of last monun. in a two day period they checked
shops, 60,000 vehicles and 145,000 peole in an attempt to track down underground Solidarnose Hundreds of people were arrested and charged
The authorities have also succeeded in closing down a few of the local Solidarnose bulletins and an underground organisa-
near Torun. But Solidarnose Warsaw it has launched a weekly paper. Tygodnik Mazowsze.
And Warsaw leader Zbigniew Bujak has issued
MILICJA
Repression from the militia was the easy part for the regime: the political next steps will not be so easy.
a new appeal to the Polish workers: Our objective 1s to revive the union activities, to tree ine internees to re-engage the workers who have been sacked and to force the lifting of martial law.
None of this will happen if the bureaucrats get
way. General Jaruzelski has reiterated his appeal Soldarnosc ternees to consider perma-
trom the country: some 15 people are reported to have taken up his offer.
The strategy of the Polish rulers is therefore clear: no return of Solidarnosc. repression against the workers, establishment of a responsible union, winning back the support of the intellectuals and of the farmers through economic liberalisation.
All this combined with a ruthless purge of the party
ranks to stamp out any attempt at going back
bureaucrats cannot and will not tolerate dependent mass organisation of the working class which threatens their own power and privileges
For Solidarnose porters within Poland the struggle now moves on to a higher political level. the most politicised workers the balance shee of martial law is equally Clear: there can be no. com promise with the bureau-
Within Poland itself and outside Solidarnose members are reorganising for the next round of the struggle. The central task for socialists in the West is to organise labour movement support for Solidarnose so that the workers can win the next round and the whole contest.
Solidarnosc leader
speaks in London
ZBIGNIEW member of Lodz Solidarnosc,
Hall Westminster
include Eric Heffer,
Kowalewski.
French author tour on Poland
JEAN-YVES POTEL
TOESNVIS author of the new book The Summer Before
Frost Zoignier Kowalewski Trom Solidarnose. will speak at a
in two weeks time.
The Summer Before the Frost is the DCSL revOlU nonary socialist anaivsis of the Polish to have been published to date
Tour dates so far Mon 22 March Oxford
Wed 24 March Glasgow Thu 25 March Manchester
meetings
Macdonald (Labour Focus).
Hall.
didate for Hallam.
working group and Oliver MacDonald
sored by Oldham East Labour Party.
Solidarnosc
McCalman,
041-632 1839.
Place, Edinburgh.
to The
-IT- Feickert,
Yorkshire. Ring 0532.490927
11. Ring 021-773 5396. sup-
Jenkins, 87 Beatty
0222-764195
c/o ASTMS, 26 Queens Rd, Coventry.
Oxford Labour
Banbury Rd, Oxford. Ring 0865 58238.
Kingsland High St, London E8.
London E13. Ring
SWS. Ring 01-373 3492
Labour Poland
KOWALEWSKI, presidium will speak at the Labour Party rally on Poland at Central
on 16 March Other speakers at the rally which begins at 7.30pm
Denis Healey, Joan Lestor and Clive Jenkins. As the Labour Party
failed „to publicise and mobilise support for the meeting, socialists in the London labour movement should pull out all the stops to build an audience
and The Summer * Pluto
Before
The Frost
In Pola Solidarity with Solidarnosc
Nottingham: meeting called by Labour Move ment Solidarity with Solidarnose on Thur 11 March at 7.30 pm in TGWU offices, 259 Mansfield Rd. Speakers: Piotr Kozlowski of Solidarnose trade union working group and Oliver
Islington: Labour Party public meeting on Thur 11 March at 7.30 pm at Manor Gardens library, off Holloway Rd. Marek Garztecki of Solidarnose trade union working group plus speakers from El Salvador and South Africa campaigns. Sheffield: Polish Solidarity Committee Rally on Friday 12 March at 7.30pm in the City Memorial
Speakers include: Piotr Kozlowski from Solidarnose trade union working group. Peter Tatchell, Bernard Connelly, BSC Crafts Ctte, and Jean McCrindle, prospective parliamentary can-
Brent: Labour Party public meeting on Wed 17 March at 7.30 pm in Harlesden primary school. Acton Lane, NW10. Speakers: Eric Heffer MP, Marek Garztecki of Solidarnosc trade union
Oldham: Friday 19 March at 7.30pm. St. Andrews Hall off Middleton Road, Oldham. Speakers Piotr Kozlowski, Ursus tractor plant, Warsaw, Michael Meacher MP for Oldham West, and Jon Silberman, secretary of Greater Manchester Polish Solidarity Campaign. Spon-
Solidarity Committees with
Glasgow Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o lar
18 Mossgiel Rd, Glasgow G43. Ring
dinburgh Polish Solidarity Committee, c/
dinburgh & District Trades Council, 12 Picar
Greater Manchester Polish Solidarity Com mittee, c/o Jon Silberman, 51 Montrose House, Crete St, Oldham, Lancs. Ring 061-620 2885 Leeds Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Dave
Roundhay Mount, Leeds
Birmingham Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Roger Murray, 28 Blackford Road, Birmingham Cardiff Polish Solidarity Committee, c/o Mark
Ave, Cardiff Ring
Coventry Solidarity Committee, John Fisher
Committee Poland, 468
Eastern Europe Solidarity Campaign, 10 Park Drive, London NW11. Ring 01-458 1501 Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, Box 23, 136 Polish Solidarity Committee, 69 Edinburgh Rd,
01-422 2218 for London speakers, or 01-249 2665 for out of London Solidarnosc Trade Union Working Group in UK, 64 Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court, London
Solidarity Fund, c/o Cooperative Bank, 110 Leman St, London E
Socialist Challenge 11 March 1982 page 11
Page 12 scan of this page
prison the answer?
Leyland -
the truth?
PATRICK Sikorski's article What happened Leyland? (25 February) sadly fails to adequately answer the question, in particular by omitting any explanation of why and how mass meetings voted for a return to work'. The truth is less simple.
manua workers in Levland near v halt of all those on strike in Lancashire. This meeting voted by a clear majority to continue the strike, but immediately after a few hundred strongly protested the decision, demanding a return to work. Mick Coyne, a Communist Party member and chairman of the Strike Committee, wrongly conceded to this minority and declared the vote void. hung over the subsequent meetings and the resulting confusion meant they voted to return. Mick Coyne does not dispute this is what happened, nor does the following day's Morning Star.
why is none of it mentioned by Sikorski? The answer is not bad journalism but a avoidance of the role of the Strike Committee and Mick Covne. uncritical attitude to the Strike Committee throughout.
not blind us to the real weakness of the factory-level leadership, which though CP-led was essentially very right wing. Not only did they never criticise the AUEW leadership, from the start they failed to offer any serious way forward to defeat Edwardes, most notably by strongly opposing a fight for support from the Leyland Cars Division. In fact they openly accepted management's viability argument, their prime concern being to return the company to profitability.
porters involved marginal to the strike's outcome, still revolutionaries surely have a duty to draw out the real lessons from struggles, even defeats. Instead Socialist Challenge has, yet again, chosen me pam or adaptaton to te workers exisung leadership. When that involves a group of heroic militants such as Laurence Scotts you come out usually on the right side. In Leyland you end up in the same boat as those who have sold out and who will do the same again if we let
PAT LALLY, Socialist Organiser
Patrick Sikorski replies:
Comrade Bany s icne calches socia isi raaniser outin their typically sectarian approach to politics. In the last paragraph they only dict the local Leyland leaderSID 1O1 SCHmE Our Dur dIsc
kev test tor any serious work inside the working
you are in. For comrade Lally there was one boat con-
boats organise and another containing the rest of the world.
This ensured that SO was cut off not just from the strike Icaccrsno our auso mrom u
two supporters in the factory had, by the end of the dispute ceased to read their paper and
publicly VOIC themselves from it This
accounts TOR the stupid vehemence or the letter and talk about the invisibility of Socialist Challenge supporters and so on.
It is not covering up" bu san cementary onacioe o class struggie to distinguisn between the national
chica avai inadequate they might be.
nais case comrade a ly doesn't give serious con-
sideration to the fact that the
Bathgate and Leyland openly delied the instructions of the executive and further that the Preston AUEW District Committee noton to the mat instructed secretary
meeting censuring Duffy and Bovd and fully supporting the recommendations to continue the strike.
Putting themselves side of this camp led 1o blunders by SO. See aran co Fierposed i First
mobilising
terence in Briantam to the first Leyland Vehicle
Combine of thi
combine was attended by ove ou stewaras wrow ne nanona factorin therent let as ariended by a mitant factory in the
Socialist Challenge 11 March 1982
at
The first mass meeting was decisive. It comprised 5,000
These events
Since all this was central to the collapse of the strike,
deliberate glossing over and
something consistent with Socialist Challenge's
It is right to attack Boyd and Duffy, but that should While fully accepting that the Socialist Challenge supwere largely invisible entirely
secondy SO Leyland Action Committee
entitled •Strike Bulletin'. For this they were Huy cauca to accounter
not This added witch-nunied!
Socialist Worker-type substi-
sectarianism.
when the
Finall Cars and Vehicles Combin mer thine hire week one dispute. the SO intervention led by Alan Thornett was aim
exclusively ai tacking the Leyland convenor Mick Covne for not deman
action. While this was clearly nee cary aigned to
The campaigned main problem with the com Dine acosons was mial he were nor actee upon vigorous ly as part of a campaign to stretchen Lisa sary support anc
Contrary to the opinion of SO, the blame for the defea first and foremost lies with the AUEW leadership, whose actions were clearly aimed al ending the strike. and whose record in Be has been one of support for Edwardes agains the In the LI
was the first line o ana was accom
evolutionaries to be with th Suke commuce oase wardes and nis agents in the
this elementary
Call in is it ad any trie
would be damaging
While it is also necessary to recognise the weaknesses of The strike this must be done in the co
assisting the development
at the strike, and (b) with the understandme recomposition or ine rani and file leadership of the class in Britain will be a gle to overcome the effects of
domination and will recuire
revolutionaties then sectarian denunciations of the rank and file leadership
A not unimportant facto in the present weakness of th
Bruin tracke 10 na with the sectarian traditions shown in your letter.
page 12
rapists. The male-dominated
property, not against
- an eye for an eye, but both eyes male!
Denny was also right to ceptional act. It is the logical conclusion of pre
social relations, the tip of the iceberg of male violence the stament.
But stark alternatives her letter offered, that: "Either the working
must for socialism or they must backie status cue osc fer sentenees ignores the need for specific proposals now. A long-term perspecabstain on what to do at BECSCILL Ilalt violence.
When racist attacks are made, socialists don't just stand by and point to the Will she please be more reasonable?
Rapists should not be treated harshly, she says, because this would not be "humanitarian' (!) and would strengthen the right of the state to repress men who oppress women! But even a workers state could not always be 'humanitarian, in the sense of "kind", towards its enemies,
might
Letter!
THE central point
CesS mier 25 February, as a
'party of the petty bourgeoisie whose only future could be as a junior party to the Tories", is false ana misleaaing
He asserts that the British ruling class will not future to the SDP. In proof he offers the SDP's split over Tebbit's Bill. But the ruling class doesn't opt for a single political solution in a crisis.
Take, for example, the crisis over Irish Home Rule in the early part of this century. ruling class almost to the point of civil war. It contributed decisively to the eventual destruction of the main party of the industrialists, the Liberal Party.
Today, the ruling class and its spokespeople are divided on the tactics to use to achieve their common goal of weakening
The confusion in the ranks of the bosses is evident from various tussles inside the CB/ Engineering Employers Federaton and ine debate derween weis and drys' in the Tory Party. The obvious difference Tories and the SDP is that the Conservatives have the discipline of Government to force them into some outward semblance of unity.
Comrade Cusack's assertion
Letters
DENNY FITZPATRICK's letter (18 February) was right to condemn the 'hang 'em and flog 'em' brigade who demand stiffer sentences for
legal system views rape as a crime against another man's
women themselves.
Their views are not so far removed from the laws of Ancient Assyria where the father of the raped woman could rape the wife of the rapist
need for a future revolunon, nor do tney ignore ana excuse racists as mere victims of the system. We call soran for back ser.
SUDDUIL
defence, and we certainly don't advocate ignoring Martin Webster and the like. In much the same way, violence against women requires specific forms of tightback and ar examination of male responsibility NOT violence, not just the state.
Even the OTEC term, it is inadequate to offer socialism as the solution to violence against women. Denny cites the example of Cuba where statistics show the virtual IN her article on rape, (4 February) Yvonne Taylor makes no useful proposal on what immediate steps should be taken against rapists. She is against all penalties, lumping them all together - long imprisonment, castration, execution - as if they were all the same thing
"humanitarian' the sense of working for the good of humanity. would have deal drastically with some offenders, and rape is one of agams. which is more than half female.
We feminists say that rapists must be kept locked up, for the protection
Letters ATTE SETTERS
SDP - coalitionism is the problem
of Tommy
'entrust their
This split the the
that the 'millionaire press has now deserted the SDP is a little hasty. and Some press commentators certainly have lost their starry-eyed worship of the SDP. But they have conesoir exact broboman to ne berween the SDP's mounting threat to inflict a historic defeat on the Tory party.
Their love of the SDP was bused on the clear attempt to form a 'reliable leftist part. free of union links and capable of
elimination of rape'. Have ideological conditions
really changea st much that women do not feel the same constrait about reporting гарс as they do here? It is difficult to see how questions of sexuality have been solved in a society which until recently imprisoned gay men and undoubtedly continues their harassment and discrimination. of their victims and poten-
victims. Some socialists have said women and girls should be kept locked home for their protec
We say that the ag LOIT gressor, not the victim, should be kept under restraint. Moreover, the aggressor is frequently already in me nome. prison for the assailant seems to be the answer.
As Yvonne says, rape is usually premeditated a sudden impulse. •There. fore, that thost contemplating rape can be deterred by being given to
Letters
Roy Jenkins: looking over Hillhead precipice?
supporters.
action now!
The Cuban Family Code may officially decree equal rights and respon sibilities children between women and men. But we should remember Othe stitution of the USSR also declares complete equali ty; and yet this has little reality in the lives of Russian women. Nursery places are provided at the factory, but the form of
DEBATE
ON RAPE
understand that if they do it, they will suffer loss of liberty.
The 19-year-old Noreen Winchester was actually imprisoned for *murdering father who had raped her ever since she was 13, when she 'consented". The law we want it changed, here and now. Sorry, we can' wait till after the revolution, which will not wave a wand, anyway Revolutionary socialists never tell us to be kind to the capitalist boss We must fight him all the
Write to SC letters, c/o PO Box 50, London N1 Editor reserves the right to cut any letter over 400 words. ple: yes!
totally 'unreliable'
Labour party infected with Bennism. However, more Tories have turned to the SDP than Labour face.
The prospect of a humiliating defeat of Toryism, a strong "centre party and a still relatively strong Labour Party is not one that they relish.
Comrade Cusack employs the term perry bourgeoisie' as an epithet with which to dismiss the
contraception they must use is abortion performed without anaesthetic, and Russian women are subjected to many other forms of violence and op pression, Socialism focuses the means of production Tression ine forces op pression, the forces reproduction must also be examined We must consider relations in the family as well as in the factory. Socialism can pave the way for women's liberation but it cannot guarantee ar end to women's oppres sion In taking up the question of violence aLaHs. women, we must be clear about that JAN POLLOCK London way. But we are told we must be kind to men who rape women. Why this distinction?
Many feminists blame male leadership for anti teminism on the extrem left. But I am not sure this is fair. Many men support our demands , while many like Yvonne can be as anti-feminist as any man. So, I would like to know whether or not her article voices the agreed views of Socialis Challenge.
KATHLEEN JONES, Shrewsbury
2XF SDP as irrelevant. Does Tommy honestly believe that the SDP's programme essentially defends the interests of small capitalists, shop keepers, self-employed and small Jarmers — the petty bourgeoisie?
He seems unwilling to accept the simple fact that it is possible to have two bourgeois parties in Bri tain. In the end his haste to dismiss the SDP as a small show leads him into serious political errors.
He quotes the attacks of the Labour right against the SP after they voted for Tebbit. He then asks whether the SDP can now form an alliance with the labour bureaucracy. The answer is sim-
Has Tommy forgotten that that last Labour government survived from March 1977 first on Liberal support and, then, even on the votes of the Ulster Unionists?
or giving credence to men
fraudulent anti-SDP rhetoric he doesn't exactly equip us to fight the crusade for coal tionism that we will quite likely
Appeals to working class militancy won't solve these eminently political problems any more than the struggle whicl brought down Heath automatically prepared us for the fight against 'social contractism.
COLIN TALBOT, London
Page 13 scan of this page
Portugal - General strike to topple the Government
some observations OFF McBride, our Spanish correspondent.
Compared with the tale of intrigue and dirty dealing turned up by the trial of the Spanish coup d'état conspirators, Dallas mild stuff indeed.
even bet which of the two long-
tracting more attention in ball. Perhaps oCcause most of the conspiracy details have been heard before, perhaps because of fatalism about the trial outcome.
One of the country's most popular cartoonists has two men talking about me unal. now many years
do you think they'll really
long as thev don't he biggest strike the country has ever seen.* lat's how Portugal's main trade union conderation, the CGTP, described the general rike called on 12 February to bring down the jht-wing is governed Portugal since 1978.
One and a half million workers, ortugal's working population, had paralysed e country's transport and most of its inistry.
The following week Lisbon's tube workers on a big increase after a further three-day oppage. ere idle, the railworkers were continuing lective action and pressure was mounting r a further 3-day general strike.
The government could
nothing better an to react win tran eons and hysterical B8CES 290l armed bversion.
an impressive demonstration of ength by working iss, clouded only by the ntinued division beten the Communist Par(PC) and the Socialist irty (PS). and their rallel union confedera-
Mario Soares and his llow leaders of the PS id the UGT actively opised the general strike as adventure by the Comunists. They prefer to incentrate on parliamenry negotiations leading. a revision of the existing institution, to a coalition ivernment with the 30a cemoca the present government
with Mario ›ares as president! (What
Dennis Healey and e SDP?) But many rankid-file Socialist Party pporters in the trade tions refused to cross eir fellow workers eket lines.
Nor are the Comunist Party and CGTP aders blameless. Under essure they have certaintaken a much more milint But their ilitancy came late in the ly. and they have con-
Spanish conspirators on trial
SINCE 19 February thirty three people - thirty two of them army officers - have been on trial in Spain, charged with organising the attempted coup d'état last February. Here we publish
the trial by Frank
decorate them", is the rep-
ly.
But there are many
than who shot JR?. They
may or may not be resolv-
ed by the trial. Who was
the real head of the plot?
General Alfonso Armada
- at the time second in the
army chief of staft
denies that he was
anything other than an in-
termediary between Tejero
ana mis own superior, at
tempting to end the oc-
cupation of the Congress
But according to Te General Milans
del Bosch, Armada
wanted to be President of
a new government. And he
had them believe that the Democratic Alliance (AD) which
over half
Three weeks later Portugal's ports
sistently taken a violently sectarian attitude which
united action with even sympathetic socialist supporters impossible.
The OT CSSUIC for general strike came out of the growing militancy of Portuguese workers their resistance to the biggest attack on their rights and conditions since the OVEr OW Gases 1974. This problem for the Portuguese ruling class is a combination of three basic tactors: world ICCESSIOT. the loss of privileged access to the markets of its old empire, and a working class which is still strongly organised despite the disappointments of the revolutionary period in the mid-seventies. Reforms
Their solution is to cut costs, attract new productive investments. especially from the richer perialist countries, and sell cheaply-produced consumer goods like shoes and clothing to the big markets of Europe, preerably by joining the
In other words the amm is to turn Portugal into a
Hong SUEL within Europe itself.
The key would be breaking the working class. Already Portuguese wants are the
King be ced shiracoup.
conspirators like
the ewing tamily present
an interesting mix of col-
ourful and drab
OCT strongies some weak and
had ap-
parently been conspiring
for over a year, others
joined in once the part had
started. But the other big
questons are abour mosc
who aren't in the dock.
What about the com-
manders of four of Spain's
military regions
Milans del Bosch claimed
the night of February 23?
Or General Jose Juste
now retired commander of
the crack Brunete division
who dithered over sending
his troops into untien?
the Brunete,
Spanish Army's principal
strike force, had lett the
barracks and taken the
strategic points of Madrid,
what would have haplowest in Europe, and they MAVE OCCUSE ONCE Unempioyment is nearly 10%. and with inflation running at nearly 25% the AD government introduc ed a ceiling of 17% on ........
International
pened?
Why only one
civilian being tried? Surely
more must have been in-
volved What about the
role of big business. Ac
Cordin to the Communist
paper
Obrero, leaders of the
Spanish equivalent of the
CBI had several contacts
with the conspirators and
banks may have financed
the coup attempt. They
base their reports on police
apers, hande to the
and which have obviously
been covered un
The trial is expected to
last until the beginning of
April at least. The result is
anybody's guess, though
they can't all have been
*just following orders
For those that do get put
away there is the hope of
Pope's autumn visit?)
A purging of the FranCommunist Party leader Cunhal (far left) applauded by Mario Soares (far right) in happier days.
Al the same time. a package of tight restrictions on trade union rights
PHEW going through parliament. SCLICHCHE tailing workers rights to strike. to job security, and
negotiate collective
coist state apparatus re-
mains the only sure way to
avoid that, but despite the
efforts of the far left there
been mass
mobilisations around that
The
and the Socialist and Com-
munist Parties have
pealed for 'peace and tran-
declare their confidence in
This USUCC
despite the irony that the
generals sitting in ludge
ment on the attempted
coup would not be there if
it were not for Franco's
own successful coup
1936.
After the trial comes
the word cup and are
that the Pope's visit which
the bourgeoiste hope will
maintain the •peace and
tranquility sthes need to
victory in carly general agreements.
The last year has seen a
Crease 3181 dustrial action, with important strikes by tobacco workers, dockers and transport workers. all breaking the government's
MOVIMIENTO
COMUNISTA
Poster of the far left MCE demands life sentences for the military plotters pay limits. In January of this year alone 900,000 workers, or one third of the total workforce, came out on strike.
The real problem fo this working-class move
By Stuart Piper
ment is the lack of any clear alternatives being of fered by the leaderships of the PC and the PS and their trade Because of the lack of any real willingness on the part
-ine majority of the CGTP leadership to carry through the fight at each stage. the class struggle
begun to gain ground.
Though still paratively weak, this minority brings
-10• gether the two most im-
revolutionary organisations the exmaoist UDP and the smaller PSR (Portuguese section of the Fourth In-
as well as a large number of inUCOCUCH
It has won the leadership of some 20 district unions. Supporters of the PSR, for example, recently won elections in the shoeworkers" union of the industrial Aveiros district
00 voles fortee pain ith 1900 vote
This minority was able a vita part pressurising the CGTP
leadership call February's general strike and is arguing for the momentum to be carried through into further, more prolonged general strike
If the fight to bring down the AD government and force an early general election is successful, this minoritv current will have an even greater responsibility.
On their success in winning wider support for their policies, and in linking up with workers at the base of the Socialist unions of the UGT, will depend Portuguese workers' ability to
force parties, the PC and
he PS, to abandon thei
their responsibilities, and form a joint government on an independent class platform.
Socialist Challenge 11 March 1982 page 13
Page 14 scan of this page
Laurence Scott workers and Tebbit
By Celia Pugh Laurence Scott have been amongst the first group of workers to have foretaste of Tebbit's anti-union Bill - with court injunctions, picket restrictions and claims for the £6,000 costs of last year's bailiff operation. 'We've got no intention of paying this money, even if it means rest in Strangeways prison, explained LSE deputy Converor Steve Longshawe.
Steve was speaking By Pat Hickey IN 1979 the average award to unfairly dismissed workers
E750. Employwas ment Secretary Norman Tebbit now proposes to pay scabs a minimum of £20,000 if they. get sacked for not joining a union. "The most serious threat to the unions this century is the TUC's verdict on his so-called Employment Bill now going through Parliament.
At the same time youth virtually COLL scripted. Tebbit offers them starvation wages for the privilege of being blamed for the mess government has created. SOGAT
A joint fight by the unions and the Labour Party, reaching out youth for mass action to smash Tebbit's twin at-
SPECIAL
FER
copy of
MALCOLM X
Socialist Challenge
Stea
tour of South Wales last week with meetings in Merthvr Newport, Cardiff Swansea and Mardy.
He wanted to explain to movement that the battle at Scott's Laurence Manchester had not DeCI ended with the police riot which smashed their picket on 16 February.
Throughout the week, Steve explained, 'We've not been beaten, we've been cold out by our union leaders He reported AUEW meetings that branches around te county are demanding the
Tebbit: will the
TUC fight?
Stacks, is the best way to resist.
Will the TUC fight?
Print union SOGAT's Bill Keys has called for a mass campaign Cereal the Bill, breakinne the law if need TUC iS holding special conof TerenCe cutive: on 5 April at Y CHLOIC The buildup will include mass leafletting, and there is a proposal for a lobby of parliament and national rally at the end of April.
Boyd
But many the preparatory regional conferences have had hardly publicity, with such working class heroes as Sidnev Weighell on the platform, their ability galvanise and file TaLK support might be questioned.
Nor does it encourage trust to read Sir John Boyd in the last issue of his union journal, where he
NICA
With each 12 months inland subscription to Socialist Challenge we are offering a free NICARAGUA: THE SANDINIST REVOLUTION by Henri Weber (normal price f2.95) or AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
11 March 1982 page 14
election of the National
Committee of the AUEW under rule
14 gathered backing from at least a dozen South Wales branches during the South Wales visit, which also included speeches TrOm Ron
Street, ALEW Broad
forthcoming national electons video At each meeting the
film dOUT CISDULE of was ShOWA CoDies Video speakers and collections
be 20m LSE Shop Stewards,
Roundcrott, Cheshire. argues that state sector strikes should be banned
especially when we find that Bovd and Duffv are spearheading militant
fUC campaign to ask the employers to oppose Teb-
There is also a danger in the TUC's potentially executinG which the General Council want actions men the Bill actions when the
Lengthy court battles should not be a subsulue or ac cace or victimised militants. The TUC should be called on to from all joint ment/TUC bodies like the NEDC the National Economic Development Council and declare now that it will not go into the courts. It should openly back anyone now being threatened with the courts. such as the Plessey
still being challenged in the
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Trade Unions
LSE pickets attacked by cops tee for the Defence of Trade Unions has called
lobby of the TUC meeting. we shoute use this to mobilise mass opposton to the bin ang force the union leaders to act. Action
Our aim should be to build a mass base for local resistance against any attempt to use the Bill, starting from what Tebbit and the courts are now doing to youth and the unions. At the same time we must fight for a national campaign of industrial action to stop the Bill becoming law
On their past record the TUC leaders can't be trusted further than we can throw them. But the initiatives they have taken so far open the way TO! Tear united drive against the Tories
- i we use them oro perly.
don't help
second article MARTIN speeches of British trade unionists.
There are two views in the unions on what to do abou
government backed up by the Bride union ernes i haothe
abouta sorator anares ores oract. removin! the nreat or brisa Interests The second is that of the vas
the opinion polls, that Britai reland, which would let th Trish work out what form o government they want.
(CAT are tor the toi (London
Lou, like the Communist Par-
•ne govern
for the troubles Both think that state Norther Ireland Lal. be reformed democraticall
ignoring hundreds of years of history demonstrate
British manipulated Irish politics to
Campaigns
All emboay inese ideas, but are so obviously im practical that they r will never
outNice me crosce wore or ene
set them up. The support for
wins support
AS THE strike in Barking. teachers over job loss and educational
from the labour movement has been uneven.
March demonstration 700
school students completely
-aemanced its nO DUES restore the education cuts
meetings in secondary Parons deton committee nas been setua whose aim is to oroanise a parents' strike on Wednes day 17 March
It is hoped that parent. will keep children a
picketing of sonools by ine members of the National Union Teachers the closure Pury SCHools
however or sonoosin cluding the secondaries remain open.
The transport workers
asked members not to cross ou ines wale the ceneral and public employees' unions.
Ireland - trade union leaders
THE DISCUSSION at the recent Labour Movement Conference on Ireland showed many of the 400 people there how trade union leaders help the govern ment in its war against nationalists in Ireland. In his
COLLINS looks at the
these imaginary "campaigns is an excuse for not allowing
Ireland chinev sav we vo already got policy, and no one follows us.
CEne View wa araued by Chris kobinson and prospective Laur M
and orencie Cabout
Chris started by looking at the great debt owed by British workers to we have allowed our rulers to suppress Trish
setter arme for
British out, he for get at why
TOLlOWeE constituency parties discussing Ireland Because reformis leaders of the wo with an tinker captans systems ramer that Workers together to replace it with
THCOSS
shev inink inat Britain imperialist position is to the advantage of workers in thi COUPLEY Whereas they unC still support it. The politica crisis ina wil be created wher the British get kicked out of
East London teachers' strike
East London, of 900 provision enters its third week there has been excellent support among parents and school students. Support
NUT leader Ken Jones although expressing sym
GecIsion Backing has come from the South
engineering AUCV resolution from Leyton constituency Labour Party Barking Council to honour one commentor Labou councis to protectano im prove educational stan
including This is last thi the union caders want.
Salli backing the army.
Most British unions organise workers in the No of Ireland have a right
which supports the pr British executive. Workers
YOU WHO DCIOn! british unions nave sor the Irish unions because the unions wanted a break fro Britain
Any discussion insi those threatenst
union. threatens to break the li between this right wing blo and the executive. This in tu weakens the position of t caccalve against ne grow pro-Benn left-wing.
Organising workers Ireland from Britain it is through the trade uni or a Labour Party, me
who see themselves as part Britain. This is not in the i terests the solution Ireland at all
By protecting their o positions in the union. t race union bureaucras s port the continued division
cupation that is its main pr
opposition to division of Ireland and gett na or ine bureaucracy of t unions is all part of the sai job. Barking Canfield, Ken dards and defend teach Jobs and affirms th solidarity with our stru gle
The Barking NUT is ca ing for strike acton Wednesday 10 March : looks likely to receive s
Barking preci North LOTTE and DarK recnnica Colle members of NATHE
Meccas of supp can be sent to: Ken Jon secretary Barking
NUT AUEW offices hainnam h0a0 Sou Dagenham, Essex
Page 15 scan of this page
Black people must
Pakistani Workers' Association
fight"
SULEMAN MOHAMMAD came to Britain from Pakistan in 1966. He lives in Sparkhill, an area in Birmingham where the Association has a high proportion of its members.
wich. Since that time, two years ago, he has been unable to find work.
Suleman about the PWA and what black workers feel about the Thatcher government.
The PWA has so far conentrated on exposing corrup-
on in the local community
ser -enDormed ones position on a police liaison committee and then they take ribes to give people informaion about their rights.
'Black leaders. some of
are •HOOTIONS throughout Birmingham, like
Hunt. a black coun-
illor in Handsworth, use the act that many black people can't speak English or don't trans order entiste tions doing absolutelv nothing.
PWA iS REW oreanisation in the black communiy win branches in London. Bradford. Coven-
Sparkhill Movement. initiated by the
is airst meenng and wil be open to all youth in Sparkhill. ment of black youth in school
CRYICHE L02g0r tunities are among the issues -
will take up.
•What does this system
our
ulema *Some come out of school and they can a read ane wrue binne minorities go to school for five hours and then ther
La completely ferent culture and speak a dif-
want to see more oppor tumues for the einnie com munity to control the education our children are receiv-
I'm That Pakistanis should be fitted in to the svstem. I'm saving tha schools in areas like Sparkhill snola are our needs as a community into considera-
rion: The PWA
making vouth aware that the conflict JET Wee Darens owen occurs pecans! we come from different stop baking us for
* 9ranted
Thousands march against fores
Pakistani Workers
His last job was as a welder in West Brom-
talked to VALERIE COULTAS
cultures and that the unfair economic system — which we
Suleman has no illusions in the Tory party. "The Tory
that every SHOUld work tor mimse winen vou breed this sort of person vou have a class system where vor
We come into the poo categorv. The Tory party to Gov represen THe 100717 darieshese immigration laws inev miroduce nev are on! aimed at poor black people..
Black people must themselves to fight these laws as Anwar Ditta da.
Party that there should be a socialist society based on
This we look at the state o Part who are air Labour Parliamentary 7 showie sov in then mator - ser interested vow can see they are being used by the wealthy of this country
Suleman has little time fo his own MP. That Rov Hat
racist, and the only contact he
with the Pakistani community is with the corrupt
Pakistanis are nottery well The represented bu Rov
By Valerie Coultas further below the rate of inflation.
March.
Sheffield Poly. were occupied vaded.
York University administration block cupied on the Monday and finished four days later.
thou he silvas is ne take on read ore severe
written leaflets. we've gone on marches and nothing's been done, she said.
PWA members demonstrate terslew in Parliament He doesn't even represent white workers in Sparkhill.
There's a majority o people
Ansoluten nothing."
Suleman concluded by refuting the lies of the right wing in their witch-hunts in the Labour Party. I think this
Parliamentary Labour Party put on Taria Ali. Peter Tai chell and Tony Benn is a load of rubbish. 'Peter Tatchell said that etra-barramentar 0007 should take place. This parliament only serves the wealthy legislation it is passing is to protect the wealthy.
People must realise that Darnaments noran aosorrie
it's run by men and men can be self-interested should tell their MPs that they are supposed to represen: thense ves one n they are do ing nothing for the i people thererepresent her like the represent TCHOVE.
I'd rather have Taria than Ror any day and if he sold out we'd pur someone else in to replace him.
Students sit-in, march against 4% rise in grants
OCCUPATION fever is hitting the campuses as Margaret Thatcher's education cuts hit home. Student grants will be frozen at the four per cent that the public sector employees face if Maggie has her way. This will mean that for the third successive year student income will fall
As part of a week of action called by the National Union of Students and the British Youth Council some 75,000 students walked out of their universities ment. We're disrupting things to an extent which will and 40,000 joined a lobby of parliament on Monday 2
Leeds and Sussex Universities Senate meetings at Hull were in
was oc
for the occupation told Socialist Challenge why she
'We'd like to think of school leavers in the
News
Long Live DEMOCRA
Defend Newton Rose By Toni Gorton
quashed.
within 15 minutes or be discharged
decision and calling for a retrial.
In an unusual move
ths imprisonment.
incriminating 'confessions.
Vewton Rose still needs our help don N4 or phone 01-272 4889
stop tak us for future
place
who'd take an SDP line on education cuts - pro. longing them but having no alternative. drivers did but that's no reason for doing nothing at all.
embarrass the so that they i think twice about cutting. appalling consequences of government policies in higher education, not only on the campuses but also among the general public that any OPS worker here should be paid the toil We've also raised demands about YOPS Ameneration old bocialist allenge shysen unionhere's been wishy- washy talk from the NUS but they haven't organised the week of action at all. People say Dave Aaronovitch has got a lot fatter since he took office going to all the lunches he's invited to
We've had to take the initiative ourselves.
CHEERS broke out in the Appeal Court on
Monday 8 March as Newton Rose, a black
youth from East London, had his conviction
for the murder of a National Front supporter
Lord Lane, the Lord Chief Justice said that
he and the other two justices 'deplored' the
trial judge's action of giving secret instruc
tions to the jury telling it to reach a verdict
But Newton is still under threat from the
Crown prosecutors who are appealing the
the court allowed
Newton Rose bail and he is now free as are his
three friends who were sentenced to six mon
The Newton Rose Action Committee had
picketed the court and distributed leaflets
stating that the case had caused alarm about
secret interference with juries by judges and
*the constant fit-up of young blacks by the police and the methods the police use to get
contact his
defence committee c/o 76 Stroud Green Rd, Lon
9ranted
- universities are becoming more and more of an elite as it becomes harder and harder to get a I think there's few people in York Labour Club
It's true that we can't stop trains like the ASLEF
'We're putting pressure indirectly on the govern-
government and the administration
'But we're also raising consciousness about the
Rail Fight Continues
By Brian Grogan keeping up the pressure.
The drivers union ASLEF has launched petition to indicate the
backing that exists the executives stand on the maintainance of the eight hour day.
Further action is also being planned by National Union Railwaymen
of
lepots in the North Wes has decided to follow the London lead and take a day of action against flexible rostering. And a petition has been launched amongst NUR members to Air strike solid THE Transport and General Workers' Union has given full backing to Heathrow ramp workers four-week old struggle
full executive
meeting nas pur out c directive to all union
support of the strikers
Officials are contac ting other site unions to try and stop the scabbing organised by British Airways management.
'This iss a lockout. just strike said stewards' chairper son Mike le Cornu
On 12 January management gave six months' notice of termination of existing acteements. and three weeks later announced that they were unilaterally imposing new working rangements.
These would have meant an increase in
working hours from
38½ to 40 per week, and would have scrapped an earnings clause with
T Lucas return
By John Lovibond
GM COOKSON majority of 18 for a return to work.
The meeting on Friday 26 February organised lomtv hi
STING committee and management was marked by confusion and disorganisation
Angry scuffles broke out
Photo
on une noor when managing eirector TOnn Chadwick threatened a complete down if the strike wasn't end. ed
This backed up several arcarenine evers sent erect ly to the workers over the heads of the strike committee.
was slow to counter the
After major support from Scotts Staffa and the Bristo labour movement this vote is a major setback for Lucas
The bosses moved quickl demonstration Leeds
Pie Box FRa LAP. 39 Cookridge Si, Leeds
Socialist Challenge
London traindrivers are to march to a lobby of the final stage of the Railway Staff National Tribunal on Monday 15 March. Only two of the previous fourteen rulings at this level have gone in favour of drivers. This is why they are
indicate the strength of feeling against the exwith British Rail. It is hoped that these activities will la the basis for joint NUR and ASLEF action if the traindrivers are forced to take further action.
al are is absolutely
vital. Already BR pushing ahead the implementation of the one person operation of trains which threatens 38,000 jobs. reliance can be put on Sid Weighell to op-
consequent losses of up to E20 per week. The workforce refused the new arrangements and on February were locked out.
Pickets have been moved outside te air port but are now suc away customers and contrac No freight and no LOTS mail is leaving.
Mike rejected management's claim
per cent service. cent of what?' he said Support for the strike is solid and has Deer growing shown by votes at weekly mass meetings But solidarity is needed The stewards com mittee has called on all trade unionists to respect its picket lines Donations and of support can be sent to R.
Davies, c/o Feltham Community Centre, Hanwoods Road Feltham (Tel 01-751 4618). Cheques to R Davies 1/238 Branch TGWU
AFTER three weeks of struggle against redundan cies at the T Lucas plant in Kingswood, Bristol, a mass meeting of the 250 workers voted by a narrow
to exploit practical mistake made by the strike committee and the slowness of the union the TGWU in giving officia support uriner realmeanees are now in the pipeline to take ou
Lucas workers have take a bad knock but they aren crushed Chadwick realised its no over when he warned offic senior management not to gloat If the lessons of this failure are next round will go to the shop floor Rusk worker, Paul Wilson is sure of one thing: 'If we'd carried on another two weeks.
Free the Bradford 12
National
Saturday 3 April
national mobilising con
11 March 1982 page 15
Page 16 scan of this page
Save
Our
THIS WEEK'S protest by transport workers against the Law Lords' decision should be the start of a campaign to force the Tories to back down. As the train drivers showed, such TIrm action frightens the ment. And now the militancy of the South Yorkshire bus workers has forced the county COUNCIL frozen.
That is why the Tory press has to resort to such lies as the Standard did last Friday. This dirty London evening rag quoted GLC leader.
Ken Livingstone, as being agamnst me one day stoppage and all out strike action. Ken Livingston denies that he said this.
In fact he is in favour of 'any industrial action in defence of jobs'. But the lies in the Standard
one purpose and one purpose only: to
By Steve Cannon THERE ARE TWO faces to Thatcher's Britain. There is Windsor Castle, the House of Lords and the pomp and ceremony that will greet Ronald Reagan when he arrives in June. And there are those on whom the system rests; the millions of workers whose wage levels are being eroded, youth, women and the dole, and, abroad, the irish people and the enslaved blacks of South Africa.
Socialist Challenge exposes the first as the crap
second face of Britain against their oppressors.
Nothing of an hee
overthrow the whole rotting system and its replacement by a society based on social need rather than private profit is our aim.
That's why SEnd all those ress seen no
those who seem challenge the status quo
Des Stevens has written to us saving: I enclose a
chere top for your
more your reporters. am sure that the capitalist press would like te see save to death in addition to the millions they kill off every
- under the banner
if free enterpris
He's right. Your paper is battling for existence.
The situation very critical. We are now more Registered as a newspaper with the Post Office Cubinod oy veroiner enterprisos.
Printed By East End Offset (TU) Ltd. London E2
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divide and weaken London Transport workers taking their tirst oint strike action since the General Strike in 1926.
Socialist Challenge spoke to the editor of the Standard. Louis Kir. by. who to
He that an 'unfortunate' error had Crest into the сору. What Ken Livingstone actually said wastnataone day strike will have no major impact.
The word major was left did
the whole different politically from the original.
What the Standard editor told us was that Ken Livingstone only complains when we make him sound like a reasonable character. What Louis Kirby really means is that whenever Ken Livingstone other Labour leaders take a lead and come
Support the paper which tells
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All action taken by Londor Transport
Ken Livingstone had been prepared to take more of a lead in defying the
in the cong who di
unions who War. таке on the Tories, then the Stanaara and is uk would have no impact.
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The first plans for National Sales Day are begin ning to come into our Action Desk Hackney readers will be selling on the big Kingsmead Estate in East London that day.
They'll be gering out the truth on Thatcher's
the Nongre orate Natedos
COUNTY HALL
SOCIALIST CHALLENGE BANKER'S ORDER FORM .. Lloyd's Bank, 19 Upper St. London NI
0179678 ......30-94-57
Monthly
.And on the same date in the month thereafter.
Traders for ne for ner. readers paper, organising for socialist policies They'll be taking out a paper which explains the Thatcher offensive and puts forward the ideas to ocat n. mcluding now le fight the opposition of the
FARES
FAIR
months.
Just complete the form below
2XP.
of the first 36!
Challenge
I want a 1 year/6 month sub. *
1 enclose £9.50/£5.50
Name
Name of Seller
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All out for national sales day - 3 April
trade union and Labour Party leaders who want to hold back the fight
We'll be finding new readers like Alan Jarmar
long standing member of the Labour Party I contribute regular-
Special new sellers' subscription Bargain of the year from SC is our new SELLER'S SUB. It's only £9.50 for a year, or £5.50 for six
and return it with your money to: SCD, PO Box 50, London NI
And as a Special Offer to the first 36 subscribers we are offering a free copy of the 1982 Pluto Press 'Big Red Diary'. Make sure you're one
I wish to take out a SELLER'S SUB to Socialist
ly and buy the newspape as I find it informative an‹ sensible, So ring up the Actio desk with your plans fo National Sales Day thi weekend. (Action . Desk 8371 Sunda 2.00-5.00pm)
← Socialist Challenge No. 235, 4 March 1982Socialist Challenge No. 238, 17 March 1982 →